#i do have a bunch of signatures i need to fold for another book which can be done while watching... | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 6 years ago

Text

All my love

Warnings: noncon sex (oral, intercourse), stalking, general creepiness and deception.

This is dark!Peter Parker (adult) and explicit. 18+ only.

Summary: The reader is new to the big city but she has a new friend watching over her.

Note: This is my first dark!Peter Parker so please be easy on me. He has been aged up and this takes place when he’s grown up and living his spidey dreams. I’ve made him like uber creepy I think and it gets pretty eerie I think but I hope yall enjoy some Spidey.

Anyway :) Please like, reply, and/or reblog if you read. <3 Love you all.

It started on Monday. The first day of the week. Something was always bound to go awry.

You should have suspected it. Work had been too easy. The library had seen a steady flow of patrons but not overwhelming. Visitors and books alike kept you busy and time rolled by. It was just too good to be true.

You stepped inside your small apartment and bent to pick up the mail just inside. The carrier had left a deluge of flyers on your floor. You stood and shifted through the coupons and carpet cleaning service ad. There was a single bill and another unmarked envelope.

You set your purse on the coffee table and the bill too. You sat and turned the envelope in your hand. It didn't even have your address on it. You squinted and slowly slid your nail along the lip. You peeled the envelope open and slipped out the folded paper inside. It was a handwritten letter, your name at the top beside a small heart. You stared at the greeting in confusion.

You didn't know too many people in the city. You'd transferred to New York from a small town. You wanted to live on your own, like, truly on your own. You didn't want your parents just down the street or to run into the people you went to high school with everywhere you went. It was scary but in a thrilling way.

Okay, you breathed and carried on.

My darling,

You do not know me but I know you. I know your favourite cafe to get coffee by the park and the little mouse keychain on your purse. I know you like rainy days and reading in your window.

I know you're all alone. Lonely, even. I know the curves of your lips and the spark in your eye. I know everything but you don't know me.

But you can. You only need to ask me in. To leave the door open for your secret admirer.

All my love.

A bigger heart to end the letter. The paper fluttered from your fingers as you stood. You marched to the door and turned the deadbolt. You hooked the chain in place and peered through the peephole. The hall was empty.

Your heart raced and you turned to glance around your apartment. Was it a joke? Some sick prank by a neighbour? Or worse? You pushed yourself from the door and strode back to grab the paper. You crumpled it and tossed it in the bin.

You didn't sleep that night. Or the next night. Another letter greeted you after work. The same sentiments, the same paralyzing fear. You threw it away like the other and a third one arrived on Wednesday.

You didn't read that one or the one the next day. You made sure to lock the door and windows and slept with a light on and knife under your mattress.

On Friday, you were ready to crumble. You couldn't decipher or explain the odd letters. You were on desk duty; answering questions, processing fines, and registering new members.

It was close to your lunch break when the man walked in. His brown uniform and the slim box beneath his arm betrayed his occupation. The delivery man smiled as he approached your desk.

"I have a package for…" He held up his electronic pad and read your name.

"That would be me," You replied dumbly.

"I just need a signature," He turned the pad to you. "Then it's all yours."

You took the pen and signed. Sometimes packages were addressed to employees. Usually packets of forms or new labels. Nothing overly important.

The carrier handed over the small package and left you to ponder its contents. You would wait until your lunch and finish up scanning returns.

You had your usual boxed lunch; a sandwich, tea, and a granola bar. The break room was small and smelled of aged paper, like the rest of the library, with a hint of coffee.

You took the package as you chewed your turkey and rye. You peeled away the paper and slid the small box out. It wasn’t really big enough to fit the usual forms. You lifted the lid and blinked at the fold of tissue paper inside. You moved it away from the slip of fabric beneath.

You gasped and pulled away. What the actual fuck? The frilled pink panties stared back at you and you hurried to replace the top of the box. Your hands shook as you pushed the box across the table and into your over-sized leather tote.

You wrapped up your sandwich and closed up your travel mug. You’d finish your tea at the desk. You weren’t very hungry anymore. You packed up and waited for the clock to tick. You punched and returned to the services desk.

As the day wore on, you grew antsy. Every man who approached you had you on edge. Someone was watching you. Not just at home but work too.

Was it the man with the salt and pepper hair and square glasses? Or the one with pale blonde hair and the checkered shirt? Was it a man? Maybe it was the woman with her messy bun and baggy sweater.

When you left, you walked quickly to the subway. Your ears pricked at every footstep and you peeked over your shoulder every thirty seconds. You stepped onto the train and watched the strangers filter in after you. Were they watching you then?

You looked up and down the car and shivered. When your stop came up, you bolted off the train and up the stairs to ground level. Your flats scraped on the pavement as you rushed around the bodies of the New York crowds.

You slammed your buildings door and ran up the stairs two at a time. You paused as your apartment and peered along the hallway. There was no one else there. No eyes shining from the corner, no shadow looming against the wall.

You shoved your key in the door and pushed inside. You locked it behind you and your eyes bounced around the apartment. All was as you had left it. Curtains drawn, throw crumpled across the couch, your mug still on the coffee table.

You dropped your bag on the chair and paced the edge of the area rug. You spun back and neared the chair. You pulled out the box and shook as you opened it again. Beneath the panties was a red card. You fished it out and read the scrawled writing; the same found in the letters.

My darling,

It breaks my heart to see you so lonely. I hoped that I could comfort you in my absence. Let these be a poor substitute to my touch. My fingers along your skin, tickling you, caressing you fondly.

All my love.

You placed the card back in the box and closed it up. You trembled as you took it and marched into your room. You shoved it at the bottom of your drawer, to the back, so you’d never have to think about it.

You slumped on the edge of your bed and held your head. Your mind was in a flurry. Panic and anger mixed into one. Whoever was doing this was crazy. Why were they doing this to you? You rocked as you tried to focus; tried to come up with something.

Nothing. What could you do? Your tormentor was as good as invisible and in a city like New York it was hard to pick out any among the bunch. The cat callers, the beggars, the swindlers, all too obvious. This person knew how to lose themselves in the crowd. They knew how to watch while not being seen.

You sighed and fell back. Keep the doors locked and a bigger knife under the mattress. That was all you could do.

That night was as sleepless as the last. You tossed and turned and managed to doze just as the clock hit two. It was a shallow sleep. One in which you were floating too close to the surface. Shapes moved along your eyelids and your head ached. An exhaustion-induced slumber, nothing more. It was far from restful.

You woke with a start. You swore you had felt a tickle along your neck. Almost like a hand. You sat up and peered into the dark. Shadows of furniture and the glare of streetlights streaming through the window. You were alone.

But you hadn't been. You looked at the mattress next to you. The blanket was folded back and the sheets were wrinkled from occupation. You slid your fingers slowly along the imprint. The bed was still warm.

You grabbed for your phone and the knife beneath your mattress. You dialed the police as you got up and held the blade at the ready. You slowly traversed the perimeter of your room as the line picked up.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?"

"There's someone in my apartment," Your voice was low and shaky. "I was asleep and I woke up and…s-someone's here. They've been following me."

"Okay, Miss, are they in the same room as you? Can you lock yourself in somewhere?"

"I don't know where they are," You quavered. "I can…get to the bathroom."

"Go in there and lock the door," The operator advised. "What's your address, miss?"

You gave your address as you crept into the bathroom and clicked the lock into place. You sat beside the toilet and bit your nails as you held the phone to your ear. Your eyes clung to the door, waiting for it to be kicked in.

"I have dispatched the police. I want you to talk to me until they get there, okay?"

"Okay," It was half a whisper. You held the knife at your knee and exhaled into the phone.

"Breathe, okay? They're almost there." You nodded another acquiescence and the operator talked to fill the silence. To drown out the dread.

You heard a bang. Then another. Voices followed and the distant beep of a radio. You edged over to the door and slowly unlocked it. You crept out with knife in hand, phone still against your ear.

You saw the dark uniforms and set the knife on the table inside your bedroom door. You assured the operator the police arrived and they let you go. You were tempted to hug the officers as they shone their flashlights around your small living room.

"Ma'am, are you okay? Where is the intruder?"

"I...I didn't see them but...there was someone here. I swear. I woke up...and-- come see." You sounded crazy, even to you.

The second officer flicked on the lights as the other made to follow. You led them to your bedroom and switched the lamp on. You pointed to the bed.

"S-see. Someone was in my bed." The outline was still there. "It was warm and--"

"This is the bed you sleep in, ma'am?" They shared a doubtful look.

"Yes, but on the other side. I woke and...they've been leaving letters and they sent this."

You scurried to your dresser and pulled out the box. You handed it to the first officer and he raised a brow. He took the box and opened it. He stifled a chuckle and moved the panties aside to read the card.

"Ma'am, the police aren't here to deal with your clingy exes." He jibed.

"It's not--I don't…" A tap at the window interrupted your protest.

A shadow loomed on the other side. The second officer stepped around the bed and sighed. He unlatched the window and slid it up. A figure in a red suit sat on your ledge. You'd seen him in newspapers and on television but never in person.

Spider-man swung lithely into your apartment. You were stunned.

"Saw the cars, the lights. Thought I'd check in." He said coolly.

"False alarm," The second officer crossed his arms. "Lady's ex is just tryna win her back."

"No…" You gulped helplessly and shook your head. It was no good. Why did you throw the letters away? They would see then.

"Come on, Lawson, we gotta deal with real problems." The first officer scoffed and led the other out. "In the future," He paused at your bedroom door and glanced back, "I suggest you only use the emergency line for emergencies."

The second rolled his eyes. "Best find some real criminals to bust, Spidey."

You watched them go and frowned. You turned back to the superhero still stood by your window. His head was tilted curiously but thankfully his mask hid his disdain.

“I’m sorry. I...you can go,” You said awkwardly as you crossed your arms.

You picked up the box the officer had left on your bed and shoved it back in the drawer. You turned and he was still there. You frowned.

“If you want, I can...keep an eye out.” He offered. His voice was kinder than you expected. “Just outside. Maybe camp out on the fire escape…”

“Why?”

“You look tired. And it’s pretty slow tonight. Plus, it’s my job.” He shrugged.

“Really?” You asked as you shifted your weight. “You don’t have to--”

“I do. If you’re afraid, I do. This city is mine to watch over. That means everyone. Even you.” It sounded like he was smiling but through the mask, you couldn’t see much. “So, I’m gonna plop myself on that fire escape, maybe kick the feet up, and if you need anything, you give a tap, okay?”

“But...what if somebody else--”

“Seems like the police are already on it, wouldn’t you say? One night without Spider-man, I think New York will survive. I mean, what do you think they did before me?”

You chewed your lip and thought. You looked at your bed and sighed. You were tired. The thought of sleep was intoxicating. A rare chance to rest without paranoia. In five days, sleep had become a forlorn memory.

“If it’s okay…” You ventured. “Just a few hours. I don’t want you to stay though if something happens.”

“It’ll be fine.” He assured you. “Get some sleep.” He neared the window and paused. “Uh, sorry, didn’t get your name.”

“My name?” You wondered. You figured it only made sense. Afterall, he’d be camping out under your window. You gave it to him and he nodded.

“You can call me Spidey, Spider-man, or some people call me a pest.” He hooked his leg through the window. “Your call.” He slipped out onto the escape and grabbed the pane. “Good night.”

With that, he shut the window and spun to sit on the metal platform with a creak. You stared out after him. You went to the bed and smoothed out the indent of the intruder before you climbed under the covers. He’d probably leave the minute you dozed but at least you’d be able to fall asleep.

You had Saturdays off. The interns and part-timers mostly worked the weekends. When you woke, you sat up and rubbed your eyes. You yawned and stretched as you turned your legs over the bed. A tap came at the window and you jumped. It was Spider-man.

It was an odd thought. An Avenger right outside your window. You stood and crossed to the pane. You opened it for him and he leaned through.

“How’d you sleep?” He asked.

“Fine. Very good actually. Thank you. I can’t believe…” You blinked at the sunlight that limned his figure. “You didn’t have to stay all night.”

“But I did. And you were safe.” He countered. “Now, it’s my turn to go get some sleep.”

“Thank you.” You said.

“Never a problem. Especially for you.” His fingers tapped on the frame and he stared at you for a moment. He cleared his throat and shook himself. “Anyways, I’m tired. I should go.”

“Alright...bye.” You smiled nervously.

“Yeah, see ya.” He hesitated before he spun back and jumped up on the rail. “Don’t worry. I’ll be swinging around soon.”

With that, he launched himself off the escape and you watched as he repelled along the next building with his webs. You closed the window and ran your hands over your hair. You needed coffee.

You walked blindly into the living room and through to the kitchen. You sniffed as you set up the machine and hit brew. You leaned against the counter as you waited for the morning cure. Your eyes strayed to the door. An envelope on the floor, a single rose attached. It must have fluttered through the slot when you were asleep. Your heart skipped.

You pushed yourself away from the counter and tiptoed to the door. You bent and picked up the letter. You set aside the rose and opened it with your nail. You pulled out the paper and read it with your stomach in your throat.

My darling, I apologize if I startled you but seeing you last night was so lovely. I have missed you and could not resist a kiss. You were so peaceful I did not want to wake you. I hope you liked my gift and cannot wait to see them on you. All my love.

You dropped the letter and clutched your chest. You reached up to touch your lips and a wave of nausea threatened. He had been there and he had kissed you in your sleep. At least, it would seem he did. You shook and supported yourself against the counter.

The rose tumbled to the floor as you tried to keep from hyperventilating. You stared down at its pale pink petals and grunted. You stomped it until it was in pieces and the grind of the coffee machine matched your frustration.

Why wouldn’t they leave you alone? What had you done to draw their attention?

You leaned, out of breath and numb, against the counter. You only hoped Spidey was in the neighbourhood during their next visit, otherwise you were fucked.

He did come back. Spidey, that was. He surprised you as you sat against your headboard reading. It was a distraction to keep you awake. You knew you wouldn’t be sleeping that night.

It was almost midnight when the knock came. You jumped and looked to the window. You could see his outline beneath the streetlight, the faint hint of red beneath the yellow glare. You got up and unlocked the window. He leaned against the ledge and looked around your room.

“Told you I’d be back,” He announced. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just reading,” You held up your book. “Can’t sleep.”

“Oh, so then you do need me,” He commented.

“No, I wouldn’t expect you to--”

“I can’t just leave you here. Alone. Afraid. Don’t worry, you’re not getting in the way of my crime fighting style.” He assured you. “Isn’t that what I’m doing here? Keeping you safe?”

“Yeah, but…” You sighed. “It’s really not the same. I’m just one person and there’s--”

“There’s others out there doing the job better than me. The cops, firefighters, paramedics. I’m really just back up to those guys.” He argued. “Promise, if anything pressing comes up, you’ll see me diving headfirst into it, okay?”

You rubbed your neck as you thought. You really didn’t want to be alone. “Alright…” You relented. “But...I feel bad, you sitting out there. Do you wanna...um, maybe you could pull up a chair instead?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” He sounded surprised by the offer. “I mean, if it’s not too much. To be quite honest, this escape gives me a touch of vertigo and it’s not very accommodating to the tush.”

“Yeah, no problem,” You backed up and he climbed over the sill. You left him there as you went through to the living room to drag in the Ikea armchair you used more for your purse than yourself. “Here. It’s not the best but...it’s what I got.”

“I’m not picky,” He neared and lifted the chair easily and planted it in front of the window. “I’ve sat in worse.” You watched him sit and put his feet up on the window pane. “Now, get some sleep.”

That wasn't the last night the webbed crusader showed up at your window. A few mornings he even stayed for coffee. He was friendly enough and seemed to enjoy your company even if you were a bit quiet. He did most of the talking anyway.

And the letters continued to slide through your mail slot. Flowers sent to home and work alike. The ominous shadow, still unseen, always along your peripherals but never coming into focus.

It was three weeks since it began and two weeks since Spidey declared himself your personal watchman. You kept the letters in a box and made note of every occurrence. The next time the police came, you'd be prepared.

You were at work. The letter had been waiting for you there. You didn't read it. You hid it in your bag and tried to focus on cataloging. Your mind was frayed and it became harder to hold the threads together. After scanning the same book six times, you gave up.

You looked around the library. A dull Monday morning.

You went to Lois at the service desk. She had a book open before her as no patrons lined up for her help.

"Hey, I hate to do this but do you mind if I...go? I'm not feeling so hot." You asked.

"I was gonna say, you don't look so good," She joked. "Course, hun, think I can handle the hordes alone."

"I'm so sorry." You said. "Really."

"Don't worry about it, this place is about as lively as a convent." She looked back to her book. "Go on. Worst comes, I can get an intern in for extra credit."

"Thanks. I'll be in early tomorrow. Promise."

"Just go," She chided. "Before I decide I want company."

You were only too thankful to be done. You thought of adding locks to the door. on the subway. You got off and pondered finding a new apartment. It might be your only hope.

You were reassured to find your locks secure. You opened the door and closed it quietly. You paused and listened. You could hear the wind as if you'd left your window open.

You tiptoed to your bedroom and peeked inside. A familiar red-clothed back greeted you. Unaware as he stood over your dresser, a small box in hand, he rubbed the pink fabric between his fingers and your jaw dropped. What the fuck?

Your bag slipped from your hand and he turned to you. You were knocked back by the sudden force against your chest as the web sprang across your middle. You fell into the door frame as Spidey tossed the box aside. The pointed eyes of his mask rounded and he stuttered as he looked around.

As wordless as you, he darted for the window and disappeared into the sky. You held onto the wood as you gaped at the open window. You were breathless from both the suddenness of the scene and the force of the web.

You looked down and tried to peel the strings from your sweater. They were tough and clung to the fabric. You gave up and shook your head. Your entire body was rattled. Was this what shock felt like? You crossed to the window and closed it. The lock slid into place and you peered through the glass.

You were entirely confused. Was he a snoop or a pervert? His evasion would suggest the latter, as well as the way he held the panties. Had you unwittingly invited a second predator into your life? Or had you merely traded one for the other?

Yet, the first hadn’t gone. He stayed in the shadows and now his chance to jump had come.

You didn’t sleep for a week. Not truly. You napped after work when the sun was on its decline but in the dark, there was no rest to be had. Alone and terrified, you huddled on your couch under the light of a lamp. You tried to read, but your mind was too frazzled for that. Then you’d just stare at the wall and doze off only to jump awake in a moment.

It wasn’t just the fatigue wearing on your mind. It was the incessant letters, the unwanted gifts, and now, texts. Nothing was yours anymore. You waited every night for the lock to break and your stalker to stroll in with knife or rope.

Then there was the loneliness. You didn’t realize how accustomed you had grown to the nocturnal visits. Spidey had become a stalwart of your nightly routine. You missed his shadow in the chair, staring out over the city. But you couldn’t help but wonder why he had been snooping around in your underwear?

Maybe you couldn’t trust anyone in this city. Maybe you should go back home to the old library with the church bell. A place where you had family to look over you and not some fantastical superhero.

You flinched as the coffee table buzzed. You looked over as your phone lit up. You blocked the first number. And the second. The third. The fourth. You lost count. It didn’t matter, they found a way. There was no barrier strong enough to keep them away. Definitely not your old front door with it rusty chain lock.

You ignored the vibration. You held your head and grumbled. Another buzz. And a another. You grabbed your phone and looked at the notifications.

Private number: Darling, are you okay? Private number: You haven’t answered me. I am beginning to worry for you. Private number: You should sleep, darling. It is late and you look so tired.

You hit silent and slammed the phone down. You were shaking. You looked around, the streetlights shone as they always did, and the speckled windows of other buildings mirrored the stars. You stood and let the thin throw fall back on the couch.

You stormed over to the window and ripped it open. You poked your head out and looked up and down the fire escape. No one. And yet it was as if they could see you. You grunted through your teeth and gripped the window sill.

“What do you want from me?” You shouted into the night. “Just leave me alone!”

The fire escape creaked and a spot appeared in the corner of your eye. You yiped and pulled back and grabbed the window. A hand kept it from closing; the patterned red fabric revealed its owner. Spidey held the window and bent to look through.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” He said. “I...Are you okay?”

“No,” You crossed your arms. “I’m not.”

Silence rose between you as he perched outside your window. He hung his head and scratched his chin in thought.

“I am sorry, you know? I didn’t...I was only being nosy. It wasn’t--” He cleared his throat. “I shouldn’t have touched your stuff, I was only curious, you know? About why you were so scared.” He leaned on the pane. “I understand if you can’t forgive me but I had to at least apologize.”

You thought. You swallowed as the words bubbled in your throat. What had he really done but rifle through your dresser? He shouldn’t have done that, yes, but perhaps you had been quick to condemn. What had he done to earn such snap judgement? He had sat in your window and kept you safe for weeks. He had saved the city time and again and you were mad because he dared to open a drawer.

“You could’ve asked.” You dropped your arms. “I guess...I can’t be mad forever.”

He perked up. If you could see behind the mask, you were sure he was smiling.

“I can stay out here for the night but...you look like you need some peace. Some sleep.” He remarked.

“No, don’t stay out there.” You relented. “And thank you. I do need the sleep. I haven’t...You don’t have to--”

“Consider it my penance,” He carefully climbed through the window, almost hesitant to come inside. “Promise you, these fingers may be sticky but they will keep to themselves.”

“We’ll see,” You kidded and he closed the window.

“Now, young lady, I think it’s time you get to bed,” He said playfully. “I’ll take first watch.”

You chuckled and led him into the bedroom. The chair was still by the window. You were reluctant to move it back. Moving it would mean you were completely alone. You sat on the bed as he moved through the dark. He stopped by the chair and turned to you as you pulled back the blanket.

“Should I tuck you in or…” You raised a brow and he laughed. “I’m joking. I do that when I’m...nervous.”

You blinked at him. Spider-man, nervous? Around you? You smiled. “It’s fine.” You yawned into your hand.

“Sleep,” He rounded the chair and sat, “I mean it. You know sleep deprivation can kill.”

“Gee, so optimistic,” You laid back on the pillows and pulled the blanket up. “Thanks. Really.”

“Enough of that.” He warned. “Sleep. Please.”

He watched you as you snuggled into the mattress. He didn’t look away even as you rolled onto your side. Through the dark you could feel his gaze. Despite the apology, the forgiveness, the jokes, it felt different. There was something off but your tired mind just couldn’t piece it together.

You slept so heavily, all traces of consciousness slipped from you. Your dreams were filled with hazy sunlight and muted tones. There was no story line, only a kaleidoscope of colours. It was like a river washing over you, cleansing you. All the sleep you had lost weighed you down until it felt like chains were hooked on wrist and ankle.

Your eyes opened slowly. Your head felt full of cotton and your mouth was dry. There was an unusual warmth beside you. You forced your eyes open and looked over. A man you’d never seen before laid there. Reddish brown hair and delicate but stony features. His brown eyes met yours and he smiled.

You did know him. He still wore the suit, only he had disposed of the mask. Your heart leapt and you tried to shake the sleep from your head. Were you still dreaming?

“Good morning, darling,” He sang as his fingers ran along your cheek.

“What are you--” You batted away his hand. “What did you just call me?”

“Shhh,” He sat up as you did.

His hand clamped over your mouth as he hushed you and his other arm snaked around you. He drew you close. It was hard to believe this was the man behind the mask. He was still boyish and yet there was something darker. Something simmering beneath the surface. You whimpered as he clung to you.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you, darling.” He cooed.

That word again. You tensed and your eyes searched the room. Was this really Spidey? Or had another snuck in and took his place?

“You looked so peaceful, I couldn’t resist. So long watching, it becomes harder to stay away.” He bit his lip and leaned in. He dragged his nose along yours as he spoke, his break hot around his hand. You trembled. “Please don’t be afraid. I’ve only watched over you. To keep you safe. To keep you company. You looked so alone.”

You murmured into his hand and he held you tighter. You brought your hands up to push against him and he sighed.

“I won’t hurt you. Ever.” He promised as your eyes widened. “Please know that.” He smiled sweetly and leaned back. “So please don’t scream.”

He slowly removed his hand from your mouth. You stared at him. Your eyes burned and your heart hammered in your ears. You opened your mouth to shriek. His fingers flicked and you were once more smothered. The thick webs covered your mouth and you reached up to pry them away.

He caught your hands and held them away from your lips. “I don’t want it to be like this, darling,” He said. “I’d love to kiss you and those webs won’t make that easy.” Your voice was smothered as you tried to argue and his grip grew tighter around your wrists. “Have I hurt you?”

You blinked and lowered your brow. He hadn’t but he hadn’t been honest either. This whole time it had been him. Watching you, following you, taunting you. And he had sat in your bedroom and pretended to be your protector. You were a fool.

“I have only been good to you. And you would throw out my letters and spurn my gifts.” He tutted. “Wallowed in your loneliness.”

You tried to pull away and he tugged you closer. He got up on his knees and forced you onto your back. He climbed over you and straddled you to the bed. He released a hand and held the other against a bar along the headboard. He webbed it in place and grabbed the other. You tried to wiggle free but he caught you easily.

You kicked as your wrists were restrained above you. Your cries dampened by the webs across your lips. His fingertips tickled your neck and he framed your face with his hands. He smiled down at you. You squirmed helplessly as he squeezed his thighs to your sides.

He shot his hands out behind him. Your feet were caught in the webs that wrapped around the end board. You were entirely at his mercy. He inhaled deeply and carefully got off of you. His eyes ran the length of your body and you pulled against the restraints. It made no difference.

He turned and opened the dresser drawer. He pulled out the same box and opened it. He held up the panties.

“I was sad you didn’t wear them.” He bemoaned. “A nice colour on you.”

You grunted and looked to the ceiling. It felt as if the walls were closing in. Your body was covered in goosebumps and yet you couldn’t stop sweating.

“It’s okay. We can save them for a special occasion.” He tucked them back beneath the tissue paper. “I just want us to enjoy this, darling. Let’s not worry about anything else.”

You glanced down at your body. The loose pajama shorts and camisole were poor protection. You hadn’t thought much of it in the dark. Now the morning light glowed in the window frames and limned along every fold and wrinkle.

“I was patient. I really was but...it’s time, darling. You and I are meant to be together.”

He reached back and his suit fell slack. He lowered it down his arms and stepped out of it with ease. He was lean but muscular, his shoulders broader than most of him. He wore little black briefs beneath the suit. He brought a knee up onto the bed and looked over your body.

“It’s a big city. Dangerous to be alone here.”

He moved between your legs and his fingers grazed your thighs. His tongue peeked out between his teeth. He purred and leaned over you, his hands on either side of you. He bent and pressed his lips to yours. You could feel him through the webs.

He brought an arm up next to your head and caressed your hair. He pulled away and his brown eyes sparkled. “You’re so beautiful.” His other hand brushed your hip and his fingers slipped beneath the hem of your camisole. “I love you, darling.”

You grimaced and he kissed you again. He dragged his lips along your cheek and down your jaw. His hand grazed your stomach and chest. He groaned. He doted on your neck and shoulders. He pushed your camisole up your torso and you flinched as he bared your chest.

His hands covered your tits and he buried his head between them. His mouth explored with fervour as his fingers kneaded tenderly. He took a nipple in his mouth and swirled his tongue around it. He nipped but did not bite. Firm but not rough.

You tensed as he moved lower down. He left a trail along your stomach as his hands hugged your hips. He nuzzled against the cotton shorts and pulled aside the loose crotch. You felt his breath along your vee and shivered.

