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backtothefanfiction · 3 days ago

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FaceTime | Joaquin Torres x Reader

Summary: long distance is hard sometimes

Warnings: long distance relationships, fluff, flirting

A/N: just a quick one before bed. I haven’t done one of these in a while. I’m not too happy with the ending, but I want to go to sleep and also keep this short. Enjoy!

You had only just gotten out of the shower when he called. He always tried to call when he got a moment in the evenings. Sometimes it was earlier when you were having your dinner. Other times it was really late and you were already in bed. But he always made the effort. Sometimes the calls were long and sometimes they were short, but you always cherished every second you got to see his face and hear his voice.

“Hey,” he said, the second you picked up.

“Hey,” you said a little breathless from the way you had raced back down the hall from the bathroom to reach your phone in time.

“You okay?” he asked, his brow furrowed as he took in your damp hair and bare shoulders in the frame of the camera.

“Yeah,” you said, sitting on the side of your bed and breathing deeply, still trying to regulate your breaths, “I just got out of the shower. Thought I was gonna miss your call.”

You watched as his eyebrows raised interestedly. “Really now?” he asked with that breathy enthusiasm he had when he was feeling flirty.

“Yes,” you sighed, rolling your eyes. He was so predictable.

“So you’re not wearing anything right now?” he pressed.

“Joaquin!” You whined, unimpressed.

“What!?” he exclaimed honestly and you rolled your eyes again.

“Where are you right now?” You asked him, trying to change the subject. It looked like he was in the back of a car.

“Travelling back to my hotel for the night,” he said, before his hand rubbed at his face. It was clear from the dark circles under his eyes he was tired. His job was pretty exhausting after all, but he always claimed it was because he didn’t sleep as well without you.

“What time is it where you are?” you asked him.

“Late,” he replied before he switched the hand he was holding his phone with to check his watch. “Ah shit,” he sighed, “I still haven’t changed this,” he muttered to himself.

“Why not just check the corner of your phone?” you asked him.

“Now I knew I wasn’t just dating you for your pretty face,” he joked as you saw his eyes glance up to the time on his phone.

“Oh I that’s good to know. I had thought it was solely because I look good on your arm when you get invited to the White House.”

“But you do,” he frowned, before he quickly realised you were joking and a smile broke out on his face.

“Damn fly boy, you really are tired,” you noted and as if on cue he began to yawn. “Don’t yawn, you’ll set me off,” you chastised him, but it was already too late, as you felt one creeping into the corners of your jaw. He let out a little laugh when you succumbed.

“How long til you get to your hotel?” you asked him.

Instead of looking forward towards the drivers satnav, you watched as his eyes moved to look out the window instead. “Not far now,” he said. “Maybe another couple of minutes.”

Your brow furrowed as you thought on that. Clearly he was somewhere he knew well if he could work out how far away he was just by his surroundings.

“Where did you say you were again?” you asked him, suddenly feeling suspicious.

“We just stopped off in Philly for a night,” he said, but the way his mouth twitched slightly like he was rolling his tongue awkwardly behind his teeth, made you feel like he was lying. “How was work today?” he quickly asked, changing the subject.

“It was fine, same old same old,” you said, still thinking over his demeanour as you attempted to talk normally. “The AC broke though so I was a sweaty mess for most of the day.”

“Mmmm tasty,” he said.

“Uhhh that so gross.”

“Says the woman who loves when I come home all sweaty from the gym.”

“That’s different.”

“How so?” he chuckled.

“It’s not like I lick your sweat or anything. I just like the way your skin glistens.” you tried to defend yourself.

“Yeah, yeah,” he joked before you saw his gaze shift back out the window again. When his gaze turned back to you, you could have sworn he was trying to hide a smile.

“What is up with you this evening?” you asked him.

“Nothing,” he tried to defend himself, but he couldn’t help but let out a breathy smug chuckle.

“You’re up to something. You can’t hide shit from me Torres. What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” he grinned. “I’m doing nothing,” he insisted. “I’m just really excited about climbing into bed after a long day.

