#he honestly should have known something that sweet was going to bite him in the ass

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [7]

After biting Danny, vampire king Dick gleefully tells him that he now belongs to him, seeing as his bite made him his thrall.

However, beings of the Infinite Realms operate on a lot of Fae rules, and Danny Uno-Reverse’s Dick by telling him that he must now serve him because he ate from him without his permission.

Neither are willing to give up so they are going to have to find some occult lawyer to figure this out.

[pyramid-of-starrs]

Attention Seeker

Frat boy Yunho x Fem Reader

Summary: You and Yunho have been in the "talking phase" but when you see him entertaining another girl you want to get a little revenge. When he catches you he gives you all the attention you had been waiting for.

Genre: Smut, angst, pwp

Word count: 4k

Warning: Angst, bratty behavior, y/n is kinda annoying sorry, aggression

Smut Warning: Spit... like alot of spit, unrealistic anal, anal play, vaginal sex, oral sex (F receiving, both holes), fingering (both holes), cum play, this is honestly just filthy as hell, bratty reader, mean dom Yunho, choking, slapping (chest and vagina)

A/N: This is alot lowkey sorry lol, kinda missed some points but I think we hit the mark.

Commission submitted by: @thespiffynerd - "I would like to request a filthy nasty mean dom Yunho idea. Ass eating, breeding, spitting in the mouth, degradation, a little bit of pain like biting, smacking, etc. Maybe Y/N flirting with one of the band members too much too get Yunho’s attention or a co-worker at work trying to always ask Y/N out."

Minors DNI

Smut under the cut

Finally, quiet, the only noises filling the room was the sound of your lips on Jongho's. The painful thought that maybe this wasn't the best idea dawned on you but you had to remind yourself that, yes, you and Yunho were in the "talking phase" and, yes, you were the one that told Yunho you weren’t looking for a relationship right now. And yes, you both agreed to not see other people but it wasn't like you were doing this to hurt his feelings. Yunho was a sweet guy, but he still had his player ways, you couldn't blame him honestly, birds of a feather flock together, his entire friend group was known for running through people, when he invited you too this party he had already been surrounded by a group of women, it's expected from such a popular guy. The issue was the fact that when you tried to get his attention, he decided to ignore you, but maybe you were crazy? So, you called for him again.

"Can't you see I'm talking?" He said as the girl he was talking to giggled, your eye twitched, so you made your way to the more secluded upstairs of the house where you found Jongho, alone in an LED lit gaming room, one conversation led to another and next thing you knew your lips were on his. You could taste a very faint hint of beer on his breath, you hated the taste but loved escaping the feeling of a hurt heart. It's not like you were heart broken or anything, you two had only been talking for a month but he kind of made you feel special, but oh well, mightiest well ignore the feelings now.

Jongho pulled back from the kiss. "Oh shit..." You were confused why he pulled back, you opened your eyes to see his eyes fixated on something ahead of him.

"What's wrong?" You asked as you looked over your shoulder to see a very obviously pissed Yunho standing in the wide door frame. You scoffed and rolled your eyes.

"What do you think you're doing Y/N?" He asked, his jaw clenching with anger.

You turned from Jongho to face him. "What does it look like?" you said in a condescending voice.

"Looks like you're sucking face with one of my closest friends."

"Wow really? You two look so much alike I thought he was you." the sarcasm radiated off of your tone.

"Hilarious." Yunho said, he walked over and grabbed you by your arm, pulling you out the room and down the hall as you squirmed and tried to pull away, your effort was wasted and only made his grip tighter. He pulled you to his room, once inside he flung you on the bed and slammed the door behind him and locked it.

"What the hell is your problem?!" You yelled at him as you sat up on the bed, no answer was given.

"I should be asking you that question." he walked over to you and stood at the end of the bed.

"You know what my fucking problem is don't act like a dumbass now." you started to match his energy.

"Watch your mouth Y/N."

"I don't have to do shit! Why don't you go back to ignoring me for your groupies an leave me alone, you didn't give a fuck about me then, why do you give a fuck now-" Before you could continue to bitch him out his large hand grabbed your face and shoved you into the bed, your head bounced from the force.

"Didn't I just tell you to shut the fuck up Y/N?" His energy shifted, the tension was heavy. You looked up at him as you brought your knees closer to your chest. "Take your shirt and bra off." You stared at him blankly.

"W-why should I?" You said, you wanted to do whatever he said but you wouldn't be you if you didn't act like a brat, Yunho would never admit it, but he loved your bratty ways. The tantrums you would throw when you didn't have your way, how you would purposely do things to piss him off, but the only issue was this time, you took it too far. You knew how much it annoyed him when his friends would flirt with you unknowingly, since they weren't aware that you two were a serious thing. Maybe you did go a bit far by purposely kissing the one person from his friend group that people joked was his twin, but all is fair in love and war, right?

Yunho silently walked over to the side of the bed closest to you, he leaned his large figure over you while placing his hand on the side of your head. He swiftly took his other hand and wrapped his long fingers around your throat while pushing you into the bed. "Either do what the fuck I say, or I'll make you regret it." He clenched his jaw while you noticed the veins popping in his neck. "Do I make myself clear?" his eye contact was severe and all you could do is nod while looking dead into his dark brown eyes.

He released your neck and stood back up waiting for you to follow his directions. You chose not to bullshit anymore and sat up, sitting on your knees directly in front of him on the bed, then removed your shirt to reveal a cute push up bra that made your tits look amazing. You unhooked your bra the as your 2 soft breast plopped out, you sat on the bed on your knees shirtless and looked back at him. "Well... now what?" you said with an attitude.

"Since you like putting on a show, put on a show for me. Play with them." He said while folding his arms, your face got hot thinking about him watching you play with your boobs, but then again you mightiest well have some fun and play along. You lifted both your hands to your chest, gripping both your fleshy mounds from the bottom, massaging the fat between your palms. Your eyes met his, you hoped to get his usual reaction from, he usually would be fighting to stay mad at you then realizing he couldn't resist you and fucking you into the bed. The vibe however was different this time, maybe you went too far, he just stood there with his arms folded watching you squeeze your boobs together while he had a scowl on his face.

"Aww what’s wrong Yuyu? Mad at little ole me?" A teasing smile on your face.

"Spit on them." He ignored your attempt to tease him and made his command, you did as you were told. You tilted your chin down, allowing the spit in your mouth to fall to the front. You pursed your lips and allowed the cold spit to hit one breast then turned your head and let it hit the other. Your hands wasted no time smearing the saliva around your nipples as they got harder. "Again." he demanded; you were a bit confused but again you listened. You spit on your breast once again, this time only a small bit coming out. "Come on you've spit on my dick better than that, how pathetic are you? Let me show you how you need to do it." Yunho gathered all the spit in his mouth and puckered his lips to spit a glob of spit directly on your chest, causing a shameless whimper to fall from your lips. "Go on."

You knew what he wanted, you rubbed the spit around your chest like lotion, coating every inch of you breast in it, some of it sitting on your hard nipple and dropping, causing a string of spit to fall down to your thighs. You closed your eyes to bathe in the feeling on your fingers pinching your nipples and the heat between your thighs pooling, you quickly opened them when a hard smack hit your wet boobs causing an intense stinging pain that made you groan. When you opened your eyes, you were greeted with Yunho once again taking his large hand and smacking your breast again, the pain made your chest throb, but it felt amazing. "Such a messy slut, take your panties off and show me how wet I know you are." You leaned back to sit on your butt, your wet hands reached under your skirt to remove your panties. "Now spread nice and wide for me." You bent your knees and spread your legs for him to see, your sopping wet cunt was on full display for him but you decided to reach down to spread your pussy lips open so he could see your gummy walls. "Mm, finally being good for me huh?"

"You've got me this horny I mightiest well listen so I can at least get fucked." You witfully retorted, his face showed that he wasn't that amused by your smart mouth.

"Rub your little slutty pussy for me." he scanned you up and down.

"Why when you're right here?"

"Because you and your bratty ass mouth haven't earned me yet."

"...fine." You took your two fingers and slid them between your wet cunt. You rubbed a few circles on your clit then slid back down to do the same to your hole, you whimpered while trying to ignore the burning sensation of Yunho's gaze. The speed of your fingers gradually picked up as you rubbed your needy nub, it felt good but masturbating with just your hand feels the same as when you try to tickle yourself. You moaned and whimpered the faster you went but it only made you needier for Yunho, your slick started to run down to your ass as you got more turned on, your mouth felt parched, so stuck in a daze knowing that he was watching you do this. "Y-Yunho please- I need you."

The smirk on his face made you want to knock it off of him. "Oh really? You sure you don't want me to go get Jongho?" He folded his arms as you continued to rub yourself, now using 3 fingers.

"Sh-Shut up! You know I want you..." You managed to groan out.

"Actually, I don't know that, you seem to be doing just fine on your own." He retorted.

"No- please I need you." You felt your yearn for him growing the more you rubbed your wet pussy as your hips rocked against your fingers just trying to chase your need for more.

"Where do you need me?" He asked with that dumb dickhead smirk.

"Here... please... I need you here." You said softly as your patience ran thin.

"Where is here Y/N?"

You whimpered as your clit started to ring, you knew he was just fucking with you at this point. "Down here o-obviously." You said between moans, Yunho was loving watching you fall apart in front of him, but he wanted to mess with you just a bit more and he had the perfect idea.

"Fine." He bit his bottom lip as he continued to carry a devious smirk on his face like he was up to no good. He climbed on to the bed, kneeling in front of your legs. "Down here, right?" He pointed down to your core.

"Yes ha~ hurry up"

"Okay, anywhere specific or-"

"Just fucking do something." You said no longer having patience for him and his bullshit. He gripped the underside of your knees and suddenly pushed them to your chest causing your ass to lift off the bed. "Hey what-"

He pushed your legs back more as your ass lifted more into the air, he was folding you with ease like a piece of paper, you could feel the sting of your muscles being stretched. Your needy wet cunt was right by his face since he was leaned into you. "Down here, right?" He looked into your eyes, and it made your face hot, this position made you feel so exposed and shy, all you could do is nod slowly. He drove his face down, tongue ready to taste your slick, you closed your eyes tight as you anticipated feeling his cold tongue on your hot pussy. Then there was another sensation that made you jolt, and your eyes shoot open, Yunho's tongue was on your hole but not the hole you thought. He was kitten licking your asshole and the feeling sent a chill down your spine. You have never had anyone stimulate your ass, he had never mentioned doing it so where is this coming from? His tongue worked on your second hole, tracing the rim with the tip of his tongue, the mixture of his spit and your slick coated your bottom as it drips down. You wanted to speak but couldn't the only thing falling from your lips were pathetic whimpers while you rolled your hips wishing you could have his tongue on your pussy too. Maybe that's what he was trying to do? Get back at your bratty behavior by avoiding where you really wanted him, but this didn't feel like a punishment. You had never felt this feeling before, it tickled but you also felt it in your pussy, it just made you want more.

"Fuck~ feels 'o good." You muttered, you couldn't conjure a coherent thought it was like you were in a trance. Your eyes rolled back as you firmly planted your head in the pillows under you, Yunho wrapped his pillow soft lips around your hole while his tongue continued to stimulate you before he pulled off with a pop.

"Finally ready to be good for me baby?" He said softly noticing your relaxed and submissive state, you easily folded as you nodded again. "Good." His mouth was quickly back on your asshole as he removed one on his hands from your leg. He used his two long fingers to slowly rub circles on your throbbing clit, it was like water putting out a fire, you couldn't help but moan louder, thank God there was a party going on down stairs or like usual Yunho's housemates would be banging on the door for you two to keep it the hell down. Your head rolled around the pillows as you breathed heavily, your fingers digging into the sheets below you.

"Make me cum Yunho, fuck" you said, then harsh slap on your pussy was felt making you wince. "What the fuck!" your eyes opened and looked directly at him.

"Is that how you ask?" He said removing his mouth from your hole again.

"Are you fucking serious? Just make me cum, God!" Welp the submissive soft girl act didn't last long, the attitude earned you 2 more slaps to your wet cunt before Yunho let you go making you drop back down on the bed with a slight bounce. He started to remove his clothes starting with his shirt then his jeans you sat up frizzled from the edging. “Oh? Finally going to fuck me?” You smirked smugly.

“God, do you shut the fuck?” Yunho said rolling his eyes, he crawled on the bed to hover his large frame over yours. As he pushed closer you laid back. "You have me, the best fucking dick you have and will ever get in your life, and you can't shut your whore mouth. Just sit there like a good pretty little bitch and take it. Got it?" He said looking you into your eyes.

You stared at him for a moment, all you wanted was to make him a little jealous but the look in his eyes was serious. All you could do is nod.

"Good, open your mouth." he said while gripping your chin. You slowly opened your mouth and before you could process what was happening, he spit directly into it, making you wince for a moment. "I don't give you 2 seconds of my attention, and you tongue down my friend. Don't worry though baby, I'll give you all the attention you needed." he smiled. "Swallow and turn around." You swallow as soon as he releases your chin, you turn to then lay on your stomach once he moves from on top of you to kneel on the bed.

You arched your ass into the air to present to him shamelessly. Your cunt was glistening, practically begging to get fucked by him. Yunho removed his boxers finally and got closer to you. He gripped the base of your shaft and rubbed it between your folds. You couldn't take anymore teasing, anymore waiting. "Please... please, I'll be good." you pathetically whimpered out.

"Will you baby?"

"Yes~ please." your hips started to move against his cock, you didn't even notice he had stopped. His tip rubbed against your clit ever so slightly just enough so you could feel some kind of friction.

"Say sorry baby, say sorry and I'll give you everything you need."

"I'm ngh~ I'm sorry baby, please, please fuck me." You began to drool on the pillow your face was on as you quickened your pace. Yunho pulled away and sunk his length into your needy hole. You moaned loudly; you could never really get use to his almost obscene size. The small sting turned to pure bliss, making your eyes roll back. He bottomed into you; your breathing spiked feeling his tip on your ovaries.

"Apology accepted beautiful." He wasted no time and moved his hips back in forth, pumping his dick into you. "So wet and tight, I must not fuck you hard enough. That must be why you’re acting up." His pace quickened. You couldn't form anything coherent as you felt your mind start to blank. "I already feel you squeezing me baby, already about to cum?"

"Fuck, fuck~" Your stomach dropped, your cunt clenched around his dick. His pace moving even faster as he felt your pussy hugging him, you came. Your mind filling with fog, your eyes completely rolled back, and you zoned out for a moment. You finally came back to earth, Yunho was still fucking into you when overstimulation kicked in. "too much, Yunnie it's too much ahh-" Yunho didn't want to make you uncomfortable but he knew you, he knew this was not enough for you. "Want... want more, want more please." Your legs were unstable causing you to fall into a collapsed doggystyle. Your pussy ringed as he pulled out of you.

"Are you sure? You want me to keep going?" Yunho asked as his large hands gripped your ass, and he massaged you with his thumbs.

"Yes... please." you begged.

Yunho separated your cheeks and spit a cold glob of saliva onto your asshole. He rubbed his long finger between your still throbbing pussy to collect your cum. He smeared the spit around the rim of your hole then glided one finger in. Your moans could probably be heard throughout the whole house. The sensation of his fingers in your ass could drive you crazy every time. Your hips wiggled as your pussy still leaked. He watched your reaction to make sure you were comfortable and added another finger. Your hole was tight, but he used his other hand to continue to rub your cheek just to keep you calm but your mind was so fuzzy.  You cried out as he scissored his fingers inside you. Before you could cum, he slowly slid back out.

“Did that feel good baby?”

“Yes mm~” you managed to mumble out. He spat onto his cock and aligned his tip with your asshole. You could feel the pressure of his dick on the rim and your mind could barely comprehend taking his thick dick in your ass, but it made your pussy leak even more.

“Think you could take me here baby? Do you want it?” He said smirking at you.

You looked back at his smug face, your face looking absolutely fucked out, you nodded to him. He wanted to tease a verbal response out of you but even though he would never admit it he was at his limit too. He pushed his length slowly into your tight asshole and you clenched your jaw while whimpering and grabbing the sheets under you. The mix of pleasure and pain was overwhelming, and he could tell it was a lot for you. He leaned his large frame down to kiss you. The kiss started actually pretty warm and wholesome until he continued to push into you. Feeling his cock drive deeper into you made you babble nonsense into his mouth until he finally bottomed out. He lifted himself back up.

“You have to relax a bit baby.”

After a moment you finally adjusted to his size in your unused hole. “Please ah~ please move.” You mumbled out. Not needing to be told twice he started to pump his long dick into you. Somehow you could still feel him in your pussy, and you could no longer think straight. Your mind was completely gone, your eyes rolling with every stroke he took inside you. Yunho's bottom lip fully being bitten by his teeth, biting deeper with every motion. You were so tight and wet around him; he thought your pussy was tight, but this was something completely different. This was both of your first time doing anal and absolutely won’t be your last, Yunho was going to have fun with you later. You started to fall forward as your body was growing limp, unconsciously running from him. He took both his large hands and wrapped them around your hips to keep you in place.

“Don’t run from me baby, take every inch of my dick.” He said in a low voice. He pulled out halfway then slammed back into your repeatedly, you cried out his name along with strings of “fuck” and other whiney words and phrases. You felt your stomach begin to tighten again.

“Yunnie I’m gonna cum- I’m gonna cum FUCK.” You slurred out.

He sped up his pace as his climax was on the rise as well. “Going to cum in your tight little ass, you want that don’t you. You want my cum to leak out of your asshole baby?”

“Please, please fill my ass, please, please ple- “before you could finish begging like a proper whore your pussy clenched around nothing and began to leak on the bed below you. You could feel Yunho pump into you once… twice… three times before his hot cum filled your ass. He pulled out slowly, still leaking as some of his cum got on your leg. He dropped his large body on the side of you and immediately started to kiss you.

“If I ever catch you with any of my housemates or anyone else in general, I’ll kill you both.” He said with his cute but serious puppy face. You were still breathing heavy but couldn’t help but to let out a breathy laugh.

“Well don’t go around flirting with other girls then, plus you were being an ass to me.”

“Oh God Y/n I wasn’t flirting; she was flirting with me, and I was just being nice. But… you’re right… I shouldn’t have been rude about it. I’m sorry.” He said as you turned on your side and he pulled you in closer by your waist.

“Thank you. And by the way being friendly, being flirty, synonyms.” You rolled your eyes.

“Jesus, for someone “Not looking for a relationship” you sure are jealous.”

“Yeah, so what?”

“So, the least you could do is be my girlfriend if your gonna act like that.”

“Hmm… I’ll think about it. First, we have to do the walk of shame to the bathroom so we can shower though.” You said as you slowly got up, wincing a bit at the soreness.

“Dude it’s like- “He checked his apple watch on his wrist. “4am. The party ended like an hour into us fucking. Everyone is either passed out or doing what we were.”

“Oh- well come on still, my ass hurts.” You both got out the bed and Yunho slapped you on the ass to tease you.

[deepdarkdelights]

As You Wish | Yoongi x Reader

Pairing: Werewolf Yoongi x Reader

Word Count: 21k

Warnings: 18+, Spice but no Smut, Yandere, Obsession, Fear, Non-Consensual Kissing, Grieving, Passive Suicidality, MC experiences major depression, Non-Consensual Touching, Breaking and Entering, Stalking, Depictions of Gore, Blood, Technically Cannibalism? Loss of Spouse, Loss of Child, Forced Found Family, Hunting, Mass Death, Attempted Burning and the stake, MC is hit by a man (not Yoongi)

I do not condone the acts displayed in this story nor do I believe any members of BTS would actually engage in this type of behavior. This is simply written for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as a reflection of my own values, opinions, or morals. 

Preview: You couldn’t even scream when the door was ripped from its hinges, the beast breaking through it like it was wet parchment. You were petrified in place, hyperventilating and trembling at the sight of it. 

It was a giant wolf. It was covered from head to toe in midnight black fur although there were spots that seemed thinner than others that were littered in scars - slashes and bite wounds from what you could only imagine were others of its kind. It was larger than a horse with a head so huge it could bite your own clean off in one impressive snap. And then there were the eyes. They were glowing an ice cold silver in the dark with a glare that felt sharp enough to slice through you while a gnarled scar marred the fur and skin of its right eye.

A/N: I’m exhausted and grad school sucks but I really wanted to get this out for your guys. I hope you enjoy it, I spent way more time on it than I wanted to. I really thought it was only going to be 8k yet here we are…21k. Anyway, I miss all of you - sorry this is so long lol, this is SUPER UNEDITED. As usual, I can’t wait to see you in my inbox and comments, I love you and hope you enjoy 

The sweet scent of flowers greeted your nose as you cracked open the window for the first time in months. 

Despite the warmth of sunshine and the bright green strokes of grass outside, it very well could have still been winter. It felt as if no time had passed since that fateful day. In your heart, winter still raged on. There were gnarled, ice-coated branches there and a torrent of never-ending snow. It had frozen over since then. 

You carried this sense of numbness you had never thought you would be capable of, it was as if your very soul had been corroded by frostbite. Any love or passion or warmth had been snuffed out like a match in the dark. 

That was the thing about grief, it could change a person into something that was beyond recognition. And your grief was immeasurable. 

When you got married, you never imagined your husband would die within the first year. 

It truly had been a cruel winter that year. The two of you were making do with what food you had. He had always been so smart, planning out what you could have each day so that it would last until spring. The only problem was the fire wood. No one could have anticipated how cold it was going to be and if you hadn’t burned as much kindling as you did you were certain you would have frozen to death. 

You could still remember that gentle look he had given you before he left. The soft touch of his fingers to your cheek, the gentle kiss he left you with. He still had every ounce of charm he had had as a boy. He had always been kind and sweet to you. He was the gentlest man you had ever known. That was why his death hurt even more. 

You had been worried the minute he left, but as minutes bled into hours and the winter sun quickly disappeared behind the mountains you were frightened to the bone. He had only an ax and a knife with him. He brought no food and no more clothing than what was on his back. He was planning on making a short trip and if he didn’t come back right away the chances of him surviving the night were slim to none. 

His body was found the next day. 

Honestly, you didn’t remember that day all too well. Everything was a blur, you could faintly remember hearing the voices of a few men from the village, the feeling of your raw throat after screaming senselessly, and the surplus of food and supplies that were sent your way with small slips of paper that read: “Our condolences.” 

They wouldn’t let you see his body and that was something you would never forgive them for. You didn’t care how bad it was, you wanted to see him with your own eyes and you were never afforded that closure. But you had heard enough from hushed whispers outside. 

“Pieces,” they had said. 

He had been mauled to pieces. They couldn’t even find all of him and what was left of him had huge teeth marks raked through flesh. It was an animal attack. Just like you and your husband, they were hungry. 

And now you were all alone. You were a pariah, one that people pitied, but a pariah nonetheless. You would never be able to marry again, not that you wanted to, but no one would want a widow as their wife. That was the way of things, you were meant to live out the rest of your days in solitude. Nothing more than a sad story mother’s would tell their children as you passed through the markets in silence. Your story would become a warning for children not to wander off into the woods. Your tragedy would become a lesson. 

The only lesson that you had learned was that love meant pain. You had given yourself to someone entirely, and when they had parted from you, you were left with nothing. That was the danger of love, losing yourself. 

After months of wishing you had followed him out of this world, you were hit with the sudden clarity that you were being selfish. He had left to try and save the both of you, but here you were wasting the life he had given you. He had sacrificed himself in order for you to keep living for the both of you. 

Choosing to live was so much harder than choosing to die. 

You shoved those horrendous thoughts to the back of your mind as you traveled through your small cottage, prying open every stiff window that you passed by. Living meant starting with the little things, like getting your home in order. It didn’t feel the same without him, but at least now that it was warmer out you wouldn’t have to stay inside and constantly be reminded of his absence. 

You stripped your bed, gathered up the used linens, and scooped up piles of worn clothes from the floor before depositing them in the basket. You were distracting yourself, that much you were certain of. But any distraction was welcome, you couldn’t bear the silence filled thoughts of him any longer. 

You heaved the basket up onto your hip and made for the door, pausing as you were faced with the blooming greenery beyond the threshold. The breeze was cool, the air was fresh. The world was starting over once again, why was it so hard for you? 

You shook the troubling thought from your head, squared your shoulders, and took a deep breath. You could at least try. And so, you stepped outside for the first time in months and faced the world. It was almost like nothing changed. The birds still chirped, the insects sang, and the rush of the river called from a distance. 

That was the other thing about grief. While it felt like your world ended, in reality, it still rushed onward. 

The soft grass sunk beneath your feet and sprung back to life as you walked, your body tense as you approached the forest. You weren’t going in too far, it was just the edge where the trees were still spread out and not too thick. You just needed to get to the river. But you couldn’t deny the sense of paranoia that was set in your bones. This was where he died, where he was mauled and consumed by whatever inhabited the forest. It would make sense that whatever animal that had ended his life was still prowling in the shadows, waiting for its next meal. 

“Stop it,” You snapped at yourself, your voice hoarse from lack of use and louder in the soft sounds of nature. 

You weren’t going far, you were going to be safe. There was no reason to be so anxious when you wouldn’t be putting yourself in danger. You weren’t walking into the lion's den, you were doing laundry. 

Despite your scolding, you still snapped your head in every direction when you finally reached the river. You were unsettled by every little noise, hyper aware of everything that was going on around you. For a task that was so mundane, you felt so on edge. 