He teased along your thighs, teeth and tongue. You winced as it sent a tingle along your spine. His fingers rubbed along your lips and he pushed them apart. You gasped but it made no sound. He ran his middle finger over your clit and replaced it with his tongue. You pushed your head back as the sensation intensified.

His mouth made you wet. You were ashamed as the heat began to gather in your core and he tasted your arousal as it rose. He suckled and lapped carefully. Every flick, every swirl, deliberate. His hand stretched over your thigh and he hummed in delight. He lifted his head, you couldn’t look at him.

“You’re delicious, darling.” He keened and you closed your eyes.

He dipped his head down again and you spasmed. His tongue danced along your clit and slid between your folds. Your head lolled back and forth. You were dizzy from the shock of it all. Your thighs tensed and your curse was muted by the webs. You were breathless as you came. Surprised by the sudden rush as it left you weak.

“See,” He parted and looked up at you. You opened your eyes, a blur of tears and splendour. “I only want to love you.”

You arched your back and pulled against the webs. It was a paltry attempt. Your last act of pride as he moved closer on his knees. He rolled his briefs down and you blanched. You looked to the ceiling again as the mattress shifted below you.

He bent over you again, his arm bent under yours as he kissed you. He cradled your cheek as he felt around with his other hand. He pushed his cock past your pajamas, the fabric pressed against your thigh, and dragged the head along your folds. You squirmed and he gripped your chin.

You opened your eyes as he poked along your entrance. He stared down at you as he pushed inside and you tried to speak through the webs. He sank, deeper and deeper, his mouth slowly opened in a silent gasp. He shuddered and paused as he bottomed out.

“Oh god,” He whispered, “Oh.”

He pressed his lips to the web. He began to move slowly. His hips rocked against you in a gentle rhythm. You squeezed your eyes shut and tried to steady your breathing. He felt much bigger than you expected.

You tried to resist the echo of your orgasm as it began to build again. You whined through your nose as his lips left yours. He hung his head next to yours and nibbled at your throat. His pace mounted a little at a time. He groaned and grunted into your skin.

He pushed himself up and grabbed your hips. His thighs were firm against yours as he worked into you. His flesh clapped loudly and you looked down at him. His muscles flexed as he watched himself fuck you. He was rabid as he admired the way his cock slid in and out of you. The sight spurred him on as he pounded into you harder with each thrust.

“I can feel it. You gonna cum?” He snarled as his pelvis jerked against yours.

You hit your head against the bed as your pussy tightened around him. You couldn’t fight it. The feel of him against your walls. The fire crackling within as it licked at your flesh. He pressed his thumb to your clit and you spasmed. It was enough to send you over the edge again.

“Oh, oh,” He slammed into you and slid his hands around to lift your ass. The angle let him even deeper. “I’m gonna--”

He exclaimed and you felt him cum. He coated your walls and it eased his last few thrusts. He rode out his climax and his head fell back as he panted. He brought his hands around to your hips and down your thighs. He caressed you as he caught his breath.

“Darling, that was…” He sighed as he smiled down at you. “Perfect.”

#dark!peter parker #peter parker #dark!peter parker x reader #peter parker x reader #spider-man #dark peter parker #mcu #marvel #fic #dark!fic #au #darkverse #dark!verse #dark peter parker x reader

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halothenthehorns · 4 years ago

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All in the Family

Chapter 80: The Unexpected Task

Lily's landing was actually not uncomfortable for once. She floundered in place upon her back, but it was soft material ruffling behind her whatever it was. Worry spiking if this was some sort of trap to compel her to get comfortable, she sat up abruptly, bunching the silk blanket in her hand suspiciously. She found herself in a luxury room fit for a princess.

The canopy bed was baby blue with pink lace, the pillow looked scandalously shaped perfectly for her head, there was even a thin film draping's that were almost see-through and felt cool as rain to the touch, but were blocking out almost all the light. The moment she pushed them aside, they glided away without a second thought, and she could see a window, leading out onto the Hogwarts grounds. She stood at it for a long time, seeing Hagrid's cabin in the distance, and got a strange guess of where she was, but wanted further proof. She got it almost immediately when she passed the trunk at the end of the bed wide open with Beauxbatons uniforms neatly folded inside, and The Book resting on top. They must be inside their carriage then, possibly with Fleur making a larger appearance in the coming chapter.

Inspecting the area just a bit more, she found a private bathroom that resembled a spa more than anything, and would have believed it if someone told her she spent a weeks worth of time just enjoying being by herself and not thinking of anything but how warm the water was, even if she couldn't read any of the french labels. Once she got out she swayed on her feet for a few moments with comfortable exhaustion, for once, deciding that as she'd landed in here and nobody had come to call yet, another good rest was in order. They'd all stopped plenty of times in the past with mutual sleep at hand. It took nothing else to convince her to crawl back into the strange bed and the slightest of tugs had the curtains back around her before she was out.

Frank dithered uncomfortably in the hallway. He'd grudgingly passed several open and inviting beds in the long, candelabra lit hallway just to find Alice, to assure she was alright and this wasn't some weird trap for Harry's next task, but he'd found her peacefully asleep. She'd even found a room with some muggle invention that had music playing from a big black disk she'd figured out how to work, it sounded like a nice string quartet in the whole room. However, he didn't want to assume just because they'd shared a bed together once she'd be okay with it again, especially in even more, ah, private quarters as all of these rooms seemed set for individuals. He'd just turned away and decided to just sleep in the room across, honestly the floor looked comfortable enough to nap on at this rate, when a giggle behind him made him twirl around to see she'd rolled over and was laughing herself silly at him before beckoning him to get in while wiggling to the far side of the bed.

"But Moony!" Sirius whined, managing to sound like an irritable six year old despite being ten years plus that. "Why not just take the opportunity while we can to not have to sleep in the same place as those two wankers, I quite enjoyed it last time."

"Because last time, we hardly slept a wink," he didn't need to elaborate, and was glad they hadn't found the other two yet as he couldn't quite suppress a blush. "We're finding them first you dolt."

They'd already passed several rooms containing their other quest members asleep, and Remus was just beginning to wonder if he'd passed them accidentally somehow when he came across a room with stripped bedding, and now sure at least they were thinking the same as him, he kept his hold on Sirius and dragged him along until he found what must be the equivalent of a living room in a mansion inside this pumpkin carriage. Peter was already curled up on the queen sized sofa, fidgeting with his school tie despite the fact it was loose enough to come off. James was upside down in a squashy armchair Maxime herself could stretch out in, his glasses placed carefully on top but eyes wide awake.

There hadn't been this much awkward silence between the four of them since their first year, those first few months before they'd even decided if they liked each other, let alone would become the best friends they were supposed to be. Both of them still grinned when they entered, and Sirius couldn't stop a small, albeit grudging smile as he shook his head at the lot of them, calling them sentimental fools as he snatched some covers from the floor and padded down in yet another available couch next to the purple lit fireplace that had wine goblets only half empty he'd save for breakfast. Remus barely had time to smile before he too passed out amongst the synchronized snoring, letting his feet tangle together with Sirius' but resting on the opposite arm of the couch.

Regulus stretched languidly as he awoke, still as disoriented as ever to find the light outside was exactly where it had been when he'd gone to sleep, but the comfortable bed had rivaled his own and who evers room he'd borrowed had good taste. There were posters of all of the French National Quidditch Team doing their signature move, the Blitzen Ballet, across several posters, which had been what had drawn him into the room in the first place.

He pulled some individually wrapped macaroons out of his pocket and began eating those as he went through the rest of this persons belongings, finding several textbooks all in French he couldn't follow, but not the book they needed. He didn't really fancy going through every room to find it, but he also didn't want to start until he knew everyone was awake- "The Unexpected Task." He crumpled a purple one up in his hand in surprise all over the blokes belongings. Well, clearly Evans didn't have those same reserves.

James startled awake with a yelp, flopping right out of the chair and confused for several long moments. Whoever would have thought waking up to the sound of Evans' voice would give him heart failure? The others were stirring with only slightly more dignity, he couldn't even blame Sirius when the first thing he did was reach up and snag those wine glasses to finish them off as her voice echoed around them before they'd even had morning tea.

"Evans does an impression of McGonagall telling off Harry too well," Peter groaned, trying to shove the blanket through his skull.

Remus looked like he was trying to burrow into the couch for more rest without comment, and James and Sirius woke up too hungry to really be paying much attention as their head of house held up Ron and Harry after class for something as silly as not paying attention. The two of them were busy trading a basket of fried fish back and forth and lamenting how fast it was vanishing when they simultaneously choked on the cold batter upon hearing no detention was being served, but quite the unexpected task indeed.

"Harry has to wha-?" Remus actually jerked his head free from his cocoon.

"Get a date, and dance her?" Peter repeated, inspecting the sleep he'd rubbed from his eyes as if expecting to find something else contaminating him.

"Or him," Sirius corrected with a suddenly wicked smile, "maybe he'll ask Ron, you don't know Wormy." The snide remark had slide easily from his tongue as he envisioned the fun of Hogwarts hosting something like a dance, it wasn't until he looked over to see his mate blush and stammer at the idea that he really, fully woke up. He wouldn't have believed it five seconds ago himself.

Peter was smiling to himself despite not able to look over at Sirius, and James swooped in to save the awkward silence. "Listen to this poor kid telling McGonagall he isn't going to do it! A books not good enough anymore, I'd pay money to see this in action!"

For just a moment, they all got a good laugh out of that.

They weren't the only ones, Frank and Alice were having their own fits of laughter still curled up in bed. Frank could at least sympathize with Harry though as he struggled to even conceptualize asking Cho out, he'd had a crush on Alice for months before he'd over heard her struggling with Charms and offering to tutor her. Asking her out, outright and to a dance, would have been insanity at that point. They both listened intently for any hint of what Neville would be up to during all of this. As much as they sympathized with Harry not being able to go alone because of his public dancing, they very much hoped Neville would at least be mentioned going with some friends rather than not at all.

Lily was giving herself a very hearty pat on the back for deciding to read this one alone. She was sure it wasn't just her imagination hearing the obnoxious laughter of the Marauders over this adorable idea, barely a teenager Regulus' pompous expression and possibly boasting he'd been trained to waltz before he could walk, and worst of all Frank and Alice's adoring looks at each other. She liked the both of them, more and more as they talked honestly, but her own life right now didn't leave her in a good position to be happy the only two people she could possibly count as friends during all this were dating and she felt like she was a third wheel half the time around them.

It was even more than that, if she were being honest with herself. While the idea of getting to dress up like that for the evening sounded nice in theory, she had about as much chance of going with anyone as Harry did Cho. Her heart sank for the poor lad as his crush admitted she was going with Cedric. Her prospects were even less endearing. Potter would ask her, of course, and anyone who proceeded to afterwords would likely end up in the hospital wing for one various reason or another until the offers stopped for a time again. And Sev...

She flipped the page hurriedly, it would be too obvious now if she stopped to stew over this, someone may come and see where she was and she wanted to actually enjoy this alone chance while she had it.

Regulus listened with the most absent of attention to these teenagers getting turned down left and right, the Marauders laughter echoing out into the hallway as he went exploring the rest of the carriage. Was he the only one who still remembered someone had put Harry in this tournament for more than embarrassing him? Nobody had even bothered to speculate on a suspect in ages, Regulus didn't really buy it was Karkaroff himself. It wasn't improving his mood he'd had no one to talk to in a while now, of course now that Peter had made up with his friends and they were all chummy again he'd go right back to being ignored. He should have known nothing about his life would ever really change no matter how much he heard.

He startled in surprise upon opening the next door as an orange cat came tottering out of the room, immediately twirling around his legs and purring in affection. Shaking his head in disbelief someone would bring their pet on this trip, he bent down regardless and gave a friendly scratch on the felines rump as he looked around once more, finding something new to wonder on. Why was it the pets were usually present? Magical animals as well, he reminded himself with a shiver of disgust at the basilisk. The paintings had all been present to, but he'd have never considered them as people. What was the criteria then for what was left behind as they were thrown around this place? It was something to ponder on at hand anyways, as he found himself sprawled on the floor, covered in cream colored fur while Hermione Granger dropped the surprise she'd gotten a date but wasn't telling who.

The chapter was finally coming to an end with everyone successfully getting dates, and Regulus snorted in disgust, was he the only one not obsessing with romance around here?

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Marauders #Wolfstar #Jilly #Regulus Black #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #James Potter #Peter Pettigrew #Lily Evans #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith

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knight-ingale · 5 years ago

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Chapter 2, Seeing the Rain

A/N: Hey guys, hope you like chapter two! I wanted to write more in this one chapter, but I don’t have the first book with me right now, and I reaaally want Jessica’s quotes accurate, so this will be all until sometime next month! ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*---~---~---~---~---~---~--- *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Despite the unfamiliar noise of rain and wind against the roof and walls of the house you had managed to fall asleep before midnight. You slept much more soundly than you thought you would. Then again, you were much better at adapting to the weather changes during your summer visits than Bella was. All that being said, you were still anxious for the oncoming day as you fell into slumber.

You woke up to the thick, misty fog clouding the world outside the cold pane of your window. It almost looked like the cloudy sky had descended onto the wet terrain of your new world.

Getting dressed was easy since you had set out your clothes the night before. The clothes you had picked were warm, or as warm as you could manage considering your meager wardrobe, and as inconspicuous as you could manage. You weren’t one to wear neon-bright colors to begin with, so it wasn’t difficult. Thinking as you dressed, you picked back up on your train of thought from last night. How much attention would you and Bella attract? Usually, you and your sister’s presence wasn’t something to worry about. The beginning of the year brought new students, no matter what school year was beginning or where. The schools in Phoenix were always crowded and bustling, so two new students wouldn’t turn any heads. But here? Things were drastically different from Arizona. Like Bella had said, everyone here had grown up together for generations. There was already a complex connection between families and social circles that had remained unchanged for years! You almost had to forcibly shake the thoughts from your head as you slipped on your shoes and grabbed your backpack to go downstairs.

You took the short staircase two steps at a time, landing softly at the bottom without falling over. Bella and Charlie were already sitting down at the square table in the kitchen when you got all the way down, both with a plate of fried eggs in front of them with another in the empty spot in between them. You sat down with a small smile and hello before picking up your fork eating in the continued quietness surrounding the three of you. Charlie finished his eggs and stood up from his seat to wash his plate. He turns around at the sink when he’s done to face you and Bella.

“Well,” he says, “I hope you two have a good day at school.” You swallow your eggs and smile,

“Thanks, Dad. Have a good day at work.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Bella says. Despite her thanks, you knew she was less than optimistic. Charlie nods to you both before patting all his pockets and making sure he has everything before leaving. Once he’s out the door, you continue to eat your eggs. You and Bella finish quickly, but Bella decides to stay a little longer. You were already early enough, so you decided waiting a little longer wouldn’t be too bad. Bella sat at the table, peering into the living room as you got up to wash both your plates.

“You ready to go?” you ask, drying your hands off on a towel as you turn around to your sister. Bella breaks her gaze from the pictures on the fireplaces mantel and turns to you,

“Yeah, let’s get going. Don’t want to be late on the first day, right?” Her smile is more of a grimace, but you laugh at her attempt at humor. You grab your bag from the wooden seat as Bella flicks off the kitchen light. She takes a deep breath before opening the door, swinging the barrier open to the drizzling skies outside.

You stepped out to greet the chilly air first, walking out from the cover of the overhanging roof to look up at the downcast sky and the peaks of the tall trees. The light rain on your face was quickly waking you up, the wet air filling your air with rejuvenating energy. Once Bella had locked the door, she hurried her way past you to the truck, pulling you out of your moment. Bella hops in the truck before you get to your side, unlocking the door for you. You climb into your own seat and try to close the heavy door without slamming it, to not much avail. On the upside, the truck was clean on the inside! There were a few faint, mysterious stains on the carpet beneath your feet, but that was all. The inside also smelled nice, like fresh peppermint and a little bit of gasoline. Unfortunately, the truck did have one draw-back, and that would be the roaring engine that nearly made you jump out of your skin. Both you and Bella jumped in your seats, sharing a surprised look.

“Well, a vehicle this old is bound to have a flaw, I guess,” Bella grumbles. You shrug and reach for the radio. To your delight, the practically ancient device was functional! You let the radio play quietly as Bella drives.

A plus to living in a small town, it was pretty easy to find the school. Of course, it’s pretty easy to find since it was just off the highway like almost anything that wasn’t a residential area. The buildings were so vastly different from your school back in Arizona, you almost wouldn’t have recognized it as a school building if it weren’t for the sign. There were no chain-link fences around the property, no metal detectors, not a single cop car. Bella decided to park right in front of the first building labeled ‘Front Office’. You hop out of the passenger side easily, leaving the warmth of the cab for the misty air outside. Bella followed with much more reluctance than you to follow the little stone path up to the doors. You stop with her right before, watching her take an anxious breath before opening the door.

Inside the office was warm and cozy, dressed to be a little waiting room with ugly orange carpet and only somewhat comfy looking folding chairs against the walls. And, for some reason, there were a bunch of plants. Why so many plants? Just set them outside, they’d never forget to water them that way.

You followed Bella up to one of three desks, the one manned by a middle-aged, redhead wearing glasses that were slipping down the bridge of her nose. She looks up at you and your sister with a polite smile,

“Can I help you?”

“I’m Isabella Swan,” Bella informs her. You lean closer to Bella’s side to be in the woman’s line of sight,

“I’m Y/N Swan,” You add. Immediately, recognition sparks behind her eyes.

“Of course,” She says. She turns her chair slightly to her side to dig through a spire of papers. “I have your schedules right here, and maps of the school.” She brings out several papers in each hand, addressing your sister first. When she finishes with Bella, she waves you forward to explain your schedule and draw some paths from class to class. She looks up to both of you when she’s done, “You two have a good day!” You smile back and thank her before turning to leave.

When you get back to the truck, other students were beginning to arrive. You both get back into the truck to follow the line of traffic to the student parking. You finally park and Bella immediately switches off the obscenely loud engine. Bella stuffs all her papers into her backpack before leaning back against the back of the seat’s head-rest, eyes closed and head tipped upwards as she sighs.

“Hey.” Bella turns her head to the side to look at you, “You can do this, Bells. No one is gonna bite you.” She scoffs at your encouragement, but you just grin, “Hey, if they do, you can just bite ‘em back!” Your joke gets her to chuckle. She takes a deep breath,

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

You both step out of the truck onto the black pavement. You have to steady Bella as you hop over the lip of the sidewalk since the nearly trips on it. Before you part ways, you pull her into a hug,

“My first class is in building two. We meet up at the truck at the end of the day, right?” Bella nods in affirmation before letting go. “Alright, you later Bells. Try not to fall on anyone,” you jest mischievously. Your sister rolls her eyes,

“I’ll do my best, later jerk,” she mumbles. You watch her walk away for a moment before turning to make your way to your own building.

Your first class was English, so hopefully, it would be an okay class to start the day off with. You had your hands shoved into your jacket pockets, anxiously fiddling with a gum wrapper you had forgotten about. As brave as you had seemed compared to your sister, someone could assume you to be fearless, which is a total lie. You’re anxious as all get out! Even as you walked to your class, you had anxious butterflies doing karate in your stomach.

Once you made it to your classrooms open door, you noticed how small the classroom really is. Since it was one of the classrooms closer to the middle of the building, there are no windows. The desks were set in clusters rather than rows and the teacher’s desk was in the front corner of the room. The few students who were already there were hanging up their jackets and parkas, but you bypassed them to speak to the teacher, a slightly short woman with light brown hair.

“Um, excuse me,” you ask. The teacher looks up and stares in surprise. “I, uh, the front desk says you need to sign this slip?” You hold it out to her and she grabs it,

“Ah,” she realizes, “you’re the new student, Y/n Swan, correct?” She scribbles her signature in the first-hour box and smiles as she hands it back to you, “I’m Mrs. Hannson, I hope you enjoy this class! I actually have some papers for you, the syllabus and all that.” You nod as she turns to a pile on her desk, pulling out a small and neatly paper-clipped stack of papers. She hands it to you and you smile, nodding along as she explains, “You’ll be sitting over there,” she points to a cluster of desks, “with group three.”

You sat down in your seat, greeting the one person already there, a girl with short, coppery-brown hair and freckles. She looks up at you through round glasses and away from her work, a sketchy drawing of a landscape.

“Hey,” she greets you warmly, “You’re Y/n Swan, right?” You flush. You knew coming to a new school with such a small populace had the possibility of being news, but you had no idea everyone would know you before you even walked through the doors!

“Ah, yeah. It seems like I won’t have to introduce myself since everyone already knows my name,” you joked. She laughs, but it’s more in understanding than humor.

“Yeah, sorry. Small town, big news, you know?” You sigh and nod. “Oh, my name’s Alana by the way, but everyone just calls my Lana.” you talk as more students file into the classroom. That is until loud boys sit in the chair next to you. One is average height and had rusty auburn hair, paired with pale blue eyes and skin pale enough to rival Snow White, maybe even your sister. The other was tall, at least 5’9, and had curly brown hair on top with shorn-down sides. His eyes were dark brown, but they were alight with mischief and boyish energy, matching the pale blue irises of his apparent friend.

“Hey there,” the brown-eyed boy greeted you, “You’re one of the new girls.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement.

“Yup, Y/n Swan,” you answer.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Cole,” he smiles at you. You politely nod before your attention is turned to the red-headed boy,

“I’m Luke, by the way,” he states, sitting back in his chair. The four of you talk past the bell, only stopping when Mrs. Hannson begins the class.

The next class was History in building four, which went by fairly quickly, as did all your other classes. You were honestly just excited for lunch to hit. You were hungry! According to your schedule, you assumed all students went to lunch at the same time, given there was no labeling of alphabetical or numerical lunches. It seemed so strange. Could all four grades really fit in one lunchroom? Then again, your school back in Phoenix had a much larger population than Forks High School.

The bell to your fourth hour rang, and everyone started to pack up to migrate towards the cafeteria building. Luckily for you, Lana from your first hour was in this class, sociology. The pair of you made small talk about classes and such as you walked outside into the drizzling rain. When you entered the dryness of the cafeteria, you looked around for your sister. You bid Lana farewell and made your way around the large eating area with no actual idea where you were going until you spotted your sister sitting at a table with a strangely large amount of people for her first day.

“Hey Bells!” you call out. Your voice wasn’t loud enough to call any attention to you, but it did seem to catch her attention. She turns her head and looks relieved to see you. Bella gives you a little wave and the girl she was presumably talking to earlier turns her head to look at you. Bella scoots a bit to open up a seat and you sit next to her, leaning forward with your arms crossed on the table to see the mystery girl beside your sister. “Hey there,” you greet with a friendly smile. She smiles back,

“Hey! You’re Bella’s little sister, right?” You nod,

“Yup, that’s me. My name is Y/n, but it seems like everybody already knows that I guess,” you chuckled. The dark haired girl laughs,

“Yeah, it’s gonna be like that for a little bit. New people are exciting in a small town and all that,” she shrugs. You nod in agreement, “Anyways, my name is Jessica, nice to meet you!”

You and Jessica have barely introduced yourselves when you notice Bella looking away from the conversation, positively enraptured by something else. You look over to your sisters line of sight in confusion,

“Bella, what are you looking at?” your confusion dissolves quickly into awe when you see what she sees. Five horrendously beautiful people walk into the room.

#Jacob Black #jacob black x reader #Jacob x reader #twilight fanfiction #twilight x reader #twilight #x reader #x y/n

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forwhycas · 5 years ago

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Oh, What a World (part 1)

Hello all, obviously my roger fic never got completed but i’ve been working on a Joe fic that has been finished and edited, with the help of my very good friend! No warning’s for this chapter, although maybe some swearing?

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You met Joe at a café you used to go to almost every day after your 4 pm class. It took you a few weeks to introduce yourself to him. You first noticed his laugh; you were listening to your study playlist which consisted nothing but classical music and you heard this loud. You rolled your eyes as you looked up to see who it was; you were going to shoot whoever it was a glare, but he was gorgeous. He had this wide smile, and golden hair. You smiled to yourself, turned up your music and got back to work. After that day you started to notice him more and more. The day you introduced yourself he was reading Poe, one of your favorites.

“Hi, sorry to interrupt but I see you here a lot and wanted to introduce myself, I’m Charlie.” He was sitting down and he got up to shake your hand and motioned for you to sit down with him.

“I’m Joe, nice to meet you.” You sat down and placed your bag on the floor. He smiled at you and put his book down, the wrong way in your opinion, pages down, damaging the spine.

“I admire your taste in authors…” You pulled the same book out of your bag and put it on the table.

“I’m currently on A Dream Within A Dream.”

“I’m on The Sleeper.” He grinned at you and you too got to talking about basic stuff, he asked if you went to school, or if you were a local. You told him it was your first few months here and that you were a transfer NYU grad student.

“Where do you go to school?” He chuckled a little.

“I’m flattered you think I look young enough to be in school, but I finished school a while ago, I’ve just lived in the city most of my life.”

“So what school did you go to?”

“University of Southern California, I graduated in 2005, loooong time ago.”

“God in 2005 I was in middle school…”

“Way to make a man feel even older, Charlie.” He smirked at you, picked up his book and folded the corner of the page he was on. You inwardly cringed. Your phone started to vibrate reminding you about your second class of the night; astrology.

“Well Joe, it was nice meeting you, I’m here almost all the time after my 4 o’clock class, so feel free to join me anytime, I have to get back to campus.”

“Will do, enjoy the rest of your day!” You threw him a peace sign over your shoulder, suddenly feeling more energized for astronomy.

A few days later you were sitting in your usual spot and felt someone staring at you, so you looked up and Joe was sitting at his usual spot as well. You motioned for him to come and sit with you.

“Hey, hope I’m not interrupting anything…” He motioned to the cluttered table in front of you, flash cards and notes taking over the small table you sat beside. You shook your head no and ended up taking an hour long break before he headed out to go home. You started to sit with Joe almost every time you went to the café and started to get to know him a little better. He was nice and had a great sense of humor; super sarcastic and a little bit dark, but always playful. He always had the warmest smile displayed, and after a long 2 hour lecture, being with him for just a few minutes your mood would instantly spike.

“Hey did you maybe want to join my friends and I for a movie tomorrow night?” You asked Joe as he was putting his book away. He looked shocked and stopped what he was doing.

“Um yea, what movie?”

“Oh it’s just Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it’s re-playing at The Paris tomorrow night at 6.”

“The Paris! Love that place, I’ll definitely be there!” You had just gotten done packing up and wrote down your number on a crumbled up receipt before you wished him a good rest of his night.

You were just getting out of the shower when your phone pinged, it was a new number.

“Hi it’s Joe, I forgot what time you said to meet you at The Paris for?”

“Hey J! 6 o’clock!”

You decided to dress comfortably since the movie was 2 and a half hours long, you pulled on your most worn in pair of jeans and a hoodie, grabbed your wallet and left for the 4 block journey. You found Joe waiting in the lobby for you.

“Joe!” He took his hands out of his pockets and gave you a small wave and of course his signature smile.

“Hey, how was your day?”

“Boring. I had to sit through a bunch of presentations this afternoon, one of them about black holes, and if I’m being honest, if it wasn’t for the painfully attractive person presenting it I would have fallen asleep.”

You felt someone’s arm drape over your shoulder.

“You think I’m painfully attractive?”

