#is he throwing a coin? a rock? what is it

[fireworkss-exe]

pinterest is a place where you can find shit like this

[choerrypuffs]

red velvet hearts.

pairing: bad boy!donghyuck x baker!reader

genre: fluff, slight angst

word count: 7.7k

synopsis: you patch up a boy with a bloody nose and bruised knuckles, only to find out that he has quite the sweet tooth.

author’s note: why do i keep injuring hyuck in all my fics lmao??? anyways i tried to write his character a bit differently than i usually do to challenge myself so please let me know how you guys like it! also remember, ladies: this is fiction. you cannot fix him <3

warning(s): brief description of injuries, mentions of violence, maximum amounts of cringe and melodrama

playlist: all my ghosts by lizzy mcalpine ― heart eyes by coin ― close to you by gracie abrams ― sidelines by phoebe bridgers ― the alchemy by taylor swift

RECIPE 1. TIRAMISU

“This is not what I meant when I said you need your back blown out.” 

“Not funny. I almost died,” you grumble as you wrap the back brace around your torso. You hate the immediate relief you feel from the support it provides, no longer able to tell yourself that it’s really not as bad as it seems―which only makes you angrier. 

“Throwing your back out while lifting a giant bag of flour and nearly getting crushed to death by said flour is genuinely the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever heard,” Yeri, your best friend (derogatory), snorts as she shakes her head. “I wish you had cameras in the storage room because I want to see that shit so bad.”

“Thank you for the brace. You can get the hell out now.” You roll your eyes. 

“So, what are you going to do now? Aren’t you swamped with orders?” Yeri asks, ignoring you completely. 

You have no clue what you’re going to do now. It isn’t just orders you have to worry about fulfilling; it’s also the freshly baked pastries that you have to sell every morning. After a year of blood, sweat, and tears, the bakery that you built from the ground up is finally starting to gain some stable business. So, of course, you chose now of all times to try to lift a bag of flour over your shoulder like you were Dwayne The Rock Johnson. 

“I think I’ll have to hire some temporary help,” you answer begrudgingly. 

“You could sound less like someone is holding you at gunpoint,” Yeri snorts, “Come on. It had to happen sooner or later anyway.” 

“I was handling things just fine on my own.”

“Were you, though?” Yeri raises an eyebrow, gesturing to your current state. 

You fear you walked right into that one. “Shut up and help me make some posters.” 

The two of you eventually manage to whip up some haphazard “Help Wanted” posters, the letters written in glitter pen and Yeri’s clumsy bubble text. You tried your best to fill in the empty gaps on the construction paper by placing Pompompurin stickers that you normally give to customers’ kids all over it. The posters look like a nine-year-old girl’s school project gone wrong, but you hope it’s charming enough to catch some attention. 

By the time you and Yeri finish hanging up all the posters, the sun is already starting to set, and all you want to do is go home and put a heating pad on your back. After saying bye to Yeri, you start making your way back to the bakery to lock up. Once you arrive, you notice a figure dressed in black slumped over in front of the door. You can see their shoulders rise up and down as they take in labored breaths, leaning against the glass door for support. 

Every rational fiber in your being screams at you to not approach the stranger alone, but it’s not like you can just leave this person at the front of your place of business. Cautiously taking a step forward, you squat down to eye level with the stranger, wincing slightly from back pain. Through the sweaty and matted mess of his brown fringe, you can see that the stranger is a young man around your age. However, his face is absolutely battered: bloody (and almost certainly broken) nose, split lip, black eye swollen shut, and a jagged cut on his cheek. If he notices your presence, he doesn’t show it, keeping his head hung down.

Gingerly placing a hand on his arm, you give him a small shake. “Excuse me? Are you okay? Do you need me to call an ambulance?” 

His brows furrow, and he opens an eye (the only one he’s probably able to open) with a wince before lifting a finger and putting it against his lips. You notice that his knuckles are completely scraped raw. 

“Not so loud. I’m okay,” he answers. 

“You don’t look―” 

As if on cue, his stomach rumbles with a guttural growl that slowly drawls into a sputtering gurgle before dying out all together―leaving a long silence to hang between the two of you.

After another beat, he gives you a sheepish smile. “You got anything to eat?” 

You stare at him for a moment; his face is flushed, pink all the way down to his neck. 

And like a stupid horror movie character who opens the door to a room that clearly screams danger, you nod. 

.

.

.

Fortunately, he―Donghyuck, as he introduced himself―ends up not being a crazy ax murderer. 

Unfortunately, you find yourself awkwardly sitting in your closed bakery with a virtual stranger, fiddling with a first aid kit while watching him absolutely devour a piece of leftover tiramisu that you had in your fridge. If the situation wasn’t so insane, you might actually think it was pretty funny. For someone who looks the way he does, this current picture of Donghyuck absolutely doesn’t suit him―bruised chipmunk cheeks stuffed with ladyfingers and cocoa powder stuck on his split lip. 

When he’s finished, Donghyuck looks over at you with a mesmerized expression on his face, as if you just fed him ambrosia. There’s a softness to his face that you didn’t think could exist underneath all that grime and dried blood. 

“That was…delicious,” he breathes. 

“Thanks,” you snort, pushing a glass of water towards him. Unsurprisingly, he chugs it in the blink of an eye. “I still think you should get those injuries checked out, though.” 

“Nah, I’ll rub a little spit in them and it’ll be fine,” he shrugs. 

“Don’t be gross,” you sigh, scooting your chair closer to him as you set the first aid kit on the table. “Now, come here.” 

Donghyuck reluctantly dips his head, and you carefully cup his jaw for support, disinfecting and applying ointment on the cuts and scrapes on his face. You also clean up the dried blood near his nostrils and on his bottom lip, and he doesn’t flinch even when you accidentally brush tender areas like his broken nose or the gash on his mouth. Instead, he stays perfectly still, leaned back in the chair with his forearms resting on his thighs and fingers nonchalantly laced together. 

He keeps his gaze trained on something past your shoulder, and you also try your best to focus, but it’s hard to keep yourself from staring―especially when his demeanor has changed so much. He’s so calm and quiet in such a cold, ruthless manner, as if he’s physically steeling himself from pain―like he’s done this a million times before. Occasionally, you feel his eyes swipe across your face when he thinks you’re not paying attention, and it occurs to you how close the two of you are. Suddenly, you’re acutely aware of the heat of his skin against your palm and fingertips, and you rip your hand away from his jaw. 

Clearing your throat, you move onto his hands, dabbing his raw knuckles with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol before placing large band-aids on them. Despite your best efforts, it’s hard not to notice how slim his long fingers are or how surprisingly clean his nail beds are for someone who’s covered in blood. You keep your head completely bent, fighting the urge of looking up and possibly meeting his eyes. 

“There, all done,” you announce a little too loudly. 

“Thank you,” he says softly, “for the cake and for this. For helping me.” 

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t do much,” you blurt, still avoiding eye contact as you clean up the table. However, you notice in your peripheral that his gaze follows your movements, almost hesitantly, before he asks: 

“So, you’re hiring?” 

You click the first-aid kit shut, blinking a few times before turning back to him. He looks at you with a raised eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

“I―yeah. How did you know that?” you ask, puzzled by such a random question. 

Donghyuck points at a poster that you didn’t even know you left here, sitting on the table right behind you. You realize that he was probably looking at it while you were patching him up. 

“That poster that says ‘help wanted.’ With the Pompompurin stickers. I’m actually in between jobs right now, so if you would have me―”

“You know Pompompurin?” you interrupt him. It’s not that important and should not stand out to you as much as it does. Yet, you can’t help but grin at the fact that someone like him knows about a tubby Golden Retriever character with a name that sounds like a mashup of the English language’s most adorable onomatopeias. 

Donghyuck trails off, stiffening as if you just found out his deepest, darkest secret. He opens his mouth slightly, trying to speak but unable to formulate a response―an excuse, rather. Instead, he just lets out an airy cough, putting a hand over his mouth and turning away from you in an attempt to obscure his face. Despite his best efforts, he can’t hide his glowing red ears and the way his earlier coldness melts away.

“I―yeah,” he responds, words slightly muffled by his hand. 

You struggle to maintain your composure as you gnaw on your bottom lip to keep from laughing. Fighting a smile in your voice, you finally say: 

“The pay won’t be that much, but you’ll get a bunch of free desserts at the end of the day. Are you okay with that?” 

It takes him a moment to process that you’re offering him the job, and you watch his eyes light up and a warm smile overtake his face. There’s still a light shade of pink dusting his cheeks, clashing with the purple bruising and swelling of his injuries. 

“I’d love nothing more.”

Suddenly, it occurs to you that Donghyuck somewhat reminds you of a tiramisu. 

He may look a bit rugged and grimey, bitter like coffee, but in actuality, underneath it all, he’s soft and fluffy (but not too sweet) like a mascarpone filling. 

RECIPE 2. BLUEBERRY PIE

“Are you out of your mind?”

You cringe away from your phone, hurriedly turning the volume down. “Damn, you don’t have to scream like that.” 

“You should be the one screaming,” Yeri hollers. “I better not come over one day and find your body stuffed in the freezer or something.”

“I thought you wanted me to hire someone!” 

“Not some random dude off the side of the street who was covered in injuries and doesn’t even have any baking experience,” Yeri hisses. 

“I don’t need him to bake. I just have him working the front counter and doing all the heavy lifting when I get my ingredient shipments,” you protest. “Did you think I would really just hand over all my orders to some random dude and go party it up in Cancún or something?” 

Yeri is silent for several seconds before asking, “He’s hot, isn’t he?”

“What?”

“So you did know what I meant when I said you needed your back blown out.” You can hear the smugness in her voice. 

“Yeri,” you say tiredly, “please be serious.”

“I am serious. You’re the one being unserious,” she retorts. “Yesterday, you acted like you would rather sacrifice your firstborn child before hiring a part-timer, and now look at you. Dickmatized.” 

“Okay, I’m hanging up now.”

“So, when do I get to meet him―”

You quickly hit the button to end the call and shove your phone into your pocket, letting out an exasperated sigh. You definitely won’t be hearing the end of that for a while. Your face feels warm for some reason, and you decide that you need a coffee break. After you finish making it, you pour yourself and Donghyuck a cup. 

You peek your head out from the curtain that separates the kitchen and the front counter to see if Donghyuck is busy. He’s politely chatting with an elderly woman, and your eyes nearly pop out of your head when he takes out the entire tray of egg tarts in the glass display and wraps it up for her. The woman happily hands him a wad of bills and waves him goodbye. After putting the cash in the register, Donghyuck turns around and catches you in the middle of gawking. 

“Oh, Y/N. I was actually just about to head back there. We’re out of egg tarts for the display,” he says nonchalantly. 

“Uh, yeah, I can see that,” you whisper loudly, “Was that Mrs. Kim? Why the hell did she order a dozen egg tarts? That woman can barely finish a single cookie.” 

Donghyuck blinks, clearly confused, whispering back, “She asked for my recommendation, so I said egg tarts since no one had bought any yet, and she said she would take all of them.” 

You pause, things finally clicking. Grinning knowingly, you say, “You know, having you work the front is doing wonders for sales.” 

“I don’t understand.” He furrows his brows. 

You laugh, handing him his cup of coffee. “I’m talking about your face card, Donghyuck. You’re too handsome, so you’re flustering the customers.” 

“Are we not whispering anymore?” he asks awkwardly. “Besides, that’s not true. Look at the state of my face right now.” 

His injuries have faded significantly, but the bruising and cuts are still there. You want to tell him that superficial wounds can’t mask the warmth in his caramel-brown eyes, the fullness of his cheeks and the sharp jawline, and the air of mystery that enshrouds him and draws people in. 

But you don’t. 

“Well, for someone who’s only been working here for two weeks, you’re doing superb. Injuries or not.” 

And it’s true. You’ve always preferred to work alone because you’re the only one who understands how you want things done. You naturally assumed it would be a hassle and a waste of time to try to explain to someone else when you could just do it yourself, but Donghyuck never seems to need an explanation. In fact, he knows before even you. 

He gets to the bakery three hours before you, cleans and preps all the equipment you need for the day, unloads the ingredient shipments, and is already manning the front counter by the time you arrive like it was no big deal at all. He also seems to have a sixth sense of knowing when you’re about to do something you shouldn’t be, even though you downplayed your back injury. He’s somehow always there―moving all the stuff you keep on the top shelf to somewhere within your reach even though you insisted that the rickety wooden step stool you use is perfectly safe, cleaning up a glass beaker that you accidentally shattered, taking out the trash during his breaks, checking in on you when you skip lunch. He even turned down his first paycheck, saying it’s repayment for patching him up and feeding him. 

Donghyuck is so perfect that sometimes you wonder if you’re being set up, like maybe he’s secretly embezzling money from the cash register―which would be a more viable theory if he didn’t drive an Audi to work everyday. 

“Thanks for the compliment. And the coffee,” Donghyuck says, snapping you out of your thoughts. He gingerly takes a sip and makes a strangled noise, a mixture being choking and retching, before slapping a hand over his mouth. 

“Are you okay? Was it too hot?” you ask worriedly. 

“No, it’s just…really bitter,” he mumbles, words muffled in his hand. 

“Oh,” you blink, “Sorry. I drink black coffee, so I forgot to ask if you wanted creamer and sugar. Come on, there’s some in the back.” 

The two of you head to the kitchen, and you watch him dump an exorbitant amount of creamer and sugar in his coffee, the dark roast swirling into something more akin to milk tea.

“You know, there might be some chocolate milk in the fridge if you’d rather that,” you tease. 

His head shoots up, those doe eyes lighting up. “Really?” 

“No,” you trail off awkwardly, “Sorry, I'm just messing with you.” 

It’s a bit adorable that you can visibly see him being disappointed in there not being chocolate milk before growing embarrassed, looking down at his cup. He turns away from you, but you can see the flush on the back of his neck. 

“You really have a sweet tooth, huh?” you laugh. 

“Pretty lame, right?” 

“Why would that be lame? You’re talking to someone who owns a bakery, in case you forgot.” 

Donghyuck smiles at you, and it’s sugary sweet like buttercream frosting. He looks at you like you just said the most wonderful thing in the world; in fact, he always makes you feel like that, no matter what you say or do. “I guess you’re right.” 

“What’s your favorite dessert?” you blurt, needing a distraction urgently. 

He pauses briefly. “I don’t think I have one.”

That actually surprises you. “You don’t? Even though you love sweets so much?” 

He laughs, the sound harsh and rough, and it almost makes you flinch. “I’ve never really had an opportunity to have many until now.” 

There’s clearly weight behind his words, but you know you’re not in a position to ask any further. A selfish part of you wants to be important enough to him that you are in a position to know more, but you’re all too aware about him very purposefully keeping you at arm’s length. 

“Well, you have plenty of time to find out,” you quickly continue, pretending not to notice. “Actually, I’m going to a blueberry farm tomorrow because I’m thinking about adding blueberry pie to the menu. When I get back, I’ll bake one for you, and you can be the first to taste test it!” 

“You’re going by yourself?” Donghyuck raises an eyebrow. 

“Of course. Who else would I go with?” 

“Me. I’ll go with you,” he replies immediately. 

“But it’s, like, a forty-five-minute bus ride to the farm. Plus, coming with me to get ingredients isn’t part of your job description anyway,” you explain. 

“I can’t come with you on my own free time?” he asks, tilting his head. “Besides, I’m worried about you overexerting yourself with that back injury. A bumpy bus ride definitely isn’t going to help, so I’ll drive us there.” 

“You’re going to drive that fancy ass car to a farm? You do realize it’s going to be dirt roads, right?” You cross your arms. 

“I think I’ll live. Besides, what makes you think this is the only fancy ass car I own?” He gives you an amused smile. 

“You’re joking, right?” You stare at him. 

He hesitates for a moment. “Yes.” 

“That doesn’t sound―”

“What time are we leaving tomorrow morning?” 

“...Seven.”

.

.

.

Unsurprisingly, Donghyuck picks you up right on time, not a minute too early or late. As the universe would have it, it rained the night prior―meaning all the dirt roads are now rivers of mud. You wince every time you heard a splat of mud hit Donghyuck’s pristine white car, but he seems to pay no mind to it. The two of you arrive at the farm within twenty minutes (he found a shortcut), and because you came so early, you get the entire farm to yourselves. The staff arms both of you with a large wicker basket each before setting you loose onto the massive property. 

“Okay, make sure to pick the fat ones. The small ones are super tart, so avoid those,” you instruct Donghyuck. “We’re going to fill these baskets to the brim and get our money’s worth.” 

“You got it, Captain.” He salutes. 

You give him a determined nod and a thumbs up before turning to your respective side and beginning to pick the blueberries. The two of you work without much fanfare or conversation, and it’s a silence that lingers between you comfortably. It reassures you to hear the sound of the bushes rustling from Donghyuck working; his companionship alone relaxes you. 

Eventually, when the sun starts peeking through and the weather grows warmer, both of you decide to take a break. You find a spot in the shade before sitting down, pulling out snacks and bottles of water from a backpack Donghyuck brought along. 

“I have a surprise for you,” you tell him, trying to hide a smile. “Close your eyes.” 

He eyes you suspiciously but does so anyway. You fish out a handful of unripe blueberries wrapped in a handkerchief from your pocket and feed some to him. His reaction is nearly instant the moment he starts chewing them; you watch as his face puckers up from how sour they are and his entire body shrivels into itself, a shudder running through him. He’s polite enough to not spit them out, but you’re not polite enough to resist pointing and laughing at him. Throwing your head back, you laugh so hard that your stomach starts to hurt. 

“Oh my God, your face!” 

“Ugh,” Donghyuck groans, taking a big gulp of his water. “I should’ve known you had sinister intentions from the start.” 

“I didn’t think you’d react like that,” you finally manage to say after catching your breath. “You really can’t handle anything except for sweet stuff.” 

“Are you having fun bullying me?” He rolls his eyes. 

“So much fun,” you say in a sing-song voice. 

Donghyuck tries to continue feigning annoyance, but he can’t help the low chuckle that rumbles in his chest. His eyes always soften when he looks at you, and his gaze is intimate like a lover’s―gentle, tender, unwavering, and vulnerable. But his warmth is always fleeting, and he only allows you glimpses of it through the unmoving walls that he’s erected around himself. 

You wish he wouldn’t indulge you so, terrified you’ll try to cross the line he’s drawn between the two of you. 

“What are you thinking about?” Donghyuck asks, trying to read your expression

“About the delicious pie I’m about to make when we get back,” you smile. 

“I see,” he responds, though it’s clear he isn’t convinced. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“You better be. This is how I’m paying you back for driving me here,” you nod. 

“Instead of that, pay me back by telling me what your favorite dessert is,” he suddenly says. “I do still want the pie, though.” 

“That was random,” you snort. “Why do you want to know my favorite dessert?”

“Because you asked me, but you never told me yours.” 

You suppose he has a point, but you find it ironic that he wants to know more about you when he refuses to offer you even a modicum of information about himself. Despite this, you tell him anyway because you are obviously the fool here. 

“If you must know, it’s red velvet cake,” you sigh. 

“Why?” 

You don’t answer at first, carefully thinking about if you’re ready to be vulnerable in front of him―still a virtual stranger. A virtual stranger who loves sweets. A virtual stranger who is a bit of a messy eater. A virtual stranger who knows Pompompurin. A virtual stranger who worries about you even when he’s not on the clock. A virtual stranger who gently tells you to be careful whenever you try to do something dangerous, whispering, “I’ll do it instead.” A virtual stranger who allows his luxury car to be caked in mud for you. 

“Because it’s the dessert that made me realize I want to do this for the rest of my life,” you finally say. “I baked it for my mom’s birthday, and I think I ended up being more excited than her.” 

Donghyuck stays quiet, gauging your reaction. 

“I was in college, studying to be a doctor like everyone else in my family. So, like a dumb young person who thought that dreams were more important than money, I dropped out of college and went to culinary school. My parents told me I was ruining mine and their lives, disowned me, yada-yada―a bunch of depressing stuff, you know. Eventually, I graduated, took out a huge loan, and opened up my own bakery. Worked a bunch of part-time jobs until my business could stand on its own. Now here I am. Still in debt, though,” you laugh awkwardly. “But I’m not doing too shabby. I was able to hire you, so at least I have a little cash to spare.” 

He still doesn’t say anything, so you find yourself starting to ramble. You’re really not sure what possessed you to trauma dump on him like that. 

“You know, a lot of people talk shit about red velvet cake because they say the only thing that makes it special is the red food coloring,” you hurriedly explain, “but that’s not true. The cream cheese frosting is super important too. Also, I always say love is the most important ingredient of all. As a baker, you’re kind of baring your heart to the customer, and isn’t it kind of cute that red velvet cake is red like a heart? Okay, please say something now or else I think I’m going to projectile vomit.” 

Donghyuck reaches over and brushes a sweaty lock of hair out of your face. His fingers brush over your temple, which makes you sharply suck in a breath. You almost lean into his touch, but you catch yourself. His hand slightly lingers on the side of your neck, like he wants to bring your face closer, but he eventually pulls away. 

He searches your face, and you’re not sure what he’s looking for―if anything. Rather, perhaps he’s not searching. Perhaps he’s committing your features to his memory, as if the way you look right now is something he wants to remember forever. 

“You’ve worked hard, Y/N,” he says softly, voice slightly hoarse. “This is long overdue, but congratulations. You achieved your dream, and don’t let anyone ever discount that. Not even yourself.” 

You wonder how long you’ve waited to hear that. You’re not even sure you knew you needed to hear that. But when Donghyuck says it, it hits you just how long and hard you’ve worked all on your own without a single break. Throughout the years, you’ve really only ever heard, “I’m sorry that happened.” When was the last time someone congratulated you? When was the last time you congratulated yourself? 

You surge forward, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and burying your face in his shoulder. Donghyuck cradles you against him, one hand wound tightly around your waist while the other is tangled in your hair. You can feel his chest rise up and down as he holds you. He smells like lavender soap and a bit earthy from being outside, and the warmth of his skin against your cheek makes you want to close your eyes and fall asleep in his arms. 

“Thank you,” you whisper. 

“No, thank you,” he murmurs into your hair. 

You’re not sure why he’s thanking you instead, but what you are sure of is that you’re crossing the line, taking a step towards him and wondering if he’ll meet you halfway. 

.

.

.

“Tada!” you announce cheerfully, setting down the freshly baked blueberry pie onto the table. 

Donghyuck claps excitedly. “Holy shit, it looks amazing.” 

“I’m still trying to figure out the right portions for the filling, so let me know if you think there’s too much or little,” you tell him as you hand him a slice. 

Without even answering you, he stabs his fork into the pie and almost eats the entire slice in one bite, seemingly unbothered by the steam still rising from it. 

“Be careful. You’re going to burn your tastebuds off. I’m not letting you eat it for shits and giggles, you know. This is for research purposes.” You cross your arms. 

“It’s perfect, Y/N. I’m serious,” Donghyuck says after swallowing. “The filling isn’t too sweet, and the crust is airy and light.” 

“Well, alright, Gordon Ramsay. I think we’re going to be adding a new menu item then,” you smile. “Think you can get Mrs. Kim to buy a dozen of these?”

“I don’t think she’ll need much convincing with how good these taste.” 

“You’re so easy,” you tease. “All I need to do is feed you. Anyways, I’m going to clean up here, but you should head home. It’s getting late, and you wake up way earlier than me.” 

“I’ll help,” he insists. 

“Go,” you order, pointing at the door. “I can handle it.” 

He looks conflicted but eventually relents when you threaten to physically kick him out. Before he leaves, he turns back to you and says, “Thank you, Y/N.”

“Why do you keep thanking me?” you laugh. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had this.”

“What? A blueberry pie?”

Donghyuck pauses, a slight wonder in his expression, as if he’s realizing his answer for the first time as well.

“Peace.” 

And you think maybe this is a step forward for him too. 