“Bullshit,” you said as he let out a shit eating grin.

“I am!” he insisted, but when he saw the concerned look on your face he caved. “Fine,” he sighed. “Go to the window.”

“What?” your frowned.

“Go to the window,” he said again.

You rolled your eyes but did as you were told. When you pulled back the curtain you almost dropped your phone in shock. Outside was a black limousine and Joaquin was climbing out of the back of it.

“Shut up!” you exclaimed. You heard him chuckle through the phone. “SHUT UP!” you squealed louder, lifting your phone back up to your face, simultaneously looking from him on the call to him out the window.

“You still in that towel?” he joked as you watched him practically jog across the lawn to your front door, his duffel bag and a bouquet of flowers clenched in his hand.

“Yes,” you said, a shit eating grin on your face.

“Not for long you won’t be,” he said before he hung up the call.

A second later you heard his key in the door and you raced down the stairs and straight into his arms. That was the best FaceTime call ever.

#joaquín torres #Joaquin Torres x reader #the falcon #joaquin torres #Joaquin Torres imagine #mcu #fanfic

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backtothefanfiction · 12 days ago

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Oh Baby | PART 4: THE ATTACK

Manny Alvarez x Reader Insert

Summary: The Scars attack the media tower and it changes your's and Manny's approach to this whole entire pregnancy

Warnings: Mature, pregnancy, threat, murder and sacrifice, guns, canon typical violence, use of y/n

Word Count: 4k+

A/N: although I've been ill this week and still not had a chance to fully catch up with getting ahead of this story again, I didn't want people waiting too long for the next instalment, especially when it was as action packed and dramatic as this. as stated previously I am playing fast and loose with canon events, things will still happen the timelines are just a little adjusted for the timings of Y/N's pregnancy. this one is a little gruesome in places and very tense but ends with a bit of hope for the future. enjoy.

2 WEEKS LATER

Tension between the WLF and the scars had increased tenfold in the last few days. It had always been bad, but recently the Scars had found a new lease of life and stepped things up a notch. You were up at the top of the old media tower on look out when the call came through the talkie.

“Tower 3 this is tower 7, we’ve got movement from the park that’s headed your way. Over,” a wary male voice came through.

“Tower 7, do you have eyes on how many?” you heard your partner for the day, Dan, ask.

“Tower 3 this is Tower 2, you’ve got a breach on your East side,” you heard come through.

“Shit,” you mumbled as you moved across the floor of the old radio control tower to look out through the open window. You just caught a glimpse of two robed figures climbing up and sneaking into a window on the second floor. “Fuck! They’re in the building!” you called across to him before the emergency warning lights came on and an alarm started blaring.

“Shit, what do we do?” you turned and asked Dan.

“Y/N?” Manny’s panicked voice crackled through the walkie talkie.

“I’m here,” you said, reaching for your own walkie.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“A group of scars have broken into the building,” you stated, gunshots echoing up from the floors below as members of the WLF started firing on the religious nut jobs.

“We have to go down there and help them,” Dan said as he readied his weapons.

“But what if more of them come? Someone needs to stay on look out,” you objected.

“Yeah and a fat load of good that did us,” he bristled. “They still snuck up on us and got in anyway,” he said, as a high pitched scream permeated up the stairwell.

“It sounds like a blood bath down there.”

“Which is why we need to go down there and help them,” Dan argued, but before he could even take another step towards the door, Nora came running in.

“We need to get out of here right now!” she said.

“But what about the others,” Dan argued.

“We’re fucking outnumbered,” she stressed and a pang of fear moved through your stomach. Although you had only seen two scars enter, it was clear there were a lot more who had snuck in when you weren’t looking.

You quickly clutched protectively at your belly. You had seen what the Seraphites had done to members of the WLF before and you highly doubted that you being pregnant was going to be much of a deterrent when it came to splitting you open and leaving you tied up with your insides on your outside.

“Y/N!” Manny’s panicked voice came down the walkie talkie again. “Talk to me, tell me what’s going on?”

