#and like yeah I’m reading through procedure protocols

[singlethread]

Well I was only gonna be doing a spay on a kitten tomorrow but now I’m also doing a mass removal/toe amputation on a dog

[noorpersona]

Husbandry: Daichi

The rain comes down in steady sheets, tapping against the windows in a soothing rhythm. The streets outside glisten under the glow of streetlights, the occasional car passing by leaving behind a faint hum of noise. It’s the perfect kind of evening—the kind meant for staying in, wrapped up in warmth, with nowhere to be and nothing urgent pressing on your mind.

Daichi is already settled on the couch, a soft throw blanket draped over his legs, the remote lazily balanced on his stomach. The TV is on, playing some crime drama, but his attention isn’t fully on it. Instead, he glances over at you, a slow, easy smile tugging at his lips as you walk into the living room carrying two mugs of tea.

“You’re the best,” he says as you hand him one, fingers brushing against yours in the exchange. His hands are warm, even against the ceramic.

“I know,” you reply, sinking onto the couch beside him. The heat from the tea seeps into your fingers as you take a slow sip, savoring the way the warmth spreads down your throat.

Daichi shifts, draping an arm over your shoulders and pulling you close, his body solid and reassuring against yours. You relax into him easily, letting your head rest against his shoulder. His thumb moves absentmindedly over your arm, slow and steady, and you exhale, feeling the tension of the day melt away.

On the screen, the detective is interrogating a suspect, voice low and serious. Daichi lets out a quiet scoff. “That’s not how real interrogations work.”

You smile against his shoulder. “Oh? Care to enlighten me, Officer Sawamura?”

He huffs a laugh, shaking his head. “It’s just unrealistic. No one confesses that easily. And look at how he’s holding that report—like he’s never actually read one in his life.”

You chuckle, shifting so you can look up at him. “You say this every time we watch crime shows.”

“Because it’s true every time,” he argues, but his voice is light, teasing. “It’s a shame, really. They should just hire me as a consultant.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure the Tokyo police force would love for you to moonlight as a TV consultant.”

He grins, taking a sip of his tea. “I’d be good at it.”

“You’d be insufferable.”

“And yet, you’d still watch with me.”

“You’re lucky I love you,” you say, laughing softly.

Daichi shakes his head, eyes narrowing at the screen as the detective makes a sweeping accusation that somehow miraculously leads to a confession. He scoffs, growing more animated now. “That’s not even how questioning works. There’s a whole process! There’s procedure, and paperwork, and—why does this guy always get away with breaking protocol?”

You watch him, amused, as he continues to rant, his brows furrowed, hands gesturing as he lists every inaccuracy he can spot. His passion is endearing—adorable, even. And before he can go on any further, you reach up, cupping his jaw and pressing your lips to his mid-sentence.

Daichi stills for a moment, surprised, before he leans into the kiss, his earlier frustration forgotten. When you pull back, his brown eyes flicker with something softer, more intrigued, but you don’t stop there. You press another kiss to the sharp line of his jaw, then lower, trailing down the side of his neck.

His breath hitches slightly, but he doesn’t say anything. He just watches you, waiting.

You smile against his skin before slowly pulling away. Rising from the couch, you peel off your shirt, letting it drop to the floor as you make your way toward the bedroom. Just before disappearing through the doorway, you glance back at him.

“Still pissed at the show?” you ask, voice teasing.

Daichi exhales sharply, setting his mug down without even looking. “You’re good.”

You giggle, knowing full well he’s already getting up to follow you.

[five-rivers]

So first, I just want to say that I love Mortified, especially the arcs involving Ereshkigal and Innana. The whole thing is absolutely incredible, and I'm always thrilled to see an update. Second, I was rather hoping to offer you a prompt I've had swirling about my head. What if there is some sort of research facility exploring "that which is unknown and previously thought to be impossible" (i.e. magic but they don't call it that because people don't really know about magic and ghosts in this AU) and Danny's class is invited to go on a field trip there. At first, everything is normal, but just after the class leaves the researchers realize that their instruments show that some sort of Eldritch Horror is nearby and they start freaking out, but it's just Danny. I don't know where else this would go though.

Mr. Lancer chewed on the end of his pen.  It was a disgusting habit, he knew, but he could never quite get himself to kick it, especially when he had a problem to confront.  

Said problem was, presently, that enough of his students had expressed an interest in careers in ectology and paranormal science that he really had to give them a relevant field trip.  Unfortunately, there were very few reputable options for such a field trip.  The Fentons were unsafe, Axion Labs refused to give tours, the GIW were essentially a government sponsored hate group.  Most other ‘ghost hunting agencies’ were outright scams.  

But there had to be something nearby.  Or at least in the state.  Maybe not something that explicitly or solely dealt with ghosts, but something.  

Maybe...

Oh!

He shifted to sit straighter in his chair.  That would work.  He started typing an email.

.

“We got a what?” repeated Johannsson.  

“A field trip request,” repeated Deer.  

“Like... from a school?” asked Johannsson, cautiously.  

“A high school,” confirmed Deer, sounding rather stunned.  

“Do they... know what we do here?” 

“Evidently,” said Deer.  

“Like, they know we research magic and telepathy and stuff.”

“Yes.”

“And astral projection, higher-dimensional beings, alternate universes, that kind of thing?  Fringe science?”

“He says the junior class is interested in the ‘paranormal sciences.’”

“Wow,” said Johannsson, finally bringing his coffee up to his mouth and sipping at it cautiously.  “Where,” he started, “where are they from?”

“Um,” said Deer, peering at her computer screen.  “Casper High.  One sec.”  She started typing.  “It’s in Amity Park?  Do you think it’s a joke?”

“Ah,” said Johannsson.  “No, that tracks, actually, if it’s Amity Park.  We’ve got some weird readings on file from there, if you look it up.”

“It’s close,” said Deer.  “If we get readings, why don’t we have a presence there?”

“Another agency called dibs first,” said Johannsson.  “We have enough trouble.  No need to step on toes.”

Deer looked up at Johannsson incredulously.  “We fight eldritch abominations from the edge of reality,” she said.  “Is the boss really worried about stepping on toes?”

“Hey, that’s how we get funding,” said Johannsson, shrugging.  “We don’t want to end up like MKUltra.”

“MKUltra was a scam, Steve.  And also mostly illegal.”

“Yeah?”

Deer shrugged.  “Anyway, should I send this on, or...?”

“Yeah, go ahead.  The boss will probably get a kick out of it, if nothing else.”

.

“I would not have told the boss about this if I knew I’d be the one babysitting a bunch of teenagers,” said Deer through a clenched smile.  She jerked on the hem of her blouse, not used to the more formal clothes she was wearing on this momentous occasion.   

“Yeah,” said Johannsson, “but it isn’t like we get a lot of people coming into this profession for this profession.  And they’re kids.  So be nice.”

“I’m always nice,” grumbled Deer.  

“Well, look like it,” said Johannsson, elbowing her.  He caught sight of the yellow school bus.  “Here they come now.”

They waited until most of the students had gotten off the bus to approach.  

“Hi,” said Johannsson, “you must be Mr. Lancer.”

“That’s me,” said the rather frazzled-looking teacher.  “Come on kids, let’s get settled down.  Listen to our guides.  Let them introduce themselves.”

“Yeah, hey,” said Johannsson, waving.  “Welcome to the Edge Institute, where we study that which is unknown and often thought to be impossible.”

“Hi,” said Deer, frowning at one group of students in particular.  Johannsson followed her eyes.  

The trio in question didn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary.  Except...  Well, there was a reason Deer worked here.  

“I’m Steve Johannsson,” he said, getting back on track.  “This is Sylvia Deer.  We mostly work in report processing and assessment, but that brings us into contact with all our other departments, so we’re more than suited to show you around.”

Sylvia put her thumbs up.  “Yep,” she said.  

“Most of what we work with isn’t terribly dangerous, however, there are exceptions to that rule, and we have some classified projects, so don’t wander off.  Stay within view of us at all times.”

“What if we need to use the bathroom?” asked a student.

“Well, that’s different,” admitted Johannsson.  “We’ve got a couple scheduled stops, so make sure you go at those times.  Other than that, don’t go through any doors we don’t open for you and don’t touch anything without asking first.  Got it?”

There was a soft murmur of assent.  

“Come on, kids,” said Mr. Lancer, clapping, “he asked a question.”

The murmur became slightly more unanimous.  

“Right,” said Deer.  She jerked her head towards the building.  “Let’s go.”

“Anyway,” said Johannsson, “this is reception, which is the only part of the building freely open to the general public.  If you do need to go to the bathroom, they’re right there.  We’re going to hang out here for a few minutes, get everyone taken care of.”

Most of the students made their way to the restrooms immediately, however, that one trio stayed put.  

“Hey,” said the smallest of the group, “do you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Johannsson.

“Um,” said the boy, slightly rocking forward on the balls of his feet, “there’s, like, an alarm or a siren going off?  It’s really faint, but is everything okay?”

“We’d get a text,” said Deer.  “Not to mention an announcement on the PA system.”

“And the radios,” said Johannsson, tapping his.  

“Right,” said Deer, nodding.  “Maybe you have tinnitus or something?”

“Isn’t that recurrent, though?” asked Johannsson.  “He’d know if he had it.”

“I do not have tinnitus,” said the boy, firmly.  “I really think there’s an alarm going off.  Or maybe someone has a mosquito ringtone.  Gosh, I hate those...”

Johannsson glanced at Deer and noted that she, once again, was staring at the children rather intensely.  Mostly at the boy, but that made sense since he was the one speaking.  

“Danny has good hearing,” said the girl, who was decked out in an array of gothic and mystic symbols.  One which, on closer inspection, would probably be fairly effective at passive protection.  

Johannsson wondered if that was the result of research, intuition, or sheer luck.  

Perhaps that was why Deer was looking at them like that?

“Maybe I’m just imagining it,” said Danny, shaking his head.  “Let’s go to the bathrooms.  There’s probably a line by now.”

Once the kids were gone, and Johannsson and Deer were more or less alone in the entry hall, Johannsson turned to Deer.  “Think we should call Detection?”

“Yeah,” said Deer, pulling out her phone.  “There’s something not right, here.”

“Maybe he’s a sensitive?” suggested Johannsson.  “He could be picking up a project.”

“Or maybe he’s like you and he’ll break every piece of tech invented in the last twenty-five years as soon as he touches it.  Or he was cursed by a goddess, like Vicky in Containment.  Or maybe he just has tinnitus and is in denial.  I still don’t like this.”  She finished dialing Detection and brought the phone to her ear.  “Hey, I-”  She pulled the phone away, glared at it and cautiously brought it back.  “What’s going on?  An incursion?  Then why aren’t we on lockdown?”

Johannsson’s blood ran cold.  “An incursion?  How big?”

Deer held up a hand.  “That doesn’t-  You know we can’t detect everything!  It doesn’t matter if nothing else gets triggered, the protocol is lockdown until we can determine- If you had done your job, the kids would still be on the damn bus!”

At this point, Deer’s shouts had drawn the attention and worry of Mr. Lancer and several of the students who had emerged from the bathrooms.  

“Is everything alright?” asked the man.  

Johannsson glanced at Deer.  “No,” he decided, just before the security shutters slammed down and the emergency lighting came on.  “I’m really sorry,” he said, “but it seems like some of our colleagues were overly excited about your tour and didn’t, er, follow proper procedure following a, uh, event.  So-”

The PA system stuttered into life.  “Attention.  A level seven entity has been detected.  All nonessential personnel, please proceed to the nearest shelter.  Repeat-”

“Seven?” echoed Johannsson, starting to sweat.  “Seven?”

“It’s probably a false alarm,” said Deer, putting away her phone and smiling in the way only people who feel very ill do.  “None of the other incursion detectors went off.  No radiation associated with dimensional breaks or anything.  We should still get everyone to a shelter.  Maybe you can round up everyone from the bathrooms?”

“Right,” said Mr. Lancer, who was enviably calm.  

“Is an entity like a ghost or something?” asked one of the kids, who clearly weren’t grasping the gravity of the situation.  “How strong is a seven?”

Level seven entities couldn’t be described in terms of strength alone.  They were eldritch, uncaring gods that tore at the fabric of reality with their very presence, creatures that had no business being on the material plane.  They shed bright magic and dark science in their wake, leaving those unfortunate enough to see them grappling with madness that was not.  

He really wanted to know what was happening in Amity Park (ghosts?) that made these people so blasé about the alarms, flashing lights, and security shutters.  

Wait a second.  

He unclipped his radio from his belt.  “This is Johannsson, calling detection.  Can you describe the signal to me?  Over.”

The radio crackled.  “Slowly rising over the last thirty minutes, peaking and plateauing in the last ten.  Why?  Do you have something?  Over.”

The bus had arrived ten minutes ago.  Johannsson closed his eyes.  “Maybe.  Will inform.  Over and out.”

He looked over at the bathroom where Danny and his two friends were emerging.  Danny had his hands pressed over his ears.  Whenever the overhead lights flashed off, the boys eyes reflected green.  Just for a second.  

Yeah.  Johannsson had something.  The question was, what was he going to do about it?

[skinsharpenedteeth]

RNM After Dark, Day 2!

Today's story is... different. Medical kink, lab sex, milking machines, barebacking, comeplay... it's a real mixed bag. Definitely rated Explicit. 6883 Words.

Here's a link to the story on AO3!

.

"Compromised by a Foreign Body"

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Alex knew the way they were going about it was wrong. No matter how many times his father told him the aliens were nothing more than violent, seditious predators from another world, it never sat right. But, when it was time to do his duty, Alex had stepped into line. He’d even managed to pull his best friend, Liz Ortecho, into working in the biomedical lab for Project Shepherd. Being a Manes meant that even in what should be a strict, military hierarchy, Alex was a prince. So he made his own job, helped out where he wanted, and tried to not think about the things he’d done or seen when he went home at night.

“Alex, can you help me with the specimen extraction this week? I’m really behind on some notations from last week’s experiments. It would be a great help to me,” Liz said one afternoon. He’d been aimless all day, simply walking around the base to look busy but without an actual task. His stomach clenched, however, at the request. Specimen extraction brought him into very close contact with aliens, and there was one whose eyes never seemed to stay on the ground where they belonged. There was one whose eyes followed him, seeming to see through his fatigues and tracing every line of his body underneath.

“The females and males?” Alex asked, clearing his throat to get rid of his nerves. Liz gave him a curious look at the show of anxiety. She knew him well. She could tell this wasn’t something he wanted to do.

“Just the males. I just need a semen specimen. We’re seeing what happens if we crossbreed them with human female eggs and how that effects the DNA and RNA structures of any resulting hybrids. Just grab the three youngest and put them in the collection rooms. One sample from each should be plenty,” Liz went on, already returning to her microscope slides and file notations. Alex made sure to keep his face neutral as she glanced up to studied him while giving her instructions. He nodded shortly and left the lab, already mentally listing the tasks he’d need to perform in order to do a collection.

Alex had been given basic medical training when he’d been taken on at Project Shepherd. It was explained that at any point, one of their captives might have to be taken down with an injection if brute force was inadvisable. He’d also received extensive hand-to-hand combat training. Alex had found it interesting that de-escalation techniques hadn’t been taught as part of his training before coming onto the base. So far he’d only had to use the bare minimum of force to get his job done. He’d turned into something of a Jack-of-all-trades, however, when it came to medical or scientific technical procedures.

First, he stopped by the captive holding area and signaled his brother Flint over from the guard station. Flint gave him an annoyed scowl, but came over to where Alex was waiting.

“What’s up?” Flint asked, always informal to Alex by way of blood. If their father had seen, Flint would’ve been disciplined. Alex, though younger, outranked Flint and therefore should always be treated with the respect of a superior officer. Alex didn’t care as much. Flint was a stooge and would never be more than a glorified prison guard. His pantomimed respect wasn’t needed for Alex to know he was above him. But Alex knew if their father saw Flint being too familiar at work, he’d chastise him with a fist.

“I need male captives Max, Michael, and Noah to specimen collection,” Alex informed Flint formally. Flint gave him a speculative grin, but didn’t say anything. He nodded and went back to the guard desk to inform the other two soldiers on duty. Alex saw them share a glance and chuckle as Alex started towards the pharmacy. His next task was to pick up some Tri-Mix injection and then to make sure a few rooms were set up with the correct equipment for the procedure.

Alex tried to keep his mind on the business at hand. The laughing of the other soldiers needled at him in the back of his mind. He’d done this job a few times, but he didn’t take any pleasure from it. If the other guys could see what was involved in the process, maybe they’d realize that it wasn’t as sexy a scenario as they imagined. Maybe if Alex wasn’t gay, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all. Maybe if the aliens looked more… well… alien and not just like humans, it could’ve just been an abstract curiosity, a shitty work detail. They would’ve just commiserated with him for drawing the short straw. But he was gay, and they didn’t understand what happened behind the closed doors of the extraction rooms and these three aliens in particular were very attractive by human standards. He shuddered to imagine what deprived fantasies they’d built around him and the aliens. This only happened, of course, when he had to work with the males.

He made his way to the long hallway of rooms they used for technical procedures. Alex looked through the monitors over the tech’s shoulder at the monitoring station. Only one room was in use currently, and it looked like an autopsy was taking place. Alex grimaced inwardly to think they’d lost another alien to the ravages of time.

“Anything scheduled in rooms 5, 7, or 9 for the next hour?” Alex asked the monitor tech quietly. The soldier blinked up at him, as if just now aware someone else was in the small room with him. He cleared his throat and picked up the scheduling clipboard from the corner of his desk. Alex’s eyes strayed back to the occupied room, and he watched with sick fascination as things were taken out of the alien’s abdomen and loaded into bowls.

“Uh, looks like they’re free. Need to book ‘em, sir?” the young soldier asked, remembering protocol at the last moment.

“Yeah. Captain Alex Manes. Max, Michael, and Noah are being brought in for specimen extraction,” Alex told the soldier for his notes. He nodded and wrote down the details on his paper copy of the schedule. He’d type it into the online schedule later as well as any observational notes. With a last glance towards the wall of screens, Alex left the room and went to get the equipment cases out of storage.

Each case held a milking machine which included a cylinder with a latex liner, a connector hose, and a suction machine. Alex placed one in each room and plugged in the power supply to the suction machine so it could start warming up. He rifled through the cabinets that lined each room’s walls and found the lubricant, prostate stimulation equipment, and massage wands. He’d never needed to use the extras, but something about their presence made him feel like he was actually there to do a job. The machines would do most of the work. He was really just there to monitor and make sure the samples were collected and labeled correctly for Liz.

As he was just double-checking all his equipment, Dr. Valenti walked into the room he was in. Alex turned and eyed his ex-best friend warily. Kyle had been making strides towards repairing their friendship, but Alex was still skeptical.

“Hey man. Liz said you were doing a collection. I brought you the Tri-Mix injections. Mind if I help out?” Kyle asked, showing him the preloaded injection pens.

“Sure, I guess. There’s not much to do. Just inject them, sleeve them, turn on the milkers, and go get a cup of coffee until the sensors go off,” Alex said flippantly.

“You don’t do any manual or electrical stimulation before you sleeve them?” Kyle asked, sounding a bit shocked. Alex tried to shrug nonchalantly. He didn’t want to admit that manual and electrical stimulation felt like he was crossing a line somehow. He logically knew these were not humans with human feelings or cultural constructs about consent, but in his own mind it was a step too far. The injection made it medical, but if he actually started probing and touching… then it might just be what those soldiers at the containment area thought it was. Kyle must’ve read his thoughts, because he clapped Alex on the shoulder and gave him a patronizing grin.

“You get better samples if you stim them. I can show you on one if you like? Just so you can see it’s not what you think it is,” Kyle offered, squeezing Alex’s shoulder affectionately. Alex absolutely did not want to see… except that he did. He was going to hell for it, but he was curious. In fact, he was fucking fascinated, and he hated himself for it.

“I mean, if you’ve got the time?” Alex said, trying to give Kyle an out.

“Hey, what’s the joke about doctors and always being busy except they’re really golfing? Think of this as my golf break. I’m getting out of the clinic and getting to do something fun for a little while,” Kyle said with a laugh.

As if on cue, the sound of wheels in the hallway alerted them that the captives had arrived. Alex turned to see two men rolling in Max, the largest physically of their aliens, already naked and strapped to a gurney, gag in his mouth (to protect him from biting his tongue while coming off any medications used during the procedure). Alex felt a quick flash of rage that they hadn’t left him clothed or thrown a blanket over him. The guards placed his gurney in the middle of the room, locked the wheels, saluted to Alex and Kyle before they left. Alex watched Kyle’s eyes rove up and down Max’s body covetously. Max had been gagged and given a mild, but quickly dissipating sedative. Alex could tell that he was relatively aware of where he was, but couldn’t fight the bonds. He hardly did, even when the sedative wore off.

“Here, let’s reposition him a little. If we’re going to stim him, I need to have better access to his body. Did the guards flush their systems before they brought them up?” Kyle asked, already unstrapping one of Max’s legs. He reached under the gurney and pulled out a heel stirrup that he gently placed Max’s foot in before re-securing him for safety. He did the same with Max’s other leg, spreading him wide.

“Uh….,” Alex started, completely out of his depth. He looked up at Max who met his eyes and nodded, color infusing his cheeks like a blush. Kyle was finishing with the other foot when Alex finally answered. “Yeah. They did.”

“Good. That means I don’t have to,” Kyle replied with a laugh. He was transforming the gurney from a long bed into practically a chair in front of Alex’s eyes. Alex had no idea the gurneys had so many bells and whistles on them. With his legs spread wide, hips strapped down to the table, and naked, Max looked utterly exposed to them. Kyle was leaning over Max’s upper body, using a pen light to check his responses. “God, the meds they have now are remarkable. He’s already becoming cognizant again!”

“Yeah, they come to pretty quick,” Alex remarked dryly while he watched Kyle do a quick examination, checking reflexes.

"Let's get some gloves on and I'll show you what I mean about the manual stimulation. If he doesn't react, we can always give him the Tri-Mix, but this can sometimes remove the need to even use it," Kyle explained, moving over to the instrument cart and pulling out two pairs of non-latex gloves. He and Alex snapped them on and Kyle rolled the instrument cart over to beside the table. He grabbed a rolling stool that had been left in the corner of the room from another procedure and sat himself down between Max's spread legs. Alex could see Max's confusion as he lifted his head to try and see what Kyle was doing.

"Okay so," Kyle started, drawing Alex's attention back from Max's dark eyes to where he was covering two fingers in a copious amount of lubricant. Alex watched as he used the non-lubricated hand to spread Max's ass cheeks and expose his dusky, puckered hole. Max's leg muscles flexed against their restraints at the feeling. "Just like with human males, these guys have got something like a prostate. You'd stim it the same way you would for a human."

"I usually like my partners to be hard before I go sticking things into their asses," Alex mumbled, trying for a joking tone. Kyle beamed up at him.

"That would be preferable. But if that's the problem, you can stimulate the prostate first and the penis should start getting erect after. Have you worked with these captives before? Do you know if this one is able to get hard without the injection?" Kyle asked. He still held Max's cheeks open, exposing him as he carried on his conversation with Alex. Alex risked a glance up to see that Max was staring resolutely at the ceiling, flushed but stoic to his treatment. Alex wished they were allowed to speak with the captives and that they didn't have to stay gagged when out of confinement. He'd just ask Max if getting hard was an issue, or if it was just the degradation of being used as a lab rat that kept him flaccid.

"I don't know. Like I said, I've never tried to stim them before suctioning. Max has never come in already hard, but his body responds well to the Tri-Fix," Alex replied, trying to ignore the fine tremors he could see in Max's stomach muscles. Kyle was rubbing a thumb in contemplative circles over Max’s hole, spreading the lube from his fingers and almost seeming unaware of what he was doing as he and Alex talked.

"I bet he can! He's a hell of a specimen. Before we try the prostate, let's see if he responds to some other stimulation," Kyle said with an excited clap. He stood up abruptly and walked to the side of the table. Alex stood on the other side, promising himself he would be polite and watch but wouldn't participate. Kyle took his time looking over Max's physique. In a familiar gesture, he set his hands high on Max's chest.

"Hey handsome," Kyle crooned. He slowly rubbed his hands up and down Max's chest, trailing his fingers lightly over the skin. Max darted his eyes to Alex in obvious confusion and alarm. Kyle followed his gaze. "Ignore him. I'm going to take care of you today."

Alex let his eyes slip away and back down to Kyle's hands. They smoothed over Max's skin, down over his ribs and stomach, then back up so his thumbs could tease lightly over Max's dark pink nipples. Max shifted under Kyle's attention.

"You've got to convince the blood to come up to the surface of the skin," Kyle murmured to Alex while he kept eye contact with Max. Kyle started to rub over Max's nipples more firmly, stroking over the tightening nubs. Pleased with their erectness, he hummed thoughtfully before trailing his hands down to rest on Max’s hipbones. Alex noticed the uptick in Kyle’s breathing and dilation in his eyes as he moved one hand to cup Max’s cock. He rocked the heel of his hand gently before circling his thumb and first finger around the shaft and stroking. Max’s body started to respond to the attention, his cock plumping up in Kyle’s grip as he kept stroking over him smoothly.

“That’s it,” Kyle cooed encouragingly. Max shifted under him as much as he could, head pressed back against the gurney and staring resolutely towards the ceiling. His face was flushed and the red stain seemed to be moving down towards his chest the harder he got. Alex jumped when a hand came into his view suddenly. “Put some more lube on my fingers.”

Alex obeyed Kyle’s order and watched him push one slick finger into Max’s hole, making the alien jump in surprise. Expertly, Kyle crooked his finger and within a few searching thrusts was able to locate Max’s prostate. Alex glanced up to check Max’s cock and was surprised to find him almost painfully engorged. Kyle followed his line of sight and smiled, turning to look at Alex triumphantly.

“Told you man, nothing to it. Hand me the suction canister and we’ll get him hooked up and pumping.” Alex shuddered at the excitement in Kyle’s voice, the eagerness, but he did was he was asked. As soon as the canister was lowered over Max’s cock, cool plastic resting against his belly, Kyle flipped a switch to began low suction. Max’s cock jerked in response to the tight pressure build and release of the machine, and Alex heard a low groan escape from behind his gag. Kyle had managed to work two fingers into his hole while Alex had watched the machine begin its work and was thrusting them in time with the machine. A glance further down and Alex could see the solid outline of Kyle’s own cock straining against his scrub pants.

“Uh, I’m going to go get started on one of the other captives,” Alex spoke up, feeling awkward at continuing to stand by the scene in front of him. Kyle gave him a friendly smile, fingers and wrist still working away.

“Sure, go do Michael. Noah, from what I understand, is a tougher case and I’d like to commit my full attention to him. After this, we can go do lunch if you want?” Kyle offered easily. Alex nodded and made a non-committal sound before turning and quickly exiting the room. He wasn’t fast enough to not hear Kyle murmuring softly to Max before he left. “You’re doing so good, Max. Look at these balls, man. You’re going to give up a big load for us today, huh?”

Alex wished he could bleach his brain.

He quickly closed the door behind him and moved towards the room he knew Michael to be in. He’d seen Michael around the compound. He was hard to miss with his curls, sharp smile, and sad eyes. Alex had tried to ignore him, but he found himself more and more aware of him each time they crossed paths. When he entered the exam room to find him naked and conscious, strapped and gagged the same as Max on the gurney, he flushed hot with a mix of embarrassment and want. He shut the door quietly behind him.

“Hey Michael,” Alex greeted him quietly. Michael’s eyes roved up and down his body, undressing him, challenging him despite his position. Feeling exposed, Alex moved towards the gurney slowly. The closer he got, the more of Michael’s body he could see. His cock was nestled serenely against his balls, a short, dark thatch of hair surrounding his groin and leading up his stomach and over his chest. Alex wanted to run his fingers through the hair, tangle himself in it, bury his face against it… but he knew that was inappropriate. No matter how attractive he found him, the alien was not in any position to consent to anything, and Alex knew it. He was still tempted, however.

To try to hide the awkwardness he was feeling, Alex busied himself with positioning the cart next to the gurney. He gloved up and reached for the lube, immediately dropping it when Michael cleared his throat next to him. The bottle clattered loudly on the metal cart, knocking the milking canister onto the ground. Alex fumbled to try to catch it before it rolled too far away. A knock sounded at the door and one of the guard’s voices came through.

“You okay, sir?”

“I’m fine!” Alex called back, face flaming in embarrassment. He looked at Michael who gave him a smug and superior grin around the obstruction in his mouth. Alex set the canister back on the table and bent over Michael to hiss at him. “Don’t be a dick!”

Michael gave him a raised eyebrow in response as if to say ‘who, me?’

“Yes, you,” Alex snapped. He moved back over to the table and picked up the lube again. Again, Michael pointedly cleared his throat. Alex abruptly turned to look at him, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What?!”

Michael just looked at him for a moment, waiting for him to catch up. With a huff, Alex moved to block the view of the camera and loosened the gag enough to slide it out of Michael’s mouth. He watched Michael moved his jaw around and swallow convulsively a few times, resisting the urge to get him some water, while he waited for Michael to speak.

“What do you want, Michael?” Alex asked, trying to put steel into his voice to cow Michael’s nonchalant, almost playful attitude.

“I was going to say, you could at least buy me dinner before you start sticking probes into me,” Michael replied, his voice rough but steady. Alex stared at him incredulously.

“Are you trying to flirt with me?” he asked, unable to stop himself. Shock was an adequate description for how he was feeling about this turn of events.

“No. I am flirting with you, private,” Michael replied, giving Alex another once over before continuing. “How am I doing?”

