#to get clear cut off of being held legally responsible for anything

[oomisluvr]

six inch heels (sakusa x reader)

Synopsis: Based on this idea I had yesterday. Essentially, giving Sakusa a lap dance in front of all his friends <33

Warnings: fem!reader, lap dances, partial nudity, light smut at the very end, exhibitionism (kinda?), handjobs, blowjobs, grinding and messy kissing, reader is on a power trip, vague mentions of alcohol, light swearing, minors please DNI. 1.2k words!

Kiyoomi had been adamant about his boundaries for the night, “Bachelor parties are for almost-married men to cheat on their future wives one last time before they’re legally committed. Unfortunately for you, I actually love Y/N. Do not fuck this up for us.” 

Miya, the self-appointed party planner, had only grinned in response, sharp canines coming into view. 

“Allow me to clarify,” Kiyoomi’s jaw ticked with irritation, “That means no strippers, no bottle girls, and no exotic dancers of any kind.” 

“I gotcha,” the setter responds coolly, “I won’t do anythin’ to drive a wedge between you and Y/N, alright? You can trust me with this.”

And that was the end of that.

This ‘bachelor party’ was more of a kickback than anything else, much to Kiyoomi’s appreciation, with maybe 20 mutual friends and teammates huddled in Miya’s small off-campus apartment. The event was uncharacteristically well-panned, with enough food and drinks for everyone to indulge in. The turnout was great, and Kiyoomi was actually having a good time playing Miya’s dirty games and laughing over good memories. 

“Alright, alright!” Miya cheered, after settling Sakusa in a lone dining chair in the middle of the living room, loudly tapping a fork against his Heineken, “I have one last surprise for Oomi tonight, so everybody please shut the fuck up. Sho, the lights!” Hinata grins deviously before flicking the lights off and huddling to the front door. 

The dimming lights was the first red flag that his boundaries were about to be crossed, and when the red LEDs turned on in their place, Kiyoomi was quick to catch on. A slow, deep bass floated from the surround-sound speakers, racking through his bones from every angle. Sakusa stood to put an end to whatever was about to happen, words of protest building on his tongue.

His mind goes blank when Hinata opens the door, though, and the words die in the back of his throat, when it’s you that steps into the apartment. Your hair is that sexy kind of wild, black eyeliner so sharp it could cut someone, in long heels that clack clack clack against the floor with every step you take. Skin sleek with oil, you're dressed in the skimpiest two-piece Victoria’s Secret had to offer, the lacey fabric leaving very little to the imagination. Kiyoomi’s favorite playset.

Kiyoomi gasps your name, his jaw quite literally on the floor. It didn’t take long for you to stroll in front of him, your powerful strides demanding attention from those around you. Someone whistles their appreciation. 

Despite your six-inch heels, Kiyoomi still towered over you, but it was clear that you held all the power here. Looking up at him with pretty mink lashes, you place a manicured hand to his chest, pushing lightly.

“Sit.”

Kiyoomi has never moved so fast in his life. 

Music continues to play over the sound of his whistling teammates, as you circle the chair he’s sitting on, like a shark circling its prey. There’s a predatory smile pulling at your lips, dark lipstick making you that much more alluring. Finally, you stop, throwing a leg over his lap bending forward, your cleavage being pushed into his face, with hands trailing over his knees and up his thighs, painfully close to where he needs to feel you most. Grinning like you know his thoughts, you rock forward, sinking down on his lap as your ankles catch the sides of the chair, giving you leverage to grind down on him. His teammates are fully screaming now, howls of laughter and disbelief echoing from them. You look so fucking good, and part of Sakusa gets off on knowing  everyone is just as effect by you as he is. 

Pride simmers hot in his veins at the sight of being watched, of knowing how badly they wish it were them you were dancing on, and Kiyoomi finds that his hands have a mind of their own as they smooth up the expanse of your thighs and around the curve of your barely-covered ass, pulling you closer and pressing you again him harder. 

Leaning back, your hands grip his knees as you roll your body to the music, your hair barely covering that lustful look in your eyes. Like a moth to a flame, Kiyoomi watches your abdomen contract and relax with the motion, your torso perfectly rolling in sync with the bass. He doesn’t know what comes over him, he really doesn’t, but suddenly he’s kissing up the exposed skin of your sternum, pulling a sweet moan from your lips.  Bringing your head forward, your fingers thread across his scalp, gripping the strands and roughly pulling him to kiss you, his lips molding to yours with ease. Bringing a hand to his shoulder, you dig your nails into the hard muscle there, swallowing your fiance’s groans with a well-timed grind of your hips. Kiyoomi’s hard now, just like everyone else in the room, and he finds the publicity of this little stunt of yours might be the hottest thing he’s ever experienced. It’s quiet now, Sakusa realizes. Despite the music playing, his guests have fallen silent, bewitched by the magic of your body. 

There’s a thin string of saliva connecting you two when you pull away, and Kiyoomi has to stop himself from audibly moaning at the sight. Dipping down into the shell of his ear, “Take me somewhere private.” you whisper. It’s not a question, “Before I fuck you in front of your friends.” 

Kiyoomi fails to see the issue with that. 

Like a zombie, he has no other thoughts except you. Callused fingers dig into the plush of your thighs, lifting you and himself up with ease. Sakusa stares with a passion that could only be described as hunger, eyeing you like a starved man. His feet mindlessly take him to Atsumu’s room, lowering you to the floor gently gently, never once breaking eye contact. You push him against the door sternly, fingers playing with the hem of his slacks, swiping your nails over his V-line with a teasing softness.

“I can’t believe you” he harshly whispers, a shudder trailing up his spine, “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“Really? Because it seems like you liked it.” you quip, your soft hands finding the outline of him through his pants and squeezing, “Who’s got you so worked up, Ki?”

Kiyoomi’s mind is too clouded with lust to give a real response, and he groans when you start jerking him slowly, throat bobbing.

“Louder,” you command, unbuttoning his pants and sinking to your knees. With wide eyes and trembling legs, Sakusa watches you earnestly, throwing his head against the door and moaning shamelessly when he feels your tongue on him. Damn Atsumu and that brilliant mind of his. You, the perfect loophole. 

Sakusa’s knees nearly give out when you hollow your cheeks. He can’t wait to marry you. 

[thebibliosphere]

So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!

I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.

I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.

I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.

There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.

Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)

So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.

When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After. 

But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.

And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)

There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.

I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.

Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.

(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)

And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.

“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”

Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.

Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting. 

To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom. 

Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man. 

Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms... 

If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.

This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful. 

----

*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.

** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.

*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual. 

[swaewrites]

Let’s Get Married | JJ Maybank

Summary: You and JJ don’t want to walk alone. Listen to the song “Let’s Get Married” by Bleachers while you read.

SZN 2 SPOILERS!! MANY SPOILERS ABOVE AND BELOW THE CUT.

A/N: Well folks, here it is. Let’s just pretend that John B and Sarah’s marriage was legal, ok? Also featuring some very cute Pogue moments because I love to write those. Let me know how you like this one :)

Warnings: None, just language and drinking and Pogue stuff. Fluff otherwise

Word Count: 4671

JJ Maybank x Routledge!reader

*You’re John B’s cousin

NOT MY GIF!!

Hey, baby baby

I’ve been gone, I’ve been gone, I’ve been so far gone lately

It was September on the Outer Banks and your friends, the Pogues, had been so far gone lately. Your cousin and only roommate, John B Routledge, had been off with Sarah in the Bahamas for weeks, and the rest of the gang, including your boyfriend JJ, were running around madly trying to clear John B’s name. Being a Routledge, and living in the Chateau with your Uncle John Sr. as your only legal guardian, you were born into the Pogue lifestyle, but you had never signed up for this. After John B and Sarah were presumed dead, you made it very clear that you weren’t indulging them in this whole Royal Merchant situation anymore. You held true to that even when your boyfriend pleaded with you; even when your cousin was on death row.

You always knew that was reasonable of you; after all, you always were the most responsible Pogue. You loved them all so dearly, but you were never willing to contribute to the violence and overall madness that already terrorized the teens of the Outer Banks. None of this, the gold hunt, the island hierarchy, was worth losing lives over. You were also loyal to a fault; family was the most important thing in your life. You’d already lost your uncle, and nearly your cousin, to this endless chase for the gold. Everyone knew that if one of your closest friends or your boyfriend was lost to it too, you wouldn’t know how to live on. So they let you stay out of it.

But that meant a lot of lonely days and nights on the Cut. You spent all your time frantically texting your friends while they were out on their missions, and never getting an answer. And while they were gone, you were stuck in Kildare County defending yourself and John B from the looming problem of DCS agents. Since Big John disappeared, both of you have been threatened multiple times with foster care. Hurricane Agatha temporarily protected you from DCS, but the storm had long passed, and you were escaping foster care alone. Until the Pogues finally came home.

It had been a weepy reunion; you were running as soon as you saw the HMS Pogue floating toward the dock. JJ had been the first off the boat to tie it up, but quickly abandoned his post when you called out for him, turning around and enveloping you in the tightest hug you’ve ever felt. John B was one second behind him, wrapping his arms around both of you and laughing with relief as tears pricked his eyes. He thanked God that you hadn’t been taken to the mainland by DCS while he was gone. The rest of the Pogues followed close after, jumping into the group hug as you scolded all of them for getting into all of this shit in the first place. They had just laughed, relieved to see you again after everything they’d been through.

And that brings you to this moment. Kie and Pope were getting a few cases of Natty Light; a Pogue reunion party was in order. The rest of you sat at the table in the Chateau. Sarah and John B sat across from you and JJ, and your boyfriend was squeezing your hand under the table. He had missed your touch more than anything, and you weren’t expecting him to let you go anytime soon.

You and John B were passing a thick stack of papers back and forth - a Summons Notice from DCS.

And I know it’s bad when we look out

But bad, bad people don’t live in our house

The situation was looking bleak for both of you. The agents were coming with police assistance to collect both of you and transfer you to the mainland in less than 48 hours. You were scanning the fine print for nearly an hour before John B found the perfect loophole.

“Unemancipated minors are only exempt from foster care under these conditions: A) has an arrangement to live with another family member, or B) is legally married.” The four of you all looked up at each other when John B read it aloud, the same idea brewing in everyone’s mind.

“John B, we know what we have to do, right?” You asked him, your expression serious.

“Oh, no, I don’t have to do shit.” John B smiled and looked at Sarah, and your eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I never got the chance to tell you, but Sarah and I may have already gotten married. In the Bahamas.” Your cousin explained further, smiling at you. Sarah showed you her ‘ring’, a piece of John B’s bandana tied around her finger. “Got a certificate and everything in case DCS asks.”

What followed was a few minutes of you jumping around, hugging Sarah and John B as you told them how happy you were. After that, an equal amount of scolding for not telling you sooner or calling at all. Finally, after all of that was over, you were sat in your original positions at the table. You directed your gaze to John B, who was looking at JJ. He raised his eyebrows at the blond boy, and you turned your head to look at your boyfriend and then back at John B. The two best friends were having a conversation with only their eyes, as usual. “Does someone want to fill me in?” You interrupted.

“Y/N,” John B started, “I’m legally married. I’m good. But you…”

Suddenly you knew exactly what the boys were silently discussing. Your cheeks went pink at the suggestion. It would be absolutely crazy to marry JJ. You had been best friends your entire life, and dating since 14. There was no law against it, in fact, it was your only legal way out of foster care. And it wasn’t like you hadn’t considered it before, right? Still, you were completely overwhelmed at the thought. You looked to JJ.

He smiled at you, and it almost looked like tears were forming in his bright blue eyes. You suddenly knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t move from his seat, but the big question still meant everything. He nearly laughed at the circumstance you were in as he asked, but his voice was filled with nerves, and you knew he was holding out his glass heart to you. “Y/N… would you marry me?”

Your heart, which had been broken and then stitched together countless times throughout your life, was finally beating as if it had a reason to. You felt like it could burst as you grabbed both of his hands. “Yes, JJ, I’d love to.”

I’m gonna look good for you, honey

Get myself together

Spend you all of my money

You’d never seen him smile so big before. Instantly, he was on his feet, wrapping his arms around you and spinning you both around. He set you down and kissed your face all over, holding your face delicately in his hands. He finally pulled away, his eyes brighter than ever, like a clear blue sky. His hands still cupping your face, he whispered “let’s get married.”

Pope and Kie walked in at the perfect moment, and as you and JJ continued to share your moment, John B filled them in on the situation in whispers. Soon enough, the four of them were coming towards you two with arms outstretched, celebrating the big moment. John B was the next one to speak.

“So, we’ve got about… 30 hours to get this done,” John B said, looking at his watch. “We better get started.”

Everyone was abuzz with plans. Sarah grabbed your shoulders and stared excitedly into your eyes. “Y/N, you need a dress. And let’s be honest, you’re not gonna find a wedding-suitable dress in the Chateau. I’m your girl for that.” She was instantly rushing you out of the house, and you pulled back and laughed.

“Sarah, you’re forgetting I have no money.”

The rest of the Pogues shouted it at you before Sarah could even start her famous catchphrase: “She’ll sugar mama you!” You both laughed and you let her pull you out of the house eagerly, Kie following you.

Kie had entrusted the boys to find a suitable outfit for JJ. But after their escapades in the Bahamas and the Outer Banks, they had a budget of about zero dollars. Perfect timing for a John B scheme to come into play. That’s how the boys found themselves rummaging through John B’s closet, looking through his collection of collared shirts. Finally, Pope got lucky and spotted John B’s seersucker suit from his adventure to Chapel Hill with Sarah. “Try this on.” he told JJ, throwing the suit at him.

Surprisingly, it fit nearly perfect. Thank goodness the two best friends were built similarly. JJ was uncomfortable in dress clothes, but he couldn’t deny that he looked damn good. The boys applauded as he walked into the living room of the Chateau, doing a twirl with his hands on his hips. “How do I look, gentlemen?”

“Ready to get married.” Pope laughed.

“To my cousin.” John B added with a smirk. JJ just laughed back.

I know it’s hard enough to love me

But I woke up in a safe house singing, “honey, let’s get married”

Meanwhile, you, Sarah, and Kie were sitting in a shop on Figure Eight that was way too fancy for your taste. It wasn’t a wedding dress store by any means; you had no time or money to order a poofy white dress from a store like that. Anything white would be just fine. Sarah told the saleswoman that you needed a white dress as quickly as possible, and she had rushed away to find some options. Kie nudged your shoulder.

“Hey. We all knew this was going to happen eventually.”

“She’s right, Y/N.” Sarah leaned in and added. “We’ve all just been counting down the days.” You laughed, growing more and more excited by the minute. Suddenly, the saleswoman was back with about a dozen dresses on her arms. Your eyes widened as she whisked you away to the fitting room.

You walked out in dresses that were too short, too long, too sparkly, too lacy, or just didn’t fit before you walked out with “the one”. Sarah and Kie froze instantly, and you all knew it was right. You were in a mid-length white dress with spaghetti straps and a deep V-neck, and a tulip skirt gathered at the waist. It was simple, fit your style, and wasn’t too pricey. You all smiled at the saleswoman and you made up your mind: “We’ll take this one.”

You rode back to the Chateau in Sarah’s car, yelling the words to songs from your favourite playlist. Kie put a hand on your shoulder. “Let’s go get you married.” You all cheered for that.

Don’t wanna walk alone

So let’s get married

It was nearing 11pm when you were finally ready for the impromptu wedding. Sarah and Kie insisted on doing some decorating, so you were sitting alone on the couch at the Chateau. The boys had yelled at you that you weren’t supposed to see JJ before the wedding, so they were hiding in John B’s bedroom. You kept overhearing them laughing loudly and talking about random things. Suddenly, Sarah ran into the Chateau breathlessly.

“Alright, Y/N. The altar is ready.” She managed to get out. “Let’s get you dressed and ready.” She had grabbed a large bag of makeup and hair supplies from her car - of course she kept that in her car. The three girls excitedly ran to the spare bedroom where you slept, and started plugging in hair tools.

“Wait,” you cried out, “who’s officiating the wedding?” Kie and Sarah looked at each other, and they both wordlessly ran out of the room. You could hear them knocking on the boys’ door, and talking to them about something you couldn’t make out. Within a few minutes, they were back.

“Pope’s getting ordained right now,” Kie explained as if it was nothing. “It’s just a two-minute course online.” You breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah instantly went to work, pulling out loads of makeup products that you didn’t even recognize.

“Woah, Sarah, let’s keep it simple, right?” You motioned to all the makeup supplies. You didn’t want this to be too fancy. She laughed at you.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. I know what you like. And I know what JJ likes. You met when you were 6, for gods sake. I don’t think he cares about a ton of makeup on you.”

Kie had straightened your silky hair and added two pearl-adorned barrettes on one side, making you look effortlessly chic. For some reason, she had the barrettes in her bag, where she ditched them after wearing them at the last Midsummers. Sarah was finished with your makeup quickly, adding some shimmer to your eyelids and blush to your cheeks. She added dramatic eyelashes to boot. It was much fancier than what you’d usually wear, but not too fancy for a wedding at all. You looked beautiful, and all three of you knew it. Lastly, you stepped into your dress, and Kie zipped you up. You opted to just go barefoot in the grass for this wedding.

By now, it had to have been midnight. Sarah knocked on the door of John B’s room. All the boys jolted from their seats and JJ answered the door. “Boys, it’s go time. She’s ready.”

Change me at all costs

Starlight and star-crossed

The boys scurried outside excitedly, and Sarah and Kie pulled you in for a group hug. You rested your head on Kie’s shoulder and the girls squeezed you even tighter. “You guys don’t have to make such a huge deal out of this. It’s just so I can get DCS off my back.” You told them. Both girls pulled away and shared a knowing look.

“Oh, come on, Y/N. This is the realest wedding I’ve ever seen. And JJ’s been ready since the day he met you.” Kie assured you. The butterflies in your stomach multiplied by a thousand at just the mention of his name. JJ. The man you were about to marry. And as you sat there in your bedroom at the Chateau, you were absolutely and completely ready. You had been in love with JJ since you knew what love was, but you never expected in your wildest dreams to be marrying him at 17. As you stood up and smoothed your hair in the mirror, you heard a knock at the door. Sarah rushed to answer it, and was met with John B.

“Uh, wow, Y/N, you look- better than I expected.” John B stuttered as he walked into the room. You shoved his shoulder, but the two of you shared a look that only family could share. You both knew this was right.

“What are you doing here, John B? Aren’t you supposed to be out there like a good best man?”

“Well, I just figured,” John B tripped over his words, “someone had to, I don’t know, give you away. And-and I’m your family, so I thought-”

You smiled at him, tears already welling up in your eyes. “I’d like that a lot.” He raised his arm towards you,and you hooked your arm around his. Escorting you out the door, you made your way to the back of the Chateau.

Meanwhile, JJ and Pope were awaiting you at the makeshift “altar” made by the girls. Pope was using the hot tub as a raised platform, standing ankle-deep in the bubbling water so that he could officiate from above you and JJ. Your blond boy was shifting in his own shoes with a dumb smile on his face. Pope reached a hand out to his shoulder. “What’s going on in your head right now, man?”

JJ took a deep breath before he spoke, blowing the air out exaggeratedly. “Shit, Pope. I don’t know, dude. I’m just ready, you know? I’ve been picturing myself marrying Y/N since we were kids. I just didn’t expect to be doing it tonight.” JJ was grinning ear to ear, and he and Pope shared a laugh.

“We all knew you’d do it someday, JJ.” Pope assured him. “You guys are just meant to be, you know? One of those couples that’s gonna be together forever.”

“I know, Pope. She’s all I want for the rest of my life.”

“Then you’re ready, man. John B! Get out here!” Pope suddenly called. Inside, you and John B shared an excited look. Before he could open the door, the girls came bolting around the corner.

“Wait!” Kie yelled. “Let us go out first!” The girls rushed out the door and sat down to the side, on a nearby log. Kie had her ukulele in hand, and Sarah had brought her polaroid camera to snap some pictures. “Stand up straight, JJ.”

Take me so breathless

We could be reckless

“For what it’s worth, Y/N, I approve of this.” John B gestured out to the extravagant Pogue wedding that was about to happen. Neither of you had even seen the ‘venue’ yet, and as eager as you were to step outside, you decided to share a long moment with your only remaining family member. He pulled you in tight for a hug. “You and JJ are gonna work out great. This is the only guy you’d be allowed to marry, if it was up to me.” You just laughed at him.

“Oh, John B, always so protective. I was only ever gonna marry him anyway. This is it for me.” You said with a smile. He looped his arm through yours once more, and you stepped outside.

It was like walking into a dream; the girls had done an amazing job with their limited resources. Numerous strands of fairy lights, as well as colorful lights from JJ’s hot tub decor, were strung in tree branches, forming an aisle above you. At the end of it stood Pope, in the hot tub, and JJ, on solid ground in front of him. Kie and Sarah were to your left, dabbing at their eyes. Kie was playing something soft on the ukulele. But the thing that nearly made you gasp out loud was JJ. He looked incredible. Was that John B’s suit?

As JJ saw you walk towards him, his eyes welled up with tears. He was usually able to pull himself together, but this was involuntary. He felt like if he smiled any wider, his cheeks would tear open. He had to lean over slightly and rest his hands on his knees to keep himself from fainting at the scene he was in. He was about to marry his dream girl, his lifetime best friend, his safe place, surrounded by his best friends. Screw best friends, his family. You smiled right back at him, eyes welling up right on cue as well. He felt undeserving of all the happiness he felt in that moment; every struggle in his life seemed to blur and fade away at the sight of you.

After everything you two had been through, everything in the world seemed to finally be right again.

Woke up in a safe house singing, “honey, let’s get married”

Kie stopped playing as you reached the end of the aisle. John B kissed your cheek, and went to stand behind JJ as his loyal best man. You stood in front of JJ, and he grabbed both of your hands. “Hi, baby.” He whispered.

“JJ, honey, you look fantastic. Why is Pope standing in the hot tub?” you whispered back, both of you laughing. Pope cleared his throat and you both straightened up. JJ shot a wink at you before Pope could speak. Even through all his emotion, he was still a smooth bastard. “You look so beautiful. Nice shoes.” He said with a smirk. You looked down and laughed at your bare feet. Pope began before you two could continue ripping on each other; it was your wedding, for God’s sake.

“Uh, good evening, Pogues. I’ve now just realized I didn’t write any kind of speech for this, so I’m just gonna wing it,” Pope began. “I’m proud to be here at almost 1am on a Tuesday to celebrate the unity of these two life partners in marriage. A normal priest would give a speech about how true love is everlasting or some shit here, but I got ordained 20 minutes ago, max. So I’ll just speak from the heart.”

JJ looked into your eyes helplessly. Right now, you were the only thing that existed in his whole universe. Your eyes went between him and Pope as he continued speaking. “There are only two real reasons to get married. For real, true, genuine, lasting love… and to get something out of it. Luckily, Y/N and JJ were able to pull off both. JJ’s saving her ass, for a change, by getting her out of foster care on the mainland. And, as we all know, they are also hopelessly in love with each other. We’ve all watched you grow up, and grow more and more dependent on each other. You did try to hide it, but this kind of love can’t be hidden away. It is loud, and in-your-face, and it always shows in the way you two look at each other.” You laughed under your breath; he was certainly right about that.

“Now, I don’t know if you guys have vows or anything, but now would be the time.” Pope looked to JJ first.

“Oh, uh, ok. Well, I do not have vows, but I’m guessing you’re not mad about that because you don’t have them either.” JJ told you, and you nodded wordlessly, wanting him to continue. “I would be happy to make them up on the spot, though. Here goes nothing. Y/N, you are…” he struggled to find the words. “Everything. As long as I can remember, you’ve been there for me. Even when nobody else has my back, or everyone in my life is mad at me, I have never felt alone because you’re always with me. The best I can do is give you the same. Y/N, I vow to always be here for you, even when everyone else in the world is against you, I will have your back. I vow to keep you safe, or die trying. I never want you to go through pain, and so I’m gonna vow to keep myself out of trouble, too.”