“We need to find a way out,” Nora said, pacing over and stealing the walkie from you and talking to Manny directly.

“Nora?” he questioned, worried. “Where’s Y/N?”

“She’s fine,” Nora reassured him. “They’re both fine. But they won’t be if we can’t find a way out-“ she said, but all three of you froze as the sound of a door opening echoed up the stairwell and more footsteps began to thunder up them.

“We need to hide, like right now,” Nora stressed, reaching for your arm and pulling you to one side.

She pulled you down under a desk, tucking you both in tight as the footsteps and shouting grew louder. You held one hand protectively over your belly as your other hand moved up to muffle the sounds of your panicked breathing.

You could hear Manny’s voice coming through the walkie talkie where she had discarded it to leave as a decoy and give you both a chance, but it was breaking your heart knowing how worried he was.

You chanced a quick look around the side of the desk to see where Dan was, spotting him crouched over by the door with his gun at the ready, waiting to catch the Scars by surprise. As the two robed men burst through the open doors you quickly tucked your head back in again and closed your eyes. You desperately focused on remaining calm. You felt Nora’s hand reach for yours and her grip on your fingers felt calming and protective as you listened carefully to the two men beginning to scout the room.

They made it five steps in before Dan struck out, shooting one of them in the head, but the other was already trying to tackle him to the ground, just as another set of footsteps landed on the top step to join.

“Who else is up here with you?” The Scar, who had now pinned Dan down to the floor, asked.

“Uhhhgg-“ Dan groaned before you heard him spitting blood out of his mouth. “No one!” he grunted. “There’s no one up here, I’m the only one,” he said and your heart plummeted as you heard him sacrifice himself in order to save you.

You were thankful that Manny had stopped trying to radio over at that point too, so he wouldn’t reveal Dan’s lie. There was more grunting and shuffling as the two Scars continued to wrestle with Dan and get him to his feet, but he was putting up a good fight.

There was a sudden groan and a thud and all went quiet and you were sure Dan was knocked unconscious. Your legs and breaths quivered as you listened to them drag his body from the room and begin to take it downstairs. Knowing what they were sure to do to him, made your stomach lurch and you quickly scrambled out from your hiding place to vomit in a nearby bucket.

“Fuck,” you heard Nora sigh. “He sacrificed himself for us.”

“Probably shouldn’t waste that then,” you muttered, as you spat into the bin one last time before coming up for air.

“So what’s our plan?” you asked, as you finally took in the way Nora was pacing back and forth thinking.

“We need to find a way to get downstairs without being caught.”

“How long do you think until backup arrives?” you asked, chancing a look out the window. “I mean, maybe we just stay put?”

“If they find us hiding they’ll for sure trial us for insubordination.”

“I mean, I’m pregnant, can they blame me?” you said, indicating to the child growing in your belly with exasperation.

“All the same, who's to say they won’t be coming back to fully make sure no one else is up here, or to signal to their friends or something?” she suggested.

“Okay, so we take the back staircase and hope to slip out.”

“That means we’ve got to cross over on floor 6,” she said.

“Okay. We can do that?” you said breathing heavily as you tried your best to psych yourself up, but it wasn’t working.

You moved to grab your pistol from your thigh, checking the bullets before you put one in the chamber ready.

“Ready?” Nora asked you as she did the same, taking up her stance ahead of you and placing herself in the firing line first should anything happen.

“No, but, we’re gonna do this anyway, so-“

You quickly wiped your sweaty palms on your trousers before you lifted your gun up in front of you, ready, again. You both took it slowly as you began to creep down the stairs one by one. You attempted to keep your breathing under control and tried to stay as alert as possible despite everything in your body telling you to go back and hide. You tried to think of Manny. You thought desperately of your kid. The idea of him holding them in the future on a back porch, watching the sun go down behind them on a farm in the middle of nowhere, filling your mind. You had to fight for that moment.

