#pedro pascal characters

[pedroscurls]

love at last (one-shot)

summary: harry’s never been in love before… until he meets you, which awakens a part of him that he never thought he was capable of.

pairing: harry castillo x fem!reader content warning(s): minor spoilers so please beware!, love at first sight trope, harry is charming and completely smitten, mainly harry POV, harry + reader go on dates!, no use of y/n. word count: 4.6k a/n: i just finished watching materialists and i'm OBSESSED with harry so obviously the next best thing is to write for him. please heed the warnings, there will be a few spoilers mentioned in this story!!! hope you enjoy nonetheless bc i'm gonna be dreaming about harry for a long time (look at those CURLS in that second pic tho jfc 🥵)

Harry had given up on the idea of love. He hadn’t felt it before and he felt like life was just passing him by. Was something wrong with him? Was he just not capable of falling in love—being in love? 

Lucy was a good match for him, but it felt forced. There was a mutual attraction, but something had been missing and he wasn’t sure what it was. 

Not until she said that she didn’t love him. Harry realized at that moment that he didn’t love her either. Lucy said it was supposed to be easy, but he wasn’t sure anymore. He tried Adore’s services, but the matches didn’t feel real, didn’t feel authentic. These women just wanted him for his money, his height, his job. He checked a lot of the women’s boxes—he was a unicorn, which Lucy liked to put it. 

But it never felt easy. He looked at each woman from a business standpoint, something transactional, but Harry yearned for something more. 

Something deep. 

Something real.

So, he canceled his membership and decided that maybe love was just never going to be in the cards for him. 

And maybe that he didn’t need it anyway. 

The dating scene in New York was horrific. To you, it felt like every nice man in the world didn’t exist. All the dates you had been on ended terribly—with some even ending early. 

The men were either too judgmental or too self-centered, or worse—just wanted one thing and one thing only. Was it this hard to find someone nice? You thought maybe you had been too picky, so you lessened your expectations—that didn’t work either. 

So, you decided to stop dating altogether and instead put your focus into work. If the universe wanted you to be in love, then maybe you should just be patient and let life do its own work. 

Harry had felt instant attraction before, but the first time he laid eyes on you it felt like time stood still. You were laughing at something someone said and he felt a flutter at the pit of his stomach. He’s never seen you at any of his family’s parties before, he would have remembered you. 

He ordered a drink at the bar as he glanced at you from the corner of his eye. Your smile was so warm, so kind, so genuine. He normally has this natural confidence in him, but when he saw you walking towards the bar, he straightened up and felt his heart race faster. 

Maybe you were a friend of his sister-in-law, he wasn’t sure. His family’s parties were usually so big that he doesn’t remember who’s who. But he knew that he was definitely going to remember you. 

The party was for his brother and his wife—a baby shower and gender reveal. A year after their wedding and they’re already expecting. 

He felt you stand next to him and then he heard your voice, which only made him even more nervous because you sounded so sweet, so nice. Harry had taken a deep breath and then finally turned his body to face yours, but when your eyes met his own, he felt his stomach do flips. 

“Hi,” you said with a small smile. 

“Hi,” he replied with one of his own. 

“Friend of the family?” you asked. 

Harry shook his head. “Older brother.” 

You widened your eyes and reached out to rest a hand over his forearm—a natural reaction from you. “Oh my god, you’re Harry.” 

Harry looked down at your hand briefly and smiled, nodding in your direction. “That’d be me. Are you friends with my brother or…” 

“I’m friends with Charlotte,” you answered, dropping your hand from his forearm. “I was teaching English abroad so I couldn’t make it to her wedding. I’m just glad I could make it for this event.” 

“Where did you teach?” Harry asked. 

“Philippines,” you smiled brightly. “It was amazing. I loved it there.” 

Harry couldn’t help but smile too. You made him feel comfortable, despite the nerves he was feeling before you walked over. “And now? Are you going back there to teach?” 

You shook your head. “It was only a two year contract. I have my certification now to teach English to non-native English speakers here in the States, so New York is home for now.” 

Harry could hear the passion for your work in your voice and the way your entire face lit up. It was refreshing—talking to someone who actually enjoyed what they did for a living. “So you’re teaching at a school? Elementary?” 

You let out a quiet laugh and shook your head again. “As much as I loved teaching younger kids when I was in the Philippines, my focus now is teaching adult learners. I work at a local community college.” 

Harry smiled to himself. He heard the bartender set your glass of wine next to you and you turned away from him to thank the other man from behind the counter. The same genuine and kind smile lining your lips. 

“You sound like you love your job,” he said. 

“Oh, I do. It’s a lot of work, but it’s so rewarding. I try to tell my students that learning English shouldn’t ever replace their native tongue,” you continued. “That their native language is something to be proud of and that just because they’re learning English doesn’t mean it replaces the language they know and grew up with.” 

“You must be an amazing teacher,” he grinned. 

“I try to be,” you laughed quietly. You could feel your cheeks heating up as you took note of just how handsome he is. You had heard about Harry from your dinners with Charlotte, but she didn’t say how extremely handsome he was or how deep his brown eyes were. 

“And I’m just in private equity,” he sighed teasingly. 

“Well, at least you’re rich,” you laughed quietly. “I bet that’s nice.” 

Harry shrugged. He wondered if this is where the conversation will shift, if the genuine authenticity he felt from you will disappear. “It’s a family business.” 

“Oh, so it’s not what you would have wanted to do?” You asked, taking a sip from your glass. You lean against the counter of the bar and stare up at him. “If it isn’t, what would you have wanted to pursue?” 

Harry tilted his head as he brought his own glass to his lips. He stared at you from the rim of his glass and then dropped his eyes momentarily to look down at his feet. “Not sure. I haven’t really had the chance to even think of what I would want to do if I wasn’t in the family business.” 

“Hm,” you said, eyes looking up at him from top to bottom. “Maybe a model?” 

He grinned. “Are you hitting on me?” 

“And if I am?” you smiled, eyes staring deeply into his own. 

Harry’s brows slightly raised at your forwardness and he glanced off to the side when he heard his name being called. Then, he looked at you and shot you an apologetic look. “Could I get your name?” 

You smiled and shrugged. “Find me later if you really want to find out, Harry.” You turned on your heel and left him at the counter of the bar when the other guests approached Harry. You glanced over your shoulder to see his eyes staring directly at you as he nodded at whatever the other person is saying. 

You and Harry kept stealing glances at each other from across the room. You could see the way his eyes lingered along your frame and you’re already three drinks in and feeling very brave. 

When Charlotte and Peter found out they’re having a boy, the music only became louder and everyone began dancing. Harry’s eyes stayed focused on you as he walked through the crowd straight to you. He sat next to you and smiled to himself, tilting his head in your direction. 

“Will you tell me your name now?” Harry asked.

You smiled and nodded, telling him your name as you turned your body to face his. You drape one of your legs over the other as you set aside your finished glass of wine. 

Harry smiled. “It’s nice to officially meet you,” he nodded.  “Now, would you like to dance?” 

“Oh, I don’t—” 

Harry interrupted you by standing up. He extended a hand out for you and maintained that charming smile. “If I say please, will you reconsider?” 

You bit your lower lip and shook your head, slipping your hand into his own. He helped you to your feet and then led you onto the dance floor. One of his arms snaked around your waist, pulling you closer to him as he kept a tight hold on your hand. You bit your lower lip and moved your free hand to rest on his shoulder. 

Being this close to him was intoxicating—feeling his broad chest remain flush against your own, his deep brown eyes staring directly at you as if you were the only person in the room, and god he smelled so good. You inhaled quietly and let your eyes fall shut, allowing him to lead you through the slow dance. 

“Can I take you out to dinner?” he whispered into your ear. 

You pulled back and opened your eyes to look at him. He’s still fucking smiling. 

“Are you asking me out, Harry?” 

“Would that be a bad thing?” 

You stared into his eyes as you both sway side to side to the song. You had sworn off dating after so many failed dates, but Harry… Well, there was something about him that piqued your interest from the moment you laid eyes on him today. 

“Well, no, but—”

His smile dropped and his eyes softened. “Oh shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask if you were seeing anyone.” 

You could feel his hold around you loosen, but you tightened your grip around his hand and pulled him back flush against you. “I’m not seeing anyone.” 

“Oh,” he nodded slowly. “Okay, great. That’s—That’s great for me,” he chuckles quietly. 

“But I kind of sworn off dating… at least for a while,” you admitted. “Lots of bad dates and I just—”

Harry spun you around and pulled you back into his chest, holding you tighter now. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” he whispered. “Do whatever you want to do… and if after that date you decide you want to officially swear off dating, then I’ll go my own way and you’ll go yours.” 

“You’re charming, you know that?” You smiled, biting the inside of your cheek. 

Harry shrugged, though a large grin lined his lips. “So, is that a yes?” 

“Okay, one date.” 

“One date is all I need,” he smiled, kissing your cheek and holding you firmly against him as he continued to dance with you. 

On your first date with Harry, he had taken you to one the finest restaurants in New York. It had taken you by surprise and you felt very out of your element. You weren’t used to dates like this. He was very chivalrous—he showed up with flowers, opened doors for you, pulled out your seat, and even offered his coat when he noticed you were getting cold. 

And the conversation came easy. He made you laugh and you made him blush. How could someone like him be single? When he reached for your hand during the walk around the park, you looked up at him and found him smiling in your direction. 

He didn’t kiss you on the lips when he brought you back home. Harry had just cupped your cheek, whispered that he had a great time, and kissed your forehead. It was the simplest gesture, nothing too grand or over the top, but you felt your stomach flutter with butterflies. 

Then, you asked him out for a second date. He was grinning—dimples deep in his cheek as his hand dropped from your cheek to wrap around your waist. His strong embrace filled you with so much warmth, so much anticipation because for some strange reason, it felt like you belonged there. In his arms. 

He insisted that he take you out to one of his favorite restaurants and you agreed with a smile. Harry kissed your cheek that same night before walking back to his car. He waited until you were inside before driving away. 

On the second date, Harry wanted to surprise you. He took you to a sushi restaurant—something more casual, but still romantic nonetheless. He rented out the entire small restaurant just for the both of you. The look of surprise on his face made him feel proud, more confident that maybe you wanted to date him more exclusively. 

Harry enjoyed spending time with you and how you had always given him your sole attention and focus. It even brought a smile to his face at just how kind you were to everyone you encountered. During the date, you were intrigued and interested in how the head sushi chefs were making the food. 

It was such an intimate setting and it felt easy. Harry had to wonder if this was what Lucy said a year ago—love should be easy. With the right person, love can be the easiest thing in the world. 

Throughout the date, you were becoming more touchy. A hand on his forearm or leaning against him as you let out a laugh that wracked your entire body. Even after the date when you both were walking around the same park again, he had taken your hand and you laced your fingers with his. Then, he felt your head rest against his shoulder and it made the flutter in his stomach more noticeable. 

When he dropped you off at your front door, you had stared up at him with your big eyes and he wanted nothing more than to pull you into him and press his lips against yours. 

But Harry didn’t. He wanted to respect you and your boundaries. You were playing with the lapel of his jacket before gripping it and pulling him against you. Harry’s hands had darted out to rest on your hips—to steady you, to ground himself. 

“Are you gonna ask to kiss me, Harry?” you had whispered. 

Harry’s lips parted as he stared into your eyes. The grip on the hips tightened and he gave you a single nod. He had taken a step forward, eyes completely dark and filled with desire. “Just wanted to make sure you were comfortable.” 

You smiled and moved your hands to play with the hair at his nape, the curls at the back of his head. You leaned in—just enough for the tip of your nose to brush against his. Harry inhaled sharply. 

“If you don’t kiss me now, Harry, I’m gonna think you don’t like me.” 

Harry tilted his head and leaned forward, nudging your nose with his own. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?” He moved one of his hands to your cheek and leaned in to press his lips firmly against your own. He remembered how soft and warm your lips were, the sound of a quiet whimper escaping you, and the way his heart was racing. Harry hadn’t felt like this before—how even when he wasn’t around you, all he could do was think about you, or how the butterflies in the pit of his stomach fluttered whenever he saw your name flash across his phone. 

It also made him feel special whenever you were together. You were kind and generous to strangers, but he always felt like the luckiest person whenever your attention was shifted to him. This was only the second date and Harry found himself wanting this to be more exclusive as the date continued. 

The kiss lasted only a few more seconds—the both of you getting carried away before you pulled away from him. Harry remembered the look on your face. The small smile that lined your lips, the way your arms had loosely wrapped around his shoulders, your eyes gazing repeatedly down to his lips like you wanted more. Needed more. 

“Where do you want to go for our third date?” he asked, whispering quietly as he brushed his lips with yours.

“How about I plan it?” you replied, pursing your lips to capture his own in a gentle kiss. 

“Yeah?” Harry asked, dropping his hand from your cheek to join his other at your lower back. He laced his fingers and pulled you flush against him, the feeling of your body heat radiating against his own awakening something deep inside of him. Yearning. Desire. Need. 

“Yeah,” you nodded. “Let me take you out this time.” 

Harry smiled. He had always been the one to plan the dates, to cater to the other person that he was slightly taken aback at your offer. It made him feel giddy, excited at the possibility of what you would plan. “Okay,” he answered. “I’ll let you take me out this time.” 

“Good,” you smiled and pecked his lips. “I’ll see you then?”

Harry nodded, but pulled you back into a deep kiss. This time—it was intense, more intimate, urgent. His lips moved with your own and his hands drifted lower until the tips of his fingers rested just above your ass. He wanted to reach down and squeeze, but he didn’t. Not yet, he told himself. Not yet. 

“I’ll see you then, baby.”

On the third date, you had told him to dress casually. He called you just before he was about to pick you up, asking just how casual he was supposed to dress. You had smiled to yourself and told him casual enough to the point where he wouldn’t care if his clothes would get wrinkled. 

So, when he picked you up—dressed in a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt with sneakers, you practically wanted to pull him back into your apartment. The date could wait a little longer. You loved seeing him in a suit—had gotten used to seeing him dressed so formally—but seeing him like this, so relaxed and casual just made him sexier. 

“This casual enough?” he asked, presenting you with another bouquet of flowers. 

“You look hot,” you complimented and leaned in to peck his lips. He smiled when you pulled away and then took your hand to lead you outside of your apartment. 

“So…” you told him. “We’re having a picnic.”

Harry grinned and pulled you close to him. You hadn’t yet closed the door to your apartment, but he leaned in and pressed his lips eagerly against your own. Without hesitation, he had moved his lips with yours, hand moving to rest on your hip. “A picnic sounds nice.”

He didn’t know what to expect, but he certainly didn’t expect to be lying on a large blanket with you next to him. You both were looking up at the clear, blue sky talking about something so random. He felt his heart skip a beat when he heard you laugh—it filled his senses until all he could hear was you and how happy you looked. He wondered if this was what other couples felt like, if this is what they would normally do—have a picnic in the park, eat some food, then lie down in each other’s arms just embracing each other’s company. 

When your laughter died down, Harry had moved to rest his hand on your cheek. You stared up at him, the smile still remaining on your lips. He felt like he could sense what you were thinking about, communicating with you through his eyes. 

His thumb had brushed against your lower lip and he leans in, pecking your lips lightly. 

“Can I ask you something?” Harry whispered. He felt the nerves begin to build and looked away from you for a moment. It wasn’t until you replied with a soft and quiet yes that he looked back at you.

“Would you want to date more exclusively? More seriously?” he asked in a rush. Harry’s eyes softened and the smile on your lips never faltered. 

“I’d like that,” you answered instantly. “I’d like that a lot actually.”

“Really?” 

“Really,” you repeated. 

Harry let out a sigh of relief and leaned in to press his lips against yours again. Your arms wrapped around his shoulders as you lay on your back with him propping himself on his side to kiss you. He felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders—he couldn’t help but feel extremely overjoyed and happy that the feeling was mutual. 

Almost six months later and now in a fully committed relationship with you, Harry finally understands what Lucy meant—love was supposed to be easy… and loving you felt like second nature to him.

You had been spending most days at his penthouse. There’s already a space in his closet for you and extra counter space in the bathroom. You manage to make this place a home—he’d come home and you’d be there in the kitchen, making dinner. Or on some nights, he’d catch you grading some papers. This felt easy. Being with you was easy. 

Harry knew that he loved you the moment he laid eyes on you. It’s cliche—he knows—but every time he’s around you, his heart races. When he sees you smile or hears you laugh, it makes his stomach do flips. And when he’s holding you in his arms, his life feels complete—like the one thing that had been missing in his life is now here with him. 

He hadn’t yet said he loved you because he wanted to do it right. He wanted it to be perfect. Harry had an entire date planned—he was going to take you out to the same restaurant from your first date. Take you for a walk around the park afterwards and then, he’d tell you how much he loves you. It was going to be romantic—something to remember for the rest of his days, but that morning… His entire plan was thrown out the window. 

You were in his kitchen, dressed in one of his shirts, making breakfast. Harry had gotten used to this, but for some reason, that morning, he felt his breath catch in his throat. The sun shone through his large windows, illuminating you in a warm glow. He was dressed in a pair of sleep pants and a worn t-shirt as he stared at you, a smile slowly lining his lips. 

He walked over to you and watched as your eyes moved from the pan and over to him. Harry bit his lower lip at the sight of your broad smile. You dropped the spatula and walked over to him, wrapping your arms loosely around his shoulders as you pecked his lips lightly.

“I was going to surprise you with breakfast in bed,” you said. “Since you always like to surprise me, I figured I could return the favor this time.”

Harry chuckled and allowed his arms to wrap loosely around your waist. He held your body firmly against his own as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against yours. “Why are you so good to me?” he asked quietly, hand coming up to rest on your cheek. 

“Hmm,” you answered. “Maybe because I really like you.” 

Harry grinned and pulled back to look into your eyes. His thumb brushed against your cheek as he tilted his head. “Yeah?” 

You nodded, leaning against his touch. “Yeah,” you answered. “Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Castillo.”

Harry’s eyes narrowed as he reached behind you to turn off the stove. He lifted you off your feet to set you on top of the kitchen counter, moving his hands to rest at either side of you. He moved to stand between your legs as he felt your hands move to card through his hair. 

“I am,” he whispered quietly. “Very lucky.” His eyes stared deeply into your own. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest—the nerves slowly beginning to build as those three words settled on the tip of his tongue. There was a tense silence that filled the air and it was almost like you could anticipate what Harry was about to say next. 

Your hands moved to his cheeks, feeling the bristles of hair underneath your fingertips. You leaned down to kiss the tip of his nose as his hands moved from the edges of the counter to his rest on your hips. 

“Baby,” he said softly. 

“Harry,” you replied. 

“I’m in love with you,” he blurted out as he pulled back just enough to look into your eyes. “I thought I’d never be capable of love. It just always seemed so difficult for me, but you—loving you is easy.” Harry couldn’t help the tears that build in his deep brown eyes. The way you were looking at him now eased so much of the nerves and worry that he felt. “You make me feel—baby,” he sighed—his breath catching in his throat as he brought a hand up to wipe the fallen tear that trickled down his cheek once he blinked.

“Hey…” you whispered, kissing his cheek lightly. “I’m in love with you too, Harry.” 

He pulled back. Eyes wide, features etched with shock. “You make me feel good,” Harry continued. “Valuable. Seen. Heard. Special. Every moment spent with you is always better than the last, and when I’m apart from you, I’m always counting the minutes until I can see you again.” He let out a shaky breath as he leaned in to rest his forehead against yours. His nose brushed against yours as he whispered, “I love you. I think I loved you the first time I saw you.” 

“God, I forgot how charming you are,” you teased, hands moving to his shoulders as you slowly wrapped your arms around him. “You made me believe in love again, Harry. I’m so glad I said yes when you asked me out… and to think, I could have missed out on this, on you.” Leaning in, you pecked his lips lightly. “And loving you is easy too. You make me feel safe and I’ve never felt that before… with anyone.”

Harry smiled and gently pulled you off the counter, your legs easily sliding around his waist as he walked you both to the large couch. He sat down with you on his lap as he brought a hand up to your cheek. “Move in with me?” 

“Didn’t you know?” You smiled, leaning in to brush your lips with his. “I was slowly beginning to move my things in anyway,” you grinned. 

Harry chuckled, firmly pressing his lips against your own. “I love you, baby,” he mumbled. “So much.” 

“Mmm,” you smiled, pulling away briefly. “Gonna show me how much?” 

His eyes darkened instantly and he wrapped his arms around your waist to swiftly lie you on your back against the couch. Harry settled himself between your legs as he leaned back in—eagerly pressing his lips along your jawline down to the side of your neck. 

“Oh, baby, you know I will,” he grinned against you, peppering light kisses against your neck. 

The feeling of his stubble tickled your skin, causing a fit of giggles to escape your lips. He smiled to himself and pulled away from you briefly to look into eyes. 

“I love you,” he whispered, a content smile lining his lips. 

“I love you too, Harry. Now get back here and kiss me,” you giggled, linking your hands together at the nape of his neck and pulling him back down to press your lips with his. 

Harry smiled against your lips—contentment, relief, and happiness filling his entire soul. 

Lucy forgot to mention that loving was only easy if it was with the right person. 

And you—you were the right person for him. 

[baronessvonglitter]

The way he denies her at first…

I need him desperately 🖤

THE NEED

Joel Miller x f!reader || 550 words

Summary: Joel gets you ready to take him.

Tw: 18+ mdni, smut, pwp, fingering, f!oral, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, praise kink.

A/n: Written for @jolacheese ‘s B&B Trope Search challenge💞 Trope - ‘overstimulation’. Motive - ‘the horny’. Beta-ed by @milla-frenchy ily baby😍😘 Dividers by @/saradika-graphics

Part 2 INSATIABLE || MASTERLIST

“No way you’ll be able to take my cock, darlin.”

You’re standing in front of Joel, eyes glossy with need, tears glistening on your lashes.

“I can! I… I’ve had sex before.”

Joel tuts, shaking his head.

“Nah… No one’s as big as me. And I ain’t hurtin you. ‘s not my thing.”

“But Joel,” you plead, one second away from falling to your knees and crawling to his bulge like it’s a bright beacon in the darkest night. “It’ll stretch, I know it! Give me a chance.”

You want him.

You need him.

You’ve never craved anyone this much. No one but Joel.

You are sobbing quietly, but soon your tears get bigger, your whimpers louder. Joel watches you from under his bushy eyebrows, then raises his huge hands with a sigh and motions for you to step up closer.

In a flash you’re standing between his spread legs, eager and excited, desperation in your eyes slowly drowning in hope.

“Show me. Need to see what I’m workin with.”

You pull your skirt up and your underwear down as swiftly as possible, scared that he’ll change his mind.

Joel sits up straight with a grunt, one warm hand wraps around the back of your thigh, while he begins inspecting you with the other. He pushes his middle finger between your folds and slowly drags it up and down, making you moan and tremble.

“Holy… you’re drenched. Really want this cock, huh?”

”Yeah.”

Your body is buzzing with arousal, your knees are ready to buckle, when Joel pinches your clit and rubs it lightly with the pads of his fingers.

“Oh, Joel…”

He chuckles, seeing you melt.

“Softest pussy ya got here, baby. Needs to be kissed, licked. Sure you want my big dick anywhere near her?”

“I do, I do, Joel.” There’s not a trace of doubt in your voice. “I need you more than air.”

Joel scoffs and mumbles ‘poetic’ under his nose.

You’re still standing up, one foot on Joel’s thigh for his better viewing, two of his thick fingers knuckles deep in your pussy.

He’s been examining you for twenty minutes at least, has already made you come twice, turning you into a complete mess. You’re breathing fast, fire is licking at your core, your folds are engorged and covered in your cum juices.

“Look... You’re leakin down my hand, sweetheart,” he marvels. “Sweet little pussy… openin up fast but I need more. Can’t have you cryin on my cock, can I?“

You dig your fingers into his shoulders and whimper, when his third digit finds home in your sopping cunt.

“Mmh... Good girl.”

When he leans down and kisses your oversensitive clit, you feel like your soul is leaving your body, ascending into heavens. A flick of his hot wet tongue against your twitching bud— and you explode, mewling and moaning, clenching his greying curls, wriggling against his face in painful ecstasy.

“One more finger, baby,” he gruffs, voice muffled by your pussy. ”One more and I’ll give you my cock.”

Trying to catch your breath, you slightly lean forward and watch Joel push his pinkie in your stretched hole. It’s too much but you’re revelling in this sensation. You’ve never felt so full in your life. So complete.

Finally, Joel looks up at you, his face dark with lust, and orders,

“Lie down. She’s ready.”

Thank you for reading! Please comment and reblog if you enjoyed the fic!❤️

Part 2 INSATIABLE

MASTERLIST

Tag list: @milla-frenchy @harriedandharassed @iamasaddie @nervousmumbling @bbyanarchist @stevie75 @puduvallee @auteurdelabre @mountainsandmayhem @senoratess @flamingochick55 @theoraekenslover @schnarfer @mermaidgirl30 @staywildflowahchild @yesjazzywazzylove-blog @evolnoomym @keylimebeag @thedilfdiaries @pascaltesaye @fruityreads @itwasntimethatdidit40 @meetmeatyourworst @callmebyyournick-name @tateypots

[idkwhylou]

𝐈. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬

Summary : Torn from your coastal homeland to seal an imperial alliance, in a wedding crafted for power, not love, you vow to fulfill your duty and perhaps find something more. But on your wedding night, you discover a colder truth: Marcus’s body is yours, but his heart is somewhere else. Still, you are determined to prove your worth, to decode his silence, and to uncover the man behind the armor.

Marcus Acacius x f!reader

Warnings : arranged marriage, mentions of politics, smut, cold behavior, age gap ? (not really mentioned or important), infidelity (towards reader), secret relationship, no y/n

Words : 5,8K

A/N : alright first part of the request ! Thanks again @negrita2345 for your excellent idea, hope you'll like it. Kind of anxious bcs I hope it’s good, I mean in the way you imagined it. Anyway if you have a better title, I'll take it lol. Anyway not much of angst but we need to start slow and setting the context

masterlist | next chapter

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

The olive groves whispered like priests in prayers, swaying beneath the salt-heavy breeze that rose from the sea. From your terrace, the horizon gleamed, a stretch of molten silver where sky met water, endless and unreachable. White sails drifted across it like wandering souls: merchants, imperial messengers, galleys bearing soldiers with polished helmets and unseen orders. 

But today, the wind carried no peace. It was too quiet. Something had shifted, you could feel it long before anyone spoke it aloud. 

The household moved with unnatural quiet, servants murmured behind closed doors and hurried theirs steps as though silence might shield them from whatever was coming. Your father had not touched his breakfast. And you mother—your serene and inscrutable mother—sat rigid at the head of the table, her fingers endlessly smoothing the same fold in her silk robe, over and over, as of the repetition might erase the tremble in her hands. 

When a servant found you in the gardens and bowed deeply, announcing with careful reverence that your presence was requested in the atrium, your feet already knew where to carry you. The click of your sandals echoed off sun-warmed stone as you passed under the colonnade. It smelled faintly of crushed herbs and old parchment, your father’s scent, the scent of duty and legacy. 

Then you saw them, your father stood as though carved from granite: arms behind his back, posture impeccable, chin lifted with imperial resolve. His face was unreadable, but not empty, no. There was something behind his eyes, calculation, or maybe regret. Your mother was seated beside him, her back stiff but her gaze soft, resting not on you, but the floor. 

Two imperial envoys flanked the far pillars. Strangers in gleaming bronze, with helms tucked beneath their arms and scroll slung at their side. Their armor shone like mirrors, catching shards of sunlight that danced across the walls. One of the scrolls had a seal on, a red wax pressed with the mark of an eagle glinted like fresh blood. 

Your heart stuttered once in your chest. Not fear, not quite. Just the cold certainty that your life was about to be unmade. You stepped forward, voice calm and practiced. The same voice you would use at your father’s side while translating foreign decrees and entertaining Roman governors at the harvest feasts. 

“You summoned me, Father ?”

He did not look at you right away, instead, he dismissed the nearby servants with a flick of his fingers. Only when the last one bowed out the room, did he extend one hand toward the envoy. The scroll was handed over in a heavy silence, consuming a part of your soul.

You watched the wax break under your father’s thumb, a clean sound, like a lock opening. He read aloud, his voice loud and clear, “By order of the Roman Emperor, and with the blessing of the Senate, a marriage is hereby decreed…” He continued, but the words grew distant. Your ears filled with the sound of your own blood. 

A marriage ? 

You felt the floor tilt slightly under your feet, your stomach tightening as though braced for an all and your head spinning. Your breath snagged in your chest as you looked around for something—your mother’s eyes, the sea, anything steady—but the stone walls began to feel too close.

Still, you did not speak. You took a breath, deep like diving into cold water, and moved to your mother’s side. Her hand reached instinctively for yours, but you remained still. 

Your father’s voice dropped in tone, “You have been chosen.”

You had always known this day would eventually come. But you never imagined it would happen like this…. Not so early.

Your knees bent beneath you, and you let yourself fall beside your mother. You looked straight ahead, heart beating heavily, like a drum echoing down a long and empty corridor. You let the silence stretch until you had the strength to speak.

“To whom ?” you dared to ask because not asking would have felt like a surrender. 

