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sam-imagines-stuff · 2 days ago

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Hurt girls and the boys who love them.

This is some extra content for my Legacy of Gods fic, God of mystery (chapter 28.5, if you will) but can still be read alone.

It's written from Maya Sokolov's POV and explores briefly how two people deal with their trauma.

Words: 3.3K

Background/Synopsis: Maya and Vaughn always had each other. She'd like to consider him her best friend. So, when her best friend shows interest towards a new addition to the King clan, she can't help but wonder why.

Notes: OC character, Alicia King (daughter of Aiden and Elsa). Slight Maya x Ilay at the end because my girl deserves happiness.

Something is going on between Vaughn and the girl King. I know it.

Not Killian’s boring girlfriend. Another girl King; one who’s been kept secret for like…ever. At least, I’ve never heard of her, and none of them talk about her. Apparently, it’s because of some tragic backstory.

Anyway, Vaughn gets weird around her. He gets quiet, which isn’t unusual for him. No. The weirdness comes from the fact he lags when she’s near him. I can’t blame him too much; it’s like she challenges him with every other sentence, which makes him lose ground. Lose focus.

Vaughn has always been focused. He has sort of an obsessive personality. Even when we were kids, if his attention latches on something, he’s not leaving it alone until he’s completely figured it out. So why is this girl, who as far as I know he’s only met twice, captivating him?

Like right now. We’re all in the fight club–Heathens and Elites–to discuss what happened three days ago. I watch her step towards Vaughn languidly until they’re face to face, blonde hair flowing behind her.

“The best I can do for you, Mr. Morozov,” she says, “is remain in Brighton until you’re done with it. Good?”

They’re talking about her phone in his hand. Vaughn needs the phone to look into who attacked Mia three days ago. He said she needs to stay with him at the Heathen’s mansion. She told him the polite, British equivalent of “go fuck yourself.” Now, she’s flirting with him.

My gaze flickers to Gaz, who’s not only Vaughn’s best friend, but also apparently went to high school with mystery King over here. He's trying so hard to hide a smirk at Vaughn’s absolute speechlessness. Actually, all the Heathens are looking at them knowingly with amused grins.

“Alicia,” my brother's boyfriend calls out to his cousin, and she jumps like a kid caught stealing from the cookie jar. Though her face is all red, she still raises her head with all the King arrogance I’ve come to loathe and walks away.

Vaughn looks like he wants to eat her.

I lean over the ropes of the boxing ring and warn, “Vaughn, stop looking at her like she’s food, and you’re some starving animal. Her brothers might actually kill you.”

“They can try.”

My eyebrows rise at the serious way he said that. It would’ve been more normal if he’d ignored me, but something about what I said annoyed him. Maybe, it’s the insinuation her brothers might stop him if he did go after her. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Vaughn want someone. For anything.

Vaughn’s expression is as readable as blank paper, so I decide to target his pretty princess for answers.

“Hey, King!”

The six Kings present turn to look at me at the same time. I swear that family is a cult. I focus on the blonde one and ask, “did any of those losers take you shopping yet?”

Taking the chance when she shakes her head, I use Vaughn for support and jump down from the ring. My Jimmy Choo’s clank on the floor, proving their worth by not breaking. Vaughn looks mildly impressed. Or concerned. I can’t really tell and I don’t care much.

Grabbing King’s arm, I pull her towards the door and shout over my shoulder, “Mia, other girl King, you’re coming with. The chauffeur is waiting.”

I don’t give any of them a choice. One way or another, I’m figuring out what this girl is to Vaughn.

“Why did you bring her along, Maya?” Mia asks from the backseat. Stalling for an answer, I pick at my nails.

It’s annoying how much she likes mystery King. Actually, it’s annoying how much everyone likes her. Sure, she saved Mia’s life. But we can owe her without liking her.

Lidya glances from the rear window at the car driving behind us. Since Nika decided to come on this shopping trip, we’ve had to take two cars so I wouldn’t have to suffer through her nauseating, chatty presence. For my sanity, we threw the preppy, posh bitches together.

“I’m actually glad you did,” Lidya beams, twirling a blonde curl around her finger. “She’s really cool.”

She’s fine. At best.

I pick at my cuticles, resisting the urge to just bite it off.

“Maya, you will not antagonize her,” my sister stresses. “She’s been through enough.”

