#when i saw it before i kinda nodded along it makes surface level sense

[wackpedion]

how do you think seth and makoto would get along?

I think that they would be pretty nice and cordial with eachother, but it would be a pretty surface level relationship. Makoto would probably keep him at a distance and not share anything about his life for Makoto reasons, meanwhile I imagine Seth is largely indifferent to him

. i mean in theory i can see Seth caring more and latching onto him as an authority figure, wanting to please and follow orders all that, but like Yomi is kinda taking up that spot atm sooo i dont rlly see it happening. kinda interesting to think of tho cuz i think its funny to imagine Seth being like "woah an authority figure whos not mean to me.. thats sso amazing" meanwhile Makoto doesn't even remember his lastname and doesn't care to

i can see the 2 like, enjoying a tea party tho ngl, talking all about how they hate Yomi (thats mostly Seth Makoto just nods along and sideglances the framed photos he has of him sitting just a few feet away)

also random hc but i like to think like, Seth often accidentally/subconsciously calls Makoto 'masked freak' or some shit, he just does it without thinking, what being around yomi hellsmile and being subjected to his rants does to a mf (hes so tired man. so tired)

anyway thank u alfie i consulted them on this cuz im no makoto expert and if i were to mischaracterize a character from my hyperfixation id simply die . so naturally i wanted to avoid that

[dccomicsimagines]

Date Trap - Kaldur x Reader

Requested by Anon -  Hi, would you write something fluffy with Kaldur please? If you need a plot then maybe where they flirt constantly and the team ships them and tries to get them together? If you don’t need a plot then ignore that haha. Thanks :)

Author’s Note - I made this one Halloweenish too. Sorry.

***

“Kaldur, let me help you with that,” you said shyly, coming over to help him adjust the collar of his shirt. He smiled, blushing slightly. 

“Thank you.” Your touch lingered on his collar before pulling away. Artemis snorted at the sight. You jumped, forgetting the rest of the team had been watching. All of you were by the zeta tubes at the cave.

Robin laughed his creepy little laugh. “Are you two ready? Remember you’re supposed to be on a date.” 

“We know.” You adjusted your own outfit. “Why does it have to be us again? I mean M’gann and Conner are actually dating in real life.” 

“Supes is too scary. The date stalker won’t come after him,” Wally said, coming into the room with a camera. “Besides, he wouldn’t handle the fancy dinner and everything.” Conner growled in response. Wally smirked at him before holding up the camera. “Smile, lovebirds.” 

You and Kaldur froze like deer in headlights. The camera flashed, blinding both of you for a second. “I do not understand why you all seem to be enjoying this so much,” Kaldur whispered in Robin’s ear once he recovered.

“Because it’s fun.” Robin laughed again. He pushed Kaldur toward the zeta tube. “Stay whelmed. It’s going to be great.” 

Kaldur cleared his throat. He glanced over at you to see you getting a jacket from M’gann. You waved, putting it on as you joined him. “Are we ready to go?” 

“Yes, it appears so.” Kaldur looked back at Robin and Wally. Both of them gestured for Kaldur to offer you his arm. He frowned, confused by the gesture.

“Okay then.” You walked off to the zeta tube. Kaldur shook his head at Wally and Dick before running to catch up with you.

“I don’t know if this is going to work,” M’gann said through the mindlink. “They both don’t even realize their feelings for each other. How are they going to fall in love and be convincing to the Date Stalker?”

Artemis shook her head. “Kaldur is not that dense. He knows he likes (Y/N). I mean he blushes every time he looks at them. If we can tell they like each other, the Date Stalker will fall for it too.” 

“But what if they don’t notice that they like each other? What if it’s just as awkward as them leaving was?” M’gann bit her lip. “Maybe it should have been Conner and I as bait?”

“Nah, they’ll be fine. This will spark their romance. Kaldur isn’t a completely fool. I mean he won’t sweep (Y/N) off their feet like I could, but he can be charming when he wants to be.” Wally smirked, striking a proud pose. Artemis flicked him in the forehead. He winced, pouting. 

“Shouldn’t we be going? I mean we’re supposed to be backing them up.” Conner crossed his arms, glancing at the clock. Wolf barked impatiently as well. 

The rest of the team snapped to attention, and hurried to the zeta tube eagerly. “Remember pizza for a week if this has them dating afterwards,” Robin teased. Artemis smacked him across the head. “Ouch.” 

***

You poked at the food on your plate. What if you chewed too loudly? What if you spilled on yourself? Would Kaldur think you were a pig? You found you couldn’t take a bite.

Little did you know, Kaldur had the same thoughts going through his head on top of wondering what his food was. Surface food was strange to say the least. He poked at his food, copying you.

The silence weighed heavily on the two of you. You wished M’gann and Conner had done this part of the mission instead. 

“Are you enjoying your food?” The waiter asked, stopping by when he noticed neither of you had taken a bite. 

“We are fine. Thank you.” Kaldur gave him a tight smile. The waiter glanced at you. You nodded hurriedly, bumping the bottom of the table with your leg. Everything on the table jumped. Kaldur barely caught his water in time before it tipped over. 

“Sorry.” Your face burned. The waiter shook his head, mumbling something about kids as he walked away. “Sorry.” You kept your eyes on your plate. 

Kaldur cleared his throat. “It is fine.” He bit his lip. “Are you enjoying your food?” 

“Yes.” Your stomach growled. Tensing, you hoped Kaldur didn’t hear. You took a dainty bite of your food. It took you a second to swallow. “How’s yours?” 

Kaldur studied his plate. “Interesting.” He took a bite, encouraged by the sight of you eating. “I have never had something like this before.” 

You smiled, relaxing slightly. He was probably as out of his element as you were. “Well, do you like it?” 

“It has an different taste to be sure.” Kaldur took another bite. He glanced out the window, frowning when he saw a group of kids walk by in Halloween costumes. “I thought Halloween was in a few days?” 

“It is. They must be doing something early.” You shrugged. Finally, you relaxed enough to eat normally. “Have you celebrated Halloween before?” 

“No.” He smiled at you. “I was invited to join M’gann and Conner’s school dance, but I declined. The idea of Halloween as a holiday concerns me.” 

“Really? Why?” You tilted your head at him. 

Kaldur blushed. He loved when you looked at him like he was the only one in the room. “People dressing up in costumes and pretending to be people other than themselves is worrisome. In Atlantis, we would only do such a thing for plays or ceremonies.” He pursed his lips. “Not to mention, I have concerns about strangers giving candy to children.” 

You hummed, thinking about it. “I guess it would be strange to someone who didn’t grow up with it, but Halloween is mostly about having fun.” You smiled. “Maybe after dinner, we could go see what’s around to do for Halloween? I mean we’re just supposed to keep pretending to be on a date until the Date Stalker attacks us, right?”

“Hush.” Kaldur looked around. “Remember we are undercover.” 

You laughed. Kaldur chuckled along with you. The two of you enjoyed the rest of your dinner without any interruption.

***

“Well at least they are finally looking like they are on a date,” Artemis said, shaking her head as she put down her binoculars. “But no sign of the Date Stalker yet.” 

“Of course not. He’s not going to attack them in the restaurant. That goes against his MO.” Robin perched on the edge of the roof. Artemis stood next to him, both on the roof across from the restaurant. “Anything on street level, Miss M?”

M’gann was quiet for a second. Her voice came over the mind link. “Nothing here. Kaldur and (Y/N) are paying for their meal. Kid Flash is already moving to the park.” Out of the corner of Artemis’ eye, she saw M’gann in camouflage mode in the alley next to the restaurant. 

“Why couldn’t we just have Kaldur and (Y/N) walk around right away? This is a waste of time.” Conner grunted through the mind link. He and Wolf were on the bioship, hiding in the park. The rest of the team deemed them too outlandish to be outside with them.

“Because then they wouldn’t discover that they are perfect for each other,” Wally retorted. “Park is clear. Perfect for the love birds. Ready to get us that pizza, Rob?” 

Robin snorted. “I’m going to have to order it by the truckload for you, aren’t I?”

“Hello Megan,” M’gann said. “They’re leaving the restaurant, but they got stopped by kids in Halloween costumes.” 

The team watched as Kaldur and you talked to the kids. One of the kids handled you a flyer. You talked to Kaldur excitedly. He smiled, love sick. Eventually, you both started walking in the opposite direction of the park. 

“Wait, where are they going?” Robin snapped. “Miss M, connect them to the mind link.” 

“No!” Wally’s voice echoed through the mind link. Artemis covered her ears on reflex. “It will ruin the date magic.” 

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Robin tensed, running to jump across roofs to catch up with you and Kaldur. Artemis struggled to keep up.

“Robin, slow down. Not all of us are good at this height, okay?” Artemis panted, almost stumbling over the edge of one of the roofs. Robin slowed once he came to the street.

M’gann giggled. “It’s okay. (Y/N) dropped the flyer so I could get it. They’re going to a haunted house.” 

Wally laughed over the mindlink. “Shut up, Kid Flash,” Conner growled.

“See? It’s not bad.” Artemis leaned on her knees, still catching her breath. “How do you move that fast?” 

“Miss M, what’s the address? We need to move into position.” Robin ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath. 

“At least they aren’t going off to make out somewhere,” Wally teased, sensing Robin’s tension. 

“Pervert.” Conner grunted. Wally gasped before starting in on how he was not a pervert. Artemis laughed, nudging Robin. A smile crept onto Robin’s lips.

***

Kaldur bit his lip, eyeing you as you both walked down the street into an neighborhood. “Do you know where we are going, (Y/N)?”

“Yeah, the kids said the haunted house was over here. Apparently, it’s a local thing.” A trash can banged behind you. You jumped, grabbing Kaldur’s hand. 

Kaldur blushed. His hand stayed limp in your grasp for a moment before his fingers tightened around yours. Your hand was cold. “Are you cold? Your hand is freezing.” 

“I’m fine.” You smiled at him sheepishly, but you didn’t pull your hand away. “The others should know we changed plans and adapted.”

“We should not have changed plans.” Kaldur glanced around. “This may get dangerous.”

You waved your free hand. “Stop looking so nervous. Besides, it’s more natural for us to change out plans if we were really on a date.” You bit your lip. Kaldur realized at the moment that he had been staring at your lips for quite some time. He looked away quickly. “It’s kinda weird those kids only seemed to talk to us though, isn’t it?” 

“Strange, yes.” Kaldur tightened his fingers around yours. “It was like they were waiting for us.” 

You shivered. “Well, at least I’m showing you something to do on Halloween. Haunted houses are fun, even if this is just one in someone’s garage.” The two of you turned a corner to find a nicely decorated house with a line of people outside. “You’ve never been to a haunted house before, have you?”

Kaldur blinked, taking in the surroundings. “No, but I do understand the concept.” You pulled Kaldur to get in line. When you got to the table, you dug into your pocket for a few dollars to donate as admission. He frowned when he noticed a suspicious figure in the shadows. “(Y/N), I think we may have gotten some attention.” 

“Good.” You led him toward the haunted house, joining the line to go in. From your pocket, you removed two glowstick bracelets. You cracked one and put it around Kaldur’s wrist. “Hope the team can see these.” You put the other one on your wrist. 

“Interesting.” Kaldur stared at the bracelet. “I do not know why we could not use comlink or at the very least the mind link.” 

You shrugged. “Honestly, it confuses me too.” A smile grew on your lips. “At least we’ll have a souvenir from the mission.” 

“Kid will be jealous.” Kaldur smiled back at you. “(Y/N), I am...pleased I was put on this mission with you.” 

Your eyes sparkled. Kaldur’s heart skipped a beat. “Me too.” You pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Kaldur froze. “Come on, it’s our turn.” You took his hand and pulled him inside the creepy, dark haunted house.

***

“Oh my god. (Y/N) just kissed Kaldur’s cheek.” Artemis almost dropped her binoculars. 

“And they put on the glowsticks, so the Date Stalker is onto them,” Conner said bluntly. Artemis was on the roof of the house next door. Conner joined her as it had been decided he could finally leave the bio ship. 

M’gann squealed. “They kissed!”

“Pizza here we come!” Wally cheered.

“I knew they would feel the aster.” Robin laughed, swinging onto the roof of the garage. “Any visual of the Date Stalker?” 

“No, but (Y/N) and Kaldur entered the haunted house.” Artemis frowned. The team waited for about five minutes, but you and Kaldur didn’t exit the haunted house. 

Conner tensed. “I heard (Y/N) scream.” 

“Move in,” Robin ordered, sobering. “Miss M, connect Kaldur and (Y/N) to the mind link. I don’t care if we mess with their date.” The team moved in.

***

“Sorry,” you said as Kaldur groaned beneath you. 

“It is alright.” The pressure of your weight on him lit his entire body on fire. He swallowed hard. “Are you alright?” 

You rolled off him, rubbing your head. “I think I bumped my head.” The room was only lit with the glow from your bracelets. “Did the floor just give out or something?”

Kaldur sat up. His back ached from the fall. “It appears so.” He glanced around. “The reports said the Date Stalker tries to isolate their victims. This could be one of their tactics. Lure people into the haunted house and trap the ones they want.” 

“Crap.” You hissed, rubbing your temple. “I don’t feel good at all.” 

Kaldur reached to touch your temple, but stopped when lights suddenly came on the room. Both of you were blind. “One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die,” a voice echoed into the room. 

Suddenly, gas filled the room. “Stay close to the floor.” You pushed Kaldur back down, half laying on him. “The gas should rise first.”

Kaldur’s eyes adjusted. He caught a seam of the trap door that dropped the both of you in here. “I have an idea.” He took out his water-bearers that were hidden in his shirt. 

“Kaldur, (Y/N), where are you?” M’gann asked over the mindlink. 

“We fell through a trap door. (Y/N) is injured and toxic gas is filling the room.” Kaldur activated his water-bearers into a whip and threw it at the trap door in the ceiling. It broke through the wooden door easily. 

“I’m fine.” You tried to get to your feet, but stumbled, holding your head. 

“They are not fine.” Kaldur wrapped his arm around you. “We need an extraction now.” 

Robin’s creepy laugh filled the room. “You two seem comfortable.” The gas disappeared out of the broken trapdoor. He appeared beside you and Kaldur.

“Miss Martian, Superboy, use your abilities, find the Date Stalker. Artemis, call the authorities. Robin, help me get (Y/N) out of here.” Kaldur took charge. His arm stayed around you. Robin took your other arm. He smiled cheekily.

“What are you smiling about?” You blinked several times, unable to keep your balance. 

Robin nodded to Kaldur’s arm. You blushed. “And it’s nice to have Kaldur in charge again.” 

Kaldur hummed, taking Robin’s grapple gun from him to use it to help you up. Throughout the escape and the capture of the Date Stalker, Kaldur never left your side.

***

“It’s just a minor concussion, Kaldur. I’m fine.” You walked to your room at the cave. Kaldur hovered beside you, his hand holding yours.

“I do not want you to fall again, (Y/N).” Kaldur studied you worriedly. He helped you into your room and sat you down on your bed. His face burned when he saw your messy bedroom.

You smiled shyly, laying down. “I enjoyed myself today before...you know, falling and getting a concussion.” 

Kaldur bit his lip. “I did as well.” He stood awkwardly beside your bed. Part of him knew he should leave, but the other part wouldn’t let him. 

“I still am going to take you to celebrate Halloween with me. We’ll go to a real haunted house where we won’t walk into a death trap, maybe carve a pumpkin or two.” You closed your eyes, smiling lazily. 

“I would enjoy that.” He slowly sat down on the edge of your bed. You reached out to take his hand.

“Thank you.” You whispered before your hand relaxed, going limp in his.

Kaldur’s heart skipped a beat, staying where he was. He squeezed your hand. “You are welcome, (Y/N).” He leaned down to kiss your cheek before pulling away and leaving your room.

Noise from the kitchen brought him there, he frowned in confusion at the sight of what was happening inside. Boxes of pizza were piled on the kitchen table. The rest of the team were sitting around, pigging out. “What is this?” Kaldur asked, stepping into the room.

“Rob just kept his promise,” Wally said with his mouth full. Artemis elbowed him, glaring.

“So you and (Y/N), huh?” M’gann giggled, leaning into Conner’s side.

Kaldur blinked. “You all planned this to occur, did you not?” 

Robin snorted, getting another slice of pizza. “Well, we had to do something. You two weren’t going to get together on your own and there is only so much we can take.” 

The rest of the team laughed. Kaldur shook his head before joining them. He knew he should be mad, but he had to admit, he was grateful for their interference. 

[dreaming-of-brawlstars]

Finally finished Princess Shelly’s Grand Escape. I’m actually thinking of continuing this?

Desc: Once Upon A Brawl, a Princess wakes up in a tower. She’s not happy about it, not knowing how she got there, but despite the fact that she was kidnapped in the first place, she can handle this on her own.

Shelly woke up in… a bed. A bed she didn’t recognize. It was too soft, too warm, and everything seemed a little fuzzy. She rose a hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes, yawning, and felt something off. When she paused to see if something was on her hands, she notices that she was wearing gloves.

“What the…?” She blinked, clearing her vision to examine it closer. A white glove with makeup and glitter smudged onto it from her wiping her face. “Huh?”

She didn’t wear makeup. Or gloves. Part of her brain tried to tell that this was normal, to go back to sleep, but she shoved it aside. She looked down at herself, noticing that she was wearing a frilly blue dress. It felt more like a costume than clothing.

“I am definitely not dreaming anymore.” She mumbled as she sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed to stand up. She heard clinking as her feet hit the ground. “Okay what is this-“

She pulled the shirt of her dress up to look at her feet, seeing that she was wearing glass slippers. Her mind raced, trying to figure out how in the world she ended up in this unfamiliar bedroom in a frilly blue dress.

“This is getting ridiculous-“ She attempted to stand up, only to wobble a bit. She took a breath and steadied herself before standing up straight in the heels. “How can anyone stand these?”

She attempted to walk across the room, cursing whenever she stumbled in the slippers. Finally she gave up, pulling them off and storming to the window to see where she was. The sky above her was dark, the sun long gone, and there were stars scattered throughout it.

“Wherever I am I clearly am going crazy.” She shook her head. “No, no. Not crazy, this is crazy but I’m not. Where’s my-“

She looked around, noticing a strange looking green object on the floor by her bed. She picked it up by the handle, trying to make out any details. It was designed to look like a frog. By why a-

The ‘frog��� started snapping at her, and on reflex she punched it, still holding onto the handle. She hollered out curses as she held it away from her face, not interested in getting bitten, and warily watched it snap at her again.

“The heck are you!?” She had half a mind to throw the thing, but something in its mouth caught her eye. Squinting, she could see the gleam of a shotgun barrel in its jaws. “…huh.”

‘There it is.’ She thought, and as she aimed the gun’s barrel - and face - away from her, holding it at the same level as her chest. ‘That’s my gun.’

This felt way, way too weird to be real. She didn’t need to be a doctor to know she couldn’t possibly be asleep and in some kind of strange dream, and the fact that she was holding a gun that was apparently a frog made everything feel even weirder.

“Whoa, okay, firstly. Don’t shoot me. Okay? Second: What the heck? Who the heck are you? And why do you have my gun - why are you my gun? Third: If you want to bite, do so now because I really don’t want to hurt you or anything. Like ever again. Just-“ The frog-gun-thing bit her arm. “OW!! What was that for!?”

It hissed, and she rolled her eyes.

“Ay, ay, ay! Are you done? Stop biting me!” The frog let out another hiss, and she swore it laughed at her. She groaned in annoyance. “If you behave, I won’t throw you out the window. Deal?” The frog clicked, letting out an affirmative noise, which Shelly assumed meant yes, so she sighed and relaxed for a moment.

“This is insane. My frog is a gun, I’m in some weird tower, and-“ She started pacing, waving her hands around as she noticed a lock of her hair fall her face. “And my hair is pink!?” She stopped, staring at the lock before throwing the pink hair off her face. “This has got to be a trick! This isn’t real!”

She kept screaming and ranting about how much she was hallucinating while she stared at herself. At last she stopped and slumped against the wall, her breathing heavy. She was still panicking and she didn't seem capable of calming down. She glanced over at the door, and she couldn’t if it was even locked. With a deep sigh she walked over to it, slowly sliding her hand over the doorknob, and attempted to yank it open.

Nothing. Locked. She cursed to herself.

Sighing once more Shelly slid back to the wall and sank into it, leaning forward so that her forehead rested on the cool surface. She closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths.

"Calm down." She told herself. "You're fine. There's no reason to freak out right now, okay?"

She looked at the frog-gun she held, trying to smile at it reassuringly. Then an idea dawned upon her, and her smile widened. She stood up, holding the frog-gun ready as she faced the door, aiming it.

"One shot..." She muttered. "One shot..."

She heard something ont the other side, and she froze. She saw light from something very bright, and she squinted, shielding her eyes.

She had no idea if this guy was a friend or foe, but for her own sake, she was going to guess the latter. But she was also eager to get out. So maybe… Okay, she wasn’t going to kill the guy, but she would have the frog ready.

She looked around the room for anything else. She noticed the slippers, and as much as she didn’t want to wear them, the felt important. She she grabbed them, deciding to carry them instead. She held the frog-gun at her side and turned to the door again, ready to knock it down.

She took a deep breath, bracing herself, and kicked the door down with surprisingly no effort. As soon as she did, she raised her gun quickly, pointing it at whoever was behind the door.

She must’ve knocked him down when she knocked down the door. He was sitting on the ground, rubbing his head as a mask covered his face. A cutout mask with a cartoony face she vaguely recognized, but she didn’t care. She aimed the frog at him, just in time for him to move the mask to stare down the barrel as it opened its jaws

He didn’t try to make any sudden movements, but he was clearly nervous.

“What?” She asked. “Not gonna make a move? Too scared?”

She waited, expecting him to say something, to attack. To fight or run. Anything. But he stayed quiet. She took a step towards him, raising the gun as she walked closer.

“Are you my rescuer?” She asked, her voice lowering. “Or are you my kidnapper?” She stopped near him, watching closely as he looked at her, fear and confusion apparent on his face. It made sense; they never met before, of course he wouldn’t know her and she didn’t recognize him.

But he did.

“Sh-Shelly, it’s me, Colt?” He spoke up, reaching his hand out toward her. “Please put the gun down, please-.”

She paused in disbelief, staring wide eyed at him, and lowering the gun slowly in response. She blinked a few times but refused to lower the weapon, instead holding it tighter.

“The wizard sent me - Byron - it’s a long story…” Colt tried to explain, still looking at the shotgun in his face. “Please lower the frog…”

“The Wizard sent you? Why the hell are you here and what do you mean, long story?” She snapped. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because it’s the truth.” Colt replied, “And I’ll explain everything, we just need to-“

“Kiss me.” Her voice went low, almost threatening.

“Wha-, uh,” he stuttered, paling as he swallowed a lump in his throat. She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“Since I’m stuck in some fantasy freakshow, I’m assuming you’re probably my ‘prince charming’ and our ‘true love’s kiss’ is probably going to break wherever curse I’m under, and I have every reason to believe I’m cursed!” With her waking up in a weird room, seeing a gun as a frog, and her magically being a Princess, she was getting somewhat desperate. “So, kiss me already, you dolt!”

“Haha,” he choked out, still pale. “N… not funny, Shelly. Look. It’s not funny, alright?!” She glared at him, raising the gun.

“I’m serious! Break this stupid curse or so help me-“

“Okay!” He threw his arms up, and he seemed to have enough courage then to yell in exasperation, as if he was just as stressed. “I got your message! I didn’t expect you to remember me, I didn’t expect you to even recognize me! But if you do remember, if you actually remember that we were friends, well, you should probably listen to whatever I have to say. You might want to take your finger off the trigger, too…” She hesitated, her grip on her gun loosening a little. “That’s the thing, Shelly. We’re friends? Yes. Sure, we were good friends, once,” he said softly, “You probably don’t remember that…”

She frowned. “You’d be correct.” He nodded, his brows furrowed together as he sighed.

“Okay, yeah, maybe not. Not exactly, anyways. But… I am here to rescue you from wherever it is you are. So…” Colt glanced at the door and the remains of it on the ground. “You - you probably have that handled. Right?” She scoffed.

“Of course I can handle myself. I’m a princess.” She reminded him, raising her eyebrows sarcastically. “Now, why don’t you tell me why this is happening?” She demanded.

“Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, uh, Byron - who’s a wizard now - sent me to save you.”

Something clicked, and Shelly turned to the frog in her hands. Things seemed to shift into place.

“Oh, he’s the one that gave me you.” She pat it’s head, a little roughly. But it seemed to like that. “I remember you~!” She continued, a bit quieter than before. “So… he must’ve been worried about you. And he sent you, but then he decided not to come himself. He’s really irresponsible.”

“Uh… Yeah, kinda. Listen…” Colt scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “He is sending help, but we need to get out of here first. They should be coming soon.”

“Well let’s go!” Shelly grabbed Colt’s wrist and started running, dragging him along. “So, who are they?”

“There’s Barley, he’s a unicorn knight now. Then Prince Emerald Sprout.” Shelly looked back incredulously, “You’ll recognize them when you see them. They live up to their descriptions.”

“What the heck are you?” Shelly questioned, raising the gun up once against a door. She noticed Colt rummaging through his bag, pulling out two golden pistols.

“I’m - uh - not quite sure. I think I’m just an ordinary man - er, hero – trying to find you. Get you out,” he answered sheepishly.

She scoffed. She knew it was bullshit.

“No. There’s more to it than that. I’m not an idiot, Colt, if that is your real name.” She rolled her eyes, shooting down the door and barreling through to the outside.

“Y’know, usually you’re not the one asking what’s going on.” Colt responded, firing at a small figure approaching them. He seemed to know how to use guns. Good for him.

“Yeah, but you’re supposed to be saving me, obviously.” She shot back, running and looking back briefly to make sure he was following. She slowed down slightly, hearing sirens and looking around.

Those sounded out of place, but she wasn’t sure. Her attention was snapped back to seeing robots around, one raising a gun. She stepped back slightly, backing into Colt.

“What’s going on here?” When she asked that, Shelly swore she heard him snort. “I’m being serious!”

“No time to explain!” Colt seemed to be holding back a laugh. That sounded like a punchline, like it was ironic. “If you stop to explain, you’re a goner! I’ve seen proof!” Colt insisted, aiming his gun at one of the robots while continuing to walk beside her.

“Proof of what?” She yelled back, shooting down another robot that tried to shoot him.

“Poco! Wherever he is, anyway…” Colt spoke quickly, picking off a sniper robot that was aiming for Shelly, then perking up at the sound of shattering glass. “There’s Barley!”

Shelly turned, then looked up to see a knight - a robot - clad in bright colors and sparkles leaping down to help. She closed her eyes as something it threw hit the robot in front of her, shattering and exploding into dust and rainbows. As she squinted open her eyes, she noticed an opening.

She lowered her head and charged through, holding her gun close. As soon as she was out of the dust, she scanned the area, seeing that a fire had started in the village she was in. She didn’t focus on that for long, seeing robots ahead. She leaped, aiming to land on it, and crushed it’s head with her foot before jumping off it’s inverted head to escape the group.

More shattering glass - that sounded like bottles. Looking back, she noticed to vaguely familiar silhouettes dashing through the dust, chasing her. Her eyes widened as two dragons emerged - one pink, one green - recognizing them. Shelly readied her shotgun, shooting at them to knock them back before running.

She dodged robots attempting to grab her, but her focus was on avoiding the dragons. Fortunately, someone had her back. She saw as a sword was flung into the chest of one robot, and then another thrown and slicing into the back of another. Glancing at the direction the swords came from, she noticed a little robot dressed in green wearing a cape with a sword sticking through it’s head.

“Thanks!” She hollered briefly before dodging a punch from one of the dragons, and it gave her small nod before reaching for the sword in it’s head to fling at another robot in her way.

Shelly took one final scan of the situation, thinking quickly. Since everyone else seemed to be focused on the robots, that seemed to leave just her with the dragons that were insistent on chasing her. It was a good thing the robots seemed to be focused on her allies instead of her as well, leaving her with just the dragons.

Either way, she was going to have to deal with them alone. But that wasn’t a bad thing, not at all. As she wove around robots being shredded into shrapnel by bullets, being cut in half by thrown swords, and disappearing into dust and glitter, she turned around with her gun aimed to her pursuers.

They were right in her face, she didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, feeling the force before hearing the gun going off in her hands.

“BANG!” She shouted, hearing the blast echoing throughout the entire battlefield. She pulled the trigger again, hearing it’s shots ring in her ears. “Bang, bang, bang!!” She yelled, watching the bullets flying everywhere.

The shells hit their targets; each one hitting the same one in turn. Each time, she felt a sting of satisfaction as the shells went through a target and the force knocking them backward and away. Thrown back, they flew for a few feet before hitting the ground, hard.

She watched as the two dragons turned to smoke and disappeared. With the last one gone, the robots turned to nothing, turning to dust and scrap.

Finally, she stopped firing for a moment, watching the area. She could hear people talking somewhere nearby. She sighed.

“Great job, Shelly…” She muttered quietly under her breath.

“Hey, hey, are you alright?!” Colt called from behind her. She frowned, glancing around.

“Yeah, did you see what I just did?” She pointed to where the two dragons were with her gun, then gestured over to the robots she destroyed. “That was so awesome!” She cheered, throwing her arms in the air victoriously.

She heard slow clapping, and blinked, noticing it was from behind her. She noticed Colt nervously wave at someone she didn’t see, she couldn’t see clearly, because of the dust. She rubbed her eyes before turning around to face them.

As she turned to look, a tall figure appeared.

“Wow. That was amazing. You did incredible.” The figure said as they walked closer to her. “But I think that’s enough excitement for today, don’t you?” They continued, still smiling.

“Who… Are you? What are you?” Shelly narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “And why did you say those things? Are you making fun of me?”

“No, no! Not at all!” The person laughed as he reached her. “Why would I ever do such thing?” He held out his hand towards her. “I mean… I knew you were capable of destruction and handling yourself, even if you did get caught-“

“I broke out on my own.” Shelly retorted, crossing her arms. “I kicked down the door, nearly shot the guy that was sent to save me.” She threw a thumb back at Colt. “I got rid of most of those. I didn’t need rescuing, I was doing fine on my own.” She explained, glaring at him.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “How many of the robots did you destroy?” Shelly opened her mouth, but he rose his hand. “Aht, look around first.”

Shelly raised a brow before doing so, noticing that while several of the robots had clear indications of being destroyed by a shotgun like hers, several also were melted, had been stabbed or sliced by swords, or had holes through their chest from more precise bullets.

“While handling the dragons on your own was very impressive and no small feat,” He started, first looking at Shelly, “I’m sure not having robots distract you helped a lot. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone-“

“Well I wouldn’t have been alone, I have this thing.” She held up her shotgun, which snapped at the stranger. “It’s a weapon,” She shrugged.

“Yes, I figured.” He nodded, putting up his hands in defence when she swung it towards him. “Okay, okay… You don’t seem to need it now. Lower the frog, please.” When she hesitated, he sighed, lowering his hands. “Lower the frog, please. Or do you want me to take it back?”

“Um…” She stared at the thing. “What’s this about the frog? Do you know how I got it?” She asked cautiously.

“Well of course! I gave it to you! And I am quite sure I would remember giving it to you.” He smiled.

“You… You gave me the… Frog?” She repeated, her voice sounding almost confused, even to her. She looked at it, lowering it, then it dawned on her. “OH. You’re the wizard!”

“Did you just now recognize that I was a wizard?”

“YEAH!” She nodded, laughing a bit. “I mean, I noticed you dressed weird and essentic but I didn’t - it fits you?”

The wizard groaned, his face turning red as he dragged a hand down his face.

“Oh geez, how embarrassing,” He muttered. “Anyway, I should probably start heading towards the town, make sure everything is okay there. So, bye!” He waved his hand, starting to walk away.

Before he got far, Shelly reached out a hand, grabbing his sleeve.

“Wait, I have a feeling you were trying to give me some ‘moral of the story’ or something like that. Y’know, fairytales.” She shrugged, frowning. “And I didn’t get your name. And I want revenge.”

The wizard paused in surprise. “Hmm..” His eyes narrowed slightly, a grin forming on his lips. “Maybe I was…?” He hummed lightly to himself, rubbing his chin. “You know what, I’ll be blunt. I am Byron, the Wizard.” He shrugged. “Moral of the story: I don’t doubt you, nobody should, but it’s dangerous to go alone.”

“But I’m not-“

“Princess, I’m not finished.” He gently cut her off, then called for the attention of the group, gesturing for them to come over. “Everyone, everyone, this story isn’t over just yet. I can show you all the way for your quest.”

“We’ll need higher ground to see our next destination.” Byron rose his staff, pointing at an odd metal frame tower that was bent out of shape by the fight. “Little Prince, come over.”

Shelly watched as the little robot with the sword wheeled over to him, grabbing Byron’s robe. Byron gave Sprout a brief pat on it’s done. With that, Byron slammed his staff on the ground and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Shelly blinked away the dust, noticing her footing was different. She looked down, seeing that she was on the bent metal tower, overlooking the town and horizon. She noticed Barley, who stood securely on it, and Colt, who hung onto a stay metal bar for deal life.

“Ahead,” Byron spoke, and when Shelly saw him he was levitating in the air with Sprout hanging from his robe. He pointed to the castle in the distance. “Is the residence of Evil Dragon Queen Pam, she is the one who captured you.”