Dean kissed your cheek and shook hands with Joe, you blushed and when you saw Joe lift an eyebrow at you. You explained to Joe how Dean was a good friend and the smartest in your astrology class. Just then the rest of your friends walked in together being loud per usual. Dean from astrology, Laura from stats of psych, and Adam and Dylan from creative writing. All of you were different majors and that’s probably the reason why all of you got on so well. After introducing your small group of friends to Joe while waiting in line for your tickets, everyone dispersed to go get different food. Joe followed closely behind you.

“I like your friends, they’re all so…”

“Loud? Childish?”

“I was going to say different, also you guys are all children to me, but I can tell all of you are polar opposites.”

“Well I’m the oldest of the group, everyone else are just super smart juniors taking grad courses.” You grabbed a bag of skittles while Joe grabbed some gummy bears, and when he automatically paid for your skittles, you gave him a pouty look.

“I’m gonna slide money into your pocket while you’re not looking during the movie.” He matched your look and leaned down to your level. You two stared at each other like that for a few seconds before you burst out laughing. You found your friends and all took your seats.

“If I fall asleep, just wake me up for the sad ending please.”

“How the hell can you fall asleep in a movie theater?”

“I can honestly fall asleep anywhere.” You shrugged but he agreed. You didn’t end up falling asleep but you did cry at the ending like you always did, when everyone raised their wands you audibly sobbed. You felt Joe looking over at you but you didn’t care. After everything was over and the lights came on, Dean was the first person to say something.

“Well I need a fucking drink after that, anyone care to join?” You laughed and shook your head.

“I have an exam first thing in the morning, I’m gonna head home.” He shook his head and gave you a disapproving look.

“Oh Boo! Charlie when are you gonna finally get trashed with us?”

“I did enough drinking my first two years, thank you very much.” You said shuddering at the memory.

“But Charlie, how are you ever going to find out how amazing drunk sex is with me…” Dean teased.

“Right on that note I’m gonna leave, Joe be a gem and walk me home?” He nodded and said goodbye to everyone.

“So your friends are cool…”

“No my friends are fucking weird, I’m so sorry about Dean by the way, he’s too much sometimes.” Joe snickered. He commented on how you sobbed like a little bitch when Dumbledore died, and you gave him a hurt look and called him a psycho for not crying.

“Anyways this is me, thanks for joining us, also thanks for paying for my candy, much appreciated.” You smiled up at him, and reached up on your tippy toes to hug him.

“Hey anytime, I had fun, definitely have to do it again soon.” He smiled and went on his way. A few hours later your phone pinged.

Joey: I don’t know how I didn’t notice you putting three dollars into my sweatshirt pocket.

Charlie: What can I say, I’m sly as fuck!

You chuckled and plugged in your phone and continued studying for your exam.

A few weeks later you were studying for yet another exam when your phone started to vibrate, it was Joe.

“Hey Joe, what’s up?”

“Just hanging out, wondering if you wanted to come by and watch a movie?”

“Can I bring all my stuff with me? I promise I’ll watch the movie but I’m still going over my lecture notes…”

“Yea of course, I’ll text you my address.” He hung up and you started to pack up your stuff. 20 minutes later you were at his place. You texted him and he came down to get you.

“Jesus Joe! Where the hell do you work to have such a nice place and are they hiring?” He chuckled nervously.

“Have you ever seen Jurassic Park?”

“Dumb question, but yes, classic film.”

“Look up the cast…”

“I only remember Jeff Goldblum, what a daddy.” You did though and sure enough, Joe’s name popped up.

“No way! You played cute little Tim!”

“I did.”

“That’s cool! Well this explains the nice place, what else have you been in?” He started naming a few, and your eyes widened when he said that he even directed a few short films and a whole movie. “Well, guess I’m friends with an actor slash director now.” You shrugged and he smiled at you, he led you to the living room and you set up your stuff and started to make flash cards as he found a movie. A few minutes later he was slowly grabbing away all the stuff in front of you, your computer, flash cards, pens, books.

“After this I’ll go over the flashcards with you if you want?”

“Yes please.”

Alice in Wonderland started and you smiled, it was one of your favorites.

“Joe this is one of my favorites, have you been stalking me? Or do you just have really good taste?” He smirked as he sat down next to you.

“Definitely have not been stalking you, I just haven’t watched it in a while, and you can’t go wrong with a Disney movie!” Just as Alice fell down the rabbit hole, Joe jumped up scaring the shit out of you.

“Sorry I forgot about the skittles! I’ll be right back…” You ended up laying down on your back, head facing the tv, and when he came back he gave you the warmest smile. You sighed as you started to shuffle to get up.

“No, don’t get up I’ll just scoot myself next to you, if that’s ok?” You nodded and he handed you the bag as he positioned himself laying next to you on the large sectional, you ended up just laying on top of him a few minutes later, his hands playing with your hair, causing your eyes to flutter close.

“As relaxing as your hands running through my hair feels, I’ll fall asleep on you at any given moment…”

“So sleep, I’m not going anywhere, I’m just here to make sure you get a study break.”

“If I fall asleep, which I probably will, make sure to wake me up when Alice is done with her acid trip so I can study…” Joe lost it, and you couldn’t help but laugh with him.

“Will do.” He continued to play with your hair and you couldn’t fight it, between studying basically all day and really not sleeping much, your eyes closed.

“Charlie…Charlie?”

“Hmmmm, yes?”

“Do you want some coffee?” You smiled and nodded up at him with your eyes still closed. You got off of him and stretched then followed him into his kitchen, you hopped up on his counter as he started a pot of coffee.

“Please tell me I didn’t snore.”

“No you were pretty silent, you passed out super quick. When was the last time you got some solid sleep?” Your eyebrows raised, as you thought about it. “It’s sad you have to think about that answer.” You shushed him and put your hand over his mouth as you thought about it. He swatted your hand away when you started to yawn.

“Well today’s Friday? So Wednesday night I slept for probably 4 hours, ever since then I’ve been wired for my exam next week.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Studying…maybe a nap. Who knows, I’m very nocturnal these days.”

“How about you take a break from studying and we can do something?” You instantly knew your answer. The word yes was just echoing in your subconscious.

“I would love to take a study break and hang out with you, what do you have in mind?”

“I can take you on a typical tour of the city?”

“So like times square? Central Park? The museums?”

“Yea! I love taking new people for a tour.”

“That actually sounds really nice…I’m all yours tomorrow, also please tell me you have almond milk or something other than cream to put in that coffee, I’m lactose intolerant and don’t feel like going through the stomach pain.”

“Me too actually, I have half and half and some vanilla almond milk, which do you prefer?”

“Vanilla please.”

“Sugar?” You nodded your head. He handed you your coffee, and off you guys went to the couch again. You sat opposite of him and he started to read off the flash cards to you. First round was rough, the second round was much better and by the third you knew all the answers. You got up to stretch, and started to gather your stuff.

“Alright I could use a shower, where and when do you wanna meet up tomorrow?”

“Well, if you're up for getting up semi-early, I can make you breakfast in the morning? I make a pretty damn good omelette.” You looked up at him from gathering your stuff.

“How early?”

“How about 9?”

“Yea 9 sounds good!” He helped you gather the rest of your stuff and walked you to the lobby, he gave you a small lecture on how sleep was important all the way down in the elevator.

“Ok, bye dad!”

“OK, ew, please never call me dad again! But seriously get some sleep.” You gave him a quick side hug and started off for your apartment. When you arrived there was a note on your door from your neighbor asking you to feed her cat. You walked next door and got her spare key from under her door mat she always left for you to use. You saw Garry as you walked in and he purred at you as you bent down to scratch his ears. You picked him up and decided to facetime Joe. After a few seconds he picked up.

“Did you miss me that much?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I just wanted to show you my neighbors overweight cat Garry! Look at this fucker!” You moved your phone farther away and Garry was rubbing his face into your curly mess of hair.

“Well fuck, that is a large cat, also Garry? That’s such a human name for a cat!” He smiled warmly as you put Garry down.

“I know right! Ugh alright I’m gonna go shower to get all of this Garry hair off of me!”

“You do that, I’ll see you at 9, bring your appetite!”

“Will do, night Joe.”

He hung up, and you did your nightly routine. In the morning your alarm went off for 8, and you awoke to a text from Joe.

Joey: I just realized I don’t have any eggs left, could you grab some on your way over?

Charlie: Yea of course, anything else?

Joey: Wear comfortable shoes, a lot of walking today, see you soon.

Charlie: Got it, comfy shoes, I’ll be there soon.

You nodded to yourself as you went to your shoe tray to get your running shoes on.

After a filling breakfast with Joe, you automatically started to clean up.

“What are you doing?”

“Force of habit…you have a dishwasher, lucky bitch.”

He laughed and helped you put everything away.

“Right, so kid, let me show you the city!”

“Kid? Joe, how old do you think I am?”

“23?”

“I’m flattered, but I’m 25.”

“How old do you think I am?”

“You have to at least be 30.”

“33, I’m old.”

“I mean you’re older than me, but not old. Old is 70 and up.” He laughed while shaking his head.

“Right, so when I’m 70 and you're still in your 60’s you're gonna shame me for being old?”

“Exactly!” He shook his head back and forth while tying up his nikes, and when he rose he put his hands on his hips and looked at you. You slyly snapped a picture.

“Why are you laughing at me?”

“I’m sorry but stay just like that….look at this!” He looked at your phone and he raised his eyebrows in confusion while you still laughed. You steadied yourself by putting a hand on his chest. “You look like, I’m sorry let me catch my breath…” You looked up at him and started to laugh again. “Ok I think I’m good! You look like a soccer dad…it’s the Nikes!” He looked at the picture again and then at you, his face dropped giving you a grumpy look. “I’m sorry, I just, FUCK!” You started to laugh again, putting your other hand on his chest now, his head fell backwards and he rolled his eyes.

“Are you done?” He grabbed your hands away from him and you fell forward a bit, your head hitting his chest now, still laughing. Joe couldn’t help but inwardly melt when he heard your laugh, his heart racing, a blush spreading across his face. He grabbed you by the shoulders and shook you a bit. “You are completely overtired aren’t you?” He looked into your pale green eyes.

“Yes, ok I think I’m good now, I’m saving this picture forever. Atually I’m gonna set it as your contact picture.” He looked over your shoulder as you did so and his face scrunched up when he saw what his name is in your phone.

“Joey? Really?”

“Hey it was either that or Mojo Jojo but Joey made me laugh more!”

“I can’t even think of anything funny for your name, it’ll come to me though.”

You guys went outside and it got windy real quick, you were miserably cold, Joe noticed this and he wrapped his scarf around you. You smiled up at him and thanked him. “Hate to be that person but can you show me a cool store that has heat so I can regain the feeling in my fingertips?” You reached one of your hands out of your jacket pocket and placed it on the side of his face, he was so warm. “How the hell are you so warm right now!” He moved his face away, and grabbed your free hand, pulling you into the nearest place, which happened to be Five Below. He let go of your hand, and you pouted and grabbed it again.

“If you keep touching me with your frigidly cold hands then I won’t be warm anymore!” You gave him a sweet smile and he rolled his eyes at you. “Fine, but we’re buying you gloves.” You found the winter section and chose a nice pair of purple gloves with a scarf that matched, you took Joe’s scarf off and wrapped it back around his neck.

“Thanks for letting me borrow this Joey, but I think I look more badass in this shade of purple.” Joes nose scrunched up, something that made your heart pound. “I should get snacks while we’re here!” You turned on your heel and started to search, you found some kind bars and got 6 different boxes. Joe raised his eyebrows at you. “I know what you’re thinking, but I lack fiber in my diet so these help, also yes I’m slightly obsessed with them.” You shrugged and then walked around to look at other things. You ended up losing Joe for a good 10 minutes just because you were bouncing around from aisle to aisle. When you found him you had a pile of stuff in your arms. “Look at all the cool stuff I found!” Joe grabbed some stuff from your arms to help out. “I got all these kind bars, a cool clock in the shape of an avocado to put in my kitchen, matching hand towels, I got Garry the fat cat this cool toy, got a 2 pack of purple knee high socks, then a pair of grey sweatpants, you can never have too many pairs of sweatpants!” You were speaking so quickly because you were so excited with all the cool stuff you were getting for such a good price. “I like this store, definitely going to have to come back!”

“I’m gonna have to help you carry this stuff, aren’t I?” You gave him a wide smile and batted your eyelashes. “That’s what I thought, well thank god you didn’t find the toy section!” Your eyes darted to the floor, and you took a plastic t-rex out of your pocket, you held it up to him.

“I laughed when I saw it because I thought of you in Jurassic Park, so I’m getting this for you as a token of my appreciation for not only lending your scarf for most of the day, but for helping me with my bags.” You finally were called up to the register and you plopped all of your stuff down. After 5 Below Joe guided you to Times Square, your eyes lit up when you got into the center, it was just starting to get dark and all the colors were so pretty, he stared at you with the cutest smile on his face, biting his lip. You got some pretzels from a nearby truck and sat down and people watched for a little.

“So what do you think?” Joe asked with a mouthful of food.

“There’s something comforting about being one person out of millions, also theirs so much to see, we haven’t hit everything yet which is fine because I’m exhausted and I can’t really feel my thighs if I’m being honest. But I like it here, I still miss home and being close to the beach but this busy fast pace lifestyle is great to keep my mind of off shit.” You took a bite of your pretzel.

“Hate to pry into your life, but what made you transfer to NYU your second year of grad school?” You put down your pretzel and took a sip of Joe’s soda, which he grabbed away from you shortly after.

“I don’t mind sharing, it’s just a long story, I’ll try to condense for you. Basically I was engaged to my high school sweet heart, we were together since sophomore year and then he popped the question when we graduated college right before we started grad school, then he cheated on me 4 months in, I found out through a mutual friend. He’s now engaged to that woman. I live in a small town and was looking to escape and I was like fuck it I’m applying to NYU, when I got in I packed my car up with as much shit as I could and voila! I’ve been here for 4 months, and now I’m friends with some pretty cool people.” You took a deep breath and took Joe’s soda out of his hand and took a big gulp, then placed it back in his hand. “I left out the dark parts, but that’s the gist of it.”

“Wow, that’s a lot. Engaged!” His eyes were wide and he was not expecting that, and you loved how you made him speechless. “The dark parts?” His head cocked to the side and gave you a puzzling look.

“I’ve never really told anyone about the dark parts, still kind of healing from all of that.” You took a deep breath and rested your head on your arm, and yawned.

“Do you wanna head back? I have left over pasta in my fridge that I’m willing to share with you, but your buying me some beer.” You nodded and chugged the rest of his soda which he was not happy about. He wanted to take the subway back to his, but you convinced him to walk since it was so pretty outside and the wind had died down. You walked arm in arm, pushing through the busy sidewalks, when you made it back to Joe’s you immediately went to his bathroom and put on your thigh high purple socks, the sweatshirt you were wearing under your jacket came down to just above your knees.

“Joe would it bother you if I didn’t wear pants?” You heard him clear his throat.

“Do what you want!” he yelled back. So you came out of the bathroom in just your oversized UMASS sweatshirt and purple thigh highs. Joe couldn’t help but look at you from head to toe, which you noticed, but decided to ignore it. “So you’re from Massachusetts? Does this mean you’re a Red Sox fan?” He went back to focusing on stirring the sauce, he was trying not to look at you, specifically the tattoo’s that were peeking out of the tops of the socks.

“Yup, I could of sworn I told you that? Also I’m more of a fan of football than baseball.” You hopped up onto his counter and crossed your legs. He dropped what he was doing to turn around to look at you.

“I’m sorry did you just say you like football better than baseball?” He had a crazed look in his eyes, and the water started to boil over, you hopped off the counter and turned the burner down.

“Yes, I did. Did I hit a nerve in you? Are you a die hard Yankees fan?” He turned to look down at you, still having that crazy look in his eyes, you poked his cheek to see if you broke him. He snapped out of it.

“Yes, Charlie, look I don’t think this friendship is going to work out if you don’t enjoy baseball, because if I can’t drag you to a Yankees game in the spring then your rarely going to see me.” He added some fresh noodles to the boiling water.

“Well Joe, looks like I’ll have to start enjoying baseball.” You shrugged and opened a beer to hand it to him, then opened one for yourself. You assumed your position perched up on his counter. Joe smiled to himself while he stirred the sauce again. You guys inhaled the pasta and then sprawled out on the couch. Joe manspreading and you laying down on your back, your legs on his lap. “That was some great sauce, did you make that?”

“No, my mom was over last weekend and she always brings her homemade sauce for me. I’ll let her know you enjoyed it!” You yawned and closed your eyes for a second. “I know it’s only 8 o’clock but I could knock out right now.” You propped yourself up on your elbows to look at Joe. He responded with his eyes closed as well. “My arms hurt from carrying your bags.”

“Bullshit!” He chuckled as he stretched his arms out, you watched as his muscles flexed, you bit your lip and let your body fall back again. “I need to get up and go home but I’m honestly way to comfortable to do that at the moment.” Joe through a blanket on you, and you gave him an angry look. “No, take this back!” You flung it on the floor with your foot. “I need to get home and put up this avocado clock in my kitchen ASAP!”

“That’s what you’ve been thinking about all day! Your fucking weird!”

“Your right I am weird, but you hang out with me, so what does that say about you?”

“Get off my couch and put some pants on, go put your avocado clock up!” He patted your thighs that were resting on his lap, then slowly pushed them off.

“I think your jealous of it!” You said as you got up.

“I’m not.” You groaned and made your way back to his bathroom to put your jeans back on.

“I’m gonna leave the other pair of socks here, just promise not to wear them! Where should I put them?” Joe grabbed them and put them in his linen cabinet in an empty spot. “Can I leave these sweatpants here as well?” Joe put his hand out and you handed them to him.

“Anything else? You wanna leave some kind bars here too?” You flipped him off.

“I mean your fridge looks pretty bare, maybe I should leave a box here so you don’t starve!” You placed a box of breakfast bars, banana chocolate chunk, next to his coffee machine. “Thanks for being a gracious tour guide, and walking a little slower since I have little legs.”

“I don’t know about little, I just saw them in those socks, they look pretty long to me.”

“Joe Mazzello, were you checking me out?” You raised an eye brow at him and smirked. He blushed.

“In my defense you weren’t wearing pants! But your welcome for going at a slower pace for them. Now go put your avocado clock up!” You reached up on your tippy toes and hugged him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before you were back on your heels again.

“Hopefully no one tries to take it from me on my long journey home.” Joe smiled and watched you make your way to the elevator. He took the plastic t-rex out of his pocket and put it on a shelf in his living room. He took his phone out of his pocket and looked through the many pictures he took of you throughout the day, you called him ‘your personal photographer’. There were a few on his phone of the two of you standing on the red steps in times square that a stranger took for you guys. He smiled then layed back down on his couch thinking about the day he spent with you and how it quite frankly was one of the best days he’s had in a while.

***************************************************************************************

Let me know how you liked this fluffy chapter!

#joe mazzelo x reader #imagine #fanfic

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itsallavengers · 6 years ago

Text

ayapandagirl replied to your post “Yoooo someone give me some peter & tony prompts”

Peter meets a de-aged Tony (same age as him)

There was a crack in space, floating in the middle of Times Square, and it’d been there for three days.

Peter had been with Tony when he’d first got the call. Working on their suits together in his workshop, it had just been another Sunday afternoon. Tony was teasing him about MJ as he’d carefully soldered together a few wires to the base-plate of the chestpiece in his armour, and Peter had been trying to ignore it as gracefully as he could manage- which of course meant digs at Tony about his not-so-subtle texting sprees with a certain Captain America, to which Tony vehemently denied.

Then JARVIS had spoken up hurriedly, informing them both that there were massive energy fluctuations spiking near 7th Avenue and what scans showed to be the first phase of some sort of portal opening up, and all hell had broken loose.

Large-Scale evacuation. Military and SHIELD called to ground. Huge, terrifying weapons pointed at the slowly-growing entrance, primed and ready to be fired at a moment’s notice. Tony had even called back the rest of the Avengers, and the UN had granted them all temporary pardon in favour of them suiting up and being ready to face whatever next came out.

Peter figured that, after the first time, planet Earth wasn’t fucking around any more.

He’d been stood by Tony’s side as they’d both sped over to the scene, breath coming in a little shorter and heart racing that bit faster than usual with the memories of the footage he’d seen on the TV as nothing more than a nine-year-old boy. Aliens and armies and buildings falling to dust and rubble, all of it flashing in his mind and sending his imagination into overdrive. Portals were never good signs. The Battle of New York was proof enough for that.

God only knew how Tony was feeling, stood in front of the thing and watching history repeat itself.

They’d been the first responders, of course- and try as he might, Tony hadn’t been able to stop Peter suiting up and following him to the point of origin. But even when the rest of Avengers had turned up hours later, all of them braced and ready for battle, there hadn’t been anything showing up on the other end. It was just slowly getting bigger- though the only thing visible on the other end was an intense, bright white light.

It took twenty-four hours of standing to attention in front of it before the team of superheroes had decided to make a tactical retreat back to Avengers Tower, which was closest to the portal. Seeing as Tony apparently still hadn’t managed to sell it, it was the easiest choice, really.

However, it had also meant he’d been spending three days without taking his mask off in a tower full of superheroes, trying not to go stir-crazy waiting for something apocalyptic to happen.

“If you spend another hour holed up in here, I think Captain America is going to break down your door,” Peter said as he walked into the labs at the base of the tower and spotted Tony hunched over the desk, holograms spinning around the room and showing equations and statistics even Peter couldn’t really understand. “Also- how come I can get in here but Cap can’t?”

“Biometric sensors,” Tony muttered, not bother to turn around as his hands expanded a particular hologram and then clicked once in the air. JARVIS reeled a string of numbers off to him and he just nodded once, before sighing irritably. He barely seemed to have acknowledged Peter’s presence at all.

Peter raised his eyebrows, wondering when exactly Tony had reprogrammed all the codes in here. Although Steve hadn’t seem that surprised when he’d tried the overrides and found them useless. Guess he’d seen that coming.

He’d been a little miffed when Peter had just wandered up and walked right in, though. Good.

Wandering further in, Peter cocked his head at the mess of a room and picked up a post-it note taped to the wall; yet another set of math that left Peter blinking in confusion. He could... there were a few bits he understood, but then there were other symbols he hadn’t even seen before.

They might just be exclusive to Tony, though. Peter had been on that man’s keyboard before- there had barely been any keys that had looked even vaguely like English.

“What’re you working on?” He asked, pulling off his mask with a sigh of relief and dumping it on the desk as he passed it and then flopping onto a spinnny chair.

Tony didn’t say anything for a moment, and then side-eyed him with a blank face. “You do realise all of them know who you are, right? You don’t need to wear that mask.”

Peter jerked, eyes widening. “What? How? I- I didn’t-”

“Cap saw you when he came over and gave me a blood-sample to save your life when you went and got yourself poisoned. Rhodey picked you up when we both got kidnapped that time. Natasha and Clint have undoubtedly worked it out- they’re spies. Seeing as Bruce and Thor are still MIA, that’s the entire team there.” Tony waved a hand and turned back to his screen, picking up a pen and scribbling something down on the table absently. “It’s fine. They won’t use it against you. Wouldn’t dare.”

Peter frowned irritably, folding his arms. He’d been wearing that stupid mask around all the time for nothing? Brilliant, now he just looked like an idiot in front of all the Avengers. Not that he cared about the Avengers. But still.

He huffed, leaning back on the chair and kicking his feet up on the desk. A second later when Tony tutted and swiped them off again, he leaned forward and glanced at the holograms once more. “Seriously, Tony, what is all this?”

“Have you not noticed the massive crack in spacetime hanging a few feet above 7th Avenue?” Tony said a little snappily, glaring at him for a moment before turning back again, “I’m trying to, y’know, shut the damned thing. Or just work out what caused it.”

“Maybe it’s just... Thor trying to get back or something,” Peter tried, knowing before the words even left his mouth that it was weak. That diagnosis was confirmed a moment later when Tony actually paused what he was doing for a second in order to shot him a very dirty look.

“Aren’t you supposed to be smart or something?”

“I was just trying to cover all the bases!”

Surprisingly, that actually drew a little huff of laughter out of Tony. Inwardly, Peter let himself be pleased- he knew Tony was stressed, and was aware that the man didn’t exactly have the best relationship with big portals opening up in the middle of New York. Any sign of happiness was a win, in his book.

“Thor would’ve used a far more sophisticated method of transport than this,” Tony explained, leaning back on his chair and finally giving Peter his full attention, “and it doesn’t have any of the same energy signatures that Thor usually carries around with him after travelling. It’s not anywhere close to what... the, uh- the portal in 2012 was either. So. I’m confused, because we’ve dealt with this shit before and it’s always been relatively similar, and I could close those ones without- without freaking out too much, but this is- I can’t-”

Tony sucked in a sudden breath and swung away rapidly, facing the desk again and shutting his eyes. Peter just stayed where he was, unwilling to move and just put him even more on edge. Like he’d said- Tony Stark and portals didn’t really mix.

“Christ’s sake,” Tony muttered after a moment, running a hand across his face, “I thought we were over this. Your fault, Parker- if I hadn’t said what I was thinking out loud then everything would’ve been fine-”

“Maybe you’re just looking at it from the wrong angle,” Peter said quietly, ignoring the mumbled rambles from the man, “you’re looking at it as if you expect it to be exactly the same. But portals aren’t just... space ones, right? The origin could be from another point on this planet. Or- or it could be one that warps time rather than space. They’d both probably have way different readings to a spacey one, right?”

Tony looked at him blankly, and Peter’s spirits sunk a little. Right- because Tony had probably already thought of that, or it was just plain wrong and they were all the same, what the hell did Peter know about intergalactic gateways anyway, Jesus-

“That’s... not actually a half bad idea, Parker,” Tony said slowly, brow creasing just a little, “I- wow, yeah, how the fuck did I not come to that conclusion, that would be... yeah, okay, I think you might be onto someth-”

Of course, perfect timing as ever, at that moment JARVIS decided to blare the alarm out of every speaker in the tower and send both Peter and Tony jumping rather unceremoniously out of their chairs.

“What the fuck?” Peter yelled, as Tony’s eyes widened and he lurched forward, beginning to sprint toward the exit, “Tony, what’s happening-”

“Something’s coming,” Tony stopped, turning to him as he reached the door, “Peter, get your mask on. Shit’s about to go down.”

“JARVIS, what are we looking at?” Tony asked, and Peter didn’t take his eyes off the opening of the portal, but he cocked his head slightly to the side in order to listen anyway.

He was sandwiched between Iron Man and Captain America, both of them with their weapons raised and prepared to fight. He could see the rest of the team in his periphery- War Machine hovering above, Hawkeye and Black Widow perching on the rooftops nearby for surveillance. A bunch of SHIELD agents were surrounding them a few paces back, each one with a weapon trained on the entry point with unwavering intensity.

“Energy spikes are becoming more and more frequent, pointing toward a climax in roughly 24 seconds,” JARVIS reeled off, and Tony nodded once, hand remaining raised in the suit.

“And how long do you think it will remain open?”

“I’m afraid the readings are too sporadic for me to be able to predict, currently.”

With every passing second, Peter could feel his heartbeat getting that little bit faster; the tension of waiting just furthering his fear. He’d rather just get it over with and deal with whatever was coming than stand here and just... wait. They’d been doing this for the past three days anyway, he was tired of twiddling his thumbs.

“Spidey, you know the drill, yeah?” Tony asked for the third time, and Peter just rolled his eyes in response.

“If they don’t stop coming, I start running, yes, I know, you’ve told me like ten times-”

“That’s because there’s an 87% chance you’re going to ignore me and I am trying to forcibly drill it into you before that can happen.”

