#when you talk to her and wake her at like four am and she's tired and annoyed but like still way nicer then she reasonably should be

[catorikishin]

Kisses

Kisses

Kisses...

[puppmeo]

And the cycle begins anew . As it does every week

[enwoso]

Lovie having an even worse day than the grump story and hitting Vic pelova and having an all mighty meltdown

TINY TEMPER — alessia russo x child!reader

a long one🙃 got a little carried away when i was writing this, but ENJOY!

grumpy masterlist

travelling was tiring for the average person. travelling to the other side of the world was exhausting. travelling to the other side of the world at the age of four was anything but tiring, until it hits you like a brick wall that is.

alessia knew this would happen. she's tried so hard for it not to happen but when your so little and you get to do exciting things there's no containing your energy.

but it was now officially day two of arsenals post season trip to melbourne and you were past the point of tired.

when the flight landed at seven am yesterday morning you were fast asleep, alessia not thinking anything of it. more thanking her lucky stars she was going to be able to get through customs a little quicker without having to have eyes in back of her head in case you decided to bolt. something you'd done on the layover finding it the funniest game ever.

however, alessia wished she could have gone back in time and told herself to wake you up instead of just trying to make things easier for herself as when it came to bed time last night you had more energy than a duracell battery meaning you didn't exactly have the longest night sleep.

but hey you were four and had no concept of time never mind time zones..

"oh did someone not have a good night sleep?" steph giggled slightly as you sat at the breakfast table with your arms on it as your head rested on them an almighty frown on your face.

"who you asking tiny or less?" kyra teased as alessia glared at the young australian a cup of coffee secured tightly in her hands. steph slapping kyra on the shoulder also giving the girl a warning glare. your mummy placing a bowl of cereal in front of you and a bowl of fruit next to it.

you would usually start digging into it but not today, instead you pushed it as far as you could away from you. not wanting it anywhere close to you. pushing it until it hit steph's plate as she was the one who was sat in front of you.

"lovie, don't do that please" alessia said firmly as she pulled your bowl back to be in front of you. you huffing as you turned your head away from the bowl.

"i never thought i would see the day tiny not eating her coco pops!" kyra tried as you gave her a cold stare. you didn't want to eat them, you wanted to sleep but every time you closed your eyes mummy was tapping you on the shoulder waking you up.

"you'll have to be quick, otherwise they'll go all soggy and yucky-" kyra tried again, usually you would listen to kyra as she helped you create some fun when everyone else was being all dull and serious.

"just leave her kyra, she's not gonna eat them" alessia sighed as she watched you turn so you were sat on the on edge of your chair, kicking your legs back and forth. your white crocs which were on your feet close to coming off.

you swinging your feet further and further until your crocs flew off you feet. them being very close to landing on the table next to you. where katie, cailtlin and teyah were sat talking and eating their breakfast.

"ay whose little croc is this" katie's thick irish accent coming out as she picked up your croc, sending you a pointed smile. you giving katie a frown in return as you went back to swinging your legs back and forth.

"do you want it back?" katie had got up and walked the few steps handing your croc back to you but you just ignoring her as katie looked up at alessia who was shaking her head telling the irish girl a no. katie giving a nod understanding you clearly weren't in the mood.

"i'll just give it to your ma" katie nodded to alessia handing your shoe over as alessia mumbled a small thank you as katie returned back to her seat.

alsssia was exhausted already and the day had nearly just begun and that wasn’t due to jet lag although it probably played a big factor but from the fact she knew she was in for a day from hell with you and your grumpy mood.

you come out your shell a little, playing around with vic in a soft play area that the hotel had, most of the girls had been told to chill before it was time for meetings.

alessia was a little more content knowing you were playing with vic, although she would have preferred it more if you’d had a nap but you were having none of that when the idea was suggested.

so alessia sat in the little cafe next to it doing some uni work. her eyes glancing over every so often to where you and vic were. vic admittedly looking like she was having way more fun in the small play area sitting in a ball pit filled with colourful plastic balls.

you were sat playing with building blocks, building them as high as you could before barrelling most definitely a little too aggressively your foot in the bottom of it watching it tumble before restarting.

“vic me wan that one!” you pointed to another little boy who was in the play area on the other side playing with what looked to be his younger brother, as he also was building a tower with other coloured blocks.

“no tiny, you can’t right now someone else is playing with it” vic smiled gently as she picked up another ball in the ball in the ball pit.

“me wan that one!” you demanded a little louder this time, looking over to the little boy as you glared at vic who was starting to get a little uncomfortable as she didn’t exactly know how to respond or handle the situation which in her eyes looked like it wasn’t going to end with your usual cheesy grin.

“tiny you’ll have to wait your turn.. why don’t you play in the ball pit with me” vic tried, hoping it would help for you to forget about the building blocks.

unfortunately for vic it couldn’t be that easy, you instead shaking your head totally uninterested in the ball pit that was filled with colourful plastic balls.

instead you got yourself up from where you’d been sat, vic seeing you were making a beeline for the little boy. in a blink of an eye vic was up out of the ball pit, colourful balls flying out the pit as she lifted you up just inches away from the little boy.

you letting out an angry scream you began to kick your legs into viv’s body as well as flaying your arms around. what vic hadn’t realised is that there was a building block still in your hand and with your arms flaying around, the block hit vic straight in the eye.

the scream alone was enough to catch alessia’s attention as she shot up leaving her uni work, seeing your temper tantrums finally happen. quickly getting to vic’s rescue you were taken out of vic’s arms as you carry on kicking your legs and screaming just this time on the floor.

alessia quickly asking is vic was okay, the dutch girl flashing a smile and nodding her head. her eyes watering a little bit in all she was in fact okay.

alessia’s attention moved to you, as you were still on the floor of the hotel. screaming and crying while you kicked you legs out in pure frustration. alessia could sense the other guests wondering the hotel where staring at the scene that was happening.

alessia trying to pick you up by your hand but you were having none of it, just letting your entire body go limp. to the point where alessia’s patience had worn and she had to pick you up.

"tiny temper strikes!" kyra says with a proud smile, as the others look at her with a pointed look, totally unimpressed.

"you've been waiting ages to say that haven't you-" steph asks as kyra nodded her head enthusiastically watching on as you pull a tantrum in the middle of the hotel lobby. your over tiredness really kicking in.

"that's a singer you tool!" katie laughs at the young australian as the others look on, kyra sat with a confused look.

"what, no it's not" kyra shakes her head not understanding what katie was saying as it breaks katie into another fit of laughter, caitlin hitting katie on the shoulder for her to quieten down.

“katie your thinking of tinie tempeh” steph corrected the irish girl as katie rolled her eyes playfully, “same thing”

alessia managed to get you back to the room, where your sobs had quietened down as you face was now stained with tears as the occasional sniffle came from you.

you had been sat on your own for the past minutes, your mummy giving you the space you clearly needed before trying to talk to you. alessia had tried to talk to you but you just kept moving your head away from her every time she spoke.

“lovie?” your mummy said calmly, as she stood a few inches away from you. alessia was upset with your behaviour but she also knew it wasn’t entirely your fault as you were only acting this way because you were overly tired and overwhelmed. but still it was so excuse.

you glanced over to your mummy as you came a little closer, sniffles still coming from you. your mummy bending down so that she matched your height as you sat on the end of the bed.

“now y/n you understand that what you did to vic wasn’t very kind?”your mummy spoke in a serious which told you she was disappointed in you, you bowing your head so you just looked at your feet, a little hiccup coming from you from spending twenty minutes sobbing.

“you could have really hurt her or yourself with how you were acting” your mummy continued as you still were looking down at you socks and the patterns that were on them.

“do you understand where mummy is coming from?” she asked as you nodded slightly, you understood that what you had done was wrong and you didn’t feel a little upset with yourself for the way you had acted.

"how uncle gio would think if he saw you acting like this?" your mummy asked as you shrugged your shoulder, slightly confused as to why she was bringing up gio he wasn't even here, you hadn't seen him in person since christmas just before he set off on his big adventure around the world.

you shrugged, "uncle gio not here though"

"well he was coming to see you but i don't think he'll want to now especially if you being not very kind" alessia told you as you lifted your head a little. uncle gio was here, how?

“m’sorry” you mumbled under your breath, still looking at your feet.

“i know you are lovie, but when we see vic next i would like you to apologise to her, can you do that for me?” your mummy asked as you looked up from you feet and nodded a small squeak of a yes coming from you as you nodded.

“good, now lovie i want you to promise if you ever get any big feelings that you don’t know what to do. i want you to tell me and mummy can help you” your mummy told you as you slides down from the bed and hugged your mum. alessia’s arms going around you tiny waist tightly as she stroked her hand up and down your back just like she always did.

“can i make a card for vic to say sorry?” you asked quietly, as you mummy flashed a small smile before nodding.

“i think that would be a lovely idea lovie! i’ll get your pens from the suitcases”

you had spent all your time in the afternoon while your mummy trained making vic a card, drawing yourself on it with vic and all of her favourite things — that you could remember that is.

you wanted it to be perfect, and after training you asked your mummy to help you write what you wanted in it.

your mummy writing it while you told her what to write. you making sure to add your own little personalisation into it.

vic was one of the last ones out of training, having went to make a trip to see the physio. just to get a ice pack for the small bruise you had given her on the side of her eye,

your mummy had told you to leave it on her bag, so you doing as you were told you did just that.

mummy was in a strange hurry to leave training you weren’t quite sure why, but you did as you were told. putting your shoes and jumper on when asked before holding tightly onto your mummy’s hand. saying bye to couple of arsenal girls that had managed to get back to the changing room.

your mummy lead you to the front of where you had been training, stopping in the front lobby. as you looked up and asked why.

“just waiting for a second lovie, then we can go on a walk” your mummy smiled as she looked around the lobby.

“can we go to the park?” you asked with hopeful smile, you had seen one on the coach on the way to the hotel and it looked pretty cool and had things you hadn’t seen in the park near your house in london.

“maybe, we’ll see” mummy said quickly as you frowned a little. you hated when people older than you would respond to you with that as it usually meant no, and that was no fun to you.

but the frown was quickly turned around into a smile as your mummy pointed to someone coming around the corner, you gasped as you realised just who it was.

"uncle gio!" you called out excitedly as he lifted you up in the air, throwing you slightly as giggles escaped you as he caught you. your mummy stood recording the whole interaction.

"hey kiddo, you've gotten so big since i last saw you!" gio smiled as you nodded proudly starting to babble how you'd grown and show him how much with your hands.

"i heard you've been causing some trouble!" gio whispered as you gave him a blank smile back, moving your head to face your mummy who's eyebrows were raised.

"i think we are still adjusting to the new time zone in australia, but still we've had a little chat and tomorrows a new day isn't it lovie!" alessia have you a small smile as you nodded your head before resting it on gio's shoulder.

your mummy and your uncle gio began to talk as gio carried you walked through the streets of melbourne. your mummy claiming she wanted to go shopping as you felt comfort in your uncles arms, pointing things out as he gave you a reassuring nod and smile.

but before you had even got to the first shop, you had fell into a trap of dreams. your eyes had felt heavy when walking past a cute little coffee shop but that's the last thing you remember before your eyes, which had felt heavy since the moment you woke up, closed.

"wait- what how on earth have you done that..." your mummy stopped before entering the first shop, noticing you had fallen asleep, something she had been trying all day to get you to have a short nap.

"done what?" gio looked at alessia with a confused look not quite sure what she meant. he hadn't done anything except walk along the streets with you in his arms.

"got her to sleep!"

"cause i'm an amazing uncle duh!" gio laughed once he realised, alessia shaking her head at her older brothers cockiness.

"well she's got half an hour for a nap, you can be in charge of waking her up" alessia smiled sarcastically before continuing.

"and with those amazing uncle skills i’m sure you'll have no problem with lovie's grumpiness when you have to wake her up" alessia continued, the same smile still plastered on her face as she tapped her brother on the back before leaving him to go and look in a shop.

alessia

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alessia eventful few days😅 tiny on tour continues🛫🧳🦘

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[spacebaby1]

MY BEAUTIFUL SON (PART 2) (Gojo Satoru × Mom!Reader Ft: Megumi)

"Gumi, come here," he ran towards you jumping in your arms, your four years old was already impatient to run around in the huge backyard and play.

"Ahu, he can't stop running?" Gojo chuckled walking towards both of you and ruffling Megumi's black hair, your son groaned but giggled followed when his father messed his already messy hair, "Don't do that to his beautiful hair," you fixed Megumi's hair; to no use it kept standing up like it was since he was a baby. "Ya, my strongest boy." Gojo gently pinched his son's cheeks. You slapped his hand away, "Don't hurt my precious little boy," you pouted, earning a pout from Megumi as he laid his head on your chest.

A hand on your shoulder made you flinch awake to look around; you were in Megumi's bed. You turned towards the person who woke you up, Gojo's mother, "you need to eat something, the guests are gone." You shook your head still holding Megumi's uniform shirt in other hand, "I am not hungry, Ma." She sat on the bed beside you and gently took your empty hand in hers, "My Dear, there aren't enough words to console a child's loss. Megumi was-"

"Please don't say was, don't talk about him like h-he like h-h-he's g-gone," your breathing hitched as you tried to speak in a low voice, you looked at her with puffy tearful eyes, "I want to hold my son in my arms again, I just need to see him smile, i-i-i would give my life for him, why not me? Why him? He's a kid-?" You burst into painful cries. Gojo's mother hugged you, gently caressing your hair, "I want my son back, please."

Gojo's mother insisted she stays with you but you told her that you need to be alone and she can go home since she's probably tired, you entered the living-room and sat beside the wall staring at the picture of Megumi with all the flowers around it; he loved flowers so much even though no one knew that about him, your silence was cut short when someone entered the living-room at first you thought it was Gojo but it was Yuji and Nobara; they still haven't left even if it was already ten at night, in all honesty they were scared to leave you alone.

"You didn't go home? It's late" you spoke barley a whisper, you cried your voice out. They both sat beside you on either side, "we didn't want to leave you a-alone," Nobara spoke and you could tell she was fighting back tears from the way she spoke. "Can we stay a little longer, please?" You know they won't leave even if you told them so you nodded and sat there in silence, Nobara was sobbing at this point trying hard to not be loud with her sobs; the kids were tired as much as you were if not more.

Nobara laid her head on your lap, sobbing on your skirt. You tapped gentle hand on her shoulder while Yuji leaned his head on your shoulder crying, and you placed your other arm around his head; letting both kids cry on you. They too missed Megumi and loved him dearly. "Shh, don't cry, you are strong Nobara and Yuji you are my strong boy; don't Cry or Megumi will be angry at both of you." You tried to chuckle but that made them cry even more.

Yuji hugged your side and cried hard, "I am sorry Auntie that I wasn't strong enough to save Megumi, please forgive me-"

Nobara sobbed hugging your lap "I am sorry I wasn’t there, forgive me Auntie."

"Hussh! None of that! Don't you dare think it's either of your fault, don't say those things ever again." You spoke trying hard to not cry yourself, "I could never blame any of you, don't break my heart with such words." They both cried themselves to sleep on your lap that night, Carefully you got up trying to not wake them up, leaving the living-room you saw Satoru sleeping on the doorsteps of the living-room; he was here the whole time and didn't leave your side just too scared to come near you and that you will push him away like you did earlier; you tried to tell yourself that it wasn't fair and he lost a son to but who's plan was it in first place to take Megumi in the fight?

You walked past him and went to your room and brought extra pillow and blankets for the kids; you came back and carefully placed pillow under their heads and blanket on them so they won't get cold; you placed a blanket on Gojo too; you weren't that heartless, just in pain.

Sleep didn't come easy to you and the night felt long just staring at the picture made your heart numb, your phone buzzed and you avoided it but it kept buzzing nonstop, without taking your eyes of the picture you answered the call, "Hello?" Your voice low and full of exhaustion. You were expecting it to be Gojo's mother or one of your friends, but the voice on the other side made your heart stop for a minute when you heard a low answer, "Mama? Where are you?" Your eyes widened and hands shaking in confusion, unable to think if this was a dream or reality. Were you dreaming again? You held the phone with both hands now trying to stop your hands from shaking, "G-Gumi? Megumi? Baby? Is that you?" There was a shuffle, and this time it wasn't Megumi. It was another voice you recognised well, "Y/n? It's shoko, come down to hospital now, I called Satoru but he's - "

"S-Sh-Shoko was th-that, I-" you got up hurried out of the room almost tripping over your feet when you shook Gojo to wake up him up and immediately he jumped awake noticing your shaking figure infront of him with your phone in your hand, "Sa-Satoru tak- the the the hospital-Shoko, she she i- Gumi I he-heard hi-Megumi, my, ou-" you could barely breath let alone speak and it was terrifying Satoru as he held you gently, "Hey, calm down, shh, Hey," he brushed your hair off your face, "Breath darling, Breath-" you shoved the phone in his hand and he finally noticed it was on call, "hello? Shoko?" You noticed how his tired eyes widened, "W-we'll be the- Come on, Darling, are you okay? Breath," he shut the phone before helping you stand and you urged him to walk. He glanced inside the living-room; the kids were asleep, he grabbed your hand and ran out of the door barely able to process what Shoko just told him over the call.