Your father eyes finally met yours, “General Marcus Acacius,” he read, “a man held in highest favor by the Emperor himself.”

Each word struck with brutal precision. Marcus Acacius. A name carved into the bones of the Empire. You had heard it before, whispered with reverence by soldiers passing through your father’s court. Stories of battlefield valor, of loyalty, of a man more iron than flesh. You had never seen his face, but now his name felt heavier than gold. 

Your throat tightened. Rome. You were being sent to Rome. Your lips parted, but no sound emerged. You pressed them together again, holding in the cry that threatened to escape, just a crack in something old and unspoken. 

Your mother stood then, as if stirred by some silent storm. “Aretas,” she said, her voice urgent. “The General-”

“-is a man of honor”, your father interrupted sharply, giving her a warning look. “And this is not a request.”

“Aretas,” your mother hissed, stepping toward him, voice sharp with fear and something dangerously close to rage “You would send your own daughter like a sacrifice ? Offering her like some- some tribute to the Gods of war ?!” 

Your father turned his head slowly, his jaw clenched tight. “Mind your words.”

“She is too young !” your mother snapped, the tremble in her voice now pushed aside by fury. “She still walks barefoot in the garden. Still sleeps with the shutters open to hear the sea. You promised she would have a say, that there would be time-”

“-I promised,” your father cut in, louder now, “that she would be protected. That she would have a future.”

“She is not livestock to be bargained for land and influence !”

“She is the daughter of this house !” Aretas barked, the echo of his voice crashing against the walls, as one of the envoys shifted uncomfortably, “She bears my name and my blood. And that blood will mean something in Rome. Do you think I have not considered what this will cost her ?” he turned away as if the sight of you was too much. “what it will cost me ?!”

Your mother pressed her fingers to her temple, massaging them as she tries to steady herself. Then she looked at him again, her voice aching. “She was meant to be more than this…” she whispered as a cried escape her throat, “meant to choose who she loved.”

“She was born into a world where we do not get to choose,” your father replied calmer now, but his voice sounded like a man bearing the weight of a boulder no one else could see. “Not you. Not I. And not her.”

Your mother’s voice cracked, “You would give her to a man she has never met.”

“I would give her to a man who commands the loyalty of Rome. A man the Emperor trusts himself.” He glanced at you finally, “A man who will keep her alive and safe.”

“And what of her heart ?! What of her joy ?”

“Mother-” you tried to calm her down.

Your father looked away. “She will learn without it.”

She turned back to you and grasped your hand tightly, and this time, you let her. Her fingers trembled. “You do not have to accept this,” she whispered. “You are not a piece on the board.”

But you were. You had always been. And you knew it.

You rose slowly, gently letting go of her hand, and walked to the terrace again. The sea stretched before you, wide and glittering and full of vanished sails, the scent of salt stung your nose. A warm wind lifted the hem of your gown. You remembered running through those olive trees, chasing shadows between the rows. You remembered laughing, barefoot and free, before anyone asked anything of you.

You closed your eyes and then you nodded. “I will go,” you simply said.

Your mother gasped loudly, like something inside her had crumpled. She turned away, pressing her fingers to her lips.

You stood still, facing the horizon. “I will do my duty,” you whispered.

That was the beginning. The moment the Empire reached across the water and placed its claim upon your life.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

The marriage was held beneath a sky as blue as tempered steel, Rome’s finest stage set for politics disguised as ceremony. Marble gods stared down from their pedestals, unmoved by the day’s union. Senators stood in rings of gold-threaded togas, murmuring among themselves like old crows. Red petals were scattered over the flagstones, crushed underfoot like drops of blood. Every detail had been carved and calculated with purpose. 

Not for love, but for the Empire.

The Forum itself had been cleared, roped off by imperial guard. Lictors lined the periphery, their fasces polished, gleaming in the sun. A choir of flutes and lyres played from the steps of the temple, slow and solemn, not joyful but dignified, like the funeral of your freedom.

And yet, when you looked down the aisle, past the priests and the marble gods, you saw only him. He stood like he had been carved into place by fate, a figure of stoic poise and discipline. He wore the ceremonial breastplate of a General; gold and leather laced over his chest like armor made for myth. A dark crimson cloak draped over one shoulder, clasped with the mark of the Emperor’s seal.

He was taller than you had imagined, broader too. There was a steadiness to him that unnerved you. Not exactly stillness but what seems to be contained power. His face was carved from shadow and sunlight, jaw squared, and eyes the cold color of rain-smoothed stone. A thin scar curved along the left side of his jaw, not disfiguring, but sharp, like a signature. And those eyes, when they finally found yours, held no flicker of joy, no welcome. They were grounded, unreadable—everything but empty.

You had expected indifference, arrogance, perhaps. But what you found was something far more dangerous. Intrigue. He inclined his head in a silent greeting, a soldier’s nod; respectful and impossibly formal. Not a smile, not a spark. But not disdain either. Your breath caught when he looked at you, like a man preparing for a siege. And yet, something in you shifted. Not in fear, not even in disappointment, maybe… fascination ?

Your gown swept the marble behind you; white silk, embroidered with silver and copper threads in the style of your homeland, a small rebellion your mother had insisted on preserving. The veil shimmered behind you like mist, long and soft. At your side, your father walked stiffly, his expressions carved into diplomacy. He held your arm like he held his blade, firmly, not quite gently. Then, he had to leave you, let go of your arm and give you to the stranger you were about to marry. The man that would now take care of you.

The altar was lined with fresh-cut laurel and pomegranate. The priest chanted the sacred rites. Your name, and his, spoken aloud and you did not even know the sound of his voice. Yet, your fingers touched when the rings were passed, and that single brush of skin sent a whisper of something electric up your spine. 

His palm was cold. Yours trembled once. He did not look at you, not directly. But you saw his jaw tighten, like he had felt it too, and did not know what to do with all that knowledge. You wondered, absurdly, if he was nervous. The rings were slipped on, and the oaths exchanged, a scribe to the side of the altar wrote everything down on a parchment. 

And then, it was done. The General slowly bowed his head to you, like a man offering deference. As if you were a queen or at least something close enough to one. You barely breathed and then, without ceremony he stepped closer and pressed a kiss to the corner of your lips. It was not a kiss of a lover, nor even a husband. It was warm, brief, controlled, a brush of lips against your mouth—soft as breath and gone before your body could register it fully. It felt more like a vow than anything spoken aloud, enough to give the impression of a real kiss to anyone in the room. A promise, you told yourself, or at least, the possibility of one.

When he pulled back, his face remained unreadable, but his eyes lingered just a second longer than necessary. Your pulse caught and something in your chest uncoiled, just slightly.

He offered you his arm and you took it, not because you had to, but because in that moment you wanted to. The applause rose behind you, Rome roaring her approval. The marriage had ended not in intimacy but in spectacle. Trumpets blared, laurel wreaths were raised, a sea of dignitaries, senators, Generals and foreign envoys surged toward the newlyweds like waves crashing. Rome really knew how to honor herself with grandeur. 

You followed the General—now your husband—through the ceremony’s afterbirth, your arm still looped lightly around his. His pace faltered, but he did not speak, not a word since the vow. He only nodded to those who saluted him, eyes scanning the crowd like a commander in unfamiliar terrain; polite, present but unreachable. 

He escorted you up the steps of the banquet hall, a domed, opulent chamber overflowing with gold-threaded cushions and garlands of flame-colored flowers. Long tables were set with silver bowls of figs and honey-glazed. Musicians played a slow, elegant melody that failed to cover the growing thrum of conversation and political hunger. You were sat beside him on the raised dais. He poured your wine without being asked, a gesture so rehearsed it barely felt real. 

“Is everything alright ?” he asked at last. His voice was low and measured, like someone asking after a guest, not their wife.

You looked at him, studying the face everyone in Rome revered; hard lines, eyes like winter stone, no warmth and no cruelty. He had done nothing wrong, but he also had done nothing at all. 

“I am fine.”

He gave you a short nod, then returned to scanning the room. You sat in silence for another few minutes, listening to the rustle of silk, the laughter of people who knew how to perform joy. Rome was a chorus of masks, and you had not yet found your own. Suddenly you could not breathe under the weight of it all, the crowd, the wine, the stifling future curling around your throat like incense. 

“I need a moment.” You murmured.

The General turned slightly, “Do you want me to come with you ?”

You hesitated when you thought you saw a hint of concern in his eyes, until you realized it was more impatience. As if he was waiting for you to leave in a hurry and that you will not ask him to follow you. His question, actually, was not a question, just an illusion of goodwill. “No. I will manage alone.”

You slipped away down one of the side corridors, grateful no one stopped you. The quiet found you quickly, pressed between the walls and the cool hush of shadow. You exhaled as your footsteps slowed. And then, you saw her. She stood beside a bronze basin, one hand lightly skimming the water’s surface, she had the posture of someone who belonged to every palace she ever entered. The low torchlight painted her in gold and shadow. The gown she wore was violet—not just beautiful, but deliberate. Imperial.

You had never seen her face before, even not during the ceremony, or at least you thought so. There were so many people today, that, you had not even been able to talk to your own mother since the ring around your finger sealed your future. The woman was older than you and impossibly poised, the kind of woman whose presence made others instinctively stand straighter. A circlet of hammered gold rested in her hair. 

“Oh,” she said, her lips curling into the beginnings of a smile, a kind expression on her face as she turned to see you. “You needed a moment too ?”

You paused, just outside the doorway, unsure if you were intruding. “Yes,” you said. “The hall is... a storm.”

She gave a quiet laugh. “That is a generous word for it.”

Her voice was soft but assured—a voice trained in courtrooms, or perhaps something even older. She stepped slightly away from the basin and folded her hands loosely before her. “I watched you, during the ceremony,” she continued gently. “You carried yourself well. I remember my own wedding…my knees would not stop shaking.” She adds with a chuckle. There was no bitterness in her tone. Only memory.

“Thank you,” you said, your voice more honest than you had expected. “I had no training in how to marry a stranger.”

She tilted her head. “No one has. Not really.”

There was a quiet, companionable moment. And in it, something settled. Her gaze on you, curious, thoughtful, without a hint of superiority. Just as you began to ask something—anything, out of instinct more than strategy—footsteps clicked at the far end of the corridor. A servant appeared in a rush, breath shallow, eyes darting between you both.

“Domina—” the girl began, before catching herself. “Mar— the banquet awaits your return.”

You turned your head, but not before seeing her expression falter, just for a flicker. Not shame, just the lightning-fast reflex of someone used to secrecy. 

Her smile then returned effortlessly. “Of course,” she said, with a nod. “Thank you.”

The servant bowed and backed away quickly. The still unknown woman looked at you again, her voice calm. “It is never truly your night, is it ? Not in Rome. Every moment belongs to someone else.”

You did not know what to say. Her eyes searched yours, not intrusively, but with a strange gentleness. “I hope,” she said softly, “that he will be kind to you.”

And then she turned, leaving you in silence, the scent of myrrh and rose trailing after her like a veil. You stood alone for a long minute, your breath lodged somewhere between your ribs. 

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

The villa was quiet now, the revelers long since departed. Torchlight flickered along the walls of your new chambers. Servants had come and gone, laying out fruit, wine, flowers. Silk robed folded neatly, oils on the table and perfumed water in basins in which you had bathed and dried your hair with trembling fingers.

The door closed behind him without a sound. You had been sitting by the window—watching the night spill over the city like ink. The moon hung heavy and indifferent as its rays reflected off your skin, a strange shade of blue—the silk robe clinging to your skin still damp from the bath, the scent of rose oil ghosting over your collarbones. You did not look up at first, you had imagined this moment so many ways that the real thing felt too fragile to meet head-on.

But when you turned, you saw him.

He stood there in the glow of the fire, freshly changed into a dark linen tunic. His formal armor was gone, replaced by something quieter, more intimate, though the presence he carried made the room feel no less like a battlefield. He was… handsome, yes—striking, even. The sculpted kind of man you only ever saw carved into stone. His brows furrowed as if in thought, or perhaps weariness, and his eyes watched you like a soldier scanning a map before a march. 

Still, you could not help the way your heart stuttered when he finally stepped closer. “My lord,” you said, quieter than you meant to.

At that, he tilted his head slightly. A single dark brow lifted, not unkindly, more like curiosity. “You may call me Marcus,” he said, his voice low and even. “We are husband and wife now. No need for titles in private.”

There was a careful courtesy in the way he said it. Not warm. Not cold. Like a gate held half open, daring you to enter but offering no welcome.

You nodded once, unsure it that was kindness or obligation. “Marcus,” you repeated, tasting the name. 

He crossed the room with military precision as you rose to your feet slowly, smoothing the folds of your robe with shaking hands. And for a long moment, silence stretched between you like a blade unsheathed but not yet used. He wasted no time in catching your eye and slipped into the sheets of the—your sharing bed.

“You are not what I expected,” you murmured before you could stop yourself, moving unconsciously in his direction.

That made him pause. “No ?”

You shook your head. “You are… quieter.”

A breath of something like amusement crossed his face, not quite a smile, but the ghost of it. “Most Generals are quieter after the wedding than before it,” he said dryly.

That startled a soft laugh from you; small, nervous. He turned his face then, as if your reaction had caught him off guard. He looked at the wall, then the floor, anywhere but at you.

You studied him.

There was something about the way he carried himself. The way his fingers flexed once at his sides and then stilled again, that felt like he could control fire. And it drew you. Even now, even as you knew this was not a love story, maybe not yet, or maybe never—but you were drawn to him.

After this evening at his side, you had expected nothing from a man like him. Still, as you sat across from him at the imperial banquet—smiling politely, answering questions from governors and senators who barely remembered your name—you could not help glancing at him in those small, unguarded moments. 

Marcus Acacius was every inch the legend you had heard of: carved from silence, shaped by discipline. His posture never faltered, even when seated, and his replies were devoid of warmth. But what struck you most was the restraint in his gaze, like there was something caged behind those irises. And yet, when his eyes landed on you, even briefly, something changed. 

A flicker, gone before it could fully become a thought. A hesitation, as if there was a war behind those eyes that had nothing to do with you. You did not flatter yourself into thinking he was pleased by the match. No one truly was. This was not a marriage woven of love or even desire. It was strategy, diplomacy, obedience. A bargain between Empires, in which you were the treaty dressed in white. 

But you were determined to be more than that. You had promised yourself—there, on the terrace of your homeland, when the sails of your old life disappeared behind you—that you would not enter this marriage meekly. You would do your duty, yes. But more than that: you would try to love. You would give this cold stone the warmth of yours hands, even if it never warmed in return. 

He had barely spoken to you since the ceremony. A bow. A glance. He had offered his arm but not his voice. You watched him, not as an infatuated girl—you were not that foolish—but as a woman determined to understand the man she had been given to. 

There was something in him, you were sure of it. A kind of tension, as if every movement was measured to avoid some fault. And it made you wonder what lay buried under all that discipline ? Even the greatest Generals were made of flesh, even marble could cracked under pressure. 

You wanted—needed—to know who he was when the armor came off. And tonight, in the hush that followed the ceremony… you would begin to try.

“I will not force you,” he said suddenly, voice tight. “If you would prefer to wait, I-”

“I do not want to wait,” you said, before you could give yourself time to retreat. “This is our wedding night. I would rather… not be alone.”

He looked at you then. “Very well,” he said simply.

You sat on the edge of the bed, near his feet, leaving just enough space between you to preserve modesty, and just enough closeness to feel the tension like a thread drawn taut between your bodies. The room was dim, lit only by candles flickering near the carved columns. Somewhere beyond the walls, musicians still played for the last drunk guests, but their music had thinned, like it was too hesitating.

For a moment he grimaces, a faint tightening around his eyes, as if settling into something that did not quite fit. You turned your face fully toward him now, unsure whether to speak, unsure whether silence would offend or comfort. When he adjusted his posture and leaned back a little, his gaze slid toward you again, and then, down. 

Your robe clung faintly to your skin in places that left much to the imagination, thin and delicate, the firelight made suggestions of the shape beneath it. You had not meant it to be seductive, but you had not stopped it either. His eyes lingered, no longer guarded. After all he was a General, not a monk. 

A muscle in his jaw tightened, his hand curled, crumpling the sheet at his side. You bit your lower lip, almost without realizing it, heart thudding. You had imagined wanting from him, but it was just a thought. Maybe something you could use to reach him. 

Just for a breath, he looked at you not as duty, but as a woman. 

And something flickered across is expression, as if torn between distance and desire—no, worse; as if he had fought the feeling and already lost.

You took a breath that trembled in your chest and let the courage carry you forward. Slowly—almost reverently—you crawled across the sheets, each movement delicate. The soft rustle of fabric beneath your knees was the only sound as you were now on all fours, looking at him directly in the eye. You kept your hungry eyes fixed on him, searching his face for any kind of reaction. He was statuesque in the low light, his expression unreadable once again, though his body seemed to betray him as you could feel his already hard cock beneath the sheets, which made you smirk.

A flush of warmth spread through your chest as you did not know how to begin. You straddled him gently, your thighs sliding over his, your breath hitching as your bodies aligned. His eyes flickered open, and for a moment, just a moment, there was something there—not desire, not affection, but… permission. And, you could work with that.

You stood over him with your arms embedded in the mattress, you leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth—a quiet echo of the one he had given you at the altar, but his lips did not move, they did not even flinched. 

Undeterred, you continued. A kiss on his cheek, then another along the edge of his jaw, yet another just below his ear, a trail down the column of his throat. You felt him shift beneath you, a ripple of muscle and restraint. A sound escaped him, almost a sigh, but muted. His hands came hesitantly to your hips, trying to push you away carefully. But, you rocked your hips once, lightly—testing, and his grip tightened—more by instinct, like a simple reflex but—pressed your body a little closer to his. 

You smiled faintly and rose, looking only at him with a burning desire, slowly peeling back the sheet between you. His eyes snapped open with surprise, maybe a quiet resistance ? His hands slid over your thighs and he closed once again his eyes, taking a deep breath. You did not pause anyway. Your hands moved with a confidence you did not quite feel, lifting the hem of your robe and slipping it over your head. Revealing your warm and naked body to him, as the air kissed your bare nipples. You saw his gaze moving over you, and for a breathless heartbeat, you felt seen. 

But then, suddenly, it was gone. His eyes drifted to the side, unfocused and his jaw clenched. You tried not to falter. 

He leaned back against the headboard as you settled atop him again, you took advantage of this moment to lift yourself gently and removed the covers that had separated your bodies until then. He looked at you with intrigue, certainly not expecting such gesture and ardor from you. Then, lifting the edge of his tunic to free him, you licked your lips impatiently. His cock was rock hard—thick and ready—but he barely reacted to your touch. No smirk, no words, no heat in his eyes. 

Still, you guided his fat cock to your entrance, offering a last glance—a silent plea to meet you there, even if it is just for a moment. You sank down, gasping at the stretch, your body trembling as he filled you completely. Slowly you took him inch by inch, your breath breaking into gasps as your body stretched to accommodate him. Just too much at once, a new world splitting open inside you and your moan broke the silence like a confession.

He grunted softly beneath you, but you moved anyway, riding slowly. As he spread your walls, you let out a loud moan, scrunching up your face from the slight pain. Your hands braced on his broad shoulders and your breath mingled with the scent of his skin. You bit your lip, letting soft sounds escape, trying to give yourself fully. He was so deep inside you, you could feel his cock in your stomach, and the sensation was just delicious, you could not stop yourself anymore.

He let out a few careless whimpers, as your hands found support on his broad shoulders, allowing you to keep your balance and find a rhythm that suited your desires. You bit your lower lip and moaned once more, his hands shyly roaming your body as you surrendered yourself completely to him, leaving no room for hesitation. Suddenly he frowned and sighed through his nostrils, then look at you—properly—just once, a long and unreadable gaze. 

Your hands clenched at his shoulders, as he made no move to guide you through it. So you set another rhythm, slower—rolling your hips to feel every inch of him inside you. Your hands found his chest to steady yourself, and your thighs trembled with the effort. His hands left your body and found the sheets beside him. You let go and tried to make him want you again, but it was as if he had barricaded himself in, letting you use his body as you pleased. You leaned in, trying to draw him back, but he moved his head slightly, preventing you from kissing him or even making contact with his skin.

The warmth between your legs grew and you began to ride him with growing confidence, chasing something unspoken between you. You tried to catch his eyes, but he was not looking at you anymore. His head tilted back; eyes closed, lips parted slightly in some imagined reverie. Your fingers traced along his collarbone, but he did not stir. It was as if he was unable to face the sight of your body on his. 

Still straddling him, your movements reduced to a fragile rhythm. Not for pleasure anymore, but for your dignity. To convince yourself there was still something happening between your bodies. But he was limp beneath your touch, his body remains inside yours, but something in him was… gone. You looked down at him, pleading, and saw the furrow between his brows, the ways his lips seemed to mouth something you could not decipher. 

You slow to a stop and stay still atop him, your breathing uneven and shallow from the thrum of something colder uncoiling inside you. The rise and fall of his chest beneath you were distant, absent. His hands no longer held you, his eyes had closed again, retreating into some private place far from where your skin met his. 

And then, the question tumbled from your lips before you could bury it. “Am I…” you paused, voice tight, “not doing it right ?”

The words hung in the air between you like a mist that refused to lift. He opened his eyes and looked directly at you. Not at your body, your mouth or your hands, even less the place where you were joined. But at your eyes, like a man stepping into a memory he had not meant to find. 

There was no irritation in his expression, no hunger. Just softness, and what seems like pity. And that, somehow, was worse. His voice was almost careful when he responded, “No. You are alright.”

But he did not say what it was. Your fingers, unsure, rested on his chest where his heartbeat barely stirred beneath your palm. You leaned forward slightly, a whisper of movement, your voice fragile now. “I can try something else, if you want.” A thread of hope knotted tight in your chest. “If you tell me what pleases you, I-I can try…”

For a moment, silence. Then a quiet breath and a small shake of his head. “I am just tired,” he murmured. “That is all.”

Just tired. 

That simple. 

That final. 

You stayed there, frozen in that moment, as if stillness might hold something together—whatever this was supposed to be. But the thread between you had already slackened. A tender, desperate intimacy folded into something formal. As though your body had become just another offering to be endured. 

He shifted, gently—not urgently—adjusting the blanket, reaching for the edge of the sheet. You took the silent cue, sliding off him with grace you barely possessed in that moment, pulling the cover over yourself in one practiced motion. You turned away so he would not see your face, because you were not sure what expression you wore.

Marcus settled back into the mattress with the weary composure of a soldier finished with duty. His arm fell across his chest and his eyes shut again, for good this time. You lay beside him a long while, watching the gold-leafed ceiling flicker with candlelight. Somewhere beyond the walls, music still played. 

You slipped from the bed, eventually, quiet as the dying flame of the candle next to you, and walked barefoot to the far end of the room. You wrapped yourself in the nearest robe, not for modesty, but for armor. You settled back into bed beside him, leaving as much distance as possible before closing your eyes. And just as you felt yourself drift off into a deep sleep, a solitary tear escaped your eye.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

masterlist | next chapter

[leadyoutothelight]

Please Hold-Part 1

You've only known him as the Lonely Cowboy, the phone sex operator who's titillated your ears for well over a year, indulging in your sexual desires without the messy complications of a physical partnership. But when your diner regulars Sarah and Ellie introduce you to their father, new town transplant Joel Miller, you realize his sinful southern drawl is familiar in all the wrong ways.

Rating: 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, do not use my work to train AI, it will be deleted.

Warnings: Phone sex, Sex work, Fingering, Edging, Masturbation (male and female), Unprotected sex, Dirty talk, a tiny bit of exhibition, Voice kink (come on it's Joel Miller), Pet names, Degradation, Misunderstandings, Unspecified Age Gap *please let me know if I missed anything*

Pairing (No Outbreak AU) Joel Miller x F!Reader

Word Count: 8k

Note: Um, hi...this came about because honestly the idea of Joel Miller talking you through an orgasm wouldn't leave me alone...So enjoy! Part 2 is in the works!

It’s been a long week, too long, with too many closing shifts and not enough tips. You’re barely scraping by. But a girl has her needs, and you’ve made sure to budget in the money you're about to spend like a kid at a candy store. After stumbling into your apartment, hung up your coat, kicked off your shoes, you wander into the gloom of your bedroom. Still in your waitress uniform, a horrid bright red, white polka-dotted monstrosity, and a short poodle skirt to match. 

It was a staple of the old fifties diner you worked at, that could handle the weird hours you needed while going to the local university, working TA hours, and assisting in other department needs. You sigh, rubbing at your tired eyes, considering for a moment that maybe you’ll just sleep. 

But there’s an ache that’s settled low in your stomach, a warmth spreading since you realized what day it was. Your phone dings in your hand, you know it’s the notification from your email, a reminder sent to yourself about who’s back on the soundboards tonight.

The number is already saved in your phone, has been for about a year, and thankfully you’ve avoided calling it for about a month…after all he’d said he’d be off. 

A quick poke of your finger, and the screen shifts as the phone dials. It rings for a few moments too long, and you worry that…maybe you misheard, misdialed? 

“You’ve reached the Lonely Cowboy, how can I help you tonight?” 

To hear that raspy southern drawl tickle your ear has your toes curling into the softness of the comforter. Breath hitching, a familiar throb settles between your thighs, and it takes every ounce of your self restraint to keep your hand from wandering. 

“Hey Cowboy,” you mummer, bottom lip trapped between your teeth, as he chuckles a fondness filling his voice as he recognizes you. 

“Is that my sweet Cherry Pie?” The way he hums your nickname has you squirming, it’d been too long. You can’t resist any longer, hand wandering down your side finger tips pulling up your skirt. 

“Yes, missed you–” Christ, you’re already breathless, and needy. “Been counting down the days till I could call you again.” Your fingers slip between your thighs, finding the wet spot on your panties. A quick press of your middle finger, pressing the cotton against your clit, you whine.

“Were you a good girl while I was gone?” 

You freeze, blood rushing from your cunt to your head, as you recall your last conversation, last month, right before he told you he’d be out of commission for a month to move. He’d made you swear, before he’d let you cum, you’d be a good girl. That’d you’d wait a whole month without indulging in masturbating without him. You’d been so close to following his instructions…but you’re needy, and had caved about mid way through the month. 

But after that one misstep you’d abstained, now though, the guilt clawing at your innards as you considered lying, but he’d know…he always knew. Maybe it was the inflection of your words, or that little tremor you’d get in your throat. 

“Cherry,” there’s a dangerous lilt to his tone, you imagine him, spread legged in his chair. A fist curled on his thigh, his face shrouded in shadow as you never gave much thought to how he looked, “Were you a good girl while I was gone?” 

“No…” a hushed confession spoken to your phone, your finger halting its feather-soft torture. Yet the ache grows, a heat enveloping your skin. From the top of your head to the tips of your curled toes. Silence stretches between the two of you, and for a panicked moment you think he’s going to hang up. 

But you hear it, his soft sigh through his nose, the clink of a belt buckle, the hush of a zipper. You squirm, waiting for his order, his command. 

“Oh Cherry Pie,” he hums, and you strain to hear it, the telltale noise of his hand stroking his cock. You know he probably does this with his other clients…fists himself into a frenzy, whispering sweet platitudes, and sinful words to whoever is on the other line. But you can’t resist the greedy thought that you’re the only one who’s heard his groan of release. “And here I was…thinking you’d be good.” 

“I–it was one time–” you whimper, head falling back, his voice sends your heartbeat thumping, body writhing as the pulse in your cunt grows. 

“You promised me, no touching yourself till I came back.” His words are low, there’s a growl to his tone, one that sends a spark of pleasure through your clit. Your finger twitches, to rub the little bud, but he hasn’t said you could. 

“Is your hand between your legs?”

“Yes,” you respond in a breathless whine.

“Oh no sweet Cherry,” he rasps, and you whine, “hand by your side.” 

You comply, hand leaving its place between your thighs to rest beside your hip, fingers grip the soft comforter. You’re silent as you listen to the lazy strokes of his fist on his cock. 

“Now, what did you do,” he hums, your stomach swoops as you hear him grunt…wondering if he squeezes the base of his cock to keep himself from cumming too soon. 

“I can’t–”

“Oh you can, or this call is just going to be you listening to me get off how does that sound Cherry?” 

You know he means it, and you know you’ll comply, he’s got you wrapped around his finger and it’s a cosmic joke that you're whipped for a man you’ve never actually seen, much less met. 

“Now, what did you do sugar?” 

Teeth bite your lip, and your legs shift with impatience. Before finally speaking.

“It was a few weeks ago…” you mumble eyes staring up at the popcorn ceiling of your room, the fan humming as it turns, and turns. 

“I had one of our calls saved–” 

“Which one?” 

It surprises you, the sigh of his voice, the way he sounds almost as needy as you, sends a little thrill through you. That maybe he missed you as much as you missed him, though you know it’s not true, but you’ll think about that later…right now you just want a release. 

“The one where you came…and I squirted,” the heat that rises to your cheeks at the admission. Another throb courses through your cunt, a noticeable gush of wetness leaks between your thighs. 

“Fuck,” he rumbles and you whine,you can hear his breathes, shorter, quicker. You almost can’t hear the wet sound of his fist fucking his cock. “What were you thinkin’ about?” 

“You,” a breathless admission, “I was thinking about being on my knees between your thighs, making you cum like that with my mouth.” 