RECIPE 3. CREAM PUFF

It’s quite surreal how easily and naturally you and Donghyuck fall into a routine together. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, two weeks becomes two months. You’ve learned the little things about him, like how he always swipes some icing before you can fill up the piping bag or that he’s not a coffee drinker at all (more of a hot cocoa person) or that he purses his lips when a dessert he’s testing tastes off (no matter how hard he tries to hide it) or that he involuntarily sticks his arm out in front of you when he wants to stop you from doing something you shouldn’t. 

You also notice that he sometimes comes into work with injuries. They’re not nearly as bad as the first time you met him, but it’s hard to ignore a bruised cheek or bloodied knuckles. He always has a reason for them, whether it’s tripping down the stairs or accidentally falling down and scraping his hands on the concrete. You can tell by the way he laughs it off that he doesn’t plan on telling you the truth, so you laugh with him. The two of you, having taken only a step towards one another, find yourselves completely immobile now. 

He always does this: envelops you like a cloud but disappears the moment you reach out for him. 

You’re honestly not sure why he’s still here. Your injury has long healed, and he clearly doesn’t need the abysmal pay you’re giving him. He feels like he’ll slip away at any moment, fleeting like a warm spring breeze, and you suppose time flies by when you know it’s limited. Despite knowing that, you can’t help but desperately want him to stay. 

“I think it’s cute how hard he’s working,” Yeri randomly says one day as she eyes Donghyuck prepare orders in the front. He’s in the middle of a lunchtime rush, so he doesn’t even notice the two of you watching him like weirdos.

“Well, that’s what I’m paying him to do,” you reply, rolling his eyes. 

“Oh, I think the money is the least of his worries here,” she hums, taking a sip of her coffee. 

She has a point, but you’re pretty sure she’s implying something else as well. Just as you go to ask her what exactly she means, you hear a loud clatter. Flinching, you turn your attention back to Donghyuck and realize that he’s dropped a tray on the floor. However, the tray is the last thing on your mind when you see the expression on his face. It’s a mixture of horror, anger, and almost sadness―like he’s finally come face-to-face with whatever he’s been running from. It makes your blood run cold. 

Donghyuck is looking at a boy around his age; the boy has dark hair, a mole under his eye, and a grim expression. More importantly, he’s covered in injuries too. 

“Who is that?” Yeri whispers. “Why does Donghyuck look like he’s seen a ghost?” 

Maybe because he has, you want to tell her. 

Donghyuck grabs the boy's arm, squeezing so tightly that his knuckles turn white, and mumbles something to him. When he turns around and meets your eyes, he looks pained and fearful as if you witnessed something you shouldn’t have.

“Is it okay if I take my break early today?” he asks calmly, though the tremor in his voice gives him away. 

You nod hesitantly, unable to force yourself to speak. You watch him as he drags the boy out; when he passes you, you can tell how tightly his body is wound right now. His jaw is clenched, a muscle spasming as he tries to control himself, and every step he takes seems labored. He’s running on pure adrenaline right now, like he’s physically steeling himself. 

However, you don’t think he’s ever appeared so incredibly alone before. As you watch his back disappear further and further from your view, you’re unsure if he’ll ever return, and you never imagined how terrifying that would be. 

.

.

.

The cream puffs aren’t rising.

You’re crouched in front of the oven, watching the dough remain flat and lifeless. You should’ve known better than to attempt to make cream puffs on such a shitty day, especially when pastries like these are so sensitive to the environment and atmosphere. Even though you know you should probably just scrap them and try again, you wait for just a little longer, hoping that maybe if you wish hard enough that they’ll magically start to rise. 

But then again you suppose that no matter how hard you try, no matter how careful you are, no matter how perfect the batter is, no matter how much time you spend time piping them, no matter how much you want them to rise, they won’t. 

You decide that Donghyuck isn’t like a tiramisu at all; he’s sensitive and delicate and elusive and frustrating like a cream puff. 

“Y/N, they’re burning.” 

Losing your balance and nearly falling over, you gasp loudly. You were so lost in your thoughts that you didn’t even hear Donghyuck walk into the kitchen, nor did you smell the undeniable scent of something being burnt to a crisp. 

“Oh, fu―!” you curse, hurriedly opening the oven and casually suffocating both you and Donghyuck with a hot plume of air. Sputtering, you look around and grab a random rag from the sink before reaching for the cream puffs. 

“Wait, stop!” Donghyuck stops you with an outstretched arm, his hand pressed to your side. “Let me do it.” 

He gently takes the rag from your hand and removes the tray of charred cream puffs from the oven, dumping them into the trash before putting the tray in the sink and running some water on it―just how you like it. 

Letting out a relieved sigh, he turns back to you and asks, “Are you okay? It’s not like you to make a mistake like that. You didn’t get burned anywhere, did you?” 

When you don’t answer immediately, Donghyuck rushes forward and grabs your hands, carefully examining your fingers and arms. “Wait, are you hurt? Where? Tell me where you got burned. We have to cool it down with some lukewarm water. And don’t just say you’re fine. Burns are not a joke, Y/N―why are you looking at me like that?” 

His hands are calloused and rough, and you can still see scabs from where he tore his knuckles, yet he touches you like you’re the delicate one. He’s covered in fresh and old wounds, yet he looks so panicked at the thought of you having a scratch. 

“Shut up,” you whisper furiously, ripping your hands away from him. “From now on, don’t ask me another question. It’s my turn to ask you questions.” 

He blinks, a bit stunned by your reaction, but it’s clear he knows what you’re about to say. He goes to reach for you again but decides against it. “Okay.” 

“Who was that guy?” you demand. “Why are you always covered in injuries? Why did you lie to me? Who are you?” 

“He’s an old friend,” Donghyuck starts quietly. 

“Do you treat all your friends like that?” 

“When I don’t want to see them.” 

You wait for him to continue.

“Before I met you, he and I and a few of our other friends worked…odd jobs for cash,” he explains, and he looks like he’s choking on every word. “The jobs usually entailed us hurting people and also getting hurt. I did a lot of shit I wasn’t proud of. At the time, I didn’t really care. It was just nice to feel something, whether it was the adrenaline rush from doing the punching or the pain from being punched. I got a bunch of money, bought a bunch of expensive stuff, but none of it mattered. Eventually, I just felt nothing again. I didn’t even have the energy to loathe myself anymore. So, I took one last job, got the shit kicked out of me, and then I left. That’s when you found me―”

He inhales, and his eyes flicker towards you. He gazes at you so longingly, as if you were impossibly out of his reach, that you can’t help but involuntarily take a step towards him. 

But he steps back. 

“I thought that working here would make me feel like a human being again, but I didn’t realize how much I would―” He pauses again. “I thought working here would be a nice reset for me, but I naively thought that I could completely leave my past behind. My friends eventually found me, and I guess I care about those reckless assholes more than I thought because they managed to convince me to take on a few more jobs with them. That’s why I’ve been coming to work with injuries. But I’m done. I cut them off for good when they walked into this bakery. I don’t want…I don’t want our past to tarnish this place. I want to keep this place a beautiful, warm, and pure safe haven that you worked so hard for it to be. That’s why I lied to you, Y/N. I’m a coward to the bone, and I was envious of you. I was ashamed to admit it to you. You, who had the courage to chase after your dream. You, who had the kindness to help a good-for-nothing asshole like me. I only want you to have happy memories from now on, and I am not one of them.” 

“Are you going to leave?” you ask softly. 

“I probably should,” he answers shakily. 

“What’s stopping you?” 

“Just…one reason.” 

“When you say it like that, it makes it sound like the reason is me.” 

Donghyuck laughs bitterly, and his eyes drag across your face like every movement hurts him.

“You know it’s you. It’s always been you.” 

When you reach for his hand, he turns away like just the warmth from your body heat burns him. So instead, you take a step back. 

“I won’t ask you to stay, Donghyuck, I won’t chase you. I’m going to wait right here, and it’s up to you if you're going to meet me halfway.” 

RECIPE 4. RED VELVET CAKE

When your alarm clock goes off the next morning, you seriously consider just not showing up to work. It’s not like you can be fired for being a no-show when you’re your own boss, after all. 

And it’s not like you have any employees who will be expecting you. 

You’ll just apologize to Mrs. Kim and your other regulars later. You’re allowed to have a day where you just rot in bed and feel sorry for yourself. 

However, no matter how much you tell yourself that, you find yourself crawling out of bed and getting ready anyway. You can’t seem to brutally crush that small glimmer of hope that Donghyuck might still be there, no matter how hard you try. When you see yourself in the mirror, you recoil in horror. Your eyes are almost swollen shut from the amount of crying you did last night, and your face is sallow and lifeless. 

So much for putting on a brave face, you think wryly to yourself. You tried so hard to look tough, when in reality, you bawled your eyes out and even considered praying to God for Donghyuck to stay. It’s a humiliating and humbling reality check. 

“Stand up right now,” you sharply tell yourself in the mirror. “He’s just some guy. Get it together.” 

You do your best to clean up your appearance and make the trek over to the bakery. It takes another internal pep talk before you can make your way to the door. After you finally walk up, you see that the lights inside are off. Your stomach sinks, and your eyes start to burn. Even though you’re holding the handle, you can’t bring yourself to open the door. It’s an outcome that you expected, yet you wonder why it hurts so badly. 

“You liar,” you mumble to yourself, “You said you only wanted me to have happy memories.” 

Once you make your way inside, you numbly head towards the kitchen, trying to remember what exactly you have to do today. Oh right, now that he’s not here, you also have to make sure all the ingredients are prepped first. 

When you walk into the kitchen, you do a double-take. 

The whole place looks like it’s been completely ransacked: used pans and utensils piled up in the sink, two opened boxes of cake mix, containers of ingredients without lids on on the tables, random lumps of flour and egg shells strewn about― 

And right in front of the oven is Donghyuck, flour in his hair and frosting on his nose. He’s holding a cake stand with…you think it’s supposed to be a cake on it? The shape is mangled and haphazardly cut, but it has echoes of a heart. The frosting is a hot mess, as if a bird with diarrhea shat all over the cake. The batter is clearly underbaked and makes the cake look gooey in a bad way. 

“Um, I promise I’ll clean all of this up in a second, but I wanted to surprise you,” Donghyuck starts awkwardly. “It’s not perfect, but I tried making a red velvet cake for you.” 

You stare at him, still not sure how to react. 

“You once said that baking is like baring your heart to the customer and that love is the most important ingredient of all,” he laughs softly to himself. “I think love is the only ingredient I managed to get right, but I’m baring my heart to you now, Y/N. I’m sorry I hid everything and lied to you, but I’m in love with you. Hopelessly so. All my life, I’ve chased a feeling, not knowing what it was. But now I do. I don’t think I knew how to feel until I met you. I never once thought I would ever have a purpose in my life, but you make me want to be a normal, proper member of society. Your dream is my dream. I want to wake up at 5AM and sell egg tarts with you for the rest of my life, if you’ll have me.” 

Donghyuck sets the cake down on a table in front of you, and you notice that his fingers are dyed red from the food coloring. It almost reminds you of when you first met him, except his injuries have been replaced with red food coloring, flour, and cream cheese frosting. 

“This cake is terrible,” you smile, “how did you butcher it that badly when you used cake mix?” 

You watch him blush all the way down to his neck, as he sheepishly looks away. “Don’t make fun of me. I really tried my best. I stayed up watching tutorials―” 

Leaning across the table, you cup his face with both hands and kiss him, brushing your thumbs across his cheekbones. He tastes like frosting, hot cocoa, and your prayers being answered. The way he kisses you back is bruising, dizzying and knocking any coherent thought out of your head, his hands finding your hips and anchoring you to him. He kisses you like you’re the sweetest and most wonderful thing he’s ever tasted.

When you finally pull away, it takes you a moment to regain feeling in your legs. Donghyuck presses his forehead against yours, lips brushing against yours once again as the two of you try to catch your breath. 

“I think I’m going to have to fire you, though,” you whisper. “You know, with me being your boss and all. The power dynamic is too weird.” 

He hums, pausing for thought. “Then how about I become your business partner?” 

“What?”

Donghyuck reaches into his pocket and fishes out his wallet, pulling out a shiny and fancy-looking credit card. He hands it to you without much fanfare. 

“I have a lot of money, you know. So I’m going to invest in your business. Use it as you’d like,” he casually announces.

You stare at him, your jaw hanging wide open. He never tried to hide from you that he was rich, but he never told you that he was rich rich. 

“Well, damn! Why didn’t you show me this earlier? I would have forgiven you a lot sooner,” you tease, slapping him on the arm. “Are you sure you want to give this to me? I’m quite the gold-digger, you know.”

“When I told you to use it as you’d like, I meant me as well,” Donghyuck replies, shrugging.

“You’re insane.” You hope he can’t tell how much your face is burning up. 

“I guess I am,” he laughs, and you don’t think he’s ever looked so free. You want to tell him that you hope he only has happy memories from now on too. You want to tell him that you’ll rewrite all of his scars with sugary and fluffy desserts so that they won’t ever hurt again. 

And for the first time in your life, you feel it too.

Peace. 

EXTRA

“So, have you figured out what your favorite dessert is?” 

Donghyuck stirs slightly, groaning, as he wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you closer. He slips his hand under your shirt (well, technically it’s his shirt) and rests it on your bare hip bone. 

“Why aren’t you asleep?” 

“Because I’m curious.” 

“If I answer, will you let me rest?”

“Depends on how good your answer is.” 

“Blueberry pie. That’s my answer.” 

You smile against the crook of his neck. 

“Why?” 

“Because it’s the dessert that made me realize I want to do this for the rest of my life.” 

[venmondiese]

A Cure For A Bad Day

Summary: Aemond has one of his worst days ever, nothing seems to go right. At night, at least, he gets the company of his new wife as he bathes.

Based on Ewan Mitchell's and TGC 'Scene Reactions' when he says "When we did that scene, when he had the rain machine going in, the dye on the eyepatch... it just stained the wig"

✧Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Fem!Reader ✧Warnings: MDNI 18+, p in v sex, bath sex, breeding kink, overall very sweet, aemond discovering feelings. ✧Word Count: 5.2k ✧ Ao3 link: here ✧gifs: by myfandomprompts

Aemond is known for many things. He is fierceless, perfectionist, well trained with the sword, and bold. Those things he was proud of. 

And all those things, he was not today.

He trained by morning, and Criston Cole was waiting for him. The sword felt slightly different on his hand, weird, but he just took it that he slept badly and that's why his arm felt numb. 

Now, after losing his eye, he had to learn things differently. He had a considerably big blind spot, and so he learned how to keep it aware of his surroundings as training with the sword. Yet, those things do not have in mind the little rocks on the ground, which he stepped on and twisted his ankle as he tried to defend Ser Criston’s attack.

And with that, he twisted his ankle and slightly cut his hand. 

He was annoyed, but he tried not to pay attention to it. A silly mistake. The rock was on his blind side, how could he notice? It was a rookie mistake, and it burned his cheeks to remember it. 

By the evening, after eating, he decided to ride Vhagar. His girl liked long rides, not so fast but more calm, and prowling around the crownlands skies.

 He did not anticipate the rain. 

For some reason or another, Vhagar was as grumpy as him, and she did not seem to want to go over the clouds in the rain. No, she wanted full on take a bath on the rainfall.

And Aemond had to bear it. But what was worse was when he realised that his eyepatch had dyed his hair. He just picked the worst eyepatch today. 

His hair was slightly silver auburn, and just in some parts. He hated it, and it made his day ten times worse as he realised the eyepatch had been too tight, and it had been suffocating his scar without him realising. 

He had trouble with the sensibility on his left side of his face, and just today he put his eyepatch too tight. It made him furious.

And he decided to make it everyone’s problem. 

He was laying in the bathtub, next to the fire as he had a horrible headache. He came in, demanding a bath as the servants had to rush to get him hot water.

 He took his own clothes off, kicking his boots away, refusing any servants touch as he undoes his own leather jerkin, he unties his breeches, grunting and mumbling in frustration, hating each instance of this day. He thinks a bath will help him to relax even a bit. He just wanted to sleep, and end up with this horrible day. 

His scar itches, and it drives insane. It was as if the itchcame from the deep parts of his cheekbones and it drove him mad. He was at the edge of peeling his own skin to scratch his damn scar. 

Only in his undergarments, he ignores the chilling cold from the chamber, and he walks barefoot as the servants fill the bathtub with hot water. As hot as possible. He walks over the chimney, and throws the eyepatch in, hoping it burns in hell. 

His loose hair, tinted with the dye of the eyepatch. If he only knew who was the mastermind behind it, who decided to spend coins on it; he would kill them. And they better hope this stupid dye can get off with the bath, or head will start rolling. 

The water was hot, but he paid no mind. He liked boiling hot, and he sat against his as he let the attendant boy prepare scents and the oils to put on the water, and to wash him. Aemond didn’t allow him to wash him; yet. He wanted some moments of peace in the hot water, so he remained a good amount of time still.

“Bring me the ointment that Maester Orwyle prepared for my eye” Aemond’s voice is low, yet demanding as the boy gets out, not without bowing to the prince.

He waits, pinching the bridge of his nose as if that would calm his nerves, his headache. He believes it works, so he is focused on it, as he accommodates his legs on the water, trying to be relaxed.

Time is a bit dizzy, and when he hears the door open, he can hear the servants speaking hushedly, as if wanting him not to hear. Good, because he didn’t want to listen to them either. 

He can hear the little taps that the shoes do as the maid leaves the oils for his hair on a near table, and takes his hair on her hands, gently. He doesn’t turn to face her; he just wants the damn dye to get off. 

Hands wash his hair, and if he wants to relax, this is making it impossible. The little tugs and the awful way that scrubs his hair to take the dye off, and the weird caresses on his neck from time to time. 

“You are not doing correctly" he grumbles to the servant with closed eyes as his migraine is persistent. "Learn how to wash a prince's hair" he adds, sharply.

“Apologies” The voice comes as a murmur, a bit strained if even, as the hands go to his neck, and all the way up.

“My prince” He adds sharply, he cannot believe his luck today. “When you address a royal member of the Targaryen House, you use their title. My prince” he says, patronisingly and even angry. 

“Yes, my prince” a little cough at the end, he either thinks the maid is trying to hold back a laugh or embarrassment. Not that he cares, as he has his eye closed and a hand on his temple, his head resting on his hand, that caresses his forehead trying to get that awful headache away

Aemond's face was scrunched up in pain, as his eyes were closed. "Are you new at this? I swear... I am starting to believe that they are just sending me incompetent maids to attend to me..." the young prince groaned.

His body stiffens, as arms go to wrap his neck from behind, and before he can sit up properly, he feels the maid kiss his cheek lovingly as she giggles. “Apologies, my prince…” 

The voice is clear as day, and if his hand was going to fetch the little dagger on the table by his side, it stops. 

He turns his head to his right, seeing your wide smile as you wait for his reaction. He groans, rolling his eyes, which causes you to laugh loudly.

His new wife, she always liked to tease him and cling to him, always hugging him, taking his hand in hers or kissing him all over. He didn’t mind; he always allowed her even at court. But he won’t admit that he likes it too.

“Wife” he greets you as he sighs, and he feels your hand rubbing circles in the back of his neck. 

“I know, I do not know how to wash hair. You’ve made it completely clear”

“I thought you were a servant” he says, looking at her. “You are a highborn lady, you don’t need to know how to.”

“True…” you say, moving some of the wet hair out of his face, and squeezing it so it isn’t dripping. “I heard that my prince had a horrible day, and he was in a bad mood. Servants do talk, you know…” you say looking at him with a smile “Wanna tell me about it?”

Aemond sighs and looks at you, as you take the sponge to wash his body. He sighs as you pour some of the water in his chest and start scrubbing softly.

“"A terrible day... I stepped on a rock, and twisted my ankle and cut my arm in the process... Then i wanted to relax with a ride on Vhagar, but it started to rain, the fucking dye of the eyepatch got all over my hair and eye.. I have the worst migraine now..." his voice is rough, and he seems annoyed at the memory of it. “And I haven’t seen you as much as I’d like”

It wasn’t the worst day he has ever lived. Maybe. When he lost his eye it could be the top one. He won Vhagar, at the cost of his eye. It was an amazing thing, traded for the worst thing that has ever happened to him. He was still living the consequences of it today, as his scar stinged on his skin.

“Not your best day, I see” you say softly, scrubbing his chest. He enjoys it, as he looks at you, leaning back in the bath as you scrub his chest. “I’m sorry to hear it”

“I don’t need pity” 

You chuckle “It is not pity” you say softly, looking at your husband. “What can I do to make you feel better?”

Aemond stays silent. He is not used to someone caring about him like this. Sure, his mother cared for him, and so did Helaena But not like this. 

“Be by my side”

The silence is a bit comforting, as you wash his body. He looks at you deeply, and he cannot help but think how stunning you are. You didn’t find any discomfort in washing him, in caring and tending to him. You never once seem disgusted by his lack of eye, by his empty eye socket, or his ugly scar. Never once you discarded him. 

It was more than often that you placed the ointment prepared by maester Orwyle on his eye, his scar, where his nerves were permanently damaged and they brought discomfort to him. You never once complain.

“You look different” he says, looking at you in the dim lights of the room.

“Different how?” you ask, as you finish brushing his hair, making sure the dye is almost completely getting off his wet hair. He has little curls, which makes you smile like an idiot.

“I do not know. Shining. Radiant. Lovely.” He murmurs, moving one of his wet hands to tickle a strand of hair on your ear. “Different”

“So I usually do not look radiant or lovely…”

“Not what I meant” he groans and you chuckle softly. “You were sick. Now you look much better in… spirits.”

“You look different too” You say looking at him with a smile. Your eyes fall to his chest, and you smile. He notices how you get flustered at the sight of his nakedness. 

“More wounded” he says ironically, leaning back with a sigh. 

“Stronger” you correct him smiling. “More… mhm. I’d say more… Hot”

“You think I am hotter when I'm wounded?”

“Not what I meant” you say chuckling under your breath, “I meant… I like seeing you like this... Leaning back is so... manly, and hot…" 

“Oh, do you?” he asks slightly amused, leaning back still as he looks at you, nodding and smiling. Aemond frowns a bit, and he hisses then you accidentally hit his new wound on his wrist. 

“Sorry, love” you say, kissing his hand, and smiling. “You know, when I was little they cured my wounds like this. With a kiss”

“Did they?” He asks, trying to remain interested even with his headache. 

“Yes. Like this” She says kissing near his wound, a very feather-like kiss. “See? Does it feel better?”

You look at him with an adorable expression, as if you truly think that this would make him feel better. Aemond blinks, as he looks at you. 

It ticks him the wrong way that you care about him. Why would you? Perhaps it is a womanly thing. He wasn’t so sure. Perhaps as his wife, it is your burden, having to make a maimed man feel better. 

The prettiest maiden in court, chained to a maimed man, deformed and always wounded, stuck in the pain of his eye to see beyond. Wasting your best years with him. 

And he cannot decipher why.

“Aemond?” You ask as he trails off. 

“Yeah” he clears his throat, awkwardly, and he moves his legs a bit. “I guess so” 

“Where else does it hurt?” You ask sweetly.

He sometimes hates how kind you can be, he doesn’t know what your upper intentions are, but after all, you are his wife even if he can’t decipher you.

“Well, my eye, obviously…” he says a bit embarrassed “And… my left foot, I guess. And my arm, because I slept on it… and…”

You nod, looking at him as he speaks. He is intimidated, he realises. You make sure to hear all of what he has to say, with your sweet eyes. 

You move to the end of the bathtub, and move to kiss his ankle softly, no complaints, no hesitation. Nothing… odd, about it. Only out of tenderness. You kiss his shoulder, and his left cheekbone, softly, to make sure it doesn’t burn on his skin. He just lets you, because it makes you happy, thinking that it helps.

And he doesn’t realise that it actually helps him, in a way. The smile on your face makes him smile too, and he sighs.

“Better?” 

“Mhm” he hums in agreement, looking at your face. “Better when you're with me, yes” 

He is utterly head over heels for you, even if he isn’t good with feelings. He loves you, even when he seems slightly annoyed by you. 

“And you?”

“And me?” You ask curiously.

“You were sick. Coughing like crazy, and all your body ached.” he says softly, “in confinement, away from me… Do you truly feel better?”