The rush of icy water against your hands was enough to help you focus on the task at hand. The river had finally unfrozen. While your husband and yourself frequently bathed in the river during the warmer months, you had no plans on doing that anytime soon lest you be chilled to the bone and catch your death. Maybe when you were younger you would have risked it all for a moment of fun. But you were older now, matured by time and tragedy. It was harder to have fun now. 

You threw the shirt you were washing on a rock beside you, the force of the toss resulting in a loud, wet slap. Your body bent forward under an oppressive imaginary weight as your icy fingers braced your face, a frustrated sigh leaving your lips causing your body to sink even further. 

Living for two people was going to be even harder than you thought. Even these simple, menial tasks felt exhausting. It had been a miracle you had been able to drag yourself out of bed, that you had made it outside, that you had even journeyed to the river. But those things should be easy, so why did they feel so hard? 

You felt weak.

Useless. 

Helpless. 

You couldn’t help but think had the roles been reversed, he would have been stronger than you. He would have mourned but he would have been able to survive. He would have been able to find another wife, he would have had the children he always wanted, and he could have been happy. It was hard to not feel like it should have been you, like you were just wasting the life he had given you. It was hard to not crumble beneath the crashing waves of grief that eroded your resolve. 

It was too hard. 

A high pitched whimper broke you out of your spiraling thoughts, your hands dropping to your lap and your head snapping to attention. You held your breath and pursed your lips, listening closely to try and hear the sound again. 

And there it was again. Although this time it was much louder and much longer. It sounded like something was in pain. And your curiosity got the better of you. 

You shifted your basket to the side and stood, gathering your skirts in one hand as you carefully lept from stone to stone as you crossed the river. Your heart raced as you slipped once then twice, the stones slick from the rushing water, but the cries were becoming louder and closer and you felt as if you had no other choice but to find out what they were coming from. 

Once you crossed the river, you moved slowly through the grass so as to not startle whatever it was that was frightened. Every now and then you would pause and hold your breath, listening intently for the creature's cries before following them once more. You could just barely make out the shape of the animal, its body concealed by a thick underbrush of branches, leaves, and thorns. 

You dropped down to your knees with abandon and blindly reached into the shrubbery. The cries were much louder now as the creature was startled by your invading hands. Thorns raked through your flesh as you grabbed hold of the small furry body and pulled, trying your hardest to gently remove the little animal. A loud cry made you stop, halting all of your progress. It looked like it was tangled up in something. 

You quickly moved on to your second plan and softly placed the animal back down before grabbing thorn laced branches and snapping them with your bare hands. You hissed in pain as blood beaded up from the small cuts that now decorated your palms. You couldn’t fathom where this sudden rush of determination came from or why you felt like you so desperately needed to do this. That same rush that came over you to find the animal was present and even stronger with the desire to free it. You felt it on some deeper level, that you just couldn’t leave it behind. 

There was a generous pile of branches beside you now and you could very clearly see what you were dealing with. It looked like a puppy. It was very small with soft chocolate brown fur, a short nose, and the cutest pointed ears. Its big brown eyes were welled up with tears, its tail tucked between its legs, and its entire body shook in fright. 

Your horror stricken gasp was muffled as you involuntarily covered your mouth in surprise. The poor pup was tangled up in a snare. The wire was cinched tightly around its hind leg, chest, and foreleg, cutting in so tightly that blood was visible on the metal. The poor thing had run right into the trap and was stuck. You could only hope that it wasn’t intended for the puppy, that it had run into some hunter’s trap purely by accident. 

Your already lacerated hands went straight back to work trying as you attempted to untangle the snare as gently as you could. You hissed as it sliced your palms but paused only a moment to wipe the blood off on your pinafore before continuing your work. By the time you had finally managed to undo the trap, beads of sweat clung to your neck and the sun had moved a decent way across the sky. 

“There you go,” You murmured, “you’re free.” 

The puppy, although now free, didn’t move. Its deep brown eyes stared up at you as it continued to whine, its entire body still shaking with unadulterated fright. 

“Can you walk?” You asked, sitting back on your calves to get a better look at the animal.

You were shocked when it responded, in a way. The puppy attempted to stand and then walk, but it only made it two steps with a clear limp before it collapsed flat on its belly with a yipe. 

“Of course you can’t, I’m sorry,” You cooed as you reached out. Your hand paused in midair, hesitating before trying to touch the puppy. It was probably a wild dog, so it was not a good idea to go touching an animal that very well could bite you, no matter how cute it was. 

The puppy, as if it had read your mind, answered for you by leaning forward and sniffing your fingers with a cold, wet nose, before lapping at them with its little tongue. It was like any other puppy then, it wasn’t aggressive yet. 

You chewed your lip in thought as you watched the pup. It wasn’t a good idea to take in stray animals, but it was injured and leaving it in the forest would be like ringing a dinner bell for all the predators in the area. All of the blood the pup and yourself had shed was certainly not helping. And then there was the crippling loneliness of your cottage. A dog would be good for that. It would be something to share the space with, something to break up the cacophonous silence. And, when it grows older, it would be good for protection as well. The benefits outweigh the negatives you selfishly refused to think of. 

With the pup’s approval, you lifted it up and cradled it into your side much like a mother would her child. You giggled in delight from the feeling of a wet nose burrowing its way into your shoulder and neck, sniffing the cloth of your dress and your skin like it was trying to become accustomed to you. 

You crossed the river even slower now on your way back, very aware of the precious animal you were protecting. When you stopped at the river bank, you gathered your abandoned laundry and placed the puppy in the basket. You didn’t really care about the dirt, grass, and blood that would inevitably stain the fabrics - afterall, they still needed to be cleaned and you had much more pressing issues to attend to. 

You walked back with a sudden urgency in your steps, a small trill of excitement buzzing in your being. After months of isolation and misery, something so small had brought you joy, something that had been unimaginable a few hours before. 

The pup was much calmer now, softly panting instead of crying as it laid in your basket of sheets, eyeing the world that passed by as you brought the two of you back to your cottage. When you made it inside, you shut the bottom half of the door, leaving the top half open to allow fresh air in without the risk of the pup wandering out and falling down the stone steps. When you placed the basket on the ground it nosed at the sheets for a moment before limping out of the basket. 

“No, no, no, stay right there,” You chided, gently scooting it back into the sheets, “you’ll hurt yourself worse if you do that.” 

You stayed a moment, locking eyes with the pup to ensure that it would stay and understand. When you were certain that it was calmed you finally turned your back and headed into the kitchen. You rummaged through the cabinets, searching for the healing salves and creams you knew had been there months before along with the strips of makeshift bandages. 

Within mere moments of turning your back on the puppy you were alerted once more by its cries. It had tried following you again but was now laying in a heap on the floor, tangled up in the sheet and crying from the pressure it applied on its wounds. 

You dropped the bandages and rushed to the pup, cooing as you picked it up and cradled it against your chest. The little thing was an escape artist, that was certain. 

You let out a deep sigh as an uncomfortable thought brewed in your mind. It was the only option that you could think of, even though it was terribly unpleasant. Before you could dwell too much you headed towards the back of the cottage where a single door was fixed into the frame. It stuck at your first pull but relented on the second, the hinges creaking in defeat as you entered the room. 

Any furniture that was in the room was coated with a thin layer of dust having gone undisturbed for months. That old wound in your heart was bleeding around the edges now, the pain of avoided thoughts bubbling back up to the surface. 

There was a crib against the far wall of the bedroom. 

You swiftly moved to the back of the room and gently placed the pup inside the crib. The sides were high enough that the injured dog would be unable to climb over and you were confident that this was the safest place for the poor thing. 

But even that knowledge couldn’t stop tears from pricking at the corner of your eyes as your hands subconsciously cradled your belly. Your pregnancy had been short lived. Losing your husband had been the catalyst to losing your child, but you couldn’t help but blame yourself. Even though the midwife had promised you it wasn’t your fault you couldn’t see how that could be true. If you had been stronger, if you had taken better care of yourself, you would have been able to save that last piece of him. 

If you hadn’t been pregnant, maybe things would have been different. Your husband would have stayed and you would have figured out how to make it through the rest of the winter. But you had been pregnant, he had left to find more resources because of that, and even though he sacrificed his life for you and your unborn child you hadn’t been able to save them. 

You couldn’t see how any of this wasn’t your fault when you were at the center of it all. 

The feeling of cool tears rolling down your cheeks shocked you back to reality. You weakly wiped the tears away, sniffed, and shook your head. You needed to clean yourself and the pup up, you had priorities. 

You rushed around the cottage, busying yourself with what needed to be done. You ran to the water pump and wet some rags, retrieved the salves and bandages, and grabbed a bowl of poultry meat for the dog. This was a welcome distraction. 

You were greeted by excited, squeaky barks when you returned to the abandoned nursery. The pup eagerly paced back and forth, its little tail wagging so hard its entire backside wiggled. You let out a gentle giggle before releasing it from the crib and sitting the two of you on the floor, pulling the pup into your lap and distracting it with a strip of meat while you assessed its injuries once more. 

You blinked once and then twice in confusion. You could have sworn the wounds had been much worse not more than half an hour ago. The slashes were still bloody and in need of tending to, but they were not the deep, gnarled gashes that had once needed stitching. You were either still out of your mind or this animal had the fastest healing time you had ever seen. 

It was much easier to believe that your mind was failing you. And so, you got to cleaning and wrapping the wounds. The pup was surprisingly well behaved, only whimpering every now and then as you touched a tender spot but it didn’t jerk away and did its best to stay still as it ate. The more time you spent with it, the more you realized it was much smarter and more aware than you had once thought. Everything about the little creature seemed eerily human when you thought about it too much. It was better to not think about it too hard. 

Trapped in your own mind, you hadn’t realized that you had finished your work. Not until you felt the gentle lap of a little tongue against the wounds that decorated your palms, jolting you back into the real world. 

You pulled your hands away with a pained hiss before reprimanding the puppy, “No, no, no, I don’t know where that mouth of yours has been. The last thing we need is an infection.”

The puppy whined in earnest and nosed at your palm once more before you pulled your hands away again and scooped the little thing back up into your arms. This way, it wouldn’t be able to mess with the cuts. 

After you tended to your palms, applying salve and wrapping them securely, you couldn’t help but notice the odd tingling you felt emanating from them. It was warm and fuzzy and completely unexplainable - your salves had never caused that sensation before. 

As time passed and the sun crossed over the sky before dipping beneath the horizon, the feeling became stronger until it was a pulse-like thrum causing your hands to tremble before steadily declining until it was nothing more than a memory. And an odd one at that. 

It was when you began to turn in for the night, that everything fell apart. 

You didn’t notice that the crickets had fallen silent nor that the wildlife of the forest had completely disappeared. You hadn’t noticed the hollow ringing that came from the wind slipping between the trees. It was the calm before the storm, and you had no idea what was coming. 

The candlelight was dim, casting soft ochre colored shadows over the wood and stone of the cottage. The puppy slept soundly in your arms. Everything was calm. 

That was of course until a howl fractured the peace. It was so loud you could have sworn you felt the floorboards shake as a rush of fright went down your spine. The soft lull of sleep was suddenly long forgotten. 

The pup in your arms stirred at the noise, its ears perking up and its head frozen in place as it recognized the sound. It was on high alert. It knew what was out there. 

You shakily stood and approached the door, the top portion of it still unlatched and swung outward.  Outside of the lamp affixed to the stone above the door, the forest was pitch black. You could barely make out the twisted shape of the trees and the brooke that had once been in sight was obscured. But, what was even stranger, was that you were certain that the shadows were moving. 

You tilted your head to the side, squinting your eyes as you tried to make out what exactly you were looking at. And then, it was close enough that the light bounced off of it and you were met with the horrifying sight of a set of bright silver eyes staring back at you from the dark. 

You were frozen in an instant. But once you realized those eyes were steadily coming closer with a hulking form attached, you acted on instinct, slamming the door shut and latching it closed. You could only hope that the door would hold against whatever that thing was. 

Your chest rose and fell with heavy pants as you became more and more unsettled. Why was it so quiet? Why couldn’t you hear something so big moving? Where was it? What direction was it coming from? Your back met the wall and your weak knees had you sliding down to the ground. 

Your entire body was shaking in pure terror. There was something out there, something massive and monstrous. You held the pup in your arms tighter, bringing it to your chest for comfort as well as protection. 

You yelped as a loud bang popped the eerie silence. Whatever it was, it was slamming its body alongside the cottage. But it wasn’t doing it mindlessly, like it thought it could break through the walls. It was purposeful, it was an attempt to frighten you and determine where you were. It was smart. 

You curled into yourself as it came closer. You could hear heavy, sharp pants in between the vicious snarls that it was making. It sounded wild, primal, and predatory. It was hunting. 

The pup in your arms began whining and wriggling around as it tried to escape your grasp and all it was doing for you was frightening you even more. All it was doing was making more noise, drawing more attention to itself. And you knew it had, the creature outside had gone silent. It was listening. 

And then chaos unraveled in seconds. 

You couldn’t even scream when the door was ripped from its hinges, the beast breaking through it like it was wet parchment. You were petrified in place, hyperventilating and trembling at the sight of it. 

It was a giant wolf. It was covered from head to toe in midnight black fur although there were spots that seemed thinner than others that were littered in scars - slashes and bite wounds from what you could only imagine were others of its kind. It was larger than a horse with a head so huge it could bite your own clean off in one impressive snap. And then there were the eyes. They were glowing an ice cold silver in the dark with a glare that felt sharp enough to slice through you while a gnarled scar marred the fur and skin of its right eye. 

Your body slowly began to slump to the ground, falling weak before the wolf. You looked like the perfect prey, like a rabbit that was so frightened its own heart had stopped. It seemed that the wolf thought similarly. It approached you slowly like it was still on the prowl as angry snarls left its gaping maw. You could feel your blood run cold as you caught sight of its enormous teeth, each one long enough that they could be made into daggers. Whatever this creature was, it was no mere wolf, it was something else entirely. 

Your hold on the pup was weakened as your chest and forehead met the ground, bending beneath the invisible weight of the wolf’s presence. From beneath the cover of your hair you could make out its large paws and hooked nails mere inches away from you. It was so close now that you could feel puffs of its hot breath disturb your hair and ghost over your neck. You were breaths away from death. 

You couldn’t decide if you wanted to flee or embrace it as you had once desired. 

A soft whimper involuntarily escaped you as you waited, feeling the tip of its nose brush over your head as its snarls grew louder. A sudden loud yapping broke the tension. 

The pup was frantically barking at the wolf and lunging at it in a playful manner all the while standing in front of you like it was trying to protect you. The sight would have been comical had you not been on the brink of passing out. This tiny puppy was fiercely defending you against this monster. 

And, to your surprise, it was working. 

Once you gained the courage to raise your head you were met with the sight of the wolf’s intense gaze trained on the puppy. More specifically, its gaze was trained on the bandages covering its wounds. The wolf looked back at you, its hauntingly silver eyes making you flinch. It continued to stare at you for a long moment like it was contemplating something, that of which you were unaware of. But then its gaze hardened and its predatory stance relaxed. It had made its decision. 

Without another snarl or howl it nipped the pup by its scruff and began to carry it out of the cottage. It stopped for a moment once it had successfully squeezed out of the broken door frame and looked back at you, this too was a look that you were unable to decipher. It gave you a slow blink and then turned, carrying the pup back to the forest and disappearing into the darkness. 

It was in that moment that you finally realized that it had not been a dog you had rescued, but that wolf’s pup. 

And with that realization you completely collapsed to the floor and were dragged into a dark, dreamless, restless sleep. 

~~~~~~~

Yoongi had come to realize that there wasn’t much that you could do to discipline a two year old, especially a two year old that was a shifter. 

His daughter, Binna, had little control over her form and had a knack for slipping away and getting into trouble. That was something he could blame on his other pack members, specifically the youngest three. 

He huffed out a sigh as he carefully extracted twigs and leaves from her messy hair, flinging them back into the underbrush. She was the very definition of a wild child. And while it wasn’t uncommon for pups her age to be curious and adventurous, it was uncommon that she so readily welcomed and followed humans. 

Humans were dangerous, that was something he had tried his best to get her to understand but she simply couldn’t. She was too young to understand how they could hunt her and hurt her, far too young to realize what that meant, and far too young to understand that it was a human that had taken her mother away from them. 

Then again, she hadn’t known her mother all too well. That was evidenced by her clinging to any female shifter she had found and babbling out “mama” to the wrong mothers. She knew her mother was missing, but she couldn’t match the face to the name. He couldn’t really blame her all that much. Her mother had been amongst the best hunters and was oftentimes absent as she hunted for the pack’s survival. Yoongi was a defender, he was there to ensure the safety of everyone that resided within their territory. He was at the front lines. And because of that, his wife was often gone and he was almost always home. To his daughter, her mother was a faceless being. 

“Let me see,” He demanded firmly, trying to unwind the bandages that were already slipping from her skin. 

She nipped at his fingers playfully, her serrated canines gleaming as she giggled. Yoongi tried his best to suppress his smile, he was supposed to be upset with her. He sighed once more and grabbed the edge of the bandage and began to unwind it. 

“No,” She cried in a drawn out whine, “Mama gave me! Mama gave me!” 

Yoongi froze, startled as he registered her fractured speech. She thought that human in the cottage was her mother. 

He could see why she would think that, you had taken care of her after all. From what he had seen from the wounds he knew they came from a hunter's trap, snares made from silver that were so small they had clearly been designed for pups as no adult shifter would ever be able to be caught in that small a snare. It was clear that you had rescued his daughter and taken care of her in his absence. 

And for some reason, Yoongi could only press his lips together in a firm line and failed to correct his daughter. At the end of the day, she wasn’t necessarily wrong. 

Yoongi knew you.

He had known you for a while now. He had watched you the day you and your husband had moved in. The two of you had chosen a location that was incredibly close to their territory and so he scouted you out for days to ensure that you wouldn’t stumble too far from your home, to ensure that you weren’t a threat. 

He had thought you two were safe, and that was his biggest mistake. 

Yoongi would not say that he was enamored with you, but he was definitely interested in you. He had gone his entire life knowing to never trust a human, but as he observed he couldn’t help but be enthralled by your little human quirks. 

You were so blissfully unaware of his presence as he silently stalked you. Your husband, like his wife, was often gone during the day and you were left to amuse yourself. For someone of your age, you had this odd youthful aura about you. He would watch as you would jump into the brooke, spinning around and splashing with abandon not unlike his child would. 

That version of you that he knew though, that was long gone. Loss has aged you, hardened you. Even though you were completely ensnared by fright he could see the hollowness in your eyes when he had ripped your door from its hinges. 

The both of you had been irreparably changed by loss. 

And then there was the other problem. He was indebted to you and you were now in his care. While he refused to acknowledge any attachment he felt for you, he couldn’t deny the attraction. It was incredibly wrong considering his own disdain for humans, but he couldn’t help himself. There was something else there, this odd discomfort in his chest that demanded to be felt, a sour feeling in his stomach at the thought of your frightened face. 

This was not good. 

Contrary to popular belief, wolves do not mate for life. And as a shifter that was even more true. While many chose to bond to one another, it was not horribly uncommon to find a new mate if one were to leave or die. And, very rarely, there were intense bonds that made it so that you did mate for life. In the case of his wife, it was not that type of bond. Of course he was hurt, of course he missed her, but it was not the debilitating grief that you experienced. It was natural for his kind, evolutionary even.  

The attachment, this bond he felt for you paired with his daughter’s stubborn belief that you could be her mother made him make a decision far faster than he should have. 

You lost a husband, he lost a wife. An even trade. Why could you not fill those roles for each other? 

~~~~~~~

The following days were ones where you lived in a state of fright and confusion. 

When you awoke the next morning you were greeted by the feeling of the floor against your cheek and a stiff ache in your joints. Apparently, you had spent the night collapsed on the floor. 

When you finally mustered up the strength to stand there were several things that were brought to your attention. Firstly, that there was now a gaping hole in the wall from where your door had once stood. Secondly, the events that occurred the night before had not been a grief conjured hallucination. And thirdly, the pain in your hands had completely disappeared. 

Upon unwinding the bandages you were met with completely closed wounds and thin scars that looked years old. Your suspicions had been proven correct, that wolf and its pup were certainly not just animals not with the way a few stray licks had healed your palms. Your fingers trembled in fright at the realization before you grabbed another roll of bandages and wrapped them tightly in a panic. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

You followed the same thought as you gathered up sheets, a cord, and pins with the intention to cover up the missing door to your cottage. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

Unfortunately, that was not possible for you. Before you could even attempt to hang the sheets you were frozen in place a foot away from what was once the threshold. On the cobblestone porch was a carcass. You stared at it, dumb in shock as you tried to understand what you were looking at. It wasn’t a complete animal, it had been skinned and cleaned and left on your porch laying out on a thick piece of brown paper packaging. At first, you considered the possibility that it was another mourning gift from one of your neighbors in town but that was very quickly debunked. For one, they typically cooked the meat or met you at the door. And secondly, there were clear claw marks in the bone and large tooth impressions left behind. You had a sick feeling that you knew where this came from. But it didn’t make any sense, no wolf could clean a carcass like this - this was work done by human hands. 

Despite your conclusion, when you raised your head you were once more greeted by the sight of the wolf. He was much closer than he had been the first time you saw him the night before. He laid right by the end of the treeline - half of his body submerged in shade and the other half bathing in the golden glow of the early morning light. Those silver eyes were watching you intently, waiting to see what you would do next. 

That only confirmed your suspicions, he had brought it for you. It was a peace offering of sorts, a truce. In spite of that knowledge your hands still trembled when you grabbed a corner of the parchment and dragged the carcass past the threshold. The wolf’s alert and tense body almost immediately relaxed. It was like it was relieved. 

It stared after you for a moment longer, gave you a slow blink, and then rose and melted back into the forest - vanishing as if it hadn’t even been there in the first place. 

And so you hung your sheet, peeled the flesh from the bone of the carcass, and disposed of the remains. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

~~~~~~~

When you woke the next day, the makeshift curtain was pulled to the side and wrapped around a bent hinge that was still mounted to the wall. Another thing you were certain wolves were incapable of. 

And there, on the stoop, laid a pile of wild berries and fruit on a small, clean cloth. And, not far away, the wolf was there once more. Although this time it was much closer, so close in fact that you could visibly make out the twisted scar around its eye. It was laying down, much like a dog would, with its large head raised in alert. Those silver eyes flicked slowly from the present and back to you three times, a clear signal that it was waiting for you to take them. It only relaxed when you brought them inside just like the day before. 

This pattern between the two of you persisted for several days to follow. And, no matter how you tried to forget what had happened that night, this creature was making it virtually impossible. It was ironic how you had once longed for company and were willing to settle for it from a dog but now that you had someone, well something, watching over you you were incredibly unnerved by the ordeal. But you couldn’t exactly shoo the hulking creature away. 

And so each day passed and more presents followed. One day it was bunches of wildflowers, another it was game of varying sizes, and another was a thick pelt that had been handcrafted into a blanket for the cold spring nights. You didn’t know how to exactly decline a gift from a mythical creature. Wouldn’t there be horrible repercussions for that? 

The urgency to put a stop to this odd arrangement became even more apparent when a gold pendant was left at your door and the wolf had crept so close that it was less than fifteen feet away. It was beginning to make your home its territory and now it was somehow stealing items you had only dreamed of affording when you were young. It was all too much. 

You wound the chain of the pendant around your fingers as you hesitantly crept down the stone steps. The creature perked up in interest, elevating its head again as you slowly approached it, your body shaking in fright in spite of your attempts to school yourself into a false confidence. 

“I-” You paused to clear your throat, “I can’t accept this. You’ve done more than enough for me, you’re forgiven.” 

It only cocked its head to the side in response. You were just a crazy woman talking to an animal, weren’t you?

“Here, take it,” You tried again, reaching out your palm to it as the chain caught the sun and glistened in the morning light. 

It was looking at you like you were dumb. 

“Fine,” You sighed, “I’ll just leave it here then and you can take it back to wherever you got it from.” 

You lightly tossed it onto the grass and turned your back on the creature before briskly walking back to your cottage. And, despite the haste in which you walked, you were no match for the massive wolf. 

A startled shriek left your lips as you felt a large, warm body bump against your side and thick fur rub up against your skin. Another shriek was forced past your lips when its tail wacked you on the backside like it had a mind of its own. 

Gold glinted in its teeth before the pendant was unceremoniously dropped on your stone steps, the placement much more haphazard than it had been that morning.

If this had happened a few days before, you were certain you would have been more frightened, but now your patience was far too thin and you were in desperate need for your privacy and a sense of normalcy. 

“If you’re going to keep bringing me things, at least let them be useful! Like a door, for instance. You know, that thing you ripped off of my home!” 

The wolf huffed in what almost sounded like an amused chuckle before rising and stalking towards you, crowding you up against the side of the cottage. Your heart pounded as you realized you had made a grave error, you were not the one in charge here. 

You clenched your eyes shut as you felt a warm puff of air over your face and a wet nose prod your cheek. You shook as you remembered the creature's giant fangs and huge body. You were certain now that it was going to eat you now that you had denied it, these were the repercussions that you feared.

What you hadn’t anticipated though, was the feeling of it pressing its head on top of yours and whining like an overgrown puppy. It was acting like you had hurt its feelings. You hesitantly cracked an eye open only to see this huge, scarred, wolf nuzzling your head and then your hands like it was begging for affection. 

A surprised laugh came straight from your chest as you shakily began to pet the wolf. The wolf that had previously been ready to kill you after you had accidentally kidnapped its child. 

“Alright, alright, cut it out!” You squealed, laughing hysterically as it began to lick you. You quickly froze when you realized that that was the first time you had laughed in months. It was the first time you had laughed since your husband had died. 

You gently pushed against the wolf’s large head as you side stepped around it, a frown now tugging down the corners of your mouth. It felt so wrong to be happy. 

Your companion noticed your swift shift in behavior. It ducked its head down and nosed at your back not all that gently as you stumbled forward. 

“Don’t you have a child you need to get back to?” You hissed, a sudden wave of irritation rushing over you. 

This wasn’t all that uncommon for you. The rapid changes in your emotions. It was easy to feel joy wither away to apathy, to frustration, to anger. Oftentimes you felt like you had no control over how you felt and it left you grasping at straws as you tried to hold yourself together. It was just so hard. 

“Go on, go home,” You sighed, flicking your hand in the general direction of the trees, “I don’t doubt that you’ll be back tomorrow anyways.” 

The wolf stared at you again, as it tended to, before purposefully bumping its large body against you once more and making for the forest. It hesitated for a moment, looking back over its shoulder to give you one last look, and then it was gone again. 

That was what you wanted, wasn't it? But if that were true then why did you hate the loneliness that you were left with so much? 