Your thighs tense rubbing together to give yourself some relief. To bring down the ache of your clit, but it’s a losing battle. Your cowboy groans into the receiver, another whispered ‘fuck’. 

“I thought about how badly I needed to feel your cock in me, in my mouth, in my cunt—”

“You can touch yourself,” you almost cry out at that. Your hand is quick, pulling your panties down, your thumb moving on your phone screen and you switch it to speaker. Your fingers eager against your clit, pressing on the nub with a panicked ferocity.

“Did you use a toy?” 

He asks with a moan, and you keen in reply. 

“Yes, I can’t get off with just my fingers–” 

“Wanna use one now?” he grunts, his fist working faster, sweat coats your skin in the late summer night, it has been unseasonably hot this year, and your fingers leave your cunt to strip off the uniform. Removing the outfit is freeing, and after the dress comes your bra, nipples pebbling in the exposed air. 

“Can I?” You ask into the phone, he answers with a strained ‘uh-uh’. You take the chance and scramble to your nightstand, opening the bottom drawer and finding your collection of toys you grab your bullet vibrator. You just need relief, and that’s what this will provide. 

“Got it?” 

You settle back down beside your phone, “Yeah, can I use it?” Another grunt is your affirmation, pressing the button the toy buzzes to life between your fingers. Your other hand goes to your breasts, pinching and toying with your nipples, the touch sending sparks of pleasure coursing down your spine to settle in your stomach.

“What else were you thinking about?” He snarls, you wonder how close he is, how desperate he is, because your thighs are wet with slick, and you know you’ll need to wash your comforter–but that’s not the priority, not right now as you press the bullet to the hood of your clit you almost scream at the pleasure sparks through your body. Back bowing and hips jolting away from the sudden onslaught.

“Fuck!” 

He chuckles, “sensitive Cherry?” 

“It’s been a few weeks, of fucking course I am you ass,” there’s no venom to your words, only a breathless relief as pleasure coils in your belly. He huffs into the receiver, and you can’t help yourself, “how close are you old man?” 

He laughs at the nickname, and you hear his fist slow again, as he pants into the phone. 

“I may be old Cherry, but I could have you screaming all night, now, what else were you thinkin' about?”

You rub the vibrator in slow circles around your clit, whimpering as the vibrations send jolts of sweet pleasure through you, almost too much as your hips jerk away from the sensation. 

“Was thinking about how I’d clean up your cock after you came, how I’d get you hard again and ride you, till you filled me up.” 

You feel it, the cresting pleasure, the overwhelming sensation, your cunt fluttering around nothing, and it makes you want to cry. Cowboy groans his fist going faster, he’s close you hear it in the growl of his voice. 

“Would love to see that, my sweet Cherry Pie riding my cock,” you gasp as the vibrator rubs against your clit just right. “Watch those pretty tits bounce, see your neck all marked up by me.” 

“Fuck, please--please,” your eyes clench shut as you struggle to keep your legs open and your other hand abandons your breasts to toy at your entrance, before slipping two fingers into your soaked cunt. 

“What do you want baby?” he hums into the phone, though you hear the breathlessness of his voice, knowing he’s close. 

“Pleasepleasepleasepleaseletmecum,” a babbled plea as your fingers fuck into your cunt, the wet noises filling the room, and the vibrator edges you closer and closer to breaking. “Please, baby, please.” 

“How could I say no to such a sweet plea?” He groans, and you hear him gasp, you wonder how he looks when he cums. If his mouth drops open, eyes rolling back into his head…if he cums on himself…

“Cum,” you obey without a second thought, vibrator pressed against your clit, and your fingers knuckle deep into your cunt, stroking that spot the tips of your fingers just barely reach. You shriek when it hits you, your back arches off the bed a gush of slick drenches your fingers. Your thighs snap closed, as your hips twitch. 

You pull the vibrator away when it becomes too much, your breasts heave as you come down from your high. You hear Cowboy’s pants as well, both of you stay like that for a moment, listening to each other breathe. You switch off the vibrator, letting it fall to somewhere amongst your blankets. 

“Fuck, I missed you…” 

The words are out before you can stop them, your lips loosened by post coital bliss. You wince as Cowboy chuckles into the phone. His voice whiskey rough, “Missed you too Cherry.”

While his words soothe the sting of embarrassment a bit, the haze of your orgasm is wearing off, and sense is returning full force. You glance at your phone, wincing at the time, you’ve been on the phone for almost forty-five minutes. You don’t have much time left, and no real way of ending the conversation.

“Move went well, I take it?” You change the subject as you sit up, looking around blindly for something to cover yourself with. An oversized t-shirt on the ground catches your eye and you slip it on. 

“Besides a long ass drive across the country, I’ve survived, though moving into another house was something I never want to do again.” He grouses, and now you snicker. 

“You say you’re not an old man yet you complain like one.”  

“I think you like that about me Cherry,” he responds and you smirk. “Besides, I knew I had to be ready for my favorite girl to call.” 

You chuckle, and stretch as you lay beside the phone again. Body loose and boneless now that you’ve finally gotten to hear him again…this is probably some sort of addiction issue but you again push the thought away, glancing at the time on your phone you wince, already getting too close to your max spend you sigh. 

“Gotta go?” 

He asks softly into the phone, you hope that disappointment is real, but you know better. 

“Yeah, but…hey we have next week right?” 

“We do, I always need my weekly slice of Cherry Pie.” 

You know you shouldn’t love the way the nickname slips off his tongue like sweet syrup.

“And I need to get off to my dirty old man,” he chuckles and you sigh. 

“Well, goodnight Cowboy.” 

“Goodnight Cherry.” 

And like that, you're ending the call. You knew you’d be spending a ton on this, a notification from your bank letting you know the payment’s been withdrawn. You lay in the dark quiet of your room, just thinking. 

You’d been calling the Lonely Cowboy for a year now, it’d happened after your most recent breakup. You weren’t a one night stand kind of person,or someone who had a list of people she could rely on for a quickie. 

You were too busy with work, with your degree program…it’d been one of the many reasons your last relationship had gone up in flames. Dude thought he was more important than your future. 

So drunkenly you’d looked up porn…then found the link to the sex phone line…and the rest was history. He was the relief you craved, without all the complications of an actual relationship, and the weirdness of a physical only relationship. 

You sighed, kicking the comforter off your bed, it’s too hot to sleep with one anyways. 

The Pie Hole is located close to the heart of the small university town, one of the last small town restaurants where a lot of the students and families come throughout the week to enjoy greasy, fried food. And a slice of the owner Ned’s homemade pies. It was probably a lot nicer in its heyday. Now it’s a bit rundown, though Ned and his wife, Chuck, have poured a ton of renovations and love and care into the place 

It’s like every diner, clinging to the past 1950’s aesthetic, the black and white checkerboard tiled floors, with matching wallpaper, decorated with black and white photos of old celebrities. The usual faces like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and other groups you’ve not bothered to pay much attention to. TV’s dot the corners playing old cartoons, or black and white shows, though it’s the same tape, replayed over and over again. Shockingly enough no one’s noticed since you started working here four years ago. 

The glittering red vinyl seats in the booths and the high-tops at the bar. Bright neon signs shine in the windows, baring the diner’s name and advertising the homemade pies, and milkshakes. Finally the pride and joy for Ned is the restored jukebox, with its neon lights, that takes a quarter and it changes whatever is playing over the diner’s speakers. Unless someone decides to pull a prank, like replaying the same song several times…That was a dark day, then it’s cut, and an Ipod is prepped in the back with an oldie's playlist ready to go. 

The Pie Hole has turned into the local hangout, where a lot of students filter in throughout the week, between classes, parties, and everything else college life holds. 

And on a Saturday afternoon, it’s busy, much to your chagrin. You’ve been welcoming regulars, and newbies alike. After all it’s the beginning of the semester and that means families coming with their newly graduated freshman looking to spread their wings and hack it at college life. 

Your arms are sore from carrying trays, and clearing tables. You’ve just managed to take a quick drink break in the kitchen when Kristin rushes in with her notepad and a look of annoyance on her perfectly made-up face. She’s a biomedical law student, and she’s a genius. 

Sometimes you wonder why the hell she came to this university. She easily could have gone to an Ivy league, but you know she preferred to stay closer to home. Her hair is left out and it forms a perfect Afro about her face. She’s wearing the same uniform, bright red with white polka dots, though she’s styled hers with charms and other sparkly additions.

“Jerry, where the hell is my app for table twelve?” 

Jerry, the resident fry cook, has the decency to look sheepish. He’d been buried in his phone, and you raise a brow, watching the exchange. 

“Shit, sorry Kris–” 

“Don’t fuckin’ apologize just get me my app before this fucking old man bites my head off.” Jerry nods quickly and Kristin sighs slumping beside you, taking a swing of your water. Much to your annoyance. 

“You know, you have your own glass somewhere right?” She smirks, leaving a deep red lipstick stain on the rim of your glass. 

“Yeah, but yours is here, and you love swapping spit with me.” She winks and you roll your eyes. 

“Besides your break is over, some of your regulars are here,” her gaze flicks up, and you take a look outside the kitchen window. 

She’s correct, your regulars Sarah and Ellie have settled in their usual booth beside the window looking out at the busy main street road. With a sigh you stand, she gives you a good natured hip bump with a laugh as you grab your notepad and head out to greet them. 

Walking through the busy throng of tables, you pause in your sections, asking the usual questions. Noting who looks ready to head out, and who needs a refill, or who might be interested in a piece of pie. 

Before finally reaching the girls, who both smile as you approach. 

“Hey Sarah, hey Ellie!” 

“Hey Y/n!” Both answer in unison, and it makes you smile. Both girls are sweet, and came to the university when you were in your senior year. They’d been coming to the Pie Hole weekly without fail since, and you’d enjoyed seeing them. 

“You guys excited for your final year?” 

Ellie bounces with excitement nodding her head, “Yes! Then I can get an actual job and my girlfriend Dina and I can get a house–” 

“Have you told Dina this?” Sarah questions with a laugh, and you chuckle as well, Ellie’s cheeks flush as she glares at her sister. From what you’d gathered, they’re not biological, but apparently Ellie had been adopted by Sarah’s father after her mother passed suddenly. 

“I’ll ask her at graduation…” Ellie huffs, and you chuckle, but stop noticing their strange arrangement. Both girls share one side of the table, which you find odd. You gesture to them with a quirked brow. 

“Oh, didn’t we tell you?” Sarah asks, and you tilt your head, again confusion filling you. Trying to recall the last few times they’d been by to eat, they hadn’t mentioned anything that stuck out to you. You notice Ellie’s eyes alight, and Sarah starts to get up, their attention behind you. 

“ 'Scuse me darling,” the voice sends a bolt of heat through you, a familiar tingle begins in your innards. Your knees feel weak for a moment as you turn with a yelp.

Behind you stands the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen, clearly older, his deep mahogany eyes take you in. Salt and pepper hair is neatly styled out of his face, a chiseled jaw, covered by a greying scruff of beard. Hands shoved in his jean pockets, you blink finally realizing that you’ve been blocking the booth behind you, gaping like a fish at the poor man before you. 

“Oh, gosh sorry!” You shuffle to the side, and the man offers you a nod, those eyes going to the two girls behind you. Finally a smile lights up his face, as both girls shout an excited, ‘Dad’! 

Okay now you need to know the details of this. As the man settles and offers the girls another smile, they turn to you expectantly. Which brings you back to the present. 

“Y/n, this is our dad Joel,” Sarah introduces, Ellie looks about ready to bounce out of the booth. You smile at her excitement and turn your attention to Joel, who is smiling at his daughters fondly. 

“Oh! Right, this is the mysterious Joel I’ve been hearing about!” Sarah and Ellie had been beside themselves the last few times they’d been to the Pie Hole, excitedly telling you that their father was moving closer to them. 

“Hopefully all good things?” Joel offers with a smile at his girls, which Ellie chuckles at and Sarah rolls her eyes but smiles. 

“No Dad, we told her all the terrible things,” Sarah answers, giving you a mischievous smile that makes you laugh. “Like how you thought NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys were the same.” 

You and Ellie snicker, and Joel winces, “What can I say, the music sounded the same–” 

“Oh, that’s a strike right there,” you joke, and Joel smirks at you. It sends a shiver down your spine, and you take a quick breath to calm yourself. “But since you’re new, I’ll overlook it this time.” 

He chuckles and the way your cunt throbs at the sound has you mortified. The poor man is here to eat with his daughters, who you’ve known for years, and are only a few years younger than you. Calm down! 

“But I swear sir, they’ve been going on and on about their dad moving closer, excited to meet you. Hopefully you’ll be able to handle college town living.” 

“We’ll see, thankfully not living too close to town, but got some land a few miles south.” 

“Ah, smart,” you acknowledge and Joel nods. Feeling the conversation lulling, you take the opportunity to return to your job duties.

“Okay, well now that your Dad is here, your usual milkshakes?” Both girls nod and Joel looks at you once more, his eyes make your heart stutter. It’s embarrassing, you’ve just met the guy, calm the fuck down. 

“And for the gentleman?”

You give him a sweet smile, one you know wins over all the customers that enter the diner, trying very hard to ignore the way those eyes take you in. Lingering a bit too long on the way your uniform tightens at your chest, the cut of the collar opened enough to reveal a modest amount of chest, but nothing scandalous. His smile has softened, and he considers you for a moment.

“Uh, you have any recommendations?”

You notice his voice carries a delicious southern drawl to it, that has your brain short-circuiting, as you fail to recall any of the drink options you’ve known since the first month you started working at the Pie Hole. And something about it feels familiar, a melody from a song you swear you’ve heard before, but the name escapes you.

“Uh–Well,” You huff softly, and remind yourself that right now you are at work and you need to get a grip, because your other tables need to be addressed as well. Finally, your mind restarts and you recall the drink menu. 

“Well if you have a sweet tooth, we have some great milkshakes. My favorite’s the chocolate, but if you’re not in the mood for something that sweet we home make sodas to order, with different syrups.” 

“Really?” His brow quirks, and he gives you a smirk.

You give him another sugar-coated smile and nod. “Any syrup you can think of, we’ve probably got it.” 

He pauses for a moment, glancing over at his daughters before meeting your gaze again, and your knees do that horrid shake that you’re grateful your skirt hides. 

“How about a Shirley Temple?” You give him a nod and glance at your table. 

“The usual milkshakes and a Shirley Temple coming right up. I’ll come back for your order in a sec, girls I can trust you to give him the menu rundown right?” 

Ellie and Sarah nod, and with that you turn and head back to the drink bar to get their order, and the refills done. 

The rest of your shift passes by in a blur, the girls came in close to the end of your shift but as the day slows, and you get their order in, Ellie orders a burger and Sarah gets the chicken tenders, with Joel ordering the chicken and waffles. You get them a plate of fries to share. 

You return as you notice they’ve all settled back in the booth, and the plates before them are mostly clean. Picking up the plates, you catch a bit of the conversation.

“Oh, you have to come with Dina and me to the national park, has some great trails,” Ellie says excitedly as Joel nods. She quiets though as you finish picking up the plates. 

“Well, has anyone saved any room for dessert?” 

Both the girls shake their heads, though Joel is quiet for a moment as he considers the dessert menu to the side. 

“How’s the pie?”

It’s such a simple question, yet the way he says it, the soft hum of his voice. You’re left breathless as those brown eyes meet yours. Tongue tied for a moment you stumble to answer, something about his tone, about the gruff, roughness to his words. As he mutters just beneath his breath, you’re struggling to put a finger on it. But you try to find your voice again.

“Oh–well,” with a huff you straighten, attempting to get some dignity back, “we’re known for our pies. The owner used to be a pastry chef in New York, and his pies are legendary.” 

Joel’s eyes never leave you, and you feel warmth spreading along your cheeks, your neck, heart kicking into overdrive as those warm brown eyes linger on your lips, you notice the slight purse of his own, the tip of his tongue sneaking between them to wet his bottom lip.  Your mind returns to the present as you remember you’re supposed to be recommending a pie, “b–but I have to say my favorites are either the pumpkin, or the apple.” 

Joel smiles, and considers the menu for another moment as you turn to the girls and mouth ‘check’ which they nod. Finally Joel returns his gaze to you. 

“I think I’ll try a slice of cherry pie.” 

It’s like all the air gets sucked from your lungs in a second. As the words leave Joel’s lips, your cunt throbs, and your brain launches you back into last night. On your bed, legs spread with a bullet vibrator pressed to your clit. Eyes rolled back into your skull, and your orgasm teetering dangerously close.

That same voice whispering dirty praises and sinful promises of what he’d do if he could actually touch you. 

You’re brought back by the sound of ceramic shattering on tile and Ellie and Sarah shouting something, Joel surprised and reaching out a hand to you, and the busy diner quieting at the sudden chaos of noises. 

You stand there, frozen, looking between the shocked trio and the broken plates scattered on the floor. 

“Oh my god—” it’s all that comes out of your mouth, you're saved by a frazzled Ned, who came in at some point during the afternoon rush. 

He gives your table an apologetic smile and ushers you to the back kitchen as one of the bus boys scurries over to clean up the shattered plates. He leaves to go deal with your section as you hide in the kitchen.

Mind a whirling mess, all you can think is, Oh my fucking god, he’s Lonely Cowboy and he lives in my town. 

Moving is a bitch, Joel knows this too well, after packing up his house in Austin and stuffing a rusted U-haul with all his worldly possessions and attaching it to his old pick up. The drive had been the easiest part, but the actual process of moving, the paperwork, the sleepless nights trying to find a decent moving company only to come to the conclusion that he needed to just move himself and a few pieces of furniture. It was overwhelming. 

Resettling in a new town, new people, but he’d do it all over again if only to see the way the girls' eyes lit up when he told them he’d bought some land and a house about thirty minutes from their college. Sarah and Ellie had shrieked so loud he was worried he might lose what little hearing he still had in his right ear. 

He’d made it though, and…with the additional funds from his–side hustle, he’d been able to afford a nice home. One where he hoped his girls would visit and maybe live after they finished school, maybe give him a few grand kids that could come stay with him. 

But that was thoughts for the future, right now Joel was just trying to find a new normal. Which he’s struggling to find, now yes, he’s gotten a job with a local construction company. The work is hard but he’s used to it, and it keeps his mind busy. 

Also the hours work…for his other job. Which has become his money maker. 

He’d never thought he’d get into this line of work, being a phone sex operator. But when he’d taken on Ellie, expenses doubled that he wasn’t completely prepared for, and while yes being a contractor paid well enough, he wasn’t able to put as much away for Sarah and Ellie’s futures. 

Especially college, and when both girls showed him their college choices, he’d probably aged a few decades when factoring in the cost. But he didn’t let it show, one night when the girls had been at a sleepover, he’d been doing research on possible extra jobs he could do. 

It’d popped up on Craigslist of all places…and in his desperation he figured it’s not like he’s touching anyone…or them touching him. 

So he applied, got a probationary period and he took off. Maybe it was his charm, the southern drawl, the fact that he didn’t have to look someone in the eye and lie to them about how much he wanted them when he’d rather be doing anything else. But Joel thrived as a phone sex operator. 

And his clients grew, as did the amount he could charge. It was a job, that’s all it was, a way to put more money to the side for Sarah and Ellie’s college fund, and have an emergency stash, because having two teenagers meant you needed to be prepared. Lord knew Ellie was a walking caution sign, and Sarah with her sports injuries…The job helped alleviate the stresses of being a single dad with only one brother to look to for help, and he had his own worries with his own family up in Jackson.

But he grew to enjoy it, getting on the phone with his regulars was one of his favorite parts of the job, but…the night Cherry called a year ago something shifted. With other clients it was easy to whisper sweet nothings, and carnal desires into their ears. Listen to them get off to the sound of his voice. But Cherry, the softness of her voice unsure of herself and what she was doing, the way she all but swooned for him, it changed something in him. 

With Sarah and Ellie being his priority in life, dating just never…worked. He was busy, and he was fine with a woman not being involved in his life, and his hand worked. But then when Cherry became a regular suddenly he’s so hard during the shift he knows she’ll call. That when he hears her voice it’s agony to not cum then and there. 

But then, he moves, and that final call only a month ago…Since then it’s been crickets.He knows he shouldn’t get too in his head about it, clients come and go in this industry. Also from what she’d admitted to him on the phone, he knew she was busy with life, and her outside responsibilities. 

But that last call he’d thought…maybe hoped something would change. The admission that she missed him…how quick he’d been to admit he missed her too. Joel didn’t think he could form an attachment to someone he’d never seen. But every time she called, exactly on the dot, his weariness left him. All he wanted to hear was her voice, asking about her day, her life, whatever she’d tell him. 

He thought about trying to call her back, but both his number and hers were protected, blocked when she called the line. No way to track her, even the email contact was through the agency. So by the second week when her voice hadn’t graced his ear, and he had exhausted all ideas on how to reach her. He’d tried going through the agency, though they only helped in offering for him to lower his price…he’d tired. Cherry’s syrup sweet voice was never on the other line. 

He’d played the call over, and over again. Trying to find when he’d messed up, overstepped that boundary she’d set, maybe it was that he was too domineering? No, her cries of release were anything but fake. Maybe…maybe she was just tired of him, and though he’d never admit it out loud, it hurt. Even her calling to tell him she was done would have been better. But the silence, leaving him hanging on to a rope that’s fraying with every week she doesn’t call. It’s a hell he didn’t think this job would put him through. 

He listens to their calls, the company saving their entire year of communication, studies it, pours over every second of audio, wondering where he fucked up. Hoping he’d hear something, a clue as to what happened. Though he also just listened to her sweet voice, cooing her need, begging him to let her cum. The wet sounds of her fingers in her cunt. Fuck, he missed her, and he had no way of fixing…what ever the hell he broke. 

He sits back at his desk, finishing another call, play by play they ask him what he’s doing/wearing, he gets them off they hang up. He gets paid. It was quick, and dirty, all so that he could sit there and wait. He glanced at the clock, the next hour blocked as always, the last hour of his shift, when she’d call. 

Like clockwork his phone would glow with the call, and he’d answer a bit too breathless, and then he’d hear her sweet voice…but he’s left disappointed when his phone remains quiet. The minutes tick by, and that same dull ache fills him. As the ever-passing hour reveals that she’s not calling, again. 

He sighs, and shuts off his other phone, staring at his computer screen for a few moments. Before with a grunt he stands, and collects his things to go out. 

Visiting the Pie Hole has become one habit that Joel’s managed to keep to, maybe it’s the food…but no, the main reason he keeps coming back is to see you. 

After your first meeting Joel couldn’t lie, you'd made an impression, now…dropping the plates had surprised him, and he’d been a bit worried for you. Though you’d been an apologizing mess, stumbling over your words, a strange nervousness to your voice that he hadn’t noticed before. Sarah and Ellie had both later told him you weren’t jumpy like that. Until they mentioned you were in your final year of your Master’s and had a huge thesis presentation; that might have been the issue. 

So with that in mind he’d come back, and even though you apologized several times again, Joel waved it off and gave you his most charming smile. He noticed at first you seemed–off. Maybe a little wary, but he wanted to show he’s more than happy to forget your first meeting. 

And, he’d never admit it, but Joel was lonely and he enjoyed the attention you paid to him. He’d figured out your schedule, with the help of the other waitress Kristin. Which she’d been a bit too eager to give to him, Joel started showing up to the Pie Hole weekly, and if his schedule allowed it, more. 

He liked watching you leave the table, taking in the way that outfit clung to your hips, your chest, noting which shade of red you painted your lips. The man had developed a crush, and since the client  who’d helped alleviate his sexual frustration had stopped calling Joel was struggling to find a new outlet. 

When he’d arrived at the diner, as usual it’s dead this time of night, save for a few bleary-eyed students, a trucker or two, and the staff. One of which is you, you're stationed at the bar, busily scribbling in what he assumes is your study book. 

You’re leaned over the counter, with just the right angle that Joel can see the tempting swell of cleavage that has him flushing. He feels like a fucking teenager again, the way just seeing a peek of your tits had his cock throbbing. He rushes to his usual booth in your section, it takes a moment before you notice him. 

He gives you an awkward wave, as you flash him one of those wide-mouthed smiles. It makes him smile back, before you head over you’re stopping at the soda bar. Making his now favorite drink, a root beer float. 

He watches your every move the way your fingers flick easily over the spout, the rush of carbonated water filling the soda glass. Filling it just right, then adding the syrup and a small scoop of ice cream, before adding a straw and a maraschino cherry. 

He pretends to read the menu as you approach, he can’t have you seeing the way his eyes track your every movement. The sway of your hips, swishing the skirt, the way your fingers clutch the soda glass. 

He blows out a soft breath between his lips as he considers the menu, even though he already knows what he’s going to get. 

“All by yourself tonight Joel?” 

Your voice sends something through him, a familiar tingle of need that has him dizzy with confusion. Another jolt of his cock, and he shifts in his seat, trying to ignore the growing tightness of his jeans. 

“Yep, Ellie and Dina are out at some party, and Sarah’s with the softball team out of state.” He offers with a smile, he hopes you don’t hear the rasp in his voice. Notice the way his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. 

No, you just flash him that same smile, setting the glass down and taking out your notepad. 

“So what can I get you?” You ask as you ready your pen, poised over the worn yellow lined pages. Joel resists the urge to watch your hands, the way your fingers curl around the pen, the tip of your thumb pressing the clicker with practiced ease. He can’t stop his mind imagining how they’d look around his cock. He forgets how to breathe for a moment as he meets your eyes. 

A curious quirk to your brow that makes him wonder if you see right through him, the old man that’s coming to the same diner almost daily if only to see you. Oh god, it’s sad, even worse he’s using whatever it feels for you to replace the emptiness Cherry is leaving in her wake. He coughs as the silence stretches on a bit too long. 

“Uh, the pot roast stew please,” you give him a smile with a soft laugh. 

“Jeez, have you tried anything else on the menu?” 

It’s a well meaning jab, though Joel feels heat along his neck, and his cock jolts at the sound of your breathless jest, again that twinge of something familiar like he’s heard it before. But can’t place it.

“Heh, can’t say I have, but what can I say: I’m a man of habit.” 

You smile, jotting his order down you give him a wink, before turning and heading back to the kitchen. Your uniform’s poodle skirt swishes just high enough that the bottom swell of your ass peeks just beneath the hem, he thinks for a moment he catches sight of a pair of panties, but it couldn’t be. 

“Jesus,” Joel husks under his breath, trying subtly to adjust, the brush of his palm against his cock sends a sweet tickle of pleasure along his spine. His toes flex in his timberland's as he shifts in his glittery red vinyl booth. Grateful that the few other patrons are so engrossed in their own meals or phones they barely notice his distress. 

He takes out his phone to distract himself, swiping through different apps, trying and failing to forget the sway of your hips, imagining the softness of them against his palms as he fucks into you. The noises you’d make as he pounded you into the table before him, the way your cunt would flutter around his cock as you cum, again, and again.

Fuck. 

He needs to figure out an outlet, that’s not the pretty waitress at the diner he’s frequenting. He’s pulled out of his imaginings when you approach, his food in your hand. Giving him another sweet smile, his cock jumps, he thinks to himself how pretty that red lipstick would look smudged on his shaft, and around your lips. 

“Alrighty, one pot roast stew–” he should have seen it coming, normally he moves his drink away from where you place it on the table, but he’s been so entrapped in his fantasies he neglected to move it. The edge of the plate clinks against the glass, and it’s tumbling into his lap, the chill of the soda against his bulge is startling, he jolts with a swear. 

But you react with a quickness that dumbfounds him, a whispered curse followed by a whimpered chorus of apologies. The towel hanging at your hip is in your fingers, and before he can stop you, your hand is pressing between his legs. 

It’s an innocent caress, you’re trying to clean him of the bubbling soda and melting ice cream. But all his mind–his dick can focus on is the soft press of your fingers against his bulge through his jeans. 

A strangled grunt leaves him, like he’s been wounded as his cock all but pulses beneath your touch. 

“Fuck–Joel I’m so sorry–” your eyes are focused on the wet spot on his crotch, he’s mortified, knowing you’ll feel the outline of his cock straining against the denim of his jeans. Throbbing against every swipe of the towel, the accidental brush of your fingertips against it. 

“S–Stop–Stop, I got it!”

He doesn’t mean for it to sound as venomous as it does, but he can’t…won’t let you feel the way his cock reacts to your touch. You step back, a clear wounded look in your eyes. A flush creeps up his neck, into his cheeks, the other patrons are looking. He needs to leave before you feel it, call him out on it.. He stands without a look he leaves a couple of bucks on the table…more than the spilled drink is worth and stomps out of the diner. 

You call after him, but he ignores it, heading to his truck, the pain between his thighs growing as every part of him begs to turn around. Go back into the diner, press a scalding kiss to your pretty red lips and fuck you atop the table. 

No, he can’t do that–fuck, he won’t do that. You’re a young woman in her prime with plenty of admirers. He sees them in the afternoons, the way other boys watch you too, their lust barely contained…He’s no better then them, salivating after you like a dog in heat. Maybe he’s worse though, after all there’s another girl out there he’d happily drop to his knees and worship. You seem like a nice girl, sweet, maybe a bit naive…But you’re not Cherry, and a part of him winces at that.