“I am better. Lady Westerling got all of us sick” you say with a slight smirk. “my body still aches a bit, but it’s…” you hesitate a bit, slightly nervous.

“Then join me” he interrupts, moving to try and get you in the bathtub with him. "The hot water will do good to you..."

"It will burn my skin, I hate how hot you take these baths..." you protests, moving his hands off your waist as he tries to pull you in.

"The Blood of the Dragon, wife" he says smugly, smirking. "It is cold, anyways. It is barely warm"

"You like it boiling hot" You say smiling to him, and he presses a kiss on your jaw.

"I do, indeed." He admits "Come on, get in with me"

“Aemond, my nightgown…” you protest, and he rolls his good eye.

“You have others, let it get wet” You seem to give in, as he helps you get in, holding your hand as you enter the bathtub. “It will do good to your aches.” He insists, taking your waist in his hands to place you on his lap.

“I think it is an excuse” you say, blushing a bit as you accomodate on his lap.

“A good one, you must admit” he says looking at you, and he passes his hands all the way up to your back.  “But an innocent one, I must admit” he says, and you tilt your head as if asking him to elaborate “I don’t think I am up for anything, I am too tired for it”

You hum, his still wet hair made him look almost cute. His little curls...

“The dye came off” you say, as he leans to kiss your neck a bit. “I can go to the tailor and ask them to make another eyepatch one for you. More fancy. With real leather. Maybe add some fancy dragon scales in it” 

“Hm. Fine” he says looking up at you, smiling at how delicious you were. He places a kiss on your hand, and he smiles. “What is bothering you?”

You stay still, blinking a bit. “Court. Ladies… at court. They don't seem to like me much. I mean, they like me but I always feel excluded. Like I am doing too much for them to like me”

Aemond looks at you, a bit surprised by it. He places his hands on your waist, and he certainly was thinking about how to comfort you. He wasn’t a court charmer either, so he hummed.

“I thought you had friends.” 

“I do… I guess. They just never seem to think of me when doing things. They do not hate me, no… I am the new one…, and so they just…. Don’t include me”

“I’ll include you” he states nodding. “I’ll bring you with me everywhere. Training, riding Vhagar, in the library, all of it.” He proposes softly. 

“Hm. It would be pleasant.”

You smile softly, your hands, now wet and in the water, move from his abdomen all the way up to his chest.

Your husband was well fit. A prince of the realm, training with the sword since he was little. He practised almost every day, and was very detail-oriented in his field. And that paid off, as he was lean; yet muscular. 

You two were still newlyweds. Maybe three months since you two married, and things were a bit awkward still. You tried to decipher his odd behaviour and he tried the same with yours, starting to know each other personally, yet there was a bond, a silent affection you both shared for the other.

His body felt warm. He had stayed at the bathtub for Gods know how many hours, and he was all wet and shiny. You hand caressed his muscles, going up from his abdomen to where his wispy chest hair were. 

“What is in your mind?”

You hum, and smile “How handsome my husband is” you murmur “How good he is to me…” you add “How much I truly like you…”

Aemond raises his eyebrows, and he looks at you as your hand caress his torso up and down, slowly, as if you were tempting him. 

“Oh?”

You nod softly, and even if he doesn’t know you too well; he knows this face.

You move to kiss his neck, your arms wrapped around his torso as you leave little kisses all over his skin. He chuckles a bit, at your little desperation for the demonstration of love, you were such a physical person for him. 

“Darling, what are you-”

“I just missed you” You say, and he can see in his head the pout you would form if you weren’t so eagerly kissing his neck. 

He chuckles as his hand holds your waist firmly on his lap, and he leans his head back, facing the ceiling as you two spoke. “Very eagerly, I see” 

“You are tired. But let me…” 

Your arms wrapped around him, holding him as you press gentle kisses there, and he smiles, starting to feel the boiling arousal in his abdomen, looking at the ceiling as if it could distract his mind. 

“Very well” 

His arms went to the edges of the bathtub, as he felt the fabric of the nightgown against his chest, and he certainly was starting to enjoy the constant nibbling and wetness of your kisses. 

Aemond lets out a quiet groan, enjoying the gentle bites at his neck, as he feels his neck a little warmer. “You little minx- Did you just give me a hickey?”

Your giggle tells him all, as you move your lips to the start of his clavicle. His good eye closes as he enjoys the way your mouth feels against his sensitive skin. 

“You are simply… delicious” you murmur, your kisses going lower to his chest, before stopping a moment.

“Do not tell me you want to leave a hickey there…” He says, moving his head down to look at you.

As he imagined before, your mouth turns into a pout as you frown; most adorably he must add. 

“Oh, please! Let me try” You ask him “It is a way to show you that I missed you” You add, trying to convince him as he chuckles, making a mocking sound. 

Aemond rolls his eyes as he feels your eager mouth sucking the skin of his chest, as if he was some kind of… not even he knew. It felt strange. Worshiped and feral. That’s how it felt, at least for him.

Once you separate, you look at your work, your thumb moving along the bruised skin with a satisfied smirk. 

“Looks so good on you” you swear, as if it was a matter to be known. 

“If it makes you happy” he says, accommodating on his seat, the water moving along with him. “My turn, then?” 

You shake your head with a giggle “You always make it a mess!”

That he did, and he smiles a bit, seeing the lack of lovemarks of your neck.

It is you who eagerly kiss him, and press your body to his, as if needing him. He isn’t one to complain, as he feels your eager lips pressing against his and your tongue invading his mouth. Rather bold, to his taste. But he likes it.

Your hands on his shoulder make their slow way down, passing temptingly slow from his chest, to his abdomen. He gasps in the kiss, as if he was some kind of maiden, when he feels your hands underwater on his crotch and touching his cock. 

He frowns a bit as he separates, trying to demand an answer. “Wha-” he tries to ask before you shut him up with a kiss, not even letting him speak.

Rather eager, aren’t we… He thinks, but he isn’t one to complain, as your touch is like magic to his dick. In the water is odd, he has to admit, but his member thinks otherwise as he gets aroused from your eagerness.

You smooch him with kisses, and he feels… intimidated, in a good way. You don’t even allow him to breathe without going for another kiss, desperate. Feral.

He has a feral wife, it seems. 

“Darling, what are you…” he asks amused as you break the kiss, just to move your wet skirts all the way up, but he can’t see much of your pussy in the water, which he dislikes a lot. 

“I missed you” you repeat “A lot.” 

“It isn’t as if you were confined in a tower for years. It was barely two days. And I visited you-”

“I need you, husband” you state impatiently, as your knees move to the sides of his hips. “so, if you are tired, I’ll do it” 

He blinks, surprised and taken aback. He is rather amused and aroused, at his bold wife.

“Alright” he says, looking at you as you can do the work alone. 

He isn’t tired for sex, not at all. He can certainly get the energy, maybe not perform as usual, but he’ll do it if you ask. You didn’t even need to ask for it. But seeing you in control is better than that.

You rode him once, for later to admit that it wasn’t your favourite position, because you grew tired quickly. He didn’t mind, but now he thinks he’ll have you riding him at least once a week.

The way your dick enters your body is slow, as you slowly lower yourself on it. He can see your face contoured with pleasure, how you shut your eyes, and your hands grip on his shoulders as you whimper on it, you open your mouth and he leans to kiss your neck a bit, as if wanting to give back the affection you give him.

More than bounce on it, you find it more practical to grind on it. Your hands, that move between his waist and his shoulders, as if you didn’t know where to hold him to help you grind against his cock.

“That’s so good…” you whimper as you grind on his cock. 

The water moves around, the harder you grind, the harder it moves on the bathtub. He is even sure that some of it has overflowed the bathtub, as he looks at your pretty face, as you moan needily. His hand moved to pull down your nightgown, just enough to expose both of your tits in the firm fabric. He pulls it down to expose your shoulders a bit, and it is a sight that only arouses him more.

“It’s so good, baby?” He asks looking up to you, and he leans his head to kiss your nipple, gently. 

He knows you missed him. You are not rough, or a mess on his cock. You are doing it so prettily, so sweetly, he knows that you truly have missed him and his touch. 

“Yeah, so-so good.” You babber a bit, nodding as he kisses your other breast softly. He does not hold you, he has his hand on the back, trying to keep him firm as you ride him. 

His right hand holds your waist, as he notices. Your arms are on his shoulders as you whimper and moan, grinding him, not even minding the water around.

He has to admit, in the bathtub isn’t as comfortable as outside of it. The water doesn’t help to be smoother, if anything, he has the impression it does the contrary. It may be just him, as you don’t say anything against it.

“So eager, baby…” he says amazed, and now he feels like the one worshipping you. He just adores you, he realises, as he sweetly talks you through it “You just needed me, this badly?” He asks, kissing your jaw.

The little nods you give him are enough to get him moving his hips slowly up to meet your little grinds and bounces.

He kisses your breast again, and the other, and the other. He adores you, how the little mewls from your mouth are so arousing for him as you clench your pussy around him. 

“Aemond…” you whine. “Feels.. amazing, so good...” you repeat, as if you couldn't think of anything else, as he looks up to you. 

 He is just surprised you have gotten this far without begging him to take control. They way he’d take your waist and flip you around, to make you hold the other edge of the bathroom, just to take you from behind, again, and again, and again. The water would overflow the bathtub completely, and his seed would be securely in your womb. 

But you don’t ask him, and he doesn’t do it. He likes the sweetness of it. He likes how you look at him needily for both of your lips to meet on a kiss, passionate as your bounces and grind are slightly weaker. 

“My special girl…” he murmurs, kissing you again and again, not minding if they are pecks or if he has the opportunity for his tongue to play with yours. “I love you”

You nod, whimpering and whining as you say it back. I love you, I love you, I love you. Again and again, as if it was some prayer.

“Aemond” you moan into his mouth, 

“I know. Can you feel how good you take me?” He asks softly, kissing your chin, as he holds your waist to help you bounce on his cock. The splash of the water amuses and arouses him, and he groans at the sight of your nightgown fully soaked, glued to your figure.

“Mhm. Yes, yes, Gods, yes” you said, probably numb and already cockdrunk, just enjoying the feeling of his cock so deep inside.

“You want me to fill you, hm? To make you round with my seed, baby?” He asks, looking at you, moving to kiss your neck. 

He is also rambling at this point, as you squeeze him in the perfect way, asking to be filled with cum. He ignores how the water splashes his chest and back, how it is practically soaking the carpet under the bath, and making a mess. He has to remember how wet it might be so you two don’t slide on the floor. 

“Aemond, I… oh, Gods, Aemond!”

You little moans are music to his ears, as he holds your waist to move you down to his cock, to his taste. Not as rough as usual, but certainly desperate enough to want to cum.

“Will you cum for me, darling?” He asks, as he feels your hips grinding more desperately on him, and he throws his head back on the edge as he feels his balls tighten as well. You did wonders on him. “Cum for me and I’ll fill you up as you so much like” he promises, almost feral for you to cum. 

Your release made him moan, loudly, as he held you tight on his cock as he cums as well. He looks lazily at you, panting and whimpering still, which only serves to fuel the last remains of arousal on his abdomen, filling your womb with his cum. He hopes it takes root  and to see you grow pregnant as moons pass by.

“Thank you” you say, breathless against his chest, kissing his cheek sweetly. 

He smiles a bit, by how pleasure drunk you obviously were. He moves you slightly, to pull out from you and accommodate you on his chest, which you take comfort in. “Nothing to be thankful for. I thank you. Having sex is rather… good for when one had a bad day” he says smiling. 

You smile, and look at him, caressing his chest as you remain in this position, calmly breathing as he tries to stop panting. 

“Have I made it better?” You ask, softly, looking up to him.

He chuckles softly, almost amused by how ridiculous the question was.

“Just by having a sight of you, you make my day better” he says. 

Even if he was new to this whole marriage thing, even if sometimes he didn’t know you that well as your ladies-in-waiting and sometimes just allowed you to be even if it bothered him. He didn’t understand you most of the time, but he certainly adored you, very dearly. 

“I can make it even better” you say almost proudly, and he raises his eyebrow, looking at you laying on his chest. The water wasn’t even hot anymore, but more cold than he could bear. 

“Oh, how so?” He asks amused. “Did you claim a dragon? Only that can top the amazing moment that we just-”

“I am with child” you say simply, looking at him with a smile. 

He stops on his tracks, and looks at you as he takes in what you said. He blinks, looking at you, and you smile awkwardly at him. Was he happy? The prospect always puts him in a good mood. But maybe it wasn’t as you thought? One thing was words, and other actions.

You watch his eye as he seems to have hundreds of thought per second, his face slight confused as he frowns a bit, before his lips turn into smile full of disbelief.

“Are you joking?” 

“No... Maester Orwyle informed me this morning” you say softly. “He says that probably our wedding night was fruitful. I don't know. I don't look that pregnant, after these months. We have to figure it out in these days, so we can see when the birth is due... It's funny, because at first we thought it was from the sickness, that I got the worst part… but I just happened to be sick and pregnant”

That's why Maester Orwyle looked at him with a slight smirk as he helped desinfect his arm after training. You probably asked him to keep the secret so you could tell him.

That's why there was something off about you. He couldn't get exactly what, but something was off. It made sense, how nervous you were and how you tried to tell him before, but he was a fool to not notice it.

“Oh, my love…” he says, as he wraps his arms around you, hugging you tightly to him. “Oh… I don’t… I... What can I even say to that?”

He is surprised, and he can’t believe it. You were pregnant. You actually were. His little offspring, growing in your womb right at this moment. Your stomach was not firm by any mean, he couldn't decipher it even if he liked so.

“That is… That is the best thing anyone has ever told me” he admits, chuckling a bit in surprise. “You are going to be a mother. And you are going to make me a father” 

"We are, indeed" You say smiling to him. "In some months, it will be me, you and a weeping babe"

He can feel his nose burn as he smiles, the image on his head as he forces himself not to cry of happiness, a weird chuckle comes out of his mouth.

"You are right" he says looking at you. "So, you are definitely moving to my chambers now, aren't you? No more personal chambers, no more confinement when sick. You are not leaving my side, not you or our little dragon" He states nodding, not for discussion. He can't have you just wandering around without him near to protect both of you.

He smiles, as you giggle. His day certainly got better, all thanks to you. His hands caress your back soothingly, as he is just... happy. He forgets about his horrible day, how his ankle still hurts or how his scar stings on his cheek and forehead as he smiles. What is that compared to the joy of knowing that he will be a father? A father to your children as well?

“Now, how come Lady Westerling got my pregnant wife sick?” he teases you as you roll your eyes. “She is in so much trouble, who does she think she is? Both my wife and my sweet baby? Oh, she is not going to see sunlight ever again-”

“Aemond!” you giggle, but he smooches your cheek with kisses that only makes your giggles grow louder.

[sirxaibs]

Sal Fisher X Reader

₊✩‧₊ Stupid Beautiful Boy ₊‧✩₊

Another little drabble to satiate joining this fandom too late (like 3 years ago)

Masterlist

SYNOPSIS: one particularly incriminating sleep talking confession, Sal finds himself facing a much bigger challenge than a mosh pit: figuring out whether his best friend has been driving him crazy in more ways than one.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ Sal fumbles with his keys, trying to unlock the door while still buzzing from the concert. “I think I still have someone else’s sweat on me,” he mutters, his voice muffled behind his mask.

You groan, pulling your sticky shirt away from your skin. “Yeah, well, I think I got elbowed in the ribs at least twice, so we’re both suffering.”

The door finally swings open, and you both step inside his apartment, kicking off your shoes with exhausted sighs. The air conditioning is a blessed relief against your overheated skin, and you tilt your head back, basking in the coolness.

Sal drags a hand through his damp blue hair. “I’m calling dibs on the shower.”

“No way,” you protest immediately. “I suffered through that pit just as much as you did.”

He gives you a deadpan look. “You wanna flip a coin for it?”

You cross your arms. “Rock, paper, scissors.”

A tense moment passes as you both raise your fists, exhausted but committed.

“One, two, three”

You both throw rock.

A pause. Then again.

Scissors.

Again.

Paper.

Sal groans. “This is ridiculous.”

You grin. “C’mon, Sal. ill be quick”

He shakes his head with a small chuckle and sighs in defeat. “Fine. Go ahead, but don’t use all the hot water.”

You shoot him a victorious smile and grab some spare clothes from the bag you brought, making a beeline for the bathroom. As you shut the door behind you, you hear him flop onto the couch with a tired grunt.

The concert was amazing, but you both definitely underestimated how wrecked you’d be afterward.

Sal sinks further into the couch, exhaling a long, slow breath as the distant sound of running water fills the quiet apartment. His body still hums with the aftershocks of the concert his ears ringing faintly, muscles sore from jumping and shoving through the crowd. But he doesn’t mind. If anything, the exhaustion feels good, like proof of a night well spent.

He lifts a hand, staring at the faint smudges of marker and the slight bruising on his knuckles from who knows what. Probably from gripping the barricade too hard or shielding you when the crowd got too wild. His lips twitch slightly at the thought.

The whole night had been extreme in the best way screaming lyrics until his throat burned, shoving each other playfully when a favorite song came on, the way you grabbed his arm when the bass drop hit, eyes wide with exhilaration. He hadn’t let loose like that in a long time, but with you, it was easy. It always was.

His gaze drifts toward the bathroom door as a faint laugh escapes from inside, your voice muffled by the water. Probably replaying some dumb moment from the night. He finds himself smiling before he even realizes it.

You were his best friend. He knew that, but sometimes, like tonight, it hit him differently. In a way that made him stop and really appreciate it. How natural it was with you, how much fun you always managed to have together. Even when you were both dead on your feet, covered in sweat and bruises, you still managed to bicker over a shower like it was the most important thing in the world.

Sal shifts on the couch, closing his eyes for a moment. The exhaustion is settling in now, heavy but comfortable. The sound of the shower, the lingering echoes of the concert in his head, and the knowledge that, no matter how wrecked you both were, you’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Yeah. Tonight was a good night.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

Sal lets out a deep sigh as he sinks onto his bed, the tension in his muscles easing now that he’s fresh out of the shower. The warmth lingers on his skin, his damp hair clinging slightly to his neck as he leans back against the pillows. The night’s events still swirl in his mind the music, the energy of the crowd, the way you had grabbed his hand in excitement when the band played your favorite song. He huffs a quiet chuckle at the thought, shaking his head.

He’s never been the loudest person, never the one to take up too much space in a room, but somehow, with you, Larry, Ash, and Todd, things changed. The sharp edges of his solitude softened over time, replaced with sarcastic quips, easy laughter, and a quiet warmth he hadn’t realized he was missing. With you especially, it was different. You challenged him, teased him, and made life more interesting in ways he hadn’t expected.

He’s still lost in thought when something heavy slams into him.

His breath leaves him in a choked sound, and suddenly, he’s flat on his back, hands instinctively flying to steady whatever or whoever just tackled him.

“Boo!”

Sal barely has time to process what’s happening before his eyes snap up to meet yours. His heart slams against his ribs, not just from the jump scare but from the realization that you’re on top of him.

Straddling him.

Your weight is pressing into his lap, hands planted on either side of his chest as you grin down at him, absolutely reveling in his reaction. His fingers twitch where they’ve landed on your waist, the warmth of your skin seeping through your clothes and straight into his bloodstream.

“What the” His voice is rough, laced with disbelief as his pulse thrums wildly beneath his skin. He doesn’t stumble over his words he’s too used to your antics for that but there’s a tightness in his throat, a warmth creeping up the back of his neck.

You cackle, shifting your weight slightly, and his fingers tighten just slightly before he stops himself. He wills himself to stay still, to not react, but it’s so damn hard when you’re sitting on him like this, looking down at him with that mischievous glint in your eyes.

“You should’ve seen your reaction!” you tease, eyes alight with amusement. “I swear, you levitated for a second.”

Sal exhales sharply through his nose, willing his heart rate to slow. He doesn’t have a mirror, but he knows his ears are red. His mask thankfully hides most of his expression, but his body is betraying him in ways he can’t quite control.

“Seriously?” he mutters, voice edged with dry exasperation. “where did you even go?”

You shrug, still grinning. “a magician will never reveal her secrets”

He scoffs but doesn’t push you off. His hands are still resting on your waist, unmoving, like he’s afraid that if he does anything more, you’ll notice notice the way his breath is just slightly uneven, the way his heart is hammering in his chest in a way that has nothing to do with being startled.

“What? You didn’t miss me?” you tease, tilting your head.

Sal’s breath hitches, but he recovers quickly, rolling his eyes. “I was wondering where you went,” he admits, voice still steady despite the warmth creeping up his neck. “Didn’t expect you to attack me, though.”

“You’re fine,” you say dismissively, shifting again, and fuck. He clenches his jaw, forcing himself to stay still, but he knows you have to feel the way his hands flex at your sides.

You smirk down at him. “You’re pretty comfy, y’know.”

Sal narrows his eyes, his grip finally tightening not rough, just enough to remind you who exactly you’re messing with. “(Y/N),” he warns, voice low.

You snicker but finally roll off of him, flopping onto the bed beside him. He exhales, rubbing a hand down his head, trying to will away the warmth that refuses to leave his skin.

“I swear, you’re gonna be the death of me,” he mutters.

You nudge his shoulder, grinning. “Yeah, but you’d miss me if I wasn’t.”

Sal hesitates, staring at the ceiling for a moment. His chest feels tight in a way he can’t quite put into words.

“…Yeah,” he admits quietly. “I would.”

A comfortable silence settles between you as you lie next to Sal, the only sounds in the room being the distant hum of the apartment’s heating and the occasional rustle of the sheets as you shift to get comfortable. Sal is still staring at the ceiling, his fingers idly tapping against his stomach like he’s trying to ground himself after what just happened.

You smirk to yourself, still feeling victorious over your little sneak attack. He so wasn’t expecting that. But now that you’ve had your fun, exhaustion is creeping in, your body finally registering how wrecked you are from the concert.

Still, sleep doesn’t sound quite appealing yet.

You turn your head toward him, resting your cheek against his pillow. “Wanna put on some horror movies while we crash?”

Sal finally looks over at you, brow raising slightly. “Horror? Thought you’d be too tired to handle anything intense.”

You shrug. “I dunno, something about falling asleep to creepy background noise sounds nice.” You pause, then smirk. “Unless you’re scared.”

Sal scoffs, shaking his head. “You wish I was scared.” He shifts, reaching for the remote on his nightstand. “Fine, but if you pass out in the first twenty minutes, I’m making fun of you in the morning.”

“You act like that’s never happened before.”

He chuckles under his breath, scrolling through the streaming options before settling on something. The screen casts a dim glow across the room as the opening credits roll, shadows flickering across the walls. You settle deeper into the blankets, already feeling sleep tugging at you despite your earlier enthusiasm.

Sal glances over at you once more, taking in the way your eyes are half. lidded but still determined to stay awake. He shakes his head fondly before turning back to the screen.

Yeah, he’s not gonna admit it, but he kind of hopes you doze off first. It gives him an excuse to stay up just a little longer, just to make sure you’re comfortable.

The movie plays on, its eerie soundtrack weaving through the room like a distant hum. Sal can tell you’re barely holding on, your breathing slowing, body going lax against the mattress. He smirks slightly, shaking his head as he shifts to get more comfortable.

With a sigh, he reaches up and unhooks his prosthetic, placing it carefully on the nightstand. He always feels a little more exposed without it, even around you, despite the fact that you’ve seen his face before. He knows you don’t care hell, you’re probably one of the only people who never made him feel weird about it but still, old habits die hard.

He leans back, exhaling through his nose, but then he feels it your hand, soft and warm, ghosting over his cheek.

Sal stiffens slightly, his breath catching as your fingers trace the rough ridges of scar tissue, the parts of him he never liked showing. Your touch is slow, careful, almost reverent in your half asleep state. His pulse jumps, and he nearly pulls away out of instinct, but then.

“You’re my stupid, beautiful boy…”

Your voice is barely above a whisper, thick with sleep, your thumb brushing over his cheekbone before your hand goes slack, slipping down as you fully drift off.

Sal just stares at you, frozen in place. His mind is blank, save for the echo of your words ringing in his ears. His heart is pounding now, hammering so hard he swears you’ll wake up and hear it.

