#why did i miss the first possible train i could take cause i was putting on my mask

[bennitastisch]

sometimes taking the train feels like a cruel joke by the universe

[lenacosse]

hello! can you please write tangerine x reader where he and his wife are working on the same mission without knowing it. she has ladybug as her usual partner and they have to pretend to be husband and wife. at some point, ladybug and tangerine are fighting and since ladybug wants a break from it, he’s like « wait, my wife’s coming » and when tangerine turns around its actually HIS wife

What?

pairing: tangerine x reader

cw: violence, strong language

word count: 3,842

(laughing cause this turned into the whole movie, obviously not cannon accurate but i had so much fun writing this)

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"Alright that's me," you say as you zip your suitcase, you were going out to Japan to work on a mission with Ladybug. Tangerine did not know where you were actually going, when you first started dating you didn't tell him your job because it was too dangerous and you didn't want to scare him away and when things got serious between you both you were too scared to tell him because you didn't want to jeopardise things between you both so you fabricated a seamless lie about your occupation and he didn't suspect a thing.

"Same here," replies Tangerine. You walk towards him and put on hand on his bicep the other on the side of his neck, his hands go to your waist.

"Try not to miss me too much," you tease, a playful smirk forming at the corners of your mouth.

"Same can be said for you love." Tangerine winks, you roll your eyes and lean forwards. You press your lips to his and you share a passionate kiss, one that'll leave you longing for more later on when you lay awake thinking of him.

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You arrive in Japan and instantly the whole new world amazes you, Japan was truly impressively innovative and futuristic. But you weren't here to enjoy the culture, you had a very simple mission to do, retrieve something from a train with Ladybug, what could possibly go wrong?

Ladybug answers the call from your operator for the mission, you're both given your code names. You got given Kitty- slightly humiliating you thought but you've had worse.

"Kitty?!" Ladybug complains, "I see you're playing favourites." He says to your operator.

"Oh I'd never," she responds. "Oh and also, you two are a newly wed adventurous couple who are on their honeymoon."

"Are they also complete losers?" You ask.

"indefinitely."

You both get to the train station which is bouncing with life, you walk alongside Ladybug who is talking with the operator about why exactly you two had been picked for the job, something about someone dropping out sick maybe? You weren't really listening.

"Shit." Ladybug says.

"Shit what?" You respond with a sigh, it was always something going wrong.

"I think I lost the key back there, some guy bumped into me."

"I'll get into it, what's the locker number."

"523." Replied the operator.

You get into the locker whilst Ladybug still talks about Carver, you do nothing but roll your eyes at how much he cares he wasn't a top priority for the mission. You gather the items in the locker, the pair of you put in your ear pieces and pack the little bag. You had no idea why half of the things were necessary but it really didn't matter, you were sure time would tell. There was a gun in there, which you wanted to take but your partner was on a no killing strike and wanted to become more peaceful, you thought that was ridiculous considering your jobs but his therapist had been filling his head with nonsense.

"Ladybug!" You grab his attention, ending his useless conversation. "The train.. it's about to leave."

"Oh. Let's go."

The two of you quickly shove your way onto the train, it was a very close call. Immediately you were impressed by your surrounding's, the train, even economy was borderline luxury.

"This place is nice," says Ladybug, nodding his head approvingly.

"Agreed." You respond, you both make your way down the train whilst your operator informs you both of the trains different compartments. Then she tells you what it is you're retrieving. A silver briefcase with a sticker on the handle.

"Briefcase owners are not simple to take from." Ladybug states.

"Can't say I've much experience stealing briefcases." You reply.

"The owners should be in economy class,"

"Owners? Plural. God I knew we should have taken the gun, fuck you and your therapist Ladybug." You tut.

"I was choosing spiritual enlightenment, besides there's two of us, two, hopefully, of them. We'll be fine."

You just sigh in response, the two of you continue walking where you're met with the ticket collector. You look to Ladybug who was the one in charge of the tickets, the prolonged pocket search told you everything you needed to know. You sigh once again pinching the bridge of your nose.

"Shit I think I dropped our tickets with the key,"

"Great! Fucking brilliant."

Another pocket search and Ladybug finds the receipt which the man reluctantly accepts.

"The takeaway from that is from now on I will hold onto important things, got it?"

"Fine by me." Ladybug concludes.

You both continue your walk through economy where you heard an all too familiar voice, the man who you just walked past sounded exactly like your husband. However you didn't see his face because Ladybug was blocking him, nevertheless there was no way it was him, he was on a business trip in London. Immediately that thought leaves your mind as you and Ladybug get to the luggage, you scan over the different bags.

"There's no fucking way were finding this," Ladybug scowls.

"Just did." You reply and grab the case careful of causing attention.

"Great work Kitty,"

"Hm, what's the catch?" You reply, things felt too easy.

"Just get off the train."

You both oblige and Ladybug attempts to conceal the case in his jacket, you would argue that it would only bring suspicion but your only focus was to exit. You both make your way through the different compartments again, your heart was thumping and you felt uneasy, but persevered until you stand at a door to exit.

"Ahh look, maybe my luck has increased," Ladybug says triumphally.

"God I hope so." You respond.

The train slows down and the door opens, on the other side is a very angry looking man with curly hair, a neck tattoo and a white suit. Who is looking at you with a look so intense it makes your skin crawl. Before you know it he is lunging at you and Ladybug with a knife in his hand, you gasp as he stabs Ladybug. The two of them fall back onto a glass door, shattering it and falling to the ground. But as he removes the knife it's revealed that he just got his phone, you sigh in relief and walk into the room they fell into as Ladybug stands up.

"You stabbed me?!" Cries Ladybug, it's a mere second until he lunges at him again. You watch as they fight, you look for a weapon.

You smash a champagne bottle over his head and at the same time Ladybug kicks him, making him stumble back. The comical fight between them continues, the man reveals his motive, something about you two being responsible for his wives death, which is ridiculous because it wasn't true. The man throws his knife at Ladybug who holds the briefcase up for protection, however the knife bounces back and hits the man right in the heart, killing him almost instantly.

"Well, so much for no killing." You say, as you take the knife from his chest and wipe it clean on his jacket. You put it in your pocket for later.

You help Ladybug clean up as you both attempt to figure out who he is with no luck you give up and you set him up on the seat eating a packet of nuts. Hopefully to distract from the fact he was dead, better than nothing you thought.

You and Ladybug split up, your job is to find a table and sit there for when he finds the owners of the briefcase. All the operator knew was that they were twins. Soon Ladybug comes to sit with you, telling you about how the twins aren't actually twins and how he just fought one in the quiet car.

You rolled your eyes. "Okay, we just have to get the case and leave."

"I can't just walk off they know what I look like."

"Well then, I'll get the case you try get off and I'll get past with the case, look at me no one will suspect me. You know this is a very sexist industry, but as of now it has its advantages."

You leave the other way of the train to make it back to retrieve the case whilst Lady bug works on finding a way to exit the train. You go to the place where you stashed the case, you however quickly learn it is no longer there.

"Fuck! For fuck sake. Stupid fucks must've got to it." You rant on as you practically tear apart the room looking for the case. And much to your dismay it is absolutely nowhere to be seen. You pace back and fourth trying to rack your brain on what to do- it was your only upper hand that the twins didn't know of your existence so you couldn't blow that by trying to retrieve the case of off them, you also didn't know what they looked like. Just as you're pacing you get a text message, it was from Ladybug.

'need ur help. i'm cornered.'

You sigh in dismay, but you knew you had to go and help Ladybug with this. So you work your way down the train, checking everywhere for your partner. You hear struggle in the distance so you knew you were getting closer, you brace yourself to walk in.

"Gotcha now, there's no way you're escaping you slithery bastard. Give me the case and you walk away untouched."

"For the last time we don't have the case."

"Yes you fucking do cause I ain't got it."

"Stop. My wife is coming, I don't want her to see this."

"Your wife? What sad sack is married to you."

"She's actually really hot I'll have you know." You walk in as Ladybug says that, you mentally gag.

You freeze on the spot as you see the back of the man fighting Ladybug. For some reason his hair was identical to your husband's hair, the height and build was also the same. But no... you were definitely wrong and simply overthinking. That is until he turned around and you swore you heart stopped momentarily.

"What the fuck?!!" Tangerine says.

You just stare at him as he stares at you, you had absolutely no idea what the fuck to do. How on earth has this happened? Ladybug looks between the two of you, the confusion plastered over his face.

"That's my wife. Not yours." Tangerine says, the expression on his face is unreadable, he didn't look angry.. but he wasn't happy to see you that's for sure.

Ladybug just starts laughing, clearly he doesn't believe it. But he soon stops once neither of you laugh with him. "Wait.. is this true?"

"Yes." You reply.

"You're married to this geezer?!" Tangerine says, he looked like he was going to kill someone, his fists were clenched and his breathing was quick. You couldn't help but let fear wash over you.

"No obviously not- we're on a mission." You sigh trying to find the words to explain yourself.

"I'm so fucking confused right now." Ladybug says, you glare at him and he quickly shuts up.

You lean against the counter and run your hands through your hair, Tangerine just stares at you and you get a proper look at him. He was roughed up, splattered with blood and messy hair. In any other context you'd be drooling over him.

"You're working with him to get the case?" Tangerine questions, crossing his arms.

"...yes," you awkwardly pick your nails, this whole situation was throwing you off, it felt weird between you and Tan now considering basically your whole marriage was a lie. Looking at him you wondered what else you didn't know.

"You lied to me." Tangerine walks closer to you.

"You lied to me." You narrow your eyes at him, standing up straight you raise an eyebrow at him.

"Well this is fucking weird," Ladybug says, you and Tan in sync tell him to shut up, and he does.

"We can talk about this later, I need that case." You say.

"No. You're not leaving my side, there's someone else running around here, I can't have anything happening to you."

A sense of relief washes over you as you learn he doesn't completely hate you anymore. Maybe your marriage wouldn't go to crap, but there was absolutely no way you'd be staying by his side like some helpless victim.

"No. I need the case, I can protect myself. And I will, I don't need you to hold my hand."

"(Y/N).." Tan starts.

"No." He just nods in response and passes you his gun, you take it and put it into your pocket, the air is filled with deadly silence. That is until Lemon walks in.

"There you are... oh (Y/N)." Lemon says, he stops dead in his tracks and does a take back. "(Y/N)?!" His face drops and he sends an alarming look to Tangerine who just shakes his head in response.

"What the fuck?!" You look between the two men, you truly couldn't be more taken aback.

Lemon nervously laughs. "Are you enjoying Japan? We had a change of plans, you know work is so unpredictable these days." He looks to Tangerine for help, he just runs his hand over his face whilst sighing.

"She knows everything and she's working with this dickhead." He points to Ladybug who just raises his hand.

"Right... well um great," Lemon falters you found it funny how confused he was, he never was great in awkward situations.

"Okay this was interesting but we've got places to be, come on Kitty."

You take one final glance at your husband who looks extremely stumped and Lemon who just looks puzzled, you weren't sure how the rest of this mission would go but you just knew you couldn't wait for it to be over.

You leave with Ladybug to go find the case again and leave the train, you knew Tangerine would be fine so you felt confident in your decision to leave him. Besides you had a mission to carry out and that you were going to do.

"How come I didn't know you were married?"

You sigh. "Because it is private information, I didn't want to put him in danger."

"He seems lovely.." Ladybug says, the sarcasm dripping off his words.

"He is lovely, you don't know him."

"Neither do you- he's an assassin and you had no idea."

"Shut up. We just need to get the case and get off this stupid fucking train."

You both make it to the first class longue and there the case is, back in its original spot. "That was not there when I looked." You furrowed your brows.

"You mustn't've looked properly."

"I fucking did, ripped the whole place apart."

Before you knew it you were in yet another fight, the Hornet lunged at you making you fall onto the table, you hit her over the head with the case allowing you to get up. It was a messy fight, arms and legs flying around. But here you are with a venomous needle inching towards you throat, you flip her onto her back and pry the needle out of her hand. You inject it into her neck and watch her face drop.

"Being killed by your own methods, that's dark." You watch as blood pours out of her eyes and her throat starts to close over, her struggled gasping and choking fills the area. You get up and watch as she dies, withering in pain.

"Fuck that was close." Ladybug sighs.

"Come on, we need to go."

The two of you make your way back through the train and down to economy. That's where you see Tangerine standing pointing a gun at a girl in pink with a bob. His expression is devasting yet full of a rage you've never seen in your life, it makes your stomach drop. Something has happened. You quicken your pace, Tangerine sees you and lowers the gun.

"What happened?" You ask, he looked borderline psychotic.

"Lemon, she." He points the gun at her, "killed Lemon."

You face drops and you look back to Ladybug.

"He's lying! Please help me, please." The girl pleads. You turn to her and punch her square in the face, knocking her back into the chairs. You punch her again in the throat, the move makes her blackout and you turn back to your husband.

"Fuck this job we need to get off this train."

Ladybug grabs the case and you three walk back the opposite way, ready to exist. Your mind is fuzzy and your head hurts, there's no way Lemon is dead, that reality devasts you. Lemon was like a brother to you, it broke your heart knowing things would never be the same. As you walk out of the train Ladybug doesn't follow you and Tangerine.

"Ladybug?" You look back to see him struggling against the girl in pink. "For fuck sake!"

"Just leave him, come on."

"No. I can't leave him. We need to help him." You walk back onto the train, Tangerine following you.

With much struggle you get the girl in pink on the ground, using zip ties you found in her bag you tie her hands together and force her into the seat. The four of you sit waiting for the next stop. No one uttering a word. A man comes to sit at the table next to you four, he immediately recognises the girl, she tells him his son is dead, his grandson next, yet he was one step ahead of her, so she sits useless and defeated, a look of triumph overcomes you, you wanted nothing more than to slit her throat but you knew she would have later value, so you leave her sitting there wallowing in her stupidity.

The man tells you all his story, you pick up on his wisdom, feeling nothing but trust towards him. So when he tells you all to follow him- bar the girl, you do. He takes you to the bathroom where his son, and Lemon lay. His son turns out is not dead and reaches for his father. Your eyes fixate on Lemon, unlike Tangerine who is leaning against the wall beside the bathroom. Your heart thumps as Lemon somehow yawns? His eyes open and he looks around, extremely confused.

"Am I in hell?" He questions.

"Oh my god!" You gasp, you turn to Tangerine who instantly stands behind you looking at Lemon.

He rips open his shirt, showing his bullet proof vest, where bullets sat, things were piecing together but you were extremely confused as to what exactly happened.

"Oh.. you drank the water." Concludes Ladybug.

"Water? What water?" Tangerine asks, looking to your partner.

"The water spiked with sleeping powder."

All of you go to sit, awaiting the next stop.

"I can't believe you're an assassin." Lemon says. As he sits opposite you.

"I guess I'm full of surprises," You shrug.

"We need to get off this bastarding train, no more being held back." Tangerine says, you could tell he wasn't half with it. None of you were but he was right.

"We need a plan," Ladybug says. You all agree, and the elder comes up with roles for each of you to properly execute the plan.

You go with Lemon to try and control the trains route, Tangerine goes with Ladybug to hand in the case and cause a distraction whilst the elder goes to take on the white death, something dramatic he said about getting his revenge.

"Fuck it's all in Japanese. There was no Thomas episodes in Japanese." Lemon scowls.

"It's fine, we'll figure it out." You respond trying to be optimistic.

"Okay, we just have to slow this down. Fucking stupid thing! Fucking slow down." Lemon curses.

"So far so good." Ladybug says as he approaches you both, "you can stop the train."

"We don't know how to fucking work this shit!" You groan trying to suppress your frustration.