“LET’S KICK HER-“ Shelly attempted to jump down, only for Byron to put his staff in front of her to prevent her. “What!?”

“It’s dangerous to go alone.” He repeated firmly. She looked down at the ground, scowling. “You may be able to handle Queen Pam by yourself, but will you be able to handle her forces, her armies, and whatever army of robots they could possibly have?” Shelly pursed her lips and sighed.

“Fine.” She huffed.

“Thank you, Princess.” Byron grinned before disappearing into a puff of smoke. Everyone else followed suit, everyone being back on the ground. “You’ll need people, allies, friends… All I ask of you is help us with the mission.” He added.

“Right.” She mumbled, sighing again. “But I get Pam all to myself, got it?”

“I have no doubts.” Byron chuckled, “Barley, do you have the map?”

“Yep! Here it is!” He said cheerfully, holding it up triumphantly.

“Good job, knight.” He said, patting the robot on the shoulder. “With that map, a good sense of direction, and each other, I have no doubts that you all have everything you need for your quest.”

The group began to talk among themselves excitedly, talking about their tasks and the possible future that awaited the group.

Shelly stared at the map for awhile before she shook herself, smiling. Then she noticed Byron walking off, waiting an arm for an owl to land on as he left.

“Hey, Byron!” She yelled out before she followed after him, waving her free hand over her head. “Aren’t you going to be one of us? You seem so insistent on not going alone.”

He turned his head, raising his hand to wave back. “Well, you can consider me a member of your group, that’s for sure. I’ll help any way I can-”

“Are you coming with us?” Shelly interrupted him.

Barley stopped, turning his head. Byron stared at her for a moment before sighing, closing his eyes. “No. I will not be part of this group.”

“Why?”

“Look, princess, I have my own things to tend to.” Byron crossed his arms. “And I have already given you allies, possible friends, with Barley - a wonderful magical knight, Sprout - a blooming prince, and…” Byron raised an eyebrow at Colt, “…a new companion, yes, the new guy. So, my answer is still no.”

She frowned at his words.

“So, we’ve wasted enough time as it is,” Byron walked away.

Shelly watched him go for a few seconds, before looking down at her map. The map showed where the castle of Evil Queen Pam was located in relation to where they were. That meant…

Shelly took a deep breath, shaking her head as she walked over to her group.

“Alright,” She sighed. “Let’s go. We need to get to the castle. It’s not far at all.”

[willowbird]

Prompts open? Bet maybe foxes(and Andrew) slowly finding out how fucked up Neil’s mom was to him?(I get it was to survive but it was still abuse)

Since this one got kinda... Uh... Long... And answered both of these prompts I decided to combine them!! I didn't include a separate one for Andrew because he's present for a couple of them and by the time I reached the end it was like 6600 words and an Andrew POV would probably add another 2000 because I'm me and I always get carried away with Andrew POV.

If you’d rather read this on AO3 you can do so here.

4 times the Foxes found out how fucked up Mary was to Neil, and the 1 time Neil actually admitted it

ONE - ALLISON

Allison had been taking Neil shopping, which in itself wasn't really a weird occurrence. Allison would take any of her teammates shopping if that's what needed to happen to get them to stop looking like a dirty hobo. As it happened, Neil was just the worst offender and so she pestered him about it more often than not. It was remarkable how the guy could be dating the Monster and still look like that. Not that Andrew Minyard was a fashion icon or anything, but the miniature psychopath at least understood the concept of aesthetic and made sure the people around him wore things that actually fit. 

Well, most of the people around him. 

Point being, Neil needed a bit of extra help, and Allison was more than happy to supply it. So she'd taken to dragging him out shopping with her once a week. It was basically therapy - and fuck if that boy didn't need some of that.

(But Allison wasn't going to say that in front of Neil or he'd probably get hives…)

Usually, the shopping trips all went about the same. Allison would drag Neil along, Neil would acquiesce until he got hungry, then he'd get bitchy and after Allison fed him he'd calm the fuck down enough to try on more things before refusing to get anything. On a very rare occasion she would get him to accept a shirt or a new pair of pants. His weakness was shoes, but she tries not to exploit that too often.

Today, however, was different - because today Allison caught Neil's eyes catching on a particular hoodie. If it had been just once she would have passed it off, but this was at least the fourth time Neil had sought it out in the whole ten minutes they'd been in the narrow clothing store and his eyes didn't just catch, they lingered. Which meant that Neil was interested, that he liked something. This was a breakthrough! Especially since the hoodie was new and had color, rather than the drab shit he was always wearing. It was a very pretty cerulean blue with black stitching and was of a less bulky design than the other two Neil owned (one of which was the Foxes one she'd never seen him wear off-campus). In the proper size it would fit his frame nicely, she could tell just by looking at it, and she was low-key impressed that something with general style had been the thing to catch his eye. 

Allison grinned and nudged him. "Hey, just grab it. You could use a new hoodie."

Neil's attention snapped to her and Allison wasn't prepared for the flash of instinctive panic that raked through his eyes. "No, I didn't- I don't-" He raised his hands apologetically, which was weird, then seemed to catch himself and dropped them immediately. Allison could see him struggling not to look over at the sweatshirt and for the life of her she didn't understand why. But now she needed to know.

She gave him a look. "Uh, yes you did, and you do. What's the big deal? So what, you like it. Get it." She shrugged, hoping nonchalance would encourage him to stop being a weirdo about it.

"Nah," Neil said with a shrug. "It's fine. I've got hoodies."

Allison thought about letting it go, she really did, but she was too curious. But she also knew that the more she seemed to care about the answer she was prodding for, the less likely Neil was going to give it. So she pretended to look at some of the surrounding clothing without really registering what she was shuffling through. "You act like you've never bought something just because you wanted it before," she said with her usual level of scathing judgement.

"It was too dangerous," came Neil's distracted response. When Allison peaked over at him, her hand freezing on the shoulder of a sweater, about to slide it down the rack, she saw that he was looking at the hoodie again, studying it with a too-careful blankness she was beginning to recognize as Neil-in-memory.

"Getting something you wanted was too dangerous?" It was harder this time to keep her tone casual but she managed it well enough that Neil didn't fully snap out of his thoughts, wherever they were.

He shrugged. "It was distracting. If you had things you cared about you'd lose sight of survival, or make stupid mistakes."

Allison just stared at him. "You weren't allowed to have things you wanted… because they'd be distracting? Neil that's really fucked up." 

Neil looked over at her and grimaced, pulling away from the hoodie. "Whatever, it's not a big deal. Come on, are you done shopping yet?"

For another moment Allison stared, then she stalked forward and violently grabbed the hoodie from the rack, ignoring Neil's startled protests. 

"No," she said, pointing at him with her free hand. "You aren't some kid on the run anymore and you don't have to follow your mom's fucked up rules. If you want something, you're going to get it, damn it." If Neil tried to protest again she didn't see it because she'd already whirled around to head up toward the checkout.

Fuck you, Mary.

TWO - DAN

Team Night was something Dan instated right after finals last year. One night a week they all got dinner after practice. The whole team had to be there for at least part of the time. Sometimes they got along, sometimes they fought like half-crazed rabbis raccoons, but they were all together in a situation that wasn't about exy (no matter how many times Kevin or Neil brought it up). If there was anything Dan had learned over her years as Team Captain, it was that they would always operate better on the court if they could also work together off of it.

Tonight they'd gone out to dinner with the whole team before splitting off into various groups back at the dorms. Renee had gone off with Allison and Nicky while Aaron had left right from the restaurant to meet up with Katelyn. The freshmen had split into their own groups - they were still working out their hierarchy among themselves and Dan knew by now that she just had to let it happen - which had left her and Matt and, surprisingly enough, Neil and Andrew. She hadn't really expected the other two to accept her invitation to join them in Matt's room for a movie, but when she's offered Neil had easily agreed and Andrew hadn't protested. 

A part of her had still expected Andrew to peel off and go back to his own dorm once they'd returned to Fox Tower, but the reticent goalkeeper had followed them all into the room with no complaint.

"All right!" Matt announced with a grin once the door was shut and locked behind them, crossing to where he kept the booze. "Power Couple Movie Night! Whatcha guys want? Babe?"

Dan chuckled and rolled her eyes affectionately. "You're ridiculous and I love you. I'll have a whisky sour." She looked to Andrew and Neil. "What about you guys? He just stocked up so there's a bit of everything."

"Babe, you're making me sound like an alcoholic." 

Dan dismissed the complaint with a wave of her hand and smiled over at the other two. 

"Whisky straight." That was Andrew.

Neil just shrugged. "I don't need anything," he said.

"Do you have Dr. Pepper?" Andrew asked, apparently not done.

Matt nodded, lifting a mostly-full two-liter for him to see and setting it on the surface of the cabinet. 

"He'll have that with amaretto."

"Andrew."

"Neil."

Dan tried not to be too obvious about how closely she was watching them. It wasn't even a 'how could they be together?' thing. It was just that… Neil was this big mystery, and Andrew was also a big mystery. And now they were together and that just made the mystery balloon exponentially. The two of them fit together in a way that was somehow both surprising and like nothing in the world could make more sense. They had a whole language together of looks and gestures, of silent understandings that the rest of them couldn't even begin to interpret. In a way, this was just like any other couple. Even now, Dan shot a glance over at Matt and they shared a look of their own before resuming their subtle observations of the other couple. Somehow it was different with Andrew and Neil though. Somehow it seemed… heavier. It was fascinating and also kinda unsettling, which only made Dan want to figure it out even more.

After an extended silence where Neil and Andrew had some indecipherable conversation with their eyes alone, Neil sighed, apparently conceding defeat, and nodded agreement to his boyfriend's drink order. 

"All right! Neilio is drinking with us tonight!" Matt pumped a fist into the air, shattering the residual tension with his enthusiasm. Dan had probably never loved anyone so much in her life.

Neil smirked his own affection for the big lug and flopped onto the couch, Andrew following with less flourish but a level of relaxed comfort that made Dan's heart soar. It was really happening. Andrew was letting himself trust them, letting himself be a part of the team, letting himself be… one of their friends.

Matt finished making their drinks and brought them over on a serving tray he had been a little bit too excited to buy.

Neil took his drink and cautiously sniffed it, wrinkling his nose. "It smells sweet," he complained.

"You have two choices when it comes to liquor, Josten. It either tastes sweet or it tastes like alcohol." Andrew was entirely unsympathetic, though his gaze remained focused on Neil even as he sipped his whisky. Apparently, this was some either-or that Neil was willing to concede to because he sighed and sipped the drink. After a moment he hummed and took another sip. Another sip turned into a second drink as the four of them collectively decided to skip the movie and instead hang out and talk about the worst movies they'd ever seen. Andrew, surprisingly, had a lot to contribute - as he had apparently seen a lot of movies and had Opinions about all of them. It was very weird and kinda surreal, but also made Dan feel almost giddy.

"Well shit, Neil, if it was just a matter of you not liking the taste of alcohol we'd have stocked up on wine coolers ages ago," Matt said as he handed Neil his third glass later on in the night. He grinned and perched on the armrest of her chair. Dan smiled up at him when he put his arm around her, leaning against him and sipping her own drink as she turned her attention back to the other couple.

The other couple. Well, that was weird.

"Nah, I still wouldn't have had anything," Neil said after another, fuller drink. He leaned back, comfortable. Dan noticed that he and Andrew weren't touching but there was still a weird intimacy with their proximity. It hurt her brain to think about so she didn't focus on it overmuch. Then Neil said, "Mom only brought out the alcohol when I needed to be stitched up," and Dan froze with her drink halfway back up to her mouth. Neil didn't seem to notice, looking into his cup as he continued. "No hospitals, you know, and when I was a kid I always cried a lot and was really loud about it unless I was too drunk to feel anything at all."

And when I was a kid I always cried a lot and was really loud unless I was too drunk to feel anything at all.

When I was a kid…

It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Dan peripherally noticed that she wasn't the only one who had gone still. It was so rare for Neil to say anything about his time before he joined the Foxes. It was even more rare for him to bring up his mother - especially in such a… disturbingly revealing way. 

Matt was the one to break the silence. "When you say you were a kid you mean…?" There was a false lightness in his voice, like he was trying not to alert Neil to how much he was revealing. Andrew cut him a glare but then looked to Neil without interrupting.

Neil shrugged, swirling his glass lightly, apparently fascinated with the ice as it clinked gently against the sides of the glass. He poked at them with his mixing straw. "Mm, Lola scared me, y'know? I didn't want her to stitch me up. So I begged mum. Dad would hurt her too if she couldn't keep me quiet. I tried, but being noisy was always a problem for me. 's how I usually got in trouble anyhow. Or by not being still enough. Or dropping knives." Neil shivered, his free hand rubbing against a spot on his abdomen like he was worrying away at a memory, some phantom ache from a past that he could never quiet escape from.

Andrew, apparently, had decided this was enough. He reached forward and pulled the glass from Neil's hand with a gentleness that shouldn't surprise Dan anymore. He set the glass on the table and stood, then tugged Neil up with him. He didn't let go of the striker's hand even when he got the other man standing. Once he was sure the other would be steady he glanced over at them with a dark, steady threat in his eyes. "We are leaving now."

A sound beside her alerted Dan to the beginning of Matt's protest and she elbowed him before he could complete it. In its place, she gave a strained smile and nodded. "Of course. You guys are probably tired. See you tomorrow!"

Neil raised his hand in a small wave but he still seemed a little lost, his expression closed, his mind somewhere else. 

When the door closed behind them, Matt stood up and walked over to lock it, then he stood there for a moment before turning to face her. His expression was dark and angry and echoed the storm stirring in his own heart.

"Neil went on the run when he was ten."

It might have seemed a random statement, but Dan was following the same line of thought and she nodded. They'd known that Neil's dad was a bastard, knew he'd been hurt by him and his people when they'd been on the run and it wasn't a far toss to infer that he'd been hurt earlier too. But this confirmation was blood-chilling. Mary's part in it was not comforting.

"She did nothing, Dan. She did nothing. She let him get hurt and then she got him drunk as a little fucking kid to stitch him up again. I know it was a fucked up situation, and I'm sure it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for her but fuck Dan. Fuck."

Dan nodded, setting down her drink and rising from the chair so she could go to Matt. She knew that she only had a surface understanding of the situation. She couldn't imagine what Mary might have gone through herself, but she couldn't find enough compassion in her heart to make excuses for her. Maybe that made her heartless, she didn't fucking care. What she cared about was that Mary let her own son be hurt badly enough that he needed to get drunk and get stitched up over and over again, before and after they went on the run. What she cared about was that Mary hurt her son over and over herself in order to control him, to keep him under her thumb. Maybe she did it because that's how she thought she was protecting him but intentions meant shit.

Lesser evils were still evil.

There are always choices, always options, and Mary's choices had traumatized Neil just as much as the Butcher's had. Maybe Neil had complicated feelings about his mother but Dan didn't. She had a very clear opinion, actually.

Fuck you, Mary.

THREE - MATT

"Okay so, but why Andrew?" Matt didn't mean anything negative with the question, but he flipped a hand in apology when Neil glared over at him. "I didn't mean it that way. I mean like -- is your type short, blond, and stabby or…?"

"I don't have a type. I don't swing."

Well that made no sense.

"Except for Andrew," Matt clarified, reminding Neil that he was self-admittedly committed to the Monster.

Neil nodded without hesitation. "Except for Andrew," he agreed.

"Right… but… why? Why only Andrew? Didn't you ever like… like other guys, or girls?" Matt studied his best friend, desperate to understand him. He wasn't even being anti-Andrew about this, he was just trying to learn more about Neil and this integral part of him. Neil said he didn't swing, and then of all people to fall for - he falls for Andrew. Matt had thought that maybe Neil had been shy about admitting he was gay or something, but Neil was pretty confident about the whole not-swinging thing. Matt got that there were other sexualities out there, but the idea of just… not wanting anything just didn't make sense to him.

He was surprised when Neil actually said -- "Sure, yeah, when I was like, fourteen or whatever. I wouldn't say I liked anyone, but I noticed girls."

Matt blinked and looked over at him, letting the game controller rest on his lap. "Wait, you did?"

Neil shrugged. "Yeah, but it wasn't allowed so…"

"It wasn't… allowed?" Matt frowned, lost.

"My mom knew they'd be a distraction, that it was too dangerous for me to fall for someone. I don't think it occurred to her that I might like a guy, so when she realized I was noticing girls she made sure I didn't anymore."

Matt was silent for a long moment, letting the implication of that sink in. "When you said she 'made sure' you didn't notice girls…?"

Neil shrugged. "I was stupid. Just telling me wasn't going to do anything." But his friend's casual nonchalance was gone and Matt watched as the other man withdrew into himself. His expression closed down and he scratched his nails through his hair, against his scalp in an anxious tick Matt was pretty sure Neil didn't even realize he did.

A flare of rage heated his lungs and it took concentrated effort to swallow it down. He could imagine what Mary might have done to her son to drill the lesson home. 

"That's really fucked up, Neil."

Neil just shrugged, then nodded at the tv. "Are you gonna play or what?" Matt could see that his friend didn't want to talk about it so he let it go, but he wasn't going to forget it.

"Yeah. How about you order some pizza or something? I'm getting fucking hungry." A bit of the tension broke and Neil flashed him a small smile before pushing off the couch to go get his phone to make the order. Matt watched him go and took another breath to make sure his anger was packed away for later.

Fuck you, Mary.

FOUR - NICKY

Christmas! Nicky was so fucking excited about Christmas this year. Not only would Erik be coming into town, but the whole family would be there! Well, the family that mattered anyway. Aaron was bringing Katelyn, Andrew would be there and participating, and Neil was staying with them for the entirety of winter break. It was going to be amazing!!

Already, in the few days since school had let out, Nicky had set about Christmas-ifying the whole house and it was looking amazing if he did say so himself, which he did.

Today was going to be particularly exciting because he had managed to get Neil to agree to go Christmas shopping with him. Erik would be arriving tomorrow morning and Nicky still hadn't gotten his present. Or Aaron's. Or Andrew's. Or Neil's… He'd gotten Katelyn's though! He'd seen an absolutely gorgeous sweater at the mall the other week in just her color so he'd swiped it up. Point being, he had some catching up to do and he suspected that Neil was also behind on his Christmas shopping.

This was confirmed shortly after they arrived at the mall and Nicky asked Neil what he'd gotten for Andrew.

Neil blinked at him, like he was caught off guard by the question. 

"I don't think we're getting each other anything," he said, looking downright confused.

"Oh. Oh Neil. Oh Neil no. No, you are definitely getting gifts for each other. You're a couple!"

Neil looked vaguely uncomfortable as he shrugged, but he didn't deny the label and Nicky counted that as progress. "I don't think we're the gift-giving kind…"

Clearly, Neil hadn't been paying attention to the fact that Andrew had been gifting Neil at every fucking opportunity since they'd met. Clothes, keys, food, drinks, more clothes, a phone. At first, Nicky had just thought it was Andrew being possessive in the way he was possessive of all the people he'd decided we're his. It wasn't until after the two had come clean about their relationship (relationship!!!) that Nicky had thought back and realized that Andrew wasn't half as generous with the rest of them. Honestly, Nicky was a bit embarrassed for not noticing it all sooner. This whole time, Nicky thought he was being cryptic when he was just being really, really gay. For shame.

"Mm, well," Nicky hedged, feeling pity for the poor blind idiot. At least he was cute. "You're wrong, but we won't get into it. Just trust me when I say that Andrew has definitely gotten you something." Probably multiple things, actually, but Nicky didn't want to shock the poor cute dummy. "And you can't tell me that you don't want to give him a gift." Nicky stopped, frowning at Neil in disapproval.

"It's not that," Neil admitted, and Nicky wasn't sure he'd ever seen the younger man look more awkward. 

"Then what is it. Come on, kid, tell Uncle Nicky."

Neil made a face. "Only if you never say that again."

Nicky laughed, though he realized Neil had a point. That might have been a bit much. "Deal. So what is it?"

Neil shrugged, fidgeting in a restless way that Nicky recognized as one of Neil's tells when he was uncertain or nervous. Neil was someone who needed to be in motion, someone who needed to do things. Nicky related to that, heavily, so he linked his arm through Neil's and tugged him into walking again. The motion seemed to help, and after a few minutes, Neil finally spoke up.

"I've never really done the whole Christmas or birthday thing. Especially not since me and my mom, you know…" He drifted off vaguely, gesturing with one hand like that's was supposed to indicate all the time he and his mom were running from his psycho dad and his evil butcher-buddy minions. Nicky nodded like it had and Neil continued. "It just feels… weird, you know. Like it's a thing that real people do. They go to school and they have holidays with families that don't want to kill them or each other. They buy each other presents that they don't need and that's… normal. But it just doesn't make sense to me."

There was a lot to unpack there, but Nicky's mind caught on the first thing Neil had said and it kept replaying over and over on his head like a skipping record.

Like it's a thing that real people do.

Like Neil wasn't… real.

Nicky stopped walking again, his heart clenching suddenly in his chest. "Wait, hold on. Rewind. Neil, you realize that you are a real person, right?"

Tension wiped Neil's face into an awful blankness and normally Nicky would let it go. He'd make a joke and try and get them back to something lighter, but this was… something was just so wrong about that and he couldn't ignore it.

"Neil," he implored, hands on both the younger man's shoulders, gripping tightly, willing him to open up to him.

Maybe it was a testament to the season of sharing, or maybe it was proof that he and Neil had come a long way since those first few months over a year ago, but for whatever reason, Neil didn't brush him off and he didn't pull away. Instead, he sighed and gave a small shrug, shuffling his feet as he apparently searched for the right words like they were hidden between his shoelaces.

"I didn't feel real for a long time, you know. I couldn't be. Mom was the one who made all the identities for me, the one who chose the names and the covers. She was the one who created everything about the boys I was supposed to be, down to their interests in school and outside of it, just in case someone asked me when she wasn't around. She'd test me on them. I studied those boys with more dedication than I studied for my classes when I was actually in school."

Nicky frowned, confused. "What about your interests and what you were like."

Neil shrugged. "I didn't have any. I wasn't like anything, unless you can count fear as a personality trait."

That… didn't make sense. Neil was saying words, and individually, Nicky knew what they meant, but his brain was struggling to comprehend exactly what they meant when put together in that order. 

"But… that's not possible. What about when you saw something you liked, or wanted, or did something that you just… enjoyed. A tv show or, fuck, math. You like math right? That's a part of your personality." He heard the desperation in his own voice but he was too distracted by the conundrum of Neil's 'I wasn't a real person's reveal that he didn't even care to attempt to rein it in.

"Not until I got to Palmetto," Neil admitted. "I didn't have to take a math class my senior year because my forged transcripts already had the required number of classes to graduate and it seemed conspicuous to take more than that. Your average teenager doesn't like math."

"But you thought about it, right? When you were signing up for classes, you thought about adding math, then actively chose not to." A picture of understanding was beginning to form and Nicky felt a little bit sick with what it showed.

Neil frowned, like he was thinking about it, then gave a small nod of reluctant agreement.

"So… there was something you liked, something that was you and you just, what, instinctively went 'No, bad idea'. Why?"

"It's what my mom would have done," was Neil's instant, confident reply. He hadn't even had to think about that one. Then, to Nicky's horror, he elaborated with, "Mom was a stickler on that kind of stuff. If I liked something, if I felt pulled to anything, it was dangerous and bad. I learned quickly enough to avoid anything that interested me so it wouldn't distract me. Surviving was what was important."

Yeah. Yeah Nicky definitely felt a bit sick now. 

"When you say that you 'learned quickly enough'...?" Nicky wasn't sure he actually wanted to know, but that didn't stop him from asking the question.

"Mom--" Neil actively stopped himself this time. "It isn't important. Look… are we going to go shopping or what?"

Nicky wasn't willing to let it go. "Neil. Did she… like, hurt you? For having interests?"

Now Neil looked more than just a little uncomfortable, and the way he didn't meet Nicky's eyes was all the answer he needed. Nicky wanted to hug Neil just then, but he managed, at the last second, to hold himself back. He'd probably pushed harder than he should have already and he was trying to be better about boundaries. Instead he squeezes his shoulders and then pulled his hands away.

"Well, come on. Let's finish shopping. I'll help you pick out something for Andrew if you aren't sure what to get him." 

Neil looked so visibly relieved that Nicky's heart broke. "Ah, yeah… thanks Nicky." The small smile he shot him was enough that Nicky forgot the boundary thing and just hugged him. Ugh, that poor kid. No wonder he was so confused whenever anyone was kind to him if his own mother had treated him like he wasn't even a real person to the point where Neil had legitimately started to believe it. Nicky had his issues with his parents, all the Foxes did -- it was part of what made them Foxes -- but this was kind of another level.

Nicky kept his arm around Neil's shoulders as he lead the younger man off to shop, now determined to make this the best fucking Christmas ever. Because Neil was a real fucking person and he deserved that frivolous normalcy. He deserved to like things and to want things.

Fuck you, Mary.

+1 - AARON

Aaron didn't usually care about whatever was happening in Josten's weird little brain. It wasn't a place he was eager to explore, to be perfectly fucking honest, and he was unfortunate enough to be subjected with the assshole's proximity often enough as it was. However, it was hard to ignore the man when he was having a literal mental breakdown right in front of him. He wished he could. He wished he could turn around and walk away, shut the door, and go back to not caring. Unfortunately, parallels had just been drawn that he couldn't unsee and now turning his back on Neil almost felt personal. It was incredibly uncomfortable and for a long moment Aaron just sat there, silent, in the wake of what just happened.

It had gone like this:

Andrew and Neil had been on separate ends of the couch doing homework. Nicky and Kevin were still sleeping off the trip to Eden's Twilight last night, and Aaron was slowly letting himself wake up to a hot cup of coffee and some random show on tv. Then that random show had transitioned into some kind of true crime show that had dragged everyone's attention to the screen with a single word.

Wesninski.

As it turned out, the show wasn't actually about the Wesninskis, but rather about crime in Europe. The Wesninski mention was due to the current segment on the Hatfords, a British crime syndicate -- the one Neil's mother hailed from. It was her picture on the screen when their collective attention all snapped to the screen, and the tension in the room suddenly increased tenfold.

Mothers were a bit of a complicated topic for everyone in the room. It was also probably the one thing that Andrew was unwilling to touch with a ten-foot pole, not even for Neil - and Aaron was long since past denying that those two had something going on far deeper than sexual tension and a disdain for ninety percent of humanity. 

So the room had frozen, holding a breath with a shared lung. Then Andrew had stood, moving to snatch up the remote so he could turn off the TV when Neil said, "No."

Aaron had never seen Andrew stop so fast in his life. His twin's face remained blank, but there was a darkness in his eyes that Aaron was queasily familiar with. It was a cruel, angry darkness and he didn't envy Neil for being the subject of it as Andrew turned his gaze on the striker. 

"If you want to cry over that bitch I am not going to stick around to suffer it." The words came out low and hissed and even Aaron could hear the sharp rage beneath the forced facade of indifference Andrew was attempting to keep in place.

Neil looked like he wanted to hit Andrew but he managed to keep his response to a sharp, venomous, "Fuck you." 

Andrew held the remote up to eye level then dropped it. It landed hard enough on the table that it bounced off, the back popping off and the batteries scattering. Then he was striding out the front door. Aaron expected it to slam, but somehow the gentle click of it just under the murmur of the crime show was just as finite.

It was like getting to watch a moment he'd lived over and over again over the course of years from the outside for the first time. In fact, it wasn't like that - that's what it was. Something anxious and sick curled in the pit of his stomach as Aaron looked from the closed door to Neil's tense, shaken form. He hated this. He hated sympathising with Neil. He hated understanding Andrew's anger. He hated not being able to pick a side. Aaron had heard enough about Mary Hatford to know that she was just as fucked up as Nathan Wesninski, dragging her son around, forcing him into isolation, beating him, fucking him over socially for his whole damn life when she probably could have just saved them both by either going straight to the FBI or calling up her own crime family. He knew that Neil didn't blame his mom when he probably should. He knew he made excuses, that he grieved for her. He knew he missed her and he also knew that it was really, supremely fucked up.

He also knew that he was just as guilty for the unworthy idolization of an abuser. It had taken him years to get to the point where he was willing to admit that, though. It was meeting Katelyn that had him finally looking at his past with a sobering dose of reality. It was only after months of wrestling with himself that he'd finally been able to accept the truth. Months of Katelyn's steadfast support, months of sessions with Bee beyond the joint sessions with Andrew, months of introspection that left him mentally and emotionally wrung dry -- and Tilda hadn't had half the physical and emotional ammo that Mary Hatford had probably levied against her young son.

Aaron watched Neil vibrate in place, watched his hands curl and his throat work, watched the pain and the rage and the grief flash through his eyes even as he tried to swallow it all down. He watched Neil, but he saw himself, and it was more than disconcerting.

He didn't make the conscious decision to speak before he said, "I get it." In fact, he almost didn't realize he had spoken until Neil snapped his attention over to him like he'd forgotten he was still in the room at all.

Neil didn't respond, probably too caught up with the war in his own head to form words -- a rarity for the loud-mouthed striker.

"She was all you had," Aaron said, and he wasn't sure if he was actually talking to Neil, or talking to the version of himself that still clung to the corner of his memories, desperate to validate the only person that might have loved him, the one person that should have loved him, when he needed it the most. "She was all you had, and that's what kept you going. Not her rules and not whatever it was that she did to make sure you survived. That it was her and you, that you had each other, and that that meant something. She'd do whatever it took to protect you, she was the only one who would do that, and it was everything, right?"

He could tell by the widening of Neil's eyes that he'd hit the nail on the head. He didn't look away as he continued with his truths, knowing he was probably the only person that had ever vocalized an understanding -- that he was probably the only person who could understand. 

"And then she was gone. And it wasn't only her that died. It was everything that she was supposed to be. She died, and all you had left were the 'almost's and 'not enough's and the 'never again's. And if you let yourself believe that she was just as bad then everything was for nothing. All the times you cared. All the times you tried. All the times you did everything you could to be what she expected of you. None of it would matter, because she was gone, and she could never redeem herself, and it was all pointless." Aaron heard his voice like someone else was speaking. It was too calm, too quiet, too knowing. It didn't feel the desert in his chest, scorching and dry and far too exposed. He saw Neil's reaction like he was looking in a mirror and it was more than a little bit unsettling. He understood the flash of anger in his eyes, the stubborn refusal in the set of his jaw, then the reluctant acceptance when his shoulders dropped. Aaron hated understanding anything about Neil Josten. He hated even more that it was this that they had to share. Something so raw, so close to home it had a permanent home inside his chest, nestled between his lungs. It wasn't fair.

Then again, he was a Fox for a reason he guessed. Life just wasn't fucking fair to a Fox.

Neil looked away, then deflated against his corner of the couch. He tilted his head back and Aaron saw his throat work as he fought emotions neither of them wanted Aaron to be a witness to. Aaron averted his eyes. He only looked up again when Neil spoke. The other man's voice was quiet but steady.

"The one thing she harped on most, more than anything else, was how attachments to anyone or anything other than my own survival were going to get me killed. Even to her. She told me so many times to run, leave her behind, but I… I never could. She never left me behind, even when there were times when I wanted her to. She'd probably be rolling in her grave if she could see me now…" Neil's voice drifted off as his gaze locked on the front door over Aaron's shoulder. Aaron didn't need to be psychic to know that he was thinking specifically about Andrew, about how much he'd risked for Andrew - not just to be with him, but also to protect him. Going to Evermore, allowing Nathan's men to take him quietly… yeah, Mary probably wouldn't be too happy about that, and not in the caring, not wanting Neil hurt way. She'd be pissed that Neil cared about something so much to take that risk, after all she'd done to try and beat that ability out of him.

"She was trying to make me soulless," Neil said without taking his eyes away from the door. "She hated it so much whenever I showed any glimmer of a personality. Whenever I was anything other than a possession she kept and controlled. My mother loved me, in her own way…" His mouth tensed, pursed, then he looked at Aaron.

For a moment, the two of them just looked at each other, a shared understanding between them.

"That's not enough," Aaron finally said.

Neil looked down, then up, meeting his eyes. "No," he agreed, "it's not."

On the tv, the show was still talking about the Hatfords. Not all that much time had actually passed since the segment started. Neil looked at the tv, then stood and gathered up the scattered pieces of the remote. He put it back together and spared one more glance at the screen, which now showed a picture of the Hatford family at some event when Mary and her brothers were teenagers. Then he lifted the remote and resolutely changed the channel.

"I'm going to take the car to pick up some food, you want anything?" Neil asked as he moved to get his shoes, then take his keys from the hook near the door.

Aaron snorted. "No. I'll order something if I get hungry." There was still some time until he'd want lunch, but he knew this dance by now. Neil and Andrew would drive off together. If he wanted food he was better off taking it into his own hands. It was entirely likely the other two wouldn't be back until closer to dinner.

Neil nodded once, then was out the door. Aaron watched him go, then sighed and turned back to his coffee, considering it.

He didn't like sharing something with Neil fucking Josten. It was annoying and uncomfortable. But all the same… he understood. And like it or not, they were tied together now. Maybe he wasn't ready to say 'fuck you' to the memory of his own mother, and Neil definitely wasn't ready to do the same regarding Mary Hatford, but they could acknowledge the similarities in their stories and that was a start -- for both of them.

Aaron sighed and closed his eyes. He pointedly didn't think about his own mother and instead let himself eagerly latch onto the other man's sympathetic demon as he thought, with vehemence, 'Fuck you, Mary.'