You’re asleep. Completely gone. No teasing, no jokes just a sleepy, genuine thought slipping past your lips before you could stop it.

And it hits him harder than anything ever has.

Sal swallows thickly, blinking a few times before cautiously reaching up and gently moving your hand away from his face. Not because he wants to god, no but because if he lets you keep touching him like that, he might actually die from how much it’s messing with him.

He watches you for a moment, the way your breathing has evened out, your face relaxed in sleep. His chest feels tight, warm, conflicted. He doesn’t know what to do with what you just said, doesn’t know how to process it when he’s spent so long convincing himself that you…

He shakes his head to himself, exhaling as he settles back down. He’ll think about it later. Right now, you’re here, curled up beside him like you belong there, and that’s enough.

With one last glance at you, Sal closes his eyes, listening to the faint sounds of the movie and the steady rhythm of your breathing.

Her stupid, beautiful boy.

Yeah.

He’s doomed.

As the movie plays on, its low hum fading into the background, Sal’s mind isn’t really on the plot anymore. His thoughts keep drifting back to what you whispered in your sleep“You’re my stupid, beautiful boy.”

You’ve never really talked about relationships not in any serious way. Sure, there had been the lighthearted teasing, the playful banter between the two of you, the way you’d poke fun at each other and keep things casual. But beneath all of that… the connection between you two had always been something more. Something unspoken but there, lingering beneath the surface like an uncharted tide.

In all the time you’d known each other, you’d never crossed that line, never even hinted at it. You were close hell, you were probably closer than most people would ever get, in a way that felt natural and effortless. But neither of you had ever really acknowledged this.

This growing sense of warmth that seemed to be building between you two.

You weren’t just his best friend anymore. No, it felt different now. It felt like it was shifting, like maybe you both were standing on the edge of something you hadn’t yet named. The way you’d touched his face, the way he couldn’t stop thinking about your words those things weren’t casual. And it wasn’t just tonight.

Every day you spent together, every moment of shared laughter and easy comfort, seemed to push you both closer to something real. Sal could feel it, too. The way his chest tightened when you smiled, the way his heart beat just a little faster when your hand brushed his. He had no words for it, and honestly, he wasn’t sure if he wanted them. Not yet. Not when things were so perfect this way, untouched by labels or expectations.

But with every passing day, it became harder to ignore. Harder to pretend that this whatever this was wasn’t becoming something more. Something that meant more.

His thoughts trail off again as he glances at you, your body still curled beside him, your breathing slow and steady. You’re so close, and yet… a thousand unspoken things hang in the air between you.

Sal doesn’t have answers. Hell, he’s not even sure what he wants right now. But it’s getting harder to push down that tiny, persistent thought, the one that wonders if this is really just friendship anymore.

And it’s getting harder to ignore the way he feels like it’s been real for a long time now, even if neither of you have said it out loud.

For the first time, Sal wonders if maybe just maybe he’s been in love with you all along.

But as the quiet stretches on and the movie finally fades to its credits, he closes his eyes and lets the feeling sit with him. There’s no rush. No need to make it anything more than what it is for now.

But damn, it’s getting harder to pretend it’s just friendship.

[After you tackle Sal onto the bed]

Sal: [deadpan] You do realize one day I’m just going to let you fall, right?

You: Pfft, no you won’t.

Sal: And what makes you so sure?

You: [grinning] Because I know that you are painfully in love with me and you thrive off of the weird tension that we have.

Sal:

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

The Keys Of Heaven [Chapter 6: For The Forgiveness Of Sins]

Series summary: Three years ago, Father Aemond Targaryen performed a miracle. Now he is a cardinal, a media sensation, and a frontrunner to be elected pope. You are a nun who has been brought to Vatican City to assist with the papal conclave. But when your paths cross by happenstance, you must both reckon with your decision to join the Catholic Church…and what you want from the future.

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), references to abuse and violence, volcanoes, bodily injury, death, peril, scheming, pining, some drugs/alcohol/smoking, Catholic trivia you never asked to learn, kangaroos!

Word count: 5.9k

🦘 A very special thanks to my Aussie slang consultant @bearwithegg and also her mum (any mistakes are mine) 🦘

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Tagging: @mrs-starkgaryen @chattylurker @lauraneedstochill @ecstaticactus @neithriddle, more in comments! 🥰

🗝️ Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🗝️

Rhaena keeps trying to have a yarn about the plan for the new fish pond at the convent in Sydney. She’s convincing herself that you’ll be back there together, soon and forever. You are only half-listening as you cast pellets of fish food into the dark gloomy water of the koi pond, metallic scales and skirtlike fins flashing from the depths. They make you think of coins, comets, blades, keys.

“And we’ll need something for the bottom, yeah?” Rhaena is asking, her habit a white wool blur in your peripheral vision, her voice a sweet hazy droning among the trickling of fountains and the grey breeze clattering through leaves and the muttering of cardinals as they stroll across the paths of sand-colored tuff pebbles. Kazi is walking with Cam and Lando and puffing on his vape; he glances over at where you are feeding the koi, looking like he wants to say something, then gets distracted when he spots Cardinal Ferrari.

“And here comes Ferrari flying down the straightaway!” Kazi shouts, clapping his hands as if in encouragement. Cardinal Ferrari with his ink-black hair and crater-deep wrinkles, stooped and shuffling, scowls at him. “He’s in the lead, but can he hold on to it?! He’s almost at the finish line! He’s stomping the gas! The fans are going wild! And…and…he’s done it, first place, whoo hoo!”

Kazi throws his hands into the air and waves them erratically. Cardinal Ferrari pitches him one last glare and then arrives at the cherub-adorned marble fountain where Cardinal Jahoda and Cardinal Koppel are conspiring fruitlessly; what is there left to say? The day after tomorrow votes will be once again cast and tallied in the Sistine Chapel, and this time there is no doubt who will emerge the victor. Not far away, Lucky is conversing with Cardinal Nemerenco, seemingly making assurances to smooth over any remaining turbulence on Aemond’s rise to the Chair of Saint Peter.

“Can we get blue pebbles?” Rhaena is saying, or at least that sounds like what she said; you have no idea what she means.

“What?”

“For the new koi pond,” she says, smiling eagerly. “At the convent. We need pebbles to cover the bottom after we put down a liner.”

“Oh, right. Sure. Do they come in blue?”

“Rocks come in all colors, mate.”

You laugh, shutting the clear plastic container of fish food. “Sorry, I’m still a little…” You gesture to your head. “Messed up, I guess.”

“No wukkas. I know you’re concussed.”

But of course, that’s not the problem. He enters the gardens accompanied by Cardinal Gideon Saati, once a rival, now a collaborator. Aemond is smoking a Karelia cigarette and nodding soberly as Cardinal Saati implores him to consider the needs of the people of South Sudan: humanitarian relief to combat flooding and the resulting food insecurity, providing shelters for the displaced, rescuing and reintegrating child soldiers, building schools, ending female genital mutilation. In the wings, Cardinal do Carmo waits impatiently to discuss his own concerns, perhaps preservation of the Latin Mass for parishes that still cling to it.

Rhaena says: “Do you think Mother Maureen will be stoked to see us?”

“Defo. She’ll pick us up at the airport and then drive straight to the pub for chicken parmi and Bundys.”

“Ripper! I just can’t learn to like red wine. It’s all they drink here.”

Aemond tasted like wine when he kissed me in the chapel, you think dazedly, longingly. And smoke, and lust. “Yeah, loads of wine,” you manage, stealing a glimpse of Aemond. From across the gardens, he is watching you too, quick furtive peeks when Cardinal Saati looks away and won’t notice. Cardinal do Carmo, still waiting, sighs and checks his watch, analog, cheap and temporary. He keeps complaining that they won’t let him have his Apple Watch back until the conclave is over.

“Where sells quality koi fish, do you think?” Rhaena asks.

“There must be places in Sydney.”

“I heard about some big hatchery up in Kundabung.”

“Oh, that’s out in Woop Woop.”

“We could make a day out of it. Lunch and karaoke in the car. Harry is supposed to have a new album coming out soon.” Harry Styles, she means. She calls him Harry, like they know each other. “We can take some of the kids staying in the shelter along too. Field trip!”

“Heaps good,” you say, still distracted. Back to the convent for Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s, Australia Day, Lent, Good Friday, Easter? Back to the convent forever? And what was once a sanctuary has become a prison, a cage you built with your own hands, a vow you swore when you were a different person. Saint Blaise was torn apart by iron combs, Saint Barbara was imprisoned in a tower, and right now you feel a little bit like both of them.

Aemond has at last turned his attention to Cardinal do Carmo and is doing his best to seem interested, but you can see he is restless. He flicks ashes off the end of his cigarette, he taps his fingertips against his chin, he glances at the stone statue of Saint Agatha that looms near where he stands. His still-blonde hair is ruffled by the brisk December breeze; absently, you wonder what it would feel like to thread your fingers through it, if he would let you, if he would tell you to stop.

Now the cardinals are making their way back to the Domus Sanctae Marthae for brekkie, a procession of scarlet cassocks and zucchettos perched on greying heads. In the dining hall, Sister Penny, Sister Helvi, and Sister Nuru are dishing out cornetti served with jam, custard, and Nutella. As he leaves the gardens, Lucky looks back at you apprehensively, taking a drag on one of his cigars. He wishes you would disappear, like Saint Agatha’s wounds vanished when Saint Peter’s apparition visited her in a prison cell. But you can’t leave yet; you haven’t decided where you’re going next.

“Should we help with brekkie?” Rhaena says brightly.

“You go ahead. I have to put the fish food away.”

“Sure thing. Cheers!” Then she trots off to join the caravan of cardinals, an island of white in a choppy red sea.

If Aemond intended to speak to you—and you have the impression he did—that has been derailed by Cardinal do Carmo’s impassioned audience. Aemond exits the gardens as you venture further into them until you reach the shed used by the groundskeepers, now mostly unneeded in the winter months. You unlatch the door, step into the shadows, and store the plastic container of brine-smelling pellets on a wooden shelf. When you reemerge into the cool steely daylight, a hand snags on your wrist. You yelp, a reflex, a muscle memory, a shudder all the way down to your bones.

“Are you proud of the role you’ve played in his ascension, girl?” Auclair says, tall and barbed like razor wire, snow white hair, narrow icy eyes. “I know a nonbeliever when I see one.”

You rip your arm out of his grasp. “Don’t you ever fucking touch me,” you hiss; you, who have never raised your voice to a priest in your life, you, who thought you had cultivated such patience for the failings of mortals.

Auclair is stunned; but more than that, he is enraged. “I’ll have you thrown out of Vatican City.”

“And I’ll have Aemond excommunicate you when he’s the pope,” you say, and shove roughly past him as you stride towards the Domus Sanctae Marthae, your habit billowing like sails.

~~~~~~~~~~

At lunch, veal Milanese and radicchio salad, Cardinal Micallef of Malta seeks out Aemond to discuss his concern that European governments are disrupting the activities of NGO ships attempting to aid migrants in the Mediterranean. At dinner, cod arracanato and gnocchi with Sicilian Christmas bikkies for dessert, Cardinal Kelly of Ireland takes a seat at Aemond’s table to urge him not to soften the Church’s teachings on abortion. During the meetings throughout the day—while you and the other nuns are doing the washing, wiping down sinks and countertops and showers, sweeping floors, making beds, scrubbing toilets—cardinals fiercely debate pressing questions of the Faith as Aemond sits quietly, watching, listening, now so high above their squabbling. When inevitably the red-cloaked men turn to seek his counsel (and foresee in which direction he will lead them when he is pope), Aemond turns their attention to his friends:

“I believe Cardinal Shane Campbell has demonstrated through his work in Mongolia that the future of evangelism is working within communities to better understand their customs and their needs, not a top-down implementation…”

“If Cardinal Luckson Louissaint can help to rebuild Haitian infrastructure with his own hands, surely it is not unreasonable to expect cardinals in other countries to do the same. I would encourage my brothers serving in Brazil, South Africa, and Romania to look to his example…”

“It seems to me that Cardinal Kazimierz Nowak has shown outreach to people with so-called ‘irregular’ lifestyles helps to broaden the societal influence of the Church, not undermine it…”

“Brothers, we must remember that Christ himself was a servant, not a scholar, and there is an urgent need for priests who are willing to do work that is hard and unglamorous and so often disregarded. For an exemplar, we need look no further than Cardinal Orlando Almazan…”

Now it is nightfall, and you have slipped away from Sister Penny’s endless list of chores and frazzled requests to hide in Saint Peter’s Basilica, where you are only occasionally disturbed by cardinals who have gotten turned around and need help finding their way out. You lead them back to the Domus Sanctae Marthae like the Archangel Raphael guides travelers, ever-patient and uncomplaining, as if you could not possibly have desires of your own, as if you have been created for no other purpose.

You find an alcove by a large statue of Saint Apollonia, whose teeth were ripped out of her skull, where you can hear the crowds outside in the square singing Good King Wenceslas. You envision the dripping white candles in their hands; you picture the warm glow of firelight on their faces. As the music enfolds you, reverberating off the white marble and red porphyry and travertine the color of sand, you close your eyes.

Two more days, then this is over.

You will board a flight back to Sydney, resume your life there, never see Aemond again except on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, the television when the sisters turn the news on, and even then you will have to pretend not to really know him.

Why did God bring us back together? you can’t stop thinking, haunted by it. To test us, to torment us? Or to show us the path we should be taking?

There is a muffled thump behind you, like someone dropping a paperback book. You turn around to find Aemond standing there in an aisle of light that falls in through a window, red cassock, gold cross, his hands clasped behind his back. You say, smiling: “Did you just kick Saint Apollonia?”

He chuckles, a little sheepishly. “I was trying not to startle you.”

“It worked. Good on ya.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say hi earlier.”

“Yeah, you’ve been under the pump all day.”

“Everybody wants something.”

“Because now they know nothing can stop you.”

“Almost nothing,” Aemond says, and you see that shadows have grown under his eyes like blossoms that open in the springtime, that doubt he’s never known before is flourishing, a verdant indomitable weed, ivy covering his cold stone walls.

You ask, your voice soft: “Is there any way people could find out?” About the child?

“I don’t think so,” Aemond replies, like he’s spent a lot of time considering this, sleepless nights with demons scratching from the closet. “If Alys never told anyone, only the genes know the secret. I guess if he ever took one of those ancestry tests, and someone in my family did one, he could connect the dots. But I’m careful about that. Kazi sent me a 23AndMe kit last Christmas, but I never mailed in a sample. Now he jokes that I’m a serial killer and don’t want my DNA on file.”

Several long moments pass, punctuated only by distant, distorted music. “Is Alys still in Nisyros?”

“No, she died two years ago. Cancer.”

“Good.”

Aemond looks at you, his scarred eyebrow raised. “You’re usually so forgiving.”

“Usually.”

He peers around, seeing no one for you to assist, nothing for you to clean or serve or rearrange. “What are you doing in here?”

“I love Christmas music, and I can’t hear it anyplace else.”

He is quiet so he can listen. The next song has begun. “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear?”

You nod, resting your head against the wall, closing your eyes again. “It’s pretty ace.”

Another pause; the wheels in Aemond’s skull are spinning. “Do you have a favorite?”

“Probably…” You consider this. “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

“You’ll be home soon. Then you can listen to Christmas music all the time.”

“I guess so.” Does he want that? When I leave the Vatican, will he be heartbroken or relieved? “I went to your room last night, you know. Before I found you in the gym.”

Aemond is startled, though perhaps not in a bad way. “My room?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

You shrug, your eyes still shut. “Maybe just to talk.”

“Maybe?”

There are heavy, echoing footsteps approaching rapidly. Your eyes flutter open; you move away from the wall, away from Aemond. “Cardinal Targaryen?” a man calls.

Aemond groans, exasperated. Then he collects himself. “Yes, Brother?”

Cardinal Everton Yearwood of Barbados ripples from the shadows, an urgent stab of red. “I was hoping to discuss a very important matter, and I am optimistic that you can put my mind at ease.”

Aemond turns to him as you retreat, becoming invisible, fading into the statues and the mosaics and the beams of cool December daylight. “How can I help you, Cardinal Yearwood?”

“Well, you see, the American ambassador to my country is a homosexual,” Yearwood begins.

“Okay,” Aemond says flatly.

“And this is…this is no good. And there have been some protests because him being there is inconsistent with our morals. I wrote a statement, but it did not have any effect, he regrettably remained the ambassador. So I think it would be appreciated…not just by me, but by my fellow cardinals as well…if you made some sort of public proclamation about the importance of national leaders being able to act in accordance with their consciences and therefore object to certain impositions.”

Aemond sighs irritably. “Brother, this is not a real problem.”

“Respectfully, I must disagree—”

“If the ambassador is gay, let him be gay. The Lord commands us to love all people and judge no one, the instructions are very simple.”

“But the Bible condemns immoral behavior—”

“That is for God to judge, not you.”

“As a shepherd of the flock, it is my responsibility to protect my sheep from the influences of the Enemy. I must defend their chastity, the health of their bodies, the sanctity of marriage—”

“And the pope is the shepherd of all shepherds,” Aemond retorts ominously. “You must follow where he leads you. In less than two days, we will have a new Holy Father. I trust you will defer to his leadership, whoever he might be.”

“Yes, Cardinal Targaryen. Of course.” Yearwood is abruptly conciliatory, perhaps even afraid. “I did not mean to offend you.”

“Go in peace, Brother,” Aemond says; but he raises his bandaged right hand as if it is a reminder: I was chosen, you were not.

~~~~~~~~~~

There is a knock on your bedroom door.

Rhaena, who had been chatting away about new recipes to try this year—oddities she read about before you stepped out of Leonardo da Vinci International Airport and into seclusion, Christmas lasagna with layers of red velvet and peppermint cheesecake and vanilla pudding dyed green, fruitcake bikkies, coconut chocolate baklava (a twist on a Greek dessert, inspired by the impending Greek pope, of course)—whirls to you, baffled. No one ever knocks this late. Rhaena is already in her pajamas and under the covers; you were just about to change out of your white wool habit and take a shower, cloak yourself in opaque steam, think of Aemond and then wash his memory off of you.

“Sister Helvi?” you guess. There is no reply. When you open the door, Aemond is in the hallway instead.

You stare up at him, blinking, your fingers settling on the doorframe so they won’t stray to his hands or his chest or his scarred cheek. He is a pillar of red; a gold cross hanging from his neck, face impassive like cold marble, hands hidden behind his back. Aemond’s eye flicks momentarily to where Rhaena is gaping at him worshipfully from her bed, then returns to you. “I need clean sheets,” he says.

“Okay,” you reply, stunned. Then he begins walking away.

You turn to Rhaena. She flings her arms wide; you shrug in return. You don’t know what’s going on either.

Aemond glances back to observe you aren’t following him yet. “Right now,” he says; and you are wrenched from your confusion and your delay, because now you understand what he wants.

To see me, to talk to me, maybe even more.

“I’ll fetch the sheets and be upstairs in a tick.”

“Good,” Aemond says, and vanishes towards the elevators. You take the stairwell to the basement, a dripping cold place like an underworld, freshly-washed bedding in high white stacks, spiders weaving webs in dark corners and on the ceiling.

Aemond opens his bedroom door before you can get your key out of your pocket. He must have been listening for your footsteps. He is all the way at the end of a hall; he doesn’t even have a neighbor since Cardinal Marcu went back to Romania. You drift inside, a white wisp like smoke, and he locks the door behind you. The light is dim, midnight outside and tall white candles flickering on the writing desk. Aemond seems surprised when you go straight to his bed and yank off the blanket.

“What are you doing?”

“Changing the sheets,” you answer.

“You don’t have to.” And now he’s admitted that’s not the real reason you’re here.

“I know. I want to. You can wait.” You strip the sheets from the mattress, feeling for spots that have dried stiff like bumps of Braille, inhaling vapors of him: smoke, salt, cologne, vanilla and amber and cinnamon. You toss the old sheets to the floor, then begin stretching on the new ones.

Aemond watches you for a few seconds, then sits down in the chair by his writing desk. He pours himself red wine—from a decanter into a small glass, a splash of lava, blood in crystal—and sips it as he studies you, his eye on you like a touch you can feel, running over your ribs and down your thighs. Your heartbeat is loud in your ears, your pulse scorching like magma boiling beneath the earth. Still, you are patient, you are deliberate; you bend far over the bed to tug the corners of the sheets beneath the mattress, you smooth the soft white cotton with slow, teasing hands. Then you are done, and you stand in front of his single-sized bed—never meant to be shared—with your hands laced together and a forbidden question written on your face.

Aemond takes another swig of wine. His left hand, knuckles white and tendons taut, is gripping the arm of his chair. “We can just talk,” he offers.

“I don’t want to talk.”

He stands, gulps the last of his wine, and begins to unbutton his cassock; but he turns away as he does this, as if part of him is still ashamed. You take off your white wool habit like Aemond did in Saint Peter’s Square when you were on fire, when he baptized you with fountain water and blood, when he won the Keys of Heaven days before the conclave would vote for the last time. Then you shed what is under it, pale green jumper, emerald-colored skirt, and then everything else too until you are bare, revealed, and no man has seen you this way in fifteen years. You leave your iron medallion on the nightstand. Then you sit on the edge of the bed, and Aemond joins you, and here at the midpoint of your lives you are suddenly teenagers again, nervous and exhilarated, knowing that nothing will ever be the same.

He reaches for you with his wounded hand, and only then do you realize you’ve left on your veil. Gently, he pulls out each pin, and then your hair is uncovered. He grazes his fingers through the unearthed strands, admires your face like you are something holy. Then he is so close you can feel the heat rising off his skin, see the need in the oceanic blue of his iris, and your palm is pressed to his heartbeat, and as he kisses you—so soft and so hopeful—you are thinking: I have to make this good for him. We might only get once.

You laugh, anxious, apologetic. “I think I forgot how to do this.”

You can feel the smile on his lips. “It’ll come back to you.”

“Just like you did.”

And now you’re falling into it like a current: his thumbprint skating up the line of your jaw, his lips wet with wine and warm and hungry, your eyelids dipping shut, a blind curtain falling. A weight settles on your waist, and you flinch before you can stop yourself. Aemond immediately lifts his bandaged hand away.

“I’m sorry,” you say, terrified that you’ll ruin this. “I’m not afraid of you, I don’t know why I can’t...I can’t...” Why I can’t make my body forget. Why I can’t be brand new again.

“Hey,” Aemond says gently, kissing you again. “Just watch me the whole time, okay?”

“Okay,” you whisper. Will that work? Can I do this?

Now he’s on his knees like he’s lost in prayer, but he isn’t, and he’s never been; he’s lost in you, skimming his lips up the inside of your thigh, your left hand dragging through his blonde hair, your right palm sinking into the mattress and leaving indents like footprints in wet sand. And then he’s there—warmth, pressure, bloodrush, gravity—and his arms are hooked under your thighs to keep you close, and your trembling fingers comb through his hair, sweat in a sheen on your belly and your chest, thanking him in hushed breathless murmurs because it feels like a prayer has been answered, like you have pleaded for Saint Lucy to cure your blindness, like you are Lazarus being raised from the dead, a vision, a revelation, a resurrection, something that ended too soon being brought back to life again. You watch him—and you are shaking, gasping, marveling, is this real?—and then at last you let your head fall back and your eyes close, because you know in your muscles and your bones that no one will hurt you while he’s here, no one will ever hurt you again, and the phantoms of corporeal memory fade, fade, fade until they are gone, sandcastles obliterated by the surf.

His tongue laps harder, faster, his arms yanking you closer, drinking you like wine, your wetness on his face like candle wax, and you collapse across his bed as your hips follow his cadence like the tides of the ocean, your own hands covering your mouth to smother your moans, wanting to scream—like when Saint Apollonia’s teeth were torn out, like when Saint Lawrence was roasted alive—but knowing you can’t, not here and now, not ever with Aemond, because this has to be a secret unless he shreds the myth he’s written for himself and burns it down to ashes.

