#you know what fuck you maybe it's my headcanon that mark has six fingers!! you don't fucking know!!

[beepbeepinthecorner]

HSH:AHDG:AHG: I GAVE MARK SIX FINGERS IN THE FIRST PIC HOW DID I DO THAT NOOOOO LMAO

When Mark Watney gets home, there sure is a lot of Tumblr nonsense to get caught up on.

(I just wanted to draw the crew being a friend group lol. And I think it'd be funny if Mark got to see a bunch of memes about him)

[itsallyscorner]

Can you write a little mix member x avengers cast?? Maybe?

Hello love! Thank you for the request, I apologize for taking so long to work on it! I’ve written this as a headcanon, since I haven’t done any of those in a while. I hope you like it❤️

💌.

The Marvel Cast Finds Out You’re In Little Mix

Why is this lowkey a crack fic/headcanon😭💀

Alrighty so, I feel like they probably wouldn’t know you’re part of a band or who Little Mix is.

Since SADLY, the girls aren’t as big in the States as we’d like them to be:(

The people who definitely might know you are ✨The Brits✨ and Scarlett because she has a young daughter who probably listened to Wings or something—kids find everything on the internet these days.

Working with Marvel was your first acting gig; so none of them knew anything about you or if you’ve been in other films, etc.

Except for Tom Holland, who was lowkey fangirling at the fact he gets to work with one of the Little Mix members.

Side note: he’ll be deeply offended when he figures out the others don’t know about Little Mix or that you can sing.

The rest of the cast (RDJ, Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Seb, Lizzie, etc.) had a hunch that you were some kind of writer.

You were always humming to yourself and writing in your notebook or typing down notes in your phone when something came to mind.

Though they didn’t pry at your business because—well, it wasn’t their business.

They could find out about your other job through many ways. Maybe you guys are doing promo and some interviewers mention the band and things about a new album, to which most of them were confused about.

“So (Y/n), I know this is your first time acting. How different was it from performing on stage and acting on camera?”

Everyone’s attention would be on you (this is a panel btw) Mackie’s looking at the back of your head in confusion, Robert fully turns in his seat to look at you, Lizzie is also curious, Evans is looking between you and the reporter—everyone is just confused.

“Performing on stage? Did you do Broadway (y/n/n)?” Evans asked. Tom (Holland) scoffed shaking his head, disgusted to be part of this group of uncultured swines.

You chuckled and shook your head, “No, I’m a singer. I’m part of a girlband.”

The whole cast gasped in shock. Mackie let out a loud “WHAT?!”. Robert leaned even closer to you trying to see if you were lying. Others whispered amongst themselves asking each other if they knew.

Tom (Holland) just sat back watching everyone’s reactions along with you. Amused at the amount of questions that were suddenly being thrown your way.

He’d also be quick to add, “NOT just ANY girlband, but the biggest girlband on the planet.”

For clarification, Tom’s a very proud Mixer.

Scarlett finally recognized you, knowing that she’s seen you somewhere before, but could never put her finger onto it. “Wait you’re from Little Mix!”

“THANK YOU! FINALLY SOMEONE WITH SOME TASTE!” Tom yelled, dramatically turning to Scarlett.

After the initial shock, everyone was very curious. They wanted to hear your music, wanted to know the other members, when your next tour was—they were very ecstatic.

When you guys finally reached London for the press tour, there was a lot of hype for Little Mix because you guys were going to finally reunite after months of being apart.

The girls were allowed to visit set, but since you guys were working on your new album, they were stuck in London. You were relocated to Atlanta, filming an Avengers movie and working on the album via FaceTime/Zoom.

You and the girls reunite the same night you land in London! As tired as you were, the five of you hung out in your hotel room.

You were all excited for the days to come. Not only were you doing promo for the movie but you and the girls were going to be performing again on night time talk shows and were having a Live Lounge session with BBC Radio 1.

The panel of the cast discovering you were part of a band went viral. Many of the fans couldn’t believe they didn’t know about your other job.

There were even edits going around social media of the cast looking clueless and or reacting to your ‘secret’.

Then there were ones like “Tom Holland being a Mixer for 10 minutes and 57 seconds straight”.

Your favorite one was where they zoomed in on everyone’s confused expression while that one Nicki Minaj song played in the background.

It was mentioned in almost every interview after it went viral.

“So none of you had a clue that (y/n) was also a singer? Like at all?”

“I didn’t even know homegirl could sing, matter of fact I never imagined her to be in a girlband.” — Anthony Mackie

“I had a hunch that she was a musician or artist, but no one ever listens to me.” — Chris Evans

“(Y/n)’s in a girlband? Since when?” — Paul Rudd

“After we found out, I listened to all six of their albums on the flight here.” — Elizabeth Olsen

“Of course I knew, my music taste is immaculate compared to the others.” — Tom Holland

“Shut the fuck up, Tom.” — Anthony Mackie

“I really enjoy Black Magic, it reminds me of Wanda.” — Paul Bettany

The cast was so eager to hear you sing and watch you perform with the girls.

They finally got to do that when you invited them to the Live Lounge session. They also got to meet the girls.

You were very happy at that moment; seeing the two groups of people you love meeting each other and getting along meant a lot to you. It gave you a lil warm tingle in your heart.

Since there were no fans in the studio, it was only you and the girls, the band, and a bunch of the Avengers.

While the cameras rolled and you guys were performing, they were crowded together behind the scenes. Some of them were sitting on the carpeted floors or standing against the walls.

They were absolutely stunned when they heard you sing. You had a powerful voice that ranged from high to low, something they never expected of you.

When they heard you and the girls sing or harmonize with each other, it was like they were all in heaven.

“They sound like angels.”

“My ears are tingling, but like in a good way.”

“Seriously, how did we not know she can sing like this?”

“Hear me out—this is a perfect reason as to why we should have an Avengers musical.”

“Chris if we hear you bring up a damn musical one more time I swear.”

“Their voices go so well together, how do they even do that?”

Scarlett would secretly film videos to show her daughter. I have a feeling that Evans, Tom, RDJ, Sebby, and Mark would record some parts as well and would post it onto their Insta stories.

When fans found out they were at the Live Lounge they freaked out.

Ever since they found out you were in a band, they’ve been the biggest fans and supporters of the group.

They’re always promoting your albums on their social media accounts without you even asking.

Privately and publicly praising you guys for performances or achievements.

Your two main groups clashed and now everyone was friends. It was definitely the most weirdest collision— Little Mix and the cast of the Avengers. But it worked out perfectly.

Everyone got along with each other and the girls would always visit you on set.

They’re always playing the band’s song in the background on set.

Most of them won’t admit, but they definitely memorized the lyrics to almost every song.

*cough cough* Mackie and Hemsworth

I feel like Samuel L. Jackson would join in on the action too, one way or another. Somehow he got looped in.

ANOTHER THING OMG, they would definitely stand up for you and the girls whenever Piers Morgan or some asshole hates on you guys or pulls a jab on you all.

Best beileve Evans will be calling him out publicly on Twitter.

“Why are you so worried about a bunch of talented women who are doing their job and bringing happiness to others? They’ve done nothing to you, you’re always the one making jabs at them. Leave them alone you fucking British meatball.”

I feel like Robert helped you and the girls find a better management company after learning about the unfair treatment you all faced under Simon’s care.

In conclusion: The Marvel cast would be ecstatic to learn about you being a singer and they’d become your biggest fans. They truly adore you and the girls for your amazing talent :’)

[toukenramblings]

NSFW Headcanons: Izuminokami Kanesada, Horikawa Kunihiro,Nagsone Kotetsu

Give me an instance to talk about the Sin-sengumi, I will take it. The Sin-sengumi shall soon become gospel, just y’all wait. It’s catching on. I also don’t give Naga enough love so here I am.

Warnings: S I N. I’m projecting

Izuminokami Kanesada

I would like to clear this up before we continue, this man is a brat and he knows it. Bottom, top, Izumin don’t care. He can and will tease you however the hell he wants. Maybe he’ll hide something under his clothing for you, but it’s easy to tell with his red face and overly trying to make you look at him and notice him, damn it! Look at what he did for you! Be proud of him! Get horny for him!

He is a horny lil shit when he is in the mood and you can tell, he’ll want to always be close to you, hugging you to his form, glaring at others, kisses pressed to your open skin, if he’s feeling naughty, sucking on your fingers. Sure in public he’ll control himself (MAYBE) but wait until you two are alone.

Izumi gets off on praise and that is a fACT. Call him a good boy as he plows into you or services you with his mouth, his moans during these times will be oh so heavenly, vibrations jolting up and down your spine as he does so. Tug on his hair during sex too, it gets him going.

Izumi is loud, gag him, gag him for me. He’ll look so pretty when he’s gagged, trust me. Do it with your underpants if you must, he’ll look so beautiful, flushed and screaming into the object, desperate for you to touch him.

Yes he gets off to your scent, don’t be surprised if you find him touching himself with an article of clothing against his nose when he misses you, hand furiously stroking himself, wishing that it was your hand or your mouth instead.

Izumi is a bottom-leaning switch, he wants to be taken cared of but that doesn’t mean he won’t hesitate to top you anytime soon. Push his buttons enough and he will. He’ll mark you, mark him in return. He’ll flush as he tries to hide the love bites you give him. But is more than proud when he can see the bites he has given you.

The times when Izumi tops are...whoo baby. He’ll spill nothing but filthy praise from his lips about how your mouth feels on him, how good his cock feels whenever you do something to him. He’s highkey possessive as hell, so catch him calling you ‘mine’. “This is mine, right, master? You know I’m the only one that can make you feel good like this~”

Izumi is fucking greedy as hell whenever you decide to wear something underneath your clothing for him. A glimpse of it and he has a heart attack, Izumi.exe cannot work. Please come back later. He might straight up run away before coming back two seconds later to try and drag you into a secluded corner of the citadel to rip those damn clothes off of you and how dare you wear such a thing that’s only for his eyes.

Yes he isn’t afraid to publicly tease you or being caught having sex. Sure he’ll scream and be super duper embarrassed about it for a while but he’ll be fiiiine. It’s not gonna stop him from dragging you into your office and closing the door and curtains to fuck you on top of your desk anyway.

Izumi has a pretty decent sex drive, which tends to come and go but he’s honestly always ready to fuck you at any given point. Just give him a good reason to. He’ll flush and be flustered, stutter over his words and may downright pass the fuck out but he won’t hesitate to tease you right back with some naughty words.

Izumi loves it when you are on top of him, taking your pleasure from him as you see fit - he also secretly loves it when he’s being tied down when you do this. He loves seeing your face as it contorts in pleasure, and his mouth having an easy reach to your chest and nipples.

Damn it put his mouth to WORK. Shut him up with your nether regions, make him service you. Izumi adores being between your legs and watching every movement, every gasp and moan you make. He wants to drink up your moans like water if he could.

There are times when Izumi denies how horny he is, especially when you can see it in his body language, the way his oceanic blues ghost over your skin, how he bites down on his lower lip when his eyes glaze over your chest and ass - keep pushing his buttons, if he’s in denial that normally means he wants to be topped. He’s also very very much into overstim.

Loves it when you are wearing nothing but his haori, you cannot tell how many times you two fucked on top of that thing to the point it permanently has your scent on it.

Aftercare is rather quick. Clean you up to the bare minimum than pass the fuck out and cuddle. He has to cuddle you! No arguments here!

Horikawa Kunihiro

Hori Hori may have a pretty low sex drive, but he is a little shit about it when he wants to. You can tell when he’s in the mood, he isn’t as showy as Kane-san but it’s much more subtle. Soft whispers when you two are alone, his cheeks lightly flushed at the naughty thoughts in his head. “I want to give you my love tonight, master. Will you let me taste you until you cannot remember anything else but me?” 

Hori doesn’t pleasure himself often whenever he misses you, as said before, pretty low sex drive. That doesn’t mean he won’t do such a thing though, it’s quick and seamless, almost preparing himself for the night to come. Of course he knows to control himself but sometimes he can’t help it!

Hori’s favorite position is him between your legs, servicing you until you are screaming his name, where he can watch you with hooded eyes, forcing your legs apart for better access. He lives to pleasure you, to see you cum at least six times more than he does. 

Hori is also a service top, treating you as glass whenever he is on top. Soft kisses to your thighs, peppering kisses to your chest and marking them as his. That being said, he doesn’t mind being on the bottom. He has a habit of covering his mouth whenever you pleasure him in turn though, tIE HIM DOWN. His moans are beautiful, don’t hide them.

Speaking of tying, yes he will use the red ribbon on his uniform to tie your hands together. Don’t you fucking dare hide your screams and moans from him. Hori will not hesitate to gag you if needed, but would rather not. Would have you choke on his fingers if he must. Yes you can suck on his fingers, it’s great as hell and it gets him going.

Will also love it when you wear nothing but his shirt or jacket. It’s also a surefire way to get him in the mood. He’ll flush, clear his throat, and almost try to adjust it to look more proper on you. “Did you miss me that much, love?” he would question before kissing you.

And then we get to marking. Hori is very easy to mark, his skin bruises pretty easily and he won’t hesitate to show off his marks with a sense of shy pride. He loves marking you up though! It brings him a sense of pride whenever you two are in public and he sees that you are also showing off the marks he gave you. 

Oh Hori is very curious about toys, will dedicate an entire day of learning about the kinks and toys of the modern era. Consent is very important for him of course so he will always ask before doing anything naughty to you, unless you like the spontaneous stuff then he can do that! He caters his needs around yours as he is so giving after all. 

Rarely does Horikawa get jelly at all, he trusts you! But he won’t lie that it makes his skin crawl when someone looks at you with interest in their eyes. Even Kane-san is not safe from Hori’s glares. Expect him to mark you up even more after this incident.

Hori is very versatile. Top? Bottom? Whatever! He’ll be oh so happy just to be connected with you like this! He doesn’t care what position he’s in as long as he can be with you!

Horikawa always wants to see your face whenever you two are fucking. So if you two are doing doggy style, expect some mirror sex with some dirty talk thrown in there. He loves seeing your expressions as you two fuck.

If Horikawa is ever bottoming for you, it’s beautiful. He becomes so needy, praising you no matter what positions you two are in, begging for more. He’ll always be touching you somehow, and giving up control is something he isn’t against. He’ll tug on your hair during these times, arching his back, so on and so forth.

100% is that one dude who wakes up their partner with oral sex, change my mind. It’s gentle and sweet, fingers toying with your nether regions and a smirk dancing on his lips. And then he’ll pull away, is a weeee bit into orgasm denial until one of y’all is a sobbing mess - prefers it if you orgasm deny him though. But is more so into overstim, he loves you so much after all! You need to be fucked properly!

Yes Hori will 100% steal your bank account to find you something cute to wear under your clothing. Will love it when you model for him too! Has an entire collection of tabs saved of things for you to wear.

Super prepared for aftercare. Sheets? Changed. Water? Ready! Cuddles? Mandatory.

Nagasone Kotetsu

His nipples and chest are his biggest weak points, tweak them, nip them, suck on them. Oh man Naga-san will be putty in your hands. He just has really nice man tits i want to suck on them. But Nagasone will do the same to you! He will lavish your upper body with nothing but marks and kisses, adoring the way you squirm in his arms. During sex, Nagasone’s mouth has to be on something. Be it sucking on your fingers, a gag, or something or other man. It’s good as hell.

He has more control over his sex drive than Izuminokami but his sex drive is a lil bit more higher than Horikawa’s. Right in the middle. He knows he can keep control of himself but then there’s moments when he goes feral, pinning you down to whatever surface you have, teeth digging into your skin, giving you all of the love he can ever give you and more. Nagasone loves you, he wants to show it to the world.

There is a sly smirk whenever someone notices the love bites he has, or he has given you. He may have a light pink flush that decorates his cheeks when someone teases him about it, but he is proud of the marks he bears whenever you mark him. Won’t hesitate to show them off to the world if he must. Hachisuka might tell him to cut it out but is that going to stop him? No.

Like Horikawa, Nagasone is a service top and gives more than he gets back. He may be a fake but Nagasone thinks that you are his sun, his stars, his moon, the one who loves him despite who the hell he is. He wants to show you how much you mean to him, so most of the time the sexy times between y’all is soft as shit. He worships your body oh so much.

Do the same to him! Like I said, his chest is his weakest point. Mark it up, lavish him with praise and affection. Nagasone will act like it doesn’t do anything to him, but the way his cock twitches with your words speaks volumes. “Don’t say such things, love, you never know what I could do to you next.” though Nagasone always makes sure to return the favor!

Nagasone is so into body worship it’s not even funny. He could spend the rest of his day in the temple that is your body, between your legs, marking your thighs up and just basking in your presence. He also loves it when you wear something of his. It smells like him and it’s warm and cozy but man does it get him going.

Like Horikawa, Nagasone will be rather curious about toys and lingerie. Yes he may have tabs open on your computer on things for you to wear, but it’s all leather and lace. A few toys here and there, he doesn’t go fully into it like he will but he will happily learn more to pleasure you and please you!

Wear something under your clothing and flash it to him. I dare you. He will not hesitate to drag you away to somewhere private and make you fucking sob. “Wearing something like that? I didn’t think you would find out I liked that kind of thing, master. Mind if you take it off for me?” and then its ripped, whoops.