Lemon and Ladybug go back and fourth, you head hurts from listening to them. Suddenly two men come through the door shooting their guns, you all duck down to shield yourselves from the bullets. You and Lemon lunge at the men, taking them down whilst leaving Ladybug to stop the train. One of the men had you up against the wall, hand over you throat choking you, you felt the life slowly draining your body and with every passing second you become more and more weak. You watch Lemon trying to take down two other men, he doesn't know you're being straggled. Just as you are about to accept your fate, Tangerine comes in, knocking the man to the ground and shooting him in the head. You gasp for air your fingers gently caressing your tender throat, Tangerine is instantly at you.

"Are you okay love?"

You nod and he strokes your cheek, a great sense of comfort overrides you, then he and goes to help Lemon take down the other two men. Whilst they do that Ladybug finally figures out how to stop the train. Or so you thought, the manual book flies out the window and the train collides with the one in front, you all grip onto something. Another two men make their way up to the driving cart, which you all in a group effort defeat. Ladybug starts pulling out all sorts of wires which make the slow down and ride right into a wall, sending you all flying forward through the train as it destructs its way through a village. You land laying on a patch of dirt, Tangerine beside you. You heard a gunshot and jump up, you see The White Dead dead with his brains blown.

You two make your way over to where Ladybug, the elder and his son are, not even two minutes later the girl in pink comes with a machine gun, talking about her fate and luck, which doesn't last long before she's hit with a moving vehicle.

"What the fuck..?" You sigh, you look to Tangerine who looks just as puzzled as you. Ladybug goes off with Maria your handler who came to get you both, you decided to stay with Tangerine and the two of you go to find Lemon.

"Can't believe I didn't realise you were an assassin. Seems so obvious now." Tangerine says, taking your hand.

"Yeah well I didn't notice either, besides. I think I'm done with it, today was too messy."

Tangerine nods in agreement, you both find Lemon who turns out was driving the truck that hit the girl. The three of you decide to go home, of course Lemon didn't rest until he found out the ins and outs of your work. You were relieved to know everything Tangerine had ever told you- besides obviously his job was true. Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all.

[leonspretty]

windows of opportunity

in which lance is a disaster romantic and misses every opportunity to ask you out

masterlist

pairing: lance x reader

tags: fem! reader, disaster romantic lance, blue paladin lance, oblivious reader, oblivious lance too, reader isn't a paladin she just, like, helps(?), very very tiny bit of angst, happy ending, fluff, mutual pining, flirty banter, no use of y/n, lance calls reader ‘pretty’ as a nickname, cheeky little taylor swift reference if you squint.

notes: as a huge hopeless romantic, missed opportunities with a happy ending and mutual pining but thinking the other doesn't reciprocate is my obsession. i also know i said the first one would be keith but then i thought of this and it fit lance more i think.

wc: 2.3k

“Rise and shine, work hard, carve out your name, Take aim, pull the trigger, hit the bulls eye for fame, Know the value of faith, an' family, and don't you complain, Open wide, your windows of opportunity" — Kate Denson's "Windows of Opportunity”

To say that Lance liked you was an understatement. He was obsessed. Not crazy obsessed, but obsessed in the way that you consumed his every thought.

Luckily this didn't extend to during fights, but even then he would still be acutely aware of where you were at all times, making sure he could hear your voice over the comms, often talking over Coran just to flirt with you.

You were no different. Having known Lance since before joining the Garrison, your feelings for him have come and gone repetitively. Each time you'd confide in Pidge, declaring that you were over him after seeing him treat someone else the same way he treats you, claiming that he'd only ever see you as a friend, he'd do something that would make you retract anything bad you'd ever said about him.

Yours and Lance's feelings were obvious to everyone and it bewildered them how you both thought they were one sided.

The kitchen was quiet, Hunk, Keith and Pidge holding conversation while each did their own thing: Hunk baking, Keith tracing his blade and Pidge on her computer. Peaceful.

"What if I say something and she thinks I'm weird and never talks to me again?"

Keith and Pidge immediately groaned while Hunk remained silent, watching as Lance walked past all three of them, interrupting their conversation and train of thoughts. He threw himself onto a chair at the table across from Pidge who had already gathered her things and gotten up to leave. "Nope, not dealing with this again," she said as she left.

"She already thinks you're weird, I'm surprised she still puts up with you," Keith says from the spot next to where Pidge was. Lance glared at him in response, ignoring him.

"I think you should just try. If her face when she looks at you is anything to go off, I'm pretty sure she likes you too." It was a usually useless statement that was many times returned with "You're lying," or "I would've noticed." This time however, Lance turned to face Hunk and instead said,

"I was on my way to ask her out just now but she was training with Shiro and was in a zone and I didn't wanna disrupt that cause- where are you going?" Lance cut his rant off with a question directed at Keith who was leaving the kitchen.

"To train," was all he replied with.

"So you're finally going to do it? Why are you in here then?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah I am. I'm sick of wondering if she feels the same so I'm just gonna ask. I've never had a problem with it before so why should I now?"

From there, Lance vowed to himself that he would ask you out as soon as possible. He didn't want to spend any more time not being able to call you his than he had to.

You heard your name being called from down the corridor as you made your way to the showers. Training with Shiro was one thing, training with Shiro and Keith was another when you weren't out in the field anywhere near as often as them. It also didn't help how Keith had mentioned he had come to you two to escape Lance's apparent rambling about you. It had thrown you off and to make up for it and stop Shiro's teasing, you had put even more effort in than you normally would.

Turning around, you saw Lance running to catch up to you. Despite wanting to turn and make a run for it to the showers to avoid any embarrassment, you stopped and waited for him to meet you.

Huffing slightly, Lance met up with you and stopped to take you in. You were beautiful. Even when you were clearly sweaty and exhausted. He had to shake his head slightly to keep his thoughts from turning dirty. "Finished training?"

"Yeah, was just heading to the showers, wanna join me?" you said with a smirk, knowing that your question could be taken a couple different ways.

Recognising your signature smirk you used whenever the two of you would 'harmlessly' flirt, Lance played along. "Of course."

"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?" Lance froze up briefly. He had wondered if Keith had overheard him say that he was going to ask you out and had opened his big mouth to you. You quietened his thoughts by following up with, "You look like you wanna say something. If its to tell me I smell, I know, Shiro and Keith are not easy opponents."

"Yeah you do stink, but I hope you kicked Keith's ass." Lance joked. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you the best way to ask someone out." Your smile dropped for a second before replacing it with a forced one. You knew he didn't like you and he wasn't yours to lose so why should you keep someone else from experiencing what you could only dream about.

"Oh, well, it depends who it is. Personally, I like when it's done in a way that shows the person really knows me, like with trinkets or using inside jokes as a way of showing their feelings rather than just saying it. Allura though, she'd probably like to be taken somewhere nice, so when you ask her out maybe do it on a planet with a nice skyline or sunset or something." You knew it had to be Allura he was planning to ask out. He'd been flirting with her ever since you all met her. It was only a matter of time. You felt the unwanted tears build up - you had to get away, and fast. "Oh look, we're at the showers, thanks for walking with me and good luck on asking Allura, I'm sure she'll say yes." You were out of sight in seconds.

Lance stood facing the door speechless and confused. Where did Allura come into this? Why were you so quick to leave? He had only asked how to ask someone in hopes to lead up to him actually asking but instead his window of opportunity had closed before he even let it open.

His next window was clear. He had his speech planned out, knew exactly what he wanted to say and how. Now was the perfect opportunity. You were the only one on the bridge, sat in his seat seemingly just relaxing. Why you were doing that here instead of in the lounge he didn't know but he decided to ask later.

You hadn't noticed Lance's presence until you head a "Quiznack" be muttered under his breath as he tripped over his own feet, luckily managing to catch himself. You sat up and turned to face him. "Finally falling for me, Sharp-shooter?" you joked, internally cringing at the use of the word 'finally'.

If Lance had noticed your slip up, he didn't mention it. Instead, he rounded to the front of the chair you were in and dropped to sit on the floor facing you. "You wish. No. I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"How did it go with Allura?" Truthfully, you didn't want to know, but you were sure you'd hear about it from one of them soon enough so why not get it out of the way.

"How did what go with Allura?" The confusion on his face was obvious.

"You were gonna ask her our remember? You literally asked me how to do it like two days ago." You mirrored Lance's confusion.

"Oh." Silence. "Oh! No! I wasn't planning to ask her out! I actually wanted to ask you-" his voice, which was already turning very quiet was cut off by you sitting up and squinting at the window.

"What was that?" You asked yourself aloud. Lance mistook that as a question for him.

"I said-" he was cut off again when you quickly got up and ran to the window.

"Quiznack!"

"What?"

"Alert everyone. Get to your lions. Now."

At that, Lance looked outside to see multiple Galra ships appearing. He groaned internally. To you the groan was about having to go out and fight. For him, the groan was because yet another window of opportunity had shut.

Keith really just wanted to lay down. Not necessarily sleep as that had never come easy to him, but he was exhausted. Instead he had to listen to you whine about how Lance doesn't share your feelings. When he had asked why you were coming to him about this you had said that everyone who wasn't Lance was busy and she didn't want to bother them. At that moment he wished you hadn't found him sat in the lounge. As much as he cherished you as a friend, he was quite frankly sick of hearing about Lance. When there was a knock at the door of his room, of which you had followed him into and immediately flopped onto his bed mid rant, Keith rolled his eyes and opened it. He was glad it had at least got you to be quiet since you also wondered who it was.

"Hey have you seen, oh hi pretty, Keith have you seen-" Lance stopped talking. When he'd said hi, he wasn't thinking, it was natural instinct. When he realised you were laid out on Keith's bed, his brain caught up to his mouth.

You, on the other hand, were blushing. It wasn't the first time Lance was calling you pretty. In fact it's what he called you 90% of the time. But it was the timing. You had just been complaining about how he doesn't think of you except from if he has to or if you're talking with him then he calls you pretty, offhanded. You were going insane.

"What's up?" Keith asked Lance, aiming a sly smirk at you as if he could tell you were going crazy over both seeing the person who was the main character of your rant and at the name said person had called you.

"Actually I was looking for her but if you guys are busy..."

Keith took this opportunity to both get rid of you so he can lie down and also get back at you for talking his ear off. "No, no, please, take her, I'm sick of hearing about you."

Lance ignored Keith's comment, turning to you, "Can we talk?"

Your eyes went wide as you sat up, your heart immediately dropping. Had you done something wrong? Had he overheard you talking about how much you liked him? Was this the end of your guys's friendship? You'd rather have him as a friend than nothing at all. You just nodded and said bye to Keith as you left his room.

The door closed within milliseconds of you leaving the room. It was just you and Lance now. Alone. "Come on," Lance smiled and started walking to his room.

Arriving in his room, Lance's nerves began to pick up. This was his chance. Again. He promised to himself that this is it. He wasn't going to let another interruption keep him from telling you how he feels.

Being in his room alone with him was nothing new, so why did you feel so nervous. "Come sit down, pretty." Lance patted the spot next to where he had just sat on his bed. You plastered a smile on your face and sat down.

"What's up? You never ask to talk, you usually just... do."

Lance let out a snort at that, giving you a pointed glance. "Oh and you don't?"

"I never said that."

The light hearted joking relaxed you - it's what you were used to between the two of you.

Your previous nerves about what Lance had to say dissipated as the two of you continued to joke together a little longer.

"Lance. You didn't come find me just to hang out. I know you. What's up?"

He had been putting it off, nerves creeping up the closer he came to confessing and so he sought comfort in your company as it was. Lance nodded and cleared his throat, turning to look in your eyes. "Every time I've tried to talk to you about this, something interrupts me: you rushing off to the showers, then the galra finding us. And then you thought I asked Allura out which is crazy because yeah she's-"

"Lance." You cut him off, not wanting to hear about how the princess of Altea was perfect and dreamy. "Come on."

"As I was going to say, before someone rudely interrupted, again-"

You laughed and stuck your tongue out at him quickly and jokingly.

"Hey! Anyway, yeah Allura is cool, I mean, she's a princess. But she isn't you." He paused, but realised how that could be taken, he continued, "I don't want Allura... I want you pretty girl. And it has taken me way too long to finally tell you. There have been so many missed windows of opportunity, and I refuse to miss any more. It's you. It's always been you, and I'm sorry I led you to believe otherwise."

You were speechless. A confession wasn't even on the list of things you had expected to come from this talk. The smile that grew on your face was unstoppable. Not trusting yourself to let out a happy squeal, you threw your arms around the man who had just told you he chooses you.

The sudden force took Lance by surprise, but he was fast to wrap his arms around your waist and fall back onto his bed, pulling you down with him. You lifted your head to look Lance in the eyes. Lance took this as his chance to finally make things official. "Will you be mine, pretty?"

The smile you didn't think could grow any wider, did. "I will always be yours, Loverboy Lance."

notes: i low-key kinda don't like how this ended up but i tried. it's also only slightly proof-read because i wanna move on to a keith fic now. also, if you saw this before, i reposted it cause i wanted it after my masterlist stuff so its still the same just reposted. reblogs, comments and likes are always appreciated. i also may make a taglist so let me know if you wanna be on it!

@cafekitsune made the dividers here!

thank you for reading!!

[alotofpockets]

Moon | Wanda Maximoff

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Summary: Based on the song Moon by Reneé Rapp. Reader is having a hard time sleeping after a bad breakup with Wanda.

A/n: This is a repost from an old account.

Masterlist | Marvel masterlist | Words: 1K

Sleep didn’t come easy to you these days, you spend your nights either staring at your ceiling or outside of your window, your thoughts never ending. The lack of sleep caused by your breakup with Wanda was taking a toll on your mental health. Though, your days tend to be better than your nights, during the day you have enough distractions to not miss Wanda. However, the second you flipped the lights off and you’re in this room at night, that’s when your mind starts wondering, thinking back on the time you spent with her. Remembering all the happy memories that you shared, though of course that only made you miss her more.

It hurts that she’s somewhere out there still existing, while you feel like you don’t sometimes. You feel like a robot on autopilot trying to navigate through the week. You get up in the morning, go to work, get home, eat, go to bed, and do it all over the next day. Nothing more than a step by step routine, a mindless cycle, to survive.

It had been incredibly hard to try and not care about Wanda, when all you wanted to do was convince her to stay. In your mind you knew that was never going to happen though, she had made that very clear. Not to say the breakup was all Wanda’s fault though. You had hoped for Wanda to see your point, to fight for what you had, but you ended up having different views. Talking about those differences had ended up in a much different way than you had imagined. 

Wanda had come back injured from yet another mission, it broke you to see her hurt, especially because it happened over and over again. She would come back home with cuts, bruises and broken bones, mission after mission. It was getting bad to the point that you just had to share your thoughts on the matter.

“Darling, you’re hurt again, that is like the third time this month. You have to be more careful.” You said sharing your concerns. In hindsight bringing this conversation up right after she came back from an exhausting mission wasn’t the best timing, but there was no turning that back around. “I can’t very well put my safety first when I am trying to help people, y/n.” Wanda replied in annoyance. “When I am saving lives, I have to put their lives in front of my own, that’s kind of in the job description.” - “I know it’s a part of the job, it’s just that I am trying to plan a future with you but each time you’re on a mission I am afraid that you won’t come back to me, and that scares me. I know how important being an Avenger is to you. How important it is to right the wrongs from your past, but at what point will saving lives and putting your own in danger make it even?” You’re getting frustrated, as all these emotions have been piled up over the past couple of months. You should’ve communicated feeling this way sooner, you realize that now, maybe then you would still be able to fix this.