You were shaking in the passenger seat as Satoru drove insanely, luckily there weren't many cars at two in the morning, Satoru could hear your loud hitched breathing. The ten minutes drive to the hospital felt like hours until Satoru parked the car in the most uncommon way before getting out and help you out as you both literally ran inside the hospital to where Shoko was.

You got closer to the door and felt your legs go numb breathing heavily you pushed the doors open and felt your heart stop for a minute. There stood Shoko beside your son; he sat on the table dressed in hospital gown; your Megumi, your son was sitting infront of you looking absolutely exhausted, his eyes were barely open, you felt as if you will just wake up and it will all be a dream but you kept walking with heavy steps feeling your legs numbing with each step but that feeling stopped when Megumi smiled at the sight of you and you ran to gather him in your arms.

"Gumi, oh my boy, why did you leave? Why did you make your Mama cry?" You cried holding him closer, Megumi knew that the deal he made with Sukuna whatever it was, it was worth it because he was back in his mother's arms, "Oh my child, My beautiful boy, you scared me." He hugged you tight, "I'm so sorry Mama, I would never do it ag-"

"OF COURSE THERE WILL BE NO AGAIN!" You pulled away and looked at him, he smiled weak at you and you planted kisses all over his face, forehead, and hair over and over the hugging him, "I was so scared Mama, I w-was so sac-"

"Shhh, you're here with me, Mama is here," Megumi couldn't shake the fear and the darkness that he felt for the last few hours. Is this how it feels to die?

Megumi looked behind you as he lifted his head from your shoulder, he saw his father standing there, eyes coverd in tears not saying a word, he had the look of guilt, fear and relief in his eyes all together, "D-Dad," Megumi called causing you to gently to pull away from Megumi to turn and look at Gojo.

Gojo sobbed worse than Yuji and Nobara when he took Megumi in his embrace, "Gezz old man, don't remember seeing you cry like that before" Megumi joked hugging his father back resting his head on his chest, "I'm sorry Gumi, my boy, I am so sorry I am an idiot an absolute useless of a father and I'm so sorry I let that happen to you, oh God. I am sorry please forgive me, I should've known better, I should've never let you near that damn school that damn life. I'm so proud of you, I love you and I would die for you in a heartbeat if you tell me to do that right now. Gumi! Please don't you ever leave me again like that, I will die without you, don't do that to your Mama, I don't want to see her in pain like that ever again."

Megumi held on Satoru's jacket and cried, he never seen his father upset let alone sob like that; it broke his heart to see his father like that. "It was my fault, all mine, I should've left when you told me to, I would never disobey your words Dad, I was so sacred."

"You went there on your own?" You asked in a whisper and Megumi nodded looking at you still holding on his father, "D-Dad told me to leave again and again b-but I wanted to help, I-I couldn't leave Dad alone, I'm sorry." All this time and everything you said to Satoru and not once he said that he wasn't the reason Megumi was gone; even when he's son wasn't there Satoru refused to rat him out on you, this made you remember all the times Gojo took the blame from things Megumi did; especially accidentally breaking things.

Gojo pulled away letting Megumi reach for you and hugging you, "You'll never ever, ever do a thing like that ever again, I can't lose you again, Megumi, I can't." Shoko had gathered some clothes for Megumi to change before she went away after you talked for a while; she too had a long day. Few minutes later Megumi got out and immediately hugged your side as the three of you walked to your car.

"Mama, can you stay with me here? Please?" Megumi asked as you helped him to backseat, you looked at Gojo and he nodded before closing the door when you got in beside him, he immediately nuzzled into you; it was clear that Megumi was still scared. Gojo took of his jacket and placed it over Megumi before getting in the drivers seat and starting the car, you swear that you saw a faint black line on Megumi's arm that disappeared as the moment it showed up as you were holding his hand and he had his head nuzzled on your shoulder. Satoru made sure to drive carefully this time.

You really didn't want to wake Megumi up when you reached home, so you sat there in the car for few minutes before Satoru turned to you and nodded, carefully you woke Megumi up, "Sweetie, we are home," he blinked nodding as he got up.

Megumi was holding onto you as he walked still limping a bit and few faint bruises on his face that were still there, Gojo races to open the door but it was flung open, "MEGUMI!" Both Yuji and Nobara pushed Gojo away and jumped to hug Megumi earning a grunt from him as they both lunched on him crying their eyes out. Shoko had texted Yuji when he woke up to find both of you gone and she told him everything.

"WHERE DID YOU GO?" Nobara sobbed

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?" Yuji cried.

"WE ARE SO SORRY MEGUMI!" They both cried. Megumi hugged them both even though he wasn't able to move a lot, "WE LOVE YOU, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US, MEGUMI." Nobara cried causing Megumi to chuckle, "I'm Home, don't cry you two silly, I won't go anywhere." You hardly were able to help him walk since Nobara and Yuji refused to left go of Megumi as he walked; they basically held him inside and he stopped when he saw his picture covered with flowers in the living-room; people came for him?

"I'll remove that in the morning," Satoru placed a gentle hand on Megumi's hair, "you need to rest now, okay?" He nodded when Nobara and Yuji walked him to his room as you followed behind. When the kids were gone you grabbed Satoru by the hand and walked inside the living-room shuting the door behind you, and you slapped his shoulder causing him to jump in confusion and you slapped his shoulder again and again, "W-what did I do?" He asked, confused. "Why didn't you tell me? Why? Why didn't you tell me that you told "Megumi to leave"? Huh? Why did you not tell me the truth?" You asked, trying to keep your voice low, and it cracked when you asked him, "Why did you let me say all those things to you, Satoru?" You grabbed his jackets collar, "I was so mean to you, I screamed at you, said horrible things to you," your hand let go of his collar and now rested on his face as he sat on the couch arm looking at you, "I would never want to blame our son, never." You hugged him to your chest, "I am sorry I said such horrible things to you. Please forgive me-"

"Darling, I love you." He kissed your hand and you smiled with tears in your eyes, "I love you, you idiot." He chuckled, playing with your finger he spoke, "Let's go, leave this place, somewhere far away, I am done being the strongest, I am done sacrificing my life and I los-i almost lost our son for nothing, let's go, okay?" You nodded hugging him, "Yes. Satoru, we'll leave as far as we can. I just want to be with my two beautiful boys." You kissed his hair before resting you cheek on his head.

Megumi was sitting in the middle of his bed while Yuji and Nobara had their arms wrapped all over him on his either side; he seemed so unbothered with their actions; instead he had his arms wrapped around them both as they spoke to him.

Even when they wanted to stay awake it was already early morning and Nobara was half asleep on Megumi; still not letting go of him, "Ha, Yuji you should sleep and we should let Nobara sleep too, she can barely keep her eyes open." He gently tapped her head to which she shook her head groaning, "N-No, we can stay awake," Yuji got up and helped Nobara up as you and Satoru got their futon in Megumi's room because he asked you too and they were for sure not leaving him anytime soon, "Yeah, you need to sleep and we should let Megumi rest." You Told Nobara to which she nodded before getting on her futon and you placed her blanket on. Yuji came round to hug Megumi one last time before going to his bed, you came and sat beside Megumi's bedside, "you okay?" You brushed his hair to side and he nodded, "I'm just happy to be home,Mama." You kissed his forehead, "I'm happy you are home, sleep well sweetheart. Call for us if you need anything, okay sweetheart?" He nodded before he got under the covers and with the the three of them were fast asleep.

Every move, every word made Sukuna fum with anger. How could you be so nice? How can a mother be this sweet? Megumi was too tired to feel it when Sukuna took over, and got up making his way towards the living-room, he sat down and scoffed at all the flowers that were placed for Megumi, Sukuna knew that people in his village probably celebrated when he was killed and sealed away.

You were fast asleep when you opened your eyes to find Megumi making his way to the living-room so you got up looking at the clock it was still four in the morning and pretty dark outside. The lights were off in the living-room but you could make up that Megumi was sitting on the floor in front of his picture; unaware that it wasn't your son but the king of curse himself; Sukuna. He saw you made your way beside him and gently resting your hand on his head before sitting beside him, "couldn't sleep?" You asked looking ahead just like him, he didn't dare to speak but just shook his head, you hummed motioning for him to rest his head on your lap; he turned his face to look at you and you did the same but luckily for him, you couldn't see much in dark. Your eyesight problems prevents you from seeing anything in dark even the dark marks on your Son's face that belonged to Sukuna but he saw your gentle smile and without thinking he placed his head on your lap, as if it was Megumi's body reacting on your words; after all you were his mother.

You gently soothed his hair, and hummed a song then you softly spoke, "From the moment you were born, you became the sunshine in my life I was so happy when I found out I'm gonna have a baby, from the moment they put you in my arms, it became my life's work to keep you from harm," you chuckled, "you were so little and I was scared that a harm will come to you but you are strong just like your dad and even more, don't tell him I said that. I never had much in my life, never had the love of a parent in my life, you changed that but I wanted to give you all my love, I never want anything to happen to you, and I know you're grown now, but my heart doesn't realize that. In my heart, you will always be my sweet baby boy, my sweet boy. I want you to know how proud I am of you and how much you mean to me, You are the best gift I've ever received. God blessed me with you, and I would want to be your Mama in every lifetime." You leaned down and kissed the top of Megumi's head, but Sukuna was the one who reserved it. He blinked when he realised that he had tears rolling down his eyes. Why was he crying? Is it because his parents never wanted him in the first place because he was a monster? He wanted to snap your neck then and there; he knew that was a lie. You were a perfect mother that he didn't have.

"...Ma," he whispered and you soothed his hair, "yes, Darling?" You answered to which he shook his head and just snuggled to you as you hummed to him till he fell asleep, slowly the dark lines faded away from Megumi's face as he slept.

[pawnshopbleus]

𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐜 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐞

Doctor!Abby Anderson x Fem!Reader

Summary - After a busy day at the hospital, all Abby wants to do is go home to her pretty wife.

Contains - lesbians being lesbians, domestic fluff, kind of erotic, reader is giving top energy

Authors Note - I wrote this at 2 am. Let’s hope I don’t regret this when I wake up. Enjoy.

AS soon as Abby stepped into the threshold of your shared home, she sighed as the scent of freshly baked cookies hit her nose. The familiar scent of snickerdoodle cookies enveloped her in warmth.

This is exactly what she needed after the day she had. Several hours of code blues, angry patients, sick babies, and a lost tampon can cause someone to go a little bit crazy. Abby has constantly reminded herself of the reason why she chose this profession. She likes helping people. Mean or nice, young or old, everyone deserves the right to health care.

Abby slipped her shoes off and placed her coat on the rack. Abby’s bare feet padded along the cold floor as she walked over to you in the kitchen. She stood there in the doorframe just watching you, admiring you. You looked absolutely stunning as you followed the same steps over again.

Abby’s presence was too strong for you not to notice her standing in the doorframe, but you simply chose to ignore it, focusing on the task at hand. Your hands worked as they rolled dough into little balls, dropped them into the cinnamon-sugar mixture, placed them on a baking tray, and added that tray to the warm oven. A batch of cookies was already baking in the oven, making the house smell like a bakery.

“How was your day, Doctor?” you asked without looking.

And suddenly, all the stress from the entire day washed away as she heard your voice. It was like a siren’s song: sweet, melodic, and alluring. She could listen to you talk all day.

“Busy,” Abby sighed.

She wrapped her arms around you and placed her head on the open space between your neck and your shoulder. Abby closed her eyes and just enjoyed being close to you after being gone for so long.

One would think that Abby had been away at war for twelve years by the way she clinged to you. You were her lifeline, her soul, her everything. She slaved away at work so that you wouldn’t have to work another day in your life. You never went without anything. The four birkin bags in your closet serve as a testimony to that.

You swivel around in Abby’s grasp. Now, you’re face to face with her, your lower back is digging into the counter. Your hands are covered in cookie dough and specks of cinnamon and sugar. Your left hand cups Abby’s cheek as your thumb swipes over her lips. The look in Abby’s eyes tells you that she knows what you want. She opens her mouth, swiping her tongue over the pad of your thumb. Cinnamon and sugar coat the inside of her mouth and she closed her eyes in satisfaction.

You retract your thumb from her mouth, giving her cheek a light pat. You walk over to the sink with a little pep in your step and wash your hands, letting the rest of the dough, cinnamon, sugar, and saliva run down the drain.

Abby watches as you walk away. She’s a little tired and dazed, but she doesn’t know if it’s from the hospital or from you. Either way, she’s not complaining.

You turn around from the sink, hands still wet. There’s a glint in your eyes that she recognizes all too well.

“Abby, honey, can you get me the glasses from the top shelf? I want to open the wine we’ve been saving.”

Abby frowns, not expecting that. “I thought we were saving that for a special occasion.”

“This is a special occasion. It’s the day you finally let me top you.”

[sunnybunnyy2]

Father Knows Best

Daryl Dixon x platonic!reader

Negan Smith x daughter!reader

WORD COUNT: 4.2k

TIME: season 7

Warnings: imprisonment, swearing, mentions of Daryl’s abuse, mentions of savours, transpires in season seven, spoilers for season seven of the walking dead, possible typos and bad writing

CHAPTER 3 to the Dark Cell Series

Not much Daryl in this one, sadly, but he will be in it much more next chapter!

Series Masterlist Official Masterlist

This one came out way quicker than the second and I’m sorry for that, but I am beginning to get into a regular posting times! So here it is!!

Your eyes were forced open when you heard the loud pounding of a fist consistently colliding against your door.  

You let out a groan as your senses began to kick in, the once blackness that you were seeing behind your eyelids was replaced with the bright light that shined through the window that was meant to be covered by your curtain but you had been growing even more tired since your visits with Daryl. 

It had made sense. Normally you would be asleep before the second night shift, so around 11 pm, but now you couldn't fall asleep until around 3 am, sometimes even 4.

That paired with the times that you had to wake up each morning had given you a maximum of four hours a night. Then you had to work all day and repeat the cycle again and again. 

You couldn't risk falling asleep before you met Daryl, knowing that he would starve that night, and that thought alone kept your mind racing all day. 

You constantly wondered how he was doing at the hands of your father. You wondered if he was being beaten, even if the old bruises on his face had started to fade you knew it wasn't long until they would reappear again. 

You wondered what else Dwight was forcing him to do. You couldn't really put anything past him. 

You used to admire how kind he was to others and how kindly he would treat his wife, Sherry, and her sister, Tina. But ever since Tina had been killed when they had escaped the sanctuary over a month ago and he had faced the wrath of her father, he hadn't been the same.

You knew it was because of his wife. Sherry had offered to become your father's wife to spare Dwight's life. 

You didn't agree with your father having multiple wives especially so soon after your mother's death. It had been just over two years and he was pretending she didn't exist. He was coercing women into being his wife, in hopes of filling the dark that was left after your mother had taken her own life. 

You could see how their presence in his life wasn't providing in the way he had hoped it would. You could see it in his eyes. 

He was miserable. So he was bringing pain onto other people to make himself feel better. You didn't agree with his ways of coping but it's not like you could change his mind. He was a grown man and could certainly make his own choices.

He knew where you stood and what he chose to do with that was up to him, you supposed. He knew you weren't a fan of his 'marital' status so he kept it as far away from you as possible. Making sure that he never showed affection to them around you, making sure they stayed out of your way. But that wasn't the issue. You did like his wives, they were kind to you. Always making sure you were okay. Never talking about your father around you. 

You had felt like his wives were a majority of your closest friends. When you pushed back the fact that they were sleeping with your father.

You tugged the sheets off of your body roughly as you jumped to your feet after realizing that the knocking wasn't getting any quieter.

You pulled your shirt down from where it had been yanked up in your sleep from your turning as you walked towards the door before jerking it open, causing the knocker to stumble slightly as they fell forward, making it clear that they were leaning against the door as they waited for a response. 

"Jesus," she spoke your name as she caught herself from falling to the hard ground. "Your dad wants you. Said you had something you wanted to talk to him about." Laura informed you as she looked at you with a blank face but you knew her facial features well enough from the two years you had known her to tell that she was confused about what you had to talk to your father about. You had always confided in her about the way you felt about your father. 

The disappointment and frustration but also about how you missed the old times between your family. About how you missed your old father and how you missed the comfort your mother had brought you before she died.

She had also spoken about how she missed her parents as well and even though her situation wasn't remotely the same, she still understood what it felt like to be a younger girl who just wanted her parent's love and affection. 

"Yeah, yeah...um where is he?" You asked as you ran a hand through your hair in an attempt to smooth out some of the tangles. 

"In his room. You better get ready, he ain't got all day." Laura sent a nod your way before sending you a half smile, clearly as tired as you as she was sent to do more work around the sanctuary. She never seemed to have time to rest. She was constantly either at Negan's aid or on watch somewhere around the sanctuary. 

"Sir, yes sir." You saluted.

"You wish I was a sir?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Nah, you're just fine to look at now." You smiled slyly.

"Jesus, you're just like your father." She shook her head with a smirk. 

"Damn, Laura. You wound me. Seriously that was so hurtful." You half-joked as you wiped away imaginary tears as you turned your head away from her. 

"I take that back, you're way better." She shrugged as she spoke the truth that everyone at the sanctuary thought. Though you had always assumed some of the saviours had befriended you because of Negan wasn't entirely true. Sure some did in hopes of earning extra points for themselves and their families, but most just genuinely thought that you were one of the good ones. That you could possibly be able to persuade your father to change his ways. 

