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hb-writes · 3 years ago

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You’ve Always Been Naive

Summary: It’s 1925 in the Little Lady Blinder universe. After an epic row, Tommy allows Clara to stay more regularly on Watery Lane with a few conditions, one of which is a mid-week meeting at the Midland Hotel to check in.

Characters: Tommy Shelby & Clara (Shelby!Sister)

Content Warnings: canon-typical content, angst, (underage) drug use (requested by anon)

Tommy glanced up from his whiskey sour as his sister stepped up to the table, her face a deliberately neutral façade as she set a ledger down in front of him, a week's worth of academic work stuffed inside the front cover.

"Lizzie said you'll need that for tomorrow," Clara offered as she extracted the papers, placing them on top and pushing the pile towards him. "And here are the assignments you've asked for. If that's all, I have plans, so…"

Tommy watched her determination waver a bit as he raised a brow, her confidence retreating the longer she stood planted in front of him, the first she'd been directly in his presence for a little over a week.

A meeting at the Midland Hotel had been Tommy's idea. Clara had accepted the summons, accepted the hotel as a sort of neutral territory though it was in no way impartial. The hotel was Tommy's home more days than it wasn't, filled with a staff as loyal to his payment as the staff of Arrow House, loyal like the staff of the company, but the Midland's staff didn't know Clara Shelby as well as the others. They didn't have their claws in her, couldn't appeal to her on Tommy's behalf like the others did, like little Charlie did, or Ada, so when Tommy requested the midweek meeting as a condition of his allowing her to stay on the lane far more often than she did under his roof, Clara felt she had little option but to agree.

Tommy barely glanced at the things she'd set on the table, more interested in the fact that Clara hadn't yet found her seat, still standing across from him bundled in all the cloth that had protected her from the stinging wind and chill on the walk over, almost as if she was convinced the coat and scarf and gloves would protect her from him too.

"Take a seat."

"I already said I—"

"You're going to make a scene?"

Both of Tommy's eyebrows rose with the question, the words almost a dare, or perhaps better likened to a threat, and Clara glanced about the room only to determine that the Midland wasn't the proper place for a shouting match with her brother. Scheduling the meeting there was meant to keep the two of them in check, but Clara knew Tommy would show no hesitation in raising his voice back should she choose to make a go of it, settling her firmly in the place where he thought she belonged with a mere line or two.

Clara's cheeks warmed at the mere thought.

"That's what I thought." Tommy shifted, sitting up straighter in his chair, eyeing its empty match across the table. "Take a seat."

Clara remained in her spot, pulling her eyes from him as she forced her finger into the opening between her coat sleeve and glove to expose the delicate watch set on her wrist.

Lizzie's handwriting in her diary had marked her down to be at the Midland with Tommy from 6:00 to 7:00, but she's made herself quarter of an hour late by a bit of purposeful dawdling at the office followed by a bit of nervous pacing out front of the hotel that had left her with chilled toes and wind-chapped cheeks.

"I really can't see why I need to. You've seen I'm alive and well—" Clara gestured to the book and papers. "—You have the ledger, have proof I've been doing as I've been told, and I'm certain you've already gotten reports off of—"

"Take a seat."

Tommy finished his drink, the ice clattering against the glass as he set it on the table, all of the force that wasn't there in his voice focused into the gesture before he pulled the papers closer, thumbing through her work though he cared little to see the grades or completeness. He had little concern that Clara wouldn't hold up that end of the deal, her motivations in that arena extending beyond any guidelines he could set for her.

And anyway, Tommy already knew she'd been towing the line. He didn’t need the completed packet of school assignments to know she was following his rules. He didn’t need this encounter to know she was alright either, his curiosity on the matter fulfilled well enough through reports from Lizzie and Ada and Frances and Michael, his confidence bolstered by the lack of contact from the school. Even Finn’s first words to him in every meeting over the last week and a half had been about their sister.

People usually told him things, always had, seemed to give him what he needed in that respect without him having to ask after it, but Tommy didn’t always trust the word of the world. There were some things he preferred to see for himself, some questions he needed to hear the answer to while seeing the reaction on her face before she got the chance to put her clever words in the way.

Something about the power of the impending fourth request to take a seat, and the knowledge that it wouldn’t be as much of a request as it was an order coming from Tommy’s lips, helped Clara to lower herself into the chair across from her brother. She kept quiet while Tommy thumbed through her work, slipping the gloves from her hands and settling them on the table though she allowed herself to shed nothing more as she sat on the edge of the seat, her back straight, every muscle in her feeling taut and strained while she waited.

“You’ve been busy.”

Clara nodded. She had been busy, and she was quite certain her brother was at fault for that, accepting her being out from under his roof, but not out from under his thumb, ensuring she had more than enough to keep her busy, keeping her so occupied once she held up her end that all she wanted was her bed.

The worst part was Clara knew it. She knew this wasn’t really the freedom she was after, the distance she’d said she needed, but she couldn’t help herself when it came to meeting expectations. Clara was losing either way, but the fact that she kept trying bothered her brother, that she knew. That she’d rather adhere to his rule and work herself to death than live under his roof and play that game unsettled him.

People listened to Thomas Shelby for many reasons—because of his influence or his threats, because they hadn’t a choice. He imagined his siblings fell into the last category, left without much of a choice, but he’d always imagined the girls were a bit different. His brothers filed in line like the soldiers they were, but the girls weren’t soldiers. The girls had always seemed to be tied to him and his words in some other way, some sort of different understanding falling between the three of them, but with Clara especially. The understanding didn't seem to be there any longer though, replaced with the same soldiering that he'd seen with his brothers.

“I’ve been doing as I was told,” Clara offered.

“And what were you told?”

Clara huffed, settling back in the chair, her shoulders slumping at his question, something about him making her repeat it for him doing the work that his tone alone couldn’t.

Clara fixed her gaze out the windows in the front as the waiter approached the table.

"Anything for the young lady, Mr. Shelby?"

"Tea," he said, not pulling his eyes from his sister, her annoyance at the order he placed on her behalf clear in the twitch of her face though she stayed quiet until the man stepped away.

"I'm not staying, Tommy. I told you I have plans."

He tilted his watch face to check the time. “Not until seven.”

Clara seemed to accept that seeing as she didn’t fight him, settling a bit further into the chair, shifting her gaze out the window once again.

“So, back to doing as you’re told, then.”

Tommy raised his eyebrows, blinking at her long and slow though she’d met his gaze for only a short moment before turning her attention elsewhere, to watch people coming in through the front door.

“School assignments, exams, the company, Sunday dinners. Your meetings...and all of it’s up to par, Tommy. I’m—”

“And what about this?”

Clara stilled as he set the blue vial on the table, her pulse picking up as he left it there and sunk back into his own chair.

"Tommy!" she hissed, nearly reaching out her hand to knock it from the table, to remove it from such a clear view, but no one was watching them.

Tommy scoffed, leaning forward and closing the vial in his hand before pointing a finger at his sister. "I told you if there was any fucking nonsense, I'd bring you right back home."

"I am home," she answered. "Can't get more like home than Watery Lane."

Tommy's snort was so quiet Clara didn't even catch it and he nodded, leaning his chin on his hand as he sat back, his finger idly rubbing his jaw as he considered her. "You think you're clever."

"I am clever," Clara answered, unwinding the scarf from her neck, her eyes diverted as she focused on the meticulous folding of the fabric before she set the bundle on top of her gloves. "You've always said."

Tommy shook his head, the second snort almost leading to a smile before he cleared his throat, shifting his position again and rooting around for his cigarettes before he spoke.

"I'm not in the mood for it, Clara. You've been asking questions about things you have no business with and it stops now."

Tommy caught her eye roll as he lit the cigarette, couldn't miss it really, the way the gesture took over her whole expression, her whole body really, and he wondered whether she'd done it on purpose or if it was just a reflex.

Clara was inclined to do far more than roll her eyes at him, a whole queue of arguments settled at the leading edge of her tongue, every part of her except her lips prepared to fight him because everyone else was allowed a bit of snow for the simple fun of it, but Clara had a feeling voicing that argument wouldn't do well in the end. It would only serve to tell him what he somehow didn't yet know, that she hadn't simply asked her questions, that she'd also tried it for herself.

It had just been the one time, to quell some curiosity, a small indulgence, and even if it had helped her stay alert to get done what she'd needed to get done, Clara wasn't keen to try it again. Tommy had no need of knowing it, so she swallowed her arguments, swallowed her pride and distaste for the double standards that ruled her life.

"Fine, Thomas. I've heard you. You want me to stop asking questions. And Michael and Finn are loyal to you, not me. It's all understood, nothing for you to waste your precious time worrying over." She was sitting up straight in the chair once again, perched on the edge and eager to be out the door before the tea came. "Is there anything else?" she asked. "As I said, I do have other plans."

Tommy pinched the bridge of his nose, releasing an exhale before tapping the ash at the end of his cigarette into the tray between them and holding her gaze.

“You’ve never tried it, then?”

Clara opened her mouth and Tommy let out a hollow laugh before she could answer, the cigarette pointed in her direction once again.

“And don’t you fucking lie to me, Clara.”

His gaze was unblinking and Clara held onto it as long as she could manage, not even allowing herself to breathe for several moments as she stared back at him, a familiar strain falling between the two of them.

Clara allowed herself a small intake of breath, attempted to take in a little air before she'd find herself gasping for it, attempted to extend the standoff a bit longer, but her resolve crumbled with the exhale, Tommy's attack coming before she'd even finished the breath.

“You’re going back to Arrow—”

“No, I'm not. It was just the one—”

Tommy's laugh cut her off, set a silence between them as he took a drag off the cigarette. “If you believe that, you’re just being naive, always have—”

“Excuse me?”

“You're clever, but you’ve always been naive,” Tommy said. “And all you’ve done this evening is show me that that is still the case.” He cleared some ash into the tray.

“If the work’s too much, you cut out the fun with the boys. It’s something you kids don’t seem to understand.” He set his finger down into the pile, jabbing the folder of school assignments and the ledger with each word. “The business comes first.”

Clara scoffed, the force of it so gentle it was barely noticeable, and she glanced at her watch. “It’s five after,” she said, scooping her gloves and scarf into her arms as she stood, pushing her chair back in place.

Tommy nodded. “I want you at the house on Sunday…to see Charlie. We can finish this then."

"There’s nothing to finish," she answered, setting her gaze away from him as she wrapped the cloth around her neck and pulled her gloves from the table, fitting one hand inside. "See you Sunday."

Clara took a step away as she worked the other glove over her fingers and Tommy caught her elbow, his hold far more gentle than any of the words he'd tossed at her during their meeting, more gentle than his stares or the mock laughter.

A wetness grew in Clara's eyes and she stayed faced away from him for a moment as she tried to resolve the tears, swallowing hard, her arm going limp as Tommy's grip shifted, sliding down her arm to clasp her wrist.

Enough. That's what his hand on her wrist meant, a gesture Clara and Charlie used to ask for the end of any bit of play that had gone a bit too far, a signal that communicated when it was too much, a gesture Clara knew Tommy had been deliberate in choosing.

"Clara, I mean it. No more snow, alright? If something were to happen, I…"

His words sent a searing lump into her throat, that combined with the touch sending her mind down into a spiral of guilt and shame, and as much as Clara hated Tommy for his role in it, for having the power to do it, she hated herself just as well for succumbing to it, even more for ever stepping out of line to begin with, disappointed with herself and her choices even though everyone else did it.

Clara cursed her brother and his temperamental provision of care, the sparse deliverance of love, and his double standards, and then she’d cursed herself, cursed the expectations and rules she’d set on herself and everything about the relationship that existed between them. Clara pulled her hand loose, tugging her glove the rest of the way into place before she took a deep breath, her back still to her brother as she bid him farewell.

"I'll see you Sunday, Thomas."

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#peaky blinders #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders fanfiction #shelby sister #shelby!sister #tommy shelby #clara shelby #little lady blinder #500 follower celebration #hb.writes angst #wednesday update

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curiousconch · 3 years ago

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Chase You / Chase Me (Pt. 1)

Part 1: Burning on the Edge of Something Beautiful

Catch up here: Series Masterlist

Chapter Summary: Alex finds herself personally affected by the Rothswell case and Gabe attempts to find out why.

Book/Pairing: Choices - Laws of Attraction / Gabe Ricci x MC (Alex Keating)

Words: 1.8k+

Rating/Warnings: Mature (16+) / implied sexual content, alcohol consumption

Disclaimer: Most of the characters as well as some dialogues belong to Pixelberry. I am merely borrowing them.

Wednesday Evening at McGraw Byrne

Back from a day in the courts, Gabe stepped out of the elevator and into the halls of McGraw Byrne. Eager to finish the day's work, he passed by the break room where he unwittingly heard something that made him instantly halt.

"Did you see how clammed up Keating became when you asked her that question?" Gabe heard Vanderweil's deep voice.

"Actually, I sensed something irked her during the ride back. Seems like I did strike a chord," a serious female voice replied, which Gabe presumed was Sinclair's.

He made the assumption that the line of conversation was about their visit to the Rothswell's mansion. Earlier that day, the law firm's major client Philip Rothswell, demanded that they see to the whole Lydia and Joey situation. So Gabe and Sadie instructed the associates to go see the young heiress, trying to give the firm more time to create a more solid strategy than playing family counselor.

When they were placating Rothswell, he noticed how Alex fidgeted in her chair as she listened to their client. The way her body pulled up every defensive stance in the book full with meaning.

Seems that what he just overheard confirmed his suspicions. Something was bothering Alex Keating. And like all things Alex, it piqued at his curiosity.

It irked him that he did, more than he was willing to admit. Seems like even as trivial as office gossip, as long as its about her, Gabe is guaranteed to take notice.

Hastening his strides, he continued on to his plush new office, the setting sun coloring the wood furnishings with a hue of orange. He tossed his briefcase on the khaki couch, his leather soles padding on the clean white carpet. Loosening his tie, he crossed the room towards his desk. He took off his coat, hanging it on the rack nearby and turned to face the glass walls which offered a much better view of the concrete jungle below.

His mind whirred as he rationalized with himself as to why he was so invested with Alex. He initially chalked it up as a familiar, primal response to her... attractiveness. Yet as he watched her emerge from every pressure test and challenge he and Sadie gave her, he can't help but root for her.

It's not just that. After a long time, Gabe wanted to be near someone. He wanted to hear what bothers them, their goals, even their history. A level of interest he never exhibited to his usual carnal pursuits.

She stirred up something sleeping within him, something he willed never to return.

Consumed by the thoughts of her, Gabe finds himself glancing at his Rolex and hatching a guise to know what made the mighty Alex Keating got so worked up about.

Sometime later, uptown New York

"Alex... Have you ever had someone like Joey mess with your head? It's not about smart or stupid," Gigi had asked.

Alex poked her fork at the piece of chocolate soufflé as her mind whirled back to the ride back to the office.

"I'm not buying you any more of that Riesling if you wouldn't even bother being a worthy companion," Gabe teased, before downing another glass of scotch across her.

Her head immediately perked up, breaking free from her introspection. Alex forced a smile in response.

"As if another glass would make a dent in your indomitable fortune," she leaned back, trying to hide her thoughts under the façade of her sarcasm, rolling her eyes at him for added effect.

The two find themselves in a swanky New York restaurant, its upscale interior design worthy of the five star Yelp rating. The sleek tables and gray scandinavian chairs made Alex grateful that her wine red dress fit among the crowd. With a private booth overlooking the city lights and the delicious gourmet food served, she did not regret accepting Gabe's dinner invitation to meet a client.

Her mind decided that more work and Gabe's company was a great way to distract herself from the nagging of her memories, and it didn't hurt that the senior partner was easy on the eyes.

And when the supposed big shot canceled at the last minute, Alex completely saw it as a win.

"Something bothers you." Gabe suddenly articulated, breaking her from her contemplations.

Alex's brow arched in reply, as Gabe stated it like a fact, not as a question.

Crossing her legs under the table, she folded her arms across her chest.

"And why does that concern my pretend-boyfriend, hm?" she interjected, hoping to evade his interrogation.

"You're not the only astute one in this booth," Gabe let his eyes trail across her defensive stance the second time today.

Throughout the course of their meal, the heat between them simmered as well as the flow of their usual banter. Their chemistry was palpable, convincing even the waiter of the restaurant. The cocky man was certainly redefining the phrase hot and cold for Alex. He quickly and easily shut down her attempts to flirt, pulling back when the temperature between them reached a boiling point.

But Alex was more surprised, pleasantly so, when Gabe briefly opened up about his past and the vague explanation of why he's still not settled down.

She sensed the current trajectory of their conversation was what Gabe planned to have all along.

But now, as she swirled the remaining expensive liquid in her glass, trying to decide whether to put her guards up or to just give in, she couldn't deny the uncharacteristic softness in his gaze. It was magnetizing, making Alex want to fold and drop her pretentions.

She watched him as he seemed to eagerly anticipate for her retort, a half smile lingering on that pretty mouth of his.

Alex knew he won't push her if she didn't want to, yet a part of her wanted to share the heaviness that weighed on her shoulder since meeting Lydia Rothswell. Of how much the teenager reminded her of her old, naïve self.

She's been trying to rack her brain for a reasonable explanation for her growing desire to introduce herself to Gabe more than she'd allowed the string of men that she had trysts with. Despite her continuous self-denial, her gut is telling her that Gabe wasn't like any other she crossed paths with.

Making up her mind, she decided to let the door open. Maybe just a little.

She sipped her wine beckoning some needed courage, wishing that she ordered something stronger.

Taking a deep breath, she began, her eyes fixed on the view behind him.

"Since you were wondering, my otherwise impeccable track record is stained by one mistake," she paused, finally turning her gaze to Gabe's waiting eyes.

"Like Lydia, I trusted the wrong person," she continued. "I... risked everything and got nothing."

Gabe's mouth twitched ever so slightly, sensing a fluttering in him because of Alex's candor. There was no trace of the witty comebacks he'd grown to see in her, only vulnerability.

And somehow, he adored her more.

He watched her as she bit her thumbnail, an action greatly contradicting the fiery personality she projected in front of everyone else.

Alex gritted her teeth as she fought back the overwhelming emotions as she stopped herself from revealing more than she's prepared to. Not yet, not tonight, she thought.

"But I woke up from that nightmare, solemnly swearing to myself that I wouldn't repeat the same wrong decision that almost railroaded my whole future," she concluded, determined not to expose herself any further.

A hush fell between them.

Alex raised her head to meet the eyes of the man that made her walls crack, expecting to find intrigue. Instead, she found a subtle look of understanding.

It's as if it was telling her that he knew. He knew every pain and every hurt that she wanted to just forget and bury inside a box, never to be opened again.

Just because for him, pain was a familiar companion. That like her, he too, has been through hell and back.

And while she relished under his attention, her breath slowed, letting herself be trapped within the depths of those reassuring brown eyes. Alex thought nothing can make her drop down her guard, but Gabe's next actions proved that there's still more he can do to break down her walls.

Without thinking, Gabe reached for her hand and took it in his, skimming his own thumb on her knuckles in an attempt to comfort her. He smiled warmly at her, expressing a gentleness that she never thought he was capable of.

It made Alex's heart skip a beat.

Even Gabe seemed to slowly enter the same daze, unable to veer away from Alex's unguarded view. Any remnants of his resistance, leaving him. He found himself leaning in, lured by the heady scent of her perfume - a mix of coffee, vanilla and jasmine. An unexpected combination that enticed him more to her.

For a few moments, their world stood still, as if they were on the edge of discovering something that all their lives they subconsciously sought.

Something more than any flirtation or any pursuit for lustful pleasure. Something more...

"More drinks, Gabe?" a familiar voice broke them from the temporary oasis that they pulled themselves in.

All of a sudden, they were sucked back to the reality of their actual surroundings. The noise of other patrons of the restaurant, the soft ambience of the lights overhead, and the fact that he was her current boss, and that she was under his professional supervision.

Gabe turned to James, their waiter, and refused the offer nonchalantly, and instead asked for their check.

"We should head back to the salt mines, the stack of work on my desk probably hasn't gotten any smaller since we left," Gabe casually said, erasing any trace of what just happened between them. Alex silently agreed, following his queue by checking her phone for emails.

The trip to the lobby was wordless, as well as the wait for their ride. Up until Gabe opened the door of the town car, not following Alex inside.

"Aren't you coming?" Alex inquired, briefly confused.

He cleared his throat, his expression stoic before he answered her. "I think its best if we part ways here. I wasn't kidding about needing to head back to the office," he paused, a look of contemplation in his eyes before it softly shifted to that of sincerity.

"You, on the other hand, should go home and get some rest. Partner's orders."

Alex couldn't help but smile. "Whatever you say, Gabe."

"Careful, Alex. I just might hold you to that promise one of these days," Gabe replied, the usual playfulness evident in his tone.

And with that, the door closed and the car pulled away.

But as Gabe watched the vehicle fade out of his sight, his phone pinged for an email. Glancing down at his screen, he saw the name of the sender, prompting him to open it in haste.

The message contained a single statement: "I found what you asked me to look for." An attachment was included.

When he opened the file, he saw a picture of a younger version of the woman he just parted from.

And a look of recognition passed over his face.

Author's Notes: This is getting a little canon divergent, though I'm just expanding their dinner conversation and using the intimate setting provided in the original book.

Tags: @adiehardfan @pixelnutrookie @starryjieun @fucking-random1 @choicesficwriterscreations

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you want to be tagged or removed on succeeding installments. If not, please reblog or comment, I'd really appreciate it!

#choices laws of attraction #choices fanfiction #choices loa #choices loa fanfiction #choices laws of attraction fanfiction #gabe ricci #gabe ricci x mc #choices fic writers creations #fics of the week

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janamelie · 3 years ago

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Dimension Jump XXI Report

I suppose I’m a DJ veteran now as this was my fifth consecutive one and the fourth at the Nottingham Crowne Plaza which is an expensive four-star hotel. Sharing with a friend helps keep the cost reasonable and honestly, it’s worth it for the sheer convenience of being right there in the hotel and being able to nip back to your room as required. (To be clear, you don’t have to stay in the hotel to attend the con. There are plenty of other hotels nearby.)

Plus there is always the chance that you’ll see a guest at breakfast as I did Danny once. He picked out a few pieces of fruit and nibbled at them before wandering over late to his photoshoot. What else would you expect from a cat though?

Friday

Myself and @downonthepharm-red-dwarf (Amy) had arrived the previous day so had plenty of time to be near the front of the queue for registration. Which meant we saw Hattie Hayridge arrive in a stunning designer coat and with smart luggage. She really brought her outfit A-game and looked great the whole weekend.

Once we’d presented our respective proofs of full Covid vaccination or a recent negative test, we were given our DJ passes and booklets. The latter has spaces for signatures from guests, an Order Of Events and various handy tips for the weekend.

The con kicks off at 5pm with an hour of gradual build-up in the Main Hall - they show videos from previous events, specially made titbits with various guests past and present such as Mark Dexter doing a mock guide to DJ and Rebecca Blackstone voicing Pree. It all helps with the atmosphere, as do the numerous RD posters dotted around the hotel.

Then it was time for the Opening Ceremony featuring various Fan Club team members and an overcrowded stage full of cardboard boxes - the joke was that they’d had too much time on their hands during lockdowns and bought loads of stuff online. It was obviously also a nod to Lister’s hoarding in “The Promised Land”.

The sketch featured a specially made shot of the AA adverts’ Starbug model landing outside the Crowne Plaza and an 80s computerised version of the lovely convention logo. You could tell a lot of loving effort had gone into the whole thing.

Once the guest line-up had been announced (I’ll get to that not-really-a-surprise-guest shortly), we went straight into the RD Pub Quiz, hosted by Hattie. DOTP and I had been joined at our table by Lapsang and Barbs from our Discord (No Kind Of Atmosphere) plus various other attendees we’d befriended.

Someone in the crowd yelled “I love you, Hattie!” to which she quipped “I’ve pulled already!” Another bloke shouted “Fuck off, she’s mine!” which led to a few shouts of “Fight!” When neither seemed keen to do so, Hattie joked: “Only two? That’s a bit pathetic!” and then we got started.

The quiz is hard, by design, but I’m good at quizzes and my team - No Kind Of Atmosphere after our Discord - came joint third which was gratifying. (I was on the winning team a few DJs ago, to blow my own trumpet for a moment. This is my report, after all.)

And then it was time for the first guest Q&A with - surprise, surprise - Johnny Vegas aka the Crit Cop in “Timewave”. Not a great episode but he more than made up for that with an appearance I can only describe as chaotic. Warning - DO NOT attempt to heckle him unless you want to be singled out and humiliated in front of the entire audience in a “Can’t look away” fashion which was nonetheless entertaining. The man in question tweeted about it afterwards and seems to have taken it in good spirit.

Once we’d moved on from encouraging people to leave unpleasant things in room 429, it turned out Johnny’s a big fan of the show and owned it on VHS (so did I). He thinks of the main characters, Holly would win at “Taskmaster” and had good reasons for that conclusion.

He was dubious about the pink costume he wore in “Timewave” as he thought it might take away from the character but said he eventually decided he needed to get over what he was wearing and just go for it. He also said one of his worst working moments was on “Benidorm” when he had to hold his breath underwater in a freezing swimming pool and his co-star kept forgetting her two lines so they had over 30 takes. Ouch.

Johnny left commenting that he got less love at his 50th birthday party. But we hadn’t seen the last of him by any means as people kept buying him drinks during the Auction, leading to him successfully bidding for one of the items on offer.

And then he was back for the Karaoke. Now if you - as he informed us - had to undergo emergency dental surgery in the morning and had practically lost your voice, would you sing karaoke? And not only that, would you sing a version of “Love On The Rocks” which lasted 11 minutes according to someone on Twitter (I wasn’t timing it, but I can believe it), followed by the full-length version of “American Pie”?

If you answered no, you’re clearly not Johnny Vegas. He went to bed so late that the unfortunate Fan Club team member assigned to look after him got a grand total of 90 minutes’ sleep.

Saturday

DOTP and I had paid for the Photoshoot with Mr Vegas, Danny John-Jules and Ray Fearon. We got in the queue at 9am which was when it was supposed to start. An hour later we were still waiting. Yep, Danny was late.

Once he made it to the hotel, I got my photo in front of a Science Room backdrop. You might think Mr Vegas would be hungover and rushing through it, but on the contrary, he was still enjoying the hell out of proceedings which was refreshing to see. Since he’d been added to the line-up too late to be in the souvenir booklet, he signed extra inserts for the Fan Club which they handed out to everyone at the later Autograph sessions so attendees got his autograph after all even though he’d finally left. That’s what I call throwing yourself into an event.

Next up was a combined Q&A with Danny and Ray (originally separate but Danny’s lateness meant they were teamed up). This wasn’t a problem at all though - on the contrary, it worked really well as the chumminess between them added to the vibe. Also it was Ray’s first convention so he probably preferred to have Danny backing him up, especially since the poor man tripped on his way to the stage and almost fell. I don’t think he was hurt but I cringed with secondhand embarrassment and empathy. He wasn’t the only one to fall foul of the edge of the stage that weekend; I think it was the slightly raised dancefloor in front of it.

As is usual for Danny, we were treated to over half an hour of what you can only really describe as a stream of consciousness as he pontificated about various things. He and Ray did also talk about working together on “Death In Paradise” and Ray described his worst working experience there - he had to play a scene in a club in 45 degree heat with a live snake wrapped around his neck!

Ray is attractive in a “Hollywood hunk” way and Danny was clearly conscious of this, joking that he’d “brought his own security with him” and muttering “I’m better-looking anyway!” But all in a jokey way as they’re clearly friends.

Danny had come from filming and dropped a heavy hint that he’s appearing in a Dickens adaptation which I imagine will be shown at Christmas as they generally are. He also complained that Craig Charles never answers his phone: “You send him a message and he answers it on Twitter a month later!” (Interestingly, Chris Barrie later mentioned a recent phone conversation with Craig so make of that what you will.)

Ray was quieter but happy to talk about the vagaries of showbiz and typecasting - he said that due to his Shakespearean background he gets a lot of serious roles so people were genuinely surprised that he could also do comedy but “I was always funny!” He also gently teased Danny about the age of some of his references before admitting he still finds Tommy Cooper funny.

Danny usually performs “Tongue-tied” with a good grace when inevitably asked to by an audience member but perhaps it’s finally starting to pall as this time he did it in the style of Oliver Reed’s Bill Sykes and included a lot of X-rated references to cunnilingus etc. It was entertaining though.

Next up was a live Q&A (over Zoom) with Chris Barrie. Danny decided to stick around as he wanted to show Chris something he’d ordered online. It took a while to get the cameras in the right position for Chris to be able to see it and Danny needed a knife to open the parcel, leading Chris to quip “Is this a good time for me to step out for some lunch?”

However, it turned out to be worth it as it was a custom-made Ace Rimmer doll which impressed Chris with its quality and he complimented the maker.

Danny and Ray then departed for their lunch and to take part in the Coffee Lounge which this year had reduced its numbers for Covid-related reasons and held a ballot for entry in the interests of fairness. Amy and I didn’t get in but happily stayed for the rest of Chris’s Q&A.

In the “working from home” spirit, Chris was in a hoodie in his living room as opposed to his more usual smart suit. He was suitably relaxed and revealed he got through lockdown by concentrating on the things which make him happy, such as his hobbies, his garden and his family. His favourite episodes are “Marooned”, “Dimension Jump” and - less predictably - “Twentica”. He also referred to a recent “mannerly, as he would call it” phone conversation with Craig. No details but it had clearly been a positive experience.

Amy decided to liven up the ending of his Q&A by asking a vitally important, “TPL”-related question. Whom would Rimmer find more attractive, a female version of Lister or a female version of Cat?

Once the laughter had died down and Chris had bought some time by pointing out that “neither of them are women”, he gave the question appropriate consideration. He pondered whether Rimmer would be more taken by the “simple charms” of Lister or the “feline grace” of Cat. This next bit is courtesy of Amy as my memory isn’t infallible: He said it’d be a choice between a feline form or a rounder, a bit more slovenly woman - he wouldn’t want the perfectly feline woman because she might not like his imperfections, but he also wouldn’t want someone who ate curry three times a day. “Basically, a balance would be ideal.”

That was the last question but Chris provided a little more entertainment as he had a “How do you turn this off then?” moment a la Gordon the computer in “Better Than Life” and made amusing faces as he figured it out. If it was anyone but Chris I’d think it was a deliberate reference to that but I think he was genuinely befuddled.