“If you know how important this is to me, you wouldn’t ask me to give it up.” You take a deep breath before speaking again. “I’m not asking you to give it up. I’m just.. I guess I’m just asking if you can work in the field less. You can be an Avenger in many ways, training or less invasive missions for example. All I’m asking is for you to prioritize our future a bit more.” Wanda was clearly not agreeing with you as she replied back to you with, “That certainly could be a possibility for some people, but not for me. I am not going to change what I love doing the most in this world for an outcome that is up to fate anyways. I’m not giving up on the one thing that makes me feel the slightest bit okay with what I did in my past, not just because you’re scared that I might not make it. I can handle myself just fine and why don’t you just work on being less worried?” 

The tears you had been holding in were now rolling down your cheeks. “I can’t, Wanda. I can’t go on like this anymore. I can’t keep thinking you are going to die everytime you go out on a mission. I can’t, I can’t do this. If you don’t want to try for us, I think this is it.” 

That was the last time you had seen Wanda in person. Wanda didn’t want to fight for your future together, and you couldn’t keep going without any change. So, that’s how your three year relationship ended. A part of you understood that it wasn’t fair of you to ask her to step down, as you knew how important being an Avenger was to her, but the bigger part of you still stood behind your own needs. It would have happened over time anyways but you couldn't imagine staying happy in a relationship where you’re constantly worried about if they’re going to come back to you alive, especially because she had no interest in being safer and more caring about her own life, in any way, shape or form.

The conversation of that night plays over and over in your head, while you’re laying in bed looking out of the window. The moon shines bright and you wonder if Wanda is having trouble sleeping too, is she looking at the moon, just as you are? The night skies stare back at you as in the stars, you can see her eyes. The only place left for you and her to exist. 

As the light reflecting off the moon casts streaks of light onto your face, your last thought before closing your eyes was you wondering, when we’re looking at the same moon, do you miss me too?

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[fourseasonscomeandgo]

Banana.

Pairing: SNSD Taeyeon x gn!reader.

Word Count: 1.4k

Genre: Fluff.

"Lie down."

"I don't want to."

"Lie down." You took the banana you were cutting up with intentions of making it into a smoothie, and pointed it at her.

"I don't want to." She repeated, crossing her arms, putting her chin up, challenging you.

"Kim Taeyeon." You called her name, confronting her in the same way.

"Will you throw me that banana?" She questioned, raising her eyebrows "It's the only one left." She reminded.

"Whatever it takes?" She took two steps back, stretching her arms out to hold onto the edges of the archway that led into your kitchen "Well, catch me if you can." She sentenced, using the support on the timbers to generate momentum and turn on her heels, then dashed off.

"I'll do whatever it takes." You affirmed "On the couch." You ordered.

You threw the banana you were holding in your hands in the direction of her small figure that was now running away from you, as if you thought the impact would be hard enough to knock her down.

However, the banana missed.

You paused for a moment to look at the fruit scattered on the ground, thinking that now you would not be able to finish your smoothie, and you would also have to clean up.

After the realization that your olympic toss hadn't helped at all, you ran out the way your girlfriend had fled earlier. You stopped in the hallway to analyze which door she might have entered through.

The bathroom? Why would she go into the bathroom?

The dressing room? Could she have been hiding among the clothes?

The bedroom? Definitely in there.

You carefully open the door and step into the room you share with Taeyeon. Making as little noise as possible while walking, you scanned the place in search of her.

"Taengoo?" You uttered finally as you weren't able to find the girl anywhere.

Silence.

You ran your eyes around the room, scanning it again. Your gaze finally falling on a certain place: the bed. More precisely, under it. You wouldn't want to think she was there, because of how obvious it would have been to hide there, but it was the only place unchecked.

"Love?" you called out to her again.

This time being reciprocated by a bark coming from Zero, who was, effectively, under the bed.

"Zero-yah!" You heard your partner whine, only to have the little puppy subsequently come out of hiding and start jumping at you, asking you to pick him up.

From under the mattress peeked Taeyeon's head, who was watching you, frustrated, with a pout on her lips.

"Get out of there and lie down." You resumed the topic that had caused this whole situation.

"Taeyeon! You have a fever!" You reproached her with an incredulous tone.

"I have to go to work." She explained, expressionless, obvious.

You weren't able to assimilate your girlfriend's behavior. For almost two years now, she hadn't stopped working, as if she didn't already have enough money. You admired her, of course you did. One of the big reasons why you were so in love with her was that vehement passion for what she does. But everything has a limit, and she was exceeding hers.

You could understand if Taeyeon was turning down a whim of yours for her to stay at home with you, but this time, she was sick and still wanted to get into that studio where she spends hours and days.

You had to intervene, of course you had to intervene, for her sake.

"What are you thinking about?" Her voice interrupted your train of thought and you turned your gaze to her head, which, as she hadn't fully come out of hiding yet, was still peeking out from under the place where you both slept.

"Bullshit," she denied as she pulled her body out from under there "you weren't thinking about that, but okay."

"That you're not up yet."

She left the room and started walking around the house. At first you didn't understand what she was doing, but then you could see that Taeyeon was gathering her things

to leave.

"Yah!" You exclaimed as you saw her head for the front door.

After hearing your shout and realizing you had already read the situation, she tried to run as fast as she could towards her freedom, but your legs are longer, so you were in time to catch her by the waist and gently push her back.

"You're worse than a toddler." You scolded her by pointing your finger at her.

"I don't care."

"Love, I'm just fine." She assured, whining.

You walked until you were close to her, then bent down. She looked at you, not getting what you were doing. You put your arm behind her knees, causing her to lose her balance, to which she squealed in surprise, and using that opportunity, you lifted her up and rested her on your shoulder.

It's not that you were a person with a lot of strength. It's just that Taeyeon is practically a plant.

"Hey! This can't be legal. You're holding me against my will!" She kicked, hit your back, and even bit your shoulder, trying to get you to put her down.

Finally, you gently set her down on the bed you share, giving her a kiss on the forehead, opening the sheets so you could cover her with them.

"Yes, I will," you took off your slippers and climbed onto the bed, gluing your body to hers and wrapping her in your arms "you can never resist me."

"You won't buy me with love, you bastard." She said, putting on a voice that sounded like gollum in the Spain dub and turning to the side to turn her back to you.

She turned abruptly to look at you with a judgemental grimace, unable to believe your outburst of self-esteem.

"I'm sorry." You murmured, looking at her sweetly, as if in your eyes you carried tenderness itself.

"You're not lying, but you could be more modest." She advised with a raised eyebrow, and the corners of her lips turned down.

Taeyeon gently held your face in her hands, brushing your cheeks with her fingertips, giving your jaw a support with her palms. She leaned in close enough for your nostrils to nuzzle and then moved her head subtly up and down to extend the gesture. You were in such a trance before her adoration that until she moved her lips, you didn't notice that she was kissing you. You raised your hand, resting it on her chest, and pushed her away.

"You have a fever, don't kiss me!" You shrieked.

"Are you kidding me!?" She replied, frustrated "You won't let me go to work, I'm sick, you chased me and held me against my will, and now I can't even kiss you?" She collapsed between the pillows, covering her face with her hands, dejected.

"Kim Taeyeon, we need to talk."

"If you break up with me, you're ugly." She sat up quickly, pointing accusingly at you.

"Seriousness."

"Okay, seriousness." She furrowed her eyebrows.

"You're working too much."

"How can I ever be working too much? If it's work, it can never be too much." She interrupted you.

"Taeyeon, you're overworking yourself." You repeated, dropping the playful tone and sounding worried.

"My love, you lost weight, you hardly sleep and you even eat little." You took her hands "You haven't taken a break in years." Your eyes met, in her face you noticed that she knew what you were saying was true.

"It's not like that..."

"Yes, honey, I know." She said, looking down to her hands.

"You're sick right now. Is it really so terrible for you to stay at home for a few days and do nothing?"

She averted her gaze to the side, trying to suppress a smile.

The reality was that it generated butterflies in her belly that you took care of and worried about her.

But you don't know that.

"It wouldn't be so bad." She whispered, succumbing to your words.

"Wouldn't it?" You smiled broadly.

"It wouldn't." She agreed "But I have one condition," you put on your serious face again "you have to kiss me."

"Taeng..."

"Of course I'll kiss you, just stay there." You fell backward onto the mattress, taking her with you, only to position yourself on top of her and press a kiss to her plumpy lips.

"Okay, then I have to go to practice." She tried to stand up, only to be stopped by your embrace.

Taeyeon lifted her arms and wrapped them around your neck, pulling you into her, deepening the kiss. But you suddenly got up and just walked away.

"There's a banana scattered on the floor of our living room." You replied disinterestedly.

"Where are you going!?" Taeyeon shouted upset.

—ica.

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

This summer, you starred in the very successful MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE. How has it been returning to the franchise after all these years?

It’s always wonderful and exciting. I’ve been a part of this journey now for 10 years, for three films and there are different aspects of filming it. You’re pre-filming as you are prepping, you’re getting ready, you’re training, you’re living MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Then it’s the filming, which is wonderful, tiring, exhausting and exhilarating. And then there’s a long pause before you get to relive all of those feelings when you start promoting it. I’m excited for the fans to see it, being a huge MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE fan, but it’s also such a lovely feeling to be reminded of the journey that you’ve had because in my mind, I’m filming other things, I’m busy doing other things, so I get to sort of defibrillate those emotions again, which is just wonderful.

What do you love most about this franchise and action movies in general?

I really love building the world prior to shooting, understanding the character, getting into it. I love the training. I am fortunate to be surrounded by the best of the best when it comes to either learning to hold my breath, deep diving, jumping off a roof, martial arts, gun fighting. It is such a weird world to be thrown into, cause it’s not my world, it’s not what I do on a weekend. And the travel is a treat. 

International audiences got to know you for your role as the iconic Queen Elizabeth in THE WHITE QUEEN. How do you look back on this role?

When I was offered the role, it was such an overwhelming moment because it happened so fast. It took years to process what had happened. The process of casting took months. I remember going in and then them not calling me back and thinking that I didn’t get it. Then they called me back again three times, put me in a hotel room and then all of a sudden I got a phone call at nine in the morning and they were like ‘You’ve got the role. We’re going to color your hair. We’re going to have a table read with all the actors and you’re moving to Bruges in two days’.

I kind of work well with such pressure, but it takes time to sit down and take in what just happened. When I was receiving award nominations and I was in the room with all of the people who I look up to, I just thought ‘I don’t belong here. Am I where I should be? ‘It’s a slow domino effect of realizing how lucky I am. And today I sometimes think it was insane when that happened.

Would you describe the role of Queen Elizabeth as the role that set the tone for the future of your career?

Yes, definitely. I remember in the beginning thinking MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE was what set the tone. It’s always sort of back tracing, always wanting to give praise to all the opportunities that I’ve been a part of. But it is obviously what would help my career get to the level it is today. And also it’s the fact that you’ve been given that possibility. I am going to give myself a pat on the back today. I grabbed it and I ran with it. I did what I could with the opportunity at hand. It’s not just sitting back and being grateful, it is working with what you have been handed as well.

Since THE WHITE QUEEN, you’ve starred in many big productions and have become one of the leading ladies in the industry. How do you personally feel about this ‘title’? 

It is so funny, I was having a conversation with my husband this morning at breakfast, where we were talking about our lives and what we’re missing and what we long for. You said to me that I’m one of the leading ladies in the industry. And I think I do not identify as that. I feel very lucky with the roles that I’m offered, but I always seek further and am thinking ‘Why am I not getting the indie movies? Why am I not being offered this? I should create this myself. I need to open this world for myself. I’m missing things here.’ It doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for where I am, but I very rarely stand still. I am constantly moving and aspiring to do new things. Iprobably need to learn to sit back and think about how well I’m doing, grab the family and have time off as well.

This November we’ll be seeing you reprise your role in DUNE: PART TWO. What can you share with us about this sequel? 

I’m so ridiculously excited for it to come out. Everything that I have seen, the little clips when I’ve done additional dialogue recording, is phenomenal, it’s extraordinary. When we have to do some additional dialogue recordings we go into studio, so we get to see some footage. Greig Fraser has taken this film to other levels when it comes to cinematography. I don’t like lifting one role over the other, but I have to say the new characters that have come in, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, they are mind-blowing. It’s gritty and gory and Jacqueline West’s costumes and Donald Mowat’s makeup, they win every prize in my book.

How is it working in such an all star ensamble, with such big names from the industry?

I don’t value a film that I do because it is ejected with so much fame more than I do a film that has less. What I do like is meeting people who are inspiring and kind and fun. And being on a set with a lot of actors gives you the possibility to merge and to share anecdotes and stories with them if they’re open for it. You might not click with everyone, but I’m lucky enough that I did with everyone on DUNE. My point is, it doesn’t matter how famous people are or how big things are.

Before you got into acting, you had been dancing since an early age. How did your acting career actually come about?

I wasn’t a dancer, but I loved moving. My mother raised me to try things out. I did ballet, tap, dance, street, funk, jazz. I did a bridge course with four 70-year old ladies when I was 14 or 13 because I was very good at counting cards. I did basketball, gymnastics. There’s nothing I haven’t tried. And I think that open-mindedness always helped me in the world of acting. I’m never scared of trying things. I was never worried of making a foolout of myself. I’m not too worried as a person. I have always been a person of leisure in a sense that I ride the wave, I ride what is interesting for me at the moment.

I’ve never been eager to prove myself at something specific. I am a person who is not pushing myself down, but I think I was always just good enough and I never pushed that extra mile. Like, I was an Argentinian tango teacher. I was good, I wasn’t great. I didn’t go the extra mile. Acting I think is the only thing where I’ve just thrown myself in full-heartedly. 

What challenges you the most about acting?

When I was little, my morning routine and my mom’s was putting classical music on, usually Mozart. Cause she thinks that’s a good morning start for the brain. We would have a cup of tea and then we would do three card games. One was poker. We would play poker with matches and every time I was given a new hand, I was excited to see what the cards were going to be. Even to this day when I play cards, turning out my first turn of five hands or five cards is exciting. 

That’s what I feel about acting. The first time I get to walk into costume and see how they’re thinking, the first time I walk onto set to see how the set designers have done their job, meeting the actors, every moment with acting is a new hand dealt. That’s what I love a lot. Life between people is a constant dance, give and take.

You are also a mom. How hard is it being on set and balancing your career with your family life?

The privacy of life is so wonderful and I think what I have managed to do is to maintain it. This means there’s scheduling, there’s structure. Me and my family, we’ve found a really good formula to how it works. Life is life for everyone. It’s constant scheduling, whether you have a nine to five job or you work traveling the world.

Rebecca, which moment would you describe as the most defining moment of your life so far?

I think it’s the moment when I was offered the role in THE WHITE QUEEN. It took me out of my security blanket of Sweden. And it’s not that I was seeking to leave Sweden, but it opened up an entirely new world for me. Being given the lead in this BBC drama, a world that I could not even imagine what it would be like, and living abroad for so long created a new vision for me and why I kept on going. Before that, I wasn’t sure I was going to act. I’d done a Swedish film called A ONE-WAY TRIP TO ANTIBES, which I loved, but that was the only film I’d really done. So the role of Queen Elizabeth was a defining moment that my career was probably going to go in this direction.

[thewhumpcaretaker]

You said you were super busy, so no pressure but I love your HCs and the snippets you write so I wanted to give you a little prompt from the list you reblogged a while back: sharing a dessert for John and Santino?

Thank you for this ask!! Your thoughts about Santino teasing John in restaurants and bars and even over the dinner table really inspired me, so this is a bit based on that. Also, thanks for waiting a while - things have been super hectic but I’d been looking forward to this ask!

