#[ me updating within six months? it's more likely than you think ]

[iron-parkr]

The Spaces Between | Chapter Update - Chapter 7: Black Hole Sun

“First of all, I want to thank you for meeting with me,” he said, looking between the two of them. “This isn’t typically customary for new students, but I would consider this to be something of a special case since you’re the first student with your… housing accommodations. How is that working out, May?”

“Great! Maggie is absolutely wonderful,” she assured him. “Generous, respectful, I honestly cannot say enough about how lovely it is having her around. I’m so glad you thought of us, Mr. Morita.”

Maggie’s face burned with May’s praise that she definitely didn’t deserve.

Morita smiled. “I’m truly delighted to hear that. And everything is going well with your — er, with the kids?”

Maggie didn’t notice his hesitation, but she did notice May’s, as well as the pause she took to gather her thoughts.

“Well, you know Peter, he’s always been such a sweet boy. He’s really taken up the mantle of being Maggie’s point guy, wouldn’t you say, hon? Helping her navigate the city and explaining things when she has questions, you know. It’s so great to see them together and I know Peter enjoys being able to help.”

“And… Juliette?”

May’s gaze slid over to meet Maggie’s. She pursed her lips. “Daisy is… not taking it as well.”

Ao3 | FFN

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the spaces between tag: @emiliachrstine

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[etfrin]

❝ꜱᴏᴜʟꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴄʀᴜꜱʜ❞ — chapter twelve | coriolanus snow

「ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ:」 NSFW | Canon typical violence, coriolanus snow, dr. gual, mentions of blood, mentions of period, period sex (fingering, f. receiving), dom-ish Coriolanus, mean Coriolanus, murder, aftercare | lmk if I forgot anything!

「ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ:」 young! Coriolanus Snow x fem! Reader

「ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ:」 Coriolanus Snow finds himself in the arena and later in your arms

「ᴀ/ɴ:」 double update, and they had more than their first kiss? how are you liking it so far? please let me know! ❤️

beta read by perfection itself @nowitsmissing

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The gong sounded at that moment, and the tributes scattered. Most fled to the gates that led to the tunnels, several of which had been blown open by the latest bombing. Coriolanus could see Lucy Gray run to the underground tunnel he had told her about.

‘Run!’ he thinks, and he could see Coral, the girl from District Four with her trident already killing tributes. The fights were a blur. He sees Lucy Gray noticing Jessup, the District twelve boy yet to pick up any weapons. The stupid songbird runs towards him instead of the tunnels and Coriolanus nearly stands up, wanting to yell at her for her actions. It was a few close calls, but she hadn't died.

She takes Jessup and flees under the tunnels. She tries to kick the door open, but the metal door refuses to budge. She looks around, afraid that other tributes would catch up. Meanwhile, Flickerman comments as other tributes rush in, “Hy and Sol on the other side pincering on Lucy Gray.”

There was a small space below the door, thankfully Coriolanus watched as Lucy Gray and Jessup managed to crawl in. Another tribute dies but is brutally murdered by Coral's pack. Meanwhile Jessup and Lucy Gray are safe in the room they were in.

Coriolanus relaxes in his seat, relieved for now. Six tributes were gone within minutes. Lucky Flickerman comments, “To the children watching, that was violent, horrific, and disgusting.” Coriolanus wants to scoff at the blatant hypocrisy, the games existed because the Capitol enforced it. It was violent because of the Capitol. It was disgusting but it wasn't on the districts.

Coriolanus catches himself, his chain of thoughts rebelling against his beliefs. He swallows and looks at you. Your free hand clutching your stomach, your face turning pale in sickness. Coriolanus finds himself overwrought, he leans in to whisper, “Are you alright?”

You let out a small groan and shook your head, “I started bleeding this morning. The painkillers aren't kicking in and the cramps are getting worse.” It takes Coryo an embarrassing amount of time to understand what you meant. You're on your period. Oh. Your earlier behavior made a bit more sense now, you were in pain and you were acting out.

He knew the basics of the menstrual cycle thanks to the Academy teaching Sex Ed. And Tigris never shied away from it either, she made sure Coriolanus knew that period was an extremely normal thing a woman (or anyone with a uterus) has to go through each month. He lets his eyes soften, and he squeezes your hand in a comforting manner.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked.

You shake your head in response, but you look even sicker than before. Coriolanus felt displeased seeing you like this, you should have been resting instead the damn games kept you here. It also explained why you had to skip your interview too. You were too sick.

He looks at the screens. Nothing interesting was happening now. It was so boring that Lucky Flickerman had switched to his former job of being a weatherman. Coriolanus decided to go to the cafeteria, hoping to find something you could snack on. That should help a tiny bit.

“I will be back,” he announced, getting up from his seat and heading to the cafeteria. He sees the assortment of food, he heads straight for the sandwiches first. He takes a plate and gets four sandwiches. Two for each of you. Then he searches for something sweet, thankfully, due to the joyous occasion of the games. The cafeteria made different sorts of desserts including chocolate. Coriolanus made sure to pile them up on the plate, leaving nothing behind. He wasn't sure what you liked after all. He was hoping to find out after this.

Then he looks at one of the staff, and he's not sure if he should ask or not. But then he remembered how you were clutching your stomach. With a sigh, he calls someone out, a fellow worker who looks back and politely smiles at Coriolanus.

“Is there any possible way to be given hot water in a bottle?”

“If it's to drink we can give you a glass-”

“No, it's for my girl. She has cramps.”

The female worker nods in understanding and tells him to wait. Coriolanus looked at the clock of the cafeteria, five minutes had passed. He wondered if anything was happening. He hoped that he hadn't missed anything and the songbird was safe. She was the key to everything after all.

“The show isn't over until the mockingjay sings,” he mutters in futile reassurance.

The worker comes in and hands him the hot water bottle. Coriolanus thanks her and rushes back to the auditorium. “You're back,” you said to him, your gaze on the plate of food he had bought. The only meal both of you had was the breakfast he cooked, and neither finished it. So it was understandable you were hungry.

“What did I miss?” He asked, handing you the hot water bottle. You stare at the metal bottle for a moment, baffled by the gesture. He could see your eyes to water and he felt dread creeping in his mind. Had he fucked up? He wanted to do something nice, that's all. He wanted to take care of you!

“Thank you,” you choked out, your voice thick with vulnerability. You press the hot water bottle to the area of your cramps and blink the tears away. “And sorry…” you muttered sheepishly, “Shouldn't have behaved that way.”

“It's fine,” he said, even if it wasn't. You shouldn't have been rude to him, so unnecessarily, but he will let go for now. He turned away to look at the screen to see Marcus was dead, lying on the ground.

Coriolanus turns to you for an explanation. You were ravishing your sandwich. “Mercy killing,” you had simply replied, “That girl killed him with an ax.”

“Well, that's what happens when you do stuff!” Lucky Flickerman comments, “You get attention.” He moved toward Pup Harington, the mentor of District Seven, Lamina. He explained the rules of communicuff. Pup Harington seizes the opportunity to send his tribute a bottle of water.

Coriolanus can see through the screen that the girl from District Seven reaches out to get the glass bottle. She has to duck to avoid crashing into the metal drone as the drone doesn't slow down and crashes into some debris behind her. Breaking the water bottle as well. Pup Harington curses and Coriolanus leans forward as he realizes the faulty mechanism of the drones. He can't send Lucy Gray water or food unless he wants to risk hurting her.

You tsk, “These were probably last-minute inventions to infuse your idea,” you bite the dark chocolate he bought you, “She could have done it next year.”

“She needs the games to shine this year to have games for the next year,” Coriolanus replied.

“What's the point if it's faulty?”

Coriolanus doesn't reply to that, he turns his focus to the screen. Staring at the death of Marcus from District Two and wondering what was his sin to receive this fate. All he did was run for his life.

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None were remaining in the auditorium except you and Coriolanus. You were asleep in your chair and Coryo was dozing off. Trying to keep his focus on the screen; in case anything happens. He was nearly asleep when Dr. Gauls' voice caused him to flinch and be awake.

“Mr. Snow,” she hisses like a snake.

“Dr. Gaul,” he said, his gaze turning into your sleeping form before he met Dr. Gauls' crazed eyes.

“Did something happen? Is it Lucy Gray?”

“Unless you can put a leash on your deluded classmate, she might as well be dead as far as you're concerned.”

Ugh, what the fuck did Sejanus do this time. Go into the arena? Then he realized the irony of his thoughts because he could see Sejanus Plinth through the medium of the screen that was broadcasting the games. He was in the arena.

Sejanus Plinth was in the arena.

The fuck is wrong with him! And why is Dr. Gaul visiting him over this, shouldn't she go to his daddy? He was tired, and his body hurt from sitting in the chair for long hours. Why was he stuck in this mess?

“Bread crumbs I believe,” Dr. Gaul said, turning towards the screen in which he could see Sejanus Plinth wasting precious bread, sprinkling it over the corpse. “Sustenance for a fallen comrade. District two superstition.”

Coriolanus frowned as he watched Sejanus wasting the bread in this manner. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It would have made more sense to him if he sneaked into where Lucy Gray was and handed her the food. Instead, he was throwing it on a rotting corpse. Only the districts are capable of this stupidity.

“I need someone to get him out right now,” she said.

Was she implying he would go to the arena for a ridiculous Plinth boy? He knew she was insane but this was borderline dumb. He doesn't want to risk his life!

“You should send the Peacekeepers,” he replied, as calmly as possible. He doesn't want to go. He's not suicidal enough for that.

Dr. Gaul goes on to explain why she can't send Peacekeepers and the district. She even mentions his classmate, Felix Ravinstill. Frankly, Coriolanus couldn't bring himself to care. Let the Plinth boy die, it's the consequence of his action.

Then Dr. Gaul adds, “Who knows? You get him out unscathed, I'll whisper your name in his father's ear. You still want the Plinth Prize, don't you?” Dr. Gaul knew that he didn't need to verbally agree, his expression was enough.

“I'll freeze the feed for an hour. I estimate that's all we have before the people notice.”

Then, Dr. Gaul leaves after informing Coryo that there's a van waiting for him to take him to the arena. He begins to stand up from his seat, getting ready for the journey to his doom.

“You know I am going with you, right?”

He startled, turning towards you, he firmly said to you, “No.” He watched you rub your eyes, you were sleepy that was clear. You must have woken up while that witch was talking. You shake your head in response.

“Don't care. I won't let that bitch make you go alone.”

He said your name in warning. You glare at him with your adorable, tired eyes. “I am going, Coriolanus Snow. Or else I'll tell everyone about what Sejanus is doing right now.”

He clenched his jaw. He grits out, “You could die.”

“So could you!”

He doesn't argue against that.

✧ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✦✧✦ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✧

A van takes you and him towards the arena. Losing precious minutes that you use to nap. Your head on his shoulder, while he ran his fingers along his scar, thinking of scenarios to bring all three of you alive. He would sacrifice Sejanus to save you. There's no doubt about that. But it's an action he can't afford right now.

So he thinks and thinks. His mind grew increasingly agitated. There's so much that can go wrong. One wrong move. A tribute waking up and deciding that they were easy kills. Caging them. Torturing you. Hurting you. He feels his breathing getting faster, his vision blurring as these thoughts begin to attack.

He gasps, his eyes closing. His chest rapidly moved up and down. He bit his lower lip until he tasted blood. He forced himself to breathe through his nose. There's no time for an attack right now. He doesn't have the luxury of that. He lets the weight of your head anchor him.

He's going to have a future. He's not going to let anything happen to you. And nothing will happen to him. Sejanus will come out of this alive as well.

Snow lands on top.

Snow lands on top.

Snow lands on top.

✧ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✦✧✦ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✧

He doesn't let you go in. He won't. When you tried to insist, he growled at you, “I won't be getting him back if I am trying to save you. I need to get him back. I can't make you a higher priority here.” You narrowed your eyes but Coriolanus knew you didn't have a fighting bone in your body. Your hands wove into his curls, and you make him reach your height.

“Then you better come back, Coriolanus Snow. Alive. Otherwise, you won't like the consequences.”

He wants to kiss you. God, he wants to kiss you. He decided that he would come back alive from this. He will. He will steal your breath and make you lose all of your senses. He will ruin you because life is too unpredictable, too short. He can't wait any longer.

He leaves you there. He walks inside the arena, the monotone voice announcing his entry with the usual ‘Enjoy the game’. It sends chills down his spine.

Snow sees Sejanus near the dead body of Marcus. Coriolanus tiptoes across the field. Sejanus laughs quietly when he sees Coriolanus. “Thought they would send my Ma,” he said, bitterly.

“You need to get out, Coryo,” he said and Coriolanus wanted to choke him. It was a nickname for family and friends. A nickname for you. And he had used it blatantly for the first time in a situation like this nonetheless.

“I would like to,” Snow whispered, annoyed. “I really would. But I promised to get you out.”

“Why?”

Because I need to win the Plinth Prize.

Because Dr. Gaul forced me.

“Because you're my friend,” he lied.

“I had to do this,” Sejanus begins to explain, looking desperate, begging to be understood. “I had to go where the cameras were.”

Unfortunately, Coriolanus wasn't the right person for it. “Do you think anyone is watching this? She cut off the feed. You die here and she'll say you died of the flu.”

“You need to decide,” Coriolanus huffed, “Are you gonna be a dead body in Gauls' war or do something actual good?”

“What good can I do out there?”

Was it too late to choke him?

“You're smart. You're rich. You care.” Coriolanus argued, “You can do it if you want. With your father's money.” Sejanus and Coryo flinch when they hear noises in the quiet arena. It was the sound of sharpening knives. “We’re dead if we don't leave right now,” Coryo hisses.

Coriolanus and Sejanus begin to leave. Coriolanus gripped his arm to practically drag him away from Marcus's body. Just then he hears footsteps, and he freezes. Then yells out at Sejanus to run as a tribute comes towards them with a long knife. Sejanus and Coriolanus reach the entrance of the arena, Coriolanus jumps over the entry point but Sejanus trips.

Sejanus holds his knee, groaning and Coriolanus runs back to get him. The tribute catches up and manages to slash Coriolanus back. Coriolanus lets out a blood-curdling scream from the pain, adrenaline rushing in. He has to go back. He has to go back to you; you're waiting for him.

Coriolanus’s fingers closed around a two-by-four, and he brought it up, catching Bobbin in the temple hard, sending him to his knees. And then he was on his feet, using the board like a club, bringing it down again and again without being sure where it made contact.

“We have to go!” Sejanus shouted.

He pants, throwing the board aside. The boy was dead and he wasn't sure what to make of the rush he felt as he saw another dead body in front of him. One of his own making. One that assured him of his survival and made him feel alive.

Sejanus brings back to reality as more tributes come in. He and Sejanus run out as the Peacekeepers open the barricade. He was brought to the ground by the weight of a body. He groans as he feels you on top of him. His back was bleeding onto the ground.

“You're alive,” you whisper, your eyes wide, and your lips swollen as if you constantly bit down, concerned about him. He wrapped his arms around you.

He lets out a heavy sigh, “Not if I bleed out, sweetheart.” You take your weight off him and help him stand up. Your eyes take in the blood with horror on your face. He whispered his arms around you, “It's fine. I am okay.”

In the distance, he can see Sejanus approach them and he's too pissed at him to have a proper conversation right now. It seemed you shared the same sentiments because the moment Sejanus came close, you pushed him. He doesn't fall but the impact makes him take a few steps back.

“You! It's because of you and your stupid beliefs that you do nothing but whine about that has led to this! It led him to bleed, Sejanus! How will you pay for his blood!? Fucking get out of here to your ma before I recreate the fucking wound on you!”

Sejanus flinches, looking betrayed. Sejanus looked at Snow but he had to look away because he simply was so proud of you. He was proud that you stood up, he was proud that you voiced what he wanted to say. He was also amused because thinking of your origins, you should have similar beliefs with Sejanus.

But you were simply concerned about Coriolanus, nothing else. It made Snow feel grateful he had you. You cared and you didn't try to hide it.

Sejanus doesn't try to say anything else. He walks with his head down to the car in which his ma and pa were waiting. Coriolanus pulls you back into his arms. “You didn't have to be so harsh,” he whispered, despite the fact he had enjoyed it so, so much.

“Who's the tribute that hurt you?”

“The boy is dead,” Coriolanus glees, unable to make himself look sane. He was bleeding out, adrenaline still pumping in his veins and with you in the equation. He felt drunk. “I enjoyed killing him.”

Coriolanus doesn't find out about your reaction to his confession as the toll of his blood loss takes over and his vision darkens. He goes unconscious.

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He groans as he wakes up from the darkness. A dull pain in his back. He recognized that an IV needle was stuck in his arm. His shirt was off, and the wound was stitched. He looked around to find out that he was in the lab, and Dr. Gaul was present, looking straight at him from a corner. He was proud of the fact he didn't flinch. He swallowed the nervousness, and greeted, “Dr. Gaul.”

“Mr. Snow,” She greets back, her voice booming, “Never thought I would see Crassus’ boy in the arena.”

He doesn't say anything, nor does he look at her. His gaze turns towards the glass containers filled with greenish liquid and some kind of horrid experimentation. Dr. Gaul drawls on, “Do you want to be like your father, Mr. Snow? Then it's essential to accept what human beings are and what it takes to control them.”

For tonight, Coriolanus Snow was a murderer. He had to accept that, he took a life for his survival, but he enjoyed it. He vaguely remembers confessing it to you. Horror fills him, he fucked up whatever he had with you for sure. Killing someone for your survival was one thing, even Sejanus can't hate him for it. But enjoying it? Feeling powerful as he felt someone's life draining out. It felt like drinking an elixir to Snow.

He can't imagine the disgust you felt when he admitted it. He can't- how will he fix this- he wipes away the tears staining his cheeks. He would beg and grovel, he would lie if you bring it up.

Dr. Gaul misinterpreted the misery on his face. “You did what you had to, Mr. Snow.” Then she begins to walk away, a clear dismissal.

“Yes,” he replied, cordially, “I am aware.”

✧ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✦✧✦ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✧

He enters the penthouse; he stops in his tracks as he sees you sitting down in the dining space. Waiting for him. It was extremely late at night by now and you were here, awake. Coriolanus was touched by how freely you showed your care through your actions. From the meal (orange chicken and rice) you gave in the car till now. You cared. So openly, so fiercely.

Unlike him.

His care was always hidden. “Dove,” he whispered, a nickname for you like Coryo was for him. Perhaps his care wouldn't be concealed under layers anymore. Your head snaps towards him, and with long strides, you meet his arm. You are careful about your hand placement, making sure not to hurt him or put pressure on his wound.

“Coryo,” you rasped out, “Coryo, Coryo, Coryo.” You bury your face in his chest and for a moment he thought you were sobbing but you were just taking deep breaths in. He holds you tighter, suffocating you, anchoring you like you did for him. He didn't care that it pulled his stitches.

“Hi,” he whispered sheepishly, he forgot about the arena, the murder, Sejanus, and Dr. Gaul. He remembers you and only you.

