#*cue distant sounds of me falling down the stairs*

[hyperfocusthusly]

I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t want to watch the funeral episode. I don’t wa-

[narukoibito]

“Am I your lockscreen?” “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

Am I Your Lockscreen?

Summary: Harry misplaces his phone.

AO3 | FF.net

Note: This took absolutely forever (months!), but here it finally is. Thanks for the ridiculous prompt Anon. This is complete, unadulterated fluff. It’s ridiculous, and I just can't. Haha, I hope you enjoy!

*

Harry was in the middle of stifling a yawn when he heard the rumbling downstairs.

Must be Fred and George, he thought, stretching his arms over his head. He let them fall back on the cot, with a content, food coma induced sigh. He was thinking about taking a little kip when Ron stirred on the bed beside him.

“Sounds like Ginny’s home early,” Ron grumbled.

“Ginny’s home?” Harry perked up, only to cough self-consciously at the strange look Ron gave him. Right, best mate’s little sister, he reminded himself. Except she was so much more than that. As if on cue, he heard the tinkling of her laughter below.

“Oh, I guess that’s nice,” Harry said casually, leaning back into the cot and pretending to go back to napping.

After a moment, Harry sneaked a peek. Ron had returned to fiddling with his phone. Texting Hermione probably.

Good save, Potter.

Unable to stop himself, Harry reached into his pocket to protectively touch his phone. Only to come back empty-handed.

His eyes popped open.

He straightened and immediately began to pat the blankets around him, his hands searching with a growing franticness.

“Mate?” Ron asked.

“Have you seen my phone?” Harry looked under his pillow and the sheets, on the verge of panic. He always, always kept his phone with him, especially —

“Er, no?” Ron sat up, confused. “Let me call you.”

Harry waited with bated breath as Ron dialed his number. He glared at the rumpled sheets pooled around him, willing them to start ringing.

Finally, there came his tell-tale ring! Only it was…

Shite. Shite, shite, shite!

It had been a moment of weakness. At her last football game, he had snapped a photo right when she’d made the winning shot. Then, like the idiot he was, couldn’t resist saving it as his lockscreen.

“Harry?” He heard Ron’s cry of surprise behind him as he moved, wrenching open the door. He bolted down the stairs, taking two, then three steps at a time, racing toward the ringing.

Just as he rounded the corner to the kitchen, Harry saw Ginny. Even in the midst of his panic, he couldn’t stop the way his stomach swooped at the sight of her standing there in her football training kit, with her long hair tumbling over her shoulders, her freckled skin that glowed, her pale fingers that he longed to hold.

And then, as if in slow motion, he watched as those very fingers reached toward the dining room table.

Fuck.

“Whose phone—?”

“Argh!” Without thinking, Harry launched himself into the air. 

His fingers triumphantly curled over the phone.

Sweet relief coursed through him as an invisible audience cheered him in his head. Safe! He was safe!

Only of course his foot caught on something, and Harry went tumbling headfirst onto the floor. All those years of football training meant he automatically rolled, protecting his head, even as he crashed against the cupboards.

“Harry! Are you okay?”

He blinked away the spots in his eyes to see Ginny looking down at him, her brown eyes bright with concern. She leaned in, her face tantalizingly close.

“Fine. I’m fine,” he croaked, his face flooding with color and not only because he was upside down.

And he was fine, despite the spinning room, because Ginny was here, smiling down at him. The fluttering in his chest mixed with the squeeze of relief that she wasn’t looking down at him in disgust or, worse, pity at having uncovered his secret.

“I see you haven’t lost your flair for dramatics,” she said wryly.

“Constant vigilance,” Harry said, pleased when she laughed at the reference to that ridiculous counselor from that summer camp their parents had enrolled them in as teens. Counselor Moody used to do all sorts of mad things to scare them, like popping out of the bushes. Harry and Ginny used to catch each other’s eyes and laugh about it back when she was nothing more than his best mate’s little sister.

Harry’s eyes couldn’t help but wander from her face, only to flush and snap his eyes upward. She certainly wasn’t so little anymore.

“Let’s get you right-side up, and then maybe you can explain why you were pulling a Moody.”

His stomach curled into knots at her proximity as she helped him. He tried to think of something charming to say, which was hard when she was dusting him off and unintentionally sending goosebumps up his arm.

“I was testing your reflexes,” Harry blurted. “I’m still faster than you.”

“Oh, like that really counts when you suddenly shout and fling yourself at me.”

Why was it that the challenging look on Ginny’s face only made his heart skip a beat?

“Element of surprise.” He reached up to adjust his crooked glasses, something tickling in the back of his mind like he was forgetting something. Focusing was difficult with the intoxicating scent of flowers short-circuiting his brain.

“Well, for all your bluster…” With a mischievous glint in her eye, Ginny triumphantly raised his phone screen to his line of sight. “You still lose.”

Harry’s heart dropped to the floor. His eyes darted from the phone to her face and back again. He made a wild swipe for it, but Ginny was prepared.

“Whose call were you so eager to answer, hmm?” she taunted as she ducked into the family room.

“No, Ginny!” He followed her frantically, nearly knocking over a vase. “Come on, don’t—!”

“Not Cho, I hope?” She ran around the couch, strategically placing it between them. Her hand waved the phone tauntingly at him.

“No,” Harry said, slowly drawing nearer, adrenaline drumming in his ears. He frantically looked for an opening. “Cho and I aren’t a thing anymore.”

“Then it’s no problem if I check, is it?” Ginny turned the phone toward her, eyes slowing lowering — with his heart lodged in his throat, Harry lunged.

The two of them tumbled to the ground in a mess of limbs.

Harry groaned at the sting from where his head had connected with the floor. Somehow, in the chaos, he had managed to be on the bottom, which was good because Ginny hadn’t felt the brunt of the fall. But as the pain began to recede, he was suddenly very much aware of the soft curves pressing into him, her legs tangled up with his. She moved, wiggling enough to make him yelp.

Oh God, was this it? The only time he would ever get this close?

How pathetic could he get?

“Harry?”

He winced and waited for her to punch him and call him a pervert or something. When it didn’t come, he dared to open a tentative eye. Ginny had lifted herself up, hovering above him, her fiery red hair a curtain around them. Unable to stop himself, he stared up at her, bewitched by her freckles up close, the growing flush on her cheeks that reminded him of a sunset.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Am I your lockscreen?”

Harry swallowed hard, his chest twisting painfully. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

Her lips quirked upward. “Planned on keeping it a secret for life?”

“Worth a shot,” he said dryly, even though his pulse was racing. She was smiling — could that possibly mean…?

“Yes, well. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, what are you going to do about it?” Her eyes flashed.

His traitorous hand reached up, lightly brushing her hair back. As his fingers skimmed her cheeks, she released an unsteady breath that whispered against his face. Ginny, his best mate’s little sister, his brilliant friend who could kick his arse, who made him laugh until his cheeks hurt.

“Ginny,” he said, barely able to think over the hammering in his heart, trying to form the words he had been reciting endlessly ever since she and Dean split up. “Will you be my lockscreen?”

Wait. Did he just…?

Mortification surged inside him. Where was a hole to bury himself in when he needed it? He would never be able to show his face around the Weasleys again — how was he going to explain that to Ron? He’d go abroad, Scotland maybe, explore castles or woods, anywhere really, just somewhere far, far away.

A peal of laughter tore him from his runaway thoughts. Ginny gave him such a bright smile, it was hard to look at her straight on. She was leaning closer, her eyes blazing. “Only if you’ll be mine.”

“Fair is fair,” he said, holding her gaze for what seemed like an impossible time, the tension between them making his chest want to burst, and then suddenly they were kissing.

He had imagined this moment many times in the past few months since his feelings had all but clobbered him over the head when he and Ron bumped into Ginny and Dean snogging under the bleachers. He’d replaced Dean with himself, imagined his hands around her waist, his lips fused with hers.

But this — this was so much better than anything he could have imagined. All conscious thoughts were obliterated by a warm sunshine that effused his every nerve.

“Harry,” Ginny breathed heavily when they finally broke apart. The smile she was giving him made him smile what was surely the soppiest smile in existence. “That was…”

“Lockscreen worthy?” he asked like an idiot.

She chuckled, her body shifting against him, turning that sunshine inside him to molten heat. “Might need to double check.”

“Happy to oblige,” he said, as she leaned down and kissed him again. He ached to be closer, his hand tangling into her soft hair, and she pressed closer as if also driven by the same reckless desire. He was so lost in her, he only barely registered the distant noise that was getting closer.

“Where’d you go, Har— oh my God!” Ron’s cry pierced through Harry’s hazy brain. “Get off my sister!”

Fear spiked through Harry. He looked up at his best mate (who was hopefully still his best mate), who looked as if he had been clubbed on the head.

“He can’t get off me, I’m on him!” Ginny replied unhelpfully.

“Oh then… Get off my best mate!”

Ron grabbed her ankles and started pulling her off of Harry, but Ginny, in a fit of rebelliousness, clung onto Harry harder.

Over their bickering about “bro code” and “we don’t need your permission” and “took you both long enough, but no snogging in the family room,” Harry let his head fall back with a thunk against the floor.

Nevermind – Scotland it was.

[teshamerkel]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

Chapter 12 (17 Pages)

<< First | < Previous | Next >

Tension grows between Tobias and Nia as they try to rescue a lost tropius calf from a mystery dungeon.

 -

“H-How about this one?”

Tobias looks over to where Nia is pointing at one of the notes on the mission board. He skims over the mission’s details, snorting. “No way.”

“But it’s close to Afon’s Cap, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s only one mission and it’s not even worth that many points. The rewards suck.”

Nia’s ears pin back, but she only keeps her disappointed expression for a heartbeat. Then her brow furrows and her lip twitches, as if she’s itching to snarl at him. “Fine, you pick then,” she mumbles, stalking a few feet away to rummage through the supplies bag slung over her shoulder. 

Really? She's pouting just because he doesn't want to waste their time going all the way to Afon's Cap?

Tobias huffs, snatching a low-level mystery dungeon mission off the board and marching right past the riolu, not bothering to say what he’d chosen. It’s a fairly close location, with a few floors of dungeon-crawling necessary. Tobias needs to beat up some ferals to vent. Nia’s been acting weird for days now, and it’s really starting to tick him off.

Once he reaches the quieter seclusion of the tunnels, Tobias can hear Nia’s soft footsteps following him from a few lengths back. They silently make the journey through the underground and up into the forest itself, trekking through the foliage and deeper into the forest. At one point Nia stops to grab a fallen branch, as she usually does for missions that require combat. He doesn’t know why she insists on fighting with it—she’d be stronger if she just used her moves—but he’s going to bring it up eventually if she doesn’t fix the habit herself. They continue until they reach a wide, open field of tall, yellowed grass. The whole walk takes maybe a half hour or so, really not that far, but Tobias finds that without Nia’s questions and frequent comments it’s weirdly uncomfortable.

He glances back at her. Nia’s looking around, clearly enjoying the sunshine on her fur, holding the branch like a walking staff. However, whenever she notices him watching her, she quickly averts her eyes with an uneasy expression. Tobias feels a jab of anger and curls his hands into fists. Fine. She doesn’t want to talk? That’s just fine by him.

Tobias freezes, anger forgotten, as an increasingly familiar sensation suddenly weighs down on him, tingly and dangerous. This is a dungeon zone. He carefully scans the grass ahead, frowning when he just barely manages to spot an inconspicuous hole in the ground, around his size. An…underground dungeon? Great. That probably means ground types.

Tobias cautiously approaches the pit, pausing at the lip of the tunnel and feeling himself tense when he sees the stone stairs leading down into darkness. It looks pitch black down there. At least he has his tail to light the way, but...

Nia doesn’t comment on the dungeon’s appearance, so Tobias puts on a brave face and ducks into the entrance. Immediately, the terrain changes and flips, Tobias’ stomach along with it. When the ground finally settles, the charmander looks around, wary. Even with his sharp eyes it’s impossible to see their surroundings, save for the halo of light from his tail flame. Thank Entei for that. The walls seem to be solid and rocky, the air cool and damp.

“I-Is it normal for a dungeon to be this dark?” Nia whispers.

Tobias considers not answering, just to be petty, but then sighs and shakes his head. They have a mission to do. “Not usually, but it’s not unheard of for underground dungeons. We should be fine with my flame.”

Nia nods, clearly waiting for him to take the lead, and he does, swinging his tail around and holding it near the tip to light the way like a torch.

“W-What floor is our objective?” Nia whispers.

“Fifth. We have to rescue a lost tropius calf.” Before Nia can ask, he drawls, “Grass and flying type, brown and green. Kind of shaped like Maggie—long neck, four legs.”

There’s a moment of quiet save for their steps and a few distant sounds among the caves, echoes of growls and the clatter of pebbles. Then Nia murmurs, “It must be so scared, especially as a flying type. They hate being underground, right?”

Tobias doesn’t like to think about it, honestly. The Pokémon is just a kid, after all. “Yeah. The quicker we find the calf, the better.”

From there they return to silence as they search for the stairs. Aside from the frequent tripping they do over larger rocks or holes, the dungeon proves to be especially annoying because it’s hard to see the entirety of some of the bigger rooms with their one small light, so they end up having to walk more to be sure they don’t miss a staircase.

Plus there’s the unnerving echoes of the ferals around them, hiding just out of sight in the shadows. Right on cue, something screeches in the darkness, a leathery fluttering following, and the Pokemon swoops at Tobias’ face from the darkness of the ceiling. He dodges, seeing Nia duck under the Pokémon with a yelp. More flapping, and then it dives again. Tobias growls and shoots a cloud of embers at it, rolling away when the thing doesn’t go down even after a nasty burn. A zubat, maybe?

It swoops in again, and Tobias times his leap perfectly, swiping the Pokémon out of the air with a metal claw and flinging it to the ground. Nia hesitates before jumping in, knocking it out with an overhead swing of her branch. Even with the makeshift weapon she looks incredibly uncomfortable with combat, but the hit does its job.

Now that it’s still, Tobias can see that their attacker is actually a swoobat. Psychic type. Great. Nia better not get cornered by one of these things. He should probably warn her, but when he looks up at her she stares back at him without a word, ears flicking nervously and not even asking him what kind of Pokemon it is. He frowns and turns to continue their exploration.

They stumble across an apple and a pecha berry that they gratefully pocket before finally finding the staircase leading deeper underground. The two of them take it, and Tobias can’t help feeling irritated that the lower floors are equally as dark.

A yip and a snarl is their only warning before a fluffy four-legged Pokémon, low to the ground, charges at them. Tobias jumps over it, shooting an ember attack the direction it went and growling when it hits nothing. Even worse, his fire seems weaker than usual. Is it because it’s so damp? Or is it an effect of being underground?

Before he can get an answer, the Pokémon charges them again, managing to slam into Tobias’ side before Nia catches it with a powerful swing of her branch. The Pokémon yelps and rolls into the dirt. Tobias takes his chance and leaps on it, giving it an ember attack to finish it off.

When it’s unconscious, Tobias swings his tail around to get a better look. Furry tan body and floppy ears, and a collar of stones around its neck. A rockruff. Tobias takes a moment to make sure it’s out cold before they move on.

The next two floors are relatively uneventful. More darkness, more annoyingly wet cave air, more attacks from ferals who thankfully aren’t that difficult to defeat. And more frigid silence between the two of them.

Seriously, what is with Nia lately? Tobias almost prefers the previous week’s annoying chatter to this stony silence. She’s clearly upset with him today for rejecting her Afon’s Cap mission (There’s no point! The mission rewards are awful!), but there’s no way he’s apologizing to her for it. At least they’re on the fourth floor and should be out of here soon. Hopefully she’ll be over her mood by tomorrow.

Tobias is broken out of his mulling by a quiet noise ahead of him, and he tenses up, falling into a battle stance.

Silence.

The sound stopped. So what—

The ground under Tobias’ feet bulges and cracks. He throws himself forward to dodge, rolling around in time to see a sandshrew burst out of the ground, claws bared. Nia stumbles back and out of the halo of light with a surprised yelp.

The sandshrew whips around to look at Tobias, eyes narrowing to pained slits. His tail flame must hurt its sensitive vision. Good.

Tobias springs to his feet and sucks in a breath, spewing out an extra hot cloud of embers at the ground type. The sandshrew squeals and immediately digs into the earth, away from the light. For a moment it’s quiet, and Tobias thinks that it’s ran off.

But then the earth once again explodes from underneath his feet, and the sandshrew manages to score its claws up his leg. He sucks in another breath to spit out embers, only for the sandshrew to immediately dive back into the ground, away from the light.

Ambush attacks? That’s unusually clever for a feral. And annoying. A moment later, the sandshrew leaps out at him from the left in a shower of rubble, and Tobias spins to meet it, just a tad too slow. His metal claw deflects most of its slash attack, but it gets in a scratch on his side. Tobias snarls, feeling his anger start to rise as he spins, looking around for the sandshrew. It must’ve vanished into the ground again.

“Come out and fight me!” He yells.

The sandshrew erupts from the dirt behind him, tackling him down to the ground. Before it can do any real damage, Tobias hears the patter of footsteps. The sandshrew squeals as Nia slams into it with a full-body tackle, and the weight leaves his back as the two go rolling. Tobias staggers to his feet and tries to jump in, but as soon as he gets close the sandshrew burrows out of sight again.

“For Moltres’ sake!” He growls, frustrated, wiping away the blood dripping from his nose. Darn thing slammed his face into the ground when it tackled him.

“It seems to be going after you,” Nia says, stepping close to him so they stand almost back to back. “I think the light hurts its eyes.”

“Then it should just leave us alone!” Tobias snarls, loudly, hoping the sandshrew will hear him and understand somehow. They both wait, panting. Just as Tobias thinks that it’s gone, the familiar sound of digging reaches his ears.

Nia swallows, loud in the cavernous space. “M-Maybe we should just run?”

“And risk running into more ferals to deal with alongside this guy? No way.”

“B-But if we can’t see it then how can we—oh!“ Nia cuts herself off, eyes going wide. Before Tobias can question her, she closes her eyes and crouches to press her palms to the dirt, frowning in concentration.

“What’re you—“

“Shh!” Nia waves him off, frowning harder. A second later, she begins to glow blue, ever-so-slightly. The teardrops on her head lift and quiver as she concentrates. The riolu’s ears prick, and she turns her head to the right, and then to the left, eyes closed but clearly searching.

“Oh come on! You’ve had two days of aura training and you need contact for it to work! You aren’t gonna be able to track it like that!”

Nia pauses, distracted from her task, but then goes back to frantically “looking” around with closed eyes. There’s anger in her tone when she snaps, “Would you just let me try? Maybe I can at least get a sense of where it is—“

“You didn’t even know how to access your aura powers! Why should I trust you know how to use them all of a sudden?!”

Nia’s eyes snap open, and she turns on him, throwing her arms out. “Because I’m your partner! At least let me try!”