“This is the least sexy situation I could possibly imagine being flirted with in,” Alex answered flatly.

“Well, you refuse to come visit me in my cell, so this is what I’ve got to work with. Besides, you’re about to have to get me hard enough to spurt for science. Maybe you should work on your bedside manner.” Alex stared down at Michael on the table. His eyes moved down to his exposed cock, still flaccid, and then over to the milking machine on the table. His ears felt warm and he was sure he was blushing.

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem. After all, I could always just inject you with Tri-Fix if you don’t want to get hard naturally,” Alex countered, trying not to let how flustered he was feeling show through in his voice. Michael gave him a frankly filthy grin in response.

“With the right stimulation, I’ve never had a problem getting hard naturally. Besides, have you ever had one of those tubes on your dick before?” Michael whistled low in apparent appreciation. “Science is wonderful. I’m all for science.”

“No, I’ve never--” Alex started, affronted at the mere idea that he would use government property for his own pleasure that way.

“Maybe you should climb up here and give it a try….” Michael suggested in a conspiratorial tone.

“There’s no way. There are cameras in here,” Alex protested, wondering why he wasn’t shoving the gag back in Michael’s mouth and getting on with the sample collection.

“I can fix that, ya know. These drugs they have us on dull my powers quite a bit, but I’m still pretty good at shorting out electronics when I need to,” Michael countered. He rushed on as Alex opened his mouth to respond. “You can keep me tied down. You can, uh… manually… collect your sample for the lab from me and take a spin on the suck tube at the same time.”

“I could never…” Alex protested weakly. He hated that he was even considering it. He didn’t know what Michael’s plan was, but he was pretty sure getting his dick sucked by a robot was not acceptable protocol under any circumstances.

“You can gag me again if you want to keep me quiet,” Michael said, voice almost a purr. Alex contemplated the idea, eyes straying from Michael to the milking canister and then surreptitiously up towards where the cameras were. Curiosity was getting the best of him. Curiosity and hormones. This close he could smell the petrichor and salt scent of Michael’s skin and make out the green flecks hidden amongst the amber of his eyes.

“If you can take out the cameras…” Alex started, but before he could finish he heard a faint cry of dismay from the observation room. Panicking, Alex shoved the gag back into Michael’s mouth and hoped to God it hadn’t been visibly out on the video. A second later, one of the monitor techs came into the room looking thunderous.

“Everything okay?” Alex asked the tech who had grabbed a chair and angrily shoved it into a corner. He started to climb up onto the seat, his eyes trained on the small dome on the ceiling that held the camera.

“This fucking piece of shit. Always shorts out on me. Goddamnit,” he cursed, removing the protective dome to look at the wiring beneath. He cursed again and hopped down, coming over to stand in front of Alex. “I’m going to have to replace the whole thing. Something major burned up. Do you want to postpone this procedure or--”

“No!” Alex cut in, his voice sharply cutting off the tech. The tech gave him a wide-eyed look. “I just… I’m not going to have time later. Look, he’s secured down. There are guards outside the door. I’ll be fine. He’s not going to cause me any trouble, will you?”

Alex directed the last question at Guerin who looked between him and the tech and lolled his head as if he were still slightly dopey. The tech squinted at him, but seemed to take the act at face value.

“Fine. Just give me a heads-up when you’re done so I can get in here. And don’t fucking undo any of those straps, got it? They’re there for your protection!” Alex gave him a grave nod and the tech turned and strode out of the room. As soon as the door snicked shut behind him, Alex turned and stared wide-eyed at an obviously unrepentant Michael. Alex removed his gag again, bending close to his ear before speaking.

"If you tell anyone about this, I will have you thrown into solitary for a week," Alex threatened in a low voice. It felt empty because he knew if Michael told anyone, his father would find him and put him in a hole in the ground. There was something about Michael's offer though… a feeling between them that made Alex sure the risk would pay out.

"I won't tell," Michael replied quietly. There was a sadness in his voice that pierced Alex's heart and he moved to be able to see Michael's eyes. They stared at each other for a long moment, each searching for something needed but fragile and better left silent between them. Alex ended their silent back and forth by bending down and pressing their lips together. It was sweet and chaste, a seal for their understanding, and when he pulled back he felt like their bargain was solidly struck. Quietly, Alex moved the extra chair from the corner under the broken camera and wedged it under the doorknob. When he turned back to face Michael, he immediately began to unbutton his shirt enough to pull it and his undershirt off over his head. He leaned against the table to tackle his boots, pants, and prosthesis. With an embarrassing lack of grace, Alex proceeded to climb onto the gurney and straddle Michael's thighs.

Michael's eyes were wide and darkened with lust as they scanned over Alex’s naked body. He looked hungry in a way Alex was all too familiar with. Alex noted to his smug relief that Michael’s cock had gotten half hard at his striptease and was growing firmer beneath him. Without a word, Alex reached over and grabbed the lube bottle, squeezing some into his palm before slicking Michael's cock with it. The friction made Michael groan quietly, his eyes fluttering shut as Alex stroked him with a firm hand and brought him to full hardness. Alex’s own cock was beginning to throb and ache with neglect, but he didn't want to touch himself too soon. The risk of the situation was turning him on almost as much as Michael beneath him, his hips flexing into Alex’s grip in aborted thrusts.

Alex let go of Michael and lifted onto his knees. Keeping eye contact with Michael, he took his still slick hand and reached behind himself to push two fingers into his hole. It was almost too much too soon, but Alex liked the burn and needed this part to go quick. He didn’t realize his eyes had slipped shut, unable to concentrate on anything but the stretch and pressure of his digits as he rocked his hips back and twisted his fingers to make the stretch go faster.

"Oh shit," Michael breathes out beneath him. Alex opened his eyes and pinned Michael with a hard stare before swooping down to kiss him again. This kiss wasn't sweet. It wasn't chaste or simple. Alex licked at the seam of Michael's mouth once and barely gaves the other man time to accept him before he was pushing his way in. If Michael was hungry, Alex was fucking starving. Not that he’d gotten a taste, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop.

Michael moaned into their kisses, his body shifting restlessly, claiming as much movement as he could against the restraints.

"Shhhh," Alex warned, breaking their kiss. He shuffled forward enough to be able to reach behind himself and grasp Michael's cock. Goosebumps broke out over his skin as he pressed the blunt tip to his wet hole. Biting his lip, Alex forced his body to relax and accept Michael's generous girth. It was almost too much and after a few slow drags where he only managed to shove a few inches at a time into himself, Alex pulled off and added more lube. The next time he pushed down, it was like his body just accepted Michael and made room accordingly. Both he and Michael let out harsh, gutted breathes when Alex managed to fully sheath Michael inside him.

"Fucking christ," Alex groaned, trying to stay quiet but already feeling his body scream for him to start fucking himself stupid on the perfect cock stuffed in him. Beneath him, eyes squeezed shut, Michael nodded and Alex watched as his hands and fingers flexed in an echo of Alex's own need to move. Slowly, Alex began to rock his hips and get his first exquisite taste of the pull and push of Michael's cock lighting up his insides. Wrapping a hand around his cock, Alex noted how wet and messy his shaft was from the leaking precum drooling out of the tip. He used that wetness to ease the way as he stroked himself lightly in time with the undulations of his hips.

"Please," Michael gasped out beneath him. "Oh fuck, please."

Alex knew what he wanted, wanted it himself, but also knew they made a plan. Carefully, he reached over to the instrument table and picked up the plastic cylinder end of the milking machine. Inside it was a PVC sleeve that molded itself around the recipient's penis once the suction was started. Then, according to the dials on the machine, the sleeve would go taut and relax with a rhythmic click and hiss, effectually sucking off the wearer until he blew his load and the sample collection sensor went off. The load would then be scraped from the inside of the sleeve and collected into a tube to be given to the lab. Alex knew all of that, had the technical knowledge down pat in his brain, but was unprepared for the foreign feeling of sliding his own cock into the smooth, cool fabric of the milker cylinder. With a barely trembling hand, he pressed the ‘on’ switch and waited for the first pull.

He didn't know what he’d been led to expect, but it wasn't the vice-like, fluid pressure that made his hips hitch forward instinctively to get more of that tight clutching feeling. Alex felt a moan get dragged past his lips, echoed by Michael as he began to fuck forward against the milker and then back onto Michael's cock.

"Oh god," Alex moaned brokenly, curling forward over the cylinder in helpless abandon. The angle pressed Michael's cock hard against his prostate, and Alex indulged himself in a few shallow thrusts that brushed the head of Michael's cock against that spot over and over. His body felt like it was getting expertly rung out, and he now understood why there wasn't more of a revolt against the collection process by the alien captives. They were getting an expert blow job by a robot on the government's dime.

When Alex could drag his eyes open, he looked down and saw his own helpless pleasure echoed on Michael's face. His lips were parted in an "oh" of surprise, eyebrows drawn together like he wasn't sure if he was in pain or in ecstasy, and sweat beaded his hairline and neck. He looked like a ravaged Greek demigod laid bare at Alex's whim. The sight made Alex’s body shudder with a wave of lust for the alien beneath him. He didn’t know if it was because he was alien or because Alex was in the midst of intense pleasure, but he wanted to never leave in that instant.

"Fuck, look at you," Alex couldn't help saying. He pushed back, arching and reaching until he could brace his hands on Michael's legs to grind back down in his prick. The cylinder jut from his groin obscenely between them, position change not effecting its mechanical precision. Michael opened his eyes and stared up at Alex, a look if wonder on his face.

"I wanna touch you," he said, voice quiet enough to almost get lost under the hum of the machine. Alex smirked down at him, feeling fuck drunk and bold at his naked worship.

"Where do you wanna touch me? Tell me," Alex demanded, voice breathy.

"I want to touch your neck. I want to twist my hands in your hair and put you where I want you," Michael said, voice serious like he was in a confessional booth telling his sins. Alex hummed in response, sitting up straight and moving his hands up his chest to his neck and then into his hair.

"Like this?" Alex asked, smiling at the covetous, feral look on Michael's face as Alex acted out his words. He let his eyes slip shut so he could imagine that instead of restrained, Michael was simply dictating his desires to him.

"Yeah. Like that," he agreed. His eyes trailed lower and he began talking again. "I want to rake my nails down your chest. I want to pinch and suck your nipples, abuse your tits until you're begging for me to stop."

Alex let his hands fall from his hair down to his chest. He raked his fingers down the front of his pecs and stomach, not stopping until he was almost at his pubes. He slid his fingers back up to his nipples and plucked at them with savage, twisting, pinching fingers. The zings of pain shot down to his groin, where his balls were drawing up tight to his body, the finish line in sight for him. The rhythm of the machine picked up and Alex opened his eyes in time to see Michael looking intently at the knots that controlled speed and intensity.

"Where else?" Alex gasped, the increased setting of the machine making him tip forward to brace himself with his hands on Michael’s chest, so he could fuck himself harder onto Michael's cock in time. He could see in Michael's face he was getting close too, trying to hold out until Alex busted.

"After I come in your ass, I want you to sit on my face and let me eat you out. I want to taste you and me on my tongue. I wanna watch you squirm, oversensitive and mewling as I tongue fuck you into a second orgasm," Michael managed to say through a gasping, pained groan. His hips were flexing minutely under Alex, trying impotently to reciprocate the harsh pounding he was getting as Alex rode him.

"Fuck!" Alex almost yelled, his body starting to seize at the thought, thrusts going erratic as he rode through his orgasm on with his body on automatic pilot. A beeping sensor on the machine went off and the machine automatically shut itself off. Gingerly, he broke the suction around the base of his cock and slid the cylinder from his body. Feeling wrecked and still impossible full of cock, Alex looked down at Michael who was breathing hard and looking pained at the full stop of their activities. Alex gave him an evil smile when their eyes met.

"Your turn, cowboy," he said. Michael looked at him in momentarily confusion until Alex pulled off his cock with groan. He felt so empty without Michael inside him. He felt like his ass was gaping where his legs were still spread on either side of Michael’s hips. He twisted around and slid the used cylinder over Michael's hard-as-nails prick. Machine in place, Alex reached over and flipped on the machine again, overriding the collection sensor and making sure to turn up the speed to bring Michael off swiftly. He turned back to Michael's face, watching him go from shock to stricken within seconds. Alex bent low, resting some of his body weight on top of Michael’s chest, and mouthing at his jaw and neck. He felt the vibrations of whimpers and quiet moans against his cheek as he nibbled at Michael's ear.

"Once you cum in the cylinder, I'm going to make sure you get a taste of us before I dump the sample due to compromise by a foreign body. That means we'll have to do this again tomorrow. And tomorrow? I'm going to fuck your throat while the machine gets a clean sample from you," Alex whispered into his ear. Michael made an unmistakable noise of release, a tight, gasping sob as his cock was milked dry. The selection alarm chimed again and Alex turned off the machine with an easy flick of his wrist.

Good to his word, Alex twisted and broke the suction of the cylinder. Because of the double load, when he moved it off Michael's cock, he could see their combined spunk coating Michael's length in a pearlescent sheen. Inspired, Alex bent down and dragged his tongue down the length of Michael's softening cock. He turned back to Michael, dumping the cylinder haphazardly onto the instrument cart before sealing his lips over Michael's. Michael opened his mouth hungrily, tongue tangling against Alex's and greedily stealing all traces of their combined flavor for himself. When they broke apart, Alex smiled down at Michael for a moment, giving him one last kiss, before moving off of him and the gurney.

He once again leaned against the side of the gurney and put himself back together. By the time he was completely re-outfitted in his fatigues, his mind was once again on business. He turned and pushed the gag back into Michael's mouth before he could say anything. Michael stared at him in confusion until Alex grabbed a hand towel and laid it over Michael's lap to cover his nudity. He gave Michael a sad smile before he went and removed the chair from in front of the door and stuck his head out into the corridor.

"Captive is ready for transport back to the pen," he called to the guards on duty. He backed away when they came back in the room and unlocked the wheels of Michael's gurney. Michael stared at him in something like betrayal as he was wheeled away. After he was gone, Alex washed out the cylinders sleeve and wrote a note on Michael's chart to schedule him for a second collection the following day.

Alex wasn't sure how he felt about what had just happened. Now, in the quiet of the empty collection room, he wondered if it had been an elaborate dream. He wondered if he'd wake up soon in his own bed, tired and disoriented and dreading another day of work at Caulfield. He also couldn't deny that what had just happened definitely wasn't a dream if the ache in his muscles and the slick feeling between his ass cheeks were to be trusted. He felt guilty for judging Kyle’s lasciviousness when he couldn’t stop himself from riding his captive like a rodeo bull. Was he as bad as the other guards thought, or was it just Michael? Alex couldn’t imagine doing anything that had just happened to another captive or man that he knew.

One thing was for certain, he was already in too deep to want to stop. He hadn’t come that hard since he’d learned where his prostate was. He just didn’t know how he was going to schedule in more time for him and Michael to see each other after tomorrow. With a sigh, he left the room and went back to his office to think through his actions. A flask of bourbon waited in his desk drawer to help him find the answers.

[immabethehero]

Henrik but he’s Baymax

Hey so! A little while ago on a discord server, I suddenly came up with the idea of Henrik as Baymax, and this story spawned from it. Should I make more content for it, I’ll call it Henrik Healthcare Provider.

CW: Death mention, food mention, self-neglect and slight starvation, coma mention, hospital mention