We then broke for lunch, followed by Autographs with Hattie, Danny, Ray and Norman Lovett. I got the latter three to sign the “TPL” poster I’d brought with me but gave Hattie the booklet instead as it seemed more tactful. She complimented the dress I was wearing and I returned the compliment, telling her how much the fans appreciate the effort she makes with her DJ outfits.

Norman commented how there’s a version of the “TPL” poster he isn’t on, bemusedly. Fortunately mine was the version including him.

I spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the bar with Amy, Lapsang and Barbs, chatting to other attendees. Graphic Designer Matthew Clark was now in the Merchandise Room with various props from Series XII and “TPL” including the Starbug manual used onscreen. I got his autograph on my poster but it’s an incomprehensible squiggle. Oh well. He was very friendly and easy to talk to.

After a break for dinner, the Main Hall reopened for the Costume Competition. This seems to get better every DJ, with an amazing “Greyscale Rimmer” who was discomfiting to be around due to the corpse-like makeup, a Natalina Pushkin, a Nirvanah Crane who could almost have been Jane Horrocks herself and a Diving Suit Cat from “BTE”. Other entries included Rimmer’s Mum, “Giraffes who were armed and dangerous” and a Confidence And Paranoia who were later pictured at the bar chatting to Paranoia himself, Lee Cornes.

We then had a special video message from Doug Naylor which I won’t go into as I’m sure everyone’s already heard the details. Suffice to say, his tone was positive.

The second Auction was hosted by Ian Boldsworth who made it more entertaining by adding his own commentary to each item. This was followed by a stand-up set from Norman. It was amusing but he misjudged the mood a bit, I feel. When you’re waiting for a disco to start and it’s already hours late due to Danny’s tardiness, you don’t particularly want to contemplate your own mortality. We were here to get away from all that, as much as possible.

Anyway, the Disco was a lot of fun even if Dave Benson Phillips’ presence as host was sorely missed. Hattie danced for the best part of an hour alongside everyone else. The stand-in DJs did their job and I stayed until the end. The final two songs were “Bohemian Rhapsody” and … “Tongue-tied”.

Sunday

Not being in the Sunday Photoshoot, Amy and I had a nice leisurely breakfast and got over last night’s festivities before the first Q&A, live over Zoom with Robert Llewellyn.

This was hosted by Ian Boldsworth who in his capacity as Dave era audience warm-up knows Robert well. Clearly well enough to get away with teasing him relentlessly about not being at the con in person until poor Robert was a mess of Krytenesque guilt.

His protestations that he’d been scheduled to be in Munich this weekend but no longer was (he was at home) only made things worse. Ian: “Oh, so that’s two sets of people you’ve disappointed now! Stop saying yes to things!” It was hilarious and Robert took it in its intended spirit. Also Ian was getting a measure of revenge for Robert - in character as Kryten - dry humping him at recordings. One attendee asked “With the groinal attachment?!”

Robert admitted that he finds Kryten’s various groinal attachments hilarious and if he was writing the show they’d be in every episode. He praised Doug’s restraint.

He also admitted that in “TPL” he had an earpiece to have his lines fed to him. Since it’s controlled by an iPad, certain unscrupulous cast members took great delight in feeding him rude ones.

He still intends to update “The Man In The Rubber Mask” but atm “Fully Charged” is consuming a lot of his time as it’s become much more successful than he anticipated and he’s in charge of several people.

Surprisingly, he would hate appearing in RD without the Kryten makeup, both because it’s become much quicker to apply and because it provides him with a shield and he becomes Kryten and forgets stagefright. He still can’t watch “DNA” for that reason.

Lapsang, who played Kryten in “Into The Gloop”, asked Robert if he’d seen it. He hadn’t but said he was now very curious and would find a way to.

Next up was Lee Cornes aka Paranoia who said he originally auditioned for the lead roles and like the other unsuccessful actors got the consolation prize of a guest appearance. Upon being asked if he’d gone out for a drink with Craig Ferguson’s Confidence, he said no because at the time they had a frosty relationship due to rumours that Craig was plagiarising other comics’ jokes. Lee said it was all very silly and he’s since apologised.

Interestingly, Lee is a qualified science teacher and carried on with that career alongside his media one, leading to surreal situations where his pupils would ask: “Sir? Were you on the telly last night?” “Yes.” “Are we on the telly now, sir?”

Someone asked a good question - what would Lister’s Paranoia be like now 33 years later? Lee would be willing to reprise the role but isn’t sure it would work as the original had a childish quality whereas he feels now the character would be a lot darker and less funny. Lee was both thoughtful and entertaining in his responses.

He was followed onstage by Hattie and Norman, who resolutely refused to rise to the bait of an audience member attempting to stir up a rivalry between them. That only works when one isn’t the nicest person you could meet.

A tactless audience member asked both if they’d watched “TPL” instead of directing the question at Norman. Luckily Hattie had seen it and particularly enjoyed the cat flap joke although she felt there was a little too much focus on the guest cast.

Norman didn’t really watch RD after he left but Hattie has seen Norman’s early episodes as he lent them to her back when she was originally cast as Hilly for research purposes. Bear in mind this was 1988 when they weren’t even available on VHS so presumably he recorded them off the TV.

Hattie confirmed with a sigh that she’s simply never been asked to return in any capacity: “That’s the short answer.” What the hell, I’ll say it one more time - Bring Back Hattie! One episode, that’s all I ask. As it stands, it’s starting to look like a pointed and deliberate snub which mystifies me.

We then broke for lunch, followed by Rob Grant and Paul Jackson. For obvious reasons they didn’t go into the current legal mess, opting instead to entertain the fans with the story of how they met and their early pre-RD work (Rob and Doug as freelance writers for Paul’s producer).

We saw some clips from their early shows including “Three Of A Kind” with Lenny Henry, Tracy Ullman and … later magician David Copperfield; apparently they all had the same agent and Paul took on David as a favour. For a 40 year old show it held up pretty well and was in much better sound and picture quality than older shows often are. “Carrott’s Lib” was just as funny.

It’s a bit hard to summarise but this session was entertaining and gripping. Rob still wants to write another RD novel and I believe there’s nothing actually stopping him as both he and Doug had an option to write a second solo novel. So we’ll see.

The final Q&A was Matthew Clark who was very informative and interesting, showing us numerous production stills from Series XII and “TPL” and talking us through them. There was a groan when time was called before he was finished.

By now time was running short and Amy and I went back to the room to pack and leave our luggage with reception before watching the start of “Dibbley Family Fortunes”. Since I knew I wouldn’t have time to watch it all, I instead nipped upstairs to Autographs with Lee and Ian, timing it perfectly as the queue had almost vanished.

Ian was still performing, drawing scornful attention to the fact that Lee had a longer queue: “Can you imagine all these people queueing to see Lee Cornes?!” It sounds rude out of context but he was clearly joking.

I decided to ask Lee what flavour the yogurt Paranoia eats was. He said it didn’t really taste of anything as it was the cheapest, nastiest canteen yogurt available and was also starting to curdle under the studio lights so eating it can’t have been much fun.

Since I now had about 15 minutes before I had to go, I caught a bit of Dibbley Family Fortunes, said goodbye to Amy, Lapsang and Barbs and then dashed off to catch the tram to the train station. Another great DJ.

#red dwarf

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emilycollins00 · 3 years ago

Text

Two faces of the same coin

Pairing: Tenma x ghost-looking! reader Part 1.

Hey! I had this awesome ask from sadly ages ago which I appreciated a lot bc honestly, just the fact that someone sent such a detailed thing?? My heart.

Request: (...) Tenma finds someone who looks like they got out straight from a horror movie- They could literally pass as a ghost anytime of the day! But once he talks to them they are just an extremely chill introvert, and actually really thoughtful and considerate? (...) So yeah, imagine Tenma who once was shitting his pants whenever that person was around slowly starting to enjoy their presence and even better: fall for them.

Enjoy! 💕

Classic horror icons and other disturbing creatures share common characteristics, pale skin, dark, sunken eyes, hunched posture, sharp teeth, and the like. These images inspire fear and revulsion in many with good reason. And while Tenma would insist he was okay with them- he really was and Yuki should really just shut up- he wouldn’t go out of his way to watch or read about that specific genre. And he was okay with that.

“A ghost in the school?”

He tried to not sound as worried as he internally felt, his brain still processing what Taichi was talking about while waiting for their drinks to drop. The redhead nodded unaware, eyes fixed on the vending machine “Yeah! You haven’t heard about it before?”

“W-why should I? It’s stupid to think paranormal stuff like ghosts exists anyway.”

With a clank, both drinks finally fell. Taichi crouched down to retrieve them humming happily, handing one of them to the summer troupe leader and keeping one for himself.

“I don’t know man, it’s kind of cool!” he crossed his arms behind his head, resuming their walk and looked behind. “What about you, Juza-san? You seen anything?”

The purple-haired boy considered it lazily, but ultimately shook his head. He didn’t seem too interested in the conversation anyway, and Tenma was pretty sure the main thoughts running through his head were today’s melon bread from the cafeteria.

It had been a while since their Ouka-high group had been able to have lunch together.

“Did you see? That Sumeragi Tenma is back!”

“Gosh, he looks so handsome!”

“Wait- don’t push me!”

“I heard he’s going to be a possible cast in that famous saga-”

“Are you serious?”

Whispers and tiny squeals kept circling them as soon as they entered the boundaries of the canteen. And while Tenma barely notices it at first, he can definitely see Juza’s stance going more rigid and Taichi’s eyes glowing at the attention received.

“I’ll go get our lunch” the golden-eyed teen announces heading towards the queue, hands buried in his pockets. He motioned Tenma with his chin. “You wanted set B right, no carrots.”

“Uh? Well yeah, but I can-”

“S’okay, you two go find some seats” he shrugged, looking around. There weren’t many spaces to start with and he’d honestly prefer focus on the food rather than the stares. “It’d be difficult to keep ‘em free with just one person anyway.”

“Roger! Come on Ten-chan, let’s go!”

“Aw, man. Everyone has their eyes on you as usual!” Taichi looked around, still indulging himself with all the people that were staring at them, some more blatantly than others.

How he didn’t get bored of mentioning it every time Tenma didn’t know, though he was low-key grateful. Not many people enjoyed being part of those types of reactions from a crowd- Juza for example-. When they finally managed to find some empty seats, Taichi placed his own bento on the table visibly excited. Tenma frowned.

“Since when did you start preparing lunch by yourself?”

“Ah, this?” the redhead laughed proudly at his confused look “See, I’ve been practicing my cooking skills! Tsuzuru has been super cool teaching me how to prepare some dishes for my siblings- plus, I’m sure I’ll get the attention of girls if they see my new talent!”

“Right…”

Tenma couldn’t decide whether he should make a comment as he took a long, thoughtful sip from his own juice can. Taichi’s lunch was a side of string cheese, a broken omelet, and some semi-burnt rice and it just didn’t seem very tempting.

He ultimately chose to leave it aside. Omi would surely know soon enough.

“So, uh, Taichi.”

“Yeah?”

He coughed, leaving aside the can and resting his back on the chair nonchalantly. “N-not that I care about that rumor, but- where is that ghost supposed to be?”

“Ah, the one we talked about? Mmm…” the autumn member caressed his chin, closing his eyes in deep thought. “No one really knows. It’s been spotted in pretty much all parts of the school” Tenma’s stomach sank at that. “But I’ve heard it likes room 1001 for some reason, you know, from the old side of the school? No one really uses it anymore- guess it makes sense!”

The redhead took again the chopsticks and started digging on the rice carefree.

“R-right.”

Tenma shook his head. Cool. Great. Now he knew which side of the school he would never even try to approach at least.

“Tenma-kun!” a female voice, not familiar, made him jolt from his seat. When he looked up a girl followed by two others were are already making themselves comfortable on the chairs next to them- one of them even deciding to sit on the table. “Hi there!”

Third years.

"Hi” he repeated.

“We saw your appearance in that new series, it was unbelievable!”

“Are you going to be a recurring character there? I’d love if you could ask one of the leads to sign a shirt of mine!”

He simply showered them a practiced smile. He could already tell what type of fans they were. It wasn’t something out of the ordinary- people approaching him about his shows or to ask for favors- and honestly, it was better not entering in that dangerous territory. “Thanks. Nothing’s been said yet, that’d depend on the company. I’ll be counting on your future support.”

They instantly beamed at his reaction. “Of course!”

One of them clapped her hand together “That reminds me, when is your next performance in that theatre company you play? I so want to go see it again!”

“Ah, that will take a while. We just finished a month ago so next up is the autumn troupe” he motioned Taichi with his head, a proud, real smile featuring his face this time “These guys have been going all out, you won’t be disappointed.”

“O-of course!” the shortest Ouka high student practically jumped into the conversation. “If you all want, we could ask for a few tickets from our-!“

“But Tenma-kun is not in that troupe, right?” the girls looked at each other confused. As if it wouldn’t be something it’d cross their minds to do, had the child actor not participated before.

“W-well, no but…”

“Plus, the summer troupe is hilarious! I kinda prefer those types of performances, you know?”

“I totally get you!”

From his peripheral vision, Tenma could register Taichi’s face growing red- a strained smile before sitting back on his seat, not trying to add anything to the conversation anymore.

Smile. Remember to smile.

“…We all give our all on those performances, I don’t think it’s fair if you have just watched the summer troupe. You’ll definitely enjoy it if you give them the chance.”

“Really?”

“I mean… If Tenma-kun says so maybe we could go take a look.” one of them gave a chuckle, playing with their hair. “You think we could ask you to get us some tickets for-?”

“If you are not eatin’ you should leave.”

“Uh? Can’t you see we’re-” the sentence died in their lips as soon as they turned and encountered Juza. Not that he himself was proud of his reputation, but during these situations at the very least it paid to see they knew who he was.

“Move.”

The resulting glare was terrifying in its intensity, and the retreat took no longer than a few seconds. No one mentioned anything afterward- Juza’s calm and blank expression coming back as he sat down, handing the summer leader his lunch and squinting down at Taichi’s.

“What the hell are you eatin’.”

“Hehe it caught your attention too, right? You see…”

Tenma observed them. They were acting as if nothing had happened. Not so long ago people tended to stay away from him for those same reasons, so it still took him a few seconds to find the words again- For feeling this relieved at their reactions.

He left the chopsticks aside. “Sorry this... keeps happening."

They momentarily stopped the conversation, sharing a silent look before turning to the teen actor facing the table in awkwardness.

“I-It’s okay, Ten-chan! They would obviously be more interested in watching you than an unknown performance” Taichi laughs and scratches the back of his hair. He seemed to be fine- a bit uncomfortable, but fine. “Besides, that just means we have to work even harder to be recognized, right, Juza-san!”

“Yeah, don’t get stuck thinkin’ ‘bout it. We ain’t losin’ any time soon.”

“Anyway Juza-san, are you sure you’re okay with only melon bread and pudding for lunch? I can give you some of mine!”

Juza didn’t verbally answer Taichi’s offer, merely staring at the burnt rice being held in front of him with skepticism “…nah. I’m okay.”

Taichi frowned at his own food, tilting his head confused. A few seconds later, he gave it an ultimate shrug before going for one more bite, Juza doing the same with his own lunch. Tenma scoffed at the view, trying not to smile amusedly. The autumn troupe really was made out of beasts.

“If Sakyo-san saw what you two are eating he’d skin you alive, you know.”

“Why.”

“What do you mean why, Juza-san you can’t expect-“

"Ah, that reminds me!” Taichi suddenly rambled, mouth full of rice “We should totally go to the arcade before we head up to the dorm. I heard they have these new games that are supposed to be super exclusive!”

Tenma winced “Can’t. I have a meeting with my homeroom teacher after classes.”

The other two replied with a similar expression.

“I almost forgot you came from a big shootin’ and all. We’ve been seein' you in the dorm pretty much everyday.”

“Yeah! Geez I always say I envy you, but dealing with that after working must suck!”

“You tell me…”

Taichi shook his head, giving him both thumbs up “It’s okay, we can go another time. Good luck though!”

“You can sit here. I’ll go bring your work in a second and then we’ll talk.”

With a lazy look on his face, Tenma caught a glimpse of his own reflection from a trophy case- one of the few resting at the entrance of the teacher’s lounge. He had never paid attention to them before; Second prize in a football tournament, first prize in some races and a few diplomas regarding different competitions, nothing too special. Ouka high had never had the best score regarding academics, which is exactly why he was able to enter.

Igawa liked to insist it wasn’t entirely Tenma’s fault he had so many troubles keeping up with schoolwork though- well, not more than the usual of not being good at studying. No one actually knew how hard celebrity kids had to push themselves- at least that’s what his parent had said. On the other hand, they hadn’t really cared much more, so long the school allowed him to be flexible with his schedules.

School time was usually done while moving sets and camera changes. He and other kids and teens were at different levels of schooling most of the time, so the teacher was forced to divide their time. Honestly, one would be lucky to get 30 minutes of full tutoring.

Anyway, it was rotten work and even Tenma knew it. He also knew what his homeroom teacher thought about it, which is exactly why he couldn’t help himself raising his eyebrows concerned as he saw the pile of papers being drop over the desk.

“Is this a joke?”

“I know you’re busy, but there’s a minimum to do keep up with your classes and… general results.” the old man frowned scratching his grey four-days old beard. He clicked here and there at the computer, probably revising the latest results of the tests they had done.

He then leaned back on his chair, trying to find a comfortable position before his wrinkly eyes turned to him again. “I wish I could think of another way, but you are getting quite behind everyone, Sumeragi-kun. We’re worried.”

Well, it was not his fault he couldn’t remember all the information they gave him like a script. Was it really the solution giving him the same amount of work as his classmates with half the time?

Before he could open his mouth to complain, the man placed his hand on Tenma’s shoulder. It felt heavy. “I already talked with your manager. It seems you’ll be having a break for a month and a half just before finals and I’d like to help you. We can’t have one of the biggest faces of the school repeating a year, can we?”

Tenma’s jaw clenched. Of course, everything was always for Sumeragi Tenma the actor. Student Tenma could go drown himself.

“Here you’ll find some reinforcement materials I think will be good for you to do in school. Less time wasted while moving and I’ll be here in case you have any questions.”

His face twitched. That would mean he wouldn’t be able to ask for Tsumugi’s help or any of the adults back in Mankai. “I actually-”

“Suguro-sensei, Someone’s calling for you about tomorrow’s meeting!”

“Is it that time already... I’ll be right there in a second! In any case, I would suggest you go work on the library Sumeragi-kun.” the man got up, finishing that way their conversation. “It should be quiet enough, but if you see any students being too loud, give them a call.”

Tenma side-glanced again at his workload, groaning internally.

Just about his luck.

Twenty minutes walking.

How could such a big school not have a single sign to indicate where things were?

Squinting his eyes, Tenma looked both ways across the hall annoyed, his already short temper from before increasing. He was sure the library was two turns to the right, then left, and then up the stairs from the teachers’ lounge.

...or maybe it was a floor down now that he thought about it. Damn it. It wasn’t as if he had ever stepped inside that place, shouldn’t they make it more accessible for everyone?

“This sucks…”

It had been a while since he had seen other students or even teachers around, which also made him feel uneasy. He glanced down at the paperwork in his arms, gripping it tighter. He hoped no one would see him walking around like this.

Just where was the stupid library?

It wasn’t until Tenma decided to try entering inside any room that would allow him to work, that he found many were strangely closed. He was about to gave up when he finally saw the dusty word ‘library’ at the end of the corridor. Finally. With effort he managed to open the heavy door, immediately pinching his nose.

“Ugh, stinks.”

The person in charge of cleaning the school really did a worse job than Matsukawa- at least the man cleaned from time to time and organized stuff. The place was an absolute mess; boxes over the floor, piles of books on chairs and shelves full of documents and other various things he didn’t quite distinguish.

Leaving everything on the closest table Tenma sighed when he felt his arms relaxing without the weight. Frowning, he walked around the place, smelling a mix of dirt and old- even some shelves were full of dust. Really, how did a school like this had such a gross place to study? No wonder students didn’t try to come here.

He should have asked for permission to take his work back to Mankai. Less danger of someone noticing he was behind his studies and it becoming a gossip- or worse, finding he had been walking without an absolute clue for the last half hour.

Yeah, he had more options to pass the year with Tsumugi’s help rather than on his own. Just looking at the amount of work he had he was sure it’d-

The faint sound of walking steps brought him back from his thoughts freezing him on the spot- all his breath trapped. He hadn’t heard anyone since he entered, but it shouldn't be surprising to find others studying.

I’ve heard it likes room 1001 for some reason, you know, from the old side of the school? No one really uses it anymore- guess it makes sense!

Or it was probably the wind. The wind tends to make noises, Tenma reminded himself while swallowing with difficulty.

Was the air suddenly thick?

Crack!

He strained to hear, his heart pounding loudly. “I-Is anyone there?” the nerves made his voice come out higher than he had hoped.

More cracks and sounds of steps. He couldn't see anything yet.

His stomach turned as his breath became louder. This wasn't happening. Yup! It was his imagination. What was happening could not be real, because ghosts didn’t exist. “I-I’m not afraid, you know?!” he shouted, positioning himself on a fighting stance while carefully moving backward.

That’s right- Tenma wasn’t scared. He had just rested enough, with or without a ghost in the room, and it was about time to leave. Ignoring his sweaty palms and nodding once more to nothing in particular, he turned around at the same time a pair of eyes made contact with his.

The figure opened its mouth.

And Tenma proceeded to absolutely destroy his throat.

_________________________________________________

This took so long though I’m not even sure If they are around. If you are love, I apologize! I found a few walls writing-wise. So not entirely to say I made it longer to make up for it but on the other hand... maybe. Thank you so much for sending such a nice idea so I was able to make this, really hope you like it. 💕

I promise this is a reader insert lol thank you for reading!

Part 2 soon!

#tenma sumeragi #a3 game #a3 tenma #a3! tenma #reader x a3 #a3! x reader #tenma x reader #a3 actor training game #reader insert #a3! taichi #a3! juza

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iraacundus · 5 years ago

Text

The Sins of Angels

devil!Taeyong soulmate!au

Genre: fluff, fantasy, smut, angst Words: 10k

warnings: sex (incl. degredation), swearing

better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven - Paradise Lost, John Milton 1667

You weren't a bad person, but clearly, you hadn’t been a great one either. You had to figure that was the case as you stood in a really long queue at the front desk of Hell. There were some people around you crying and screaming, but most people just stood in stony silence, waiting until they reached the end of the queue.

It was a casual four weeks later when you reached the front, which for Hell you supposed was quite quick. You wondered if it was meant to unsettle you, to form part of your eternity of torture, or maybe that's just how long bureaucracy in the afterlife took.

“Name and time of death?” You finally heard be called out to you. You had to think for a second, the hours of standing in the queue had really started to rot your brain.

“It’s y/n and I died on the 3rd March 2020 at 9:58pm” You said, having no idea why you knew your exact time of death, but the desk man wasn’t surprised and therefore it must have been something dead people just knew. The desk man handed you a gold coin.

“Straight ahead to the gates, tell them you’re going to the second circle,”. You took the coin and nodded. “Have a terrible time,” he said, sounding so bored that you were sure he was having a worse time.

No sooner had you step away from the desk to contemplate your impending doom before he called you back.

He stared down at the old 1980’s computer in front of him in slight disbelief, hitting the side of it three times just to make sure it was actually working properly. Seeing that this made no difference the man shrugged and motioned for you to come closer to the desk.

“Just had a message from the boss man, turns out your wanted down where the real actions happens,” he said taking back your coin. He placed it carefully back in its box before reaching down below his desk and fiddling for a moment.

“Could you come round here and stand beside me?” he asked, you noted his tone had become much more polite ever since he had read his computer message.

“First interesting thing to happen at this desk in ninety years,” He said looking at you, eyes not blinking for a slightly uncomfortable amount of time before pointing down to where he had been fiddling.

“This is a passage to the City of Dis. It’s a ten hour-long fall and it hurts when you get to the bottom, but it’s that… or ten hundred years of torture to get there and we don’t have that kind of time.”

“Don’t we have all of time,” you questioned, Hell had always been marketed as an eternity of suffering.

“You mean to say,” the man began, “That you would actually prefer to endure the ten hundred years of torture?” He was incredulous, you didn’t think his eyebrows could lift any faster.

Neither seemed like a good option, but you couldn’t possibly die twice so one hard fall had to have been the better option. You looked down at the endless dark hole, trying to contemplate what was being proposed here.

“You don’t really have a choice, please jump down the hole, you’re really holding up the queue, I’ve got targets to meet.”

You couldn’t ascertain whether the last part was a joke or not, but you had realised that overthinking wasn’t helping anyone. You took one last look at the man at the hell desk before launching yourself into the depths of Hell.

You screamed for about the first minute, before realizing it was pointless, you had a long while to go until you hit the ground. You pondered about why you might have ended up where you were, cursing that in real life you hadn’t bothered to study the nine circles of hell, that might have given you a clue.

About three-quarters of the way through your fall it started to get lighter again, but also hotter, it was exhaustingly hot, worse than Death Valley in the summer hot. You felt like you had been falling for much less than a few hours, you weren't sure if time worked the same way in eternity. You almost wanted to cry but the thought that an eternity in Hell could be worse though, which somehow comforted you. Even though you knew that it could get worse and probably would.

-----

It was a while longer until you finally hit the ground. It hurt like every single bone in your body had broken. You just lay there, contorted.

“Oh... That looked like it hurt!” You heard someone exclaim from above you. You half-opened one eye to see a boy staring down at you. All you could notice was that he was very good looking, something you had noticed about desk boy too now that you thought about it. Every bone in your body may have shattered, but if all the people in hell, looked like the men you had seen so far... your complaints were limited. A fact which truly made you think you had really lost any sense of reality.

“You need to get up ... you haven't reached your final destination.” He said. You swore under your breath before pushing yourself onto your hands and knees, something that induced the agonising pain all over again. The good-looking guy just stared at you with a wicked grin.

“I have all the time in the world babe quite literally infinite time, but the person we are going to meet does not have infinite patience. And- and I can’t stress this enough - he's really fucking scary so stand the hell up,” he grabbed your arms lifting you to your feet, shaking his head, “get the hell up, did you not appreciate what I did there.” You stared at him blankly.

“My humour is wasted in this bloody city.” He complained.

You said nothing, you had literally no idea what to say to this man, if he even was a man.

“I’m Yangyang by the way,” he continued, “one of this city’s finest fallen angels, fell straight from heaven into the ladies' hearts.”

Now you were standing up you realised the light you had seen was just endless fire, the only break in the fire was a stone path that didn’t seem to have an end, at least not an end that you could see.

The fire was filled with burning souls in the distance, the screams you could hear were unnerving, you wanted to somehow disappear. Yangyang didn’t even seem to hear them, the screams of hell must have become just a faint music to him over time, like radio music in a shop.

You followed closely behind him as he led you along the fire-lit path. As you got closer to what you presumed was the city of Dis the sound of a distant roar of voices got louder and louder, but there was still no end in sight.

“What did you get kicked out of Heaven for... if it’s not rude to ask?” You were trying to create any sense of distortion from the horrifying surroundings.

He laughed, the fire reflecting against his face that still held the same wicked grin.

“I’m not offended and even if I was, this is Hell, people are rude all the time it doesn’t matter. Here in Hell you can do what you want babe. There is only one person youwill have to listen to; Lucifer himself. Most people listen to the fallen angels too, but I fear you will end up being more important here than me.”

You knew in theory who Lucifer was, fallen angel, cast out by God. Somehow though, you hadn’t expected him to exist even after you got to Hell, you assumed he was just created to scare children and adults alike. The idea of fallen angels was also a foreign one to you, you hadn’t even known there were more people like Lucifer.

“And to answer your question, I got kicked out of heaven for being too fun,” he said, laughing mostly to himself. You doubted that was the official reason he got kicked out, even if he decided to justify it as such.

-------------------------

The walk came to an end at the edge of a vast canyon. At the very bottom, you could see a very grand building surrounded by markets and various other buildings. In the rock face, there were many entrances and balconies which people seemed to live inside.

“We don’t have to jump do we?” You asked, feeling like you had done enough falling for at least the next six lifetimes in Hell.

“There is a lift.”

He said like it was very obvious, and you were stupid for even suggesting otherwise, even though he had seen the end of your bone breaking fall.

The lift wasn’t like any modern-day one, more like one you would have seen in a mine shaft in centuries past, just bigger. There was a large queue for the lift which Yangyang didn’t seem at all bothered by. He grabbed your arm and walked through the queue, the sea of people parting as the jumped back in what appeared to be fear. You couldn’t understand why; Yangyang seemed nice enough.

You stepped into the lift and clung to the side as the door shut. The metal groaned slightly before beginning to lower. You could see each of the levels more clearly now, there were four distinct areas above the ground floor.

“The city is the 6th to 9th circles of Hell,” Yangyang explained, “For people who committed worse crimes, treachery, heresy and all that.”

“What is the second circle?” You asked back, hoping he could provide you the answer to your biggest question.

“Is that where you were headed?”

You nodded.

“Just before I was told to jump down the hole and ended up here, I was originally meant to go to the second circle.”

Yangyang just laughed but didn’t bother to answer the question and you weren’t brave enough to ask again.

The metal began to screech again as the lift hit the ground floor and the gate began to open. The people waiting at the bottom also immediately moved back when they saw Yangyang step forward, pushing you off the lift and past the crowd.

Yangyang set off walking, through market, after market in which everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was the odd scream of pain here and there but there were more screams of laughter, more voices chatting and bargaining.

As you got closer to the centre of the floor the buildings got bigger and grander, some of them almost palatial.

“That’s my house” Yangyang said pointing to a large building to the right of you. It looked quite nice, even if a drunk man had passed out on the front steps.

“You can get drunk in Hell?” You asked.

“Ninety percent of the people here are drunk ninety percent of the time.” Was his answer.

You walked for a few more minutes before reaching the gate that surrounded the grandest building of all, Devil House, Yangyang informed you. The gates were opened by two guards as you approached, how bowed at you both as you passed. Yangyang walked you up to the door before knocking six times.

After a minute or so the doors opened seemingly by themselves. Situated behind the doors was a grandiose entrance hall made out of black marble, a gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

You looked at Yangyang expectantly for him to explain what would happen next, but he said nothing, the wicked grin gone from his face. For the first time he actually looked somewhat scared.