The ride home passes too slow, and yet too fast, how he makes it home when all his mind can think about is you, the softness of your hand against his crotch. He can’t recall any of the drive, if he stopped at the lights, or just sped through them.

 Joel stomps into the house, into his bedroom. Undoing his jeans his cock still achingly hard as he spits into his palm he starts at a quick uncoordinated pace. Standing before his unmade bed, he fucks into his hand bottom lip trapped between his lips.

This is just about relief, and all he can think about is you, naked on your knees, lips around his cock. On his bed ass up and spread as he pounds into you, the sweet pretty noises you’d make, the way his name sounds on your lips as you beg him for more. And he’d give it to you, oh fuck, he’d give you anything and everything you asked for.

The sweet flutter of your eyes as he pounds into you, fuck you’d feel so good. He knows you would, knows you would whimper the sweetest things to him, he gasps as he cums with a sudden jolt. 

He pants staring at the splatter of cum painting his comforter and the top of his fingers. His cock softening in his palm, pulses again as he thinks you would clean him, would watch him through your lashes as the sweet little tongue swirled around his fingers sucking him clean. 

“God…dammit.”

He comes back to the diner a week later, again late at night. Cherry still hasn’t called, the guilt he feels has started to overwhelm him. He knows he needs to make things right. Entering the 50’s diner, as usual it’s barren, his heart jolts seeing you’re not there. He sees your friend Kristin, who’s busying herself with some glasses.

The second she sees him though, her eyes widen, and then darken–for a moment he worries that he’s burned this bridge so bad he’ll never see the other side again, and he can’t do that again. Not when the sting of Cherry disappearing is too fresh. But then you appear from the kitchen when you see him, your eyes widen and he holds up his hands in surrender. 

“J–joel–” 

“Can we talk?” 

He finally manages, and you pale, he winces guilt gnawing at his innards as he figures out what to say, how to explain himself. I left so suddenly because I couldn’t stand the thought of you feeling my boner, doesn’t seem like the best way to start an apology. You give a worried look to Kristin, who for all the poison in her gaze gives an encouraging nod in his direction. 

He resists the urge to blow out a breath of relief when you step forward then and go to Ellie, and Sarah’s booth. You sit, the poodle skirt flaring out around your thighs, and his cock jolts, he forces his eyes to lock onto your face. 

Sitting across from you, he clears his throat, considering what he should say, you start. 

“I’m so sorry about last week, I–I have no idea what’s come over me–” 

“Y/n,” saying your name, you stop your fingers fidget on the black table top. Watching him silently as he considers what to say next, “I–I’m so sorry about last week, I shouldn’t have…stormed out the way I did.” 

He scrambles through his mind to find the next words of his apology, as your teeth pull your bottom lip between them. His cock throbs again, as all he can think is how soft it would feel between his teeth. The noises you’d make–focus. 

“I had a bad day at work,” he admits, not his contracting job, no he’s getting tired of the phone job, now that Cherry is well and truly gone. The excitement he had is waning, the money is still fine, but…both his girls are almost done with school. And he’s got enough of a nest egg growing he could leave it, and not have to worry about funds again. “I–I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that, I’m so sorry.” 

You blink at this hesitating before answering, he jolts when your hand reaches over the table top, your nails are painted with a chipping soft pink nail polish. 

“Let’s start over, hi, I’m Y/N and I work at this diner when I’m not being driven insane by my Master’s program.” You give him a sweet smile, and Joel’s heart stutters, flipping in his chest with glee. He returns the smile and takes your hand in his, noticing how soft–stop it. 

“I’m Joel Miller, cantankerous, I don’t know the difference between NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, and my girls are my world.” 

You giggle at his words, and nod, he doesn’t want to let go of your hand. But you release it, and he lets his return to the table top. Your fingers brush a stray lock of hair from your face. 

“So, can I get you a root beer float, and not spill it on you?” 

“By all means.”  

You stand with a sweet smile, “Okay, be right back, let me just check on my regular and then I’ll get your order?” 

He nods, and turns to look at the menu, though he knows what he’s getting. He feels a relief sweep through him, hopeful that now he can get on the straight and narrow with you. This was a good sign. 

“How’s everything?” 

He listens as you work the only other table in your section. An elderly man sits there, plate half finished, “as always delicious.” 

“Good to hear, you’ll be taking the rest to go?” 

“You know me too well y/n, and of course you’ll be included to come home right?” 

You laugh at the old man’s joke, clearly he’s tried before, but there’s no malice or degradation to the old man’s tone. 

“Mr. Gordon, you know I’m not available for house calls anymore,” he chuckles as you clean away the plates. 

“I know, but you treat me so sweetly, someone has to sweep you up, why not me?” 

Joel doesn’t know why he doesn’t tune out the conversation, maybe it’s the flare of jealousy that courses through him, at you so easily flirting with someone else–an elderly man at that, but your next words have his world collapsing. 

“Oh, hush you dirty old man–” he hears nothing else, he knows those words, he knows your voice. Maybe it’s pitched a bit higher then he remembers or maybe because it’s not garbled by the phone reception. But it’s her–you–fuck–you’re Cherry. 

Joel doesn’t know what to do, all he hears is a ringing in his ears and feels his heart pounding in his chest. Thinks he might pass out if he’s honest for a moment, the world tilting.

But how? When? 

His mouth opens and closes, trying to understand what the hell landed him into this situation.

“Joel?” 

He jumps, startled that you’ve appeared to his side, having finished your exchange with your elderly regular. He hears it then, though he doesn’t want to admit it–fuck he’s been here for  a month, and never—never put two and two together. But he hears it now, the soft lilt to your question, the way Cherry’s words would do the same thing when she–you were unsure. 

He stares for what feels like too long, before he’s muttering a quick apology, an excuse that he’s been called to a job site. He’s pissed, anger flaring through him with a heat that coils in his chest, he gets in his truck with a snarl and slams his palms against the steering wheel, ignoring the way you watch him leave hurt clear in your eyes as he drives away.

[littlcdarlin]

let you wash all over me

summary: you spend a well earned day of rest at a lake with Joel, away from Jackson and your responsibilities. warnings: age gap (unspecified), my attempt at southern slang, unprotected p in v, I'm too tired to tag this properly but it's mellow and sweet

note: for the lovely anon who requested this – I hope it's what you imagined <3 inspired by Ethel Cain's Family Tree

"C’mon, sweetheart, gotta get there early."

You don’t argue with Joel, because you know he’s doing this for you – well, and for Tommy. You haven’t been in Jackson long, and with summer on the brink of arriving this trip is long overdue. So you let Joel help you onto the back of the horse and run your fingers through its satiny fur, so white in the rising morning sun it almost hurts your eyes. Joel hands you a backpack and you put it on, then scooch to make room for him. Perhaps another day he will teach you how to ride, too, so you don’t have to burden the poor animal with both your weights in this heat.

The sound of the hooves on the soil is soothing as Joel guides the mare trough the woods with steady hands. You’re both quiet, not because there’s nothing to talk about, but because that’s the sort of effect these morning hours always have – everything is waking up, still sluggish from the dark, fresh and new. You close your eyes, the flecks of sunlight painting a mosaic of color on the insides of your eyelids, and rest your cheek against Joel’s back. Here, away from prying eyes and judgmental stares it’s easy as breathing, and from time to time you feel Joel’s fingers ghost over your knee, as if to check you haven’t fallen off.

It’s still cool enough to enjoy the ride, the breeze and shade of the trees offering solace from the heat. You sleep with your windows wide open each night to let the house cool down. You get to do that now. It took a while to sink in, but after a couple of months you didn’t fear the immediate outside anymore, only what lies behind the wall. But even now, even outside of Jackson, you can’t bring yourself to be afraid, not with your arms wrapped so tightly around the body you trust the most in the world. Perhaps you should be more alert, but there haven’t been a lot raider attacks recently. With the weather always comes an abundance of food, so even the most unfriendly of people in the woods don’t need to cause trouble right now. You’re protected by the seasons, at least until this new luxury of food practically running right into your mouths loses its effect. They’ll want something again, weaponry for instance, but if you’re lucky you get to spend this day with Joel in peace.

You press a kiss against his plaid-covered back, hear him hum contentedly in response. Even grumpy Joel Miller melts a little bit in the sunshine. You smile to yourself, open your eyes again and watch the blackbirds in the trees, singing to announce the start of a new day that doesn’t include a fight for survival.

"I’m happy," you whisper, aware that Joel can’t hear you over the sound of the woods. Your face is turned to his bad side, the one he always tilts just slightly away from you when you speak, so as to hear you better. Your happiness feels like a secret, like something you’re not entitled to in his world, but it’s real and glowing and warm and wears Joel’s scent and colors.

"Won’t take much longer now," Joel tells you, his voice softened by the peace of the past hour, and although you’re not particularly looking forward to learning how to fish, any time spent alone with Joel is precious to you.

He was right – after ten minutes you arrive at a little clearing and when you peer past Joel, you see the lake Tommy described to you, fed by a small river glittering in the sun. It’s so untouched by humans you feel almost guilty for disturbing it with your clumsy limbs and too loud voices. But when you slide off the horse, you spot a squirrel and its marble eyes are unafraid. You might be clumsy and human and loud, but you’re a part of this earth, however much humanity tried to rebel against it.

Joel guides the horse towards the lake, lets it drink languidly and ties it to a nearby tree so it can rest in the shadow. He pats its neck gently, a quiet thank you for getting you two here safely, and turns around to look at you.

"What?" he asks when he finds you already looking at him with a smile on your face.

"You like that horse."

Joel doesn’t seem embarrassed anymore when you notice these things about him, just turns towards the animal again and runs his big palm over its fur.

"Yeah, I do. I like you, don’t I? You’re a good girl," he mumbles, watching as the mare starts sniffing the ground in search of something edible. 

The two of you sit down by the lakeside for a couple of minutes and you get out your water bottle, offering it to Joel, but as always he lets you have the first sip. It’s not yet warm from the day as you let it run down your throat. Joel watches you quietly.

"You ready to fulfill your duty to Jackson?"

 At his question you shrug, eyes drifting over the lake.

"I’m not overly fond of hunting," you admit. Joel chuckles.

"You’re the only girl still alive who has a problem with killin’ animals."

He’s right and you know it makes you soft. But you just can’t imagine running an arrow through that squirrel you saw, not when animals are so much better than people these days. You aren’t above violence, wouldn’t be here if you were, but living in Jackson means you have the luxury of morals again, and you’d rather work in the greenhouses or kitchen than hunt or fish, though you you’d never turn down a hot meal. It might be hypocritical to eat but not want to kill them, but you don’t care. Joel’s hand finds your waist, and he presses a kiss to your temple.

"I like that about you, honey lamb."

That nickname he started calling you not too long ago, when your relationship turned into what it is now. It reminds you of where he’s from, his life in the south before the world turned cruel, and you know it takes a lot for him to bare that side of him so incidentally. You rest your forehead on his shoulder, inhale his sweat and soap, let him pull you close to him.

"How about we spend the day just swimmin’, hm?"

At that you look up and into his kind whiskey-eyes.

"Tommy would kill us."

"Ain’t no need for Tommy to know. I’ll take you again next week, tell him you need a bit more practice."

A whole day in the sunshine with Joel, swimming and eating the food he packed, without worrying about fishing or food or raiders or patrols. It seems too good to be true, but you won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead, you press yours against Joel’s, his graying beard scratching your skin softly, and run your fingers through his hair.

"Alright, hoss."

Joel laughs, cups your face in his hands and kisses your forehead.

"Take off your clothes, then, little lady."

You raise an eyebrow, cheeks pulled taut with your smile, and Joel shakes his head.

"You got a dirty head on your shoulders. Can’t go swimmin’ in jeans, can you?"

"Can’t go swimming at all," you admit, "I don’t know how."

For a beat, Joel just stares at you. Then he gets up, joints cracking, and crosses his arms I front of his body.

"You tellin’ me nobody’s ever taught you how to swim?"

You shrug, then shake your head. Joel holds out his hand to you and pulls you to your feet.

"We can’t have that," he says decidedly, and runs his finger over your cheek. "Can’t have my girl drownin’ on me."

***

"Alright now. First thing, you ain’t gonna sink. I gotcha."

Joel’s hands are on your waist, you’re in the water to your bellybutton. It’s cold, but not cold enough to drown out the heat of his skin on yours.

"Don’t let me go," you mutter, your torso tense with anticipation, and Joel squeezes you just once.

"Not gonna let go, I promise. You don’t gotta trust the water if you trust me. Just ease on in, I’m here."

You breathe in and focus on the warm feeling for Joel you harbor in your chest, then let yourself sink into the water. It’s shallow, you know you could always touch the ground with your feet, and Joel’s hands hold you steadily, dependably. But suddenly something slimy touches your foot and you flinch, your arms and legs paddling wildly. Joel wraps a strong arm around your middle and pulls you towards him, until you’re upright again, your back against his front, though you won’t let your feet touch the ground.

"’S just a weed, sweetheart."

"It – it wrapped around my leg!"

"Might be a fish tryin’ to flirt."

The amusement is evident in his voice and you aim a kick at his shin, which earns you a rumbling laugh in response.

"Easy, baby, you’re okay. Ain’t nothin’ down there that wants a piece of you, I promise."

Slowly you extend your legs again until your toes dig into the soft sand. You breathe out shakily and Joel paints soothing circles into your skin with his thumb. You try again, now reassured that Joel will catch you if you panic, and this time you stay afloat for a couple of seconds with Joel still holding you securely.

"Good, that’s good. Now kick them legs, baby, and sweep your hands through the water. That’s it, easy does it."

It works – you’re moving through the water on your own, Joel still holding onto you and walking next to you, but more for reassurance than to help you stay afloat. It’s an exhilarating feeling to glide through the water like a fish, to trust that you will float.

"See? You got it."

He doesn’t let go just like he promised, and when you kick your legs towards the ground and turn towards him, he pulls you close to his naked chest. His eyes flicker downwards and he thumbs the strap of your bra.

"That thing turns see-through in the water," he informs you, his eyes light and twinkling with pride and something else.

"Does it now?" you breathe, legs still kicking with the effort of staying afloat. Joel hums, then pulls you up and towards him so you’re half lifted out of the water. His lips touch yours, and he tastes like lake water and sunshine and so distinctly like home. You melt against him, trust that he will hold you, and go still in his arms. Joel moves his mouth over your cheek to the point right below your earlobe, over your neck up to the soft part beneath your chin so you crane your neck for him.

"Wanna have you right here," he mutters, "give the fish something to talk about."

You chuckle, but his words barely register with how quickly Joel’s mood changed, how quickly he has you unravelling in his arms.

"Please," you mumble, and Joel moves his hand towards your crotch, pushes the fabric of your panties to the side, and runs his thick fingers through your folds. He prods at your entrance softly, rubs your clit lazily until you’re pliant and relaxed for him, then pushes two of his thick digits inside of you. You put your forehead on his shoulder and wrap your arms around his neck, panting into his wet skin. As always he’s slow with it, and for once you really are unhurried, even though it’s the middle of the day. Your fingernails dig into his neck when he curls his fingers against that spot inside of you, your wet chest pressing against his.

"There we go," Joel mumbles, working his fingers relentlessly until you barely register coming, your orgasm an easy flutter deep in your stomach. You whine when he slips his fingers out of you, and instead reaches inside his boxershorts.

"You ready to come like you oughta?"

"Yes," you answer breathily and feel him align himself with your entrance. There’s no slippery mess between your legs like usually, not while you’re in the water, but it only hurts for the first couple of seconds. He pushes into you slowly and you ease your hips towards him until he’s fully sheathed inside of you, letting you breathe for a moment. It’s quiet around you, the only sound the water whenever you move and the birds in the trees.

Joel fucks you slowly, and your eyes fall closed after a couple of thrusts, the sensation of the cooling water on your skin and his cock deep inside of you relaxing you completely. He’s soft with you, letting you go limp in his arms and doing almost all of the work, his hold on you secure.

"Hm, honey lamb? You gonna come for me again?"

His voice is so close to your ear you shudder and he presses a kiss to the shell, little groans floating right out of his mouth and into your ear.

"Yes," you moan softly, angling your hips as Joel’s thrusts hit your spot every time, and he reaches down to rub at your clit with one hand, holding you up with his other arm.

It doesn’t take you long, and you bite into his shoulder when you do.

"I love you," you mutter into his skin, and as always those three words are what gets Joel there. His hips stutter and he pumps his load deep inside of you, cock twitching and throbbing and not pulling out.

"I love you too, my darlin’."

***

The rest of the day you lie around on the sun-warmed flat rocks at the edge of the water, letting your underwear dry and Joel ogle you freely, not another soul in sight except for your horse. He feeds you slices of apple and bread, traces the little flecks of sunlight on your bare skin, kisses your eyelids when you drift off some time in the afternoon.

When you wake up again, he is swimming, his strong shoulders and legs moving through the water and exuding power the way a big cat does. You watch him dive, come up again and shake his head like a dog, then float on his back for a while. He’s enjoying this day just as much as you are, you can tell. Head of patrol, brother to Tommy, partner to you – he has got a lot of responsibility. You’re glad he gets this day to relax and in the quiet of the afternoon you think he might be humming to himself, though he’s too far away for you to be sure.

He gets out of the water when he notices you’re awake, dripping all over the rocks, and you shriek when he reaches you.

"No – no, Joel, I just dr-"

But he’s already on top of you, his full body weight pressing into yours the way you like it, and his lips find yours. Your protests are muffled and even though you shiver from the cold water, you melt under his mouth. He kisses you for what feels like hours, drags his mouth over your shoulders and collarbone down to your ribcage and stomach. You let him, close your eyes again and are half asleep when his mouth finds your core.

It’s not really about coming, more about closeness, as he sucks on your clit, your brain halfway between pleasure and sleep. It’s lazy, indulgent, slow. He nips at your inner thighs, spreads one big palm over your stomach. You sigh, and weave your fingers through his locks of hair.

When you’re done, he kisses you again, and you taste yourself on him, as he slowly pushes his tongue into your mouth. You spend ages like this, perhaps years or millennia, you aren’t sure.

"I love you," he mumbles into your mouth. "Gonna take you here every year."

You smile.

"Gonna tell Tommy I forgot how to fish each year?"

Joel hums and drags his nose over your neck.

"Gonna tell Tommy to fuck off and let me have a day with my girl."

You chuckle and kiss his cheek.

"Alright, hoss," you say again, just to hear him laugh at your impression of a southern girl.

"Alright, honey lamb," he answers.

[foxtrology]

inertia (1)

reed richards x reader

star sailor series | ao3 link

notes: hi. so i’ve been writing this fic over the last three weeks (yes, three entire weeks, i know) and honestly it would not exist in its current form without my best friend, who is a literal physics major and walked me through so many of the equations and techy parts so reed didn’t sound like a fraud. i love her for that.

also, fun fact: reader is neurodivergent (i borrowed some of my own neurodivergent tendencies to shape her), so if you pick up on that... you’re right. thanks for being here!

word count: 12k

─────

You’ve always preferred rooms with humming machines to those filled with people.

It wasn’t shyness, not really.

Just an overwhelming awareness of your own rhythm, too far removed from the world’s noisy metronome. You knew early on you understood things differently—less about feeling out what someone meant, more about isolating the structure beneath their words, the pattern in their tone, the physics of an interaction.

Most people called it brilliance. You called it survival.

The Baxter Foundation didn’t feel like survival at first.

It felt like exile.

A postdoctoral placement handed to you like a sealed fate—"promising," "potential," "gifted." Euphemisms for "difficult," "obsessive," "odd."

They said Reed Richards might know what to do with you.

You assumed they'd meant “handle.”

But he didn’t handle you. He saw you.

Reed Richards wasn’t what you expected.

The name carried weight: prodigy, theorist, treasured in the scientific community. You imagined arrogance, an aging wunderkind with a room full of accolades and a voice like static.

But the man who stood waiting for you at the base of the Baxter Building's elevator looked almost misplaced—rumpled in a navy button up, absent-mindedly smearing graphite on the sleeve as he scribbled into the margin of a battered notepad.

He had those lines around his mouth—the kind that softened a face rather than hardened it. A sharp nose, brown eyes, and that unmistakable streak of grey curling through otherwise dark hair.

At first, you assumed it was dyed—it looked too perfect. But it was real. Of course it was.

You hadn’t realized you were staring until he tilted his head.

“You're early,” he’d said, voice warm and textured. Then, a smile that lit up his whole face—eyes first. “I like that.”

That was two years ago.

You’ve since learned Reed keeps a second toothbrush for you in his private quarters upstairs, though he’s never pointed it out.

You discovered it one night after a double shift, when he gently steered you towards the bed in his guest room instead of letting you fall asleep under your desk again. He didn’t say, “Stay with me.” He just adjusted the pillow, handed you a glass of water, and made sure the bathroom light stayed on.

It’s quiet love. A sustained frequency. A knowing.

On Tuesdays, you both eat lunch in the server room because it's the only place in the Baxter Building that maintains the kind of white noise you can disappear into.

Reed brings you a sandwich without tomato—he learned after the first week that you can’t stand the texture—and sets it beside your research without interrupting your thought process. You don’t thank him out loud. You just leave the crusts in the pattern he finds funny, concentric squares, always precise.

Sometimes, he laughs at that. Sometimes, he files it away like data.

Today, the two of you are working on a stabilization algorithm for experimental gravitational anchors—Reed's theory, your math. The simulation keeps failing, and Reed mutters something under his breath about quantum decay before turning to you.

“Show me again how you’re quantizing the drift interval,” he says, pushing his chair slightly closer to yours.

You don’t flinch. He always asks to see your work like this—not to correct, but to understand. He thinks your brain is a mystery worth mapping. And maybe it is.

You pull up your calculations, annotated with your usual shorthand that no one else in the lab pretends to follow. Reed doesn’t blink. He reads your annotations like they're a shared language.

“You inverted the modulus,” he says quietly, quite in awe. “God, that’s...elegant.”

You look down. Compliments still stick to you like static. You’ve never known what to do with them.

“It was obvious,” you murmur, tapping the screen once to clear the render.

“Not to me.”

His voice carries something like reverence. Not the kind people fake when they’re talking to someone younger, or different. His is heavier. Sincere. Measured.

You chew the inside of your cheek.

“Can I show you something?” you ask.

That’s how you always start, even though Reed never says no.

The observatory lab is empty when you both arrive.

He unlocks it with his palmprint, but you go in first, navigating in the dark by memory. You’ve had an idea simmering for days—a tweak in boundary calibration using harmonic frequency overlap, something even Reed dismissed initially as too unstable.

But last night, at 2:43 a.m., your model ran clean for the first time. No drift. No bleed. Pure coherence.

You bring it up on the projection wall, fingers moving fast. Words tumble when you’re excited—sharp, fast, too much for most people. Reed doesn’t interrupt. He never has.

When the model stabilizes on the fourth run, you glance over your shoulder.

Reed is watching you.

Not the simulation. Not the math. You.

You freeze.

He steps forward slowly, like if he moves too fast you might vanish.

“You didn’t sleep last night, did you?”

You look back to the projection. “No. But it was worth it.”

He exhales a soft breath, close enough now that you can feel the warmth of it on your temple.

“You can’t burn like this all the time,” he murmurs, but his voice doesn’t hold judgment—only concern.

“I can,” you reply simply. “And I do.”

He lets out a low laugh, almost involuntarily. Then, more gently, “Let me take care of you. A little.”

He says it like a hypothesis. Something untested.

You don’t answer. Not out loud. But you lean into his shoulder—not quite a nod, not quite an invitation—and he stays there. Long enough that the simulation cycles again, quiet and steady in the background.

Later, you’ll find that he’s updated the cafeteria schedule in your calendar to make sure no one disturbs you between 12 and 2 p.m. on Tuesdays. You’ll notice that he’s ordered extra noise-cancelling panels for the lab, without ever saying why. That the lights outside your lab space dim slightly when you stay past midnight.

All Reed’s doing.

He never says it out loud.

But this is how he shows you.

In recalibrated thermostats. In cups of tea left cooling on your desk. In letting you be silent when silence is the only thing that fits.

The world outside moves too fast. New York never sleeps, never softens. There’s always construction in the distance, always an ambulance shrieking down Fifth, always people spilling from cafés and rooftop bars like they’re late for something invisible.

But in the Baxter Building—six floors above the ghost of the old Avengers Tower—the hum of your controlled environment remains undisturbed.

For now.

It’s the kind of phrase that hangs in the air longer than it should, like steam after the kettle's been lifted, like the echo of a chord when your fingers already left the strings.

You don’t hear it, of course. Not consciously. But the sensation trails you anyway, ghost-like, as the day folds open and the building shifts around you.

You return to Lab B-3, where a data stream from the gravitational anchor prototype pulses in pale blue on the screen. You prefer this room to the others—less foot traffic, colder air, fewer variables. The walls are lined with the modular panels you installed yourself, after three months of fighting sensory burnout from the old fluorescents. The air purifier in the corner hums at a frequency you can tolerate.

It smells faintly of dust and ozone, like a server farm on a rainy day.

You’re cataloging the last ten hours of micro-interference logs when the door hisses open behind you.

“Hey.”

You don’t turn. It’s a mistake, maybe, but you assume whoever it is has entered the wrong lab.

You’ve put the sign up: DO NOT DISTURB — QUANTUM MODELING IN PROGRESS. A laminated shield between you and the rest of the building’s noise.

The voice cuts through again, sharper. Louder.

“Hey—don’t ignore me.”

You blink at the screen. Your heart doesn’t race. It clenches, tightens like your ribcage is shrinking inward. You turn slowly.

It’s Dr. Ian Delmont. One of the senior engineers. Jacket unzipped, badge swinging loose around his neck like a noose that can’t make up its mind. His face is already red, already pulled taut around the mouth.

You recognize the body language...shoulders set forward, hands ready to gesture. Angry people always move in patterns. You learned this years ago, the way some people learn fire drills.

“Why the hell did you rewrite my core schematic without logging the revision?”

You stare at him.

“I didn’t rewrite anything. I optimized the redundancy logic. It was bottlenecking the chain reaction model.”

“That’s rewriting.”

Your voice stays steady, your mouth forming the words in the exact order they should go. “No, it's not. It’s a correction. The existing code couldn’t handle parallel iteration under dual-load conditions.”

“You didn’t clear it with me.”

“It was a bottleneck,” you repeat.

Ian’s voice raises. “I don’t care if it was a goddamn chokehold, you don’t get to touch my work without authorization.”

He says it loud enough that it ricochets off the walls. Too loud.

Your neck goes hot. You feel it in your jaw, down your arms. Your hands twitch just enough to knock your stylus from the table and you bend down to retrieve it—too fast. You bump the corner of the desk, hard. The pain doesn’t register, but the sound does.

Too loud. Too loud.

Ian takes a step forward.

“Every time I turn around, you’re sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong—”

“I was fixing it.”

“You were showing off.”

That does it. You freeze.

This isn’t about the code.

You blink. You don’t blink. You can’t remember. You try to open your mouth, but your tongue sits wrong in it. The sound you try to make stalls halfway up your throat. Your hands curl into themselves like you could fold out of sight.

The lights feel wrong. The texture of your sleeves is wrong. The hum of the purifier is gone, replaced by the jagged, ugly timbre of yelling.

“I don’t care what Richards says about you,” Ian mutters. “You don’t run this place.”

“Hey.”

The sound comes from the door. Not a shout. Not sharp. But it cuts through everything like glass through butter.

You both turn.

Reed Richards steps into the room like he’s always belonged there, like his presence is not new or sudden or charged with a heat you’ve only ever felt in gamma pulses and untested energy chambers.

His mouth is tight, drawn. There’s nothing soft about his expression now.

“I suggest,” he says slowly, like each word has been smoothed against the edge of a scalpel, “you take your tone down. Immediately.”

Ian hesitates. Then his jaw sets. “With all due respect, Dr. Richards—”

“No,” Reed interrupts, walking further into the room, voice calm and sharp all at once. “Don’t. Don’t try to play seniority. This isn’t about protocol. This is about how you just cornered one of my lead researchers and yelled at her while she was running live code on a multivariable anchor model.”

“I was confronting—”

“You were posturing,” Reed cuts in. “And you were wrong.”

Ian blinks. Reed’s voice doesn’t rise. It doesn’t need to.

“She didn’t rewrite your schematic. She corrected a critical flaw that should have been caught weeks ago.” He stops beside you. Not in front of you, not shielding—beside. “The only reason that anchor hasn’t destabilized is because she stepped in.”

Reed turns his head slightly, glancing down at you. His eyes soften, fractionally. He doesn’t touch you, but he lets the silence hang, as if waiting for you to reclaim your voice if you want to.

You don’t. Not yet.

“Ian,” he says without looking away, “I want you out of this lab. Now.”

Ian’s mouth opens, then shuts again.

Then he leaves.

You’re still breathing too fast. You know you are. You can feel the microtremors in your fingers, the irregular skip of your pulse. But the room feels real again. Your body is slowly remembering where it ends.

Reed waits until the door hisses shut.

Then, “Can I sit?”

You nod, once. He pulls a chair close—closer than he usually would in a shared lab space—and sits beside you with the kind of silence that doesn’t ask anything from you. His knees are angled toward yours. His forearms rest loosely on his thighs. His whole posture is a quiet question you don’t have to answer.

You stare at the screen. 

“I wasn’t showing off.”

