#we’re giving them UST on SIGHT!!!!

[apiratefellinlovewithastar]

I really love how they close up on Zoro when Sanji joins the crew because Sanji is all smiles with both Luffy and Usopp, and then when he glances at Zoro you can tell his demeanor shifts instantly even though his little smile is still kinda there

[therealvinelle]

Hello! Why do you think Carlisle likes Aro? (Love your meta btw!)

This blog lasted 25 days before becoming an Aro/Carlisle blog. The sanity was nice while it lasted, I suppose.

Oh well, I embrace my trash ship.

(Anon is referring to this post)

(This one is also relevant)

So, while on Aro’s end it was a case of “did the gods just give me my very own Enkidu?”, for Carlisle we must look at the circumstances. The Carlisle Cullen who walked into Volterra is not the Carlisle Cullen who works at Forks General.

Carlisle was a demon-hunting priest who brought his religion into his new life. Having no idea what he’d just become, apart from the obvious things like “I desperately want to kill people for their blood” and “I sparkle?!”, many of the things that are obvious to us would not be at all obvious to him. His only experience with other demons was the slum-dweller that killed him. It was brutal, and three other people from his parish were murdered as well. He’d been able to track the vampire down, something I can only take that to mean that the vampire used his parish for hunting grounds. He’s so horrified by what he’s become that he tries to destroy himself. This fails, and instead he finds a way out that lets him live without having to kill, and with that comes to the realization that vampires retain their souls (which is for another post).

My point being, Carlisle wakes up as a demon, and has no way of knowing how any of this works, nor of how to explain the fact that he is able to retain his soul. It’s telling that even after centuries of being a vampire he still thought something might be fundamentally different about him, as he chose to turn Edward by simulating his own transformation, even though it meant more pain for Edward. In other words, Carlisle was not guaranteed that his experience was universal. By the time we meet him in canon he’s wonderfully friendly to everybody regardless of what they eat, but I strongly doubt he got from point “Demons are monsters and I’ll rally a mob to lynch them!” to “Vampires are people who sadly eat other people.” right away.

So, you have freshly immortal Carlisle Cullen wandering around Europe with no way of knowing that other vampires are as (for lack of a better word) human as he is. How can they be, when they choose to eat people? (My personal headcanon is that he went by a Persephone theory, and figured that by resisting human blood he’d remained a man.)

It was this Carlisle who met Aro and the other Volturi. According to Edward (I unfortunately don’t have Twilight with me so I can’t quote his exact words), they were the ones who showed him that vampires can in fact be sophisticated.

Sophisticated. Not just as in Aro, Marcus, and Caius eat their virgins with some fava beans and a nice chianti, but as in they’re civilized and intelligent beings. Carlisle was no longer a one lone freak who somehow retained his soul while everyone else went full Buffy vampire, or any other such theory. I can’t even imagine the impact that must have had on a young Carlisle who would have been even lonelier than the Carlisle who found Edward in Chicago. That Carlisle at least had friends, this younger version had absolutely nobody.

Aro changed that.

More than being sophisticated, Aro turned out to be a kindred spirit, an absolutely brilliant mind and a generous host. Carlisle chose to live with him for decades, leaving only because of their dietary differences. And even if people disagree with me with all of the above, I don’t think anyone can argue that this one isn’t huge.

Of all the people Carlisle knows in canon, Aro is the only one he stayed with just for Aro’s own sake. Carlisle loves the Cullens dearly, but the cornerstone holding them together is their shared diet, and the fact that Carlisle turned four of them, the other two joined. He did not happen upon them and then like them so much that he decided to move in. As for his other friends, he cares for them all, but he didn’t share decades of his life with them.

Regardless of how we’re interpreting their relationship (as in, platonic, UST, or raging homosexual affair), I don’t think anyone can dispute that Carlisle and Aro are each other’s best friends.

But beyond proving that vampires aren’t all sewer-dwelling, priest-eating rascals, what exactly made Aro so special?

I’ll just list his qualities in no particular order.

Sophistication This guy is a lover of the arts and of knowledge. His gallery and library must have been the most extensive and diverse in the world, and it probably still is. I can’t even begin to imagine the wealth of knowledge and treasures that Aro must have collected over the years. If the Holy Grail exists within the world of Twilight, Aro has it. Where I’m headed with this, is that not only would Aro’s collection be the coolest thing ever to Carlisle, but also that this was a time when the number of books and an art collection was a sign of high class, of intellectualism, of all things fine and noble that was considered virtuous. Aro acts very much like wealthy European nobility, he even lives in Italy, the cultural epicenter of the Western world of old. He physically could not have been more impressive to Carlisle.

Kind of a continuation of the previous point: Aro is from Ancient Greece (well, he’s Myceanaean, but same difference to a “You predate Homer?!” starstruck Carlisle). Ancient Greece was the ultimate, perfect, civilization to Europe, and Carlisle got to Volterra just ahead of the Enlightenment. This alone would have made him so unbelievably cool to Carlisle.

Nerd I think this one speaks for itself. Carlisle is an unbelievable nerd, an inquisitive mind who’ll study anything and everything, and in Aro he found someone who also has an inquisitive mind and will study anything and everything. They’re both very intelligent. Carlisle went from being that sad whale that sings on a frequency no other whales can hear, to having someone who just got it.

His gift So you’re all gonna have to stay with me on this one. Aro’s gift is one most people would find very invasive, which as I touched upon in one of the posts linked above must be very isolating. And yet we know from canon that Carlisle has no problem at all with Edward reading his mind all the time, and more, if Aro reading his mind was a problem then Aro and Marcus would both have known, and I doubt their friendship would have worked out. So, I think that Carlisle not only didn’t mind having his every thought read, but that this was an actively good thing. Because what is less lonely than the company of one who knows you as intimately as you know yourself? To be friends with Aro is to be truly understood, known more deeply than anyone else can ever know you. And to someone who seeks companionship as much as Carlisle does, I imagine this is an extremely attractive feature.

Offer of friendship Carlisle would have been hopelessly lonely when he met Aro. And as no one else is mentioned as being close to him, Jane hadn’t even met him which I find pretty telling of how he interacted (or didn’t interact) with the Guard, and he wouldn’t yet have any of his other friends that he later made, he only had Aro.

He enforcers a law that keeps the known world from descending into chaos Human civilization wouldn’t last a day without the Volturi. There would be nothing stopping vampires from taking out entire villages in one go, immortal children would be everywhere, and the newborn armies would spread like wildfire. In the world of Twilight, the Volturi are a necessary evil. And Aro is their leader. The fact that he not only keeps the world together, an ungrateful task with no end in sight, but had the idea to create a law in the first place would make him all the more amazing to Carlisle.

And I’m sure there’s more that is currently slipping my mind.

Just, Aro is on every level the most impressive, awe-inspiring, and dare I say dazzling, that anyone can be to Carlisle. And he came into Carlisle’s life at the best possible moment. If he’d agreed to do the animal diet, Carlisle would have stayed. If he wanted to seduce Carlisle, I think he’d succeed. I also think that their time together was far more formative for the person Carlisle became than anyone gives Aro credit for.

(And if Carlisle had never found anyone who’d share the diet, he would eventually have returned. I imagine Aro thought the same, but that’s for another post.)

Oh, and last bit - in Breaking Dawn we get this beautiful moment where Carlisle learns that Aro robbed the British royal family, and he just goes, “yup, that’s my guy”. Even after Eclipse, he remains fond of Aro. I mean, there’s also the fact that he’s been lugging around this giant painting for centuries, even at a time when he didn’t have a house and I can only speculate as to where he was keeping it.

Of course, over the course of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn everything goes to hell, but that’s for another post.

TL;DR, Carlisle went from a priest’s son to living with an evil vampire overlord for decades because he’s just that great, in the present he keeps a giant painting of him in his office. I feel it’s safe to assume he likes the man.

(Edited on the 13th of April to fix some phrasing and add a link)

[moxfirefly]

For MIKEY with a female companion please?!?!?

59. "How mad would you be if we took a break for pizza rolls?"

47. "I know we're just friends but you're sitting on my lap and I'm so sorry if I get hard."

11. "Sit on my face immediately."

Hello there! Yes I can. Also I’m tagging @annaliaandtheturtles on this too because you basically asked for the same prompts so I hope you don’t mind friend!

Also I’ve been dying to these with my orange boi so let’s get it.

Rated Explicit/Comedy? (18+ only)

This didn’t exactly feel like a very ‘friendly’ thing to do, in fact this isn’t something friends do and while those thoughts did race in your head along with warning bells, you simply ignored it.

Because seriously, friends do not in any way shape or form platonically dry hump each other.

Naturally this evening your plans didn’t exactly consist of this to begin with. Michelangelo had shown up after patrol, looking a little more bruised up than usual and somewhat glum. He’d explained the hiccup during patrol had been partly his fault and he’d gotten the stern big brother(s) talk from all 3 of his eldest siblings.

It wasn’t fun.

Being the baby had its perks but at moments like this is truly annoyed him that at his twenty one years of age he was still being treated like this whenever he messed up. So he knew he could blow off steam with you by just being away from the Lair for the rest of night.

You noticed how affected he was by it all, the usual peppy banter not there and the way he hissed when he moved around his seat spoke of the nights events. So what? You had sat on his lap, side saddle and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. You’d given him your own stern talk, but this one filled with a lot more praise for his skills, wits and strength. His blue orbs had shone, he’d really needed that.

You’d hugged him, he’d hugged back (somewhat shyly wrapping his arms around your midsection) and it had been a nice long embrace. He’d felt your hand rub his shell, he’d rubbed a soft circle on your back.

When you leaned back you gave him a quick, albeit friendly, peck on the lips. Which wasn’t a big deal, right? Of course not, so what Mikey felt his cheeks heat up? And you chuckled nervously because his lips were insanely soft?

Not. A. Big. Deal.

There had been a solid five minutes of silence with Mikey bitting the inside of his cheeks and you adjusting your weight on his lap. He had winced again some what and you feared you’d sat on some bruise. You were about stand up and let him have his reprieve when he kept you there. “Um, uh...” He swallowed, brow ridges raised. “Mikey? You alright th-“ You fixed your posture and he looked away.

“I know we’re just friends but you’re sitting on my lap and I’m so sorry if I get hard” He basically spoke it to the floor, clearly embarrassed of the predicament but more so because you did feel something rather, well hard poking your backside. Your ‘oh’ face was followed by your cheeks heating up, but something inside of you urged you on. A gentle press of your palm to his cheek moved his face back into your line of sight.

And while your brain chanted ‘you’re just friends you’re just friends YOU’RE JUST FRIENDS’ it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. You had leaned in and kissed him.

It never dawned on you that one simple kiss could lead to such a turn of events:

That included a thorough dry hump session where the chair had started to dangerously creak. By then you had unglued yourself from him but your hands had urged him on to follow, pressed against the table Mikey had kissed you again like a possessed man. Pent up didn’t summarize it, pent up couldn’t exactly explain it. It didn’t explain the tearing of your shirt from your head or your shaking hurried hands untying the jacket around his waist. It didn’t explain you both kissing sloppily towards the living room because the bed felt too far away and Mikey was tripping on kicking off his own shoes.

The laundry list of questions that ran through Mikey’s head were pretty much the same ones you had. Would this ruin the friendship? Were the two of you secretly in love? Was being in love with your best friend a good topic to bring up when you had your hand down said best friend’s shorts?

Mikey moaned, so did you.

Questions could maybe take a back seat for now.

His eyes fell on your chest, desire evident in his pretty blue eyes and so you tore yourself away from him long enough to catch one another’s breathes and unhooked your bra. You’d never seen somebody look equal parts shocked and excited, but there he was a shaking mess as his eyes looked from your chest to your eyes. “Yes for Christ sake have at them” You half laughed and commanded him, Mikey’s ‘right right’ only made you laugh more when he cupped them.

To say he had dreamt about this moment was a true understatement. Getting to do it? Actually holding such soft pieces of flesh, and god they were soft, Mikey felt he should maybe thank god or the closest affiliate. But it still nagged at him that this was all happening with you, with his Brest friend.

His breast friend who has the softest and most beautiful-

Focus man.

“Y/n I know this is like happening but I don’t want us to be weird afterwards because you’re well my bestie dude, and well- this isn’t weird right? We’re good?” You had never seen such a level of concern for somebody literally grabbing a hold of your tits.

This was absolutely bonkers.

“Do you want to stop?” It was firm, you weren’t going to allow whatever exactly this was, cloud your judgement. Mikey’s hands slid from their hold to rest of your waist. He thought, he honest to god pushed all desire away for five excruciating seconds and thought if maybe it was best to discuss this.

It also dawned on him that he was starving.

Impressive how the mind and body work.

Mikey’s gaze landed on yours, “How mad would you be if we took a break for pizza rolls? Just to like get our bearings man, I want to do this but-” How he was doing this while still staring at your boobs was impressive, you shook your head with a smile.

“Look at your being the mature one. I guess we should talk about this first and I wouldn’t mind some pizza rolls” You picked up his jacket, opting for putting that on since it covered most of you, Mikey couldn’t help but feel kinda giddy about that. He also couldn’t help his smile when you grabbed his hand and went back to the kitchen with him in toe.

Having a beautiful girl in nothing but his jacket pulling out two bags of Tostino’s pizza rolls while simultaneously trying to curb your hard on to take a break, was no easy feat for him. “I’ve got five cheese and pepperoni, who am I asking of course you want pepperoni, you want the entire bag?” You were already depositing the entire bag on the tray, going over to turn the oven on (because you knew how he hated when it was microwaved).

Mikey blinked at you.

You were making him pizza rolls, in the oven, you were giving him a Costco size bag all for himself, you were beautiful and absolutely a smokeshow of a woman.

“Holy shit I’m in love with you” It dawned on him so easily and so clearly and so abruptly.

You smiled, he looked so adorably flustered but happy. Mikey being happy due to you had always done that, it had always made you warm and excited. Somewhere along those lines the answer was there, it had just decided to announce itself now.

“I’m in love with you too, I can’t believe it took us nearly fucking” You covered your mouth, laughter bubbling up to the surface, Mikey couldn’t help it too, he started laughing with you. After a few seconds the two of you sighed contended with each other’s confessions.

You walked over towards him and threw your arms around him. Mikey hugged you tightly, your aroma so pleasant and comforting, he was happy it would be on his hoodie for a few days. He liked it even more that he would get to feel you like this, against him all warm and soft.

“Do you maybe wanna try this again and we’ll eat the pizza rolls afterwards?” You asked a little embarrassed by how turned on you still were.

He could have a beautiful girl? He could have pizza rolls with said beautiful girl afterwards? And she liked him back too?

“Sit on my face immediately” He responded without hesitation.

[the-music-maniac]

I got sucked back into Ever After High, so hoo boy get ready for a long ass analysis about a ship

Did I mean to get sucked into Rapple? Uh, no. Fuck no. I usually make it a point not to sell my entire soul to small fandoms because the inevitable lack of fics will just break my heart. But here we are.

I'm low key distressingly neutral about the canon/popular ships for Ever After High. Namely Dexter x Raven and Apple x Darling. I have absolutely nothing against them, cause they’re both really adorable. I don’t know if appling is canon actually but it is strongly hinted at, and while I’m ecstatic that there’s some form of lgbt rep (however small), and that Dexter isn’t sadboi anymore cause he’s with Raven, I’ve always just liked Apple x Raven way more.

I guess I’m posting this cause I want to analyze why I like Rapple specifically? This isn’t meant to attack either of these ships or shippers in any way btw! This is just my personal opinion, I just felt the need to mention dexter x raven and apple x darling cause they are (for the most part) canon. :))

Tbh i really didn't mean to make such a gigantic analysis about this, but I got carried away lmao.

1. Rapple has a lot of narrative tension and weight:

I feel like rapple has more narrative weight as a ship then most I’ve seen in the Ever After High fandom. These two characters are undeniably the focal point of the story, and while all characters in the show have backstories and well developed characterizations, Raven and Apple are the "leaders" and the main main characters.

Raven with Apple could make for a really a complex and interesting storyline. After all,  Ever After High is ALL about breaking free of your pre-determined destiny, it would be the perfect twist in the story for Apple to fall for Raven and vice versa. There's so much more to write with that kind of turn in the story; the growth of a relationship, character development, the backlash they might recieve from a hero and villain together, fighting what everyone else tells them they should be. Honestly if we're gonna go there, it kind of mirrors what lgbt people have to go through on the daily. In my eyes, appling and dexter x raven (I'm sorrryyy I don't know the proper ship name) pales a bit in comparison, just in the amount of weight they carry (not that it HAS to have narrative weight to be a good cute ship of course).

Darling for Apple is also unconventional and a plot twist, cause it no longer follows the stereotypical hetero-normative fairy-tale, and I absolutely ADORE Darling as a character, but in the end she is still a Charming. Apple is still pre-destined to fall for a Charming, she's still following what her destiny tells her she should be, and while that's good on one hand, cause Apple wants to follow her destiny, I feel like when she pulled Raven back from the brink in Wonderland, she realized that destiny is not so set in concrete and what matters more is the people behind those destinies. I think Rapple would really drive in that point; destiny or no destiny that’s not what matters. So while appling does have some narrative tension as well, it doesn’t make me gleefully go “oh my god FUCK, you wonderful DISASTERS, now you’ve gone and done it. Now you've fucking stepped in it. AMAZING.”, y’know? Dexter and Raven is the exact opposite.  Destiny-wise it's pretty unique and frowned upon, but again, heterosexual romance (not that I expect all the characters to be lgbt, that's not what I'm saying) so it also doesn't hold as much weight as Rapple. I'm greedy ok? I want both. I want aspects of both. Maybe I'm just a shit-stirrer though lmao, maybe I just need a ship that fucking destroys all expectations and fucks shit up in the process XDD. It's possible *shrugs*

2. The amount of growth they go through together.

So it's pretty undeniable that Apple at the beginning is....um. Selfish, if we're gonna go with mild language. Kind of a bitch if we're gonna go with stronger language. She doesn't give a shit that Raven will have a horrible life if she follows her destiny, all she cares about is her part of the story and her happy ending. But the thing is, Apple doesn't stay like that. She becomes Raven's roommate and friend, and when it really came down to it, during the Wonderland part of the story, even though Apple is the one who gives Raven the book, she doesn't push and shows her support in thinking that Raven is too good to become the evil queen. And then when Raven was almost lost, Apple is the one who pulled her back and told her to choose who she wants to be. She let go of her need for Raven to be evil and saw her as her own person; someone she cares about deeply. Raven on the other hand starts off unsure and kind of insecure. She was still figuring herself out, and trying to resist what everyone is trying to tell her; that she has to be evil. I feel like through her personal growth and Apple's influence she starts to be more settled, confident. And Apple's support before and after she signed her storybook in wonderland definitely helped. This mutual growth actually brings me to my next point:

3. Rapple has a very strong basis for a relationship

So there's a definite reason why I love the concept of enemies to friends to lovers SO MUCH, and despite what people say, no it's not just because of UST (i mean that's a bonus but far from the only reason). What I care about is again, the mutual GROWTH.