Nagasone loves your hands and how they deal with the rest of the swords. Loves kissing your fingertips and finger pads, sucking on your damn fingers and smirking as your eyes glaze over with lust.

Oh dude praise dOES something to Nagasone. He loves it when you praise him for doing such a good job when he’s servicing you, tug on his hair. He loves it when you’re rough with him.

If you ask him to be rough with you, you’re not walking for a week. He’ll make sure that you are fucked properly, overstimmed to the point you might just pass out from the pleasure. Pinned down to whatever surface he deems right, kissed until your lips are swollen and sore. Oh Nagasone will not be holding back. He will drag his nails down your back when you cling on to him, your body will be covered in nothing but his bites and marks now.

Is not into choking. I’m gonna put that out there right now. But kinda into collars?

Loves it when you sit in his lap and he’s ramming into you from below. He loves seeing your face when you get worked up like this! He always wants to see your face when you two are fucking, and also sucking on his fingers as he sings nothing but praises about how good you feel. Will also love to sit on your lap whenever he is taking you.

Nagasone will not deny that he has thought about fucking you under a table, your desk most likely. He’s a sneaky little shit and smirks as his fingers find your sex, toying with it until you want to snap. He’ll hate you forever if you do the same to him, expect him to slam you against a wall in frustration and roughly take you right then and there.

After care is simple. Swiftly clean and then pass the fuck out. Nagasone is a fucking furnace of a big dude so you’ll always be warm around him. Maybe he’ll joke that he wants a second round? Who knows, fufu.

[satendou]

⟼ a touch of warmth

holiday masterlist | next | 1/15

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

⇢ pairing: semi eita/reader/shirabu kenjirou

⇢ au: aged up!au

⇢ summary: you know it’s cliche, getting caught out in a snow storm, and you know it’s made worse when you’re forced to stay at semi and shirabu’s apartment. but the real icing on the cake is when the power goes out.

⇥ masterlist

⇢ warnings: pretty vanilla smut

⇢ word count: 5350

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

⇢ a/n: i have a headcanon that semi runs super fucking warm at all times and you cannot change my mind.

“Jesus, where the hell did this come from?” Semi snarled, trying and failing to shield his face from the snowflakes flying towards his eyes. They were squinted so close he could barely see, the wind whipping around his clothes and the bags in his hands, almost knocking him off balance.

A hand at his back steadied him even as the person used him as a shield, then your voice cut through the howling storm, “They said that a storm was coming but that it was still supposed to be a few hours yet.”

You were practically yelling to be heard, fingers curling into the back of his jacket so you wouldn’t lose him in the thickening swirl. Semi didn’t bother to answer, instead intent on not getting lost before he made it home. It was getting harder to breathe, his eyes starting to sting as the moisture tried to freeze, and he tugged his scarf higher up over his nose.

At last the apartment building came into view and your hand disappeared from his back.

“Oh no you don’t, you aren’t walking home in this,” Semi snapped, snatching your wrist back up and tugging you up the stairs. He would swear he heard a sigh of relief from you, wiping snow off of yourself with your free hand.

“Thanks, Semi,” you said, and he glanced back at you for only a moment, pretending the pink flush on his cheeks was from the biting wind. “I’d probably freeze to death out there.”

Semi huffed quietly into his scarf as he fiddled with his keys at the door to his apartment. “Can’t believe you actually thought we’d make you walk home in this. Unbelievable.”

You giggled quietly behind him, content to stand close enough to him to give him heart palpitations as he finally got the key in the lock. “You know I don’t like to assume things.”

“You can make an exception just this once, _____,” he sighed, shoving open the door to reveal a pacing Shirabu.

“Thank god you’re home,” he said, stopping short when he caught sight of the two of you covered in snow and shivering. “Get in here before your toes fall off. I can’t reattach frostbitten limbs.”

You laughed behind your trembling hand while Semi raised a brow. “Did you just make a joke?”

Shirabu’s face turned the faintest pink as he snapped, “It’s the stress. Don’t get used to it.”

“You’d have much higher marks for bedside manner if you did that more often,” Semi responded, setting the bags of you had almost died for on the counter, so missing the way his flush deepened. “We gotta get out of these wet clothes. I’m sure I have something for you, ____. I’ll be right back.”

While he was gone, you shed your jacket as you asked Shirabu, “Did they say how long this is supposed to last?”

He took the jacket and gloves from your hands and made his way towards the laundry room, leaving you to stand in front of the heater as he said, “Most of the night, but they aren’t sure. The cell moved a lot faster than expected and is bigger than they thought.”

Semi appeared behind him in the doorway, almost pressing against his back to hand him his own wet clothes, asking, “Do you have anything she can wear? I think all of my stuff is too big.”

“Yeah, just a sec,” he answered, turning and disappearing into his room.

Semi returned to the living room, pointing over his shoulder as he said, “Shirabu is gonna see if he has shorts or something that’ll fit. Then we should probably shower and eat before the power goes out.”

Shirabu appeared a few minutes later, looking flustered as he held out a pair of boxers and some sweatpants which were clearly too big. “This is all I have. Sorry.”

Heat crept up your neck and you couldn’t quite look him in the eyes when you took them from him, unable to help the small laugh that escaped you. “It’ll have to do, I guess. Thanks, Shirabu.”

“Uh, sure,” he answered, retreating a few steps back from you. “You guys should shower real quick. I’ll cook tonight.”

Semi allowed you to shower first, breathing a sigh of relief as feeling returned to your arms and legs. There was the uncomfortable sensation of pins and needles for a few moments, causing you to wince, before you stepped out of the shower. It took every ounce of willpower you possessed to get out of the warmth, slipping on your borrowed clothes. You had to roll the pants a few times to make them fit at the waist, but at least they were warm and dry.

You thanked yourself for buying a decent pair of boots, which had protected your socks from getting ruined. Even with the heaters going full blast, it was still chilly in the apartment.

While Semi showered, you crept up behind Shirabu in the kitchen, latching your arms around his waist and setting your head on his shoulder. “Can I help with anything?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin, dropping the packet of noodles he was holding into the sink with a startled gasp. “No, you-- Jesus, you scared the hell out of me,” he said, holding his hand over his racing heart. You were warm and smelled of Semi’s bodywash, your hair dripping water onto his neck and causing face to flush. “Do you feel better?”

“Much,” you murmured, and he would swear you nuzzled closer, feeling your lashes flutter against his skin. “Thank you for letting me stay. Can’t believe I actually got trapped by a snowstorm.”

“Would you shut up?” Shirabu snapped, his voice dropping before he continued. “You know we always want you here.”

He meant it, too. He wasn’t entirely sure when you became such a staple in their routine or when he and Semi had started to view you as more than just a friend, but they were both in deep by the time they realized it. To top it off, when they had first come to realize that the other felt the same way about you it had caused some tension in their friendship, resorting to ignoring their feelings for the sake of everything at that point.

It was easier said than done though, with you standing in his clothes smelling like Semi who, Shirabu was reluctant to admit, had morphed into something more as well. Maybe it was the way you and Semi interacted, or maybe it was the way the dynamics between the two of them changed just by the sheer virtue of your presence, but something had definitely given in Shirabu’s mind. He could easily imagine being with the two of you, and had on more than one occasion.

Your heart stuttered in your chest at his muttered words, hope blooming before quickly being tamped down again, leaving you with a small smile. Squeezing around his middle, you made yourself more comfortable against his back, breathing in the clean, fresh smell that always surrounded him while he fiddled with the pot on the stove.

“You’re making this exceptionally hard,” he drawled, even though he hadn’t even attempted to get rid of you. You had remained attached as he moved from the sink down to the stove, shuffling behind him like an oversized leech as he dumped everything into the boiling pot.

“Mhm,” you hummed, squeezing your arms for just a moment to let him know you weren’t going anywhere, and he laughed under his breath. “Tell me to get off and I will.”

“Get off,” he deadpanned, though his heart sank even as he said it. It was a reflex response and he cursed himself for it.

“Rude,” you said, then laughed. “But no. You’re warm and do you really want me to?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said, even as he though, No, no I don’t.

Footsteps sounded from down the hall, then Semi appeared in the archway, a brow raised as he leaned against the frame. “Don’t you two look cozy. Dinner ready yet?”

Shirabu froze for a moment against you, expecting jealousy or ire, but he heard only amusement in Semi’s voice. Hoping you would just assume he was startled, he answered, “No because _____ here won’t let go.”

Semi laughed at that, cocking his head to the side and opening his arms. “Why don’t you come here and let Shirabu finish cooking?”

You seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking your head.

“No,” you said petulantly, but the smirk you gave him was almost a challenge, as if to say Come get me.

Shirabu groaned in aggravation as more weight settled on his shoulders, a frustrated laugh bursting from his lips as he realized Semi had piled on top of you now. Your happy laughter filled his ears, vibrating against his back while Semi’s hands settled comfortably on his sides, chuckling along with you.

“Do the two of you want to eat tonight or just sleep in a pile on the kitchen floor?” Shirabu asked, trying to be grumpy and failing miserably. You could see the corners of his lips turned up, the flush on his cheeks, and Semi could hear the smile in his words.

“No, but considering the power is probably gonna go out later, maybe we should sleep in a pile on the couch,” Semi said, not quite as joking as he should have been.

“Real subtle, Semi,” you said, rolling your eyes even as you smiled. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”

He shrugged in response, heart flipping in his chest when you didn’t quite say no. “We’ll see how you feel when you’re freezing cold on the couch, but don’t come crawling to me.”

“She won’t, because you’ll both be crawling to me since I have the bigger bed and all the blankets,” Shirabu said reflexively, his hands freezing over the pot as he realized what he’d said.

Expecting silence, he was pleasantly surprised when you burst out into more laughter while Semi mumbled, “Well that’s because you keep stealing them. You have like six blankets what do you need that many for?”

“For if the power goes out of course,” he answered with a shrug, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You know I get cold easily.”

“Yeah, Semi, not everyone runs a toasty 150 degrees all year round,” you quipped, earning a hard poke to the side from behind.

Shirabu scoffed, turning the burner off and reaching above him to pull bowls from the cabinet. “He would be dead if he were that h-high.”

He tensed when he felt your fingers drift over his abs, realizing his shirt had ridden up as he stretched towards the cabinet. Stumbling over his words, he grabbed the bowls and hunched back down, but his shirt bunched up over your hand still resting on his skin.

“Yes, Shirabu, we know that,” you drawled, letting your hand remain exactly where it was. You had felt him freeze against you, heard his breath skip, but he didn’t push you off. “But tell me he doesn’t feel that warm.”

“I’m actually secretly a werewolf,” Semi said, pulling away from you at last as Shirabu doled out spoonfuls of soup into the bowls.

You moved back reluctantly as well, shivering as the chilly air encircled you again. You hadn’t realized until then that it actually was cold, at least compared to the two men. A bowl was shoved into your hands, piping hot and causing your skin to tingle as it warmed up again.

“You’re actually secretly an idiot,” Shirabu retorted, pushing him forward out of the kitchen. “Now eat before it gets cold.”

For a few hours after that, you sat almost on top of one another underneath one of Shirabu’s thick blankets to stave off the cold. With your legs tangled together and your head resting on Shirabu’s shoulder, you eventually found yourself falling asleep.

“We should probably go to bed as well,” Shirabu said, watching your eyes flutter open for the nth time in twenty minutes.

Semi reluctantly picked his head up from where it had been almost buried against your neck, shooting Shirabu an almost betrayed look before agreeing. “Guess you’re right. I’m surprised the power’s still on, honestly.”

Shirabu nodded, smirking when you grumbled as he got up. Your hand grasped at his shirt weakly, trying and failing to keep him from getting any further before you slumped down to lay on the couch. “Give it an hour and it’ll be out, probably.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Semi muttered. Or do, give me an excuse.

Tucking the blanket around your shoulders, they turned the lights and TV off before bidding each other an almost reluctant goodnight, the apartment falling silent after the click of their doors closing.

You weren’t sure how much time had passed when you woke up shivering, but the clock on your phone read only midnight. Squinting in the harsh glare, you realized the apartment was unnaturally silent, the buzz of the heaters and the hum of the fridge missing. The only sound was the howling wind and your teeth chattering as you tucked the blanket closer around yourself. Your nose burned with each breath before you finally pulled the blanket up over your nose and ears. Curling into a ball, you tried to get back to sleep.

After what felt like an eternity later, the sound of a door opening caught your attention, and light blinded you when you rolled over to look.

“Hey, are you awake?” Semi asked, voice shaking with cold. “It’s freezing out here.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m awake. Guess the power finally went out,” you said, sitting up as he approached the couch.

Before he could sit down, another door opened and Shirabu appeared in the hallway. “Can anyone else sleep in this cold? I can’t feel my damn fingers.”

“Not even all those blankets are enough to keep you warm, huh?” Semi quipped, though it fell flat with his voice trembling.

“Shirabu doesn’t have enough body heat to warm ‘em up,” you joked, rubbing your hands up and down your arms. You thought about getting your jacket out of the dryer and putting it on, but that would mean getting out from under the blanket, which meant being even colder.

Shirabu’s flustered huff caught your attention, scratching the back of his head as he said, “Do you guys wanna--”

“Yes.”

You and Semi looked at each other before breaking out into nervous laughter while Shirabu scoffed.

“You don’t even know what I was gonna say!” he yelled, even as Semi pushed him back down the hall and into his room.

“Sure we don’t,” he said, turning around to guide you further into the room. “What else could you have been asking?”

Under his breath, Shirabu said, “Maybe I was just gonna offer more blankets.”

“Mhm. You getting in or what?” Semi said from where he had already made himself comfortable. You were tucked as close as could be to his chest, hands pinned between you with one of his arms shoved under your head and the other slung over your waist. You were instantly warmer already, with the blankets piled on top of you and tucked around your neck.

Still muttering, Shirabu climbed in on your other side, hesitant to move closer until you snatched his arm up and tugged. Cold fingers skimmed up your side where your shirt had ridden up in your squirming, causing you to shiver, but you only continued to pull until he was molded against your back.

A sigh ruffled the hair at the back of your neck, a cold nose pressing into your hairline as Shirabu hid his face from the cold. Semi tucked your head under his chin, burying his face in one of the many pillows Shirabu owned, heaving a sigh of relief.

“So much better,” he mumbled, and even Shirabu hummed in agreement, squirming closer and forcing his hand between the two of you, grazing--

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” he gasped, yanking his hand back as fast as he had accidentally groped your breast, shame and perceived rejection flushing white hot through him. “That was an accident, I swear. I--”

Your eyelids had fluttered open at his touch, able to feel the chill even though your shirt, causing your nipple to pebble. “‘Jirou.”

A pin could have been heard hitting the floor in the silence that followed, both men tensing up as heat flooded through you, embarrassed at the way you had whined his name.

A warmer, more calloused hand trailed over your side, pushing your shirt further up tentatively, and your heart stuttered in your chest. When you didn’t stop it, it paused, a nose grazing your forehead and down over your own.

You could feel Semi’s lips move against the tip, voice breathless and hopeful as asked, “Do you want--? I mean, you said--”

Shirabu was still frozen behind you, breath ragged against the back of your neck as he listened to Semi’s stuttered question, hoping against hope that somehow this was actually going to happen. To his utter horror, the blood was rushing from his face straight down, and he subtly shifted his hips back from where they were pressed against your ass.

“Well, I--” you hesitated for just a moment, wondering what would happen in the morning, if it would cause a fight between the two of them. Finally you whispered, “Yes, but it’s selfish, isn’t it? I want both of you, but I don’t want to lose either of you.”

Semi laughed low in his throat, nose pressing against your cheekbone so you could feel his lips move against yours. “Yeah, it’s pretty selfish, but I think we are too. If you want both of us, you can have both of us. You already do, anyway.” He silenced your startled noise with his lips, pushing you to roll onto your back before pulling away. “This alright with you, Kenjirou?”

Before he could think, Shirabu reached up to tangle his fingers in Semi’s hair, forcing the man to look at him. “Can I kiss you?”

His eyes widened in the dark, unseen by Shirabu, but it didn’t matter. Reaching out blindly, his hand found his cheek and he leaned in, clumsily seeking out Shirabu’s lips. He missed the first time, but Shirabu was quick to correct, molding their mouths together in a hesitant kiss that quickly turned heated. They fought for dominance above you, Semi’s arm braced above your head, knee between your legs before Shirabu finally caved.

“This works out rather well,” Semi said cheerfully, turning his focus back to you. He grasped the hem of your shirt and tugged upwards, exposing your torso to the cold air, nipples hardening as you shivered. “Wish we could see, though.”

“We have all day tomorrow,” Shirabu hissed as he pulled his own shirt off, the chill sweeping over his skin. “Hopefully it storms tomorrow night too.”

Too busy forcing Semi’s shirt over his head, you didn’t respond besides clenching your thighs together at the thought of being trapped with them for another day.

You couldn’t say you minded.

Two sets of hands met on Semi’s chest, both colder than he liked and he quickly fell back to your side, pulling the blankets back up over you.

“This might be a bit tricky,” Shirabu conceded as warmth crept over him again. That didn’t stop him from tugging his pants down his legs, kicking them off to the foot of the bed, and yours quickly followed suit.