Where his mouth is on you—famished, forceful, scarlet scalding heat—has turned to trapped magma, and it hemorrhages up through the earth and spills down the side of the crater in a river, a red glow, a devastating release, and then he’s scaling your body as he climbs onto the bed, you kissing him violently as you throb and pant beneath him, opening your thighs wide, wanting him to give you that again already, an exorcism, a baptism, and wanting him too, all of him, even if only tonight, a sliver of a lifetime in which you belong to each other, a glimpse through the keyhole of a door.

His palms are cupping your face, and then his fingers are inside of you, a strange sensation because it’s been so long, but when his hand begins to move the euphoria comes rushing back like a ricochet, someone you haven’t been in a long time, a fifteen-year drought that ends with a downpour. He covers you like a veil—his sweat-slick chest against yours, his belly, his hips—and you’re so ready for him that even though he is thick and long there is no friction at all when he enters you, only a painless perfect fullness, a relief that rolls up through you like a wave, yes I can do this, yes I want this desperately.

Aemond murmurs, breaking a kiss that is ravenous: “Are you alright?”

You nod, and then sigh into his open mouth: “All the way.”

And he gives you what you ask for, until he is buried in you completely, until there is a deep rapturous pressure that feels so good you almost can’t stand it, it is too overwhelming, it is too divine, his thrusts like tremors of earthquakes that open blood red crevices, a scorching abyss that consumes. You don’t even to think to remind Aemond to make sure you won’t get pregnant. You know he wouldn’t do that to you. You know he is haunted enough already.

He gasps and withdraws, strokes himself just twice, spills out onto the clean sheets with a moan; but now he is too far away. You follow him, nuzzling the scarred half of his face, closing a hand around his cock and squeezing him as he jolts with aftershocks, running your thumb up over the tip, soaking your hand with his salt and his lust, and Aemond tilts up your jaw so he can kiss you, your wetness still gleaming on his lips and his tongue, bathed in each other’s earthen minerals and gluttonous for more.

“It doesn’t feel wrong,” he says, wonderous like he didn’t think this was possible.

“No,” you agree softly. “It doesn’t.”

Aemond wants to be the one to wash you clean. You go to his shower together, constructed for a much older man: lots of room to maneuver, a bench to take the strain off unsteady legs. As steaming water beats down, Aemond is kneeling and lathering soap on your thighs and your hips and your belly, a thick white viscous film that makes you want more of him. You go down to the floor, the white tile biting at your knees, the water pouring over your back, and in his lap you find a rhythm you thought was lost to you, relearn how to move and how to balance, and his palms are on your face when you come, the bandages on his right hand sodden and turning pink as he bleeds through them. Aemond tells you when to stop—it doesn’t take long—but you wish he didn’t have to. There is a starvation you’ve never felt before: for his body, for his soul.

You have to go back to your room. You’ve already been gone for too much time to easily explain away. You are rushing to towel off your hair when you notice the carnage of Aemond’s bed: tangled cotton sheets, damp patches you both left on them. “Now you really do need clean sheets,” you say, intending to bring some.