You suddenly noticed a man standing at the top of the staircase. He was staring straight down at you with a glare that could have killed, ifyou hadn’t already been dead.

“My Lord,” Yangyang managed to choke out, he stared down at his feet, his hands fidgeting. When you looked back away from Yangyang, the man, who you guessed was the Devil, was standing right in front of you. Blood red hair, perfect jawline, flawless skin - out of all of the good-looking men you had seen here so far, he was the most perfect.

He reached out and kissed your hand.

“Welcome to Hell, my love, my name’s Lucifer, but you can call me Taeyong,” he said.

-----------------

You woke up in a bed with some of the softest pillows you had ever felt, you sat up slowly, taking in your surroundings, not knowing how you had ended up there. The bed you were on was the only piece of furniture in the completely white room. There was a door at the far end of the room and a window that looked out onto the fire and darkness below.

You stood up carefully and walked over to the window. You could see the guards still standing by the gate and a few people fighting in the corner of the street.

A light knock came at the door.

“Come in?” You replied after a brief pause, realising that the person knocking was assuming this was your room.

The door swung open and Taeyong, Lord Lucifer, walked in. You froze where your stood by the window, even though he was standing about ten meters away from you.

If Taeyong sensed your fear, he chose to ignore it,

“I hope you're comfortable, I had one of the women change your clothes, I figured you would prefer that,” he said. You looked down, where your previous dust-ridden clothes had been was now a silk nightdress, you raised your eyebrows slightly. It was a beautiful item of clothing but slightly on the revealing side for meeting a man you didn’t know.

“Isn’t that very nice of someone who is meant to be the Devil?” you asked him. He looked you dead in the eyes and tilted his head slightly,

“If you want me to be mean darling, that can be arranged... but I would prefer if we could be civil.”

You nodded, once again lost for words. You couldn’t remember much about your life, but you were pretty sure that in life you had always had something to say. Yet since you had gotten to Hell you were more often than not lost for words.

You started to remember the events of the previous span of time, you remembered falling and meeting Yangyang. Yangyang made you feel comfortable, you had many questions and hoped maybe he would be able to answer them.

“Could I maybe talk to Yangyang,” you asked. Taeyong shook his head.

“No.” His lips rested in a firm line; you were starting to understand why Yangyang said he was someone to be afraid of. Yet with a life of torture already assured you felt you had nothing left to lose.

“I’m just gonna say it,” you began, ‘what is going on here, like what’s with the whole situation, I don’t remember anything about my life, or even how I ended up in this room, all I know is I jumped down a hole, met Yangyang, who was definitely scared of you by the way, and ended up here right now. I know that you are the all-powerful Lucifer, but you won’t let me see the one person I vaguely know or trust.” Taeyong just smirked out your outburst.

“You don’t always get what you want in Hell and I wouldn’t make a habit of trusting fallen angels” he replied.

His lacklustre reply stirred a deep sense of anger within you, you found it really hard to tolerate people who thought they were better than others.

“Is this my torture? Because if so, you guys are using weird tactics these days... like rather unorthodox if you ask me, I think I might rather just be burnt.” You instantly regretted the comment about being burnt, “But also please don’t burn me.”

To your surprise Taeyong half smiled at your comment.

“I’m not torturing you; I assure you that definitely involves classic techniques like burning people to death. In fact, I would argue that fact fate has left you lucky.”

“What does that mean?” You asked. Taeyong shrugged.

“There are worse things in death than having to marry me.”

You blinked about ten times in a row, the words gone from your mind again, blank.

“Sorry one second,” you said, holding up four hand, “can you just elaborate on that, because last time I checked I wasn’t engaged to any devils.”

“Not any regular devil, theDevil.” He corrected, before looking down at the expensive watch that was on his wrist, “I have to go and sort some things out, feel free to look around the house, just don’t leave and don’t interact with any of the staff around the house.”

You didn’t have time to formulate a reply or protest before he was gone, door shut perfectly, as if he had never even been there.

You sat around in silence for a few minutes before becoming curios about your surroundings. Your room was totally empty so you hoped the rest of the house wasn’t as such or it would have been a rather dull house tour.

Fortunately, as soon as you stepped out of your room you were faced with a very different sight. The corridor had a plush red carpet lining the floor and paintings and tapestries lining the walls.

You entered room after room, most of them just empty bedrooms, though none as empty as yours had been. As you ventured a little further into the house you began to find more interesting rooms.

There was a corridor that constituted only of studies another that had what seemed to be conference type rooms with long tables and lots of chairs. Around the other side you finally came across the dining room where there was food laid out on the table. A whole feast that you didn’t dare touch for a variety of reasons.

A man stood in the corner of the room, when he saw you enter, he bowed down just as the guards had, something that unsettled you.

“In case you wanted to eat,” the man explained, gesturing towards the table. You noticed there was only one place set for eating, at the same time you wondered if the concept of being hungry even existed in Hell. You felt your stomach grumble slightly, answering your own question.

You gave a weak smile to the man before sliding into the seat. This could be where the torture begins, you thought. It could have been poisoned food or turned into rotting flesh when you ate it, yet it looked so appetising you could hardly believe that would ever be the case.

Still unsure of weather to eat it or not you turned to the man,

“Do you know where I could find this guy called Yangyang?”

“I think we both know that I can’t tell you where Yangyang is,” he replied. You looked back to the food pressing your lips together, it had been worth a shot.

“I would be happy to try and answer any questions you have instead, my name is Yuta, I am a personal assistant of sorts,”

“Another archangel?” you asked. Yuta shook his head.

“Nope, just a demon.”

Yes, just a demon, of course.

Yuta watched you staring at the food and quickly guessed as to why you are hesitant,

“It is perfectly safe to eat; you are an honoured guest of hell.”

“That is exactly what someone who wanted me to eat the torture meal would say,” you replied accusatorily. Yuta laughed to himself slightly,

“If you don’t want to eat it that’s also fine, you will starve for eternity but that is, what as this other demon Johnny often says – not my problem.”

You still wondered if it was reverse psychology, but the hunger pangs had really started to kick in, so you decided to eat the food regardless.

You quickly realised that it wasn’t poisoned and that it was actually some of the most delicious food you had ever eaten.

After you had eaten for a while you looked back at Yuta who was still standing there watching you.

“How come I am allowed to talk to you and not Yangyang?” you asked.

“I don’t make the rules,” he replied. Yuta followed the word of Taeyong just as much as everyone else did, the devil really did seem to have a lot of power.

You stood up from your seat, as you did the dishes and food vanished at a click of Yuta’s fingers. Demon magic. When you headed towards the door Yuta remained where he had always been, unmoving.

“Nice to meet you, I suppose, I’m y/n by the way.” You said just before you left.

“I already knew that,” Yuta grinned. Everyone you had met in Hell acted weirdly, both in general and specifically towards you. You couldn’t figure out why there was no torture or why you had supposedly ended up engaged to Taeyong.

You had thought about asking Yuta more questions, but it seemed like Taeyong didn’t want you to know the answer to your questions and therefore none of his buddies were ever going to tell you, so you didn’t bother.

You went another three weeks before you saw Taeyong again, or anyone else for that matter. The only person you had seen was Yuta who watched you eat every day, would enter into general conversations with you about himself, and tales of demons but would never answer any questions you had or explain anything useful.

“I really need to talk to Taeyong,” you asked him, pretty much pleading at this point.

“Not an option,” Yuta replied.

“Where is he?” you asked for the ninth time that day.

“Hell,”

“Yeah very funny bud. I am not marrying him, I’ve only met him once and then he fucked off, not really the kind of behaviour that would make him a good husband.”

“He will return soon,” Yuta said, clearly trying to hide his own laughter, as a Demon he thrived on your suffering ever so slightly.

“You are annoyingly vague.” You sighed, “Can we not just break the rules, like this is hell can we not just sneak out and go and do something, this house is boring there is nothing to do and I would still really like to talk to Yangyang.”

Yuta pressed his hands together before speaking,

“No, we cannot just ‘break the rules’ Taeyong is all powerful I would rather not piss him off. It is very unboring here, I still have two million years’ worth of top-quality stories lined up, not all of them mine, I will admit. You only met Yangyang like one time, no need to make it twice, furthermore he will not answer your questions either, he too fears those who should be feared.”

You banged your head against the table repeatedly.

“This is definitely Hell!”

“You are rather dramatic y/n.”

You could see Yuta out of the corner of your eye and though he was laughing you could tell he also felt sorry for you.

“I will see what I can do,” he relented. You stopped hitting your head, got up and ran over to Yuta, throwing your arms around him.

“Thank you!” you said in earnest.

At that moment the door on the other side of the room opened and Yuta froze.

“It seems I have been gone too long, my fiancé is turning to other men,”

You let go of Yuta and spun round.

“She was hugging me because I offered to find out where you were…” Yuta tried to explain but you cut him off.

“Yeah well I have only been stuck in this boring house for a whole month with only him to talk to so if we are close that is your own fault.” You shouted at him.

“Don’t shout at him, that’s not gonna end well,” Yuta whispered to you aggressively.

“I am just a little bit angry, no, a lot angry and seeing as I cannot have any friends or meet any people, I will be voicing them to the only two people I am allowed to talk with.”

Taeyong said nothing, he strode over to where you were, grabbed your hand and dragged you from the room.

Yuta looked alarmed as you left. Taeyong led you down several corridors until you reached one of the grandest offices you had seen yet. He let go of your hand and slammed the door behind you.

“I would appreciate it if you were not rude to me in front of the people who work for me.” Taeyong said.

“I would appreciate it if you weren’t such an elusive dickhead.”

“I had … work to attend to,” he said, hand running through his bright red hair.

He was standing only a few feet away from you causing you to notice just how good looking he was for the first time. He had a cut in his eyebrow and a jawline that was stronger than anything.

“Whereas I was stuck here, doing nothing. Yuta is nice and all, but his stories get kinda old after the first thirty. I just don’t understand why I can’t talk to anyone or leave this house, why I can’t know anything about hell.”

“I…” Taeyong almost started to explain but then shut his mouth again, leaning with his hand against the door.

“What are you afraid of me finding out?” you asked him.

Taeyong sneered.

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a secret.” He paused for a moment before walking towards you. “I can’t decide,” he said, “whether to risk falling in love with you.”

“So, you have a bad relationship past?” you guessed. Taeyong said nothing so you assumed you had hit the bullseye.

“See, now we are getting somewhere,” you said, “if you explain things to me life is a lot easier and I won’t resent you as much.”

Taeyong continued walking towards you and you walked backwards away until your back was pressed up against the wall.

“We aren’t alive.” He corrected, you could feel his breath on your face, he was inches away.

Taeyong’s face looked pained, confused.

You don’t know why you did it, maybe it was the lack of physical contact, or the slightly sexual nature of some of Yuta’s stories but you felt like it was the right choice.

You place your hands on Taeyong’s cheeks, pulling his face down towards yours, lips together. You had only meant for it to be an innocent kiss at first, just a few seconds. You didn’t know Taeyong, but you wanted to take away the pained look on his face for just a second.

But as your lips touch you felt a deeper desire, your lips moving against his with a slight sense of urgency. Taeyong’s hands moved to your waist pulling you closer towards him, his grip like iron.

After a minute or two you pulled away, realising that you hadn’t breathed, that you didn’t need to breathe, a surprising perk of Hell. You opened your eyes to see Taeyong staring down at you, the pain still in his eyes, but now mixed with something else, something more positive, you didn’t know quite what.

“I’ve never had a girl kiss me first before,” he remarked. You smiled at him slightly.

“Well I just…” you couldn’t really explain why you did I, you didn’t know, because you still resented this man quite a lot., “It doesn’t mean I forgive you,” you assured him.

Taeyong leaned down and placed a final peck on your lips.

“You have made my choice for me though, there is no way I can avoid falling in love with you now.”

“Yuta are we friends,” you asked him.

“Why do you ask, please don’t ask me you break you out again you know I can’t,” he said, sounding genuinely sorry.

“I just mean if I told you something personal because I needed advice you wouldn’t need to tell Taeyong right? As long as it’s not my plan to break free. I have no girls here to talk to, or even any other boys, you’re my only hope,”

“I don’t see why I would have to tell Taeyong something like that no, so you can count me as a friend on this one.”

“I kissed Taeyong.” You blurted out the second he finished speaking. Yuta blinked a few times, nodding his head slightly.

“Did I really need to know that?” he asked.

“Do you know why I would have done that?”

“This, is the single worst question you have asked me yet, how would I know how your brain functions?” Yuta joked. You sighed, picking up your spoon and placing it in the ice-cream in front of you, that even with demon magic was fast melting due to high temperatures.

A few minutes later you walked back out and started searching the house for whatever room Taeyong was in.

You walked through room after room, to the point where you were not even sure which way was back anymore.

Eventually you came to a room with a door that must have been made out of gold. The door had a picture carved into it of an angel falling from heaven into the fire below. Your feet stopped. It had to be the room you had been searching for.

You knocked loudly but there came no reply, so you pushed the door open slightly, peeking into the room. At first it seemed empty, just like yours had been. There was a wooden bed with a canopy, that looked like one you would see in a period drama. It was ornate and stylish with two bedside tables either side.

Those three pieces of furniture were the only ones in the room.

You felt bad about intruding into someone else’s space, but it didn’t stop you, if you had been a better person you wouldn’t have been there in the first place.

You walked curiously over to the bed and sat down on it, the bed was perfectly made, not even a crease as you ran your hands across the bed covers.

You stared down at the bedside table, something you didn’t have in your own room. The one on the left side was empty, not even a dust particle to be seen.

You rolled over the bed to the other drawer, expecting it too to be empty.

You pulled it open to see a few things inside. There were a few letters which you felt like you shouldn’t read, a pen, a picture of Taeyong and Yuta and at the back of the drawer a small red book.

It wasn’t something you were proud of, but you couldn’t help but peek into the book. The first page was inscribed with a verse:

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

So, the stories were true. But as you flicked through the pages you only became more confused, some were written in a language you didn’t understand or even recognise, some were filled with cursive handwriting recounting stories, much like the ones Yuta had told you, but it was the final few pages that confused you the most. There were paintings of five girls, each on a separate page.

Each had their name written underneath, a date and a timespan. The first 120AD - 3 months up until the most recent 1827 – 2 months.

In the last entry to the book you saw your own face. It was a picture of you sitting in a café in the sunshine, it had to have been from your life. You were drinking iced tea and laughing like nothing could have stopped your happiness. The date 2020 but no time span.

You didn’t understand what it meant entirely but you weren’t stupid either, you realised you were not the first girl who had ended up here.

Your thoughts were interrupted as the book was snatched away from you. You stared upwards to see Taeyong, eyes dark and unforgiving.

“What gives you the right,” he began through gritted teeth, “to look through other people’s personal items.”

He placed the book back in the drawer.

“I would say you can’t come into this room when I’m not here, but I assume you have already seen all there is to see,” he laughed darkly.

“Who are those girls, what do those dates mean?” you asked, still curious and somehow still unafraid, even though the man in front of you looked ready to kill.

Taeyong said nothing. You placed your hand over his lightly.

“I can only become close to you if you let me, and if we are to get married for whatever mysterious reason of fate, we should be close.”

Taeyong moved his hand back and looked away.

“We don’t need to be close; all that book proves is that in this cursed place, fiancé does not mean future wife.”

“Would you stop being so damned elusive for a fucking second?” you said. Taeyong lifted one eyebrow smirking.

“You don’t understand,” he said.

“Yeah I don’t understand if you don’t tell me.”

Taeyong’s smirk faded until he just looked sad. He looked over at you and smiled slightly.

“You can leave the house if you want, make some friends, just don’t leave the city, it’s not so fun outside the walls of Dis, its where the real sinners go.”

You were surprised, freedom wasn’t what you expected to gain from your trespass into his personal space.

“Why now?”

“Because even though you probably won’t choose hell in the end, I at least don’t want you to resent your time here.”

You walked round the bed to sit closer to him but as you sat down, he stood up.

“I think it is easier for both of us long term if what happened yesterday… doesn’t happen again.” He looked down at the time, “I have some rogue demons to chastise, I’ll get Yuta and Yangyang to show you around town.”

Five hours later you were drunk at a vodka bar in hell where Yuta had disappeared with some girl about an hour previously and you were left laughing with Yangyang until your stomach hurt.

“You have way better stories than Yuta,” you joked as Yangyang recounted a mishap between him, a goat demon and a man who had been sent to hell mostly for his obsession with stealing collectable plates.

“and you,” he replied, “are much more fun to be around than any of Taeyong’s previous ladies,” he said, covering his mouth as soon as he said it, “well fuck,” he finished off.

“Do not fear young fallen angel for I already know of these previous ladies, as in I know they exist and nothing else.”

Yangyang breathed out a sigh of relief.

“If I had let that secret go, well I would probably have been stung by bees for the next couple hundred years, every day at three o’clock.”

“There must be worst tortures?” You prompted. Yangyang shook his head.

“Don’t ever underestimate hell bees,” he said in a statement that sounded like he had his own history with said hell bees and that you shouldn’t press further.

“I know of the ladies and I guess that’s what makes him act weird towards me, but I don’t understand what happened.” You explained.

Yangyang looked around to see who was looking before motioning you to come closer.

“I can tell you, but you never heard it from me,” he said, “I must be drunk to be telling you this. Basically, Taeyong is cursed, not by God that’s just this whole hell thing but in a personal argument with an angel named Taeil. Taeyong once stole Taeil’s fiancé back in heaven, so when he was cast down to hell Taeil vowed to take revenge. Ever since as soon as a girl dies, who is someone Taeyong would definitely fall in love with, Taeil make sure they are sent right to his door, calls them the brides of hell. Well with the first one Taeyong didn’t realise it was Taeil, he just thought he had found his soulmate. Yet three months later Taeil shows up at the gates of hell und summons her fourth, Taeyong following close behind. He offers the girl a chance to go to heaven to have everything she ever wanted, that her going to hell was just a mistake and she is meant to marry him in heaven. And the girl agrees. Because as much as she loved Taeyong she wasn’t willing to give up the idea of eternal paradise for him, same for the next four girls… and now you. With the last one he didn’t even try. He didn’t talk to her once he just kept her locked up until Doyoung came. When she left, she said she hated Taeyong, which hurt him just as much as when he was betrayed.”

You took another shot of vodka.

“Well that… is a story and a half,” you remarked. Yangyang shrugged.

“Did the first girl really love him?” she asked. Yangyang nodded.

“They were happy together, Taeyong isn’t a bad guy to the people he loves, he’s not the same person he was a couple hundred thousand years ago, he’s not a great guy by any means but he was kind to the girl and they loved each other, the first betrayal is still the worst.”

“How could she do that to him if she loved him,” you asked him, you had only known Taeyong a short time and for most of that you had resented him, but you had started to understand him.

“Heaven isn’t something you refuse,” Yangyang said simply.

Before long you were both back to laughing and drinking, increasingly incapacitated. An hour later Yangyang was dragging you back to the steps of Taeyong’s house. He knocked on the door, lazily calling out,

“Taeyong, come and get y/n! I want to go to bed!” he said.

Taeyong appeared at the door a few moments later to see you lying on the ground semi-conscious, cocktail umbrella still in you grasp.

He leaned down and picked you easily, something you welcomed after Yangyang’s drunk drag.

“I’ll take you back to your room,” he said. You shook your head laughing.

“No!” you protested like a stubborn child, “I want to sleep next to you, in your room.”

Taeyong looked somewhat shocked.

“I already explained it would be better if we just kept out distance,” he began before you cut him off. You put your finger over his lips to silence him.

“Starting today,” you said, “I am going to stay with you forever, starting right now, in your bed.”

Taeyong sighed, continuing on to your room before placing you down in your bed, he tried to leave but you grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Please don’t leave me alone again,” you asked him quietly, “I don’t like being alone in this place.”

Taeyong’s eyes soften, his resolve defeated, he sat down next to you in the bed.

“I really won’t leave you, I won’t go with that mean Taeil guy,”

“Yangyang is so dead,” Taeyong said.

“We’re all dead silly.” You lay back in the bed, pulling Taeyong’s arm so he fell down to lie facing you.

“And you will leave, they all do,” Taeyong explained. You blinked a few times.

“I’m not them, I’m y/n, I’m my own person. And anyway, I bet none of them ever kissed you first.”

“Why did you kiss me?” Taeyong questioned thoughtfully.

“I really don’t know I just suddenly felt like it was the right thing to do in that moment, like fate had been leading up to right then and there.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Taeyong sighed, “we are all just puppets of people like Taeil.”

“For someone who has power over a whole dimension that is a very defeatist attitude.” And before he could protest anymore you placed your hand on his cheek, your fingertips brushing a few strands of his hair,

“Am I really not different to any of those other women? Maybe their choice wasn’t wrong, maybe they just weren’t right for you, maybe I am,”

“I’m scared of you in particular, I have watched parts of your life on earth and I could see myself with you more than anyone before, and that terrifies me,” Taeyong admitted.

“I cause fear in the devil, what a powerful woman I am,” you joked grinning at him, “Don’t underestimate me.”

Taeyong brought his hand up to cover yours that was still rested on your face.

“You said you hate being alone here, why would you ever choose to stay here?” he asked.

“Because I wouldn’t be alone, I would have friends like Yuta and Yangyang and I would have you, Taeil chose me because we are a perfect match, right? Well then we will always be happy, also Yuta assures me he has a few million more stories lined up and I can’t miss out on that.”

Taeyong’s eyes stared into your soul, he licked his lower lip slightly before moving so he was positioned over you, resting on his forearms.

“I really hope that what you say is true,” he said before bringing his lips to meet yours.

A few weeks passed, you didn’t see Taeyong very often, he was still very busy, but he had made your life in hell become somewhat enjoyable. You spent most of your days playing around with Yuta, Yangyang had work to do, and getting to know the city. When you did see Taeyong he still somewhat guarded, but he was a lot more genuine with you.

You were just coming back from a game of throw the devil with Yuta when you noticed a bright white letter sitting on the doorstep, Dear Taeyong was written on the front in cursive writing similar to that of Taeyong’s.

Yuta grimaced at the sight of it. You didn’t have to ask who it was from because you knew it was from him, from Taeil.

“Well it was fun to get to know you,” Yuta said, holding out his hand for you to shake, “I wish you all the best in heaven, it sounds like a great place.”

“I’m not going,” you said. Yuta snorted,

“No one would ever give up that chance, especially not for someone they barely know, you’ve talked to Taeyong, what three four times, you might be crazy but there is no way you’re that crazy.

You looked up at the orange sky above, wishing more than ever that you could remember your past life, so you could understand what choice you would have made when you were alive.

“It doesn’t make sense to me either, maybe I suffered permanent brain damage when I fell down that hole on the way here… but I just have this feeling, a feeling that tells me that I belong here, with Taeyong, with you, with Yangyang, that this is my fate.”

“Don’t suffer a harsh fate just because you feel sorry for the devil,” Yuta exhaled deeply.

“How is this fate harsh?” you asked, “maybe for most people hell is the worst, but I have only had good experiences here, I may have complained about your stories, but they weren’t that bad,”

“Any fate is harsh in comparison to perfection.” Yuta mused.

“It’s almost like you want me to leave,” you joked. Yuta looked at the letter with envy.

“If you want to stay here that’s your choice and I will be happy not to see you go, but it’s not the choice I would make.”

You pushed him slightly on the shoulder to ease the tension.

“You would be bored after five seconds up there,” you said opening the door and kicking your shoes off into the hallway.

You both went to eat and were wrapped up in conversation but neither of you could ignore when you heard the front door slam loudly and Taeyong scream out a list of profanities even from the other side of the house.

You gave Yuta a small smile before hurrying downstairs to try and find Taeyong. He was kneeling in the hallway staring down at the open letter on the floor that was set alight, the pages burning until there was nothing left but ash.

You tried to sit near him to comfort him, but he pulled away.

“I won’t go with him,” you said quietly. Taeyong rolled his eyes.

“Yes, you fucking will, no matter what you say humans are all the fucking same, you’re not special.”

You were taken aback. You had known the letter would upset Taeyong, but you hadn’t expected him to act with such anger.

“I don’t need your stupid fucking pity,” Taeyong hissed, the venom in his voice not something that could be faked, “I may want to love you but at this point I hate you at the same time and I will hate every girl that comes after.”

Your eyes narrowed and you snorted slightly.

“I didn’t pity you before Taeyong,” you said, “but this is pathetic.”

You picked up a vase that was next to you and smashed it on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Taeyong said standing up, alarmed at your sudden violence.

“I don’t remember my life on earth,” you began, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t an angel. I do know who I am now though, I commit petty crimes with Yuta for fun, I am attracted to a man who tortures people for a living, and I broke your vase just because I can. That doesn’t make me evil but I’m not a saint and I certainly don’t see a reason to go to heaven. Call me a narcissist but at least here I’m special, at least you will love me and for whatever reason my brain seems to value that more than eternal glory or whatever.”

“I’m a difficult man and this is a difficult place, I’ve just sheltered you from it so far.” Taeyong said.

You stepped closer to him until your lips were right by his ear.

“Then show me,” you whispered, “show me hell,” you stepped back, “show me what life here is really like and then I can make an informed choice, I can’t chose you if you don’t even give me a chance.”

“That seems fair, you can at least be Queen of Hell for a day” Taeyong agreed.

Which is how you ended up hours later back on the lift out of the city. This time you had no broken bones and you instead wore a dress of fire, courtesy of Yuta’s demon magic.

Taeyong led you through the circles of hell, through all the punishments, betrayers frozen in ice; tyrants and robber forced to swim in boiling blood; the eternal combat of the wrathful sullen and lazy and the lustful caught in the endless violent wind to name but a few.

“Hell is a horrible place for a lot of people, the city of Dis is the exception not the rule, to live there you have to live with that.”

“Then who are the people wondering around, in the villages outside the city?” you asked, not really wanting to dwell on the torture.

“The pain of torture dulls after a few thousand years and those people become free, everyone here is free because of that. After a few thousand years you can just get up and walk away and live a life again. I burned in fire for three thousand years until one day I just walked away and found the demons in the city,” Taeyong explained.

“So, the torture ends?” You asked him. Taeyong nodded,

“Pain has no power if you have experienced 1000 lifetimes of it, it just becomes normal.”

“Then I can live with it.” You said.

Taeyong looked surprised.

“It probably makes me a bad person but then I suppose that justifies my place here but if the torture ends then I can justify within myself living here, marrying you.”

“If I chose to stay, do I have to suffer the thousands of years?” you followed up.

“Does that change your answer?”

You didn’t know. But you didn’t think so, you just didn’t ever want to say something you weren’t totally sure about.

“But no, you wouldn’t, every millennium I can pardon someone, I have saved that for the chance someone ever choses to marry me,”

“Not the pessimist I always thought then,” you giggled. Taeyong laughed,

“It wasn’t optimism, it was fear… though the pain ends, I still didn’t want anyone who had made a choice to stay with me to have to experience it, because while it normalises after a thousand years the first couple hundred really are torture.”

“Well then I can’t really have any objections to hell then, or to such a thoughtful devil as you.”

“Would you like to sleep in my room tonight,” Taeyong asked suddenly.

“I knew there were other perks to Hell,” you joked.

“Well you’re a beautiful girl and I’m certainly no saint.”

When the sky turned from orange to blood red you were in Taeyong’s room. He was sitting up in his bed, shirt unbuttoned slightly, making the room feel even hotter than the inferno it already was.

You fiddled slightly with the bottom of your shirt before pulling it straight off, to reveal the lingerie that had been left in your drawer by Taeyong since day one. Taeyong smiled to himself dragging his finger over his lip slightly.

You continued, pulling down your shorts to reveal your panties, stepping ever closer towards Taeyong, who had begun to take his own shirt off as well, revealing his chest underneath.

You reached back and unclasped your bra, throwing it to the ground as you crawled onto the bed, towards Taeyong, fuelled by new confidence given to you by the look the devil. His eyes burning with lust.

You had barely touched him before he caught your arm and flipped you over, once again resting on his forearms above you but this time he kissed your neck.

“I’m the king of hell, I’m in charge here,” he said, bringing his hand up to massage your breast as he marked your neck, causing you to illicit a moan, any plans you had slipping away.

You watched him grin as he pulled away,

“You’re beautiful,” he noted. You noticed the same thing about him, it was clear he used to be an angel, but the scars on his chest, a product of hell somehow only made him more attractive. As you both paused your eyes travelled down to his underwear, where a wet patch had already formed at the tip of his dick.

Taeyong caught you staring,

“Wanna suck?” he asked and so you nodded but Taeyong stopped you as you leaned down to touch him.

“I want to hear you say it, I want to hear the sinful words, worth of the Queen of Hell.”

You had no problem obliging, you didn’t think there was anything you wouldn’t do for this man at this point and you still weren’t a hundred percent sure why.

“I want to suck your cock, I want to choke on it” you said to him with a small smile, before once again leaning down and pulling at his waistband. Taeyong was pleasantly surprised by your own addition to the statement,

‘I didn’t realise you were such a good slut,” he grinned a grin that quickly turned into a moan as you took him into your mouth, pushing your head down until you felt him against the back of your throat causing you to gag before moving back up and down again. As you sucked you looked up at Taeyong, tears forming in your eyes, never breaking eye contact.

“You look so pretty with my cock in your mouth,” he said. It didn’t take long until Taeyong’s breathing got heavier and you swallowed his warm cum that burst into your mouth, not missing a drop.

He recovered quickly and before you realised it, he was kissing you again, his hands wasting no time in removing your own panties, that were already soaked.

“I’m glad I have this effect on you,” Taeyong smirked as he chucked them across the other side of the room. Taeyong’s fingers stroked over your wet entrance but before he could slide a finger in you grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Not today, I just want to feel you inside me,” you asked, and he was happy to oblige, just as you had been.

“Get on your hands and knees,” he commanded. When you were ready you could feel him rubbing his dick over your wet folds, teasing you.

“I’ve gone months without sex down here because of you, just fuck me, please,” you begged. Taeyong immediately thrust his full length into you, but despite this initial urgency, he kept a slow torturous pace.

You whined in complaint which had no effect on Taeyong’s actions.

“This is what you get instead of a thousand years of torture baby, and also you feel so good, so tight around me, I want to savour it.” He said.

You moved your hips back to meet Taeyong, trying to get him to increase his pace.

“I’m sure Taeil would fuck me harder,” you teased which was all it took.