“Hi,” you giggle back, your eyes teary. “You're here,” you whispered, “Real or not?”

He let out a small laugh, “I am not a hallucination, dove.”

You shrugged in his arms, “Lack of sleep can cause them. For all I know this is a dream and you're still under the care of that bitch.”

“I am here,” he emphasized his words with a kiss on your hairline. He looks into your eyes and sees how real all of this is. He can make you his reality. He needs to seize it. He needs to control his fate.

He realized you hadn't questioned him about the blood on his hands. He was going to bring it up if you weren't. He would let his confession remain buried if that's what you wanted. No need to unleash his demons onto you.

He guides you to his bedroom, but he gently presses you to the door. He has you in between him and the door. There's no escape, so much for not unleashing his demons when he's a devil in disguise himself. He nuzzles your neck and lets out a desperate, needy noise.

His tongue peeks out to lick a strip of your neck. You gasp, your tense body melting into him. He holds you by grabbing your waist with his hands. “I need you,” he whispered, he pulled back and looked at you with pathetic, puppy eyes; impossible to say no to.

“Give yourself to me, Coryo.”

It's your fault. He will give himself to you. Demons and all. Bloody, pathetic, insane Coriolanus Snow, he's yours now.

“Yours,” he groaned, pressing wet, desperate kisses onto your neck, you move your head to give him more space, more skin to mark. He growls near your ear, letting the past high rush into his veins. The hold he has on your waist gets tighter. You were in different clothes, your academy uniform changed into a simple pink top and jeans.

You let out a moan when he bites into your neck, breaking the skin to form a dark bruise. You pressed into him like a whore. You whine, “I should let you kill more men if it gets you like this.”

He freezes. He then leans back. His lips parted to take in breaths, his pupils blown and his cheeks a deep wine red. He looks debauched and sexy. It drives you insane. You don't say anything further, waiting for his reaction.

He breaks out a feral, primal grin on his face. You were perfect for him. God, you were. He let his fingers wove themselves into your locks and he tugged hard. He relishes the whine that leaves your lips. It didn't hurt, no, he could see the same insane lust in your eyes that he felt in his blood.

He crashed his lips onto your soft ones. Both of your teeth clashed against each other as he kissed for the first time in his life. It was in no way perfect. Too much tongue, uncoordinated, sloppy, wet and so, fucking filthy. His blood rushed down his body as he sucks at your tongue, his fingers pulling at your hair tighter, moving your head so he could fuck your lips with his tongue. His free hand went near your neck. It would be easy to take your life, he realized.

He felt your pulse under his fingertips. His hand around your neck, it was there but he didn't put any pressure on it. His lips attached to yours still engaged in a fight for dominance, and neither of you was willing to give in. Each chasing your own, selfish pleasure through the kiss. He disappointingly understood he would never be able to live a life with you dead. Your beating heart gave him the same rush taking a life did.

You made him feel alive simply by existing.

Your existence is his survival.

You're his.

He groans into your mouth as he comes to the realization. He breaks the kiss, a string of saliva connecting you both. He immediately went back for a few more kisses, already craving your lips like it was cocaine, chasing the chocolate taste on your tongue.

You gasp, taking in much-needed air as both break away again. His hand which was on your neck, travels to your jeans to unbutton them. Your hand holds his wrist before he can slide your pants off.

“Am bleeding,” you whispered, your eyes wide.

He had seen plenty of blood today, what's more? “Don't care,” he grunts out, he slides your jeans down, along with your panties letting it pool around your ankles. You kick them aside on the floor.

He buried his face into your shoulder, as you took a deep breath. “Can I?” He asked, his hands waiting for permission as his blunt nails dug into your thighs. Frankly, he doesn't even want to ask. And one day, he won't have to.

“Yes, Coryo,” you consent, your voice breathless and needy.

He was glad you couldn't see the satisfied grin on his face. He ignored his aching cock as his fingers slowly traveled up to between your soaked cunt. He pressed his palm against your pussy, letting his hand be colored by your blood and juices. He begins to move his palm up and down your folds and you moan, oversensitive. You begin to rut into his hand and he warningly squeezed your thigh.

“No,” he barks out, a sudden slap on your pussy making you cry out. “Behave, dove.”

You let out a whine, and Coriolanus doesn't want to handle a brat when he's feeling heaven for the first time. He slaps your pussy again, making you jolt. He whispered, dark and menacing, “Behave, bitch.”

“Coryo,” you moan.

“That's it, dove. Let me play with you,” he encourages as his fingers begin to touch your pussy, feeling up your slick folds, your slit through which you leaked out thick goops of blood he couldn't care less about.

His thumb finds your clit, he realized the bud was the source of pure bliss to you from the way you gasped as he began to play with it. His thumb roughly circles around the pearl, and you whine out his name, your hips bucking in again like a whore.

He allows you to do this, knowing that your brain is mush from the pleasure. He begins to bite into your neck, creating more dark hickeys that luckily the academy uniform will hide. He lets out a groan as he slips inside the first digit of your warm, slick, and tight gummy walls. His cock throbs with need. But he won't fuck you so soon, with everything still new to him.

“Fuck,” you cuss, your eyes rolling back. You would have fallen on the floor if it wasn't Coriolanus supporting you. He fucks into your warmth with a single finger, unsure if he should put another one in.

“More,” you whine and he listens. He gently thrust another of his long and dainty fingers inside of your bloody, wet cunt. He moans as he feels your walls pulsate against his digits.

“You feel perfect around my fingers. Look at your pussy squeezing them like a vice. Will your cunt squeeze my cock like that too?” He whines into your ears, growing desperate, his hips rutting into your side. The friction of his pants on his dick was dry but gratifying. He knew he spoiled his pants with pre-cum. He didn't care. He hears you whimper, unable to answer his sinful words.

“Coryo! Slow down!” You cry out as his fingers fuck into you at a rough pace, he wasn't sure what felt good for you or not. He listens, slowing down considerably, he decides to crook his fingers and finds a spongy spot pressing into his fingertips.

You let out a scream of pleasure, and Coriolanus has to use his free hand to shut you up. He pressed his palm onto your lips, muffling your noises. You liked him pressing into that spot. He crooked his fingers even more, rubbing the spot. He giggles as he sees your eyes glaze over like a dumb whore, your cunt spasming around his digits, close to cumming.

He begins to speed up again, and he knows it hurts a bit for you. He couldn't bring himself to care, your pussy is his. He will do whatever he wants. But as he feels the vibration of your desperate whine on his hand. He pressed wet kisses along your jaw, whispering apologies.

“Cum on my fingers, dove,” he whispered, his fingers hitting your g-spot with each thrust, his hips rutting into the side of your body. He was close to snapping himself, for you he was willing to cum in his pants like a stupid boy.

His thumbs find your clit again, now he gets even more feral. The pleasure borderlines to pain, and you drool, your chin covered in saliva which he licks up without shame. “It's fine,” he coos, “Cum, baby.”

He rubbed at your g-spot, his thumb flicking your clit. The coil in your stomach unwraps itself, ecstasy filling your veins as your cunt spasms around his digits. You cum from his fingers, your mind blank. Your eyes rolled back.

He groans, feeling his cock twitch and cums in his pants. It was surprisingly the best orgasm he ever had. He couldn't believe he came untouched. He couldn't find himself to be embarrassed about it, not when he has to pick up your pieces.

“You here with me?” He asked softly, gazing into your glossy eyes. You nod back, weak. He guides you to his bed. “Let me clean you up,” he whispered, kissing your forehead.

He quickly changed into his pajamas, cleaning his hand clean of your blood. He takes a wet towel and cleans up the bloody mess smearing your thighs. You let out a whine when the towel touches your pussy. You were sensitive after your orgasm. He shushed you, “It's fine, doll.”

And he cleans you up before he helps you wear your panties. He doesn't make you wear the jeans as he doesn't want you to have any sensory overload right now. He goes to the kitchen and brings you a glass of water. He helps you drink the full glass, encouraging you softly.

He even puts a towel under you, in case you bleed through your pad. He feels the tiredness weighing him down and he lays down in bed beside you. The games will be there tomorrow. But he will only have this night with you once.

“You're everything, Coryo,” he hears you whisper, your throat hoarse even after drinking water.

You're his everything too.

NEXT PART

[cowgurrrl]

Roll The Bones

Pairing: Joel Miller x reader

Author’s note: I wrote this in the midst of a flare up so please enjoy and be gentle with your disabled friends <3

Summary: A bad pain day with Joel [1.5k]

Warnings: descriptions of injuries and subsequent chronic pain, medical settings and discussion, I think that’s it??

When Joel finds you, you're in a pitiful state. Your arm is folded over your face, covering your eyes even though the blinds are closed and the room is dark. Your right leg is peeking out from under the bundle of blankets and quilt, elevated with a lukewarm towel surrounding the swelling kneecap. The room smells like the salve someone in the town makes that's supposed to alleviate your pain. So far, it's just given you a headache. Your entire body throbs with pain and frustration. It shouldn't be like this, you think ruefully. I shouldn't feel like this. 

Joel lightly pads over to your bedside— his footsteps quiet now that he's discarded his boots by the front door— and perches next to you. His hand finds a home on your afflicted knee and carefully maneuvers his thumb over the tendons to help with the pain. You shift the arm covering your face to reach for him, and he smiles. 

"There she is," he murmurs as you take him in. His hair is long and a little unruly in the back, but you think it makes him look soft and domestic. He's shed his work jacket and heavier clothes downstairs and is clad in his soft, well-worn-in flannel. He smells like pine and leather. You want to wrap yourself in his warmth but settle for having him nearby. "Ellie told me you were havin' a rough day." He says. It doesn't surprise you that she did, even though you promised her you were fine and didn't need him. It's become rare that she doesn't update him daily on your health.

About a year ago, you were on patrol with Tommy when a Runner came out of nowhere and charged at your horse. She startled and bucked you off before you could regain control of the reins. The Runner was dead before you could hit the ground, and your horse would be recovered within the day, but the damage was done. You broke your leg in two places and dislocated your knee, in addition to a low-level concussion and cuts on your face and arms. When you came back into Jackson on Tommy's horse, half-conscious, bloody, and delirious with pain, Joel was horrified, Ellie even more so.

You were in the hospital for a month as they used what they could to put you in something akin to a cast and reset the bones. Joel and Ellie took turns being guards at your bed, monitoring what they gave you, when, and how much, and how your healing process was going. They were there with you every day, learning the tips and tricks to support you and keeping you sane as you stared at the white walls. 

Six months, the doctor said. Six months is all it would take to be back to normal as long as you did everything you were supposed to. Things have gotten better slower than you would like, but they have gotten better. You have really good days where you don't feel anything other than slight twinges when you move your leg in a weird way. Those days, it's hard to remember that you broke it in the first place. But other days, like today, you can feel every muscle in your leg tightening as stiff pain rockets up and down your body. You thought you could persevere enough to go to the store with Ellie, but your body obviously had other plans.

"My leg gave out on me when I was coming down the stairs. Pretty sure I made the whole house shake when I fell." You explain, and his eyebrows knit together in phantom pain as his thumb works your muscle. 

"You hurt anythin'?" He asks. "Other than your pride?" You blow air out of your nose in a half-laugh and shake your head. 

"Just some bruises," you say. He finds a tender spot in your knee that makes you hiss and ball up your fists, but he doesn't let up until the muscle releases. It's what he's supposed to do: break up the scar tissue, relax the muscles, and hope for the best. It still hurts like a bitch, and it'll hurt more in the morning. He mumbles apologies under his breath and kisses you to try and distract you, but your brain's been running wild for hours. "I went so long without any pain." You finally say, breaking the reverie and collapsing the unwanted space your pain often creates. 

"You've been takin' on a lot these past few weeks. It doesn't surprise me somethin' would flare up." It's an honest assessment. He warned you this would happen, but you ignored him. You thought you knew your body better. You wanted to know your body better. The returning thought and the gentle hand on your knee turn your tongue into sandpaper, and tears prick in the corners of your eyes. Despite the low light in the room, Joel catches it and makes a sympathetic noise. 

"Hey, talk to me." He says softly, shifting his hand from your knee to your face to catch a few stray tears. You shake your head and try and fail to form the words. Joel is patient. He always is, but he shouldn't have to be. 

"I'm so tired of being like this." You whisper, hating the feel of the words on your tongue and hating the sound of them even more. Joel gives you a confused look and pushes your hair out of your face. 

"Bein' like what?"

"Sick," you choke out. Now that the dam is broken, there's no stopping the bitter rush of words from leaving you. "We took her across the country and got rid of anyone who even looked at her wrong. Now, I can't even get on a horse without hurting. And I do all the stupid fucking things the doctor tells me to do. I do the exercises and take the medicine and everything, and nothing is making it better, and I'm so tired." 

"Why didn't you tell me that?" 

"Because I didn't want you to think I'm broken." It's a thought you've harbored since you were laid up in the hospital, unable to even walk to the bathroom without help, but this is the first time you've expressed it. You secretly hoped if you just didn't say anything about it, maybe Joel wouldn't notice. It's a stupid idea, given that your entire lives have changed since the accident. You just didn't want to get thrown away like all the other broken things in this world. Joel takes a deep breath and gazes at you. 

"Honey, you aren't broken. Not even close to it," he says. You want to counter him, but the weight of your emotion is too heavy on your chest. "I wanna know if somethin' is hurtin' you cause when you hurt, I hurt, okay? You're not a burden or somethin' to fix. You just… need a little extra care right now, and that's okay. I wanna take care of you."

"What if it's like this forever?" You ask, and he shakes his head. 

"It won't be."

"But, what if it is?" More tears fill your eyes as you await his answer. He didn't fall in love with this version of you. You don't know if you could blame him if he never does. But with enough ease and love to take your breath away, Joel kisses your forehead, right where your temple smacked against the cold ground. He kisses your forehead and the white scars littering your cheeks before finally shifting to kiss the knee propped up on pillows and hope. He doesn't flinch at the swelling or the angry spasms. He treats them with care and attention. He treats them as another part of you. 

"Takin' care of you has never and will never be on the list of worst things imaginable. Your health is not a sacrifice or a burden on me. If it's like this forever, we'll adapt, but I know you. I know how hard you're workin' to get better. I know we'll find a way to live with this," he says. "But I need you to talk to me when things aren't workin'. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's helpin' and what's not, okay?" You swallow around the lump in your throat and nod. 

"Okay." 

"Okay," he echoes. "I'm gonna get you an appointment with Dr. Lutton and see if we can't get you on a new treatment plan first thing tomorrow mornin'. Is there anythin' I can do for you until then?" He asks, fully prepared to go to the edge of the earth if you asked him to. 

"Can you lay with me?" You ask, and he smiles. 

"Of course, baby." He mumbles. He kisses your knee one more time before shuffling to wrap you in his arms. The warmth from his body helps relieve some of your tension and pain, and he kneads calming circles over your shoulders and back. Your focus shifts from the pain in your leg to the song he's humming, the vibrations in his chest a welcome distraction. The pain doesn't go away entirely— you doubt it ever will— but you rest your weary body against his and sleep, finding wholeness in his acceptance of your loss. 

TAGLIST: @abbyhaslongshorts @kiwiharrykiwi @sumsworldz @myloveistoolittle @anavatazes @marantha @cosmoscoffeee @shyminnie07 @beezusvreeland @eddiemunsonsbedroom @harriedandharassed @doodlebob-mp3 @ignorethisplz2004 @buckyispunk @d1lf-loverrr @vee-bees-blog @moel-jiller @anoverwhelmingdin @casssiopeia @maried01 @acupofhollie

[btssmutficslovingfan01]

Day 8: Breeding | Try for a Baby

Pairing: Namjoon x Fem!Reader

Genre: EROTIC LITERATURE 🧐

Words: 1.2k

A/N: DOUBLE POST I AM FEEDING YALL HUNGRY ASSES! Edit: Updated cover because the last one didn't do him justice, I'd let him breed me all he wants if he approached me in the ICONIC red, DAMN!🎃 Kinktober 2023 m.list right here! 🎃

⇤ Prev | Next ⇥

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“Awww, Minhi, your baby is adorable.” You cradle the baby in your arms, bouncing him on your knees as the toothless child smiles up at you, eyes twinkling with innocence. Your heart skips a beat. You love your new nephew.

“Yes, Junha is a sweetheart,” Minhi replies to you as she watches you play with her baby as her husband returned along with her brother.

“We got the food. Korean Fried Chicken good enough for ya, sis?” Namjoon asks while scratching his neck, setting the plastic bag of food on the dining table before making his way over to living room to see his nephew once more.

“Yes Joonie, that’s fine.”

“Hey honey.” Namjoon wrapped his arms around you for a quick hello hug as you carefully shifted the baby over in your own grasp. It seemed like he was watching how your husband interacted with you carefully.

“Welcome back. Isn’t Junha adorable? I’m sure those shoes you got for him will fit perfectly on his tiny wittle feet.” You say in a baby voice, making Namjoon raise his eyebrows but softly his confusion turns into happiness as a little smirk makes its way onto his face.

“Yeah, he is pretty cute,” Namjoon takes his nephew into his arms. “He kinda looks like me, makes sense since I am his uncle.” He said a matter-of-factly.

“You would make adorable kids.” You comment, meaning it only in passing. Namjoon gave you a double take when you weren’t looking. He’d been thinking of it before but now more than ever, especially after his sister went through the delivery, naturally…Namjoon made sure to wife you up, hard.

You met in the park, while he was taking his dog for a walk and you were jogging. You were mutually attracted to each other and after running into each other by accident a few more times, he asked you out on a date. You hit it off immediately, and within six months you were engaged. And about six more months later, you were married. However, you were still somewhat still getting to know each other. You learned new things about each other every year and this journey of marriage with him was fun for you. You love him, and you would literally die for him.

You never talked about children before though.

After three hours visiting Minhi and her family, you and Namjoon got back to your own home, sighing and sitting down on the living room couch with two glasses of wine. You stare into his eyes while you both went through your nightly routine as newlyweds. It had only been five months, and you were barely a year into your marriage anyways.

“Y/N, you ever thought about having kids of our own someday?” Namjoon asks as he rubs your hands soothingly.

“Not particularly but….have you?”

“Yeah. I’ve always wanted to be a dad.” Namjoon says.

“Well, would you like to make one?”

“What?”

“Make a baby. With me.” You were HALF-joking. Only slightly. But then again if it meant you could get dicked down really well by your husband you were seriously in love with, you didn’t give a shit.

“Y/N?” You straddle his lap, staring into his eyes to ensure he knew you were 100 percent serious.

“Oh…Joonie.” His name rolls off your tongue easily as he moved his hands down the sides of your thighs, before slowly brushing his fingers against your inner thighs.

“You’re seriously…” You didn’t let him finish his sentence before pressing your lips against his in a heated manner. You want him, now.

“Joon, let’s try for a baby, right now.”

“Y/N, we…we can’t just…do that. We have to talk about it…” He rubs your thighs while staring into your eyes. You could tell he was struggling to hold himself back.