"Alright. I forgive you, Laur. Even if you started my day off with a fucking headache." You spoke as you rubbed your temple, your words earning a very 'unladylike' snort from Laura as she started to back away from your room and down the hallway. 

"My pleasure, Miss. Smith." She saluted before she turned around and quickened her pace to her shift which she was surely late from, leaving you to stare at the hallway wall as you mentally prepared yourself for the conversation you were about to have with your father, knowing it could go two ways. Well, which was the unlikely scenario or, Awful which you were leaning towards. 

And that's how you ended up here. Sat at the table with your father as he settled in his seat after having poured himself a small glass of bourbon. 

You watched as Potter, a worker in the sanctuary, placed two plates of eggs, home fries and some ham on top of the table for you two. You sent a smile his way as he nodded at you and your father before turning to make his exit, but your father's voice stopped him. 

"Oh, Mr. Potter..." Your father spoke in a sing-song voice as tapped his fork on the table. 

"Yes, Negan?" He asked as he turned back to the pair of you. A trail of sweat hastily coming down his brow, as his anxious eyes flicked between you and your father in hopes of getting a read on your body language.

"I think you forgot something." He pointed to his empty cup of water before snapping his fingers as if the second after he spoke lasted an hour. "Today." He rolled his eyes as the man rushed over to pick up the pitcher of water and pour it into his cup.

"Would you like some as well, ?" He spoke your name as he turned to look at you. Your father's glass now filled with ice water. 

"Of course, she wants some. What do you think, she wants to eat your dry ass food without having something to wash it down with." Your father let out a laugh as if it was the funniest thing in the world all while glaring the poor man down, who was practically shaking in his boots.

"No thank you, Potter." You managed to smile softly at him as if to calm him. Your body lowered down slightly as your body inadvertent shrank into yourself in embarrassment at how your father was treating the kind man.

Your demeanour didn't seem to put the man at ease as he still looked as though he was about to stroke out, which apparently was hilarious to your father as he let out a booming chuckle from deep in his throat, his rough and deep voice spoke from behind his pearly white teeth. 

"Jesus, man. I'm just joking. It's just a jokey, joke. Holy fuck," he spoke your name, "did you see his fucking face? He looked like he was going to piss his pants." He laughed before looking at the floor as though he was looking to see if the older man had done just that. 

"That will be all, Potter. Thank you." You looked away from your father to face the middle-aged man before nodding to the door, not quite able to hide your anger well, causing him to look to Negan for permission.

Your father watched you with amusement glimmering in his big brown eyes, clearly finding your annoyance entertaining, before he nodded, still looking at you as he spoke. "Do you need her to tell you again? Leave. Now." Without wasting a second he scurried out of the room, probably to go cry in the corner somewhere. Your father seemed to always have that effect on people. 

"Did you really have to scare him away? I was gonna get him to cut up my meat." He laughed.

"You're a grown-ass man. I think you can do it yourself just fine." You narrowed your eyes at him, watching as his eyes widened slightly before they were amused again, a small laugh leaving his lips.

"You really are my kid, ain't ya."

You guys sat in silence for a minute. You glaring at him and him trying to hide the merriment in his eyes.

"If you've got something to say, baby, just spit it out." He said as he crossed his arms while leaning back in his seat, eyes studying your face. 

"What is wrong with you?" You asked with anger clear in your voice as you shook your head.

"Well, sweetheart, I have a lot of things wrong with me so you're gonna have to be more specific." 

"You know what I'm talking about, Dad. That. How you treat people." You scoffed at his attempt at humour, normally you would laugh at his stupid attempts at making you laugh but now, when he humiliated people for a good laugh, your blood would quite literally boil in your skin. 

"I was just having a little fun. He doesn't mind." He dismissed as he laughed, shaking his head before he began using the fork he was still gripping to take a substantial bite of his over-easy eggs.

"It's not a 'little fun', Dad. You scared him half to death. Does it not make you feel bad when you treat people like shit?" You shook your head in disbelief.

"No, it doesn't. I'm in charge. Im not treating anyone like shit here. Do you see all that I do for these people? What I provide for them." His face grew annoyed at your words.

"Yeah, Dad. I do. But you can help keep these people safe without treating them like shit. You don't need to make them fear you to keep them sa-" He cut you off before you could finish your sentence but you could tell by his tone that you got your point across.

"They need to fear me to stay in line. That's what I do. I keep them in line. How else do you think we're still standing? If I become buddy, buddy with them they'll think they can get away with shit they just can't get away with."

"You can be a decent person and still have loyal followers. I mean, shit, how do you think half the groups still alive are operating?" You tried to mile your tone down as you began cutting up your ham. 

"You mean the groups we're gonna take over? They won't be operating like that for long." He shook his head in dismissal before wiping away the yellow egg yolk that had dropped into his pink lips.

"But why can't you form alliances with other groups? Instead of controlling them?" You tried to reason.

"Look, hunny. I love you, okay? But I don't tell you how to lead your little posey so don't fucking tell me how to lead mine." He said angrily before taking hold of his glass of bourbon and gulping down all of its contents. 

"You do realize you just called you and your people pretentious, right? I do think it fits, though." You snorted as you took a small bite of your scrambled eggs. 

"What did you want to talk to me about? I have things I need to get done." He rubbed a hand over his face in annoyance.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know having a conversation with your daughter was such a burden." You shook your head as you began to stand up but we're stopped when your father grabbed your arm.

You looked over expecting to see a look of anger on your father's face but sat back down when all you saw was remorse for his words that were obviously taken out of context but they had hurt you nonetheless, as that was what he hated the most. Hurting you.

"You know what I meant. I love talking to you, you know that, don't act like you don't. Tell me what you want to talk about, baby. Please." He pulled his and away and picked up his fork, signalling for you to speak. 

"What is that community called?" You asked as you picked up the pitcher of water, not missing the look your father sent you that practically said, 'You should have just gotten Potter to do that' but you just brushed it off, knowing you were more than capable of pouring your own cup of water.

"Who am I? Fucking Professor X? You're going to have to be more-"

"That new community. The one you took a prisoner from." You specified, know that was his next word.

"How the hell do you know about that?" He asked with slight anger. He had tried to keep you as far away from his duties as much as he possibly could. 

He had constantly restricted you from leaving the sanctuary in hopes of keeping you alive and blissfully unaware of his actions, knowing that he had shaped his men well enough that they knew they needed to die for you. 

"Everyone knows about it. You don't exactly keep it under wraps. I can hear you boost about it from my room. Your voice travels." You studied him, wanting to make sure he wasn't going to try and keep something from you.

"Huh, so I've been told." He shrugged as he then began to study you, checking to see if he could notice any alternative motives. You could only hope he didn't.

"So?"

"Why do you wanna know anyway?" He questioned.

"I'm just curious. Sick of the gossip and rumours, just want to know what's going on. That's all." You attempted to play it off, hoping he didn't notice the slight quiver in your voice.

"I hate gossipers too. They seem to be everywhere, don't they." He replied as he squirted some ketchup onto his cooling grilled potatoes.

"Yeah, they do... so...?" You pressed, hoping he would stop beating around the bush and just reveal what you were wanting to know.

"Alexandria. It's a nice place but the people make it a fucking shit hole, their leader, Rick, is a joke. A fucking pussy if I've ever known one. Hell, I bet Potter could take him in a fight. Truly it's embarrassing." He ranted as he rolled his eyes, his fork scraping against his plate as if the sheer thought of Daryl's leader, Rick, had brought him so much rage that he had to take it out on the plate.

"So is there a lot of people there?" You asked, trying to sound casual.

"Two-hundred and thirty-four." He revealed causing her to tense.

"So we have more." It was a statement rather than a question.

"By a landslide, baby. We have five hundred and four through all of our outposts. In any way, we outrank them. You know what's hilarious? Their leader is so hellbent on killing me even though he knows my people could wipe his people out in a blink of an eye. Everything with that guy is a dick-measuring contest. But he should know by now that he's not gonna win in that department." He laughed once again forgetting that his daughter was sitting across from him. 

Your eyes rolled as he once again found a way to boost about himself.

"Jesus, your daughter is right here!" You exclaimed as you rolled your eyes. Sometimes he was such a child, you thought. If your mother was here she would beat him with her shoe.

"Sorry, sorry. But hey, I want to show you something." He said as he wiped his mouth with a cotton napkin, before placing it on top of his now empty plate, the streaks of ketchup and yellow remained.

Your food on the other hand was still half full, but you knew your father would have somebody wrap it up for you to eat tomorrow as he knew that it took you at least an hour after waking up to be able to eat. 

As you guys walked you caught sight of a man with long dark hair and a broad frame hunched over a mop. You didn't clue in until you saw Dwight roughly grab the man to make him continue his moping a little way ahead. 

It was Daryl.

You didn't have much time to react before your father was speaking again, drawing their attention.

"Dwighty boy, what do we have here?" Your father said as he stopped beside Dwight, smirking down at Daryl as he watched him silently continue his task, his head angled downward.

"Just Daryl, doing what he's told," Dwight spoke with a slight smile while watching Daryl.

Your father let out a booming laugh and you could see Daryl pause his movements for a moment having to mentally restrain himself from physically pouncing on him. 

You knew if he were to break loose you couldn't really blame him. Your father had put him through hell, but that's what he was. Your father. You couldn't let anything thing happen to him, no matter how much you understood how he was feeling.

"You missed a spot." Your father said as he watched the slightly shorter man conceal his anger with delight, clearly enjoying the inner battle that was going on inside of him. Your father kept his eyes on Daryl as he tipped his bourbon bottle on the floor, the dark liquor mashed with the newly clean floor. The half-drunken bottle now sized down a noticeable amount, he laughed again before he shoved the bottle into Dwight's chest. "Here, buddy. You deserve it." Your father tore his eyes away from Daryl before looking up at you, noticing the beyond-dirty look you were sending his way. 

"Thanks, boss." Dwight nodded as he clutched the bottle.

"Get back to work, you mutt." Your father smiled at Daryl but you could tell it was forced as he roughly patted his shoulder in a condescending way before making his way back over to you, sensing your unease about what he was doing.

He nodded at you to follow him before he began to stroll back down the hallway. You followed but your eyes were still trained on Daryl.

Your heart pounded in your chest when he turned his head slightly, watching Negan go before his eyes found you. 

They narrowed once he caught sight of you. You couldn't quite read the look that took over his emotionless face but you knew he didn't feel joy in seeing you with Negan. 

You saw flashes of rage, confusion and a flash of fear? 

Your eyes were locked on each other before Dwight harshly shoved Daryl back to his task which he complied with but at a slower pace, as if his mind was processing the fact that he had seen you outside of his cell with Negan of all people. 

You waited a moment before you turned back around, and in that moment you saw Dwight studying the two of you in confusion.

You hurriedly turned forward to look at your father's back as you turned the corner finally making your way into the kitchen. The one you had found yourself in more often than ever.

"Ta-da," your father said in an overdramatic voice, a wide smile on his face as he waved a hand towards a big a machine that was shaking as it operated, the small, shiny window was wet with condensation. 

"Holy-shit! Is that what I think it is?" You exclaimed in an excited tone as you practically hopped over to the machine in pure astonishment.

"Well, I sure as shit hope I didn't have seven of my men working themselves into the ground carrying this piece of shit back here all for it not to be the fucking ice cream machine that I've been askin' for, for a fuckin' year?" He spoke as you leaned back slightly as if to amplify his words. 

You let out a yell of excitement as you ran into your father's arms, his arms wrapping around your upper back as you tucked your head into his chest. You could feel his smile as he rested his forehead on top of your scalp.

It was moments like these that you missed. The pure moments of a father and daughter showing care for one another. Sure you were still angry with him for what he did to Daryl just minutes ago and for all the bad he was doing, but you couldn't spoil this moment.

The moment that your inner child craved to have.

The moment you were robbed of one too many times. 

You wondered if the sadness could be shown in your eyes. The longing for the love of your parents. 

You knew that Laura could see it. Just as you could see your sadness as well. It was like an understanding for the two of you. You both didn't get to experience much love from your parents, her from way before the outbreak and you, after.

You knew that your mother wasn't at fault for not being there for you. You knew that if she could be here, she would. That's just who she was. She would never miss any of your important achievements and even your minor ones, she always made sure to show up, no matter how much shit she would get at work. She would take all the yelling from her boss just to see your smile when you noticed she was there. 

Your father tried his hardest to be there but most of the time something else was always more important. You were always left having to deal with his half-ass excuses as to why he couldn't show up; only to find out that he was too busy fucking your godmother aka your mother's best friend.

You weren't sure how your mother could forgive him after all the stress he had caused her in the early stages of her cancer, but you knew it was most likely because of how much she loved him.

You had never quite seen someone treat their significant other as well as your father did when he found out about your mother's diagnosis.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" You chanted pulling away from your father to look at the grey and blue machine again causing your father to laugh at you, even though he was feeling elated at the fact that you had enjoyed his little present. 

"So, you want to take it for a spin?" Negan asked with a grin, knowing that he was gonna get a taste of the treat that he had also been craving.

"Do Andie and Ben end up together in 'How to lose a guy in 10 days?' " You asked with a raised eyebrow, a smile on your face. 

"Uh, I don't know, do they?" He asked in confusion, not quite realizing the reference.

"Yes!" You exclaimed before rushing to the ice cream machine, your father hot on your tail.

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[morganski-19]

The One With Mother’s Day

Eddie trips out of his room, rubbing at his eyes, to answer the door. Someone choosing nine in the morning on a Sunday to knock very loudly on their front door.

“Yeah,” he says blearily as the door swings open.

“Eddie, it’s so nice to see you again.” Karen Wheeler says from the other side of the door. “I remember Nancy saying that you moved in with her about a year ago.”

Eddie tries to blink the tired away. “Mrs. Wheeler, hello. Sorry, I didn’t know you were coming to visit.” He steps out of the way so she can enter the apartment.

She walks in and stands awkwardly in the walkway between the kitchen and the living room. “Well, I didn’t know I was coming here until this morning. Is Nancy home?”

“You drove all the way from Indiana to here, that’s quite the trip. And yeah, she’s probably up, hold on a second.”

“Well, it’s been forever since I visited Nancy, and I thought since it’s Mother’s Day, I might spend the day with my daughter. My other kids are either too busy with school or too far to drive so suddenly.”

“Yeah, uh huh,” Eddie mutters as he knocks on Nancy’s door. “Hey, Nance, you up?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Eddie looks back at Karen with a polite smile. “Could I come in for a second?”

“Sure,” Nancy responds suspiciously.

Eddie quickly opens and shuts the door behind him. “Your mother’s here.”

Nancy sits straighter in the chair by her window. Shutting her book and placing it on the small table beside her. “What. She didn’t tell me she was coming.”

“She apparently didn’t even know she was coming until this morning. It’s at least a five-hour drive from home.”

“She got up at four in the morning just to come visit me. Why?”

Eddie shrugs. “Something about Mother’s Day and her other kids being too busy or something. I don’t know. She looked, ok? Like every other time I’ve seen her. But like, with that crazed fluster she would get when Mike’s friends were over, and your dad refused to get off of that lazy boy he had.”

Nancy rolls her eyes. “This could go one of two ways, and I’m not sure either of them will be good.”

She gets up and heads to the living room. Where her mother still stands, hands rubbing together anxiously. “Nancy, I’m sorry to show up out of the blue, I didn’t want to wake you up in the middle of the night with a phone call.”

“That’s ok,” Nancy says with a partially fake smile, giving her mom a hug. “Eddie said you just drove here this morning, you must have left pretty early.”

Karen shrugs. “Yeah, well, you leave early enough, you miss all of the traffic. And the highways are so nice to drive on when no ones around. But, anyway, how are you doing, it’s been a while since we talked.”

“Pretty good. Just working a lot, trying to be able to write something other than stupid tabloids and junk articles. But mom-.”

Eddie groans in the kitchen, opening the empty coffee container. “I’m going to rob Steve and Robin’s for coffee.”

“Ok,” Nancy replies as he shuts the door.

“Steve and Robin still live across the hall,” Karen smiles. “That’s so nice. Do Jonathan and his college friend still live across the street?”

“Argyle,” she reminds. “And yes, they do. Mom-.”

Karen claps her hands. “Oh, I am starving. Why don’t we go out to breakfast? You know, catch up, my treat.”

“It’s Mother’s Day, shouldn’t it be my treat?” Nancy eyes her mother skeptically. Wondering why she really showed up out of nowhere. Got up in the middle of the night just to have a surprise visit.

“Just spending the day with me would be a treat. Go on, get ready, I’ll just wait out here.”

Nancy nods and returns to her room.

-

When Eddie uses his spare key to go into Steve and Robin’s apartment, he expects them both to be asleep. Robin never gets up before noon if she doesn’t have to, and Steve always has the weekends off, so he should be relaxing. Instead, Steve’s sitting in the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear and fingers pinching his nose, pushing his glasses up to his forehead. He barely notices when Eddie enters the apartment.

“No mom, I haven’t seen her since college.” Steve sounds utterly exhausted. “Because we never really talked then either other than that time you came to visit me. Maybe because I’m happy being single. It’s a perfectly respectable job, and I love it. I didn’t want to work with dad.” He sighs as his mom drones on about something. “I didn’t call for this, I called to wish you a happy Mother’s Day. You know, it’s late where you are so how about I let you go. Love you.”