What enemies to lovers does (healthy enemies to lovers btw, rivalries and stuff, not abusive shit) is force the two people to confront the worst parts of each other first and foremost. Meeting someone for the purpose of dating/because you like them means you'll put up a fake, mellower version of yourself to impress them, but there's none of that if you start off hating each other. Clashing is also often because of some underlying issue or sometimes because of a weakness in character; there's numerous reasons, pettiness, unhappiness, jealousy, anger, but it's never because everything is perfect. This means that, in order for these two characters who dislike each other to end up together in any capacity, they have to grow as people first, become better versions of themselves, and in the process they help each other achieve that. They also have to learn each other and let go of whatever was nagging them and compromise. It takes work and I love that, so much more than just a kiss to fall in love, or love at first sight or any of that fairytale stuff. Because that’s exactly it, relationships take work. It takes people repeatedly choosing to stay and work things out, and compromising, and that’s, in pure essence, exactly what you’re doing in enemies to lovers. Not only that, but it means they willingly choose the other person despite their setbacks, because god knows they're not the easiest option, means they see the worst in each other and want each other anyways.

Raven and Apple already have that set up in Ever After High, the only difference is, canonically, they're only friends (which honestly is just as good, not everything needs to be romance but this is a shipping analysis, so, I’m gonna stay on brand here). They disagree with each other, and they annoy each other, and they fight sometimes and they're still best friends despite it all. They really truly know each other, and that I feel like is such a strong basis for a relationship. Other than Maddie, I don't think Raven truly is as close to anyone else as she is to Apple, and the same goes in reverse. They even live together. *leans forward creepily* oh my god they were roommates.

I don't know, I just feel like, with other Raven and Apple ships, there's always a hint of potential for a relationship that the show and books never really explored or developed extensively, while Rapple already has these solid af steel foundations that could be built on and made into something amazing.

4. We know the most about Apple and Raven respectively

This is a rather minor detail, and more about me personally, but I'm the kind of person that has to really know a lot about characters in order to ship them. I also have to like both characters but I feel like that's kind of a given for shipping. If I know very little about the characters involved I lose interest. I know the most about Raven and Apple, we follow them closely throughout the series, and in the books, we see things from their viewpoints. In contrast, I just don't know as much about Darling or about Dexter.

5. I just find them cute as shit tbh

This is pretty self explanatory, they're just plain adorable. Something about them makes my heart go squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oof this turned out WAYYY longer than I intended it to be, but anyways, stan rapple- or don’t y’know, stan appling or dexter x raven, or whatever other ships, stan ALL the other ships, ship anything and everything you want, be happy. I’ve been writing this ever since I finished my physio midterm and got this analysis idea that wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone so now my eyeballs feel like they’re about to fall out of my head, I’m gonna go pass out now, peace.

[lassieposting]

Bit late and random but it's the anon you leave food out for here to give away I am also bi and I think exactly the same as you about bi val pretty much, every time Derek offers me representation my reaction is to slowly, hesitantly take it and say "thaaaaaaaaanks..." while rolling my eyes, in much the same way one accepts their least favourite flavour of sweet from an annoyingly enthusiastic uncle-type-individual. Ironically I feel I had more in common with her before the bi shit started up.

What I find really amusing is that Landy actually did reasonably well at representation when (and only when) he wasn’t trying. 

Oh god, this got long, anon, my ass rambled.

tldr; I'm glad actual bi people dislike bi val (or how Laundry handled bi val) as much as me, this will probably offend at least one person but i don't really care, Dirty Laundry wrote better rep when he didn't mean to write rep at all, and if he ever starts trying to "represent" groups I'm part of I'll take him out back like a dying horse and shoot him.

Like, yes. He had stupid and potentially offensive shit - I say potentially because what offends one member of a group won’t necessarily offend all of them. His attitude to mentally ill people is, frankly, disgusting. We’ve had “Skulduggery can’t be abused, he doesn’t have feelings”. We’ve had “eVeRyOnE iS bI eVeNtUaLlY”. We had Ping, who seemed to be pretty much universally offensive. And that's what's always going to happen when a straight, cis, white, wealthy, male author tries to write marginalised groups he doesn't know shit about, because inevitably he's going to fall back on stereotypes.

But we also had:

SEXUALITY REP: Phase One's nonstraight characters were treated like the straight ones, and like, isn't that the whole point? There was no need for a massive Coming Out Story TM to grab for those sweet sweet Woke Points, because sexuality isn't supposed to be important to mages. I never understood why Val needed that whole Coming Out Panic storyline. Like...Des and Melissa are ridiculously supportive, encouraging, loving parents. They accepted you dating a ~19 year old when you were ~16. They accepted you revealing you could do fucking magic and that you'd been lying to them for like seven years. They took your undead buddy in stride and the most pressing question your dad had was whether magic toilets exist. There is zero reason to think that "I'm bisexual" is gonna be the thing that makes them flip and throw you into the streets in disgrace, Valkyrie. Come on.

Tanith had girlfriends and it was just mentioned casually, because it's normal.

China had massive UST with Eliza. That was an opportunity right there to not only include a f/f relationship, but also to bring back one of the few precious surviving characters from Phase One, using characters and a relationship that already had several books' worth of setup and tension and interest from fans.

The Monster Hunters have a casual conversation about which one of the Dead Men they'd date.

Ghastly has a conversation with Fletcher about the pain he's been through being in love. He never uses any pronouns.

It was confirmed at one point re: the Dead Men that at this point, after 300-odd years, everyone's been with everyone else at some point.

Thrasher is gay, and while Scapegrace's...everything...is treated as a joke/comedic relief, Thrasher's love for him isn't. He's completely devoted to Scapegrace, and that in itself is not played for laughs, even though the rest of the scene usually is. Thrasher's description of their first meeting is essentially a love-at-first-sight situation for him.

"ABNORMAL" RELATIONSHIP REP: Age gap relationships are normal for mages. Off the top of my head, using only canon, canon-implied or almost-canon ships:

Ghastly/Tanith (~350 year age difference)

Tanith/Sanguine (~250+ year age difference)

Tanith/Saracen (~350 year age difference)

Caisson/Solace (~250 year age difference)

China/Gordon (~400 year age difference)

Kierre/Temper (~500+ year age difference)

If you include fan ships, there's also things like Mevolent/Serpine or my Mevolent/Vile, which are both ~600 year minimum age gaps based on the timeline, or Valdug (and its variations) which is ~400 years.

Now, whether you consider this kind of rep positive or negative is up to you, but it’s there.

MENTAL ILLNESS REP: more like "Which characters in this series don't have a mental illness or a personality disorder?" I have some of these issues, but not all of them, so this is just how I read it, but:

ADHD: Skulduggery

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Skulduggery & Vile

Dissociation: Skulduggery again, most notably in DD and DB

Schizophrenia (or similar): Valkyrie & Darquesse, Valkyrie "seeing" Darquesse's ghost thing in Phase Two

Impostor Syndrome: Reflectionie

Autism: Clarabelle

Trauma/PTSD/CPTSD: Skulduggery, Valkyrie, China, Ghastly, Erskine...pretty much everyone has a believable, understandable, morally grey trauma response in this series. People struggling with trauma are spoilt for choice of characters to see themselves in.

TRAUMA REP: This series is a trauma conga line, but everyone has a believable, understandable, morally grey trauma response in this series. I see little bits of myself in more than one Phase One character.

Childhood Abuse (of varying degrees & types): Skulduggery, Carol & Crystal, Omen, Fletcher, Ghastly, China, Bliss, Sanguine...

Estranged Family: Skulduggery abandoning his crest, Fergus & Gordon, China & Bliss

Bad Romantic Relationship: Skulduggery is also very clearly an abuse victim. He’s got a solid history of romantic attachments to women who manipulate, use and gaslight him for their own agendas.  There's a whole paragraph in SPX about how Abyssinia broke him down, isolated him from his friends and preyed on his desperate need to be loved, all classic abuse tactics.

And I’m personally a huge fan of this backstory for two reasons:

1) Society likes a plucky victim in media. The "My suffering made me stronger" type of victim. And it's not always like that in real life. Not all survivors come out of their abuse stronger or kinder or more understanding. Some of us come out cold and fucked up. Some of us end up as emotionally stunted, bloodied-nails-and-bared-teeth survivors, broken in ways that can't be fixed and sustained by enough rage to power a small sun. But society doesn't like to tell the story of that kind of survivor, because we're not usually a likeable protagonist. When we're shown in media, we're usually the sympathetic villain, or maybe the antihero. But Skug is someone who's done awful things and lost pretty much all his faith in humanity and been burned more times than he can count, and he still makes the conscious choice to try and be the good guy when he could so easily go Evil Supervillain on the world, and I don't know about any of y'all, but I've modelled myself on him in that. I've made the choice to do something good when all I really want to do is just become a horrible, shrivelled ball of nastiness and revenge. And that's because I saw him do it and realised that I could do that too.

Skug is an incredibly capable, strong, masculine Man's Man. He gets in fights all the time, and he usually wins. He's military, an industry that's Really Bad for stigmatizing weakness and mental illness, and he's right up at the top of the hierarchy. Almost everyone is afraid of him. He's a straight up cold-blooded killer. Skulduggery Pleasant is precisely the type of person who's not normally portrayed as a victim of anything. Nothing about him screams "victim" at all. But his abuse history is insidious. He's so conditioned to respond in a certain way to abuse from the women in his life, probably from a very young age, that despite all that strength and capability and stubbornness and ego, he just goes along with it. And it's an established pattern going back hundreds of years. He keeps going back to China, even though he knows she's bad for him and his friends keep telling him to stay away from her. Abyssinia latched onto him when he was traumatized and vulnerable and weaponized it against him to make him easier to control - and when she reappears, hundreds of years later, she jumps straight back into using, tmanipulating and gaslighting him and not only does he let her, he doesn't even seem to realise that behaviour is abusive. He thinks it's normal! That's how he's always been treated by his long-term girlfriends, with the notable exception of Wifey. Even when Val is being fucking nasty to him in the first couple books of Phase Two, sniping and lying and blaming him for everything under the sun, he just takes it. There's no attempt to tell her she's being unreasonable, no telling her to fuck right off and give her head a wobble, no defending himself even when she's bitching over something that isn't even his doing. And this is a man who has an absolutely gleaming steel spine the rest of the time; Skug has no problem saying no to anybody else, but he can't get past the way he's been taught to treat the important ladies in his life. Skug is a walking reminder that anyone can be a victim of abuse, even the ones who seem least likely to be susceptible.

GENDER REP: This one is the most iffy out of the bunch and definitely was not done very well in the eyes of the people who matter most, but I'll include it anyway because it mattered to some.

So there's Nye, who's...agender? Genderless? And uses "it" pronouns? Nye was generally considered horrible rep because it's also a war criminal and experiments on people and I've seen people say "Well I don't want to be seen like that" but? It's still possible to be a war criminal and also genderless. I never saw the two things as being related or relevant to each other.

There's also Mantis, who's in exactly the same gender/pronouns boat as Nye and always seems to be forgotten about, which sucks because Mantis is a war hero. It fought for the Sanctuary during the War and they never lost a battle when it was in command. It's called out of retirement to fight for the Supreme Council in LSODM, ends up fighting alongside Skulduggery during the Battle of Roarhaven, and ultimately dies attempting a very brave, very risky strategy. Mantis is, unreservedly, one of the good guys. It was also my introduction to sentient beings using "it" pronouns, and did it in a way that felt natural, so when I met my first person online who used "it" pronouns and hated to be referred to as he/she, it was...weird, but not as weird as it would otherwise have been, because I was like, "Oh yeah, like the Crenga. Okay."

And then there's the Scapegrace sex change plotline, which...I might have an unpopular opinion on this one. From what I’ve seen, trans people don’t seem to think was handled well or with any sensitivity at all. I’m not trans, so if the trans community says he was being offensive to them, I’m not going to claim otherwise. But...I first read the Scapegrace plotline as a young teenager in a tiny rural school with zero diversity, going through a period of being deeply confused about my own gender identity. He was more or less my first introduction to the idea that genitals =/= gender. I was relieved, at that point in my life, to read someone having a lot of the same thoughts I was having about being in the wrong body. So while it may have been badly done and yeah, the series would probably have been better without it, it did make at least one kid suspecting she might not be cis go “Huh! So there are other people who feel like this.”

Thrasher is also implied to be legitimately trans/gender-questioning, and that's not played for laughs either.

So? Phase One, while it absolutely had faults and issues and things that were just "Oh god why", was actually full of rep, at least compared to the other series that I read as a child/teen. But? As soon as Dirty Laundry started trying to be woke? He fucking sucks ass at it. Aside from confirming Phase One's hints that Skug has a background of abusive relationships, every single attempt at shoehorning rep into Phase Two is Bad.

The painfully OOC, forced, badly-written awkwardness of Val suddenly being rabidly horny for women out of fucking nowhere. The stilted, forced cringiness between her and any of the women she's flirted with - contrast that with Sorrowscorn's interactions, full of natural chemistry that had us all like 👀 I mean, I never shipped Val/Melancholia, but I could always see why people did - they had miles more chemistry than Val/anyone in Phase Two.

The fucking mess that is v*litsa, because if someone says "I'm really not interested in friendships/relationships right now", clearly the route to true love is to bulldoze their boundaries and forcibly insert yourself into their life and proceed to treat them like a delicate soft uwu flower, completely ignoring the horrible things they've done, while gleefully damning their best friend as an irredeemable monster for the exact same things, which is. You know. Gonna affect your so-called love's self-confidence and self-esteem because she knows she's no different to him. Y'all know I love an angsty ship, an unhealthy ship, a ship with fucked power dynamics, but I literally cannot roll my eyes any further back in my head at this shit. I never read Demon Road, but from what I've heard from friends who did, it does seem like every time Laundry tries to write an f/f ship, he comes up with a cringey abusive/manipulative caricature and tries to call it rep, and he needs to Stop.

Val's Mental IllnessTM arc. It's funny how he wrote Skulduggery as a wonderfully complex character with deep-rooted psychological damage and long-lasting trauma, but believes he wrote a character with "no feelings" - but when he tries to delve into the damage the world of magic has done to Val, he turned her into a weak, whiny drug addict who treats everyone around her like garbage and is so selfish and dislikeable that I? Honestly can't even reconcile Phase Two val with Phase One val. They're two completely different people. He's shown on Twitter that he doesn't have any respect for mentally ill people, and it shows. Other mentally ill people might see it differently, but the whole thing just makes me go "yikes".

Never, who has no personality outside of being genderfluid, and whose pronouns make no sense. I'm sorry, I have never met an nb person who insists that you change from male to female pronouns multiple times in a sentence, every time you refer to them. It's confusing as fuck. Now I have been told that Never has apparently received some character development in the last couple books, and if so, fair play, but I quit reading after Midnight, and Never and the rest of the personality-less new characters introduced in Phase Two who just seemed to be 2D Stereotypes to snag Woke Points were a big part of why, so. Development too late, I'm afraid.

(Now, if anyone is looking for a well-written genderfluid character, I recommend the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb. I have a lot of issues with her as a writer, and unfortunately I hate her POV character which puts me off the series as a whole, but she wrote the Fool/Amber/Lord Golden and their gender identity/approach to sexuality with so much more respect and realism. That is the kind of rep nb people should be getting: 3D, complex, realistic characters whose gender is only a tiny fragment of their personality, not the be-all-and-end-all of their existence. You know. Like cis people get. Nobody wants to be represented by a 2D cardboard cutout stereotype.)

Anyway idk how much sense this makes it just really amuses me that Laundry would include all this rep completely unintentionally and then go on Twitter and remind us all that actually he's a massive asshole via insensitive/offensive tweets about the groups he'd actually done a fair job of including (i.e. Skulduggery has no feelings, mentally ill people should find another series to read, the bullshit about Val being "heteromantic bisexual" on Twitter and then spouting all the "the woman she loved uwu" shit in the books (proving he has no idea what he's talking about), eVeRyOnE iS bI eVeNtUaLlY. He can only write half-decent rep when he's not trying and he inevitably outs himself as having a really shitty attitude towards those people anyway, proving that ultimately it's all either unintentional rep or performative wokeness.

[lizacstuff]

SCK episode 46 asks!

Hi folks, below the read more you'll find a smattering of asks about this week's episode as well as a few spoilers for 47.

Good asks this week:

(under the cut)

Anonymous asked: this may be superficial of me, but why are they dressing Serkan in such ugly tops? they finally brought Eda's hair back but now this

BWAH! You're not wrong. You know what I'm wondering, if they've put him in some of those outfits because they are showing his suburban dad side? It's kind of a subtle nod to him embracing father hood and a different way of life? He's now all about running around the yard after his daughter and not about what he looks like when he's being SERKAN BOLAT, FAMOUS BUSINESS MAN and WORLD'S BEST ARCHITECT.

Also, Eda's hair, thank goodness they let that go once the flashbacks were over and we didn't need something to distinguish between then and now! Those curly bangs were not it.

Anonymous asked: They built up the Edser chemistry soooooo well throughout the episode... for that ending? Who decided to cut it there?! The scene was BEAUTIFUL I’m actually upset lol. are not we going to see any more? I’m not asking for a sex scene, I wanted to see THE moment they decided to get back together (the tattoo line doesn’t do it for me) - a few words, tears as they embrace, him walking through the door as she closes it, one passionate kiss, something! But it doesn’t feel like a cliffhanger that continues next week. I’ll be so underwhelmed when they cut to the morning after and we have to infer that they got back together overnight *sigh* if they were allowed 1 kiss only, id rather it have been here instead of ep 2

We do deserve to see how they reconcile, that should be one of the biggest moments of the season after 7 episodes of build up to it.

90% of final scenes in this show have continued uninterrupted the next week. To me there's no reason to think the next episode won't pick up right where this one left off. Crossing fingers!

Anonymous asked: It just hit me that Serkan is the “Kiraz” for Kemal - but Kemal actually missed his child’s whole 35 years 😬 this is an interesting turn of events. Also that line Serkan said about how fathers should love their child’s mother and how he didn’t have that with his own parents....but his real dad does love Aydan, more than she deserves haha.

Oh so true! Kemal really does love his mother more than she deserves! How he puts up with her, I don't know.

The parallel between Serkan/Kemal and Kiraz/Serkan is strong and I hope it gives Serkan some perspective when he starts grappling with this knowledge. I'm sure it's going to be very disconcerting for him, because while he expected to never see his father again, Alptekin is still his father. He's still the man who raised him and formed him into the man he is. Serkan still runs the company he founded and bears his name.

I don't expect any of that to change, but hopefully he can forge a separate relationship with Kemal that might fill some emotional holes that he has and bring him some peace.