Before Tobias can reply, the ground between them bulges and crumbles. Tobias stumbles back on instinct, and a heartbeat later the sandshrew erupts from the ground. Tobias trips and falls, almost missing Nia’s pained yelp with how loudly the blood is roaring in his ears.

When he shakes his head and blinks his eyes open, he sees the sandshrew burrowing away again. Nia’s on the ground, curled around herself with her paws pressed against her side--

Oh.

Despite their argument, something in his gut flips as he reads her body language and realizes she must be hurt. Tobias is up and running to her side before he can think about it, skidding to his knees and coercing her to uncurl and lay on her back. He winces at the slick shine of blood on the black of her belly fur. Hopefully it’s not deep, but he’s sure the gash hurts. Nia whimpers between clenched teeth.

Now what? Nia’s down and the sandshrew won’t leave them alone. He can’t risk staying here to fight the sandshrew and Nia passing out completely, but he refuses to use the rescue badges unless things really start looking dire. Can he manage to carry her to the stairs for them to recuperate on the next floor?

Before he can fully decide, he hears the sandshrew digging again. Tobias snarls, stumbling to his feet and moving away from Nia. The last thing he needs right now is her getting attacked again. Sure enough, the sandshrew comes busting out the ground, aiming for Tobias. The charmander ducks under it, barely avoiding its claws.

Then in one quick movement he darts over to Nia, yanks her up to lean heavily on his side, and pulls her along with staggering steps as he takes off in a random direction. Why does she have to be the same size as him? If he could just carry her this would be a lot easier. Nia trips, and Tobias grunts, just barely managing to pull her back to her feet and continue on, praying for a staircase. In the next room a zubat dives at them, and he stumbles around the Pokémon to continue, breathing hard and desperately searching for the—

Stairs! Tobias would shout with joy if he didn’t feel like his lungs were about to explode. Tightening his hold on Nia’s arm, he sprints to the stairs, the two of them nearly diving into the hole and onto the next floor.

When they tumble out onto solid, rocky ground, Tobias takes a moment to catch his breath, staring up at the darkness of the ceiling above. Nia whimpers quietly somewhere off to his side. He struggles to his feet and goes to Nia, rolling her onto her back before digging into the supplies pouch still strapped around her torso. C’mon, c’mon, he knows they packed some...

There! He grabs an Oran berry and lifts it to Nia’s mouth, patting her cheek to get her to open her eyes. “Hey, c’mon. Wake up.”

The riolu’s eyes crack open, glassy with tears.

“Eat this. It’ll help,” he says, tapping into his medical training to try and sound calm and reassuring.

Nia whines again, but then opens her mouth and accepts the berry, slowly chewing it up and swallowing. Her head flops back onto the dirt, but she makes a grateful sound.

Tobias pulls his tail around to peer at the gash on the riolu’s torso. It wasn’t deep, thankfully, just looked worse than it was, but he still combs aside bloody, sticky fur to see the skin beginning to stitch back together all the same. Good, it’s working.

Tobias heaves a relieved sigh. Just because he doesn’t like Nia doesn’t mean he wants her to get seriously hurt or anything. The charmander plops down beside the riolu, trying to stay vigilant as her body heals itself.

Within a few minutes, Nia lifts her head, mumbling, “Ugh...That was fun.” She moves to get up, but winces.

“Take it slow. You lost some blood.”

Nia nods, carefully sitting up. Tobias hands her the second oran berry. At her questioning look, he rolls his eyes. “You need it a lot more than me right now. Just eat it.”

The riolu frowns, but does as told. Almost immediately, some of the tension in her body visibly melts away. As she comes back to herself, she blinks, then looks at him with something like surprise.

“What?” He growls.

“You…You didn’t leave me.”

Tobias bristles, baring his teeth. He’s a jerk, not evil. “What, you wanted me to let you bleed out?”

Nia shakes her head, but doesn’t look properly intimidated by his tone. If anything, she just looks…thoughtful. Ugh. That look means talking.

“Can you walk on your own?” He asks, hoping to deter her. “We’re on the fifth floor, so we should be close to the tropius.”

Nia opens her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a distant sound, loud enough to echo throughout the tunnels. It sounds like a roar, or...a wail? Regardless, it sends chills up Tobias’ spine. He exchanges a nervous glance with Nia.

“W-What was that?” She whispers.

“After that sandshrew, I say we avoid it. Hopefully the tropius does too.”

Nia nods, and the two rise to their feet. Nia sways on her paws, holding out her arms to balance herself. She’s probably unsteady from using her aura powers and going through that rapid healing. When she’s steady, the two quietly creep away in the opposite direction of the roaring sound.

They take their search of the fifth floor slowly, more wary of dangerous Pokemon now that they’ve used up their oran berry stock. The ferals are oddly silent, hiding away in cracks in the cave walls, so while they don’t have to worry about as many fights, that’s only more reason to stay far away from whatever giant creature is making that horrible noise.

Tobias can tell the distant wails are putting Nia on edge too, and they give each room a quick, cursory sweep before moving on. Soon enough, they’ve been through every hall and every cavern they can find, aside from the tunnel leading to the loud howls that they’re avoiding. And yet, no tropius.

“C-Could the calf have moved on? Found the staircase and gone down a floor?” Nia asks. “Surely we didn’t miss it, right?”

“No, it should be a pretty big Pokémon, even as a kid,” Tobias mumbles. He takes a moment to dig through their bag and find one of their badges, clicking it on and checking their current assignment. Nope, still says floor five. “This should be the right place.”

“Oh no,” Nia suddenly says, looking stricken. “W-What if the baby is in that room? With whatever is making that sound?”

“That would be just our luck,” Tobias grumbles, replacing the badge. He glances in the direction of the wailing, shifting uncomfortably. He would really rather not go that way after they used up all their healing items, but...

“If the calf’s in there, th-then we have to help it,” Nia whispers, resolute. Still, when Tobias looks at her, he sees that her paws are shaking.

“Yeah, I know.” He cracks his knuckles and marches ahead. “C’mon, then. Duty calls.”

Nia follows him, and the pair carefully make their way closer and closer to the loud wailing. By time they reach the cavern it’s coming from, ducking just around the corner, it’s almost loud enough to hurt. Judging by Nia’s expression and pinned-back ears, it’s already painful for her sensitive hearing. 

“How should we do this?” Nia asks, almost talking at normal volume to be heard. “It’ll see you right away with your tail flame, but...”

“At least we’ll get to see what it is too, and if the tropius is in there with it.”

Nia thinks that information over, then reluctantly nods. “A-Are we just going for it, then?”

“Sounds like it.”

The two of them creep closer, and when Tobias darts into the room, flaring his tail flame to give them more light, he and Nia slide to a stop. Half-hidden in the shadowy light and rearing up in fear at their sudden appearance is the tropius calf. It’s huge, at least five or six times Tobias and Nia’s size, and it releases another panicked wail, scrambling back from the light.

Nia falls into a battle stance, and Tobias says, “Whoa, whoa, wait! That’s the tropius!”

Nia blinks at him, disbelief on her face. “That’s the baby?!”

Before he can answer the tropius cries out again, its roars pitching high and scared. The sound of something slicing through air is their only warning before razor sharp leaves fly by, nicking their skin. Nia yelps and hides behind a rock, and Tobias does the same. The tropius backs itself into a corner and starts frantically flapping its leafy wings. Huge gusts of wind blast by and down the tunnels.

“What do we do now?!” Nia shouts over the noise.

Tobias frowns. They have to get to the tropius somehow, but with it attacking like this... “Knocking it out would be the easiest option, but—"

“What?!” Nia’s voice is shrill. “No! You said it’s a baby! No way am I hurting that poor thing!”

“I said it’s the easiest option, not what we should do! Even I don’t go around smacking babies! Arceus.”

“What are you suggesting, then?”

Tobias stops to think. Even if they can’t hurt it, they still need to get the tropius under control before they can do anything. “We need to pin its wings so we can get close enough to warp it back to the guild.”

Nia shoots him a pained look. “That’ll scare it. Can’t we do something else? Calm it down or something?”

The tropius wails again, and Tobias winces, the terrified noise grating on him, making him itch to act. “You figure out the magic solution, then. I’m gonna get closer.”

“Wait, Tobias—!“

But he’s already gone, darting from rock to rock to avoid the tropius’ gusts of wind. It’s too bad it can easily track him by his tail flame in the darkness; it would be so much easier to sneak closer otherwise.

Tobias dodges another razor leaf attack by throwing himself onto his belly, and then ducks behind a cleft in the wall to avoid a flurry of wind. He waits a few moments, thinking. He doesn’t want to attack the calf, but he’s not sure how he’s going to restrain its powerful neck and wings otherwise. Maybe he could jump on its back, then warp them out right away before it has a chance to get its bearings?

Well. He’ll figure it out at he goes. Tobias sprints out and along the cave wall, lessening the wind resistance. The tropius sees him coming and cries out, blasting a powerful razor leaf at him that he just barely rolls under. He’s so close, just a bit more—

The tropius spins, clumsy in its youth but still incredibly powerful. Its tail swings around, scooping Tobias up and flinging him halfway across the cavern. He hits the ground with a pained, “Oof!” and stays there, trying to catch his breath. This is a disaster.

Just as Tobias lifts his head, looking back to the tropius, Nia’s voice rings out in the cavern. “H-Hey!”

Tobias stares as the riolu steps out from behind the rocks, body glowing ever-so-faintly with aura so the tropius‘ attention is immediately drawn to her. Before it has a chance to blast her with wind, eyes wild in the low light, Nia makes a sound like a sob.

…What?

The riolu starts crying—well, pretending to cry—with all the theatrical subtlety of a boulder to the head. She wails a pitiful sound, curling into a ball on the ground and hiding her face in her knees. She throws in a few pathetic sniffles, too, definitely too overdone to be real. It takes a moment, but Tobias realizes what she’s doing. Nothing throws a kid off more than their tantrum being countered by someone else’s. But no, there’s no way something so dumb and so simple will work, right? This is a mission, not babysitting duty in the nursery!

Yet, despite it all, the tropius has yet to blast the riolu into a wall. Instead, it’s watching Nia with wide, teary eyes, wings still and the raging wind died down into an oppressive silence. The tropius keens, sad and confused, and hesitantly steps forward from its spot in the corner of the room.

Nia continues to cry, throwing in a few literal “boo-hoos” while she’s at it. It’s overdramatic and ridiculous, and the tropius eats it right up, walking closer to Nia. It hesitates a few steps away from her, gaze flicking over to where Tobias is still lying on the ground across the room, before finally reaching Nia’s side. The baby tropius whines, nudging gently at the riolu with its snout.

Nia peeks up at the tropius, a giggle escaping her throat. The tropius coos, suddenly playful, in return. Nia sits up and reaches out a hand to pet feather-light at the tropius’ nose. The grass type rumbles a happy noise, stepping closer before sinking to the ground. Nia continues to stroke soothingly at the calf’s cheeks, murmuring words in a calming, almost motherly tone.

Tobias doesn’t dare get up and freak out the tropius all over again. Instead, he lies on the ground and watches in disbelief as Nia calms the giant Pokémon down from a monstrous frenzy to a rumbling, contented puddle of leaves and brown scales. He can’t believe that worked. He’d be furious that it worked if he wasn’t so shocked.

Another few moments to catch his breath, and then Tobias rises to his feet and carefully steps closer. The tropius slits open an eye at the approaching light, but then decides to ignore him, giving all its attention to Nia’s touch.

“I cannot believe that worked,” He says flatly.

Nia looks at him, quirking a smug smile. “I can have good ideas too, y’know.”

Tobias bristles at the condescending tone. He could’ve just as easily come up with that strategy! She doesn’t have to sound so superior about it. He growls and jams his hand into their bag to pull out their rescue badges. He nearly throws Nia’s when handing it over, and together the two of them call for a pick-up, waiting only a few moments before being teleported away, tropius in tow.

After the millisecond of nausea, Tobias finds himself, Nia, and the baby tropius in one of the psychic assistance offices. The tropius lets out a distressed noise at the sudden change of location, but before Nia can soothe it a voice thick with tears sobs, “Mirri!”

Tobias and Nia jump and step out of the way just in time for a fully-grown tropius, staggeringly huge and shaking the ground with its steps, to barrel towards the baby. The calf cries out in clear delight, and the two tropius reunite, nuzzling against one another.

Something about the loving gesture between what Tobias can only assume is the calf and their parent makes something in his chest clench and his eyes sting. He remembers being nuzzled like that, warm wings surrounding him, the scent of sunbaked stone and a comforting voice—

Tobias draws in a shuddering breath and tears his eyes away, stuffing the memories down. Nia looks like she might cry herself.

After a few more moments, the elder tropius turns to the two of them, tears still in her eyes. “Thank you so so much for finding my baby,” she says, bowing her long, graceful neck. “I’ve given the abra your rewards. May I know your names, before we leave?”

“O-Oh! I’m Nia.”

“Tobias. We’re Team Scarlet.”

The tropius smiles, still overwhelmed with emotion. “Thank you, you two. This is my son Mirri, and my name is Aari. If you ever need anything, please do let us know.”

Tobias and Nia nod and wave their goodbyes to the pair as they turn to leave, the older tropius barely squeezing her wide, leafy wings into the hall.

“They’re really beautiful, when they’re not trying to kill us,” Nia says, gaze lingering on the doorway.

Tobias snorts a quiet laugh. “Most things look better when they’re not trying to kill you.”

The charmander steps up to the desk of the abra in charge of their case, and she in turn hands him a small parcel, nodding her thanks. Nia and Tobias move into the hall, Nia already busy updating their Seeker badges and showing the screen to him when their points rise. Tobias nods, satisfied, and undoes the knot of their parcel. Inside, there’s a couple hundred poke that they’ll have to split with the guild, along with a few sleep seeds, and a medley of five or six berries. Nice haul. Tobias wraps the parcel up again and moves to head to the cafeteria for supper. Nia grabs his arm, stopping him.

“What?” He asks, a little sharply. He just wants some food and a nap, and he’s still tingling with leftover embarrassment for not coming up with Nia’s strategy himself. He wouldn’t have hurt the tropius calf, but the riolu’s plan clearly worked better than whatever he was trying to do. He should’ve thought of it first.

Nia meets his eyes, taking a deep breath and looking unusually determined. “I‘m going to Afon’s Cap tomorrow.”

Tobias blinks at her, surprised, then growls. “What? No you’re not, tomorrow’s not even our day off!”

Nia’s ears flick back, but her expression hardens. “I-I’m going, whether you come with me or not. If you come along we can get supplies or something, but I’m going either way.”

Tobias narrows his eyes, not liking the authoritative tone in her voice. Especially since things have been so tense between them lately. One good plan that wasn’t even really a plan, and she thinks she can boss him around? The only positive of going would be that Nia would finally stop badgering him about it.

…Huh.

This could get her off his back, at least. He would stay behind and let her go on her own, but he knows the sort of scolding he’d get from Maggie for that. It would not be a fun day at the guild. Maybe he just needs to grit his teeth and get it over with so they can move on with their lives.

“Why do you get to make that decision?” He finally asks, still hoping she’ll back down.

There’s a quick flash of anger in her eyes. “I’m part of this team too, a-and I figured out how to complete our mission today. Why shouldn’t I get to make a decision every once in a while?”

Tobias isn’t sure whether to be angry or impressed at the riolu’s sudden show of spine. All he knows is that he’s tired of hearing her whine about Afon’s Cap and stupid Hazel.

“Fine,” he says, still reluctant. “But I get to decide where we eat.”

Nia immediately perks up, beaming at him and clasping her paws together in a complete 180 of emotion. “Really?!”

“Yeah, whatever. Now c’mon, let’s get some food before I change my mind.”

Nia makes an excited little whoop, skipping ahead as they start their walk down the hall. Tobias groans and tells her to slow down, tucking the parcel under his arm and resigning himself to his fate.

At least he’ll get a good meal out of the trip.

[tweetracer]

Meeting the lost boys by knocking into one of their bikES 👀👌🏻

OP WHAT’S IT LIKE HAVING THE BIGGEST BRAIN IN THE WORLD (also this is my sECOND TIME WRITING THIS CAUSE MY COMPUTER CRASHED W/O SAVING SO SORRY IF IT’S GARBO)

LOST BOYS x S/O WHO RAN INTO THEIR BIKES

DAVID

Okay you already had one drink too many and fuck that was a cool looking bike. You were new to the area so people’s quiet comments of ‘that’s a bad idea’ went right over your head. You were just gonna look nobody can get pissed at you for looking.

Of course looking had turned to touching.

You ran your fingers across the smooth leather of the handles, admiring how well maintained it was despite clearly being frequently used.

“Can I help you?”

“FUCK HOLY SHI-“ you fell forwards at the voice that came from behind you, stumbling and watching as the bike fell in slow motion towards the ground.

You closed your eyes, wincing when you heard the SNAP! of the side view mirror as it landed, crumpled, beneath the vehicle.

The sound of a frustrated sigh made you turn slowly- and suddenly you felt a lot more sober as you looked up into the sharp blue eyes of a blonde man standing with his arms crossed and his gaze narrowed.

He looked ready to scream before you tossed your hands up- stumbling through your words as you offered to pay. You patted yourself down hurriedly desperate to find your wallet when it hit you.

Fuck you left it at your apartment.

Explaining the situation you offered to go get the money and bring it back to him, assuring you were good for your word.

“Forgive me sweetheart but I’m not exactly keen on trusting someone who just broke my mirror off”

You winced and nodded understandingly before inviting him to come along so he knew you wouldn’t bail and his eyebrows rose up.

Oh

He’d seen enough pornos to know exactly where this was headed ;)

Never opposed to a good time he agreed, following you in the short walk to your apartment with such confidence it was hard to tell who was leading who. He introduced himself as David as the two of you walked- actually starting a pretty good rapport despite the rocky introduction. 

As you finally made your way to the front of your apartment David straightened himself, stomach curling with anticipation as he readied himself for the coy little song and dance before you got to really repay him for the damages.

Confident, he took a step forwards before- THUD

He ran face first into your door. Reeling for a moment before he realized that you just closed the fucking door on him what the-

Before David could voice his confusions and frustration it swung open again, and there you were- standing before him with wallet in hand as you paged through some bills.

He glowered, upset that he had misread the cues of the situation and gave you an incredibly low-balled estimate. Frowning as you handed the cash over you wished him a goodnight and shut the door again.

Grumbling, it wasn’t until he was headed towards the stairwell to leave that he heard the sound of the creaky wood opening up.

You poked your head out, flushed and grinning before asking if he was free for dinner tomorrow night with a smug smile.

You little tease

PAUL

This was a stupid idea. You knew this was a stupid idea- but you swore to god if your friends teased you one more time for skipping on this bet you were going to lose it.

It was simple. Sit on one one of Santa Carla’s resident bad boys’ bikes and live to tell the tale and they pay your rent for a month. Easy... peasy...

You glanced over your shoulder, already feeling sweat start to form on your brow as you watched your friends gathered around the railing of the boardwalk- giving you thumbs up and egging you on.