You almost hissed when the length of his hard cock pressed against your thigh, almost hot against your skin. Semi was already trailing his fingers up your inner thigh, grazing over your hooded clit before hooking your leg over his hips.

“We’ll make it work,” he said, though he almost choked when your hand palmed his cock through his sweats. “Just a sec, since you’re so eager.”

You already had a hand wrapped around Shirabu, his hips rolling in time with your strokes, smearing precum down his shaft. Warm breath fanned across your neck where he’d hidden his face, before you turned and pressed your lips to his.

Your other hand was guided back down, Semi’s hand forcing yours to wrap around his head, smearing precum across your palm. “God, princess, you feel better than I imagined. We’ve wanted this forever.”

“M-Me too,” you gasped when two different hands touched your folds, one warm and rough, the other soft but cold. The duality made you squirm, desperate for more as you imagined Shirabu’s fingers dipping inside you. “‘m sorry I’m selfish, I-- You’re both so--”

“So what, sweet girl?” Shirabu breathed against your lips, condescension dripping from his words. “Tell us.”

The words bottled up in your throat as Semi started circles on your clit, leaving Shirabu to toy at your entrance. You were pinned beneath them, hips held down by both their arms even though you tried to squirm, begging for more.

“You like that, like when we touch you so nicely?” Semi whispered in your ear, nipping the lobe gently. “If we knew you wanted this so bad, we might have done this sooner.”

“Yes, yes,” you whined, and Shirabu had to hook your other leg over his to keep you spread open for them. You didn’t even have time to bemoan the loss of his touch before it was back, one slender finger finally sinking inside you. “‘Jirou.”

“Hm?” he asked, curling his arm up and tangling his fingers in Semi’s hair. “Did you like that?”

Semi hissed when he tugged roughly, pulling him away from where he had been mouthing at your shoulder, at the same time your hand tightened around his cock. He was smearing pre across the outside of your thigh, thrusting his hips in time with your strokes, but they stuttered for a moment. “Yeah she did. Give her another one.”

You clenched around Shirabu’s fingers at the thought, both hands squeezing and twisting roughly around them, milking more precum to spread across your skin as a second fit inside you. They crooked up, dragging down the front wall of your fluttering cunt, seeking out the sweet spot inside you.

Both men shivered, Shirabu stifling his grunt against your neck but Semi moaned for you to hear.

“Fuck, I--” Shirabu started, devolving into moan that rumbled in his chest.

“Me too, fuck, me too,” Semi panted, pulling away from you completely. “You started it, you go first.”

You whined at the loss, reaching blindly out into the dark, smearing a mess across his chest. He snatched your hand up, mindlessly pressing his lips to your knuckles.

“Are you-- Are you sure?” Shirabu asked, trying and failing to meet his eyes in the darkness.

His touch disappeared as well, guiding himself to hover partway over you, seeking Semi out as he said, “Yeah, if you’re alright with it, princess?”

Curling your arm around Shirabu’s neck, you hummed as his cock nestled against your folds. You could hear the sounds of kissing just above you, your hand still clasped against Semi’s chest. “I am, just hurry up.”

That elicited muffled chuckles from the both of them, Shirabu starting a slow roll of his hips that slid his cock back and forth across your clit.

“You aren’t gonna regret this in the morning, are you?” Semi asked playfully when he pulled away from Shirabu.

“I’m not unless you don’t quit teasing,” you huffed, locking your leg around Shirabu’s hips.

“That attitude is gonna have to be curbed,” Shirabu teased, bracing himself on one hand over you. The other found your chin, tilting your head up until he could find your lips with his. “I don’t deal well with brats.”

“Wouldn’t be a brat if you would just--”

You broke off with a gasp, back arching up into his chest when he finally, finally slid himself in, slick walls parting easily until he was buried to the hilt.

A broken noise filled the room, hands flying up to wrap around his biceps while Semi chuckled beside you.

“What was that, princess? If he would just…?” His fingers tangled in your hair, turning your head towards him so he could whisper against your lips, “Shirabu doesn’t deal with attitude well. I’d suggest you watch yourself.”

Shirabu didn’t wait for you to adjust, dragging his hips back just so he could slam back in, already hitting your cervix with every thrust. He fell down to his elbow, seeking out your warmth while the cold air bit into his back, the blanket having fallen down to his hips.

The chill wasn’t much of a problem anymore, your focus solely on the drag of every vein against your walls, the crown of his cock rubbing up against the spot he was looking for earlier. You were crying out his name and begging for more, arms moving up to loop around his neck, pulling him down flush with your chest. Your nails bit into his back, goosebumps rippling over his skin as your legs tightened around his hips, forcing him deeper.

“Gonna cum if you keep that up,” he bit out, breath puffing against your neck. His head was swimming, the darkness forcing him to focus solely on the way you sucked him back in, dripping down his balls and easing every thrust.

Semi was occupying your mouth, slipping his tongue between your lips to taste you. After a moment, you felt his hand cup your breast, rolling and plucking your nipple between his fingers teasingly. lt was a gentle contrast the way Shirabu pulled out and snapped back into you, pinching your clit against his pubic bone.

“Don’t stop, please, ‘Jirou,” you begged, teetering on the edge of coming around him. You just needed one last push, him to angle his hips up--

You gasped when a warm mouth wrapped around your nipple and sucked, walls spasming around Shirabu, who jerked up inside you when you did. You were coming before you knew it, clenching rhythmically around him and milking him deep inside you, a litany of curses spilling loudly from his lips.

“A little warning next time, Eita?” Shirabu gasped, pulling out and collapsing beside you, resting his arm on his forehead.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he answered, releasing your nipple with a wet pop. “Roll over towards ‘Jirou, sweetheart.”

You were still trembling from aftershocks, pussy pulsing and forcing Shirabu’s cum to drip out until Semi nudged the head of his cock into you, pushing it back in. He groaned into your ear, molding his chest to your back and pressing his nose to your hair, hands holding your hips for dear life.

“You feel so fuckin’ good,” he growled, carving through your clenching walls until his tip met your swollen cervix. “You’re gonna come for me again, aren’t you? Kenjirou got to feel you, let me too.”

Shirabu shifted beside you when you mewled, muffling the noise with a kiss as Semi fucked you from behind. His pace was far different from the former’s, gentle and slow, carefully grazing your overstimulated nerves until it tipped over from painful to pleasurable. He could feel when you relaxed, hooking your leg back over his hip only for Shirabu to lift it up, spreading you wide for Semi.

Your fingers tangled in Shirabu’s soft hair, breath coming in pants and tiny moans against his lips, meeting them occasionally with your own only to pull away to whine.

“Eita,” you breathed, hugging Shirabu closer. His cock was still half-hard, sitting just right that every one of Semi’s thrusts dragged your clit against it. “Gonna come again, please don’t stop.”

“Good girl,” he groaned, feeling you tighten around him. You were so wet, so messy from a mix of your own slick and Shirabu’s cum, dripping down his balls and making a mess of his thighs and yours. “So perfect, so good for us. We’re not gonna leave this bed tomorrow, I don’t care if it’s snowing or not. Wanna see you, wanna watch you come for us.”

You tightened up at his words, whining into Shirabu’s mouth. He took advantage of it, running his tongue across yours and greedily taking in your taste.

“Can’t believe we waited this long to do this,” he panted when he pulled back, shifting and rolling his hips in time with yours. He reached out blindly until he found Semi’s hand, linking their fingers together and squeezing.

Semi huffed out a laugh before kissing just below your ear and down, humming against your jaw. “I won’t wait that long to do it again, I promise you that.”

You were barely listening to them, the coil in your lower belly tightening again, waves of heat spreading through you as every thrust managed to graze the swollen bundle of nerves inside you. You couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose, but you were drooling around his cock, begging him to go deeper, to fill you up and make you come.

They both groaned at your filthy words, high pitched and whiny, needy for them to take care of you.

“We’ve got you. Just let go,” Semi whispered in your ear, shifting down and thrusting sharply into you, sinking even deeper and slamming against that spot*.

White flashed behind your eyes, Shirabu’s slender fingers replacing his cock on your clit, circling so fast you clamped down on Semi. He managed to hilt inside you only twice more before you started coming, back locking up and forcing your ass back into his pelvis.

Like Shirabu, he spit out a string of curses at how tight you were, milking him dry before he could think to pull out. You felt so good fluttering around his cock that even when he was spent, he didn’t pull out, content to plug you up as he softened inside you.

The room fell silent again for a few minutes, basking in the afterglow. Shirabu pulled the pile of blankets back up over your shoulders, letting his arm settle across your side. His hand rested on Semi’s side, forehead pressed to yours, while Semi’s fingers wrapped around his arm to complete the tangle of limbs the three of you had become.

“I know what you said earlier,” you said at last, whispering with your eyes closed. You were so close to falling asleep, nestled between them, but you wanted to know before you got your hopes up. “But was this a one time thing?”

Semi shifted behind you while Shirabu huffed in annoyance, peeking an eyes open even though he couldn’t see you.

“Not if you don’t want it to be. We’d actually really like to date you,” Semi answered, trying to push even closer to you.

He only succeeded in pressing you closer to Shirabu, who moved to tuck your head beneath his chin. Shirabu was content to let Semi do the talking, knowing he was better at it anyway, and already knew everything Shirabu wanted to say.

“Oh,” you said, and sounded surprised for some reason. “I’d like that. I didn’t think...Well, I didn’t think you would be alright sharing.”

“I didn’t think we would either, but I guess somewhere along the way things changed. ‘Jirou, you--”

“Yeah,” Shirabu said, cutting Semi off. “I don’t know when but I-- I like you too, Eita. Sorry if I--”

“Nah, I feel the same,” Semi said, squeezing his arm. “Well that settles that then, doesn’t it?”

“Seems so,” you whispered, nuzzling at the column of Shirabu’s throat. You forced your leg between his and your arm beneath his, content now that you had your answer. “G’night, guys.”

“Night, sweetheart,” Semi whispered, while Shirabu pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

Your breathing evened out against his throat, body going slack so quickly it was almost laughable, but they followed quickly behind, too tired to have anymore conversation that night.

⇥ masterlist

holiday masterlist | previous | next | 2/15

[effei-s]

aurora, aurora, aurora.

First and foremost: dear @alwaysreading I’m so sorry that it took me so long. My chaotic ass just won’t ever let me get things done quickly and that’s why I can’t have nice things (c).

(it’s like…. looooong and i’m hoping it’s gonna be interesting).  

Aurora Aurora Aurora, the love of his life (and mine) and the baddest bitch in the house (she’s aries and entj, that alone says a lot).

let’s start with the question: yes, she knew about him marring someone else and about Aaron. i’m gonna be a lazy bitch here and copypaste part from my ff:  

There was a mother-in-law, obsessed with public opinion, who liked to pry and snoop around (and the private detectives she hired, whom he fed to a school of large barracudas at the Gulf of Mexico). And there was the truth that still surfaced, no matter how careful he was. Untimely. Ugly. It left him with an empty house, a short note “please, return to your real family,” and an endless year of solitude.

And now my favorite part: HEADCANONS!

headcanon 1: they’ve met when they were teenagers. I know in mafi’s world people are very indifferent to children’s suffering (Anderson can beat the shit out of Adam in broad daylight almost on the school’s porch and no one would bate an eye; Juliette can go around covered in bruises and no teacher would ever question it), but I prefer a little bit more realistic approach. So when a mother forces fucking BLEACH down child’s throat I expect that that child would be taken away from her.

What i’m trying to say is that Rori and him were in the system (foster care, in the same family, but Aurora was there first; age 14 maybe 15; he probably changed a few different homes, and then he saw her and decided to stay). They started as friends (and that was probably the first real emotional bond he had). And they both were troublemakers. Anderson because he’s… Anderson (whispers; a sociopath and he hates school). And Aurora because she’s walking “I take no bullshit” sign. And sometimes, when people annoy her too much, she tends to break their noses (but her marks are still excellent). So both of them had detentions and suspensions in school, but unlike Anderson Aurora never had any REAL TROUBLES with the police. In their tandem she’s the smart one. And then (at the age of 18) they parted their ways for three years. He went in the army (because it was the easiest choice), she went to college (BA in art conservation in States). Then they’ve met again, started dating, she decided to get a master’s degree in Europe (Switzerland I’d say or Netherlands) and became a full-time art conservator (she’s very passionate about preserving cultural heritage, can you see the conflict here?) and around that time Anderson was introduced to the reestablishment concept.    

here’s the thing, their relationships were always “long-distance thing” (long before he married Leila) and both of them were perfectly fine with this. There was no “i’m gonna die if you’re not near me 24/7” bullshit. There was no “I love you” 35 times a day and holding hands. They just… knew that they love each other and it was enough.

This is probably the reason why I love them together so much: they’re two very strong-willed, stubborn and completely independent people (in this house we hate codependent relationships). They have lives and dreams and goals outside each other (and that’s the reason why they never married in the first place: marriage is a relic of the past, that weird thing for other people).

(of course it backfired at her, badly, he betrayed her trust, he broke her heart; but, trust me, if someone told her that in order to have him only for herself she had to be near him all the time and had to give up her dreams for MA and Ph.D., Rori would say goodbye to him and never look back, no matter how painful it’d be. She loves him, she does, but she loves herself more.)  

Headcanon 2: kids and independence. She won’t make sacrifices for him, but she would make them for her kids. And yes Adam is HER KID. AND HERS ONLY. And the same goes for James. I see how you can catch this “it was one-sided and she didn’t really had a choice” vibe from books. Her sneaking food in secret, him showing anger at the sign of Adam(???). I love @cyanidesouffle interpretation of this: that Cat loved him and hoped that sooner or later he’s gonna come to his senses. Lose the battle, win the war, as the saying go. But if we’re talking only about canon, i’m really not a fan of Anderson who can walk in and out and wreck havoc in HER HOME and implant his stupid ass rules, when he’s the one who’s at fault here. she’s not the one who married other man and had a child! He has no right to be angry at Adam, he has no right even look at him the wrong way. I don’t like how it’s implied that she either had no other option but to submit to his whims or she was too meek to stand up for herself and her son.

my favorite thing about my headcanon girl is that Aurora REALLY doesn’t need him. And she doesn’t even think about him as the father of her kids. The hardest part of it (first pregnancy, labor, first years of Adam’s life) he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there, because she didn’t want him to and because she didn’t need him to. He knows it and it makes him treasure her more (there won’t be any third chances for him, another fuck up like this and he’s out for good). It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows back then, and she wasn’t the kindest and loving with Adam (it’s inevitable when you impulsively decide to have a child to spite the man whom you plan to never see again) but she learned to be, little by little. Although she still was quite demanding of Adam (he literally learned the alphabet with her ‘history of art’ books).

Again: she loves Anderson, that’s why she allowed him to came back, but she loves her son more. So when they decide to start again she’s the one with all aces up her sleeve.  

MY HOUSE. MY KIDS. MY RULES.

(if you don’t like it, then you can kindly fuck off. don’t want to act like a human being? shut the door on your way out. and so help me god if you lay even one finger on Adam)  

There’s her love for him, there’s her love for her work, and then there’s her love for her kids. And she can sacrifice first two, but not the last.

Headcanon 3: it’s more of a AU part, but things would so different if she didn’t die. She won’t be a part of RE, obviously, she won’t marry him even if he’d ask her. BUT!  

a) Leila would be alive. And well. Because Rori would find out the truth, as she always does, and then she would make him fix things. She would probably take Leila under her wind, as a form of punishment for Anderson (oh look I care about your ex-wife more than I care about you, she’s really cool, btw).

b) he won’t be a supreme commander. Actually becoming a supreme was his biggest mistake. Everything gone awry because of the routine. It was fun for a few month, but then the middle-age crisis came and everything went to hell. So Rori would definitely convince him to look at it not from the ‘AAAA MORE POWER EVEN MORE POWER, I’M UNTOUCHABLE!!!’ point, but from ‘i’m gonna need to take REAL responsibility for my actions, and they actually gonna have consequences’  point. 

paris: wow, i really don’t like it. thank you, rori. where would I be without you? 

rori: six feet under, darling, six feet under. 

[theprodigypenguin]

👀 (I hope it isn't closed yet, love you! 💙)

It’s an end of the year game so I guess it’s open till the end of the year (or until I run out of WIPs, ya know?). Thank you for the Raven-heart! This is from a Jeddy that I initially wanted to be one of those semi-cliche fuck-or-die fics, just to test my abilities and play around with their characters. Never got to the “fuck” part of the fic cuz smut and I have a bad relationship SO this is what I have to share~ This was also written back before I’d decided James was smol in my headcanon, so he’s semi-tall in the oof.

Most of what Teddy did was assess the properties of certain objects in order to pass them along to the more diverse segments of the Department. When something unusual came in, he had to figure out if it pertained to Love, Time, Death, or any other mysterious magic, or if it was harmless enough to send up to the top floors of the Ministry for the rest of the workers to deal with.

In the months he’d been working there, Teddy had seen it all. A teapot that had been tampered with that they’d sent up to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, a Muggle broom that a young wizard had accidentally infused with magic because he wanted to fly already, among more dangerous items. Broken time turners that still had a bit of magic in them and needed to be disposed of properly, a vial of smoky green liquid that nearly made Harry vomit when he looked at it, and their most recent discovery.

