#a heal fic

[styxwanderer]

Fateful Encounter |

〖Twisted wonderland〗

[you are an exiled knight of king Hendrik, thrown away by your master as you had disagreed with his method of draining the mines out of magestones belonging to the fae]

TW: torture, implied sexual harrasment [by the human scums of course]

•❅──✧❅✦❅✧───❅•𓆩⟡𓆪•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

"OUCHHH that fucking hurts!"

you had no recollection of what had happened, but you suspect it was king Hendrik dirty play that had you beaten you unconciouss to wake up in a grass covered path surrounded by trees in the dead night. The Dawn knight had warned you about this. the last word you could hear was" if you are so adamant to defend those bandits then you should just go live with them." after years serving as the left hand for that ungrateful tyrannical king this is your payment?

" That jerk! Urgh...Where am i?"

you were in distress, a lady in distress, though that is broken as you decide that it is better if you had looked around and search for help than wailing in self-pity.

Not long you had seen a source of light from a distance. you decided to get closer, Afterall, it is better to die by the sword rather than starvation.

As you went closer and closer you begun to notice a hissing between the trees. You grown aware of your surroundings as you search around.

" HUMAN! state your purpose! How dare you try to sneak into our camp in the dead of the Night!! WAIT! IT"S YOU!! the left hand of that Bastard King! I shall have you dead!"

You raised both your arms up. " Bastard king, I kinda agree with that a tyrant too, well i don't mind, but first let me have some food first, won't you be so kind to give me a last meal?"

" HOW DARE YOU DEMAND FOR A MEAL! YOU---"

" hold on a second, Baur. Look at her clothes. and she is injured"

You had now became aware, you had been stripped out of your armour left with the thin materials used inside of the armour, it too had been ripped from the branches. The logo of king Hendrik kingdom too had been forcefully ripped out of your body cloth leaving a hole on your left arm. You body blotched with black and purple spots you dont doubt you lips were splited and a smear of blood is apparent below your nose. with a topping of a left black eye of course.

" Oh aren't you the general of the right?"

"ugh.. enough with the name, you are king Hendrik famous dog aren't you, state your business.. on second look... heh.. the owner had gotten tired of his dog? what happened did you bark at your master? or did you bite your master?" the general with red stripped hair taunt you.

" Haah.. I wished I had mauled him to the death, then at least he can stop his grabby hand to take whatever he wanted like a spoiled baby."

" hmm.. no that would be a real inconvenient. afterall, we fae had a fair share of grudge toward your stupid king, Human or should i say Dog."

" Okay deal.. so when can i have my meal?"

" HOW DARE YOU ASK LILIA VANROUGE FOR A MEAL?! YOU INSOLENT FOOL!"

" a meal?!?"

" Aa.. well, I rather die with food rather than dying without a last meal, so before you kill me the previous left hand dog of king Hendrik would you be so kind to give me one last meal?"

"YOU!!! ---"

" hahahaha.. you are an intresting one. alright I will grant you, your wish, afterall, I have just finished making the food come come."

"But Lilia, they are a human..."

"don't worry, its their last meal afterall. khufufufu."

"eurgh! HUMAN, WHERE IS YOUR GRATITUTE, GENERAL LILIA HAD GRACEFULLY PREPARE A MEAL FOR YOU!"

" I give thee my deepest gratitude for your never-ending kindness." you performed a half bow with your right hand towards your chest.

You are guided toward the camp as Baur the green-haired guy kept an eye on you, feeling very suspicious of your presence. Meanwhile, Lilia was leading the group.

once you are inside of his camp several soldiers are to rise and hiss at you only to be informed than you are Lilia's esteemed guest making them shocked as they continue to stare at you and your tattered uniform.

you are seated in a big log as Baur sat neck to you armed cross, frowning. You have to say that this guy is quite attractive even when he frowned. You look around the camp to find that the camp is previously owned by the silver fox.

Your attention is diverted as Lilia placed a strange green? brown? goop into a wooden plate and handed towards you.

"Here you go! eat up before I can slice you up!"

" ..... What is this?"

" HOW DARE YOU QUESTIONED SUCH THING! THIS IS LILIA SPECIALITY SOLDIER SOUP!"

" it is filled with nutrition if you must asked. its a tradition for a fae." Lilia smirked

you took a sniff at your bowl reeking of whatever foul thing on the planet, you then take a bite deciding not to be rude to the host and also it is you whom had demanded for food, you need to eat it despite it's appearance, it might be good regarding of its look just like a few dish that you had tried before.

Your mind turned blank as you froze. Once the food had enter your mouth you could feel your gag reflex acting up. Not wanting to spit it out you hold your mouth shut. You could feel your skin turning into a shade of green. your check. you forced yourself to swallow like a good girl you are.

" What is in there?!"

" hmm.. well we have lizard tail and foot, a cow's liver.."

" BLerghhhhhhhh....urp.." you try not to let the spoonful of the goop rise up your throat.

" DO YOU DARE TO OFFEND GENERAL LILIA'S COOKING??!"

You stare at this green haired guy dead in the eye, you had lost your fear for your live. " Is this seriously your traditional food? did you eat this everyday?"

" Quite human! this is very healthy! it is too very convenient!"

" That is true you know, I don't have time to do whatever gourme chef do, this is just enough to feed my troops."

" As beautifulas you faes are you are quite horrible with foods, ah how terrible, I feel so bad for your troops."

" HOW DARE YOU OFFEND GENERAL LILIA!! RAISE YOUR SWORD HUMAN!"

" If you rather die in hunger then be my guess." the general spoke.

" Haaa..." You placed the bowl on top of the log as you look around for wa mound judging by the state of the camp, the previous troop had rushed off in a hurry, there is bound to have unlooted item or burried goods around, afterall most of hendrik's troops are insufferably and idioticly selfish like their master.

"AH there it is.." You walked towards the mould as you started to dig.

" WHAT ARE YOU DOING HUMAN!!"

" Baur Let them be.."

you pulled out a big chunk of pork meat from the ground.

" ....Lilia... i didn't know meat can grow from the ground like that.. Did you human invent whatever this is?!"

" I had no recollection in history of whatever this is. it must be a new invention?"

" HAH! i wished it is, some greasy soldier just decided that they want a whole meat for themselves and hid it here. nothing special at all."

" HAH! AS EXPECTED OF YOU HUMANS! ALWAYS SO GREEDY! EVEN TO YOUR KIND, HAVE THEY NO SHAME?!"

General lilia just sighed. You walked to plants you found around as you picked few leaves and search for salt and pepper around the pouch, since there is bound to be. You started to prepare a skewered pork. Baur who was planning to interfere was stopped by Lilia as he let you do whatever you want.

" All done.." the smell of roasted meat filled the whole camp making the troop's mouth watered.

" Nutricious, convenient, and delicious! Won't you have a try." you picked a stick for yourself and one you handed in the direction of both Baur and Lilia.

" WHO WOULD WANT YOUR FOOD?! for all I know you might've put poison in it."

" Bruh.. I literally cooked right in front of you."

" Hmmm.. Then don't mind if I do.. if I found you to have put strange things into this meal I will have you chopped. we fae have sensitive tongue especially"

" geez you saw me eating this grilled meat too.. I didn't put anything alright! it would be a crime for the food itslef to have been used as a killing method. also do you really have?"

" huh?! what is that supposed to mean?"

" ah no it's just that you have been eating that good for the longest time, so i assumed your tastebuds are dead.... or something."

" Huh?! how brazen of you! it is not that bad." Lilia took the stick form your hand as he tried it.

His tongue instantly boomed with flavour, he stayed quit not wanting to admit that your food had exceeded his food and his expectation.

" not bad.."

" Is it really?"

" I had enough for your whole troops, I don't eat that much, so please have it. That greedy bastard had actually managed to hide that big chunk of meat.. i even have left over" you offered.

" Whoa.. how kind of you." Lilia said as he called on his troop who had been staring at the group for quite some time now, mouth watering.

" Baur you too have some, we will have quite a long journey after all."

" ABSOLUTELY NOT! I rather die than have a food made by humans. I am not hungry at all any way!" He huffed arms still crossing around his large chest.

Suddenly a loud roar boomed. A loud roar from the belly of the green haired soldier

Silence ensue as a hue of pink started to appear on his cheek.

" PFFFTTT... "

You cannot hold your laughter any longer as you laugh out loud. Lilia follows.

" you are hungry right?, have some come one."

" No way!"

You then have a good idea, " Fine! then i can have your portion!!! thank you for the extra food!"

" YOU.. YOU GREEDY LITTLE DOG! fine i will have it! MOVE!"

You laugh as you shoved the skewered pork to his mouth rendering him speechless and you laughing,

" Whose the dog now" you mischievously taunt.

The meat is ripped forcefully from his mouth as he chewed aggressively, " Just watch your back human! I will tear you to death!" he screamed still mouthful as you just chuckled.

" You are quite an interesting human, it's been so long since I had this much fun, rather than have you die, why don't you become our personal cook from no on? he chuckled.

" HUH me?"

" ABSOLUTELY NOT! Lilia!! but she is a human! What if she is sent as a spy for our troops?"

" Then I assign you to keep a close eye on her, simple."

" BUt --- eugh.. Yes, General Lilia."

and from then on your life from a left hand dog of the king had shift and roll and become the personal chef of General Lilia troop, the bane of King Hendrik troops. you had quite enjoyed your new role to be honest, the days are spent with teasing the stiff green haired guy. You had gotten quite close to him as he grew less weary of you overtime. even when he speak so harshly you had realized that Baur had actually cared for you and his troop. especially after that incident.

"OUCHH!" you had managed to trip yourself over a poking branch spraining your ankle.

" Y/N! What happened?!"

" ah it's just i didn't see that branch peeking out.."

" HUMAN! how pathetic a previous knight could go?! tripping over a measly branch?! "

" Hey its covered with leaves I cannot see them."

" HA.. What am I to do with you come!." He crouched down in front of you positioning himself. you are frozen shocked of course.

" HUMAN DONT MAKE ME WAIT!"