~~~~~~~

That morning, early in the morning, you were awoken by the sound of a hacksaw. 

For a brief moment, in the hazy grasp of sleep, you allowed yourself to settle back down when you realized it was just your husband getting an early start on the daily chores. 

But your husband was dead. 

With that sobering thought you jolted fully awake, gripping your blanket tightly in your hands and pulling it up over your mouth as you struggled to control your breathing. Your neighbors were out of the way and they rarely came to visit anymore outside of the kind supply drops they had provided you with throughout the rest of the winter. So, if it wasn’t them, then who was it? 

You rose and with the blanket still wrapped around you, you made for the door as quietly as you could. Once again, the curtain was pulled and fixed to the side like it usually was whenever your companion came to visit you. But the person that stood outside, mere steps away, was very clearly not the massive wolf you had come to know. 

You could only see him from the back, but he was very clearly a man. He was a decent height with longer, thick, raven hair that began to curl at the ends. From what you could see of him, you could make out stretches of porcelain skin. He was wearing a loose fit white top and he had rolled the sleeves up past his elbows exposing pale forearms with impressive veins and hands that looked like they had been carved from marble. 

Your cheeks grew warm as you realized you were spending far too much time appreciating his appearance rather than worrying about what this stranger's intentions with you and your home were. “What are you doing here?”

The man continued his work, sawing at the wood until the cut was complete before he responded. You then realized that he had been very aware of your presence the entire time, he had not been startled at all. 

“You asked for a door, did you not?” He replied, sarcasm tainting his words, as he brushed the sawdust from his hands and turned to look at you. 

His face was just as lovely as the rest of him. Dark brows, doll-like lips, and deep brown eyes that had the gentlest slope to them. He was beautiful, that was undeniable. 

But what was most apparent and most worrying, was the long scar that ran over his right eye. A scar that you had most definitely seen before. Your body stumbled backwards on instinct, trying its hardest to create more distance between the two of you. 

The man raised an eyebrow, a look of pure amusement etched into his features, “You weren’t afraid of me yesterday but you are now? You are a confusing little human, you know that?”

“You - that’s, that’s not possible!” You gasped, tightening your hold on your blanket. “What you’re insinuating is not possible!” 

He chuckled to himself, leaning his weight back on his hands as he dropped his chin down, “You want me to prove it to you? I could if you really wanted me to, I do like these clothes though so I’ll only do it if you give me a reason.” 

The thought of watching this man, creature, wolf, whatever he was burst out of his flesh and take on a different form was horrifying enough that you were certain you would faint at the very sight. Already you were shaken by the thought of this being possible, you didn’t know if you would be able to handle the sight. Not to mention that subtle innuendo that whenever he decided to take the form of a man again he would be as bare as the day he was born. It was all too much. 

“Please don’t!” You cried, “Don’t do that!”

“As you wish,” He nodded with a teasing smile as he turned back to the door in progress. “Perhaps some other time.”

“What is it exactly that you want from me, if you are who you say you are?” You asked. 

“I am responsible for you.” He said with a shrug, picking up the saw once more and continuing his work as if what he said made any sense at all. 

“No, you are not. No one is responsible for me, you owe me nothing.”

“I don’t? I would think I at least owe you a door, that is what you said after all, remember?” 

Heat rushed to your face in pure frustration and embarrassment. He was just as infuriating and insufferable as he was when he was an overgrown dog…that is of course if you were truly willing to believe in that sort of thing.  But how else could he have known about your request for the door? Why else would he believe he was responsible for you had you not saved his child’s life? Unless he were some creepy, stalking stranger, he would have no knowledge of these events. This man was the very thing your town hunted and was frightened of. 

“Just the door then? That’s all? You will leave after you’ve finished it and your debt will be repaid. You will leave me alone?” You asked. 

He paused for a moment, a confused expression taking over his face. He looked at you as if he realized he couldn’t comprehend what you were asking of him. “You confuse me.”

“I confuse you?” You laughed, “I woke up this morning to a strange man outside my home claiming to be something that up until this morning I didn’t believe in, who claims he is responsible for me and owes me when all I want is peace and privacy!”

“That, that confuses me.” He admitted. 

“What?!” You cried in exasperation. 

“How can someone who so clearly hates being alone also want to keep it that way?”

You wrapped your blanket around yourself tighter, as if that would somehow shield you from the sudden sense of exposure that washed over you. You were feeling vulnerable. You were feeling seen. 

“You humans are social creatures, not unlike my kind, yet when you need help, when you’re in distress, you push your pack away. It goes against every natural instinct that you have, it doesn’t make any sense.” He laughed with a shake of his head. 

“You are alone here, you have no one to protect you. I can keep you safe in every meaning of the word. Whether that means building you a door, forgive me by the way, or guarding your land. I want to protect you.” 

There was a gentle flutter in your heart, one that you desperately wanted to stomp out but were failing to do so. You hadn’t been affected by someone like this since your husband and you didn’t know if you should feel guilty about that. He was supposed to be the one allowed to move on, not you. These feelings weren’t supposed to be for you, they were supposed to pass. It was your job to mourn his loss; he was supposed to be your one and only love. These feelings were supposed to be wrong. So why, deep down, did you enjoy them? 

Instead of telling him to leave, to abandon his work and yourself, you made the mistake of giving him a chance. You made the mistake of entertaining him. 

“I don’t even know who you are,” You said with a laugh of disbelief. 

“Yoongi,” He smiled, a wolfish smile, “And you do know me, I’ve been here longer than you know.” 

That wasn’t the comforting sentiment that he was trying to make it be. Just how long had he been watching you? You were reluctant to linger on that thought much longer, so you moved on. 

“How long will this take you?” You asked, shuffling closer to his work. 

“Not long. Lucky you, you happened to pick a shifter whose trade is in woodworking.”

“A shifter? So, that’s what you are?” 

Yoongi pursed his lips, his brows furrowed, he was thinking. It was like he was still deciding if he could trust you or not. He was deciding just how much information he was willing to give up to you despite the fact that you had seen him in his other form. 

He nodded. 

“Are there…are there more of you?”

“Yes,” He reluctantly admitted, you had already seen his daughter after all. 

“Why is it that I have only met one of your kind now?”

“Because, we’re discreet. We have to be. You found my daughter in that hunter’s snare, remember?”

“Your daughter,” You echoed, “is she alright?” 

Yoongi practically preened at your concern. All you were doing was giving him validation, you could and would be a good mother to her. You could be a good mate for him. 

“Our kind heals fast, she’s already running around causing more trouble,” He chuckled, “but don’t be mistaken, I am grateful for what you did for her. You saved her life and you helped heal her. I owe you much more than you know.”

“I saved her life? You couldn’t mean…”

A grim look descended over his pretty features, a dark gaze settling in his eyes as he paused his work once more, his hands tightly gripping the tools they were holding. “That’s exactly what I mean. We have been hunted since the dawn of time. Woman, man, child, it makes no difference to them. Their entire goal is to eradicate us, they think we are abominations. It wasn’t enough that they took my wife, they tried to take my daughter as well.” 

Your heart ached in sympathy for him. You knew that feeling, the overwhelming wave of grief and pain that attempted to drown you in your suffering. You had lost your husband and a child, Yoongi was just as familiar with loss as you were. 

You crept closer to him, so close that you could feel the warmth that radiated off of his body like a stove. Hesitantly, you reached out to him and rested your hand on top of his. You could feel his grip go lax, his hand relaxing beneath your touch. 

“I know how terrible it can be to hear someone apologize and tell you that they know what you're going through, but I think this is one of those rare moments where it’s true.” You said. 

You could feel his gaze on you and the scarred skin of his hands beneath yours. He felt so incredibly close, this was the closest you had been to anyone in a while. You swallowed uncomfortably as you felt his hand turn over and the skin of his palm meet yours as his fingers laced their way in between yours. 

“My husband…he was killed this winter. I’ll never know what happened to him, or why it happened, but knowing that he’ll never be here again is the most painful thing I have ever felt. It’s indescribable.”

Yoongi tried his best to suppress the inappropriate smile that wanted to make its appearance known on his lips. You two truly did complete one another. You were two pieces of a puzzle that had not been intended to fit together, but had been carved up and forced together. You were altered, created for one another. He gave your hand a gentle squeeze, stroking his thumb down the curve where your palm met your finger in rhythmic swipes. 

“I know that feeling, I understand it well.”

I understand you, he wanted to say. 

“People like us, we should stick together. We can trust one another like no one else can.” He murmured, gently brushing up against your side. 

That was enough to wake you up from the dreamlike haze he had put you in. You stepped back, breaking your fingers away from his and holding your hand up to your chest. 

It was too soon, too much, you couldn’t be that close to someone, to a man nonetheless. You couldn’t trust him, you couldn’t trust anyone. 

Yoongi took a step forward and you took three back, retreating from the momentary comfort you had felt. But instead of looking dejected like you assumed he would, he looked determined, he looked sure of himself. And that only made you stumble back even more, stepping up your stone steps and into the house.

“I’ll leave you to your work.” 

This is what you did. Despite the entrapment you felt by your loneliness, it was familiar, it was right. The loneliness was easier. 

It was the only thing you knew you could hold on to for certain. 

~~~~~~~

In the days that followed, you became antsy to get out from beneath your visitor’s presence. 

You hurried past your uninvited guest, hoping that he wouldn’t notice you with his back turned to you. Your hopes were quickly dashed. 

“Where are you going?” He called over his shoulder. 

You came to a halt with an exasperated sigh, “Am I answering to you now?”

He only hummed in response and for a reason that you could not conceive, it lit you alight with agitation. “Where I go, is none of your concern!”

That caught his attention, his head slightly jerking to the side as he watched you from the corner of his eye. “It’s not safe out there, not when you’re alone.” 

“I was fully capable of finding my way through the forest before you got here, I seriously doubt that I have lost all sense of direction.”

“It’s not your sense of direction I’m worried about,” He sighed, “There’s more of my kind out there and more of your hunters - both of which would not bat an eye at a human getting caught in the crossfire.”

“It’s never been a problem before,”

“No, but it is now.” He said with a stern glare, his eyes not meeting your curious gaze, but instead staring into the distance. His shoulders were tense, his forearms flexed, he looked as if he was burdened with knowledge that he could not share. 

“Yoongi, what is that supposed to mean?” 

“Don’t wander off too far,” He deflected. 

You stayed for a moment, suddenly unsure as to what you should do. Moments before you were ready to get out from underneath his oppressive stare, but now you were intrigued. Yoongi had told you about the shared hatred between your species. The humans hunted the shifters and the shifters were reactionary killers. They followed an honor code closely and truly believed in an eye for an eye. So what had happened that now made it unsafe for you to traverse the woods when before it had never been a problem. Why would Yoongi’s kind attack you unprovoked?

Despite your stare, Yoongi was blatantly ignoring you, pretending that he didn’t notice you hadn’t left. That was enough to let you know that the conversation was over no matter how much you poked and prodded. 

Without another word, you left. Contrary to what Yoongi had believed, you wouldn’t be traveling too far. Your cottage and the shifter would not be in view, but you knew the way like the back of your hand. It was past the brook, and a good walk through the evergreens. What you were searching for was a small clearing. 

The trees lined the space in almost a perfect circle, something that appeared somewhat unnatural amidst the organic shapes of the woods. In the middle, there stood one weeping willow - completely out of place and the only one of its kind. And at the base of its gnarled roots was a simple stone with your husband's name carved into it. The earth was still turned, a reminder of just how fresh his death and the wounds they left behind on your heart were. 

You gently lowered yourself to the ground, your skirts folding beneath your knees as your fingers pressed into the dirt. You had often thought about crawling back to him, you had dreamed of being wrapped up in his warm embrace again, the two of you entwined and buried beneath a comforter of soil and flowers. In your dreams you were intertwined so tightly that years from now if anyone were to find you they wouldn’t be able to tell where you began and he ended. 

“Hello my love,” You whispered despite no one else being in the clearing. And of course, you were met with the silence, the ever present reminder that he had left you and that he was never coming back. 

You sniffled as your fingers smoothed down the fluffed dirt before digging into your basket and pulling out the prettiest wildflowers you could find with which you then began to arrange around the stone. You knew it wasn’t right to spend so much time here, you were holding on so dearly to someone that was gone and no matter how much love you held for him it would never be enough to revive him. 

When you were satisfied with your arrangement you allowed yourself to empty your eyes of the last of their tears before patting your cheeks dry with the edge of your pinafore. With clear eyes, you were now able to see a few things that you had missed before. 

Hanging from the boughs of the tree were several things. There were colored glass stars and moons that were strung up on several branches all of which varied in color and reflected the sun through them, casting brilliant shards of light over the earth. And, amongst those, were small wolves carved masterfully from wood. You slowly stood, your brows furrowed in confusion as you tapped one of the stars with a shaky finger. It swung back and an ethereal ringing sounded from within it. 

What were these doing here? At your husband’s grave? 

You looked back at the wooden wolves before you began to piece it together. Yoongi, he had a wife. Was this for her? Was this their version of funeral rites? But if that were true then she would have died recently, but why would she be buried here, where your husband had been killed and laid to rest? 

Your heart thumped, your palms began to sweat. 

No. No, you refused to believe it. 

Their words began to rush back to the forefront of your mind, “pieces,” and “consumed.” Your husband had been ripped apart and eaten, there was barely anything of him left behind. 

It was her, it had to have been her, she had been the one to kill him. But if that were true, then who had killed her? 

“I am responsible for you,” Yoongi’s words echoed through your mind. 

They had a code of honor, they believed in an eye for an eye. Or, a spouse for a spouse. 

You turned your back on the burial sight and balled your fists up before pressing them against your eyes. Out of sight out of mind. Out of sight out of mind. Out of sight out of mind.

Yoongi wouldn’t, Yoongi couldn’t. He wouldn’t do that to you, he wouldn’t take someone’s spouse from them, he wouldn’t make you feel the same pain that he did.

A rumble pulled you from your panicked thoughts, your breaths still fast and shallow. But what you thought had been the earth shaking, was something far more menacing. Across the clearing stood a wolf, a wolf that was not Yoongi. It was too small to be him and the fur was the wrong color. But the size alone told you that it was clearly a shifter and by the way it was looking at you, you were certain that you were in danger. 

You stood still, hoping that if you didn’t make any sudden movements he wouldn’t be provoked but you were sorely mistaken. You could see its muscles tensing up as it crouched low and shifted its weight back towards its hind legs like it was preparing to lunge. No matter what you did, it had already made its decision to kill you right where you stood. 

You hadn’t realized you were screaming until you felt the raw pain in your throat, your body acting on its own will to survive as you reeled backwards and hastily began to climb up the tree. If you were lucky, it couldn’t climb, but there was still a human inside of that creature - it was smart, you had seen Yoongi hunt you down before, after all. 

You shrieked in fright as you heard the mangy wolf approach, its large paws ripping through the ground as it raced towards you while all you could do was try and climb higher. Unfortunately, you weren’t fast enough. The wolf leaped and its massive teeth tore into your skirt and ripped you from the tree. For a moment, you were completely weightless - you were airborne. And in that brief moment of freedom, you were quickly grounded by reality when you came crashing down to the ground, your forehead just clipping the top of your husband’s headstone as you went rolling down into the grass. 

You knew what would come next. This time, the embrace of death would wrap around you. There was no getting around this. But what confused your shock ridden body even more was the pure dread you felt from the realization that you were going to die. You had once welcomed death, begged for her, prayed for her even, but now when you felt her looming over you you realized that you weren’t ready. 

You missed your husband, but you weren’t ready to join him. 

And, just as you felt the hot breath of the shifter mist over the back of your neck, it was just as quickly ripped away. 

There was a symphony of snarls that followed, the sound of flesh being torn, booming growls, then a pitiful whimper, and a loud snap. And then, all fell quiet. 

You were still dazed as you felt warm arms slip beneath your own, pulling you up into someone’s lap and pressing your body back against an even warmer, bare chest. Long fingers prodded at the warm blood that slid down your temple and a deep, frantic voice echoed in your ears - the words were unintelligible. 

“I told you not to wander off,” Yoongi said, his lips just beside the shell of your ear, the first words he had said that you could finally understand. 

“I told you,” He repeated, his voice wavering and full of emotion as he trailed off. 

You looked at him wearily, your head feeling much heavier than it had earlier. His eyes were wide, his pupils blown. The look on his face could only be described as haunting. He was cradling your face with both hands. His thumb stroked your cheek, but his eyes were trained on the weeping willow. He looked just as shaken as you had been before. 

That sinking feeling was back in your gut. The suspicions you had were coming back to your rattled brain. But still, you turned and wrapped your arms around his neck, collapsing your body against his completely as you felt yourself slipping away. 

He was calling your name, his voice panicked as he held you against him even tighter. You rested your chin on the pale stretch of skin of his shoulder and started back into the treeline. You were finding comfort in the man that you were almost certain was involved in your husband’s death. You were embracing the suspected killer of your husband. 

And in your delirium you caught sight of something out there, something you weren’t sure was even real. It looked like one of the clerics from town, his white robes reflecting the sun as he hastily retreated back into the cover of the trees. 

A bloodied, naked corpse laid where the mangy wolf once stood. 

You found comfort in a killer as a man of god ran away from the sight of the worst sin, murder. 

~~~~~~~

Yoongi’s watchful gaze never left you, even when you thought that you were away from prying eyes. When he said he wanted to protect you, that you were his responsibility, he meant it. 

It wasn’t safe for you to be alone this close to the woods and this far from town. Even though you chose to ignore this, he knew that he was right. He was oftentimes put on edge when he would think about the possibility of someone wandering through the woods and stumbling upon your cottage. And, even worse, he could imagine what someone would do when they found a beautiful woman, alone, in the middle of nowhere with help miles away. His paranoid suspicions had proven to be true with what happened days before. 

“Who was he?” You had asked when you had woken up. 

When you had slipped into unconsciousness he shifted once more, swinging you onto his back and racing back to your cottage. It would have been comical to try and watch his massive wolf form squeeze into your home while dragging your body inside, but in that moment Yoongi had trouble finding anything remotely amusing. He had been too frantic to switch back into his human skin and it took him several moments of concentration before he was able to do it. 

“He was no one,” He plainly said, his brows drawing together as he dabbed at the wound that split open your forehead. 

“You didn’t know him?”

“No,” He sighed, “He was just a nomad, a packless wolf. He must have caught your scent and tracked you down.”

“Was he going to eat me?”

You were met with a sickening silence as Yoongi pursed his lips and bandaged your cut. His silence was a clear answer. 

“But, I’m not an animal. There’s plenty of deer and rabbits…” You trailed off. 

Yoongi set down the roll of gauze and leaned towards you, cradling your face once more in his hands. “Humans and animals are not all that different, you eat, you sleep, you mate, and you both give chase. Many of my kind see yours and animals as one in the same. What only matters is the hunt.” 

Human, shifter, or hunter it didn’t matter, he had grown to trust no one outside of his pack. There were nefarious creatures at every corner, whether he was one of them was still to be decided. His behavior certainly appeared to be nefarious, to an outsider. 

He could hear the thrum of your heart in your chest and the quickening of your pulse as you digested his words. 

“Don’t be afraid of me, I would never hurt you. I just want to take care of you.” He murmured as he leaned in closer to you and pressed his lips to your forehead is a soft kiss that pulled a sharp breath into your chest. 

Since that day, Yoongi’s behavior has drastically changed. 

During the day he worked, far slower than what was normal or necessary, and he watched you fulfill your mundane tasks for the day. While they should have bored him, they did quite the opposite. Everything you did seemed so curious, enthralling even. He couldn’t explain this odd tether he had to you. The only thing that he did know, was that he had to be near you. Whatever this was, it had become far more than just a sense of duty he felt towards you. 

During the night, when the moon emerged, he would shift and watch from the shadows. He would watch you pull your curtain closed and float from room to room. He would sit as still as he possibly could and listen to your heart beat slow and your breathing even out as you fell asleep. He would sit in front of the gaping hole where your door once sat and he would keep watch, pride stirring in his chest as he protected you. 

It was during the night when his daughter would come to visit. Some nights he could hear four paws ripping through the earth as she excitedly ran up to him, other nights he would be greeted by the sound of two little human feet running through the grass. And sometimes, she would morph between the two forms, flickering between the two states like the unsteady wave of a flame. 

But, there was one constant with her. 

“Mama,” She would whisper, crawling on all fours up the steps. 

And every time he would nip her by her clothes and settle her back down in between his massive paws. 

It was a silent “not yet.” 

You were his responsibility, but his daughter wasn’t yours. Not yet at least. 

The three of you had unknowingly settled into a routine. And on the day that the door was finished, that pattern was finally disrupted. 

You had grown accustomed to Yoongi’s presence. If you were being truly honest, you would admit that you had grown to like him. You would never admit it to anyone but his presence had filled that hole in your heart that your husband had left behind. You knew that his saving you had caused this pivot in your emotions and in all honesty you were incredibly confused by them. 

Yoongi was kind and incredibly gentle in spite of how your initial meeting had gone. His voice was soft when he spoke to you, his smile reassuring, and the gentle touches calming. It was hard not to like him, and it was even harder to remember that he wasn’t human. 

But the reminders were there. The odd glow in the depths of his eyes, the wolfish smile, the predatory gaze you had caught sight of whenever he thought you weren’t looking and the looming suspicions you had about his implications in your husband’s untimely death. He was still a wolf, there was no denying that. But you approached it all with the same logic you tended to fall back on: out of sight, out of mind. It was simply easier to not think about it. That, as well as your traitorous feelings for him. 

The clouds came out of nowhere the day the door was finished. 

“No, no, no, no, no!” You cried as you frantically ran outside and towards your clothesline where you had hung all of your linens. 

Yoongi watched you dart in between the fluttering clothes and sheets as the rain slowly began to descend and the wind threatened to whip everything away. 

“Yoongi!” You called. 

The shiver that sent down his spine was strong. That was all it took for you to rattle him, just the mere sound of his name on your lips was world shattering. You didn’t know just how easily you could ruin him. 

“Yoongi, help me!” You called again, your voice stern this time. He thought it was cute when you tried to be in charge. 

There had been a definite shift in your relationship after he had killed that wolf for you. You had started inviting him inside for dinner, watching him work, and even spending the evenings with him outside, leaning up against the warm side of his wolf form. And in turn he would accompany you wherever you needed to go, keeping a close eye on you, and a firm hand on the small of your back. 

You had grown impossibly closer than you had ever thought you would be capable of. Hell, you hadn’t even questioned why he was wearing your husband’s clothes when you woke up - you weren’t even upset. You were beginning to feel alive again. 

The two of your hurriedly gathered the linens. Yoongi had turned it into a game, ripping items off of the line right before you could touch it like it was a race. In all honesty, he made you feel like a kid again. The both of you were laughing, stumbling over the laundry and bumping into each other as you raced inside. 

“You were supposed to help me, not compete with me!” You scolded him, dropping the sopping wet pile of laundry into your basket. 

“I can do both, dearest.”

Dearest. That had been a recent occurrence. It slipped from his lips one day, it had caused your heart to stutter and your blood to rush and ever since then he had not gone a single day without letting the term of endearment grace your ears. He loved seeing how flustered it would make you, the way he practically purred around the word. 

“Or, you could just be kind to me for once.”

“I’m always kind to you, have you not enjoyed the gifts I’ve brought you?” He asked, a faux pout on his pretty lips as he slowly stalked towards you. You could almost see the wolf in him when he did that, you could visualize the swing of his tail and the way his massive head would tip down as his glowing eyes locked in on you. It was there, in the swing of his walk and the taunt muscle of his shoulders. It was an ever present reminder that he was not like you. 

You backed up, almost coyly, as he approached. His broader steps quickly gain on your short, shuffled ones. The cold, spring breeze rushed over the exposed skin of your neck, the open doorway was now behind you. But, before you could rush outside and back into the rain and allow him to give chase, he reached behind you and jerked his arm back. In that instant you felt solid wood press against your back, the new door settling perfectly into the once empty frame and blocking off your exit. 