Reed lets out a sound between a sigh and a laugh. Not at you. With you. “I know,” he says gently.

“I just…saw the error. It was obvious.”

“I know.”

He pauses.

“You don’t need to explain yourself to anyone in this building. Least of all him.”

You press your thumbnail into the meat of your palm, grounding.

“I’m not good at…tone.”

“That’s not a flaw.”

“I always think I can just fix it quietly and not deal with the…other part. The confrontation.”

He nods once, his eyes still fixed on you. “The way the world expects communication isn’t the only valid way to exist in it.”

Something in your chest cracks open at that. Quietly. Invisibly.

You lean back against the chair, your breath finally settling into a rhythm.

Reed stays where he is. His presence doesn’t press against you—it anchors. He’s always been like that. Dense and still, like a planet with just enough gravity to make sense of things.

You glance over at him.

“Thank you,” you say finally.

He shrugs. “I don’t like mean people.”

You look down at the table. You trace a line in the condensation ring your tea left behind earlier.

“Are you going to fire him?”

“I don’t know,” he says honestly. “But I’m going to make it very, very clear who’s indispensable here.”

You don’t ask who he means.

You already know.

Later that night, you’re still in the lab, long after the rest of the building has gone dim.

Reed comes back with a takeout container—your favorite, though you don’t remember ever saying it aloud. He doesn’t mention the incident again. Just passes you the food, leans back in the corner chair, and starts updating his lab journal aloud, knowing you like to listen to the way he thinks.

Outside, New York glitters like a malfunctioning galaxy. Inside, the lights are low, the air quiet, the world small and manageable.

Just you, your notes, and the man with the grey streak in his hair who watches you like you built the constellations from scratch.

A quiet love, not yet named.

But it’s there.

Always has been.

It’s late now, nearly eleven, but the labs on the upper floors of the Baxter Building don’t abide by clocks. Here, time stretches. Pools. Slows down when the work is good. Speeds up when the math gets too beautiful to let go of.

You and Reed are the only ones left.

Everyone else has long since clocked out, their departure announced by the usual symphony of zipping backpacks and elevator chimes. The security team downstairs knows better than to check on you. You’re a known variable—an equation that balances best in silence, after dark, with only the man beside you and a cooling takeout container between you and the void.

Reed is sketching something in his notebook—a systems flowchart annotated with arrows that curve and overlap like a child’s drawing of a galaxy.

He’s humming, under his breath. Just a few bars of something he’s probably not even aware of. It’s familiar, not because you recognize the tune, but because you’ve heard him do it before, under the same kind of fluorescent moonlight and the same clean, ticking quiet.

You finish logging the day’s simulation data, close the terminal, and pull up your schedule for the upcoming weeks. The glowing display casts faint shadows over your face, which you don't notice but Reed glances at, once, over the edge of his notebook.

Monday. Field trip.

You hadn’t forgotten. Not exactly. It had just sat at the bottom of the week like a pebble in your shoe—felt but not seen.

You stare at the words for a beat too long.

VISITOR OUTREACH: 9:30–11:15 — RICHARDS / YOU

Group: PS 22 — Grade 2

Your fingers twitch at your side, a muscle memory of anxiety without the adrenaline to match. You don’t say anything, but your mind is already running the old loop, quiet and tight, like rewinding a tape you didn’t want to play in the first place.

You’d been paired with high school seniors last time.

They came in loud, late, and bored. One of them had a vape pen tucked into their hoodie drawstring.

You remember the boy in the back who asked if you “did anything real” or if you just “sat in rooms with graphs all day.” Another mimed falling asleep when you began explaining atmospheric coding inputs for small-scale gravitational fields.

You hadn’t raised your voice. You hadn’t snapped. You just shut down the projection early and handed the rest of the presentation off to the intern whose voice sounded like she smiled even when she didn’t mean it.

Afterward, you’d sat on the roof of the Baxter Building and stared at the clouds. Told yourself they were just kids. Told yourself they didn’t know.

But it stuck. The way they laughed when you said you worked on electromagnetic resonance feedback models. The way one of the girls whispered “so basically nothing” to the boy next to her like you weren’t even there.

They didn’t know.

That your work stabilized quantum harmonics in the kinds of silicon they tap on all day, every day.

That your programming makes the screen light up when their crush texts them back.

That the interface delay they complain about in video games used to be twenty seconds instead of two, and you helped design the equation that closed that gap.

They didn’t know you once pulled Reed out of a theoretical blind alley and into a breakthrough he’d later call elegant, a word he doesn’t use lightly.

They didn’t know how much you cared. That the caring was the point.

So after that, you asked to be reassigned.

“Elementary school kids,” you’d told Reed in his office one morning, already chewing at the inside of your cheek. “They’re too small to be cruel yet.”

He didn’t laugh, but you remember his eyes. How they softened. How he nodded and said simply, “Okay.”

And now here it was. Monday. Second graders. A classroom full of kids with juice boxes and velcro shoes and hands that still shoot up when they’re curious.

You can handle that. Probably.

You close the schedule tab. The screen goes dark.

Reed looks up from his notebook. “Everything okay?”

You nod once.

He doesn’t press. But he waits.

You speak without looking at him. “Monday's outreach.”

He leans back in his chair, notebook on his lap. “Right. You’re with me.”

You nod again.

“I asked for the younger group this time,” you add quietly, almost like you’re confessing something. “The older ones were…”

You trail off.

You don’t finish the sentence, but Reed catches the thread anyway. Of course he does.

He doesn’t say they were cruel. He doesn’t say you didn’t deserve that. He doesn’t fill the silence with anything easy.

Instead, he says, “You’ll be good with them.”

“Because they’re not old enough to be bored yet?”

“Because you care,” he says, looking directly at you. “And kids remember that. Even if they can’t say it.”

You pick at the corner of your sleeve. You’re still thinking about Monday. About the fear that your voice will tremble again. That the wrong word will come out. That your quiet will make them fidget and giggle and whisper.

But then you think about the last time a kid visited the Baxter—seven years old, wandered away from the main tour. Found his way into your lab by accident. You showed him how magnets repel in zero gravity fields and he tried to high five you with both hands at once.

You’d smiled for hours after that.

Maybe Reed is right.

Maybe caring is enough.

By the time you both shut down your stations and gather your coats, it’s nearly midnight. Reed holds the elevator for you without asking. It’s just the two of you, the soft gold of the lights reflecting off the brushed metal doors as they slide shut behind you.

You watch the numbers tick down.

Reed stands beside you, shoulder not quite brushing yours. Quiet, like always. Present, like always.

“Do you want me there?” he asks suddenly, softly, as the elevator hums downward. “Monday. With the kids.”

You blink. “You’re already scheduled for it.”

“I know,” he says. “But do you want me there?”

It feels like a trick question. But it’s not. It’s just Reed, offering steadiness in the places you don’t always know you need it.

You nod.

He nods too.

Outside, the city glows like it’s forgotten how to sleep. Yellow cabs streak past in lazy arcs. Rain clings to the pavement like it’s not ready to let go.

You stand under the awning of the Baxter Building, both of you half-heartedly pretending to check your phones, neither of you quite moving to go. It’s a ritual now—this lingering. Like the day doesn’t want to end, so you don’t let it.

Reed finally speaks, his voice low and near your ear.

“You know…you do more than keep this place running. You are this place.”

You glance at him. He’s looking at the sky like it might answer back.

“And if some bored teenager can’t see that, it’s only because they’re too young to understand the shape of things.”

You swallow. The city smells like damp concrete and neon and early summer.

You don’t reply. But the words lodge somewhere behind your ribs.

And they stay.

In the space between you and Reed, that sentence hums like background radiation—silent, but measurable.

He doesn’t look at you, not directly, but the softness in his posture says enough. The kind of softness he reserves only for you. For late nights and unsaid things. For quiet field trip fears and tired bones after thirty-seven straight hours in the lab.

You shift your weight from foot to foot under the awning, fingers fidgeting at the edge of your sleeve. The city is wet and warm and humming in that uniquely New York way—trash trucks groaning down Sixth Avenue, a taxi horn blaring three blocks over, the subway beneath your feet thrumming like some subterranean heartbeat.

Reed checks the time on his phone, but it’s performative. He’s not really looking at it.

“You can stay upstairs if you want,” he offers. Voice neutral, like he’s suggesting you borrow a pencil.

You know what he means.

His quarters above the Baxter labs—spare and quiet and clean, like an extension of his brain. You've stayed there before. Once after a storm knocked out the subway, once when you got a migraine so bad you couldn’t walk home without throwing up. The guest room is always ready, with a weighted blanket you know he ordered just for you. The lights dim at 30% automatically, and the fridge always has tea.

Still, you shake your head.

“I don’t want to bother you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

You shrug one shoulder.

“But I’d feel like I was bothering you.”

There’s no irritation in your voice. It’s just a fact. A line drawn lightly in pencil, not ink.

He doesn’t argue. Reed knows better than anyone that pushing you when you’re already overstimulated only drives you deeper into the quiet.

“I’ll walk you,” he says.

You almost tell him it’s not necessary.

That you’ve done the walk a hundred times alone. That it’s late and he must be exhausted too. But something in the way he says it—low, certain, without any edge—stills your protest before it can take shape.

You nod once.

The streets are emptier than usual, rain thinning to a mist that catches in your hair and softens the world around the edges. You button your coat up to your chin. Reed tucks his hands into his pockets, his long strides slowing instinctively to match yours.

You don’t speak for the first few blocks. You don’t need to. It’s not awkward—it’s companionable. Your silences have always been functional. Built like scaffolding. Structural.

You pass a late-night falafel cart and the warm, oily scent of fried chickpeas folds around you. Someone’s playing Miles Davis through a cracked open window above a bodega. A cab splashes through a puddle without slowing down.

You glance at Reed. His hair is slightly damp from the rain, curling a little at the edges. The grey streak catches in the streetlamp glow and glints like metal. He looks tired, but the good kind—brain-tired. Soul-deep contentment worn like a worn-in coat.

There’s something in the way he carries himself now that feels looser than it used to. Since you.

You think about that sometimes. The before of him.

You’ve seen the photos.

You’ve read the papers.

The man with ideas too big for gravity, with headlines like The Modern Da Vinci and Richards' Law stapled to his name before he was even out of his twenties.

You used to resent those profiles.

How they smoothed over the things that mattered.

How they all insisted on brilliance and ignored what he really was...careful. Constant. Gentle in ways that science rarely rewards.

He wasn’t always like this. He told you, once, in a rare moment of openness, that he used to believe love would only slow him down. That affection dulled the edge of genius.

He doesn’t say things like that anymore.

But he doesn’t say the other thing either.

You know what you are to him—friend, confidant, collaborator.

His mind matches yours, nearly. But not quite.

You run faster. Not always more elegantly. But faster.

You see the equations before he does.

You make intuitive leaps he can only reconstruct in hindsight.

He admires that. You see it in the way he watches you work, the way he lets you lead without hesitation.

And still, he hasn’t said the thing.

Because once it’s said, it can’t be unsaid. And Reed Richards has never risked a variable he couldn’t account for.

“You know,” he says softly as you cross Park, “when you rewrote that module today… I think that was the first time I felt—” He pauses. “Old.”

You glance at him. “You’re not old.”

He chuckles. “My knees would disagree.”

“That’s not science.”

He smiles. “No. But it is gravity.”

You snort.

He watches you carefully. Then says, “You don’t realize how good you are, do you?”

You look down at the sidewalk. The rain has turned the concrete slick and mottled.

“I do. I just don’t know how to be proud of it.”

He nods like he understands. “Because pride implies…audience.”

You don’t answer. But your silence agrees with him.

A block later, you say, “You’ve taught me how to be better without making me feel small.”

It slips out before you realize it. The kind of truth that rarely finds a voice.

Reed stops walking.

You look back at him. He’s staring at you like he’s memorizing the moment.

“You’ve done that for me too,” he says quietly.

It should be more than that.

But it isn’t. Not yet.

Your building is a brick structure tucked on a quieter side street. Sixth floor, walk-up. Rent-high, because New York is cruel and physics has been paying you back a lot recently.

Reed’s been here before—once when you locked yourself out, once when you were sick with a stomach bug and couldn’t get out of bed to pick up your prescription.

He always waits at the foot of the stairs.

Tonight is no different.

You fish out your keys and glance back at him.

“I’m okay,” you say.

He nods. “Text me when you’re in.”

You hesitate. Then, a beat later, “Thank you for walking with me.”

“Always.”

You step inside. The door swings shut behind you with a soft click.

Reed watches the rectangle of light shrink until it’s gone.

Only then does he turn.

He walks back slowly, hands deep in his coat pockets, rain heavier now. The city is hushed, its noise folded in on itself. His shoes splash through puddles he doesn’t try to avoid.

He thinks about you.

The way your voice tightens when you talk about the things you care about.

The way you never apologize for being brilliant, just for being visible.

The way you notice every small thing—every decimal, every gesture, every change in temperature—and store it away like evidence that the world can be read if only you learn its language.

Reed Richards has spent his life searching for patterns. For the math behind miracles. He’s found some. Lost others.

But you?

You remain his favorite unsolved equation.

He doesn’t say the thing. Not yet.

But it lives just under his tongue, waiting.

The next morning you wake up earlier than you meant to.

Not by choice. Not by discipline.

But because your upstairs neighbors, despite living in an apartment complex with allegedly soundproof walls, have spent the last six and a half hours making the most expressive use of their vocal cords.

Moans.

Laughter.

Something you’re fairly certain was a vase being knocked over around 3:12 a.m.

You’d counted.

You’d logged the minute it started—12:49 p.m.—and the moment it finally slowed to quiet again, or at least to something muffled enough that you could hear yourself think.

There was nothing logical about it, and therefore nothing you could fix. No formula to solve thin drywall. No algorithm to isolate human behavior into something quiet, contained, reasonable.

So you’d stared at the ceiling. Then at your wall. Then at your ceiling again.

And now it’s 5:47 a.m., and your alarm hasn’t even gone off yet.

You sit up.

The air in your apartment is slightly too warm—residual heat from the radiator you can’t adjust. Your mouth is dry. The muscles in your back ache in the specific way they do when your sleep’s been interrupted just enough to confuse your circadian rhythm but not enough to explain it to anyone else.

You don’t bother lying back down.

Your morning routine is exact. Not out of compulsion, but out of necessity. A lattice structure of steps that keep the rest of the day from collapsing.

Boil water. Black tea, no milk.

Brush teeth—no mint toothpaste, only the kind with baking soda, because you hate the artificial sweetness.

Shower. Warm, not hot. You step out and wrap the towel tightly around you like armor.

Dressing is harder. The shirt you wanted to wear feels off today—too scratchy, too bright. You change into the navy knit Reed once said brought out your eyes.

That memory shouldn’t matter, but it does. You feel steadier when you put it on.

Bag. Notebook. ID. Keycard. Noise-canceling headphones, just in case.

You skip breakfast.

You always do when you’ve been overstimulated. It makes your stomach feel like wires have been crossed.

The subway is half-empty this early. The kind of silence particular to Friday mornings—the city not quite buzzing yet, just flickering. You stand near the doors and stare at your reflection in the opposite window, your face hovering over the tunnel blur outside like a ghost.

You think about the model you left open in Lab B-3. About the field trip on Monday. About whether or not you remembered to reroute the final data loop in the harmonic anchor sequence.

You think about Reed, and then try not to.

By the time you arrive at the Baxter Building, it’s just before seven.

You enter through the side entrance, swiping your badge through the sensor and waiting for the familiar mechanical click. The lobby is dark except for the ambient lighting that glows along the baseboards. The city hasn’t reached in yet.

And then you see him.

Reed.

Sitting on the bench just inside the front hallway like someone who forgot what time it is—or didn’t care.

He’s wearing the same navy coat from the night before, his hair still slightly damp from whatever morning shower he took before stepping into the day. His notepad is on his lap, open, but untouched.

He looks up at the sound of the door.

“Hey.”

You blink.

“You’re early,” you say.

“So are you.”

“I didn’t sleep.”

He stands slowly. “Your neighbors again?”

You nod, already tugging your bag strap higher on your shoulder.

“I’m thinking of writing them a formal request to conduct their mating rituals at a lower decibel range.”

That makes you snort, despite yourself.

“They’d probably just find that hot.”

Reed’s laugh is soft. “You’re probably right.”

He falls into step beside you without needing to be asked. You head toward the elevators together.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” you say as you press the button. “You're never this early unless there’s a test run.”

“I was hoping you’d show up early,” he admits, sheepish but not apologetic. “You didn’t text last night.”

You look down. “I forgot.”

“Neighbors really did a run on you, huh?”

You ket out a breathy laugh meeting his eyes.

Soon the elevator arrives. You both step in.

He doesn’t say anything else, but the quiet settles around you like a blanket. You don’t have the words for it, but you know he does this often—positions himself near you, close but not invasive, like a planet finding the right orbit. Something about it always makes you feel tethered.

The elevator stops on your floor.

As you exit, he doesn’t turn toward his own lab. He follows you.

“I figured I’d sit with you for a bit,” he says simply, “if that’s okay.”

You nod. You don’t say thank you, but your body does—shoulders uncoiling, pace slowing, your breath evening out.

Your lab still smells faintly of ozone and the synthetic lemon Reed always insists on using in the electronics-safe cleaning spray. You flick on the under-lighting instead of the fluorescents. It’s quieter that way.

He watches you unpack, the same way he always does when he’s not pretending to be distracted by his own work. You can feel his gaze—clinical, affectionate, reverent.

You settle at your station and glance over.

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Some.”

He sits across from you at the small corner table, flipping open his notebook. “I kept thinking about the field trip Monday.”

You groan softly.

Reed smiles. “You’ll be fine.”

“They’re going to ask me if I built Fortnite.”

“Just say yes.”

You narrow your eyes. “That’s unethical.”

He shrugs. “You do kind of power their world.”

You chew the inside of your cheek.

“I know you’re dreading it,” he adds, more gently. “But you’re going to surprise yourself. I’ve seen you explain quantum turbulence to a twelve year old. You used two chairs, a glass of water, and a slinky. It was borderline performance art.”

You allow yourself the smallest smile.

He studies you for a beat.

“I waited this morning,” he says, voice lower now. “Because I wanted to see you before the day started. I figured if you didn’t sleep, you’d need a buffer.”

You look up at him.

“A buffer?”

“For the noise. The world. Everything.”

You don’t answer for a long moment.

Then, “You’re good at buffering.”

Reed closes his notebook. His eyes don’t leave yours.

“Only for you.”

You look away too quickly. Your stomach flips, your thoughts scatter like dropped dice.

This happens sometimes.

The intimacy of Reed. The nearness of what he doesn’t say.

The feeling that he’s handing you something fragile and invisible, and asking you to decide whether to name it or leave it untouched.

You pull up your simulation model and begin reviewing last night’s logs.

He watches you for another minute, then opens his notebook again and starts annotating something beside you, close enough that your knees brush once, and neither of you moves.

The morning settles.

Quiet.

Unspoken.

Waiting.

The building wakes slowly, like a body stretching into motion. The light outside the lab windows tilts, warmer now, brushing across your workstation and catching on the rim of your teacup. You don’t drink it, but it’s there—heat fading, a symbol of routine more than comfort.

One by one, the others begin to arrive.

Keycards beep. Footsteps echo off tile. The rhythmic click of heels and the soft, buzzing shuffle of rubber soles on linoleum fill the air in the way only a scientific institution ever sounds. Conversations start up in clipped, caffeinated tones. Someone’s talking about a failed simulation in Lab A-2. Someone else is complaining about the elevator skipping floors again.

You don’t look up.

You’ve already built a wall of focus, exact and methodical—three simulations running in parallel, an error log cycling in your periphery, two graphs comparing harmonic distortion levels under varying environmental noise inputs.

Reed hasn’t moved far from you since you sat down.

Every now and then, he leans slightly over to ask a question—never invasive, always curious. He taps the edge of your screen to point out something and waits for you to explain it in full before speaking again. His voice stays low. His body language remains small.

He is very, very careful with your space.

At some point, you adjust the variables in one of the testing loops. Reed notices before you explain why.

“You brought down the feedback tolerance?”

You nod. “I think it’s overcompensating for impulse drift. If we calibrate to a slightly lower resilience threshold, we might expose the weak nodes in the structural harmonics.”

He lets out a low hum of appreciation.

“I wouldn’t have caught that.”

You glance at him.

“That’s because you were trained to trust the tolerances.”

Reed raises an eyebrow, amused. “And you weren’t?”

“I was trained to notice what doesn’t belong. Even if it doesn’t make sense yet.”

He leans back in his chair, studying you with something just shy of awe.

That’s when the others start to notice.

There’s no whispering. No gossip. That’s not the culture here. Baxter doesn’t reward spectacle.

But still, people look.

It’s subtle—an extra second of eye contact, a glance exchanged between postdocs in the corridor. Even in a building dedicated to research and theoretical physics, attention has a shape. You feel it.

You’re used to being watched when you speak, but this is different. They’re watching him.

They’re watching how Reed stays near.

How he lowers his voice when he speaks to you.

How he doesn’t interrupt when you’re mid-thought.

How he laughs at things you don’t mean to be funny.

How he tracks your gestures with the full, unguarded focus of a man trying to memorize not just the content of what you’re saying, but the rhythm of it, too.

You register the attention. You don’t engage with it. You would get too flustered.

Instead, you pull up a different dataset.

Across the room, someone’s looking at you over their glasses. You minimize the screen and adjust your chair slightly so your back is to the rest of the lab.

Ben Grimm arrives around 9:15, coffee in hand, hoodie pulled up like armor against the morning.

You like Ben.

You liked him even before you knew him—when all you had was a list of his mechanical engineering contributions and the curious note in his file that simply read “Reed’s oldest friend. Trustworthy. Not academically inclined. Smarter than he lets on.”

He sees you before you see him.

“Hey, Doc,” he calls out, his voice gravelly but warm.

You glance up and, for the first time since the building really began to fill, smile openly.

“Hi, Ben.”

He walks over slowly, avoiding the edge of the test rig you have set up. His eyes sweep the table, reading the mess of wires and calibration notes without actually processing them, which is part of his charm—he doesn’t pretend to understand your work. He respects it anyway.

“You eat today?”

You blink. “Not yet.”

“You want half my bagel?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“It’s everything seasoning.”

He grins. “You’re too sharp for your own good.”

You raise an eyebrow. “I’m just observant.”

Reed, still beside you, chimes in dryly, “She’s also allergic to sesame.”

Ben winces. “Oh, right. My bad.”

You wave it off. “It’s not lethal.”

Ben hands you a sealed granola bar from his pocket instead. “From Alicia. She said you looked pale last week and told me to keep snacks on me in case I ran into you.”

Your mouth twitches.

“Tell her I said thank you.”

“Tell her yourself. She’s coming by Monday.”

You nod, then return to your screen, not rudely, just efficiently. Ben doesn’t take offense. He pats the table lightly and leaves you to your work.

Once he’s gone, Reed glances at you sidelong.

“You like Ben.”

“He doesn’t talk to hear himself speak,” you reply.

Reed smirks, folding his arms across his chest. “So I guess I should be worried.”

You don’t answer. But something in your cheek lifts. A small, unspoken response. Reed ntoices it. Files it away like he does everything about you.

By late morning, you’re too deep in the math to notice anything else.

Three out of five anchor simulations fail—but not catastrophically. The new feedback threshold is revealing the pattern you hoped it would. Reed asks if he can run his own version of the loop. You nod without turning, already exporting the baseline parameters to his terminal.

You hear someone outside the glass wall whisper, “Is Richards still in Lab B-3?”

And then, “I think he’s shadowing her today.”

“He shadows her every damn day.”

You pretend not to hear. You shrink slightly into your collar. Not from shame. Just to stay small.

Reed doesn’t respond to the comment. But you notice that he reaches over and very quietly pushes the door shut.

Not to hide.

But to give you quiet.

The rest of the morning passes like this—like a film spooling out in perfect rhythm. Reed occasionally types beside you. Sometimes you work in parallel, other times in sync. You don’t speak unless necessary, but the air between you is charged in a way you can’t name. Not love, not yet. But a proximity to it.

And even though others look—at him, at you, at the space between—you don’t notice anymore.

You’re too busy trying to catch the shape of something hidden in the data. Something just out of reach.

Like truth.

Or a confession.

Or gravity.

Fridays at the Baxter Building settle into their own kind of orbit.

Every lab has its rhythm—Lab A-2 always wraps their protein sequencing early, because Dr. Lyman likes to jog at 1:15 on the dot. Tech Ops syncs their systems for overnight updates before noon. Environmental Engineering runs its daily dehumidifier diagnostic with exaggerated ritual, a kind of inside joke no one explains to the interns.

It’s been that way since you arrived. It wasn’t written anywhere, but you learned it all the same.

And the unspoken tradition...Reed Richards forgets about time.

By now, everyone has made peace with it.

On Fridays, he’ll get caught chasing some quantum trajectory through a dozen notepads and open tabs, muttering to himself about temporal flux interactions or pattern resonance mismatches. If someone reminds him what time it is, he’ll blink, check his watch as though it’s betraying him, and then wave his hand vaguely in the air—“Take two hours, go. Ben, order something greasy.”

And everyone will. With relief. With a kind of reverent affection for their slightly scattered, brilliant leader.

Except you.

You stay.

Always.

It’s nearing 12:45 when the lab thins out. Ben claps his hands once, loudly, to announce, “Twenty-four-inch from Mario’s. I got half with olives, don’t fight me about it.” Someone cheers from the hallway.

You don’t look up.

The simulation in front of you is finally stabilizing under increased pressure loads, and Reed’s scribbling new hypotheses across his tablet at a manic pace—“If we compensate for decay acceleration by adjusting the sequence resolution window down to 10 seconds, the cross-bridging might resolve on its own—”

You hum without meaning to, fingers typing out the updated code.

“I’m serious,” he says, pushing his chair closer to yours, legs brushing under the desk. “We’re so close. This could finally solve the vibration decay issues in the dynamic anchor builds.”

“It won’t,” you reply calmly, running the next set. “Not unless you account for the spectral density shift around the 170 Hz mark. It’s going to collapse again.”

Reed pauses.

“You already ran this model.”

You nod.

“When?”

“Last weekend.”

He looks at you like you’ve handed him a paradox.

You let the silence stretch, then: “Try adjusting the constraint to reflect a Gaussian distribution, not linear. The peaks are too soft, and the algorithm’s compensating for noise that isn’t actually noise.”

Reed exhales slowly, reverent. “How does your brain do that?”

You don’t answer. You don’t have the words for how you see things. You just do.

He smiles like he’s in the presence of something sacred.

He leans in again, close enough that his shoulder presses lightly into yours. You shift slightly to give him access to your terminal, and he doesn’t pull away.

He’s always been tactile like this—with you, at least.

Hands brushing yours when you pass equipment.

A palm steadying your wrist when you’re assembling small, sensitive components.

Once, you found yourself gripping his forearm without realizing it during a particularly volatile magnetic resonance test. He didn’t mention it. Just let you hold.

But today, it’s different.

Today, something lingers.

You're both staring at the screen. The simulation is stabilizing now, running longer than it has all week. Your throat tightens with something like triumph, or relief, or maybe just fatigue disguised as euphoria.

Then, softly—soft enough that it catches you off guard—Reed reaches up and brushes his thumb across your cheek.

You freeze.

Out of disbelief. Out of awe.

His hand is warm. The pad of his thumb gentle.

The touch isn’t performative. It’s not even decisive.

It’s hesitant. Like he needed to check that you’re real.

That this moment isn’t just one of his half-formed ideas scrawled into the margins of a late-night notebook.

Your eyes flick toward him.

He’s already looking at you.

Something unspoken and heavy passes between you. It hums underneath the fluorescent buzz of the lab lights, underneath the whirring fans of the machinery, underneath the working theory you’ve spent days fine-tuning.

You don’t lean in.

But you don’t lean away.

He doesn’t move his hand.

You don’t say a word.

Ben opens the door a few feet down the hall, holding a pizza box in one hand, a Coke in the other.

He sees you.

Sees Reed.

The hand. The closeness. The moment.

And just as quietly as he entered, he steps back. Sets the pizza down on the nearest desk. Walks away without a word.

You and Reed don’t notice.

The simulation pings complete. For the first time in eleven models, it doesn’t fail.

You blink.

Then breathe.

Reed drops his hand, slowly, like it doesn’t want to leave but knows it has to.

You don’t say anything. Neither does he.

But something has shifted.

In the lab’s stale, climate-controlled air. In the simulation still pulsing faintly on your screen. In the trajectory of two minds moving dangerously close to each other’s center of gravity.

You get up first, walking to the sink in the corner to splash water on your face. The cold helps. Reed stays in his chair, scribbling, though you can tell his mind isn’t entirely on the notes.

You find the pizza box. It’s already cold. You bring two slices back to the workstation.

You don’t mention the moment. Neither does he.

But all through the second hour of your “break,” you work with that electric tension still threaded between you.

You pass him a slice. He accepts it.

He says your name, once, softly, like an answer to a question you haven’t asked yet.

And you don’t look up. Not yet.

You’re afraid that if you do, everything will change.

Or maybe—it already has.

“Hey,” Reed says again, this time your name folded into it, spoken low and careful, like he’s afraid of breaking it. Like he’s afraid of breaking you.