“Fuck a baby into me, honey.” Nothing more needed to be said as the primal desire filled your husband’s eyes as he finally gave in.

“You want to be bred that bad?” Namjoon’s deeper rasp comes out as he grabs your thighs, sinking his nails into them.

“Yeah..” You rock forward, rubbing your body against his, desperate to feel some relief from the friction of your panties rubbing on his clothed cock. Your clit is throbbing.

“You’re so needy for my cock, aren’t you, honey?” Namjoon asks, as he continues kneading your thighs as he had been for a few minutes as you grinded against him. Until you were begging. “Beg for it, beg for me to fill you with my cum,” You stop grinding against him and undo his belt, pulling off your dress and your panties slowly when Namjoon suddenly holds your arms, keeping you from sliding your panties fully down. “Y/N, beg for it.”

The dominance in his gaze awakened something within you as you look up at him. Fierce brown eyes piercing into your e/c ones. Your breathing quickens.

“Breed me, Joonie. Put a baby in my belly…I beg of you. Do it quickly….please….I can’t wait any longer…” 

“Course, sweetheart.” Namjoon smirks with a shit-eating grin before ripping apart your panties with his bare hands and sliding his cock into you instantaneously, and the deed was done. He’s inside, partly.

“Oh god,” Your eyes roll back. “Shit…” You close your eyes as your husband continues thrusting upwards, reaching, reaching for the back of your womb. “ Mmmm, gimme that sweet semen of yours, Joonie.” You whine, bucking your hips at the same time, your eyes filled with nothing more than lust for the man in front of you.

He digs his fingers deeper into your flesh, your thighs burning from both how he gripped you but also the sheer force of his movements. Underneath, your thighs smacked against his. Over and over, a raunchy rhythm of sorts, as you fuck your husband on the couch of your living room, your drinks long forgotten on the coffee table as he brought his hands up and stared up at you in bewilderment. He’d never quite seen you like this before, even on your wedding night. Reduced to a beautiful shell of a human being, only begging for his cock. HIS. He watches you as you move your hips along his, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight.

“Honey…” He calls out to you, almost in a strangled voice. “Baby?” He gulps.

“Don’t worry Joonie,” You breathe deeply, slowing down as he looks at you with concern in his eyes. “I have no intention of getting pregnant, but sometimes my breeding kink gets the best of me..” You say sheepishly. “Now how about it? Wanna attempt to impregnate me?” You ask.

“Thought you’d never ask,” Namjoon understands now. He grips your hips, pulling you back down. “Take the cock you were made for,” He thrusted hips even harder than before, making you squeal in pleasure. “Shall we try harder? Maybe I should hit it from a deeper angle?” You groan as he smacks your ass before picking you up, standing. You were fucked with a deep rot passion, eyes rolled back as he thrusted while throwing you up in the air, and you could only take it like the cocksleeve you were meant to be.

“Oh, Oh, Oh! Namjoon, NAMJOON!” He grunted, cum dripping from your hole as he fell back with you on top of him. His cock fell limp as you twitched on top of him. 

“So, ready for round two?”

[halfmoth-halfman]

i got an ask about advice for writing when you're discouraged, so i thought i'd make a post addressing some of the points because i think this is something that everyone has gone through and can relate to. most of this is just what's helped me/what i'd tell myself in the past, but if anyone has advice to add on please feel free! i hope this helps at least a little bit, anon!

"I’m not good at (dialogue/atmosphere/prose/etc)."

write it anyways! one of the best ways to build a skill is to keep doing it. even if you don't ever post it, or only share it with a few friends, or just read it to your pets, or whatever you choose to do, it's better to write something "badly" than to not write at all. or even asking for help on how to improve from other writers. i struggle a lot with atmosphere and scenery, and something that helped me a lot was talking to other writers whose fics i really enjoy and inspire me. i know it may seem intimidating, but there are plenty of writers on tumblr that would love to talk about how they compose their scenes, their dialogue, anything and everything if someone asks.

"I can’t make moodboards/headers/aesthetic posts."

the good news is, you don't have to! fics don't have to have anything other than the fic itself. i can't speak for everyone, but while aesthetics may get my attention, it's the person behind the blog that i stay for. if you want your blog or your fics to have a pretty aesthetic, it shouldn't be because you feel forced to but because you want to do it. if you don't find making moodboards or headers or aesthetic posts fun, then you don't have to do them. and if you want to, but don't know how, there are a ton of resources, links, and blogs dedicated to helping on tumblr.

"I’m not at (insert someone else)’s writing level."

and you might never be, and that's okay! every writer is different - they have different styles, write at different paces, perceive their skill differently. basing your progress on someone else's isn't going to help because you're not them. you have your own time, energy, ability, and ideas, you'll grow and improve at your own pace, just like they did. don't force yourself to try and follow the same timeline of someone else, and don't put yourself down because you're getting better - and you are getting better - at your own pace.

"I can’t find the motivation to write."

honestly same. i think it's a pretty universal experience to lose motivation for something you were excited about at one point. sometimes the vibes aren't it and the story doesn't want to story, but that's alright. it can be hard to stay motivated, and what gets someone inspired again is different everyone. i can't give advice for anything outside of what's helped me, but a few ways i've re-motivated myself to write something are: making a fic playlist, stepping away from the fic for a day or two, giving it to a friend to read, re-watching/reading the source material, doodling fic ideas, and skipping to a different part of the story.

"I can’t write fast enough."

unless it's for something like work where you have a fixed deadline, there is no "fast enough" in writing. don't let anyone tell you otherwise. when i first started writing, in the very early days of ao3 and tumblr, fic updates could takes months or even more than a year and that was fine! one of my favorite fics took a six year hiatus, and that didn't diminish any of the enjoyment i had when it came back. you are not a machine, you're a human being with needs outside of writing. it's always okay if you need to take a break, if there's a long wait between chapters, or if you want to stop a project altogether and come back to it six years later. if someone gives you grief because you can't write within their time-frame then they're not worth having as a reader - do not overwork yourself for the sake of finishing a fic.

"It’s hard to stick to one idea at a time."

then don't! write all the ideas. write every single one. working on a project and you have a drabble that you just keep thinking about? write it. you get a sudden idea for a one-shot in a different fandom? write it. woke up in the mood to start a new five-chapter fic? write it. you can start or stop writing about anything at any time. there is no rule that you have to stick to one idea and finish it before you can write anything else, don't make yourself stick to something if it's not what you want to write, and don't punish yourself if you need to take a break from your current project.

"Maybe I’m not made for writing on tumblr."

tumblr is a shitposting website that barely works at the best of times. half of my drafts get deleted every other week for no reason - there is no way to be "made for writing on tumblr"! but tumblr is huge, there's a bajillion communities on here that would be so excited to have another writer, and a ton that are solely dedicated to helping writers and providing different resources. i guarantee there is someone on this website that will love and adore your writing.

"The things I read are better than anything I can write/comparing myself to other writers."

i don't have the cake picture saved, but we all know the gist of it: the audience (generally) isn't going to care about how decorated your cake is compared to another, they're just happy to get two cakes. and that's really all it is. your fic might not be the same preferred flavor as the audience of other writers, but there is someone out there who's going to enjoy it. i won't tell you to just not compare yourself to others, i know that's not how it works, but what has helped me is changing the way i view other fics. instead of thinking "i wish i could write like this person", i look at like "this inspires me to improve my writing". and don't get me wrong, i still have moments of doubt about my writing compared to some of the people i read, i don't think that will ever really stop, but the best thing you can do is not let yourself give in to that feeling. try and stop that train of thought before it leaves the station. no one else can write the way you can. no one else can tell your stories the way you can. no one else has the same voice as you do. if everyone wrote the same way, everything would be boring. the heart of a fic is seeing the author's personality shine through it. if you see someone write a good fic, that doesn't mean yours won't be. you have to give yourself a chance even when you feel like your writing won't be as good as someone else's. you have to bake your cake anyway.

"How do I find joy in something I know I’ll never be good at?"

you won't. full stop. if you keep telling yourself you'll never be good at something, you'll never improve, there's no point in trying, then you'll never enjoy it. i know it's easier said than done, but you have to have some level of confidence in yourself and in your writing. not only will you not enjoy it, other people will see the lack of enjoyment, the "i wrote this and it sucks" comments, the self-degradation, and they won't enjoy it either - no one feels good about a fic the author clearly didn't want to write. and, if you try everything you possibly can and still can't find any joy in writing, then maybe writing isn't the hobby for you. and that's perfectly okay! i tried quilting and glassblowing several times before i realized i just didn't like it the same way i liked writing. you owe it to yourself to find something that's fun, that makes you smile, that you're excited to do. there's a million hobbies out there, i promise you'll find something that brings you joy.

[perhaps-in-anotherdream]

hi, lately I have been thinking how long MLQC is gonna be on air, like, will I feel empty if suddenly my time, money and effort goes into nothing? makes me feels like I'm in nonstop running. what are your thoughts about it, the game will still last some years?

hello! you and i both know i don’t have an absolute/ definite answer to your question haha, so whatever i say in response, please do take it with a grain of salt :>

firstly, the answer will vary depending on which server you’re playing on. regarding the CN i.e., the og server, looking at all the events that are already on the calendar, it’s safe to say lovepro will definitely keep updating for a long time. even if papergames decides to end the main story at some point, they can still continue with the dating verse content, given that there’s been more than enough elements and foundations put in place in the past six years + paper has the money to keep the game running for as long as there’s demand in their market (just look at their crazy marketing for Love and Deepspace, the game’s not even been out for a month yet LOL). and the demand for lovepro will surely run for a couple more years down the road. after all, it’s no small feat being in the market for 6+ years and still having a secured spot in the CN big 4 otome games despite all the shiny new contenders that are constantly being released.

as for the global server aka MLQC, i won’t sugar-coat things. and honestly, the continuous revenue drop does worry me sometimes (coming from someone who logs into her global account only during events due to completionist complex lmao). it’s absolutely crazy to think how the global server lost its players almost overnight due to that fiasco. it’s really a shame, though, b/c despite as much grudge as i have against Elex, i must admit they seem to be trying pretty hard recently and unfortunately the efforts do go unnoticed. also that’s why i encourage people to spend on the game within their comfort limit, however little it may be.

and as for if you’d feel empty if it all suddenly goes into nothing — of course, i can’t tell you how to feel/ react. as for my personal feelings on the matter, while i do plan out my spending habits since i’m still a student and i’m not gonna gacha all my hard-earned money away LOL, but i don’t consider spending (or investing time for that matter) on something that’s made me happy or something i enjoyed a waste. think of it as something similar to buying movie tickets (which only have one time usage) or guilty midnight snack takeouts (a spur of the moment thing) – as long as you know your limits and have made peace with yourself, it’s easier to have the load off of your mind haha~ (⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠*⁠)💕

—

[hamofjustice]

Hey it's the guy from that other rant about how Nemona, Arven, and Penny are getting ignored for no reason by DLC advertising in a game that's supposed to be about forming treasured unbreakable bonds with well-written sad kids who desperately needed friends and are presented as sort of Strength, Courage and Wisdom Trio by the ending, back with a new post now that one of the DLCs is out and haha I bet you know what I have to say don't you

What was the point of excluding Nemona, Arven, and Penny from The Teal Mask if there are three unnamed and generic-modeled but consistently written student NPCs present anyway, and the content is level 60-75, so you're clearly not intended to do it without finishing the game*? Not only do they not see you off or gain any new dialogue when you get home, they aren't mentioned or alluded to in any way shape or form. They're still statues standing in their rooms with one line of dialogue, the one thing I wanted DLC and updates to change the most. They never notice you left the country for a week.

* UPDATE: Apparently the DLC has level scaling even though the base game didn't, and it is accessible with 0 badges, and that is why there are no references to the preexisting story - it might not have happened yet. Fascinating. I guess that part holds less weight then and this whole post is a little less necessary. I'll leave the rest of the post unedited but it really did seem like this was designed as postgame content only regardless of when it becomes available. Guess not! So I guess, instead, the story got shot in the foot a little bit by the decision to make it available to new players instead of for no reason. I think they should have let it be postgame content, but, I'm a little less worried now. This makes sense within those rules. I guess.

Fanart like this is now coming out and getting tons of likes asking why this happened after six months of countless pieces of cute fanart like this all turned out to be for nothing.

As people are already realizing, it would have been really fun and logical for two of the three who don't really get along with each other yet (which is any combination of them, really, that's part of the fun, and part of why their stories should continue) to be forced to team up into an odd couple, while the third gets to know Carmine and perhaps build a rivalry with her. Wouldn't it be fun to see them talking about their own adventures they were going on, and how they were starting to get along, even if it was happening offscreen? (Because this DLC is focused on introducing new characters to set up for later and that's fine) Wouldn't it be smart to set up the group dynamic for Indigo Disc in advance as preparation for a return to Area Zero and that whole professor-haunted main plotline with a larger cast?

It's just giving me even more apparently-not-unfounded paranoia that yeah, we've never been shown the friend trio in new footage in a DLC trailer because not just Penny but somehow even Arven and Nemona are going to be completely irrelevant to a DLC about finding closure on Area Zero's story and going to a school all about top-level battling. Why else would they go this far out of their way to avoid including them as characters? This is like... active sabotage of their own story at this point.

... Could they really just not be bothered to model three characters in jinbei, and repeatedly shot in the foot their best story yet and all the setup they did for continuing it... over that? That'd be stupid, right? Unfortunately, I don't have the confidence in the company to put anything past them right now.

I just don't know how The Indigo Disc is going to carry the weight of everything they've set up expectations for it to do, unless it's like three times bigger than this little teaser of a DLC in terms of actual story and postgame battles, and most importantly to me, the postgame hanging-out that they very suspiciously also won't show the original friend trio for that we were promised by the story almost a year ago as a happy ending, that we haven't actually gotten to participate in on-screen at all, outside of the Ace Academy Tournament (whose music is perfect for that happy victory lap feeling by the way).

I'm afraid now more than ever that all of my happy thoughts about how this generation and these precious characters should be wrapped up and what should be in The Indigo Disc aren't going to happen, and... it'll just go unceremoniously into the trash can with the other generations after a few more months of trailers probably making it clear that despite all the sappy memories with your original group and the girl who calls the player character her treasure and her rival for life, the game is about Carmine and Kieran now instead of them joining the group, and it will be remembered as the half assed cash grab game and not the one with a big heart and deep character writing hidden in it, if they care THIS aggressively, out-of-their-way little about the reason the game has heart. Not that I don't like these new newcomers too, but. There was a different way to go about this.

Pokemon Masters and Pokemon Special and stuff will try their best to compensate and do the characters justice, but they're just fanfic writers like us except with a budget. The anime writers are forced to make the story about other characters, as if Nemona, Arven, and Penny's stories were something shameful or inappropriate they need to paint over, and not the saving grace for what was otherwise an embarrassing corporate product with good people stuck working on it.

It would have been so easy to integrate the three of them into this DLC, and it would've made the next DLC better to have done so. Literally just replace some character models and rewrite some dialogue. The Paldea students don't have festival outfits anyway afaik. We're talking romhack-level difficulty of implementation here. Come the hell on.

Between the contents of this first part of the DLC and how they've been advertising it so far, I cannot make myself believe Nemona, Arven, and Penny will be in the rest of generation 9. I don't want to get hurt by my expectations. I feel like they've been purposefully excluded, like TPC thinks there's something wrong with them.

... Anyone else feeling this?

[aureutr]

Health update, featuring: DIAGNOSIS

I have been a chronic pain patient for a few years now. It's difficult to fully articulate how much pain changes your life, unless you are someone who has lived it or had a loved one live it.

Pain sucked away my energy and brainpower. I found myself sleeping more and more, first in naps after work then I was regularly calling out half days just to sleep. All the while, I was seeing doctor after doctor in hopes that someone would have an answer.

No one did. At first, it was almost a relief. It wasn't cancer, after all. But then the relief turned into disappointment and quickly into resignation. Labs were fine, X-ray was clear, CT was good. It should have been good news, except I still hurt all of the time and no one could tell me why.

The pain got worse. It peaked in Autumn 2022, when I finally got my first sliver of relief. Gabapentin kept the pain in control enough that I no longer had to regularly sleep half of the day, but it made me foggy. Still, it was easier to manage than the brain fog from pain, so I took it.

I still take it, and I’m on quite the high dose. It’s given me a semblance of a life back, but it’s not the answer or a cure. I still napped, I still hurt too much to even walk around a store for more than an hour or so. And, if I did, it would be my only activity for the day.

I lost my job late last year. I don’t believe it was because of the time I had to take, it was a mass layoff, but I’m certain it did not help. That, at least, ended up fine. I found a job I prefer with far better pay within a few months. And they’re, so far, understanding that I’m working through health problems.

But being unemployed was still a stressor, and I had learned that stress was integral to my pain. When I was stressed, it was worse. When I was calm, it was bearable.

I’ll skip describing another round of tests and hypotheses that went nowhere. In October 2023, my husband and I went to the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic or John Hopkins (I am being intentionally vague here). This was our second time visiting, the first gave us absolutely nothing.

A nurse practitioner took a very quick look at me, too quick for our comfort, and declared the issue muscular. She recommended physical therapy. It seemed too simple, really. After all of that, all that money spent and time invested? It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried some exercise, but when moving makes your pain worse and worse pain zaps your energy, that’s difficult to maintain.

Still, I wasn’t going to turn my nose up at anything at this point. And it’s a damn good thing I didn’t.

The physical therapist I ended up seeing told me I had the strongest pelvic floor she’s ever seen. And that’s not a good thing. I have apparently taken literal decades worth of anxiety, depression, self-loathing, and any other negative emotion you can think of, and held them taut there, keeping my pelvic muscles almost constantly tensed.

And when you tense that much for that long, dysfunction arises.

My official diagnosis is Pelvic Floor Disorder. All of my PT has been focused on stretching, no strength training or cardio. I’m retraining my body to relax, to let go.

It has been amazing.

At the time of writing, I’ve been going to sessions for about six weeks. Already, I am eager to walk our dogs every day. I’ve gone out on my own or with friends to move.

The pain is not gone. But it is so much less that my pain clinic doctor is discussing reducing my gabapentin in a couple of months. And with decreased pain comes decreased brain fog.

Decreased brain fog means not only an improvement in my professional work, but space for fandom. I’ve written more than I’ve shared, lots of short private stuff for friends, but I haven’t had enough organized thought to re-approach the stories I put on hold.

I can’t promise anything, of course, but I hope that can change soon. I’ve been dabbling in Distant Echoes again, and it’s fun to be back in that world.

I’m not well. But I’m better. I’m so, so much better.

[belethlegwen]

Hell Of A Vision

So now that they're currently on a flight back to a place way too far away from me, I just wanted to make a post to say that myself and @adjacentperception just had an amazing six weeks together.

Originally going to be a two week vacation, their boss encouraged them to put in a form to work internationally from home so we could get a bit of a domestic snapshot for what things would be like if* (*=when) they move here.