You let out a shaky breath as he leaned into you, his chest against yours as he raised his arm above your head. With one swift movement there was a click and then his arm settled by your waist and another click followed. He had locked the door behind you. You were trapped in your own home with the wolf. 

The silence that followed was deafening. 

Short breaths were passed between the two of you, both of you waiting for the other to make a move. Your lashes fluttered as your gaze traced the contours of his face. You often wondered if he knew just how lovely he was, scar and all. 

You swallowed harshly as you raised your hand to his face, your fingers trembling with desire before softly grazing the bottom of the scar. Yoongi’s eyes slipped shut as he moved forward allowing his face to lean into your touch, his body pressing impossibly closer to yours. 

“Yoongi,” You whispered. 

And with that one simple call of his name, he lunged and went in for the kill. His pretty lips collided with your own as his hand moved to cradle your jaw and tilt your head back with the force of his kiss. With your back against the door there was nowhere for you to go, but there was nowhere else that you wanted to be. 

You gasped as you felt his free hand slowly trail up your leg and over your hip before settling on your lower back and sharply pulling your hips against his. A pitiful whimper was passed from your lips to his from the sudden desire that was pooling in your lower abdomen. 

A moment of clarity came to you, your mind pushing past the haze of desire when you felt your feet leave the ground. Yoongi buried his face in the junction of your neck and shoulder, his lips and teeth making quick work of the skin there, as he walked. It was when you felt the soft cover of your bed beneath you that you realized what was happening. 

“Yoongi, wait -” You tried, but his movements did not falter. His fingers were making quick work of the laces at the back of your dress and he showed no sign of stopping any time soon. 

He looked desperate, like he was going to die if he could not have you and the only way to relieve himself of his pain was to unveil every inch of skin that you were concealing from him and each stretch that was exposed was just as quickly covered by kisses and nipped by sharp teeth. 

You couldn’t deny the attraction you had for him or the lust you were practically dripping with from his touch. But it felt like you were laying on a bed of needles when you were reminded of your late husband’s death as you were willingly laid down in your marriage bed with a man who was not your husband. 

“Please,” You gasped, gripping his shoulders, “not here.” 

That seemed to catch his attention as he finally stilled himself. From your position it looked like he was trying to gain some control over himself. His breathing was still heavy, but he had stopped touching you. He looked up at you slowly, his chin just barely brushing over your bare sternum. When he finally looked at you, you stopped breathing. His eyes were lit with moonlight, a silver glow emanating from their depths. 

He was more wolf than human in that moment, a creature that was acting purely on instinct. 

You cupped his cheek once more and while he flinched at first, he slowly relaxed beneath your touch. He was still eerily silent, and in that moment his behavior reminded you almost entirely of the first time you had met him when he was in his other skin, fully shifted into his wolf counterpart. It was those watchful eyes again, those eyes that held so much depth and awareness that it was startling. 

“I can’t, not here.” You repeated. 

He blinked slowly, once, twice, and then a third time as he cocked his head to the side. You felt a twinge of fear at that gaze and, shamefully, the rush of lust in your veins. Your body went lax as you allowed him to gather you in his arms once more. He was calmer now, his pace slower as he unlocked the front door and carried you into the night. You could see flickers of your Yoongi in him, his touch much softer as he laid you down in a bed of grass that has been permanently laid flat by the giant wolf that guarded your home. 

That night the sky was completely open, not a single cloud obscured the stars or the body of the full moon. It was utterly beautiful. Just as beautiful as the feeling of fresh dew on your back and just as beautiful as the sight of your breath crystalizing in the cold, spring air. But nothing was quite as beautiful as Yoongi. The way that his bitten lips parted with soft gasps and deep moans, the way that his porcelain skin shone beneath the moonlight, and the way that he struggled to part from your lips. It was the way that he would rather kiss you than breathe. Everything about him was beautiful. 

You had many regrets in your life, but this would never be one of them. Not when he held you like this, like you were the only person in the world that mattered. Everything about this was supposed to be wrong, unholy even, but that was what made it that more enjoyable. That was what made you tense your legs around his waist, curve your hips against his, and wrap your arms around the back of his neck - drawing him towards your pulse point where he had been nosing at, sucking, and kissing almost obsessively. 

When your body shook with pleasure, a rush of warmth and tingles spread beneath your skin, your back arched and your neck was bared. And before you could even realize what was to come, his teeth had already sunk into your neck and shoulder without hesitation accompanied by an almost animalistic growl. The pain was there, it forced a scream past your lips, but it mingled deliciously with the rush of pleasure that emanated from your very core. You gasped and shook, your vision blurring as you were assaulted by your senses, your nails digging into his shoulders. 

There it was again. 

There was a flash of white in the treeline. It was there for a moment before flickering out of sight as you felt yourself barely clinging to consciousness. 

You were being watched again, there was something or someone out there that was following you - watching you in your most vulnerable moments. 

You tried to get Yoongi’s attention but he was in a similar state, the both of you lazily holding onto one another and barely moving as you began to drift. Your lips moved but no words were spoken, your tongue felt heavy in your mouth, unable to form words.

Yoongi’s lips were stained with your blood, his eyes heavy lidded but now returned to their dark color that you knew and loved. You tried again to speak but found yourself unable to as he pressed his forehead against your own, his fingers brushing back your messy hair. 

The heavy lure of sleep was steadily pulling you under. You supposed it could wait until tomorrow. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

~~~~~~~

When you woke up you were back in your bed and you were alone. 

The cottage was dark, the windows all closed and the curtains drawn tight. When your eyes fluttered open you had almost believed that it was still night, that you were still outside with Yoongi and you had only momentarily dozed off. But the familiar comfort of your blankets and pillows quickly dismissed those thoughts. 

Now wide awake with your sheets pooled around your waist, you could only wonder about where your wolf had gone. Had he left you already? Had he taken your words to heart when you told him that he was to leave when his service was finished? Had he abandoned you after you had shared your most intimate moments with him? What had you done?

You felt a sense of shame wash over you as you stumbled from your bed, dull aches throbbing at various points of your body that only reminded you of what had transpired the night before. Once you collected yourself you made your way to the door your wolf had crafted for you and when you grasped the handle and pulled, you were met with a locked door. 

Your face scrunched in confusion as you turned the lock the opposite way and moved the bar at the top of the door but when you tried it again it still would not budge. 

You had been locked in your own home like a canary in a cage. 

Your heart dropped into your stomach and your throat felt impossibly tight as tears began to brim in your eyes. You had trusted him and in turn he had trapped you. How foolish you were to think that you could trust another man and here you were, a betrayer of your husband’s memory.

You sat on the floor curled up by the foot of your bed with a weak grasp on your blanket around your shoulders. There was an unexpected heartbreak that demanded to be felt in your chest, how could you mourn someone who you never really truly knew? Yoongi wouldn’t even tell you about his family, where he came from, or his people. Your relationship, whatever it was, had been an uneven exchange and you had clung to him so quickly because you had been so lonely. It was unfair. 

You quickly swept away the tears from beneath your eyes when you heard a lock turn and light began to permeate the darkness as the door swung open. He came back. 

The gentle smile he had entered with melted away, a look of concern taking over his face. He crossed the room and you rushed to stand, your arms crossing over your chest to protect and soothe yourself. You flinched away from his touch as he attempted to cup your jaw, the look of hurt and confusion on his face only inspired anger. 

“Why are you crying? What’s wrong?” He asked, trying to bridge the distance between the two of you as he moved closer while you took to stepping around the bed. You needed to keep him away, you couldn’t be swayed by those gentle touches and kind looks. 

“You locked me up, Yoongi. Why would you do that?” You sniffled as you attempted to keep your voice strong and firm. 

“I didn’t lock you up-”

“Then why was the door locked? Why couldn’t I get out?” You asked, before leaning forward and grasping a cord that was strung around his neck and nestled beneath the fabric of his shirt. “Why do you have this?”

When you pulled the necklace out his hand shot out to grip your wrist in warning, but the damage had already been done. There was a key on his necklace, the key to your cage. 

“I’m protecting you.” He whispered, his tone deadly and his gaze dark with warning. “You saw what happened, it’s dangerous out there - I can’t trust anyone with you.”

“No, you can’t trust me,” You corrected him before jerking your hand out of his hold, “This is my home, Yoongi, my home! You have no right!”

“I have every right, you are mine!” 

“I am not!” 

His eyes were burning again, he was having trouble keeping his anger in check and you weren’t helping in the slightest. His chest was heaving with every breath and his jaw was tense. You watched him take one long breath in and then out before his arm shot out as he grabbed you by the wound on your neck forcing a pained gasp from your throat. 

“I told you, I am responsible for you, I need to protect you. This means that you’re mine and that I’m yours, this is a bond that goes deeper than marriage, do you understand that?” 

Your lips trembled as emotion welled in your chest, that told you everything that you needed to know. 

“You killed him, didn’t you?”

The silence you were met with and the empty look in his eyes was more than enough to confirm. Yoongi had been your husband’s killer. You stumbled back and heaved, waving away his hands that tried to steady you as you felt sickness stir in your stomach. 

“How could you? Why? Why did you do it?!” You cried, your fingers shaking as they grazed your lips in pure shock. 

His hands were raised as he tried to step closer to you, it wasn’t a defensive position, it looked more like he was trying to calm a startled animal. 

“He killed my wife,” He said, his voice much gentler than you expected in your state. 

“He wouldn’t!”

“No, but he would kill an animal, wouldn’t he?” 

He stopped approaching you and you had stopped moving away, your body having locked up in a state of pure shock.Your silence was enough for him to continue. 

“By the time I got there he was already taking her pelt, she wasn’t even able to shift back.”

He had skinned her. He didn’t know there was a person inside of the wolf that he had killed, and he had skinned her. 

“I took what was owed to me, he killed her so I killed him and I don’t regret it. The only thing I regret is what that did to you and your child, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But I tried my best to give back to you what was taken. I can protect you, I can take care of you, I can give you children, and I can love you.”

His pupils were blown out, there was a look of pure desperation in his eyes. It was a look that made your heart shudder in your chest. 

There was a horrible ache in behind your ribs, it felt like it was on the verge of collapsing. It was undeniable that you cared for him, but the sickness that churned in your stomach was rivaling those feelings. You had never felt so betrayed before by anyone. You thought that he would have been different. 

You couldn’t even bear the thought of looking at him in the moment, it hurt too much and you knew how powerful those eyes of his were. You refused to be swayed at that moment. 

You knew that no amount of words you could say would force him to leave, so you did the next best thing and sprinted for the door. You barely made it a few steps before he lunged and grabbed you by your waist, picking you up with ease as you writhed in his hold. You turned into a feral animal, throwing yourself around wildly and scratching at any available skin you could find as you cried in shrill screams. 

“Stop fighting me!” He grunted, throwing you down on the mattress and pinning your wrists down at your sides as he pressed his knees into your kicking legs. “Calm down.” 

A scream of frustration burned your throat as your muscles strained under his firm grip. There was no use in fighting him, he was far stronger than you could ever hope to be. And so your body eventually tired itself out, your limbs going limp as you shook from a mixture of fatigue, fright, and dimming embers of anger. The skin beneath your eyes felt tight from all the crying you had done and the skin around your nails throbbed from the scratches you had carved into Yoongi’s forearms. But of course, those flesh wounds had already healed. 

You flinched as he released one of your wrists and stroked your face, indirectly drying your cheeks of their lingering tears. 

“You’re scared, now. Confused. But that’s alright, you’ll learn that I am the only one who can take care of you.”

You stayed silent and stubbornly turned your head to the side when he leant in to kiss you, but your actions did not deter him, he only laid a soft kiss to the corner of your mouth with a contented hum. 

“I’ll prove it to you, I can give you everything that you want.” He whispered beside your ear before he finally stood and the blood rushed back to your arms and legs. 

You scuttled backwards up the bed as he gave you one last lingering gaze and then he slipped out of the cottage and locked the door shut behind him. 

He had trapped you once again. 

~~~~~~~

You had laid there for a long time, frozen after what had transpired. Everything you thought that you knew has been completely and utterly wrong. It had all been a lie.

You slowly sat up and slid your palms into your lap. Your nails were stained with dark blood, you had hurt Yoongi afterall, not that it had mattered. To him, it had probably been no more irritating than a kitten’s scratch. You were once again reminded of his incredible inhuman nature.  

You needed to leave, now was your chance to escape him. It was an odd feeling that stirred in the back of your mind. The night before, there was nowhere else that you would rather be, and now you wanted to get as far away as possible. You wanted to run. 

With that thought in your mind you lept to your feet and made for the window. You knew that Yoongi would be able to find you, tracking you would be more of a game than a challenge. But if you left now, you would give yourself a head start. You would make for town and when you entered its boundaries it would be too risky for him to come after you. He wouldn’t be able to get you in either skin, the hulking form of that wolf far too obvious and the flesh of his human skin far too vulnerable when outnumbered. 

You pried open the shutters and undid the latch. You hiked up the skirt of your night dress, baring your skin to the cool breeze, and swung your legs out of the window and allowed your body to drop down. You needed to go, there was no more time for hesitation. 

Your dress was held tight in each fist as you began to run, the light fabric brushing over your legs as you moved. In that moment you had wished for a pair of shears to shorten it. 

A pitched howl echoed through the trees and your heart thrummed even harder in your chest. Your limbs froze on instinct and your ears rang with the sound of your blood rushing. It was too high of a tone to be him, you had heard the sounds he had made when he tore that other shifter to shreds. It wasn’t him but it was someone else. 

A small, dark, furry form shot out from the cover of the trees and darted through the clearing. Its pace was sure yet frantic, like it still didn't have control of its four limbs nor its speed. As it came closer you began to take cautious steps backward. You knew who that was, it was the pup. 

You watched in horror as the creature’s gait became wild and the pup began to trip over itself before the fur exploded from its skin and in its place was a little girl sprinting through the grass. 

There was no denying the impossibility of what you had seen, after all you had seen it with your own eyes. There was no forgetting this. 

“Mama!” She cried as she collided with your legs and displayed an impressive strength that was disproportionate to the size of her body, sending the both of you to the ground. The world turned sideways for a moment, and there it was once more. That flash of white that you had been seeing for weeks now. But it was closer this time, close enough that you recognized what it was. From the shape of the clothes on the fleeing form, you knew it was one of the clerics from the town. Has he been watching you all this time? 

“I missed you, mama,” She said, pulling your attention to her as she stared down at you with a pair of dark brown eyes that sent chills through your veins. She looked so much like her father. 

“Binna,” His voice shot through the air, “Remember what I said? Be gentle, you don’t want to hurt your mother.”

“Sorry!” She giggled as she pressed her cheek against your collarbone, her eyes fluttering shut and her long lashes casting shadows over the skin beneath her eyes. She wrapped her arms around your neck and hummed, the warmth from her body seeping into your skin. 

“Sorry, mama.” She repeated. 

You gently laid your hand over her back, your breaths still uneven as you pulled the two of you into a sitting position. “Sweetheart, I’m not your-“

“Binna, do you want to go see your room?” Yoongi asked, dropping down into a squat behind his daughter, his eyes on you as he spoke. 

Binna let out an excited hum of agreement, scrambling up onto two legs that still wobbled unsurely beneath her weight. You noticed that she was never completely stable in either skin she wore, it was like she was still trying to figure out how four legs and two legs worked. 

“Come on, dearest,” He said, holding his hand out to you. You sat there for a moment, stubbornly, but his gaze was unwavering and his body was as still as a statue. You knew there was no fighting him and he had played dirty by bringing his daughter into the equation. He knew that you wouldn’t want to start anything in front of her, the last thing that you wanted to do was frighten her. 

You let out an angry huff and rushed to stand without his help, storming past him and walking a few paces behind his small daughter who would toddle every now and then before bending over and trying to walk on all fours instead. 

As frustrated, frightened, and irritated as you were, you couldn’t deny the tug at your heart when you watched Binna crawl up the front steps of your home and scamper inside. You could hear the sound of her bare feet tapping against the wood floors and you couldn’t stop the resulting burn in your eyes. You had always wanted to hear that sound, you had always wanted a daughter of your own. 

But Binna wasn’t yours. 

But it was hard to long for that when you watched her disappear into the once empty nursery. You didn’t like what Yoongi was doing, he was messing with your head. He knew how badly you had wanted your child, how you had tirelessly grieved your husband, and now he was trying to patch everything together and force your lives to fit with one another. 

You knew that he could understand your loss, he had lost a wife after all. He would do anything to avoid that happening again, and if that meant locking you up while he was gone, then he would do that. But that wasn’t what you wanted. You had locked yourself up for months on end, turning your home into a mausoleum as you grieved the loss of the life you had once had. You refused to do that again. 

The door shut and the lock clicked. 

You heard him approach and then you felt his warmth as your back and his breath disturb the hair on your head. It wasn’t all that different from the first time that you had met. 

His fingers grazed your own and your hand twitched in response but you didn’t move. He intertwined your hands and pressed his forehead against the back of your head, breathing in your scent. 

“You have to let me go, Yoongi.” You whispered. 

He froze and a low, warning growl thrummed in his chest causing the hair on the back of your neck to raise. It didn’t matter what skin he was in, your body recognized him as the predator that he was. 

“No.” He simply said. 

“You’re not being fair -”

“I’ve been nothing but fair. I broke your door so I fixed it, I killed your husband and I gave you myself, you lost your child and I gave you Binna. I have been more than fair, so much so that I even gave you my love when you did not want it.” 

You ignored that last part, the love you felt for him causing a stabbing pain of betrayal in your heart. It wasn’t fair that you still felt the way you did about him after everything that he had done. After he had tricked you. 

“I am not Binna’s mother.”

He quickly hushed you, spinning you around by your shoulders and staring into your eyes, “She can hear you, she has very sensitive ears and a gentle heart, you don’t want to hurt her do you?”

You bit your lip in frustration, “It’s not fair to her mother.”

“You are her mother.” 

And that conversation was over, he wouldn’t hear any of your protests and you feared hurting Binna too much to continue to broach the subject. You were caught in between a rock and a hard place. And the worst thing was that it was hard not to love Binna. 

She was curious, mischievous, and sweet. She had been the same way when you discovered her as a pup, but you adored her even more this way. All she wanted was your attention, she was a little girl that was desperate to be loved by a mother. 

“Why did you leave?” She stumbled over the words, her little fingers twisted in the fabric of your skirt as you had started dinner, the light of the sunset cast over her eyes and bursts of silver shined in their reflection. 

You didn’t know how to respond. 

“Mama’s back now, you don’t have to worry about that baby.” Yoongi answered for you with a gentle smile as he pulled her onto his lap. 

“Forever?” She asked, staring at him with wide eyes full of wonder that only a child could possess.

“Forever,” He repeated, his eyes tracing over the profile of your face. 

The questions didn’t stop there. It was a full moon that night and Binna demanded to be outside. Yoongi had briefly told you before about their connection with the moon. It was almost religious, but even that wasn’t a good comparison. It was a part of them. 

“Shift.” Binna had commanded, tugging at your skirt again as she had quickly grown accustomed to. 

“I can’t Binna,” You explained, lowering yourself into the grass so that you were more level with her height. “I’m not like you, or your daddy.” 

Yoongi had stayed close to you all day, keeping a watchful eye on you to make sure that you wouldn’t try to leave them. 

“But…” She said, her words trailing off as her face furrowed in confusion, “It was white.”

You were confused but a quick look at Yoongi cleared that up. His gaze was glassy like he was remembering something, something that he didn’t want to think about. Binna must have meant her mother, she must have seen her before she left. Her pelt must have been white. 

Yoongi cleared his throat after a moment, “I think it’s time for bed.” 

Binna, even though she was a shifter, was still a child. She whined in protest and went limp as Yoongi scooped her up in his arms and held onto your hand, guiding the two of you back into the house. 

The door shut, the lock clicked. 

The both of you cleaned Binna up together, her feet and hands dirty from struggling to crawl in her human form and her hair a mess of twigs and leaves. She had laughed as she watched the pile of leaves grow beside the basin and attempted to jump into it like it were a much bigger leaf pile than it really was. 

And when she was clean, fed, and tired, she crawled into the center of the bed and reached her arms out for you. Your heart ached again. As soon as you laid down she was curled into your side, her little arms curled into her chest as she pressed her nose against the bite mark on your shoulder, taking in deep breaths.

The lamps in the room were snuffed out one by one, the room becoming progressively darker until it was completely plunged in darkness and only the gleam of silver eyes at the foot of the bed were visible. The bed dipped beneath Yoongi’s weight as he climbed in, laying on the other side of the bed behind his daughter. When he laid down he rolled over, wrapping his arm around the two of you and pulling you in closer to him. 

Binna hummed a happy noise, burrowing deeper into your shoulder and burying herself beneath your blankets. 

“What is she doing?” You asked, the first time you had spoken a direct question to Yoongi since that morning. 

“You smell like me, it’s how we identify each other. She feels safe with you.” He explained. 

“So that’s why you did it.” You said, a bitter edge to your words as you smoothed your hand over Binna’s freshly washed hair. “She doesn’t know any better.”

“That’s not true. She chose you, and so did I. She knew you were safe, that’s why she let you take her that day. And this,” His fingers ghosted over the mark sending chills down your spine, “was purely for my own selfish benefit. I wanted everyone to know that you’re mine.” 

“You didn’t even give me the choice.”

“I love you, and I know that you love me.” 

You remained quiet, not willing to agree or disagree with him. It was hard to make sense of madness, whether that be Yoongi’s or your own. 

