#you’re deciding who staffs the DOT!

[2nd-mushroom-circle]

god it’s kinda devastating doing climate work in local govt and hearing over and over again “this work literally wouldn’t be possible without support and funding from the federal government” and then going online and seeing so many people proudly proclaiming that they’re not going to vote in the federal election. like do you really not see what you’re doing here or

[coldfanbou]

Saleswoman

Who would've thought Yuna made a good saleswoman...Well, I would have. Anyway, here's the fic for the week; originally, I was thinking of doing a Yuna gangbang fic, but then Eros presented a saleswoman concept I liked in a writer discord and thought would be easier than a gangbang.

Length 2.1K

Yuna X Mreader

Having seen good reviews about the new mattress store, you look up the location. Your mattress has had a depression in it after years of use, and you needed another. The reviews praise the staff for their help in deciding. You set aside time to head out, ensuring you researched the different types of beds beforehand. You arrive at the store just a few minutes after they open; you take in the grand scale of it. You next notice how empty it was, considering the many reviews you thought the store would be full. You don’t even see any workers as you walk through. 

Shaking your head, you move through the store and look at all the different bed models. They had various kinds of technology, all meant to aid sleep, or so they claimed. You tested a few beds laying on them to see how they felt. You had decided beforehand you wanted something that was a little firmer, so you focused on those. As you tested another out, you shut your eyes, imagining what it would be like to sleep on it for years. This one was too firm, having very little give. You open your eyes to see the face of a young woman staring back at you. “Hi! Welcome!” She greets you. You jump, shocked that you hadn’t noticed her walk up to you. “Oh, sorry for scaring you. My name is Yuna, and I’ll be your special aid today.” She says with a wide grin. You look the woman over as she fixes her hair. Yuna didn’t look like someone who worked her. She wore a white sleeveless crop top from a nearby university and matching white shorts. Her red hair stood out against her clothing, attracting attention to her face. 

“I saw you lay on a few models. Did any of them interest you further?” Yuna asks, her hand behind her back as she listens to your response.

“Well, there was the smart bed and one over there.” You say, pointing out a mattress that wasn’t too firm or soft. “The second one is what I’m leaning toward. It’s a lot cheaper.”

“That’s true, sir, but the smart bed is much better for your sleep and other activities.” She states. 

You find her comment odd, “Other activities?” It takes you a moment to connect the dots; when you realize what Yuna meant, she nods.

“Yes, sir. I did mean that.” She states, “Now, if you’d like to test them out, please follow me.”

“But I already did.” You’re confused again, not understanding what she means.

“For the…other activities. You need to follow me.” Yuna says, walking ahead of you. She checks to make sure you are following her, smirking as she sees you are. Yuna stops at a door at the end of the building, picking up a mounted phone. “Hello? Yes, we’d like to test out the Genie smart bed and the Dura hard mattress. Okay, thank you.” Yuna hangs up and spins around on her heel. It’ll be just a moment; they have to set everything up. You see the hunger in her eyes as she looks you up and down. She licks her lips and smiles at you. “I’m sure you’ll like the Dura brand, but the smart bed is the way to go. I’m sure your girlfriend would love it.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” You respond, fixing Yuna’s error. “Why do you recommend it so much?”

“It has a lot of nice features; I can show you soon,” Yuna says just as the phone on the wall rings. She picks it up, talks to the other person on the line, and grows her smile as she places the phone back on the hook. “Everything is ready; please come in.” Yuna opens the door; the room is decorated like any regular bedroom, with only one thing standing out: both beds you had been thinking about were set up in the middle. Yuna grabs your hands, taking you to the cheaper bed, placing her hands on your chest, and pushing you onto it. She lifts her shirt, her perky breasts bouncing slightly. “First one of the day,” Yuna whispers to herself as she places a hand on your crotch. You’re taken aback at her advances but willing to go along with it. You wouldn't, couldn’t deny her. She feels your bulge grow larger, her eyes widening for a moment as her lustful smile appears.

She unbuttons your jeans, pulling them down. Yuna giggles as she sees your bulge being held back by your underwear. She bends over, planting a kiss on your cock through your underwear, “You’re so big,” She says with a giggle. Yuna pulls at the hem of your underwear, feigning shock as your cock pops out. You see her shining teeth as she smiles and grasps your cock. She strokes it gently, watching it fully harden in her hand. Yuna kisses the tip of your cock before tracing her lips with your cock.

You grunt her name; her warm lips surround the head, wrapping around it as her tongue moves across it at an agonizing pace. You’re squirming, wanting her to do more. “Relax, baby. I’ll give you what you want in a minute.” She says, her hand pumping your cock as she moves closer to your ear. “Once your cock is in my pussy, you’ll see who I really am.” Yuna’s low, sultry voice sends shivers down your spine. She runs a finger down your chest until she returns to your cock, her lips pressing against it before separating and taking you in. Her tongue runs along the underside of your cock, slowly moving from side to side as she strokes the base of your cock. 

“How are you so good?” You moan out, throwing your head back as she takes more of you into her mouth. Yuna ignores your question for the moment, too focused on your cock to answer. Your hips buck, sending your cock into the back of her throat, surprising Yuna. 

She pulls back, her saliva dripping onto your cock. “Ah, if you wanted more, you could have just said so.” She pushes herself back onto your cock, making it disappear. You feel Yuna’s throat tighten around the head. You fall back onto the bed, lying down as you explode in Yuna’s mouth, sending waves of cum down her throat. Yuna’s cheeks fill with your semen, puffing up as she pulls away. You sit up slowly, watching her as she lowers her jaw to reveal a mouthful of cum. Yuna swallows it, moaning slightly as she revels in the salty taste. 

Yuna takes a step back, undoing the button on her shorts and pulling them down, shivering as the cold air hits her cleanly shaven pussy. “Move back a little.” You follow her orders, centering yourself on the bed. Yuna crawls over you, her modest breasts swaying. She reaches down, grabs your cock, and runs it between her wet folds. Yuna’s soft moans arouse you further, making you want her more. She Presses the head against her entrance, slowly dropping on it. She takes a deep breath, groaning as she feels your cock stretching her. Yuna places one hand on her lower abdomen, feeling your cock make its way through her until it knocks against her womb. “You’re tearing me apart,” She whimpers. “I need a moment.” Yuna focuses on the sensation caused by your cock. 

You sit under her, desperate for more, her tight cunt feeling too good to just sit there. You grab her hips and begin thrusting, surprising Yuna. “I’m sorry, but I need you.” You moan, thrusting into her quickly. Yuna places her hands on your chest, trying not to collapse on top of you as you split her apart. You catch her expression, her furrowed brows and shut eyes showing slight discomfort as you knock against her womb. Yuna’s expression soon softens as the pleasure overcomes her. 

Yuna’s moans echo in the room; her head tilts back. She looks to the ceiling as she feels her climax approaching. “I’m gonna cum.” She mumbles. You were still a little ways away from your climax. You speed up your thrusts, trying to cum with her. Yuna felt your cock piston in and out of her; she felt like a toy being used and was loving it. A delighted smile appears on her face as she cums on your cock, her walls tightening around you as you continue to ruin her. The young woman’s strength gives out, sending her onto your chest as you near your climax. She mumbles something; it’s inaudible initially, but Yuna repeats herself. “Cum- cum in me,” she says. You moan Yuna’s name, repeating it as you impale her and shoot your cum into her pussy.

You feel Yuna’s walls milking you for your cum as you both start to relax. She stretches out her hand, pointing to the other bed. She gulps softly, saying, “We have to try out the other one.” You nod your head, already tired. Running your hands along her back, Yuna shudders as she feels your hands come to a stop on her ass. You sit up, struggling slightly as you move over to the other bed with Yuna still having your cock inside her. She grabs a remote and holds down one of the buttons, causing the back to raise and letting you be in more of a seated position. You found it convenient. Yuna gives you a dreamy smile as she tosses the remote and begins moving. 

You’re seated position puts you much closer to Yuna’s breasts. You notice now her small brown nipples; they move softly as Yuna bounces on your cock. You lean in, dragging your tongue over one slowly, flicking it with your tongue at the end. She gasps, and her body shivers at your tongue's warmth. 

“W- What do you think?” Yuna mumbles as she rides you like her life depended on it, her walls squeezing you as you hit her womb. You can tell Yuna is trying to speak more, but the pleasure she’s receiving is making it difficult. Moans flow out from her as her walls tighten around you again. Yuna could give you no warning as she came. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she reached her second orgasm; her voice was becoming hoarse from her moans.

You get Yuna off you, laying her beside you. The moment you do, she turns to you, “You didn’t cum.” She says softly. “I want to feel your cum.” Yuna’s hand slithers down her body, spreading her lips for you. You stare at her glistening pussy, it makes you hard, and you find yourself unable to resist Yuna’s invitation. She grabs the remote, lowering the bed back to its original position. “There, easier for you.” She says, licking her lips as she imagines you inside her again. “Go on, fuck me.”You align yourself with her cunt and push in quickly, feeling like you’re being sucked in.  Yuna’s moans bounce off the walls, fueling you to start thrusting. You lift her hips off the bed, giving yourself a better position and allowing you to go deeper into Yuna’s cunt. Each thrust creates a bulge that Yuna presses down on, making her walls tighten around you. Her moans grew louder; she was getting more pleasure out of it, too. Neither of you last long, your quick thrust making you both cum again.  You collapse on top of Yuna, feeling parts of the soft mattress. 

You watch her grab the remote, feeling the bed become firmer. “So what do you think? How was the smart bed? Better, right?” Yuna mutters, slowly regaining her composure as time goes by.

“I think you’re right. It is better.”

“I told you.” She replies, a smile on her face.

You and Yuna hammer out the details as you lay beside each other, your cum oozing out of her cunt, and you end up buying the smart bed. You don’t know if Yuna being naked at the end helped her convince you, but you were buying the bed. Yuna felt satisfied with herself. After you had left, she went to the staff room, skipping all the way there while still naked, happy to have made a good piece of commission on the sale. She showed off, annoying the others as they stood there watching cum run down her legs. You write a review for the store, writing about the helpful staff much like the others before you.

[temilyrights]

in the darkness (open your eyes)

melissa schemmenti x fem!reader

summary: melissa and reader are angry with each other over reader's dating life. who will break first? or will someone need to intervene to get them to pull their heads out their asses and make up? inspired by prompt 31 “Let’s just say that if I saw you bleeding out on my kitchen floor, I’d act like I hadn’t seen you.”

word count: 4.6k

warnings: arguments, swearing, hurt/comfort, insecure!melissa, age gap, reader is referenced as being under 30.

a/n: hello friends, this has been a long time coming. i've wanted to write for this queen for ages and when i finally sat down to do it the words didn't stop spilling out of me. i haven't been able to write like this in years, so i think i've found my passion again in melissa <3 it's good to be back. it's a long one and i hope i managed to capture her correctly. enjoy :)

For twenty years Barbara Howard has arrived at Abbott Elementary at 5.50am on the dot, just in time for her to park her car, take a stroll to the staffroom and make herself a coffee before Action News started at 6 sharp. Now, the walls of Abbott were never calm, but for 30 minutes every morning, while she sipped her coffee and listened to the soothing tones of Jim Gardner, everyone around her seemed to be able to keep themselves together. Even in her first year of teaching Janine had never tried to disturb her, maybe for once able to sense the importance of these moments for a successful teaching day. 

Barbara can tell it will not be a normal day in Abbott the moment she pushes past the green doors into the building. The energy is high in the air and she fears if she touches anything an electric shock might meet her. Still, she sends a prayer to God and pushes her way through the building.

No one was stopping her from getting her 30 minutes of peace. 

She finds the culprit for the upsetting energy the moment she crosses the threshold of the staff room and is not slightly surprised. Melissa sits in her usual chair, her face murderous, eye’s dark and tongue in cheek as she stares pointedly at the wall with her arms crossed tightly against her chest. Jacob sits on the couch, eyes on his phone and leg bouncing anxiously, he shoots a look around the room and when his eyes land on Barbara his body sags in relief, thinking he’s found safety. 

Whilst Barbara’s got no idea what has happened, she also notes that the room is empty apart from the three of them and although Melissa’s anger making people scram is not an uncommon occurrence, it has never, in the last two years since you joined Abbott, made you flee a room. In fact, Barbara had watched you calm Melissa down with a simple touch to her arm, something she has never been able to do. 

You did not fear Melissa, which means this anger was likely related to you. These moments were normally quick and fleeting and yet Melissa was so upset it was going to disrupt Action News. Definitely not a regular morning. 

“Would you like a coffee, Melissa?” Barbara asks, starting simple as she enters the room and makes her way to the coffee machine, barely sparing Melissa a glance.

Melissa stands and takes the coffee mug from the table beside her and throws it on the floor, shattering it into tiny pieces, making Jacob yelp. She stalks from the room, muttering angrily under her breath something about ‘betrayal’. 

Barbara sighs tiredly, pressing her fingers to her temples. Today was going to be a long day. 

She considers going after the redhead but as a simple question had produced such a ferocious reaction, she decides it is best to let her cool off before work starts and sits down with Jacob to catch the reminder of Action News. 

She was determined to not let today become a complete lost cause. 

Later, on her way to her classroom to set up for the day, she finds Melissa with her head buried in grading, probably a good idea and a way to calm herself down after this morning's fiasco. However, you’re completely missing from your classroom, very unusual. 

A complete disruption to your routine this morning it seems, Miss L/N.

Barbara lays eyes on you for the first time that day when she’s walking her class to their music lesson. You offer a smile and “Good Morning, Miss Howard,” but the bags are obvious under your eyes. You did not sleep well last night. 

“Good Morning. Your class is in an excellent mood this morning. Gym class?” She asks, looking behind you to the excited third-graders who stand in lines of two, well-behaved but talking in a low excited chatter. 

You chuckle, “I’ve never known a class to love it more.”

Barbara hums, waving goodbye as you turn off down the corridor towards the gym. She drops her class off with the music teacher, making sure to remind them to be well behaved before she heads back down the corridor, stopping at your classroom. 

You look up from your desk, surprised. “Can I help you, Barbara?” 

She’s never seen the point beating around the bush, and she was not about to start now. “I ran into a very angry Melissa this morning. Do you know something about that?” 

Your entire body tenses, your smile going rigid and tight on your face. Barbara can see the anger simmering behind the surface. Unusual. You were always more calm, more open to reason. “I’d be more surprised if you’d said she was in a good mood. Now I’ve actually got work to be doing, if you don’t mind.” 

“Y/N,” Barbara sighs, giving you the pointed look that always works on students and teachers alike. 

You shake your head, “I really respect you a lot Barb, but you’re not gonna be able to fix this one. Please just leave it alone.” 

Barbara stands there for a long moment, staring at you, before she releases a sigh. “Fine. But one of you needs to fix this because Abbott barely has enough mugs as it is.”

She gives you one last pointed look before leaving the room. You sink into your desk, hands capturing your head to stop your head from slamming against the desk and adding to your already growing headache. 

Fuck Melissa Schemmenti. 

Fuck everything about her. 

She had no right to be angry. You’d done nothing wrong. You felt bad for blowing off Barbara, you knew she was just trying to help. And usually a pointed look from her had you confessing your darkest sins, but not this time you couldn’t. She couldn’t fix it. Melissa was the one in the wrong and you were gonna keep a wide berth until she bloody well realised that. 

Although knowing Melissa, you’ll be on your deathbed before that happens and maybe even then she’ll find something scalding to say. It’s what you get for trying to have an honest conversation with a red-headed cancer. 

She was more ill behaved than your worst students. 

 ——

You dismiss your students for lunch minutes before the bell rings, hoping you’ll be able to run to the staff room and grab your lunch and run back without facing the redhead. It’s not that you’re scared of her, you simply don’t have the energy to deal with her attitude so eating in your classroom was the best option. 

However, your plans are foiled when Ava stops your pathway talking about a new tiktok challenge that she wants you involved in. “You’re the only teacher that won’t embarrass me and show off that this place has at least some fit, young teachers.” 

“Sure, whatever. I need to go.” You say, not really listening as you put an end to the conversation and move past her. 

“Rude!” She yells back at you, “But do your thing, girl!” 