Taking a deep breath you snuck across the beach side- having checked one, two, three times that none of those wannabe-gangsters were coming before finally sidling up to the line.

You picked one at random, taking a moment as you tried to figure out how to get up and into the seat without jostling it. Finally, you managed to straddle the seat, you were surprised just how soft the cushion felt against your legs as you looked across the beach at your companions.

They were waving their hands and mouthing something frantically- you squinted, leaning forwards and trying to get a better idea of what they were trying to tell you.

“I think they’re tryna warn you about me, doll”

“FUCK!”

You scrambled to get off the bike, stumbling and falling face-first into the sand. With all the blood rushing to your ears you couldn’t hear the stranger’s laughter as the bike tipped over, the air getting pushed out of your lungs as it landed across your back.

The stranger, a tall blonde guy decked out in full leather and studs, was doubled over with laughter- grabbing his stomach as tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he watched you flail uselessly underneath the motorcycle.

“Dude you look like a squashed roach” he choked, managing to get a hold of himself- his laughter tapering off into tiny giggles, leaning his hands on his knees to look down at you with a wild grin.

Finally, he deigned to help, using one hand to lift the bike up like it weighed nothing. Once freed you groaned, back aching from where you would no doubt be sporting a gnarly bruise tomorrow.

Before you got the chance to get up you felt two strong arms wrap around you, lifting you into the air with a dramatic twirl- your hands flying to his shoulders on instinct.

The biker held you up for a moment “If you wanted a ride all you had to do was ask, gorgeous”

Red all the way to your ears you mumbled a small thank you as he gently set you on wobbly knees, keeping a wide-palmed hand on your hip to steady you.

“I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth but if you’d like to explain what you were doing straddling my bike I’m all ears.” he purred, hand giving you a flirtatious squeeze as you recounted the bet- nodding to your group of friends who were frozen like deer in the headlights.

The stranger, Paul, made a humming noise in the back of his throat as he thought over your excuse before leaning in close to your ear.

“Well we can’t let them win then, can we, doll?” and with that he let go to swing a long leg over his bike, offering you a calloused hand and a wink.

Okay... maybe this was a good bet after all.

DWAYNE

It was late, you were exhausted, and your feet ached from standing up all afternoon and evening at your closing shift of Stoker’s Diner. Still dressed in your uniform you stumbled, yawning as you picked your way across the boardwalk.

Your eyes kept drifting closed- the moments between when you were awake and practically sleepwalking getting longer and longer as you followed the familiar route.

When you opened your eyes and you were staring up at the distant white light of stars you realize oh shit when did I fall.

Then you realized the sharp stabbing pain in your leg, hissing as you curled up, abs tensing as you saw the heavy bike on top of your shin. “Fuckin’ shit” you growled, grabbing your thigh in an attempt to pull yourself free.

The sudden weight was lifted and you looked up at broad shoulders and dark hair that framed a handsome face. You must have died, because this face was that of an angel’s.

“Am I dead?” you asked groggily, sleep-addled brain making your tongue a little looser as the stranger smiled. He held out his hand to you politely, waiting with a raised brow.

Your hand felt tiny in his as he gently lifted you onto your legs only for you to teeter over precariously at the sharp pain in your knee. Glancing down you saw bloody torn skin and a purple bruise beginning to bloom across your shin.

The man’s shoulders tensed slightly at the sight of a droplet blood trailing its way down your leg. Exhausted, you let yourself be manhandled into the seat.

“Here” his voice was a low rumble that made even your tired mind spark up eagerly.

God he was hot.

The biker lifted you up like a sack of feathers, setting you in the seat of the bike so your legs dangled above the ground. The man kneeled down, reaching into his pocket and rifling around in it for a few seconds before pulling out a band aid.

You stuttered out a thank you, feeling you face heat up as he glanced up at you from beneath thick lashes- a pleasant smile gracing his herculean features.

“You should be careful.” he spoke, fastening the adhesive to it with a gentle pat. You coughed shyly, unable to make eye contact as you quietly explained that you had a long shift and you were opening tomorrow again while your fingers played with the hem of your shirt.

The stranger listened silently, eyes soft as he focused- occasionally nodding his understanding. His hand was still on the back of you calf- fingers cold and sending goosebumps all the way up your spine.

When you finally finished he stood, looming over you as he introduced himself as Dwayne before hesitating- thinking something over..

“If you want... I can drive you home... probably safer than sleepwalking off the boardwalk again”

MARKO

When you told that guy to back off from your friend you did not think it would end with you running at top speed through the crowds of the boardwalk. The guy’s yelling seemed to get closer and closer as you jumped over a table- switching directions suddenly in an attempt to throw him off.

Your eyes darted around as you searched for a way out- landing on the railing off the edge of the boardwalk that led to the beach side parking. If you played your cards right you might be able to hitch a ride or at the very least lose him by hiding.

With a fell swoop you tossed your legs over the edge, falling a few stomach-churning feet before you touched the ground, skinning your knees as you took off again. Your assailant cursed, running down the stairs and getting left further behind.

Looking over your shoulder to track his progress you didn’t see the motorcycle in front of you.

In fact

You didn’t see the line of motorcycles in front of you.

And you sure as hell didn’t see the blonde boy decked out in a leather jacket milling about.

It wasn’t until you laid, cheek pressed against his chest and bike flat beneath your shins that you even realized what your collision was with. Gloved hands gripped your hips tightly and the two of you stared, confused at each other before you heard the footsteps getting closer.

“Shit shit shit- CAN YOU DRIVE THIS THING?” you were already sitting up, straddling his hips for a moment before pulling him to his feet.

He only stared, lips slightly parted and brown eyes wide before he nodded numbly- gaze unable to leave your face as you turned to see your attacker get close.

“HURRY-”

That seemed to kick him into gear as he glanced over your shoulder at the drunken surfer gaining ground towards the two of you. In a fluid motion he lifted the bike up and turned it on, the revving engine drowning out the chaos around you.

Without waiting for an invite you hopped on, gripping tight to his jacket as he peeled away from the line of the other bikes and taking off at a breakneck speed.

Your eyes squeezed shut as the wind whipped your hair around you- heart still pounding in your chest from adrenaline as you pressed your face into the stranger’s back with a sigh of blessed relief. 

Long after the danger was far behind the two of you were still speeding along- running others out of your path and sidling closer towards the shore.

Your eyes closed and you relaxed a little bit, hands loosening their grip where it had been balled up in his jacket. His shoulders tensed and he leaned forwards, the motorcycle suddenly speeding up so fast there were tears in your eyes.

With an excited laugh that was whipped away by the wind you flung your arms around his chest, squeezing tight- his pleased smile and small blush invisible to you as he veered a sharp turn to make you hold onto him closer.

After what could’ve been hours or minutes of heart pounding excitement, the blonde boy finally slowed- eventually stopping the bike and parking it far away from the loud boardwalk.

His hair was a mess and the apples of his cheeks were pink with adrenaline and you got a good look at his face properly this time.

Oh he was cute.

He smiled, looking almost bashful

“I’m Marko, and uh- I had fun being your getaway driver.”

[generalfoolish]

Feel The Heat

Part Two: Something More

Pairing: Frankie Morales x OC Juniper Collins

Rating: 18+ (b/c minors shouldn't lurk, it is illegal and not polite.) But this is big fluff, just more exposition and pining and world building. I do curse, so there's that.

Word Count: 4k+

Summary: June and Frankie are big idiots, and they keep bumping into each other in the wildest of places. Again, and I can't overstate this: they’re both MASSIVE idiots.

A/N: Hey babes! This is going a little slower bc I want to give more with each update, I normally keep around 1K and these are little beasts. But I'm excited with the story, some threads are exposing themselves, and there will be more Frankie X OC time in the next part. For now, enjoy this little taste of yearning and pining and overthinking and general angst over meeting a cute new somebody. 💕

Masterlist | Part One | Part Three

June checked her phone as she stirred the pot, and groaned at the email count. More than half were parents who “couldn’t” make the conference, and the rest were from her principal wanting to reiterate the importance of those meetings. She dropped the phone back to the counter, and focused on her pot. She had googled what to do with Brandywines, and had decided on a slowly simmered tomato sauce. It paired beautifully with the fresh garlic and basil she had picked up, and the whole house smelled like an Italian restaurant.

This was her favorite way to use up produce in the summer. She spent hours simmering and canning, and got to enjoy the fruits of her labor in the dead of winter. She knew she could easily gift the sauce made from those beautiful tomatoes, and she had every intention of doing so.

Sundays passed so quickly, she hardly had time to dwell on the farmer, but when she caught a whiff of her stove she had to find something to do. She worked through the emails, sending reminders that the conferences were mandatory, and that if the parents couldn’t make it during the week before or after school, she was available to meet online. She fought the temptation to open her weekends. She was working on work boundaries with her therapist.

June had an easier time fighting off thoughts of the farmer as the day waned on, and she thought, foolishly, that she could just forget the brown eyed grump she had met.

--

Frankie was having a hard time focusing on anything. Liv was a bundle of energy, and he tried not to snap at her. He had her come help him in the garden, but he ended up sending her to dig for worms after she trampled another vine.

“Ew! Worms are gross.” She argued.

“I know, but didn’t you want to go fishing? Fish eat worms, it’s how we can get them out of the water.” He explained, carefully. She considered him, then bounded off, calling out to the worms. He chuckled watching her, and went back to pulling weeds. With a moment of quiet, his mind flitted back to the woman. He couldn’t help it. He had dreamt of her. She was lounging in the back of his mind, waiting for him to stumble into the memory. Liv was a good distraction, but she only held the woman at bay for so long. He grumbled and wiped his brow. He decided to give it up for now, the woman and the weeding.

“Princess, I think we have some hotdogs. Let’s try those.” He called over to Liv, who excitedly left behind her freshly dug hole.

“Daddy, Mrs. Becka wanted me to remind you about the school stuff.” Liv told him, grabbing his hand as they walked. He exhaled sharply. He had forgotten the meetings. He pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through Becka’s texts. She had sent him the teacher’s number at some point, he knew, the trouble was finding it. Finally, he clicked the blue hyper-linked number and called it. Liv ran inside ahead of him, looking for the hot dogs, and he waited at the door as the phone rang.

“Hello?” Ms. Collins answered breathlessly, and he cleared his throat.

“Ms. Collins? It’s Olivia Morales’ dad, calling about the meeting?” He heard something clatter on the other end. “Is now an okay time?”

“Yes, sorry, Mr. Morales, I was just...it doesn’t matter. My schedule is a little tight, when did you have in mind?”

“Something early, maybe before drop-off?”

“Sure, uhm, let me check my calendar,” She sounded distant, he thought, probably on speaker. “Yeah, Tuesday morning? I know that’s quick, it is all I have though.”

“Yeah, I can be there. Like 7am?”

“Yes, that’s great. See you then.” The line disconnected and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d heard her voice before. He rolled his eyes at himself, of course he had. She was his daughter’s teacher. As if on cue, Liv ran out with a hot dog. He smiled brightly and ruffled her hair.

“‘Kay, kiddo, let’s go catch some fish.” She grinned at him brightly, showing off the hole her first lost tooth had made. His heart caught as he realized she was growing up so fast.

--

“Monday’s really are the worst.” June laughed. She had her mom on the phone, connected through Bluetooth. “I’m just leaving the school now!”

“I just don’t see why you’re having to set these meetings up now. The kids have hardly been in school for a couple of weeks.” June sighed as she merged on the highway to head home.

“I know, it's just something my district does. The hard part is wrangling parents.”

“Well, if you had any children, you’d know how much they require of you.” June rolled her eyes and exhaled through her nose. Her mom was always quick to bring up her lack of a partner and children. Not that June didn’t want those things, they just haven't panned out for her yet.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m sure you’re right.” She acquiesced, knowing the argument wasn’t worth the effort.

“Have you met anyone? You’re only getting older, you know.”

“Thanks Mom. Uh, I have a date tomorrow night, actually.”

“Well, what’s his name, do I know him? What does he do for work?” June rolled her eyes, and wondered why she had answered the call.

“I don’t know anything about him. It’s a blind date.”

“Not even a name?” June bit her lip, debating telling her Mom the nickname.

“He’s ex-Army, goes by Fish. That’s all I know. Oh, and he’s single. A new teacher sat it up for me.” June explained, hoping her Mom wouldn’t have much to say.

“Fish? Oh, wow. Terrence really messed you up, huh.”

“I’m getting a call from a parent, I’ll talk to you later.” June lied, ending the call. Terrence had really messed her up. Not that that was of any importance to her dating life, or this blind date’s name. She sighed hard as she pulled into her driveway.

“Monday’s really are the worst.” She told the empty space of her car. She grabbed her bag and hurried inside. It had been a long day, and she was ready to polish off her bottle of wine from the night before. She walked in and let her bag drop to the floor, and crossed to the staircase. She groaned as she climbed the stairs. She was exhausted and still had a ton left to do.

June stripped quickly and threw on her yard work clothes. She stopped by the kitchen and poured some wine into a cup with a lid, before making her way outside. The day before she had started a small garden, and she was determined to make something grow out of it. She had no idea what she was doing, though. The wine wasn’t really helping either.

She had been short with a few parents while she was tending the fragile plants. It was a little late in the season to try and start anything, but she had picked up some discount plants that she wanted to help limp along for a little longer. She hoped she hadn’t put any of the parents off, and tried to remember who all had called.

June wiped her forehead with her gloved hand and tried to sort them out. Steven’s mom, Cynthia, was meeting her during lunch. That would be short, thankfully. Steven was a good kid, quiet. Graham and Ginger’s grandma was coming Wednesday afternoon, the parents were out of the country for something. Mia’s dad was going to call during the planning period. Ashley’s mom was coming Tuesday afternoon. And Olivia’s dad was coming Tuesday morning. June felt her shoulders sag, and she drained her wine. That wasn’t even half of the parents left.

She gave up on the garden and stalked inside. She wanted to scare up something for dinner, but didn’t really feel like making anything. She gave in and called the local Indian place. They knew her order, and said they’d be there soon. She grimaced, wondering how much money she had spent on Vindaloo over the years, and decided not to think about it. She had enough time to slip in the shower to wash the sweat off, before the delivery guy knocked on her door. She tipped him generously, and sat down on the couch.

June clicked the tv on and scrolled through her watch list. She settled on some mind-numbing detective show, and ate half of the curry. She put the rest away, and grabbed her bag by the door. The bag was a mess, but she managed to find her red pen and the papers that needed grading, and she settled back in.

Soon, the mindless task paired with a full stomach and the wine had her falling into a deep sleep.

--

Frankie was pissed. He was giving up the best time of the day for harvesting to meet with Liv’s teacher, and Ms. Collins couldn’t be bothered to show up. His thoughts went back to the phone call the day before, and he gritted his teeth as he realized she had put him off twice. Over something she had wanted to set up. He’d gotten the bundles of paper she had sent home on it. Yet, here he was, and she was nowhere to be found. He pulled his phone out, and considered punching in her number, but stopped himself.

Frankie had to exhale deeply four times before he could lay his phone down. He had gotten here a little early, and it was just now 7 am, and he didn’t have a set schedule. Liv was with Ashley, Becka had insisted on taking them to drop off so he could have plenty of time with Ms. Collins. Not that it mattered now, he thought, dryly. At ten past, he pulled his phone back out, and brought her name up. He was angry again, and had every intention of calling. But before he could press her name, the door swung open, and his heart dropped.

~~

June woke with a start. The birds were singing outside, the light was all wrong, and she was on the couch. Shit, she thought, jumping up. Shit, shit, shit. She had overslept. She hurried up the stairs and threw on something presentable, and didn’t even check herself in the mirror. She could do her makeup in the class. She grabbed up the half graded papers and shoved them in her bag, and ran out the door. She dumped everything in the passenger seat and drove much faster than usual. She was about halfway to the school when she realized she was meeting a student’s parent this morning. She hadn’t had any coffee, and her brain was starting to slow down from the adrenaline of being late, and she could not remember who she was meeting. She parked, and popped her vanity mirror down and grimaced. She looked like she was having a bad morning. She decided to throw her hair up in a messy bun, and grabbed the mess up from her passenger seat.

She basically ran into the building, her flats ricocheting sound off the concrete walls. She swung her door open, apologies already falling from her lips, when she looked at the parent. The apologies died on her lips, and her mouth fell open.

“You?” She asked, dumbly. “Frankie?” He looked like he had seen a ghost, a bitchy ghost, she grimaced.

“You?” He stood now, and started to move to her.

“Uhm, you can’t be here. I’m meeting a student’s parent, and how’d you even know where to find me?” She started rambling, but when the words were out she realized how stupid they were. “Oh my god, you’re the parent?” She barked out a laugh, and dumped her bag on her desk. He grinned, and wiped the back of his neck.

“Liv’s dad. I’m Frankie Morales.” He told her, faltering from shaking her hand.

“Perfect. I’m Juniper Collins, you can call me June, or Ms. Collins, whatever you prefer. I’m sorry I’m late, I...I started a garden yesterday and wore myself out. That’s what I was doing when we spoke on the phone,” She told him, laughing. June had only tried gardening because she wanted a common foot with him. She didn’t want to tell him that yet, though. “Anyway, let’s get to Liv. Liv is a great girl, Mr. Morales.”

“Frankie.” He interrupted, with a small smile.

“Okay, Frankie. Look, Liv is great, she really is. She struggles in class sometimes, though. She is smart as hell, but she seems to struggle. I wanted to give you some information about ADD or ADHD. It presents differently in girls, and is often overlooked. I haven’t known her long, obviously, but I actually was diagnosed much later in life, and I remember doing some of the things she’s doing. Would you be interested in some info on that?” June asked carefully, their relationship was rocky and weird, and she didn’t want to overstep. This was her job, though. It was a little bit not her job, actually. But she always wanted to look out for her girls, especially when they were as smart and incredible as Liv.

“Oh, wow. I had no idea she was struggling.” Frankie muttered, and removed his cap. June sucked in a sharp breath at his light brown, bouncy curls as they spilled out. He was beautiful. She distracted herself by moving behind her desk and grabbing a folder she had laid out for Liv, for this exact reason, and she thanked her past self for being put together. Then she went and sat beside him at the small activity table. She felt comical sitting next to him in the small chairs, he was spilling over his own. She laid down the folder and put a hand on his arm.

“Look, it isn’t a struggle that she notices yet. It’s her recall, her attention span, and her ability to focus. That sounds like a lot, I know, but there’s a simple test, and there are effective alternatives to stimulants. I’m on one, and it really helped me. Life is only going to get harder for her, if she has it and it remains untreated, but she has no idea. She isn’t “different” yet, and she’s doing so, so well in class. She is a model student. I just want to help, that’s all.” She watched his face as she spoke, and by the end, he seemed defeated.

“I should have noticed. I’m her dad. I...I’ve been worried I’m not around enough, and now you drop this on me.” He laughed dryly. She patted his arm.