“Oh, what a martyr.” I drawl, not bringing up the obvious fact we’ve also been through some shit. Sure, girl King was kidnapped like us, but she’s a future doctor and her family’s angel and can do no wrong. Therefore, she deserves all the sympathy in the world. She’s beloved by the entire King clan and for some reason, by the Heathens, too; she’s fooled them all. Apparently, even Vaughn.

A girl like her hides things behind the overt politeness and the pretty smiles. It’s all a fucking scam. I’m sure of it.

I give up and bite the frayed cuticle off. It bleeds, leaving a wound, and this only aggravates me more.

The pretty princess is a tough nut to crack.

I’ve been trying to rile her up for the past hour, but the fucking ice block only replies to my questions with passive, useless answers.

“What’s it like in New York?”

“Crowded.”

“Did you meet anyone interesting there?”

“My friends.”

“Studying to be a doctor? How nerdy of you.”

“That’s the stereotype, yes.”

ChatGPT has more personality than this bitch.

At this point, I don’t care about figuring out what she is to Vaughn; I just want to make her emote.

I push through a bunch of clothes on the rack. The metal hangers scrape against each other. “You know, it was pretty bold to leave your phone with Vaughn. Aren’t you afraid he’ll find some weird stuff there?”

Her lips twitch. “And why should I care?”

“Maybe I’ll go through it, too. I’m sure he won’t deny me.”

She hangs back the brown coat in her hand then inspects a white blouse beside it. Her movements are cold. Calm…Too calm.

“I’m sure he won’t. You’re his girlfriend afterall.”

I’m not Vaughn’s girlfriend, but I don’t correct Ice King over here because finally, some heat enters her words.

I smirk. “So, you have nothing to hide? Nothing to be ashamed of?”

“No, I don’t. Much to your disappointment."

“Much to my disappointment?” I mock. “Please. You’re not interesting enough for me to care.”

“Then why are you asking so much? What are you trying to prove?”

I pause. She finally picks her gaze from the white blouse to peer at me. Grinding my teeth, I whirl around and look through the rack, violently slamming each piece of clothing against each other.

This righteous, psycho-analytical bitch is even worse than Jeremy’s nun girlfriend.

“Let me tell you, Maya,” she starts, “because you want something to be wrong with me. You want me to actually be a terrible person hiding my true, awful nature, so you can feel better about yourself.”

I want to shut her out, but I’m still standing in front of an ugly, bright orange dress listening to her babbling.

“So your anger and loneliness can be justified.”

Who does she think she is? My therapist? Fuck her. I want to slap her. To curse and tell her she can go fuck herself. But, my throat closes up, and I swallow down and grind my teeth until my jaw aches. Realising I don’t have to continue listening to her, I turn and walk away.

“I am angry, Maya.”

There’s a shift in her tone, making my feet stop. I know that tone. It’s the same defeated tone I use when I’ve bitched, been mean, cruel, and it did nothing. Fixed nothing. It’s the tone I use when I realise whatever’s wrong with me—whatever makes me push people away—will always be wrong, and I just have to accept it.

“I’m always angry,” she admits quietly. Shamefully. “I’m always lonely, and I think I’ll always feel lonely. But, the biggest ‘Fuck you’ I could give the men who tried to harm me is live, and live well. I wanted to become better not just for myself, but for everyone around me.”

She puts a hand on my shoulder. Her skin is cold, but her next words are warm. “There’s no right way to survive trauma. We just have to live with whatever’s wrong with us after.”

I still hate her, but she may be more interesting than the other Elite bitches.

We’re all in a cafe fashioned like a dollhouse, with pale pink walls and delicate golden frames. The teacups and mugs look like something from a little girl’s bedroom, and each table has tiny vases with a single daisy in them. Shopping bags of designer brands line at our feet, and under the white marble table.

Sipping my green tea, I tune out Lidya’s excited chatter about something or another. I love her, but the girl is like a bunny on steroids. When we were younger, she was my go to for anything because of how adventurous she is. Oh, we had so much fun causing the worst kind of trouble. Usually, it involved pranking or annoying Vaughn.

Speaking of which, he’s now the topic of conversation, and Ice King is trying to hide her intrigue by swallowing her tea.

“ —he made me this pink Birkin out of Legos. It looks amazing in my room.” She passes her phone around to show us the Lego bag Vaughn built for her. Killian’s girlfriend—I know her name, it’s just too convoluted to remember every time— marvels at the picture, while the other King present smiles at it. A small, secretive smile. Like she’s seen this picture before, but is playing us all.

“He seems really sweet,” she mumbles.