@leobashi I know you were excited about this!

~~~~~~~~

Chase lies in bed, his arms wrapped around a pillow as he stares blankly at the wall. The curtains are closed, only bits of sunshine peeking through. A plate of cold, untouched food sits on his desk. He can’t remember how long it’s been since he last slept or moved. He sighs and closes his eyes. Maybe this time he won’t get nightmares.

Someone knocks on the door. Chase keeps his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. He hears someone open the door. A waft of eggs, bacon and hashbrowns fills the stuffy room.

“Morning, Chase,” a voice whispers. It’s Marvin bringing him food today. Chase wills him to put the food down and leave.

He hears steps and the plate being set down, but instead of closing the door, he hears footsteps coming toward him, and then a weight beside him on the bed. A hand gently strokes his hair.

“You should come down soon. The others miss seeing you,” Marvin says. “Sleep well, Chase. I hope you feel better soon.” The weight disappears and Chase hears the door close.

Chase groans and sits up, his body aching from lying still for too long. He supposes he should get outside his room soon. It’s what Jack would want him to do.

Chase’s stomach drops and his eyes water as soon as the thought enters his head. He misses Jack so much. His roommate, his rock, his best friend. It has been two weeks since the fire that had rendered Jack unconscious when he ran in to save their robotics professor. The building had exploded in flames, and while Jack was rescued by firefighters and immediately rushed to the hospital, their professor was not so lucky. Jack now resides in the hospital, bandages covering nasty burn wounds, and a breathing tube up his nose. Chase visits whenever he can, saying hello and catching him up on life, before leaving to lie in bed until the next time he could see him.

Chase slowly stands up and stumbles over to his wardrobe. He opens it and begins rummaging through for clean pants to wear. He grabs a pair of navy jeans and slams the drawer on his finger.

“OW!” Chase yelps, yanking his finger out and holding it close. He groans in pain, holding his finger. 

Suddenly, he hears a beeping sound from behind him and the sound of something stirring to life. He turns around and gasps as two ice blue eyes stare back at him.

“Who are you?!” Chase demands, his voice hoarse from disuse.

A figure steps out from the dark shadows of the room, the sunlight peeking out from behind the blinds shining on a human body. 

Chase makes out a man with soft brown hair, a light blue shirt and khakis underneath a white doctor’s coat. The man observes Chase with a friendly expression on his face. A very small pair of glasses sits on his nose. They look more like two connected dots. The man lifts his hand robotically and waves.

“Hello, I am Henrik, your personal healthcare companion,” he says. His voice is soft with a German accent.

“Henrik! I didn’t know you were still active,” Chase says, shocked. He had almost forgotten Jack bringing home his creepy, life-sized robot doctor. Jack had worked for a whole 6 months on the robot, fitting him up with over 1000 healthcare protocols and procedures. At the cry of “ow”, the robot awakens.

“I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?” Henrik asks, tilting his head.

“I just pinched my finger, I’ll be alright,” Chase says, shrugging.

Henrik blinks and his glasses project a screen in the air. Ten faces appear, each with a number. “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”

“Zero? I’m fine, it’s already gone,” Chase says. “You can go back to sleep now.”

Henrik leans over to inspect the wound. “Does it hurt when I touch it?” he asks as he lifts his hand up.

“Please do not touch me,” Chase snaps, stepping back. Henrik ignores him, stepping closer to see his finger. Chase stumbles and falls backwards into the space between the wardrobe and the wall.

Henrik stares down at him, expression still neutral. “You have fallen.”

“You think?” Chase scoffs. He grabs a shelf to pull himself up, only for the shelf to break and trinkets to slide down on him. All the while, Henrik asks,

“On a scale of-”

“OW!”

“On a scale of-”

“AGH!”

“On a scale of-”

“Eugh!”

“On a scale of on-”

A particularly heavy trophy lands on Chase’s tenders. He emits a high pitched cry.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”

“Zero,” Chase squeaks, holding his sore tenders.

Henrik pulls Chase out of the rubble and hugs him tightly. “It is alright to cry. Crying is a natural response to pain.”

Chase pulls himself out of Henrik’s grip. “I’m not crying!”

“I will scan you for injuries,” Henrik says.

“Don’t scan me,” Chase orders.

Henrik blinks. “Scan complete.”

“Unbelievable.”

“You have sustained no injuries, but you lack necessary nutrients in your body. Have you eaten today?”

“Yes,” Chase snaps. Right on cue, his stomach growls. He sighs.

Henrik does not react in the slightest. Marvin or Jameson would have shaken their heads, Jackie and Jack would have immediately run off to grab Chase a snack. Instead, Henrik looks around the room, before taking notice of the food on Chase’s desk. He walks over and bends down.

“Someone has left you some food. You should eat,” Henrik finally says.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You have not eaten in a while, you must do so before you faint from hunger and dizziness. I will warm up your food.” Henrik rubs his hands together and hovers them over the food. Chase stares incredulously. He didn’t know Henrik could do that.

“Uh, it’s alright, I’ve already had enough.”

“Your diet and nutrient history says otherwise.”

“Smartass.”

“Your food is warm now. Enjoy your meal.” Henrik stands up and backs up to let Chase sit down and eat. Chase refuses to move.

“You must eat, Chase. It is not healthy to neglect your stomach and diet. You will not feel well and any task you put your mind to will be finished inadequately.”

Chase sighs and sits down, taking the fork and stabbing his omelette with it, then shoving it in his mouth. He glares at Henrik. “Happy?”

“Are you happy?” Henrik shoots back, face neutral as always.

Marvin would have stormed out in frustration by now, Jackie would have left to let him cool down. Jameson would have sat down to read, staying only to make sure Chase finished his meal, a look of annoyance on his face. In the months that Chase has seen the robot awake, Henrik has never shown any emotion. He never told Jack, but it unnerves him to no end.

“No? Yes? I don’t know,” Chase says.

“How does the food taste?” Henrik asks.

“It’s alright,” Chase says, moving on to the bacon. “You want some?”

“I am a robot. I cannot eat,” Henrik reminds him. Henrik smiles for the first time. Chase relaxes a little. Maybe he does have emotions.

“Right, sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you,” Chase says.

“I am a robot. I cannot be offended,” Henrik says.

Chase can’t help but laugh. It startles him a little. He hasn’t laughed in a while. Henrik tilts his head in confusion. His expression only makes Chase laugh more.

The door suddenly swings open and Jackie, Marvin and Jameson all run in.

“We heard a bang, are you alright?” Jameson signs, worried. Chase nods, still laughing.

“Oh, you’re smiling again, Chase. I haven’t seen you smile in such a long time,” Marvin remarks.

Jackie observes Henrik, who gives him a quick look and says, “I sense your temperature is higher than normal. Are you feeling well?”

“Absolutely…” Jackie responds, only half-paying attention. “Chase, who is this?”

“Henrik, Jack’s robot that he’s been working on. He’s a robotic nurse.”

“I am equipped with over 1000 healthcare procedures and protocols. Jack made me in the hopes of helping people access quicker healthcare,” Henrik explains.

“He looks amazing!” Jameson exclaims. “It’s amazing what mankind can do with technology!”

Henrik watches as Jameson lifts his arm up to examine him. “Your neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are happy.”

“I am!” Jameson says. “Wait, how does he know sign language?”

“Jack programmed me to understand up to 100 languages, including BSL, your current language,” Henrik says.

“Amazing! Imagine how many people Henrik can help!” Jameson cries in delight, clapping his hands.

“How did he get in your room? I thought he was back at the workshop,” Marvin says.

“Jack brought him home because they needed space,” Chase says. “Our own garage was filled with my own project, so I let him take my room for the meantime.”

“Where is Jack?” Henrik suddenly asks. “He is usually with me when I am awake.”

The atmosphere in the room immediately sullens. Chase sighs and rubs a hand over his face.

“He’s... in the hospital,” he says.

“Is he alright? When will he return?” Henrik asks.

“When he wakes up. He’s in a coma.”

“Oh.” Henrik’s face remains neutral. Chase scowls at the robot’s lack of emotion.

“Yeah.”

“I am sorry to hear that. But with patience and enough healing, I am sure he will awaken,” Henrik says.

“That’s what the doctors keep telling us,” Marvin says, hugging himself.

Henrik walks over to the computer and puts his hand on it. His glasses project a screen and images fly by.

“What are you doing?” Jackie asks.

“I am downloading information on comas and its effects on both patients and family members of patients,” Henrik says. “Information dictates that visiting the patient regularly can help improve the probability of the patient waking up.”

“I know that,” Chase says. “I’ve been doing that all week.”

“Physical and verbal reassurance can help loved ones cope with the current state of the patient,” Henrik continues. He crosses over to Chase and hugs him, the movement stiff but welcoming. Chase awkwardly leans into the hug.

“Everything will be alright. There, there,” Henrik soothes, patting his head. Chase chuckles.

“Thanks, Henrik. It’s appreciated.”

Henrik nods and pulls away. “If there is anything else you need, I will be nearby. But for now, I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care.”

“Already? You just woke up,” Jackie protests.

“I do not see a reason for me to be here at the very moment. I am simply taking up space.”

Jackie’s heart sinks a little for the robot. Even though Henrik meant it in very different circumstances, Jackie can’t help being reminded of the thousand times his human friends have said that. He gently grabs the robot’s arm.

“Why don’t you stay out a little longer? We’d love to give you a tour of the house,” he suggests.

Chase raises an eyebrow. “We?”

“Will that help improve your mental state?” Henrik asks.

“Maybe?” Jackie says. The other shrug.

Henrik blinks. “Alright then. Lead the way.”

Jackie walks out, Marvin and Jameson following behind him. Henrik begins to exit, but hesitates when he sees Chase remain where he is.

“Are you not coming?” Henrik asks.

“I think I’ll pass. I’ve seen the house before.”

“Some exercise and fresh air will improve your health, both physically and mentally.”

“You don’t give up easily, do you?”

“Come outside, Chase. Today’s weather is a high of 20 degrees with sunshine. You might enjoy it.”

Chase sighs and stands up, taking the plate with him. “Coming.”

Henrik smiles once more. “Good.”

@graysun, @florenceisfalling, @miishae, @lonelyseiren, @goldenoceanaart, @egopocalypse, @oasisofgalaxies, @fleecal, @kofi-kiing​, @myspatialspace, @jo-ann-ahh-2, @huffletrax, @gemstone6, @dumbasticart, @lunaarmada,@meteorshowersfillthesky, @uhhbeans​​,  @the-pastel-kitsune​, @bupine,  @climbing-starrs, @the-spawn-of-loki, @jadehowlettthewolf, @obsidiancreates, @rammypaige, @hollenka99, @cest-mellow, @randowaffle, @green-protects, @dezi-popp, @badlypostedeverything, @crystalninjaphoenix​, @milo-kno​​, @pixelpixie-pix​​, @why-killed-markiplier​

[carelessannie]

maybe it goes like this: tony courts peter (part 9)

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Epilogue

Read on A03

Read the Stuckony backstory

Read the Dating OneShots

Word count: 6.8K

PeterxBuckyxOFC, WinterSpider, Winterhawk, Stucky, Winteriron

Bucky's POV -> no one is ready for Peter’s heat to start, much less Bucky, and now he’s gotta struggle through his own emotions. Damn these hormones.

Major warnings: D/S Au, A/B/O Au, explicit d/s abo smut, sex toys, anal/vaginal/oral sex, Steve likes cleaning up Bucky with his tongue, kinda gross cum sharing *shrug*, Tony tries to take Bucky in public at one point

---

Maybe it goes like this:

“Steve! Fuck, Alpha! Help!”

Bucky tears through the house carrying Peter in his arms, screaming for his Alpha. He found Peter collapsed in the hall moments ago, and his instincts are chanting Alpha, Alpha, Alpha will know what to do.

“Buck, what the—” Steve sprints into view, but comes to a stop abruptly, as if running into a wall. He takes a slow step backwards, straightening his posture and covering his nose with one hand— feeling around the wall with the other, “Buck. Bucky. Code Papa-Niner.”

Papa-Niner? Nesting protocol?

The look in Steve’s eyes says he’s definitely not joking, and Bucky doesn’t hesitate, immediately setting a course for the downstairs nest.

Once he reaches the nesting hallway, it’s quick work to prepare the room for lockdown— pulling down the steel temporary barriers that Tony installed recently, locking the front doors to the den and pressing the emergency button. With the temporary security measures in place, Bucky goes through their previously agreed upon nesting procedures: he gathers scent-marked linens, food, liquids, knotting toys, restraints, and Omegas— of which they are one short. After he checks on their resources and lays out the other materials, it’s time to wait.

“Hey, Bucky? You in there?”

It’s Clint, and Bucky heaves a sigh of relief. He lays Peter back down in the sheets, swaddling him gently, before crawling out to meet Clint beyond the barriers.

It’s Clint, and Bucky heaves a sigh of relief. He lays Peter back down in the sheets, swaddling him gently, before crawling out to meet Clint beyond the barriers.

“Where’s Annie?” Bucky demands, positioning his body to make sure the Beta can’t see into the room.

Clint stumbles back, covering his nose, “O— on her way, Bucky. Fuck, is that Peter? What is that smell—”

A growl rips through his chest and Bucky slams Clint against the wall, using the full weight of his  five-foot-seven-hundred-fifty-pound body to pin the taller Beta with a snarl, “Get the fuck outta here, Barton.” He throws Clint down the hall, “And don’t even think of letting Tony or Steve down here. On your life, Barton, swear to me.”

“I swear, Omega, I swear. Holy shit.”

Bucky doesn’t stay long enough to hear the rest, content to retreat into his nest with the promise from his Beta. All he has to do now is wait for Annie.

Peter has barely stirred. Bucky watches as he squirms around, pained whimpers falling from his lips. When he pulls Peter back into his arms, Bucky notices that his clothes are soaked with sweat.

“Hush, darlin’ it’s okay. Gonna take such good care of you,” he whispers into Peter’s hair, holding him tight and pressing the Omega’s nose into his neck.

Five minutes later, there’s a light knock on the barrier. Bucky can’t help the growl he lets out before he hears Annie announce herself.

“It’s me, Bucky. Clint told me you were in here already— how bad is it?” she asks, approaching the nest slowly, and only entering when Bucky invites her in.

He leaves Peter with her, moving around the room to work on the final shut down procedures.

“He’s unconscious. I’m not sure why, and he seems uncomfortable.”

“Okay, uh. Take care of the room, I’ll try to get him up.”

He unlocks the den, checking the surrounding area for possible threats. The barrier gets closed next— completely blocking the hallway from the nesting room and sealing them inside. He checks each of the windows and the adjoining suite bathroom, content with the locks, and makes his way back to his packmates.

When he climbs back into the nest, Peter immediately reaches out for him with a trill. Both him and Annie are undressed, pressed skin to skin, and Bucky realizes it’s his first time seeing them like this, naked and vulnerable.

His breathing picks up, and he sits up straighter on his knees, pulling off his shirt and shimmying out of his pants. Seated in just his briefs, Bucky crawls closer and takes Peter’s waiting hand. He lets the small Omega pull him closer, but hesitates before falling into a kiss. He looks over at Annie, expectantly—

“‘m okay, Jamie. ‘t just took me by su’prise is’all,” Peter slurs, giving him a dopey smile.

“Okay, Pete. What do you need? You should probably drink some water—”

Peter lets out a shrill whine, triggering something primal in Bucky’s hindbrain, and he’s moving Peter to lay face down before he can stop himself. He helps the Omega— supporting his chest with a pillow and pulling his hips up until he’s presenting— and groans at the sight in front of him.

Annie isn’t any less affected, and she silently takes Bucky’s hand, guiding him to touch the silky skin on display in front of them. Peter arches his back further and makes a series of grunting noises followed by one cry of empty.

“Shit,” Bucky curses, feeling his own hole clench in sympathy, “grab one of the toys, please?” and Annie is quick to hand him one of the smaller dildos with an inflatable knot as he admires the trail of slick glistening on Peter’s taint.

“Perfect,” he praises, and slides a finger into Peter’s body without a warning. Annie kneels behind Bucky, kissing lightly at his neck and playing with his boxers as he works Peter open with his fingers.

After Annie undresses Bucky, she moves Peter and settles underneath him, humming encouragements into sweet kisses and reaches up, behind him, to pull his cheeks apart. And god do they make a pretty picture. Needy, desperate Omega in heat on top of the prettiest girl he’s ever seen, grinding together and exchanging wet kisses.

Bucky focuses back on his task, checking the slick from Peter’s hole, and using a large amount of it to coat the toy in his hand. He rests the blunt end against Peter’s rim, pressing lightly, and both of them groan when the cock is basically swallowed up to the hilt.

“Fuck. So greedy, Peter. So good. How’s it feel, pretty Omega?”

He doesn’t get a verbal response, just a loud keening noise, and takes that as permission— thankful that they negotiated this beforehand. The dildo fits easily in his hand, and each thrust is deep, slow, and brings his fingertips in contact with Peter’s dripping entrance, over and over.

Annie reaches underneath Peter’s body, pulling on his tiny cock and wringing desperate sobs from his lips. She uses her other hand to pull Peter in for a kiss, tangling their tongues and swallowing his moans as Bucky picks up the pace.

“Harder, Bucky, I think he’s close,” Annie begs, breathless, and Bucky obeys— meeting Peter’s hips with each thrust as the Omega tries to push back into them.

“Ah ah, Jay, please, ah,” Peter pants, curling his fingers into the sheets and burying his face in Annie’s shoulder, “Need’a, huh ah ah, knot please.”

Bucky keeps his pace, pushing deep into the Omega, and grabs the pump for the knot, pulsing the air pump once with each thrust until there’s a noticeable bulge at the base of the cock.

“M’gonna do it, baby, hold on. Come for me, Peter. Come on my knot, come for me,” he pleads with the Omega.

When the knot is inflated half-way, he slows the thrusts and focuses on grinding down, shallow, into Peter’s prostate. He earns a wail and a string of muffled curses from his mate, and shoves the full knot into his hole with an audible pop!

“Oh fuck, Bucky, keep going,” Annie breaths, both hands at work under Peter’s body to bring him over the edge.

Peter’s legs buckle. Annie grabs him on his way down, keeping his thighs spread as he comes apart in their hands, sighing and humming in pleasure. Bucky reaches underneath him to feel his cock, and has to close his eyes as the pulsing, clear cum pools in his hand.

He continues pumping the knot, inflating it until it no longer threatens to slip past Peter’s swollen rim. With his hand full of Omega cum, he begins to rub it into his own cock and balls— intimately scent marking himself to satisfy his overwhelming instinct to mate and claim his Omegas.

When he looks up, Annie is doing the same— rubbing Peter’s cum into her skin with her head thrown back— and Bucky can’t take it anymore.

With Peter’s heat satisfied for the time being, the two of them work to move him to the side, curling him around a pillow.

Bucky sees her eyes on him, dark and wanting, “Feelin’ horny, Omega?” he purrs, settling over her body and leaning down for a kiss.

She moans into his mouth, nibbling on his lower lip, “Mmm, yeah Bucky. What do you have in mind?”

“Well. I’ll be honest with you, baby, I’ve never been with a girl before.”

“Oh,” she pulls back, pushing him with one hand, “I mean— it’s not too different from a guy who’s an Omega, I don’t think.”

Now he’s definitely blushing, “Well, I— I’ve never really topped anyone either.”

Annie gives him a look, pushing her fingers through his hair, before leaning up to press a sweet kiss to his lips, “Neither of us have to swing for this, Bucky. If you don’t feel comfortable topping, we can share one of those long, floppy dildos that Tony bought for us,” she smiles, then, and frames his face with both of her hands, “but honestly, I’d be honored to be your first.”

He smiles down at her, grinding his cock in between her legs, “What’re we doin’ talkin’ then, sugar?”

Her laugh is swallowed up by his mouth, and they both groan into the suddenly heady, desperate kiss. Annie spreads her legs, locking her ankles behind his back, and rolls her hips into his.

“Fuck, Annie,” he curses. Her core feels so different against his cock, so soft and wet, and he can’t help reaching down to feel, gasping, “tell me— tell me what feels good, baby.”

She mewls into his mouth, clutching hard onto his shoulders, “Like this, Bucky,” and one of her hands joins his between her legs, guiding his fingers through her folds, until he feels a small bump that causes her to cry out.

“That, oh shit, right there, Bucky— s’my clit, baby, feels good.”

He looks down in wonder, following her fingers as they move in small, firm circles. After a minute or so of discovering what makes her twitch and moan, she releases his hands and grasps his cock, stroking it slowly from root to tip. He knows he’s not big— damn his Omega biology— but he’s gotta be big enough to satisfy this girl. At least, that’s what Stevie told him the other night.

Annie must sense his hesitation, because she’s pulling him down into a deep kiss, grabbing his hair, and whispering, “Come on, Bucky. Fuck me. Please, come on, Bucky.”

“Okay, okay. Uh, hold on,” he pulls back, lifting her hips, and feels around for the source of wetness pouring out of her. Once he finds it— and what a fuckin’ marvel, having two holes, damn— he watches her face and pushes two fingers in, feeling around her inner walls as her eyes goes wide in pleasure.

He tries to stretch her out a bit, but after a minute she’s laughing, “Bucky, I don’t need that much work. Just fuck me already.”

Pulling his fingers out, he uses her slick to coat his cock, and lines up, searching her face for any discomfort. He pushes forward, inch by inch, until he’s buried deep inside. She looks so beautiful like this— eyes rolled back, skin flushed, and body open in submission.

As he pulls out and thrusts back in, he has to concentrate on not coming immediately inside of her. He leans down to suck on her nipples, biting and flicking each one until he eases back from the edge.

When she gives him an impatient groan, he sits back on his heels and picks up his pace, watching his cock disappear stroke by stroke, and lets himself get lost in the hot and wet of her body.

It’s not long— and almost embarrassingly so— that he’s back on the edge, feeling his orgasm build, and pounding harder into Annie, sighing, “So sweet, Omega, so pretty. Gonna come for me, darlin’? M’so close, Annie, m’so— god, fuck, I’m gonna come, Annie.”

“Yeah, Bucky, c’mon. Touch me, make me come on your cock, baby.”

The words almost send him over, and he reaches down, frantically, to thumb at her clit, desperate to have her come first.

When he starts feeling her clench around him, rhythmically milking his cock, he loses it— gasping into her skin and shaking as his orgasm rips through his body, thrusting deep and emptying himself inside of her.

“Hot damn, Jamie.”

Still breathing into each other’s mouths, trying to come down from their shared orgasms, both Annie and Bucky look over to see Peter watching them with hooded eyes, hand reaching back to absently fuck himself with the still inflated dildo.

Neither of them respond as Bucky pulls out, fascinated to watch his cum slowly leak out of her passage, and Peter continues to whine, “Why don’t I get that, Jamie? I wanna be fulla cum.”

Annie just laughs, rolling out from under him to snuggle with Peter. She reaches around his back and grabs the pump, releasing the knot, and he groans, shifting closer to her.

“Ready to go again, bunny?” she teases, running her fingers through his hair as he nods his head.

“Always, kitty.”

Bucky laughs, enamored by their nicknames, “Uh, small animals?”

Peter rolls over, pulling Bucky closer, “We use ‘em during scenes. They help us establish who’s in charge.”

“Oh god,” he sits up, and a thought occurs to him, “wait— what do you guys call Clint?”

Both Omegas give him a shit-eating grin, “Baby bird.”

“Holy shit.”

All three of them try to keep a straight face— and then fall apart laughing, holding onto each other as they giggle hysterically and try to breathe through it.

Bucky lays on his back, listening as his mates pull themselves together as laughter turns into labored breathing, the two Omegas succumbing again to Peter’s heat.

Well, Bucky thinks, can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em.

---

Four days later, when all three of them are finally in heat together, all Bucky can feel is rolling waves of pain. There’s a distant memory of sharing this with his Ado-Pack in high school, but now he’s just thankful that neither of his packmates had tried to fuck him through it.

Because as sexy as it sounds— three Omegas, desperate for a knot, grinding on each other— Bucky curses their doctor again for forcing them to do this together. Without an Alpha.

It had taken until the end of the second day for Annie to enter her heat, and the beginning of the fourth for Bucky to start his. Peter is nearing the end, they think, but it’s hard to tell when the three of them are delirious for a knot, unable to think straight.

The last few days are torture. None of them are conscious enough to work the knotting dildo, so they pass most of the time tangled together, writhing around. Their few lucid moments are spent scrambling for water and food.

At one point someone tries to get through the barrier from the outside. Bucky doesn’t remember much after that, but knows that whoever it was got an earful of screaming profanities for their trouble.

Peter’s heat breaks on the fifth day, and Bucky barely notices him pulling them into the large, pack-sized bathtub, taking care to clean all three of them before returning to the nest. There’s another moment where Bucky feels himself being fucked and knotted. He comes so hard that he blacks out.

Their Omega feeds them and keeps them hydrated, and Annie’s heat thankfully ends the next afternoon.

For the last day, both Omegas hold Bucky close, keeping him filled and speaking sweet things into his ear. They read to him in the quiet moments, and Peter actually fucks him a few times, pumping a load of Omega cum deep inside him.

Five days after his heat started— nine days total in the nest— Bucky wakes up with a clear head, and the aching need for an Alpha knot has passed.

He looks around, sitting up fully in the nest, and groans at how sore his entire body is.

“Bucky? How are you feeling?”

Annie’s voice is raspy, and her and Peter are sitting towards the back of the nest, drinking applesauce packets. They are both naked, still, and Annie has her head on Peter’s chest. Bucky almost falls over— both of them are decorated, head to toe, in small bruises and bites. He looks down at himself and huffs, satisfied to see similar marks across his body.

“M’fine, Annie, fuck,” he voice sounds like gravel, and he smiles, thankful it’s over, “can we, shit,” he clears his throat, “are we done?”

Peter tosses him a bottle of water, and it feels like ice hitting his empty stomach when he drinks it.

“They know we’re done, just waiting on you, Jamie.” Peter explains, pulling out his phone, “Do you want me to—”

“Steve, please. I’m sorry, please, I need Steve.” He doesn’t care that he’s begging, the need to see his Alpha is suddenly overwhelming.

“Okay, here I’ll call him.”

Bucky jumps out of the nest, stumbling as his feet bear his weight for the first time in days, and unlocks the barriers, throwing open the locked steel doors, and running to throw open the windows. Damn, the fresh air is nice.

He hears Peter say something, but barely has time to register it when he hears footsteps running down the hallway, heading for the nest. He shuts the entrance, hiding Peter and Annie from sight, as Steve barrels into view.

“Alpha,” Bucky whimpers, opening his arms for his mate to hold him, and Steve doesn’t stop. He runs straight into Bucky’s arms, lifting the Omega, and hauling him back down the hallway towards their den.

Steve is growling, a prolonged rumble that immediately soothes Bucky’s anxious instincts.

Everything’s okay now. Alpha’s here.

The door is slammed shut. Bucky’s back hits the bed. He’s bracketed in by familiar arms— surrounded by fresh Coffee and cleansing Rain.

“What do you need, Buck.” it’s barely a question, and Bucky has no idea of the answer, so he just makes a confused noise.

At his whimper, Steve leans down to scent him, lightly ghosting his hands up and down Bucky’s trembling and bruised body. His Alpha licks down his chest, across his navel, and stops near his poorly chafed cock— and his growl deepens. Bucky’s breath picks up as Steve lifts his legs over his head and grunts, “Hold them.”

With a surge of strength, Bucky hooks his arms around his knees, holding himself open for the Alpha to inspect. In this position, he can only listen and feel as Steve starts to mouth at his opening, filling the room with obscene slurping noises as he coaxes every last drop out of Bucky’s abused hole.

“Alpha, what’re you, oh fuck, Alpha, please,”

After several torturous moments, Steve finally pulls off, face covered in a layer of combined Omega spend, and helps Bucky lower his legs back down.

“M’gonna clean you up, Buck. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Bucky has to blink to keep himself awake as Steve picks him up again, this time moving into the bathroom and setting Bucky in the bathtub. The two of them settle together in the tub, and Steve pulls out his phone to make a few calls— first to Clint, making sure both of the other Omegas are safe and fed, and second to Tony, letting him know it’s fine for him to return to the house.

“You kicked ‘im out?” Bucky hums, wiggling closer to his Alpha in the warm bathwater.

Steve just holds him tight, “Didn’t want him reacting to Peter’s scent, s’all. He wanted to be here for you, Buck, but I didn’t want him around until Peter got to take a shower or something.”

“Damn, I bet it was agony for him not to be with Peter durin’ it. Did… was it him? Bangin’ on the barriers like that?”

“Uh,” Steve clears his throat, “no, that… that was me.”

“Shit, Stevie. You really wanted him that bad? I guess I wouldn’t know— you know Omegas aren’t really affected by that heat smell and stuff—”

“No, you jerk,” Steve interrupts, poking him in the side, “the barriers weren’t scent proof, ya know? It wasn’t bad until I smelled you— your fuckin’ perfect Chocolate and Orange scent. I went ballistic, Buck. My Alpha hasn’t been calm for days since you started your heat.”

“Stevie, fuck. All I wanted was your knot. Never been that desperate before— not even during my first one.”

“I know, Bucky, I know,” Steve soothes him, stroking up and down his legs and gently cupping his soft cock and balls, “wanna put you on my knot so bad, Omega.”

“M’so sore, Alpha,” he complains, still pushing back into his Alpha’s touch.

“Such a good Omega, Bucky. Perfect for me— just relax.”

The two of them rock gently together, exchanging slow kisses, until Steve slides into Bucky’s still stretched hole, filling him perfectly in one thrust. His Alpha is exceedingly tender— moving in a calming, rocking motion until Bucky can feel his knot swell in between them.

Bucky keens as Steve’s knot slips into him, stretching him even further and rubbing up against his over-sensitive prostate. Steve tries shushing him, but Bucky can’t help crying out as the Alpha’s knot blows wide, popping into place, and shooting deep into his belly.

It hurts— it hurts so bad— but Bucky relaxes into it, letting his head fall to the side to give Steve access to his bonding glands. He feels his body shake through a dry orgasm as his Alpha ruts up into his hole. His muscles clench to milk every drop from Steve’s cock and knot them together, one body.

They stay like that, locked and intimate, until the water runs cold. Steve is careful to pull out when the knot goes down, and rinses them off gently in the shower.

At some point he makes another call. When they leave the bathroom there’s a tray of sandwiches waiting next to the bed. His Alpha situates them on the bed before feeding Bucky by hand— alternating between sips of cold water and bites of the sandwich— until both of them are satisfied.

“How’re the other ‘megas?” Bucky asks, chugging the gatorade Steve handed him.

Steve shakes his head fondly, “You’re gonna choke, ya idiot. They’re fine; Clint helped get them showered and I think the four of them are taking a nap in the living room. Or up in their bedroom. Tony brought back food,” he waves at the sandwiches, “so they should be all taken care of.”

“Mmm, Stevie?”

“Yeah, Buck.”

“I can’t believe we have to do that again.”

The dumb Alpha laughs, pulling Bucky close, “Only one or two more, Buck, and then all of us spend it together.”

Bucky hums again, turning onto his side to let his mate snuggle up behind him. As they start to fall asleep together, warm and sated, Bucky whispers, “As long as I get you in the end, Stevie, it’ll all be worth it.”

---

Two weeks later, Annie and Clint are walking for graduation and Peter is finishing up the last of his exams. Their lease is over at the end of the week, so later this evening the whole pack will be driving into the city to help them move out of their apartment and into the pack-house permanently.

Bucky sits shotgun on the drive over— with Steve in the backseat and Tony behind the wheel, complaining the whole time about helicopters and professional moving services.

“It’s symbolic, Tony,” Steve says, for the fifth time.

“Then let’s buy them a fucking bottle of champagne. Why are we doing work that I could just hire someone else to do? You know I’m good for it.”

“Shut up, Tony,” Bucky groans, “We’ve already compromised— we take the smaller boxes, movers take the big stuff.”

Tony grumbles, “We shouldn’t have to move anything.”

At this, Steve grabs his shoulder, startling Tony into swerving the car and barely missing a nearby minivan, “What the hell, Steve—”

“You are going to shut it about this, Beta—”

“Or what?” Tony challenges, eyes glued on Steve in the rearview mirror.

Steve holds up his phone, Peter’s contact pulled up and thumb dangerously close to the call button, “You know I’ll do it.”

“Aw, Steve. Cap. Alpha— you know I’m just joking around,”

“Then stop it, Tony,” Bucky adds, “it’s been a rough semester for him already. He doesn’t need your bullshit on top of it.”

GuiltyBeta scent floods the car, and Bucky almost chokes on it. Steve puts a hand on both of their shoulders, giving them each a comforting squeeze, “Hey, everything’s okay. I know all of our emotions are runnin’ wild without suppressants, and it’s gonna be good for us to all move in together before the second heat hits, okay? Just chill out and enjoy the day.”

There’s a heavy silence after Steve sits back in his seat, and Bucky makes a point to roll his window down, clearing out the last of Tony’s scent and making sure neither of his packmates scent SadOmega from him. The last thing either of them need is a Bucky pity party today.

For all the complaining beforehand, moving day actually goes off without a hitch. Tony’s mood brightens significantly when he gets to see his sweet mate, and Bucky makes a point to hang out with Annie and Clint for the most part— avoiding Steve and Tony while they move boxes and blankets out to the waiting truck.

What he didn’t count on, though, was Clint ambushing him in the stairwell.