“Liv talks about you all the time. She loves you, Frankie. She tells us all the time about her pilot dad.” June said it before she had time to think, before she connected “Liv’s Dad” with Frankie, the man before her. And then, her big mouth spit out something she wanted to take back immediately. “But you’re a farmer, right?” He looked up into her eyes, and his face was hard.

“Anything else you wanted to tell me about Liv?” His words were right, but the tone was too harsh. June flinched back from him, and dropped her gaze from his suddenly hard face.

“Liv is a great girl. She’s great to have in class. I have nothing else for you.” June told him monotonically, going on autopilot so as not to cry. She had spent the whole weekend thinking about him, then she had planted a stupid garden to have more in common with him, and then fate brought them back together, and she screwed it up again. She decided it was done, then. Frankie Morales was not in the cards for her. Sure, she might see him again because she taught his daughter, but she was through thinking of him like that.

“Good. I have to get going, next time try to be on time.” He scolded, as he stood abruptly and left without another word. Slowly, June followed and shut the door behind him. Alone, at last, she started crying.

~~~

“Idiot. You fucking idiot.” Frankie berated himself in his truck. He couldn’t believe it when she swept into the room. He had found her. Not her, he thought with a grimace, Juniper. The name felt so appropriate. It was an old name, but it suited her so perfectly. He exhaled roughly and tried to rewrite the scene. She was looking out for Liv. She wanted Liv to be happy and succeed. This woman cared more about his daughter than Liv’s own mother. And as soon as she tried to get to know him, he bit her head off and made her feel bad for being late. Jesus, what a dick. He had found her, and in a single moment, he had managed to ruin it again.

He put the truck in drive and headed home. Nothing left to do here, he thought bitterly. He was pulling up the driveway when he remembered that she had started a garden. It wasn’t a coincidence, he realized. She had started a garden because of him. He parked the truck and laid his head against the steering wheel. He had pushed her away at every turn. The market, the bar, and now at the school. He had seen her face before he left, and knew it was done. He had pushed too far, too fast. Of course, she would want nothing more to do with him. He had done nothing but treat her like shit.

He got out of the truck and threw his hat. It didn’t do much except get his cap dirty, but it was all he could do. He pulled his phone out, and pulled her name up. He typed a long message, and erased it. Then he tried again, and erased it again. His pride was getting in the way. He couldn’t tell her about his piloting years. The army, spec ops, Colombia, the coke, or any of it. She could just hate him, and then he couldn’t hurt her anymore.

~~~~

June paced up and down her classroom. Her face was puffy, still, and she had been struggling to focus all day. She couldn’t meet anyone new for dinner; she wasn’t in the right headspace for a date. Let alone one where she would have to leave a lasting impression. She chewed her thumb nail before heading down the hall.

Samantha's classroom was pretty close to her own, and June was glad for it. If she had had to walk further she would have lost her nerve. June knocked tentatively on the door, before pulling it open. Samantha looked up and grinned.

"Hey girl! Are you excited for your big date tonight?" June’s own smile fell from her face.

"Actually, that's why I'm here. I want to cancel." Samantha's smile pulled down quickly.

"Why?"

"I'm having kind of a bad day for impressions," June told her flatly.

"Well, I couldn't if I wanted to. Santiago is out of town, no reception. I don't have the friend's number." June groaned.

"Okay, alright. Ugh, probably for the best. Do you know anything else about him? I’ve had kind of a rough day. You said, ex-military right?”

“Yeah, Santi doesn’t really talk about that time, and I haven’t pushed it. I met him a while back, Fish. He’s sweet. I think he’ll be your type. You like tan brunettes?” June nodded, laughing and thinking about Frankie Morales again.

“He’ll be perfect. Doesn’t say much and likes beer, that’s all I know.” Samantha gave a small shrug.

“Alright, thanks. I’ll let you finish eating.” June said, excusing herself.

She left feeling defeated. A parent was going to be late this afternoon, she had gotten the email after the Frankie disaster. Which meant that she was going to be late to dinner. She wasn't killing it in the men department so she hoped that despite a military background he wouldn't mind her tardiness. She couldn't handle another horrible scene like the one from this morning.

The rest of the day was uneventful, which she was glad for. Her nerves were on the edge. She tried to ignore how much Liv favored her dad, and how she loudly told the class about their upcoming camping trip. She found herself listening intently, despite herself. And even chuckled at the girl’s memories of the last trip. June’s mood improved with the day, too. She even played a little music in the background while the kids worked on their worksheets.

By the time she had hauled herself into her car, the last thing she wanted to do was go to dinner. But she swiped on her favorite lipstick and drove to the restaurant. If she broke the speed limit, she would only be about five minutes late, and she pushed it. She wanted to drink some wine, and forget about Frankie Morales. Another tan brunette in her life would do her good, she thought happily. She was tired, but she wanted to make the most of it.

---

Frankie was looking back and forth between the menu and his watch. He couldn't believe that another woman was about to be late on him. He was trying hard to get June out of his mind, and his blind date wasn't making it easy on him. He chuckled when he realized what he was doing. Just meeting a total stranger for dinner. He didn't have much choice in the matter, he thought, remembering how Pope had basically told him where and when, without asking if Frankie was even interested.

She had good taste, he conceded. This was his favorite spot. They made amazing, fresh pasta. He was eyeing the cocktail menu, when she rushed in. He couldn't believe he was running into her again.

It was June, because of course it was. She was flushed, probably late again, he huffed, but she had put on a bright red lipstick that made his heart stutter. He lowered his gaze back to the menu. He hoped she wouldn't see him out on a date, even if he saw her. The hope was short lived because she made her way to him, her eyes glinting with an emotion he couldn't place, and she exhaled deeply.

"Let me guess, your call sign is Fish, right?" His eyes snapped to hers and she laughed while nodding. It was her. He had found her again. The waiter walked over and she told him to bring a bottle of red, and a beer for him. He told the waiter his brand, and raked his eyes over her.

"Sorry I'm late, I had a crazy day." She mused once she had taken two deep sips of her wine.

"Yeah? What is it you do?" He asked, hoping beyond hope that this was their start over. Their fourth, or so, start over.

"Teacher. Yeah, I teach. Most days it's easy, but some days there are parents." She told him, her cheeks flushed.

"Hopefully, no jerks?" He asked, quickly taking a sip of his beer. She held her head to the side before she sighed.

"I don't know what's going on here, Frankie. It's kind of exhausting. I think you're pretty handsome, you grow amazing food, you have a beautiful daughter, but I think we just keep messing up. How about, just for now, we enjoy this meal and the company, and tomorrow we can talk about what it means that we can't keep away from each other?" He searched her eyes. She was tired, he could tell, but she was so sincere. He wanted desperately to know why she sat down instead of just leaving. He wanted to know why they were seemingly so connected. He wanted to know if he'd been on her mind too.

"I'm thinking the carbonara." He answered, and she smiled before looking the menu over herself. The rest could wait. He had found her again.”

[avengers-fics]

The Island

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: You own a safe house designated for the avengers. A couple years ago they all came to visit. Little did they know, Bucky had won his way into your heart. 

Warning: none

Word Count: 2.3k

2020

The hot sun beats down, beads of sweat begin to form on your forehead. With a swish of your hand you wipe away the droplets that drip down your forehead. Pruning and planting the different crops for spring always took time, but that was all you had to do on your little island. That, and think about the love of your life and the hands that planted this garden in the early fall time. Thinking of the memory of your butt planted in a beach chair while watching his bent over frame in the garden boxes, planting strawberries and various greens.

A slight buzz in your beach bag catches your attention and you think nothing of it; most likely a news notification regarding the recent breakout. After hearing another ping, something in your gut tells you to check it. Walking through the thick sand surrounding your house, you bend over to retrieve your cell phone and realize that the buzzing continues from the second pocket. The emergency phone that hasn’t gone off in a few months is now alive with sound, and with your stomach dropping into your toes; you answer.

“Need any groceries?” Natalia’s familiar tone gives you friendly butterflies in your stomach, as she is one of your longest friends. You hadn’t heard her voice since Thanos had ruined the planet with the snap of his fingers. It was almost a relief to hear her raspy tone. Even then she didn’t want to bother you, or more likely find out if you had survived the initial snap (Which you did).

Without missing a beat, “Just pickles,” The familiar code for ‘the coast is clear’, “Maybe some vodka if you’re stopping.” You added with a smile. Nat happily said she would bring you a couple bottles, and with that she hung up the phone. After taking a shuddering breath, you tossed the phone back in your bag. This meant you had to make some rounds and change sheets in the different guest bedrooms, and actually wash the dishes in your sink. Your lab would be beyond happy to have some different but familiar faces around the little compound.

-

Seeing the familiar tiny red boat pull ashore that afternoon to your island always brought a smile to your face, along with the red head manning the small vessel. For the first time you noticed a few beefy men in tow, which made your eyebrows rise in surprise. Nat climbed ashore with a couple of manly hands held out to aid her. Then with the small boat anchored, the few men climbed ashore. Of course you knew who they all were, who wouldn't? At least she managed to bring some of the most well mannered men on the planet; all of which extended their hands in sync once reaching you on the shore. Steve introduced himself first, and he even kissed your cheek with a red hue on his own. Sam was a little more cocky in his introduction, but thanked you immensely for letting him stay there. Bucky was the last, and he was much more quiet and distant in his introduction than the rest. He took your hands in his, and then mimicked Steve and placed the gentlest kiss upon your cheek that made Sam and Nat furrow their brows. However, they didn’t say anything in fear for their lives.

After a moment of awkward silence, Natasha cut in. “We needed a safe house, desperately.” You nodded, almost prying for more. “There’s a little too much going on in the world...Virus and all. Tony got worried with all of us in New York or in the same Safe House at that.” She tucked her hands in her pocket, which was a cue for her that she was done talking. For as long as you had known her, it was almost impossible to get her to a point of being uncomfortable that she couldn’t talk anymore. So this situation had to be dire.

With the warmest smile you could offer up, you spoke to the group, “I understand, and you’re welcome here for as long as you need.” They all joined in a chorus of ‘thank yous’ but you interrupted with “As long as you’re willing to go to the grocery store for or with me.” In response Nat quickly walked back over to the boat, and grabbed a handful of reusable bags that contained at least $300 worth of groceries. “Well then, I’ll show you to your rooms.”

Throwing a dinner together for your guests was pretty easy since they all would eat anything you put on the plate in front of them. Steve was the one to strike up a conversation more than anybody else; asking how you came to get this land and when the house was built. Nat was just exhausted from navigating most of the way, and Sam must’ve been exhausted from nagging the whole time. Bucky, however, kept a cool distance from you across the dinner table. But he was the one who stayed to clean up dishes once everyone else went to bed, and even suggested you go to bed while he finished up downstairs. A smile graced your face and with a small wink you climbed the three flights of stairs to your master bedroom.

5:45 AM rolled around, and your alarm went off to get up and get ready for your 6 AM run around the island. The sunrise always brought a fresh breath of life to your lungs and soul. The island that you were lucky enough to live on, clocked in at around 4 miles round which was just the perfect running/walking mixture for your exercise credentials. Being on your own gave you a certain sense of freedom and happiness with the few trips to the grocery store that you made. While tying your sneakers, another person joined your presence downstairs in the island farmhouse. Bucky Barnes stood on the landing of the staircase, hair in a bun at the nape of his neck. He had a long sleeve shirt on that covered up to his wrists, leaving the metal arm to glimmer in the faint morning light. You had a sly smile on your lips with the thought of Nat teaching him how to tie his hair up in a small bun.

“What?” Bucky was also tying up his shoelaces, but caught a glimpse of your smile playing on your lips. The two of you were creatures of habit, and that meant getting up early in the day to work out so you had time for important stuff in the afternoon, like drinking. “Is there something wrong with my hair?” Bucky self consciously ran his flesh hand over his head.

You quickly jumped in, “Not at all! I could just tell Nat taught you to do that.” You grabbed the handle for the front door and looked at Bucky with a sympathetic look in your eyes, “Gonna run the same pace as me or outrun me today?” He laughed and agreed to keep pace with you. He was over a foot taller than you, which made you doubt his abilities to go your pace given the leg difference between the two of you.

The sun was only beginning to create a color show over the various mountains and islands surrounding your private island. Purple hues took over the sky and your heart. It always made you incredibly happy that you were able to reach this point in your life that you were able to live the life you had always dreamed of; quiet, and no one bothering you unless the situations were dire. Bucky’s strides were slower than normal to your left and even you could tell that, he wasn’t out of breath even when you were. Towards the end you always walked just to cool down and take in the cool morning breeze. Your black Labrador also joined during this morning ritual, which helped him settle during your afternoon activities.

After finishing the lap around the island, you sat down on one of the blue adirondack chairs you had perched on the beach. The paint was slightly peeling but every couple of years you repainted right over it, good as new. It was probably getting close to the time that required some more paint on the old, trusty chairs. Bucky carefully lowered himself into the chair next to you. With a slight sigh, he whispers as if to not disturb the sunrise still occuring. “Do you think Natalia knows about us?”

A laugh bubbles up into your chest as your hand reaches over and interlaces your fingers with Bucky’s. “I don’t think so baby.”

This had been occurring for the past 2 years, unbeknownst to the rest of the team. Neither of you really cared whether the rest of the team knew, maybe just Sam. The first time Nat had brought everyone to the island (By everyone, that means the WHOLE team and their significant others) over 2 years ago. There were so many dogs barking and beds squeaking that nobody had noticed you and Bucky on the front porch having a drink and learning everything about one another. He came to visit quite often after that, and no one really bothered to ask him where he was going.

The chairs in the sand were so close together that even if someone was to look out their bedroom windows and spot the two of you holding hands, you couldn’t quite tell what was happening. Steve was the only one with a bedroom that had a view over towards the sunrise, and you did that on purpose because you knew he wouldn’t say anything, and if he did it would have just been to Bucky. You adjusted in your chair so you could lean your head on his right shoulder, since his forearm was resting comfortably on your thigh. Bucky moved his head slightly just to kiss your sweaty forehead, and you could feel the smile on his lips. Bucky always smelled like eucalyptus and the scent stayed around your house even after he returned to his normal routine at the Avengers Compound. Your dog laid at both of your feet on the sand, comfortable as ever.

“I think we have to tell Tony eventually, especially since you wanna move here sometime in the near future.” You barely spoke above a whisper to him as you brought the back of his hand to your lips for a small kiss.

Bucky rested his cheek on the top of your head, watching the finishing sunrise. “I know, let this pandemic finish first before he realizes that he has to find another Avenger.” He giggled a little, and it brought a bubble of laughter up to your chest. “I just want to enjoy our privacy for now, before Sam realizes.” You nodded in agreement.

-

2019

Bucky had been introduced to you the year before, and somehow he managed to show up at your doorstep once a month. He claimed that it was his “vacation time”, even in the dead of winter, with snow piling up on your porch and an icy lake all around. The smile he donned melted a path right into your heart and you knew there was no way of falling out of love with Bucky Barnes. Most of the team was still under the impression that he was half psychotic; willing to snap at any time. But he was just the opposite. He was the most caring person you’d ever met in your life.

Bucky spent most of his time on your island helping with various projects that needed completing, whether it was fixing broken floor boards or sealing the shed against snow. You watched him get bundled up in overalls, glove only on his flesh hand and a fuzzy hat that he didn’t realize had cat ears on top, and trek outside to shovel a pathway to the shed that contained a few important items. Not to mention the chilly nights you spent with the window cracked, bundled up and a shirtless Bucky sleeping in the kingsize bed next to you.

Everytime he showed up on the porch, he claimed he took a leave of absence for some quiet time. But the time he spent on your island was anything but quiet. Making meals required any kind of music playing and hips swaying. His thumbs made impressions on your hips while you leaned to grab different seasonings from the spice rack, and a deep blush would form on your cheeks.

Late in the evenings it would just be the sound of snow falling outside and both of your breaths, ragged and slowing down. Legs tangled together, and not a care in the world. Bucky spent time tracing his fingers along the various tattoos that were painted over your arms and body. It made your heart warm to see Bucky this vulnerable. You finally had to ask what brought him here after all this time.

“You.” Was all Bucky wanted to offer at the time, and after some pandering he continued. “It’s peaceful here, you bring me unconstituted peace and so does this island.” Bucky was speaking the truth, it had been a long time since he had felt safe and content enough to be this open with someone. All it took were 4 sides of water for him to finally feel safe.

-

2020

You let out a little sigh before you spoke again, “I’d kiss you right now, but I have a feeling there’s a pair of eyes on us.” Closing your eyes, you felt Bucky stretch to turn around next to you. Sure enough, Nat was already up and sipping her coffee on the porch. She knew how much your privacy meant to you and Bucky, so she simply raised her mug in a cheering motion, and went back to bed.

Everyone had an inkling of an idea about the two of you, since Bucky didn’t know how to shut off the tracking on his iphone. But Natalia had reminded them of your spy past and how you once decapitated a man with your bare hands. Needless to say they kept their mouths shut until everyone was invited to the wedding/Bucky’s retirement party on the island.

[nishaapologist]

a skyscraper is a bit like a vault, but it goes up instead of down (Fallout 4, Sarah Lyons/NBi!LW, First Sentinel AU)

it's been a while since my last lil fic, but the idea of rookie up a skyscraper jumped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone. whilst i don't think rookie has agoraphobia from their vault years, they definitely think heights are just a little terrifying. what can they say? they're a mole person by nature.

(Sarah's pronouns are she/her, Rookie's pronouns are they/them)

===

Rookie's laughter is infectious, and easily earned, but for the past two hours it's been decidedly nervous in a way that's taken on a broadly hysterical vibe every time they so much as glance outside to see the looming shape of Boston below.

In Sarah's defence, she had warned them that this particular mission had heights involved.

To be perfectly honest, climbing up the precariously decayed skyscrapers that litter downtown isn't exactly her favourite thing to do either, but it's that terrifying dilapidation that means even the most intrepid scavengers haven't dared to ascend the heights themselves, leaving the stuff that's survived within mostly untouched by anything but time for over two-hundred years. The rarities that lie in wait are highly sought after by the right people, some items verging on priceless, and as such are often only just worth the risk inherent to get them back to ground level in the first place. Of course, the downside is that since Sarah's found herself in the thick of the Commonwealth's latest bout of faction drama, she's the one often called upon to find said things in the first place, and she's been running up and down so many sets of stairs that her calves are in better shape than they've ever been.

Rookie had insisted they come with for this particular expedition. Insisted.

"You doing okay back there?" Sarah calls, very pointedly trying not to look down. They'd just opened a door directly into open air - shunted from a relatively intact interior into a room where half of it now lies in the rubble below - giving them a prime view of the Commonwealth alongside a dizzying drop below, and Rookie's laughter had kicked itself up another notch into a tone Sarah would categorise as unstable. "Or do you wanna wait inside?"

"So the floor can give way underneath me?!" Rookie shouts back, entirely too loud even against the whistle of the wind. "No thanks! Just- just lead the way. I'm right behind you."