[talpup]

I just found read your crossroads fic over on Ao3, and damn sweetheart, I am in LOVE with this classy mob styled version of Overhaul you have going on. The smut in that last chapter was abso-fucking-lutely to die for! But I really need to know something about his character in this story. He was obviously a virgin, but r there any specific kinks he’s been thinking about or planning on trying with her?

*blush* THANK YOU!!!  You can blame my good friend and favorite Kai fanfic author @inorganicone2230 They’re the one that spurred me into having the idea for this fic and then (like they’ve done with all my bnha fics) encouraged me to write it and brainstormed with me.

Yes, Kai was a virgin. Though his skill level might test some folks suspension of disbelief (something I try not to do too much in my fics, even though I write mostly fantasy).

Kai’s kinks in this fic might be fairly tame by our standards.  But it is a 1920′s era au fic.  Don’t really know if they’re kinks; but Kai would love to spank Maya then bend her over his desk and…

...so I don’t know if you saw my post.  But I decided to do a short smutty scenario thanks/inspired by this ask.  So here you go.  Sorry it’s so short.  Between having my ‘poison juice’ (aka infusion) last Friday and unexpected visitors yesterday and the day before I’ve been kinda wiped.

FYI this little scene would take place after things settled a bit from the last and (eventual) upcoming chapter.

WARNINGS: spanking, non-con, creampie, cockwarming;  Please remember, this fic is rated explicit and has warnings of sex, violence, and other possible triggers.  For a full list of story tags please check the fics AO3 (link to that at the top of my tumblrs homepage).

Promised Pleasure

Removing his dust mask as Maya entered his office, Kai frowned at her attire. “That’s not what I told you to wear today.”

Maya’s shoulders tensed.  She foolishly hadn’t expected her choice of clothes to be an issue.  She should've known better.  Still, her pride wouldn’t let her apologize.  And she knew Kai would sniff out any lie.

Deciding a gently put truth was best, she stepped further in his office.  “I felt like wearing this.”

Kai’s golden eyes narrowed.  She was testing boundaries again.  And her testing was trying his temper.  “Close the door please, my Dear.”

Despite the politeness of the ask, a shiver ran up Maya’s spine.  Mouth suddenly dry, she turned and closed the door with a shaky hand.

“Lock it.”  Kai ordered, voice taking on a twinge of sharpness.  He had called her in here hoping for a nice diversion.  But with his beautiful girl acting so spiteful he would have to resign himself to giving her a lesson.

Maya’s hand paused on the door.  The hair on the back of her neck prickled.

“Maya. Lock the door, Darling.  You know how I dislike repeating myself.”

The slow scrape of the lock setting in place deafened Maya to everything but her ragged breathing and thundering heart.  She didn’t hear Kai’s next words.  So when she turned back around, it was to find him looking more annoyed then ever.

Smothering her nerves, Maya met Kai’s piercing gaze head on.  “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

Unlacing his fingers, Kai sat back.  “I told you to come here.  This is the second time I’ve had to repeat myself.  I won’t do so again.”

Maya shuffled hesitantly toward Kai’s desk.

Kai pushed back and slightly turned the chair he was sitting in.  “This side.  Come around near me.”

She moved around the desk, stopping a couple paces from his spread legs. Skin prickling under the caress of his roving gaze, her breath caught glimpsing the bulge in his pants.

At least Kai always brought her pleasure.  Unlike the disgusting landlord who had used her and left without care or glance after.  Kai always made her feel special.  Beautiful.  Loved.  In those moments of heated bliss she lost herself and forgot she was doing this solely for justice for her brother.  Basking in Kai’s twisted affection and the delightful pleasure he gave she’d start to believe she truly cared for him in return.  That they could make something of this.  Possibly enter a real relationship that wouldn’t end when he did as he promised and saw those who killed her brother put down.

Maya stared at the tailored suit jacket hanging over the back of Kai’s chair.  Anything to avoid seeing the twitching cock in his pants.

“Why don’t you serve me some water and unbutton my vest for me, Sweetheart.”

It wasn’t a question, or even a suggestion.  Maya knew well enough it was an order.  But with Kai’s honeyed tone and adoring gaze it was easy to trick her mind into believing there would be no consequences for disobedience.

Turning over a heavy tumbler that sat on a silver tray at the end of his desk, she took up the crystal carafe and poured.  Setting the glass in front of him, her fidgeting hands fell to her side, smoothing her skirt.

Her delay in following his second commend had Kai rising to his feet. Maya stepped back even as she hurriedly reached for his vest, seeking to rectify the offense.  Kai grabbed her wrist before she touched him.

Maya grimaced at the too tight grip.  “I’m sorry.  I--”

Kai pulled her roughly against him.  Maya stumbled, heels catching on the plush area rug.  She fell against his chest.  His expensive cologne assaulted her nose.  She loved the smell but hated smelling it as she only got a whiff when Kai had her in his space.

Suddenly gentle, Kai’s strong arms steadied her.  “Careful, Sweetheart. We don’t want you hurting yourself.”  He caressed her cheek, brushing the hair out of her face with a tenderness that didn’t match the blazing fire in his amber eyes.

Maya held perfectly still, struggling not to flinch. The way Kai flipped from loving and sweet to caustic and hurtful on a penny dime was what frightened her most about him.

Smiling, Kai’s head dipped.  “You’re so beautiful, Darling.  So soft and beautiful.”

His tender lips graced hers in a chaste kiss.  Maya’s lashes fluttered closed accepting the kiss, thinking she had escaped his anger.  Her body jerked at a sudden tug.  The sound of something ripping rang out in the room.  A sudden cold strike of air hit her front torso pebbling her nipples.

Maya’s eyes shot open with a gasping cry.  Kai had rent her blouse and camisole open.

“If you refuse to wear what I tell you to.  Maybe you should be left with nothing to wear at all.”

“Kai… I’m--”

Kai cupped her cheek.  “I don’t want to hear it, Sweetheart.  You apologize and apologize but keep on going astray from the clear, defined rules I’ve set.  My love for you has seen me be more than patient.  But I’m afraid my patience has come to an end.”

Maya stumbled again, her world spinning as she was quickly turned and shoved down against the desk.  The glass of water she served slid off the surface and fell to the floor.  It’s crash accentuated Maya’s surprised cry.  Mind reeling, she didn’t feel the splash of water soak her hose.

“Ka—ah!” She broke off with a scream, senses assaulted by the sound of her tearing skirt.  The cold hard desk against her breast and torso and Kai’s painful grip on the back of her neck.  Her nose burned, eyes watering from the lingering smell cleaner that clung to the polished surface.

Hand still holding her down, Kai dropped her ruined skirt.  His freed hand slid over the silky slip she worn.  So soft, he mused.  But not anywhere as soft as the flesh beneath.  That covering was pulled down along with her panties.

“Kai! What are you--”  Maya broke off with another shouted cry.

The crack of his hand hitting her ass echoed about the room.  Maya’s back arched at the blooming fire but was roughly pushed back down against the desk.

“Stay, my Love.  You wouldn’t want to upset me further and earn yourself another lesson after this.”

Wiping tears from her eyes, Maya tried to look back at him.  For a moment she swore she saw a horrid bird-like beast in place of her handsome tormentor.  But the monstrous vision was gone quicker than she could blink.

“Le—le—lesson?” She stammered.

“For continually testing your bounds.”  Kai leaned forward, low rasp tickling her ear.  “I’m afraid this will hurt, my Dear.  But know, that it will hurt me to do it more than it’ll hurt you.”

Ass still stinging from the first spank Maya doubted that.  By the third strike she was certain Kai enjoyed it and was glad for the chance to discipline her supposed disobedience.  Confirmation of his delight came when he paused after the fourth hit and ran a hand over her blazing butt-cheeks.

Kai’s fingers traced the red marks, trailing over the rising welts.  He loved Maya’s perfect, soft skin.  But there was a possessive pride in seeing her flesh temporarily marred by the work of his hand.  It sparked something primal in him, turning his tender caress into a rough, digging grope.  She was beautiful, his beloved.  A perfect little darling that would fit so well beside him in the new wholesome world he was working to usher in.  Or at least she would be once she learned to listen and obey without hesitance or question.

No one but him could touch her.  Certainly no one else was allowed to see her in such a weakened and debauched state.  Kai growled at the thought, fingers digging into the meat of her ass.  He would gouge the persons eyes out.  Cut out their tongue, and break their knees and fingers.  Then grant them a slow, painful death for having seen his darling like this.  Because this…  His other hand loosened and trailed down her neck, slinking around her side to cup her breast, reveling in the weight as she lifted a bit thinking they were done.   ...this was for him, and him alone.   His throbbing dick ground against her raw ass.

Maya’s lips pressed together between clenched teeth, biting back a cry at the burning pain.  Halfway into righting herself her back bumped Kai’s chest.

Weight rested on his hand planted to her side on the desk, Kai’s chin hooked over her shoulder.  “Think you’ve learned your lesson, Beautiful?”

Breast heaving with a shuddering breath, Maya nodded.

“Doesn’t appear so.  You know how I prefer worded responses.”

“Yes!” Maya expelled.  “Yes.  I’ve learned my lesson.  Please, Kai. I’m sorry.  So very sorry.  It won’t ever happen again.”

Kai’s knuckles glided down her back.  Other hand gripping her hip he pulled her blistered ass against his leaking erection.  “Why don’t we test that?  Bend over, Sweetheart.”  Annoyed as he was by her hesitance, he smiled lightly.  “Either you haven’t learned your lesson.  Or liked it so much you want another.”

Before Maya could respond she was pushed and held down on the desk.  Her eyes shot wide at the resounding spank.  Fresh tears sprang from her eyes as they squeezed shut at the sharp boiling pain.  “Kai! Please!  I’m--”

Another hit landed.  Then another.

Kai stopped after the tenth.  Staring down at her trembling frame he had a moments regret.  He should have made her count.  Next time, he told himself.

He loosened his tie and unbuttoned his vest.  Amber eyes skimmed over his handy work.  Just when he thought she couldn’t be more beautiful…  Even her mix of drool and tears puddled on the desk were lovely.

Lost in the consuming tumble of dull thudding pain accentuated by sharp stinging bursts, Maya didn’t hear the jangle of Kai’s belt being undone.  She jolted at his hand slipping between her legs. Whimpering as his prodding fingers dragging through her folds.

Kai frowned at the minimal moisture.  Usually Maya got so wet for him. It wounded and upset him.  But before those emotions could take root his eyes drifted back to the pool of saliva on his desk.  His heart lightened.  Even with her punishment his darling had thought of him and his needs.  Proving she loved him as much as he loved her.

He leaned over her and kissed her tear-stained cheek.  “Thank you, my Dear.  You’re so sweet and good for me.”

Maya’s lashes fluttered.  She watched Kai’s hand trail through her drool, gathering it.

Bringing his wet hand to his freed length, Kai slathered her saliva over his shaft.  He grimaced, skin prickling with the beginnings of a inch. But soothed himself that was Maya.  She was clean.  Worthy.  His.

It’s like indirect oral, he thought with a steadying breath.  The prickling itch diminished then fully disappeared as he focused on Maya, pumping his fist to fully wet his cock.

Lining up his cock he leaned back over her and kissed her shoulder.  “You’ve had you’re punishment, Darling.  And you took it so well.  Now, let me remind you of my love and the pleasure I can give.”

Maya’s shining eyes flicked to Kai’s.  Her brow furrowed.  Was it the light?  Or was there a dim otherworldly glow in those honeyed depths? The image of the demon Dabi’s bright burning eyes flashed through her mind.  But it vanished in an instant from the breach of Kai’s fat cock head.  She would've cried out at the burning stretch if her breath hadn’t seized in her lungs.

Kai hissed at the pull of his sensitive skin.  Maya’s drool helped. But it didn’t provide the smooth silky glide her delicious arousal did.  Wanting the discomfort over with he snapped his hips flush against her, driving his length in her tight hole.

Fully sheathed, Kai slowly exhaled.  His eyes closed, head rolling back. Taking a moment to simply feel, he basked in her velvety embrace.  This would never get old. Slipping his aching cock into Maya’s perfect, tight pussy.  Feeling her walls stretch to make room for him then flutter as they adjusted to his penetrating presence was something that consumed his thoughts; just like everything else about her.

Maya mewled the most pitiful whine beneath him and Kai lost it.  His darling was just so sweet.  So beautiful.  So helpless.

His hips pulled back and slammed right back against her.

If asked, Maya wouldn’t have been able to say if her scream was from the hard thrust or Kai’s pelvis pounding into her blazing red backside.

Her back arched, lifting her off the desk.

One hand gripping her hip, Kai’s other hand grabbed the back of Maya’s neck and shoved her back down.  Never once did his ramming thrusts stop.

The once dulling pain of Maya’s welted ass sharpened again.  Fresh tears seeped from her eyes.  Kai had lied.  He had said she had her punishment.  The pain was suppose to be over.  But every thrust was just another spank.  Until…

Kai’s feet shifted.  Angling his hips he hit that spot in her that had her seeing stars.

Pleasure mixed with the pain.  The rough scrape of his trousers zipper didn’t hurt as badly.  Even the occasional jab of his belts buckle didn’t make her want to crawl up and die.

Kai almost reached around to finger her clit.  But an idea struck him. It was scandalous.  But so was fucking his darling over his desk.  He groaned, cock twitching at the thought.  His pace sped seeking his own release without a care for hers.

Maya rocked against the desk.  Her hips started to push back against him despite the blazing pain to her ass.  A different kind of heat pooled in her belly.  But just as the coil started to tighten another warmth filled her.

Kai thrust deep inside Maya, cock coming alive.  He grunted, pushing his hips firmly against her, driving her against the desk, seeking to get even deeper as hot ropes of cum spit from his pulsing cock.

Building orgasm lost, Maya deflated atop the desk.  Her nails clawed at the polished surface, hands balling into weak fists.  Though grateful it was over, she couldn’t help but be bit bitter about Kai’s second lie.  ‘...let me remind you of my love and the pleasure I can give.’ Yes, she had felt some pleasure.  But she hadn’t gotten her full pleasure.

She waited for Kai to pull out.  When he didn’t she looked back at him.

Kai greeted her with a smug smile.  “You didn’t cum.  Did you?”

Maya’s mouth fell open.

Before she could respond, her torso was pulled up off the desk.  Heated as his skin was through his button-up shirt, Maya shivered the instant her back touched his chest.

Kai’s arms wrapped around her.  He held her firmly against him, keeping his cock snugly inside her.   His lips brushed the shell of her ear. “Did you think I forgot about my promise, Sweetheart?  I said I was going to remind you of the pleasure I can give.”

Keeping her glued against him, Kai retook his seat.  Head a whirl of confusion, Maya barely grimaced at the discomfort of his softening cock shifting inside her.  The heated pain of her abused butt numbed by her racing mind trying to figure out what Kai was doing.

Soon enough she got her answer and wished she never had.

“I’m a man of man word, my Love.  What do you say you keep me warm while I do some work?  Then I can give you that promised pleasure.”

After this, Kai might develop a breeding kink to go with spanking, rough office sex, and cokwarming.

Comments and reblogs are always appreciated.

Thank you all for being so patient with me and the posting of this fic.  Special thanks to Anon for the ask and inspiring this one shot.  And as always, an extra special thank you to @inorganicone2230​ for being the best fellow writer friend (and friend in general) and encouraging and brainstorming with me.  I mean it when I say I would’ve given up posting long ago if it wasn’t for your support.

[slightly-nerdy-rambles]

Robstar Week Day 5: Righteous Fury (Prompt: Rescue)

This prompt gave me an excuse to do an action scene, and I love writing action, so it was definitely one of the most fun prompts for the week. The direction I chose to take it also gave me a chance to play around a bit with the interplay between Starfire’s emotions and her powers, and those of you who have read my fic Joy and Fury may recognize some of what’s going on in that regard.

Righteous Fury

The world was tinted viridian as Starfire scanned it from high above.

It was not really a world, per say. More of what Raven had called a ‘pocket dimension’ – the extradimensional space owned by that creature who had the gall to call himself the Master of Games.

The thief who had been travelling the galaxy and using a powerful artifact to steal away those who lost his games, so he could use their skills and weapons as his own. And like any thief, she was going to take him down and make him return what he stole.

“Starfire.” The sound of her name snapped her out of her idle thoughts, and she released some of her focus on joyful thought keeping her aloft. She’d been using him as the source, again – perhaps not the best choice of subject considering the circumstances, except that it made her all the more determined to find him.

Robin was her k’nonaki, after all – her great bond, the source from which she most easily drew her power-linked emotions. And if the “Master” thought he could take him away from her, she would only be too eager to prove him wrong.

“There are four main paths branching out of the coliseum,” she reported as she touched down by the others. “Besides the one that we know connects the competitor’s quarters, the others lead to a series of several large buildings.”

Cyborg nodded, a thoughtful frown on his face. “Must be the tournament arenas. At least that means he doesn’t have more of these mini-dimensions to go hiding in.” He turned toward Raven, who was sitting in her meditative position.

“Got anything?”

Raven took a few seconds to respond, standing up when she did. “He’s here. Robin’s aura is faint through the gem, but I can still sense him. But I can’t get a bead on the Master of Games without sending out my soul and alerting him that we’re here – he must be out in one of the other buildings. They’re in that direction,” she finished, pointing down one of the hallways.

Beast Boy rubbed one arm. “Guess we’re lucky he got Robin and not someone you don’t have a freaky mind bond thing with, right?”

Starfire shot a warning glare at him, eyes narrowed. “I do not see how this situation can be considered ‘lucky,’” she hissed.

Beast Boy shrank back from her, but Raven laid a hand on her arm.

“We’ll get him back, Starfire. Along with everyone else the Master captured,” she said calmly. “Getting riled up over it isn’t going to help.”

Starfire gave her a sideways look. “You forget, Raven. My emotions only strengthen me.”

With that, she turned and began to stalk toward the far path that Raven had pointed out. Herald, who had been called on to bring the team here when the Master had first vanished with their leader, leaned over toward Beast Boy.

“Do her eyes always glow like that on missions?” he asked in a low voice.

“Only when she’s about to eyebeam someone in the face or like, really pissed,” Beast Boy stage-whispered back. “I dunno if I’ve ever seen it last this long, it’s kinda freaking me out.”

Starfire ignored them and continued forward, but she swore she could feel their eyes on her back. The conversation died down after that, and everyone walked quietly for several minutes.

“…I should have warned everyone about that gem,” Cyborg finally said, his voice hollow. “When I got captured back in the Tournament of Heroes, I was trying to blast that thing. I knew it could be activated by prolonged contact, but it didn’t even cross my mind that nobody else saw it.”

Without a word, Starfire lifted off and poured on speed until the others disappeared behind her. She told herself it was so she could scout ahead, but… she knew Cyborg was just trying to be sensitive when he said “everyone.”

After all, Robin wasn’t the one who had tried a hard blast against that accursed gem. He’d merely jumped in the way to save her.

She would not let him suffer for her mistake. She could not.

The doors to the first arena were coming up fast. They were closed tight, locked probably, but Starfire barely even slowed down and simply smashed her way through.

There was very little to the floor and walls of the arena, which was instead dominated by a dozen massive cages hanging high above her. She drifted further in, scanning the area for any sign of her foe or the next exit that would bring her closer to him.

There. Up in the far wall, level with the rough midpoint of the hanging cages, a rounded balcony led out to another doorway. Probably so the Master could watch his “contestants” directly if he so chose.

As Starfire darted up to the balcony, the low blare of a horn heralded the opening of a portal on its level surface. The Herald and her remaining teammates stepped out, forcing her to halt before the doorway.

Cyborg held up a hand. “Star, you’re going too fast,” he said, gentle but firm. “If we spook this guy or give him too much warning, he’ll just teleport away and we’ll have to hunt him down all over again.

Starfire’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she dropped her gaze to the side. “There is nothing stopping him from leaving to find more victims if we wait,” she retorted, “and he cannot resist a challenge, can he? I intend to give him one he will not soon forget.”

“I think it’s safe to say we all do,” Cyborg replied, a little smile quirking the corner of his lip. “And we will. Together, because that’s how we beat someone like him.”

Starfire let out a low breath and nodded, though the blazing emerald never quite left her vision. He was right, of course – she could stay angry all she wanted, but letting her righteous fury blind her would only cause more problems. She had to remember that.

Cyborg nodded wordlessly to Raven, who raised her arms and enveloped them all in a darkness that pulled them through the next barrier without a sound.

By the time they were about halfway down the next corridor, Raven suddenly halted.

“They’re near,” she reported in a low voice. “The Master should be hiding in the next arena.”

The Titans all shared a look and a brief nod, but before they continued, Starfire thought of something. She flew over to her team’s current companion.

“The Herald? I believe it would be wise of you not to engage in this battle directly,” she said with a thoughtful frown. “If the Master of Games manages to take your horn, he will have an even easier time escaping us, and we may no longer be able to follow.”

Herald considered this for a moment. “Yeah, I can hang back for this one. Send me any victims you rescue from that necklace, and I’ll send ‘em home before your friend can capture them again.”

That matter resolved, the Titans soon found themselves at the next entrance. Through the thick doors, they could hear the clanging of metal-on-metal and occasional blasts from some energy attack the Master had stolen. Starfire caught Cyborg’s eye and raised her fists, and he nodded – for all that they couldn’t give their presence away too early, their opponent would be more likely to stick around if a bombastic entry promised an exciting “game.”

With a determined little smirk on her lips and the thought of her beloved’s rescue guiding her strength, Starfire smashed through the doorway like so much tissue paper and barreled into the arena. With a start, she realized that she recognized this one: it was the fighting ground she had been sent to during the brief run of the Tournament of Heroines. Thick steel beams criss-crossed an otherwise open space, spread far enough apart that flighted opponents could weave among them without too much trouble, but passing each other close enough that ground-bound competitors had places to jump from one to the next.

In the middle of it all, the Master of Games was flying on massive feathery wings and aiming another blast of red-hot energy at one of the beams. He paused mid-attack as she entered, turning toward her, and her hands lit up with starbolts almost of their own accord.

“We are not finished with you,” she spat.

“Yeah, Gameboy,” Cyborg chimed in behind her. “Last I recall, we were just getting started.”

The Master’s face twisted into a wicked smirk. “Another round? I don’t mind earning a few more trophies, even if I’ve already won the grand prize.” He punctuated that statement with a flick of his wrist, and Robin’s bo staff seemed to grow out of the palm and into his grip.

“Very well then! The Teen Titans versus The– Urgh!”

A powerful eyebeam – aimed at the stomach, she could not risk hitting his gem with that kind of attack – threw the villain back hard against the steel beam directly behind him. He peeled off after a moment and began to fall, his stolen wings twitching in a daze, but Starfire would not give him the chance to recover. Swooping in, she grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and forced him back against the beam.

But the Master had already recovered enough to bring the staff to bear. He bashed the butt of it into her torso, forcing her back with a grunt.

A rush of wings passed by her in that moment, and before the Master could follow up his attack, a large green woodpecker swooped in and gripped ahold of his necklace’s chain. With a force and precision designed to drill into trees, Beast Boy’s beak struck the gem.

A blazing light forced back shapeshifter and Tamaranean alike, and three figures came tumbling out. One was a Thanagarian – the source of the wings no doubt, considering they were suddenly gone from the Master’s back – but she did not recognize the other two, nor had she time to see if she could place their species.

“Get to the exit!” Starfire barked in Thanagarian, pointing the way in case the others didn’t recognize the language. “We will deal with him, but our friend can get you home.”

As they ran, the Master of Games recovered his senses with a growl. He was in the air again, doubtless with the aid of another victim’s power, but a hit from Cyborg’s cannon forced him back before he could attack. Beast Boy followed this up by swooping back in and grabbing the necklace again, but the Master swatted him away before he could peck at the gem.

As woodpecker shifted into panther and caught ahold of one of the beams, Starfire flew in again and began to harry her opponent with starbolts. He retaliated by spitting globs of slime at her, making her aim difficult, but it mattered little – her goal now was to keep his attention on her, for she could already see the dull glow of Raven’s magic enveloping the necklace to yank it off.

But even then the gem sparked to life, and Starfire swore she could see it pulling at her friend’s energy. Fear added to her blazing fury and warrior’s confidence and focused determined joy then. She could not let this happen again. She would not.

This ended now.

With a guttural yell, Starfire tackled the loathsome being who threatened her loved ones. The force of it drove them both down past the steel beams and onto the arena’s floor, knocking the wind out of her opponent. His gem, its hold on Raven’s power broken, swung wildly with the impact and clattered against the ground.

And with both hands lit and clasped together, she slammed her fists into it – a force that would have shattered a lesser artifact into a million shards.

Light filled the building again, and when it cleared, nearly a dozen newcomers were sprawled across the floor. One in particular grabbed Starfire’s attention, and the light in her eyes dimmed in an instant.

“Robin!” she cried, rushing over and dropping to her knees beside him.

Robin smiled and clasped the hand she offered him, pulling himself upright. “I’m okay,” he reassured her. “I could see what was going on, you know. You were… very impressive.”

Starfire let out a tired sigh and pressed her forehead against his, eyes closed. “I had an unusually personal stake in the matter.”

She could hear her other teammates’ hurried footsteps coming in behind her, but before they could catch up, another sound grabbed her attention. She turned to see the one who called himself the Master of Games standing up with a groan and looking at her and Robin with pure hatred in his eyes.

Beast Boy winced and spoke up while Raven silently directed the other rescued victims toward Herald. “Please tell me he doesn’t have even more people stuffed in that thing.”

Robin shot Starfire a confident smirk, which she responded to with a single sharp nod.

“If he does, we’ll just have to take care of that too,” he said aloud. “All of us, together.”

[balancingdiet]

Tabula Rasa

Detective Conan & Magic Kaito Characters: Shinichi/Kaito Words: 2500 ish Chapter: (1) ... (16) (17) (18)

Shinichi always finds his neighbour weird. But he didn’t expect to find his neighbour lying on a patch of grass and donned in Kaitou Kid’s costume, too.

“So... I’ve heard.”

“About the ice shard case?” Shinichi propped the phone in between his chin and shoulder while he flipped a file in his hands. “I got to admit, the murderer is smart to use it as a weapon, but he’d forgotten to—”

“I’m not talking about that,” Hattori said, exasperated. “But ok, I also think that ice shard trick was interesting when I heard it during the debrief, but it’s not da’ point why I called you.”

Shinichi raised an eyebrow, as if Hattori could see it. “Then?” 

There was a muffled sigh. ”Kazuha told me you went to find Ran-neechan.”

“Oh, right.” Shinichi placed the case file on his table and took the phone in his hand. “I did.”

“Previously I had to hear from Kazuha about your confession in London… And now this too." Hattori clicked his tongue. “You suck, Kudo.”

“It happened literally yesterday,” Shinichi said with some attempts of defence. But he leaned against his chair and stared at the ceiling, mulling over about how strange his words felt; even though it was just yesterday, it felt as though so much things had happened, and his meeting with Ran was almost like a blur...

“You still suck,” Hattori muttered. “But anyway, how did it go?”

“Toyama didn’t tell you?”

“I wanna hear your version.”

Shinichi glanced around his office and left his seat to get a coffee from the vending machine. And on his way, Shinichi explained his version of what happened (while answering some of Hattori's interjected questions too). Shinichi recounted the slight nervousness at the start, how Ran was empathetic all the time, and the eventual interruption when a new client came to look for Ran’s father. He wasn’t sure what the version Ran told Toyama was, but Shinichi still wasn’t going to mention Kaito.

As much as how Hattori could be horribly clueless in love-related matters (especially with Toyama), he could be pretty sharp about all the other things.

“After so long, everything is back to normal now,” Hattori eventually said after Shinichi finished the entire story within the same trip of getting coffee and returning to his desk. ”Maybe we can finally have a double date or something.”

Shinichi pursed his lips. All things were indeed good now like Hattori said, but like the quiet life he used to live, this new life—as well as his relationship with Ran—didn’t seem any close to being back to normal. It wasn’t just about the distance or time, but…

He watched the ripples on the surface of his coffee in the paper cup, not sure what to reply.

But Hattori helped him with that. “Anyway, are you gonna move back to your old home?”

Shinichi straightened. “Why the question?”

“Just thought your place’s really hella far from everywhere. You got to change so many metro lines.”

“That’s why I have a car.”

Hattori paused. “I thought there’s also no reason for you to stay there anymore, no?”

“Well, it’s…” Shinichi cleared his throat. “It’s not fun to move houses.”

“Hmm, that make sense.“

It might make sense to Hattori, and it might make sense when Kaito said it and referred to his 63 doves, but Shinichi found his answer made the least sense. There were almost no constraints for him to move; he didn’t have to go through the trouble of selling the house; his old home was ready to be occupied anytime; he barely had much belongings besides the few things in the study room. If Shinichi had to move, it might take him less than an hour of packing, including that two potted plants in his backyard too. 

But of course, Shinichi wasn’t going to go against what he literally said, so he hummed to Hattori’s response and went along with what seemed like the flow of the conversation before they hung up shortly after Shinichi received news to be dispatched to a murder scene. 

Though it wasn’t a happy thing for the dead victim, it was a good moment to temporarily distract Shinichi, just so he wouldn’t have to wonder why Kaito started popping up in his mind.

----

The next month that followed had been mad hell for Shinichi; A homicide division from a nearby precinct was shut down due to the high level of corruptions, and eventually, all their unfinished cases were sent to Shinichi’s department to deal with. He had been working full shifts almost every day, and not just sleep, he hadn’t even had time to get coffee sometimes.

But it seemed his department wasn't alone.

Aside from challenges, like what Sonoko’s uncle used to do, being Kaitou Kid was almost like a self-employed job; he got to choose the time and date for all the heists he’d done. But at the recent rate Kaitou Kid sent his heists' notes, the Task Force was also hustling hard to keep up with the thief’s pace. There was even once when Takagi said he had argued with one of the Task Force’s member over the last bento box in the convenience store (but none of them won because they let another citizen, who strangely happened to be looking for food at one in the morning, to take it instead). 

For now, Shinichi hadn’t figured out (or more like he didn’t have the time to figure out) Kid’s reasons for the spike in activity, but that wasn’t really part of his main concerns. What he cared—so much as to take the time out of his pile of cases, bring his walkie-talkie to the rooftop and stand by the ledge for the best connection to the Task Force’s frequency—was how Kid escaped.

From the dozen over times Shinichi had dropped into the Task Force’s “conversation”, he realised Kid had a lot more ways of escaping than he thought was possible (and it made Shinichi pitied the Task Force member for having to go through them sometimes). But half of Kid’s ploys would be either blending into the crowd with a disguise or flying away in his glider…

Tonight, Kid had chosen the latter.

And it was the one that bothered Shinichi the most.

Was the flight stable? Were there turbulences? Did he take off well? Did he land well? Did he stab himself? Did he hurt himself?

Did he do this? 

Did he do that?

When the Task Force’s commands over the radio weren't beneficial to Shinichi’s observation anymore, he then returned to his desk and pour himself back into work, just to stop himself from worrying about the thing he couldn’t control. But in most instances, he would just give up, apologise to Inspector Megure that he’d finish his work tomorrow, and leave the office.

Breaking promises was one thing, but now Shinichi had transcended to breaking laws; speeding and beating a red light or two on his way home.

As he found himself in the much familiar streets and nearing towards his mailbox—which strangely marked a greater sense of home than the actual, big house that stood behind it—he saw Kaito, who was also unceremoniously digging his ear as he skipped out of his door to throw a bag of trash (Shinichi guessed had to do with what he had used at his heist).

Kaito, of course, spotted Shinichi, and he gave an incredulous look when he stepped out of his car.

“You’re back earlier than usual,” Kaito commented after taking Shinichi’s hand to look at his watch. 

“And you too.” Shinichi gestured at him mindlessly. ”I thought you have a heist today?”

“I’m already done.”

Of course Shinichi knew Kaito was done, but for the sake of the pretence, just so Kaito would never, ever suspect Shinichi to have used his radio and keep track on his activities… 

Damn, now that Shinichi stupidly realized, he had not only broke the law, but his work ethics too.

All for the man standing before him.

Shinichi irritably put out a hand. “Ok, where’s the jewel?” 

Kaito blinked. “Why?” 

“I figured if I’m not going to turn you in, I should at least do my part for the police and get the jewel back.”

“So righteous.” Kaito clapped his hands. “If I’m still in Kid’s attire, I’d definitely take my hat off to you.”

“Don’t change the subject. Jewel?”

“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll get suspected if you return my loot again?” Kaito said as he raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I’ve disguised as you before so it’s kinda on the track record.”

Shinichi put down his arm and narrowed his eyes. “Thanks for bringing up those memories.”

“My pleasure,” Kaito said before sighing wistfully into the dark sky above them. “They were good times indeed.”

Good times, huh?

Shinichi followed his gaze.

The thing was… it wasn’t just in the past.

Shinichi found this time a good time too.

But he wasn’t going to say that.

As he kept his head up and eyes still staring at the dark sky, he wondered if time would still treat them as kindly as they were now in their future.

----

“Hey, Kudo— Oh, where are you going?”

Shinichi’s hand froze, but just a millisecond too late, he’d already pressed for the lift, exposing where he wanted to go. Because given that they were on one of the few highest floors, the only place accessible, alongside with what his identity card allowed, was the roof.

Shinichi robotically turned as he watched Takagi and Shiratori approaching him, the questions still hanging heavily in the air.