“I’m not ,uh, sure how many things I have to vow.” He looked at Pope, and you all laughed out loud. “I’ll just wrap it up. Y/N, honey, I went through some scary shit while we were gone. I found out what it felt like to nearly die, and my last thought was how much I needed you. It made me realize that I am never going to leave you. In sickness and health, for richer or poorer, in times of trouble, whatever’s going on, I promise to love you with my whole heart every single day. I will give you my best, no matter what’s going on.” JJ looked to you, and you knew he wasn’t sure how vows were supposed to end. You let out a breathy laugh and wiped a tear from your eye as you started writing your own vows in your head.

“JJ, since we were in kindergarten, there was something about you that kept me coming back. You’ve always listened to my weird imagination and my dreams for the future, even though I know most of them will never happen. You’ve held my hair back in the bathroom, you’ve held my hand to cross the street, and you know you hold my heart in your hands. I vow to never let go of your heart, and to always listen to you the way you’ve done for me. You’re so good at understanding me and the way I think, and I vow to always do the same for you. I swear to you, JJ, that you will be loved unconditionally until the day I die.”

There was a long pause. You heard a sniffle, and looked back to see Kie and Sarah nearly weeping. “Damn, that was… poetic.” John B spoke up from behind JJ. You all laughed quietly, and JJ squeezed your hands. You looked up to meet his eyes.His smile hadn’t faded since he first saw you.

“Okay, you two, that was really nice. And now there’s pretty much only one thing left to do. Or at least one thing I can think of.” Pope said to the two of you.

“By the power vested in me by the Internet half an hour ago, I now declare you husband and wife. JJ Maybank, you may kiss your bride.”

Don’t wanna walk alone

So let’s just get married

Sparks flew between you and your boyfriend- no, husband - as he pulled you close. It was a kiss that said a thousand words, his hands pulling you in by your waist and kissing you deeply. In the back of your head, you could hear the Pogues whooping and cheering as you kissed. Your hands went to JJ’s face before pulling away. Before you knew it, he had put his arms underneath your body, and quite literally swept you off your feet. He was carrying you bridal style (ironic) back down the makeshift aisle, and the Pogues followed behind as you laughed with joy.

You all flooded into the kitchen for some celebratory drinks. Kie pulled out the case of beer that her and Pope were bringing back hours ago, before the wedding plan was even hatched. Kie and Pope grabbed the case and JJ pulled on your hand. “Baby, let’s go for a swim.”

“What? I need to change and take off my makeup, and-” JJ wouldn’t even let you finish.

“Not necessary. Guys, we’re going hot tubbing in our clothes. Bring the drinks out!” You laughed, your face in shock, as JJ pulled you back outside. He reached the hot tub and pulled off his jacket and collared shirt, leaving him in just his seersucker pants. He looked like a masterpiece.

“JJ Maybank, those are John B’s pants!” You exclaimed as he got them wet, stepping into the hot tub.

“Yeah, and when’s he ever gonna wear them again? Come on, Y/N, get in here! It’s a celebration!” You gave in fairly easily, hopping in and soaking your dress. The rest of the group was close behind, splashing and hollering as the party continued. Music blasted from someone’s phone as you talked and laughed for hours. The sky was a dusky blue and the sun was threatening to come back up by the time the party was nearing its end, and the six of you were sitting in the hot tub.

“Y/N Maybank.” JJ mumbled under his breath, trying out your new last name on his tongue. “I like it.”

“Wait,” John B added, “You mean I’m the only Routledge left now? Come on, Y/N.”

“Sorry, John B. You’ve gotta keep the bloodline going.” You shrugged.

“Wait, guys.” Sarah interrupted you both. “You know what you forgot to do, Pope? You didn’t make them say I do.” Everyone groaned, and JJ reached around Kie to smack Pope on the back of the head.

“Hey, I learned how to do weddings, like, 10 minutes before I had to do that. Give me a break.” Pope groaned at you.

“It’s okay, Pope. I’ll just say it right now. I do.” You smiled up at JJ, and he leaned his head down to kiss your forehead.

“I do, too.”

‘Cause we don’t wanna walk alone

[mochegato]

Even the Losers

Chapter 3

Chapter 1     Chapter 2

Monday morning came both too soon and too distant for Marinette’s taste.  She looked up at the dark, intimidating Wayne Enterprises building as she and Max walked past it on their way to the cafe and swallowed hard.  She should have figured she would have to pass by the Wayne Enterprises building at some point, but she still wasn’t ready to see the dominating building so close.  They were a few blocks away and she still had to crane her neck to see the top.

Of course M. Fox would want to meet near his office.  He was already being beyond considerate having the meeting outside of the office building, expecting him to meet far away from his work was excessive.  She could stomach it.  It was just a building.  This meeting was important.  This was Max’s chance to wow M. Fox and get an amazing position.  She took a deep breath and continued forward despite it feeling like wading through increasingly deep water the closer they got to the WE building.

Max touched Marinette’s forearm to gain her attention.  She nearly jumped at his touch but quickly covered with an embarrassed smile and inquisitive hum.  “Are you okay?”

Marinette glanced toward the WE building but quickly looked back to him with an unconvincing smile.  “Yeah, it’s fine,” she tried to assure him.  Judging by the frown forming on his lips, he was unassured.

“Is there anything I should know?” Max asked uncertainly.

“Nothing of consequence,” Mari promised with a weak smile.

Max adjusted his glasses nervously and darted his eyes between Marinette and the sidewalk ahead of them a few times, trying to work up the courage to ask the question on his mind.  “Marinette,” he started slowly.  “You didn’t do anything illegal for the plan.  Did you?”

Marinette whipped her head toward him wide eyed. “What?”

Max cringed under her gaze.  “I just… you’re a very devoted friend and…”  He sighed and looked away.  “I just need to know if we need to worry about the Waynes coming after us.  I’d like to be prepared.”

Marinette's dour expression turned giddy as she started laughing joyfully.  After a minute, she wiped away a tear that had started to form in the corner of her eyes and fixed Max with a sincere look.  “No.  I didn't. None of us did.  I would have, but no laws were broken in the making or execution of this plan.”  She grinned and looped her arm through his, pulling him forward with a lighter step than before.  “I just presented your work to M. Fox and he was extremely impressed.  Come on, the cafe is just around the corner.”

Max gave her an unimpressed look.  “Are you sure?  Because I’m pretty sure I may have violated a few laws tracking down the call you had me trace last week.”

Marinette suddenly froze, her smile becoming significantly weaker.  “That wasn’t part of the plan.  That was a separate quest,” she tried to joke.

“And it just so happened to be M. Wayne’s phone number.”  His skepticism was clear in his voice even if he was too polite to call her out directly.

“It wasn’t part of the plan, really,” she promised quietly.  “That was… It had nothing to do with getting you a job.”

Max opened his mouth to ask another question but was interrupted by Marinette’s phone ringing.  Marinette pulled it out and rolled her eyes at Alya’s name lighting it up.  She hit the button to ignore it with a shrug.  “She’s probably really excited to see how your meeting went and didn’t convert the time correctly,” she laughed to Max.

Max smiled and nodded in agreement.  He opened his mouth to comment but Marinette’s phone started ringing again.  She furrowed her brow at it this time and groaned.  “Very excited,” she grumbled, hitting the ignore button again.

Max opened his mouth again but again was interrupted but this time by his phone and Marinette’s phone.  He pulled it out and looked at it.  “Nino?”

“What the Hell, Alya,” Marinette grumbled.  She was about to hit the accept button so she could yell at Alya to leave them alone but got interrupted by a loud cry right in front of her.

“Hey, it’s you!”

Marinette and Max looked at each other with matching confused looks.  The man that had said it pulled out his phone and switched on a recording device.  “Do you have any comment on the story in today’s paper?” the man, likely a reporter Marinette decided, demanded, shoving his phone in her face so violently, it would have hit her if she hadn’t jerked her face back in time.

Marinette stared at the man for a few seconds, her face scrunching in confusion before quickly smoothing over into an impassive mask. “I haven’t seen the paper this morning. So no, no comment on a story I know nothing about.”

She tried to push past the reporter only for him to move immediately into her path.  She looked around as more people joined, not reporters, she didn’t think, just people interested in finding out what was going on, rather than helping them.  The reporter pushed further in front of her, refusing to let her pass.  He held the day’s Gotham Gazette in front of her face.  Marinette had to back away in order to actually be able to read the headline.

She had to consciously force her eyes to stop from widening in front of the audience.  She forced her breathing to slow as her eyes scanned the headline and picture.  Across the top of the page in bold, block font was the headline ‘More than One New Wayne Introduced’ above a picture of her and Adrien speaking with Bruce Wayne. She glanced at the caption below the picture, her nose wrinkling in annoyance at the words.  “Newly discovered Wayne, Marinette Cheng Wayne introduces fiancé Adrien Agreste to her father, Bruce Wayne.”

Max gasped at the headline and cocked his head to the side in confusion.  He looked between it and Marinette a few times.  He opened his mouth to comment on how ludicrous it was but decided to defer to however Marinette wanted to handle it.  Instead, he gripped her arm in an attempt to show support and looked around them, calculating different plans to get them out of the crowd.

Marinette took a calming breath and looked back at the reporter with a cool gaze.  “You couldn’t even be bothered to get the names of the people involved correct.  I have little interest in reading the rest, which is likely as poorly researched.  Now if you will excuse me, I have an appointment to get to.”  

She tried to move around the reporter but he stepped in front of her, only centimeters between them as he did, and leaned closer to her.  “Why haven’t we heard of you before Ms. Cheng?  Embarrassed about your family’s history with crime in our city,” he cocked his head to the side and gave her a vicious grinned.  “Or was it your family that was embarrassed about you?”

Marinette bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood and glared at the man.  “It sounds like you are insinuating the Waynes are associated with crime in Gotham. Surely you didn’t mean to insinuate such a thing, right?  Such as slanderous comment,” she tutted in a condescending tone.  “I’m sure whatever publication you’re working for would not appreciate such a careless, defamatory, negligent comment.”

The man puffed out his cheeks, which were quickly becoming red with anger.  He tensed his body.  Marinette tensed hers in response.  What he intended to do exactly, she’d never know because just at that moment, the man froze as a hand settled hard on his shoulder.  “I can assure you that is exactly the kind of allegation Mr. Wayne and Wayne Enterprises would both pursue legal action over.  Now, I believe the young lady said she had an appointment,” Lucius Fox said with a cutting smile.

The reporter scowled at Lucius, but backed away. The crowd of people around parted at his presence.  Marinette shot him a grateful smile.  “Ms. Dupain Cheng, Mr. Kante,” Lucius nodded to them both.  “Are you ready?”

Marinette and Max nodded and moved toward the café ahead of him.  The host led them to a spot toward the back where they could have some privacy.  Marinette touched Max’s shoulder.  She gave him a concerned look.  Max’s eyes darted forward to Lucius and back to Marinette. He nodded then jerked his head toward her.  The smile she plastered on was even less convincing than her earlier one, but Max pretended like it wasn’t.  He leaned closer to her, speaking quietly enough that nobody could hear him.  “You should let Adrien and Alya know.”

Marinette sucked in a breath and looked toward her phone warily.  It was still ringing and chiming nonstop.  She turned it off and leaned closer to Max.  “Markov, can you text Alya and Adrien and let them know we’re all okay but I turned off my phone for a while.  If they need me they can text you or Max and we plan on returning to the hotel immediately after this meeting.  If you both are okay with that.”  Max nodded and lifted the flap for his messenger bag to reveal Markov sitting atop her folded up gala dress.  Markov looked between the two of them and gave Marinette a resolute nod.

“Thank you, Markov,” Marinette whispered, trusting his sensitive sensors to hear her.

When they arrived at the table, Lucius waited for the host to retreat before looking over to Marinette with a concerned look. “Did you need a break for a few minutes or to call anyone?”

Marinette gave him a tight, strained smile and shook her head.  “No, thank you.  I’ll be fine.”  She would make it through this.  She wasn’t going to cry.  She could wallow in self-recriminations later.  Right now, she needed to focus on making sure Max was given his shot.

Lucius nodded and looked down at the menu the waitress brought over.  After a few minutes of silence he glanced over to Marinette.  “Always something going on in Gotham.”  If Marinette didn’t know better she would think his tone was apologetic.

“Certainly has been full of surprises,” she stated instead, focusing on the menu.

“Certainly puts certain interactions at the gala a new perspective,” he observed carefully, keeping his eyes on his own menu.

Marinette’s focus sharpened on the menu in her hands. Her jaw tensed and her lips thinned. “I’m sure you will understand, M. Fox, when I say my private life is not something I care to discuss with people I do not know well.”

Lucius nodded.  “I do.”  He looked over the menu for a few seconds, keeping his face buried in the menu, he lifted his eyes to observe Max, noting his stiff posture.  His eyes were darting over to Marinette every so often and worrying his lip.  “You understand you could have just gotten him a position.  One phone call is all it would have taken.  You didn't need to go through all of this.”  His eyes flicked over to Marinette as he spoke.

Marinette met his eyes, a fierce set to them.  “He doesn't need somebody to get him a position,” she snapped.  “He's brilliant. He just needed somebody to see him.  He just needed an even playing field to shine. He didn’t need me calling in favors.  He’s earned the attention he gets.”

Lucius stared at her for a few seconds, analyzing her before finally coming to a decision.  He set his menu down and nodded curtly.  “No, he does not need help.  His work speaks for itself.  I spent the weekend researching you, Mr. Kante, and I have to say, you are an impressive young man.  You are exactly the kind of talent we seek out.  The fact that we didn’t speaks to the utter failure that our recruiting staff has been.  And I must apologize for what happened to you.  We will be reviewing Mr. Rabler’s actions since he was employed by us to properly deal with any other incidents such as yours.”

Max nodded, adjusting his glasses with a satisfied smile.  He was saved from trying to come up with a response when the waitress came back to take their orders.  There was a brief lull after the waitress left, Max and Marinette both uncertain where to push the discussion next and waiting for M. Fox to drive the conversation.

“Now, if I did my research correctly,” Lucius started with a secretive smile, “then I expect you have someone else with you.” He looked pointedly at Max’s bag.

Max’s smile turned sheepish and he opened his bag to let Markov come out.  “This is Markov.  I was hoping he would be able to work with me.”

“Of course,” Lucius nodded in agreement.  “It is nice to meet you, Markov.”

Markov zipped up higher in excitement.  “It is very exciting to meet you, M. Fox.  I have found very exciting information about you and Wayne Enterprises.”

Lucius chuckled.  “That is good to hear.  We will have no issue with Markov working with you, but we have added several sections to your contract to cover what Markov is allowed to do and what he isn’t. We have a lot of sensitive material, as I’m sure you are aware.  We are quite paranoid about protecting it.  We have also come up with a contract for Markov, but legal says we have to add sections to your contract as well since legally, Markov is not considered his own entity.”

Marinette beamed at Lucius and squeezed Max’s hand under the table, never more certain than at that moment that Max was going to be taken care of.  Max pretended to adjust his glasses so he could wipe at his eyes.  He looked over to Markov to gauge his response.  Seeing the weepy eye display, Max smiled and looked back at Lucius.  “Thank you, M. Fox for your consideration.  It means a lot to us both.”

Lucius gave him a soft smile and looked over to Marinette.  “We also have a contract for you, Ms. Dupain Cheng.  I had legal draw it up yesterday.  Not excited to work on a Sunday,” he shrugged guiltily, “but we gave them a lot of compensation for their time.  I drew it up before I knew of any other… associations so Mr. Wayne may want to modify it, but it is there if you are interested.  We will need a designer for the project, someone with intricate knowledge of fabrics and a demonstrated ability to work with them. Given your involvement thus far and your work on the dress for the gala, you seemed like the natural choice.”

Marinette looked down and took a breath.  She looked over to Max to see how he was faring. He gave her a supportive smile and nodded to her.  “As I said before, that is kind of you to offer but I have other plans that do not involve Wayne Enterprises.  And my ‘involvement’ thus far has been getting your attention.  It would likely be better for the project if you continued without me.”

“That is not strictly accurate,” Markov spoke up.

Max nodded in agreement.  “Your help was invaluable, Marinette.  Not only your insight into different characteristics in different fabrics and how changes affected the elements of the fabric, but also the different approaches to problem solving.  I could not have done this without you,” Max stated earnestly. He turned to Lucius.  “She worked with me to explain tensile strength and different weaves and how that would affect how the fabric appears and what you can do with it.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she looked over to Lucius quickly.  “He’s being modest.  He did the work.  He came up with the formulas.  He…”

She was interrupted by the arrival of the waitress with their food.  Lucius waited for the waitress to leave before he sent her a soft smile.  “I understand collaboration, Ms. Dupain Cheng. Mr. Kante’s words don’t make me doubt his work.  If anything, it confirms my faith in him.  I also researched you this weekend, Ms. Dupain Cheng.  You are quite talented.  Your designs are elegant and bold and you personally have always gone out of your way to help your community.  Those are all ideals Wayne Enterprises strives for.  Along with what Mr. Kante said, you should know, I’ll be pursuing you and it has absolutely nothing to do with your…. With Mr. Wayne.”

Marinette looked down to her plate with a blush and nodded.  “Thank you, M. Fox.  I will consider it, but…” she furrowed her brow in frustration, not knowing how to say what she was thinking and not knowing if she should even if she could.

“You have time to consider it, Ms. Dupain Cheng. But for now, we should eat.  The food here is extremely good.” Marinette’s shoulders relaxed and she sent him another grateful smile.  She looked over to Max and Markov and smiled before taking a bite of her breakfast.  “Now, Mr. Kante, I would love to hear more about your invention, unless you would prefer to wait until the contract is signed.”  Max smiled excitedly at Lucius and pulled out the dress as he described the process for working on the fabric while Marinette and Markov looked on proudly.

Chapter 4

Tags:

@maribat-bdbwm @jayjayspixiepop @redscarlet95 @alice-hazelwood @deathssilentapproach-blog @unoriginalmess @alyssadeliv @emotionalsupportginger @frieddonutsweets @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks @toodaloo-kangaroo 

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are Weird: Soldier without a war. Part I

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

 “You sure the speks don’t patrol there?”

“If they did do you really think I’d bring this rust bucket along for a job?”

Melp strapped himself into the copilot’s chair and looked over the console readings one last time. All systems were showing minimal operational capacity which normally would have been setting off alarm bells but with how things had been going for him and his captain lately it was the best they could ask for.

Melp was part of the salvage company “Outlying Star”, co-owner in fact with his partner and current captain Galem. When the war against humanity had started the two had thought it was the best idea to make a fortune with all the wrecks floating between star systems from fleet combat and had went all in on a converted freighter to pick through the bones and sell what they could.

At first Melp and Galem had made a killing, bringing in semi functional sub space drives and salvaged fully automated hard shell loaders from human ships. They made enough to fund a fleet of five ships and live the good life back on Valfha without a care in the world; for a little while at least.

Galem thought it was because of the government’s restrictions on salvageable items that had hampered their business but Melp believed it was because they were just too good at it that and had inspired countless others to take up the salvage game. Soon markets, both legal and black, became flooded with salvaged goods and people willing to undercut each other to make a quick buck. Neutron cannon went from 3.5 billion credits in value to just under 300 million credits in the span of six months. As a side effect of the sudden influx of salvage parts the government began taking notice and cracked down hard. Salvagers were called “Scavies” and deemed criminals by the government and the military would all too happily fire on any scavy ship they spotted. Seems they weren’t too happy about people rummaging through the wrecks of ships that once held their friends and the government would turn a blind eye if a scavy ship was destroyed during “Live Fire Exercises”.

Soon the jobs became even riskier and Outlying Star lost three ships after they were caught and destroyed. Another had to be sold for parts and salvage and now the final ship, the Morning Gale, was the last hope for Galem and Melp to make back some money.

“How do you even know this site hasn’t been picked clean already?” Melp asked over his shoulder as Galem entered the cockpit and locked the door behind him. “We could be wasting our time on a fantasy.” Galem shook his head which did little to ease Melp’s concerns.

“I got it from a reliable source that there was a big fight in the Glipi Cluster that we lost to the humans.” Galem began as he took the controls and slowly pulled back on the engine throttle as the ship ascended. “It was so embarrassing that the navy wiped all records of the battle and said the destroyed ships were lost in a freak transition from sub space into a rogue comet cluster.”

“If the data was wiped how does your source know about it?”  Melp quipped as the ship breached upper atmosphere and exited the travel lanes for the jump point.

Galem smirked as he engaged the sub space drive.

“They were there.”

 As the salvage ship exited sub space Melp let out a gasp. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes yet when he opened them all he could see was a shroud of purple. Galem saw Melp’s confused expression and chuckled.

“It’s the color of the gas filtering through this entire cluster.” He said calmly as he flicked on several scanners and filter units. “Try looking now.”

Melp looked again as the shades of purple faded away and let out a startled gasp. Upon gazing out of the cockpit window he could see why the navy had wanted to cover up this place so badly.

Floating around them were dozens of lifeless wrecks of Mibari warships ranging from light destroyers to several cruisers. Compared to their tiny ship it was as if Melp and Galem had entered the realm of giants. Melp was transfixed by the wrecks and became utterly enthralled when a massive shadow draped across their vessel.

“Is that what I think it is?” Melp spoke sheepishly as his blue hands trembled and changed to a soft orange color. Galem leaned forward in his seat to look out the window and whistled as his eyes caught sight of what had terrified Melp.

“A galaxy class troop carrier.”

The massive ship spun slowly in place like a top that refused to stop spinning, the metal interior exposed in several places from weapons revealing a dark interior of metal supports and long dead hallways. Melp looked towards the front of the ship as the command deck slowly spun into view and he was surprised to see the name of the ship had survived the damage it had taken.

“The Vault of Ohya…” Melp softly spoke. He reached out with an arm and shook Galem who was smiling like a hatchling on birthing day. “That’s the Vault of Ohya!”

“A piece of her hull to the right collector would be enough to refurbish this little dingy,” Galem said as he playfully smacked the command console, “into one hell of a floating casino.”

The two of them broke down into fits of laughter as if they had just been driven mad by their findings; but it was not of madness that now drove them but the sheer joy of their discovery.

These dozen ships floating lifelessly in the cluster were more than enough to bring the two of them back into the life of luxury they once held and keep them there until their dying days.

Melp was still star gazing at the shattered troop carrier when something else suddenly grabbed his attention.

“What’s that?”

Melp tore his gaze away from the Ohya and saw what Galem was looking at.

A new vessel slowly drifted out of the shadow of the troop carrier and came into view. It was clearly a human vessel of some kind; the lack luster design a clear give away. The body of the ship was missing sections of itself, but rather than appearing as if it had been damaged in the battle it looked more as if the ship had not finished being built. Sections of the body were lacking armor showing a complex network of pipes and corridors. The hull was painted in a soft grey color that stood out sharply among the ever shifting gas cloud surrounding it. Rows of gun ports ran along the sides, their openings revealing nothing of the pitch black interior giving them the appearance of small gaping mouths ready to consume Melp and his ship.  

The more Melp looked at the ship the more he felt something was just wrong with it. Galem must have felt something as well as he pulled up the virtual display and began interacting with it.

“Not sure what that thing is but it’s not listed in the records.” He said as he closed the display and leaned over the controls to get a better view of it. The tingling feeling at the bottom of Melp’s three stomachs was starting to grow stronger as his uneasiness did not subside.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that there’s no record of that ship variant from the entire war with humanity on any recorded file.” He popped open the virtual display again and flicked it over so it was hovering in front of Melp to view while he fiddled with the controls again. “Which means it’s worth a whole lot more than anything here.”

“How do you figure that?” As a response to Melp’s question he waved his arm across the scattered wrecks.