“You’ll see it eventually, this is what you wanted.”

~~~~~~~

When you woke the next morning, you immediately knew that something was wrong. 

Firstly, Yoongi was gone. The spot on the bed that used to be your husband’s was cold, he had been gone for a while. Secondly, Binna was curled into the corner of the room, hiding beneath a blanket as she shook. And when you looked closer, you could see the tip of a snout and a still tail peeking out from beneath the blanket. She was frightened. Thirdly, there was smoke in the air, something was burning. 

You stumbled out of bed when there was a pounding on the door. 

“Open the door!” A man yelled, the door knob shaking as he tried to open it himself. Your instincts were screaming at you that something was wrong. 

“Open up, and pay for your crimes!” He yelled again, this time throwing his weight against the door. 

That couldn’t be right? Crimes?

You crept closer to the front window, the wood shutters were pulled shut but there was a crack that you had peered through, unnoticed, many times before. This time, the sight that you were met with was horrific. There was a large, angry crowd with torches outside - illuminating the pitch black field around your home. 

You had heard of these events before, but never had you considered that you would become the victim of one, not when you were so isolated from the town. But it was happening now and you needed to act fast. 

You rushed to the corner where Binna hid and scooped her up into your arms blanket and all. Her snout sniffed at your bite wound before she began to settle down. You ran to the nursery and to the very back of the room where the crib sat. You gripped it with one hand and with a strength you didn’t know that you possessed you pulled it aside. Your heart pounded and your breath was coming in harsh pants as you moved to the window. 

“Binna,” You whispered, forcing yourself to make your voice as soft and soothing as you could. You had one priority right now and that was to get her safe. You had seen what those hunters were capable of before. “I need you to run as fast as you can, and I need you to find your daddy. Don’t stop running until you're safe, don’t stop no matter what you hear.”

Binna stared back at you, her ears perked up as her glossy silver eyes poured into your very soul. Binna was a little girl, but she was smarter than any human child. You trusted her. 

A loud thwack sounded from the front door, a sound that you weren’t all that unfamiliar with - it was the sound of an ax striking the door. Your motions became faster and more panicked than before, your nails ripping at the bottom of the window that groaned as you forced it open. You grunted and with one more hard push, it popped and raised and there was enough room that Binna could slide through. 

“Don’t stop running, be very brave.” You whispered before pressing a quick kiss to the space between her ears and lowering her as close to the ground as you could. And then, her body left your hand and her dark fur disappeared into the night. You could only hope that she could find help on time. 

You had a terrible feeling that you weren’t going to make it out of this. 

A loud crack and sharp splintering sounded from the front door and then the thud of boots entered the kitchen. You stayed as quiet as you could but you knew there was no hiding and you needed to buy Binna time. 

You slid an oil lamp off of the dresser and hid by the door, waiting for it to open. The boots approached quickly, they didn’t want to give you time to get away and they were hunting you down. This was nothing like the way Yoongi had hunted you, it was un-practiced, frantic, amateur. 

When the door to the nursery slammed open you brought the lamp down on the back of the man’s head and sent him crashing to the ground as blood pooled onto the wood. But when you darted out into the hallway, there was already someone else waiting for you. 

You swung the lamp towards him with a scream but he dodged, grabbing your wrists and bending them in such a way that a sharp scream echoed through the cottage as you lost your grip and the lamp shattered upon impact with the ground. 

The man from the nursery was up and moving and now he was behind you, pulling rope from his belt. 

“You fucking bitch!” He yelled, and before you could move he had punched you clean across your face, sending you sprawling on the ground. 

You could taste blood in your mouth as he straddled you from behind, wrapping the rope around your hands. 

“Get off of me!” You screamed, wriggling desperately but to no avail. All it earned you was another strike to your head that made your vision blurry and spotted. 

When you came to, you were being dragged out of your house. The door that Yoongi had painstakingly crafted was shattered. 

And, as soon as the three of you were outside, torches were thrown and the house was lit aflame. 

“No!” You screamed, guttural sounds that ripped through your throat. “No, no, no!”

Your husband had built that house. It was the only thing that you had left of him. It was yours, it was where you were supposed to make a family and grow old together. And now that dream, that life, was being burned to the ground. 

It was absolute chaos. 

The smell of smoke burned in your nose and made your eyes tear up on reflex. When you had thought of all the ways that you could possibly die, you had never considered this as an option. You wriggled violently in your bonds like a wild animal trapped in a snare. The rope was digging into your wrists leaving behind raw, bloody wounds. There was no escape, but you couldn’t help but try. If you didn’t free yourself, then this would be it. 

There had been a time where you craved nothing more than to be reunited with your deceased lover, but when faced with the frightening reality of death you wanted nothing more than to live. 

Violent, raw screams tore through your throat as you were held down to the ground. There were hands everywhere, gripping your shoulders, your legs, and one in particular that was knotted in your hair. 

“Silence, witch!” A man yelled, pressing down on your neck and forcing your face into the dirt. 

“Witch? Witch?!” You shrieked, another manic scream breaking up your words as you writhed against the ground. 

You could hear the murmurs of the crowd that surrounded you and with a strained eye you could see nearly the entire town gathered around you and the men that held you captive. It was clear what this was, but you didn’t want to believe it. You didn’t want to believe that your own kind would turn on you like this. But that seemed to be your plight, those you tried to trust always turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

The hand that was wound in your hair tightened its grasp spurring a pained gasp from you as they began to drag you. You could only desperately writhe in the dirt as you were pulled closer to the crowd. You were certainly a sight, your hair a deranged mess, filled with leaves and twigs with dirt smeared down your cheeks and staining the tips of your fingers. Their rough treatment of you had only served to make you appear as the very thing they feared. The thing they were accusing you of being. 

You finally came to a stop in front of the town elder, the men behind you forcing you into an upright position on your knees, your arms still painfully stretched behind your back. 

The elder looked at you in what could only be described as disgust. 

“Behold, the witch who has brought a curse upon our village,” He spoke, his voice raspy and low, causing silence to descend over the group in order to hear him. 

“I am no witch-“

“Quiet!” The man behind you yelled before delivering a harsh smack to the side of your head, forcing it to snap to the side as you cried in pain. 

“The accused has brought death to all of your doors. She who murdered her unborn child in a covenant with the devil and brought those beasts to our home, and she who slayed her husband to feed those wretched demons and seal their bond to her will continue to slaughter us where we stand. What say you, shall we stand by and allow this to happen?” The elder said, opening his arms to the crowd who voiced their agreement.

This was the man who had known you since you were a child, the very man who had approved your courtship with your husband, the same man that married the both of you. This was the man that would ultimately kill you. 

Yoongi was right, humans were horrible creatures.

Your body had gone limp, your head rolling forward as if your neck could no longer bear the weight of it. Desperate, wounded cries burst from your lips. You had not killed your baby, you had not killed your husband, but there was nothing you could say to change their minds. They had already made their decision. 

“The punishment for these crimes shall be paid by that of which you are familiar,” The elder said, gesturing to a horrifying sight looming behind him, “Hellfire.” 

You couldn’t hear the screams that burned your throat, you could only feel them. There was a loud ringing in your ears and the feeling of your feet and shoulders digging into the ground as you were dragged toward the stake and unlit pyre before you. 

They were going to burn you alive. 

Your cries for help were left unanswered, there was not a single look of empathy on anyone in the crowd. He had truly convinced them all that the deaths that had plagued the town were because of you. They believed you were the one that had brought the shifters upon them even though that didn’t make sense, they had been there long before you and longer than they realized. But there was no getting through to them. What the elder spoke was considered divine nature.

You sounded like a wounded animal, horrific sobs and screams shaking your body as you were tied to the stake. Nausea swirled in your stomach and your heart pounded, the fear that you felt was indescribable. 

Vaguely, you understood that you were mumbling something repeatedly under your breath which was not helping your perception with the crowd. It looked like you were trying to cast a curse upon them. And if you could, you would. 

But what you were saying was far from that. All you could brokenly whisper was, “I did not kill my baby.” 

The scent of smoke became even stronger and from in between layers of your hair, you could see a torch flickering. The flames wavered, almost teasingly in nature, like it was deciding whether or not it would engulf you in its fiery embrace. Ultimately, that would not be its decision. 

“Return from whence you came, witch,” The man before you spoke, and with the crook of the elder’s finger, he lit the pyre.

Heat licked at your feet and ankles as the fire slowly but surely crept up the logs and branches piled around you. This would be a long, slow, tortuous end to your life and that was what they wanted. They wanted to put all of their rage, pain, and hatred onto you and they would make certain you experienced the full extent of their wrath. 

Tears rolled down your cheeks as you accepted your fate. You cried as you watched the flames lap at the edges of your skirt - eating away at the hem. In a matter of seconds it would eat the fabric away and begin charing flesh and bone. 

But it was when you lost all hope, that fate decided to play yet another trick on you. 

Frantic cries were coming from the crowd and when you raised your head you were shocked by the sight of six massive wolves emerging from the trees. It took no time for you to realize that they were just like Yoongi. Binna had made it back to them, she had gotten them to come and help you and thankfully she was nowhere in sight. 

The crowd pressed in closer to the elder, who’s face had gone gray at the sight of the wolves, as the six shifters surrounded them, corralling them all into one place. 

In the midst of the madness, you hadn’t noticed the presence behind you until you felt your ropes loosening. 

It was Yoongi. 

The fire was searing both of your clothes yet he remained, slicing through your bonds with deft hands. He had come for you, he had saved you. 

The moment your bonds slid from your hands he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you from the stake and pyre, the two of you sinking down to the ground in each other’s embrace. 

“Yoongi,” You choked, your lungs thick with smoke and ash. 

“Shh,” he hushed you, “just breathe, breathe for me sweetheart, just like that.” 

His hand came to rest on your chest while he guided yours to his, taking in exaggerated breaths so that you could follow him. 

Yoongi was many things: your husband's killer, your captor, your protector, and lastly - your savior. It was impossible for you to describe what you felt for him as it was no longer black and white. If there was anything you did believe, it was that nothing was ever that simple. There are many truths and many lies, it all was dependent on what you wanted to believe. 

You coughed again, the force of it shaking your entire body as Yoongi pulled you into himself tighter. You were in his lap, chest to chest, with his nose buried in your hair. You could feel him breathing in your scent, a growl radiating through his chest when he realized it had been tainted by smoke and other men. 

“I thought I lost you too,” he sighed before pressing a desperate kiss to your temple and then your cheek. He treated you like you were the most precious thing in the world. 

“Help us!” That raspy voice called out to you again. 

You slowly turned your head to face the elder who had placed himself in the middle of the crowd, using the bodies of his people to shield him from the wolves that were steadily circling them.

Help them. 

Help them? 

Help them?!

You cocked your head to the side, a look of bewilderment and rage taking over your features. Why should you help them? After what they had done to you? After what they had accused you of? 

Humans were horrible. You didn’t need them, after all, you much preferred to be alone. 

You didn’t need other humans. 

“Yoongi?” You whispered, maintaining eye contact with the elder. 

“Yes?” He leaned forward, his lips brushing against the shell of your ear. 

“Kill them all.”

You felt his warm finger trace the curve of your jaw before turning your face in his direction. He looked down at you in a mix of adoration and excitement before leaning in and pressing his lips against yours in a hard kiss. 

“As you wish,” He murmured before setting you down on the ground and joining his brothers. 

In a matter of seconds he burst free from his skin, a giant wolf in his place alongside the tattered remains of his clothes. The crowd screamed in fright from the sight of his transformation and then from the massive fangs of seven wolves. 

You sat there, knees drawn into your chest as you watched Yoongi carve his way through the crowd and toward the elder. And, with great ease, he forced the man to the ground and ripped his head clean from his shoulders. A large spurt of blood soared through the smoggy air, painting the grass a vibrant color. 

You watched on as several more people were felled by the shifters, their gruesome screams quieted by large jaws and hooked claws. 

You were numb, you couldn’t find it in yourself to care about their lives that were swiftly ended - their souls ripped from their bodies.

You craned your neck back and stared up at the full moon, eyes dull, red, and finally dry as more gurgled screams were silenced. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

[sakachichi]

I just rewatched demon slayer and re-read painter of the night and got the biggest brain explosion ever 😛 so now I’ll let my brain juices flow 😁

Imagine!Suguru in his gojo-kesa, he’s the son of a prestigious family. Everyone knows them, they’re one of the nicest noble families in Japan — so kind they let the poor live under their roof until they get a good job. Suguru is their only son of course and takes after his parents nice character, he’s soooo charming and modest everyone fawns over him, so many people had tried to get their daughters married off to him but he kindly refuses.

Until you came along, he’s always know about you, he knows about everyone — but you…you are the main person he focuses on. And you are so oblivious to him, everywhere you go he’s there, almost lurking around but at the same time making himself known. From time to time he’ll say hi and you’ll greet him back with the most beautiful brightest smile known to man, and he practically melts. Gosh to have you wrapped around his finger, he would give up everything for you.

When the summer festivals came around you were out with your friends, having such a blast and he was alone. ‘How can someone so kind be alone?’ You asked yourself before leaving your friends behind to be with Suguru.

“May I accompany you my lord?” Your voice so soft and sweet, it’s like music to he ears. He couldn’t help but smile and nod, “yes of course”. His plan worked. He came alone for a reason.

Suguru made it his mission to woo you that very same day, make you fall for him so hard you’ll forget about every other man that has and will ever exist. Engaging in your silly conversations, chucking at your clumsy behavior as you trip over nothing, holding your hand in the process. His face glued with concern as he asks you if you’re ok, your eyes twinkle at his politeness. He’s charmed you already.

Everything you would point at he would buy, you left the festival with him carrying you on his back, and holding everything he bought you as well. Your hands felt his strong shoulders, behind his thick clothes he muscles were still so prominent. He’s so strong, it makes you bite your lip as try not let out a girlish giggle. “Lord Suguru…how’d you get so strong?” You ask innocently, a wide grin molds onto his pretty pink lips

“Hmm let’s see, well for starters I eat good, and I do lots of exercise” he replied, mindlessly his hands find their way to yours, his thumbs caressing your hands but you didn’t seem to notice, it felt almost normal to you.

“Oooh I see” you hum, smiling softly. Your falling for him so hard, your pupils turning into heart shapes as he continues to talk about something, you really didn’t pay attention to anything he was saying — just starting at his breath taking side profile.

“Alright, here we are” he grunts as he carefully sets you down, patiently waiting for you to gather yourself. “Would you like me to help you with your things, my lady?” He politely asked, slightly holding up his hands. You hesitate, your father would cry out if he saw you with a man, especially if your not getting married to him. Your hands were already full with even more of your things, you sigh as you slightly panic.

Whats their to worry though? It’s night time, your parents are fast asleep. And he’ll just be in and out, right?

Sure…

Guyyyyssss I’ve been obsessed with everything old, ykwim? 😭 yall should see my Pinterest 😵‍💫🤚 but anyways ways yes, I was eating my snack and this popped into my head, yk when u finish watching something you lwky start to act or think the way the characters do? That happened to me lol, and I was like what better person to do this with than Suguru Geto the king himself 😻😻 honestly I would finish rn but I’m quite literally lazy ash 🤧

Part 2 thoooo????? Or nah 👀👅

[4pfsukuna]

Kings get jealous too

Yall voted and honestly the thought of Jealous!sukuna was tooooo good to not write. Reader is black (happy black history month btw). Sukuna does not like to share… or have anyone touch whats his why would a king have to?

The vibrations of my phone for the 3rd time was finally begining to annoy me so with eyes still closed i reach around the bed only to slap something warm and firm.

“Still here sweetheart” i hear the raspy voice of sukuna i dont need to look at him to know hes smirking and my eyes shoot open making direct eye contact.

Finally reaching for my phone hoping to get some sort of clarity i see 100 missed calls, 43 text messages, 17 instagram post. The safest option was to go through my messages as i try to gain memory of why this idiot was in bed next to me.

“Oh sweetheart do you not remember?” He chides cockily and i sit up seeing a picture that nearly killed me. My tongue out… against Sukunas sternum in a secluded corner of the club with him smirking devilishly at me and the next of him carrying me out his hands firm on my ass.

The club.

The club!

Housing yuji had been no problem at all, owing a favor to Gojo i was glad when this was all he needed. Yuji itadori was sweet kind always cleaned after himself and was a genuine pleasure to have around even cooking when away on missions.

The issue? The fact that he was a vessel for a 1000 year old king of curses that was a complete pain in the ass who gets a thrill out of you especially finding out i was kazumi Honoka and had i not resented my family could easily match Gojo or top him . The Honoka clan known for the most powerful flame and fire weilding sorcerers every few generations, squeaky clean image rich and arrogant just as the other powerful clans.

“Sukuna the only reason your not dead is because i havent found a way to exercise you from yuji i know for a fact i could kill you” i seethe only to be met with silence. I hated being ignored and he would do it on purpose as if his pathetic ass being housed by a child was better than me. Growling i pull a dagger from my waist band and swing it at Yuji necks who looks at me in fear but Sukunas mouth breaks through his neck biting the dager making it crumble into a million pieces as if it was nothing more than a cracker.

“You dont even know how to fully weild your cursed energy sweetheart, i could have you dead in 10 seconds and with the remaining 9 dance over your corpse” his mouth cackles from the side of Yujis neck.

This was a typical tuesday morning for us.

“Yet you’re only a pathetic excuse of what you used to be. King of curses yet you’ve been trapped inside of yuji for years how lame” i degrade a sneer on my face as i adjust my shirt.

“I— should we do something about this” Megumi ask from next to Nobara on the couch who looks concered and ready to break us up but not sure how plates of breakfast getting cold. It wasnt even 11am yet.

“No. This is a typical Tuesday it’s kind of like foreplay for them. Usually she ignores him or teases back unless she had a difficult mission” Yuji informs them before shoving another pancake in his mouth and of course he noticed the differences in our interactions i was the only one Sukuna really interacted with anyway.

“How was it?” Nobara looks at me and i sigh. I nearly died because i lost my footing tripping over my own tube of fenty lip gloss, how could i ever admit that.

“Pffft, struggling with a puny curse yet you think you could take me on? You make me laugh, brat” and thats what makes me lose it and ignite the fire flames on my hands my eyes matching as i do cause a groan from Yuji.

“I havent even finished breakfast yet can i atlea—“

I cut him off.

“Release him” i fume cracking my knucles making the flames bigger my breakfast completely forgotten about.

“Yeah release me brat so i can finally have my moment with her” he snaps back at yuji and this time I smirk the fire on my hands dulling.

“If thats what you wanted that’s all you had to say, it’s childish to be mean to a girl you like. Unfortunately you’re not my type” i grin patting Yuji cheek where Sukunas mouth was only to feel his sharp teeth nip at my hand.

“Youre nothing like the women i had keeping my bed warm just like you’re silly little technique you wouldnt know what to do with me” he chides back the two on the couch getting whiplash from how fast our conversation changes and how quick our comebacks are for another.

“See, foreplay” Yuji utters to them as he finishes his plate of pancakes satisfied with his belly being full leaning back on his seat.

“Well we were going to celebrate you getting back and figure you could use a night out since returning from your mission, but it looks like you definitely need it” Megumi speaks up motioning between myself and Yuji.

————————————————————-

Giggling with Nobara as we take a 6th shot of casamigos to see who would tap out first watching a woman try to flirt with  Megumi who's completely oblivious or just awkward at flirting.

“What's the deal with you and Sukuna? Girl to girl like i didn't even know he spoke unless he had full control” she prys bumping my shoulder which i roll my eyes at.  “Please Yuji told me how he always has an eye on you, always ask about you when you're not around and flirts with you relentlessly”

“He also pesters me” i add sipping the lemon drop the bartender placed infront of us mentioning it was on the house.

“Anything to keep your attention” she smirks while taking another shot. “It’s why he’s taken over Yuji yet instead of burning the entire world down he’s watching you”.

And he is, black tattoos adorned his body as he sits on the sofa eyes piercing through the crowd focused directly on me. Maybe it was the curiosity maybe it was the alcohol but i was tempted to test her theory. 

Swiping another coat of lipgloss over my lips and adjusting my shirt so my boobs were perked up with a quick hair fluff i turn to the guy at the end of the bar Whos been covering our tab for drinks.

“Hello handsome” i grin taking the stool next to him watching the instant lust build in his eyes. I could still

Feel his eyes on me and its only right to give him a show.

The man on the stool looks over at me, double taking before adjusting his posture to give me his full attention.

“My my tonight must be my lucky night an angel like you gracing me with your presence” he praises the strong smell of alcohol on his breath as he twirls one of my dark curls around his finger releasing it with a spring.

“Move” and Sukunas glare is deadly biceps rippling under the club light his shirt long gone.

“Hey pal” the man says setting a hand on Sukunas shoulder unaware of just what was about to happen and i couldnt even warn him my eyes never left the king of curses. 

Without breaking eye contact he grabs the mans hand crushing it the sound of bones crushing couldn’t be hidden by the loud music but i still could only focus on sukuna.

“Wipe the smug look off your face” he grumbles stepping closer the heat of his body rolling off onto me.

“Lord Sukuna, king of curses the almighty and powerful isnt… jealous?” I giggle watching as he takes the shot left behind by the man scowling as he takes the shot next to it as well.

“Dont humor me, he was weak and undeserving. Plus if something happened to you Yuji would never shut up” he… rambles? Oh he was so jealous. Fire literally comes out of my hand unless that man controlled water and in copious amount what harm would he truly bring me.

 “So if i were to go home with him and sleep with him you wouldnt be jealous in the slightest? And i mean hours of letting him have his way with me—“ to which he scoffs rolling his eyes in disgust.

Sukuna wasnt a man of many words more so action so i could talk all i wanted but the best reaction id get was from action. And i knew just how to pull it from him.

“Not even if i did this?” I ask but before he has a chance i bend down coming eye level with his abdomen and drag my tongue from the begining of the black mark to where it ends on his chest smirking when i come eye level with him watching as something dark ignites in his eyes.

___________________________________

When we get home theres not a surface left untouched that he doesnt have me against. Pressing me into the front door as he bites down my neck licking and sucking over my pulse.

“Suk—mmmm” the moan comes out of me as he tugs on my earlobe with his mouth his hands feeling like hot fire on my body. He begins to pull me further in but i pull back giggling at his look of dissatisfaction. 

“I gotta take m’shoes off” im sure i slur my words slightly only to be picked up and placed on the top of the black velvet couch my feet on the seat cushion giving him easier access. Im shocked by how gentle he is untying the straps from around my calfs before he gets frustrated ripping them off.

“SUKUNA!” I yell watching the coy smirk on his face and he leaves a kiss on my calf.

“Whaaaat?” Before another kiss is placed on my knee followed by my inner thigh and right when i think hes going to go under my skirt he switches to my other leg the warmth spreading in my core and i wanted him to stop teasing. 

“Sukuna” i groan but it instead comes out as a sigh feeling his thumbs massage into my inner thigh extremely close to my core as i feel his breath over my underwear.

“Tell me.” He grunts against my core the vibrations shaking my whole insides and maybe my body was just sensitive to him because i could definitely cum just like that. “Tell me what i want”

And hes placing kisses over my pussy through my underwear moaning and something about him wanting me so bad he would kiss me through my underwear turned me on even more. I’m sure he could tell because its not long before his tongue is poking at the sides making me shiver.

“Give me what i want” i counter to prideful to beg alcohol be damned the arrogant grin on his face doesnt budge as he pulls me down so im on the seat easily throwing my legs over his shoulders. Long fingers brush my wet folds as he hooks his finger in my underwear, a lewd comment about me being so wet for him my thongs were clinging to it in a way his tongue would replace.

And hes not lying, he places one long lick from my hole all the way up to my clit, a light swirl around before placing a peck and I feel electric. My head luls back as he uses two fingers to spread my lips open giving easier access to my clit which he sucks kisses licks and moans against.

“Fuck” he groans against it placing a wide open mouth tongue kiss on my pussy and i arch into him? Away? Im not sure my eyes slam shut when i realize hes kissing my pussy the same way he was kissing me against the door and the pure lewdness of his mouth being full of me. The wet smacking sounds were being drowned out by my moans and cries of his name and with a particular flick of his tongue on my clit i launch forward squeezing my thighs around his head which seems to entertain more than bother him.

“Eyes on me” he moans against me tapping my thighs twice and i couldnt even remember shutting them. His lips apply more pressure as my hands get lost in his hair holding him in place which seems to egg him on his motions becoming filthier with every flick of his tongue.

He pushes me back before his wide palms squeeze my thighs grunting as he continues his assault licking me in ways that would leave a mark on my mind before tongue-fucking me which is what sends me into the spiral of cuming for the first time. (And embarassingly fast)

“So delicious” he murmurs licking up every drop and i can feel my heart pounding in my ears as i try to catch my breath. It took him less than five minutes to have me in a puddle, figuratively and literally and my brain scrambled. 

Pulling me forward by my chin he places an aggressive kiss on my lips leaving me dizzy as i taste myself on his lips until he quickly pulls back standing up beckoning me to follow him.

“We need to get you to bed” he speaks and i miss the taunt in his voice taking it as being scolded instead which makes me stop the cold of the hallway floor settling on the pads of my feet.

“What?!” I snap and he raises a brow facing me the taunt evident on his face.

“Unless you want something from me, tell me sweetheart” And it’s nothing more than an attempt to get me to beg but i was entirely not going to. I would never, no matter how mad i wanted him to rearrange my insides.

“No?” He ask cupping my jaw roughly his thumb grazing my bottom lip rubbing the juices on my lip— the moment he fucks up.

Using my tongue to wrap it arround his thumb before sucking it into my mouth watching the desire come full force in his eyes. I release it with a small pop sound a string of saliva connecting his finger to my lip his eyes never moving from it.

“I mean i know you like when i lick your marks up your chest but what about down?” I whisper before my tongue drags down the black lines down to the waist band of the pants pulling them down watching his dick spring out yet the weight, length and girth stops it from springing completely against his abdomen. 

My mouth waters at the sight and i feel myself sink down to my knees keeping eye contact wrapping my acrylic fingers around it. Theres a drip of precum as i slowly begin to pump that i chase with my thumb smearing it against the tip.

Removed from my trance i feel his large hand cup my jaw roughly and the other replace my hand over his length giving a few slow pumps so i eagerly stick out my tongue knowing exactly what he wants to do.  He taps it on my tongue twice before slowly pushing it in my mouth keeping direct eye contact the whole time listening to the way his breath stops as he hits the back of my throat. He feels heavy in my mouth in the most delicious way causing me to moan and give a slight suck.

Its the soft groan that he makes that encourages me to take control pulling back slighty before pushing him all the way down my throat one hand at the base making a twisting motion while the other massages his balls this time earning a “fuck baby” and i almost tease him about it but my mouth was… full.

Pulling back once more for air i swirl my tongue around the tip collecting every drop of precum before licking my way down to his balls and taking them in my mouth. His leg twitches and his eyes are on me with a blown eyed gaze as i swish them around my mouth sending him a wink the smirk coming back.

“Youre such a— fuck… brat taking my dick like this in the…” he stops for a second going to reach for my hair and i almost send a glare until i realize hes just moving it off my shoulders. Hollowing my cheeks and sucking hes brought back to his words. “In the hallway, so hungry for me arent you” he growls 

Moving my mouth back onto his length taking him 4 more times down my throat my hand replacing where my mouth previously was before continuing a bobbing motion. The pace of my bobbing matching the pace of my hand twisting before his hands start caressing my cheeks using it as leverage.

“Such a good girl” he begins stuttering eyes rolling back head falling against the wall. His hips began moving and im not even sure he realizes it and hes fucking my face at a quick pace muttering words in a language that i couldnt identify— maybe something prehistoric.

“Throat so.. mmf… so good, such a good brat. FUCk” he growls when i gag but doesnt stop for a second just continues his rambling. “My brat, youre taking every inch so fucking… so fucking” he holds my head in place as if hes trying not to cum to quick.

Shit thats exactly what hes doing!

Tapping his thigh to gain his attention, the same way he did to me I internally smirk the moment his eyes meet mine and I know exactly what kind of thing would make him release. Slowly pushing down until my nose hits his pelvis as I pull back I give him the longest blink I can exaggerate without looking crazy letting the tears prick my eyes without falling giving the base of his dick and balls a slight squeeze moaning the entire time.

“You fucking demon— nnghhhh”he moans as ropes of his cum shoot down my throat his hips twitching as he holds me in place trying to keep his eyes on me. after hes satisfied everydrop is in my mouth not a single one gone to waste He finally lets my face go before im being pulled up by the front of my shirt. His lips are on mine as hes groping me like my clothes dont exist his hands running all over my body pulling me in closer. 

His tongue swirls in my mouth and its like a mix of both of us before i playfully bite down on his bottom lip feeling him harden against my hip making me grin. He likes it rough i could be as rough as i wanted and hed probably just love it even more.

My legs wrap around his waist the moment he picks me up walking the rest of the way to my room and placing me on the bed pulling me shirt over my head and to inpatient for my skirt and underwear he rips them off. Climbing over me he places a few teasing bites up my neck marking up what hadn't already been marked before pulling back slightly to line himself up with my entrance.

I assume hes going to tease but the squelch and sudden burn of him pushing in makes the corner of my eyes prick with tears only brought back by the sounds of his grunts.

“And you fucking thought id let you go hone with another man and hed have this view of you cock drunk already and all ive done was slide halfway in” he chuckles darkly and i look at where we are connected.

HALFWAY?

“Eyes on me brat” and my leg is thrown over his shoulder before he leans forward giving me a bruising thrust. Well clearly i bit off more than i could chew. His thrust are fast and heavy but not painful. He rolls his hips and my hands fly up to his chest.

Hold on what was this. He sends a handful more thrust just like that with the same force… no not force pressure and i can feel my mouth watering. These werent the quick hard and fast strokes i was expecting. Sure they were rough but—

His large hand throws my other leg over his shoulder pulling a high pitched moan from me and he was entirely to deep inside of me. Its a particular thrust that hits a spot deep inside of me causing my eyes to cross and i nearly push him off of me had it not been for our position.

“Ahhhh looks like i found that sweet spot” he taunts thrusting into it again and i bite my bottom lip trying to hold in the moans. “Cute attempt” and before i could ask what he means he leans forward so were chest to chest and if he wasnt deep before he definitely was now.

“Fuck” he growls against my ear continuing his assault my eyes only catching the way every muscle ripples in his back. He was making his mark and not just sucking and biting but engraving his self in my memory. Every thrust every roll of his hips its like he was trying to make sure i wouldnt forget drunk or sober. Its slight caresses that turn to grips, hip rolls that turn to strong thrust that rattle my whole body bites thats followed by his tongue flicking over them.

The orgasm begins to build and i feel the wetness already sliding down making him grunt picking up the pace. 

“S-sukuna!” It rocks through me before i have time to warn him but he doesnt stop just continues to fuck me through it his chuckles a distant thought it my head.

“You were so jealous” i mutter through heavy pants the only thought i could hold onto before he's pulling out and i'm flipped onto my stomach his length pushed back in this time his hand snaking under me to play with my clit his strokes different this time. 

His fingers are going fast yet his strokes are slow are taunting his balls slapping against me the contrast sends me into another orgasm my brain telling me to fight back. 

“The next time you think IM jealous of another man some puny mortal remember i can make you cum in 30 seconds” he grunts in my ear and i know theres a glare on his face. But he doesnt stop he alternates the pace of his fingers and thrust making me moan out trying to hold back long forgotten.

“You look so delicious” he moans and the sound has my toes curling. He drops half of his weight on me as his other hand comes around grabbing my neck lifting me up so I can see our reflections in the mirror. His maroon eyes were dark and getting darker with lust as we made eye contact through the mirror and for a second my mind turns to mush the only thought was how good he felt with every thrust and pinch of my clit.

“Look at you… fuck falling apart under me” he grunts a smile building on his lips before he licks them gripping tighter on my neck. “You look so perfect taking my cock like this. Getting so… youre making such a mess on me. Youre pussy is so tight and warm and the way youre clenching when i talk… shit. You must like my voice” his grin grows and i look away but the way i clench around him gives me away im sure.

His hand moves from my clit leaving three stinging SMACKS. His grip grows tighter on my throat forcing me to look at him again in the mirror, his hand squeezing over my cheeks.

“Sukuna” i snap or try to but it only comes out as a stuttering moan which satisfies him. 

“Don't look away” he growls and when hes sure im not going to try again he places his hand back on my clit.

“Im not jealous,” he tries to prove his point but it was lost on me i didnt even care i was in complete bliss.

“I can fuck you better than him. He was just going to turn into a boy and jackrabbit you. He wouldnt know what to do with all the woman you are. Me…JEALOUS? No im leaving my mark youre going to remember every touch, lick, bite, shit and thrust. Thats real punishment. Ruining you for every man after me. They couldnt fuck you like this” he rants a deranged look in his eyes before his speed increases and of course.

He wasnt some 20 something year old guy he was a 1000 year old curse with years of experience in torture. Brute force was a mere quick thing and nothing about this was quick.

“Sukuna im going to…” i whine kicking my legs feeling the pressure build up and it was becoming to much for me. I try to thrust back to push him off but that sinister smile grows the widest ive ever seen and instead he pulls me to my knees by my hip. It instead becomes leverage as he uses his other hand to push my back down creating an arch as his pace comes to the fastest its been all night finally pushing in all the way the tip hitting the spot that made my eyes cross again.

“Oh… OH” he chuckles as he watches my fist curling in the blankets the moans no longer quiet but loud screams im sure my neighbors would complain about tomorrow but i couldnt care. 

“Feels good doesnt it, i should make you beg to cum, i should edge you. I shouldnt even.. fuck.. youre lucky youre so pretty i shouldnt even let you cum for even entertaining him. Were you trying to piss me off?” He growls but it all falls on deaf ears. My own shrieks of pleasure are the only thing i can register.

“But since youre here… under me and that stunt you pulled? At that silly little club? Ill be nice just this once brat.” He moans his thrust becoming sloppy as if the thought of me licking him turns him on. 

“Cum for me” he pinches my clit sending me into my demise the hot ropes of cum from him shooting inside of me as his grunts get louder while he rides out our orgasms. 

“Good girl” is the last thing i hear before darkness takes over.

_________________________

Sukuna isnt prepared to glance at the clock at 4:37am. Sure he wasnt fully sleep but being prepared for the brown skinned fire sorceress to wake him up 10 minutes ago for another round was the last thing he expected.

Sukuna loved every second of it. She wasnt like past women who wanted to made sure they just pleased him oh no she wanted to conquer him.  find every kink, every sensitive spot any twist of her hips or clutching of his core that made him putty for her and exploit it. Biting him, sucking on his neck, hair pulls and even slight chocking— ok it was nothing slight about it at all, even when she pins his arms above his head he was losing his senses because everything was her.

She had the audacity to try this and look so fucking good doing it. It was no longer him fucking her but dhe was fucking him and damn did it feel good. She was marking him every inch of his body stating her claim and he nearly felt pride, his brat, fuck did she know how to get him going. So prideful she wouldnt even cum again until he did even if that means he did have to snake one of his hand down to pinch her clit watching her tears come down her face as she fights so strongly.

Sukunas proud and for a moments forget this isnt his body just a mere vessel but hes so proud of her he wants to drop his whole load and really claim her as his own but things are a bit complicated right now. But hes so prpud of her being so strong taking every inch and seeing the lengths of her stubotness but fuck does he want her to cum. He needs to feel the way she cums arounds him and watch as the cream builds up at where their bodies meet, he needs to see that pure look of bliss and feel the desperation as her body clings to his. But he can talk her through it.

“H-hey sweetheart, look at me” he growls angry she had him stuttering and with a sharp thrust upward to meet hers she whines looking down at him.

“What?! Y-youre —-mmmm fuck… youre fucking up my pace” she seeethes through clutch teeth pulling roughly on the hair at the nape of his neck his moans unable to be hid at the pure pleasure.

“Sorry sweetheart” he falsely apologized repeating the thrist again feeling her clench. “Just wanna say youre doing so good, taking me dick so good just like you should” he sits up watching as she adjust using his shoulders for leverage.

“Listen to it… every sound, squelch— youre gripping me soooo tight. I could fuck you all night, loose myself in it. Its so wet and warm and your taking every inch like a good brat for me, my brat” he breathes in her ear before bringing her jaw so theyre eye to eye once more.

“I cant wait to watch you cum for me again, make a mess all over your dick.” He tells her watching as she tries to close her eyes and he sends another rough thrust forcing her eyes back open.

“You have 5 seconds to give it all to me” he tells her darkly left hand going to her clit as a threat not rubbing or moving just pressing into her.

“4” and she presses her forehead against his

“3” he smirks as her hips become erattic the whimpers increasing from her mouth.

“Sukuna!” She snaps digging her nails into his back holding on tighter to him. He grins kissing the side of her head thumb not moving from her clit but pressing harder.

“2” and the wet sounds increase  letting him know he was more than capable of talking her… counting her through it.

“I hate you” she moans releasing all over him sending him into an orgasm as well thrusting his hips so they can both ride it through only stopping when he feels her body slump against his.

“I hate you so much” she speaks through ragged breaths as he leans back never pulling out and he chuckles kissing her head again pushing her hair out of her face.

_____________________________________

“So youre telling me…” i trail off completely speachless when all the memories from last night come back and i can feel everywhere he touched like it was burned into my skin.

His arms rest behind his head the holds that cocky smirk and lazy look in his eye as if i forgot his moans.

“You fucked me like that because you were jealous?” I giggle once more watching as his glare comes back

[sleepingdeath-light]

relationship hcs ; meguru bachira

requested by ; mod / self indulgent

fandom(s) ; blue lock

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; meguru bachira

outline ; “dating hcs for bachira”

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

he dedicates each and every one of his goals to you. if you’re attending one of his games he’ll search for you in the stands and point to you as he cheers, or maybe even run up to you and tackle you into a celebratory kiss if you’re close enough to the pitch — and if you’re watching from home then he’ll go searching for the nearest camera in your stead and go through his whole celebratory routine as if he’s staring right into your eyes. how sweet!

he’s very physically affectionate, both in public and in private. nine times out of ten he goes about this in ways that are more sweet or flustering than anything else (smothering your face with kisses, pulling you down to sit/lay on his lap, interlacing his fingers with yours and swinging your joined hands to-and-fro as you walk, hugging you from behind when you’re talking to someone, etc.) but occasionally he has been known to catch you off guard with something a bit less traditionally romantic — like tackling you to the ground in a hug, biting you on the nose or cheek or neck or shoulders, initiating random tickle fights, and other such things

and he very much so appreciates it when you try to match his energy (especially if you’re less energetic or more shy than he is)

he is extremely overt about the fact that he’s taken. whether that’s in interviews, on the pitch, or online, bachira never misses the chance to flaunt the fact that he’s found his soulmate and has zero intentions of ever letting you go — and that he has no intention of entertaining anyone else trying to get in between the two of you either

he is also very public and very shameless about just how head-over-cleats he is for you. like if he had it his way all of his interviews public accounts would be dedicated to you — but unfortunately his pr team force him to post and talk about other things (like his career). honestly his teammates are sick and tired of hearing about you because bachira never shuts up about you (like they have no personal problem with you, obviously, but there’s only so much of bachira’s fawning over you that anyone can take before going nuts)

and if you think that’s a bit much you should hear all of the things he says to your face! needless to say he gives you zero opportunity to doubt how deeply in love with you he is, even though he can’t be by your side as much as he’d like because of how demanding his work as a footballer is

bachira almost never uses your real name and pretty much exclusively refers to you using terms of endearment that range from tooth-rottingly sweet to downright bizzare — and, likewise, much prefers that you call him pet names instead of his actual name (and will assume you’re annoyed with him for some reason if you don’t)

his favourite place to kiss you is the tip of your nose and his favourite place to be kissed is either his hands or his forehead (it changes from day to day, honestly)

insists on facetiming every night that he’s abroad for matches with his team and this almost always leads to the two of you falling asleep while still on call (which, naturally, is what your charmingly clingy boyfriend wants)

always responds to your texts and answers your calls immediately unless he’s like actively practicing or participating in a match and cannot access his phone at the time, and even then he gets back to you the second he’s able

says his monster loves you almost as much as he does and refuses to elaborate any further than that

your contact name on his phone has a frankly borderline obnoxious number of heart emojis attached to it and the accompanying photo is one he took when you were napping with him and that he insists is ‘perfect’ and ‘cute’ no matter how much you try and tell him it’s anything but

would absolutely love to wear matching accessories with you — bonus points if it’s something he can safely wear during games like a bracelet, but as long as it’s something you both like and that shows the whole world that he belongs to you he’s not too picky about what shape it comes in

[sugar-crash]

🪲👑CYBUG King Candy (Wreck-It Ralph) x (gn) Reader🍭🕷️

(Toothy Kisses Edition)

(Picture’s not mine!)

(Ask here! Honestly at this point I think I should just make a playlist for all the songs I have for these headcanons, lemme know what you guys think.)

- As much as I think he truly loses who he is, including not only Turbo but King Candy as well— I do believe that in some alternate universe he either succeeds in becoming the most powerful virus in all of the arcade or is in this form for a longer period before perishing to the Diet Cola volcano alongside his sugary mutated kin I do think he retains some of those habits from his previous aliases.

- Flipping from absolute bloodthirsty mania and that would make emperor Belos jealous to…. Basically a cat with a laser pointer, playful, definitely the type to pounce on you at times.

- The kissing thing I believe he would still do, but I also do see it turning from a kiss to a lick or bite, just to gross you out, cackling at your disgust.

- As I’ve stated previously, he does use his new form to its fullest advantage, makes that ego of his REALLY pop out even more than it used to… Which is saying something cause… It’s already there and it’s already well-known by not only you.

- Pompous bastard, so so soooo pompous, the type to expect you to not only reciprocate his affections but hang on his every word. He’s self-appointed the head honcho after all, special among the other cybug clones.

- I do think he’d rather prefer you as normal, claims he wants you weak and him strong to establish that power dynamic, and yeah that’s a good portion of it, but he also kinda sees you as one of the only things left of his previous lives and as much as he just loves his new body— He likes to hold onto things.

- Whether it be racing, winning, grudges, he clutches them close and NEVER wants to let go. Just like how he’ll never let you go. Stringing you along just like he used to, albeit less hush-hush and more relaxed, I mean— You can’t exactly leave him! You’re nothing without him in his eyes, and you surely don’t want one of those cybugs to get to you!

- He’ll protect you, he’ll keep you safe, he has all the means to and all the power in the palm of his clawed hands. Every game that comes into contact with him and little friends gets torn apart and unceremoniously eaten to bits, so destructive.. Poor Litwak.

- I do believe he’d rather prefer uses his affection and his control as a bargaining chip to get you to stay with him, that sugary sweetness he adapted from his role as King Candy being useful to him once more.

- I think he gets some weird version of cuteness aggression over you, smothering your face and hands with kisses, interrupting himself to crazily giggle to himself.

- His controlling tendencies are even more pronounced, it just all ties to all of his worst traits being only amplified in that big ass mutated body of his.

- He lingers around you when he's bored of destroying games and such, teasing you both verbally and physically, he always has to either have a hand or an eye on you, violently hissing at any other cybug that tries to get fresh with you. He only gets to do that. >:(

- Talks your ear off, something that’s only been natural with him, but now it’s more erratic and rambly— Tugging at your accessories or hair as he speaks.

- I like to think of him as kinda of a big dog that has the personality of a lapdog, but very aware of the change he went through and almost always using it to get power over you.

- Enjoys flying very much— it’s like driving but he doesn’t need to pop into a kart to do it AND it’s in the sky, not restrained by a track.

- He gets used to it fairly quickly as we see in the movie and flys around whenever he can, making you hold onto him, insisting on having you with him even if you don’t like it.

- Some things never change, and his delight in having your attention is surprisingly more voiced, nothing to be ashamed for, grabbing you suddenly whenever he feels like it to get his daily fix of it before going on his way to be a self-conceited little troglodyte.

- Again very inconsistent, hot and cold. But hey, he’s always kind of been like that hasn’t he?

(I’m super sorry I made you wait for this, I’ve be waterlogged with other things— Inching closer and closer to graduating from high school!)

Tagged!: @hostess-of-horror (thank you so much for your support and kindness! <3)

[allwaswell16]

[4 pics, 4 quotes, 4 iconic 1D fics]

Iconic fics by ...

- alwaysxlarrie -

[1]

Sparks of euphoria shot through his veins, which made it very hard for him to refrain from making loud noises, such as shouting victoriously; he didn’t want to reagitate Harry’s migraine. He resigned to just give Harry a wide smile, poked his dimple, and told him he was happy to help, instead. It was a far cry from how he actually wanted to react, but. Such was life. 

As he peeked over at the dry erase board, he made a vow to, as long as he was able to, always have a sweet message written on it for Harry.

“you’ve got a smile that shines as bright as a full moon on a dark night. i hope you never run out of reasons to smile.”

[2]

When Harry goes back to the library a few hours later to see if he’d left his headphones on the table, he doesn’t end up finding them. Instead, he finds something much, much better. He finds a note from Louis and one of Louis’ hoodies. The note says ‘don’t worry, curly, i have your headphones! they’re safe and sound with me :) i’ll bring them to the next meeting, no worries. I got you xo’

So, no, Harry won’t be able to use his headphones for the next week. And yes, it will suck major ass. 

But. 

He’ll have Louis’ hoodie that’s absolutely magnificently coated in his delicious scent, a handwritten note from Louis, and him telling Harry that he’s got him. 

Harry knows that it can’t be love; it’s too early and too fast for it to be love, but. 

It’s definitely something.

[3]

Harry’s eyebrows furrow and he scratches the tip of his nose as he offers, “um, yes. That’s me. I’m sorry, have we met?”

The man bites his bottom lip as he shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so. I’m Louis, it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, as well.” Harry reaches a hand out, figuring that even if he doesn’t know who this beautiful man is, it would be a felony to not offer his hand. In marriage. Or a formal handshake. Either or, really.

When their hands touch, a spark shoots up Harry’s hand straight to his spine, making him shiver. Louis seems to notice the effect their handshake has on Harry when he raises his eyebrow. After he squeezes his hand one last time, Louis releases it and puts his hands in his pockets.

[4]

“Do you have any fruits you want in it specifically, or are you okay with all of them going in?” Harry asked. His eyes were on Louis, and his fingers were already moving to open the tupperware with excited impatience.

“Honestly I’m sure whatever you decide to give me will be perfect, bub.” Louis assured him before winking and darting off, yelling to Niall that he wanted to get a few more minutes of practice in before they sat down for a proper snack. 

Harry’s fingers were trembling from the rush of adrenaline, scrambling to find the perfect pieces from each baggie to add to Louis’ little fruit salad; there couldn’t be any black seeds in the watermelon pieces, no brown on the apple slices, no wrinkly grapes, and none of the honeydew melon could be too hard. To Harry, the salad would be Louis’ introduction of how good of a friend and provider Harry could be, and therefore, it had to be perfect.

Answers below...

[1] i swear i could give you everything

Louis Tomlinson was not a morning person, so he really should have known better than to start leaving secret notes on coworker Harry Styles' desk before he arrived at the office at 7:30 each morning. But he did have to admit that hearing Harry's reaction everyday was definitely worth it. Not being a morning person might be his downfall in this situation, though. Talk about self sabotage.

[2] you give me feelings that i adore

Harry doesn’t mean to fall in love with Louis’ scent when they first meet after the Alpha joins Harry's study group, but after Harry leaves a sweater behind by accident and it comes back smelling like Louis, he can’t really help it. Nor can he really help continuing to leave his things behind in hopes that Louis will take them home and drench them in his wonderful, mouth-watering scent. He just has to hope Louis will play along.

Or, 5 times Louis scents Harry's things and the 1 time Harry returns the gesture.

[3] you are my destiny (you are the reason that i still believe)

Being a new employee at a company means that you have to learn to brush off the shitty bosses, shitty coworkers, and not getting the credit you actually deserve for things. At least, that's been Harry Styles' experience. Coworkers who steal his ideas in pursuit of getting praise and a raise, and a boss who's indifferent at best and condescending at worst. Harry has learned to expect this reality for the foreseeable future. He's accepted it.

What he hadn't expected was for Louis Tomlinson to waltz into their company, and his life, and change around everything he thought he knew about fate. -- A Cinderella AU.

[4] wanna wake up with you and say baby let's do it all over again

“Alright, I did some Googling and I think I’ve figured out what your thing is.” Niall announced as he walked into their kitchen.

“My thing?”

“Sorry, is that an offensive way to refer to it?”

“I mean, I don’t know. I’d probably be able to give you a better answer if I knew what you were talking about, though.”

“Harry, it’s okay. This is a safe space.”

“No, it’s not. You throw cheese puffs at me any time I walk around naked.”

“Okay.” Niall tilted his head in acknowledgement, then corrected himself. “It’s a safe space for things I deem acceptable.”

“Of course.” Harry rolled his eyes. “So, what’s the thing?”

“Your service,” Niall flailed his hands in the air for a few seconds, “thing.”

“My service,” Harry paused to mimic Niall’s hand movements, “thing?”

“Yes.”

[miss-tc-nova]

Going With a Smile - Jade, Floyd, Lilia

Okay, this one had me for a bit and I admit that the villain is there for the sake of the plot. So it's a little rough but I hope it suffices for the relationship you were looking for.

Anyway, hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Premise: The prefect has a wild side when in danger

Content warnings: Minor blood references

Words:

Jade - 476

Floyd - 497

Lilia - 466