" o.. alright..." you are being carried by Baur in piggyback as he lead you back to camp earning a snicker from Lillia of course.

ever since then you had tried your best to show your gratitude towards him by giving him more meat or more food on his portion, when he commented that you are wasting the troops food on him you pushed through convincing him that he needed to have more food fae to reasons that is never disclose of course, a pride of a woman wont ever reveals her secrets Afterall.

You are unaware of the shade of pink that decorated the crocodile man's face. At the end of the day, He too got his own secrets to keep.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

On a normal evening you had found Lilia struggling to apply the wound on his back from the previous clash with the iron clad. You decided to step in.

" Lilia I am coming in." you said as you enter the camp.

"H-hey, What is the meaning of this? i never agreed for you to enter. have you been stalking me?" his top is still on the side and he struggles with the bandage.

" Hahaha what if I am? anyway, please let me address those wounds."

" Haah? as if I need help from a ---"

"Hey I told you I don't need help!" the head strong stubborn fae huffed.

But of course, you hadn't listened taking the bandage out of his hand you grabbed an ointment, smearing it onto his back before wrapping the wound with the bandage.

"All down." he then turned towards you as he pushed you back towards the wooden cart, your escape route blocked. both hands placed on the both side of your face in a kabedon manner. is this how you die? well at least you died in an honorable way.

" How brazen of you? do you know what i can do to you? a man without his shirt to a defenseless little girl."

" huh.. beat me? either way you need to address that wound properly or it will get horribly infected Also i am not a defenseless little girl i got teeth to bite don't i?" you Feigh ignorance.

"Haa.. sometimes I wonder how you managed to reach this age, you got 0 survival skills."

" Hahaha luck I guess?" you shrugged.

Lilia chuckled as he let you go. He was a bat fae, he was always the babysitter, the one taking care of, so it surprised him so when you had taken care of him in return. He then turned around to leave you.

" From now on, I will come to you if I had any other wound, so you better be ready at all time, human." he looked back at you smirking before he left the camp. a tint of red are shading his tipped ears.

" Yes sireee."

You had become Lilia's personal medic, though to his annoyance sometimes you had also assisted other fae in his troop and Baur. making him all annoyed, " her hands should only touch my bare body." Unaware of his feelings.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

The winter is coming, the lake had started to froze. Your tattered fabric uniform had little help to keep you from the cold, but of course, you do not dare to tell a single soul. what would be of you if you had complained you were too cold. All the soldier's clothes are too big on you anyway and you do not want to burden your companion with your unnecessary complains, they got pesky people to remove from harvesting the mountain dry afterall. So you push trough.

Until in the dead end of winter you had woken up shivering as your body shake and teeth clatter. The fire was flickering from the wind and do little to keep you warm, You decided to just take a run to warm yourself up. Before you can properly stand up a large hand had gripped your arm.

" Where do you think you are going y/n" his deep morning voice rang through, thankfully not as loud as his normal voice is.

" Oh me,,, I am going for a run.."

" Hoo... so you are running away?"

" NO.. I was just... warming myself up."

" Is that so.." Baur sit up and pull you back to the ground making you sit still, he pulled and extra uniform as he throws it at you.

" wear that before i changed my mind."

" OHH really?! Thank you so much!" you quickly wear the large piece of garments.

" then I will be going back to sleep." you got back to lay down.

" alright." he scoot over next to your horizontal body.

" uhm..."

" i figured a close body contact would make the hat to circulate around, it would make the both of us warmer, Dont think of futile stuff human! This is just a soldier conduct to take care of each other!."

" Yes and warm each other hohoho."

Unbeknowst to you two, Lilia who had slept in front of you both had been awakened by the shuffling as he saw the scene in front of him. Chucking to himself at the turn of event. Of course, he was going to stalk you if had went on that run and maybe force you down on the ground as he demanded your purpose on running away, but Baur had managed to caught you before he do. He felt upset but at the same time relief because you are now stuck between his fingers unable to leave him or his troop.

" ah to leave me out! such a sad guy I am. I too am very cold." he decided to break.

" Lilia you could join too.." you chuckled

"well don't mind if i do."

Baur huffed as he lay next to you, arm wrapped around your smaller body as you curled into his embrace, with Lilia on your other side spooning you, you are thanking God because not only could you sleep warmly at night you too got to be in the embrace of the hot crocodile man and the bat fae.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

It was a normal day, as you enjoyed your taunts and conversation with your fellow troops, you had been accepted by the troops as their personal chefs, sometimes they even made a request of course not within the ears of Baur since he will give them an earful for being fussy and troubling you though he would never admit. You too had exchange your skill to Lilia and Baur, exchanging tactics with Lilia as you teach them the human way and them the Fae way.

The both of them had found out why you had been exiled to the wilderness, they felt enrage as to what they had done to their dog whomst had just choose to speak their opinion, even in Briar Valley, their princess is not as henious as to not let her subordinate speak their different opinion.

Both are enraged of the previous living conditions. You had been born by a prostitute and were taken to be raised as a soldier, you had managed to rise up to the king's left hand with your own strength and determination and hence your treatment is worse than that of a dog especially with the king himself treating you like his dog. You had told them that sometimes you were summoned to his chambers at night despite having a wife, though you had managed to escape or gain assistance with the kind golden haired man as he covered for you.

That story had enraged the faes, how dare those people had regarded you so lowly despite your achievements, it is simply digusting. How dare those people who are far than worthy of your presence with and a power far lesser than yours decide to grope you and mistreat you. You are a knight, always second to the Knight of dawn, Although you explained that the Knight and his father had been the only person to show kindness towards you no matter the origin of your birth. You had thought of leaving, but they had given you comfortable place to sleep and food, there is fate much worse you thought. The whole conversation had made you wonder of how the knight of dawn is doing with his duty, you hoped your brother well.

Both, Lilia and Baur, had shared a deepen felling towards you, a determined brave girl. You had managed to snuggle yourself comfortable in their hearts. So you have to worry no longer for mistreatment, The fae had deemed themselves your new owner and will treat you accordingly, such a good dog is meant to be showered in praise and gold, not thrown with a rock. Such a rare find you are, an interesting human girl, a gem. The king had let his most precious gem slipped out of his pocket and faes are quite attracted to shiny objects, the king wouldn't mind you them stealing this one will he? Afterall, he had stolen many of their magestones.

Baur surprised you with his patching skill as he sews the holes of your uniform and made them more presentable, he had done that once he found you removing the extra clothe the given you in the morning. When he enquired why you had told him that the clothe are too big and it would hinder your movement. He agreed with your point, but he would not let you dress in tattered uniform for the rest of the journey, so he had you hand over your uniform and changed into his oversized one while he patch your onesie uniformed up. He insisted you keep the cloth of course in case you had felt cold.

Lilia had sometimes assisted you with cooking as well, although it had ended with you pushing him away from the pot so as to not let him put any wierd ingredients into the pot. though you had enjoyed your time cooking as he told you tales of his adventure and his childhood. In return you told him of your past, and goals in life, you had list of stuff you wanted to try such as walking in a garden full of flowers and not those who are filled made from metal. You had shared your distaste with Lilia over their destructive inventions.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

"IRON CLADS!!"

You had gone through your chores and food prep before you heard a shrill of high-pitched hiss. A fae soldier had shouted warning the camp over an incoming siege. you hurriedly abandoned your station picking up a spear given to you to defend yourself. you looked around to see Lilia and Baur now already on their mask as they ordered the troops around as they fought Hendrik's man. In a distance you could see one of the ironclads sneaking up on the crocodile masked guy, preparing to take a blow straight toward the unsuspecting crocodile.

" BAUR! LOOK OUT!" you had shoved Baur's body with yours, pushing him out of the path of danger. only for the danger to be directed to you.

"URGH!" you hurl as you your torso had taken a strong blow, knocking you down as you writhe on the ground.

"Y/N! HOW DARE YOU!" he quickly went after the perpetrator as they ran away, having failed their mission.

"Y/N!" Lilia wanted to check on you but he was preoccupied with his own fights.

More and more iron clads keeps coming by. they are throwing nets to unsuspecting fae or injured ones, You could hear Lilia telling the troop to retreat, Baur trying to get to you but unabled to as you feel a net had wrapped around you as well dragging you closer to the iron clad.

" Y/N!!!" both are trying to get to you defeating the ironclads in his way, but it is for naught as you were pulled towards the troop, they were outnumbered. They watch in desperation as they saw your injured and immobilized body being dragged, helpless to your own fate. and unable to help you, even when you had helped them.

"Hey isn't this the previous left hand knight?! The dog knight?"

" i had thought they died when she ran away from the castle?!"

'Run away? whatt ??' you thought unable to speak.

" she must've sold her body to those fae that must be why she is still alive."

" What a true bitch... must be nice to be able to use her body Hahahaha. We should take this traitorous bitch back of course, we might get a huge sum."

' no...' your consciousness fades as you no matter how you tried to wake up.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

The room was dark and cold, you could feel your hand chained to your back. both your feet and been chained down at the ankle, both with a medium lenght chain connecting to the ground, enabling you to do just a few motion but on the ground nonetheless. You had been put in the castle's dungeon.

" click" the door had opened as you saw both the king and knight of dawn entered. Seeing your frail battered body the knight could only clenched as the king sneered in amusement.

" HO.. so the unfaithful dog had come back to it's owner." He sneered.

Both you and the knight had known that his words are full of bull, you are the one that had been exiled. though you are unable to speak, to tired to even lift a finger.

"ANSWER WHEN YOU ARE SPOKEN TOO!" the king throw a fit as he begun to kick you, stomping on you over and over again, pressing the purple wound on your body.

"Sire.. please, you do need to waste an energy for this one" the knight's eye widened as he tried to find a way to save you from your faith. Ah he is stil as you remembered him to be kind. how kind of you.. brother.

" I would have had away with your body, but unfortunately ofr you, those fae might have left some disease on you, such a shame. Your fair skin are no more, How is it being a toy for those bandits?" he went to grab you by the jaw forcing you to look at him, you are wincing as his grip is crushing your bone.