By the time you make it to the staff room everyone is already there. Jacob is telling an over the top story about something uninteresting to Janine and Gregory. And Barbara and Melissa are talking quietly at their usual table, where you usually join them. Melissa looks calmer than when you’d spoken to her this morning, she even smiles at Barbara, however the moment you step into the room it all fades away. Her eyes land on you and her eyes harden and her shoulder tense. She jabs the salad in her tupperware harshly. 

You can’t contain your eye roll and don’t bother to say hello to anyone as you make your way through the room to the fridge. 

Janine picks up on the tension in the room, drawing her away from Jacob’s rambling that appears to have gotten more anxious. “Woah, what’s going on guys?” 

“Nothing.” You say.

“Y/N’s a snake.” Melissa gruffs at the same time. 

You slam the door to the fridge before you can grab your lunch, swinging around to glare at her as Barbara releases a horrified, “Melissa!”

“You’re a child. Just grow up!” You growl. 

“Rich comin’ from the girl that isn’t even thirty yet.” 

“Well that wasn’t a problem for your sister when I went on a date with her last night!” 

The gasps in the room are instant. Even Gregory breaks out into a coughing fit as he struggles for breath. And okay, yeah. So you went on a date with Melissa’s sister, but in your defence you hadn’t known she was her sister until half way through the date and then you’d fucking ended it because you knew Melissa would get her panties in a twist. 

And you thought you were being a good friend coming clean, that it would be a funny story. But no, classic Melissa flipped her shit talking about betrayal and schemes. 

“Kristen Marie?” You hear Jacob mutter horrified under his breath. You don’t bother to correct him but no, her you knew. It had been Toni, Melissa’s youngest sister. You’d matched on Tinder and apart from both having green eyes there was nothing on her profile that gave away they were siblings. Toni was tall with short brown hair. You hadn’t even known she was from Philly until you showed up.

Melissa pushes herself up from her chair, her eyes dark and murderous as she stalks over to you. “I want nothin’ to do with ya.” 

The hurt you’re feeling is shoved down. There’s no place for it when she’s angry. “Fine by me. If you’re this upset over one date I left early then maybe it’s a good call to bring this friendship to an end.” 

“Guys-” Janine tries to interrupt.

“No,” You state hardly, eyes never straying from Melissa’s cold ones, “Schemmenti finally knows what she wants.” 

“Yeah I do, and it’s you far away from me. In fact, so it’s clear for everyone just how I feel about this traitor, let’s say that if I saw you bleedin’ out on my kitchen floor, I’d act like I hadn’t seen ya.” 

More horrified gasps. The words hit you in the chest but you barrel forward, your words scalding as you see red. “Wow, Schemmenti. It’s real no wonder you’re alone, is it? Determined to run anyone out your life that shows you any kindness. I’m surprised Joe lasted so long.” 

Barbara shoots up, lips pursed and hands signalling a sharp line. “Enough! That is enough!” 

Your shoulders slump, tired and drained. Everyone looks on edge, Janine close to tears although the words hadn’t been directed anywhere near her. Barbara was right. 

You sigh, turn around and grab your lunch from the fridge while Melissa storms back to her chair. 

“I’m sorry for the disruption. Enjoy your lunch.” You say to the group as you head for the door. 

“Yeah, and don’t come back.” Melissa grunts. 

“Oh, fuck off.” You snip, sending her one last glare before you storm back to your classroom where you close the door with perhaps too much force behind you. Which works in your favour because it’s a great deterrent in case anyone gets any unwise decisions to follow you, luckily they don’t. 

Over the course of the next week you try every mindfulness trick in the book but still end up going home most evenings and screaming into a pillow. Everyone for the obvious reason that they weren’t shit scared of you had started coming to you begging you to fix the relationship between you and Melissa, like she wasn’t the one to burn it down in flames in the first place!

You don’t care how many times Janine comes to you crying about Abbott peace needing to be restored, or Jacob complains that he’s running out of crockery because Melissa keeps smashing it, or even Barbara’s pointed looks (which you know Melissa will be receiving as well) you refuse to give in. Not this time.

Ava’s pointed, “Fix this because I’m not starting doomsday with a fighting crew so I will have to pick, and it’s not looking good for you.” definitely hurts a little because you thought you were friends. 

“This is the end of the world, Y/N. Friends get you killed! I need a crew with skills to make sure I survive.”

You walk away from that conversation and miss Melissa not for the first time that week. She’d say something kind to cheer you up like, “Doomsday ain’t happening, but if it does I’m not anyone’s patsy. Me, you, Barb and her family are all headin’ up to my timeshare and I’m keeping youse safe.”

As you walk the hallways of Abbott you hear her voice through the open door of her classroom. You pause, leaning against the wall where she can’t see you, and listen to her teach. You haven’t heard her voice void of hate all week and it was draining you. For a woman set on wanting nothing to do with you, she seemed to be around every corner shooting you a glare or scorching remark. 

You melt into the wall, and listen to her lead her class through a grammar lesson, her voice gentle as she praises and encourages students. You miss the days you could drop in to her class on your free periods and bring her a cup of coffee just to see her eyes light up and receive a warm smile before leaving her to teach. You miss sharing food over lunch, you hate not having anyone to try your new recipe’s on. You miss every little soft touch she’d give you throughout the day, a hand on your arm, on your upper back, on your shoulder. You didn’t realise how much you relied on those moments to keep you steady until they were pulled away and suddenly you didn’t feel safe in your own body anymore. Ridiculous. You lived many years before Melissa Schemmenti your body and brain just needed to get the memo that it was happening again. 

You needed to get over yourself because your friendship with Melissa Schemmenti was dead. Those kind comments weren’t coming and you needed to stop yearning for them if you wanted to survive at Abbott. First things first, maybe stop wistfully waiting outside her classroom. 

You’re back in your classroom at the end of the day, packing up after dismissing your kids, when Ava’s voice rings through the intercom, “Miss Schemmenti and Miss L/N report to Miss Howard’s classroom immediately.”

What the hell?

You frown and place the books in your hands down before you head towards the kindergarten's teacher’s room, curiosity getting the better of you.

Melissa runs into you in the corridor, her brows drawn together in confusion. “You know what this is about?” She asks gruffly.  

“Not a clue.” You sigh. 

You let her lead the way into the classroom. Her walk signalling her preparation for battle. The protective streak in her simmering under the surface, you’d be dumb to think it had anything to do with you. 

The kindergarten classroom is empty and in perfect order. Barbara Howard stands poised perfectly beside her desk, her head held high. “I’d like both of you to sit down please.” She says in her sickly sweet voice. The one you know means danger if you don’t comply so you perch on a desk near the front of her class. 

StIll, Melissa doesn’t follow orders. Instead, hovering by the door. “Barb, what’s going on?” 

Barbara holds her gaze, eyes flashing, even as her voice drips with honey, “Melisssa, dear. Sit down.” 

She grumbles but this time complies, choosing the desk on the other side of the aisle to you. “Happy?” 

“Wonderful.” Barbara clasps her hands together and starts making her way to the door. “Now, you two are going to fix what’s happened between you-”

“I’m not talking to that-”

“Barbara-”

“I do not want to hear it!” She cuts you both off. “I’ve had enough of the temper tantrums and sulking. You’re worse than the teenagers. So pull it together and admit you miss each other so people can stop walking on eggshells and poor Janine’s hair stops falling out.” 

Thoroughly told, you slump further in on yourself as Barbara strides out of the room. The door shutting behind her and the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking into place.

You chance a glimpse of Melissa from the corner of your eye. Surprised she wasn’t up, ready to kick the door down to escape you. It’s then you notice just how tired she looks. Her makeup has begun to fade, revealing the dark circles under her eyes, her face was drawn and pale, her eyes lacking their usual sparkle. She looks exhausted.  

“Melissa, what’s it going to take for you to forgive me?” You ask plainly. 

She shoots you a glare, eyes full of fire again. The tiredness hidden and slammed up behind shields. “You know this ain’t a forgive and forget sorta situation.”

You push yourself off the desk and walk closer to the woman of your torment, “What so we don’t listen to Barbara and Abbott continues to be an awful place to work because everyone is uncomfortable whenever we’re in the same room.”

She shrugs, “I’ve worked with enemies before.” 

“I’m an enemy now? Come on! It was one lousy date! You wanna throw away years of good friendship for that? I’ve apologised multiple times and I’ll do it again. I’m sorry Melissa. I wouldn’t have gone on the date if I’d known. You must know that.” You say incredulously, watching the hard-headed woman in front of you. “Why would I wanna jeopardise my closest relationship here? You really think you mean that little to me?” 

She wavers, the words touching her, but she doesn’t soften. Instead, she pushes herself off the desk, making herself taller. 

“You talk the talk. But if that’s all true,” she jabs a finger in your direction, “why’d you send goddamn’ nudes to my sister, Y/N!” 

Your eyes widen, jaw dropping in shock. “What the hell are you talking about? We went on half a date. Why would I have sent her nudes? Do you really think I’m that sort of person?” 

She crosses her arms against her chest, “I saw her last Sunday, before your date. She told me about this ‘young thing’ she was messagin’ and receivin’ risky photos from. You tellin’ me that weren’t you?”

“Firstly, ‘young thing’ is disgusting.” You protest, and Melissa winces in agreement. “But more to the point, no it was not me. Not that it would be any of your business if I did decide to send those types of photos to someone because I’m an adult and it’s my choice, Melissa. I get she’s your sister but I told you I left the date when I found out and that I had no interest in seeing her again. So I just don’t understand what the problem is.”

She sighs, and takes a step back. “You really tellin’ the truth?” 

“Yes!” 

“Fuckin’ hell,” She grumbles.

Her gaze drops from yours as she kicks her shoe into the ground, a frustrated grunt leaving her lips. When she looks at you again, her gaze softens, the anger melting away leaving her vulnerability exposed.  “Look, I hated the thought of her seeing youse like that, alright? I love my sister but she’s not got the best track record of treatin’ women the way they ought to be treated and I didn’t want you messed up in that. If you were sharin’ those photos it should be with someone that respected ‘em, respected you. Not someone that treated you like her latest play thing.”

“So you took it out on me.”

“Well you still went on a date with my sister,” She says with an eye roll, “but I guess I got a second wind of anger when I connected the dots and It was easier to blame you. I’m sorry.” She shrugs.

You smile tenderly. The calm good, hope settling in your stomach that everything might actually be okay. She cared about you being treated right, that was something, at least.

“I’m sorry too. For everything I said in the staff room. I didn’t mean it.” You respond genuinely. You’d regretted the words as soon as your anger had faded. 

“All’s good.” She shrugs again, with a smile. And you know you’re forgiven, even if you don’t feel like you quite deserve it. 

She tilts her head, fingers tugging on the belt straps of her jeans - which doesn’t make your heart skip a beat at all. “Let me ask one thing ‘nd then we can move on for good.” 

You clear your throat, “S-Sure.” 

“Why her?”

“Mel-” You shake your head.

“Come on, there’s gotta be loads of women on those apps, but ya choose to meet with Toni, why?” She asks, watching you closely, eyes guarded, like she’s scared of your answer.

You sigh and contemplate lying or refusing to answer, especially with how new the calm is and how quick she can be set off again. But you also don’t want to refuse her and you can see the vulnerability she’s desperately trying to hide.

“Honestly?” You shrug, unable to hold her gaze, “I liked her eyes.” 

“Seriously?” She chokes, eyes widening in surprise. She ducks her head and shifts on her feet, “People have always said we got the same eyes.” 

“Similar. Yours are lighter, bigger, prettier.” The words are out your mouth before you can stop them and you kind of want the ground to swallow you up whole. 

Melissa smiles, her cheeks dusting pink, as she laughs and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay, hon.” 

The compliment hadn’t been intended and leaves you feeling exposed, but still you hate her immediate refusal. A trend since you started at Abbott. Apart from compliments on her teaching, which she accepts, she’s always quick to dismiss the kind words that come from your mouth. Any compliments on her hair, her outfits, her personality are all quickly laughed off. You hate it, and what’s worse, you really don’t understand it. She accepts everyone else’s nice words, you know she’s so confident in herself, so it doesn’t make any sense. 

“Why do you do that?” You ask, sighing. 

She furrows her brows, “Do what?” 

“Always reject the compliments I give you.” 

She huffs, eyes averting yours. “I don’t.” 

“Oh, come on,” You chuckle, “You’re gonna have to do better than that.” 

She crosses her arms against her chest, shrugging, “You’re a kid, whats it matter if I accept your compliments or not?” She challenges

“I’ve told you not to call me that.” You say firmly, eyes narrowing. 

You had this conversation a few months after you started working together and she promised she’d stop calling you that. You were aware of the age gap, but that doesn’t mean you need to be patronisingly called ‘kid’, especially by Melissa. She knew better. 

Her eyes narrow as her hand comes out to wave at you, “But you are, alright? Ain’t even thirty. Why are we kiddin’ ourselves with nice conversations and stupid compliments that mean nothin’.”

“You don’t honestly believe that,” You breathe, voice calm even as your heart beats rapidly. 

“You should be hangin’ out with kids your own age, not me.” 

“I do, you know this. I have out of school friends and I’ve got Ava and I join the after school crew sometimes.”

She stares at you, her eyes hard even as her hands shake. You reach out and place a gentle hand over hers and watch as her whole body relaxes. 

Her eyes squeeze shut and she drops her head, a deep sigh escaping her lips. 

“Mel, this is me.” You whisper. “My favourite part of the day is sneaking into your classroom and giving you a coffee because it makes you smile. You have no idea how much I’ve missed it this last week. It just so happens that out of everyone you're still my favourite person to be with. What’s so wrong about that?”

Shining green eyes meet yours, “I ain’t good for ya.” 

Your brows draw together, heart aching as you step closer to her. “That’s not true.” 

She’s so close you can see the brown specks in her green eyes. You want to reach out and cup her cheek, hold her close and help somehow. 

“Isn’t my opinion what matters?” You prompt. 

Her eyes gaze back into yours, pained and tormented. 

“You’re a terrible idea.” She breathes, voice so quiet you barely hear it over the sound of your thumping heart. 

“Mel,” Your heart thuds, your voice shaking as you're guided closer by an invisible force. Your hand rests on her upper arm, hers perching on your waist and all your thoughts disappear in an instant as your eyes squeeze shut and you try to remember how to breathe. 

Her eyes track your face, memorising every detail now she has you so close. The slight furrow of your brow, your delicate eyelashes, your open mouth.

“Fuck it,” She sighs, her hand coming up to cup your cheek, fingers cool against your overheated skin. Your eyes open and Melissa’s darkened ones stare back at you. Your teeth dig into your lip and her eyes follow the movement. 

You can’t find your breath as Melissa guides you towards her, her mouth slowly moving closer to yours. Your fingers grip into the cotton of her t-shirt the moment her lips tenderly brush against yours. You melt into the kiss, a mew escaping your mouth as you kiss her back. All thoughts gone as you give into the sensation of her lips against yours.

It doesn’t last long but you still can’t find your breath when Melissa pulls back, a nervous smile on her lips. 

“Wow,” You breathe.

She chuckles affectionately, her eyes warm as she watches you. “That’s all you’ve gotta say?” 

“Uh…Kiss me again, please?” You offer

She chuckles again, her smirk victorious as she rolls her eyes. “Come on, tell me what you’re feelin’” 

“Oh, isn’t that obvious?” You squint, “I’m obsessed with you. I have been for ages. You’re the one that was keeping it all close to the chest, Schemmenti.” 

She shrugs, “Dunno. I might’ve suspected you had a thing. Wasn’t sure though, and with those dates you’ve been going on. I was gettin’ mixed signals.” She rolls her eyes. 

She’s been going on dates as well but it seems pointless to point that out. “Melissa, I’m crazy about you.” 

She grins, “I kinda have a thing for ya too.”

Your heart thumps at her words, like the kiss wasn’t enough confirmation. Her smile and warm eyes, matching your own goofy smile. “That’s good to know. How about you let me take you out for dinner?”

She rolls her eyes, “What the same place you took my sister? No hun, I’m takin’ you out.”

Your teeth dig into your lips as you try and fail to suppress your smirk, “Oh, was that the real issue? Jealous that your sister got to go out with me first?”

“Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” She grumbles.

“Oh yeah, is that so?” You tease, leaning in close. 

Melissa’s eyes darken, “I’d watch it if I were you.” 

“Why’s that?” You ask, excitement rippling down your spine.

“‘Cause you’ve got no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Is that a threat?”

“A promise.” 

Your body heats up. All the air leaving your lungs as Melissa laughs. 

“This is gonna be fun.” She grins. 

She pats your hip, “Come on, hon, let's find a way out of this room and then I’ll take you on a proper date.”

You nod, unable to form words as you follow her blindly.

But with Melissa Schemmenti, you know you’ll always be okay, even if she does have a dangerous impact on your ability to regulate your breath.

You think it’s worth it. 

For a woman that beautiful, just about anything is. 

[2-dsimp]

Ok so everyone and their mother has yandere CEO/ boss x a secretary/assistant/intern blah blah blah

BUT! Hear me out...what and a yandere assistant x boss darling??

Cw: slight blood/gore, obsessive/possessive tendencies, self-sabotage, lack of self worth,

Synopsis: 【You are the overseer in charge of the finance floor of the company SupeCo. And you happened to be issued a brand you employee who was albeit a greenhorn. But nonetheless passionate in preforming his duties as your assistant. You’ve in the short couple days you’ve grown a soft spot for him. And constantly prayed that he’d make it through his job, in one piece since you discovered that he tended to be accident prone.】

☆*:.｡..｡.:*☆ ☆*:.｡..｡.:*☆ ☆*:.｡..｡.:

Yandere assistant! That’s always in attention whenever his darling boss is ready to put him to work. He’s practically twitching from getting withdrawals of receiving less than the amount of orders he’d like to have from you.

Yandere Assistant! Whose mind is buzzing 24/7 and is utterly pathetic all by his lonesome. And craves for you to throw whatever tasks you’ve got at him, anything at all, to satisfy his dream of being your personal lap dog.

Yandere assistant! Who loves hearing your voice calling out for his support from across the office hall. He just cannot relate to how his other coworkers cower at their names being announced by their own superiors. Since you were the best in his humblest opinion. And the only one he’d deem to be of importance to be more precise.

Yandere Assistant! That subtly does self sabotage if only to hog your time, in making you giving him lengthy instructions. On what to do since he clearly couldn’t fathom how to print out a piece of paper.

Yandere Assistant! Who swears that he’s not incompetent on purpose. But it’s just that he adores the way you’re so kind with your words. And oh so patient when it comes to correcting a member of your staff. Even going as far as to touch him to show exactly how to maneuver the printer. In short all of your lovely gestures made him jumpy. As he was sweating bullets trying not to turn into a feral degenerate and bend you over the broke ass printer to properly “use it”.

“Tem? Temothy~? Hello? I’m sorry Am I going too fast for you or—“

“Ah nonono absolutely not! Y-you’re fine B-boss I c-could hear you j-just fine!”

Your new hire assistant, Temothy, stuttered as he blinked out of whatever daydream he got afflicted with. Fixing you a mousy smile as he haphazardly fixed his messy overgrown bangs which obscured half of his face from view. You noted that He always had a soft spoken voice along with his habitual stutter speech pattern. Whilst he fidgeted a bit underneath your explicit worrisome expression as you fretted over his wellbeing like a mother hen.

“I only need to cut these stacks of paper for y-you with this cutter r-right? I’ll get on T-that right a-away!”

He managed in a squirrelly tone as he shakily grabbed ahold of the paper cutter. Lining up some blank pieces alongside the dotted lines with an unsteady hand.

It was his first couple days on the job and you found him to be quite the ditzy klutz but an endearing one nonetheless. It was refreshing how eager he is to always lend a helping hand even after he had just gotten off his shift. Which made you feel bad to ask him to come in to work when it was his day off since some of your employees decided not to come in for their shift.

“Wait Temothy dear you’re holding it the wrong way—!”

“Ouch! Oh my stars I’m t-terribly sorry B-boss! I got it all fuckin b-bloody! Ah paper towels… where’s the paper towels?”

You couldn’t believe your eyes and what you were hearing. Was this man seriously worried about how he dirtied the cutter station to which he earnestly tried to clean. While the skin on his palm was sliced open from pinky to thumb. And was bleeding rapidly as bloody rivets ran down his inner wrist.

“Temothy forget about the cutter and papers okay? You don’t need to worry bout none of that. What we need to do is patch you up first and foremost”

You cooed as you briskly took his uninjured hand in yours and ushered him to your office where you always had a health kit stored underneath your desk. Completely missing how his breathing slowed and his wide eyes dilated into small heart pinpricks.

“Y-yes Boss…thank you for c-caring I’ll be sure to return this d-debt”

His usual timid expression darkened into something more depraved as a small fanged smile made its way onto his chapped lips. Of which he licked as he gave an experimental squeeze to your hand only to shiver in delight when you responded back in kind.

No one had ever been this kind to him, due to his bad luck he’s always the type to be scoffed at without as much as a second glance. Hell it was a miracle that he even landed this job as your assistant in the first place. But now that he was here he intended to stay permanently and serve you for the rest of your days as your loyal assistant. Whether you liked it or not, you couldn’t ever get rid of him not when you’ve already gave him your hand to hold near in dear to his heart.

[importantstudentbusinessspy-blog]

Hey, neighbor

Masterlist

Pairing: Jason Todd x (f)Reader

Summary: Jason has no choice but to investigate the cute grad student in the apartment below his.

Tags: some blood & gore (for the plot), mystery, eventual smut, pwp, incorrect science (im so sorry to women in S.T.EM.), morally ambiguous Jason Todd, neighbors, nerdy reader, smoking, forced proximity

Chapter 2 - One of your experiments inadvertently gets someone killed. You have no choice but to go into hiding. Good thing the red hood has a safe house!

Jason tailed you and your friends on your nighttime walk to the club.

He stealthily smashed the window to the back room, sneaking by staff as they carried crates of alcohol and hid in the shadows above the dancefloor where you were.

You had quite a bit to drink. It showed that when the music hit, as you began freely to move to the beat.

Some people enjoyed the music. Others actually felt it, allowing themselves to let go. You were one of those, Jason noted as he watched you close your eyes (which was a dumb decision, you were so lucky he was there to protect you) and swayed your hips whichever way the melody carried you, moving your arms in elegant waves around your body. When you knew a song, your performance would get more passionate as you'd mouthed the words.

Several times, some creep brushed your waist, and someone even grabbed you by the hand and pulled you towards them. Jason reached for his knife, ready to slice the asshole's fingers clean off, but thankfully, you woke up, just as one of your friends shoved the guy who touched you, and the rest formed a tight circle around you. He'd noticed that was a ritual you girls would often do to save each other from creeps.

Deciding he could leave you to your circle for a bit, he took some time to go out of the club, check the area, and, you know, patrol until he got a ping in his earpiece and Oracle spoke, "Your girl’s leaving the club."

Jason, having just shot a guy, he caught palming himself outside of a schoolyard soccer game, let out a dark chuckle. "Are you tracking her?" He was turning in the direction of the club.

"Aren't you?"

“Touche,”

He'd thrown a small chip into your purse when you shoved past him earlier that evening. So long as he still saw a green dot flashing on the corner of his lens, he wasn't worried.

He found your group walking out of the club, shadowing from the rooftops, unnoticed by the girls enjoying their evening out.

As you all turned into a dimly lit alley, Jason's instincts went on high alert. The urge to grab you and drag you out of the obviously sketchy area was stronger than hed expected.

Someone emerged from the shadows, leering at the girls and making vulgar remarks about their dresses.

You and your friends exchanged nervous glances, your laughter fading into unease. One of the three men who'd surrounded you reached for your bag, you pulled it back, actually managing to land a punch into his face, which made him grasp at your bag harder, the contents of it spilling out.

Jason had seen enough. Dropping silently from the rooftop, he landed in front of the thugs with an intimidating presence. His combat boots barely made a sound as he approached them with practiced silence.

"Gentlemen," he drawled, "You've wandered into the wrong alley."

The thugs turned their attention to the intimidating, masked figure, who warfed them all, and worse had seemingly appeared out of thin air.

"Shit, it's him!" One of them shook the other, whose mouth had nearly dropped to the floor. The third thug reached for his gun.

Jason moved swiftly, incapacitating them one by one. The fight, if you couod call it that, was quick and embarrasingly one-sided, a testament to his years of training and their obvious lack thereof.

You and your friends watched in awe as the last thug crumpled to the ground.

The masked figure turned to you and asked, “Are you alright?”

You blinked at him, wide-eyed with the wonder of a child in a museum. “You’re the Red Hood!”

He nodded.

You wiped your hands on your dress before reaching out to offer a hand shake, stammering, “It’s uh… it’s- I mean - You’re my hero!"

You gave yourself a mental facepalm. Speaking of your face, you were certain that by the heat you were feeling, it was probably red. Great, you were off to a great start with him. You dreamt about meeting him ever since that night, and you finally got your wish, but you had the conversation going differently in your head. Your friends beside you stared at him.

He found your star nervous mutterings rather amusing. Wondering how you'd react if you only knew that the man in the Red Hood was none other than your next-door neighbor.

He indulged your delusion, his gloved hand completely covering yours as he shook it firmly. You looked back at your palm when he drew back, vowing to never wash it again.

As you recovered from the commotion, you caught something out of the corner of your eye that made your heart race. You felt a sharp sting on your side and realised that a vial you had carried had broken inside your purse and spilled onto the ground. Confusion clouded your mind. You were certain that you left the vial in your fridge in the hazard container...

Panic surged through your veins as you shouted. "Everyone, get back!" You rushed to tear off your sleeve.

Your friends were confused, unwilling to leave your side. One of them reached out to you, and you jerked away, tears welling up in your eyes. "No! Nicky i’m serious! Get away from me!"

One of the criminals, emboldened by the chaos, grabbed your discarded purse off the ground and pulled out the vial. He taunted, "This? Honey?"

Your eyes widened. "Put that down! Im not kidding! This is dangerous!" You went to reach for him, but the Red Hood was there in a second, holding your back.

The thug cackled, turning to his men. "I told you guys, these rich kids always got good stuff! What is it? Heroine? Shrooms? Something new?"

"No!" You shook your head. "God, please listen to me. It's - "

Ignoring you, he swiped his tongue across the vial.

You struggled against the Red Hood to try to get to him, which was futile. He held you steadily, hard muscle a wall against your limbs. He lowered his head, his mask brushing your cheek when he asked. "What's in the vial?"

His closeness sent you spiraling in confusion and heat. You swallowed nervously, opening your mouth to answer, but at the same time, you wanted to pay attention to the thug.

He clicked his tongue, waiting for the effects to kick in. All of a sudden, he began to choke and scream in agony. Vines burst forth from his body, twisting and turning in grotesque contortions until he resembled a nightmarish hybrid between a human and a tree.

You screamed as you watched the substance you had worked endless hours researching tear a man apart from the inside.

The sight sent chills down everyone's spines, and the thug’s buddies fled in terror. Jason pulled you behind himself, shielding you from the scene as he aimed his guns at the... thing, prepared for a fight. Eventually, it stopped sprouting until it was the size of a small tree. His gaze fixed on the horrific transformation. The screen in his helmet ran an analysis on the scene, bringing up overwhelming results.

The transformed man lay lifeless on the ground, a grotesque showcase of the power contained within the vial. Tears gathered in your eyes as you realised the consequences of your inadvertent actions.

The vigilante turned to the others, growling, "Leave,"

Your friends turned to you while you couldn't rip your eyes away from the scene. You swallowed down bile and gave them a faint nod. They walked off, leaving you alone with the red hood.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Jason tapped his comms device. "I need backup and containment on my location," he relayed the address.

Nightwing's voice crackled through the intercom. "On my way."

Jason fixed his eyes on the grotesque tree-like figure that was all that remained of the man who had fallen victim to the vial's contents.

You, paralyzed by fear, had not moved since the horrifying transformation had occurred.

Just as he was about to break the silence, your voice trembled. "I can't be here when the cops show up,"

Jason’s tone was stern. "This is exactly where you should be. You're a witness. You need to give a statement. Most importantly, you know what was in that vial."

Desperation filled your eyes as you begged, "You don't understand! The vial, it's part of a project at my university. If I'm found with it... oh no, and my professor... she'll…."

Jason inquired, "What kind of project?"

You hesitated, your gaze locked onto the tree-like creature before you. you knew you had to trust him, even if he was the intimidating vigilante you had heard about.

"It's a genetic experiment," you admitted. "The vial contains a modified plant DNA with regenerative properties. We were studying its potential for recovery after wildfires. If- if it could be contained."

Jason frowned, piecing together the puzzle. "So, your professor was involved in this? Is she the one who gave you the vial?"

You nodded, then shook your head, your voice trembling. "No, I- it's my formula. I only started running tests this week... I didn't know..." You looked over your shoulder at the horror before shuddering and turning back to face him again. "You have to believe me. I didn't know!"

"I believe you." His tone sounded genuine, but you still didn't feel the relief you should have.

You flinched at the sound of sirens in the distance. "... are you gonna take me in?"

"I dont know." He admited after a long pause.

You looked at your discarded purse. "I could have sworn I left it in my fridge." You said to yourself. "And even if I haven't, why would I take it to the club?"

Jason noticed something off. "Why aren't you moving?"

You carefully lifted your arm to reveal a cut above a small, bleeding wound. "When the vial broke, that guy cut me."

Jason froze, taking a step away from you. "Why is what happened to him not happening to you?"

You shook your head. "My guess is it has something to do with the way he ingested it. But im not sure."

His mind raced as he considered his options. He couldn't let you become a plant-like creature, but at the same time, he needed information to understand the extent of the danger posed by these vials.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"y/n."

"I can help you, y/n, but only if you promise to give me answers. Tell me everything you know about these vials and the experiments."

You nodded fervently,your fear mixed with relief. "Okay, I can do that."

Jason carefully approached her, holding out a small device. "This is a freeze tool. It will keep everything in place, but we need to act fast. You might get frostbite. You may need medical help. I don't know. Once I use it, there's no turning back."

You took a deep breath and steeled herself. "Do it."

With precision, Jason used the freeze tool on the wound, encasing the cut and preventing any further damage. You gasped, twisting in agony as you tried your hardest not to flinch. When he finished, you relaxed slightly, as much as the ice would let her.

“Do you know how to handle this?” He nodded towards the wound.

You nodded, “I need a kit. We've got one in the research center.”

A figure jumped from the roof, making you squeal when he landed perfectly on the ground. Jason turned to see his brother in his patrol armour.

Your mouth gaped. “You're Nightwing, aren't you?"

“The one and only” Dick gave his signature flashing grin. “Well how can I help you tonight, miss…?”

You registered to kate that he was addressing youm “Uhm, Y/n-”

“You can help by staying here and assisting the cops while they quarantine the area." Jason cut in. "Im taking her to get her wound treated. You didn't see her.”

“... okay." Dick muttered, his voice raising in question. "Quarantine?”

Jason pointed his gun at the dead man tree thing.

Dick followed his direction, eyes focusing on the corpse. “Jesus... I thought it was a tree.” He approached it, assessing the impact. “Ivy?”

Jason took you by the hand. “No."

Dick turned to him. "Who else then?"

You swallowed nervously, turning to the Red Hood and expecting to be given up, but his response surprised you.

"That’s for us to find out," he said, steering you towards his bike.

As the Red Hood seated you on his bike, placing a helmet on your head, he turned to Nightwing. "Tell Gordon that Batman is taking over this case."

"Says who?" Nightwing returned.

"Me." Was all he said before getting on the bike in front of you.

As you two rode off, you couldn't help with your confusion, and you whispered the question in a panicked tone. "Why didn't you tell him it was me and not Ivy?"

He didn't respond as he sped away from the scene.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Jason stood in the dimly lit laboratory, his eyes fixed on you as you slowly and carefully sterilized your wound of the vial liquid, careful not to let it intro your bloodstream.

The silence made you anxious. You felt like you were the one under inspection. You spoke up, your voice quivering, "I didn't know that the nectar was so dangerous… We were just studying its regenerative properties." You weren't sure why you sounded so defensive. He hasn't even said anything.