~~~~~

Jade

Jade had heard quite a bit of the world his adorable prefect had come from. It was dark and morbid and honestly quite interesting. Still, he couldn’t help taking a second glance at his little sweetie who simply couldn’t hurt a fly. How this gentle, kind, almost-feeble human could survive in such a horrid place seemed almost too far-fetched. The only proof to be had were the few faded scars that honestly could’ve come from anywhere. Needless to say, Jade didn’t really believe that his beloved partner came from such a cruel world.

Today the pair trek the trails of the surrounding woods, enjoying the outdoors. It’s a nice day, good weather and clear skies, and the couple are having a nice time taking in this little slice of nature.

Jade watches his sweetie scurry after a furry creature through some shrubs. The immediate shout that follows has him bolting through, finding a complete stranger holding the prefect at knife point. It seems they’ve stumbled across some deplorable man’s hideaway campsite.

Jade’s teeth gnash, knowing if he so much as moved, that knife would bite into his partner’s skin. He can’t have that. The prefect, however, tries to back away. That’s when the hand came down, striking squarely against a cheek.

That alone nearly has Jade rushing forward to dismantle this cretin, but the look on the prefect’s face causes him to freeze. Wide eyes lose focus on the world, meanwhile, the mouth left agape twitches, flickering to a smile that leaves Jade stunned.

Without warning, an arm swings, returning the blow with full power behind that fist. Of course, this aggravates the trespasser, but what little damage he can deal only serves to fuel the manic onslaught in progress. With every hit, the prefect retaliates with more brutality and unpredictability, all the while wearing that grin.

It’s not until the prefect has the man face down in the dirt, arm twisted behind his back and pulling until his screams echo in the air that Jade finally realizes he should step in. One hand frees the scum while the other tugs at the prefect’s waist, separating the two and letting the villain flee in terror.

That devil smile turns on Jade, slipping at the realization of what happened. Suddenly, his sweetheart returns to exactly that—the sweet, somewhat-bashful person he’d always known.

For some time, Jade can’t get the vision out of his head, quite intrigued at the sheer power and skill with which the prefect destroyed that man. Granted the cuts and bruises weren’t very sightly, but at least knowing his partner is perfectly capable of self-defense is a nice sentiment.

He never doubted the prefect’s words after that. Yet just knowing that something deadly lies beneath that sugar-sweet surface sends a delicious tingle down his spine. He might’ve fallen a little harder that day.

Floyd

Floyd straight up didn’t believe his partner at all when shrimpy told him of the violent, deadly word originally known as home. Sure, it sounded like a fun time, but no way in hell was his squishy, helpless, cute out there fighting to survive. It’s just got to be a lie, leading Floyd to frequently question about the prefect’s real home world, but he only ever got the same answers. One of these days, shrimpy’s going to slip up and give him the real answer.

Lounging behind the Ramshackle dorm, the prefect diligently works on homework as Floyd lazes beneath the shade of the tree. He’s just beginning to think that it’s too quiet and boring when a man stumbles through into Ramshackle’s yard from the shrubbery. That wouldn’t be too strange if it weren’t for his disheveled appearance and the knife he brandished.

Immediately, the prefect stands while Floyd simply sits up. Frantic eyes fall on the smaller student, the man quick to point his blade. Before anyone else can react, he closes the gap, snagging the prefect by the front of the shirt and spewing senseless threats. This is when Floyd finally gets to his feet, glowering at the stranger threatening his shrimpy.

As any concerned person might, the prefect attempts to pull away, but this agitates the man who swings. Floyd literally sees red, the crimson liquid dripping along the victim’s arm, but the giggle has him thinking twice. Upon the prefect’s face sits a smile that Floyd’s never seen before. Suddenly, a fist flies forward, slamming against the intruder’s face and forcing him back.

What follows after is a beating that the merman can genuinely admire. The pitiful man tries to defend himself, but there’s no getting away from the prefect now. Every blow is at full force, which somehow becomes even stronger when he does manage to land a hit. All the while little shrimpy grins widely, even while sustaining injuries.

Eventually, the man finds his limit, particularly as his face is repeatedly smashed against the tree Floyd had previously been lounging under. At this point, the entertainment wanes for the eel; he’s ready to move on and do something else. Taking his partner by the arm, he pries the hapless fool away, hoists his shrimpy up under his arm, and walks away.

At first, the prefect begins to apologize, but Floyd bluntly says there was no reason to—that guy started it. A wicked grin slips his lips as he adds that it was funny watching the jerk get his ass kicked by a his sweet, little shrimpy.

So no, Floyd didn’t really change his views. Sure, he believed the prefect now, but that was still his soft-hearted, gentle shrimpy. The only real difference now was that he frequently teases his partner about picking fights just so he could have a good time. But he’ll back down when the prefect puts on that cute pout, even if he gripes about it.