None of that even contemplates how Kemal will feel, thankfully Aydan didn't willfully hide the truth from him. How awful to realize you lost 35 years.

We aren't there yet, but I wonder at what age with Kiraz learn the truth, that her dad is not an astronaut, that her parents went through hell with with cancer and plane crashes, and that her father didn't know of her existence until right before they met?

Just something to think about.

Anonymous asked: i'm so happy for hanker, don't get me wrong, and i'm also so happy we get "together" edser for so many episodes until the end, but i'm already tired of the constant "hanker improvising" comments i know i will be seeing. not that they don't improvise in some scenes, but i just know that every romantic edser scene is gonna be analyzed to hell bc ppl want to look for hanker in them. like there's no possible way that ayse, the writer ppl hate the most, could write any romantic scenes.. nope no way!

Yes, this is one of my pet peeves, I can't stand the "Edser left the chat" and all the "that's Hanker, not Edser" type conversation. it's so invasive and most of all disrespectful to not only the writers, but Hande and Kerem and all the work they pour into bringing Eda and Serkan to life.

One of the things in fandom that sets my teeth on edge is when folks take some interpretation of the character by the actor and then decide because it wasn't "scripted" (pro tip the vast majority of physical movements the actors make are "unscripted") that it must just be the actors themselves and have nothing to do with the characters. What an embarrassing and naïve assertion. Actors literal job is to take what's on the page and then translate that. So, no, OF COURSE, every look and touch is not scripted. The actors interpret how their characters would think and feel, and what they would do in given moments and then do those things.

Eda is not touching Serkan's arm just because Hande can't hold herself back from touching Kerem. Puh-lease, they are professionals. Grow up.

However, having said all that, I do think there was one scene that seemed to be very improvised this episode. The bean scene in the grocery store did feel like them just eFFing around. LOL.

andhewonherheart asked: @andhewonherheart: SCK promo department is best and worst all at the same time, cause giving away the last (cliffhanger) scene in fragman is just cruel. But based on the next week’s fragman thing happens that we we think happens *wink*

Hee! So true. The thing I'm grateful for is that in season 2 not one fragman has made me dread the episode, I think there was at least one fragman an episode from 29-37 that was hella upsetting.

As far as I'm concerned these fragmans are doing there job, making me want to watch.

I am really excited for Serkan planning how he's going to ask Eda to marry him, I wonder what Kiraz's reaction is going to be. So far she's been their very own cupid!

Anonymous asked: I didn't find it surprising that Serkan removed his tattoo as soon as Eda left. His logic is always out of sight out of mind though it doesn't work. He did the same when he broke up with her when he found out about the death of her parents. He removed all of her belongings. But their memories are too strong and enough for him to continue to remember her.

Truth! Will he ever learn that it's never going to work? He'll never be able to erase Eda, she has left an indelible mark on his soul. Let's hope he's never faced with that situation again! From here on out, he and Eda are together, a unit, and will live a long life together and in love.

Anyone have any guesses where Eda's tattoo is? Will we find out or will it remain between the characters.

Anonymous asked: I've seen some people say that Edser are getting married now way too fast and to that I just have to laugh lol. First there were complaints we don't have happy Edser and now when we do, of course there's something else. These two have had a rollercoaster of a year when they first met and a five year separation.. they've been through the dating phase, the engaged phase.. of course they'll head straight to the altar! It's not like Eda's plane proposal and that first wedding wasn't rushed either!

I'm on team head straight to the alter! No more waiting. They've had terrible luck, so they just need to tie the knot and make sure there are no easy outs.

As for people who think it's too fast, they don't even know the storyline yet, I swear there are folks who complain just because that's their personality and they're never satisfied.

Anonymous asked: From some of the spoilers of BTS pics, and the fragman we got, I was just reflecting on this season and Turk romcom dizis in general and I just wanted to say how LUCKY we are to see Edser married (again, from spoilers) and with a kid on screen for more than just 10 minute at the end of the finale. Like, it is really rare and as much as people have nitpicked on this season in general, I feel like watching these last episodes have been such a breeze after the last arc of S1.

Oh agreed, I think these episodes have been very enjoyable. The writers are giving me exactly what I want from this show. Comedy, UST, romance with a little light angst thrown in now and again. I would rewatch this season a dozen times before even thinking about watching anything from the 30s.

We are very lucky that we've got to see them as parents, and actually forming their family. We've gotten so much domestic goodness so far and we still have a ways to go. I'm very appreciative of this season and that Ayse came back, got rid of the constant ridiculous melodrama for melodrama's-sake and is telling a very human story about family and love persevering.

Anonymous asked: the last scene gave me chills for some reason. you could actually see eda fighting her head and her heart and deciding to take the step (metaphorically and physically!) towards him for good. i wanna SUE whoever decided to end it the ep there though.. it was actually cruel. also looking at the next frag.. it makes my heart soft that in the flashbacks we see serkan pushing off their wedding bc of his fears and now he can't propose and get married fast enough.. can't believe we're really getting it

I know, it's almost surreal at this point. Since we're near the end we know it's for real and won't be ruined by psychos or awful family members or terminal illness. I just hope that they give us an emotional scene when they get married, whether its just them or the whole cast is there as guests, after everything they've (we've) been through we need to see them both feeling that moment and reveling in it.

FYI - I'm out of town next weekend, so I may be slower than usual in replying to asks and in posting gifs of 47, but I'll get to it all eventually!

[unforth]

@castielscarma I've done this meme for Destiel, though it was a million years ago, so how about Rand and Aviendha?

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: oh Aviendha is so the werewolf and Rand is the hunter, except that Rand has no idea that werewolves exist and he's wandered into her territory and she assumes he's there to kill her so of course she's gonna strike first. She lays a whole ambush and catches him unawares, and he raises a blade to defend himself then realizes...he's being attacked by a woman...and hardly even defends himself. This infuriates her because she's been stalking him long enough to know he's a badass so what the fuck is he doing? She's too enraged to stop fighting long enough to ask...and he's nearly dead when she finally snarls out "what are you DOING" and he just manages a weak smile and a "light, you're so beautiful" before he passes out and it occurs to her she's made one heck of a mistake...and decides to nurse him back to health entirely so she can ask him to explain himself, and THEN kill him. (That's definitely the only reason she's helping him what other reason could she possibly have? Don't even suggest she thinks he's handsome she will rip your head off...)

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: Rand is the merman and Aviendha is the fisherwoman. She's so beautiful, and her legs are so long, that Rand lingers beneath the waves to watch her every day but it's not until her boat is capsized that he learns that she doesn't actually know how to swim, and he's forced to choose between rescuing her and revealing himself, or letting her drown. It's not until after he's saved her and she's seen him that the truth starts to come out - he is of her people, and wasn't born a merman, and no one can say how he ended up beneath the sea...but maybe together they can figure it out.

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: hmm...that's a super hard choice lol...I'm gonna go with witch Aviendha and familiar Rand, though both have a ton of potential. After her training with the Wise Ones, she is sent on a quest to find her familiar, only to spend years visiting every hold in the Wasteland and finding nothing. It's with utmost disgust that she finally gives up and ventures out into the wetlands to find her familiar...she hates to do it but she can never earn her birthright if she's not bonded to a familiar...and then she finds Rand, a stag familiar, and it's hate at first sight...except she's POSITIVE he's the one, and fuck her life, and how is she going to convince him to return to the Wasteland with her??

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: Rand is the barista working his way through college and Aviendha is the massively overachieving sports medicine major who runs on coffee and rage and is convinced Rand is an idiot cause he can hardly get out a sentence without tripping over his tongue when she's around. Fortunately, she's thinks he's hot, and breaks the ice by inviting him to fuck. Unfortunately, he actually really likes her and has no idea how to transition from being "strangers with benefits" to actually...being in a relationship. (He never does figure it out. Min intervenes and saves him from his own stupidity. She's aro and occasionally joins them as a third and realizes they're both idiots who've caught feels...)

who’s the professor and who’s the TA: they're both professors, Aviendha of women's studies, Rand of military history, and they never get along and are constantly arguing during faculty meetings except it's entirely based on their stereotypes of each other ("she must be a feminazi!" "he must be an actual nazi!") And meanwhile the rest of the staff are like...actually she's really brilliant? Actually he's really nice? Why can't they get along? (The answer is UST, and the conviction that the other hates them and they're both too stubborn to be the first to relent...until they end up having drunken hate sex after a holiday party...and are inseparable forever after.)

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): Aviendha is the knight and Rand is the prince. He's so soft, so coddled, she hates him...until she realizes semi-accidentally that the entire kingdom virtually is planning to kill him and he's alive solely because of his wits and ability to navigate social milieus. She discovers this after saving his life...and then nearly getting executed for her trouble...and getting saved by his ability to play the games nobles favor. Post rescue she expects him to be a dick and demand things of her but instead he just offers her a sad smile and says, "thanks for helping me...we're even now...stay away from now on if you value your life" and she realizes she is utterly screwed because there's no way he can leave him to his fate...

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: Rand is the single parent after a messy divorce from Elayne Trakand, legendary socialite (they're actually on okay terms, the messy part was because of the tabloids and her family). Aviendha is the kids' martial arts instructor, and she's always had a thing for Rand - he's gorgeous and nice and great with his kids, what's not to like? - but she's always coped by compartmentalizing and now that he's actually available she has absolutely no idea what to do and proceeds to screw up in increasingly spectacular ways until he finally, sheepishly (possibly terrified-ly) asks her out. They're married four months later.

who’s the writer and who’s the editor: Rand is the author and Aviendha is the editor. He's in a bind: he writes sensitive, intellectual chicklit, often with PoC and/or queer characters, under a female pseudonym and he's so afraid of getting found out (cause male authors are no go in that genre) that he enters a contest with the publishing house and basically creates an entire alter ego female persona? And they actually pick his book? And now he's completely screwed even as he finally succeeds? And it's even worse because his editor seems to genuinely like him and he's absolutely positive that she'll loathe him if she finally finds out the truth...still, manuscript by manuscript, collaboration after collaboration, he falls for her and is pretty sure she's falling too and that makes it so much worse to keep the secret...of course eventually the truth comes out and he's right at first, she literally stabs him with her letter opener...and then he's very very wrong and it's better than he ever dared hope.

(Send me an ask with a ship and I'll answer the above questions!)

[deadpuppetboi]

count the ways !

Oh, here I go, making edgy stuff again-

It wasn't suspected, really, it wasn't.

Millie got a buzz from her phone, just as she did she immediately felt a wave of dread wash over her as she picked it out of her pocket and looked at the message.

It’s here. Get out.

Millie looked over at the crowds of people around her, she was suddenly dizzy, turning around left and right, up and down to have to see where he was. It was that anxiety she had that wouldn't let her go and the only other person that would be the girl that clung onto her wrist and dragged her out of the crowd. Hannah took Millie away and sat her down on a random bench, her free hand on her phone she immediately texted the group chat.

Where is it?!

Around the corner, it's getting closer, nearby the Ferris wheel.

Hannah looked up from her phone, beyond the many arrays of people she saw the all too familiar black top hat floating around people’s heads. The sudden laughter reaching far and wide was already the topping point, the 14-year-old huffed as she grabbed Millie’s arm and ran off with her towards the other side of the carnival. Millie was tripped over herself, the tears that ran down her face clouded her vision as Hannah guided her towards safety.

’For once, this fucking thing couldn't handle this day out of all days to have to leave her alone?!’

Hannah thought, stopping by a corn maze, she thought twice before a booming voice echoed in the crowd.

”I HeArD Th-tHErE WaS A B-biRtHdAy gIrL SoMeWhErE Ar-ROuNd hErE!!!”

Shit!

Another buzz, Hannah didn't look at the text but she just gave the seemingly bored teenager a bunch of tickets and ran into the maze. Millie went along, her hands wrapped tightly around the other’s arm, she heaved in agony as they both ran off. They didn't know where they were going and honestly, this wasn't even a good idea, but it was the only way to have to confuse this thing and get out of here safely.

They made a somewhat dead end and an open pathway towards another path when Hannah checked her phone.

What the fuck are you doing?!

Hannah bit her bottom lip.

Doing something stupid.

There was an echoing laugh from afar that made Millie whimper.

And smart, just go to the Ferris Wheel, call me or text me, I don't care, just guide me and Millie out without that thing seeing us.

Hannah turned off her phone and buried it deep into her pocket, she looked at Millie for a moment before she turned around and ran with her. She honestly didn't know where she was going and she was terrible at mazes, but this was the first thing she could think of. She turned two rights and one left before her phone buzzed, she hid behind a patch of corn before she looked at it.

I'm on the Ferris Wheel, I'm about to go up, Brooke will be by the maze wither by the end or start to see you guys.

Hannah raised her glasses up to her face, she noticed for a moment that Millie was looking over her shoulder to read the text. She gulped, even if the text was a signal of hope it still meant that they had a long way to go before the could really make it out alive.

”Don’t worry, we just have to lose him in here and when the coast is clear we leave, just not through the corn, he might hear us and get to us quickly.”

Millie sniffed as she dried up the tears from her eyes, she wanted to say something but the clash of metal footsteps made her instantly shut up.

”I K-NoW YOu’rE A-RoUnD HErE S-OmEwHeRe! C-OmE ON OUt!”

That sounded close, too close.

Hannah ran off again, Millie on her trail as they took as many turns and twists as they could get. Hannah’s phone buzzed right when Millie’s own did as well, Millie checked her phone with Hannah leading the way.

”Dylan said to take two rights and go straight ahead.”

Hannah nodded and did what she was told, unexpectedly passing by a few passersby who looked confused by the two teenagers running for their lives. It didn't matter, what mattered more was getting out of this corn maze and getting the Hell out of here alive and well. The sound of the metal footsteps were nearby, God knows how far this maze stretched but Hannah wasn't taking anything for granted and did what Dylan was texting.

Another buzz, two buzzes.

”Stop, he's close, go left.”

Hannah tool a sharp turn left, no doubt making poor Millie almost trip herself in the process but by now they had to get used to this.

Another round of laughter.

”W-HeRe a-rE Y-Ou t-wO?! I J-UsT W-AnT T-O G-IvE T-T-ThE B-IrThDaY G-IrL H-Er b-iG B-IrThDaY S-UrPrIsE G-IfT!”

Counting Millie’s last birthday gift being a broken leg no one was taking a chance to have to think this one was any good. Hannah was about to take a right until she saw a glimmer of white from the corner of her eye, she gasped and turned the other way.

Another buzz came from the teenager's phones, Millie checked her phone and gasped, pushing Hannah farther forward, now she was taking the lead. Hannah didn't have enough time to comprehend why when she looked behind her, the image of the white and purple bear running towards them was coming fast, his footsteps not missing a single beat as he laughed his obnoxious laugh. He was close, so very close, close enough for his very hand-only hand to have to grab at Hannah’s braid if it wasn't for Millie yanking the girl towards the right and for the bear to crash against the corn stalks.

Hannah finally gasped, her breath held in for a long that it hurt finally brought her back to reality. She looked towards Millie as she turned three rights and a sudden left, finally pausing to catch her breath. The two teens caught their breath a bit, just for a few seconds as they looked down at their phones. Dylan had texted them multiple times on where to go, a lot of the messy and in upper caps but it all ended up in.

The ride is about to end for me, just go ahead three rights and four lefts and you should make it out.

Hannah held her breath as there was a sudden wave of dread that hung over her, Millie caught wind of this a second earlier so she grabbed the other teen’s wrist and pulled her away. They took three rights and four lefts without fail, no mistake whatsoever but they suddenly paused. With their eyes widening and the air getting sucked into their lungs they crossed a dead end.

It didn't make any sense, Dylan had to know where the end was, this had to be a mistake!

Unless he types anything wrong or maybe his glasses we're overdue which they could be, the teen girls felt their throat tighten up as they saw the sign hanging to the corn.

You made it to the end, congratulations, now you just need to find a way out!

Bullshit! This was complete bullshit!

Hannah turned around to have to run off but Millie was stuck on her two feet, her legs shaking and tears running down her face it took a moment before Hannah saw it too. The bear, with it’s splitting faceplates, glowing blue eyes, and it's ever so damning height overtook the teenagers as it giggled in excitement.

”I F-fOuNd y-oU...”

It took one step.

Millie was already sobbing, hiding her face in Hannah’s sweater the poor teen could only stand there and watch.

Another step.

”oH, i-t's t-iMe, I-T'S T-ImE, o-h, I-T'S A-LrEaDy t-iMe f-fOr t-t-tHe s-uRpRiSe!”

The creature giggled, it's faceplates moving about in excitement as it got closer, the two teen girls stepped away slowly right up until they hit the corn behind them. The bear giggled again, raising its nub like arm up, the sudden wrapping and twists came alive and out came a metallic hand from it. Hannah didn't have time to question it before it reached over its own stomach and then opened its hatch.

It was dark from the inside, the wires and metal plates weren't comprehensible from the full moon above or even by the lights at all. Hannah noticed Millie look up a little from her sweater only to whimper and look down again, trembling so hard that Hannah too was trembling with her.

”tHeRe’s r-oOm f-fOr o-OnE M-OrE P-ErSoN I-N T-HeRe, Y-Ou knOw, N-OtHiNg b-bUt a f-eW P-OpS ANd t-TwIsTs a-rOuNd y-oUr bOnEs t-o m-aKe t-hAt h-HaPpEn, R-IgHt?!”

It laughed again, getting so close that t finally reached over not towards Hannah but to Millie.

”ThE B-bIrThDaY GIrL A-aLwAyS G-gOeS FIrSt!”

There was a scream right after, not from Millie, not from Hannah, but from the bear itself.

It immediately flung into hysterics, it's whole body convulsing violently with sudden shocks until it finally fell down to the ground, stomach still open and eyes dimmed to a dull black.

Both Hannah and Millie looked up in pure confusion until the sight of a blond-headed girl greeted them, her pose strong and brave she held a tase gun in her hands. Brooke gave another shock towards the mechanical bear, making it convulse all around again until she felt satisfied enough to have to bring the case right back and put the case on it for safety. The two teens were still in shock, both their eyes and mouths hung open before Brooke finally spoke up.

”See, I told you carrying a taser around would be handy!”

Both the girls ran over to Brooke and hugged her tightly, making her give a small laugh and hug them back. The three girls instantly ran off through the corn, pushing away what they could to finally get out of there and see where Dylan was. Dylan was parked up on bike by the parking lot, he looked so relieved to have to see everyone alive and well.

The four teens then exchanged hugs before they finally went off towards Dylan’s house, Brooke on Dylan’s bike, and Millie on Hannah’s, they all rode off into the night.

A movie night was a better way to celebrate tonight anyways...

[quirkfics]

mistletoe

commission for a wonderful anonymous commissioner! <3

wordcount: 900

warnings: fluff, makeouts, hints of UST 

pairing: Monoma Neito x Reader

“Already?” Neito asks, pausing in the doorway when he catches sight of the boxes spread out around you. 