" But thanks to that, she might have a few information of the fae and their strategy, we should take it out from their mouth, you stil have some use afterall, GUARDS! if i am unable to use your body, then i might as well see it flogged, HAhahahha."

you had been set to be flogged until you had given them any information about the fae. But one thing the king is mistaken about; is that you are a true loyal dog. You would've rather die than to give any information to the king. Their kind had shown you the most kindness and respect towards you than your own. You could see the knight tried to reason with the king to no avail, the stubborn fool is too full of himself afterall.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

It was shameful, to have your uniform thorn at the hands of the knight of dawn in command of the inspecting king. Your scarred back, a memories to your past, were shown to both of them as they begun to carve one after the other,

' Just like old times, you tried to remind yourself. You had been an orphan and a homeless, flogged daily to feed those who share the same fate as you and for yourself. Your skill had been recognized by the father of the knight of dawn, whom had trained you along with his son, Your bond is thicker than those of aristocrat siblings, having been adopted by his father you are technically his sister and he your brother. He was always concerned about you and disapproved the discrimination against you for your origins. He tried his best to dispel these acts but what can one person do? He cannot change other people mind as long as the king himself had treated you as if you are a prostitute, He was furious on his own incompetent, what kind of brother is he, unable to save you from such fate.

He was heartbroken when the new of your disappearance spread, leading to him found out about what the king had done. It sickens him that he had to serve a dirty king such as he, but it hurts his heart more to see you trying to hold in your wailings as you slowly break.

Your eyes had grown to those of a lifeless corpse as you bite your tongue bloody as to not give the satisfaction to the Idiot king.

"Hurry and tell me what they are planning their strategies!" The king who had grown impatient stomp over to your side pulling you by your hair.

You spit a mix of your blood and saliva on to his face, eyebrows furrowed. You would rather die than to sell out your friends like that.

" You bitch ! have it your way! guard bring in the iron rod!"

Your torture was far from over, the night is going to be long for you and your brother who are forced to watch as he watches your face contorted, screeching in pain from the hot iron burning your flesh.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

"Urkk!."

" please my dear y/n, please drink this, it is a healing remedies."

You had lost consciousness as the third iron pressed against your skin burrning your flesh away. you felt a liquid vial being pressed towards your mouth. You frail awake as you tried to get away from the perpetrator like a scared dog.

" Shhh.. Shhh.. it's me.. your brother... please.. i will never harm you."

He went to hug your bruised body, careful with your injuries. Your body laxed as you limped into his hug. you could feel his body trembling as drips of tear fall unto your bare shoulder.

" I am sorry... I am so sorry, dear sister..." he cried. you wished you could pat him on his back but your hands are chained and you are too tired.

" brother.. Please,.... it is not your fault..." you tried to croak out words after word, as to deliver your message.

" I am unable to protect you, it is a duty as your brother, and i have failed... i am sorry.."

He had brought you warm food and the vial of healing potion and had placed your head into his lap as he smeared an ointment to your bruised. Patting your head in reassurance. The two of you conversed just like old time, catching up, afterall it had been months since you last seen your brother. it was nice

" it is time for me to go, dear sister, i was requested to accompany Lady rose this afternoon." he gently lift your head and placed them down on the ground.

With one last look , his heart clenched once more seeing your worn out and battered body. " I will see you tommorow same time. please stay strong sister."

and you are once more alone in the cell.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Days turns to week, and week turned to two, as everything had been a blur to you since you had fade in and out of your consciousness, King Hendrik is relentless, no matter how much your brother had begged, he would come to see you with your brother of the torture he had command his guards to do to you. but no matter how many time he flogged you, how many minutes you are under the water, no matter the beatings that came after and how many hot metal rod being pressed onto your flesh, you had refused to relay any information to the Spoiled king.

Your brother had begged you at, some points,to just let him know whatever he wants to know, but you ignored him, much to his concern and headaches.

You had grown to wish for your death as you refused the vial your brother gives you, begging for him to just let you be, he would have none of your nonsensical blabber of course forcing the vial down your throat. But over time he too had started to think if what he is doing is for himself or yours, beating himself for not being able to help you at all.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

"My king!"

In the dead evening during one of your torture time, a soldier came barging in and whispered something to the king.

" WHAT?!! Knight you come with me! And you continue to pry information out of her, if she still had refused by dawn, cut of her tongue and present her severed head to me, a dog's head might work as a decoration." much to your brother's distressed as he stares as you with concern filling his eyes as to communicate with you before leaving, begrudgingly to follow the king.

You tried to listen to your surrounding to figured out what is happening, but all for naught as all is drowned by your screaming voice. The guards had continued to mercilessly torture your body with the metal iron, sometimes deciding to beat your body with the hot piping iron instead of just pressing it onto your exposed skin.

Is this how you will die? you haven't finished your goal yet, you haven't told Lilia how you love his kindness and that you are grateful of the day he had allowed you to join his camp, You haven't told Baur on how much you loved his passion for justice and reciprocate his kindness towards you, As bad as it sounds both of the fae had found a place in your heart as well, but it is bound to never make its way to the light of day as you were about to die. The thought had riddled your thought throughout your torture, tear stinging your eyes both from the pain and your thoughts. You could see the dusk revel into dawn, as the sun slowly raised up from its hiding place.

you had surrendered yourself to death and had chosen to die in an honorable way. If they are going to kill me then i would rather go down with my pride rather than begged for my life.

"Heh, would you look at the time, such as sad time for you, it's time to get that fiesty tongue of yours chopped of hahaha." he taunts as he grabbed a tonsil to pry your tongue from the cave of your mouth, it hurts.

he raised his knife up high as to chop your tongue.

Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts..

You brace for the impact as you clenched your eyes shut..

But it never came..

"Y/N!!"

you saw a flash of green as you felt the knife dropped as the head of the guards too roll on the ground letting you tongue go from the tonsil. Confussing you, eyes wideded, you tried to move your head but you are unable to as you are too tired so you fall immobilized to the ground.

You felt a hand reach under your head gently lifting you up and turning you around to face him. His normally stern eyes grew teary as he cradles you in him arm placing his head to your shoulder.

"Lilia..?"

" They will pay for what they did. I will make sure of it. They will pay a hundredth times over!" His hand now cupped your face gently, snapped his watery eyes turn deadly as he furrowed his eyebrows. his expression riddled with anger as he turned to slashed the chains bounding your hands and feet using his magearm before he princess carry your bruised and weak body in his arms, resting your had to his shoulder. The smell of a burning fleash assulting his nostrils

" STOP RIGHT THER--" the poor guards were chopped into pieces by the merciless fae and his last bit of patience towards humanity has left his own soul.

The fate was shared to many other soldier standing on his way until you had felt the breeze of the dawn, finally out of your confinement after many days. You took a deep breath.

Baur upon seeing the two of you rushed towards Lilia and upon closer inspection he saw the extent of your injuries. the boisterous man had left speechless and in shock as he too become riddled with rage.

"How.. dare them.. HOw dare theyyy!!! this kingdom is out to be blown to dust! this is Unforgivable!"

He gently went over you as to inspect, Lilia handing you towards Baur. grunting as your tattered back is moved around.

" It's time for us to go home now." Lilia who had caress your cheek once more turned to grab his large magearm and readied himself to plunge to bawttle once more, making way for hima dn his troop to go as he had claimed back his prize, his gem.

The king having heard of the news forced more guards to secure around the castle to prevent you from escaping. Your brother wished you a safe journey as he thanked the fae silently in hid breathe, feeling tears of relief starting to water his eyes behind this mask.

Baur tried as gently as he could not to cause further harm as he cradled you, tears were threatening to spill from his teary eyes. But he shall do that later once you are safe and secured, now he needs to focus on bringing you to a safe place and maintainning you alive.

The blood lost had made you drowsy as you surrender yourself to the Crocodile fae's embrace.

" c'mon y/n Hold on a bit longer, we are near.."

" Pleasee.. don't sleep now. DONT YOU DARE FALL ASLEEP HUMAN!!"

His tears are flowing freely as he fastened his pace towards the camp before your weak body had grown still. He is now filled with rage and concern so does lilia as they make haste towards the camp to give you emergency medic care, They had given you emergency first aid, but they could only work as much as they could.

Your eyes are growing heavy and heavier.

" Lilia! we must make haste!!" he raced through the forest faster than he had ever ran, The Other fae had also catch up.

"Y/N STAY AWAKW! AS YOUR COMMANDER I COMMAND YOU TO STAY AWAKE!"

" y/n.."

"Y/NN!!!"

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

The birds are chirping loudly as the drip of the waterfall is loud and clear.

A ray of light assaulting your eyes as you pried them open. On your right you had seen the tired bat fae sleeping soundfully beside you, and to your right the green-haired crocodile man fusing and sorting out ingredients, You had seen the blood-soaked towel in the watter filled bowl beside you. You saw your body had been covered by bandages as you are wearing an unfamiliar clothes. you shuffled around.

The green-haired man was alerted as he rushed to your side abandoning his previous job.

"Y/N!!! Lilia!! Y/n had woken up!!."

"y/n.. Y/N!." Lilia was startled awake.

you tried to sit down but their hands had swiftly prop you back down. Baur handing a glass of water to Lilia as he feed you gently.

feeling no longer parched you spoke.

"How long have i been asleep?"

" around a week."

" A week?! no wonder i was so thirsty you licked your lips."

Lilia sigh " Do you know how worried i am? must you come tattered everytime i meet you? and whats with your nonchalant attitude?"

" DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH LILIA AND I ARE CONCERNED ABOUT YOU! WE LOOK AFTER YOU DAY AND NIGHT AND YET... and yet you wouldn't wake up..." The green haired guy seems to abandoned his strict personality as his eyes watered, Cradling you into his embrace once more.

" We thought we had lost you..." he cried.

" im sorry." you placed your hands as you rubbed his back, Lilia too joined the hug, He might seem calm and uncaring but with how much grip he had on you, you thought otherwise.

" Geez how troublesome this pet is, i should get you a collar so you don't jump into danger on the first sight of it."

" MIGHT BE FOR THE BEST."

"ahahaha.. i'm sorry." you to had felt tears falling from your eyes as you clung to them. Of course you do not know how serious Lilia is with his previous comment. You had missed this. You thank whatever diety is there that had allow your fate to rekindle with your friend, Enabing you to experience this once more.