“Hey, man,” Bucky mutters, trying to squeeze past Clint on the way back up the stairs, but Clint just moves to stand in his way. He tries to laugh it off and move the other direction, but Clint blocks him there too. “What the hell, Barton.”

“You’ve been pissy all day. What’s going on?”

“Nothin’,” he growls, “just movin’ boxes.”

Clint grabs him by the shoulder, pushing him up against the wall and leaning into his space, “What, Barnes? Need someone to take you down? Put you in your place?”

The look in Clint’s eyes says he’s serious, and Bucky slumps in his hold, defeated, “No, I— I’m sorry Clint.”

“Don’t do that, Bucky.” Clint backs off, holding him by the shoulder, “you nervous about move-in? Jealous of the other Omegas?”

“Stop—”

“Don’t tell me— you hate me, don’t you?”

Bucky’s laughing now, pushing Clint away, “Stop it, Clint, it’s none of that,” he let’s the taller Beta pull him in for a hug, snuggling into his warmth and tucking securely under his chin. Clint holds him like this for a few minutes until he finally whispers, “I think I’ve been feelin’ kinda replaceable in our pack, especially since our heat together.”

Clint leans back, searching his eyes, “Why, though? I know Steve was crazy to get to you the whole time. He’s your soulmate.”

Feeling tears prick his eyes, Bucky tries to look away.

“Why, babe?” Clint turns his face back and wipes at a tear with his thumb.

“... I can’t, Clint. Not here.”

Maybe Clint can see the struggle in his eyes, or maybe he’s just a stubborn ass, but he doesn’t listen to Bucky’s plea. He pushes closer, holding Bucky’s face tenderly in his hands, and drops a kiss on his forehead.

“Okay, Bucky, I’ll drop it until later. But you gotta know— you’re not replaceable in this pack. Damn, I already love you a ton, babe. No one in this pack would wanna bond without you, I swear it.”

“Clint—” Bucky whines, trying to stop his tears.

“Hey, don’t cry, baby, come ‘ere.”

He feels safer in his mate’s arms. Clint doesn’t judge him as he shakes apart, as he soaks his shirt, as he probably bruises his lower back. The Beta just holds him tight and strokes through his hair, letting him cry.

As the sobs die down, Bucky wipes his face on Clint’s shirt sleeve and tries to compose himself. What the hell, he thinks to himself. He’s so fuckin’ weak for breaking down like this, no wonder he’s in this position. He can almost see the pity in Clint’s gaze, and hates it.

“Bucky?”

All he can do is make an inquisitive humming noise.

“I think… you should talk to Steve and Tony about this. I know we’ve all been dating each other, and... I can tell it’s hurting you that they’ve been seeing you less because of it. Promise me that? Promise you’ll talk to them?”

“Y— yeah, Clint. I’ll do it.”

The kiss takes him by surprise, and it tastes like saltwater. He chases Clint’s lips, pulling on his hair, drinking him in. Clint pulls away with a gasp, and Bucky leans back against the wall, smiling to himself. The two of them trade a few more kisses until they’re both breathless and giddy with laughter.

They hear the stairwell door open and quickly grab the forgotten boxes, making their way back downstairs together.

When they approach the truck, all of their pack is waiting for them, arms crossed and expectant. Tony and Annie both trade a salacious look, calling out suggestive things, but Steve and Peter just look concerned and disappointed— a strange combination that both of them pull off rather well.

Clint pushes Bucky towards where Steve and Peter are standing and goes to join the others, giving him a last encouraging nod.

Bucky sees the moment where Steve’s expression changes to just concern. Before he can say anything, Bucky grabs his arm and murmurs, “Could we ride together, Stevie?”

Peter shifts awkwardly, “I can… go?”

“No, no— can it be the three of us?” Bucky suggests, looking into his Alpha’s eyes, and trying to communicate with him through his stare. It doesn’t seem to be working, because Steve just tilts his head in confusion.

“Sure, Buck. We’re all done here— I’ll have Tony pick up some dinner and we can head back home.”

As Steve goes to talk to the other three, Peter and Bucky both pile into the truck. They take the backseat— Peter wordlessly holding him close and playing with his hair. God, he loves this pretty Omega. They watch Steve walk back to the truck, sparing them a protective look as he jumps in the front seat and starts the engine.

They drive in silence for a few minutes before Peter nudges him, looking up expectantly into Bucky’s eyes.

“Alright, pushy Omega,” he teases, speaking a little louder for Steve to hear, “I, uh. Clint cornered me in the stairwell. Told me I was being pissy. I guess I didn’t notice it until now, but I’ve been feeling left out of the bonding stuff, especially since our heat together. Just feels like I’m less important, or something.”

“Oh, Jamie,” Peter laces their fingers together, kissing his hand.

“Is it... is it something I did, Buck?” Steve asks.

Bucky shakes his head, “No— I don’t know, Stevie. Everything you’ve done has been for the pack. And you were really great after my heat. It’s been like five weeks since I’ve been down, it could be that. It’s also been like a month since I’ve even talked to Tony.”

“Bucky, sweetheart—”

“I know it’s gonna get better when we bond. I know that. Right now is just hard, is all.”

“Can I,” Peter hesitates and looks down at their hands, “can I hold you, Jamie? Just until we’re home?”

“Yeah, darlin’, whatever you’d like.”

Peter shifts them around so that they’re laying half across the backseat, and wraps all of his limbs around Bucky, effectively stopping all of his movement. It feels nice to be held. It’s been awhile since he’s been held like this.

Steve looks like he’s trying to solve the issue in his head. He’s making a really cute, distressed face.

“Stevie?” he says, hearing Peter giggle slightly beneath him.

“... yeah?”

“Stevie, what are you thinking?”

A snort, “I can’t believe… Bucky, I can’t believe how much I’ve failed you.”

“Alpha.”

Steve's grip tightens on the steering wheel, “You’ve needed me, and I haven’t been there for you, Buck.”

“Yeah, but Alpha—”

“I’m just so sorry Bucky, I love you so much. I had no idea, and that makes me feel like absolute shit—”

“Steve! Alpha! Holy shit, would you shut up for like one second?” Bucky bursts, jerking forward a little bit in Peter’s hold until he can rest a hand on Steve’s arm, “that’s your issue, Stevie. You always think it’s on you, that it’s all about you. Heads up— it’s not. It’s about us. And, I hate to say it, sometimes you can’t fix everything.”

Peter rubs his back as he continues, “Do I need a scene? To submit? Probably— it’s been a long fucking minute. Do I need to sit down with Tony? Yeah. A hundred percent. Is this all related to you and something you’ve done? No. Absolutely not. So get over it, Steve, and just… help me out.”

There’s a long silence as Steve stares out at the road— most likely fighting his urge to pick a fight— until Bucky starts to smell AmusedHornyOmega coming from his smaller mate.

When he faces Peter, the Omega has a deep red blush coloring his cheeks that makes Bucky laugh, “Really?”

“I’m so sorry, Jamie. I know you so don’t want to swing dominant, but your tone is really doing it for me right now. I’m sorry,” he whines, burying his face in his hands.

Thankfully, the distraction has loosened Steve’s death grip on the steering wheel, and he lets out a dramatic sigh, “Bucky. You’re right. I’m sorry, I really am.”

“I know. I love you, Stevie. Can we just… can we scene sometime after I talk to Tony?”

Peter lets out an embarrassed squeak as Steve responds,

“Yeah, Bucky. I love you, too— God, I wish I could touch you.”

“Ahem,” Peter clears his throat, pulling back Bucky’s hands from where they’re wandering towards his Alpha, “I’m glad you can’t.”

Both of them laugh at the flustered Omega, exchanging a heated glance in the mirror. Suddenly, Bucky has an idea—

“Steve. Fuck, Stevie? Oh my god, I have an idea.”

“What is it, baby?”

“Can Peter scene with us?”

At the question, Peter gasps, hitting Bucky on the arm.

“James Barnes!” he squawks, “I will not scene with Tony until that Beta has officially proposed—”

“No, no— wait, Tony hasn’t proposed? Damn. No, I meant just the three of us. And maybe Clint.”

“Oh.”

Bucky sits back, content, as he watches the idea go through both of their minds. The more he thinks about it, the more he likes it. Steve and Peter are going to need to learn each other in the bedroom, and who better to guide the process than Bucky? Or one of Peter’s packmates?

“Steve already proposed. You and I are committed. What about it?”

“I’ll… I’ll consider it,” Peter stammers.

Steve just looks awkward in the mirror. He clears his throat before responding, “Let’s wait until after your next heat, okay? We can try it then.”

Both Omegas agree. It sounds like a plan Bucky can get on board with.

---

As it turns out, they don’t have to wait long.

Four days later, Bucky gets a call at work on his emergency line. From Tony.

“Tony? What is it? Aren’t you at work?”

“Bucky?” Tony sounds panicked, “Bucky, where are you? Peter just collapsed at work. He smells like fucking heaven, holy fuck.”

“Tony. Where are you right now?”

“My fucking building, James. I’m in my fucking building holding my— holy shit— my mate who’s unconscious and smells— Bucky. I need you—”

“Dammit,” Bucky curses, jumping up and grabbing his wallet, running to the door, “I’m on my way, Beta. Keep him safe, understand? I’m six blocks away and running, okay?”

All he hears is growling before the line disconnects, and he’s sprinting out into the city, the Stark tower in sight. His heart is pounding in his ears as he runs, each step taking him closer to his mates in distress.

As he tears into the tower, he runs through security yelling, “I’m Tony Stark’s mate, James Barnes,” and somehow gets immediate clearance, jumping in an elevator.

“Jarv, take me to Tony,” he says, barely registering the confirmation as the elevator shoots up towards the R&D floors.

He stumbles out as the elevator opens, and hustles down the hallway, trying to scent his packmates. After a third turn, he spots a crowd looking into a glass-enclosed space. That’s them.

“Clear out!” he commands, “this floor is now on heat lockdown, all staff should proceed to the nearest floor until further notice.”

The crowd moves quickly away from the glass, most of them giving Bucky a clear space as he approaches the lab. Peering inside, he sees both of his packmates curled together on the lounge sofa— thank god they’re both clothed.

“Jarvis, open up for me.”

“I’m afraid I can’t—“

“Override code for James Buchanan Barnes, 32557038.”

Without a word, the doors slide open with an audible hiss. He can hear whimpers and hushed reassurances coming from his packmates and decides to call Steve for backup.

“Bucky, this is the emergency number,” Steve answers, sounding irritated.

Best to cut to the chase, “Peter went into heat at work. Tony put the whole floor on lockdown. I’m here with them now, situation normal.”

“Okay, I need you to keep them lucid until I arrive. When I call you next, bring Peter out to the car. I will leave it running for you and drive home in Tony’s car, separately. Understood? I will call Clint and Annie as well.”

“Understood, Alpha.”

Steve hangs up, and Bucky is immediately approaching the pair, doing his best to project his scent and warn Tony of his approach.

“C’mon Tony, let me in. Two of your Omegas are here now, please protect us?”

Tony turns on him, expression close to feral, and growls low. Bucky stops moving forward and bares his throat, dropping his gaze and submitting to the Beta.

“Kneel, Omega,”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Bucky can’t help it. The words vibrate through him and he slides to the floor with a high pitched whine, spreading his legs in an obvious display for his displeased Beta.

Dammit, Bucky.

Stay up, you gotta stay up for Peter.

He lets Tony grip his neck, forcing him to bend forward, resting his chest against the couch and giving Tony easy access.

Tony hums in pleasure— of course he does— because even though it’s highly inappropriate, Bucky is not unaffected by his Beta’s dominance and arousal. He can feel the slick starting to leak out of him.

“Please, Beta.” He begs, unsure what he’s asking for at this point.

Ring, ring, ring.

His phone. Steve. “Alpha,” he chokes out, grasping for the phone before Tony can stop him.

“Alpha, help. Need help, Stevie.”

He can hear Steve yelling through the phone, Tony snarling at the muffled voice, and then the connection is lost. He expects Tony’s touch on his body— craves it at this point— but hears a deep rumble instead.

Alpha.

Tony stands up, guarding them from Steve’s view as the Alpha stalks closer. Both of them stare, unblinkingly, and puff out their chests, asserting dominance.

It’s Tony’s growl that does it. One moment he’s crouching over the Omegas, growling in warning, and the next Steve has him by the scruff, snarling—

“Stand down, Beta.”

Bucky has never heard his Alpha voice before. It has all three of them melting into small, submissive puddles at his feet. And Bucky’s pretty sure he just came, untouched.

Steve hauls him up by the armpits, searching his eyes, and obviously seeing an uncomprehending, submissive Omega in his arms. Steve offers his neck. The simple act of submission, especially after such a bold display of dominance, has Bucky reeling and biting down, hard, into his Alpha’s throat, desperate to swing dominant.

“Buck. Shit, Bucky are you okay?” Steve is asking him, and Bucky pulls away, wiping his mouth.

“I— I think so. Damn, Alpha.”

“Save it. Remember the plan— get Peter back to the house. I’ll deal with Tony.”

“And Clint?”

Steve pauses, shaking his head, “He’s with Annie, back at the house. Bucky— she’s in heat too.”

Dammit.

[djarrex]

Countermeasures || 3

Anomaly

Fives x ofc!reader

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Rating: 18+ only

Word Count: 5.7k

chapter summary: Agreeing to help Fives proves to be both good and bad.

warnings: canon character death, a sprinkle of fluff (Fives can be soft but we all know he’s quite the opposite in the right contexts 😉), a dash of sexual tension, a dollop of groping, tons of inappropriate thoughts - lordy lord get some cold water splashed on them

note: I broke away from including Fives’ POV in this chapter. It may come back in the future, idk yet. This is the first real series I’ve written and I’m extremely grateful for the pals I’ve met on here who reblog and like my work <3 Tbh I’m having a ton of fun writing this because not only does it give me an excuse to watch the conspiracy arc a bunch of times for the details but I also get to write about Renna and Fives and I love them both and I just want them to fuck already.

***

This was crazy. How did you of all people end up in a situation such as this.

By “this”, you were referring to the strong embrace you were trapped in - the ARC trooper you’re shamefully crushing on being the captor.

No, you definitely were not complaining. 

After agreeing to help him, Fives you pulled into his body, his strong arms finding their way around your back holding you steady. Large palms nearly covered the expanse of your back, the heat from his skin burning holes right through your outer layers and into your flesh. Your face was practically smushed into his broad chest, your arms dangling awkwardly at your sides. The weight of Fives’ chin was pressing into your scalp. So many thoughts were swimming in your head as Fives held you as tight as he could without hurting you. 

He was... hugging you. To be completely honest, you thought the two of you would fuck - or at least do something along those lines - before he hugged you. It was the energy he possessed that led you to that conclusion, but you were proven wrong. 

You didn’t fight it - you knew how much it meant to him. These clones - these soldiers - were covered in plastoid from head to toe all day every day throughout their unfortunately short lives, and you figured they must be at least somewhat touch-starved. The way Fives held you was different than you thought he was capable of. You weren’t naïve; you knew the clones took off their armor at certain points, and hey, you knew that they even would have sex in their short spurts of time off. You read reports on clones who had contracted STD’s from their adventurous endeavors and were sent here to be treated. Even though they were created in a lab for the sole purpose of fighting in this ridiculous war, they were still men.

You wanted to keep up some at least some semblance of professionalism - to not touch Fives back, because quite honestly your body wanted more - but your heart started aching, and your body acted against your brain as your arms returned the embrace. 

Fives was thick. The clones as a whole aren’t huge men; they aren’t fed nearly enough - that much you knew - and are relatively slim with a very low percentage of body fat compared to all the muscle they were designed to have. They’re not that much taller than you, either. However, you’ve never held a clone before. Fives’ back was like a bag of ropes; hard, thick, and you felt every single muscle so beautifully poking out of his skin even through the tunic. You allowed your hands to splay out over his back - to really feel him. You were completely lost in this moment, but you heard it - barely noticeable, but you heard it - Fives inhaled quietly through his nose, taking in your hair’s scent. You knew deep down that he didn’t mean for you to notice him smelling your hair, so you didn’t mention it. Butterflies flapped around in your stomach - then the butterflies quickly floated away and that feeling was exchanged with pure lust; the fire in your belly burning hot with desire. 

You don’t know how long you held each other, but you needed to break away from him and get back to the matters at hand. You agreed to help him, and that’s what you’ll do. Maybe he’ll be so thankful for your help he’ll “hug” you again later.

“You do you have a plan, right, mister ARC trooper?” Breaking away from his embrace, you tried to shake your mind clear of any thoughts that didn’t include Tup.

“Of course I have a plan!” Fives’ tone suggested he was attempting to play off what had just happened, and it was cute. He walked over to the darkened window and kept his back turned to you. Perhaps he was trying to clear his thoughts as well. You wouldn’t know, but Fives was barely breathing in through his nose so that your scent lingered in his nostrils for as long as possible.

“Care to share?” You called to him, and Fives paused for a few moments before responding.

“Are you able to access all the equipment without the supervision of the long-necks?” He finally turned around, his brows raised. You blinked at him, just a little dumbfounded and slightly offended.

“Yes, Fives. Maker, I know how to work the kriffing equipment. I don’t need a babysitter.” You rolled your eyes then squinted them at him, crossing your arms to your chest with a huff.

“That’s not what I meant,” Fives chuckled as he approached you once again and placed a hand on your shoulder. “I meant, are you going to get in trouble if you’re working alone in there?” His gaze bore into you, making you feel slightly uneasy. Yeah, you knew how to work everything, of course. But this was all new territory for you; working - unauthorized – on a patient who wasn’t yours, performing an atomic brain scan unsupervised, breaking protocol…

“I- I’m not actually sure. I’ve never been explicitly told to not touch anything without them being there? I think it will be okay. It’s just that- that Dr. Nala Se said no to the scan. I don’t think she’ll like that I went behind her back and did it anyway. Although… I want to try everything in my power to save your friend.”

“Right. Then let’s get to it.”

“I’m sorry - let’s? You’re coming too? That doesn’t seem like a good-”

“It’ll be fine,” Fives quickly interjected. His confident tone faded with the next part: “Please. I want to be there - be there for Tup.” There they were again, those puppy dog eyes that get you every time. You doubt Fives even knows he’s doing it, but he had to catch on by now because you basically have never said no to him in the few short days you’ve known him. Your attraction to him made you break over and over again; this time was no different.

“Okay, fine. But you need to stay hidden.”

“I’m ‘Mr. ARC Trooper’, remember? I’ve been trained in the arts of being sneaky.” Wiggling his fingers and brows at you with a cheeky grin, you laughed and punched him in the shoulder. His grin only grew.

“Yeah whatever. Just follow me.”

You were the first to exit Fives’ room, peeking your head just outside the door to get a feel of the surrounding area. No guards in sight at the moment, so now was the perfect time to go.

“Quickly,” you stepped outside the room, motioning with your hand for Fives to follow. It didn’t take long to get next door, of course.

You pressed the controls on the panel and the door whisked opened; you shooed Fives in first. As soon as he entered, two guards came around the corner. You obviously didn’t want to look like you were doing something you weren’t supposed to, so you put on your best smile and nodded to the oncoming troopers. They nodded back and turned at the next corridor that led away from Tup’s room.

You stood there for a moment, just outside the room - thinking. You were obviously crazy, no doubt about that. You were breaking protocol, and basically risking your internship and everything you had worked for up to this point for Fives (and Tup). It was the right thing to do, right? Your insane crush on the ARC trooper aside, you were going through with all of this because it was the right thing to do. It definitely wasn’t right that the Kaminoans wanted to kill Tup off without entertaining more options and trying other procedures. It all seemed very… weird. As doctors, wouldn’t they want to try every possible way to find a solution without skipping over it all and just killing him? Although, why waste more time and resources when the “obvious” solution was to terminate him and find the answers through an autopsy? Maybe you should give it more time – Shaak Ti could be back soon with the Jedi Council’s backing. Maybe it wasn’t too late to back out – to turn around and coax Fives back into his room before you were both caught.

The moment was over when Fives’ hand reached out to grab your wrist, unceremoniously pulling you into the room. You nearly tripped as he yanked you inside, a murmured “hey!” subconsciously rolled off your tongue at the rough pull.

“Sorry, Renna.” He shut the door behind you, giving you an apologetic smile. “Did- did I hurt you? Sometimes I forget my own strength... I’m not used to manhandling pretty and delicate things.” Okay, let’s push that comment aside and table it for later on when you’re alone in your quarters.

Fives reached out to examine your wrist but you flapped your hands at him, “Really, I’m okay. Seriously.” You weren’t lying - it didn’t hurt. If you told him the absolute truth, you would tell him how you wished he’d manhandle you in other ways.

“Alright. Let’s get to work.”

Knowing how quickly you had to work for this entire plan to play out smoothly, you immediately made your way over to the controls and started tapping away. You turned your head to check on Fives – to see how he was planning on participating – and he was just frozen in place standing over Tup’s cot. Tup was still unconscious; his chest rising and falling rapidly in his comatose, shut eyelids flickering back and forth.

“Fives, push him over there.” You pointed at the scanner on the other side of the room with your back still turned as you tapped away at the screens, prepping the equipment. With one last tap of the screen, the scanner descended from the ceiling and Fives pushed Tup’s cot into it.

Tup’s chest rose and fell at an alarming rate, compelling you to consider - again - about turning back and aborting this plan altogether.

Fives came around the other side of the scanner where you watched the infrared picture of Tup’s brain from display screen, snapping you out of the thought.

“The scan’s almost complete.”

Fives moved in front of you and leaned closer to the screen, you shuffled to the side to give him to space. Your eyes unglued from the screen for just a moment to watch Fives; he was desperate. The look in his eyes told you that much, and his stance wasn’t as strong and sure as it always seemed to default to.

Your focus made way back to the screen. “Everything… appears to be normal.” Just as you said that the screen starting beeping; a red dot was blinking, pinpointing an anomaly in Tup’s brain.

“W- wait a second.” You softly pushed Fives out of the way and read the results displayed on the screen.

“What? What is it, Ren?” Your heart skipped a beat at the sound of his little nickname for you, but there were more important things currently at hand. You can freak out about the way he says your name like that later.

“It looks like Tup has developed a tumor.” Your fingers started tapping away yet again. You’ve never seen a tumor in clones before. To be fair, you had never worked with clones like this before, but you’ve seen more than enough of their files to know that a tumor wasn’t exactly something that could just appear in a clone.

“A tumor? Is that even possible?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this in clones. Not in any of the files.” You ceased tapping, turning around to face Fives. His hand raked through his hair, a pure look of confusion and worry on his face.

“Then… what is it?”

“I honestly don’t know. I’ll need to do a biopsy to be sure.” With a nod, you offered a reassuring smile. “It’ll be okay, Fives. We’ll get this straightened out, and you and Tup will be off this stormy planet and back to your brothers in no time.” You weren’t sure you even believed your words.

“You’re gonna take it out of him?” Before you could answer, Fives whacked the tools all over the ground with one graceless hand movement. Your eyes widened as he bent down to grab at the mess. “Do you, uh, think anyone heard that?”

You raised your brow at him, and with a sarcastic tone, “The probability is high, yes.” You sighed. “You need to hide.”

Smacking his hands away as he continued to pick up the mess, you hissed, “Fives, hide.”

“I think it came from this room.” You both shot up; you ran over and pushed Tup out of the tube and started to power it down at the controls as Fives took cover under Tup’s floating cot. Interesting that an ARC Trooper chose that as a hiding place.

The door whisked opened. Nala Se stood at the entrance, looking around. Her bug-eyes landed right on you, then glanced over to Tup.

“Hello, Doctor.” Your tone was astonishingly calm despite the absolute terror currently running through your system.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She entered through the threshold and made her way over to Tup, assessing his condition with a scowl.

“I was only trying to save the patient,” You informed her, keeping your tone calm and professional. You were ignored, however. Apparently, Fives was not so great at cleaning up his messes, because one leftover syringe sat on the ground right below the Kaminoan’s heels. She reached down to grab it, and your heart started racing. You blurted out, “Doctor, I found something unusual in the scan. It appears to be a tumor… I think you should take a look-”

“You performed a second scan without my authorization?” Nala Se stood upright; the forgotten syringe grasped in her three slender fingers. How did she not see Fives down there? Uh oh… where did he go?

Your heart rate slowed. “Apologies, Doctor. I was only trying to-”

“Perhaps I made the mistake in assuming you’d be ready to work with the clones.” Nala Se turned around to shut off the remaining equipment; machines began powering off as they whirled back in place and Tup’s cot moved back to where it was before you started. One of the larger machines floated away, leaving Fives completely exposed. Ah, so that’s where he went. Your eyes widened as you looked between Fives’ shocked expression and Nala Se, who was still turned around and tapping at the controls. As much as you dreaded pressing further on, you needed to buy Fives enough time to make an escape back to his own room.

“But- but the tumor, Doctor. It seems to be blocking neuro-impulses from communicating with the brain. I think we should scan the rest of the clones to see if this is a problem with their base genetic model or a mutation with the current models.” The machines were all now back in place; you scanned the room with your eyes, hoping to not catch a glimpse of Fives.

“There is no tumor. Your scan is incorrect.” Nala Se departed the control panel, ambling over to the other side of the room. You really hope Fives had fled by now. Might as well keep on pressing, though. It did interest you that the Kaminoan doctor was so avidly trying to disregard what you were saying about a tumor. That was a thread you figured you should follow.

“But-”

“This clone clearly has a virus that remains undetected, but I will find the cause once he’s terminated.” You followed Nala Se until she reached Tup’s cot, her back turned to the exit. “Now leave. I’ll figure out what to do with you later.”

“Yes, Doctor.” You turned on your heels and walked out the already open door. You turned your head to watch Nala Se; she was still standing over Tup, but you were unsure of what she was doing. Something really didn’t seem right with this. You nearly crashed into Fives in the hall as you departed Tup’s room.

“I can’t believe they’re going to kill Tup!” Fives shouted in disbelief after you both had made your way back into his room and shut the door. Fives shoved the empty cot to the other side of the room, clearly frustrated.

“I know. I’m sorry, Fives.” All you could offer was a sincere apology. It didn’t seem like a great idea at present to bring up how you thought the entire ordeal with Nala Se seemed fishy.

“We were not created to be disposed of this way!” He slammed his fists on the cot, an action that seemed to be fueled by rage, but his eyes told a different story.

“Just- just think of it this way… Tup is sacrificing himself so that other clones like him can survive. Isn’t that something you said he’d want?” You went to reach for him - to offer a gentle reassuring touch - but he backed away.

“There aren’t others like him!” His raised voice prompted you to take a few steps back. You weren’t scared of him, but you understood they he may need some space right now. Maybe it would be best if you retreated to your quarters and called it a day. After all, Nala Se basically sealed your fate by undoubtedly reassigning you to the archives. It probably wasn’t appropriate that you been seen in Fives’ room anymore. Your own selfishness kept you there, though.

“I’m sorry, Ren. I don’t mean to take this out on you, I just-” You allowed yourself to take a few steps towards him. “Tup doesn’t have to die - you found a tumor. I’m sure that’s the cause of all this. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“But… how can we proceed? Dr. Nala Se basically reassigned me to the archives. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be here with you anymore. I could get dismissed, sure, but I have no idea what would happen to you.”

“Do the biopsy. I’m sure what you find will prove Tup doesn’t have to die. Your findings would bump you up in the ‘ranks’ I’m sure, and they would have no reason to send you back to filing paperwork.” A beat. “As for me… I’ll be fine.” You both knew that was a lie. You’ve seen what the Kaminoans have done to “defective” clones. It’s all in the files. It’s inhumane. There was no way you’d let that happen to Fives.

“I’m not so sure…. Dr. Nala Se doesn’t believe-”

“We’re not going to Nala Se with whatever you find. We’ll go to General Shaak Ti. She helped me once as a cadet and I know she values the life of a clone.” Now that, that was the truth.

“Fives… I’d be disobeying direct orders.” At this point, you didn’t care what happened to you if you were to go through with this. Fives was who you were concerned with. Not because of a hopeless crush, but because of his status of patient and you sincerely cared about him.

“Yep, and for the second time today,” He jested. Not funny. You scoffed. “Ren…” There they are, yet again - the puppy dog eyes. Those, paired with how he said your name. You’d break for sure. “Will you help me? Please.”

***

“Hurry!” Fives was hunched over the control panel with you, basically micromanaging you even though he had no idea what it was you were doing.

“Fives, you’re going to have to not rush me. I’m not a droid. Give me a kriffing minute.” Your fingers tapped frantically at the screen, hitting button after button until -

“Intruder alert. Intruder alert. All nonessential personnel report to a safe room for lockdown.”

You stood up straight and grinned over at Fives, who looked a little shocked.

“What did you do?” The alert played over again on the intercom.

“I made it so that the security scanners picked up an intruder in section C-6. We need to hurry, though. I doubt it’ll take them long before they realize it’s a false alarm.”

“They taught you how to hack a security mainframe at the fancy medical academy you attended on Coruscant?”

You rolled your eyes at him, hands on your hips. “Is that really important right now?” Fives chuckled and shook his head. Grabbing his wrist, you stretched your head to look outside the door. “They have guards stationed just outside. How are we going to get over there?” You turned towards Fives, who was pulling away from you and looking up at the ceiling. You followed his gaze, and you knew exactly what he was thinking. “The vents?” You sounded a little shocked, but it really was the only safe way out of there. He tilted his head down to look at you, a smile on his face. You snorted.

“Here, I’ll climb up first and then pull you up.” Your looked over at the door again, making sure you weren’t about to get absolutely busted, and grabbed his dangling hands.

You shook your head with a smirk. “You know, I’m starting to wish I had stayed in the archives,” you jested, as Fives hoisted you up and into the vent with him.

You never realized just how creepy it was up in these vents. To be fair, there wasn’t one moment that you would’ve pictured yourself crawling through them, but here you were. It was dark, every movement you made echoed, and it was freezing cold. You – for some reason – were leading the way, crawling through the cold durasteel tunnel. Fives was silent; he wasn’t making any comments, not cracking any jokes, not even expressing his concern for Tup. It dawned on you: he was totally checking out your ass. You had shed your long lab coat before he pulled you up, knowing that it would be harder to crawl with it tugging under your knees. Fives hadn’t yet seen you without it on… and you knew how good your ass looked in the leggings you wore. With a slight chuckle to yourself, you stopped crawling for a moment and looked over your shoulder to glance at him to the best of your ability.

“Fives, are you staring at my ass?” You tried to not let your giddiness get in the way of your accusatory whispering, but you found yourself muffling laughter. He didn’t reply right away – probably trying to think up a comeback or a way to wiggle himself out of the subject.

“Fuck yeah I am,” he murmured back, sounding as cocky as ever. You bit your lip and shook your head, resuming the crawl towards the oncoming exit vent. “I don’t exactly have anything else to look at from back here, you know. I got quite a nice view, so, no complaints.” Your face heated up at his smug comment, resisting the urge to shake your ass for him – to really give him a good view. Now was not the time.

You crawled past the vent so Fives could hop down first; he plopped onto the floor, graceful and stealthy as ever, before standing directly under the vent with his arms held out.

“Common, I’ll catch you.” It really wasn’t a long way down; you’d land just fine, though probably not as gracefully as he did.

“Uh, okay…” You lowered your legs out from the ceiling, keeping your grip on the cool metal for a moment while you steadied yourself. “Fives, I think I got it. I can just hop down like th-” Your grip from the ceiling slipped, sending you down and nearly hitting the floor in the worst way possible, when strong arms found their way under your ass and back.

Fives just saved you from breaking a bone or two, and all you could do was blink up at him as his hand slightly squeezed the plushy part of your ass, the other hand gripped tightly on your waist. Maybe he thought you wouldn’t notice the way he was savoring holding you like that, but you did. And you liked it.