It was incredible. It was beautiful. It vibed and meshed so easily, so well, for six whole weeks that the fact they have to leave even if only for less than a year feels cruel and stupid. We fit together, we had such an amazing time. I got to show them so much of what I love of my home, I got to introduce them to my immediate family and most of my friends. It was phenomenal.

I also asked them to marry me.

They said yes.

Of all the things I thought my silly writing could lead to, I never thought it could lead to something like this. I never thought I'd find someone who loves to write, who loves to write with me, who loves to play and create together in such a beautifully unique way. I've never been loved by someone so strongly, so completely, so expansively. We share our loves and our passions with each other and we fit together like puzzle pieces in so many remarkable ways.

I love them so deeply and thoroughly and I feel like there's so many more ways I could love them.

They also make the best soups. The BEST. There was so much soup had here. They taught me to make biscuits and gravy. They made me their famous and incredible spaghetti, the very same spaghetti they were making the day they first messaged me.

We have a story we're working on that's coming together, and we're hoping to be able to post at least the first few chapters of it within the next few months if things go well. G/t, obviously, and we think some folks in the community will really like it.

I'm very excited to catch up on everything that I've been missing out on while I was in my domestic bliss over here, now that I have a big ol' pile of sadness to work through while we finalize on the big move together. Y'all have been putting out amazing stuff for G/tober and even before that! So many stories to hopefully sit down and read!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little update on our lives and what's been going on with y'all <3 It's also helping me battle the sadtimes right now while they're on a flight and I've got an empty bed waiting for me.

Love you all, be safe, be kind, be you <3

~ Belle

[not-close-to-straight]

I'm still writing fanfiction but I'm just not able to bring myself to post it on AO3 anymore. I think it's now a little more then a month that I took a break because of the lack of engagement.

I even have stories that are totally finished and could be posted in 5 seconds but I just- I'm just afraid to do it. Sharing them and sharing a bit of my heart. Guess I never really realized how daunting that is until now.

And sadly, I'm not the type of fanfic writer that can just write for myself or can post a story and then be content with a few kudos. It's a weird thing.

Yeah, just following a few fanfics for now and leaving comments there. I guess that still makes me part of the fandom? 😊

Have a good day!

I totally get that.

Posting IS like putting a piece of our heart right out there in public and especially after a rough run with shitty commenters or even a random “flop” of a fic that for whatever reason didn’t get any comments or way less hits than usual and ends up being super discouraging.

Personally I have at least six fics (less than 50k words, so shorter fics for me) fully written that I haven’t published because they’re rare pairs or a premise I don’t think will be popular or a gen fic vs a mature or explicit one so maybe people just won’t bother reading. I wrote them, title chapters and everything and then just… downloaded them to a USB and moved on. Never posted them.

And yes I AM someone that writes for myself, that’s why even my commissioned fics tend to be self indulgent. I write the stories I want to read. I re read my own stories constantly cos I wrote them for ME.

But I am also always very upfront about POSTING for the engagement. I post my stories for hits and kudos and comments and engagement and it’s the community If I don’t think a story will get hits and kudos and comments and engagement, I write it and leave it on my computer or get if printed and just put the book my bookshelf for personal use. No problem.

I completely understand writing but not wanting the sometimes emotional upheaval and vulnerability of posting.

But you know, there’s two parts to fandom— people who create fanworks and people who interact with the fan works so by reading and commenting OF COURSE you’re still a valid and participating member of the fandom. Moving from posting to not posting isn’t like a…. Fandom rank? Badge? At different times in our lives we engage with hobbies and passions at different levels and there’s no shame in changing that level as life changes or interest wanes or anything like that.

On a slightly different note:: have you thought about using the already written fics for the Big Bang events or other fandom writer/artist events? I’ve never gotten into any of those but I have a couple writer friends who do every sign up that comes along and swear it is the most fun ever plus it’s a great way to build relationships within the fandom! You could just sort of… wait until the right event comes along and then hey, you already have a ready fic that maybe just needs to be polished or slightly updated and you’re in!

[handmadehazefromtheheart]

The Re-Opening Of Handmade Hearts

It’s been an icy hot minute since I wrote a proper update, but I won’t complicate this one. The update series started with the presence of a workspace and the first shop opening; the second post was about the progress and success so far; the third was almost a year later because so much had happened, and I’d moved, and the store was on standby, and I was getting married, usw.

I’ve since not only moved countries, but I’ve also moved my main storefront from Ko-Fi to the Artisans Cooperative. (But you’ll still find patterns on Ko-Fi.) Like I have from the start, I do the math and show my work in the description of each item listing in a breakdown of the price: In bullet list form, I state the material costs, the platform fees, the time I’ve estimate I could most efficiently take to complete one of each item (which will almost always be less time than it actually took), and the wage per hour that I’m paying myself. If you add it all up, it’ll equal the price in the listing — minus a tax based on your area that the marketplace adds automatically.

There are six fixed shipping prices based on size and location, with the least expensive being within Germany and the most expensive being anywhere outside the EU. I’ve got two different sizes of box, but I really should get me some envelopes and offer a cheaper no-tracking alternative for certain (very small, mostly not-yet-existing) items.

Here are the listings so far!

(Photography by @ablondpanda)

I’ve done the math, and I have made just shy of 370€ in earnings in the time I’ve had Handmade Hearts open. I haven’t been able to work since 2019, so that’s 370€ in earnings within the last five years.

Ouch…

Ouch…?

Well, I have chronic depression, but I’ve managed to carve myself into an optimist; I’ve not had the chance to really grow yet as an indie seller, so having earned anything — not operated at a loss (at least within business expenses; general life expenses is another beast) — is a bright shining star to me.

My parter and I are waiting on job applications and government assistence. In the meantime, I’m hoping to gain more eyes and start making at least one sale every month in the middle and/or latter half of 2024.

I’ve yet to sell anything through the new storefront, so I’m trying to get more eyes on it. I’m considering opening a secondary storefront with Products With Love, a Germany-specific handmade marketplace, to get more eyes that won’t have to pay more than seven euros on shipping for any given thing.

Shipping is, unfortunately, not something I can do for free. To take a moment for personal politics: I really think mail should be one of those things governments work together to pay for and make free on the most basic level, like public infrustructure, roads and such. It shouldn’t cost $24 for me to send you a snake shaped neck pillow if you’re in the US.

That said, it does cost me 23€ (which is $24.53 as of writing this) to send you a snake shaped neck pillow right now. I want to emphasize that because it’s so common when shopping online to find something “underpriced” whose shipping is blown way up for profits, and I think sometimes it’s become habitual to assume that’s the case when shipping is over what Amazon would consider normal.

Another thing people do is including the shipping price within the price of the item to artificially remove shipping costs. That’s something I don’t do because A) I like transparency, and B) that would increase the platform fees you have to pay, increasing the overall price for no reason.

Ultimately, I hope that the way I do things helps people be more mindful of why things cost what they do.

To close out...

In preparation for posting this update, I’ve uploaded my tenth listing on the Artisans Cooperative marketplace. For my trans siblings, and for the pedants who have noticed that none of my wares have hearts on them:

[maybege]

may's candid and personal take on fandom

On a more candid note, I’d like to talk more about my experience as a writer in fandom. I spent a long time thinking about this (a better part of the last six months, on and off) as I am usually trying to keep my opinions to myself due to events that are long ago now.

I really need you all to be kinder to writers.

I have been here since sometime around May 2020 and I think it is telling that the fandom circles around the same problems again and again and nothing ever changes.

Interaction is really low and I am not the first writer to lament this, nor will I be the last one but maybe I have this naïve hope that if enough people read the same thing again and again, it will finally stick. I know I haven’t put out content on a regular basis for a long time now but while it is not directly related to the level of interactions these works get, that rhythm will for sure not improve if interaction stays as low as it is. It can be really disheartening to know you have over a thousand followers and the reblogs/comments on your works do not even exceed 50.

Obviously, the way tiktok and fast paced social media work have influenced how we interact with things on all kinds of platforms. But I really need you all to understand that a like on tumblr does not count the way it does on Instagram or maybe even tiktok. That is a bookmark at best. Do I mind if you serial like an entire series of mine? Of course not, I am happy to see that someone is actively reading something of mind and enjoying it. But please have the courtesy to maybe comment on the masterlist or the most recent part.

Fandom is taking and giving and I think it is unfair that it is somehow is expected of writers to pump out story after story without having to give them something (comments, asks, reblogs) for it. And when someone complains about it, suddenly we are deemed as ungrateful to the few that actually read our stuff.  

Back in lockdown, there was more of a balance for obvious reasons. But now that I see that writers cannot post as much due to real life or maybe other reasons, it is like the number of notes has diminished across the board. Writers in fandom are people who are not (and cannot be) paid for their works. (Side note: If you accept fanfiction commissions or money for fanfiction, I will find you quicker than the mouse mafia because you will not ruin this for us.) On one hand, the expectation seems to be that writers should update ever single week without fail. On the other hand, it seems too big an ask of readers to actually comment/reblog the things that they read.

(Waiting for a new chapter for weeks, months, hell, even years, was never unusual in fandom spaces and I need this to be more common knowledge.)

Then again, the negativity in fandom has really fucking increased. It comes and goes in wavesand I will not pretend to be affected because I was so inactive this last year. (This is simply a side note but it is something that I think needs more attention: The way I see poc creators treated is despicable and while I do not write for PP characters anymore because of all the drama, people really need to reflect how they see Pedro Pascal as a human being instead of a sex object.)

For me, personally, I have noticed that if I get genuinely angry at something happening on tumblr, it is time for me to log off and really focus on real life and I think it is something that we all should take to heart. Sadly, the more time passes, the more I am convinced that this fandom might not even be worth it anymore and I genuinely understand many creators who decide to leave permanently. It often feels like people are just there to create drama or to vague or that important and serious posts about how we should treat each other and the actors we admire are simply ignored in favour of the “I don’t like drama.” line. Which, like, one is drama and one is not. (Spoiler alert: Discussions on fandom inclusion and racism within fandom are not drama.)

Anyway, Readers need to be more mindful of the power they have over writers and if you want to complain that so many creators have deactivated or become inactive, I would like to ask that you reflect on when was the last time that you commented on someone’s fic.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I'm still listening to the John Robins + Elis James radio show, going through the episodes at what I think is a pretty significant rate. I'm still in June 2017, though, because they keep taking over the drive time slots and every time they do there are five bonus episodes, so I'm on episode 173 but if you include the bonus ones I think it's more like 220 by now. It's always fun but it does mean I know a lot about what those guys were doing throughout the first half of 2017, as there were quite a few instances within a few months where we'd get them broadcasting six nights a week. Well, John Robins broadcasting six days a week. Elis occasionally takes time off because he has to film TV shows and have a family. Mild, manageable, amusing but not double-act-breaking, played-up-for-comedy-but-not-in-a-genuinely-concerning-way tension ensues. Just the right level. Also there isn't any real concern about whether it'll become too big a problem that Elis James bigger than John Robins by too much, because I know John Robins is about to win the biggest award in stand-up comedy. I'm really looking forward to hearing the episodes from/just after that Edinburgh Festival.

Anyway, I slowed down on the posting about that radio show because I felt like I went too hard on that in the first month of this year, leaning quite heavily on it while trying to quit drinking and probably oversharing in posts about that, I figured I'd try to keep a bit more of that to myself. I mean, it's very much still happening. I'm just trying not to update the internet constantly, and posting about that radio show got so tied to that that I decided to try to reign that in in general.

However! I'm pleased to say I have an observation about the show that does not involve anything that can relate to my personal life! And I think people should know about it. Throughout 2017, I have just found my fourth instance of making this connection: John Robins will use the expression "your friend and mine" (to describe an inanimate object or intangible concept or something), I will immediately think "have you been hanging out with the No More Jockeys guys?", and then in the same episode he will tell a story from the last few days about hanging out with Alex Horne and/or Tim Key. He does not use that expression in his regular vocabulary; the only four times I've ever heard him use it, he ended up then telling a story of hanging out with those guys.

That thing where I watch No More Jockeys and then catch their phrases seeping into my speech patterns (the most common for me by far is "I think it's a case of..." - I'll catch myself saying that at work a lot): it's not just for civilians! I'm pleased to report that the comedians are also influencing each other.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

A starter guide on Ubuntu-Linux, from a non-techie to other non-techies

Preamble (a.k.a. the story/rant before the recipe, feel free to skip or not as you wish)

Several years ago, I got a laptop for college purposes; it ran on Windows 10 with decent reliability for a few years, but then it started getting slower and slower, the bloatware (programs and apps that companies pre-install in your devices that you cannot remove) was just tremendously bothersome, my computer would start updating all of a sudden and be at it for hours, etc, etc.

And so my dad suggested I switched to Ubuntu (he had been using it for a few years himself at that point), and... I'm not going to lie to you. I was scared. Was it going to be too different? Wouldn't it require far more computer knowledge than what I already had? Wouldn't the learning curve be too steep? Wouldn't I be unable to do a lot of the stuff I used to do?

Years later my answer is: I don't miss Windows. The learning curve wasn't nearly as steep as I thought it would be. I got acclimated to the system within a couple weeks. There are parts of Ubuntu itself that aren't that up to date (mainly stuff about medium-advanced audio management, streaming through Discord, and semi-pro to pro levels of photo processing), but I have managed to work around most of it with little difficulty (the image processor I use for making gifsets is proprietary sofware --the code of it is not open for transformation by third parties-- but I can work with it mostly fine through a tool called Wine). If what you do with your computer is mainly internet surfing, document writing, listening to music and playing videos (and similar basic stuff) you are unlikely to have any problems working with Ubuntu. But the best, best, best part of it for me? No bloatware. No 8256754 attempts at getting my personal information or tracking me. My computer is fast, as fast as it was when I first got it (the couple times it broke in the last two years had nothing to do with software: it was first the hard drive, and then the fan). No computer deciding to update and leave me waiting whenever it wants. And honestly, that makes every little inconvenience I have faced in Ubuntu worth it, very much worth it.

Linux has a problem

And it is that a loud section of its userbase is made up by techies who have a very unrealistic notion about how much the average person knows about computers.

A few months ago there was a post making the rounds, where OP explained that you can put ubuntu in a pen drive and carry it with you (yes, it is possible and relatively easy to do) and there was a bunch of people in the notes explaining how much better it is to pick Linux Mint, or use a raspberri pi, as if people who don't know you can carry Ubuntu in a pen drive could understand what they are talking about.

My goal with this post is to explain some of the very basics in an accessible language. I will probably use inacurate and generalized language in it for the sake of explaining simply, and will focus on Ubuntu because it is what I know. If you are a Linux fan who loves Linux Mint or whichever other, go ahead and make your own post.

Definitions, yada, yada

So, what is Linux? in plain terms, it is an operating system (Windows and Mac are operating systems) with several variations called distributions. Think of it as Linux being like a family, and the distributions being the members of the family. Some """famous""" members of the Linux family are Ubuntu, Debian, and Red Hat. One of the main distinctive characteristics of Linux distributions at the basic level is that they are free software: it can be used, modified, and redistributed under certain conditions, by everyone.

Where do you get Ubuntu, and how to install it?

You go to www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop. There you will see two items: the first one is a "LTS" (long term support) and the other isn't. What is the difference?

Ubuntu releases a new version every six months, one in april and one in october. So, for example, the version released in april this year is Ubuntu 22.04, also named Jammy Jellyfish, and the one released in october, Ubuntu 22.10 is called Kinetic Kudu. Every two years, in april, a LTS version is released. Jammy Jellyfish is a LTS release. That means it has a 10 years stay, and is a stable, well tested and tweaked release.

What I'm saying here is, get the LTS release.

When you click download, you will see an ISO file of about 4gb. Save it to your hard drive, and get yourself a 4gb or bigger pen drive that is empty and you don't mean to use for anything else.

To install Ubuntu in that pen drive, follow the instructions here. They are short and simple, and the whole process shouldn't take more than half an hour (probably around 15-20 minutes).

Now that you are in possession of Ubuntu-on-a-stick, you can go ahead and reboot your pc, with the stick still connected. Usually the computer itself will recognize the system and open it, or ask you between the two options of system. This is not installing Ubuntu yet, but you need to be careful.

Next it will show you a menu with two options: to install Ubuntu, or to try it out. DO NOT CLICK ON INSTALL UBUNTU IF YOU STILL HAVE UNBACKED STUFF OR ARE UNSURE YOU WANT UBUNTU YET. It will format your hard drive and all of that will be lost. The try option, on the other hand, works from the stick and does not format your hard drive.

Try Ubuntu will allow you to see how the basic system would look upon installation, and it will also be what you'd use if you were carrying Ubuntu on a stick to use in other computers. You cannot really modify much there, but if you choose to install the system, it is very, very, very customizable. You can tweak it and add and change the position of menus, clock, desktop icons (At first I thought you couldn't have those because they don't appear there by default! But you can! You just need to add them yourself).

To install Ubuntu on your computer, follow the instructions here. The process, again, is described short and simple, it doesn't take long, and the thing itself guides you step by step.

It is possible to make a disk partition, and have Windows in one part of the hard drive, and Ubuntu on the other. I myself have never done this and don't know how it is done. But if you want to try that, there are many tutorials on the internet about how to do it, I just don't have a specific one to recommend.

A couple more things

Once your new system is up and running, and you are customizing it, there are a couple basic things to know that are helpful:

Between the programs that come with the system, there's one called terminal. Terminal allows you to write direct commands to your computer. For example, instead of opening a program from its icon, you can type the name of the program (for example, "VLC") in terminal, and it will open it.

Similarly, you have two ways to install programs: one, like windows, by downloading the package and opening it with double click, the other by writing in the terminal "sudo apt-get install [name of package]". Some packages will already be in the cloud in what is called repositories, and just by typing "sudo apt-get install [name of program]" terminal will download and install it for you.

Like Windows, Ubuntu will give you messages about updates being available; unlike windows, you can install those whenever you want, and they run on the background (you can use your pc while it updates).

Alternatively you can just update your computer whenever you want by opening terminal and writing "sudo apt update" and then "sudo apt upgrade". I myself do that every day.

There are a few programs like get-iplayer (to get stuff from BBC Sounds) and youtube-dl (to get stuff from YT) that work in terminal only.

Terminal is very cool and if you are like me it will make you feel like a hacker in a 90s spy movie.

www.askubuntu.com is a forum that has answers for everything you might face as a problem or challenge while using Ubuntu. It is great.

If you do give Ubuntu a try and have any relatively basic questions I can answer about it, feel free to shoot an ask or message me, and I will help if I can!

[ahfrickenfrick]

buzzfeed unsolved: The disappearance of Jason Todd

Ryan

Shane

—

This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we will be discussing the disappearance of Jason Todd-Wayne, which has had updates as recently as last week.

Wait last week? Ryan, if we disappear because of this episode imagine how cool it would be. Maybe we hang with our good pal Jason.

I don’t have time for you being stupid. I have to get this right, because let me be honest. I have a man crush on Bruce Wayne, and if he ends up watching this and you’re being stupid I’ll never forgive you.