The stairwell upwards is marked by another closed door, set into the remains of the wall to Sarah's right, but the only real surface Sarah would be hard-pressed to call a floor is clinging to the barest edges of the room, the speckled tiles all slanted downwards and begging to dislodge under her feet. So, Sarah presses herself back, looking around for something to hold onto and finding a dangling cable overhead, slipping free of what could feasibly be described as a ceiling if one had a very generous description of what a ceiling actually constituted. Whatever. She reaches up, gets a good hold on it, and then starts shuffling along, inch by painstaking itch.

"Must be nice, being six-foot-dipshit," Rookie says with a painfully enforced cheer, as their only place to hold onto is Sarah's free hand, gripped painfully tight. It's... not ideal, because if they slip, Sarah stands very little chance of saving both of them from plummeting below if she gets dragged down too. "Jesus, Sarah. This had better be worth it."

Sarah hopes the same. Running around finding tech for the faction that betrayed her, and one that she fully intends to bring to its knees, isn't exactly her idea of a good time, but the Brotherhood are surprisingly lenient about letting some mysterious wastelander with a phobia of showing her face to people run around freely so long as she does as she's told, which Sarah is exploiting mercilessly. She obeys her orders (within reason), she does their stupid busywork (slightly less within reason), and she climbs up buildings that sway in the wind to find some dumb gizmo that's been shoved in a desk since before the bombs dropped (which isn't reasonable at all). At least back in her day it was busywork that came packaged with actual work, like killing super mutants or helping out a settlement against raiders, but no such luck here.

Not that it matters. So long as she hands in tech and find technical documents and clears out ghouls and whatever the shit, they don't care who she is, and that's just perfect.

"C'mon," she murmurs, lost almost entirely to the wind. "You got this."

It feels like it takes hours - the floor creaks and Rookie yelps at the sound, and more than once, a tile slips free and goes sailing downwards, the sound of it smashing against the ground below taking too many seconds to reach them to be comfortable. Rookie's looking unhealthily pale, and they swallow thickly, fix their eyes to a point on the horizon, and keep moving.

"Guess there weren't a lot of heights in DC to be afraid of, right?" Sarah says lightly, because this is the exact kind of situation to make jokes in, in her experience. "We took all that flatness for granted."

"I'm from a hole in the ground," Rookie hisses between locked teeth. "Ground level is already, like, a lot for me. Nobody should ever need to be this high up. Christ."

Well, Sarah can't argue with that one. Sure, maybe they needed all these floors for when the population wasn't restricted to the thousands at best, but even then... she eyes up the distant spires of the neighbouring high-rises and, well, part of her is pretty convinced it boiled down to a dick-measuring contest unlike any other. "Think of it like a cliff. A really, really tall cliff. Besides, this place has been standing this here long, right? What makes us two so likely to make it fall over n-"

As if on her cue, there's a low, long groan that reverberates all around, and Sarah swears she feels the building tilt behind her, Rookie now making swift progress from laughter to hyperventilation. Above, something clangs and bangs, which precedes an old filing cabinet falling from a higher floor, making Rookie jump as it tumbles past in a blur.

One Nuka Quantum, Sarah thinks to herself the split-second it's out of sight. Two Nuka Quantum, three Nuka Quantum, four-

The clatter from below echoes for miles, metal crunching like a tin can underfoot, and Sarah can only imagine how it must've compacted on impact. She tries not to. "Okay. Alright. Just... keep on moving."

Rookie nods once, their mouth clamped shut and their every breath accompanied by a wheeze, and their hand is now disgustingly sweaty against Sarah's palm. Or maybe that's her sweat. Probably both.

Inch by inch, Sarah gets closer to the door, hoping beyond hope that there isn't just a sheer drop beyond it where the stairs used to be, and as soon as she hits the corner and shuffles gingerly around to bring it just within touching distance, she untangles her hand from the cable above. Now, if either of them fall, they're both absolutely fucking screwed, and she once again choose not to think about it. Instead, she reaches over, grasping for the inch-wide opening down the middle, and in the same instant she manages to wrench the door halfway open, she drags herself and Rookie towards it with all the force she can muster, both of them tumbling through into a dark stairwell. So dark, in fact, that it takes Sarah a second to realise she didn't just shut her eyes in preparation for the freefall that might've been laying in wait. There's absolutely no natural light in the stairwell, given there's no windows, no lights, and absolutely no missing walls. It takes second for Sarah to realise that's a good thing.

"Jesus!" Rookie shouts, and unlike the awful endless echo is outside, this bounces right off the four solid walls like a blessing. "Fucking hell, if we survive this, you can tell those Scribe dipshits to get absolutely stuffed! Are you fucking kidding me with this?"

Sarah doesn't contest any of that, given she's absolutely inclined to agree. She bends down, hands on her knees, and takes in a few breaths of dusty, stifled air. Another blessing that sure doesn't feel like one. "Alright. Alright. We're good." Then, she stands up, and casts her gaze towards the mesmerising swirl of the twisting stairs above, leading up to the higher reaches of this skyscraper. "Just another, like, ten floors to go."

Rookie blinks, looks up also, and then gives Sarah a deceptively innocent stare. "On second thoughts," they say mildly, "you can go get stuffed first."

Yeah, Sarah thinks. She'd have said the same.

[rogue-barnes-16]

THE PROTEGE (part XVII/?)

Summary: The reader is captured by Hydra in the middle of WWII, when she was a child. Whilst being put through experiments with the tesseract, she briefly crossed paths with Sergeant Barnes. Little did they know they would meet again.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x enhanced!Reader

Genre: angst (with some fluff)

Tags:

The protege: @shane-knight @dormousse @nicholasbich @mscoloneldanvers @spooky-scary-spiderling @lovenaturefirst @marydragneell @bubblycypress87 @eminem-owns-my-asshole @annielovebug22 @gucciofthenorth @thetimidsarcasticcat @k-n-e @existingovertherainbow @superhero2552 @goth-pigeon @daniellajocelyn @to-the-road @shirukitsune @n7siha @the-ayo-lit @v3nusc3 @calwitch @booboobella01 @extisi @michellebarista @ayannaboo1111

Permanent taglist: @notexactlythatgirl @thisismysecrethappyplace @sofreakinmanyfandoms @pizzarollpatrol @bubblycypress87 @1a-girl-has-no-name1 @loislp @lovenaturefirst @dyanna-corona @2ptonpt @goodnightmode @disneyprincessbuffyannesummers @mannls @cutie1365 @catch22inareddress @mybooradley @sebastianisasnack @butifulsoul125 @unlikelygalaxygiver @angelh1 @randomparanoid @welovecaptainamericaass @gabbie-is-sad @amisutcliff @andy497

Warnings: language and fighting (?)

A/N: slowly picking up the pace, I think I already have an ending and it's definitely not pretty lmao.

The protege masterlist

Due to the immense chaos that had been caused no one really stopped Natalia to ask her who the hell I was in our way to the place where she and her friends were heading before their unfortunate brief encounter with me.

"What happened?" The redhead inquired, stalking as fast as she could to reach a tall, blond haired woman.

"Power went off." The woman responded "probably was a pulse, not sure though." as we walked out of the control room, she gave me a double check with a confused glance.

"She's with me." Natalia clarified. "What about Barnes?"

"The boy's causing serious trouble down there." the man who I recognized as Tony Stark replied, jogging towards us and consecutively motioning the three to follow him.

"Tell me you brought a suit."

"Yes, I did." the billionaire replied. He was lying. "And it's a lovely Tom Ford three-piece two-button." Okay maybe he wasn't lying. "Who the fuck is this-"

His stop made the blond woman bump into him and consequently, made me and Natalia stop.

"You."

"What?" I questioned, appearing to him as confused as possible.

"You're the girl- she's the girl" he bumped the redhead's arm. "What's she doing here- What were you doing with her? What the fuck-"

"There's no time for this." I spoke, walking past the three people. Though before I could take the first step, the brunet gripped my forearm. "let go."

"Tony-"

"She's here to help him escape." he spoke, digging his eyes in my form. "She could've done this."

"Tony," Natalia put her hand on Stark's shoulder and gave him a gentle yet firm tug. "she's here to help. Let go of her."

"Listen to your friend or I'll break your arm."

"Yeah that sounds super friendly to me." his sarcasm sounded like poison to me. "What do you think Carter?"

"We really don't have time for this." The blond agent replied. "But after this you're coming with me." She added. "C'mon now."

Not even three minutes passed before we could hear the shots, hits and the screams.

"Okay Romanoff, with Carter, trouble girl with me." we moved fast in order to stay as covered as possible until we could easily get close enough to James without getting killed in the crossfire. "your name?" I shot him a glare. "what? Give me something girl."

"Y/n." I replied, getting my gloves out of my pockets to put them on at the same time as he turned his watch into a hand weapon.

"I hope you know that I have questions."

"Too bad you won't get answers." I responded staring at him with the ghost of a grin in my gaze.

"you worked with him?"

"You could say so, yeah." I lifted my chin, prompting the billionaire to look behind him. "You first, Ironman."

Stark's fight was good enough to keep up with The Asset's training for the time that it took me to get ready.

Stark was down, Carter entered the game.

I knew the Black Widow had the intention to follow her colleague's lead, but she took a peek at me first and gave me the cue to accompany her in the task.

Her knee went straight to his abdomen, pushing him back. She kept moving, well aware of the fact that the moment he caught her she was done.

I slid in their direction with my foot before me; Natalia twirled out of my way just in time for me not to break her leg.

The Asset fell back and I rolled a couple of feet away to be able to push myself up without getting knocked out by him.

The blonde, in an attempt to lend a hand, kicked Him in the back, just for his metal fist to grab her leg and violently slamming her against one of the tables.

Stark got up and stalked to the Soldier in order to get him off the poor girl, but Natalia —I supposed she had caught up on what I was about to do— threw herself over her friend.

"Y/n do it!" She shouted.

When my name was heard, the soldier turned around so fast, almost as if he remembered me.

Did he?

Not the time for that, I reminded myself planting my feet firm on the cold floor and getting both my hands up.

"мне жаль" I murmured an apology, hardly loud enough for him to hear.

With a groan, I brought my hands to my chest as the sphere formed between them, and in a split second, my arms shot the concentrated energy to the Soldier and threw him yards away from us.

To my luck, that was just where the stairs were.

"What the FUCK?" the billionaire yelled, looking at me in awe and fear at the same time. "What are you." in the meantime, The soldier had recovered from the impact and was currently moving upstairs.

I ignored his question, running upstairs, chasing after the soldier.

I lost him for a couple of seconds, which led to take the wrong turn.

The fact that I ended up in the same rooftop he was in, didn't make it any better; not only had he gotten a helicopter, but we now were accompanied by a very stressed out Steve Rogers, who, apparently, had no common sense. Before I could sprint to try to stop the soldier, Rogers grabbed the goddamn helicopter and tried —and shockingly seemed to succeed, somehow— to pull it back to the rooftop.

"Rogers!" I shouted his name when he started to look like he was about to get ripped in half. "Let go!"

The blond man, more confused than anything else, relaxed his muscles, but right when I was about to pull the helicopter back, the soldier lashed out against the captain.

My first instinct was to focus on the propeller and, using the energy, pull them towards me right before making a small energy rift appear just a couple steps before me.

Before the propellers could reach me, I threw myself on my knees and quickly slid into the rift, teleporting myself to Steve's side, who looked at me quite shocked.

"We need to get him out." I spoke attempting to make him react. "My name is Y/n, and I want to help James as much as you." That seemed to slap him out of the surrealistic moment he had just witnessed.

"Okay... Okay, help me open the-" he was cut midsentence when a metal arm crashed through the glass in front of us to choke the man besides me.

I was just getting my hands between the two men in an attempt to pull them apart when I felt the helicopter falling off.

I let go and jumped back to the rooftop, but they obviously didn't. "Fuck..." I muttered to myself, getting up to see the helicopter sinking in the water. "Okay..." I looked behind me to check the door didn't open while I took a couple of steps back, so I could be able to run up.

I literally took a leap of faith and prayed for me not to die in the fall.

Once in the water, considering that Steve had just managed to get an unconscious James out of the aircraft, it all went pretty smooth.

I only had to grab them both and throw them with me into one of my rifts.

I hadn't counted on the effort that would supposed to drag two people with me through a rift I had to create under the water, after a free fall.

When we crashed against the pavement in the shed I was planning on teleporting after all of this had happened, I felt myself dizzying very quickly.

I planted my hands firmly against the pavement as I tried to regulate my breathing. "Hey you okay?" Steve's voice sounded distant to me, even though he was right besides me. "Y/n? Are you alright?" I felt a pair of strong hands helping me incorporate and guiding me to sat with my back against the wall.

"I'm fine." I assured, this time with words. "I just- it was a lot and I didn't do that since... I don't know." I closed my eyes and opening them again when finally managed to control my breathing. "I just need a moment."

"Listen, I don't know who you are." Steve started, taking a look at James, who was still unconscious. The blonde had laid them against the opposite wall to us. "But you put your life on the line for us twice in a day." he sat in front of me with crossed legs. "I don't know how to thank you."

"Don't worry." I simply replied with a shake of my head. "we have to tie him to somewhere before he wakes up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Did you call your friend already?" I inquired from the inside of the shed loud enough for Steve to hear while he got back inside."

"He's nearby but stopped to get us some clothes." he informed me, stopping in the gates from were he could check up on his friend.

"what happened back there?"

"Someone wanted really bad to have a talk with Bucky."

"Bucky." the nickname rolling out of my tongue felt as if I was naming an old friend that I had never really met.

"How do you call him?" The curiosity had to come out at some point, I thought.

"James."

"For... For how long have you known each other?"

Wow, the questions were going to be one hell of a headache.

"Uhm... For as long as I can remember." the answer was a vague one, yet somehow very accurate. "he... Kind of trained me."

"You're like him?" I denied and he nodded, and then we fell in another heavy silence. "I... I have to ask. Did he... Uh..."

"Remember you?" I finished while my brain buzzed trying to order my damaged memories. "I, myself, can't remember much but I think he mentioned you a couple of times."

I was lying, but it was a white lie- the whitest lie I would ever tell. His face lit up when I said it, and that somehow made a spark of happiness lighten my dark, cold heart.

"What you did back there- was it Hydra?"

"Yeah." I confirmed, staring at my gloves that now rested on an item belonging to the place we were in. "The tesseract. They experimented with it and... this came out."

Another heavy silence.

"Steve?" both our heads spun to the entrance, where a man was standing with a bag in his hand.

"Sam." Steve turned around to walk towards the third man, who also stepped in Steve's direction and consequently, in mine. "He's still unconscious, she's with us." He pointed at me. "Her name's Y/n."

Once the sun stopped hitting his backs, I was able to see the stranger's face, who was already looking at me with a frown.

"Wait, I know you." He stated stopping Steve by his arm. "She was at the helicarrier back in Washington."

[wollymalfoy]

Hogwarts is my home...(pt7)

Masterlist

Tags: @samnblack @idontknowwhatthisisfam @mrspadfoot4

Description: Things are fixed between you and your father and a wonderful summer with the Weasleys.

Writers note: I love this part of the story I hope you all do to! Im sorry this took a long time my house is very noisy from all the young siblings running around 🤣

As the last days at Hogwarts went by and the days got hotter you still had two people you needed to forgive. However you was determined to avoid your father until you disappeared for summer break. You stopped going to potions class and wouldnt go to the great hall to eat. You either went to the kitchens or one of the twins brought you food. Draco would also often knock on your door and leave you little gifts, either food, books or little notes saying how much he loved you. Sometimes he’d even sit agains your door and talk about his day, he didn’t know wether you’d listen but he wanted to spend time with you even if it was through a door. When Draco would do this you sat by the door so you could hear him better and often fall asleep there. Until one day you let him in. You opened the door and he fell through landing on his back. ‘Sorry Draco’ you said helping the pale boy up. He smiled at you widely and gave you the biggest hug you’d ever received. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been so distant, I just... a lots happened and-‘ you began to explain but Draco kisses you softly. ‘You don’t have to explain, love’ he said moving a piece of hair out of your face, ‘how’s things with your dad, he asked me about you. I even saw him ask George and Fred about you when I came out of charms.’ He smiled. ‘He spoke to Fred and George? No shouting?’ He shook his head, ‘a civilised conversation?’ He nodded and laughed. Maybe your dad can change you thought. If he’s willing to talk to the worst students he’s ever had (his words not yours) then maybe you could consider getting on good terms with him again. ‘Thats great!’ You said throwing yourself into your bed. Draco lay on top of you his head rested agains your stomach. He looked up and smiled at you. Merlin, you missed these moments.

-

You knocked softly on your fathers classroom door. ‘Enter!’ He said. He turned from the blackboard which he had written potion instructions on and looked at you in shock. ‘I erm, I’m sorry for trashing your office’ you said moving towards him, ‘and I’m sorry for calling you an arse.’ You laughed. ‘I was a bit of an arse’ he smiled, ‘I don’t blame you for being angry at me. I’m trying to be a better person, for you.’ ‘I heard you spoke to Fred and George. Nicely’ you laughed. ‘Yeah, I wanted to see if they had heard from you because Draco hadn’t’ he laughed. You looked at each other in silence. ‘Can you forgive me Y/N’ he sighed. You nodded and gave him a hug. You felt him tense as you hugged him but he soon relaxed and wrapped his arms around you.

-

‘Are you going home for summer Y/N/N?’ Pansy said as you all sat doing last minute essays. ‘No I’m going to the burrow’ you said cooly. ‘The what?’ Blaise said raising an eyebrow. ‘The burrow, it’s where George and Fred live’ you said smiling. ‘You are? You didn’t say’ Draco said looking at you with sad eyes. ‘I’m sorry Draco, i completely forgot to tell you about it’ you said putting your hand on his. ‘You’ll still write to me?’ He said softly. ‘Of course I will, baby’ you said kissing his cheek. ‘And we can meet up a few times?’ He said, ‘for dates?’ You nodded and smiled. He finally smiled at you, his eyes twinkled as he did so. You loved how you could make Draco so happy. You loved how his face lit up when he saw you smile, and how he’d run circles over your skin when you cuddled. You loved everything about Draco. The way you felt about him you’d never felt about anyone before. The feeling was brand new to you but you loved it.

-

You arrived at the burrow after a long train ride. The sun was setting behind the strange looking house as you carried your trunk to the front door. It’d been so long since your last visit, but the house smelled just the same. It smelt just like the twins. A mixture of cinnamon, chocolate and sweetly smelling flowers. You moved into the house and watched the clock that had the families face on move to ‘home.’ You smiled to yourself as you looked around this wonderful home. ‘Come on Y/N you’re holding us up’ Fred said nudging you with his trunk. You stuck your tongue out as you moved to let the rest of the Weasley clan into the house. ‘Y/N you’ll be sharing a room with Ginny as usual’ Mrs Weasley smiles at you as she pointed to upstairs.

You began to unpack with Ginny when you heard a knock on the door. It was George. ‘I was wondering Y/N, do you wanna walk up to the treehouse’ he said pointing behind your head. ‘We’ve got some pictures to add. And we can show you what we added at Christmas’ he said trying to smile. You nodded putting your pyjamas on your bed.