You don’t answer right away.

Because you know what he’s asking without asking.

And you know that if you answer—if you meet his gaze now, if you name the thing humming between you—it won’t go back in the box. It will take shape. It will have mass. It will alter the gravitational field between you forever.

You chew the edge of your lip and keep your eyes on the simulation results, blinking too fast.

He doesn’t push. Reed Richards never pushes.

But he stays there, watching you like a question he’s been trying to answer for years. Like a proof that’s always been just outside the edge of comprehension.

He wants you.

You can feel it in the heat of his gaze, in the way his hands twitch with unspent energy, in the way he shifts closer every time he speaks. He wants you the way he wants knowledge, reverently. With hunger and hesitation in equal parts.

But more than that—he respects you. And that respect builds a boundary he’s too careful to cross without your invitation.

So he doesn’t speak again. Not yet.

Instead, he clears his throat gently and leans back into the moment he knows how to inhabit best—the work.

“You were right about the Gaussian window,” he murmurs, eyes returning to the data on your screen. “The mean deviation narrowed just enough to stabilize the micro-vibrational bleed. Look.”

He tilts his tablet toward you.

You peer at it, grateful for the anchor. “The variance dropped below 0.0003. That’s lower than the threshold for secondary echo.”

Reed nods. “It’s still not perfect. But it’s holding. For now.”

You echo it before you can stop yourself. “For now.”

He smiles at that—soft, and only for you.

The tension doesn’t break. But it shifts. Warms.

You pull up the residual energy pattern charts and begin comparing them to your older models. Reed swivels his chair to face you fully, chin resting lightly on his knuckles as he watches you work.

Your voice steadies.

“I think we can reduce the decay rate even more by using a layered harmonic buffer. Not just a single envelope. Something like... like a tri-modal stabilization frame.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Using phase-offset looping?”

“Yes,” you say, eyes lighting up. “But slightly desynchronized. So each frequency compensates for the loss in another—like an algorithmic relay. Less like a barrier, more like... a conversation.”

You feel him watching you, not the charts.

There’s a kind of electricity in your blood now, not from caffeine or adrenaline but from being understood, seen at the level you need to be.

And for once, the way you talk—fast, disorganized, precise, too much—feels like the exact shape of something he’s been waiting to hear.

You meet his gaze finally.

He’s smiling.

That soft, quiet, wrecked smile of his. The one he only wears around you.

“You know,” he murmurs, “you say I taught you how to be better without making you feel small. But you make me feel like I don’t have to be better all the time. Like just being...with you is enough.”

You don’t know what to do with that sentence.

It sits too heavy in your chest. It rearranges your molecules.

Reed notices your hands twitch—how your fingers twitch at your sleeves when the air gets too loud inside you. He leans forward just slightly.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t,” you say too quickly. “You didn’t.”

Then, after a breath, “It’s just... I don’t know what to do when people say things like that.”

“Okay,” he says. “Then we don’t have to do anything. We can just stay here. With the work.”

But there’s softness in the offer. No withdrawal. No hurt.

Just the way he always gives you room.

It’s quiet again.

The others are still gone. Outside the lab, Friday spills forward in lazy arcs—someone arguing about where to eat next week, a song playing faintly from someone’s portable speaker. You can hear Ben laugh somewhere near the stairwell.

Inside, Reed starts sketching again. You realize, after a while, that it’s not a schematic. He’s drawing the harmonic layering you suggested, but not in code—in lines and waves, almost like music. It’s abstract and a little chaotic and not how he normally works.

It’s your method. Translated.

You watch him for a moment. Then you reach over and pick up a stylus of your own.

You add to it without asking. Adjust one arc. Shade one line.

He doesn’t flinch.

This is your intimacy. Shared language in waveform. A courtship of the mind.

The pizza gets cold. No one bothers you. Not even Ben, who peeks through the glass once more and then nods to himself like he's witnessing a rare solar event—better not to interfere.

And Reed…

Reed reaches over again at one point, softly, thumb brushing your cheek once more. This time he doesn’t look away when he does it. And you don’t freeze.

He doesn’t kiss you.

Not yet.

But you both feel it coming.

Not like a crash.

Like a calculation converging.

Like an inevitable, elegant solution.

Friday settles into its soft descent.

Outside, the city shifts into its end-of-week hum. That specific kind of tonal change—less frantic, more languid. Like the buildings are exhaling.

But in the lab, the world is still quiet, contained in the steady blinking of data streams and the near-inaudible whir of cooled processors.

You sit on the floor now, legs crossed beneath you, a cluster of components spread around you like offerings. The modeling station sits nearby, quietly compiling your last run.

Reed is at the console, sleeves rolled up, hair curling faintly at the temples from the humidity that’s crept in through the vents. He’s biting the corner of his thumbnail absently—thinking.

You watch him.

And then you remember.

“Did you finish the sensory-feedback demo for the field trip?” you ask, voice soft but cutting clean through the air between you.

He blinks up from the console, eyes going immediately bright.

“I did. Mostly. I was going to test it tonight.”

You tilt your head. “Can I see it?”

He smiles—a real one, unguarded and boyish. The kind he only wears with you.

“You can help me run it.”

He gets up, walking to the supply cabinet in the corner, pulling down a heavy black case the size of a carry-on. You follow, standing now, hands folding in the sleeves of your sweater as you watch him unlock the case with the smooth familiarity of a man who designs entire universes and still finds joy in the click of good mechanics.

Inside, a scatter of wires, motion sensors, a series of spherical objects that look like oversized ping pong balls, each one patterned with conductive filament and dotted with touch points. You recognize the layout—a modular, reprogrammable interface system with haptic feedback, originally built for mobility therapy.

“You modified the base algorithm,” you say, eyes narrowing with appreciation.

“For kids,” he replies. “It runs a simplified tactile-reward loop. Kind of like a visual puzzle—kinetic memory reinforcement. Color-coded neural feedback.”

“Accessible interface?”

He nods. “Built for neurodivergent learners. Adaptive texture mapping. It reacts to the user’s input in real time. No static pathways. No performance grading.”

Your chest tightens a little. Not painfully. Just precisely.

“You built a toy.”

Reed shrugs. “It teaches basic physics concepts. Friction, acceleration, force vectors. Just…disguised as fun.”

“That’s not just a toy,” you murmur.

He watches you closely.

“No,” he says. “It’s not.”

You set it up together on the floor of Lab B-3, moving the tables back, laying the tiles out in careful rows. The modular touch-nodes blink softly as they come to life—first red, then green, then a low, pulsing blue.

The algorithm kicks in after calibration. Reed holds the interface tablet, flipping through the menus. You hover close behind him, watching how he reprograms the environmental variables on the fly.

“Want to try it?” he asks.

You nod.

He sets it to manual mode. The first node lights up in your periphery. You move toward it, tap it lightly with your finger. It flashes yellow, then blue, and vibrates beneath your touch.

You laugh, just once—quick, surprised.

“Positive reinforcement,” Reed says softly. “Each node has a different tactile response depending on approach angle, velocity, and touch pressure.”

“So they learn physics by playing.”

He nods. “Exactly.”

You test the next one. And then another. As the nodes light up, the floor becomes a low-lit constellation, flickering gently around your movements. It’s beautiful. You crouch down near one, tracing your fingers across the filaments, letting the haptic buzz hum beneath your fingertips.

“Reed,” you say quietly. “This is... really, really good.”

He kneels down beside you.

“I just wanted to build something that made them feel like science was listening back.”

You look over at him.

That sentence hangs there, too delicate to touch.

Your hand moves before your brain registers the decision—slowly, instinctively—and you reach for him.

You had reached for his hand but landed on his thumb.

Just his thumb.

You wrap your small hand around it gently, like it’s the only part of him you can hold without consequence.

Reed freezes.

Not from discomfort. From something else.

He turns his head toward you, slowly, like he’s afraid you’ll disappear if he moves too quickly. His smile is soft, stunned. As if he can’t believe you’re doing this. As if he’s afraid that if he acknowledges it too directly, it might stop.

You don’t look at him. You just hold his thumb in both your hands, watching the floor blink beneath you.

It’s a strange gesture, almost childlike in its simplicity. But to you, it’s everything. It’s grounding. Permission. Trust.

Reed lets out a breath like he’s been holding it for years.

He doesn’t move his hand away.

Instead, he uses the other to reach forward and adjust a setting on the control interface without looking. The lights shift. The nodes pulse in a new pattern. You follow them without letting go of his thumb.

He’s smiling now, wide and quiet.

Completely and utterly gone for you.

You test every mode together—gravity simulation, frictionless slide, kinetic echo. Reed talks softly through each setting, explaining how he rewrote the original code to simulate Newton’s Laws in modular intervals, adjusting for sensor latency so kids could trigger reactions with slower or less precise movement.

You ask questions. Not because you don’t understand. But because you do. You want to understand it his way.

He answers everything.

By the time you’re done, the lights in the lab have dimmed into their evening cycle. Reed packs up the demo system slowly, like he’s folding something sacred.

You’re still holding his thumb.

Finally, gently, he uses it to tap the back of your hand.

“You know,” he says quietly, “you don’t have to hold back around me.”

You look at him, expression unreadable. You squeeze his thumb once, then let go.

“I’m not,” you say.

And you aren’t.

Not anymore.

The lab is dark when you both leave.

Outside, the city has begun to cool. You walk beside him in silence, shoulders brushing once, then again. Not by accident.

You don’t talk about the moment on the lab floor.

You don’t have to.

It happened.

It exists.

Like an inevitable, elegant solution.

The sky has turned the color of television static. Not black, not gray, just faded. Soft enough to feel unreal. Streetlights flicker on in stuttering intervals. A breeze curls up the avenue and catches at the hem of your coat.

You and Reed stand just outside the Baxter Building entrance, neither of you moving to leave, as if there’s some invisible membrane between the lab and the world you’re not quite ready to pierce.

You should go home.

That’s the next step, isn’t it?

That’s what people do when the day ends. They go back to the place with their name on the lease and try to remember who they are when no one’s asking them questions.

Except your place has neighbors.

And thin walls.

And you're too tired to pretend your own exhaustion doesn’t vibrate at the same frequency as their pleasure.

You shift your weight from foot to foot, knuckles tucked deep into your sleeves. You can feel the buzz of the day behind your eyes—not anxiety, not anymore. Just too many thoughts stacking on top of each other like tetris blocks, and you don’t have the energy to make them fit.

Reed stands beside you, hands in his coat pockets, quiet as ever. The edge of his sleeve brushes yours every so often, an unspoken rhythm that makes you feel here.

Not tolerated. Not managed.

Just here.

Ben soon exits the building. Hoodie zipped to his throat, a half-eaten brownie in one hand. He slows when he sees you both.

“Well, well,” Ben says, raising an eyebrow. “You two finally gonna leave the building or should we start paying you rent inside the lab?”

You glance at Reed.

He shrugs, noncommittal.

Ben smirks. “Alright. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Then he gives Reed a look. “Which ain’t much.”

Reed doesn’t respond, but his smile is quiet. Affectionate.

“Goodnight, Ben,” you say softly.

“Night, genius.”

He walks off into the dark.

You stay.

Reed doesn’t ask if you’re going home.

You don’t say anything for a while. You just look at the sidewalk. The cracks in it. The faint smudge of oil near the curb. The headlights of a cab bending light across Reed’s cheekbone, catching on the streak of gray in his hair.

Finally, you say, “Can I stay?”

You don’t explain. You don’t need to.

He doesn’t ask why.

He just turns to you, and for a split second, something in his expression softens so completely it’s almost painful. His eyes widen like he’s been caught off guard, but then his entire face warms, lips parting slightly, like you’ve just handed him something fragile and beautiful and unexpected.

“Yes,” he says immediately. “Yes, of course.”

You nod once, eyes down, and he opens the glass doors for you with his keycard.

Reed’s private quarters are located on the top floor, built into the architecture like a quiet secret.

The space is sparse but intentional. One long wall is lined with windows that overlook the city—lights shimmering like data points, static and alive at once.

You’ve been here before. The air smells like him. The surfaces are all smooth, clean, designed for function rather than comfort—except the guest bed, which he quietly upgraded after the second time you stayed, replacing the stiff mattress with something memory foam, orthopedic, weighted blankets in navy and grey.

He never mentioned it. But you noticed.

Now, you step out of your shoes and move instinctively toward the small kitchen alcove, placing your bag on the counter where you always do. You hear Reed behind you, taking off his coat, the soft clink of keys being set in the ceramic dish by the door.

“I didn’t want to go home,” you say, very quietly.

“I know,” he replies.

He fills the kettle without asking. He doesn’t ask if you want tea. He just knows that the ritual helps.

You settle on his couch while he prepares everything. There’s something deeply intimate about watching him move in this space—not as a scientist, but as a man who’s built a life designed for quiet. For stillness. For you.

“Did you finish that secondary circuit loop in the interface?” you ask, voice small.

“I did,” he says, turning toward you with two mugs. “Replaced the original buffer with a superconductive braid. Reduced the thermal variance by thirty percent.”

You take the mug with both hands.

“That’s going to make it more stable in hands-on mode.”

He nods. “Exactly.”

You sip the tea. It’s perfect. Rooibos, no caffeine. Subtle and warm.

You look down at your knees.

He sits beside you, not too close, not too far. Just right.

“I’m still thinking about that tri-modal stabilization relay you suggested,” he says. “It could actually be used in more than just the interface model. If we layer it into the resonance prototype, it could compensate for secondary harmonic bleed without adding mechanical dampeners.”

You glance at him. “It wouldn’t even need a power supply. It would just borrow from the existing vibrational field.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

You smile faintly. “We should test it this weekend.”

“We should,” he agrees.

But neither of you move.

You sit there in the dark, the city lights flickering behind the glass, the tea cooling slowly between your palms.

And then, Reed shifts slightly closer.

His fingers brush the side of your hand where it rests on the couch cushion.

You don’t pull away.

“I’m glad you asked to stay,” he says, quietly.

“I don’t always know what I need,” you admit.

“You don’t have to,” he says. “Not with me.”

You turn your hand palm-up.

He hesitates—barely a second—and then sets his own hand into yours. Warm. Long fingers. Calloused thumb.

You wrap your hand around his thumb again.

It’s small. Stupidly small. But it feels like precision.

Like the alignment of orbitals in a new chemical bond—unexpected, improbable, but somehow inevitable.

He stares at your hands like they’re a proof he’s just solved.

And you can feel it now, radiating off him.

That Reed Richards is completely, irrevocably in love with you.

It sits in his stillness.

In the way he lets you hold him without needing to be held back.

In the careful cadence of his breath next to yours.

In every half-finished sentence he doesn’t speak because he’s still calibrating the right moment to say it.

You close your eyes.

The lab can wait.

The world can wait.

Because here, in this quiet room on the top floor of the Baxter Building, the noise of the city fades into static, and two brilliant minds sit side by side, slowly, carefully falling into something that even physics doesn’t have language for.

Yet.

You’re still holding his thumb.

The weight of it feels small and ordinary and terrifying, in the way intimacy always is when it sneaks in sideways—quiet, soft, patient.

The tea between you has gone slightly cold, but neither of you moves.

Reed glances at your hand in his again like he’s not sure it’s real. Like he’s afraid any shift in air pressure might break whatever this is.

He doesn’t want to lose it. You can feel that. It lives in the quiet of his body. In the way he breathes more carefully now, like your closeness has changed the atmospheric composition of the room.

You can’t explain it.

Not exactly.

But you know the moment has arrived—like a threshold has been crossed without either of you noticing when.

You lift your eyes.

Reed is already watching you.

And then you kiss him.

There’s no warning. No lead-in. No poetic pause.

You just lurch forward and kiss him like your brain caught fire.

You cup his face with both hands—awkward, determined, imprecise. You feel the stubble on his jaw beneath your palms. You feel the soft surprised puff of his breath as you press your mouth against his with more force than you intended.

Reed makes a startled noise.

You pull back slightly, embarrassed, but he surges forward like a current finding its charge.

His hands find your waist, anchoring—not possessive, not demanding, just present. And then his mouth is on yours, properly this time. He kisses you with a slowness that makes your skin buzz, then deeper, until you forget how to think.

You chase it.

You chase it harder than you meant to.

You end up half in his lap, straddling his thigh on the couch. He grunts softly in surprise as you pull him closer by the collar of his shirt. Your hands roam. One settles in his hair, the other at the base of his neck, grounding yourself in the shape of him. His body is warm and solid and older than yours in a way that feels deeply comforting—experienced, steady.

“Wait—” he whispers into your mouth, breathless but laughing.

You pause.

“I—God, I didn’t think—” he tries to say, and then you kiss him again.

It’s clumsy and desperate and real. Your teeth bump once. Your nose is probably smushed too hard against his.

But Reed groans quietly like it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

Because it is.

Because it’s you.

Eventually, you slow. Not because you want to. Just because you run out of breath. You ease back a little, your forehead resting against his, both of you flushed and dazed.

His fingers trace up your spine, slow, careful, reverent.

You say nothing for a while.

Then, softly, eyes still closed, you murmur, “I need to take a shower.”

He blinks, dazed.

“Oh,” he says, voice rough. “Yeah. Sure. Of course.”

You make no move to get up.

He doesn’t push.

Then, without looking at him, you say, “Will you come with me?”

Reed stills.

It’s not a seductive invitation. Your voice is too quiet. Too vulnerable.

You mean with you. Not to see you.

There’s a difference.

A difference he understands immediately.

He exhales once, very slowly.

“Yes,” he says.

The bathroom in Reed’s quarters is clean and understated. No clutter. Neutral tones. A single towel folded perfectly on the heated rack. The kind of space made by someone who needs things to stay quiet, even in private.

You peel off your clothes with your back to him. You don’t ask him to turn away. You just move, deliberately, like someone trying to stay present in their own body. You don’t rush.

He undresses behind you.

You don’t look.

Not because you’re afraid.

Just because this isn’t about looking.

When you step under the water, he follows. The spray is warm. Steam begins to rise immediately, curling around your shoulders, softening the edges of the room.

You don’t speak for a long time.

He helps you rinse shampoo from your hair.

He rubs a towel gently across your upper back, washing you between passes of the water.

You stand in the quiet, eyes closed, while he reaches for the soap, his hands careful and broad. You’ve never felt so heldin a room without touch. Even when he does touch you, it’s so measured. Like he’s calibrating pressure in real time.

He never touches more than he needs to.

He never looks longer than you let him.

You begin to wash him in return—his arms, his back. Your fingers map the ridges of his shoulders. The plane of his chest. 

He smiles at you when you look up at him.

You smile back.

Afterward, you towel off side by side. You slip into the oversized sleep shirt he keeps in the guest drawers—the one you claimed without asking the second time you stayed over. Reed pulls on a soft cotton shirt and gray sweatpants, hair still damp, curls a little unruly.

You both brush your teeth in silence. The kind of silence built on trust, not absence.

You spit and rinse and then, leaning over the sink, you say, “You’re not what I expected.”

Reed glances at you in the mirror.

“I’m not?” he asks, toothbrush in hand.

You shake your head. “You’re a better equation.”

He stares at you for a moment, then leans over, presses a kiss to your temple, and whispers, “So are you.”

You fall asleep in his bed, facing each other.

You don’t touch—not at first. But at some point, your foot slides across the sheet and brushes his calf.

He doesn’t bother to move.

You drift off like that.

And he stays awake for a while longer, just watching you breathe, memorizing the sound of it, calculating the half-life of the moment in real time.

He doesn't think there's a formula for this.

But if there were, he’d already be solving for you.

taglist: @totallynotshine @the-curator1 @christinamadsen @imaginemixedfandom @randomuserr330 @princess76179 @little--spring @mielsonrisa @he-is-the-destined @in-pedros-smile @aysilee2018 @stormseyer @or-was-it-just-a-dream @strawberrylemontart1 @lovetings @peelieblue @just-a-harmless-patato @lizziesfirstwife @princessnnylzays @stargirl-mayaa @vickie5446 @everandforeveryours @jxvipike @sukivenue @neenieweenie @i-wanna-be-your-muse @sonjajames2021 @fxxvz @indiegirlunited

[xbeababyx]

Even when the night changes.🤍

[erased-heart]

Be quiet

tw: Joel n reader has to be silent (unspecified reason) p in v sex, creampie.

•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･•*¨*•.¸¸

You bite your lips trying to stop your moans, a difficult task when Joel's cock is so deep inside you. He can't ignore your pleading eyes.

"I know, sweetheart, i know" Joel whispers.

Of course he knows.

Joel barely can hold himself, It's not easy, not when your pussy feels so good and is squeezing him so tight, not when he can see your tits bouncing with every thrust and how beautiful you look under him, red cheeks and desperate eyes. You're making him crazy.

"Try to be quiet for me" he said.

Then, Joel started to thrust harder, faster. All you can hear his heavy breathing and the wet sound of his cock coming in and out of your pussy.

You really tried, but the moans began to escape from your mouth and then were stopped by Joel's big and heavy palm. He didn't say anything just fucked you harder, so hard that your legs are getting shaky and the heat in your lower belly grows bigger and bigger, you are close now.

Your nails are digging in Joel's skin and he is looking you straight in the eyes, he is not going to stop, is close too. You lose control letting yourself be carried away by pleasure, then his cock started pulsing letting you feel the ropes of cum filling you. Joel took his hand off form your face replacing it with his mouth, giving you a sweet kiss.

"Good girl"

•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ•*¨*•.¸¸☆*･•*¨*•.¸¸

Hope you like this one, also, i'm currently working in my first one shot. Besos ♡

[bweeeb]

BATH BREAK

Summary: The reader wants to please Pedro before leaving home.

Warnings: blow job, couple without restraint, they fuck like rabbits, short, bad writing, bullshit, love this and hate it

requests are open, I write anything!!!

Morning 《 》 rounds game

Pedro stood under the stream of hot water, eyes closed, trying to pull himself back together. His arms were braced against the shower tiles, steam rising around him as he breathed deep through his nose.

A quick rinse. That was the plan.

His thighs were still sore from the way you rode him earlier, and the ghost of your nails was still carved into his shoulders.

But of course, you had zero intention of letting him recover.

You stepped into the shower quietly, barefoot, naked, your skin already glistening with steam by the time you slid in behind him. You let your hands glide up his back slowly, just grazing.

He tensed.

— Baby… — he said without turning. — We alread—

You leaned forward and kissed between his shoulder blades, then lower, letting your lips graze the curve of his spine.

— You said this was going to be a quick shower.— —It was. It is. — he said, voice already wavering. — We’ve got shit to do, remember?—

You let your hand slide around his waist, trailing lower, until your fingers wrapped around the base of his cock — already twitching to life.

— Doesn’t feel very quick to me.— He cursed under his breath, bowing his head as you began to stroke him slowly under the water, your body pressed to his back, warm and wet.— Fuck, cariño…—

— Thought you said you needed recovery time — you whispered in his ear, licking the shell of it. — You wanna tap out, baby? Or are you gonna let me take care of you?— He turned fast, one hand grabbing your hip, the other your face, holding your eyes with that heat that always made your knees weak.

— You’re playing with fire — he warned, voice low. You smirked.

— Then burn me.— Before he could say anything else, you dropped to your knees right there in the shower, the warm water cascading over your back, soaking your hair, your lashes — and you looked up at him, tongue sliding slowly across your bottom lip. Pedro gritted his teeth, his hand reaching instinctively for your hair.

— Jesus fucking Christ…— You didn’t wait. You wrapped your lips around the head of his cock, slow at first — gentle, teasing — but then deeper, taking him down your throat inch by inch. You felt his legs tremble under your hands as you gripped his thighs for balance.

— Fuck, baby, just like that… — he groaned, his voice raw, full of desperation.

You set the pace — slow, deliberate sucks that had him twitching in your mouth, his hand tightening in your hair but never forcing. Just holding on. You pulled back only long enough to pant: — I want you to come in my mouth. Can you do that for me?—

— You’re gonna kill me — he whispered, eyes shut.— No, baby. I’m gonna ruin you.—

You swallowed him again, deeper this time. Faster. His abs flexed under your palms as his body started to shake.

— Shit, I’m gonna— And he did.

With a growl that echoed in the tile, hips jerking forward, hand tangled in your wet hair, he spilled into your mouth as you moaned around him, taking everything he gave you. You stayed there until he twitched, sensitive, pulling you gently off with a shaky breath.

You stood slowly, licking your lips, smug as hell.

— Still think this was gonna be a quick shower?—Pedro pulled you to him, kissing you so hard it stole your breath, his hands running down your back, gripping your ass with a growl.

— You’re officially not allowed to call me the filthy one anymore.—

— Oh, but I am the filthy one, baby. I just know how to act innocent until I’m on my knees.—

He bit his lip, looking you up and down.

— You're marrying me just to destroy me, aren’t you?—

You grinned.

— Exactly—

[moeswriting]

stains & gold

pairing: Harry Castillo x wife!f!reader

summary: Harry worships routine, almost as much as he worships you.

Or, Harry and his wife get ready to leave.

warnings: age gap or no– that’s up to you; reader has hair that is at least shoulder length, wears feminine clothing/makeup, and is able-bodied; some dom!reader undertones; sacreligious amounts of body worship; i’m not entirely sure if i like all of it, but i’m trying to get better about my obsession with “perfection”, so here you go

word count: 1.7k

a/n: hey. uhhhh it's been awhile. have this *runs*

Harry Castillo masterlist | masterlist of all masterlists

read this on ao3

When your husband is rich, dinners with clients are regular and mandatory, whether you like it or not. Everyone wants to see Harry Castillo’s pretty wife, the woman who finally tied him down. And Harry loves to play show and tell.

Routine. He worships it, almost as much as he worships you.

It starts with a shower. You always shower together– to save the Earth, he says with a bashful smile; you’ll always relent. He gets in first, steps under the water to get his curls wet, and watches you undress through the glass door of the shower stall. He steps out of the way for you as you get in, gaze pointed at the water as it runs down your back with jealousy– how he wishes he could be that close to your skin all the time, on a molecular level. Grabbing his hips, you turn him around so that his back is towards you. You wash his hair with patient fingers, scratching up and down his scalp in practiced circles. The steam smells of something expensive and manly.

After you rinse his hair, it’s your turn. He tips your head back toward the stream, watching your hair grow darker and longer as the water weighs it down. This is art, your body here in front of him, curves and hair and scars. Your eyes are closed, always sensitive to the way he worships you. Harry mimics your touch to your own scalp. The way his fingers run through your hair makes you moan every time.

Routine.

You take turns sliding soap across each other, taking your time to kiss every mark, every tattoo, every little thing that makes the other person them. People always wonder why you’re infamously late to everything. You just tell them the traffic is crazy. You both know it’s because of this; nothing is worth interrupting your time at the altar.

You dry each other off with the softest cotton you’ve ever touched, that anyone has ever touched. Harry can afford it; he’s richer than God. He takes his time with your hair, making sure to never pull too hard or rustle it too much; you’ll make it perfect soon enough.

He leaves you to your makeup routine. He knows each step by heart, what each product does, where to get more if you run out. You like how it makes you look, so he puts in the effort to know.

The closet is attached to the bathroom, at the very back: large and decadent, even if you two are the only ones who see it. Glass displays full of jewelry, ties rolled in neat rows in their own drawer, a crystal chandelier that hangs low in the middle of the space– lighting up everything in a dim, golden glow. His suit is already picked out, you had chosen it and hung it up last night. He lets you choose what he wears, not because he couldn’t do it himself– he’s beyond capable of that– but because he loves the way your eyes light up when he shows you what you’ve made of him.

Navy blue, almost black, jacket and matching dress pants, a white button up and an undershirt tucked under it neatly. You’ve set out a watch and a set of rings for him to wear, all gold with navy blue accents. On the plush carpet beneath it are a pair of black Oxford shoes, already untied and ready for him to slip on. A pair of black socks are tucked into one of them.

Hanging near his, is yours. Long, white dress, shimmering silk, with a low back and a modest neckline. Jewelry laid out beside his, gold with blue diamonds so dark they look like the bottom of the sea. Your sandal heels are stark white, red bottoms a symbol of their worth, again sitting right where they belong next to his.

He’s halfway through putting on his outfit, stumbling through it like he always does, when you speak up from the other room. Robe untied and swaying around your bare legs, you walk into the closet with him. Your hair is dry and your makeup is almost done– he’s always amazed at how efficient you are. Your lips are bare of any color, but you have a lipstick tube in your hand like you spotted him struggling through the mirror and stopped what you were doing immediately to come help him.

“C’mere, you’re doing it wrong,” you mumble, setting down your lipstick on the display cases in the middle of the room and grabbing his wrist, “It’s all crooked.”

First, you undo all his hard work, but he doesn’t mind– he knows you’ll do it better than he ever could. You expertly fold the end of his sleeves so that the cufflink holes align and weave the gold accessories through them. You’ve done this a hundred times, and you’ll do it a thousand more.

“There,” you announce quietly with a small pat on his wrist, and go back to the bathroom like you didn’t just fix everything for him in a matter of seconds.

All that’s left for him to do is groan his way through putting his shoes on and throw on his jacket before you leave for the restaurant, but he’ll wait so he can help you finish like he always does.

You glide the color over your lips and he watches, entranced. Your mouth pops as you push your lips together and open them a few times.

“Come here. Help me blot my lipstick,” you demand, deep red stained onto your smiling lips.