Steve hangs up the phone, placing it face down on the table and letting his head fall into his hands. He stays like that, frozen.

“That didn’t sound fun,” Eddie breaks the silence. Spooning a serving of coffee into a plastic bag.

Steve huffs out a laugh, fixing the glasses on his face and sitting back on the chair. Crossing his arms and shaking his head, avoiding eye contact. “Oh you know, just normal chats with my mother. She can’t go one conversation without trying to set me up with some rich family’s daughter she knows.”

Eddie winces. “Never a nice rich boy in that mix.”

The glare Steve gives Eddie is tired and chilling. “What do you think?”

“I’m sorry.” Eddie sits across from Steve. “Sounds like it sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.” Steve sighs, looking at his phone. “I love my parents, I really do. But sometimes it’s hard to. Especially when they keep trying to set me up with people I don’t even know or get me to change careers. I just wished they respected me more than they did.”

“They should, you have a job you love and so what if you’re single. That’s a pretty great deal if you ask me.”

Eddie’s phone dings.

Nancy: Me and my mom are going out for breakfast

Eddie: Cool, have fun

Nancy: I will try

“If it makes you feel any better, Nancy’s mom showed up unannounced and now they’re going out to breakfast.”

Steve’s eyes widen. “Like she drove here this morning?” Eddie nods in confirmation. “That’s not good.”

“Yeah, I know. Still don’t know why she’s here.” Eddie’s stomach rumbles. “God, I’m starving.”

“I haven’t eaten yet, you want to go get something? Unless you have somewhere else to be.”

Eddie smiles. “I do not. Let me get changed, I’ll meet you in five.”

-

Nancy thanks their waiter when he brings them their food. Silently piercing the yolk of her egg and watching it run over to her hashbrowns. Karen talking for the both of them.

“Have you talked to your brother recently? Him and Will are settling in well over in New York, their place looks nice. Small, but nice. I’ll have to take a trip out there some time to visit them.”

She just nods along to her mother’s ramblings. Watching as she pauses to take a bite and just continues. Always dodging around the subject of why she’s here whenever Nancy tries to ask.

“It’s so nice that they’re still together after all these years. Not that being alone is anything bad. I miss the single life. Well, I never really had that much of a single life. I met your father in high school and that was that. Part of me wishes I had a few years to explore, like you did. Get to live life before having a family.”

“Yeah,” Nancy interrupts. Coldly. “Why are you here mom?”

Karen looks taken aback. “Is it wrong to visit my daughter?”

“No, it’s not. But you’ve never just drove here on a whim. There was always at least a phone call, booking a hotel stay. Not waking up at four in the morning one night and deciding to drive five hours to come visit me.” Nancy softens her face. “This isn’t like you, what’s going on?”

Karens mouth twitches as she places down her silverware. Fiddling with her napkin. “You know how it was you father’s and my anniversary last week.”

Nancy nods, listening.

“Well, he forgot, again, and I didn’t want to make the plans again this year. I wanted him to surprise me like he did when we were young. With none of the kids in the house anymore, it gets kinda lonely me and him. When I asked that morning, he scrambled to make plans but couldn’t get a reservation anywhere until last night. Where we basically had a silent meal, paid, and left. No surprises, no anything.”

“I’m sorry, mom. I know how dad can be with the romantic stuff.”

Karen sighs. “Any stuff. If it wasn’t me doing everything, nothing would get done. We haven’t even slept in the same bed since Mike went off to college, and that was years ago. I thought maybe we could try and rebuild what we had. Guess I was wrong.”

Nancy frowns. “I didn’t know that.”

“How could you? You never really came home once you graduated, on to bigger and better things. Not that I blame you, I am so proud of you and the life you’ve built here. I just, didn’t want to bore you with the problems in my life. In my marriage.”

“You could have. I would have listened.”

“I appreciate that.” Karens pauses, closing her eyes. “I’ve decided to leave your dad, Nancy. That’s why I came out to visit you.”

Nancy can’t say she’s surprised. “I’m sorry, mom.”

“Don’t be. I haven’t been happy in years, we all knew it was coming. I just don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

“Whatever you want,” Nancy smiles. “You get to do whatever you want. Go back to school, get a shitty part time job. Get back out there and find a man you deserve. Find new friends, anything. You get to build a new life.”

Karen smiles, tears shining her eyes. “Well, that’s all true, I guess. Thank you for not judging me for this.��

“I never would.” Nancy goes back to her breakfast. “So, what else would you like to do while you’re in town. I have tomorrow off too.”

“I don’t know. But I am excited to find out.”

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added or taken off) @slowandsteddie, @annieofhearts, @cacdyke, @ubpd, @captain--low,

@thespaceantwhowrites, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @anne-bennett-cosplayer, @lunaticparisianlady,

@apomaro-mellow, @dolphincliffs, @dragonmama76, @maggiebug417, @stevesbipanic,

@fearieshadow, @eightpackdiaz, @au79burger @bookworm0690 , @practicallybegging,

@potato-of-the-lord, @autumncrocusandladybug, @estrellami-1, @ilovecupcakesandtea, @gregre369

@my2amgaythoughts

[bunnliix]

The Invisible Strings that Bind Us - Chapter Four

Chapter four is where we get some more cute fluff, plus some time with danceracha! I hope everyone is enjoying this story as much as I am

word count: 3.2k

masterlist

warnings: emotional boys and y/n, food, mention of gentalia (it's once), I believe that's it!

Chan pulled Minho out to the living room, trying to keep the noise down, so y/n could sleep. The boys heard the two come back, and looked towards the hallway, finding the two oldest coming back in silence. Han giggled when he saw jagiya being dragged by Chan into the main room, the man looked silly.

“Jagiya, what did you do?” He asked the man, getting a lighthearted glare in response, while Chan answered for him.

“He pulled y/n into his room, but she got tired, so she’s sleeping now. And I hope no one will try anything like he did earlier, not until y/n is more comfortable around us and we’ve had a talk about everything. Got it?” He said, staring everyone down. 

Everyone quickly nodded, though there was some pouting and sulking. Chan then let go of Minho, who moved to sit down next to Han. The younger one immediately moved to sit in the elder man’s lap, and Minho’s arms wrapped around his small waist on instinct. This caused Han to smile as he played with Minho’s hands. 

“So what are we going to do tomorrow, we have photoshoots, don’t we?” Changbin brought up, asking Chan.

The leader sighed, “I’m not really sure, I’d say to bring y/n with us, but I’m not sure she’d want to come with us, but since we’d be gone most of the day, I don’t want to confine her here. We’ll ask her when she wakes up, okay?” Chan answered the buff man.

He got a nod in return, and then continued speaking to the rest of them. “Once she’s awake, we’ll talk with her about what she wants to do about us all being soulmates.” He stated. The others agreed much more readily this time around, knowing that before anything else, they need to know how she feels about the situation.

“Since we don’t know when she’ll wake up, should we just go do what we want for now?” Jeongin asked, really wanting to just go lay down for a while.

That was met with enthusiastic yeses from everyone, which then caused laughter from a couple of the younger boys. Chan wanted to go back to their dorms to do some more work, and Han and Changbin agreed with him, the three of them heading back to their own dorm. Meanwhile, Jeongin and Seungmin both wanted to spend some time by themselves, so the two of them left for their respective bedrooms. The remaining three, decided to hang out in Felix’s room, due to y/n sleeping in Minho’s room. 

Laying across Felix’s bed, they chatted about their upcoming schedules, what they were looking forward to doing on their next day off, what they looked forward to with their upcoming comeback among other topics. Eventually they all just settled in, laying on each other as they browsed their phones silently, occasionally showing the others something they found during their browsing of social media or the internet. 

A couple hours later…

Y/n slowly woke up, mind jumbled from sleep as she slowly opened her eyes. Groaning as she woke up, she reached around for her plush animal, confused when she was unable to find it. She sat up, wiped the sleep from her eyes as she looked around and realized she wasn’t in her bed, or her room. She quickly remembered what happened, and stopped panicking, moving to get out of bed and change into the clothes she was wearing earlier. 

She was slightly creeped out by the almost silence in the dorm, and decided to venture out to try and find one of the boys. Making her way back down the hallway into the living area, she found no one. She then presumed they were in their rooms or had gone out, and decided to check down the other hallway, finding one of the doors ajar, and sound coming from behind it.

Lightly knocked on the door, she announced her presence to whoever was inside. She heard three of the boys call out to her, and she entered, finding the three men laying on each other.

“You’re looking comfy there.” She said, giggling.

“Yes we are.” Minho said, deadpanning. 

This caused the other two men to laugh, as Hyunjin beckoned y/n over to them. She walked over to the edge of the bed, and Felix reached out and pulled her into the bed with them, causing her to let out a tiny shout as it happened. She was laying on Hyunjin’s legs, while being chest to chest with Felix. Her wide eyes stared at Felix, not expecting this at all. 

“Hello there.” Was all that the Aussie said, looking at her with his signature smile. 

“And you’ve pulled me here because?” She asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Because I wanted to.” He replied, looking every bit cheeky and proud of himself.

Y/n rolled her eyes, but stayed where she was, content with her situation. Her hand was tugged on and she turned her head to see it was Minho. He silently showed her cat videos, as she laid her head on Felix’s chest, it became too hard to keep her head up. Once the elder man was done showing her videos, he showed her videos of his cute cats, which made her smile. Hyunjin was watching the two of them interact with a smile on his face, he loved seeing her so at ease with them, it made him hopeful for the future. Felix was ignoring everything outside of Bubble, where he was torturing Stays with way too many messages. Eventually, y/n’s phone kept going off, causing her to reach into her pocket and grab it, finding that it was the notifications from Felix’s Bubble.

“Felix, babe, you need to chill with the amount of messages you send on Bubble.” She told him, looking at the amount of notifications she has, just from him.

“Oh? My soulmate has my Bubble? I wonder if I’ve ever replied to your messages then.” He smiled, finding it cute that she was on Bubble.

“I don’t think you ever have, but I’ve mostly just read them, I never really sent too many.”

“Awwwww.” He pouted, sad.

“Jagiya, do you have our Bubbles too?” Minho asked, curious.

“I only have Chan’s and Felix’s, but I’m not sure I’ll need either one now.” She commented, answering the cat man’s question.

Hyunjin huffed, being the dramatic man he is. “You don’t even have anyone but the Aussie line? That’s sad y/nnie.” He pouted alongside Felix.

“You’re all so silly. Why do I need all of your Bubbles now? Hmm? When you’re all my soulmates instead.” She slightly scolded them, but also reminded them that she had the real deal now. She no longer needed Bubble to talk with them.

The boys realized this, and they begrudgingly got over that their soulmate didn’t have everyone’s Bubbles. She giggled at the realization painted on their faces, poking Hyunjin’s cheek, the tall man puffing out his cheeks afterwards, though his cheeks turned red at the girl’s action.

Y/n’s stomach grumbled, and Lino quickly picked up on it. 

“We should order food. Jagiya’s hungry, and so am I.” He said to the others.

“Ohhhh, can we have fried chicken? I’ve been craving it for so long now.” Felix piped up, Hyunjin nodding along with him.

“Y/nnie, do you want chicken?” Hyunjin asked.

“Sure! I’ve never had it before, so it’ll be fun to try it.” She said as she turned to look at the tallest member of danceracha.

“You’ve never had it before? Well that’s it, we’re having it.” Felix decided with an air of finality, daring his hyung to argue with him.

“Fine, we can have chicken. You have to text the group chat about it, and get everyone’s orders while I show our soulmate the menu.” Lino said back to the younger member.

Felix quickly texted the others, while Minho pulled up the menu on his phone, showing y/n what the options were. When asked, he provided his suggestions on what she might like, and she agreed. He collected the orders from the others, and hurriedly placed the order with the restaurant. It would be delivered within 30 minutes and this information was quickly relayed to the others, everyone agreeing to meet back in the maknae dorm’s living room in 20 minutes time. 

The danceracha trio spent their remaining alone time with their newest soulmate by getting to know her, and her life prior to being zapped here. She rambled on about her life in Canada, and the boys were very content to let her do so, it was adorable to watch how happy she became while doing so. She told them about her studies, her friends back home and from around the world, and anything else she could think of. 

All too soon, it was time to head back out to the living room, and the boys groaned at having to share their soulmate's attention again. Y/n pushed herself off of the boys, standing up and stretching, while looking at them grumbling about having to leave the bed.

“Come on grumpy pants, we gotta go meet the rest out in the living room, I can hear them out there already.” She said, grabbing and pulling Hyunjin’s arm to pull the taller man out of bed. She was partially successful, the man sitting up on the bed, then pulling the other two to sit up as well. The girl grinned, happy she was able to at least get them to sit up.

“I’m going out to the living room, meet you there!” She told them, quickly leaving the room and heading down the hallway. 

She retraced her steps until she was back in the living room, finding the other three men had already arrived back to the apartment, and Seungmin and Jeongin had emerged from wherever they went. She moved to sit down on the couch in between Changbin and Han, the two moving to make space for her. 

“Hi guys!” She spoke to all of them, “What were you all up to before this, and while I was asleep?” She queried.

3racha told her about their producing session in Chan’s room at the other apartment, and she got promises out of all three of them to let her listen to what they made. Seungmin and Jeongin’s time was a lot less exciting, as they were just resting in their rooms and decompressing from the day, but it made her happy to hear that they were able to rest, and she told them as much.

The missing three dancers finally emerged from Felix’s room, entering the living room and apart from Lino, sprawled out on the floor, still wanting to be lazy. Frankly, y/n found it adorable, and she was pleased to be able to witness them so relaxed and at ease. She found herself feeling the same way the entire day she’s been with them, just filled with happiness. 

She’s usually awkward around new people, more so when she doesn’t have a familiar face around to rely on, but except for the beginning, she’s felt like she’s known these men for years, that she fits in just like the last piece of a puzzle. It felt so natural and easy to be here, and to tease and play around with them all. It’s like she was a member of Stray Kids, and never just a Stay. Y/n wanted to feel like this all the time, it’s like she was on cloud nine, and she never wanted to come back down to earth. 

She felt her fingers intertwine with someone else’s and looked down to see that it was Han. She looked up at him and smiled softly, happy to be touching some part of one of her soulmates. Changbin, seeing Han’s action, moved to hold her other hand, with y/n turning to smile at him once he did that. Her smile was contagious and both boys grinned back at her, happy to be here next to her. She leaned her head on Hannie’s shoulder, watching the rest of the boys as she held onto the two on either side of her. This was the dream, just spending time with her soulmates, and watching them happy with each other. That’s all she wanted, and she’s finally getting to have it now.

The doorbell ringing stopped everyone in their tracks, and Minho, being the responsible one, goes to answer the door and pay the delivery driver. Chan goes after him, and within a couple minutes, they’re bringing food back into the living room. Lino goes to grab plates for everyone, and once he brings those back, everyone looks at y/n for her to fill her plate first, but she asks one of the others to do it for her, a bit overwhelmed with the amount of food in front of her. Lino grabbed a plate and filled it for her, quickly filling one for himself as well. He moved to sit next to her, holding out a piece of chicken for her to eat, but when she went to grab it from him, he pulled it back.

“He’s trying to feed it to you. Let him do it, it’s the way he shows love.” Han told her. 

She bit the piece of chicken offered to her by the man, and she moaned as she tasted it, unknowingly causing some trouble for the boys, who were affected by her moans. Hyunjin choked on his chicken, attracting the attention of everyone, and y/n looked the most concerned, while the boys knew exactly why he choked. 

“Are you okay, Hyunjin baby?” She asked, slipping in the pet name as a habit she had with her other friends.

Hyunjin coughed, but nodded his head, ears red after being called baby by her. “I’m okay, the food went down the wrong pipe.” He replied.

The girl nodded, going back to eating, being fed different pieces of food to try by the boys, who weren’t going to let Lino be the only one to do so. This was to their detriment, however, as y/n kept making sounds that went straight to their dicks. A few of the boys shifted to try and find a better position, while their newest soulmate was completely unaware of what her actions had done. She was happily consuming her food, loving the taste of the fried chicken, and she was so happy that Felix suggested it. She voiced that to him.

“Ahh, it’s no problem, we’re all enjoying having it because it’s been a while since the last time.” He replied.

They all quickly finished, more than happy for their tiny soulmate to stop moaning, so they could keep their brains from going down a route they didn’t need to go down right now. Han quickly suggested throwing on some music as background music, and it was agreed upon by everyone. Chan threw on a playlist of his as music started flowing out of the speakers in the room.

The conversation wandered for a bit, everyone recounting funny stories, or regaling y/n with stories of their pre-debut days, to which she laughed so much her stomach hurt. Eventually, Chan brought the conversation back to their soulmate group, and asked their newest soulmate if it would be okay to talk about this now. She nodded her assent, and so everyone became a bit more serious.

“So, how do you want to do this, being soulmates with us?” Chan asked, being completely serious.

“I always imagined dating and eventually marrying my soulmate, and that really hasn’t changed since finding out I have eight instead of one. However, I’d like to get to know you all before that, and even though we’re soulmates, I’d still like to date as if we’re not soulmates.” She told them all, looking around. 

The boys agreed with her pretty quickly, but really they’d agree to almost anything just to keep her in their lives. They were really happy that she was open to the idea of dating and being with them romantically, and they were looking forward to dating her, and oh the dates would be so fun. 