" I am home."

" welcome home"

"Welcome home.."

[6885 words]

<< The End >>

[ i made this because bruv the hotness and handsomeness of Sebek's grandpapa and lilia younger days are freaking blinding me and playing with my heaed!! EVEN TO MY FUCKING DREAMSS HAA?! also this is also for those who had the same resentment towards their shitty boss or those who had mistreated you, Let General lilia and Baur zigvolt nurse you back and be the cure towards that rage and depression. hope you enjoy this one, darlings!]

( :̲̅:̲̅:[̲̅:𓆩♡𓆪:]̲̅:̲̅:̲̅:̲̅)

[ Here a bandage just for you]

[gutsby]

Watch Your Mouth

Pairing: Joel Miller x Reader

Summary: Joel teaches you to keep quiet during sex.

Warnings: 18+. Unprotected p-in-v. Silence kink. Size kink. Breeding kink. Age gap. Joel is a lot more experienced (!) Finger sucking. Orgasm denial. Soft dom!Joel x10000.

Word count: 1.9k

Maybe a hand was too much.

A kiss to stifle your cries, a tongue between your lips to steal any trace of a whimper before it could ever leave. Joel knew by the way your wet, pliant hole stretched wider and wider for him with each thrust that you’d eventually quiet down—but he needed silence now.

And he’d get it when he clamped his palm over your mouth. At first, your brows lifted with surprise, then pinched inward like you didn’t understand, then twitched again, involuntarily, when the head of his cock cleared a path straight toward your cervix. You whimpered into his hand and made a point to dig your heels even deeper in his back. Joel had promised he’d be better about that.

“‘M’sorry,” he mumbled.

Another stab. Another whimper, only louder this time.

“Sorry, baby, I’m—” Joel stopped to fight back a groan of his own, before pressing his palm down with even more force, “—sorry, jus’ need ya real quiet right now, okay?”

You tried to nod, but the weight and stricture of his grip were as heavy as lead against your face. Add to that the soft, sawing motions of his cock going in and out of your cunt and the nudge of his oversized tip at your cervix, and it was all you could do to just lay there and take it. Joel knew this was brand new to you—he’d been your first not too long ago and the only partner since—so he eased back and lifted his hand when you gave it a tug.

Grey stubble was already licking at the corners of your mouth with Joel’s minuscule kisses of reassurance when you giggled and squeezed him tighter between your legs:

“I’m tryin’, Joel. Really, I am,” you whispered.

“I know, sweet pea,” he whispered back, “I know.”

He took the palm he’d used to stifle your moans and smoothed it over your cheek, coming to rest at one side so he could kiss you fully. Maybe a hand was too much.

He’d inculcate restraint some other way, and if it didn’t come easy, a few more fucks on the forest floor like this one would probably do the trick. Your mouth opened up for his tongue just like your cunt would open up for more of his cum and the rest of your body would surely follow suit, learning to control the noises of pleasure as needed.

“Good girl,” Joel murmured against your lips, feeling you clench around him and expel a breath rather than whine. He withdrew himself to the tip, then plunged back in, “Such a good, perfect girl for me, ain’t ya, sweetheart?”

At length, you yelped into his mouth. You couldn’t help it. Rather than reprimand you with words or smother your lips with his palm, though, Joel kept fucking you gently.

“‘S’okay, pretty girl, it’s okay. I know that feels good.”

His mouth was next to your ear now, praises audible to no one else but you. It added a whole new dimension to your pleasure; Joel could tell from the way your walls constricted around him and choked him, sucked him in. The feeling nearly elicited a groan from his chest, but of course, he had all the resolve of a seasoned professional. Decades and decades of practice had done that for him.

“Joel,” you mewled.

Your face was screwed up in a grimace, eyes likely to be brimming with tears any second now. Joel slowed his pace once more, felt a pang of guilt for how big he felt inside you—how those decades and decades of practice set you drastically apart from each other in experience—and this time, he didn’t try to muffle your whines. He just stroked the top of your cheek with one thumb, and with the other, snaked a path between your body and his.

Admittedly, Joel was still learning about yours. He wasn’t sure if the whimpers you’d made were born wholly of pleasure or just a sense of being stretched out and filled. Because you yourself were still learning to be vocal, Joel figured he’d give the latter a stab. He started thumbing your clit in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure.

It worked, and it didn’t.

Your walls parted easily beneath the quiet ministrations of his thumb, opening yourself more to Joel’s thrusts, but they also tore a scream out of your throat—the kind that was liable to stir the leaves on every tree and alert any clicker within a two-mile radius to your presence.

The kind of outcome Joel had been trying to prevent when he’d brought you on patrol with him in the first place. The kind of sound he was trying to fuck out of your body completely; teach you to keep quiet and still for when the two of you inevitably got bored during perimeter watch and rolled the sleeping bag out to fuck.

Joel tensed above you and cast a quick look around. Sure, he’d picked a decently safe spot, but then you—

“Joel, I—”

Without thinking, the man stopped and stuck the first thing he could possibly fit in your mouth: his thumb. Whatever you’d been trying to say to him was promptly lost in a hum against his knuckle, lips enveloping the thick, callused digit like some tangy-flavored lolly. Joel’s hips sank back into yours, slowly, and he felt the reverberations of another moan spill over his finger.

He swallowed and stared. That shouldn’t have been nearly as sexy as you’d just made it seem, especially when your life and his hung in such a precarious position.

Joel dragged his cock back out and happened to graze a sensitive, spongy ridge inside you, which made you moan again. You hollowed your cheeks and gritted your teeth a bit more against his thumb, gripping Joel’s forearm for support as he continued to fuck you.

And, had you stayed like that a moment longer, you probably would’ve seen a shiny string of drool start to pool and stretch and fall out from one side of his mouth. Instead, Joel switched hands and popped the thumb that had been toying with your clit into your mouth, eyes glazed over with desire as they drank in the sight of you sucking his thumb again. The tip was still soaked with your warmth and slipped easily past your parted lips.

Another sound bubbled up your throat when you got a taste—Joel had always been in the habit of kissing you after eating you out, so you were well-acquainted with the flavor, but never had he fed you your own arousal on his finger. This felt obscene, something more than just pornographic as those deep, brown, lust-addled irises remained glued to where your lips closed around him.

“Y’like that, huh?” he said, voice reduced to a whisper once more while you nipped and suckled at the skin.

You bobbed your head to indicate yes, opened your mouth to tell him softly that you liked it so much—loved the taste and grit of his finger on your tongue, in fact. You wanted to show him you could be vocal, too, when Joel’s frame rose over yours a little more and seemed to blanket it entirely. Like he wanted to shield you, in a way.

“Shhhh, shhh…keep suckin’ like that. Stay still, okay?” Joel murmured, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that this was a test. He was nodding, rutting gently between your legs, wedging his thumb deeper inside the wet, velvety contours of your mouth and waiting for a look from you to say that you understood.

You weren’t sure if you did, but you nodded anyway. Joel’s thumb made a wonderful sort of makeshift gag as he continued to thrust inside of you, his body somehow lowering to get even closer to yours. When he’d gotten sufficiently near, he pressed a kiss to the side of your mouth—now stuffed with his thumb and leaking spit—and muttered something about how good you were for him, how nicely you fit around his cock. Then he tilted his hips and proceeded to pound you into the ground like an animal in heat. The only thing separating your ass from the patch of grass underneath it was a flimsy little blanket, and the only thing tethering you to earth, it seemed, was Joel’s cock. Your ankles locked behind his back, and his nose settled next to yours, breathing hard.

Even if he knew how to suppress his moans, the panting and strangled gasps were far beyond Joel’s control—as were the filthy, perverse words pouring out of his mouth.

“‘S’all mine, ain’t she, hon? Tell me this pussy’s mine.”

“Tell me she’s mine to fuck, stuff full’a cum, right here.”

And he gestured to the spot where your body stopped and his began, squelching noises punctuating each new thrust. Neither one of you minded the sound right now, especially when you knew where this was headed next.

Joel was grinning against your skin before he kissed it.

“She wants a baby, doesn’t she, honey? Wants me to put a baby in her and make that belly swell up pretty?”

You knew just as well as Joel that neither of you wanted children in a world like this—thoughts of breeding only occurred to you both when you were about to cum. Particularly when Joel’s thumb was slipping out of your mouth and his fingers were pinching either side of your face in a single grip, lips moving above yours. Making you meet his gaze as he squeezed your cheeks in a pout.

“You want my babies, baby?” Joel mumbled.

You felt a familiar twitch in his cock. You nodded.

Joel pinched harder and shook his head, unsatisfied.

“Say, ‘I want your babies, Joel.’”

“I want your babies, Joel.”

“Say, ‘I’ll be nice and quiet if you cum inside me.’”

“I’ll be nice and quiet if you cum inside me, please, Joel.”

Your voice was already hoarse from how low you had to whisper, how hard Joel’s broad and hefty stomach was pressing into your own, stealing the breath from your lungs and wreaking havoc on your brain as you struggled for air and imagined a world where your tummy was a little rounder. Plugged up with his cum one day and growing bigger with his child there inside you the next. The thought was dizzying in the abstract, enticing to the slightest degree in reality, and if you had to guess from the expression of the man currently sweating, grunting, and rutting into your body, you’d bet he felt the same.

It really was a shame you had to stay so quiet.

But, whether a clicker was five miles away or standing directly over his shoulder, Joel didn’t seem to care at all. Soft, silent reserve cast aside for the time being and hips slamming a bruising pace against your own, Joel seemed fine to let out sounds to show he was right about to cum. Grunts and whimpers were spilling left and right off his filthy, pretty tongue; his eyes were all but rolling back.

Truly, he couldn’t look more magnificent if he tried.

“Fuck, baby, I’m— I’m so close. Gonna fill you up.”

Featherlight clusters of soft grey hair were now darkened with sweat. They rested comfortably across his forehead. Under them, two thick brows furrowed in concentration.

“Gonna knock you up,” he added through gritted teeth.

That part was not a threat, but a promise.