You both hesitated at the door that lead to the 6th floor. Nora silently told you to wait where you were as she risked opening the door and checking the corridor for any immediate assailants. When she had confirmed it was clear she silently motioned for you to follow.

You both kept taking it in turns to circle the other, one of you always having their eyes forward, whilst the other watched your backs. Despite a few smears of blood here and there, it was quiet. Too quiet.

As you reached the end of the corridor of old dressing rooms, you faintly heard a sound coming from one of the sound stages further along the corridor. You both knew you should be running in the opposite direction from it, but still you couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

As you got closer, the voices became clearer. “Hoist her up,” one of them said before the sound of a woman crying out in distress came echoing down the corridor.

“Please, no, don’t do this. I’ll tell you what you want to know, just please-“ she pleaded desperately, but it didn’t do her any good.

The sound of mumbled chanting began to fill the air and the leader of the group of Scars stepped forward, reciting a rehearsed speech about sacrificing the young woman to Her. Your hand reached for Nora’s in solidarity as you both waited for what came next. The young woman’s shrieks became louder and there was the horrible sound of ripping flesh before her blood and guts spilled loudly onto the floor.

The sound alone made you want to puke again and you quickly lifted the back of your hand that was holding your gun to your mouth to hold it in. Carefully, you slowly breathed in and out through your nose and tried to ride out the feeling.

“Hey,” you heard a familiar voice whisper urgently and your heart leapt as you turned your head to find Manny hesitating on a corner, further back up the hall from the direction that you just came.

Quietly, you and Nora crept back up the corridor towards him. The second you were close enough to him he wrapped you tightly in his arms, kissing the top of your head. “Oh thank god you’re safe, I thought you were dead,” he said, his voice muffled into your hair and you were sure if you looked at him you might find him crying, but he wasn’t. He was too much of a well trained soldier to break in the middle of a mission. No matter how personal it might be.

“We need to get out of here,” he affirmed when you finally broke apart.

“How did you get in?” Nora hissed at him, as more muffled screams came down the hall. This time they were much more manly and you worried they might have belonged to Dan.

“Got in through a window on the second floor,” Manny replied, subtly pushing you behind him as he moved his gun back into a readied stance in front of him.

“Can we get back out of it?” Nora asked him in a hushed tone.

“We can,” he said, “but I don’t know how well Y/N will climb out-“

“I’ll try, I’ll do anything. Just get us out of here,” you hissed at him.

“Okay, follow me,” he said, before he began to stalk back up the corridor to the staircase you’d just come through.

All was quiet as the three of you raced down the stairs, Nora now taking the lead as Manny watched your backs, always keeping you in his sights.

“Which way?” Nora asked quietly, in case there were any more of the Scars lurking about on the lower levels looking for stragglers.

“Left,” Manny informed her and the three of you began to move down the dark corridor in the direction he’d stated.

“It’s just around the corner,” Manny pressed, as he continued to usher you along with a protective hand at your back.

You all came to a stop at the window that was smashed in. A large jagged part of glass covered in blood still clung to the frame and it turned your stomach again.

“Did you do that? Are you hurt?” you quickly turned to him, frantically checking him over as Nora assessed the drop.

“No, no. It must have been one of them. I’m fine,” he reassured you, but it did little to ease your rapidly beating heart. “I’m okay,” he stressed, his hand resting on your cheek earnestly as he met your eyes. “I promise. Lets just all get out of here,” he said, as another painful scream rang down from the floor upstairs.

“Come on, I’ll help you out,” Nora said, already through the window and standing precariously on top of an old air conditioning unit.

“Is that gonna hold both of us?” you asked her as she reached her hand back through the window for you.

“It’ll have to,” she said. “Come on.”

You looked down at the drop and your butt tingled, your knees growing weak in fear. You never used to worry about heights like this, but you had more than just yourself to think about now. As you hovered with one foot on the ledge, ready to push yourself up, a crossbow bolt came soaring through the air, lodging in the wall inches from your head.