“Out of all the ships here the human ones are all clustered around that one as if they meant to protect it.” Galem said as he began moving the ship closer to the strange human ship.

“They could have bugged out and ran, but instead they all fought and died just to protect that thing; which means something on it must’ve been worth defending.”

Melp knew what Galem had some merit, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still very wrong; but before he could raise his concerns though a loud shudder ran through the scavenger ship.

“Get your suit on,” Galem said as he exited out of the cockpit, “let’s go find us some treasure.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the exterior of the ship had uneased Melp, the interior down right terrified him.

No sooner had the airlock door opened the two scavengers leaped back in shock. Standing at the entrance was a humanoid looking figure. Galem screamed and grabbed hold of a nearby cutting tool and swung it at the figure before Melp could even say anything.

A shower of sparks eradiated off the figure’s body as the plasma torch cut into it, all the while Galem was continuing to scream, and cut a decent size hole through the beings torso.

“Shut it!” Melp shouted at Galem, forcing the scared halfwit to calm down some while Melp inched closer and retrieved the still burning plasma torch. The figure had not moved and inch even as the torch had melted away his exterior and as Melp moved closer still he noticed why.

“It’s an automated drone you idiot.”

Melp motioned him forward and the two of them inspected the machine.

It was human shaped but it was entirely of metal and wires, a mindless drone used for menial tasks such as inventory handling or maintenance. It wore a human uniform for some reason which clashed with its blank reflective visor face.

“Why’s it standing here?” Galem asked as he nervously tapped the drone. The touch pushed it off the ground and the dead drone slowly lifted off the ground in the zero-g environment and floated back into the ship, bouncing off the back wall before continuing to silently float away.

“Maybe it’s here to greet us?” Melp chuckled as he activated his mag locks and his feet latched on to the metallic floor. Galem followed suit and the two began entering the derelict ship.

“Can’t be,” Galem began as they reached the airlock secondary doors and began slowly opening them, “these tin cans would run out of power in a day and it’s been years since this tussle went down.”

With several loud grunts as the two strained with the manual release the inner airlock to the human ship finally cracked open. The two entered slowly, not knowing what to expect, and took stock of their surroundings.

They entered a long hallway that seemed to stretch out far into the distance passed the reach of their head lamps. Melp could see side corridors scattered every few dozen feet no doubt leading to other sections of the ship, but likewise they too were pitch black.

Something about Melp’s comment made him pull out his data scroll and do a quick scan. The device beeped rapidly as the scan commenced before ending with a loud “DING” and displaying a waterfall of information.

Melp read the data as the two continued to hover by the airlock entrance.

“It says here that somethings still giving off a power signature here.” Melp commented as he ran he scan again to be sure.

“Give it here,” Galem said as he turned to Melp with his hand outstretched, “you must be reading it-“

When Galem didn’t finish his sentence Melp looked up and saw something akin to a mixture of fear and surprise on his face. He was staring at something over his shoulder so Melp slowly turned in place , his magnetic feet latching heavily to the decking with each step like two magnets smashing together.

When he finally turned around he let out a yelp of surprise and tried to jump back, but his magnetic feet kept him firmly locked to the floor leaving him in an almost comical off balance state.

Standing directly behind him was another of the drones, this one dressed in what appeared to be some sort of security uniform even including an empty weapon holster at his side.

Neither of the scavengers knew how the thing got there as it most certainly hadn’t been standing there a moment ago. Before either of them could respond the drone’s visor lit up and displayed a pixelated face.  The visor was damaged with a deep crack running the length of it making the display flicker in and out on half the screen giving it an eerily ghost like visage.

“The captain,” the drone began as it stepped to one side of the hallway and extended a hand into the darkness, “requests your presence on the bridge.”

[wild-houseplant]

ZevWarden Week 2022, Day 7: Seasons

ZevWarden Week 2022′s over chronologically, but as far as I’m concerned, every week in 2022 is ZevWarden Week 2022. For day 7′s prompt, I have Zevran and Rhodri in their 90s, being a couple of shit-stirring old geezers. Some things really do get better with age. AO3 here and more under the cut! Hope you bunch are having a great day :) :) :)

Zevran huffed a rather wistful-sounding breath out through his lips.

Rhodri glanced up from her book in time to see him shake his head. She nudged him gently. "What is it, my love?"

He gave a dramatic sigh. "We are so bloody old."

Rhodri marvelled at the nerve he had to look so astonished about it when they were both well on the way to a hundred and, quite frankly, had had ample time to prepare for this point in life.

"You know what? I’m not going to dignify that with a response," she said, and turned back to her half-read page.

Silence fell. The comfortable, companionable kind that follows when a matter is settled, she would have said.

Would have.

"You know," he piped up again, "it's lucky we don't fart dust at this age."

Her hand froze mid-air as it went to turn the page, hovering with a recently-developed tremor that hadn’t yet ceased to fascinate her. “Well, thank you for that delightful mental image. Is there anything behind this sudden revelation?”

Zevran grinned. “I’m glad you asked!” He took her hand and sandwiched it between the two of his. “I think it’s about time we took the next step in our relationship, my love.”

Rhodri raised an eyebrow. “What? Die?”

“Ah, amore!” He tsked and pursed his lips. “For shame. No, I was reminiscing about one of our visits to Redcliffe during the Blight Year, and it occurred to me: we never did go naked cliff-diving.” Zevran fixed her with a gleaming smile. “What do you say, hmm?”

“... What?”

He cleared his throat. “I said–”

Rhodri shook her head hard. “No, no, I heard you, I’m just… flabbergasted.”

“Oh?” Zevran gave a surprised hum. “You’ve always known I’m a bit of a thrill-seeker.”

“You are, yes, but you’re also four years away from legally qualifying as an antique.”

“Exactly!” He beamed. “We’re not getting any younger, no? Besides, if you think about it, now we are finally at the perfect age to do it.”

Blinking, Rhodri closed her book and turned to face him. “Oh, this I have to hear. Go on, tell me why were right to put off doing it in our youth.”

Zevran held out one of his arms and pinched the leathery skin between two fingers. “Because, my love, we are so full of loose skin we will catch the air on the way down and land feather-soft.”

“You’re joking-”

“In fact,” he trilled over her, “there is enough loose skin under our arms now that we could repurpose them as wings and soar like birds! Wouldn’t it be marvellous?”

Rhodri rubbed her brow with her fingers. “You know, I always thought the cheese would slide off the cracker for me first, but it would appear you’ve beaten me to it.”

Zevran clucked his tongue. “Spoilsport.”

She nodded with a smile. “Indeed, and thanks to my spoilsportery, we are the only two people out of all our peers who haven’t broken a hip.” She shrugged. “Still, though, perhaps I’m being a little too leery. After all, why shouldn’t we do something outlandish at our age? After a lifetime of hard work, I think we’ve earned a thrill or two.”

“Mmm!” He patted her knee with as much enthusiasm as his joints permitted. “Now that’s much more like it. So we’ll do it, then?”

She put her hands together and opened them out. “How about this: we’ll start easy and build our way up to the naked cliff-dive. Just to be sure we’re in top condition for it.”

Zevran raised his eyebrows. “Oh? A training regimen, is it?”

“Exactly! In fact, let’s start now. You go to our bedroom and start getting undressed, and I’ll bring up the ladder from the wine cellar. I’ll hold it steady while you climb up and dive off onto the bed, and if it turns out you don’t have as much loose skin as you thought, at least you’ll have something soft to crash into.”

He squinted. “You know, I really can’t tell if you’re being serious now or not.”

Rhodri grinned. “Only one way to find out.”

“Mmm," he tapped his fingers together. "All this talk of cheese sliding off crackers is well and good, but I must admit I am starting to suspect your cheese never had a cracker to start with.”

“Hah,” she took his knotted hand in hers and pressed a kiss to it, and with the other hand she picked up her book and opened it out again. “Rich talk coming from the man who wants to go naked cliff-diving. You strange old coot.”

Zevran tsked and read with her. “Ever the charmer.”

[kpop-zone]

The Lady in Red | Jennie

Mafia AU | Meet messy/Strangers to lovers | “Are you sure this is legal?”

Warnings: blood, death, anxiety symptoms

Wordcount: 3,373

A/N: The gif is kinda flashy, please tell me if that’s a problem for someone, then I will switch it out!!

“I guess I don’t need to tell you that his infiltration into the ‘circle of trust’ was unsuccessful.”

Seungyeon chuckled sadly next to you and you turned around with a shaky sigh, not being able to look at your patched-up colleague in the hospital bed any longer.

“When will we finally manage to take them down?!”

You growled while angrily kicking the chair that was standing next to the door for the police officer that would have to be there 24/7 for safety reasons from now on.

“I’m starting to believe that we will never be able to. The Kim Clan isn’t the most powerful criminal organization in the city for no reason. Their network is bigger than we could have ever guessed when we started to investigate them and the mastermind behind all this seems to be a ghost. I mean we have no idea what The Lady in Red even looks like. Five years of thorough investigation and there are no clues about her, except that she has to be the most ruthless person on this planet considering that none of her subordinates dare to betray her...”

Seungyeon buried her face in her hands in defeat but you instantly shook your head. You couldn’t let The Lady in Red win; especially not after all the blood, sweat and tears that you had put into this case. You had become a detective to make this world a better place. You couldn’t let the biggest criminal of this city get away.

“Let’s wait till Jihoon wakes up. Maybe he remembers something.”

You tried to sound hopeful although you weren’t even sure whether Jihoon would wake up at all. You had found him in front of the police station this morning, drowning in his own blood after he had joined the Kim Clan almost a year ago to investigate undercover. He had been the great hope in your team. No other cop had ever managed to be a part of the clan for that long before, making you think that you had finally achieved a breakthrough. A foolish hope that made you feel like a failure now that you were standing in front of his hospital bed.

“Do you really believe that?”

Seungyeon replied doubtfully and you huffed in frustration. Of course, you didn’t believe that. With his injuries, you could be glad if Jihoon would ever be able to walk and talk again. But it was too hard to admit that you had hit another dead end; that Jihoon’s sacrifice had been in vain. Angrily, you clenched your fists and closed your eyes in order to calm down again, but it felt like you were riding a roller coaster. Your heart was beating out of your chest and your head was spinning, making you feel nauseous. You couldn’t bear to look at your half-dead friend any longer.

“I need to get out of here.”

You uttered breathlessly before bursting away. Blindly, you stumbled through the hallways, bumping into people left and right before eventually reaching the underground parking. You just needed to get away from those bright lights, the sterile smell, and the constant beeping of Jihoon’s heartrate monitor that seemed to be making fun of your obvious incapability to catch The Lady in Red. This was all your fault. If you were a better team leader, Jihoon would still be making his bad jokes that had always made night shifts more bearable in the past in some way or another. Tears immediately started to pool in your eyes when you thought about the possibility of never being able to hear your friend’s goofy laugh again that had managed to make everyone join in even when his joke had been terrible. What had you done? How could you have allowed him to go undercover?

In hopes that you could flee your bad conscience if you were only fast enough, you hastily unlocked your car before diving into the driver’s seat. It still seemed like your head was spinning in circles and the extreme ringing in your ears didn’t really increase your fitness to drive, but you didn’t hesitate a second before starting the engine and backing out of the parking space full speed.

You just needed to get away.

A loud collision, however, cut your escape short and forced your car to come to an abrupt halt, causing your body to be painfully pressed back into your seat by your seatbelt. For a second, you stared ahead dumbfounded as you tried to understand what had happened until a roaring voice managed to rip you out of your state of shock.

“You idiot!! Use your eyes!!”

A man yelled and you realized that you must have rammed another car. Frustrated, you huffed because your day really couldn’t get any worse before exiting the car reluctantly. A tall man dressed in a suit came rushing towards you and judging by the crimson color of his face, he seemed to be nearly exploding from anger. Subconsciously, you took a defensive stance, ready to parry off a punch in case that he would decide to physically attack you. Just before the man could reach you, however, a loud, high-pitched whistle suddenly made him stop. Like a well-behaved dog he froze and turned around to look at the source of the noise.

“Junho, where are your manners?”

A mysterious voice asked, and you tried to look past Junho in order to catch a glimpse of your savior. You could only see a pair of red high heels and slender legs emerging from the car that you had rammed before a breathtakingly beautiful woman eventually got out of it. Against your will, your eyes automatically started to scan her from head to toe and you had to stop your jaw from slacking. She was simply stunning. Something about her was mesmerizing although you didn’t know whether it was her piercing gaze that seemed to be sharper than a knife, the way she moved her body so gracefully or her clothes that screamed ‘rich’ to you. Of course, you had managed to damage the only car that cost more than your annual salary out of all the junk cars in this parking garage... Remorsefully, you looked to the floor when the woman walked closer to you, figuring that you should probably show respect to her as money usually equated power where you lived. As soon as she was standing in front of you, you opened your mouth to give the most heartfelt apology that you could come up with in order to save your own neck, but the sound of her voice put an end to your plan.

“Are you ok?”

The woman asked and to your surprise her voice wasn’t filled with anger or annoyance, but with concern instead. Confused, you looked up and you realized that her feline eyes appeared to be a lot softer now while scanning your face worriedly. Automatically, your hand reached up to touch your face and you discovered to your surprise that your cheeks were tear stained. In embarrassment, you quickly used your sleeve to wipe away the remainders of your breakdown just a few seconds ago and cleared your throat to sound more or less poised.

“Yes. I’m sorry for ramming your car. I’ve been incautious for a second.”

You pointed at your cars that were surrounded by bits of red, broken glass, but the woman didn’t avert her gaze from you.

“I don’t want you to worry about the cars right now. Are you sure you’re ok? That was one hell of a collision. Are you hurt?”

Her reaction caught you off guard and you stared at her speechlessly. Why wasn’t she yelling at you? Was she that rich that she didn’t even care about her car anymore?

“I-I...yeah...I’m fine.”

You stammered, causing you to facepalm yourself inwardly. It seemed like you were trying to do everything in your power to prove that you were a complete idiot.

“I’m glad to hear that. I was worried for a second.”

The woman smiled softly, causing you to feel weak in your knees. If she would continue looking at you like that, you could not be held responsible for whatever rash action of yours it would cause. A blush started to spread in your cheeks as the two of you simply stared at each other and you frantically tried to come up with something smart to say in order to save your face. Once again, however, the woman beat you to it.

“I’m Jennie by the way.”

She introduced herself while holding out her hand and you quickly wiped your right palm on your pants just in case that it was as sweaty as it felt.

“I’m Y/N.”

You shook her hand, feeling how the touch caused a tingling feeling in your stomach. Embarrassed, you wanted to pull away again, but Jennie kept holding on to your hand a little longer before allowing you to loosen your grasp.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Y/N. I hope that we’re not the reason for you to be late to something, you seemed to be in a hurry earlier.”

For the first time, Jennie averted her gaze from you to assess the scene of the crash before calmly looking back at you as if her multimillion won car wasn’t damaged. You expected her to finally scold you for your lack of concentration that had caused this accident, but Jennie didn’t seem to blame you for anything. Instead, she patiently waited for you to reply to her assumption, so you quickly shook your head.

“No, don’t worry. I don’t need to be anywhere. I just...”

You trailed off because you didn’t know how to finish your sentence. I just needed to get away, because it’s my fault that my friend is probably dying, and I couldn’t bear to look at him anymore? It wasn’t like you could blindside a stranger with a confession like that. Your head immediately started spinning again when you thought about Jihoon and your eyes roamed around the parking garage as you thought about your answer before focusing on Jennie again. As soon as your eyes met, you felt how her serenity had a soothing effect on you and a sense of calmness spread from your chest to your whole body. Somehow her intense yet gentle gaze seemed to draw you under her spell, and you opened your mouth without even being aware of it.

“I just had a really bad day because my friend was hospitalized because of me.”

You blurted out, feeling how tears immediately started to pool in your eyes. Ashamed you turned your head to the side to hide your emotions, but a sensation on your arm caused your gaze to dart forward again. Jennie had reached out to you and was now patting your arm encouragingly.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Y/N. But I’m sure your friend wouldn’t want you to torment yourself. I don’t know what you did, but you don’t seem like you would have wanted your friend to be hospitalized.”

She tried to cheer you up and you nodded hesitantly. She was right. Jihoon wouldn’t want you to blame yourself for what had happened. He was a dedicated detective and it had been his decision to go undercover.

“I-I think you might me right... Thank you.”

You stammered perplexed, wondering how it had been possible for Jennie to calm you down that fast. You loved whatever she was doing to you though and you sighed in relief when your head started to feel steady again, causing Jennie to smile at you widely, seeming to be genuinely happy that she had been able to help you.

“Well, now that this is settled, let’s take care of this mess?”

Jennie giggled while pointing at your cars.

“I feel very guilty for this accident. Junho was driving too fast; you couldn’t have braked in time. Please, let me invite you for a coffee to apologize and we can discuss how we want to handle the costs.”

She continued and your eyes widened in shock. This was not how you remembered the accident; it had definitely been your fault. You simply couldn’t steal any more of Jennie’s time after causing her so much trouble, even if you wouldn’t mind talking with her all day long.

“Aren’t you here to visit someone?”

You asked hesitantly, not wanting to be the reason for her to miss visiting hours.

“Ah yes. I’ve been very unsatisfied with the way how one of my dear friends has been... taken care of. So I came here today to do it myself. Some jobs are better done by yourself, you know? But I’m confident that Junho will be able to get the job done as efficiently as I would have done, right?”

Jennie looked at Junho who had grimly stood at the side till now and simply nodded in response. Satisfied, Jennie grinned before giving you her attention again and wordlessly asking you with a slight movement of her head to agree to her offer. Not being able to resist her charms, you sighed in defeat and locked your car again.

“Ok fine, one coffee.”

You agreed, causing Jennie’s eyes to glint in excitement.

“Great! Junho, go park the car and then go upstairs. I know that you will take proper care of my friend. I don’t want any more...complications. I want everything to be clean and neat. Let’s give my friend what he deserves.”

Jennie smiled sweetly and you felt your heart flutter. It was endearing to see how much she seemed to care about her friend. Happily, you looked at her before following her back into the building to grab a coffee in the little café for visitors on the first floor. It didn’t even need you a minute to figure out that Jennie apparently was a master of distraction. The way she talked was simply captivating and you almost didn’t think about Jihoon at all. Your conversation flowed with ease right from the start and it seemed like you had known each other for years already. Together you sat down at a table, each with a steaming hot cup of coffee in your hands and Jennie immediately propped up her elbow on the table to rest her head on her hand in order to look at you attentively.

“So what do you do for a living?”

She asked curiously and you straightened up proudly. You loved your job and it made you really happy to talk about it.

“I’m a detective.”

You stated, causing Jennie’s expression to change like expected. Most people were impressed when they heard that you were a detective and wanted to know more about your work.

“A detective? Wow. What kind of cases do you work on? Is your job as exciting as in K-dramas or is the movie industry just lying?”

Jennie raised one eyebrow suspiciously and you giggled in response.

“Well, I’m afraid my job is not quite as spectacular as in K-dramas, but there are definitely more boring jobs. Right now, I’m working on a really interesting case for example. We’re investigating the Kim clan; you might have read about it in the news maybe. It’s a huge criminal organization with a ruthless leader. We only call her The Lady in Red.”

You started to chat, feeling how you suddenly had the urge to talk about all your built-up frustration.

“The Lady in Red?”

An amused smile played on Jennie’s lips as she curiously tilted her head to the side, and you chuckled.

“Yes. We don’t know a lot about the leader, not even her name. But over the past years we have accumulated some bits of information about her. We’ve managed to catch some of the criminals that worked with her and although none of them ever betrayed her, they revealed little details. For example, we know that she often could be found wearing red lipstick or a red trench coat. And in combination with the trail of blood that she leaves all over the city, we eventually started calling her The Lady in Red.”

You felt a little embarrassed to admit the ridiculous nickname that you had given a serial killer, but Jennie seemed to be very intrigued by your story.

“Is this top-secret information? I mean, can you even tell me all this? Are you sure this is legal?”

She joked, causing you to laugh off your embarrassment.

“As long as you’re not a journalist...”

You narrowed your eyes to fake mistrust and Jennie put on a serious face.

“No, don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me, I promise. I’m just a simple businesswoman, not a journalist. I own a little company and try my best to survive.”

She crossed her fingers to underline her statement, causing both of you to crack up. After calming down again though, you had the urge to know more about this seemingly perfect woman in front of you. Considering her expensive clothes and car, you doubted that her company was as little as she described it and you were genuinely interested in learning what it took to get all the way to the top of the food chain.

“You own a business? That’s impressive! What kind of business?“

You asked, but you shouldn’t get to hear her answer right away. The moment Jennie inhaled to start telling you about her life story, the screens of both of your phones on the table suddenly lit up, indicating that you had gotten a message.

“Excuse me.”

You excused your bad table manners before picking up your phone to check the incoming message because you were technically still on duty and obliged to be reachable. Unless someone had been murdered, however, you didn’t plan on working today after the events of this morning, so you simply wanted to skim the message before giving Jennie all your attention again. The content of the text message was very short and comprehensible at a glance though, managing to instantly knock the air out of your lungs. As if you couldn’t trust your eyes, you read the text over and over again in disbelief, hoping that it’s meaning would change eventually. But the cold, harsh words stayed and mercilessly slapped you in the face.

Jihoon is dead

The three words were simple, but that didn’t make their impact any less destructive. An intense pressure seemed to crush your chest and your eyes started to burn immediately. How could this be? How could he have died so quickly? He had been stable when you had seen him just a little over half an hour ago. Helplessly, you looked at Jennie who was smiling at her phone before meeting your eyes. Her expression changed in a split second and she was quick to leap to her feet to walk over to you.

“He’s dead.”

You managed to choke out before a loud sob tore from your throat as your tears began to fall in a rapid pace. Without hesitation, Jennie wrapped her arms around you to pull you against her body and you clung to her in need for comfort while your whole body shook violently.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

Jennie said on a loop while rubbing your back in circles, attempting to get you to calm down again. Her gentle touch and soothing voice prevented you from completely breaking down and you tried to remember her words from earlier. I’m sure your friend wouldn’t want you to torment yourself. You repeated this simple statement over and over again in your head to allay the weight of the guilt that was pressing down on you. No matter how much you tried though, you weren’t able to completely erase the ugly voice in your head that told you that this was all your fault. Nevertheless, you were glad that you had Jennie by your side right now. You hoped that her serenity would manage to save you once more, so you held on tighter to her in an attempt to allow her strength to prevent the darkness in your head to seize you.

Who would have thought that joy and sorrow could be so close together?

[kpop-dungeon-dark]

Hell. (Lucifer Kris Wu/Yifan x You)

•TRIGGER WARNING•

Warning(s): Non-Con and fucked up twisted shit. You are legal in this. Read at your own risk.

"Mmm…" She hummed and smiled, nuzzling into the much older man and inhaling his scent while he held her tight to his chest. "Oh… I should get going now~ I have class in an hour~" glancing at the clock on the bedside table, the girl sat up slowly with a pout.

"Get going?" Yifan chuckled at her before grabbing her ass and pulling her into him, clicking his tongue. "Nah… you'll stay here with me like my good toy now~" Y/n looked at him and giggled, taking the covers off to her to get out of bed.

"Chill dude… we just met like last night. Don't expect anything only because we fucked. You have a looooong way to go if you want to impress me…" Before she went to step off the bed but her hand was captured in Yifan's much bigger one.

"Impress you? Tsk. You're branded as my belonging now that I've fucked you, finally. You're mine now. Nobody and nothing can get you out of my world now, you're officially a satanist after you opened your legs for The Devil. You're nothing but my fuck toy now." His lips brushed against her ear as he chuckled to himself. "You don't have a choice."

Turning around to look at him, Y/n started struggling as she got creeped out. "U- Uh… okay… weirdo… I really gotta go now~" trying to back away, she tried to break out of his grip. Her friends were right. Maybe single older men really were fucking nutjobs.