Making sure the hand with the radio was behind his back, he pointed the other free hand to the lift. “Just— To the roof," he admitted.

“Did you start smoking?” Shiratori remarked. “I noticed you’ve been going to the rooftop lately.” 

Ah, it seemed his past movements weren’t that discrete after all. “No, I don’t smoke,” Shinichi clarified.

Takagi nodded understandingly. "If you’re finding a place to relieve stress and share a moment, I think the roof is an excellent choice," he added, “The view is nice at night.” 

Shiratori scoffed. “Sounds like you have lots of experiences with someone about that.”

They talked for bit until the lift came, and Shinichi believed he’d used up all his lucks in his prayers as Takagi and Shiratori left for the office and didn’t suggest on following him. But not all luck was on his side when he realized the heist had long started. He tried to switch his radio on in the lift, but the signals were bad, so he had to do it when he was by the ledge.

By the time Shinichi finished adjusting the radio’s frequency, it seemed he was much later than expected; the heist was over.

Almost over.

“zzztttt—zzztzt... Kid is on the other rooftop!” 

“Is he going to escape by air this time?”

”Wait, he’s still checking the gem, but…”

“But what?”

“What the…?

”Hey! What is going on?”

”The gem! The gem is glowing!”

“What the hell do you mean?"

"It’s literally glowing— Ah shit! Kid’s flying away!”

“Where did he go?!”

“He’s flying northeast!”

“Team C dispatch! I repeat, Team C dispatch—”

Shinichi switched off the radio. 

He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath the entire time until he released it.

Then, something pulled in his stomach, something unlike his past gastric attacks or the bullets or knives or even what the APTX pill did to him... he still wasn’t sure what, but it was just something so, so bad that it sent him running straight down the building via the emergency stairs, not bothering to inform anyone about his departure before he drove back home.

----

Shinichi shut his car door and walked over to the mailbox.

He had seen the dove—Tamago?—sitting on it countless of times, but never had he seen it standing like this now, as though it was awaiting for Shinichi’s arrival all the while.

It cooed in greeting

Shinichi bit his lip. He wasn’t sure if this was the best moment to realise the dove was actually… cute.

The sky rumbled, and Shinichi raised his head. He smelt some moisture in the air.

Yeah, definitely not the best moment. 

“Are you… Tamago?” Shinichi asked.

It stared at him.

“Whoever you are, do you know—”

Fluttering its wings, it flew off before Shinichi completed his sentence, but it wasn’t towards an aimless direction. Similarly to that time when it stole his mail, it looked like it had a purpose as it soared and curved towards the backyard behind Kaito’s house.

Once bitten, twice shy, but Shinichi would rather be bitten over five hundreds time than risk ignoring what the dove was trying to imply.

Since he couldn’t get through Kaito’s house and to his backyard, the only way was to climb over from his. He jogged into his house, past his kitchen and before climbing up the fences in his backyard.

The first thing Shinichi noticed when he jumped over was the stark whiteness across Kaito’s dim-lit garden. It didn’t just belong to the few doves that were standing around. Shinichi also found Kid’s abandoned white hat, his cape, and his white suit scattered from one spot to another.

As for Kid, he was standing before the bush of blue roses at the other corner of the backyard.

His gloves were still worn, but they weren’t white.

They were red.

Shinichi widened his eyes.

Blood?

The only remaining white on Kid was his pants.

“How sad, no one cares about Kaitou Kid’s white pants.” 

Shinichi wasn’t sure why that scene suddenly popped up in his memories, but if he had to relive one moment, he wouldn’t mind taking that than this. 

The stillness in the dense air, alongside with Kid’s stiff back and lowered head sent Shinichi’s wariness up to the sky. 

“Hey,” Shinichi called out as he trudged across the garden and towards Kaitou Kid—Kaito. 

He didn’t move, or respond.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shinichi finally neared Kaito enough and patted on his shoulder.

Kaito flinched under his hand, and that movement sent a squeeze in Shinichi’s chest. 

“Hey,” Shinichi repeated. “Kaito. Are you—”

Kaito half-turned, his hair sticking closely to his forehead. He was still wearing his monocle, but the glass was misty.

And his eye, the one that wasn't covered by the monocle… 

It brimmed with tears. 

Shinichi’s heart hurts (yes, he was sure it was the heart now) as he watched Kaito’s pitiful attempts at changing his quivering lips into a smile. 

“I destroyed it.” Kaito weakly lifted a hammer that Shinichi didn’t notice in his hand. “I finally destroyed it."

Shinichi glanced down.

The red gem, which he didn’t notice earlier either, was all shattered on the grass.

Before anything else could be said, Kaito slumped into Shinichi’s arms.

[imagine-loki]

What The Heart Desires

TITLE: What The Heart Desires CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: one shot AUTHOR: weirdwritingstuff / thewholesomecat ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine during a mission you, Loki, Thor, Lady Sif and the warrior 3 decide to take a break near an enchanted lake where mermaids take the form of your most secret fantasy to drag you into the water. During the night Loki disappears so everybody run towards the lake to find him almost dragged in the lake, kissing, rolling on the shore half naked with a mermaid who took your appearance because you were is secret fantasy. RATING: Teen and Up Audience NOTES/WARNINGS: nudity; fluff; Thor, Lady Sif and the Warrior Three being adorable dorks / I imagined them all to still be pretty young so this story could take place during Thor’s and Loki’s teenage years or shortly after but I didn’t have a specific time period in mind besides Pre-Thor (2011) so see it however you prefer

(y/n)’s POV

The sound of metal grinding against stone wasn’t something most people would describe as calming. The heavy breaths of the sword in your hands as it got sharper and neater with every drag across the stone. For you it was the most calming sound in the nine realms. It was consistent, smooth, beautiful.

It was rare for a girl to be a blacksmith but you couldn’t imagine doing anything else. You fell in love with the anvil the day you saw it for the first time in your father’s workshop. Your father was one of the most famous blacksmiths in all of Asgard. Nobody was able to produce weapons with such grace, such stability and balance. Nobody – except for you.

When you were younger people would often joke that you were secretly half dwarf and that’s why you were so skilled in producing weapons. But as you got older (and prettier) they quickly stopped this kind of comparison. But you weren’t just a talented young blacksmith you were also quite gifted in using the weapons that you made, your favorite being by far the sword.

One day you were training behind your father’s workshop when someone suddenly called behind you, “Do you mind a training partner?”

You turned around to see Lady Sif, a regular at your father’s forge and with the time you had become good friends.

“Sure!” you called back. “If you think you can catch up with me.” She smiled and made a couple of steps towards you when suddenly she pulled her own sword out of seemingly thin air. But you were faster and quickly parried her blade with your own.

“Surprise attack?” you asked. “Come on Sif, you’re better than that!”

“I only just begun!”

The two of you were dancing across the field. The only sounds being your heavy breaths and the clinking of your swords in the air. For some time it looked like Sif was coming out on top. It was no secret that she was the stronger warrior out of the two of you. But you had more stamina. All you had to do was make her tired to win.

It was exhausting and difficult to block all of her blows but you managed to do it! And soon enough you sensed that her strength was leaving her. Now was your time to attack and with some well-aimed blows you brought her down, taking her sword off of her.

“Not bad,” Sif complimented. “But don’t think I don’t know what you just did there. Tiring me out, what an uncreative move!”

“But it worked, didn’t it?” you said smiling triumphantly at her and reached out a hand to help her up. She took it but instead of pulling herself up she pulled you down to her level, laughing loudly when you were landing next to her with your face in the grass.

“Hey! That was an uncreative move!”

“But it worked, didn’t it?”

You two were laughing along with each other. Soon you decided to get up and get something to drink. You were nibbling on your cup of water when Sif suddenly asked you a suspicious question.

“Do you think you’ll ever come to one of our missions again?”

In the past you had tagged along some of her missions with the Warrior Three, Thor and Loki but – how could one describe this – they never turned out quite the way you had expected. And for the most part that was due to Loki’s shenanigans.

“I’m not sure,” you answered. “You know how all the other missions turned out. I don’t want to experience something like that again. Remember that one time Loki transformed me into a pig?”

Sif tried to hide her smile but failed miserably. “Yes, I do. But come on, (y/n)! I’ll be stuck with five guys on an mostly uninhabited planet for the nornes know how long! All that testosterone will drive me crazy!”

You gave her a sly smile. “Oh, will it?”

“You know how I meant that!” Sif said quickly. You shook off the mischief in your mind and rolled your eyes. “Will Loki be there?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You know he hates me!” you said. “All the other missions before he either made his jokes about me or actively put me in danger just for his entertainment.”

“Don’t worry about Loki. He’s a trickster. I’ll be there to take care of you!”

“You were there the last times too,” you reminded her.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t actively looking out for you back then. This time it will be different. I promise.” She looked at you with honest pleading eyes. You sighed.

“You won’t give up until I say yes, won’t you?”

Sif just shrugged and took another sip of her water. “You know how stubborn I can be.”

“Unfortunately you are right,” you a said in defeat. “Fine, I’ll come with you.”

***

(y/n)’s POV

Just a couple of days later the mission was supposed to start. Heimdall would send you with the bifrost to the planet of Kamir; a planet completely covered in thick jungle with very few lakes in between as the only from of on the surface accessible water source on the whole planet. Apparently grew on this planet a very special flower that could grant the person who eats it immense power. Your mission was it to find and destroy the plant because Odin had decided that it was better to get rid of it than take the risk of any enemies finding it. The flower was still very small and not big enough for harvesting which was why now was the only possible time to destroy it once and for all before it was too late.

“Are you ready?” asked Sif and bumped you with her elbow. “Heimdall said that Kamir has really high temperatures so you better not wear too many layers.”

“Yeah I know,” you said and put on your sword belt. You looked over at Sif who was wearing her full battle armor and frowned.

“Not taking your own advice?”

“I’m rather safe than sorry,” she said with a shrug.

“Safe?” you asked, suddenly insecure. “I thought the planet was uninhabited?”

“Mostly,” she corrected. “Some creatures live there but they aren’t really far developed. They are savage creatures without language or any other sign of intelligent life. Basically beasts. And I don’t know about you but beasts attack and I don’t plan on just letting them attack me.”

“That is a good argument,” you said and put on a vest made out of thick leather. Very hard to rip with teeth or inferior weapons.

After you had collected all your stuff the both of you rode on horses to the place where all of you had decided to meet up. Thor and Loki were already there waiting.

Thor was greeting you with a smile, Mjolnir in his hand. Loki on the other hand looked exactly how you felt. Not very excited and a little grumpy. His arms were crossed and he stood with his body turned slightly away from your small group.

“Perfect, you are already here,” said Thor. He nodded respectfully in your direction. “Lady (y/n), I’m thankful that you will be joining us. We can use a good fighter like you.”

You smiled at him. “Why, thank you Thor. I’m glad to be here.” …kinda, you added in your mind with a look at Loki.

You actually didn’t know why he hated you so much. When you first got introduced the two of you got along quite well. You had a similar sense of humor (although you drew the line at putting people in danger, unlike him) and you enjoyed his presence. But then on your first mission that took longer than just a quick trip he started acting differently and made no secret out of his dislike for you. But you wouldn’t let his change in behavior bring you down. Two could play this game.

Thor and Loki climbed on their horses to be on eye level with you and Sif.

“Do we already know where on the planet this goddamn plant is growing?”she asked.

“Not really,” said Loki coldly. “Heimdall said, that they were able to limit it’s location to a 1000 meter radius but within that we have no idea where it is. If we’re lucky we find it immediately. And if not we could be stuck on there for days.” He gave you a dirty look, like it was suddenly your fault that they didn’t know where the plant was exactly growing. But you were used to this behavior and although it annoyed the hell out of you, you were able to ignore it with an eye roll.

Just a couple of moments later that were filled with Thor and Sif discussing strategies and Loki glaring daggers at you the other three arrived.

“I’m sorry that we are late,” said Fandral. “But someone just had to pack half of Asgards food supply.”

“You made me responsible for the meals. I’m taking my job seriously!” Volstagg replied in his defense. Thor and Lady Sif laughed at their friends and even Loki couldn’t suppress a small smile.

Fandral spotted you and came over with his horse. “Lady (y/n), such a pleasure to have you with us today.” He took your hand and placed a tender kiss on the back of it. Your cheeks flushed a little red. Loki sighed annoyed. “Can we finally go? I wasn’t planing on waiting here until the flower finds itself.”

Yikes.

“Let’s better not keep the princess waiting any longer, shall we?” you said smugly and rode past Loki. All you heard from his was a gasp and something he mumbled under his breath, that made Thor shout a scandalized, “Loki! That’s not how you talk about a lady!”

“Stop treating me like a child!”

“Stop acting like one!” Thor massaged the root of his nose and sighed. “Oh brother, what have we become that I’m the voice of reason?”

The Warrior Three and Lady Sif snickered about the brothers while you were all making your way across the rainbow bridge towards Heimdall’s observatory.

“You are late,” he said upon their arrival. He was standing in front of the entrance, his face stoic and not showing any bits of what he was thinking, or seeing.

“Yeah, apologies, Volstagg was-”

“I know,” he interrupted Fandral’s excuse. “Now come, we need to hurry.”

They all got off their horses and followed Heimdall into the observatory. “Alright, I hope you all prepared accordingly. It will be hot so don’t wear or carry too much! Only take the absolute necessary! But make sure that you take as much water with you as possible! It won’t be easy to access on Kamir.”

“What? I thought there were big lakes?” asked Sif. “Why can’t we just refill our water there?”

“You can’t trust the lakes,” Heimdall said sternly. “They are cursed. They’re full of loreley.”

Sif immediately understood but you were still confused.

“Loreley?” you asked.

“Water spirits. Mermaids,” Sif explained. “They are capable of telepathy and can see your deepest darkest desires, some you might not even be aware of yourself. Then they shape-shift into them to lure you into their arms so that they can pull you into your wet death.” You nodded, finally understanding.

Loki clicked with his tongue. “She doesn’t know anything. She will only hold us up.”

“Loki,” warned Sif sharp. “If I hear another stupid comment from you I’ll make sure you’ll be the one staying behind. Her knowledge of natural materials and combat will be a lot more useful than your stupid magic tricks!” And with that Sif actually managed it to make Loki shut up.

They all walked over to get ready for Heimdall to open the bifrost. Heimdall himself walked over to his pedestal, his sword in his hands.

“Good luck,” he said before ramming his sword down and opening the streaming energy with it. And in the next moment the companions got sucked into its force, traveling the great distance from Asgard to Kamir.

But something must’ve gone wrong because instead of landing all standing up looking like the warriors you were you all just landed awkwardly on top of each other.

“Volstagg, get off of me!” screamed Sif.

“That’s not me!” Volstagg called back.

“Argh! That was my face!” said Hogun.

Thor sucked in a sharp breath. “You just kneed me in the nuts!”

“In Odin’s name, I’m so sorry!” apologized Sif quickly.

A jerk went through the pile of warriors and all you knew was that in the next second you were face to face with Loki, who grunted from the impact your body had on his when you fell on top of him. You were in shock. Your rip cage hurt and your faces were so close that your nose almost touched his. You could feel his heavy breath on your face. Too mesmerized by the sudden close body contact you weren’t able to move. And when Loki noticed that you weren’t doing anything to stand up, he rolled his eyes and pushed you roughly off of his body.

“Ouch!” you exclaimed when your head hit the ground. Your hand flew up to your head and luckily you didn’t feel any blood but you were for sure left with a bump.

Loki was already standing. He dusted off his clothes and looked down at you with a raised eyebrow before walking over to his brother to help him get up.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Thor still in pain. “In maybe one or two days.”

“I said, I am sorry!” said Sif. “Stop being such a drama queen.”

All seven of you got up on your feet again and for the first time you could actually take a look at your surroundings without someone’s body part in your face.

You guys were on a small clearing withing a big forest. The trees were as high as buildings and their interlacing branches were building a roof above your heads. That made it hard for the sun to come completely through to the ground where you were standing on and it was kind of dark for the middle of the day. But the probably weirdest thing was the heat. You’d think in the shadow of all those leafs it would be a little colder than in the sunlight but that wasn’t the case. It was just as hot and you already started sweating. The air was humid and every breath felt like your were sucking in water in addition to oxygen.

“Where are we?” you asked, breathless from the beautiful plants around you.

“On Kamir obviously, what did you think?” Loki answered matter-of-factly.

“I know that,” you mumbled but kept your gaze down, your cheeks burning. Who did he think he was? Just because he was Asgard’s prince he didn’t have permission to constantly make you feel like a stupid peasant.

“Do we know what the flower looks like?” asked Fandral and took a look at his surroundings. “Because I see a lot of flowers growing here.” he was right. The ground was covered in all types of different plants from colorful blooming petals to dark green fern.

“Father said it would be glowing purple with blue spots and dark red stems,” said Thor. “But it should still be rather small so we won’t find it easily.”

“Great, sounds like a party,” replied Fendral sarcastically.

“We don’t have time for sarcasm right now,” you said already irritated by the heat. “We should just start searching.”

And so you did. The seven of you were walking for hours. Sweat was running down your face and neck, Sif – who normally always looked well put together – started to look disorganized and even Loki’s pale cheeks were covered with a cherry pink color. It wasn’t even close to dusk when the group was saying that they needed a break.

“Okay alright, we gonna take a break here,” said Thor and sunk to the ground. Everyone was pulling out their water bottles and you were all drinking big gulps of your water.

“Don’t forget what Heimdall said,” reminded Hogun as the voice of reason. “We can’t trust the water on here so we should save ours. We don’t know for how long we’ll be here.”

“Why can’t we just go back to Asgard and bring new water if ours is out?” asked Volstagg.

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Loki. “If we go back now the flower will be without protection. As soon as we are gone our enemies will rip each other apart to get here first.”

“But if they rip each other apart, isn’t that a good thing? I mean, then we won’t have to do it?” joked Volstagg.

Suddenly Thor got up and started taking off his armor.

“Uhm, Thor, what are you doing?” you asked as you watched him take off one layer after another.

“Hogun is right,” he said. “We need to save water and the more we sweat the more we’ll need to drink. We should do what Heimdall said and leave everything we don’t need behind.” He took off his shirt and was left standing there with just his trousers and Mjolnir in his hand.

Sif stared at Thor for a second longer before she just shrugged and started to take her own armor off. Following her example the others undressed as well.

You were a little uncomfortable at first but you thought about the alternative of dying of thirst and decided that it would be worth it. In the end you were left standing in some thin pants, a tank top and your sword belt. You felt the tickling of a pair of eyes on your skin and you looked up.

Loki was standing as far away from you as possible but his eyes were fixed on your figure. He himself was only wearing his thin trousers and a simple linen shirt, that stuck to his body from his sweat. You raised an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”

His eyes flew up to yours. His mouth closed and opened like the mouth of a fish but no sound came out. He quickly averted his gaze and walked away. Weird, you thought.

After everyone had taken off some layers you all felt a lot better and decided to continue with your search. You searched the whole day but without any success. The flower was not to be found.

When the sun was finally setting you were all happy to notice that the air was cooling down.

“I think we should rest now and get up early so that we can continue searching when it’s still dark and cool,” suggested Sif and you all agreed. You quickly found a clearing where you decided to build your camp. The grass was soft and the plants around it didn’t grew dense enough for creatures or the like to hide in there and you could look quite far. So ideal conditions for you all to rest there.

But still, you couldn’t be careful enough so it was your job to put the motion detectors around the camp. You were struggling to install one of them at a tree because the branch was a little too high up when you heard someone behind you say, “Here, let me help you.”

You turned around and to your surprise it was Loki who stood right behind you and was now stretching out his arms to install the little chip above your heads. He was so close that you could feel his body heat and smell his individual scent. When he was done he looked back down at you and frowned. “What? Don’t look at me like that. If you mess up we all could be in danger. Do you really think I’d just let you risk my life like that? Amateur.” He shook his head, took some of the detectors from you and walked away to help you install them.

Something was really strange about Loki today. Despite his comments he was treating you almost like a human. You didn’t know what it was that made Loki change his ways with you (maybe Thor had talked to him before your mission?) but you certainly weren’t complaining. You actually really like it and felt almost flattered by his attention.

Later you were all sitting together in a circle with your food spread out in the middle for everyone to reach. You sat between Sif and Thor, who shielded you from Loki’s glares. You were all eating together in silence, enjoying the nature around you. When the sun had completely disappeared from the sky it was so dark that you almost couldn’t see your own hand before your eyes but nobody wanted to make a fire. Its heat would be too much. But how should you see? If you couldn’t see you all there defenseless. When suddenly something magical happened. You saw it first and touched Thor’s upper arm to get his attention.

“Look!” you said and pointed to the edge of the clearing.

“Wow,” said Sif when she spotted it as well. On of the flowers was slowly opening its petals to reveal a glowing orange color. A lot of other flowers did the same and within moments the whole forest had lit up in all these beautiful colors.

“This is beautiful,” you whispered with a big smile on your face as you watched the fireflies buzzing all around your little group.

“And how are we supposed to find a glowing flower within hundreds of glowing flowers?” asked Loki pretentious.

“Why are you always so pessimistic, Loki?” you shot back. “Can’t you just enjoy something for the beauty of it for once?”

The god of mischief stared at you for quite some time before smiling at you with a smug expression on his face. “Looks like I can not.”

You shook your head in disbelieve and continued to look at him skeptically. As much as he tried to act like the beauty of the nature that surrounded you didn’t impress him, his face was telling a whole other story as he was looking at fireflies in the air.

You had never noticed it before but now that you were looking at him – the real him, not the passive aggressive one he always showed you – you had to admit to yourself that he was kind of beautiful. His expression relaxed and his features illuminated by the alien light. His eyes, normally blue, looked bright green in this strange glow. He wasn’t just a handsome young prince anymore.

Quickly you looked away, your cheeks flushing pink. You couldn’t think about him like that. He hated you. It would be inappropriate of you to think of him any other way than as your bully.

After you had eaten and drunk enough you decided it was time to sleep. Volstagg was supposed to guard your camp first – just to be safe. You choose a place close to the edge of the clearing where you laid down and slowly fell asleep. The last thing you saw before your eyelids fell shut were the purple glowing petals of a beautiful flower.

***

Loki’s POV

He woke up from an uncomfortable feeling in his abdomen. Loki might’ve been a god but even a god needed to pee.

He sat up and scanned his surroundings with his eyes. The flowers were still glowing and the fireflies there dancing through the warm air. His team mates were all fast asleep, including Volstagg who was supposed to be on look out.

“What an idiot,” Loki mumbled to himself as he stood up and walked past him. He walked over to disappear between the trees when he almost fell over a body lying in the grass. He looked down and discovered that it was you. You were lying on your side with your legs pulled up to your chest.

Loki crouched down to take a better look. You looked so peaceful in your sleep. You face was completely relaxed and the corner of your lips moved upwards to form a small smile. You must’ve been dreaming something nice. Loki caught himself thinking how much he wanted to touch you. Just gently ran a finger over your cheek or move a strand of hair out of your face. Be he shook his head and dismissed the thought. What a silly thing to think.

He got up again and walked around you, careful to not disturb your sleep and quickly deactivated the motion detectors before walking away from the others. Because he didn’t want to wake anybody up (not even Volstagg) he decided to tend to his business far off from your camp. He had to walk for quite some time and his thoughts were always on you.

There was something about you that he just didn’t understand. It wasn’t there from the beginning but shortly after meeting you he started to feel weird around you. For some reason every time you were around or even when your name was only mentioned his body started to feel strange. His heart beat quickened, his body felt hot and his blood was boiling. When you walked past him he had to fight back the urge to run after you, to reach out his hand to grab you. When he was close to you he wanted to tangle his fingers in your hair…it was weird. And Loki did not like it.

At the beginning he thought what he felt was anger. He didn’t like you. Why? No idea. So he started to play tricks on you and initially it worked. Whenever your eyes would look at him in shock or anger he felt accomplished. He felt like your whole focus was him and him alone and he enjoyed your attention. But soon after it just got worse. He didn’t like that you were making him feel this way so he wanted to get rid of you however possible. He even put you in danger at multiple occasions but in the end he never pulled through with his dangerous plans. The thought of losing you and never seeing you again displeased him even more than having you around all the time, so he decided to just try to annoy you away. And at first he thought he had succeeded. But then Sif had asked you to join their mission and now Loki didn’t know what to think anymore. He hated you, but he wanted to be close to you. He thought you were annoying, but he wanted to be always on your mind. He didn’t like you, but he hated it whenever Fendral got flirty with you.

Loki was quickly done with his business and he turned around to go back to the camp when he heard something. It was like a soft laugh. Maybe they weren’t as alone as they had previously thought?

Carefully he sneaked towards the sound and to his surprise found a lake with a soft sand shore. The lake was beautiful. Even the water was slightly glowing. Again he heard this laugh this time louder than before and turned his head in the direction from where it came. He couldn’t believe his eyes. There were you! Sitting on a big rock, combing through your hair with your beautiful fingers. Your sinful lips were smiling at him invitingly, your (e/c) eyes watching him playfully. Your arms rose above your head and you curved your bare body seductively.

Loki wade his way over to you utterly confused. “(y/n) what…?

But you put a finger over your mouth, showing Loki that he should be silent. You slowly put your arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His hands quickly found your hips and rested there like they had always meant to be there. Without further ado you crashed your sweet soft lips to his. Loki melted into the kiss, quickly deepening it. He was enchanted. Mesmerized by your soft skin beneath his fingers. His heat was beating faster and his hands were gripping your body tighter. Loki was so bewitched by your body, smell and kiss that he didn’t see the inconsistencies that should’ve proven to him that this wasn’t the real you.

He was so fascinated by your beauty that he didn’t see the sharp fangs in your mouth. He didn’t see the bluish-green glow of your skin or the most obvious thing: that from your mid thigh downwards you didn’t have legs but instead a big tail. A fishtail.

***

(Y/N)’s POV

You woke up because of Volstagg’s loud snore. Irritated from the loud sound you looked around. You relaxed quickly after realizing that it was just Volstagg and you were about to go back to sleep again when you noticed that someone from your group was missing. Loki.

“Guys?” you asked and stood up but nobody moved. You walked over to the person closest to you and started shaking them.

“Fendral!” you said. “Wake up! Loki is gone.”

The blond man stirred and slowly woke up. “What? (y/n)?”

“Loki isn’t here. Do you know where he is?”

“No?” Fendral sat up. “Where is he?”

“That’s what I’m asking you!” you said with an eye roll.

“Where is Volstagg?”

At the mention of his name Volstagg flinched and woke up. “Huh?”

“Volstagg!” Fendral said accusingly. “Why are you asleep? Loki is gone. Did you see him?”

“What? No I didn’t,” he said and walked over to the place where Loki had been sleeping.”Where did he go?”

“We wouldn’t ask you if we knew!” you replied.

“What is going on?” asked Thor, who had just woken up. Sif and Hogun started to rub their eyes as well.

“Loki is gone,” answered Fendral with a sigh.

“What? Why didn’t the motion detectors go off?” asked Thor.

“He turned them off,” said Hogun waving one of them in his hand.

“Great,” said Sif sarcastically. “Do we have to search for him now as well?”

“He can’t be that far off,” said Thor and got up to his feet. “We should go search for him and if we’re lucky we still get a little bit of sleep before we have to move again.” The whole group groaned but they listened to their leader and started searching for Loki.

You decided to split up to find him more quickly. You were sneaking through the trees and plants, your hand on the handle off your sword that was resting against your hip. “Loki?” you screamed and you heard the others echoing your calls in the distance. “Loki!”

You came to a lake and the hairs at the back of your neck stood up. This had to be one of the lakes Heimdall had warned you about. The lakes inhabited by loreley. And indeed, you saw their heads with their big pointy ears sticking out from the water. It looked like they were…waiting? Watching in anticipation.

Your eyes followed their gaze and to your horror you saw…Loki! Lying and rolling around in the water with one of those creatures.

“GUYS!” you screamed for the others. You heard a bunch of steps running towards you but you couldn’t take your eyes off of Loki and the mermaid. She looked so familiar….

“(y/n), did you find him?” Thor called when the others arrived and stood next to you. They saw the scene as well.

“Wow,” said Fendral and squinted his eyes to take a better look. “Is that…”

“Me?” you asked in shock. Yes, it was! The mermaid looked exactly like you with her (h/c) colored hair. She was lying on top of Loki who had captured her in his embrace, his lips always moving against hers.

But despite her similarities to you she was still very obvious a mermaid. Her upper body until her mid-thigh looked like a normal female body, except for the green scales that would cover some parts of her skin, like her arms or her stomach, her cheeks. In that moment Loki let out a deep groan, the mermaid pressing her nude breasts closer to his chest, slipping a hand under his drenched shirt and pulling it up. Loki’s hands were slowly moving down her body until they found her butt.

“Okay that’s it!” said Thor and spoke your own thoughts out loud. “Sif, Hogun, you two need to help me get that creature off my brother!”

“But Thor, look!” said Sif and pointed to the lake where the others were still slowly moving closer. “If we enter the water they are gonna pull us down as well!”

“What do you suggest we do then?” asked Thor upset. “Just let them drown him?”

“You know what I always say,” said Fendral and stepped forward. “Just do it.”

Then he ran towards Loki, followed by Volstagg and Hogun. Thor ran after them as well and Sif after a moment of hesitation. But you couldn’t move. Sif’s words didn’t stop circling inside your head. They are capable of telepathy and can see your deepest darkest desires.

Loki hated you. Why would a mermaid take your form to seduce him?

You watched Loki cling to the mermaid on his chest, gripping to her like it was to safe his life, although the exact opposite was the reality.

“How in Helheim is he so strong?” said Fendral as he tried to pull one of Loki’s arms away from her. Thor almost pulled the creature off Loki but in that moment she quickly turned around hissed at him and scratched with her long sharp fingernails across his cheek, making him bleed.

Your eyes darted to the other mermaids in the lake. They had come dangerously close. One of them was almost out of the water reaching out her hand to drag Sif into the depths of the lake by her ankle. Within seconds you drew your sword, jumped over to Sif and cut the mermaids hand off before she could drag her in. The creatures screamed in pain.

“Thank you,” said Sif and you nodded in acknowledgment. Sif turned away from Loki and the others and together you started to fight off the other mermaids. The water that was licking at your legs was cold and you shivered but the adrenaline of the fight took over and you moved smoothly without any disturbances.

“We got it!” screamed Fendral triumphantly. Thor quickly summoned Mjolnir and swung it down on the mermaids head, killing her instantly. You smiled looking at Loki but against all of your hopes he still wasn’t free from the mermaids curse. He let out a scream of agony so full of pain that it ripped your heart apart.

“Brother, she wasn’t real. That was a spirit!” said Thor and tried to pull Loki out of his trance but to no avail. Loki started to attack his older brother with his summoned spear.

“You killed her! You killed her!” he screamed over and over again. Thor mostly blocked his hits. He didn’t want to hurt Loki but you saw that that would become his downfall. Sif and the warrior Three were fighting off the mermaids.

“Thor, use Mjolnir!” called Sif but Thor shook his head.

“I can’t! I could hurt him!”

Suddenly you had an idea. Maybe if Loki saw that you were still alive it would break the curse and he would stop attacking Thor! You ran over to the two brother and slipped between them, standing protectively in front of Thor.

“Loki, I’m here!” you said soothingly. You let your sword fall to the ground and raised your hands in an attempt to calm him down. “Look, I’m fine. I’m alive. Nobody hurt me.” But Loki didn’t recognize you. No, now he started attacking you! You and Thor quickly jumped out of his way.

“Loki! Snap out of it!” you begged him but he didn’t hear you. He didn’t know it was you talking to him. What could you do? What was left?

Another idea formed in your head. It was stupid and there was absolutely no reason for it to work but you were desperate and in this moment you had no other plan. So instead of running from him you stepped towards him. You saw him smiling. It was one of these arrogant smiles that you knew far too well by now. But unlike other times, when you would look away or roll your eyes at this simile, this time you put your arms around his neck and pulled him down to your level, pressing your lips on his smile.

At first he didn’t move. He was in shock and let his spear fall in the sand. You didn’t just let go. You couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t attack you anymore. But then slowly he started to kiss back. It wasn’t a passionate or wild kiss like he had shared with the mermaid. This one was sweet and innocent. Almost asking Is this okay? Do you want this?

Loki laid a hand on your cheek, carefully holding your face close to his own, while the other was playing with your hair. His touch so delicate like the wing of a butterfly.

Meanwhile your hear beat was going crazy and your tummy was tingling. Your head was going red from lack of oxygen but you didn’t want to stop.

Finally you pulled away. Both of you were breathing heavily but Loki looked kind of confused in addition to that. He was blinking quickly, like he just woke up from a dream. When he saw how close you two were he quickly let go of you and jumped back. “What did just happen?” he asked looking back and forth between you and the others.

Lady Sif and the others had come out victorious of their fight against the mermaids. Having killed most of them and the others were back hiding in the depths off the lake.

“Brother,” said Thor with a smile and patted Loki on the shoulder. “That’s a long story and once I told you all of it I promise I will never let you forget it.”

***

(Y/N)’s POV

You were all walking back to your camp. Loki walking a little behind. Since Thor had explained to him what had happened he didn’t say a single word, rather unusual for Loki. He kept his eyes on the ground making sure to look nobody in the eyes, especially not you. His distance was almost disappointing to you. Obviously you didn’t think he would suddenly change his whole behavior towards you but, as much as you didn’t like to admit it, you had enjoyed your kiss. Hell, it was probably the best kiss you ever had in your life! Despite the circumstances. And you wanted to do it again.