-

‘Where you going George?’ Molly said as George opened the front door. ‘Just nipping to the tree house mum’ he said. ‘Well it’s getting dark and dinner will be ready soon so you better hurry’ she said putting her hands on her hips. You walked over the grassy field and into the woods. Not far into the woods the tree house sat, it was painted scarlet. The coat of paint immaculate, it had only been painted this colour almost a year now. You was there when it was painted, you came back to the burrow that day covered head to toe in the scarlet paint. George kicked the tree and the ladders fell to the ground. You gave him a puzzled look, the ladders where normally summoned by the pull of a rope. ‘The ropes dodgy, we need to fix it’ he said as he gestured for you to climb the ladder. You nodded and climbed the ladder, the cold metal making you shiver. The inside walls were painted gold and spotted with pictures. Five Beanbags lay in a circle, each one a dark green. ‘We need some Slytherin representation for Y/an’ Ginny had said when you’d all gone shopping for furniture. You heard George huff as he entered the small house. ‘Look’ he smiled pointing to box on top of the set of drawers. Inside was sweets of all colours along with lots of rolls of parchment. ‘These are all our inventions’ he smiled, ‘we need to keep them in here because mum doesn’t approve.’ ‘Whats this’ you said as you picked up a piece of flesh coloured string. ‘That’s the string to go with the extendable ears, they’re not done yet.’ ‘Cool..’ you said looking through all the pieces of parchment in amazement. ‘You’re gonna go far with these George... they’re amazing’ you turned to look at him, ‘don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your dream. I’ll be right behind you and Fred to cheer you on.’ His eyes lit up as he heard you say this. He gawped at your unsure of what to say. ‘George! Y/N!’ Ginnys voice came from below, ‘mum says dinners ready.’ You waited for George to close the box looking around the room at the quidditch posters and mixture of Slytherin and Gryffindor banners and flags. ‘We can put the pictures up tomorrow’ you smiled and you went down the ladders.

-

After dinner you went upstairs to get into your pyjamas with Ginny. ‘I’ve got this muggle book dad gave me’ she said showing you it, ‘would you like to read it with me. We can sit by the fire in the living room.’ ‘Yeah that sounds lovely’ you said smiling taking hold of the book, it was called Cinderella which you had never heard of from being around only wizards your entire life. After you was dressed into your pyjamas and dressing gowns you skipped down the stairs. You heard talking from the kitchen, ‘oh George why don’t you just tell her how you feel already’ his mother sighed. ‘Mum!’ He cried, ‘she’s already dating someone anyways.’ ‘Oh... who?’ She said unable to hold on her curiosity. ‘Draco Malfoy...’ he said sadly. His mother didn’t say anything but you heard her footsteps as she moved across the room to him. You heard enough and retreated into the living room. Did George like you? Was you too stupid to notice or was he just good at hiding it. Either way you realised why he was so off with you, but what could you do exactly. You shouldn’t of been listening to their conversation in the first place so you couldn’t exactly say anything to him. You’d just have to bite your tongue and act as if you’d never heard what he said...

You sat cuddled up to Ginny on the couch with a bright blue knitted blanket over the both of you. You watched as Fred lay on the floor throwing and catching a ball as Ginny read the Cinderella book. It had been a while since you overheard the conversation between George and Molly and they were still in the kitchen. Molly then came in as if on cue with a tray of mugs. ‘Hot chocolate, dears?’ She asked cheerfully, trudging behind her was George he gave you a weak smile and passed you a mug, sitting next to you. ‘Thanks mum’ you heard Ron say excitedly from an arm chair. You stared at George forcing a smile, it was hard to act like you was okay. ‘What are you reading?’ he said finally. ‘Oh um Cinderella’ you said looking at the book on Ginnys lap. ‘I’m surprised dads let her read it, he’s obsessed with the bloody thing’ he laughed, ‘it’s his prized possession.’ You laughed thinking of Arthur keeping the book in a locked box and guarding it with his life. ‘At least i know what to get him for Christmas’ you said looking back at your friend. He smiled at you widely. ‘Shhh you two I’m trying to read’ Ginny said glaring at her brother.

-

You spent the first weeks of summer by playing quidditch in the blazing hot sun. You wasn’t the best at quidditch you’re father always said you was like him that way, but you had the determination to win which meant the Weasleys would fight over who had you on their team. Percy however stayed in his room an awful lot and you hardly saw him, which caused the twins to do a lot of teasing. One morning the twins woke you from your sleep and handed you two pans and leaded you to Percys door. ‘Right, now on the count of three start banging them together’ Fred said to you though you was half asleep, ‘1... 2... 3!’ The twins clanged the pans together loudly and You hit the pans together lightly due to your sleepy arms. ‘Come on Y/N you gotta be louder than that’ George said grabbing a hold on your wrists and helping you hitting the pans together like you were a child. ‘MUM!’ Percy yelled from inside his room and sprang the door open, making you jump awake. George pulled at your wrist as you all ran down the stairs and from the house Percy chasing you to the door, ‘I have important work to do you gits!’

After hiding from mollys wrath you decided it was time to get a spot of breakfast, which of course you was welcomed with a lecture from Molly, ‘of course i don’t blame you Y/N dear’ You sat as she piled your plate with sausage, bacon, eggs and beans. Just before spooning in a mouthful of beans a bird tapped at the window. A great big owl stood a letter tied to its leg, it’s beady orange eyes stared at you. Arthur opened the window and the owl swooped in and landed in front of you. ‘That’s one big owl’ Ron said staring in awe. You took the letter and opened it breaking the green seal with an M which you was so use to seeing.

Dear Y/N

I hope you’re doing well. My family is hosting a ball at the manor this Saturday I would love for you to accompany me. Please send me a reply before Friday.

Lots of love, Draco

You smiled widely as you read the letter, you’d never been to a ball before and you was looking forward to seeing Draco after so long. ‘I’m assuming it’s from Draco’ Ginny smirked from across from you. You saw George trying to get a peek of the letter from the corner of your eye. ‘He wants me to accompany him to a ball this Saturday’ you responded. ‘Oh Y/N please “accompany” to the ball in my 10 floored mansion and my 25 bathrooms and 200 bedrooms’ Fred mocked dancing around the table. ‘Fred behave’ Molly said sitting at the table. Ron and Ginny smirked at Fred as he sat back down next to you. ‘He doesn’t even have 10 floors’ you smirked, ‘theres 15.’

-

Friday night rolled around and you would be leaving in the morning. You sat on the roof with George, looking up at the stars. ‘How long will you be gone for’ he asked. ‘Just till Sunday, I’ll be back before you know it’ you smiled. ‘Will all the snobby Slytherin be there?’ He laughed. ‘Probably. And they’re not as bad as you think’ you stated. ‘That’s because they like you. I’m just a “blood traitor” to them’ he said frowning. ‘To hell with what they say. You’re more than that, look at the things you can do, the person you are’ you said taking his hand, ‘you’ll show them.’ George stared at you for a moment before looking away quickly. ‘You believe in me that much?’ He asked. ‘I believe in you more than you can imagine.’

Thanks for reading! :)

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged!

[benevolentcalamity]

Do you believe in the boogeyman?

“You can’t escape me.”

“[Name]!”

You look up from your toy friends, smiling guiltily at seeing your father’s face peer up from the closed blankets making up the tent you made. He doesn’t seem pleased, but he doesn’t look mad for too long.

“Didn’t I tell you to go to sleep an hour ago, goofball?”

You pout. “I’m being super quiet-!”

“Yes, I know, but it’s time to go to bed now.” He reaches, softly taking your flashlight from you, lifting you up and putting you on his hip. With his other hand, he unplugs the fairy lights, turning on your nightlight and putting you in bed. “We have a really important day tomorrow!”

You grin. “We go Chugga-Chee?” You ask. He laughs.

“No, squirt, we’re gonna go to mommy’s,” He corrects, to which you almost bounce even if laying down. “She’s gonna be really happy to see you!”

“Yaaay!” You cheer.

“Maybe, if you be a good girl and get some good sleep, we’ll go to your favorite place together, just the three of us. But get some sleep, okay?” He gently strokes your head.

You nod. “Okay, daddy.”

“Okay. Goodnight, sweetheart - daddy loves you.” He stands, softly waving to you as he goes toward the door, smiling.

“I love you too, daddy.” But before you find yourself falling asleep, you shoot back up, feeling a bit cold. “Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“What if the boogeyman comes?”

He turns back to you from the door, pointing towards your nightlight. “The boogeyman hates light, sweetie,” He says. “But if he still tries to bother you, you can shine your flashlight at him, and then you can come sleep with daddy, okay?”

You nod, tugging up your covers a little.

Dad smiles. “You’re a big girl now, [Name]. Big girls can fight off the boogeyman.”

“I’m a big girl!” You echo, puffing your chest out, smiling proudly.

He chuckles. “That’s right, goofy. Now get some rest - we have a big day tomorrow.”

You nod, sinking back down into the covers. “Goodnight, daddy.”

“Goodnight, squirt.”

---

“[Mother’s name], you know what we talked about.” Dad shifts his weight onto one foot. “It’s not safe for [Name] here... Yes, I know! That’s why I have to stay - I’m a Hero, too, and I have to try and solve things before the League reaches too far. I don’t wanna know what will happen if they get their hands on [Name]... Maybe I’m just worrying too much...”

He glances outside. There’s a soft scent of smoke in the air, sending a chill twisting his stomach. “Honey? I think you’ll be just fine. [Name]’s only six, but she’s strong. I’m just glad these arrangements don’t seem to bother her - it’s for the best that she doesn’t know what’s going on. It’d be too cruel to tell her; she won’t understand.”

Sighing, he nods. “I know... I know she has to know at some point, but not right now. How’s [Sister’s Name] doing? ... Good. It’s good to know she’s finding work now. Her Quirk’s really good in her field; she’ll be a great asset even without being a Hero.”

A banging noise jolts him from the calm of the conversation, and his eyes shoot around the house as he hears something break. “... Honey, I’ve got to go, something’s wrong. I’m gonna go check on [Name], okay? ... I know... Bye.”

Hanging up, he bites his lip, putting the phone back on the charger. Rolling up his sleeves, turning to go up the steps. Before he goes to see what’s going on, his priority is making sure you’re safe.

“Heh... Now ain’t that sweet?”

He whirls around, bringing his hands up as the plants in the pots start moving and curling in preparation.

“Playing happy families like you’ve still got yours, selfishly finding ways to bend the law so you can see yours. Aren’t ya supposed to be the strong man, letting both your kids be with someone who deserves ‘em?”

The voice’s source steps into the light of the moon, his skin, purple and pale patches stitched grossly together, crinkling with his smirk. Sapphire blue eyes twinkle with sick amusement as blue flames flicker in his palms, his dark coat blowing dramatically with his movement.

Dad’s brows furrow together. “You...”

The young man’s smirk grows into a grin. “Oh ho, you remember me? I’m so flattered. Wasn’t all that pleased when you wiped the floor with some of our guys, I gotta tell ya.”

“I was protecting people,” Dad snaps. “Those people had no business being there - you had no right to set your goons on them.”

“We were lookin’ for recruits.” He fiddles with one of his staples. “I don’t see why you’re so hung up on people that don’t matter to you. That’s what they are to all of you-”

“Silence!” Dad’s plants reach out more. “You know full well their lives have value! Even someone who appears like they have no loved ones, there’s always someone that’ll miss them.” One wraps around his wrist as he reaches out. “How dare you call yourselves “true heroes” when you kill people for no reason!”

“Careful now,” The opposition points toward the stairs. “You wouldn’t want your precious daughter hearing this, would you? I’d suggest you keep your voice down.” Suddenly his grin falls. “I’m sick of listening to your self-righteousness. You heroes like to talk and talk about how the world is suffering and how you can cure it... how all of us villains are wrong just for existing.”

Reaching out, he sets his hand ablaze. “Why don’t we settle this? ... What’s wrong? Scared your little princess will wake up? You’d do anything to protect her, right? So quit being a coward... and fight me!”

...

You wake up to a faint sound of banging, the smell of smoke in the air. At first, you’re thinking someone’s just decided to burn leaves nearby to not disturb anyone, given it’s what dad tells you a lot.

But even your small self knows: something’s not right. Why would they do it at night? You just needed to know it was that, and so...

Slowly, you shift out of your bed, your bare feet hitting the cold wood floor and momentarily stilling you from the chill. Reaching, you grip your flashlight close to your heart, pitter-pattering over to the door, getting on your tippy-toes to open it up. Peeking your head out, you shine your flashlight into the awaiting hallway.

“... Daddy?”

As if on cue, you hear a loud noise, followed by a fwoom!, and you jump, feeling terrible shivers.

“[Name]-!”

“Daddy?!”

Not knowing any better, you rush to the steps, though in your fear you miss one, and go tumbling down into awaiting heat and bright light. Your flashlight still in your fist, you cough a bit as you shakily try to get back on your feet.

But opening your eyes, you see something you never thought you would see.

Blue fire - like you saw once in the storybooks mom would read to you during your stays with her - is burning the furniture, travelling like ants. The sight itself has you losing your hearing for a moment, but only for a moment. But then you’re ripped back into focus by dad’s screams.

“[Name]!!!” He sounds like he’s in horrible pain. “[Name], run! It’s the- It’s the boogeyman!”

Looking quickly, you see a figure - illuminated by the flames but not so much that you can see their face. Remembering what he said before putting you to bed, you point your flashlight at them, flashing them. But the sight, more grotesque than a monster, has you dropping it.

The stitched together skin, the emotionlessness in the eyes... It’s a real monster! It is the Boogeyman!

Dad’s screams die out too soon for you to think clearly, but once the figure takes a step toward you, you let out the loudest screech you ever let out in your short life, turning and running up the stairs. Thunderous thumping shakes the house, but you keep running until you’re in your room. Locking the door, you run and jump into bed, burying yourself in your covers, hugging yourself, your tears creating a puddle below your head before you realize how much you’re sobbing.

“Mommy-!” You wail. “Mommy, mommy, mommy-!”

A sound like a crack, then a thump.

“Just a dream, just a dream... Go away... go away...” You grip your teddy bear from the floor and hug him tightly, pinching yourself relentlessly. “... Disappear...”

Your arm’s throbbing from the pinching, but you keep doing it, willing the nightmare to be over and for daddy to scoop you up in his arms like he usually did whenever you had bad dreams.

Still shaking from your crying, you hug your teddy even as you hear the sound of your door cracking, then breaking. The distant crackling sound is drowned out by the footsteps slowly approaching you, and in your innocence you reach out to remove the blankets, just wanting dad to hug you.

Suddenly, the blankets are ripped off, and the blue eyes of a terrible creature look back at you, illuminated by your now flickering nightlight.

You open your mouth to scream, but the rough hand of the creature covers your face, and suddenly smoke fills your mouth and nose. Coughing relentlessly against its skin, you feel your consciousness fading from you as the creature leans to your ear.

“If the day comes where you want revenge, squirt... I’ll be waiting.”

You’re wrapped like a burrito into your fleece blanket.

“She’s safe, just like you wanted. Thanks for your sacrifice, Father Nature.”

...

...

...

The sound of sirens is piercing your ears, and you come to as you’re unrolled. You’re still coughing something terrible, but you have clean air again. A large pair of hands lifts you up until you’re sitting, and you open your eyes a bit, peering upwards through your eyelashes.

“Daddy...?”

Your vision clears, and what’s waiting isn’t dad, but the soft face of a blonde lady with bat wings on her head. Upon seeing you’re awake, she gives you a gentle smile.

“Hey, cutie,” She sweetly greets.

You get up, looking around. The flashing red and blue lights disorient you a bit, but you find yourself escaping her soft hands and rushing away - her calls to you don’t reach. You run between pro heroes and emergency people, looking desperately for your daddy or at least hear him calling out to you.

Putting your hands up, you yell desperately, “DADDY!!!” No answer. “DDDAAAAAADDDDYYYYYYY!!!!!”

A tall figure approaches you, scooping you up. Immediately, you’re squirming, pushing at the person’s face and continuing to look around, tears pouring down your eyes.

“No!!! No, no no!!! I want daddy!!!” You scream. “Daddy! DADDY! DAAADDDYYYYY!!!”

Your screaming doesn’t stop, but does eventually turn to violent sobbing despite the efforts of the pros to calm you down.

“Daddy-! I want my daddy!” You wail, burying your face into your holder’s neck, the denim of his clothes reminiscent of dad’s jeans.

“I know, sweetheart,” The man says softly, stroking your hair. “I know.”

You sniffle. “The boogeyman-!”

“Boogeyman...?” A nearby woman asks. “... Oh...”

“We need to get her to the hospital,” He says. “It’s not safe for her here, and we need to make sure nothing’s wrong.”

“Right.”

He softly hands you over to someone, and you look up through your tears to see a woman in a uniform - her hat looks silly - carrying you now.

“Hi, sweetie,” She says softly. “We’re gonna take you to a doctor now, okay?” She gently wipes at your cheeks as she sets you on something really comfy, and walks beside you as you’re rolled away. “You’re safe now... It’s okay, sweet pea...”

...

“She’ll need to be here for a few days so we can make sure nothing’s wrong,” The beeping from the machines doesn’t distract you, nor does the cartoon on the TV. “We did manage to get in contact with her mother, so she’ll be here to pick her up.”

These pink clothes stink...

“What’s going to happen to her house? Does this seem like another attack?”

“No question in my mind. The League of Villains was most definitely targeting Father Nature... It’s sick, honestly, that they chose now to strike. They hit where it hurts.”

“...”

“For right now, the trauma’s surely going to stick for quite a while... If anything, this should be all the more reason we need to deal with them quickly. This poor child’s been through too much already - we need to work quickly, so she can finally be at peace.”

“... Poor thing.”

Curling up on your side, you only momentarily peek at the cartoon’s reflection on the window before closing your eyes tightly, hugging a stuffed bunny as you cry yourself to sleep.

“Daddy...!”

[ultimateadmin]

Time Heals Wounds {Arthur x Reader}

Admin: A little misunderstanding with a happy ending. Excuse my trash.

The past still clung to you. Even in your new relationship with your loving boyfriend, you can’t help but feel cautious. Not with him. Rather, yourself. You wanted to be careful. You didn’t want to go through the same mistake. Arthur had yet to find out about your past relationship.

There was no abuse.

There didn’t seem to be anything wrong.

You were faithful. He was too.

You did everything he wanted.

So what went wrong?

Your attachment, of course. You tried so hard not to be possessive or jealous. When your ex-boyfriend presented you to one of his female friends, no matter what they looked like, you’d feel your heart clench. You’d never bring it in you to tell him you were ever jealous and there is no way you could ever tell him not to have a friendship with them. He had every right to befriend them.

Late one night, he was up with his friends, playing cards in the living room and drinking a little. You didn’t mind, this happened every Friday. But then... You were walking down the stairs and heard him talking. About you.