You jump, mildly startled, and give him a quick smile, going back to sorting through the decorations. “Last year, if you can’t recall, we had to rush to find them-”

Neito sighs, but he doesn’t even attempt to hide the smile that follows, crossing his arms over his chest as he leans against the door-frame. “Guilty as charged,” he confesses, watching you set aside a bag of old bows. 

“So I might be a little early. At least this time there won’t be any scrambling if you decide you want to have people over.” You hum, frowning at the tangle of lights that you know you rolled up nicely last year. Part of you wonders if there’s someone out there whose quirk involves tangling up cord lights, simply by proximity. It would explain why they always seem to come out a mess.

“True,” Neito says, pushing off of the door and coming to kneel in the middle of the room with you. He sounds distracted though, leaning over the boxes so he can have a good view of the contents. “Having a little get together here is… Kind of becoming tradition,” he mutters, hair falling into his eyes as he starts digging through one of them. 

You’re not sure what he’s looking for - and with the way he’s digging, one of his hands is going to get stabbed with decoration hooks - but you leave him to it. You have more important things to do, like sorting out this tangle of lights. He fast leaves that box alone, apparently not finding whatever item he’s decided he needs, and moves on to the next. You’re tempted to ask him what it is, but with the mess you’ve had to go through so far, you’re not actually sure you could help. You keep at the lights, humming softly under your breath and then jump when Neito makes a noise of triumph.

“Found something important?” You ask idly, raising an eyebrow when he turns to you with a smug smile on his face. “Or just something funny? Tetsu gave us those ridiculous- hey!” 

Neito takes the string of lights right out of your hands, carefully laying it to the side so it won’t get accidentally twisted about. His fingers curl around the back of your neck and you can’t help tensing, wondering what he’s going to show you that needs you to keep still. 

“Close your eyes,” he asks, thumb stroking. 

“Why?”

“Please?” He tries next, giving you the saddest, fakest pout imaginable. You shouldn’t give in to him as honestly, it doesn’t really move you, but… You trust him. Neito wouldn’t do something that would upset you, not on purpose.

Your eyes fall closed with a sigh, and a faint ringing noise echoes in the box as he grabs something from it. You have time enough to wonder if he’s grabbed something with bells on it, or if it’s that atrocious decoration from TetsuTetsu before he’s urging you to open your eyes and look up. He’s holding up an old and slightly crunched sprig of mistletoe above your head.

“Oh,” you say and laugh when Neito immediately tugs at you, capturing your mouth in a chaste kiss. You forget about the lights when the hand holding the mistletoe drops and his arm slips around you. He’s always like this, searching for ways to make your day just a little brighter, taking a task that is time consuming and sometimes irritating and giving you a reason to enjoy it. Or, in this case, enjoy it more. 

You could stop him, could tell him you still have work to do, but Neito makes the sweetest little noise when your teeth graze his lower lip, fingers pressing just a little harder into the back of your neck. He doesn’t want to stop. You reach up to cradle his jaw, tilting your head to deepen the kiss and he trembles under your touch like he’s ready to shake apart. You pull back, just enough to catch your breath, but Neito follows after you, mistletoe crushed against your back as he shifts closer. You kiss him again, and again, until the both of you are lying amidst the decoration boxes, making out like you couldn’t possibly have anything else to worry about, and- You don’t. Not really. 

You don’t need to get this done, not right this second, and Neito doesn’t always have the time to laze around like this. You let Neito kiss you until you’re both dizzy with it, faces warm and lips tingling, panting. You and Neito both seem barely able to keep your eyes open, they’re so heavy with wanting. When he pulls away for air, all the strength seems to leave him. Neito lays on your shoulder, hair brushing over your cheek, his eyes closing and discards the crushed bit of mistletoe on the floor.

“Could we finish the decorations up later?” He asks and you have to shiver, because his breath is warm through your shirt. “Because I believe we’re going to have to make a trip out for more mistletoe. You see, this one is all used and it’s completely necessary that I hang these over every doorwa-” Neito laughs when you disagree.

He still picks up more mistletoe the very next day.

[eirian-houpe]

Disparate Pathways - Chapter 10

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Characters: Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Belle (Once Upon a Time), Maurice | Moe French, Gaston (Once Upon a Time), Spinster(s) (Once Upon a Time: Think Lovely Thoughts), Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Blue Fairy | Mother Superior, Black Fairy (Once Upon a Time), Baelfire | Neal Cassidy, Emma Swan, Prince Charming | David Nolan, Colette (Once Upon a Time), Red Riding Hood | Ruby, Widow Lucas | Granny, Dove (Once Upon a Time), Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Wicked Witch of the West | Zelena

Additional Tags: Abusive Parents, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Violence, Gun Violence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Torture, Dubious Consent, Eventual Smut, UST, First Time, Drama & Romance, Kidnapping, Extortion

Summary: Gold has a past, a past that he has rejected, but it seems one that will not let him go.  Belle, daughter of Governor Maurice French has been kidnapped, along with her mother, and just as the authorities raid the organization that is holding her hostage, decides to make her own bid for freedom, unknowingly derailing an undercover sting, and Agent Milnor has not choice but to take her into 'protective custody,' but is he all that he seems?  As the threads of the story grow more tangled and the threat to Belle, and to Gold, her appointed protector, grow ever more real, a growing, mutual attraction makes everything far more desperate and far too personal for Gold to ignore what he knows to be the truth.

Read previous chapters on AO3

Chapter 10 - Mutual Ambiguity

For Belle, sitting in the Lee of the wall where Jefferson, if that was truly his name, had told her to wait, time passed with all the speed of a snail, and every sound made her more and more tense. She could hear the altercation from outside of the gate, and told herself she didn’t want to know what was going on, but there were just as many sounds coming from her side of the gate, and they were sounds that made her jump at every turn. Each gust of wind that stirred the leaves of the trees sounded like a hand pushing aside vegetation to reach her; every rustle of an animal in the undergrowth was a footstep coming nearer.

As painful as it was, her hands still held tightly to the gun, still trembled around the grip,so much that she almost daren’t rest her finger against the trigger for fear of setting it off by accident.

She heard the sounds from outside of the gate and didn’t really want to imagine what they were, beyond the murmur of voices, the sudden crack and following thud; the sounds of a scuffle then nothing for a long held breath. The silence became a sussurating hiss, and then footsteps, and Belle held her breath so much that her chest hurt with the effort of it. If she didn’t breathe, she wouldn’t be heard, and then the gate opened, and all the breath burst from her with almost a popping sound as she could make out Jefferson slipping through the gate.

“Jefferson…” she managed.

“We’re good. It’s all good,” he said. “I’m fine, but we gotta go. We gotta go now.”

As he spoke he reached out to carefully close his large hand over the top of the gun and lift it from her hands. She heard a soft click from the weapon before he slipped it into his pocket and then reached out his hand again, this time to grasp her elbow and help her to her feet.

Without another word he ushered her through the gate and out into the street, and then she caught sight of the two FBI agents that were sitting, slumped against each other with their hands behind their backs. She took in a gasping breath and tried to pull away from Jefferson, but his grasp on her arm was too strong.

“What did you—” she began, but he interrupted her, stopping and turning to face her, grasping her by both arms and leaning down to look her in the eyes.

“Look,” he began urgently, ��It was either me or them. I promise you there’s no lasting damage. They’ll both be fine.”

He let go with one hand and ran it through his hair. She couldn’t quite read his expression, it was something between frustration and contrition. It made her want to listen when he spoke again.

“You probably won’t get this, but those two men are not my people,” he said. “So, until I know whose side they’re on, this is the best I can do.” He nodded his head toward the two men to illustrate what he meant. “If I was wrong, I’ll apologize later, but right now. Right. Now. We have to leave. Get as far away from here as we can as quickly as we can. Okay?”

That was something that Belle could definitely get behind. She wanted to be anywhere but there, and for now, even though she still wasn’t sure of Jefferson, of his intent, she would go along with him. Perhaps more would become clearer later, and he certainly hadn’t done her any harm so far.

She nodded, but didn’t speak. Her gaze lingered on the two men on the ground as Jefferson led her across to the car, and helped her to get strapped in on the passenger side of the vehicle.

“You’re… stealing this car, aren’t you?” Belle accused as he slipped into the driver’s side, then watched his face as he contemplated the answer, as though he were trying to formulate an answer.

“That depends,” he said, and she could tell that it was an answer that he’d had to settle on, not necessarily the one he wanted to give.

“Oh?” hanging on to what little scraps of sanity and adrenaline she could muster, she injected a dash of sarcasm just as though she were mixing some kind of exotic cocktail. “Go on.  This should be good.”

“Well it all hinges on whether you believe those two men there truly are agents with the FBI. The car is is a Taurus, it’s clearly well maintained, and—”

“What the hell does the make of car have to do with it?” Belle snapped, finding mixology, and her skills at said art were not all they were cracked up to be.

“Well, if this is a Taurus, and they really are with the FBI—”

She cut him off again. He was going around in circles. “Is this. Their car?” she demanded, gesturing out of the window to where the two men were still in a heap on the ground, one of them, she noticed, had a slight scrap of lining peeking out of his pants pocket.

Jefferson looked at the men, and then back at Belle, and then at the men again with the same expression he’d had on his face when she first asked him. He pouted slightly, tipped his head to the side, and then looked down at the key fob in his hand.

“Don’t think it matters at this point,” he told her, pushing the key home into the ignition, shifting the car to reverse, and then half turning with his arm along the back of her seat as he set the car in motion, began driving it backwards at speeds she didn’t think were at all appropriate for the less than roomy width of the street, all but singing as he did, “This is a Taurus, they claim to be Feds, and I need a vehicle, so… No.  Not theirs. Mine.”

Clearly it bothered him, though, as he reached the end of the narrow road and swung the car out onto one of Boston’s lesser known side roads he huffed as he shifted the car into drive. Belle left him to his thoughts for a while until they had mingled into the anonymity of the heavier traffic around the center of the town, and then asked, “Where are we going anyway?”

“Somewhere safe,” he said, his eyes ever moving, checking traffic to their left and right, and watching for longer periods of time in the rear-view mirror. “North,” he added at last, turning right, and following a sign that promised Interstate 95.

They drove in silence for many miles, Belle contemplating everything that had happened, feeling her weariness and the pain of her injuries sharper now that she had time to stop and sit in relative safety. She thought about Jefferson too. His actions, his words, his unspoken sense of… she shrugged mentally, unable for the longest time, to find an appropriate word to describe what Jefferson was. He certainly seemed to mean her no harm; claimed to be taking her to safety, and yet he had been there, in the house, with those horrible men and women who did unspeakable things. True, she’d never actually seen him participate in those things, but…  by association, surely he was guilty. She supposed it fair to say that she’d had very little to do with him. He had never been assigned to oversee any aspect of her captivity, and she’d only ever seen him in hallways, or in passing - until today. In fact, she thought, he seemed to hold himself back, refuse to truly embrace the moral turpitude the others displayed. The more she thought about that; about the way he’d behaved since their escape, and about his clear discomfort after their earlier conversation, about the car, the more he seemed to her to be… well… ambiguous.

That was the word she had been looking for all along. He was ambiguous. His entire being was ambiguity incarnate, and while being with him now was a whole bucket load better than being a captive, it didn’t necessarily mean that she was any safer with him than she had been before, and as crazy as the thought sounded, as she spotted a sign announcing that a rest stop would soon be coming up, she decided she might be better trying to go it alone.

“There’s a rest stop ahead,” she told him softly, and raised an eyebrow when he glanced over at her. Then shrugged at him. “I couldn’t really use… well… little girls room, you know?”

He glanced at her again, then back at the highway and she watched as little furrows of thought creased his brow, and shifted the expressions on his mobile face, even into his hair. Then, as they sped past the one mile warning, he let out a soft sigh, and said, more gently than she expected, “Fine, but we’ll have to make it a quick stop for now. There’s no guarantee that someone won’t come looking for us, and I’d rather put a few more miles between us and Boston before we start to let our guard down.”

By the time he’d finished his explanation, the off ramp that led into the rest area was immediately on their right, and he pulled onto the roadway, the rumble of the tires a different cadence and inertia tugging her back from the seat as he applied the brakes. A moment or two later they pulled into the parking space out front of the building that housed the facilities.

She tried to unclip the seatbelt and get out of the car before he could do the same, but the stiffening of her injured hands prevented it, and he had opened the passenger door, and was reaching in to help her, then to take her by the elbow and tug her out of the vehicle, keeping a hold of her in what felt as though it was meant to be a supportive manner, and after closing the door behind her, led her into the building, and almost into the ladies’ room itself.

“Um…” she reminded him softly, nodding her head toward the sign beside the opening.

“Right,” he muttered, and then cleared his throat, but sounded uncomfortable still as he said, “Sorry.”  He let her go then, and she faltered slightly, before she began to walk into the designated rest room.  She hadn’t counted on him being quite so attentive, and cursed herself under her breath, trying to think of a way to get him to be anywhere but hovering outside waiting for her return.

“You… you think this place has any kind of… vending or something?” she asked, turning back to him, where he was waiting, leaning with his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulder against the tiles, feet crossed at the ankles.

“I’m sure it does,” he answered. “Why?”

“Feel like I need something sugary… you know?” she answered, trying not to blush or give anything away as he gave her a long, steady look.  Finally he nodded, and it was all she could do not to let out a huge sigh or relief.

“Five minutes,” he told her. “Meet back at the car.”

“Five minutes,” she agreed, and suddenly she felt guilty for the way she intended to betray his trust as soon as he was out of sight.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hi! Do you have any Sterek AU that comes close to a One Tree Hill universe? I would love to find two of my favorite things together!

I know! They mesh so well. But there’s not many. Any writers out there....it would make anon and I very happy if you would write us a fic. We’re not picky. Just perfect UST, pining and at least 40k. No big deal. Until then, here’s what I found. (I threw in some non sterek as well)

Not a Socialite by FrozenDonkeyWheel

(1/1 I 7,026 I Teen I Lydia/Brooke)

London is full of everything: sights, sounds, history, and people. But for Lydia Martin, on vacation in one of the world's greatest cities, it contains something even better. Someone, specifically. The someone she's been waiting a long time for, and she never even knew it.

Another Wolf by Alphanimpala92

(25/? I 44,023 I Explicit)

Stiles Stilinski,Derek Hale, become really close, like best friends, gaining feelings for each-other. but what happens when Stiles goes to spend the weekend with his mom, and become involved with another guy. Derek become jealous, his wolf grows angry. taking it out on the rest of his friends, until he find out who the other guy is. feeling like giving up and walking away.making Stiles come clean about how he feels for Derek. and not the other guy.

also the Derek and Jackson tag and Derek and Danny tags are for past tense. i also have tagged everything i could for this story; so there should not be any more issues.

One Beacon Hills by 182daysof

(15/18 I 73,141 I Mature)

Three years four months and two days we return to Beacon Hills and somethings have changed, some of them have reached the goals they set as teens: Stiles is a Deputy, Lydia is a respected scientist and Scott became the vet he was destined to be. Some didn't: Derek lost his inheritance and started work as an EMT. Following on from Lydia's influence Malia has become a fashion designer, and Peter Hale is locked in Eichen House. But, after Lydia encourages Derek back home to Beacon Hills old hurts and feelings will be cracked free between Stiles and Derek especially when a body is found in the woods on Hale property.

[friendlylocalwhumper]

content warning: referenced/implied past noncon.

Emory’s fingers trace lightly across Lux’s chest, warm and soft. As his fingertips trail over scars, he recalls the stories, the confessions, that Lux has given for some of them.

H-he had a knife, Lux whispered, once. He had a knife and I w-wasn’t allowed to yell.

The whip. Most-, mostly hit my back, but he, he kicked me over and got my front ‘cause, ‘cause it hurts more like that.

Glass. Got pushed, fell on a broken - broken table? Was dizzy, ‘m not sure... long time ago.

Emory hates knowing, but what he hates even more is guessing and picturing all the ways Lux might have been hurt.

So when his touch finds a small arc of bumpy scar tissue, Emory has to ask.

“Lux?”

“Mmm?”

“What’s this from?”

The warlock tips his head up to look down at his own chest; as soon as he sees the scar, he lays his head back and stares up at the ceiling.

“What’s it look like?” Lux replies, no accusation or frustration in his tone.

“Looks like…” Emory knows what it looks like, but he just can't imagine, can’t accept, how Lux got it. “A bite mark.”

“It is.”

Emory lets his hand slip away from tracing the scar, brows furrowed. “Someone bit you? That hard?”

“Some -“ His voice cracks, so Lux swallows past the lump in his throat and tries again. “Some people are into that, I guess.”

“Not that hard, though.”

“No, not that hard.” The warlock shifts slightly, uncomfortable with the topic but not yet with the proximity. “...I, I didn’t…”

“I know you didn’t want it,” Emory supplies, and he watches Lux close his eyes, sigh, and force the tension in his body to ease up.

“I hate that one. It hurt so much, and h-he made fun of me for my s-sounds, and… it’s embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?” Emory places his palm over that scar, and Lux relaxes a fraction as soon as it’s hidden from sight. “Why is it embarrassing?”

“It’s - it’s - it’s different. It’s just different. Even just, ju-ust twenty minutes getting h-hurt like that is w-w-worse than, than - anything else. It’s so - personal. And I, I ha-, it’s disgusting. I don’t even kno-ow how someone could b-be with me after I - after s-someone did that. To me. So, it’s embarrassing. Can’t get rid of that - that feeling of h-hands on me, ever.” Lux draws a few wavering breaths. “Except when it’s y-your hands.”

Emory frowns and slides his hand down to Lux’s waist, holding him gently. “Were you nervous about me noticing that scar?”

Lux gives a tremulous hum in answer.

“I already knew that’s happened to you.”

“‘s different seeing, seeing it. I know I, I feel sick when I see it in the mirror.”

With a kiss to Lux’s shoulder, Emory holds him closer. “It doesn’t make me feel that way. Makes me sad that you went through that, and angry at the person who did it, but that’s all. You know I think you’re beautiful, Lux. Perfect. I don’t see the ways you’ve been hurt or the people that laid hands on you when I look at you, Curls. I don’t think of you like that.”

“B-but, that’s how I th-think of myself.”

Emory looks up. “It is?”

Lux nods. “Think of myself as, as sitting on the floor, chained up in the cellar, all - hungry, and hurting, and alone. Or, on that, that bathroom floor, making - sounds, couldn’t fight’im off… or hiding, hiding with other - dirty, scared warlocks. That’s me. Hurt and scared and hiding. W-waiting to be hurt again.”

“Waiting to get more scars,” Emory guesses, and Lux nods. “Honey, you’re safe now. That’s not gonna happen anymore. You won’t get hurt like that again.”

“That’s not true, though.” It’s so rare for Emory to hear despair in Lux’s voice, hopelessness, but there it is. “Sounds nice, but it’s not true. I’m gonna get hurt. I always get hurt. If I go outside, if I keep using magic, if I see my Resistance friends. It’ll never stop.”