But now was surely not the time to thing about those things. You still had to complete your mission. It was already dawn when you were back at your camp and most flowers had stopped glowing. What a shame, you thought to yourself. You really liked the way they looked.

Thor told everybody to pack up their stuff and you walked over to the place where you had slept last night when something caught your attention. The purple flower!

“Thor?” you called and the god of thunder strolled over to you.

“Yes?”

“What exactly did you say the flower looks like?”

“Purple petals, blue spots and dark red…” his sentence left unfinished when he looked at the flower you were pointing at. Exactly the flower he was describing.

“Are you kidding me?” screamed Sif and walked over to you two.” It was here right in front of our noses the whole time?”

“Does it matter?” asked Volstagg. “That means we can go home now!”

All of you agreed. Thor took Mjolnir and quickly destroyed the plant with it so that nobody would ever be able to harvest it.

“That’s it?” you asked unsatisfied. “Seven warriors and all this drama just for you hitting it with your hammer and everything is solved?”

Thor shrugged. “I guess?”

You groaned but didn’t complain any further. All you wanted to do was go back home and make some new weapons. The group was almost done with packing when you saw sitting Loki far away from all the others, drawing pattern in the grass with his fingers. You walked over to him and sat down next to him in the grass. His body immediately stiffened.

“Loki, I won’t bit you,” you told him softly and laid your hand on of his, stopping him from drawing and making him look at you.

“I know,” he said. “I’m just…It’s just…” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

You nodded, accepting his apology. “It’s alright. That could’ve happened to any of us.”

“I’m not just sorry that you had to fight those mermaids,” he admitted. “I’m sorry that you had to…you know. Kiss me.”

You shrugged. “I didn’t have to kiss you. I could have also just let Thor kill you.” Both of you laughed.

“I guess, I should thank you then,” he said smiling at you. For the first time you looked into his eyes and you didn’t see arrogance or hatred. When he looked at you his eyes were full of softness and admiration. “So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” you said grinning. Loki looked down again slowly interweaving his fingers with yours. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” you asked him hopefully.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I think…I think, I might not actually hate you.”

You smiled brightly and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “I don’t hate you either,” you whispered in his ear.

He returned your smile.

“I’m glad,” he said back before kissing you once again.

[iscoliya]

The Thunderbird’s Call - Chapter 3

“I– Were there ever talks about Toku-san adopting me?” He finally turns to face the alpha and his eyes shimmer with a myriad of emotions; determination, curiosity, resignation and a whole lot of doubt. Putting the pieces together in his head, Kazuya steels himself for the argument that is about to ensue. While the easiest way out might be to spin some kind of lie or pretext, he knows Eijun doesn’t deserve it, not when he is looking at him so pleadingly.

“Yes.” Due to their close proximity, he feels more than hears the other’s breath hitch for a moment.

“But?”

“But I asked him not to.”

«chapter 2 || read on ao3

Toku

Even though it has been more than a year since the last time he found himself in this position, or rather this particular company, to him it hasn’t been long enough. However, dire situations call for drastic measures and if managed poorly, the current one could turn from bad to worse at the drop of a hat. The attack on his scouting party and the subsequent death of general Kataoka and six other soldiers have hit the kingdom hard, not least because of the loss of who was considered one of the greatest military leaders of their time. What is more, he himself has lost one of his closest confidants and a dear friend, but even almost a month after the tragic events he can’t allow himself to mourn in peace; the details surrounding the incident don’t bode well for Seidou and the fact that they still don’t have any leads on who is behind the ambush doesn’t make their task any easier.

“What do you mean you couldn’t find him?”

As it turns out, neither does the brusque character of Todoroki Raizou.

“I am afraid it is as I said,” Yuuki explains patiently, standing tall beside his seat, “Sakaki-san is currently nowhere to be found. I have lead a squad to Yura Sougou myself and no one was able to give us any information on his current whereabouts. It appears he has not been seen ever since around the time our men left there.”

“So he went into hiding,” Kunitomo states in his usual stern fashion and even though his expression doesn’t betray any of his thoughts, Toku has known him for long enough to notice the lines on his face hardening ever so slightly in unease.

“That or he didn’t vanish voluntarily. We cannot rule out the possibility of someone having a hand in his disappearance.” His gaze sweeps through the room briefly, noticing the sceptical looks on his fellow kings’ faces. “Either way, we have spread the news among our allies, in case he surfaces anywhere within our territories we should know. The question remains though, what kind of information he provided Tesshin with that he would deem it necessary to keep quiet about it until he could arrange a meeting with me.”

“Which apparently got him killed, if your telling of the enemy retreating after he fell is any indication,” Ichidaisan’s leader Tahara contributes while scratching his chin thoughtfully. “It appears they wanted to send a message rather than to try to wipe out the whole troop.”

He nods affirmatively. “That is what has me worried as well. If it was a ploy purely meant to do damage to our forces, they would not have stopped until they either saw no other way out or killed every last one of our men. The assailants targeted him specifically and the whole affair seems too well planned out for it to be a coincidence. Someone needs to have had inside knowledge about what it was that Tesshin and Sakaki discussed.”

“Did you get anything from the bodies?” At Kunitomo’s question Toku can only shake his head regretfully.

“Non-descript armour and weaponry, inconspicuous clothing and appearance. There was no indication as to who sent them or where they came from. No one from our forces was able to recognise any of the ones we discovered, either.”

His remarks are met with an uneasy bout of silence, until Todoroki raises his voice again.

“Kinda odd how those scumbags knew exactly which stretch of land to attack at, dontcha think?” he drawls, picking his ear with his little finger all the while. “On allied territory no less, entering and sneaking around completely undetected…”

“What are you insinuating?” And of course Kunitomo can’t let the indirect accusation slide; as level headed as the Inashiro king usually is, he is not particularly known to take slights against his person or people lightly.

“Hey, I’m not insinuating anything, you can’t exactly deny that it seems a little improbable that a whole band of suspicious looking rats managed to parade through your lands without anyone noticing.” Shrugging his shoulders, he turns his downright provocative grin in Toku’s direction. “C’mon, you can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

The worst part is that he really can’t; of course the thought has crossed his mind, he wouldn’t make for a good king if he didn’t consider all possibilities. It doesn’t help that up until the last ruling generation Seidou and Inashiro had either not been on the most amicable terms in the best or downright at war with each other in the worst case. It was only during the reign of Toku’s father that a peace treaty and, another decade later, a trade agreement could be negotiated between the two rival kingdoms. However, all of these issues seem like ancient history these days and quite a few people are even speculating about a potential match between Seidou’s heir to the throne and Inashiro’s omega prince. But that is a whole other story, one he definitely doesn’t want to dwell on right now; it’s not like his son hasn’t given him enough headaches regarding that topic as it is.

Getting back to the current dilemma, he just can’t figure out any logical reason for Inashiro being behind the attack, even if it truly seems like the most obvious conclusion, like Todoroki suggested. Of course, back when the treaty between the kingdoms was established there were some people who didn’t quite agree with the peaceful outcome, people who either had some kind of personal interest in keeping the conflict alive or lost someone over the course of the war and were out for revenge. And Toku himself knows all too well the dangers a deep-rooted grudge can entail. Still, even if the perpetrators are a group of rogue soldiers or mercenaries, the details of the incident as well as Kunitomo’s genuinely vexed reaction to the accusation don’t add up in a way that would point towards an official involvement of the crown.

“There is no reason for such assumptions here,” he finally interjects, trying to mediate between the two parties and scotch any possible conflict before it can arise. “Whoever is behind this might aim exactly for this result, putting doubts in our minds and seeding discord within the alliance. And what is left if we start to mistrust each other and our loyalties?” Once again, he takes in the faces of everyone in the room, Kunitomo, Todoroki and Tahara, each with one of their most trusted guards at their side; Harada Masatoshi, Sanada Shunpei, Omae Takahiro. No, he most certainly can’t afford to begin doubting any of them now. “I do not believe that Inashiro had anything to do with what happened, so we should start to look somewhere else.”

“What about the Eastern realm? Yura Sougou is not too far from the border to Seikou” Tahara points out, to which Toku hums contemplatively; another alternative he has already pondered often enough.

“It is true that we have had more than our fair share of trouble with the Easterners in the past, but why would they orchestrate an attack now, when there have been attempts to negotiate a potential treaty between our realms?”

“Maybe they want to speed things up, make you desperate for more allies in the face of an unknown threat.” As he mulls Todoroki’s suggestion over in his head, he marvels yet again at the insight Yakushi’s king shows every now and then; despite the nonchalant and at times downright careless attitude he often displays, he can be surprisingly astute once he puts his mind to something. Either way, he does have a fair point, though the idea still doesn’t explain why the assailants would go after Kataoka specifically.

“That or they want to achieve a pact through brute force, if they think they have the upper hand in regards to military strength,” Kunitomo chips in with his own thoughts. “Even though they are inferior to us in the extent of our territories and economical stability, their resolve is not to be underestimated, especially Teito’s. King Okamoto is not exactly known for being cowed easily.”

“Be that as it may, I still believe that the best way to shed more light on the situation is to find Sakaki and get some answers from him. In the meantime, border patrols should be increased and tell your soldiers to keep an eye out for any kind of suspicious activities,” Toku advises with as much authority as he can manage after their long session. In his opinion, it is as good a time as any to put a halt to their discussion for now. “We will recommence our talk in the morning. Until then, please enjoy the banquet this evening.”

Following his parting words, Todoroki is the first to rise, Tahara close behind with a delighted “Marvellous!”. Kunitomo, however, remains seated even after the two have exited the chambers along with their guards, his unwavering gaze fixed on Toku. With a small hand gesture, he beckons to Yuuki and Harada to leave as well, sensing that the upcoming conversation is going to be a private one. He guesses he can already imagine what the other wants to ask him about and he mentally prepares himself for another tiring talk.

“There is something we should discuss.”

_____________

Youichi

“Man, why does it have to be this hot for the fourth day in a row now…”

“It’s still summer, senpai, what do you expect? Also, you didn’t have to tag along, y’know?”

“Don’t you sass me, knucklehead! And someone has to keep your sorry ass from getting lost again.”

“That was one time!”

“It was at least two times, Eijun-chan.”

“Masuko-senpai, back me up here!”

Although he could do without the scorching heat, Youichi guesses there are worse ways to spend his day than strolling through the streets of the capital at a leisurely pace, stopping every now and then to talk to people or browse through merchants’ goods. Especially if it means getting away from the barracks and the accompanying soldiers from the Inashiro, Yakushi and Ichidaisan entourages, some of whom seem a little too eager to demonstrate their fighting prowess; seriously, he feels like has had more than his fair share of alpha testosterone in one place to last him through his entire life. Also, he muses silently as he listens to Eijun squabbling with Masuko over one thing or another, it might be the best way to keep a closer eye on a certain young omega.

Despite what some people think Youichi notices quite a bit more than your usual observer, and where others might have brushed the younger’s behaviour off as fairly normal if not a little quiet during the past week, the alpha just knows that something is up. He hasn’t missed the dark circles underneath the other’s eyes nor the way he clutches his head grimacing when he thinks nobody is watching. Combined with an unusually slack performance in training as well as a lack of appetite the whole thing has him a little worried, even if he would never admit it to anyone, and it irks him slightly that he hasn’t managed to figure out what exactly is wrong. Of course, some omegas tend to be rather sensitive if not moody whenever they reach a certain point of their cycle, but the first and last time he asked whether Eijun’s heat is coming around soon almost gained him a solid sword swing to the head. He still possesses some sense of self-preservation, thank you very much.

Looking at him now, however, he almost seems back to his normal self, shining eyes, lively composure and just so loud. Well, even that is nothing that a good kick can’t fix in his eyes.

“Pipe down, idiot, you’re creating a ruckus!”

“Ow! Would you stop that?!”

“I will if you stop being an idiot already! But I guess that’s impossible if it’s you, hyaha!”

Their banter continues all the way down to the main market place, Eijun yelling out greetings to the people he knows along the way; the owner of the little tea shop down the road, the old lady managing the small izakaya around the corner, the dressmaker’s children, the armourer’s apprentice– Damn, at this point the kid might know half of the city, though it shouldn’t surprise Youichi very much; his sunny character coupled with his open and sincere attitude is something barely anyone might be able to elude. Even if he isn’t part of royalty or some important family, few people living at the palace tend to take time out of their schedule to mingle among and talk to what is perceived as the common folk. Although it seems like a pity, showing actual interest in their daily life and issues isn’t something just anyone would offer freely without any kind of ulterior motive nowadays, and people remember kindness when it is given. Truly, what a troublesome people magnet the alpha has chosen to babysit.

Arriving at the large open space filled with small stands offering all kind of merchandise, their trio’s pace drops down to an almost standstill, not least because of all the people crowding around the booths. No matter how many times Youichi has visited this place, it is always fascinating to see so many different vendors, both local ones and those hailing from all kinds of countries, selling their wares.

“Say, Masuko-senpai, shouldn’t you still be resting with that arm of yours?” Eijun asks out of the blue, munching happily on a peach he has just purchased from a fruits stall.

Youichi also turns to the third member of their group at the question, curious himself about the actual state of his injury since they haven’t really talked about it in a while. Though the incident that claimed several of their fellow soldiers’ lives and injured most of the rest dates back a month already, he knows that the older alpha’s recovery hasn’t been exactly easy. Having escaped the battle with several bruised ribs, a dislocated elbow and some nasty flesh wounds, he was confined to bed for over a week and had to take things easy ever since. In fact, this marks the first day he has strayed from the barracks or training grounds in quite some time and although he looks like his usual sturdy self, he still has his bandaged arm in a sling to show for his part in the confrontation. Yet he still manages to cut an imposing figure with his tall, hefty stature and clad in the guards’ uniform. At first glance it is hard to imagine that the reticent giant could actually be as soft-hearted as he is deep inside; if you aren’t on the opposing end of his trusted sword, that is. He, too, has over the years become increasingly fond of the omega he is now smiling at placatingly.

“No need to worry, just a little longer and I’ll be as good as new, Eijun-chan.”

Right when the other opens his mouth as if to respond, something or someone seems to catch his attention in the distance, but before Youichi can turn around to see what it is, the omega raises his hand in a wave, grinning widely. “Ishida-san, wait up!”

“Wha– Oi!” But he is already off, disappearing in the throng around them before the alpha can stop him. Youichi swears he can already feel a headache coming. “That absolute moron.”

When he returns his gaze to the soldier at his side, he is met with a knowing smirk and a pair of raised eyebrows.

“Not a word,” he hisses, although a bit half-heartedly. So what if he worries for the little shit, he’s just doing his job in looking out for him.

“Relax, he is perfectly capable of taking care of himself,” Masuko, ever the voice of reason, tries to calm the situation, and he knows that, damn it! Still–

“Always attracting trouble is what he is, damn brat.” His following string of expletives is suddenly interrupted by what sounds like a menacing growl but turns out to be his companion’s stomach, protesting in hunger. At the other’s sheepish look, he can only sigh in defeat. “Whatever, I’ll see you later.”

While he is trying to convince himself that he isn’t keeping an eye out for that familiar unruly mop of brown hair, he strolls around the market place, stopping every now and then to inspect the goods on display. And finally, when his eyes land on a stall selling all kinds of smaller weaponry, he knows he found what he has been looking for unconsciously.

It has been a while that he has been thinking of picking up a courting gift for Ryousuke to make his intentions clear once and for all; up until now he has been a little hesitant to try engaging in an actual courtship, not least because the older didn’t show any indication of taking that step himself. But even without any of them addressing the matter directly, he is fairly certain that these feelings of his would be reciprocated if he just took a leap of faith. Right from the start, the two of them have been training partners, then friends and at some point that bond evolved into something even deeper, like they know each other inside out and would trust the other with their life without a second thought. To Youichi, it seems only logical to turn what they have now into the real deal; and admittedly, the whole dancing around each other might be driving him a little crazy by now.

As he steps towards the booth, his eyes are positively drawn towards one particular item; a set of five throwing knives, the metal gleaming under the bright sunlight. Taking a closer look at the weapons, he notices fine gold and silver details worked into each of the thin hilts and when he picks one of them up, the knife feels incredibly light in his palm. The fit may be a little awkward, but while Youichi isn’t used to such small weaponry, he has no doubt that it would suit Ryousuke and his penchant for daggers of all kinds.

“A fine choice you have made there, young man!” The vendor, a middle-aged man who seems to have just finished attending to another customer, approaches him. “The blades are crafted from stainless steel and sharpened to cut through any kind of leather armour like it’s nothing.” The alpha watches as his counterpart picks up another knife, pulls it out of its sheath and lifts it on one fingertip. “Their perfect balance and light weight allows for a larger range of usage than is common with these weapons, though they might not be suited for inexperienced beginners.”

In the end, it doesn’t take long for Youichi to decide on purchasing the set and he leaves with the satisfaction of finally having found the ideal courting gift, even if it put quite the dent in his savings; still, what are a few months worth of pay compared to the idea of wringing an honest smile from the usually stoic and reserved older Kominato brother.

He doesn’t notice that he is still grinning like some kind of love-struck fool when the crowd parts for a moment and he spots a certain figure some way up ahead, one he has been on the lookout for all this time. His smile turns downright sinister at the prospect of dishing out a mean kick or two coupled with a few choice words. However, before he can reach his elusive kouhai, he sees the other turn away from someone in leave-taking only to bump right into an elderly man passing by behind him and it is only due to Eijun’s exceptional reflexes that he can prevent both of them from tumbling to the ground. That klutz–

Fully prepared to teach the other to be more aware of his surroundings, Youichi quickens his steps only to stop short when he notices the awestruck expression on the old man’s face as he looks upon the young omega.

Well, that is not your usual reaction to almost being bowled over.

He can’t exactly explain why, but something about the stranger puts him on edge, even more so when he hears him mumble a hesitant “Your Highness?”.

Eijun, ever the oblivious fool, reacts to the address with a slightly embarrassed laugh, scratching his head bashfully. “Ah, I’m afraid I’m not part of the royal family, though I do live at the palace.”

Seemingly shaking himself out of whatever stupor he is in, the stranger lets loose a rasping chuckle. “You must forgive an old man, young one. You look just like someone I once knew, but my memories must be playing tricks on me.” Still, even from where he stands, Youichi notices him taking a good look at the younger, eyes never leaving his face and an enigmatic smile on his lips.

“Guess you have mistaken me for someone else, then. Must be one of these common faces,” the omega grins awkwardly with a shrug of his shoulders.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your name, young man?”

And that settles it; the whole encounter is just too weird for him to ignore it any longer.

“Oi, moron!” His yell immediately draws the intended target’s attention and his smile turns into a suffering grimace, already anticipating what is about to come. “Time to go!”

“Senpai, it’s rude to interrupt others’ conversations!” Despite his protest, he trots towards the alpha obediently, but decides to turn briefly in the old man’s direction for a parting comment. “It’s Eijun, have a good day, Sir!”

Since he turns back around immediately, he can’t witness the stranger’s reaction to his words, but Youichi does; eyes wide, face suddenly void of any colour and mouth opening in astonishment, the man looks by all means as if he has seen a ghost. And though he is curious as to what the heck is going on, he decides that getting the hell out of here takes priority in this moment. As soon as the pair is well out of earshot, however, he pulls the other in a tight headlock.

“What are you doing giving your name out to some random stranger?!” he hisses sharply, pulling the other along, preferably away from prying eyes and ears.

“Ow, ow, OW! What do you mean, he was just a friendly old man!”

“Just a friendly old man that was way too interested in you and clearly not from around here!” After another moment, he gives in to Eijun’s struggles and releases him while pondering the man’s appearance. Though he looked fairly average on first glance with his grey hair and beard and frail stature, his clothing had ‘outsider’ written all over it; the colours, the texture and the subtle fur attachments despite the high temperatures, it all seems like some weird style from a far away realm. “I mean I get that you seemingly want to befriend everyone you meet for whatever godforsaken reason, but would it really hurt to use your brain every once in a while?!”

“Geez, what crawled up your ass and died?” the omega mumbles sullenly and despite the bodily itch to show him the answer to that question in great detail, Youichi can only sigh in frustration. Why does it always have to be him?

“Let’s go look for Masuko-san, we wanted to be back in time for dinner.”

_____________

Eijun

As expected, in the end they found the missing third member of their party at a small tea shop known for the delicious dango the serve there. Some time used to persuade Masuko to break away from his precious sweets and a trek back up to the palace later, Eijun finds himself walking through the familiar hallways towards his room. Now that he is on his own again, he can feel the exhaustion creeping back into his bones.

Ever since the last study lesson, headaches have become a frequent companion of his and no potion or other remedy seems to be able to ward them off. Adding the nightmares keeping him awake regularly to that, he feels like a veritable wreck more often than not. The worst thing is that it can’t even be because of his cycle, since his next heat isn’t due for another month and a half; and he really isn’t looking forward to undergoing that yet again.

Aching to get rid of the clothes sticking to his body as a result of the sweat-inducing afternoon sun outside, he quickens his steps, but just as he is about to round the last corner, he bumps right into someone coming from the opposite direction. In moments like this he can somewhat understand what Kuramochi means whenever he calls him a clumsy idiot; barring being called an idiot, of course. His knee-jerk reaction is to apologise and bow deeply, but he stops cold when his gaze meets that of a pair of icy blue eyes.

“Oh, if it isn’t our resident stray.” The derogatory undertone of that otherwise melodious voice isn’t lost on Eijun and he has to grit his teeth in order not to bare them towards the other in reflex. “Hi there, Eijun-kun. Long time no see.”

“Mei-san,” he greets curtly, nothing like the friendly and open way with which he usually regards people.

“Aw, don’t be like that,” the other smiles mockingly, “What’s up with that face? Not sleeping well?” Of course he has noticed his overall tired appearance at first sight; if nothing else his sense of observation is admittedly impeccable.

“What are you doing here?” He decides there’s no point in meaningless small talk or beating around the bush, he is too worn out for that bullshit right now. Within moments, Mei’s smile turns into a haughty sneer.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came along when Father was invited to participate in the War Council. Pity about your soldiers, the General too.” At the half-hearted condolences Eijun’s has to ball his hands into fists at his side. No matter how desperately he wants to sock his fellow omega in the face upon that comment, it wouldn’t do to cause an incident, especially considering the other is still high above him in rank.

“Don’t play dumb with me, we both know you didn’t have to participate in the trip!” Seeing as they had known each other since childhood, maybe at one point in time he would have given a damn about speaking to the prince in this manner, but he wasn’t a clueless child anymore, too intimidated by his adversary’s charisma and standing to react to what back then were merely petty insults.

“Who knows?” He shrugs nonchalantly, but the glint in his eyes as well as the fact that this is Mei tell Eijun that there is most definitely a reason behind his presence. “I guess I wanted to see how Kazuya is doing these days. I hear he still hasn’t decided on his future mate.”

At that, he feels himself blanch slightly and like someone has punched him in the gut hard. Of course he has heard about the rumours people tend to cook up every now and then. Of course he knows that the princes’ acquaintance goes way back, even longer than that between Kazuya and himself. Still, he never would have believed– He couldn’t imagine–

“And what would that have to do with you?” he asks, licking his suddenly dry lips. He doesn’t really expect a straightforward answer to his implied question, or rather he hopes for the reason some part of his brain whispers dejectedly not to be true. Surely, Kazuya would have told him, wouldn’t he?

“Heh, you always were the funny one. If nothing else, you got that talent for comedic relief going for you.” A bark of obnoxious laughter leaves the blonde before he pauses and gives Eijun a once-over, still with that deprecatory expression on his face. “Honestly, to this day I don’t know what Kazuya sees in you. I guess your eyes are pretty, but the rest leaves something to be desired.” While talking, he steps closer so they are almost nose-to-nose. “You’re loud, annoying and overall barely average, especially for an omega. I mean look at you.”

Now more than ever he is aware of the grave difference in their appearances; the other dressed royally in a colourful yukata, seemingly not a hair out of place, while he himself opted for simple clothes for his trip into town, the fabric soaked with sweat and possibly smelly by now, dishevelled and dirty in some spots due to his roughhousing with Kuramochi. Inashiro’s prince, adopted as a small child by king Kunitomo after the untimely death of his parents, who were from a noble house close to the royal family. And him, a simple omega without even a last name, accepted into the palace but never quite belonging. The sobering thought makes his heart sink and the previous annoyance with the other evaporates into nothingness. It’s not like he could disagree with something so blatantly true.

“Has it never occurred to you why the King may treat you like one of his own but has never officially adopted you into the family?” Even close as they were standing, Eijun couldn’t quite decide whether his counterpart’s mien leaned more towards malicious or pitying.

“Your Highness!”

Flinching back from their closeness, they both turn to see Mei’s attendant hurrying towards them, though the prince waves him aside with a hand gesture and a sickeningly sweet smile.

“I’ll be right there, Itsuki!” As he makes to follow the beta to whatever destination he is headed for, he pauses one more time at Eijun’s side. “You should ask Kazuya about it, I’m sure he can tell you a thing or two.”

Even after the other is long gone, the omega remains standing in place, pondering the previous exchange. Despite knowing Mei was probably just trying to get a rise out of him, he might have been right in one point; maybe it really is time to finally get some answers.

_____________

Kazuya

A frustrated sigh leaves his lips as he stands in front of his mirror, trying to tame his hair into some kind of style that can be deemed appropriate for a formal evening dinner. He knows he is stalling for time, but in between dealing with both military affairs and public audiences all day long he feels like he hasn’t had some time to himself in ages and isn’t exactly looking forward to spending the rest of the night exchanging pleasantries and undergoing shallow entertainment. Not that he can’t appreciate dance and music demonstrations like the next person every once in a while, but today he would rather be doing anything else.

Finally satisfied with his efforts – or giving up on the task, depending on how you look at it – he straightens out his hakama one last time before departing from his chambers. The direction his steps lead him in isn’t that of the palace’s grand dining hall, however, but that of the omega wing; and while some part of his brain tells him that his actions might cause certain rumours to emerge if someone apart from the guards notices him entering or leaving, he honestly couldn’t care less in this moment. Due to their different schedules and the added stress of receiving the entourages of their three biggest allies he hasn’t seen Eijun in days and he could really use the cheering up being around the omega usually entails.

To his relief he encounters no one in the hallways leading up to his intended destination and when he knocks on the wooden sliding door, a call of “Just a moment!” answers him. He decides to enter anyway, propriety be damned, and is met with the sight of Eijun pulling his nagajuban shut hastily.

“What the hell, Miyuki Kazuya? Don’t you know the meaning of ‘Just a moment’?!”

An unbidden smile creeps its way on Kazuya’s lips at that exclamation alone and he silently confirms his previous thoughts; even when only being his usual self, the other is always a riot.

“It’s not like you were undressing or anything,” he retorts, which is met by a grumbled “I could have been”. “Do you need help with that?”

“I can dress myself just fine!” The indignant tone in his voice prompts the alpha to chuckle in amusement and he leans against the wall with crossed arms while the other continues to get ready.

In the ensuing quiet of the room, disturbed only by the rustling of clothes, he feels a sense of contentment rushing over him, even through such a simple act as watching his omega get dressed. ‘Not your omega,’ he has to remind himself, and the thought calls a slight bitterness to the forefront of his mind. Shoving the notion aside for now, he busies himself with appreciating the striking contrast between Eijun’s tanned skin and the white colour of the undergarment, which soon disappears underneath a dark blue outer robe. Simple in making yet formal enough to serve its purpose, the ensemble manages to highlight its wearer’s slender though fit body structure in all the right places. Like so many times before, Kazuya mourns the fact that the other isn’t allowed to attend the formal banquet along with him and the other royals, but instead will be going to dine with other members of their and their allies’ courts; something about only official members of the royal families being invited that the alpha can only shake his head at in resentment, especially since he knows of Eijun’s self-conscious thoughts regarding his standing.

“You’re being awfully quiet today,” he remarks when minutes pass by without any of them raising their voice and his counterpart is on the verge of finishing.

“Not much to say,” he shrugs the statement off and that is something the prince isn’t particularly inclined to believe, seeing that he usually has a hard time getting the other to shut up every once in a while. Coupled with the fact that the omega somehow seems to evade eye contact apart from their brief interaction when he entered the room, Kazuya knows that something isn’t right. So when the other tries to pass him by without another word, he stops him with a gentle yet resolute hand to the chest.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Only then does Eijun lift his gaze to meet his, and what he sees there has him taken aback for a moment; he has heard about the other having trouble sleeping lately, but the sheer weariness in his expression is downright shocking to see. Their staring match lasts for another few moments before the omega’s lips pull into a wry smile.

“Right, can’t forget my brand, can I.” Turning to the back of the room and marching towards his personal belongings, he misses the deep frown Kazuya’s face adopts at his words. Something is definitely very, very wrong here.

“What has gotten into you?” he asks, his tone sharper than intended, as he follows after Eijun, who by now has picked up a piece of jewellery from among his possessions, studying it contemplatively. Taking it from the other as gently as he can manage in this moment, he takes a brief look at it himself, even though he knows the shape of the charm inside out; he was the one to commission it, after all. Dangling from a fine metal chain, beautifully made of a gold alloy, is Seidou’s royal crest, a diamond shape with curved sides inside twin circles*. A present he gave him after that incident to wear whenever the palace hosts foreign guests who don’t know about him being under direct protection of the crown. And even though its primary purpose is to ensure its owner’s safety, Kazuya can admit to himself that it also pleases his alpha side to see the mark of the royal family – his mark – displayed so blatantly on the other for everyone to see. However, this is the first time the omega seems to regard it with something akin to rejection if not bitterness.

He is yet again surprised when Eijun lets him put the necklace in place carefully without any fuss and stands completely still even when Kazuya, after finishing the task, uses the opportunity of their closeness to run his fingers lightly along the slender neck presented to him.

“Won’t you tell me what’s going on?” He forces himself to wait patiently when his murmured question isn’t met with an immediate answer. Letting his hand wander downwards along the other’s back, he relishes in the miniscule shudder his actions elicit.

“I spoke to Mei-san today.”

At these words, his caresses come to an abrupt stop. Now that explains quite a bit. His first instinct is to tell him to forget whatever nonsense Inashiro’s prince spouted; knowing Mei and his callous penchant for stirring up trouble wherever he goes, he probably put some kind of idea in the omega’s head that would drive a wedge between him and Kazuya. Even back when they were kids he excelled at playing mind games and for whatever reason Eijun has always been one of his preferred targets. He doesn’t brush the issue aside just yet, though, since he is admittedly curious as to what has the younger so distraught.

“I– Were there ever talks about Toku-san adopting me?” He finally turns to face the alpha and his eyes shimmer with a myriad of emotions; determination, curiosity, resignation and a whole lot of doubt. Putting the pieces together in his head, Kazuya steels himself for the argument that is about to ensue. While the easiest way out might be to spin some kind of lie or pretext, he knows Eijun doesn’t deserve it, not when he is looking at him so pleadingly.

“Yes.” Due to their close proximity, he feels more than hears the other’s breath hitch for a moment.

“But?”

“But I asked him not to.”

Silence follows his answer, but it isn’t the comfortable, peaceful kind from before but full of tension and distrust.

“Why would you do that?” Eijun finally finds his voice again and Kazuya hates how it breaks slightly at the end. But there’s no way out now.

“Because I didn’t want you as my brother,” he says and within a second finds himself seized by the lapels of his robe and pulled forward until there are only inches left between their faces. The other looks furious by now, teeth bared and a tell-tale glimmer in his golden eyes.

“How can you just say that so carelessly?!” A surprisingly hard shake accompanies the yelled accusation and although this brash version of the omega is much more familiar to Kazuya than the quiet, apathetic one, he starts to feel a stab of annoyance creeping in.

“I’m still your prince, you know,” he retorts half-jokingly, but he could kick himself for it when Eijun’s reaction is to flinch back as if burned, face closing off once again.

“You’re right, I apologise.” He hints at a shallow bow and turns in the direction of the door. “Have a nice evening, Your Highness.” Before he can get too far, however, the alpha grips his wrist tightly.

“You didn’t let me finish.” Even to his own ears his voice sounds a little harsh, and he takes a deep breath to calm himself down. “How could I want you as my brother, when you are so much more?”

Slowly, the strain seems to leave the other’s body, his shoulders sagging as he turns back towards him, though he still wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“What am I, then?” And isn’t that the question; but there is only one way to answer it.

“You’re mine,” he states, his words leaving no room for argument. Softening his grip, he pulls the omega in until their foreheads touch against each other. As the familiar calming scent surrounds him, Kazuya closes his eyes and relishes the warmth the skin contact calls forth. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Am I, though?” Eijun whispers, but leans just that bit more into the touch. He can’t explain it, but the doubtful response somehow irks the alpha and he puts a firm hand on the other’s nape, keeping him in place.

“You swore, do you remember?”

As if it was yesterday, he sees the back then barely eight year old kneeling before him, pledging his life to the prince in a manner that is usually reserved to soldiers swearing life-long loyalty to their liege lord. Even now, the words resound clearly in his mind.

“I hereby swear to protect you like you have protected me and place my life in your hands to do with as you see fit. This I promise, from this day on until my last day.”

“I did.”

Even though it was an innocent act, born from childish naivety and gratefulness, in Kazuya’s mind it has always equalled a binding oath, the abidance by which he will see through one way or another.

“Then say it.”