“Well I mean, if there is an alien army coming, then surely it won’t really matter if I run from it, because they’ll come find me anyway, so I really might as well stay and fight-”

“Don’t you dare, Peter, you promised-”

“Yeah yeah, okay!” Peter turned to him, raising his hands defensively before huffing, “I’ll stay back and web them like you said.”

He pouted and then turned back around, spotting Rogers eyeing them both as a shadow of amusement crossed his face. Technically, he was still not cool with Rogers on behalf of Tony, so he just shot him a dirty look and then moved his gaze back to the portal. “So if we survive this, can we get something to eat after? I’m starv-”

He was cut off when suddenly and without warning, the crack in the air suddenly spasmed and then became almost blindingly bright, lurching and churning around in the air like it was having some sort of fit. Everyone braced at once, and Peter heard the sound of about five hundred different safeties get flicked off the guns behind him. His breathing stuttered to an embarrassingly loud halt, and a second after that his view was almost entirely blocked by Tony, who’d stepped in front of him.

Everyone watched for a few seconds, before suddenly there was a loud crackling noise and-

Peter looked around Tony’s shoulder just in time to watch one single body fall out of the other side, landing on the floor with a quiet ‘Oof, fuck!’, and then...

Nothing else.

A moment later, the portal suddenly lurched once more, before snapping shut like a rubber band, leaving with nothing more than a sharp crack. That was that. Nothing else happened.

Peter stared at the body about fifteen feet away, curled up on the floor and only moving a little bit. All he could really see was a dark head of hair, and... and it definitely looked human, but then again, there were probably a ton of humanoid sort of creatures in the galaxy, so who knew-

“This is Iron Man, protector of planet Earth, and I’m ordering you put your hands on your head. Do not to make any sudden movements,” The sharp tones of Tony’s modulated voice rang out loudly through the street, “I don’t want you to get accidentally shot by three hundred different weapons.”

There was silence for a moment, and then the body on the floor groaned a little, straightening out on the floor slowly. “Holy shit, that was rough. I think I just lost about eight billion brain cells. Fuck.”

Peter made a face and turned to Cap, but found he was doing much the same. At least it wasn’t Peter who didn’t know what the fuck was going on, then.

“Hands on your head,” Tony said again, seemingly just as much at a loss for what to do as the rest of them.

The body stopped moving at that, apparently finally becoming aware of the situation he was in. Peter’s enhanced hearing picked up a small little ‘ah’ fall out of his mouth.

And then he looked up.

“What the fuck?” Tony blurted suddenly, faceplate snapping up to reveal his thoroughly confused face whilst Peter just gaped on his left. Because- because he’d seen a few pictures before in newspapers or photographs, and yeah, it was a lot younger and without the beard, but-

But that was definitely Tony Stark on the floor in front of them.

“What the fuck?” Tony- Younger Tony- parroted back, the exact same inflections and tone oh Fuck, that was so weird- “I... Dad?”

“Oh, now this is gonna be fun,” he heard Cap mutter on his right

So Tony had fallen through a portal. Thirty years ago, anyway.

The boy sat on the chair in front of them was eerily similar to the man with his arms folded at Peter’s left. Probably because, y’know, they were the same. Positive DNA results and everything- that boy was Tony Stark, without a shadow of a doubt.

He was also kind of an asshole.

“Okay, so when am I gonna be able to leave this fucking basement?” He asked through a groan, letting his head loll back against the chair and and swinging his legs up onto the desk. “No offence, but you two aren’t exactly the most riveting company.”

“Hm- how about when I manage to get World Security to pipe the fuck down and convince them that no, you’re not going to blow up the planet and yes, you are actually a human. Do you even understand how much trouble you’ve just fucking caused? I’m trying to stop the US military shovelling you into a van to dissect you- me- whatever the fuck!” Tony threw his hands into the air jerkily, before sighing and then leaning against the wall. “How did this even... I never jumped through a portal when I was fifteen. I would remember jumping through a portal when I was fifteen.”

Younger Tony just shrugged. “I mean, depends how wasted you were-”

“Just answer the question, smart-alec,” Tony asked with a sigh. Peter eyed up the younger one curiously, until the moment Younger-Tony glanced his way, and then he snapped his eyes back down to the floor. It was... it was too weird, to see this teenager and think ‘Tony Stark’.

“I was curious to see if I could do it,” was all the kid responded with, a vacant shrug and then a stifled yawn coming from his mouth a moment later. “Turns out I can. Which is cool, ‘cause I’m gonna make a fortune off this-”

“No you’re not,” Tony told him with a shake of his head and a little snort, “I just told you, kid, we didn’t ever invent time travel. It doesn’t happen.”

“Then what’s happened here?” Peter waved a hand in the other boy’s direction, turning to the older Tony with curiosity. “I mean- it had to have happened. Because he’s here. This isn’t a hallucination.”

Younger Tony eyed him up for a moment, head cocking. “The random guy’s right. Once you eliminate the impossible - that being, that I just magically appeared here randomly and with no intention- whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Tony shot his younger self a dirty look. “Don’t quote Sherlock at me, I’m too stressed right now.”

“So has something in history been changed?” Peter turned to Tony in question, brow furrowed, “d’you think someone in this time went back and gave him the technology or something?”

“Possibly, but if that’s the sort of portal that they needed to do it, then it would’ve shown up on one of my registers, so I don’t see how they would’ve been able to get away with it.”

“Maybe... maybe it’s you but like, a magic version? D’you think it’s Loki, maybe?”

“Again, possible, but why? I don’t think-”

“Hello, yes, I am actually in the room, you know?” Younger Tony waved at them and leaned forward, unimpressed, “You can talk to me as if I’m actually here, and not just some deaf apparition. God, I thought people over here would be different.”

He folded his arms and glared at the two of them when they just stared in silence. “I can write out the math for you, if it’ll help you two understand better. We all learn at different paces- although seeing this kinda makes me worry for my future,” he waved a hand at Tony, and then shot a look off to Peter, “looks like I lost a few million brain cells and had a kid. Jesus, what went wrong?”

Peter resisted the urge to jump up and automatically defend Tony from- well, himself- and instead just narrowed his eyes and shot the kid a dirty look. “I- I’m not his kid.”

That, at least, caused Younger Tony to pause. “Then who the hell are you?” He said in the end.

“None of your business,” Tony snapped before Peter could reply, “we don’t know how dangerous any of this information could be. We don’t know how long it’s going to take to get him home, either, or whether his ‘math’ will even hold up on the journey back. Best just keep him here and make sure he doesn’t blow anything up for now, ‘til I can sort this.”

“Uh, excuse me?” Younger Tony said, “you think I’m staying here?”

Peter watched Tony shut his eyes in exasperation for a moment, thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. “Unless you want to die of a stress-related heart attack in twenty years, please, could you just listen to me?”

The Younger Tony rolled his eyes- a hauntingly familiar gesture- and then when it became apparent he wasn’t going to respond to that, Tony sighed. “And take your feet off the fucking desk.”

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s my desk, I can put my feet on it if I want.”

Tony gaped at him for a second, before just shaking his head and then blinking a few times. “You’re not me yet. Doesn’t count. Feet off.”

“Why am I not you?”

“I have experience.”

“I have your DNA.”

“Yeah, and so did Howard.”

“You say that like you don’t think you’re exactly the same as him,” the younger Tony leaned back casually on his chair, swinging off on two legs and inspecting the room whilst Real Tony just completely froze up in front of him. He looked like he’d been punched in the face.

Peter looked between to the two of them; Young Tony’s apparent nonchalance, and Old Tony’s complete shock, and decided that he needed to say something, anything to just... diffuse this. Before he could, though, he heard Tony cough and then suddenly move back into life, like his whole system had just rebooted. “I need to- gotta try and fix this,” he muttered to himself, turning back around jerkily, “get that damn portal back open again, get you- me- home I’ll be, uh, talking to some contacts upstairs, probably-” he waved a hand absently to his elevator doors, and then pointed back to his young self. “Don’t leave this room, understand? Peter, make sure he sits his ass here ans stays.”

In response, the younger Tony stuck his middle finger up. Tony just looked at it for a second, before laughing humorlessly. There was a coldness in his eyes that Peter rarely ever saw- usually only saved for really repulsive villains and people he truly despised.

“God, no wonder everyone fucking hated us,” was all he ended up saying, voice barely even above a hiss- and then he was leaving, turning on his heel and walking off without another word.

For whatever reason, that seemed to hit his younger self in the weak spot, because this time it was him who temporarily allowed his face to show the hurt. It lasted longer than the Tony that Peter knew, and he realised with a lurch that this kid probably wasn’t as used to hiding things like that. Not yet, anyway.

Jesus, that was a bit morbid. And kind of... really sad.

“Hey,” Peter said as casually as he could, “uh, uh... I’m Peter. That’s probably safe enough to tell you, right? I hope so.”

Tony just looked at him for a second, his eyes analytic, and then he turned away without bothering to respond. He sat up off the chair smoothly and then retraced the steps that his older version had just walked, before reaching the door at the end. Young, unscarred hands traced the hinges, and Peter watched as Tony’s face creased with curiosity. “This is pretty cool,” he muttered to himself, “maybe I’m not totally stupid in the future.”

“You’re not even remotely stupid, actually,” Peter told him, frowning, “Tony- you- are the smartest guy on the planet. Probably.”

But rather than look impressed, Tony just rolled his eyes. His face looked angry. “Of course I’d say that,” he laughed, “I really do take after Howard, huh?”

Peter stopped. “That’s not what I- hey, wait, what are you doing?” He stood up suddenly, realising that the other boy had pulled out the keypad from within the door and was observing it inquisitively, “you can’t get out you know. No one goes through this door without Tony’s express permission.”

Finally, Tony actually looked at him- if only to laugh at him, admittedly, but still. “And who do you think I am?” He asked in amusement, before turning his head back to the keypad and then beginning to run his fingers over it, biting his lip in concentration. “Now- what would an older, more boring version of myself have as a password?”

Peter watched him, blinking rapidly. There was no way he’d get it, surely.

A few seconds later, the door slid open easily, and Tony grinned as he stepped over the threshold.

Fuck.

“Whoah, no, okay, hold up,” Peter said, going out to grab his arm- but Tony jerked away wildly, eyes going wide and hands coming up defensively.

“No, what are you doing?” Tony said in panic, “if you touch me, you could very well create a rift in time that might suck this world into a completely different reality. For the love of God, I really don’t want to be responsible for that- my Dad will never let me forget it.”

Rapidly, Peter jerked back in horror. Shit- see, this is what Tony had meant by ‘way out of our depth’. God, if Peter just touching him was going to do all that, then what the hell would be exposed to the outside world do?

“You can’t go out,” Peter said, making his voice firm, “you’re a danger to this world.”

Tony only rolled his eyes, and Peter held back the urge to grind his teeth. This Tony seemed particularly... difficult, to say the least. “Oh, don’t be such a fucking baby,” he waved it off easily and then shoved his hands into his pockets, “I’m not going to stay where he put me like some good little puppy. I get enough of that at home, thank you very much.”

“Well if you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t your home,” Peter told him, before pausing, “okay, well it is your home, but not yet. For now, it’s someone else’s. Someone who knows what they’re doing-”

“Oh, and I don’t?” Tony snapped, scoffing, “I was the one clever enough to make it here, wasn’t I? And I don’t see future-me with any ideas on how to get back just yet, so who’s actually the smartest here, huh?”

And with that, he ambled forward and then started to hurry up the stairs casually, looking around him curiously as he went. Peter spluttered helplessly, looking up to the ceiling. “JARVIS? Can you call Mr. Stark and tell him that our guest is, uh, making his way up to the penthouse?”

“Cancel that, JARVIS,” the younger Tony in front of him added before the AI could even respond, shooting Peter a smug grin, “Primary user here, remember?”

Peter groaned. He had no idea how... well, how dislikeable Tony was when he was younger. “Are you actively trying to be an asshole, or does it just come naturally?” He snapped, following up the stairs at a safe distance.

Tony paused, looking behind him with a shrug. “I mean, yeah. I’m a Stark. What else do we do?”

Then he turned and kept walking, hands tapping out a nonchalant pattern against the handrail of the stairwell. Peter just watched, slightly thrown by the answer. There were... well, there were a lot more things that Stark’s did, Peter knew from experience.

They came to the elevator at the end of the next floor, and Tony jumped into it, turning around and then blocking off the door with his body before Peter could follow. “Ah ah, this is for Tony’s only,” he said with a sympathetic shrug, “you’re gonna have to take the stairs, bud.”

Peter stumbled back, making sure he was out of touching distance. “What? No. Let me in right now, Tony.”

“No,” Tony told him simply, looking up, “hey JARVIS? Can you take me up to the penthouse please?”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Peter cursed, shooting evils at the younger version of what was to become Iron Man, “why the fuck are you being so insufferable? We’re trying to help you!”

At that, for some reason, Tony’s eyes went cold. “I don’t need anyone’s help,” was all he said, his voice blunt and cold before the doors closed with a slick slide and left Peter staring at his own chrome reflection.

He could hardly believe it. That was Tony? Really? Jesus- he had a lot of work to do on his personality before he became the guy that Peter knew today. What a fucking asshole.

Grinding his teeth, Peter turned on his heel and then ran over to the next set of stairs, jumping up them rapidly. Younger Tony had no idea he was enhanced, and that he could easily beat the elevator to the top floor. That, at least, would be satisfying to see. Wipe that smug grin off his stupid genius face.

Peter ascended rapidly, thinking as he went about where his phone was and how he was going to tell the older Tony that his young self had managed to break his password and just walk out with ease. Considering the stress he was under, it probably wouldn’t go down very well.

Peter sighed, jumping up the last set of stairs and then walking into the penthouse just as the elevator doors slid open and revealed Tony once more.

They looked at one another for a moment, and then Tony’s eyebrows raised. “Well that was fast.”

Without bothering to answer, Peter scowled and then flicked his wrist, sending a strand of webbing over to the elevator buttons and covering it in a sticky fluid. Now Tony wasn’t going anywhere without sticking himself to the web for six hours.

Except rather than look annoyed, Tony spun around, watching the web in fascination. “Oh wow,” he said through a breath, peering down, “how did you do that? Did that come out of you? Are you a superhuman?”

“Get out of the elevator,” Peter said coldly, putting himself into Spiderman’s shoes rather than his own. Peter Parker wasn’t equipped to deal with this- but his superhero alter-ego probably could.

Tony folded his arms. It was a stand-off. “No.”

Peter stared unwaveringly, but Tony just stared back. “Get out, now,” he said again, harder.

Tony’s eyes flashed, and there was something desperate there. “What are you gonna fucking do, huh?” He asked. “Lock me in the basement for the third fucking time? I’ll just find another way to get out, go into a different universe, a different time like I did before. You won’t even touch me for fear of ripping your own universe to shreds, so good luck with that, by the way.”

Peter opened his mouth to return something about not needing physical contact to make Tony stay put, but he stopped as his brain stumbled over something else Tony had said. “Wait- ‘third time’? What do you mean, lock you in for the third time?”

At that, Tony’s face slackened for a moment, looking surprised as if he’d been caught out. “I mean like earlier,” he said with a wave of his hand, smoothing his expression back down, “when you brought me into that little workshop and told me stay there.”

“No you didn’t,” Peter said, “you said you’d find a way to go into a different universe. Not just ‘break out’, you said a whole other universe.” He blinked. “And anyway, we’ve only locked you in there once before, not twice, so you wouldn’t be going in for a third time unless you’d already been... is that why you’re here? Were you escaping something?”

Something clicked in Peter’s head, and he realised that this Tony must have been from an alternate reality. That was why Peter’s Tony had no recollection of it happening. In their universe, this situation must never even have arisen in the first place.

The Tony that Peter was currently watching just remained silent, his jaw wound tightly shut. “None of your fucking business,” he said, “I don’t know you. You could easily sell any information I give you.”

This Tony was untrusting. He was edgy, ready to bolt. Peter was just now beginning to get a sort of scared-animal vibe off him. He was snapping and snarling because he felt backed into a corner. Helpless. It was in the eyes. This younger Tony had yet to learn how to properly school them, and Peter knew that if there was one way to know what any Tony Stark was really feeling, it was to look for what was in his eyes. They told more than he would ever let on verbally.

Peter was silent for a moment as Tony glared threateningly. The other boy was tall; nearly the same size as his adult version, and his hair was a little longer than Tony kept it now, curled in around the edges. His face was unnervingly familiar, and yet different as well. Peter wasn’t sure what he thought when he looked at this Tony, but he knew that trying to force him into complying was undoubtedly not going to work. If Peter wanted him to listen, he was going to have to try something else.

“You hungry?” He said, decision made as he glanced over to the kitchen. Stocked, definitely. They could find something.

That made Tony take pause for a moment, at the very least. “What?”

“Do you want something to eat?” Peter asked, starting to walk over to the cupboards, “I figure we might be here for a while, and Tony- my Tony- said I can have whatever I want, so-” he made a pleased face as he pulled down a jar of peanut butter, “-you like PB & J’s?”

At that point, it seemed Tony was completely thrown by the swift change in conversation. He was looking blankly at the jar in Peter’s hand. “I’m not staying here,” he declared with a shake of his head, “you’re not making me stay anywhere.”

Peter didn’t look up. “JARVIS, maximum deadlock override, Peter Parker, User 98347. Freeze tower activity. No one gets in or out.”

“Absolutely, Mr. Parker,” The AI replied smoothly, sounding somewhat smug.

Tony blinked as all the windows blacked out, and the sounds of various locking mechanisms clicked into place around the room. “What? No. JARVIS, override the override, Tony Stark, Primary User-”

“Won’t work,” Peter sat back on the chair and smiled, “that is my emergency code. Nothing gets through that for three hours, unless I either break or renew it. Not even Tony- or you.”

There was a long silence as Peter pulled out some bread and began whistling a tune.

“Who are you?” Tony asked again, sounding completely bewildered, “you’re not his son, but he gives you all that power? I wouldn’t ever do that. For anyone. Ever. What- are you like his Godson? His nephew? A fucking grandson? Oh God, if you’re a grandson I’m going to kill myself right now.”

“Answer my question first, then I’ll answer yours,” Peter told him, putting down the knife and turning to him calmly. He couldn’t win this through abrasiveness, but Peter was a natural-born pacifier, a diplomat. There were other ways to approach a problem. Like with sandwiches, for instance. “What were you running from? We might be able to help you.”

Tony just laughed, folding his arms. His protective walls were up a mile high, and it was going to take some doing before they came down enough for Peter to get through. This... this was Tony at his rawest, at his most vulnerable.

“Was it Howard,” he took a calculated shot in the dark when Tony still refused to answer. He knew that Tony’s dad was a sore subject for him- figured it might be a universal constant. “Did he... were you running from him or something?”

“I wasn’t fucking running, jesus, I’m not a coward and I’m most certainly not afraid of him,” Tony spat angrily, his blank facade breaking for a second as he looked away. When he turned and glanced back at Peter, his eyes were glinting dangerously. “How do you even know about him anyway? You a fan or something?”

“Opposite,” Peter told him easily, “he’s a prick, as far as I know. Tony- my Tony- hated him too. And I trust his judgement, so.”

There was a long silence, the Tony in front of him obviously still too wary to admit anything. Peter made sure not to look too disheartened by that. At the very least, he just had to keep Tony distracted enough so that he wouldn’t end up wandering off into the dangerous streets of New York, and that wouldn’t be possible if he got Tony’s back up. Instead, Peter slid the plate of sandwiches over the counter toward the other boy, landing it perfectly in front of him.

“Eat up,” he said easily. When Tony just looked at it in confusion, Peter smiled encouragingly. “Come on, you must be hungry. It’s been hours since you arrived here. And it’s not poisoned- you saw me make it.”

Tony looked up at him. “Why are you doing this?” He asked.

That, admittedly, threw Peter off a little. He frowned. “Uh, what do you mean?”

“Why are you being nice to me?” Tony folded his arms. “I’m only being an asshole to you. I don’t get it. What are you hoping to achieve? Like you said, we’re from different universes. Being nice to me won’t get you any brownie points for your own Tony.”

Peter shrugged, looking down at the counter and pushing some of the crumbs around with his finger. “It’s not about getting brownie points,” he said easily, “it’s about being kind to people, because you never know what might be going through their head. Assholes are usually assholes for a reason.” This Universe’s Tony acts like that when he doesn’t want people to see he’s scared, Peter didn’t say.

He didn’t look up; just got to work making his own sandwich and then bit back a smile when he saw the younger Tony tentatively pick up a slice of bread and then lift it to his mouth. Success.

They ate in heavy silence. Peter sort of wanted to turn the radio on, but he felt like then it might be too obvious that he was feeling awkward, which in turn would only make it even more awkward. So he kept himself seated and just chewed on his sandwich, sneaking quick glances Tony’s way every few seconds. It really was a trip, seeing the man Peter knew so young and different, but still so similar at the same time.

“Is this universe’s Tony gay?” Peter heard about a minute in, causing him to promptly choke on his mouth of food. He bit back on a cough and forced it down his throat, before gasping and looking up at the younger Tony with watery eyes. The boy was just glaring at him, fierce and yet blank at the same time.

Peter swallowed. “No,” he said with a shake of his head, “he’s bisexual though. At least, that’s what he told me.”

Tony’s eyes widened a little. “So he’s out?” He asked, almost in a whisper. “Does he... what do people say about that? I mean, I assume he’s as famous here as I am over in my own world, what with all the fancy tech and stuff, so like... how does that work? Don’t people tell him to-” Tony waved a hand awkwardly, “you know, resign and stuff?”

“What?” Peter asked incredulously, “no, of course not! You’re... well, you’re from a different time. Things have changed. It’s a work in progress, but- but things are okay now. You can be out and still be, well, you.” He paused, before cocking his head and frowning deeply at the other boy. “What is this about, Tony?”

Tony didn’t say anything. He just looked down at his sandwich with a scowl, like it had personally offended him. “Just curious,” he said eventually, a clipped laugh leaving his mouth, “I mean, I kiss some college guy on a night out one time and Howard tells me I’ve ruined my whole career and he’s never going to speak to me again, but this Tony, apparently, can be whoever he wants and not have fuck-all happen. Great.”

Peter blinked at him. “Don’t be Goddamn stupid,” he blurted in the end, which made Tony blink at him in surprise, “you’ve got no idea what he might have had to go through to get where he is now- what you might go through. All you’re seeing now is the end result. Trying to compare the two is just dumb, and you are a lot of things, but dumb definitely isn’t one of them.”

Tony didn’t respond. He turned his head to the side and then looked at the wall instead, his face empty, his jaw clenched. Peter, admittedly, wasn’t too sure what to do. Trying to navigate a Tony that was nearly thirty years younger was weird in a hell of a lot of ways, and he was having to relearn a lot of stuff as he went. This Tony was quicker to get his back up, he was more easily aggravated. And right now, they were in a minefield of potential explosions just waiting to go off.

And of course, right when Peter had decided that maybe the best option would be a tactical retreat and perhaps a phone-call back to the older version of Tony, his younger counterpart decided to do the exact opposite of what Peter had expected: Talk.

“He locked me in my workshop,” was what Tony decided to pop up randomly with, making Peter jump and then turn back to him with wide eyes, “Howard, when he saw the news report of me and that other guy- totally flipped his shit. Told me I wasn’t coming out of there until I promised not to ever talk to him again. But- but Michael is my friend, I didn’t want to-” for a second, Tony just looked completely and utterly miserable- but then his face hardened and Peter watched how his fist curled on the tabletop and his spine straightened. He grinned harshly. “So I decided I was going to get out on my own. He had the override codes and the walls were five feet of solid steel, but he couldn’t stop me from using all of my equipment.”

Peter looked at him, resisting the urge to gape. “So you created- what, a teleport?”

Tony shrugged. “Yeah, if that’s what you wanna call it. Instead of just agreeing to what he said, which would generally have just been a hell of a lot easier, I sat my ass down and teleported into a whole other universe, whilst also igniting an international incident upon arrival.” He rolled his eyes. “And of course, what happens once I’m here, free, away from that single room that Howard had fucking left me in for four days? Well. I’m put straight back into some other stupid basement and told to stay there, again.”

Peter leaned forward. There were about a billion different questions running through his head, and the scientist in him was going positively nuts over this- but he figured, first and foremost, this Tony simply needed a friend. “I mean,” he started with a small shrug, “you managed to get out of this one pretty easily, though. And like. You literally created universe-hopping just to piss your dad off. That’s... well, I don’t even know what that is. But it’s pretty cool.”

Of course Tony was cool as a kid. Tony was just cool, full stop. The most Peter had managed to do yet was accidentally get radiation poisoning. After that, it was mostly just being beat up a lot and trying to act like that was supposed to happen. This Tony had jumped through a hole in the universe already, and he was the same age as Peter.

Damn. Way to make a guy re-evaluate his life.

Tony looked at him for a moment as Peter thought all those thoughts in his head, but then he did something very unusual. He laughed. Peter made sure not to look surprised by it- laughing was normal. Just because Tony had seemed like he’d wanted to punch Peter (and everyone) in the face since his arrival didn’t mean that it was impossible to get him to laugh.

“Yeah,” Tony admitted with a small grin, “yeah, that is pretty cool, isn’t it?”

“It’s also like... completely insane,” Peter added with a shrug, “and incredibly dangerous. I mean. It’s still the eighties for you. You guys have barely even touched at string theory yet. You’re completely crazy, trying to go this hard just to spite Howard Stark. You could have just... I dunno, teleported six meters to the left.”

Tony cocked his head and leaned back on his chair. His grin was full now; cocky. “Hey, I’m Tony Stark. I don’t do shit by halves.”

Peter was hit with a wave of familiarity- he’d heard his own Tony say that so many times now he’d lost count. Maybe the two of them weren’t as different as Peter might have thought at the beginning.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, looking behind him, “we’ve got some time to kill- you wanna watch how far the visual effects on movies have come along since the eighties?”

Peter wasn’t 100% sure whether it would work, because Tony always claimed to hate the movies Peter forced him to sit through and watch- but this Tony’s eyes went wide with curiosity, and he slowly rose from his chair with a nod. “Oh hell yeah,” he said, “hey- are there any more Star Wars movies that’ve come out yet? I love those ones.”

Peter smiled, storing that away as blackmail for later when Tony tried to say how terrible they were. “Yeah! Come on- they’re all available on hand, so you can pick which one you wanna watch.”

Tony nodded and stood up when Peter did, following him over to the communal living room. His eyes moved rapidly as they walked, absorbing everything and anything in sight, including the skyline as they passed the windows. His eyes were wide, fascinated. Tony’s neverending curiosity was obviously a lifelong habit.

They both sat on the couch, Tony shuffling a little nervously as Peter grabbed the remote and then flicked the tv screen on. He couldn’t help but grin at the way Tony’s eyes lit up in wonder, watching the HD, flatscreen tv pull up a crystal clear image. “Don’t dismantle it,” Peter threw over to the other boy, “I can get you a mobile phone if you wanna check on of those those- oh, wait, that won’t blow up the universe or something, will it? I don’t- I don’t really wanna be responsible for that, you know?”

Tony just rolled his eyes. “No, I’m pretty sure we’re good,” he poked Peter with his foot good-naturedly, and then just burst out laughing when Peter screamed and threw himself back, landing on the floor with a heavy thump.

“What did you just do?” Peter yelled, “You just ripped a hole in the- in the...” he saw Tony’s amused face, and the penny dropped. He sat up indignantly. “You made that up, didn’t you,” he said, unimpressed.