He’s not stupid, he knows what that means– knows that it’ll make them even later than they already are, but he doesn’t care. He would stab himself if it made you happy.

You kiss all over his neck reverently, slow and steady. He can feel the wax and oil staining him, the lipstick causing his skin to stick to and follow your lips as you pull away.

He sighs in content, not frustration. His eyes squeeze shut as the soft lull of your lips pulls at his gut, satisfies him in a way that no business deal ever could.

“This is gonna take forever to get off, baby,” he groans, only because it pleases you to mess with him, tease him.

Your hair whips around as you look over your shoulder, a sly smirk on your tainted lips, as you walk into the closet, “Then, keep it on. They’ll know who you belong to.”

He’ll keep it on, for now, like he always does. Let the color of you stain his skin for as long as he can, even if it’ll leave a mark for everyone to see. Let them see.

He follows you into the closet, sits in his designated place as he waits for you to give him a task. He’s never been a patient man– boardrooms and stock markets and political climates change constantly, wait for no man– but he’ll wait for you.

Silk pours down your body like the water that he worshipped you under not a half hour ago. He loves the way fabric falls on your curves, loves the way you look at yourself in the mirror when you like the way a dress fits you.

You instruct him to pull up the zipper that sits low on your back and his fumbling fingers settle for just that moment, just to do it perfectly for you.

When he’s done, you run a hand through his ungelled hair as a show of thanks. He never wears the godforsaken hair product anymore because you hate the way it hardens his curls and he’s willing to admit he hated washing it out afterwards. He won’t admit how your fingers weaving through his hair makes him want to fall to his knees at your feet.

You wordlessly hold out your gold necklace to him, the one he got you for your birthday last year that you insist is only for special occasions with the dark blue diamonds and the letter “H” in 24 karat gold. He takes it, stands obediently and you spin so your back is facing him. You hold your hair up while he wraps the necklace around your neck from the front. It takes him a couple tries to get the clasp open, but he gets it eventually.

A glance behind you in the mirror shows his devout eyes on you and his hands around your waist. He thinks this is how he should be shown to the world, stationed and stained by you.

Grabbing his hands, you guide them down to his sides so you can grab both of your shoes from the other side of the room. You hold a pair in each hand, gesture for him to sit, and kneel in front of him, carefully so your dress doesn’t get caught under your knees and wrinkle the delicate fabric.

He feels light-headed. This position is not rare for you both, but it has an air of sacrilegiousness. A goddess kneeling in front of him. His pants are feeling tighter.

A kiss on his ankle leaves another symbol of you. Red around the bone hidden by his black socks that you reverently slip on his feet. That mark can stay, he thinks, just for the two of you. His shoes follow close behind. You tie his shoes since you know it hurts his back to do it himself.

“My turn,” you mutter, pulling yourself up and off the carpet, skirt hiked up.

You switch places, and it’s his turn to kneel before you.

He takes his time, unhooking the straps of the heels, lifting your leg up to his lips so he can kiss your knee, your calf, your ankle. A shiver runs down your limbs, leaving goosebumps in its wake. 

“Mi amor,” he mumbles into your skin.

You don’t rush him; he needs this.

The first heel goes on your elevated foot, clasp redone, another kiss on your ankle. He does the same to the other one.

When he finally concludes his veneration, he offers you a hand to pull you up and you take it like you always do and always will.

You (reluctantly) grab a makeup wipe from the bathroom and gently wipe the lipstick off his neck, traces of the stain stay behind. And you smile as he examines his reflection. He is yours, and everyone will know it. Good, he thinks.

Harry grabs his jacket and throws it on. You adjust the end of his sleeves for him. And you leave your apartment.

He likes routine, and he likes it with you even more.

Harry Castillo masterlist | masterlist of all masterlists

[whimsicalwritersstuff]

── Take care of you."

Pairings: Reed Richards x f!reader

Summary: Reed comes back from a long tiring day of work and you take care of him.

Content warnings: 18+ ONLY, minors DNI. age gap, creampie, pet names, oral (m receiving), praise kink, teasing, begging, cum eating/swallowing, begging reed, soft reed🎀

Word count: 2.169

The house was quiet and empty without Reed. You were lying on your stomach on the king-sized bed you shared with him, your pastel blue lingerie riding up slightly to reveal the lower curve of your ass. Your phone was playing some soft music as you scrolled through tiktok mindlessly.

Then suddenly you heard the front door open and shut, you jumped out of bed and you padded barefoot toward the stairs, your blue lingerie set hugging your curves perfectly. "Baby?" You called out softly, expecting Reed to respond "Reed?" You tried again, Nothing.

As you stood at the top of the stairs, you watched as Reed walked into his office, his suitcase left by the door. He didn't respond to your calls, You could hear the soft click of his office door closing.

You hesitated for a moment before walking down the stairs, your feet silent on the carpet. You approached Reed's office door, leaning against it and pressing your ear against the cool wood. "Reed... baby, is everything okay?" You asked softly, your voice muffled slightly by the door.

There was a brief pause before you heard Reed's low voice reply, "Come in." You turned the handle and pushed the door open slowly, revealing Reed sitting behind his desk. His face was hidden behind a file, his tie loosened slightly and a glass of amber liquid swirling in his hand.

You began walking towards the desk, "soo, how was work?" You asked, reed took another sip of his drink before setting the glass down with a soft clink.

Reed let out a heavy sigh, dropping the file with a thud onto the desk. He rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger, clearly stressed. As you inched closer to him, he took another sip of his drink, the amber liquid disappearing down his throat. "it was fine."

You stood between his legs, playing with the buttons of his dress shirt as you frowned up at him. He looked up at you through his glasses, his eyes tired and stressed. "Come on... You can tell me" and OU said with a frown.

He sighed again, his voice softer this time as he said, "I'd rather not." His hands moved from the armrests and wrapped around your waist pulling yourself closer between them. His thumbs traced small circles on your skin.

He stared up at you, admiring you as he adjusted his glasses slightly, a habit when he was distracted by something pleasing.

Reed then stood up, his large frame towering over you as he looked down. His hands remained on your waist, his thumbs still tracing circles on your skin. You tilted your head back to look up at him, your voice soft and concerned as you asked, "you can tell me baby... how was it?" You said as you started to untuck his shirt,

Your small hands slid under his shirt fabric, causing him to swallow hard as they traced over his abs gently. He stood still, allowing you to unbutton his shirt slowly, each button revealing more of his toned chest and stomach.

You then leaned in, your breath warm against his skin, Reed's eyes fluttered closed. He let out a soft exhale as your lips gently pressed against his neck, then trailed down to his chest. Each soft kiss sent a shiver down his spine, making his muscles tense under your touch.

You could feel his heart beating faster under your lips, his breaths coming out in soft pants. "Baby..." he groaned softly.

"Not now..." He growled softly as one of your hands slid down his chest towards his pants. He captured your lips in a deep kiss as your fingers worked to unbuckle his belt, then unbutton his pants.

As you knelt down, Reed's hands immediately went to your hair, gently gripping the strands. He looked down at you with heavy-lidded eyes, his chest rising and falling softly.

"Baby..." He gasped as your fingers hooked under the waistband of his boxers, slowly lowering both his pants and boxers. "...what you doing to me?" He whispered in a husky tone as you looked up at him, those innocent doe eyes. You wrapped one small hand around his length, making him jerk slightly.

"Jesus..." He muttered softly as your small hand wrapped around his hardening length. You smirked up at him, those full lips curved. "Just shut up and lemme take care of you," You mumbled softly, starting to stroke him slowly.

Your hand moved slowly up and down his length, watching him closely. His eyes were locked onto yours, his hips moved slightly with each stroke, pushing himself further into your palm each time. "...Baby," He breathed out softly, "...don't tease me like this."

You leaned in closer, pressing soft kisses along his length. Your hand continued to move slowly, teasing him mercilessly. You looked up at him through your lashes, "Mhm?" You hummed softly, pressing a soft kiss to the tip.

His jaw clenched tightly, eyes darkened. One hand flew to the back of your head while the other gripped the edge of his desk tightly. His knuckles turned white.

You stuck out your warm, wet tongue and started to lick his red, angry tip like a lollipop. Reed's breathing became ragged, his grip on your hair and the desk becoming almost painful.

You kept teasing his tip with your tongue, occasionaly taking just the tip into your mouth and sucking gently. His eyes were almost entirely black with desire as he watched your lips wrap around him. His legs trembled slightly, his hand practically crushing the wood of his desk.

"Baby..." He moaned softly, "...stop teasing me... I want your mouth." His voice was strained and tired, His eyes were locked onto yours as you continued to playfully lick his tip.

You stopped licking him entirely as you leaned back and looked up at him through your lashes with a smirk. "First, you have to say pretty please.. then I'll think about it." You said with a grin earning a frustrated groan from reed.

His grip on the desk tightened even more, if that was possible. "Please..." He begged softly, his voice hoarse with desire. "Baby, please stop teasing and take my cock in that pretty little mouth."

You giggled softly, satisfied, you took him deep into your mouth, making him moan loudly. Your suction was perfect, your mouth like heaven. You started to move your head slowly, taking him deep then pulling back, swirling your tongue around his tip.

You continued to suck him, your head bobbing up and down his length. Your eyes were locked onto his, watching his reactions closely. You took him deeper each time until you felt him hit the back of your throat. You swallowed around him softly making him moan loudly again.

His hands moved from your hair to your head, guiding your movements as you took him deeper and deeper. You wrapped your hand around the base of his cock and started to jerk him off in rhythm with your sucking.

"Fuck baby, just like that. Your mouth feels so good." He praised you, his voice strained with pleasure. "Keep going, don't stop. You're such a good girl sucking my cock." His words were encouraging and dirty, spurring you on to suck him even harder and faster.

You continued to suck him deeply, your hand working in tandem with your mouth. The sounds of wet sucking and his moans filled the room.

You pulled his cock out of your mouth with a wet pop, making him groan. Without hesitation, you started licking and sucking on his balls. You could feel them tightening as you gave them attention. "Fuck yes... That's it sweetheart.. yes..."

You continued to lick and suck on his balls, swirling your tongue around them. You took one into your mouth, sucking gently and rolling it around. You repeated the motion with the other, all while giving them gentle kisses and licks. Reed's moans grew louder, his legs trembling slightly.

You looked up at him as you continued to worship his balls. Your eyes were filled with love and desire as you showed him how much you cherished every part of him. You kissed and licked the sensitive skin behind his balls, causing him to groan loudly. "Jesus Christ, baby..."

You gave his balls one last kiss before moving your mouth back to his cock. You took him deep into your mouth again, sucking lovingly and slowly this time. Your head moved up and down his length as you held his gaze, showing him how much you loved sucking him off. How much you love to have him inside your mouth.

Reed's hips moved slowly in sync with your mouth, fucking into it gently. "You're so good to me, baby."

You hummed around his length, making him moan. You took him slowly, your mouth worshipping his length. You licked and sucked the head, tasting the precum that beaded there. You took him deep again, hollowing your cheeks.

His breathing became heavier as he got closer to the edge. "Baby, I'm gonna cum," he warned, his voice strained.. His hips bucked slightly into your mouth, fucking you gently. You could feel him swelling in your mouth, getting thicker as he neared his release.

You kept sucking him deeply as your hand reached up to gently stroke his balls while your mouth worked him overtime.The combination of your mouth and hand pushed him over the edge.

With a deep groan, he came hard in your mouth. His hot cum hit the back of your throat as he released rope after rope, completely flooding your mouth. He groaned and trembled, watching you swallow every drop with such love and adoration in your eyes.

Reed kept coming, his balls emptying themselves into your waiting mouth. You kept swallowing, taking every bit of his hot, sticky cum like it was the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. When he finally finished, he pulled out with a pop, his now limp dick dripping with cum.

Completely spent, he sits back down on the chair heavily, his legs shaking slightly as they give out beneath him. He leans back, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. "Give me a minute, baby," he pants, a happy, sated smile on his face.

You smirk up at him as he sits there trying to recover. You crawl towards him slowly on your hands and knees, his softening dick coming into view. He watches with heavy-lidded eyes as you kneel between his spread legs.

You lean forward and slowly start licking his cock clean. You lap up every drop of cum that leaked out, your tongue swirling around the head and down the shaft. He watches you with a growing smile. "Baby... you don't have to..."

You look up at him innocent-like, your tongue darting out to catch a drop of cum on the tip of his dick. "But I want to, making sure he's all clean," you hum softly, sucking the head gently and licking his shaft clean like it's your favorite popsicle.

You finish licking his dick clean, swirling your tongue around the base and up to the tip. He watches you as he gently grabs your chin between his index finger and thumb, lifting your face to look at him.

"You're gonna kill me with that sweet little mouth of yours one day..." He strokes your bottom lip with his thumb. "Where did you learn to be so fucking perfect?" He said softly, "Come up here..."

You climb up onto his lap, straddling him with your knees on either side of his hips. He wraps his arm around your waist, pulling you close. He leans up to meet your lips, his other hand cupping the back of your head as he starts kissing passionately.

The kiss is slow and deep as he holds you close. He breaks the kiss to trail open-mouthed kisses down your jaw and neck, his hands roaming over your body.

You lean your head against his chest, and he rests his chin gently on the top of your head, wrapping both arms around you. His fingers trace patterns on your back as he feels your body relax against his.

Reed sits there holding you for a while, just enjoying the peaceful moment with you in his arms. His heart beats steadily beneath your ear, and occasionally he presses a soft kiss to the top of your head.

Reed gently squeezes you once more before speaking softly, "We should head to bed now..." His voice is a warm rumble against your ear, fingers still gently tracing patterns on your skin. "Get some rest..." He presses a final kiss to your forehead.

You let out a sleepy hum of agreement, lifting your head slightly to look up at him with half-lidded eyes. "Mmhmm... tired..." You rest your head back against his chest, letting out a yawn as you snuggle closer, ready to be carried to bed.

[baronessvonglitter]

No notes. Perfection. I am in awe. 🧎🏻‍♀️

LUCKY YOU

Joel Miller x f!reader x Clint Flood || 3,2k

Summary: A usual evening with your boyfriend Clint and his best friend Joel turns into a night full of lust and ecstasy - Or - Clint and Joel go down on you.

Tw: 18+ mdni, smut, modern au/no outbreak au, F!ORAL, voyeurism, fingering, rimming, unprotected piv, anal, creampie, cum eating, multiple orgasms, praise kink, pussy/cock pronouns, swearing, alcohol consumption (not by reader). Reader has no specific physical descriptions. Clint can lift reader.

A/n: Grab your toys y’all, it’s a steamy one lol Huge thank you to @ghoulettesinspace for this inspiring ask. Love you, friend! This story is my submission for the Magic Number writing challenge hosted by @schnarfer @whocaresstillthelouvre and @mothandpidgeon 💞 Thank you for creating this hot event! Kisses to @milla-frenchy for beta-ing and being my everything💋 Hope you all will enjoy being a meal❤️

Dividers by @/saradika-graphics 🌸

MASTERLIST || more Clint || more Joel

You've been dating Clint for a few months and his buddy, Joel, often came to hang out at his place. The men were about the same age, both older, both handsome as hell, but Joel never seemed to be interested in you.

At first you were fine with it, you were his friend’s woman after all, but his indifference soon started rubbing you the wrong way. Why would he look through you sometimes, as if you were not there? Didn’t he think you were hot? Or at least deserving of something other than a fleeting glance?

Driven by spite, you started doing everything to get the man’s attention. Wearing tiny shorts and tight tops around him worked wonders - he blushed like a teenager and stammered a shaky ‘Howdy’ whenever you opened the door to him.

Clint saw through your games, but didn’t mind them at all. Even better, he seemed to rail you harder after Joel’s visits.

It’s a usual night at Clint’s place. You two are chilling on the couch, his heavy arm around your shoulder, Joel‘s sitting in a lazy boy nearby. The men are sipping beers and watching some old action movie.

Not interested in the plot, you’re scrolling through Tumblr, and of course, at one point, a porn gif graces your dash. Clint notices it and hums, watching a guy eat a girl out on your screen. You feel his lips at your ear, his hot breath fanning your neck.

”Gonna do it to you tonight.”

You smile and bite your lip, shooting him a glance that screams ‘Yes, please!” His voice and his promise are enough to get you hot and bothered.

You put your phone away, cuddle up closer to your boyfriend and rest your bent leg on his thigh. Clint growls and bucks his hips, a huge bulge in his pants impossible to miss, and you gush, ogling it with hunger. It reminds you of the previous night — Clint’s hard cock fucking your mouth, then stretching your pussy so well, his sweat dripping on your bouncing tits. You squirm next to him and Clint hums, sensing your arousal.

He’s barely watching the movie now - his palms are sliding up and down your naked arms and thighs, his breathing is deep and heavy.

He gets ballsy and, not minding Joel sitting nearby, sneaks his hand under your shorts. His thick finger dips into the pool between your folds and he gruffs,

“Fuck, baby.” He immediately brings his hand to his mouth and licks your juices off, making you bite your lip at the sight of his tongue sliding over the glistening digit.

Joel hears Clint’s groans and turns his head in your direction. He doesn’t realise that his buddy is being a horny menace and continues watching the movie.

Clint keeps playing with you - presses kisses to your face and neck, kneads your tit under the top and squeezes your asscheek. By the time he cups your pussy over your shorts, soaking them with your slick, you’ve turned into a complete mess, desperate for any stimulation.

“Need you,” you whisper against his cheek and he rasps quietly, “I got you, baby.”

Not making you wait, he shoves his hand into your shorts, quickly finds his way to your wet hole and pushes two fingers inside.

You swallow a moan, your eyes set on Joel, sitting close, oblivious to the fact that his friend is knuckles deep in your cunt. Clint starts moving his digits in and out, curling them and skillfully bringing you higher to your peak with every stroke.

“Fuck,” you murmur, feeling yourself getting close, and push your face into Clint’s neck, in hopes of hiding the whimpers, crawling up your throat.

“Let it go, babygirl,” Clint whispers and you do. You come, pulsating on his fingers, your eyes squeezed shut. The orgasm is rippling through your body in waves as you’re clinging to Clint’s huge body. When your climax starts to dissipate, you kiss his cheek and give him a satisfied smile.

Your breathing is slowly coming back to normal but then it hitches, when all of a sudden Clint asks,

“Hey, Joel, do you like eating pussy?”

You stare at your boyfriend with your eyes widened, and then at his friend.

Joel furrows his brows and looks at Clint with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement.

“Scuse me?”

“You heard me, do you like giving head?”

“Fuck off, Clint,” Joel chuckles and returns his attention to the tv, but you don’t miss a slight blush of his cheeks.

Drunk on endorphins, you surprise even yourself when you push, “Do you?”

Joel locks eyes with you, but you’re not backing down. You raise your brows and stare at him with defiance.

“Yeah, we wanna know.” Clint sneers and shoots you a proud glance. Joel glares at the two of you now, but he probably knows well that Clint won’t let it go, so he replies with a shrug,

“Not really.”

Now it's Clint’s turn to be surprised.

“What? Why?”

“Dunno, not my thing.”

Joel takes a sip of his beer and clears his throat.

He’s always been reserved so you know he would never talk about his sexual life like that. The beer must be coursing through his veins, loosening his tongue.

“Is it ‘real men don’t do it’ bullshit?” You don’t hide disgust in your voice and Clint retorts,

“The manliest thing ever. What the fuck, Joel?”

“You know, what I think,” you turn to Clint with your brows pulled together, “Maybe he just hasn’t met the right person.”

“Or the right pussy,” Clint smirks and you giggle.

Joel’s beet red at this point, his eyes glued to the bottle in his hands, and you start feeling a little bad for the guy. Clint doesn’t seem to care. He’s giddy with excitement when he pulls you close and whispers in your ear,

“How about we introduce him to the right pussy?”

You blink a few times and then your lips curve into a mischievous smile.

“He just needs a good role model,” Clint says, sitting up next to you and pulling your shorts down and off your legs. His eyes are set on Joel, whose brows are getting lost in his hairline when he sees what his buddy is doing.

“This is insane,” Joel groans but doesn’t leave, doesn’t move at all. His body is frozen, his gaze is sliding over your naked ass and thighs.

“You ok with it?” he asks, locking eyes with you and you nod eagerly, biting your lower lip, turned on by the depravity of what’s about to happen. It’s impossible to deny - you’ve craving Joel’s mouth on you. Or his cock stuffing your hole.

You’re dripping and trembling with lust, ready to see what your boyfriend is going to do to you in front of the other man.

“She wants you,” Clint assures his friend, getting up and motioning for you to lie down on the couch.

“Looking like a slut when you’re around. She needs that extra cock. Right, baby?”

Your chest heaves as you whisper a soft ‘yeah’ and Joel rubs his scruffy cheek, hiding a lopsided smile.

Clint sits down at your bent legs and spreads your thighs with his big hands.

“Look at her, Joel. She’s too hot not to share.”

You smile at his praise and pull your top off revealing your naked breasts, presenting yourself to the men fully.

Joel adjusts his bulge with a curse and Clint whispers ‘good girl’ before leaning closer to palm your tit, making you whimper.

“But..,” he raises his brow and turns to Joel, ”this pussy’s for eating. Not only fucking.”

Clint pushes your thighs further apart and presses his hand to your folds. He massages them with his wide palm, spreading your slick over your heated skin, and you moan loudly, relishing the pressure on your cunt.

“Fuckin hell,” Joel murmurs and turns more to the couch.

“Hotter than hell,” Clint smirks and brings his lips to your inner thigh. He slowly drags them to your centre and lightly pecks your folds, tickling you with his facial hair. You bite your lip and start kneading your breast.

“Always start slow, Joel. Little kisses here and there.”

“Jeez, I know how to give head, Clint,” Joel groans, getting up and stepping up to the couch. “I’ve seen pussy before. I jus’.. don’t do it often...”

Clint rolls his eyes and then parts your pussy lips with his fingers.

"Been missing out, man. Bet you'd love to stick your dick in this soft hole, uh?"

Joel curses under his breath, his eyes taking in everything you are giving him. Clint murmurs ‘pretty’ to your pussy, then leans down and pecks your clit, his touch feather-light. You moan and buck your hips, chasing his hot mouth, but he ignores your need and keeps persuading Joel,

"Imagine how wet she's gonna be when you make her come on your tongue a couple times. Sticking your cock in a freshly eaten pussy... shit... a life changing experience, man. I swear you won't regret it."

While Clint’s pitching pussy eating to Joel, his thick fingers are gliding up and down over your spread folds, slightly grazing your twitching bud, pouring gasoline into a bright fire in your core.

"You really want me to eat out your girlfriend, Clint? fuck her?"

"Why not," Clint shrugs and, keeping your lips parted, gives the center of your pussy an open mouth kiss. ”She deserves it.”

“Joel, please,” you whimper, need thick in your voice, and your back arches, when Clint’s tongue draws a long wet stripe between your folds.

You flutter your eyes closed, barely hearing Clint’s comments, your heart pounding in your ears.

“Hnggg… juicy little cunt. Joel, check it out.”

Joel’s looking over you, perfectly positioned to watch Clint play with you.

Clint bends down and sucks your puffy clit between his lips, then releases it with a pop and stares intently at your hole. You feel it now. They both groan when a clear drop of your slick trickles down from your clenching hole down to your asshole.

Clint looks up at Joel and smirks,

“Want a taste?”

Joel clenches his jaws as you’re watching him with hazy eyes, tiny whimpers falling from your lips again and again.

“I want you,” you admit with the sweetest tone you can manage and the man’s eyes dart from your crying cunt to your glossy eyes.

He pulls his brows and then nods.

“Let’s get her to the bedroom,” Clint offers with a smile and takes you in his arms.

You bite your lower lip, failing to suppress a grin curving your lips, and squirm naked on the bed with anticipation.

“That’s what I’m talking about. The more the merrier, right, baby?”

You nod, sparkles flying out of your eyes, as you take in two hot men on the bed with you.

“Spread ‘em wider,” Joel commands, and you obediently throw your thighs apart as wide as possible, they’re lying on the bed at this point.

“That’s my girl,” Clint praises you and caresses your inner thigh with his hard knuckles.

Your skin erupts with chills when Joel slides his palm from your knee to your hip, gently, reading your reaction, making sure that you’re still on board. You very much are.

It’s the first time he’s touching you, and you shiver, looking up at him with your heart eyes, blown out and full of need.

“Bon appetite, buddy,” Clint pats Joel's shoulder, inviting him to taste his girlfriend’s cunt.

Joel takes a sharp breath and slowly leans down, torturing you with anticipation, but when he covers your whole pussy with his mouth, you gasp and moan his name, already on the brink of euphoria. He flicks his tongue over your clit and then starts making out with your cunt, languidly and sensually.

Your eyes roll to the back of your head as a powerful wave of pleasure engulfs you fully.

“Fuck, that’s hot.” Clint watches, gliding his hand from your mound, over your heaving belly and to your chest. While Joel’s holding your thighs open, eating you out like it’s his last meal, Clint begins kneading your breasts, pulling at your nipples, twitching them to add fire to your ecstasy.

Joel dives out of your cunt and Clint asks him with a smirk,

“So?“

Joel’s breathing is heavy, licking his lips, his eyes two black pits of lust.

“Fuckin incredible.”

“Ah! Told ya!” Clint rubs his friend’s back with a proud smile and looks into your hazy eyes. “I’d eat her for breakfast, lunch and dinner, man. My baby’s delicious.”

“Thanks for sharing,” Joel mumbles and bends down again to lap at your crying hole.

“Yeah, like that,” Clint praises Joel’s skills when you moan loudly and dip your head back into the pillow.

“He’s doing good, babygirl?”

“Yeahhh, so good,” you mewl, losing your mind at how perfectly Joel’s full lips caress your folds and clit, while his hot tongue is collecting all the slick covering your beating pussy.

Joel’s lewd slurping together with your loud moans fills the room, and the electricity between the three of you hangs heavy in the air.

Clint is watching the show with his eyes dark and intent, palming his bulge, and then finally pulls his cock out.

When you see it spring out of his pants, engorged and leaking, your hand darts to it and you wrap your palm around his hot shaft.

“Nah, beautiful. Don’t worry ‘bout me, enjoy yourself.” He takes your hand off his cock and gently kisses your fingers. “He’s gonna wait for your pussy.”

He holds your hand, and leans down to give you a kiss, heady and passionate, grounding you in your overwhelming pleasure, but at the same time pushing you deeper into the pit of lust.

“Joel,” Clint calls after parting from your lips. “Wanna join you.”

Joel hums with your clit between his lips and it pushes you over the edge. You come crying, your eyes and pussy wet with euphoria, every cell of your body lighting up. The men hold you while you shake, your tits jiggling, your pussy leaking all over the sheets.

“Fuck.. what a sight,” Clint growls, running his huge palm over your trembling thighs while his other hand is gripping his cock.

“She’s beautiful.” Joel’s praise makes you smile through the hard orgasm, and when your body relaxes, you sigh happily and close your eyes.

Clint doesn’t give you any respite, though. A light slap lands on your hip and he growls,

“Need to eat this ass.”

Joel wipes your slick of his bearded chin and asks Clint,

“Can I fuck her pussy after?“

“Sure, man. You’re my best bud, what’s mine is yours.”

You giggle at Clint’s words, feeling yourself like a fuck doll and loving every second of it.

“‘k..,” Joel nods, “Let’s make her come again and then fuck her sloppy hole. If you don’t mind,” he turns to you and you purr,

“Never.”

Clint smiles and kneels on the floor. They manhandle your body so your ass is hanging off the bed and then Joel orders,

“Bend your knees, yeah, like this.” He lifts your legs and presses your knees to your sides, fully exposing your pussy and asshole to their obsidian eyes.

“Damn,” Joel groans when Clint glides his thumb over your tight ring which contracts at his touch, already soaked with your pussy juices.

Your boyfriend starts first.

He positions your ass at his face, holding your hips with his hands and presses his flat tongue to your asshole. You jerk and whimper, already in seventh heaven.

“Oh my god,” you moan and clasp Clint’s hair. He starts eating your ass, slurping shamelessly, drinking your moans and your pussy nectar, while Joel is kissing your inner thigh.

Your eyes meet and he gives you a warm smile, “Doin good, sweetheart.” Joel brings his hand to your face and cups your cheek, his thumb rubbing your heated skin and you purr at his touch, reveling in his warmth, trembling from every lap of Clint’s tongue against your asshole.

You choke on a moan when Joel leans down to your spread pussy and begins rubbing your clit with the flat of his tongue.

Your skin erupts in goosebumps, your thighs start trembling. You run your fingers through Joel’s greying curls and feel tears slide down to your temples when Joel’s tongue finds your entrance and he begins fucking your pussy.

These hot men between your legs, their big hands on you, their mouths devouring your holes— the sight alone can make you come but you fall apart from a shuttering orgasm when Clint pushes his tongue into your asshole and starts fucking you with his hot muscle just like Joel is fucking your pussy hole.

You explode with a loud cry, spraying your juices against Joel’s lips and chin, and he drinks everything he can get, and what escapes his mouth trickles down to your ass where Clint eagerly laps it off your heated skin.

They fuck you all night. Drunk on the unending orgasms, you don’t understand who’s between your thighs, whose cum is spilling into your stretched pussy, but you take each dick happily. They shower you with praise, suck on your puffy nipples, drag their hot hard cocks over your skin before sticking them in your hole again and again.