CW: suggestive

Banana Split

●・○・●・○・●

“What do you mean you’ve never had an ice cream sundae, John?”

“I just…never did.” By the awkward way he looked off out the window, they both knew what that meant: another everyday experience John hadn’t gotten to enjoy as an assassin in training. 

They were in a much fancier restaurant than John typically frequented. If he was in a place like this, it usually meant he was in the midst of a job, and dessert was the last thing on his mind. A sundae wasn’t even on the menu. But they’d gotten to talking about favorite foods, and after hearing that, Santino wasn’t about to let it go.

He flagged down the waiter. “I’d like to make a custom order from the chef: a banana split, please.”

“Of course, Mr. D’Antonio.” The waiter didn’t dare miss a beat in front of such an important customer, even if the request was odd.

John raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were talking about an ice cream sundae.”

“A banana split is a type of ice cream sundae. The best type, and I’ll show you why.”

It wasn’t long before they had one sitting in front of them, vanilla topped with chocolate fudge and two maraschino cherries, with half a banana sticking out of each end.

“Since it’s your first time, you’d better take those cherries.” Santino’s eyes were alive with mirth. He was going to enjoy every minute of this, John realized.

“…One of them. You get the other.” He was blushing as he took the first scoop, overflowing with fudge and red syrup around the cherry.

“You want to see me do tricks that badly, John?” Santino took the cherry all by itself and puckered his lips for a moment before spitting out the stem tied in a knot. John struggled to look away from it. “Nothing to say? Have I tied your tongue that much too?”

“Shut up.” He lifted a spoon to Santino’s lips and filled his mouth with an explosion of sweetness.

“Mmmm…” Santino leaned forward, making a sound so obscene it caused John to glance around in fear that they’d be overheard.

“Somehow I think that’s even worse than talking…”

“Or better.”

“…Or better,” he admitted, locking eyes for a moment. His expression was already smoldering, just two bites into this dessert. He shifted in his seat as subtly as he could, but Santino missed nothing.

“It’s no fair for you to feed me if I don’t do the same for you. Open up, and swallow everything.” He scooped up as much fudge as possible and bit his bottom lip while raising it to John’s. There was something so sweet, so innocent, about the sight of John Wick looking up at Santino from heavily shadowed brows with his mouth full, swallowing exactly as he was told. Always so ready to please. 

As much as he’d intended to tease him, Santino suddenly felt a flash of tenderness. He thought not only of John on his knees in the bedroom, but John spoon feeding him when he’d been bedridden with bullet wounds. How John had put life right into his body and how much he wanted to repay him in kind. Their lovemaking was always like that - tinged with an undercurrent of affection. An expression of the way they had saved each other. 

John caught that look and answered it in kind, with a sound at once perverted and deeply sentimental. A hungry sort of growl of appreciation that trembled its way out of his chest. “You’re tempting me,” he said when he had devoured everything.

“What?” Santino said innocently. “You should try the banana too, that’s the whole secret of a banana split.”

So John got him back for that in just a moment. Without breaking eye contact, he took a whole half of the banana, dripping with fudge, and stuffed it deep into his mouth, down his throat in one go like a sword swallower. “It’s pretty good. But I’ve tasted something better.”

Santino’s eyes widened, flickered to John’s lips and then back again. “Check please,” he said breathlessly.

[warriorofyapping]

✩ Introduction ✩

Main WoL: Takara Kasanui on Maduin

Current Expansion: Endwalker

Alts

Fel Husanir on Seraph

Ayymeric Deborel on Seraph

Foulques Misttrail on Golem

A'vett Nunh on Rafflesia -> @theforgetfulwarrior

There will be spoilers for the current expansion I'm on! I will be talking about it! That is your warning and why it it listed up above! The tag for it will be " 'expansion' spoilers "!

This is a side-blog, main is @ajaxskingdom, so any follows will come from there. I honestly just made this blog so I can yap about ffxiv and only ffxiv here. I might post stuff about my other WoLs every now and then, but I will mainly talk about Takara and ??? here.

(Info about Takara is down below) (Info about Fel is here)

Takara Kasanui

(I did not take many ARR pictures of Takara woops)

✩ Raen Au'ra ✩ Nameday -> 17th Sun of the 6th Umbral Moon ✩ ARR-32 -> Post-HW to Stb-33 -> SHB-34 -> EW-35 ✩ Born in Doma, moved to Limsa Lominsa ✩ Main Classes: Gunbreaker & Viper ✩ Side Classes: Dragoon & Ninja ✩ Main Ship: Thancred ✩ Relationships with the Scions (link)

Originally born in Doma, he had once been involved in the resistance, but after a huge misunderstanding where he got accused of being a Garlean spy, he ended up leaving the nation, taking up residence in Eorzea. His innocence had been proven, but there was still an air of mistrust, and he didn't want to be viewed as a criminal anymore, so he left despite being asked to stay. He lived in Limsa Lominsa and had been unaware that he had the Echo up until the Battle of Carteneau happened. He had intended to leave, not wanting to be involved in another nation's war, but ended up staying and assisting due to Hydaelyn's interference. Watching the world fall apart, burning all around as the moon fell, he found himself needing to help, he couldn't walk away.

He's accepted his role as a Warrior of Light relatively easily, though he has his doubts now and then on whether or not he's good enough to be looked to the way the others do. He's missed having others rely on him to an extent, but being looked to for guidance is something new that he still isn't quite used to.

Takara is a relatively quiet man, though he has been doing his best to be better about it. He was closed off during the first month with the Scions, but as time passed, they slowly managed to worm their ways passed the wall he had put up after the incident in Doma. Behind his seemingly cold exterior, they found a warm man with a gentle smile and an even gentler touch. He did his best to avoid accidentally hurting those close to him and tried everything in his power to be someone they could depend on.

After his first fight with Zenos, he became a bit obsessed with growing stronger and that obsession never went away, even after he defeated Zenos. The need to be as strong as he possibly can be buzzes beneath his skin and he trains constantly so that he can protect those around him.

His eyes and scales never really went back to normal after the Light Corruption, even when he tried to find ways to fix it. The limbal rings stayed that blinding white, his scales forever paper white, and despite his best to pretend like it didn't bother him, it clearly did, especially whenever someone asked about it. He refuses to explain the cause and the Scions don't tell anyone either, knowing how much it would upset him if they did.

[mama-qwerty]

You know how ferrets will gather up and hoard stuff? I imagine Eclipse does the same. Callie can't find her serving spoons so she goes to search his room

The gremlin would TOTALLY hoard stuff. ~~~~~

"MOM! WHERE'S MY APPLE HOODIE??"

"How should I know? Clean your room and maybe you'll find it."

"I DID AND IT'S NOT HERE!"

"I don't think it's in the laundry, so look again. It's gotta be there."

"IT'S NOT!!"

"THEN I DON'T KNOW SILVER, STOP YELLING ACROSS THE HOUSE!!"

Callie heaved a sigh as she shook her head. She loved that little hedgehog to bits but sometimes that boy couldn't see something even if it were right in front of his face.

Besides, she had her own problems.

She opened another drawer. They shouldn't have been in here in the first place, so it was no surprise when she didn't find them. With a grunt she closed it again, her brow furrowed.

Her measuring spoons were missing. She'd looked everywhere--in the dishwasher, under the counter, in every drawer in the kitchen--they just weren't anywhere. Like they'd grown legs and wandered off.

A lot of stuff around the house seemed to have developed that ability lately.

Clothes. Her spoons. Bits and pieces out of the trash. A few of her hair ties. (Okay, the cats may be behind that mystery, as she'd caught Bloom tossing one in the air to chase a few days ago.)

She and Silver always seemed to be missing something. If it were just Silver, she could brush it off as his forgetfulness. He often just put things down and forgot where.

But it wasn't just him. Callie was nowhere near a neat-freak, but she liked things in a certain order. (Because, she too would lose things if she didn't have a specific place to put them.) And those things were walking away, too. Things she knew she'd put away properly.

So, if she was losing things, and Silver was losing things, that left one other person in the house as a possible suspect. And he hadn't complained about anything going missing.

With a sigh, Callie headed toward the stairs. It was time to ask her second son a few questions.

~X~X~X~

Eclipse hunkered down in his closet, hugging his knees to his chest. His gold-on-black eyes flickered over his treasures. Things no one else cared about. But they were special to him.

His newest acquisition was a small set of spoons all connected with a little plastic ring. They fit neatly inside each other, but could also spread out like a little fan. He'd seen them in a drawer in the kitchen, and they never seemed to be used, so he figured they were okay to take. They were neat. He liked spreading them out and then tucking them back together.

He smiled. This stuff was his. His. And it made him happy.

A knock made him gasp, and he scurried out of his closet and closed the door behind him. Then he moved to the bedroom door, and opened it a crack. Callie stood in the hallway, and gave him a little smile.

"Hey, Monkey. Can I come in?"

Eclipse narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

She shrugged. "'Cause I wanna talk to you."

"Can't we talk downstairs?"

Callie raised an eyebrow. "Some reason we can't talk in your room? You hiding something?"

"NO!"

Eclipse groaned inwardly. That sounded suspicious. And by the look on his adoptive mom's face, she thought so, too. He cursed himself and begrudgingly opened the door wider to let her in.

"Thanks, oh suspicious son of mine," she said with a little smile as she walked in. He didn't have a bed to sit on--he slept in a hammock hanging in the far corner of the room--so she lowered herself to sit cross-legged on the floor. She patted the spot in front of her. "C'mere. I wanna ask you something."

With a sigh, the little darkling moved to sit down, copying her pose. His tail curled around to the front, and he absently grabbed the end to squeeze and tug.

"Silver and I have been having some things going missing around the house lately," she said, her voice soft. She ran a hand down his head as she spoke. "I was wondering if you had anything go missing, too."

Eclipse kept his eyes trained on the tail in his hands. He shook his head. "Nuh uh."

"Oh, well, that's good. Because it can be really frustrating to have something you need disappear. And, depending what it is, it could also be a little hurtful. If it was something that meant a lot to you."

Eclipse ducked his head a little lower.

She knew. Somehow she knew what he'd been doing.

He hadn't thought about making anyone frustrated or hurt--he just saw the stuff laying around the house, not being used. If it wasn't being used, that meant it wasn't wanted, right? Better for him to pick it up and keep it safe instead of abandoned, neglected, and tossed aside without a second thought. Because that was a horrible feeling. A terrible, horrible, awful feeling.

He bit his lip as he felt his mom's eyes watching him. She didn't say anything else, and it didn't feel like she was mad at him, but her gaze felt heavy all the same.

"Do you know what happened to everything that's gone missing?"

The question was soft and gentle. Not accusatory. Not blaming. Not angry.

Eclipse swallowed hard.

Without a word, he stood and walked to his closet. He pulled the door open, standing with his head lowered as the light from his room spilled inside.

His gaze was on the floor, but he saw his mother push herself to stand, and move over to look inside the closet. After inspecting the pile of stuff, she turned and hunkered down to tuck a knuckle beneath his chin and lift his gaze to meet hers.

"Tell me about this," she said, her voice still so soft. "Help me understand."

Eclipse stared at her for a few seconds, before pulling his face away and stalking to another corner. His brow furrowed, and he crossed his arms.

"Doesn't matter," he hissed, turning away from her. "Just take the stuff and punish me.

"Why do you deserve to be punished? Did you take these things to be mean?"

The question caught him off-guard and he turned quickly. "No!"

"Were you going destroy them? To try and hurt me and Silver?"

"No!"

"Then why?"

"Because I never had anything of my own!" he yelled, his teeth clenched and hands balled into fists. "No one had anything on the Black Comet, and everything that was there belonged to all. I never had anything that was just mine. And all that stuff was just left around the house, not being used. Abandoned."

A look of understanding seemed to blossom over Callie's face then, and she moved closer to him, gently taking his hands in hers.

"I understand," she said, a little smile on her face. "I do. And I'm not mad. But you can't just take other people's things. It's not that big a deal here in our family, but if you take something that doesn't belong to you, that's stealing, and it's wrong. You could get into a lot of trouble if you stole something from a store or someone else. Understand?"

He furrowed his brow. "Even if they're not using it?"

She nodded. "Even if they're not using it. It's still theirs, and you can't just take it. Promise me you won't do this again?" He thought about it for a minute, before nodding. "Good. Tell you what, let's sort through the stuff in your closet, and we'll see what you can keep. And next time we go to the store, you can pick something out just for you. Okay?"

Eclipse looked at her for a long moment, before a little smile spread over his lips. "Okay!"

~X~X~X~

Over the next half hour, Eclipse pulled everything out of his closet, and Callie separated it into three piles--one for Silver's things, one for hers or the house, and one for the things Eclipse could keep. She sacrificed a few of her things, and some stuff from the kitchen and living room for his pile, making a mental note to pick up replacements the next time she went shopping.