Tony shot him a slightly apologetic face, but it was sort of defeated by the laugh that came later. “I mean, I was trying to escape at the time.”

“I just thought I’d ripped my universe apart,” Peter said grouchily, getting back up to his feet, “you’re not funny, you know.”

Again, Tony pulled a face, shrugging and then lifting up his fingers. “Tiny bit funny,” he said, eyes twinkling.

Peter sighed, sitting tentatively back on the couch. “Shut up.”

Tony chuckled again, and a few minutes later Peter had pulled up the Star Wars films and was quietly running Tony through some of the cool new things they’d developed since he’d last watched a movie. The boy listened to him avidly, his shoulders relaxing with every technical and scientific word Peter spoke. This was the language Tony knew and understood, after all. They talked until the opening credits came up, when Tony’s focus rapidly shifted, smacking Peter’s arm in boyish excitement as he shuffled to face the screen with starstruck eyes. Peter hid his grin into his hand- he was never letting the older version of Tony forget this.

Tony Stark was a Star Wars fanboy.

The movie went down a hit. Tony was enraptured throughout the entirety of The Force Awakens; asking Peter a string of questions about the cinematography and how they managed to make it all look so realistic. His smile was huge, his eyes bright- a totally different person to the standoffish, cutting kid who’d fallen out of the portal a few hours ago. Peter couldn’t help but be proud of that. Okay, so he hadn’t fixed the problem, but he’d definitely helped- and he’d also made a lost, afraid and alone fifteen-year-old kid feel like he was safe. That was the whole point of being a hero, right? Making people feel safe.

By the time the first film was over, Tony had a billion questions on the tip of his tongue, all of them spilling to try and get out first. “So is Rey related to Luke? How is the resolution on this TV so good? Are there other films that have come out? What kind of editing programs were used here? The CGI was fucking insane, you gotta tell me how it’s done.”

“Tony, I don’t know, I don’t specialise in film,” Peter responded with a small laugh, we could look it up though.” He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and then shot a look over to Tony. “You know what this is?”

Tony cocked his head, lifting a hand and then looking at Peter in askance. When Peter handed it over, Tony’s eyes squinted and he frowned, before looking somewhat dazed. “It’s like a tiny computer, right?” he asked, his fingers gently settling down on the screen. When they pressed over an app and opened it up, he jumped and his eyes went even wider. “Oh, this is so cool. How much stuff can it do?”

“Pretty much anything,” Peter answered with a grin, taking it back and then pulling google up. “It’s actually a cell phone- but you’re right in that it’s also a small computer. In this age, we can condense all our tech into slim stuff like this. You’re one of the front-runners in this market, actually. This a StarkPhone,” he waved the sleek black phone through the air. “It’s brilliant. Voice-activated, facial recognition, built-in virus protector. Really cool stuff.”

Tony’s mouth dropped open. “That’s a cell-phone?”

“Yup. But we’re not using it for that; we’re using it for the internet. You- I mean, I take it you know what the internet is, right? The World Wide Web?” Peter asked, trying to do the math in his head. “You might know it as ARPANET.”

Tony pulled a face, and then grinned sheepishly. “Oh- the military system? Yeah- I went to one of the bases where they were running it and, uh, may have tapped into their systems to try and see what they were doing. So. I know a little about it, yeah. Although if anyone ever finds my floppy disk, I’m dead. US armed forces don’t particularly like kids knowing all their secrets.”

Peter blinked rapidly. “So you basically just created the first computer virus.”

“Virus?” Tony frowned in confusion, before laughing a little. “That’s actually pretty fitting. I made the computer sick, yeah, I guess so. Well- I mean it wasn’t malicious. I was just curious. So I looked over some of their files and found a way to slip in through the system.”

Peter didn’t even know what to say to that. God- fifteen and Tony was already making life hell for the Government. He had to hand it to the guy- Tony Stark had been a genius from birth, quite clearly.

“Okay, well anyway,” Peter decided to move on from that, otherwise they’d never be able to get through his explanation, “What I was trying to say was that it’s developed now. The internet is like... ARPANET on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids. Look, I’ll show you how to-”

“What the fuck are you two doing up here?”

Peter jumped, turning around in surprise and spotting the older Tony, stood by the elevator and staring at the two of them. “Mr. Stark,” Peter began, suddenly wondering how to explain it. Tony had left one explicit message: Keep his younger version in the workshop. That hadn’t gone down too great.

At his side, Tony’s younger counterpart tensed up. “Watching movies? Is that a fucking breach of the Geneva convention or something? ‘Cause your face makes it looks like we’re sat here trying to kill each other.”

Peter shot him a look and then put a hand on his shoulder placatingly. “Relax,” he said before jumping off the couch and then hurrying over to the older Tony who was glaring at him across the room. He grinned nervously, wringing his hands. “Okay, so I know what you’re think-”

“Seriously, Parker?” Tony hissed, and yeah, when the last name was pulled out Peter knew he was in shit, “I told you, I said ‘keep him in the workshop’, that was all I asked- “

“Yeah, and then he got out because he is you, he knew your passcode!” Peter said, waving his hands as he spoke quietly, “hey, listen, he’s not gonna do anything stupid anyway, I’m sure of it. I think we just got off on the wrong foot with him. He was scared. You know what you’re like when you’re scared.”

“Yeah, a mouthy asshole who tends to go off on the deep end and put other people’s lives in danger!” Tony snapped, “did you not see what happened to my Malibu mansion last time I got scared? It was blown up and Pep almost fucking died! And that little shit is even more reckless than I am, he ripped a hole in the fucking universe-”

“-Hey, Tony, just listen to me,” Peter interrupted him, putting his hands up and then clasping them together, “listen listen listen- he was running. From your dad. He’s from an alternate universe, which’ll be why you don’t remember it happening, but yeah. It was because he was escaping.”

Tony’s features froze, hands ceasing their movement through his hair. His eyes sharpened. “What?”

“Howard locked him in a workshop because he- uh- kissed a guy,” Peter said, shrugging and glancing back at the younger doppelganger, who was now sat tensely staring at the wall, although Peter didn’t doubt he was trying as hard as he could to listen in. “He was trying to get out. He ended up here.”

Tony was looking at the back of his teenage head blankly, his jaw clenched tight. He glanced briefly back to Peter. “He told you this?”

“Yeah.”

Tony remained stoic for a moment, before sighing and then rubbing his face. “Jesus. That’s- that’s still really fucking reckless of him. And... brilliant. Wow. Wish I’d thought of that.” He smiled tightly, side-eyeing the kid again. “How did you get that out of him? I never used to tell anyone shit about... well, anything.”

Peter swallowed, his chest suddenly feeling a little tight. He hated thinking of anyone being in a situation like that. Especially someone he cared about. “Dunno,” he mumbled, “I gave him a sandwich, I guess.”

“You-” Tony blinked, and then huffed, bumping shoulders with Peter, “of course you did. PB&J, I assume.”

“Of course.”

Tony nodded in satisfaction. “You know me well.”

Peter grinned, and then turned back to the couch behind him, where the younger Tony was still sat rigidly. “You should talk to him,” he said to the older man, “I think he could do with a bit of reassuring that... well, that things are gonna get better. He’s really on edge right now. And I’m pretty sure he just thinks you hate him.”

Tony bit his lip and rolled his eyes. “I’m not good at that stuff,” he said sullenly, “least of all when it comes to trying to give myself pep talks.” His foot tapped out a staccato rhythm for a second, looking over to the couch before his eyes squinted and he leaned forward a little. “Is that asshole disassembling my TV remote?” Tony blurted a moment later, suddenly walking forward.

Peter just sighed, turning to see Young-Tony fiddling with something black, holding it up to the light as he poked a screwdriver into it (where the hell had he even gotten that?) “I mean, it’s not exactly like you are innocent of that crime,” he called out to the older version as he walked over, “if there’s something unknown in your grasp, you’ve poked it with something in under two seconds.”

Tony flipped him off behind his back as he wandered away, over to his younger counterpart who was now watching the man was sharp, cold eyes. The tension was back in his shoulders again.

Sensing that this may not be a conversation for him, Peter turned awkwardly to the kitchen and then started making coffee for the three of them. However, his enhanced hearing meant that it didn’t really make much difference- Peter heard the two of them start to talk anyway. It was sharp and blunt on the younger Tony’s end at first, unwilling to open up. But as the coffee boiled, Peter heard the voice start to soften a little. Started to accept the Older version’s words and actually listen as he spoke.

“My version of Howard used to lock me in the shoe cupboard,” older Tony’s voice drifted across the room, blunt and casual, and Peter felt his hands stumble briefly over the mugs as he set them down. “Sometimes I’d have to sleep there, when he was really pissed. So- you know- I do get it. You could’ve just told me at the beginning. I mean, it’s still kind of a hassle trying to put out the fires, but... you know. I would have been less of an asshole to you.”

Younger Tony huffed. “I don’t need your pity.”

“Oh hell, don’t I know it. I’m three times your age and I still feel that way. But... you know, we are the same person. It’s not exactly as if I could have judged you.”

Younger Tony was quiet for a moment as Peter poured out the first cup, and then he heard the tentative voice speak up once more. “Peter, uh- he said you... you were out. Bisexual.”

“He’s right,” Older Tony responded cheerfully, “forcibly outed at 21, horribly conscious of for a few months after, then decided I didn’t give a shit, I was richer than anyone talking crap against me anyway, and never looked back after that.” Peter grinned to himself as he looked down at the counter, hearing the soft edge in Tony’s voice. “It’s okay these days. Or at least- way better than it is for you now. Takes a while to get there. But I could marry a guy now, if I wanted.”

Younger Tony gasped. “You’re shitting me.”

“Nope. I’ve dated a few of ‘em openly, too. So anyway- what I’m trying to say is that Howard doesn’t know shit. He’s an old drunk conservative bastard and you don’t need to listen to shit he says.” Tony huffed, and when Peter glanced up at them, he saw the man waving his hands around the room. “I mean, look at you. You’ve already jumped universes at fifteen. What’s he done?”

“Created Captain America,” younger Tony said sullenly, and Peter rolled his eyes before looking up at them both.

“Well Cap’s an asshole anyway, so you’re good!” He called out to them from the kitchen, waving at his face, “he gave me a black eye!”

Young Tony froze, and Peter realised that the kid, in his time, still thought that Captain America was long dead. “Wait,” he said slowly, “he... how old are you?”

“Okay, let’s not even go there,” the older Tony said hurriedly, nodding his head sharply to Peter as a blush crawled up his face, “we do not want to open up that can of sexually frustrated Teen-Tony worms. Kid-” Peter looked up, but Tony waved him off and then pointed to his younger self, “no, sorry, this kid- we need to get you back to the workshop. I think I know how to get you home, but I might need some of your input.”

Peter wandered over and handed them both coffees, smiling at the two of them. “This is still so weird, by the way,”

On his left, the younger Tony snorted. “Yeah, imagine how I feel.”

“It’s safe to say this is a pretty universally strange experience,” Older Tony finished, taking the coffee gratefully from Peter’s hand, “come on, Kiddos. Let’s go do some science. Also, Peter, I really hope you haven’t left anything of yours with him. A single transferred object going from one universe to the other could weaken the multiversal walls and cause a complete inward collapse.”

The two boys stopped, glancing at one another nervously, Peter wracking his brains to try and think. He hoped skin cells didn’t count- otherwise the Young Tony would probably have to go through a surgical bleaching before he left.

Then the Old Tony laughed, patting them both on the shoulders. “Just fucking with you, don’t worry.”

Peter rolled his eyes, smacking Tony’s hand away gently. “Can you two stop doing that, please? That’s twice I’ve thought the universe was going to implode today.”

Both the Tonys laughed, and the younger one bumped Peter’s shoulder fondly as they walked. “Hey,” he murmured quietly, hands going to his pockets and cheeks going a little pink as he smiled, “uhh- so I wanted to say thanks.”

“For what?” Peter asked, looking back at him.

Tony shrugged, watching as his older replica walked on ahead down the stairs. He swallowed and looked away a second later. “You didn’t have a reason to be nice to me, but you were anyway. That was... well. It was probably more than I would have done.”

Peter frowned, fiddling with the sleeves of his shirt absently. “Well, you would have done the same if it had been me,” he said, and when Tony just looked at him with a small note of confusion on his face, Peter waved a hand down the stairwell where the other version was, “I mean- you will. I think. God, it’s weird- do you think there’s a Peter Parker in your universe at all?”

“Hope so,” Tony told him with a smile, nudging him again, “you’re pretty cool.”

“You’ll regret saying that in thirty years or so,” Peter responded, “Future Tony always says I’m a nerd. Or a disaster. Haven’t heard ‘cool’ used until now though.”

It’s funny, the things that stayed the same from universe to universe. Tony’s laugh, for instance- it filled the whole room, a warm giggly thing that was infectious to everyone around him. Peter watched this younger, wrinkle-less, skinnier version of Tony as the guy chuckled to himself, and thought briefly about how he actually looked pretty similar to Peter himself.

Except maybe with a weirder fashion sense. The 80′s was a wild time.

Hours later, and the machine in Tony’s workshop had been built and was whirring to life, after all three of them had worked through the night in order to recreate what Young Tony had been talking to them about. Peter had been fascinated whilst watching the two of them work- taking a while to warm up one another’s styles, but then learning from eachother quickly before almost becoming like some sort of hive mind, knowing exactly what the other was thinking or wanting. It was freaky and weird and God, Peter loved science.

He noticed, toward the end once the machine was in its final stages, however, that the Younger Tony was beginning to become quieter and quieter, more agitated and jumpy. Peter knew why.

He didn’t want to go back.

And really, who could blame him? Quite clearly, he wasn’t having the best time back there. And this... this was the future, bright and amazing and offering so much more personal freedom than back where Tony was headed. He’d be mad not to want to stay.

But he couldn’t. Obviously, he couldn’t.

“You don’t think he could just... stay, could he?” Peter said to the older Tony quietly as he screwed a bolt into place, watching the younger boy fiddle numbly with a monkey wrench as he sat on the desk with his feet propped up.

Tony stopped working and sighed. “We can’t risk it,” he responded quietly, “we have no idea what might happen if he stays here too long. He might be fine, yeah- but he could also create a cataclysmic event. Anyway- one day, his own universe might need him. Who knows.” Tony looked over to him and pursed his lips, nodding once. “Childhood was shitty. In fact... a lot of it was shitty. I know that right now, he’s sat there thinking of every shithead friend and loveless relative who he’s going to have to go back to, and he’s going to want more than anything to just not. But... you know. It makes him who he is, I guess. Without that, Iron Man might never have happened. Then who’d save New York? Who’d stop the bad guys that try to take over the world with giant lizard people? Sometimes you just- you just gotta let life go through the motions. Let it move without intervention. Gotta just pray that one day, it’s all gonna be worth it.”

Peter watched Tony take a small breath and then rub an imaginary speck of grease off his hand nonchalantly. He tentatively rested his hand against Tony’s shoulder, knowing that the man was probably going through an emotional turmoil just then- and when Tony looked up at him, his smile was soft.

“Hey,” he said cheerily, getting to his feet and beginning to wander over to his younger version, “for the record? I think it was all worth it.” Tony turned his head before Peter could respond, clapping Young Tony on the shoulder and then smacking his feet off the desk surface as Peter just smiled stupidly at the both of them.

Well. At least this universe’s Tony had made it through. Peter was very glad of that.

“How you feeling?” He asked later to Young-Tony, when they were calibrating the parameters and coming to the send-off. He watched as the kid next to him went through a couple of hundred emotions at once, before eventually just settling on a strained smile and shooting it Peter’s way.

“Tired,” he admitted, “ready to go to bed.”

Yeah. Peter figured he probably wasn’t going to getting anything deeper than that. “You know, one day you’re gonna save the entire world,” he told the boy firmly, watching the way Tony’s eyes turned slightly incredulous at the strange out-of-the-blue nature of Peter’s words. Nevertheless, he persisted. “I’m serious. People are gonna sing your name in the streets. You’re gonna inspire a generation of new scientists and push for a better, cleaner future. You’re going to change everything.”

Tony didn’t say anything; but his grip on the monkey wrench just tightened a little bit and his heart sped up, just a fraction in Peter’s ears. Peter simply smiled. “The human race needs you, Tony Stark.”

“Well-” Tony said, his voice throaty. He blinked rapidly, before coughing and then recomposing himself. “Well, the human race isn’t going to release the next Star Wars film for another goddamn thirty years, so I’m mostly just pissed off with the human race right now, Peter,” he finished, his smile dry and amused as he pushed himself forward and then started to walk toward the chamber they’d spent the night creating. Older Tony was there waiting for them, and when he looked at the two of them he huffed gruffly.

“God,” he muttered, “thank the lord I didn’t meet you at this age. I would’ve got you into so much shit, Pete.”

Young Tony just tutted, rolling his eyes as he stepped up onto the chamber. “Old man.”

Tony looked indignant for a moment, before simply choosing to flip his younger counterpart the middle finger and then pull a face. “You ready to get thrown through space and time, you cheeky little prick?” He asked, but his tone was fond.

Young Tony shrugged. “It’s a little bit like surfboarding while drunk.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you know what that feels like,” Peter said, looking between the two versions of Tony and sighing. He looked down at the panel in front of him and then started flicking the buttons to start up the process, glancing up at the Young Tony’s wistful face as he stared around the workshop one last time.

“Hey, kid,” Older Tony said, waving to his young self as Peter got ready to flick the final set of switches, “want something to look forward to for the next 25 years or so?”

Young Tony cocked his head, intrigued. “Go on.”

The chamber was emitting a pretty terrific sound by that point, and so he watched as Tony leaned forward with a grin, cupping his hands around his mouth to boost the sound. “You get to have sex with Captain America!”

Peter burst out laughing, hand flicking at the last set of switches. He looked up just in time to see Younger Tony’s face go completely slack with shock, staring at Tony in complete disbelief.

“What thE FU-”

There was a terrific white light, just like before, and Peter stumbled back as a small shockwave pulse. Papers scattered all over the room and for a moment, Peter couldn’t see. But when his eyes refocused, they caught sight of the empty chamber. Tony’s replica was gone.

They both looked at the empty spot for a second. Peter wondered whether he’d made it- gotten home. Or at least, gotten to the coordinates that Young Tony had given them, which apparently led to Rhodey’s place.

He really hoped so.

Peter took a breath and shut his eyes. It was going to take a while to absorb all of the weirdness. He felt like he’d learned more about Tony today than he had in six months combined. He glanced over to the man in question, watching as he straightened out his collar. Peter decided to bring up the most important topic first.

“So,” he said, “You and Cap, huh.”

“Oh f-... just shut up, Parker.”

#i am so tired but I rlly wante dto finish this so #yeah #peter & tony #itsallavengers writes #peter parker

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silverfootstepswrites · 7 years ago

Text

Equinox: Spring [1]

The snow began to melt towards the end of February. The nights were still bitterly cold and the trees were still barren. Icicles hung from the edges of the roof. Sakura could hear Kiba knocking them down outside as she stirred the soup in a lazy figure eight. There was a knock on the window. Sakura looked up in time to see Kiba waving at her before he went back to work.

She rubbed her ankle with her foot. Leaned her hip against the counter. When the soup began to bubble, she turned the heat down.

A few minutes later, she heard Kiba stamping on the steps out back. He huffed and puffed as he stamped over the threshold.

“Alright. I checked the gutters too. Unless you decide to blow up your house, you should be good for a while,” Kiba declared. He stepped out of his boots before he walked over to her. He had been on the receiving end of more than one scolding for tracking mud into the house. Leaning over her shoulder, he took a few sniffs of the soup simmering on the burner.

“Smells good,” he commented.

“If you can sit still for like… ten minutes, you’re welcome to have some,” Sakura offered.

Kiba turned his head and nuzzled against the top of her head. She let him. For about three seconds. Before she whacked his arm with the ladle.

“Hey. Wolf brain,” she reminded him.

“The deal was no licking. I’m being good,” Kiba replied, his voice bordering on a whine. He rubbed his cheek against her for another moment before he pulled away. He reached past her to snatch a stray piece of chicken breast off the cutting board. He grinned as he gobbled it down.

“Besides, I can’t stay. Gotta hit the road before it gets too dark,” Kiba reminded her.

Sakura turned around to look over the poster next to the refrigerator. It had been Kiba’s yuletide gift to her. It laid out all the lunar cycles of the new year, along with the flowers that came into season during each month. It was nice that she didn’t have to pull out her phone every time she tried to figure out when the weres would be busy.

“So, basically, this is like some kind of werewolf playdate?” Sakura asked.

Kiba wrinkled his nose as he thought. He had explained to her that he was driving his nephews out to meet up with some of the other packs in the area. It was good opportunity for the pups to learn how to socialize with their kind. And it was nice to rub elbows with the other weres. There was less fighting if the different packs already knew each other.

“…. kinda. I guess,” Kiba relented. He rubbed the back of his neck. And he stood there, shuffling his feet and avoiding her gaze. It couldn’t have been more obvious that he wanted something.

“What?”

Kiba stretched his arms out to the sides. “Can I get a hug for good luck?”

Sakura stared at him.

“Please?”

She set the ladle down. “Alright, you goof.”

Kiba swept her up into his arms, hugging her against his chest. Her feet left the floor, which she had grown to accept as sort of inevitable. He nuzzled her cheeks and temples, snuffling so hard that he sounded a little like Pakkun. Sakura tolerated this for a few seconds. When her patience ran out, she bit the tip of his nose. Kiba laughed.

“Alright. You’ve got all the luck you need. Put me down,” she told him.

Kiba did. Because he had learned that after biting was one of her pinches. And those were surprisingly painful.

“We’ll be back in a week,” he said.

“Be good,” she responded.

She stood in the doorway, watching him as he got into his truck. His shoulders rose to his ears as he gave an exaggerated shiver. And then he rubbed his hands up and down his arms before pointing at the house. Sakura leaned against the doorway. Stuck her tongue out at him in defiance. Kiba made a face at her. He hurried to shift the truck into gear to back out of the driveway. He raised his hand in greeting before he headed down the street.

Sakura drove up to Empire City about once a week. Kakuzu always remarked on how much money she was spending on gas and tolls.

“You offering to pay?” Sakura demanded, holding out her hand. Kakuzu looked from her hand to her face. And then responded by slowly giving her the middle finger. They snorted together.

“You can’t be this cranky. Not when I’ve got this for you,” Sakura then said, hitting the spacebar. A syncopated synth began beeping out of the speakers. Followed by an electric piano. And then came her signature sound: D-J Bunny in an echoing voice.

Despite his glare, Kakuzu began bobbing his head along to the beat.

The door opened. Temari’s head popped in, also bouncing up and down in time to the music. She flashed Sakura a thumb’s up. Sakura blew her a kiss in response.

When she visited Madara to play the track, his head remained quite still. He sat in his chair, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded across his chest. But when the second verse hit, the bass thrummed low. Madara gave a couple nods. He made an ‘ok’ sign with his right hand before recrossing his arms.

“I like this. Can I have it?” Madara asked once the song ended.

“Give me 6%,” Sakura requested.

“4.”

“6.”

“….5% and your usual up front,” Madara negotiated. He held his hand out. Sakura clucked her tongue, pointing at his gloves. Heaving a sigh, Madara peeled his right glove off to reveal his clawed fingers. His skin darkened toward the tips, almost like he had dipped them into ink.

Sakura reached across the desk to shake his hand. His palm was hot. Madara flashed a smile, eyes glowing bright red for a second before they faded back to black.

“For a demon, you’re pretty shitty at making deals, boss,” Sakura teased as their hands pulled apart. Madara ignored the jab as he hit the spacebar to replay the song. His foot tapped along to the beat. Polished Italian leather against polished tile. He pulled his glove back on.

Sakura tilted her head as she looked him over. Madara was handsome. Anyone with eyes could see that. It baffled her why he wasn’t modeling or acting. A face like that would get him far. So she asked him. Madara was always an open book.

“Why am I doing this? Think carefully, darling,” answered Madara. He pointed above him, at the lines of gold and platinum records that hung in black frames.

“Think of how many songs we’ve released. Think of all the concerts. Think of all the desire that generates. I’m feasting every day,” he pointed out. And then he patted his flat stomach.

“Yeah, but people go crazy over movie stars too,” Sakura protested. Madara wagged his gloved finger.

“Something about music drives people insane. The lust it generates…. well… you don’t look this good after 1000 without a healthy supply of sexual energy. I’m bathing in it every day, Bunny,” Madara spelled out. And he patted his smooth cheek as he spoke.

“Swimming in that good, good incubus botox?”

“If you want to be inelegant about it, yes,” replied Madara, head still bobbing.

“Plus, you’ve got a bunch of half-sirens making all those songs for you,” Sakura mused, mostly to herself. Madara winked at her. His tail curled over his shoulder, smooth and pointed at the tip.

“6%,” Sakura tried again.

Madara laughed, throwing his head back. “You little devil, you."

Her new track had put Madara in a particularly generous mood. He had bought dinner for her and the other producers. Kakuzu, of course, ordered the filet mignon and lobster combo, shameless as ever. They chatted and laughed in the fancy restaurant. When they parted ways, Sakura drove Temari back to her apartment in the west end of the city. Temari fumbled for her keys in her purse as Sakura parked out front.

“Thanks, Bunny,” Temari said.

“Yeah. Of course, Tem.”

Temari opened up the car door, planted one foot on the sidewalk. And then she paused. Turning her head back to Sakura, she glanced around. In a low voice, Temari asked, “Any word from…. you know?”

“Who, Voldemort?” Sakura retorted. Temari squinted at her.

“No, Tem. No word. He’ll show when he shows,” sighed Sakura.

Temari grimaced. “I don’t envy you, girl. He’s a mess. A hot mess…. but a mess,” Temari declared. And then she got out of the car. As Temari shut the door, Sakura lowered the window. She leaned over to peek out at her friend. It amazed Sakura how Temari managed to stand in those ridiculous heels sober, much less drunk.

“Seriously…. hot mess,” added Temari.

“Good night, Tem,” was all Sakura said.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Sakura lingered to watch Temari scan her keycard to get into the building before she drove off.

The only alcohol she’d had all night was a sip of Madara’s sangria. Her head felt clear as she pulled onto the highway. She turned the radio up a little louder before she switched lanes. The heater thrummed at full blast against the cold night. The bright green signs that announced each exit rushed past. The numbers grew lower and lower as she drifted farther from the city.

By now, her body knew exactly when to get off the highway. She knew how to navigate those dark, winding roads. And it almost didn’t surprise her when she glimpsed a shadow in her side view mirror as she drove into town. It followed her as she made a left turn. It paced back and forth on the sidewalk as she pulled into the driveway. Her tires crackled over the gravel.

“Hey, Sheriff,” Sakura greeted him as she got out of her car. She locked it before she crunched up the path to her front porch. Keys jangled together as she unlocked the screen door. Kakashi only stayed long enough to watch her lock the patio door behind her. He had nagged her about doing so on more than one occasion. It still didn’t make much sense to her, since she always locked the inner door. But he seemed to think it was important.

Sakura glimpsed the grim running down the road, deeper into the woods near her house. She knew that he would do a loop of the whole town. It was the last thing he did before heading home each night.

It was barely past 10. But for some reason, she felt exhausted. She sat on top of the closed toilet lid as she scrubbed eyeliner and foundation off her face. She rubbed lavender lotion onto her arms as she waited for water to boil for her chamomile tea. And she fell asleep before she managed to finish her drink.