“I think it’s clear that we’re all very okay with that. And we’d be more than glad to get to know you, and all of us are happy to hear that from you.” He told their soulmate, grinning so much his cheeks hurt. That same happiness was reflected on the rest of the group of soulmates, each grinning and their hearts filled with happiness.

Chan stood up in front of y/n, grabbing her hands and pulling her up into a tight hug, her face getting buried in his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him just as tight, tears in her eyes. She couldn’t have imagined better people to have as soulmates, and she never wanted to let them go. Chan was just as adamant at not letting her go, keeping her in his arms, even as he pulled away slightly to look down at her.

“Are you crying? Don’t cry please.” He asked, looking concerned.

“I’m just really emotional after today.” She said, voice hitching at the end, as a tear slipped out of her eye. 

Chan reached up to wipe it away. “Awww baby, it’s okay. If you wanna cry, then we’ll hold you while you do.” He told her softly. 

She nodded, more tears falling from her eyes, as her breath kept hitching every so often. 

“We should have a sleepover here tonight.” Felix said from the floor, everyone looking over at him as they considered it.

“How would we do it?” Seungmin questioned him. 

“We could pull mattresses out here, and set them up on the floor. We have the room for it, and then none of us would have to be apart tonight.” He reasoned.

Everyone hurried to agree, not thinking about how they would have had to separate at the end of the night, and now they wouldn’t have to. Chan passed her off to Hyunjin, and the tallest of the group sat down on the couch, pulling her into his arms as they watched half of the group clear the living room, while the other half worked to pull the mattresses out into their living space. Once the first group moved everything out of the way, they went to grab bedding from the other dorm, while the mattress group grabbed their own bedding once they finished moving the beds into the living area. The room looked very comfy once this was all finished, pillows and blankets strewn across the mattresses, and the boys flopped onto them, Hyunjin tossing y/n over to them before joining them at last.

They moved and shifted until all of them were comfortable, which ended in everyone touching the others in some fashion, aka, it was a cuddle pile. There were some groans and complaints, but no one really complained, as they were all happy to just be together like this. That comfort, plus the excitement and exhaustion from the day, quickly caused all nine of them to start yawning and getting tired, and one by one, they succumbed to sleep. Chan was the last one awake, and in his arms was y/n, and he watched as she herself fell into the waiting arms of Hypnos, and smiled at how peaceful she looked. After confirming that everyone else had fallen asleep, he too fell asleep, dreaming of their future together, just like the others were, everyone having the happiest dreams that night.

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Taglist: @queen-thiccness@k-k-kn1v3s

[mrsevans90]

Puppy Love

Captain Syverson x OFC Emma Miller Part 10

Summary: Austin Syverson has returned to Texas after retiring from the military and starts his own contracting business. Syverson is used to being alone and thinks he prefers it that way. While at work he stumbles upon an injured and abused puppy. When he meets the new veterinarian in town, Emma Miller, he is immediately smitten with her. It turns out Emma has some baggage of her own. Will they be able to make it work? Or is it just a case of fleeting puppy love?

Pairing: Henry Cavill as Captain Austin Syverson x OFC Emma Miller 

Warnings: smut (oral/m receiving), talks of period intercourse, detailed PTSD flashback, graphic death of character discussed, self-deprecating talk, language

MINORS DNI! Must be 18+

I do not authorize any copying/pasting, stealing of my work, or using my words as your own. 

This story is not beta’d. All mistakes are my own.

A/N: I am an imperfect person who makes mistakes. All that I ask is to please be kind and if you enjoy it then please comment and REPOST! I appreciate any love, comments, and reposts more than you could know. Thank you for reading! 

Author's Note: This is a heavy chapter--- Big time PTSD flashback so consider yourself warned! Also, I purposely chose to not use characters in the flashback from the movie Sand Castle. I just didn’t want to kill off anyone’s fave character, so we are going to pretend this flashback was another mission from another deployment right before Sy retired not related to the movie. It was just easier for my conscious to write it that way. 

Part 9

All night long I have nightmares about the war. I wake and try to reset myself like the therapist taught me with deep breathing, water, change of environment, etc.; but nothing is working. I maybe only get about 2 hours of sleep total and I’m exhausted. I still go on my run to try and exhaust myself even more so that maybe tonight I will pass out into a dreamless sleep. I try to fake enthusiasm for whatever Nana is rambling on about in her phone call to me on the way to work but I’m sure she can tell that I’m starting to spiral. Alex can tell that today is one of those days so he asks me if I’m good and when I grunt at him he keeps his distance. God, I’m an ass but I’m obviously not good and I just can’t talk to him about it. Nobody really understands except the boys that I was with when it happened and several of them are dead now. I’m supposed to be their leader and I feel like I should have my shit together. My nightmares continue to worsen throughout the week and I feel like I overcompensate by working harder or exerting myself in more difficult physical pursuits in hopes of tiring my body and my brain out. I forced myself to run four additional miles on Friday even though my leg quickly protested. I focused on pushing through the pain and ended up having to ice my leg after work.

Friday evening finally rolls around, and Emma shows up at the house as planned with a little overnight bag in tow and homemade banana pudding. I’m cooking us some chicken and veggies out back on the grill when she arrives and I feel like I calm a bit just being in her presence. She still looks absolutely adorable as she shows up wearing comfortable clothes-a tank top and soft shorts. I love that she’s feeling relaxed enough with me to just be her most authentic self. After we eat, I fill my belly up with her decadent dessert and I swear I see stars. She’s quite the chef; as if she needed any more of a direct line to my belly or my heart. Assuming she’s still on her period, I ask her if she’s feeling alright and she nods but doesn’t offer more. I suggest we get in bed and watch a movie and she gleefully agreed. We get all cozied up in bed and she chooses a rom-com to put on. Not my first choice, but I’ll do anything to make her smile like that. It’s nice having someone other than myself warm my bed. We fall asleep easily tangled in each other and I’m relieved that I have no nightmares. Maybe Emma is the cure to my nightmares? Or did I really succeed in tiring myself out enough that I slept too hard to dream. Either way, I’m not complaining.

Saturday morning. I wake up at my usual time and smile to myself at finally getting a decent night of sleep. I lay in bed watching my girl dream before I decide to get up and go for a run. If it’s the exercise that helped me sleep last night, I’m not going to miss the opportunity to do it again. I leave a little note on Emma’s nightstand and decide to only run two miles today so I don’t fuck up my leg more than I probably already have. When I get back home, Emma is still a mess of hair and sheets and I can tell that she never missed me. Her hair is halfway across her face, one of her breasts is almost spilling out of her twisted tank top, and the covers are tangled all in her legs which brings a smile to my face. For someone so effortlessly beautiful, she’s kind of a mess when she sleeps and I can’t help but find that to be one of the most endearing things ever. I attempt to take a quick shower and am surprised when ice cold hands wrap around my stomach as my eyes are closed under the spray of the water and I jump like a cat. 

“Damn woman! Your hands are ice cubes.” I say as she laughs uncontrollably.

“Sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to startle you.” She says as she hugs me from behind. 

“I woke up and heard the shower running so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I joined you.” 

“Always, join me Sugar. My favorite showers are the ones with you.” I tell her as I turn around to see her. She’s got her beautiful hair tied up in a bun on top of her head and I shift her so that the water runs down her body to warm her up. I spy her adjust the temperature higher and I can’t help myself.

“What is it with women taking showers equivalent to the heat of lava?” She smiles.

“We are colder than you are. Gotta warm up somehow.” She presses a sweet kiss to my lips before turning around and washing her body. I can’t help but stand there like a creep watching her but I’ll never turn down an opportunity to see her wet and soapy.

“I hope you don’t mind that I hijacked your shower.” She smiled sweetly.

“Darlin’, I was done anyway. Now I’m just here for the show.” I arch my eyebrow at her as she spies my obvious erection.

“Let me help you.” She seductively suggests.

“I can help us both.” I offer but she shakes her head.

“Still on my period.” She replies without making eye contact.

“So?”

“We can’t have sex when I’m on my period!” She looks completely shocked.

“Says who? You know, sex actually helps relieves cramps.”  

“But..I might get blood on your…”

“Dick? What’s your point?”

“Isn’t that gross?” 

“Sugar, I told ya, I’m a man. A little blood isn’t going to scare me off. Now if you’re not interested because you don’t feel well or you just don’t want too, I have no problem with that. But, if you’re not interested because you think I’m going to be grossed out or something, I promise I won’t be. You can have me anytime you want, Sweetness. There’s no pressure either way. If you’re uncomfortable with it, I won’t mention it again.”

“Maybe give me some time to come around to the idea of it. I’ve never really considered it as an option.”

“Sure thing, babygirl.”

“You are something else, Bear. You mean it when you said I can have you anytime I want?”

“Mmhmm.” I say as her fingertips trail down my abdomen and she wraps her hand around my throbbing cock.

“Can I taste you?”

“Always, but don’t feel like you have too. I’ll be alright if not.”

“I want too.” She says before pushing me towards the shower bench and taking me in her mouth. In no time at all, I’m coming down her throat after receiving one of the best blowjobs of my life. She has my legs trembling from the stimulation and I can’t help but caress her cheek and kiss her gently when I come back to reality.

“my EmKay.” I whisper as I kiss her tenderly.

“Your EmKay?” She asks. 

“Mmhmm.” 

“Funny, I don’t remember being asked to be yours.” She haughtily replies.

“Ya’ ain’t going to make this easy on me, are ya?” Shit, what am I doing. I should have thought this through. She shouldn't want to be with me. The unreal blowjob has me not thinking clearly.

“Now why would I do that?” She retorts with a smile. I palm her cheek so that she’s looking right at me.

“Will you be my woman?” I ask seriously. Fuck it. Why not?

“Only if you’re my man.” 

“Well, I’ve been told that I’m a bear, but I’ll be your man too.” I joke before pressing my lips against Emma’s in a feverish kiss.

As the water gets cold, we finally climb out and get dressed for the day. I decide to take Emma out for breakfast at the diner in town before we go in search of furniture for her guest bedroom. Her parents are arriving next weekend and it was adorable when she shyly asked me if I’d be willing to meet them. I assured her that I’d be happy too and to just let me know when.

We spend a few hours at the furniture store where Emma purchases a matching bedroom set before going to a mattress store and trying out all of the mattresses to determine which would be a good purchase for her guest bedroom. They are able to deliver it same day which is nice so we pick a time for it to arrive that afternoon. We then head to a department store so she can pick out curtains, bed linens, and other odds and ends that I’m told a room requires like lamps and decorations. Being a single man for the majority of my adulthood that was mostly away in the military, I didn’t realize how much work women put into buying all of this shit. Why does she need the guest bath towels to match the hand towel in the bathroom? Or all of the little knick-knack items she bought to go on the dresser? I’m even more confused when she was discussing bed trains? No bed skirts. I’ve slept on friends couches without even a blanket but she’s really rolling out the red carpet for her parents. It’s a bit concerning if they are expecting all of this from their daughter who has lived here for under two months. Maybe they don’t expect it and she’s just trying to show them that she’s a capable adult who plans on settling here. I watch as she spends a small fortune trying to get everything in order for their visit. It’s obvious that she values their opinions. What if they don’t like me? I’m certainly different from the preppy type of guy that they’re used to seeing her with. I’m kind of rough around the edges and although I think I’m pretty smart, I certainly don’t hold advanced degrees. I’m broken from my thoughts when Emma asks my opinion about curtains. It’s sweet that she wants my opinion but I’m a fish out of water when it comes to decorating.

We load up all of the stuff and head back to Emma’s house where I get started hanging curtains as we wait on the furniture and mattress delivery. Emma orders us pizza and we munch on pizza and beer for a while. I’m regretting all of my additional workouts after I finally get the bed put together and the mattress put on it. Emma tried to help but she’s so little I didn’t want her to hurt herself so I ended up just man-handling it myself. She had washed the new bedding and put everything together before we took a look at it and she dove across the top of the bed. Emma patted the space beside her and I laid down next to her on top of the comforter. 

“I’m fucking exhausted and I didn’t even lift the heavy stuff.” She exhaled.

“I didn’t realize it was so much work to put together a bedroom. You sure know what you’re doing though.”

“Thank you. I just pick what I like. I couldn’t have done it all without you though, so thank you, baby. I can’t wait to have them visit and see that I’ve got my shit together here. That I’m not some dumb kid who needs rescuing. I’m able to handle myself.” Ahh, so I was right about that. It’s about proving herself to her parents.

“I think they’ll be impressed, Sugar. I know I am.” I smile at her before yawning.

She kisses my lips before scratching my beard gently. 

“Can we go back to yours, shower and then go to sleep? I’m dead on my feet.” She asks as she stands up and fluffs the new pillows. Why are there like 5 pillows that will just get thrown on the floor? Seems wasteful.

“You still want to come back to mine with me?”

She nods. “I want to be with you and the pups. Since they are at yours, it wouldn’t make sense to get them and come back here. I always sleep really good with you…Unless you’re too tired for a sleep over.” She says sheepishly and I wrap my arms around her.

“Nothing could be better than having my girl in my bed with me.” I tell her because I’m beginning to believe it’s the truth. “Let’s go.” 

We turn out all of the lights and lock up before heading back to mine. Emma’s car is still parked out front from where she left it and it makes me happy that she wants to be here with me. There’s a summer storm approaching and the wind has picked up which has Emma’s hair twirling in the breeze. I pull the patio cushions inside when I let the dogs out to do their business. After a quick shower because we are both too tired to do anything but clean ourselves, we do our nighttime routines before climbing into bed. Emma snuggles next to me with her head on my chest and I’m confident that it’s going to be a good night as we drift off to sleep.

It’s hot, but more than just hot. It’s sweltering. I can feel the sweat rolling down my chest and my back. It’s the type of unbearable heat that has your clothes sticking to your skin the instant you walk out of the mess hall. Then you add your gear, and the added weight from your gear plus your sweat soaked clothes is a certain feeling that I’ll never forget. I smell the smoke of an explosion further in the distance. We have our orders and it’s my job to lead our special forces team in to execute our orders exactly like planned. The problem with that is that most things never go as planned. It would be easy for this to be a cookie cutter mission where we get in and out and go back to base and fuck around for the rest of the afternoon. No, this will require me thinking on my feet at every turn. It’s what I’m trained for, hell, I’m the best which is why I’m the captain. I’ve got seven men with me whose lives rely on me assessing our situation and giving correct orders. They are sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends who have people waiting on them at home. Each order I give is weighted by the knowledge that I’m responsible for them. We’re crouched in different positions behind the old dilapidated building that the informant said our guy would be in. The sun is glaring across our faces but we’re in the best position we could be in for this mission. We’ve been after this specific hostile for months and never been this close to him before. We can hear men inside the building, yelling in Arabic and moving around so we must remain completely silent. If we can hear them, they could hear us. We are ghosts that can’t be seen or heard but must work as a team for this to go smoothly. If one person spots us, it will turn into a close-range gun fight that I can’t imagine we will all win. I inhale deeply and even though there is dust on every inch of myself and the ground, I try to focus my thoughts. 

As I am about to give orders to direct my guys to move on to the next step of our plan, I hear the tell-tale whistle of a bullet zipping through the air. I swivel to the left with my gun and look for the insurgent. I can’t see anyone but the bullet buries itself in the left shoulder of Waites across the way from me. We were fucking set up. I swing my gun back around and that’s when it happens, I hear the bullet and feel it explode into my lower left thigh at the same time blood spews from my friend, Goodwin’s head who had crouched beside me when I stood to look for the shooter. My leg gives out and I instantly drop down into the dirt to where I’m level with Goodwin’s face and it’s obvious, he was killed instantly. His eyes are still opened and he has a massive wound to the head. Anthony. Fuck. His girlfriend is expecting a baby girl in a few months. My leg is burning from the inside out but my adrenaline spike helps me ignore the pain and I grab my gun and instantly start shooting towards the rooftop where I believe the sniper might be. I hear Brown screaming before I realize he’s got Waites against the building and is yelling into the radio for help. I watch as insurgents start coming out of the building we were casing and I start taking them out. Lowell goes down. Setas is either hurt or attempting to provide aid to Lowell. I can’t tell but I never stop shooting. Ramirez is also trying to find the source of the ambush with his own gun. Bullets are flying, many from my own gun as I empty the clip into the only building the sniper could have been on, Browns pleas for backup, along with Waites heavy gurgling breaths fill my ears. I feel a hand on my arm and flinch.

            “Austin! Captain…Captain Syverson. Look at me.” Two hands on either side of my face help me focus in. “St..Stand down. You are safe, the threat has been eliminated. Your superiors have given orders to return to base for further instruction. Do you understand?” 

I blink against the water that’s dripping down my face. Emma?

“My men. The injured men in my unit. Where?”

“They are at base getting medical. Captain, I need you to confirm that you understand me.”

I blink and then nod slowly. “Roger that.” I mutter distractedly. I look around. I’m in the backyard of my house, leaning against the brick exterior in my underwear. I have my pistol tucked in the back of the waistband of my boxers and I’m wearing the boots I leave by the back door. In my hands I’m clutching my old hunting rifle that I keep on the top shelf of my closet. Shit. I’ve done it again. I’ve had a PTSD nightmare, but this is so much worse because Emma is here to witness it. I look over at her. She’s crouching on her knees in front of me wearing nothing but my water-soaked t-shirt and panties while she’s barefoot in the mud. Water is dripping from the ends of her hair from the rain that’s pouring down on us. She looks terrified and concerned. 