They’d deduced that the item wasn’t dangerous or toxic in any immediate way, so Teddy’s supervisor had given him authorization to bring it home for further research and an order to get some rest and eat something other than caffeine. It was an unusual artifact, that was certain.

Like most of the relics stored in the Department of Mysteries, this one didn’t look imposing or dangerous at all. Found in the cellar of an old Death Eater who’d recently passed, sitting on a pillow of black velvet set into a stained mahogany box with a glass inlaid lid that allowed viewing of the item within without opening.

It was a deep scarlet red in color, roughly three feet in length, but folded carefully, a thin ribbon with lightly frayed ends. No, it didn’t look dangerous at all, but when Teddy set his fingertips against the box, he could feel the magic, the power, that made his fingers almost burn. They didn’t know what it was, what it was supposed to do, who made it or why. So Teddy had taken it home, grabbed every book he could on magic infused cloth and clothes, and settled down in his living room. That’s where he was sitting when the floo came to life, flames lashing up before spitting out five foot seven inches of Quidditch Chaser with a cocky grin.

“Evening Teddy!”

Teddy lifted his eyes from the faded pages of an old journal about weaving protective spells into wizard robes, greeting James with a smile of his own.

“Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you had practice today?”

“Mate it’s nearly midnight.”

“What?” Teddy slowly closed the journal. “What are you doing at my house at midnight? Did something happen? Are you okay? Is Harry okay?”

James just laughed. “Calm down, everything’s fine. We haven’t heard from you in days is all, and last time that happened you passed out in the middle of the Ministry, so dad and aunt ‘Mione asked me to come check in on you. Dad probably would have, you know how he is, but he’s been busy too. I said I’d stop by.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Teddy chided, setting the book down on the coffee table and trying not to feel endeared at the fact James was worried about him. “I’m alright.” 

“Sure mate, I believe you,” James said, stopping on the other side of the coffee table with his hands up, “but that’s just me. Dad on the other hand sent me with a list,” and he reached down, pulling out a folded paper from the front pocket in his jeans and holding it up with his usual flare that had Teddy snorting.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Not even a little.”

“You don’t need to-”

“Stuff it Tedward, I had to sit through it while dad told me what to write down, you have to sit through it too.” James cleared his throat. “Item number one, have you eaten?”

“Please tell me this is a joke.”

“Should I mark it no?”

“I’ve eaten.”

“Have you properly hydrated? Those are the exact words he used, Ted.”

“Yes.”

“Have you bathed?”

“Yes.”

“Changed into clean clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Rested? He means sleep by the way, have you actually slept?”

“Yes.”

“Are you lying?”

“No, James gimme that.” Teddy stood and grabbed the paper from him, shaking his head at the list that had at least ten more items in it. “Guy blacks out one time in the food court and it’s the apocalypse.”

“You can’t blame them. I’m worried too.”

Teddy almost thought better of looking at James, but his curiosity won him over and he looked up from the paper to meet the intense brown eyes that always seemed to make it hard for him to breathe. Honestly, did this this idiot know what he did to Teddy?

“This job of yours is really debilitating, it drains you more than any job you’ve ever had before. You already blacked out once because you pushed yourself too hard, and the work itself is some of the most dangerous in the entire Ministry. We’re worried about you.”

“It only drains me because I’m not fully used to it yet.” Teddy was quick to defend, setting the paper on the coffee table and holding his hands up. “I’m getting better. I really like this job, Jamie, I’m doing good work and learning amazing stuff. Sure I may have completely lost consciousness while standing and slept three days straight because I hadn’t taken a break or even a nap in six days, but I’m much better at managing my time now, and my supervisor has been keeping an eye on me-”

“Yea, yea, yea.” James waved a hand, looking away. “I believe you, Lupin. So are you going to offer me some tea or coffee? Some snacks maybe?”

Teddy shrugged and turned. “Of course, make yourself at home,” he had a half smile on his lips as he made his way towards the kitchen. “You practically live here anyway.”

“I’d apologize but I’m not sorry!” James called after, and Teddy laughed.

“I should get you a key to the front door already. How’s your work been? How’s training?”

“Exhausting, but it can’t be worse than what your dumbass is doing.”

There was a pause as Teddy pulled down a tin of tea from the cupboard, setting it on the counter before going back for coffee mugs. There was a half pot of burnt coffee sitting to the side, but Teddy wasn’t going to send James home hyped off caffeine, and he himself needed to sleep soon anyway, it was midnight after all, so tea it would be.

“Just got the last pieces of my required uniform,” James picked up again, and Teddy hummed, even though James probably couldn’t hear him. “Still not crazy on the colors, but I guess they’ll do.”

“Just remember to keep an eye out when you’re playing,” Teddy warned. “The Falcons are famous for playing rough, and National games are more violent than Hogwarts anyway.”

“I already know that, Teddy, you don’t have to baby me about it,” there was a high to his tone, annoyance, but Teddy wasn’t surprised.

He was only eighteen, but James had developed a kind of complex about people noting his young age. He was technically an adult after all, he even had a job, and was searching for a place to stay so he could move out of his parents house and be independent. Teddy was proud of him, but his worry wasn’t spurred by a misguided belief that James was somehow still just a baby. Teddy just worried about everyone.

Still, it seemed like he must have offended James somehow, so he sighed, pouring hot water into the two mugs and thinking of what to say to apologize as he balanced them in his hands and started back for the living room.

“Hey, Jamie, you know I’m not warning you because I think you’re a kid. You’re young, but you’re grown enough,” Teddy started, eyes down to keep himself from spilling. “I just don’t want to see you hurt, okay? I don’t know what I’d do if something happened…”

“Ted…,” James’ voice was soft. “I know, Teddy. I’m sorry, I just… I know.”

Teddy shook his head. “Never mind that. How’s everything else been? How are Lily and Albus?”

James was starting a response when Teddy finally stopped and lifted his head from the cups of tea. The younger man was saying something about Lily getting in a fistfight and chopping her hair off before the Hogwarts semester, but Teddy didn’t hear him as the sound of water roared into his ears, and his tedious attempts to not spill any hot water became insignificant as he dropped both cups. One shattered on the floor, the second broke on the coffee table and soaked several important looking documents, but Teddy was focused entirely on James.

He was gaping at Teddy in shock, there was an open box on the table, and the red ribbon Teddy had been studying was hanging in James’ right hand.

“Ted, fuck, are you okay?! Did you burn yourself?”

“James,” Teddy carefully, slowly raised his hands, his posture cautious, eyes locked on the ribbon like it was an explosive. “Jamie. James. What did you do?”

“What?” James’ worry had faded to puzzlement. “Do?”

“That thing…”

“Oh, right, it was just sitting here-”

“James what have I fucking told you about touching shit in my house?”

James looked dumbfounded, morphing to a blend of irritation and panic, because Teddy never talked like that. “What are you going off for? It’s just some stupid ribbon!”

“That is an artifact from work, James, it’s dangerous!”

“Why’s it on your fucking coffee table?!”

“I was researching it to figure out what the bloody hell it was!”

“You don’t even know what it is?!”

“No, James, that’s why they gave it to me, to figure it the fuck out!”

“Well fuck, am I gonna fucking die?!”

“Why would I know that, you dumbass?!” Teddy took a sharp breath in, running his hands through his hair, staring at the ribbon hanging innocently between James’ fingers. “Okay don’t panic-”

“That’s exactly what you say to make people panic!”

“Can it! Let me think! Maybe you can just …  just put it back, maybe it’s not as powerful as I thought. Maybe it’s just the box that’s magic infused and the ribbon is just… just a ribbon. Yea, this is fine, just don’t move, okay?”

Teddy shifted around, side stepping closer to the coffee table and reaching down to pick up the box, standing slowly as he lifted it.

“Okay, slowly, place it back onto the pillow.”

“Wait if the box is what’s magic should you be touching it?”

“We’re well past that, Jamie, just put it in the box.”

James inhaled shakily as he held his right wrist in his left hand like he was bracing against a spell, easing the ribbon down towards the box as Teddy raised the box up to meet him. They were both holding their breath, and when James had the last piece of the ribbon sitting in the box, they breathed a sigh of relief, looking at each other and laughing anxiously.

James cursed. “You prick, I really thought I might die for a minute there.”

Teddy laughed. “Actually I was worried about that too, but it seems everything is fine no-”

The universe didn’t even let Teddy finish before proving him wrong. The box in his hand seemed to burn, and he cursed as he released it, but when it fell and clattered against the coffee table, the ribbon hovered. It moved like it was possessed, both ends flinging out like it was a living thing. Teddy cursed colorfully in both English and Welsh as the strip of cloth that looked so silky smooth before wound around his wrist like a vice of course fraying rope that burned into his skin.

James was in the same boat, yelping as the ribbon wrapped itself around his left wrist and arm, winding tight around both of them like it was a Boa Constrictor, only letting up when they’d been yanked closer together. Then it stopped, but one pull at it told Teddy all he needed to know. They were stuck like this.

“Oh Merlin…”

“What?!” James yanked on his right arm, eyes wide and cheeks flush. “What happened?!”

“I don’t know, stop moving!” Teddy reached over with his right hand to stop James, flexing the fingers of his left hand that was bound to James’ right. “Shit, it’s not letting up.”

“Okay, I’m not freaked out by this or anything, but are we gonna die?”

“I… I don’t know. Just don’t panic.”

“No of course, why would anyone panic in this situation?”

“I told you to put it down, I have told you countless times that if you were going to visit, that you couldn’t just touch everything!”

“Well don’t just yell at me about it! How was I supposed to know?! It was a ribbon in a bloody box! I thought it was just a decoration!”

“James why in the name of Godric would I have a ribbon in a box decorating my bloody coffee table?!”

“You’re a weird guy, Teddy, I don’t know what you do in your free time, the oddities you might collect, maybe you like to display vintage ribbons, I’m not judging!”

“Would you shut up?!” Teddy snapped. “Just let me think!”

James listened, kept his lips tightly sealed as he glared anxiously at the ribbon around his wrist and arm. Teddy did his best to assess the situation, tugging at the material and sighing. Whatever this thing was, it had wrapped around his wrist before winding down his arm to his elbow. His left arm was now bound to James’ right, where he was in the same situation with the ribbon. It seemed magically stuck, it wouldn’t loosen or come away, even the ends that hung at their elbows wouldn’t peel up.

“Alright. There’s procedures we have to take when something like this happens,” Teddy explained, his right hand still holding the ends of the ribbon. “Come around the table, stand next to me so we aren’t leaning awkwardly towards each other.”

James shuffled on his feet to get around the table, standing shoulder to shoulder with Teddy and slowly sitting down together as Teddy continued to eye the stupid thing.

“Alright, are you in any pain?” James shook his head. “Is the material burning you or itching or-”

“There’s no pain, I can’t even feel it,” James insisted. “I just can’t move it.”

“Me either,” Teddy sighed, leaning back. James slumped back with him, unable to do much else, their arms hanging between them as they both stared dumbstruck at the wall.

Teddy could feel the back of his hand pressed against James, could feel the warmth of his skin, in fact it was almost too warm, but that probably was just him. Touching, being close to James like this, was something he tried to avoid. Teddy had a good handle on his self control for the most part, but he’d be lying if he said there weren’t moments he nearly grabbed James by the face and kissed him in front of everyone.

He could’ve been magically glued to anyone else and it would have been fine. Why did it have to be the one person he’d been crushing hard on since he was seventeen, left Hogwarts, and claimed he was going to be more famous a Quidditch player than his mum had been, with the air and confidence of a man who’d already won the World Cup?

“So what do we do?” James asked. “Got some scissors lying around this mess somewhere?”

“Jamie I really don’t think scissors are going to win this match.”

“Worth a shot.”

Teddy wanted to argue, but at this point what other choice did they have? Teddy knew next to nothing about this thing, so maybe all they had to do was snip it?

“They’re in the kitchen,” Teddy said, standing and hauling James up with him, stepping over the shattered porcelain tea cups. “Watch the cups.”

“Sorry about that tea.”

“There are more important things.”

The scissors didn’t work. In fact, when Teddy started to cut at the ribbon, the scent of burning metal overwhelmed them both, and he lifted the scissors up to reveal the ribbon had essentially eaten into and melted the blades.

“Scissors are a no go,” James muttered. “What about… wands?”

“You want me to try magically cutting this thing off? I could miss and cut you, or it could bounce off the ribbon-”

“Teddy what else are we supposed to do in this situation?!”

“Not freak out!” Teddy ran his hand through his hair again, then groaned. “Damn it. I’ve spent hours studying this stupid thing and I still haven’t got a clue what it is. We need to go back to the Ministry.”

“What for?” 

“My boss might know more about this kind of thing. Magic infused cloth, and it… somehow is capable of binding people together. It doesn’t hurt, but it won’t let go. Merlin’s sake.”

“Dad’s gonna kill me,” James lamented, staring at the ribbon. “If I miss practice my captain’s gonna kill me too.”

Teddy could only sigh in silent agreement.

[wiredandrewired]

Was trying to actually work on something but my brain is stuck on loop.  So instead I’m gonna make a post of the Voltron stuff sitting unposted in my writing WIP folder to help me organize my thoughts.

I guess since I’m posting this, if you have anything you wanna say/ask about any of these feel free.  I respond well to outside interest.

1. Project ReVolt is without a doubt the project I’ve posted about the most here.  And talked about in random tags.  And tangents.  Originally it was just the name the project had in my internal brain filing cabinet but it’s kind of spread and stuck to where my wife and I just refer to it as that when we talk about it.

ReVolt is basically going to be a VLD series rewrite more along the lines of how my wife and I would have done it or at least liked to see it done.  In some places it will probably stick pretty damn close to the events of the series canon, but in others go completely off the deep end.  We’re each going to be doing one, so a lot of the headcanon and worldbuilding and such that we’ve worked out together in various other stories and RPs will be consistent between the two stories, but it will also give us a place to veer out and do things without the others’ input (as we’re not gonna let each other see our fics until they post, tee hee).  I’ve done a SHITPOT of rules and infrastructure work using actual alchemy tracts to try and make sense of the series’ largely Powers As The Plot Demands system,  and am pretty convinced I’m going to A)fall hard into my very common Esoterica Ranting Mode pitfall and B)enrage literally everyone who reads it with my character and plot choices.  Most conservative estimate says this will be six ‘books’ long as again, we’re doing literally the entire series.  Current status: at the ‘ridiculously large amount of notes and setting up actual arcs and outlines’ stage, and waiting for the wife to finish ‘Happier HOPEless’.

2. There Are No Monsters Here is a fic I really want to do but cannot seem to get off the ground, set to take place entirely in the ‘last universe’ from season 8--the one native-Honerva died in and crazed-death-god-Honerva picked out as her ideal and tried to wedge herself into.  I guess the basic idea was that, like the ‘main’ universe, it got rebuilt pretty much as it was prior to Nightmare Mom Ruining Everything, and I have it with no one fully remembering the events of season 8 that took place there, but characters really closely tied to those events having some itching feeling that something happened, and all the Altean alchemists agreeing that some kind of massive quantum Event certainly occurred even if they don’t know what.  

Mostly the story exists as  a place for me to have a canon-compliant AU that still lets me explore stuff like Altean history, the racial and cultural tensions of the Coalition, dink around with Oldadins that DON’T die in one fell swoop, a living Daibazaal and Altea, Lotor growing up with a decent-but-not-without-strains relationship with his dad, teen Allura and tiny Lotor being absolute shits to each other while also coming to terms as they grow up with who and what they MUST be both on a political and quantum scale, and generally prove that even a perfect universe isn’t, all in one place.  The title is entirely facetious, and anyone who’s read any of my alien culture headcanons for this series knows that.  Lol.  Current status: lots of bits and pieces, but no good beginning or connective tissue.   I have a lot of notes, some arc outlines, and a few scattered scenes and bits of dialogue from later in the story, but my god, I CANNOT get it off the ground.

3. Someone Must Get Hurt (But It Won’t Be Me) is supposed to be a pretty wholly Honerva-centric fic that starts...sometime in her youth?...and carries forward to an as-yet-undetermined point.  Probably her death.  I mean the first one.  I’m not sure.  Another chance to dig my fingers into Altean culture and Alchemy, this time leading up to All The Bad Shit That Happened, with the added bonus of being done from a focal point of a character I have a lot of really strong feelings about both positive and negative that’s resulted in me somehow being EVEN MORE wrapped up in her than I was before I added abject knee-jerk trauma hatred to the mix.  In no way meant to make Honerva more sympathetic, I think I just want to write her even more like my mother so I’ll feel EVEN BETTER about killing her?  Idk man my feelings about her are so complicated.  Also an excuse to write a shitpot of her and Zarkon because listen, I’m really glad they’re married because I ship them so fuckin hard.   Current Status: SO many notes.  SO much infrastructure.  Like three pages of an opening I’m almost definitely throwing away because I can’t decide where, when, or how to open but feel like this isn’t it.  One short but very telling scene of Honey and Zarkon from late in the story.  I’m obsessed with it but I can’t get anywhere. 