“Nice to look at and feels nice, too.” Fives grinned at you before setting you down on your feet. He definitely shouldn’t be talking about how your ass looks and feels right now with his friend lying nearly dead on the cot barely an arm’s length away - but, is he was open to making comments such as those during these unsure times, you’d reciprocate. A boost of confidence surged through you.

“Glad you like it, trooper. Maybe some time you can see and feel it without these in the way,” you pulled at your leggings, looking him straight in the eyes with a smirk. Seeing Fives’ expression was well worth making the comment.

“Don’t say things you can’t follow up on, Renna.” His shocked expression quickly flipped to dark, catching you completely off guard and making you gulp. Your entire body felt as if it was on fire as tiny fireworks danced in your gut. There was absolutely no way you’d be able to follow up on your innuendo-filled comment unless you found each other in another life under different circumstances. You needed to shake it out of your system.

Firing up the laser drill, you looked over at Fives and studied his worried expression. He looked so soft, so concerned – it tugged at your heart harder than you cared to admit. His focus remained on Tup until the sound of the drill made him look up.

Your hands were slightly shaking. You felt it, but it didn’t appear to be noticeable. You had never performed a biopsy on a real, living, breathing lifeform before. Everything you had done during your schooling was on the deceased or on medical dummies. You were nervous, but this wasn’t about you. You finally had the chance to save a life. You needed to pull it together.

“Renna, are you okay?” Fives’ voice nearly came out as a whisper. You looked up at his eyes; he was studying you, deeply.  

You took a deep breath and nodded with a slow exhale. You turned your attention back to the drill, grabbing Tup’s head and positioning it to where you needed.

“You might want to look away at this part.”

***

You did it. A successful biopsy. Feeling a bead of sweat threatening to fall from your hairline, you wiped it away with your arm and looked up at Fives who still had his eyes squeezed shut.

“Is it done?” The absent sound of the drill encouraged him to open his eyes. You held up the tumor, encased in a transparent casing. You handed it to Fives; he studied it closely, bringing it up to his face with a sigh. The moment was over when the door whisked open.

“What have you done?” Dr. Nala Se came into the room; Fives didn’t appear frightened, but you sure as fuck were.

“We saved my friend’s life.” Fives whipped around to face the “long-neck” - as he calls them - holding up the tumor in an accusing manner towards her, “This tumor is the cause of his illness.” She reached out and tried to grab the encased organic matter, but Fives maintained a hard grip as they fought for it.

“Give me that!” Nala Se looked angrier than you had ever seen her. You ran up to them, trying to stop something before it started.

“You can’t be trusted.” Fives reached down to Tup’s cot with his free hand, grabbing a mysterious syringe, and held it up in a threatening manner. You reached your hands up to stop him, but Shaak Ti’s sudden arrival did the job for you.

“Stand down, trooper.” She stood at the doorway with her hand outstretched. Jedi didn’t need to hold a weapon; you knew what they could do with just one outstretched hand in the blink of an eye. You’ve never seen it in action, but you’ve heard stories.

Fives dropped the hand holding the syringe but kept hold of the tumor with his other. “I have evidence. It’s right here!” He sounded desperate. This looked way too bad. You were caught right in the middle of it all, too.

“I’m free…” A weak voice croaked from the cot, making all the heads in the room turn in the same direction. Tup. Fives let go of the tumor and whipped his body around to face his friend, crouching down next to Tup and leaned in close.

“Tup?”

“The mission… free.”

“What is he saying?” Shaak Ti entered through the threshold, a few guards flowing in from behind her with their blasters aimed at Fives.

“Brother, what mission?” It was apparent that Fives was trying to understand what was coming from Tup’s mouth, and could not care less that his own kind were holding weapons to him. It had been the first time anyone had heard Tup speak words that didn’t sound like “kill” and “Jedi” since his arrival.  

“You… you know the one. The- the mission, the one in our dreams…” Fives’ wide eyes scanned over his friend, searching for a clue, for anything. “…that never ends.”

You were frozen in your spot, taking in Tup’s bewildering words. You watched Fives’ expression as he frantically tried to decipher what Tup was murmuring. You glanced up from them, seeing the guards' buckets turn to look back and forth at each other. The mission - the one from their dreams?

“Oh, brother…” Tup’s hand lifted to the best of its ability; Fives grabbed it with his own and squeezed. This moment was so raw, so emotional, so real. You never would have thought…

“This is the end. Forget the mission.” Tup was fading away. You could hear it in his voice, and you knew that Fives knew what was coming. It looked as though Fives was holding back tears – trying to keep his composure. “Oh, the nightmare. I’m… free.” With that, Tup was gone.

You scanned the room. Shaak Ti bowed her head, hand over her heart. The other clones lowered their weapons down to their sides, heads bowing. Nala Se, however, remined the same. Her expression never changed. Heartless Kaminoans.

Fives was shaking his friend’s body, begging him to come back. “I thought I saved him…” You didn’t know what to do now. Tup was gone, and it was your fault. He was alive until you removed the tumor. Fives was in pain – mourning for his brother because of you. You took a few steps back, and leaned against the counter, your fingers combing through your scalp. Not only did you disobey direct orders twice today, but you also killed the very first lifeform you did a biopsy on, and to top that off, the patient you killed was important - a brother - to someone you deeply cared about.

***

Fives was placed under arrest just shorty after. Tup’s body wasn’t even cold yet.

You stood there in silence; Fives locked eyes with yours as he was almost forcefully escorted out of the room by the surrounding guards. It was clear that both of you were trying to communicate with the other using only your eyes, but no distinct message was coming across. You wanted to tell him you were so sorry for everything, and that you’d miss him, that you’d never forget him and Tup, and that meeting him changed your view of the clones entirely. But, there were no final goodbyes, no condolences given. Fives would be taken away, and you would be dismissed. You’ll miss Fives with all your heart, but you won’t miss Kamino.

General Shaak Ti followed behind the guards, leaving you in the macabre room with Dr. Nala Se and Tup’s lifeless body. It was silent for a moment before Nala Se looked over to you, shaking her head in disbelief. You were in big trouble.

“Miss Renna,” the long-neck approached slowly, closing the gap between where you were hunched forward over the counter resting on your elbows and where she was covering Tup’s body with a sheet. “I can not condone this type of behavior from an intern. I have no choice but to reassign you to your previous duties in the archives indefinitely.” You were not at all surprised. You nodded slowly, still not looking up at her. You felt numb. Only three days into real field experience, and you fucked up royally. You didn’t need to help Fives, resulting you in ending up in whatever this is. It was interesting that you weren’t dismissed like you’d assume you would be – just reassigned. The thing with Dr. Nala Se acting weird when Tup’s tumor came into play still was on the front of your mind; perhaps you would be able to look into these matters during your long, boring hours in the archives.

Finally looking up at Nala Se, “What… what is going to happen to my patient?” The words nearly came out choked as you tried to hide your worry for Fives. You needed to keep up the front – the professionality of it – so no suspicion would arise. She was scrolling through a datapad, clutching the tumor in her three fingers. The tumor. You tried to study it from afar - what it looked like, the coloring, how the cells neighbored inside it. It looked... dead. Depleted. You snapped your eyes away and over at the dead trooper, whose body was now completely covered by a thin sheet, when Nala Se spoke again.

“Do not worry about ARC-5555. It will be taken care of, so we can put this matter behind us. Just be thankful I didn’t dismiss you, Miss Renna. You are too valuable to replace with some other eager intern.”

Valuable? ‘It’? Taken care of?

“I am thankful, Doctor. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” You were motioned to exit the room; as you walked by Nala Se, you caught one last glance at the tumor, attempting to burn the image of it in your brain and commit it to memory. There was something about the tumor – something that prompted strange behavior from the Kaminoans – and you needed to figure out what that something was.

***

tags: @bvcketfvcker​ @deewithani​ @chromia7567 ​ @cyaniderainfall

[howtosingit]

Fic: shatter every window ‘til it’s all blown away

Carlos visits family in San Antonio while TK faces multiple storms in Austin.

*

Missing moments from 1x04. 

2.1K | Also on AO3

- - - - - -

definitely just saw like 7 tornadoes

wtf

why exactly does this state want to kill me?

Carlos is sitting on his mother’s couch in San Antonio when he gets TK’s texts. It’s the first time he’s heard from the guy in a couple of days, since he left him on his front porch after their date. The silence hasn’t been terrible, if Carlos is being honest with himself. Sure, TK continues to take up space in his head every moment of every day, but the space seems to be getting smaller, or at least less centralized. He thinks that must count for something.

He glances up at the TV across the room, watching the meteorologist report on the major storm system wreaking havoc on Texas. Outside, rain pelts the windows of his mom’s one-story house, thunder roaring as lightning flashes. They’re a little too far south to be facing any tornadoes, but based on what he’s seeing, he can only imagine what kind of chaos Austin is experiencing at the center of the system. 

Behind him, his mother and sisters flit around the kitchen preparing dinner, their conversation barely audible over the thunderstorm. He focuses on his phone again, thinking about how to respond.

Consider that a true Texas welcome?

Are you somewhere safe?

Carlos bites his bottom lip, watching as three dots appear at the bottom of his screen. He assumes that if TK is texting him he’s probably okay, but he’s sure this is the firefighter’s first tornado, so it doesn’t hurt to check. TK has been known to chase danger before.

yeah I’m at work

cowboy judd has us hunkered down until it clears

wbu?

Carlos looks back towards the TV, staring at the map that has taken over the screen. He sees numerous watches and warnings across the state, with a large concentration around Austin. The damage in certain areas is going to be catastrophic.

I’m in San Antonio, we’re just getting heavy rain here 

There’s a pause following his text, long enough that he sets his phone down next to him, leaning forward on the couch to rub his temples. He’s already imagining the crazy workload awaiting him when he returns to town, not to mention all the loss. His heart clenches in his chest, knowing that it’s going to be a long road to recovery for his city.

His phone buzzes next to him.

I didn’t know you were out of town

but I’m glad you’re out of the worst of it

Carlos is already typing a response when another text comes through.

when are you back?

Carlos blinks, forcing himself not to read anything into TK’s messages. They’re friends now, or trying to be, and it’s super normal to ask these kinds of questions. TK’s just being curious, nothing more.

Tomorrow night, I’m working Monday

Just visiting family for a few days, it’s my sister’s birthday

He wonders if he needed to share that last bit. TK hadn’t asked for it, and he probably won’t care what reason he has for being out of town. Carlos sighs, wondering why he feels like he has to overthink every interaction with this man.

tell her happy birthday!

Judd says we’re probably going to lose service soon, it’s getting worse around the station

I’ll text you back when I can

Carlos sends a message telling him to be safe before tossing his phone to the other end of the couch, knowing that if he holds onto it he won’t do anything else until he hears from TK again. His mother finds him a few moments later, biting his fingernails as he stares at the continuous weather report. She runs her fingers through his curls, a surefire way to soothe him.

“I’m so glad you’re here and not in the middle of all of that, mijo,” she says, and he glances up to find her watching the report as well, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Are all of your friends safe?” she asks, looking down at him. He nods, his eyes closing as he feels her gentle touch on his scalp. He can feel anxiety rolling off of him in waves. “That’s good,” she says, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Come help in the kitchen, nene. You need a distraction.”

Her voice is firm, leaving no room for argument. With a sigh, he pulls himself up from the couch, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they head into the other room, his phone left behind.

- - - -

He’s only about 20 minutes from Austin when his phone rings, the sound cutting through the music blasting in his car. Carlos glances over at his phone where it’s mounted on the dashboard, surprised to see TK’s name on his screen.

The firefighter had texted him once the storms had cleared, letting him know that everyone was safe and the station was still standing. Carlos wished him luck as the 126 headed out into the wreckage, honestly not expecting to hear from TK again before they saw each other at work. 

He reaches out, swiping his finger across the screen to answer the unexpected call. 

“TK?”

There’s a moment of silence before Carlos hears the other man take a deep breath, the sound traveling clearly through his car’s speakers. 

“Hey, Carlos.”

Carlos feels his heart drop down into his stomach at the weak, broken tone of TK’s voice. His mind races with worst-case scenarios, wondering what could’ve possibly happened during his shift.

“Are you hurt?” he asks, trying to keep his voice calm. An image of a battered and bruised TK curled over his desk flashes through his mind, and he presses a little harder on the accelerator, wondering how quickly he can get back home.

“Not exactly. I just…”

TK trails off, hesitating, and Carlos rolls his eyes, frustrated that this conversation is happening over the phone and not in-person. He feels so helpless from so far away.

“Just talk to me, TK. I’m listening.”

There’s another pause, and Carlos swears that he’s about to scream in frustration. He has no idea what’s going on with TK right now, but in the entire time that he’s known him, he’s never heard the other man sound this shattered. Every heavy breath that Carlos hears through the phone feels like a punch straight to his chest.

“We lost someone on a call today,” TK starts, his voice blank. “A dad who wouldn’t let us treat him until we saved his kids. They were trapped in the house.”

Carlos bites his lip, his hands gripping tightly to the steering wheel as his eyes fill with tears. He knows what it’s like to have someone die in front of him, to feel like all he did was stand by and watch it happen. Those are the days where he feels completely useless, like there’s no point in him wearing the badge at all. He knows it’s impossible to save everyone all the time, but he can’t imagine not doing everything in his power to try.

“We got the kids out,” TK continues. “They all reunited, and then he just collapsed. Right in front of all of us. It felt so sudden, and there was n-nothing we c-could do.”

Carlos is shocked by the sound of TK crying over the phone, his breath stuttering over the last few words. He feels a tear of his own fall onto his cheek, his bottom lip quivering at the pain in the other man’s voice. 

Doing what they do isn’t easy. It’s process and procedure and protocol. It’s assessing the situation, finding those who need the most help. It’s quick and sometimes callous, but it’s what they have to do, to be of any real use. It’s tunnel vision and quickest actions, all in the name of saving as many people as they can.

And it always hurts, when someone slips through the cracks; when someone’s pain goes undiscovered until it’s too late. Every time, it makes Carlos want to throw away the rule book, rethink the system, figure out how to make it better. He just wants to save everyone.

“I’m so sorry, Ty,” he says, the nickname slipping through for the first time. He tries to keep his voice calm and clear, for TK’s sake.

The other man doesn’t respond, but Carlos can hear him crying through the phone, quiet sobs rolling through the speakers. He’s just about to speak up, say something else, maybe offer a distraction, when TK’s voice cuts through.

“My dad has cancer,” he whispers, and of all the things that Carlos thought he might say, that revelation had not been anywhere on the list.

“What?” Carlos asks, the single syllable rattling through the air before he can stop it, his heart caught in a vice-like grip of terror for TK. 

The man has already faced so much. 

“I found some pills in his desk,” TK explains. “They’re prescribed for chemo patients.”

“Fuck, TK,” Carlos whispers, running his fingers through his curls as he takes his exit off I-35. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah,” TK says, letting out a breath. He doesn’t say anything else.

“Where are you right now?” Carlos asks, a new fear running through him. 

“Home.”

“Is anyone with you?” 

“No.”

“Do you need someone?” Carlos asks, making a decisive turn towards TK’s house. Just in case. 

“I don’t know,” TK says weakly. “I… I don’t know, Carlos.”

“What are you thinking?” Carlos asks, trying to figure out TK’s state-of-mind. He seems a little all-over-the-place, and Carlos doesn’t even know where to begin. 

“I can’t lose him, Carlos,” TK responds, and Carlos can hear the sob in the back of his throat. “He’s all I have here, I can’t lose him. I’m looking around and he’s everywhere and I can’t escape him or, or this image of him just collapsing right in front of me, without warning. Just like that dad did today. What if that had been my dad, and I missed it because I wasn’t paying attention? Because I was focused on everything else and not on the person who was really dying?”

Carlos makes another turn. “I understand that, TK, but it’s not going to happen, okay? It’s not. You know now, and nothing happened to your dad. I know it’s hard, but you can’t get trapped in the ‘what-ifs,’ you’ll drive yourself crazy,” he says, trying to be as soothing as possible.

“I don’t have anywhere to go that isn’t connected to him,” TK continues, “but I also don’t want to leave, because something could happen when I’m not here. I don’t know what to do, and I just keep pacing around the house.”

“Would it…” Carlos hesitates, wondering if he should even offer. “Would it help to have someone there with you, while you wait for him?” 

“I…” TK starts, his voice cutting out. “I thought you were in San Antonio?”

“I just got back, I could be at your place in 10, if you want,” Carlos tells him, already mentally mapping the drive. He turns left, getting closer.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course I am,” Carlos states, his voice firm. “‘Not running away,’ remember?”

There’s a heavy silence following the reminder of their last face-to-face conversation. Carlos pulls up to a stop sign, holding his breath as he waits for TK to make a decision. 

“Thank you, Carlos,” he finally says, and Carlos wonders if he’s imagining the lighter tone in his voice.

“I’m only a few minutes away, okay? Do you want to stay on the call?”

“Do you mind?”

“No, not at all,” Carlos says, his heart feeling a little bit lighter as TK voice strengthens on the other end of the line.

“How was your sister’s birthday?” TK asks suddenly, and Carlos hears the clear request for a distraction; one that he’s more than happy to provide.

He’s in the middle of sharing how he helped his mom with the cake when he knocks on the door to the Strand household. Seconds later, TK throws open the door, his eyes red and glassy as he drops his phone and pulls Carlos towards him. He wraps his arms around TK’s frame, pressing him against his chest as they stand in the doorway, letting TK’s tears soak the t-shirt he’s wearing as he gently strokes his back.

There’s no hesitation, no second-guessing. There’s just a desire to support and comfort and protect.

He can’t imagine being anywhere else.

[tagsecretsanta]

From @I-am-chidorixblossom

to @nibenhutracycas

Full credit to the author above, secret santa does not own this piece!

Gordon’s Fashion Faux Pas

“Hey, John.  You copy?”

John Tracy turned at the sound of his eldest brother’s voice and pushed his way over to the monitor.  “Always, Scott.  What’s the situation?”

Scott tilted his head a little.  “What makes you think there’s a situation?  Can’t I just check in to see how you are?”

“You can,” John confirmed.  “But you already did that a little over two hours ago, and our next scheduled communication isn’t until--”

“Okay, okay.”  Scott held up his hands.  “You got me.  There might be just a little issue I’d like you to look into for me.”

Bingo.  John knew Scott far too well.

“And what would that be?”

A pause.

“You know that big conference and dinner Lady Penelope was telling us about that’s happening later today?”

John nodded.  “Yes, the one in Singapore where she’s a keynote speaker.”

“Yeah.  Lots of people, far too much paparazzi, high profile and of significant importance to the GDF.”

“And, indirectly, us.”  John felt a sigh coming on.  “Get to the point, Scott.”

He watched his brother pull an awkward expression while wishing he could go back to his programming.  Just once John would like to escape from all the dramas of the planet below him for twenty-four hours or so.  Was that really too much to ask?

“She’s invited Gordon as her plus one.”

Ah.  Right…  John was starting to see where this was going.  Scott was always such a worrywart at the best of times, but especially when one of them had to step into the limelight as a representative not only of International Rescue but Tracy Industries as well.  And while they were all well educated and versed in the proper protocols for such high class events, some of them were better equipped and prepared than others.

The family’s very own loudmouth, prankster, happy-go-lucky fish did not fall into that category.  At all. 

John folded his arms and let out that sigh.  “You don’t think Gordon is well suited for this assignment, am I right?”

Scott made a vague rocking gesture with his hand.  “Lady Penelope asked for him specifically, but your use of the term ‘well suited’ is very on point.”

John felt his own face morph into one of horror.  “Oh, no.  Absolutely not.”

“Please, John!  You know Gordon never listens to me, and trying to get Alan to talk to him is a waste of time.”

John grasped for an excuse or alternative option.

“What about Virgil?  He’s always good at corralling Gordon?”

Scott’s jaw tightened and he quickly shook his head.  There was even a grimace.  “You forget what happened last time I called Virgil while he was on vacation?”

Ah.  Yes.  Alan’s trip to the dentist four years ago.  Temper tantrums, lots of shouting and one very frazzled Virgil by the end of it.  If memory served he’d threatened to park Thunderbird Two on Scott’s head for not being man enough to deal with their monstrous baby brother in his hour of need.  Whether that was because Scott should have seen to Alan’s needs himself or simply because Virgil had been forced to fly home early, John had never found out.

“Scott, I’m in orbit.  And working.  I can’t just drop everything and come rushing down when you’re right there on the ground, on the same island and in the same house.”

“I’ve got that board meeting in the morning to prepare for,” Scott retorted.  A convenient excuse, if John had ever heard one.  “You’re the only one available.”

“What about Grandma?” 

“Not interested.”

“Brains?”

“Working on a new project.”

“Kayo?”  He was definitely clutching at straws now.

“Ha, that’s funny.”

John bit back a curse and let himself float away for a minute, hoping the zero gravity would help him feel better.  It didn’t.

“Do this for me and I won’t ask for any more favours for the rest of the year.”

John’s head shot up and he sent a glare at his big brother.  “That’s only two weeks!”

Scott scowled.  “Fine, the next three months.”

“Six.”

“Four and a half.”

John considered it.  “Done.”  

He watched Scott’s shoulders drop in relief.  “Thank you.”

John sighed and pulled up the launch procedure for the space elevator.  “Don’t thank me yet.  I’ve only agreed to come down and try.  I make no promises that it’ll do any good.”

“Just remember it’s for the honour of our family.”

Turquoise eyes rolled in exasperation.  “Quit with the melodramatics.  I’ll be down in fifteen.”

“F.A.B.”

John took a little too much satisfaction in swiping Scott’s face away to end the call and took stock of the situation. 

So Gordon was going along to a big fancy event with Lady Penelope, huh?  In all honesty John had seen it coming for a long time, and he was incredibly relieved that he wasn’t  the one being dragged along again like last time to that supposedly small charity auction.  The one which had ended in disaster thanks to the Hood.

Now it was Gordon’s turn, and he actually wanted to go.  He liked attention and he definitely liked Lady Penelope.

So what was Scott getting his contrails in a twist for?

Surely it couldn’t be that bad?

~*~

It was that bad.

Barely out of orbit, on the ground and out of uniform, John was quick to make his way towards Gordon’s room.  He felt as ready as he could be with such short notice, but no amount of time could have prepared him for the atrocity his gaze fell upon the split second Gordon’s door slid open.

Scott’s request for help suddenly made a whole lot more sense, but in reality it should have been the fashion police their eldest brother had called.

John tried to keep the judgement out of his tone and failed miserably.  “You’re not planning to wear that, are you?”

Gordon blinked in the full length mirror he was facing, apparently unsurprised by John’s sudden arrival.  “What?  I like this suit.”

“It’s dayglow orange, Gordon.”  Good God, John thought he was going to go blind.  “Pinstriped and dayglow orange.”

“Which matches my bright and cheery personality just nicely,” the aquanaut retorted.  He went about trying to straighten his matching tie and John looked away, trying to save his eyes from the torture they were being subjected to.

That suit really was awful.  Whoever had designed it should be locked up.

“You know I don’t like to interfere,” he spoke up after a moment.  “But I really think you should reconsider.”

“La-la-la, I’m not listening.”

Oh, how very mature.  No wonder Scott had called in help.  Where was Virgil when they needed him?  He was the artistic one with an eye for colour coordination.

John let out a low suffering sigh.  “Do you know what Lady Penelope is wearing?”

Gordon hummed at his reflection.  “Nope.  Parker sent me details, but I didn’t really read them.  He’s always sticking his nose in whenever me and Penny are around each other.”  A snort.  “Makes sense, given his nickname I guess.”

John leaned against the doorframe.  “Well if you’d bothered to read it then you’d know why I think that suit is completely the wrong choice.”

Gordon spun round to face him.  “You mean you read it?”

John sent him a deadpan expression.  “It was a communication with a marker of high importance.  I’m the communications expert.”

“It was addressed to me!”

“With no confidentiality data stamp.  Besides, I needed something to read on the way down here.”  

John almost smirked when Gordon squirmed.  

“But back to the main point.  That suit looks ridiculous and if you wear it I highly doubt Lady Penelope will ever invite you out to another public event again.���

Gordon ran his hands down his own lapels and John could see the gears in his head starting to turn.  He was successfully getting under his little brother’s skin and in all honesty it was quite fun.

Then Gordon pouted.  “I can’t believe I’m actually listening to you, of all people, about fashion.  That shirt you’re wearing should be burned.”

Ignoring the jibe he had heard oh so many times, John stepped into the room and navigated his way through all the clutter to Gordon’s wardrobe.  “Lady Penelope is wearing an off shoulder ocean blue dress with a thin diamond belt, matching necklace and earrings.  You need to pick something more subtle that will compliment her.”

“But orange and blue go together!”

“When it comes to that particular shade I respectfully disagree.”

“That shirt is definitely getting burned.”

Flicking through Gordon’s way too bright and colourful wardrobe, John finally found what he was looking for and pulled out one of the wrapped suits that had been shoved to the back.  Dark blue, tailor made by an old friend of their father, and one that was far better suited - pun unintended - for the event Gordon was to be attending later that evening.

Removing the protective cover, John presented it to Gordon.  “This is much better.”

His little brother immediately pulled a face.  “But that suit is so boring and generic.  It says nothing about my personality at all.”

Oh, for crying out loud…

“It’s a good fit on you, Gordon, and high quality.  Remember that you’re attending as Lady Penelope’s plus one tonight, not the other way around.”

A golden eyebrow quirked up towards the ceiling.  “Your point?”

John was quickly becoming both exasperated and exhausted.  How on Earth did Virgil manage being the family peacemaker and make it look so easy?  Just dealing with Gordon was a monumental task.

“A gentleman does not outshine the lady on his arm.”

Silence.  Those caramel eyes widened.  John wanted to drop to his knees and give thanks to whoever would listen.

Finally, he gets it!

~*~

John was more than a little relieved when the space elevator docked and he drifted through the airlock and back into his natural habitat.  Now a comfortable distance from Earth and any annoying younger brothers, the middle Tracy was quick to return to the programming he’d been doing before he’d received Scott’s S.O.S.

Eos filled him in on what little he had missed, with no distress calls and only minor generic chatter across all the channels and frequencies.

It seemed that, for the moment at least, all the attention was on a very specific event in Singapore which was just getting started.  High profile guests were arriving, reporters flocked to the edges of the red carpets in their hordes, and the eyes of the world looked on.

The first pictures and clips started to find their way online, and one in particular was quick to draw attention from John and apparently many others.  The reblogging and sharing counters were going into overdrive.

John took a moment to feel just a little bit proud as he admired the image.

Gordon, wearing the suit he had recommended, standing face to face with the elegantly dressed Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward as cameras flashed all around them.  She was smiling up at John’s rather bashful looking younger brother with an expression that could only be described as affectionate, her delicate hands raised towards his neck as she adjusted…

...that hideous tie which matched the equally grotesque abomination his brother had so laughingly called a suit.

Ugh.  John felt he needed to bleach his brain and eyes to unsee it.  It was vile. 

The suit may be absent but the presence of that tie mocked the middle Tracy something chronic.  Gordon had actually worn that?!  What was he thinking?

It warranted a very rarely used John Tracy facepalm.

Still, his reservations and opinions aside, it wasn’t a complete disaster.  A flick of a finger brought up all the leading stories across the news networks and social media in front of him, and John noticed that that one picture kept popping up again and again, followed quickly by others as Gordon and Lady Penelope made their way along the red carpet and into the venue.

John found himself smiling as he flicked away the images and returned to his duties.  So Gordon hadn’t completely listened to him after all.  Hardly a surprise, but John wasn’t about to lose any sleep over it.  His brother seemed happy and Penelope clearly approved of his attire, ghastly tie and all, so what more could John really ask for?

[theonetheycallhannah]

The Treatment of Capt. Syverson-Chapter Two: Therapeutic Procedure

Pairing: Captain “Sy” Syverson x OFC (Shane Benton)

Summary: Shane and Sy share some moments during their treatment sessions…and a phone call that could set the tone for the next few weeks.

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: None, yet… ;)

Author’s Note: Sorry, I was so eager and excited to post the first chapter of this last night, I totally put some inaccurate info in my description notes. I will correct that in the original post and  try to do better henceforth! Hope you enjoy Sy and Shane totally flirting some more and getting more friendly in this chapter. Feedback is appreciated! Even constructive criticism! :D

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism. 

Tags: @onlyhenrys @cavillryarchive @summersong69 @titty-teetee

Let me know if you wish to be added to the list! I’m happy to do it!

Shane woke up that morning with knots in her stomach. She dropped every product she picked up in the shower, she was shaking so much. She accidentally ordered the wrong coffee on her way to work and was now drinking something much less caffeinated and far too sweet for her taste. The barista had informed her it was a grande caramel macchiato with an extra pump of vanilla and extra caramel drizzle…with only two shots of espresso…she couldn't begin to describe how wrong that drink was for her. But it was better than nothing, she told herself, not fully convincingly.

She had chosen her clothes with extra care, even though, with the dress code, her options were limited. And she had made sure to put on a bit of mascara and just a touch of perfume, even though they weren't strictly supposed to wear it…she didn't know why she was bothering.

Well, actually, she did know why. She had been checking her schedule extra diligently lately to make sure she didn't look like a hobo when Sy was coming in. He'd been coming for three weeks now, and after the initial bellyaching about Jordan not being as pretty as her…her heart!...and his feeling extra sore after his visits with him, they were on a roll and had a great chemistry together as far as their treatments went…she tried not to think about…beyond the world of therapy.

She thought back to their first session after she got back from her trip. And the conversation they had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think the next time you can't see me, I'm just going to cancel." he had sulked as he wiggled his mass of muscle onto the mat.

"Sy, no. you need therapy. Don't be like that to Jordan. He's an excellent therapist."

"He ain't you though." he smirked, sending her heart racing with that smile that somehow managed to look both boyish and rakish under his full, dark beard. Fucking hell. He needed to stop.

"Well, we can't fault him for that, can we? Lay back, Mister." She demanded. Done with the niceties of the evaluation and onto the treatments where she was in charge. The boss.

"Yes, sir!" she laughed at his clear avoidance of calling her ma'am.

"So where'd you go last week? Vacation or stay-cation?" he asked, the term "stay-cation" sounding downright comical coming out of his country-boy mouth.

"I went to the beach. Gulf Shores."

"I thought you looked like you got some sun."

"Yeah," she pretended his noticing the detail of her awesome tan did not send her reeling. "My folks rented a condo right on the water for my siblings and I to come and stay with them. They're still there. It was tough to leave all that beauty." the beach, pretty much any beach, was her favorite place to be.

"I bet…" he looked at her, something dreamy in his eyes, but he looked away before she could process it. "I thought I had my fill of sand and sun when I was over in Iraq. But you make it sound…like paradise." he smiled softly up at her as she worked on his knee, trying to break apart some of the scar tissue from the injuries and surgeries he'd had…and focus on that, and not the warmth rising in her.