"You're not going anywhere!" Yifan's complexion darkened before horns grew out of his temples whilst his hair turned white and back to its original length which was til his waistline. "I came up here looking for a new toy as the last one…" He sickly grinned. "Anyways. I've found you now and have decided that you'll be my little slut from now on." Y/n was shaking as his pupils disappeared, blank white eyes staring down at her now.

"O- Oh… m- my fucking G- God… n- no way…" She whispered, only causing the man to laugh at her. "H- Holy fucking shit-" she was cut off when everything around them started to disappear, as of they were standing in a tornado, their surroundings starting to spin before getting distorted to the point where Y/n's human mind couldn't decipher it anymore.

"Welcome to your new house, my pet." Yifan mightily spoke when it finally stopped and they were standing in a dark hall now that was illuminated by an unknown source. "There's only one rule for little slaves like you. Behave well, get treated well." The man- fucking Devil's voice was so much deeper and inhuman now, his tall frame growing even more as well as expanding.

"T- This can't be real… th- this can't be real!" Y/n shook as she looked around, her senses numbed whilst she knelt in front of him, the shock too much for her legs to still work.

"Tsk. It is real. Very real. Since the beginning of time. And now you're a part of it." His teeth seemed sharp, almost like fangs.

"They're awaiting you in the court, Father." Y/n jumped when she heard an even more inhuman voice from behind, making her gasp and stagger towards Yifan when she looked back at the abomination of a creature standing behind her, staring at Yifan through its plain black eyes.

It was a literally mutilated half bull and half human looking thing. Her head was spinning.

"I don't condone a pathetic little human like you being disrespectful to my people!" A harsh kick landed in her side, making her groan in pain. "Pathetic fucking slaves like you show respect and please their owners. Tsk. Apologize!" He boomed while glaring down at the shaking human, expecting her to just suck up the fact that her one night stand had turned out to be The fucking Devil and had brought her to Hell. "Apologise, I said!" A whip appeared in his hand before he controlled her mind, making her get on all fours while crawling to the creature that was waiting silently. "I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!" Before the whip made of lightning whipped her back, making a whole jolt go down her back.

"I am sorry! I am s- sorry, Master! P- Please forgive me!" The girl shook while crying, the mind control forcing her to kiss the creature's animal-like feet. "I didn't m- mean to-! Please!" When Yifan landed another whip, she cried out in agony, holding the creature's feet desperately.

It only nodded in response, silently saying something in a language of whispers and hissed she didn't understand before it left.

"Good slut." Since her ass was in perfect view, Yifan kicked it from behind, making her let out an embarrassing yelp before he grabbed her hair. "Now. Let's go and introduce you in court." Starting to walk swiftly, the Devil basically dragged her against the rough floors by her hair, his own feet in the air, almost.

It wasn't long before they reached two huge doors made of gold which instantly opened for Yifan, a huge courtroom like that of a king inside. Y/n felt her heart beat getting even more erratic when The Devil started to drag her inside, causing her knees to start getting torn now, all the creatures standing on either sides almost impossible to decipher by a human mind.

"This, my people, is my new toy and slave!" Lucifer announced as his people cheered, letting go of Y/n's hair in the middle of the court and ascending up the stairs and onto his throne, sitting like the royalty that he was. "But this pathetic little human here thinks she can deny me and disrespect our kind!" Everyone let out angry hisses and groans, speaking in that one language she didn't understand, making her let out a sob.

"We must teach her a lesson now, shouldn't we?!" Everyone cheered in response, rushing to the screaming girl when their Ruler nodded at them, pulling and pushing at the smaller body from every direction. Y/n wanted to call out for help to no one in particular but her tongue froze upon The Devil's power.

The human was on the verge of knocking out but she couldn't, forced to take all the slaps, pushes, pulls, pokes and abuse. Yifan laughed like a maniac. "Now now, don't touch her little privates. That's mine~" her slits closed up. "Take her elsewhere until I am done with court, we have important business to do here~" and with that, those creatures dragged her out of court.

She couldn't speak, she couldn't run, she couldn't knock out and she couldn't die.

.

"That's enough!" After what felt like days of turmoil, Lucifer finally stopped those creatures that had destroyed Y/n's body again and again only for it to heal again. "Come here now…" Grabbing at her arm, he pulled her up to her feet as her slits opened up again, gesturing at everyone to leave before he looked down at her. “Have you learned?” The human had no choice but to nod in desperation, ready to do anything to not go through the turmoil those God forbidden creatures put her through.

“Good.” Before her brain could decipher any of it, they were standing in a huge room and a heavy door was shutting behind them, The Devil throwing her naked form on the bed before his own clothes disappeared. “See, I am not a bad Master, my slave” crawling on top of her, he deeply spoke before kissing her cheek and then her soft lips. “Not at all… I take well care of my toys and play with them all the time but…” Dipping his middle finger in her mouth, Yifan picked her up and closer to him by snaking an arm around her waist, plunging his middle finger in her pucker and making her cry out wordlessly as she couldn't use her tongue.

"But for good treatment you must show good behavior, my little toy…" Kissing her lips harshly, he tortured her asshole before his red and hot tail slipped in, replacing his finger as he kissed and bit at her tits now. "Fuck… you're so tight and soft" Yifan grunted and rubbed his balls against her soft folds, healing her hymen back up just so she could bleed when he plunged his huge cock in, moaning even more when he felt it's shape in her stomach.

The human wanted to struggle and scream but instead let out moans under compulsion, her body betraying her mind and making her try to ride him more and more, the shape of his manhood very clear to see. Y/n hated how good her pussy felt because of his compulsion.

"You like this, don't you, my little pet? Tsk. Look at you! Being raped by The fucking Devil and enjoying it!" He smacked her cheek before gripping it and kissing her deeper, pushing his tongue in her mouth and entering it in her throat, gripping her neck and feeling it, moaning loudly in satisfaction while pumping his cock in and out of her pussy whilst his tail toyed with her ass.

"Look at you! Shaking and crying like a needy little slut!" Gripping her hands, he pinned them above her head and licked at her tears with his now long Devil tongue, thrusting harder and harder, her holes expanding more and more when the girth of his cock and tail was increased by him.

"That's right. You're mine! My toy! My little slave! That's all you are and will ever be good for! Fuck!" The human couldn't help but helplessly nod and moan. She was powerless.

And Yifan wasn't done just yet. They had a long way to go before he'd be satisfied for the day.

[thenerdyindividual]

Okay so yesterday @sterlingdylan made this awesome analysis post about BBC Merlin, stating that it was neither Arthur’s nor Merlin’s fault that Merlin didn’t reveal his magic, something I 100% agree with.

Unfortunately, this post also got derailed by a discussion comparing Arthur’s attitudes to homophobia. Now, to be clear, I do think there are some parallels there. Writers will look to real world bigotry in order to write their fantasy bigotry better. For BBC Merlin, the bigotry does feel a lot like homophobia because magic is: a part of the characters and not something they chose, something the characters must hide or be put in danger, something characters worry makes them evil/monsters, etc. However, parallels are not the same thing as an allegory.  If we try to take BBC Merlin as a direct allegory for homophobia it falls apart because there are genuine reasons for people to be afraid of magic in the canon because it can and has killed people, controlled people, and hurt people. Queer people can’t do any of that with their queerness. Our queerness is fundamentally harmless, whereas magic is not. Also, as sterlingdylan discussed last night, if we take it as an allegory it sets up a concerning narrative about “closeted” Merlin being good, and “out” other characters being bad. Which is injecting a really extreme and problematic moral into the show, and not something we as an audience should be placing on the shoulders of the writers.

I don’t think we need to take BBC Merlin as an allegory for anything, It is enough to discuss parallels to our lives, and examine how the bigotry functions in the context of the show itself. But If we are going to be comparing it as directly as possible to something in our daily lives, then it would probably be more accurate as a narrative about extremism and essentialism. It is still an imperfect comparison because usually extremism and essentialism are not founded on genuine concern, but stick with me. It gets long so the essay is going under the cut.

Uther experienced the death of his wife at the hands of magic. Now, we know that he and Ygraine asked Nimueh for help conceiving. Whether they fully knew the cost or if Nimueh downplayed it is neither here nor there. What is relevant is that Uther was given proof of magic’s ability to harm him and the people he loved. Now, someone who did not hold the black and white “The King is always right” attitude might have taken this instance and pushed for regulation of magic rather than a ban. However, as we witness in later episodes in which he locks up his own children for defying him, Uther can never admit he was wrong so rather than say it was a bad idea to use magic in the way he did, he convinced himself that it wasn’t him who made the mistake, but that magic itself was an inherently evil corrupting force, and started the purge. He took an extreme oppositional view towards magic.

On the flip side, much of the narrative of the magic half of this battle is also about extremism. They are, rightfully, infuriated by and afraid of Uther, but they also let their anger at Uther shade their perception of Arthur. Morgana, starting in season one, was already set against Uther, but was not yet set against Arthur. However, when she met Morgause her train of thought went from justice, to revenge against Uther, to a desire for power, and finally a deep desire to see Arthur dead. Perhaps in some way Morgause really does care about creating a just world for magic users, but she clearly also has a desire for power (as seem when she encourages Morgana to stage a coup and take the throne for herself instead of try to teach Arthur, when he’s demonstrated before a willingness not to lock step with Uther) which are two things that aren’t compatible.

Morgause encourages Morgana to see the worst in the people around her, and encourages her to give into acts of extreme violence against people who don’t necessarily deserve it (ie all the peasants she was prepared to starve when they disagreed with her when she took the throne at the end of season three. A move remarkably similar to something Uther would have done). Morgana no longer stops to consider the times that Arthur stood against Uther, and comes to view Arthur not as someone who can be shown the bigger picture, but as someone inherently against magic rather than the violence it can do. This cycle does not stop with Morgana either, it also reaches Kara who refuses to see the good in Arthur even though he has shown his willingness to make peace with members of the Old Religion (druids), and was prepared to let her get away with attempted murder simply because Mordred and Merlin asked him to show her mercy.

Kara and Morgana both have come to view Arthur as inherently violent and set against magic the same way Uther came to see magic as inherently violent and set against Camelot. Neither of which are accurate views on the situation.

Arthur is the one who was prophesied to break this cycle of extremism and essentialism, and we can see him attempt to try. There are multiple occasions in which he considers that magic may not be evil. Off the top of my head there is the scene after Morgause reveals the true circumstance of his birth, the scene in which he allows Dragoon to attempt to heal Uther, and the scene where he asks Merlin if he should legalize magic in order to save Mordred. In all of these cases someone (usually Merlin) prevents him from exploring that thought deeper. Even so, he does make great strides towards taking up the proper nuanced view needed for this situation. He takes Camelot from a kingdom that relentlessly hunts down and persecutes magic, to a kingdom of fair trials and peace with druids.

Sadly, no one can meet him in the middle. Morgause and Morgana’s insistence on trying to take him down and harm the people closest to him prevents Arthur from learning the good aspects of magic just as much as Uther’s propaganda did. Merlin is the only sorcerer in the entire show not to be set against Arthur, and therefore the only one who could show Arthur how to break this cycle, but doing so presents no small risk to his own and Arthur’s safety. If Arthur took it badly and either banished or executed him, it would effectively prevent Merlin from protecting him. This leaves Arthur trying to draw his own conclusions, and he never gets the additional information that magic can, and is, used for beauty and healing. He can only operate on what he has seen, and what he has seen is magic being used against himself and Camelot repeatedly.

Arthur can’t be held responsible for not incorporating information he isn’t given into his view on magic, and Merlin can’t be held responsible for not risking himself to teach Arthur. We can, however, hold the people around them responsible for creating an environment that prevents Arthur from learning on his own, and prevents Merlin from teaching him. The fault lies primarily with Uther for kicking this whole chain of events off in the first place, and in Morgause who co-opted a genuine struggle in order to gain power. Morgana is also responsible for letting her view of Arthur (someone she has seen stand for justice) be corrupted. In the end the fault lies neither with Arthur, nor with Merlin. The fault lies in the very human tendency to view the world in black and white, and react with violence against those deemed dangerous (despite how much that title is or is not earned).

[avengerscompound]

Until the End of the World - 19

Until the End of the World: A Captain America Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x F!Reader

Word Count:  2174

Rating:  E

Warnings: Descriptions of giving birth

Synopsis: Four years after Steve and Bucky got to the bottom of the HYDRA conspiracy that had led to you and your son being hunted for the first three years of his life, you, Bucky, and Steve have carved out a nice life together.  Things are calm and you feel like a family unit.  When Geo starts calling Bucky and Steve ‘dad’, a decision is made to try and add to your family.

Things aren’t as calm as they seem.  When your pregnancy hits the papers, HYDRA rears its head once again, and Steve and Bucky need to track you down to protect the family they had created.

Chapter 19

Bucky was having a lot of difficulty hiding his panic.  There were a lot of emotions coursing through him right now.  Fear, excitement, stress, confusion, happiness all surged through him, mixing to make him a highly anxious mess.  He welcomed those feelings.  He normally shut down so much while on a mission and retreated into his ‘winter soldier’ headspace that he felt nothing at all.  Seeing you in that hall with Viper attacking you, he’d reacted on instinct, firing his gun before he even considered all the ramifications of it.  It would have happened anyway, when he was the soldier he assessed risk quickly and acted without question.  Seeing you had just increased the urgency of it.

As Viper dropped to the ground the actual reality of what was happening crashed down on him, thrusting the soldier back into the dark and dragging Bucky right into the driver's seat again, and now he was crouched on the floor of what looked like an office, in a secret underground HYDRA base, cradling his son, and a crying infant, while you were on all fours giving birth to his daughter.

“Okay,” he said to himself as he tried to soothe the two crying children.  “Okay.  I’ve got this.”

“Bucky,” you wailed.  “Bucky… I don’t know what to do.  I can’t do this.”

“It’s okay, babe,” he said and rubbed Geo’s back.  “G, I need you to be really brave for me buddy.  I need some help.”

Geo shook his head and pushed his face a little harder into Bucky’s neck.

“Geo,” you said.  “Your sister’s coming.  And your mom needs me to help get him out.  I can’t do that if I have to hold you and the baby.  You think you can help me out?”

Geo raised his head a little and wiped his eyes.  He gave a small nod.

“Thank you.  I promise as soon as I can, I’ll pick you up, and you can sit right here if you want,” he said, as he put Geo down.  “Now I know this baby is crying a lot, but I need you to hold them okay.  You want to sit down and I’ll give the baby to you?”

Geo looked at you and scrambled back against a wall.  Bucky carried the crying baby over and crouched down again.  “Can you do this, buddy?”  He asked.

Geo nodded and Bucky put the squalling infant into the little boy's arms.  “I know it’s not fun,” he said and took his earpiece out and put it into Geo’s ear.  “Here, you can talk to your dad, or FRIDAY to distract you.  But I need you to be gentle and just hold the baby like that.  And when your dad is at the door, you can let him in, but don’t let in anyone you don’t know, okay?”

Geo nodded and Bucky pressed a kiss to the boy’s brow.  “You’re doing so well, I’m so proud of you,” he said.

Bucky didn’t feel great about leaving Geo with the baby, but there wasn’t much choice.  He returned to your side and knelt behind you.  “I’m here, honey,” he said, gently massaging your hips.  You hadn’t changed position since he’d left you - you were still on your hands and knees, but now your arms were bent and you had your forehead pressed on your forearms and your ass popped up in the air.  “You comfortable like that?”

“No,” you whined.  “But it’s the best I can get.  Bucky how is she?”

Bucky shook his head.  “I don’t know, babe, but I can see her hair.  She has your hair.  I bet she’s going to look like you.”

“Do I push?”  You asked.  “I don’t know if I should be pushing.”

Bucky chuckled. “I don’t know, honey.  Do you feel like you need to?”

“Yes,” you whined.

“Then push.  I’m right here.  I’ll get her,” he said, hoping he sounded more confident about this than he felt.

You moaned as you strained and more of the baby started to show.  Thankfully Bucky had paid attention to the birthing videos in class, because this had to be the weirdest thing he’d ever seen, and he’d seen some pretty weird things.  It was blood and messy and it looked like she was about to tear you in half.  “You’re doing great, darlin’.  Keep pushing.”

You strained again, bearing down and the baby’s whole head slipped free.  Bucky used his fingers to pull her chin free, and tried to get her shoulders into a better position.  “Looking good, honey.  Nearly there.”

The door opened and Bucky barely heard it over your moans and the cries of the infant with Geo.  Geo’s voice grabbed his attention though.  “Daddy!”  Geo said.

Bucky whipped around, first looking at Geo who was sitting in the corner with the baby and then to the door where he was looking.  Steve stood, filling the frame, his shield in hand, and standing in a defensive position as he surveyed the situation in front of him.  He quickly put the shield on his back and strode inside.  “Honey, are you okay?”  He asked, crouching by your head.

You nodded.  “They gave me something…” you said, sounding almost apologetic.

“It’s okay.  We’ve got you,” Steve said.

You winced and strained again, pushing.  Bucky helped wiggle the baby’s shoulders free and she slipped right out.  As soon as her body was free her tiny newborn wails joined the other baby’s cries.  “She’s here,” Bucky said, holding her in his arms and lifting her for you to see.  “You did it.”

You rolled onto our back and started to cry, and Bucky carefully put the infant on your chest.  With all the things he’d done in his life.  All the lives he’d taken, he had never been responsible for bringing life into the world.  It felt good, even under these insane and tense conditions.  He only took a moment to appreciate it before getting up and going to Geo.  “Okay.  You did so well,” Bucky said, taking the baby back from the boy.

Geo got up and scrambled over to you and Steve, crashing into Steve’s side.  Steve picked him up and put him on his hip.  “Did you help?”  Steve asked gently.

Geo nodded but didn’t say anything.  Bucky wondered how long it would take before Geo would be able to shake any of this off, or if he’d ever be able to.  How much can a kid go through before it does permanent damage?  “What happened?  Who’s baby is that?”  Steve asked.

“Can you help me sit up?”  You asked.  Steve helped you into a sitting position and let you lean against him.  “They’d been keeping other people here.  From the tests.  I don’t know if they’d had them from the start or if they only bought them in recently… but… they … they were breeding them, Steve.  Like they were animals. Trying to replicate Geo.  That baby… I don’t know if there are more, but his mother asked me to look after him.”

“Okay,” Steve soothed as you, babbled to him.  “It’s okay.  We’ll figure it out.”  He paused and held his hand to his ear.  “Tony… she just gave birth, we’re going to need a medivac… Alright��� page me when it’s clear.”

“What’s happening?”  Bucky asked.

“They’re still rounding up the last of them,” Steve asked.  “Geo, can you tell if there are any other exits that our friends didn’t come through?”

Geo shook his head.  “I didn’t let ‘em out,” he mumbled into Steve’s neck.

“Good boy,” Steve said.  “You’ve been so brave and done so well.  You know that?”

“Steve… Steve…” you said, shaking your head.  “Steve we need to say he’s ours.”

“What?”  Steve asked, confused.

“There’s no record of him being born,” you said.  “No one will know.  We need to say he’s ours.  That I had twins.”

“Sweetheart,” Steve said, gently.  “You’re not thinking straight.”

“She made me promise if anything happened to her…” you implored.  “Please, Steve.”

Bucky looked down at the tiny infant in his arms.  He could pass for Bucky’s if not anyone else’s.  He was a little bigger than the little girl now on your chest, but barely.  Though, with the fact she was still attached to her umbilical cord, Bucky wasn’t sure how easily they could fake it.

“We’ll work it out,” Steve promised.  “I swear, he’ll come home with us.  You won’t break your promise.”

It was another hour before the site was secure and a medical team managed to come and collect you.  In that time, you had passed the placenta too, and Steve had sent one of the legion down to the med bay for a clamp and he’d clamped off and cut the umbilical cord.  You and the two infants were taken by ambulance back to the tower and to the medbay.  The facility was state of the art and it meant that the baby - Gal - could stay with you because anytime that it was even hinted at that he be taken away, you would start to panic again.

Geo wouldn’t leave your side and he didn’t particularly like it if Bucky or Steve went anywhere either.  He stayed on your gurney on the ride out of the HYDRA facility and all the medical checks that you and he had to do, had to be done in the same room.

You, Geo, and the two infants were finally sleeping.  Geo was sleeping in the crook of your arm on the hospital bed, and they’d set up two more for Steve and Bucky to use because Geo didn’t want to have anyone separated.

Steve had used the opportunity to go sort out some of the legal paperwork and make sure that every i was dotted and every t crossed.  When he returned to check on everyone, he looked tired and frazzled.

“Still sleeping?”  He asked as he sat down next to Bucky on the couch in the corner.

Bucky nodded.  “They’ve been through a lot.  “It’s going to be a while before they get over this.”

Steve frowned and nodded.  “We should have been more careful.”

Bucky nodded.  “Can’t do anything about that now,” he said.  “We’ll be more careful from now on.”

Steve sighed and let his head fall back against the wall.  Bucky took his hand and linked their fingers together.  “It occurred to me while I was talking to Ross, we haven’t named our daughter yet.”

Bucky smiled.  “Yeah.  I guess that’s what happens when you take the ‘wait to meet her approach and then meeting her is an unmitigated disaster,” he said.  “It can wait.  She’s here and safe.  That’s the main thing.”

Steve nodded and let out a breath.  “Yeah…” he turned and smiled at Bucky.  “Look at you, choosing the positive side.”

Bucky laughed softly and shoved him.  “Jerk.”

The two men remained silent for a moment, just watching as the rest of their family slept.  “What are we going to do about Gal?”  Bucky asked eventually.

Steve shook his head.  “I’m not opposed to adopting him.  You know biology isn’t important to me.  But what if he has family out there?  And I mean that really… what if?  They have a right to know and they would have been grieving over his parents.  But if they want to raise him, what if they’re not set up for it?  And what if he has no family?  We’re having enough trouble trying to adopt Geo, and that’s with his biological mother’s permission.  What if they deem us unsafe?  And who could blame them, look what happened?”

Bucky frowned.  “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know… I guess…” Steve said.  “I guess I’m saying, maybe we should just lie about his birth.  Say they are twins.  We were the only ones there for her birth.  Who’s going to argue?  Some imprisoned HYDRA agents?”

“You’re seriously considering it?”  Bucky asked.  “That’s … kind of illegal, Steve.”

“Because I’ve never broken the law when I thought it was necessary,” Steve snarked.  “Did you forget I was a war criminal?”

 Bucky chuckled. “Well, if you’re serious, I’ll support it, but you better decide one way or the other.  Because it needs to be done when we fill in the birth certificates, and we’re going to need to convince some doctors to back us up.”

Steve nodded and ran his thumb over the back of Bucky’s hand.  “I know,” he said.  “I have FRIDAY discreetly searching for his family based on what we know.  It’ll be easier to decide if we know either way.”

Bucky nodded and smiled a little.  “Be good having a great big instant family though, wouldn’t it?”

Steve let go of Bucky’s arm and wrapped his arm around him.  Bucky leaned into the embrace as Steve pressed his face into Bucky’s hair and inhaled.  “We’ll figure it out,” Steve said.

Bucky sighed.  He knew they would, it was just that there was so much.  He hoped the choice they made was the right one.

// NEXT

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO “Dream Come True.”

Hope you guys enjoy, and hope you all have a great day!

Adam took a drink before setting the glass back down on the table. Across from him, Donovan Red took a pull on his whisky, drinking deeply before setting his glass down wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I’m Sorry about your man….. I didn’t intend for things to go that way.” Adam said staring down at the amber liquid in the glass before him.

Donavan signed, “Not your fault. Sometimes pride gets the better of us, and it’s hard to admit that an outsider might be able to beat us at our own game.” he patted Adam on the shoulder, “But you saved my life, which means I am, and will forever be in your debt.” He smiled 

Adam tilted his head.

“That doesn’t seem to bother you too much.”