When she woke, there was a brief moment of panic that she had slept the entire day away. Because it was dark outside. But, as she squinted through the blinds, she realized that it was just very overcast. Rain began to pour down on Old Pines about an hour later. She listened to the water drip off the roof, dribbling out of the gutter and onto the street. She climbed up to the loft, just to hear better. And then she set her metronome to match the tempo of the rain, lying on the rug as she soaked in the sounds.

When noon rolled around, her stomach began to growl. There was food in the fridge, but none of it seemed particularly appealing at the moment. Sakura threw her raincoat on before running to her car. Ino’s cafe glowed in the dreary rain. Gerbera daisies had begun to bloom all around the front of the shop. A startling pop of color against the still-brown grass.

The wind chimes clanged together as Sakura hurried into the cafe. She nearly ran into someone carrying a plastic cup.

“Whoa!”

“Sorry!” Sakura yelped, her boots squeaking to a stop.

Itachi held his strawberry smoothie high above his head. In his right hand was a light blue box with the logo of Ino’s cafe. He was all dressed up in a black suit and a camel coat.

“Hi,” Sakura greeted him.

“Hi.” He copied her tone. And then he smiled at her. Eyes lighting up.

“Haven’t seen you around lately. I guess you’ve been busy,” Itachi then said. He moved to the side as another customer made her way out of the cafe.

“Yeah. You know. Writing songs. Although, you’re not getting anywhere near my new notebook,” Sakura joked. His smile faded.

“Seriously, I’m so-”

Sakura put her hand on his arm. “Hey. Relax. I’m kidding.”

For a moment, she worried. Because his eyes unfocused a little. As she watched, he blinked a few times, shaking his head a little. When his eyes opened again, they were clear and bright. She felt a little proud of him.

“Oh, I meant to text you. Do you like cheese and wine?” Itachi inquired.

“I don’t know. Do fish like to swim?” she replied. Itachi didn’t answer right away. His forehead wrinkled a little as he seriously considered her answer.

“Well…. they kind of have to… to not die, right?” he responded after some thought.

Laughing, Sakura nudged his arm. “Good point. I like wine and cheese, okay?”

“Big tech company is throwing a cheese and wine fundraiser. Do you want to be my plus one?” Itachi asked. Sakura could feel Ino’s stare sizzling into the back of her head as the fairy, undoubtedly, strained to hear her answer.

“Hm… I don’t know. That sounds…. boring,” Sakura hedged. A fundraiser was just a bunch of stuffy rich people in expensive jewelry pretending to care about whatever charity they were donating to. Madara had made her go to precisely two with him before she had threatened to revolt.

To her surprise, Itachi nodded. “Oh yeah. It’s super boring.”

Sakura stared at him.

“Well, if you’re there, that’ll be at least one person with a real personality that I can talk to. It’s really to keep me sane. And free wine and cheese for you. My company’s paying,” Itachi explained. He took a sip of his smoothie.

“It’s a heated rooftop bar. If the wine sucks, there’s an open bar,” he added, reading the hesitation in her face.

“I’m in,” she said right away. Itachi chuckled.

Sakura mimed typing with her thumbs. “Text me details or I’ll forget,” she told him. Itachi nodded. And then glanced down at his watch. The apology was already in his eyes as he looked back up at her.

“You look busy. Go,” she urged. Itachi nodded. She gave a light push to his chest before she moved past him. To where Ino stood at the counter. Ino’s eyes glittered as they darted from Itachi to Sakura. She held an iced coffee out to Sakura.

“Hel-loooo, Miss Popular,” Ino teased. Sakura shrugged. She took a long slurp of her drink.

Itachi held the door for someone on his way out. Ino and Sakura’s eyes were drawn to the noise. Just in time to see Kakashi walk into the cafe. Two dogs trailed after him, each wearing a tiny red poncho. A squeal rose up Sakura’s throat. The dogs noticed her before Kakashi did. Biscuit’s tail began wagging back and forth, slapping Kakashi’s thigh with fury. Bull’s butt just sort of vibrated as his stubby tail moved too.

“Got you, Sheriff,” Ino called out as she went to make his coffee.

“Thanks, Ino,” Kakashi said in response.

And then he smiled at Sakura. “Hey.” He held an arm out to her. Her greeting hug was light because there was still water dripping off his jacket. And then she bent to give the appropriate pets and baby talk to Bull and Biscuit.

“Hey. Keep your muddy feet off her,” Kakashi scolded when Biscuit tried to paw at her legs.

“Kakashi, why don’t you just buy them little rain boots? I think you can get them for like… 10 bucks,” Sakura suggested. And Kakashi gaped at her for a long moment before he shut his mouth. Then, in a low, conspiring voice, he asked, “They make those?”

Ino nearly sloshed hot coffee all over herself as she burst into laughter.

Life was peaceful. Almost mundane as March crept in. The cold seemed reluctant to go, like a houseguest that lingered too long after a party had clearly ended. The pine trees shed the white coat of snow they had worn for most of the season. And the last bits of snow pushed to the sides of the roads finally melted into dirty puddles.

Sakura leaned against the window in Ino’s cafe. She gnawed on a straw as she stared at her laptop screen. Ino dropped off another ice coffee that she hadn’t ordered. And then Ino’s weight leaned against her shoulder.

“You look annoyed,” commented Ino.

“I hate writing lyrics,” Sakura grumbled.

“Not your strong suit, huh?” Ino guessed.

“Mm.”

Ino rested the tray against her hip. “Well… good luck, I guess.”

“Mm,” Sakura said again.

After making little progress, Sakura shut her laptop. Sighing loudly, she got to her feet. She had hoped that moving to somewhere new would shake things up. Kickstart her brain. All she had managed to do was drain her computer battery.

“Nothing?” asked Ino as Sakura approached the counter. Sakura stuffed some bills into the tip jar, ignoring Ino’s glare.

“Go take a nap. You’re exhausted,” Ino urged her. And then she pushed off the counter. A few seconds later, the cafe door opened. A customer walked inside.

“Thanks, Ino,” Sakura called. Ino’s hand rose from behind the espresso machine. Then there was a loud whir as the machine began foaming milk.

Sakura walked outside. Her laptop secured inside her backpack. The ground was still busy soaking up the melted snow in many parts of town. Her boots did a good job of navigating through the muddiest patches. Hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket, Sakura began the short walk home. Even the thin sunlight that poked out through the clouds was welcome after months of grey, snowy days.

She had walked a lot when she lived in Empire City too. More out of necessity than anything. Because parking was expensive and almost impossible to find during certain times of the day. But Sakura liked walking. It gave her time to think in a way that driving didn’t. Plus the wind helped clear her mind, even as her cheeks began to turn cold.

As Sakura turned the corner onto her street, she squinted. There was a black car parked across the street from her house. She had seen it too many times not to recognize it. Her heart began to race, even as her steps slowed.

Hidan always joked that Tobirama almost looked like he was a CG character. Like he was a little too good-looking to fit in anywhere. This was a pretty accurate overall description of Tobirama, though.

'Sharp nose, sharper jaw, and sharpest eyes’, Madara always listed in that order.

Tobirama sat on the hood of his car. She recognized his broad shoulders, even from the end of the block. He ran his hand through his hair before he looked around. It was silver, tinged just a little blue. He glanced down at his phone’s glowing screen.

Sakura was almost tip-toeing as she neared her house. He still hadn’t spotted her. His legs were stretched out in front of him, just the heels of his boots resting on the asphalt. His feet moved back and forth, the tops moving apart and then clicking together. She had the feeling that he had been waiting out there for a while.

She sucked in a deep breath, eyes drifting down as she tried to come up with a plan. It had been such a long time since she had seen him. And even though he had said in his email that he wasn’t mad, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying. She had sort of stolen his futon. And blocked his number. And not responded to any of his emails.

“Sakura.”

Her eyes flew up from the sidewalk. To his face. Her stomach lurched.

He was looking over his shoulder at her. A smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Sakura.” He said her name again.

His mouth stretched into a grin, revealing his top teeth. Eyes squinting into half-moons. Sakura took a few steps closer. There was a bouquet of lilies sitting on the hood of his car too. Dark pink with the edges of each petal fading to white. Her throat felt clogged.

He got to his feet.

“Tobirama.” His name came out as a croak.

He hurried the rest of the way to her.

The inside of her head got a little fuzzy as he wrapped his arms around her. His cologne smelled so good. She took a deep breath, pressing her face to the front of his gray sweater. His leather jacket creaked a little. His hands linked against her lower back. He felt cold.

“I’m sorry. Whatever I said or did. I’m sorry,” he said. Rocking them back and forth.

She shook her head. She didn’t trust her voice to come out right at all.

“I should’ve come back faster. I’m sorry,” Tobirama added. She loved the way his voice vibrated out through his chest. Into her cheek and ear. Like his voice was flowing through her veins.

Sakura let out a shaky sigh. Hands slipping into his jacket to rest against his chest.

“Are you still mad at me?” he then asked.

Sakura nodded. And Tobirama laughed. His hands rubbed up and down her back.

“I thought so,” he chuckled.

#writing #equinox #equinox: spring #multisaku #tobisaku #itasaku #kibasaku #kakasaku #hello i'm back #it feels good to write

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bizzstfdreams · 7 years ago

Text

The Initiative

Written by my friend so not my work

Sam checked his watch it was close to 5:30, "damn" he thought to himself, he was still two signatures short of his quota. Sam was a paid signature gatherer for a local company that gathered signatures for local initiatives and the like. Today he was working on the “No on I-69” campaign for a tax that was supposed to raise money for local arts or something. It was one of the few that he actually could see the logic in. Who the hell wanted to waste a bunch of taxpayer dollars on random art. Anyway, he had to get thirty signatures by the end of today the deadline for the initiative, otherwise he wouldn't get paid. He worked his way down his set canvassing route and was turned away at the next few houses. After ten more polite no thank yous, a few ruder door slams, and only one other signature, he was getting desperate. He watched as the sun started to set and the sky took on a faint yellow orange hue. He needed to get that last signature so he could get paid and make rent. He decided to stray from the set route and went down a few streets to an unlisted area. Signature gatherers had set lists for tracking purposes but Sam needed that last signature. The houses grew larger as he walked down the street, becoming fewer and far between as he walked, they had large yards filled with fountains and carefully groomed topiaries. The first house he came to had him feeling very underdressed in his faded blue polo, khakis and sneakers. It had a large front yard with tall hedges shielding hidden gardens to his left and right. He heard the faint trickle of water and caught a glimpse or two of a marble statues sitting on squared plinths through breaks in the leaf walls. The house was not the largest but the entrance was imposing, two large marble columns framed a large double paneled red door. It was once he had reached the door that he noticed a bronze plate with gold lettering that said “No Soliciting” just above a mail slot. He paused for a minute and again checked his watch 5:22 PM, shoot he would have to chance it. Taking a deep breath as did his best to straighten his tousled brown hair into a semi respectable appearance, he put on his best smile, puffing up all of his 5'9 frame. He rang the doorbell nervously, the three deep bell tones that announced his arrival didn't reassure him. They seemed to reverberate through the empty space behind the door. He waited. As he was about to leave he heard the slight jingle of the handle of the door as it opened.

An older man in his mid to late forties stood in the door. He was an imposing figure, almost as tall as the door. He was well groomed, with short neat dark brown almost black hair streaked with grey and a matching trimmed beard. He was broad and did not look amused at the interruption to his day. "Yes?" he said gruffly. "Hello Sir" Sam beamed trying to sound cheerful, the effect of which was ruined by his voice cracking a bit from the intimidating figure. "Are you tired of the city council wasting money on wasteful art projects while other more useful things like filling potholes and better public transit go unfunded?" Sam paused looking to the man for some reaction some sign he was interested or was about to slam door but the man was unreadable. With his deadline looming and undeterred by the lack of response, Sam continued "Just last year, the city council wasted close to $100,000 to rent a statue for Anderson Park. The indecent statue was a naked man with no censorship of his privates. This so called art imposed paid for by taxpayers like you, led to protests by local families." The man frowned, "Crap, I'm losing him" Sam thought to himself, as he hurried with the rest of his points. "Your signature could help prevent future wastes like the Anderson Park debacle" Sam finished presenting his clipboard. The man examined Sam intently, his deep green eyes pierced through Sam, he felt suddenly very small. "I'll consider signing" The man said finally, "But...I would like to hear more about I-69, would you care to come in and sit down." The man asked in a way that wasn't really a request. Sam checked his watch again 5:25 he had to text a picture of the signatures in five minutes or he wouldn't get paid, and he really needed to get paid. Shaking off both his better judgement and the intimidating man's presence he nodded. The man opened the door further and led him into the house. A large curving staircase dominated the room. A large empty marble pedestal stood next to the banister. Along the walls of the entryway held alcoves with similar pedestals, again empty, the effect unnerved Sam for some reason. He followed the man down the hallway into a living room. Two large brown leather couches stood parallel with an oddly shaped coffee table between them. Upon closer examination, Sam saw that the coffee table had been carved from wood to resemble a man, the figure was on all fours his hands and knees flat on the ground and his feet with flexed toes touching the ground exposing its arches. The face of the man disturbed Sam. Its head was raised, its mouth was open in an O shape as if it had been caught mid sentence. On its back, rested a large piece of glass that served as the top of the coffee table. Atop it was strewn some large photography books that all seemed to feature nude men and a cup of coffee still steaming. The detailing on the wooden figure was almost lifelike, it wasn't for the fact that the entire thing was wood grained, Sam would have sworn it was a real man. "Great this guy is probably some homo. Probably thinks he'll get a date or something out of this" Sam groaned to himself but whatever he needed to do to get that signature. The man motioned for Sam to sit and he took the couch opposite him. Slipping off his slippers he rested his black socked feet on the coffee table's head. "So tell me more about this initiative of yours" the man leaning back and waiting.

Putting on his charm Sam started again "Like I said before, currently city funds are being used on some questionable projects, these funds would be better spent on things like potholes and tax breaks for taxpayers like you. The projects include the naked statue in Anderson park and the painting of fish on the freeway wall; these art projects cost the cities millions and could be better used." Sam recited the speal his supervisors had made him memorize speeding up as he heard the distant tick of some clock in the house toward his rapidly disappearing paycheck. "...and that's why your signature is essential to stop wasteful spending." He finished. The man considered his for a second, "You make some good points. I think you have convinced me, I'll sign." The man said finally, Sam sighed in relief. "Great here you go" holding out the clipboard and pen. But instead of taking them the man stood up suddenly "Where are my manners, would you like a glass of ice tea or a soda son?" The man said, Sam looked down at his watch 5:27 shit it would be a photo finish, before he could respond, the man had already made his way to the kitchen. "Um sure, a glass of iced tea sounds nice" Sam replied as he thought to himself, “it had been a hot day” and but also with a desperate hope that he could hurry things along by just accepting the drink. The man returned with a tall glass of iced tea, cubes of ice clinking invitingly. "Here you go!" he said once again resting his feet on the coffee table's head. "Thanks" Sam said as he gulped it down, it was refreshing, a hint of lemon but also a slightly odd sweet taste, probably some fake sugar or something. The man looked like the type to count calories and watch his sugar intake, probably spent hours at the gym. Finishing off the glass Sam once again raised his clipboard. "So you'll sign" "Oh yes" The man said taking the clipboard. Sam was on edge, he needed that signature as the man started to sign his hand paused, he dabbed the pen on the paper a few times, then squiggled a few lines in the margin. "Damn" A dry pen was the last thing he needed, he screamed internally, he just needed that one damn signature, he was about to reach for the pen and try it out himself when it fell out of the man's hand and rolled underneath the coffee table. "I'll get that" Sam said a bit strained and panicked. He bent down and got on his knees to grab the pen. It had fallen underneath the top of the coffee table right under the wooden statue, right by under its waist just in front of its knees, as he bent down, Sam realized the artist or carver had even captured the statue's uncut erect cock in the same detail as the rest of the piece. Each fold and crease of the foreskin captured in wood, it even had a slight hanging wooden drip of precum on its tip. Sam shuddered and reached for the pen. As he did he felt a strange tingle, he brushed it off and reached again for the pen but his movements seemed slow, another tingle then another, quicker now, spreading through his body, along with it a strange cooling sensation radianted following the tingling. His movements slowed even more, it felt like he was pushing through jello just to move an fraction of an inch, and just as his fingertips touched the pen, his movements stopped altogether. Sam struggled, trying to wiggle, twitch, lift something, anything, but his body betrayed him. All of his efforts were useless. He couldn’t move even a millimeter. He was panicking, “what had happened” “why can’t I move”, “help” all of these thoughts ran through his brain as he stared ahead at the wooden figure and pen in front of him unable to change his gaze. The sound of footsteps and and the brief view of the man’s pants and shoes as he circled around him broke him out of his spiral of confusion and shock. “He’ll get help” Sam thought somewhat naively. Instead of a rescue, the next thing Sam felt was two large hands on his ample ass. “Mmm bubble butt very nice” He heard the man say to himself, as he fondled Sam’s ass rubbing it in a way that he would never let anyone, much less a man, touch him. Sam wanted to scream, to punch the guy out, something, but he couldn’t...all he could do was seethe in anger and humiliation as the man palmed his ass. The next sensation that Sam felt was the hands grasping and pulling, then the sharp tear of his khaki pants being ripped in half and stripped off his body exposing his bare legs and boxer clad ass. “Boxer shorts, must be straight, this just gets better and better” The man said, Sam could almost hear the leering smile in his voice. With another quick motion and sharp tear and the boxers fall in shreds, Sam can feel them sliding down his sides onto the floor, his most private parts now completely exposed. The man runs his finger down Sam’s crack brushing against the cheeks. The sensation of the touch brought up a strange new conflicting feeling in Sam, in his mind he was disgusted and angry trapped and manhandled by this gay man, but also something about what had been done to his body had magnified his senses tenfold. Just the simple touch of a finger was driving his more basic instincts wild, his cock though locked in position would have been straining out of his shredded pants if he had been able to move. The sensation was sensual at the same time deeply arousing, he was getting more turned on from that single sensation despite the fact that it was a man, than he had ever had before. As the man probed deeper with his finger, Sam’s pleasure intensified. humiliation and anger at the violation drowned out by the pleasure this one finger was giving him. He was straining inside as the finger slid home, Sam’s only thoughts arousal and a desperate need to touch himself and get off. As the finger started sliding in and out of his virgin hole, it only got worse the frustration and pleasure forming a back and forth rut. After the man fingered him for what seemed like both an eternity and instant Sam felt one final thrust and withdrawal of his finger from his ass and felt strangely empty. His more rational mind started to return, the humiliation and shame of being fingered while helpless started to kick in. His thoughts turned into the predicament, he was trapped and the man had obviously been responsible for it. His captor must have spiked his iced tea.What was he going to do to him next. Sam’s thoughts raced in his head, working in circles trying to find some solution or hope but each thought ending the same way, trapped unable to move in this man’s living room. He was off the set signature route so no one knew where he was. He had lost cell phone coverage at least three streets back so no one would be able to track his phone, He lived alone and had just broken up with girlfriend a week ago. It would be weeks before anyone even noticed he was missing. These thoughts were interrupted when he felt the man's hands on his ass again, this time both at his waist. He knew what the position of those hands meant, he had taken it himself countless times on countless women. The shame of being in that position would have been unbearable, except that after the fingering, some small but growing part of Sam wanted what happened next. That part of him did not have to wait long, as the man’s grip of Sam’s waist tightened and he slammed hard into Sam’s upturned ass. “UGhh, oh yeah, god I love a nice tight straight hole, bet you like the feel of a real cock too don’t you boy” The man groaned aloud. The man’s finger had not prepared Sam for the sensation of the man’s large cock plunging deep into his ass. The mixture of pain and pleasure Sam’s ass being stretched as the man’s cock slammed into his prostate overwhelmed Sam, his vision even in his frozen state blurred. The man held his thrust deep into Sam, then after a moment he withdrew, then thrust again, and again, speeding up and thrusting even harder. The man had no regard for Sam’s body, indeed in his mind Sam was just now another fuck toy. His to use as he wanted and use him he did, fucking Sam harder than he would a normal human person. Sam meanwhile was hovering between heaven and hell, the pain of his hole being stretched to its widest by the man’s thick cock a painful torture worthy of the deepest circle of hell, but the feeling of the head of the man’s cock as it slammed with almost targeted precision onto his prostate was in his heightened sensation state was a heavenly pleasure. The man’s stamina was endless, for almost an hour he pounded Sam’s ass, his body warming and dripping hot sweat onto Sam’s prone immobile form. Till even he could stand it no longer and finally came, spilling a burning hot load into Sam’s ass as he collapsed on top of him. When the man finally got up to clean himself, Sam could still feel his cock inside of him even though he was gone. His hole ached and he was also keenly aware of the cooling sperm deep inside of him and sweat on top of him but he could do nothing about any of it. He remained there still immobilized. As the sensations from the session faded, the familiar creeping feelings of shame and anger returned now firmly tinged with a need to be filled again, which only made the shame and anger worse. Footsteps announced the return of the man, the next sound that Sam heard was the metallic thunk of something heavy next to him. He didn’t have long to guess what it was as he was hoisted in the air by the man and thrust atop some pole. The pole had been mounted with some sort of plug that fit squarely in Sam’s ass plunging in almost as deeply as the man had. While it filled him somewhat it didn’t compare to the hot throbbing cock that had been in just a minute ago and though Sam hated it, he also longed for it. The pole held him suspended in the air his hand now pointing up reaching toward the ceiling, head facing up. Knees still bent as if he was kneeling in thin air. The man made quick work of Sam’s clothing stripping off his shoes and socks and then his polo shirt. Now that his victim was completely naked, he stepped back to take in a full view of his work. Running his hands over Sam’s body. The warm hands sending pleasure wherever they glided. “Hmmm, what to do with you now, what would you look good in, I have been doing a lot of wood lately, maybe marble, I haven’t done a marble in a few months, not since the twins in the garden.” The man said hand on his chin musing for a minute before he disappeared again this time returning with a pail of some sort of liquid. Sam could do nothing totally unaware of what was transpiring around his, his eyes were fixed toward his hand and the ceiling. His only indication of what was happening was the sensation of a roller or brush applying a thick white paste like substance on his skin. The liquid felt cool unctuous like a heavy oil paint or plaster on his bare skin. It dried quickly he could feel it tightening on his skin as it dried leaving his skin feeling heavier and stiffer. The man worked his way all over his body, the feeling of the brush on his sensitized skin brought back the deep arousal and need for release that was getting pent up on in again. Down his legs, up his firm ass, up his back and back down through his chest and abs. Brush...brush brush, he was coated, each movement of the brush turning him on more and more teasing him achingly as he had no release. As the man made his way down to Sam’s cock, he put on some gloves and dipped his hands into the liquid, rubbing it he applied it by hand to Sam’s cock. First cupping his balls massaging them rolling them in his hands and the liquid coating them in slowly and completely in the liquid. Sam meanwhile was going crazy with pleasure in his own head, he had no other thought then sensation and a pounding need for release. These feelings only intensified as he moved to Sam’s shaft gripping it in his hands lubed with the white thick liquid as he pumped up and down the shaft paying particular attention to the head. “I NEED TO CUM” Sam screamed mentally but to no avail, he would find no release. The man finished with Sam’s hair and face coating it in the white liquid before removing his gloves. Picking up a small case he inserts two larger than normal white contacts into Sam’s eyes. “There we go now, the perfect marble statue. If I do say so myself” He said stepping back and admiring the work. The next sensation he feels is the man spinning him on the pole he feels himself rising a bit after each full rotation till finally he hears a faint click as the plug in his ass separates from the pole and he falls into the man’s arms. The man picks him up “oof a bit heavier now aren’t ya” he says as he hefts him down onto a waiting marble slab. Applying the plaster to his one flat palm and balls of Sam’s feet and knees, the man rests Sam on the slab facing the coffee table and mirror. It is at this point that Sam realizing the table was not a table but another hapless soul like him who had fallen into this man’s grasps but what disturbed him even more was the sight of himself in the mirror. Instead of a flesh and blood man what stared back at him in the mirror was a white marble statue that had all of his features, each part of his naked body on display reaching for something that wasn’t there. If he hadn’t been him, he would have sworn he was a statue. The man got up and left him again this time turning off the lights. Sam sits there in the dark lost in a sea of shame, fear and curiosity about his new existence. Would he ever be able to move again? Was he stuck like this forever? And the one thought he kept trying to deny and push down, would he get fucked again? God he wanted that and hated that he did. His contemplation was interrupted by the brrring of a phone. The lights came back on as the man re-entered the room. The man picked up a phone “Hello, George speaking? He answered “Oh Kevin, great to hear from you, what can I do for you?” he paused and listened to the person on the other line. “Another commission for the City? I don’t know, didn’t you get into trouble for my last one, what did they call it, lewd? Stone pornography? Ha ha, yes I have heard about that ridiculous initiative.” George said patting Sam on the rump. Sam would have broken out in a cold sweat if he could as he realized who the man was. The statue in the park must have been a man like me. No wonder it had only been a temporary installation. He began to wonder what happened to him. “Well if the mayor is prepared for the blowback….. Oh really? 30 signatures short? That’s a relief.” George smiled wickedly picking up Sam’s discard clipboard and tossing it in a nearby bin. “Well in that case, I think I have the perfect piece… yes perfect timing…...just finished it today…...No no not a permanent one I’m afraid, I’m happy to loan it but you know all my work remains in my collection. Okay we’ll ship it out tomorrow. Great, bye bye.” he hung up. “Well well my boy” he cooed brushing Sam’s face “so much for wasteful spending. Looks like you’ll be spending some time thinking about the value of art in the public space.” He laughed somehow sensing Sam’s panic. “Oh don’t worry, I’m not a monster, it’s not permanent but maybe six months of being art will enlighten your perspective, though based on my experience you won’t mind it that much, Ed here” he said patting the coffee table “Has been a part of my collection for at least three years, this must be his second or third pose I can’t remember. The twins outside at least one but I guess we’ll see” he patted Sam again and once again left Sam there alone and immobile. The next day a mover and a truck came, the two men brought with them a large wooden pallet. The smaller of the two greeted George, as Kevin. The larger of the two men as Marco, he was almost as large as George, but more built and even broader, he had tan skin and dark hair, maybe latino, with deep brown eyes. Sam could tell from the bulge in his pants and the way it strained against the fabric as he handled his statue body that Marco was aroused by Sam’s naked form. “This is great work, amazing detail it's almost lifelike” he gushed to George who was directing Sam’s boxing. “Thank you, don’t worry too much, about the padding, there's a special finish on my statutes that prevents most common types of damage.” George said as Marco wrapped began to wrap Sam in batting before hefting him onto the pallet. Marco and Kevin, the other man, brought in large wooden panels and proceeded to nail into place forming the rest of the box that would transport Sam to his new home, Anderson Park. “Hey Marco, Would you consider modeling for me sometime? You would make a great subject.” George said as he watched the two men’s movements. Marco’s face brightened. George smiled. “Maybe after you load up the statue into Kevin’s truck you’d consider staying, you have your car here right? Kevin doesn’t mind taking the statue to the park himself, they’ll have staff to unload” “Sure, I’d be honored to” the Marco replied eagerly. As the last panel of the box was pushed into place Sam hear George addressing Marco, “After all that lifting you look parched, would you like a glass of ice tea or soda?”.