“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” My throat aches either from unshed tears or maybe I was yelling earlier.

“Austin, baby, are you back?”

I nod. “Emma, I’m so sorry.” I mutter as tears mix with the rain that drips down my face. This is what I was afraid would happen if I got close to her. If I let her in. I would relax and then my past would quite literally present itself.

“Baby, don’t be. You’re okay, we’re okay.” She tells me as she reaches towards my face that’s now aimed at the ground.

“Aika?” 

“I left her inside. I know you said she could help but I wasn’t able to tell if your rifle was loaded and I didn’t want her startling you and there being an accident.” 

Jesus. She was afraid I’d shoot my own dog, because she’s right, I was nowhere near my right mind. Here we are over six months since my last flashback yet this was the most involved PTSD episode I’ve ever had. Thank fuck I keep my ammunition locked and separate from my guns for situations like this. 

She stands and reaches to help me up but I can’t let her help me stand. My leg feels as though it has been shot just yesterday but that could be a result of me crouching on my knees in freezing rain outside in the middle of the night, not just the psychological pain from my flashback. 

“Come on baby.” She takes the rifle from my hand and I don’t protest. I follow her silently back to the house. The air conditioning on our soaked skin has both of our bodies covered in goose bumps. Aika bounds to me whining and crying and I sit down in a chair from the table and run my hands through her thick fur. I bury my face into her back and focus on breathing. My palm clutches my leg that’s radiating phantom pain from where I got shot. Emma appears next to me with a towel but hesitates. 

“Can I help you clean up a bit?” She gestures with the towel.

I nod and she leans down and starts wiping the mud off of my legs. 

“Sugar, I…”

“Baby, nothing needs to be said. I’m okay, and you are going to be. Would you take a warm shower with me?” I look at her and want to just burst into tears. How is she so kind and understanding after what I just did? After what I could have done?

“Please?” She urges and I nod. I follow her to the master bathroom and watch as she turns the water on. Aika stays close and sits down behind me in the bathroom floor. I have no idea what time it is in the night or early morning or how long she’s been awake dealing with me. Emma pulls out two fresh towels for us and then whips the sodden shirt off of her torso before removing her panties. She looks at me and then slowly and gently eases my soaked boxer briefs down my legs before taking my hand and pulling for me to get in the shower. Once I step in, steam surrounds me and I take a deep breath. I’m exhausted, flashbacks always take the energy out of me and it’s not like I’ve been sleeping great this past week. Emma begins lathering a wash cloth with soap and gently starts cleaning me. I stand there perfectly still and let her do what she wants as I attempt to think of anything that I could say to make this situation better. I’m aching with embarrassment. Once she washes me, she quickly washes herself before turning around and caressing her hand on my cheek. She leans down and picks up my wrists that were laying limp by my sides and wraps them around her waist before putting her own around my neck. My eyes are aimed down focusing on the suds swirling around the shower drain.

“Baby, look at me.” She says with the sincerest and worried look on her face and that’s when my resolve breaks. I bury my face into her neck as the hot tears stream from my eyes. I can’t seem to stop them and I ache when I hear myself let out a sob that sounds so painful and broken even to my own ears. Emma tightens her arms around me and guides me back to the bench that we once used for a much different form of intimacy. Emma curls herself around me and holds me tightly while I fully break down. Once my breath starts to come easier, I carefully pull my head from her shoulder and try to clean my face up.

“Let’s dry off and lay down.” She says as she turns off the water and starts toweling me off. I gently take the towel from her, not wanting to be babied but not wanting to seem ungrateful. Once we dry off, Emma hands me some boxers and she tosses on a dry shirt and panties on before we sit on the bed. It’s silent and I feel like I have to say something.

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you must be thinkin’ but I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I woke you, scared you and I’m sorry I’m so fucked up. I completely understand if this is the last time I see you.” I say quietly and she looks shocked.

“Austin, I’m not going anywhere. This is what relationships are about. Holding each other through the good and bad. I’m not scared and you’re not fucked up. You’re haunted and although I don’t know the details of it, I want to help you through it. Even if you don’t want my help, I’m not leaving you.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with this. I should be better. I survived, Damnit! I shouldn’t have any problems. Goodwin, Lowell, Waites, they are the ones who died. I just got shot in my stupid fucking leg after leading them to their deaths!” I sob.

“You are allowed to have problems. Their deaths are hard on you but you are not responsible for it. I don’t know what happened, but I know it’s not your fault.”

“The informant set us up, we were ambushed. Goodwin, God. Goodwin got shot right in front of me. I watched the life drain from his eyes. He has a little girl that he’s never met. If I had questioned the mission from my superiors or done more digging on the informant, they would all be alive right now. I had to look at their family members at their funerals and I’ll never forget the grief from their loved ones. Goodwin’s pregnant girlfriend, Lowell’s widow, Waites’ mom. I still see them sobbing over their caskets in my mind. I didn’t deserve to live when they didn’t get too.” I finally say out loud. I take deep breaths attempting to calm my body from going into another spiral.

“Bear.” Emma reaches for me.

“It’s been years and I still get like this. Hell, it might be getting worse. I don’t think this is something I’ll just get over. I’m too fucked up, Emma. You deserve someone who doesn’t have these types of demons.” My eyes blink heavily.

“You are not fucked up. I deserve you because you treat me better than I’ve ever been treated before.” My eyes droop and I know it’s a result of the flashback. When I have them, my body goes through the trauma all over again so when the adrenaline finally stops coursing through my body, I basically crash.

“Love, you look exhausted. Can you try to sleep for me?” She asks and gently pushes for me to lay down. My head is resting between her breasts as she lays back on her back. We’ve never laid like this before but it’s comforting.

“I’m right here, I’m not leaving. Aika’s here and so is Mills.” She tells me while caressing my head but my eyes are already closed, too heavy to fight staying open longer. I wrap my arm around her waist and within moments, I’m deeply asleep soothed by the steady rhythm of Emma’s heartbeat as she caresses my scalp.

Part 11

Taglist: @shellyshellshell, @henryownsme, @caramariehurst, @beck07990, @mollymal, @kingliam2019, @syversonswife, @identity2212, @starfirewildheart, @hannah9921, @wa-ni, @kneelforloki, @cutedoxie, @enchantedbytomandhenry, @foxyjwls007, @geralts-yenn, @courtlynwriter, @corrie1013, @squeezyvalkyrie, @summersong69, @livisss, @mayloma, @uunotheangel, @warriormirkwood

[koiifysh]

❝ And I'll be right here when

wake up, Right by your side❞

Body half hurt from laying on your left side for too long. Track of time forgotten. 1:31 am. Have to wake up at 7:30 am. Sit at the same boring study table, zoning out and getting up after 2 hours of just staring at the books, not memorizing a single word.

All day spent inside these four walls. Only time you leave is when you have practice exams at your tuition classes. As soon as you step foot inside the class, you wanna go home. Sitting for the exam, you start missing your boring study desk.

Drops of tears on the dry and empty exam papers. Pulling out your mask and putting it on so no one sees you crying.

I wanna go home.

2:15 am.

Still no sign of sleep. Just blurry vision as tears after tears swell up and fall down on either side as you lay flat on your back on your empty bed.

When did it get this lonely?

Mindlessly scrolling through pictures on the internet. Viewing people's story. 10+ unanswered dms. That one friend telling you all about the exciting things happening to her.

“I'm getting a haircut today. Ooh! And also a new haircut. *inserts picture* It's going to be like this. I'm so excited!”

“Going to have picnic with co-workers! My job is the best.”

"DID I TELL YOU I'M GOING TO BE WORKING AS AN ASSISTANT FOR A CELEBRITY MODEL?”

“I'm SO excited! I'm going to see the movie today!!”

Ah yes, the new movie. You were excited too. So happy that you were looking forward to see it forgetting all about the upcoming long exams.

- That's great

[Sent]

Replying to texts when you don't even want to open them. Just so you don't seem rude a few extra words and some emojies.

The door to the room creaks open. He slowly walks in. Careful not to wake you up.

Wake who up? You weren't even asleep.

He slowly got in bed beside you. Hugging your waist and pulling you closer. You try your best not to make a sound and cry silently.

But the heavy rise and fall of your chest and he knew you weren't as peacefully asleep as he hoped you would be.

“Why are you still awake?”

No response.

“It's almost 3 am. I know you're awake. Why aren't you-

You sit up on the bed.

“I don't want to sleep.”

Wet cheeks getting more wet from the new flowing tears. All everyone ever tells you these days is to eat, sleep, take breaks and study. You're tired of it. You're tired of everyone and everything. Exams aren't helping, no one is helping. Loss of confidence, feelings of loneliness. Seeing others your age going out and having fun. Doing the latest trends. Earning money. Even one of your classmates went to see the new movie despite the upcoming exams. She went with her sister. Your sister lives miles away from you. You didn't tell Nanami because he's an actual busy man unlike you, who sits on the same dull spot everyday and just zones out.

I can't do this anymore.

“Love, are you al-”

“I don't wanna talk about this.”

Voice broken from crying. You try your best to talk and suppress the ache in your throat.

“Let's just go to bed”

He grabs your hand and turns your face towards him. Puffy red eyes and disheveled hair. You looked more tired than him.

“Did you take a nap after eating?”

You cry out more shaking your head.

“You woke up so early and then gave a 2 hour exam. You didn't rest after coming home?”

You didn't look at him. Just soft sniffles and tears.

He pushes your head gently towards his chest and holds you. Your soft cries was the only thing he heard in the dimly lit room. Rubbing your back with one hand and running his other one through your hair.

“Tell me.”

You cry harder burying your head in his chest.

“I'm here to listen.”

Your cries slowly soothe down.

“I'm sorry,” he says. “You've been feeling lonely haven't you?” You don't reply. Just your head on his chest, hugging him tightly. “I've been so busy, I didn't realize I was neglecting you. I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you-”

“It's not you!”

You finally meet his eyes with your red ones. Of course it's not him. It never was him. In fact, he's the only one helping you go through all this despite being stressed himself. You sometimes felt guilty for always being this needy for him. For always wanting him by your side. For always just... wanting him.

“It's everything and everyone around me. I just can't do this anymore. People my age are out there having fun and actually doing things, while I'm here all day everyday sitting in the same spot studying for meaningless exams which are draining me mentally and physically.”

Nanami listens to you intently as he always does. Gentle rubs on your back.

“I'm happy for my friends. I really am. It's just... I'm not feeling very happy at the moment so..”

You felt terrible for feeling that way. Feeling jealous of your friends who were having fun and doing things you looked forward to doing. You know it's not their fault but you can't control your feelings either.

“I feel like a cold hearted person."

More tears.

You said nothing and just laid down curling up, facing the other way. Wishing the tears would just stop.

A strong hand curling up around your waist pulls you closer to him. Gently caressing your hair and hugging you tightly.

Nanami knows your 'leave me alones' mean 'don't leave, stay.' He knows when you push him away, you want him to pull you closer. He knows when you don't 'want to talk about it' you actually want to say a lot about it.

“Sometimes.” his deep soothing voice which you find so comforting, so close against your ears . Hands still caressing through your hair. “Not feeling happy is okay.”

-

“Being envious of others doesn't make you a bad person. Everyone is always envious of someone. The people you see on the internet having a good time, they're also envious of someone or something. Doesn't mean they're a bad person. It's just.. natural feelings.”

“You're having a stressful time, and I understand. I understand your feelings. You don't have to push yourself and you are not a bad friend. Sometimes,” his rough big hands feel so soft when he's caressing your hair like this, while you hide away your face in the pillow.

“We just don't want to hear about other people's life, and it's totally okay. Does not mean you wish bad upon them or anything. It just means, you're not in a good mental state at the moment.”

“It does not make you a cold hearted person.”

“It makes you someone who's trying her best to do things right."

You turn around and burry your face in his neck while he holds you tightly.

“I'm just so tired Kento,” you cry into his chest. “I feel like I'm missing out on so much. People promise to make plans with me and then cancel last minute and make it with someone else.”

“You can make plans with me you know. How about we take a break tomorrow and go see that movie-” “I don't want to.”

You break away from his embrace and lay on your side, facing him. Your face. It looked so worn out. Nanami wiped the tears away and caressed your cheek.

“I won't be able to enjoy it plus it's not about just the movie.” “I know.”

He really does know.

Your phone beeped. A new notification.

But before you can reach for the phone, Nanami was quick to get it himself.

[Just finished watching the movie! OH AND I ALSO GOT MY HAIR CUT!! 🤭✨

*photo*

What do you think?]

He sighs.

"Who is it?"

Nanami simply switches off the phone and puts it on the bedside table.

"No one."

Deep down he knew you didn't want to reply to the message either. You thanked him in the back of your mind for not giving you the phone.

"Thank you."

3:45 am

His arms hold you tightly, face buried in your hair while you face the other way. Peacefully asleep in his embrace.

“I love you.”

He kisses your head.

“And I'm proud of you.”

His eyes closing slowly, taking in your scent.

I love you too

“Kento.”

“Hm?”

“Will you be gone when I wake up?”

“No.”

“I'll be right here when you wake up.

Right by your side.”

[Fanart is not mine. I found it on Pinterest. If you know the artist, let me know.] ♡

➛ And yes it is Nanami in the fanart in case you're wondering (⁠づ⁠｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡⁠)⁠づ

[alisblackgf]

Hola hola! Hope you're doing ok when you get this!

May I request a fic of Hobie taking care of a burnt out reader (black fem or gns fine cuz I use all pronouns)? Like he swings into her window one night late ASF and she's still up doing schoolwork (cuz that bachelor's ain't go appear in the mail) and he's like "mama wtf are you doing up, it's damn near dawn?" And she explains that she was double shifted in her verse (and she worked those 16 hours cuz capitalism and inflation has ripped her verse a new one) then had to participate in a 4 hour long search party as her spider-persona (on top of her long ass patrol) so she didn't even have time to look at her study reviews in the day. Hobie sits there and helps her out cuz he's a big brained individual and when she gets up to grab a snack (she hadn't eaten all day, didn't even get her mandated breaks 💔) she passes out.

I'll let you take the creative wheel from there.

If you get to this, I thank you a lot and hope that you are not like our reader and overworking yourself. Make sure you've had water and a meal, my love!!

(honey anon)

HONEY ANON YOURE BACK!!! thank you, make sure you take care of yourself too 🫶

𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: hobie brown x spider!gn!reader (reader is intended to be black)

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: fluff!

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: you overwork yourself to the point of exhaustion, and your caring boyfriend is right there to take care of you and your responsibilities.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: i just wanna thank you all for the immense support on the previous works of mine, i couldn’t be more grateful <3

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: contains fainting and mentions of skipping meals, which may be triggering for some. viewer discretion is advised!

you’ve been doing your schoolwork for hours.

no matter how much you stared at the problems on your paper, you couldn’t understand it. even if you could, your brain would be too tired to process it properly.

you sat at your desk and twirled your pencil with your fingers, desperately attempting to fight the wave of exhaustion that washed over you.

you already tried splashing cold water on your face, and the energy from that lasted for a good five minutes. you tried drinking coffee too, but all that did was set you up for the biggest crash of your life.

you were nodding off until you heard knocking at your window. you opened your eyes and groaned. you looked at your phone and picked it up to check the time.

4:53 am.

more knocking came from your window, which agitated you.

“can you wait a second? i’m coming,” you let out another groan before pushing out your chair and groggily walking to your window. once you reached it, you opened it and were met with your boyfriend.

“little frustrated, are we?” he teased. you stared at him blankly in response. “am i allowed in?”

you nodded and slowly moved from the window so he could climb in. you walked back to your desk and he closed the window behind himself.

“did i wake you?” he questioned, his joking tone being replaced by a slightly softer one.

you shook your head at his question.

“then what are you doing up at damn near dawn?”

“schoolwork,” you shrugged and sat down, picking up your pencil and twirling it once more. he made his way over and kneeled down next to you.

“have you slept at all?”

“no.”

“not even a nap or—”

“no, hobie,” you interrupted him, getting aggravated. you didn’t mean to direct it at him, it was the lack of sleep talking. “i was double shifted by my boss today, miguel assigned me to a four hour search party, then i had to go patrol, and on top of all of that, my professor decided to add more fuel to the fire with this stupid assignment. there’s no time to sleep in any of that.”

hobie listened to you intently, and when you were done listing your troubles, he was ready to help you.

“have you eaten anything?”

you shook your head.

“alright, then let’s start there. go ahead and grab somethin’ to eat. when you come back, then we can tackle the assignment. sound good?”

you nod and get up to get a snack, but you begin to feel lightheaded and dizzy. you stumble a bit, and this doesn’t go unnoticed by your attentive boyfriend.

he quickly gets up and paces to your side. he grabs you and holds you steady.

“hey, easy now, love. i’ve got you.”

those were the last words you heard before your body slipped into unconsciousness. the suddenness of which your body went limp caused hobie to trip a little, but he quickly adjusted and dragged you over to your bed. once he made sure your entire body was on the mattress, he tucked you in and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

he looked over to your desk before walking over to it. he picked up the assignment you were struggling with and hummed.