“So that’s the game you want to play,” Taeyong smirked before pulling out completely. Before you could even complain about the loss Taeyong thrust back into you again in tandem with a smack on your ass.

“You’re a bad girl, and bad girls get bad treatment.” He kept one hand on your hip and one hand grabbed your hair as he pumped into you hard and fast, your moans getting louder each time.

“If you don’t shut up Yuta will here you,” Taeyong complained, “but I bet a naughty slut like you would like that wouldn’t you,”

You moaned in agreement.

“I want to hear you say it,” Taeyong said, smacking your ass again.

“I’m a naughty slut who wants Yuta to hear me fucking you.” Taeyong groaned at your sinful words, his dick beginning to twitch inside you.

A few seconds later you felt his cum inside you and Taeyong continue to fuck it into you, which was enough to push you over the edge.

“Fuck!” you screamed out as Taeyong kept fucking you through the aftershocks, before pulling out and getting you to kay down next to him.

“I love you y/n,” he said, his eyes filled with affection, “even if you are a naughty girl.”

Two days later Taeil appeared at your door. It was 3pm in the afternoon when he knocked. Taeyong answered the door and went outside first, you didn’t go until he called you a few minutes later.

“Hello y/n, I am Taeil, Angel of Heaven.” He introduced himself.

“I am aware,” you replied curtly. You could see the fear in Taeyong’s eyes, and it made you want to cry, you couldn’t believe he still thought you would leave him.

“I am here to give you the chance to come to heaven, where you can have everything you ever wanted and live in perfect peace, instead of a tumultuous eternity in hell.” He began but you cut him short.

“I am fine here actually but thanks for the offer.”

Taeil didn’t look phased, maybe it had taken a while before the others agreed.

“I can give you everything, memories of your life on earth, the chance to meet your family again, here you will endure years of pain.”

You remained resolute.

“That’s a no thank you, have a nice day,” you said grabbing Taeyong’s hand and moving to head back inside

Taeil stopped you, his arm placed in front of you. He reached into his pocket and played a scene into your mind.

It was what you guessed was heaven and all you could feel was an immense sense of peace, you saw people around you smiling and cheers of laughter not screams.

“My answer is still no,” you said. Taeil looked perplexed.

“No one who has seen heaven has ever turned it down, what could be better than the everlasting peace?” he asked.

You looked up at Taeyong who still looked frantically worried and smiled. You saw Yuta hopping from foot to foot behind a bush with Yangyang to eavesdrop what was happening.

“Everlasting love,” you replied, “Everlasting friendship,” you continued, “and besides I reckon hell must be more fun anyway.”

Taeil took a few steps back, something close to anger appearing on his face.

“If you turn this offer down, I will never give it to you again,” Taeil asked. You shrugged.

“Have a nice flight back,” was all you said before leaning up and giving Taeyong a kiss on the cheek.

“I won’t want what I can have because I have all the things I need, and that is my peace.”

Taeyong wrapped his arms around you grinning,

“You really are one of a kind, kissed me first girl,” he remarked. Taeil scoffed.

“Have fun being damned together,” he said before heading back out the gate.

“Being damned never looked so good!” Yangyang called from behind the bush. You laughed, sure at that moment you had made the right choice.

Even if you hadn’t Taeil came back every year for the next thirty years, despite promising it would be the last each time, unwilling to accept that he had lost. Each time you found a creative way of telling him to get lost. Each year Taeyong looked less and less scared that you would leave him until he finally realised you never would.

“Get lost Taeil!” He called out, “My wife isn’t interested in your schemes and she never will be,” he shouted before he proceeded to make out with you in a very non-PG way causing Taeil to cover his eyes and run. After that he never returned.

A hundred years later you sat with Taeyong under the orange sky and smiled.

“Do you believe in fate now?” you asked, rubbing your thumb on the outside of his hand.

“I believe in my love for you, be that fate, the end to my torture or just sheer luck. Whichever it is I’m thankful for it, because hell is lonely but when you have someone with you, it’s just a very warm place with a lot of alcohol and screaming.”

Maybe the second part wasn’t so eloquent, but it was right. Hell wasn’t something to be feared when you had someone by your side. Because for Taeyong being alone had been more torturous than the fire.

At that moment Yuta’s demon child ran into the garden and set fire to the tablecloth and you couldn’t help but burst out laughing as Yuta then threw the child about a mile, probably a demon throwing high score.

The afterlife you had chosen wasn’t what most people had chosen, most people didn’t even get a choice and so when Taeyong kissed you in the darkness lit up by flames you felt like someone who was lucky. You didn’t know why this was the afterlife you lived or why Taeyong had ever meant so much. But you final realised that you didn’t need to know. That sometimes things could have vague answers and that was okay. As long as your love for Taeyong was clear, then so was the choice you had made.

As you had once shouted at Taeil whilst chucking a demon at him,

“What’s so good about resting in peace anyway,” you found resting in chaos much more entertaining.

#nct #taeyong #lee taeyong #nct scenarios #taeyong smut #taeyong imagines #nct smut #nct imagines #nct 127 #taeyong scenarios #taeyong fluff #taeyong angst #nct fluff

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a-force-dyad-in-space · 3 years ago

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CHECK-IN TAG

I was tagged by @vishcount thank you ♥️

1. Why did you choose your url?

I love Rey and Ben/Kylo from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and they are a force dyad who travel through and can communicate across space so, ergo, a force dyad in space ✌🏻

2. Any side-blogs? If you have them, name them and why you have them.

I don't have any sideblogs at the moment, but I'll be sure to tell you guys if I ever make any 😋

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

With this account, about two years, but I had another account before this one that ran from about 2011-2018 👀

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Nope, when I'm not online my blog is as dead as a doornail 🤣🤣🤣

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Some months after I deleted my old account (for mental health reasons that I won't go into right now), I wanted to branch out into the Tumblrverse again. Even on my old account I hadn't been really active in a while because I was mostly on Twitter at that point. When I made this account, I still wasn't very active for a while, but after I watched The Rise of Skywalker I was in desperate need of kindred spirits and tired of really terrible takes on Twitter, so I started being more active here again (and made some great friends along the way ♥️), until I pretty much neglected all my other social media

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

Again, I love Reylo, and since my URL is Reylo-based, I felt like my icon needed to be, too (even though I rarely even post Reylo these days, I gotta change that 😅); the icon I got right now is a bit dark and ominous for my liking now, tho, so I'll probably change it to a nicer one soon

7. Why did you choose your header?

When I watched The Untamed for the first time in November, I fell in love with WangXian, and I still love them to this day ♥️

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

Uh, this one might come as a surprise since I rarely post about Twilight, but it's my Eclipse rewatch post where I praise the vampire make-up and David Slade's beautiful use of the vampire sparkle (the Eclipse make-up and VFX departments really did the most) 😅 As of today (June 5, 2021) that post has just under 1k notes

9. How many mutuals do you have?

As of today, 16 (and I love every single one of them ♥️)

10. How many followers do you have?

As of today, 153, but I don't really care about the quantity, more about the quality 👌🏻

11. How many people do you follow?

As of today, 357

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

Uuuh... does my WangXian crack giftset count?

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

Way too much probably, but honestly it and the Asian dramas I'm watching are what have been keeping me sane during this pandemic, so I don't really care 🤷🏻‍♀️

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

Not that I can remember, but I have gotten rude anons before whose asks I simply deleted and moved on (I don't have the energy for that kind of bullshit; which is also why I don't accept anon asks anymore, my apologies to the people who might have sent me nice anon asks and are too shy to message me off anon; I don't bite, tho, I promise)

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I don't like "Reblog this or you're a terrible person" posts (tho I have to admit, I've let myself be guilt-tripped into reblogging these types of posts before, but I'm trying not to let those get to me anymore), because

1) by guilt-tripping people into reblogging something, whether it's an important topic or not, you will never know whether the person you guilt-tripped actually cares about the topic,

2) by trying to guilt-trip them into reblogging you might actually cause them to do the exact opposite and make them care even less because caring might feel like a chore as opposed to a learning curve about something they may have never heard of before they saw the post that's trying to guilt-trip them

and 3) at the end of the day we're all just running our little blogs here and absolutely no one is obligated to reblog anything they don't want to reblog.

Yes, it's important to raise awareness about important issues, but guilt-tripping someone into caring about something instead of just letting them know that that something is happening and letting them do their own research about it and grow to care about it on their own terms is not the way.

Okay, this one turned out more ranty than I anticipated, but here we are. 😅

16. Do you like tag games?

If I didn't I wouldn't be doing this one right now, would I? 😋

17. Do you like ask games?

I do, but no one ever sends me any asks for them 🥲🥲🥲🥲 (tho I rarely send other people asks for ask games, too, so I guess I could make more of an effort as well)

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Definitely @cenedrariva, their SongXueXiao fic "Red Azalea" is absolutely amazing and they deserve all the love they get for it ♥️

Also, @krispycreamsicle and @byallaccountsitdoesntmakesense both make super awesome gifsets that they absolutely deserve to be tumblr-famous for 🔥

19. Do I have a crush on a mutual?

Who knows? 😏

20. tags?

Well, the three blogs I already mentioned are welcome to do the tag, of course, if they want, and also @calamity-queen @huxdameron @yumingyesfairy @nika1882 and @angst-wizard ♥️ No pressure tho, of course

#jen got tagged

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ghostspideys-moved · 4 years ago

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All For The Best

Chapter Four

A/N: I’m trying to queue chapters ahead of time in the hopes of being a little more consistent with updating on time.

Word Count: 1.6k

Pairings: Steve Harrington x OC, Jonathan Byers x Nancy Wheeler x OC

Summary: Hawthorne is trying his best to keep Nancy and Jonathan from messing things up between each other. He’s not really sure how to do that on his own, though.

Hawthorne wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about getting dragged along again, especially after he’d heard how well that went over the last time. The last thing he wanted was for Nancy to push this too far.

It was pouring and dark out, and he didn’t really see what more they could do this late at night as it was. He rushed up to the door, his hair sticking to his face, and his jacket soaked.

What was worse was that Mrs. Driscoll didn’t answer despite Nancy’s frantic knocking. Sure, it was strange that the lights were on, and Nancy had a point. There was nowhere else she could reasonably be right now.

“Well, there isn’t anything we can do right now,” Hawthorne pointed out. “We’ll have to come back and try again tomorrow.”

Nancy didn’t seem too convinced, and when she tried the doorknob, it opened easily. This felt wrong.

Jonathan’s concern mirrored his, thankfully. “Woah, what are you doing?”

“Maybe she fell.” Nancy might have had a point, but if she was wrong, they could all be in trouble, and that was the last thing any of them needed right now.

“Nancy, this is trespassing.” But she didn’t listen, and Hawthorne felt he had no choice but to follow her in. If she was going to get herself in trouble, one of them had to be there with her. Jonathan seemed just as stressed, but he followed anyways.

Nancy called out, to which there was no response.

Hawthorne couldn’t help feeling that something very wrong was going on, but he hoped he was wrong. With his luck, he wouldn’t be. The house was eerily silent, save for the thunderstorm outside.

The door to the basement was cracked open, and Nancy was quick to open as she headed down the creaky stairway. He hesitated at the door, hoping and praying they wouldn’t find anything horrible. Jonathan gave him a reassuring look — it was enough to make him feel like everything might be okay, no matter what happened — and they went down together, sticking close to each other for comfort. His unease refused to go away, even as Nancy turned on the light. Another bag of fertilizer lay mostly empty on the floor.

Worse yet, a horrific roaring sounded from somewhere in the basement, and the three of them armed themselves with whatever tools were scattered nearby. Hawthorne wasn’t too enthusiastic to see what was making that sound, but he prepared himself anyways.

The last thing he really expected to find was Mrs. Driscoll eating fertilizer. She didn’t look great, but he supposed no one would after something like that.

Hawthorne barely found his voice long enough to say, “Maybe someone should call 911.”

The bad feeling had been sitting in Hawthorne’s stomach all day. As much as he hated the thought, this was definitely Upside Down related, and he already wanted nothing to do with it.

What’s more, Nancy and Jonathan were called in, and he could already tell nothing good was going to come of it. On the one hand, who knew what could have happened if they hadn’t gotten Mrs. Driscoll some help. And on the other, this was going to look bad for Nancy and Jonathan.

He’d promised to wait in the car, but it only made his anxiety go through the roof. He tapped his foot against the car floor as he waited for them to return. His mind was racing far too much, and he eventually had to get out of the car for a moment.

Hawthorne leaned against the car, trying to calm the unsettling feeling that was gnawing at him from the inside. And just as he thought he might have gotten it under control, everything went dark. The air was colder, and there were spores drifting like ash in the air.

There was no way any of this should be possible. They closed the gate last time. But the more he thought about the awful feeling that had been sitting in his stomach all day, the more he knew there was more to this than he previously realized. Someone must be tampering with the gate again.

Hawthorne was snapped back to the real world the moment he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, you okay?” He turned to see Jonathan giving him a very concerned look. He hadn’t realized he’d wandered from the car a little in his brief moment of confusion.

“Yeah. Just fine.” It didn’t sound the least bit convincing, but he didn’t want Jonathan worrying about him right now.

Without another word, he got in the car again. Hawthorne slumped back in his seat, the silence suffocating him the whole ride. He pushed aside his own worries and searched for some way to approach this. Some way to make things better, because he didn’t want to deal with his boyfriend and girlfriend fighting if he could put a stop to it.

The silence didn’t last too long, though he was beginning to realize he would have preferred that. Nancy ranted on about how Tom was wrong and that none of this was any kind of coincidence. He had to admit, she had a decent point. Especially after what he’d just gone through himself. Something was wrong.

On the other hand, Jonathan made his own solid points. Everyone knew the Byers were poor and relied on the money they could get. And now that they’d both been fired, Jonathan wasn’t going to be able to help until he found another job. Assuming he even could.

Regardless, they were both arguing far too much for his liking, and it was almost giving him a headache. “Can you guys please just accept that you’re both in the wrong to some degree?” he exclaimed, leaning his head against the window.

It shut them up for the rest of the car ride, but everything was just as awkward, if not more. The moment they stopped outside of Nancy’s house, she quickly got out and stormed off. Hawthorne sighed and gave Jonathan an apologetic look before he got out and went after her.

“Nance, you know I didn’t mean anything by it-”

“Why are you taking his side?” Nancy turned on her heel, tears just barely threatening to spill.

“I’m not picking anyone’s side,” he insisted. “Both of you are right, but you’re both wrong, too.”

“You didn’t see how awful those guys were to me.”

Hawthorne ran his fingers through his hair, pushing down the anxiety that was creeping up on him. “No, but I get it. I know how hard that had to be, but you cost Jonathan a lot today. And he’s not going to be the only one suffering for it. His family is, too. Joyce and Will are just as affected by this indirectly, and I just don’t think you thought that through.”

He hadn’t really meant to go off, but he really had a lot of feelings bottled up over this whole thing. Hawthorne understood both of their arguments, but he just wanted everything back to normal. He wasn’t quite sure if it was from stress or something else, but he was feeling very jittery and slightly panicked on the inside.

Deep down, he was sure she realized he had a point. And he was trying his best to put things nicely, but there was just no way to do that. If he didn’t say it, no one else would.

“I couldn’t sit there and let them humiliate me, Hawthorne.” Nancy hugged herself and looked down at the pavement. “What did you want me to do?”

Hawthorne sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know, Nance. But lately you’ve been so caught up in your own problems to consider what everyone else is going through,” he answered. “There are other people in this world besides you.”

She went silent, and Hawthorne took that as his cue to leave her to think. He took the passenger seat and sat back, his stress bubbling up inside.

Jonathan took his hand as he started driving, something he didn’t do often. It was comforting, though. He appreciated it greatly.

“How are you feeling?” Jonathan finally asked after a moment of silence. “I feel bad that we haven’t really checked on you this whole time.”

Hawthorne hadn’t even really considered either of them having any concern for him. He didn’t feel like he’d done anything worthy of them checking on his well-being. The parking lot had been its own incident, but even that didn’t feel worth noting right now.

“Fine. Mostly.” It wasn’t the total truth, but he didn’t want to cause anymore concern than he already had. He knew how Jonathan could be.

“Mostly?”

“Do you ever just feel like your whole body is working against you, and suddenly you’re working so much harder to breathe normally, and every little thing is putting you on edge?” He wasn’t quite sure how else to explain it, but that felt the best way to put it into words.

Jonathan thought for a moment and shook his head. “Not personally, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea,” he said. “You know, you don’t have to tag along if you don’t want to. I won’t blame you for it.”

After today, he wasn’t sure if he really had much choice in the matter.

“Whether I like it or not, I’m in this now. And I’m not letting you guys deal with this alone.” He loved both of them too much to leave them to their own devices. A lot of the time, he wished he wasn’t such a coward, if for their sake more than his, but he was. That wasn’t going to stop him from trying, though. “I’m here to help you guys.”

Taglist: @charmedtenderness @jxnehxpper @musicalytrashpanda

#steve harrington #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington x original character #steve harrington x reader #jonathan byers x oc #jonathan byers x original character #jonathan byers x reader #nancy wheeler x oc #nancy wheeler x original character #nancy wheeler x reader #stranger things #stranger things 3 #stranger things fic

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arigatouiris · 5 years ago

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a dual-natured smile — t.h

Author’s Note: First one-shot for Tom, and honestly in this sort of au I think this personality suits him? Like, I see him as someone so caring and able to identify emotions in people’s faces. Hope you like it!

Word count: 2698

Pairing: Coffee Shop AU! Tom Holland x Sad! F! Reader

Warnings: Angst, fluff, hurt/comfort

❝

If there was something Tom Holland believed very rigidly, then it was that a person’s smiles were an index to their souls.

He didn’t know when he started to think this way, but the idea popped into his head one evening after a strong cup of coffee he was having by himself, and it never left. Then on, each person he observed, he knew a bit more about—their smiles would reveal a tad bit more the more he looked. It felt strange, almost voyeuristic even, to know so much about what a person was feeling without them letting you know, but Tom never pried. He wasn’t the sort to.

He was, what they called, humiliatingly kind. No strange desire filled this college student and part-time coffee shop barista, and there was not a single mean bone in his body. Except for when he played a terrible prank on his younger brother, Sam—which was meant for Harry, but he had screwed that up as well. Thankfully, no one got hurt. (Except for Tom’s ego).

Coming back to prying, this skill that he had discovered not so long ago came in handy whenever he was selling coffee. He would smile a bit and then he’d notice people who would sometimes smile back, or nod, or do a strange kind of curtsy—and there were some people who’d smile one day and not the next, which meant something was eating them up, and that gave Tom all the more reason to be a bit nicer. No one had taught him that it was a lovely thing to be kind, oh no, this Tom figured out on his own.

It worked like little personal missions—each time a person walked in, a person he had sold coffee to before, with a glum face, Tom made it his personal responsibility to make them smile, at least before they left. He thought it was nice, and there was no harm in doing so, it wasn’t as if he wanted to know about their personal lives to do anything. To make people smile was an art, and there was no need for any additional baggage that needed to come with it. Tom’s smile itself sometimes did the trick.

However, it was one working Wednesday evening did Tom’s true challenge walk in through the cafe’s door. She came with earphones in, hands shoved inside her sweater pockets, locking out the world, eyes fixed everywhere except on other eyes, moving with a gracefulness only sadness seemed to bring. Tom’s heart melted at the sight, at how raw she was, at how effortless it was for her to hide it from everyone around her. She looked passive to the normal eye, but to Tom, he could actually smell it. He could smell how sad she was, if that was even a thing, and oh, it was so devastating that it almost made him cry.

The eyes she made when she ordered her coffee was a mix of heartbreak and a very human kind of sadness that any person would feel. It was the kind that you would wake up from, something a bad dream may have caused, something a missed bus would have caused, something wistful—a personal challenge having not been met with.

Tom laid her coffee in front of her, still enamored with the glory her sadness brought to her, heart beating rapidly in his chest with how careless she was about it—and while she almost took it, placing the change beside the cup, Tom stammered a beginning of a conversation. Her eyes moved to his so quickly, it almost knocked him out, left his mouth ajar, his brain scattered.

“P-Please enjoy your coffee and have a nice day!”

For a second, he thought she’d snap at him. Suddenly, the air around her turned intimidating, her eyes were as cold as ice, her expression changed from glum to stoic—but what came afterward blew his mind.

She smiled. She looked sad and happy. A sort of relieved smile.

“Thank you.”

He couldn’t tell what she was thanking him for. Was it the coffee? Was it because he spoke to her? Or, was it because she saw in Tom’s words what he wanted her to see? Did she see the hidden worry masked beneath his words that he had laid out for her to see? He couldn’t tell. She walked out that cold Wednesday evening, leaving Tom to wonder if he’d ever see her again.

He did.

He did see her again and he knew right then that he’d always recognize her, irrespective of where she was, how long it had passed, or what place it was. He’d recognize the eyes behind that mysterious, dual-natured smile she had given him, and he’d invariably recognize her. With her, there was no mission. With her, there was no personal agenda on getting her to smile. She smiled right on the first day, but that was still not as satisfying—there was something there, something had begun, but he had no idea what it was.

If the smile was truly the index to a person’s soul, then he was left blinded by the light her smile had left behind.

It was a Saturday morning when she walked in that day. Tom was already busy with a few more customers, while she stood behind in line, waiting patiently for her turn. When she walked in, he barely noticed another customer come by, but as his eyes wandered the queue, it fell on the familiar white sweater she was wearing, hands in her pockets, earphones plugged in her ears. Tom almost gasped that she had returned, feeling a tad bit happy on the inside, but he would get yelled at if he didn’t take people’s orders just because he got distracted by a pretty customer.

When it was her turn, he was glad there was no one behind her. The cafe now had carried off into a lull—a buzz of a conversation flowed among the people gathered there and no one was noticing Tom Holland and no one was noticing her. This left them in their own space, among a crowded area, but they were at the same time, hidden from view.

It didn’t look as if she recognized him, but he smiled as if she did. He remembered her order, he remembered every detail about her from the last time she had set foot inside the cafe, but he didn’t want to scare her away by letting her know any of this.

“How are you feeling today?” It wasn’t actually a question when a smile was attached to it.

She blinked at him a couple of times before wondering why he didn’t ask her about her order. Weren’t baristas supposed to ask a person their order first? But, there was something so utterly enchanting about the way he was smiling at her, that it almost made her forget.

“It’s cold outside.” She replied, a soft smile presenting itself on her lips.

Once again, Tom faltered—there it was. The happy/sad smile. Was it because of the way her smile sat on her face that it looked both happy and sad? Was it because of her aura? Was there something he was missing?

“Caramel macchiato, isn’t it?” Tom asked, grinning widely.

Her smile only grew, but the feeling remained. He could feel his breathing quicken its pace a bit, but there was no reason to feel so confused over a random customer’s smile. It was her story, he had nothing to do with it. She didn’t fall under the game he was playing and maybe that’s why Tom was so enthralled with her. Self-doubt filled his head, he wondered if his idea of making his customers’ smile was a selfish thing to do. He wondered if the customers wanted it, whether they cared, whether he had any right to even wonder all of this in the first place.

“Thank you for remembering, Tom.”

He let out a shocked, squeaky sound, before feeling breathless. She pointed to his badge, and he calmed a bit—she had addressed him by his name because there was a badge revealing it. Why was it so easy for her to leave him so breathless?

“What’s your name, miss?” Tom asked, secretly grabbing a pen from under the counter.

She blinked once before saying, “(y/n).”

No more. She didn’t tell him her surname, she didn’t need to. She had established a boundary between them right then and there, there was no need to encroach any further.

However, if only she hadn’t smiled when handing him the change, Tom would have let boundaries lie. If only she didn’t look so devastatingly beautiful and sad when she offered him her first name, would Tom have let things slide.

He grabbed the marker and scribbled something on her cup before shooting her a wink. When her eyes fell on what he had written, there was shock plastered on her features—a sheen appeared in the (e/c) of her eyes that Tom never knew he had to see before. Her mouth opened a little bit with amusement, her eyes shone with a bit of enchantment and then came a different sort of smile—a smile with a bit of gratitude—a smile Tom knew he was falling in love with.

Hope your day is as lovely as you, (y/n).

She didn’t need to say anything more. She didn’t even turn to look at him, but he knew. She didn’t smile at him—that smile of gratitude wasn’t driven in his direction but it was there, and oh goodness, what it had done to him was astounding! Tom could barely think or eat or breathe for the rest of the day, and he knew his assignments had to wait because he had daydreaming to do. He thought so much about her, he thought so much about who she was, what she was doing, where she came from—but nothing Tom wanted to know as much as what had happened to make her smile that heartbreakingly sad yet happy smile.

He wondered if he would have the courage to ask her the next time he saw her.

He didn’t.

He didn’t ask her the next time because Tom knew that deep down, he was a bit of a coward when it came to girls he was attracted to.

She was wearing a different sweater this time, but her earphones weren’t plugged in. Her hands weren’t in her pockets and maybe—just maybe—Tom was breaking her boundaries a bit? It eased his mind to think that way, but it also gave him inexplicable joy. When she approached the counter, Tom’s smile was already present. She smiled back, the same heartbreaking sad/happy smile, but this time—it was accompanied by something. He could see it, he could see traces, no hints, of underlying shyness at the corners of her lips. His eyes widened when he noticed that her dual-natured smile came with a sweet shyness lodged in her eyes and then the answers came biting down at him.

On the possible origin of her sad/happy smile.

She stood there, tilting her head a bit, waiting for him to make a move. He made her caramel macchiato and scribbled something on it before handing it to her, no words exchanged, no sounds present—just hidden messages and secret glances; all was the necessary fuel required for the something more.

A beautiful morning to a beautiful (y/n).

When she smiled at her message, she turned back to him and smiled once more—shooting his heart to the skies. She took a breath inside before letting out two words, very common two words that are used in response to kindness and sometimes stated awkwardly.

Thank you.

Tom struggled to watch her leave after that. He wondered if it was too much, the whole ‘lovely day’ or ‘beautiful (y/n)’ but he saw her smile and maybe that was worth it all. Before she left that day, she paused near the door—shocking Tom because it hadn’t ever happened before, and he waited. He waited to see if anything was going to happen, but there was nothing. She carried on forward after that as if the pause never happened to begin with.

But, it did. And oh, it filled his heart with so much joy! Tom grinned to himself before pumping his fist in the air (in his mind) and carried on with his work. He was so happy that it filled his mind with confidence, which he believed would last till the next time he saw her.

It didn’t.

It didn’t last till the next time he saw her because the next time he saw her, Tom was already in love with her.

And when you’re in love with someone you don’t see too often, your mind may tell you to react in certain ways but your body forgets who you are. All of a sudden, you’re the clumsier version of yourself and despite making coffee a thousand times you are starting to forget what coffee even smells like.

When she walked in, three weeks near his college finals, she looked stressed. He noticed the visible bags under her eyes, and the lack of sheen in her appearance, but he also noticed the lack of earphones and the sweater was gone. She was wearing a blue tee-shirt with jeans, holding her jacket in her hands. She looked a bit confused, but also sad, sad was her default programming, which Tom hoped to change in the near future. But, there was something different about her today than all other days.

When it was her turn, Tom noticed there were two more people behind her. She turned around and spotted them, before stepping aside and having them go first. Tom was shocked obviously, but he let it happen. He quickly delivered their orders and went back to her, to his her—if he can even call her that.

It was the first time he was tempted to ask, “Is everything alright?”

It was so strange—he barely spoke five sentences with this girl and yet he was so, so utterly in love with her that it drove him crazy.

“It never has been,” She said, offering him the same dual natured smile. He knew the secret behind it. He finally knew how her smile could be both sad and happy. “I think you already knew that.”

Tom replied with a smile and a caramel macchiato. This time, there was no scribble. She blinked a couple of times before biting her bottom lip and nodding once.

The secret was her eyes.

“(y/n),” Tom let out raspily, “Would you mind taking a seat over there?”

He pointed to the corner of the cafe, a deserted seat for two. She looked over there and then at him, before tilting her head. He smiled at her—mimicking her happy one, emitting the sadness from it, and she nodded. She approached the table, slowly, before Tom finished up at the counter. He waddled over there, sitting across her, hands on the table, while she watched him with curious eyes.

Of all the wondering he had done in his life, about the one particular thing that had changed the way he viewed people—that the smile was the index to people’s souls, he was mistaken about one thing.

For (y/n), it was her eyes. Whenever she smiled, her smile would emit such happiness yet her eyes were so utterly sad.

“You...” She spoke after taking two very slow sips of her coffee. “You didn’t write anything on this today.”

Tom smiled before replying, “How about I tell you from here on?”

She blinked before looking up at him. “What do you mean?”

“Coffee’s on me, (y/n). Would you like to go out with me?”

He didn’t need to know what made her so sad. He didn’t need the details, the story or the evidence of what had happened with her—he would or wouldn’t know, all depended on what would happen with them. But, he knew one thing for sure.

When she smiled at him at that second, her eyes said yes. No sadness. No dual-natured presentation.

Just a girl letting a guy know he had a chance.

❞

#tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfic #tom holland au #tom holland x reader #tom holland fic #tom holland x y/n #tom holland coffee shop au #tom holland x you

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what-is-your-plan-today · 5 years ago

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Stark Spangled Banner Ch1: Back Into The Field

Summary: Katie heads back to SHIELD following the crazy events in Miami and finds herself on desk arrest following a disciplinary for two weeks. But when catastrophe strikes on a mission, she kinda wishes she had stayed there.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x O/C Katie Stark

Warnings: Bad language (no smut, yet, but will be down the line. A bit of angst, injury and blood (some may find upsetting)

Stark Spangled Man: Re-cap

Steve was mad, furious, absolutely and utterly infuriated. His foot tapped as he rode the elevator up to the 95th floor where it pinged open and he stepped into the living area of the tower. Katie uncurled herself off the couch and started to speak before the doors had even shut behind him.

“I know you’re pissed…” she began, but he held his hand up, shaking his head.

“Pissed doesn’t even come into it…” he said, “Are you insane?”

“Not last time I checked.”

He felt his jaw tighten, this wasn’t the time for her jokes or quips. As he looked at she felt herself quell under his gaze and she dropped her eyes from his and sighed.

“I had to help.”

“You’re a fucking idiot_!” he stood, arms folded as he glared at her. She raised an eyebrow at him, but remained silent as he unloaded “You could have been seriously hurt, or killed… I told you to call me!”