You felt a tug and a pinch in your own stomach, signaling your oncoming release. You spread your legs wider for Joel, pressed a kiss to his jaw when he leaned in closer, made room for him to spill his load just how he wanted, and when it seemed he was a second from his peak—

A twig snapped nearby.

Both of you froze in place.

[th3e-m4ng0]

[writeouswriter]

My followers: And is this “writing” you’ve been “working on” in the room with us right now?

[loveinhawkins]

Eddie surviving and going to see The Princess Bride when it comes out in 1987—and it’s a tentative thing, still, between him and Steve; they haven’t named it, but their hands still brush in the space between their seats, and really if Eddie were pushed, he’d say that they both know exactly what they’re heading towards, that they’re just floating between the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. That’s fine by him; they have time now, so much of it.

And the movie is charming and funny, but it’s not the romance or adventure that hits Eddie in the chest. It comes on unexpectedly, every time there’s a scene with the man reading to his grandson who’s sick in bed: suddenly Eddie can feel the softness of the bedsheets he had when he was young, when the move to Wayne’s was still raw and difficult, and it’s Wayne who’s reading to him softly, back when stories of things turning out fine were all Eddie had.

“Let’s see… where were we?” the grandfather mutters, and Eddie laughs because he can hear so much of Wayne in it, that gentle, wry humour. “Oh, yes. In the Pit of Despair.”

Eddie laughs again, choked. He’s clawed his way out of that damned pit so many times. His breathing catches at the thought that it’s been over a year since the deepest pit of them all, when Eddie once thought that the walls were far too high to climb.

“Woah, hey,” Steve whispers, “what’s wrong?”

Eddie shakes his head, smiling. “N-nothing.”

Their row is empty, and in the dark Steve reaches out, fingertips gently brushing underneath Eddie’s eye. They come away wet.

And Steve gives a little shushing noise, so that only they can hear, and it’s him who makes the leap, easily turning the page into the new chapter.

To some people Eddie’s first kiss would mean nothing at all—in their eyes, a chaste peck of comfort in a movie theatre would be just a speck in the grand history of the kiss itself. But for Eddie, it leaves them all behind.

“Farm boy,” he murmurs, when the movie’s over, smiling because the great, terrible story is done, and he is here; he is here. “Take me home?”

Steve smiles back, winks out the corner of his eye. “As you wish.”

[zephyrchama]

OM! Angels seem to have similar natural abilities to demons. Even if the source of their power is different, they're still far above humans in terms of innate abilities.

Basically, MC could be frolicking in a field and playing around with Luke outdoors when he approaches with a handmade flower crown. Freshly picked. Luke himself is wearing a prototype crown of the same variety.

Luke innocently places the gift on MC's head. Within minutes the unsuspecting human breaks out in massive itchy hives. They both panic, Luke reacts by flinging the crown out towards a random part of the field and blowing on MC's head to make the hives stop. Turns out those pretty flowers are toxic to most mortal beings! Who knew!

MC can still keep the crown behind glass and admire it. Luke may feel incredibly guilty though. From then on, he refuses to give MC anything new unless it passes Solomon's safety check first.

[myspacebrat]

𝟏𝟖+ 𝐌𝐃𝐍𝐈

Eddie is being driven up the fucking wall and he’s at his wits end. He can’t take it anymore, not when you’re prancing around the apartment with a tiny, see through, white nightie. The material is so thin he can see your nipples and the way they’re peaked, right through the fabric. It’s like you’re doing it to be cruel, although Eddie knows this is your everyday usual sleep attire, he just wishes for the sake of his newly pierced cock that you wouldn’t do all the things that turn him on so fiercely, which is quite literally just you being yourself. He couldn’t help that he thought the mundane shit you did; like the way you slurped up your spaghetti or flipped through the television channels, was so effortlessly sexy. But he’s aching for your touch, so when his good friend/piercer Nate gave him the go ahead to masturbate, he concocted a devious little plan, one that would involve you and him getting off, together.

So that’s how you found yourself laid back on your shared bed, legs spread wide as you plunge your fingers deep inside your creamy cunt, wet squelches reverberate off the walls making Eddie groan as he watches you at the foot of the bed. His hard, leaking cock in his hand; pumping up and down to the image of you pleasuring yourself so beautifully for him. The glint of the jewelry catches your eye, finding Eddie’s big brown orbs before trailing down his tattooed and pierced body, taking in the image of his newest piercing and how you couldn’t wait to see what it felt like buried deep inside your walls, hitting your spot until you eventually squirted all over Eddie and the mattress. That image has you immediately clenching around your fingers and biting your lip as you stave off yet another orgasm, edging yourself to near painful levels.

Eddie immediately gets a better idea and crawls up the bed, now hovering above you as his hair forms a perfect curtain, secluding you both off from everything else around. “Fuck, I need to feel some part of you princess.” He confesses as he begins to glide his lube slick cock over the entirety of your slit. The jewelry rubs against your clit so perfectly, your legs begin to tremble and your back arches off the bed in an almost exorcism like fashion. The way the cold, wet metal rubs over your swollen bundle of nerves; ever so gently, has you closer to the finish line quicker than anything ever has before. Everything is so slippery with perfect friction, making your pale pink polished toes curl as you raise them higher in the air. Trying to open yourself as wide as possible, selfishly taking everything you can as your high hits you like a ton of bricks. Body spasming as your walls clench tightly around nothing and your eyes snap shut, stars dancing across your eyelids. Eddie continues rubbing the underside of his cock over your cunt until he’s shooting spurts of his warm, sticky cum all over your stomach; most of it pooling in your belly button. Eddie eagerly slurps it up, then spits it into your awaiting mouth before his soft, sodden lips find yours as you both swap his cum in a greedy, tongue filled kiss.

Part two

[vampireposter]

meeting wyll at the grove, as someone who the tieflings trust enough to train their children, says so much about him. it's so sad that he doesn't get explored in acts 2-3 as deeply as the other companions, when his problems are equally intense. the average player probably long rests once before coming across the grove, but even if not, in that time wyll has already proven to the tieflings that they can rely on the Blade of Frontiers.

this is the immediate first thing he chooses to do after being condemned to slow death via ceremorphosis. his priority list in the first conversations with tav is: 1) hunt down a dangerous devil, 2) help zevlor with the goblins, 3) once nothing threatens the tieflings he will gladly search for a tadpole cure. wyll is perpetually his own last priority, and i wonder if it has to do with the lore about souls.

if he believes mind flayers' souls have been destroyed, and fiend warlocks will all have their souls sent to the hells after death, then becoming a mind flayer isn't the worst possible way for him to die. he would never become a mindless monster to save his own soul, but he's not gripped by horror the way that some of the other origin characters are. lae'zel has been made revoltingly impure to her people, astarion is terrified of losing the scrap of bodily autonomy he just regained, gale is guilt-ridden over the orb detonation if he dies, shadowheart has to survive to prove herself to her cult leader, and karlach has also just regained bodily autonomy and is desparate to live.

this is just another quest for the Blade, whose persona guards wyll ravengard against the vice of self-concern when he ought to be concerned for those in need.

[pinescent-and-gingerbread]

˖✧ Through my eyes

✦ Pairing: Arthur Morgan x Fem!Reader ✦ Summary: Karen explains Mary and Arthur's story to you. Saddened, you're convinced you could never compete with her until the man in question proves you wrong. ✦ Warnings/Tags: Self-depreciation from both sides, kissing, comfort, fluff. Reader has been with the gang for a year. Use of Y/N. ✦ Words: 2,8k ✦ a/n: This is the answer to this ask by the lovely @crystalofmoon19. I really hope you'll like it, dear! And thank you for your support, you've been really sweet to me and my work! As always, I got carried away and wrote way too much. And as always, please reach out to me if you spot any misspellings. Also idk why I made this in Colter, guess I just feel way too hot rn and want some fresh snow + Arthur's coat is perfect for comfort. Credits. Arthur's pic is from my playthrough. Other pics are not mine found them on Pinterest.

“And in the end, she rejected his proposal, then a few months later, sent him a letter telling she was marrying some wealthier gentleman!”

Your mouth hangs open in the air. Karen’s words enter through your ears and create a nice little nest for themselves in your brain. You had no idea. No idea Arthur had been this close to being married. That their relationship had been so strong, that, according to hearsays, he had reached his lowest after their break up, drunk most part of the day, fighting the rest of the time, obnoxious to everyone, even Dutch and Hosea.

“Y/N? You’re okay, there?” Karen asked you, disappointed her big reveal had left you reactionless.

You focused your gaze back on her. Her blonde hair is softly litten up by the setting sun, her breath exhaling a puff of steam as she breathes. Colter is a cold place, and it probably felt even colder because of the morose mood of the gang. You suddenly remember you’re supposed to be shocked. You are, of course, but in a very bad way. Not in an “Oh my God, I can’t believe this Karen, so much gossip!” kind of way.

How could you ever compete with that?

“Yeah, I’m alright. God, I had no idea so much happened between them.”

“Oh, trust me, it was definitely his biggest love story. Never saw him get into someone else after her. Not even Mary-Beth! Could you believe that?”

No, you couldn’t. You weren’t sure why but every word from Karen felt like an enormous stone falling into your belly and dragging you deeper and deeper into the sea. Your silly little crush on Arthur, when you first joined the gang a year ago, had turned into a way stronger attraction. Denying it at first, you had little by little let your emotions win, cherishing every moment with him, thanking Dutch for assigning both of you to the same missions, loving the quiet evenings where he would just sit next to you around the campfire to scribble in his journal while you would do your little hobby on your own. Silent most, but enjoying each other’s company, and so, so peaceful.

More than your emotions, you even had let your imagination take the lead, dreaming about a selfish future with him, seeing it every time he would give you a smile, or laugh at one of your jokes. A happy Arthur, relieved from his obligations, enjoys life's simplest joys. A house, a garden. Maybe a dog, considering he had loved having Copper. A marriage even. And why not a child? If he would feel ready. Something in you was telling you he would be a good father.

But now, you felt like this dream was rotten, condemned.  Like a broken match. The fire, the very thing it’s designed for,  not being able to be lit. Would never be lit. A wasted potential.