4. Currently Untitled Demon Hunter AU started because my wife talks to me about Happier HOPEless a LOT and I just got an itch in my bones to work on one myself.  In spite of the entire Demon Hunter AU thing getting started by a prompt on a Shance blog, neither Shiro nor Lance are set to appear for at least a chapter?  And I am not confident in my ability to not veer off into utter non-shipping anyway because man, am I bad at it.  Or like...just an entirely different ship for either or both of them.  Current Status: A lot of vague notes, a POWERFUL urge to structure the chapters and overall arc after Ripley’s Gates even though that limits my chapter count and means I will DEFINITELY have 20k+ word chapters, and about seven pages of the first chapter so I guess I’m committed now?

5. Currently Untitled Post Series Fic basically exists for me to vent my frustrations about two main things: The Universe is Fucking Huge And There Are Dangers Other Than Galra, and The Galra Empire Was Huge and Is Not Going To All Fall In Line Behind Voltron Coalition and Especially Behind Keith Who Just Arbitrarily Fucking Decided To Tell Them They Couldn't Pick A New Leader According To Their Own Traditions And Need To Do What They’re Told Now What The Fuck.  Also there was a lot of stuff in the series that got left hanging, and while ReVolt is an IN-series fix-it fic, I wanted something that patched up loose ends in a way that was satisfactory to me but also kind of canon-compliant.  Current Status: A lot of notes and screaming.  No one has seen my progress on this and they might never.

6. Dog Runs And Death Dreams is a warmup file turned deeply self-indulgent series of scenes in which I choose to assume that Shiro’s rare neuromuscular disorder was left so ambiguous so I could plug the symptoms of mine into it.  It’s genuinely not any deeper than that.  The whole thing is set pre-Kerberos, and includes copious Shiro x Adam content because of it, but also not the kind that makes me feel good about writing because that means it includes the ‘slow fizzle’ that leads up to their breakup before the mission.  Ugh.  Working on it does make me feel better when I've been having symptoms, though, and I’ve been letting myself write it, unchastised, in a really loose rambly way that I usually deride myself for.  It’s just cathartic.  Current Status: no notes, no plan, just strain-writing between seizures, but somehow it feels like it has some kind of structure and just keeps growing?  Possibly too close to the bone for me to ever post.

7. Birth and Rebirth was born out of two things: the fact that Zarkon is shown to have two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT reactions to first being presented with his baby son in different flashbacks and different seasons, and the fact that in spite of the flashbacks we get at the end of the series, earlier on, the impression I got of Lotor and Zarkon’s relationship wasn’t of a young man who had never had affection from his father, but who had instead lost it.  Well, three things: I have a lot of underlying issues at work, at play, and at large when it comes to the Galra Imperial Family.  Also, anyone notice the monitor blips in the first baby Lotor flashbacks indicate a heart murmur?  Anyway, it was supposed to be a thoroughly self-indulgent and thoroughly self-hurtful examination of Lotor’s early life and the death by degrees of what was left of his father in the husk Rift Adventures left behind, but I got stuck on it a little way in.   Current Progress: ten pages, a lot of notes, and some wistfulness.  I keep hoping I’ll get inspired to pick it back up again.  Contemplating rewriting some of the beginning, maybe it’ll help?

Bonus entry that is not actually in any form of progress soever:

50/50 Voltron Trashfire Edition is spawned from the ‘50/50′ challenge on an old TF board I used to haunt.  It’s a fifty-prompt smut challenge using the list of ‘50 reasons to have sex’ from some tv show, and the idea is to write a different ship for every prompt (hence the name).  My wife is blazing through it and has several (like twelve?) up on her AO3, but I’ll be utterly blunt: I haven’t written fifty porn fics in my LIFE.  Over ALL my fandoms.  Current Status: Literally all I have done is assign a ship to each prompt, and I might actually have some prompts with just question marks beside them still.  I have one aborted start to one entry.  That’s it.  It’s not happening.  But the empty file is technically in the folder, SO.

[theeeveetamer]

This may be an odd request, but if it’s not too much trouble, may I get a modern ABO leokumi fic where Leo just becomes really obsessed with Takumi’s scent during his first pregnancy? I sorta headcanon that in all ABO verses that omegas gain a sweet milk undertone to their original scent from the time the pregnancy is detectable, and I imagine Leo would just become enamored with it while Takumi is just really weirded out. Again, sorry if this request is a little odd, but thank you in advance.

I definitely thought I posted this, because I finished writing this like two weeks ago but oh well, I finished it now! Side note, but I did not realize Tupperware is a proper noun. Learn something new every day.

Relevant Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Mpreg, Arguing, Making Up, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Cuddling & Snuggling, Scenting

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18305054

That bastard.

He shoved another spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth and grumbled under his breath. He’d been too annoyed to wash the few dishes they’d managed to unpack, so instead he’d spent twenty minutes digging through cardboard boxes to find one clean piece of flatware he could use instead.

Don’t unpack anything! We won’t be living here for very long.

Leo said that six months ago! But his mate was too busy to go house hunting, and he was cooped up in this tiny box of an apartment and crammed in with mountains-upon-fucking-mountains of everything they’d ever owned. He’d already ranted and raved about it over the phone to anyone and everyone that would listen to him, but it was a new city so at the end of the day he was still stuck in this mess by himself. If they’d been moved into an actual house he could have at least occupied himself with unpacking during the day until Leo got home from work.

Speaking of his mate...

Leo promised he would be home by six. It was nearly nine now. He didn’t know why he was surprised; Leo was always late. But it was Friday night and he’d promised he would be home on time to take him out to dinner.

He was going absolutely stir crazy. He wasn’t allowed to leave the house unless he was on suppressants or pregnant, and unfortunately he was currently neither of those things.

Fuck it. Maybe I should just tell Leo to shove it, we can start trying again later.

The little white bottle sitting on the kitchen counter called to him with its siren song of pseudo-freedom. But they were finally at a point in their lives where a baby was possible. Out of school, and Leo was making good money with this new job. More than what they’d been making combined, so he’d quit his job teaching and they moved several hours to the city without a second thought. They’d been able to comfortably bank one of their incomes for the past three years with a little frugal living, and it was more than enough for a down payment on a nice house. Three bedrooms, two baths… White picket fence and dog included.

Well, if either of them were actively searching the housing market. He’d told Leo to just get a real estate agent, but his bullheaded Alpha was convinced he could do things by himself, but he worked far too much to even look at properties. So it was looking like it would be up to him to find an agent.

And although he was itching to get started, there wasn’t much he could do about it until those little pink sticks in the bathroom started reading two lines. There were a lot of things he couldn’t do until Leo finally knocked him up, including going out to a nice dinner without his mate. He was finally going to get out of the damn house for once! He’d really been looking forward to it, too! Leo had made reservations at a little Italian place down the street that he’d been dying to try ever since they’d moved in, but here he was shoveling cold mashed potatoes into his face and watching reruns of some trashy wedding reality show.

He checked the time. It was already ten o’clock, and the sun had long since set, and the only light in the room was the blue glow of the television set.

I’m gonna kill him.

The front door clicked open a little while later. Frustration finally hitting it’s boiling point, he twisted around and chucked the empty plastic Tupperware container in that general direction. It connected -- if his mate’s angry swearing was anything to go by -- though it bounced off relatively harmlessly and clattered to the floor with a wholly unsatisfying thunk.

“Asshole.”

“What the fuck Takumi?”

He slammed the front door shut behind him, rattling the thin walls and probably waking up half of the people on their floor. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to wonder if the neighbors hated them or not.

“You said you were going to be home hours ago! Where the hell were you?”

“Work! Where else would I be?”

“I haven’t left the house in two weeks! You promised that you would be home on time!”

“And that gives you the right to throw things at me?!”

“It gives me the right to be upset!”

“Look, we have this huge deadline and everyone has been working late. My boss wasn’t going to let me leave early just because my mate is grumpy.”

He could practically hear the eyeroll in his Alpha’s voice. Takumi’s fingers curled tighter around his spoon, and his mind went completely blank with rage.

“Grumpy? I’m fucking furious! Why don’t I lock you in the house for a months on end and see how much fun you have with it?”

He got up off the couch and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring straight up into his mate’s eyes. Leo had a good eight inches on him, but it had never bothered him. Even if he had to crane his neck up he never backed down from a stubborn Alpha.

“You’re being completely unreasonable.”

Leo was infuriating. It was always “You’re being unreasonable”, or “You’re too angry right now”, or “it’s not a big deal” but it was! And it didn’t stop being a big deal just because Leo didn’t want to handle it!

The blonde had already retreated under that emotionless mask he’d spent so many years cultivating. Weren’t they supposed to be over this by now?

“I hate it when you do that. With your face I mean, if you’re upset then say something!”

“The only thing I’m upset about is the fact that my mate is throwing a tantrum like an immature child.”

“Fuck you!”

“You started this.”

“Is it so wrong of me to want a mate that keeps his damn word?!”

“Would you rather I get fired? Then what would we do? How the hell are we going to support a baby like that?”

“Ugh! You-- You’re impossible!”

He threw his dirty spoon down on the couch — He hadn’t even realized he’d still been holding it — and stormed into the bedroom. It was pretty impossible to put a lot of distance between them in their little one bedroom apartment. Normally he wouldn’t have minded the tight quarters, but he’d been getting testier the longer they tried for this baby.

He burrowed under the covers, still fully dressed, and tried to cool his head.

Leo only waited a few minutes, just long enough to put his work things away and the dirty dishes into the sink before he crawled into bed behind him. His mate wrapped his arms around his waist and nuzzled the back of his neck.

He sighed. He never could stay mad when Leo nipped at the back of his neck like that.

“Why can’t you just let me be angry? You aren’t playing fair.”

“All’s fair in love and war my dear, and as I recall I still love you.”

“I’m sorry for throwing things at you.”

“I’m sorry, I should have called you when I found out I’d be staying late. I keep forgetting that Sakura and your mother aren’t a fifteen minute drive away anymore.”

They were both so used to operating under the relative freedom that his heat suppressants allowed… Sometimes he even forgot that he couldn’t leave without taking them until he was half way out the door. Before they moved he could call Sakura or Mama up to keep him company, but now he was all alone in this new city.

“I know you can’t help it.”

His mate continued nuzzling along the side of his neck, far longer than he usually did.

“Um Leo? You can stop now, I’ve calmed down.”

“You smell… Really sweet.”

“You’re starting to freak me out.”

“Love… I think you’re pregnant.”

“What?”

He tried to pull away, but Leo’s nose was still firmly planted against his neck. His mate’s warm breath danced over his skin and made him shiver, though it wasn’t a wholly pleasant experience this time. Leo was acting very… Weird.

“You smell different.”

“Are you just saying this because I’ve been emotional? Because I swear--”

“No, really! I think you’re pregnant. Do you still have some tests in the bathroom?”

He shuffled out of bed and practically ran to the bathroom. Leo stood to follow him, but he slammed the door in his Alpha’s face before he could dare. He was still a little upset, and it was always so embarrassing to take these things in front of him.

“Takumi!”

“Talk to me in five minutes!”

He tried to occupy himself until that short amount of time passed, but it was excruciating. They’d been doing this for almost two months, and every time it had ended in disappointment. He could practically envision Leo sitting on the edge of the bed just outside the bathroom door, anxiously wringing his hands and trying to pretend like he wasn’t also worried.

“Leo!” He called out around the three minute mark.

“Yeah?”

“If this is negative and you got my hopes up then I’m going to kill you!”

He wasn’t still mad. Nope, not one bit. It was merely a joke to break the tension...

Gods, five minutes had never gone so slowly before, had it?

The second his timer went off he snatched the little pink stick off of the counter.

Two lines, clear as day.

He tossed the bathroom door open, and before Leo could even stand up he tackled him and knocked him flat on his back. Takumi pinned his shoulders to the bed, legs on either side of his waist.

“Is this a happy tackle or an I’m-going-to-kill-you tackle?”

“Happy, definitely happy.”

Leo beamed up at him with the most brilliant smile. It’d been awhile since he’d seen it, and gods he hadn’t realized how much he missed it. Takumi closed the gap between their lips and kissed him repeatedly, in excited little bursts. When he tired himself out, Leo wrapped his arms around him and drew him flush against his chest, nose buried in his hair.

“I can finally leave this damn apartment! First thing tomorrow we should make an appointment with the doctor… And we can start buying stuff for the nursery! We should probably pick a color scheme…”

“Mhmm…”

“Oh come on Leo! I know you’re just as excited about this as I am!”

“Sorry, love. You just smell so wonderful right now.”

“Stop being weird.” He pushed himself off of the bed and headed for the front door. “Well? Come on, get your wallet! You still owe me dinner.”

“Dinner? It’s nearly eleven!”

“I’m sure somewhere is open. Besides, you’re the one that kept me and the baby waiting in the first place!”

[rorykillmore]

alright and here’s a birthday fic for @transrobro who wanted something with felix & camille!! it struck me while i was tossing around ideas for this that no one on denny has like. done anything with a post-denny au in a CRIMINALLY long time so this is sort of?? an idea for their’s??  combined with the idle passing thought that it’d be fun to write something with the two of them texting since we’ve headcanoned they do that.  think of this as like... an au happy (?) ending for them i guess....

happy birthday jay!!! i can’t put into words how happy i am to be able to mark down another year of being friends with you. i don’t tell you enough how often you make me feel better about whatevers going on in my life just by being around and making me laugh so hopefully in return i can at least brighten up your birthday a little bit with this fic!! camille and felix are another one of those “where the fuck did this come from” panfandom dynamics but i have enjoyed writing them with you SO much and i hope this pays tribute to that in some way. can’t wait to send them spiraling into disaster!,

(also as an added bonus, my mom wanted to tell you happy birthday too. she’s still grateful for the groot ornament.)

she likes the idea of a world where she doesn’t have to say goodbye to him.

To get back to normal, Camille figures she would have had to understand what ‘normal’ looked like to begin with.

But she has to admit, her life in this world has become more or less as stable as it’s ever been. She has a good, steady job and good, steady friends. Or, well. Maybe describing them that way is being generous, but she’s kind of glad it the real truth anyway. She can’t imagine many things more lonely than a world where all her friends have their shit together.

That doesn’t cancel out the important things, though. The little differences that become big, in the long run. On one of her darker days back home, Camille might have curled in on herself, might have disappeared out of sight, into herself, her skin itching as she pretends she’s not craving a drink or six.

Here, on her darker days, she finds that she usually texts Felix.

And he doesn’t ask a lot of questions. Sometimes he invites her out (he’s distinctly more of a partier than she is) and sometimes he just talks to her for a while, but he doesn’t hover, and he doesn’t ask if something’s wrong.  And it usually makes her feel a little... lighter.

Maybe there’s also something to be said for someone who you can also send random, passing thoughts to, day or night, without much fear of judgement. 

camille: [ Do you think everyone goes home eventually? ]

She hits ‘send’ and then lays back against her bedspread, tapping her fingers idly against the edge of her phone. It’s just a minute or two before Felix replies.

felix: [ I mean, everyone goes SOMEWHERE eventually? ]

felix: [ They don’t stay here ]

There’s no debating that, Camille supposes.

camille:  [ Yeah. I just meant, you think maybe some people don’t go back to the world they started out in? You think that’s possible? ]

Another short pause.

felix:  [ Why? ]

felix:   [ Thinkin you wanna go somewhere else? ]

She’d be lying if she said it wasn’t tempting. There’s not much left for Camille in her own world except painful memories, but she’s not sure she’d ever be able to forgive herself for never going back to Curry and Eileen.

And Amma.

As much as she can go back to Amma.

camille:  [ Actually I was thinking of you. ]

It catches Felix off guard. At least, that’s what Camille guesses, because there’s more than just a brief pause on his end this time. Momentarily, she wonders whether she should have brought it up at all. There aren’t many subjects between them that qualify as ‘too grim’, but... maybe the fact that Felix has even less to go home to than she does is one of them.

But then his reply comes.

felix: [ Maybe I should start looking into that ]

Camille fails to fight off a smile. Of course he’d turn it into a joke. She doesn’t call him on it, though, just rolls with it.

camille:  [ Where would you wanna end up? ]

felix:  [ You know ]

felix:  [ Someplace warm ]

felix: [ Maybe perpetually warm. But not like that global warming bullshit ]

Camille manages a laugh this time. It fills the empty space of her bedroom in a way that’s strangely comforting.

camille: [ Well if the opportunity presents itself, you can always come home with me. ] 

Maybe it’s a strange thing to say. At the very least, it suggests a kind of permanency that has always been beyond reach of the friendship they’ve formed here. Something in her chest twinges painfully at the thought of never seeing him again.

camille:  [ Sorry, I’ve had a little bit to drink. ]

Just a glass of wine, actually, but she uses the excuse all the same.

camille: [ My world’s pretty shitty anyway. ]

She doesn’t get the chance to ramble on much further before Felix’s reply pops up on her screen.

felix: [ Hey, can’t be worse than this one right? ]

felix: [ What with the truth compulsion, the body swaps, the.. whatever the fuck happened to us the other week ]

felix: [ Course I’d be down to go with you back to your batshit world! ]

Camille snorts, but some strange sense of fondness warms her chest all the same.

They don’t really talk about it again after that. They don’t need to -- it’s just a hypothetical, after all. Even still, she doesn’t think she’s imagining that it almost feels like they’ve admitted something to each other.

**

And then one day it is real. 