“It will, I promise. It’ll get better. It has to, Lux. When you’re older, stronger. One day you’ll stop getting scars.”

“I-I want that,” Lux admits sadly. “I want it to stop.”

“It will. And I’ll be with you the whole time. We’re gonna make it, Lux, we’ll grow old together.”

The warlock makes a hoarse, emotional sound. He hasn’t ever even thought he’d grow old, let alone have someone with him along the way.

“I’d like that,” He murmurs. “I want - I want it so bad.”

“Then we’ll make it happen. That’s our goal. We’re gonna make it, I promise, Curls. My little old husband with wrinkles and scars and floppy grey curls. We’ll have rocking chairs and grandbabies and we’ll be the cutest old couple.”

“Oh, my shoulders will be so bad by then. A-and my hip.”

“I’ll carry you around, I’ll massage your shoulders when they hurt. We’ll have a big soft bed that we never wanna get out of.”

“And a garden?”

“And a garden. We’ll need to hire someone young to tend to it though.”

“No, just help me get outside, I’ll do it.”

Emory cuddles up against Lux, resting his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I can’t wait, Curls.”

No longer staring up at the ceiling with weary eyes, Lux tips his chin down against Emory’s head and hugs him back. “Me neither.”

[gaycrouton]

Times they did something which could be considered 'intimate' or something couples would do

Ten Times Mulder and Scully were intimate in their own unique way. UST. MSR.

Huge shout out to @admiralty-xfd for her beta and for helping me think of a good chunk of these.

I

“What’s this?” she asked, picking up the metal key he’d set on her desk. She already had a key to the office, she didn’t need another one. She flipped it over and saw on the other side, the word ‘SCULLY’ was written in black marker in Mulder’s signature scrawl.

“It’s a key to my apartment,” he responded. A permanent key to his apartment.

She felt a look of surprise pass over her face as she raised her gaze to look at him. “W-what’s it for?”

He looked at her for a moment, almost nervous, and for some reason it made her nervous. “Are you still available?” he asked. She was learning he was a bit of a flirt, but this was a little bold even for him. She’d just told him that she broke up with Ethan less than a month ago. She still kept forgetting he liked Iced Tea when it was her turn to run and get lunch. And now he was inviting her over for…?

“…For what?” she replied, tracing the ridges of the key with her thumb.

“Remember,” he started, sitting at his desk while maintaining eye contact with her. “You said you could feed my fish while I go to Pittsburgh this weekend.”

Memories of a sleepy agreement dawned on her and she felt embarrassed for jumping to conclusions. “Oh, yeah-sorry,” she laughed awkwardly, feeling blood rush to her face.

A surprised smile quirked his lips upwards as he caught sight of her blush. “Did you think-”

“No, no. I just forgot. I’m still available,” she interrupted, not wanting to hear him say it out loud.

“Thank you, do you remember the address?” he asked.

“Hegal Place in Alexandria, right?” she replied, diverting her attention to her work.

“2630 Hegal Place, apartment 42,” he replied with a nod, seemingly pleased she was right. “Scully,” he added, prompting her to look at him.

“Yes?” she replied, looking at him expectantly.

“Are you implying you wouldn’t be interested in becoming roommates?” he joked with a wink.

Now, a few days later as she stood in the middle of his apartment, the answer would have to be no.

This was, in every sense of the word, a bachelor pad. She’d fed the fish after searching for the food for a minute, and had spent the rest of the last ten minutes taking a self-guided tour. She didn’t want to invade his privacy…she was just curious.

A framed basketball jersey, an odd affinity for Aztecian home decor, a refrigerator filled with expired foods and liquids, it was so stereotypically ‘man cave’-y that she couldn’t help but smile. She could see the quirks she’d noticed in the office manifest here. Being in his apartment, in some odd way, felt like being with Mulder. His sunflower seeds were in a pile on his kitchen table, surrounded by… copies of The Lone Gunman? She hadn’t heard about that publication, but he seemed to have quite a collection.

Not only were the traces of Mulder activity present, but she could still smell his cologne around the apartment. She chastised herself for how oddly comforting the whole place was. Minus the fact his bedroom looked like a storage unit for miscellaneous crap rather than a place to sleep.

When she’d decided she’d intruded quite enough, she went into the living room to grab her purse off the table but got distracted by the bottom row of his bookshelf - which was filled with something that didn’t quite look like books.

Upon bending over, she was met with:

Night Trips

Nothing to Hide

Debbie Does Dallas

Latex

The Opening of Misty Beethoven

In the Office

Her mouth dropped open as her eyes widened at the collection. Oh my god…there were so many. She wasn’t disgusted or anything, it was natural he’d want to…stress relief, but surely-

Well, actually, they never actually brought up if he had anyone. It didn’t seem like he had a girlfriend, sometimes she could tell he was lonely. She still regretted teasing him with “Unlike you, Mulder, I would like to have a life.” It hurt his feelings and she could tell. But, he was an attractive man. There was no denying that. Surely if he wanted to…indulge himself…it wouldn’t be hard for him to find someone who wanted to join. Even I-

She stood up quickly, breaking her own train of thought and shaking it from her mind. This is why you don’t intrude, Dana.

II

Usually she was pretty good at checking forecasts before they ran off to whatever part of the country Mulder dragged them to. This was not one of those occasions. She just didn’t realize how fucking cold it got in Indiana at night. It was only September. But heaven forbid Mulder warn her, he clearly knew to come prepared if his big warm jacket was any indication.

Mulder’d asked her several times if she was cold, but all it did was serve to piss her off more. They’d been snapping at each other since they got here and every little thing was just aggravating him. The flight was late, the witness stood them up, the police were treating them like jokes. He clearly was pissed off because he felt bad he’d dragged her there, and she was pissed off that he was acting like she was just following him around and that it wasn’t her assignment too or her choice to go there.

It was just a series of little things being blown out of proportion and it was even more frustrating being that they both could acknowledge they weren’t really mad at the other but they were too fucking stunted apparently to just apologize.

They’d been walking for a few blocks now, the 'three blocks over’ the sheriff had told them in reference to a diner was turning into fifteen, clearly either being wrong or a practical joke. Her jaw hurt from clenching so hard to keep her teeth from chattering. It was juvenile, but she didn’t want him to take her freezing as another lash of guilt to add to himself.

“Scully- he started.

“I’m fine, Mulder,” she replied tersely as she stabbed her fingers against the 'walk’ button.

She drew her arms into her chest in an attempt to compartmentalize her warmth, and then suddenly she felt something warm and relieving drape around her shoulders. She looked over and saw he’d taken off his coat to give it to her with a look of contrition littering his face. “Listen, Scully. I’m sorry I’ve been short with you all day.”

She grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled them further in on herself, burying her face against it and internally reveling in the lingering scent of him still present. “I’m sorry too. I just don’t want you to think I’m some stray dog you brought along for the ride-”

“I’d never think of you that way,” he interrupted gently.

“Then stop saying you 'dragged me out here.’ I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to,” she told him earnestly.

“Thank you,” he replied softly, placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to help warm her up as they walked across the street. “I guess I’m just a little embarrassed,” he shrugged.

“Don’t be, they just don’t understand you,” she comforted, feeling exponentially better in the warmth of him.

“Well,” he sighed, rubbing up and down her arm as she bumped into his side from walking so close. “At least you do.”

III

“Wait,” she called out, stopping him as he turned to part ways in the middle of the parking garage.

He turned back around wordlessly, waiting for her to continue, and was surprised to see that she seemed more shy than she’d just been a moment ago. She started fumbling around in her purse as she talked, and as much as it was probably to find whatever object she was looking for, he was equally suspicious that she was avoiding eye contact. “I, um. I just thought that, you know, since we’re in so many stressful situations all the time that it might be convenient for you to have this.”

As if punctuating that last word, she pulled out something small and silver and extended her hand out to him. He held his hand out and let her drop something metallic into his palm. When she pulled back, he saw it was a key and he felt oddly proud of this display of trust. “Is this to your apartment?”

She lowered her gaze and paid a slightly ridiculous amount of attention to zipping her purse. “Yeah, I just figured that if I have yours it’s only fair that you have mine.”

“Thank you,” he smiled, pulling his keyring out from his pocket and flipping them so that her key would be right next to his.

“But use it wisely, Mulder,” she warned lightheartedly. “This isn’t an invitation for you to bust into my apartment whenever you please.”

“You’re no fun,” he teased.

IV

Should he leave? Does she know he’s here?

They’d been investigating a lead at a church and he lost sight of her. When he caught up with her, he found her kneeling at a pew with her hands clasped in front of her. He could see her lips faintly moving and he suddenly felt like he’d intruded on something extremely intimate.

Yet he couldn’t look away. It was touching, seeing her in her element, and in this moment he felt like he got a taste of what it was like for her to work with him everyday.

He didn’t understand it; on a fundamental level this wholehearted trust in one being to have complete and utter control in your life seemed overwhelming. It was the very same thing he fought against everyday, he couldn’t imagine finding any comfort and solace in it.

But yet he respected it because it meant so much to her. To her it was the backbone of her being, a guide for all she did. And anything that meant so much to Scully was important.

4He was watching her perform this ritual with practiced grace. He felt like it might have been intrusive, but he watched her lips move with rapt fascination. He saw the word 'mom’, he saw 'Bill’, and then he saw something that made his breath catch in his throat.

Scully prayed for him.

V

“Mulder,” he states into the phone, only to be answered with dead silence for ten seconds. He adjusts the phone against his ear as he turns his blinker on to switch lanes. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me,” Scully’s voice replied from the other end. She sounded apprehensive, but he figured maybe she was worried because he wasn’t usually late to work.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I’m almost there,” he apologized, turning onto the street of the Hoover Building.

“Oh… um. Okay, I’ll see you here,” she answered oddly.

Something was off but he wasn’t sure what it was. “Is everything okay? Did you need something?” he asked.

“No, no. It’s fine, nevermind,” she rushed.

“If you need me to pick something up for you I can, I promise it’s no inconvenience at all,” he earnestly reassured as he passed the entrance for the parking garage.

“Can you pick me up some-,” the last word she said was mumbled and he was curious if there was someone in the office she didn’t want to overhear.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Could you pick me up some tampons? I don’t have any and I can’t find a dispenser or a generous coworker and I really need them,” she mumbled.

Scully was asking him to do a personal favor.

Sometimes he felt like he unloaded so much of his own personal baggage onto her and she never asked for anything in return. In all honesty, they’d been partners for three years now, yet she was still a bit of an enigma to him. It didn’t matter to Mulder in the slightest that asking him was her last choice, he was just over the moon that she’d tasked him with something so important and not work-related.

“Of course I can. I’ll stop by Walgreens right now,” he comforted. He could only try to empathize with her situation and even then he felt like he wasn’t doing it justice. Was she in pain? Was she bleeding on herself?

He really didn’t know, but what he did know was that he wanted to do all he could to help her.

“Thank you, Mulder. I really appreciate it,” she replied.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll see you in a few.”

He lasted a minute in the aisle before calling her again. “At the risk of sounding like a stupid man, I’m confused,” he admitted.

“Usually there’s a feminine hygiene section next to the pharmacy-”

“No, I found them. I just found too many of them. What do the letters mean? Does it matter what color they are?” he asked, scanning the aisle filled with boxes adorned with women playing tennis on them.

He could hear her smiling and was glad to know his confusion was easing her prior self-consciousness. “Um, aim for getting the ones that say S plus, please. If you see a multipack that’d be great.”

He looked around and found a section dedicated to multipacks and there he saw ’S plus’ meant 'Super Plus’ and his heart went out to her. “Do you want Kotex, Playtex, or Tampax?”

“Whichever’s cheapest is fine,” she replied before quickly adding. “But no cardboard applicators!”

“Cardboard applicators?” he repeated, confused.

He heard her chuckle under her breath before informing him, “The part you put in to get the tampon in. Most are a smooth plastic, but some sadistic, cheap man invented ones with cardboard instead and they hurt.”

Well that man be damned. “Okay, how does a one hundred and twenty pack, equally divided between 'R’, ’S’, and ’S plus’, of Kotex with a plastic applicator sound?” he asked, grabbing the box.

“That’s probably expensive. I’m really fine with just the small pack,” she told him as he walked to the chocolate aisle.

“Sure. I have to pick up a few things, but I’ll be over in a sec okay?” he replied.

Kotex 120 Pack - $24.99

Midol Complete Symptoms 40 Capsules - $6.99

M&Ms - $0.99

————————————–

Tax: 3.42

Total: $36.39

On the way into the building he started to fear she’d be mad at him for getting things she didn’t ask for, but he felt confident in his decision when he walked into the office and caught her grabbing her side with a pained grimace on her face, her lips pouting and her brows furrowing in discomfort. “Hey,” he greeted gently, not wanting to startle her.

She jumped and immediately let go of her side and put on a brave face, making him worry how many times she’s hidden her pain in the past. “Hey, thank you,” she smiled as she took the bag from him, her smile turning into confusion when she realized how heavy the bag was.

He stuffed the receipt in his pocket as he sat down, trying not to make a big deal out of this. “Mulder,” she drew out, shifting the contents around the bag for inspection. “This is very sweet, but you really didn’t have to.”

“I know,” he shrugged, turning on his computer.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Nothing, they were giving stuff away for free,” he teased.

“Mulder, no. This must’ve been expensive. I-”

“Consider it a thank you for all the hard work you do even though you’re in pain. I don’t mean that condescending or anything, I just feel bad that you have to deal with this every month,” he explained awkwardly.

She smiled at him and looked back at the bag before gasping, “M&Ms!”

VI

“Mulder, I’m fine.”

He hadn’t even asked the question and he could already hear her curt answer. It was the same answer he’d been getting for the past month.

But she wasn’t fine, and it was obvious.

He understood it was hard for someone as private as her to open up, but he wished she recognized it was just as hard to have to sit and watch her get thinner, paler, and sicker everyday yet be expected not to care.

And that’s really all he could do. Sit and watch.

Which is what he was doing and how he noticed the way her body lurched while she was looking at her computer, eyes widening before standing up as all the color drained from her face. “Scull-” he began to question.

“I have to go t-” her words were only the ghost of a whisper, as if she didn’t want to actually give them a voice, but he still heard them.

She turned to leave but just as quickly turned on her heel and let her eyes scan the floor as she raised a hand to her mouth.

Oh

He jumped up and quite literally leaped into action, reaching an arm to the side of the desk she wasn’t on and pulling the trash can from the floor so he could pass it to her.

She snatched it out of his hand in her hurry and turned her back to him as she set the trash can on the floor, fell to her knees, and threw up. Her entire body was being wracked from the force of her vomiting, and he was at her side in a minute.

He grabbed her hair, focusing on the front and sides to avoid any strands falling and getting in the way. With his other hand, he rubbed soothing circles on her back as he whispered, “It’s okay, Scully. Let it out. Please don’t cry.”

He felt himself trying not to choke on the last words as he saw her lip quiver in between her now sporadic bouts of dry-heaving. The first two rounds were powerful, what looked like her entire, miniscule lunch coming up, but these last few were just strained sounds as her body tried to throw up nothing - which was all she had left.

Mulder took his hand off her back momentarily as he strained to grab his mug of water from his desk, eventually looping his fingers around it and pulling it down to give to her. “Here,” he offered as she sat up straighter.

She looked at the cup only, avoiding his eyes, and grabbed it with both hands before bringing it up to her lips and taking small sips. “It’s just a side effect of the medicine I’m taking,” she murmured softly into the cup.

He knew. Nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, weight changes, mood swings. He looked up every single piece of information he could find when he was able to read the medicine label one day. It was the only way he could bite his tongue when he saw her sway on her feet or ask the same question twice within five minutes or continue wearing her old clothes even though they hung off her skeletal body or when she managed to look him in the eye and tell him she was seriously fucking fine. It made it easier on him; She wasn’t dying, it was the medicine.

“I didn’t want you to see that,” she admitted and he felt like he’d finally taken a breath of fresh air after suffocating for weeks. She was being honest.

He watched as she untucked the trash bag from the can, bringing the edges together and tying them up to conceal her puke. “I want you to know I’ll always be here for you,” he told her.

She looked over at him and he saw her eyes were red, puffy, and wet. No tears had fallen, but they were wet enough to reflect her pain to him. The same pain he heard in her voice when she said, “I know you will.”

VII

He was a little worried when she wasn’t answering or returning his calls. His worry morphed into full blown concern when she wouldn’t answer the door when he knocked. Want to meet at my apartment at six?

They had plenty of time before they needed to be in Harrisburg, but it was unlike Scully to be late, even more unlike her to be unresponsive. He got out his key ring and found the one he seldom had the opportunity to use.

He timidly let himself into her apartment with his key, not wanting to evoke fury from his not-so-morning person partner. “Scully?” he called out, letting the door close behind him. All the lights were off, the only light streaming in through the blinds and making the dust motes in the air dance.

Surely she didn’t get the plans mixed up.

He heard a sound from down the hall and he followed it calling her name once more before reaching the doorway of her bedroom to alert her of his presence.

Oh.

Scully, his perfectly punctual partner, slept in.

The blinds to her window were pulled up completely so he could see her perfectly through the blue light of morning. He felt himself holding his breath in an unneeded attempt to maintain the serenity of the room as he tiptoed to the other side of the bed to get a look at her fully.

She looked so diminutive under the covers and he couldn’t believe that the little bundle wrapped in quilts was actually his partner. When he moved enough to see her face, he couldn’t help the smile that broke out onto his face. She’d kill him if she knew he thought it, but she looked so cute.

She was laying on her side and cuddling one of her many pillows, embracing it with her arms and draping her top leg over it protectively. For the first time in his life, he was jealous of a pillow. Her hair was unruly and puffy, but didn’t obscure his view of her peaceful face.

He froze for a second when he heard her make a sound, immediately realizing how creepy he’d seem if she just woke up to him hovering next to her. But instead of waking up, she just made a little sleepy whining sound and tightened her grip on the pillow, burrowing her cheek against it.

Her lips were parted as her usually stoic face took on an almost childlike innocence. He felt in this moment how he did looking at the little perfection in life - blankets of virgin snow, the surface of a lake without any ripples, dawn breaking in the distance on a cool morning. All made his breath stop as he couldn’t resist stopping and taking in the fleeting beauty.

He wished it could last forever, but he knew he had to be the one to wake her.

Easing down onto his haunches next to the bed, so they were face to face, he tentatively raised a hand and brushed some hair away from her face. It almost seemed like she recognized on some subconscious level that he’d done that because a small cooing sound of comfort escaped her lips as her tongue came out to lick her lips. He didn’t think he’d ever said 'awwww’ so many times in his head before as he had since entering this room.

“Scully,” he whispered, stroking her cheek.

He didn’t get a response so he moved to her arm, squeezing lightly, “Scully.”

“MMgoo'night,” she murmured, barely moving her lips and still deep in sleep’s clutches.

