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la-fille-en-aiguilles · 4 years

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Dog Tags

Billy Russo x Female!Reader

Request by @nebulastarr : Hey! Whenever requests open up again, could you do a Billy Russo x Reader where the reader liked Billy but doesn’t want to tell him because she thinks he won’t feel the same way

A/N: I was going to wait and get down to writing this once I was finished with my series... But this one has simply hit a little too close to home. I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I saw it and I ended up putting a lot of personal stuff in it so I’m sorry if it feels chaotic at times. Thank you for requesting, love, I hope it lives up to your expectations. The Only Living Thing series will be back with its third part next week. The song: Isak Danielson - Power

All you heard was an excited scream, that raised above all of the New York’s past-6-pm commotion, as a slender tall body smashed into you, locking you in a bone-crushing hug. You laughed happily, albeit feeling a little bit uncomfortable in Karen’s strong hold. You knew it didn’t seem that way, but Karen packed a wicked punch in those elegant arms of hers. Those self-defense sessions with Frankie boy that she’s been gushing about over the phone must have been finally paying off.

“Once I am done hugging you, I am so kicking your ass,” she breathed out into your hair as she squeezed you harder, as if reading your thoughts. “You’ve been ghosting me for what, a month now?”

You sighed guiltily as Karen pushed you slightly away, keeping her hands on your shoulders. You watched her as she studied your face, a creeping smile stinging at the corners of her mouth.

Grabbing one of her elbows, you groaned dramatically, pulling her towards the busy road. With your hands locked, you finally admitted:

“I did suck at communicating these past couple of weeks. Work’s been…. hectic”, the lie tasted bitter on your tongue, but this was the best explanation you’ve been able to come up with so far. “Please don’t kill me”.

Trying to keep up with your power walk, Karen let a bubbling laughter leave her lips.

“You’re not the one who should be worried then,” she gave you one of those bright trademark smiles of hers. “Next time I’m going to interview Russo, I’ll…”

You stuttered at her tirade as you walked, and of course it didn’t go by unnoticed. Karen was the best journalist you have ever met during your prominent career. She just sensed that sort of thing.

“I’m getting this ‘I-meant-to-tell-you-Karen-but-I-didn’t-and-now-you’ll-need-to-fight-it-out-of-me’ vibe”, she gave you a scrutinising look. “Want to maybe share whatever it is you’ve been not telling me before I go full interrogation mode on your plump backside?”

You rolled your eyes as you led her to a terrace-ringed Upper East Side high-rise, waving to the doorman through the glass doors. Jackson, a thirty-five year old ex-military with three kids and a labrador, gave you a brilliant smile as he hurried to open them for you.

“Good evening, Mrs Y/L/N!” He bowed his head in a stiff, very army-like manner. “A package arrived this afternoon for you, should I bring it up?”

From the corner of your eye, you caught Karen looking around, confusion written all over her face. You had a lot to catch up on.

“Don’t worry about it, Jax, just give it to me,” you didn’t mean to urge him, but you couldn’t wait to change out of your corporate attire into some comfortable old pyjamas and crack open a bottle of whiskey - that’s right, some habits did die hard. And to think you were a bubbles-kind of girl a year ago when you met him.

You could feel Karen’s blue eyes drill a hole in the back of your head as you took a small, envelope-sized package from Jackson’s hands.

It wasn’t until you both stepped into the elevator that Karen cleared her throat.

“When you said you’d rather have a girls’ night in, I asked Frank to pick me up from Queens, not from…here,” she spoke, her eyes skimming expensive red wood and mirrors. “Did you finally sleep with Russo and moved in with him?”

Whatever it was that Karen expected you to say to that, it definitely didn’t include you spitting out a roaring laugh, as you nearly dropped the package on the floor.

“Quite the opposite, actually,” you informed her after you finally restored your breath. “I left Anvil. And, well, Russo. At the end of last month”.

—

A half-bottle of whiskey for you and a bottle of white wine for Karen later, both of you were sprawled out on the lambskins thrown over the hardwood floor in your living room. Jazz music was seeping out of the speakers by the TV, a couple of Diptyque candles emitting a soft yellow glow.

You stared at the ceiling of your new living quarters, your mind a blur. As you folded your hands on your stomach, you felt Karen twitch as she bent her elbow and leaned her blond head on the palm of her hand, facing you.

“So let me get this straight,” she paused, narrowing her eyes. “After becoming the Forbes’ hottest CSO, concluding what can easily be described as deals of the century - especially the one with Anthony Stark aka Iron Man and his magnificent goatee…”

Involuntary, you giggled at this. This talk brought out some very dear memories that you wouldn’t trade for the world - the way Billy’s dark eyes shimmered in the dim lights of the opera house as he gave you a look that said you did it, ever the perfect team… Or the way he threw his arms around your frame, his long fingers sliding down your back… You knew you looked good in that dress, but the moment Billy saw you wearing it… You felt like the only girl in the world, the way his jaw dropped a tad, his lips opening up in awe…

Oookay, Y/N, can’t go there, your mind screamed at you as you wiped that dreamy smile off your face. Sitting down, you took your whiskey glass, and washed those memories away with a gulp of amber liquid.

Meanwhile, Karen ranted on.

“…you just quit?!”

She jumped to her feet all of the sudden, brushing her blond hair away from her face as she watched you excitedly.

“Jesus Christ, did Billy make a move?! He made a move on you, didn’t he?”

The urge to facepalm was fierce, almost overpowering, but you managed to resist. Slamming your empty glass against the floor harder than you intended, you gave her a bored look.

“No, Karen, why… Why in the world would you think that?” You sounded just a little short of desperate, so you cleared your throat. “I was his second-in-command, that wouldn’t have been appropriate…”

When you were done studying the flame, dancing within the glass walls of one of the nearby candles, you raised your eyes to meet Karen’s. She wore quite possibly the most blatant look of ‘you are shitting me’ on her face.

“So you just quit?” she stared at you in disbelief, unblinking. “No explanations provided?”

“This wasn’t how it happened,” you said, hating the fact that you felt like you had to justify yourself. You brought your knees closer, hugging them tightly. “I…”

—

“…I’m here to see William Russo”.  

With a nonchalant gesture, you unbuttoned your Burberry coat, looking at a red-head secretary behind a desk that screamed power and status with every inch of its epic proportions.

Anvil was certainly new money. With all of those hedge funds injecting their cash into emerging companies, there was no shortage of these - entrepreneurial endeavours that didn’t last long.

You didn’t know that at the time, but you were going to make sure this one would.

“My name is Y/N Y/N/L,” you added, perching your sunglasses on top of your head. “He’s expecting me.”

The red-head gave you a polite smile before checking something on her Mac.

“Welcome, Miss Y/N/L,” she almost seemed shy, as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before standing up. “Mr Russo is indeed waiting for you. If you would like to follow me, please”.

As the redhead led you through the training grounds, packed with fit men and women that looked like they walked straight outta Gym Shark ad, you did notice a couple of vagrant stares in your direction. You couldn’t blame them. You looked slightly out of place; more Vogue than the setting allowed for.

You quit your job as the COO of a global FinTech company just weeks ago, looking for a new challenge. It was an adventure of a lifetime, and while your ex-executive board had literally begged you to stay, once you’d decided something, no promise of a generous promotion could make you change your mind. While you absolutely loved your job, working for one of the most prominent online payment giants in the world, it felt like it was time for you to step down. Due to all the processes and wise investments you’d initiated, the company could make millions of profits without their CEO having so much as to lift a finger.

And you, well, you lived for the hustle. And that’s exactly what you were here for.

You still had your doubts about Anvil’s owner and acting CEO, though. William “Billy” Russo had already become a household name in the financial circles, albeit the company he was spearheading had little to do with the FinTech space. Some said he had the potential to succeed; others badmouthed him for being ruthless and balancing on the very edge of legal limits.

In short, the man had you intrigued. So the very moment he called and invited you to drop by Anvil to talk strategy, you knew you had to meet him.

See the beast for yourself, so to speak.

The first thing you noticed about William Russo as you walked into his office, spacious and entirely transparent, with its glass walls overlooking the training grounds, was experience, for the lack of a better word. It was etched into his every handsome feature, especially into his scruff strong-willed jaw. As he raised his gaze to meet yours upon the red-head’s announcement, his black eyes swallowing you whole, you realized no light reflected on their surface. There was a certain confidence to him as he raised from his chair, his white shirt straining some over his chest, long dark strands of hair falling onto his long eyelashes. This man meant business, as those black impenetrable eyes zeroed in on yours. He almost seemed too flawless - to spotless to be an ex-marine, stained with blood and murder.

All that Hallmark handsomeness was nothing but a cover.

Before William Russo had even got a chance to open his mouth, you were determined to find out what was lurking underneath.

“Mrs Y/L/N”, the hot-shot gave you a polite smile. “Thank you for coming”.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Russo”, you didn’t move an inch. He may have invited you for interview, but he wasn’t the only one with a long set of demands.

You briefly wondered if he knew that.

Before your thoughts could take you further, William Russo made his way to you, composed and calculated. He stopped by your side, albeit for a moment; rolling the sleeves of his shirt further up, he shot the red-head a charming smile (nothing like the one he gave you).

“Olivia, would you please bring a fresh pot of coffee to the conference room? Mrs Y/L/N and I have a lot to discuss”.

When he turned back to face you, you noted unconsciously that he was taller than you expected, the top of your head barely reaching his shoulders. The cool and composed look was back on his face as he motioned towards the doors.

“Would you like to follow me, Mrs…”

“Y/N”, you cut in with a slight raise of your chin. “I’d also prefer to call you William while I tear Anvil’s strategy down”.

His reaction didn’t disappoint. Some tension left his arms, his stung-up body relaxing just enough for a spark of mischief and curiosity flicker its way to his eyes’ surface.

A twinkle of a smile danced across his lips as he bit on the inside of his cheek, nodding ever so slightly in approval.

“It’s Billy”, he said, amusement echoing in his every word. "I don’t expect any leniency, Y/N”.

“Good”, you replied instantly, looking him straight into his eyes. “That’s not what I came here for”.

He nodded again.

And this time, there was liveliness in the quirk of his brow and a touch of insecurity in the corners of his mouth.

Now that was the man you could potentially work with.

—

Working with William Russo was anything but predictable. There were, however, certain patterns to his way of handling things. Whatever the trouble was, Billy was good at seeing the bigger picture - he was usually able to put things into perspective, but there were occasions when he refused to. You dare say that sometimes, you felt like he thought that money didn’t matter - like Anvil’s financial prosperity didn’t matter - as long as his team got not to risk their lives one extra time. You watched him turn down several lucrative deals that you’d busted your ass to put on his table, because it involved sending his men a little too far from home, in a place where he had no strings to pull whatsoever should anything go south. A part of you (the part that wasn’t frustrated as hell) admired him for that - it didn’t, however, stop you from disagreeing with him, time and again.

You may have never been to Iraq, and may have never known the horrors of sleeping with the bombs exploding a mere kilometer away, but you knew a game-changer when you saw it. There were risks involved, there was no arguing about that, but those were calculated, and those kind of deals could make Anvil jump straight to the top of the private military sector overnight.

William and you disagreed.

When William and you disagreed, no voice was raised, no blood was spilt, but Billy usually became distant, cold and just short of snappy when those conversations took place. 

He only crossed the line once.

  You were three months into your job as Anvil’s Chief Strategy Officer when Mayhew happened.

The clock on your desk showed midnight as you paced in your office, on the phone with Rex Mayhew, the U.S. Ambassador in Cairo. A cat-and-mouse game between the Egyptian Armed Forces and the nefarious arms dealer group had become common knowledge since a week or so; the U.S. special forces got involved in the conflict when it’d been discovered that the arms were being transported onto American soil. Rex, an old friend from your Yale days, had let you in on the fact that General Richard Ravelin, in charge of the operation, was looking to reinforce his rangs with private military before “neutralising the threat”. This was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, with a potential governmental recognition in play… and Billy wanted to hear nothing of it.

You were exhausted and barely hanging in there; Billy was categorical and stubborn.

You’ve dropped the phone on your table promising Rex you were going to give him an answer in two hours, tops. Taking a deep breath, you walked out of your office, your bare feet thudding on the parquet floors of the corridor. When you reached Billy’s hideout, you found the man leaning against his desk with a glass of whiskey in his unnerved hand.

“Billy…” you spoke firmly, barely stepping through the doorway. “Rex…”

“Can go fuck himself”.

Oh, okay. No sugarcoating this. Alright.

You saw his lips barely touch the amber liquid as he slammed the glass against the surface of his desk.

“I said no, Y/N,” he wasn’t facing you anymore, leaning on his desk with his hands digging into the wood, his back tense. “Please just go home. Have a good night sleep. We will talk about this tomorrow.”

You could have sworn you felt your head starting to fume. This was the third time Billy Russo was shutting you down. For the third time he was making you feel like an incompetent fool when you were trying to do your goddamn job.

Why in hell would he hire you if whatever vision you had for Anvil didn’t match with his own?!

“You could at least say this to my face, Billy,” you spoke a bit harshly before you could stop yourself. “You know, to my tired and disappointed face, with a mouth that you have been shutting up every time it offers you a deal of the century”.

This sounded so much better in your head.

“Why did you hire me?” you asked almost immediately, trying to soften the impact of the words that had already escaped. “If this isn’t the direction in which you want to take your company, maybe I should just…”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Y/N, just fucking leave already!” Billy snapped like a branch that’s been holding too much weight, the sound of it dry and final.

…maybe I should just rethink the entire plan.

There was no point in finishing that sentence now, was there?

“I was there long before you came along, so I’d think I know a shitstorm in the making when I see one!” Billy was looking at you alright, brushing his hair back, his eyes black and void.

You had wished It would have been new to you - looking in William Russo’s eyes and not seeing him there. But it wasn’t. He was back to his Hallmark version of a man, but instead of playing a hero, he was now putting on his villain guise.

“Let’s get something straight here,” he leaned back on his desk, crossing his arms on his chest, his black eyes narrowed. “While you were making your way to the top of a rich-ass cookie-cutter FinTech company, I was crawling in the dirt in Iraq under a downpour of the Trident D5LE missiles. While the closest thing you’ve come to havin’ your hands dirty was bribing an investor or two, I was fucking beheadin’ people under the direction of the CIA,” his words were cold, measured and rhythmic, like a round of bullets being fired on a range. “You know nothing of what’s it like to be in the middle of that kind of shit show, princess, so when I fucking say no, you listen. Is that clear?”

Bark. Sit. Roll over.

“Crystal. Sir.”, you finally broke the heavy silence hanging in the air, just barely resisting the urge to salute him. “I’ll see myself out.”

Biting the inside of your cheek like your life depended on it, once you turned your back on him, your first thought was don’t you dare cry on his account, bitch and then almost right away wait at least until you’re home.

You could have sworn you heard William call your name in a stranded voice, but you made sure to slam the door somewhat hard as you left his office so you could pretend you didn’t hear him.

If you were to face him now, with all that power and toughness he exuded… You would never admit it, even to yourself, but you’d just end up on the floor, huddled into a shivering little ball.

—

You were grateful that the next day after the shit went down with Mayhew fell on a Friday. When you stumbled into your apartment in Queens at almost one in the morning, you immediately shot an email to the HR department asking for a day off. Once that’d been done, you dialled Rex to decline his offer to introduce Anvil to general Ravelin, washed the makeup off your face and crawled into bed, hugging the second pillow close to your chest.

You didn’t cry, if that’s what you’re wondering.

As you rolled out of bed in the morning at around 8 am, you took a shower and grabbed a coffee from the kitchen before settling behind your home office desk with a heavy head. When you opened up the Keynote presentation with your strategy outlined for the H1, you couldn’t help but steal a glance at the iPhone you left on your couch last night.

You weren’t going to check if you had any missing calls.

There was nothing you had left to say to each other.

…with your chest hollow, you powered up the screen. There were no missed calls and no new messages.

It all looked like you had another strategy to build now. If Billy Russo thought that calling you a rich-ass princess that knew nothing of the world, all butterflies and rainbows, was going to make you resign, then man, was he in for a surprise.

You once heard one of his men compare you to a military convoy, when the guy thought you weren’t listening.

He had no idea.

You spent the morning refilling you coffee cup and rebuilding your H1 plan from scratch. After about eleven calls with the people you knew could get you a foot in the door of the offices of some government officials, billionaires and generals, after typing, deleting and typing again for 5 hours straight, by 2pm you had a solid game plan. You were pretty sure it would still need some tweaking from Castle, who essentially held the role of the Chief Operating Officer, dispatching men and women on missions and planning operations, and, well, from Billy Russo.

The Badass-ex-Sniper-turned-CEO himself.

You kept the email short and to-the-point, sending the document over to Russo with Castle on copy, saying you’d be in the office to debrief on Monday.   Refusing to check whether your email’d been opened, you slammed your MacBook shut.

The rest of the day rolled on uneventfully. You grabbed a coffee with the People Culture Officer from your previous company, who also happened to be one of your dearest friends; then you picked up your dry cleaners and did some shopping, cracking for a pair of new shoes in Saks Fifth Avenue.

Shoes were, indeed, your weakness.

By the time you got home, the tired sun was yawning, stretching its rays in one last effort before rolling into bed. Humming a Dua Lipa song under your breath, you were putting your new Jimmy Choo’s away when you suddenly heard your phone ring.

You didn’t even have to look at it to know who it was.   You checked the time, however, noticing is was two minutes after the official end of the working day.

“Hi, Y/N”, Billy spoke, clearing his throat. “Are you… Um… Any chance you’re available to meet tonight? I would really appreciate it if you could give me fifteen minutes of your time. Please.”

It sounded like the real Billy Russo was back around. Insecure. Rugged. Imperfect.

“Can you pick me up?” you asked softly, “I’ll text you my address. There’s a pizza place just around the corner, I could use a free slice”, you circled the cold coffee cup you left on the counter with your finger. “Free as in you’re paying, Russo”.

A laugh that came somewhere from within caressed your ear.