"That's the perfect way to describe any place on the Gulf of Mexico. I doubt it's anything like Iraq, since there's so much water around. It's my favorite vacation destination. Well, apart from London."

"Them British folks always seem so stuck up. Don't know if I'd get along with any of 'em."

"It felt like a second home for me. Everyone was very kind and polite, for the most part. At least it was no worse than it is here."

"Maybe it's just because you're so nice."

"Wait 'til about week eight or ten of your protocol. You won't think I'm nice then. You'll be cussing me out and ready to ring my neck."

"Promise?" he asked, a dark grin on his lips and in his eyes…she faltered for a moment, gulping.

"Cut it out, Syverson." she rolled her eyes, covering…without great effect the way he made her feel.

"Yes...ma'am." he smirked with satisfaction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now, today, she'd be treating him again, fairly early in the day, and she had to prepare herself. She'd checked the policy, and although there wasn't anything strictly against dating a patient, it was clearly a conflict of interest, and would be frowned upon by her frigid tyrant of a boss. Best to let things remain platonic for now.

Her 9:30 was a no show, so she finished up some notes and was working on some continuing education credits when messenger popped up around 10:00.

Sergeant Sexypants is here. He's quite early and he knows it…*smirk emoji* he must like you, Shane!

Heather, come on, be respectful…he was discharged at the rank of Captain! *rofl emoji* and I think you might be right about him liking me…*nervous emoji*

Oooooooooh!!! You guys are gonna *couple kissing emoji* *eggplant emoji* *okay emoji* *explosion emoji* *baby emoji*

Omg…*three facepalm emojis* I am going to go ahead and start him early since my 9:30 was a NCNS.

Don't finish him too early. Make it last. *smirk emoji*

Jeez. She closed the chat and went to grab him from the waiting area.

"Hey Sy, you ready?"

"You bet, sunshine!" he flashed her a crooked smile. He was calling her sunshine now…ad that to the list of things she'd have to pretend didn't make her swoon.

"Great. Let's start on the bike. How's the knee feeling today?"

"Oh, it's…about the same. Stiff. Lil' sore."

"Well, it's a slow process, like I told you at your eval. You've got a lot going on in there."

"I know…just…it hasn't taken me four weeks to do anything in my life." he sulked. "So…thinking about this taking…twelve or more…" he grimaced as he sat down on the bike, and adjusted it for his longer than average legs, putting his feet in the pedal stirrups.

"You may not see it, Sy, because you're so close to it, but trust me, you're making progress. I can tell you're doing your exercises at home, and you're always willing to put in the work here. You have no idea how much that sets you apart from…some of these other people." she leaned in closer and spoke the last part more quietly to him. It was true. So many of her patients were either lazy or just in it to appease their MDs into writing them scripts for pain meds. That wasn't Sy.

"You really think so?" he gave her the side eye with his baby blues, crushing her with the color like the waves of the ocean she'd just returned from.

"In fact, I know so." she placed a reassuring hand on his broad and thick shoulder. She felt the tension between them hum, like electric current.

"Now, level one, and a steady pace. You're not trying to win any medals here. I'll take those crutches."

"When ya think I can 86 'em damn things?" he griped as he handed over the assistive devices.

"Well, you see Potter again tomorrow? I'll write an update today and send it to him. If he likes what he reads, or more likely pretends to read, regarding your progress, he may discharge them. Do you feel like you can be good to the knee and treat it nice without using crutches? I don't want you to regress and re-injure yourself. That's not gonna get you into your running shoes any sooner."

"I'll be nice. Real gentle." he winked at her…he wasn't just talking about the knee. And she knew it. But again, she pretended she didn't, ignoring once more those butterflies threatening to choke her they were multiplying so fast in her belly.

"Okay, I'll put that in my note. Patient compliant with instructions to be nice." she laughed.

They talked as they biked, Shane sat on the one next to him and pedaled along with him for something to do other than be idle. She thought it made him feel better as well. Like he wasn't doing it alone. They covered the subject of her siblings, an older brother in IT and a younger sister who was an MA, and his German Shepherd, Aika, which he was allowed to bring home from Iraq after they were both honorably discharged. Music, both of them completely in agreeance about the superiority of classic rock.

"I noticed you've worn a Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt a few times and meant to say something before now."

"Yeah, they're one of my favorites. But there are a few newer groups that I like a lot, too. Kings of Leon got me through some tough times, honestly."

"Oh, they're great! I love their sound. And their lyrics…poetry."

"No shit. Sorry." she shook her head and raised up her hands to indicate that he didn't need to apologize to her for swearing. She'd been known to make sailors blush when she was off the clock. "Only by the Night…that whole album is…it's just in my blood, ya know? Ya ever have an album do that?"

"I have. Whole artists catalogs, actually."

"Which artist?" he prodded.

"The Beatles. Pretty much every song. Like you said, it just, like, I dunno, it's almost deeper than the veins. It's in the marrow. My soul." she stared off out the windows ahead of them, thinking about her favorite band in the world and how magical it was to experience Sir Paul McCartney playing some of her favorites live…twice…and the timer on the bike went off, pulling her from her daydream.

She looked over at him, startled by both the noise, and the dreamy look in his eyes that was becoming all too familiar.

"Sorry." she stood, grabbing his crutches for him and handing them back to him from where she had leaned them as they rode.

"Hey, don't be sorry for…ahem…for loving what you love. We should all…hold on to the things that make us feel like that." she nodded.

"Thanks…I don't think a lot of people…understand the way I…my tendency to take things like music, movies, and shows…books…so deeply to my heart." they walked to the treatment room from the gym, taking their time, since they had it. A rare occurrence for Shane, always needing to capitalize on every spare minute. To make productivity a priority.

"I think…that…well, seeing a pretty grim side of the world like I have…seems like there's enough darkness and bullshit making everyone miserable. If we find something…or…someone…that brings us some happiness or even just makes that misery bearable…we oughta hang onto 'em real tight. Cherish it like gold." the silence in the small room was loud with that electrical hum of their tension again. He'd said all the right things, as he always seemed to, but under the absolute wrong circumstances. She just nodded.

"They teach you philosophy in Basic?" she giggled. He laughed back in response.

"Oh, no, Basic was way easier than…whatever goes on inside of us."

"Speaking of which," she segued deftly, "lay back, and let my try to get some range out of that knee before I take new measurements for this update I'm gonna write."

"Yes, ma'am!" he chuckled.

"You get some sick thrill out of calling me that, don't you?" she scowled playfully at him.

"Oh, you have no idea…ma'am." he winked at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Shane was wondering how Sy's appointment went as she ate her soup at lunch and caught up on her morning notes. She got a ping on messenger.

You have a gentleman caller…*eggplant emoji*  hehe, he's on line three.

Geez…thanks Heather.

No need to ask for a name. She knew Heather meant Sy.

She picked up the phone at her desk in the treatment room.

"Hey Sy! How'd the appointment go?"

"Hey, sunshine…eh…he said I'm doin' good, but he wants me to stay on crutches another two weeks." she could hear grave disappointment in his voice. She felt for him.

"Aww, I'm sorry Sy. I know you wanted off those. And I know they're a pain. Literally and figuratively."

"Why wouldn't he want me off 'em?" he was so frustrated. He must have just left the office.

"Did you ask him that question?"

"You know doctors, Shane. Not like I would have got an answer in plain English. Figured you'd know."

"Well, I haven't seen your post-visit report, but it's my presumption that he wants to play it safe. You know he spent most of his day in the operating room with you, right? An eight hour surgery, you had. He probably doesn't want to undo all that by d/c'ing the crutches too soon."

"I was gonna be careful though, Shane!" he was worked up properly, and she could hear it over the roar of his pickup in the background.

"I know you were, Sy. I'm sure you were going to take all kinds of precautions. But what if you're walking into your kitchen, during a storm, and there's a loud clap of thunder, and Aika gets startled and busts past you? What if you're feeling good one day, and forget about it, and jog to catch up to someone holding the door open for you and miss a stick or something under foot? You can't prepare yourself for every pebble or patch of mud in your path, Sy. Accidents will happen. Some circumstances are beyond our control…we just have to do the best we can. The crutches are going to help you until we get you stronger. That's what we'll focus on until those two weeks are up."

"Why is it you can calm me down like this?" he asked, sincere and truly calmer than he had been.

"I'm just a good therapist, is all."

"Ya don't think that's really all, do ya?" the sound of his deep drawl in her ear from the receiver made her shiver. He was implying something that she just couldn't entertain. It wasn't possible for them right now. Maybe…down the road…in a few weeks…

"I'll see ya tomorrow, Sy. Come ready to work that knee."

"You didn't say no…" he was too hopeful. Damn it, he was cute when he was hopeful. She was glad she couldn't see his face light up like she knew it was doing.

"You may have noted I didn't say yes, either."

"Yet. See ya in the mornin', sunshine."

"Bye, Sy."

She put the receiver in the cradle and her face in her hands.

"Shit."

She had a feeling this particular patient was about to become much more complicated.

Up Next: Chapter Three-Therapeutic Activity

[cosmicpines]

Merry Christmas, and happy @codesecretsanta​! I’ve lurked for enough years and finally found the courage to participate.

This is for @cidnets​. They asked for something with the whole gang, so I wrote about some early gang friendship as they try and figure out how to navigate their new friend group.

Enjoy! :)

Jeremie Belpois didn’t have any friends before an evil AI possessed a vending machine and nearly electrocuted him to death a month ago, and he sure wished he remembered how that fact changed.

As far as he could remember, he went to get a drink from that vending machine, the same he did whenever he was feeling particularly down and decided to “treat” himself (quality of the hot chocolate questionable as it was), when suddenly there were three people talking to him like they knew each other, dragging him away to his room to tell him about an adventure he could barely believe happened. It took until he saw files on the supercomputer that weren’t there the day before, images of these apparent friends of his side by side with Aelita, to believe they weren’t all pulling an elaborate prank on him.

That gap in his memory itched at him in moments like these, when, between the mission shot calls and terror-filled calls to the person on the scene (Ulrich, this time, helping evacuate students from a water system that was flooding the school), there was the dreaded mission banter.

“Woah, Jeremie, I think we see why there’s a number mismatch,” Yumi’s voice reverberated through his headset, as the three dots on his map that indicated his friends (the word still felt wrong) rounded a bend to what looked like on his screen to be one Blok, but that the sensors identified as 7.

Odd laughed. “Oh man! Einstein, it’s like a Jenga tower!”

Yumi’s snicker came in response, confirming that this was a joke he wasn’t getting and Odd just not being dumb.

“Sorry?” Jeremie said, pulling up a visual on his screen, seeing all 7 Bloks stacked on top of each other, Yumi’s fan barely missing the bottom one, “It’s like a what now?”

“Jenga! You know, Jenga?” Odd repeated in what many may consider the least helpful clarification possible.

“Is that… a movie?”

 “No! What? How have you never played Jenga, Einstein? Haven’t you been to a game night or anything?”

Jeremie bit his tongue, weighing responses, the gap in his memory weighing on him. He often wondered, in times like this, where he failed to get jokes and carry on banter, what the hell the Jeremie of that timeline had done to trick the three of them (four, if you counted Aelita, who was a different mystery in of itself) into thinking they liked him in the first place. He wondered what that Jeremie would say in response to this, what he would do to make all of them laugh and like him.

“I have more important things to do than play whatever Jenga is. Like babysitting a supercomputer.”

“Well, we have to fix that! Yumi, do you have a copy?”

Of course, logically, he knew that the “other Jeremie” was really just him; that “he” would be struggling with this just as much.

"A copy of Jenga?” Yumi grunted as a laser hit her, (30 lifepoints left, should he say something? Should he wait for her to finish talking? What’s the protocol here?) “Maybe? My dad doesn’t have the patience for that kind of game. Luckily…” She tossed a fan with a cry, destroying one of the bloks on the bottom of the stack, sending the rest tumbling down. “I don’t either.”

“Oh, great job, Yumi!” Aelita’s grin was obvious, even though just her voice. She started making her way to the tower as Jeremie still tried to come up with something to say, thoughts spiraling as Odd and Yumi kept talking and he kept saying nothing, sitting there with nothing. There was a part of him that wondered if he was just a convenient means to an end to them. Someone to press the buttons and let them play superhero and talk to their much cooler digital friend.

“How about your room, Einstein? That way, Aelita can join us too!”

Crap. That was directed at him.

“My room? For what?”

“Earth to Einstein!” He cringed at Odd’s sudden increase in volume, “Game night! We’re going to teach you Jenga and every other game you’ve missed out on!”

He blinked, mind going blank again, for very different reasons. His fingers froze momentarily over the keys, before the defensiveness he had built up over the years fell out of his mouth. “Sure, Odd. As long as you don’t make another mess like last time.”

“Hey! That wasn’t my fault!”

“Uh huh,” he said, as the supercomputer pinged in response to the tower being deactivated. He started typing, hesitated, then reached in his bag for where he kept his notes. Almost had the return procedure memorized, but there was that step he always forgot. He’d hoped that he’d get Aelita to Earth before he’d need to memorize it, but materialization was harder than he thought.

As he typed, his mind conjured images of a game night – of friends on his floor, of laughter and fun. Maybe it was possible. Or maybe he was getting his hopes up again. Maybe  Odd just wanted to use his room for a game night so they could hang out with Aelita; nothing to do with him.

(Of course, why, then, would it be at his lack of knowledge about Jenga to prompt it?)

(…this was hard.)

“Return to the past now.”

 Odd Della Robbia wasn’t going to let this friend group fail.

Despite coming to Kadic in the middle of the semester (it wasn’t his fault his geometry teacher flunked him out of his last school, yeesh), he hadn’t been particularly worried about making new friends. People were naturally drawn to his charms; always had been, always would be. What could he say? He was great! I mean, sure, a lot of those old friends didn’t answer his calls after he had been kicked out of school and, yeah, one argument broke a lot of those friendships, but that didn’t matter. He had never been lonely before, and Kadic was going to be no different. And one day here had proven him right!

But these friends… they were different. Normally, Odd found himself with people who were similar to him – loud, excited, larger than life, up for anything – but his first day shoved him elsewhere. (Not that anyone would call his first day not loud, exciting, and larger than life). And maybe that wouldn’t have been a problem, except these friends didn’t seem to know how to be friends. Like, Jeremie looked surprised every time he and Ulrich sat next to him for dinner (at what was he was determined to become their table). It took Yumi at least a week to start hanging with them around campus after classes instead of going home. And his roommate… well, he was just a piece of work.

But there was something about these guys that was special. He was determined to make these friends a group anyone would envy. And the first thing to do to make that happen was easy: snacks and games.

“I still don’t get why you’re so insistent on this,” Ulrich said as they walked back to Kadic from town late that Friday night, arms laden with the most unhealthy things they could afford on a student’s budget.

“Oh, come on, Ulrich! Aelita and Jeremie both have never been to one! It’s our duty as their friends to enrich them.”

Ulrich rolled his eyes, shifting the bags in his arms. “Oh yeah, the joyous splendor of game nights is just what Jeremie needs to get out of his shell.”

“Well, why not? Besides, Yumi said she’s sneaking back on campus to join us, too. It’ll be great!”

“If you say so,” Ulrich shrugged, “I don’t get the feeling that he’s too jazzed you invited yourself into his room all night.”

Odd brushed him off. “It’ll be fine Ulrich, trust me.”

He only grunted in response, clearly not convinced. Odd frowned, clicking his tongue. “Aren’t you excited, Ulrich?”

“No.”

“What? Not even a little?”

“I’m excited to destroy this bag of Doritos and then go back into my room to read a book.”

“Boring!”

Ulrich grunted again, and silence fell on the two roommates as they entered the building. Odd just didn’t get this guy. What could convince him to just have a little fun with his friends?  

“Not even with Yumi there?”

It was a hunch he had for at least a week, and possibly a low blow to bring it up like this, but Ulrich’s reaction made it all worth it: he almost dropped his bag, his face turned red, and he pointedly stared at the opposite wall, as if doing so would mean Odd couldn’t see him. Bingo.

Ulrich cleared his throat after a moment. “I don’t know why that would make a difference.”

“Don’t you?”

“I don’t, so knock it off.”

“Knock what –,”

“Odd.” He growled, as they climbed the stairs to the boy’s floor, “Knock it off.”

“Okay, okay!” Odd grinned, “But I’m just saying, I’m happy to see someone melt that icy heart of yours. If you ever want any pointers on how to woo her, I’d be more than happy to –,”

“Alright, that’s it.” Ulrich muttered, turning around and heading back towards their room.

Odd felt his stomach drop as his roommate retreated. “Hey – hey Ulrich! Oh, come on! Don’t be upset, it was just a joke!” He grabbed his shoulder, and Ulrich turned around and looked at him.

Odd was used to friendships falling apart, was used to rejection and anger. Hell, even though he had only come to Kadic a month ago, he had already gotten slapped by a girl who was mad at him for brushing off their study date (his own fault, he knew, but he had just gotten a new game for his Gameboy Advance and completely forgot! Why couldn’t she understand that?!). So he knew what to expect from Ulrich here – he just hoped it wouldn’t be a friendship-ending argument.

But what he saw in Ulrich’s face wasn’t the pure anger he had grown toe expect; it was hurt. Ulrich was glaring at him, but his eyes were red, and he was blinking rapidly – staving off tears, Odd realized with a jolt.

“Ulrich, I…”

What could he say? What had he done wrong? Odd was just teasing him! It wasn’t anything for him to get so upset about! His stomach was churning as he looked at his roommate, desperate to think of what to say to brush this all off, get him back into Jeremie’s room for game night, and get him back in his good books.

Only… was Odd even in Ulrich’s good books? Was this friendship based on nothing but a housing mistake to drop Odd into Ulrich’s room and a supercomputer to drop them in the same double life? If they didn’t have that, would they even consider each other friends? Odd didn’t know. He bit his tongue as words failed to come to his mouth, and Ulrich turned away. And that possibly would have been the end of the night entirely, if it wasn’t for the muffled yelling that suddenly came from Jeremie’s room.

Newly forged instinct sprung to life in Odd, and he dashed down the hall to where Einstein must have been in danger – a possessed heating system! Flashes of lights that blind you! – Ulrich was at his side, too, and Odd felt something between dread and relief. Odd reached for the doorknob, when –

“I just don’t know what I’m doing, Aelita! I should be happy they’re hanging out with me, but –,”

Odd’s eyes widened, another pit forming in his stomach. He pressed his ear to the door, and barely caught Aelita’s reply.

“…something that usually stresses people out?”

“No! No, it’s just me being stupid and awful at this!”

“Awful at what?”  

“Friends! Aelita, I haven’t had friends before this! And I’m trying so hard to make it work with these but I don’t – I don’t know if they really like me at all. I seriously…”

Oh, this was a conversation they really shouldn’t be listening into.

 Odd nudged Ulrich, who was staring at the door in a sort of blind panic, pushing him back down the hallway.

“What are you – “

 “Shh!”

Odd’s mind was racing at Jeremie’s words. How would they not like him? He glanced back at Ulrich, who was staring at Jeremie’s door, but whose eyes drifted down to his. Ulrich’s eyes softened a bit, and he nodded, heading back towards their room. Odd’s heart sank, until he saw Ulrich picking up the bags of groceries.

 Odd grinned, then raised his voice, “Oh man, Ulrich! I cannot believe how late we are!”

           Ulrich stared back at him for a second, and then a hint of a smile formed on his lips. “Oh, Odd, I know, I know! But it was your fault for having to go back for Pringles.”

           “What can I say? I have great taste! Besides, I know the plain ones are Jeremie’s favorite!”

           “Uh – yeah! We… sure want to make sure we have that!”

           Odd knocked on Jeremie’s door, loudly. “Jeremie! We’re here!”

           His heart pounded as he heard a shuffling inside, and then, blessedly, the door opened. Jeremie stared at them for a second, something like distracted concern in his eyes, and then he gestured in, to where Odd saw he had put some blankets on the floor and cleared space off his normally disastrous desk. Aelita waved from the computer screen.

“Make yourself at home.” Jeremie said, shutting the door behind them.

“Will do, Einstein!” Odd breathed a sigh of relief as he unloaded his snacks onto the desk.

It was rough going. But he was going to make it work.

 Aelita was finding humans more and more confusing as each day passed.

Not ten minutes ago, Jeremie was telling her how much he was scared of this game night happening. He had even started yelling, which was something she’d only seen the boy do once before, when he was sharing how scared he was about their fight agains XANA.

It was something that had sat with her since they had made that promise the day they had met – they were all doing this for her, and it wasn’t getting any safer. They swore that, one day, she would be sitting in this room with them, instead of sitting in a quiet, empty tower, looking through a window into a world she found as strange as they found hers.

           Yumi had arrived five minutes ago, arms laden with games. “I stole these out of our house,” she had said, dropping them onto the bed and sitting down, “Sorry we don’t have a huge selection. Luckily, we did have Jenga afterall.”

           Odd had jumped up and wrapped his arms around her – a hug, Aelita remembered, from one of the movies she and Jeremie had watched – and Yumi had looked confused as he retreated, then had helped him begin setting up the game.

           Jenga, it turned out, was a rather simple game: stack the blocks in a tower, take out the pieces and place them on top, and try and keep it from falling over. She watched her friends take their moves in turn, and was fascinated by the dynamic in the room. Aelita had never seen them all interacting in a context outside of battle, and the lack of harmony was unexpected.

Yumi made her moves quickly and decisively, never hesitating for more than a second once her turn came around. She had knocked it over more than once like this, but didn’t seem to mind too much, and was quick to set it up again to keep going. She made loud noises after every round, and often poked fun at the others for their moves, which Jeremie and Ulrich didn’t seem to like. Yumi stopped this, after a while, but still tried to get everyone to speak with her.

Jeremie, meanwhile, was slow, eyes sweeping over the whole tower before choosing his move. When Yumi asked him what was taking so long, Jeremie had looked confused, before saying, “I’m evaluating my options!” That seemed logical to Aelita, but Odd and Yumi both laughed, like Jeremie had made a joke – or, as Jeremie had confided in her once, they were mocking him for saying the wrong thing. The way they continued smiling at him, though, didn’t indicate that.

           If being slow was something to laugh at, though, she wondered why Odd didn’t do the same with Ulrich, who took equally long turns in silence. Unlike Jeremie, who looked around the tower contemplatively, Ulrich kept bringing his hand to the tower, then pulling it back, over and over again, until he finally picked a move and performed it just as slowly. When the tower didn’t fall, he would breathe a sigh of relief. When it did, he would look furious with himself.

Odd couldn’t be more different than Ulrich, as, once he chose which to take – he pressed his finger against a few before choosing, he yanked it out deftly. The first time he had done this, Ulrich had muttered something about cheating, but Odd had shot back that Ulrich should read the rules sometime. Then, after placing the block back on top, he had smiled at his friend, but when Ulrich didn’t reciprocate, Odd’s smile slipped away.

           That wasn’t ordinary, Aelita had thought at the time, and, after Ulrich toppled the tower one more time and yelled out in anger and Yumi suggested moving onto another game, she could see that strange emotion again in Odd’s face – hesitation and fear. It was something she saw on Jeremie often, but never on Odd. She would have to remember to ask Jeremie about it afterwards.

           “How about Monopoly?” Yumi asked, holding up another box.

           Odd groaned. “That game takes forever and I’m horrible at it.”

           “Okay,” Yumi responded, putting it back down. “Sorry?”

           “Sorry for what?”

           “Ha ha, very funny.”

           Jeremie and Ulrich were both sitting silently on the ground as Odd and Yumi debated which game was next. Ulrich was cross legged, staring at his napkin covered in snacks – Doritos, Cheetos, and Pringles, Aelita remembered, from squinting at the packaging to her right and looking it up online. She read how the flavors differed and tried to imagine it herself; that was very hard, considering she didn’t even have taste buds. Her gaze drifted over to Jeremie, and she was momentarily startled, seeing him looking at her. Aelita smiled at him, and he smiled back. She glanced over at Odd and Yumi bickering over games, and then back at him, silently asking why he didn’t help. He glanced at his friends and shrugged, going back to picking at his snacks.

           This wasn’t the way Jeremie had explained a game night to her. This wasn’t the “fun” that she had expected to see.If she was there, she would drag him over to the board games and help him pick one. She would be the one to ask him, quietly, in case it was something that embarrassed him for some reason, which games he liked, and which he didn’t. She would laugh at Odd’s jokes and make some herself. She would try the snacks and have favorites and ones she hated. She would be able to have her own strategy for playing Jenga, and she would knock that tower down and learn to do it better.

           But she couldn’t. She was here, in an entirely different world, barely able to interact with them at all. Her voice didn’t come from her mouth, but from tinny speakers that echoed through the room; a quiet conversation wasn’t possible when she was being broadcasted to everyone. She watched as Jeremie quietly got another drink for Ulrich and Ulrich smiled back at him; somethings she couldn’t be part of. All she could do was loudly proclaim “hello! I’m here too!” before she was forgotten again in the excitement of another game she couldn’t touch, couldn’t join in, couldn’t be there for.

           And at what cost, would it be, to bring her there? What danger to the world must be done to let her join them, to let her touch the objects that Yumi was handing out?

“You know the rules for Uno, right?”

No! She didn’t! She had no idea what Uno was, or why it was played, or what some of them were finding fun and what some of them were stressed about! She had no idea how or why humans did this – Jeremie said nebulously “it was fun,” but Ulrich looked miserable, Odd looked scared, Yumi looked distant – she wanted, wanted, wanted to be there, wanted to be part of it… But how much was she worth? How much did they have to do for her?

So she sat silently and watched, only the briefest eye contact with Jeremie reminding her that they knew she was there at all.

Yumi Ishiyama didn’t think this game night was working.

She was leaning against Jeremie’s desk, getting herself another Coke, and watching as the boys played for second place in an Uno match after she had gotten out. Odd laughed as Ulrich played a draw two card on Jeremie, whose hand was already at least a quarter of the deck, but shut up as Jeremie dropped three more on top.

“Draw eight, Odd.”

A faint grin was on Jeremie’s face as Odd scowled. “I never should have let you guys convince me to use stacking rules!”

“You were the one who suggested it,” Ulrich muttered, sorting his own hand.  

Yumi smiled, sipping her drink, thankful for a moment of unity in the room. The boys had been awkward all night; Jenga was a nightmare that she was glad was over. It wasn’t like she was doing much better – her competitive instincts from playing with her family didn’t work well with Jeremie, who didn’t know the rules, or with Ulrich, who was in what she was quickly finding to be a usual bad mood. Odd didn’t seem to mind, but she always had a hard time understanding Odd at all; his easy grins and fast jokes couldn’t always be genuine, could they? How could someone be that happy all the time?

But Odd was grating on the other two just as much as she was; his jokes falling on just her laughter, becoming more and more tired as the other two didn’t respond. It was a nightmare, trying to carry the conversation like this, and it was clearer now that she had stepped out of the game. Ulrich and Jeremie just played the game, an ocasssional single quip, and Odd tried his best to fill the room with chatter that fell on deaf ears, his persistant smile fixed and tired. This whole thing was a mistake. None of them were having a good time, and none of them wanted to be there.

What is wrong with us? Yumi thought, unconsciously crushing her now empty cup in her hand. Why couldn’t they just have fun, the way friends were supposed to? Yumi hadn’t had any friends before she and Ulrich were attacked by that electricity ball and her life got flipped upside down, and now she wasn’t even sure if she was doing it right. There were times that they got it, that they laughed and hung out, but there were times like this, too, where everything was just off.

She sighed, turning to throw out her cup, thinking about making an excuse about wanting to get home before Jim noticed her, when she suddenly remembered that they weren’t the only ones in the room. Aelita’s face was on the screen, watching the boys play Uno. She suddenly felt bad about not speaking to her most of the night.

“Hey Aelita, how are you doing?”

Aelita turned to her, smiling brightly. “Oh, just fine, Yumi. Humanity has created so many interesting ways to keep itself occupied in its leisure, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Yumi’s heart melted with Aelita’s enthusiasm for something so simple, “Are you understanding the rules?”

“Oh yes, I have the Google to thank for that.” Aelita motioned to something in front of her that Yumi couldn’t see. A smile twitched at the corners of Yumi’s mouth at Aelita’s awkward phrasing. She found herself briefly forgetting her desire to book it out of there as Aelita continued. “I’m learning a lot! Not just on the games, but on ‘fun’ too.”

“On fun? What do you mean by that?”

“I didn’t really understand quite how it worked before now; I don’t have a lot of time for ‘fun’ on Lyoko. It’s not like I can go play Uno or Jenga with XANA.” She looked wistful for a moment, then smiled again. “But I can see the way that you guys are doing it, and it’s very interesting. It seems like ‘fun’ is something you have to learn to do as much as ‘work’ is.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“Well,” Aelita hesitated for a moment, “I found that whenever I need to learn something new, it takes me a bit to get it right, you know? And you guys are doing that with this – you were yelling before, but not now. Odd stopped bothering Ulrich. Jeremie is speaking more and more.”

Yumi was crushing her cup again, and noticed the lack of the sound of cards in the room meant the others had stopped playing Uno and were listening in on the conversation.

“From what Jeremie tells me,” Aelita continued, “Between your schoolwork and fighting XANA, you don’t get a lot of chances to do ‘fun.’ I’m glad you found a way to do it today, and that you’re all practicing it together.”

Practicing having fun.

It was a very strange way to put it, Yumi thought, her eyes sweeping over the room, as they all shared glances with each other, but not something entirely wrong. How many times did she see any of them with people who weren’t each other?

           Yumi looked back at their digital friend, whose animated face was impassive, then grew more confused as she didn’t respond. She stole another glance at the rest of the room and felt her insides unclench. Her face twitched, and laughter started spilling out of her mouth.

           None of them knew what they were doing. None of them – not a single one of them – knew how to do this right. This was ridiculous; they were all so stressed about playing Uno.

           Maybe they did need the practice at being friends.

Her laughter subsided after a moment, and, although it wasn’t the cathartic group laugh that she was hoping for, the atmosphere in the room felt lighter than it had a moment ago.  Yumi tossed her now destroyed cup the trash, reinvigorated to figure out how to salvage a night for them. All of them.

“Hey, Aelita. Why don’t you join us, this round?”

“Huh? I can’t –”

“No, you totally can,” Yumi grinned at her, “We can find a way to hold some cards up for you, and we can just play them for you.”

“Yeah!” Odd perked up as he shuffled everyone’s cards back into the deck, “That’s a great idea, Yumi! I can help her!”

And they did. Everyone seemed to be trying a little harder at keeping the mood going. It was sloppy. They still stumbled over words, still had awkward moments between rounds. But the silence was shrinking. Yumi’s competitive shouts were responded to – hesitantly at first, then more excitedly. More people laughed at Odd’s jokes, and Jeremie even made some himself.

“Can you put down my fourth card?” Aelita asked, smiling innocently.

“Sure I – SKIP? SKIP?! YOU’RE SKIPPING ME?” Odd gasped, his hand filled with cards.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you not want me to try and win?”

They laughed – all of them, finally. She wasn’t sure what had flipped the switch in the room; maybe they all came to the same conclusion she did, maybe they all just wanted to try and prove to Aelita that they did know what they were doing. Either way, the games of Uno pressed on into the night.

“Draw two, Yumi.” Odd dropped a card, grinning.

“So sorry, but I think that Ulrich will be drawing four.”