“You’re only pissed off because you missed a chance to play the hero…” she snapped and then inwardly groaned. As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them.

“Is…is that actually what you think?” he frowned, looking like puppy dog she’d just kicked across the floor.

“No, its not…” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean…”

“I was worried about you!” he pressed, “Katie, you’re my best friend and I couldn’t cope losing you as well…”

As well as Bucky.

His sentence hung, unfinished, making her feel like shit. She sighed and crossed the room, slipping her arms around his waist. After a second or two he unfolded his arms and hugged her back.

“You should have called me.” He sighed, his tone softening as she lay her head on his chest.“It was so frustrating. Fury was refusing to do anything, if I knew how to fly one of those damned jets I’d have taken one myself…"

“Ask Clint for some flying lessons.” she said, stepping back to look up at him, sighing again as his face displayed no amusement at her attempted joke. “Look, I’m sorry, truth is, I didn’t think. We just got caught up and I didn’t want to drag you into something that wasn’t your fight. This was down to Tony and a very long list of people he has pissed off…”

Steve snorted as he released her from his grip “Well then it isn’t your fight either is it?”

“He’s my brother, Steve, I’d die for him if I had to.” she shrugged.

“How is he now?” Steve asked, following her towards the bar area.

“Seems ok.” she said, stepping behind it. “Recovering from the surgery, destroyed all his Iron Man suits…”

“He what?”

“Clean Slate protocol… blew them all up. Including the one he had made for me.” she slid an open beer across the bar top towards him. He caught it as he settled down on a stool, shaking his head.

“Wait, he made you a suit?” Steve frowned “An Iron Man suit?”

“Iron Maiden…” she grinned, leaning on the bar opposite him as he looked at her blankly. She rolled her eyes and grinned “They’re a band…rock… add them to the list.”

He raised an eyebrow at her and pulled out the notebook she’d gifted to him the year, making a note of the name, before he slipped it back into his jacket pocket.

“So he made you a suit…” he said, motioning her to continue.

“Yeah, well wasn’t much point seeing as I only got to wear it for like half an hour or whatever. It was only a prototype, nothing I could use with SHIELD either as it was too conspicuous, not that it matters anyway as he blew them all up, like a massive firework display”

“Why?” he frowned, bottle paused halfway to his mouth.

“Some kind of outward gesture to Pepper, basically said that any designs for a new one she gets to help him with…”

Steve took a big pull of his beer and swallowed. “That’s a big step for him.”

“Yeah, I know. He loves her.” Katie swallowed a mouthful of beer “And she loves him, she’s good for him.”

“Is she ok now after the whole Extremis thing?”

“Yeah. Tony managed to engineer an antidote with a bit of help from the SHIELD lab and she’s good.”

“And how are you?” he asked.

“Honestly?” Katie snorted, shaking her head “absolutely exhausted by all of it. Gods, Aliens, crazy assed super soldiers that explode…” her eyes narrowed as she eyed him playfully and suspiciously “you’re not gonna explode are you?”

“Not planning on it, no.” his crooked grin spread across his face.

***********

March 2013.

Any doctor would cry if they visited SHIELD; the caffeine and alcohol intake of pretty much every worker there would way exceed a dose construed to be healthy. Mind you, if you asked any agent whether they’d give up coffee or alcohol, they’d say alcohol in a heartbeat. Well, most of them. Katie couldn’t imagine surviving without an ice cold beer on a hot summer’s day, but she also didn’t function until she had her morning cup of Joe. It was a tough choice to make.

Not today though, she needed coffee. And lots of it. After ‘going rogue’ to chase the Mandarin with her brother Fury was pissed and as such was basically giving her the most boring thing he could think of- working through piles of mission reports, analysing and cross referencing them with others to pick up on common threads .To be honest, she didn’t mind it too much. After the excitement of the festive period she had welcomed a relatively quiet return to work, and didn’t particularly give a shit what Fury thought about her either. That said, it was heavy going, but as with anything she was soon engrossed, circling a part of the hard copy of the report with highlighter pen, before glancing back at the screen to cut and paste it into the Scrapbook App she used to trace trends with, letting out a groan.

Nope, this was officially crap.

Steve’s morning wasn’t much better. After one particularly gruelling Ops Training session, whereby one of the newest kids suffered a broken nose after colliding painfully with a stray shock baton, he showered and headed up to find Katie. She’d skipped the Ops training, not particularly needing it to be fair as she was a dead shot as it was, but her main reason was she was buried in work that Fury had dropped on her desk. He found her sat, paper in her hand and she was looking her computer screen. She sighed, scratching at her head before she dropped the file onto the desk letting out a groan. It was such a pure, natural action, Steve felt he was interrupting something, even though he knew he wasn’t. So he gave a little cough and as she turned round, her pretty face cracking into a smile which he returned.

“Fancy lunch?” he asked her.

She nodded instantly “God yes. Can we get FroYo after?”

“Yeah but don’t let me pile it with all that crap this time!” he shot her his best playfully disapproving look as he remembered the first time she had taken him to the Frozen Yoghurt stall. He had loaded his with all sorts of different things and the result had been beyond foul.

Katie gave a laugh and picked up her jacket, shrugging it on. He held the door for her and she stepped under his arm, and he followed her to the elevator.

“Stick to chocolate chip, mint and cookie dough!“ she said, stepping into it. “Trust me.”

They strode across the foyer and into the early spring sun. Katie pulled her jacket tighter around herself as they crossed the street.

“How are you just wearing a shirt?” she asked, looking at Steve as he fell into step besides her, making sure he was on the side nearest the road. He noticed that she’d long since given up chiding him on this old fashioned habit after he had revealed it was something he used to do for his mom too, and Bucky’s younger sister. She’s simply rolled her eyes but today he swore he saw something that looked like a soft smile flicker on her lips when he positioned himself on her left, but as quick as he noticed it, it was gone.

“It’s not too bad. Been through worse.” He grinned as he opened the door to the Deli for her. He followed her in and stood besides her in the queue and became aware that she was looking at him.

“What?” he asked, turning to her exasperatedly. Katie couldn’t help but grin, she enjoyed winding the usually mild mannered man up

“I’m trying to imagine how you would look with a beard. And with shorter hair.” she said causing the Captain to roll his eyes. He was used to her utter random comments now. She was very like her brother in that respect, her mind moved at about 100 miles an hour and half the time he had no idea what made her come out with the stuff she did and to be honest, he’d long since given up attempting to understand.

“Not gonna happen.”

“What the hair cut or the beard?” she asked.

“Neither.”

“Spoil sport.”

“Captain America doesn’t have a beard.” he shook his head.

“Steve Rogers could…”

She was impossible, but Steve couldn’t help but want to laugh. This playfulness was the thing that he enjoyed the most, how she could just treat him like any other punk she knew.

“Did anyone ever tell you you’re exhausting?” he rolled his eyes, a smirk playing on his face as she stepped forward in the queue.

“Yeah, you.” she spun round to face him, grinning “Several times. But you still come back for more.”

“Well I have the distinct impression if I didn’t you’d hunt me down anyway”

They ordered and ate their lunch, Steve filling her in on the ops drill and after Fro-Yo they made arrangements to slob out that evening at Steve’s with a film. Katie headed back to her office to continue sifting through the Mount Everest of reports she had to do. As with anything once she got the bit between her teeth, she completely zoned out. It was only when she heard a gabble of voices all bidding each other goodbye that she looked up from her work. It was dark outside, and past 6.

“Shit…” she groaned as the realisation washed over her. She was supposed to be at Steve’s for half past. She clicked to save her work whilst calling him at the same time, phone sandwiched between her cheek and shoulder.

“So…I’m running late” she apologised the instant he answered. He chuckled.

“I thought that you said the one good thing about being confined to desk duties was that you set the hours!”

“Yeah, well I got caught up in something…but I’m leaving now. Do you want me to grab pizza on the way?”

“Sounds good, not Chicago Style though. I’m hankering for a proper piece of pie.”

“God you’re such a New Yorker.” she rolled her eyes.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.” he said, his voice taking on a mock hurt tone and she could imagine him pouting on the other end of the phone.

“Hmmm, I’m undecided. Right, I’m going now…see you soon.”

“Drive safe.”

“What are you my dad?”

“Old enough to be” he shot back.

“Touche.” she sniggered, cutting the call

*******

“Boring New York style for Mr S Rogers…” she spoke into the intercom and he buzzed her in. By the time she’d climbed the stairs he was waiting at the door to his flat, leaning on the door frame.

“Bout time…” he muttered, taking the boxes off her “Was about to send a search party.”

“Mario’s was packed” she said, kicking off her sneakers and heading straight through to his kitchen to grab a beer out of his fridge without waiting for him to offer, knowing he wouldn’t. He didn’t need to.

Steve headed into the living room, depositing the 3 boxes on the coffee table and reaching straight in for one of the pepperoni slices before Katie flopped down next to him, handing him a beer.

“What we ticking off the list tonight?” she asked.

“A Few Good Men.” he said, nodding at the tv where he had queued the movie up ready.

“Wait...did you manage to navigate that Android box all by yourself…” she looked at him and he sighed.

“I’m not completely useless ya know…”

“Jury’s out.” she teased, curling her legs up onto the sofa next to her.

They watched the film. Steve got most of the references within it. He chuckled in the right places, and laughed out loud when Katie was unable to stop herself uttering the immortal line “You can’t handle the truth” When the film had finished, Katie unfolded herself from where she had been sat and they launched into Steve’s favourite part of Movie Nights- the post film analysis.

“Who was the guy who played the colonel…errr Jessup?” he looked at her.

“Jack Nicholson” she said, “Amazing actor. He’s in a few on your list.”

“He was good. Kaffee annoyed me a little, arrogant, cocksure.”

“Reminds me of Tony” Katie sniggered.

“Well, I didn’t want to say anything” he said, giving a little smirk.

“You enjoy it?” she asked.

“Yeah, very good. Better than the one we watched the other night anyway.”

“Yeah, pisses me off though. I mean Galloway, she’s a strong female military woman and they still have to go with the romance angle. And with Kaffee too. Personally I’d have punched him in the face several times.“

“It does seem to be a tried and tested format” he said, leaning back against the cushions on his couch “Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy wins girl over…”

“Appeals to the hopeless romantic in all of us.” Katie shrugged “Crap like that, happy endings and all, never happens unless it’s in a film. What’s more likely to happen is boy gets you into bed and then fucks off when the chase is over. Well, most men anyway.”

Whilst her action and mannerisms remained neutral, the bitterness in her voice gave her away and Steve felt a surge of anger towards her ex. He’d never met the guy and still wanted to punch his lights out for the way he’d treated her. They continued to chat for a bit longer until Katie glanced at her watch,and seeing the time decided to call it a night. Steve walked her down to her car, he always did without fail, another thing she had given up chiding him for and when he came back upstairs and got in the shower, he found himself straying back to the first time he had seen her, the minute she had stepped into the light in the boxing gym and he’d found himself looking into the greenest eyes he had ever seen in his life.

The more he stood there in the shower and thought about her, the more he started to feel something…well…different. And he couldn’t put his finger on it. Was it that he found her attractive? Well of course he did. To be honest, he reckoned you’d have to be blind not to. And if he was totall honest, since he’d seen her the first time in that little boxing gym in New York he had noticed how pretty she was. She had the figure of the stars of his time. Hour glass waist, brunette hair, shapely ass and legs and quite large breasts considering she was so slim. But what did it for him were her eyes. Deep, warm green pools that he could lose himself in quite happily. And that smile, that fucking smile that could make him stop in his tracks when she flashed it. But it was more than just that, she was…well…just Katie.

It was strange, really, she reminded him so much of Peggy in some ways, but in others she was so different. Both were vivacious, smart, strong willed and beautiful. But where Peggy had been harsh, after a military upbringing, Katie had a softer edge to her. She was still ferocious at times, but she was a people person, and somehow knew exactly how to explain and understand what he was trying to say even when he struggled to himself.She made him feel at ease. With that in mind it wasn’t surprising they had grown so close. He could trust her and knew that she would do anything for him because she was a good person. And she made it so easy to be around, he didn’t feel a shred of awkwardness around her.

He hadn’t thought he’d ever find himself a friend he could be as honest and open with again, one he would happily lay his life on the line for, not just out of a sense of duty but out of a sense of love and friendship.

Who you trying to kid, Rogers?

He knew his feelings went deeper than that. All those times he'd felt irritation at other men looking at her or touching her, all those times he'd looked at her and just wanted to smile because she was just her... the fear he had felt when he had known she was off chasing the Mandarin and he wasn’t able to help...none of that was anything to do with mere friendship.

He leaned his forehead against the tiles of the shower cubicle and groaned. He was crushing on his best friend. He was so fucked. *******

Katie’s desk arrest didn’t last long. 2 weeks later she was catapulted back into the field, on what was supposed to be a simple op, simple by SHIELD standards, anyway. They had a request from the Cuban government – all very hush, hush, of course –to take down a drug lord who ran the cartel SHIELD had tangled with last year.

Katie read the files, all the intel, pulled together a briefing and delivered it, answering questions that came her way from the team and then handed over to Steve when it was his turn to take the floor. He started issuing out his orders, and informed everyone that the 3 newest recruits would be joining them as it would be a fairly straight forward op to ease them into.

And it had been, for the most part, until one of those new recruits, Steven Adams, had frozen mid fire fight and as a consequence he’d taken 3 bullets to the chest.

“I got him…” Katie said, calmly taking aim at the hostile responsible and as soon as she knew she’d hit him, she broke cover to get to Adams, as she was closest to him. She skidded to the floor, pressing her hand to his chest and her other reached to his face, turning it to look at her.

“I got you…Adams…look at me…” she said gently, her hand warm, wet and slick with the young man’s blood. Steve dropped besides her and she turned to face him.

“I can’t stop the bleeding…” she said, her tone giving away exactly how worried she was.

“Medic, NOW!” Steve yelled, looking around frantically for help “We need emergency evac…”

“This is just like Coulson all over again…” Katie mumbled to no one in particular as she reached into her belt and retrieved a tab of morphine. Steve gripped the young man’s hand as she administered the pain relief.

“Son,look at me…” he instructed and Adams horrified eyes turned to Steve “That’s it, keep looking at me…”

Steve swallowed, figthing to keep his face calm. He’d seen that look so many times on the battle field, the look that told him the man who lay injured knew he was injured beyond repair, that there was nothing to be done for him. But this was now, 70 years into the future, medical science had worked so many wonders since then, they had to be able to do something, right?

“RUMLOW WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT MEDIC?” Katie screamed, her tone frantic.

“Still got hostiles on us!” Rumlow replied in his ear “Evans has taken 4 down but they’re approaching from the right! We need to cover the medics in and now you’re down there…”

Steve instantly looked round before he looked back at Katie “We can take him ourselves”

She bit her lip, looking at the young man, then up to Steve again. Everything in their training told them not to move casualties, but Steve knew if they stayed here he was going to bleed out.Katie seemed to come to the same conlcusion a she nodded.

"Alright…Brock, we’re coming to you. Have the medics prep the bay…Evans, we need top cover…”

“Roger, Nova…”

“Steven… we’re gonna move you now.” she said, looking at him, her voice calm and level. She took his hand out of Steve’s which allowed the captain to haul him into a lift over his shoulder. Once he had the man positioned he gave a small jerk of his head and Katie picked up his shield in one hand, and her pistol in the other as they broke cover, sprinting across the front of the industrial yard towards the jet. In the corner of his eye, Steve spotted 2 hostiles moving but before he could shout a warning, Katie had fired off 2 shots, the thumps and lack of returning meaning each bullet had hit its target. Soon they were joined by Rumlow who flanked them up the ramp where she dropped the shield to the floor and offered her hand back to Adams, Steve placed him gently on the stretcher.

“It’s gonna be ok…” Katie said, soothing him as the medics bustled around, glancing up every so often to watch what they were doing.

“Can you tell my mom…I love her…and dad…” Adams was mumbling now and she shook her head.

“You can tell them yourself. “she smiled “you’ll be fine, I promise…”

“We’re locked down outside, local authorities are handling it now. How’s he looking?” Rumlow asked as he stepped up besides Steve who had stood back from where Katie was knelt by the injured man. Steve turned to Rumlow, shaking his head sadly.

“Not good. He lost a lot of blood.”

At that point Katie suddenly drew back slightly, looking at the hand held in hers, before she glanced at the medic who was sadly shaking her head. Katie threw her head back closing her eyes as her face screwed up.

“Shit.” Rumlow muttered as Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle finger.

“Radio base” he turned to Brock, his voice soft “Let’s get him home.”

*******

Writing mission reports wasn’t Katie’s favourite thing to do, but this one was awful. So she’d treated it like ripping off a band aid, and after a horrific nights sleep, she’d been at the T riskelion early to get it done. As a result it was little after 10 am, she was done for the day and was about to head home until she heard a familiar voice.

“Eat me…eat me…” The voice was accompanied by a bag from her favourite bakery, which was hovering in the space between the door and the frame, before Clint Barton’s head poked round the side, a grin plastered on his face.

“Hey!” She beamed at her friend as he dropped a cup holder containing two coffees and the bag onto her desk before taking a seat, scooting the wheeled chair over the floor towards her.

“Heard you had a rough time of it yesterday so I brought donuts and almond croissants.And coffee.”

“Hawkeye, you are a godsend.” she said, taking a large drink and leaning back, closing her eyes.

“That the first time you’ve lost a man on a mission?” Clint asked.

“Other than Coulson.” she shrugged. “He was 24 Clint. His whole life ahead of him.”

Clint watched as she rubbed at her temple before reaching into the bag and pulling out an almond croissant. She couldn’t remember when she had last eaten, it must have at least been before the mission.

“How’s Cap taken it?”

“On the outside he seems ok, but I know he blames himself. Keeps saying he shouldn’t have taken him.” Katie shrugged “He’s gone with Fury to see Adams’ parents. Rather him than me.”

“This job is hard.” Clint said after a moment “We fight to keep everyone safe, but y’know, sometimes not everyone makes it. Thing is, if we can’t find a way to deal with that, then maybe next time no one gets saved at all.”

“You mean like Collateral damage?” she snorted, shaking her head.

“No, I mean that everyone one of us that are out in the field know the risks Nova, hell last year 7 of us took on a horde of Aliens in New York. For hours we fought them, and did any of us give a second thought to our own safety? No,because that’s what we do.”

His words made sense. She knew they did, but that didn’t stop the feeling in her stomach that if she had done her research more, maybe she could have spotted something that would have told them about the armour piercing rounds.

*******

Adams’ parents already knew he was dead. Which made it slightly easier. Fury had the local authorities call ahead, common practice now, but still Steve found himself sat on their couch, talking, informing them all about their son’s last moments. They hadn’t shouted, hadn’t screamed or blamed him. Instead, they’d thanked him for what he had done and for bringing him back so they could hold a proper burial.

By the time he got back to base, he was exhausted.

“Here.” Fury said, handing him a glass of scotch from the bottle he had pulled out of his desk. Steve took it, dropping into one of the sofas at the side of the large office, Fury settling into the other. Steve knew the drink couldn’t’ get him drunk, but he liked the momentary buzz he got that lasted all of 60 seconds post sip.

The scotch was smooth, he expected nothing less from the boss. And the pair of them sat in silence for a few moments.

“Ever done that before, a death message?” Fury asked, leaning back.

“Can’t say I have. Wasn’t really my job back in the day.” Steve said, undoing his tie.

“Worst part of the job. Doesn’t matter how many times you do it, never gets any easier.” Fury ran his hand over his face, and it struck Steve how tired his boss actually looked.

“Yeah, it isn’t exactly up there with my favourite thing to do.” he said, rolling the tie up and shoving it into his old Army uniform pocket.

“How’s Nova?” Fury asked.

“She’s upset.” Steve sighed “But she’s strong, she’ll be ok. I’m gonna head over and see how she is later.”

“You two spend a lot of time together outside of work.” Fury commented, innocently enough but there was something in his tone, something that was almost good natured accusation.

“Not a problem is it, Sir?” Steve asked, face straight.

“No, not at all.” Fury said “Why do you think I partnered you up in the first place? She’s a people person…”

“She’s a good friend.” Steve nodded “We get on.”

“Glad to hear it.” Fury said “There’s going to be a debrief with the Secretary of Defense tomorrow.”

Steve sighed “If they’re looking to blame someone, the buck stops with me. I should never have taken the kid.”

“Bullshit.” Fury said simply “I’ve read the reports. From what they say, he just froze.”

“He wasn’t experienced enough.”

“It was a straight forward in and out job Captain.” Fury leaned forward. “What happened was an accident. A tragic one, but an accident none the less. From the reports, neither you nor Stark could have done any more to save his life.”

Steve shrugged, the words were kind but didn’t help him feel any better.

“Taking risks is part of this job.” Fury said simply “It’s a dangerous gig.”

3 glasses of scotch and an hour later he shook the director’s hand and left the office, pulling out his phone. He didn’t want to appear like he was checking up on Katie, so he pinged her a text, dressing it up like it was him who needed to see her, which wasn’t a complete lie. He did, he was craving the normality she gave him.

Can I come over? I could do with seeing a friendly face

He read it a few times, before deciding it was casual enough before he sent it. The reply was almost instantaneous.

My door is always open for you. And I made Mac and Cheese…plenty left.

He couldn’t help but smile. One of the best things about this “new life” was the food, and her Mac and Cheese was frankly his favourite thing to eat on the planet. He shot a message back.

He changed into a pair of sweat and a hoody, hastily making his way to her penthouse and the the smile she gave him when he walked into her place instantly made him feel at ease.

“Hey…” she said, crossing the space towards him and giving him a hug which he happily melted into, a hug they both needed.

“how did it go?” she asked, pulling away.

“As well as can be expected.” He sighed as he followed her into the kitchen, dropping into the stool on the other side of the breakfast bar. “His mom broke down but…they were ok about it. They didn’t shout or yell…”

She flipped the lid off a beer and handed it to him. He took it, with a nod of thanks and pulled a large swig as he sat back down, staring at the bottle in his hand.

He was brooding and blaming himself, Katie could tell so she gently lay her hand on his, reaching over the counter.

“it wasn’t your fault Steve.” she said, gently. She did that all the time, knew what he was thinking. It gave him the unnerving impression that sometimes she could read his mind.

“I should have spotted that shooter…” he said, shaking his head.

“I’m the fucking mission analyst.” she sighed. “I knew from last time those guys were packing, if I’d done more research, maybe I would have found out about the armour piercing rounds…”

“You can’t seriously blame yourself?” Steve’s head shot up unable to believe she actually thought that.

“Why not?” she sighed sadly. She’d been over it a million times in her head that day and had come to the same conclusion every time. She should have spotted something, dug further. “I didn’t do my job.”

“Yes, you did.” he implored, his eyes locking onto hers “Your report clearly set out the layout, the learning from previous missions…Abrams was just too inexperienced, I should never have taken him…”

There was a pause as the microwave pinged and Katie turned to look at it.

“You know, Clint made a good point before.” she said, reaching in for the plate and the smell of the food made his stomach grumble again as she continued “This job, it’s hard. We fight to keep people safe but not everyone makes it back all the time…and if we can’t learn to live with that then maybe next time no one gets saved.”

“It feels like trading lives.” He said as she placed the plate down in front of him “It’s just wrong.”

“I know…” she said, handing him some cutlery and sat down next to him.

“You eaten?” he asked, looking at her, suddenly aware she didn’t have a plate. She nodded.

“Couldn’t have waited until now, I’d have starved to death…” she said, shrugging.

“Hardly.” he replied, mouth full, instantly realising he had said the wrong thing as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Is that a fat joke?” she asked, making him roll his eyes as he swallowed. That hadn’t been it at all, he was referring to the fact that she never actually stopped eating, despite her tiny frame she gave him a run for his money.

“No, that’s not… I mean you’re tiny…” he said, almost choking on his food through his protests.

“So now you’re making short jokes?” She said back, Steve looked at her, dismayed she thought he was picking on her but then he spotted the look in her eyes and rolled his own.

“Punk.”

“Jerk” she shot back.

It was the perfect way to escape the trauma and stress of the last few days. Once they had finished eating the two of them flopped down on her large L shape sofa, Steve’s legs extended along one side of the L shape, her legs on the other as she leaned against his shoulder. He couldn’t help but notice the smell of her shampoo…apple, he thought, along with her perfume. Her proximity was making his head buzz but he wasn’t about to move her. The contact was comforting, clearly for her as well as about an hour or so into the film- the first in the Lord of The Rings trilogy- he felt her head growing heavy. He glanced down and saw that her eyes were closed and as he watched her head slipped slightly. He shifted so that he could catch her gently, and grabbed a cushion from behind him. He placed it against his leg and manouvered her head so that she was lay down, gently brushing her hair off her face. She stirred slightly, snuggling down further into the cushion as he absentmindedly rubbed between her shoulder blades as her breathing grew gentle and even.

Steve stayed like that, engrossed in the film right to the end, surprisingly. He had enjoyed it. Katie hadn’t woken up, and he looked down debating whether or not to wake her or simply carry her through to her bedroom. Pondering for a moment, he decided to do neither, reaching for the remote as he sifted through to find something else to watch. He didn’t want to leave just yet, he was too comfy and too at ease. Picking one of his favourites, Casablanca, he settled down, getting himself comfy as he immersed himself in the familiar world of Rick’s Café Americain. At one point he felt his eyes growing heavy and he lay his head back, deciding to rest them for just a little while…

Cold air was blasting his hair back…there was a hole in the side of the train…then a flash of light and Bucky flew straight through the hole. “BUCKY…” he yelled, grabbing onto the side of the train, the bar in one hand as he stretched to reach his friend with the other.

“Steve…” The voice was louder, but not loud enough. No, he had to get to Bucky…

But he was gone, Steve was grasping at nothing but air.

“Steve…” Katie was doing her best to wake him from his obvious nightmare after he had jolted her awake, thrashing in his sleep. She placed both her hands on his shoulder and shook him. Softly at first, then a bit stronger, trying to shake him out of his sleep. His face contorted into a silent scream and then he jerked awake, his eyes wide, breathing deeply. It took him a while but he suddenly realised where he was and whose eyes were looking at him he took a shaky breath and lay his head back.

Damned it, he’d fallen asleep and had a nightmare. On her sofa.

“Shit…sorry…” he said, his voice croaky “I err…”

“Don’t apologise, it’s fine.” Katie said, gently “I’ll get you a glass of water.”

Whilst she was gone he leaned forward, swinging his legs off the couch so his feet touched the floor, wiping his clammy head with his hands.

“Thanks…” he said as she handed him the glass. He took a large gulp, his breathing returning to normal.

“You ok?” she asked, kindly as her hand gently knotted into his, her concern evident.

“Yeah, just a nightmare…” he said softly “I’ve not had one for a while.”

“Understandable with what’s happened.” she said softly “What was it about?”

“It was…just Bucky.” he said shaking his head, “I saw him fall…”

“You know you can talk to me about it Stevie.” she said softly “It might help.”

“They’re always the same.” he said, shaking his head, swallowing thickly “I either replay him falling or me going into the ice…”

She didn’t speak, simply waited for him to continue and for a moment she though he wasn’t going to, but then after a sigh he leaned forward and placed the glass on the table and ran his hands over his face again.

“It was a Hydra train,” he started, “We had a tip that Zola, a Hydra scientist was traveling somewhere and thought that it was our chance to capture him. One step closer to taking down Hydra. There was a blast from one of their weapons and it bounced off my shield and blew open the side of the train car and Bucky was thrown out.” he blinked, swallowing “He grabbed onto a bar and it wasn’t stable, and he fell.”

Katie stayed silent for a moment before her hand curled round his shoulder and she pulled him to her, causing him to lay his head on her shoulder. “You know it wasn’t your fault.”

“I should have done more” he said softly. The guilt ate him up every day, that he had survived, why had he deserved that any more than Bucy?

“How?” she said again. “How could you have done anymore?”

"I should have gone after him.” he said quietly.

“What would’ve changed if you had?” Katie asked “There’s no way he could have survived that fall.”

“He wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me.“ he said softly, "I should have gone after him, brought him home, done something.”

Katie remained quiet, her hand gently running through his hair which was nice, far too nice. He took a deep breath and sat up moving away from her touch.

"What time is it?” he asked, clearing his throat.

“Nearly six in the morning” Katie replied

“You’re kidding?” Steve snorted.

“Nope. You want some coffee?” she asked, standing up.

“Yeah if that’s ok…” he replied, following her to the kitchen. From her body language he could tell she was rolling her eyes, even if she wasn’t facing him.

“I don’t know if your Ma ever told you, but it’s rude to run out on a girl after you spend the night with her.”

“And as you know, I’m useless with women.” he said, as he sat down at the barstool on the breakfast bar. He watched her, but he didn’t say anything. She bustled about, throwing some bread in the toaster and went to the fridge for the butter, marmalade and jam, sliding them onto the island. At that point Steve held his hands up.

“You don’t have to-” he started to say, but she silenced him with a glare, similar to the ones Peggy used to give him, the look that could stop him in his tracks it was that stern.

“Shut up.” she said, pouring them both a cup of the coffee before adding milk and a spoon of sugar to both, passing one to him. The bread popped up from the toaster, and she put it on a plate before handing it to him and adding more bread to the machine.

His stomach rumbled and he gave in, smearing butter over his toast. He eyed the jam curiously. He’d had marmalade before but…he looked at Katie and she nodded. “It’s good…”

So he added some, and after a bite he concluded she was right, and nodded in agreement. Once the next round of toast was done she sat next to him.

“So…when did I fall asleep.” she asked, swallowing her food.

“About an hour into the film.” he said, taking another bite of his toast.

She shook her head “What an ass…”

“It wasn’t a problem.” He replied honestly with a shrug, chewing his breakfast “to be honest I enjoyed it.”

She looked at him “What, me drooling on your leg?”

He swallowed, his eyes wide “I meant the film.”

“I know…” she smirked, and he rolled his eyes before he smiled softly.

“Punk…”

Tags @the-omni-princess

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers x oc #katie stark #mcu #mcu fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction

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sickly-qt · 5 years ago

Note

Another prompt! Maybe one day it’s raining outside and it’s just really cold, and Liam went out for whatever reason. He comes back home, soaked and shivery, and Ambrose is there, and scolds him for being out in the rain without an umbrella. Liam gets dried off, goes to bed, but he wakes up in the middle of the night, burning up, and he’s sick all over his lap, and Ambrose also wakes up! Queue some soft caretaking as Ambrose comforts Liam in the bathroom? I seriously love these characters!!