And in this moment, the two of them face to face with one another, noses bumping and their scents mingling, something clicks into place.

“I’m yours.”

These words are all it takes to shatter Kazuya’s resolve at last and as if sealing both their fates, he takes Eijun’s lips in a searing kiss.

_____________

* The crest is inspired by the official emblem of Kokubunji, a city located in the western part of the Tokyo prefecture, which Seidou is situated in in the original storyline

[sofiahahaaa]

Demigod Delinquents | Pt. 7 | The Squads™ Join Forces

Summary: They break into some things and get a little in trouble but no worry no worry cause ?? KEAtOn and Mera are kinda cute? and we finally get the Tragic Backstory™

Rating: is flirting too much? it exists

A/N: You guys, solid on my part for having these parts out so soon after the other. Gotta love me.* okay narcissism over. I am so ready for everything and this little squad kills me they are SO CUTE and the Perma* (percy x mera) friendship is great. so freaking great.

~~~

Percy’s POV ~ 

“Jason," I said as we played our 30th round of Speed that night. “Remind me again what she said.”

“She–” He stuttered, and the scar on his upper lip trembled. “She asked me if I was Jason Grace, as in Beryl Grace– and I said yeah, and then she asked me if I was Jason Grace, as in Thalia Grace." I drew a card, and placed all of them down on the deck.

“Speed!" I hollered. Jason sighed. He began to shuffle again. “Continue.”

“And I said yes, but I asked her how she knew my sister’s name.– and she tried to say no, but she eventually admitted that her sister knew mine. So I’m thinking that her sister is the Hunter. And that she didn’t want to agree to the terms, so she– you get the rest.” He finished dealing the cards. Leo snored in his bunk, his leg dangling off the side.

“Yeah… I guess it would make sense. But how does she not know about Camp?" I drew five and started placing them down on the pile, but Jason got me this time.

“Speed!” Jason exclaimed. I slammed my cards on the floor in frustration. “Well, it does make sense. They might not have told her. Sometimes… they’re careless that way.” I looked up to the sky, hoping we wouldn’t get smited by Lady Artemis.

"I guess it does," I admitted. “But that still doesn’t make it clear. Did her sister abandon her? How did she get to this state?" I took a breath. “Do the others know?" I started putting away the cards.

“Probably not." I heard a creak behind us, and Leo fell out of bed.

“Uhhh,” he groaned, rubbing his eyes. 

“Leo! You’re awake!” Jason got up from the floor, starting to pace anxiously.

“Yeah…” Leo blinked, his eyes following Jasons figure around the cramped cell. I heard a rustling, and turned away from Leo. Mera was at the bars, shaking them lightly.

“Guys! Get out!” Mera urged. I patted my pockets, getting up. “Guys!”

“Right! Sorry!" I exclaimed, jiggling the lock. “What the code, again?” Leo sighed.

“8729." I twisted it. The lock popped, and I swung the gate open. It glided soundlessly. Keaton and Ari were jumping.

“What’s happening?”

“You’ll see,” Ari whispered in my ear. Keaton and Mera were already taking up the lead, so I jogged up to them.

“What’s happening?" I repeated.

“We’ve got a destination, and I have a feeling you can help.” Mera winked at me, and they kept their pace. I lagged until I was alongside Leo and Jason, and relayed what she had told me.

"I think she knows.”

“How?”

"I don’t know, but she definitely knows.”

“What does she know?” Leo asked, visibly confused. Jason inhaled sharply.

“Percy thinks she knows that we’re demigods. I say no way.”

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t know anything about it. Trust me on this one.”

“Alright,” We stopped at a door, and weren’t going anywhere, and Keaton started fidgeting with two rings of metal. Leo saw Keaton’s plaything.

“What’s that?” Leo asked. Keaton held up the piece.

"I don’t know. I’m trying to make it something, right now.” Leo reached out.

“May I?” Leo asked. Mera was watching him, fear shining in her eyes. Keaton handed over the contraption. Leo started playing with it– making tinkling noises as it shifted and turned. “Wow. This workmanship is incredible.” He looked at Keaton over the object. “You made it?”

“Yeah. It’s missing something, though.” Keaton explained. The difference in height was almost hilarious. Leo reached his chest. Keaton was really tall, for 13.

“No, yeah–I have the piece right here.” Leo was smiling. He pulled out a rod of plastic– was that a pen? Keaton eyed him suspiciously.

“You just had that?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah. I keep plenty of stuff in my toolbelt.” He patted his toolbelt, then looked up. Leo looked uncomfortable now, at the mention of a magical object. He looked at me. I shook my head. Don’t tell him. “Yeah. A lot of stuff.” He slid the pen into the rings. Then he handed it to Keaton. “See if it works.” Mera’s curiosity took over her conscious. She slid up to Keaton and peered over his forearm. Keaton spun the rings around the pen, and slowly they continued rotating. Leo reached into his toolbelt.

“But it’s just spinning.” Keaton said, a little disappointed.

“Yeah, one second. I’ll show you how it works.” Leo fetched a strip of Celestial Bronzenand reached out to the object. 

I saw Mera brush her hand to her waist, like she was reaching for something– I had seen that gesture before. She recognized the shiny metal, and her breathing became shallow.

Leo touched the metal to the spinning rings, which hadn’t slowed. They cut up the strip easily. Mera gasped. "It’s a weapon.” She tried to steady her breathing.

“Yeah, but it can be used for other things. Like scrap metal, if you want to melt it down– or music!” Leo blew on the object, and it made a low humming sound. Keaton nodded.

"It’s cool.” He said.

“Yup!” He reached into his toolbelt again. “This is one of my creations.” Leo showed Keaton a small mallet, then held a nail close to it. The nail stuck. " It’s a magnetic mallet.” He smiled. "I know they already exist but this one has a level and an emergency stop.”

“What?” Keaton beamed. He reached to touch it.

“Here. Play with it a little.” Keaton ran a hand along the surface.

“What’s this symbol?” It was the Heta many of Leo’s pieces had. Mera’s eyes widened. She shook her head. I shook my head as well. Leo took the sign.

"It’s my working symbol…” He blurted. “Uh, like, so people know it’s mine.”

"I guess,” Keaton said. Mera looked like she’d seen a ghost.

Meanwhile, Ari had been silent. They seemed humiliated, still, by us. It didn’t seem like the kid knew much about not getting their way. They didn’t say anything, but they watched. Maybe it was a good thing. They was learning a new skill, by finally listening and not talking. I wondered if they thought his powers didn’t work anymore… ooh, that would be a new one. “Guys.” He said softly. We all looked to them. “The shift.” Mera straightened her posture. She got on her tiptoes, whispered something in Keaton’s ear, and he flattened himself against the wall. I did, too.

I turned to Mera, who was on my right. “Would now be a good time to tell me what we’re doing? Also, I need to use the bathroom.” She winced.

"I should’ve told you to go before we left. And yes, I’ll tell you, right after I do this.” She slapped me.

“Ow! What was that for?” She clenched her jaw.

“You guys aren’t monsters, are you?” She poked my shoulder.

“No! What?" I tried to play dumb. Jason caught my eye. He nodded. I sighed. “Fine. We’re not monsters.”

“Who the heck are you, then?" I twitched and bit my lip. I tried to look anywhere but her face.

“Demigods." I finally managed. She looked like she was ready to knock me out cold, but when I let out the word, she softened.

“Really?” She began to lower her guard.

“Yes. Just– we can’t tell the others. I know you know, but– they don’t.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes. "I’m right, aren’t I?” She let out a sad breath.

“Yeah– but I mean, I did it so I wouldn’t hurt them. My–” she choked. “My sister told me that if they’re aware, that they’ll attract more of the monsters.” My eyes widened. “Why are you guys here?" I didn’t want to tell her the truth.

"I can’t tell you yet.” She brushed her hand against her leg again. I recognized the gesture, this time. Annabeth did this when she was going to fight someone. Her dagger was next to her thigh, so she could grab it. Her gray eyes stormed. I saw so much of Annabeth in her, it made my heart melt. She looked so much like me, though… There it was. The thought of children. I brushed it away. Mera now had her arms crossed. " It would make things worse.” She huffed, still, but I decided to ignore it. “What are we doing?”

“You said you liked water, right?" I felt my cheeks burning.

“Uh…” She checked her watch.

“Just on time.” The wall, which I had thought to be solid, slid open, a pneumatic hiss echoing in the hall. Leo’s eyes lit up. I reached for Riptide, but Mera shook her head like she knew what I was doing. She grabbed for what I now knew was her dagger (just like Annabeth, ah!) and poised her hand.

“Don’t stab me," I muttered. She glared at me. “Please?” She didn’t respond. Keaton was still holding the spinning pen gadget, but it didn’t look like he wanted to use it. He held Leo’s mallet in the other hand. Jason had his fist clenched, near his pocket. I knew he didn’t have a weapon, currently, so I wondered what he was going to do. Riptide was nestled in my back pocket.

A stout man stepped out onto the platform and hummed a tune. He had a mop and bucket. A janitor. He seemed content, but then he caught sight of us and exclaimed. “Hey!–” But was silenced when Ari clamped a hand around his face.

“You’ll be silent now.” Ari looked weary, like they wasn’t confident it would work, but the man’s eyes clouded over. He remained silent. Mera stepped in front of me and the hilt of her blade met the janitors forehead. He crumpled, unconscious. 

Mera blew a strand of hair out of her face, looking refreshed, and she stepped through the doorway. Ari looked newly rejoiced, like their confidence had leaped when their charmspeak worked.

“Alright, the man won’t stay unconscious forever.” Mera murmured. Jason straightened his glasses. “We have maybe 10 minutes at most, so work quickly.” She handed me her dagger, but I pushed it away.

"I have something else.” She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Just, clog the toilet or something. We need to have the janitor distracted." I grinned.

"I’m an expert at clogging plumbing." I rushed off to the restrooms, which were labeled. Mera joined Keaton and Leo, and I saw them enter a room with lots of digital screens. “Okay, not a big fan of entering the women's restroom…" I spoke to myself as I entered the bathroom. It was empty, and my voice echoed softly. A shiver ran down my spine. I got to work quickly, shoving toilet paper down the plumbing, and concentrating to create a build-up. I brushed my hands together, proud of my work, and moved on to the men's restroom.

I walked into the first stall when I heard someone flush the toilet. I panicked and slid to the floor, under the stall, to knock them unconscious. I looked away. I had literally caught them with their pants down, and they didn’t look happy about it. I hit him with the flat of my blade. “Sorry man." I poked his limp body, sure that he was unconscious. “Well– guess I’ll leave you here, then." I then continued to clog toilets.

When I was done, I exited the bathroom. I went in the direction Mera and Leo and Keaton had gone, hoping to find them. I found the bottom half of Leo, and Mera at the largest screen. “Hi… guys…” Mera’s head jerked back to see me.

“Oh. Percy. You scared me. Keep watch, will you? And find Keaton. He disappeared to find Jason." I nodded slowly.

“Alright, but–”

“Just do it.” She growled. Then, she straightened her back. Her tone softened. “Sorry. Just, leave me alone while I finish this.”

“Okay." I peered over her shoulder, but all I saw were queries of numbers and colorful blanks. It made no sense to me, so I left. 

Mera’s POV ~

At first, I hated the new guys. I knew they were new. They couldn’t hide that. But I hated them.

Then, Jason surprised me by his random act of kindness. He punched the lights out of Ace, which was annoyingly heroic of him. I was still on bad terms with the others, though, and Jason was kind of unapproachable. He was tall and a bit haughty. His words had an edge to them like there was an urge to be stricter. He didn’t carry himself like Leo and Percy– they fit in. He seemed a little too regal– a little too… perfect. So I didn’t talk to him.

Then, all of a sudden, Keaton tried to convince me to include them in our little plan. He and Ari were definitely softening up to them. But I knew they had lied, and Jason was… a Grace. I had been hoping it would just be the 3 of us, like old times, but Keaton insisted.

Let’s be honest– I can’t say no to Keaton. It’s really, really hard for some reason. And he’s not like Ari. Only he has that effect on me. It like he can soften my hard exterior just enough to convince me into agreeing with him, even if it’s not what I want to do– yeah, okay. Back on track.

Besides, the guys could be a lot of help, since Percy and Jason were bigger than Keaton, and Leo was– Leo was Leo. And it would give me some time to interrogate Percy, who I had figured out was the softie. He would give in. I knew because when he saw me– it was like he recognized me. It was a flash. And he had this facade, of being tough– but I could tell he was longing for something. It was like me... kind of.

These were my thoughts as Keaton waved his hands frantically at Lunch. He was excited, recounting the tale of the night before, and Leo and Percy were into it. I had invited the three to sit with us.

Yes, me. I invited them. Shocker.

Ari had recently regained their confidence (which had lowered considerably after Jason stood him up and didn’t submit to his words) and was talking animatedly to Jason, who seemed to be a good listener. He was silent, but his head bobbed up and down periodically, and his face showed quite a bit of emotion. I picked at my salad. I didn’t feel like eating, for some reason. I couldn’t eat whilst I was thinking, usually.

And then my mind drifted back to my older sister. She had promised me she would contact me, that she would tell me about her life. She wanted me to join her. I wanted her to stay. Ever since our father had been killed by monsters, we had survived off each other. We would bounce from place to place, earn our right to lead in each gang we joined– and we were always quick-witted. She had looked after me for so long. She had been the thing dearest to me for so long. And sometimes she still was– but sometimes I felt a bitter love towards her. Like she had abandoned me, condemned me to this mentally and physically incarcerating lifestyle. But it wasn’t her fault. She and I had chosen different paths. I, to continue as a gang member, surviving with my wits– manipulating what I could to make a living, and she, to join her eternal hunting group. 

Worshippers of the Greek maiden goddess Artemis, they found us in Brooklyn. They had seen us and known we were demigods, children of both mortal and Greek deity. I did not comprehend what that meant. 

We had camped with them for almost a week– and they explained how our lives were so twisted. They told us about all the horrors that we had to endure– the mania that had eaten away at my poor father– and most of all, they talked about us. They would not relent on any details. They pushed me into a reality I had to accept as true. They pushed us both.

Then they offered us immortality. Thalia Grace and Artemis herself. They tried to convince me into pledging myself to their cause. They said that you would be forever a worshipper of Artemis– but you would refuse boys and other distractions as such. My sister was scared, and her fear made her weak. She accepted, because she now feared that if she did not join we would be overtaken. We would die. But I was not scared like my sister. I was only scared when she joined. She was so blinded by the pain of our father’s death, that she could not see any reason she wouldn’t join. I saw through it all. My sister’s pained expression as I politely neglected their offer– it burned at my insides. I saw Thalia’s expression. It was of shock. She had made joining their group seem impossible to refuse. But I was smart.

I still haven't heard from my sister since I left. It had been so long ago– more than a year, I could only think. But I had found Keaton and Ari– recognizing how they attracted the monsters. They were without family, too. I took them in. Never before had I felt such a connection since my sister left me. I had somehow lost my family and found a new one. I didn’t tell them, though. As much as it hurt me, as much as we fought off goons who were not human, not human at all. It pained me to hide that very important detail of their lives from them. But I knew that once they knew, we’d be overtaken.

Night after night, I cried because I loved them so much I couldn’t hurt them, even though my lies might hurt me more than I could ever hurt them. I had come close several times– but I had never told them. Not even a little. And they knew nothing of my past, besides my dead father and gone sister. Not more details, not the tiniest bit.

Keaton pulled my hood over my head and I choked on my soda. “Hey!" I swatted his hand away and poked his stomach. “Stop that!" I lowered my hood. Keaton stuck his tongue out at me.

“You were zoned out.”

“Yeah– Just… thinking. You know.” Keaton smiled sadly. Percy locked eyes with me. I felt him poking at my problems, just investigating my eyes for signs. I looked away, and his gaze dropped. “Who’s up for Apple Pie?” Ari sat up in his seat. "I have extra credits right now, and I would like to use them before they are revoked!” Leo giggled.

"I’m all for it!” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Could we stretch for a la mode?" I tapped my chin mockingly.

"I suppose…” Jason chuckled and swept a hand through his messy hair. I got up.

“How many slices?” Everyone’s hand went up. “That’s 6. You guys are going to be on a sugar high." I tsked and left to get the pie.

When I got back, Percy and Jason were hiding a phone under the table (Ah, regulation,) and Ari was interested in Leo’s “glamify-mirror”. Keaton was the only one who looked up. “Pie!” Keaton took one happily, and the others reached for a plate. I munched on my pie wholeheartedly.

“Mmmm…” Leo rubbed his belly, his mouth lined with crumbs. “This is good prison food." I lifted a finger.

“This is technically a juvenile penitentiary, state-of-the-art, built only to house troubled children." I pursed my lips a little.

“You know, sometimes you seem too uptight– but you can have a laugh,” Leo said pointedly.

" I don’t know if I should feel offended or not," I replied, finishing off my pie.

“That was fast.” Keaton took a finger of whipped cream and wiped it onto my nose. I gasped.

“This means war, Moore!" I brushed his cheekbone with whipped cream.

“Aw, come on, Mera.” He made his puppy dog eyes, pooching his lips out. I gave him a puckered smile, and then he hit me with a hand of whipped cream to the jawline. His hand pulled me forward, and we were dangerously close, but I took his wrist in my hand and wiped his own hand on his face. “Agh! You got me!” A fleeting feeling made me want to kiss him quickly, but I dismissed it. Hormones.

“You started it." I teased.

“That’s fair.” He distracted me long enough, and he put his whip creamed hand in mine.

“Ugh! I thought we had a truce!”

"I never said that." A smile played at his lips.

“Alright, come on." I led him off to go clean up.

[elizabethrobertajones]

How after the mixtape are Dean and Cas' romantic feelings not considered canon? That shit was not subtext and even if you disregard the Mary and John Led Zepplin connection, mixtapes are almost exclusively romantic in fiction not to mention the whole returning one as a break up and framing of the scene. I just don't understand how even to the GA that was ambiguous. Honestly these moving goalposts are very confusing to me. Aside from PR not mentioning it I don't get what more the show needs (1/2)

to do, to establish that yes it’s written as romantic but that they are not in the being together stage. We don’t know what will happen in the future but to me 12x19 pretty clearly showed that at least at that point in their relationship, that’s where they were at. I wondered if you had any thoughts on it because it’s been nagging at me for a while? (2/2)

I mean, yeah, I have a LOT of thoughts about it because it was a sea change in the way Destiel presented, for me. There’s been MULTIPLE moments which took it up another notch, at pretty regularly spaced intervals through the show. I know my personal limit, when bingewatching 4-6 for the first time after an unintentional break from the show, was 6x20. Everyone who got into the ship without being prompted has a a moment along the way, whether it was considering all the ship teasing seriously, or thinking something about the narrative, or whatever, got to that moment where they actually hit the goalposts and started taking it seriously. 

I think several of the past moments that I find really important are also statements of intent - 9x18 for me was when I went from casual viewer and while I believed in Destiel I also saw it entirely as a subtextual creation that was not sort of… for serious consideration as a narrative tool/character endgame the show would ever even nod towards at the end of the day… to definitely thinking they were at the very least intentionally building their story with these blocks, and that it was worth investigating and exploring… That was Metatron asking us to consider the subtext and how it was a part of the story. That it wasn’t something that passes by like that but that there is an awareness and that it can and will give the story meaning. The episode being so full of strong Destiel subtext, it put me firmly where I am now in meta fandom with an overnight transformation >.> 

And 10x05 was the other one where there was a serious goalpost, where “Destiel” was said in text and a pseudo Destiel depiction happened on screen… To whatever degree it was jokey or wish fulfilment or could be interpreted this way and that as a statement to how Destiel stood in the text, it gave it a weight and presence it hadn’t had before. Even though fans had had a name for it all along, there’s something very important about naming the thing within the story and even having Sam sound out different versions of the name with pedantic detail. Between that and “I’ll just wait here then” it really established Destiel in the subtextual building blocks of the show in a fascinatingly meta way. 

Then for all the random canon events of maybe extreme shippiness, it was 12x19 that for me was a real SHIFT when it came to perceptions and presentation in the story, because of course even on the surface level it’s an extremely romantic trope to give a mixtape, and ignoring all the other analysis of the scene which only makes it worse, it betrays an enormous amount of emotion and care between Dean and Cas, in a way that’s coded strongly to our cultural perceptions as a romantic gesture having passed between them. Which means it’s another goal scored when it comes to… upping the ante of not-quite-canon-ness? 

I sort of feel like Cas’s death and return and all the connected stuff from the moment he’s stabbed through Dean saying “I do” and hugging him under the romeo+juliet glowing neon cross was either a further upping of the ante, or just showing us how to play in the rules which now exist post-mixtape, where this is the level of implied canon it’s at now… 

I mean I honestly keep saying and I mean it that pretty much since the mixtape or 12x23 I’ve been quite lost about how to handle Destiel in the sense that these were goalposts I didn’t even know I would expect the show to meet, or that if they did it would be the implied canon ending of the show where it gives us an equivalent gesture and leaves us to wonder what it was about. Instead it happens at this point and we’ve got over a season of Dean n Cas portrayed as exasperated husbands and all my interest and expertise in lawyering subtext to prove how gay it is has been left behind in its wake, so I’m just here to enjoy myself and see how it pans out now, because I set my own personal goalposts of what I assumed the show would do much lower than what Dabb set? Like, the reverse problem of people who keep moving them rather than examine the subtext and see what it says fairly without trying to lawyer their way out of what all these implications are instead. :P

But at least the mixtape made it very clear to me that you can now sort out the people who will NEVER accept something as good enough proof that the show even has romantic subtext for Dean n Cas and refuse to understand why people see it or ship it. To discount that entire conversation and the clearly expressed feelings of concern for each other, regardless of shipping, in order to claim that they don’t mean that much to each other and it’s ooc to suggest otherwise, means they’re doing the harder work when it comes to interpretation and THAT is a flipping of the stances from pre-mixtape where plausible deniability and doubt and stuff all mixed together to make it at least an awkward sell to people who hadn’t thought of it that way yet, and empowered people who wilfully didn’t want to see it. 

The Cas death arc just gave us more fodder for where shippers do less work than people who actively want to deny that Dean cares. 

But for general audiences, I think it’s quite easy to get stuck at the stage where I was pre-9x18 where Dean n Cas might even seem to be somewhat a ~confirmed couple~ except that people will lend it no credit to intent or their importance to each other in the emotional endgame, just for reasons of it not being done, or not thinking it’s possible, or in general not putting in the attention and time to piece together the relationship that a definitive canon statement would cause them to do a double take on. And that even if they then say they knew it all along, because many of these goalposts are unmissable in some senses, the credibility lent to the ship is fully missable without knowing to give it. Which is the whole problem, really. 

I’ve known the show long enough to feel its old school bones pretty deeply so I feel like that affects my personal perspective on… owedness of canon or where I started to take it seriously, and how much of the old gods of TV vs new gods possibility I would casually see in its genetic makeup. So 12x19 - being written by the new gods of TV - took the show a step further as Dabb seems to be the first showrunner of that generation of TV writers vs the ones who would play the subtext game forever - and that’s really unsettling to me. In the sense that there’s some sort of storytelling subversion thing going on here and my understanding is still kinda maybe rooted in an older postmodern take than what might end up being labelled something entirely new by future scholars… And a lot of that to me is in expectations and tropes no longer being what they were and I end up thinking of all the factors from the mass-saturation of media vs everything having to be new and individual to be considered worthy, to the effect of the internet, and the political climate in America, and the world the younger millennial writers grew up in (and we can see that literally warring with Buckleming’s old school writing in the show), and not just storytelling but representation of all walks of marginalised life coming into it, and it’s all a bunch of stuff that probably soon there’ll be a bunch of interesting scholarship on, but in the mean time we’re all riding the wave and in my personal experience I feel like we don’t even know what our surfboards are any more. 

I mean 12x23 seriously knocked me into orbit when it came to my understanding of the show, and I haven’t recovered yet. And since I spend a lot of time over-thinking as a matter of course, this is a tiny percentage of the ridiculous musings I have on it all and why I can’t just get mad at it for goalpost issues, and why I feel people lag behind and stuff. I feel like WE are lagging behind, even the people who claim to know everything about the show and analyse it all the time, and the best we can do is take it as it comes and see… But this is very much an utter fascination with watching Dabb era shed Carver era’s subtext cocoon and start testing its bizarre, mirrored, fractal wings.

[novantinuum]

A Tale of Two Trollhunters (Ch. 1)

AO3

Fandoms: Gravity Falls, Trollhunters

Rating: T

Words: ~2800

Summary: Glass Shard Beach, 1967. When the trollhunter Kanjigar perishes years before he was supposed to, the amulet of daylight finds its next champion in a seventeen year old Stanley Pines. Now essential in the destiny of both the trolls' subterranean world and the human one above, Stan, along with his twin brother and girlfriend, must fight to protect both worlds from the dark forces creeping in at the edges.

But destiny has a way of being unpredictable.

A Gravity Falls/Trollhunters fusion AU. Kind of a drabble series?

Note: Little to no knowledge of Trollhunters is required to understand this, I think, since Stan is going to discover this world for himself.

Next chapter

It all started a lifetime ago... in a place called Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. The beachside town’s name preceded its reputation, its shorelines covered in the razor sharp, glittering remains of broken beer bottles. Scattered among the glass, a diligent child might occasionally find a shard of quartz or another translucent mineral, but regardless it’s recommended that one doesn’t dare romp along the shore barefooted, least they slice the bottoms of their feet raw. This was the warning delivered to a young Stanley Pines every time he and his twin brother left their apartment to spend the day at the beach. Predictably, he ignored his mother’s words entirely. He liked feeling the rough gristle of sand between his toes, and a little glass wasn’t about to scare him away from that pleasure. Since, wasn’t glass just superheated crushed rock anyways? He wiggled his bare toes in the wet sand, watching as the horizon over the ocean became darker and darker, the sun setting behind him. “Hey Stan, come here,” his brother called, waving at him from the underside of the docks, right where they jutted out from the busy boardwalk. “Have you seen this?” He pulled himself to his feet with a grunt, and traversed the perilous dunes with a studied precision, nimbly hopping from one safe spot to the next. Tonight he hadn’t stepped on any glass at all, at least not yet. Finally, he reached his brother, who stood next to a large pile of rubble. Rubble. Oh boy, he knew where this conversation was going. He crossed his arms, feeling a chuckle bubbling up inside him. “That’s a pile of rocks,” he stated glibly, watching his brother’s face closely. “Yes, and there’s markings, perhaps even runes on them,” Ford exclaimed, picking up a chunk of rock and running his fingers across its smooth surface. “Ford, come on, I know you like your spooky conspiracy theories and everythin’, but,” he said with a heavy sigh, picking up a split piece and bouncing it in the palm of his hand, “we all know there’s no such thing as rock people.” His twin shook his head, winds of denial stirring around him in the air. He knelt next to the odd crumbled formation, squinting at the rubble through thick lenses. He splayed his fingers, all six, across an unusually smooth section of the rock, and deep down Stan knew this was indeed why Ford found himself so invested in the theory of unusual creatures and anomalies in the first place. “No, no, no, look, really look at the curvature of this,” he said. “It looks like part of a shoulder. It’s buffed too smooth to be a mere coincidence of nature.” “Okay, so,” Stan shrugged, “maybe it’s just a statue, y’know? Somethin’ from town. Kids steal stuff and smash it on the beach all the time.” Ford rose to his feet, desperation reflected in the width of his eyes. He held the broad shoulder piece to his chest, mouth pressed into a thin line. “I know what I saw this morning, Stan! There were two of them, fighting near these docks-“ “And I’m tellin’ ya’, it was still pretty dark. I’m sure what you saw was just two large guys duking it out, all right?” Stan grabbed the edge of the dock, used a stray nail sticking out of the post as a foothold, and boosted himself up. He swung his other leg onto the wooden deck. “Listen, Sixer, I think your theories are real interesting, okay? They’d make really good stories, I honestly think that.” With a grunt, he used his hands to push his full body weight onto the dock, letting out a breath of relief when he was settled. “But you can’t just yell it to everyone you see, else they all gonna think you’re crazy.” He offered a hand to his brother. With a huff Ford declined, opting to climb up the stairs a few feet to their left. When he met up with Stan on the dock, the teen was cradling his foot, prodding at callused skin. “Youch,” he muttered, and as he took his finger away Ford could see a small spot of blood. “Should’ve known the nail was a bad idea. Welp, I’ll patch it up when we get home. You ready?” Ford nodded, still carrying the chunk of rock. “I’m not crazy,” he said quietly, taking one last glance at the stony formation on the shore. “I know I’m not crazy.”

____

“Hey, Dad,” Stan greeted with a hesitant grin as he edged through the side door of the pawn shop. “Just, uh- just gettin’ a bandaid, so-“ “Haven’t we warned you about walking over the glass without shoes?” he father muttered, surely leveling him the look from behind his tinted glasses. “Yeah, well it wasn’t glass this time, it was a nail on the docks,” he said, opening the nearest drawer and rummaging through its contents. “Don’t be a smart ass. You know what we mean.” His dad picked up a weathered cardboard box from the floor, filled to the brim with old artifacts and jewelry. The shelves were bare, items carefully placed on a side table. He must be taking time to organize and dust the pawn shop, which he only really did when he obtained something special and new. Stan found the box of bandages, and unwrapped one for his foot. “D’ya get anything cool in today? Anything worth a buck?” he asked, plastering it over his wound. “Actually, yes,” his dad nodded, and walked over to the table of goods. His hand wrapped around a circular object, a metallic disk. “Someone came by and sold this just this morning. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, or the kind of symbols written along the side.” Stan squinted at the writing on the disk his father displayed to him. “Is that some sorta... Russian?” “Cyrillic, son,” he corrected him with a frown. “And no. I’ve appraised enough old family heirlooms to recognize most forms of writing. I don’t recognize this at all. In that case, it might be an artifact rare enough to actually be worth something.” “Huh,” Stan muttered, appraising the object himself. It was fashioned from a shiny, blemish-less metal, with the unknown script carved all the way along the rim. Some sort of shimmering blue crystal was inset in the middle, along with a series of metal dials and rings. It reminded him a little of the gears in his great aunt’s grandfather clock. The blue crystal softly glowed as he grasped it in his palm. “Stanley Pines,” a gruff, commanding voice whispered. “Yeah, Dad?” he asked, swinging around. His father blinked in confusion. “I- didn’t say anything.” “But, you called my name? I just heard you.” “Wasn’t me,” he shrugged, pulling down the brim of his hat. “Perhaps it was your mother. In fact, go bother her instead, Stan. I’ve got work to take care of before I close.” “Fine,” he said hollowly, retreating up the steps and into the apartment. He kicked at the doorpost, bottom lip jutted out. He saw how it was. After all, it’s not like his father was particularly affectionate or agreeable in manner. Least, not with him. Now seventeen years old, Stan sometimes feared his dad would never see him as anything else than a directionless bum. And the worst part? Maybe he was right. ____ Stan lay in his bed buried in the folds of his blanket, back ramrod straight. On this fateful night, he straddled that dreadful line between complete exhaustion and yet inability to rest. The reasoning? Far too much was on his mind- from his conversation by the docks with Ford earlier, to the date he had later this week with Carla, to his father’s hurtful dismissal, and now… “Stanley... Stanley Pines...” That weird glowy amulet thing. Stan pressed his hands flush against his face, and groaned in frustration. Oh, who was he kidding? There was no way he was getting any sleep tonight. At least, not with that creepy, low voice constantly calling out his name. He rolled over, further tangling himself in his sea of blankets until he was comfortable, and drank in the sound of his brother’s quiet snoring from the bunk above.   “Stanley Pines...” A strange sense of connection- of belonging- strummed in his heart like the discovery of a harmonious chord. No matter what distractions he fed himself all he could think about was that amulet, about its warmth when he held it yesterday evening, its blue, pulsing glow. Somehow it felt as if... something within it was reaching out towards him, electrifying his nerves and latching onto his very core of being. He scratched at his armpit. The thought made him kinda itchy, to be honest. What on earth was he even thinking? Was this the first sign he’d truly and finally cracked? Or perhaps it was just the memory of Ford’s fairytales eating away at his mind, siphoning his imagination, making him see and feel things that couldn’t truly exist. “Stanley Pines!” the call tugged at him. “Okay, okay, I’m listening!” he hissed under his breath. “What d’ya want?” Stan knew what it wanted. Or at least, he knew what he wanted, deep down. He could practically see its location, down to the very space on the shelf Dad had relocated it to last night. He felt driven to... to hold it. He breathed in deeply. “What’s gotten into you, Stan?” he muttered to himself, wrestling his way out of his soft cottony bindings.  Finally free, he swung his feet to the floor and stood up. The bed posts creaked at his movement. He froze, holding his breath. His heart thrummed a warrior’s beat in his chest. Seconds of his life stretched into centuries. His brother didn’t wake, however- instead merely letting out a sleepy sigh and rolling over. Relief filled his chest. Taking the edges of the floorboards to avoid the particularly squeaky sections, Stan crept through the apartment, swiping the key to the pawn shop off the kitchen counter. This was perhaps the stupidest thing he’d ever done. If Dad found out he’d been in the shop at three in the morning he’d whoop at his ass, but- he had to know. He couldn’t bear the thought of lying still another moment without understanding what this amulet was, and why it called to him so fervently. With a flick of his wrist, he unlocked the door to the shop. He wrapped his palm around the knob, twisted it. The rusty hinge gave a sour note, Stan cringing as he pushed the door ajar. His line of sight immediately locked on the amulet located across the room, glowing blue with a vibrant intensity. “Stanley Pines,” the voice said once more, this time almost in greeting. “Okay, geeze, I’m here,” he huffed, pacing across the pawn shop to the far shelf where the disk perched on its stand. Standing on his tiptoes, he wrapped his fingers around the amulet and pulled it off the shelf. Its glow pulsed as he came into contact. He gently rubbed his finger against the metal, peering at the strange object. What was the point of all this? What did it want? “You’re crazy,” he whispered to himself, clutching the thing in clammy fingers. “You’ve officially lost it, congrats. ____ The teen took the strange amulet to the beach so he could puzzle over it in privacy, without worrying about his dad waking up. He lay relaxed on the deck of Ford and his’ boat, the one they’d been refurbishing over the last five or so years with their spare pocket cash. Dawn was fast approaching. The sun lapped at the edge of the horizon, beginning to overpower and diminish the pinpricked light of the stars. A gentle ocean breeze dusted his cheeks. “What are you?” he muttered, turning the amulet in his hands. Suddenly, the strange runic writing around the rim flickered, changing to what he recognized as Chinese characters. His eyes widened. It changed again to a few other written scripts, before eventually settling in English. As dumb as it sounded, magic or aliens were the only rational explanations he could think of to explain the amulet’s behavior. Well then, maybe some of Ford’s kooky theories were closer to the truth than he originally gave him credit for. He peered closely at the readable script around the edge of the casing. “For the glory of Merlin,” he read to himself quietly, brow furrowing, “daylight is mine to command.” All was still for a moment. The winds ceased. The first direct rays of sun broke out over the horizon, framing Stan’s features in tones of red and gold. Then, some glowing spherical body shot out of the disk, startling him to attention. He shot to his feet, holding the amulet up to the sun so he could see what on earth was going on. His hand nearly shook, current mood locked somewhere on the spectrum between slack faced shock and curiosity fueled exhilaration. After all, what was one supposed to feel when some glowing blue speck- yes, that’s what he’d refer to it as from now on- decided to float through his chest, making its home within him? He gasped at the intrusion, splaying his hand over his heart where they entered. Another slurry of glowing specks released themselves from the amulet, and suddenly Stan found his toes leaving the deck. Whatever exclamation he felt compelled to make as this strange magic pulled him skyward was lost in the confusion of what happened next. Silver metal materialized in the air around his limbs, fashioning itself into armor. He hung there a moment longer in the wake of iridescent blue, sections of armor weaving into solid plates and gauntlets around him. The amulet floated out of his hand and fastened into place over his heart. Then just as quickly as he was lifted, his rebellion against gravity ended and Stan fell back to deck. He stumbled backwards, trying not to tip over from the imbalance of the bulky armor. Just as he was about to question the ungainly size of this armor’s chest-plate, (not to mention the existence of this armor in the first place), the amulet’s crystal pulsed brightly, and the armor shrank to fit his body. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed, holding his arms out to admire the intricate decorative grooves carved into the arm brace and wrist guard. He flexed his fingers, clinking the metal fingertips together. This was... this was wild. Unbelievable, really. Man, Ford was going to flip when he showed him what he found! His palm glowed a dazzling white, and from this point grew- as if fashioned from the very morning light he was illuminated by- the hilt and blade of a long, mighty sword. His jaw dropped. This was literally the coolest thing that’s ever happened to him, better than winning the boxing class final match, or even when he and Ford found the bones of their ship as kids. It was the likes of which a younger him might have daydreamed about. His lips stretched into a grin. Paired with an experimental lunge in his armor, he tried to swing his new weapon. Unfortunately however, the sword was far, far, too heavy. Stanley grimaced, wrapping his other hand around the hilt to try and stabilize it. There always had to be a catch to these wish fulfillment sort of things, didn’t there? Or maybe the last guy to use this magic-y object was just a pretty bulky, strong guy. “Come on, shrink like the rest of it,” he begged quietly, scraping the point against the wood. Either his words were well timed, or the whole warrior’s ensemble listened to his very desire, because the sword did just that. He held it up to the air, finding his grinning reflection in the polished surface. Confidently, he gave the blade a wide test swing... ...and promptly lodged it into the mast. “Whoops,” he said sheepishly. ____ In the far distance, a tall, six-eyed figure watched intently from the mouth of a cave. He witnessed everything, from the moment the boy took the amulet from the shop, to when he read the inscription and successfully activated it for the first time. There was no doubt about it- the amulet didn’t make mistakes. It belonged to the boy now. He nervously clasped both sets of hands together, determining what actions he might take next. “By Deya’s grace,” the troll exclaimed, peering towards the wide world beyond the shadows. “The next trollhunter... is a human!”