Camille’s actually having trouble processing the realness of it. The open rift in front of them. The hazy, pleasant, sickening image of Wind Gap’s neat little rows of houses swimming on the other side.

If coincidence still exists in a world like this, she’d say it’s coincidence that Felix is with her when it happens. They’re hanging out in her office at the Daily Planet - Felix is there on supposed MLD chief business (clearly, since he brought her coffee and a bagel) - and it just... opens. So casually, so deliberately.

Camille feels immobilized.

“Hey,” Felix’s voice stirs her, gentler than the tone he usually uses, shattering the heavy silence that’s fallen between them. “You should -- uh, do something. Before it closes. You do want to go back, right?”

Does she?

She looks up at him, feeling that odd pain in her chest again. It doesn’t matter what she wants. She should. 

It’s just that she only just now realized that she’s closer to Felix than she’s let herself get to anyone in a very long time.

So it’s a selfish question, admittedly, when she asks, “Do you still want to come?”  And she regrets it a heartbeat later. Stupid thing to ask. Terrible position to put him in. He has a job here, an important one, he’s the only person in who’s been in charge of the MLD in the past three years that’s given a damn about it being halfway decent, and what would happen if he just suddenly disappeared?

For her sake. For her world. Where mothers turn their children into monsters.

“...Well, I’ve never been one to pass up an opportunity.”

His answer jars her out of her guilty thoughts. She frowns.  “Jesus, Felix, I wasn’t thinking about the MLD. Your job. Everything you have here.”

She thinks she can see conflict brewing in Felix’s eyes. Even still, he doesn’t really hesitate. “Good things don’t last forever, y’know?”  

What does that mean?

He shrugs, seemingly answering her unspoken question as he continues, “One of these days, my rift’s gonna come to take me back. And it might not be like this. I might not get a warning.”

It’s a fair point, Camille supposes. If everyone got a warning, if everyone got a choice -- she supposes this would probably be a very different world. Still, she can’t stop feeling like her proposition is selfish. “But --”

“Camille. If it’s a choice between biding my time and waiting for something I can’t control and choosing to go with you, I...”  He furrows his brow, seeming to trip uncharacteristically over his words.  “...I mean. Your world has a police force too, right?”

Camille lets out a small hiccup of laughter. “Yeah, but. I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna work in Wind Gap.”

“Then I won’t work in Wind Gap.” Felix shrugs.  “I’ll check out whatever big city you’re working in, or... I dunno. Guess I could go just about anywhere.”

Maybe it’s dreaming big, but Camille thinks of all the possibilities Felix would have in front of him, and she likes to think it would help him. That maybe he really could be a better person. That they both could.

Besides, she likes the idea of a world where she doesn’t have to say goodbye to him.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she jokes a bit weakly, steeling herself up to face the rift again.

Felix only winks at her.  “...So how does this work, do you think? Should we like, hold hands, or...”

She rolls her eyes and grabs his, suddenly instilled with newfound courage (or maybe it’s just recklessness), and steps through the rift back home.

**

They do get out of Wind Gap as quickly as possible, much to Camille’s relief. She doesn’t want to risk the townspeople asking questions about Felix, or worse, what they might tell him in return.

They do run into Jackie before they go, just briefly. She’s... well, she’s Jackie. She makes an inappropriate joke or two and playfully pinches Felix’s cheeks, telling him he’d better not fuck with ‘her girl’. It’s embarrassing as hell, but Camille finds that despite every complication that now exists in hers and Jackie’s relationship, it’s also one thing she missed.

Maybe, she thinks, maybe people do forgive. Maybe sometimes they even move on.

“So...” Felix smirks as he hops into the passengers seat of Camille’s convertible. “She your wacky vodka aunt, or something?”

Camille rolls her eyes as she turns the ignition. “Something like that.”

“I’m kidding. She seemed cool. Totally batshit, but cool. I think she even liked me.”

“A little too much,” Camille puts in as Felix laughs.

It’s an almost four hour drive to St. Louis from Wind Gap, so she figures they’d better settle in, maybe put on some music to pass the time. But when she opens her mouth to make the suggestion, she finds herself saying instead,  “Jackie’s the only person in that town who was ever nice to me. Or, well. Kind, I guess I mean. A lot of people in Wind Gap do ‘nice’, but they never really mean it.”

It’s strange. She guesses she’s going to have to keep reminding herself for a while that now she has someone to talk to.

“Well, maybe someday we can sit down and actually have dinner with her, or something.” Felix pauses, and Camille sees him make a face out of the corner of her eye. “If you think I’d actually survive that.”

She laughs, inexplicably touched, maybe that Felix would risk having dinner with someone just because Camille said they were important to her.  “Maybe.” She pauses. “I don’t really have a lot of people to introduce you to other than that. It’s really just... Curry and his wife, back in the city.”

Her mother is, of course, out of the question, and Amma... well, that just seems impossibly complicated.

(Is another maybe someday too optimistic? Probably.)

Felix, to her surprise, flashes her a smile that almost looks sad. “It wouldn’t be that different if we were in my world. I mean, I didn’t... really have a lot of people left either.”

Her heart sinks a little at the thought. Like her, Camille knows that Felix is used to being on his own. But she also knows - from experience - that sometimes being used to it doesn’t really matter.

Least we have each other now is what she wants to say, but she worries it’d be too cheesy. Instead, she settles for a simple, “I’m glad you’re here, Felix.”

He seems to get what she means anyway. Like usual, she doesn’t really have to explain herself to him. And there’s something a little easier about his smile when he answers, “Yeah? Me too.”

Camille reaches for her music, and finds that it isn’t even all that tempting to get lost in old memories, this time.

[navpike]

So I've only just found you and I'm screaming cause your writing is so good??!! It's amazing??!! I love it!!!! I'm so happy I found you and your writing. I can't wait to finish reading everything. I also thought I'd send a prompt if you're still open. No14 maybe? With Bruce and dick? I don't know. You don't have to though. But maybe something to do with that epileptic headcanon which is amazing btw and so true? Also my favorite so far has to be that argument btw Jason and dick.

hi i have no idea what prompt list that’s from cause this has been in my inbox for seventeen years. anyway, have some epileptic dick and also jason anda teeny bit of bruce and damian 

[also, this is long, so it’s on ao3][buy me a coffee?]

Dick has his first seizure a week after he gets out of surgery.

He’s in the medical bay in the bunker, lying on a cot and watching Damian go over case files when suddenly he goes clammy and his eyes get very far away. Dick looks at Damian like he doesn’t know who his brother is, and looks like he wants to ask a question, but he doesn’t get the chance.

He barely gets the chance to say the word “Bucket”, before he’s gagging.

Damian scrambles for the bin at the end of the bed, and just gets it under Dick’s face in time. Dick throws up bile, his hands trembling as he tries to grasp the edges of the bin. Several things happen very fast after that.

He retches one last time.

He settles back into his bed.

His fingers twitch.

His arm jerks up towards his chest.

His eyes roll listlessly up into his head.

The entire left side of Dick’s body starts seizing.

Damian slams the panic button at Dick’s bedside.

He knows what’s happening, has basic knowledge on what a seizure is, but he has no idea how to handle this.

It takes Bruce too long to get to the bunker.

It takes Dick too long to stop seizing.

It takes too long for Damian’s hands to stop shaking after Dick comes out of the seizure.

Alfred wraps and arm around Damian’s shoulder for one brief moment. For once, Damian doesn’t protest.

He looks very much his age.

It’s the first thing Dick sees when he comes out of it.

That, in itself, is enough to terrify him.

~*~

Leslie comes by later that day.

Not twenty minutes later, Leslie Thompkins is in the Watchtower for the first time, and Dick is hooked up to machines and there are tests and results and more tests and more results and scans and results and more and more and more and more.

Dick’s trembling by the end of it.

For all he’s faced before, this is still the more terrifying thing he’s ever lived through. The fact that Damian’s refusing to leave his side doesn’t really help settle any nerves.

Several hours later, there’s a definitive answer.

Dick has epilepsy.

Caused by the gunshot wound to the head that he suffered.

Dick really doesn’t know why he’s surprised at this point. His life’s been taking a nosedive lately, why not add one more thing to it?

Leslie, Bruce, Damian, Alfred and Doctor Midnite are the only ones who know, now.

Dick demands they keep it that way.

Leslie and Doc Midnite launch immediately into a list of all the reasons why that is a horrible idea and how dangerous that is, especially given both of his lines of work. He handles firearms, for fuck’s sake, he needs to tell somebody, this isn’t something he can keep quiet.

He agrees to inform his employers, and that’s it.

Leslie is very obviously disgruntled but it is Dick’s decision, in the end.

And Dick Grayson is nothing if not stubborn.

~*~

He gets a medical ID bracelet, very reluctantly.

He wears long sleeves all the time anyway, to hide the scars. What’s one more thing to hide? It’s easy to tuck the bracelet under his sleeve and ignore its existence. He agrees to stay at the manor while they get his medication squared away. It’s safer that way. Loathe as he is to admit it, Dick does feel a little anxious about being alone in his apartment at the moment.

He has three more seizures in the next couple months and they up his dosage twice before the medication actually starts to do its job. Dick finally doesn’t feel so antsy about being alone after a month passes without him having a seizure.

He’s back at work, even if he is riding a desk until he’s certain the medication is working properly.

Things finally seem like they’re going back to normal.

He goes back to staying in his apartment six months later, and he’s finally feeling like he can breathe again.

And then he has to pull a double shift at the station because of an Arkham breakout. By the time it’s over he’s exhausted, he’s starving and he’s ridiculously dehydrated. He thinks that last one’s cause he’d had a bit too much coffee to stay awake.

He’s five blocks away from his apartment when he feels it. His peripheral vision starts to shake, and then goes black. He tastes metal on the back of his tongue. As he stumbles forward, he has to shove back a dizzying wave of nausea. He’s too far away from home. A car honks and it’s so loud to him he feels like his eardrums are going to explode.

He’s not going to make it home.

There’s a place, a block away. He doesn’t remember why, but he has to get there. He has to. He knows it’ll be safe.

So he stumbles to this place he only half remembers and presses buttons until someone buzzes him in and then hurries up to the top floor in the elevator and… he forgets what he’s doing.

There’s a door in front of him.

His door?

He doesn’t know.

He knocks once.

A man he knows he should recognize slams the door open a second later.

“Dickhead, what the fuck are you doing he… Jesus, what happened to you, Dick?”

Dick. That’s him. That’s his name. He knows that.

He forgets who this man with the shock of white hair at the front of his dark curls is. He knows him. He has no idea who he is.

Where is he again?

“Who are you?” Dick asks, tongue heavy in his mouth, the metal taste getting stronger with every second. He’s surprised he’s made it this far, actually.

He doesn’t know why he’s surprised but he knows he is.

“Dick?”

“No that’s me.”

“Come on, let’s get you sitting down, Goldie,” the man with the black and white hair says.

The door slams shut behind them and Dick claps his hands over his ears.

When he opens his eyes again, they’re in the apartment, and he’s sitting on the couch, with the man crouched in front of him. He lists sideways, and the man has to right him.

There’s a bucket between his feet.

Good.

Dick slumps forward and throws up the meager contents of his stomach, and the man has to stop him from falling head first off the couch. Dick would appreciate that more if he knew what was going on.

His eyes roll back into his head and he doesn’t know much of anything after that.

He doesn’t know how long it is before he knows what’s going on again.

“Wha’s…” he mumbles, looking around wildly. Oh. That was a mistake. His entire head throbs. His stomach churns. The light burns his eyes. His muscles feel sore.

He has a sinking feeling in his gut.

“Dick? Oh thank fuck,” someone… no. Not someone. Jason. Jason mutters. “Yeah he’s awake.” He’s not talking to Dick now. He’s talking to no one. No, he’s talking into his phone. Okay. “He’s awake, seems to be getting more lucid. Yeah, I know seizure first aid. I grew up in a house with an addict, of course I do, Bruce. You’re stalling. Why the fuck didn’t you say something about Dick having seizures? Oh, I didn’t ask? How the fuck old are you, five? I thought you were supposed to be the adult here. Anyway. Let me ask now. How long has he been having seizures? Six months ago? Great. Now how long has he been using? Don’t be dense! How long has Dick been on drugs? How long Bruce?”

And what? That doesn’t make sense. Dick���s not on drugs. He’d never do that. He saw how badly that affected Roy. He’d never start using. That’s not…

He looks down to see that his sleeve has been rolled up. His left sleeve, the arm he doesn’t wear his medical ID on. The arm he always injects himself with antidotes on. The arm he’s got track marks on, from antitoxins and antivenoms and antidotes. Not from drugs, but Jason doesn’t know that.

“Jay,” Dick tries but Jason rounds on him and snaps fingers in his face.

“No, I’ve got words for you later.”

“M’not on drugs, Jay,” Dick mumbles, trying to push up his other sleeve, to show Jason the medical ID, with uncooperative limbs.

“What, are you gonna show me one clean arm and expect me to believe you? I saw the other one, genius!”

Dick shakes his head and makes a pathetic whimpering noise when that makes it feel like his brain is rattling around inside his skull.

“Shut the fuck up, Bruce!” Jason shouts into the phone and Dick whines again. Jason’s quieter when he speaks again, but still seething. “This isn’t something you can just…” Jason’s eyes fall to Dick’s wrist when the metal of his bracelet glints in the light. “Fuck you, B, we’re gonna finish this later.”

Jason hangs up and tosses the phone to the other side of the room without looking to see where it falls.

“What’s that, Dick?”

“Med ID,” Dick says quietly, running his thumb over the shiny metal plate, engraved with his name, Alfred’s phone number and ‘EPILEPSY’ in all caps. “M’not on drugs. The track marks are from antitoxins and stuff. I’ve been doin’ this a while, it adds up. I’m not on drugs,” he repeats.

Jason knocks Dick’s hand out of the way so he can read the engraving on the ID.

He sucks in a quiet breath through his teeth.

“You’re epileptic?”

Dick nods once, a shallow jerky gesture. He winces after. He really needs to stop moving around so much.

“After… well, it was the last thing I did as Batman. It was a whole thing. But I got shot. Uh. I got shot in the head. I got better, obviously. It didn’t kill me. It just… fucked up my brain, I guess,” Dick says with a self-deprecating laugh.

Jason’s eyes are wide, one hand still clutched around Dick’s wrist in a white knuckled grip. It kind of hurts, but Dick doesn’t say anything.

“Why the hell would you keep that from us?”

Dick shrugs. “I’m on meds. I’ve been seizure free for six months, Jay. I was fine. It was fine, I had it under control. I just didn’t eat or drink enough or get enough sleep today. Still today, right? Whatever. I just. I’m fine. This was a fluke.”

“You can’t keep something like this from your family, asshole!”

“Leslie knows. She’s the one who referred me to a neurologist that can be trusted with a little more than most.”

“Much as I love Leslie, she’s not family,” Jason snaps.

Dick twists his wrist out of Jason’s grasp.

“Dami, Bruce and Alfred know.”

“And what, you didn’t want to share with the rest of the class? You know you’ve got three other siblings, right? And a hell of a lot more people who care what happens to you? You’re lucky you came to me, Dick. What if you’d gone to Cassie or Tim or Babs? They wouldn’t have known how to take care of you as well as I did. They wouldn’t have known what was happening right away. Because you didn’t say anything. Do you get how dangerous that is?”

Dick is silent for a long moment.

“Damian saw the first one,” he says, so quiet he can barely hear himself.

“Speak up,” Jason demands.

“Dami was the only one there the first time I started seizing. Alf and Bruce got there quick enough, I guess, but Damian was the only one there at first and when I came back, he just… the first thing I saw was his face and he looked so fucking scared Jason, and he was scared for me and it looked so wrong on him even though he’s just a kid and I–” Dick gags and has to lean over the bucket still at the side of sofa while he retches for a moment. He doesn’t vomit. Small mercies.

Jason puts a hand on Dick’s shoulder and waits him out.

“Don’t work yourself up so much, Goldie.”

Dick huffs out a humorless laugh. “I just didn’t want to scare you guys. I thought I’d just be fine.”

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Dick looks up, a little hurt, only to find Jason smiling at him softly. “You’re such a self sacrificing moron. You’re our brother, dumbass. It doesn’t matter how bad it is. You need to tell us all these things. All of us. So we can help you. Cause that’s what family does.”

“I–”

“If the next words out of your mouth are not ‘yes, of course’ or ‘will you tell Tim, Cass, Steph and Babs,’ I’m going to punch you in the head and you will deserve whatever that causes. I don’t want to hear anything else. Now get some rest.”

Dick just sighs and agrees and falls asleep.

~*~

Two weeks later, Dick comes home after informing the rest of the family to find a t-shirt folded neatly at the foot of his bed. Jason denies ever having been near Dick’s apartment.

But the shirt, reading “MY BRAIN OCCASIONALLY MALFUNCTIONS” in large print, with “I have epilepsy” written much smaller underneath it, says enough about who left the gift.

[tytodreams]

space to wonder, part one

summary: Hal Jordan comes to while drifting out in space in the middle of nowhere, and even though he’s accompanied by his fellow Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, things aren’t exactly looking good for either of them.  

author’s note: this is part one of a two part (or maybe three part?) fanfic set in my DC headcanon verse. It’s from Hal’s perspective for a change. And yes, all of the unfamiliar space location names were pulled directly from my ass.

you can find part two here

The world is upside down.