Okay, sure. Cause Bruce Wayne is searching the internet for every little thing posted about his dead son.

(wheeze)

We don’t know if he’s dead! And that’s what I’m here to talk about today.

-

Jason Peter Todd was born August 16th, 2000 in Gotham City, New Jersey, to his mother Dr. Sheila Haywood and his father Willis Todd. However only a few months later did Willis Todd marry Catherine Johnson, forcing Dr. Haywood to have to relinquish custody.

If I ever have a kid-

-they would all have your big head and I’d feel sorry for them.

Ryan. I listen to you ramble about murderers and ghosts. Let me tell my spiel.

(wheeze)

Right, sorry.

If I ever have a kid with someone, I think I’d be really upset if they just kinda made me give my kid to a stranger.

Here’s the thing to that! No one has heard or seen from Dr. Sheila Haywood since, like after her son was born. The only thing that might link back to her is an illegal botched surgery, but most of it was sealed off, and I don’t feel like having the Gotham City Police Department call me up

(ring ring)

Hi yes, are you that idiot from that show? You will be arrested immediately! Batman and his group of… misfits?? I don’t know, but they are on their way!

Moving on from your weird role play, like all the families that live in Park Row, what is deemed “Crime Alley”, the Todd family did not have money.

You could not pay me to go to a place called Crime Alley.

We were actually going to Gotham, scope around, maybe get a selfie with Robin-

-Which one?

I need to do an episode trying to figure out how many Robin’s there actually are… I think there have been five?? Six?? I don’t know… stop distracting me with Batman! We ended up scraping the visitation part because apparently this time of year Arkham breakouts are common, and I don’t want to get fear gassed.

-

Jason did decent at school, until he stopped showing up, school records are really spotty after third grade. Apparently he was reading and understanding college level stuff, but that’s really all we got on it.

Not a lot on this guys younger life it looks like.

No there isn’t, not any social media posts, or news articles, or anything if that sort about Jason until a few years later in 2012, when Jason became the ward to the one and only, Bruce Wayne.

Ah, Bruce Wayne, you love him, I love him, uhm- I actually don’t know much about Bruce Wayne other than the fact he’s one of the few rich people who give away a shit ton of money.

Bruce Wayne is a billionaire CEO, with a heart of gold, and some say he sleeps around, but as long as he’s not hurting anyone. Also! He’s a dad! Bruce Wayne is a trusted person within the Foster Care over in Gotham. He takes in the extreme cases that would probably leave the kid with a bunch of trauma.

Well, with what I’ve heard about Gotham, he must have like a billion kids with just a bunch of trauma

Let’s see what I remember from research, cause I did not write anything down for this. His first ward was Richard Grayson, who goes by Dick, was taken in after he watched his whole family fall and die on the trapeze.

As I said before, Jason was brought into Mr. Wayne’s custody after the death of both his father and his step mother. His father’s death was unknown, and his step mother died from a drug overdose… in front of Jason.

Uhm- Tim Drake? His was more interesting to watch unfold because there’s a whole other multimillion almost billion dollar company that Tim’s parents owned, and there was a lot covered up by lawyers and stuff, but Tim ended up with the Waynes

Then there’s the only female in the place, Cassandra Wayne, she is selectively mute, and overly protected by her adoptive family, nothing was shared with the media about where she came from.

Damian Wayne is the only blood son to Bruce Wayne, he didn’t even know about the kid until… like last year? Two years ago? Again, not a lot that I remember.

And then there’s been rumors of him taking in another kid, but nothing for sure yet.

Jesus, Ryan take a breath, and go back to Jason, because now I’m hoping I believe your theories about him being alive cause what this family didn’t need is another death.

Look, Shane. I’m going to be straight with you here. There are three possible theories I think could be plausible. So let’s jump right into them.

-

Theory one, is that Jason Todd is alive and in hiding from The Joker. This is the second most popular idea, and one I hope is true. There really isn’t anything else to this theory, besides a picture of someone that looks a little like Jason in the middle of Asia.

Doppelgänger, probably. Lemme see. I don’t know… this kinda looks like someone edited it.

Yeah, like it looks really distorted. I don’t know if I think it’s real, but it’s what people online were talking about.

Crazy, that people online would doctor fake photos of a kid who had died.

Exactly, which is why people think he’s alive, cause who would do that?

—

Theory two is that Jason Todd died as his family said he did, looking for his birth mother. Apparently he was in the Middle East, found his mother, but then both were found dead in an explosion caused by the Joker.

So the Joker, who is Gotham’s Prince of Crime, was somehow in the Middle East? I don’t buy it

I didn’t either, until I looked just a little deeper, and found that the next week Superman and Batman stopped the Joker from murdering the United Nations. So he was in the area.

Oh my god. If.. I know on this show I try to goof off, but it’s hard when it’s a kid. How old was Jason?

Only 15. He just got back into the swing of things at school, getting all A’s, he was in the Drama program and the Poetry club. If you scroll down a on Dick Grayson’s Instagram you can find a selfie of Dick and Jason, Jason being in his school uniform only a week before he died. The two seemed to be really close, with how much Grayson posted of the two of them, and then it was radio silence from the man until a year after Jason’s death, where he made a memorial post, along with Bruce Wayne, who made the Jason Peter Todd Memorial Foundation, which helps families in Crime Alley.

Look, not okay with the kid dying, but it makes me kinda smile to see that his family got together to do something like this in his name.

I don’t think you understand the length of what this fund does. It provides special housing for single mothers, has opened up two clinics that help with drug abuse and addiction, and keeps kids in warm clothes and in school.

That’s- wow. Okay, you are making this “he’s dead” thing seem like it’s the only thing that happened.

Well, theory 3, is that he died-

Wait what?

He died, and came back to life.

This, I think, is worse than you saying ghosts are real.

We live in a world where someone can run at the speed of light! Yet you draw the line at ghosts and maybe hopefully someone who isn’t dead.

Yeah, but that’s science. Okay whatever where’s the proof of him being alive.

Okay, looking at the timeline. Jason Todd died at 15, in 2015. And the Wayne’s kinda were quiet for a year and a half, besides the foundation they set up, even with Tim, nothing really new was happening.

And then things seemed to go back to normal, they all frequented gala’s again, and all the other social stuff they did-

Yeah, nice choice of wording there

Shut up, anyways, in 2018 a picture appears, not even the front page, of Dick Grayson walking and laughing with someone who looks a lot like if Jason Todd grew up for a few years, and then decided to dye his hair.

Listen, Ryan. People have doppelgängers. We just saw the other picture and it’s clearly fake- Jesus Christ that looks exactly like Jason.

Exactly! And I started looking around more, finding pictures of the Wayne family around Gotham from news sites, and every once in a while, that guy pops up. Never in the picture, but always somewhere in the background like he wasn’t wanting to be seen. Like i mentioned in the beginning, there was a picture from a week ago that looks exactly like him.

Wait, is this a theory from the internet or something you came up with?

Both, kind of? I saw someone make a bad joke about it, and then it kinda stuck in my head as I looked for more information. Apparently there is a mythical pit that could bring someone from the dead.

Okay, yeah. Mythical revival pit. As if any living person wouldn’t be all over that.

Look man, that’s just the information I found. But I really really hope that Jason is alive somewhere safe, or resting peacefully.

The most believable for me is that he did pass away. But I’d love to be wrong.

That being said, I got really sad looking through all of Jason’s life, I felt like I was being more invasive than usual. So I talked with the crew and Buzzfeed, and we are donating all revenue from this video to the Jason Memorial fund in Gotham.

But the mystery of Jason Todd, still remains….

Unsolved

[arrieebooks]

Precious Weapon (2)

Pairing : Lloyd Hansen x F!OC x Sierra Six

Summary : Lloyd and Six make a whole new different plan from what she told them last night. Things don't exactly go as planned. Like at all.

Warnings : Mentions of Christianity and church. Mentions of her painkiller addiction but really vague. Innocence kink (sort of). Elle abuses Lloyd a little because he's being a dick. A lot of angst between Lloyd and her, the whole time. Some blood. A lot of cursing.

Word count : 14.8k words.

Author's note : Sorry it took almost a month for me update to part 2, I've been busy with life so. But here you go! By the way, I'll be posting a short drabble that will occur after this chapter. Stay tuned!

***

Sundays are her absolute favorite day out of all the other days in the week.

Sundays are when she gets to wake up without an alarm and sigh in relief after realizing the date.

Sundays are when she could make her favorite breakfast of all time and eat it all for herself while blasting her favorite song in the speaker.

Sundays are when she gets to pick a nice dress to go to her local church in her neighborhood.

Sundays are when she could go to church with her best friend and listen to the sermon by the kind pastor that she's known since she was little. 

Sundays are when she gets to meet up with her church friends and get lunch together and talk about everything. 

Sundays are when she could walk her dogs around the neighborhood during the afternoon. 

Every Sunday for her is the same. She repeats the same routine every week and never gets tired of it because she enjoys it.

But, this Sunday, it won't be the same. 

This Sunday, she woke up with a massive headache and her phone buzzing a million times, with her dogs barking loudly outside her room. 

"Fuck," she curses under her breath as she grabs her phone by the nightstand and checks the screen. 

6 missed calls from Amelia

12 messages from Amelia

And then, she checks the time and the date.

It's Sunday, 9.18am.  

Shit. 

Her memories from last night slowly come back to her. About everything. The bar, Lloyd, Six, the CIA and at least she's not regretting any of it. She's glad she met them. 

And now, she's late for church. 

Not that she was planning to go anyway, though. As much as she loves going every Sunday, she can't. Not today. Not after everything she's done. It makes her feel like a hypocrite. She just committed mass murder last week, over a hundred deaths by her so she can't just go to church like everything's normal. 

Because it isn't. 

But at least, she doesn't feel that much guilt anymore since she met Lloyd and Six. She knows they have killed more than her (especially Lloyd) so they didn't make it a really big deal — they didn't look at her like she's a monster and that's just what she needed, better than all the pain killers and the alcohol. 

Finally, she gets out of bed and from afar, she can hear the house's front door open and she already knows who it is. Sometimes, she wishes she can't hear literally everything within miles. She could even hear her neighbors whispering right about now and her dogs scratching their ears — she can hear everything.

Amelia. Her best friend since first grade. 

She knows everything. About her being a science experiment and a witch. But not everything, though. She doesn't know who blew up that building — she just thinks it's a science experiment gone wrong, just like everyone else here. 

Except for the CIA, they got intel that someone walked out of that burning building alive and completely fine but didn't know who, it was all covered in smoke.

The building, being a laboratory full of genius scientists and she was working with them. They were conducting a cure for a rare disease that no one bothers to research in this country because it's just too uncommon and more even so, it's not profitable — at least in this country. But, there were patients and children who were on their deathbed, dying because of that rare disease in the hospital Amelia was working in and other hospitals nearby where she lived.

So, Elle helped them. Mostly helped. They provided everything she needed and she was their brains. She's not just smart, she's really intelligent — her brain is smarter than an average human being because of the experiment. 

They worked on the cure for months. And when it finally was ready to be used, they fucking betrayed her. They were going to sell the cure to the highest bidder in this country and every single person in that building was in on it. They all knew. They didn't give a shit about dying patients, they only cared about money. 

After she found that out, she was mad and pissed and disappointed and sad for those patients who are dying and waiting for that cure. All those strong emotions at once, took control of her powers and killed everyone in that lab she was still in. Everyone died burning in agony except for her. 

She came out of that building alive and unharmed with the cure in her hands. 

And since it was a laboratory that had a bunch of different and dangerous chemicals inside, everybody else just thought it was a science experiment gone wrong. No one questioned it. 

Not even Amelia. She knew how she walked out that building alive, because she's invulnerable. So she never suspected Elle, at all.

Though, she does feel bad for lying to her only best friend. They always tell each other everything. But, it is for her own good anyway. 

Now that the CIA is involved, shit's just got even more complicated. 

"Elle! Where are you!" She can hear Amelia yell from her living room as she gets out of her room.

"I'm here. I'm assuming you're here to drag me to church." Elle walks to her as Amelia's already dressed in a neat dress, ready for church and she's still in her pajamas. 

Amelia frowns, crossing her arms against her chest. "Yes and why aren't you dressed already? I've been calling you a hundred times." she grumbles.

"I'm sorry but I'm not going." Elle flatly says.

She gives her a knowing look. "Elle, come on. It's been a week. It wasn't your fault that you were the only one who's invulnerable to fire. And, plus, not to talk ill of the dead but they were horrible people. All of them. I mean, they were about to sell that cure when they knew that people were dying and needing that cure asap." 

She nods. "I know. Even though they were horrible people, I still feel bad. Uh, for walking out alive…" Elle trails off. 

Amelia sighs. "Still, it's not your fault. Come on, let's go. I'll be with you the entire time just like I always have. I'm never going anywhere. I promise. God will always be with you too. He's not punishing you for walking out alive. But, if you don't go to church…" 

Elle chuckles, shaking her head. "Wow. What a way to quote God on me! That's so not fair." she fake pouts. 

"Then, get dressed and let's go." she says.

"Okay, okay, fine. Jeez. I'm going." Elle raises her hand in surrender as she rushes to her bedroom. 

Only Amelia could drag her to somewhere she doesn't want to be. 

She doesn't just feel sinful for what she did but she feels like a liar and a hypocrite — the two things she hates the most in a person. And here she is, being two of those things herself.

Hypocrite. Liar. 

***

There's nothing better than coffee to cure a hangover. Especially a really heavy one.

And Lloyd needs a lot of it. 

Six doesn't have a hangover because he wasn't even drunk the whole night so he was the one who had to drag Lloyd out of that bar last night. 

He kept insisting to follow her home, make sure she gets home safe and stalk her home. But, of course, Six didn't want that.

There was no need to stalk her or anything because she gave them her number and her address already so it wasn't like she was going anywhere. She made it clear that she wanted to be in on this. She was different from their other missions because she was willing to do whatever they needed to do with her and for the CIA — that's never happened before. 

"So. Here's the plan." Lloyd says while he walks to the table Six is in with two, hot black coffee in his hands.

They're in the Starbucks downstairs of the penthouse that Lloyd just bought this morning. The IT team and the field agents are settling their things down upstairs while the guys have their morning breakfast. 

Plus, this was the only place they could find to have decent coffee in this area. 

Six looks up from his phone with a cup of hot tea in his other hand and a plate of fresh pastry in front of him as he watches Lloyd sit across from him. 

"What's the plan?" Six asks. 

Lloyd gulps his coffee. "Well, first of all, we can't tell Denny that we found our living weapon in a bar. Because we weren't even supposed to be in that bar in the first place. We were supposed to stay put in that shitty apartment he got us last night." 

Six raises his eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't tell me that. You told me that we could go out." he argues. 

"And if we didn't go out at all, we wouldn't have found our precious little weapon. Remember that." Lloyd reminds him, gulping his coffee again. 

He sighs. "You're right. But still, what are we going to tell Denny?" 

"We'll tell him that we did go out last night but to chase a lead. We got information from a local informant that our weapon would be in that bar so we went anyway. And we got her. But, now this is the tricky part because obviously, we can't tell him that we just let her go home last night. We have to tell him that she just disappeared when we were about to approach her. And now…we need to find her." Lloyd explains all while drinking his hot coffee to down all the alcohol in his system.

Six nods. "Well, that's easy. She gave us her address. We just need to—" 

Lloyd cuts him off. "No. We won't do that. We ask our IT team to track her location, instead. Just say that we got her name last night and they'll find her. They can't know the real truth, Six." he softly says. 

He scoffs. "What? That we almost fucked her?" Six retorts.

He rolls his eyes. "No. That we didn't treat her like our usual targets. We actually talked to her, communicated and came to an agreement with her. I've never done that to any of my targets before even if it's a retrieval. Usually, I just drag them however I want and if they refuse, I'd chop their fingers off one by one until they want to come with me." Lloyd tells him, calmly.

Lloyd's brutal methods don't exactly surprise Six because after all, he does the same too, just quieter and cleaner. He's heard stories about him before — him being a sociopath, having a kill count higher than the fucking mossad, and a violent and depraved nature.

But, that does relieve him just a little bit if he'd be working with someone who's just as ruthless as he is. Because Six has never met anyone similar like him even though he knows that he and Lloyd are completely polar opposites — but at least they make a good team. 

Six agrees with him. He would've done the same if this was any other mission retrieval. "Probably because she's a girl," he retorts.

Lloyd scoffs. "Fuck, no. I'd kill and torture anyone I was assigned to. No matter the gender. But, this is different. She's different. Admit it." he says.

He agrees, again. She is. He saw it the moment he saw her last night. "Alright, now what?" Six asks. 

"Now, we find our precious weapon." Lloyd replies, smirking. 

***

The elevator opens as Lloyd and Six walk into their new penthouse, filled with a bunch of IT support and armed field agents swarming the place.

It's two floors separated by the private lift. The first floor has the guest bedrooms and the guest living room. And those are for the agents and the IT team to stay in and for them to set their equipment.

The second floor is reserved for Lloyd and Six only. It has three grand bedrooms, a gym room, a balcony, a grand living room, a dining room with a huge floor to ceiling window of the view to the whole city and a lot of other empty rooms that could be used as anything. 

Six doesn't really care about luxury. But Lloyd does. This was his idea after all.

There are agents guarding their place, just in case something happens though it's not like they need to be protected. They can protect themselves.

Now, they're on the first floor where the IT team has set up their computers and desks all over their living room. 

"You. I need you to find someone by the name 'Elle' around this particular area. Can you do it?" Lloyd orders one of the IT team who's sitting behind a desk and a computer.

The man nods. "Of course. I'll find her right away, sir." he says before typing fast on the computer's keyboard.

Six looks around the place and observes quietly as he stands beside Lloyd. 

He sees the field agents in the living room as well, unpacking all their different kinds of lethal weapons from secured suitcases. He doesn't understand why they need so many extreme weapons in a retrieval mission. Fucking newbies. He doesn't really depend on unarmed weapons because most of the time, he uses weird weapons — pens, chopsticks, hairpins, forks and if there isn't one, he does it with his bare hands or legs. He kills with style and precision. 

"Hey. Do you need something from there?" Lloyd suddenly asks him. 

Six frowns. "Need what?" he asks.

He points his fingers towards the weapons. "That. The weapons. You didn't bring any of it." Lloyd casually says. 

He shakes his head. "I'm good. I don't usually use weapons unless it's a assassination mission." Six respond.

"Yeah, but just in case. You never know." 

Six shakes his head. "Hey, I'm not using any weapons against her." he sternly says.

Lloyd frowns. He would never fucking hurt her. "It's not for her, obviously. It's just for our safety. This country isn't exactly safe, especially this goddamn city. I think I saw at least three robberies this morning in the streets." he comments.

He nods. "Alright, I'll take one…gun." Six 

Lloyd half grins. "Take two instead. Although, now that I think about it, we won't need any other weapons if we have our precious little weapon with us." he whispers.