“I think there are much worse people to be indebted to. A least I know you won’t ask me to do something I don’t want to do. Not like other men I know.” He took another drink, the tattoos on his neck bobbing once and then twice as he swallowed, “So, tell me this favor that you are looking for. How can me and mine be of service.”

Adam sighed and slumped back in his seat. He felt like he should definitely be keeping quiet about what he wanted to tell the man, but it was hard keeping it to himself and the people on his ship.It would be nice if someone else knew what was going on.

And wasn’t that the point.

Isn’t that why he had come here.

“When I joined the UNSC, I never thought about politics. I was a fighter pilot and then a spaceship captain. I am no politician, but more and more I find myself having to do politics like things. People ask for my opinions on policy, and they encourage me to support one group over another. I have to manuver as a diplomat for the GA without trying to piss off the actual diplomat, who isn’t too happy that I sometimes get in the way of them doing their job.

I am the human representative to all of humanity, and I have to behave the right way, but, sometimes, in doing what I know is right people get mad at me for it. I am worried one day they are going to give me an order that I just can’t follow. Not to mention that I have suddenly become the figurehead for an entire political movement. Sometimes I have to make speeches now.” he threw up his hands, “I represent a coalition interested in cooperating with the GA and all her interests, but there is a very heavy isolationist mindset on earth that is mad that we ever even joined the UNSC. They have already attempted to assassinate me once, and I have no doubt that they are going to do it again.”

Donavan grunted and looked him over, “Yes, I remember hearing about that.” He looked Adam up and down slowly, “No offence, but you would make a shit politician.”

Adam sighed and nodded, “I know. The only reason that I have so much pull in the arena is based on what I represent, and how the GA feels about me, but now…. Now I am learning that there are factions of the GA that want me gone.”

Donavan rased an eyebrow in surprise, “The GA?”

Adam shrugged and sighed pushing his glass away from him, “Yes, some very powerful people are after me for something I never intended to do.”

“And who is this exactly?”

Adam shut his mouth forcing himself to think about it for a moment before finally making his decision.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, “The chairwoman of the GA herself.”

Red almost choked on his drink, spewing some of it out onto the table before swallowing hard and setting his glass down very slowly.

“WHAT!”

“Adam nodded. I was chasing after some information, and infiltrated the pirate wing of the anti-alliance coalition as a man named captain Kell.”

Red held up a hand, “Hold on, YOU are Kell, no shit. I heard the guy was one badass pirate.”

Adam adjusted his eye-patch, “I AM one badass pirate, but either way, I used that cover to get to their leaders and saw a transmission being sent from the chairwoman of the GA that was ordering those men and women to kill me if they could manage it, and now I don’t know what to do. The chairwoman pretty much helped me get my job. As far as I can recall she was one of the most supportive when it came to my promotion to captain. Thought we were allies if not friends, and now I come to learn that she has been operating behind my back to stage my assasination.”

Red leaned up against the table, “Well no shit, that does suck.” He tapped his fingers together, “And of course you can’t tell anyone without proof, otherwise they aren’t going to believe you. If you are going to come up with allegations like those, then you are going to need hard evidence against her.

Adam nodded, “And I do have some evidence, the recording of what she said, but those sorts of things can be doctored. I need to expose her somehow. I don’t know how all of this fits in of course, but it is partially why I came to speak with you.”

Red waited and Adam continued.

“I can’t trust anyone within the GA, or even within the UNSC. My only option is to go outside the law like my enemies are doing. Fight fire with fire so to say. If they are using the criminal underbelly to try and kill me, then maybe I can use it to try and save me.”

Donavan was nodding slowly, “And you are hoping to fight fire with fire to speak?”

Adam sighed, “I don’t know what I am hoping , but I know for a fact you and your men have the most power in this system, enough that everyone knows but no one questions it. I know you can go deeper than I can ever attempt, and I was hoping that maybe you could keep an eye out for me, track the movements of the criminal underworld so to speak while I try and deal with those people who are pretending to do things legally.”

Red nodded slowly, ‘That is something I can do”

“But is it something you are willing to do?”

He tilted his head back thoughtfully to look up at the ceiling above, “I think it is. Not much different from things my men and I already do accept this time it is going to be for a worthy cause.”

He grinned, his gold capped teeth glittering in the dim light, “I-”

Just then, the implant in the side of his neck began to buzz. He held up a hand for Red to be silent, and the other man nodded leaning back in his seat to finish his drink as Adam answered the call.

“Madam president.” His tone of surprise roused red who raised an eyebrow.

“I have to say this is…. This is rather shocking. I didn’t know that you had this number.”

“I can have any number that interests me Admiral.”

“Yes of course.” He shifted nervously in his seat, “What can I do for you ma’am.”

“Do you know what important event happened on July 20th 1969, Admiral.”

He paused not entirely sure if this was a trick question.

“Go on. I know you of all people would know it.”

“The Apollo 11 moon landing ma’am.’

“More precisely, the 2051 anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. And it has been long in coming but   the Global Aeronautics Space Division has decided to celebrate the occasion by recreating Apollo 11 down to every historical accuracy. The calculations will be done partially by hand and partially by computer. The Ship design will be exactly that of Apollo 11, etc. etc.”

Despite the stress he had been under the last few days, he felt his heart skip a beat.

“Wait, are…. Are you serious! That is amazing!”

“Yes yes.” She said cutting him off.

“And they want…. Or all of us want you to pilot that ship and command the mission as Commander Neil Armstrong would have in his time.”

The only response he was able to manage was a squeak, and he could feel the fangirl in him coming on hard and fast. He tried to clear his throat and remain professional, his heart pounding, a wide grin setting off across his face.

“Yes Ma’am you can count me in.”

“How confident are you that you can pilot the rocket?”

“I can fly anything ma’am.”

“Even so, we would like you back on earth as soon as possible to prepare for the event. This is a big historical recreation, and we want it to go as well as possible.”

“yes ma’am.”

The line went dead and he was no longer able to fight back the grin on his face.

Red watched him before standing, “We will get to work Admiral, and we will keep in contact. It’s good to know that my men and women are going to have something useful to occupy their time instead of sitting around twiddling their thumbs.”

Adam stood as well and took the man’s hand, “It should be a pleasure working with you.”

Red snorted skeptically, “You are too kind. I doubt it will be so pleasant, but consider yourself as a man who has friends in very low places.”

The two of them nodded and Adam excused himself back to his ship, racing towards his rooms with the giddy excitement of a school boy. The clind in him had awoken. He stopped to sit on the edge of his bed staring at the tiny recreated model of the lunar module sitting on the shelf above his bed glowing blue in the neon light above.

How cool was this going to be.

How dangerous was this going to be?

***

Eris was pleased to learn that she was not lactose intolerant. They hadn’t been sure based on her half alien half human anatomy if she would be able to handle some of the more harsh foods of the planet, but everything seemed to be working properly, a fact she was forever thankful for as she polished off her second bowl of ice cream.

She found the treat novel and delectable.

Leave it to human to think of eating flavored snow, or at least frozen cream.

And she liked it when they put little bits of candy on top.

Martha Sat on the floor next to the couch, and her husband sat in his chair watching ‘the Game’. Eris wasn’t sure what the rules were, but she liked watching them crash into each other. She wasn’t a big fan of all the talking they seemed to do in between the crashing together.

Martha and Jim had invited her to stay over for as long as she wanted after she told them the more detailed story of her life. They had been shocked  but ultimately unsurprised to learn that she was less than three years old feeling sorry that she never got to have her childhood.

That’s why they were treating her like this, she knew.

They wanted to give her that little bit of her childhood.

She worried that they would be annoyed at her presence, but they seemed to have time with her sticking around indefinitely as far as she could tell . She wasn’t sure how long she was going to be staying, but for now, she was happy where she was.

Of course part of her being welcome had something to do with how Martha had no one to model clothes for her. Since her youngest son left the house she had been forced to model them herself, which made things difficult when she wanted to make alterations. But now that she had Eris, things were going much more smoothly,

At first Eris had been embarrassed to put on the clothing for her.

Once upon a time Eris hadn’t known better in thinking her body was weird. She had floated around without it using a gravity belt and no clothes, letting her long dark hair and ribbons cover what needed to be covered, but the more she learned about humans, the more self conscious she had grown, until hoodies and baggy pants were the only things she wore.

Martha did not approve of her wardrobe seeming to think Eris would look very striking in red or black.

Eris had tried on a few outfits for her nervousness at just how much of her alien otherness tended to show, with plunging backs and short skirts to show off her marble whie legs. Martha seemed to think the ribbons were pretty, and in everything she had Eris try on, they were on full display.

“Do they work like starborn ribbons?” Martha wondered, “I know they act sort of as solar sales, storing energy from the sun and using that to glide.”

Eris paused, “I don’t know. I was born on noctropolis where there is no sun, so I have never tried it.”

“I think you should.”

Eris shifted nervously, “But.”

Martha just smiled at her, “our backyard is fenced in, no one is going to see you.” Eris thoughts bout it for a moment and then set her bowl down to the side. She stood slowly and walked to the back sliding screen door and stepped out onto their back porch.

Technically it was only fenced in on two sides. The backside was open where the forest  met their lawn growing deep and black as it went further back in to the depths.

Nervously Eris reached up and pulled off her hoodie dropping iit to the ground.

The tank top she wore had been made by Martha to accommodate her ribbons.

Once upon a time her gravity belt had allowed those ribbons to wave and undulate, but here they sagged with gravity and flowed behind her in the occasional wind current.

She turned around so they were facing the sun and waited.

And waited.

She felt nothing happening and was abut to go inside when.

When something started to happen.

She felt more…. Energized. Her blood seemed to grow warm and a smile spread across her face. At  first she thought it was just all in her head, but then the warmth continued to blossom over her.

Her eyes went wide and she hummed softly feeling recharged from the sun like a battery.

She had her eyes closed and was just enjoying the radiation when she heard something ringing from the inside of the house followed by voices.

She was able to tear herself away from the warmth and stick her head inside.

“Adam, how are you doing.” Jim said and Eris could see Adam’s face projected on the TV.

She recognized a bit of herself in him. She had his nose, and his eyes shape.

“You are not going to believe who just called me.”

Martha smiled as she walked over to sit next to her husband, “Adam I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the president herself.”

Adam frowned some of the wind momentarily taken out of his sales, “Ok, yes it was the president, but.” e lit up almost immediately, “But you are not going to believe what she asked me to do.” He didn’t wait for them to guess, “She wants me to fly a recreated mission of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Historically accurate and everything!.” His grin was so wide it looked like he was going to split his face in half.

Martha’s eyes widened, “Really?”

Jim frowned, “That is great Adam, but…. Historically accurate?”

He nodded vigorously, “Yeah.”

“Son yu do realize the computer they used was less powerful than your mother’s automatic blow dryer.”

He waved a hand, “Yeah yeah, I know I know. Most of the math is probably going to be done by hand.”

Jim snorted and Martha grimaced, “Adam, sometimes I wish you had safer hobbies. I mean flying the omen is one thing, with those shields she could probably survive a meteor impact, but you understand the Apollo 11 mission flew in a rocket that  that parts no heavier duty than your average tin can.”

“yes , and that makes it even more awesome.”

“I think you are getting dangerous and awesome confused again, son.”

“Oh come on, this is like a dream come true for me. ‘

Finally Martha and Jim sighed and broke out into smiles, “There is no changing your mind as usual.”

Adam grinned, “Nope.”

He turned his head just then, seeming to look through the camera, his eyes falling on Eris. Shock spread across his face, “Eris, is that you?”

She smiled shyly and moved forward, “Yeah, It’s me.”

“What are you doing there, I thought you were working at the hybrid foundation taking care of Glados and the others.”

She shrugged guiltily, “I…. well glados and the others wanted to go back to the adapted planet, and after that others started getting adopted, but then I sort of burnt out and wanted to come here and meet…..” She paused not sure if she should say 

Martha put an arm around her, “She wanted to meet her grandparents and extended family.”

Adam looked surprised for a moment as if not having expected that before shrugging, “Just try to avoid mom’s side of the family if at all possible.”

“Adam.” Martha scolded, though she wasn’t actually mad.

He grinned, “I’ll be home in a few days.” he looked at eris, “Maybe I can show you around town when I get back….. If that’s something you’d be interested in?”

Eris shuffled her feet and quietly looked down, “Yeah,i’d like that.”

She wished she could read his thoughts in that moment. Was he only offering to be polite? She knew better than anyone that her birth had not been his fault. He had had his DNA stolen to  make her, but still she couldn’t help but feel an affinity towards him. One that she knew wasn’t fiar for her to feel.

He hadn’t chosen for her to be born after all.

Not like other people 

Did he just feel guilty?

Was she unwanted?

[journalxxx]

By Hook or by Crook (6)

Hey kid. I’d like to have a chat with you, if you’re up to it. Would you be free this afternoon?

Izuku idly reread the text and the brief exchange that followed as he whiled away the few minutes left before the agreed time for the meeting. 

Just a little over twenty-four hours before, Izuku had had a minor stroke at the mere thought of All Might texting him about a trip to the police station. Just a little over twenty-four hours before, he would have soared straight to cloud nine at the thought of All Might texting him ‘to have a chat’. It was a pity that the only emotion he could muster at the moment was a vague sense of stunned apathy.

“I’ll get that.” He informed no one in particular when the bell rang. The man installing what probably were legalized viruses on his laptop gave him an odd look, and his mother replied something indistinguishable from the bathroom. Izuku shuffled out of his room and unlocked the front door.

“Young Midoriya. Good afternoon.” All Might had reverted to his laid-back cargo pants and t-shirt attire. He seemed more tired and subdued as well, more like on the day Izuku had met him. 

“Good afternoon.” Izuku gestured at him to come inside, which he did with a quiet thanks. He did not remove his shoes though, and he stopped only few steps in upon spotting the second man fiddling with the landline in the living room.

“Ah. Busy day, is it?” All Might acknowledged the technician with a knowing nod. He then turned towards Izuku and tilted his head towards the front door. “Say, how about we take a walk? I bet your house feels crowded enough without me imposing as well.”

His mother’s head peeked into the hallway. All Might greeted her with a little wave and a weirdly embarrassed grin.

“I’m going for a walk.” Izuku announced as he slipped his shoes on.

“Uhm, are you sure?” Her eyes shifted between All Might and him with ill-concealed unease.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Izuku cut short. He wasn’t in the mood for another discussion. “See you later.”

He strode out of the building without hesitation. He made his way down the stairs, through the parking lot, all the way to the sidewalk before stopping. All Might caught up with him a minute later, after lingering on the threshold to exchange a few words with his mother that Izuku decided he did not care about. He also decided to ignore the pointed stare the hero aimed at him when he finally reached him.

“Anywhere you’d like to go in particular?” All Might asked after a beat, gazing up and down the small road.

“Not really. You?”

“Any place is fine by me. I need to get reacquainted with this city, its layout is quite different from how I remember it.”

Right, All Might had just moved in. And Musutafu had likely changed a lot since his U.A. days… That would have been a tremendously interesting topic for a chat, Izuku could feel the questions popping up in his head in droves, despite everything. Unfortunately, he was under no illusion that what All Might wanted from him could be that kind of casual conversation.

They picked a random direction and started walking. For almost five minutes, they strolled without breathing a word. It wasn’t nearly as awkward as it would have been under any normal circumstances.

“Had another rough night?” All Might said eventually.

“Mh.” Easy guess. The bags under Izuku’s eyes would soon rival the fixed shadows circling the hero’s if he didn’t manage to rein in his sleeping schedule soon. The nightmares had ceased, thankfully, but his head had been so full of disjointed and clashing thoughts and memories that he hadn’t managed to catch some shut eye until so late that it had become early. 

Nothing made sense. Everything made too much sense. In hindsight, it felt strange that Izuku had never contemplated the possibility himself. It also felt absurd that it could be true though, instead of some sort of huge misunderstanding. That his father could be-

“Oh, before I forget. The villain is faring much better.”

“Uh? What?” Izuku blinked.

“The sludge villain whose quirk you returned.” All Might graced him with a gentle smile. “I heard he was already mostly coherent by last night, and as of few hours ago he was firmly denying ever bearing any ‘serious’ ill intent towards you and your friend, demanding to see his lawyer and complaining about the quality of the lunch he was served.”

Guilt needled Izuku’s stomach upon realizing that the villain’s plight had completely escaped his mind since his return home from the police station. How poorly committed his sympathy was. “Oh. That’s… good, I guess?”

“We guess.” All Might chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve dealt with another incident that badly in years, but I’m glad that no one suffered any permanent damage, at least. And thank you again for bringing the matter to a close in my stead.”

“It’s hardly your fault if things went the way they did. But… yeah, I’m glad he’s okay and that it’s over.” Now if only that hadn’t sparked a much worse and much more scarring mishap, at least for Izuku… “Are you all right, by the way?”

“Me?” 

“Yeah. Have you managed to see a doctor yet? About, uh…” Izuku pointed at his own mouth, unsure how to describe the attack the man had suffered the day before, the likes of which Izuku had only seen in movies and cartoons, usually from people sporting deadly and gory upper body wounds. 

All Might laughed with inexplicable, genuine mirth. “Oh, don’t worry! I wasn’t playing it cool when I said I was fine. It’s just a thing that happens. Usually it isn’t quite as, uh, dramatic, but it really is nothing concerning.”

“But… you hadn’t even used your quirk…” Izuku could not fathom how spraying blood like a fountain on a presumably regular basis couldn’t warrant seeking any kind of medical attention, but the hero waved off his objection with finality.

“Trust me, it’s fine. More importantly...“ All Might wasn’t looking at him. He seemed deeply focused in memorizing as much as he could of his surroundings, peering here and there at street nameplates, buildings, alleys… manholes too, amusingly. But the low and soft quality of his tone made it clear that he wasn’t asking just out of politeness. “What about you, kid? How are you?”

Izuku dropped his gaze to his feet and shrugged. It was an accurate answer, actually. He’d spent so many hours torturing himself with doubts and grief and confusion that at some point his brain had sort of… ran out of energy to spare for emotions. He supposed it wasn’t the worst response he could have had. Stolid empty-headedness was largely preferable to the scorching waves of betrayal, impending doom and overbearing dismay he’d sampled the day before.

“I imagine how difficult all this must be for you.“ All Might went on, just as tactfully. “Have you talked with your mother?”

Oh, scratch that. He was still capable of feeling something. His mother was enough of a sore topic to make him clench his fists. “...Yeah. I have.”

“...I don’t think-”

“She knew.” Yeah, he was still angry. It bubbled in his chest like boiling tar, thick and sticky and suffocating.

“She told you that?” 

“I heard you three talking about it last night. I was listening from outside the living room.”

“What?!” All Might seemed genuinely shocked. It hadn’t been Izuku’s proudest moment, admittedly, but let’s be honest, what else was he supposed to do? Pretend that they weren’t discussing life-changing revelations just few meters away from his bed? He was only human. All Might slapped a large hand on his face and dragged it down alongside his pointy features with a groan. “Oh, come on…”

“She knew, and she never told me.” His nails were digging painfully in his palms and- oh great, now he was getting teary again. He’d held it together for the whole day and now he was going to lose it five minutes after All Might had showed up. For the third or fourth time in as many days. Sure, why not? It wasn’t like he’d managed to retain any sort of dignity since the very moment he’d met his idol. Why bother now? “S-She’s known since- since before marrying him- however that happened… I j-just...”

All Might regarded him silently for a moment. “...Things like these look very different from an outside perspective. Especially to someone as young as you are. It’s very easy to judge, and even easier to misjudge.”

“But she knew he was a criminal - one who would not even consider changing his ways for his family - and she… wanted him around anyway? Why would she do that?! It’s- I wouldn’t want an unrepentant villain still involved in illegal business around my son! He’d be... a bad influence, at the very least!”

“Before yesterday, have you ever thought that he could be having a bad influence on you?”

“Uh? No, I… I didn’t know that he was… I never… questioned...”

All Might sighed deeply. “Your father is a notoriously charismatic man. He’s always been particularly adept at coaxing people to his side without open coercion, but with simple, well-aimed words. You never suspected that he may have been acting in his own best interest while offering or withholding certain information from you, although it may seem obvious in hindsight. I bet he managed to instil the same trust in your mother, despite what she knew about him.”

“I…” Izuku rubbed away the tears flowing freely down his cheeks. He couldn’t understand. He just couldn’t. And it tore at him. “W-Was it because of the money? She never... I-I thought we were good, she n-never said anything… I-If I’d known, I would have… I wouldn’t have asked for… s-so many things, I-”

“I highly doubt that a few toys and games could have had that big of an impact on the family budget. There’s no reason for you to beat yourself up over anything.” All Might slipped his hands in his pockets, sympathy plain in his sunken eyes. “Your mother found herself in a very tricky situation, through no real fault of her own. She navigated it as best as she could, and I’m sure your well-being was her top priority. Seeing the healthy and upright young man you’ve grown into, I’d say she handled it admirably.”

“...I know.” Izuku knew it, really, he understood that. But… he’d always seen his mother as just about the most transparent, honest, sensible and sensitive person on Earth. And it turned out she didn't… exactly… meet that standard, however idealistic. It had been a blow, on top of everything else, one that had left him without a real, fully trustworthy figure when he most needed it. “I know that, but… she should have told me. At some point. There’s no excuse for not doing that.” 

“Perhaps. It’s hard to predict the negative impact that such a confession may have on a younger child, but perhaps she should have.” The hero conceded. “I’d refrain from handing down verdicts though. You kept some secrets of your own from her. You hid your quirk-”

“But that’s not the same thing! Not even close! A quirk isn’t as big an omission as your father being a criminal!” Izuku snapped, then immediately hunched his back in regret, his tone losing some volume but not its bitterness. “And, you know, maybe, maybe I wouldn’t have listened to him so readily if someone had warned me that he isn’t exactly an upstanding citizen!”

“Look, it isn’t my place to comment on how things stand or should stand between you and your mother, or how you should behave, but… if there’s one thing you need to keep in mind - and please do keep it in mind, at all times - is that the one person who bears absolute and doubtless blame is your father. That’s the source of all the lies that have been fed to you. Lies and deception are… what he does, really. What he’s always done. You and your mother are both victims in all this.”

Izuku sniffed and wiped some tears and snot on his sleeve. It was gross, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. There was a logic to All Might’s words, but no logic justified the staggering duplicity that had just turned his life upside down. The unfairness of it all was simply too much to accept. 

The boy looked up when All Might poked him on the shoulder to catch his attention.

“Speaking of which…” All Might swerved to the left, entering a smaller and more secluded lane leading away from the more trafficked routes. He had resumed his perusal of the area, and his expression had regained a firm, almost steely edge. Izuku followed him. “What I wanted to talk to you about concerns what transpired about your father, and how it will affect your life going forwards.”

No surprise there. The two plain-clothes agents that had shown up that morning, no doubt mourning the loss of their well-deserved Sunday rest, had been clear enough of a warning of some upheaval to the Midoriyas’ routine. All Might’s vague text had only cemented Izuku’s expectations of further disruptions.

“I hate being the bearer of bad news, but it is imperative for you to understand the gravity of your father’s position… especially to prevent him from enacting any sort of manipulation or control on you in the future.” The hero began. “The man you know as ‘Hisashi Midoriya’ goes under many aliases, so much so that we are still unaware of his real name. He has committed an astounding variety of serious crimes, over the course of decades. Even if your mother claims to be aware of his background, I assure you she doesn’t know the half of it.”

Izuku physically curled up under the weight of those words. It was… even worse than they thought? His father sounded more and more like some obscenely powerful yakuza boss or something, which was just… just...

“The police will be gathering and analyzing as much evidence as possible to find clues leading to his current location and activities. All possible forms of communications between you and him will be monitored. Your phones will be bugged, and any electronic devices you own will be fitted with tracking software. Your mail will be examined before delivery.” All Might paused, assessing Izuku’s lack of a reaction to his speech. “Did they tell you about this already?”