“Uh, yes, I’m actually… Yeah, thanks. I’m leaving the office now,” even if he tried to hide it, a shocked surprise still seeped through the cracks in between the vowels.

You chuckled silently at his reaction.

“Just one more thing,” you ventured, placing the cup in the sink and making your way to the balcony - your small piece of heaven with a wooden chair, pillows and lavender. As you stepped outside, you put oyour free hand on the railing, just to feel the coolness of it, the evening air and the gentle flower smell stroking your skin. “What kind of car should I be on the lookout for?”

Billy hesitated, biting his bottom lip, running his nervous fingers through the thick strands of dark hair. The setting sun was hitting him just from the right angle, making his sculpted cheeks look like they were made of marble.

“A Rolls Royce Wraith”, he squirmed, rubbing his forehead, probably realising how lame and pretentious it sounded. “I’ll call you once I’m downstairs”.

“Uh-huh”, you smirked, leaning on the railing with your forearms.

You saw Russo pinch the bridge of his nose, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip again.   Your small balcony provided quite a view, when you really thought about it.

“Don’t take too long”, you couldn’t help it, it really was stronger than you. “I’m starving”.

With a wide grin, you dropped the call and went back into your apartment.

You were planning to make him wait for ten extra minutes when he would finally “arrive”.

Just for the hell of it.

—

“That’s a lot of hot sauce for one pizza”, Billy commented, watching you spray your truffles and cheese generously with the piquant olive oil.

You gave him a mischievous smile.

“What can I say,” you shrugged, leaning back in your chair and licking the tip of your finger after you swept a drop of it from the top of the bottle. “I like them hot”.

That startled a laugh out of Billy as he eyed you with something in his irises looking a lot like awe.

Just when he was about to speak, a servant brought a glass of red wine for him and bottle of sparkling water for you.

You thanked the guy with a sweet smile, while Billy eyed him a bit coldly, obviously waiting for him to leave.

When the waiter had finally made himself scarce, Billy softly called your name.

You raised your eyes to meet him, struggling as hell to keep your stare vacant. (Which was hard to do with some foreign tightness in your throat).

“Before we dig in and I hope spend a nice evening as two friends, getting together on a Friday night”, he didn’t even blink? Was he blinking? You couldn’t tell, his black eyes swallowing you whole, again. “I want to apologise. I was completely out of line… It was unacceptable. You don’t need my validation, of course, but I still want you to know that you are doing a terrific job at Anvil, taking us to the heights I never even thought existed. It’s just… It’s hard for me sometimes to be a good CEO and someone who promised to take care of my men at the same time… Everything is happening so fast, I’m afraid to lose my footing.”

You reached out for his hand across the table before you could stop yourself. You didn’t take it, but your fingers brushed his ever so slightly before you realized what you were just about to do. Your eyes widened as you looked at him, searching for a reaction.   Billy remained perfectly still, not taking his eyes off you.

You grabbed a napkin next to his wrist, pretending this was what you had meant to do all along.   “We’ll get there, Billy”, you said, a small encouraging smile blooming on your lips. “We just need some tweaking”.

You weren’t sure if you were talking about strategy at this point anymore.

—

You had a great time at dinner.

(And a whole-hearted laugh as Billy finished your remainders of the truffle pizza, downing a litre of water to numb down the burning sensation in his throat afterwards).

You talked about your respective lives, your ex-colleagues, your hopes for the future… You dared think this who the real Billy Russo was.

And he was incredible.

After the two of you were done with dinner, you offered him to come upstairs to your place and go through the new strategy together. He didn’t hesitate, although you could swear you’d seen something ambiguous flash in the depths of his dark eyes before he nodded.

(You must have imagined it.)

The two of you ended up sprawled out on your soft faux fur carpet talking game plan, bouncing ideas off each other. You watched Billy frown, as he rubbed his mouth with his long fingers, smile in excitement and shake his head in awe when you voiced your ideas - you felt proud and appreciated, and you wouldn’t trade the sensation for anything in the world.

A couple of hours later the two of you had finally decided that it was enough brainstorming for one night, and you rose to your feet to go and make Billy a coffee before he got behind the wheel. As you pushed the start button on your coffee machine, you heard him speak over the noise.

“You know I’ve done four tours - three in Iraq and one in Afghanistan”, you popped your head up, only to see him play absentmindedly with something on his chest. “And every time I’m considering a mission for Anvil, I find myself back in there again… A part of a death squad.”

You carefully picked up his cup of coffee and made your way back to him. You didn’t say a word as you leaned lower to hand it over to him, encouraging him to go on.   Billy thanked you in a whisper before clearing his throat.

“Every time I have to send them somewhere, especially overseas, I force myself to stop and think… Is this really worth it? Is a fat check really worth putting the lives of my men and women in danger? And most importantly - you may think it’s stupid…” he avoided your gaze, staring into his coffee cup, a miserable smile on his lips. “I think, will it make a difference? If one of them dies on a mission, I have to at least know they made a difference… it’s selfish and it’s more about the peace of my own mind, but it is what it is, you know?”

When he looked up at you, his eyes were full, full to the brim. There was so much emotion in them, hatred, misery, hope, adoration, all whipped in a wild mix that was Billy Russo’s dark, velvet eyes.

“I carry these at all times,” the fingers of his free hand dropped to his chest, as he got a hold of something hanging around his neck. A necklace? “When in doubt, I just look at them - they help me remember where I’ve been and what I’ve done - and I just know if it’s worth it or not. The answer is usually no, by the way”.

He smiled again, the curve of his lips looking less haunted this time, as he sipped on his coffee.

Dog tags. Those were Russo’s dog tags.

“So they’re your reminder that, even being a badass CEO of a private military company”, you couldn’t help but feel some kind of zero gravity settling in your lower stomach as you saw him chuckle at your words. “…you still have a heart”.

“How poetic”, Billy teased you without missing a beat, putting the empty cup on the floor next to him. “But yeah. Sort of, I guess”.

As you fell asleep that night, you dreamed about explosions, piquant olive oil and holding Billy Russo’s dog tags in your hand.

—

The time flew by after that. In 8-month time (after some tweaking) Billy Russo and you became a team. It sometimes felt like nothing could stop you, as long as you were together.

It should not have come as a surprise that the two of you earned yourselves a catchy nickname - at first, it was spoken solely behind your backs, but soon enough it became some kind of a title, more powerful than that of the CEO or the CSO.

Anvil’s men and women (and especially Frank - the fact that he invented the nickname secretly tickled him pink) - were now calling you Bonnie and Clyde. The ultimate partners in crime, against all odds, doing the impossible.

The two of you also settled in an almost homely kind of routine. Ever since that Mayhew fiasco and the day that followed, Friday had become the non-spoken partners in crime day. What it meant in practice was exchanging Friday jokes on Anvil’s internal communications suite…

(Billy once attacked you with a “would you look at this, just found the actual footage of your interview @ Anvil”. Before you even got a chance to answer, he forwarded you a cheesy meme with two old women speaking to each other, one of them saying “We need someone who can do the job of two men”, and the other responding “oh, so it’s only a part-time job then”. When you shot him back a message asking whether he really considered himself an arthritic old woman, that seemed to have shut him up).

…grabbing a beer in a bar nearby…

(you sometimes invited your colleagues to join you, plus it was an unspoken rule that Frank and Karen were to be there as well)

…you making fun of Billy Russo’s eating habits…

(It was honestly a nuisance to have a lunch with him. The list of things he refused to eat went on and on: no asian food, no food chain restaurants (even high-rated), no soups, no cheesecakes… He sure was settling well in that peaceful life he earned after spending all those tours living off canned food).

…and just overall enjoying each other’s company.

By the time the ninth month of your being Anvil’s CSO had rolled in, you couldn’t imagine not seeing Billy Russo every day. Not noticing him rolling his eyes at a smart-ass comment you or Frank made, or his orbs lighting up every time you told him the deal with that or this decision maker had gone through. You simply could not understand how you managed to live day in and day out, and think you were genuinely happy, before you actually met Billy. Everything before him just faded away somehow, your memories lost their colour and spike in comparison to the life you were living now. You kicked ass at your job, your career thrived, but most importantly, you were feeling like this was exactly where you were meant to be, braving the obstacles by Billy Russo’s side, knowing he would catch you should you fall.

He would, wouldn’t he?

It was your usual Friday night outing, the seven of you - Billy, Frank, Karen, Curtis, James from legal, Ashley from mine clearance and yourself - occupying your usual table at Whimsy, the bar that must have made 90% or their revenus off of Anvil’s folk. It was just around the corner from the headquarters, after all.

The overall mood of the evening was rather nostalgic. It’d been four weeks since you’d lost a team member in a crossfire in Falluja, Iraq. After everything was said and done, his loss still hung heavy in the air, and it felt right to get one more drink in Jasper’s honour. The conversation flowed easily, even though the topics you’d spoken about were anything but.

“I remember how I felt when I lost Andy”, Ashley nursed her beer as she stared into the distance. “I just literally had the weight of the entire world on my shoulders, pinning me to the ground, I just couldn’t move on”, she finished her bottle in one go and motioned for the bartender to bring her another one. “Sometimes, I just ask myself, what would have I done if I’d known he was going to die the next day? Would I have stopped him from going? I think I would,” she thanked the bartender as he put the beer in front of her, her eyes a bit foggy. “Yeah, I definitely would have.”

Frank grasped Ashley’s shoulder and squeezed it hard in a comforting gesture; Karen gave her a tender look.

You didn’t know why your mind had gone there, but all of the sudden a memory of Billy sitting in his office chair, laughing his ass off at some offhand comment you’d made flashed before your eyes; it quickly got replaced by the recollection of his hand brushing against yours during the Zoom meeting you’ve had with general Warren Singer; then you remembered him putting his hand on the small of your back, staring daggers at some army brat wanting to join Anvil, eyeing you like a piece of meat (you learned later that day that the man’d been thrown out before having a chance to introduce himself); until finally, your brain stopped dead at the picture of Billy running his nervous fingers through his hair as he called you from his car, telling you he was only leaving the office.

What would you do if you knew he was going to die tomorrow?

Your heart sunk at the thought as you gulped hard, ducking your head and staring at your hands folded in your lap.

A soft touch enveloping your elbow had you facing the man of the hour, his black eyes shimmering with concern.

“Are you okay?” he half-whispered, half-mouthed, not letting go of your hand.

No.

Nothing is okay, Billy.

I’m so happy that I met you, but you’re scaring the hell out of me.

I never wanted any form of eternity until now, I never saw the point…

So stay. Please, stay forever, and feel something for me, too.

“Yes. I’m fine,” you whispered back, staring into his eyes, hypnotised and helpless. You watched him turn away from you as if in slow motion, the warmth of his hand leaving nothing behind but emptiness in your bones.

“Here is to always telling the things that matter to the people who matter”, Billy spoke firmly, raising his beer. “Here’s to never missing a chance to open up to the people we love”.

Well, if this was his way of crossing the t's and putting the dots to the i’s regarding his feelings for you, he couldn’t have been clearer.  

As far as confessions of love went, this one was non-existent.

—

You tried, time and again, to convince yourself you had to go. You learned the hard way that your unrequited feelings were feeding on a sort of inadvertent parasitic relationship where every moment of your day depended on the level of Billy’s unintentional emotional indifference. Your days were spent questioning his every move - every look and every touch; until, the grown-ass woman that you were, you’d commanded yourself to stop second-guessing everything - stop feeling - and decided your best course of action would be… to work yourself into the ground.

If Billy ever noticed anything, he didn’t show it - your were still you, after all, working hard, laughing when he said something funny, calling him out on his bullshit when needed. He didn’t notice slight change in your eyes, when their icy surface cracked at every other compliment he threw in your direction (and there was no shortage of those). He didn’t realize the smile you gave him was different from those tightlipped signs of appreciation you gave to Anvil’s potential clients, he didn’t think twice about the reason for which you glowed around him, your every move softening, your every gesture emanating warmth.

Because Billy hadn’t really known you until you started to have feelings for him.

You knew this couldn’t go on forever. This entire situation was bound to result in some explosion of nuclear proportions, and then all hell would break loose. You needed to get yourself out of this situations, but you just… couldn’t. You couldn’t imagine your life without Billy Russo. You couldn’t leave him.

Even if being friends with him meant tearing yourself apart and suffering in silence.

  Long story short, you waited with fear in your bones for someone to walk into your life and to get you out. You’ve had no fight left in you to do it yourself.

Your salvation came in the form of a phone call on a Friday evening, when Billy was on a recruiting mission in California.

You were typing back a response to his cheeky message when the call cut in half-sentence.

Billy Russo: Please remind me to take you with me instead of Frank next time? He’s driving me insane trying to set me up with the ladies from the Organising Committee. Any ideas on how I can calm him the fuck down?

You: Sorry, Billy, but recruiting is out of my mission scope. As for the calm down part, try bondage maybe? :)

Billy Russo: I’m going to pretend you did not just suggest I engage in sexual practices with Frankie. Karen will have my balls.

Billy Russo: But perhaps you’re right. Taking you with me is probably not a good idea. Wouldn’t want my new recruits’ brains to turn into mush because of how beautiful you are.

You: The flattery will….

“Hello? Y/N speaking”, you brought your phone close to your ear, your cheeks still a lovely shade of pink. If you were going to feel miserable when Billy came back, acting like nothing happened, you were sure going to make the best of that fuzzy feeling in your chest right now.

“Miss Y/N/L”, a smooth deep voice greeted you, and you could have sworn you’d heard it many times before. “I hope I’m not interrupting?”

Frowning in an attempt to remember, you urged:

“No, not at all. How can I help you?” you stared into the screen of your Mac, wheels turning in your head as you silently catalogued all the men you were in discussions with regarding a deal. “I didn’t catch your name…”

“Oh, how rude of me”, the man chuckled but there was no mockery in his voice, more like self-depreciation. “Tony Stark, from Stark Industries”.

Your mind went blank. Did you hear his last words correctly?

“Uh… Mr. Stark”, you quickly got a hold of yourself - well, as quickly as you could. “I appreciate you reaching out to me directly. What can Anvil do for you?”

You did a pretty bang-up job trying to mask your amazement with polite cheerfulness, and Stark had caught on that.

Tony Stark just called your cellphone number. What in the world?…

“We don’t really do alien invasions”.

Ohyourgod, did you just say it out loud?!

His uproarious laughter took you by surprise, reverberating through your entire body. It took every ounce of your self-control not to giggle in response.

“That’s a good one, I love it”, Stark finally said, restoring his breath. “And the better question would be, Y/N - can I call you Y/N? - what you can do for me”.

Before your brain could take you into some naughty direction, freaking Iron Man cleared his throat.

“Okay, this came out wrong,” he admitted with a sense of self-irony. “I um… I’m looking for the Co-Chief Executive Officer for Stark Industries. Well, Virginia Potts is actually looking for a Co-CEO, I’m just her errand boy. And my missions apparently include recruiting…. Anyway,” it was a bit of a challenge to follow Anthony Stark’s train of thought, but you were also still shocked, so that could explain it. “…I think you are the perfect fit for the job”.

You just stared into the screen front of you, your breathing barely audible.

“Mrs Potts and I would love it if you could swing by the A-Tower, let’s say, on Thursday? You’ll be surprised, but I can also whip up a mean cup of coffee…”

Say something.

Fucking hell.

Say something!…

“Thursday sounds great,” you blurted out without thinking. “Let me just shuffle my schedule around… I could stop by after lunch?”   Your hands were slightly shaking as you clicked on your mouse, opening your schedule window.

“Whatever works for you, Y/N”, you could hear Stark smile. “Not to sound like a creep, but I’ve been following your career for quite a while now, and I think that the work you've done in such a short span of time for Anvil is outstanding, even though you still don’t offer protection from alien invasions”.

That made you chuckle, pushing you halfway out of your stupor.

“I’ll put that on the list of things for us to consider”, you promised.

"Tell Mr. Russo I sent my best,” Stark added, and you felt your heart drop to your stomach. “I actually might have some ideas for how we could collaborate. Let's discuss this on Thursday, too, shall we?”

After you said your goodbyes, you fell back in your chair, dropping your iPhone on the table.

You: The flattery will….

...get you nowhere.

You never finished that message, leaving Russo on Read.

—

Starting with that evening, things were moving fast - too fast for you to keep track.

After a three-hour long coffee and the tour of the A-Tower, Virginia Potts, the acting CEO of the Stark Industries, had offered you the job - just like that - and asked you to come back to her executive assistant should you wish to take the job, with your salary expectations and the information about your notice period. You thanked her for her time and promised to get back to her as soon as you made your decision.

Virginia Potts was a brilliant woman; but running a company like Stark Industries while being equipped with a vagina was certainly no walk in the park. Sexism was still very much present within the Boards of the Tech Businesses. You understood perfectly well why she wanted a woman in her corner - it would have been a massive slap in the Board’s face, but it was also about having someone to lean on, who just understood.

In any other circumstances you would have peed your pants in excitement. It was an opportunity to work for Stark Industries - no, scratch that - it was an opportunity to step in as a Stark Industries co-CEO. The idea of it still made you dizzy.

…but as you looked at Virginia’s email sent to your personal address thanking you for stopping by, your eyes were swimming with tears.

You weren’t ready to leave Billy.  You just couldn’t.  You couldn’t leave him.   There was no epic finale to your story. There was no big revelation, no closure, no moment of relief, no acceptance, nothing. Only a fat-ass what if.

And you didn’t know how to let go of a what if with Billy Russo.

And that was exactly why you had to do it.

You heard Billy come in the next Monday earlier than usual. He was positively humming Usher’s Yeah! quietly as he made his way past your office’s doors straight into his own.

You took a deep breath, closing your eyes. You’ve been psyching yourself up during the entire weekend, telling yourself it wasn’t a big deal, we wouldn’t even flinch when you were going to tell him.

You had to tell him.