Six grimaces. "I'm not using her as a weapon like that." he says in a serious tone.

"Why not?" 

"You're sick, Lloyd." 

He rolls his eyes. "Relax, I was only half joking. It's not like she'd refuse us, anyway." Lloyd makes a point and Six knows it too. She's their willing target.

"We got a location under the name 'Elle' around this area. Looks like she's a devoted church member in the local church here and there's an English service going on right now. It's not that far from here." The IT support announces.

Lloyd grins, walking to the computer as he sees a bunch of codes he doesn't understand but he does see one single picture of her in a group picture from the church's website with a few other young girls too. But he's got his eye on her only. In the picture, she's wearing a pink polite dress and she's smiling shyly, her eyes looking away from the camera. 

So fucking cute. 

He thinks he might have an innocent kink now. Just for her. But it's not like she is innocent, she just committed mass murder last week. Which makes him attracted to her more — she has two sides to her. Good and very bad. Almost like him.

Six walks over to the computer as well and quietly nods, looking over to Lloyd. 

"Let's go get our precious weapon." Lloyd declares, trying to hide a smirk from his lips.

*** 

Elle finally got through the whole hour of the church service, painfully. 

She used to love going to this church but now it's all ruined for her. 

She had to go to the bathroom a few times and swallow some pain killers just to get through all of it.

Fuck, the pain killers again. 

She thought she didn't need them anymore. Not after last night. But, she was wrong. 

The confession session triggered her first. Everybody else in that room quietly apologized for normal things like lying to their boss or parents, saying a curse word, watching one porn video, doing sexual acts or any other mundane things — and she fucking hoped that she did one of those things instead but she didn't. She did something much much worse. 

When will the guilt ever stop? 

All those sins that people often commit are something they'd most likely do again since it became an unhealthy habit because it's addicting. Now, she thinks it would turn into something like that. She's scared that she'll like killing people eventually. 

"Elle? Do you have a bladder problem?" Amelia asks, out of nowhere while they're walking out of the service together.

She frowns. "No. Why would I have a bladder problem when I am literally invulnerable to all kinds of diseases?" Elle responds, casually as people walk past them around the church. 

Amelia chuckles. "Yeah, I know that. Then why were you going in and out of the bathroom earlier?" she asks. 

Elle sighs. She doesn't want to tell her truth. She can't. "Oh, I just needed to take a few calls earlier." She lies. 

"Oh. Okay. So, where should I go for lunch today?" Amelia asks. 

"Well, where are the girls?" she asks back.

Amelia smiles, glancing in front of them as she waves her hand. "There they are!" she exclaims before rushing over to their church friends. 

Elle walks over to them absentmindedly before bumping into someone but somehow, it feels like the same tall, hard, body from last night. 

Lloyd. Is it him? 

"Oh, I'm so sorry. That was my fault. I wasn't watching where—" She stops herself talking as she looks up to see who it is. 

Lloyd. And Six. 

They're standing close to each other as they look down at their precious little weapon in a simple, polite, white dress that's longer than the dress she wore last night with a white, soft cardigan.

They look different from last night, too. Lloyd's still wearing a pattern, fancy, polo shirt but it's less casual, more formal and professional. Six is wearing a gray, casual suit just what was chosen for him with a simple black shirt underneath. 

They sure still look hot even in broad daylight.

Elle widens her eyes in surprise. "What the actual—" she stops herself before saying a bad word. 

"Language, sweetheart. We're in church." Lloyd teases with a smug smile on his lips. 

Fucker. 

She frowns. "What are you doing here? Both of you. I gave you my address, you should've just waited until the afternoon or something—" 

Lloyd cuts her off. "Unfortunately, things just can't work the way we want it to be. We answer to the chief of the CIA—" 

Elle hushes him. "Shut up. Don't talk about the CIA here." she whispers, getting close to his face as he looks down at her, wondering how she got him to shut up but she did.

Because no one tells Lloyd to shut up. Usually.

Six nods at her. "You're right." he mutters.

She glances at him. "Oh, so now you're talking to me? Six, I don't get you. You said that you'll do what I want but then here you are, showing up in my church when I told you last night, both of you, that we'd meet in my house. I told you that I'd comply. Whatever you want me to do. So why did you have to go and invade my privacy by tracking my damn location?" Elle snaps.

He walks to her side as she turns to him and he's giving her an apologetic look that he's never given anyone before. He knows he screwed up but it's not like he had a choice — he's always done his job with no questions asked or any complaints. 

"I'm sorry, Elle. We had to." Six says. 

She huffs. "At least give me a reasonable explanation on why you went against my wishes." 

"We can't tell our boss that we met you in that bar last night, Sunshine. We weren't supposed to be there in the first place. So, we asked our IT team and they tracked you here." Lloyd responds.

Elle looks at him with an annoyed look and he's grinning at her. She kinda looks hot when she's angry. "Oh, of course you don't even follow your company's rules." she retorts. 

Lloyd rolls his eyes. "Rules don't mean dick to me. But I still do my job." he says.

She hushes him. "We're in church, Lloyd. Mind your language." she reminds him in a smug tone.

He grabs her arm tightly. "Just shut up and come with us. Now." Lloyd orders, sternly.

She frowns, shrugging his hand off in one try and he's surprised how she got out of his tight grip so easily. She has enhanced strength but he doesn't know that yet. She didn't exactly give a lot of details about her last night. 

Six carefully places his hand on her arm that Lloyd just grabbed roughly. "Lloyd, you touch her like that again and…" he trails off.

"And what? Why do you keep protecting her like she's made of glass, huh? I know she was fun last night but that's over now. Remember Six, she's just a mission. In a few hours , we won't even see her again." Lloyd talks to Six, ignoring her.

Just a mission. A job. A duty. A task. Not a human being. 

Elle gets close to his face. "You talk about me like I'm an object again and I swear I'll blow your head off with my mind, without even blinking my eye, Hansen." she threatens, calmly.

Just like him. He threatens people a lot.

Lloyd snaps his head to her. "How did you know my last name?" He asks in a serious tone, completely ignoring her cute tiny threat that's making his cock twitch a little in his pants. 

"Because I can read minds, asshole." she whispers to his face and he glared down at her. 

"Hey, guys, let's talk about this somewhere else quietly before you guys kill each other." Six suggested, calmly.

Elle turns to him. "I agree. We need to talk more about the C…I…A… too." She talks extremely slowly. 

Lloyd laughs mockingly. "Wow, seriously? Just say it, we're not going to have to kill anyone if you just say the word. I doubt anyone here even speaks English." he taunts.

She blinked confusedly and now she's offended. "Of course they speak English, you think this is some kind of small village or something just because we're in a third world country, huh? We're in a modern city, you—" 

Lloyd can sense that she's about to insult him as he clenches his jaw and his gaze darkens towards her. No one has ever dared to talk to him like this. But he's letting her, somehow.

Six cuts her off. "Okay. Guys, stop. Elle, a quiet place?" He softly asked her.

Elle turns to him and nods. "Follow me." she says before walking ahead and they follow her from behind. 

She leads them through the crowd of church members who've just finished their service. As they're walking, they earn a few curious and nosy stares from a few people — it's very rare to see two white guys in this small church. The last white guy here was probably her dad but that was years ago. And in this city, white guys are like fucking celebrities. 

They're also wondering how sweet, innocent, devoted church member Elle has two handsome white guys walking behind her like they're her personal pets. 

Six leans into her from behind while still walking. "Why is everyone staring?" he asks her. 

Elle sighs as she guides them to a small, secluded hallway before opening a door and muttering a small spell under her breath as the lights switch on immediately. 

She enters the room first. And the guys follow her inside as Six closes the door. 

It's a really small room. With a white board in front and a few chairs and tables. Like a classroom but less depressing. 

"This used to be where my Sunday School class was. But it's just an old storage room now." Elle mumbles quietly but both of them still heard it. 

Six walks to her and looks at her but really looks at her like he wants to kiss the shit out of her, regardless of everything else and where they are.

"You're looking at me like you want to fuck me, Six." She remarks as his cheeks slightly turn red, trying to hide a smile coming off his lips. 

Lloyd chuckles. "Who fucking doesn't? Anyway, let's get back to business, shall we, Sunshine?" 

Elle turns to him and rolls her eyes. "Fine. We have a few minutes before my best friend starts looking for me. So, talk." 

He nods. "So, the chief of the CIA, Denny Carmichael was the one who assigned the both of us to find you. The only information that we got was someone seeing you walking out the building alive and well and they saw your abilities. But you weren't identified yet. We didn't know anything about you, at all. Until last night, of course. Now, we have to come up with a little lie for all of this to work. We'll say that we went out yesterday to that bar, chasing a small lead from a local informant and then found you but then you disappeared." Lloyd explains. 

She cocks her head to the side. "That could make sense but then how would you know that I'm the weapon? No one knows my real identity." 

Six looks at her. "Why is that?" he asks. 

She sighs. "After the experiment that my parents agreed on, they kept my whole life as discreet as possible. They moved us to this small neighborhood, years ago where everyone knows everyone. I went to a local school only a few minutes away from the house they bought that I still have until now. Hiding in plain sight. And, my real identity was never known to anyone else except them. Not even me. I'm pretty sure they burned my birth certificate too. They gave me a short name that I could hold on to but it's not my real name. They wanted to protect me if one day something like this happened." she explained.

Both of the guys nod. 

Six could relate a little bit to her. He knows his identity but he was forced to completely erase it and become a faceless person, almost like her. 

Lloyd takes a step closer to her. "That must be horrible. Not knowing your own identity." He mutters. His tone was softer than usual. 

He feels a tiny bit bad for her. He didn't even know that he could feel sympathy for other people, until now. He could see the look on her face, she's trying to act all casual like it doesn't bother her at all but he could still see a small glimpse of sadness and disappointment in her eyes. She has been through a lot and he could visibly see that.

Six knows it, too. Just by the tone of her voice. It's the same tone he always uses every time someone tries to ask him about his feelings — he immediately avoids it.

Her lips form a thin line. "It's fine. I'm all used to it by now. My parents treated me more like an experiment than a daughter."  

She clears her throat. "Anyway, let's talk more about the important matter at hand. So, just tell him that you did talk to me, investigated me with some of those CIA training or some shit and then you found out that I am the weapon. But then I disappeared at that bar and you only got a name from me." Elle makes a plan. 

Lloyd nods, really focused on her. "Alright, that makes sense. And then, we told our IT team and tracked you here. That pretty much covers it all." he adds.

Six nods too. "Okay, that's great. Now, do we bring her to the penthouse or?" he asks him.

He nods. "Yeah. Denny would need to see her so we'll just do a quick facetime and he's probably going to ask her a few questions." Lloyd replies, taking out his phone to text Denny. 

Elle nods too, sighing as she looks at Six and then to Lloyd. "And then, what?" she asks. 

Lloyd switches his eyes back to her. "And then, we get on a plane to Langley. It's the CIA headquarters in the states. They'll figure out what to do with you later." he responded, flatly.

She swallows thickly as her fingers fiddle with each other, anxiously and she massages her temple. "Wait. I don't—I don't want to leave this country. I'm not..." 

Lloyd frowns, stepping closer. "Then, I don't know what the fuck do you what me to do with that. We're just delivering you, that's it. The rest of it is none of our fucking problem." he retorts.

Elle scoffs. "You don't get it. This city still needs my help. And I can help now because I know what my powers are capable of, after last week." she tells him.

He shakes his head. "No. From what I've seen, this city is unsalvageable. You can't save it, Elle. Just fucking accept it and move on." Lloyd harshly says. 

Six slowly reaches his hand to her, gently holding her arm as she turns to him. "Hey, don't listen to him. You could still talk to Denny and who knows, maybe he'll let you stay here and do what you still need to do." 

Lloyd scoffs at him. "Either you're still pussy drunk from her last night or you're just too fucking dumb, Six. He's not going to let her stay. He assigned us to bring our fucking weapon to him, not let her stay." he argues.

She rolls his eyes at him. "I'll still do the CIA work, just in this city. There are a lot of cases here that the CIA refuses to even open their eyes to. But I can help, I can finish all of it. Please, at least let me talk to him without you cutting me off every second. I just need that from you, Lloyd. Nothing else." Elle bargains.

He heavily sighs, his eyes focused on hers and her eyes are practically pleading at him and he's never been so turned on by a woman begging to him. Usually, they beg for his dick but this time, it's a completely different situation and he loves it. He does not see her as an object — he's just trying to refuse the temptation to have her again. That's why he was talking about her like that earlier.

He has to avoid the temptation because women in his life are always a one time thing and after this, he's never going to see her again. So if he had her again, he's scared he'd never let go. 

But, truthfully, if the situation was different, he would've loved having her over and over again, mark every inch of her body, fuck her for hours and days until she's tired even with her enhanced stamina and strength. She really is that tempting for him. 

But right now, she's untouchable.

Lloyd exhales. "Fine. I'll let you talk. Go ahead. Won't stop you. But that's it, I can't help you convince him. He's stubborn." 

Elle smiles a little as she nods. "Okay, thank you. That's enough for me. Oh, by the way, I need to tell my best friend that I won't be joining lunch with our church friends." she says, heading to the door.

Six and Lloyd follow her from behind again.

"What are you going to tell her?" Six asks.

"I'll just tell her that I'm going to show the two new white guys around the city." She replies, smoothly winking at the both of them as she opens the door.

Six chuckles. Lloyd scoffs.

*** 

"Are you kidding me?" Amelia exclaims. 

Elle nods. "I know, I'm sorry. They just seem too lost and they can't even speak a tiny bit of Indonesian. They just arrived here yesterday. It's all just a culture shock for them. And you know me, I can't resist helping." She makes up an excuse. 

The guys are standing far from her, closer towards the exit as they wait for their precious weapon, and talk to her friend so they can finally leave this church. Lloyd is making a call to their driver to pull up the car over here. Six is watching her. 

He's really watching her — more like observing. Her every move, her facial expression, her lips moving and her small, innocent glance towards him. 

Amelia sighs. "Okay, fine. Just, text me okay. If anything happens. Be careful." she warns her.

Elle breaks into a laugh. "Relax, I'll be fine. If they try anything with me, they should be the ones worried. So, don't worry, okay?"

She nods, holding Elle's hands. "I will always worry. But, at least, tell me their names?" Amelia asks.

Elle looks at them as she does too. "Okay, so the fancy looking one is Lloyd. And the other handsome one beside him is…Jack. Yeah, he's Jack." She makes up a fake name for Six. 

Amelia is extremely smart and they've been best friends since the first grade so Elle has always had a hard time lying to her but this isn't a lie, just a really small white to avoid telling her about the whole CIA thing. It's to protect her, anyway.

She hums confusedly. "He doesn't really look like a Jack. Maybe it's not his real name." Amelia assumes. Well, she's right.

Elle chuckles. "So what? Elle's not even my real name either." she retorts.

Amelia frowns. "Hey, don't say that. I know it's not, but you are Elle. No matter what your real name is. You have been Elle your whole life." she reminds her.

She chuckles and nods. "I know. Okay, so I'll see you later?" Elle starts walking away from her. 

"Yes. You better." Amelia replies as she watches her walk to the guys. 

Elle smiles at Six as soon as she reaches them. "Hey, I am extremely starving and I know you guys are too. So, should we go for lunch together first?" she suggests.

Lloyd glances at her. "Sure. There's a decent Japanese restaurant next to the penthouse. Also, Denny's going to call us later, at 2pm. So, we still have at least three more hours." He announces. 

Six nods. "Three more hours until we won't see you again." he reminds them.

No. Shit. 

She frowns, placing her hand on his. "We don't know that, okay? For now, let's just focus on the present." 

Lloyd agrees as he nods. "Yeap. Speaking of, our ride's almost here. You said goodbye to your friend, already?" he asks.

"Yeah. She believes it. Also, she asked your names and I had to give Six a fake name. Sorry." Elle admits with a smile. 

Six chuckles. "What's my fake name?" 

"...Jack." she replies. 

"Great. Because I really look like a Jack." 

She giggles. "No, you don't, actually. That was just the easiest name I could've come up with! My brain was totally blank despite my enhanced IQ, okay!" Elle exclaims. 

Six laughs with her. "Okay, okay. I guess we'll roll with Jack, then. Better than a number for a name, right?" he jokes back as she nods, a smile still lingering on her lips for him. 

Lloyd glances at them and they look oddly happy. He would've never thought that Six could even be happy or even laugh for that matter. And about her, he's concluded that she seems happy almost all of the time despite everything she's been through. She's a spark, a bundle of happiness in the middle of chaos and destruction — just what they both need since their world always revolves around murder and murder. 

She's the light in their darkness. 

"Oh my gosh, Elle! Who are these guys with you?" One of her church friends, Sofia, asks from behind with an annoying high pitched voice that makes Lloyd roll his eyes and busies himself on his phone again. 

He can't wait to get out of here. 

Elle turns around, scooting to stand beside Six. "I'm showing them around the city. Mereka baik, kok." she says the last sentence in Indonesian, fluently and he turns his head to her, looking at her with curiosity. 

Translation : (They're nice, though.) 

Sofia chuckles. "Ganteng juga, ketemu dimana?" She asks in Indonesian. 

Translation : (They're handsome too, where did you meet them?)

"Here. At church. They're new church members." Elle replies in English. 

"Oh, well why don't we show them the city together? Hi, I'm Sofia. I'm an old church member here, been here since I was little just like Elle over here." She introduces herself. 

Six smiles politely at her. "Nice to meet you, but we already made some plans for the three of us. Elle offered to show us around so we're taking her to a nice restaurant in return, right, Lloyd?" He makes up a quick lie, nudging Lloyd's arm. 

Lloyd frowns confusedly before looking up from his phone and glances at the girl in front of them but he's uninterested. "Uh, yes. We've made reservations already." He plays along.

As kind and forgivingElle is, she never forgets a face who's ever hurt her or bullied her. Sofia was one of them, too. She used to spread weird rumors and made fun of Elle all the time, back in high school and in church. Never even apologized and just pretended like they've always been friends. And always acted like a saint in church. 

And now, she can feel the jealousy radiate from her and could read her mind, too. Elle's never felt more satisfied in her life. (Last night too, but this was a different satisfaction.)

Before Sofia's about to open her mouth and say something, Lloyd begins to walk away while he looks outside. "Our ride's here. Let's go." he announces. 

Elle holds Six's arm as they start to walk behind Lloyd. "Sorry, Sofia. Gotta go." she says, waving her hand elegantly. 

Revenge feels good. So fucking good. 

As they're walking to the black car parked in front of the church, Six looks at her and her hand on his arm as he chuckles. "Frenemy?" he asks. 

"High school bully, actually." Elle corrects him. 

Lloyd opens the door for all of them as he slides in the car first and then she does too with Six behind her. So now she's sitting between them, again. 

She giggles softly. "This position seems oddly familiar." Elle remarks. 

It really is. 

*** 

Lunch went by pretty quickly. 