Everything is a lazy swirl of shadow and his fingertips are so numb that he can scarcely even feel them. Hal isn’t sure if he knows where he is anymore. Space is black and endless and empty. And everything is so, so cold.  

“......big bad dino......big bad dino ahead.......”

That’s Guy’s voice. He recognizes it immediately ― that’s Guy’s voice. That’s Guy’s nonsensical mutterings and that’s Guy’s limp body floating nearby. Hal blinks and tries to chase away the blurred pictures in his mind; the strange haze of light and color and darkness.

“......big bad di-no-saur ahead, yeeup. Big baddie dino with big bad teeth,” Guy’s head is tipped forward, chin resting against his chest as he blabbers on. Hal can see him properly now ― just a few feet away and outlined faintly in green.  

“Di-no-saur! Yeeup, yeeup!” the ginger slurs again to no one in particular. His words are the only noise in the silent vacuum of space.

Big bad dinosaur.......big bad dinosaur? Hal can’t make sense of it. All he knows is that his head hurts and that it hurts bad. He winces, teeth grinding together, trying to bite down against the pain. It feels like there’s an iron spike being driven into the left side of his skull, over and over and over.......

Weakly, Hal lifts his fingers to his temple. Wet. There’s something wet against his skin. He pulls his hand away, narrows his eyes, and tries to get a better look at it. The more accustomed he becomes to being awake, the sharper his surroundings appear. They’re all beginning to look real now; like proper images instead of smears of color and light.

There’s blood on his fingers. He’s bleeding. Hal chokes slightly, takes a deep breath and pulls in air from nothing. There’s no oxygen in outer space. But somehow, he can take it from his shield ― from the green light surrounding him.  

Hal groans and touches his head again. It’s still wet, but the bleeding has begun to slow down and the blood itself has started to harden around the edges of the wound. He guesses it to be some sort of cut across the left temple.

“.......di-no-saur......di-no-saur......di-no-saur.......” Guy remains close by, still lolling around on his back. But something doesn’t seem right when Hal looks at him this time around. Because this time his eyes are swollen shut by bruises; and his whole lower face and jaw is stained with blood. His neck is red and covered in marks. His limbs twitch.

It takes Hal a few moments, but finally the image registers and he jolts forward in surprise. Muscles tensed and eyes widening, he’s hit with a sudden wave of panic. Guy is injured. Oh fuck, Guy is injured, and he’s injured bad.

Despite the shooting pain in his temple, Hal starts glancing frantically about himself. Where are they? Where are they and how did they get here? What happened? His heart rate picks up. Hal’s body trembles and he parts his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.  He searches the empty star fields in vain. It feels like his mind is going at a million miles an hour. What’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening?

Hal squeezes his eyes shut. No, stop. He clutches his head in his hands and barks angrily to himself, don’t panic. Don’t be afraid. You’re in space and you’re with Guy, and you’re both in bad shape but he’s worse off. But you’ll be okay ― you’ll both be okay. Call John. Call Kilowog.  

He pulls his bloodied hands away and breathes in. The ring on his finger is burning cold. It reminds him of stepping into the shower when his feet are numb; the way that hot water feels as it washes over chilled skin. Hal’s whole body is tingling.  

If he’s going to call for help, he’s going to have to tell the ring who to call. So, he focuses on John’s face. He tries to imagine the way his nose slopes and the exact hue of his irises. It’s a face that Hal knows well, so it shouldn’t be hard, now should it?

But when he thinks, he can’t think of John. And when he reaches out for a face and for a name, it isn’t John’s. It’s someone else’s. It’s someone the ring can’t call.

Barry. It’s Barry’s face. It’s his square jaw and round cheeks, and his short, golden hair. And when Hal tries to push the face and name away for Kilowog’s instead, it doesn’t go. He wants to show the ring a fellow Lantern he can call, but his mind isn’t listening. He can’t see John’s face and he can’t see Kilowog’s. The only name is Barry’s name. The only face is Barry’s face. His snub nose and big blue eyes. His easy, all-American smile.

There’s a stab of wistfulness in Hal’s chest. Something that he can’t really describe, some sort of sorrowful feeling that fills him with inexplicable joy. He’s seeing Barry’s face and he’s remembering something. A recent memory, but nothing all that important in the grand scheme of things. A memory.......

He was sitting in a red leather booth in some cheap diner in Missouri. It was a Saturday or maybe a Sunday; a day when Barry could get off work early if convinced. And Barry was sitting across from him, dressed in a blue argyle sweater vest and pleated long sleeves and khakis. And Barry was smiling too. And he was digging into his meal, and pensively tapping his foot against the tiled linoleum floors. He looked so handsome in those clothes. They fit him so well and the blue of the sweater brought out his eyes.

So naturally, Hal made a remark about him looking like a nerd. Barry rolled his eyes and ate a French fry. Then he pointed out a bruise on Hal’s cheek and started scolding him over it. And Hal tried to wave him off ― told him it was from a skirmish with Black Hand or some other earthbound baddie. But Barry knew better. He always seems to know better. And Barry stared at him for a moment, almost unnervingly serious, and then finally his face broke out into a wide grin.  

“Liar!” he exposed Hal right away, “You and Oliver were being stupid and messing around again, weren’t you?” And Hal tried to act offended, tried to hide his embarrassment at Barry having so easily realized the truth. He’d been sparring with Ollie in the boxing ring at the Arrow hideout when Dinah had stopped by to watch. And when she’d leaned against the rails, the boys had started yapping their big mouths off; started teasing her as they mock-fought.    

Not a good idea, naturally. Because then she’d jumped into the ring and kicked them both hard in their sorry rears. “And a kiss on the cheek each didn’t exactly make it any less painful, Di,” they’d have liked to say. And when Superman asked Ollie how he’d gotten a black eye, he’d panicked and claimed he’d walked into a door. He’d started blushing like a madman when Hal laughed, and Hal was the lucky one because he didn’t need an excuse. No matter what, it seemed like there was always some sort of scrape on him, so people had eventually just stopped asking. Except for Barry, of course.

And in that little Missouri diner, Hal had finally surrendered to Barry. He admitted that Dinah had “whooped his ass” and that “if we’re being honest, Ollie got it worse ‘cause he called her a ‘wannabe Joan Jett’ and that was just rude.” Still smiling, Barry shook his head and muttered a “knew it”, continued emptying another carton of fries. And Hal shrugged and leaned back in his seat. He knocked his knee against Barry’s, heard the speedster hum approvingly, and smiled back at him. Smiled when he sighed and said, “What am I going to do with you?”  

But he’d also kept an eye on the other patrons too. Because as much as he hates to admit it, deep down, he’s always been rather self-conscious. And he didn’t exactly want to deal with anyone going on about stupid stuff then either. Not then, when Barry was sitting across from him, smiling like the sun and telling him all about his day. And he’d had a really good day, so Hal had wanted to hear all of it. The fingerprint analysis that Barry and his colleagues worked on that had helped solve a case down at the station. The two friendly border collies he’d met in the park during his morning run. The little girl he’d helped get her kite out of a tree and who’d given him a hug in thanks. And Hal sipped the strawberry milkshake he’d weaseled away from Barry and listened to him rave about the new materials the lab would be getting next week.    

“And this microscope is so much more powerful than the one we have now. It has twenty different lenses, and you won’t believe how sleek it looked in the catalogue......”

“Hey! Di-no-saur! Di-no-saur! Bad, bad, bad!”

Hal tumbles back into the present. His eyes widen when Guy yells and the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He’s weightless. There’s nothing solid beneath him, no leather booth in Missouri or concrete sidewalk under his feet, only empty space, only distant lights scattered across eternal blackness. Only nothing.

The cut on his head doesn’t hurt anymore. When he touches it, the wound throbs gently, but any pain it gives off is so minor that he can barely feel it. Hal lurches forward and the blood drains from his face. Guy is unnaturally pale.

He’s still muttering nonsense and floating too far away from him for comfort. Hal settles his quaking limbs and looks his comrade over, trying to gauge the exact distance between them. Five and a half, six......? He propels himself forward a few feet and maneuvers around Guy as carefully as he can. He slips his hands under Guy’s arms and pulls him up against himself. Guy’s head is tilted back, chin pointed upwards and jaw twitching slightly as he rambles on. The faint green aura from his ring appears to be the only thing keeping him afloat.

Hal curses under his breath and tries to adjust his hold on the other Lantern. Guy may be a thousand times lighter in space, but whatever beating Hal received earlier isn’t exactly helping his arms stay steady. The wound on his head doesn’t hurt anymore, but the rest of his body sure aches like a son of a bitch.

What happened? He’s racking his brain, struggling to remember. Where are they? How the hell did this happen? How the hell did they end up here? How......?

“Dino......dino......” Guy sputters childishly, his shoulders knocking into Hal’s chest. The other man winces but doesn’t let go. His ribs must be bruised ― that would explain the tugging in his chest whenever he breathes. “Dino......dino......dino.......”

Then it hits him. Dinosaur. Hal remembers now, oh goddamn, he remembers now. Dinosaur. Atrocitus. The Red Lantern’s hulking form looms over Hal’s memory and he clutches onto Guy a little too tightly in response. He knows where they are, why they’re here, what happened, and everything else in between.  

The Corps had gained intel on some recent Red Lantern sightings out in sector 2075 in the Oberix and Talmayn systems. The more the number of sightings increased, the more uneasy the Guardians became about the possibility of a reformation of the Red Lantern Corps ― a not at all unfounded concern. Especially considering the jailbreak incident roughly one Earth year back, and the fact that former Red Lantern general, Atrocitus, happened to be one of the escapees.  

Salaak had sent Guy and Hal, by order of the Guardians, to do recon out in sector 2075. After all, word-of-mouth rumors don’t guarantee reality. In order to act, there needs to be confirmation. And it was their duty to deny or to confirm.  

Well, Hal thinks to himself as he floats aimlessly about, Guy dangling in his arms, at least our suspicions have been confirmed. Joy.

Perhaps they shouldn’t have sent Hal Jordan on a Red Lantern reconnaissance mission, knowing that Atrocitus would almost certainly be involved. General Atrocitus, who happens to have a vendetta against plucky Green Lantern “captain” Hal Jordan. Because Hal Jordan was the one that foiled his grand invasion of Oa. He was the one that defeated him in battle in front of his own men and then imprisoned him in a science cell to rot for (hopefully) the rest of his life. Yes, that Hal Jordan.

If one thinks about it rationally, they might come to the conclusion that a mission tends to become a bit more dangerous when the enemy in question would like nothing more than to flay you alive. It’s just common sense, really.

Hal struggles to hold back his laughter. He’d rather not test the pain receptors in those bruised ribs of his with a verbal expression of self-loathing.  

He and Guy had scoured the entire Oberix system without any luck, and by the time they’d reached the Talmayn and it’s yellow dwarf sun, they’d gotten a bit lazy. Instead of giving straight-backed salutes to the occupants of the mining operations and refueling stations they’d swung by, the two had plowed in with informal bursts of sardonic humor and good-natured jabs. Guy had accepted free drinks at a rest stop bar almost took quickly, and Hal had wowed a company of Yulqazz miners by breaking his record of consecutive backflips in space.

Thirty-seven, to be exact. The trick is to breathe deeply and consistently, and to focus on your core so you don’t get dizzy.  

None of the locals in either solar system had much of anything to say about the supposed Red Lantern sightings. Most of them denied seeing anything at all, while the few that did couldn’t seem to place any specifics. As far as Guy and Hal were aware, there really wasn’t anything substantial this side of sector 2075. Maybe the Uhbeld system would’ve been a better place to check.

Whatever the answer was, the two of them had conceded that there was no point in staying there anymore. So, Hal recalls himself and Guy taking off from the docks of a refueling station, headed for the nearest long-jump portal back to Oa. They’d started talking ― of course, talking with Guy had always been a trip, and it is even more so now after his onslaught of head-related injuries.

Guy’s brain damage certainly causes him some issues. His memory, his speech patterns, and his ability to compartmentalize things are all pretty muddled. The past couple of years have been quite rough for him and he’s had to relearn a surprising amount of basic tasks. But, luckily for him, the medical expertise offered by the Green Lantern Corps is far more advanced than that on Earth. And even though Guy has never exactly been one to trust doctors or hospitals ― and Hal can’t blame him for that, seeing that he’s very much the same ― Guy has been remarkably lenient with what the Corps have provided.  

That makes sense to Hal though. The Corps may not always know what they’re doing, but if he were given a chance to significantly fix the damage done to his brain, he would jump on it immediately as well. Thinking about that, Hal winces at all the brain cells that he’s probably lost to concussions and alcohol. It certainly isn’t a small amount.

Guy still sounds rather childish when he speaks sometimes. Not that he ever had a very sophisticated manner of speaking before, but Hal finds there’s still something notably immature in the way he talks. Maybe it’s how he sounds things out or the words he chooses to use ― again, Hal isn’t sure ― but there is a distinct difference in how he communicated before and how he communicates now.

He was calling Atrocitus a “big bad red dinosaur with a face full of warts” when they got ambushed. Ah, yes. They’d been ambushed. Hal remembers now, how they’d been joking amongst themselves when at least twenty Red Lanterns had shot out from behind a cluster of asteroids and taken them by surprise. And Atrocitus had happened to be one of them.

It was a miracle that Guy had managed to finish his sentence at all.

“......Hal? .......Hal?” speaking of the ginger brickhouse, he appears to have opened his eyes ― or at least tried to. With those nasty yellow-green bruises, it’s hard to tell.

Hal’s heart leaps in his chest at the sound of his own name, and he turns around to grab his comrade by the shoulders, “Guy! Oh god, Guy, you’re awake! Stay awake, okay?” He knows from experience that drifting off after a bad beating or a blow to the head is far from a good thing.

Guy tilts his head slightly, a look of confusion crossing his face. But he doesn’t say anything in return. He just blinks his eyes and then starts looking around slowly, as if he’s just woken up from a long nap. Hal isn’t sure if he can see out of such bloated eyes, but at least he can still feel things, because when Guy flexes his fingers, he winces and holds them still. He must have broken something or hurt the joints while throwing a punch.

Hal moves around him and tries to get a better view of his head. There doesn’t appear to be any serious damage to Guy’s cranium, which is good. He’s already gone through enough; another round of brain damage issues would just be cruel by this point. They’d probably make his current mood swings even worse.  

After examining the other man’s head, Hal swings back around to face Guy and puts his hands firmly on his shoulders. They’re roughly an arm’s length apart and floating somewhere in the Talmayn solar system, in a sector that Hal knows fairly well. If he’s being honest with himself, it could be worse, and Hal is glad that it isn’t.

He draws one hand away from a still woozy guy and brings it up to his face, eyeing the green light. He needs to call for help and this time he can’t get distracted. There are Red Lanterns in sector 2075 and they are undeniably dangerous. They’re also still out here somewhere, and that doesn’t ease Hal’s nerves in the slightest.

Especially seeing that he and Guy are still alive. That’s the part that really worries him.  

Why would Atrocitus and his men ambush him and another Green Lantern only to let them live? It would have made more sense to kill them for vengeance or to capture and imprison them to hold for ransom or to torture for information. So why beat them senseless and then leave them alive? Atrocitus was no idiot ― he wouldn’t have just assumed they were dead, he would have made sure. So why just leave them where he found them instead of taking them as prisoners if killing wasn’t his intent?

Hal doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like this one bit. He has to call John and he has to call him now. Hal closes his eyes and conjures up the name and face he needs ― needs not wants ― he reminds himself bitterly. He needs someone like John, someone that can help him. He wanted Barry. But Barry can’t help him. Barry’s lightyears and lightyears away and even the fastest man alive can’t run across the stars.

Besides, it would be cruel to ask him to. Hal’s chest clenches at the thought of everything that Barry might do for him. Because Barry’s a good man, and even though it seems cliché to say it, Hal really can’t think of another way to explain it. He’s just a good man. And he believes that Hal is too. That Hal deserves to have someone who would leave the Milky Way for him. Who would leap over Orion’s Shield and dart across the Pillars of Creation.  

Who would come to him galaxies away from Earth with hope in their eyes and tell him that everything will be alright.

And that thought is just too much. It makes Hal’s limbs weak again and it makes his grip on Guy’s shoulder go slack. Hopefully the other man is conscious enough to stay in the same orbit as him, because Hal really doesn’t know if he has the strength to pull him back in right now. He needs Barry to leave his mind. He needs to think with his head and not his heart.

John’s face comes into view of his mind’s eye. Strong cheekbones and broad nose, tight mouth and curious eyes. He’s as quiet and contemplative-looking as always and Hal can’t help but snicker a little. People always seem to imagine John as some sort of “deep-thinker” ― after all, he always looks so lost in thought, like one of those ancient Greek philosophers.

People always assume things.  

Just last week, during the Justice League’s most recent meeting, John had given everyone in the room that deep-eyed look. He’d nodded thoughtfully and tilted his head in consideration each time someone spoke. And then, roughly half an hour in to yet another one of Batman’s monotonous and excruciatingly boring speeches, he’d leaned over in his seat and whispered to Hal, “I had to wake up real early on Oa, so I could get here on time and I’m damn sure that I accidentally put Katma’s ear lotion on my toothbrush. I can still taste it. Can you make some sort of distraction, so I can grab a cup of water? It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past six hours.”