When your pussy gets filled to the brim, Clint fucks your ass, while Joel watches and jerks off, and then squirts his cum on your hickey-covered tits. Clint licks it off later with Joel’s dick buried deep in your overflowing cunt.

The night is a blur of lust, moans and bodily fluids. The room smells of sweat and sex and you take full lungs of the heady scent before falling asleep.

Early in the morning someone fucks your used pussy again, you have no clue who, and orgasm, dreaming of them both.

When you wake up, you make breakfast for the men, still dripping their loads, your thighs slippery and sticky. They eat and chat, smiling at you from time to time.

Joel’s eyes find yours again and again, they stick to your lips, your neck, your legs, reigniting a fire inside you. Seeing you chewing on your lip and squirming in your chair, Clint pulls you into his lap and kisses you.

At the door before leaving Joel gives you a tight hug and pecks your cheek.

“Thank you for the night, sweetheart.”

You’re leaning against the doorframe, watching him walk to his truck.

“Game on Saturday, Joel. Don’t forget”, Clint shouts to his friend.

Before getting in the car, Joel looks you up and down with his dark eyes and gives you a wink.

“Won’t miss it for the world.”

Clint pulls you in his arms and you smile like a happy cat. You can’t wait for Saturday to come.

Thank you for reading! Please comment and reblog if you enjoyed the fic! Your feedback means the world❤️

MASTERLIST

Tag list: @milla-frenchy @harriedandharassed @iamasaddie @nervousmumbling @bbyanarchist @stevie75 @puduvallee @auteurdelabre @mountainsandmayhem @senoratess @flamingochick55 @theoraekenslover @schnarfer @mermaidgirl30 @staywildflowahchild @yesjazzywazzylove-blog @evolnoomym @keylimebeag @thedilfdiaries @pascaltesaye @fruityreads @itwasntimethatdidit40 @meetmeatyourworst @callmebyyournick-name @tateypots

People who were interested in the wip posts (no pressure to read, bbs) @sawymredfox @arcanefox207 @wethairjoel @604to647 @keylimebeag

[andy-15-07]

hi not sure if you’ve done this before but id LOVE a fic with pedro pascal helping reader through a depressive episode! completely understandable if you wouldn’t feel comfortable tho. maybe pedro gets home to find reader still in bed/sleeping on the couch and he already knows that she hasn’t taken care of herself all day but he asks her anyway (stuff like have you eaten, have you been out, when was the last time you showered). and then just description of him helping her do these things whilst reader is kind of fighting the help a little bit? like she doesn’t want to be a burden but deep down knows she needs the help. loads of praise and hurt/comfort and fluff!!!!! you are such a great writer im in love with all your fics ☺️☺️

Even If You Can’t Move, I’ll Be Here

PAIRING:Pedro Pascal x reader

WORD COUNT: 939| requests are open (send requests, I will gladly answer them all)

Pedro Pascal Masterlist | Pedro Pascal Masterlist II

The key turned softly in the lock.

Pedro pushed the door open with one shoulder, balancing a paper bag of groceries in one hand and your favorite takeout in the other. He wasn’t expecting a grand greeting , he hadn’t gotten one in days , but the quiet stillness in the apartment hit him like a sigh.

You weren’t on the bed.

You were curled up on the couch again. Same oversized hoodie. Same blanket from the night before. Curtains still drawn, the faint smell of stale coffee lingering in the air. Pedro’s heart clenched.

He set the bags down gently, not wanting to startle you, though he wasn’t sure you’d even notice.

You did.

Barely.

A flutter of your eyes, then a quick glance away. No smile. Just the sinking guilt in your chest and the shame you couldn’t explain. Your throat felt tight before he even said anything.

Pedro crouched beside you, hand brushing your arm. “Hi, cariño.”

You swallowed hard. “Hi.”

He tilted his head. “Did you eat today?”

A pause.

“Not really.”

“Get outside at all?”

You shook your head.

He hesitated before asking gently, “When was the last time you showered?”

You almost wanted to laugh , not because it was funny, but because it made you feel even more disgusting. The tears started building before you could stop them.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered.

Pedro sat down beside you, arms opening before you could even blink. You fell into them like you always did , like gravity , and he held you close without a word.

“You don’t have to apologize,” he murmured into your hair. “You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just… tired. And that’s okay.”

“I feel gross.”

“You’re not.”

“I haven’t done anything today.”

“You’re still mine. And I still love you.”

Your face crumpled against his shoulder.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want to take care of yourself. It was that every little task , getting up, brushing your teeth, opening a window , felt like climbing a mountain barefoot in the snow.

Pedro didn’t rush you. Just let you cry quietly for a while, his hand running slowly up and down your back. When your sobs faded into shaky silence, he pulled back to look at you.

“Okay,” he said softly. “We’re gonna do a few little things together, alright?”

You started to protest, but he kissed your forehead.

“Not all of them. Just a few. I’ll help.”

“I don’t want to be a burden,” you whispered.

Pedro’s eyes softened.

“You could never be. You’re the person I love most in this world. And I want to take care of you, even when it’s hard. Especially then.”

You looked down at your hands. “I don’t think I can do everything.”

“Then we’ll do the smallest version of everything.”

You blinked. “What does that mean?”

“It means… we start with one thing. Like brushing our teeth. Together. I’ll even let you pick my toothpaste like a little gremlin.”

That got a soft, tired laugh from you.

“Then we can try something else. Maybe a shower. And then food. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Just something. You can wear one of my shirts after, if that helps.”

You nodded slowly, still unsure, still hollow , but his voice felt like a lighthouse in the dark.

Pedro stood and reached for your hands. “C’mon. Let’s start with the bathroom.”

You followed, moving slowly, socked feet shuffling along the hardwood. It felt weird to be upright. But it also felt a little like relief.

In the bathroom, Pedro handed you your toothbrush with a small smile and squeezed toothpaste onto it.

“There. Hard part’s over.”

You managed to copy him, brushing in slow, lazy circles. He stood beside you, doing the same, humming something off-key under his breath. It made you snort a little, and he beamed at the sound.

“See?” he said, rinsing. “You’re killin’ it already.”

You rolled your eyes. “Barely.”

“But you are,” he said firmly. “And I’m proud of you.”

The words settled in your chest like warmth. Like maybe they were enough to anchor you here, in this body, in this space where someone loved you even at your lowest.

Next was the shower.

Pedro didn’t rush you. He handed you clean towels and a fresh T-shirt (one of his) and sat on the edge of the bed while you stood under the warm water, letting it wash over the weight clinging to your bones.

You cried a little again , not because you were sad, exactly. Just… tired. Just overwhelmed.

And when you stepped out, eyes red, Pedro wrapped you in a towel like it was armor and kissed your cheek.

“You did it,” he said, grinning. “I’m so proud.”

You curled up next to him in bed afterward while he brought the food , your favorite noodles, not too hot, with broth on the side. You only ate a few bites, but he didn’t push. Just smiled and kissed your temple.

“This isn’t forever,” he said softly, pulling you into his arms as you laid back down. “I know your brain’s lying to you right now. But I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”

You buried your face in his chest.

“I don’t feel like myself.”

“That’s okay. I’ll hold the pieces until you do.”

Tears pricked your eyes again , but this time, they weren’t so sharp. More like a release.

Pedro pulled the blanket up around you both and whispered again, “I love you. Every version of you. Even this one.”

And for the first time in days, you believed it might be true.

[idkwhylou]

𝐈𝐈𝐈. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫

Summary : Marcus Acacius never asked for a wife, and he certainly did not ask for you. As he kept his distance, you stayed silent. But now, you are smiling again. Yet, not at him. He sees too late what he broke, what he lost, and what he could have had if only he had reached out sooner. But in the shadows, Lucilla waits, like she always has.

Marcus Acacius x f!reader

Warnings : arranged mariage, cold behavior, age gap ?, infidelity, secret relationship, angst, no y/n

Words : 4,9K

A/N : Marcus' pov yayyyyy. I'm not really proud of this one, but this chapter is still important.

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⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

Marcus had not changed.

Each morning, as he rose in the aching stillness of his chambers, he told himself it was enough—though his shoulders carried more than old wounds from war. They carried the quiet weight of a life he had never asked for. The coldness was anything but new. It had always lived inside him. Carved there by loss, by duty, by a thousand days of bloodshed that demanded silence more often than grief. But now, in Rome’s golden light, in the smooth, watchful quiet of the villa, it had begun to take on a new shape. It had begun to feel like cruelty.

He knew what he was doing. Or rather, what he was not doing.

Each time you entered a room, he felt it—the subtle shift of air, the softness of your presence that brushed up against his walls and found no opening. You smiled. You spoke gently. You offered olive branches in the shape of warm bread, scented oils, quiet conversation. And still, he gave you nothing but civility.

Not because he hated you, that would have been simpler. But because something in him had been still too long, rusted into a man-shaped cage that did not know how to open. He had never wanted to be a husband. Least of all to a woman like you, a woman unprepared for the iron weight of a man who did not know how to reach out, even when his hands ached to.

He had thought, once, that maybe time would wear him down. That routine would soften the edges of his silence, that your patience might disarm something buried deep. But weeks had passed, and nothing inside him moved.

He remembered that night—the night it had begun to change. You had returned late from the garden, your eyes low, your steps quiet. Something invisible had fractured, and you carried it with the careful hush of someone who refused to let the pieces fall. He had not asked you anything. He had not dared. But from that moment on, a veil had fallen between you, thin and nearly invisible, but undeniable.

And he had done nothing to lift it.

He watched you became smaller in your own home, like someone drawing their warmth inward just to survive the cold. You moved gently through the villa, always careful not to step too close, not to intrude. When you spoke, it was with the softness of someone who expected silence in return. And that was what he gave you.

The truth of it haunted him.

Because you were not a mistake, you were not a punishment, you were simply wrong for the man he had become. Or perhaps, more painfully, too right for the part of him he had long buried. The part that wanted to believe in connection, in something lasting. In peace.

Lucilla had always known that about him.

She had seen him through blood and ruin, years ago, when his name was still only whispered in war tents and carved into stone by men who died shouting it. She had been there in his lowest hours. Not as a lover at first, but as a constant. A witness. A mirror. She had understood the language of silence long before anyone else tried to translate it. And in the comfort of her presence, he had learned to stop pretending.

But now—now, even that comfort felt compromised. Because Lucilla was not stupid.

She saw the way he watched you when he thought you would not notice. She saw the weight of his silences grow heavier with each passing day, saw how the cold between you and him had started to feel less like armor and more like regret. She never said it aloud but she had grown sharper in recent weeks, more possessive in the way her fingers brushed his sleeve or the way her voice dropped when speaking of you.

He did not blame her.

He did not blame anyone actually.

Except, maybe himself.

He remembered a morning not long ago, early light falling through the tall windows, where you sat unmoving, a scroll unrolled and unread on your lap. He had paused in the doorway, unseen, watching the stillness of your form, the quiet grief that lived not in your face but in your posture, in the way your shoulders curled slightly inward, like someone bracing for another disappointment.

He should have gone to you, should have said something. But all he did was turn and walk away. Because he knew—somewhere deep, somewhere shameful—that the longer he let this go on, the more irreversible it would become. And still, he did nothing.

Not because he did not feel. But because feeling was not enough. Because the truth he could not say was this: he had never wanted to be a husband. And yet here you were. And worse—he had never wanted to need someone like you. Yet, slowly, terribly, he did. But by the time he would admit it, you would no longer be waiting. He knew that.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

It was a banquet, yet another, gilded and loud, and full of the smells of wine and sugar-drenched fruit. Rome parading its triumphs before itself, drunk on its own image. He stood alone near a column, watching the blur of silk and gold, the gleam of laughter that rang false in his ears. He had not touched his cup, had not spoken more than a dozen words all night.

Your voice had reached him once as you greeted a senator’s wife with that unfailing grace of yours. He had turned to look. Just once.

Lucilla, of course, had noticed. He had not seen her approach—not really—but her intoxicate scent had arrived first, the familiar hush laced with something richer, darker, as if even her perfume insisted on being remembered. It was the kind of fragrance designed not just to please but to linger, to mark the skin, to haunt the spaces after she was gone. She moved like a shadow trained in its own weaponry: quiet, fluid, always knowing how to stand just close enough without demanding attention.

“Careful,” she murmured just beside his ear, her voice low and sharp, honed like a blade concealed beneath velvet. “We have to talk.”

Marcus did not reply, nor turned. But his hand around the rim of his goblet, trembled slightly. He kept his gaze fixed on the movement beyond them—on the sweep of robes, the glint of polished goblets raised in ritual cheer, on the hollow theater of laughter that rolled across the banquet hall like a tide without origin. Everyone here was pretending. Every glance, every syllable, every practiced smile. Just another masquerade.

And he had been pretending too.

Lucilla shifted closer, the silk of her gown whispering against his boot. “She nearly found out,” she hissed, her voice meant for him and him alone. “That night. In the garden.”

He did not need clarification, he knew exactly which night she meant. His jaw tightened, memory flashing like heat behind his eyes. He should have stopped it all long before, should have ended this—whatever it was between him and Lucilla—when it was still salvageable. But he had not. And now the thread she had spun around him, years in the weaving, was snarling into a knot too tangled to ignore.

“She is clever you know,” Lucilla said, tilting her head. “She asked questions. It was only luck that she believed me.”

Believed her. The words struck him harder than he expected, sharp and low in the gut. She had lied. And you—you had believed her. You had trusted the woman who smiled at your table, who spoke in pleasantries and wrapped deceit in silk and civility. His stomach turned. Not from Lucilla’s betrayal, but from his own.

“She is not like the others,” Lucilla added, as if the thought unsettled her. Her tone was even, but there was an edge beneath it now—wary, calculating. “She notices. If we are not careful—”

But he was not listening anymore, across the room, just past the golden pillar flanked with ivy and candles, he saw you.

You were seated beside a man he did not know—younger, the son of a patrician from the north, recently returned from Alexandria, all sharp cheekbones and sun-warmed charm. He wore his toga too loosely, laughed too quickly. He had one of those inherited faces too used to being looked at. You were not leaning in, but you were not recoiling either. The way your head tilted slightly, just so, the way your fingers drummed along the edge of the table, not nervously, but thoughtfully. And then—Gods help him—you laughed.

It was not loud, nor flirtatious. But it was real. A soft, unguarded breath of amusement that lit across your face like morning sun. Marcus inhaled through his nose, and the air caught halfway down. He had never heard you laugh like that in his presence.

Lucilla kept talking beside him, her words like water against stone, insistent, unheeded. “She does not know what you have been through, Marcus. She does not understand. She never will. She would not last a day in the cold places you have lived—”

And then she touched him. Her fingers brushed over his forearm with a gesture so familiar it might have once felt like comfort, but now... now it was unwelcome. Not just wrong. It felt like a theft.

Because his gaze was still on you. And all he could see was the way your hand rested on the table, your fingers brushing that man’s sleeve by accident, casual, brief—and he hated it. Hated the echo of it, the mirror of what Lucilla was doing now. That she could touch him when his mind was elsewhere, that someone else could touch you and receive what he never asked for but now realized he had always wanted.

Lucilla’s hand tightened slightly, sensing the shift in him. “Marcus ?”

But his body was already tilting away. A step, a breath, a lean. But to Lucilla, it must have felt like the beginning of loss. And for Marcus, it was the end of pretense. He did not look at her when he spoke. “Move.” His voice was controlled, but the kind of controlled that could not be softened. The kind of calm that came before the draw of a sword.

“Marcus—” she tried again, the edge of her composure thinning. “She was speaking to another man. You do not owe her anything. You and I—this is not—”

He did not let her finish. His hand lifted, brushing hers from his arm in a motion that was not harsh but irrevocable, the gesture of a soldier shedding what no longer served him. She stepped back as though the air had changed temperature. And he walked across marble floors glossed with candlelight, past idle nobility with mouths full of honeyed words and hands stained in politics. Toward you.

You looked up as he approached, your conversation pausing mid-sentence. You blinked, once, twice, as though not trusting what you were seeing. You opened your mouth, but the man beside you was already retreating, sensing the gravity that entered with Marcus’s arrival.

He did not even acknowledge the man, as his eyes never left yours. “We are leaving.” He said. Quietly. Just that. No explanation. No warning. 

You hesitated, your fingers clenched lightly around the rim of the table, your body still angled toward the seat. Your expression was unreadable at first, caught between confusion and that deeper, older thing—resignation. A kind of knowing that lived in women who had long accepted their lack of choice.

“I—Marcus, what is this ?” You asked, voice low, not wanting to cause a scene.

He did not answer. The way he stood, the set of his jaw, the command in his silence, it made resistance feel futile. Still, you lingered. You looked past him, briefly, and your gaze found Lucilla, who stood at a distance now, her smile brittle and fixed, her hands coiled together like something held back only by pride.

You rose.

Not out of agreement. Not even out of submission. But because somewhere in that moment, you realized that what he offered now—however sudden, however unclear—was more honest than the indifference he had buried you beneath for weeks. And you were tired of being unseen.

You left without taking his arm, but you followed. And behind you, Lucilla watched. Her face pale and her hands trembling just slightly. Because for the first time, she was not the one being chosen. And Marcus—Marcus did not look back once.

Not at her.

Not at anyone.

Only at you.

The carriage ride home was silent. Not the still, companionable quiet that sometimes followed long evenings—but the kind that vibrated beneath the surface, sharp with things unsaid. The kind that filled the space between two people like smoke, invisible but choking. Marcus sat across from you, unmoving, eyes fixed on the black shape of the road beyond the open window. His jaw was tight, one hand resting against his thigh in the rigid posture of a man at war with himself.

You stared at your hands folded neatly in your lap, fingers trembling faintly despite your best effort to still them. He had not said a word since pulling you from the banquet floor, had not looked at you, had not explained, had not acknowledged what he just had done. But now, alone in the dark velvet of the carriage, you were no longer shocked. You were angry.

And underneath the anger, something colder had begun to settle, something that tasted like shame, like humiliation. Because the moment you had turned to ask him what was wrong, the moment your voice had wavered with confusion—he had not answered, as if you did not deserve the dignity of a reason.

As if you had done something wrong.

You clenched your jaw, heart pounding louder with each mile that passed, fury sparking hotter with every glance he refused to give you. By the time the gates of the villa came into view, you were no longer confused. You were incandescent with rage. When the carriage rolled to a stop and the footman opened the door, Marcus stepped out first. Still silent. Still calm. He did not even glance back to see if you followed. You did, but not for the same reason as before. You followed because you were done letting this continue in silence.

The walk through the atrium was short, a blur of shadow and candlelight against white marble. He turned toward the corridor that led to his private quarters—as he always did. As if tonight had not happened. As if ripping you from a conversation like some jealous tyrant was not worth discussion.

But this time, you did not let him go.

“Marcus.”

He stopped. His shoulders stiffened, but he did not turn. You did not care anymore, you stepped forward until you stood behind him, your voice low and cold as steel. “What is your problem ?”

That made him turn. Slowly, brow furrowed, mouth set in that same expressionless line he always wore when the walls went up. But you were not afraid of it anymore.

“You do not speak to me,” you said, each word deliberate, each breath carefully held so your voice would not shake. “You barely look at me. You treat me like a stranger in a house that is supposed to be mine too. And I have tried—I have tried to live with that. To respect whatever it is you think you are protecting. But tonight—” your voice caught, not with weakness, but fury “—you pull me away from a conversation like I have done something wrong. Like I am a problem to be managed.”

He said nothing, of course he did not. You moved closer, circling around to stand in front of him now, forcing him to look at you. “You do not get to do that. You do not get to be cold for weeks—months, and then act like I belong to you the moment someone else says something kind !”

His eyes darkened—not with anger, but with something worse. Guilt. Maybe shame. You could not tell and you really did not care at all.

“That is not how this works,” you hissed, your voice breaking now, fury crashing into something fragile beneath. “You do not get to disappear behind silence and distance and then come dragging me out of a room like you have any claim to me !”

He finally opened his mouth, but you raised your hand.

“No.” You pointed your index finger toward him, “You do not get to talk now. I am talking.”

He closed it again, but did not look away. And you hated him a little for that. For standing there so still, like none of this touched him. Like he was not the reason your hands shook. Your voice dropped lower. “If you want something from me, Marcus—if you actually feel something, if there is anything in you besides shame and silence and this endless, cold pride—then say it ! Ask for it ! But do not you dare punish me for what you ca not admit.”

He did not speak. His expression flickered, not a change, but a crack. His throat moved in a tight swallow, but still no words came. You stared at him. Waiting. Wanting something—anything—to make this mean something.

But there was only silence.

And you felt it then. The final break. That small, foolish piece of hope that had still lived somewhere in you, the one that had clung to his name, to the quiet way he stood when you entered a room, to the moments when you thought there might be something there.

It died.

You shook your head, voice barely a whisper now. “You really do not have anything to say.”

Still, he stood there.

So, you turned. Not toward your room. Not in defiance or drama. Just away. Away from him, from the weight of everything he would not even try to say.

And this time, he was the one left standing still.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

Marcus could not sleep. Not for lack of exhaustion, the weight in his chest was enough to flatten a man twice his size, but because the silence in his chamber refused to be still. It scraped against the inside of his skull like iron dragged across stone, and every time he closed his eyes, he saw your face.

Not the quiet version of you, not the one he had grown used to—if he could even say that—not the one who spoke softly, who walked carefully around his moods. No. What haunted him now was the version he had tried to pretend did not exist: the one who had finally looked at him with fire in your eyes, the one who had stopped being kind, the one he had driven to fury.

You had stood there in the atrium, lit by the echo of too many quiet evenings, and you had spoken to him like someone who had reached the very end of something. Your voice had trembled with fury held too long beneath the surface. And he had let you go.

He had watched you turn, and for the first time in a very long time, he had felt fear. Not battlefield fear, not the cold clarity of calculated danger. But the raw, unshakable fear of a man who had realized, too late, that he had taken something living and turned it into dust.

He sat now at the edge of his bed, tunic wrinkled from where he had laid down hours earlier, then risen again, and again, and again. The wine he had poured sat untouched on the table. A breeze drifted through the open window, cool against the sweat at his temple, but he did not feel it. All he felt was your absence. And the sound of your voice, still echoing in his mind.

Gods.

He buried his face in his hands, elbows on his knees. His breath shook, and he hated himself for it. But there was no battle here to win, no strategy to retreat to. Just a silence he had built himself, brick by brick, and the realization that he might have finally sealed himself inside it.

He stood suddenly, as he did not even remember making the decision, just the movement : one step, then another. The villa was dark as he stepped into the corridor, his bare feet soundless on the stone floor. The night was deep, heavy with the scent of cypress and cooling marble, and not a single servant stirred. He did not bring any source of light with him, he did not need one, because he knew the path to your chamber by heart. 

Each step felt like it carried the weight of a hundred unsaid things. He did not know what he would say when he got there. He did not know if he would knock, or turn back, or fall to his knees the moment he saw your face. All he knew was that he could not stay away. Not anymore.

When he reached your door, he stood there for a long moment. The wood looked softer in the moonlight, blurred at the edges. His hand hovered, and for a breath, he considered turning back. Then he knocked once, quietly.

No answer.

He waited, heart thudding like a drum in a storm. He knocked again, just slightly louder.

Still nothing.

His hand dropped to his side. Maybe you were asleep. Maybe you had nothing more to say. Maybe he deserved that silence now, the one he had offered you so many times. Maybe—

Then he heard it.

Faint. Muffled.

Not words. Just breath.

The kind a person tries to hide. The kind a person makes when they are crying into a pillow and trying not to let it escape their throat. His chest clenched, a violent, gut-deep reaction, like a blade shoved through the ribs from the inside out. He pressed his palm flat against the doorframe to keep from staggering.

Gods.

You were crying.

Because of him.

Not in anger now. Not in defiance. But because something in you had broken, and he had been the one to break it. And you were trying to cry quietly—because even now, even now, you did not want to disturb him.

Something inside him shattered. He lowered his head against the wood, closing his eyes. “Please,” he whispered, though he was not sure if it was for you or for himself.

He did not knock again, just stood there, listening to the sound of your pain, to the quiet unraveling of what he had never had the courage to hold. And for the first time in years, Marcus wished that someone would come and strike him down where he stood. Because what he had done was worse than cruelty.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

The weeks that followed were made of absence. Not loud. Not cruel. Just absence. The kind that settles like dusk, imperceptible at first, until you look up and realize the light has gone and you never saw it leave. There were no slammed doors, no raised voices, no final, cutting words meant to scar. Only space, and the silence inside it.

You did not avoid Marcus. Not openly or childishly, you were too composed for that. But there was something in the way your footsteps passed him now, lighter, quieter, as though your body had learned to retract itself from his presence. The brush of your gown no longer reached him, your fingers no longer touched the edge of his sleeve in passing. You did not linger in thresholds anymore, did not pause before you exited a room.

Your scent had vanished from the air in the shared spaces of the house. The triclinium, the library, even the shade beneath the olive tree where you once sat with your sandals off and a book forgotten in your lap—all of it smelled only of stone now.

You greeted him as a wife should. You bowed your head when appropriate, your voice was even, smooth as poured wine—and just as impersonal. But your eyes… your eyes no longer searched for him across a room. No longer stayed on him when you thought he was not looking.

You had become a stranger in the shape of the woman he should have loved better. A ghost with a pulse. Marcus, who had once commanded legions, who had stared down barbarians and traitors alike with unblinking resolve, did not know how to fix what he had broken.

So, he did nothing. Well, not exactly. The only thing he did was not reaching for Lucilla. He did not meet her when she called for him, and did not went to her villa late at night, like he would have done before. 

He told himself it was patience. That healing required space. That if he rushed you now, forced closeness, demanded confession, he would only wound you further. But deep down, beneath the reasoning and the Roman pride and the well-worn habits of silence, he knew the truth.

He was waiting. Waiting for you to return to him. Waiting for the grace of your forgiveness without having to ask for it aloud. Waiting for the kindness he had squandered to be extended one more time, without cost. And every day you did not come back was another quiet confirmation that you were done offering.

You smiled now, sometimes. But never at him. You laughed once or twice, in the garden with a servant girl, or at something read from a scroll. But the sound was brief, private. Not meant to be shared. And never in hispresence.

When you spoke to him, it was only in the language of civility. Clear. Respectful. Empty of warmth. And that—that calm, that poised neutrality—was worse than anger, worse than tears. Because anger at least was still a thread. Still a tether. Still a sign that some part of you burned for him, even if it burned in pain.

But this ? This was extinction.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

The shift came quietly. He noticed it during a garden gathering hosted by the widow Domitia—one of those breezy Forum affairs where senators aired their wealth in wines and foreign spices while pretending to care about poetry. You were dressed in a soft dark blue that day, your hair was coiled up, away from your neck, the way you always wore it when the sun was strong. And you stood at a distance from him. Not far enough to be scandalous, but far enough that you could no longer be considered at his side.

But you were near him. The man from the banquet.

You spoke with him easily, your voice low, shaded with interest. Your posture leaned just slightly toward him, like a flower drawn toward light. Marcus stood across the colonnade, his goblet untouched in his hand. He watched the way your fingers played along the rim of your cup when the man leaned in. The way your mouth moved when you spoke—not smiling, but open. 

He did not move. Did not interrupt. Did not speak.

Because what right did he have ?

He had given you every reason to drift. Every reason to find warmth elsewhere. And yet, something in his chest—that old soldier’s instinct, that possessive ache he had never dared name—flared like an open wound.

You walked with that man again two days later. In the villa gardens. A servant mentioned it in passing—an innocent report about ‘my lady’s guest’—and Marcus had nodded, pretending not to care. But that night, you came back with color in your cheeks and soil on your fingertips, and for the first time in months, your face looked alive.

Like you had finally remembered that the world held beauty. That your body still moved in it. That someone saw you. And Marcus, from the shadows of the peristyle, watched the way you stepped through the atrium, humming faintly to yourself, a sound that had not been heard in the villa in weeks, and he felt it: the burn.

It was not jealousy.

It was loss.

Real loss. Not the imagined kind that might be recovered with a few good words. But the quiet, irretrievable kind. The loss that comes when something has gone cold and hardened, and you didn’t even realize you had stopped holding it.

You had stopped waiting for him.

And still—he did nothing.

Because what could he say after months of silence ? After watching you try, and fail, and try again ? What could he offer now, when everything you once hoped to find in him—warmth, touch, want—had become something you had taught yourself to live without ?

He had once been a man others followed without question. Now he stood alone in the home you shared, reduced to the echo of a choice he never had the courage to make. And the worst part, the part that scraped bone, was not that you had left him.

It was that you had stayed. Right here. Under the same roof. Wearing the same name.

⋆.⋆༺𖤓༻⋆.⋆

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Tag-list : @negrita2345 @aretha170 @immyowndefender @suzysface @isabella-rose-trastamara @simpingforjoel @unmagically @carpediem1219 @whirlwindrider29 @babukat

[beefrobeefcal]

Frankie 🤲🏽🎁 🎉🎉🎉

HE IS GORGEOUS, TAKOS!!!!! Oh you’ve got his sweet face down to a T! I WANNA HUG HIM!

EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU TO TAKOS!!!!!

Yours in birthday sin,

Beefro👌🥩💜