"Regenerative properties of what?" His voice cut into your thoughts.

You looked uneasy under his scrutiny. "My thesis was to research a potential solution for ecological restoration. To be used to help regrow trees after woldfires." You were babbling.

"Yes, you've mentioned that,"

You blushed. "I know, sorry."

"Who patroned this research?"

"Our department head. Elizabeth Langstrom." You supplied. “She's brilliant... ever since I was a kid, I read every paper she's written." You sniffled, thinking you turned out to be a criminal instead of someone whose research helped others.

Jason itched the name you said into memory to look into later. A movement behind the door caught his attention, and a second later, a woman in her early forties entered the room.

The woman's eyes widened when they landed on you. "Y/n, what are you doing here so late?"

You jumped when you heard your voice, eyes searching the room for Jason, though he'd hidden pretty well behind a nearby book case, using the darkness the blend in with the corner.

It was for the best. The professor, he assumed that's who the woman was, would find it less suspicious to see her chemistry-loving student working in the lab at three am, than to see said student working in said lab at said time while talking to the fucking Red Hood. He'd trusted you to lie your way out of this one on your own.

You hid your wondered wrist behind your back and cleared your throat. "Doctor Harrison! I just needed to test out a new theory... I couldn't sleep until I did it. You know how I get."

Good girl. Jason nodded behind the bookcase, knowing you'd catch the movement.

"That I do." Your Professor smiled fondly. "I understand your enthusiasm, hun but it's three in the morning. The research can wait until tomorrow,"

You nodded, begininv to clean up. "You're right. I'll just clean up and go on home."

"Good," Harrison smiled. "I'll leave you to it."

She headed out the door, leaving you alone with him again.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

After the tense confrontation in the lab, Jason told you to meet him a block away from the center entrance. He went out the window himself in case you'd run into Harrison in the halls on your way out.

When you two met up again, he handed you a helmet and motioned towards his motorcycle.

"Get on," he instructed, his voice low and commanding.

You complied, straddling the bike behind him and securing the helmet in place. He sped through the city streets.

Being so close to the Red Hood was a bittersweet experience. On one hand, his presence made you feel safe. On the other, you knew his usual M.O. with bad guys. And after tonight's events, you definitely felt like a bad guy.

He winded the streets through alleys and passageways until finally reaching what looked like a loft. He helped you down from the bike, placing his hand on your back to guide you towards a single door at the back of the the building. He tapped in a long code into the keypad near the door, and the two of you entered the safe house.

The space was tidy with minimal and simplistic furniture and a large window overlooking the lit up block at night.

You were still processing that these were the Red Hood's living quarters. As you entered the kitchen, your nerves got the best of you, and you blurted out, "You know, if it weren't for the circumstances, this would be a dream come true."

He didn't respond, but you could almost sense a hint of amusement in his posture. He pulled out a mug from the pantry, filling it with water and handing it to you. You accepted, sipping much needed water eagerly.

"You need to stay under the radar for the next couple of days while the investigation goes on." Jason nodded curtly, giving you his phone. "Type in your address. I'll bring you your stuff tomorrow. You should keep your distance from thebresearch center and from your professor too. I dont trust her."

You nodded jerkily to whatever he said, your heart still racing from the adrenaline of the night's events. "Believe me, I don't wanna touch another beaker ever again..."

He stayed quiet for a moment, then sighed. "Don't say that."

An image flashed in his mind. He recalled the way your eyes lit up when you were explaining the work to the neighborhood kids.

"Clearly, you love what you do." He went on. "Don't let someone else's mistake ruin it."

You shook your head, tearing up once more. "What about someone's death."

His gloved hand took your chin and lifted your face to his. "Dont you dare blame yourself." He nearly growled. "You've given him ample warning, and he ignored you. He willingly drank the contents of the vial. He killed himself."

You swallowed back your tears, nodding up at him, partly out of persuasion, partly out of fear.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

You had finally fallen asleep, exhausted from the evening's traumatic events.

Jason left you in his oversized t-shirt, tucked into his couch, and locked the safehouse as he got back onto his bike. His night far from over.

After a quick exchange with Barbara, which resulted in his requested coordinates, he dropped by Harrisons’ apartment to take a look. The woman was clean, unmarried, and with no children.

As he went through Harrison’s research notes on her desk, Jason discovered her calendar, filled with meetings involving yourself, Elismzabeth Islington, and the vials. Jason scanned the calendar with his lens, along with a few notes he'd found interesting. He walked around looking for more.

His mind ran with the following: Harris saw you tonight. He didn't know who she was instructed to notify about your whereabouts. He had no idea who she was loyal to. That made her a liability.

He weighed his options. Killing Harrison would be both cruel and counterintuitive. It would cast further suspicion on you, the last person to have seen her alive. That left out murder. Jason seldom took such mercy, already disliking the circumstances.

He decided he'd leave it to good old-fashioned blackmail. He set out to find whatever dirt he needed to guarantee Harris’s silence and your safety.

[priniya]

🖇️ THE STORY OF US

synopsis. when minho comes back to kiss after the winter break he’s not only surprised to see kitty back, but also a girl she introduced as her new roommate, who at the same time was a girl minho used to be head over heels for.

notes. minho (xo kitty) x reader. i haven’t published anything, xo kitty became my epiphany (fr)

all minho wanted after taking a sixteen hour flight from los angeles to seoul was just to take a nap as soon as he get to his dorm, well, meeting his roommates in the meantime, but sleep was all he wanted. definitely not to see kitty song covey, laying in one of the couches talking so rapidly about…

…whatever kitty could talk about. he focused himself on here for less than a second, and his gaze caught something so familiar, yet so unknown. then, when you parted your lips to answer a question asked by q, he connected all the possible dots. you were the girl he was put up in the same room with, when multiple schools were staying at the same hotel. minho seemed like a total douchebag, just like you’d assume a son of a famous actress would act, nevertheless, since the staff couldn’t really do anything particular to change the rooms, he was… a nice guy.

however, while bonding at the trip, you fell out of touch immediately after as you decided to not share each other’s contacts, so you could meet up in future life if your friendship and… quite more, was meant to be. it was his idea, you were eager to stay in touch as you grow on him in those four weeks.

your new roommate smiled at him, probably excited to see him. “i’m back!” she exclaimed melodically, grabbing your arm in between. “i think yuri pulled some strings, and this is my new roommate, she just transfered. we’ll be living in the boys building, we’re neighbours!” she added, too happy to notice the boy’s shock on his face.

“oh, my god.” he started, but covey quickly interrupted him with a roll of eyes and “i don’t care what you’re gonna say. im exhilarated to be back.” though minho was too focused on you to even listen to your american roommate.

“hi, minho.” you spoke so softly, you could see he almost died. without wasting any more time, q has suggested to let you guys talk alone as it was so obvious you two knew each other. he replied in low voice, clearly not believing his own eyes. “so good to see you again.” a smile rosed on your lips, when his arms were wrapped around your posture.

reuniting with him was unexpected as you never thought you’d see him again, and you believed the plan you set was a complete absurd. you tried reaching out, but he was a son of a star, how could you possibly achieve that? now, it just felt like a scene from a movie, where two lovers finds each other after a long time, although you weren’t really lovers – or were you?

that night you barely had any sleep, you sneaked out of your dorms, and he showed you around, while catching up on almost everything. it wasn’t a lie that something between you has stayed the same, the same butterflies in your stomach when your hands accidentaly touched, the same lovestruck looks, the same way you held hands, the only thing that wasn’t as it used to be was your ages and appearance.

you were standing at your doorstep, when he put his phone number into your phone. “thank you so much for tonight, minho.” you stood on your toes. “i think i missed you.” you whispered with a smug, before leaving a soft kiss on his blushed cheek. without letting him respond, you walked into the room.

minhoe: pls, don’t do me like that

minhoe: come back here and kiss me

a part of you really wanted to be true, but the other decided that you’d just make a fool out of yourself, so you just trail back to your room, slight regret appearing in the back of your head.

the next few weeks looked almost the same — the school were so hard you spent it on studying for most of your free time, which caused minho to think you were avoiding him, when in reality you were tutored by yuri and juliana. “minho’s been asking ‘bout you, quite a lot, you know?” han started.

“bugging our asses for half the lunch break.” juliana added, braiding your hair as the soft tunes of frank ocean played from her speaker. “told us you guys almost kissed…?” her eyebrow’s shot up, scanning your face in the mirror for any signs of embarrassment.

“i mean we did kiss a few years ago at the summer camp, but not now.” you shrugged, not hiding the blush that crept on your face. “don’t look so shocked! we were a camp couple, but he wanted to be sappy and said if the universe wants us together, it’ll let us meet each other again.”

“that’s romantic, isn’t it?” kitty rolled on the bed to face you and juliana. “i mean, you really gotta believe you’re soulmates if you risk something so valuable.” she sighed, smiling softly. “you two remind me of my sister and her boyfriend, lara and peter.”

you frowned, thinking about her words for a minute. was it so valuable or did he just want to have a moment of peace? did he even think about you during the few years you’ve been apart? well, you thought about him, but did he about you? it was your first time in a week that you’d see minho, and ever since the day one, he’s been somehow flirting with you, so you were quite nervous.

you never said you liked him out loud, not because you didn’t (maybe ‘cos first love is the one you’ll always remember), but because katherine would decide to use her matchamaking skills on you. you wanted it to come out naturally, just like back then. your relationship with minho was incredibly special to you, it was something no one could take away from you.

now, you were just trying to look decent. you were going out with him and dae, being asked out so suddenly you couldn’t refuse. you were quite sure that dae’s presence there was just to get you out of the room, and then disappear. you wore a white, flowery summer dress that yuri borrowed you a few days ago, your make up was light and the braids looked cute.

“should i be nervous?” you asked, fixing a few things on your face, before the clock has been the closest to the final minute. a knock on the door was heard from the beginning of hallway. “yeah, it shows you actually care.” yuri’s girlfriend smiled at you as you flattened the fabric of your dress.

minho was breathless, last time he’d seen you in a dress was back at camp, during the last day when you just wanted the boy to remember you as well as he could. “uh, hey.” he uttered, eyes you in shock. “you look, woah, gorgeous.”

just as you expected, dae, who showed up late, didn’t stay with you for longer than ten minutes, saying he needed to see kitty, with whom you were earlier, so it was just the two of you. minho offered you an airpod as you walked down the street to the park, his fingers wrapped around the handle. it was the first time you had been alone with him in weeks, as someone was always near, whether it was q and florian, dae and kitty, juliana and yuri or everyone separately.

“i wanted to find you sometimes, y’know?” you began, leaning onto his arms, when you finally sat down. “what? then why didn’t you? i really hoped you’d do it.” his head fell delicately on your, fingers intertwining themselves with yours.

“well, your mom’s a famous actress, i wouldn’t even be able to text you so… i just followed you on insta.” you shrugged softly, not wanting him to change his position. “and it was your idea to come up with something like this, losing you broke me in half, really. my parents even reached out to your mom.” his face lightened up with shock and confusion, nevertheless he let you continue.

“but her manager or whoever said that hundreds of people call just to say their daughters are your friends, so… i guess the call wasn’t forwarded?” minho groaned, annoyed. he’d give up everything to just have you by his side, when his mom and dad were splitting up.

“i am so sorry y/n.” a sigh left his lips. “i’ll regret that stupid decision till the end of my days, really.” he’d talk and talk, and talk if you didn’t do what you did.

when the soft tunes of lana del rey’s song was replaced by the starting notes of “there is a light that never goes out” by the smiths, you turned around to face him, and after putting your hands on his cheeks you kissed him. his lips moved so godly against yours, you almost melted into his touch. with that, your friendly hangout turned into a date — not that you didn’t think of it earlier, but now it was confirmed. it was a definite date.

when you came back, the living space was empty so… considering you had half an hour before curfew, you decided to snog a little more, while watching a movie. his arm around your waist, your head on his shoulder, a bowl of snacks resting on his thigh. beside that, you didn’t even think about kitty, and what her reaction might be if she came back. now it was just you, minho and your rosing relationship.

[ohtobeleah]

Terms Of Endearment // Bradley Bradshaw

Series Masterlist

Summary: They always say when you aren’t looking for love it tends to find you. So when you and your daughter turn up in Fighter Town, Bradley Bradshaw is instantly infatuated. With reluctance to trust and harbouring a bad past, you don’t make it easy for the fighter pilot to love you.

Warnings: Will be allocated to appropriate chapters. Bradley Bradshaw x F!reader. Jake Seresin x Platonic!F!Reader.

~ Terms of Endearment Main Masterlist Link ~

1. Matchmaker // Jake Seresin decides to take your love life into his own hands when an opportune moment falls into his lap.

2. Sunny Side // Rooster picks up your daughter from daycare.

3. Pillow Cases // After looking after your daughter for the afternoon, Rooster questions you about the pile of unwrapped Christmas presents in the closet. Your response? Something he’ll never forget.

4. Branded Father Figures // Bradley stays the night only to join in on a tradition Jake Seresin had been keeping a secret. Learning a few things about your past.

5. Christmas Crisis // Jake spends Christmas with his family and is told an ugly fact. Bradley spends Christmas Eve and morning with you and Dot—enjoying the calm before the storm.

6. The Calm Before The Storm // After Christmas lunch at Penny and Pete’s house, you and Bradley venture home. But don’t make it without a hitch.

7. The Clash // When Jaidyn Dolan moved to town Bradley Bradshaw gears up for the fight of his life. Having your back without question.

8. In Shades Of Terror // Things between you and Bradley and you and Jake reach a boiling point when Jake returns home, he finds himself spilling the beans about how him and Bradley knew about Jaidyn being in town.

9. To Build a Home // You’re finally approved for your own home through staff accommodation. But when you find out who your neighbour is you’re at a loss for words.

10. Biggest Stans // We see just how long Jake Seresin as been your biggest stand for and Bradley asked an all important question. If you’d consider moving in with him.

11. Trifecta // Jaidyn’s on a revenge driven path that’s only just the beginning.

12. Chase That Feeling // An unhinged Jaidyn causes chaos as Jake meets a woman who’s willing to put her front foot forward and Bob plays the hero card.

13. Dammed if you do, Dammed if you don’t // Jaidyn takes the games he playing to a whole knee level while Jake and Bradley do all that they can to get the higher ups involved.

14. Unlikely Savours // Jake and Bradley butt heads over what they need to do when Jake gets a call. Everyone’s racing against the clock, to find you and get to Dot.

15. Bringing in the reinforcements // Bob makes a call to someone he knows will be able to help and Amilia stalls Jaidyn to give Jake enough time to reach Dot.

16. It’s been a long, long day // Jake and Bradley reunite after having gone their separate ways. You need surgery and it’s not a good prognosis.

17. Not So Malice Intentions // When you wake up from surgery to find out Jake wants to keep Dot from seeing you for a first days, all hell breaks loose.

18. Cowboys & Apologists // When you wake up from being heavily sedated to a stranger but familiar man sitting in the corner of your room—you don’t take well to the carbon copy of Bob Floyd

19. It’s Personal // A week passes you by and you’re still in the hospital. You miss your daughters third birthday, Bradley goes in to bat for you against the Secretary of Defense and Jake has a run in with an intruder.

20. Yellow Polkadots // In the aftermath of Jakes unexpected intruder, decisions are made that bring you and your baby girl back together. Bradley struggles with a hard interior design decision & Jaidyn gets comfortable in his finale plot to end your happily ever after.

21. Heaven // (Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) Discharged from hospital after suffering severe injuries from a near fatal run in with your ex has you high strung and on edge. For good reason too, you should always trust your instincts because no one around you is safe from the chaos that transpires in our final two part finale.

~~ Complete ~~

Concepts & Blurbs

-> Marked // Jake sees the infamous cattle prod mark your ex left behind.

-> Bobby Bear // Robert Floyd left this world too soon. But does Odette see his ghost when she’s a little girl?

-> Lessons in Love & War // On one of your first shifts back at work after the events of ToE. Odette is plagued with an illness that sends her to the emergency room with a very panicked Bradley Bradshaw.

-> Bath-time // Bath time isn’t always an easy feat when your little girl is afraid of baths. But they do make for some core memories.