Lilia

Though Lilia couldn’t guarantee his cutie pie prefect was lying, he certainly did not believe in the apocalyptic world he was told about. He’d seen hell and what his partner told him sounded a lot like that, possibly worse, but that bright, beautiful smile just couldn’t have been born in someplace so malicious. Yet Lilia indulged each tale so long as the prefect chose to speak of it, never speaking his doubting thoughts.

Oh how wrong he was.

Lilia and his boo are on their way back to the college, having ventured into Foothill Town for a little date. It’s been a nice day so far and they intend to relax once they return to campus.

Out of nowhere, a hand snatches the prefect’s wrist. A man looking worse for wear and likely on the run from some authority figure drags the student closer to hold hostage.

That knife to his partner’s throat is the only thing stopping the fae from wreaking havoc on this human. And he knows that. He taunts Lilia, all the while tracing soft skin with that blade and spouting delirious squabbles. Inevitably, the blade presses just a bit harder, biting into the flesh of the prefect’s cheek.

Suddenly, the villain is stumbling back, holding his stomach. A low laughter ripples in the air and, as the prefect turns on the attacker, the widest, most manic grin sits on that normally sweet face. The man lashes out, catching the prefect’s arm, who then promptly sucker punches him. This leads to the brawl that leaves Lilia too stunned to intervened.

With every new injury his little boo takes, the more wild and brutal the response, but it seems avoiding damage is less the goal than absolute annihilation. And the prefect clearly is no novice in combat, with surprising strength and skill. This man never stood a chance.

It’s only when the man lay on the ground, cowering beneath stomp after stomp that Lilia snaps to and intervenes. He almost takes a swing himself, but when those eyes land on him, all falls calm and the smile vanishes.

He’s bewildered as his sweet, darling partner—covered in cuts and crimson—apologizes profusely for swiping at him. He’s not upset, simply astounded that such destruction could come from someone seemingly so innocent.