“Leave them,” Aemond replies, smiling drowsily. He picks up your medallion off his nightstand and returns it, placing it in your empty, unpierced palm. “I want them to smell like you.”

~~~~~~~~~~

There are sounds of clanging pots and silverware coming from the kitchenette, and the rich homey scents of caramelized sugar, vanilla, warm milk. This is unusual; no one uses it for anything more than snacks and tea. Bewildered, you peek inside. Lando is standing over the table and piercing a large circular custard resting in a saucepan with a toothpick. On the counter behind him, you see an empty egg carton, spilled snowfalls of white sugar, opened cans of evaporated and sweetened condensed milk.

“Cardinal Almazan?” you say, stepping inside. “What are you making?”

He lifts the toothpick from the custard and observes that it is clean. Then he looks up at you and beams. “Leche flan. The Spanish brought it to us, but we made it sweeter.”

“It smells fantastic.”

“I am not so talented, but Saint Honoratus of Amiens lends his assistance.”

Saint Honoratus is the patron saint of bakers, as well as candlemakers, florists, and oil refiners. “Is he your saint?” Everybody has one, whether or not a medallion hangs from their throat.

“Saint Nicholas,” Lando says instead. “The patron saint of children. They are our most precious gifts, and yet so vulnerable. But we’re all children to the Lord, no matter how old we grow. We need guidance. We need protection. We need to know that we are unconditionally loved.” Then he continues, meaning the flan: “It has to go in the refrigerator overnight, and I’ll flip it onto a plate in the morning so the caramel side is on top. But then you’re welcome to have as much as you’d like.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t devour all your hard work. I’m sure it’s meant for you and your friends.”

Lando is perplexed. “It’s for anyone who wants it.” He sets the saucepan aside so the flan can begin to cool. Then he goes to the sink and begins scrubbing spatulas and measuring cups. This is startling; you can’t remember the last time you saw a priest tidying up.

“Cardinal Almazan, please, let me do that.”

“It’s my mess, Sister,” he says. “But if you’d like to sit and chat while I work, I’d appreciate the company.”

Reluctantly, you drop into one of the chairs around the table; and you remember Sister Augustina slumped here, eternally motionless, irrevocably silent, her hollow exoskeleton of a body shipped home to Germany to rest beside the child she lost in life, that she is now reunited with in a place where all mortal failings are washed away and we are left stainless.

Lando smiles, pleased, then notices something that concerns him. “Why is your hair wet, Sister?”

The shower. You reach up self-consciously to feel the narrow band of hair that your veil leaves uncovered, more than damp, almost sopping. You grapple for an explanation, your panic evident. Then you mumble something about wanting to get warmed up with a hot bath. Your flustered response is far more suspicious than your hair. Your face is burning, your gaze darting evasively around the kitchenette.

Lando’s eyes go wide—he must understand, or at least have an inkling—then he turns back to the dishes. He asks you as he scrubs, his voice pleasant and benign, pivoting: “Have you done much traveling in your service to the Church? Before this trip, I mean.”

“Yeah nah, not yet. Other sisters in my convent have, they hopped over to Canada and the States…last year Sister Rhaena went on a group trip to visit a convent in Anchorage, Alaska, isn’t that grouse?”

“Oh yes, very grouse,” Lando agrees, although surely he doesn’t know what it means. “You didn’t want to go with Sister Rhaena?”

You hesitate. “I’ve always preferred to stay close to Sydney. It feels like home.”

“You are looking forward to returning to your convent, then?”

Something catches in you, a wince, a dread; you are Saint Bartholomew, having your skin flayed layer by layer until you are secretless. “I want to see Mother Maureen, and the other sisters too. I want to be able to celebrate the holidays with our guests staying in the shelter. But…” It’s the first time you’ve ever said it aloud, but it’s true. “No. No, I don’t want to go back to living that way.”

Lando comes and sits down in the chair beside you, offers you his small open palms, creased with lines like how the earth is demarcated by the equator and the prime meridian, different hemispheres, different lifetimes.

What if we had never left that beach?

You give Lando your hands, and he doesn’t say anything, he just holds them gently so you know you aren’t alone.

“Lucky believes I should stay away from Aemond,” you say, and there are scalding tears filling up your eyes, blurring your vision, leaving you blind. Then they flow down your cheeks in rivers. “What do you think?”

Lando smiles. “Why would I have any wisdom to offer you? I think you should listen to God.”

“But I can’t tell what he’s saying.”

“You can’t tell, or you don’t want to?”

And impossibly, that voice is becoming clearer already. “What brought you to the Church, Cardinal Almazan?”

“I had a good life and a good family, and I enjoyed all of it. Our house was beautiful, and it had air conditioning, and a courtyard with fountains and bright green parrots, and I went to the best schools in Manila. But there were always street kids around when we were driven to places, you see. They’d be there on the sidewalks begging tourists for money, and they were filthy, skinny, covered in scars, some of them maimed. On an ordinary morning, I was staring out the car window at one of those children, a boy around my age, and I thought, filled with disgust and horror: That could be me. And then, Sister, the strangest thing happened. I heard a voice that was so loud and so unmistakable it rattled my bones: You should care no matter who it is. All at once, in that moment, everything seemed to shift for me. I saw the world so differently, and I believed in God in a way that was effortless and without question. And my family perceived me becoming increasingly devout as a series of pointless sacrifices, but to me…I felt at peace. Everything was suddenly so simple. Joy came from the most mundane places. I appreciated everything.”

You are amazed. “That’s how the Faith feels for me too.”

“But you don’t have to be a nun to follow the Lord.”

“No,” you whisper. “I don’t.”

“You have listened to God for so many years. I’m sure he will speak to you now.”

Yes. Yes he will. Lando releases your hands as you rise from the table, feeling exhausted and sore all over, feeling free. “Thank you, Cardinal Almazan.”

“Please just call me Lando, Sister.”

“It seems too informal.”

“And I am no one special,” he says, grinning. “Don’t forget to help yourself to some leche flan tomorrow.”

You laugh shakily, swiping away the tears that glitter on your eyelashes. “I will.”

“Goodnight, Sister.”

“Goodnight, Lando.”

And as you are gliding through the doorway, white and silent like a ghost, you hear Lando turn the sink back on so he can finish the dishes.

[themusingsofacurlyhairednerd]

Ludos Imperiales 11

A/N: A little bit of wound-tending to make up for the wait of this chapter :)

Content Warnings: Blood and Gore, Gladiator Fights, Unnamed Character Death; Reader Tends to Rhys' wounds post fight (I know nothing about medical procedures, this is based off a Google search don't come for me)

Previous Chapter/ Masterlist

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Torchlights flicker in monstrous shapes across the rough stone walls, the path beyond ominously dark. The rattling of chains and distant sounds of wheezing coughs lead me forward as I pull the hood of my cloak a little lower.  

If I don’t find them down here, I think I might die anyway.

The bond is a bleeding thing in my chest, the tether echoing with agony that feels like it might just rend my soul from my flesh. I can’t breathe beyond the pain that pulses through me, that compels me to move faster in the dark. Danger is irrelevant. My mates need me. Nothing beyond that matters. 

The path curves to the left and slopes, loose rock crunching under my feet with every step. I’ve never been so aware of how loud my own footsteps are until now. 

Once the path levels out, it goes straight for what feels like miles, I keep a hand on the wall as I inch forward little by little, until another torch finally comes into view. It’s anchored above a door, the wood old and faded, the iron edges covered in rust. Beside it, on a stool that’s seen better days, sits a guard. Not a Praetorian, which is the only reason I know this reckless decision of mine will work. A Praetorian will give word back to my Father, but this male? He’s human, round enough that he’s using his stomach as a table to balance a plate piled with bread and grapes. Crumbs cling to the patchy stubble that rims his round face, eyes glassy. There’s at least four empty bottles around his sandaled feet. Not drunk enough to be asleep, but not awake enough to remember I was here.

I slide a bag of coins out of my belt and toss it at him as he registers my presence. “I was never here.”

He opens the bag, nods to himself and hands over the key to the door with a chuckle. “Or you could stay for the company, doll.”

I ignore him as I jam the key in the worn lock and force the door open. The fact that it doesn’t creak when it opens tells me I’m not the only one that’s been sneaking through these tunnels lately. 

I lock it behind me and slide the key into a pocket on the inside of my cloak. I don’t need anyone sneaking up behind me. 

The room I find myself in is leagues taller than the tunnels, the roof stretching high out of reach, supported by massive iron pillars. We’re far beneath the Pit floor, but the smell of rot and decay and damp earth assaults me as soon as I step in. 

There’s a door to the right, locked with a padlock, probably a way towards the Pit, but no Guards on this side. Why waste them when you know the occupants can’t fight their way out?

My heart clenches so tightly in my chest I almost can’t breathe.

The Orc crawls its way up the boulder, meaty hands grabbing for purchase on the lip of the rock, just missing Rhys’s shoulder. 

My mate’s movements are terrifyingly slow as he manages to roll onto his side, pushing Cassian’s shaking frame off his chest. 

Azriel is screaming beneath him, throwing rocks and debris, trying desperately to get himself airborne, but his wings aren’t strong enough. The membrane shutters and twitches and Azriel is a deep shade of green as he keeps flapping them harder and harder, managing to get up an inch or two before they give out. He hasn’t had enough time to heal!

The rocks make the Orc chuckle as it gets another hand on the lip of the rock and begins hauling himself over the edge. 

I can’t do anything but sit there uselessly, my heart in my throat, watching in terror as Rhys manages to sit up, face twisting in pain. Only desperation has him throwing a punch into the Orc’s good eye, but the blow lacks the muscle he needs to dislodge him, he has to throw them again and again until the monster slips an inch or so down the rock. 

Rhys manages to twist so he’s sitting on the edge, using his heels to kick at the Orc’s hands and keep him from climbing back up, but it’s not doing enough. Cassian can’t yet help him, any attempt to sit up has his whole body shaking, the twitching starting all over again with each and every moment. 

I watch as Azriel’s gaze sweeps over the arena, looking for any remaining weapons, anything he can use to his advantage. There’s nothing, everything that had been left on that floor is ash. His gaze sweeps to our booth, past Amarantha and my Father, before settling on me. Without the bond it is hard to be sure, but that look, the way his lips droop, the way his hazel eyes turn pleading, it feels an awful lot like an apology.

There aren’t enough words to describe the terror that lodges itself in my throat as his shadows dislodge from behind his back, writhing through the air like a living breathing thing. 

“You said the gorsian would keep them at bay!” The Emperor snarls at Amarantha. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him find a flaw in her and it would be an entirely more unsettling experience if Azriel’s shadows weren’t pulling the Orc from his perch!

The crowd is in an uproar, booing and hissing and throwing things into the arena in outrage. The amount of money the crowd will lose has to be astronomical. And while they may lose the money on a technicality, Azriel will still have cheated. 

It’s like a bad dream, watching the Orc’s arms pinwheel as the shadows drag him through the air towards the yawning chasm of lava below. 

The Gamemaker’s mage flails his hands frantically, trying to shift the floor around in time to keep the Game going. 

Half a dozen of those disks come shooting out the walls, all aimed in Azriel’s direction, the buzzing loud enough to be heard over the screaming of the crowd. 

The ground splinters beneath Azriel’s feet, and even as he jumps to safety, a single shadow peels away from the writhing mass around the Orc, arching towards the Mage like an airborne snake. 

“Az no!” Rhys screams. 

But the shadows and their master pay him no mind as the tendril snags the Mage around the throat and hurtles him down into his own lava!

The crowd suddenly goes deadly silent.

The ground stops shifting, the loss of magic making the pieces of rock floating around the air come crumbling down. Rhys manages to get an arm under Cassian’s shoulders and hauls him off their descending perch so they don’t get smashed as it tumbles, their fall so hard I can practically feel the impact in my teeth. 

They land at the same time Azriel’s shadows bring the Orc down into the rapidly disappearing lava, the creature’s massive bulk just barely hitting the magma before the rock closes over his head, effectively sealing him in a fiery tomb. It all happens so fast there’s not even time for the male to scream before he’s gone and the world finally stops moving. 

The tether in my chest is finally reachable, leading me through the twisting tunnels, past cages filled with grizzly, slumbering males. The stench of decay and infection gets stronger the deeper I go, fighting against the heavy press of booze and opioid smoke. Can’t have rebelling gladiators if they’re too drunk and high off their winnings to fight back. 

At least it’s late enough that my sneaking doesn’t alert too many people.  I’m sure this whole place has been in enough uproar as is.

“You fucking knew, didn’t you?” The Emperor snarls so loud I see Eris and Tamlin flinch in their seats.

I don’t let myself look at him, don’t fold in my shoulders and duck my head to try and make myself as small as possible. My attempts at playing the subservient little girl have failed me. Fainting like a weak-hearted child did nothing but piss him off. If we are to survive, we have to be smarter than this. 

I have to be smarter than this. 

So far, playing this Game by my Father’s rules has gotten us to this point. It has brought us nothing but pain and misery. 

I don’t want to play anymore. I want to win.

I told Azriel that I wouldn’t let anything come between us, and I meant it. Maybe that means it's time to do this another way. 

“Yes. I knew.”

The silence in the booth is deafening.

I bite the inside of my cheek, fighting every instinct I’ve ever had to run and hide. 

I am not weak. I am not helpless. I beat that Raven; I will beat its Master too. 

“I was curious,” I continue, drawing a deep breath to steady myself as I turn to face him. The playing field was never going to be level between us. He’s spent my entire life making sure that I would always be small and weak and too scared to move. “They seemed so eager for the opportunity I presented them. I wanted to know how far they would take it.”

“And yet you did not consult me on this?” The Emperor snarls, not buying it. 

“It needed to look real. I needed them to think I was vulnerable.”

“And what have they shown you?” The contempt in his voice is clear. 

Almost as clear as the confusion Eris is trying really hard to keep off his face. At least for now, he keeps his end of the bargain. 

“They’re trying to get close. See if they can use me. The Shadowsinger slipped up with the shadows one night. I told him I’d keep his secret in hopes of finding what else they’re hiding. It is a long game. One I need more time in, but I assure you, Father, it was never for ill intent. I am only acting on the good of the Empire. You can have the twins look into my head if you’d like confirmation.”

Maybe that’s too much of a lie, but I’ll find a way to use it to my advantage. Whatever I need to do to ensure my mates walk out of this; whatever roll becomes necessary for me to take on I will take it. 

He runs a hand over his mouth, thinking. If this had happened in the Senate Meeting during one of his episodes, I’d be dead already, but he’s in a good mood today, far clearer headed than he was then. It might save them. 

At least for today. 

The Emperor stands. It’s customary for him to give a judgment before a death, the crowd is waiting to see what he will do now that one happened before his intervention. 

“You truly expect me to believe that you’re capable of handling this sort of thing?”

I bite back the bile rising in my throat. There is only one way I get him onboard with this; only one way I ensure he doesn’t kill them right here and now. “Weakness must be purged from the Empire.” The words stick like tar in the back of my throat. “You told me that story every night as a child.”

He goes very, very still. Only he would know which story I’m referring to; I doubt he’d tell anyone else that the gods cursed him with a mate. 

“The Shadowsinger thinks he’s your mate?” 

I raise my chin, hoping he can’t see how hard it is for me to swallow, how hard it is to even get air down. He will not kill them for this. No, this is grounds for him to test me, to see if I can purge the supposed weakness he has always seen in me and rise to the occasion, or if he can finally get rid of me. 

It’s my last card. 

“They all do.”

Romulus swears beside me. I don’t look at him. Only at my Father, who suddenly looks a little green. He has to know what mates were considered before the Empire changed the story, has to know that legend says mates are to be equals. I’ve just put a giant fucking target right over my chest.

But I’ll take it. It means the arrows are pointed in my direction, instead of there’s.

“You can’t be serious,” Amarantha starts, but the Emperor raises a hand to silence her.

“This is a grave weakness, child.”

“And an advantage to your cause. Illyria doesn’t share your sentiment with mates. They think it can be used to turn me against you. With enough time, they’ll tell me everything, and I in turn, will report it back to you. This rebellion nonsense can finally be put to bed, and the Empire will have the peace it deserves.”

“And when the time comes, you will kill them, as your Emperor demands.”

Red tints my vision, even as I bow my head. “That has always been the plan, Father.”

He smooths his hands over his robes. “Then they live to see another day.”

I have to clench my hands in my skirts to try and hide the shudder of relief that rolls through my body. I’ve bought them another day. “Thank you, your Majesty.”

The Emperor turns to face the crowd, the Guard flanking him, just in case Azriel’s shadows decide they want to try and yank him out of the booth this time. Before he reaches the railing to address the crowd, he says to his Captain, “Instruct the Gamesmaker to bring out the posts. I want them flogged for their disobedience.”

My stomach pitches. No no no!

“I said they’d live. I didn’t say this behavior would go unpunished. We can’t have the other gladiators thinking they can cheat and get away with it.”

I find Rhys first, his cell cramped and dark, his body dumped onto the dust covered floor like he’s nothing, no better than an animal. I can see the rust covered chain tied to the wall, looped around a new collar. The Emperor made sure the gorsian was stronger this time around. The edge of it juts farther out, scratching back and forth across his shoulders with every wheeze of a breath he draws. The metal has to be scraping against the gashes carved into his bare back. 

There’s no more mirthroot in my system, I never went home to give Anise the chance, and without it, the bond becomes a roaring, living thing in my chest. Darkness leakes from my fingers, hissing as it slithers out my skin.

How could I let this happen?

It takes every ounce of self-control I possess, every bit of my Mother’s training to keep my powers from tearing the doors off their hinges. My hands shake as I slide the key through the lock and slip inside.

The iron door screams on rusted hinges as I open it, and Rhys groans as he tries to lift his head off the floor to see who’s coming for him. 

My heart might just bleed out my chest as I kneel beside him, gently running my hands through his hair, matted with sweat and blood. They’ll pay for this! Every last goddamn one of them.

“Shouldn’t… be here… Princess,” his voice is raw from screaming. There was no tuning out the sound of it as they tore through his flesh with a metal spiked flagrum over and over and over again. I hadn’t needed to pretend to be lighthearted, I’d grabbed a pale and vomited twice before they were done. Much to Amarantha’s glee and Eris’s evident pity. 

“I’m sorry.” This is all my fault! This is so much worse than the brand. I could blame Rhys for that one, but this? This one’s on me. I hadn’t done anything to stop it! “I’m sorry.”

Rhys rests his forehead on my knee and I can’t stop my hands from the frantic patterns I comb through his matted hair, trying in vain to soothe him. “You didn’t…” he grunts, trying to find a more comfortable position and blood falls freely from one of the deeper wounds that spans from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. “Didn’t make Az do that.”

The pack of supplies I’d brought with me feels inadequate at best, but the sight of fresh blood knocks some sense into me and I start grabbing gauze and some oils I’d found at a small market in the street. An old Elvish healer has said olive oil and honey would help keep out infection, I’d bought out every bottle she’d had.

“I should have done more.” My hands shake as I try to find the best place to hold the gauze to stop the bleeding. There isn’t a patch of undamaged skin, any pressure at all will be horrific. It takes a solid thirty seconds of reaching for one spot, then changing my mind and searching for another, before he mumbles out something that sounds like “above my hip, love”. I settle my hand as lightly as I can as directed and even then the noise he lets out sounds like a cat being stepped on. 

Tears drip down my cheeks, I have to turn my head to make sure they don’t accidentally land on his ruined flesh. “I’ll fix this. I’ll find a way to make this better.”

He draws a shaky breath beneath my hands. “How… are we alive?”

Figures he’d ask me that first.

I start at the spot he’d directed, dripping a bit of oil into the most shallow cuts to weigh my options here.

His whole body spasms like it had when he’d been electrocuted and I stop what I’m doing entirely. “Fuck!”

“Shit! Shit I’m sorry, the Elf said it would help.”

Through his teeth, Rhys hisses, “I’m sure she’s right but fuck me!” 

I just make everything worse in every department, don’t I?

“Um, you want to try the honey instead?” Thank the Mother I never had the notion to become a Healer, I would have been absolutely awful at it. 

“I’m not hungry.”

“For your back, Rhys.”

“Oh,” he chuckles softly, realizing the mistake, then immediately groans from the way it pulls on his back. “Either has got to be better than the salt water.”

The air leaves my lungs in a rush. Forget the long game, I’m burning this whole godsdamned Empire down tonight.

“Easy, Darling,” he coos, and our bond ripples with a warmth I don’t deserve. “Just talk me through it.”

I give myself a little shake to clear the red tinting my vision. They will all pay for this.

“Tell me what happened last night? Why couldn’t we feel you?”

“Anise drugged me,” I say and I can’t tell if he flinches because I’ve started again with the oil or if that’s in response to what I’ve said. “Some kind of faebane and mirthroot mixture. She said my Mother had it made in case… in case I ever lost control.”

In case I ever turned into my Father.

“Mother’s tits!” Still not sure if that’s in regard to the oil or the story. 

“I was trying to get to you, to tell you that…” the coughing of one of the males in the cell across me reminds me of the lack of privacy. “That I’d found something that might be useful, but you were already gone and she jabbed me in the back of the neck with a needle. She must have done it again this morning, I don’t remember anything until arriving at the Arena.”

His breathing is labored as I work, body tense beneath me. I should have brought mirthroot, as unpleasant as my own experience had been, it could have eased his pain.

“Guard came quick last night,” he says through his teeth. 

The last twenty-four hours had really gotten away from me, I swear on the Mother I’ll never let myself be that powerless again. 

“I’m sorry.” 

The oil makes the blood look like it’s flowing freely, once I’m satisfied that it's covered enough, I reach for the bandages. 

“Don’t,” he says gently. “They’ll know you were here.”

My chest constricts. How can I tell him what I've done? He was already so angry about the marriage contract, this might just break him, but if I tell him the truth, would it give me an opportunity to help him. I can explain it away to the Emperor in the morning, claim I was trying to strengthen their trust in me by pretending to betray him. 

“I won’t leave you down here like this.”

“It will only make it worse,” he insists. 

“Maybe not,” my voice betrays me, nothing more than a cracked whisper in the darkness of these awful dungeons.

The bond ripples with enough concern I can feel a faint hum on both Azriel and Cassian’s end. At least I know now that they are all conscious, and that the gorsian hasn’t removed our ability to feel each other like the faebane had.

Rhys’s own voice shakes and the pain I can hear in it makes me look away from him when he asks, “What did you do?”

When I don’t immediately answer, he tries to sit up, tries to turn and look at me and I have to pin his palms to the floor to keep him still. “Don’t do that!”

“Tell me you didn’t marry any of those pricks? Tell me you didn’t barter another piece of yourself away-”

He’s going to tear his back open beyond repair if he keeps trying to move like this. “I told him we’re mates.”

I might as well have sucked the air from the room! Rhys goes deathly still beneath me and I think I liked it better when he was yelling. 

I try not to worry my lip between my teeth. “My Father murdered his own mate because he believes mates are a weakness that must be purged. I needed him to think I was trying to do the same.”

He doesn’t say anything, the minutes stretching out between us as I start using a bit of the honey to stick the strips of bandages over his back. The quieter the cell becomes the more the tether betweens us howls in pain. Maybe I need to resign myself to the fact that I might have been right all along; maybe this was always meant to end with him hating me. 

“I can’t beat him at his game by just sitting there uselessly. It wasn’t working. I needed to try another way.” If he can’t get past this fine, I will not let myself regret my decisions. I can’t afford to. They have to work. I have to make them work.

It might break my heart beyond repair if he can’t find it in him to understand where I’m coming from, but I’ll take that pain over the agony of him being dead. If I hadn’t acted, he could be another body rotting on the Pit floor right now. I do not need his permission, nor will I sit here and hold my breath for his forgiveness. We have to be willing to adapt. I have been so stubbornly set in my ways for years; I won’t let the stubbornness that ruined my Father ruin me.

I’m finished with the bandages before he speaks again. “When we went to war with the Empire, I gave up a lot of myself to be what my people needed. I wore whatever mask was necessary. I have worn cruelty and hatred in equal measure. There were days, weeks, where I looked into the mirror and didn’t recognize who was staring back at me. I can’t… I can’t let you do the same thing to yourself.”

I let my fingers drift back through his matted hair. Nothing would make me happier than to take him home, to get him cleaned up and into a bed that was safe; into a place where I knew he could rest. One day I will give him that. One day there will be no more dungeons or bloodshed or torture. One day we won’t have to swap horror stories to comfort each other. I can hold him and he can hold me and there will be no more pain between us. There will not need to be a question about whether we can live with our decisions.

“I can live with my decisions,” I say. “Let me help you shoulder this burden. You do not have to be alone to carry it.”

“People die when I let them in,” he whispers.

I can’t hold him like I ought, not without hurting him, so I allow myself a moment to lay down on the floor next to him, the filth covering the old stones seeping through my skirts as I lean my forehead against his.

“The things I love have a tendency to be taken from me.”

The bond hums between us, warm and alight even in this darkness. We are one and the same, Rhys and I. “Me too,” I confess. “But I never did anything to stop it then. I won’t ever do that again.”

His breath stutters out of him, a twinge of fear slithering down the tether to me. “You’re sure I can’t convince you to take that boat you talked about?”

That boat is long gone. 

And so is that girl who was so scared she’d need it. 

I can do this. We can do this. “We can beat him. Together.”

He nods gently, like it’s too much effort to do anything more, it probably is. “Together.”

I feel a twinge of pain flash across my left hand, just a flash and then it’s gone. Almost like something bit me. In this cell, bugs are a given. I raise my hand to take a look, and am surprised to find a band of black ink around my ring finger, a trio of stars circling the thin band of what looks like a tattoo.

Even wounded, the smirk Rhy’s flashes me is infectious. “Illyrian bargains come with ink.”

“You’re impossible,” I say, rolling my eyes. He’s honestly worse than Az.

He manages to tilt his head just enough to kiss the tip of my nose, his lips cracked and dusted with dried blood still. “If you’re going to make life threatening statements to the Emperor, so am I.”

I won’t admit to him that I like it, not now anyway. “I should go check on the others.”

“What if there were other parts of me that needed tending to?” He pouts.

I stand and dust off my skirts, rolling my eyes again. “You’ll survive.”

I push the door to the cell open. “I’ll bring some mirthroot next time. So you can sleep.”

He waits until the door is locked again. “Be careful, Princess.”

I won’t lie and tell him I will. The time for being careful is over.

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Thank you all for your patience! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! As always, if you want to be added to the tag list, let me know :)

[lactoseintolerentswag]

Rise Characterizations Pt. 4!!!!

Nearing an end with writing notes for turtles. Thinking of posting about April and Splinter separately, and then a big post for side characters.

Raph, Leo, and Donnie here. Now let's start with

Mikey Character Notes

Language Habits:

Catchphrase: "razzmatazz"

Tendency to "hoo-ha!"

Uses aave/bae

Like Raph and Leo, he will verbalize his attacks, but notably less than the aforementioned two. His most common phrases: "power whip jitsu" (chain moves), and "power fun jitsu" (use of his fire)

Shortens words/phrases in his excitement (i.e. the famous omigosh), but lengthens words in his wonder/amazement like drawing out wow into wooooooow

Uses a lot of idioms, i.e. "give us the 911", "hit the bricks", "you've been workin' a nerve"

Uses a lot of alliterations, especially when describing something

Refers to splinter as "pop" or "dad", with the rare "father" (usually for dramatics)

Will refer to others using "chico", "dude", or "man"

Answers the phone with "shell-o"

Personality:

Oblivious. A lot of stuff goes over his head, or he'll pick on the wrong thing to focus on. Like thinking they're part imitation crab men

Passionate. He throws himself into everything, whether that be cooking, fighting, or art. Sometimes this focus comes at his own detriment (i.e. forgetting to tell his brothers that Meatsweats mutated on t.v. bc he was cooking his pork risotto)

Optimistic, a dreamer. Not one to back down from doom and gloom, and is often among the first of the brothers to take action. Has a lot of perseverance

Believes the best in everyone. He can easily connect and empathize with others, most notably Draxum

Blunt, he doesn't hide his opinions and can accidentally be a little too harsh. On the other hand, he uses his persona of "Doctor Delicate Touch" to purposefully use his bluntness. He doesn't really much to hide on what he thinks about people

Sensitive, he's easily swayed by the emotion or pathos of others (read: gullible). This also mean his ego is easily damaged, which can contribute to his competitiveness with Leo at times and his inferiority complex with Raph babying him

The emotional heart of the team, he keeps the brothers grounded in empathizing with others

Energetic. Mikey's the wildcard. No one can guess what's coming out of his mouth next, and his fighting style is very innovative. All his energy gives him a charming amount of "razzmatazz"

Firey. Mikey's a pretty expressionate guy. He doesn't hide his emotions, and he doesn't really hide his anger. Sometimes this comes out in his bluntness, and sometimes this comes out in strained rage that has a boiling point

Looks up to his brothers. He has a lot of admiration for his older brothers. Whenever he's put in a corner he thinks what would Raph do, he's grateful for Leo's advocacy, and likes spending a lot of time with Donnie and his inventions. He also has a need to prove himself to his older brothers due to his admiration

Miscellaneous:

First to unlock mystic powers

Nicknames/code names: "Doctor Delicate Touch" and "Doctor Feelings" are self-proclaimed titles, "orange pawn" code name by Donnie, "Michael" nickname by Donnie, and "Flavortown" is his video game handle

Named his piggy bank "Mrs. Porky Coin"

Only chooses scissors in rock, paper, scissors

Has the top score in "Pance Pance Revolution" (rise's equivalent of DDR)

Well that's all the turtles for reference notes. I think I'll post Splinter next :)

[anticidic]

hey! do you have any headcanons about what skk's living situation would be like if they ever worked out their issues and moved in together, in an ideal world? (canon divergence :p)

in an ideal world 😭👏 so real, though

we all know Chuuya loves his personal space, and Dazai loves Chuuya's personal space, so Dazai would always try to insert himself into Chuuya's personal space

Chuuya will be reading in bed and Dazai will walk in wordlessly and plop down on the bed and stretch out across Chuuya's lap, maybe even knock the book out of Chuuya's hands in the process until Chuuya pays attention to him

they rock-paper-scissors most decisions or do a coin flip. (and Dazai's cheated or manipulated the coin flips, so it turns into arm-wrestling)

but also if Dazai's being in a pain in the ass, they'll get into a play-fight on the bed and roll around on it, pillows flying and hitting each other's heads. they keep pinning one another down

but there are also glimpses of soft moments, like Chuuya passing out on the couch after a long day and night, and Dazai walking in to see him fast asleep (and looking peaceful, at that) and he knows there's a time and place to be silly, and knows it's not now as he grabs a blanket and drapes it over Chuuya before dimming the lights

and times where Dazai manages to fall asleep when it's dark and silent enough, and he's gonna wake up with a massive cramp in his neck in the morning from the angle he's sleeping in so Chuuya wedges a pillow behind him (plot twist Dazai was awake, but he still uses a sleeping mask so Chuuya didn't know)

both of them initially having living spaces that are pretty minimalistic because they're not used to living lavishly (or with others) Dazai's okay with a futon on the floor, Chuuya insists on a bed, they bought a couch that Dazai initially never uses in favor of sitting at their low-end coffee table with a cushion on the floor

Dazai's tried to save time on doing laundry by throwing all their clothes together and ruins Chuuya's white dress shirts with bleeding colors

Chuuya's more likely to announce if he bought any kind of furniture, whereas Dazai subtly adds to their space like one day Chuuya comes home to a framed photo of them on the nightstand with no word spoken of it (if Chuuya asks, Dazai initially jokes that it's always been there and he must not have noticed)