-> Tunder Storm Sleep Overs // With a heavily pregnant wife and a toddler afraid of a raging thunderstorm outside. Bradley kicks into his favourite mode. Dad mode.

-> Easter Time // You don’t have an Easter Bunny—you have an Easter Rooster.

-> The sex positive couple // You and Bradley are busy getting it on when your daughter wakes up from hearing noises in the night. Afraid you’re hurt she calls for you.

-> Baby R // Riley Carole Bradshaw makes her big entrance to the world when Jakes in Texas and Bradley isn’t sure if he’s ready to be a dad twice over.

-> The Eternal Mark // When at the Abbott Ranch for thanksgiving, the sound and sight of a cattle prod has you feeling like you’d been thrown back in time into the arms of the man who swore blind he was going to kill you.

-> From Tooster to Rooster // The first time Odette calls Bradley Rooster and not Tooster.

-> Dots Promise Ring // Odette forever keeps the promise ring Rooster gave to her as a child. But one day she throws it away.

-> The not so real dad dad // Young, dumb and oh so impressionable Odette Bradshaw freaks out after the police show up at a house party she snuck out to. Calling her uncle to come get her didn’t go according to plan.

-> Sticks & Stones // The one where Rooster finds out about the time you absolutely let loose on your daughter during her teenage hellion years while he was on an eight week deployment. And the one you find out you weren’t the only one who kept parenting secrets.

-> Dots Pot // Bradley knows his oldest daughter smokes weed on the roof. I’m an attempt to stay hip with the youth he joins in—only to be left a paralytic on the couch. Outsmarted and out numbed.

-> Fruit of my loins // Odette Bradshaw is full of existential dilemmas about who she is and where she fits in. In an attempt to figure herself out, she goes to see the man who never wanted her in the first place.

-> Brother & Sister love // The dynamic between the Bradshaw siblings.

-> Uncle Jakes second wedding. // Jake has a no kids wedding and Odette isn’t too happy about the situation. Giving him one hell of an attitude about it.

-> Jake & Amilia // A glimpse into the fuck around that is Jake Seresins first marriage to a woman called Ellie who would never be Amilia.

-> Dot & Chase - The Dagger babies // Odette Bradshaw isn’t the easiest girl to get along with, and doesn’t Chase Fitch know that. -> Dot & Chase 2.0

-> What does Odette do for a living? What Nicky & What Riley Do for a living. The Bradshaw’s siblings go leaps and bounds in their respective careers. From soccer players to aviators to lawyers.

-> The Commanders Daughter // Odettes TopGun instructors.

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

[perotovar]

into the beat of the night (ch 3) "self control"

moodboard by the lovely @hellishjoel, gif by me

pairing: frankie morales/enby!oc!river price (they/them) rating: 18+ (minors dni) chapter warnings: fingering, one (1) handjob, discussions of sexuality/gender (in an... interesting way), goth stereotypes abound, swearing, more cute shit word count: 3k dividers by @saradika beta: @scenaaario (ily adrienne ♥)

for notifications, follow @oakslibrary and turn on alerts ♥

series summary: frankie thought he had himself figured out by now. he liked both men and women, had dated both in the past. but when someone that challenges what he thinks that means comes into his life, in an unlikely place, he truly learns who he is, and more importantly, who he loves.

series masterlist

“What’s their name again?”

“River. I already told you, Benjamin,” Frankie chuckled, taking a drink from his beer.

“Right, sorry. I’ve just never met a non… what was it again?”

Frankie, Benny, Will, and Santiago were at their usual bar that night. It was in a different part of town than The Night Owl, with a completely different vibe, but it was cozy. The four of them had become regulars and knew the staff by name.

“Non-binary person,” Will said, shoving Benny on the shoulder. “Are you listening at all?”

Benny shot his brother a look and stuck his tongue out, because apparently Benny was still five. “Of course I’m listening! Non-bi-nar-y,” he sounded it out, tapping his finger on the table with each syllable. “What does, uh… What does that like, mean, Fish?”

Frankie furrowed his brows and took another drink. “I haven’t actually asked yet. All they told me is that they’re like… both, and neither, at the same time.” He hummed thoughtfully. “I was a little distracted after that and didn’t get to ask.”

Santiago grinned, slapping Frankie on the shoulder. “Good for you, Fish.”

Frankie rolled his eyes, but smiled, thinking about the kiss he shared with River the other night. They kept texting, and he’d even asked River out on a real date, which brought the guys to the bar. It had been a year or so since his last date and he needed advice on where to take someone like River. He wasn’t as familiar with the goth subculture and thought maybe his brothers would have experience. At the very least Ben, who’d been with a few different kinds of people.

“I did look it up that night after I got home, but I’m still a little confused,” Frankie shrugged.

“Just ask them, man,” Will offered. “They seemed cool with your first question.”

Frankie nodded, a look of determination crossing his features. “You’re right. It couldn’t hurt, right?”

Frankie was sweating. Marisol was with her mom this week, so he hadn’t had to worry about having that conversation yet. He was planning on telling River about her tonight. He checked his hair in the mirror again before he left, deciding to go without his hat tonight, but worried all his nerves would deflate the work he put into it. He sighed as he messed around with the unruly curls again. This is why he stuck to hats. Frankie’s phone vibrated on the bathroom counter, startling him.

ok im ready, eddie 😉

River still thought it was hilarious that Frankie had worn an Iron Maiden t-shirt to a goth club, claiming that it fit his “old man aesthetic”, whatever that meant. This led to River referring to Frankie as “Eddie”, after the band’s skeleton mascot.

Yeah yeah i’m coming

Frankie saw the typing dots appear and disappear a couple times before disappearing completely. He sighed to himself and checked his hair one last time before leaving his apartment. 

When he got to the neighborhood of the address River had given him, he checked his phone again, making sure he was in the right place. He slowly crept up the hill towards the last line of apartments and immediately his heart started pounding. Frankie really liked River. He didn’t want to fuck this up, and hoped him being a dad wouldn’t ruin that. Or his big dumb mouth.

River was standing at the bottom of the staircase of the apartment complex and waved, a huge grin on their face. Frankie stopped the truck and leaned over to open the passenger side door for them to climb inside. The scent of bergamot, clove, and sandalwood filled his nostrils again as the truck door shut. Frankie calmed down, and smiled, leaning over to give River a kiss on the cheek. “You look amazing,” he breathed, taking in River’s outfit; they had a collarless shirt buttoned up all the way, tucked into plaid pants, and nice dress shoes. All black, of course. They wore no lipstick today, their makeup was simple, and their hair was perfectly straight. It looked like they’d freshly shaved the right side of their head as well. River’s look was so new for Frankie, he couldn’t help being captivated by them every time he saw them.

“Thank you,” River smiled, heart skipping a beat. “Where are we off to?” They rested their ring-clad hand over Frankie’s larger one in between the two of them on the seat. “When you said it was a surprise, I admit I got a little nervous.”

Frankie placed his hand on the back of the truck seat and looked behind them as he backed up to leave the apartment complex. River’s eyes were glued to Frankie’s neck and subtly licked their lips at the sight of the thick muscles and veins. Their eyes moved up to Frankie’s side profile and they swooned.

“How come? Don’t trust me?” Frankie smirked, making eye contact before his eyes moved to the road, and started heading toward their destination.

River shrugged, even though they knew he couldn’t see them. “Maybe. Maybe not,” they smirked. The red light of the clock on the console caught River’s eye; 7:30pm. 

“Well, that’s a shame. I had a nice dinner planned and everything,” Frankie showed them an exaggerated pout, a twinkle in his eye.

“Oh, well, in that case.”

The restaurant Frankie picked might’ve been a little more… casual, then he remembered. The last time he was here was with Jackson. He shook off the memory. He was here with River now. The place was actually more like a diner, with vintage photos of women in pinup-style outfits and poses.

Frankie reached for River’s hand and laced their fingers together as he found them a table, letting River sit first.

“Such a gentleman,” River teased, squeezing his hand before getting comfy in the booth.

“I try,” Frankie smiled bashfully as he joined them on the opposite side. The light shining down onto the table lit River beautifully. He noticed that River’s button-up was actually a dark green, with subtle velvet roses all over.

They ordered their food and made easy conversation. River talked about their job as an architect. They were working on designing a building that was be built in the next couple of years in the city. Frankie found it fascinating but couldn’t focus on the words, too distracted by their calming voice and watching their mannerisms. River talked with their hands a lot whenever they got excited about something, and Frankie thought it was adorable.

“Sorry, I know I’m rambling now,” River shook their head, cutting themself off. Frankie frowned,mouth full of french fries.

“Please, continue, I don’t mind listening.”

So River did. They talked about anything and everything. Frankie interjected here and there, but was more than content to listen to River talk. When there was a lull in the conversation, Frankie’s palms started to get sweaty. Their plates were empty now, but River still had half of their milkshake left.

It was now or never. Frankie took a deep breath.

“So… I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” he started. River raised an eyebrow and rested their chin on the palm of their hand, listening. Frankie cleared his throat before continuing. “Um, so I know this is a dealbreaker for some people, so I won’t be offended if you want to stop things after tonight. B-But I would like to stay friends if that’s the case.” He rubbed his sweaty hands on his thighs. “I’ve got a daughter.”

River was quiet for a second before a small smile appeared on their face. “I’m actually not surprised. How old is she?”

“You’re not?”

“Of course not. You’re an incredibly handsome man of a certain age–”

“Hey.”

“And any woman would be stupid not to make an honest man outta you,” River winked.

Frankie blinked a couple times before chuckling softly. River continued to surprise him. “Well, her mother isn’t in the picture, at least not with me. Marisol, my daughter, sees her half the time, and stays with me the other half of the time,” he explained, crossing his arms comfortably over the table. “Oh, and she’s four.”

“Aww, can I see a picture of her?”

Frankie’s heart fluttered as pulled his phone out, opening the album of photos devoted just to his little girl. He slid his phone over to River and they started scrolling through the photos with a smile on their face.

“She’s adorable, Frankie,” River hummed, returning his phone back to him. “I can tell you think the world of her. I won’t lie, I’m not really… uh, a kid kind of person. I always just planned on being the cool cousin and not a parent,” they muttered, resting their chin on their palm again.

Frankie nodded in understanding. “I totally get that. I just figured it wouldn’t be fair to you, or to Marisol, to keep her a secret, y’know?”

“Absolutely, and I appreciate you telling me,” River nodded back. “But I like you. A lot. And I’m willing to give this a shot with you. So I don’t think Marisol is a dealbreaker.”

Frankie’s heart soared at River’s words. “I really like you, too,” he grinned like an idiot, cheeks warm. “C’mon, we still have another part to this date.” He stood up and held his hand out for River to take.

After paying, the two found themselves back in Frankie’s truck heading down the highway. It was starting to get darker and the roads were clearing. They pulled up to a drive-in, but there weren’t any other cars.

“What is this, Grease?” River teased. “A diner and then a drive-in movie?”

Frankie snorted and reached out his window to pay for their tickets before finding somewhere to park. “I happen to like drive-in movies and diners, thank you very much.”

“That’s because you’re old–”

“I’m only a few years older than you,” Frankie deadpanned.

“Details.”

About a third of the way into the original Halloween, Frankie put his arm around River’s shoulders and pulled them close. River happily cuddled into Frankie’s side, loving the warmth and softness they found there.

Halfway through, River’s eyes started wandering elsewhere. They looked down at the crotch of Frankie’s jeans, and wondered what lay beyond the tight denim. They looked up at Frankie’s face and kissed the little patch in his beard that refused to grow hair. Frankie looked down at them, deep brown eyes looking over River’s features. He went from their dark-rimmed eyes, to their collarbone, and back to their plush lips, his heart pounding. He didn’t need any further convincing and started kissing River deeply, holding the side of their face.

River hummed into Frankie’s mouth and slowly crawled into Frankie’s lap. They grinned as Frankie huffed a breath against their lips, holding River’s hips in his large hands. River kissed the corner of Frankie’s mouth before moving down to the side of his neck and sucked a mark where his neck met his shoulder. Frankie shuddered, moving a hand down and squeezing River’s ass. They lifted their head and looked at the far-away expression on his face.

“Are you one of those guys that doesn’t like to fool around on the first date?”

Frankie blinked up at River, thinking about it. “I mean, no, but–” “Good,” River growled, latching back onto Frankie’s neck and sucking hard.

Frankie moaned openly at that, but pulled them away. “Wait,” he breathed. River tilted their head to the side and didn’t say anything, letting Frankie continue. “Um, I had another question.”

“Okay.”

“Well, uh. I don’t mean to kill the mood, because God, I really wanna get back to that, b-but I was curious,” Frankie swallowed, not making eye contact again. “I looked up what non-binary was after you told me and I was a little confused, and basically I just– Um, I wanna know like, how… this would… work,” he trailed off, gesturing between the two of them and at the bulge in his jeans.

“You’re asking what I have so you know how to proceed.” It was a statement, not a question, said softly in understanding. River played with the curls at the back of Frankie’s neck.

Frankie nodded. “If that’s an invasive question, I’m really sorry, and–”

“Shh,” River chuckled, pecking Frankie on the cheek. “It’s okay, I promise. I’m not offended. You’re actually being really sweet about all of this. I know this is new for you.”

Frankie smiled shyly and shrugged, but let them continue.

“I was raised as a girl. ‘Assigned female at birth’, is typically what we call it,” River looked down, playing with the collar of Frankie’s shirt. “You were assigned male at birth. The doctors looked at your parts and decided that’s what you were, and you never felt like it was incorrect, right?”

Frankie nodded, listening carefully.

“Right. Well, it felt wrong to me. I didn’t really know what the feeling was growing up. It’s actually kind of a recent development for me.”

Frankie chewed on his bottom lip, one question still buzzing around his head. “How do you… How did you know? And did you… have any… surgeries? To um–” he didn’t know how to word any of this.

River laughed softly. “Yeah, I had top surgery. I no longer have breasts, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Everything below the belt is still intact,” they grinned, moving their crotch closer to Frankie’s. “The complicated answer, especially for someone so new to this, is that gender is a societal thing. How you’re perceived, presented to the world is just through the eyes of society. How you see yourself is what actually matters, though. And when all that societal bullshit doesn’t affect your life, the roles you’re ‘supposed’ to play don’t matter anymore.”

“I’m River. River is me. I don’t care how people see me. I did all of this,” they gestured to their body. “For me. Not for anyone else. Because if I didn’t, I would be unhappy. And my own mental health and happiness matters more than some so-called church-going do-gooder’s opinion.”

Frankie looked at River in awe. Their confidence and respect for themself was one of the most attractive things he’d ever seen. “You’re amazing,” Frankie breathed, surging forward to kiss them deeply. He gripped River’s ass again and pulled them closer, grinding his hardening cock against them.

River moaned softly, grinding back, and tangling their fingers into his hair. Suddenly, Frankie pulled back, catching his breath.

“Wait, does that, like…” He thought for a second. “While I was doing my research, I came across a couple other terms I didn’t know.”

River chuckled and kissed down Frankie’s neck softly. “Go on.”

Frankie’s breath hitched, speaking shakily. “Um, I’ve always considered myself b-bisexual– oh– a-and if non-binary people are technically a th-third gender, then does that change?”

“No,” River hummed, licking underneath Frankie’s ear, before taking the lobe into their mouth and nibbling.

“It doesn’t?”

River shook their head. “Bisexual is more like an umbrella term. People interpret it differently,” they reached a hand down between them, trailing their fingers to Frankie’s belt buckle and undoing it. “For example, you’ve always assumed it just meant you were attracted to men and women, right?”

Frankie moaned softly as the pressure was relieved from his hard cock, and nodded.

“Exactly. Another way you could see it is you being attracted to people that are like you,” they gripped Frankie’s cock tightly, making him gasp sharply. “And people who aren’t.” They grabbed his hand and placed it onto their crotch, grinding against him.

He was so hard he was throbbing, and so turned on his head spun. He started undoing River’s dress pants and slipped his hand down to their panties, finding their pussy impossibly warm and wet. 

“Fuck,” Frankie groaned, rubbing at their clit through the fabric of their underwear. River moaned sweetly and bit their bottom lip, moving Frankie’s boxer briefs out of the way so they could grip around his cock.