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that as he told her, “No, no, Scully. It’s morning. We have to leave soon.”

An adorable frown tugged on her lips as her brows furrowed - the first footfall in the snow, the ripple in the pond. “Five more minutes, please,” she begged in an uncharacteristically whiney voice.

“I have coffee for us in the car,” he prompted.

She must’ve actually registered him that time because her eyes started to flutter open, lazily flitting around until they landed on his face. He smiled at her sweetly in an attempt to prevent her from getting startled.

“Mulder?” she asked, sleep still thick in her voice.

“Good morning,” he greeted.

“Wha’s wrong?” she asked, raising herself up on one hand as the other came up to her face to rub her eyes.

As she raised herself, the quilt fell from her and revealed the tight tank top she’d been wearing as a pyjamas. She wasn’t wearing a bra and he wasn’t prepared to be face to face with Dana Scully’s barely concealed, perfect breasts so early in the morning.

“Uh, n-nothing. You just weren’t answering my calls and I was worried something was wrong,” he answered, clearing his throat and trying not to gawk as her body reacted to the cool morning air.

She looked confused and rolled away from him, craning her neck to presumably look at a clock on the other nightstand. As she did this, the quilt twisted in her legs and pulled down, revealing the bottom portion of her pyjamas.

Or lack thereof.

To add another thing that was just making this the best morning of his life, he just got an eyeful of Dana Scully’s underwear clad ass. She gasped and whipped back over to him and his eyes shot to the ceiling. “Oh my god, Mulder! I’m so sorry!”

“Y-you’re fine,” he assured as she jumped out of bed and inadvertently rubbed against him while running to her closet.

“We’re so late!” she rushed, the navy brat in her coming out. If they left right now, they’d be an hour early.

“Scully, take your time,” he said as he watched her grab a pantsuit at random and rush to the bathroom, trying his best to ignore the way her lithe body moved in the morning light. “Um, I’ll give you some privacy. I’ll wait out in the living room.”

“I’m so sorry!” she called out again to the man who felt like the luckiest guy alive.

VIII

She’d been asleep for the last three hours of the drive and only woke up because there were too many cars around them for him to avoid this particular pothole. Mulder tried not to stare as she did her adorable little stretches to wake up and orient herself.

She rubbed her eyes before quietly groaning, “Shit.”

“Hmm?” he hummed in recognition, internally rejoicing that he got to hear her swear.

“I forgot I was wearing makeup,” she mumbled, pulling the visor down and looking at herself in the mirror.

Mulder wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she was just making little adjustments and wipes here and there with her fingers. She looked under the visor to make sure they were at a red light before turning to him. “Do I look okay?”

He knew his answer before he even turned to look at her, but he pretended to have to check just to take the opportunity to examine her face. She was letting herself be on full display, looking directly at him and jutting her chin out, slightly rotating her head around so he could get the full Scully-experience. “You always look good,” he replied honestly.

She smiled, despite herself, and rolled her eyes. “No seriously. Is my makeup smudged? Does it look even?”

They just stared at each other for a moment, her trying to find signs something was off in his eyes and him just enjoying looking at hers. Taking a chance, he raised a hand to her face and cupped her cheek. He felt as much as he saw her breath catch as she remained totally still. He lifted his thumb and very carefully stroked the skin under one of her eyes. She looked up to, he assumed, give him better access, and it made him happy to see this small display of trust.

As quickly as it started, he pulled his hand back into his lap, and murmured, “Perfect.”

They both knew he wasn’t talking about her makeup.

IX

She should just give up. She finally tried to go on a date after an embarrassingly long dry spell, one that seemed to correlate perfectly to her work on the X Files, and she got stood up. Well, kind of. She was completely dressed and on her way to the restaurant, the one that required a monetary donation in order to get a reservation, and he decided to call last minute and cancel. No raincheck though, apparently his wife wasn’t fond of polygamy. Go figure.

For a moment she considered pulling over and having herself a good cry, just let herself have a moment to indulge in some good ol’ self-pity, but by the time she found a place to park, she found herself right outside Mulder’s apartment. It was funny how things seemed to work out like that.

She turned off the car and took a moment to look at herself in the rearview mirror and evaluate her situation.

One, she looked sexy right now. Hair, makeup, dress. She looked damn good.

Two, she would only lose out on the money she spent on the reservation. Insult to injury.

Three, Mulder would say yes. He loved food and he loved hanging out with her.

Four, she’d rather be on a date with him anyway.

But it wasn’t going to be a date. That’s what she told herself as she made her way to his door. She had been intending to go on a date, and now she was just hanging out with her best friend. No more, no less.

He opened the door on the third knock and his normal greeting of “Hey, Scully” managed to morph into “He-oh my god…you look…Scully, you look fantastic.” His appreciation of the hard work she’d put into choosing a dress made her feel somehow validated. Appreciated. She figured it had something to do with the fact that she’d been holding every dress up in the mirror and thinking about whether or not he’d have that very same reaction.

She loved being right.

“Thank you,” she smiled, pretending like the newly exposed tops of her breasts were something he saw everyday and that she wasn’t noticing the way his eyes were unabashedly roaming. She might’ve noticed if this was a date, maybe even teased him a little. But this was not a date. “I was just curious if you were busy tonight?”

“No, why?” he asked, and she ignored the hint of hope she heard in his voice because no one ever sounded that eager to hang out with their friends. Which is what this was.

“My mom tried to set me up on a date, but he cancelled while I was on my way and the dinner reservations are non-refundable. So, I was hoping, since I’m not going on a date anymore, if you’d want to just go grab some dinner with me?” she asked, hoping she managed to subtly emphasize her point.

“He cancelled? Was this a blind date?” he asked, incredulous shock in his tone.

She laughed lightly and walked through the door when he ushered her to. “No, we’ve actually met a few times. He goes to my mother’s church.”

She heard Mulder grumble something under his breath that sounded really close to 'what an idiot’ but before she had a chance to ask him to repeat himself he stated. “Of course, I’d love to go with you and salvage your evening, but if you’re any indication, I’m severely underdressed. Where is it?”

“It’s at Un restaurant français chic,” she told him, tucking a wavy tendril of hair behind her ear.

“I’ll go put on my suit,” he nodded, walking to his bedroom.

“Oh, Mulder, I really don’t want to put you out. You look fine,” she called out.

“Not when you look like that!” he replied, closing the door.

She caught her reflection in a nearby mirror and couldn’t help but smile. She’d done her eye makeup darker than normal, her hair was waved, and both served to compliment her face nicely. Her dress was midnight black with thin spaghetti straps, a heart shaped neckline, and a slit up the side, emphasizing her leg.

She looked good and she was glad he got to see it.

Within a few minutes, Mulder came out of the bedroom wearing what had to have been the best fitting suit known to man. She whistled appreciatively and he ducked his head and smiled. He stopped near her, next to the mirror to look at himself. “Do I look okay?” he asked, his eyes roaming aimlessly as they’d never fall on an imperfection.

“You clean up wonderfully, partner,” she confirmed.

He smiled and turned, but she stopped him with a gentle hand on his chest. Mulder looked at her wordlessly as she adjusted his tie, biting a smile as she watched his adam’s apple bob nervously under her touch.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Ready,” he smiled, leading her with his hand on the small of her back.

X

She was a strong, independent woman. She was resilient, she was self-reliant, and she was proud. She was the last person who would ever want to fall privy to the gender stereotypes often forced upon her.

But she couldn’t for the life of her figure out how to fix her goddamned sink. It’d been leaking for days and she just couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop. To top it all off, her apartment complex’s maintenance guy was creepy and she didn’t want him in her apartment - and her schedule was too hectic to call someone.

That left one option.

“Hey? Can you stop by my place after work?” she asked from across the desk.

He looked surprised, but curious. “Yeah, why?”

“I’m not asking you because you’re a man and I assume you know how, but because I know you’re a good problem solver,” she began.

“Wow, what a preamble,” he teased.

She rolled her eyes and explained, “My sink is broken and I don’t have the right tools to fix it nor do I understand how to.”

“Say no more, I’m your man,” he boasted.

He’d said that with so much confidence that she could barely believe her eyes when she walked behind him a few hours later and saw he was browsing the internet for 'How to fix a sink.’ He quickly clicked onto a different document when he noticed her presence but she pretended that she hadn’t been paying attention to him. She felt herself smile even though she was trying her hardest to repress it, that was just too sweet and so incredibly Mulder of him.

To say she was excited to see how this panned out was an understatement. She knew Mulder was a quick learner and eager to please, but, honestly, looking back she couldn’t think of a time she’d ever seen him do anything handyman-esque.

They’d agreed on seven and he showed up at six thirty. “I’m sorry I’m so early, I can leave and come back,” he apologized when he took in her wet hair and fluffy bathrobe.

“No, no, I just got out of the shower. This is perfect timing, come on in.” As he walked passed her, she admired his new outfit. He was wearing old, worn blue jeans with a heather gray t-shirt. It was a casual side of him that she couldn’t help but admire. He looked really good.

“Is it the kitchen sink or bathroom sink?” he asked.

“Bathroom,” she motioned. She followed him down the hall and flicked on the light switch for him. “Sorry it’s warm in here. I just got out of the shower.”

“It smells like you,” he replied. Then, as if embarrassed he said that, he teased her by playing mechanic, putting on a deep, 'manly’ voice, “So little lady, what seems to be the problem.”

Indulging him for once, she made her voice airy and breathy and, in a faux southern drawl, replied, “Well, my pipes just won’t stop leakin’.”

As if they realized the innuendo at the same time, they burst out laughing. “Okay, sorry. No-it just honestly is dripping everywhere.”

“Too wet?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes and slapped his arm lightly as he set his tool bag on the sink. She didn’t bring attention to the store tag she saw still attached. “I think I can take care of that,” he replied, pulling out a wrench. She wondered how many tutorials he read to know exactly what tool to use.

He bent down and opened her cabinets before turning so he was on his back, looking upwards. From her vantage point she could just see from chest down and it was an erotic sight she hadn’t anticipated. Most plumbers exposed their asscrack, but Mulder was letting his defined adonis belt peek out over his jeans and under his slightly raised shirt. “How long has this been an issue?” he asked, making conversation.

“About two weeks,” she answered, clearing her throat.

“Make sure to do it the right way this time,” she teased, suddenly remembering when he offered his help a few cases ago and how absolutely horrible that had worked out.

“Haha, very funny,” he chuckled.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” she smirked, watching him work.

“Why didn’t you ask me sooner?” he asked, accompanying the sounds of cranking.

“I wanted to figure it out. I tried to tighten it myself, but I think I just couldn’t get it,” she replied, watching the way his hips lightly thrust upwards from the force of his cranks.

“It looks like you were close,” he comforted, though she didn’t know if it was necessarily true.

“Thanks,” she smiled.

“Try the sink,” he told her.

She awkwardly tried to reach the faucet, but ended up having to stand right next to him while hoping her robe didn’t gape open and expose herself.

The sink ran and she heard him let out a triumphant sound before he hit her legs with his face. “Sorry,” she laughed, stepping back as he placed a hand on her calf to pull himself up.

“No, you’re fine,” he chuckled. Mulder stood up, a few wet stops from the prior drip blossoming on his shirt.

She hadn’t expected it to be so fast and she didn’t want him to leave quite yet. I mean he drove all the way here and all. “Want to stay for coffee?” she asked, tucking a wet strand behind her ear.

He smiled at her, clearly not having wanted to leave himself and nodded, “Yeah.”

[maree-ff]

Pressure

CAMILA

“Ma…” I dragged my mother's name through vain as she spit questions at me left and right. She’s been on my ass ever since I confided in her about my pregnancy. It’s going on week twenty of my second trimester and life is kicking my ass. Our septic system needs to be replaced and I’m having major construction done to the house so I’m apartment hunting. Jessica offered to let the girls and I stay with her but I can’t. Adding two more children and a third adult into their household is a bit much. Amelia needs one on one attention and I need my personal space. 

I spoke to Andre a few days ago, for thirty seconds and then he promised to call back but never did. Some of our calls get cut short and I get so irrationally sad that I end up crying myself to sleep. I’m losing my mind over Andre’s absence. 

“Camila, stop whining and listen to me. You can be so terca at times. Just like tu papa. Have you asked Divya if you can stay with her?” 

Grunting aloud so she can hear my frustration I dropped the house phone in my lap. Just then I heard my cell phone going off. 

“No, because I found a place this morning. Mira, me tengo que ir, I’ll call you later.” Lying through my teeth I briskly hung up and answered my incoming call. “Hello?” I answered. 

“You have one call from California State Prison. Do you accept the charges?” The machine spoke. 

“I accept.” I said clearly. I listened for that signal to speak, grinning from ear to ear to hear his voice. 

“I am so sorry, love. We had a quarantine and a lockdown at the same time which is why you haven’t heard from me.” He said in a rush. 

“I’m just happy to hear your voice. Are you alright?” I questioned. 

“Yeah baby I’m fine. How are you? Talk to me about everything.” His evenly paced breaths really solidified my peace of mind. 

“Cuánto tiempo tenemos?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of not having enough time.

“That bad?” He quieted down telling me he’s not in a joking manner. 

“Si. I’m having major work down to the house and I’m looking for a place to rent out for a while. On top of that, Zoe is sick again. This time I’m not sure what she caught and I’m scared to get sick and then pass it to the baby. But she’s been on one for five days now driving Kenny insane.” I explained. 

“I’d give up everything to be taking care of you ladies. I’m sorry you all are going through so much. You’ve been taking it easy I hope.” 

“Andre, sweetie I’m doing the best I can but it’s hard and I’m extremely worn out. These little girls give me a run for my money sometimes but I’ve learned to love that about them. Don’t get me wrong, they are so loving, caring, and kind-hearted but I’m tired.” I do the best I can to not whine to him about how difficult this situation is for me. Today, I can’t. I need to relieve some of this pressure. 

“I can only imagine how this must be affecting you.” The silence that’s brooding between us gives me anxiety. “Camila, I am so sorry for splitting up this family. I will completely understand if you need to hate me. I will understand whatever decision you make regarding this difficult situation I’ve placed our family in. This is my fault.” His apologetic and never wanting to hurt me attitude is why I can’t seem to be upset for too long. 

“You don’t need to apologize, go me. I just want you to know how I’m feeling. I don’t want you to ever question whether or not I can do this. I don’t want you to doubt my abilities as a mother either. There’s so much to adjust to. We miss you so much and I never want you to forget that.” Needing a deep breath in, I stood up and walked around the room. My sights fanned out over my belly, analyzing the growth of it. 

“How far along are you?” He asked. 

“Twenty weeks, second trimester. The baby has gotten so big. Zoe keeps addressing the baby as “he” because she’s confident that we have a boy coming into the family. I kinda feel like that too. Everyone else is thinking it’s a girl but I’m siding with Zoe all the way.” Talking about the baby gives me mixed feelings. There are times when I’m welcoming of the fact and other times I would trade the baby for Dre. 

We can create life together as long as we’d like to but I can’t replace him. I just can’t. 

“When are you coming back to see me?” I know for a fact this man has some sort of smile or smirk on his face. 

“Whenever you want us too.” Our tones of voice indicate that he and I are on the same page. 

He then says, “Tuesday, come visit on Tuesday. So...what’s the plan for today?” 

I buzzed around again getting ready for the moving truck to come. “Packing up the small stuff and bringing it to our new place. I’ll show you pictures don’t worry. You should talk to the girls before you have to go..” covering the mouthpiece I called out for Kenja and Zoe. 

Walking to the living room I found them sound asleep. Feet touching as usual. 

“Camila, what's wrong?” Andre panicked. 

Holding the phone up to my face again I smiled gently and said, “..nothing is wrong.  The girls are knocked out on the couch. They look so cute. Damn, I wish they were up right now.”

Andre and I talked for a wholesome twenty-five minutes. The downside to this call is that I didn’t get to say ‘I love you too’ before the call dropped. The act triggered me and sent me into a frenzy. Lucky for me, my mom, dad, Dani and Matt came over. Not only to help me with the girls but also to help with the move. 

Going to get the girls up and ready I attempted to get Zoe up first since she’s the lightest sleeper of us all. 

“Levántate ya sweet pea, we have to move today.” Kissing her hairline I turned her over as she began to wake up. 

“Mom, you talk to daddy? Yes?” She spit out without hesitation. 

“Yes I talked to him. He loves you and he can’t wait to see you and your sister. Did you have a good nap mi amor?” Wiping the drool off of her cheek I moved over to Kenja knowing this would be a tad more difficult. “Come on nena, levántate ya por favor.”

Kenja began to squirm and ultimately frowned at me once she had her eyes fully opened up. “Eres muy ruidoso, mom!” She exclaimed. 

“Cuidado, Evelyn. We don’t have time for this now, get up and get moving. Ahora.” Following behind and guiding them to their rooms, I got them ready together. By the time I finished with the girls the trucks had arrived. I traded places with my mom so she could get the girls into her car while I stand aside to supervise everything. 

——— ———

“Urgh my goodness, my body hurts so much. This poor baby has been going at my back relentlessly for hours.” Working through the knot in my lower back I ran my free hand across my belly. 

My mom stopped fanning herself to stare at me. 

 “Ay! Que estás mirando?” 

“You’re acknowledging my grandchild again. Some days I fear you have evil thoughts about this bundle of joy because Andre is not present. I see the way you look at yourself in the mirror and ay bendito it makes me so sad. But this is your baby and your body. I just don’t want you to forget, usted tiene ayuda Camila.” 

My mom prayed over the baby and I, and quietly exited the room. “Tienen hambre nenas?” She joyously sang. 

Rising from the bed I walked to the window, drawing the shades up. The view from this floor is breathtaking. I haven’t seen this type of view in a while. Watching the city below seems slowed down and so far away. 

“You’d love this place..” I whispered aloud. Gliding both palms over my belly I thought about our last visitation. I dreamt of the last night Andre romanced me and ultimately impregnated me. This baby is so much more special than I gave him or her credit for. My fears and anxiety have pushed me too far. Our child is a blessing through the turmoil. I need this baby as a symbol for hope and love. 

This bundle of joy and innocence deserves some attention and care. I could never imagine allowing Andre to discover the evil thoughts I’ve dreamt up like my mom mentioned. 

“I love you so much and I’m so sorry for not treating you better. This is a very difficult time for our familia pero it’s no excuse for my love..” looking down at my baby bump I smiled at the sight of my bare skin housing my unborn baby. “I’ll get myself together and take care of you the way you deserve. Con amor y respeto.” 

“Mommy, Papi is calling! Come on!” Kenja and Zoe yelled, blending their voices together. 

Hurrying out of the room I leveled out my tank top and threw my hands up. “Nenas, we can’t be as loud as we used to be at the house okay? This place is much smaller and we have neighbors close by.” I informed them. 

“Okay, we’re sorry. Talk to daddy.” Zoe shoved the phone to my ear where I could hear Andre speaking but to someone else. 