#stone tf #petrified

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harbourstarwilling-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The Marauders and the Hollow Hill: The Forbidden Forest (FULL CHAPTER)

"I am pleased with this development," James said, folding his hands together like he was some sort of distinguished professor.

"And… why, exactly?" asked Peter, raising an eyebrow.

"Because, Pete! Dumbledore's left, hasn't he? That gives us a chance to find out where's he been going lately?"

Peter frowned. "But… if Dumbledore's gone now… doesn't that mean he's out there now? I mean, doesn't that mean he's in the place that we want to explore?"

James frowned along with him. "Good point."

"Oh, bollocks," yawned Sirius, his body slumped over the arm of his favourite overstuffed chair. "He's probably out at the Ministry doing some political bosh."

Remus glanced at Sirius out of the corner of his eye. Peter saw him hesitate. "I don't know, Sirius. If we're caught by Dumbledore, or any other professor-"

"We could be expelled!" squeaked Peter. A fit of nervousness grew in the bottom of his stomach. The thought of Professor Dumbledore catching them sneaking out on the castle grounds after curfew was terrifying. And imagine if McGonagall caught them-!

Sirius was silenced for a few moments, but James soon came to his rescue. He bent over the side of his trunk and pulled out a bunched out ball of silvery material.

"That's why we have this!" he proclaimed, waving it about his head.

Peter had almost forgotten about the Invisibility Cloak.

"Pete! "Pete!"

"Ugh… wha…?"

"Wake up, Pete!"

"Yeah, but mind you, keep quiet!"

"What?... Why?" Peter groaned and wiped the sleep out of his eyes. It was Saturday, he knew, and he usually slept in until at least eleven. But judging by the window above James' and Sirius's grinning heads, it wasn't even 6 o'clock. In fact, it was still dark out.

"What time-" Peter began, but before he could finish, James slapped his hand over his mouth and heaved him upright.

"Hey!" Peter's voice was muffled completely, and Sirius immediately shushed him.

"Steady on, mate!"

"What's going-?"

"We're going down Matilda's passage," whispered James, heaving the Invisibility Cloak over his head and shoving them all from behind. "C'mon, let's go."

Peter watched the Cloak flutter over their heads, but was a little assured as he heard Remus say by his ear, "Don't worry, Peter. We're just going to take a peek."

They crept down the stairs to the Common Room. As they approached the Fat Lady's portrait, Peter hesitated again; James hissed in frustration.

"C'mon, Pete!"

"W-what if we get caught?"

"We won't get caught, for God's sake!" snorted James, annoyed.

"We will, if you two don't stop gaggling like some godforsaken geese," Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Sirius, I'm honestly impressed," said Remus by Peter's ear.

"Thank you."

"Shut up!" said James, nudging the portrait open.

The Fat Lady was snoring soundly. Peter was suddenly glad that she was such a heavy sleeper.

"This way," said James hoarsely, prodding Peter's back.

"We know which way it is!" snapped Sirius.

"Stop it," interjected Remus. His pale complexion looked eerie against the silvery fabric of the Invisibility Cloak. "Both of you, just shut your mouths."

Peter was surprised to see that they obeyed. Their journey down to Matilda's passage was silent and heart-pounding, pausing for a full minute if the floor creaked or if they thought they heard approaching footsteps. Peter had never felt more stressed in his life; he thought that they would never reach the hall that contained the god-ugly witch.

But, an hour later, after many twists and turn-arounds, they finally found Matilda's passage.

At once, Sirius threw off the Invisibility Cloak and strode up to her. "Hullo," he said confidently, shaking his dark brown hair out of his eyes.

Matilda's smile was reminiscent of Mona Lisa's; Peter had expected her to be asleep.

"What do you want?" Out of the corner, Peter saw Remus frown, and he knew why. Her tone sounded different from when the last time she saw them.

"Thaumatrope," said Sirius, brushing his hair out of his eyes again. He looked expectantly at Matilda, while she stared blankly back.

A minute passed. Then-

"No."

"No?" asked Sirius

"No!" repeated James, shoving his way forward towards Matilda. "That's the password: 'Thaumatrope!' You have to let us in, we've said the password!"

"That is not the password," said Matilda haughtily, looking her nose down at them. "That was never the password; who ever heard of a word that absurd: thaumatrope, it's simply ghastly. Run along, children, I have no time for your foolish pranks."

And with that she turned around and hummed tunelessly.

"Oi!" said James. "OI! We can still see you!"

Matilda ignored him and started to play with her hair.

Remus sighed. "James, this is getting us nowhere."

"What's wrong with her?" Peter wondered, staring at the back of Matilda's head. "She's… different-"

"I'll say!" snorted Sirius, sounding offended. "She's didn't even know who I was!"

James, still fuming, turned around to face the rest of them, the tips of his ears scarlet. "I'll tell you what's up," he muttered, crossing his arms. "Dumbledore's found out we've been following him, so he's put a spell on Matilda. Or changed the password. Or both."

Peter felt a fit of nervousness grow in the pit of his stomach. "But- if he's found out, why hasn't he-"

"Told anyone? I dunno," said James, his frown deepening.

"I don't like not knowing," agreed Sirius, scuffing his shoe on the stone floor.

"I don't think I want to know," said Remus all of a sudden. Peter turned towards him; Remus was clutching the Invisibility Cloak. His grey eyes looked strangely ominous. "Come on, Filch will be about, and we don't want him seeing Sirius, not after that incident with Mrs. Norris and the Droobles."

"How long did it take for him to notice Mrs. Norris was on the ceiling?"

"About five seconds, to be precise, but it took him four hours to figure out how to get her down."

Sirius chortled as they draped themselves with the Invisibility Cloak.

James, Peter noticed, was still extremely upset, and decided not to speak to him about Matilda. For the next few days, James threw out not-so-subtle hints that they should return to the passage and interrogate Matilda, but Remus quickly shot him down, saying that if Dumbledore knew they were tracking him, and if he had actually warned Matilda about them trying to follow him through the passage, then Dumbledore would have installed heightened security anyways, and they shouldn't be surprised if they came across Trick Jinxes or armed trolls.

"Shut it!" bellowed James, and retreated behind the curtains of his four-poster. Sirius rolled his eyes and followed. Peter gave Remus a helpless look, while Remus just shrugged and turned another page of his book.

Peter made a point of avoiding James for a time, as James and Sirius spent most of their time with their heads together, whispering over quills and parchment like a couple of teenage witches. He couldn't help wondering what they were doing.

"Dumbledore couldn't know, could he?" he asked Remus nervously one evening in the library.

Remus scowled for a second into his book, which surprised Peter. He'd never seen Remus scowl at a book before. "I don't know, Peter. He could… he's the greatest wizard to ever live, after all. But we've been very careful…. To be honest, I'm still finding it hard to believe that Dumbledore could be doing something as fishy as this - what is he doing in the Forbidden Forest?..." He paused for a very long while, then glanced up at Peter, looking startlingly worried. "You don't think it's anything illegal, do you?"

Peter replied that he didn't know. He understood that Remus was a huge admirer of Dumbledore, though he didn't know why. He pondered this… Remus looked rather forlorn, he thought. He wondered if it had anything to do with Dumbledore. Or… perhaps...

He spoke up. "D'you think-"

He was interrupted by a very loud bang; his view of Remus was abruptly obscured by a teetering mountain of books.

"Remus?" came an anxious voice from behind the quivering mountain.

"Hullo, Lily," replied Remus.

Huffing, Lily plopped down in the seat opposite him and gathered a few books in her arms. "You know, this is nearly impossible! It's hard enough as it is to stay on top of classes-!"

"Er- what's impossible?" Peter broke in.

"She's trying to help us figure out what happened to Paige Vaughan," Remus reminded him.

"Oh, right."

Lily nodded over at Peter, who was very glad to be involved in this secret meeting. "It was a potion; Dorcas is a genius! We had to tell a few fibs to get into the Restricted Section of the library, but-"

"Wait." Remus held up a hand, his brow furrowed. "The Restricted Section? What did you need to go there for?"

"Because," said a new voice, pulling up a chair beside Lily; Peter could only guess that it was Dorcas Meadowes. She had a pale, narrowed face with a short, freckled nose. She also wore little bells on her ears. "We searched the library from top to bottom for hours on end every night for the past week, and we couldn't find a thing - it was hopeless - but then I remembered Professor Slughorn mentioning the Restricted Section one class in October… he said that they had loads of Potions books there!"

"So you went there, snatched a few," Peter deduced. "But how…" His voice faded as Madam Pince, the wizened and wrinkled caretaker of the library passed by them. She eyed the precarious pile stacked on their table, and, for a moment, she hissed and spluttered in protest. Peter lowered his voice. "How did you manage it?"

"Easy," announced the boisterous voice of Marlene McKinnon; she was leaning on the back of Dorcas's chair. "We asked Slughorn."

"And Slughorn let you?" Remus's voice was riddled with disbelief.

"Well-" began Lily.

"Are you kidding? Slughorn adores her," gushed Marlene. "They should get married. All it took was one signature, and it was a cinch."

Remus still looked impressed. "What did you find out?"

"Lily told you, it was a potion," whispered Dorcas, biting her cheek. "I read up on it - there's so many nasty books - I don't understand it! There's a lot of components, easy to find, I think, Hagrid told me he's seen plenty of Fluxweed and Nightshade in the Forbidden Forest… lots of herbology, going by what Lily told me-"

"And we were in the Herbology Greenhouse," muttered Remus.

"You don't think it was administered in the Greenhouse?" Lily looked aghast at the idea, but Dorcas shook her head.

"No, she would have to drink it beforehand - two to three hours before! But if someone snuck it into her drink, I don't know how she wouldn't have noticed… judging by what's in it, it's bound to taste worse than Polyjuice Potion…!"

She stopped, suddenly, and turned white. Peter knew why. Madam Pince was stalking up to their table, hissing like an angry cat.

"Oh, God," said Lily. She sounded more annoyed than frightened.

"What's this?" choked Madam Pince, seizing a particularly fat book atop the pile. Holding it inches away from her square spectacles, she gave a shriek of horror that sent Peter tumbling off his chair onto the floor.

"Steady on!" shouted Marlene.

"Befouled!" Madam Pince screamed; to Peter she sounded like she was gargling marbles. "Beriddled! Bespoiled! Return those at once!" Immediately, she started scooping the books into her arms. Amidst the struggle, Peter managed to glimpse one of the covers of the books: Moste Potente Potions.

"No!" protested Dorcas, wrestling a couple away. "We're not finished!"

"Absolutely disgraceful! Disgusting!" frothed Pince, yanking them away. She looked rather odd, with a mountain of books in her stick-arms, but she managed to stumble away, sagging under the weight of them.

"God," muttered Marlene. "I hate her."

There was a sudden crash: Remus jumped, and Lily yelped, and they all saw Madam Pince rush out the door like she was running a marathon, clutching a few books to her chest. In seconds, she was out the door.

Five mouths dropped open.

"Is she always that strange?"

"She's a natural sprinter, looks like."

"Batty," mouthed Marlene, grinning. "She's as mad as a bat."

"Gone off her rocker," agreed Peter.

Remus leaned into his hands, his elbow almost sliding off the edge of the table. "There's something not right here," he groaned, rubbing his forehead with the other hand. "Not right at all…"

Remus first said it in their dormitory.

"I think Paige's incident and Dumbledore disappearing are connected," blurted out Remus.

Peter froze. "How?"

"Think about it," Remus sputtered, "Paige Vaughan acts strangely, Professor Sprout Petrifies her and we don't hear about it again! Couple days later - we see Dumbledore go into the Forbidden Forest, alone. We know he takes a secret passage, it's probably because he doesn't want anyone to see him. Then, today, Dorcas said the potion had ingredients - Nightshade, Fluxweed… - that were in the Forbidden Forest! So…"

"So…" Peter continued. "You're saying that Dumbledore went into the Forest, made a crazy potion, came back, somehow gave it to Paige, then went back into the Forbidden Forest to collect more ingredients for more crazy potion?" He rolled anmEvery Flavour Bean between his fingers. "Uh… I dunno, Remus. Sounds a little…"

"Far-fetched?" asked James, who was laying on his four-poster with his arms behind his head. "I don't think so. Makes perfect sense to me."

"And me," piped up Sirius.

"What?" cried Peter, gagging on an Every Flavour Bean. He hated being the only one defending his ideas. "How-?"

"Oh, it's a good theory," said James to the ceiling. "It just needs solid proof."

"I don't want proof!" said Remus immediately; Peter was quick to notice the worry in his eyes. "I want to prove that he didn't do it!"

"You want to prove that Dumbledore isn't sneaking off to the woods to make potions that are poisoning kids," said Sirius, grinning. "Easy enough."

Remus frowned him. "Sirius. What are you thinking?"

Sirius flashed a smile and winked. "Fancy a visit to Hagrid's?"

Peter felt stupid.

"This is really, really easy," he mumbled they all strode down the main hall.

"Too easy," grumbled Remus.

James grinned back at them. "Ah, don't worry about it, Remus. Sometimes it takes a genius to see the obvious."

"Thanks, James," said Sirius.

"You're welcome."

Sirius had thought of something truly ingenious, even if it was the most obvious thing in the world. James had gotten an Invisibility Cloak for Christmas: why not use it? After classes ended, they would simply cover themselves with said Invisibility Cloak, easily slip out the main doors, and make their way down to Hagrid's hut. It was close enough to the Forbidden Forest so that they could head that way effortlessly without Hagrid getting that suspicious.

"This was a really good idea, Sirius," Peter emphasized.

Sirius beamed. "Why, thanks Pete."

Remus snorted as the main doors leading out of Hogwarts came into view.

"Well, someone's jealous," muttered Sirius, rolling his eyes. "You're not the only smart one here, you know."

"Guys!" hissed James, shoving the doors open.

Silently, they slipped past the doors and into the cool spring evening. Even if Filch had been lingering near there, he wouldn't have noticed; they were too quiet. Peter felt unnaturally proud of himself. Usually he had the grace of a bull in a china shop.

In fact, everything went smoothly for the next half-hour.

Hagrid was cheerful and welcoming. With a jolly, "Why, hullo there!" as he opened the door of his hut, he reminded Peter of a less portly, but slightly more dangerous-looking Santa Claus. Peter liked him well enough, but he couldn't help but be a bit intimidated. The only one who looked completely comfortable was Sirius, who immediately seated himself between the huge Groundskeeper and his enormous boarhound, a wolf-like creature Hagrid called "Fang." Peter made sure to keep as far away from it as possible.

Hagrid was as talkative as he was friendly, so they were there for a while, listening to him ramble on about odds and ends while trying to keep Fang's drooling head off of them at all times.

"So, Hagrid!" Sirius finally said, somehow managing to chew and swallow a brick-like biscuit Hagrid had given him. "We're thinking of exploring the Forbidden Forest sometime. What paths do you recommend we take?"

Remus choked a little; Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't expected Sirius to be this blunt.

Hagrid's smile faltered a little. "The forest, eh? Y'know, Professor Dumbledore made it clear t'me that nobody's supposed to go in there… not even meself, and that's me own job, y'see…"

"Yes, well-" James interrupted, "Sirius put it wrong, Hagrid, he's a bit hard of hearing-"

"What?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"Proves my point," said James briskly. Hagrid raised an eyebrow. "You see, Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore took a trip into the forest recently, and he… ah…"

"He what?" asked Hagrid, leaning forward.

"He… ah… lost something! He lost something important."

"Ah!" grunted Hagrid, shifting his generous weight in his chair. "Not something too important I hope."

"Not that important," James assured him. "Just a thaumatrope."

James was good. Peter bit his lip as Hagrid scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Hmph. I dunno wot that is, but it sounds pretty important."

Sirius nodded earnestly. "It is. And it's really important to Professor Dumbledore as well… he forgot it, you see, the other day, when he went into the forest to speak to the… the…

"Unicorns?" suggested Peter.

"Centaurs," said Remus confidently. "Professor Dumbledore wanted to speak to the centaurs about their stand on the law recently passed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and how it categorized their sort as having 'near-human' intelligence-"

"I expect so!" rumbled Hagrid angrily, rising from him chair. "'Near-human' intelligence - I've never heard of such bosh!"

Peter began to catch on. "Dumbledore must agree with you… a-and that's why he left s-so all of a sudden; he wanted to appeal to the Ministry-"

"On behalf of the centaurs," Remus finished. James and Sirius gaped at him. "Please let us go, Hagrid. We'll be in and out in a flash, we promise."

Hagrid narrowed his beetle-black eyes at them. "Promise, eh?"

They all nodded; Peter swallowed as a nervous silence overtook the room. Hagrid squinted harder.

"A'right then!" he boomed, seizing all eight of their hands in a handshake that nearly wrenched their arms off. "A promise it is! But just remember -" He lowered his voice. "It can get awful scary in that forest, especially fer people yer size… take Fang, a'right? He's a ruddy coward, but he'll scare a great lot o'them creatures away, I reckon."

"Alright," said Sirus, dragging Fang over to the door with them. "Thanks, Hagrid. We'll be back before you know it."

"Be careful, a'right?" called Hagrid.

"We will!" James yelled, sprinting towards the forest, with Sirius and Fang in hot pursuit.

"Can I ask one thing? Where'd you learn all that Ministry mumbo-jumbo?"

"My dad works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He talks about his job often. I find it interesting."

"If by interesting, you mean mind - bogglingly boring, then yes, I quite agree."

"Well, I think our cover story was very well-put together, if I say so myself."

"I'd say so."

"Me too."

"Yes," sighed Remus. "We are all disturbingly good liars."

"Remus, you didn't even lie," James yawned, lifting his already-lit wand aloft. "You just spouted some nonsense about some Department in Controlling Dangerous Animals-"

"The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, you mean? And I did lie, I said Dumbledore was talking to centaurs in the Forbidden Forest."

Peter glanced overheard, expecting to see silhouette of leafy branches, but instead was met with an inky blackness - the trees were so thick they completely covered the sky.

"Do you think centaurs even live here?" he gulped, scanning the wood around him. Twisted grey bark dotted with knotholes and -

"Look!" gasped Sirius, dragging Fang towards a nearby tree. This one was strangely marked, with long thin scratches across its already pitted surface. "Claw marks!"

Just the sight of them made Peter tremble. "W-w-what do you reckon made those, S-Sirius?" he stuttered.

"Oh, I dunno Pete," said Sirius casually, turning towards him. "Maybe…" he paused for a moment, before jumping at Peter and yelling, "WEREWOLVES!"

Peter thought he was going to have a heart attack - he yelled almost as loud as Sirius and fell backwards into Remus. Sirius and James broke down laughing.

"Bloody hell… That wasn't funny!" insisted Peter, feeling his face warm up as he stood upright.

"Yeah, it was," chuckled James, wiping away tears.

"But don't worry, Pete!" said Sirius, still rolling around on the ground. "We have Fang to protect us!"

"Fang won't be able to protect you against werewolves," Remus said darkly. Peter saw him in the light of James's wand; he was an unearthly white that was practically translucent. James and Sirius must've seen him too, because they immediately grew silent.

"Let's keep going," muttered Remus, snatching Fang's leash from stared blankly at James and Sirius, who stared blankly back. Then, they all followed, James falling in behind Remus with the light.

The uncomfortable silence remained for a while, broken only a few times by creaking branches and Fang's pants. The only thing Peter could really see was the back of Remus's neck, which was dotted by a few freckles and was as white as a T-shirt.

They kept walking.

"Does anyone actually know where we're going?" asked Sirius. No one answered, so they just kept walking.

"Remus?" asked James quietly. "D...Did something happen to y-"

"My dad knew a fellow," said Remus sharply. "A family friend, that got bitten by a werewolf. My dad told stories. That's it, really."

"Alright," said James gently, using a tone Peter had never heard him use before.

It was another minute before Remus audibly murmured, "And I'm really not fond of them."

"That's okay, Remus," said Peter, jogging a little to stay in pace with Remus's long stride. "I'm not fond of turtlenecks."

Remus, to Peter's surprise, cracked a smile and laughed out loud. "Well, thank God for you anyways, Peter."

"Does anyone actually know where we're going?" demanded Sirius from the back of the group.

"Oomph!" One minute Peter was standing, the next, he had a faceful of dirt and grass.

"Pete!" James was crouching down beside him. "You alright, mate?"

"Ghh… yeah…" muttered Peter, stumbling to his feet. "Just tripped…. Over a tree root, I think…"

James shone his wand down to where Peter had fallen.

"That's not a tree root," Sirius said, snatching it up from the ground. Peter saw it in the wandlight - it was a book. Earthy in color, covered in dirt, worn leather and metal clasps. Sirius blew on the cover.

"Moste Potente Potions!" Peter read excitedly. "Remus!"

"Madam Pince!" gasped Remus. "But why would she-?"

"Unless she and Dumbledore-" Peter started.

"But that would mean…" Remus frowned deeply. "That wouldn't be good. Come on. We must be close then."

"No, no, no, you ninnes," Sirius chided. "What the hell was that all about?"

"Madam Pince!" said Peter, red in the cheeks. "Remus, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas and I were in the library, reading up on different potions that could've been used-"

"To curse Paige," Remus continued. "Dorcas had gotten a lot of books, and Madam Pince got angry, God knows why-"

"And she started taking them away, but then she just - suddenly - grabbed a few and ran out like Satan was chasing her," finished Peter, a little breathless.

James and Sirius just stared at them, but not in awe or amazement. To Peter's surprise, they looked quite angry.

"It didn't occur to you to tell either of us?" James asked furiously.

"Well, we didn't really have time, did we?" shot back Remus.

"Are you kidding me?" said Sirius, eyebrows furrowed. "You had time to talk it over with Evans, I'm guessing-"

"She was there, of course we did-"

"And you two weren't exactly inclusive in your little plots, were you?"

"Oh, excuse me, I don't remember you ever being brave enough, Pete-"

"Stop making excuses, we all know you're keeping something from us-"

"What could I possibly be keeping-"

"I can't believe you wouldn't tell us-"

"Oh, I'm sorry I don't tell you everything I do in every minute of every day!"

"You're just a big- "

Remus had to stop mid-sentence; Fang had pulled away with such force that the leash had slipped from Remus's grasp. The boarhound bounded away, howling, the leash snaking away behind him.

"What? Fang! Come back!" shouted Remus.

"What do you think made him run awa-" James stopped mid-sentence as he turned, and his mouth hung upon. Sweat visibly appeared on Sirius' brow, and Peter suddenly lost the ability to stand.

Five gigantic spiders had convened behind them. Five enormous spiders, disgustingly hairy and alien-looking, clicking and clacking their pinchers and hissing like snakes. Forty red eyes glared into the wandlight, but they didn't move.

"God," Sirius whispered, leaning against a tree for support. "Acromantulas."

"Good! Good!" came five wheezing voices. "You know of us, and we know of you."

James exchanged worried glances with Remus, who was frozen with terror, before stuttering, "Y-y-you do?"

"Yes," said one, advancing a little. Peter hands shook uncontrollably. "Wizards. Good for eating. It is lucky that we found you."

"Yes! Yes!" echoed the other four.

Peter was more than scared, he was terrified. Every inch of his being was screaming, panicking, telling him to abandon everyone and everything and run for his life. But he couldn't. His muscles weren't working. He was too frightened.

"This is all Hagrid's fault," muttered Sirius to himself. But Peter heard, and the Acromantulas must have heard to, because they perked up all together and whispered,

"Hagrid?"

Sirius turned white, but didn't say anything else. The spiders hissed quietly and stamped their legs on the leafy ground, but didn't advance, like Peter had thought they would.

Finally, one of the spiders spoke.

"Fools!" it rasped. "These creatures cannot know Hagrid! If they did, they would know about Aragog!"

"Aragog!" shouted James suddenly. "I know about him!"

The spiders retreated a few feet, still wheezing and hissing with confusion.

"Why are you here?" Two of them asked in unison.

"Hagrid left something here," said James shakily, gesturing to the book under Sirius's arm. "Just a book.. You know… about-"

"Magic," Sirius said weakly.

"Yes," said James. "So, if y-you don't mind, we'll be on our w-w-way now…"

The spiders narrowed their eyes at them. Peter had been holding his breath so long it hurt. Had it worked? Were the Acromantulas actually going to let them go unscathed?

"They know of Hagrid," one of the spiders was saying to its brethren.

"They know of his interest with magic. If we harm them, Aragog will not be pleased."

"What Aragog does not know will not harm him," another croaked.

"We will not disobey Aragog," murmured a third. "Our obedience must be absolute."

After what seemed like hours of whispering, the largest spider advanced towards them. It was even more disgusting up close: it smelled like dead rats and rotting flesh. Peter suddenly felt faint.

"We will release you," it gasped. "But do not set foot in our territory again. Otherwise, you will have to answer to Aragog."

"Fair enough," said James, some of his old confidence returning to him.

"Do not test our-" The spider froze, mere inches away from them. (Peter could have reached out and grabbed hold of one of their legs, though his fingers wouldn't have been able to go all the way around.) Its eyes rolled around in its ugly head before it hissed, "It is here."

The spiders erupted in a panic, and the hissing seemed to come from all sides; they stamped their feet like they were going to charge, and white foam bubbled from their mouths as they wailed angrily, "It is here! It is here!"

They made a racket so stupendous that Peter was forced to clamp his hands over his ears.

"What did you do?" shouted Sirius to James.

"Have you come to kill us, monster?" The spiders wheezed, clicking and clacking their pinches. "The moon is not yet full!"

"What?" screamed Peter.

"God!" cried James, stuffing his fingers in his ears. "What happened? What did we do?"

The spiders made a high-pitched hissing, whistling noise through their pinchers, a sound Peter guessed was supposed to be laughter. "We hear your screams!" they rasped together loudly. "We hear your pain, monster-"

"Where is it?" yelled Sirius, spinning around in a circle. "Where's the monster?"

"LUMOS MAXIMA!" shouted someone behind them; Peter turned, it was Remus, pale and glassy-eyed, holding out his hand in front of him and clutching it like a lifeline-

And Peter was blinded. A circle of the brightest light Peter had ever seen shot out of it like a beacon and washed over them all - the spiders shrieked and stamped and covered their eyes - Peter felt like his eyes were going to burn out of their sockets-

Then it was over. Peter opened his eyes. James and Sirius were rubbing their eyes and blinking, and the Acromantulas were hissing and grunting, trying to get used to the darkness again.

There was a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter yelped and shirked away-

"Remus!" he choked.

"We need to run," Remus instructed him shakily, hoisting Peter to his feet. James and Sirius looked on, as the spiders shook their enormous heads and wheezed angrily at the four of them, pinchers opening to reveal a gaping, frothing maw with pointed fangs.

"Remus…" started Sirius, stumbling to his feet.

"Run," gasped Remus, stowing his wand in his sweatshirt. "For God's sake, run!"

#jamespotter #siriusblack #remuslupin #peter pettigrew #hogwarts #harrypotter #spiders #light #trees #forest #hagrid

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spooky-raccoon · 8 years ago

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It’s In The Evidence (Part 5)

THIS TOOK ME SO LONG TO DO AND I AM SO SORRY LIFE SUCKS

Cue the DUN DUN DUUUUN music.

Several months had passed and things had fallen into a pattern it seemed. Pennywise had kept out of my sight even though I was always investigating him. At times he would visit me in my dreams, taunting me or mocking me. My year was running up and I wasn’t sure if he would vanish at any time which was putting me on edge. My home had become covered in history papers from the pattern of missing people and death. Robert and I were doing well though. He had been talking about moving in once I was done with my research. The idea gave me butterflies and I admit I was nervous, but I was happy he was just as eager about our relationship I was.