[allthephils]

Repose

Word count: 2677 Rated M (mentions of sex, adult themes, sleeping beauty au)

Read on Ao3

Chapter 6

What are you willing to do?

What was he willing to do? Phil sat down on the closest pew and folded his hands under his chin. He didn’t know how to answer that question. There seemed to be an assumption that Phil was the key to all of this, that he and Dan were destined to be together and that only their love would satisfy the curse. Phil found it a little harder to breathe under all that pressure. Of course he loved Dan, he would always love Dan, but the truth was, he had moved on. He had loved again, more than once, if not totally successfully. He still felt that Dan was the person he would later describe as the love of his life, once he had lived enough life to say that sort of thing. The threat of losing him, not just romantically, but truly losing Dan, had brought buried feelings to the surface and Phil wasn’t sure if he could trust his own heart right now. Dan had made the choice, he didn’t want Phil. So why then, almost 5 years later, was Dan’s family so convinced that Phil was the one?

“Your highness.” Phil kept his eyes to the floor in front of him.

“Please, call me Danielle. This situation is too important for all of that nonsense.”

He lifted his eyes to meet hers and smiled slightly. “Danielle, I’m at a bit of a loss here. Dan and I haven’t spent any time together in years. I moved on and judging by what I saw in the tabloids so did he.”

Danielle huffed quietly and waved a dismissive hand. Adrian reached up from where he sat to take his mother’s hand and encouraged her to join him. She sat stiffly on the edge of the wooden seat.

“I’m just not sure if what Dan and I had is going to cut it, curse wise, I mean.” Phil considered the account of Dan’s health from his meeting with Prince Walter. “However, if my presence had even a small positive effect on Dan, I think it makes sense to try.”

“So you’ll kiss him?” Her voice was so hopeful, so frightened, it broke Phil’s heart to respond.

“No.” Phil took a deep breath as he watched her face fall. He wasn’t going to budge on this. “And I’m not signing anything. But what if I spend some more time with him and we see what happens? I was only in there for 3 minutes. What if I sit with him? Talk to him. For an hour or two or all day. They say that sort of thing helps coma patients.”

“This isn’t a coma.” Danielle snapped at Phil.

“I know.” He spoke softly. “I know. But it helped before, maybe more time with me will bring more change. I want the same thing you want, Danielle. I want Dan to come back to us. Let’s just take it one day at a time.”

Danielle nodded a small affirmation and Adrian breathed a sigh of relief, wrapping an arm around her.  

“Can we start now?” Adrian asked.

“What about the suitors?” Phil had almost forgotten about all that.

“We haven’t let anyone in since yesterday. They’re still lined up, people camped out.” Adrian stood and kissed his mum on her head. “We should be able to get you in without anyone seeing.”

“Ok.” Phil stood. “Let’s go see Dan then.”

He followed Adrian back outside. The walk to the guest apartments, where Dan was being kept, was fairly long. Adrian’s hands were in his pockets as he shuffled along. Phil wanted so badly to ask about Dan. How had he been these last few years? How was uni? Did he mention Phil often? What had he said? How did they get here? Instead he stayed quiet, understanding that it wasn’t time for his needs to be met right now. He could ask Dan all those questions himself and soon as he woke up so he resolved to focus on that and that alone. They entered a side door not unlike the one from the morning, walked down several hallways, and came to set of double doors. It was the interior entrance to the operating theatre, as it was known. Adrian and Phil stopped and stared at one another until Phil broke the silence.

“Would you like to spend some time with him first? I don’t know how much you’ve been able to see him, with all of this going on.”  

“Nah, he doesn’t even know I’m there.” Adrian kept his eyes down.

“Don’t say that. Of course he knows when you’re there, you’re his brother.” Phil put a hand on his arm.

“We weren’t close. I was such a dick to him. I’m the last thing he needs right now.” Adrian’s lip quivered.

“None of that matters, Adrian. You’re brothers. All brothers are dicks to each other sometimes. God, I used to torment Martyn at your age, but he means the world to me. Dan loves you so much. He told me. He talked about you and your future and he worried. He loves you.”

“Well,” Adrian looked at Phil. “he loves you more. So please just help him.”

Phil felt the weight of his role in this again, heavier this time. He wasn’t sure he could move. He tried to convey sympathy and compassion in the look he gave to this kid standing with him, this kid with so much to lose. Phil swallowed and heaved a deep, full breath. He squared his shoulders and stepped forward, opening the door. 

 The sun streamed in through Phil’s window, seeping through his closed eyelids and warming his cheeks. He arched his back, stretching under the covers, then curled around onto his side and buried his face in the pillow. He wasn’t ready to admit he was awake despite the assault of daylight. As he snuggled the duvet tighter around himself, it occurred to him that he was shirtless, in just his pants. His half asleep brain began to remember; Dan had been in his room, Dan had gotten him a glass of water, Dan had seen him shirtless! He had only moments to be mortified because his next memory was the feel of Dan’s lips on his cheek and his fingers in Dan’s hair. His heart fluttered and he stretched his legs, feeling the warmth of desire spread through him. Maybe it was silly to to feel anything but romantic about a kiss like that but Phil had long ago filed Dan in the 18+ part of his brain and there was no fighting it. Dan just breathing was sexy to Phil and the thought of him caring so sweetly for him, then kissing him so tenderly was, well, really fucking hot. He ran his finger over his chest and slowly began to move his hand lower on his body, eyes still closed softly. Just before things got really good, his phone rang out on the nightstand. He rolled toward the sound, grabbed his glasses and squinted at the bright screen.   

Dan: I had a great time last night.

Phil blushed. He felt like he’d been caught in the act and he laughed at himself as he formulated his response. Eyeing Dan’s last message, Phil typed.  

Phil: The most fun you’ve ever had?

Dan: I stand by that statement.

Phil: Thanks for taking care of me last night. No one’s ever done that for me.

Dan: You have a funny effect on me, Phil Lester.

Phil. :) I had a great time too. At least, the parts I remember were great.

Dan: Hmm. Do you remember stealing me away from Iris Spencer?

Phil: Yep

Dan: Do you remember laying your head on my shoulder on the balcony?

Phil: I do.

Dan: Do you remember biting me?

Phil: I’m sorry, what?

Dan: After we’d been on the balcony a while. We were talking about the stars, finding shapes. You bit my shoulder. You kinda clawed at me too.

Phil: Oh god. I’m just gonna go jump out the window now. Bye forever.

Dan: No! Don’t do that. I was planning on keeping you around for a while. Don’t worry, it was cute. I took it as a compliment.

...

Dan: When can I see you again?

Phil considered playing it cool, pretending to be busy again, but Dan had literally tucked him in last night. Maybe they were already past that.

Phil: Literally anytime.

Dan: Yay! Wednesday?

Phil: Sure. You wanna get dinner somewhere?

Dan: I’m kinda not allowed to go anywhere that’s open.

Dan: Sorry I’m not normal.

Phil: Normal is boring. You wanna come over here? I’m a terrible cook but we can order in.

Dan: I would kill for real life delivery pizza.

Phil: Hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Phil: 7?

Dan: 7 it is. I can’t wait. xo

 3 days is a long time to wait for a date with someone you’ve crushed on from afar for months. It’s a long time to wait when you aren’t totally convinced this isn’t all a dream. Phil tried his best to stay busy. He made a video and put it up. He filmed a gaming video. He did a live show and spent the whole time talking about Stephen King but thinking about Dan and he had lunch with Louise twice. He cleaned his apartment to a level that he had never attained before. Dan grew up at Windsor castle and is currently staying at Buckingham palace, so yeah, no pressure. Every little thing that happened, every cute dog, every strange encounter on the tube, he wanted to tell Dan. He mostly resisted that urge. Unfortunately, day drinking margaritas with Louise loosened him up a bit and he sent a selfie cradling his giant burrito in his arms like it was a baby. To be fair, it was a really big burrito, and Louise was egging him on mercilessly. Dan responded with a photo of himself, pouting, bottom lip sticking out, looking down at a plate of very dignified but very sad looking finger sandwiches.

“Gah, he’s so cute!” Phil held the photo up for Louise to see.

“Told you you should text him. I can’t believe you’re gonna do it with Prince Daniel. You’re so lucky.” Louise began reapplying her lipstick in a tiny compact mirror.

“Louise!”

“What? Aren’t you?” Louise said.

Phil felt flushed. “Louise, stop. I don’t know. I mean, maybe eventually. It’s only our second date.”

“You’re a stronger man than I, friend. I don’t like to wait too long. What if you really get to like him and the sex is rubbish. Anyway, He. Is. Fit. I’d get on that if I were you.” Louise snapped her compact closed.

Phil fanned himself with a menu. “Is it hot in here?”

Louise grinned, “So what are you guys doing on your date?”

“He wants pizza.” Phil slurped the last of his margarita.

“Cheap date!” Louise said impishly, “Where are you gonna go?”

Phil popped a chip into his mouth, trying to muffle his words. “My place.”

“Wait. What was that? Your place?”

Phil just kept shoveling guacamole into his face, trying to eat his embarrassment.  

“Your place?! Oh yeah, you're gonna do it. You are gonna do the deed with the prince!” She put her hand up for a high five but Phil just glared at her.

 Wednesday finally came and Phil stayed in bed as long as he could muster. At 2 pm, he was truly starving and very much awake so he dragged himself up and into the kitchen for coffee and cereal. By 4, he was showered and texting photos of potential outfits to Louise. He spent way too much time straightening his hair and perfecting his fringe so he looked edgy but not too edgy, cool but adult, like he used to be emo but has definitely grown out of that phase. By 5:30, he was ready and just sitting on the sofa, tapping his foot, alight with nervous energy and anticipation. He stared down at his phone, debating whether to text Dan. Maybe he should confirm? Just in case Dan got called away on important royal business. Was that a thing? He needed a bridge, he was never gonna make it to 7. They’d been way too casual the last three days. Phil just wanted Dan here in his apartment. He wanted to hear every detail of Dan’s week. What projects did he work on? Were those tiny sandwiches any good? Had he been thinking of Phil? Then it struck him, pizza! He couldn’t order pizza without asking Dan how he liked it. Just then he felt the phone vibrate in his hand and he jumped a little. Dan had beaten him to it.

Dan: Hey we still on for 7? Or did you come to your senses?

The butterflies in Phil’s stomach began to flutter about.

Phil: Looking for an out? Not a chance. My apartment has never been this clean and there is no way I did all that for nothing. I’m glad you texted though, what do you like on your pizza?

...

Phil: Don’t say pineapple

Dan: Pineapple

Phil: Oh dear, something has just come up.

Dan: Ok, Ok, I take it back. I like veggies, maybe pepperoni. Whatever you like is cool as long as it’s greasy and bad for me. You didn’t have to clean for me.

Phil: Um I actually did. You live in a castle.

Dan: It’s a very old castle.

Phil: Well my little apartment is noisy and dusty and small so lower your expectations, K?

Dan: Will do. I just wanna be where you are, Phil.

Phil laid his head back on the sofa and sighed.      

Dan: See you soon

Phil: Can’t wait

  I just wanna be where you are. That might have been the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to Phil. I just wanna be where you are. Phil got the sudden urge to change his clothes or redo his hair or clean something else. Problem was, he’d already tried every shirt he owned and his apartment didn’t get any cleaner than this. He checked the time, 5:45. He abruptly jumped up, grabbed his jacket, and raced out the door and down the stairs. The bakery was just a few doors down but they’d be closed at 6. In minutes, he was standing in front of Leo, who was carefully pulling cakes from the case. “Hey Phil, just closing up, what can I get you?”

Phil had to catch his breath from the hurry. “Hey.” He eyed what was left. No pigs, no pandas, just a sad, crooked faced bear. “Uh, I need dessert for me and a friend. Something special but also like, ready right now.”

 “You have a date?” Phil shifted and chewed his lip, cheeks pinking up, eyes smiling against his will. Leo raised an eyebrow and smiled widely. “Aw, she’s special isn’t she? I’ve got you, Phil. Let’s see. What’s her favorite color?”  

“I don’t know actually, it’s only our second date. He wears a lot of black.” Phil’s eyes darted around the case.

Leo turned and took two small cakes from the back counter. They were purple and black and blue, covered in flecks of silvery white and they shined like glass.

“Oh my god space cakes! These are amazing, I’ve never seen these before!”

“Just learned how. These were going to go out in the morning but they’re all yours. I’ll box them up.”

“Leo this is so perfect, you have no idea.” Phil pulled out his wallet but Leo held up his hand.

“These are on me Phil. Just invite me to the wedding.” Leo winked. “I hope he likes them.”

Phil’s pink cheeks went red and he took the small white boxes from Leo, rambling thank yous as he he backed out of the bakery. He walked home carefully and set the cakes on the kitchen  counter. At 6:45, there was a knock at the door. He’s early, thank god.

[seriouslyblacklikemysoul]

Nepenthe - Steve Rogers x Reader (Part I)

Request: Hello!! Could I possibly request a Steve x reader imagine where the reader is younger than him? (Well, anyone would be younger than him). So maybe she is around twenty with a tragic background and she is the one who has been helping him adjust and then she helps him with the whole Bucky thing and they kinda end up together somehow. She is a SHIELD agent. (Something like a timeline from the moment he was revived up until whenever you want). I don't know if it made sense, sorry. Thank you so much. Nepenthe: Something or someone that can make you forget grief or suffering. Safe heaven.  Warnings: My English, language, gifs aren't mine. Credits to their original owners. Also, it deviates from the movies at some points but it’s pretty close. A second(better) part is already planned.  Word Count~7.5k MASTERLIST Pending Requests

It wasn't something new. You should have gotten used it. It wasn't the first time you had woken up in the middle of the night with your breath stolen from you and it would definitely not be the last one. You didn't want to think of your past but every single time you thought you had put it to sleep, that fucking thing popped up unexpectedly and messed with your mind.  You had gone through so much and even more. Not even Fury knew exactly what. He had a clearer picture than all of the others but he didn't even dare to ask.  Your past had left you with so many scars, fears and nightmares that you tried every day to fight off. Some days you would win, some days you would lose. What mattered most was that you never gave up. It was exhausting but you would never surrender to them. You were stronger than that. Not unbreakable, but strong enough to know that there was hope. And to believe it would get better.  The first time you had been brought to SHIELD, you were eighteen years old. You had no relatives at all, no way to live on your own, no chance of survival. You didn't have a choice, really, but what they were offering was appealing in a way that made you think you had a chance. To begin again. That's why you didn't even hesitate.  You were the youngest agent but your progress was rather dynamic. Two years and many training sessions and missions later, you were a level eight. No one ever expected you to achieve so much within so little time. You didn't want yo admit it since your past made you eager to move forward, but it had helped you a lot. All the training you had undergone when you were captured by the Red Room and the missions you were sent to execute while you were under Hydra's capture had made you strong and lethal; you would barely blink an eye when you had to pull the trigger or to split someone's throat open. You used to follow orders blindly, without question because that would have gotten you killed.  However, you had noticed that lately... Something felt off.  A knock on your door alerted you and you immediately shot up and got off of your bed, putting on a jumper two sizes too big and your sneakers.  You opened the door, knowing that whatever had just happened must have been important. Otherwise, they wouldn't wake you up at three in the morning.  "Director Fury is demanding your presence in the Triskelion. You have ten minutes" a guard informed you and you just nodded.  You had ten minutes to get ready. 

When you arrived -when the helicarrier arrived- you were rushed to Fury's office. Some other people were there along with Natasha, Clint, and Maria. Nobody seemed to know why they were there. Until Fury spilled the beans. "Captain America, folks. Alive and frozen". Wait. What? Captain America? The Captain America? But that was impossible. He lived, what, seventy years ago? And he had died when he crushed that ..thing directly into the... ice. Oh, Dear Lord. You couldn't hear much because man, he was alive. He has been frozen for seventy years and now they want to revive him? How hard would it be for him to adjust?  'How awful must it feels to know that all of the people you cared about are dead and you are still here, not aged a day, trying to move on?' you thought to yourself. You would never let someone see your soft side because that was a weakness. Emotions clouded judgment. They were a distraction from your goal. "And I want you to help him adjust" Fury said a little louder than necessary, just to get your attention. And he was pointing at you. You would have to babysit him. You nodded and when you turned to face agent Coulson, you saw him glowing with excitement. Everyone knew that Phil was enchanted by the mighty hero. You arched you perfectly shaped eyebrow at him but if you wanted to be honest you had to admit that his story was actually tragically enchanting. People started moving towards different directions but you just stood there, unable to move so much as a muscle. Your mind was flooding you with your memories. All the tragedy that you had suffered. All the pain and the agony. And how... Guilty you felt once you escaped. Because you hadn't been able to save anyone else. Just yourself. And that was going to be exactly what he will face as well. "Come on, Y/N" Natasha spoke softly as she guided you by your arm. Natasha could understand your pain but only a part. She knew the Red Room and what it felt like to enter a child and leave an adult. When she had learned that you had escaped when you were only fourteen, she was jealous because you had been given the chance that was taken away from her. But then she found out that you had been recaptured by Hydra. She hated herself for ever feeling jealous in the first place. The Red Room was one thing. Hydra... Was another. Once your mind returned to reality, you saw that you were already inside a room. And he was lying on a surface, face pale, eyes closed, lips purple. You tilted your head to the side. Something about his features felt unbelievably intriguing. Agonizingly, perfectly still. He was unconscious but everything about him screamed alive. You tried to listen to Fury as he instructed everyone. They would pretend that it was still the 40s. Something that you thought of as hypocritical, to say the least. Why did they think that he would believe it? He clearly was smarter than that if the stories were true. You stopped paying attention to his words as you took in the picture in front of you. It was going to be one hell of a ride. 

You didn't exactly remember if it had been a month or more, but Captain America was back. And you had been right. He didn't believe it for a second. You felt low-key proud. Your job was mainly to keep an eye on him, but you weren't his shadow. He needed space and time to be aware of his surroundings and the new era he had woken up. You had officially met him the very first day he was revived-after the fiasco. Even though you could feel his uncertainty and his worries, and you would definitely understand it if he was rude to you, he surprised the hell out of you when he politely introduced himself and called you ma'am. That sweet Brooklyn accent and his manners… Killer combination. He also appreciated the fact that you gave him his space. He would occasionally be annoyed by the other agents that took your place when you had to go out on the field. They weren't discreet nor quiet. He would never admit it but he had grown used to your presence around the place. It was somehow reassuring. Especially after seeing you training. He was impressed, afraid and awed. However, things made it difficult for you to keep your distance and let him adjust easier. When Fury told you about the Tesseract, you knew that he needed Steve and that he was recruiting a team. You also knew that he didn't tell you everything but you didn't push it. You would find out in a different way. He was punching and kicking the hell out of that punching bag until it crashed into the wall across the room. You were aware that he was strong but that seemed a bit maniac. "Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked him rhetorically and you felt the need to arch an eyebrow, but you fought against it. "I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill" he answered and even though he was being sassy he was still polite. 'Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world" Fury continued as you both made your way to him. You felt bad for the punching bag. He stopped and walked over to his things as he nodded, acknowledging you. You sent him a small smile, something that you had been doing a lot more recently. And Natasha had noticed. After a whole bunch of dramatic, Fury handed him the file with the information he needed to know. "Trying to get me back in the world?" he almost spat out, darkness creeping up into his voice. "Trying to get you to save it" you popped up before things got out of hand. His expression softened and when he looked at you, he saw nothing more than a person being honest with him. And he liked that. And you liked him. Wait. What?

"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping" Phil was rambling again. His crazy obsession had taken over. You simply gave Steve an apologetic smile but you felt that your whole world brightened when he blushed.  There was no use denying the fact that he was handsome. But there was something more than plain looks. He was charming and charismatic. "I mean, I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a huge honor to have you on board" Phil continued. Steve was looking at him with amusement. You were drooling over him.  You had caught yourself thinking about him more than once mainly because you had bonded over dinner. 

It was Monday and it sucked. You have had a particularly difficult day and your body felt sore. A shiver was trailing through your muscles and you just wanted comfort as you were drained of energy.  You wondered around in hopes that you would find something to eat and a fluffy cozy blanket. But plans changed. They became so much better. You made a beeline to the kitchen only to realize that nothing was eatable. 

You began to cook spaghetti and prepare a really spicy sauce with chili.  Working with your hands and not your brain was refreshing and appealing. You even found yourself humming a soft song. You remembered that there was a bottle of red wine hidden somewhere in the kitchen. Why not? The dinner was ready within no time. You placed your plate on the table and you poured a generous portion of wine into your glass and you were ready to sit down but Steve walked in. You didn't want to make him feel awkward and honestly, you liked his company.  "Hungry?" you gently asked him, a bright smile on your lips. He was taken aback and he tried to say no in a polite way but is stomach said otherwise. He blushed and sighed.  "Starving" he admitted and blushed even more. He was so adorable and sexy. How can you be both at the same time?  You added a plate and a glass, after seeking confirmation from him. You didn't know if wanted to drink. As you would find out later, he couldn't get drunk, just lightheaded.  He sat down next to you and you could smell his scent all over the place. It was a bit disorienting. He was hesitant to taste the food because he thought that you were too young to know how to cook and fight at the same time. He genuinely thought that you were too young but he was forgetting it a lot. However, he was pleasantly surprised.  "This is good. Like, really good!" he told you beaming and you laughed. He was just like a child. You didn't know this but he became determined to make you laugh again.  That night was only the beginning.  "Well, I hope I'm the man for the job" he quietly said. Phil was about to say something but you cut him off.  "You are" you simply yet boldly answered him, without leaving him any room for self-doubt.  His eyes pierced yours and nothing felt the same. 

"Can you? Can you wipe off your past? Do you remember them? Do they let you sleep at night? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving the life of a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer; pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are a part of you, and they will never go away" he said, slamming his fist against the glass. You knew that this was just a plan. You knew that what he meant was to simply scare you. You knew that he wanted to unleash the Hulk. But it hurt, nonetheless. Mainly because he was right. You had killed and tortured and captured innocent people. It took everything in you to remember that it wasn't you. 'Yes. But I still did it' you thought. And most importantly... Now he knew. He would hate you. How could he not? He was a hero and you were an assassin. You didn't care about the others, not that much at least. You had out-sassed Stark and you were quite gentle with Natasha's new love interest. Thor... He was a God. He could handle it. But him... He was Captain America for fuck's sake. You did what you were told but when you returned to the lab, you were welcomed by six people fighting each other... And a gun? So that was why SHIELD wanted the Tesseract. New guns. "Congratulations. You out topped Hydra" you sarcastically told Fury. He was being just as dishonest and manipulative as your previous captures. Guess, you exchanged Hydra and the Red Room for SHIELD. They were all the same. Seeking profit for themselves. Steve looked at you, eyes on fire. "You didn't know?" he asked you in a provocative tone but you refused to give in. "I wouldn't be here if I did" you simply answered him. No sarcasm, no irony. You truly wanted him to know that you had no idea and you were definitely not supporting any of it. He seemed to realize that you would have never agreed on something like this, given your past. Because he knew. He had read your file, he had asked Fury-multiple times- and he had done his research on you. He was actually kind of surprised -not in a good way- that you were only twenty yet you had been through all that. You were just a child when the Red Room got you. He came to hate them for what they had made you do. And Hydra of course. But he had another reason to hate Hydra as well. His best friend. Zola and the red skull had killed him.. And suddenly he was back on that Train. He snapped out of it. But your eyes were still locked with his. And you couldn't avert them.

You had survived the Chitauri invasion. You had all gotten out of that nightmare alive. Not completely alright but safe. "I think I would like a break" you admitted, tilting your head so you could see his face against the blinding light of the afternoon sun. He smiled, and you realized that the sun wasn't bright enough. "I think I might join you" he said amused. He wasn't usually this bold, but you loved it when he was. It was like a completely different side of his personality. You stood there watching Thor and Loki teleporting back to Asgard with the Tesseract before everyone said their goodbyes. You were no longer a SHIELD agent per se but not quite an Avenger as the group was being called. You had stopped taking orders without questioning them. You had also come clean with Steve about your past as you told him everything, things nobody else knew, things you wished to forget. And he was okay with that. He didn't criticize you or hated you. He was starting his motorcycle when he furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head to look at you. "Hop on" he told you and you couldn't hide your smile. You didn't question him or his impatient request. "Yes, Captain" you playfully answered as you sat down behind him and hugged his waist tightly, spreading your fingers out, gripping his shirt. You could feel his toned torso, his muscles tensing for a brief second. You could feel his heart beating steadily. A big smile was carved on your lips. He could feel your legs almost wrapped around him, your hands holding him close, your chest against his back, your breath fanning over his neck. He tried to remind himself that you were just twenty years old. But did it really matter?

There was a dim light illuminating the room making everything appear still. You slowly awoke from your sleep. It had been a peaceful night; no nightmares, no memories hunting you, no screams. Your right hand was rested upon Steve's chest. Your eyes flickered open when you realized that he was shirtless. You found his apologetic gaze already fixed on you but there was a lighthearted smile plastered on his full lips. ‘’Hey...’’ your sleepy voice trailed off before your eyes closed once more, causing Steve to chuckle at the sight. This was normal. You had been sleeping in the same bed with Steve since the first night after New York. You were both too scared to be left alone with your minds. So, when you had slowly opened the door of his room and crept in, you had found a terrified Steve. You had never seen him that afraid. You hadn't given it much thought when you had climbed οnto his bed and hugged him tightly. And he had hugged you back, holding onto you for dear life. You didn't know where you two stood exactly. Like, what were you to him? His friend? But friends didn't sleep in one bed, friends didn't hug each other as much as you did, their touches wouldn't linger on for moments after... Friends didn't get that tingling sensation whenever the other's hand would brush against your own accidentally. You could safely say that he wasn't just your friend. You had developed feelings for him-feelings that ran deeper than blood, feelings you knew you weren't supposed to catch for someone that much older. But then again... He didn't seem to treat you any differently than the others, right? Hugging you tightly and cuddling you to sleep wasn't something that he wouldn't do for someone else. Treating you with breakfast in bed, was something anyone would do. Cooking with you, getting not-drunk with you, running a hot bath for you, carrying you when you were too tired or sleepy to function... For fuck's sake. It was his fault that you were in love with him. Hold it. What now? And there he was, looking all heaven sent in the soft light of the new day, making it hard for you to breathe. The way the light danced around his blonde hair, how golden strands fell to his eyes... His eyes. Those blue orbits that felt deeper than the ocean itself and seemed to change colors; from baby to royal blue. You have had the pleasure to witness his eyes becoming cobalt blue once. In your mind, you were the reason why his eyes darkened. And those lips... Perfectly shaped, full, plump and pouty that made you wonder how would they taste. You could go on and on about his appearance but what had won you over was his personality. He was gentle yet bold, soft yet fierce, polite yet daring. He did what he thought was better for everyone, not just him. He never considered himself a hero. He disliked being called that. In his mind, he was a person out of time. Not even Peggy could help. He had admitted that she was half the reason he joined SHIELD but then he thought about the other half. You didn't know this, but his mind wandered back to the very first time he had met you. "Goodmorning, doll" he breathed out. You felt like melting under his tender touch, as he had his arm wrapped around you, and you wanted to catch fire when he called you that. It wasn't something sexual, but it worked miracles. When you didn't move, he let out a breathy chuckle and draw small patterns with his fingers on your exposed thigh. You understood that it was unintentional, but you couldn't stop your heartbeat from accelerating. "Five more minutes" you husked, your voice thick and throaty. It sent shivers down his spine. "I could lay here all day long" he admitted under his breath. You heard it, but you had fallen asleep before you could answer. He stayed awake. He didn't dare to close his eyes.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes" Natasha told him and you felt your blood boiling. If that her way to piss you off... She was successful. "That's why I don't ask" Steve answered calmly and certain. "Too shy or too scared?" she pressed further. You wanted to slap her. What was she doing? You didn't stay around to catch his answer because you jumped out of the jet. Your mind was clouded and your judgment not on point. Of course. He was ten years older than you, extremely good-looking and single. He should date. Not her. Not any other girl. You landed on the ship and moments later Steve climbed on too. He beat up everyone on the deck (other times using his shield and other times with his hands but mostly mustering both) before somebody could raise the alarm but he was interrupted by one of the pirates pointing his gun at him. Without thinking about it too much, you removed yourself from your hiding place and shot him down. Steve gave you an amusing look. "Thanks" he told you, a bit out of breath. You raised both of your eyebrows in a sarcastic way. "Yeah. You seemed pretty helpless without me" you mocked him earning a playful smirk. Everyone else landed on the deck as well and Natasha picked up from where she had left it off. "What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kind of nice" she informed him, seemingly emotionless. Steve rolled his eyes. At least, he wasn't interested right now. "Secure the engine room. Then find me a date" he answered nonchalantly as she jumped off the current level. "I'm multitasking". More like getting on your nerves. You didn't look at him and that was why you couldn't know but he was looking at you, trying to read your face. He wanted to know if -maybe- you were mad at... Natasha or him? Maybe, just maybe... You could have been jealous?   Mission first, then dames he thought. Shortly after that, you both had your head in the game. He needed your help because he didn't speak French (or so you thought because later you found out that he was fluent), so you were stuck with him, translating. "I do not like to wait. Call Durand. I want the ship ready to move when the ransom arrives" you quickly translated as you were eyeing Steve, trying to understand what he was planning. "He called Durant. He wants to start the engine. Natasha has to be there" you continued. He nodded and took off. You ran into the opposite direction so you could help Rumlow as already planned. He would need someone to deal with the hostiles. Everything went according to plan. But then Natasha never showed up. "Hostages en route to extraction. Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play" Rumlow informed Steve. You were about to yell at her but there was no reply from her. "Get them out of here. I'll stay behind" you practically barked out the 'order'. Natasha had screwed you up. And you needed to fix this. Something that ended up biting you in the ass.