“Andre?” 

“I’m here baby. Listen I’m so sorry for the noise but these n diggas won’t leave me the fuck alone. How are you? How was the move?” He quizzed. 

“It went good. I’m more exhausted now than I was earlier but I can’t complain about much else. I love you papa but I want you to talk to the girls since you weren’t able to earlier.” I listened to his return of adoration and affection, handing my phone back to the girls. “Ma, you’re more than welcome to stay.” I said, meeting her in the kitchen. 

She smirks and giggles knowing damn well I need her to stay with us tonight. “You can count on that. What are we cooking?” 

Rubbing my belly again just to hear my mother laugh I laid out all of my plans for dinner and dessert. Our first night in this condo will be an adjustment as will the remainder of our time here. 

Mom and I watched the girls load up on two full portions of dinner, still crying for more. After our familial debate my mom volunteered to bathe the kids while I put the remainder of the food away and cleaned the kitchen. 

“Nana, can you stay and help mom? She won’t rest. And she’s super tired.” I heard Zoe say over the sound of Kenja laughing and splashing around in the tub. 

Quietly I set the pots and pans down to hone in on their little talk. Wiping my hands dry, I inched closer to the doorway of their bedroom. 

“Of course I will nena. I’m here to help mommy and you girls as long as I need to. That’s what I’m here for.” My mom said, smiling through her words I can tell. 

“I miss daddy..” Kenja settled down and finally spoke up. My heart split down the middle at her confession. Her speaking on her father’s absence sounds different then the other ‘i miss him’ confessions. 

“Yo sé mamita. I miss him también y I know mom does too. Your dad being gone is difficult on us all. And I’m sure that you girls have questions about why he’s gone and when he will be home..si?” The hope and serenity in my moms voice gives me hope that this tough time will get easier. Or at least we will all come to terms with Andre being away and make the best out of our unfortunate situation. 

“Yes.” The girls said together. “When will he come home? He has to care for mommy and baby brother before it’s too late!” Kenja exclaimed. 

“Ay, tranquila Evelyn. It’s late and that’s no way to speak to tu abuelita. I know and mom knows how much you girls miss your dad. We have to be patient and stay positive. I need you both to be supportive of your mom and tu papa. Don’t give mom a hard time ok? Take it easy on her. With your baby brother or sister still baking, your mom needs you both to take care of her. Come on, let’s get dressed for bed now.” 

Leaning back against the wall I looked around our temporary living quarters in amazement. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be stepping back into the shoes of being a solo parent. I have this urge to cry but I feel selfish for even wanting to. Deciding against being emotional I forced my way back to the dishes to finish up here for the night. 

Once I had my own bath taken and I got dressed for bed I stretched out. The echoes of silence in this room and the loneliness of laying in bed alone is still foreign. I hope I don’t get used to this but I’m afraid I may have to. Turning over to face away from the window I snuggled the body pillow covered by Andre’s favorite sweatshirt. 

I miss the tips of his fingers massaging my scalp. I miss his natural body heat to keep me warm throughout the night. I miss the combination of his soap and the girls knocking me into a blissful sleep. I close my eyes to reminisce on the sound of him speaking softly into my ear about his innermost thoughts. A slight grin bestowed upon my face pretending to feel his lips on my skin, melting me to the core. 

“I pray that you’re alright my love. And I pray that you miss me nearly as much as I miss you.” I muttered to myself. Clutching the pillow a bit tighter I tuned out the rainfall and the scary images in mind to dream of our reunion. 

[queenwinry]

Tension

Pairing: Royai

Rating: K+

Summary: Through Fuhrer Grumman’s mischievous plotting, Roy and Riza find themselves in yet another dicey situation, where the tension between them becomes to hard to ignore.

A/N: I don’t think a story idea has come to me as quickly as this one did. Oneshot for now, even though I could honestly do a whole full length from this idea, but I know that I have no time for that lol. Here’s a little bit of cliche, stuck  alone in the woods, rising amount of UST royai for your Saturday night!

-----

“I’m going to murder the fuhrer.”

“You of all people should know how treasonous of a statement that is, sir.”

“Yeah, and like last time, I don’t really give a damn.”

Riza Hawkeye could barely contain the roll of her eyes at her superior’s words. As usual, he was taking a small situation and making it more dramatic than it needed to be. She was annoyed with Fuhrer Grumman too, but certainly not enough to turn Amestrian traitor...for the second time.

Colonel Mustang leaned into his subordinate a touch more than was strictly necessary as the sight of their lone cabin in the woods came into view. His arm was flung across her shoulders while his other hand was held to his right side, attempting to stop the steady stream of blood from further ruining his shirt.

A “team building exercise” was what the mischievous fuhrer had called it when he summoned the bulk of Mustang’s team into his office in Central last week. The group was thoroughly immersed in preparations for their move to East City (and their superior’s subsequent promotion to Brigadier) and had not been expecting such a large change of plans. Fuhrer Grumman had specifically arranged for their group to spend a week buried in the middle of a forest outside Central with only a secluded log cabin to call home. They were instructed to complete certain exercises and tasks each day, with the hopes of strengthening their bonds even more so than they already had.

But Mustang knew what this was really all about. Grumman was never without some kind of ulterior motive, and while the disgruntled colonel could only guess at what it was this time around, he would not fall so easily into his boss’s trap.

They were in the middle of some odd version of capture the flag when this particular accident happened. Mustang was honestly embarrassed to admit it at all. It certainly wasn’t his most graceful moment. He could’ve easily brushed the whole thing aside if it weren’t for the bleeding wound in his side. He hadn’t seen the sudden drop before him, too busy muttering angrily to himself about the stupidity of whatever game they were forced to play. When his foot stepped on nothing but air, the veteran colonel had been sent tumbling. Again, he could’ve brushed it aside with nothing more than minor cuts and bruises, but a sharp rock sticking up out of the ground had sliced a nasty gash across his abdomen on his way down. Needless to say, when he’d gotten up wincing and cursing only to find his shirt soaked in blood, his lieutenant (the only one with him, as they had made their own team together) went into a tizzy.

She led him back to the cabin while he plotted his murder of their fuhrer the whole time. Both colonel and lieutenant were relieved to finally see their home base come in to view.

Riza opened the door to the small, quaint building and practically deposited her superior on the couch in the living room. She went off to find supplies to clean and dress the wound, all the while Roy tentatively attempted to get comfortable from where he sat. His eyes looked down at his red soaked shirt and he sighed. Weeks away from brigadier-general and a rock is what took him down.

Hawkeye came back with some towels in hand and sat herself on the coffee table in front of the couch. Even though they were as secluded as they could possibly be, the log cabin Grumman had arranged for them was actually quite nice. It had a spacious living room and kitchen area, with a back bedroom full of bunk beds for the team to sleep on. Havoc and Fuery had gone on and on about how cool it was for them to be doing something like this, while the rest of the team had their own opinions on their situation. Mustang was the only one who actually voiced them, of course.

Mustang’s eyes turned to his lieutenant and he lifted an eyebrow as he watched her shake her head, before she dipped one of the small towels in a bowl of water she had procured out of nowhere. Without any warning she grabbed his blood-soaked hand and began washing it with a strange kind of precision. “Honestly sir...I would think by now you would know to look where you’re going.”

His face scrunched up in annoyance. “Hey...don’t pin this one all on me. If it weren’t for Grumman and his stupid ‘team building excercise’, we wouldn’t have even been out there in the first place.”

Riza tossed the now red-soaked towel to the side before she picked up another one. “Yes, I’m well aware of your feelings on the matter, Colonel. You were practically cursing the fuhrer on your way down the mountain.”

Mustang’s expression twisted further. “We need to come up with a better story to tell the rest of the team when they get back. I have a feeling if they knew the truth, they’d never let me hear the end of it.”

Possibly because they were alone, Riza let out an uncharacteristic smirk at that. “And what makes you so certain I won’t ever let you hear the end of it.”

Roy was in the process of coming up with a witty response to that when he immediately froze as his lieutenant’s hands went to the buttons of his shirt. Sure, he knew why she was doing it, but the way she started unbuttoning the ruined fabric without even realizing what she was doing had him instantly stilled.

Riza had gotten about halfway down when she stopped as well, almost as if she had suddenly realized how forward she was being. Her eyes widened before they lifted to meet her superior’s. It was silent a moment as the pair awkwardly stilled before the lieutenant managed to find her voice. “I-I...need to take a better look at it, sir. If that’s...alright with you.”

The uncertainty and breathlessness with which she spoke only served to rub the colonel the wrong way. Things had been..a bit tense between the two of them ever since they returned to work after the Promised Day. Roy knew that what they had gone through together that day, and in their time of recovery, was not what they were used to. Lots of things had been said, but even more things were left unaddressed. They were still able to find their work rhythm, but there were times like now where they just...stopped. When the feelings ruminating between them grew to be more overwhelming than either of them were prepared for.

Roy knew how to handle these situations, though. He had started to consider himself somewhat of an expert given how often they were happening recently. He had found the best way to keep them from being too serious was to revert back to his well-practiced personality. He let out a lazy smirk and replied, “At least offer to buy me a drink first.”

The lieutenant yanked the next button out with a little more force than was necessary as her eyes narrowed into slits. “Very funny, sir,” she replied in an annoyed voice before she continued down the row of buttons and pulled the two sides of his shirt apart and off his shoulders.

She leaned down to get a better look at the gash, wincing through her teeth at the sight of it. Her fingers gently probed around the edges before she dipped one of the towels in the water and wiped away the residual blood and debris.

The colonel tensed as she worked, the stinging sensation becoming too strong to ignore. Riza Hawkeye certainly was a gentle woman in some ways, but a pragmatic military officer in others. She worked quietly, yet a bit more aggressively than Roy would have liked.

He watched as her face contorted and she sighed. “It’s pretty deep, sir. I’m not an expert, but I think it needs at least a few stitches.”

The colonel let out a disapproving noise. “Where the hell am I supposed to get stitches? We’re miles away from the closest town, and the nearest hospital is three towns over from that.”

Riza clicked her tongue as she thought about this. She set her towel aside and stood to her feet. “I think I remember seeing a first aid kit under the sink when we got here. There might be supplies in there.” The lieutenant walked to the kitchenette in the corner of the room as Roy turned to look at her incredulously.

“And what if there is? Do you plan to do it yourself? Did you go and get a medical degree that I wasn’t aware of?”

Successfully finding the kit under the sink, Riza walked back over to the couch and began perusing its contents. “Oh, good, there is a suture kit in here,” she commented, ignoring his earlier question as she set it aside and began looking for more supplies in the kit.

“Lieutenant?” Mustang asked again, his voice unsure.

Surprising him, Riza let out a small smile. She pulled out a package of sterile gloves and a bandage wrap before answering him. “Suturing is a good survival skill to learn. It can come in handy on the battlefield.”

Mustang eyed her skeptically. “Right, because every soldier has the time to stop and stitch up his buddy in the heat of battle.”

Riza rolled her eyes at her superior before she flashed him a pointed look. “Colonel...do you want me to stitch this up or would you rather let it get infected and wind up in the hospital for weeks only to miss your promotion ceremony?”

Ah, that was his lieutenant, always knowing exactly what to say to shoot straight for his heart. He ignored her pointed look and attempted to seem put upon and indecisive. “Fine...just don’t mess it up too badly.”

She smiled at him again before she opened the kit up and slipped the gloves on. “I’ll try and make it look as pretty as possible, but I make no promises. Go ahead and lie down, sir.”

Mustang warily did as he was told, his voice becoming even more apprehensive. “Tell me, Dr. Hawkeye. Does that suture kit happen to come with any anesthetic?”

Riza’s smile only grew and the colonel bristled at the sight of it. “Alas, no, sir. Still, I think a big, strong man like yourself can handle a few pricks,” she spoke in a low tone as she grasped the edge of the suture with her scissors and readied herself to begin.

Everyone always thought Riza Hawkeye was passive and quiet, but Roy knew she could be downright evil when she wanted to be. Apprehensively staying quiet, the colonel attempted to relax as she started.

He couldn’t contain the winces and the sharp intakes of breath as his subordinate quite literally sewed his skin back together. He was rather surprised at how sure of herself she seemed to be. She had so many random skills that she would showcase whenever she pleased, and this was definitely one of them. Attempting to get his mind off the pain, Roy asked, “So, where the hell did you learn to do this? I certainly don’t remember taking a suture class at the academy.”

She continued to work diligently, but Riza still managed to answer him in a self-assured tone. “A friend of mine at the academy was a nurse before she joined the military. We were on a training exercise when one of our teammates got injured and she had to do this out in the field. Once we were done, she taught us all how to do it. I’ve never really used it until now.”

Roy scoffed. “That’s reassuring.”

“You’re fine, sir,” she spoke in a firm, though no less amused, voice.

They lapsed into silence after that, as Roy tried not to seem like too much of a wimp from the pain (this really hurt far more than it should) and Riza set herself to her task with the same precision and expertise that he was used to from her.

After what felt like an eternity, Riza used the cutting part of the scissors to snip the ends of the sutures and admired her work proudly. “There, you can relax now, sir. No impromptu hospital runs for you today.”

“Thank goodness,” he answered, only somewhat sarcastically, as his lieutenant cleaned up the wound and grabbed the bandage wrap.

“Sit up,” she instructed plainly, as she unwound the bandage and Roy tentatively arose. She leaned in close to him as her hands started to wind the wrap around his midsection. Again, the spark of tension flared up within the colonel as his lieutenant’s face was dangerously close to his own for the purpose of her task. She worked quietly, but the colonel couldn’t help but let his eyelids lower and his face lean in a touch more than was strictly professional.

She attached the end of the bandage, and admired her work proudly...before her eyes rose to meet his and immediately she froze in place.

The content smile dropped and her eyes widened slightly. Roy knew it was foolish of him to let himself do this...to look at her like she was the only woman in the world and he wanted nothing more than to treat her as such...in every possible sense. He knew these moments where they found themselves falling into roles they were not allowed to have were becoming more and more common. He could try and brush them all aside, which he frequently did, but they both knew what it meant.

The fact that they were alone in a secluded cabin in the middle of the woods while their teammates wouldn’t be back for hours had suddenly become far more dangerous.

Riza’s mouth dropped slightly and her breaths began to brush lightly across his face. Their lips were frighteningly close and their gazes became even more hazy. Riza’s eyes flashed briefly to Mustang’s lips and the small act nearly had him grabbing her and throwing her beneath him on the couch.

Despite the immense and innumerable consequences, Roy Mustang almost did as much before something snapped within his subordinate and she quickly stood to her feet, her eyes looking at anything but his own.

“You should get some rest, sir. The others will be back later and you know they’ll all want a full update.” In an effort to get her mind off whatever the hell just happened, Riza began furiously cleaning up and organizing the first aid supplies. Roy lifted an eyebrow when he noticed a slight tremor in her hands. He certainly wasn’t the only one as heavily affected by these little moments of theirs.

“R-right,” he let out breathlessly, attempting to bring his mind back from outer space. He tentatively stood to his feet and grabbed his ruined shirt. As Riza returned the kit to where she had found it and mindlessly started washing the measly amount of dishes in the sink, Mustang slowly made his way to the bedroom, his mind buzzing.

If this was how it was going to be between them from now on...he knew they were destined for a collision course.

Damn Grumman, Roy thought bitterly as he sat down heavily on his bunk. Secluded cabin in the middle of the woods so me and his granddaughter can sneak away together. He’s too smart for his own good.

After that little moment, Roy Mustang now knew exactly why Grumman had dragged them all out here. He hoped his teammates returned sooner rather than later. He’d even detail the entire embarrassing story of how he got this wound in his side if it meant he and his subordinate wouldn’t be caught within their own tension again.

Roy rubbed his temples. It was going to be a long week.

[shooter-nobunagun]

Quarantine UST 4

//Probably gonna have sexual content scattered throughout the chapters...warning, ero content this time includes some masturbation (though not super explicit)

The ocean breeze felt wonderful, Sio enjoying the cool, briny mist as the car zipped along the shoreline. At last they were taking some time to get out of the house, and although the beaches were closed, it was much better than spending yet another day cooped up inside.

“Aaah, this feels soo nice...it really is too bad we can’t go down to the beach itself.” Sighing, the sniper rested her head against the window, letting the wind blow through her hair. There were few other vehicles along the road, and though Mahesh jokingly suggested to Adam (who was driving) that he should test the limits of this car, they only sped up a few times on straight stretches when nobody else was around.

The car wasn’t exactly designed to be sporty, but Adam revved the engine a few times as he shifted the gears with amazing accuracy, Sio shrieking with delight as they blew down the straightaways. “Who would’ve thought you’d also be a speed freak,” Mahesh teased in good humor, the sniper blushing but she wouldn’t deny it was thrilling.

“W-Well, it’s not like I’d go around doing that, normally...besides, Tokyo’s no place to drive, not with all the public transit. Not that I can drive anyways...”

“Sounds like London, honestly. Though I suppose if you had a motorbike it’d be a tad easier to get around. Like Adam—you had one back in London, didn’t you?” Jess queried.

“And so what if I did? ‘S not like it’ll do us any good out here.”

“No, but maybe when the opportunity comes up you can take Sio-chan for a ride; I’m sure she’d enjoy it.” The sniper turned red as a tomato at that comment, and Adam made an odd noise in his throat.

“A-Anyway, we can worry about that later; is there a place where we can get out for a bit? Or are they all closed?” Sio desperately changed the subject, not wanting to get into yet another fit of ‘why do I feel so hot when talking about Adam’.

“According to local news, we may be able to get off and walk around the trail head, so long as we have masks and maintain distance,” Mahesh reported. As soon as they parked to a stop Sio opened the door and breathed in the fresh air. Adam’s driving was impeccable, especially for stick-shift, but she had to admit the winding hills of San Francisco were making her just a touch carsick. 

“Oy squirt, don’t forget your mask; can’t be careless,” Adam chided as he handed the sniper hers, “let’s not get complacent.” Sio blushed with embarrassment, but was grateful Adam didn’t make snide remarks anymore. In fact, ever since he granted her permission to call him by his real first name, he seemed to have mellowed out quite a bit. There were several instances where they’d even been able to have small talk, mostly during times like cleaning up or when she insisted on helping with cooking (so she could learn was her argument), but it no longer felt as forced or awkward.

‘Hopefully this quarantine will get him to open up a bit more...’cause Adam, he’s really not a bad guy once you get to know him...sure he’s a little rough around the edges, but who doesn’t have something they’re trying to improve?’

“What’re you thinking about, Sio?” The blonde suddenly appeared in her view, Sio jumping back a bit on instinct; luckily ever since that discussion, she’d been a lot better about giving the girl her space. After that outburst, Adam called for a squad meeting to lay down some ground rules, including very explicit warnings that harassment of any kind, malicious or otherwise, was not to be tolerated.

‘An’ I don’t give a shit if that’s what you’re used to, but I will not condone any such behavior moving forward, pandemic or not; do I make myself clear?’ 