But the happy smile on her boy's face was well worth the additional expense.

~~~

Like this? Check out my other shorties. Reblogs are appreciated!

[mythicalartistx]

Endless possibilities for Kairi

Nomura once said the keyblade Riku gives to Kairi and where he gets it will be answered in a future installment.

As he does when he doesn't want to answer something because it will be no point in ever showing it if he just tells people.

He did it when people asked about Demyx's backstory and where he came from. He didn't say anything and he most likely will be in Missing Link and probably 4?

But so much about Kairi is a mystery and at first I thought oh they're not going to do much with her, I don't think in KH4 we'll see much but then I was looking at MOM scenes and KH2 the games where people genuinely think she shines the most.

(personally her in mom doesn't do it for me because she ends up using Sora's form)

Mom is just giving people bread crumbs and it's kinda overpraised. Like you control her for a bit until Sora takes over and then you eventually control Riku. I'll admit the backstory parts were nice. It helped confirm more about the Ansem reports. But it's not really much.

Her entire backstory is so mysterious.

She— a child of Radiant Garden who happens to be one of the princesses with a pure heart was seen by Xehanort and studied on through experiments until she was sent to Destiny Islands through one of the time capsules used in Union x.

Because of Xehanort and the others apprentices were doing unsupervised experiments (not sure if this was before or after they became nobodies), sending her there caused the meteor shower— the same one that happens on destiny islands where Riku makes a promise to Sora to protect him and probably have his signature necklace to him. (Though this is necklace theory it is implied this happens through various scenes in KH and the novels, and manga)

Through this revelation, they can discover and discuss where she came from and how she got to Destiny Islands, by discovering the time capsules they can figure out Union X events. The Wayfinder Trio + Kairi can figure out this information together.

Why the Wayfinders? Because Ven was from the era and it could help get his memories back. Kairi is also going to be training with Aqua after MOM.

But by looking into that stuff they can find out more about her and then come across what happened to experiment X and if she really is Skuld or not (a lot of people think she is Skuld).

And Lea/Axel and Isa/Saïx come in for that part.

But she has so much potential. Like KH is obviously about Sora and Riku's friendship and I think the reason why we seen so little of her is probably because Nomura might just be waiting for a good moment or game to put some backstory for Kairi.

We only got crumbs through the reports, a dialogue here and there, and then the scene in mom. And maybe just maybe we'll get an installment that tells us something extraordinary as KH does.

This is like the fourth analysis post I've done about her. She can be so interesting and so much potential and I'm thinking about another one relating to her. It's involving how the English version of KH makes her worse of a character... You'll see why soon

Post note: before anyone mentions kh3 I discussed in previous posts I didn't like her in that one because she was just training a lot and not really doing much. Then during the battle she eventually dies, well that's the shortened version

[elfchensdcartblog]

Special Summer Vacation (3)

For the HeiZuhaWeek on @heizuhaevents Day 3!

Part 1 Part 2

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

The sun was high in the sky and the beach was crowded with people longing to cool off. So were the two high school students from Osaka, who entered the beach in swim wear. "Heh, we should’ve been here significantly earlier." Heiji surveyed the crowd and strained to find a free spot for their blanket and parasol, both of which he carried under his arm. "Just ‘cause a certain gentleman at the station had ta solve another case!" "I can't help if it literally falls at my feet! Am I supposed to climb over the corpse as if I can't see it?" "Of course not…yet that's why we missed the train!" With a quick sideways glance at his best friend, Heiji went ahead to a free spot he had spotted before it could be occupied again. Finally they could spread out the blanket and set up the umbrella for a little shade.

It didn't look like a relaxing day at the beach with all the noise, but they didn't want to let it spoil their mood and plunged straight into the waves to cool off. In the cool water, the uncomfortable heat was then quickly forgotten and a water battle in the waves ensued between them. At some point, the many other people who populated the beach were forgotten and they simply enjoyed the time together and in the water.

Back on the beach, Heiji put a towel around his shoulders and Kazuha dried off, then put on a thin jacket that protected her skin from the sun. "Do ya want to go get some ice cream? I saw they have soft ice cream over there." Kazuha pointed in the direction of the beach bar and Heiji followed her pointing with his gaze. "Doesn't sound wrong." But no sooner had they turned toward the beach bar than a scream could be heard in the other direction. Kazuha could almost guess what that meant when she saw Heiji's head jerk directly in that direction. It disappointed her a little, but she also knew that somehow he couldn't help it. "I'll go ahead and get the ice cream," she then announced and went ahead. She didn't look back at Heiji, but she knew that he would ponder for a moment at most before investigating the matter of the scream. But there might be a human life in danger, so she just let him do it while she got in line at the bar - which wasn't exactly short given the amount of people on the beach. She suspected that she would either stand here until he was done, or go meet him with the ice cream then.

But when it was finally her turn and she returned to the beach with the ice cream…. she could not discover him anywhere. Kazuha looked around searchingly, two waffle cones with soft ice cream crowns in her hand. But neither could she see a crowd of people about a possible murder case or something similar, nor her best friend. Somewhat thoughtfully, she took a bite from the ice cream in her right hand. Then she went first to her place with the blanket and the parasol. But there was no sign of him there either. She looked around in all directions to see if he might have come running back to their place somewhere, then she went in the direction from which the scream had come before. Of course, she could have just waited on the blanket, but possibly the ice would have melted until Mister Detective showed himself.

She walked for a while through the crowd of people on the beach, but neither did she see anything near a possible crime scene, nor was anyone talking about such an incident. And the further she walked across the beach and turned back to look again in the other direction, the more uncertain she became. Did he have his cell phone with him? Probably just as little as she just did. It was hard to take it with you in your bathing suit. Maybe she should go to the locker where she had left her cell phone? But what good would it do her if he didn't have his? At most, if she was lucky and he had the same idea. Kazuha thoughtfully ate the rest of her ice cream before it completely melted. Then she also began to eat the meager bit of ice cream in her other hand. Almost defiantly. What an idiot. Why hadn't he gone straight to the beach bar when he was done - with whatever he was doing now?

Frustrated, Kazuha watched after a few hours how the beach slowly emptied. The sun had begun to set and slowly it was even a little cool. No trace from Heiji and his ice cream she had eaten in the meantime itself. Slowly she shuffled back to her place to at least pack up her things until he would come back. Then she heard someone calling her name. "Kazuha!" She turned and looked at her best friend, who came running across the beach and paused somewhat breathlessly by her. Kazuha's eyebrows drew together. "Well, done with yer case? Then we can go back home!" "What kind of case? There hadn’t been any!" Heiji grumbled back in a huff. "What do ya mean, there was none? Someone did scream!" Heiji snorted lightly. "Not every scream means 'murder'!" She was really paranoid, wasn't she? One case a day was really enough. Kazuha blinked slightly. No case? But where… She frowned a little. "But then where have ya been all this time?!" In her head, whole scenarios were already playing out, how he had pleasured himself elsewhere - possibly with other women. "I could ask ya the same thing!", Heiji returned the argument, causing a perplexed look on his girlfriend's face. "Me? Well, at the beach bar. I got us ice cream!" "But I couldn't find ya there. I helped someone here find the way to the station and then I couldn't find ya anymore. I just spent hours looking for ya!"

Kazuha's gaze widened as she understood. And Heiji seemed to understand now, too, because he looked at her with a similar look. They had apparently been walking past each other in the crowd the whole time. Her mistake had been that they had not simply waited at her blanket, but had sought each other out. They both began to laugh at this silly realization. Then Heiji turned his gaze to the sunset. "Well… Are we going to stay until the sun goes down?" "Yeah… otherwise we wouldn't have anything left of our beach day." They settled comfortably on the blanket and looked out at the sea, towards the sunset reflected in the water.

It was a quiet moment and really beautiful. The play of colors on the water and the warm light that settled on everything was like something out of one of her romantic love movies. How she wished she could have sat here with him as a couple and seen this. But they were just friends. „Kazuha…“ Goosebumps spread across her skin at the soft sound of his voice. She turned her face to Heiji, who still had his eyes fixed on the sunset in front of him and his towel wrapped warming around his shoulders. The warm light made him look even more attractive than he already was in her eyes. „I really wanted to stay with ya until sunset,“ he admitted then, turning his gaze over to her. His cheeks had reddened a bit - or was she just imagining it because of the light of the setting sun? Still, it made her breath catch for a moment when their eyes met. „R-Really…?“ she brought out a little irritated and breathless. Was this really happening? Heiji’s eyelids lowered slightly, making his gaze seem even softer. „Yes, I wanted to take the moment to-“ A scream rang out. Mark-shocking. And this time it left no doubt that something really bad had happened. Both high school students turned their eyes around in the direction of the source. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then Kazuha turned her gaze back to Heiji, who had a slightly resigned look on his face. „Don’t ya want to go?“ Heiji sighed strained and rose from his seat. „Yeah… Well… Guess, ya can get ready to go back.“

To be continued...

Part 4

[acourtofthought]

I know I shouldn't let anyone sway my opinion about characters but I think you're one of the few people that make me like elain. I was fairly indifferent when I first read the series for the first time and just waiting for her book before making any real judgements, but she's been so thoroughly butchered by e/riels that I haven't liked her for a good long while. Your meta and genuine love of her character is so refreshing and one of the few things that keep me sane in this wacky fandom for real.

I love messages like this ❤️

And I agree, Elain's character is probably the most twisted of any character across the board. Some turn her into a completely unrecognizable version of herself where she's basically a carbon copy of Feyre / Nesta even though we're continually told she's different. They call her Kingslayer and have her wearing tattoos strapped to her thigh in Illyrian leathers though she herself did not want credit for killing the King, did not want to wear the leathers and gave the dagger back (without looking back). To me that all means that through SJM, we're told Elain is choosing a different life for herself. Some claim "well Nesta didn't want to train either" but they miss how despite Nesta's words, everything hinted that being the direction she was going. "Why do I need to train at all?" yet she turns around and wears the leathers. She turns around and takes a dagger with no fuss. Rhys tells us that Elain is Elain but Nesta is Illyrian at heart. Nesta walked over and cut off the kings head BEFORE her book (violent, right?) while as of SF, cruelty still bothers Elain. Elain stabbed the king to stop him from hurting her sister but she didn't have that loathing in her heart the way Nesta did, the way that made Nesta want to make him suffer and cause it to be as bloody and violent as possible. Some think that just because Rhys tells us Elain is ready to get her hands dirty that equals violence but they are two completely different things. There's a way to be involved without having to torture and wield weapons, without having to hurt others.

Then there's those that have turned her into a villain who deserves to be killed off even though SJM has confirmed numerous times on numerous occasions that Elain will have her own book (and she doesn't give villains books). That Elain has a similar energy to SJM herself. Others still think she's the exact same as SJM wrote her in book 1 when she initially thought the sisters would be the stereotypical antagonistic (step)sisters from a fairytale though she's done a complete 180 since ACOTAR when Feyre once said that it probably never occurred to Elain that she could get her hands dirty. But here we are as of SF having Elain offer to search for the Trove when even Nesta was too scared to do it. Where we have Elain putting Nesta in her place for thinking she gets to tell Elain what she's allowed to do with her own body. Where even after that, we see her laughing hysterically when Nesta tells her to fuck off. She's now got FMC energy without coming off as being too much a part of the IC (if SJM wrote it where she was so valuable and involved, we wouldn't be picking up on the clues that she's meant to end up elsewhere).

She learns from her past mistakes, accepts blame for her part in things, and she doesn't hold grudges but is now someone who can call someone out when they're they're wrong, then moves on.

"Moves on". That's another thing that bothers me about E/riels. Az told her she was a mistake and she returned his necklace (a strong message) yet they think she's still secretly harboring feelings for him and pining for him. The guy called her a mistake with no explanation (he said this BEFORE he spoke to Rhys, not after), yet they think Elain is sneaking around having some sort of forbidden romance with him? After Solstice and after Rhys and Feyre almost died?! Az has not done right by Elain. He was unwilling to tell Rhys that he was over Mor for Elain. He was unwilling to say anything he liked about her to Rhys. He had no plans for how he might actually be with Elain considering his thoughts of her hadn't gone further than his sexual fantasies. He couldn't convince Rhys he didn't just want her for sex. He said that if he returned to the River House and did something with her it would be something he'd regret (yes, because a girl always feels awesome when a guy regrets being with her). That's the kind of guy they think Elain should be with? To me, they don't like Elain all that much if that's the case.

In general, I think a lot of who Elain is goes unnoticed because she's got such a quiet way of dealing with things but it takes an incredible amount of maturity to not blame others for the bad things that happen to you and I love that about Elain.

She probably lost the most when she was made because she really loved her life in the human lands and was in love while neither Feyre or Nesta cared all that much about the people there yet not once did she blame Feyre the way Nesta did. Not once did she blame Nesta for not protecting her though Nesta beat herself up over not being able to do anything. And while she once told Lucien, "you betrayed us", to which he replies that it was a mistake, she turned around and invited him to come live in Velaris after the war. Also, she loved her father more than Feyre or Nesta ever did yet again, she never blamed anyone but the King for what happened. Maybe we'll come to find she harbors her own guilt over it when she gets her POV but she's not taking it out on anyone.

She's quietly but steadily been growing since book 1 but it's consistent and really noticeable if you pay her character attention. She hasn't even had her book yet she's evolved so much, I really look forward to her "final" transformation and I think she's ready. Amren said she's ready, Rhys said she's ready. Feyre, difficult as it was to ask Elain to put herself in danger, did so in SF and also said they'd be helping her after helping Nesta. Now we just have to see it happen in her own book, something that finally gets her out of the NC so she can finally find where she's meant to be and with the people who will help push her the rest of the way.

[hexagonalhavoc]

Can I request sado Finding the reader sleeping with the stuff Animal spider When she got back from another game ( I had this funny little idea in my head for a while)

Aid of Responsibility 

Sado x Reader

[Author’s Note: I had so much fun with this!]

     There’s a tiny black spot on the wall of a quiet, unassuming house. If it was up to Sado she would have decorated it in a more chaotic manner. If she was on her own she wouldn’t need basic utilities. But a part of being a good partner is being a good provider, or maybe she’s just old fashioned. 

The black spot grows bigger until she can step out of it, stretching her arms up above her head. Work never stops and the more she can spread her virus the more power she’ll have. 

There’s a sting of pain in her chest that she almost forgot about. She was so focused on getting back here to see you that she got sloppy. Her hand grabs the handle of the sword and she pulls it out, there’s not a single reaction to what she does as if it’s as trivial as pulling a weed out of the garden. 

Sado’s eye inspects the intricate carving of the swords black handle and the ominous red jewel in the center. It definitely matches her taste. She takes her hat off and drops the sword in there, despite its size the hat swallows up the sword. She’s sure that it’ll come in handy sometime. She doesn’t have much training with swords, hence the hole in her chest but she could always carry it around for dramatic effect.

Speaking of that gaping hole in her chest, it begins to mend itself as if there was never an injury there in the first place. It wasn’t painful and it wouldn’t kill her but she wouldn’t want to scare you. There’s no doubting that you’re tough but still sensitive, what a strange combination.

Speaking of you, where are you? The house seems just a bit too quiet. It shouldn’t be empty since you wouldn’t leave on your own and no one else could have come here because it’s too hidden. In an instant, there’s eyes all over the house making sure that nothing is amiss. Sado is confident in her abilities but she can never be too safe. Luckily this house is essentially her playground, if someone did manage to get in here they wouldn’t survive for very long.