You tried to continue your gossiping chat with Karen, voice light but gaze elusive as you peeled the potatoes you were supposed to prepare while discussing, tedious tasks often ended up less difficult this way when you were working with the other girls. But behind your seemingly normal smile and hollow words, a haunting thought was hanging on to you as strongly as a rock trapped in a thousand-year-old iceberg. 

Arthur never fell in love again after Mary Linton.

Night had definitely fallen on the frozen mountains. After your endless vegetables centered-chores, you had helped Mr. Pearson turning them into a decent meal, his incessant blattering about the Navy giving you some sort of distraction. During dinner and after though, once you didn’t have any goal or job left to do for the day, your conversation with Karen came back into your wandering mind, her speech playing again and again like a used gramophone record.

Never fell in love again...

Sitting at one of the corners of the big cabin you had been sleeping in for the past few days along with the girls and some other gang members which mainly served as a common space, you were looking outside by a dilapidated window. A frozen World spread out before your eyes, every inch of surface covered in snow and ice, the landscape ending up looking like it was coated with a thick strange substance —dark blue colors Queen of this gloomy, misty horizon.

Arthur had returned from a very busy hunting day with Charles. Thanks to them, meat had been added to the vegetable paradise of a meal, resulting in a better-than-usual supper. He should have felt cheerful, but his mood wouldn't lighten. 

He had spotted you from across the room, noticing the hurtful absence of your smile on these sweet lips of yours. Smile he secretly loved. Lips he secretly fancied. 

Hesitating for a long moment, debating with himself, a self-depreciative rambling turning in his head like a well-oiled motor, he had ultimately decided to join you and investigate. Something pretty important must been bothering you, because loosing your usual little grin and eating your plate all by yourself really wasn't in your habits.

Approaching you, his boots and spurs clicking and stomping before you could see him, he plants them in front of you, standing there while his eyes lock on your face.

“Miss Y/L/N? Is everythin’ okay?”

“Oh, Mr Morgan. Yeah, don’t worry. Everything is great.”

He doesn’t believe you and honestly, you wouldn’t have convinced yourself either. And Arthur is a stubborn man. A stubborn, and caring one. He leans against the cabin's old creaky walls, on the other side of the window.

“Come on, don’t lie t’me girl. Everyone noticed you’re not in your right mind.” He honestly doesn’t know about everyone, but he surely did. His words are accompanied by a small, polite smile.

“I don’t think… I don’t think you’re the right person to talk about it.”

Arthur’s entire body froze. The hands he had on his belt as always when he was comfortable, flew to his chest as he crossed his arms, his thick winter coat folding with difficulty. His encouraging smile flattened, his brows pleating in a harsh frown.

“Erm… Alright, I get it. I won’t bother you, I guess.” 

Without loosening his arms, he pushed himself from the wall, taking a step to leave you some space. You couldn’t have missed it. This change of behavior, the hurtful expression he had displayed, as if he was truly pained by your words. Disappointed, maybe even shameful to have thought he could help you at all. He was just a sad, ugly bastard, after all.

You felt like you could hear all of it from where you were, and see it in the shadow that had taken his face and the gigantic mass that seemed to have fallen on his shoulders.

No, you didn’t want this. Didn’t want him to feel like that because of you and your stupid feelings, or your own dark thoughts.

“Wait, Arthur!”

He turned around the second you talked again.

“I’m sorry it’s just…” You sigh and look at him with an uncertain expression, knowing your next words were going to be risky. “It’s about you and Mary Linton…”

His eyes turn into two literal plates, his mouth slightly opening in outer astonishment. This was really not what he had in mind. You could have been sad because of a hundred logical reasons, the death of Davey and the loss of Sean and Mac, the complete fiasco of Blackwater, the hundred of dollars lost, the terrible and tough conditions of the Grizzlies plunging everyone into an unbearable cold and a threatening famine.  Not mentioning Hosea’s alarming coughing, Dutch’s mysterious decisions, and Micah as a whole.

But you, out of all these things, were worried about Mary.

Once his eyes had grown as round as they could, they got back into an interrogative expression, the wave of surprise over.

“Wha’…?! How d’ya even know ‘bout her?”

“Karen speaks a lot when she’s bored…” You briefly explained, trying to sound detached.

Arthur rolls his eyes to the Heavens. Of course, folks talked, and you had to know about it all at some point. But this wasn’t ideal at all. He would have preferred to tell it to you himself, at a time he would have felt comfortable doing so, with his own words. He didn’t want this to change anything between the two of you.

“And erm… What exactly bothers ya?”

You open your mouth to speak, but your words are jammed. Explaining that you feel jealous of what the both of them had shared would just come down to confessing your feelings for him plain and simple. 

You felt completely stuck. 

He’s right there before your eyes, the very source of all your worries and your every joy. Looking at you with those confused blue eyes, wondering what is happening in this pretty head of yours. But the words still won’t come out.  You feel more and more powerless, and instead of a sound, your eyes take over to get something out of your body, slow and sad tears filling them like a lonely glacier fills a mountain lake on its own.

Arthur’s usual frown furrows, his wrinkles more visible, contrasted by the shadows from the warm lights of the fire. Suddenly, his internal melancholic speech shuts down, as if the view of a single tear streaming down your cheek were absolutely intolerable to him. No worries nor anxious self-restraints crosses his mind —it’s now only instinct. He sees you crying. He has to help you. This is as easy as that.

His right hand reaches to you by itself.

It feels warm but coarse. This big, big hand on the side of your face.

“Oh, Y/N. Don’t waste those pretty tears for a sour-faced idiot like me.” His thumb gently wipes the drops of sadness that had overflowed from your two delicate lakes. “Come on, les’ jus’ talk about this somewhere quiet.”

Arthur gently uses the hand he had on your cheek to wrap it around your shoulders, solid arm gently pushing you up. He then leads you through the door, other members throwing curious gazes at the both of you.

But he doesn’t care. His priority, right now, is your well-being, and some privacy to allow him to finally whisper things in your ears he should have a long time ago. Not in front of everyone. Not with the other men looking at your sparkling eyes, and listening to the change in his voice he knew would crack, his usual intimidating persona crushed into a million pieces with only the sound of your own. Or with the other girls hearing the oh-so-important words he had to say. No. You would be the only one to witness this. 

He had brought you to the barn where the horses were kept. The snow was falling lazily, a few flakes passing through the holes in the dilapidated roof. The place is enveloped in a heavy silence, as if it was muffling every sound coming from the outside.

Once Arthur had closed the big wooden doors behind you and before he could do anything else, you finally burst.

“I shouldn't cry, I’m so sorry Arthur, I just… She looked like an incredible woman, so beautiful a-and distinguished, and me well… I'm just… me.” Your eyes fell to your feet. You like everything was coming out of you all at once and you couldn't contain it anymore.

“Stop it.” 

“How could I ever mean something to you? You've been with her for so long and even proposed to her and… and never fell in love again after her and…”

“Stop it, Y/N!”

Arthur cut your blabbering panic by pulling you against him. He held you so tightly you were almost crushed by his powerful arms, but it felt so good. Like he was holding together all the little pieces of you that had cracked, melting them with his warmth and molding yourself again with it.

“Now you l’sten to me, sweetheart. I don’t want ya to say things like this ever again.”

The sudden use of the pet name soothed your heart immediately. You buried your face into the furred collar of his big winter coat, the hairs tickling your nose. There, you can feel a little bit of his bare skin, your cheek finding shelter against it.

You stopped talking.

You just wanted him to continue to. His deep voice seemed to come directly from the inside of his chest, and you could feel it vibrating before actually hearing it.

“Ya know I’m no… Am no poet or, or good with words like Dutch…” He started, visibly unsure of what he was going to say. He’s relieved he had initiated the hug, this way, with your face in there, you couldn’t see his. The worried expression it was carrying, like a burden. “But lemme tell ya just how much I care about ya. Oh, my sweet girl.” 

This is it. He tries not to but his low tone begins to tremble. It’s so strange. It feels like forever since that happened for the last time.

“Yeah, Mary has been a real’ important part of my life, I won’t lie to ya. But it was so long ago, gorgeous. So long ago.” 

He knows he won’t shed a tear. He never cries. But his hands shake. His vocal cords vibrate in a vulnerable, softer, and higher-pitched quaver. His body tenses, heart as fast as if racing with a million wild horses galloping in the Great Plains. Even if his words couldn’t explain just how much you meant to him, you could have guessed by how you were affecting his entire flesh.

“Ya know what? It’s true. Our story ended badly. I never fell in love again after her.”

You sigh, more tears wetting your face and his blue coat, this truth so hard to swallow.

“Until that morning, when I saw you brushing Boadicea’s mane; your hair all covered in hay, the brightest smile I ever had the chance to witness on that sweet face o’ yours. That day, I knew my stupid foolish heart had done it all over again.”

You let out a single chuckle mixed with tears and emotions, so relieved. Even when you felt like you were at your lowest, he succeeded at making you smile.

“Grimshaw had forced me to groom all the gang’s horses to “get used to camp’s work”. Must have looked terrible.” You remembered with a smile, details of your first encounter with Arthur flooding your mind.

“You looked like a goddamn Angel, honey. T’was like the sun was shining jus’ for ya. Jesus, I knew it was too late for me.”

You pulled back from him just a little, enough for you to look at him in the eyes, but not for him to let go of you. Now that they had found you, his hands, still slightly quivering, refused to let go, their place on your back and behind your head feeling so natural and right. Your eyes behave the same way as them but with his face. He looks so moved that you have to pinch yourself internally to make sure you’re not dreaming this whole thing; never in your life you had seen him like this.

“I love you too, Arthur.” You confessed back to him, fingers cupping his cheeks in a delicate touch.

You had to stand on your tiptoes to reach his face, but his arm helped you, your lips gently discovering themselves, brushing against each other in a soft and shy caress. Even if both your mouths were chapped by the biting cold, it was the most gentle kiss you had shared in your life, a satiny embrace that left you completely dreamy and light-headed.

The snowflakes silently swirl around the both of you, Nature the only witness of your souls melting into each other.