I changed this one up the tiniest bit, the premise is still the same though. I really like how this one came out, I hope you like it too!!

------------------------

Liam knew that his car was on its last leg. He knew that it was old and rickety and that the check engine had been on consistently for about a year. What he didn’t know was that it was going to overheat 3 blocks away from his house in the middle of a torrential downpour on his way home from work. He attempted to wait the rain out, watching as plumes of smoke made its way out from under his hood. He didn’t have an umbrella and didn’t really look forward to walking the rest of the way home in the rain, but he didn’t have many options. Ambrose was home, but he was sleeping. He had taken one of the other nurse’s night shifts for the week because he owed her some sort of favor.

Liam waited until it seemed like the rain had slowed down as much as it was going to and got out of the car, running down the sidewalk toward the house. He had his jacket pulled up over his head, trying to stay as dry as possible. It was no use, he was definitely underdressed for the weather, the cold rain soaking through his jacket and chilling him to the bone.

He was drenched by the time he ran up the steps of the porch, his shaky hands fumbling with the keys. The warmth of the house engulfed him, immediately making his glasses fog up. He took them off and tried to wipe them on his shirt before realizing that it was doing nothing since his clothes were so wet.

“What the hell happened to you?” Ambrose asked tiredly, walking down the stairs.

“My piece of shit car broke down blocks away from the house,” He complained. “So I had to run home in the rain.”

“Why didn’t you just call me? I would’ve come and picked you up.” He said, sliding a hand under his shirt to scratch his chest.

“Because you were sleeping and you have to go to work later.”

“I love that you try to do what you think is best for me, but sometimes you need to think about yourself. I would’ve still gotten you instead of having you walk home in the rain. I’m surprised you didn’t melt,” he walked over and rubbed Liam’s shoulders, leaning in to give him a kiss while still staying far enough to not get wet. “Ew, you’re really wet. You should probably go get changed before you catch something.”

“Oh shut up, you’re more wicked than I am. And I’m going to take a shower.” Liam said, his sarcasm evident. He slinked off to the bathroom and took a long, warm shower before changing into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

Ambrose was on the couch eating a sandwich when Liam walked over. He wrapped himself in a blanket before sitting down and snuggling next to Ambrose.

“Hi,” Ambrose said awkwardly, as Liam laid his head on his shoulder.

“Hey.” Liam mumbled.

Ambrose leaned his head against Liam’s watching whatever was on the TV. They sat like that for a while while Ambrose finished eating before he got up, “Are you still cold? Do you want me to make you tea or something?”

“Tea would be great actually, thank you.” Liam said, pulling the blankets closer to him.

Ambrose headed out to the kitchen, returning with a cup of tea and a couple ibuprofen.

“What’re these for?” Liam asked, taking the pills from him.

“You feel warm, I think you have a fever.” Ambrose said, sitting back down. “How’re you feeling?”

“I don’t know, I guess I feel a little stuffy… mainly cold though.” Liam responded, taking the pills with a gulp of tea.

“Well those should help with that.” Ambrose said, pulling Liam closer to him.

Once the pills kicked in, Liam fell asleep, and Ambrose soon after. He wouldn’t tell Liam but he really was tired.

Liam woke up to a sharp cramp in his stomach and before he knew it a gross mixture of tea and mucous was down his front and pooling in the blanket on his lap. He barely had time to react before another wave added to the puddle that was already soaking through the blankets.

Ambrose jumped, startled by the noise. “What happened? What’s wrong?” he asked, still half asleep.

“I don’t know what the hell happened.” Liam whined, moving the blanket off of his lap.

“Oh Lee, It’s okay. Do you still feel sick?” Ambrose asked.

“I mean I didn't really feel sick to begin with, but I think this is making me nauseous now.” He said, motioning to his clothes.

“Okay yeah, let’s get you some clean clothes and then… bathroom?” he asked, not sure whether Liam wanted to go to bed or not.

Liam nodded, making a face that Ambrose could only assume was triggered by nausea.

Ambrose grabbed some clothes for Liam and brought them to the bathroom where he was sitting on the edge of the tub, staring into the toilet.

“Here, why don’t you get changed.” Ambrose handed Liam the clothing in his hand.

Liam nodded tiredly and changed, tossing his soiled outfit in the hamper and returning to his perch on the edge of the tub.

“Are you still nauseous?” He asked.

Liam shook his head, “I feel a little better now that I’m not covered in my own vomit.”

“Yeah that usually helps,” Ambrose said, leaning against the doorway. “You think we’re safe to move this party to the bedroom?”

“Yeah, I think I’m good now.” Liam mumbled, getting up and leading the way down the hall.

Ambrose watched as Liam got comfortable in bed, snuggling under the covers. He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, pushing Liam’s hair out of his face.

“I’m sorry I can’t lay with you, but I have to get ready for work.”

“It’s okay, I’m a big boy. I think I’ll survive until morning without you.” Liam smiled weakly.

“I have faith in you.” Ambrose responded, “I’m going to hop in the shower, I’ll check in on you before I leave.”

“Okay,” Liam was already dozing off, even more exhausted than he was earlier.

After Ambrose took his shower he went into the kitchen and made his lunch before it was time to go. He looked into the bedroom, Liam was passed out, sleeping peacefully. He padded across the room and gave him a quick peck on the forehead, careful not to wake him up.

“Feel better baby.” he whispered, before heading off to work.

#my writing #my ocs #Liam #Ambrose #emeto #emeto tw #sickfic

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boat-dock · 5 years ago

Text

“Knowing you is for the Better” chapter 7

this is a chapter I’ve been very excited to write for a long time!! Hope you guys enjoy!!

New Orleans was exactly like Hope remembered it, the perfect mixture of vibrant colorful life and a wild dangerous power that always seemed to follow the Mikaelson family wherever they went. However much she loved the Salvator school, the quarter will always be her home, even though half of its inhabitants have tried to kill her.

Hope’s aunt Freya and her family met them at the door of their family home in a flurry of hugs and laughs before they all settled in for dinner. Nik attached himself to Hope’s side and had no plans of letting go anytime soon. He was particularly shy for a three-year-old, but he and Hope had a connection, they might not have been siblings but Hope could only imagine this was the kind of love that her father and his brothers and sisters all shared.

It was strange, all of them in the same house again, she thought it would get better as time passed but weeks later and Hope could tell that everyone was trying to be on their best behavior, for her. They saw how vulnerable she was now after everything she’s gone through the past year and they wanted to give her a stable environment. Which somehow made it all so much worse. She missed the chaos that came with her family, she was tired of being handled with kid gloves.

What did get better with time was the blood lust. Hope learned to safely feed on human blood, to control her urges and to restrain herself. Josie was right, it was a lot like dealing with her magic, keeping it under control every hour of every day for the rest of her life.

Of all the things that Hope missed about home, one of them wasn’t Mardi Gras. It’s not that she hated the crowds or the party, she hated the responsibility that fell on her shoulders because of it. For the past four years, the quarter chose four girls to be princesses in a parade, one witch, one wolf, one vampire, and Hope. Every year she got dressed up in gowns and crowns, parading through the streets and attending balls; she hated every second of it. But she did it anyway because it represented the quarter as a unified people despite their differences. She could handle one day of torture if it benefited her people.

She’d expected Mardi Gras this year to be just like every other year, long and loud and boring, at least until she got the phone call.

This wasn’t the first time Josie had snuck away to New Orleans, last time however she had a cover story and she didn’t have her twin with her. They were royally screwed when they got home from their impromptu vacation but Josie decided not to focus on that right now. She chose to be excited instead. She was excited to experience the city at its best and most importantly she was excited to see Hope again.

Josie felt Hope’s absence like a missing piece of herself over the few weeks she’d been gone, but she’d tried her best to focus on herself and heal, the same way Hope was. It was harder than she’d anticipated but nothing worthwhile was ever easy.

She followed Lizzie off the bus and onto the street, swarming with people, who were already very drunk despite it barely being breakfast time. “So we made it,” Lizzie said, taking in the city,” but how exactly are we supposed to find Hope? They're thousands of people here and we don’t know where she lives?” Josie’s signature pout deepened as her sister pointed out the flaw in their plan.

She yelled over the noise” we’ll figure that out later, right now I’m starving. Let’s find something to eat.” they linked arms so as not to get separated and pushed through the crowd until they found a small corner cafe. The smell coming from inside was intoxicating and they found themselves going inside without even discussing it. They seated themselves in the back corner at a table for two with a small bouquet of daisies in the middle and waited patiently to have their order taken. They were the only customers there so Lizzie started getting impatient fast when they weren’t waited on right away, but Josie used the time to take in the city.

A minute or two later an older man with a white beard appeared at their table and placed a large plate of beignets in front of them,” We didn’t order these, sir,” Josie said sweetly, proud of herself for remembering to add sir at the end.

“Read the card little lady,” he said with a kind smile and a soft southern accent, motioning to the brown envelope sitting on the plate that Josie didn’t even notice.

Lizzie grabbed the card and ripped it open before Josie could. She scrunched her eyebrows together as she read aloud,” Welcome to the Crescent City, enjoy your meal. Love H.M” Lizzie laughed and handed the note to her sister so she could read it too,” How on earth does she know we are here? We just got here.” Josie didn’t have that answer but she could guess who did.

“Excuse me,” she said, getting the attention of the man who brought the note,” Do you know the girl who wrote this note? Do you know Hope?”

He returned this time with two cups of coffee, but it wasn’t him who answered, a lady with dyed red hair in a messy bun stuck her head out of a window in the wall that led to the kitchen,” everyone in the quarter knows who Hope Mikaelson is,” neither of the twins was surprised by this,” she’s the best thing to come out of that damned house in two hundred years.”

“Do you know where we could find her?” Lizzie asked

“If you’re looking for her you should watch the parade later today,” the man said. Josie leaned closer to get a look at his name tag, it read Benny.

Before Josie could respond the lady from the kitchen spoke up again,” but that’s not for hours and you girls look hungry, so what can I make for you,”

After they placed their orders the twins dug into the beignets. There was no doubt that it was the best food around. They ate their breakfast in silence, more focused on the food than anything else. After they finished Josie decided to try and get more answers,” So what time is this Parade we should be going to?”

“It starts at 10:30 but if you want a good spot you’ll need to be out there much earlier,” Benny said, clearing their plates.

Lizzie checked the time on her phone and made a face,” we better get going then,” she said and they stood going to the register.

“Your check��s been taken care of. You girls go enjoy the parade.” Benny said, waving them off. Josie was shocked, and she and Lizzie met eyes for a moment trying to decide whether they should push this or not.” I’m serious now,” He said noticing their uneasiness,” go enjoy the city,”

They knew they couldn’t fight good old southern hospitality so they said goodbye and once again faced the chaos of Mardi Gras. They found a spot near the road and waited, Josie got distracted for a moment and when she found Lizzie again her sister had a drink in each hand. Josie wasn’t much of a drinker but she sipped while they waited for the parade to start. Soon music flowed through the air and the crowd started to scream as the floats started to arrive. Beads, candy, and small toys flew as Josie scanned every face looking for Hope. Just as Josie was starting to lose hope in finding her friend, the parade morphed into something new. The floats were grander and each only held one person.

On the first float was a girl with tan skin and a smattering of freckles, in a long tule green dress with flowers in her dark hair and a crown of roses on her head. She was smiling and waving at the crowd around her like a princess as the crowd surged forward lifting their hands to her.

On the second float, was a girl considerably younger than the others, with wild black curls and silver circlet around her forehead. Her dress was brown and ragged if Josie had to guess she would say it was made out of burlap, but it was a fashion choice that she pulled off well. Despite her age, she held herself with a large amount of pride, Josie could tell by the way she raised her chin as she watched the crowd.

The third float had a girl in a velvet red dress, with pin-straight blonde hair and a tiara dripping with black jewels. She had intense makeup that few people could pull off and a glint in her eyes that suggested trouble. She didn’t wave at the people around her and for some reason, they screamed even louder because of it.

When the fourth float appeared Josie nearly choked on her drink. Atop it stood Hope, in a stunning satin blue dress and her auburn hair was in a dramatic updo with a crown so big that it looked more like a sheet of diamonds. Hope looked regal without even trying, you could never tell that she hated every minute she was on that float. For a moment Josie could swear Hope found her in the crowd, and she might have waved it off if Hope hadn’t winked, her smile turning slightly more genuine.

The floats moved past them, but not far before they stopped in the road and the girls climbed down one by one. Josie was too distracted watching Hope to notice where they were going until Hope disappeared from view behind a curtain that leads to a stage. Lizzie snapped her out of it by bumping her shoulder and motioning to the stage, as Marcel Gerard walked out to the center.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he bellowed grinning from ear to ear, obviously very comfortable in front of a crowd,” It is my pleasure to once again announce this year’s princesses of the quarter.” the crowd roared around them and Josie lifted slightly onto her toes in anticipation.

The girls filed onto the stage, one after the other then turned to face the crowd. They linked hands and lifted them into the air, as if on queue the wind picked up in a way that could only be explained by magic. She didn’t know what the mass of drunk people thought was happening, but however they explained it to themselves they loved it. Everyone gasped and laughed, enthralled by the magic of the city, that was linked to these four princesses.

The spectacle was over quicker than Josie expected and each of the girls walked off one by one disappearing off the stage and back behind the curtains, effectively ending the parade and leaving the people to go back to drinking and partying, at least until the next parade. Lizzie grabbed Josie’s hand and started pulling her toward the stage.

Come Jo,” she said as they ducked behind the curtains following,” We found Hope we can’t lose her now,” they stopped just far enough away that they could see the group of girls huddled by the door to a bar with some men standing farther away in dark clothes, like security guards. Marcel appeared out of nowhere, the same grin on his face as he ushered everyone inside. But Hope stayed behind, her back was to the twins so they couldn’t hear what excuse she gave. Josie took this as their queue to come out of the shadows, so she nudged Lizzie and they moved forward.

“I was wondering how long you two were going to wait there,” Hope said, turning to face them, wearing a smirk that was so much more beautiful than any crown. Then Josie was running and throwing her arms around her, she’d missed Hope so much. She was even more sure of that now that they were together again. Hope met her halfway and wrapped her arms around Josie’s waist pulling her close.

“Did you forget about me?” Lizzie’s voice broke through.

“As if I could,” Hope laughed, releasing Josie and moving to hug Lizzie. “What are you guys doing here?” she asked

“We decided to take a long weekend, come see the city, celebrate all that and running into you was just a happy accident,” Lizzie teased with an eye roll.

Before they could say anything else one of the girls stepped back outside, the smile she was wearing earlier had turned into a scowl. “Come on Hope, some of us actually want to look nice at the ball tonight” She was the picture of grace and kindness during the parade, all covered in flowers but now she was completely different.

“And you have to work so hard for that Phoebe,” Hope shot back like she was very used to dealing with this girl. Hope’s comment must have been enough because Phoebe’s face turned red, whether it was from anger or embarrassment Josie wasn’t sure, but she turned on her heel and marched back inside.

However she was quickly replaced by another, the blonde this time.” I know she’s a bitch Hope but she’s right if we don’t get back soon your aunt will have all our heads,”

“Yeah I know,” Hope replied then glancing at the twins she asked,” do you guys want to come?”

It didn’t take twin telepathy for them to come up with their answer. Soon they were following Hope into the bar. Josie recognized it immediately, it was the same bar she met Freya at when she came to reverse engineer the spell to bring everyone's memory back and it hadn’t changed one bit.

None of them talked as they followed Marcel into the back room where he moved a refrigerator revealing a hole in the wall. Josie’s eyes widened but she didn’t open her mouth. She watched in silence as all of the girls and the body guards disappeared inside without hesitation until it was just the three of them again.

Hope must have sensed her unease because she spoke,” It’s an old bootlegger tunnel, they run all over the city, you can get anywhere with them.” she climbed inside with ease and held out her hands to help the twins in, with her new strength she basically did all the hard work for them.

The tunnel was dark and damp and Josie remembered just how much she hated being underground, she took a deep breath to settle herself and pushed forward, following Hope through the twisting catacombs. Josie grabbed Lizzie’s hand, she didn’t know if her sister could tell how much she hated this but she squeezed her hand and Josie felt better. After what felt like an eternity, they made it to an exit and when they resurfaced Josie found herself in a grand house that somehow looked ancient and modern (modern for New Orleans at least) all at once. The group made their way to a room in the center of the house, that was where the princesses had gotten ready for their grand debut. The walls were lined with four vanities, covered in makeup and jewelry and surrounded by people whose job it was to prepare the girls for the ball they had to attend that evening.

The girls scattered to their respective areas and started to get ready, and the twins followed Hope to her’s. But unlike everyone else Hope didn’t get to work,” welcome to my home,” she stated motioning at everything around them.

“You live here?” Lizzie gasped shocked. Josie shouldn’t have been surprised given everything she knew about Hope’s family, but the magnitude of the house still weighed on her. It was giant. Speaking of families, it was around that moment that they started to pour in from the outside. A young girl around 12 bolted across the room and nearly tackled one of the girls, the one sitting at the vanity next to Hope’s.

“You look like the queen of the wolves,” she squeaked.

The girl huffed and rolled her eyes messing with her little sisters hair,” thanks but that’s Hope’s job not mine,”

“Very funny Ava,” Hope shot back with a grin, as the little girl came to give Hope a hug too.

“You look really pretty too,”

“Why thank you Charlie,” Hope replied, giving the girl a squeeze then turning back to the twins,” guys this is Charlie, that’s her sister Ava and the one being all broody behind them is their brother Logan. They’re crescent wolves from my pack.,” Josie hadn’t even noticed Logan, but Lizzie had, he was tall, dark and Handsome exactly her type, Josie could tell by the way her eyes were bulging out of her head. “ and as for the other girls, you already met Phoebe she’s a witch and that’s Cecily a vamp,”

“One of each faction,” Josie commented, raising an eyebrow,” and you're the tribrid it’s all very symbolic.”

Hope laughed, loud and clear,” No I’m the Mikaelson representative, but I like your reason better.”

The rest of the Mikaelsons entered with the families of the other girls, Kol and Davina came to them first because Marcel and Rebekah were busy politicing and Freya was chasing her small son around trying to stop him from throwing beads.

Kol held out a very ornate looking box lined with velvet and Hope removed her crown and earrings placing them in the box. “ You looked stunning out there Hope,” Davina cued.

“Anyone looks stunning when they are wearing priceless Russian jewels,” Hope said shrugging

“Oh just take the compliment, Hope,” Davina laughed.

Rebekah appeared behind them scarily silent, but her demeanor didn’t seem threatening,” Did you decide what dress you are going to wear tonight, darling?” she asked as she stood behind Hope at the vanity, running her fingers lightly through her hair.

“No not yet aunt Bex,” she replied.

“You don’t have a dress for tonight,” Lizzie shrieked clearly appalled. Josie bit back a laugh at the shocked look on the tribrid’s face.

“Don’t worry Lizzie I have plenty of options,” Hope said standing up,” come on you can help me pick,” they followed her back through the house and up the stairs till they came to a door off a side hallway that looked like it lead to a broom closet, and it was a closet but it was also so much more.

Inside was the biggest walk-in closet that Joise had ever seen, the walls lined with dresses of every kind, from different eras and styles, there was even an entire corner dedicated entirely to wedding dresses. Hope smirked as she saw her friends gaping, clearly amused.

“Wow,” Lizzie muttered, running her hands through the dresses and Josie joined her, sifting through hundreds of dresses from every point in history, and of modern ones too. As much as she wanted to play with all of the historical dresses, she decided to focus on the modern dresses.

Hope was silent as they searched, but Josie could hear Lizzie muttering to herself. After a moment Hope spoke up,” you can each pick one dress for me to try on, we are on a time limit,”

“There’s no need,” Josie gasped as she pulled a gorgeous, sleek black dress covered in swirling god beading off the wall,” this is your dress,” Lizzie sucked in a breath as she saw the dress and Josie knew that her twin agreed with her decision.

“You just want an excuse to see me in that dress,” Hope poked. Was that flirting? Josie couldn’t tell, but she played along.

“Guilty as charged, now go put it on,” Hope laughed, taking the dress in her arms and disappearing behind a screen to change.

Josie was so right about the dress, anyone who saw Hope would know that. For lack of a better word, she looked hot, insanely hot, Josie had to force herself not to stare. Before she could say anything Freya appeared in the doorway with her son on her hip,” You look so much like your mother sometimes,” she said her eyes filled with emotions. Her son, Nik Josie remembered, wiggled his way out her grasp and beelined for Hope. she scooped him up with ease, her smile growing.

It was strange, seeing Hope with her family something shifted, she wasn’t just hot she was beautiful. There was a light behind her that wasn’t normally there, it made the siphoner’s heart skip a beat.

They spent the rest of the afternoon getting Hope ready, the twins fell into a rhythm, easy and fun, they did her hair and makeup and laughed like they were normal teenage girls getting ready for a party. They talked to the other girls too, Ava and Hope were really close, they’d practically grown up together, and Cecily was nice enough. Phoebe kept her distance but nobody complained about that.

At some point Kol stopped by and left another box, this one considerably smaller, but probably equally expensive. All of the crowns were smaller now, Josie noticed wondering that was another strange tradition that Hope hadn’t mentioned.

Eventually everyone made their way downstairs to the front door, it seemed they were using a visible exit this time. Hope’s entire family was dressed to impress, minus Freya’s wife Keelin who was staying home to watch Nik for the evening, it seemed that a Mardi Gras ball wasn’t an appropriate place for a toddler. Everyone made their way outside but Hope stayed behind,” sorry for leaving like this guys,”

“Are you kidding,” Lizzie scoffed,” you’re going to to an actual ball Hope, I think we can handle ourselves for the night,”

“Besides we’ll probably just go explore the city some,” Josie added, trying to ease the older girls' guilt. It didn’t work because Hope’s guilt seemed to turn to worry.

Hope held out her hands and each of the twins took one without question,” stock up on some magic,” Josie started siphoning on instinct, Lizzie did too,” I’m not telling you not to go into the city but just be safe and if anything happens under no circumstances are you to tell anyone that you are siphoner witched ok?” Hope was tense, but she seemed to be willing to let the twins handle themselves for the night.

“That’s worrying but we accept,” Lizzie said.

It seemed that all of Hope’s family wasn’t outside yet because Davina was suddenly running down the stairs,” come on Hope if we don’t leave now we’re going to be late,”

“You’re the one who’s late, D not me,” Hope retorted, releasing Josie’s hand but not moving away from them.

“Go have fun,” Josie said, nudging her toward the door with a smile.

#hosie #hosie fanfic #ship: hosie #hope x josie #hope mikaelson #josie saltzman #Legacies #slowburn #the mikaelson family #the mikaelsons

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buckyownsmyheart · 5 years ago

Text

Sorry To Drop In [2/2]

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 1.8k (sorry, it’s a short one)

Summary: After ignoring the handsome super-soldier that fell into your life, you run into him again and have to answer for your avoiding behaviours.

Warnings: Maybe a little bit of PDA and implications of sex, but just holiday fluff from me

A/N: I’m just feeling the Christmas spirit already, sorry not sorry… this is for @bitchassbucky ‘s #abitchassholiday challenge! thanks for letting me take part (and congrats!) my prompt was: “Truth or dare?” // “Dare.” // “I dare you to sit on Santa’s lap” I know it’s right at the end but it inspired this little piece!!

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Previous part

It wasn’t that you hadn’t called Bucky on purpose, you just hadn’t quite gotten around to it. You were busy, you kept telling yourself, busy and had no time for a relationship. The truth was, you would often stare at his loopy scrawl, his number dialled in your phone and finger hovering over the call button, before locking your phone and throwing it across the room. It turns out you lack the confidence needed to call a super-soldier.

The other nurses had long since forgotten about the mystery intruder in your life, even if he persisted in your mind. That was until Rachel wrenched open the curtain in the A&E room and gave you a meaningful look, she needed to talk to you ASAP. Finishing up your sutures and apologising profusely to the lady for the disruption, you hurried out to try and meet Rachel and see what she wanted, fearing it was something bad. When you reached her at the nurses’ station, she pointed over to one of the beds on the other side of the room and squealed with excitement.

He was sitting in his bed, playing peek-a-boo with a baby in the bed next door. His hair was a little shorter than last time, a slight scruff on his neck but his eyes as bright as they had ever been. You watched him for a while, as entranced as the baby as he wiggled his fingers towards the child’s outstretched hands. He must have felt both you and Rachel’s eyes on him as he turned around, sending you a little wave and a small smile, before turning his attention back to the babbling baby.

“What’s he in for? I thought the Avengers have all the facilities anyone could ever want?”

“Complaining of a stomach ache, think it might be tropical diseases but I think you should do an examination.”

“Have you paged the consultant? Or another doctor available?”

“Didn’t want to bother them when I know you’re so capable.”

You gave her a look over your shoulder and breathed, “twat,” before turning to the bed, taking a deep breath, and walking over to his cubicle.

He gave you another smile as you approached, before awkwardly sitting further onto the couch. You drew the curtains around him to give a bit of privacy, and you give your hands something to do to try and stop them shaking.

“Um…” Bucky started, but before he could continue you cut him off, not wanting to prolong the awkwardness any longer. It didn’t help that he looked even better than the last time you saw him a few months ago. I guess nearly bleeding out wasn’t always a good look.

“Please can you take off your shirt for me?” You tried to ignore the heat rising in your cheeks. You were a professional! “When did the pain start?”

“This morning, it woke me up. It’s worse when I move.”

You pressed on his abdomen, but it was difficult trying to find your landmarks when the man was pure muscle.

“Okay, so here’s the thing…” He began again, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. When you looked up at him inquiringly, he cast his eyes down and worried his lip. “I may have made it up.”

“What?!”

“I, uh, well the thing is I wanted to see you, but I didn’t want to show up at your door unannounced, because I thought that would be weird, so I asked Tony to look into your shift times and, well, now I realise that it’s really creepy and saying it out loud really stupid so I’d like to apologise and I’m just going to leave. I’m sorry, I really didn’t think this through and I probably should have taken the hint when you didn’t call me.” He pulled on his shirt and leapt for the exit so quickly you almost missed him.

“Wait, I get off in half an hour, I think I at least owe you an explanation.”

The rest of your shift was a blur, and all the while you racked your brains for what on earth you could say to Bucky that would make things better. You didn’t have an excuse and couldn’t think of one for the life of you.

As you walked out the sliding doors, snowflakes settled on your coat and melted on your exposed face. You weren’t more than two steps out of the hospital before you were met with the sight of Bucky holding two steaming cups and wearing a nervous smile.

“Do you want hot chocolate? I was going to get coffee but I wasn’t sure if you liked it, and well everyone likes hot chocolate, unless you don’t which is absolutely fine, I can have both of these no problem!”

“Thank you, Bucky, that was really sweet of you.” You took the cup from him and inhaled, the sweet smell warming you without having taken a sip. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, I just got caught up in things and I know that’s not a very good excuse, but maybe I could make it up to you?”

“Really? You want to?”

“Yes! I most definitely I do, promise. How do you feel like Christmas shopping?”

“On Christmas eve?”

“Yeah,”

“In the mall?”

“Yeah,”

“Where it’s absolutely packed full of people and you don’t have an inch of room to move around in?”

You winced, “yeah…”

“Pretty terribly, I’ll be honest. But I guess there could be worse things?”

“I’m sorry I need to get one thing and we’ll be straight out of there, I’m useless and forward planning isn’t on my list of expertise.”

“Let’s go, they do great cookies there and I’ve been craving them for ages.”

“Really? Oh, thank you so much, you’re a lifesaver!”

“It is in the job description,” he laughed and fell in step beside you, close enough that you could smell the peppermint in his hot chocolate. “What is on your list of expertise then?”

“I’ve never lost a game of truth or dare,” you shrugged.

“That seems like a challenge.” Bucky wiggled his eyebrows at you, and took a lengthy sip of his hot chocolate.

“You’re going to regret this," you laughed, shoving his shoulder playfully, "truth or dare?”

“We’re doing this? Okay, I’ll start easy, truth.”

You pondered which question to ask him. You didn’t know him, so you thought you couldn’t go all out yet. You deliberated a few, and as the warmth of the mall hit you, you spoke over the hum of people. “If you could sleep with any of the Avengers, which one would you choose?”

He scoffed, “Easy, Steve. I’ve known him the longest and I mean he’s also a super-soldier, so would certainly go for a round or two.”

You burst out laughing, clutching your stomach and laughing at his complete lack of hesitancy. Maybe, just maybe, he would be a worthy opponent of truth and dare.

“Okay, okay, I’ll give you that one,” you said to him, still laughing, “give me a truth then if that was so easy.”

“Hmm,” he pondered, grabbing your hand and pulling you into the queue for ‘World Famous Christmas Cookies’, and putting on a fake thinking face. “What was the real reason you didn’t call me?”

“Oh, straight in there, huh!” You turned to him and squeezed his hand, not wanting him to let go just yet, “I didn’t have the balls, thought you were too good for me.” You shrugged, trying to play it off as nothing and looked down at your cup as you took another sip.

“Really?” His eyebrows were raised and his eyes wide, “you thought you weren’t good enough for me? You know the game’s called Truth or dare right?”

“That is the truth!” You paused whilst Bucky chose some cookies for you both, giving you time for the redness in your cheeks to fade. “Come on, it’s your turn, truth or dare?”

“Dare, let’s up this game.”

At that point, the bustle of people seemed to surge, whether it was a sale or just people being people, they shoved you into Bucky, who caught you, pulling you into safety along the wall. This did, however, mean you were pressed against each other, one of his hands was placed on your hips and the other trying to protect you from the swarm of incessant shoppers. His eyes locked with yours, and all you could focus on was the feel of him pressed against you, and the fact that your faces were inches from each other. Your chocolate breath mixed with his, and his cinnamon smell encircling you, making you feel as if you were in your own little world. Looking down at his lips, his tongue darted out to wet them, and you couldn’t help yourself.

“I dare you to kiss me,”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

And his lips were on yours, one hand keeping you close and the other tipping your head up to him so he could get a better angle. He tasted of peppermint, chocolate and warmth. You were absolutely lost to the outside world, in a moment of bliss. This was prematurely disrupted by another shove from a delightful passer-by, and you broke away, feeling a little abashed by your slightly public display of affection, but a little giddy as Bucky rested his forehead on yours.

“This is why people suck,” he mumbled to you.