Then she spots you in the bedroom. She can’t see you that clearly as you’re huddled in the blankets from the neck down. The eyes close and disappear from the walls.

Sado walks over to the bedroom at a brisk pace. There’s no particular reason for her to be excited to see you other than she just is. With all the chaos that she causes there isn’t much consistency in her life, she’s always forced to keep moving. Sometimes she can understand why some characters grow resentful of the ones that made them. Sado isn’t just some virus that was created for the sake of being created, she’s all of Carla’s hatred put into one glitched out vessel.

It’s terrible to live with an anger that isn’t yours. In a way she’s just like all the others, she’s a puppet meant to carry out her master’s will. It’s why she cherishes her moments with you. When she’s with you she doesn’t feel like a weapon, she feels like a person. You know how strong Sado is but you’ve always treated her as your equal and not as something to fear.

She tries to be as quiet as possible as she sits on the bed beside your sleeping form. She doesn’t want to wake you up, she just wants to enjoy a moment of peace with you after a chaotic day. 

You roll over towards her, the blankets shifting around allow her to get a better look at you. When she sees what you’re hugging close to your chest she almost starts laughing. 

It’s a plushy of a large black spider. It looks soft and is the perfect size to snuggle up with. What really amuses her is the little top hat that the spider plush wears. She doesn’t even remember giving this to you. It must have been something she randomly spawned in the house when she first created it. 

Did you really miss her that much? So much so that you sought out comfort in something that reminded you of her? It wouldn’t surprise Sado as she doesn’t have a way to communicate with you when she’s in a different game. She could always figure something out but prefers not to. If happens to her a communication device would lead anyone straight to you. As much as she wants to show you off to the world it’s best that she keep you a secret for now. She has a lot of enemies and she’d hate for them to use you as leverage. 

Hopefully she won’t have to worry about that for much longer. If her strategy has worked then her enemies should be tearing themselves apart for her. As much as she likes being in all the action she values her time with you more. 

Sado leans closer to you, her forehead pressing you against yours as she closes her eyes. There’s still so much she has to do. She just wants to stay here, she wants to see you wake up and spend an eternity with you. 

She’s angry and for once, she lets the smile fall off her face. No one is watching so there’s no need for it right now. Sado was made from a piece of Carla’s own soul and yet she despised her for making her this way. She couldn’t even enjoy a moment with you because she had to fulfill her creator’s wishes of revenge.

Before she met you she didn’t mind being an unbreakable soldier. She thought there wasn’t anything more fun than causing chaos but now she has you. 

Maybe it’s time for Sado to change her priorities. That old barkeep had the right idea. Perhaps it was time that Carla sees for herself what her creation should do. 

Sado kisses you on the top of the head. She’ll be gone before you wake up, you probably won’t even know she was here. That doesn’t matter thought because she’ll remember this moment. She won’t forget what she’s working towards and who she’s doing it for. 

[saiilorstars]

Ch.11: Bitter and Sweet

Story Masterlist ◦ Anais’ Masterlist ◦

Also on: Fanfic • Ao3

Pairing: Winn Schott x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​ @arrthurpendragon​​ @anotherunreadblog​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​ @stareyedplanet​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989​​

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

James gave a light knock on Anais' office door and stepped inside, wearing a bigger smile than usual. Of course, ever since he put Snapper in his place - leaving both men to their respective job roles - who wouldn't be happy?

"What can I do for you Mr. Boss?" Anais pushed her chair closer to her desk, putting her hands on her desk.

"I just sent a reporter to the Children's Hospital new building to see what we can get for an article so I need the pictures to go along with it."

"Oh, great!" Anais winced when she heard her own words. "Not like that! I meant — I'm happy to take the assignment before I lose my mind!"

James chuckled. "I take it Winn is still fixing your suit, then?"

Anais glared at nothing in particular but it was a deep glare nonetheless. "Yup," she muttered and got up from her chair.

Winn had kept his word about not letting her go out in the field until she told the DEO — primarily J'onn, Kara and Alex — about Cadmus' threat. It drove Anais up the wall that she wasn't able to convince him otherwise and the use of the physical threats was no good either as she would have to explain to everyone else why she suddenly decided to kill their friend. So, until she decided to tell the truth, Winn was basically holding her suit hostage.

To everyone else, he was just mending her suit.

"And how's Mon-El doing?" James curiously asked since he hadn't stopped by the DEO in a while. He only knew what he was told.

"Kara and him are learning to get along-ish," Anais said, "And we're testing Mon-El's abilities too. See what he can and can't do. He's not leaving the DEO for a while, I'm assuming. Poor guy must be going crazy too."

J'onn had given the order to test Mon-El in every possible way to deduce the danger he could post if left unsupervised. Winn was put in charge of monitoring him and recording the results to later discuss together.

Anais could only imagine the frustration Mon-El would be feeling soon since he'd already been cooped up in the DEO for days now and training since then. Maybe she could help in some way, she thought before leaving the office.

~ 0 ~

Anais walked down the street before the hospital site, adjusting her clothes and hair since she'd basically sped there from CatCo. As she approached the site, she began to smell the after scent of burnt rubber and metal, along with the horrible sight of the crumbled hospital.

"Oh, what happened here?" She stopped in front of the yellow tape keeping civilians away.

"Aliens happened," a familiar voice answered. Anais whipped her head to the right and saw Lena Luthor approaching her.

"Miss Luthor," Anais smiled politely, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah," Lena nodded. "No one expects to see a Luthor at accident sites unless they caused it." There was a brief moment of silence before she added, "And just so we're clear, I didn't cause this."

"I didn't think you did," Anais clarified for the woman's sake. "So what is Miss Luthor doing here, though?"

"Please, it's just Lena, I told you," the black-haired woman sighed. "And I was one of the investors of this building. It was brand new when it was destroyed."

"Millions of dollars lost, I assume," Anais gazed at the crumbled building. She could still see some leftover melted medical equipment peeking from under the walls.

"Oh please, it's not about the money," Lena set her hands on her hips. "This building was built because the first hospital was getting overcrowded. Now the children that did survive this, had to return to the first hospital."

Anais pulled her camera in front of her eyes and snapped a picture. "What happened to the building?"

"Your reporter hasn't come to you yet?" Lena nodded to the young CatCo. Reporter talking to a cop at the moment.

"Nope, I just got here, remember?"

"Well, we don't know much but we assume it was aliens judging by the mass strength of whatever hit the walls. Plus, some of the records from the kids say they saw hooded people."

"Ah," Anais started walking a bit to get better angles of the building. "Which could mean it was a regular human crime scene."

"But they didn't steal anything," Lena countered. "They just came in to destroy."

"Well, sometimes people don't need reasons to do something," Anais lowered her camera to see Lena giving her a look. "What?"

"I'm assuming you're like Kara in that you both share pro-alien opinions," Lena crossed her arms.

Anais gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and thoughts," Lena looked ahead at the building again.

"It's so refreshing meeting someone like you," Anais chuckled. She felt her phone buzzing and picked it out from her pocket. "Oh, gotta go. It was nice seeing you, though. Wouldn't mind doing this again."

Surprise etched across Lena's face, making her dark eyebrows simultaneously raise. "Really?"

Anaís paused after taking another picture to see Lena's expression. "What?"

Lena smiled warmly. "Not a lot of people would say that. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard that."

"You're nice and you're badass, so...yeah, I'd like to see you around," Anaís chuckled. "You're doing what I'm doing and, as I've said, I admire that."

Lena's smile widened, clearly beaming at the chance of a second friend. She hadn't admitted it but she liked to believe she was friends with Kara Danvers too. "Okay then, you're welcome at L-Corp anytime."

"Cool," Anaís beamed then. "Now I gotta run for real. See you around." She hurried past Lena to get going because if she wasn't at the DEO in the next five minutes, she was sure Arun would come for her himself.

~0~

"Again!" Arun shouted the order without hesitance.

A blonde speedster whipped past him in circles, repeatedly, until she would come to a stop and attempt to throw a lightning bolt she was meant to create during her run. Just as Anaís was about to throw her bolt, it shattered in her palms..

"Dammit!" she growled and glanced back at Arun who stood at the end of the room with his hands behind his back and no emotion on his face.

"Again!" he simply commanded once more.

She sucked in a breath and took off again. She'd been doing this for more than an hour now with no such luck. Arun silently watched as she sped in circles - a long circle too - to see exactly where she was going wrong. He never felt the visitors coming into the room, much less Anaís.

"Woah, that is awe and some!" Mon-El's cheer startled Anaís and caused the speedster to trip over her own feet. She came hurtling into a wall, face first. She groaned and turned on her back to glare at Mon-El then Arun and Winn for not warning her.

"Two things," Winn made a motion for Mon-El to listen, the latter even nodding his head to show him that he was indeed listening. "One: never sneak up on a speedster, especially when she's throwing lightning. And two: it's just 'awesome'. You got to put those two words together and you'll be golden."

"Awesome," Mon-El tested the word out and felt like it did sound better put together. He then looked over to Anaís who was getting back on her feet. "And sorry. Just thought that whole…" His fingers wiggled in the air as he attempted to mimic what she'd been doing, "...the whole lightning thing was cool…"

"You taught him the word 'cool' already?" Anaís dusted her legs off. Winn grinned. "Of course you did."

"If you three are finished talking, Anaís has a lot more practice to do," Arun spoke up with an air of annoyance. He knew well that they had a new alien amongst the DEO but he hadn't actually talked to Mon-El.

"Are you the other Solista?" Mon-El asked, though he was sure of the answer by the looks of his beam. "You got the whole lightning thing down, I assume?"

"Since I was a teenager. Child's play, really," Arun said plainly, shooting Anaís a look that meant to point out she was extremely behind. For that, Anaís looked down.

"W-well, I mean, it is lightning we're talking about," Winn purposely glanced at Anaís in hopes of lifting her spirits. "It takes a while to practice when it's the first try. I-I'm assuming."

Anaís smiled softly at him. She appreciated his attempt to help her out…until she remembered what he was doing with her suit.

"Yes, when we're teenagers," Arun brokered the silence without realizing it. "But Anaís is twenty three now."

"Okay, can we just call it a day with the training?" Anaís decided it was for the better lest Arun wanted a lightning bolt thrown at him instead of the practice dummy. "I'll continue tomorrow."

"Your call," Arun shrugged. "You wanna go get lunch?"

"No, I can't. Supergirl's waiting for me. We have a lead on that dead alien we found in the back of a car."

"Alright then, until tomorrow," Arun said and started heading out. He suddenly stopped though by the doorway and glanced back. "Oh, and Winn, the suit seems to be working fine right now." He made a gesture at Anaís' regular DEO suit she was wearing. "Have you finished mending it?"

"Nope," Winn replied without a second thought, even wearing that big smile Anaís was beginning to hate. "Still got kinks to figure out."

Arun nodded and walked out of the room.

"It doesn't have any kinks!" Anaís shouted after he was fully gone. "You're just purposely keeping it away from me!"

"Me? What?" His pretense sarcasm only made her even more mad. "Never."

"I'll kill you," Anaís warned but all Winn did was ask Mon-El if he wanted to continue practicing. With a shake of her head, she left the room and went to find Alex and Supergirl in the control room. "Anything on our alien perp?" Anaís stopped by them.

"Yes, actually," Kara motioned to Alex, "Alex was just telling me what the lab found."

"The thorn found in the dead body is from a Brevakk. Some sort of biological defense mechanism," Alex explained. "So, yeah, that's new and terrifying."

"Don't suppose there's any ideas where we can find him?" Anaís tried her luck.

"Turns out there's exactly one Brevakk registered in National City for the President's Alien Amnesty Act," Alex moved on over to an empty computer. She pulled up the profile of said alien. "And we got the address ready to go."

"Alright, so what's our first step?" Anaís looked between the more experienced women.

"It's just a check out, so...I think we're good," Alex's words surprised both aliens. "I got someone in mind I'll take."

"Are you sure?" Kara raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry," Alex waved her off, really smiling like she meant it. "She's good, trust me." And with that cryptic description, she left.

"You want to train, then?" Kara asked Anaís once they were on their own. Anaís groaned and covered her face. "What?" Kara looked around in case anyone knew what she said wrong.

"I just finished a round with Arun and I didn't get it right."

"You mean the lightning bolt thing?"

"Yes!"

"When we agreed that he would train me, I didn't know Arun would be one of those uptight 24/7 trainers!"

Kara chuckled.

"And he won't get off my back for my pathetic attempts to create and throw a lightning bolt!"

"Don't get so worked up about it, remember how long Barry said it took him?"

"Yeah, but... he's a metahuman and I'm an alien. It's in my biology to get it!" Anaís exclaimed particularly loud enough to draw some attention.

Kara, in particular, was giving her a look. "Some funny words you used there." Anaís dropped her hands to her sides and looked back. "Sounds like something Arun would say." She'd come to learn that Arun's 'words of encouragement' were not so light. They seemed like backhanded insults instead.

"Well, he kind of did, and he's right. It's in my biology to get it and I'm taking longer than a kid would!"

"Okay, maybe you need to reel it back a little," Kara brought Anaís to the side so they could speak better. "You may be a speedster with incredible strength but you still need practice and you know that. I know you know that."

"Yeah, I know…" Anaís sighed.

"Then why don't you let Arun know that? He's the one that needs to reel it back a lot more." Kara suspected Arun was the one putting more pressure on things than Anaís really thought. "He's a hard coach, and maybe a good one, but a hard one nonetheless. He wants you to do exactly what he did and that's not gonna happen."

"Because I'm only half a Solista?"

"No, because you're you and you're different. Everyone is. So c'mon, let's go train nice and easy."

Anaís finally agreed and followed Kara to their training room meant just for them. They trained for about an hour before J'onn called them back to the control room. Alex had returned but not with good news. Their lead on the dead alien had been whisked away by a group of men in a suspicious can.

"Do we know who the men in the van were?" J'onn asked Alex, and the woman shook her head.

"No. But these weren't low-rent thugs. They were definitely combat-trained. They mean business."

"So do we. Or have you forgotten about that?" J'onn's snark startled all three women.

"Hey, what's with the grumpy?" Alex finally noted. "Today and yesterday. Is everything all right, J'onn?"

"I appreciate the concern, but I assure you, I'm fine."

"Don't make us pout," Alex nodded to Kara beside her.

"They're surprisingly good at it," Anaís admitted being victim to it a couple of times.

J'onn knew they would never let it be so it was better to get it out in the open. "I am not the last Green Martian. There is another. Her name is M'gann. Megan."

"It's a miracle, J'onn," Kara's eyes widened.

"I met her at that alien bar Alex spoke of. We talked, but... I think I made a mistake."

"Why do you say that?" Anaís asked. "What happened?"

"I offered to merge with her in the Martian way."

"But you guys just met…" Kara trailed off, thinking of something else.

"Psychically, Kara. The bond is the traditional Martian way of communicating. We...we link minds, share dreams, emotions, memories. We kept no secrets from one another. Imagine a world without ego, selfishness. Without... lies."

"That sounds beautiful."

"She didn't seem to think so. The moment I talked about it, she left. I am grateful to have you all in my life. I truly am. But with Martians, it's... It's different. It's deeper. Deeper than talking. Fuller. With her, there's a chance for me to live how I was meant to live."

Of course everyone there understood.

"Just tell her that," Alex encouraged him to go for a second attempt. "Why don't you try apologizing?"

J'onn seemed to be encouraged enough.

~0~

The night brought Alex and detective Sawyer to an illegal fight club that ended up in catastrophe. Supergirl nearly had her head torn off by a large alien creature, and neither her nor the detectives had luck in capturing the ringleader of the fight club. It did, however, leave them with a new clue that could lead the DEO to capturing the culprits.

It also led to a new wave of anger inside a certain Solista.

Mon-El had just failed to conjure up heat vision on a piece of cement when Anais came storming in.

"No heat vision, no x-ray vision…" Winn was recording the results on his tablet for later study so he was startled when Anais used her own heat vision to destroy the piece of cement. "Hey!" Winn made a gesture but Anais looked far too upset to care.

"Kara nearly got hurt in an underground alien fight club and I couldn't do anything about it and do you know why!?" She came storming up to him, making him backtrack several steps. "Because I didn't have my suit so they didn't call me in for backup!"