As you stood up from your chair, straightening you skirt with the palms of your hands, you suddenly heard the footsteps coming back in your direction. You froze in place like a deer in headlights when Billy swung open the door to your office, a box of Pierre Hermé macarons in his hands.

Your goddamn favorite Pierre Hermé macarons.

“You’re here!” Billy’s warm smile illuminated the room. “So much for a surprise, huh?”

He shook the box carefully in the air. You stared at it, dumbfounded, every single thought leaving you.

You couldn’t breathe.

In the hazy morning light seeping through the windows of your office, Billy looked beautiful and dissolute, shirt open at the collar, longer strands of dark hair falling into his eyes.

He was going to be the death of you. It really wasn’t fair.

“Billy, I have to tell you something.”

Was it you who spoke those words? They seemed distant and cold, so uncharacteristically detached.

Blood roared in your ears.

“What’s wrong?”

Billy’s reaction was instant. In three decisive steps he closed the distance that separated you, leaving the macarons on your desk. He stood still just mere inches away, and just like during your very first meeting, you had a fleeting thought cross your mind: you really were tiny next to him, the top of your head barely reaching his shoulders.

You bit the inside of your bottom lip, trying to keep your composure. He stared at you unblinking. He wasn’t touching you, but it felt like his eyes were looking straight into your soul, undressing you, blowing that wall you built around yourself into dust. They were taking you down, piece by piece, determined to see what you’d been keeping from him.   Because, of course, he knew. He should have known something was going on. Hence the surprise this morning.

He had no idea what it was though.

“Maybe you should sit,” you said, making a physical effort to tear your eyes away from him, feigning sudden interest in the buttons of his shirt.

  That chest…

  …was going to be just fine. He didn’t feel the same way you did. He would just find someone else to fill your position. With brilliant women stalking him - in cooperative packs - that would not be a problem.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you”.

You squeezed your eyes shut as soon as his words reached your ears.  Fucking hell, you should have done that by phone. Or with other people around. You should have…

“You’re leaving”, you heard Billy repeat as his voice broke a little. He stepped away, burying his face in his hands as he dragged them down his jaw and neck, staring into the ceiling.

“Billy, listen, I…”

You were the one to close the space between the two of you this time, and before you could think too much into it… You threw your hands around his shoulders, burying your face in his neck.

The sensation struck you like a bolt of lightening when you felt his hands cross behind you back and pull you closer.

He smelled heavenly. Like a forest fire, a hint of smoke with oud and pine. You inhaled deep, deeper still, losing yourself in his comforting touch.

In his arms, just for a second there, you felt home.

“You… The company doesn’t need me anymore”, you nearly choked on words, screaming internally at yourself to keep the waterworks at bay. “It’s thriving, there’s not much else I can give you. My job here is done.”

I need to leave because your indifference is destroying me, and when I think I’m ready to let go, all it takes is one look from you, and I’m back to wanting you, to settling for anything you give me, like a goddamn fool.

“What the hell are you talking about, Y/N?!” Billy exclaimed, his hands grasping your shoulders as he distanced your bodies just enough for him to look into your eyes. “I nee- The company needs you! I was… You know, I was planning to make you the CEO of Anvil in a couple months time,” his smile, as earnest as it was, did not reach his eyes. “Yeah”, noticing your eyes go wide in shock, he let his hands slide down your sides. “You’re so much better at it than I ever was. I was going to join Frank and just manage operations… under you”.

You just stared at him, dumbfounded, not feeling a stray tear escape your eye and rolling down your cheekbone.

“These are the tears of happiness, I hope”, Billy added, and you barely registered his touch as his thumb wiped the salty drop off. “Well, I guess Anvil will have to settle for the little old me. With my best girl going places."

You gave him a strained smile before you carefully wiped your cheeks, just taking a moment to look at him. To try and read him.

Billy Russo was a goddamn ceiling. Plain white, cool and unattainable. In all of your time working for him, you have never seen this Hallmark version of him before. Which one was it?  

Oh wait, you guessed you knew. The happy-for-you friend.

“So where are you going?” Billy asked, his eyes empty. “Who snatched you away from m- Anvil?”

The stutter was so subtle you barely noticed. You were finally tired of reading into shit.

“Stark Industries. I’ll be their co-CEO”.

—

Before you left Anvil you promised yourself you’d get the deal with Stark Industries up and running. There was no one in the world you trusted more in terms of security than Billy.

(The fact that you couldn’t keep your heart safe from him didn’t really count, did it?)

As a matter of fact, Billy and you were going to shake hands with Anthony Stark on the deal on your last night of being Anvil’s CSO. It was happening in The Metropolitan Opera and required both Billy and yourself to dress for the occasion.   He promised to come pick you up at 6pm sharp; you were putting on the Jimmy Choo’s you’d bought a coulee months ago in Saks Fifth Avenue when you heard a low knock on your door.

Straightening up, you threw a quick glance at your reflection in the mirror. You decided to go with a long Marchesa black velvet gown with a rather deep V-line, a pair of long diamond earrings and an elegant half-up half-down hairdo, soft curls in the front framing your face.

“I’m coming”, you yelled out, picking up your leather jacket (because why the hell not) and your purse from the kitchen counter. Sharply opening the entrance door, you realized moments later that you didn’t even take time to prepare yourself for seeing William Russo in a tux.

If you weren’t already half in love with him, the sight before your eyes would have sealed the deal.

God-fucking-damn, like he needed any help being unforgettable.

With a black jacket thrown on a crisp white shirt with a couple of buttons undone and the tie hanging loosely around his neck, Billy was here to make a statement, to leave a mark. His hair was coiffed back in his usual style; honest to God, he looked like he just stepped out of the Man of the Year special GQ edition…

Just when your thoughts were about to switch to the way you must have looked next to him, ridiculous in your simplicity, like you refused to make an effort…

…Your eyes met his.

And the way he looked at you was so intense, his big black eyes with galaxies in them probing into yours, his strong jaw slack. There was beauty and tragedy reflecting in those orbs, but only just for a second - just for a second, he looked at you the way he probably looked at the sky he could never reach. Just for a second, he looked at you the way that made your heart beat twice as fast, like the world could crumble all around him and he still would not have blinked.

Would not have taken his eyes off you.

“Wow, Y/N, you look… You look beautiful”, he finally said. “I just can't spot a part of you that beats the other.”

Something in your chest exploded silently.

“Thank you, Billy,” you smiled at him - a genuine and happy smile, because you felt on top of the world with his adoring eyes on you. “You’re quite a catch yourself”.

Before you could scold yourself for your choice of words, you stepped out of your apartment and locked the door behind you.

“Shall we?” Billy offered his hand to you, without hesitation it seemed.

“We shall”, you replied instantly, slowly sliding your hand into the crook of his elbow.

And, just like always, you were going to enjoy it while it lasted.

—

The crowd in the opera was so posh, the looks all the women had been throwing you first made you question your choice of outfit. It’s after overhearing their conversations that you realized, the reason they stared daggers at you was the man that kept by your side no matter where you went.

Virginia and Anthony welcomed you at the buffet with sun-stained sincere smiles. After a short small talk, Anthony Stark informed you both that he had signed the contract earlier today, thus officially giving Anvil an exclusive security deal with Stark Industries. As of now, Anvil was the only company allowed on the Stark Industries’ premises in the quality of guards and protection officers.

The look Billy and you exchanged spoke volumes; while your eyes were sparkling with excitement though, screaming “we did it!!”, his bottomless black eyes were whispering “thanks to you”.

The four of you then shook hands and went through rounds of gratitude and appreciation; when a pleasant woman’s voice announced the imminent start of Onegin, inviting the guests to go to their seats. Virginia immediately took you hand, leading you straight into the Opera house, saying something about leaving men to finish their drinks. You threw Billy a laughing look over your shoulder, mouthing “come join me” before disappearing out of his sight.

“So on the scale of one to ten, how pissed at me are you, Mr. Russo?”

Billy turned his head sharply to a side, leaning on the high table, and spotted Anthony Stark himself, nursing a glass of whiskey. “For taking your queen away from you? Excuse the chess metaphor, but that woman”, Stark took a sip of his whiskey and savoured it before swallowing it down. “Is a goddamn queen.”

Billy chuckled, straightening up, digging his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

“That, she is,” he whispered, his eyes still piercing the spot in the crowd where your smiling face was mere minutes ago.

—

When the opera ended, both Billy and you couldn’t be more relieved - because both of you hated it with passion.

Exchanging meaningful glances in the dark during the singers’ performances now and then, you had to bite your tongue in order to not just ask Billy if you could maybe sneak out. Russo proved to be more stoic than you, carefully covering your hand with his in what was meant to be a comforting gesture.

You didn’t look at him once after that, afraid to say or do something that would make him remove his hand.

How much more pathetic could you get?

When the performance was over, Billy led you out of the opera house without saying a word, his hand hugging carefully the small of your back.

His silence was unnerving. You didn’t know what to make of it. Should you have shaken his hand off back in the darkness of the concert hall? Or should you have caressed it with your thumb?

Your mind was spinning in circles by the time he opened the door for you and you slid into the front passenger seat of his Rolls goddamn Royce.

When he got in the car and gripped his steering wheel, you reached out and placed your hand on his whitening knuckles.

“Billy,” you spoke softly, barely audibly. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” he whispered back, turning his head to a side to face you. His black eyes stared into yours, looking hypnotised and helpless. “Everything is fine.”

It didn’t take a degree in Psychology to see that he was lying. You could feel his gaze on you as you turned away from him, taking your hand away at the same time.

Billy started the car. The revving engine filled the silence, loaded with the unsaid words.

—

“…he then walked me to my door, we exchanged our goodbyes. And that was it,” you finished lightly, looking back at Karen.

Her eyes were red as she stared at you, unblinking.

“Unbelievable…” she whispered. “So you never told him?…” her lips barely moved.

You sighed.

“Have you ever felt like you’re potentially in love with someone? Like, you don’t actually love him, you know you don’t, but one day you realise that you could? You realise just how easy it would be for you to fall in love with him? With all the teasing and the banter, the play hitting each other, calling each other names, just…. You start to pick up on little things - like if you listen closely, in every shut up, there’s a barely-there ring of I could love you.”  You shifted on the floor a little, and Karen watched your memories transport you somewhere else again. While physically your were here, in your apartment - with your fluttering eye-lashes, uneven breathing and loaded expression - mentally, you were somewhere else.

“….You probably don’t notice it at first, but your body is drawn to him. Every accidental or absentminded touch…” you continued quietly. “And there’s that twinkle in his eyes when he looks at you and it messes you up, because - what’s going on with you? What the hell does it even mean? Are you imagining shit? You’re trying to make sense.”  

Karen didn’t interrupt, still staring at you as if she were seeing you for the first time

“I mean, he didn’t ask for any of it, you know?” you finally raised your foggy stare at Karen, as if searching for confirmation. “Maybe he just did something dumb one day, smiled at you or said something that seemed important and then all of the sudden you’re full on Looney Tunes, seeing stuff that isn’t there?”

Your words barely audible, you swallowed hard, before continuing.  “…I just kept looking at him with what ifs, and could haves, seeing all that goddamn potential. It’s so fucking twisted. Over-analyzing everything? Waiting for a sign?…” you chuckled bitterly all of the sudden. “…I was so fucking scared of reading too much into it, of crossing that line, because… It would be so easy!… Falling in love with him would have been so easy.”

Oh sweetheart, Karen’s eyes glowed with comfort as she reached out for your hand and squeezed it softly. But you already are in love with him.   

A loaded silence ripped through the air in your living room. The sound of an engine revving somewhere close squeezed its way through the slit of an opened window, and it seemed to break the trance.

Both Karen and you shuddered, and as you took in the realisation Karen’s eyes just bestowed upon you, you pinched the bridge of your nose.

“It’s pretty late,” Karen spoke up, reading you like an open book. She knew it was her cue to leave the stage. You needed time to process. “Frank is in a bar nearby with Curtis, let me just give him a call, okay, sweetheart?” she gave your hand one last reassuring squeeze. “You know where to find me when you need me”.

“Yes”, you responded, blinking tiredly. “Thank you so much for coming, Karen. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that…”

“Shut the hell up,” the blonde advised, raising her eyebrows. “But honestly, Y/N, please call me once you… come to terms with things, okay?”

You nodded.

When Karen left, leaving the sweet and pleasant smell of her perfume behind, you closed the door behind her and turned around, leaning on the cold wood and metal with your eyes closed.

It’s been a month. This was supposed to pass by now. Billy was supposed to stop inviting himself into your dreams. You were supposed to heal.

You may have just realized you were in love with the man instead.

Letting out half a moan, half a groan, you peeled yourself from the door slowly, and brushed your hair back, wanting nothing more than to fall face-first into bed.

After you at least cleaned up a bit and put out the Dyptique candles, that is.

As your eyes scanned your living room in an attempt to asses the size of the job at hand, you stopped mid-way, zeroing in on the box Jax gave you earlier in the evening. It rested silently on the kitchen table.

Tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, you made your way to the kitchen area. Grabbing the package, you turned it around, looking for any indication of the sender.

The package wasn’t even stamped.

Curiosity getting the best of you, you took a moment to grab a knife from one of the drawers, and carefully swished it between the two cardboard sheets.

Flipping over the envelop, you heard something fall out of it before you could actually see it. A small sheet of paper floated in the air before falling on the surface, partially covering whatever fell out of the package.

Your heart squeezed the second your brain identified the object, attached to a worn silver chain.

With trembling fingers, you slid two metal pieces from under the paper, covering your mouth.

Finding their home in the palm of your hand, Billy’s dog tags shimmered in the dim candlelight.

Squeezing them in between your fingers, you grabbed the paper with your free hand, your eyes staring at one single sentence scribbled on its surface.

“You took my heart with you”.

#billy russo x you #billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo angst #billy russo fanfic #billy russo story #the punisher imagine #billy russo imagine #the punisher story #billy russo request

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sweetdreamsofandrea · 4 years

Text

Mighty & Powerful (High King Peter)

warnings: smut, throne kink (i mean if it is a thing), oral (f receiving), y/n is a maid and also naughty (i mean don't touch the stuff you are not supposed to touch honey), a bit of self-underestimating, avoiding high king has some consequences, peter is sassy and i love him, he is also very caring.

a/n: oh wow this is my first attempt writing an english smut. i'm very excited. if there is any mistake, please correct me. and please let me know what you think. good god i feel like a pure sin. also thank god william was in the royals, otherwise i would have zero gifs. gifs are not mine. i just edited the first gif.

word count: 2976.

You knew you shouldn't be there.

As the maid of the castle, it wasn't appropriate for you to be in the throne room. Okay, you were sort of flirting with High King and he obviously was interested in you ─and he made sure you knew that, but still, you knew you shouldn't be there.

It wasn't your intention when you left the kitchen. You just wanted to find him and spend some time with him if you were lucky. He'd been busy recently, Cair Paravel had visitors and as High King, he was busy with them. You hadn't seen him for almost two days, except for the times you were serving in the dining hall.

You were walking in the corridor when you saw the door of the room was open. You wanted to look to see if he was in there but he wasn't. The room was empty. It encouraged you.

That was the reason why you went closer to the thrones. You just wanted to look at them, you always appreciated almost everything in the castle because everything was so beautiful and majestic. And you'd always liked the thrones, they were so mighty and powerful. The way you wanted to feel.

You of course went closer to his throne first, looked at its golden engravings. Well, it actually looked so much mightier and stronger as he was sitting on it. Without him, it just looked like a fancy chair. You realized the factor that made the throne so mighty and powerful was him, not the throne. The way he sat, the way his legs were open, the way his cape touched the floor, the way he put his hands to its arms and the rings he wore shined under the lights were the reason why the throne looked like that.

You took a short breath. Why were you thinking those things and torturing yourself? He hadn't talked to you for almost two days. He probably didn't even think of you for a second. He was the High King, why would he think of you? How could he? He probably had thousands of things in his mind that were so much more important than you.

Oh, how badly and remedilessly you needed to feel mighty and powerful. You wanted to feel something different from self-pity and longing for him.

You touched the arm of the throne. You softly ran your finger on it. It was cold. Then you realized what you were doing. You immediately stopped touching it. Oh, what were you thinking? What if you got cought?

Well, you didn't get cought and you'd been there for a while. The room was still empty and the door was almost closed. You took another short breath.

‘Okay,’ You mumbled. ‘For a second. Just a second. Then I'll leave and never come back.’

To sit on the throne, you turned your face to the door and fastly sit on it.

It was a mistake. Because it was the exact moment you saw him, his body standing at the door, tall, strong and broad.

You were about the stand up but he raised his hand, implying you to stay where you were.

Your heart started beating faster, your chest was moving fastly and it was visible. You were in panic and you felt so guilty. Why couldn't you just walk away? How were you going to explain this?

“If I'm being honest, M'Lady,” He said. “I really fancy the way you look right now.”

“I-I'm so sorry, Your Highness,” You stuttered while you intended to stand up.

“Stay there.” He ordered, using his High King voice. He then closed the door. The voice of it slamming harshly made you take a shaky breath.

He wasn't Peter now, he was the High King and you knew you were in so much trouble.

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” He asked as he took a step to come closer to you. “I mean, I can see that you are sitting on my throne, that's for sure. However, what are you doing?”

He was getting closer and your heart was beating faster and faster, which surprised you because you thought it was already beating fast enough to kill you.

“I...” You couldn't say anything. What were you doing really? “I don't know.”

He chuckled. “I also fancy your bravery. Being here is something, but sitting on my throne is something else. I am very impressed.”

“I'm so sorry, Your Majesty, I really am. If you let me, I can leave and never come back. Please─”

“Oh, sweetheart,” He was now standing in front of you. He leaned and put his hands to the arms of the throne, where your hands already were. His big hands were now on yours and you felt his hot skin.

“Do you really think I will just let you go?” His face was so close to yours.

“I hope so.” You whispered and he smiled.

“I think you shouldn't. I haven't talked to you for two days, you did your best to avoid me, and when I finally find you, you are sitting on my throne. I think you know I won't let you go.”