“Why on earth did you take me here on Christmas Eve? Honestly, have some forward planning!”

He looked at you, astounded, before shaking his head and pulling you under his arm. “Come on, let’s get your present quickly, it seems these people haven’t got the memo about Christmas spirit.” He suddenly stopped, and looked down at you, “Hey, (Y/n), truth or dare?”

“Dare,” you answered without thinking, hoping it might end in a kiss again.

“I dare you to sit on Santa’s lap.”

“You want me on Santa’s lap? You can’t think of a better persons lap where I should be?”

Bucky flushed a deep shade of red, and his arm tightened around your shoulder’s. “Well, I mean, I, uh-” He stuttered out, before giving a cough and swallowing thickly, “don’t you have a present to get?”

“Nope! I was just trying to suss you out. Come on, let’s get out of this dreadful place.” And you tugged him away, leaving the craze of people behind you for somewhere a little more private.

#abitchassholiday #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #sorry to drop in #b.b fanfic

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bubblyani · 5 years ago

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Treasure You (Pt. 2)

(Lucifer Morningstar x Reader)

Part Two Of Lucifer Morningstar Two Shot

Rating : Mature

Author’s Note: So happy of how this part came about. Every moment I spent writing this was precious. Filled with right amount of Angst, Fluff and Smut, hope y’all enjoy this! 😈❤️

Part 1 HERE

With your legs shaking frantically, You were suddenly aware of the flesh covered frame that was your body even more. Staring at the sky through the glass window, you clearly felt alone enough to reminisce all that happened out loud. The sting that his stubble left on the soft skin of your neck, every inch of your thighs that received his touch were evident souvenirs. Souvenirs of the impossible and unexpected.

A little part of you longed to jump up and down, squeal in glee. But you wholeheartedly didn’t want to. Because it didn’t feel right.

Your logical reasoning made you question yourself: What are you really doing?

Putting your legs down, you sat right up. Exactly, why were you wasting your time sitting up here all alone, whilst the life of the party was downstairs. The ‘Life’ that was wrapped around your body a few minutes ago, to be exact.

Smoothing your hair, straightening your dress, reapplying your lipstick, your heels clicked as you rushed to the elevator.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The elevator doors opened with their usual ding, revealing the amorous spectacle that was LUX. Only that your ears didn’t drown in loud music, but with just one voice commanding the room instead.

You froze. It was his voice.

“…and it is my great pleasure to have you all here tonight. Though I’ll be more than pleased to have you all here ever night...”

Laughter erupted from the crowd as Lucifer’s velvet voice continued to fill in, his humor amplified through the microphone.

Stepping out of the elevator, you saw him standing a few feet away to your right. As he raised his glass, Lucifer grinned to his fullest.

“Cheers...”

“CHEERS!” The crowd replied with glee, and with his signal, the music made its entrance, joyous cries were met, and the party began.

You realized how even the simplest words sounded undeniably pleasing in his voice. Like how you realize it over and over again.

You watched him glide down the stairs , walking into the crowds with ease, with confidence. Dozens of glasses clicked to satisfaction, while dozen pair of eyes were blessed with his flashing smile. Surely the loins of all occupants would catch on fire, and he would be to blame. Chuckling, you had to admit, you were always impressed by his charm.

Spinning around, Lucifer’s eyes suddenly caught your own, and you were surprised when he froze in response. His joyous expression had vanished, replaced with a serious one instead. Your heart grew heavy to see him look so vulnerable, as if he just let his guard down. This was not what you wanted from him. Turning away, you descended down the stairs in a flash, hoping to relieve him.

Should I just go?

Settling on an empty corner of a couch, you took in a deep breath, wondering why you thought that, and whether you should really act on it. Looking up, you longed to be distracted by the music that moved the bodies in hypnosis. Tapping your feet, you drank in how each frame moved in its own groove. It made you smile for a minute. For it was not so long before when you found yourself dancing here for the first time ever. You remembered oh so clearly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(A few months ago, LUX)

The wait outside was so worth it, for you were clearly having a great time at LUX. Upon your friend’s insistence, you may have stepped out the apartment with hesitation but you didn’t regret it one bit. Drowning in your own screams of happiness , flashing lights had nothing on you as a brighter smile flashed across your face while your limbs moved to the rhythm. You didn’t deny that more people stepped into the dance floor once you warmed it up a bit. When you danced, you danced your worries away. The fire you had in you was not containable. And you could do nothing but cause Forrest fires wherever you extended your arms or swayed your hips.

“Oh my god...”

“It’s him...it’s him”

“He’s so hot”

The sudden shrill of your friends voices irritated you whilst your body rolled.

“Guys…” you panted, turning to face them “What the hell-“

You fell silent, upon seeing the figure that stood before you.

If Tall, Dark and Handsome had an official visual description, he would be the clear winner.

“I’m afraid you’re making us all look bad” He said,with his evident British accent.

“Huh?” Genuine concern filled your face. But he merely smiled in return. Your friend was right. He was hot.

“My dancers…” he said, pointing at the women on the boxes, “...you’re making them look bad. Are you trying to steal their jobs?” He asked teasingly, his smile never leaving.

“Oh haha…” you laughed, covering your mouth “ that…I mean this…hehe” you looked down embarrassingly, “I thought you were being serious for a moment there…”

“Well I am…” the man replied, making you look back at him with raised eyebrows “I couldn’t help but be fascinated by what I just saw earlier ...you’re...quite the gifted dancer, filled with the vigor I truly admire in you humans”

You chuckled, “You humans ? What are you? An alien?”

“Oh the Devil in fact...” he grinned widely.

Shaking your head, you said, “Well...the best moves are not for...everyone”

“Oh my…” you heard the sensuality in his curious tone, “... only the exclusive ones then?”

With hands on your waist, you took one more step, until you were merely inches away from his beautiful face.

“Just the one…” you purred, “...whoever is lucky”

“Ooooh...” he purred back, not holding anything back.

You swore his lips never looked so clear as it grew closer to yours.

Until you suddenly giggled.

“Ahahah…Was I doing it right?” You chuckled. Forcing him to furrow his eyebrows with confusion.

“Doing what?”

“Flirting...” you laughed, “...I’m really sorry...I’m normally not so good at it”

Realizing the situation, he laughed along with you.

“Well I find that hard to believe...” he said, extending his hand, “...Lucifer Morningstar”

“Y/N Y/L/N!” You said, holding his hand with no hesitation, “Very...very nice to meet you”

Suddenly you felt like your body and soul was a magnet, for you could not help but be drawn to him. But you knew it was clearly lust sneak attacking you.

“Please...Allow me to get the next round ladies” Lucifer hailed the bartender, inciting cries of from your friends.

“Oh Wow…”

“Thank you Lucifer”

Smiling with soft eyes, you were definitely pleased with the result. And suddenly it was not lust that kept you company.

The DJ managed to get your attention out of the blue.

“Oh man…” you closed your eyes, “I loove this song!”

Throwing your hands up in the air, you spun around, tip toeing over to the dance floor once more. All your friends however, flocked around Lucifer like bees to honey. Their eyes were filled with desire that he wasn’t a stranger to. Therefore, your warm joyous ones proved to be more interesting.

It was only later that night on the way home, one of your drunk yet envious friends accidentally remarked how Lucifer Morningstar turned out to be worse than expected.

“What? How is it possible? I find that hard to believe...”

“Yeah, I bet it’s hard when you’re too busy dancing to even notice”

“What could he have possibly done? Did he grope someone?” You asked mockingly.

“Pft...he barely even paid any attention to any of us...”

“Well he’s a club owner...if he was looking at his phone ...maybe he was working probably...I don’t know”you said, taking a sip of your beer.

“Yeah...working his eyes on you...”

“Wha?...”your eyes widened, “Really?...” which came out softer than expected. Where did all the alcohol go? As you felt suddenly sober. Your friend nodded, snatching your bottle away while the other hailed a cab.

Shaking your head frantically, you rubbed your eyes.

Nope, that’s not possible.

Your curiosity didn’t stop you from stopping by the club again one night. Only it wasn’t the same.

“Ah...Ms. Y/L/N! You’re back!”

Lucifer Morningstar welcomed you with literal open arms the moment you stepped inside.

“Yeah...had quite a tiring day at work so...why not blow off some steam!” You smirked, as he guided you to the bar “although something strange did happen earlier...”

“Oh? ...do tell” he said with curiosity, ordering drinks while you sat.

“Donald from outside...he immediately recognized me. Didn’t even let me wait on queue...” you chuckled, nodding to thank the bartender once you received your drink, suddenly making you pause. “As if ...someone...remembered” you slowed down, realization rich in your voice as you looked at Lucifer’s proud face. With a low chuckle, he winked, making you catch your breath for a second.

“Well I couldn’t really forget a beautiful face...or...your face to be exact”

“Hah...smooth move!”!

“Well you can’t blame me for trying...” he said, raising his glass.

“To a new friendship” he said.

You raised yours along with him.

“To Ms. Y/L/N!” He added. You shook your head.

“Y/N...please” you corrected, longing to hear him call out your name. Looking into your warm eyes, he toasted as the glasses clinked.

“Y/N...”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Present)

“Y/N!”

You were awakened from your short reminiscence as you heard Maze’s voice next to you. The beautiful young woman stood there, shoving a glass of whiskey in your hand.

“You look like you could use a drink” she said coolly.

“Thanks… I guess” you said, accepting it. With a slight nod, she left your sight.

No matter what she thought of you, you always adored Maze. You admired her ferocity and strength, and you certainly thought her to be beautiful.

Watching the ice cubes swim in the whiskey glass, you sighed heavily. You wanted to drink so badly.You wished to take in sips, with each sip helping you to wash away every single shitty feeling. But at the same time, you didn’t feel like it.

Everything felt so contradictory. It all felt uneasy, unanswered. You didn’t know what to do.

Before you worry yourself to exhaustion, you took a huge gulp.

Seeing Lucifer amongst those lucky women, seeing him play his flirtatious charm, seeing those innocent yet lust inducing touches here and there, left you a burn in your heart which did not seem so different from the burn you felt down your throat from that sip of whiskey.

Those burns revealed nothing but jealousy. You wished you were as carefree and adventurous as they were, for if you were you would certainly be there amongst them, happy and entranced.

But instead, there you were. Sitting on the corner, confused and envious, longing for him like an addict in withdrawal. Wishing he’d look your way with a smile instead of uncertainty.

What have you done?

Did you officially lose that close relationship you managed to build with this man?

Ever since your acquaintance, it did not take long for the both of you to form a special friendship. One where you two would unknowingly end up sharing countless nights sharing his stories and adventures with Detective Decker over glasses of whiskey or cups of tea at his penthouse. He would lean more towards the whiskey while you’d insist he cut down for the sake of his health.

“Bloody Hell! What are you ? My mother?” He’d laugh.

“If being concerned makes me your mother...so be it!” You’d say, as you involuntarily pinch his cheek.

“Ooops...” you’d say, “ that’s the whiskey in my tea acting out” giggling, you’d fall off your chair, erupting more laughter from him.

You chuckled, never tired of that wonderful memory. But that chuckle suddenly faded for it was merely just a memory now.

Should I just go?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hours passed, and yet the party spirit continued to conquer the night. LUX was never a disappointment.

While the others indulged in a constant high, you were definitely stewing in an all time low. Your mind filled with a dozen questions.

Were you wrong to act out? To step out of the line?

Will awkward silences and nervous glances forever replace the warm greetings and passionate conversations? You dreaded it.

And just like that, another nightmare was just added to your list.

Should I just go?

Yes, maybe you should, You thought. Unmoved from your seat the whole evening, you certainly did feel like a complete fool that night.

Getting up in an instant, you walked towards the stairs with a heavy heart. If you leave now, you could at least cry yourself to sleep alone. Yes there will be tears, but at least it’ll help you sleep faster.

Just the thought of it made your nose itch, you wanted to disappear into thin air.

But you suddenly felt a strong grip on your wrist, pulling you back. Automatically turning, you found it was Lucifer standing next to you.

“Lucifer!” You exclaimed. His eyes remained serious and his grip remained tight. Was he watching you all this time?

But before you could speak further, you felt him drag you back from the stairs. Walking through the intoxicated crowds, you followed him with complete confusion.

“Uh...” you began, “Lucifer ...what’s going on?”

Every woman you passed shot nothing but looks of intense jealousy. Surprising how Lucifer Morningstar brought out the sin in everyone. He did not take you to the bar, nor to the dance floor, not even to the piano. Instead you climbed upstairs with him, only to face the elevator doors opening up before the both of you.

“Seriously...” you murmured with concern, as you both entered, “you’re making me worried now Lucifer...”

His gaze on you intensified as seconds went by, and the moment those doors closed, you felt your wrist being set free.

Allowing Lucifer to cup your face, capturing your lips with his instead.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sweet reminiscence bounced back to you as your lips made its entrancing journey with Lucifer’s own once again. His kisses had literal addiction written on them, intoxicating you more and more. Everything you could be, you became. You melted, you were intoxicated, you were liberated.

Seemed like you felt like a fool for clearly nothing.

With the elevator doors opening to his penthouse, Lucifer slowly guided you inside, lips still glued to yours with devotion.

The way he held you, safety was the only word you could describe it.

You felt him lowering himself slightly, just so that he could lift you up with ease, wrapping your legs around him. Lost in his lips, you hadn’t the slightest clue of your location until he finally broke away, setting you on top of the bar table.

Perched on the table with your legs spread wide, you sat there, with a face so flushed, and lips gratefully swollen. Heavy pants filled the background as he looked up at your state. For a second you felt like a part of divinity, for his gaze was filled with faith. Finally getting some strength in, you pushed yourself off the table, lightly landing on your tipped toes to find yourself standing in front of him. You found it adorable how he mildly reacted to your landing, making sure you’re alright. Hands infected with life, your slowly extended them out. Fingertips impatiently rested on his chest, grazing, moving further out till you were successfully able to push the jacket off his torso.

Lucifer Morningstar need not strip to arouse you, for his simple yet sophisticated white shirt covering his Adonis like frame sufficed more than ever. Grabbing you by the waist, his lips engulfed yours, inciting a gasp from you. This time his lips took their sweet time, as if he had all the time in the world. They even went far as to slowly allow his tongue take part, letting it beg its way into your own. You moaned as they entwined, deepening the kiss, allowing you to wrap your arms around his neck to bring yourself closer. He may be savoring but he certainly did not waste his time either, for Lucifer’s hands found its way around the zipper of your dress, gently unzipping it down. You suddenly shivered by the contact of his fingers on your now-exposed back, making him break away with a concerned look.

“You okay?” He asked breathlessly. The softness in his voice was filled with intimacy that you had not experienced before. And you must admit it quite suited him as well. Flames birthed in you with such strength you did not need to reply with words. Pulling him back, you kissed him with enough passion to assure him you were more than okay.

The passion was transferable, and doubling in Lucifer, the only way he could respond was surprising. Growling into your lips, you winced as you heard him tear the ends of your dress, letting it fall to the floor.

You didn’t hesitate quickly unhooking your balconette bra, tossing it aside quickly before pressing yourself against him even further.

Lips breaking away, Lucifer made his surprising discovery. No explanations required, he witnessed a little fantasy that had been dwelling inside you. Running your fingers over his shirt, you savored the material gingerly, whilst moving against his chest, allowing your bare breasts to be a part of the pleasure as your nipples hardened by the graze of the white shirt and the sculpted body beneath it.

Lips parted, Lucifer had quite a hard time watching only you participating in the pleasure, especially when your lips rested on his Adam’s apple, placing feathery kisses all over it.

“Oh Y/N...” he breathed pleadingly, which seemed quite surprising. Before you could make a snarky remark, he shushed you with his kisses, swiftly lifting you up to carry you in his arms bridal style until ending up at his bedroom.

You felt your body bounce the moment it hit the bed, breaking you away from Lucifer whilst he stood before you. Slipping off your shoes , you quickly got up to see him unbuttoning his shirt in a rush that you have not seen. And for some odd reason, you felt the urge to help him out, bending down to untie his shoe laces.

Loud chuckles from Lucifer alerted you of his surprise.

“Y/N-“

“You’re welcome...” you said as you looked up with a smug expression.

And your good deed did not end up unappreciated, for you stood up to see him peeling off his shirt.

“You know...” you said, unbuckling his pants “...having an elevator open into your penthouse is real fancy and shit but... it’s quite the privacy killer sometimes, don’t you think?” You breathed into his cheek.

“Well... given the previous experiences I will not disagree with you” he replied, nose brushing against yours. You giggled.

“But...” he said, with the firm grip of your arm, “...make no mistake, this will not be interrupted by anyone. Even if anyone comes through that door, I won’t...even ...notice”

His piercing gaze alongside his seriousness in those words certainly left you with more arousal. Not to mention when he successfully managed to strip down completely.

Truthfully you have seen him in his bare but confident glory before. But every time you did, you were polite and decent about it. You’d look away or tighten your temples with a firm sense to understand that it was merely a piece of anatomy and nothing more. But tonight, seeing the man you secretly and unknowingly harbored feelings for fully stripped down, certainly pressed some buttons of your own.

Backing away, you climbed on to the bed, moving back as he followed suit, his eyes fixated on you. He was the lion and you were the lamb. Except the lamb was impatient to be the prey.

Standing on your knees, you welcomed the lion’s pounce as Lucifer kissed you once again, holding you firmly by the waist. Your palms wandered frantically over his torso, filling you with greed for him. For he was simply and most definitely, irresistible.

The moment his hands left your waist, you broke away with a soft moan as they dug into your panties, cupping the bare flesh of your buttocks tightly.

Panting, you held his face, inhaling deeply wearing a pair of serious eyes.

“I’m not-“ you paused ,”I’m not like other women you’ve been with...” you said, shrugging your shoulders shyly “...clearly you can see I’m not...beautiful that way...”

Lucifer shot you a look of immense shock. As if you were blabbering words of insanity. Pressing your lips,You blushed with embarrassment.

“It’s tru-“

His hungry kisses kept you from finishing that sentence, pushing you back to the bed as a result. Taking your hands, he securely placed them on his neck. Instead of using comforting or contradicting words, he opposed your statement and clear insecurity with his lips. Given the man he was, you were pretty sure the women were the ones to throw themselves at him at a time like this. Therefore you were obviously surprised when you felt those hungry kisses wandered all over your body. His kisses lit small sparks of fire on you, and he was the devout and enthusiastic carrier of the flame. The kisses were even and generous, each one curiously moving from your jawline to your collarbone, to the curves and the buds of your heaving breasts, to your protruding hips. Your vocal responses were forthright, moans growing loud and free, impatient to show your appreciation. And those fires felt even hotter when you swore you felt his noticeable erection press against your thigh.

As if sharing telepathy, Lucifer came to your dire need, pulling your panties down in an instant. The region between your thighs was of abundant wetness, exposed to the open air for a few seconds. But it was clearly not when you were left with a loud gasp as he quickly inserted himself in you.

Eyes lost in each other, bodies wrapped around one another, you held on to his ethereally yet sinfully beautiful face. You held with heart, while Lucifer Morningstar began to move inside you, while he set off to discover new found passions for you, while he finally proceeded to make amorous love to you.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Your eyes fluttered, like the wings of a butterfly as you woke up to the soft melody created by piano keys. It soothed you. It made you smile. It relieved you to know, that he was nearby. Lucifer was nearby.

The rays of the morning sun filtered through the glass window, falling on your naked back as you slowly sat up. The way the keys were tickled the music encouraged you to drag yourself out of empty bed, put on the white shirt that was laying on the floor, to tip toe your way out to see Lucifer playing the piano.

You dared not interrupt, but merely stood there to listen in silence. Lively would be his usual mood, but this morning his fingers spoke nothing but gentleness with heart. You watched him with pride, you listened to him with The moment the last note was hit, he turned back to you.

“Sorry if I woke you...”

You shook your head, “Don’t…It was the best alarm ever” you said with a smile. He smiled back shyly.

“I couldn’t help it…”

“And that’s great cause you know how much I love to watch you play...” you said, with your hands clasped together and much enthusiasm , “I make the most noise when you hit those keys with passion...ah!”

Realizing the possible dirty imagery that could be behind it, along with his naughty expression borne as a result, you snorted with laughter, covering your mouth. Tempted by the sight of him patting his lap as an invitation, You walked towards him. Wearing just his boxers, he wrapped one arm around you as you sat down.

His eyes widened with surprise after you swooped in to give a tender but long peck on his cheek.

Humming softly, Lucifer moved towards your lips, surprised even more when you placed your fingers to stop him.

“...my morning breath...” you murmured, wearing a nervous smile, “it must be horrible...” you hated that you suddenly felt so conscious of the smallest things. Saving you the train of thoughts, Lucifer held you by the chin, leaning forward to kiss you deeply. With his tongue embracing your own in a hurry, he proved you wrong once again.

“Oh...” he sighed, forehead pressed against yours, “ I should stop before I carry you back to bed again”

“Oh wow...” you chuckled shyly.

“This ...”he said, thumb grazing over your lips, looking at you, “...this was long long overdue”

“It was...” you said, breathless by his touch.

Lucifer paused for a few seconds, “Earlier you asked me, why I let you stick around”

You nodded in acknowledgment. Holding your hand tightly, he inhaled deep.

“It’s because I consider you as my equal”

This was definitely not what you expected. Putting your other hand over his, you listened.

“The respect you showed me was genuine. I felt respected” he said, “Not that I ever needed anyone’s approval but, as a club owner, as a businessman, with my adventurous habits, you didn’t take your time to judge, nor were you hungry to gain something from me in return”.

He said, a warm smile growing in his face.

“You were sincere. You are sincere. It...” he paused, “...comforted me”

“Lucifer...” you said, your tone laced with softness. For you could not believe what you just heard, “Of course I respect you” you continued, “ You’re my dearest friend” you said, pinching his stubble cheek.

“I just never thought you’d have feelings further than that...” you said with a smile, to which he chuckled deeply.

“Oh believe me...” he began, “...it was quite the difficult task to wipe your image out of my head, regardless of all the women” he said, “I mean...with them It was always enjoyable to be fair...”

You scoffed whilst nodding.

“ I bet it was…” you continued, “...some of those women are just breathtaking…”

“Yes...” he added, “...but…I’d always have a moment, wondering how it would have been if was you instead. You in my arms, all to myself” his voice suddenly hinted lust.

“Good...” you replied, “I’m glad I have that effect” you said, running your own fingers over his lips.

“It was strange indeed...” Lucifer remarked, his tone quickly changing to curiosity, “We had endless nights of spending time together, yet not once did I see you look at me with the carnal fascination and desire you showed last night”

You laughed, shaking your head.

“Well what can I say...” you shrugged with a proud smile , “I’m very good at friend-zoning people. Until last night, that is “ you said, biting your lower lip.

“Oh Y/N…last night, for a minute it felt like it was a dream...” he said, “ ...like it was an illusion or something temporary that I couldn’t get my grasp on-“

“But I’m here. I’m still here” you assured him, “It happened for real. This is real” you held his face adoringly, taking a deep breath for you needed some courage as you continued:

“I’m in love with you Lucifer”

“Don’t...”

He said, quickly holding your hands. You were confused, especially when he kissed them with desperation.

“I don’t want you to regret those words...” he said with a solemn expression. Your eyebrows furrowed.

“Why would I regret them?” You scoffed with surprise, “Last night…i regretted nothing”

“There’s...” he hesitated, “...something you need to know…about who I am”

“Whats there to know?...you’re ‘Lucifer’ Morningstar...of course I know” you suddenly began talking in high speed, as if he were to disappear any moment, “What? Did you do something? Are you a criminal ? Cause guess what? I don’t care...I love you anyways” you stopped, realizing how desperate you were yourself.

Lucifer smiled with a hint of sadness.

“ No, I’m not a criminal...I’m far worse. I’m the devil”

“Of course I know that” you said, “You’ve told me many times”

“No...but I really am”

“What do you mean? I-“

Your eyes widened as that red glint in his eyes from earlier, reappeared once again. And suddenly the red was not only in his eyes anymore. Yet your hold on him did not loosen.

Speak of the devil.

____________________________________________

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.

Check my LUCIFER MASTERLIST here :)

#tom ellis #lucifer #lucifer imagines #lucifer netflix #lucifer morningstar #lucifer x reader #lucifer morningstar x reader #treasure you #part

253 notes · View notes

papipopsicle · 5 years ago

Text

CLOUDS

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Teleporter!Reader

Genre: fluff, angst if you squint real hard

Summary: In which Y/N finds comfort in things, items owned by the people she trusts most. Nobody expected Bucky to be one of those people though. AU AWAY FROM IW&Endgame, ALSO THERE ARE X-MEN

Song: Clouds by BØRNS

Warnings: swearing

Words: 3K

a/n: this took me about three months to write, i’m so damn proud of it i hope you like it as much as i do!!

feedback is always appreciated

"You cold?" Tony nodded over to the figure on the plush couch. He knew it was Y/N without a second glance, of course she'd be sitting alone in the small nook to the side of the kitchen. It was the best view from the compound, she always liked to remind the team. The roof was an exception to that, she always added a beat later.

Y/N would find a way to feel freezing on the hottest day of the year, she couldn't stand the cold one bit.

It was late at night or early morning by now. Either way, the recreational floor only seemed to be inhabited at this time by those whose dreams are plagued to be nothing but a deathly desolate horror show. Tony was simply getting a glass of water for Pepper, since she argued fridge water tasted better than their bathroom tap water, though he never noticed the difference. At this point there was no use questioning it.

Y/N joined the disjointed family of broken superheroes six months ago, her existence uncovered after an operation went south and she teleported right into Iron Man's ruby red arms. He practically adopted her then and there. She kept to herself mostly, always quiet and kind whenever anyone spoke to her. Wanda sensed the torment in her mind though as soon as they met, hugging the girl tightly in comfort only to make her jump to the other side of the compound out of pure shock. Y/N couldn't remember the last time someone had touched her with such genuine compassion.

She'd become less skittish after a few months, only jumping away in truly uncomfortable moments; like when Steve walked into the med bay to find her mid-way through changing her clothes. The poor super soldier was probably more scarred from the memory than the y/h/c haired girl.

"I'm good, thanks though." Y/N responded simply, the burgundy hoodie hugging her torso feeling even softer and more comforting at the thought of being cold.

Tony lifted his head from the sink to find the scene playing out, and smiled contently as she snuggled into the plush sofa while some lighthearted sitcom played quietly in the background.

"Goodnight, Shortcut." The male called softly, knowing it was no use to corral her into bed. She'd either jump back a few seconds later when the coast was clear or find a new place to explore and settle in for the night. Y/N returned the greeting and let the scent of Tony's own aftershave lull her into a calm sleep.

"Night, Tone."

When morning finally shone through the large floor to ceiling windows, the teleporter found herself unusually warm. She let out a groggy noise resembling a grunt, and her nose was met with the delicious scent of her favourite fruit as she inhaled. Y/N blinked a few times, her hands coming into contact with the fluffy material of a cream coloured blanket before her eyes could fully focus on it.

"You were shivering, Angel. Couldn't let my favourite superhuman freeze to death." Bucky cut through her thoughts like a butterknife, Y/N's gaze tearing away from the soft fabric to find the veteran flipping pancakes nonchalantly.

His voice felt softer than usual, not blunt and sarcastic like when he'd talk to Sam or Natasha, nor did it feel natural like when it came to Steve. It was warm and raspy, not coddling and protective like Tony and Pepper's. Y/N decided she liked this and wanted to here it more.

She didn't know whether to ask for the time or how she was his 'favourite superhuman' when their conversations were less than four seconds long at best. His mellow attitude wasn't helping either and Y/N soon found her brows so furrowed they almost touched. But for some reason it put all her senses on high alert- rose tinting her cheeks at the thought of someone thinking about her in a good way with no reasoning.

She didn't really think anyone thought about her existence unless they needed something.

When she first arrived, Y/N noticed a lot of chatter behind her back. They were welcoming and made sure she was comfortable, but it was obvious they didn't trust her. She never took it to heart, they knew absolutely nothing about her. Sam had the decency to ask her everything whizzing through his mind, genuinely wanting to keep his friends safe and know if she was a threat. Maybe that's why Y/N liked him so much, he was honest but never made her nervous or self conscious.

The girl let the warmth of the blanket fall from her body as she jumped to the kitchen counter behind Bucky. He shifted at the small noise she made, sensing purple whirls of energy over his shoulder. The soldier turned with a half-smirk, holding a plate of delicious cherry pancakes out for Y/N. Bucky's smile faltered and he let out a chuckle as she continued to look down at the plate then up into his eyes in curiosity, "You see, Sweetheart- where I'm from - if someone offers you food, you take it and say thank you."

Y/N finally took the plate, not noticing Bucky's lingering gaze as he could practically hear the cogs whirring in her head, her expression adorably flustered.

"Thank you, James." She mumbled happily, head lowered to hide her pinkish cheeks. He picked her emotions up and dropped them half way between confusion and fascination.

The girl didn't grow up with parents as role models, and siblings to be friends with; she'd been genetically engineered by a small research team in Norway. Bucky didn't know much else, other than one day eight months ago the lab was attacked and Y/N escaped by jumping to New Zealand.

"How'd you know?" She asked after taming her racing heart, her hair flicking in every which direction while jumping down from the counter to retrieve cutlery. He hummed in response, showing he was listening while not wanting to take his eyes off of the newly simmering batter, "I don't think I've been able to hold a conversation long enough with you to ask an obligatory how're you, let alone tell you my favourite food."

Bucky let out a scoff and shook his head, the smile she'd given him not leaving his lips, "You have cherries with everything you can, you'd have them on a roast dinner if you could."

Y/N silently groaned to herself. Long gone was the brainwashed assassin, but years of regimented training lay etched into his mind still, of course he was more observant than most. It was the first food she found after her great escape. A cherry tree at the bottom of a fairytale garden. She didn't have the energy to find shelter after using her powers to such an extent, and so the next morning an elderly woman was given the shock of her life when she found a body sleeping under her cherry tree. Gloria, her name was, took Y/N under her wing and taught her how to act even remotely human.

Bucky stacked up his own fluffy pancakes and took to a chair at the breakfast bar, not having time to register the fast pace of his heart. While he waited for her response and began stuffing his face, Y/N furrowed her brows once again. She wasn't a soldier, that was for sure. She wore her heart on her sleeve and every emotion on her face. None of her teachers ever showed her how to hide things like that, she didn't know it was possible.