“this shouldn’t be too hard,” he mumbled to himself before pulling the chair out to sit down and picking up your pencil.

you regained consciousness and opened your eyes, but you didn’t have the strength or energy to get up. you let your eyes close and succumbed to your tiredness.

…

once you wake up, the sun’s up and birds are chirping. you quickly sit up in a panic.

“hobie?” you call out, unaware of the shuffling right next to you.

“quiet, dove. people are tryin’ to sleep,” he mumbles as he pulls you into him, forcing you to lay down with him again. you open your mouth to protest, but it’s as if he already knows what you were going to say. “i already did your homework, wasn’t too difficult. told your boss you were takin’ the day off, told miguel you were sick, and when we wake up again, i’ll make you somethin’ to eat. everything’s taken care of, so just lay here with me for a while, yeah?”

you look at his resting face and plant a gentle kiss to his nose, and his lips lazily curl into a soft smile. he was so sweet to you and you just loved him so much. you gave in and allowed yourself to rest, snuggling further into him.

you both deserved this, why not let it last?

solicitude: care or concern for someone or something

I HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED HONEY ANON <3

tags: @pr0wlerpunk

[kickthecan-revolution]

Round 4 infusion day:

I started the day very anxious, a colleague of mine reached out and let me know that she was also in treatment and it turned out that it’s my same exact cancer.

Some of the things that she said triggered a lot of questions for me, it was hard to go to sleep. My initial heart rate in the first lab was really elevated and they were slightly concerned, and then it got even more elevated as I sat in the chair. I was asking the staff and my doctor a ton of questions but I wasn’t listening to the answers, I was just talking over them.

R gently observed that I was in a lot of anxiety and it was likely because I had inadvertently violated my boundary of not wanting to know much about my type of cancer and that I would only ask questions and get information from my doctor. My colleague was obviously very well intended but it turned out to trigger a lot of anxiety that showed up physically for me today. It was just such an insightful observation and I know it’s going to lead to some important shadow work.

My physical experience during the infusion was also different today, I had some pain, the cold capping was hard, I was very dizzy and absolutely exhausted. I basically slept for four or five hours straight, I would wake up for Cold Capping but would almost fell asleep in the middle of it.

When I finally woke up, R showed me some pictures that she had taken and we absolutely died laughing, the kind of belly laughing that sears into your memory. So much so that the nurses came in to see what was so funny and they said how amazing it was to hear so much fun and joy in a place that’s so hard.

We ended up sending the picture to the head of Retail Into a few others and just left even harder. Our dark humor got dark, just the way I like it. The “You Shall Not Pass….literally” was the cherry on top of the sundae.

We finally got home, ordered some food for dinner and then she helped me arrange my furniture - when you walk into her house, it’s immediately beautiful, comfortable and pragmatic all at the same time, and she also has three cats so she knows what it means to be a cat lady. I wanted to use some of that expertise and so asked her if she had any ideas and we ended up changing so much – it made me emotional, I love it so much. We also bought a couple of really beautiful plants the day before to bring some color and life, some good additions to all of the white in here. I can’t wait for them to get here tomorrow.

All the sudden I had to go to bed, I got pretty tired again. I hugged her for a really long time and told her a grateful I am that someone who loves others so well – better than anyone I know - is in my life. It’s an example to me of love and grace I don’t deserve but I am so thankful that I have it. How she makes me a better human being.

It was a lot for her to go through today, people who love us who have to see us vulnerable, in pain can suffer - there was a lot she didn’t expect. But she did it and she still made me laugh. What a friend. 

[quietlyimplode]

here again now

Warnings: violence/aftermath of torture

Word Count: 2047 (gif not mine)

Summary: Natasha is captured, tortured and left with insomnia. (Part 2/4)

A/N: Chapter 2 - Tony worries; Natasha talks about where she’s been and no one sleeps.

(pls note that the fic starts below and finishes on ao3 - i know how annoying it is to start on one platform only to have it finish on another)

The night is rough.

They stay in the hospital wing.

There’s drugs in Natasha’s system that sends off flags. Residual adrenaline, and some other run of the mill drugs, but nothing that Bruce can find that would give her such fear of being asleep.

It’s psychological.

It’s clear from her demeanour, though her shaking hands and hyper vigilance, make Clint think that other things have happened that they can’t test for.

He wants to ask.

Is desperate to ask.

But he doesn’t.

Instead he sits with her throughout it the night, holding her tight, changing positions, talking about stories from the past.

The hours are slow.

He wonders if it’s the same for her.

He thinks it is as she apologizes, and tries to push him towards bed.

She tells him she’ll be fine, as shaking hands drink water.

As she comes back from the bathroom with a wet face, clear that she’s tried to use water to refresh herself.

“Sorry,” she apologizes again as he licks his lips and changes his position.

The silence that follows is loud, her apology hanging.

He regrets the look at the time.

3.15am.

He sighs.

Even a couple of hours.

“You can go to sleep,” she whispers, “I’ll be okay.”

He throws her a look, knowing he needs sleep.

Especially if tomorrow is like today.

Images of her being rolled out of the van play in his mind.

He wonders that even if he did sleep, would he dream?

Would he wake up gasping?

Would he have dreams?

He doesn’t know.

He offers her water, and she takes it, sipping it gratefully.

“Come on, lie down with me,” he offers.

He’s tired. He wants sleep but he wants to keep her safe more.

It’s four am.

The night almost done.

He yawns heavily, and finally she talks, voice hoarse; he thinks she’s reached a point where she’s going to fall asleep, so all that’s left is for her to talk.

It’s self preservation.

To keep herself awake.

Clint yawns.

He prompts a yawn from Natasha and he pulls the cover a little higher around them.

“She’d threaten you. She said if I fell asleep, she’d kill you. They’d monitor my heart rate, when it dropped below a level, they’d electrocute me. They said.. They left you alive. Clint, she didn’t want anything. But she kept me awake, just to torture me.”

She swallows hard.

Clint puts his hand over hers, her fingers picking at her cuticles. Looking up to him, she reaches for his face.

He closes the gap and allows her to touch his face.

“She said that I killed you. Every time I fell asleep. That I wanted you to die. She’d count down, tell me that I only had five chances left. Time was a loop. I couldn’t hold it anymore. I think she wanted me to sleep because then she’d wake me up with drugs, adrenaline, I think. Then leave me. My heart felt like it was going to explode. I was handcuffed. I couldn’t move.”

She huffs and he knows she’s crying.

He doesn’t comment.

Holding tight onto her hand, he squeezes it gently.

“I don’t want you to die, Clint.”

He nods.

“I’m not going to die, Nat,” he assures her.

She shakes her head.

“This isn’t real,” she moans.

“We’ve been here before, don’t you see? I can’t tell if I’m awake or asleep, and if I’m asleep, then when I wake, you won’t be here. She’s going to kill you.”

She turns and the tears continue down her face.

“I’m asleep. You’re not real. This is just my mind conjuring images. I was asleep? I am asleep? Am I awake? You… They woke me? And now we’re here.”

She settles back in against him. He words jumbled and not making sense.

“You’re not real,” she repeats.

“But I wish you were.”

.

Continued

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Unexpected 17

Sequel to Unsolicited

Warnings: non/dubcon, pregnancy, car sex, Lloyd being the worst, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

The jolt of the car door shakes you. The vinyl blurs in your vision, a scratchy blanket around you as a weight shifts the axel. Another door snaps and you close your eyes, chattering as you hug your clammy chest.

“Fucking dumb bitch,” Lloyd sneers as the world moves in reverse, “why’d you have to fuck this up too?”

You don’t answer. You don’t think he’s talking to you. You’re not there. You’re dreaming in the grass.

The click of the blinker fills the silence. You roll against the back of the seat, trying to find some warmth. The change in direction makes you dizzy as the tires roll on.

You huddle into the crook of the seat, sinking into the motion, drifting off back to the swaying of branches and the soft ruffle of grass. Birds sing as the sun rises. You’re shaken from paradise as you’re dragged across the seat.

He lifts you, still wrapped in the blanket, and kicks the door shut. You lean against his shoulder, chuckling as you hang your head.

“You just can’t let me be, can you?” You eke out. Your throat feels swollen around your words, your fingers and toes are numb, your blood flow sluggish.

“You’re such a fucking baby, you know that?” He growls, “got me at the goddamn hospital–”

“You could’ve… left me,” you shiver weakly, slurring each syllable.

“Fucking don’t,” he barks as automatic doors woosh open around him. He marches forward, hiking you up in his arms, “she’s pregnant,” he says to the woman behind the desk, “I think she’s got hypothermia.”

“Sir, how– how far along?” The nurse stands.

“Uh…” he trails off, “three months?”

“Four,” you correct him with a croak.

“Just… she got locked outside and she’s freezing,” he insists.

You say nothing as you lean into him. He’s so warm, boiling hot. The nurse comes around and checks your pulse. The room turns hazy as the sterile smell tickles your nose.

“This way…” her words drift into your subconscious, “...on a drip…warm her up….”

💎

You lay beneath the heated blanket and thank the nurse for the steaming cup of tea as she sets it down. You’re alone, a long hoped for reprieve. The doctor insisted you stay at least a night to be monitored, the baby too. The good news, they revealed, was that the fetus was alive and well. You wish you could say the same.

Living but not happily. Still, it’s better you didn’t take another with you. An innocent spark of life that doesn’t deserve your resentment. You never want to be like your mother. Holding your own problems against the child will only make things worse.

You sip daintily from the cup, flipping through the cable with the boxy old remote. God, you forgot how annoying commercials are. And how nice it is to be on your own. Outside his grasp, if even for just a day. He’s not stupid enough to berate you in front of the hospital staff. Even that is too low for Lloyd, but leaving a pregnant woman alone, that’s just fine.

You finish the tea and the nurse brings you dinner not long after. Soup and a bun. Palatable and pleasantly warm. You fall asleep right after she comes to clear the tray, dozing in the hazy hues of the box television. You wake each time she comes to check your vitals but barely recall the disturbance when the morning comes.

There’s an apathy that remains, the kind that buffs down the anger and buries the despair, that smothers everything but the most basic senses. You see the white walls, stringent and clean, you smell the rubber gloves and dry sterile atmosphere, you taste it on your tongue, you feel the cold metal bedrail as you drag your fingers over it, and hear the steady beep of the machine.

Breakfast is jello and Cheerios, another cup of tea and orange juice too. You forgot how nice it was to enjoy simple things. When was the last time you just had a bowl of cereal or even a cup of jello? You could go for some apple slices too.

As you nurse the steeped tea, there is a knock on the open door frame. You look up, expecting a pair of scrubs, but find a familiar face you couldn’t predict. Dottie’s ring tings off the metal before she enters.

“Oh, hon, there you are,” she sings as she sweeps in, her husband at her shoulder, his expression placid and his steps long but without the same urgency as his wife. “We brought you coffee and a–” she stops short, “oh, dear, you ate without us.”

“I didn’t know you were coming,” you blink as Lloyd appears in the door, a scowl on his face as he carries a tray of drinks and a large Dunkin bag.

“Never you worry,” she touches your hand as it rests against the rail, “I am only happy you can eat. Oh, hon, to hear of what happened,” she pauses and sends a pointed look to her son, “I didn’t raise him like that, I promise you–”

“She locked herself out,” Lloyd nears and places the food on the tray, “you want your coffee or what?”

“Hey,” Dottie snaps her knuckles against his arm and he hisses as he touches the tender spot left by her rings, “now sweetie, we got you decaf of course,” she turns back to you and selects the marked cup, “I know it’s tough, ya give up so much for the baby and old indulgences can do wonder.”

Harlan nods as he crosses his arms, watching without a word. You shoot him a sheepish smile. He’s a stoic man, silent more often than not, like a shadow against the wall. Dottie searches the large bag and takes out a rainbow sprinkle donut, folded in wax paper, “hon,” she rounds to her husband, “your favourite.”

“Thank ‘em,” he says quietly and bends to plant a kiss on her powdered cheek.  

She comes back and reaches into the bag, “I hope ya like Boston cream, hon, cause I wasn’t sure.” 

She presents the donut and you accept it. Despite the last day and the hospital food, your ravenous. You could probably eat a whole dozen.

“Thanks, Dottie,” you say, “you didn’t have to–”

“Someone needs ta take care of ya,” she insists and jabs her son with an acrylic, “no donut for Marion, the brat.”

“Ma, I didn’t do nothing,” there’s a subtle twang in his whine.

“You think I don’t know you, boy,” she spins to face him, “you think I don’t know the stunts you pull. I love ya but goddamn can you be a handful. So you sit down and pout into your fancy dancy cafe mocha whatever.”

She dismisses her with the flicker of her fingers and turns back to you, “we got much to do. I seen the house, ain’t even a nursery. No, no, can’t have a child with nowhere to sleep. Or with some bumpkin daddy.”

“Ma,” Lloyd growls again as he lowers himself onto the rolling stool with his cup.

“You didn’t even stay the night with her, Mar. Do you understand when I spent twenty hours working to get you out and your pa was there for every single one and the night too,” she snarls, “you ain’t gonna this serious and I wouldn’t blame her for taking the kid and leaving you where you belong.”

“Mama’s right, son,” Harlan intones as he steps forward to accept his coffee from Dottie, “pardon my reach, little lady,” he says, “let me say I’m glad you look healthy.”

“Oh, thanks,” you utter, biting into the donut as the tension of Lloyd’s moping and Dottie’s temper ripens.

“Now, you’ll be close to findin’ out the gender, right? That’s exciting but don’t matter no how, boy or girl. We got a grandbaby comin’ and I’m mighty excited,” she chimes, “god, when Harlan told me about all this business of you lyin’ in a hospital by yourself, oh, I was ready come here and tan Marion’s hide, and I might still.”

She sends another sneer over her shoulder. You swallow and try not to smile at the verbal breakdown of the man who never stops talking. For once, he has nothing to say.

“I meant to ask,” you clear your throat, “where did the name Marion come from?”

“My daddy was a Marion,” she says proudly as Lloyd glowers, squinting at you as you dare to meet his eyeline, “good man. Now he’s still alive but he went up to the hills in Kentucky about a decade ago, we ain’t seen him since. But trust me, I feel it,” she touches her chest, “he’s kicking and he’s no doubt up there roasting rattlers over an open fire.”

“Oh, wow,” you utter, “that’s interesting.”

“And you dearie, you said your family is some northern folk, from around here?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess most of them, I don’t… I don’t have much for a family.”

“No ma?” She asks and you shake your head. “Pa?” The same response. “Marion, why don’t you tell me nothin’?” She tuts, “if I’d known, I’d have been here sooner. You can’t be carryin’ all this around yourself.”

Harlan shakes his head as he aims a glance at his son. Lloyd looks away evasively, rolling his eyes like a teenager. You’re happy for the company, the buffer between the two of you. 

Before, the thought of going back to that house had you desperate for an excuse to stay. Even if it meant a convenient injury or convincing act for the nurse.

[archangeldyke-all]

HOTCHAT WITH SEV

ok.. so i was not familiar with the phrase 'hot chat' but after a brief trip to urban dictornary i found out it's like dirty talk? i hope this is correct lol. am i just completely clueless to today's lingo or is this phrase specific to a regional or ethnic dialect? idk. but i hope i got it right! thanks for the request anon :)

men and minors dni

sevika's staying late at work tonight. she told you not to wait up for her, that she'd be in the office until the early hours of the morning. you would have huffed and puffed, but sevika promised that tonight was the last night of her horrible end of year workload. with that in mind, you let her off the hook and fell asleep alone.

when your phone's ringtone wakes you up at four in the morning and sevika's still not home, you start to worry. you scramble for your phone, answering it in a flash when you see sevika's name.

"sev? you okay?" you ask.

"i'm okay baby, don't worry." she says, her voice low.

"you still at work?" you ask, settling back into bed now that you know she's okay.

"yeah. don't think i'm gonna make it home tonight, honey." sevika's grunts out. you can tell she's tired from how rumbly and low her voice is. you pout.

"sevika--"

"i know i know, but i'll be done after tomorrow and we had to schedule an emergency meeting with our associates over seas so--"

"it's fine baby. i just miss you." you whisper, your eyes heavy. you snuggle against sevika's pillow, inhaling her scent.

"i miss you too." sevika says with a sigh. you cuddle into the pillow, ready for sevika to talk you to sleep like she often does on nights she can't be beside you. your eyes drift shut, and you focus on the sound of your wife's breath down the line, matching your pace to it.

you blink awake. sevika was-- huffing. little tiny huffs that you wouldn't have noticed if you weren't listening. you bite your lip.

you clear your throat to put on your sexy voice', and purr, "'s that why you called me, baby? 'cause you miss me?" sevika chokes down the line.

"y-yeah."

"are you the last one workin' or are you just hopin' nobody walks in on you with your hands down your pants?" you ask. sevika whimpers.

"alone. finally." you laugh.

"you've been waiting?" you say, flopping on your back, reaching up to tweak your nipple.

"yeah." she grunts.

"tell me how you're touchin' yourself." you demand. sevika gulps.

"just-- just my fingers on my clit. under my pants." you bite your lip.

"what are you thinkin' about?" you ask. sevika huffs.

"you, dumbass." you giggle, reaching your hand down to push your sleep shorts off, kicking them to the side and teasing you clit with a gentle touch.

"where's your imagination, baby?" you tease. "what about me."