“Tough, Aelita’s drawing six.”

“If you play my third card, you will find it’s Jeremie drawing ten.”

“…Okay, I officially withdraw my support of stacking rules.”

“What, just because you’re losing?” Yumi teased him, and Jeremie – miracle of miracles – actually stuck his tongue out at her and grinned as he drew his cards.

Maybe they would figure this out, eventually.

 Ulrich Stern was exhausted.

He didn’t really know what he was signing up for when he agreed to go to the game night, but whatever that was certainly wasn’t it. It had started out as horribly as he expected, but then Yumi somehow completely turned it around. Hell, the three hour-long rounds of Uno (stacking rules were a mistake, it turned out) they played with Aelita were actually, dare he say it, fun, and he left the room around two feeling a lot less crummy than he had when he walked in. He even agreed to Jeremie’s suggestion that they do it again next week, returning the exhausted smile Jeremie offered him.

“I’m going to sneak home,” Yumi said, as they headed down the hallway. “I’m not sure who I’m more scared about finding me; Jim or my parents.”

“Do you want me to scout ahead?” Ulrich asked immediately, hoping he didn’t sound too eager, “I’d get in a lot less trouble with Jim than you would.”

“Yeah, that would be great! Thanks.”

Her smile made his insides melt, and Ulrich scampered away before Odd could make fun of him for it again. It wasn’t his fault that Yumi made him happy. The whole night she was fighting to make sure they were all having a good time, and it was so nice to feel like someone cared about him. It was just a pain that he was so bad at letting her, or any of the others, know that.  

A dash down the hall, a surreptitious glance right and left, down the stairs, and it was all clear. He waved Yumi over, and she was at his side faster than he expected.

“Thanks,” She grinned at him, punching him on the arm. “See you on Monday?”

“Unless XANA calls over the weekend.”

“Ugh, I sure hope not. You guys can sleep in; I have to pretend I went to bed early tonight.”

He snickered. “Goodnight, Yumi.”

“Goodnight, Ulrich.”

She disappeared down the stairs and he watched, a tired smile lingering on his face. He let himself stay for a moment longer, relishing the solitude. People were exhausting. And he still had to face one of them, even though the main activities for the night were over. He dreaded going back. He didn’t want to hear a barrage of mockery for being all too eager to help Yumi out, or more insisting that he “lose the grumpy act.” Nothing he’d ever said before had convinced Odd to shut up, and he was starting to think this was just going to be a constant part of his life.

A yawn overtook him, and he figured that needing to sleep would be a good way of getting Odd off his back as quickly as possible. He headed back to his room and went inside. Odd was there, of course, already changed into his pajamas, a finger to his lips as Ulrich shut the door behind him. “Kiwi’s asleep,” Odd whispered, pointing to the drawer that his dog slept in.

Ulrich nodded, thankful. An even better excuse; one Odd would adhere to since it was his own pet. He excused himself to the bathroom to get ready for bed, smiled at a text from Yumi that told him she got back safe, and returned to the room, a sinking feeling in his gut when he saw Odd was still awake.

“Night.” Ulrich muttered, trying to make it clear that no, shut up, not tonight, getting in bed as quickly as he could.

“Goodnight.” Odd replied, his voice smaller than usual.

Ulrich frowned, staring at the wall in front of him. Not even a single joke? Well. Better for him. He closed his eyes.

“Hey… Ulrich?”

He opened his eyes.

Maybe if he didn’t say anything, Odd’d think he was already asleep.

“Ulrich, are you awake?”

No. He thought, as if that would work.

“I’m going to assume you are and you’re just being a grumpy butt again.”

He hated his life.

“Listen, Ulrich I… I’m sorry about earlier. I don’t know really what – I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. And I’m sorry if that screwed up game night and… I dunno. You’re all my friends, and we should try and do these things! It was fun, after a while, right?”

Odd trailed off, and Ulrich stared at the wall in front of him as if it magically had all the answers to the asked and unasked questions Odd posed, the ones that haunted Ulrich. He had a million things on his mind, a million responses to make, a million confused feelings clenched in his gut.

“And I guess I – I feel like I’m doing something wrong with you, Ulrich. I want to be friends, and I – I dunno. I’m sorry.”

“…I didn’t think sorry was in your vocabulary, Odd.”

“Rude.” Odd shot back, but without any venom. “Friends?”

He let the question sit for a moment, and Ulrich smiled, thinking of the laughter they all shared as Aelita destroyed them for the third time in a row.

“Yeah. Yeah, we are.”

[neerasrealm]

awesome! can i please request friends to lovers with cody boi and demisexual!y/n? 🥺👉👈

YOU’RE IN LUCK I’VE BEEN WORKING ON MY CODY LORE RECENTLY. hopefully I did alright- I’m kind of inexperienced with writing demi characters so I apologize if I got something wrong.

"Oh, sorry."

Your hand brushes against another as you reach for the chemistry book you need for your assignment. You grab it and look up at the other person. He's taller than you and has pale skin and honey-brown hair that hangs over one of his green eyes, which blink at you. He scratches at an old, jagged scar on his jaw. 

"You gonna read that?"

"Well duh," you frown at him. "I have an assignment to do." 

"Ah." He nods, glancing aside. "What's your major?" 

"Chemical engineering." You tilt your head at him. "You?"

"Pharmacology." He replies. You arch your brow. If he was studying pharmacology wouldn't you have seen him around campus? Then again- your college is pretty big so...maybe you just forgot his face. He steps back away from you, putting his hands in his hoodie's pockets. "Enjoy the book." He says in a bored tone before turning and walking away. 

------

"Hmm…"

Once more, you're looking for a very, very specific book. For another assignment. A group one. "Uggghhh…" you mutter to yourself. You do not want to be that one guy who doesn't do any work and drags the group down. You already have one of those. As you step out from behind a bookshelf your eyes absently scan the long reading table before-

Wait.

You turn back and squint. The book! It's right there! And being read by...a pale skinned boy with honey-brown hair and green eyes. You glance around for a moment before walking over and taking a seat across from him.

"You gonna read that?"

He looks up at you, seemingly surprised. His eyes widen with realisation, and the smallest of smiles curls up his lips. "...well duh." You smirk and laugh a little bit. He sets the book down and tilts his head at you. "You get that assignment done?"

"Barely." You reply. "Now I got a group project to do."

"Ew." He wrinkles his nose in disgust. He glances from you to the book his hand is resting on. The book you need. "...what're your plans for after college?" He asks, trying to sound casual, but the question sounds like he’s inspecting you.

"A bio engineer. You?"

He blinks in surprise. "Same, actually. Specialising in curing diseases."

"Huh! I was gonna do the same. I wanna help develop medicines."

He looks at you for a moment, then smiles a bit. He closes the book and slides it over to you. "Good luck on the assignment." He says before standing up and walking away. You watch him leave with a small, curious smile. 

----

"God that professor drives me crazy…" one of your classmates mutters as they walk past you. You can't help but agree. 

Stepping outside you wrinkle your nose. It's raining. Great. And all you have is a thin jacket with no hood. A breeze blows by, and it feels like it's going straight through your clothes. You shiver. 

"Hey." A familiar voice grunts beside you. You look up in surprise and are greeted by a taller boy in a hood wearing blue goggles. One of his eyes is obscured by honey-brown hair. He reaches up, grabbing the goggles and pulling them down. Green eyes blink down at you. 

"Oh, hey." You tilt your head at him. "Book boy."

He smirks a bit, tossing his head to the side like he's mimicking you. "Is that my name?"

"Well you never told me your name."

He blinks in surprise, like he hadn't even realised he'd never told you his name. Or forgotten. You suppress a laugh. "Oh." He says. "I'm Cody. But my friends call me X."

"Why?" You ask, smiling a bit. He opens his mouth to reply, then closes it again, like he's stumped. 

"It's my favourite letter?" He finally answers. You laugh loudly. 

‘’Alright, X,’’ you smirk at him. ‘’Did you need something? Another book?’’

‘’Huh? Oh- nah.’’ he scratches at the scar on his jaw. ‘’I saw you out in the rain and uh-’’ he pauses, reaching into the brown satchel thrown across his side. He searches around in it, the contents jingling and clinking until he pulls out a folded up umbrella. ‘’I brought you this.’’ You blink in surprise. You reach out and take it. ‘’But I want something in return.’’

‘’Huh?’’

‘’One, I want my book,’’ he toys with the strap of his goggles as he speaks. ‘’And two...I wanna take you for coffee.’’

You arch your brow. ‘’...why?’’

‘’I think you’re neat.’’ he shrugs. ‘’I don’t talk to people much. And you have a similar major so…’’

You hesitate. It isn’t the first time a guy you don’t know well has asked you for coffee under the pretense of ‘you’re just neat’. You pause. He looks at you, seemingly disinterested. Like it doesn’t matter if you say yes or no. 

‘’...sure.’’ you finally say. ‘’But you’re paying.’’

He wrinkles his nose. ‘’I’ll pay the tip.’’ he says. ‘’Sixty percent.’’

------

‘’Hey, y/n!’’

You look up as you step outside your lecture hall. Cody runs towards you, shaking his honey-brown hair out of his eyes. You smile brightly at him as he stops in front of you. Cody has been warming up to you over the past few weeks. He meets you after classes, walks you to your dorm or gets coffee with you, and always, always follows you to the library. He’s...odd. Initially he was standoffish, like he didn’t really care about your company all that much, but as you’ve spent time together he’s opened up a lot more. He’s excitable, and wildly passionate about all sorts of things. But mostly science- which suits you. He helps a lot with writing papers. 

‘’Hey X.’’ you greet him. You walk past him and he trails after you. ‘’How was your day?’’

‘’Fine.’’ he says. ‘’Professor Harrison is still annoying.’’

‘’Ugh- so glad I don’t have his classes till next week…’’ you sigh. ‘’Glad it’s Friday, huh?’’

‘’Yeah.’’ he smiles a bit. 

‘’You got plans for the weekend?’’

‘’Huh? Oh, uh...not- not really. Just- research…’’

You glance over your shoulder and smile at him. ‘’You wanna come over for a bit tomorrow?’’

‘’Co-come over?’’

‘’Yeah. We can hang out, watch a movie or something.’’

‘’...you want me in your house?’’

‘’Well it’s not really a house but- yeah.’’ you smile at him. ‘’What? I can’t invite my friend over to hang out?’’

His bright green eyes seem to shimmer. ‘’Friend?’’ he asks, excitement leaking into his voice. You nod, smiling a little bit. He’s funny when he’s excited. He beams wide. ‘’S-Sure! Yeah, I can postpone my research!’’

-----

‘’Knock knock!’’

You get up off your couch and move over to the door. Opening it, you’re greeted by honey-brown hair and green eyes beaming down at you. ‘’Hey y/n.’’ Cody chirps, shifting on his feet. You step aside to let him in. He walks inside quickly, holding coffee in each hand. He puts down the coffees and rummages through his satchel. ‘’I brought you snacks, and some books I thought you might like. Oh! I also bought you a spare USB, since you almost lost yours last week. You can back your files up on this one just in case-’’

‘’Cody.’’ you interrupt. He looks over at you. ‘’You...didn’t need to get me all of this.’’ you frown. You only invited him over for a movie- why all the stuff? 

‘’...I wanted to help.’’ he murmurs. ‘’I know you like coffee, so I thought you’d like some. Then I thought we’d need snacks for the movie, and then I passed the library and remembered the USB thing so I-’’ he fiddles with his hands. ‘’Isn’t that what friends do?’’

‘’...Cody,’’ you say. He stares at you. ‘’You’ve never had a friend before, have you?’’

He hesitates, then shakes his head. ‘’Not really.’’ he shrugs. ‘’Nobody was ever interesting enough to talk to,’’ he glances aside. ‘’But...you’re different. I dunno how but- you are.’’

You fold your arms, looking at him for a few moments, then exhale gently. ‘’...you’re really weird, X.’’

-----

‘’Hey y/n?’’ 

‘’Huh?’’ you look up from the cheap chinese takeout the two of you ordered. It has become a routine for the two of you to hang out on weekends. And during the week. Cody meets up with you almost every day, and the days he doesn’t he’s...completely impossible to reach. Like he dropped off the face off the earth. But you don’t mind too much.

‘’What do you think of human experiments?’’ his eyes stare into you. You blink.

‘’If they’re safe, then yeah. If it clears animal testing first I think human testing should begin, if the correct safety procedures are taken.’’

He nods. ‘’Yeah, yeah but…’’ he taps his fingers on the table for a second. ‘’Sometimes we need to disregard those protocols. That’s a fact, right?’’

‘’...yeah?’’ you tilt your head, confused.

‘’So what if we used bad people for those experiments? Like death row criminals. It would speed up the process.’’

You blink for a moment. ‘’I mean-’’ you think for a moment. ‘’I dunno…’’ you look away. ‘’Why are you asking me this?’’

‘’No reason.’’ Cody looks back at you and shrugs. ‘’The topic came up in class earlier and it just crossed my mind.’’

----

‘’Knockknocknockknocknockknockkno-’’

You yank open your door and glare up at the person in the doorway. ‘’It’s three in the mo-’’ you pause. The tall, rude person in your doorway is breathing heavily through a gas mask. Their head is lowered, their face obscured by honey-brown hair. They cough.

‘’Sorry for wakin’ you.’’ he grunts. He leans up off the doorway and stumbles forward. You catch him quickly.

‘’Cody?! What the fuck?! Is that you?!” 

"Yeah…" he coughs a bit and grips your shoulders for support. "I got in a fight…"

You pull him over to your couch. He collapses onto it and groans. You pull off his gas mask and goggles and look at his face. It seems to be okay- because of the gas mask probably. Good protection for his face. 

"Where does it hurt?" You ask quickly.

"They fucking kicked me in the gut." He mutters back. He coughs a couple times. "H-Hey, did I drop my baseball bat…?"

"Baseball bat?" You stand up and look over at your door, which is still open. A baseball bat with nails sticking out of the head leans against the doorway. You move over and grab it, closing the door. "Why do you have this thing?"

"Self defense." He grunts back. "Can you get me some ice?"

"Sure, sure yeah."

------

"So like…" Cody looks up from his cereal as you speak. He's been staying in your dorm for the past few days, recovering from getting beat up. "Does this happen...often…?"

He looks at you. "Why would you think that?"

"Because you have a weapon for self defense and you have a scar on your jaw." You point at him. He palms at the jagged scar on his jawline. 

"Oh." He says. "This one isn't from a fight."

You frown and tilt your head. "It isn't?"

"I was in a car accident when I was eight." He says. "My parents died in it. I didn't."

You blink, completely taken aback. "Shit- really?" You suddenly regret all the curious looks you've given that scar over the past while. "That's horrible- I'm sorry dude."

He waves you off. "It's nothing." He murmurs. It's quiet and awkward for a while before he speaks again. "I got a lot more scars from the crash. You wanna see?" He grins at you. You break out into a smile.

"...oh heck yeah I do."

-----

‘’Hey y/n?’’

‘’Huh?’’ you look up from your laptop and over at Cody, who’s laying on his back on your bed, staring at the ceiling through his blue goggles. He doesn’t answer for a moment. 

‘’How long have we been friends?’’ His voice is small and thoughtful. Maybe even sad. You frown.

‘’Like….six months. Why?’’

‘’That’s a long time.’’ he muses, sounding surprised. He turns and looks at you. ‘’...I trust you.’’

‘’You trust me?’’

‘’Yeah.’’ he looks at the ceiling again. ‘’I trust you. A lot. I’ve never really- had a friend before...but I trust you.’’ he turns to you again. ‘’I’m glad I met you, y/n.’’

‘’...what sparked that?’’ you ask gently. Cody shrugs.

‘’Dunno. Was just thinkin’ bout stuff…’’ he’s quiet for a while. ‘’You ever think about how chickens are descended from dinosaurs so technically dino nuggets are dinosaur meat?’’ he breaks the silence. 

‘’PFFFFF-’’

----

‘’Hey! y/n!’’ 

You look up just in time to see Cody sprinting towards you from the other side of the campus. His gas mask is on, even though he doesn’t seem to be coming from the campus’s lab, as are his goggles. His hood falls down, exposing honey-brown hair. You walk quickly toward him and he stumbles towards you, then doubles over gasping for air. 

‘’Uh- you oka-’’

‘’HEY! YOU!’’ 

You look up quickly and see a campus security guard sprinting towards the both of you. Your eyes widen and Cody grabs your wrist. ‘’Canttalknowjustrun!’’ he hisses before sprinting off again with you in tow. You yelp as you’re yanked across campus, in between buildings, and off the grounds entirely. Eventually, you’re yanked into an alleyway and the two of you lean against the wall, panting and gasping for air. You flop your head against your shoulder and stare at him. 

‘’Cody…’’

‘’Y-yeah?’’

‘’What the fuck?!’’

He gulps and looks at you. ‘’I...may have pissed off the security guard.’’

‘’How?’’

‘’I uh-’’ he pauses, looking at you. It’s silent for a few moments and he sighs. ‘’I’ve...been lying to you.’’

‘’Huh?’’

‘’I don’t actually attend your college,’’ he murmurs. ‘’I...graduated years ago. I’m just some- homeless dude who hangs around the campus sometimes for fun.’’

You stare at him. ‘’What...the fuck…?’’ he doesn’t say anything. ‘’Why would you lie to me?!’’

‘’Because I…’’ he shrugs. ‘’I didn’t want you to think less of me...I just wanted you to treat me like anyone else...like- a friend…’’ he sighs. ‘’...I’m sorry…’’

You stare at him for a few moments, then sigh gently. You lean off the wall and pat his shoulder. ‘’I don’t think less of you because of any of this,’’ you murmur. ‘’I’m hurt because- well...I thought you trusted me.’’ His head snaps to you, staring in surprise. ‘’It is weird that you hang around on campus yeah but- you’re not a creep. I know you’re not. You just- wanna be accepted. Right?’’

He pauses, staring at the ground. ‘’...yeah. I do.’’

‘’Then I accept you.’’ you hesitate for a second, then hug him gently. His arms cautiously and gently wrap around you. ‘’And you’re staying with me, okay? I don’t want you on the streets anymore. You don’t need to get hurt.’’

"...okay." he murmurs. "...thanks."

------

"I'm home!"

"Y/n!" Cody rolls over onto his stomach and grins at you from his spot on the couch, which is also basically his bed now. "How was your lecture? Learn anything interesting?"

You shrug off your backpack and walk over to the couch. Cody curls up to make room for you as you sit down. "It was alright." You murmur. Cody shifts around and leans against you, smiling up at you. He's cute, you'll admit. Like an excited puppy. Always happy to see you. You reach over and pat him. He moves his hand up and grabs your hand, squeezing it in his. He stays there for a few moments, staring up at you fondly before he withdraws his hand. 

"Here." he grabs the remote from the other side of the couch using his socked feet, then grabs it with his hands before passing it to you. You take it and lie back, flicking through channels idly. You glance at him. He's still staring at you. 

"You need something?"

He shakes his head. "Nah." He turns back to the tv. "I just like your face."

You smirk. "Thanks. Yours too."

------

"Uuuggghh…"

You sit up and bury your face in your hands. You're stressed. Extremely so. This damn assignment is impossible! You can't figure it out. At all. You're just about ready to give up. 

"Y/n?"

You look up and see Cody crouched near your bed where you're sitting. He looks up at you with his best puppy eyes. "I think you need a break." He murmurs. He reaches up and takes one of your hands in his, pulling it down and tugging it. You sigh, push your laptop away and lie down so you're facing him. 

"Fine." 

He smiles and reaches into his pocket, pulling something out. Your favourite candy bar. "Here," he holds it up to you. "To get your energy back."

You take it and smile. "How'd you know it's my favourite?"

He smiles. "Lucky guess." That's a lie. Definitely. He climbs onto your bed and lays down beside you. You look at him while munching on your chocolate.

"Cody," you ask tiredly. "...what do you do when no matter what you can't find the answer?"

He blinks, then frowns. "I keep going," he answers. "I try to change something every time and peace together the answer. I work outside the box, break the rules…" he frowns and looks down. "...four hundred and twenty three times."

"Huh?"

He looks up at you, surprised. "Oh! Uh- it's nothing. I just remembered this one experiment I did...heh...took me four hundred and twenty three tries to get it right..." he seems suddenly fidgety and- maybe even sad.

"Damn." Your eyes widen. "What was the experiment?"

"...nothing important." He smiles at you. He reaches over and pats your cheek a couple times. "Now, cmere. You're taking your break in cuddle-town."

You squint at him. "...cuddle-town."

"Yep!" He lifts his arm up for you. "Cmonnnn...you know you wannaaaa."

You give him a stern look. Then a smile curls up your face and you laugh. "Alright, alright. I'll bite." you scoot closer to him and let him hug you tight. He smells of chemicals and takeout. It's a weird smell, but welcoming. He hums happily. "...Thanks X."

"No problem." He chirps back, nuzzling his face into your hair.

-------

"You made a mistake."

"Huh?" You're curled up against Cody, doing your homework. Part of your course is a mandatory math class. Ugh. Your back is resting against his front while you do your work. His arms are wrapped around you, hugging you gently. Not the most conventional position for math homework, but a damn comfy one. 

His arm moves from around your hip and points at the paper you're writing on. "You need to multiply here. Not subtract. Then you'll get a minus, but you'll have to change the signs so your answer would be…" he pauses for a moment. "Minus X to the power of four over three Y to the power of six."

You blink and frown for a couple moments. "Oh!" You cross out your mistake and correct it. "Like that?"

Cody nods. "Exactly." His arm winds around you again. You smile a bit.

"How are you so good at math?" You ask. He shrugs.

"Studied my butt off in highschool and learned everything twice as fast as everyone else." He says with a laugh. You snicker.

"Why?"

"Wanted to prove that I could do it." He murmurs. He leans down and presses his face into your hair. He's probably sniffing it but you choose to ignore that because math homework is hard. "...why did you decide to become a scientist?"

"I wanted to help people." You murmur. He hums in thought.

"Why?"

You shrug. "It's the right thing to do, isn't it?"

He's quiet for a moment. "yeah," his hand runs up your stomach. "I guess it is."

-----

"I wanna take you somewhere."

You look up at Cody. "Okay," you say. "Where?"

"...dinner."

"Dinner where?"

"Downtown. Somewhere you like. Somewhere fancy." 

You smirk at him a bit. ‘’Alright...when?’’

‘’Right now. Today.’’

You blink in surprise and look at the clock on the wall, then him. ‘’We’d have to get ready like- right now.’’

‘’Okay.’’ he stands up like it’s nothing. ‘’Go get ready.’’

Cody’s sudden wanting to eat out is odd. He’s always been happy with takeout and your own cooking, so why he suddenly wants to go out is- odd. But you’re not complaining. The restaurant he brings you to is nice, and even though he’s suddenly fidgety and a little on-edge, he’s still his regular, cute self. Spending time with him is something you enjoy deeply. Why else would you have let him live with you? He’s like your best friend- maybe even something more. While the two of you are leaving the restaurant his hand brushes against yours and he ever so carefully entwines his hand with yours. Okay yeah. It’s definitely something more.

Instead of walking home, the two of you end up walking to a nearby park. It’s a peaceful night. A little cold, but Cody’s hand feels warm and comforting. He stops suddenly, and turns to you. You stare at him.

‘’y/n?’’

‘’Yeah?’’

He hesitates. ‘’Do you…’’ he glances aside. ‘’...do you like me?’’ his body language is nervous, but his tone is full of forced confidence. 

‘’Of course I like you.’’ you tilt your head at him. ‘’...you’re acting weird. What’s wrong?’’

He looks surprised for a moment. He quickly collects himself and gulps, glancing aside. ‘’I…’’ he fiddles with his hands. ‘’It’s...nothing, y/n. Just- forget it. I’ll take you home.’’

‘’Wait-’’ you stop and step toward him, grabbing his wrist. He stares at you in surprise. You yank him toward you, intending to pull him into a hug but- you yank too hard and Cody stumbles into you, making you, in turn, stumble backwards into a tree. You’re left leaning against it, with Cody leaning over you, staring down in surprise. It’s deathly silent for a few tense moments before a smile curls up his face. He snorts, then laughs, then falls against you giggling. You slowly crack up with him and reach up, gripping his arms as the two of you giggle at absolutely nothing. He lifts his head up and smiles at you. His face is only inches from yours. He’s so close you can see the lighter speckles in his green eyes and individual strands of his honey-brown hair. His features are soft. Welcoming. ‘’Cody,’’ you murmur. ‘’...I do like you. A lot.’’

‘’Huh?’’ he seems completely taken aback by this. ‘’Really?’’ he doesn’t sound like he quite believes you. You chuckle.

‘’Yes.’’ you smile up at him. Slowly, you reach up and cup his face in your hands. ‘’C’mere…’’ you murmur, pulling him down to you. You close the gap and kiss him gently. He tenses up, a quiet gasp of surprise escaping his mouth. Slowly, he leans into the kiss, kneading against you. He feels warm. Comforting. Safe. You shiver as he reaches down, grabbing your hip with one hand. The two of you pull away and stare at each other. It’s silent. You can feel his warm breath against your face. 

‘’y/n?’’ he breaks the silence. You look up at him. ‘’...I love you.’’

A smile curls up your face. You grab him and pull him down for another kiss. ‘’I love you too.’’ you giggle. He grins and wraps his arms around you, squeezing you tightly. He lifts you up in his arms and nuzzles into your shoulder. You giggle and grip his shoulders as he swings you around until he stumbles and falls back. The two of you yelp out in surprise as you fall onto the grass. Cody is still holding you tight, staring up at you with a wide smile. You smile down at him lovingly and comb your hand through his honey-brown hair. ‘’I love you too…’’ you murmur once more.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Recruits, Regulation″

Recruits Kimber, Alvarez, Han, and McCaster sat mostly slack jawed in the little conference room on the command deck of the UNSC Harbinger. The little alien doctor they had called ‘Krill’ was standing at the front of the room, and in general military fashion, he had a powerpoint holographically projected over the far wall. 

On the projection currently was a diagram of a human body, the kind you would see in high school health textbook.

The little alien was pointing vigorously towards the diagram, “And here, right here this little opening that leads into the bladder is called the urethra, and if you STICK things in it, it gets grossly infected and causes horrible urinary tract infections.” The group of recruits simple sat there in shock, “This, this is the anus, this muscle was designed to push things out not take things in. In fact, if you try, the negative pressure created by your adventure can pull things INSIDE your colon and up your large intestine. The procedure for getting that out might include surgery, but could just involve someone like me reaching up there to grab it out.” 

Mouths gaped in astonishment.

They couldn’t be living through this, could they.

“This, this machine right here is the mechanism used to close the airlock doors. If the airlock doors get jammed, do NOT stick your hand inside to try and fish them out, because this may cause something called degloving…. If you don’t know what that means, its when all the skin peels off your hand like a banana and-”

The door at the far end of the room hissed open, and they turned to see the commander, of course the man didn’t just walk into the room like any normal person. He glided in on his ‘heelies, hands clasped behind his back like he was standing at parade rest. It was such a strange sight, considering the man was wearing an officer's uniform and a captain’s cap having ditched the sunglasses from earlier in favor of the eye patch, which did not, in fact, seem to be a joke, but was definitely part of his everyday wardrobe. 

He came gliding to a halt next to them, “You made a powerpoint?” He asked in mild amusement.

“Of course I made a powerpoint.”

“Hmm,” The man shrugged, “Guess it makes sense.”

“Can you let me finish.”

The man grinned, “Afraid not. We are about to launch, and I have it on good authority these four have been invited to the bridge to see the spectacle.”

The little doctor sighed, “So human by way of his exasperation that it was hard to tell he was even alien, “Alright go then, but when one of them ends up in my infirmary with some stupid injury, I am going to blame you.”

“You blame me anyway.”

“That's because I am convinced you are the amalgamation of human stupidity and recklessness.” The recruits looked nervously back and forth between the two. Its not everyday you watched an officer get insulted to his face, but the man just smiled and laughed blowing the entire thing off.

“Well I’ve never gotten anything stuck in my colon, so I guess I’m not a good representative, anyway.” He pointed to the four of them, “Come on. I think you’ll want to see this.” 

Nervously the group of them stood and followed the Commander through the open doors walking along behind his gliding form.

He had…. Not been what they expected. They had seen the movie trailers, heard about his exploits, watched flight demonstration videos, in certain cases, and even received lectures about intergalactic relations based on transcripts from his conversations, and or interactions. He was a legend at the academy, at the forefront of human/alien relations. All the books were written based on what he had done or what people in his crew had done. He had been the first man to SEE sentient nonhuman life.

And there he was, wearing an eyepatch and heeleing down the hall like a botched middle school costume party. Not to mention, when they had heard of him, they had immediately assumed it would be someone older and more experienced, someone graying at the temples who had seen more life than he knew what to do with, but this…. This guy wasn’t much older than them. Young enough to be their older brother, or their older brother’s weird ass friend.

Then there was that smile, like he didn’t have a serious bone in his body, and they were expected to follow this guy?

How could they take him seriously?

“Um… Sir, I don’t mean to sound…. accusatory , but.” He glanced over his shoulder back at them, green eye sparking with some unknown emotion.

Recruit  Kimber pointed down at his shoes, “Um, are those regulation…. With the uniform or…”

He grinned again and turned away, “Uniform regulation Gama on the proper maintenance of footwear when wearing uniform. Footwear must be classified as a dress shoe and come in Mat black or grey, no laces.” he pointed downwards at his feet, “These are slip ons, and in the online description they were described as a ‘dress shoe” maybe it was on a technicality but I took a screenshot just in case anyone asks.”

They stared at him. 

“Um…. sir…. I hate to sound like an….ur well…. But you arent exactly…”

“What you expected?” The man finished, coming to a stop and turning to face them.

“Well.” Alvarez rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, I mean you…. Well weve read about you in military science and tactics, and we sort of just assumed that you’d be more ...”

The conversation died away as the young recruits shifted awkwardly.

He smirked, “you thought id be some old stuffy officer with years of military experience. Some regulation stickler with a metal rod shoved up my ass, yes sir, no sir, you say jump, I say how high, that kind of person?”

They shuffled their feet awkwardly, but didn’t answer.

The man didn’t break his expression, “Well this is the reality.  When I was a kid I used to set up my telescope out on the lawn, hoping I would see a UFO I trained for over five years in aviation to get my ass on board the Enterprise, because I wanted nothing more than to go to space.. My first trip to space was in an F-90 darkfire, and I nearly died. I was on the forerunner team that stepped foot on Proxima b and then when we receive incoming radio signals from an unknown source,I accompanied them as well. There I was the first person to see extraterrestrial life, not only that but I helped to establish linguistic contact between the two races. When the Drev war happened, I was deployed when I never should have been, lost my leg become a part of operation steel eye fought through withdrawals and PTSD before crawling back to the UNSC only to learn that the GA Knew me and trusted me enough to want me as the human representative to the rest of the galaxy.” He paused for a second looking them over, “All of that, was just one big accident. I was in the right place at the right time, and aside from training as hard as I did to be a good pilot, I have stumbled and crashed my way to success by the grace of my own luck.”

The group remained silent.

He looked at them with a critical eye, “Do you want to know what I learned through all of that?”

They remained silent but nodded nervously.

He took a breath, “I learned first and foremost to never stop loving what you do, With the army it is easy to take all the rules and regulations, and hate all the political loopholes you have to jump through. It’s easy to make a routine to grow bored. But boredom leads to burnout, and every day I wake up on MY ship living my childhood dream and determine I have no right to feel that way, so if that means wearing heelis on the command deck, Playing songs older than dirt on the bridge, and making myself look like a fool, than I’ll do it, just as long as I remember to contain it when it most matters.”

He turned away and began gliding down the hall again, “Ever wonder why my ship, despite being the most dangerous, is the most sought after in the fleet… It's because Morale. I make sure to keep my people entertained and happy. Morale has the happy side effect of making people work harder, they try more, and they are more loyal. Everything I do, I do for the crew, and for myself.”

He came to a halt at the bottom of the steps and led them upwards onto the bridge. 

The small blue Drev, Sunny, was waiting for them, “Rousing lecture, I almost peed myself a little.”

He snorted and shoved her aside with a shoulder, “You know you love me.”

The drev lifted her head slightly, “Do I?”

“Yes, you do.”

The recruits followed nervously after him glancing towards the Drev female and her bright gold eyes. She snapped her beak at them and they stepped back nervously. She made some sort of humming sound deep in her chest. The the base of her throat they watched as two large holes opened and closed in time with her breathing.

Creepy.

“Begin preflight sequence.” The commander had taken a seat in the captain's chair, and as he was sitting there giving orders and taking command of the ship, you could almost forget that he was wearing an eyepatch and a pair of heelies.

By order form one of the bridge men, they strapped themselves into their seats as the countdown sequence began, “Crew of the harbinger this is your Commander speaking. Please follow all takeoff protocols for we are beginning preflight at this time. Please make sure to strap down all objects that would be lethal flying towards you head, and keep your hands and and feet inside the vehicle for the duration of the ride, thank you for flying with the UNSC.”

He flipped some controls on the chair as the countdown began, and it wasn’t moments before they were being lifted into the sky. Everyone braced themselves against their seats clutching the harnesses as they were thrust upwards into the sky, hands clasped onto harasses, and then they were airborne.