Lidya rolls her eyes. “It’s to make up for the fact he’s a monster the other half of the time.”

Alicia nods, but says nothing else. Nika, after swallowing a bite of her croissant, says “I’ve only ever known Vaughn to be sweet.”

She turns to King with a grin. “His mother, Aunt Sasha, raised him right. Even my father likes him, and he doesn’t like anybody.”

Munching on a macaroon, Mia tilts her head towards Lidya and asks, “hey, what did you do about that theory of yours? About his secret girlfriend?”

Alicia stiffens, her teacup stuck halfway to her mouth. Her eyes seem to be calculating things mid-air. This is the most emotion I’ve seen on her face all day.

Finally, she looks at me with her brows furrowed. I wink at the same time Lidya groans, “she exists! I know she does.”

“Liddy, there’s no way he could hide her for, like, a year now.” Nika challenges. Lidya points a finger at her. “It’s Vaughn. Tell me he can’t if he really wants to.”

We all stay quiet. Truth is, Vaughn is unstoppable once his mind is set on something. I guess it’s why Lego building works for him. I guess it’s why a lot of things work for him. He never gives up on anything, especially when it’s challenging to him. He becomes monstrous in his focus.

“Secret…girlfriend?” King mumbles, gaze flickering to me. Lidya rambles on, unaware Alicia’s eyes are on me the whole time. “Yeah, yeah. It seems weird, but it’s the only thing explaining his change.”

“How so?”

Lidya twirls one of her curls while thinking. “He’s…softer, now. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like his focus shifted to something—someone—and is completely stuck there. He’s always on his phone, texting someone readily, when he’s never done that. He sometimes comes to family dinner with his ice skates wet, and a weird, content smile on his face. It freaks me out. And there’s this pen.”

“What pen?” Nika asks.

Lidya purses her lips, digging a fork into her waffles. “He has this black pen that he never uses, just takes out to admire. If he bought it for himself, he would’ve used it. The fact he’s keeping it safe makes me believe it was a gift from her.”

“Oh.”

We all turn to Alicia, whose face is unreadable as she claims, “your theory sounds plausible, Lidya.”

Lidya slams both hands on the table, rattling the silverware and tiny vase. A couple of people turn to look at her outburst. “Thank you! Finally, someone believes me.”

“I’m starting to believe you, too,” other girl King says, “and I don’t even know him.”

Then your input is unnecessary, so shut up.

“Maybe Vaughn’s girlfriend is from here” I muse, staring at Alicia. She stares back and, credit where credit is due, her poker face is scary good. By now, she probably figured out that I was lying to her. Or maybe she thinks I meant me.

Lidya takes my question another way. “From Brighton? Impossible. When would they even meet?”

“At the initiation.” Nika proposes.

King chokes on her tea. Other King and Mia pat her back as she coughs and wipes her mouth with a napkin. She asks between gulps of air, “what does Vaughn have to do with the initiation?”

I sip my tea to hide my smirk. Got you, Ice King. So, whatever her business is with Vaughn, it has to do with the initiation.

“Don’t you know, King.” I say, “Vaughn comes to the initiation because he’s a part of it. He’s White mask.”

Alicia’s entire face shuts down. It’s kinda…terrifying, actually. Like she forced every part of her face to relax so she could hide what she's feeling.

“Guys, there’s no way she’s here.” Lidya shakes her hand, dismissing the idea. “If Vaughn is anything like Uncle Kirill, there’s no way he’s separating from the girl he loves. He would’ve followed her here, no matter what.”

Mia and Annika nod at Lidya, while I bask in the glow of cracking a King.

After another half hour of talking, we all decided to head home. Two very interesting things happened before that though:

One: Kings invited us to Ava Nash’s bachelorette party. I was going to refuse; I don’t need their pity invite and lame party. But, that wasn’t the interesting part. It was when Lidya said, “can I bring a plus-one?”

Alicia nodded. “Sure, may I ask who it is?”

My friend cleared her throat, stalling for an answer. Mia, Annika and I glanced at each other, trying to glean if any of us knew who else Lidya might know in the UK.

After a second more, Lidya confessed. “Sofia Conti.”

My heart began to beat faster. “Sofia Conti…the rockstar? That Sofia Conti?”

Lidya nodded, and I nearly screamed in the middle of the posh mall, with its even posher patrons.

Oh my God. My friend is friends with my favourite rockstar. Oh my God. There’s absolutely no way we’re missing that party.