“S-Some of it, yeah.” Izuku’s gaze dropped to the asphalt again. The dried tears made the skin on his cheeks and around his eyes itch. “Will there be cameras too? Inside the house?”

“I haven’t heard about cameras. I don’t think so. Seeing as your father never set foot in your house, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to surveil it that closely from the inside. The outside will be watched, so we’d notice anyway if he tried to approach it.”

“...Okay.” 

“...I know it’s an oppressive situation. No one likes having their privacy invaded. But know that the professionals in charge of monitoring you are utterly uninterested in you specifically, or in whatever you do with your free time, as long as it isn’t anything outrageously illegal.” All Might’s voice softened again, although not enough for Izuku to dare raise his eyes from the ground. “I hear they are especially unconcerned about peculiar web searches and piracy perpetrated by bored adolescents, and some such things. Anything that isn’t strictly related to the case at hand won’t ever make it into any reports.”

“Mh.” A couple of small mercies were better than none, Izuku guessed. He really couldn’t muster neither enthusiasm nor gratitude for them at the moment though.

“Ah, about this… Those monthly phone calls your mother mentioned are particularly relevant for the police. They are likely their best bet in pinpointing your father’s position.” All Might paused. “For that reason, we would appreciate your cooperation on that front.”

Izuku’s brain suddenly jolted into activity, a myriad of spy movies and comics coming to his mind and offering plenty of distressing scenarios he could be potentially thrusted into. “You mean like… you want me to help you find him? Get him to drop hints about where he is, or- or asking him to go somewhere where you can set up a trap, or-” Izuku looked back up at the man, without bothering to conceal the pure terror that such prospects filled him with.

“What? No, of course not!” All Might exclaimed, surprised. “I mean, it isn’t out of discussion that we may try to actively lure him out at some point, but that would take extensive preparations and precautions on our part. We’d need to gather more intel and agents, recruit other heroes first… We definitely aren’t considering taking any such steps yet.”

“O-Oh… okay…” He let out the tiniest sigh of relief. No wild capers… for now...

“Besides, even if we were, we wouldn’t use a child as bait! Your mother would be much more suited to assist us. Any request from her would have more sway on your father, and she would handle the pressure much better.”

“So… what do you want me to do then?”

All Might shrugged. “Just keep up appearances. Continue having your monthly calls with him as if nothing happened, so as not to alert him that something might be wrong.”

That wasn’t that big of a demand, objectively speaking, but... it didn’t seem feasible either. Izuku’s grasp on his own emotions was tenuous at best at the moment, and his father had always been exceptionally perceptive to his state. He really didn’t think he could endure up to two hours of small talk about heroes, quirks, school and assorted pleasantries without having some sort of breakdown halfway through. Izuku gulped, bracing himself for the inevitable scolding of his cowardice. 

“...I-I’m sorry, I’m not sure if I can do that.”

Surprisingly, All Might wasn’t put off in the slightest. “In that case, you could ask your mother to pretend you got hurt in some way that prevents you from speaking. Bad tooth, removed tonsils, broken jaw, you name it. That would earn you at least another month of silence and… hopefully the investigation will make some progress in that time, or you’ll grow used enough to the situation to face him with a cool head.”

That was a reasonable approach to the issue. It was a relief to know that someone else was putting some thinking into all this in Izuku’s place, now that his already flimsy decisional autonomy had stumbled into the metaphorical equivalent of a bear trap. “...I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you.” All Might nodded, strangely unperturbed by Izuku's less than proactive attitude. “Other than what I’ve mentioned, you will also be followed wherever you go whenever you aren’t at home or at school-”

“W-What?” Izuku instinctively glanced around, envisioning slow-moving cars or shady individuals with sunglasses and holed newspapers observing him from bushes.

The corners of All Might’s mouth twitched upwards. “You will not be aware of it, nor will anyone else, of course. It will have no actual impact on your daily life, like all the other measures we’ve already covered.”

“But why?” Izuku griped, his heart sinking so deep that it would soon pierce through the Earth’s mantle. “My father isn’t going to suddenly drop by to say hello, you just said so yourself!”

“It’s for your own protection too.” All traces of humor vanished instantly from the hero’s demeanor. “Your father is no stranger to violence. In the past, he has resorted to brutal and immoral means to dispose of his enemies, and... I’m sorry to say that he would not hesitate to employ such methods against his own family, if he deemed it a danger to his own safety.”

Izuku couldn’t hold back a little hysterical chuckle that sounded pitiful to his own ears. “That… sounds a bit exaggerated, doesn’t it? I-I get that he’s a bad guy, but… I really don’t think he’d do something like that to us. H-He’s never even raised his voice with me, never...”

“Midoriya. I beg you to believe me when I say that you can’t trust anything of what you think you know about your father.” All Might stopped to glare intently at a narrow, dingy alley littered with trash bags. “He is dangerous. Extraordinarily so. Tsukauchi is pushing for having further safety measures enforced for your family, and until those have been granted, please be very aware of your surroundings at all times. Refrain from taking unfamiliar routes, and stick to crowded areas whenever you can. I don’t want to scare you, but even having eyes on you at all times is no guarantee of a timely intervention, under unfavorable circumstances.”

“Is it… really that bad?” Izuku breathed, gutted by the unexpected harshness of the picture painted by All Might’s words. It was… inconceivable, still. His father, deliberately hurting him? His father, whose cutting sarcasm was just about the only vaguely hurtful trait Izuku had ever witnessed? His father, a hardened, soulless criminal averse to puns and All Might trivia, and yet always so willing to let Izuku torture him with both? His father, ambushing him from dark corners? “Is he really that bad?”

“Yes.”

“What did he…” Izuku started asking, only to trail off. It was a pointless question, with a clear answer. It had been buzzing in his head for the whole night, blindingly obvious by now. “...He steals quirks, doesn't he? That’s what he does. He... maims people for…”

“I’m afraid he isn’t nearly as conscientious as you in regards to-” All Might cut himself off with a visible flinch. “Wait, he told you about his quirk? You know it’s the same as yours?”

“Y-Yes.”

“You didn’t mention that to us.” Bright pinpricks of blue were suddenly trained on Izuku with piercing intensity. It kept catching him off guard, how both of the Symbol of Peace’s towering forms could switch from amicable to intimidating at the drop of a dime.

“I-I thought… He said it was a secret- one of his confidential matters. I’ve always thought he was some sort of… prison guard or undercover agent…” God, how unbelievably stupid it all sounded now. Izuku had never felt more childish. 

“...That goes to show…” All Might mumbled, barely audibly. It unsettled Izuku. It went to show what? His father’s cunning? Izuku’s naivety? Or… surely not that he could be hiding something on purpose...

“I-I’m… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I had no idea how- how serious- I’d never-”

“Mh?” The hero blinked at him, as if emerging from a private musing. “Ah, I mean… There could be some merit to the other thing I wanted to ask of you.”

Izuku just waited, barely able to withstand the acuity of the hero’s gaze without shrinking. After a few tense moments, All Might let out a sigh and resumed walking, his eyes wandering back to the street ahead.

“To be frank… Personally, I don’t think we’re going to achieve much from all these investigations.” He grimaced, as if regretting those words as soon as they left his mouth. “Not for lack of trying, mind you. Tsukauchi is an immensely capable and dedicated officer, he’ll pursue each lead as thoroughly as humanly possible, but… Your father knows how to cover his tracks. Phone calls, payments, mail, blatant cues like those have never brought us close to him in the past, not once. To his associates, yes, to his… ‘aftermaths’, yes. But never to him personally. His circumstances were always shrouded in impenetrable security. I doubt this case will be any different.”

Buildings gave way to the open horizon. They had reached the end of the street, which merged into a largest road running along the coast. They crossed it, and kept going on the opposite sidewalk, looking down on a thin stretch of sand separating them from the sea.

“That said… he did leave one huge trail for us to find this time. A whole family, out in the open.” All Might’s eyes returned to the boy pensively. “A breakthrough like this, if you’ll pass me the term, is unprecedented. The most obvious leads could turn out to be dead ends, but maybe there is something to be found in the smaller things.”

“The smaller things?”

The man gestured vaguely. “He’s been talking to you, has he not? To you and your mother both, for over a decade. Not that often, but… hell, he even told you about his quirk, and one would expect him to be very tight-lipped about that. There might be more to dig up. Details he may have deemed unimportant, or accidentally let slip. Hints. Small things.”

Izuku was finally catching the drift. “I’m really sorry, but… I know you probably can’t take my word for it, but I really don’t know anything about what he does, or ever did. He never let anything slip about his… his ‘job’...”

“Of course not, that’s not what I’m referring to. The thing is…” The hero clucked his tongue in frustration. “We know so little about the man himself as well. His identity, his background, his history… We know next to nothing about him, and what little we do know, we were only able to discover through very unconventional means. If there’s a chance to glean one more shred of information hidden among the fabrications, I think it’s worth pursuing it.”

“So the police are going to question us about… fourteen years’ worth of chit-chats?” That seemed like a disproportionate endeavor for something as volatile as the possibility of parsing an ounce of truth. Exactly how desperate were they to catch this increasingly perplexing father of his?

“That’s the gist of it, yes. And ideally, we would like to interview you separately, to avoid that either of you could, ehr… inadvertently censor yourselves about information not known by the other-”

“Like my quirk. Or dad’s ‘activities’.“ Izuku muttered.

“...Yes. Things like those.” All Might paused, then cleared his throat. “Well… given the delicate nature of the case, we are trying to keep the workforce to a minimum, and involve as few people as possible. This ought to speed up coordination and briefing, as well reduce the risk of information leaks. Tsukauchi will be personally questioning your mother… as well as direct the entire operation. He’s quite the multitasker. And, well… since technically I’m already involved and up to speed and I won’t be contributing to the proper detective work in any capacity… we thought I might take care of hearing your side of the story.”

A little Oh was the whole extent of Izuku’s reaction as the hero’s words washed over him. All Might seemed a little discouraged by that.

“We figured it might put you a little more at ease… Talking with someone you’re already familiar with, instead of a brand new face. And, ehr… well, you mentioned being a fan, so…” He elaborated, his hands drawing half-formed shapes in the air to underline his words. He looked… almost nervous? “It’s just a possibility, of course. If you’d rather be entrusted to a proper member of the force, it’s well within your rights to request that.”

Izuku did not miss the underlying meaning of that winding speech. It was within his rights to request who he wanted to be interviewed by, not if. 

“Do I even have a choice?” All Might’s guilty grimace was all the reply Izuku needed. “...No, sorry, I… That’s a stupid question. I’ve no reason to refuse either.” Surely not the faint sense of betrayal knocking on his conscience at that very moment. Could he even feel bad about betraying someone who’d never been honest with him in the first place? 

“...I know it’s far from an enticing perspective.” All Might rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “It’s going to eat up a lot of your time, and people are never exactly eager to ‘snitch’ on relatives, even when they’re criminals. But I really think it could be of great help to us.”

So that was the role Izuku was going to have in this whole mess, that of a very oddly-shaped piece in a very complicated puzzle. It could be worse, he supposed. Being stuck in a room talking with the number one hero for hours could hardly be considered a real punishment. Were the topic of the conversation literally anything else, it’d be a dream coming true, even. He should push that angle on himself, Izuku pondered. Maybe he could talk himself into enjoying the whole thing, in some way. 

“Since I’m no policeman, I’m amenable to reward you for the time and effort you’ll generously dedicate to the task with suitable bribing. I was thinking snacks, if that doesn’t come off as too cheap.” All Might continued with a tentative grin, although his attempt at levity didn’t stick the landing. “No? How about, ehr… All Might merch?” For some reason, his face scrunched up as if the suggestion physically pained him.

Izuku sighed. There was no point in fighting the inevitable, was there? “It’s fine. I’ll do it.”

“...Thank you, that is very good to hear.” All Might smiled with evident relief. He patted Izuku’s shoulder encouragingly. “I’ll say, you’re taking all this a lot better than I was expecting. For all the crying, you have quite the resilient attitude. Heroic, even!”

Izuku let out a half-choked sob. Oh. Oh, wow, that realization hurt. He hadn’t thought about that since… had it really only been a couple of days since making it into U.A. had been his biggest concern in life? And now…

“Ehr… Sorry, did I say something wrong?” All Might asked when faced with the new bout of tears streaming down the boy’s cheeks. Izuku shook his head.

“S-Sorry, it’s just… I-I guess that’s the closest I’ll ever get to becoming a hero now, uh?”

“What?”

“There’s no way they’ll let me anywhere near a hero course now, is there? My father told me it was basically impossible before, and now...”

“Your father told you that you couldn’t be a hero? Your father who is a villain?” All Might gave him a pointed look. “You may want to start reevaluating some of the nuggets of wisdom he’s been imparting on you in light of the new revelations, kid.”

“But he’s right, isn’t he?” Izuku griped. “It’s even worse now that he turned out to be a villain! A bad one too! Abusing the same overpowered quirk I have, it’s just… too great a bias, isn’t it?”

All Might seemed caught off guard, then he frowned and looked away without replying. There it was, the naked truth. Not even an attempt at a rebuttal. Out of discussion. Izuku’s dreams scattered to the wind, without hope of salvation.

“Y-You know, I actually thought… I could work my way around it.” Izuku continued among the sniffles, dropping his gaze to the ground. “I thought I could just pretend to be quirkless. F-For a while. Pass the test like that, make some friends, get… get trusted as a hero because of my work. A-and then, then one day, just… after everyone trusted me, I thought I could come out clean. And start using my quirk for good. I thought it could work. Get others to know me before my quirk. B-But it’s never going to happen now. The police know, the school will know.”

“...I must say that building your budding hero career on a lie isn’t the most solid plan I’ve ever heard.” There was no accusation in All Might’s tone, but his words still cut deep.

“I know…” Izuku bit his lip. He’d known, but what alternatives did he have?

“But I guess we can’t all carelessly parade our true selves before public scrutiny, can we?” The man sighed, scratching his own head. “You are right about one thing though. Actions do speak louder than words. You might not be able to talk your way out of your… delicate circumstances, but factual demonstrations of good intentions can go a long way.”

“That’s… That’s all I’m asking for!” Izuku’s head snapped up, desperately latching onto that single lifeline. “I would do whatever it takes to be allowed to try!”

“Well, I’d say you’re already on the right path then. Cooperating with the police is definitely a good step to establish good faith.” All Might flashed him a sheepish smile. ”...I’m not saying that just to grind my own axe, I swear.”

“Do you think it would be enough for U.A. to let me attempt the test?”

“You want to apply to U.A?” The hero seemed strangely surprised.

“Yeah. Is it… not a good idea?”

All Might took a few moments to reply. “...It might work in your favor, actually. U.A. is famous for the degree of self-determination afforded to its management by the government. If you’re worried about external interference, U.A. is your best bet to avoid it.”

A tiny, shy flicker of hope ignited in Izuku’s chest.  

“...I’ve known the principal of U.A High School for a long time. He’s a bit of an eccentric, but one with an impeccable work ethic.” All Might resumed after a moment. “He’s not the kind of person to let unfair judgement undermine his institute. Especially if it prevented an aspiring hero he deems worthy from being appointed his student.”

“You mean that…?”

“I mean that if you do plan to apply to U.A. you could have a chance of making it in, regardless of your unfavorable background. If you pass the admission test, that is.” All Might suddenly stopped walking. “...What is this?”

Izuku blinked, ripped out of his thoughts, and took in the portion of the seafront they had reached. Wow, he really hadn’t been paying any attention to where they were going, had he? “...Oh. It’s, ehr… an illegal dumping site, I guess.”

“Really?” All Might commented, eyeing the sad, disregarded No Dumping sign welcoming its disobedient visitors.

“Yeah. The currents always bring flotsam to this area, so it was never clean in the first place. And then people started taking advantage of it…”

“And no one ever comes here to pick up any of this?” Strangely, the sight and the slight stench of mounds of rusting metal and assorted junk didn’t bother All Might, who climbed down the few steps separating the sidewalk from the beach.

“No, the city administration never took an interest. Everyone else just avoids this spot altogether. It’s been getting worse over the years.” Izuku had no idea why All Might was studying the piles of dismissed appliances as if they might hold some hidden treasures within, but he felt rather dumb for accidentally introducing this to the hero, of all places in Musutafu, as his first sightseeing landmark. “Sorry, I should have brought us somewhere else.”

“It’s fine.” Undaunted, All Might wandered deeply into the maze of refuse, with Izuku ruefully tagging along. “A safe, handy spot where a passing criminal in a hurry could stash some loot, don’t you think? Good to know.”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that.” Right. That was what it meant for a hero to know his turf, right? It went beyond street names and layouts. It meant to be aware of how each location could lend itself to certain criminal activities, what places could make for good improvised hideouts, where civilians were more or less likely to be gathered...

“How were you planning on passing the admission test?” All Might asked when they reached the water’s edge, eyes fixed on the waves crashing on the sand.

“Uhm. Well, I’ve already started reviewing the subjects listed in the syllabus…”

“I was referring to the practical session, actually.”

“Oh, uhm… Well, I tried looking for information about it online, but there doesn’t seem to be any. Apparently it’s U.A.’s policy to bind all participants to non-disclosure. They say that observing how potential candidates react to unexpected situations is part of the evaluation process, so…”

All Might looked at Izuku, his expression blank. “Yes. So?”

“Ehr.” Suddenly Izuku felt extremely on the spot. “W-Well, without knowing what I’m getting into, I don’t really have any specific strategies in mind.”

All Might cocked his head with a slight frown. “What about generic strategies? What skills were you going to capitalize on?”

“I… Well… I thought I’d just… try my best. Improvise and use my head.”

All Might blinked. “...That is what everyone else is going to do too. Except everyone else will also have a quirk to rely on, while you weren’t going to use yours. That’s a massive disadvantage right there.”

“Yes, I know.” Izuku clasped his hand behind his back in shame. That was an excellent point, one that somehow no one had ever raised with him. Everyone, including his father, instantly shot down his idea as soon it left his mouth. No one had ever asked him to elaborate on the practical details. Which he had sort of… failed to sort out so far.

“And you have no notion as to how to bridge that gap.”

“Not… not yet.”

All Might crossed his arms, sporting possibly the harshest expression Izuku had seen on him yet. It made his stomach lurch unpleasantly. “...Are you serious about this hero thing? Are you sure it isn’t just a passing fancy?”

“It isn’t! It absolutely isn’t!” Izuku answered immediately. “I just… I don’t even know if I’m allowed to bring any tools, or-”

“Tools?” All Might scoffed as he walked back to him and gave him a critical once-over. “Looks to me you already have all the tools you need, if you deigned to consider them.”

“Uh?”

“You have arms, don’t you? Hands. Legs. Arguably a head.” All Might poked at each listed limb with a bony finger as he started circling him like a starved shark. “All in working order, yes?”

“Y-Yes- I mean, I’m not ill or anything, but-”

“Then why aren’t you trying to capitalize on those? A quirk is an important part of a person, but it’s not the only one! You have a body, use it!”

“Ah, yes, I…” Izuku gulped. “It would make sense to, uh, try to get a little stronger, I guess…”

“You guess? ” All Might was reaching yet unexplored levels of visible exasperation, which was saying something considering the whole secret-villainous-father debacle. Izuku didn’t know if getting the number one hero so worked up about his little pipe dream should be considered flattering or shameful. “Being a hero isn’t a desk job! Running fast, lifting heavy weights, enduring fatigue are not optional skills! No matter what quirk they have, no hero worth their salt can neglect to keep in excellent shape!”

“R-Right. Of course. It’s just that, uh…” Izuku fidgeted. “I’m not really good at that sort of… physical stuff. I’ve always been a bit on the scrawny side, and I get tired easily, and I’m no good at brawling-”

“Despite training?”

“...I’ve never followed a proper training regimen, but…”

All Might rubbed his hands on his face. “Kid, unless they have a physical-enhancing quirk, people aren’t just born strong. They get strong by training - do I really have this state this out loud?”

Izuku was fairly sure his face was about to spontaneously combust. Of all the things he’d expected to happen in his near future, being scolded by All Might in person for his lack of commitment to physical activity was not one of them. “Y-You are right. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… to disrespect you or your profession…”

“You didn’t, I was just… You seemed passionate about this two days ago...” All Might trailed off. “My point is that all the equity in the world won’t net you a place in U.A. if you don’t pass that test. And if you really are serious about raising your chances of becoming a hero, you have to give this some serious thought, and soon. You can cram months of study into weeks if you have the brains for it, but you cannot do the same with workouts.”

Izuku willed himself to hold his head up straighter. “I-I will. Thank you for your advice, it makes a lot of sense.”

The silence that descended between them was more than a little awkward.

“I’ve pestered you enough for today, haven’t I?” All Might eventually said as he took off towards the sidewalk. “Let’s go back.”

Izuku trailed behind the hero as they made their way among the waste, and almost bumped on him when he slowed to a stop to stare at a particularly high pile of contorted, rusty scraps.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking that… What I need is a quiet, lonely place to have some private chats with you, and what you need is a way to work up some muscle and rack up some good karma, right?” All Might scratched his chin as he scanned the heaps of trash hiding the rest of the city from view. “...Say, how do you feel about community service?”

[cloverfics]

birthday wishes ; keigo takami

warnings reader’s birthday, club setting, implied drinking, slight swearing, and flirty!hawks

genre modern au, suggestive ( ig )

word count 1.5k

inspiration my ✨ imagination ✨

synopsis with it being your birthday, you’re aware of the gifts you’ll get. but the last thing you expect is for a generous, handsome man to make your night

You blew out your candles as your friends hit the last notes to your happy birthday song. They cheered, a few taking pictures while the others had their flash right in your face for video memory.

“Our girl’s finally 21! How’s it feel, ___?” Your friend closest to you, Jasmine, nudged your shoulder.

You hummed. Taking the candles out of your cake. “I don’t feel any different. Just can say I drink at the legal age, I guess.” You sneered, garnering a slap on the shoulder from Jasmine.

Spending your 21st at a high priced club was certainly not your idea. You would’ve settled for shots and cake at your apartment but your friends shot down that idea before you could even finish. Settling for your local ( and go to ) bar was something you also would’ve been down to do. But, of course, they insisted you all needed to be at the best in your city for your birthday.

You appreciated it. Especially since they all collectively covered the table. But the lights and music were starting to get to you. You had done your fair share of dancing, fair share of drinking, fair share of talking. Now, you just wanted to go home and sleep off that drinking portion of the night.

“Don’t tell me you getting tired,” On the opposite side of the table, your other friend deadpanned. Having the rest follow with a chorus of complaints and whines.

You held your hands up in defense. “My head is spinning and I want to be in my warm bed. Is that too much to ask for?”

Another friend countered. “Yes when I spent my whole paycheck to cover part of the table, hoe.” You snorted at her response.

“Fine. I just need something to get me back into...” You were saying as you brought your glass of water to your lips. But as your gaze drifted acrossing the seating area, your eyes locked with a pair of hazel ones. Hazel eyes that belonged to a very handsome man. And for some reason that handsome man was staring at you.

If your glass had been any closer you’re sure you would’ve choked. But you just placed it down and quickly averted your view to your friend group.

“Are you alright?” Jasmine cocked an eyebrow at your sudden flustered appearance.

“Hot guy at 3 o’clock.” Your whispered through teeth. Jasmine eyes circled into saucers as she tried her best to be discreet.

“Oh blondie. He’s hot. He’s been watching you like a hawk ever since we got our table though.” She admitted nonchalantly before taking a sip from your drink.

Your jaw fell ajar. “And you didn’t care to tell me!” You whisper-shouted.

“I’m just suprised you haven’t noticed.” Jasmine laughed. You shook your head. Your curiousity took over you and you let your eyes flicker back to his table. Your chest fell in relief seeing as he was making conversation with a waiter.

But your anxiety levels rose again when said waiter was beelining for your table right after talking to hazel. The waiter had caught your whole table’s attention.

“Is something wrong?” One of your friends immediately inquired.