Chuuya actually hogs most of the bed and he's very squirmy in bed, he's kicked Dazai in his sleep several times or rolled over Dazai and clung to him, Dazai's the one who curls up into a ball or takes up as little space as possible

Dazai buys groceries for the day, Chuuya buys groceries for the week

[pintrestgrl]

summertime kissin’

the fair smells like fried dough and kettle corn. lights blink and spin everywhere, throwing streaks of color across johnny’s face as you walk beside him, too close to be just friends but not quite touching yet.

he keeps glancing over at you when he thinks you’re not looking— eyes flicking down to the hem of your skirt, then up to your face, like he’s afraid to get caught. his fingers twitch at his sides, like he wants to hold your hand but doesn’t know how to ask.

“you ever been to one of these before?” you ask, bumping his arm gently. “once,” he says, smiling soft. “when i was real little. but it wasn’t like this. not with, uh…” he trails off, cheeks going red as he looks away. you smile down at your shoes, heart skipping. “me?”

“yeah,” he mumbles, barely audible. you stop at a booth selling cotton candy and he insists on paying. dally had been helping him prepare for this date all week. gave him a nice new haircut, lended him some nice lookin’ clothes, and even gave him a $20 to spend on you. dal said ‘he needed to make the right impression on a girl like you.’

you tear off a piece of pink fluff and offer it to him. he eats it from your fingers and his eyes go a little wide, like he wasn’t expecting the sweetness. or maybe it was just the closeness. “good?” you ask. he nods, lips sticky. “real good.”

you walk past the game booths, where people are throwing rings and shooting darts and missing miserably. one has a wall of tiny stuffed animals hanging from clothespins and johnny stops, stares for a second, then swallows. “wait here,” he says, suddenly brave.

he hands the guy a couple of coins and picks up a baseball. he takes a step back, squints, then throws—and misses. second try, a miss. but he’s determined now. jaw set, eyes sharp, just for you. third throw hits dead-on. you clap your hands, grinning wide as the guy grunts and hands johnny a tiny pink bear.

“for you,” he says shyly, holding it out without meeting your eyes. “johnny,” you whisper, touched. “he’s perfect.” he shrugs, looking down, but he’s smiling, proud. “figured you should have something to remember tonight.” your heart’s practically beating out of your chest.

he’s so soft, so sweet, and you don’t know what to do with the way he’s looking at you now— like he’s trying to memorize your face. “thank you,” you say, hugging the bear to your chest. he finally takes your hand. just slips his fingers between yours, gentle and nervous, like he’s asking a question.

you squeeze back, answering it. when you get in line for the ferris wheel, he fidgets the whole time— messing with the hem of his jacket, glancing at you like he’s working up the courage to say something.

when your turn comes, you climb into the cart together, shoulders brushing as the seat rocks slightly. the ride lifts you up slow, the fair shrinking beneath you. lights blur. music fades. up here, it’s just you and him.

you look over, and he’s already looking at you. “you’re really pretty,” he blurts, like he couldn’t hold it in any longer. then instantly panics. “i mean— sorry, i didn’t mean to make it weird, i just—” you don’t answer.

you just lean in, hands still wrapped around the stuffed bear, and kiss him. it’s soft. shy. a little unsure, like neither of you know what you’re doing— but his lips are warm and sweet, and he melts into it like he’s been dreaming about this. like it’s something he never thought he’d get to have.

you pull back slowly, heart racing. “not weird,” you whisper. “not at all.” he stares at you for a second, lips parted, cheeks flushed. then he lets out the quietest little laugh— barely more than a breath— and ducks his head, pupils blown with nothing short of love.

you sit in silence for a moment, faces warm, hands still linked. the tiny bear rests between you like proof this night really happened. when the cart reaches the very top, it pauses, swaying slightly in the breeze. “kind of scary,” you say quietly.

“i got you,” he whispers back, squeezing your hand. you lean your head on his shoulder and he stills completely—like he’s afraid to move, like he wants to stay in this moment forever.

and for a second, it feels like you do too.

a/n : omg this is so gut wrenchingly cute

tags : @cadescig @cades-outsider @enchantedstarfish @heavenlyangelbaby @cameronsbabydoll @johnnycadesthoughts @johnnycadesslut @1tsjustj @let-down-and-hanging-ar0und @harajukub4rb1e @browneyebby @avroravia please let me know if u want to b added to the outsiders taglist !!

[slutforsilverfoxes]

Imagine…

BAU!reader being married to Hotch but keeping her maiden name in the field to avoid assumptions and judgment. The team knows, obviously, but then a former colleague of Aaron’s from the Seattle office happens to be in town for a conference and wants to catch up over a drink. You can’t help but tease him, of course:

“Knock, knock,” you murmur, leaning against the doorway to your husband’s office. With a glance at your watch, you ask, “Y’gonna be late for your date?”

Aaron looks up at you with a frown before returning his attention to his case file and mumbling, “Not a date.”

“Mm, my apologies,” you respond with a twitch of your lips as you approach his desk. You lean your elbows on the dark wood and rest your chin in your open hands. Batting your eyelashes, you amend, “It’s a meeting betwixt old coworkers.”

Aaron rises from his chair, pressing his fists against the desk opposite you and positively towering over your smaller stature. He meets your fiery gaze with equal defiance, then leans forward to press a kiss to your lips and murmurs, “Are you our resident Reid while he’s with his mom? Who says ‘betwixt’?”

“Oh, shut up, nerd,” you taunt back between kisses of your own. “You collected coins; I played Scrabble. Now get going! Can’t leave a lady waiting for the Aaron Hotchner.”

—————

But WAIT! There’s more! Said agent gets a call while they’re out for a drink and asks Aaron and the BAU for help on a new case. Naturally, you all have to fly to Seattle together…

“Mama, you know this cabin is pressurized, right?” Derek teases with a nudge of your shoulder.

You mumble back around a sip of coffee, “Yeah, so?”

“So if you glare any harder, you’re gonna burn a hole through the jet and we’re all gonna die up here.”

Emily snorts out a laugh and you steal a Cheeto from JJ’s snack (for which you’re met with a stern, “Hey!”) to throw at her. Emily collects the offensive projectile from her lap and pops it into her mouth with a ferocious chomp in your direction, receiving an, “Oh, bite me, Prentiss,” in response.

“Just find a way to slip in that you’re married,” JJ counsels, moving the bag out of your reach to avoid further retaliation.

“Or accidentally fall into his lap. Turbulence can be nasty, you know,” Emily offers as a follow up.

“Like that?” you deadpan, jutting your chin toward the scene at the back of the jet. Aaron and Agent Brandt are over by the coffee, and she’s just steadied herself using your husband’s broad shoulder.

“Or,” Derek counteroffers, tugging at the chain around your neck that holds your wedding and engagement rings while you’re out in the field, “put this rock on and go claim your man!”

“This is dumb. I’m being dumb,” you grumble, flipping open the case file and burying your head in it. “Can we get back to talking about this sociopath and not my high school-esque jealousy?”

“What’s happening? Did I miss anything?” Garcia’s blonde curls bounce up on the monitor before your group, ready for the next installment of this evidently riveting saga.

“Nothing is happening, Pen,” you respond with a sharp look her way, “and y’all need to get out more. Watch a romcom or something if you need some angst.”

“You all completely suck,” Penelope sighs dramatically. “My cup runneth empty in my lair!”

“Then go get yourself another cappuccino, baby girl,” Derek answers smoothly with that dazzling smile of his, perched on the armrest of your seat.

You feel his presence before you hear his voice, every atom in your body suddenly on high alert and keenly aware of everything that is Aaron. “Hey.”

You look up at him with an easy smile, determined to not let your unwarranted bitterness reflect on your work. “What’s up, Hotch?”

He squats down in the aisle beside you so he’s not looming over you and brushes his knuckles across your cheek in an uncharacteristically tender touch, given your current audience. “Do you have that travel bottle of Advil? Brandt may have been overzealous with the margaritas last night.”

“Yeah, it’s… in the side pocket of my bag,” you answer, brow furrowed because he tossed it in there this morning to ward off your inevitable headaches during the coming late nights.

“You’re the best, honey,” he murmurs, standing halfway to press a kiss to your forehead before returning to his full height and going off in search of the pain killer.

“‘Overzealous with the margaritas’, huh?” Emily teases, then starts singing the viral song about just how many margaritas are needed to perform certain acts that shan’t be discussed in polite company.

From across the plane, Dave glances at Aaron who’s rummaging through the overhead luggage bin, then turns his attention to you with a knowing gaze. You avert your eyes, feeling a blush creeping across your cheeks, and settle back in your seat before flipping through the case file in front of you. “So crime scene photos would suggest we’re dealing with a disorganized killer…”

—————

But WAIT! There’s even more!

AH tags 🖤 @gothwifehotchner

[celli-ohs]

11:40 PM | sim jaeyun x reader, fluff, crack, sfw, 800 wc

This is so stupid. You think as you crawl around the yard, searching the grass. You were doing all of this because your stupid boyfriend got himself grounded.

Jake Sim was 22 and grounded. But you love him, so much so that you’re willing to get on your knees and hunt down a single pebble in his backyard.

It takes you a bit longer than expected (how the hell does his lawn not have a single rock??) but you eventually find a couple, small as coins. You run around the back, praying you don’t get caught by his parents. His mother (god bless her heart) had already warned you to not contact Jake until Wednesday.

But when you're young and in love, you do crazy things, like throwing rocks at your boyfriend’s childhood bedroom window. After your fourth rock, the window cracks open and Jake peeks his head out.

Unfortunately for him, you hadn’t realized he’d finally noticed you (it’s dark out okay? You could barely see.) and you throw a rock smack dab into his face.

“Ow! What the fuck- Stop!” He whines, rubbing his forehead.

“Oh! Sorry, sorry! Are you okay baby?” You slap a hand over your mouth, feeling guilty. Jake rubs his forehead, sending you the most adorable pout. “Yeah,” He nods. 

“What’re you doing here? I’m grounded, you know.” He tells you, making you scoff. “I know, I just really missed you.”

Hearing how much you missed him has Jake grinning from ear to ear, said ears turning pink. “Oh yeah?” He asks shyly. You roll your eyes at him.

“Yeah Rapunzel, now let down your hair and let me in!” You joke. “I can’t, my mom will hear the door!” Jake complains. “But you can climb that tree.” He points to the old oak tree planted a few feet away. Its long sturdy branches extend right past his bedroom window.

You look at the tree, then at Jake, then at the tree, and then back at Jake. “You’re joking, right? I just came here to tell you goodnight and that I love you.” You clarify. Jake’s pout deepens.

“But I miss you so much. I can’t stand being apart from you, I’m already having withdrawals!” Half of his body is practically sticking out of his window now. “Jake I’m not gonna climb a tree to get to you, what if I fall?” You argue.

“I’ll catch you!” He sounds so sure. “You’re grounded!” You remind him. “I’ll still catch you, now come on, I really want to kiss you.” He’s got this cheesy grin on his face that pulls at your heartstrings.

In all honesty, you missed him a lot too. You probably wouldn’t be standing outside in nothing but your pajamas lamenting to your lover unless you were having withdrawals too.

So that’s how you found yourself 15 feet in the air, balancing on a single branch to just get close to your boyfriend. “If I fall and die, you are so not invited to my funeral.” You hiss as you drag yourself, moving painfully slow, inch by inch.

“Well that’s because I’ll be buried right beside you, if you’re going, so am I.” He jokes, which doesn’t help because if he makes you laugh too hard you fear you might slip.

“Shut up! I’m concentrating,” You huff, and hold your breath as you finally reach his window sill. As you mentally congratulate yourself for achieving a physical challenge you never thought you’d accomplish after the age of 12, Jake stares at you with hearts in his eyes. 

“Are you going to keep staring or let me in?” You finally ask, and Jake comes back to reality, chuckling as he helps carry you inside. You both clumsily land on the carpet, making a thud on the ground. “Do you think-” “Don’t worry, my dad’s a snorer.” He assures you, helping you up.

Once on your own two feet again, you’re suddenly tackled into Jake’s bed, the owner snuggling his head into your chest. “God I missed you so much.” He hums, a boyish grin plastering his face.

You can’t help but squeeze him tight and press a kiss to his hair. “I missed you too.” You sigh. “But I definitely think I deserve some kind of reward for risking my life to get here?” You joke, clearing your throat. Jake looks up at you, excited.

“Who would I be to refuse?” He’s already up, leaning towards you. “I felt like Flynn Rider climbing up the tower.” You giggle as Jake begins to pepper your face with kisses.

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I’m Flynn,” He questions, looking at you confused as you only laugh.

“Whatever you say princess,” You sigh, cupping his face and finally getting a taste of his lips.

author's note: someone tell jake i'm deeply in love with him omfg 😭 I saw that one tiktok and immediately just had to start writing he's such a beautiful man and so princess coded.

[fanboyoff1]

Landoscar College Fic (2.4k words)

Inspired by this post. It was supposed to be a little drabble but it spiraled

@complementaryhalves Hope I did it justice. It’s not really a meet-cute since they both know of each other (or maybe that counts, idk how meet-cutes work) but I tried my best lol

Oscar really needs to set a second alarm.

He’s several months into college, so you’d think he’d have figured out a good sleep schedule by then. Unfortunately, that has not happened, and Oscar wakes up to sun on his face.

“Ughhh,” he groans, rolling over and pulling his sheets up over his head. It takes him a few seconds to realize there’s no annoying beeping that usually greets him in the morning.

“Shit.” He grabs his phone from the bedside table and jolts up when he reads 8:25 on his lockscreen. “Shitshitshit.” 

He tosses his sheets to the side, the old mattress creaking loudly as he stands, rushing because his bus is literally about to leave. Why did he sign up for early classes? Why, why, why? Even his professor Mr. Webber told him it was a bad idea once he’d heard about it, but he’d insisted that it would be fine.

Right now, it’s definitely not fine though. He brushes his teeth at lightning-speed in the communal bathroom, and throws on a navy blue sweatshirt and pants, nearly forgetting his watch. He’ll get a bagel or something for breakfast at school.

Thankfully, he likes to pack his backpack the day before, so all he has to do is put it over his shoulders, rushing down the stairs and out the door into the parking lot to see… His bus rolling away down the road without him.

Oscar drops his hands down from his backpack straps to his side in defeat. He curses the ground and his stupid clock under his breath, kicking at a loose rock. What is he gonna do now?

Well, he could call Logan, ask if he can give him a ride. Or maybe Charles drove today? He glances across the parking lot, but there are around three other cars that look just like Charles’, so that won’t be very helpful.

He’s about to pull his phone out when he hears a car pull out of the lot, wheels making a grainy sound against the asphalt. Oscar quickly backs away from the middle of the road and goes back to his quiet crisis.

“Hey, you need a ride?”

Oscar looks up to see the car that had been leaving stopped in front of him. The person behind the voice is a handsome guy with dark curly hair and tan skin, sitting behind the wheel with one hand dangling out the window. There’s a small flicker of recognition in Oscar’s brain, he must have seen the boy around campus before.

The driver seems to have taken Oscar’s silence as hesitancy, starting to talk again. “I-um, I saw your bus fuck off into the distance, and I figured you could use some help. I live right over there.” He points vaguely to another one of the student campus buildings behind them.

Oscar opens his mouth to politely decline immediately, but stops himself. Does he really for certain have another way to get to school? He remembers how he knows this guy now, he’s friends with Charles. Anyone who’s friends with Charles gets an automatic thumbs up from him, but being in a car with them…

“Yeah, I could use a ride,” he finds himself saying, not totally sure the words are coming from his mouth. The curly haired guy seems equally surprised, but masks it quickly. “O-okay. Just come over to the passenger seat.”

Oscar walks out in front of the car, and opens the door. Any move to sit down is paused by the fact that there’s a football in the seat. The boy turns when Oscar opens the door, looking through his eyelashes at him, and his eyes are really blue from up close. A bit of green too- okay, stop analyzing his eyes, he tells himself.

The driver- Oscar decides to coin him Car Guy- notices Oscar’s predicament and grabs the football, promptly chucking it into the backseat and patting the now empty seat for Oscar, who sits.

He twists his body to face the back of the car. “Do you think you damaged anything with that throw?” he asks, trying to find the football amongst the clutter of the car. There’s a few random clothes, a cardboard box on the right.

“Eh, it’s fine,” Car Guy says with a wave of his hand. Oscar turns back to the front, buckling up. Car Guy notices what he’s doing and buckles up himself with a guilty smile. Oh God, Oscar’s totally going to die.

“Just college campus, I assume?” Car Guy asks, adjusting his rear-view mirror that has a car freshener and a necklace hanging from it. The necklace has a big 4 hanging by the end. 

“Yeah,” Oscar sets his backpack down between his legs, and braces when Car Guy starts to drive away. However, he actually seems like an okay driver, despite that seatbelt incident that may haunt Oscar’s nightmares. 

After a few streets, he chills out enough to get a proper look at who’s driving him. He has a Texas Bulls shirt on, a hoodie under it, and to top it all off, a green letterman jacket with the number 4 on it. Huh. 4 again. Maybe the number 4 has some kind of significance to him. 

He’s really pretty as well, especially up close. His long lashes, his freckles, his hair that looks like it's attempting to be a mullet. 

Don’t you dare fall for a jock Oscar, he tells himself. Because that’s what he has to be, right? He has a Bulls shirt, a sporty jacket, and a freaking football in the passenger seat. There’s nothing else he could be.

And he’s still terrified about a stranger driving him somewhere, pretty or not. He takes out his phone and pulls up his messages, finding his last conversation with Dad 2.0 (an inside joke the two of them have.) He frantically texts Charles, asking, ‘Is curly haired boy a serial killer??’

A moment later, he gets a response back, a lot of question marks. Oscar sighs, running his hand through his hair and trying not to let his thoughts spiral into how he may or may not be getting kidnapped.

# # #

Lando’s trying to be cool. He really is. But Oscar’s in his car. He wants to squeal and kick his feet and giggle.

He’s had a crush on the Australian-born boy for a while now, ever since he’d seen him actually. They’d just been passing by each other while walking across campus, but it felt like a world-changing event for Lando (okay, he may be overreacting just a little, but have you seen the man?!)

Once he learned that Oscar was friends with Charles, he came out to his friend as bi and proceeded to spend his entire time with Charles ranting about how pretty Oscar was, or what Oscar was wearing today, or could he get some pictures of Oscar pretty-please?

Needless to say, the Monegasque was tired of his pining fairly quickly. “I don’t understand why you do not just talk to him,” he’d said one day during their lunch break.

“I can’t just talk to him, Charles.”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s weird!”

“How? It’s just talking,” Charles had retorted, biting into his protein bar. “You can say it’s because you are both friends with me or something. There are ways.”

“Well, it- it’s complicated.” Charles raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have a good argument for that Charles, but just know that you’re wrong.”

So Lando had just watched Oscar from a distance (not in a creepy way or anything, just in an adoration way.) Until this morning, when he saw Oscar miss the bus, which was admittedly a little funny, he’d gotten the courage to ask if he wanted a ride. He hadn’t been expecting him to say yes, but he was ecstatic that he had.

Now they’re in the car together, and Lando’s tongue feels like lead whenever he attempts to make small talk. Oscar’s aggressively texting someone, and Lando has had to stop himself multiple times from looking at Oscar instead of the road.

Oscar sighs, running his hand through his swoopy hair. Now’s his chance. “Everything okay?” he asks, drumming a finger against the steering wheel as he waits behind a stop sign.

“Hmm?” Oscar looks up, raising his eyebrows, and Lando might die on the spot. “Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. I was just texting a friend. You know Charles, right?”

“Leclerc?”

“Yeah,” Oscar says, letting out a breathy laugh. “I was gonna ask him to drive back and pick me up but… Well I don’t know if you know this, but Charles likes to jog to school sometimes. I wasn’t sure if he had today or not.”

Lando barely processes what he’s said, which feels extremely rude even in his head. But Oscar’s smiling and it looks so cute, and the way his voice changes as he’s trying to stifle a laugh is addicting. “Oh, I think I’ve heard him talk about jogging to class sometimes. One time he texted me at like 6 am, I was so confused when he told me he was at school already.”

Oscar laughs again, and Lando tries to stop the butterflies growing in his stomach. “Ha, yeah, he’s like that. I think he just likes to be early.”

“I know, but 6 am??” 

“I’m not defending him!” Oscar says, throwing his hands in the air, the two of them laughing together. Lando feels joy spread through his chest, because Oscar seems more comfortable, he’s smiling and laughing and blushing and he looks so cute.

“Oh my gosh, I have this selfie of Charles he sent to me when he was on a run,” Oscar turns on his phone and started to scroll through his photos, eyebrows furrowed in determination. His hair droops down on his face, and Lando fights the urge to reach out and push it back.

After a minute or so, Oscar bursts out laughing. “Did you find it?” Lando asks. Oscar nods, shoulders shaking, and holds his phone out for Lando to see. It's perfect timing, they're stopped at a red light, so Lando turns his head to inspect the picture.

Charles has a headband and glasses on with no shirt. He must have been running when he took the picture, everything’s blurry and the background is just a mass of green and gray. The most noticeable thing is his face. He’s trying to wink, but it’s more like a squint, and his eyebrows are high up on his forehead. He looks partially like he ate something sour, and like he’s getting chased by a wild animal.

Lando snorts, and Oscar pulls the phone back. “I know right? Apparently, he took the photo and sent it to me without checking what it looked like, so now I have this treasure saved in my phone forever.”

# # #

They spend the rest of the car ride in silence, and Oscar regrets thinking Car Guy was someone scary or a jerk. He seems really sweet and funny. And he’s attractive. But that’s besides the point.

Charles had been blowing up Oscar’s phone ever since his vague text about Car Guy, most of it consisting of ‘who the hell are you with’ and ‘answer your phone, you’re freaking me out.’ Oscar replies to his flurry of messages with nvm. It's fine. I’ll explain later

“Is this a good place to drop you off?” Car Guy asks him, and Oscar’s head jolts up. He parked just a few minutes away from his first class.

“Oh yeah, this is perfect,” Oscar grabs his backpack and opens the car door. “Thanks for this,” he says, turning back.

“No problem,” Car Guy says with a smile. He’s got a little gap between his front teeth. “See you around?”

Oscar gives him a thumbs-up and steps out, walking down the winding sidewalk to Mr. Webber’s class in room 222.

Epilogue

Oscar still needed another alarm. He just kept forgetting. And now he was running late again, this time far too late to even try to catch the bus.

He sits on the parking lot curb, about to call Charles (he’d taken his car today,) when a familiar voice calls out to him.

“Dude, you really need to wake up earlier.”

Oscar gives Car Guy a withering glare. He leans back in his car in response, a look of barely concealed fear in his eyes. “Well, do you want a ride or not?” 

Oscar sighs and stands, getting in the passenger seat. “No football this time,” Car Guy says with a grin. Oscar can’t help but smile back.

This car ride is a lot less talkative than the last one, a playlist of Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus from Car Guy’s phone playing loudly. Oscar puts on an excellent act of pretending his ears aren’t bleeding from the music.

“Thanks again,” he says once they arrive at his stop. He gets his backpack and is about to leave when Car Guy speaks up.

“Hey um, I was wondering if maybe you could repay me by going on a date? With me?”

Oscar blinks once, twice. Car Guy obviously takes this the wrong way, his face reddening. “Never mind. Just… forget I said anything.”

“No,” Oscar says. “I don’t want to forget that. I’d love to go on a date with you.”

“Really?” Car Guy says, his eyes lighting up. “Okay, here’s my number.” He reaches into his jeans pocket and pulls out a folded Sticky-Note, pressing it into Oscar’s hand. Oscar wonders if he feels the electricity when their fingers touch too.

“Uh, this is gonna sound weird,” Oscar says, rubbing the back of his neck. “But can I get your name?”

“Oh. OH. My name’s Lando.”

“Lando,” Oscar says, testing the word on his tongue. “I’m Oscar.”

“I kinda already knew that,” Lando giggles, and now it’s Oscar turn to blush. “You look cute when you blush.” His face gets a thousand times more red.

“OkIgottagoI’lltextyoubye,” he says, almost stumbling out of the car. Once Lando’s car drives away though, he allows himself a bit of a victory dance, before walking to class with a skip in his step and only one word in his mind. Lando, Lando, Lando. 

Okay I kinda hate it 😭 But I don’t really wanna work on it more, so *tosses fanfic at the Tumblr gods and runs*

[twistersobsessed]

hiii it's bracelet anon again with another thought that's been bouncing around in my head:) hopefully it's distinctive enough from my other request since it still revolves around giving scott stuff

i was thinking that scott is really susceptible to holding anything given to him while his attention is elsewhere, like tapping away on the tablet or talking on the phone, and reader picks up on this. so it turns into a little prank amongst the team that they're constantly handing scott things to see how long until he notices. after a while they start to notice that while he usually discards whatever he was given by other team members, he pockets what reader gives to him. so he ends up with a collection of random things reader has found on the side of the road; small bones, pretty pebbles, buttons, little toys that got flung out of car windows, coins, wildflowers, etc.

thank you for listening to my ramblings<3

Like Penguins | Scott x Reader

A/N: Combined two requests.

Javi started it. He handed Scott his sunglasses to hold while he was tying his shoe. Scott took them without even looking up from the tablet he was working on.

It became a little game amongst the rest of the team, one centered around handing Scott random things to see what he’d take without question.

Today was one of those days where you were all playing the game. James handed Scott an empty soda can. It took Scott ten minutes to notice what he was holding and throw it out. Matt handed Scott a rock. It took Scott fifteen minutes to notice and discard it.

Then it was your turn. You’d found a sick coin on the side of the road earlier. You handed it to Scott and like the others, he didn’t even look at you as he took what you were offering.

It took five minutes for Scott to notice what he was holding. He held it up and to everyone’s shock, smiled, just a little bit. Then he tucked the coin into his pocket.

After that, the experiment changed. It turned into everyone urging you to keep handing Scott things. So you did. It was mostly pretty and cool rocks you’d found, but sometimes it was other things like coins or flowers.

He kept every single thing you gave him.

The team was loving throwing out theories about why. But the consensus was clear; Scott had a soft spot for you.

You almost never rode with Scott. So you were pretty excited when Javi told you you’d be riding with Scott today. Scott was stoically quiet as he drove, only seeming to pay attention to you when you started going through the center console.

You were surprised to find all the rocks and coins and flowers and other little knick knacks that you’d handed him over the last few weeks.

“Snooping is rude,” Scott’s stern voice broke through your surprise.

“You kept it all,” you said quietly.

Scott was embarrassed, refusing to look at you and keeping his eyes glued to the road. “Well, yeah,” he said, like it was obvious. “You gave them to me.”

“Scott…” you reached over the console to place your hand on his arm. Scott swore his brain short-circuited for a moment when you touched him. “Did you know penguins court each other by bringing each other pretty pebbles they find?”

Scott blinked. “I vaguely remember hearing something like that,” he replied.

“So…” you hummed, waiting for him to put it together.

“So… oh. Oh.” He looked at you with wide eyes. You couldn’t quite read the expression on his face.

“Well,” he began. “I’m not a penguin. So I’m just going to ask you out on a proper date.”

“Oh?” You grinned.

“(Name), would you like to have dinner with me?”

“Fuck yeah.”

————————————————————————

Scott drove you into the town of El Reno that weekend to go to a nice restaurant. You wore a pretty, short sun dress that you never got a chance to wear. Scott actually got red in the face when he saw you. It was off the shoulders too, Scott swore his mouth watered.

Scott had made reservations and everything. You noticed at the table once you were seated that he was nervously flipping a coin through his fingers. A coin you had given him.

You reached across the table and placed your hand gently on top of his forearm. “Thank you so much for taking me out, Scott.”

Scott smiled, his fingers slowing. “You deserve it,” he replied simply. The hand that had been playing with the coin tucked it back into his pocket before covering your hand that was on his arm. His hand was so big and warm and completely engulfed your hand. You blushed. “You’re red,” Scott commented with a small smile.

The moment was interrupted by the waitress, who couldn’t stop giving Scott bedroom eyes. It was irritating you. “What can I get for you guys?”

You and Scott pulled apart and looked at your menus. Scott ordered first, the waitress obviously flirting as she complimented his choice and called him “hun.” When she turned to you she lost all cheerful niceness and flatly asked, “And you?”

You grit your teeth and ordered, not adding your usual “thank you.” You only relaxed when the waitress walked away. “Are you okay?” Scott asked, brow furrowed. “You got really tense.” You avoided his eyes. “‘M fine.”

Scott reached across the table and opened his hand. You took his hand, your hand being engulfed once more. He ran his thumb over the back of your hand. “What’s wrong?”

“The waitress is just flirting with you really obviously right in front of me. I’m trying not to let it effect my mood, I’m sorry,” you muttered.

Scott squeezed your hand and you looked up at him. His beautiful blue eyes were intently trained on you. “Don’t apologize, sweetheart. I didn’t even notice she was flirting, I’m sorry.”

“Just watch how she treats you compared to me,” you whispered as the waitress approached, bringing your drinks. “Here you go, honey,” she cooed at Scott, placing his beer in front of him. Then she placed your glass in front of you without even looking away from Scott. “Can I get you anything else?” She asked Scott, completely ignoring you.

Scott looked pointedly at you. “I don’t know, do you want anything else, baby?” He casually dropped the pet name. The waitress finally looked at you with barely concealed disdain. She gave you a fake smile while she waited for your answer. “No,” you said, addressing Scott and not the waitress. “I’m good, honey, thank you.”

The waitress scowled and left.

You smiled. “Thank you.”

Scott looked surprised. “For what?”

“For putting a stop to it.”

Scott chuckled. “Yeah, someone’s not getting a good tip.”

The rest of your dinner went smoothly and that waitress didn’t come back. A different waiter delivered the check. “Let me see.” You reached across the table to try and grab the bill but Scott snatched it away from you. “I’m paying so there’s no need for that.”

You tried to argue but Scott wasn’t having any of it. “This is a date,” he assured you. “I took you out. I pay for dinner.”

“Thank you,” you said quietly.

Scott offered you his hand as you walked out of the restaurant. You took it, feeling nervous like a school girl around her crush.

The conversation on the ride home was casual and relaxed. You couldn’t help but notice how sexy Scott looked driving.

You pulled into the parking lot of the motel Storm Par was staying at for the night. Scott got out first and as you fumbled with your purse, he opened your car door for you. You weren’t used to this princess treatment.

Scott walked you to your room, and you both stopped outside your door. You looked up at Scott with a shy smile. Scott’s eyes didn’t meet yours though. They were trained a little bit lower. In turn, you dropped your gaze to his lips.

Scott put a hand on the side of your face and leaned down, practically bending over to press his lips to yours. The kiss was short and sweet and left you wanting way more.

“I hope you had fun,” Scott said, sounding unsure for the first time since you’d met him.

“I really did,” you assured him eagerly. “Thank you for taking me out.”

Scott just smiled. “Goodnight, (Name).”

“Goodnight, Scott.”

[bunji-enthusiast]

Could you do poly Tristan and Lancelot hc with a fem s/o?

Haha, hope this was okay anon! It’s always nice to write for either of them to be honest.

Its the wholesomeness I got in spades with these two!

Individually they are very great partners on their own, but both of them? Oh wow, you got real lucky! You are the most well-protected girl in the expanse of Britannia against any opponent. They can be a bit of clashing in terms of personality, but you can tell they always mean well for not just for yourself, but each other too. It's a working circle the three of you had managed, albeit perfectly.

Lancelot is full of worries most of the time, and he worries a lot. Even if he doesn't express it, he's come to care way too much about you and Tristan alike. You both stole a place in his heart and won't move out, and that almost scares him.

Tristan sometimes is stuck between a rock and hard-place, usually trying to be the one to amend things when going through bouts of agreements or difficulties that brought out very big emotions. But still, he could understand too, the idea that you could just suddenly lose your life and leave the other two in the process can be rather terrifying.

Life with them can tend to either swing from complete peace or complete and utter chaos, you can never truly tell what to expect. But that was only part of it, and you still chose to stick with them regardless.