“Honestly, she’s annoying.. She’s so...clingy. Always asking me where I am, who I’m with, what I’m doing. I have a life outside of her, y’know? We’ve been fighting a lot more lately. I gotta break up with her. I can’t keep doing this. I’m not happy and I don’t think she is either...”

“I’ll do it for you,” You had said, suddenly, tears streaming down your face. You didn’t notice them. Your eyes were trained on the man you had given your heart to, his head swirling around and meeting your (E/C) eyes. “We’re over...”

You would never be able to get over yourself if Arthur thought the same thing. So when the relationship started, you did your best to give him his space. You’d never ask for his attention, but you’d crave it. You’d never speak to him directly, but you’d long to hear his voice. You’d never gaze at him from across the room, but you want his fascinating eyes trained on you, giving you that teasing smirk you adored.

Arthur soon noticed. You hoped he wouldn’t, but he did. He didn’t say anything about it though. Not yet. And you prayed he wouldn’t. With the passage of time, you would grow closer and more bolder. When you were sure he’d stay with you. That was the plan. It went down the drain when Arthur asked you to go to the pub with him and Theodorus.

You went, of course!

Almost a little too eagerly. And Arthur noticed that as well, beginning to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

It was when Arthur stepped away that the plan went into motion. Theodorus looked to you and started to ask you questions. “Are you cheating on Arthur?”

That wasn’t the plan, Theo! Arthur thought to himself but didn’t dare move from his spot. He would keep out of the way while Theo interrogated you. He owed his best friend a drink for this.

You were taken aback and nearly choked on your drink. “No!” Your response was immediate and there was no hesitance. “I would never! I love him with all my heart!”

Theo believed that. He really did. “Then why have you been acting so weird?” Theo presses and it took you a minute to understand what he was asking you. You guessed he must have noticed you distancing yourself from Arthur a little and thought of how to reply. You folded your hands in front of you on the bar.

You glanced around. “Not a word of this to Arthur, alright? Even if he is your best friend, this is kind of...personal,” You told Theo. Theo shrugs, not saying anything. He didn’t promise but you didn’t ask him to. You just went with it. “I’m scared. Scared to death, Theo. My past relationship...ended really sour...” You didn’t have much of a word for it. “The truth it...I’m really clingy.”

What? Arthur wondered what you meant like that. You didn’t seem clingy at all!

“I’m acting a lot of the time... My ex-boyfriend said I was too clingy. Everything else was perfect, he just...couldn’t stand being with me. But I suppose that’s fair. He wasn’t wrong. I was clingy. And now I have Arthur. I don’t wanna make those same mistakes. I don’t want him to sick of me,” You sighed, taking a quick sup of your drink. Theo listened quietly, not interrupting. He didn’t tease you. Didn’t mock you. You appreciated him listening.

With a shake of your head as you set down your drink, you continued, “I’m afraid to ask him to spend time with me, afraid to strike up conversations, afraid of kissing him... It’s pathetic and cowardly. But if he makes the first move, then I know he wants it. I know, shitty logic, right?”

Theo took a sip of his own drink, taking that moment to think of how to respond. “Shouldn’t you speak to him about that? Listen, Hondje, Arthur noticed this behavior. He is really worried,” Theo informs you and he could see your face fall. You looked even more like shit. You probably felt like it too. “He wouldn’t mind if you were clingy. Because he’s clingy as hell too.”

Theo! Arthur makes a face, embarrassed a little.

Theodorus then grins, “He won’t shut the hell up about you when it’s just him and I drinking. Always goin’ on and on about how much he loves ya’ and just wants you to be happy.” Theo couldn’t get enough of the expression you made. Well, expressions is a better term. Your face molded from shock, realization and then you just looked like you were having the most pleasant day dream.

Oh, god, I’m stuck with Arthur 2.0. Theo thought to himself.

“So, anyway,” Theo takes another swig of his drink, “you should talk to him when we get back.” He drums his fingers on the table twice while speaking. Arthur heard saw the cue and came back out.

His smile was brighter than it was before, “Sorry for taking so long!” He sat on the other side of you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you close. He could see your face turn a dark shade of vermillion and he adored it, now knowing it was because you loved him that much.

“It’s fine,” You replied with a loving smile, one that had his heart melting as you leaned your head against him. This feels much better... You and your boyfriend thought simutaneously.

- / - \ -

Arriving back to the mansion, all three of you a little drunk, you looked to Arthur with a serious look, “Hey, Arthur, if you aren’t too tired right now, can we talk?” Arthur realized that you were taking good Theo’s advice and decided this was the perfect chance to both hear you admit how you feel and tease you. How can he say no?

“Of course, luv! Come on, we can head to my room,” He offers his arm, giving you a charming smile that sent blood rushing to your cheeks. And other places...

You took his arm and walked with him to his room, the night quiet and peaceful. You didn’t feel any tension despite the upcoming conversation. The moon was beautiful outside the windows of the mansion and you couldn’t help but admire it as you made your way to Arthur’s room. When you both did arrive, Arthur opened the door for you and followed you inside.

Arthur sat down on the bed, patting next to him as an invitation for you, “Come and sit, luv. Tell me what’s bothering you.” Slowly stepping over, you sat down beside him while thinking about how to approach the situation. You should be direct... Yeah, just come out with it.

“I heard you noticed I seemed distant and I just want to assure you that there is nothing wrong with you,” You assured him about that first, “I just have a lot of... Ack, no, that sounds wrong in my head so it’ll sound wrong comin’ out my mouth too...” The expression you made was so funny Arthur almost laughed, sealing his mouth shut but not able to stop the smile. “I just don’t wanna seem clingy.” You finally blurt it.

It surprised him for just a split moment there.

You were relieved to have gotten it out and took up the torch from there. “I really, really love you with all my heart and you have no idea how much I want to give you affection, whether it’s in private or public. I want to hold your hand while we walk down the halls, I want to kiss your cheek when we stop for coffee, I want to hold onto your arm when we go into the pub. I want to do all these things but I don’t want you thinking I’m being overbearing...”

Arthur thought his heart couldn’t take any more love. If he had known that was how you truly felt before, he would have loved to oblige! He still does want to! Smiling adoringly at your pouty expression - which he fell in love with over and over again - he cups your cheek and makes you meet his gaze.

“You were worried about that?”

“Don’t make it sound so trivial!” You pouted at him angrily this time, drawing a bark of laughter from him. You really were the cutest! His smile didn’t fade as he leaned forward.

His lips touched yours, gently, sweetly. You felt him pour his love for you into that kiss. It was so warm... Your arms wrapped around him, pressing yourself closer, lips seeming to fit perfectly against his. It wasn’t sensual or passionate but it still made the butterflies in your belly flutter.

When you both pulled away for air, his smile made your heart swell. “I love you so much, luv. And I don’t mind if you do any of those things. I want you to. And if there is something else you want, just tell me and I’ll listen. And will likely be more than happy to oblige.”

You never felt such a weight being lifted off your shoulders before. Like pound upon pound fell off your back and freed you. You leaned close and snuggled into his chest, your head nuzzled into the crook of his neck. The feeling of his hands stroking down your back coaxed a smile from your own lips. “I love you so much... You’re incredible.”

Arthur pulled back for a moment to lift your chin up, gazing at you with complete devotion and love. “I love you too. And I’m willing to prove it to you.”

“In any way I can.”

[imaginedisish]

Happy Together (Five Hargreeves x Reader) (The Umbrella Academy)

A/N: OOOOHHH MY GOOODNESS HELLO EVERYONE!!! So before y’all read...lemme say that Five is not 13/14/15 in this imagine!!!! He is a normal 20 something year old human...and so is the reader!!! This is kinda like an alternative universe sorta thing...idk...it was a request. (also my 17 year old self has a huge crush on Aidan Gallagher now uwu...he’s turning 16 this year...and we’re like a year apart so ITS OKAY YALL CHILLLLLLLL) I love The Umbrella Academy...and more imagines will be coming. ALSO THANK YOU FOR 900 FOLLOWERS AHHHHH!!!! Okay...now enjoy :)

Summary: After altering the timeline to save your life, Number Five gets in some trouble with The Commission...which prompts a not-so-welcomed visit from The Handler.

Warnings: LANGUAGE, angst, blood, fighting, implied violence/murder, FLUFFFFFFFFF 

Word Count: 2,413 holy shit i went IN LADIES AND GENTS

Rays of sun reach their fingertips through the ancient curtains above you. The dust particles that had accumulated upon the books surrounding you glow as each individual spec basks in the light. To your right, sitting properly next to you on the plush couch, was a well-read copy of The Great Gatsby, your favorite novel. 

You look down at the coffee that rested between your hands, the steam radiating off of it slowly dissipating, cueing you to finally take a sip of the bitter liquid. Grace hums a tune as she passes through the dark library, duster in hand. 

“Grace,” You call out, and Grace immediately stops to face you, “Do you know where Five is?” Just as Grace opens her mouth to answer your question, a loud clanging sound erupts from above you. 

“Goddamn it!” A familiar voice shouts, followed by the violent thumping of footsteps down the stairs. 

The footsteps continue, the sound of the dress shoes against the cold tile echoes throughout the academy, until finally Five appears in front of you. He looks disheveled, exhausted, and incredibly angry. You hadn’t seen him like this since you saved the world together. He looked so distraught, something was clearly wrong. 

Five begins to pace back and forth, his hands traveling to rub his eyes every now and then. You want to say something, but you know he’s far too lost in thought to answer. Finally, Five stops, and walks towards the bar at the end of the library. 

You hear Five rummaging through the bottles of liquor. You turn around to see an expensive bottle of whiskey in his right hand. With his left, he grabs a short, crystal glass, and he begins to pour away.  

“F-five, is everything okay?” You ask quietly. Five stops his pouring, and slams the bottle of whiskey on the counter. 

He looks up at you, a vulnerable haze of fear presents itself across Five’s face before once again masking itself in an angry and distant gaze. “Everything is just golden,” Five remarks sarcastically, taking a generous swig of alcohol from his glass. 

You decide to ignore his tone as to not start a fight with him, and instead stand up from the couch and walk over to him. You pull out a stool, and sit down. Five remains where he is, on the other side. 

“Are you going to tell me what happened, or am I going to make it come out of you?” You ask, jokingly. That was your power, you had the ability to make people tell the truth. You could also read minds and freeze time, which made you a perfect foil to Five, who could move through it. 

“It’s The Commission…” Five trails off, taking another sip of his whiskey. “They know what we did.” Your jaw drops. How the hell did they find out so quickly? You think to yourself. 

A month ago, you and Five had altered the timeline. To be more specific, Five had altered the timeline in order to save your life. While searching for Five, who had saved the world from the apocalypse once and for all, the Commission came across you. They knew that you were important to Five, and decided to kidnap and torture you. 

When Five had found you, it was far too late. But, that was a thing of a past. It was a memory that you were never able to experience, since Five took it upon himself to change the timeline and save your life. 

You two had grown close since Five had met you, since he had helped you learn to use your powers. But, you didn’t realize how much you meant to him. He risked so much by altering the timeline, and that was becoming increasingly evident. 

“Look, things can’t be that bad,” You say reassuringly. “There has to be some sort of way to fix th-,” 

Five cuts you off. “No, things aren’t bad, they’re terrible. They’re going to kill me,” Five’s voice is firm and filled with anger. “Or worse…” His voice is soft as he trails off, his eyes drifting down to the glass of whiskey on the counter. 

“Or worse, what?” You ask as you search Five’s dark brown eyes for some sort of an answer. 

But he gives you none, shaking his head in contempt, refusing to say a thing. He picks his drink up, and begins to walk towards the other side of the room. Just as you think he’s about to stop, the pacing begins again. You roll your eyes. 

“Five, stop, let’s talk about-,”

Five cuts you off a second time. “There’s nothing to talk about, (Y/N)!” Five shouts, his eyes widening. “Things are going to absolute shit!” He knocks back a final, generous swig of whiskey before violently slamming the empty glass on the end table to his left. Five darts back towards you. “We lost! Don’t you get it? They’ve won! They’re going to find me, or you, a-and, a-and…”

You shake your head. “You’re being ridiculous, Five,” You pause for a second, collecting your thoughts before continuing. “You just need to calm down, we haven’t lost just yet, we haven’t even started fighting.” 

“And there’s no point in fighting back to begin with. They know you’re here, they know everything, (Y/N),” Five says, swallowing harshly as he closes his eyes tightly. “And don’t tell me to calm down.” 

You scoff. “I’m just trying to help. We can fix this-,”

“Stop! No we can’t! I’m going to lose you. Don’t you understand that?” Five yells, his voice booming throughout the library. Silence looms over the room. You don’t know what to say. “I can’t lose you…not again. I just can’t,” Five finally croaks. 

Your heart flutters in your chest at his words. “Five you aren’t going to lose me,” You say, your voice is soft and sweet as a smile stretches across your face. 

“On the contrary, darling, I think he just might!” A sarcastic, shrill voice rings from the opposite end of the room. You look to where the voice came from. A tall, gray haired woman stands near the fireplace, holding a gun in her hand. “Hello, Number Five. Long time no see.” Her smile is wide, almost reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat. 

“I swear to god if you touch her,” Five points a finger in the woman’s direction, “I won’t hesitate to take you down, for real. In fact I thought Hazel already did that for me,” Five taunts.  

The woman cackles loudly. “Oh Five!” She slaps her knee. “God you crack me up! You know silly stuff like bullets, or grenades,” She raises an eyebrow, “can’t kill me. But it can kill you, or her.” The woman nods her head towards you, aiming her gun at your chest. 

A shot rings out, and a flash of light appears in front of you as Five pops in front of the woman, pulling his arm back to punch her in the face. But, before anything happens, you close your eyes tightly, clutching both hands into fists. Suddenly, time freezes. You walk forward towards Five. The bullet is inches away from his chest, suspended in thin air. You push it to the right, making sure that when time starts up again, it won’t even have the chance to hit him. 

The woman scoffs, surprised at your abilities. “Who the hell are you?” She asks, staring you down. 

“(Y/N), Number 8, also known as Eon, and you’re about to be so fucked,” You stare deeply into her eyes as you begin to search the woman’s mind. Her alias is The Handler, she’s killed thousands of people, and she isn’t one bit scared of you in this moment. 

Well, that’s about to change completely, You think to yourself. You tighten your hold on her mind, and you watch as the Handler winces in pain. 

Part of your mind reading ability was to allow the person you were reading to relive the memories you came across as you searched his or her mind. In this case, you went for the traumatic experiences; for instance, murders, attacks, and other crimes The Handler committed, watched, or experienced. You had found through previous ventures that making someone relive the past was overwhelming and draining, to the point of death.  

God I hope this works, You think to yourself, taking a deep breath as you swallow harshly. You had one shot, one chance to make this work. You begin to search through her mind, picking out memories that seemed horrendous, even to you.

“Wh-what the hell are you d-doing?” She stutters, her fingertips reaching up to either side of her head. You force her to see each and every person she’s ever killed, which slowly but surely begins to have an impact on her. “S-stop,” The Handler pleads. “I-It h-hurts.” 

But regardless of her pleas, you don’t let go. The gun in The Handler’s hand falls to the ground as she begins to tremble. You don’t know how much longer you can stay where you are. Your grasp on time begins to weaken, and things slowly start to move again. You’re losing energy. 

“F-fuck,” You whimper, trying your best to stay strong. You search deeper into The Handler’s mind, seeing even more murders, more traumatic experiences, forcing her to relive each and every one. 

The Handler screams out in pain. “Shit!” She screeches, collapsing down to the ground. She wheezes, and coughs roughly. Her breathing weakens, just as you thought it would. 

“How does it feel?” You manage to shout, regardless of the fact that it feels as though every ounce of energy has been drained from your body. You continue on nonetheless. 

“I-I c-can’t b-breathe,” The Handler chokes, grabbing her throat. “S-stop…” Her eyes flutter shut. “I-I’ll l-let y-you l-live…” She struggles to speak as her eyes open up again.

“Bullshit,” You say firmly, walking closer to her. “Any last words?” You question, going deeper into The Handler’s mind one final time. Her body seems to tense up, and she writhes in pain one last time. 

“I-I’ll b-be b-back, k-kid…t-trust m-me….I always e-end up c-coming b-back…” She trails off, her eyes shutting tightly. Then, the writhing stops. The tension in The Handler’s body seemingly disappears. Her body goes completely limp. You did it. It was all over. She was gone. 

You let go of your hold on The Handler, since there was no longer anything to see or do in her mind. It was blank, a black hole if you will. You let go of time, and things begin to move yet again. You collapse to your knees, absolutely exhausted. 

“(Y/N)?” Five calls out, and you hear the bullet you had directed away from Five hit into the wall. “What the hell happened?” Five chuckles a bit. You feel his hand rub up and down against your back. 

“I-I took care of things…” You say, breathing heavily. “You don’t have to worry about her anymore, or at least I don’t think you will.” You look up at Five, a confused expression spread across his face.

“How did you…” Five doesn’t know what to say as his eyes frantically search yours for some sort of an answer. 

“I made her relive every shitty thing she ever did, or experienced. It wasn’t a silly thing, that did the bitch in,” You explain nonchalantly. “It was natural causes, in a sense. She did it herself.” 

Five smiles widely, his brown eyes catching rays of light. Just as quickly as his smile appeared, it slips away. “They could still come after us…” Five trails off nervously, standing up and walking towards the bar. 

You shake your head, gathering your strength and following behind him. “Don’t worry about that, okay? With The Handler gone, things will be easier. We can take down whoever stands in our way.” Your voice is calm and reassuring. 

Five stops in his tracks, his eyes studying your face thoroughly. “All I can do is worry. Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean I won’t lose you,” Five says, his voice firm, yet still laced with fear. “I care about you too much to lose you again. Last time, my heart…it…” Five can’t seem to finish his sentence as his voice becomes shaky. His eyes become glossy, and he turns around so you can’t see his face. 

“You can talk to me Five. Please, just tell me what happened,” You beg, walking closer to him, extending a hand out towards his, your fingers colliding with Five’s. 

He turns around to face you. “Fuck I hate feelings…” Five complains before continuing on. He takes a deep breath. “My heart felt like it stopped beating. I-I sobbed over y-you…” Five tightly closes his eyes shut, a single tear falling down is cheek. He wipes it away with his free hand. “I can’t go through that again. I won’t, I refuse to. I care far too much about you…I-I…” Five looks down at the ground and back up towards you. He steps closer to you, the gap between you and he closing. His eyes drift back and forth between your eyes and your lips. 

Suddenly, a pair of soft, warm lips come crashing down on yours. The kiss is slow and languid. You can’t help but smile against Five’s lips. This was something you had wanted for such a long time. 

You’re left wanting more as Five’s lips part from yours. He smiles widely as he steps back from you. You’re almost a bit shocked, as Five rarely ever shows affection to anyone. 

“I didn’t know how to say how I’ve been feeling,” Five explains. “You know I’m terrible at emotional shit, but (Y/N), you make things seems so natural. I’m happy when I’m with you.” 