Your head was heavy and you couldn't feel your body. She was dead. The moment you could get up, she was dead. You slowly opened your eyes and tried to move your sore muscles. At least, you weren't paralyzed. You looked around you only to find out that you weren't alone. "Steve?" your voice was raspy and it made you wince. His eyes were instantly on you and a relieved smile had just formed on his lips. "How are you?" he sheepishly asked. You would have laughed but your head was spinning and your mind was thinking about quitting. You slowly and carefully got out of the uncomfortable bed and placed your feet on the ground. "How long was I out?" you questioned rather seriously. He sifted his weight on his other leg. "A few hours. I had a talk with Fury but he doesn't... He is not very helpful" he told you and you could see that he was fighting a battle. Thankfully, you were wearing normal clothes. Because you had a few things to say to Fury too. "Let's go" you said clearly not giving a flying fuck. He knew better than questioned you that moment. All the way to Fury's office, you noticed that Steve walked closer to you than he had before, being a tad more protective than he usually was. And even though you wanted him to know that you were capable of protecting your ass, you were more than happy to feel his presence so close to you. He made you forget all the pain and the sadness. You slammed open the door. You weren't even surprised that Natasha was already there. "And she is alive!" Fury jocked. "You are alright" Natasha said. You walked straight to Fury and slapped him. He was taken aback that much that he didn't even say anything. You turned on your heel, gave Natasha a cold glare and almost hissed at her. "Not thanks to you". Steve was looking at you, debating whether he was impressed or confused by your actions. "Project Insight. Now" you clearly demanded. Fury seemed to come to his senses. "You waltzed in here, slapped me and now you are demanding information that is not to be shared with you?" he asked darkly. He wasn't used to people having authority over him. You tilted your head, a devilish smirk on your face and you waited for about five seconds before you gave him an answer. "Precisely". Everything was still. "Why?" he dared to ask. "I want to hear your version of the story, Nicky" you told him and he understood that you knew. He raised an eyebrow. "There is only one version" he said ominously as he nodded towards the elevator for you and Steve to enter. Steve and Nick had a stupid talk and you couldn't help but wonder. What exactly did they want to achieve? You knew that there was something fishy about the whole thing. Especially, Pierce. He gave you an off vibe. Once the elevator stopped, you came face to face with three huge Helicarrires. "This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites" Nick informed you proudly. You, however, felt sick. "Launched from the Lemurian Star" Steve commented, looking at him. "Once we get them in the air they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines" he continued like it was something he should brag about. "Stark?" you guessed. He was good but not in the right way. "Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines. These new long range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen" Nick told you, while you noticed he still kept his distance from you. "I thought the punishment usually came after the crime" Steve butted in. He was always the one who wanted things to be right. And this didn't feel like it. "We can't afford to wait that long" came the answer. Of course he would say something like that. "Who's "we"?". Steve was so naive. So innocent. This was planned after New York. "After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve" Nick admitted. He finally told you something true. "By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection" you finished his line. Because that was exactly what he was about to do. Steve was zoning out. He knew this was bad. And so did you. "You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff" Nick turned back to Steve because he was an easier target. You... Well, he didn't fancy the idea of getting slapped again. And he knew that you were more than capable of way more than just that. He had read your file too. "Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it, so the people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear" Steve answered truthfully, and you admired the fire inside him "SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap. And you, agent" Nick finally told you what was all about. "I'd rather not" you commented dryly and left. "Don't hold your breath" you heard Steve informing him fiercely. A small smile made its way to your lips.

The moment you found out that Fury was dead was the moment you came face to face with the man that trained you when you were captured by Hydra. They called him 'The Winter Soldier'. To everyone else, he was a ghost story. You knew him as James. One of the few times that he could think on his own, he told you his name because he wanted someone to remember it for him, for he was going to get wiped. That was how things worked with Hydra. And that would be your future if you hadn't escaped. When SHIELD thought that they got you, you played along. They weren't capable of capturing you if you didn't want them to. You had escaped but you had tried to help him too. He was an innocent man that had been manipulated way too many times. But you couldn't. And there he was, standing in front of you, his metal arm wrapped around your neck, no sign of recognition in his eyes. "James, please" your voice was barely audible, but his eyes widened, and his grip loosened. Something sparked inside him, but he was hesitant. "I am sorry James" you breathed out and his hand left your neck for good. He took his mask off and you saw that he remembered something. You, maybe? Before you could do anything else, he jumped off the roof you were standing. You knew that he was gone. If he was here and in his Soldat mood, then Fury was killed. He never screwed up a mission. That was why he had been Hydra's secret weapon for years. More than you could possibly imagine. There was only one person that could help you and he was too occupied trying to get out of the Triskelion alive. So, you rushed to the only place you knew you would find him. The Hospital. If your assumptions were correct, then Pierce would have unleashed STRIKE to take down Steve. And he would have gotten away, only to go to the most obvious place in the world. You hoped that you knew him well enough.

“Stop lying” he growled at Natasha. You almost ran towards him to peal him off of her. “I only act like I know everything, Rogers” she answered defensively. Steve looked at you once you enter the room. “I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?” he questioned her, but he let her go. Natasha nodded at you and you dared to take another step. “Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you” she told him. Steve wasn’t having any of it. He gripped her arms and shook her entire body. He was mad. “I'm not gonna ask you again”. You rushed and put your hand on his shoulder. That made him loosen up a bit, but Natasha was analyzing your every move and how Steve reacted when you were around. “I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years” she blurted. Steve looked confused. You, however, couldn’t stand there listening to her calling him a monster. “James. His name is James” you whispered. Both of them looked at you with furrowed eyebrows, expecting some kind of explanation. “He was the one who trained me back then” you simply told them, your voice becoming even weaker than before. Natasha continued her version of the story. How he had shot her and how he was a ghost story. But to you, he wasn’t a bad person who needed to be stopped. He was a helpless man who needed a chance. Steve, however, was worried. Someone from your past was messing up the timeline? Little did he know that he wasn’t just from your past. When they decided that you had to find out what was on that drive, Natasha thought that you would have to steal a laptop and Steve wanted to break into SHIELD’s base... You rolled your eyes at them. They weren’t practical at all. “The mall disguised as civilians, guys!” you exasperated. They were truly thinking like a spy and a hero. Since when did you become the practical one? “And then what?” Steve asked you mainly because he had no idea how a mall could help. “And then we go to a Mac store to use one of their computers, genius” you answered, your ‘duh’-tone being very well spotted. “Lead the way ma’am”. You had to contain yourself otherwise your blush would be visible to everyone in the building. Natasha saw it, Steve didn’t. She winked at you and smirked. She got it now; why you always seemed to be annoyed when she tried to hook Steve up with someone. You had a thing for him. She should have known. He must have had feelings for you as well because every time she suggested another woman, his eyes would fall onto you momentarily. You brushed the tension off and hoped that the closest mall was close enough. Once you arrived, Natasha made sure that you felt uncomfortable in all possible ways. “You are a couple. And I’m the creepy loner friend. Got it?”. She was actually giving orders, something that made you quirk an eyebrow, but you felt your cheeks burning when Steve didn’t say anything, instead, he looked down, trying to hide his own blush. You all walked to the first store you saw and found a laptop that could handle the drive. “The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are” Natasha informed you. You already knew that they weren’t stupid. “How much time do we have?” Steve asked, his eyeglasses getting in the way of his spasmodic moves. He really didn’t know how to hide in plain sight. “Uh...about nine minutes from... Now” she told him and popped the drive into the computer. “Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands” she continued as she was typing. Your brain was thinking ahead but Steve was impatient. “Can you override it?” he pressed. If you didn’t like him that much you would have kicked his ass. Big time. “Steve, first rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk. Stop it” you told him and gripped his arm tightly enough to make him flinch. He gave you an apologetic look. You knew that he didn’t know how to act naturally. “The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly” she commented dryly. Yes, maybe. But you were running out of time. “Try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from” you suggested and she looked impressed. She didn’t know that you had hacked into SHIELD’s system too many times, but Steve did and he was proud. Not of your deviant behavior but… genuinely. Something had changed between you two and he felt it. Something in the way he would find solace in your scent or presence… or the fact that he would never consider dating someone else because, even if you were ten years younger than him and -in his mind- you deserved better, he had formed this huge school-boy crush on you. And he didn’t mind one bit. “Can I help you guys with anything?” an employee asked politely, and your eyes immediately scanned him. “Oh, no, thank you. I am just helping them with some honeymoon destinations” Natasha lied smoothly, and you followed suit even though your heart was pounding in your chest. “Right! We're getting married” Steve quickly agreed, a little too excited. You placed a hand on his chest, acting all wifey. “Congratulations! Where do you guys thinking about going?”. Fuck, he wasn’t stopping. Steve looked at the monitor and saw that the signal was traced somewhere in New Jersey. You knew that he was about to blurt it out. “New Jersey”. He was a terrible liar. Something that you found extremely attractive. “Oh” the poor guy answered. He looked at Steve for a moment and you felt that he stopped breathing. “I have the exact same glasses” he remarked. You had stopped paying attention to the conversation because, a) you were scanning the room and b) Steve. After tracing the signal to Wheaton you walked out, “Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro” he gave commands. You looked at Natasha and nodded once. Two agents were coming straight towards you. “Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said” you demanded curtly.  That made him turn his head too fast. “What?” he croaked. You wanted to slap him. You didn’t have time. “Do it!” you practically barked at him.  Steve quickly put his arm around you and laughed. Natasha quickly lowered her hoodie and walked by without getting noticed. All the agents walked by and Steve looked impressed. As you were going down the escalator you and Natasha spotted Rumlow on the escalator next to you going up and she turned to Steve. She was behind him and you were in front of him. “Kiss her” Natasha told him. You thought you would have frozen, but you were actually calm. Maybe because you didn’t believe that he would actually do it. He just kept looking at you with his eyes wide open. “Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable” Natasha reasoned but before he could answer you quickly pulled down Steve's head and kissed him making Rumlow look away as he went past you on the escalator. The moment your lips touched, you lost yourself and you forgot about reality. Natasha smiled knowingly. Finally. His hands held your waist tightly and yours were resting around his neck. It couldn’t have lasted more than five seconds, but you were out of breath. Maybe it was his scent, maybe it was his body, maybe it was his lips… maybe you were not just in love with him. You pulled away and broke apart when you saw Nat’s smirk. “Still uncomfortable?” she questioned wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “It's not exactly the word I would use” he told her truthfully and you saw him blush. You tried to hide your smile but failed.

“Bucky?” “James” You were playing on repeat that scene for the last fifteen minutes. You couldn’t get over the fact the guy that had trained you, the Winter Soldier, James… was Steve’s best friend. The last days had been chaotic but that was something you would never imagine. Then again, you lived a pretty crazy life. “It was him. He looked right at me like he didn't even know me” Steve whispered heartbrokenly. You didn’t know how to soothe the pain. “How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago” Sam asked confused but it wasn’t that confusing. “Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and...” Steve trailed off. You could taste your blood in your mouth. Your sight was weakening. “None of that's your fault, Steve” you tried to reassure him but he wasn’t listening. Not really. “Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky”. It felt like he was confessing his younger years and your heart ached for him. Sam seemed to notice yours and Nat’s wounds and he glanced at the guards. “We need to get a doctor here. We don't put pressure on those wounds they gonna bleed out here in the truck” he accused them but the world started spinning. Suddenly one of the guards pulled out an electric rod and you thought that you were gonna die but then it neutralized the other guard and knocked him out. The guard took off the helmet and- “Maria?” you questioned. What the fuck? You didn’t get to hear the rest of the story because you passed out in Steve’s hug. He made a promise to himself. If he was to survive this, he would take you out on a date. At least, he would man up and ask you.

You ran towards the bombs, where you knew that he was coming from. Finally, you saw him, rocket launcher in his hand as he made his way towards you. You shrunk back, forcing yourself to become invisible as the Soldier threw down his launcher, opting for his machine gun as he shot a man in the neck, throwing a grenade inside another plane. You launched yourself forward. You knew that you would have to muster Natasha’s thigh hold. You knew him but he knew you too. You threw yourself onto his back, locking your legs around his waist by your ankles as you grabbed your knife, one hand locked around his neck for support and your left hand aiming the knife for his face. “James stop” you tried to prevent what was about to follow. He didn’t answer. But he knew those moves. His reflexes were quicker than you remembered. His human hand grabbed yours and stopped the knife. The two of you struggled for a few moments before he tried throwing you off of him, something that didn’t quite work because your legs were locked around his waist…until he used his metal hand and stuck his thumb into your thigh, right into the wound that Rumlow had inflicted on you moments ago. You held your scream but your legs weakened their hold. He grabbed your arm holding the knife and flipped you over his shoulder. You landed hard on the ground. A groan escaped your lips before your eyes widened at the metal fist aimed towards your head. You quickly rolled over his fist hitting the cement next to you. “James, for fuck’s sake. Please!” you tried one last time. His face became a tragic mask. “You are my mission” he spat out, trying to convince himself more than you. “Bucky” you whispered but never got to see his reaction because he had already jumped off of the building. Later on, in the safety of the trees, you watched the destruction all around you. You simply watched. You couldn’t even more. However, as you were staring at the one helicarrier that still in the air, you saw Steve falling from it into the water. Your breath never made it out of your lungs. And then, moments later, another figure followed it. Bucky. “If you die, I’m gonna kill you” you hissed at Steve. Or, the image in your mind.

Tags: @orionsirivsblack @kapolisradomthoughts @nadinissavage @geeksareunique

[biebsimagine]

They Don't Know (Mature)

My cheeks are becoming hot. I can feel them buzzing and I’m sure if Justin moves any closer to me (which I’m certain he will) he’ll be able to feel the heat radiating off them.

“Just lay back,” he whispers, giving me one last glance before his lips graze across my stomach; they’re wet and warm and cause my insides to do flips. “Let me take care of you.”

The bed is unfamiliar but I can smell Justin’s cologne mixing with his natural scent. I let myself fall back onto the sheets and sigh softly.

“Your skin is soft,” I hear him whisper while his fingers rub my hips, just above my underwear. “You’re so beautiful.”

I watch as he wraps his slender fingers around the material of my underwear, a face filled with concentration as he does so, and teasingly pulls them down.

Once they’re discarded to the floor, a glint of excitement passes through Justin’s eyes as I watch him, it only excites me more.

“I want to take my time, I want to make you feel every little thing,” he murmurs before, to my disappointment, moves up my body.

“You know we have a busy day tomorrow,” I grin, stretching to look down at him.

“I don’t mind falling asleep during interviews if you don’t,” he says before pressing his lips against my shoulder.

Gently, his fingers trail up my waist until they’re under my arms. By the way his eyes are burning into my chest, I can guess what happens next.

He moves closer, so close I can feel his breath colliding with my nipples. I hum softly.

It isn’t long before his lips are latched around my left nipple while his right hand gives my right equal attention. He imitates my hum and sends vibrations through every inch of me.

Without telling me, my body manages to arch up into Justin’s touch. I get the feeling he’s pleased by this because a soft growl forms at the back of his throat.

“Does that feel good? I adore when your body responds to me.”

I take my lip between my teeth and bite down a hard, causing it to sting.

Justin continues to work on my nipples, making me cry out with pleasure that keeps finding its way into the deepest parts of my body. I find myself both pulling him closer to me and pushing him away.

“I think you need more,” he tempts me, adding a tone to his voice that drips like hot, melted chocolate. Just as he finishes his words he starts to kiss down my chest and across the surface of my stomach. My heart leaps with excitement while my hips stir with anticipation.

Once his lips are level with my hips, I’m sure I’m no longer able to stand the desire I can feel building. I want to cry out in frustration.

“Feel the way my fingers are tracing your thighs, feel my breath on your clit, feel my touch burn into you,” Justin said in a tempting tone.

I did just that. The simple acknowledgment of Justin’s actions and his touch manages to bring an entirely new sense of pleasure.

“Justin, please,” I whisper, and I’m sure if I look down I’d be able to see a proud grin on his lips.

“I’m here to please you tonight so I’ll do whatever you want me to,” he replies and sends a wave of relief through my body.

He doesn’t say anything else. His lips pecked the insides of my thighs before his tongue started to dance up and down my clit, giving me a burning pleasure. Looking down, I can see his eyes watching me as he does it. 

I grip the sheets tightly in my hands and push my hips up to meet his mouth. Justin takes my actions happily and meets me in the middle; I almost squeal at the sudden rush.

Pushing me further to where I want to be, he wraps his lips around my clit and continues to swirl his tongue around in every direction. His mouth is hot and a shiver trickles down my spine.

****

Justin is sat next to me, his hand thrown over the back of my chair. I chance a glance and see him already looking at me, he smiles before looking away.

“So, working close together for a long period of time, does that ever get tiring? Are there times when there’s disagreements?” the interviewer, Chelsea, asks.

“Uhm.” Justin and I look at each other. “I think sometimes we get tired and cranky, and that can lead to one of us taking it out on the other, but it’s nothing serious, nothing that we hold against each other,” Justin says, looking over at me as I nod in agreement. “We love each other, we don’t argue as much as people might think.” He laughs and I smile up at him.

I watch him speaking, taking in the way his face changes when he speaks and the hand gestures he uses. I lick my lips absentmindedly before looking back to the interviewer as she nods along.

“He says that, but if we’re not making music, we’re bickering, usually because this one’s needy as shit,“ I smile innocently, nodding.

“See this? This what I have to deal with. Abuse.” Justin shakes his head, pretending to cry. Seconds later, he brings his head up and laughs to himself.

“The media can stir a lot of facts and twist them into rumours, as I’m sure you’re aware,” the interviewer starts. “How do you deal with that?”

“We don’t,” I whisper, laughing to myself and Justin glances over, grinning.

“We try to ignore them,” Justin says and I interrupt.

“But when it’s, when it’s something completely ridiculous, it’s kinda hard to ignore it, you know?” I say, and I can see Justin leaning his elbow on the chair, watching me.

“Like what?” the interviewer asks. “What’s the craziest rumour you’ve ever read about yourself?”

Justin and I look over at each other. “Uh, that’s difficult,” I laugh. “There’s that one, I can’t remember where I saw it, that you’re, like, secretly a lizard. Something you wanna tell us, Jay?” I grin to the camera and back to Justin.

“I don’t know what to tell you, except that it’s true, I’m a lizard, and [Y/N] does have a penis. It’s all true. We’re tired of living a lie. Right, [Y/N]?” He looks over at me with a sad expression. “It’s okay,” he whispers, taking my hand. “They deserve the truth.”

I suppress a smile and nod, looking at the camera while the interviewer laughs. “One thing we do; know, Justin Bieber is an idiot, you heard it here first.”

“You’re so mean to me.”

“True.”

“Anyway,” Chelsea says, laughing at us as I grin at Justin. “There’s a certain rumour that I don’t think you guys are able to get away from,” she hints and my heart skips a beat and I can be almost certain Justin’s does the same. We nod for her to continue. “There’s fan accounts, YouTube videos of proof, ship names; you name it, it’s out there somewhere, there’s this idea that the two of you are in a relationship.”

I bite the inside of my cheek and look down at my lap while Justin nods “Yeah, we’re aware,” he chuckles.

“Anything you want to clear up?” she digs a little deeper.

“Uh, I think, I think people can believe what they want, you know? I think there’s always going to be some kind of rumour or speculation that we don’t really look into, we just, you know, create music and do what we love and that’s all we really can do,” I say while feeling the tension rising between Justin and I.

“And, I mean, obviously there’s no truth to it but I also think it’s not hurting anyone, we aren’t bothered by what people say or think and we’re just happy to create music,” Justin smiles and nods towards the woman, to which Chelsea does the same.

“Everyone has something they believe,” I say and shrug, Justin grins.

“So, who’s single? You’re both single, right?” she asks, smiling at the two of us.

“Uh, yeah, both single and ready to mingle,” Justin smirks, raising his eyebrows at the camera. My smile falters as I twiddle my fingers.

“What do you look for in a girl, and a boy?”

“Uh, I like someone who’s fun, you know? A girl you feel you can talk to and know they’re there, but also someone who’s chill and can just relax and have a good time,” Justin says before his head snaps to my direction. “C'mon, [Y/N], spill the details.”

“I think someone who you can joke with, someone who’s not too serious at all times, you know, not building a wall all the time. Someone you feel you connect with.” I shrug, smiling bashfully.

“Well, that’s good to know,” Chelsea smiles and I see Justin grin.

“Are you trying to tell me something?” he asks, sending a wink in her direction. “I’m just kidding,” he laughs.

“Now, what can we expect from you guys next?”

**** I walk behind Justin and the crowd pushes up against us, flashing lights cause me to throw a hand in front of my face. Being pushed and shoved means I’m falling into bodies, but I don’t have time to apologise. I follow Justin’s footsteps until a bodyguard is pushing me towards a different car.

The paparazzi are shouting profanity and asking absurd questions, they mix with the screaming fans.

“You can’t go with him, different vehicles,” he mutters and changes my path. I see Justin looking behind him to find me, but he’s pulled into the car in front.

Once I’m in the car, the shouts are somewhat muffled and I feel as though I’m underwater, I take deep breaths to keep my breathing steady.

I can feel my phone vibrating in my pocket and I pull it out to see an incoming call from Justin. I answer immediately without having to think. The driver starts up the car.

“Hey,” he whispers softly. “Are you okay? You got taken to another car, right?”

“Uh, yeah, the one behind yours.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Is it?” I ask.

He sighs deeply and I can imagine the stress showing on his face. “No, of course not, I just mean- I didn’t like the idea of you still being out there.”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t like this either.”

“Don’t apologise, please. This is none of your fault. That’s the power of management for you, huh?” I say, running a hand through my hair, looking out of the window to see rain falling gently. Traffic lights look like stars through the blurred and tinted glass.

“When we get back to the hotel, we’ll talk, okay? Get it all off our chest.”

“Talking isn’t gonna do anything, Justin. Nothing can change the fact that I can’t tell the world that I love you and it’s hurting me.”

He’s quiet for a few seconds before I hear him let out a shaky breath. “I know. I love you so much.” There’s silence afterwards; I don’t know what to say. “I’ll see you soon, okay? I love you, princess,” he says and my heart aches in my chest.

“I love you, too, baby,” I say and pull the phone away from my ear. I see the photo of Justin and I that we took just last week on my background. I spend the rest of the drive staring out of the window.

****

"I can’t believe this, LOOK how in love they are!!”

“It’s heartbreaking to see what they’re having to hide from the public eye. It’s so obvious that they’re dating.”

“Look how jealous [Y/N] gets when Justin flirts with the interviewer, it’s actually painful to watch”

“the tension and awkward silence when they’re asked about the dating rumours makes me cringe so hard”

“This breaks my heart.”

****

“They all know. Have you seen all the comments?” I ask Justin as I pace the hotel room. Justin is sprawled across the bed. “It’s so obvious, it makes me cringe.”

“I know, I know,” he says, biting down on his bottom lip. I lick my own. “But what can we do? Ignore management and confess we’re dating just because everyone is convinced we are?”

“What’s the point in hiding it when everyone knows? People look into every interview, every picture, everything we say, and they’ve got it worked out, Justin.”

“I know-”

“And I’m sick of having to keep my distance from you and having to get permission from people to hug you when we’re at award shows, or having things cut from interviews because it might be too suggestive! I’m tired of it,” I snap, feeling my eyes watering. I bite my tongue to stop myself from letting out a choked sob.

“I know, [Y/N],” Justin says and quickly stands up, taking me in his arms. “We’ll take to management, yeah? Tomorrow.”

I shake my head. “They’re gonna tell us the same thing. Nothing’s gonna change, Justin.”

“Look at me,” he mumbles and I do as I’m told. “I think, even if we can’t show our love in public, we can be thankful that every night we get to be together. I’m so lucky to have you, even if it is just for the night.”

“It’s not fair-”

“Listen to me,” he says. His palms press against my cheeks, his fingers brushing my neck.

“A part of me thinks it’s fun, you know? Sneaking around can be fun, the idea of no one knowing, I’ll admit that. Other times, it’s just tiring, it’s like, sometimes I just want to hug you and kiss you when I want to.”

“[Y/N].”

“Justin.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, but-”

“No ‘buts’-”

“You have a nice one,” I mutter, smirking when Justin presses his tongue against the inside of his cheek.

“Thank you,” he says, “but I want you to listen, okay?”

“Mhm.”

“You’re right, it isn’t fair. We shouldn’t have to hide, but I promise, one day the world is gonna know about you and me, and they’re going to support us because as you can see, the world is already backing us without even knowing what we have is truly real. We have so much support, [Y/N], and one day we can love each other without having to hide. I promise.”

I found comfort in Justin’s words and didn’t waste time in showing him. My lips pressed against his and his arms lifted my up. It wasn’t long before we were laid across the bed and painting our love with our bodies.

[trollhunter94]

Heroes And Villains

Pairing: Metatron x Reader

O/Cs: Sam and Dean Winchester

Warnings: Swearing, Slight Tension and Restraint, Creepy Metatron, Unwanted Advance.

Words: 1.5K

A/N: Here it is @uselessace, apologies for the long wait. It’s a kinda angsty/ romance that portrays the love/hate relationship we all have with Metatron. Hope you enjoy it!

Summary: You and the Brothers had been put on ‘babysitting duty’ after Castiel recruited Metatron in the fight against Lucifer. A simple debate quickly turns into a heated discussion.

This was Metatron’s first visit to the bunker. You could tell that Sam and Dean were already struggling against their better nature of punching him. He did nothing but follow them around, travelling from one room to another, talking incessantly just for the sake of being heard.

As he trailed the brothers from the kitchen to the map room, you noticed the increased level of tension they brought with them. Dean walked past the table where you sat with a pile of open Lore books, shooting you a look of desperation.

In an attempt to alleviate their suffering, you decided to distract him with a debate. “Hey Marv” you called, gaining his attention. “Sit down for a minute. I want to ask you a question”.

His countenance changed with interest, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth. “Ooh, I’m happy to oblige” he confessed, quickly pulling out a chair to sit opposite you. “Fire away”.

“You’ve read a mountain-load of books, right?”

“Oh yeah” he nodded viscerally, happy with where this was going. “So, who do you think makes for a better character, a hero or a villain?”

He gave you a creepy smile and a low cackle. “Ooh, now this is my forte.  Well, it solely depends upon the context of the story". You eyed him sceptically. “What do you mean?”

“Well, yes, the hero uses his force for goodness, saving the people or the damsel from danger”. He stopped to look at you more intensely, shifting his eyebrows suggestively. You scoffed at his flirtatious words. Sam and Dean took this opportunity to slip out of the room, practically tiptoeing behind Metatron in fear of being noticed.

“But the villain” he continued, giving a pleasing grin whilst rubbing his hands together. “They challenge the norm; the expected behaviours of society. Rebellious acts of defiance to get people’s attention and challenge the law. That’s how social change is made, you know”.

“So, you think villains such as Norman Bates or Hannibal Lecter, are similar to social change advocates, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King?” He scoffed at your words, shaking his head disapprovingly at your cynicism.

“They’re flawed, but they have goals, you see. A set of morals or beliefs that they fight for”. The tone of his voice lightened as his train of thought broke away. "You know, the persistence and style of a villain is something to behold. The way that they overcome their tragic backstories, healing their wounds and finding a higher purpose in life”.

You shook your head, still unconvinced. “You’re acting like they’re justified in the chaos that they create. How is it fair when people die and cities are brought to ruins by an individual’s struggle for power?”

He placed his palms on the table. “Yes, they may take lives and cause destruction. But you see, without a villain in the story, there can never be a hero”.

You began to close the books on the table. “You may be right. But in this story, there’s enough evil to go around. With Demons, Vampires, Werewolves and Spirits in the equation, why did you make yourself a villain? There was no need for it. You made yourself an unnecessary evil, and what did that achieve, really?”

He stood from his chair and moved around the table, head tilted as his hands glided along the wooden surface. “You know, I don’t think you really mean that. Do you?”

“Uh, yeah” you spat with seriousness. “I mean come on. How many people did you kill?” You began to count on your fingers. “There’s Dean, Kevin, Naomi”. He interrupted you, “Ah, no. Kevin’s death was not by my hands”.

“But it was your fault. It was, so don’t even deny it”. You stared him down until he took responsibility with a nod of his head. You continued, “And not to mention kicking the Angels to earth and taking Castiel’s grace”.

He reached your side and proceeded to grab the arms of your chair, pulling and sliding it away from the table so you were facing him. Leaning close and keeping eye contact he sternly justified his actions. “I did that with the sole intention of fixing the broken ranks of Heaven. It was for the greater good of everyone”.

His close proximity made you feel defensive, leaning backwards slightly you warned him with a pointed finger. “If you dare touch me, I’ll be forced to stab you. Or worse, tie you up and read you Sam’s diary”.

He noticed your stiff demeanour and took a sidestep away, perching on the edge of the table with a smirk on his face. “Ha. We all know that you wouldn’t harm me. Last time you threatened me, you choked on that pie. Do you remember?”

You spat your reply at him. “I did not choke, Marv! Anyway, at least I didn’t alienate myself from my entire family by being a douchebag”. He chuckled before giving you a look of encouragement. “Come on. Is that really the best insult you’ve got?”

You shifted in your seat, feeling motivated. “No, it’s not. You’re a manipulative, deviant, self-serving asshole who creates chaos for your own gain. You make stupid decisions that get people… innocent people killed".

“Oh” he snided sarcastically. “Because you’re so sensible. What great decisions you make". Folding his arms, he continued. “In fact, I recall a time where Dumb and Dumber had to rescue you from a solo mission to kill the Alpha Vampire. I think there was over two hundred Vampires in that warehouse. It’s like you were asking to be killed".

Your eyes squinted with contempt. “Well, for your information, I had the Colt and the vamps only showed up after I got inside. And if I wanted to get myself killed, I’d be a Ghostfacers intern”.

His brows furrowed with confusion. “Who are the Ghostfacers?” You waved your hands dismissively. “Never mind about that. Look, you’re missing the point here. What we do, it’s for the good of others. What you do, is for the selfishness of your own gain”.

Metatron moved off the table and approached you again, entering your personal space. “Selfish? You think I’m selfish, do you?” You quickly reacted, using your right leg to push against his thigh.

He instantly grabbed your ankle and pulled both you and your chair forward, closing whatever distance remained between you. “Stop it” you warned, clutching at the arm rests and squirming your foot from his hold.

He released your ankle and moved closer, positioning his feet either side of yours to restrain them and clutching at your hands. You were now trapped in your chair, unable to free your hands and watched as he leant in close.

“I know that you like me, little Hunter. Would it be selfish if I kissed you right now? Or would it be for the good of both of us?” Your eyes grew wide, heartbeat increasing as he towered over you.

“Have you kissed an Angel before?” You stumbled over your words, unable to form a coherent sentence. “I, um. You... That’s” …

He teased you with a sneaky grin on his face. “I bet you’re curious, aren’t you?”  Just say the word, and I’ll leave you be”. He slowly inched his face closer to yours. Conflicting emotions were running through your mind.

One of God’s beloved creations was trying to kiss you. This was the most interest anyone had shown you in months, but on the other hand, this was Metatron. A power grabbing, narcissistic being that hurt the people closest to you.

Dean now strolled back into the room and saw Metatron leaning over you. He immediately thought that you were being harassed, so warned the scribe to back off. “Hey! You’d better move back now, unless you wanna stay in the dungeon until Cas gets here".

Metatron quickly stood up straight, raising his hands defensively and flashing Dean a look of innocence. “What? We were just talking”. Dean remained unconvinced. “If that was just talking, then I’m the queen of Sheba”.

You hastily rose from your chair, feeling concerned and a little bit angry. Looking Metatron dead in the eyes, you lifted your leg and kneed him in the balls. He immediately keeled over and winced in pain. "Ouch! That was so uncalled for". You moved past him and warned him in a calm and threatening tone. "Touch me again, and I will end you".

You walked past Dean, who was now looking at you, stunned and speechless. A sense of admiration prompted him to smirk. Looking over to Metatron, who was holding the table for balance, you flashed him your middle finger before leaving the room.

Dean grabbed a chair, spinning it round and sitting down opposite him. "Serves you right Dude. You were being an asshole". As he took a sip of his beer, Metatron sat on your chair and thought about what you said.

Was he really the villain? He just wanted to return Heaven to its former glory. Before God took off and the Angels became divided. He realized that now is the time to switch sides and step up to the plate.

It's a chance to stop a real evil; to stop the apocalypse and do his father proud.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.