You just took a sheaky breath and helplessly said, “I didn't avoid you. I was just doing my job.”

“Are you saying that your job is to stay away from me in crowded places and immediately find an excuse to leave the room when we are finally on our own?”

“We were never truly on our own.”

“Oh, I see,” He nodded shortly. “I bet you think because you are a maid, you shouldn't be with me. Am I right?”

“No, I don't─”

“You are full of surprises, Y/N. You think I don't want to you to be with me because you are a maid but you come here and dare to sit on my throne.”

You gulped. Oh, you were really screwed up.

“Tell me the honest reason why you wanted to sit here.”

You licked your lips before speaking. You felt you needed some fresh air, and water. But you knew you were going to be there for a while.

“I... I just wanted to feel mighty and powerful for a second. Nothing more. I meant no harm, I was going to leave immediately.”

He frowned. “You don't need to sit on some fancy chair to feel or be mighty and powerful. You already are. Sweetheart, are you badly forgetful? Did you forget everything you did for me and Narnia? Or don't you have a mirror in your room? Have you ever truly seen yourself?”

You couldn't look at his face while he was talking. You felt so ashamed and you were not a person knowing how to react to a compliment.

“Look at me, Y/N. Look at me and listen carefully, okay?”

You did what he said and nodded.

“You don't need a fancy chair, a beautiful dress, a job you think is better, me, or anyone and anything else to be mighty and powerful. You already are. It makes me very angry to see that you are underestimating yourself. I could count everything you did and everything about you that amazes me, but unfortunately I desperately want to kiss you right now.”

Before you could even react, your lips met, no, your lips almost crushed because he kissed you so passionately, and long. You let him do whatever he wanted to do because you needed him, oh, you needed him so strongly that it surprised you. You never thought a person could desire a person the way you did.

His lips left yours and started kissing your neck. You turned your head a little and gave him more place to kiss. He kissed your neck, under of your ear, and your collarbone.

You were breathing heavily now. Your body was relieved because it finally came together with him, but at the same time it was burning with much more desire because it wanted more.

His hands left yours and touched your back to find the ropes holding your dress together. He was quick because he'd done it before, so many times. He learnt by heart the way you tied them.

He pushed your dress down, releasing your breasts. He had no seconds to lose; he needed to touch you, feel you, and make you feel good. He quickly took one of your nipples into his mouth, the other one was taken care of by his fingers.

All you could do was whining. He knew what he was doing very well. He knew how to drive you crazy. You sometimes hated how perfectly he knew your body because he could always use it against you but in the end, who were you to complain?

While his wet and warm mouth were on your breasts, you used your hands to untie his cape and you pushed it back from his shoulders. Then you pulled his shirt but you couldn't take it off because his body was over yours. He understood what you wanted and took a break to get rid of his shirt.

Oh, there his beautiful body was. You absolutely loved his body. His sunkissed skin was just perfect. He was muscular and his chest was broad, he had many scars but you didn't mind them at all, they were of course upsetting you but on the other side, they were the proofs and symbols of his survivals, which was something making you feel so proud of him and love him even more.

He smiled when he saw your eyes on his body. He could see the admiration and desire, which made him feel good. He loved being appreciated by you. Honestly, there was no other person whose opinions he cared as much as he cared yours.

Before leaning down to kiss you again, he took his crown from his head and put it to yours. He'd never done this before and you were surprised. Why did he do that? You had no explanations.

He looked at you, how beautiful you looked. On his throne, wearing his crown. He loved it when you were close to things that actually belonged him. It made him feel like now you were actually in his life, physically and tangibly. When it came to you, it was all about giving. Maybe he'd never shown it before but he could do anything for you when you told him to do. Each word coming out of your mouth was a duty he needed to fulfil.

His thumb caressed your cheek for a moment, then he finally kissed you again. You touched his body, ran your hands on his smooth skin as he kissed you. You felt his hand caressing your leg underneath your dress. His touch was gentle, warm and directly going to your burning core.

You automatically tried to close your legs but he stopped you.

Then he pushed the skirt of your dress up as you watched him. You had no power to do anything. You just could watch and let him. He made you weak but it was alright. You actually loved that kind of weakness.

You felt one of his fingers running on your underwear. You breathed loudly.

“Already wet.” You heard him murmuring. “Already wet for me.”

He took your underwear off and when the air hit your core, you wanted to close your legs again but he cought your right leg and put it to the arm of the throne.

“Stay still, sweetheart.”

You nodded.

But it was very hard to stay still when his mouth was finally there and he licked your clit.

You moaned and your back left the throne.

“Peter,” You whimpered.

You felt his lips smiling to your skin and heard his chuckle.

“You finally learnt your lesson, didn't you?”

By force of habit, you called him ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Your Majesty’ while you were having sex a few times and you could say that he didn't like it, not at all. Because according to him, he was the High King to everyone, but he wanted to be special to you, he wanted to be his true self to you, therefore he ordered to be called Peter, not something else. Well, when you called him something else, he made sure you would remember what the consequences would be if you did it next time.

You couldn't answer him because your head was in the clouds. You couldn't think anything but his tongue and the way it worked.

It was teasing your clitoris, then your enterance. Actually it was everywhere, leaving a wet mark behind it. He was eating you out like his life depended on it.

You were moaning, and your legs began shaking. Your hand were inside his hair, pulling it and desperately pushing his head to your clit more. You knew what you were doing but somehow, you also didn't.

That feeling emerged, informing you that you couldn't hold it any longer. You were so close to cum but Peter didn't care. He wanted to make you cum.

“Oh,” Your chest was moving fastly, you were biting your lip. “Peter, I'm so close.” You managed to say.

Then he pushed his tongue to your enterance.

“Oh!” You pulled his hair tighter. You couldn't take it anymore, everything felt so intense and the pleasure blew your mind.

It didn't take so long for you to cum. You screamed his name as you did. You were breathing fastly and were a total mess. He kissed inside of your leg before standing up.

You saw his lips, red and wet. His hair was completely messy but he looked so handsome and still magnificent.

“Come,” He took your hand helped you while you were standing up.

He kissed your lips. It was a miracle that you could remain standing and kiss him back because your legs were still shaking. But his hands were on your waist and you knew you was holding you.

He turned your body after the kiss, and you knew what you were supposed to do. You bent over, and put your hands to the arms of the throne.

You looked at him over your shoulder as he took off his pants very quickly. Even looking at it made you feel so good and when he finally was inside you, you lost it and moaned loudly.

He filled you perfectly. It was everything you needed. You felt complete and loved that idea of you two completing each other, in every way possible.

At first he was slow, letting you adjust to the feeling but then he started getting faster. He knew the way you liked it and gave it to you.

He grabbed your waist while he fucked you fast. You heard his groans. His voice was deep and filled with passion. He moaned your name. You felt his breath on your skin.

Then he pulled you to himself and made your back touch to his chest. You felt now his cock was buried inside you even deeper. You couldn't stop whimpering. Everything was perfect. Just perfect.

His forehead was on your shoulder. He kissed your skin. Then, he bit your neck, leaving a mark there. His hands found your nipples and played with them. Your body was completely occupied by his and feeling him everywhere was all you ever needed.

“Peter,” You moaned, at the same time he moaned your name.

“Two days,” He whispered. “Two days without you is enough to drive me crazy, enough to make me lose my control.”

“You say it like it is a bad thing.” You could answer him this time.

He smiled when he heard your answer and kissed your jawbone.

He loved it. He loved the way you were ready and willing to take him no matter how he was. You accepted him easily and the way he were, and he loved you for that. Was he going to lose his control? You were ready to take it. Without any judgements, any questions, you just accepted him and every time he felt it, he loved you even more.

You put your head to his shoulder, and he kissed your completely open neck. The only reason why you still could stand was his body. You leaned on him. You knew he would hold you. He always did.

“I'm so close,” You said. “Please never stop.”

“It's alright,” He said. “I will not.”

He kept his promise and fucked you until you came for the second time. He then pulled himself out and came to your ass.

He hugged your waist, his head on your back, rested for a while to catch his breath.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“More than okay, actually.” You replied, couldn't stop smiling.

He smiled too. “Let me dress you up, then we can go to our room.”

“I can─”

He interrupted you. “Let me.” It wasn't a request now.

He dressed you up, gently but fastly. He could see you were tired and needed some rest, therefore he wanted to take you to bed.

“Won't you take it back?” You asked, implying the crown on your head.

“No, it suits you.”

“It is yours.” You objected.

“Well, the throne was also mine but you didn't seem to care, did you sweetheart?”

You couldn't help but laugh. “It still looks weird though. Look at my dress and─”

The look on his face was enough to make you stop talking.

“We've just talked about it.” He said in a very dissappointed voice.

“I think I need some time,” You spoke as he tool your hand. “To get used to it.”

“To get used to what?”

“I don't know. I guess... everything.”

You started walking to leave the room.

“I can help you with that, M'Lady.”

You smiled. “Oh, I bet you can.”

oh hi hello hello! i hope you like it, please tell me what you think.

love, andrea. ♡

#peter pevensie #peterpevensie #high king peter the magnificent #high king peter #peter pevensie imagine #peter pevensie smut #peter pevensie x you #peter pevensie x y/n #peter pevensie x reader #narnia smut #andreaiswriting2

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bbq-hawks-wings · 3 years

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Chapter 316: BBQ is capable of critiquing BNHA and… Oh boy.

Let's start this off properly, Horikoshi's typical quality of writing has been diminishing in recent chapters, but this week it was so different that it didn't even feel like Horikoshi was the one who wrote it.

To be clear, I'm not blaming Horikoshi for the issues I'm about to bring up. The man is criminally overworked, usually doesn't even get the final say in what makes it in the final drafts, and even in his other rough patches he's still produced decent chapters that hold up amongst the grand scheme of things. This feels like something else is going on behind the scenes, and while I have my suspicions on who/what might be the culprit behind it, I choose not to share it at this time because if I name names some people might go off on a crusade, and that's not what I want.

I just want to be clear that I'm not blindly firing off shots in the dark, but despite my frustrations I want to wait to see if this gets resolved down the line, and while I do I can complain about the specific reasons this chapter left such a bitter taste in my mouth.

Buckle up, buttercups, because we got a lot of points to cover.

Where's the Gun?

Not a literal gun, but I mean Chekhov's Gun. It has always been a staple of Horikoshi's writing and the reason so many of his long-standing plot lines have paid off so well.

Chekhov's Gun is a writing principal that if you see a gun on the table in the first act of a play, it will be used in the murder that happens in act 2. Basically, the author should include details that are relevant to the story and not betray the audience by leading them in one direction and at the last minute pull the rug out from underneath them to go in another direction.

Horikoshi has done this to phenomenal success in the past. Just as one example, he dropped hints about Nomu being human experiments early in the series but held off explicitly stating it for a while. He hinted at the loss of Shirakumo in the main narrative and that he was important to Aizawa and Mic as well as approved it for Vigilantes so when it was revealed that Kurogiri was Shirakumo's body, not only did it narratively make sense but it also pulled in Eraserhead and Present Mic's emotional stakes into the battle with the Doctor, and then when Ujiko reveals he was after Aizawa's quirk the whole time it made the payoff for Mic punching him in the face all that much better and brings the weight of his crimes and the impact they have on the victims full circle.

That's 3 different guns paying off in the long run: the Nomu, Shirakumo, and both Mic and Eraserheads' personal arcs past the loss of their childhood friend and that they could finally finish processing their grief and avenge him in full righteous fury instead of chalking it all up to cruel chance.

He has left details, some particularly innocuously, in plot lines like the Touya Todoroki reveal, Hawks' backstory, Shigaraki's blood connection to Nana Shimura, even with Mr. Compress's backstory, and more. When re-read, these details become more obvious and usually leaves us with a greater sense of satisfaction in the plot knowing that twists and turns were not only planned, but built up to and hinted at for us to find so the payoff is that much better and it feels purposeful instead of just shock factor.

None of that happened this chapter.

Lady Nagant has zero business being in this plotline. She was never hinted about before this arc, and her existence does nothing to tell us about the plot moving forward or the world that they're trying to change. Nothing her existence provides actually has any bearing on the universe or tells us anything we don't already know. But that's not how she was presented.

In the beginning we're given a glimpse of her helping Overhaul escape from Tartarus. The focus on her was odd enough to begin with as a new character, and the fact that she didn't look like she fit the profile of someone who belonged in Tartarus was like a flashing neon sign saying, "Pay attention! This new character is important!!!" She then shows up later with Overhaul in hand to attack Deku out of the blue. We get her talking about how she thought Overhaul might be useful and her disillusions with Hero Society. We catch her mannerisms with eery similarity to Hawks only to find out immediately after she was a senior colleague in the HPSC. Never once to my knowledge has Hawks referred to any of his senior colleagues as a "senpai" - not even his fellow heroes - and when he catches her in midair, he uses the words, "Don't die on me, senpai!" as if she's near and dear to his heart.

The entire character arc is set up for her to have known about Hawks and grapple with her desire to help people and her fear of re-creating what she hated, and this also set up Hawks to be the successor who succeeded where she failed and helped bring her to a place where she could be a hero without guilt again. What actually happened?

They're strangers.

They have never actually met before, and while he seems to know a lot about her, she doesn't even seem to have any idea of who he was - at least as far as being another hero under the thumb of the HPSC. So ALLLL that setup, all that gesturing, and all of the potential themes that would be right at home in an arc like this goes completely out the window.

Her story doesn't tell us anything new. The HPSC bad. We knew that. They're not above throwing innocents under the bus to achieve that goal. We knew that. They preyed upon young hopefuls with powerful quirks with the intent to maintain the status quo. We knew that even if the fact that Hawks isn't the only one now makes more questions than answers. We know that these young heroes can never say no under threat of steep, life-shattering consequences. We knew that already.

So what does Lady Nagant even bring to the table?! The entire "you're just a puppet doing what you've been told" angle is a little tired and out of place in this point and time with actual anarchy in the streets (not to mention hypocritical considering she was a blind puppet following orders and offers zero actual solutions that supposedly fall in line with her heroic nature), and it could have been left to any number of other villain characters who could have executed on the theme better - you know, like Shigaraki who's justification this entire time has been, "hero society doesn't make people safe, it just makes them feel safe" from the moment of his inception.

So from that angle she's unnecessary.

Her presence messes with the continuity of the series as well. If Hawks is supposed to explicitly replace her, that would mean that he wasn't just a fluke find on the commission's part and grabbed to mold into their own special superweapon; and that also would mean that her killing of the former president was before he was discovered which should put her at least in her forties. If this isn't the case, and he was meant to simply replace her in a "special agent" case, that still begs the question of how many more gifted children the commission preyed upon and are still out there.

And maybe the worst kicker for me is that something stinks. The way the art in this chapter is presented, if you completely blanked out the speech bubbles, is the same setup I had before - Hawks reaches out to his former mentor and pulls her from the brink of despair with a moving message about why he never gave up hope in being a hero who could actually make a difference.

Again, this is not what we got. He claims he knows her, and it's implied to have been a deep, personal character witness; but at best he only knows about her from secondhand sources. Even his reasoning as to how he never lost hope doesn't vibe with his character.

We have gotten so many cool one-liners for Hawks, but there has always been a consistent tone and imagery with them.

"Those who can fly, should."

"I don't belong in a cage."

"I'm free of my shackles."

"Can I be a shining light, just like him?"

What we got was, "I'm an optimist to a fault" which was the wording the official release went with and was by far the best iteration I have seen, but even this falls short of being truly in character for him and answering her question properly.

@mikeana made an edit of the titular panels for us Hawks stans this week with dialogue we and a few other friends felt was more fitting not only with the imagery of the chapter itself but internally consistent with the specific expressions Hawks uses in his heartfelt, personal dialogue. I just tweaked it a little bit more to fit what I was going for in our original conversation.

Which brings me to another concern.

2. What's the point?

There was no use for Nagant in the series as she's been presented so far. But more than that, Hawks has no business in this fight to begin with. He literally did nothing to earn this emotional moment, and this should have been Deku's moment.

We were teased in an interview with Horikoshi that Hawks was going to get a special moment as an important end-game character as a "shining light" of hope for others to follow as well as promises for Ochako to have another moment in the spotlight to make a difference.

If this was Hawks' shining light moment, it wasn't necessary, and it does nothing to move the plot forward or develop characters in any true or believable way. It just happened because plot. This should have been Deku's victory through and through, and even he is the reason BOTH Hawks and Nagant made it out alive instead of painting the street below them.

Deku's victory was stolen from him, too. It sours the other promises made to us about other characters moving forward, as well, if this really was Hawks' "Shining Light" moment.

By the way, did you forget about Overhaul? Me too!!! What was the point of getting our hopes up about reintroducing this beloved character with the implications this was a major arc setup to have him scream about pops and then get detained with no clues about what's going to happen to him besides, "Say you're sorry to Eri, and you get to see pops"?!

All this posturing and clumsy narrative flailing only actually succeeded in getting Deku in front of AFO again for plot when we already know Mr. Potato Head could summon, show himself to, or find Deku at any time he wanted. But instead we get this time skip with a bunch of heroes completely mended walking into a big, spooky mansion for AFO to evil monologue at Deku for… *counts*

FOUR PAGES!!!

Only to then give him the "I want YOU!" point over a pre-recorded message and the final nail in the coffin to me that something is off.

3. Ex-pu-LOOOO-SHUN!

It's become almost a game among friends to count how many explosions have happened since the end of the war arc - and specifically fake-out explosions. In the end of 311 we get All Might's car attacked via explosion and Deku cornered by Nagant only for All Might to be fine in the next chapter. In 315 Lady Nagant herself explodes in a blaze of glory to once again not be dead.

Gee! I wOnDeR if aLl the heroes were AcTuAlLy cornered and KiLlEd in that explosion in the mansion!

None of us do. They're fine. We're going to see it first thing next week. The shock has worn off, and it's repetitive and annoying at this point. There is no cliffhanger despite how the framing might try to tell you otherwise.

It's BAD WRITING.