"just-- shut up!" she says. you laugh.

"you don't want me to shut up thouhg, because then i won't be able to tell you ive got a finger in my cunt and it's clenching so hard. wish it was you though."

there's a clatter, then a faint curse, then a muffled crackle followed by sevika's "sorry-- dropped the phone." you giggle.

"fuck sev. can't believe you're not here. 'm fuckin ovulating, you know, just soaking wet all the time. my tits are so sore too, you could probably make me cum just touchin' em'--"

"fuck, baby, don't tell me that--"

"--mm but just imagine how good and wet and hot i'll be around you when you get home tomorrow night--"

"--gonna fuck you for hours--"

"--yeah?"

"yeah."

"mmh. can't fuckin' wait." down the line, you can hear sevika huffing and grunting, and a faint wet sound.

"what, you're just gonna show up to your meeting with your pants soaked?" you ask. sevika moans.

"fuck off."

"you like it." you say, laughing. sevika curses.

"i'm gonna cum, baby." she says. "fuckin' wish i was there. god i wish i could taste you right now-- fuck i'm..."

"cum for me sev!" you gasp out, your own orgasm washing over you.

she gasps, then lets out a long "shhhhhit!"

you cum at the sound of her.

you're both silent as you catch your breath, three minutes of heavy breathing into the phone. but finally, sevika chuckles and clears her throat.

"you've got no idea what you're in for once i get home." she says. you giggle, sleepy and bubbly.

"good luck at work baby."

"thanks.

"what time's your meeting?" you ask.

"six thirty." you pout. "goodnight honey."

"night sev."

before you fall asleep, you set an alarm for six twenty nine.

an hour and a half later, when your alarm goes off, you tug your shirt up over your tits and open the camera on your phone, pointing it down at you and snapping a quick picture. you send it off to sevika with a caption. whatever u do, dont think about my tits during ur meeting

as she sets up the confrence room and checks the internet connection to prepare for the international video call, sevika gets a text on her phone. she glances down at it, expecting a sudden time change or cancellation. when she sees your tits and your caption, she chokes on her coffee. i'm gonna kill you when i get home.

as silco walks into the room for the meeting, she reaches down to silence her phone. right before she slips it back in her pocket, she sees your response silently flash up at her. cant wait ;)

taglist!

@lesbeaniegreenie @fyeahnix @sapphicsgirl @half-of-a-gay

[chairofchaos]

Bargains and Fights: A Letters of Love Short Story

Summary: Convincing a former spymaster to sit for a series of in-depth interviews is no small task, but someone has to. Arbora rises to the challenge.

Rating: Teen (language. ACOTAR universe training style fighting.)

Word Count: 3.2k

A/N: I make absolutely zero promises for how you will feel at the end of this. @chunkypossum, this one is for you!!

“Papa,” Arbora walked quietly towards her father in the clearing where he often did his daily training. It was dawn, the crisp air complimented by a thin shroud of mist dancing along the ground.

His head angled towards her, but Azriel, her Papa, did not rise from his plank, even as his wings folded in from their stretch. “Good morning,” he smiled at her, a small upturning of his lips that she returned easily. “You’re earlier than usual.”

“I had something to ask you.” She stopped where she could look at him, so he could see all of her except what was masked by the wisps of mist at her feet. He took her in curiously, seeing in her face something that caused his eyes to narrow almost imperceptibly. It took a considerable amount of effort to not reach for the tail of the braid which hung over her shoulder, brushing her waistband. The inky blackness was the mirror image of the hair which sat atop her Papa’s head, save for its length.

“Ask away,” he eased, swinging one foot forward to give himself the ability to stand.

“I want you to do the interviews.”

He brushed his hands against his thighs, a thin smudge of mud left in their wake. “That’s not a question. I don’t understand your obsession with our love life, Arbora.”

“It isn’t an obsession.” The words slipped from her mouth, a sentence that had been bitten from her tongue time and again. “Father is doing it.” Her arguments were weak. She knew that. But if she told him what she knew, what Aunt Elain had shared with her, he would never do it. She would be lucky if he ever told her a story from his life again. She could share it with him later once he felt the impact of talking through everything, but not now. Not before.

“And why? He won’t tell me,” he leveled at her, gesturing for her to join him as he started to move through more movements to gently prepare his body for the fighting they would do. She had dropped her satchel at the edge of the clearing, so she did, planting her feet on the ground and starting to slowly move through the movements of the eight-pointed star that she had grown intimately familiar with over the last four centuries.

“I want to have a record of it. You two accomplished a great deal. It’s much less about your ‘love life’ than it is about the history you made. Aunt Feyre was the first High Lady crowned. But you and Father were the first pair of High Lords in history. That’s notable.”

“What purpose would it serve? We know the story. Ash can tell most of it word for word.”

“I can’t,” she countered, swinging a leg behind her in parallel movement with her father. The slow movements would increase in speed over the next half hour, until they were warmed enough to begin fighting, first her and Ash, then the two of them against their father. When they were tired, he would spar with both her and Ash individually, using any weaknesses he had observed in their fight with each other against them. It made them stronger: their exhaustion pitted against him at his most forceful; their mistakes wielded against them.

More and more frequently, they would beat him. Over three hundred years ago, Arbora had bested him on her own for the first time. It was a day neither of them was likely to forget.

Papa waited until they faced the same direction before responding. “I am not sure I care to record the hardships of our lives.”

“It would be just as much about the joys,” she countered.

“Why do you want it so much?” He ignored her statement, stilling all movements to face her with crossed arms. An opponent, every muscle and ounce of attention focused on her. He had rarely looked at her this way. She relished it more than she hated it, rejoicing in the waves of glee and pride that he regarded her as an equal in this, even though as High Lord, he could stop her requests with one order. She let her hands fall to her sides, meeting his eyes with a fire to counter his pensive but chilly glare.

“I want to have it available. For us, yes. But for future generations. For a millennium from now, or ten, so that they may know the fight you fought with Father to have everything you have now.”

He sighed. “I doubt many will care.”

“I care,” she whispered. “Ash and Carmine care, too, they just don’t know it yet.”

“And you do?” He tilted his head at the small indication that she may know more that she wasn’t sharing.

Arbora sank her teeth into the tip of her tongue.

“I’ll make you a bargain,” he said, uncrossing his arms with a growing smirk. “If you beat me today, I will do the interviews. As many as you would like.”

“If you promise the truth. Everything, as you remember it,” she added.

He paused before nodding in agreement.

“And you and I fight first, while we’re both at full strength.”

“Alright,” the smirk slid into a full smile this time, his eyes gleaming at the challenge she had leveled at him. “If you lose, you train with the Valkyries an hour each day in addition to what we do, and you never ask me to do the interviews again.”

She balked at that. The Valkyries’ training was an easy thing to concede to. She liked them and enjoyed their company when she joined them once a week in Velaris. Forcing her never to ask him again was the bitter pill.  But he hadn’t said that Ash or Carmine couldn’t ask him. She could easily recruit her brothers, or maybe Father… Perhaps even Uncle Cassian or Uncle Lucien could be persuaded to push him in the right direction.

“I agree.” Immediately, she felt the sting of magic against her upper left arm. His shirt was looser than her tight long-sleeved jacket, so she watched as he yanked it over his head to examine his newest tattoo.

A band of shadows, which looked almost exactly like the shadows which now examined the tattoo, banded around his arm, nearly two inches thick and dark. As Papa raised his arm, she saw the symbol the Cauldron had seen fit to represent her with in this bargain.

At the center of the inside of his arm was a symbol she had sketched but never shown to anyone. A crest shaped like a shield held four divided sections. Her stylized initials, A.V., in the left corner. A circle intersected by a pen in the top right for the symphonia and pen she used in her research. At the bottom left, an Illyrian blade and a ribbon as an ode to the training she had received from Azriel and the Valkyries. And at the bottom right, a book, the one that would be born from the work she would do as soon as she won this fight.

Dividing the sections were the four points of a compass. If you knew to look for it, you would find that the angle of the blade, the pen, the center seam of the angled, open book and the slant of her initials formed the other four points of an eight-pointed star.

The crest sat atop the band, nearly four inches long from top to bottom and easily seen in its entirety.

She tore her eyes from it, looking at her papa’s surprised face as he examined the crest.

“What is this?” he asked, turning his gaze to her.

“I designed it,” she shrugged. She had long since mastered a cool avoidance for when she didn’t wish to answer questions and knew her Papa would recognize it immediately.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Keep your secrets.” He pulled his shirt back over his head, murmuring with an air of amused resignation, “Just like your Father.”

Ash walked out of the trees at the edge of the clearing, his light brown hair and brown skin giving him the appearance of a forest spirit which had just stepped from within its tree. Arbora looked at him, scanning quickly for any sign that he should not join them today.

“Are we training today?” he asked quietly. Of the three Vanserra children, Ash held the most resemblance to Papa’s quiet nature. Papa nodded at him. “Yes. But first your sister and I have a fight to keep. You can warm up, then observe.”

“Is this what the bargain is about?” Ash asked. Arbora nodded. He snorted at his sister. “Best of luck.”

“Thanks,” she grinned at him, then turned to her father. “I’m warmed up enough. I started before I walked over.”

“Alright. What type of fight?” He asked her. She considered for a moment before tilting her head. “You pick.”

He grinned. “Daggers.” It was the middle ground. She preferred hand to hand combat, her quickness and lightness on her feet among her greater strengths. Had he chosen the broadswords or Illyrian blades, he would likely overpower her quickly. He truly wanted a fair fight.

“Fine,” she nodded, summoning three from her bag. One got tucked into her waistband, the other two resting in her palms.

Ash slipped from her notice entirely as her eyes met Papa’s and the battle began. Papa would want her to strike first. She stayed exactly where she was and let him begin to circle her, pushing her toward the center of the clearing. Still, she waited, crouched slightly with her weight centered.

It lasted a good two minutes before Papa grew bored with her evasion and threw himself in her direction.

She ran at him, but instead of moving to strike, she dropped, sliding beneath him into the mist and mud and then winnowing to get out of reach on the other side of the clearing. He whirled to face her.

“You didn’t say no powers,” she taunted.

“I didn’t think I needed to,” he countered. It was their usual rule, but this was no ordinary fight. This fight was one she intended to win. Any bladed battle meant they went to first blood drawn. She had barely missed his leg on the slide through.

He glared, tapping his siphons quickly so his siphoned armor slid over his body. She simply smirked in response, winnowing to kick him in the back of the knee before winnowing back to where she had just been. His snarl followed her as he disappeared in a blur of shadows. She forced herself to run to the center of the clearing. Her power available to winnow would only last so long.

He appeared beside her, blades flashing as she lunged to the side, spinning to angle a dagger for a slice at his ribcage.

He almost got her hand with his answering blows, but she ducked them, turning her side to him. She threw a dagger casually behind her, ridding herself of the unnecessary extra weapon and distracting him enough that she could kick her right leg up, wrapping it around his extended left arm and sending him careening to the side. He dropped his dagger, which she snatched before it even hit the ground. The one she had discarded slid across the clearing, pushed out of his reach by her magic.

He would replace the dagger quickly, so she whirled in a furious maelstrom, blades glinting as the sun’s rays began to beam through the trees. He met her blow for blow, landing a kick to her thigh that she thought may have been enough to bruise bone, but she did not falter.

He would not break her. She had to win. She took a chance. She would not falter. She could not fail.

A kick to his chest was a metaphorical death sentence. He would grab her ankle, flip her onto her back and have a knife at her throat faster than she could respond.

Nor could she do what she had just done to throw him off balance. A lesser warrior, especially one without wings, would have been in the dirt with that. But not her Papa.

So instead, she aimed lower, kicking him in the inner thigh while aiming for his hand with the dagger, then punching him at his temple with her opposite fist. The next kick was to the knee she had kicked earlier. A low blow, but she would do anything short of touching his wings to win. He staggered a little, reaching towards his ankle for the dagger strapped there. He was off balance. She winnowed to his side faster than he could blink and tackled him to the earth, pinning one arm beneath him and the other beneath her knee, trapping his hips beneath her other shin. She pushed the tip of her dagger slowly against his chin until a bead of blood appeared.

He breathed hard, the adrenaline of the fight coursing through him. She removed some pressure from the dagger, swiping a finger through that bead and showed it to him. “Do you yield?”

He swore. “I yield.” She jumped off him immediately, braid swinging behind her. He extended a hand upward, and she took it to help him up, but he grinned suddenly and kicked a foot out, connecting with her hip and swinging her body over his so she was thrown over his head and onto her back with a “Fuck!” She had tucked enough to not hit her head. But her shoulder was going to bruise badly. She closed her eyes to better regain the breath that had been forced from her with sudden brutality.

When she opened them again, he was waiting, standing above her with a smug grin. His wing angled to block the sunlight from her face, its surface coated in as much mud as she was sure she was.

“I yielded. I didn’t say I wanted to be done fighting,” Papa taunted.

“I won the bargain fight,” Arbora said firmly.

“Yes,” he allowed, rolling his eyes again. “Get up.”

“Are we going again?” She swatted away the hand he offered with a pointed look, sitting up and then rolling onto her feet.

“Yes. No blades this time?”

Ash cut in from where he watched on the side. “I think you two had better give it a rest. Father won’t like it if Papa gets any more bruises on his face.”

The fighters exchanged a glance, then looked at Ash. He just sighed. “Your funeral.”

They grinned and launched themselves back into one more battle of wills.

***

Two hours later, the three of them walked back to the Forest House looking like they had just emerged from a bog.

They had moved slowly, Ash walking next to Papa on the trail and Arbora trailing behind. She could see the mud smeared in Ash’s hair, making it stand up in odd peaks and stick out from the side of his head as though he had been shocked.

When Papa picked up the pace and flared his wings slightly, she knew they were in sight of the house. Father would be waiting for them, his morning briefing over. He enjoyed doing it alone in favor of letting Papa train them. It was a division of labor that kept them both happy. Ash stopped and let Papa go, falling back to talk to her.

“I think he’s slowing down,” Ash said softly. Arbora sighed. It was a debate they had held many times in the last few years. “You beat your record time for taking him down.”

“Maybe he let me win,” she countered.

Her brother shook his head. Papa was nearly to the stairs, but Ash put a hand on Arbora’s wrist. “Arbora. He’s weakening.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

It was Ash’s turn to sigh. This discussion was going like most of the others they had fought, save for the lack of Carmine’s mediation. “You beat him. He was at full strength. It happens sometimes, but you beat him yesterday, too.”

“He’s not that old, Ash,” she argued, flipping her braid behind her with a snarl. “He’s just as strong as he was five years ago.”

“Oh? And when was the last time he had Uncle Cassian here? Papa still trains the same as always. Cassian does too, you know it.”

“They’re busy,” she snapped. “The High Lords’ meeting is coming.”

“Or Papa just doesn’t want to worry Cassian,” Ash countered, rocking back onto his heels. “You have to acknowledge they don’t fight the way they used to.”

“That’s not surprising. They haven’t been in war since before I was born.”

“If a war was coming, you think they would be the elite warriors they were in the war against Hybern? Against Koschei?”

“Yes!” she shouted, throwing her hands up at her brother’s ridiculously even tone. “Of course I do.”

“They aren’t,” Ash shook his head with certainty. “I remember. I remember training with them in the early years. They don’t have the same speed. Or dexterity. Papa’s hands get stiffer every year. It’s a wonder he can still hold a broadsword.”

“They aren’t old.”

“No,” he allowed. “But they aren’t young, either.”

Arbora’s next argument was cut off suddenly.

“Arbora! Ash!” Father stood by the railing with red hair glinting, Papa looking like little more than a shadow lurking behind him.

“Coming!” They yelled, glancing at each other before breaking into a light jog.

The distance to the house gave Arbora a second to clear her head, wiping the tension from her face as she approached the porch.

“What were you two arguing about?” Father asked them, eyes bouncing between theirs as he observed. Papa leaned back against the house, leaving a smear of mud on the wall. He would clean it up later. He was good about that.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ash answered levelly. Arbora kept her mouth shut. She would do them no good at all.

Father knew it, too. She saw his eyebrow raise in her direction, and still said nothing. He gave up after a minute, turning to look at Papa, who just shrugged. “They were fine five minutes ago.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “Don’t let it affect things.”

“We won’t,” Arbora promised.

Father nodded, then added with a sweep of his eyes across the three of them, "And don't think I didn't notice the bruises on your faces underneath the mud."

Arbora bit back a smile as Papa disguised a laugh with a well-timed cough. Father just sighed, shaking his head and turning to the door.

Silently, the family trailed inside, Father to the right to go back to his office, and Papa, Ash, and Arbora to the left to drop their weapons and bags in the mud room. They would be cleaned just as soon as their owners weren’t tracking mud with every step.

Ash held back once more, lowering his head slightly to whisper in Arbora’s ear. “We’re not done with that, you know.”

She glared at him in response. Still, he said nothing. Papa called over his shoulder, “When you two are done bickering like children, come clean up. We all have too much to do today to get distracted with a brawl.”

Arbora stalked away from her brother. It couldn’t be helped, she knew. Ash was concerned. Maybe he was right to be, but she didn’t see it. Her Papa was as strong as ever. He had to be.

***

A/N: I swear I tried to make this short. I refuse to swear that I tried to leave it on a happy ending. Sorry, but... not really!

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