The other three members nodded solemnly as their leader gave them all a stern look. Both Jess and Mahesh were unusually serious for once, perhaps even remorseful as Adam lectured them on their unsavory behaviors. The sniper couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty; but afterwards, when they were all going to bed and both came by personally to apologize, she knew she’d done the right thing.

“Ah, n-not much...just once again, kind of amazed at how Adam can do...well, pretty much anything,” the girl muttered. “Stick-shift, motorcycles...that’s so cool. Maybe I’m just too young to learn about all these things, right now...”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that, dear. You were in your last year of secondary, correct?” Sio nodded. “He’s not that much older, you know. Adam, I mean. If I recall, they picked him up right after he got into university, a year or two before we discovered you.”

Sio’s eyes widened in surprise. So Adam really wasn’t that much older than her, though he sure acted way more mature. “Really? I didn’t know that...I’d always assumed, he’d been with DOGOO forever...”

“Some people grow up faster, depending on their circumstances. That’s all there is to it,” Jess shrugged. “I’m actually one of the earlier members of DOGOO...well, the first among the Second Platoon, anyway.”

She turned around in shock. “Wait, you’re the first member of the Second Platoon?!”

“Sort of. It’s a bit...complicated,” the blonde suddenly looked hesitant. “...If you must know, there was actually a ‘first iteration’, so to speak. Before any of us came along...well, technically that’s not true; I was with DOGOO pretty early on, but not as part of the Second Platoon...”

The sniper stayed quiet as the blonde muttered to herself. So, there had been an earlier version of their platoon? ‘But then what happened? Where are they now? Are they still with DOGOO?’

“You know old man Capa, right?” Sio nodded. “He, along with e-gene holders William Tell and Christopher Columbus...comprised of the original Second Platoon. But then...”

“Then...?” She definitely had not forgotten (nor forgiven) Capa’s trespasses, but she’d only ever heard of William Tell in passing, and Sio didn’t even know Columbus existed. “But Capa’s retired now, isn’t he? Did those two also retire?”

For some reason Jess grew somber at her question. “...William Tell is now part of the Special Squad, same as Hunter and Galileo. And Columbus...he—”

“Oy, what’s the hold up you two? Don’t fall behind!” From far ahead, their leader’s voice barked at the two girls.

“Nevermind. I’ll tell you that story some other time. Let’s go before he loses his temper, again.” Jess rolled her eyes as the two picked up the pace. Sio was dying to know just what happened, but given Jess’ reaction, it was probably better she didn’t pry anymore.

“Doesn’t he ever stop yelling at people?” Sio grumbled as they finally caught up with the guys. “Seriously, and here I thought we were making some progress on being civil with each other...”

“Adam’s not the type to have a heart-to-heart, but I must say, you must be doing him some good. In all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him quite so relaxed as when he’s around you.” Jess winked, causing the sniper to blush. “Seems to me you’ve got a secret touch around him...”

“J-Jess-san...! I-I don’t, I don’t think so...” Her cheeks were still pink though, even as they wandered around the trail, everyone else taking in the sights of the ocean.

“Hmm? Really...well, regardless he’s definitely loosened up a bit. Less scowling, and I think I actually saw him smile the other day! Or was that just a smirk,” Jess mused as the two girls walked along the path. 

‘It can’t be; I-I mean, it’s only because now we’re taking a break from all those battles and stuff that he can relax, so naturally it’s a lot easier to chat with him...isn’t it? Why would he be particularly nice to me?’ The sniper continued to be lost in her thoughts as the group hiked along the cliffs. She hadn’t been paying much attention, but now that she thought about it, Adam’s behavior towards Jess and Mahesh hadn’t changed that much (he was still griping about their lack of modesty), but she definitely noticed a change in his tone of voice and words around her.

No way...it can’t be true, are we becoming...friends?!

Even Asao-san brought it up last night, after the sniper spent a solid 30 minutes regaling about how Adam taught her three different ways to make eggs. ‘So, I see someone’s getting cozy with their leader, yeah? Good thing you guys aren’t regular military—’cause I’m pretty sure fraternizing with your squadmates would be a big no-no’ her friend had teased, which lead to another 20 minutes of sputtering and denial.

‘Yeah, well, didn’t the Commander say this would be a good opportunity to get to know each other and strengthen bonds? I’m just doing that,’ Sio thought to herself, though that didn’t exactly explain why her pulse increased and her body got hot whenever she stared at Adam or thought about him too much. ‘And yeah, I’ll admit he’s...pretty hot, and physically I find him attractive...b-but that’s completely normal! I’m a growing, girl, I have...needs...’

As if on cue her loins throbbed slightly, to Sio’s horror. Ever since she discovered masturbating, it had become something of a nightly activity for her; doubling as both a sleep aid and stress reliever. (And also, hey, it felt really fucking good.) Groaning, she forced herself to act normal and tag along with the rest of the group, though she was definitely going to need some ‘alone time’ as soon as they got back. ------ “Phew, that was a pleasant outing...see Adam, going out every once in a while isn’t going to kill us,” Jess commented as they finally made it back to the house, after stopping by for some takeout from a seaside shack. According to the Brits, the fish and chips were almost as good as any chippy establishment in London. Almost. Naturally Sio, not being familiar with British food, found it to be extremely tasty, and even Adam begrudgingly admitted that Americans could do a few things right, on occasion.

“Why’s it in pieces though, it’s better when the fish is whole...”

“Next time we should try curry; I’ve heard this area’s got a ton of Indian restaurants,” Mahesh suggested. “I’d be curious to see if any of them can actually do ‘Indian spicy’...”

“I, Indian spicy?” The sniper shuddered a bit at that description. Japanese people weren’t exactly the best with spicy food, despite wasabi. “Not sure I wanna find out what that means...”

Mahesh winked at her. “Well, you’ll just have to find out for yourself, Sio. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” The sniper doubted that, but Indian curry did sound good. Hopefully there would be milder options as well.

“What should we do about dinner? Do we want to do delivery again, or is our esteemed leader going to grace us with his home cooking?” The Indian managed to once again dodge a fork from the silver-haired man. “Hey now, I’m being serious! You’re becoming quite the cook, Adam. It’s a wonder we went all this time without sampling any of your dishes.

Adam grumbled, but Sio noticed his ears were turning slightly pink. Was he...bashful? It was bizarre to see their acerbic leader act so shy, but it was nice for a change, she decided. And kind of cute.

“Do you know how to cook, Mirza-san?”

The Indian turned to their sniper with a start. “Me? Cook? Oh, well I can...but I have to admit, ever since I joined DOGOO I haven’t had much time. Or a reason. It’s a lot simpler when someone else prepares things for you...”

“Like your servants?” Adam snorted, hinting at the Indian’s wealthy background. “You just snap your fingers and someone comes running, eh?”

“I’m not that dependent,” Mahesh’s gaze narrowed, slightly offended. “Just because I grew up with hired help doesn’t mean I can’t do things for myself. I just prefer doing things in the most efficient manner. In any case, if you are interested in trying my cooking, Sio-chan, I’d be happy to make something.”

“O-Oh, well, I don’t want you to go out of your way or anything—”

“Nonsense; after all, it seems like we’re all using this time to try new things, no? Plus it might be nice to give it a go...maybe we can even have some kind of group cooking night.”

The rest of the platoon murmured in agreement, though Sio was a bit nervous. She’d barely just managed to cook eggs decently, there was no way she could whip up something as fancy as Adam or probably even Mahesh could.

“Well, you can count me out, unless you want food poisoning,” Jess commented dryly. “I’m not going to deny it, but cooking is definitely not one of my stronger skills...”

“You can be my sous-chef,” Mahesh gave a cheeky grin, which was met with a napkin to the face. “Oof, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just leave the actual cooking part to me. So, it seems we’ve decided then? We’re cooking?”

Sio nodded, starting to warm up to the idea. It might even be fun, if everybody pitched in. “I-I mean, I can only make eggs, but...I’d be happy to help.”

“You can never go wrong with eggs. Don’t worry Sio-chan; now, to make sure I don’t decimate your taste buds with vindaloo...I guess I’ll make tikka masala as well. What’re you thinking of cooking, Adam?”

Their leader gave a noncommittal grunt. “Eh, don’t expect anythin’ fancy. Probably Shepard's pie tonight, glazed carrots.”

Even though they’d just eaten lunch, Sio’s mouth was watering just at the descriptions of those dishes. Dinner was bound to be good tonight; she couldn’t wait to try and sample some more Indian and British cuisine, and vowed to do her best to make enough fried eggs and toast for everybody. 

“By the way, do you think we can do something before dinner? I kinda wanted to try some of those board games we found...”

“Oh, that’s a brilliant idea Sio! I think we’ve earned a bit of entertainment. One can only watch so much Netflix...” The group had played a few card games already, but board games were the next level. Sio wasn’t familiar with any of them beyond Monopoly, but the other members assured her there were much better prospects. 

“Mirza, Beckham, how about you two clean up for a change; Ogura and I aren’t your servants,” Adam gave the two a knowing look. “Speaking of which Ogura, you wanted me to spot you today at training, right?”

“O-Oh! R, Right, I almost forgot...thanks.” The petite girl quickly changed into her workout clothes and the two trooped into the exercise room, Mahesh and Jess staring and waiting until the two of them disappeared from view.

“...Oh yeah, there’s definitely something going on between the two. I’ll bet you a quid before the end of this quarantine they’ll be shagging.”

Mahesh laughed. “That’s a pretty bold assumption; I don’t doubt they’ll get together eventually, but in only a few weeks? That’s pretty quick...for both of them.” It was pretty obvious that Sio never had a boyfriend or even much friends before all this, and despite how secretive Adam was with his private life, Mahesh was pretty sure if their leader ever had a lover, he’d have caught wind of it by now. “I have a pretty good hunch this would be a first time for both of them...and given that neither of them are great with their feelings...”

“You don’t trust my feminine instincts?”

“I never said that. In any case, you’re on.” ------- “Ugh...twenty-seven...twenty-eight...twenty...nine...thir...thirty!” Heaving a sigh of relief, Sio let the weights clash onto the stand, her arms feeling like limp noodles after that rep. Her limit had increased by 5 lbs since the beginning, and she could now do 30 reps without stopping, but that was nothing compared to Adam; last time he did 50 reps with almost twice the weight, and barely broke a sweat. “Whew, my arms are gonna be sore tomorrow...”

“Not bad, Ogura. You’ve improved; I can tell your form is much better than when you first started,” Adam nodded in satisfaction as they switched spots. “This should help with your accuracy, so you can better control your shots—instead of firing all over the place.”

“H-Hey! I’m not that bad anymore...not that I’m hoping for an attack to prove my point,” Sio muttered, helping Adam lift the bar up as she spotted for him.

“No, you aren’t...but you’ve got a ways to go, squirt,” he grunted as he started his set. “If we let our guard down for even a second...I don’t wanna think about that.”

“...Do you think this war is going to be that bad?”

Adam eyed her with a stare as he lifted the weight. “...Honestly, I don’t know. It’s not something I like to think about...but I’d rather prepare for the worst case scenario, in case this does end up being some long-term fight.”

Sio nodded. “Yeah, you’re right...heh, it’s strange; out of everyone, I probably have the best e-gene suited for warfare and strategy...and yet, when I really think about it, like, it hits me—holy crap, we’re actually fighting against freaking aliens from outer space, who really are out to just destroy us all. How the heck am I supposed to figure that out...” The sniper grew melancholy as she recalled that conversation with Asao in the hospital, right after Taiwan. “...Even now, I still can’t believe...this is happening. That, this is the state of our lives, now...”

“...Do you regret joinin’ DOGOO?”

“Huh? W-Well, no...I,” the sniper paused, looking away slightly. “I...even though I was scared, I also knew in my heart it was something I wanted to do. No, it was something I needed to do,” she emphasized. “If I just went back and pretended nothing changed...I’d never forgive myself.”

“Heh...a sense of...duty, ‘ey?” Adam let out a breath as he finished the rep, Sio helping him return the bar to its resting place. “I think that’s what drew most of us here, in the first place. No matter what folks say about other motivations or whatnot...in the end, if you don’t have that kind of inner conviction, you wouldn’t have lasted this long in the first place.”

“Mn.” Though he wasn’t directly complimenting her, for some reason, hearing his words made her feel warm. “You definitely have that, Adam-san.”

“Oh, uh...sure.” If the sniper was looking his way, she would’ve seen a slight blush on his cheeks; but as it was she was busy wiping down the equipment and looking at the pull-up bar with dread. “Anyway, let’s see if you can get more than 5 today.”

“Aww, seriously? I just did a bunch of weights too...” She whined, but one stern look from Adam and she sighed, and got into position. “S, Seriously...h-how do, people, do...this...! O-One...!”

“Less talking, more breathing. Don’t waste your breath; remember your breathing patterns,” Adam coached, as Sio strained to lift her chin over the bar. “C’mon, yeh that’s it, three more to go.”

After the fifth one Sio gasped as her hand slipped, her grip too weak to hold on. “Whoa—!” 

“Careful—!” Adam caught her just in the nick of time, Sio squinting her eyes open. “You alright, squirt?”

“Un...y-yeah, sorry about that...guess I’m pretty tired out.” She laid there for a bit, palms stinging from exertion. Adam nodded, but interestingly he didn’t set her down, instead letting her rest in his arms for a bit.

There was something soothing about it, being held by someone; granted this wasn’t the first time he’d held her, but that had been during a mission, with plenty of stakes and yelling. This time though, Sio became acutely aware of everything else; including how strong his arms were, and the sound of his breath, the heat from his skin, his heartbeat... Suddenly those odd tingles came back again, Sio now squirming with the uncomfortable realization that she was feeling ‘this’ again.

‘Seriously body, you do this to me now?! Screw you, hormones...’

“A-Ah, I’m feeling better now...thanks,” she stood on wobbly legs as Adam set her down. “Well, at least I did five...”

“Yeh. Anyway, if you’re tired, you can go up and take a shower first. I’m just gonna finish up here,” Adam launched himself up onto the bars.

“O-Oh, it’s okay, I can wait. I mean, it’d be rude of me to not finish spotting for you, since I asked you first...”

There’s not much to spot for pull-ups, Adam thought, but he didn’t say anything. If the squirt wanted to hang around, it was her choice. Though, he felt a bit self-conscious with her just staring at him; for some reason he felt like he had to impress her, even though he was dead tired himself and suddenly 15 seemed almost impossible.

But his pride would never let him live it down, and so 15 pull-ups it was.

As Adam forced himself through the punishment of 15 reps, Sio sat on the bench and watched him. His form was nearly perfect, barely even a tremble as he lifted and lowered himself at an even rate. ‘Damn, I wonder how long it’ll take before my muscles are that strong...speaking of muscles, holy crap his arms are so buff! No wonder he could carry me like that...also those abs...’ She tried not to stare so intensely, but it wasn’t her fault all holders had to wear what were essentially crop tops underneath their armor.

‘I wonder what they feel like...’ Her head flushed and Sio felt her heart rate speed up. ‘No no, stop thinking horny thoughts! Bad Sio!’ To her relief, Adam finished his set, and she could finally head back up to to the privacy of her own room.

“O, Otsukaresama desu; thanks for helping me out today, Adam-san.”

“You did well, Ogura. Who knows, maybe we will get called to action and you’ll get a chance to prove me wrong with your aim,” he teased, grinning slightly as he wiped off the sweat.

“What?! Oh just you wait, mister, I’ll show you!”

Adam chuckled to himself as the girl stomped off with a huff. She really was too cute not to tease. Admittedly he did feel a little bad for always bursting her bubble right at the peak, but he couldn’t help it. Her reactions and those pouty lips were just too good.

‘An’ since when did you start caring so much about that squirt, ‘ey?’ He took a long, hard look at himself in the mirror. ‘Or is it because that’s the only way you know how to defuse the situation before you get too close—’

No. Those were dangerous thoughts. While not strictly forbidden, common sense said fraternizing with one’s teammates was always a risky affair. Adam shook his head and got in the shower, making sure to turn the tap to cold. Not only was it hot, but a certain...other part of his body was stirring, especially after holding the girl. The feeling of her warm, heavy weight in his arms, the soft skin and even a certain scent; not sweat, but a distinctly human odor...

Adam groaned softly as he took hold of his member. It was already hot and stiff, despite the cold shower. ‘Shit, so much for that...you really are a pervert, aren’t yeh?’ But he couldn’t help it; it’d been weeks since he’d been able to let off any steam, and staying in close quarters with everybody else 24/7 made it hard to ensure much privacy. 

Hoping nobody needed to use the toilet, he started stroking himself; water poured over his throbbing length as his hand squeezed and pulled, Adam biting back another moan as he slowly jerked himself off. The sniper had definitely been staring at him when they were working out. ‘Don’t think I didn’t notice those wandering eyes, hanninmae...’ Initially, he’d been a bit surprised she’d be so bold; but then again when she’d walked in on him the very first time before their first mission, she hadn’t looked away, either.

‘Does this mean she’s...interested? Or am I just another body to her?’ His jaw ached from trying to keep his voice down, Adam trembling as he edged towards his climax. ‘No, it’s only...natural, when you spend so much time together, with the same people...it can’t be...’

But what if she is? A little voice rang in his head and Adam, already hazy with lust, decided to indulge that fantasy a bit. What if Sio Ogura really was interested in him, beyond just teammates or even friends? At this point, he didn’t doubt that they would be on friendly terms after this quarantine, but anything more?

Is this something she wants? Is this something I want?

To go from comrades to friends, to something more than that... Funnily enough, the thought of entering a relationship with her made him even harder than simply thinking about her lithe, slender body. ‘Impossible...am I...actually falling for her?!’

“W-Well, that’s why I’m learning now, aren’t I? So I can do it myself.”

“Th-thanks for helping me, again...heh, it seems like that’s all I’m doing these days...”

“You definitely have that, Adam-san. Conviction.”

“Guh—! Fuck...!” Hand pumping rapidly, Adam came hard as those large maroon eyes firmly embedded itself in his mind, along with that rare, shy smile she only showed around him. So cute. She was so cute whenever she tried so hard, determined to prove him wrong and do her best to improve...well, anything. A sudden rush of heat bloomed from his core, a low moan tearing from his throat as the last of his spunk shot out, chills running up and down his spine.

The effect one petite sniper could have on him...

“Shit...oh fuck...” Heaving, he rinsed off the mess from his hands and the shower walls, before finally turning off the water. The post-orgasm haze was settling in, causing everything to be slightly out-of-focus as Adam slowly towelled off. “Goddammit Adam, you’re really fucked now...”

Even as his mind argued with himself that it was just because he needed to relieve some stress, and she did have a pretty nice body, Adam knew in his heart that wasn’t the real reason. No, before his brain even realized it, his heart had already made the decision; perhaps even before all this virus business.

He was falling in love the Sio Ogura. And there was nothing he could do but take it and run with it.