The writing has been moving far too quickly and clumsily with no explanation in sight, and even character interactions are being cut short to the point of them being meaningless and empty.

This doesn't even feel like Horikoshi's bad writing. It feels like someone else is trying to call the shots and rushing him through these final bits of the series, and he's run out of things he's previously set up for months and months to reappear so someone is trying to get Dabi-reveal levels of attention with arcs and storylines that don't have the build-up to result in a satisfactory payoff.

4. At least it can get better... I hope.

Maybe those who share my suspicions or know what particular suspicions I have are with me in believing that this is a temporary disappointment and we haven't seen the last of the writing that's captivated me for years. I don't blame Horikoshi for these glaring faults that all came to a head in this chapter.

It CAN get better later, and I think it WILL- we just probably are going to have to wait for it. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the Hawks panels we got, maybe edit the last few chapters to be more in line with something more like the BNHA I know in a "fix it fic" fashion so I don't groan in anticipation of how long it might take us to get there.

See you all next week, hopefully on a much brighter note.

#she speaks #chapter review #bnha 316 #bnha chapter 316 #bnha manga spoilers

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morganas-pendragons · 2 years

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Halo Episode 7

Because this one single gif is ten times more interesting then the entirety of Episode 7. I absolutely went way too honest on this one about how I feel in regards to Soren and Kwan. If you like/love them, I don't recommend reading this. Spoilers under the cut!

Kwan cannot carry an episode on her own. She's meant to be a supporting character, not a main, and I have absolutely zero interest in her or Soren.

she's a teenager who lost everything. "rage is all i have left.'' and i totally get it, i do. there's just nothing endearing about this plot. it's not interesting. it doesn't draw you in.

her actress is super talented but.. the insurrection plot.. just bores me

i don't hate her. she just... definitely isn't a character i'm interested in

Speaking of Soren -- like.. I get he's from the legends but I do not care about him either.... his son is so cute and i love his wife but soren just does not do it for me..

also these are first impressions so don't be surprised if something changes halfway down this list

one of the things this show does super well is the cinematography

like holy crap dude

how on EARTH did Soren get back to the Rubble?!

i would've rather had an entire episode about soren's origins in the spartan program and how his relationship with john started

i do however find it super interesting that once kwan enters that dream like state, the person she sees is john

John and Reth, both who have been affected by the Covenant and are the complete antithesis of everything she's been raised to believe

WHO PUTS A TEENAGE GIRL AGAINST A SPARTAN THREE DECADES OLDER THEN HER?

Not to mention who's been augmented and has armor made from titanium alloy?

the little details of kwan changing weapons every time she wakes up is a fascinating addition

and the way they wait until she finally gives up to show john's face?

important details

pablo literally doesn't have to say a word, his presene just carries so much weight

the music in this episode is fantastic

THE WAY THAT KWAN SEES HER ENTIRE FAMILY LINE IN FRONT OF HER? AND HER FATHER? THE WAY THEY ALL DISAPPEAR INTO THE NEXT?

that detail was so cool!!

frick there's still thirty minutes left

mmm a portal that doesn't have a recognized destination i wonder where it leads

won't be surprised if it leads to halo lol

vinsher... vinsher. ugh.

i hate him too

if i'm right on this someone needs to give me a pat on the back -- but i am 100% convinced between what john and kwan have learned, they're gonna help the other get to halo

Soren's dedication to John is so sweet

you people really are stupid enough to think you can take on an ex spartan aren't you

okay i don't know about the rest of you but people who throw knives that accurately and with that much finesse?

hot

also for those of you who don't know, soren in the legends is certifiably insane and is very similar to this one. If you wanna look him up -- here he is!

THE PLASMA GRENADE FINALLY MAKES AN ENTRANCE

MY JAW DROPPED THAT WAS A POWER MOVE KID!!

oh she founds john's gun

which is three times the size of her

i never realized how big these guns are compared to civilians!

vinsher got the death he deserves!!! whoo!!!!!!

i definitely believe soren john and kwan are going to come back together at some point because of how many times ''we'll see each other again'' was said in regards to all three of them

oh she kept john's gun *cries quietly*

okay overall this gets a 6/10

it wasn't bad, definitely picked up toward the end, but i feel there are a number of ways they could've done this better

#show: Halo #halo spoilers #halo paramount #halo series #halo tv show #halo show

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voidtekarc · 2 years

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Old Friends - Part II

It was a week since the ceruleum facility was destroyed. Arcuris spent a good portion of money that he left tending to the wounded and those who lost family in the incident. He chalked it up to an accident which destroyed it. After everything was sorted out, he disappeared. There were no goodbyes.

He failed them he has failed the Fullers. His personal history reared It's hateful head and lashed out at anyone that might have been associated with him. He did not meet with the families of those who were slain in the disaster. He knew what the result would be and it was deserved. He'd sooner just cut out all of the grief that awaited him at every waking moment.

Considering that Tallian had sent Sevata after him, and Sevata found where he made his money, there was a good chance they were zeroing in on where his hideout was. Arcuris repaired all of his equipment, created custom and deadly ammunition, and set up as much defenses as he possible could. When they would arrive would be another story. He needed to make sure he was ready for whatever they might bring against him.

Arcuris's eyes shot open as the entire facility was blaring an alarm triggered by the perimeter. Someone or something was inside of it. Arcuris knew exactly who it was and stood up, raising up the rifle that was sitting in his lap while he slept. He pulled back the charging handle to cycle a round into the chamber.

There were a few magitek cameras set throughout the facility and Arcuris used these to track down any intruders that may enter. It was not until now that anyone was able to get in. They would have known the codes to get in or have other conventional ways of getting through the door. Arcuris looked on the camera to see no less than four figures who were spread out walking down the hallways one after the other. He knew who they were but he looked again just to make sure of it. Commander Tallian Pyr Lucalla, Cassius Tyraxus, Umbrianus Venator, and even Sevata Verula.

"Just a little further, assholes." Arcuris muttered to himself.

Then the four came to the main hanger that was before housed with all of the equipment and magitek prototypes Arcuris was working on. Now it was empty, or so it would seem. As the four investigated the eerily empty room, the camera showed that a multitude of defensive weapons revealed themselves along the walls, ceiling, and floor and started to blast at them. They all took cover and returned fire at all of the emplacements before dozens of small hunter killer magitek walkers scrambled assist the defenses.

Seeing that his old colleagues were too busy dealing with his traps, he went to enact another part of his plan. He made his way to the main control room of the entire facility, peering over all of the safety protocols and measures that kept the main generator in check. He started to turn off all of the safety switches and disabling the main ceruleum power plant. He disabled any safety alarms, lights, or noises to keep his sabotage hidden from his attackers.

"Where is that bastard?!" Umbrianas roared as they dealt with every single trap he had set for the four of them. They used up quite a bit of equipment and ammunition while sustaining sizable wounds. Umbrianas himself was shot a few times and even stabbed by some of the hunter killers. The others, save for Tallian, suffered similar wounds.

"Dishonorable combatant. I'd expect no less from a traitor." Cassius continued as the group kept moving up the facility, sweeping the entire place while still finding traps.

"He set these everywhere? Fucker!" Sevata snarled as another weapon fired off and tore into her side. She stumbled about before the wound sealed slowly, "I'm going to tear his head off when I find him."

"You will do no such thing. If you find him you will contact Cassius and I. We will search more down here and you two will search above. He is here somewhere here and we will find him." Even though Tallian was in the heat of fighting, he appeared to take no damage from any of it. His skill in combat far surpassed any of them.

After ten minutes of slogging through the facility before reaching the top of the facility where an airship landing pad greeted Umbrianas and Sevata. They opened the door and stepped out on the platform as the rain was pouring down on them, pattering on their armor. "This is the last spot. Where in the hells is h-"

A massive explosion rocked the entire platform as the two of them were blown off of their feet as shrapnel and fire sprayed their bodies. Sevata looked around as pieces of shrapnel was stuck in her armor. Umbrianas was on one knee staring to Arcuris who was aiming his rifle at both of them.

"Hello, friends."

Umbrianas stood up, wrenching his hands on the grip of his giant hammer as he charged towards Arcuris, "He's here!" In return, Arcuris opened fire, the massive rifle slamming rounds down range at Umbrianas and Sevata. The ammunition was powerful enough to punch through even Umbrianas's heavy armor and explode, causing massive damage to him as he moved forward. Through insane rage, he was able to close the distance on Arcuris. Sevata snarled as she went to flank her target.

Arcuris put away his rifle before drawing the gunblade to meet Umbrianas. Pushed forward by rage and pain, The Roegadyn swung violently and recklessly as his hammer came even close to slamming Sevata's cranium. His wounds were healing much more slowly now, remembering he already took quite a bit of damage getting to this point in the facility. Arcuris was ready and dodged and parried every blow he could hurl at him. Sevata manage to get a hit in on Arc, but it was only a glancing blow on the side of his armor.

The two were powerful and they managed to get a couple of powerful, solid hits on Arcuris, but he shrugged them off and retaliated with even more fury, tearing and blasting into their armor and hides with his deadly gunblade. He slammed the gunblade into the side of Sevata, firing off a charge before tearing it out and through the shoulder of Umbrianas. Umbrianas snarled and smashed Arc with his massive hammer, making him fall to one knee. Arcuris did not let go and drug the blade further through, before firing it almost midway through Umbrianas's body.

Umbraianas grunted in pain before slowly falling to the ground after Arcuris ripped it out from his heavy armor. Sevata tried to get back up but fell over, groaning from the deep wounds just caused.

"You…bastard…" Umbrianas wheezed as he turned on his side to look at Arcuris as blood ran down his armor.

"Did you think I would not be ready for all of you? You think me being out here alone has made me soft?" Arcuris loaded the gunblade, anticipating the other two would arrive shortly, "Just because I have a conscious doesn't make me weak. It makes me realize all of the horrible things I've done for Garlemald, all of my faults and failings. It makes me extra pissed off when I need to be."

Arcuris turned to see both Tallian and Cassius walking onto the landing platform as he slammed the chamber on the gunblade closed, "Like now."

Tallian's hardened features stared to Arcuris, a look of disappointment and sadness drenched along them. It was more of a look of pity without any kind of anger even after looking to Umbrianas and Sevata who were recovering from the brutal engagement with Arc. Cassius drew his blade as he walked beside Tallian, only to have his commander stop him by putting his arm in front of him, "Arcuris, you have betrayed Garlemald, killed and wounded many to those loyal to the throne, and constantly undermine us every chance you are possibly given."

"Come here to rend your judgment, Tallian?" He kept his blade to his side as the rain and wind battered them all.

"All will be forgiven. Come home to us , Arcuris. You don't have to do this anymore. "

Arcuris was taken aback by his words. He was not the only one either, Sevata and Cassius, most of all, glared and turned their attention to Tallian. Arcuris looked to Tallian as the rain tapped along his armor, smiling underneath of his helmet, "That would be nice, wouldn't it? Just forgive all of that pain and suffering just like that?" He peered down at the landing pad as the rain washed the blood down the nearby drains, "Could I even see my parents once more?" His face turned into a scowl as tears of anger burned his face under the armored visage.

His face immediately flared with rage as he looked to both of them in defiance, "But we both know what I am going to say."

Tallian Lucalla pulled his arm back to his side to free up Cassius, "I felt that deep down I knew that was what your answer would be. I was hoping I was wrong."

#Arcuris rilanox #ffxiv rp #crystal data center #garleans #mateus #garlean #ffxiv #writing #old friends #pre-End Walker #old friends part 2 #to be continued #editing this with the new tumblr format was AWFUL #finally part 2 after so long #language #violence

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victoria-daydreams · 4 years

Text

Of Vices and Virtues

Chapter Eight: Fun & Games

AN: Well, I was gonna wait to post this chapter, but there’s an influx of notes pouring in for this story so why keep you all waiting any longer?

Word Count: 5.4k

Trigger Warnings: racism, objectification

Taglist: @azayamari

Chapter Nine: Challenges

With some trepidation, Charles readjusted his grip on the gun and extended his arm. He let out a slow breath and looked to Erik. Taking a step back, he stood with an anxious expression on his face.

"You're sure?" Charles asked, the others were off training, but I stayed to watch the two men from the stone bench I was sitting on. I watched with a sigh as Charles pointed a gun at Erik.

"I'm sure," Erik nodded eagerly, smiling almost manically.

Oh, boy. I knew Erik and I were foolhardy enough when he fired his gun to test his abilities and then me following in his footsteps to test my own powers, but I didn't think he was stupid enough to have a gun fired at him point blank. I liked Erik, but why did he always want to do things that could potentially kill someone or himself.

"All right," Charles sighed, and slowly moved to place his finger against the trigger. Even as his finger was gently placed against it, his frown if anything grew, lowering his arm he shook his head. "No. No, I can't. I'm sorry," he gave in lowering the gun. "I can't shoot anybody point blank, let alone my friend,"

"Thank you, Charles for seeing sense," I remarked dryly, looking up from my reading.

"Oh come on!" Erik said while reaching out and grasping onto his arm and lifting the gun back up. "You know I can deflect it!" he asserted while pushing the gun against his forehead again. "You're always telling me I should push myself," he reasoned simply.

"If you know you can deflect it, then you're not challenging yourself," Charles lectured, lowering his arm again and giving Erik the gun back. "Whatever happened to the man who's...who's trying to raise a submarine?" he reminded.

"Oh, boy. Don't give him anymore ideas, Charles," I commented dryly again, snapping my book shut as I rose from my seat, straightening my skirt and letting my fingers glide over the buttons that went down the center.

"Well, it's gotten the job done all this time," Erik pointed out.

"It's nearly gotten you killed all this time," Charles corrected, he looked around as I turned my attention to the radio satellite in the distance.

"There's a challenge," I thought, catching Charles' stare and he nodded in agreement.

"I have to leave," Charles began, checking his watch before looking up at us. "I need to start setting up for Alex's training. I'll see you two later," he stated, and Erik and I watched as he took the path back into the mansion.

"You're a bit dressed up for training today," Erik commented, his eyes traveling from my simple cream colored blouse down to my maroon colored plaid skirt and finally onto my black pumps.

"I know! Do you like it?" I asked grinning, and holding both sides of the skirt and twirling before it found itself settling down to rest just below the mid thigh once again.

The sun had peaked in the sky, warming the fall day to the perfect level of warmth against our skin and making my golden, brown skin glow. Erik scanned quickly over what I was wearing, his eyes seemingly zeroing on my stockingless legs.

"Well Erik? I don't have all day,"

The sudden remark snapped him out of his daze. My voice contained a little snippiness as it did sometimes, but there was an equal amount of playfulness to it as well.

"I've seen better," he mentioned, and I narrowed my eyes upon him. Our stare down dragged out for five seconds, before Erik's lip started to quirk, struggling to contain his smile.

"I hate you Erik, so much," I uttered, stabbing my index finger into his chest. "And for the record, you're pretty average yourself, so I wouldn't get too cocky," I added flatly, a smile of my own forming.

"Has this always been your nature?" Erik asked with a smirk.

"I don't know what you mean," I replied, arching my brow and mirroring his smirk.

I made my way back to the balcony the gravel crunching underneath my heels before I hopped up onto the railing and faced Erik again. He moved forward moving from the stair we were standing on. He placed his gun down next to me and I immediately picked the weapon, aiming the weapon over his shoulder.

"Put that down before you hurt somebody or yourself," Erik jested, proud of himself.

I lowered the gun, "Who needs guns, when I can snap your neck with a flick of my wrist," I concurred, placing the gun back down on the balcony. "Or I could just order them to do the deed themselves," I added, with a shrug.

"Strange as it may be, but I want to experience your ability as well," he stated, placing his hands down on the smooth, stone railing. "I'm curious if power is truly terrifying as Charles makes it out to be," Erik gibed, a smug look on his face.

"You're going to choke on your words Erik," I sang, straightening my posture and stared into Erik's eyes.

Erik stared back into mine unflinchingly just as I planted the mental aftertaste of vanilla, He began to sniff. He knew the smell wasn't really there, that I was simply tweaking some nerve in his brain that told him he smelt it, but he sniffed anyway.

"I am shaking in my boots, Claudia," Erik commented dryly.

But now, that perfume didn't smell so sweet, he felt terror flood his mind almost like an offensive odor. I conveyed to him the feeling of cold seeping into his bones and water filling his lungs to the extent Erik physically choked.

Drowning.

I released him from my hold and stared at him as his coughing fit wracked his body, I smirked and jumped down from the down balcony. I patted Erik on his back as if I was burping a small baby and Erik just turned and looked at me still coughing, but not as violently.

"Told you I was going to make you choke," I quipped, and made my back into the mansion.

~~~x~~~

I wandered the mansion for a while my heels clacking against the cherry wood, very surprised to find that no one was in sight. I remembered that Charles was training with Alex and took the path to the bunker to see if today would yield better results for Alex. There was quite a bit of banging from what seemed to be in the bunker and low murmur of voices as I approached closer.

Just as I entered I watched Hank and Charles wrestle a vest of some sort on Alex. I joined the three of them my heels clicking on the metal floor alerting them to my presence, I lifted an eyebrow at what Alex was wearing now being able to fully see what it was. Alex had this new device strapped against him. It was a metal circular disk and my educated guess was it's supposed to center Alex's power into one place and shoot out as a beam.

Alex stared down at the thing with slight despair, "Sexy," he commented dryly.

I moved next to him and winked, "Innit? It compliments your eyes," I agreed smiling.

Hank smiled sheepishly, "Well this is just the prototype. The real one will look considerably better. It'll be a whole suit. See these sensors measure your energy I'll put this panel focus in and the excess is absorbed," Hank answered in a long winded explanation.

"You're sure this will work Hank?" Charles asked, a smile on his lips from Hank's excited explanation.

"Anything's possible," Hank answered breathlessly.

"Good enough for me," Charles said, and then pointed at the new three dummies, specifically at the one in the center that had a large ‘X’ tapped from its shoulder blades to its hips. "Alright try hitting the one in the middle, just the one in the middle, mind. Good luck," he concluded, leading Hank and I out the room.

Charles quickly closed the door behind us it wasn't long before I heard a loud explosion from within the bunker. Placing my hand on the handle of the door to open it I felt Charles' hand on mine halting my movement, that's when another thunderous explosion echoed throughout the bunker along with the sound of soft thud, like a body falling. The red light flickered on and I pulled open one of the doors as Hank opened the other one.

"For goodness sake..." Charles trailed off, once again looking at the fiery destruction that Alex caused. "Hank, Hank take care of that for me will ya," he requested, pointed to the now burning mannequins. I knelt down on the left of Alex as Charles knelt down on his right. "You alright?" Charles asked concern present in his voice.

"Yep," Alex replied, out of breath.

"Are you sure?" I questioned, staring at burning mannequins that were placed on the left and right before looking back at Alex.

"Yes," Alex answered again, regaining his breath.

"Can you stand?" Charles inquired, grasping Alex's arm and I did the same just as Alex nodded yes and the two of us pulled Alex from the floor. All of us looked at the blaze in front of us again while Hank tried to extinguish it. "Well, it's progress anyway," he acknowledged, looking at Alex. "At least it's coming from only one direction now. You will learn to control this eventually Alex but-" Charles started.

"But for now I get to wear energy diapers," Alex interjected irritatedly and stormed off. "Thanks Bozo!" Alex fumed, leaving the bunker.

"Oh Alex, you're so dramatic," I thought.