Elle only ordered a few sushis — because technically, she could last without food for days. Her body could literally withstand anything. But earlier, she didn't really have much of an appetite. 

She kept thinking about what to say to convince the chief. She needed this to work. She can't leave this country. She doesn't want to. 

Lloyd ordered almost half of the menu and Six ate whatever it was there. He's not that complicated with food — there were times in missions where he had to starve for a few days so his body's already fine with it.

Now, they're inside the elevator of the building's penthouse, watching as the numbers go up and up. It's only them here.

Lloyd and Six are behind her as her eyes are focused upfront, her fingers fiddling with each other anxiously — a habit of hers since she was little every time she was nervous or anxious.

"You do that a lot." Six points out. 

He does tend to observe a lot of people, everywhere he goes. But with her, he was really focused on it. Memorized every small move she ever made. 

Elle chuckles. "Yeah. Bad habit. I didn't think you'd notice. No one usually does." 

Six frowns. Lloyd looks at her. 

"He does that a lot. He literally analyzes people every single fucking time." Lloyd remarks.

Six scoffs, gently. "Comes with the job." 

"Which could come in handy, sometimes. Wonder if he'd team us up again, Six. Hope he'd place us somewhere cold. This country is too fucking hot." He grumbles.

Lloyd always grumbles. All the time. 

At least Six is used to it by now. 

"Didn't think you'd want to work with me." 

"Eh, you've proven yourself useful. Plus, you gotta agree this mission made us both realize that we make a good team." Lloyd admits, which makes Six lift his eyebrows in surprise. 

He chuckles. "Never thought you would ever say that. Lloyd Hansen never admits anything to anyone." Six quietly says. 

Elle's not surprised. To her, Lloyd seemed like a guy who's got everything sorted out, he knows what he's doing every time, he's always annoyed at all times in every small detail that's wrong and he doesn't ever stop complaining about things that aren't done right. And mostly, he doesn't talk to people a lot probably because he's always worked alone. 

But this mission did change him, a little.

The elevator dings as it opens immediately and Elle walks out of it with the guys following her from behind. 

They're on the first floor of the penthouse as they walk in the foyer filled with those armed field agents, guarding the place. 

"We found our weapon. Set a—" Lloyd announces but quickly gets cut off as all of the field agents immediately point their guns towards her. 

She doesn't even flinch or raise her hands as she just stands calmly there before Lloyd and Six move instinctively to stand in front of her while she counts everyone in her mind. There are seven agents, all tensed with their guns pointed in the direction of her head.

She doesn't really need them to protect her. She could easily throw the guns away with her mind. But again, she has self control that's why they're here now, alive and well. If she didn't have any self control then she would've decapitated their heads off last night when she found out the truth.

Plus, guns can't even hurt her. Nothing really can. 

"Put your fucking guns down, damnit! She's with us. She's agreed to cooperate. We've already set a meeting with the chief." Lloyd yells at them. 

They've finally put their guns down at Lloyd's order but one of them still continues to point the gun at her, stepping closer as Six immediately slaps the gun out of the man's hand, effortlessly and the gun lands onto the floor somewhere.

Damn. 

Lloyd frowns at the agents. "What the fuck did I just tell you? Were your fucking ears not working well? I told all of you to protect the weapon not point a fucking gun at her, you fucking idiots." he scolds them.

Elle gently places her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Relax, Lloyd. Even if they had pulled the trigger, the guns wouldn't have hurt me. Nothing can." she says out loud, intentionally.

She can hear the slight shudder on the other agents at her words. She is invulnerable to quite literally anything. The bullets will still penetrate her skin but she just needs to take it out and then it'll heal itself. Her parents made sure of all that when they were "experimenting" on her throughout her whole childhood. 

More like abuse. 

She clears her throat, looking at the other agents. "Hey, let's all just take a chill pill and sit down. I am the weapon but not dangerous. I mean, I am dangerous but I'm not intending to hurt anyone here, in this place." Elle says with a small smile.

Six glances at her. "Let's just go upstairs to wait until the meeting," he suggests.

She looks at him and nods. "Good idea, Six. Lloyd, let's go." she says, turning around as she walks back to the elevator with the boys following her from behind again.

*** 

"I'm so fucking bored." Elle states as she's sitting on one of the large, white cozy couches with her head laying back, staring at the ceiling.

They've been waiting for what they felt like decades, just doing literally nothing. Six is taking a short nap in his bedroom. Lloyd and Elle have just been sitting across from each other, quietly. 

The living room is bigger than the one downstairs but it's so lonely. The furniture and decorations are complete but it still feels incomplete, somehow.

The whole penthouse is bigger. It's fancy and has a lot of wide spaces. But it just seems like something's missing here. 

Lloyd scoffs. "And you don't think I am? We've been waiting for one fucking hour now and we still need to wait another hour because it's not even morning yet in Berlin. Time difference fucking sucks. We should've just got on a plane right about now and take you there immediately." 

She rolls her eyes without even looking at him. "I'm not going anywhere, asshole. This would've been less boring if there were drinks in that empty fucking fridge of yours." she retorts.

He scowls. "I didn't fill the fridge because we aren't even going to be here tomorrow morning." Lloyd tells her.

Elle blinked confusedly. "Then why did you have to buy an extremely expensive penthouse if you're just going to use it for one night?" she asked.

Lloyd huffs. "Because I want to. That's it. No more fucking questions, okay?" 

She lifts her head and straightens up as she glances at him. "Hm. Then why don't we buy some drinks and come back here? There's a grocery store downstairs."

He finally meets her glance and chuckles. "Okay, question. If you can't even get drunk then why do you need alcohol? You won't feel anything, right? It's just like drinking sparkling water." 

Elle nods. "Yes, well, I like the little buzz it gives me. Even though it's very small, I'll take what I can still get, you know." 

Lloyd chuckles. "I'm sure it's not that small, sweetheart." he teases.

She chuckles, rolling her eyes as she looks down at his crotch. "I wish I had x-ray vision or something then I would have proved it myself." she teases back.

"Then maybe you should've taken me up on that offer last night." Lloyd retorts.

"Lloyd, you said it yourself. I was just temporary fun for you last night. You won't even see me in a few hours, right?" She reminds him.

"True. But, what do two bored people do when they're so fucking bored?" He's teasing her again but only because he's bored and has literally nothing else to do.

Elle rolls her eyes again. "They drink. Now, get those fucking drinks before I blow your head off." she casually threatened him. 

Lloyd smirks a little. "Fine. I need a lot of drinks too. Stay here. I'll be back in a minute. Wake up Six or something if you're too bored while I'm gone." he says while getting up from the couch. 

She nods, looking up at his tall figure. "Could you get me some candies, too? Sweet stuff helps with the overwhelming effects on my body. Thanks." Elle says casually.

He doesn't answer her as he just walks past her to go to the foyer and to the elevator, as she could hear him press the button from afar and the elevator opening while he gets inside of it. 

As soon as she heard the elevator close behind him, she immediately got up from the couch and took off her cardigan, placing it on the couch.

She took off her shoes and socks too and then she focused on the sounds in this place. She could hear Six. His soft snoring sounds and his calm breathing. She smiled softly at that. She didn't want to wake him up like Lloyd said, she just wanted to see him. 

If she was being honest, she liked Six more. Sure, they both turned her on last night but that was yesterday. Now, it is a new day and she realized that he's better than Lloyd. He's not an asshole for starters, he's respectful to her and also, she feels like he deserves the world. 

She knows that he's given his entire life for this job of his. He tortures and kills non stop, without ever getting a break. She also knew that last night was his break from everything else. She could tell that he enjoyed last night. 

Elle slowly makes her way to the hallway that's beside the open space kitchen. She saw Six went here so she's assuming this is all the bedrooms here. 

The hallways are narrowed. There's two white doors on the side and another white door at the corner of the hallway but it looks bigger than the other doors. It's the master bedroom, probably Lloyd's room.

She turns to the left side and she can hear Six's steady heartbeat from here as she slowly and quietly opens the door, letting herself in.

Six startles from his sleep, waking up immediately as soon as he heard his door open. He was trained to wake up at every slight sound hence why he's a light sleeper.

Elle widens her eyes. "Woah, relax. It's just me. I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm sorry. I was really trying to be quiet." she says, closing the door behind her.

He sighs, sitting up from his bed. "Is the meeting starting?" Six asks as she makes her way to him.

She sits beside him on the bed and shakes her head. "No. We still have another hour. Lloyd's getting some drinks downstairs." Elle tells him.

Six nods. "What are you doing here?" he asks, the corner of lips twitching.

Her lips slowly tug into a smile. "I wanted to watch you. You sound like you sleep so peacefully, like a baby. But I'm sorry I woke you up. Didn't know you were a light sleeper."

He chuckles. "It's fine. So, you wanted to just watch me sleep? And then…what?" Six teases her.

Her smile lingers as she chews on her bottom lip. "It sounds creepy, I know. But I have super hearing. It allows me to hear every single thing from miles away and it gets overwhelming sometimes. But then, I heard you. So peaceful while sleeping." 

"It's not creepy. I don't mind you watching me do anything." He mumbles, quietly.

Elle hums teasingly, "Really? Anything? Like what?" 

Six smiles at her. "I don't know, you tell me. You're the one that came into my room." 

She chuckles. "We still have time. He'll be back in a while. The store downstairs has a really long line. A lot of families are shopping there. This is a family apartment after all." she tells him.

He chuckles back. "Oh, he's going to get really pissed by that." 

She nods, leaning closer to him. "He is. But that leaves us a few minutes." 

Six gently cupped her face. "Elle, I don't think we should—" 

Elle cuts him off. "You're not going to be here in a few hours. Think of this like a farewell. We won't see each other again after this because you'll be somewhere else out there and I'll still be here. And honestly, Six, last night was…eventful but I really enjoyed last night. I got out of my comfort zone for the very first time. I've never done anything risky like last night." 

He nodded, his lips curving into another smile as she observed his face. His beautiful face, his blonde hair glowing a little from the sun spilling out the window, and his blue eyes that are staring into her eyes.  

I don't deserve her. She's too perfect.

She sighed. "Let yourself enjoy things, Six. I can sense it, I don't even have to read your mind to know what you're thinking right now. You think you don't deserve nice things. But that's not true. You do." Her fingers caressed his cheek.

He leaned into her touch. "No one's ever pointed that out before." he paused. "Are you sure you want me?" Six asked and she quickly nodded.

He lifts his eyebrows. "Even after what I did earlier? Showing up at your church?" 

She chuckles, slapping his arm very lightly but it hurted him anyway. "I forgive you. It's all about forgiveness, right?" she pauses as she sighs. "I'll miss you, you know. A lot. I won't ever meet anyone like you, ever again. Because I'll be stuck here." Elle admits.

Six nods, his lips twitching as his hands leave her cheeks, moving onto her waist and pulling her into him as she falls on top of his body — his very hard body. 

He's only wearing a white shirt and thin gray sweatpants. It was the only chill clothes he had packed. She could feel everything of his through the thin fabric. 

Elle giggles softly, biting her bottom lip as she straddles his waist and rests her hands on his shoulder. "I like this position." she states. 

Six chuckles. "I'll um, miss you too, Elle. I wish I didn't have to…you know. It's just that I've never stayed in one place for a while to let myself enjoy things. That's why." he admits bluntly.

She nods, her thumb caressing his cheek. "I know. And I also know that confessing things to people isn't what you usually do, right?" 

He holds her face between his hands. "Exactly. You make me do shit that I'm not supposed to do, Elle. It's a good thing. I've always wanted to get out of my zone." 

Elle chuckles. "Yeah, you mean comfort zone?" 

His face turns into a confused frown. "I don't have comfort in my life. You know that."

"Well then maybe you should." she says.

"Nope." he quickly replies.

She smiles at him, her hand brushing away a strand of his hair from his forehead and she gently plants a kiss there. "This is comfort, Six. And you deserve it." 

Deserve isn't exactly a word in his vocabulary. It never was. 

A smile touched his lips as his hands stroked her hair with both of his hands. He looked at her with a soft look and cupped her cheeks. He seems to like touching her face. "I don't want to fuck you, Elle. You don't deserve a fucking quickie." Six says.

She giggles, leaning her forehead against his. "Hm. Then, no fucking. Just this. I'm fine with that. Perfectly fine," Elle grins before leaning into him and pressing a gentle kiss on his lips as he returns it back.

She can't linger. And neither can he. They both know that if they did, it would most likely turn into a quickie or more. 

Her lips are so fucking tempting.

Six leans his head on the headboard and takes his time to look at her. "You heard that, didn't you? My mind…" he asks.

Elle nods. "Yeap. I always do." She says, "Hey, let's watch some television. Lloyd was extremely boring earlier. Didn't even want to turn on the goddamn tv." 

He chuckles. "I think because he prefers to wait in silence." 

She snorts. "Holy fuck. Of course he does. Hm, anyway…" she trails off while flipping herself over to the other side of the bed, landing her head right on his shoulder. 

Reaching out the remote from the nightstand without even looking, she presses the on button and the television plays some kind of Hollywood movie from an international channel.

Six sneaks his hand under her shoulder and rests it there as he looks at her, who's focused on the stupid movie. 

"Watch the movie, Six. It's going to get awkward if you don't." She remarks casually without looking at him. 

He chuckles, shaking his head before turning his head to the boring ass television that she seems so interested in.

It is boring, it's agreeable to both of them. But at least it's comfortable. 

***

The liquor bottles clink from inside the plastic bag as it hits the elevator floor softly.

Lloyd lets out a long, tired sigh. 

He's so fucking pissed. 

He had to wait half an hour just waiting in line at the cashier. 

He just wanted to pull his gun out of his pocket and just shoot everyone there. Even though there were families and children there. 

But, he didn't. He had self control to say the least. Working for the CIA does that to him — he has to follow some rules or else there'd be consequences that he sure as hell won't want to deal with. 

As the lift dings and opens itself, he quickly grabs the plastic bags and storms out of there.

"Elle! Where are you?" Lloyd yells as he walks into the living room, seeing no sign of her. Just her cardigan and her purse on the couch. 

She walks from the hallway calmly. "Yeah? Did you get the drinks? And my candy?" 

He frowns. "Well, yes but—the line was fucking horrible. Guess you just forgot to mention it, didn't you?" he accuses her.

Elle steps toward him as her eyebrows pull together. "I don't know what you're talking about, Lloyd. How should I know that the line was long? I wasn't there, was I?"

He drops the bags down on the floor.

Lloyd clenches his jaw, not appreciating her challenging tone. "No, but you are clever. That I know. And that you're really fucking powerful. Who knows what other secret powers you fucking have under your sleeve, huh?" He grabs her face, gripping it tightly between his one hand.

She frowns. "Fuck off. It's better waiting downstairs than in here with me, anyway. You were really fucking bored with me, right? Didn't even want to look at me the whole time." Elle remarks.

He rolls his eyes. "The only fucking reason that I did not want to look at you is because I'll be tempted to fuck you. And you don't want that, right? Seeing as you just came back from church, playing the sweet devoted church member, pretending that you're all innocent and that you didn't just commit mass murder last week." Lloyd taunts her.

Rage burns through her skin. Her face turns red. Her hands fly up to his muscular arms as her strong fingernails dig into his skin, really fucking deep until she could feel the insides of his skin and he groans out of pain while blood drips from his skin.

Lloyd lets her face go immediately. "You fucking cunt!" he yells as her fingers leave his arm and she smirks at him.

Six runs out of his room as soon as he hears Lloyd's loud groan.

"What's happening?" He asks, stepping in the living room.

Elle turned toward him and smiled lightly. "Everything's fine. The drinks are here!" 

Lloyd frowns. "No, it's not. She just stabbed my fucking arm with her strong little fingers." he tells him.

It doesn't hurt for him but he hates that he let her do it. He could've hurt her back but he didn't. He hates it so much. He hates her. Everything about her. She is so insufferable. 

Six breaks into a chuckle. "I'm sure she had a reason. And it looks fine. It'll heal in a few days." he says, looking over to Lloyd's arm.

He scoffs as he looks back at her. "If you were anyone else, I would have your fucking head on a stick. And for this to work, sweetheart, you gotta behave or else we'll just tell Denny that you're uncontrollable and he'll just tell us to kill you." Lloyd threatens her. 

Elle rolls her eyes. "I'm the weapon, Hansen. Not to be cocky or anything but there's literally no one else as powerful as me. I checked. And from what I know, you guys need me. Or else you wouldn't have come here. Am I right?" She looks back between Six and Lloyd.

Six nods. "She is right. Now, will you guys just stop fighting? You won't even see each other in a few hours, right? So let's just get this over with." he tells them.

She hums in response before taking the bags from the floor as she walks to the kitchen island and places it on the counter.

Lloyd huffs and walks to his room to change his clothes and scrub off the blood. He's not even in the mood to drink anymore. 

"To be fair, he gripped my face between his strong fucking hand. It was self defense." Elle defends as Six steps toward her and she turns to him.

He chuckles. "He'll get over it. Or not. It's not like he can do anything about it." 

She chuckles, nodding her head. "Yeap. In the meantime, let's have a—" she gets cut off by Lloyd's door slamming open.

"The meeting's about to start. It's starting early. Let's go." Lloyd announces as he walks to the kitchen with a frown, refusing to even look at her. 

Six nods, gently grabbing Elle's hand and they walk towards the elevator with Lloyd behind them.

*** 

Elle stands between Lloyd and Six in front of the huge TV that's showing a zoom meeting but it's still loading. 

They're on the first floor of the penthouse again. Now that she's actually looking around it, it's so much smaller than the second floor.

Everything is so small. The kitchen is a small space in the corner. The dining room is just a small, round glass table and a few chairs near the kitchen. The living room is a little bit bigger but it's already filled with computers and desks everywhere and all the weapons are all laid out on the couches, just like that. 

It's so much better on the second floor.

So they're just standing there, awkwardly with the field agents and the IT team behind the TV. 

"Hey, could someone fucking fix this?" Lloyd grumbles. 

"I'm sorry, the signal's just really bad. It'll load up in a few minutes…" One of the IT support says.

He huffs in frustration. "Fucking hell! How long are you going to wait for this shit?" 

Elle sighs, glancing over at him. "Calm down. I don't like your negative energy." she says flatly and Six holds in his laugh.

He rolls his eyes, turning to her. "Well, I don't give a shit about my fucking—" Lloyd gets cut off as the zoom meeting turns on and Denny's face is all up in the big screen.

Elle clears her throat, straightening up as she steps forward, waving her hand politely. "Hi, hello. I'm Elle. The weapon. But I'm totally non-lethal." She introduces herself, casually. 

Denny raises his brows and frowns. "She's the weapon? Are you sure? Lloyd, did you get the right one? There's no way that—"

Lloyd nods. "Yes. I did. She is the weapon. She's proven herself with her abilities." he replied in a serious tone.

"Oh. Okay. Well, I need to ask you a few questions first. What is your citizenship?" Denny asks her.