"Is she okay, though?" Mon-El thought to ask if only to pull some of that attention off Winn for safety reasons.

"Yes, but she could've gotten hurt," Anais deeply sighed then set her glare back on Winn. "C'mon, Winn, enough is enough. Give me my suit back"

Winn was first and foremost relieved to see that anger fading because it decreased the chances of being heat visioned. "I'll do it as soon as you come clean to Kara and the others."

Anais' hands twitched in the air as she air-strangled him. "I'm gonna—" She started for him again.

Winn jumped back, throwing his hands in front of him. "If you kill me now, you'll never get your suit!"

Anais stopped in her tracks and dropped her hands. "I really hate you right now."

"Yeah, got that," Winn swallowed hard and moved away to put down his tablet. "But you also know why I'm doing this."

Mon-El cleared his throat to remind the two of his presence. "Can I offer my help to Kara as an alternative?"

Anais briefly smiled at him. "Thanks, Mon-El, but I don't think the DEO wants to let you go out until you've finished your examinations."

"Well, I think we have," Mon-El gestured to Winn. "Right?"

"Sort of," Winn shrugged and turned to the two. He brought his fingers up to list what they knew so far of Mon-El's abilities. "No heat vision, no X-ray vision, but you're strong."

"As strong as Kara?" Mon-El curiously asked but Winn scoffed with a great big 'Ha!'

"No, not even close. No freeze breath, which is kind of a bummer, right?" Winn glanced at Anais but she was still kind of glaring at him. "Right. No flight either, but his leaping is fantastic. I'm... I'm talking about like "tall buildings in a single bound" kinda stuff. Yeah, we...we definitely have the makings of a superhero here."

"Superhero?" Mon-El repeated. "Is that what Kara's called?"

"Yeah. You know, you...you go out there, you fight crime, save people, wear a costume…"

"Yup," Anais crossed her hands. "I'm almost there…"

"Speaking of going out there, I'm, uh... I'm going kind of crazy in here," Mon-El admitted. "I could really use some fresh air."

"Yeah, you heard Hank. I mean, you got to stay here at the DEO."

"You know, I'll bet if I were outside, I could fly like Kara and you, Anais," Mon-El put on his best smile for the blonde.

But before Anais could say anything, Winn cut in. "Nice try, buddy. No, we got to stay here. Them's the rules. I mean, I'm new here. I'm trying to make a good impression."

"Failed!" Anais dramatically exclaimed, much to his annoyance. And because she saw his annoyance, she decided to go on ahead and make it worse. Screw being an adult, she shamelessly thought. "And you know what, Mon-El? I'll take you out."

Mon-El looked deeply surprised at the easy give in. "You will?"

Even Winn had the same reaction. "You will?"

"Yup!" Anais grinned from side to side. "I don't think it'll do any harm. But you gotta listen to me, alright?"

Mon-El was now almost grinning like Anais was. "Of course!"

"Anais y-y-you can't do that," Winn started wagging his finger, but by that point it was too late. "You're gonna get in trouble!"

"Feel free to join us, if you're so worried," Anais patted his arm.

"But I - but we can't!" Winn practically shouted in the room while Anais and Mon-El started leaving. He tried to stay put and just let the two aliens figure it out on their own how big of a mistake this would be, but…

He scrunched his face. "Damn you, Anais Allen-Mjorkland. I'm so weak." And he took off to catch up with them.

~ 0 ~

Mon-El didn't know anything about Earth but that didn't stop him from learning in one night. Especially when Anais introduced him to the cellphone.

"I gotta get me one of these!" Mon-El laughed after Anais showed him the search engine for bars.

"I'm sure we can arrange that," Anais tucked her phone into her back pocket and led the way to the bar across the street. "Maybe a small computer for the time being. Or a tablet!"

"You can't make promises like that," Winn trailed behind her, still unable to believe she was pulling this off.

"It's a computer with restricted WiFi," she reminded him that it wasn't a big deal. "Now let loose and have some fun, if you're capable of that anyways."

Winn stopped just by the doorway with a look of offence. "Excuse me?"

Anais smirked with Mon-El. They both knew they'd gotten him now.

"You heard me," Anais crossed her arms and watched as Mon-El went to open the doors for them. "Can you have some fun, Winn Schott?"

"And I continue to be weak," Winn scrunched his face in defeat while Anais yanked him inside the bar.

"Did I ever mention you're my absolute favorite alien in the whole DEO?" Mon-El said to Anais, making the woman laugh. "You are! Totally are!"

Winn did not agree with the sentiment and he definitely did not agree when they somehow found their way to the bar counter. Mon-El was introduced to human alcohol very quickly and he learned that it tasted really good. Anais monitored how much he drank but did let him experiment how much he could tolerate. She figured if anything went wrong she could speed him out of there in less than a second. But so far, he just seemed intent on mingling with the other humans and discovering what human men do for fun.

"Why do you guys like to arm wrestle so much?" Anais wondered out loud and reached for her own drink on the counter. Mon-El had just defeated his third opponent.

"He's cheating," Winn's flat tone made Anais laugh.

"Then go stop him or...have a drink and join him," Anais slid his untouched drink to him. "You can watch him while you're closer."

Winn knew his options were very limited here, and so with a small glare he picked his drink up and got up from his stool. He could hear Anais's second round of laughter while he walked away. She would not win forever, he thought.

Anais took refuge at the bar counter with the only other female in that place. As the hours ticked by, all the other customers started getting more and more annoying, in Anais' perspective. Mon-El had gone past arm wrestling and moved on to good old fashioned drinking challenges, most notably beer pong. But, to his credit, he had somehow gotten Winn to join in.

"Amazing," she huffed while she went for another drink. The two men ended up becoming more buddies than they had been earlier. Now she had become the third wheel. "Men are idiots."

"Tell me about it," the bartender mused when she walked by Anais.

Anais soon learned that, just like herself and Kara, Mon-El could actually not get drunk. However, Winn most definitely could. While they entered a series of drinking games, somehow Winn ended up winning most of them.

"Oh my God, he's a drinker," Anais said with a laugh as she and Mon-El watched Winn go at it against another fellow bar customer. They had a line of shots they needed to get through.

"So, you don't get drunk here?" Mon-El was curious as he gazed at his newly filled cup of beer.

"The earth stuff isn't strong enough for you guys," Anais shrugged, crossing her arms.

Mon-El picked up on her word choice and glanced at her. "How about you?"

"I'm half human, Mon-El. I don't get granted all the perks of a Solista. Don't get me wrong, it takes me way longer to get drunk than an average human but in the end, I can still get drunk."

"Have you ever tested the theory out of how many glasses it takes?" Mon-El offered her his glass of beer, making her laugh.

"My parents would kill me," she said, pushing his glass back to him. "They're humans and they don't really care how alien I am. I cannot drink when I'm supposed to be on business matters."

"I know I'm not from here but is this business?" Mon-El gestured towards the scene. Winn had just won another round of shots.

A smirk crossed Anais' face. "My business, anyways." It was Mon-El's turn to laugh.

A short time later, Mon-El had entered another wrestling match. He'd won every single one but the last man he went up again ended up with a broken elbow.

The man, angry, tried punching Mon-El but then broke his hand as well. His buddy went to fight Mon-El for support yet the Daxamite easily won as well with a simple 'push'. The human man crashed into a table behind them.

Mon-El was overly surprised with his strength but the other men had grown furious.

"Time to go!" Anais hopped off her stool after the strangers had met face to face with a glass table — another accident on Mon-El's part. She scurried through the group - possibly using her alien strength to push some of the men away - and got her two idiots out of there.

~0~

By the Anais returned home, she expected to find a dark apartment most certainly not Kara wide awake in the living room.

"Where were you?" Kara noticed Anais' disheveled appearance.

"One could say babysitting...or one could say proving a point," Anais fixed herself and released a deep breath. "Beginning to think my plan backfired and it was more of the first then the latter."

Kara couldn't and honestly didn't want to try and understand what all that meant. There were more pressing matters to deal with anyways.

"What are you doing up so late anyways?" Anais pulled her jacket off and headed for the couch chair. "I thought Kara Danvers always has a timely bedtime set up." Kara playfully rolled her eyes but even the playfulness faded very quickly. Anais noticed it and knew that the Kryptonian was worried and/or upset. "Kara, what is it?"

Kara hesitated to speak but after a moment of thinking, she figured it was better Anais knew now in case something happened later.

~ 0 ~

Veronica Sinclair - aka Roulette - was a formidable human enemy to the DEO. She proved herself last night when Supergirl made a visit to her and Sinclair only retaliated with confident words knowing she would not be defeated that night.

Kara now relayed her visit to J'onn, Alex and Anais (again). "I should've heat vision'd that stupid champagne glass out of her hand," Kara balled her fists on her sides.

"That's what she wanted," Anais offered a different perspective on the matter. She'd gotten over her anger last night when Kara had told her. "Supergirl heat visions local human and the media has a field day with that."

Kara gave her points on that, but it didn't stop her from wishing she could've used her heat vision. "I mean, do you think Sinclair is right about this? That she's the only one who can offer something to aliens?"

"Not a chance," Alex answered instantly.

"But then how do you stop them from letting themselves be used and exploited?"

"By offering something more powerful than fear," J'onn settled things and glanced at Winn at his desk. "Winn?"

"Nothing!" The man in question startled awake — his hand holding an ice bag on the side of his slipped and he nearly hit his head on the desk. "I'm not hungover! You're the one being defensive!"

Anais barely hid her smile from the others while J'onn approached a hungover Winn.

"Agent Schott—"

"S-sir, yes, s-sir!" Winn dangled a hand at the front of his forehead. "Er, Mon-El is doing great, by the way. He's here in the DEO. He's here. Did you know his heart is on the other side?"

J'onn gave a nod of his head. "That's absolutely fascinating. You know, the DEO received reports this morning of a six-foot alien attacking two men in a bar last night."

Anais' own smile faded upon learning that.

"The news is so very violent these days…" Winn briefly said as he slowly turned his chair back to his desk.

"Apparently this alien had a 5'2" sidekick—"

Winn jumped out of his chair, leaving it to spin from the force just to shout, "I am 5'9!"

"No, wait," Anais slid in between the two men with her hands raised in front of her, "This one's on me. I'm the one who took Mon-El out. Winn actually tried stopping me several times."

"Anais, why'd you do that?" Alex moved forwards with the same questionable face as J'onn.

"Because sometimes I'm an idiot," Anais answered with the simplest of shrugs. "But this was totally on me."

"You know better," J'onn snapped unexpectedly. "Everything we do is under a microscope. We work so hard to make humans trust us. All it takes is for one alien to ruin it for all of us."

Anais' eyes had slowly widened while J'onn scolded her. "I-I didn't mean to do that…"

"You should've thought about it!"

Alex exchanged looks with Kara, both agreeing J'onn was projecting his fight with M'gann on Anais. "J'onn, why don't we go talk somewhere else," Alex held onto his arm and persuaded him to walk with her.

"I'm really sorry," Anais said to Kara and Winn afterwards. "I wasn't meaning to do that. I was just...I was mad at you," she made a languid gesture at Winn, which didn't surprise him. "And I have to apologize to Mon-El too."

As she left, Kara briefly stopped by Winn to ask, "What's she mad at you for?"

"It's...it's just better if I hold off on that," Winn made the call thinking Anais would want to explain it herself once she got the courage to actually accept that CADMUS was looking into her.

~ 0 ~

Kara caught up with Anais in the hallway, and while Anais didn't exactly say why she was mad with Winn, Kara got the jist that it'd been a long argument now.

Anais led the way into Mon-El's training room where the man was currently doing his training. When he saw Kara, he assumed he was in trouble for the previous night.

"I'm sorry," he immediately said but Anais raised a hand to stop him.

"You're good, I'm the one who screwed up."

Mon-El blinked. "You were?"

"Yes," Anais sighed. "I was basically trying to stick it to Winn and I ended up using you. It was very wrong of me."

"Well…" Mon-El bobbed his head, "I've done worse, believe me. But this has helped me realize something neither of you told me about." Anais exchanged a glance with Kara, both confused of what he meant. "Hank told me I needed to stay here because it wasn't safe. But he didn't mean for me. He meant it wasn't safe for humans. From me."

"Listen, we've all been through that," Anais spoke up first and received an agreeing 'mhm' from Kara beside her. "I was taken in by human parents when I was a kid and just got my freedom a couple months ago. The government didn't want to let me out because they were afraid I'd hurt someone."

"After I first got to Earth, I went to my junior prom and Scott Klein asked me to dance. I stepped on his foot and I broke three of his toes," Kara shared her embarrassing yet meaningful story. "It's just gonna take some time to get used to having these abilities and...and living in this world."

Mon-El appreciated both women trying to make him feel better and even showing sympathy for him, but he was especially thankful towards Kara considering their respective backgrounds. "I know it's not easy for you to be nice to me, Kara. Where I'm from and all."

"That's not why I've been standoffish. And don't say I haven't been," Kara sighed and dug her hands into her back pockets. "My parents gave me so much. And I was so loved. My dad was a scientist and my mom fought for justice. They were proud, strong people. Good Kryptonians and even better parents. And that's the way I want to remember them."

"And why shouldn't you?"

"Because...they weren't perfect. And no matter how smart they were, or how hard they tried, they couldn't save us."

"Yeah, you never met my parents. They weren't exactly role models," Mon-El shook his head.

"But mine saw the end of the world coming, and didn't do anything about it!"

"Hey, it's not...it's not your parents' fault. It's not even Krypton's fault. Okay, we shared a star, that's all. I promise that I will do as I'm told from now on."

"And I promise not to be a manipulative bitch," Anais raised her hand but then pointed a warning finger at Mon-El. "Don't repeat that."

"Repeat what?" Mon-El blinked with genuine oblivion. He wasn't up to speed with curse words yet. "Anyways, I heard you survived Draaga." Kara nodded. "I once saw him fight on Warworld when I was, uh, guarding the royal family. Draaga took a blade to the right leg. It hit a nerve cluster. He's favored his left ever since."

The new piece of information was enlightening for Kara. "Thank you."

~ 0 ~

A couple hours later, the group got word that J'onn was missing. The only known person who'd seen him was M'gann and since she hadn't shown up for her shift it led Alex to conclude J'onn was taken by M'gann's boss: Sinclair.

"The fightclub was cleared out," Supergirl returned to the DEO very put out from her failed trip. "It's like it was never there."

"And there's no sign of where they went?" Anais curiously asked since she'd once again been planted at a chair instead of the field.

"No," Supergirl crossed her arms and thought about it for a minute.

"Okay, so where are we going to find them now?" Alex leaned against a table, trying not to look so frustrated even if she was.

"I bet that fight club has a list of recurring invitees and I think we may know one invitee in particular," Supergirl's suggestion made Anais jump from her chair.

"I'm coming! It involves no actual fighting therefore no need for super suit!"

She practically led the way to Lena's office. Kara understood her since Anais hadn't come out to the field in weeks now. She'd feel antsy too if she was cooped up (which then led Kara to feel even more sympathy for Mon-El).

"Excuse me, you can't go in there!" Lena's assistant failed to stop Anais and Kara from barging into Lena's office. "I swear I just blinked and they got right past me!" the poor woman did her best to explain to Lena before she was fired.

Lena, for her matter, was quite surprised at the sight.

"Lena, I'm sorry," Kara apologized first and foremost. "We just need to talk to you."

"Not her fault," Anais jerked a thumb at the secretary.

Lena's calm smile was a sight of relief for the two aliens. "Jess, will you make a note downstairs that Kara Danvers and Anais Allen are to be shown in right away whenever possible?"

Jess was surprised but since it meant she wasn't going to be fired she dutifully noted it and hurried out of the office.

"Woah, thanks," Anais beamed.

"So, how can I help?" Lena gestured for them to come sit down.

"We think a friend of mine has gotten involved in something shady," Kara's excuse was met with a light scoff from Lena. "It's an actual friend, we swear. And he's missing."

Lena got serious fast and nodded for her to continue.

"Do you know of a woman named Veronica Sinclair? She caters to people in your, um, your circles. Tight dresses, tattoos like Lisbeth Salander?"

Lena pursed her lips and played with a pen on her desk. "Yeah, I know Roulette. We went to boarding school together. I never liked her."

"We share the sentiment," Anais nodded. "We need to find her. And since her little fight clubs are mobile, we need to know where she's holding the next fight."

Lena seemed at a cross of amusement and impression. "And you assume I'm on the invite list?"

"Your last name is pretty famous," Anais shrugged.

"We wouldn't ask if we had any other option," Kara promised Lena as a last means to get her to talk.

Luckily for them, Lena was a smart, kind woman. "I'm a Luthor, of course I'm invited to her little pop-up. Not that I'm interested in her type of entertainment." She wrote down the location of the next fight club and handed it to Kara.

"Thank you. We owe you, big time," Kara tucked the paper into her purse and stood up with Anais.

"Not at all. I know you'll be there for me when the time comes," Lena offered them a genuine, friendly smile.

~ 0 ~