~~~x~~~

I hummed to myself as I moved down the hall looking for something to do, turning the corner I slowed my pace and stopped at a window and looked outside. Charles and Hank had changed into sweats. They were going on a run themselves. Hank saw me and I gave him a thumbs for good luck, he smiled weakly in return. I stepped back from the window and continued my search for human life in the mansion, turning down the hall I heard metal clanking. Someone's in the gym. I moved closer, but stopped when I was a few feet from the entrance because of a certain voice I heard.

"If you're using half your concentration to look normal, then you're only half paying attention to whatever else you're doing. Just pointing out something that could save your life," There was the sound of something heavy and metal moving. "You want society to accept you, but you can't even accept yourself,"

He was talking to Raven. I was irritated, suddenly and inexplicably irritated. But why? All Erik was doing was trying to encourage Raven to be herself. Erik came out of the weight room and walked away from the room but stopped when he saw me. I swiftly masked my expression with a smile, barely having time to process my true feelings.

I walked forward as did Erik, "Now that's a surprise," I began, meeting his gaze. "It's not everyday Erik Lehnsherr boosts your self-esteem," I joked, my voice low so Raven couldn't hear us.

"You overheard me talking to Raven?" he asked, matching my tone.

"Yes," I nodded.

"What do you make of it?" Erik questioned, folding his arms together.

"I think you made a great point. It doesn't matter if she's blue," I agreed. "To me at least," I added.

"It doesn't?"

"No. But it's up to her to decide," I stated giving him a pointed look, before walking past him.

"I see..." Erik murmured. "Claudia!" Erik called, and I spun around to face him. "I lied earlier," Erik remembered.

I let out a chuckle, "Oh, and what would that be about?" I questioned, arching a brow.

"You look fantastic, truly stunning," Erik complimented.

I rolled my eyes, trying to suppress a smile, that slowly seeped through. I looked to the ground, hoping that he wasn't watching my reaction to his compliment. Looking up through my eyelashes, I met his eyes. The two of us watching each other before my smile widened and I slowly walked backwards until I faced the right direction.

"Hard at work I see," I observed smirking from the entrance, before entering the room. Raven was in her blue form, something that will still take time for me to get use to.

"Well aren't you all dressed up," Raven commented, putting a pair of dumbbells back. "I take it you're not training today," Raven stated, gesturing with her hand in regards to my outfit.

"Nope," I answered, popping the 'p'. "Charles gave me the day off, said we'll pick back up tomorrow," I explained, moving about the room and letting my hand running along the gym equipment.

Raven lips quirked up into a smile as blue rippled down her, transforming her back into her fair skinned form.

"Must be nice to have him wrapped around your finger. All you have to do is bat your eyelashes and Charles will do anything for you,"

I found Raven looking me almost expectantly, a grin on her face like she knew something I didn't.

"He is not wrapped around my finger," I argued, shaking my head smiling and Raven's grin grew wider. I definitely didn't 't know what she was thinking now. "What?" I asked, throwing my hands up.

"Nothing. It's just cute," Raven answered simply, with a shrug.

I gave an incredulous look, my hands on my hips, "What's cute?"

Raven laughed, almost a giggle. "You two. You know, a telepath and an empath. In lo—"

"Raven!" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Come on. You're interested in him, admit it!"

I narrowed my eyes, "I'm not interested in him," I protested, knowing it was a flat out lie.

What Raven's prying eyes didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"In whom?" Charles's voice startled the both of us from the open doorway of the room, and we both glanced at each other with wide eyes as he leaned against the door frame, evidently done with his running with Hank. He stood there, calm and collected as he looked between the two of us, awaiting our answers with that hint of a smile on his lips.

As if he didn't already know.

~~~x~~~

There were a few things I was concerned about on the way to the mall. Of course, I'm always for the opportunity to buy new clothes, but I didn't have much money on me to pay for my purchases. Not only that, the thought of where in the hell would a black woman like myself be able to shop in Upstate New York crossed my mind. I could envision those three familiar words that have plagued me my whole life.

'No Coloreds Allowed'

When I brought this up Charles tried to assuage my concern.

"Don't worry, I know a place where you won't be bothered," he assured, flashing me a quick smile.

"Do you always have a hard time shopping?" Erik asked, turning in the passenger seat to look at me.

"In the city no, especially where I lived," I answered, shaking my head. "People are a bit more open and welcoming to someone like me," I explained, looking out the window. "But here in Upstate New York State, this is probably a utopia for rich, white folks," I continued, bringing my attention back to the two men in the car. "No offense Charles," I added, a small smile on my lips.

"None taken,"

"The only time people up here probably see someone of my complexion is if they are 'the help'" I finished.

We arrived at the mall and Charles pulled into the vast parking lot, driving around for a bit before he drove into a vacant parking space just as Moira passed us, parking in the space next to us. I looked out the window and at the mall, it was a large complex crafted in sandstone that was only one story. The three of us simultaneously got out of the car just as the back door to Moira's car opened revealing a grumpy Alex.

"Thank God we're finally here," he grumbled.

I raised an eyebrow curious to know what he could be possible be grumpy about now, but then again it's Alex, he's always moody. It wasn't until I heard the sounds of Sean and Raven chatting excitedly, that I figured out why he was so annoyed.

"You alright Alex?" I asked.

"I'm fine now," he nodded. "I had to get out of there, Claudia. I couldn't take much more of those two. Why couldn't I ride with you three?" Alex asked.

"Adults only car," I answered simply, shrugging my shoulders. "Sorry kid, I don't make the rules," I added smiling, and Alex grumbled some more.

Raven approached me grinning, "I am so excited!" she cheered. "This is great! A real break from all that training and worrying about Shaw trying to kill us all. Finally!"

"Technically, we had a break three days ago because of the rain," I reminded, sticking a finger in the air.

"That doesn't count, we were still stuck in the mansion," Raven argued playfully.

"Everybody ready?" Charles asked us, and everyone nodded. "Let us go, then," he smiled.

The eagerly-chattering batch of teenagers walked ahead as we entered into the crowded mall.

I gawked at the beautiful interior of the mall, "I have never seen a mall look this beautiful," I commented, my eye sweeping over the design.

"Almost like a utopia, right?" Charles asked, a smile on his face. I rolled my eyes at him for referencing my comment earlier, as a smile formed on my lips. "Okay, everyone! Gather around! I got something to say, it won't be long," he announced. "You all are free to explore the mall, but I have two rules. Do not draw attention to yourselves and you must be back at the cars by 6:30," Charles explained. "Am I clear?" he asked, looking around at the younger mutants and they all nodded their heads. "Good, have fun," Charles finished smiling.

The boys immediately took off, Sean and Alex went in one direction while Hank walked in the opposite direction. So, now that just left us with Moira, Charles, Erik, Raven, and I. The five of us made our way down the long galleria, but the quick glittering of something bright in the corner of my eye caused me to stop. As if in a trance I walked over to a jewelry's storefront window display, stopping in front of it I stared at the glittering pieces of the marvelously crafted and elegant jewelry.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice commented, I whipped my head around to see Charles standing behind me flashing a grin. "Do you see something you like?"

I glanced back over to the display case, "Everything," I retorted, causing Charles to chuckle.

"Okay, how about being a bit more specific," he suggested, a playful smile on his face.

"Alright," I began, admiring a particularly lovely necklace. "That one," I stated, pointing to a gorgeous Baltic amber egg shaped pendant on a sterling silver chain. "I never seen anything like it," I smiled, looking over at Charles.

"The diamonds don't catch your fancy?" he asked curiously.

"Well, diamonds are a girl's best friend, but...I don't know why, but this necklace is speaking to me," I explained, folding my arms across my chest.

Charles grinned and began speaking, but I couldn't focus on the words coming out his mouth. It felt as if someone was burning hole through my skull with their stare, turning my head to the left I met the gaze of an older white man. He grinned at me, but the warmth didn't reach his eyes. Just as I was about return the gesture out of courtesy, I was suddenly struck by a pulse.

Lust.

I scrunched my nose, disgusted, I shot the man a glare. I placed my hand on Charles' arm silently telling him that we should go, but he didn't seem to notice my hand. I looked up and into Charles' eyes only to see him glaring at the man as well.

He must have obviously heard whatever thought ran across the perverted man's mind, while I had the unfortunate pleasure of feeling what he was thinking.

Charles placed his hand on my back, "Let's catch up with the others, shall we?" he suggested, but it was more of an order as ushered me away from the jewelry store.

"Gladly,"

~~~x~~~

"Charles?" I prompted, softly. He turned his head in my direction. "It's been about five minutes since our little encounter and I want to know what that dirty, old man was thinking," I explained, meeting his stare.

He rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm almost embarrassed to say," Charles replied, a flush creeping up his neck and to his cheeks.

"Humor me,"

"Alright. Well, to begin with, I could hear the man groan in his mind," Charles started.

I twisted my nose up, "Eww," I broke in, letting out a groan myself.

"This is what the man thought, and I quote, 'Ooo, mama...She's a pretty one. I wouldn't mind getting some of that tonight,'" Charles recited, scrunching his nose up as well. "I feel dirty for even saying those words aloud," he added, as we walked into a department store.

I laughed, "Ditto," I agreed.

It seemed my laughter attracted the attention of a sales rep, a pretty blonde dressed in red, with her hair done up in a flipped bouffant.

"May I help you?" she asked, completely ignored me and directing the question solely at Charles.

"Jesus Christ, this place," I thought.

I lowered my mental barrier and glanced at Charles.

"You're right, I won't be bothered here. They'll just act like I don't exist," I thought. "Or think of me as a sex object. And I can't tell which one is worse,"

"I'll make myself scarce then," I informed, glancing at him one last time.

I sighed and decided to go find Raven, making my way away from them, I heard Charles quickly answer with a 'No' and hurry past the rep. Charles caught my wrist and tried to stop me, but I shook him off.

"Charles, let me have my space," I thought.

I walked away without hindrance and continued on my journey to join Raven who was most likely in the women's department. Following the signs I found the department and Raven who was currently sorting through tops, even though she had plenty of clothes draped across her arm.

"And hear I thought I was the person to buy a ton of clothes," I commented smiling.

"Hey!" she cried, smiling herself. "They're not all for me, I picked stuff out for you to," Raven explained, looking up from her task. "You and Charles were taking to long," Raven added shrugging, and handed me the clothes she picked out.

I examined the clothes and checked the sizes which were strangely correct, "How did you know my size?" I asked, lifting my eyes away from the tag.

"I may have went into your room..." Raven answered, trailing off.

I lifted my eyebrow, "You did what?" I questioned, wanting an explanation.

"I didn't mean to," Raven began, lifting her hands in surrender. "Our laundry got mixed together and I went to return your shirts to your room. I know I shouldn't have, but I went snooping in your closet and drawers, I wanted to know your size in case I wanted to give you a gift or something," she explained, and I could see that she meant well.

"While I appreciate the thought Raven, please don't go in my room unless I say you can," I stated, giving her a pointed look.

She nodded her head, "Won't happen again. I promise," Raven assured.

"Good,"

"So..." Raven trailed off.

"So, what?" I repeated, wondering where this was going.

"So do you like Erik or Charles now? I'm confused," Raven asked as we walked down the aisle to lingerie.

"I beg your pardon? What?” I asked confused, raising my eyebrow again. "I don't like Erik," I stated, shaking my head. "Well, not like that, if that's what you're implying," I added.

"But you do like Charles?" she inquried. "You didn't deny it," Raven pointed out.

"Maybe a little. So what? I'm a big girl," I said shoving her playfully and putting my head on her shoulder as we walked.

"I'm pretty sure he likes you too. I've lived with him for so long and I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you," she explained. "But what's going on with you and Erik?"

I sighed, "Nothing is going on between Erik and I. We're friends, which is something I thought would never say," I laughed, as I began looking through a rack of lacy undergarments.

"So what did I see between the two of you during training a couple of days ago?" Raven asked, looking up from her rack.

My hand paused and I lifted my head to meet Raven's gaze, "Nothing," I answered shrugging. "We were practicing hand to hand combat, he knocked me off my feet and then proceeded to pin me to the ground," I explained, shrugging my shoulders before continue my search through the undergarments. "Nothing you should look too deeply into," I reasoned, trying to convince her.

Or...maybe I was trying to convince myself.

"Speak of the devil, look who it is," I commented, spotting the metal bender approaching us from afar. Raven's face went beet red, I don't know why though, possibly because of Erik approaching us while we're looking though undergarments. "No need to be embarrassed Raven, I'm sure Erik has seen lingerie before," I assured, lifting up a set off the rack. "He's probably even helped a few women out them," I added smirking, picking up another set.

"Dia..." Raven groaned.

"What?" I asked smiling, looking at her. "Erik, you naughty boy," I called, once he was closer to us. Erik rolled his eyes and chuckled, before propping one foot on the bottom of the rack and leaning against it. "What would people think seeing you in this section?" I asked, a playful tone evident in my voice.

"You know I could care less what people think, Claudia,"

"True enough," I conceded. "Speaking of what others think..." I trailed off. "Which one do you like?" I asked lifting both sets of lingerie up, one in each hand.

The set in my left hand was a pale blue embroidered with bright white lace, the fabric was silky and sheer and wonderful to the touch. The undergarment in my right hand, my favorite of the two, was a matching deep red bra and high waisted briefs, that was all lace and satin. The garment was meant for one purpose, seduction.

Erik brought two fingers to his chin and began to rub it as if he was thinking hard, "I don't know, it's hard to choose. Maybe you should model them for me," he suggested smirking.

My eyes widened as I let out a laugh of disbelief and my face heating up from the comment. In the corner of my eye I could see that Raven's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

Laughing softly at my awed expression, Erik lifted his finger and pointed it to the right, "Choose the red set, the red sets off your black hair and brown eyes, not to mention it goes well with your skin color," he noted, shoving his hands in his pockets.

I nodded my head and smiled, "Thank you Erik for your expert opinion," I grinned, and Erik mirrored my expression before walking off.

"How were you not in the least bit embarrassed?" Raven questioned, her eyes wide.

"It's just underwear, what's to be embarrassed about?" I asked back smiling, with a shrug of my shoulder.

Raven chuckled, "Okay, but what about his modeling joke? I would have been red as a tomato if he said that to me," Raven stated, quickly glancing in the direction that Erik walked away from us.

"I'm quite flattered actually," I quipped, still a smile on my face.

Raven shook her head slightly, "I wish I had your confidence," she said a little sullenly.