“You’re so hard,” River grinned, rubbing their thumb over the tip. They started stroking him slowly, watching as the head of Frankie’s cock appeared and disappeared underneath the foreskin. 

Frankie was breathing heavily, resting his head on the back of his seat and looking at River through his lashes. He moved the tips of his fingers in small circles for a few moments before he moved his fingers beneath their underwear and touched bare skin. River gasped at the contact and nodded, giving him permission.  Frankie slowly sunk his middle finger inside them and started pumping in and out. His thumb rubbed in time against their clit. River started moaning louder, throwing their head back to expose their throat to him.

Frankie saw an opening and latched his mouth onto their neck, marking them in return as his free hand held the back of River’s head. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he groaned, biting at River’s skin.

River shuddered at the praise, rocking their hips against Frankie’s hand. “‘M close,” they whined, panting down at him. They started to lose their rhythm on Frankie’s cock and squeezed him tightly in their fist. Frankie nodded in understanding and started moving his fingers faster, adding a second one as the slick sounds coming from between River’s legs filled the truck. 

“C’mon, baby. You gonna come for me?” he breathed against their neck, leaving soft kisses against their skin. The contrast between what his mouth and what his hand were doing was overwhelming and River wouldn’t change it for the world. 

River nodded, their brows moving downward in pleasure before stilling above him as they came. Their hips rocked back and forth over Frankie’s hand as they came down, moaning and biting their lip. 

The sight of River coming was enough for Frankie and his cock twitched hard as he erupted all over River’s hand. He grunted and hid his face in their neck as his balls emptied messily. He whined softly, twitching in the aftershocks. 

River giggled quietly and held him close after licking their hand clean. “Gonna have to blow you next time,” they hummed thoughtfully.

Frankie groaned as his oversensitive cock twitched between them. “Don’t say shit like that while I’m still vulnerable, you menace.”

River bit his cheek, then kissed it softly. “You love it.”

He did. He really did.

a/n: please enjoy this meme that inspired the scene above

[liaromancewriter]

First Day

Premise: Sienna begins her residency at Edenbrook.

Book: Open Heart Characters: Sienna Trinh Rating/Category: General. Fluff. Words: 580

A/N: Submission for @siennatrinhappreciationweek Day 1. Also submitting to @choicesaugustchallenge prompt "sunshine"

This was it, and there it was!

Today was the day she had been working toward for years—the day she would finally begin her residency. It felt surreal, like a dream she was about to step into, filled with apprehension that the dream might vanish in a puff of smoke if she woke up too quickly.

Sienna Trinh barely held back an excited screech as she approached the modern hospital building with a sleek, glass-paneled façade and warm, earthy tones. The hospital’s green and blue logo was prominent above the main doors.

Nestled among the high rises and busy streets of Boston’s West End, Edenbrook’s entrance was an oasis of calm. She hiked down the pavement, noting the small circular fountain surrounded by well-maintained flower beds and lush green spaces dotted with picnic tables and benches.

Sienna could imagine escaping here during break time or having lunch outside when the weather was nice.

“You should go in through the front doors,” said Danny, the helpful nurse she’d met on the train. “The receptionist can tell you where to get your ID ahead of orientation.”

Sienna nodded, wordlessly thanking him as she stared at the bright, welcoming building before them.

“I’ll see you later.” He waved goodbye and detoured to the side where the staff entrance was located.

Clutching the strap of her bag, Sienna took a deep breath and walked through the sliding doors.

The morning sun filtered through the tall windows behind her, casting a warm, golden hue over the lobby, already bustling despite the early hour.

Her heart pounded with excitement and nervousness. She would spend the next three years here, learning the practical aspects of being a doctor.

Thinking of her grandfather, the man who had inspired her to go into medicine, Sienna snapped a picture on her phone and texted it to him. He texted back immediately with a heart emoji.

She laughed. Since discovering the various emojis in his new phone, Ông decided words were superfluous to communication.

Sienna had always imagined how she would walk through these halls, head held high, confident and ready to take on the world. But now, standing at the threshold of this new chapter, the weight of responsibility felt heavier than she had anticipated.

“First day jitters?” a voice asked from behind her.

Sienna turned to see a middle-aged man with short dark hair. He wore glasses, a white shirt, a sweater vest, and light-colored pants. His friendly smile and kind eyes exuded a calmness that immediately began to ease her nerves.

She recognized him from her residency interview panel—Dr. Naveen Banerji, the head of Edenbrook’s renowned diagnostics team.

“Just a bit,” Sienna admitted with a sheepish grin.

Dr. Banerji chuckled softly. “That’s a good sign. It means you care about what you’re doing. But don’t let it paralyze you. You’ve worked hard to get here—trust yourself.”

His words, though simple, were reassuring. Sienna nodded, feeling a surge of determination replace some of her apprehension. “Thank you, Doctor. I’m ready!”

His brown eyes twinkled, and his lips quirked, likely in amusement at the ferocity of her response.

“Welcome to Edenbrook, Doctor.” He tipped his head and walked toward the elevator.

Sienna glanced around the lobby once again. Natural light flooded the interior from the glass-domed atrium ceiling. She took a deep breath, letting the warm sunlight fill her with renewed confidence.

“Here we go,” she whispered to herself, ready for whatever lay ahead.

----------

All Fics & Edits: @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @jerzwriter @justyourusualash

@lady-calypso @kyra75 @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect

@queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @snoopdogcone @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

@storyofmychoices

[steddiebang]

Crossroads (Hellfire on my Trail)

Author: @nevertheless_5 l Artist: @hels._art l Artist: @sunflowerharrington Posting on Tuesday, October 10

Like the infamous urban legend, Eddie meets the Devil at a crossroads and cuts a deal to become a rockstar. In exchange, Henry Creel wants to be his occasional puppetmaster. He grants Eddie one year of his shiny new life to choose to either finalize his deal or break it. As he grows more famous, makes a record, and starts a nationwide U.S. tour, Eddie thinks he’s gotten everything he ever wanted. Then he meets Steve Harrington and realizes how wrong he was. He also didn’t get all the fine print of his contract with the Devil. An explicit, slow burn, hurt/comfort, enemies to lovers tale. Tagline: Love be the Devil but it won’t get me.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

Eddie kept looking because the guy was hot. Those boring clothes were a little too tight and all Eddie could process was the bulge in his jeans, toned muscles that were obvious under his pastel shirt, and hard forearms. He looked strong, like he worked out. Probably exactly that douchey type, yeah. His face was kind of ridiculous too. Thick, dark eyebrows, defined jaw, moles or freckles dotting his neck and face like beauty marks. He was pretty.

So maybe he was a little taken aback by the guy’s looks. He wasn’t about to show it. Good-looking guys like him were a dime a dozen. Probably straight as an arrow too. He looked it. Boring. 

“And who are you?” Eddie said and looked down like he wasn’t interested in the answer. He watched himself strum the guitar. 

“Who are you?” 

Eddie laughed. “If you’re here you should probably know that already.” He looked up to another bitchy expression and hands still on hips. “What are you, venue staff?”

The man scoffed. Eddie strummed again and turned one of the tuning pegs to adjust the sound, strummed again.

“Hey, stop that.” 

The man placed his hand on the neck of the guitar like he was going to take it and Eddie stood up quickly, pushing the guy back with his body, the guitar between them. He didn’t like people touching his baby, certainly not some random dude with a chip on his shoulder. He wasn’t afraid of his size either. They were the same height anyway, even if pretty boy had 20 lbs or more on him. 

“Back off,” Eddie said, eyes locked on the man, but he wasn’t backing down either. 

The guy’s annoyed expression was angry now, and yeah there was green in his eyes. Eddie could see it really well now that they were so much closer. His dark eyelashes were kind of absurdly long too. Christ, he looked like a girl. Eddie’s gaze fell to pretty boy’s lips without his consent. The hard line of them right now couldn’t hide how they’d probably be soft and sweet to kiss, and Eddie wanted to kiss them, well, if he didn’t rip the guy’s hand off his arm first.

“That’s Munson’s guitar and I’m in charge of it, so hand it over.”

Eddie laughed. “You’re not in charge of it.”

“I’m his guitar tech actually, so yes I am in charge of it, and I don’t appreciate you fucking with the instrument.”

The heat in his voice and that he’d cursed made Eddie smile now. He would never deign to let it show, but he decided he liked how this guy didn’t back down. Also, he was pretty amused that he didn’t have a clue who Eddie was. Idiot. A pretty idiot though. He could work with that, could push this game a little further. 

“Oh, you don’t want me fucking with your instrument huh? You sure? I’m pretty good at it.”

The guy seemed to flatline for a moment before narrowing his eyes, getting the gist of what Eddie was saying. Eddie looked him up and down slowly, acted like he was considering it and, oh, this guy didn’t like that at all. They were still so close, and Eddie ran his hand up the collar of the guy’s shirt. Pretty boy stopped Eddie’s hand immediately, gripping it tight, and that actually hurt a little. Strong, yeah. Eddie grinned.

“Watch it.”

“Or maybe I’ll let you fuck with mine instead. You might like that.”

The guy practically sneered at him, disgusted. Eddie grinned and shrugged. It didn’t bother him. Typical straight guy reaction. Eddie knew he was attractive, so it wasn’t any skin off his back. If anything, it made this more fun. 

“But either way, Adonis, I’ll be tuning my own guitar, thanks. Don’t need your help.”

The guy looked a little confused by that, especially when Eddie stepped away to sit back down and mess around with his guitar.

“Uh.” Eddie looked up and the guy seemed a little lost now. He swallowed and followed that eloquence with, “I’m Steve. What’s…your name?”

Eddie grinned. “I think you might have guessed. Smarter than you look, huh?”

A flash of anger passed over the man’s features before he composed himself. “Eddie Munson?”

Eddie nodded and started to hum along to the song he was playing now. He could feel Steve’s eyes on him and wondered what he was thinking. Probably freaking out that he’d pissed off the boss. The boss who had kind of hit on him. Eddie decided he’d put him out of his misery. He didn’t look up when he spoke. 

“I’ll take care of the Warlock and my acoustic too. You can handle the backup guitars, cords, amps, all the other fun stuff. Got it, Steve?”

“Harrington.”

Eddie looked up and a little of the defiance was back in Steve’s expression. He found it funny that he was correcting himself now, wanted to be called Harrington instead apparently.

“Harrington then. My other offer still stands by the way.” Eddie grinned at him and Steve looked confused for a second. Just one.

“I don’t mess around with rockstars.”

Eddie glanced at him, raising his eyebrows as he strummed. “Oh? Why’s that?”

“Lots of reasons. Plenty of other people around who are up for that. Men, women, whatever you want.”

“But not you?” Eddie pressed, letting his gaze slide over Steve’s features again. He really was beautiful. Not Eddie’s type at all but there was something about him. Maybe he just liked what he couldn’t have. Steve stared back and seemed to have shut a wall down over his expression. It made Eddie so curious. What was he afraid to show?

“No, I…ah, relationships are kinda bullshit and casual stuff, well, I don’t fuck around on the job.”

That wasn’t what Eddie had meant with his question, and he couldn’t tell if Harrington was avoiding saying whether he was straight or not by deflecting. But if the guy was queer Eddie felt he would have gotten Eddie’s point. So yeah, probably straight. That wouldn’t deter him from flirting in the future though.

Read more on October 10!

[rhondafromhr]

Another ‘Grace in the church of the starry children’ AU snippet!!

Part 1

Summary: In one timeline, Grace and her family are still highly devoted to their religion, but they worship entirely different Gods (or, rather, Lords) and have to be a little more hush-hush about it. Her old family friend, Uncle Wiley, brings her two special gifts for her eighteenth birthday: a cool, authentic vintage denim jacket from the eighties and her very own copy of the black book. She promises to use it sparingly until she’s older and she’s had more practice, but when Brenda, the pretty cheerleader at school with an obvious crush on her, confides in her that she’d do anything to get back her sister who disappeared, Grace decides to make an exception for her.

Brenda spends the rest of the lunch period totally not staring at Grace and wondering if she’s drawing strange, occult symbols or writing deep, sad poetry that shows a hidden sensitive side. At one point, Grace looks up and they lock eyes for a moment. Shit, busted! Brenda smiles and waves at her and Grace looks a little taken aback for a second before she reciprocates the smile in a way that’s so awkward it’s sort of charming and waves back, then once again buries her face in her notebook. She’s so high off her two victories today - talking to Grace and getting her to crack a smile - that she can barely hear the story Kyle’s telling.

“…and then my dad made me work, like, every day after school and all through summer to pay for the damage to that Ski-doo,” he says. Brenda blinks, realizing how hard she’s been spacing out.

“Oh, that’s, uh, great,” she says absently.

“Ha, yeah it was!” Max says “see, Brenda gets it.” Kyle glares at him, but can’t say anything back. He sulks quietly until the bell rings again and they all go their separate ways, occasionally shooting a longing glance Brenda’s way that goes unnoticed.

Grace spends her afternoon classes with her head in the clouds. She’s too preoccupied thinking about Uncle Wiley possibly coming by tonight and replaying those interactions with Brenda in her head to pay much attention. She’s never particularly cared about her grades and her parents never push the issue, so long as she isn’t flunking any classes (they’re always saying that they won’t matter in the long run and there are more important things at stake), but considering that almost nobody will talk to her unless forced, she often doesn’t have much to do other than her schoolwork. This has netted her a solid B average and generally, she doesn’t find it too difficult to maintain. She can perform pretty well on a test with minimal studying. Really, memorizing that information isn’t much different than memorizing spells and rituals. Occasionally, a teacher will chide her for spacing out or “forgetting” (not bothering with) her homework, but they leave her alone for the most part. Even the staff here are a little frightened of her.

At long last, she arrives at home and she’s ecstatic when she enters the living room and sees Uncle Wiley seated there with her parents, mugs of steaming hot tea in hand.

“Uncle Wiley!” she shouts, practically running over to him and throwing her arms around him.

“Well, hello there, Gracie,” he says with a grin that some judgmental people might characterize as sinister. Grace knows better, though. That’s just how he smiles. “Today’s the big day, huh? You’re all grown up.”

“That’s right,” she says proudly. She frowns when she pulls back and notices the cuts dotting his face, most notably a nasty gash right above his lips. She looks at his hands and sees that his finger’s been placed in a splint and on his forearm is the beginnings of what’s sure to become a really bad bruise.

“You’re hurt,” she says “you disinfected those cuts, right? You don’t want them to fester and turn into sepsis and slowly, painfully kill you! You should really cover them to keep them clean.”

He chuckles. “All good, Gracie. That meeting today was really more of a …sparring session, let’s say. You think I look bad, you should see the other guy!”

He and her parents all laugh at that, as if they’re sharing some sort of inside joke.

“But enough about me,” he continues “today’s all about the birthday girl, right? I have some gifts for you…souvenirs from today.”

Grace lights up. “Really?”

He hands her two bright green gift bags, each adorned with a curly, flowing ribbon of the same color that almost looks like tentacles. He instructs her to open the larger one first, because the smaller one is really special.

She does as he asks, reaching into the big bag and pulling out an oversized denim jacket. She runs her hands over it, marveling at the solid construction and how it doesn’t feel rough or scratchy at all. She’s very picky about her denim and this is practically custom made for her.

“Almost kept it for myself, but I thought you’d wear it better,” he says.

“Wow, thank you, Uncle Wiley,” she says, eagerly slipping on the jacket. She’s going to decorate it with so many pins and patches.

“Alright, now the second one,” he says “took some convincing for your folks to let me give you this one, but it’s like I always say, you have the potential to do great things. You need the right tools to harness it.”

She removes the tissue paper from the bag and reaches in, her eyes going wide when she feels the leather beneath her fingers. It seems to be some type of book. Can it be? There’s no way. When she slowly lifts the object out and sees the black cover and the familiar symbol, her wildest hopes and dreams are confirmed.

“Oh, wow,” she says in awe, drawing out the word “for real? My very own copy? Are you sure?”

“Well, you’re a young woman now. I’d say it’s about time. Besides, the original owner don’t have much of a use for it.” He and her parents laugh again.