“SHIT!” you heard Manny swear, turning and lifting his gun to fire two shots into the chest of the Scar that had just appeared at the other end of the hall. “We have to go, NOW!” he stressed. “Y/N, jump through the window.”

“I CAN’T!” you gritted, frozen.

“YES YOU CAN!” he barked.

“Come on, I’ve got you,” Nora said from the other side.

“I can’t!” you said again, your voice wobbling as a whistle came from somewhere in the distance.

“Yes, you can,” Nora responded calmly, her hand reaching out for you as Manny took a step back and raised his gun in preparation. “I’ve got you, okay? We’re gonna get out of this. Come on,” she said, just as Manny fired yet another shot into one of the Seraphites at the other end of the hall.

You braced yourself, taking one more deep breath for courage before you hoisted yourself up onto the window ledge, your hand catching on one of the broken shards of glass and slicing through the skin on your fingers, but you tried to ignore it. You let yourself take Nora’s hand and she helped you steady yourself as you moved out onto the AC unit.

You tried to focus forward and not back as Manny fired two more shots and your heart shot up into your throat.

“Come on,” Nora said, hopping down onto the next ledge and reaching back up to you as you sat yourself on the edge of the unit to drop down.

“Manny?” you called back, looking back through the broken window for him, but he wasn’t there. “Manny!?” you called again.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. GO!” he stressed as he stepped back towards the window.

“Come on, I’ve got you,” Nora said, raising her hands up to catch and steady you as you slid off the AC unit and landed with a thud on top of an old rusting dumpster. “Manny!” she called back to him when you were safely down and there was a beat before he finally climbed through the window and you could breathe a sigh of relief.

You hesitated as you waited for him to climb down and join you both on the ground.

“Come on, let's go!” Nora stressed, beginning to side step back towards the main road. “COME ON!” she shouted at yourself and Manny, as he hung back and checked that no one was about to follow or start firing from the upper floor at you.

“Let’s go,” he said, reaching for your hand, your fingers stinging as his firm grip squeezed the open wound there.

You kept running until you were safely out of potential range of the Scars bolts and arrows, but didn’t stop until you were all back in the safety of the WLF barracks.

--------------------------------------

“Are you okay?” Manny asked as the two of you lay out on his bed together later that evening.

It was just the two of you in the room, Nora still assisting with the mission to try and retrieve any potential survivors of the attack. You had been silent ever since you’d gotten back. Someone in the infirmary had cleaned out and bandaged your hand, but you had no idea who it was. You were barely just aware of Manny still clinging to your side, keeping his eye on you after the scare you’d both just had. And it was that very scare that had you so deep in your thoughts.

You remembered back to that morning in the farmhouse after you’d told him you were pregnant. Coming to Seattle was only meant to be a temporary solution, but just over five months later you were still here.

Your eyes dropped to the baby forming in your belly. This was no life for a child. Even though the risk of infected and running into danger was everywhere, staying put and raising your child here in Seattle with the current tensions and Isaac’s radical plans, suddenly didn’t seem all that appealing. Not that it had ever been appealing, but you’d never stopped and allowed yourself to think about what you both should really do.

“I don’t want them to be like us,” you finally said, your voice shaky and hesitant as you rubbed soothingly over your bump.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” you said, turning your head to look at him. “We were both so young when we joined the fireflies. We were practically kids- were kids,” you corrected as you thought back to when you signed up on your 15th birthday. “I don’t want our kid to be a child soldier like we were. I don’t want them to be a soldier at all,” you clarified.

He was silent as he thought that over, his teeth chewing at his lip as he processed what you were saying.

“I know that they could never have a life like we had before the outbreak, but surely there’s got to be something closer to it than this,” you said, motioning to the tiny room you shared with Nora. “I mean there’s got to be more settlements like Jackson we could go to,” you replied.

“So you want to leave?” he asked, his brow furrowing at the idea.

“Yes. No. Oh I don’t know. But what I do know is that I don’t want my kid to experience what I did today. I don’t want them being brought up in the middle of a fucking terf war where people are being killed left right and centre. I don’t want them waiting up with me worried about whether or not you’re gonna make it back from checking out a hoard of infected,” you stressed.