Needless to say, after that, Lilia believed what the prefect said. Not much changed about how their relationship went, except that now Lilia paid closer attention when talk of that gruesome world came up. It shouldn’t have been that way. His prefect should’ve been his sweet, gentle, cutie pie through and through, not forced to accept the possibility of death in such a manner. Sure, it was a nice sentiment that his partner knew self-defense, but it was the cost that haunted him.

~~~~~

Nova’s Twisted Wonderland Masterlist

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before but, regardless of trope, your favourite historicals of all time???? I was gonna say top10 or something but I read and love literally every one of your recs so top100 would work just as well <3

First off, thank you so much, you're too kind. I don't know if I can give you my Top 100 just yet (though I wish I could lol) but I CAN give you a good cluster ;).

It's been a whiiiile since I've thought of this, and it changes, so I'm happy to answer! I'm going to have some repeats, because I'm true my heart and some authors just write a good few bangers.

My top... 28, I think? In no particular order.

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas—Easy answer, I adore this book, it changed the way I look at romance and it's so, so definitive re: my taste. Beautifully written, angsty (and kinda funny too), made me realize one of my core couple dynamics is "somewhat crazy woman and stern man who just doesn't know what the FUCK she's doing and is totally thrown off by her shit".

Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt—Another easy one, virgin hero (which I love) who's nonetheless quite stern, jaded older heroine (another thing I love—a jaded heroine), it has the Zorro masked man vibes, the high stakes, INSANELY good sex scenes that only Elizabeth Hoyt can write... And perfectly written angst that isn't magically resolved. Gorgeous gorgeous GORGEOUS.

Waking Up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath—Another angst machine, has a scene that never fails to make emotional, a crazy setup that turns out to be deeply emotional. Icy proper woman/secretly deeply pining rake. AINSLEY!!!!

Princess by Gaelen Foley—A recent favorite; supremely angsty, supremely sexy, supremely BONKERS. He feels unworthy, which, please, is crack to me. She's a literal princess, giggly and flirty and horny to the max. He's a good bit older, they've known each other for YEEEEARS (... literally all her life), he works for her father. It's very ILLICIT AFFAIRS. Everything I love.

The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley—Every single one of the first four Mackenzie books is a bANGER and this is the best one for me. I love a second chance romance. I love a growly hero and a heroine who absolutely owns him. I love that they've both been around the block (and have had sex before, three times, as he reminds her). Hart needed a woman who could MANAGE him and match his freak, and Eleanor is that. She boops his nose and he growls! He does a striptease for her! Perfection, even better if you've read the first three books.

A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean—Another one I read early in my return to romance, and I adore it. Bourne is the most dickish hero MacLean has written (imo) and Penelope is such a a sweet heroine who nonetheless doesn't put up with it. He has to work so hard to earn her love, as he should. I adore the childhood friends to at odds vibe, another thing I'm sooo into.

Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale—A pretty dark historical? Allegreto is CRAZY, Elena manages him perfectly. I love a good kinky romance, and this one is so, so sexy? The femdom is perfect, but it's also beautifully written and has a lot of deep themes. The fact that he thinks he's going to hell and she's like "Whatever, I'll go there with you". It has both corruption and redemption vibes.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe—One of the books I hyped to a ridiculous degree before it came out, and somehow it delivered on everything. Has a touch of kink (mostly through rough sex, biting, etc) but it's honestly so soft in many ways. Lockwood isn't a pushover or a cinnamon roll, but he does have so much heart and he falls so hard. Nellie being the resistant, rakish one delights me. It has a great world (we need more Gilded Age books). It's another one where everything isn't resolved PERFECTLY, and I love that bit of realism. Just a big sigh ROMANCE romance. "I'm keeping you, Eleanor" PLEEEEASE.

Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall—Definitely tonally an unconventional historical, but my God, I love it. It's so funny. It's one of the only nb/nb romances I've read, and I love that it's a historical. Definitely the only one that has a castrato soprano lead, and we should honestly have more because they FUCKED. Like. Read it up. Castrati FUUUUUUUUUCKED. It's really tender and it has one of my favorite climactic moments. A very unconventional ending that made me smile so hard.

What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long. Just a classic, perfectly written age gap romance. This one doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it hits everything it needs to hit perfectly. Has a great mix of humor, emotion, and heat.

Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas—While there are the classic Kleypas issues with depicting the Romani people and I do dock this book a little for that... Look. The romance aspects are perfect for me. I know that Kev is too angsty for some people, but I love angst and I love the childhood friend devotion and the feeling of unworthiness and Win being ridiculous horny and determined to have her own happiness. Has one of the greatest love confessions of all time. One of the best "the dam has broken and they are FUCKIN'" moments. Just GORGEOUS.

When the Duke Was Wicked by Lorraine Heath—Another one that gets me super emotional. I love the horrified realization Lovingdon has as he realizes that he's so attracted to Grace. The intense desire. The denial of his feelings soooo far into the book, even when it's painfully clear to everyone that he's madly in love with her. This book also is one of the best when it comes to dealing with the Dead Wife Question. Of course Lorraine pulls it off.

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall—Another one that's so unique and great and has amazing trans representation (at least to me, as a cis person, I could be wrong). It has this AMAZINGLY romantic moment that I always find SO FUCKING SWOONY. A great mix of old school vibes and modern sensibilities.

Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt—Truly bonkers. Maximus is my ultimate alpha hero; a dick, aggressive, super stern, super resistant to love. Artemis just isn't intimidated. There's a lot of angst in this book, and honestly? I find the fact that he is a dick and Hoyt isn't afraid of embracing that really admirable, from a writing perspective.

Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath—JACK DODGER I LOVE YOUR WORK. A perfect "rogue meets uptight lady" book (I hesitate to call Jack a rake because he pays for sex pretty much exclusively, but he's definitely roguish). There's a wonderful dynamic here, Olivia being in denial of her attraction.

A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught—A gorgeously written book! You can see the groundwork being laid for other historicals here. A fabulous setting. The way the romance becomes so vicious at points, in a frankly hilarious way. Royce dragging Jennifer to the altar like "I DON'T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE THAN YOU DO" is amazing.

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. Classic, everyone loves this book (well... not everyone) but with good reason. It's so very good. The perfectly executed rake/virgin book, with iconic moments, iconic characters, iconic SPIELS. The moment when Sebastian staggers out of bed trembling after the first time they have sex lives rent-free in my brain.

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. Just a fucking knockout of a book. Another "rake/practical virgin" book, backed by beautiful prose and impeccable historical research (nobody does it like Ms. Bev). There's so much seduction in this book. A great rooomance, but then it has a fun bonkers villain situation (I know some people don't like this... I do, I'm kind of a sucker for this type of controversial and perhaps dated villain). The ending makes me cry a lot.

Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens—Kind of a new one for me, and it's here because it's so fucking bonkers. Constantly entertaining, Catriona is such a difficult heroine who... crosses the line a lot. Has a scene where Richard draws a sketch of her ass birthmark to be like "I WILL SHOW EVERYONE THIS TO PROVE THAT I HIT IT FROM THE BACK IF YOU DON'T MARRY ME". A delightfully fucking weird book and I loved every minute.

Hyacinth by S.M. LaViolette—The more I think about this book, the more I love it. One that I loved originally, and it rose in my regard over time. A scarred hero (who likes it rough). They're both switches. Hyacinth is neurodivergent and very much unconventional, and doesn't even think herself capable of love because of what society has told her she is. The climax of this book? Incredible.

Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas. A gorgeously done book, so ambitious, has an iconically HORRID hero (in the best way), executes the rare feat of offering both an amazing primary romance and an absolutely fabulous, emotionally affecting secondary romance. It just hits so hard, dude. It's so good. It's probably Kleypas's BEST book in terms of general quality (though DoY will probably always be my favorite).

Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley—A great marriage in trouble book! That's also super horny! I love so much that though there was a big breaking point in Mac and Isabella's marriage, there were very normal issues beforehand that had less to do with horrible behavior or ridiculous tragedy, but... Like... Them just not being ready for marriage? Especially him. The passion was always there, but passion and great sex isn't enough for a good marriage, and I love that in this book they do have the passion and great sex but also have to build a stronger relationship on an emotional level.

Regarding the Duke by Grace Callaway—Another delightfully bonkers romance. I love that they've been married eight years and she thinks it's enough but learns that it ISN'T. He has to open to her emotionally. There's amnesia. There's VILLAINY. I also love that the hero in this one has to. not only become a better husband, but a better father? I haven't read a lot of historicals where the hero and heroine aren't just married, but have kids.

A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell—Ummmm I read this very recently but it's been sticking in my heart? It's more lighthearted than a lot of the romances I've loved. But i just love this story of a hero and heroine going on a bicycle race lmao. I love how funny it is, and how the villain kind of... grows? I love that the hero is a rake and trans. I love that the heroine is a widow who decides to like, have good sex for the first time ever and go with it (and suddenly there are feelings). It's just really good.

Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt—Helloooooooo emotion. This is one of the best "healing from trauma" books I've ever read. Asa Makepeace is just a perfect rake who's secretly so deep and so gentle. The way he introduces Eve to sex is fucking gorgeous. His patience, his tenderness, his love of what SHE'S okay with it.

A Rose at Midnight by Lisa Kleypas Anne Stuart—This is what I'd call a dark historical. It's true enemies to lovers. The hero is a rat bastard for most of the book. The sex... is very dubcon for much of the book. But man. I think it's so bold, the writing is so good, the story is so different from what I've read in the genre. It just hit a lot of buttons for me. And it has a great secondary romance, something Stuart excels at. Ummm also the fact that the secondary romance is fueled by the secondary heroine wanting to save the primary heroine, her best friend? LOVE THAT.

Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt—Sorry dude, Mickey and Silence are just for Me. He's a ridiculous rake. She's a Quaker widow. There's that element of like "I'VE GOT YOU MY PRETTY". I actually love the baby in this book, and that can be a hard sell for me. (Several of these books include kids lol, but man, it's just this thing where you need to get it right.) It has one of my bad boy/good girl books.

The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath—Lol sorry, Gorilla Twins is a banger all the way. It's fucking insane. It's super romantic. It has one of the best "angst horizons" I've ever read. It does that Lorraine Heat Thing where you're like how THE FUCK is this gonna work. And then it does! It's just everything, for me. Edward Alcott, you beautiful idiot.

[loz-chainsofcorruption]

11. Is it possible to ask for Song? Or is that a spoiler?

HAHA nah no spoiler. Everyone, you can tell this person knows me as they're asking about a character I have yet to introduce from a story I have yet to talk about.

For context, I've got another AU of my own where A Bunch of Link's Meet called The Legend of Zelda: Scattered Light. There's similarities to Jojo's (I mean, we're all basing them off of the heroes that already exist, so I suppose it's inevitable), but it's definitely different in some ways. One of the heroes, separate from Vet (that is, the Hero of Legend, though in this AU he'll go by Vet) is called Song. His adventures were the games Tri Force Heroes and Cadence of Hyrule. (I know according to the timelines, technically the hero that did those adventures is also the one who did ALBW but I think grumpy boy + Ravio is funnier so I'm tweaking things a bit 🤫)

So! I guess you all get to meet him now. Note, this is NOT Linked Universe so please don't tag it as such..(Finished piece under the cut since it's kinda long)

11: Drastic

-

Song was a sweet person. Everyone could agree on that - he was friendly, upbeat, and put up with Vet’s snide comments just as smoothly as Sky, their other resident sweetheart.

Of course, the group had only known each other for a few days, so it turned out that each smile in response to biting words was merely a cover for what was building underneath before the young man finally snapped.

It was very clear to everyone from the start that the Vet was frustrated with Song’s descriptions of his adventures. Many of the others couldn't even fully disagree with his ire, even if they disagreed with how open he could be about it. It was hard not to feel jealous. Dressing up in helpful costumes while running around with teammates by your side? Dancing around the kingdom?

His two adventures sounded like a walk in the park compared to their own. For the vet, who had gone through a number of adventures he had yet to specify but was certainly more than any of the others, it was understandable that it especially rubbed him the wrong way. 

But finally, all of the vet's remarks came to a point.

“Maybe Song has a pretty dress he can throw on that'll help him dance his way through this,” the veteran muttered.

Song came to a halt, spinning around with a smile on his face that was frighteningly different from the usual. His normal smile in response to Vet’s sharp comments gave off an air of “couldn't care less”, like nothing in the world could bring him down. It was admirable, really. And maybe that was why people hadn't scolded the veteran for his words as much as they should have. Their own quiet jealousy combined with the fact that it didn't seem to bother Song had led to complacency.

But this smile was all sharp edges, even as it curved his eyes into almost pleasant-looking crescents. The small, pointed wings of his eyeliner had never looked so knife-like before and the blue of his eyes looked like ice.

“Alright. I think that's quite enough of that,” the teen said. His voice was deceptively chipper. Something lying underneath that tone had everyone shivering. Even the veteran had tensed under this new reaction, eyeing his fellow hero with suspicion. “You seem to think my time adventuring was all candy and rainbows, don't you?”

Everyone flinched back when those cold eyes swept across them as well. Song's anger felt like frigid snow on a sunny day and it was honestly rather terrifying.

“Most of you do, I can tell. And I can understand, I suppose. I've not given a whole lot of details because I prefer not to dwell on difficult things.” Song’s smile vanished, expression turning uncharacteristically serious. “But even I can admit it wasn't as gruesome as some things some of you have been through. And I hate that you guys have gone through some terrible things, I do.”

He lifted his chin. “But I'm not going to stand here any longer and let my own journeys be belittled.”

And then his smile reappeared, even as his gaze stayed flinty. Somehow, that was more frightening than the unexpected serious expression.

Even more so as he unhooked his bag and crouched, rifling through it. “I think it's time you all get a taste of the things I had to learn to survive my adventures.”

The performer pulled out a pair of pink high heels.

“C'mon now, Song. The vet definitely shouldn't say those sorts of things, but let's not be drastic,” Twilight said with a nervous laugh as Song pulled out a second pair of heels, these ones blue. Nothing good could come from this man pulling out heels, he was sure of it. Especially when Mask looked excited. He generally did not have a good time when Mask looked excited.

“Alright, Vet.” Song turned to the teen in question, holding up the pink pair. “Since you can't keep your mouth shut about it, you can go first. We're going to spar in high heels.”

The veteran's cheeks burned as he stared at him. Song shook the heels a little.

“C'mon. You think it's so easy, right? Everything I did? Then come on over and show everyone how well you can do it.”

Lips bunching in a scowl, Vet marched over and snatched the heels, yanking off his boots and sitting down to put them on. The heels didn't look much higher than the heels of some boots. It really couldn't be that difficult. 

Except, as he stood and wobbled, arms flying out to try and steady himself, he realized the thinness made a large difference in balance, especially on grass. 

The blue heels were on Song's feet, the fashionista standing up smoothly, stance confident.

“Draw your sword,” Song said, voice frosty as he pulled his own colorful blade. “And Wind, you're good at keeping time, right? Clap in a steady beat for us. At this speed, please.” He patted his leg for a few seconds as an example and the sailor nodded, beginning to mimic the beat.

Song was already shifting back and forth, a small bounce to his movements as he readied his sword. “Now Vet, try to stay on beat, would you? After all, every time you go off beat, you'd just be losing built up power.”

“Huh?”

“Chuchu,” the young man replied simply as he bounced side to side, a hum starting up in his throat.

And so a dance began. A one-sided dance, anyway. The first time Vet tried to dodge Song's sword thrust, he nearly fell over as his heel got stuck in the earth.

“C'mon, Vet, a Chuchu is the easiest,” Song said, voice almost sing-song. “But wait, you're a veteran right? Maybe that's too easy.”

And suddenly, the hero was circling Vet, still hopping on beat, humming again to a song no one knew. Forward, forward, left, turn - the other boy couldn't move quick enough in his heels, let alone stay on any semblance of a beat, and before he knew it, his feet had been swept out from under him and a sword pointed at his throat.

Song didn't even say anything, just stared down at him for a moment like he was a bug before turning to the others, a cheerful smile lighting up his face.

“Alright, who's next?”

[bold-writing]

The One With Whiskey Eyes || 24 || Motherly or Lovingly, You're Mine

Words: 3000+

Warnings: None

Previous || Next

~24~

Iris hummed happily as she took a bite of the carefully prepared lasagna. Luke smiled from his place across the table, watching as she took her first bite before even starting on his. When he’d first pulled off the foil covered the dish, he hadn’t known what he was looking at—all he could see was red sauce. The word ‘meatloaf’ had been on the tip of his tongue before Iris peeked around his shoulder and chirped ‘oh! I haven’t had lasagna in forever!’, offering to help him set things while he put it in the oven.

Glad to have dodged the moment of embarrassment, he gladly handed the plates and utensils to Iris.

“So I’m assuming Patricia does most of the cooking?” She cut her section of lasagna carefully, trying to keep the layers from separating as she ate.

Luke hummed for a moment in consideration. “I wouldn’t say the most. A few of the others love to cook, like how Felicia is with her make-up and Barry is with his sketches. Don’t tell them, but I’d say-” he stopped just shy of speaking the name, knowing that he and Iris hadn’t met yet and didn’t know if he should say it.

The small woman seemed to understand the reason for his pause and smiled in assurance. “You can say names. I already know Jade and Hedwig, haven’t met them yet. They may be soulmates I’ve yet to meet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring them up. Just gives me something to know about them in advance.” She took another bite as Luke sighed in relief.

“Heinrich,” he finished. “I’d say Heinrich cooks the best. Honestly, he should be the one on grocery detail; the guy uses most of the food anyway.”

Iris smiled as she listened to him, loving how he spoke of the other alters affectionately. Like family. “What’s your favourite dish?” she inquired. “I mean overall, not just cooked by Heinrich.” Saying the name made her tongue feel thick, as it did whenever she said the name of someone she was yet to meet. Originally, she wasn’t sure if she should speak with one of her soulmates about another, but so long as they didn’t mind bringing them up she would be happy to continue the conversation.

Luke sat back as he chewed, looking off to the side wall as he pondered. “That’s a hard one.”

She knew it, too. Whenever someone asked her what he favourite thing was—book, movie, pastime—she always had trouble answering. “How about….what dish are you craving lately?”

The look that came to his face was almost dreamy, and Iris knew he was playing it up for her. “Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo.” Iris made a soft sound of agreement, remembering the last time she had made some for herself when she’d had a day off and a fresh batch of groceries. “Yours?”

“Can’t say a favourite, but I’ve been craving a pulled-pork sandwich,” she admitted, getting a surprised look from Luke. Clearly that wasn’t what he had been expecting. The look made her giggle, covering the bite of food she had just eaten. Once she finished chewing, she elaborated, “I had one at the little deli restaurant some years back called Sweet Meats. They ended up moving to a new location, bit too far for a cab ride, so I haven’t had it in a while. But their sandwiches were to die for. It’s not often I get takeout, but they were definitely one I went for quite often.”

Luke stopped eating as she spoke, leaning his chin on his fist as he smiled at her. “We’ll have to make a day of it sometime. Go up for sandwiches, find something to do while we’re there. That way it’s not a waste of a ride just for something to eat.”

Flushing with happiness, Iris nodded in agreement and busied herself with another bite.

“Even if she doesn’t cook as often as I thought, Patricia makes excellent lasagna.”

Luke flashed another brilliant smile. “I’ll be sure to tell her!”

The small conversations continued as they finished off their plates, Iris immediately declining a second. She had eaten more in one sitting than she normally would in an entire day. The sleep lull had returned to her eyes, however, and Luke immediately refused her offer to wash their dishes in favour of soaking them in the waiting sink.

The original plan was for Iris to head home that night. However, as she grew sleepier with food in her belly the thought of her walking home made him feel sick with worry. It was such a short distance he knew she would refuse to take a taxi, so the compromise came to allow her the chance to sleep over again. Iris had become accustomed to the routine after the several nights she had stayed following the incident at the store.

An open invitation from Felicia gave her a place to sleep, her meagre toiletries still in the bathroom for her use. Barry had an early start the next day for work, and Iris had a later shift that would have her closing the store the next day. It was already nearing midnight by the time Luke walked Iris to Felicia’s room, now wearing a set of her own pajamas that had been left behind.

Iris approached him first, wrapping him in a tight hug as she leaned her cheek in against his pectoral. “Thank you, Luke. It was a wonderful date.”

“We’ll have to do it again soon,” he responded, the smile he wore apparent in his voice.

Returning her tight embrace, cheek resting on the crown of her head, Luke didn’t want to let her go. He wanted to be selfish and keep her with him for as long as he could. But they both had work and he would get an earful from Barry if he did not get to sleep at a decent time. His next exhale came out like a sigh, Iris letting out an answering one before she started to draw back from him.

“I’ll message you tomorrow, okay?”

“Mhm,” she hummed with a smile, before she gently cradled his jaw in her small hands, lifting onto her tiptoes and pressing the ghost of a kiss against his cheek. Her lips lingered, spreading their warmth, and drew back too soon for Luke’s liking.

Her cheeks were flushed a warm pink as she retracted her hands. “Sleep well.”

Catching her chin between his fingers before she could flee, Luke returned her kiss with one of his own, high on her cheekbone and closer to the sensitive skin at her ear. “You too, Sweet.” He swore he could feel the heat from her blush warming her skin, making him grin with the knowledge that he had been the one to put it there.

She slipped into Felicia’s brightly coloured room, shyly casting him one more smile before the door was closed between them.

Neither were able to keep the smile off of their lips as they tucked themselves in for the night, wishing it had not had to end.

Iris had been so tired from the day, she did not dream or wake again until a weight suddenly landed on her legs, one of which had been curled up on top of the blankets to expose her sock-covered foot to the air. Jerking in surprise at the sudden contact, she tried to sit up, but a weight caught around her waist and pinned her in place. An instant of panic seized her heart before she looked down at the familiar shaved head of her soulmates’ body, but which soulmate was perched atop her was an answer she did not have.

Her erratic heartbeat steadily calmed as she leaned to prop herself up on her elbows.

She had only opened her mouth to speak, still unsure what words would come out, before her soulmate rolled abruptly, looking down at her feet. Rendered silent from the sudden and erratic movements, she watched as he moved until his feet were next to hers, revealing they were wearing nearly identical blue socks, hers of a slightly fuzzier quality.

“Look, look! We have matching socks!”

The familiar, and often confusing, words brought a smile to her face as she looked from her small feet to his larger ones. The lisp in his words hinted that she might be speaking with the one named Hedwig, but she didn’t want to make any assumptions and instead wiggled her foot to tap her toes against his.

“Look at that, we’re soulmates and we match,” she responded sweetly, sleep thickening her voice just slightly.

The smile he turned on her was one of pure childish happiness. It warmed her heart to see and, even as tired as she was, she could not help but to return it. Similar to how he must have arrived in the room, he pounced again; bouncing up beside her, Iris threw her hand out to stop herself from tipping off the bed. The antics of her newest soulmate set her off in a fit of giggles. Once she was sure she was not going to overbalance off of the bed, she rolled to face him. He was wearing a tracksuit—black with white and blue accents—and his blue socks.

“I’m Hedwig.” Inches separated them, the light from the hall allowing her the chance to see his face in the otherwise dark room. He looked at her so excitedly, like she had hung the moon. It made her feel so special just from that look alone.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Hedwig. I’m Iris.”

He made a soft scoffing sound, more of a laugh really, and ducked his head briefly before he looked to her eyes again. “I know that, silly!”

Patiently, Iris smiled back. “I’m sure you do,” she assured. “It’s just polite when someone introduces themselves to return the favor.”

Hedwig made an ‘oh’ face as he nodded along. “I also have red socks,” he blurted out suddenly. Iris blinked before she nodded.

“I don’t think I have any red pairs. I’ll have to buy some.”

“Yes!” Then he made a face that Iris knew well; he was trying to repress a yawn.

“It’s awfully early to be awake.” Shifted slightly, Iris laid her head down on the pillow. “Aren’t you tired?” While stopping herself from falling off of the bed, she’d glanced at Felicia’s alarm clock and caught the time that glared 4:12 in bright red. It was too early, even for Barry to have to wake up for work.

Hedwig shook his head rapidly, making an ‘uh-uh’ sound.

She wasn’t sure how old Hedwig was, but she did know that telling a child to go to sleep was often the wrong choice and could be met with resistance. “I’m sleepy,” she said instead, hoping he would give in and go back to sleep as well if he knew she wanted to. “I’m not usually awake this early.”

Even in the minimal light provided, she could tell when he started to pout.

When she had originally caught the hints that one of her soulmates was going to be a child, she had been worried that there might be trouble distinguishing him or her from the adults that made up her other soulmates. However, the comfort came to her just as easily as it had when meeting Patricia and Felicia, embracing the knowledge that some of her soulmates were going to be women. Having so many soulmates, she was sure quite a few were going to be platonic but she honestly could not say whether all of the female ones would fall into that category of not.

Soulmates were not always romantic. They were meant for each other simply because that is what someone needed in their life. A mother or father figure, a child, or a dear friend. Soulmates were whatever someone needed to complete themselves.

Hedwig was still so new to her, and already she could feel the unmistakeable urge to hold him close and protect him from everything the world would use to hurt him. Being a child in a man’s body, she was sure there were times he and the others were ridiculed simply for not understanding.

That protective feeling must have been lacking with her mother and father.

“Would you like to stay here with me? A few more hours of sleep will be good for both of us.” His pout lifted, becoming a shy grin before he nodded his head. Opening her arms, Iris let him shuffle closer and come to rest with his head on her chest. He must have been able to hear her heartbeat with his ear resting over her breast. Wrapping him in her embrace—the broadness of his shoulders making her adjust her hold just slightly—she gently rubbed on hand up and down his back as the other came to cradle the back of his neck.

God, he was like a living furnace. The heat that bled from his body would easily keep her warm.

She could tell when Hedwig drifted to sleep, the soft snores were the dead giveaway, as he cuddled in closer and tucked his hands up near her stomach to keep them warm. She continued to lightly stroke her hand up and down his back, listening to his light snoring and taking in the warm breath that seeped through her clothes to her sternum. Gradually, she lessened her soft stroking until her hand was simply resting on his back

Knowing that Barry had to be awake for six-thirty, the sleep she fell into was a light one. Sometimes she dozed more deeply, but even the faintest shift from Hedwig would wake her again. Occasionally she would crane her head back to see the time, but the hours passed slow until the time Barry’s alarm would have sounded.

It was when she was in one of her dozing states that the body she held suddenly jerked, pulling away. It startled her back into consciousness as well, her eyes wide and her hands lifting to allow her soulmate the chance to move back.

Not Hedwig, then.

With a quick glance down at what they were wearing, her soulmate groaned suddenly and dropped back onto the bed with a hand clapped over their eyes. Iris remained lying in silence, trying to gauge if this was someone she had met before or if this was a new soulmate. “Hedwig,” he mumbled. “I’m so sorry, Iris.” Ah, someone she knew.

“Barry, it’s okay. I found him very endearing.” Propping herself up on an elbow, she offered a smile even as Barry groaned again. Reached out, she slipped her fingers under his palm and drew his hand back from his face. “What’s wrong?” This could not have been because he had snuck in while she was sleeping. He was a child and judging by the lisp he was still too young to think anything more of sleeping beside her than simply sleeping beside her.

There was a twisted feeling in her stomach that she came to realize was not hers. It made her realize just how strong the connect between her and her soulmates was becoming; this was the first time she had felt something from them.

Barry’s lips pursed, like he was fighting the urge to lash out for something. He refused to meet her eyes for a moment, but she waited patiently—still holding his hand in hers—and he finally shifted his focus to her. “He’s nine,” he started. However, as long as Iris waited, nothing else followed the abrupt declaration.

“So?”

“So?” he repeated as his face coloured with surprise. “He’s nine! I share this body with a child.”

His discomfort became clear in an instant and Iris felt her heart clench for him. Was this something he’d been worrying about for long? Was it a concern shared by the other soulmates?

“Barry,” she started carefully, shifted closer and wrapping an arm around his torso so he had no chance to move away from her. “I have twenty-three soulmates. You all share one body. Some are women, some are men, and apparently there’s at least one nine-year-old mixed in. Having Hedwig as one of the others in this body doesn’t change my view of you any more than Felicia or Patricia. You’re all unique to me. I look at you and I don’t see Hedwig or anyone else. Just you.”

He still looked hesitant, but he at least turned his head to look at her.

Smiling with reassurance, she leaned forward to press a soft kiss to his paled lips. “Have you been worrying about this, all this time?”

Barry’s silence was her answer. Her response was to lean over him and kiss him again, lingering this time. He softened under her lips. One of his hands remained in hers, the other lifted to cradle the back of her head. This kiss was different than the one shared under the falling snow. It was not as tentative, like a careful first step into water to test the temperature. This was assurance, proof of feelings for someone that words lack the ability to convey.

His lips were softer than she had been expecting. Parting from him for a moment, she shifted to catch his bottom lip between hers and let the tip of her tongue tease the soft skin gently. The sharp intake of breath told her that her boldness paid off, followed by the increased pressure on the back of her head pulling her closer.

Only when air became necessary did she finally pull back; Barry’s grip loosened until she had no trouble putting the slight amount of distance between them.

“You’re all here with me, Barry. But I don’t look at you and see them as well. I promise. I don’t care what anyone else says, you’re each your own person.”

If she saw his eyes glisten with tears, she didn’t say a word. “Thank you, Iris. Fate couldn’t have given us a better soulmate.”

Her weight leaned onto him again, lips seeking his, when an alarm clock down the hall sounded and shattered the quiet between them. Iris jumped slightly at the sudden sound, then burst into soft laughter at the sour look that briefly coloured Barry’s face.

“Time for work, hun.” Sighing, his head dropped back down onto the pillow.

Previous || Next

[return-of-a-space-cowboy]

The Maystone mangler pt2

Usually, you'd sleep in on Sunday but today you were up getting dressed in the best and most modest outfit possible. You hadn't attended church since you lived with your parents but you decided you probably should, considering you didn't go out much. Perhaps you'd have the opportunity to get to know some of the townsfolk better.

You looked at yourself in the mirror, checking if your outfit was suitable enough before leaving your bedroom and entering the kitchen.

You turned the light on and stared at it for a moment. It was still flickering, you'd have to buy a new light bulb at some stage.

You grabbed some bread and put it in the toaster before grabbing some spread. While you waited you made your way to the front door and grabbed the newspaper. You put the paper on the dining table on your way back to the kitchen, open the fridge, and grab a carton of juice. You pour yourself a cup before grabbing your toast, putting it on a plate, putting on the spread, and making your way to the dining table.

You sit down and take a bite of toast as you begin to read the news. Nothing really catches your attention. It kind of makes you miss the city news, sure it wasn't all good but gave you something to think about. You sip your juice and finish eating before you leave.

🍂🍂🍂

The morning sermon ended and everyone flocked outside where they grouped up to socialize. You were surprised, when you were a kid everyone was desperate to leave the second the sermon was finished but here everyone seemed to get along with one another.

Honestly, you felt a little out of place. All these people who'd probably known each other their entire lives and you were just some stranger.

“Oh (Y/n) it's good to see you here today” a sweet southern voice that you immediately knew.

“Oh hello Mauve” you greeted as you turned to her direction where she stood with Blackmore who was obviously dressed in his Sunday best. Black dress pants, a white button-up shirt, and a dark blue tie that he was currently fiddling with in his hand.

“And hello Blackmore” you greeted him too. His expression brightened immediately.

“So what brought you to church today?” she asked you.

“Well I finished up with most of the house maintenance and I thought I'd get to know my community more” you replied.

“Oh you poor thing, you tried fixing up that old

house all by yourself” she said as she put your hands in yours.

“You know you can ask all of us here in town if you need any help” she assured you.

“T-thank you” you stuttered, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Blackmore and I were going to head to the diner for breakfast if you want to join,” she offered and you accepted.

You followed them both for 5 or so minutes before you arrived. It was a small diner with a muted palette of browns and dark greens. You sat down at one of the stalls and a waiter quickly handed you all the menus.

You looked at the menu trying to figure out what to eat but you couldn’t decide.

“Do you know what you want (Y/n)?” Mauve asked.

You looked down at the menu, it was massive. And you had already eaten an early breakfast so you weren't too hungry.

“I might just get the standard bacon and eggs and coffee” you replied.

“Are you sure that'll be enough for you?” She asked.

“Yeah, I had some toast before I left” you replied.

“And you want your usual?” Mauve asked as she turned to Blackmore.

“Yes please,” he said.

“Are you ready to order?” the waitress asked. You turned to face her to reply. She was young no older than 14. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

“Oh good morning Lucy, I was wondering why you weren't with Steven this morning” Mauve greeted her.

“Martin called in sick so I offered to take over his shift this morning” she explained.

“anyways what can I get you guys?” She asked.

“Could I get two teas and a coffee, eggs Benedict with a side of mushrooms, the berry waffles, and bacon and eggs?” she told Lucy before you had the chance to tell her your order. Lucy quickly jotted the order in her notebook.

“And how would you like your eggs? Boiled, fried or scrambled?” Lucy asked you.

“fried please” you asked.

“No problem,” she told you.

“I'll have your drinks in a minute,” she told you before leaving.

“Lucy's an absolute sweetheart, she came here only a year ago after she was adopted by the Steels. She's been saving up to go to a nice college and become an English teacher” she told you.

“That's some dedication, when I was her age I had no idea what I wanted to do” you replied.

Shortly after Lucy came back with both a tea and coffee pot along with cups, carefully placing them down while balancing the tray in one hand.

“Food will be out in a few minutes” she assured you before leaving again.

“So (y/n) have you had enough time to explore Maystone?” Mauve asked you as she poured herself and Blackmore some tea.

“A little bit, mostly central,” you replied.

“Oh dear you've been missing out, the best sites are just a little outwards. About a decade ago we'd go hiking in the woods just a bit south of here. The lake was just gorgeous” she told you. Looking at Blackmore there was a somber expression on his face.

“The boys would fish there for hours” she sighed, reminiscing. You could tell that there was a sadness to it. Then you remembered what Magenta said about Frederik.

🍂🍂🍂

After breakfast, you both headed home. When they returned Blackmore went into his room and sank into the double bed, the quilted blanket his mother made pretty much absorbing him. He never was fond of getting up early. Nowadays he didn't really have the luxury of sleeping in but it was a small price to pay to help his mother. So on Sundays, he'd take a nap after church. He closed his eyes only to get startled by a knock on the door.

“Yes, mom?” He asked while sitting up. She opened the door and stood by the doorway.

“Isn't (y/n) so lovely?” she said.

“Um… yes!” he blurted a little flustered.

“You should try talking a little more, I know you want to get to know them better” she spoke sweetly. It was true, he did want to get to know you better but he was absolutely terrible at socializing. Always had been.

“I'm sure they'd really appreciate your company, after all, everything here is entirely new to them" she continued.

"Maybe take them to the old inn for the monthly get-together?” She suggested. He blushed a little at the thought but then he shook his head.

“But what about you? if you were to get hurt I wouldn't be there to help you” he asked. He knew his mom never attended, the idea of leaving her alone and her getting hurt terrified him.

“Blackmore, sweetheart… you shouldn't worry so much about me, live a little for yourself” she said as she came over and hugged him.

“I know it's been tough with everything that's happened, but you've got to set your sights on the future,” she told him before kissing him on the forehead before she got up and made her way out.

“Also I came to tell you I'm putting on some lamb shanks for tonight,” she told him before closing the door.

[unknown-writez]

The Traveler and The Jester

Chapter one: strange places and meetings

Part six

without thinking, blinded by my emotions and everything I grabbed two of the smallish looking pink and purple fruit examining it. I could only describe it as a cross between a peach and a plum but when I synced my teeth into the juice filled fruit I was met with the taste of sweet raspberries and wine. wanting more I quickly ate the next my body finally feeling hungry through all the adrenaline deciding to take one more. puck followed suit tossing one in his mouth before placing the bowl on the table. as I watched puck do it everything started to go in slow motion my head growing clouded and relaxed a high sensation starting to come over me tingling my whole body. Noticing the change puck gave out a small chuckle before he grabbed my chin tilting my head upwards so he could look me properly in the eye, his brimming with curiosity. “how are you feeling?” he asked. smiling I said “honestly I’m feeling a little zooted” puck laughed joining in entertained by not being able to understand me saying “I can’t believe you're still functioning.” “why?” I asked, swaying a little “cause that fruit you ate isn't the regular kind. fey use these to get drunk. For humans this stuff is supposed to knock you on your ass. I jokingly gave Meghan some and she passed out after eating one bite you ate three.” he explained “well…” I said, closing my eyes, relishing in the feeling “she sounds kinda like a bitch.” puck tugged on my hair making me open my eyes ``hey! what?” I continued “she’s a lightweight. I’m Scott’s Irish. I was made for this.” I finished laughing as puck made an exasperated sigh sitting down with me finally. “of course you are.” he said sarcastically “everything over there is rooted in magic. you can’t take five steps without stepping into something complicated and magical then once it’s in your blood it’s there forever.” he finished “hmmm…totally” I say not fully able to comprehend what he was rambling on about “you know I see why you guys use this stuff. I have never felt a high this good and I have tried everything in Brooklyn.” I say using my hands to express it, breaking him from his roaming thoughts “at least now we know for sure there’s something wrong with you.” he joked “yep that’s me! always a mess!” I laughed back “I think you should probably go to bed honey. we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” puck said leaning back with a yawn “I’ll take the couch.” he finished I nodded and tried getting up only to trip on the table. puck quickly sat up reaching out his arms he put his hands on my waist keeping me from toppling over. I laughed as I stood straight again, pucks hands hesitantly leaving my body as I started stumbling my way to the bedroom door. feeling pucks cautious eyes on me I turned around only to catch them darting to something else pretending he wasn’t watching making me smile. “thank you puck…” I said looking at him affectionately, his eyes immediately finding mine with a surprised yet still equally passionate gaze “for everything.” I finished in a soft tone, turning a light shade of pink as blush went to his ears and face puck replied casually “it’s nothing…” pausing for a second his face softened his green eyes sparkling with admiration “I’ll do anything to help you.” He finished with a more serious tone. Hearing those words made my head spin. my heart swelled in my chest. Unable to bring words to my emotions I nodded with a smile and gave him a little salute saying a light “goodnight.” at him then I turned entering the room, the door closing behind me. I leaned against the wood head raised to the ceiling, a faint smile on my face as the heat that had risen on my cheeks lingered. Closing my eyes I savored the moment feeling a mixture of foggy feelings known and unknown fighting for my attention. raking a hand through my untamed hair I opened my eyes denying them knowing I wasn’t going to find all the answers right now. Looking over to the bed I flopped down onto it, my head sinking into the pillow tiredness hitting me all at once. unable to fight sleep as it overtook me and I drifted into oblivion

[fcundaticnsofdecay]

already she knew that he was pushing himself to a point. from what she had known prior to that night about ellis was that he was a bit of a hermit. the fact that he was even trying to comfort her spoke volumes. it was refreshing change that he wasn't just downplaying her concerns. so often, men and women alike, brushed off her worries because they seemed to think she deserved what she got. after all she was the one who had put herself on display in a fashion most wouldn't. she had profited off men and their lust as well as their greed in a way. she found herself letting out a laugh at the fact that he had actually just said humans could suck. it wasn't a way that she was used to hearing him talk but it was clear the night was one for surprises," i have to admit, you're right and honestly? you just allowing me to talk and not just trying to tell me i'm being stupid is what i need."

of course she knew that she had possibly surprised him. he seemed to think that he was someone who people didn't pay attention to. something that she could promise was not true given what she had noticed. of course she had never voiced it to him at any event. she shrugged, biting down on her lip," maybe once in a while you should try to take a look around at what's going on once in a while." it was clear that he was concerned about what she had told him. otherwise he wouldn't have asked about what the club could do in regards to the man. she found herself shrugging and glancing behind her," unless he was really being physical, they might not remove him but there's a shot that you can order to signal to the bar tender that you need help." something she had thankfully never had to do. she sighed, knowing that ellis was right but not everyone thought that way," i hope you realize how incredibly sweet you are being right now but sadly most people in the world believe they are entitled to me because of the fact that i exposed myself in a fashion not everyone would."

it had been a choice that had been difficult. annika, often felt, like whenever she met someone she wondered if they had seen her work. yet she had the feeling ellis was not one of those people. yet she was taken by surprise when he mentioned he hadn't eaten," oh we are so going to eat," she said without thinking twice, glancing around," i think i'm fine, they won't worry." the blonde found herself going to tuck her hand into the crook of his arm before she started to walk. they could easily call for a car but the idea of being in an enclosed space wasn't thrilling for her," you don't mind if we walk do you? i'm thinking fresh air would do me some good."

unsure as to whether he'd had said the right thing or not, but appreciative that she had opened up to him; he tries his best to navigate the conversation sensitively. he's not about to explain to her how she should feel, but he wants her to know what whatever she does feel, is valid. it's hers, nobody elses and he can only imagine what people come to expect as a result of what her job happened to be. "whatever you feel is yours, i wish there was...something that i could do to help. or a simple enough solution. but humans just...i mean they can just suck." the latter word almost sounds foreign coming out of his mouth, but that doesn't mean his words are any less genuine. her world was far removed from his own, though he was sure many that worked with him teetered into her world too. that world was one he harboured no ill-will towards, he just didn't know his way around it. he'd been living vicariously through his characters and manufactured scenarios for too long now, that the real world was daunting; so many parts of it frightening the life out of him.

"oh, well…thank you. i'm in my own world a lot of the time. too scared to get caught staring at someone whilst i'm actually locked within one of my dazes. tend to keep my eyes to the ground." still; whether she's being genuine or being kind, he appreciates her words, they feel more weighted than they had done in the past, when coming from those closest to him. "i'm not sure about the…etiquette of these establishments. if you were to say a man was making you uncomfortable, would they remove him?" she shouldn't be left feeling uncomfortable, nor like an object because of some useless man that wasn't worth the concrete beneath her shoes. "he shouldn't get away with making you feel that way. whether you were still doing your job or not, it's a job. you are entitled to a life outside of it and respect inside of it. it's…" he's speechless, which is unbecoming of a writer, but he shrugs a shoulder, figures there's just no words good enough. a blush; conspicuous against his pale skin.

"i'd love to go to get food. actually haven't had a chance to stop and eat anything today…" he muses the thought, only the slightest bit concerned that he'd only now recognised that. "i'm sure they'll understand why i disappeared, i'll drop them a text. do you need to tell anyone before we make a break for it?" he questions, far too intrigued about spending more time with her. their former lack-of relationship had been brushed aside already, become something more -- even slightly. he finds himself curious for once, entirely too willing to be alone with her in a comfortable place they can sit and talk. it wasn't often he felt that comfortable with a person, least of all someone who wasn't a colleage, he wanted to make the most of it. / @fcundaticnsofdecay

[spacexseven]

that mermaid childe thing you reblogged totally put me onto sea monster dazai (imagine that dazai anon thinks about dazai call the news)... like imagine those giant empty eyes staring at you intently from underneath the still water. actually terrifying. hed probably be something fucked up looking too like a snake thing or an angler fish or something like that.... could also see him as a siren.... like ur too stubborn and well versed on the sea and its inhabitants to fall for his Beautiful Mermaid facade and hes initially got this horrible vendetta against you about it but eventually his obsession with getting you in the water with him Less so he can rip you apart and finally prove hes smarter than you and more so he can shove his weird fish tongue down ur throat i mean swim with you in a very well behaved fashion

ALSO adding an akutagawa thing cuz no one ever talks about my husband as often as they should. yan sea monster/mermaid akutagawa. he gets washed up on the beach, greviously injured, and despite the fact he keeps BITING AND SCRATCHING AND BEING SO MEAN 2 YOU you do your best to nurse him back to health in ur old pool u never use anymore (well, as healthy as aku Gets) until hes set to go back to the ocean. akutagawa has always known that humans are awful creatures who need to be killed before they kill him or his ilk, but maybe you're not so bad? first time for everything, he supposes. dont be shocked if you see some familiar scales glittering under the beach sun. or if people you know start washing up on the beach with a few less limbs than you remember them having. I was gonna immediately say aku is a shark but maybe octopus or squid would work cuz of how rashomon looks..... much to think about

- 🩹

you're so funny i can't breathe omg i too would like to swim with him in a well behaved fashion

cw: yandere characters, vague descriptions of sea creatures(?), mentions of cannibalism (well sea creature eats humans), obsessive behavior, non-con kissing, mentions of kidnapping and imprisonment, possessive behavior, jealousy, mentions of biting, scratching and self-inflicted wounds

siren dazai? no way sea monster dazai is the way to go! nothing about that guy looks safe but you know, he has a way with his words that you just can't help but think he's misunderstood and lonely. everyone thinks he's up to no good, but that's not the case at all! it's so unfortunate, you think, that dazai's being judged by the way he looks because he's really such a wonderful friend! what a shame that even the other sea creatures avoid him and his territory, of course it couldn't be because something was wrong with him. they were just being rude and outcasting him for something he couldn't control. you've spent enough time with him to know he was funny (in an odd way...it works on him, but if anyone else were to say his 'jokes' about eating you up and dragging you down to his cave and chaining you there, it would have terrified you. oh well, dazai's just never learned what jokes are supposed to be, so he just says the things people say about him. poor dazai, really) and he was really sweet, eager to help you with your troubles and offering his waters as a place for you to come to when you need to be alone and clear your head. not because he wants to be the only person you confide in and trust, definitely not!

and honestly, dazai was just bored. and what better way to spend the time than to trick some poor, unsuspecting human before making them his lunch? yum. sure, chuuya and a few select others were the only other mers that visited him, but that didn't mean he was lonely. he simply didn't care. of course, playing it up to you about how unfriendly everyone else was surely won over your sympathy, and it felt...sort of nice when you rubbed his cheek and looked at him with your sad eyes and told him you'd always be there for him. oh well, little human. he hopes you know he was going to hold you to that :)

his initial plan was just to earn your trust for a couple of days (because he knew how stupid and trusting humans were. terribly useless species, really. how did they survive for this long?) and then, under the pretense of an injury he couldn't reach, would coax you into getting into the water, where he could happily prepare you for a meal. but he began stalling, not wanting to eat you just yet. maybe you could entertain him a little while longer. playing with his food or whatever humans said. the more you talked to him and he learned about human relationships, the more curious he got. what did you mean, humans licked each other's mouths? how disgusting, he definitely wasn't interested in trying. what was so special about hand holding and cuddling and whatever the hell kissing was???? and why did he want to do it to you??? one day, he can't hold back his curiosity and drags you into the water off your boat, ignoring your screaming just to try and see if he "can shove his weird fish tongue down ur throat". and maybe more. obviously the talk about consent flew over his head, because what do you mean, you didn't want to do this with him? didn't you kiss people you like? and if you were coming to visit dazai this often, you definitely liked him right?

regardless, it wasn't anything he couldn't change with a little bit of time :)

akutagawa hm i think as much as i would love for him to be a sparkly shiny mermaid i think that role is more suited for chuuya aka the prettiest person EVER sorry anyway akutagawa octopus ver kinda reminds me of the kraken but shark akutagawa is also a wonderful picture i will figure that out eventually don't worry

so just another day of strolling on the beach admiring the sparkling water and woah what's that? a wild akutagawa has appeared! you find him beached and bleeding and you must obviously help him out! how could you leave him out there, alone and vulnerable? it's a little difficult to bring him to your conveniently close to the beach house, especially since he keeps growling and biting at your arms, but you finally make it and help him into the pool where he finally calms down enough for you to dress his wounds and give him something to eat.

and as much as he hates to admit it, he kind of likes it here with you. you're unexpectedly nice and not annoying or overbearing and your food tastes pretty good. sometimes, he's still waiting on you to ship him over to some evil merfolk killing people or a zoo or something terrible, or maybe you want to kill him yourself for his parts. but you don't do any of that. like you promised him, you bring him back to the ocean and wave him off.

except now, he really doesn't want to leave.

a week or so later, when you're back strolling by the shore, a familiar lump of something is waiting for you, wounded and stranded. you don't notice the way his eyes light up when he sees you, but you definitely notice that he wasn't biting you this time. sure, he has an iron-tight grip on you with his appendages, but maybe he was just scared? and the cycle continues. sometimes, you find fresh fish and seashells on the spot where you found him first, but most of the time, you find him, injured and waiting for your help. you don't suspect him of purposely hurting himself in order to see you and feel you nursing him back to health, but it does start to get a little suspicious. maybe he just got bullied a lot.

oddly enough, he's never friendly when you bring someone else with you. if by chance he's on the shore and you are with another person, akutagawa becomes hostile, growling and scratching at your companion until they run away and it's just him and you again. the way it should be :)