Two: Alicia King stopped by a shop and stared at a mannequin. Specifically, at the silver chain belt hanging off the mannequin's plastic waist. Her eyes shifted to another mannequin, with a golden chain belt this time.

I saw gears shifting in her head before she said, “could I have a minute, please? I just need to get something real quick.”

She came out ten minutes later with a bag sounding like a coin jar, and I knew then she got those belts. Those chain belts.

This King is definitely not as innocent as she’d like everyone to believe. Not even close.

That night, I corner Vaughn’s bodyguard, Ivan, in the kitchen.

“Did Vaughn invite Alicia King to the initiation?”

“Yes,” he says between sips of his energy drink.

Blinking rapidly, I gape at him. I prepared a list of clues, reasons and lead-up questions, and this nonchalant fucker just made them all useless.

Ivan closes the fridge’s door and moves around me. Grabbing his arm, I turn him to face me. He raises a brow, but stays still.

“Why?”

“Ask him.”

“I’m asking you.”

He smirks. “And I don’t want to answer you. Also, my arm, please.”

After releasing him, I wipe the hand that was touching him on my pants. He snorts, but continues gulping his drink.

“Is she his secret girlfriend?”

Ivan sets his drink down on the kitchen island. “I see someone’s been spending a lot of time with Ms. Morozova.”

“You talk too much. Just be useful and answer me.”

His lips twist in annoyance. I notice his gaze flicker to the door behind me, before he straightens, and a slow smirk spreads on his face.

“What’ll you give me if I do?” He taunts, voice dropping an octave.

I slap him. My palm stings, and I hear myself growling, “I have a boyfriend, motherfucker.”

“I know.” He grins, and I’m about to slap him again at the fucking audacity, when arms encircle me from behind. Strong, warm arms I’d know anywhere.

“Easy, moya zvezda.” Ilay soothes. “Ivan’s annoying but not threatening.”

The man in question rubs his cheek, then fucking winks at me. I struggle against Ilay’s hold, intent on punching the guy this time. “You didn’t hear what he said to me. He—”

“I heard, and I know he didn’t mean anything by it because he has a girlfriend himself.”

What? So this asshole just wanted to rile me up.

Meeting my glare with a bored look, Ivan gulps his drink and walks out. At the door, he pauses and jerks his chin at us. “Loyal, that one. Good pick, Blondie.”

I don’t know which one of us he means, and I don’t really care anymore about anything that fucker has to say.

“Want to explain why you were even talking to him?” Ilay asks against my head. I turn around in his hold. Now, my temple is to his lips and he places a small kiss there.

“I was asking him questions about Vaughn. And like you, he’s loyal to his master and wouldn’t answer me.”

After a few seconds of silence, he says, “you’re really close to Vaughn. Aren’t you?” There’s some tension in his tone.

I back away to peer up at him. “Why? Jealous?”

Ilay doesn’t say anything, but from his look alone, I can tell he is.

“Aww,” I coo, stroking his face. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ve known Vaughn since we were kids. Trust me, we’re not each other’s types.”

“But he does care about you.”

He does, in his own way. His way involves beating my boyfriend to make sure he’s worthy of me, but it also involves listening to me whenever I need him to. It involved him never ignoring my calls, no matter how busy he is, and building me up when I returned to New York after I felt like I lost everyone. He was always there for me.

Maybe that’s why I pushed so hard to figure out who King is to him. Maybe, I want to make sure she’s worthy of him, too. Or maybe I was just feeling bitchy.

It doesn’t matter, what matters now is cheering up my lowkey jealous boyfriend. “He can care, doesn’t mean I’m his. I’m yours, Ilya Levitsky.”

His lips claim mine in a hard kiss, stealing my breath. I sigh into it, and he uses the chance to push his tongue into my mouth. I moan softly, grabbing at his black shirt to pull him closer. He cradles my face and twists my head to deepen the kiss.

Kissing him always feels like a gift. A prize I’m never sure I deserve, but I have anyway and I’m too selfish to ever let go.

Panting, we pull away only to lean our foreheads against each other, not wanting to separate yet.

“You came back to me when I thought I’d have to let you go.” I whisper, “do you know what that means?”

“It means I was always meant to be yours, moya zvezda.”

“Yes. You’re meant to be mine.”

#legacy of gods #alicia king #vaughn morozov #maya sokolov #mia sokolov #glyndon king #fanfic #oc character #Lidya morozova #extra content #Ilay levitsky

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