A real deep-thinker, alright. The next Socrates, for sure. Hal stops himself from trying to laugh at the memory ― his chest still hurts when he exerts it too much.

Instead he focuses on his ring. It’s begun to glow more brightly than before, as he draws in all the willpower he can. The low hum it gives off is reassuring, and if you listen closely enough, the ring sounds like it’s singing. Hal told Ollie about it once before, but he didn’t believe him. Even when Hal had put it up close to Ollie’s ear and let the ring settle into a harmony, Ollie said he still couldn’t hear a thing.  

But Hal knows he can hear the ring. It sings to him because that’s how it communicates. He made Dinah and Barry listen to it too, and even Tom when he first realized that it could. Yet none of them heard it. So, he was anxious when he asked John if his ring sang to him too ― he hadn’t wanted to look stupid by asking Kilowog or Sinestro at the time when he was younger. He’d asked John if the ring sang to him and John looked at him as though the answer was obvious.  

“Of course, it does.”

So, he asked Kilowog and Katma and Tomar Re too, and all their answers were the same: “What kind of question is that? Of course, the ring sings.” And that settled it then. Only ring-bearers can hear the ring. No one else can make sense of it ― all those melodies are just distant hums to them. They can’t hear the songs and they can’t feel the words that the songs embed into the ring-bearers’ minds. A shame, really......there’s nothing else in the universe like it.

“This is Green Lantern, John Stewart. Who is this?”

Hal hears that familiar voice and he feels like he could fly to the moon and back. Finally, John. Good old John. He tries to cry out the other man’s name in excitement, but he finds himself breathless and croaking out a weak, “Jo-hn” instead. Hal winces at the sound of it, yet still, he continues, “It’s Hal. I’m with Guy and we’re fucked, dude. We’re fucked up.”

“Hal?” John’s voice is warbled slightly by the ring, “......do you and Guy still have all your limbs?”  

It’s a slightly ridiculous but understandable question. In fact, Hal takes a moment to glance over himself and then Guy again just in case, before replying, “Yeah. Everything’s still there. We got ambushed, John. There were Red Lanterns, ‘bout nineteen or twenty of them. And Atrocitus ― Atrocitus was there........”

He can hear a muffled, “shit......” from John’s end. “Where are you two?”

Floating around aimlessly, Hal struggles to gain his bearings. He searches the open space around them, the asteroid fields, the distant stars, the occasional planet as it falls into view. “We’re still in sector 2075,” he rasps, “somewhere near the Kylaaq Belt.........Talmayn System.......I, I think we might be near the planet......Givnuer? Terrestrial, no native life......yellow dwarf star. Talmayn’s the one with the yellow dwarf, Oberix is red.......”

Guy has started babbling incoherently again, his head lolling against Hal’s shoulder. He looks as if he may start drifting off into unconsciousness and that isn’t a good sign at all. Hal grunts and carefully pushes Guy about arm’s-length away from him. He shakes his shoulders a little, trying to keep him awake. The murmuring ceases and Guy blinks drowsily.

“How far?” John asks, and Hal thinks he can hear concern.  

“Huh?” Hal looks back to his ring. He’s still in a bit of a daze himself.  

“How far from Givnuer?”

Keeping his hold on Guy, Hal twists his head around as best he can and attempts to judge their distance from the planet. “Four......four AU.......maybe three?” He gives the area a quick scan with his ring and waits for the responding hum, “......yeah. Yeah, about four.”

“Okay,” John sounds relieved despite the vocal distortion the rings tend to cause, “If your rings are looking low on power, jettison over there immediately. Try to conserve energy. We’ll be there as quickly as we can.”

“Thanks, John,” Hal sighs, his shoulders sagging and his free hand dropping away from Guy’s arm.

John exhales, “Of course,” and then ends the call, already heading off to go fetch a proper rescue team. In the meantime, Hal turns his attention back to his less stable teammate. Guy is wobbling back and forth, still gazing blankly at the empty space around himself. The dried blood from his nose and jaw cover the entire lower half of his face, and it almost looks like some sort of patchy reddish-brown beard; not entirely unbelievable for the ginger to have.

“Hal.......” he murmurs, “Hal, I heard Johnny.......”

Hal steadies him with both hands again, “That was Johnny. I called him, he’s gonna come get us.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

Guy hums in consideration before slumping forward, resting his head against Hal’s shoulder, “Don’t feel good. Hope Johnny comes soon.”

“He will,” Hal accepts the weight and cocks his head to the left. He narrows his eyes in the direction of Givnuer. Would it be best for them to go there and rest like John suggested, or can they just wait it out......?

“Hal?”

He tears his eyes away from the distant planet and says to Guy, “Yeah? What is it?”

The concussed Green Lantern screws up his battered face, looking more like a curious child than a six foot four Baltimorean, “Were you scared?”

“......what?”

“Were you scared? When the dino showed up?”

“...........”

Hal doesn’t blink. He isn’t looking at Guy anymore though — his gaze is fixed on Givnuer again. It looks pale and reddish from a distance, reminding him vaguely of Mars. Mars; J’onn’s home planet, less than one Solar AU from Earth. And Earth, so far away from here........  

“I was,” Guy says nonchalantly and (Hal wonders if even he knows it) with incredible irony, “I thought I wasn’t gonna make it back home. Were you thinkin’ ‘bout home, Hally?”

“......no.”

“Hhm......I was thinkin’ ‘bout home......I was thinkin’ ‘bout my Tora an’ ‘bout Bea too. An’ stupid Ted an’ Booster even......an’ I was thinkin’ ‘bout my old students......hell, my old woman an’ her husband too — even if they’re awful.......I was scared I wouldn’t see any of ‘em again......”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.......” it’s strange to hear Guy speak so softly; speak so calmly and in little more than a whisper, “......Hal? Were you thinkin’ ‘bout anyone?”

Hal throws Guy’s arm over his shoulder. He shifts around a bit, trying to support him in a half-carry before finally setting course for Givnuer, “I guess I was.”

Guy’s cheek is pressed against Hal’s shoulder. His swollen eyelids droop and he doesn’t look at the other man when he speaks. Like Hal’s are, Guy’s eyes are focused only on the approaching planet, “......your Barry?”

Though every nerve in his body is immediately struck with the desire to freeze, Hal presses onward instead. His skin is riddled with pinpricks and the green blaze of light around him takes on a wavering image. There’s something heavy stuck in his throat. Something heavy sliding slowly — so painfully slowly — and dropping down into his chest. There’s something heavy settling between his ribs. Something heavy trying to smother the delicate façade onto which his heart so desperately clings.    

His Barry.........his Barry.

The two Lanterns fly on in silence. Hal gives no response and Guy doesn’t push him to. At one point, Hal worries that Guy has fallen asleep; but fortunately, the other man blinks through his bruises and manages to keep his chin up. He even musters enough strength to straighten out his back, easing some of the pressure off Hal. Roughly halfway to Givnuer, they both get a twenty percent warning from their rings and Hal speeds up a fraction or two.

Guy starts humming something under his breath. It’s some sort of song, maybe even a lullaby, but Hal doesn’t recognize it. Despite his exhaustion, the inky void of space still makes for a surprising comfort. The shivering stars and roving meteors seem to urge him forward as he pulls his comrade to safety. Hal tries not to think about Atrocitus or the Red Lanterns. He tries not to think about Earth and certainly not anyone on it. He tries not to think about.......Barry.

Guy stops humming as they reach the edges of Givnuer’s outer atmosphere. He gives a little burst from his own ring to aide Hal as the two of them prepare for entry. The world around them turns starkly rose-colored, and the burning green light of their shields become tipped with fuchsia. Guy and Hal descend softly into the afternoon sky, streaks of color trailing behind. Both men are as silent as the barren world below them.

They remain silent all the way there.

[braincoins]

Wait, you’re doing prompts? I always miss everything you do for the Shallura fandom. All the time. Well if you’re still looking for prompts, you should totally write about a hypothermic, almost incoherent Allura and a poor Shiro who has to figure out something fast but skin on skin body heat is the only way to do it. He wants to keep her awake, and talking, and warm, oh fuck, she’s naked in his lap.

((I will do this for Iesha because she’s a sweetie. ^_^ And because time zones suck. Also, hypothermia doesn’t really get treated this way, kids! DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME…or, really, anywhere else. But science in the VLD universe takes a backseat to creative license anyway. And what is reality? But I am gonna throw one of my headcanons in here.))

“That blizzard blew in fast,” Shiro said as he helped Allura into the cave and out of the blisteringly cold wind. 

They’d come here tracing back Kuron’s path to them. The blizzard came in sudden and fast, making communication with the team difficult and nearly blinding them. It was sheer luck that he’d found the cave. He sat down, back to the stone wall. It was dark in here, but at least they were out of the wind. 

Allura leaned against the wall and slumped down. “I hate cold planets,” she grumped.

“I’m not sure we have anything to burn for a fire,” he replied, looking around and finding only rock and snow and more rock. 

She hugged herself and shivered. “Alteans don’t do well in the cold.”

“Really?”

“Well, this Altean doesn’t do well in the cold.”

He chuckled. “I’m not fond of it either. Here, scootch over this way.”

“Scootch?”

“Oh. Uh, here.” He went over to her; it put him that much farther from the cold, after all. “We’ll stay warmer the closer we are.”

She nodded and leaned against him, looking out past him into the storm. “How long do you think it will last?”

“Hopefully not too long.”

It had been at least 2 vargas. Shiro had shed his helmet and had his left arm around Allura’s shoulders. She was huddled against him, shivering violently. She’d let her hair down to cover her neck more but it was very little help. 

“I w-wish it would stop,” she said through chattering teeth.

“So do I. Or that we could find something for a fire.” He was cold, very cold, but she was, as she’d warned, not doing well. He tried rubbing her far arm, but she just turned into him more, nuzzling in against his neck and continuing to hug herself.

“Hold on, maybe this will help.” He withdrew his arm.

“That doesn’t help at all!” Allura yelped.

“I’ll be quick. I have to stand up.”

She frowned but let go of him so he could stand. He shed his armor, leaving just the black undersuit, then sat back down. She latched onto him again immediately, and he wrapped her up in his arms. “Better?” he asked.

“Maybe. The armor was cold. You’re warm.”

He rubbed her back. “Just hold on a little longer.”

They were still stuck out here, and Allura was getting worse by the tick. Her skin was getting ashy, and she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. “Allura? Allura, stay with me.”

“’m tryin’,” she murmured. “So cold. Jus’ wanna sleep.” 

“No, no, you can’t do that. Here, get up.” He hesitated to let go of her, but he wanted her up and on her feet.

“Do I hafta?”

“Yes. Here, I’ll help you.” He stood and basically hauled her to her feet along with him. “Move around a little.”

She started walking around listlessly, and Shiro peered out into the storm. It was still a total whiteout. He sighed and went back into the cave. “We’ll get a little further in,” he said. “And we’ll have to resort to something a little… drastic.”

“If it keeps me warm, I’ll do whatever it is,” she said, rubbing her arms as she paced.

“Good. Get rid of the flight suit.” He was already opening the hidden stays on the undersuit he was wearing.

“…wait, what?”

“You heard me.” He pulled the shirt part of his undersuit off and started in on his pants.

“Shiro, I…”

“This will keep you warm. I promise. I know it’s embarrassing, but we have to try everything. Besides, it’s dark in here. I won’t be able to see much.”

“Well…”

He finished stripping out of his pants. “Allura, I would never do anything to harm you. You believe me, right?”

“'f course.”

“I am trying to save you here. I promise. Take off all your clothes.”

“ALL?”

“I’ll leave my underwear on if it’ll help you. But you need as much skin to skin contact as possible to keep you from freezing.”

He heard her murmuring under her breath as she paced. “Okay okay gotta do this gotta do this…” He sat with his back to the cave entrance, right side near a wall of cave stone, and waited. 

She psyched herself up enough to start getting out of her flight suit. He expected her to turn away, but she didn’t. She probably isn’t even processing the embarrassment right now. She just didn’t want to get out of her clothes. He closed his eyes and looked away anyway, preserving what little modesty he could for her.

“Skin t’ skin conta’t,” she murmured, going over what he’d said. He didn’t look at her yet. She walked over towards him, still murmuring the four words. She straddled his legs and sank until she was sitting on his lap, arms around him, pressing herself against him. 

Don’t react. Don’t react. The cold wind at his back was helping. He pulled her in some more and wrapped only his left arm around her. She was chilly in his embrace, and he rubbed her back slowly and carefully to try to keep her warm.

“Ooh, nice.” She laid her head on his shoulder and exhaled against his neck.

Don’t react. 

“’m jus’ gonna…”

“Stay awake,” he said loudly. “Stay awake and talk to me.”

“‘bout what?”

“Um… what are you plans for after we win the war?”

“Don’ have any.” She hadn’t raised her head from his shoulder yet.

“None?”

“’s not like YOU have any.”

“Oh, hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked in mock outrage.

“You don’! I know you don’.”

“I…” He paused to consider. “…don’t, you’re right. I’m not even sure I’ll survive the war.”

“You ‘ll. We make sure ‘f it. Palad’ns ‘n’ me ‘n’ Coran.”

“Thanks. And I’ll make sure you survive, too. And maybe then we can figure out…”

Suddenly she gasped. Her head shot up from his shoulder and she arched her back. 

 He yanked his hands away instantly. “What? What happened? Did I do something bad?”

“N-no… not… not bad.” She sounded out of breath, but she was also very much more awake. She was easing down out of her arch.

“What did I do?” he asked warily.

She swallowed hard, and wasn’t looking at him, but the blush on her cheeks was unmistakable. “Um. Alteans have markings on our bodies other places than just under our eyes.” 

“I can see some of those, yes.”

“There’s one across the small of our back, shaped… well, a lot like the symbol on your chest plate, really. And it, um. It’s especially…”

“Painful?”

“…Sensitive.” Her blush deepened. “At least when stroked directly. Touching it through clothing does little to nothing.”

“OH. Allura, I’m sorry, I didn’t know and I didn’t mean to…”

“It, uh… might help, actually? I mean, it warms us a little, too?”

He swallowed hard. “I. Um. If you think it will help.”

She nodded. “I think it might.”

“If nothing else it’s keeping you awake,” he allowed. 

She nodded again but didn’t say anything. She snuggled in close again and he could feel the tension in her body as she waited for him to… do that again.

He rubbed her back between her shoulder blades first, and slowly worked his way down as she snuggled in against him. When his fingers first brushed the small of her back, she sucked in a breath through her nose, and he pulled away.

“It’s okay, Shiro.”

He closed his eyes and tried to envision the Voltron V in the small of her back. He ran one finger along one arm of the V, and her grip on him tightened. He finished the V and she sighed softly. He repeated the motions.

“Oh, hey, it is getting warmer,” he realized. “The mark is, anyway.”

“Y-yes.” She moaned and bit her lip, and Shiro tried to focus on the biting wind behind him, on the sting of the cold there. “Keep going,” she urged him.

So he did as ordered. But her gasps and moans and sighs, her clinging tightly to him while she had nothing on and he had only this one piece of fabric? And knowing that what he was doing was erotic to her. He gave up trying not to react; it was pointless.

She didn’t comment on it though. She moaned out, “Shiro…” and then, breathlessly, “Stop. Stop.”

He did, instantly, moving his hand farther up her back to a safe zone.

She leaned her head forward until their foreheads touched. Her eyes were closed and she was struggling to regain breath. 

���Are you okay?”

She made an affirmative noise. “Just… need air…”

He continued holding her, keeping his metal arm - cooled to near freezing by the surrounding air - away from her.

“Don’t get too warm; you don’t want to start sweating,” he warned her.

“I’m fine.” 

“You’re still shivering at least. That’s good.”

“Let me catch my breath. When I cool down again, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. Whatever you need, Princess.”

He lost track of time in the cave, constantly bringing her near to climax then stopping. Over and over again. It was maddening on one level, but it seemed to be working, keeping her focused, awake, and warm.

At one point, as she was resting between “warmings,” he realized the wind had stopped. And then, from his helmet, he could hear Keith’s voice.

He and Allura looked at each other, and she grabbed the helmet for him and jammed it onto his head. 

“Keith?”

“Shiro! Where are you and Allura?”

“We’re in a cave. Uh, the pod we took down is… I’m not even sure how many clicks from our location. Not nearby. We were on foot when the blizzard blew in.”

“We can track you. We’ll find you both. Are you both okay?”

“In need of some blankets and a hot beverage or six, but yeah, we’re okay.”

“Hang tight, we’re coming.”

Did you HAVE to use that word? But he thanked Keith instead.

Allura was already getting up and picking up her flight suit. “Thank you so much for saving me, Shiro.”

“You’re welcome. I was glad to.”

“I, uh… could tell.”

He cleared his throat and started getting dressed again himself.

“I won’t tell anyone,” she promised, “so long as you don’t either. This…”

“We did what we had to in order to stay warm,” he said immediately. “It’s our secret.”

She swooped over and kissed his cheek. “And, for the record, you’re…quite good at that.”

His eyebrows went up. “Am I? Good to know. Thank you.” He was already blushing by now.

She grinned. “You’re very welcome. Anytime.”