Opening your eyes again after this moment out of time, you're met with the happiest smile Arthur ever had on his face. He looked like and idiot in love, and you were sure you looked exactly the same.

“Please darlin’, don’t ever compare yourself to her ever again. What’s in the past stays there. And I wanna have a future with you.”

Your dreams sprang back straight from your heart to your mind. The visions you had about the both of you were more alive than ever, reinforced by his own needs shared with yours.

“You’re sweet, you’re funny, you’re so smart and stunningly gorgeous. And, you wan’ a proof?” He playfully asks you, taking his hat off his head, a thin layer of snow falling from it.

Turning it over, he carefully pull a piece of paper out, hidden between two leathered segments in the inner part of his hat. His cut and reddened fingers unfold it and he gives it to you, his big smile turning into an embarrassed and sheepish one.

It’s a sketch of you.

You’re mesmerized by the details of it, the blades of hay messily tangled in your hair, the sparkling in your eyes, the exact clothes you were wearing that day. This smile, you’re more than certain he drew it way more beautiful than it really is. Arthur even had added some lines traced from your head to the end of the paper, as if you were the Sun itself and were emitting your own light.

This was impossible this was the same person as you, her beauty was too radiant and fascinating.

But no matter what you thought about yourself, seeing his work curled your lips in the exact same way as yourself on the drawing. With snowflakes replacing the twigs, you had turned into the living recreation of it. Arthur laughed when he noticed, and realized just how much he had loved you and continued to since that morning from a year ago. He bent towards you to put a small kiss on your forehead.

“Arthur it’s… It’s beautiful.” You find it difficult to find another word, speechless once again. 

You also had no idea of how talented at drawing nor attracted to you he was. This day definitely was full of surprises. You chuckled fondly before taking a last look at your portrait and giving it back to your lover. But Arthur’s large palm wrapped around your hand.

“No, please, keep it. This way, you’ll always remember how you look through my eyes.”

More tears threaten to escape your own, even though those were a direct extract from the immeasurable happiness you were experiencing.

“And... Now that I don’t have to hide myself while sketching ya, I’m going to draw lots of new ones.”

tagging: @a-court-of-valkyries Thank you for reading all of this! Also, I didn't know this was a thing but if ever you want to be tagged in my works too, let me know! It would be my pleasure.

[mermaidgirl30]

✨Saving What Was Lost✨

Pre-Outbreak! Joel Miller x fem! reader

A/N: This was very much inspired from reading Hunting Adeline. Thank you to @alltheirdamn for screaming with me about this and bouncing ideas with me. I’m so so excited for it 😭 This one is for all the girls who’ve ever been taken advantage of, used, and are healing from unspoken trauma. This is very much all about healing and being taken under the wings of a man that breathes life into you again 🥹 This one’s for you, my healing girlies 🩷

“Left Behind” by The Plot In You was the song that really pushed me to write this 🥹

Summary: You never expected to get auctioned off in a room full of filthy rich, vile men after being taken over a year ago, but it happened. And the man that buys you, the one with soft brown eyes, just might’ve saved your life. He doesn’t want to hurt you. No. He wants to show you what it’s like to fall back in love with life.

Tags: Mentions of being trafficked, flashbacks of being abused, non-consensual touching, a boat load of angst, soft and protective Joel, tons of emotions, trust issues, PTSD, eventual smut (consensual and gentle), no use y/n, age gap (reader is late 20’s, Joel is late 40’s), pre-outbreak au, more tags to come with each chapter

Ch 1: You’re Safe With Me

Ch 2

Ch 3

Ch 4

Ch 5

Ch 6

[theplotdemandsit]

When Five finally makes it back home with his siblings, finally makes it back to the right timeline, he finds he’s still holding his breath. 

“Is it really over?” He thinks out loud. 

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” comes Luther’s response. 

So they do. And everything seems…normal?

But as much as Five wants to sleep for ten days straight, he can’t help but feel on edge. He spends his time visiting each sibling, popping in for dinners or briefly making sure they haven’t felt anything out of the ordinary. One day Allison asks him if he actually wants there to be an approaching apocalypse. His eyes fall onto Claire who’s catching him up on High School Musical the Musical the Series.

“No,” he answers. “I really don’t.” 

They make time for family dinners every Sunday. They still bicker and maybe swing some fists every now and then, but everyone is fast to apologize and laugh again. With room to breathe again without high stakes, the hurt finally begins to heal. They had been family before, but it slowly begins to feel like a real family. 

And for the first time, they really get to know each other. For all the crap they gave Luther about the moon, they listen as he shares the misery and loneliness and betrayal he felt. Allison describes her time as a Black woman in the 60s without her voice. Literally. Viktor tells them about what it was like growing up powerless only to end the world twice. How he lost his memory and found the one he loved only to lose that too. 

Klaus manifests Ben (who is still a ghost but as alive as he could get) and together they tell of their adventures growing up and the cult Klaus accidentally created. In between laughs, they also learn about Klaus’s harrowing experiences with drugs and death.

And Five? He has over 40 years of stories, and at first he doesn’t want to share any of it. His time in the Apocalypse, his time in the Commission, murdering for the sole purpose of survival in order to get back to his family—it’s not a side to him he wants his family to know about. 

But at the same time for reasons he can’t explain, he does want them to know. For the first time, he wants to talk to his family, the family he worked tirelessly to save. 

Little by little, he does just that. Every now and then he will start a sentence with, “Back in the Apocalypse…,” during dinner or his visits with them. Silly ones at first, like the time he had the nasty Twinkie. The time he sang all the Beatles songs he could remember and pretended he was having a concert. The time he found Umbrella Academy action figures and reenacted missions with them. 

When it’s just him and another sibling, he starts sharing some of the hard stuff too.

He tells Allison how he starved during his first winter alone and hallucinated that she had helped him find food. When he woke up he found himself in a storage house full of canned goods and bawled his eyes out.

He tells Diego about the first time he killed someone. How the scariest thing was that he wasn’t shaking. 

He tells Viktor how he sometimes still wonders if he deserves everything he got for messing with time in the first place. How he’s afraid that one of these days he’ll wake up and be alone again.

He tells Klaus about the time he thought about giving up and ending it all. 

He tells Luther about Dolores. About how even though he knew he was crazy for talking to a mannequin, Dolores was the better part of him that salvaged his sanity.

He tells Ben (and Klaus, by default) that his biggest regret is not being there. That he tries not to think about how things might have been different if he’d stayed.

Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, the tension eases from his shoulders. He stops worrying so much about the world ending and how to keep everyone alive. Instead, he spends his time going to the park with Claire, helping Diego and Lila with the babies, having midnight food outings with Klaus, and listening to Viktor play his music.

At their weekly family dinner, Luther tells Five he has a present for him and pulls out a box of Twinkies, saying, “I know you want to try one.”

Five gives him a practiced glare and says, “I would rather swim in a pot of boiling oil.”

Before, his family might have stared at him like he grew two heads, but now they laugh and think his retort is hilarious. Luther opens the box and pulls out a bag of marshmallows instead, and Five can’t help but crack a smile. 

One day they ask him what his plans are—what’s next for the oldest sibling.

Five warms his hands on a hot mug of coffee. “I’m tired of thinking about the future,” he tells them. “Right now, I just want to spend time with my family.”

That earns him plenty of “aww”s and “You’re such a softie, Five.” He waves them away and tries to duck out of their hugs, but they get him in the end. And even if he could teleport, he doesn’t want to.

He hadn’t been looking for happy, but he found it anyway.

Now cross-posted on Ao3 under the same handle!

[peppertoastuniverse]

pep reads: fluffiest fluff edition

I've just been CONSUMING so many jjk fanfics... here are the softest fluffiest fic recommendations since I think we all need it right now. This list is in no particular order – there's so many talented writers out there! These ones just made me MELT extra hard. Mostly no smut, I just needed to be held.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

gojo satoru

☆ only you by Kaiseriin [A03: mini series] [status: unknown] [Cursed speech!reader] Other than Gojo, not many people understand the sign language you use to communicate as a cursed speech user. When some students from Kyoto arrive, one tries to learn so he can get closer to you.

☆ summer skies, winter lies by miyaspudding [A03: long fic!][status: ongoing]

"how cruel was fate? how much had he sinned in his past life, for the woman he loved to belong to his best friend? how little did god love him?"

in which gojo satoru learns that emotions are not weaknesses but consolations; and geto suguru realizes that he's always been a little too late for everything. because the furthest distance is an inch away, and the furthest thing from truth is "just friends".

☆best of luck. by reinerispretty [A03: one shot! part of a mini series] [status: unknown] In which Gojo Satoru shows up unannounced, twice.

☆Ah, you were both equally idiotic by Hiroka [A03: mini series] [status: unknown]

4 times others realized something was going on between Gojo and you, and 0 times you both realized it.

[Oneshots from the Old Beats Cinematic Universe]

☆ For A God, Shopping Is a New Adventure by Bun_sun [AO3] [status: on going!] [Baker!reader]

“Would you like anything else?” “Actually, yeah.” He flashes you a grin that only promises trouble, pushing his sunglasses down with a way too exaggerated flirty expression. “Can I get your number too?” “Haha, really funny Gojo. Now, I have more clients so...” But he's already getting his phone out, as if he hasn't listened to a single word you've said. “...Oh, you're for real.” ~ ~ ~ ~ Reader owns a small cafe with their own baked goods. Gojo comes in one day, and absolutely falls in love with their pastries (and with them).

☆ I Want to Kiss You / キスしたい by arminsumi [A03][status: unknown]

You and Satoru falling in love despite a language barrier.

You've come to visit Japan to meet these two boys you met online. Though Satoru can't speak English and you can't speak Japanese, the two of you still fall in love. There's seems to be romantic tension between you and Suguru, too.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

geto suguru

it's so hard to find suguru fics without him being used as a plot device for gojo

☆ gentle glow / deep thought by waffiez [AO3: one shot] [status: completed] "I thought about you, you know." Despite the softness of his voice, it cut through the otherwise silent atmosphere profoundly and made your heart skip a beat. "Is that so?" "It is." ☆☆☆ in which you awake to your best friend suguru asleep at the edge of your bed, having returned from a lengthy mission and only really wanting to see you.