Despite the sudden and violent takeoff, the ride was relatively smooth, and they watched out the windows as earth receded behind them.

It was an amazing sight, more than any of them had ever before imagined, “Charge warp drive!” The commander ordered.”

“Charging warp drive, engage on your command, sir.”

“Diagnostic report on the coolant system?”

“100% operations functional, sir!”

“Engage warp drive in three ...two…. One.” 

And then they were gone, off into the vastness of space at the forefront of space exploration.

At the forefront of danger.

***

The forefront of danger was not what they had been expecting, they certainly had not expected the aggressive prank war that occured on April first, a prank war that covered McCaster in Green paint, and resulted in Han having lost all of his left shoes. 

They didn’t expect the mess hall to burst into a sing along when the commander began playing outdated rock music, they hadn’t expected to get cleaned out in a game of poker by an alien nearly twice their size, or chased out of the shower by a very grumpy looking spider hybrid.

All through this, the commander appeared and disappeared at random wheeling past or riding on the back of the electric blue Drev, only to prance down the hall out of sight leaving a trail of…. Something dumb, bubbles or confett, behind him. 

How he managed to requisition any of the things he got his hands on was a mystery to them.

And though this was the strangest experience they had ever had, he hadn’t been wrong about burnout, boredom, or monotony. They never knew what was coming next, and there was always something interesting going on.

If you walked in on the commander, one moment he was trying to teach the spiderlings how to shake, and the next moment he was on a conference call with the president of the UN brass of the UNSC and the galactic Assembly giving tactical advice with the same mouth that had earlier proclaimed the hypothesis that , why don’t we just do all our laundry in space seeing as the inhospitable vacuum would kill all the bacteria, not entirely sure if he was joking or not.

During meal times he spent a good portion of it rotating around the tables and eating with a new group every day. Generally his big blue friend, Sunny came with him, and more often than not, the doctor as well. Seemed odd how close he was with them, but no one would give a straight answer when questions came up about the nature of the relationship.

It was on just such a day when the commander made his way over to their table and took a seat followed by the blue Drev who was carrying a large salad in a mixing bowl. 

The drev could really put down food, but that made sense.

“Morning gentlemen.”

“Morning, sir.” 

He tilted his head, “Don’t look so thrilled, you might have an accident with all that enthusiasm.”

Alvarez clutched his mug, “Sorry not a morning person.” He muttered 

“And you commander.” 

“Any time is a good time to be alive.”

“And there is the optimist.” Han muttered with a sigh rubbing groggily at his eyes before pausing “What are you wearing?”

The commander grinned leaning back to show off his shirt, “Star Wars T, its vintage, do you like?.... Don’t give me that look, it’s casual friday.”

They just shook their heads in slight amusement as he leaned an elbow on the table, “I was meaning to ask you guys something.”

They nodded, and he was about to open his mouth to speak when, alarms started going off all around the ship.

Suddenly, the geek was gone and the commander stood in his place demeanor no more marred by his clothing than a speck of dust in a beam of sunlight.

“EVERYONE TO YOUR STATIONS, NOW!”

“What’s going on!”

He tilted his head to the side listening, probably to a report over his implants.

“The GA is under attack. “

[petri808]

This fic was created for the BKDK Unbirthday Party (Twitter) for prompt #G-0181: (Coffeeshop AU where Izuku accidentally sends katsuki (guest) to hospital after messing up the order submitted by Celestial)

Bakudeku one-shot. Coffee house AU

Ugh! Why’d the coffeehouse have to be so busy today of all days? It was as if the customers knew he’d stayed up late the night before and only managed three hours of sleep. Top it off with co-worker Denki calling out, and that left Izuku Midoriya alone with just one other employee who manned the food offerings.

Izuku wipes the sweat off his brow as he finishes one latte and side-eyes the clock in one swoop. Just one more hour to go until the next shift comes in. ‘Yosh! You can do this Izu! Then die at home curled in bed till the morning.’

He faces the next customer in line, screwing on the bright smile he was known for. “What can I get for you sir?”

Ruby eyes glare back at him. “Large mocha with a double shot of espresso.”

“One mocha double!” Izuku rings up the man’s total and quickly whips up the drink. His body was running on muscle memory at this point having made these drinks so many times before. A mocha was simple enough, chocolate, steamed milk, espresso, done. “Here you go sir.”

“Faster then, usual nerd.” The man grabs his drink and walks away to a nearby table.

‘Never fails,’ Izuku remarks as he moves onto the next customer. The blonde man loved making snide remarks, but he’s never said anything about it because he was also a regular. According to the other coffeehouse employees, blondie only came in when Izuku was working. ‘Probably likes picking on guys like me?’ And today was no different. He sat at a table reading a newspaper with his coffee, staying for thirty minutes or so. Then he repeats the processes the next day.

“Here you go ma’am, one cappuccino.”

Just as Izuku is handing off another drink, a sudden commotion stirs up in the dining area. He looks up to see blondie clutching his throat and surrounding customers panicking. “He can’t breathe!” Someone shouts. More words are thrown. Allergy, nuts, emergency! The baristas eyes blow wide open. Izuku screams at his coworker Uraraka to call for an ambulance and rushes over to the fallen man.

“H-Hold on mister!” Izuku does his best to calm the situation despite the white noise gathering in his eardrums. “Help is coming!”

“H-Haz—el... hazel—nut...” blondie gasps out. “Allerg...all—gic...”

Oh, fuck! Did he mix hazelnut instead of chocolate into the coffee?! “Oh my god,” the panic sets in. “Oh my god, I-I didn’t mean to! Please hold on sir!” If his stupid mistake kills this man, he’ll never forgive himself.

“F-Fucking nerd...”

Tears exploded from Izuku’s eyes, but all he could do was apologize over and over again as the man gasped and struggled to breathe. The blondes lips were taking on a bluish-purple color, hives breaking out along his skin, and his eyes rolling back.

“N-No, no stay awake sir! Stay awake!” He continues to shake the man by the shoulders as sirens resonate outside. Everything was a blur, just him and the customer with hushed conversations of concern all around them. “Please don’t die mister!”

Once the medics rush into the room, Izuku steps back to give them space. He knew procedures during an emergency was to clear the restaurant of customers and secure the cash register, but he couldn’t think straight. All he could do was watch helplessly as they load the man onto a gurney and whisk him away. Luckily, Uraraka had already taken control, phoned the manager, and set about following protocols.

After everything is secure, she tells him to go. “I’ll wait for the manager, so you go check on the customer and keep us informed.”

Like a mindless zombie, he manages a nod, clocks out, and sheds his apron.

“Hey, try not to be too hard on yourself. It was an honest mistake.”

“That might have killed a man.” More moisture pools in Izuku’s eyes. “I like him too... why’d it have to be him?”

Uraraka’s eyes soften. “Izu, just get going, okay?”

“O-Okay.”

The cab ride over to the hospital felt like a death march to meet his fate. All the life was sucked away, the scenery a kaleidoscope of muted colors as his mind raced through each moment of that afternoon. It was all his fault. Staying up late, being tired, rushing, rushing, rushing to keep up with the demands of a barista. Multi-tasking was supposed to be his forte, his pride in always getting the orders right and made quickly. But this time he’d screwed up in the worst way possible.

At the emergency room, the intake person waves him off to the side to wait. The doctors were still working to stabilize blondie, so all he could do was sit there and hope the man came out of the allergic shock. It was a nerve wracking wait that Izuku spent fighting against every horrible outcome. Can you go to jail for something like this? If the man dies, is that manslaughter?! Oh, who was he kidding. He deserved to be punished. Minimally his boss should fire him for being reckless. ‘Please don’t die...’

“Sir, you can go in now. He’s in room 14.” Technically, since he wasn’t family or even a friend, the hospital shouldn’t have let him visit. But because they had no other contacts for the man, and Izuku was clearly upset and shaken over the incident, they must have taken pity on him. Blondie was alive and unconscious. The medications were flushing his body of the toxins and countering the allergic reaction, but he would probably have to stay in the hospital overnight for observations.

When Izuku enters the small room, he sees the man tucked tightly under a blanket. His eyes are closed and IV lines trail to a machine that’s monitoring vital signs. The tears pool again at the horrible sight. Beeps from the machine echo in the silent room as constant reminders of the gravity of the situation.

“Mister...” he sits beside the man’s bed and takes a limp hand in his own. “I’m so sorry.” His head hangs down, “please wake up.”

A whole year had gone by since the first-time blondie had started frequenting the coffeehouse. The man always tipped and always made some kind of comment. Rarely any nice ones, but he’d grown used to it and over time, Izuku wasn’t sure when it’d started, but there came a point in time that he waited and looked forward to each visit.

It wasn’t uncommon to have cute customers come in that the baristas ogled over. Dating customers wasn’t forbidden, just frowned upon because they didn’t want drama to arise. So, Izuku kept his growing crush under wraps. Not that he felt he’d had a chance anyway. Mister blondie looked like a power player. Tall, trim, fit nicely in a tailored suit, while he was just a small, geeky guy with messy green hair and a face full of freckles. He didn’t even know if the man was gay. Oh, his co-workers thought he was. They were convinced his routine coffee trips were too conveniently made during Izuku’s shift alone.

All the tears and turmoil took its toll on the exhausted barista. The four hours of sleep catching up with Izuku before he even knows it. Hours pass by as fitful dreams torture him. Flashbacks of the coffeehouse, of happy times with his co-workers. There he is Izu, your knight in shining business suit! He turns around only to find a red-eyed dragon glaring down at him. A loud roar, screams echoing around them. Panic, fear sweeping through as customers and employees scramble away. The dragon roars, loud, reverberating chills to his core. Izuku’s scream catches in his throat as the beast picks him up with a clawed hand. It’s punishment time nerd!

“But I didn’t mean it!” Izuku whimpers, “please forgive me! I’d never want to hurt you!”

“Oi, if you’re gonna be noisy go away nerd.”

Awaken by the voice and a squeeze of his hand, the groggy barista raises his head off the bed. “M-mister?” The dream fades away to be replaced by a hospital room and redeyes narrowed at him. “Mister you’re back!” Moisture fills Izuku’s eyes. “I’m so glad you’re back!”

“Yeah, yeah, didn’t know you were trying to get rid of me so badly.”

“What?! I-I didn’t— it was an accident mister, I swear!”

“Stop calling me mister. I got a name nerd, use it.”

“M-Mister Bakugou. Please forgive me. I didn’t mean for this to happen to you. I-It’s all my fault but you’re one of our best customers and we wouldn’t want to lose you. I’ll resign if it makes you feel better, just please do not punish the cafe.”

“Tch, if you leave, I won’t go back cause you’re the only reason I go there.”

“Huh? But why?”

“I changed my mind, you're not a nerd, you’re an idiot. Nerds are smart and you are completely clueless.” Bakugou groans and closes his eyes. “Or I’m the idiot for liking you. Either way, it was just an allergic reaction so don’t worry too m...” he feels the hand slip from his and quickly opens his eyes expecting to see the man leaving. “Midoriya?” But instead he sees one leg still on the chair and the rest of Izuku’s body collapsed on the ground. “Yup, I’m the idiot.”

Bakugou gets off his bed and despite being a little tired from the treatment, manages to pull the smaller male off the floor, rolling him onto the bed. He then slides back on and pulls him close, so he doesn’t fall off. These hospital beds weren’t built for two people, but he made it work. ‘This little mouse fits perfectly in my arms.’

He didn’t like admitting it, but that’s what attracted him to Izuku in the first place. Seeing Izuku’s bubbly personality at the coffeehouse. Always bright and cheerful despite his grumpy comments. The fact the man was hard working was a plus. And yes, because he was small and adorable.

As the heir and VP to a family corporation, Bakugou had to be tough and serious, but what he saw in Izuku was a chance for the opposite at least in his personal life. Frankly, the man reminded him of his father. His mom was clearly the one in control, but because his father was her balance who kept the woman grounded. Bakugou wanted that too. So far, his search had turned up nothing until the day he walked into the Plus Ultra Coffee & Tea.

“Am dreaming? Like...” Izuku mumbles. “Yes,” he curls his body in to hide his blushing face. “You, too.”

‘Does this guy always mumble in his sleep?’ Bakugou shakes Izuku gently. “Time to wake up mouse. We can’t stay in the emergency room forever.”

Izuku pops up. Emergency room?! His eyes flare wide. “W-Why?! Oh no, did I fall asleep?!” He looks around. ‘Why am I in the bed?!’ “Mister Bakugou! S-Sorry!” He scrambles off, “I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t be, I put you there nerd. Now come on,” Bakugou holds out a hand, “I’ll take you home.”

[dreamlover31]

Love Will Find a Way: Chapter 24

It had been a few weeks since the awkward encounter at the farmer’s market, life continued as normal for Alexa and Rafael, he fought for people who had been victimized by every form of scum you can imagine while she provided a safe haven for them. Recently, some additional security was hired on at Alexa’s insistence, even though it would be strictly on a volunteer basis since the shelter was on a limited budget, in the beginning, she grew concerned that the men would decline the offer, but to her amazement; they reassured her that doing their civic duty was far more rewarding than anything else.

As she was going over the safety procedures, a hand crept up her shoulder, when she turned around, the look on her face was one of surprise and profound excitement at the sight of Rafael holding a bouquet of white lilies. Alexa’s smile beamed at the romantic gesture, after he handed her the flowers, she sniffed at the fresh smelling aroma that emitted from the petals.

“Oh Rafi, their beautiful…thank you,” she leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Your welcome mi amor, are you ready to go?”

“Oh yeah, just give a minute”

Alexa excused herself and headed over to Gladys’ office, but was stunned to find that she wasn’t there, at that moment, she caught another one of the staff members walking down the hall; her hand stretched out at and tapped the co-worker’s shoulder.

“Hey, have you seen Gladys?”

“She said she had to leave early, I think she said it was a family emergency or something”

“Oh…well can you do me a favor? Can you finish going over the safety procedures with the new security guards we hired?”

“Sure, no problem”

“Thanks”

She gave the young woman the clipboard with the safety protocols and guidelines attached then made her way back to the area where Rafael and the guards were standing, she apologized for having to leave but assured them that her fellow co-worker would finish prepping them and if there were any questions, to leave them with the young woman.

All three of them shook hands and said their goodbyes as Rafael and Alexa exited the building, the SUV was parked across the street, as soon as they entered the vehicle, their seatbelts were securely fastened while Rafael started the engine. He checked his blind spots for any oncoming traffic, once it was cleared, the car was put into gear and departed from the spot.

“So where are you taking me to lunch?”

“Actually, I have a little something planned at home”

“Oh, that’s even better…it’ll be more intimate, you know…just the two of us,” her hand slid across the dashboard and linked with Rafael’s.

“Uh, yeah…sure”

Alexa’s face expressed puzzlement at his odd choice of words, but decided to shrug it off, the front of the brownstone was immediately in their line of sight, once the car was parked; Rafael was the first to get out and then walked over to the passenger side where he escorted her from the vehicle and up the steps, during which, she reiterated to him that she was more than capable of moving on her own.

When the door opened, she slipped off her purse and hung it on the coat rack, but after she took a few steps into the dining room, her body shifted to a position where it was as if she had stared into the eyes of Medusa.

“Surprise!”

Alexa was completely awestruck at what she was seeing, the room was covered in pink streamers and balloons, there were stacks of gifts along the table and a three-tiered cake covered in pink frosting with a signage that read ‘It’s a girl’ to match the banner that stretched along the wall behind the crowd of people that stood before her, tears pricked from her eyes as she placed a hand over her mouth.

It was then that Rafael came up behind her and put his arm around her, streaks of liquid flowed down her cheeks as her hand went from her mouth to her chest in an expression of the deep gratitude and love she felt for everyone in the room; Fin, Amanda, Sonny, Jesse, and even Chief Dodds were in attendance along with Gladys. Olivia came up to her with a small tiara, Alexa let out a small laugh as she put the bejeweled piece of headwear on her head, the women embraced themselves in a hug.

“Thank you all so much”

“Of course, we are all so happy for you and Rafael, we wanted to share in that joy”

“All right everyone, let’s get this party under way,” they all laughed in unison at Sonny’s playful announcement.

Rafael pulled up a chair behind Alexa, she carefully seated herself while at the same time, the guests huddled up next to one another; Amanda took it upon herself to pass out the first gift, she gently ripped the wrapping paper decorated in baby rattles and rubber ducks to find a small white box, upon lifting the top portion of it, Alexa gasped in awe at the collection of tiny shirts and pants color coated for a girl, but the one piece of clothing that attracted her attention was a cute little pink onesie that had a picture of baby Minnie Mouse in the front.

“Oh Amanda, this is so cute”

“Thanks, hope you don’t mind Jesse’s hand me downs”

“No, not at all”

The next gift that was given to her was from Olivia, after she unwrapped the small package, the same look of astonishment beguiled her as she gazed upon the item, it was a miniaturized version of a carousel with white horses whose manes were of pink and purple hues. After further inspection, Alexa saw the small knob at the bottom of it, with a few turns, the horses encircled the carousel as the song beautiful dreamer played.

“Wow, Olivia…this is so sweet, thank you”

“Your welcome,” once again, the two women embraced in another hug.

An hour passed, Alexa went through most of the gifts, many of them varied from clothes and toys to baby monitors and a breast pumping machine; courtesy of Gladys. The atmosphere of the party was filled with an overall sense of joy and happiness, Alexa’s heart swelled at the outpouring of emotion, the likes of which she hadn’t felt since that Thanksgiving night when those same people showed up at their door with plentiful portions of food and their warm and kind affections.

Suddenly, the festivities were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing, Sonny got up from his seat and said that he would answer it, during his absence, everyone had a small plate in their hands with plastic forks digging into the pink frosted cake that had been cut up and passed around. Alexa was finishing up a small portion of her cake when she looked up to see Sonny standing in the doorway with a young blonde woman, everyone else met her stare as he introduced the woman as his cousin Sara.

All of them exchanged hellos and waves, then Sonny lead her to an open chair next to him.

“Hey, I thought that new guy you’re seeing was going to stop by”

“He is, he’ll be here any min…her train of thought was interrupted by the doorbell ringing again.

“I’ll get it”

Another gift was nestled on Alexa’s lap as Sonny answered the door, she was midway into unwrapping it when she saw Sonny’s cousin leap up from her chair and darted across the room and dove into the arms of some mystery man, she concluded that the man in question was possibly her boyfriend. Slowly, she released him from her grasp and faced everyone.

“Everyone, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend”

Alexa’s heart stopped as her eyes looked upon the man that stood in the doorway, oh god…this can’t be happening, please anybody but him. A feeling of dread overcame her when she came to the realization that Sara’s boyfriend was none other than her ex Sean, he quickly waved to everyone as the couple made their way across the room, and sat down a few feet away from Rafael and Alexa, when they met eyes, Sean tried to keep the look of shock from forming on his face.

Sara relayed to everyone that they’ve been together for a few months and went on to describe how he’s the most loving and supportive boyfriend she’s ever known, meanwhile, Alexa grew increasingly uncomfortable being in Sean’s presence, she shifted in her seat, to which it caught Rafael’s eye.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I just need a glass of water”

“Alright, I’ll get it for you”

“No, it’s ok…I’ll get it,” Alexa lifted from her seat using the armrests for support, then she squeezed pass Fin and Sonny as she entered the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from the top cupboard and held it under the faucet of the sink, the water filled up halfway when a blur came across her peripheral vision, a startled reaction overtook Alexa.

“Jesus”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you”

“Is there something I can help you with,” the tone of her voice was apparent to him that it was one of sarcasm.

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok…you almost looked like you were about to keel over when I came into the room”

“I’m sorry…it’s just…I didn’t expect to see you again”

“Yeah…me neither…look Lex, about what happened at the market…”

“Sean, please”

“No, I need to say this… when I saw you, there were so many things that I wanted to say, but my brain just couldn’t form the words…anyway, I’m sorry for the way things went down between us. What I did to you was unforgivable and before I left…I wanted to tell you how sorry I was, but I knew that you didn’t want to hear it”

Alexa faced away Sean and remained silent as he continued to voice his apologies and affirmations that he was a changed man, that his relationship with Sara was a solid one and that he could see a future with her, for what seemed like 10 minutes passed by before Alexa looked up at Sean.

“Well…I’m glad that you’re happy, and I hope things work out between you two, just remember that her cousin’s a cop”

Alexa and Sean giggled, their gaze didn’t falter, it was then that Sean smiled softly.

“Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile since I’ve got here”

Alexa lowered her head to conceal the flush of pink that spread across her face.

“Hey look, I know that this is a long shot, but if you ever want to get together and grab a cup of coffee…his voice trailed off as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“I was just hoping that maybe…I don’t know…we could start fresh”

Alexa thought for a moment, oh wow…this is awkward, I mean I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to…but then again, Sean and I have been over for a long time…so I guess it wouldn’t hurt just to have his number, not like I’m ever going to call him anyway.

“Ok…I guess that would be fine”

Alexa stepped over to one of the drawers under the counter and pulled out a small piece of scrap paper and a pen, Sean gave her the number as she scribbled it, then she folded it up and stuffed it inside her jean pocket.

“We should probably be heading back, people might start to worry”

She nodded, the two made their way back into the dining room where they returned to their seats, Rafael turned to Alexa and said:

“There you are, I was worried about you…everything alright?”

“Yes, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to upset you”

“No, it’s ok,” he stroked her hair and then gently kissed her forehead.

As time went on, the guests enjoyed a few more helpings of the delicious, pink frosted cake while Alexa unwrapped the rest of the gifts, after partaking in some humorous games one played at a baby shower, one by one; people started to leave the party.

Olivia was ultimately the last to leave, she engaged in another hug with Alexa and reciprocated one to Rafael, when the door closed, she re-entered the dining room where she saw Rafael pick up the discarded plates and shredded up wrapping paper then threw them in a big, black garbage bag that was set on the other side of the room. After the last scrap of debris was discarded, he tied up the bag and dumped it into the garbage can out front, when he went back inside, he spotted Alexa laid out on the couch in the living room; he sat down next to her as she propped her feet on his lap.

His thumbs created circular patterns along the balls of her feet, Alexa tilted her head back with her eyes closed, soft moans escaped her lips as he resumed his ministrations.

“Did you have fun today?”

“Yeah, thank you”

“Come on, let’s go to bed”

“I don’t feel like moving, can we stay down here tonight?”

“Ok, let me just grab a blanket”

Rafael stood up and headed towards the linen closet in the hallway, he picked out one of the quilted blankets his mother bought for them as a housewarming gift, upon his return; Alexa moved from her position to make room for Rafael. He maneuvered himself next to her as he draped the blanket over them, she took his hand into hers and placed them on top of her growing belly, in that instant, a small kick poked from within. Their faces lit up at the sudden movement by the tiny human being growing inside her, Rafael kissed Alexa’s cheek as he spoke:

“Do you think she knows how much she’s loved?”

“I think she just answered that”

“Hmm, I am so blessed”

“I know…” Alexa moved her head towards Rafael’s to where their noses almost touched, her soft lips enveloped his in a chaste but affectionate kiss.

“Good night Rafi”

“Good night mi amor”

His eyes peered down to Alexa’s belly:

“Good night sweet girl”

Tagging: @madpanda75 @laceybellerain @southern-magnolia @tropes-and-tales @madamsnape921 @itsjustmyfantasyroom @karens-imagined-world @beccabarba @thatesqcrush

[stxphxn-strange]

that endgame deleted scene is killing me, so here’s a (not great but) wholesome ironstrange short to combat it:

“This feels like a betrayal. I miss him, I want to be with him again.”

“Then I think it’s time we make that happen.”

“You’re serious?”

“FRIDAY, activate the ‘on the mend’ protocol, please. And yes, I’m serious; it’s time.”

++++

Wong was rudely interrupted from his mystery novel by frantic knocking at the Sanctum’s door.

“Strange, I’m in the middle of a chapter! Get the door please.”

“No.” Stephen’s broken voice called quietly across the house.

“Ugh, fine, but don’t get mad when I give you a full synopsis of what I just read.” Wong had recently gotten into mystery stories. The idea of detective work appealed to him, and it was different enough from his sorcerer duties that he could immerse himself in them when he needed a break.

After putting his book down, he opened the door to see a flustered James Rhodes.

“Is it time?”

“Yep.”

Wong smiled. “You’d better come in, then.”

Rhodey followed Wong inside and took a deep breath. This was a good thing. Stephen was probably going to be pissed, but not for long.

“Would you like anything to drink?” Wong offered.

“Decaf coffee, if you have it,” Rhodey replied. “Thank you.”

“Of course. I hope you didn’t have any difficulties getting here, I understand that the traffic can be a mess when you don’t have the luxury of traveling by portals,” Wong said.

“You seem to have forgotten that I can, in fact, fly. Thanks to Tony, of course,” Rhodey replied.

The entire vibe of the conversation and the building itself changed when Rhodey uttered his best friend’s name. Something felt lighter, and it probably had to do with what was about to happen. It probably had to do with the gentle footfalls that could be heard in the near horizon.

“Rhodey?”

++++

“What I’m about to say is going to be out of character for me, but it’s important; don’t be dramatic about this when you go to see him. Leave the drama to us,” Tony requested, a glimmer in his tired eyes.

“As if I’d ever steal your spotlight,” Rhodey teased. “How do you even know there’s going to be drama?”

“Silly question, Platypus. You know how we are. Plus, you know he’s hurting,” Tony replied. He became very sad, suddenly, and a few tears made their way to his eyes.

++++

Wong quickly hurried out of the room, muttering something about having to check on a relic. In reality, the librarian made a beeline for the living room, picked up his book, and began to discreetly eavesdrop on the conversation in the kitchen.

“How’ve you been?”

Stephen didn’t know how to answer such a stupid question, and he informed Rhodey of that fact.

“Okay, valid point,” Rhodey replied. “But seriously, have you been doing okay?”

“I’ve been keeping myself busy. The trait of working past the point of exhaustion has transferred itself to me, I suppose. I just have to keep going and going, lest I allow myself to get absorbed in my memories,” Stephen said.

In truth, he was trying to get over Tony, he really was, but it was hard. He couldn’t stop thinking of the proposal and everything that was going so right before it all went so wrong. He thought of his mistakes, his selfishness, and his selfish mistakes.

“You know that nobody blames you, right? Least of all Tony,” Rhodey began gently.

Stephen scoffed. “How would you know whether he blames me or not?”

“He told me yesterday that he doesn’t,” Rhodey replied.

Wong placed his book to the side so he could watch Stephen’s reaction. He hadn’t known until today that Stark hadn’t actually died. Yes, the power of the infinity stones knocked him unconscious, and he was pronounced legally dead for a few minutes. Stephen had fled immediately after the man stopped breathing. He’d missed the moment when Stark was miraculously resurrected (to this day nobody knew how or why it happened). Obviously his medical condition and chance of survival once we woke up was in some limbo, and that’s why Stephen still didn’t know that he was okay.

“I’m not telling him until I’m absolutely certain that I’m not going to die from this,” Stark had said firmly. “So no one tell him. I’m not going to get his hopes up only to let him down.”

Wong figured that Rhodes was here because it was finally confirmed safe to tell Stephen. Wong could tell from his facial expression that Stephen was confused, maybe a little hurt, but mostly doubtful.

“How can that be?”

“He had me over for dinner last night, and he told me to tell you not to blame yourself,” Rhodey said.

“You’re fucking with me, and I don’t appreciate it,” Stephen snapped. His voice was shaky, but he still held his authority.

“No, Stephen, I’m not,” Rhodey replied. “I’m really not.”

“But he died, FRIDAY said so,” Stephen said, “I don’t believe what you’re saying.”

Rhodey smiled with a twinge of sadness. “I know you don’t. That’s why I’m here to show you that I’m right. Can you open a portal to the lake house?”

Stephen made the portal, stepping through it just before Rhodey did and just after he told Wong where he was going.

As the pair walked towards the house, Stephen turned to Rhodey and said, “You know if you’re wrong about this, there’s a chance I’ll never speak to you again.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me, and I don’t blame you. I’m not too worried about that, though,” Rhodey said. He’d seen movement from inside the house, and he knew that whatever was going to happen next would be sickeningly emotional.

“Why?”

“Because I know I’m not wrong.”

Before Stephen had a chance to reply, the door opened.

“Are you two going to stand out here all day, or are you coming in?”

++++

“I didn’t expect him to pass out.”

“How would you react to the news that your fiancé is miraculously back from the dead?”

“What, are you saying we should call it even now?” Stephen asked, blearily entering the conversation.

“If that’s what you want to call it, sure.”

The hand brushing through his hair felt too soft and familiar. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but nothing actually felt real. Sure, the sensation of Tony’s hand playing with his hair felt real and soothing, but for all Stephen knew this could have been a dream.

“Anyway,” the voice sounding suspiciously like Tony’s continued, “that’s not funny, Platypus. To answer your question, though, you beat the Titan that caused his death.”

That remark brought Stephen back into the battle against Thanos. He heard the words “I am Iron Man” in his head, he saw Tony die, and he felt his world growing colder as he left the scene through a portal.

“I didn’t say it to be funny, Tones.”

The hand in his hair stilled, and soon Tony (was it Tony? Was it very human-like AI? Stephen didn’t fucking know) was laying down and cuddling up to the sorcerer, just like he used to.

“What the fuck is going on?” Stephen asked. “Rhodey what the fuck?”

“I told you.”

“I don’t understand,” Stephen said. “Tony died, I— I saw it.”

“I don’t quite know what happened. Everyone was gone when I somehow woke up, and I still don’t even know how this was all possible. Once my eyes reopened, though, I figured I’d try and fight through all of the harm I sustained during that battle. I told myself that I wouldn’t tell you I was okay until we were certain I’d fully recover from this. I wasn’t going to get your hopes up for no reason,” Tony explained.

“I don’t know what to say,” Stephen whispered. He gently reached out for one of Tony’s hands. “You’re actually here?”

Tony stood up, much to Stephen’s sadness (he really liked cuddling, sue him). After flashing a soft smile, he said, “Yeah, I really am.”

Stephen sat up. “I should be mad at you.”

“Livid, probably,” Tony said. He was going to stay something else, but before he could, Stephen leapt up and wrapped his arms around him.

He was crying embarrassingly loudly, but he didn’t care. “For the record, I am a bit pissed, but more than anything I’m really happy,” he cried.

Tony just nodded and hugged him back. He wasn’t sure what to say, honestly. In truth, he hated himself a little bit. Was it selfish of him to want to spare Stephen the pain of his coming back to life and then dying because of a failed medical procedure? Maybe it was.

Once he calmed down a little, Stephen smiled mischeviously at Tony.

“What?” The genius asked.

“I’m thinking about all the ways that I can convince you to let me decide on a color scheme for our wedding,” Stephen said mirthfully.

“I thought you picked already!” Rhodey shouted from the kitchen.

“Maybe I’m changing my mind again,” Stephen said. He dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Assuming, of course, that there’s still a wedding to plan now?”

“Of course there is, though I was a bit worried you’d be so mad at me you’d— never mind. I don’t even want to put that thought out there,” Tony said sheepishly.

“Good, don’t. I wouldn’t,” Stephen said. “Not after an emotional response like the one I just had. Not after all we’ve been through. Not after how much I’ve loved and appreciated you, not after how much we’ve both grown.”

“Trying to make me cry, asshole?” Tony asked, drying his eyes.

Stephen pulled him into a hug. “Now we’re even, douchebag.”