"I'm Indonesian and American. I have both passports. It wasn't possible to have dual nationalship in this country but my parents, they made it happen. They're also the ones responsible for making me what I am. Well, partially. But uh, they signed a contract to a scientist who made me their test subject, when I was only five years old. The scientist is dead and the lab's shut down, a long time ago." Elle explains.

Lloyd isn't fazed by it, he already knew her past was fucked up. Six glances at her from behind, sympathetically. 

"Where are your parents now?" He asks her.

She keeps her poker face on. "Somewhere in Bali, they moved there years ago. But they don't know anything about what I've…done." 

Denny nods, writing something down. "Right. So, about what you've done. Why did you do it?" He asks her.

Elle clears her throat again. "It was an accident. I got carried away with my emotions so my powers blew up the place. But, I would never do it again. That was a different time. I didn't know how powerful I was back then." she replied.

"But that was a week ago. Not so long ago." He reminds her. 

"Yes, and I've learnt a lot in the past week. I can control it now. I can be your weapon. For the CIA. As long as—"

Denny cuts her off. "Okay, but I still need to know why you blew up that building." 

She nods. "Right. Of course. Well, it was a laboratory full of scientists who were going to sell a cure for a rare disease to the highest bidder, who I'm assuming is from the black market. We all made the cure together for months and it was meant for dying patients who were on their deathbed but they betrayed me. So I guess I got a bit too emotional. But won't ever happen again. You have my word." she explains, thoroughly. 

Six looks at her again and Lloyd too. They both didn't know that. At all. Last night, she only told them that it was an accident, that's all. They didn't know it was because of some cure of dying people. 

"And the scientists…were all bad people?" Denny asks. 

Elle nods. "All corrupted." she confirms.

"Alright. So now, we'll get you on a plane to Langley and then we'll do some tests and training. After that, off to the field. Lloyd, Six, mission successful. You can go back to wherever you want." He declares.

Lloyd grins, satisfied. "Finally. Can't fucning wait to get out of this fucking country." He remarks. 

She steps back and meets Six's eyes as he gives her a small, proud smile before she turns her head to the TV again. 

"Wait. Um, I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound stubborn but I can't go anywhere. Not yet, at least. This country, as shitty as it is, it's where I was born and raised. I learned so much from here. The people, the culture. I can't just leave without fixing some things that can only be fixed by me." she pauses, "Look, I know that the CIA has thousands of agents all around the world to help each country but I've never seen any agents here to help us. Why? There's hundreds of cases for the CIA." Elle asks sternly.

Denny clears his throat. "It's because your country isn't our top priority right now."

"No, I know that. But it's still suffering anyhow. There's still a lot of drug lords, crime lords, corrupted politicians, human and sex traffickers, rich people who do a lot of criminal shit and they're all running free because of how weak the law and police system is here. There's no justice here. And the people here have suffered too long because of it. But I can fix it. I can do all the missions you send me from here and finish it in a jiffy and even make it clean. I can do any other missions you want me to do here, too. Anything. Just let me do it all here." She bargains. 

She needs this to work. She can't let them drag her out of this country. She'll kill anyone in her way. She means it. When she's ambitious about something, she works extremely hard to get it. And she always gets what she wants in the end. 

Lloyd frowns, thinking that she's pushing her luck now. He knows Denny and he's just as stubborn and just as an asshole as he is. He doesn't listen to people because everyone has to listen to him. Just like Lloyd. 

Six is quiet, as usual. He observes her and each and every word she's saying. He wants this to work for her, too. She's doing this for a good cause and he's slightly amazed by how she really wants to help people. 

Denny is silent for a while, contemplating on everything she just said and trying to make a quick decision that would benefit everyone. He can't afford to lose the weapon, so he can't refuse her either.

"Look, every mission that I'll succeed in, you can take all the credit for yourself. You can tell my President that the CIA was the one who helped clean the city and I'm sure you'll be rewarded greatly by it. Imagine all the good press you'll get, as well. And you could cross check this country on the lists of countries needing help. It's a win-win situation." Elle tries to bargain again. 

Six is impressed by how good she formed every sentence just to convince Denny. Lloyd finally takes a glance at her, his face slowly softening at the sight of her.

Denny thinks on it again for a while and he's come to a decision now. "Alright. You can stay. But just for a few months and you'll be accompanied by the IT team, our field agents and Lloyd and Six." He announces.

What. The. Fuck.

No, no. This wasn't her plan, exactly. 

Elle is completely stunned and speechless as she widens. Lloyd frowns confusedly and scowls. Six lifts his brows up in surprise, looking at Elle. This wasn't a part of their plan. It wasn't supposed to go this way. 

Lloyd immediately steps forward. "No. Absolutely not. We're not going to be fucking babysitters for her in this godforsaken country. I need to get out of this country. I can't fucking stay here. Let alone a few fucking months." he grumbles.

Denny shakes his head. "Lloyd, you have the penthouse. You own it. It's a good enough place to stay there for a couple of months."

He scoffs loudly. "And what about my other missions in other countries?" 

"You're not needed anywhere, actually. Six, too. Not for the next few months, at least. I have tons of field agents handling it. Look, this mission will be a chance for both of you to finally settle in one country for once and it'll be easier than the other missions. Think of it like a little break." He tells them.

Lloyd huffs. "But I don't want to settle in this fucking country." he retorts. 

Denny sighs. "You have to, Lloyd. It's an order. Ask for anything you need but you're staying there." he orders, sternly. 

Six nods. "I'm not exactly refusing but why do I have the feeling that you want to get rid of both of us?" he asks.

"No. That's not true. You and Lloyd are my most valuable assets in the CIA. Elle is too, now. But at this moment, we're not really needing you for a lot of missions and Elle needs both of you to do this. I'm sure all three of you would make a great team. Also, if I need you for any missions around Asia, I'll let you know and I'll send a chopper up the penthouse. Alright, that's it for today." Denny declares.

Lloyd scoffs. "No, no, you're not—" he gets cut off with the zoom meeting ending abruptly. "Did he just fucking hang up on me? I'm going to call him. This is not over." He grumbles again as he takes out his phone to dial Denny's number. 

Elle turns to him. "It's useless. You heard him, Lloyd. It's an order. He won't change his mind. I saw it." she tells him.

He lunges forward and clenches his jaw as he looks down at her with pure rage. "You fucking wanted this, right? You convinced him." Lloyd thickly says. 

She shakes her head. "No. This wasn't my plan. I just wanted him to let me stay, not you guys. I could do this alone." she clarifies.

"You can't." Six interjects, walking to them as he stands beside her. 

Lloyd frowns. "As much as I hate to admit it, he's right. No offense but we're talking about CIA missions and they're not easy. You don't even have enough training."

Elle rolls her eyes. "Then, train me." 

"I don't want to fucking stay here." He grits out.

Six sighs. "Lloyd, come on. I know it'll take at least a few days to adapt here but you'll get there. And besides, not like we can do anything about it now. It was a clear order."

Lloyd huffs in irritation, glancing at Six. "I need to get some fucking air." he tells them before walking out of there.  

Six looks at Elle and she gives him a faint smile. "Didn't hear you complain." she comments.

"You too." he says back. 

Well, she did get what she wanted just a little more than she asked for. 

"Lloyd's such a baby." She remarks.

"He is. Do you wanna get out of here?" Six asks her, referring to all the other people in the room listening to their conversation.

Elle chuckles as she nods and they both walk to the elevator where Lloyd is still waiting for it to open. 

It finally opens and they all get in, without saying one word. 

***

It's quiet in the penthouse as the day settles into night time. 

Six and Elle ordered Chinese take outs and ate in the living room while Lloyd stayed in his room all afternoon. 

She hasn't even gone to see her bedroom yet. She didn't really want to. She felt guilty. She didn't want it to go this way either but it just did. She can't do anything about it now. 

As of now, Elle and Six are still sitting on the couch as they watch television with their leftover take outs on the coffee table. 

"Elle, are you going to sleep in my room?" Six suddenly asked. 

She frowns. "No? I'm not. It'd be weird. We're sort of co-workers now since we'd be working together in the future." 

His smile turns into a smirk. "Wow. Really? I was just about to ask about us, you know."

Elle tilted her head to the side. "Oh. Well, I don't know. But what I know is, a few hours ago, I thought I'd never see you again but here we are. We're going to be stuck with each other for months. So, I guess, we should live in the moment, right? Enjoy it while we can?" 

Six snickers. "You just said it'd be weird if we slept together." he reminds her.

She chuckles. "Yeah, well I wasn't really thinking about it until you asked…"

"So now, what?" he asks.

"Now, I settle into my room and we could talk about it more in the morning. Plus, I want to talk to Lloyd." she responds.

Six frowns. "Are you sure?" 

Elle nods. "Yes. I'll be fine. I just want to talk nicely and make peace with him."

He nods. "Okay, well I'll go clean this up." 

She smiled and watched him get up from his seat before her hand stopped his arm as he turned to her, confused.

"Not without a goodnight kiss. Just like last night." She reminds him. 

Six chuckles, sitting back down as he leans closer to her. "Except this is so much better than last night." he murmurs, cupping her face carefully and he kisses her, soft and gentle. This time, her lips are soft and pillowy and he could already feel his cock twitch as she let out a breathy moan against his lips.

She giggles as he tries to deepen the kiss but she breaks the kiss immediately, bracing her hands against his shoulders. "You trying to fuck me in this couch, Six?" she jokes.

He lets out a hearty laugh and grins at her. "Nah. You're too precious to be fucked against a couch, Elle." Six tells her.

Elle nods, humming in response. "Okay. Looks like I'm too precious for almost everything." she remarks.

"You are. Alright, I'm gonna go. You be careful with Lloyd, okay? He's sensitive right now. Call me for help if anything happens." He says while rising up from the couch, grabbing their leftover boxes from the table. 

She snorts. "I won't need it. Don't worry." 

***

Elle's gathering as much courage as she can while she slowly walks to Lloyd's room.

She doesn't even know what to say yet. Not a single clue. What she knows is that she has to fix this with him. She can't have him hating her while they're working together. It'd ruin missions. 

From afar, she could hear the garbage bin open as Six threw away their leftovers in the kitchen while walking to the fridge, getting a drink.

She stands in front of Lloyd's door and sighs. Before she could even change her mind and get out of there, she brings her knuckles to his door and softly knocks on it.

"It's me. Could I come in? Please? I come in peace, I promise." She says through the door. 

There's no immediate answer so she steps back from the door but suddenly, she hears a really quiet and soft hum of response from him. 

He doesn't even know that she has enhanced hearing yet.

Still an asshole. 

Elle inhaled a sharp breath as her hand opened the door gently and entered the room quietly, leaving the door open a little.

His room is the master bedroom here. Of course, he had to take the biggest room. He always does. 

The room has a wide space. It's not cramped up with a lot of furniture. It's just simple. 

There's a floor to ceiling window at the far side of his room. The huge double bed is on the other side. Some couches and a coffee table near the window that he most likely would never use. A walk-in closet behind the television and the bathroom right beside the bed. 

She scans the fancy bedroom that's much bigger than all the other rooms before her eyes land on him, who's sitting on the edge of his bed as he lets the tv on but he's not watching it. He's just sitting there and not even acknowledging her. 

"Lloyd, I want us to talk." She managed to say as she stood behind him.

"I would ask you how you'd hear me but I probably know the answer already." Lloyd retorts, still not looking at her. 

Elle nods. "Yeah, I have super hearing. Anyway, that doesn't matter now. Look, I want us to be…good. I don't want us to be sworn enemies while we're doing missions. These missions are important to me, Lloyd. I want to do good for this city. I want to use my destructive powers for good stuff not bad stuff like mass murder." She admits to him.

And that finally made him turn to her, his blue eyes meet her brown ones as she lets out a small sigh of relief. 

He scans her completely and notices a small, brown stain on her white dress from her food earlier. Clumsy. 

He scoffs gently. "You can't always be the hero, you know. You'll fuck up once in a while. You may be invincible and powerful but you're still human, Elle." Lloyd harshly reminds her. 

She huffs. "What the fuck is your problem with me? No," she jerks her finger at him. "Don't you even dare to try to deny it because you've been acting like a total piece of shit to me this whole day. I don't know what I did wrong to you? We were good last night. More than good actually, considering you had your fingers inside me." Elle taunts him. 

She just had enough. More than enough.

Lloyd sighs, standing up. He can't believe he has to answer to her now. "Because you were just a one time thing last night. And I don't do long term shit. Now, you're just someone I have to work with who just digged her crazy strong fingernails into my fucking skin earlier!" he raises his voice.

She swallows thickly, feeling deflated. "I'm sorry about that. I won't hurt you like that again. Or use my abilities to do shit like that. It was stupid." Her voice turns soft and weak. 

He blinks. He's wondering why is she even apologizing when he's been an asshole to her the whole day for no reason. She didn't deserve that. He knows that now. He can't help but feel sympathy for her when she's apologizing like this to him after he just raised his voice at her — he doesn't ever feel sympathy. 

He didn't expect an apology. He expected for her to raise her voice back. But she didn't. 

Lloyd's face softens as he slowly and cautiously steps forward to her. "No, don't. Don't apologize." he says, really soft. 

Elle looked up at him. "Can we just be good now? We need to work on our teamwork, you know. I want this mission to work. But I can't do it if we're hating each other. I'll need your help, too." 

He slowly nods his head. "Yeah. As long as you're not being insufferable to work with, that is." 

She breaks into a small smile as her eyes dart to his arms, which are clean of blood already but the scars are still fresh.

"May I?" She asks, raising her hand near his arm but not touching it before he nods.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd softly asked while she placed her palm on his arms and on the scars as he flinched a little at the sting.

"I want to heal you. I can heal myself and other people too. Think of it as a peace offering from me." Elle tells him as her eyes are focused on the scars while she chants a quick spell under her breath.

And just like that, the scars are gone completely.

"Hm. Could come in handy in missions later." He mumbles, not noticing it yet. 

She jutted her chin towards his arms. "Look at it. It's healed already." she softly told him.

Lloyd looks at her before looking down at his healed arms. "Oh. That's…great. Uh, thanks. Although I preferred to keep the scars. It adds character." he remarks.

She creases her brows. "You have a lot of scars?" she asks.

He nods casually. "Yeah. Tons of it. But I bet Six has more." 

She giggles, shaking her head. "Since when did scars become a competition, huh? You really are a man child."

Lloyd scoffs. "Fuck off. I'm not. Hey, I thought you wanted us to not fight again." 

"That wasn't a fight, Hansen. That was just banter. And we'll always have that. It adds more character to us, too. We won't be so uptight and tense all the time." she says.

"Hm. I agree. So, what's for dinner?" 

Elle rolls her eyes. "I'm not cooking you dinner. Not a fucking housewife. But, we did order a bunch of Chinese take outs. I ordered more for you. Just in case you wanted some. It's still in the kitchen."

Lloyd looked into her eyes and regarded her with a thoughtful look. It's a small gesture but it doesn't not mean anything. She's a considerate person, he knows that but earlier he was treating her like shit but she still thought of him despite everything. He could get used to this. To her kindness. Not that he's going to take advantage of it, but he just never got that from a person.

He nods. "Thanks. Have you been to your room yet? The owner told me that it's a kid's bedroom. Sorry." 

She snorts. "It's okay. It is a family apartment after all. But I need to get my stuff first at home." 

"I'll have my people get your stuff. It's late already. Don't go out." Lloyd possessively said. 

Elle slowly nods and smiles a little. "Yeah. Okay. Thank you." she says, turning around as she begins walking away from him and he follows her from behind, surprisingly. 

They exit the room together and walk into the hallway. 

Six peers up from the couch in the living room. "You guys good already?" he asks.

She chuckles. "Yeah. We are. I'm just gonna go see my room—" she opens the door beside her and stops in her tracks at the sight of the room.

Lloyd is behind her, standing in the door frame as he lightly laughs, shaking his head at the room. 

It really is a child's bedroom. It's got decorations and stickers all over the room fit for a five year old. At least the wall is still white. The bed is even small. It's a single and it's pink. There's a minimalist closet far beside the bed. A television in a low table in front of the bed. And a desk and a table attached to the wall next to the bathroom.

Six walks to them. "What's going on—" he arrives at her room before chuckling.

"Wow. Okay. Um, I could still fix this. With my powers. I could make the child's decorations disappear. But the rest of it, it's fine. I think." Elle tries to look at the bright side. Optimistic as always. 

"What about the bed?" Lloyd asks, "Can you fit? It's so small."

She turns to him. "It fits perfectly for me." 

"Are you sure?" Six asks.

Elle looks back at the room and realizes how small it actually is as she bursts into laughter, "Oh it really is that small!" she exclaims as Six laughs with her.

Lloyd shakes his head, laughing. "Guys, come on, it's not that bad!" he exclaims back. 

She nods. "Hm, yeah sure. You try sleeping in there, Hansen." she retorts.

"I can't. It'll creak and then break." he says, honestly.

She laughs again, turning around to them. "Yeah, it will. Alright guys, you know what? I'll be fine. The bed does fit me and it is still a luxurious room. But let's get out of my room and have some dessert. I'll buy some." she suggests.

Lloyd frowns. "What are you buying?" 

"A traditional Indonesian dessert. Now that you two are going to be here for months, I want you to know my culture. I promise you won't be disappointed." Elle says with a smile on her lips. 

Six nods. "Sure. I like learning about other countries' cultures. It's interesting." 

"Thank you. What about you, Lloyd?" 

His lips formed a thin line. "Yeah. Why not? But I'm having my dinner first, then dessert. Are you going out alone?" Lloyd asks.

"Yes. But I'll be fine. There's a store nearby here. It's a three minute walk. You guys go bond with each other 

Lloyd and Six frowned as they looked at each other. 

"Don't bother me while I eat." Lloyd says.

"Got it." Six says back. 

Elle giggles, shaking her head as she walks past them to go to the living room while they follow her from behind, as usual.

It's becoming their habit now. They're almost getting used to each other. Though they still can't believe that they have to spend months together, just stuck in this penthouse.

If they're not already sick of each other, they'd probably fuck each other eventually. Not that it would happen since Elle isn't here to do that. 

She's here to do missions. For the city. Not to fuck the guys. 

Definitely not her mission despite how tempting it is. 

Elle takes her purse and walks to the lift before Lloyd and Six call out to her in sync. 

"Hey, be careful." Lloyd warns. 

"Yeah, you sure you wanna go alone?" Six asks.

A smile touched her lips as she rolled her eyes affectionately. "I'll be fine, boys." 

Lloyd contemplates her words before he shakes his head. "Yeah, no. We're coming with you. It's late, sweetheart."

And there's that again.

Sweetheart. 

If she was being honest, she likes it. But she'll never admit that.

Elle sighs in defeat as the boys made their way to her and Lloyd pressed the button for the lift to open, grinning down at her. 

"You're stuck with us now. Unfortunately." Lloyd reminds her as Six chuckles beside him.

She smiles at both of them. "I know." 

The plan didn't go how it was supposed to but it worked out eventually. 

It's what they all wanted, anyway.