"You will...maybe not today or tomorrow...but someday," I reassured, placing a hand on her arm and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "We'll work it on together. Now, come on, let's check out,"

~~~x~~~

I was laying on my back on Raven's bed staring up at the ceiling, my hand trailed up and down her thick warm duvet, the cover a wool and cotton blend.

"I look like terrible like this," she groaned,

I quickly pushed myself up from Raven's sturdy, yet soft mattress, "No! No you don't, you look amazing," I protested, staring at Raven in her true dark blue form.

Raven turned around to face me as her skin changed back to it's fair complexion, her pupils shifted from yellow to blue. She plopped down next to me and sighed as I ran my hand through the white fur throw, I glanced at the picture frame on Raven's dresser that had a picture of her, Charles, and a blonde haired woman that was probably their mother.

"I don't know why would you want to look like you do now? I mean, I understand your opinions and reasons...but why would you want to look your mother?" I questioned, tilting my head.

A tense silence followed the end of my sentence.

Raven slowly craned her toward me, her eyes wide as saucers, "How...did you know that?" she uttered, her skin becoming ashen.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized, turning my body to fully face Raven. "A few days ago you looked upset when you were staring at a picture of your mother. I had my shields down at the same time as I walked by you," I explained, running a hand through my hair. "Just as I was about to reseal my emotions, I felt this sudden wave of self-loathing and the strong desire to look like your mother," I continued, my lips forming a thin line. "Raven, I swear that I was not trying to snoop about your head," I promised, taking a hold of her hand and squeezing it.

Raven awkwardly nodded her head at my confession, I could see the varying emotions appearing on her face. We soaked up the silence.

I released Raven's hand and rose from her bed, "I should starting heading for my room," I announced, finally breaking the quiet and Raven just nodded. I made my way to her bedroom door and put my hand on the doorknob, pausing to look back at her before I left. "And remember Raven, confidence is key," I recited, a soft grin on my face as I opened the door and stepped out.

"Thanks Dia," Raven smiled, a grateful expression on her face. "Good night," she called.

I nodded my head, "Good night," I repeated, closing the door behind me.

Heading back to my room was a quiet affair, there was no one in the hallway, everyone was most likely getting ready for bed. I twisted the knob to my door and entered the room. My bed was buried underneath bags and bags of shopping. A smile grew on my lips at the thought of having new outfits and not being forced to wear the same clothes over and over.

My smile faltered when I spotted an unfamiliar small bag on my night stand. I pushed my door closed and walk over to my bed in confusion. I pick up the note attached to the bag in the front and read it.

Claudia,

I'm sorry about today, from the perverted old man objectifying you to the woman who disregarded your entire existence. You were right about me, I am a bit naive. I thought since there wouldn't be any signs banning you from coming in then there would be no problems. It was a foolish thought, racism doesn't just magically disappear. Though your evening was spoiled I wanted to give you something that truly seemed to bring you joy tonight.

Charles

I reached into the small bag and my fingertips brushed against something soft. Lifting the soft item up I could see now it was a long, velvet jewelry box. My eyes lit up slightly as I had inkling to what I was holding. Flipping open the box, I let out a soft laugh at what I was staring at.

It was that gorgeous Baltic amber necklace I spotted earlier.

Chapter Ten: Old Wounds

#x-men fanfiction #x-men fanfic #black fanfiction #charles xavier fanfiction #charles xavier x oc #black!oc #magneto x oc #erik lehnsherr x oc #erik lehnsherr fanfiction #charles xavier #erik lehnsherr #black!reader #x men fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #marvel imagine

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roselyn-writing · 3 years

Text

Selviya Ivy blanche x Subzero Kuai liang (NSFW) ⚠️

We stopped last time when Selviya was kissing Sub-Zero, they were Sucking Each-other Faces and Thus, But in this chapter they chose to grow their relationship with “love-making” dont wanna Say the word with 3 letters. and they’re ready for it and they will make their relationship open and official too!.. Since Sub-zero loves Selviya So much, and she is a powerful Cryomancer With her, he Can return the cryomancers again and live in Earthrealm instead of outworld, He can return his people He know how powerful she is when he Touched her hand and He even absorb an amount of her magic, With the Dragon medallion and A bit of her magic he can feel himself a full Cryomancer, Not half-one, Not anymore. After they’re kiss. Selviya went to Make herself a british black tea, She took one of the mugs and pour herself a tea, she spotted Sub-Zero who was behind her, he awkwardly smiles at her, he was unmasked (His Costume in the mk11 StoryMode), She smiles, she takes a sip of her black tea, Then ashe asked Him

“I know you’ve been following me.” She added then chuckles at him, he chuckles back to her then replied at her, lovingly

“Yes. You’re right. You must’ve seen the snowflakes Around.” He mused at her, Seeing her cheeks reddened, He smiles widely at her

“Hm true, i saw the snowflakes, since that I don’t feel the cold, i noticed the snowflakes” she mutters at him, He is blushing too, She continue drinking her tea..

“Want to have tea with me?” She asked him, he nodded, She left to make tea for him then mintues later brings with her a mug for him to drink tea together on the snow. They’re both were drinking and enjoy looking at the snow they’re watching together at the sight in front of them (winter in November xD) then Selviya Utters to him ..

“I just discovered something.” She muttered Suddnely to him, he is surprised what did she discovered, new ability she can share? A secret info about they’re power/magic? .. no it is more than that ..

“I just discovered something, my Crystal silverinum can Teleport us back in time!.. and you know.” She said, Astonished herself though

“Wow.. really?” Kuai Liang muttered in astonishment, He cannot believe this .. a mere crystal can bring them back in time?..

“You know.. I Overheard something From Aliyaa and Raiden, Something about the Banishment Of cryomancers by an Edenian Queen Named Sindel.. She banished them for unknown reasons.. we can go back into time and rescue them.. you know.” Selviya added.. of course a dumb solution these two cannot rescue a tribe alone .. now they need an army atleast, Subzero was speechless he was really tempted to save his people.. But he need an army, and unstoppable one too!. Like the Dark force (Aliyaa Army).. He need time to think about this tempting offer. IF he go back into time he will meet his ancestors, his grandfather and such, and save them from banishment and Extinction.

“This is really a good news. But we need time, Not just time we need an army .. Like Aliyaa army.. those unstoppable black knights, i saw them how they easily defeated outworlders like they’re nothing. If we have the Dark force we can easily Defeat the edenians and kill their Queen.” Subzero added determined, He must avenge his ancestors at any method and cost, He slightly hated the Edenians, although himself he is an outwolder (theory)..

“The Dark force? Wow, they even breached Outworld, please tell me on thing that stand against them, i saw them how they defeated a mythical creatures, like the glass-beasts.. I can convince Aliyaa to let me use them,we need a mind to control them. Aliyaa somehow bound them with their psychokinesis” she Added, He noted

This, If they were to use Aliyaa army she will bound them into Kuai psychokinesis, Since he is a warrior, calm and does not falter easily in battle .. They need time for planning and convincing Aliyaa to Use her army, Aliyaa of course will never let them, borrow her army. It is a dangerous task, she alone can do this and Instruct them properly as the true majestic Protecter Queen she is,

“I will convince Aliyaa, at any method at any cost, What That B¡tch did to them was unforgivable and she deserves to be beheaded, I mean why would she did this …” Selviya Mutters In complete Annoyance. Subzero Sighed in pure Exhaustion , She felt that Kuai is really really Close, Like Close .. She knew that, He was really blushing and flustered at the same time then he announced

“Selviya! My Dear please Understand this that i am a well respected and Disciplined-man, But nonetheless i am not free of mortal temptation.. you’re temptation, So please let me worship you properly like the Ice goddess that you deserve to be!. Will you let me? My goddess..” Subzero utters to Selviya lovingly, She blushes then chuckles then nodded yes

They both got up to go to a room to do their “love-making” . They went to his chamber .. He starts undressing himself while looking at her Hungrily. she blushes then Undress herself, Subzero himself locked the Door, so they won’t be disturbed. She finished from undressing herself, she looks at him, he was finished too. he gestured to her to come closer, She obeyed, She was coming closer to him, She was fully naked and beautiful, her porcelain skin(snow skin), is a bit reddish because she is blushing at him., She was breathtaking, he noted that, He hugged her possessivly, kissing her too, tasting her Pink lipstick, she moans in the kiss and he does too, He gently pinches her erected peaks (nipples), She moans seductively, She tells him to go on, teasing her more, She laid on the bed, He lays as well to “worship her”, He pushes his tongue inside of her peach. Sucking her more, he kept on using his tongue inside of her private parts, she kept moaning, The high of her moaning is the depth of her happiness, as high she moans the satisfying she is.

“I see that you’re close my goddess!” Kuai liang mused, he was looking at a pure goddess, she was beautiful and seductive what most attracts that she is having the same powers as his, Similarities and what usually they have in commen is what attracts the most or the old local saying( the birds of the same kind they Fall for each-other)

“Yes i am .. nhh” She responded in pleasure, She looks at him, how he is busy in pleasuring her, She must do the same to him, For some unkown reasons she can feel his icy tongue, But it made his tongue freeze on her peach, he moans and, chuckling at him she undid the freeze and set his tongue free, he continues to pleasure her again but this time cautiously, he did not want His tongue to freeze again. Moments later she spilled her juice on his tongue, He licked all of it greedily, Then he utters to

“You are delicious my queen, Wǒ âi nǐ..” He muttered softly to her, Then he holds his Cock, He gently lined it with her peach.. He first frots it with her peach, then he penetrates it, She moans in pleasure, She kept moaning, Her moaning and screams are music to his ears.. He was surprised that she is warm inside.. Warm like Aliyaa. although she is a creature of ice .. Hmm confusing right?, He dismissed the idea and continued to Thrust inside of her, After all she is his everything

“Nǐ Hên yòu rén, Wǒ de àirén..” He utters charmingly to her, she did not understand this but she knew he is flirting to her. She smiles nonetheless.

“Ohh yes, keep going. I am close to, ooh” she begs him to finish this.. and he obeyed his goddess, he thrusts and thrusts until they both Cum together.. She is satisfied and he is too..

“Beloved, you are really alluring…” he added as he kept kissing her. She chuckles to him then fell asleep, he fell asleep beside her

The end!! Hope you enjoyed reading! 🤍🥰💋💕

#when a rose turns black #WARTB #Selviya Ivy blache #Subzero #kuai liang #Mk11 #selviya levsloky #wartb #mortal kombat #mk11 #kuai liang x oc #my oc #canon x oc #subzero #aliyaa aepel #subselvi #selviya x kuai liang #kuai liang x selviya

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veendettas · 4 years

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Arranged : S. Todoroki

“Shoto, I’ve arranged for you to marry a girl from the Ln family. She has a strong Quirk and a pretty face. You will meet her tomorrow after you finish classes, and you will produce a strong grandchild for me.” Endeavour’s words rang through Shoto’s mind as he sat in his desk, his usually stoic face seeming a little troubled. Why was his father so obsessed with the idea of him marrying into high status? Especially when the Todorokis were already high status.

The school day seemed to pass by Todoroki in record speed, and before he knew it, the boy was sat in a coffee shop. He was waiting for Yn Ln, the child of two extremely powerful and wealthy Pro-Heroes. He recognized her instantly as she walked into the building.

She looked as though she was uncomfortable in the dress she was wearing, which was gray and cut off at her calves. She seemed to have issue walking in the heels she was placed in as well, as she wobbled a few times.

She had no confidence in walking up to the barista to ask them a question, which he could presume was ‘is there a boy with half red and half white hair here?’ when the barista pointed over to him.

She walked slowly, and with very little conviction. Shoto stood and offered her his arm, which she was extremely grateful for, as she hadn’t ever really worn heels that high in her life.

“Hi,” She breathed out, her voice coming out as quiet and gentle, “it’s lovely to meet you.” Shoto took that moment to lock eyes with her, his heterochromatic ones staring into dulled ec ones. She didn’t seem like what anybody had ever said about her. She wasn’t high energy or talkative, she just seemed... dull, lifeless, like there was nothing she craved to achieve or do. She had no spark.

“The pleasure is all mine.” He stated softly as he helped her to sit, earning a forced smile from her lips.

She sighed as he sat down, “You forced into this too?”

He nodded softly.

A shit eating grin appeared on her face once a tall man left the shop, “Well my spy of a brother just left, so let’s make this interesting then.” Her eyes seemed to ignite with her words, which surprised Shoto. “Wanna go do something actually fun?”

And that was how the two ended up at the mall. Yn had ditched her dress for a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, which had a long-sleeved shirt underneath it. Her heels were also traded in for a pair of Vans tennis-shoes.

Todoroki had also traded in his button up and slacks for a black turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans. The two looked like every Pinterest board of “couple goals” that anybody could find.

They spent some time in each store, Yn insisted on paying for everything, which amused Shoto. “So, your parents don’t mind that you spend their money?”

Her face dropped slightly at the mention of her family, “Nah, they’re too busy with my brothers. They just make me promise not to do anything big to my appearance in case of benefits or anything. They gave my hand in marriage to your dad with zero questions asked.” She stated casually, but Shoto could see that her family was a sore topic.

“So, they just gave you up?” Todoroki stated bluntly. “That’s not really okay.”

Yn laughed as she recited her mother’s words flawlessly, “ ‘She’s Shoto’s problem now. Not ours.’ I’m fifteen and they’re already marrying me off.” She grinned cheekily, “But you seem pretty cool, no pun intended. I mean you had no problem ditching your father’s plan, so what’s up with that?”

He laughed, “My old man is a scumbag. I hate him.” Shoto stated, a smile slightly tugging at his lips as he did so. “So I guess I’m your problem too.”

“I’ll take that as a challenge, Shoto.”

A month later, Endeavour entered his son’s room without knocking, as he was known to do. “Shoto. How is it going with Yn?” The larger man was much less intimating without his hero costume on, but Shoto was still on edge.

“Fine. Why?” He glared at his father as the man took a seat on the end of the teenager’s bed.

Enji nodded, “Good, because her parents have agreed fully to her being betrothed to you. Do not mess that up. The Ln family holds extreme power. use that to your advantage. Invite her to dinner tomorrow evening as well. I’d like to meet her.” At the end of his statement, Enji stood and exited his son’s bedroom.

The next night, Yn was dropped off at the Todoroki residence at 7:15P.M. sharp. Her family held punctuality over all else, which Endeavour appreciated.

The girl was dressed in a beautiful knee length red sundress, her hair and makeup was perfected, and she walked with poise as she went up to the front door.

Her polished nail pressed the doorbell, which caused the door to be opened by Shoto within ten seconds. He welcomed her in with a smile on his features, and a gentle touch upon to her shoulder.

She absolutely hated Endeavour, but the siblings were a different story, they spent the whole dinner getting to know the girl, Fuyumi had even invited the girl to stay the night. Shoto’s entire family had taken a liking to Yn Ln, which was unheard of in the Todoroki family.

At the end of it all, Shoto wondered if their marriage would actually have to be arranged, or if it would happen naturally.

masterlist

#shoto torodoki #shoto x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #shouto #shouto x reader #shouto todoroki #shouto todoroki x reader #bnha #mha #fanfiction #todoroki #shoto #bnha todoroki #mha tododoki

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grechiethegreatsxreaders · 2 years

Text

PRO DEKU X PRO READER

SO THIS IS MY FIRST POST SO GIVE ME SOME GRACE PLS AND THANK YOU [ WARNING SWAREING ] AND UH I GUESS DEKU BEING A HUNK

YOU WERE fighting a villain with the power to turn any part of his body into a sword he lunged at you to no avail you dodged the villains oncoming attack but he wasn't going to give up until he had stabbed you in the stomach and you may be asking why would he want to do this well because you were a hero who a lot of thugs and other villains hated you were seated at number 4 in japan's rank to be more precise you were the hero loved by all H/N was your hero your quirk or rather your quirks were the there main elements earth ,water,fire you could control all of them which made it hard for villains to escape you so they hated you and wanted you dead back to the battle you were using your fire to blast the guy into the sky and used your water to capture him but you gave him some mercy and decided not to beat him before the cops arrived .after the cops arrived they took the villain and left you there did your have any inquiries well sure a couple of bruises but nothing that you couldn't handle after all you were the number 4 hero H/N and if justice never sleeps so do you seriously your sleep schedule is extremely screwed up heck i would even be surprised if during hero work you drop dead from the lack of sleep you were getting but that what's coffees for am i right you went home but when you got home you got a notification saying that you were invited to join the hero deku deku's hero agency you were beyond excited for this you were going to be working at the number one heroes deku agency

NEXT DAY

You woke up to your alarm you got u quickly and got ready in your costume and took a shower before and did your makeup then you ate a nice and healthy fruit bowl with strawberries it was so good after finishing that you got your stuff like car keys and exc then you got in your car a drove away going to deku's agency he was also an old high school friend of yours you were close in UA but since graduation you had drifted apart so you were excited to see him you also had had a small crush on him in high school whatever you were over him now right RIGHT you got there in about 25 mins then you parked your car and walked to the building and went to the reception desk you asked the reception lady where you were supposd to go you then told her that you were assigned a mission with deku she then checked her computer and the nodded and told you to go to floor 20 room 100 she then gave you a pass and then you went to the elevator and in between floors non other than the number 2 hero ground zero came in he looked at you angrily you despite his stare you attempted to chat with him ‘’hey bakugo hows it going ‘’ he looked at you angrily and said ‘’ its been going fine heck why wouldn,t it be i am the number 2 hero im better than you will ever be ‘’ you replied ‘ok nice catching up see you later or not whatever you prefer i honestly don,t give a fuck ‘’ you said with a smirk on your face and left the elevator when it hit floor 20 after that encounter with ground zero you were a little bit worried about meeting izuku i mean he probably forgot about you he is number now so it would make sense if he had forgot of your existence but still maybe he didn,t forget right RIGHT while you were thinking these thoughts you were looking around for room 100 which was supposedly deku's office when you got to his door you hesitantly opened the door to find

YALL STILL HERE???

Deku; o come in your the person who i was assigned with i

i assume you were quite shocked that he your best friend did not recognize you he then said what's your name you replied rather coldly y/n he looked shocked and said wait are you y/n l/n you nodded slowly and then you looked down izuku then suddenly stood up and said y/n where were you i was so worried after high school i was trying to contact you i missed you so much and to think y/n you became the number 4 hero how how how did i let that slip under my radar i am so stupidddddddd ugh he then started mumbling you then started laughing at him he saw and said what ya laughing about y/n you replied because your mumbling is so funny izuku your doing it like you did in high school he then realized and started laughing with you then you spoke anyway izuku or deku we should start on the villain were suppose to catch together right he then replied right then you both went over the flies reports evidence exc 7 hours later it was 6 pm and you and deku were close to cracking were the villain was going to hit next but you both needed to sleep you especially of all people but right before leaving you and izuku talked hey izuku you said he then looked at you and replied what ‘’ well i was wondering if you wanted to go get coffee on saturday maybe you know to catch up and stuff ‘’ he then looked at you and said with a smirk on his face ‘’ so then it's a date then ‘’ you then blushed a little and said i guess so if you want it to be i won't judge seriously its okay if you don't want to it was a dum-‘’ he then cut you off and pinned you to the wall and said ‘’ i wouldn't miss it for the world he then left his office you were still way too flustered to comprehend what just happened but you were able to when you got back to your apartment