“I want them to have a place where they can play outside safely. Maybe make some friends. To feel free and not have to live in fear all the time.”

His face fell to watch his fidgeting hands as he processed your words. They made Manny’s gut churn uncomfortably and he slowly began to realise that what he was feeling was guilt. In all the time you’d been living in Seattle, he had not once thought about the reality of bringing his kid up here and what that would truly be like for them. He realised he’d been complacent. Just because he had lived like this growing up and he didn’t know better, it didn’t mean his own child should have to live like this. He hadn’t put much thought into kids at all before all of this happened. Hadn’t had a single thought or day dream about what it would be like or how he’d like to raise them given the chance. But you were right. Of course you were right. This life wasn’t good enough for your little niño.

“So where do you want to go?” he asked.

“I dunno?” you said. “You heard of any other colonies other than Jackson?” you asked.

“No,” he replied disheartened and you both fell silent.

“You ever think about going back home?” you asked into the quiet of the room, as you both sat in deep thought, trying to come up with a plan.

“Not really,” he said, his hand moving absentmindedly to stroke at your belly in an attempt to ease the tension that was rapidly beginning to build in his body. “Not really much to go back to. What about you?” he asked. “You said you were born in Arizona, right?”

“Yeah. Chandler, Arizona,” you said.

“What was it like when you left?” He shifted himself down the bed slightly, propping his head up on his fist as he looked up at you, the fingers of his right hand still stroking soothingly across your skin.

“I’m not sure. My mom and dad got me out of there just before Fedra went in to clear the area.”

“You think there’s much there?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Besides, it would take us nearly a whole month to walk there. Probably longer with me in my current condition.”

You both fell into comfortable silence again as you thought. But as his fingers kept sliding absentmindedly back and forth over your bump, you couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time he had done that and suddenly you were back thinking to that farmhouse again. You tried to think back to its surroundings. To imagine what they’d be like without all the snow. How big the fields were. What resources were nearby.

You ultimately knew it wouldn’t be a good fit- even if it did still have hot water. You knew for true survival you needed community. People who worked together to protect each other. Who had different skills so they could fix any problems that may arise that neither you nor Manny knew how to fix. After all, you’d both been soldiers since you were young teens and neither one of you had honed many domestic skills over the years.

But you knew the idea had legs. You just needed to find the right place. Somewhere like Jackson, but that wasn’t Jackson. Somewhere that wasn’t bitterly cold in the winter you thought. Okay… so that meant headed south. But to where?

“What about Northern Cali?” he suddenly asked as if he was reading your mind. “It’s not as far. We could make it in a couple weeks. Guaranteed decent weather. There’s a fair bit of farmland and small towns up there that would be ideal for communal living like they do in Jackson. Just… more relaxed maybe?” he said, finishing his thoughts out loud.

You didn’t hate it as a suggestion. I mean, you could travel that way and still not be guaranteed to find anything, but it was worth a shot wasn’t it. You looked to your belly again. You were nearly 6 months along. Most likely would be by the time you and Manny organised your plan properly and actually decided to leave. Travelling across the country at 6 months pregnant on foot wasn’t ideal, but you knew you had to do something- and you definitely didn’t want to stay here.

“We don’t have to decide tonight,” he said, bringing you back out of your thoughts. You could tell by his expression that the look on your own face- as you thought- had begun to stress him out. “It’s been a long day and you should rest,” he said, referring to the ordeal with the Scars back in the media tower.

“Yeah,” you agreed. “You’re right.” But even though you tried, you still struggled to sleep. Between flashbacks to the afternoon being hunted by Seraphites, to trying to think of the best way you could raise this child in the world's current state; and just genuinely beginning to feel uncomfortable sleeping with a growing child in your belly, getting your brain to switch off was damn near impossible.

#oh baby #manny alvarez #manny alvarez x reader #Manny tlou #tlou fanfic #reader insert #Manny Alvarez imagine

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