“Thank you, Uncle Wiley,” she squeals, throwing her arms around him once more, a bit more gingerly than last time to avoid aggravating his injuries “thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the best birthday ever!”

“Just make sure to use it responsibly, dear,” Karen says “it’s a powerful thing.”

“Oh, mother, you worry too much,” says Mark “we weren’t much older when we did our first summonings and rituals. You remember those days?”

“Oh, we hardly did anything earth-shattering,” Karen says, swatting at him playfully.

“We sure tried,” Uncle Wiley adds.

Karen smiles. “Oh, the good old days,” she says “where does the time go? Anyways, all I’m saying is she should be careful and use it sparingly, just until she’s a little older and she’s had more practice.”

“Yes, yes, you’re right, my dear,” Mark concedes “promise to use it responsibly and not rely on it too much, at least until you’re more experienced with it, alright, Gracie?”

“I promise,” Grace says.

They sit down to dinner. Grace’s mother made her world famous lasagna, Grace’s all-time favorite. At Grace’s insistence, Uncle Wiley and her parents regale her with tales from the wild days of their youth. It’s so strange to hear about, almost like they’re talking about entirely different people, because her parents seem like such normal, boring adults now. It seems like they had so much fun in those days. They were an inseparable trio, them against the world. It sounds kind of nice, honestly. It’s not that Grace minds being alone. She likes quiet. She likes having alone time to think. Still, sometimes she thinks it would be nice to have somebody to share it with like they did. She wonders if she’ll find that someday. She thinks back to her conversation with Brenda today. She’s not sure why it popped into her head.

Eventually, Uncle Wiley has to head out. Grace hugs him goodbye, thanks him again for the gifts and emphatically reminds him to look after his cuts. She stays up way later than she should, curled up in bed with a flashlight, poring over each page, reading each spell over and over and over again and trying to absorb every bit of information she can. Eventually, exhaustion overtakes her, her eyelids grow too heavy to hold open and she falls asleep curled up with the book, the flashlight still shining. At some point, she stirs awake for a moment and feels somebody draping a blanket over her and carefully removing the flashlight from her hands. She blinks and murmurs before rolling over and going back to sleep, still clutching the book.

[karahalloway]

Morally Grey - Part II: Hard Drive

Fandom: TRR x Mission: Impossible II

Pairing: Drake Walker x F!OC (Harper Gale)

Series: Morally Grey

Synopsis: Drake drives after Harper and things get wild, in more ways than one...

Word count: 3,700

Rating/Warnings: E (swearing, road rage, all kinds of dangerous driving do not try this at home)

Chapter theme song:

A/N: So, I apparently had too much fun writing Game of Thieves, so after I finished it, my mind decided that it would be great idea to create a follow-up exploring the car-chase scene from Drake's POV. So, here we are! There will probably be two more parts after this.

A/N2: The clip (for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, or doesn't remember) is below. Enjoy!

"Dammit..." I cuss under my breath as she drives off.

As asset recruitment went, that had crashed and burned like the Hindenburg.

Not that I strictly know why I need to recruit her in the first place.

Apart from the very clear directive I received in my mission brief.

...you may select any two team members, but it is essential that the third team member be Harper Gale. She is a civilian, and a highly capable professional thief. You have forty-eight hours to recruit Miss Gale and meet me in Stormholt to receive your assignment...

In and of itself, such an instruction — while rare — isn't that left field. Because even though IMF prefers to operate in the shadows, there are times when the mission parameters call for third-party assists. To gain access. To throw off suspicion. To provide specialist expertise.

So, over the years, I've found myself teaming up with all manner of civilians — from world-renowned scientists, through morally shady politicians, all the way down to your entry-level gang-banger in order  to get a mission over the line.

But Gale isn't any of those things. She's a common thief. Admittedly a drop-dead gorgeous and bitingly sassy thief who's quick on her feet... but a common thief nevertheless. And those are a dime a dozen. In both IMF, and the underworld.

So, that doesn't explain why Constantine has gone to such pains to single her out as a mission-critical part of this assignment.

Which means that he obviously knows something I don't.

But I'm not gonna find out what by standing on the Beaumonts' drive like a moron.

"Hey, Pete," I call, turning back around. "One more for you."

The valet manager deftly catches the token that I toss to him. "Right away, Mr Dallas."

"Thanks," I acknowledge as I pull out my phone.

One of the upsides of having had to pretend to be the Beaumonts' external security consultant over the past couple of days is that I'm now on a first name basis with most of the staff.

Which definitely pays dividends when you need something done quick.

Like I do now.

Unlocking the encrypted device while Pete radios through for my ride, I tap on the tracking app and enter the number that I pulled off her phone while waiting for her to crack the safe.

Because somehow, I'd known I'll end up in this exact situation.

After a few moments' calibration, the software throws up a map with a flashing red dot in the centre.

I feel the corner of my mouth twitch. You can run, but you can't hide, girl...

"Your vehicle, Mr Dallas," advises the valet, pulling up in front of me.

"Perfect timing," I grin, pulling my wallet out to extract some notes to stuff into his breast pocket as he exits the car.

"Oh, th-thank you, sir," he stammers, clearly unaccustomed to receiving a healthy tip for his services.

"You're welcome," I nod, getting behind the wheel of the Porsche 918 Spyder.

Besides the fact that the average Joe's manning these kinds of events made fuck all money while the guests drank champagne costing several grand a pop, it always paid to cultivate goodwill with the staff. Not just from a common decency point of view, but also because you never know when you’re gonna need their eyes and ears.

So, parting with a couple hundred Euros, or a favour, in exchange for potentially priceless intel down the line is always a fair trade in my book.

"Have a wonderful evening!" enthuses the still star-struck valet as he closes the driver's side door 'round.

"Yeah. We'll see about that," I mutter under my breath as I slot my phone into the cup holder at the top of the centre console.

The evening hasn't exactly gone to plan so far...

But, as Constantine likes to say, this was Mission: Impossible, not Mission: Difficult.

Which means that even though Gale would probably like nothing more than to shoot me on sight, I have to go after her. And somehow convince her to change her mind.

Otherwise, I'm gonna be up shit creek with this mission...

...and with Constantine.

And neither of those things is something I'm particularly keen on letting happen. Now, or ever.

So, pressing my foot down, I throw the car into drive and take off with a throaty roar as the naturally aspirated 4.6-liter V-8 kicks the 608 horses under the hood to life.

And, despite the height of the stakes, I feel a grin spread over my face.

Fuck, this car's something else!

Thanks to the less-than routine nature of my work, I frequently find myself behind a wheel. Planes, trains, automobiles — I've driven them all. But I can still count on one hand the machines that have simply taken my breath away.

And the 918 is one of them.

Because despite the fact that it doesn't come with the covetous price tag of a Koenigsegg, or the iconic lines of a Ferrari, the 918 is still a work of art. Not only does it go like shit off a shovel, but it also handles like a dream. Which means you're not crapping yourself every time a high-speed corner comes around.

And for these unlit, backcountry roads that I'm about to drive, that is critical.

Reaching the end of the gravel-lined drive, I spin the car out onto the main road and open up the throttle.

Gale is already a good few miles ahead of me, and — based on the way she hightailed it off the estate earlier — has no intention of slowing down. So, I'm gonna have to step on it if I want to keep pace with her.

As even though I have a lock on her carrier signal, her phone could be a burner — she could decide to turn it off, trash it, or leave it in a dumpster somewhere. And I'm up against the clock, so I don't have time to play hide-and-seek across the width of the continent with her.

Probably shouldn't've told her about the alarm...

But, hindsight's always 20-20.

Not that that necessarily would've changed my decision.

Because despite the fact that I need her professional skill set, I couldn't let her swindle the Duke out of his priceless heirloom. For one, it had merely been convenient bait. And for another, next week's auction is all that stood between the Beaumonts and bankruptcy.

And while I may operate in the shadows, I'm not a complete ass.

Plus, I'd wanted to be up front with her. From the very start.

Because nothing sinks a team like secrets and bad blood. And I'd much rather deal with any potential fallout now, before the start of the actual mission, than smack, bang in the middle of it when a lack of trust has the potential to claim actual lives.

And — if I'm being honest with myself — I kinda like the chase. It makes the eventual win taste that much sweeter.

Especially with a firecracker like Gale.

I swallow an inadvertent groan as my mind falls back to the feel of her pressed up against me in the tub, her eyes flashing with defiance, and a hint of—

I shake my head. Focus, Walker.

But the Beaumonts' unexpected interruption had been worth it. Because it'd convinced me that despite her civilian status, she has exactly the right combination of brains and balls needed to not only stay alive, but actually be an asset on this mission.

But, I don't have her yet. And if I'm gonna finish reeling her in, timing will be key.

So, as I spot a pair of Mercedes tail lights in the darkness, I ease off the gas.

Because her emotions are already running high and I don't want to spook her further by making her think that she's being tailed.

Especially not on these blind-spot riddled roads, in the middle of the night, where one moment of inattention could easily become your last.

And what I definitely don't need right now is my mark ending up in the ER — or worse, the morgue — because I let the heat of the moment get the better of me.

Best that I just hang back, let the dust settle, and re-engage upon arrival at our destination. When she's hopefully calmer.

Key word — hopefully.

Because let's face it. I'd be pretty pissed off too if some asshole'd fucked me out of a six-figure payday.

So, I can't exactly blame her for her explosive reaction.

But, unfortunately for her, there's a lot more at stake here than a jewellery heist gone wrong. The mission brief wouldn't have landed on Constantine's desk unless all hell is about to break loose.

Better pray this girl's got a conscience...

Rounding the bend, we come upon the lights of the town of Ramsford.

But, despite the fact that we're entering an urban environment, Gale blows past the 50 km/h speed limit sign like it doesn't exist.

"Christ, girl..." I grumble under my breath.

And even though I told myself mere minutes ago that I was gonna hang back and give her space, as I see her whip the roadster 'round a narrow corner at breakneck speed, I find myself throwing my original plan out the window as I press pedal to the metal to keep pace with her.

Because while I don't want to lose her, I also know that engaging in a midnight drag race through the streets Ramsford's only gonna result in one thing — the cops coming out of the woodworks to breathe down our neck, and Gale even more pissed off at me than she is already.

So, I need a Plan B.

Skimming my thumb over the controls on the steering wheel, I pull up her number and hit dial...

...and pray that I can talk some sense into her.

The ring of the pending call echoes out from the Spyder's infotainment system once... twice... thrice...

She finally picks up after the fifth ring. "Hello...?"

"Would it kill you to slow down?" I ask dryly.

I see her stiffen as her gaze flies up to the rear view mirror in disbelief.

I flash my headlights at her in response.

"How the hell did you get this number?" she demands as she manages to find her voice again.

"You got your tricks, I got mine," I tell her simply, easing up on the gas slightly as I pull up behind her.

"Yeah, you're a regular David Copperfield," she snarks down the line.

"I prefer Darren Brown, personally..."

"Hmm..." she purrs. "Then you're really gonna love this trick."

The call goes dead.

I shake my head with a scoff. 15-Love to Gale.

But the match ain't won yet. And I'm not backing off that easy.

So, hitting redial on her number, I wait for the call to reconnect...

...but all I get is radio silence.

"You wanna play it like that, huh?" I say under my breath as I swing the Spyder out into the oncoming lane.

Luckily, at this hour, the roads are deserted. But that doesn't means that they're gonna stay that way for long. Which means the time for games is up.

Opening up the throttle, I force my car up alongside hers. Raising my voice so that it'll carry over the roar of the engines, I shout, "Pull over and listen to me, will ya? Just listen!"

"Yeah!" she scoffs in reply. "'Cause that worked out so well for me last time!"

"You walked away, remember?" I remind her. "Can't guarantee that'll be the case next time 'round."

Her gaze snaps defiantly to mine. "Is that a threat?"

"It's simple maths!" I tell her. "You can't evade the law forever! Especially not with a Red Notice hanging over you. But if you help me, I can make all that go away."

"Go aw—?" Her eyes suddenly widen. "Holy shit! You're a spy!"

I answer her with a self-deprecating shrug. It paid the bills.

She recollects herself to throw me a sly look. "Prove it!"

Without warning, she rams her Mercedes into me.

"Jesus fuck!" I cuss as the Sypder lurches to the side from the impact, its rims scraping the curb.

Flipping me the bird, Gale punches the gas to dive back in front of me, whipping her car 'round a tight bend.

Spitting profanities under my breath, I yank the Spyder back onto the road.

She wants to play rough? I'll play rough.

Throwing the engine over to sport mode, I reach for the seatbelt over my shoulder and click it into place as I throw the car after her, the rev counter on the dash going mental as the engine doubles down.

And despite the adrenaline-fuelled chase, I can't help but grin.

This girl's definitely something else...

And she's sure as hell determined to make me work for it. Or — at the very least — give me hell for the way I screwed her over back at the Beaumonts.

Either way, she's got my blood pumping, and she knows it.

Which makes me even more determined to catch her.

We hit a roundabout, and Gale looks like she's going straight over...

...but at the last second, she slams her car hard to the left to take the third exit instead, tires smoking as they battle for traction on the cobblestones.

"Shit," I cuss, twisting the wheel hard over to keep pace with her, the Porsche's Pirellis screeching in protest.

Exiting the roundabout, the road in front of us cuts suddenly to the left. Slamming on the breaks, Gale skids her Mercedes 'round the bend, the force of the manoeuvre kicking the roadster's tail out. Very narrowly missing a lamppost, she manages to right the car at the last second to barrel it down the start of a tight switch-back that led to the centuries-old bridge on the edge of the town.

"Sweet fucking Jesus, girl..." I gripe under my breath as I speed after her.

There's being cocky. And then there's being reckless. And the way she's driving, she's definitely tempting fate. Because there's only so many times you can luck out before your luck actually runs out.

Which means I have to figure out a way to stop her before she runs herself off the road.

Depressing the gas pedal again, I search for an opening that I can use to dive in front of her and force her to slow down. But she seems to anticipate my plan, and closes off the gap before I'm able to make use of it.

Grabbing the e-break, I rip it upwards, forcing the Spyder’s tail out as I skid the car 'round her, looking for a gap on the other side.

She rewards me for my efforts by ramming into me again, nearly sending me into the flimsy metal railing that lined the edge of the asphalt.

I feel my jaw tighten at her antics.

First time? Kinda cute. Second time, not so much.

Especially since there were only a grand total of 918 Spyders ever made, and I damn sure don’t want to be responsible for taking one out of commission.

So, I make the reluctant decision to back off again, biding my time until the road opened back up.

We hit the bottom of the switchback, engines blaring and tailpipes sweating, and she immediately punches it towards the old stone bridge that spans the Rams river.

"Better luck next time, Walker!" she calls over her shoulder.

But my attention isn't focused on her. "Watch the road, girl..."

She whips her head around at the last second to clock the rickety Fiat that had just pulled out from behind the blind corner, straight into her path.

Instinctively knowing that she isn’t gonna avoid a collision, she ditches the breaks to try and swerve the Mercedes 'round the hazard instead.

But her momentum is too great, she's forgotten to account for the oversteer...

...and she descends into a tailspin.

"Fuck..." I curse under my breath.

All rational thought evaporates as my adrenaline spikes and my faculties give over to raw instinct.

I gotta save her.

Barrelling the Spyder after her without any semblance of a plan, the only thing I'm focused on is stopping her before she hits the bridge... or worse, the river.

The nose of her car whips past me, and I wrench the wheel to the right, clipping her bumper.

The off-the-cuff interference is enough to change the course of her trajectory, helping prevent her getting wrapped around the stone pillar at the foot of the bridge.

But the Merc's still freewheeling out of control.

Jerking the Porsche 'round, I slam it into the side of her car, trying to use the weight of my vehicle as a ballast to counteract her momentum.

But we're still going too fast.

We go flying down the narrow concourse of the bridge, like a pair of buzzards locked together in a high-stakes dance, speeding towards our fate.

The force of the impact whips her head around. She catches my gaze, and despite the low light, I see the sheer terror in her hazel-green irises...

...and the world around me condenses down to a single point.

Her.

The bridge, the cars, the entirety of my being fades to inconsequence in the face of the nakedness of her vulnerability.