Together with the DEO, J'onn and even M'gann, Supergirl managed to put an end to the fight club with minimal injuries. Mon-El's tip about the Draaga came in handy to put the creature down for a bit. She was even more relieved to see J'onn patch things up with M'gann because it meant J'onn would finally have some peace.

This time Kara was the one to get home to find Anais still awake. Of course Kara wasn't surprised since Anais wanted to know the outcomes of the fight club.

"I would've stayed at the DEO but figured there was no use for me anyways," Anais shrugged at the counter where she was having a drink. "Update: I still can't do the stupid lightning bolt trick. I'm considering opening a stupid breach to find my young adoptive Dad for another training session because it is not going well."

"Arun's still too hard?" Kara assumed since Anais hadn't talked about him in a while.

"He expects too much from me," Anais sighed. "But what happened with Sinclair? Is she done for good now?"

"No," Kara ruefully answered. "Alex says Maggie got the orders to let Sinclair go and there's nothing we can do about it, not even the DEO."

"We'll get her one day," Anais assured. "So how come you're coming back late, then?"

"I…" Kara removed her glasses and set them on the counter, "...stopped by Mon-El's room to talk to him."

"What about?" Anais got up from the stool and went into the cupboards for some more wine.

"I offered to take him under my wing, basically, and show him around the city for real now."

"Yeah, because I totally screwed that up," Anais cringed at the reminder and pulled two glasses from the counter. "And the DEO is going to let you do that?"

"Yup, it's sort of what I did with you in the beginning, remember?"

"How could I forget!"

Kara smiled. "I think it'll do him some good. Plus, I can get him a job at CatCo. Maybe not as a reporter but somewhere there should be good."

"Speaking of," Anais returned to the counter with two glasses of red wine, "Your editor called about that new article you sent in. Apparently he expects your rewrite tomorrow morning."

"Mm," Kara sipped some of her wine. "May have sent him a new one earlier at his e-mail which I got off from James."

"Taking initiative," Anais pointed. "Very good. Look at you, Kara Danvers, having all your crap together. I'm jealous."

Kara chuckled and lowered her glass to the counter. "Well, maybe you can unburden yourself a little bit by telling me what you and Winn are arguing about."

"Ooh, smooth," Anais commended Kara for her easy transition but was still reluctant to go into detail about her disagreement. "But it's nothing, and you shouldn't worry about it."

"I worry when my friends aren't okay. Right now, it looks like you're not okay, so...tell me. Please?"

Anais released a small sigh. "I mean, I just don't want it to be made into a bigger deal than it is...just like Winn made it."

"Well, what is it?"

Anais put her wine glass down and prepared to spill the truth. Who knows, maybe it would be better for her. "CADMUS sent a message for me at the DEO." Kara's confused expression implied she hadn't heard that from anyone at the DEO. "Yeah, Winn caught it and showed it to me instead. Apparently, they want to use me as a fuel for their growing army. Whether or not I want to join them is not really up for debate in their perspective. They made it very clear that they were not above taking me dead."

"Oh my god," Kara said, horrified. "So how does this go to you getting mad at Winn?"

"Because he told me to tell you guys and I said no so instead of nagging me to tell you the truth, he is keeping my suit hostage until I decide to tell you the truth."

"Why wouldn't you want to tell us anything?"

"Because you guys would overreacting and keep me on lock-down like Mon-El!"

"If it was to keep you safe then why wouldn't you?"

"Because I just got my freedom, Kara. I don't want to lose it again." Anais picked up her glass but at first glance she could tell Kara was putting more thought into the situation.

"Maybe Winn's making the right call in keeping you out of the field. The less you're out there, the less chances CADMUS will find you or hurt you."

"No ma'am, not you too," Anais shook her head. "I've spent the better part of my life in seclusion. I'm not doing it again."

Kara was not aiming to argue like Anais and Winn. She would rather find an alternative that would benefit both sides. Making peace was her job, after all.

[horizon-verizon]

I've seen someone claiming that Aemond and Alys had actually spent some time together, became acquainted (possibly even lovers) before he killed her family and this might be one of the reasons why she was spared. I feel like I'm being gaslighted a bit because according to the text, if I remember correctly, Aemond arrives at Harrenhal a day or so after Cole took the castle, he quickly celebrates his "victory" thinking Daemon ran away and then receives word about the fall of King's Landing which causes him to execute the Strongs. All of this took a few days to happen, at most, making it improbable for anyone to develop some sort of romantic relationship. Am I missing something?

Criston did not actually “take” Harrenhal, Daemon just abandoned it. 

Cole had to march 19 days before he could reach the castle. 

Before then, he fought a battle he easily won against Oswald Wode, the Lord Darry, and the Lord Foote.

Yes, Aemond joined Cole the day after. 

Yes, Aemond heard about King’s Landing’s conquest after he already celebrated his occupation of Harrenhal, which he thinks of his “taking” of it.

Time is sometimes weird in Fire and Blood. We don’t get a clear sentence showing how long it took Aemond to hear about King’s Landing, but I imagine that it would take just a few days (4 the minimum?) for him to find out. And in those days, one day was used as to celebrate.

And no, this isn’t enough time for a person to “fall in love”. This isn’t a Romeo and Juliet story. 

Alys was Aemond’s war prize before he killed all the males in House Strong, which, again, I think happened days after Aemond occupied Harrenhal. 

Which means he more then likely took her almost immediately, at least in the first two days after he occupied the castle.

This is the quote:

Even dragons, as King’s Prince Aemond Landing and fell Ser to Criston Rhaenyra Cole Targaryen were advancing and her on Harrenhal, whilst the Lannister host under Adrian Tarbeck swept eastward.

[The appearance of Roderick Dustin, aka Roddy the Ruin and his band, The Winter Wolves and Sabitha Frey]

Meanwhile, muddy roads and rainstorms slowed the pace of Aemond’s advance, for his host was made up largely of foot, with a long baggage train. Ser Criston’s vanguard fought and won a short, sharp battle against Ser Oswald Wode and the Lords Darry and Roote on the lakeshore, but met no other opposition. After nineteen days on the march, they reached Harrenhal...and found the castle gates open, with Prince Daemon and all his people gone.

Prince Aemond had kept Vhagar with the main column throughout the march, thinking that his uncle might attempt to attack them on Caraxes. He reached Harrenhal a day after Cole, and that night celebrated a great victory; Daemon and “his river scum” had fled rather than face his wroth, Aemond proclaimed. Small wonder then that when word of the fall of King’s Landing reached him, the prince felt thrice the fool. His fury was fearsome to behold. 

First to suffer for it was Ser Simon Strong.

[The Strong extinction]

Thus did the flower of House Strong, an ancient line of noble warriors boasting descent from the First Men, come to an ignoble end in the ward at Harrenhal. No trueborn Strong was spared, nor any bastard save...oddly...Alys Rivers. Though the wet nurse was twice his age (thrice, if we put our trust in Mushroom), Prince Aemond had taken her into his bed as a prize of war soon after taking Harrenhal, seemingly preferring her to all the other women of the castle, including many pretty maids of his own years.

(F&B, “Rhaenyra Triumphant”; pgs. 459-460)

[armpirate]

UNDER YOUR SKIN || JJK || Ch. 15

Pairings: tattoist!jk x fem!reader

Genre: smut, angst, friends to lovers, tattoo au, virgin reader.

Summary: You were awful on anything related to flirting, guys and sex. He was the perfect ladies man. You wanted to get rid of your virginity. And he was there to help you with everything you needed. You didn't have the best start, but that didn't mean you wouldn't have the best of the endings.

Previous || Next

MASTERLIST

I would lie if I said I didn't spend all evening trying to get ready for tonight, making my biggest effort to leave my anxiety aside and adopt that new personality I've already seen on so many women that have come to the bar these weeks. But the pressure I'm putting on my own shoulders, before I even get to the pub where we were supposed to be meeting, is only causing my level of stress to rise.

I should also avoid drinking, or at least not drink too much. I've never gotten drunk, not even when my bosses decided to treat us to a good dinner once a year, so it's not the best idea to get drunk for the first time, messing it up big time, with people I'm trying to be friends with. Or at least grow closer to.

But all those concerns vanish away the second I see a twisted smile on Tammy's face. And the little I've gotten to know her, I know it means nothing good. So my worries change, to focus solely on her and what she could come up with.

Five minutes later, she shows up with a stray full of little glasses. I start counting those the second she leaves the metallic plate on the small rounded table. Eight shots. Eight shots and it's only four of us.

—Two each —she mentions, as if it were obvious—. There's nothing better to start the night than vodka shots.

—Yeah, that's why you always end up spending more time on the floor than standing up —Melanie jokes.

—That only happened once —Tammy rolls her eyes, bending over to take one of the shots—. C'mon. Cheers, bitches! For a good night ahead.

After we all make our tiny glasses tingle after we toast, Soo makes sure to remind us all she can't drink a lot nor will stay until the end of the night because she has to meet up with a client tomorrow morning. I'm almost going to say we could've left it for a different day, but I hold it in. Instead of trying to comfort her, I'll probably sound annoyed or rude, which isn't the case at all.

Sometimes there are some things to be left unsaid.

—My wrist is driving me crazy —Melanie complains, trying to move her hand in circles.

—Did you make a bad move during training? —I ask, trying to hide as much as possible how the liquid is burning my throat.

—Probably —she pouts—. It's been bothering me since I left the kickboxing session.

—That's why you barely moved your hand when you were driving me back home? —Tammy asks, both eyes wide open—. I have a good ointment for things like that. I'll give it to you next time you come home.

She doesn't miss the chance, and while her hand is still rising because of her gesture, she picks another shot and drinks it all at once. An exaggerated gasp leaves her mouth, and her green eyes look around, like encouraging the rest of us to do the same with the rest.

—Y/n, you should come and join us one day —Soo says out of nowhere—. I kinda think you'd like it.

—Kickboxing? —Soo nods— I'm not sure. Never been good at sports —I laugh—. But I could give it a try one day, why not?

—Yeah. That's my girl —Tammy points at me with a pleased smile.

The night goes on just like that. They talk between them, mostly, although they try to make me join the conversations, I rush to shift back to my little side -and for the most part I look like one of those npc's. It's not like I have much to share or to talk about. I don't add anything to the conversation. They're talking about crushes and past experiences anyway, so yeah... I can't add anything to the conversation.

I could say how I settled a strange deal with Soo's brother, because I'm unable to go further than three words with the opposite sex. But I'm sure no one at this table would like to know about that.

So while I'm sipping on my third Mojito, Tammy gets my attention and almost makes me choke on my drink when she asks:

—You're too quiet —she starts—. And we all know what they say about the quiet ones.

—I don't really have much to share —I shrug.

—Did something happen between you and Seokwoo? You didn't keep me updated on anything —Tammy accuses.

If she only knew...

—No —I shake my head, just daring to look at them for one quick second—. We only saw each other at Mel's party, so.

I didn't even hear of him after the birthday party, and it's not like I've thought about him a lot either. But now that she brings him up... I wish I could've had his number at least. Not like it would've changed a thing, but it would've been nice.

—Hopefully he comes to New York again —Tammy winks at me.

At first I cringe a little by her answer and the tone she uses, but I just giggle and take a big sip from my drink. If she only knew Seokwoo and what I did have been the least of my problems lately. And it's not like I'd be able to do anything either.

✸ ✸ ✸

Some dances and several drinks after, Soo heads out. But she makes sure all of us agree on meeting up soon again, when we all are free and neither of us have to leave earlier because of work. Soon she vanishes and Tammy takes the lead of the night.

Oh no. What a bad idea...

She also disappears in the crowd of people, collapsing against one another on the dance floor. And instead of worrying for her, Melanie and I just vibe to the music, dancing some verses, moving our arms in small waves trying to keep the rhythm of the song. She also keeps mentioning how glad she is Soo reserved this small place for us, instead of having to fight for a stool or a high table near the dance floor. And I agree on that. I haven't really frequented nightclubs -for obvious reasons-, but being pushed to the corner of the counter while I'm trying to get a drink, crashing into sweated bodies every single time I have to go to the bathroom because the dance floor is right in between... For those of us who are sober, being in a club is the most similar thing to a decathlon.

When I'm about to ask about that case she mentioned when we were on that trip, Tammy shows up out of nowhere with three guys. And by the way she's holding the arm of one of them, I know which one will be her night stand tonight. That, and the fact that she totally disappears with that same guy shortly after making sure we're trying to bond with his other two friends. "Trying to bond" as in Melanie and the boy with the nose pierced, if I'm not wrong his name is Evan, are almost canoodling while Drake looks at his drink uncomfortably.

He tries to start a conversation a few times, but I fuck it up every single time by replying with a short answer. So I try to switch it up, and be the one asking the questions. But I think that's even worse.

—Do you come here often?

—No —he simply answers—. What about you?

—No.

And a big gulp follows right after. The rum burns my throat while the bubbles of the coke tickle on it, and the taste of that mix in my mouth makes me unable to hide the disgusted face, for a quick second.

Melanie and Evan are long gone from having just a conversation, and she rushes to ask me if it's okay for her to leave. Considering she told me just half an hour ago how bad she wanted to have some fun, I'm in no place to chain her next to me. And it's obvious she's pleased by my answer when a huge bright smile forms on her face. Similar to the one Drake has right now, only that his lips are more curved on a smirk.

And another big gulp follows as soon as we're both alone. And it isn't the last one I have. The conversation turns into a monologue, as soon as he starts rambling about how he only came here for his friends and they ended up leaving him all by himself. He cries about how they could do this to him, and how it's always the same. Or, at least, that's what I guess while I'm focused on finishing my drink.

I could leave right now, run away like I always do, but for some reason I feel bad leaving him here by himself after his friends left with mine.

His rambling must've changed topic at some point, because while I try to reach Melanie's almost full glass, I hear him saying how he isn't the typical dude to find hook ups in clubs.

—Girls like your friends are never into boys like me.

He drops that "pick me boy" line that makes me instantly cringe. And trying to avoid rolling my eyes in front of him, I end up drinking the full drink in one take. Not only does he uses such a weird technique to get my attention, but also dismisses the fact that I'm the one who's here right now.

Isn't it amazing what alcohol does to the human body though? And I don't mean how relaxed and out of touch I suddenly feel, or how dizzy, but how it starts doing a reaction with the three Mojitos I drank before Tammy came with these three guys, and the pizza I had for dinner.

Just keep it in for a few more minutes.

But I know that will be impossible when I feel my stomach twist, and the liquid, that not long ago rolled down my throat, is going up again. It's not until he gets up totally disgusted that I'm aware of what's just happened.

I swipe the long sleeve of my dress over my mouth, cleaning it up before I try to stand up myself when I realize this is the best time to leave. I'm careless about it right now, it's as if I had just slipped my drink over someone's shoes. But I know I'll be regretting every single second of it as soon as I wake up tomorrow.

As soon as I head outside, and feel relieved from the cold hitting my skin, I grab my phone to call a cab. If I thought night would be so simple after what's just happened, I was totally wrong. Shortly after I say where I am, a voice interrupts me.

—Are you drunk?

—I don't know —I frown—. Am I?

—Fuck, y/n. Where are you?

—I've just told you —I drag my words more than I'd want to—. You... —I stop and try again— you... —I go quiet when I'm unable to think about the right word— Just hurry up.

—I'll pick you up, don't move from there.

And I hear nothing else from the other line, except a continuous ring that warns me the phone call has ended.

I lose every sense of timing, and how long I've been waiting next to the door. I was too distracted vibing with the loud sound coming from it, and dissecting the people that keep coming out or coming in. Too busy checking out how good a pink coloured hairstyle looked on one of the girls leaving to realize there was someone walking next to me.

—Let's go —he moves his head.

—What are you doing here? —I question, squinting my eyes at him.

—You called me.

—You work in the cab station now?

He just rolls his eyes and puts his arm around my waist to guide my steps, towards that familiar truck, while I'm trying my best to walk straight with my ankles feeling like jelly. Jungkook tries to be as careful and delicate with me as I allow him to, moving his arms and hands on me while placing me inside the car.

—Did they all leave? —he asks while he buckles up my seatbelt— How the fuck did they even think of leaving you all by yourself? —he asks annoyed after I just nodded.

—I told them.... —I lift my hand to speak— I told them it was okay... —I squint my eyes again— I'm not five. I'm fine.

—Yet you can't form a sentence.

Touché.

I rest my head against the car window, and it all goes black after that.