TIME SKIP

—----------------------------

WHEN you got back to your apartment you started comprehending ‘’ WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPEN DID MY CRUSH JUST FLIRT WITH ME AND ASK ME OUT ON A MOTHERFUCKIN DATE WHY DOES HE LIKE ME IS HE PLAYING WITH ME I HOPE NOT STILL THO WHAT THE FUCK ‘’’ after i pieced together my information i took a shower put on my PJS and made my bed then binged watched netflix for about half and hour and then i fell asleep

NEXT DAY AKA THE (DATE )

—-----------------------------------

YOUR alarm went off it was 6:30 am and you got up eventually when you did you rushed to put on your close and so you went to your closet to find a cute outfit for the date a do your hair in a cute hairstyle to

(THIS PIC CREDITS TO WHOEVER MADE IT)

WELL I ACCIDENTULLY DELETED THE DATE PART VERY SORRY BUT I CAN SUMERIZE IT AS BEST I CAN OK HERE WE GO

YOU ARRIVED THE WAITER WAS HITTING ON YOUR DEKU GOT PISSED KISSED YOUR AHND TO WARD THE GUY OFF IT WORKED 30 MINS LATER HE ASKS YOU TO BE HIS GIRLFIREND AND YOU ACCEPT.

your merry way

The next day you were at the office with izuku working on the villain case you had just cracked it

‘’ hey izuku’’ what it is y/n’’ i cracked it there going to strike next week at the docks near south bay ‘’ upon hearing this izuku slowly walked up to you and hugged you softly and said in a sweet voice’’ good job princess’’ that made you blush you said in reply thanks izu ‘’ you smirked at him he was blushing now as well 2 more hours past after you had planned to get them at the bay so then then you gave izuku a kiss on the cheek and walked away looking innocent as ever this caused midoriya to blush as you left the room 20 mins later you were home ‘’ ahh im home finally time to take a break then you checked your computer and you had so much work plus training you then sighed and said ‘’ ok then night patrol 10 villains to apprehend in the morning and then all of the paperwork after during lunch and then training in izuku's building well there's no way in hell i'm getting any sleep tonight'’ 20 mins later you suit up and go fight all ten villains

that took you 8 hours then you got home and did all of the paperwork that took 5 hours then was training at midoriya's agency alone he was busy that week with interviews so you didn't want to bother him this keeps going on for a week by now you are sleep deprived not to mention sick with a high temperature and an overwhelming headache to time right now you were training in midoryias agency alone and you were sick and tired you kept punching the punching bags until you heard izuku come in you looked at him ‘’ hey y/n i've missed you ‘’ you couldn't reply as your vision became blurry and black but before you passed out you heard izuku yell’’ y/n !’

Time skip 3 hours later

You had woken up to a damp wet cold towel on your head and you were in a bed the room you didn't recognize tho your head was still aching tho you looked around the room and saw izuku watching over you once he had noticed that you had woken up he said in a very sweet voice ‘’princess why did you faint and why did you go to work your sick’’ you hesitantly replied ‘’ well i kept working all week i i didn't sleep i had no time’’ he then stopped you and looked at you with love in his eyes and said ‘’ princess you shouldn't go overworking yourself ok now i'm going to take care of you’’ he then kissed your head and grabbed a thermometer and stuck it in your mouth 5 mins later he took it out again and read it it was 104 ft y/n how much sleep did you get? You replied rather tiredly non all week you went to sit up but couldn,t he had pushed you back on the bed you startled by this slightly yelld izukuu you once again tried to get up but to no avail he had a firm grip on you he then looked up and said y/n stay laying down i'll make you ramen you then noded your head

THE END.

#bnha #izuku x reader

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Prince of Wishful Thinking (Tom Retrospective): Tough Love or The True Monster

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Prince of Wishful Thinking, what is usually my look at the life and times of Tom Lucitor but since I NEED to cover the season 3 finale as vital part of Tom’s story, we’re taking one last look at the tragic tale of Meteora Butterfly before the finale sends these two stories hurtling together. You’d THINK this would be the last detour of this already sizeable arc.. and you’d be wrong as i’ll also be covering Kelly’s World, as I feel it’s vital for both “Curse of the Blood Moon” and “A Boy and his hard to remember title”, as it provides extra context for Marco’s anguish in the former.. and provides extra evidence for why a CERTAIN MOMENT in the latter pisses me off to no end.. seriously even when as universe dies and the only people left are Frankllin Richards and Galactus, there will still be a little note reading “Fuck how they treated Kelly” written in all caps so Galactus remembers to yell it.

So sadly that DOES mean it’s been three entries in this retrospective in a row that either haven’t feature Tom at all or in the case of the last episode only had him in short cameos. I mean we did get his love affair for pie but we also got a creepy goblin man forcing his girlfriend and best friend to kiss each other, his best friend being WAY to eager to jump to that conclusion, and neither considering using Marco’s Scissors because the writers only remember he has those half the time in Season 3... and clearly I ddn’t either as I forgot to mention that plot hole, something @jess-the-vampire brought up to me. Sadly I DID forget to consult on this when we talked earlier this week , and she’s not online as I write this so I won’t have her insight for this one.

But if you want some Tom content, i’m happy to share my crossover ship for the boy with you. I’ve been shipping him with Octavia from Helluva Boss lately. Because of course it’s Helluva Boss, i’ve not been at all subtle with my obession with it and much like Letterkenny, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z Abriged it is a love I never plan to be subtle about.

But I just think they compliment each other well: They have contrasting atittudes, and tastes in music, but seem like they’d share hobbies. Like taxidermy.. I could see Tom buying this... demonic combination of a badger, a skunk, a deer and my nightmares Octavia is preciously holding up.

Granted I also feel tom would both animate them with their dead souls.. and then use his new woodland friends of the dammned as a chorus to sing “Can You Picture That” from the Muppet Movie, because that’s what my mind does on a regular day. I think the contrasting attitude creates great chemstiry and it made me also realize I have a thing for ships with directly contrasting home lives. Tom has two loving decent parents who deeply love one another and at worst simply didn’t reign in his worse behavior because it was standard for demon stuff. Octavia in contrast simply has two parents, one who DOES love her and tries his best, but his best includes calling his side piece “My big dicked blitzy” right in front of her and hiring said side piece to guard them, and her mother who clearly thinks so little of her daughter’s emotional well being she hired a cowboy to shoot her daddy dead in the middle of a large crowd. The point is I think they’d be adorable and they both badly need to be happy after being emotionally fucked over by people they care about.

But alas my new ship will have to wait as we marginally important things to get down too.. things that will impact both this season and the next’s endgame and utterly destroy Eclipsa and Moon’s relationship for good. Sound fun? Well if so join me under the cut won’t you?

We open in the Pidgeon Kingdom.. and things aren’t exactly great.. and by that I mean Meteora stomped a hole through it and ravaged the place and Rich demands blood.. and vengance.. and possibly blood vengance. But not Tekken Blood Vengance.. he already has like 5 copies of that on dvd. Still needs it on Blu Ray though, hook him up if you got it.

So Moon and Eclipsa are trying to smooth this over/find out which way did she go George which way did she go, and are angrily dismissed after they try Rich’s patience, not helped by Eclipsa not being familiar with the Pidgeon Kingdom because they hadn’t slaughtered everyone who used to live there yet. Look that’s what happened, Star outright mentions in the Big Book of Spells that htey suddenly sprung up where another kingdom was and no one knows what happens. There was some bird murders up in that place.. or birdur if you will. Some birds drank some human blood. This is what Alfred Hitchock tried to warn us about with his film built on horrifying actress abuse.

The point is with some more pidgeon-led murder stabbings on the cards our heroines are trying to find her since their attempts to convince Rich not to go on an Archer Style Rampage fell on deaf ears.

But it’s clear from the second the two are alone both have diffrent priorties: Eclipsa desperatley wants to find the daughter she lost and talk her down from what sh’es become, help her become better and hopefuly heal from the pain she’s been in. She’s lost her husband, her kingdom and centuries. She can’t loose her baby girl too.

Moon on the other hand... clearly has no intrest in helping Meteora or stopping this peacefully. Her first thought is stopping Meteora. Her living through it is not necessary. It’s also clear her racisim isn’t REMOTELY gone depsite Buff Frog and Star’s best attempts and despite learning just how deeply and horribly Mewni’s engrained racism has hurt eclipsa and destoryed Moon’s own family history. To Moon this is just a big monster to fight.. i’ll dive into this more in a bit.

For now our heroines encounter an angry mob. This time their not here for Homer Simpson, but for Meteora as her rampages have destroyd their towns, livelehoods and given some weird guy a hat. It’s the best bit of the episode and i’m embarassed I forgot it happened.

So with them being no help our queens back out but end up finding some actual help: Eddie! You know the guy from the episode I skipped over... River’s cousin or something like that. He dosen’t have a wiki entry, I do not know why. He’s voiced by Rhys Dharby of Flight of the Conchords Fame whose since made quite the career as a voice actor. No major roles yet that i’m aware of, but a lot of delightful minor ones like this. It’s good to see him he was one of the highlights of that show and not just because he sang this..

youtube

Eddie showed up in the Bog Beast of Boggabah and I honestly forgot he was in this episode.. but again, it’s Rhys Dharby. It’s not like suddenly finding out “Aw god dammit Pauly Shore is in this”. So Eddie agrees to help as he’s been tracknig Meteora.. and we find out something troubling: Meteora is getting BIGGER. Gradually, to the point the bog from said episode Is skipped over is drained because she DRANK IT. We also get a great exchange “I’d hate to see the size of her mother” “Actually her father more than helped with that”

Awwwww.... seriously Esme Blanco is a national treasure and has some great deliveries in this one.. and some heartbreaking ones. But before we can get to that it turns out Meteora sucked the powers out of Eddies family.. who he misses..e xcept one guy> That guy can fuck right off. Seriously Eddie is also a national treasure and I wish he’d shown up in season 4. I mean he couldn’t of HURT it. For one it’s Rhys Dharby and for another that season shot itself in the face, both feet, the groin and then the face again enough that I don’t think anything could hurt it as bad as the writers already did.

But sadly we say farwell to Eddie as he goes out how men have since the begining of time.. deciding to poke a strange creature till it murdered him. Or took his soul out in this case, speaking of which...

Yeah while I couldn’t get Jess in time for this review, she did bring this up in the past: Meteora’s ablility to pull a

Comes right the fuck out of nowhere with no build up and no explination for it. She DID drain personalites and according to this episode youth.. but that was with a big ole machine. It MIGHT have been intended to be one of Globgor’s powers.. but that makes zero sense, as if he COULD do that, as we saw with Toffee last season when he had that power, also out of nowhere but at least it made a touch more sense given his power was draining magical energy anyway at the time, so adding souls to that isn’t a huge stretch, but as we saw that would’ve been game over for the comission, especially since we DO see him fighting them one on three next season. If he had this power, he wouldn’t be in crystal and I think they realized that, but just tried to act as if his daugther COULDN’T do that and assumed everyone would casually forget. And I get not accounting for me writing about this years later, even I wouldn’t of thought that, but not counting on fans both young and old to latch onto a continuity error? Have you met fandoms Disney, have you? It dosen’t bring the story down entirely and I get WHY ti’s there, so she can nonlethally kill people so we’re not down most of the cast for Season 4, but it feels like an easy win button and one she barely uses despite it being eye beam activated. It should be easy enough to pull, boom, soul suck, win, rinse and repeat. It’s okay to have uber powerful tequniques but they have to have a drawback. For instance the Kaioken from DBZ. It’s a really damn cool technique that gives the user a neat red aura and amplifies poewr.. but the more you amplify the more strain it puts on your body and the more likely you’ll die, and Super later creatively explained why it hadn’t been used since Super Sayian was introduced because said form would’ve sped it up so much it’d be too much for a body to take. Here whie Meteora dosen’t use it in EVERY fight, she uses it enough that it makes no sense this isn’t just her first move for every fight she gets into, mental breakdown or not.

That being said Meteora’s current mental state as she talks to her mother, having regressed to talking in only a few words and acting like a child, makes perfect sense. Henious already wasn’t in great mental shape to begin with, having a slow sustained breakdown since Marco overthrew her. and now on top of this she remembers her whole life has been a lie, starts to mutate into her natural state at a rapid and likely unehalthy pace, and then finds out on top of all of this Mewni is rightfully owed to her. Given she ended last episode blowing a guy up for rejecting her, it’s not a stretch that given even more power and no time to process anything, Metora would deteroate further.

Esme and Jessica really knock this scene out of the park as Eclipsa presents Metora with her old doll Bobo and gently trying ot talk to her.. but you also get the fear Eclipsa feels as she tries to awkardly manuver around the fact her daughter is far more unhinged than she was prepared for, even threanting Eclipsa simply because Eclipsa wanted to be called mother instead of mommy. But despite this fear.. Eclipsa wants to help and Walter beautifuly captured metoera as a hulk like tragic figure:a being with low sanity and too much power desperate to be loved by the one person it cares about. And it makes it even more heartbreaking as Eclipsa explains what happened: bad people trapped her , a disfunctoinal society with a racist queen and even more racist subjects has taken hold in her absence... and it’s clear both want opposite things: Meteora wants what sh’es owed, her family back on the throne and Mewni back in her graps, but has lost herself so much to rage, anger and insanity she can’t see it’s not hers to take, while Eclipsa.. just wants her daughter back. She’d be happy just settling down with her and having a LIFE after hers was taken away. Eclipsa just wants a chance to be with what family she has left. It just HURTS to know that despite RIGHTFULLY hating the comission, despite having eveyr reason to take the crown from Moon by force and make the world better by force.. she dosen’t want that. She just wants some peace. It’s selfish... but it’s hard not to be when you havealmost nothing to hold onto. Eclipsa has lost her legacy, her husband and her crown... Meteora is all she has and all she wants and sh’ed of been happy if she just accepted that. If that was enough.

But the real telling part, and the thing that ultimately makes this go as bad as it does.. is Moon’s reactions to all of this. Sh’es CONFUSED by Meteora having a toy as if that’s foreign to her a monster would, and she’s cleaerly livid , if restrianing it, at both Meteora’s deire for the crown and Eclipsa RIGHTFULLY calling out the state of how things are, and mildly at that. Despite seeing how much damage Mewni’s inherent racisim has done, how it lead to her living a lie, ruined Eclipss, Globgore and Metora’s lives, despite how DESPERTLY her daughter struggles to fight against it, despite seeing firsthand that Monsters can have famiies and lives... she can’t let it go. She can’t see monsters as people. SHe dosen’t see a flawed person who was turned into a metpohrical monster by years of brainwashing and abuse and is slowly unravling under the weight of her true self.. she just sees a threat to her kingdom. She dosen’t see her kingdom as racist, just as it should be. And she dosen’t see herself as stepping down like hse damn well should’ve the MOMENT she found out everything. Because at her heart Moon can’t accept the truth and clings to her racisim.

And that my friends.. is what ultimately leads to Tragedy. Not Meteora’s unraveling mental state, not Eclipsa’s naitvite. What happens next is ENITRELY Moon’s fault. Whle Eclipsa was failing to get through to Metora, she was trying her best and might of gotten somewhere.. but Moon was already settling to attack.. and does so, making it look like Eclipsa set her own child up.

A fight ensues, a suprisingly even one... but Eclipsa breaks it up and PROVES her way could’ve worked. In one of Esme’s best performances sshe tearfully tells her daughter she loves her.. that ALL she wants is time with her to make up for what she’s lost.. she dosen’t need a kingdom or her crown or her wand, all things she DESERVES... she just wants her daughter. She just wants to help her baby girl before she goes so far down this path of hatred and vengance she’s alreayd well trod upon there is no point to return to.

It gets through to Meteora, makes her stop... and Moon TAKES ADANTAGE OF THAT. She then restrains metoera with a magical rock barrier and starts palpatineing her to death. It’s a horrifying moment that ultimately shows who Moon really is.. that when given the chance to let Meteora go, let her CHANGE and grow as a person and help the kingdom.. she instead tries to kill her. When she’s no longer a threat, hasn’t seriously hurt her in their fight, and could use her power to RESTORE the damage she’s done, fix what she’s broken and help the kingdom grow and mend the bridges racisim has torn down. But all she can see is a monster, and something to destroy.. not someONE to save.

So Eclipsa does what Moon would do if it were star about to die and saves her daughter, desperatly trying to stop mooon.. and allowing Meteora to get a clear shot and take half of moon’s soul. While Eclipsa is able to stop her from taking the full thing, Moon is left disoreinted and half alive and leaves on insticnt to parts unknown while Meteora escapes. Eclipsa is left alone, devistated and with her daughter truly lost. And the worst is truly yet to come.

Before we get into final thoughts i’d like to talk about how this scene impacts Moon’s betryal later. To me having rewatched this scene.. it only makes it work MORE making it clear Moon simply can’t fahtom racial equality and that she can’t fahtom that eclipsa had very good reason for doing what she did ... to me it comes off as her using Eclipsa betryaing her as a very flimsy justifcation to not validate her rule and to first retire and then try a coup. That “Well she “BETRAYED” me so i’m fine. “ But in truth... she betrayed Eclipsa first. She attacked her daughter TWICE when Eclipsa was close to getting through to her Her reasons are flimsy.. because i’ts not ABOUT eclipsa, but what eclipsa represents: equality with a race Moon dosen’t see as people. It’s about Moon’s racisim coloring everything tills h’es truly blinded and should have lost everything She didn’t because the ending is a fucking disgrace, but we might get to that at some point, the point here is for all that disgrace’s faults... it did get it right here, and Moon was always portrayed as being unable to let go of her racisim no matter what it cost her or how much her daughter despteratly tried to change her. Trust me as someone whose Dad used to argue that gay marriage meant he should be able to marry his cat, and who still argues against trans people using the bathroom of their choice, I get trying desperatley to change someone who don’t wanna. “Sigh”.

Final Thoughts: This episode is truly excellent. The writing is top notch as is the voice acting for all involved and the climax isa true, well led up to tragedy. The animation is also on point, with the characters emotions on perfect display. This is an episode I now realize is one of the series best and worth ar ewatch if you haven’ts een it. Truly amazing stuff that gets me pumped for the finale.. and disapoints me in how the series could reach these highs for one finale.. but would sink to it’s lowest point for next seasons. Next Time on Prince of Wishful Thinking: Star tries depseratly to find her mom, while Marco, Tom and a motely crew of misfits try to take down Meteora and Tom learns the awful truth from the photo booth and wears a zuko ponytail which weirdly looks good on him. That boy can rock anything let me tell you.

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#star vs the forces of evil #tom lucitor #prince of wishful thinking #meteora butterfly #eclipsa butterfly #moon butterfly #rhys dharby #disney xd #disney channel #disney plus #reviews

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