I'm barely even conscious of my actions as I battle against the inevitable, trying to keep a lock on the steering wheel that’s threatening to jump out of my hands, feathering the throttle with a mix of reflex and dogged defiance in an attempt to alter the course of our trajectory, to slow us down, to narrowly avert disaster.

Because even though I know in the furthest recesses of my mind that I'm engaged in a fool's errand, like Icarus, I'm too much of a stubborn ass to back down.

Especially when I know that I'm literally the only thing standing between her and death.

The Merc hits the curb and slams into the low stone wall lining the side of the bridge. The centuries-old mortar crumbles under the weight of the impact, falling away into the ravine below.

But — whether by the grace of God or blind, dumb luck — the red roadster somehow catches itself on the mess of granite and skids to a stop, suspended over the edge of the bridge.

Only... there's no Gale in the driver's seat.

Throwing the seatbelt off, I leap across the seats into the Merc, where I find the driver's side door flapping over the darkness with Gale hanging on for dear life.

"Ahhh...!" she squeaks, scrambling for non-existent purchase as she tries to maintain her hold on the elbow rest...

...but I can see she's slipping.

Knowing that we're fast running out of time, I throw myself forward, reaching for her.

"Harper!"

Her eyes snap to mine, and I can see the fear and desperation welling within.

Latching onto the top of the door with one hand to anchor myself into place, I snap a hold around her wrist with the other and heave her back up.

"I got you, girl..."

Clearing the side of the car, her free hand shoots out to tangle into the material of my shirt as I pull her toward me. She crashes against me with a sob of relief, knocking me backwards into the seat.

She lands on top of me, trembling, and I wrap my arm around her, holding her to me, heart hammering as I stare up into the night sky, trying to catch my breath.

Her quaking form sink against me as she buries her face in the crook of my neck, fingers still latched onto my shirt, our hands still entwined.

Sweet Jesus, that was close...

"You okay?" I ask, running my hand over the arch of her back questioningly.

"Yeah," she nods shakily, not quite meeting my eye as she quickly wipes the wetness from her cheeks.

"Hey," I say softly, reaching up to cup her face in my palm. "It's—"

"I feel like such an idiot..." she grumbles.

"Well, you're the one who decided to Mad Max it through Ramsford like a—"

"Shut up!" she reproaches, smacking me on the chest.

"Christ! I save your ass twice and this is the thanks I get?"

"I didn't need saving!" she counters, laying into me again.

"The evidence points to the cont— Ow!"

"The only reason I'm in this mess at all is because of you!" she cuts in heatedly. "If you hadn't shown up tonight I'd—"

"Probably got caught anyway..."

"Fuck you!" she shouts, giving me a shove. "Why can't you just take 'no' for an answer, instead of chasing after me like some—"

"For fuck’s sake..." I grit, grabbing her by the back of the neck to yank her towards me.

Her eyes widen, but before she has a chance to protest, our mouthes have crashed together like cars in a freeway pile-up — violently, hazardously — the unexpected brush with death and the heart-thumping chase beforehand having already kicked both our pulses into overdrive.

And as our lips meet, that pent-up tension explodes like a flash-bang.

Her teeth scrape against mine with an intensity that's almost feral, even as I feel her body press into mine, her nails raking over my shirt.

My tongue thrusts past hers forcefully to claim the coveted warmth of her mouth, coaxing a soft moan from her as my free hand glides down her body to clamp onto her backside, pulling her to me hungrily as I throw every rule I'd ever been taught out the window.

Never get involved.

Well, too late for that.

Because I'm sure as shit involved now.

The story continues in Part 3 - Russian Roulette.

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Picture credits:

Drake - Porsche - Harper

[guardian-andi]

Chapter 4. Meeting

Andi needed to get off planet fast. Those troopers weren’t dead, and there was no way they wouldn’t report their encounter to whatever superiors had sent them to take the child. What could the empire want with force sensitive children? The thought was nauseating. But he couldn’t focus on that now, he’d have plenty of time to contemplate in transit, but that was the hard part. He didn’t have a chain code so there was no way for him to get an official ride off world and even though the force allowed him to sense things without his sight, he still couldn’t read displays or screens, so flying himself out was completely out of the question. Empress Teta, the city covered planet he had been tentatively calling home for the last few years, was known for its overly complex sky lanes, making leaving or entering the planet a complete chore, so he needed to make sure he could find a secure ship to stow away on.

He did his best to blend in with the crowd, tapping his cane along even though he no longer needed it. He had spent enough time here to figure out where the space port is, the constant roaring of engines and loud crowds emanating from the buildings gave it away easy enough. He moved along with the throngs of people, sensing every possible emotion, happiness, sadness, joy, anger. He missed being able to see this, feel their unique stories. As dangerous as it was, he was glad to be back.

Passing a side road, he felt something pulling him there, like a string pulling him down the path. He followed, knowing that the force would not betray him, it would guide him where he needed to go. Breaking off from the stream of people, he moved down the surprisingly empty pathway. He walked through, coming to a bend when he heard incoming footsteps. Andi ducked into a nearby alcove, pulling his staff close as he sensed exactly who were passing by. As they drew closer their forms revealed the outline of two stormtroopers, the chatter from their helmets echoing between the walls. Letting them pass by Andi moved on, slower this time as to not be surprised or heard. He quickly found himself in a small open hangar, a decently sized ship sat in the middle of it, some kind of shuttle he guessed. Shipping containers still dotted the surrounding area, giving Andi plenty of places to hide behind and scope out the area. Crouching behind one of them, Andi reached out with the force, opening all his senses to the surrounding hangar. Not a soul was close by, but he still got the feeling this was where he needed to be. So, he made a break for the ship, running up the boarding ramp he felt a sudden pit in his stomach that made him stop in his tracks. 

Andi hadn’t felt this sensation since the night the temple fell. It was like his soul was being smothered by smoke and darkness, like his connection to the force was being choked out. Before he could turn around, he was pulled away from the ship and slammed against one of the cargo containers.

“You’re bold I’ll give you that” came a lightly muffled voice. “A blind man trying to steal an imperial ship.”

In front of him stepped a helmeted woman, her outline displaying a dark silhouette, with smooth armored lines and a shaped helmet. Andi jumped to his feet, brandishing his cane towards her. She cocked her head in curiosity. 

“A well-trained blind man, it seems.”  

He jumped at her with a fast jab followed by a hard swing. She dodged each attack perfectly, seeing his attacks coming a mile away. He continued to attack, desperate to land a strike and hopefully escape, but she continued to constantly evade any hit. He stopped, panting as she simply chuckled to herself.

“Maybe not as well trained as I thought”

He decided to try a new tactic, quickly grabbing a nearby toolbox with the force and sending it at her head. She batted away the spray of tools, but Andi had followed up by rushing in close, jabbing the butt of his cane into her helmet. He heard a loud crack as plastoid met metal. She stumbled back letting out a shout and touching her cracked visor. With a growl she rushed forward with immense speed, letting the force enhance her movements as she kicked him directly in the chest, followed by a backhand across the face. Andi tumbled to the ground, his staff flying from his hands and landing with a clatter. He tried to get up only to hear the tell-tale hiss of a lightsaber activating and seeing the outline of the blade hovering just in front of him, pointing at his throat. 

“Tenacious too. A survivor”

As he sat there, he took note of her. The woman’s presence was clouded in a swirling black shroud emanating off her very soul. And yet there was something else, something that wasn’t there the only other time he had encountered someone with a similar presence. Deep inside, masked behind all the hatred and anger, he felt a glimpse of sadness and fear.

“Hopefully you’ll be strong enough to live.” She said, a slight tone of sincerity in her voice, before delivering a kick to his jaw, knocking Andi out cold.

[rainyraisin]

23 23 23

OKAY

Jeez this’ll be a long one

Honestly, what I hope people notice when looking at my art is the small details. But the thing is, unless you’re actively looking for them, you probably won’t notice some of them, which leads to you being like the only person who realises dhjsbfkd- I love your silly little analysises sm though so idm that much‼️‼️‼️💖💖💖🫶🫶🫶

There’s even more small details than these (keeping it to these because of the mobile photo limit) but I don’t do them as often as I’d like to, honestly I might ramp it up a bit at this point because I had a lot of fun with them in one of my latest pieces. Btw there are small details that I like more than these but some of them are reticent spoilers so I’m gonna keep from talking about those for now.

(Putting this all as a read more as this post will be LONG.)

Starting with one of the most obvious small details but one I just like a lot, the staff magical girl Ret!Don holds is shaped as a flower made out of octagons (which is the main shape I try to go for when it comes to Dee’s patterns but sometimes they turn out as hexagons dgehbfjd I mix them up a little bit)

Edit: forgot to mention, I picked a flower specifically cause silly guy loves botany hehe 💖💖💖

This one appears in a LOT of my drawings of tot Ret!Don, this is the way I like to convey a character not having their glasses on. Since he doesn’t get his glasses till he’s 7-8 years old (doing a timeline rn so we’ll see exactly when at some point dhdjhfjf), the majority of drawings of younger Dee will have this feature, especially as I tend to start drawing them with full eyes rather than line eyes at 9 years old (the pupils still look like this but the eyes as a whole are different)

Another silly tot thing (this is just smth I’m working on btw I haven’t posted any of it yet, dw about it tho :)))) ). I gave Leo this silly shirt to convey that this is the year that Splinter appoints him leader after stripping the role from Raph. Guy is already exhausted from his new role but he’s powering through it, look at him go!!! (That’s not gonna last long)

This is one I’ve already pointed out but it was a while back so I figured I’d include it here too. On Donnie and Karai’s refs (from April 13th and April 17th respectively), they both have a pattern of three dots in a sort of arch shape above their right eyes, Donnie’s showing whilst his mask is off and Karai’s showing whilst her mask is on. This particular pattern only shows for each character when they’re involved in a certain clan :) It also illustrates their connection later on in the show, far prior to the arc even occurring (still got a while to go!)

Two out of three of the images on these next two examples are from a piece I’ll prolly be posting later today! Basically in that piece I have included a couple of polaroids in characters decorating the room as I like to do that a lot for characters who I think would have these kinds of photos (Leo doesn’t have as many, only keeping two in his room but Don and Mikey display them on the walls whilst Raph has a small collection hidden away). This first one is in Donnie’s room and depicts the day Donnie got his glasses with April’s help!! The guy was ecstatic fr‼️‼️💪💪💪 April isn’t much of a hugger but she decided it was fine this time.

These next two images are from Leo’s and Donnie’s room respectively. I figured it would be nice to have a picture that all four brothers own, even if it’s bittersweet given later context. This was taken pre-leader Leo, so whilst Raph isn’t having the best time (the poor guy :( ), this was probably the best the other’s lives were for ages.

Okay, now we’re getting into stupidly small details. In the Top Of My School animatic, Mikey is drawing a picture of ice cream kitty during the second lyric “Some people never learnt how to be driven, some people don’t even try”. Other small details in this animatic include Leo’s trophies and blue ribbon which he scavenged from the dump, the Hamato Clan box which was retrieved in episode 1, along with the picture of Leo Mikey drew when he was younger, which (other than the hamato box) all first appeared in a drawing of Ret!Mikey and FA!Mikey spray-painting Ret!Leo’s room and were later mentioned in Chapter 3 of Reticent, “Consequences”. Another small detail is in one of the final scenes of the animatic whilst Leo is staring at himself in a mirror, realising some… not so nice stuff about his self worth, he replicates Splinter’s words and actions from earlier in the animatic.

I think the ice cream kitty detail is smaller but i wanted to keep these last two together (and also I talked about more than one small detail in that section). The first one is Mikey’s little stickers on his nunchucks in Season 2 Part 2!!! Just a little guy :) some are random, some are references to other characters, some are references to other iterations of Mikey (wonder which sticker that one is CHXJHDJF)

Now, this one is STUPID SMALL, to the point I don’t even think you can see it without zooming in on the original via Procreate (might prove myself wrong later though dbsjfbdj idk). During Season 2 Part 1, Casey’s purple detail are him changing his studs to be purple. I later considered changing it to something bigger (although I had NO clue what that would be, his sneakers maybe?) but then I thought about it more and honestly, I think Leo would be kinda peed off with him if he wore anything bigger/more noticeable cause honestly I bet he didn’t even notice the change the entire time Casey had these in-

Basically, the entire point of this post is, I like small details and I might have hints to past or future events in reticent in pieces via those small details, so be on the lookout!!! Thank you Aaron for asking a question, especially this one, it was very fun rambling, and THANK U FOR ALL UR ANALYSISES SO FAR‼️‼️💖💖💖🫶🫶 (I know it’s difficult to do them since ur co-creator so like u have to try avoid spoilers but I appreciate them all the same :D)

[hansel-and-gretel]

''Am I Wishing I Could Be Like You?"

I write anything during ELA class... Anyway, this is kinda a song fic. So I recommend listening to ''Brutus'' by The Buttress since I made this to that. Another 2012 Dot fic! She's so fun to write. This was not proofread, and contains mentions of violence if you're uncomfortable with that. Hope you enjoy!

Dot feels left out. She knows she can’t fight as good as the turtles, nor that she being trained like April, and that she isn’t naturally skilled like Casey. However, she has proved time and time again that she can fight if needed, sure it’s nice to have people protect you in combat…but it when they start to treat you like you’re an incapable baby that it makes you mad. She hates it.

For the past week she’s been watching the turtles train, she focuses on Donnie, and not just because of her crush. She watches him fight closely, taking time and cautions to steal a spare Bo Staff to train alone.

In a hidden clearing somewhere in New York alleyways, Dot keeps her eyes closed as she copies the movements she watched for so long. When she gets confident enough, she seeks out the purple dragons, stalking them until they decide to rob a small and empty store. She puts on her mask to avoid being identified by cameras, and strikes. She doesn’t think they saw her before she knocked them out, for all they know it was Donnie who got them. She made sure nothing was broken, put the stuff back and tied the thugs up before leaving; getting on the roof of the opposite building she called to report the robbery.

Over the next month, Dot would spend her time watching the turtles, stealing a spare of their respective weapons and copying the moves alone to use on random insignificant criminals. Until she felt ready.

When the turtles had their next patrol, she had asked to go, and once again was told it was too dangerous by Leonardo, and insulted for her ‘’lack’’ of strength and skill by Raphael. She didn’t care, not at the moment, she had something to prove, and by her father she was going do it.

She followed from the ground since she couldn’t jump rooftops. They were having a normal patrol, but they somehow failed to notice the mugging taking place on an old lady by the purple dragons. She couldn’t be loud if she wanted to execute her plan. Pulling the small sized staff from her sleeve she attacked the gang, easily saving the old lady, who had already run off. Quickly, before the turtle’s got to far away, she spray painted a message on the brick, knocked over a trash can in the alley and ran.

Leo was the first the hear it and direct his brothers to it. All of them were beyond shocked at the sight of the already knocked out gang. Even more so at the message on the wall. 

‘’I don’t want what you have, I WANNA BE YOU.’’

She went home after that, going to sleep and acting normal the next day when she went to the lair. April, Casey, the turtles, hell even Ice Cream Kitty was thinking about and confused by the message. The turtles wouldn’t tell Dot anything, so she got their thoughts through April, even if Dot hated her guts. She liked that she was able to confuse so many, that she could prove to herself she could lie and pretend as good as she thought. She needed more.

She goes out the next the night and stops more criminals, writing another message. This time, since the turtles were still at home with no plans to leave she sent them a text.  ‘’Hey, you guys might want to see this.’’  She sent them her location and waited for them. When they showed up, Donnie was told to take her home. Leaving her out when she found it when you never would’ve? How rude. Dot said bye to Donnie; she looked down at her phone which held a photo of the message she made and sighed.

‘’My actions are not motivated only by my envy.’’

Dot loved the confusion she was making. She felt powerful, and she may have loved that more. She would watch the turtles as if they were a show if it meant she could know everything they won’t tell her. She only wants to know, to learn and copy. She wants to be him.

Dot sat in her room contemplating if she should reveal that she is the one behind the massages, and how that might affect the friendship. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, she was stopping crime just like them, she was fighting like they said she couldn’t. She continued to think,  In the end, she decided if they want to know who made the messages, they’ll just have to figure it out themselves.

[sathyaled]

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