It was so easy for Bucky to tell what she was thinking; if she truly found something funny or was just laughing along to be polite. He saw the broken girl under her smile as soon as she'd arrived, but also the girl fighting to be free under that too.

"Well," Y/N shrugged as if the ex assassin hadn't just flicked through her thoughts and uncovered all her secrets, pulling a cherry stem from her mouth before pelting the small stone at the middle of his forehead, "you don't like gravy and you click your knuckles every twenty minutes, so, whose the real weirdo?"

The cherry stone hit Y/N in her cheek seconds later, "You always ask Friday to check on everyone and report back before falling asleep. If something's wrong then you stay with them until it's not anymore."

Her lips fell agape at that and blood rushed to her cheeks, "How could you possible know that? I was denied access to you by Friday."

Bucky stuffed his mouth once again with the fluffy food and watched her for a few seconds. He could stay like this forever if he was honest with himself, Y/N was extremely easy to get along with. She was innocent and all consuming to someone with as dark of a past as Bucky. Her wide eyes dug deeper into his grave, full of wonder and life and love.

"Sam and Nat don't shut up about you the next morning, apparently you know just the right thing to say to them. Plus, Steve keeps muttering about how Wanda's nearly always sleeping in because you cuddle with her."

The girl felt herself getting defensive as she pulled another cherry stem from between her teeth and launched the stone at Bucky's nose. How could he have possibly remembered this much about her? More so, why?

"She likes to be the little spoon, so what?" Y/N retorted, her head swimming in a sea of confusion.

Bucky all but beamed at her, he was enjoying this too much."You two together or something?"

"Only when she can't sleep."

It was here, both on there last pancake alone on the early spring morning, that the soldier wondered how human this girl before him truly was. She learnt social queues from a New Zealander in her eighties and a damaged band of superhumans. Had anyone even shown her kindness before now? Her bright ocean eyes and soft skin deserved love and happiness, but did she even know what they felt like?

"No-I mean are you two dating?" Bucky got up from the counter, taking both empty plates with him to the sink before Y/N appeared on the counter next to him with her usual intrigued eyes and pretty smile.

"James, women are truly beautiful creatures, but I'm not sexually attracted to them I know that much. Besides, I've never dated anyone before, not had the chance I guess." The girl shrugged, slipping off the counter and drying the dishes and cutlery Bucky had just washed up. He nodded thoughtfully at her response, taking the plates from her smaller hands and placing them back in the cupboard while she did the same with the knives and forks.

"Bucky." He said encouragingly with a warm smile gracing his features. Y/N's head perked up and it took everything in her not to jump to the opposite side of the compound as she found the most incredible thing.

The corner of James' eyes were crinkled slightly yet still shone bright, teeth creeping out just a bit as the low vibrations left his lips. She'd never felt this before, but before she could control herself she seemed to be smiling right back a the man in front of her, warmth flooding all of her senses.

"What?" She hummed happily. Suddenly, Y/N snapped out of her thoughts and took a step back. Blood rushed to her cheeks in embarrassment and she hoped to god that he hadn't noticed her staring.

If he had, he hid it well.

"You can call me Bucky, if you want." He paused and sent her the same stomach fluttering smile, "I just noticed you always call me James, everyone calls me Bucky, though."

But before she could even start to respond, Mantis and Pepper were entering the kitchen area giggling and chatting away, and Bucky felt a pulse of energy against his side, finding only purple whirls where the intriguing girl had stood seconds ago.

It wasn't until later that evening when he would find her next. She had a habit of popping up out of nowhere, even without using her powers. The team had eaten together, Scott and Clint were in charge of food tonight and it was a wonder anyone survived. But Y/N didn't show. At this point Bucky would probably admit he as a little disappointed she didn't jump in for even a few minutes, but she was probably tied up with something.

It wasn’t unusual though, he had to remind himself, Y/N didn’t always feel comfortable being around so many people, which was something Bucky understood well.

While on his walk back to his apartment, the soldier’s mind filled with beautiful images of Y/N’s elated expression, the way it contorted in confusion over the simplest act of kindness. He found it endearing, the raw innocence behind her wide eyes and bright smile warming his heart in a way he’d never felt before.

“Ow!” Y/N’s voice yelped, and Bucky blinked out of his hazy daydream, finding her smaller body sat uncomfortably on the floor before his feet. She looked up at him with that same wild yet sweet look of utter bashfulness.

“Jesus-” Bucky helped the teleporter to her feet, and he held onto her for a few moments more than necessary before letting go. He checked over her body for any signs of injury, worry flooding his features at the thought of causing her any more pain than she’d already lived through. “I’m so-so sorry, Bambi, are you okay? My mind was in the clouds I hadn’t even seen y-”

“Bambi?” Y/N questioned, seemingly not fazed by being knocked over by a very muscular super-soldier after the initial shock.

Bucky chuckled and allowed himself a second to memorise the look on her face, she was truly stunning, with dimples and mesmerising eyes. “Yeah.” He responded after a second, “It’s a Disney film about this little baby deer, you’d love it. Me and Steve saw it every chance we could back before all of this, I’d never have admitted that to a pretty girl back then though.”

“You think I’m pretty?” She gasped, choosing not to tease the two hundred pounds of muscle in front of her about his love for Disney because she physically couldn’t. Her body reacted on its own, cheeks burning and the words tumbling from her lips before she had the chance to catch them.

“Of course.” Bucky whispered matter of factly as if she was asking the easiest of questions. For him it was, they may not have had a friendship before today, and maybe it wouldn’t be friendship tomorrow, but to him she was the most stunning human this world had created.

“Of course I do.” He repeated ever so slightly louder, scared she hadn’t heard him the first time.

Y/N took his much larger flesh hand in her own, squeezing it and looking up at him with fondness and admiration etched onto her face.

“You’re pretty too, Bucky.” The girl hummed out with a shy smile, eyes now locked onto their intertwined fingers.

Bucky matched her grin, feeling the smooth skin of her hands cooling his burning palms, and it was only then that he took in how cold her body had felt when he helped her up off the ground.

“Y/N, you’re freezing.” He didn’t respond to her comment, yet kept it at the forefront of his mind because it felt important. Everything she said was important to him.

She registered his words and quickly withdrew her hand from his, shrugging her shoulders absentmindedly, “Sorry, it’s just part of me I guess, I’m fine- I should probably go.”

And just like earlier, Bucky was left with words stuck in his throat and purple tendrils of cold air curling around the space Y/N had inhabited. “Don’t apologise for being yourself.” He said into the air, shaking his head and entering his room for the night.

The teleporter’s mind was a mess of emotions and as much as she wanted to fall asleep in the comfort of the memory foam mattress Tony had supplied for her, her thoughts wouldn’t quieten. It wasn’t the usual ghosts from her past keeping her awake tonight, but the same chills greeted her body and she felt completely alone in the large dark room that was meant to bring solace to her worried head.

When the clock on her nightstand finally ticked over to two AM, she chose to go in search of Tony’s jumper she had left on the sofa last morning. Y/N jumped to the recreational level, just outside of the common area to make sure nobody was in there before she entered. After making her way over to the small nook, the blanket Bucky had lay over her was neatly folded in the corner and a smile pulled at her lips from the memory.

She hadn’t expected to see a small bundle in the opposite corner of the couch though, with a small handwritten note atop of it.

Don’t be sorry for feeling cold, I thought this might help a little though. James x

Y/N admired his script, expecting the tormented man to have scrawled writing, but instead she noticed it mirrored Steve’s. They must’ve learnt how to write together, she assumed.

She took off her own sweatshirt, pulling the soldiers top over her head and letting his scent calm her senses. It reminded her exactly of how his hand felt in hers- soothing and comforting in such an inexplicable way.

Bucky found her hours later, snuggled up on the plush sofa with his Henley practically falling off her, blanket engulfing her body as she hugged the teddy bear to her chest, blissfully unaware of how much the man wished he was holding her the same way.

#fanfic #fanfiction #bucky fandom #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes masterlist #bucky barnes imagine #bucky #bucky barnes #marvel fluff #marvel fanfic #marvel imagine #bucky barnes x reader #bucky imagine #bucky fluff #avengers endgame #avengers imagine #bucky x reader #bucky fanfic

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artificialqueens · 5 years ago

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After The Glitter Fades, Chapter Three (Shalaska) - Citrus

A/N: two fics in the queue, on halloween no less? i couldn’t be more on-brand if i tried! this chapter has more smut because i am what? predictable.

Unlike many of the other coven rituals, Alaska was expressly not invited to attend their Samhain ritual.

“It’s not anything to do with you, baby,” Sharon had promised her when she broke the news, “It’s just… Samhain is an incredibly sacred night for witches, and especially our coven. We’ve never had an observer on Samhain.”

“I get it,” Alaska had answered, and Sharon had looked surprised at that answer. “It’s not for me to watch,” she continued, “It’s your thing. I totally, totally understand.”

Sharon had been delighted that Alaska wasn’t angry with her, especially after their fight. Alaska had even asked if Sharon minded whether she went to Courtney’s party early, and Sharon could meet her later on. This arrangement seemed to suit them both, and both women had left the conversation feeling excited about the upcoming holiday.

When the day came, Alaska and Sharon prepared very differently. Alaska spent the early evening making sure that her makeup was perfect and her costume wasn’t missing any crucial details. She arrived at Courtney’s in perfect time, bottle of peach schnapps in hand, and was greeted by friends who she hadn’t seen in far too many weeks.

Sharon spent her morning cleansing her apartment and meditating, preparing for the gruelling evening ahead of her. Samhain was never easy on her, and she needed all of the spiritual protection that she could possibly get. She dressed in her ritual clothing, reserved for Samhain now that they tended to do smaller rituals for other Sabbats, and washed her face; ritual makeup would come later. She arrived at the covenstead just before sunset and was greeted by her sisters, all wearing their ritual garments, some of them wearing tokens of their deities or loved ones.

Max put a hand on Sharon’s shoulder, smiling at her friend. “She’s already close,” she said softly. “I hardly need to call her, she’s so excited to see you.”

Sharon smiled back. “I’m excited to see her too.”

“Okay, when you told me about this costume idea, I didn’t expect you to show up looking like Lady Gaga’s lost fucking twin sister,” Courtney accused with a grin, straightening her halo. Alaska laughed, swirling her drink around in her glass and adjusting her jacket.

“You didn’t specify,” she drawled. “I worked with what I had.”

“You are such a liar, ” their friend Willam crowed, “You worked on this costume for like a month straight! I saw your Snapchats, dumbass.”

Alaska giggled. “I meant my face. The costume took way too much effort.”

“You do look like her,” Courtney admitted, “Your girlfriend is lucky.”

“What’s her name again?” Willam asked. “I forgot.”

Alaska smiled at the mere mention of her girlfriend, and it obviously didn’t escape their notice, but they remained quiet. “Her name’s Sharon,” she answered, setting her empty glass down and accepting the cracked can of cider that Courtney supplied her with.

“It seems like things are going well with her, then?” Court asked, happy to see Alaska so smitten.

“Yeah, I think so. I stay over at her place a lot, and her friends are really great. I miss you two, though.”

Willam leaned in excitedly. “I bet she’s gonna ask you to move in,” she said. Alaska bit her lip, surprised but pleased by Willam’s suggestion.

“I dunno, it’s only been a couple of months… But then again, that’s forever in lesbian time.”

Courtney grinned. “When are we gonna meet this mysterious Sharon anyway? I thought you were gonna drag her along tonight.”

“She’ll be here later,” Alaska promised. “She’s really devoted to her coven, and this is, like, a super special holiday for them. I promise you’ll get to meet her soon.”

“How hot is she, scale from one to ten?” Willam pried. “One is Courtney’s ex and ten is me, obviously.”

Alaska didn’t answer; none of them could stop laughing for long enough.

Samhain, Samhain, let the ritual begin,

We call upon our sacred ancestors to come in

Samhain, Samhain, we call upon our kin,

We call upon our dear departed loved ones to come in

The Veil between the worlds is thin

Our hearts reach cross the sea of time

To bring our loved ones in

Samhain, Samhain we honor all our kin

We honor those who’ve gone before

As the Great Wheel turns again

Sharon was overjoyed to be with her coven on her favorite night of the entire year, but there was another reason for her joy; the veil between life and death was at its thinnest on Samhain night, and Sharon knew this well.

They all helped toss wood onto the bonfire, some of the logs anointed with oils or herbs, and the Dianic witches built small altars to their goddesses around the large fire pit. Sharon brought out a small jar of ash from last year’s Samhain, anointing her sisters with the charred remains of their previous celebration before smearing it onto her own face as well. As the coven’s High Priestess, she was the one to light the bonfire, with a match and a few sheets of paper on which they had all written names of deceased loved ones whom they wished to honor.

The flames crackled in the middle at first, a small blaze, but soon climbed up the bone-dry logs, sending smoke billowing into the sky, sparks and ash fluttering in the wind like small spirits. The witches gathered around Max, surrounding their entire covenstead and backyard forest with a bubble of protection, and channelled all of their energy into her. Her lips parted, eyes rolling back into her skull as she began to shudder with the amount of energy surging through her, and Sharon squeezed her shoulder, making sure she remained grounded.

All of a sudden, Max’s hands shot out in front of her and she drew the shape of a door in bright white light, sending it away from her chest to fade into the night. She collapsed into her sisters’ waiting arms, accepting the potion that Fame pressed into her hands without question and downing it. The witches waited with bated breath, silently waiting for what they hoped would come.

Sharon’s eyes filled with tears as she felt a hand grasp hers, looking to her side to see her mother standing beside her. She fell into her arms with a soft cry of delight, squeezing her tight before pulling away.

“Mama…” she breathed, taking in the sight of a woman who had been dead for almost a decade. Her mother smiled.

“You look good, baby. Tell me all about this girl you’ve been seeing. Max tells me you’re pretty smitten,” she added, casting a glance at the recovering witch. Max smiled at her.

“Hello, Cassandra. It’s good to see you.”

Sharon’s mother grinned. “Well, I get to be corporeal one night a year, why not have fun?” she answered. “Sharon, baby, tell me everything.” Sharon sat in the grass with her mom, leaning into her embrace and letting Cassandra braid her hair as she told her all about Alaska, how the shop was thriving, how happy she was. The other witches were speaking with spirits of their own; animal spirits flocked around Pearl, listening to her spin stories, while Jinkx chatted quietly with her great-grandmother. Raja smoked lazily while she communed with a minor deity, Katya spoke in quick, practiced Russian with an ancestor, and Fame kept Max in her arms as she recovered from parting the veil.

“You sound like you’re really happy with this girl,” Cassandra said as she finished off Sharon’s braid. “I’m so glad.”

“I love her, Mom, I really do,” Sharon said. “I’m gonna ask her to move in with me tonight.”

“Tonight, huh? Not slaving over making Samhain perfect this year?” her mother teased her.

Sharon grinned. “Last year it had to be perfect because it was the first Samhain we celebrated at Supernature ,” she answered. “Alaska and I compromised, and I’m going to meet her friends at a Halloween party after this.”

“That’s my girl,” Cassandra smiled, “My little spook. Am I going to get to meet this Alaska?”

Sharon’s eyes widened. “You want to?”

“Of course I do, Sharon. I may not be around on Earth anymore, but I can tell how happy you are. I’d like to meet her before next year’s Samhain.”

Sharon nodded slowly. “Okay. I’ll take you.”

“There’s something about that name that’s very familiar to me, you know,” Cassandra mused as Sharon changed into her Halloween costume. “I swear I knew an Alaska when I was alive…”

Sharon rolled her eyes at her mother’s ghost. “I doubt you knew her, she’s younger than I am.”

“What’s her family name?” Cassandra asked. Sharon snorted out a laugh.

“Thunderfuck, believe it or not. She says it’s European or something.”

Cassandra smiled triumphantly. “That’s it! Elsie Thunderfuck.”

“Alaska, Mom. Her name is Alaska.” Cassandra rolled her eyes.

“No, Shar-bear, her grandmother’s name is Eloise, we called her Elsie. I knew her, back when I was… y’know. Alive.”

Sharon paused, eyeliner brush hovering inches from her face. “What?”

Cassandra shrugged. “We worked in the same circles for a while. She was always very wise back then, I’m sure she taught her granddaughter well.”

“Alaska never knew who she got her magickal blood from,” Sharon breathed, eyes wide as she faced her mother. “We knew that it was there because she had that spark, but… We never knew who. ”

“Well, now you know,” Cassandra chuckled. “I don’t suppose she’s ever attempted to contact any spirits before, has she? Are you sure this’ll work?”

Sharon rolled her eyes. “It’ll work, Mom. She’s really intuitive, and she was already somewhat spiritual before we met. She’ll love you.”

When they got to the party, the door was opened by none other than Alaska, drink in hand and smiling. Her smile widened when she saw Sharon, then faltered when she saw that Sharon hadn’t come alone. Sharon took her girlfriend’s hand with a smile, leading her outside onto Courtney’s porch and sitting them both down on the bench, Cassandra sitting opposite them.

“Baby, this is gonna sound crazy, but please just bear with me… This is Cassandra. My mother.”

Alaska’s gaze flickered between the two women as her teeth worried her lower lip. “Your… Sharon, I thought your mom was…”

“Dead?” Cassandra finished for her. When Alaska gave a small nod, she smiled. “Well, believe it or not, I am.”

“On Samhain night, the veil between worlds is at its thinnest,” Sharon explained. “Our world is closer to the spirit world tonight than it is at any other part of the year. It’s easiest to make connections through the veil, and a lot of us do… Even non-witches are somewhat more aware of spiritual presences on Samhain.”

“It’s the one night a year that I can make my corporeal presence known here on Earth,” Cassandra said, squeezing Sharon’s hand. “Sharon can reach out to me whenever she wants, but this is the one night that I can be present with my daughter, just for a few hours.”

“That… makes a weird amount of sense,” Alaska admitted, breaking her respectful silence. “Like, I should definitely be more freaked out about this than I am, but then again, I’m dating Sharon, and she does a lot of freaky shit. Oops,” she added, blushing bright pink and making Sharon laugh.

“She knows, pumpkin. I brought her along because she wanted to meet you.”

“I wanted to see the woman who’s been making my little girl so happy,” Cassandra smiled, reaching out to take Alaska’s hand in her own. “Oh my, she’s been teaching you well. Your aura is positively glowing, and you’re radiating with energy.”

“God, you really are just like your mother,” Alaska giggled, leaning over to give Sharon a peck on the cheek. Sharon sighed happily and pulled her closer, letting Alaska snuggle into her side.

“So, Alaska… How did you two meet?”

The three of them spoke for almost two hours, not paying any attention to the few partygoers who would come outside for a smoke or a breath of fresh air. Alaska leaned into Sharon’s side as she told Cassandra the story of how they’d met, how Sharon had wooed her, and how happy they made each other. Sharon’s heart was so full that she thought she might burst; not only were her girlfriend and her mother both here with her, but they were getting along incredibly well, even better than she could have hoped.

As it got later and later, Alaska snuggled closer into Sharon, happy to just listen to her talk to her mother. She blushed when Sharon gushed about her and how much she loved her, a little shy now that Cassandra’s attention was no longer on her. She exuded a calming energy, almost seeming to radiate wisdom and kindness, and Alaska liked watching the way she interacted with her daughter, who was much more… chaotic. Cassandra never let go of Sharon’s hand, not even once, and it was clear that Sharon desperately wanted the contact between them to last as long as possible.

“My love, it’s getting late…” Cassandra ventured. Sharon’s expression changed from one of contentment to one of resigned sadness. She nodded wordlessly, pulling away from Alaska with a kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead.

“I’ll be back in just a second, baby… This is something I’d rather do alone.”

Alaska smiled, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. “Go, Shar. I’ll wait for you. Tell your mama I was happy to meet her.” Sharon smiled back, following her mother down the porch steps and stepping out to the curb.

Cassandra took both of Sharon’s hands in her own, staring into her daughter’s eyes. “You know how this goes,” she said with a sad smile. “I have other people to visit tonight, even if it’s just for a moment. If I could, I’d spend every single second with you, but… You’re not on your own like you were when you were younger. You have the coven, and now you have Alaska.”

“None of them are you, Mama. I’ll still miss you just as much.”

“I know you will, sweetheart. I’ll miss you too, I always do. But I’ll be with you always, even when I’m not physically here.” She hugged Sharon, and Sharon hugged her back tight, never wanting to let go.

“I love you,” she whispered, trying not to cry. “This never gets fucking easier.”

“I love you too, baby girl,” Cassandra replied, pulling away from their embrace and pressing a soft kiss to her daughter’s hair. “I am so, so proud of you. Blessed be, my Sharon. You’ll see me again soon.”

“Blessed be,” Sharon echoed, smiling despite her voice being thick with tears. “Til next time, Mama.”

With one last grin at her daughter, Cassandra walked away from the house, her image fading away with each step she took. The moment she was gone, Sharon felt a hand slip into her own, and turned to find Alaska at her side. Alaska offered a smile and a soft kiss against her lips, brushing a lock of hair away from Sharon’s face.

“You okay?”

Sharon nodded. “I’m okay. I just needed a moment to say goodbye… It’s hard to wait a year, but I know some people aren’t as lucky as I am. I don’t think I’d be half as okay as I am if I never saw her again, y’know?”

“God, yeah, I can’t imagine,” Alaska answered. “You think you’re up to coming inside and saying hi to some friends? They really wanna meet you, but we can go home if you’re feeling drained.” Sharon’s heart swelled; Alaska was so attentive and cared for her so deeply, and she was still in awe that she had such a perfect lover.

“You’re sweet.” Sharon nuzzled Alaska’s neck tenderly, nipping at her jaw to make her squeak in surprise. “I’m good, promise. I’d love to meet your friends, angel.”

As soon as they walked in the door, they were greeted by a very excited Courtney and Willam, both of them more than a bit tipsy and holding hands.

“Lasky! We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“Almost thought you’d abandoned us to get some tail,” Willam snickered, looking pleased with herself when Courtney laughed at the obvious reference to Willam’s mermaid costume. Alaska giggled and leaned into Sharon’s side.

“This is Sharon. Sharon, these two idiots are my best friends, Courtney and Willam.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you! We’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All bad, I hope,” Sharon teased, pulling Lasky closer by the waist. “You’re both gorgeous, by the way. Love the costumes.”

“Your girlfriend outdid us all,” Willam grinned. “Fuckin’ overachiever. Always has to be the best.”

“That’s not true!” Alaska whined, pouting when Sharon shrugged her agreement with Willam. “Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side!”

“C’mon, come get some drinks and we can chat,” Courtney urged. “I wanna get to know Alaska’s dream girl!” Alaska blushed, but followed her friends nonetheless, allowing Sharon to guide her with a strong yet gentle arm around her waist.

Despite it coinciding with a sacred witchcraft holiday that meant a lot to her, Halloween was still Sharon’s favorite day of the year. She loved that she was able to balance her craft with her favorite spooky time of year; she’d been with her coven and go to a party with her girlfriend, and she was happy to be able to share the night with all of the people she loved most.

Alaska’s friends were both very sweet, and she found it surprisingly refreshing to hang out with people who had absolutely no knowledge of witchcraft; it really did consume her life sometimes, along with a good number of her friendships, and she thought to herself that maybe she should find more people like Courtney and Willam. She definitely vibed better with Willam, feeling a spark between them that was promising, but she genuinely really liked Courtney too, and was glad that Alaska had such incredible friends.

As it got later and later, Alaska seemed to want to be closer to Sharon, getting cuddly and speaking less, and Sharon knew that it was time to go home. They said their goodbyes and promised to hang out again soon, and Sharon’s stomach filled with butterflies the moment that she and Alaska got into her car to go back to Sharon’s apartment.

Luckily for Sharon, Alaska already seemed to have a plan for the evening in mind, and Sharon found herself pinned against her front door almost the moment that it closed behind them, Alaska’s lips on hers and Alaska’s hands on her waist. She kissed back, smiling a little at her girlfriend’s eagerness, and stifled a moan when Alaska’s lips moved south to suck a hickey into her neck.

“Mmm, baby, there’s no rush,” she chuckled as Alaska’s hands roamed over her body, feeling her curves and squeezing her ass lightly. “C’mon, let’s get out of these costumes. We have all the time in the world.”

They made their way to Sharon’s bedroom, where their outfits were discarded, Sharon’s tossed over a chair with abandon and Alaska’s folded neatly because, well, she was Alaska. Sharon was quick to wipe the makeup off her face, standing in front of the mirror in only her underwear and scrubbing away the remnants of Vampira. Alaska approached her from behind, nude and fresh-faced, winding her arms around Sharon’s middle and nuzzling her neck sweetly, and Sharon’s heart swelled. Goddess, she was so in love with her.

“You gonna stand there all night, or are you gonna come to bed?” Alaska teased, wiggling her hips against Sharon’s backside. Sharon laughed and turned around to face her, stealing a soft kiss before pushing her away.

“Go pick a toy, you horny bitch,” she teased back. “Your favorite one, go get it.”

“Favorite to give or favorite to take?” Alaska asked with a glimmer in her eye. Sharon snorted.

“You really think I’m gonna let you top on Halloween, Thighs?”

Alaska laughed and turned away to look through their toy drawer, giving Sharon a lovely- and obviously intentional- view of her ass as she did so. Once Sharon’s face was clean of makeup, she moved to get on the bed, giving Alaska a light spank and snickering at the squeal that followed. The strap-on was left on the nightstand alongside a bottle of lube and a few other toys that Alaska was clearly hoping would be used that night, and Alaska joined her girlfriend on the bed, pushing Sharon against the mattress to kiss her deeply.

“You looked so hot tonight,” she murmured against Sharon’s lips, straddling her thigh. “I couldn’t say anything in front of your mom or my friends, but you’re so fucking sexy… I kinda wanted you to take me into the bathroom and fuck me there, just fast enough to leave me wanting more of you…”

Sharon smirked. “I would’ve liked to see you all desperate like that. Those little shorts you were wearing, Lasky? Sinful. You fucking tease.”

“They’re screen accurate,” Alaska whined as Sharon flipped their positions so that she could be on top. “I’m glad they worked, though… I love having you take control of me like this. Fucking love it.”

“I know you do,” Sharon teased, leaning down to kiss Alaska’s neck and hear her soft, needy moans. “Picking out all those toys… I hate to disappoint you, but we’re not gonna use them tonight.”

Alaska pouted, but she couldn’t keep it up for long with Sharon’s left hand on her breast and her right hand squeezing her thigh. “Why not?” she whined, soft and needy as Sharon leaned down to lick at her nipple and gasping at the sensation. Sharon hummed, sucking lightly at Alaska’s delicate skin before pulling away.

“I don’t wanna use toys tonight, other than the dick. I don’t wanna tease you, I just wanna worship you and make you feel good. I wanna make love to you, baby.” Alaska let out a soft noise, eyes dark with arousal, and she bit her lip.

“I… I like that,” she admitted in little more than a whisper. “I love you, you know that right?”

“Of course I do,” Sharon replied, spreading Alaska’s thighs apart and dipping a finger between her folds. “I love you so fucking much, Lasky.” Her finger stroked Alaska lightly, feeling how wet she was, how much she wanted her. She was so needy, letting out a little moan when Sharon’s mouth began working over her chest again as she continued to tease her lightly. She added a second finger to her gentle exploration, fingertips sliding over Alaska’s clit and causing her to gasp, hands moving to tangle in Sharon’s hair as the witch kissed down her stomach.

Alaska shifted her position slightly, spreading her legs and offering up her pussy to Sharon with dark eyes. She bit back a smile when Sharon took a moment to throw her hair into a ponytail, but the smile disappeared in a gasp of pleasure as Sharon’s tongue swirled over her pussy.

“ Oh… Oh, Sharon… ”

Sharon was slow and methodical as she ate Alaska out, alternating between light, teasing flicks to her clit and long, full licks against her entire pussy, her arms wrapped around Alaska’s thighs to keep her close. She would usually tease more, building Alaska up only to pull away and watch her whine and beg, but she wanted to be good to her tonight, wanted to see her experience true pleasure. When Alaska came for the first time, her hands tightened in Sharon’s hair and her thighs shook around her head, her pouty lips parted as she moaned and gasped her lover’s name, back arching off the bed. As she came down, Sharon pulled herself up to lay beside her, stroking nonsensical patterns into Lasky’s soft tummy as she relaxed again.

Alaska pulled Sharon in very suddenly to give her a deep, sensual kiss, pulling away only when she was satisfied that she’d made Sharon flush just a little. “Thank you,” she murmured, a sweet, coy smile pulling at her lips. “Fuck, that was so good. You’re so good to me.”

“That’s not all you’re getting tonight, baby,” Sharon promised, slipping out of her lingerie and into the strap-on harness. Alaska blushed at the sight of her girlfriend looking so sexy and confident as she lubed up the long blue cock between her legs, and pulled her down for another kiss.

“You wanted to make love to me?” she breathed against Sharon’s lips, wrapping her legs around her hips. “Make love to me, Sharon.”

Sharon didn’t need to be told twice; she slid into Alaska slowly, kissing every inch of skin she could reach until she was fully sheathed inside her girlfriend. When she started moving, Alaska let out a whimper; Sharon’s thrusts were slow yet deep, just hard enough to make Lasky moan with each one and grip the sheets. She kept her pace the same for the entire time that she fucked Alaska, slow and tender, until the blonde beneath her was a flushed, panting, squirming mess. When she warned Sharon that she was going to come, her voice was barely more than a rough, low moan, and she held onto Sharon tightly as she slipped away into bliss.

This was the moment. Alaska was dreamy, floating on a cloud of post-orgasmic pleasure, and Sharon pulled out gently to lay by her side once more.

“Lasky?” she ventured, lacing their fingers together.

“Mmm?”

“I want you to move in with me.”

Alaska was quiet for a moment, then rolled onto her side to face Sharon, eyes soft and bright. “Yeah?”

Sharon nodded. “Yeah. I want this every day. I wanna go to sleep with you at night and wake up with you in the morning, and I wanna hear you sing in the shower and complain that I leave my stuff everywhere, and I want to make love to you every single night.”

Alaska blinked back tears, closing in for a soft kiss. “I want that too.”

“Really? You… You’ll move in with me?”

Alaska laughed and nodded, giving Sharon another kiss.

“Yeah, Noodles. I will.”

#rpdr fanfiction #shalaska #alaska thunderfuck #sharon needles #smut #lesbian au #after the glitter fades #gold dust woman #citrus

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