“Ah! No, Mister Keigo would like to know if he could take over the bill of this party.” You physically paused, along with your friends.

“Who?” The waiter answered your friend’s question with a point of his pen to where hazel or better yet, Mister Keigo, was seated in mid coversation with one of his tablemates.

You gulped. “He insisted?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Before you could refuse the offer, Jasmine cut in. “Tell him thank you!” Your eyes widened but none of your other friends seemed to argue.

“But—” her hand slapped over your mouth.

“Thank you.” She iterated.

The waiter nodded and made his way back towards Mister Keigo’s table. Your table sat in shock, similar looks on their faces.

“A hot guy paying for your table bill? He wants you.” Your friend opposite from you proclaimed. This time you actually choked. Your hand smacked Jasmine’s hand away from you.

“He does not!”

“He so does.” They all mused.

You scoffed, a slight pout on your face. “I feel bad.”

“Here you go,” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Just accept the sweet offer, ___.”

“I am, but I feel like I need to thank him.” You glanced over to his table to where he was obviously signing something from the waiter. Most likely your bill.

Jasmine smacked her hand on your shoulder. “Then do that. While you’re at it see if he’ll take you home, I bet he wants some birthday cake if you catch my drift...”

Your friends laughed as you glared at Jasmine. “I will only be saying thank you then taking my leave.” You peeled her hand from your shoulder, shuffling from your seat at the booth.

“Don’t act like you don’t want him!” She called while you were already a couple feet from the table.

You didn’t, right? You tried to convince yourself that. You weren’t the type to do hook ups or sleep with strangers. But with every step you took closer to the V.I.P section, the pit in your stomach dug deeper. You knew his eyes were following you. It sent chills down your spine. But you continued to stride to the velvet rope and buffed security guy who held said rope.

“And you are?” He asked.

You stammered, opening your mouth while no words came from it. Your hope of thanking him started to slip but then a voice cut in.

“She’s with me, Vince.” You both simultaneously looked over to who it came from. And lo and behold, Mister Keigo in all his glory saving your ass from being booted from his section.

“You sure, Mister Keigo?” He strode over, clad in a sleek black suit, his sharp honey eyes fixated on your figure. You looked away, you barely knew him and he already had an effect on you.

“Now why would I ever lie, Vince?” His voice fit him so well. His tone that toed into teasing territory nearly made you shudder.

“Alright, lady.” You pursed your lips as the velvet rope was opened for you. Taking the opportunity to step past it and land in front of Mister Keigo.

Your eyes still fought for whether you should try to hold eye contact with him or just stare at the floor.

“Looking for me?” He asked. You squeezed your eyes shut, starting to heat up in embarrassment when you simply nodded.

His laughter is what had your eyes flicker up to meet his for the third time tonight. He basically towered you, he was intimidating. But something about him also made it clear that he was chill.

Maybe it was the way he spoke. Or just how you got a slither of the way he carries himself.

“Well?” He lifted an eyebrow, a smirk etched on his face.

“I-I just wanted to thank you for paying the bill, Mister-”

“Ah,” he interrupted you. “Call me Keigo, I don’t mind.”

“Really?” You thought back to what the waiter and security guard referred to him as.

He nodded, his blonde locks shifting a bit. “Completely fine with me.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I just wanted to thank you. There was no need, I appreciate it.” You finally got what you wanted to say out. Internally sighing in relief and victory.

Keigo smiled. “No problem. Just consider it a birthday gift from me, yea?”

“Ye-yea, of course.” You nodded. You didn’t know what to say. Here you were, talking to one of the prettiest guys you’ve ever seen, who had pay for your bill like it was nothing.

“No problem...” Keigo titled his head as he trailed off.

“Oh! It’s ___, call me ___.”

“___.” He hummed. “What a pretty name. It fits you perfectly, in my opinion.” The way he lifted his eyebrow nearly made your knees buckle underneath you.

“Ah, thank you. But are you sure there’s no way I can repay you?” It was out of your control how your tone automatically borderlined on lustful. His presence made you feel hot. And his mesmerizing gaze didn’t help.

Keigo smiled devilishly, leaning forward a bit, a few inches from your face. “Is there anything you had in mind, Miss ___?”

Your breath got caught in your throat. You could practically hear your friends squealing from the other side of the room.

“It would be up to you to pick wouldn’t it?” You tried to best to match his energy. But he was so smooth. Keigo laughed, it was deeper this time while there was this particular glint in his eyes.

“Is that so?” Having no rebuttle, you nodded again. Silently letting him win.

Keigo stood upstraight again. “Here,” he took a napkin from a nearby table. Quickly asking to borrow a pen from a passing waiter.

“We can discuss it over the phone, if that’s fine with you?”

Your eyes followed as he wrote his digits down, his name in nice print right above it. “Yea. That’s fine.” You answered like you were in some trance.

“Great. I’ll be looking forward to it.” He handed you the napkin. You took that as your signal to head back to your section.

“I’ll make sure not to lose this then...” You smiled, walking away slowly but surely. With another one of his entrancing smirks, you turned around. Releasing a deep sigh before reaching Vince. But before you could exit through that velvet rope.

Keigo’s voice hit your ears again.

“Oh! And happy birthday.”

[originalhybridloverfics]

I'll Always Remember You

Summary: [AU Canon Divergence - if Serkan had met his daughter in the wake of a true tragedy]

Serkan's world is turned to shambles with devastating news. Mistakes etched in stone. Consumed with regrets he has to find a way to survive and be the father his daughter needs him to be in the wake of her mother's death when on he wants is Eda, smiling back at him.

[This will break your Edser heart. Consider yourself warned.]

A/N: I apologize in advance if this fic makes this cry but I did warn you. It's Serkan and Kiraz heavy with Edser dreams and flashbacks.Also I am no expert on the legal matters or turkey funerals and I am sure I got it wrong on so many levels and for that I apologize once again in advance.

“Serkan Bey!” Layla rushed into his office with an urgent look. The telephone clutched in her hand.

“Not now, Leyla!” Serkan said sharply. “I am in the middle of a meeting.”

“But Serkan, they say it’s urgent and won’t stop calling until they get in touch with you.” Leyla insisted clutching the phone tight in her hands.

Serkan’s annoyance was high. He had been getting calls all morning from an unknown number and he ignored it because it was more than possible it was reporters and he did not want to deal with those vultures today.

He has been having a bad week ever since he woke up in a cold sweat, his heart hurting. He went to the doctor and was told there was nothing wrong with his heart. Furthermore, he couldn’t explain it but there was an empty feeling inside him. An emptiness he never felt before.

He forced a smile for his clients. “I’m sorry for the interruption.”

He held his hand out for the phone and Layla nearly tripped over her feet in her haste to hand him the phone.

“Hello,” he spoke sharply into the phone.

“Am I speaking with Serkan Bolat?” A woman’s voice echoed down the line. Her tone is professional.

“Yes, you are. What is this about?” Serkan asked.

“My name is Ayla Yavus and I am with Child Protective Services. I am calling on the behalf of a young child. Kiraz-”

“I don’t understand.” Serkan cut her off. “Why are you calling me? I have no children.”

“Well, according to Kiraz’s relatives. You do. You are from their understanding her biological father.”

Serkan pushed his chair out abruptly and walked out onto the terrace. Layla followed, closing the door behind him.

“Explain,” Serkan demanded.

“Kiraz is five years old. She was being raised by her mother in Italy unfortunately, the child’s mother was in a fatal car accident a little over a week ago. We had her in our custody for only a few hours before placing her in the temporary custody of her mother’s aunt.:

Serkan’s heart pounded, fear lancing through him. “And her mother’s name?”

“Eda Yildiz.”

Serkan’s phone clattered to the floor as she spoke the one name he would have given anything for her not to have spoken.

His knees gave way beneath him and he caught himself on the ledge, sinking to the ground, he turned pressing his back against it.

“Serkan Bey!” Leyla called out in alarm. “Are you alright?”

“Tell everyone to go home.” his voice was low barely above a whisper.

“Serkan Bey?” Leyla questioned.

Serkan looked up at her and Leyla fell back a step by the devastation written on his face. “I want everyone out of the building. Now!” His voice was loud, like a clap of thunder causing Leyla to jump.

There was something so terrifying about his demeanor that Leyla immediately rushed to clear the building.

Serkan didn’t move, he felt like the world was falling away and not in the good way he remembers when he was with Eda.

He felt like everything around him was dying while he was left to suffer in agony in a world without light and sunshine, without flowers and kindness. Without his star and the beauty that brought him to life.

“Serkan Bey,” Leyla returned, speaking tentatively. “Everyone is gone.”

“I want you to leave too,” he said not looking up.

“Serkan Bey, I don’t feel comfortable leaving you in this state.” Leyla protested, fighting back her fear of his anger.

Serkan looked up at her. “I don’t care what makes you uncomfortable, Leyla. I want to be left alone,”

Leyla didn’t want to leave him. Especially, after witnessing the devastation in his eyes but if she continued to refuse Serkan’s anger would erupt.

“Okay, if you need anything. I am a call away.” Leyla reluctantly grabbed her things and left the building.

Serkan wasn’t certain how long he stayed there, but he felt the wind pick up as the sky began to rumble.

With an effort he pushed himself up, grabbing his phone from the floor, and headed inside.

Mindlessly, he climbed the stairs to his office, and pulling out a bottle of liquor off the shelf he kept for guests, he grabbed a glass, setting it down on his desk.

He moved to his safe, pulling out a box, not bothering to close the safe he moved back to his desk taking a seat behind it. He sat the box down and opened it.

Side by side incased in the fabric were his and Eda’s engagement ring, his platinum band with her name inscribed into it, and sparkling flower engagement ring.

He reached, his chest tightening as his fingers brushed her ring.

Serkan swallowed hard, the phone call haunting him. Eda was gone, leaving behind a child.

Their child. A child he never even knew about.

How was he supposed to handle this? He could barely hold it together after learning that the only woman he ever loved was gone.

How was he supposed to be strong for a child and raise her? What was he supposed to say to her? How would he look at her and see her mother and not break down every fucking time?

He was on a cliff and he felt like he was going to slip off it at any given moment.

His phone rang again and he reached for it blindly, not checking the caller id. “Hello,” his voice was hoarse.

“Mr. Bolat, this is Ayla Yavus. I’m with-” “I know, we spoke earlier.” Serkan cut her off, he pulled the phone away to clear his voice and sound more presentable.

“I thought I give you some time to deal with the news from earlier. I know this is difficult-”

“Difficult? It’s impossible. You have no idea what this feels like.”

“Maybe so but you need to pull yourself together and gather your strength. You have a little girl who is going to depend on you for everything.” Ms. Ayla replied matter-of-factly.

“How is this going to work?” Serkan asked. “Do you bring her to me? Do I just take custody? Do I come to her?”

“As I said during our first phone call, currently, Kiraz is in the custody of her mother’s Aunt, Ayfer Yildiz. While it is believed you are the father of Kiraz we will need to perform a DNA test and a background check to ensure it is safe for the child to be in your care.”

“It’s my child. Of course, she will be in my care,” What the hell did they take him for?

“After all this is taken care of you will come and take your daughter into your custody. Now, if you do not wish to take responsibility you can sign over your rights and custody will be given to Ms. Ayfer.”

“No, I won’t be giving up my parental rights.” Serkan hadn’t even seen a picture of his daughter but she was the last thing tethering him to Eda. There was no way he would let her go.

He knew absolutely nothing about raising a child but he knew he would do anything to protect her and give her a safe home. He would love her as much as he loved her mother.

“Thank you for your time, Serkan Bey. We will be in touch.” the line clicked.

Serkan dropped his phone onto the desk and he reached for the bottle of liquor and filled the glass in front of him.

He made a few calls after downing the glass. Using his contacts to find out if a funeral has taken place and if not where and when. He needed immediate results.

When he ended the call he poured himself another drink and another.

Later he was awakened to the sound of his phone ringing. It was his contact calling to tell him that the Yildiz family was returning to Istanbul.

It was all Serkan needed to know. Ayfer was having Eda brought back to Instanbul to be buried next to her parents.

He didn’t know how he was going to bring himself to attend the funeral but he owed Eda that much and so much more.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Two days later his head pounding and feeling like he had the worst hangover of his life, he was pulling up outside the cemetery, sunglasses over his face, dress in his best black suit.

He stepped out of his car and saw a gathering of people. There was a lot. He saw people from his company. Serkan wasn’t surprised. Nearly everyone who ever met Eda became enamored with her. In his eyes, she had to be the most beloved woman in the world.

He scans the crowd and nearly froze, Melo stood next to Ayfer, a little girl in between them, she had her face, buried in Melo’s side, her shoulders shaking as she cried. His heart pounded painfully in his chest, his eyes bounced around and landed on the closed casket and he froze, ice keeping him still.

Then as he locked eyes with Melo, he was moving.

He turned away. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be here.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

His eyes snapped up and Engin stood before him. A frown on his face. “Leyla called and Ceren told Piril about today’s services. I’m sorry brother.”

“I can’t do this.” Serkan shook his head.

“You have to,” Engin tightened his grip. “For Eda. You will do this. I know it means little right now but I am here. Right beside you.”

For Eda.

The words echoed in his head and he nodded slowly. This wasn’t about him. It was about Eda and the respect she deserved from him.

He moved forward slowly, seeing more people he knew but couldn’t bring himself to greet them. There were art life employees, Eda’s friends, Efe. Her grandmother and so many more people but he ignored them. He ignored everyone.

He walked up to the casket and placed his hand upon the wood, his mind working as an enemy against him as he recalled with perfect clarity what it was like to touch her skin.

His eyes slid shut and he could picture her so clearly, the light shining behind her, her smile bright, eyes shining, her dark hair falling down her back in long luxurious waves, her skin perfectly tanned.

His knees grew weak, an ache in his chest. He couldn’t breathe, his vision darkened.

“Serkan.” Engin was there wrapping his arm around his shoulder, steadying him. “Breathe, brother. Breathe.”

Serkan shook his head. “I can’t! I cannot. What right do I have to breathe when she isn’t.” He shook Engin off and moved back toward his car. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t watch them put his star in the ground.

“Brother!” Engin was hot on his tail.

Others had noticed his pain but it went unnoticed by Serkan. Babanne was angry that a Bolat had come and was being blocked by Efe. Ayfer wanted to make Serkan leave believing he had no right to be there but her path was blocked by Ceren and Fifi wanted to tear into him but was being stopped by Melo who stood in front of her Eda’s little angel holding tightly to her hand.

“You don’t understand, Engin!” Serkan whirled around. “She was my breath and now she’s gone. I cannot be here. It’s too real and I need it not to be.”

Serkan’s fell back against his car, and his breaths came quickly. He recognized he was on the verge of a panic attack.

He slumped leaning against the vehicle heavily.

“Serkan, breathe,” Engin said and tried to show Serkan by taking a breath and releasing it slowly,

Serkan shook his head.

“Serkan,” Melo’s voice appeared suddenly and he froze, his eyes went past her to the little girl just a foot away, her cheeks wet with tears.

Melo crouched in front of Serkan and took his hand in hers. “Son-in-law. You need to breathe,”

Serkan looked at her blankly. “I don’t want to.”

“I know.” Melo saw the pain in his eyes, he looked so lost. She knew him. She never truly understood why he and Eda couldn’t make it work. But what she knew without a doubt was that Serkan and Eda had never stopped loving each other. “But you have to. Eda would want you to.”

“Eda,” Serkan’s voice trembled on her name. “She’s gone.”

“I know but she loved you. She loved you until her last breath and she would want you to be okay and for that to happen you have to breathe.”

Serkan nodded slowly and took a shallow breath and released it, he did it again and again and again until he started breathing normally just as a soft voice penetrated the air, the voice of the little girl.

“Melo,” the child sounded so heartbroken and lost.

His eyes snapped back to the little girl. “Kiraz?”

Kiraz stepped closer to Melo.

Melo’s lips trembled. “I see social services contacted you,”

Serkan nodded, frozen.

“Are you well enough to meet her?” Melo asked.

“I’m never gonna be ok again but I am well enough.” More so Serkan wanted to look in his daughter’s eyes and see Eda. He needed something solid that connected him to her to hold onto.

Melo nodded and gently took the little girl’s hand and urged her forward, “Come, Kiraz, I want you to meet someone very important. This here is Serkan Bolat, he was a very precious friend of your mother.”

The girl sniffled, taking small steps forward until she stood in front of Serkan. “Are you sad, too?” Kiraz asked. “Mom’s gone and she’s not coming back.” the little girl lifted a hand to her heart. “Does your heart hurt like mine?”

Serkan couldn’t keep the sob in even if he wanted to, his child’s heartbreaking words tearing it from his chest.

“Oh, Serkan,” Melo murmured squeezing his hand.

“Do you want a hug?” Kiraz asked as her shoulders shook. “Mom always said hugs were like bandaids for sadness.”

Serkan couldn’t bring himself to respond as he pressed his hand over his heart that was so broken beyond repair he didn’t know how it was still beating.

Kiraz tentatively approached Serkan and wrapped his arms around his neck.

Serkan was shocked and stilled but then this feeling overcame him and he couldn’t explain it. All he knew was he was connected to this girl and even if he hadn’t know the truth he would have felt it.

He wrapped his hands around the girl softly, and he heard her sniffle as her tears drip onto his neck, her shoulders started to shake. “My heart won’t stop hurting.”

“It will be alright,” he found himself trying to comfort his daughter, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. He didn’t think he was going to be alright again but his child, Eda’s child needed to believe that it would be. She needed someone to be strong for her and hold her when she needed it.

Serkan didn’t think it was possible but the pain in his chest became worst. He wanted Eda and he wanted to protect his little girl from the pain she was feeling.

The world was too cruel and he didn’t understand how life could be so brutal and unforgiving to take Eda away from him and especially away from the little girl in his arms.

“Shh, it’s going to be okay. Your heart hurts now but this will pass. In time you will find it won’t hurt as much.” he said and began whispering soothing words, even as his voice choked.

“How do you know?” She pulled back to look at him with a tear-stained face, and devastated eyes.

Serkan wanted more than anything to be able to answer her but he couldn’t. He said the words to comfort her but they were empty. He was certain the pain ripping through him would never stop.

Serkan looked desperately to Melo for help.

Melo moved closer and ran her hand soothingly through Kiraz’s hair. “Because pain like this doesn’t last forever, we live through it, we survive and it makes us stronger.” Melo smiled weakly, a tear sliding down her cheek. “The most important thing you have to remember, love, is that your mother will never truly be gone.” She placed her hand over her heart. “As long as you keep her in your heart she will always be with you.”

Kiraz’s shoulders started shaking again. a fresh wave of tears overtaking her and she reached for Melo.

Melo took her in her arms and stood. “Son-in-law, I know it’s hards but you should be here.”

Serkan stared at the broken girl in her arms and he nodded, forcing himself back to his feet on unsteady legs, he followed Melo back to the proceedings.

Engin kept close to him, ready to be there for him if need be.

During the proceedings, a small hand slipped into his and he clung tightly to it, he looked down at her and her shoulders were shaking as she cried silently.

He ignored Ayfer’s and Babanne’s glares and lowered himself to the ground, offering her a shoulder to cry on and she took it.

It was then as he watched the woman he loved being buried, holding the child created in his arms that he knew with absolute certainty he wasn’t going anywhere. He would do anything to protect his daughter from any more suffering.

He will never be able to make up for his mistakes with her mother but he could, protect her, raise her, love her. Do right by her.

And truth be told he needed her. He needed something to tie him to Eda.

Her small body leaning into his side was the only thing keeping him grounded.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Melo looked around Kiraz in her arms as she prepared to get in the car and leave. She looked toward Serkan’s car, knowing she needed to talk to him. There was so much that needed to be discussed. Especially regarding Kiraz.

He wasn’t by his car but she saw Engin and Piril, standing next to it.

She looked back to Eda’s fresh grave and her breath hitched. Serkan was there, kneeling in the grass, his head bowed.

“Isn’t mom’s friend going to leave, too?” Kiraz sniffled.

“I don’t think so,” Melo shook her head. “I think he wants to stay awhile with her.”

Kiraz squirmed out of her arms. “I want to stay too. He’s hurting. You’re not supposed to leave someone alone when they’re hurt.”

“This is a different kind of hurt,” Melo reaches to take her hand and usher her in the car but Kiraz was already moving away from her back toward Serkan.

She watched as Kiraz moved in front of her father, her little hands reaching up to wipe his tears before she put her arms around him.

Serkan went rigid but then he was folding forward and she watched as his whole body shook with grief, holding tightly to his daughter.

Melo lifted her hand to her mouth, her hand shaking.

She didn’t know how any of them were supposed to get through this. She was barely holding it together but she had to for Kiraz.

Nothing was ever going to be like before again. It couldn’t.

She only hoped Serkan and Kiraz would make it out on the other side. Together.

A/N: Did you cry? If you did I'm sorry. My muse is evil but I am a slave to her.

[stxrrywildflower]

can’t help falling in love (three)

pairing - george weasley x reader

summary - you invite george to be your date to your sisters wedding

warnings - mentions of family/home issues, fighting, deep talks, mentions of anxiety

word count - 3.7k

series masterlist

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“george i don’t think i can do this,” you breathed out. “i haven’t had a proper meal like this with my family in years.”

george woke you up just a few hours ago. he knew you didn’t want to sleep for too long but also realized how much you needed your rest.

you got dressed right away, probably getting ready far too early than you needed to, but you were just so incredibly nervous. you knew there was a strong chance the conversation was going to be turned to you and or george.

still at the desk, george stopped his tinkering immediately, setting down the supplies he was working with to turn to you.

“is everything alright love?” george didn’t want to make any assumptions on your emotions at the moment.

your eyes darted back and forth. “i-i don’t know,” you admited.

george was up and out of his chair in an instant. he took a seat on the bed, patting the space beside him for you to sit down.

you took a seat where he motioned for you to do so. you didn’t say anything at first, not exactly knowing how to put what you were feeling into words. george seemed to understand as he didn’t push you to say anything or start a conversation.

“i just don’t know how i’m going to deal with being with my family. i know it’s stupid for me to get worked up over this but it’s just tough.”

“y/n it’s not stupid. we don’t have to go to this dinner. i have a multitude of excuses i’ve used at hogwarts that can be applied to this as well. and there’s always the prank option, i’m sure i can stir something up if needed,” george started. “your feelings and your well-being matters more then a dumb meal.”

you thanked him quietly, mind still swirling with your thoughts about the night ahead.

“and i swear, if anything happens during dinner that makes you uncomfortable, we’ll leave. you do not owe them anything, especially with the way they’ve treated you.”

“but they’re my family...” you trailed off, feeling slightly guilty.

george moved his hand up to your cheek, turning your head to look at him. “hey, none of that,” he spoke. “yes they may be your family but that does not excuse their attitudes. you deserve more than that y/n.”

“now come here,” george smiled softly. he wrapped an arm around your shoulder, pulling you close to him as his hand moved to run up and down your arm. you leaned into his touch, resting your head under his chin as you allowed your eyes to flutter shut.

“thank you george,” you mumbled, hand moving to stoke the back of his palm. “it means a lot.”

“always y/n. but seriously, we don’t have to go if you don’t want to. i’m sure there’s some place to eat we can find around here,” george offered.

you shook your head. “i think i can make it through.”

george hummed in response. “alright, love. should we head downstairs?”

“yeah let’s go,” you stood up, extending your hand out to george who took it to get up as well.

you took lead in going downstairs first and made your way towards the living room.

“grammy!” you exclaimed, moving forward to hug your grandmother who had just arrived. “ah there’s my favorite little witch,” your grandmother beamed.

you smiled at the nickname. it had been a common one since you got your hogwarts letter.

george barreled down the stairs right after you.

“a weasley!” your grandmother exclaimed. she noticed right away from the ginger hair and familiar facial features. “i can’t believe you brought a weasley home. ah that’s so exciting! now which one are you?”