Bathing together is a complete and utter rarity, many do it privately for very valid reasons. But in spa's? It is very much going to be all three of you, it's nice to be content and speak about the simple things of life.

Regardless if you are as about as strong as they are, or even weaker, they will both still very much express worry over you.

Lot's of private and domestic moments, especially during cuddle sessions. You're mostly kind of squeezed in between them or even other times your spooning Tristan or Lancelot from behind while the former holds the other.

Tristan is mainly the wounds taking care of wounds, he always insist anyway, and you couldn't say otherwise - having goddess powers really did come in handy often. Yet it was the intimacy of it whenever you or Lancelot would do it for any or all three of you, it was personal, but refreshing in a way.

Between the three of you, silent rage is truly something personal if either of you got injured. You all vow for each other and protect each other, so god help the person that injured even you, Lancelot or Tristan. If it's you alone that would have gotten injured, it's two very angry and powerful boys that the opponent would have to deal with.

Your smile and laughter? Absolutely knocks them both out (not literally), its the way the lines are so ingrained, the way the light frames your face perfectly when you smile and throw your head back to laugh. Its in the way that you have stolen their hearts so completely that they look at you like you're everything to them.

When you have your days of peace, without carrying out duties or patrol, you have dates. Which most of the time you usually suggest or bring up, other times it would be Tristan marking up the idea. However, whoever actually plans is usually a flip of coin. Though between the three of you, it's surprisingly Lancelot who plans the best kinds of dates and takes both of you into consideration about what you're comfortable with.

Hand-holding, absolutely. While it is rare for Lancelot to actually take your hand or his, he does admire it from a safe distance when you and Tristan hold hands. but when it happens to be hand-holding with him, you quite literally have to hold back the urge to scream. He's an absolute dork when this happens, and it's frankly adorable.

Sometimes, though also rare, you accidentally end up mix-matching clothes. Tristan could have your shirt, and you could have one of Lancelot's many sweatshirts (listen I know he constantly wears that outfit, which he looks good in but still).

Practice and training lessons together! Perfectly ordered in actions, and the clashing of swords and magic. usually is more so one on one, but when the three of you all together want to really practice and work at it, you all train and go against each other.

Lancelot is protective of you both, but he knows better to overstep, he's got manners after all. He just can't help but worry at times if there is some bad even that is occurring, he worries about both of you and your health. Eventually breaths thats sigh of relief when he hears one or the other's mind, through the ability of his heart-reading.

In the dense sparseness of the castle hallways, you could be seen with Tristan, just simply having a delight by dancing together. There is another pair of eyes watching you thoughtfully, not a sight he expected to wake up to and find, but nonetheless a welcome one.

The shimmering rays of the sun dawned on the still-awakening land, leaving the bustling liveliness of Liones to begin airing. Filling each and every sleeping person who begins their day with a renewed sense of emotions and a new motivation to take on the day, be it quick or sluggish. Particularly in this case, it was you and Tristan who'd awoken way earlier then Lancelot had. This was a rare case, but either of you didn't want to awaken the sleeping wild prince. So the two of you had opted to simply leave him alone and not disturb his sleep.

You chuckled as you pulled along the beautiful white-haired nephilim, who was questioning at each turn where you were taking him too. You just told him to be patient and wait till you had gotten to your desired destination. Which didn't take very long to reach fortunately.

Tentatively letting go of your hold on his wrist, you stepped into the empty yet large room. it was the dining hall only used for balls and the celebrations of birthdays alike. Tristan slowed down to a stop, watching your movements as you walked around, hearing the bountiful echos of your footstep clack against the cold-hard stone. A small smile tugged on his lips, such a simple act, yet he couldn't help but find the beauty of the chastity in it all.

Like the haunting howls of a weeping ghost, yet it was such a wonderful and tearful cry. With all the stories interwoven, and one could tell, with the scratches indented into stone from numerous footsteps made in the vast expanse of the space. One could tell, he could tell, that it wasn't the ordinary everyday thing to set off such a wonderful morning.

"What'd you bring me here for?" He asked, whence finally daring to break the uniqueness of the silence, though he was dearly endowed in wanting it to last even longer. You turned your head, the flowing locks of your hair following along. Just a small smile, a barely noticeable grin as you clasped your hands tightly behind your back.

The windows were wide, and towering, leaving the light to spill in. Casting such an ethereal glow upon the colors that made up your appearance, Tristan almost seemed to be ashamed for allowing himself to set eyes upon such a sight.

It was certainly a far cry from what he was used to, and he wasn't sure if he was prepared for it. But akin to obstacles, he would push through it and succeed.

"I was wondering," You began, walking forward toward the prince of Liones. "If you wanted to share a dance?"

"A dance?" His eyes widened, though not in disgust or reprise. It was something else entirely, you weren't sure.

You let out a hum of affirmation, cheeks colored bashfully.

"I-I uh," he stammered, before shaking his head and pulling himself together. "That sounds nice, but i'm kinda a bad dancer though." He laughed, scratching the back of his head, cheeks dusted pink with embarrassment. Oh it was a wonderful, vociferous sight to see such a bashful expression on the prince.

You had contemplated your thoughts for a moment, and the current situation of circumstances. But you decided once and for all--

"Come on anyway!" You grinned, holding out your hand for him to take. "I'll help you, promise."

He seems to be turning within himself, eyes swimming with stout doubt. One blue, one green, both colors you had almost envied him for being born with. They fit him so perfectly, like a glove. You'd stare at them for eternity if you could, for it was in eternity that you had been born with the blessing to encounter not just him, but the grumpy blonde prince as well.

It was that you had been snapped out of your daydream that Tristan took your hand, so you respond immediately, pulling him close and swimmingly performing ornate moves, and even the silliest ones. Causing to elicit laughter from both of you when either of you mess up a move.

One stamp on the foot or on the other.

"Ow!" You wince, and Tristan's expression immediately turn to concern as an apology spills out of his mouth.

"Sorry, sorry!" He said, almost frowning as he held your waist, stepping somewhat backward as he waited for you to re-adjust yourself. Tristan didn't mean to make another mistake again.

You shook your head with a giggle, pulling him close again, and holding both his hands, removing them from your waist. "I like this, it's nice compared to the stuffy royal ball kind of dancing."

His brows turned, A small smile tugging at his lips, "Oddly specific, don't you think?" You shrugged your shoulders, a knowing expression betraying the notion.

Lancelot let out a groan, noticing immediately that two bodies of warmth had disappeared from the bed. He shifts onto his elbows, raising his brows in confusion as his sight had been wrought with bleariness. He got up, shifting the blankets, but he had folded them back rather neatly. His eyes shifting, somewhat sensing the way you two had left the room. Didn't even bother to wake him up as well, he almost groans bitterly at the thought, but it was immediately replaced with some appreciation for being allowed to sleep longer.

So he finally got up, and began his quest of finding the two of you.

Which honestly didn't take very long, considering the laughter and the barely noticeable echo of steps that seemed to repeated, song and dance, he didn't even need to use his ability to read thoughts. Lancelot wasn't necessarily sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't you and Tristan dancing together.

He let out a low hum as he encountered the sight, it was somehow in a way, refreshing. It tugged at his heartstring in a way he didn't realize they could be, as he leaned against the large doorway, hands in the comfort of his pockets.

Lancelot could notice the clear smile on your face, and Tristan's face. It was a certain he was almost sure he didn't deserve to lay his eyes on. But he was content, nonetheless in drinking in the sight of beauty and laughter.

The drawled scent of petrichor and the comforting air drafted the once musty hallways, spilling in from the vast expanse of the empty ballroom naught for the two bodies making it sing so lively. It was one spin, then another step then two steps, that he was sure that he was so, so lucky to find such a sight.

Lancelot's head was tilted in thought, the energy imbuing him with a sense of rejuvenation he never had felt before, the assurance of living as long as your partners. The excitement of memories to come, and surely he was sorely going to imbed this to memory for as-long as he lived, and Lancelot sure as hell didn't mind the thought of that.

"You're pretty silly sometimes, I swear Tristan," You comment, sticking out your tongue as you looked at him, quite a wide grin.

The whiter-haired prince shook his head at your remark, letting out a small scoff as he pulled you close. Enrapturing you in a surprise hug, then pulled back.

"I believe you are... sillier than I." He punctuates with a goofy expression, as he pats your head, and you just smile, features softening almost impossibly.

"Could be me, but there's enough of that goin' around."

You and Tristan's heads had turned to the source of the voice, finding Lancelot to be the source. You jumped in surprise, almost stammering, "What? how long have you been there?"

"Long enough to see you two prancing around." He shot back, you could almost see the expression of fatigue slowly wearing out from existence on his face, you assume he had recently awoken.

Tristan just laughs, crossing his arms, "You wanna join us? It's pretty fun." He said, a remarkably kind smile on his own face. Your eyes flit between him and Lancelot, and yet then, only you and Tristan burst out in laughter. While the blonde just scoffed, pressing forward to join you both in the room.

But, he really couldn't deny it, always enjoyed the sights of beauty.

[absurdthirst]

YESSSSSSS

Headcanons for when the Pedro boys come home after a long trip and find out that reader has put on some weight? (Whiskey and Frankie are usually my favorites in these things 💖🥺🌸)

Coming Home To Find Out That You've Put On Weight:

**Female Reader

Javier Peña: He's not going to mention it. He's not stupid. He can tell you are a bit nervous, you tug your shirt down over the extra curves that you aren't happy with and you hesitate to get naked when he is trying to strip you down. He showers your neck and lips with extra kisses, pressing his aching cock against your soft stomach and growls that he has missed you and needs to be inside you. Gonna go a little harder with you though, more cushion for the pushing is the saying, right?

Ezra: Delighted. You haven't been living off bits bars and meager rations. Maybe a little greedy for the fact that he might get better meals than what he had been having since being away from you. Plus he is of the opinion that every form is beautiful; fat, thin, tall, short, it doesn't matter. Your cunt is still hot and clutches around him like a glove and in your arms, he finds the solace he craves.

Mando: Mando yearns for softness. Everything in his life is hard, unyielding. His armor, his creed, even his cot is hard as a rock. So when he comes back to the covert to find that you are softer, he loves it. You can't see his express, because the room is pitch black, but you can feel the eagerness of his touch. The moans even louder when he squeezes parts of you that are a little fleshier than before. It might be the quickest he's ever finished.

Frankie Morales: See, Frankie loves a thicker girl. Those thighs you hate? He loves them. They are soft and cushiony, a perfect place for him to lay his head down on while pretending to watch tv with you. He always falls asleep. That pooch over your pussy? Fucking loves it, constantly touching it. So when he was deployed for eight months and he came home to find that you had put on a little weight, it didn't bother him at all. He was still going to strip you down as soon as the kids were taking and nap and explore ever soft curve you have with glee and exhaust himself and you.

Pero Tovar: Another man who does not mind if your waist grows thicker or your body is softer. Pero loves it. It shows that you did not starve while he was away, a constant source of guilt and worry for him. He had left you enough coins to last and you had obviously been successful in your gardens and trapping animals like he had hoped. The weight you have added might have made you have to let our your dresses, but your tits are also bigger, so it's extra fun for Pero.

Max Phillips: Whistles when he sees you. For a moment, he thinks about making a sarcastic comment about the weight gain, but he can see that you are actually self conscious. Max might be an egotistical, vain prick, but he's not cruel to you. You are still sexy to him. "There's my little blood bag." He hums, sweeping you into his arms and kissing you before smelling your pulse. "You look good enough to eat." He growls playfully, even though you both know that he will feed off of you when he is done making you scream his name.

Agent Whiskey: Listen, this man can throw a grown ass man around with a whip, you think you gaining some weight is going to take the fun out of the rodeo? He doesn't give a shit what the number on the scale says, as long as you still ride his mustache and his cock, Jack Daniels will be a happy man. Plus, he likes the extra jiggle.

Marcus Pike: Understands completely. He's been talking to you on the phone, knows that you have been doing the quick and easy dinners and snacking more - he has too. He doesn't mind the extra weight, as long as you don't. If you complain about it, he will offer to go for walks at night when he gets home or go with you to the gym in the mornings before work. If you don't say a word, this man will just happily love you as you are.

Oberyn Martell: Immediately asks if you are carrying a child. He has been gone for two months and when he finds that there is weight on your stomach, he is smiling as he caresses your skin, hoping for another child. The only way this man is disappointed is when you tell him that you have had your bleeding consistently while he was away. Then he will pout. But only because there is not another Sand Snake on the way. Then he will just get busy making that happen.

Dave York: He's getting older and the fucking weight just doesn't come off like it used too. He hates running, unless he absolutely must, so it doesn't bother him. Not really. Does he have the stray thought that you weigh a little more when you're riding him? Yeah, but he knows better than to say that shit out loud.

Zach Wellison: Doesn't say a word. He notices, but it's not his place to say anything. He's been gone, and you've been doing everything yourself. He just kisses you and asks how you have been while he's been gone.

Dieter Bravo: Doesn't really recognize you put on weight. He's just happy you are still here when he gets home, and you want to fuck him. He's greedy and needy in bed all at the same time, but after the deed is over, he's soooooo comfortable cuddling into you that he calls you his new pillow and drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face.

Javi Gutierrez: He notices. He notices everything about you. It doesn't matter to him. You are still perfect. You are still the woman he adores. Coming back from filming his latest screenplay is a relief and he is over the moon to be reunited with you. His love for you is pure and real, it's not even going to matter if you gained weight to him. He just has more of you to love.

Max Lord: Max is one who loves appearances, so this is something that you worry yourself sick over. The 80s is a time where everyone wants to be supermodel thin and gaining weight is heavily frowned upon. So you are a wreck when Max comes home from the super secret trip that he had taken. Only to find that he is completely unaware that anything has changed. He's too focused on being successful.

Marcus Moreno: Doesn't care. Are you healthy? Are you happy? If not, then he will help you however you need. If you are, then he is happy. He loves you and completely understands that bodies change over time. He's not wearing the same size Heroic's tac vest he was a few years ago, and it's not because he's gotten smaller. He's still gonna find you irresistible and slap your ass when he walks by you in the kitchen every morning. Maybe even more so now.

Tim Rockford: All the evidence points to the new flavor of cookie you've discovered. It's a good cookie. Tim is just happy to be home, that case took way too long to solve and he just wants to curl around your thicker frame after he's made you cum and sleep for a week. He doesn't care about weight, he's home and the case is solved.

Joel Miller: Doesn't bother him a damn bit. You still fit into your clothes, although they are tighter. Joel cares about you, not what size you are. There are more important things to worry about as long as you are healthy.

Marcus Acacius: It's been two years since he has seen your face. The memory of your last kiss, the last time he made love to you, has carried him through the campaign that had taken so many Roman soldiers. You look gorgeous to his weary eyes, a safe harbor to take shelter in. The plumpness of your new body does not take away from the way he needs you. This is a man who is just happy to have come back home to you.

[streetlightyeri]

false god ; boone

“i know heaven’s a thing, i go there when you touch me.”

[aka, boone is good at using a camera for more than just storm chasing]

w.c: 3444

warnings: 18+ MDNI. smut (oral, piv, breath play? in the lightest sense of the word, bandana used as gag).

notes: no beta, not even proofread lol i just needed to post this, i'll come back and edit at a later time. this is a piece from my wip about boone for my twisters/zach bryan song fic series (scott's is in progress as well a part two for "oklahoma smokeshow" for tyler). this was supposed to be fluff, slice of life moment, idk what happened <3 and as always, the fmc has a name but no descriptors bc i cannot personally write in 2nd person

-

She surprised him while they were on a chase. She was going to be in the state for no more than a few hours - when he headed out tomorrow she would be too. But she was able to get the information of where the crew was staying from Dani with the promise she would keep her mouth shut about it. Dani must’ve talked Tyler into letting them crash at a nicer place for the night because instead of a motel that Rowan was sure would give her hives, she pulled up to a very respectable 3 star chain hotel. She made a mental note to buy that girl whatever her heart desired.

Rowan pulled her hood closer around her neck and her hat farther down onto her head. She locked her vehicle behind her, keeping her head down as she walked to the side entrance Dani propped open for her. Once she made it in, she kicked the rock out the door jam and made her way to the elevator.

Rowan tried to calm her nerves as the elevator rose to the 4th floor. Her heartbeat picked up once the doors opened. She followed the signs to room 435. It was a corner room. Now Rowan was certain Dani had roped everyone into the plan; otherwise, a room like this would’ve been a coin toss or a game of pulling straws to see who got it. Her face burned at the thought.

But nevertheless, she knocked on the door. Boone’s voice came from the other side. “Yeah?” He was expecting someone from the team to respond, but heard nothing. He called out again. Rowan knocked in response.

She heard shuffling before the sound of the lock clicking. When the door swung open, she looked up, met with the sight of her boyfriend dressed in the same clothes he must’ve been wearing that day: jeans, a wifebeater, and a bandana tied around his neck. She could see his camo button down discarded on the end of the bed and his hat on the nightstand. A smile grew across her face as the moment started to click for him. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the room, double checking no one was lurking in the hallway before shutting the door. He turned the lock again and also flipped the deadbolt now that she was here.

When he turned back to her, he nearly tackled her onto the floor, throwing her hat to some corner of the room. But he managed to get his bearings before they lost their balance. His lips found hers; she could feel his smile as he kissed her. He walked them to the bed, keeping his hand behind her head to absorb the impact as her knees bent and her back hit the mattress.

He paused to pull back and look at her again, making sure she was real. “Hi, baby.”

She let out a giggle. “Hi, Boone.”

He leaned down and kissed her again, but stopped when her hand came up and pushed his shoulder back slightly. He knit his brows when she patted the bed next to herself but complied. She sat up to be eye level with him. He couldn’t believe she was here; his hands found her hips, sliding up her sweatshirt to rub circles on her soft skin. She wasn’t any better; she was trying to find her words but the way he was looking at her with his big doe eyes, like she was the best thing he’d ever seen, was making her brain short circuit. A haste kiss from him jump started her again.

“I have a . . . gift, of sorts, for you.”

He raised his eyebrows, “Is you being here not it?”

Rowan felt her cheeks heating up, her hands dropping from playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. She stood up and walked to her duffle bag she discarded blindly when he tackled her. She reached in and brought out the small box she wrapped in a haste and walked back over to him, leveling him with a serious gaze. “No one can know about this. Absolutely no one.”

“What is it, baby?”

“Promise me you will never show anyone this. Ever. No matter what.”

“I promise.”

She sat back down and handed him the box. He made quick work with the paper, his jaw dropping when he saw the picture on the side of the box: a camcorder. Nothing fancy, absolutely no bells and whistles. But Boone always had a thing for cameras. He’d started messing around with them back when he was enrolled in community college, fresh out of high school, still trying to figure out what the hell he wanted to do with his life. There was nothing more exciting to him than getting the perfect shot.

“You know how hesitant I’ve been about, uh,” she cleared her throat, “filming. But I thought about it. With something like this, there’s no cloud it gets uploaded to, no internet required. Nothing anyone can hack. It’s not the best quality, but it was the best I could find that I was comfortable with.”

He dropped the box on the bed next to him and grabbed her head in his hands; they were so large his fingertips met at the back. “Rowan, baby, please tell me you know I am fine with never recording us? I don’t want you to feel pressured. I let go of that fantasy a while ago. If you’re not comfortable with it, then it isn’t hot anymore.”

She nodded through his grip. “I know.”

He kissed her again, letting go of her with a whoop of excitement before he opened the tape on the box with his pocket knife. He pulled out the recorder and inserted the SD card, flipping open the screen, taking a sweep of the room. He played around with the settings, adjusting it for the room’s lighting. He was so confident in his knowledge of the camera. In seconds he got it looking more like 720p instead of the 480p she saw when using it in the store.

He flipped the screen so he could see himself as he recorded. He introduced himself to his imaginary audience while Rowan rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his torso. He used his free hand to run a hand down her hair. He lowered the camera to capture her face for a second. “And this is my beautiful girlfriend.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “She is the reason I have this camera. I think she’s embarrassed, but don’t worry, I’ll get her used to showing her face.”

She pulled back and hit his shoulder with a laugh while he winked at the camera. He flipped the screen and turned to film her, catching the perfect angle where the setting sun cut through the curtains to leave a beam running across her face. “She loves me so much she surprised me. Can’t believe she kept this a secret.”

“I was so close to spilling! You kept texting me about how much you missed me! And I had to lie that I wasn’t in Oklahoma. I even had Dani working with me to cover it up. I would send photos from the view outside my apartment that I’d been saving up for her to show you. I was scared you’d get suspicious when I kept refusing to FaceTime.”

He laughed from behind the camera. “You are a terrible liar.”

She faked a gasp, “Take that back!”

He smirked, “I think I can think of a way to make it up to you.”

She pulled her legs to her chest and looked straight at the lens of the camera, “Well then, why don’t you show me?”

He deposited the camera on the nightstand, throwing his hat elsewhere to make sure he had enough space to get the entire bed in the frame. One he was certain they’d be visible, he tore his shirt off and made quick work of hers. He lifted her bridal style to put her correctly on the bed. He untied his bandana and tied it around her neck; he liked seeing her wear it. He hovered over her on his arms, his hair and gold chain dangling into her face. She felt her face and chest flush. No matter how many times they found themselves like this, Rowan always felt like Boone was admiring her like a precious stone.

He shifted his weight and used his right hand to run his thumb over her red cheek. “God you’re so beautiful, baby.”

He undid her bra and he moved to sit on his haunches, admiring her from above. Her chest rose and fell as his brown eyes raked over her entire frame, leaving her skin burning in their wake. His calloused hands ghosted over her waist so lightly, her body jerked from the tickling sensation. His two index fingers ran under the waistband of her jean shorts; his eyes flickered up to her for permission. She kept her eyes stilled on him as she nodded. His eyes flickered over to the camera; he could see her side angle perfectly, surrounded by plush sheets while he hung over her.

“Is the camera okay?”

She nodded again, not looking at it.

“Need words, baby.”

She opened her mouth but hesitated. In seconds, he had the camera in his hand, about to snap the screen shut and stop the recording. Her hand reached up and wrapped around his wrist. “It’s okay, Boone.”

He shook his head. “No. You’re tense. We’re not doing it if you’re not 100% with it.”

She tightened her grip on his wrist when he tried to turn it off again. “I am. I promise. If you’re okay, I am. I’ll get used to it.”

He hesitated. He didn’t want her doing this for him.

“If I wasn’t comfortable with it, I wouldn’t have bought the camera.”

“You’re allowed to change your mind, no matter who bought the camera.”

She moved to intertwine her fingers with his, bringing his knuckles down to kiss them. “I’ll tell you if I change my mind.”

He pursed his lips, “Promise?”

She smiled up at him, “Promise.”

She helped him set up his perfect angle again before he rided her of her shorts and underwear. His hands ran up and down her side, taking count of every inch of skin. He rememorized every mole and freckle. His lips found hers again, making his way slowly down her neck, shoulder, the valley of her breasts while his finger twisted at her nipples. She felt him smirk against her skin when she gasped, hands reaching out to grip the sheets. He left bites on the smooth skin of her stomach, a place he was often drawn to. A place he could mark that no one would know.

When he made it between her thighs, he groaned. “There’s my girl.”

Rowan bit her bottom lip to stifle the sound that brought out of her.

Boone’s hands tightened on her hips; she could feel each finger digging into her skin. He pressed sloppy, wet kisses to the inside of her thighs. Her toes curled in anticipation, legs locking to try and prevent them from tightening around his head. Not that he would’ve cared. He had spent weeks warming her up to the idea of sitting on his face so he could finally feast like he wanted. She would never forget the way he locked his muscular arms around her thighs to keep her core connected with his mouth while he ate her out like his life depended on it, like he wasn’t destroying her for any other man ever. 

When he finally connected his mouth to her cunt, he moaned into her, making a shiver run up her entire body as her hands moved to grip his hair. Her fingers twisted in his locks, making him let out another satisfied noise. His tongue reached out to lap at her core, taking in the sweet release and relishing in the taste. One hand moved to splay across her stomach, lightly opening and closing to keep her down and to scratch at her skin comfortingly; the other moved to leave bruises of his finger prints on her thighs before one finger, then two, then three pushed themselves into her. Her rapid breaths and whines filled the room as her hips jerked from the way he ate. While his fingers curled into the spot he knew made her see stars, his tongue circled her clit with unrelenting determination.

He glanced up at her, seeing her head thrown back with eyes screwed closed as he increased his pace. He knew he was doing good when he felt her body tensing up below him, her legs beginning to shake. She gave a hard tug on his hair when he pulled away and let out a stream of cold breath onto her clit before attaching his hot mouth back to it. She came with a cry of his name, tensing around him as her blood seemed to run through white hot fire. Her thighs clamped around his head, spurring him on to continue his feast as he rode her through her high. He managed to get his right hand free and bring it up to her mouth, tapping her lips which she opened without question. He shoved them in, so long he almost triggered her gag reflex. She instantly closed around them, sucking herself off of him while effectively silencing her from their neighbor’s ears. He used his thumb and pinky to grip her chin and turn her face to the camera. She whimpered when she saw how much of a mess she was, how much of a submissive puddle he turned her into without trying. The visual spurred her into another orgasm. When she finally came back to Earth, she let her legs go limp and released her boyfriend, much to his dismay.

He traced his lips back up to hers, pushing into her mouth. When he released their kiss, he left small pecks on her jaw, coming to her ear, “My favorite meal. Now my favorite show.”

She grabbed his jaw and brought him back to her lips where he lost himself for an unknown amount of time. He was achingly hard. Rowan ran her hand down his shoulders, past the scar on his ribs from when he got hit by a tree branch in the field, down his abs that he gained from always running from tornadoes, to run her hand over his length. She would never get used to it; he was the biggest she’d ever had, and he knew how to use it. He could bring her to tears without being fully seated in her. He had to coach her into taking deep breaths the first time they’d done it because she was so tense he couldn’t push in. Now, they knew the drill.

She pulled his belt off with one hand and discarded it somewhere in the room before popping his button. He discarded his pants and underwear off the bed, once again on his haunches, pumping himself in his right hand. Her hair was a messy halo around her, her skin shiny with sweat.

He lifted her legs to hang over his thighs, leaving her wide open for him to push into her without pain. His eyes flickered to the camera before coming back to hers; she nodded. He picked the camera up, and fixed the angle to where it was a clear shot of him entering her. With every inch he gave, her whimpers grew louder. “Bite down on the bandana for me sweetheart.”

She nodded blindly, biting down on the cloth that smelled exactly like him, like the cologne he wore that made her nearly stumble when she first met him. Her senses were clouded from anything else in the world. All that existed was him. The camera was an extension of him, like it always was.

When he was fully seated in, he gave a few long in and out thrusts, letting her adjust to his size before putting the recorder in its spot. When she gave him the nod that he was okay to move, he lifted one of her legs to rest on his shoulder, pressing a kiss to her ankle where she had a tattoo of a tornado, courtesy of Lilly and an empty bottle of Jack.

He gripped her hip with his free hand before he began to hammer into her. The sound of skin slapping filled the room. Her noises were one of his favorite things about sex with her, but he really did not need the neighbors knowing that he hadn’t even given her 30 minutes before they went at it; the bandana was not cutting it. He gathered up the material that was still hanging out her mouth and shoved it in. He gave a short “sorry” when he heard her gag but he wasn’t sure she heard it because he gave a very hard thrust at the same time that caused her eyes to roll backwards. He placed his hand over her mouth as well to keep her silent, her leg pressed against her chest.

Her hands dug crescents into his biceps and left long marks down his back. He had absolutely no complaints. If he could find a way to make the feel of him buried in her cunt permanent, he would. Boone grunted in her ear when she squeezed around him, “Be good, honey.” He felt her moan vibrate through his hand. 

She was getting close, he could feel it. She kept lifting her hips in a way to both escape the pleasure but also find new angles for him to hit in hopes it would be what set her off. He snaked his hand off her hip and used his rough thumb to circle her clit. In seconds, he sent her over the edge. She tensed so hard around him he couldn’t thrust her through it. Her tightness sent him over the edge, his face buried in her hair while he was groaning her name paired with a whimper of overstimulation. When he finally pulled out, he got the camera again to film the dripping of his spend out her cunt. He reached a hand out and smeared his cum across her cunt. She jerked and whimpered, the feeling too much so soon after he finished her again. 

He turned the camera to her face as he gave her his cum covered fingers to suck on. She had a sleepy, not-fully-on-Earth smile plastered on her face. She stared at the lens, at the extension of Boone, “Hi, baby.”

He held the camera out with one arm while he moved to connect their lips again.

The camera ran out of battery just as Boone was setting it up to look into the shower, right after he got a shot of Rowan on her knees with her tongue out, covered in his release, before she swallowed and showed her empty tongue to the camera.

He cursed when the screen turned black, an alert to change SD cards coming up. Rowan laughed and closed it after turning it off, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the shower. “You’ll just have to remember this round.”

-

Her hair left a damp spot on the pillow beneath him, but he didn’t mind. She was half asleep in the nook he made for her between his shoulder and arm, her eyes closed as she inhaled the scent of his soap and shampoo. If his arm was asleep under her, he said nothing. He had changed the sheets with the ones from the closet while she searched through his bag and her own to find something to wear. She ultimately decided on a pair of sleep shorts she brought and one of his plain t-shirts that hung oversized on her. She had a fist resting on his chest and had her leg across his waist; he lightly scratched at it, a comforting motion to help lure her to sleep.

He adjusted his head to leave a kiss on the top of her head. “I love you, Rowan.”

She was too tired to make any words, so she gave him a hum that both acknowledged his words and returned the sentiment. She kissed the nearest part of him she could before settling back into her cocoon. He pulled the blankets up closer to her chin.