☆ unnamed drabble by @twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat [tumblr: drabble] [status: completed]

comfy fluff w sleepy needy sugu <33)

☆ Wash It Away by @shadowsandshapes [A03/tumblr: drabble][status: completed]

Sometimes you forget Geto is just a guy. But then he shows a sense of vulnerability that surprises you. After a particularly emotionally draining battle, you run him a warm bath and take care of his aches. ☆ Wisteria and Ciabatta by @hayakawalove [A03/tumblr: mini fic!][status: completed, chapter 2 has smut!]

Traveling merchant Suguru has led a relatively tame life thus far. Growing his flowers, baking his bread. One day, when he ventures out further than normal he comes across something more beautiful than all the flowers in the world. You. ☆ the paint doesn't move the way the light reflects by @twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat [tumblr: long oneshot!] [status: completed]

when the king puts you under the supervision of a dashing knight, you promise to make his job as difficult as possible. unfortunately, suguru geto is the patient sort.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

bonus!

☆ Digest Your Feelings (DYF) – First Years! by @whalesforhands [A03/tumblr: part of a longer series of fics] [status: completed] new classmates, new life, new friends(?). a look into the life of the dyf au characters in their first year.

[joonipertree]

Someone planted in my head that todoroki playing with eri would heal his inner child because he grew up not allowed to play with his siblings or have any friends so!

Imagine one day you lug in a huge lego set or a puzzle and you ask him to help you with it. Shoto, who generally is a quieter and calmer soul, finds peace and comfort in it. The both of you spend hours on it, even if he's tired after work. He starts buying more and more sets, and lets be honest....dabi or one of the older todoroki siblings probably guilted endeavour into spending money on these sets for his adult son.

Then, you bring in beyblades and the two of you start having mini battles that have narrations and everything. I'd like to think that Shoto already has some experience with this because of Class A and used to do this a lot with kaminari and the rest! Sometimes, when Class A would have a get together (no matter how infrequent they may be), they still take out the board games and get super fucking competitive.

I'd like to think that no matter what, Class A spent years in school with weekly game nights!!

Then! One day, you drag shoto with you to watch the Barbie movie which he LOVED, he wore pink and everything, and got really curious when you talked about playing with dolls as a kid. He played with dolls as a kid but generally on his own.

Next thing he knows, you bought some toys and the two of you were sat on the living room floor playing with dolls. Shoto, in all honestly, felt silly doing so but didn't wanna discourage you so he played along. At first, he played it with a very no nonsense tone, made the bear have a job and responsibilities.

"Ah, tax season is coming around...it'll be tough this year."

"Shoto....I don't think the bear needs to worry about taxes."

"She's a businesswoman, it's her civic duty to pay taxes."

"Well she didn't so now she's under arrest :)"

"Ah fuck."

Pretty soon this just fizzled out into a plushie collection that included his own eventual plushies, his friend's plushies, bunnies and bears and cats. He even had those giant ones that are almost life sized. Yes, some of them he bought them for you and you bought for him but they turned into a shared custody situation.

One day, Touya visits with the two of you sitting on the living room floor, shoto's hair braided and cute star stickers on his face. You were focusing heavily on painting his nails half white and half red. Shoto just made eye contact with his older brother and grinned, asking if he wanted his nails painted.

"Do ya'll have black?" Touya asked.

"We have sparkly navy blue?"

"Fucking fine."

And that's how he ended up on the floor too, with his legs crossed and a cat plushie between them, having his nails painted while his baby brother tied his hair into pigtails. The man complained really loudly about it but had no intention of moving.

[loveinhawkins]

The squeak of Dustin’s sneakers fades away as he heads back to the hospital parking lot, where his mom’s waiting for him.

Eddie watches the door to his room swing shut—the movement as boisterous as Dustin’s entrance had been; for the whole visit, he’d acted almost as if nothing had ever happened.

“You know,” he says once the door’s fully closed, “I kinda thought he hated me.”

He tries to make it come out like a joke—maybe then, it won’t hurt quite as much. He should’ve known that Steve would see straight through it.

“That’s not fair,” Steve says quietly, from where he sits in the corner of the room—arms folded, eyes sharp.

The silence feels damning. Eddie doesn’t dare break it: just sits there and lets it sting.

But then—

“That’s not fair,” Steve repeats, a little softer, “to him or to you.”

Eddie can’t look him in the eye. If he does, he’s going to say something that’s true but hurtful nonetheless—and God knows, he’s done more than enough damage already.

Steve sighs. Eddie can’t work out how to read him.

Maybe if he just keeps staring at the clock on the wall, Steve will give up and leave, and Eddie can keep it together until he knows that he’s alone.

“When are you going to stop?” Steve says and, damn it, Eddie’s resolve breaks in an instant; his head turns, but now Steve’s the one who’s not looking, his gaze fixed on the ceiling like he’s trying to memorise it.

(Fourteen hairline cracks on the tiles. Eddie’s counted.)

“Stop what, Steve?” Eddie says shortly. Maybe this will work instead: if he manages to hold that awful, flat tone for long enough—

“When are you going to stop punishing yourself?” Steve says. His eyes flicker across the ceiling tiles.

Eddie swallows. Forces out, hoarse, “That’s not—”

“Not what?” Steve interrupts. “Not what you’re doing?” He shakes his head a little, and his voice lowers. “You’re acting like they’re right.”

Eddie grits his teeth; he asks even though he already knows. “Like who—”

“You do know you didn’t kill anyone, right?” Steve says bluntly.

For a horrible moment, Eddie can’t breathe. “I—yes,” he says; it’s wrenched out of him like an involuntary reflex, the thought playing in his head over and over at the boathouse, then at Skull Rock—I didn’t do it, I didn’t, please, please—until it sounded less and less like the truth, and more like desperation.

“Then what?” Steve says. His head tilts down—he looks right at Eddie, eyes blazing like a challenge. “What is it? What is so fucking terrible, Eddie, that you’d—”

“What d’you want me to say, man?” Eddie says, exhausted. “I—I hurt—”

His voice cracks; he can’t get through it, can only think about what he wasn’t meant to have seen: a nurse opening his door too wide, and in that split second, catching a glimpse of Dustin frozen in the hallway, Steve crouched down in front of him, speaking too softly to hear; how Dustin’s shoulders shook; you did this, you—

“You don’t think I wish I could take it back?” Steve says.

The words pull Eddie right out of his head. Cautiously, he asks, “What?”

“Because I would,” Steve continues, like Eddie hasn’t said anything. “I’d take it back in a second.” There’s a harsh scraping sound: the chair legs dragging against the floor as Steve stands, like he suddenly can’t bear being still. “I think about it every day. If I hadn’t—” He stops abruptly, like the words have got stuck somewhere painful. His jaw works once, twice. “If I hadn’t left you to—”

“Don’t,” Eddie gets out, pleading. His hand twitches on the bedsheets uselessly; he’s too far away to…

In so many ways, he wishes he was stronger.

“Steve, you—you can’t do that to your—”

“Right,” Steve cuts across with a humourless laugh, “yeah, exactly,” and Eddie gets the feeling that he’s walked right into a trap without realising. “So you don’t get to, either.”

”Steve—”

“No! No, I’m not gonna just watch you fucking hate yourself for—for what? For being scared? For doing the best you could to—” Steve shakes his head again. “Dustin, he—he knows you were… I would’ve done the same thing.”

Eddie can hardly argue the point. He can hear from the strain in Steve’s voice just how much he means it.

And then Steve scoffs slightly, glancing up at the ceiling again—a fragile smile, like it’s only there to keep himself from crying.

“There’s—there’s so much—God.” He drags a hand down his face. “So much blame, Eddie. All the time.” He gets that awful, distant look to his eyes, the one that reminds Eddie that he was thrown into a story in its last horrific chapter; there are things he doesn’t know, but when Steve looks at him, he can feel an echo of the pain in his chest. “And I’m so sick of it.”

“I’m—”

But Steve interrupts before Eddie can voice it: a weak laugh then, “Jesus Christ, haven’t you been listening? Don’t apologise. It’s enough that—that you’re alive.” Steve swallows, steps back. Jerks his head to the door, “Dustin—he’ll be okay, I swear, just give it time. Before you—it kinda, uh. It was awful?” His voice goes up, but not in question, not really: more like he’s the one trying to joke around it, now—because anything else is too much.

It’s another story Eddie isn’t privy to. But he can read it in the way Steve’s eyes trace the ceiling. In soft words exchanged just before a hospital room.

The guilt doesn’t fade, not yet. But its grip eases around his heart. Makes room for…

“Hey,” Steve says shakily, like he’s crying, too. “Eddie, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Hands are on Eddie’s face, and maybe it should be overwhelming—but all Eddie can feel is something like forgiveness.

“It’s enough,” Steve whispers. “Eddie, I promise you. Please. Please let it be enough.”

Eddie can’t speak. But he gathers Steve’s shirt in his fist; and you, he means, and you.

And maybe Steve hears it, because he sighs like he’s finally let go of something—like he, too, has been cleansed.

[justaz]

okay i get it “merlin is magic incarnate, it doesn’t make sense for him to not be able to perform healing spells” i get it! completely agree! HOWEVER let me offer this counterpoint:

the bit of healing magic emrys was supposed to embody was given to arthur instead. thats what kept him alive from magical threats for years before merlin got to camelot. he uses it unconsciously and thinks his expeditions/quests are just super lucky bc if his knights get injured it’s always something minor (because arthur’s healing magic seeps out into his men as well and keeps them from death). if someone were to get dangerously hurt, they tend to heal a lot quicker when arthur tends to their wounds. its so subtle that no one jumps to magic. it also kind of makes them yin and yang as the warrior set to oppose magic holds a morsel within and the embodiment of magic becomes a warrior to protect his king.

[starkspi]

Trying to bribe @morningstarwrites with these sketches so I can read the new chapter earlier ha! Thank you for the inspiration, the challenge and the absolute joy this fic brings me. I’d kiss your brain folds if I could.