“george,” he answered with a smile, also moving to hug your grandmother. “fred and the others are back at school.”

“ah george, you and your brother always mix me up. it’s really good to see you, i hope your family is doing well.”

“they are, thank you,” george replied.

you didn’t have time to delve in your conversation about school as your normally would. your grandmother loved hearing about hogwarts, it had been awhile since she was there. while your houses were different, she was a ravenclaw, she still found the different changes extremely interesting.

“dinner!” jasper, your sisters fiancé, had called as he walked in the room. “hey y/n.”

“hey jasper,” you greeted with a small wave. “this is george by the way.”

jasper greeted george with a firm handshake before repeating his prior message. “i think your mum wants us in now so i would hurry.”

you and george took a seat at one end of the table. he was to your left, claiming he was ‘too tall’ to sit in the middle. you didn’t mind, george was your guest after all.

“so cress, what’s your plans for tomorrow?” your mom asked.

you zoned out for the majority of the conversation, not really wanting to listen to your sister go on and on about everything. george didn’t really pay attention either, choosing to rather turn to you and talk about summer break. it wasn’t for a few more months but he figured it would be a good topic to discuss.

“you’re coming home with us again, right? i honestly think my mum is planning on it unless you tell her otherwise,” he spoke.

you nodded. “i think this has been enough family time for the year. as long as i’m welcome i’m there.”george grinned, clearly satisfied with your answer.

“george,” the conversation was then turned to your mock-boyfriend. “why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself? i feel like we haven’t had any time to get to know you.”

“well,” george started, turning to face your family. “i go to hogwarts with y/n. i’m a middle child and a twin so technically i have four older brothers when you factor in the fact that i’m the younger twin. y/n and i are in the same year and same house so we have a lot of classes together-”

“wait houses? which one are you two in again?”

“gryffindor,” george answered with a smile. “it’s the house of the lion. i think our three house traits are courage, chivalry, and determination.” he turned to you for confirmation on the last part to which you nodded.

george ran through the rest of the information like it was rehearsed. your entire family seemed pretty enveloped in his story, all except for cass who was visibly becoming more agitated by the minute.

“anyways!” cass soon interrupted. george raised an eyebrow towards her, clearly taken back by being cut off. you leaned across to rest your hand on top of his. “don’t worry about her,” you whispered.

“jasper, is everything ready with your wedding party?”

you frowned. a wedding party was the one thing you didn’t thoroughly explain well enough to george.

george turned to you for that exact reason, asking with a confused tone, “what’s a wedding party again?”

“you don’t know what a wedding party is? geez do you live under a rock?” cress scoffed from the opposite end of the table.

“cress,” you warned, already feeling your blood pressure rising. you could handle a few bitchy comments but when she came for george, well that was a different story.

your sister narrowed her eyes at you. “what?”

“george comes from what we can a pure blood family. both of his parents are wizard born meaning he is a one-hundred wizard. they don’t know about a lot of the things we do. so if you could calm down and cut him a little-” you tried to explain only for your sister to have finally had it.

“god, can you just shut up about magic for once? we get it you have powers but can you please stop talking about it. this is supposed to be my weekend and my special day. you’re ruining it y/n. god, you shouldn’t even be here.”

the table went dead quiet, no one quite knowing how to reply to the outburst your sister had nor your reaction.

instinctively, you turned to george. his eyes met yours and he just knew. with a gentle hand, he guided you up and out of your seat.

“thank you for dinner, it was lovely.”

with that, george was leading you out of the dining room with his hand on the small of your back.

you made it outside and to a more private section of the yard before you broke. a combination of tears and sobs racked your body. you were far too emotional right now to even feel embarrassed.

george held you close to him, both arms wrapped protectively around your body as you cried. he didn’t mind that his jumper was getting stained with tears, it was more important to him that you were okay.

“i hate it. i hate it so much,” you sobbed. “she hates me so much for no good reason.”

“shhh, it’s okay,” george murmured. “let it out.”

you didn’t know how long the two of you were out there. everything just felt a little fuzzy at the moment.

your tears eventually dried out, a range of hiccups following. george, in turn, moved his hand to run up and down your back. “sorry to let it all out on you.”

“hey,” george pulled away to get you to look at him. “none of that. it’s okay y/n, i promise.”

you nodded, letting out a deep sigh as your head fell again.

george thumbed away the final few tears that fell down your cheeks. “i’m here for you always. i just want you to know that.”

you squeezed his hand gently, conveying a silent ‘thank you’ as you don’t exactly trust your voice at the moment.

“why don’t we go for a ride,” george offered. “to clear your head.”

through teary eyes you looked up towards your friend. “george, neither of us can drive well enough for it to be considered legal. besides, we don’t even have a car.”

a wicked grin passed over george’s face. “i might have planned ahead,” he spoke.

you quirked an eyebrow. you weren’t entirely surprised at his words but you were a little nervous.

“i might have snuck our brooms in our luggage....”

you smacked his arm gently. “george! mcgonagall said no magic. did you even listen to what she said?”

“hey hey hey, brooms aren’t technically magic,” he started. “kids are learning to fly and play quidditch even before they go to hogwarts.”

you thought about it for a moment. “i mean when you put it that way,” you trailed off. george jumped up the second you finished speaking, extending his hands out towards you to pull you up.

george raced inside and up the stairs, returning just moments later with your coats and familiar broomsticks you used for quidditch.

“if mcgonagall finds out i’m blaming you,” you commented.

“fine by me. i’m sure she won’t be surprised.”

you left the house once again, not bothering to stop back in to tell your family where you were going or when you would be back. frankly, you didn’t really care either.

the london air met you with open arms. it was pretty dark out allowing for you and george to be practically unseen on your brooms. you followed george’s lead up into the sky until you were at a comfortable distance to go side by side.

“so!” george shouted. “where do you want to go?”

you shrugged. “don’t know! i’m following you.”

you flew around for close to an hour, diving up and through the clouds and back down again. as the city slowly shut down for the night, george stopped again.

“you want to go talk somewhere? i may know a place,” he spoke.

“let’s go.”

george flew down to the famous london bridge. your eyes widened slightly as his plan clicked in your mind.

you touched down at on one of the top platforms which was thankfully out of view from anyone not in the air. in other words, you were practically hidden.

“damn georgie, didn’t think we would be up here. how much trouble would we be in if we got caught?”

“don’t know,” george spoke. “and don’t want to think about it. all i know is that no one can see us so we should be fine.”

after laying your broom down, you took a seat next to george on the roof-like platform. he was clearly deep in thought, knees drawn up to his chest with an arm wrapped around them.

“what’s on your mind?”

“eh it’s nothing, just thinking about some family stuff,” george answered.

“everything alright?”

“yeah yeah yeah, everyone’s good. besides, this was supposed to be for you.”

you frowned at that. “george, come on. you can talk to me about anything. you’ve done the same for me. what’s on your mind?”

“i don’t want to bother.”

“george,” you warned again. “if this makes you feel better, i could use a distraction.”

it took him a few minutes to say anything. you didn’t mind at all. george’s insecurities weren’t exactly something new, it took him a bit to muster up the courage to even admit he had them.

just as you had moved onto watching the people below on the bridge, george finally said what was on his mind.

“i just feel like i’m always second best, you know?”

you turned to him with slight sympathy in your eyes though you did understand, to some extent, exactly what he was saying.

it’s always been ‘fred and george’ and never ‘george and fred.’ you said it that way, teachers, parents, other kids did too. everyone knew them as fred and george and not the other way around.

sure it was something as simple as name flow but it did get to him at times. almost like he was placed behind his brother.

“it’s just i-i come from a big family-”

“no kidding,” you joked. “sorry sorry, continue.”

george smiled at your words, the corners of his lips upturning. it made your heart full seeing him happy.

“i mean ron and fred are the closer siblings and then then the three older are the same. bill and charlie are off working and percy has his job at the ministry. i know ginny and i are closer but just when you look at the percentages, i always just feel like i’m kinda forgotten.”

it went quiet again. george had just revealed a lot about how he was feeling and you wanted - needed - to chose your words carefully.

“sorry i know that sounds stupid,” he apologized, partially to fill the void.

you turned to him. “it’s not stupid george. like you told me earlier, your concerns are valid. i’m really proud of you for admitting that.”

“i’ve guess i’ve just always felt kinda like an outsider at times. fred and i are always the odd ones out but even then he feels more included. and then you know about my issues with separation.”

you nodded. george wasn’t exactly open about him getting really bad separation anxiety. he’s spent his whole life with siblings and a twin. being around people all the time made it difficult for him to be away from it all.

“and that’s understandable, george. you shouldn’t feel bad for something you can’t control,” you offered.

george hummed at your words. “it just doesn’t help that mum has always compared me to percy if i bring it up since he’s such a ‘model brother.’ just because i’m not the best academically and struggle with something doesn’t mean i should be dummed down, right?”

george almost didn’t believe his final words. george found himself repeating ‘right?’ over and over to himself as if to reassure it in his mind.

his voice fell off, all signs of an incoming sob becoming apparent. you reached out to grab his hand, pulling him a little closer before bringing his hand up to kiss his knuckles.

“george i mean it when i say you are are one of the smartest and strongest people i have met. i would be lying if i said your brain didn’t work a different way from other peoples but that’s what makes you who you are. you shouldn’t change for other people, i promise.”

with that, the first wave of tears flowed down george’s cheeks. his words meant more to him than you would ever know.

“have i ever told you why cress and i don’t get along? i’ll only tell you the story if you want a topic change.”

“yeah that would be nice actually,” he agreed, hand still loosely interlocked with yours.

you took a deep breath. george knew about your family issues but like you’ve said before, no one knew the extent of it.

“cress and i have a pretty big age gap. i mean that’s obvious. she’s getting married tomorrow and we’ll i’m still learning how to make potions and playing quidditch at school,” you started. “but since i’m muggle-born, it’s common for wizard abilities to skip around.”

george squeezed your hand gently, a silent reasurrence to your next sentence.

“well, i wasn’t born yet but when cress was ten, she didn’t get a hogwarts letter. barely even knew about the school either. and then when i was finally ‘of age’ you could say, i got my letter. i can’t even put into words how angry cress was. i swear she screamed at me for a full day straight and refused to talk to me for a good month. she made it seem as though i was the worst person alive for getting these abilities.”

“but you aren’t,” george jumped in. “it was a rare chance for either of you to even inherit your grandmothers powers.”

“exactly,” you agreed. “and it’s just so frustrating because i didn’t ask to be born like this. i didn’t chose to be thrown into the wizard life. i didn’t agree to get a letter to hogwarts and she just has never understood that. it’s turned into a one-sided sibling rivalry ever since.”

“i’m sorry y/n. you truly don’t deserve that,” george spoke.

you shrugged. “it’s taken me awhile and tonight may have been a little contradicting of that but i’m trying to move past it. in no way do i plan on restoring our bonds but i can at least act civil.”

george agreed instantly with your words. the conversation died down after that. both of you had gotten multitudes of feelings off of your chests and the aftermath of it was hitting a little hard.

you stayed on the bridge until it became near unbearable to. it was still pretty cold at night. george’s cheeks and nose were flushed pink, a key attribute to your reasoning.

“are you ready to go?”

“yeah yeah, let’s go back.”

after mounting your brooms once more, you descended back into the london night.

you arrived back to your home after midnight, touching down softly in the backyard almost silently.

the house was quiet by now, most of the lights being turned off as people slowly started heading off to bed. your dad and jasper were the only two still awake, sitting on the deck together and talking. you were sure it was about the wedding.

they were clearly startled by your presence, neither used to seeing magic let alone people flying on brooms. your dad got up first, opening his mouth to speak as you and george stepped up into the deck.

“look y/n-”

george held up his hand, your dad going quiet the moment he saw it. “leave it.”

with that, george grabbed your hand gently as you headed inside. “do you want to go up to bed?” he asked. you nodded, “yeah that sounds nice.”

you reached your shared room rather quickly, george taking your broom out of your hands to put away. your brooms were placed back into their concealment. to be honest, after seeing how they were packed, you realized how you didn’t notice george brought them at first.

“i’m going to go get changed, are you alright?” george asked.

you nodded. “go ahead, i need to change too.”

george exited the room before returning a few minutes later, dressed down in a pair of flannel pants and his most recent christmas initial sweater. “cozy?” you mused. george hummed, “very.”

you, on the other hand, were still cold. london at night, especially on the top of a bridge, was absolutely freezing.

the two of you got further ready for bed in silence. george closed the door and turned off most of the lights as you tidied up some of the mess from the day.

subconsciously, your mind had drifted as you were folding your clothes. sure you and george had your deep talk but there were still unanswered questions you had, especially with everything going down tomorrow.

“y/n?” george’s voice cut through your haze.

you hummed, turning around to face him. “are you coming to bed?” he added.

“yeah, sorry.”

“no need to apologize,” george spoke.

he flipped the covers forward, patting the spot next to him in bed for you to lie down. you slid in beside him, only leaning over to turn off the bedside lamp.

“are you cold? i can practically feel your chattering from over here,” george teased.

“freezing,” you answered.

george shifted slightly to face you, opening his arms with a small smile barely visible in light only peaking in from the moon. “come here.”

in an instant you were burying yourself in his chest, his natural body heat warming you up in an instant. george chuckled quietly, “is that better?”

you moved your head to rest on his chest, arm falling across his stomach. he, in turn, wrapped his arm around to rest on your back and pull you closer to him.

just as your coldness had melted away, so did your mutual doubts about the awkwardness of sharing a bed. it was comfortable actually, being wrapped up together.

“thank you for tonight georgie,” you whispered.

“thank you y/n,” george repeated. “sleep good, alright?”

you hummed, mumbling a ‘goodnight’ before slowly shutting your eyes.

despite being near exhausted from the entire day, your mind was still racing. everything just felt wrong and you needed some - any - reassurance that something was going right.

“hey george?” you eventually spoke into the darkness, unsure if the man you were literally laying on top of was even awake.

it took a moment for him to respond, his slight shifting being a key factor.

“yes love?”

“you’re my best friend, you know that right?”

george chuckled quietly. “yeah i do. and your mine as well.”

⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢⌢

tagging - @goldenxreid @wilburxpancakes @sunlightgalaxy @criminaly-supernatural @blakes-dictionxry @mrs-dr-reid @weasleytwinsfav @theguppienamedbae @fadesbrina

[tinyboxxtink]

“Helpless” *FINALE*

Mwahahaha I got around the un-even numbering. Well, this is it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it. I really need to make a Master List of all my “works”, but if you wanna check out my other stuff just type “Rafael Barba Imagine” into the search bar of my page. 

As always, big thanks to my lovies:

@wanniiieeee

@dumauier

@word-scribbless

@chasingeverybreakingwave

The COMPLETE Collection:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

And without further ado, the CONCLUSION!!!!

After your shower and you were in some clean pink scrubs, you decided it would probably be best to go look for the squad. Apparently you were still “a suspect”, so you didn’t want to make it look like you were trying to flee or something. 

You found your way back to the waiting room, but only Fin and Carisi were still there.

“...Where’d Benson and Rollins go?” You asked, glancing around the area.

“Well it’s like 4 am, they both have kids, I’d told them we’d update them if anything happened with Barba,” Carisi told you.

“Which you can now do,” Fin added, grabbing his jacket off a chair.

“...I’m sorry, what?” you asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘watching’ me or something?” 

“They combed your street and found the gun, the idiots tossed it as they were driving. And as far as your whole ‘hustling’ business, if Barba vouches for you, I’m not gonna bother with a shitload of paperwork just because you got some money out of some old white dudes,” Fin chuckled.

“So you’re off the hook, and I’d really like to sleep in my own bed,” Carisi patted your back as he walked out with Fin. 

“I--Are you sure? Olivia isn’t gonna--” 

“Olivia’s gonna be a lot of things, but none of it matters legally speaking. So y'all need to work that out on your own,” Fin held up his hands like he was washing his hands of the drama.

“Right. Well I’m sure the doctor will call her,” You really didn’t want to have to talk to her anymore than you needed to. 

“Right. Night, Y/N” Carisi waved as they continued to walk down the hallway and out the front doors.

Okay, so now you were alone. On your own. In a hospital. Great.

Suddenly, you remembered the magical sticker. You pulled it out of the scrubs pocket and stuck it to your shoulder. Then you turned to the big doors that read 

“ICU: Approved Personnel ONLY”

Well, you were in scrubs.You took a deep breath and made a sign of the cross before you walked confidently through the doors. Hopefully people would just assume you were a nurse. 

You were met on the other side with a bustle of doctors and nurses running around, patients being pushed through the hallways; lots of machines were beeping, and you could hear a CODE BLUE down the hall. 

“Please don’t be Rafael Please don’t be Rafael…” you closed your eyes and whispered, but were quickly interrupted.

“Excuse me sweetie, are you lost?” An older male doctor tapped your shoulder.

“Oh um-- yeah YES. I am,” you lied. This is what you did best, just roll with it. 

“It’s my first day, and I got separated from my group. We were doing rounds, and I believe our next room was the ADA?” 

“The ADA…?” The doctor started typing in his tablet, as if someone would add “The ADA of New York” in his patient notes.

“I think his name is Ralph something,” you lied; a nurse wouldn’t be all on the up and up of law people, would they?

“Ah. Rafael Barba. Oh you’re right, it says VIP PATIENT here. He must be something special,” 

“He really is,” You sighed, causing the doctor to look at you funny. 

“I mean, so I’ve heard,” 

“Well it says here DO NOT DISTURB, so I don’t believe you were doing rounds in his room…” The doctor raised an eyebrow as he tilted the tablet towards you. You saw “ROOM 304” next to Rafael’s name.

“Oh, you know what you’re right! I think they said we were NOT rounding on him, y’know cuz he’s the ADA,” You gent;y rubbed your shoulder against his. “I must’ve gotten mixed up because of your beautiful blue eyes,” you batted your lashes, to which the elderly doctor happily ate up.

“Oh well, no harm no foul,” He smiled.

“Ok well I’m sure I can find them, thank you doctor!” you gave him the cheesiest smile and a wink, walking away quickly. You made it into an elevator right before it closed. Luckily, the only other person in it was “Another” nurse, who looked like she might pass out right there in the elevator; she paid you no mind. 

You hit FLOOR 3 and rode up to the floor, practically jumping out of the elevator. You turned to see signs that pointed 300-320 left and 320-340 right. You went left, searching the numbers until you saw 304. You looked around to make sure no one had noticed you definitely did not belong there, and when the coast was clear you opened the door slowly and snuck in the room.

“Excuse me, can I help you?” 

Fuck, you were caught. You were running multiple scenarios of lies in your head as you turned around, but to your relief it was the nurse who had given you the sticker.

“Ah, I see it worked,” she gestured to the sticker on your uniform.

“It did, thank you so much,” You thanked her softly, your eyes moving towards Rafael’s still unconscious body. You immediately grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to him, stroking his hair. 

“Hey...baby I’m here,” You whispered, wondering whether he could hear you or not.

“It says here he coded three times in surgery, but he came back,” The nurse read his chart off her tablet.

“Why….why would I want to know that?” you asked almost angrily.

“...Patients have a lot to do with their own response and recovery,” she replied. “I was just implying he was fighting like hell for something,” she smiled, making you smile for the first time since Rafael had left you at your apartment. God, that moment had been so perfect; how did you get here from there? 

“I’ll put a DO NOT DISTURB” sign on the door, no one will bother you,” The nurse put a hand on your shoulder as she started to walk out. “I think he’s going to be okay sweetie, I really do,” 

“Thanks,” You gave her a small nod, and she was gone. Leaving just you and Rafael, alone. 

“So...I’ve never seen a guy work so hard to get me alone,” You chuckled, calling back to the first conversation you had at Forlini's. That seemed like a lifetime ago now.

“Hey so, they caught Arianna and those guys,” you kept talking, praying he was listening. “I think they’re gonna go to jail for a LONG time,” you stroked his hair. 

“So, y’know obviously that means I’m out a roommate. Probably an apartment too, I don’t really know what Arianna did about that. Surely she didn’t just get out of a six month lease in the middle of the night, she must have just thought they could abandon the apartment. 

“So, if you know of  any fancy mahogany couches that are open, let me know,” You tried joking again with a fake laugh, but it just turned into tears.

“I’m so sorry, Rafael,” you whispered. “I never intended for any of this to happen. I should have never even talked to you, I should have just admired you from afar and sniffed your scotch glasses in private like a fucking creep,” you laughed for real between your tears.

“I just--” you started to talk again, but you felt Rafael’s hand squeeze yours. 

“....R-Rafa?” 

Suddenly, Rafael started to thrash and choke, his breathing tube was still breathing for him.

“NURSE!!! NURSE!!” You jumped up and screamed down the hall; your lucky nurse came rushing in. She quickly pulled the tube out and after a few gasping breaths, Rafael finally calmed down. He was conscious, but his eyes were barely open. 

“Welcome back, Mr. Barba,” The nurse smiled. “I think you gave this one quite the scare,” She nodded to you, to which Barba gave the weakest smile. 

He tried to speak, but just scratchy gibberish came from his mouth. But his beautiful green eyes were more open and had their sparkle back. 

“Your throat will be sore for a while,” The nurse informed him. “....But everything else seems to be doing good!” She checked all of Rafael’s stats on his machines, and the different tubes coming out of his body. 

“I’ll be back later-- let you two, catch up,” She gave you both a knowing smile, then walked out the door.

“I...told...you,” he hoarsely croaked. 

“What? You told me what?!” You asked him frantically, as if this was some kind of ominous threat.

“I’d….,” He cleared his throat as you grabbed a water bottle off a nearby table. 

“I told you, I’d fight for you,” He said almost completely normally after taking a swig of the water.

“...Yeah, well-- I think that was a bit much, don’t you, counselor?” You raised an eyebrow, implying taking a bullet for someone after the first date is a bit melodramatic.

“I mean, here,” he pointed to the bed. 

“W-What?” you blinked in confusion. 

“I fought to come back,” he took your hand and kissed the back of it. “For you,” 

“Why?” you blinked again, still in awe.

“Because you asked me to,” He smiled, taking his free hand and stroking your hair back as you had been doing while he was out. 

“Y-You heard all of that?!” you gasped.

“Well, I thought I had hallucinated it until you just confirmed it for me,” He gave you a mischievous smile.

“Oh my god,” You blushed and hit him softly, forgetting about his tubes and shoulders. He winced in pain, and you immediately started to comfort him again.

“Oh my GOD, what is wrong with me?! Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, carino. And I’m not done yet either,” his words made you stop fiddling with the wires and look him straight in the eyes.

“....Done what?”

“Done loving you, dummy,” he shook his head as if to say “DUH.” 

“Oh my god you DID hear all of it!” You put your hands over your face, your face turning red. Then you realized what he had actually said. 

“WAIT...did you just say…?” your eyes bugged out of your head. 

“I love you, Y/N.” he smiled sweetly, squeezing your hand.

“Really? Are you sure? Because we can just--” He shut you up by leaning over and kissing you. 

“Since I saw you sniff my scotch glass,” He cut you off. “I thought ‘I’m gonna marry that weird girl one day’,” 

“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there mister,” You put your hands up. “I mean, you can almost die for me, but marriage? That seems a bit much,” You gave him a tongue-in-cheek smile. 

“We’ll negotiate,” He smirked. “In the meantime…” He moved himself away on his bed, adjusting the wires to make a space. He patted it for you to get in.

“I...I don’t think these are made for two people, what if I break it?” You eyed the bed, trying to calculate the weight max.

“I’ll buy them another one,” he chuckled.

“Oh right, with your copious amounts of money,” you rolled your eyes with a smile.

“Yeah, better spending it on that then more ties,” he smirked.

“NO. Never stop buying ties!” You giggled, climbing into the bed with him. He adjusted the arm that wasn’t in a sling around you. You snuggled into him, and he placed a kiss on your forehead. The feeling was back; the safe and warm feeling

And you knew in your heart, you’d never feel helpless again.