I had come home from work that even and pulled up a book detailing businesses history. Whenever I went through a book I had the habit of skimming until something caught my eye and then read the whole book. I was sipping my hot chocolate when I noticed something. There, detailing a brewery, was Robert. There was a photograph and Robert stood in between a group of people. Slowly, I flipped the page which was a bunch of signatures. I reached over to a birthday card he had given me and stared at the signature at the bottom. My eyes glanced back and forth. They matched, to the loops, to the slashes. To everything. I looked at the year again to the business and I felt my heart skipping a beat. Robert would either be a really old man or dead.

So many thoughts began to race through my head, but I needed to control my emotions. I had learned that Pennywise would come when I was panicking, afraid, or horrified. He always appeared in my nightmares or if a scary movie was really getting to me. I really love horror gore films so that dragged a bit. I let out a heavy sigh as I settled my books back on the shelves after several more hours of research. Robert’s name had showed up several more times. He had told me that he was the only person of his family to be in Derry. The only one to decide to move to the small town and that the others were gone. I sat on my couch, elbows propped on my knees as I leaned forward and pressed my fingers to my lips as they were folded up in one another. I had to control the things I was feeling. Control was so hard at this point though. I had come to adore Robert, love him dearly. Could he really be who I thought he was? Pennywise, that damn Dancing Clown. I inhaled and exhaled a large breath to ease myself. I can’t let Pennywise know. I have to make sure Robert still thinks everything is picture perfect between the two of us. Part of me felt disgusted knowing that the person I had been making love to be a wolf in disguise. Monster in human skin. I noticed the time on the clock and headed off to bed after a shower. Part of me wish I hadn’t as it was another night with Pennywise invading my dreams. Though this time was different.

“Oh, little one.” Pennywise’s voice echoed in soft whispers followed by a single laugh. “Little one.” That echo felt as if it ran over my body, sending a shiver down my spine has a floated in the darkness. “Time to float, little one.”

Light began to pour through from different areas. I looked around and that’s when I realized they were uncovered manholes and sewer drains. My feet landed gently on the ground and I began to walk forward.

“Sweet, little one. Let me make you happy.” His words hissed next to my ears. I saw large arms coming from my sides and suddenly clasp me to a sturdy surface. I struggled against the grip and I felt my back vibrating as Pennywise chuckled. “Oh, silly girl. Silly, silly.” My head snapped back to see that I was pressed to his chest.

“What do you want from me?” I grunted as I continued to try to break free.

“You look like you need a hug is all. You’re so stressed out trying to find me, get rid of me and all.” He laughed again as he lowered his head right next to mine. “You aren’t like everyone else. You aren’t afraid of me. Everyone ignores ole Pennywise when something horrible happens but no, not you.” One of his hands turned my face to the side so I would look directly at him. I may have been dreaming but my heart was beating so fast as our faces were so close. “You’re a smart gal. A naughty gal too. There’s also something inside you that isn’t quite right.” His eyes went from a pale blue to a golden yellow. “Why not join old Pennywise? We could have so much fun together. So. Much. Fun.”

With the last word leaving his lips he pressed them to mine. My struggling stopped as I felt a surge of warmth wash over me. One of his arms stayed firmly around me, wrapped underneath my breasts. The other slid slowly to my neck. His large hands easily covered my entire throat. He began to slowly squeeze, and I stifled back a moan as he got to as tight as I loved it. I felt something hard pressing into my lower back. And then it wiggled making me gasps. Pennywise chuckled as he pulled away from my lips.

“Find me and come play. Let me give you what you desire.” His words echoed throughout the sewer as it faded away.

He vanished into thin air as I jerked myself around one final time. The lights began to fade away and soon I was left back in the dark. My feet no longer touched the ground as I began to float in nothingness. The rest of my sleep went undisturbed. I only woke up when my phone rang. It was Robert.

“Mmm hello honey.” I rolled over in my bed as I put the phone to my ear.

“Just wake up?” He softly laughed and ended it with a small sigh. “I’m gonna be coming over. With food.”

“Aw aren’t you the sweetest. Yeah, I just woke up. I’ll make sure not to look like a mess when you get here.” I giggled as I sat up in bed, flinging the blanket over me.

“You know I think you’re the most beautiful thing in this universe, even when you have fresh bedhead and dark circles.” I heard the dinging of a door opening. “I’ll see you in a bit hun. I love ya.”

“I love ya too.” I pressed the hang up button and set my phone down.

My hand rubbed my face as I tried to sort through so many emotions. Despite discovering what I did, I still loved Robert. I couldn’t help but to still imagine a future with him but I knew he wasn’t human. He wasn’t who I thought he was. A shaky breath left me as I got up from my bed. I had finally found happiness but now it felt as if it was crashing down around me. I slipped on a black maxi dress after I put on a pair of underwear and a bra. I made my way to the bathroom to make my hair and face not look like I had just woken up from hibernation. When I was done I opened the medicine cabinet to take my vitamin. I shut the door and there stood behind me in the mirror was Pennywise. I let out a sigh as I stared at him.

“What do you want?” I let annoyance and anger fill my voice but kept my mind on lock down, so he couldn’t figure out I knew the truth.

“The same thing I say every time you ask this question.” He chuckled, and I flung myself around to see him actually there behind me.

“Why the hell do you want me!?” I couldn’t help but to yell this time. I took in a deep breath as I gripped onto the sink.

“Because you are special.” His hand reached out to me, landing on the side of my face. “You’re a bit like me. There’s a bit of a monster inside you.” My eyes widened, and he let out a cackling laugh. “Oh, the things you’ve done Roxanne. Is that why you do what you do? So, you can get away with the things you do? Hmm?” His face was leaning in closer to me as his eyes turned yellow. “You aren’t innocent Roxxie. Just because you get rid of those who do evil doesn’t make you good. Especially when you strap them down, inject them with different things and experiment on them until they die slow and painful deaths.”

“They deserved it.” I managed to speak out finally. “They were murderers, sex traffickers, and other horrible things. They all deserved it. The people you kill and eat,” he had only gotten an inch away from my face, “they are innocent.”

“A creature has to eat too Roxanne.” Pennywise shrugged. “We both enjoy it though. We’re more alike than you think. Give it some thought little one.” His lips pressed into mine as he swiftly picked me up to set me on the sink. “I need a Queen and we both know you can’t kill me. Or even want to kill me.” He chuckled as he kissed me harder.

One of his large hands was gripping the back of my head while the other was wrapped around my torso. Truth me told, he didn’t have to keep me locked in place. This had become so common it seemed whenever he would show up. I wanted to fight but something deep inside me held me back. Something in me wanted this. Wanted him. Wanted whatever he wanted to give me. Wanted to be with him. The door bell rang as he pulled himself away. With a sly grin on his face he walked out the door, vanishing. Quickly I made brushed my hair again and answered the door. Robert came in with a large grin on his face while carrying a bag of Chinese food.

“Got you the usual my dear. Sorry I took so long. I stopped by the library to check out some movies for us to watch.” He held up the other bag that had the library’s logo on it. “I figured you’d like a relaxing day.”

“You’re too sweet Robert, I swear.” I giggled softly as I got plates from the kitchen.

I watched him as he set up the first movie for us to watch. I loved Robert so much and even though I knew the secret I couldn’t tear myself away from him. I wanted nothing more than a life with him but that would mean a life with Pennywise as well. A soft sigh left me as I got us drinks. Pennywise, and thus Robert, both knew my secret. I thought coming to Derry would let me run away from all the darkness I left behind but, no. Pennywise was going to remind me over and over that I too was a murderer.

@animelover130901 @jacc-daniels @hoe-for-daddywise @astrotheclown @fuckin-boiis @skaravile @dirtydaddywiseslut @ihaveaseriousclownproblem @float-me-to-the-moon @pennywisethot @smileysam13579

#pennywise fanfic #pennywise fanfiction #pennywise x character #pennywise imagaine

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 6 years ago

Text

35 things to inspire you during your 2019 self-love sessions

May is National Masturbation Month, and we're celebrating with Feeling Yourself, a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure.

So far, 2019 hasn't been a particularly sexy year.

When you think about, we've all had to watch a lot of straight-up nonsense go down. Green Book won the Oscar for Best Picture, Jeff Bezos' "sexts" leaked, and Sonic the Hedgehog got a full set of human teeth, for goodness sake. Gross!

A bunch of this year's pop culture moments have been genuinely disappointing, but we're not going to let that harsh our self-love vibes. From sexy fashion statements and television characters, to memes and music, 2019 has definitely given us some glorious moments worthy of recalling during the act of self-pleasure.

If you find yourself in need of some masturbation inspiration, here are 35 ~very 2019~ things to think about.

1. Chris Evans' teal velvet pants: Christopher Robert Evans had the absolute audacity to show up to an Avengers: Endgame press event in April wearing teal velvet pants. The trousers looked as though they were hand-crafted by an angelic seamstresses in the clouds and came with the equally stunning teal velvet suit jacket Evans wore to the Oscars earlier this year. We're all blessed that his stylist, Ilaria Urbinati, firmly believes you should "never let a great pair of trousers go to waste."

Chris Evans inventing pants.

Image: ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISNEY

2. America's ass: While we're on the topic of Chris Evans' pants, let's get another inevitable Chris-related 2019 thirst trap out of the way. Feel free to think of the real star of Avengers: Endgame — America's ass — whenever you need a dose of dayummmm. 🇺🇸🍑

3. "Old Town Road": There are many subject-appropriate songs out there to get off to, but if you're looking to switch things up a bit, consider listening to the 2019 anthems, "Old Town Road" and the remix, for inspiration.

4. The possibility of eliminating student debt: This year, Elizabeth Warren announced her plans to cancel student debt and eliminate college tuition for future students, and honestly? Just the thought of having your ridiculously high student debt forgiven is *tingles* exciting.

5. The new Staples logo: People got seriously amped when that little staple unfolded. So... strong.

SEE ALSO: 7 ridiculously large sex toys to help you go big in the bedroom

6. The Jonas Brothers reunion AND the introduction of the Jonas Sisters: One of the world's most popular boy bands — a band of literal biological brothers — reunited in 2019, and that alone is reason enough for everyone to be "Burnin' Up." But with the reunion also came the introduction of the fierce female trio, the Jonas Sisters (aka Sophie Turner, Priyanka Chopra, and Danielle Jonas). 🔥

7. The black hole: The world saw the first recorded image of a black hole in 2019, and I guess it's kind of hot, right? It is described as "supermassive," so. Hey.

8. The possible return of Wendy's Spicy Chicken Nuggets: Can you think of a thought spicer than imagining the possible return of Wendy's Spicy Chicken Nuggets? There aren't many.

9. The thought of the L train being functional: Governor Andrew Cuomo is confident that limiting service of the extraordinarily popular L train for a year will be in the city's best interest, but in the mean time New Yorkers are living a fresh new subway hell. Stay strong, people. And if necessary, after a long-ass day of commuting, feel free to envision a beautiful, fully functioning L train in the sack.

10. Jauz's "Baby Shark" remix: I think the Coachella track really speaks for itself doo doo doo doo doo doo.

11. KFC's hot new Colonel Sanders: KFC isn't simply in the business of making people hungry for chicken anymore. Now they're interested in making people thirst for their hot new Colonel Sanders. (It's working?)

12. The thought of sexting with a robot: Mashable Staff Writer Jess Joho sexted with a bot, and you can too. Turns out it's surprisingly hot.

13. The Night King: Listen, he wasn't very nice. He's also dead now. But in his glory days the Night King could get it.

14. The Hulk's junk: Ever wonder if the Hulk can have sex? There's a lot to unpack. Consider doing so next time you get down with yourself, because, why not?

15. David's dance on Schitt's Creek: David and Patrick's relationship is one of the best on television, and while David's dance to Tina Turner's "The Best" is sweet enough to make you ugly cry, it's also sexy as hell and impossible to watch without getting chills. (The same argument can be made for the scene where Patrick sings "The Best" to David.)

youtube

16. Literally any moment from the 2 hours and 17 minutes of Beyoncé's Homecoming: The performance is the definition of flawless and we are barely worthy of such brilliance.

17. The Burn This poster: The poster for the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This is haaaaawt. It features Adam Driver and Keri Russell lookin' gorg, just chillin' horizontal on a couch all dreamy and idyllic and shit. See for yourself.

18. This sand art replica of Dwayne Johnson's face: You might not initially think a video of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's head being assembled from sand is the stuff to inspire hot thoughts, which is understandable, but if you never try you'll never know, right?

19. Bowsette: The fan-created character that mashes Bowser and Princess Peach together was dismissed by Nintendo this year, but that doesn't stop people from lusting over NSFW Bowsette art online.

20. This extremely long dongle: Major BDE (Big Dongle Energy) coming from this one. Who can ignore?

This is one long dongle #io19 pic.twitter.com/OtNf1fsdDK

— Raymond Wong📱💾📼 (@raywongy) May 7, 2019

21. The moment Captain America wielded Thor's hammer: Yes, we've already gave a nod to Chris Evans/Captain America twice on this list, but how could we not acknowledge the ��electric⚡ moment Cap summoned Mjolnir? A real shock to the heart.

22. 500 Intel drones performing a choreographed light show set to Phish: Get jammin', folks.

23. Golf balls cut in half: These artsy halved golf balls with tantalizingly scrumptious interiors are forbidden snacks, but we can still drool.

24. Demon Beto O'Rourke: When the skateboarding, burger-loving, Beyoncé-endorsed musician Beto O'Rourke ran for Texas Senator against Ted Cruz, he was one of the most crush-worthy men on the planet. Now, O'Rourke is running for president, though, and the American people can't afford to let their thirst distract them from focusing on policy issues. Rather than thinking of Beto to get yourself all hot and bothered consider, focusing on this comedian's parody version, Demon Beto.

25. Animations of a baguette on the move: We are not suggesting you think about just any old loaf of bread while masturbating. Animated baguettes are special.

26. Villanelle and Eve: The relationship between the two Killing Eve characters may be complicated, but their chemistry is clear as day. Scenes like this are simply too intense to just watch.

27. Crocs and shaving cream: In case you haven't seen, putting large dollops of shaving cream in Crocs and then inserting feet forces the shaving cream to escape out of the signature shoe holes. It's quite the satisfying sight.

28. Basically every Met Gala outfit: The 2019 Met Gala theme was "Camp" — inspired by Susan Sontag's 1964 essay — and everyone's outfits were S T U N N I N G. Here is a list of some greats.

29. The Rihanna birthday outfit challenge: Everyone knows Rihanna slays the Met Gala when she attends, but since the singer didn't make it this year we have to get our fix another way. Try searching "Rihanna" and your birthday on Google and see one of her iconic outfits will appear. You're welcome.

30. Balenciaga Crocs: Speaking of Crocs and the Met... I like those Balenciagas. The ones that look like Crocs. 😏

of course the balenciaga crocs are here pic.twitter.com/34ZWXYXAKD

— rachel syme (@rachsyme) May 6, 2019

31. Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man Far From Home trailer: HeLLO, Mysterio. We see that beard and shaggy Jim Halpert hair, boy.

32. What if we kissed memes: A perfect meme for those who want to imagine kissing people in super bizarre places — like near a high voltage box — but are in need of inspiration.

33. The gray streak in Richard Madden's hair: 50 strands of gray = bae.

34. The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaing Donald Trump Jr. to testify over the Russia Investigation: Perhaps some people will take pleasure from imagining Trump's son testifying in hopes it will shed some light on this long, national, election hacking nightmare. IDK!

35. Samsung's foldable phone: The wide, glossy screen folds in half for goodness sake.

Digital hot dog bun.

Image: RAYMOND WONG / MASHABLE

Have fun, everyone!

WATCH: Gaga and Bradley set the meme-osphere and our loins ablaze this week with their Oscar's performance — All the Memes

#_category:yct:001000002 #_author:Nicole Gallucci #_uuid:ca7cb9ea-ae11-362e-998c-7266dccd0494 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

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dotfalla · 7 years ago

Text

Evaluation

I started pretty slow, I had decided to surround my topic on a particular article called ‘The Dark side of Oz, The Exploitation of Judy Garland’ by Neil Norman for the Express. I found out that the young actress was humiliated while working under MGM’s constraint. She was drugged, groped and isolated by the other actors. I just could not believe this happened to an actress who played a character that was a huge part of my life when I was younger. Not only do I share my name with Dorothy form The Wizard of Oz, but it was also one of my favourite movies when I was little. I think it really upset me, but I’m glad I found out, I feel like I can now, in just a tiny way, help Judy Garland by acknowledging her distress.

I understand that I got this information from an article, with no real sources or back up. I obviously didn’t want to base my entire final work on an article that was basically fake news. That is why I went and looked up the facts and figures and found, in not so many words, that this was the case. I even found that one of her ex-husbands, Randy L. Schmidt had written a whole book called ‘Judy and I’, and it was about how her life at MGM had completely formed her life as an adult and how he dealt with these issues in their marriage.

My concept was, in short, to create a hard-hitting, shocking and quite upsetting read into something more light. That is why I chose to create a coffee table book, these have huge amounts of text, in the format that is easy to read and easy to understand. (My book came out a bit smaller than a standard coffee table size but the reasons behind it are still valid). This is so, that, if wanted, a reader could pick it up, flip through it and get a good understanding of what the book is about. I feel that this is something that the final book entices; because of the texture and it’s bright colours, the reader will want to pick it up. When it is opened, the textured inserts contrast against the plain white text and therefore, aesthetically, look intriguing for the reader.

To begin, I was unsure how to pursue my final results so it was suggested to me to start experimenting, to look at metaphors for Judy Garland’s treatment, and to then relay that on paper. I was asked to think about duality, and how to visualise two entirely different worlds coming together to become Judy’s life. I tried marbling, weaving, glitching and defacing, all to get an greater understanding to how I could visualise the humiliation and ugly truth for the reader. At one point I really believed I was on for a winner when I began cutting images into little strips to weave together to create powerful imagery portraying multiple perspectives. This woven technique was inspired by an artist called David Stern who uses this method on far larger images with much smaller strips to create a really unusual and eery piece of work. Unfortunately, even though the final woven bits that I managed to create were refreshing and successful, when I tried to include them in my work, they didn't seem to have a place, this was because I still hadn't managed to decide on a final concept.

When I had my one on one tutorial with Neil, we looked through all the different types of experiments I had done and focused in on an initial first draft with small, colourful inserts. The example was just a collection of white pieces of A4 paper which had been folded into an A5 booklet. Small coloured offcuts had been placed in between the pages to create little interruptions in the clean white booklet. This was something that Neil and I really gravitated towards. We talked about how the book in questions had began to challenge the reader, and how all these interruptions were sprouting out uncontrollably. We discussed textures, and how, with these inserts, the ��normal’ texture of a book was denied, and how, using contrast of bright, vivid intrusions, and white, pure paper the book also explored duality. It was decided to pursue an idea the the book would include the entire story of the Wizard of Oz, the happy, joyful fairytale with a happy ending, but with truthful inserts relating to the mistreatment of Judy Garland.

I began creating prototypes for this idea, I used imagery I had created from the experimental process to fill these inserts with darkness and contrast against the story book white. However, no matter how hard I tried to re-jig and change the composition up, every result was noisy. There was just too much going on with a bunch of text on both sides, and imagery smacked in the middle. That’s when I decided to take a step back and look at the idea of using the inserts as plain colour pieces and use the shocking text from the article to carry out the concept. While doing this, it wasn’t long until I realised that, if I plan to use these small inserts, I will have to booklet print, and then saddle stitch the signatures together, therefore meaning, I would need to paginate roughly 110 pages of text. To hopefully avoid this, I decided to perfect bind, however, if this were to be the case, those inserts would not be able to be placed perfectly as there would be no way of knowing exactly where they would end up in the vice, and furthermore, they would get very limited amounts of glue and might very well fall out entirely. Because of this discovery, I’ll be honest, I was completely deterred from the idea of small offcuts as inserts so I began looking at entire pages for the inserts. These would stick in a perfect bound book so much easier and the amount of interruption to the story has become even more using this method. While getting excited about these new, full page inserts, a problem solution was presented to me regarding the smaller inserts. I was told to keep the inserts with a long line up the spine, this is what would keep the insert in with out falling out because the sheet would get as much glue as possible, and you would be able to decide exactly where to put it. However, while I was very grateful for this suggestion, I had already got my eyes set for a large insert, possibly even with laser cut holes to see onto the next page.

I was really excited about this new idea, I was keeping the concept of ‘challenging the texture of a book’ but instead of small interruptions, I would make much larger ones. However, even after getting excited about a couple experiments using bright vivid colours to represent the modern connection to Judy’s story and Weinstein and #metoo movements in the current day, I wasn’t considering any of my previous experiments that I did over the Easter holiday. Therefore, I went back to looking over my trials and came across the scrunched up portraits I did, inspired by Alma Haser who uses printed photography, scrunched, over another photo. Her portraits inspire conversations about mental heath and loneliness. By using the scrunched up versions of photographs, the image becomes distorted and fuzzy. I really admired this message and used it to inspire my very own message; when scrunching up the paper, I then began to careful try to unfold it because I had forgotten to take a ‘before and after’ shot. This was when, of course, I discovered that once a picture has been screwed up, it’s impossible to flatten out and recover it. I thought this idea had many connections to Garland, how her time at MGM had been the catalyst for her downward spiral that ended with her death at 47, just 30 years after the film was made. This was when I decided to keep the colourful inserts, inspired by contemporary trends, keep them full size for easy binding and full exposure to their message but instead of place one of my visuals that I attempted, but to, instead scrunch it up like the photos by Haser. These inserts are part of the ‘reality side’, they tell of the horrid experience Garland endured, therefore they represent her and her life, it makes sense for them to be screwed up and ruined. The folds become to look like scars and small tears appear to show her submission and her weakness.

I had decided to include these bright colours, because of their contemporary link, but also because they are youthful and fun. We must remember that Judy Garland was only 16 when she began working on the film and therefore was still just a child. Instead of plucking colours out of my head, I first drew inspiration from existing Oz art from posters and book covers, I found artwork such as Mark Mahle’s and then colour swatched to get a feel of inspired choices. It was mainly greens and yellows, representing the Emerald City and the yellow brick road. These two colour visuals are very fitting to my idea, however I thought I should add another, one that I recognise, which was the blue checked dress that Dorothy wears. Using these colours, I created a gradient to decide what shades would be best suited to the story, this was when I found the idea of using a gradient told the story in itself. Starting with the blue dress, then going down the yellow road, to finally get to the Emerald City. This transpired multiple times to become a recurring gradient of blue and yellow wth green being dropped due to it’s shades resembling nastier symbolism. While making mock ups and printing tests, it became clear that for maximum contrast against the text and the colour, the shades would need to get darker. Therefore no more light blue, because white text got lost amongst it. I ddi try a darker colour for text, but then, when placed opposite a white page with story text all over it, there was no reflection or complimenting links. I decided to go for a dark blue to coral orange to mustard yellow, and due to the looping gradient, it is mostly the yellow (representing the yellow brick road) that you see. Yellow also represents fun, happiness and joy - which relate to The Wizard of Oz tale, but contrast nicely with what the text on the inserts say, like ‘Mayer (her boss) took to groping her in his office’.

Now that I had the concept down, and knew there would be inserts every other page or so, all at different colours to represent this story-telling gradient, I made more realistic mockups to show in my final critique presentation. I asked the group if these visuals were repetitive, if the final piece would be boring and whether I should have tired something else. The group told me, in a book, these colours would break up the repetitive-ness and if I decide to use the actual scrunched up paper, rather than the scans, each insert will be different and invite the reader to feel the ridges and the texture. They assured me that the book itself would be enticing, that people would pick it up and look at it, but only if I decided to use more texture. For example, I suggested I might use an A3 version of the woven piece inspired by David Stern to create the book cover, this was received well. However, when I came to see Rich and Laura for a last catchup and tutorial the day after, I asked the same questions, and received very different answers. It was decided that the woven book cover, while it does look and feel interesting, would be a waste of time seeing as the method of attaching it to the book is still undecided, and because it really didn’t match any of the visuals or colours inside the book. As for repetition, they believed it was quite repetitive, and that perhaps I should attempt to make text bigger, change directions and be a little more different. Once I did this, suddenly the book became more punchy. The messages on the inserts became more prominent and could be read much easier. Laura suggested I make my first two introduction pages reflect each other, so that, from the very beginning, it is obvious that there is a kind of duality to this book which will later reveal itself. I thought this worked really well, it was also suggested to me to try making some of the inserts cut up, or only being able to see half of them, this would encourage the reader to turn the page and carry on reading. At first, we discussed printing half the txt on one side, the rest on the other, but then we spoke about making it fold out, giving the reader more texture and interaction with the book. This was a great idea, and while It made it slightly harder to bind, I considered this advise invaluable to my project and got it to become so much more than what I had had before the tutorial.

The novel part, the ‘fantasy’ part is something I have taken a slight risk on. I wanted it to represent the old fashioned book, just like the ones selling in 1900s when L Frank Baum wrote the book. this meant the text was small, in a serif font such as Athelas and strictly justified. While normally, I wouldn't have decided to have an entire book in justified, it was a conscious decision because, that way, the fairytale story looked so bland and dull compared to the contemporary, Futura fonts on the inserts. However, once decided, I really enjoyed the outcome with the contrasting sides.

Once my book had all the right pages in the right places, with a full guide in my notebook to follow, I was able to start thinking about how I could make the cover. It was decided that the woven piece, while it is lovely to look at, would not be appropriate for my book cover, so I began to consider different approaches. It took quite a long time to make my mind up, I was adamant I did not want a white book cover, knowing how messy they got due to fingerprints and what not, however, I could not ignore the element of innocence white brought. I wanted to have a book, that when not even open, showed the poor, innocent girl, with all these colours inside of her. Because, even though the subject matter is quite bleak, the book does not need to be made out of black paper, with dark metaphors and misery. It should be fun, bright and hopeful, it should shed light on the matter, to engage an audience and captivate interest. I used a scrunched up version of Dorothy, an image where she is looking so young, and quite scared. I printed this off, scrunched it up and scanned it directly into the photocopier machine, it then, printed out an exact copy onto my sheet of card which could then go around the book. Once bound and covered, I was able to fully evaluate my end result. It came out so well and I am very pleased with it. After all my worries about the binding process, Joseph in the binding studio helped me out and gave me lots of suggestions on how I could make the book as successful as possible. The sickness of the book, and it’s weight are really effective and this is due to the different paper thicknesses I used. I had 120gsm for most of the novel pages, with all of the inserts being 160gsm card. This made for the two sides to have even more difference and the result is really striking. When looking at the closed book, it is obvious that the cover is not at all centred, this is concourse due to the photocopier, but if I could have done this again, I would have liked to have spent a little more time on this seeing as it would not have been too difficult to print out another version with better placement. I decided not to have too many words explaining the concept, I really wanted it to come through by looking at the book and taking time to understand the reasons, however, I am now wishing I had put in another insert, a prologue before the introductions that just briefly explained the dual narrative and the contemporary influences. I decided, pretty last minute to include ‘screen-print’ style numbers over the chapter heads to relate to the merging sides, while the aesthetic looks good, I would have liked to have spent more time trying to achieve a similar result, but perhaps without merging the two ‘worlds’ and have kept them separate. I am really happy with my outcome and I think I have a clear and precise development from beginning to end with design choices that have been considered and theories and trends analysed to create a full body of work that shows off the final piece to the best of it’s possibility.

#dorothy

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