A smile stretches across your face. “So let’s be happy together, then. You don’t have to hide things. We can be a team.” 

Five nods, grinning as he closes the gap between you two once more. “Happy…together…two words that I’d never thought I’d use to describe my life.” 

“Well I suppose you’ll just have to expand your vocabulary, then Five,” You say sarcastically, giggling lightly. 

“I suppose so, (Y/N).”

[miss-pearlescent]

I Want You (M)

You know you are attracted to the incubus named Kai, but is it because he’s an incubus or because he is Kai? You’ll just have to let him show you.

Rated M for smut. Also: fluff advisory (o˘◡˘o)

The lace collar was itchy. The corset was tight. You tried not to breathe to hard as you saw him approaching, his lean body quick and agile. You focused your eyes on the queen, ignoring the longing to look over and see what Kai was up to.

It was the queen’s coronation ball, a special day to mark the unification of demons and humans in the kingdom. You had always thought she was fit for the role despite what others said, and you were glad for all the changes she brought to the castle. That included the recruitment of many demons from the other realm.

You weren’t entirely sure how things worked down there but you had heard that only the “goodest” of the bad were hired, whatever that meant. Either way, you had been able to make many new friends in the past couple of years, ones who were accepting and didn’t look down on you for being the stable master’s daughter.

“Boo,” a low voice whispered in your ear and made you turn. It was hard not to stiffen and let your jaw drop to the floor, so you quickly looked away instead, trying your hardest to concentrate on whatever the queen was saying.

Beside you, the handsome devil named Kai stood by your arm, back straight and arms behind his back. On any other day, he made you blush in his training uniform. But tonight, he wore a deep blue formal jacket and a gold sash branding him as one of the kingdom’s royal knights. The sight took your breath away, even if you could only see him from the corner of your eye.

“Good evening,” you whispered back.

He nudged your elbow. “I have something for you.”

Curious, you allowed yourself to peek over. “Me?” You tried to think back. It wasn’t your birthday. He didn’t owe you any favours. There weren’t any special occasions for gift giving coming up.

With a mischievous grin, Kai brought his arm forward and presented you with a small plate piled high with tarts, cakes, and biscuits.

Your eyes bugged out so much that you thought they were going to pop out of your eyes. “How did you get this? Dinner’s not even served,” you hissed.

In response, he put a finger to his lips. “It’s a secret.”

“You are...sneaky.” You put a hand over your mouth to cover your laugh and quickly took a lemon tart before anybody could see. Discreetly, you took a bite, loving the sweet and sour that mixed on your tongue followed by the flaky crust.

You noticed Kai watching you intently and looked away again. His stare was unnerving and you did not want to make a fumble of yourself on such an important night.

“Will you be needed soon?” you asked, trying to sound casual.

Kai turned to the stage. “Soon. I am waiting for your father’s signal.”

You found your old man waiting at the edge of the stairs, wringing his hands on his lap. He was to usher all the knights onto the stage when the queen’s speech was over so that they could represent the solidarity of humans and demons fighting for the good of the kingdom together.

“How are things with your father?”

Your shoulders slumped a little bit. “They’re okay.” The two of you had had a quarrel the other day when you were manning the steeds and your father was burdened about the ball. He had stopped you in the middle of your work day and lectured you once again about finding a good husband, this time on coronation night.

But the thought of meeting a man at the ball terrified you. You were dressed up in clothes that you wore once in a blue moon, with your hair swept up into a beautiful braid and your lips painted rouge. It would be like a Cinderella story if you met the man of your dreams tonight and then he had to see you dressed in pants and tunic, shovelling horse dung all day. The thought that a man might turn his face away in disgust made you want to crawl inside a hole, especially seeing all the beautiful ladies attending tonight.

Besides, you liked things the way they were, and you didn’t want to meet a new man because that might mean that your friendship with Kai would grow distant. He always mentioned how he would be slightly jealous if his wife had a male friend as close as Kai was to you. Always the gentleman, Kai said—much to your dismay—he would be willing to stay away from causing friction in a relationship when you found a husband of your own.

If that ever happened.

“He’s likely taking his stress out on you,” Kai added while taking a bite of a small tea cake. “He’s been having to deal with all of us the past two weeks and I think it’s turning his hair grey.”

You smiled because your father did seem quite nervous about today. But everything was going well so far and you knew whatever happened tonight would be for the best.

You saw your father raise his hand and wave not so subtly. “That’s your cue,” you said in a hushed tone, taking the plate of desserts out of Kai’s hand.

He rubbed his hands on his pristine white pants—a nervous habit of his—and you bit your tongue to keep from telling him that the action might dirty his pants. It was too late now.

Kai turned toward you and opened his mouth, then closed it in a smile. “You have something here.” He reached out his hand and brushed his thumb against the corner of your lips.

You sucked in a breath. Looking down, you saw a crumb fall to the floor. Though he was simply helping you keep tidy, he might as well have branded you with his touch. Your lips were warm and tingly as he walked away, cracking his neck from side to side.

You watched, starstruck as the knights lined up and stood on stage, their backs stick straight and their uniforms gleaming with badges. When the commander stepped forward to give his speech, his voice cracked and there was a slight murmur of giggles through the room. But your eyes stayed on Kai as his mouth curved in a slight smile and his gaze grazed the room to land on you.

He winked.

Your cheeks felt like they were on fire, and you frantically stuffed a tart into your mouth, not caring about chewing.

“You know, he is an incubus.”

You turned to the voice and found one of the aunts of the royal family with her arms crossed and her lips pursed. You weren’t sure which aunt she was, just that she frequented the castle with her sons.

She cut you a look full of judgement. “A girl like you should not be spending so much time with the likes of him. His only goal is to ruin you, and I can see that you are already falling for the tricks up his sleeve.”

You looked down at the desserts on your plate. “It’s just a few cakes,” you muttered.

“A few cakes here, a few flowers there. All he needs to do is snap his fingers and you will be on your back in the hay bales for him.” The woman rolled her eyes. “You are blind if you think he isn’t playing this game with all the women in the castle. Do yourself a favour and find a nice stable boy who will still be willing to marry you while you’re young and untouched.”

Suddenly, the desserts made you want to vomit.

Your father didn’t say those kinds of words but wasn’t that what he meant in the end? Find someone who would be willing to marry you before you become old and alone?

You had known Kai for years now and knew from the first day that he was a demon, specifically an incubus. But was that why you were so attracted to him that you didn’t even want to entertain the thought of marriage?

You bit your lip as the audience clapped, because you didn’t want to believe the woman. Kai was not the type of person to do such a horrible thing and play with your feelings. Hell, that was why you stayed just friends with him. He had never pushed for anything other than friendship. He was just being himself.

It was simply you that fell for him.

Inwardly, you groaned and turned to leave the room. It was suddenly too stuffy and you remembered how much your dress itched and the tightness of your corset. You needed to leave and—

“Oof!” You bumped into a broad chest and steadied the cakes in your hands. An arm wrapped around your shoulders as you wobbled from the force of crashing into the man. You blinked upward, a little dazed. “How did you get back so fast?”

“I guess I used my demon speed to teleport here,” he teased with a slight shrug then switched to being serious. “You okay?”

You nodded and set the cakes down on a table before rubbing your forehead. “I’m fine. I was just going to...” What? Run back to the stables and sulk with the horses as you thought about a plan of attack for the new year so that you could get married and everybody will be happy?

Kai waited for a moment before looking around. “Did you want to dance? We can practice what we learned last month.” The two of you had inserted yourselves into a busy class held by the dance instructor that was hired for the royal family. At the back of the class, you remembered losing your breath as the two of you tried to keep up with the instructions while holding back your laughter.

The memories were fond and you were about to say yes when you saw the glare of the older woman from behind Kai’s shoulder. Quickly, you shook you head as you watched the waltz begin on the floor. “I don’t remember the steps.”

Kai’s expression fell to one of concern and mild rejection. You didn’t like doing that to him, but dancing in his arms again would make your heart soar way too high.

“Is everything all right?” he asked softly so that nobody else could hear.

Your gaze locked on his and you wondered if he could see all the emotions that were going through your mind. You wanted to tell him everything yet nothing at all because that would just make you vulnerable to him. Slowly, you shook your head, barely enough to be detectable.

He turned and held out his elbow. “Let’s go for a walk around the room then. Take my hand.”

Thoughts racing, you placed your hand on the crook of his elbow and followed him, ignoring all the gazes that seemed to follow you.

Were you what the masses considered a whore? But you had never gone to bed with a man.

Did they consider you a demon-hunter, a term for human women who slept with high-ranking demons so that she could move up the social ladder when no humans would have her? But, again, you had never slept with a human let alone a demon.

But all this time spent with Kai sure made it look like you did.

Was it wrong that you just liked being around him?

“You look very beautiful tonight,” Kai’s deep whisper interrupted your thoughts.

You blinked and your face flushed. “Thank you. You do, too.” Stuttering a little, you corrected yourself. “I-I mean, handsome. Though the clothes you wear are very beautiful.”

He chuckled and squeezed your hand. “But you’re the one getting all the lovely stares from both men and women.”

You looked around and wondered if Kai’s eyes were working properly. Those men and women were staring at her out of contempt for being with a demon, not for being attractive.

Even after all these years of mixing between the species, there was still underlying hate and prejudice beneath the surface.

“I think they are surprised to see the stable master’s daughter in a dress,” you muttered.

Kai laughed. “If I’m being honest, I was surprised, too. But you look like you want to rip it off the moment the ceremony’s over.”

“I do,” you agreed. “It’s stiff and I can barely breathe.” You tugged on the lace of your collar.

Kai squeezed your hand, tight. “Don’t do that.”

You looked over, startled by the change in his voice. It was gruff, a complete change from the soft gentleness that he usually spoke with. “What?”

He kept his stare straight ahead though now it was harder and his mouth was in a tight line. “Men are staring.”

You looked down and saw that the lace had moved a little, exposing even more of your breasts that were bound so tight that they nearly reached your chin.

Okay, that might have been an exaggeration but for somebody who barely had an breasts, this was all new to you.

And Kai was right, men were staring, and this time their eyes were focused on your breasts.

You flicked open the fan that was hanging on your wrist and fanned yourself lightly, taking care to cover your decolletage.

“This was what my father wanted, wasn’t it?” you said with chagrin. “For me to find a man who would be willing to marry me.”

“There are many men who would be happy to marry you,” Kai rushed in with his hard voice. “Lucky to marry you,” he added.

Your heart picked up its pace. “You don’t have to say that.”

“I am simply stating what I know is true.” Sometimes you wished demons weren’t so unreserved with their statements.

What could you say to that? Kai always had a way with words that made you speechless. He knew how to work his way into your heart, and you could do nothing but think about what the woman had said earlier.

“Is this your incubus side speaking to me?”

“Hmm?” He turned to you with a raised brow.

You gave him a stiff smile. “You are always such a smooth talker. It must make all the women swoon. Is that one of your demon powers?”

“No.” He gave you a slow blink and his lips curved into that mischievous grin once again. “But would you like to see some of my incubus powers?”

Did you? Honestly, yes. You had never been in contact with demons enough to witness their powers in real life. There were only a couple stories here and there about fire-breathers and levitation. It would be cool to see what Kai could do. Eagerly, you nodded.

“All right,” he replied and placed a hand over yours. “But you have to make sure you keep your hands on me or else every woman in this room might get a feel for my abilities.”

A surge of jealously bubbled in your gut and you tightened your grip.

You walked with Kai a few more steps before you were transported to a realm of darkness.

It felt like a dream.

You looked around and could only see black for miles and miles. You waited and as the seconds ticked on, your heart began to race.

“Kai?” you whispered.

And magically, he appeared before your eyes. You were relieved but only for a moment because you looked down and realized he was naked.

And you were naked.

And suddenly you wanted nothing more than to lie back and let him have his way with you. So you did.

You weren’t sure what was happening but you laid prone on the ground, your back arching up as your nipples perked. It seemed that just watching him stare down at you in such a vulnerable position was enough to get you turned on. Not to mention, his cock was standing up straight and proud.

You usually thought horses were too hung and disturbingly big but Kai’s was just...beautiful. It looked like the perfect length, with thick ridges that you were sure no human man had. The thought of that pumping inside you made your thighs quiver.

He crouched beside you and stroked your cheek, but all you wanted was his cock inside of you, and you didn’t care where. You licked your lips, ready to take him into your mouth and suck him dry.

He pressed a hand to your shoulder, pinning you to the ground with a chuckle. “This is my time to demonstrate my powers to you, not the other way around.”

You whined in protest and gave him a pout.

He shook his head. “I want you to see all the ways that I want to take you.” Your lips parted as a soft sucking sensation began between your legs and your thighs were pushed apart. “Look down,” he said.

You did as you were told and found Kai’s head between your legs, his mouth playing with your folds.

“I want to spend hours down there.” The Kai down there was busy, but his voice still filled your head. “I want to make you nice and wet for later.”

“L-later?” you panted as you felt a finger enter your slit.

Two hands appeared out of nowhere and suddenly you were flipped onto your knees, your hands holding onto an invisible wall. Kai was still sucking on your clit and pumping his fingers in and out of you, but you couldn’t turn your head to see.

Instead, another Kai materialized in front of you, his two hands rolling your nipples between his fingers.

“Later, when my cock fills your tight pussy, I want you to scream my name.”

“Kai...” you were already ready to scream his name as you felt a hollowness in your belly. You wanted to beg him to mount you like one of the stallions to the mares.

“You want it dirty like that?”

You bit your lip as your legs trembled. He was pinching your nipples hard and his fingers were also hitting the perfect spot inside you at the same time. You weren’t going to last long.

Kai’s lips found a sensitive spot on your neck. “Control your breathing. People are looking,” he murmured.

For a moment, you didn’t know what he was talking about, but then you were transported back to the ballroom and found that the tops of your breasts were heaving and you were dripping between your thighs as you continued to pace around the room with him.

You drew in a deep breath and fanned yourself, trying to cool off.

“Ready to go back?” his low voice reached your ear and you gave a small nod.

You were thrust back into the darkness again with Kai’s lips and hands all over you. You cursed because the brief break and sudden onslaught of his ministrations nearly pushed you over.

“Would you like to know what I would feel like inside you?” he purred.

You gulped and nodded, desperate to feel him stretching you open.

But then suddenly everything stopped and you let out a small whimper as you fell to your hands and knees, your heat sopping wet and your body shivering with need.

A hand tilted your chin up and you locked eyes with Kai’s handsome face.

“This is just a dream,” he said. “You are not a ruined woman if you agree to this.”

“Mm-hmm.”

He leaned in, pressing his lips to the corner of yours. “But I want you, and I want you to know it. You have been what I longed for for years.”

You paused. “I am just a stable girl.”

“Just a stable girl?” Kai let out a breathy laugh and kissed you again, this time lingering on your bottom lip. “You are the smartest, most hard-working woman I know with the biggest heart. You treated me like a friend from the start, even though you knew I was a demon.”

Your cheeks turned red. “I might have been harbouring a slight crush.” Your cheeks turned redder still. “And I might still be harbouring that crush, but I know you are an incubus and I know you can have any woman with the snap of your fingers,” you said, quoting the older woman from earlier.

He was just a breath away and you wanted his kisses so bad, but you knew you had to finish explaining yourself.

“I was scared of getting hurt in case I was just a friend in your eyes.”

Kai’s chest rose and fell as the moments passed by. “I know you told me you wanted to wait till marriage, but would you like to know how I see you in my eyes?”

You licked your lips and he followed the gesture with his liquid stare. “Yes.”

And all at once your body was covered in white fabric and a bouquet of flowers dropped into your hands. You looked down and realized you were wearing a big wedding dress.

You scanned the area and found yourself standing alone in a garden. “Kai?”

“Boo,” a raspy voice came from behind you and you whirled around to find Kai in a black suit, his hair slicked back and his teeth shining as he smiled down at you.

“What is this?” you asked, sweeping your arms around at the rows of chairs lined up in the garden.

He scratched the back of his neck, another nervous gesture of his. “I always wondered what you would look like in a wedding dress.”

“Really?” You looked down and smiled. “I like it.”

“Mm,” he murmured, leaning down to kiss your exposed neck. “I like it, too.”

You sighed as all the arousal from earlier rushed back to you in waves every time he sucked on the spot on your neck. It was as if that caused all the other parts of your body to feel the suckling too.

Then you felt hands on your hips and something slide between your slit. Your eyes widened. “What was that?”

“It’s me again,” Kai said, raising his head. “Would you like to see?”

You nodded and the Kai in front of you disappeared. You craned your head and found him behind you, holding your hips with your dress flipped up, his thick cock slicking himself against your entrance. “You have a lot of playroom with your power,” you pointed out.

He smirked and canted his hips again. “I like making you wet and I will use all the tricks up my sleeve to do it.”

You felt fingers flicking your clit and nipples, yet Kai’s hands were anchoring your hips and your bodice was still laced up tight. This couldn’t be possible.

“If you want a hundred tongues on you, I could make that happen,” he said proudly.

A hundred might be overkill, you thought as you keeled over from the pleasure, holding on tightly to one of the chairs. Your senses were being overloaded as he teased every part of your body.

“I’m going to give you what you want, my love, don’t you worry.”

“Wait,” you moaned, reaching for one of his hands. “I’m scared I’m going to come.”

“And?”

You squeezed his hand to keep from rubbing against his cock. “We are in a full ballroom.”

“No, we’re not.”

Cool air brushed your neck and you opened your eyes, finding yourself in a dimly lit garden.

“I have you.” Kai’s arm was wrapped around your shoulder, holding you as you leaned against him on a quaint wooden bench.

You could see the party through the big windows of the castle, bustling with lights and laughter. Out here, it was quiet and private, but still within view of anybody who stepped out onto the balcony.

Any onlookers would only see a man trying to comfort a poor woman.

You steadied your breathing, a little bit disappointed but at the same time relieved. “When did we come out here?”

He rubbed your flushed skin with his thumb. “When I couldn’t hide my hard-on anymore.”

“Oh...” You looked down and blushed at the sight of his length straining against his white pants. “I’m sorry about that.”

He barked out a laughed and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “I’m not the one who was two seconds away from an orgasm.”

You clutched your fan. “Is it too late?”

He cocked a brow and you jumped in your seat as you felt something prodding your core.

“Oh!”

He pulled you in, letting you rest on his shoulder. “It’s never too late,” he murmured. “Are you ready?”

You raised your hip onto your side as if giving him more entrance though you knew he didn’t need it. Your panted against his neck as you felt his cock stretch your lips wide.

“That’s it, my love. Take all of me,” he whispered, his voice hoarse as his fingers dug into your side. “Fuck, you are so hot and tight.”

You moaned and opened your legs farther apart. “I need your tongue.”

“Where? Tell me.”

You clutched his golden sash in your hands as he pushed inside you a little more. “Everywhere.”

And suddenly you understood the beauty of a hundred tongues on your body.

You sank your teeth into his uniform to muffle your scream as tongues flicked your little nub, helping you open up wide enough to take his hard length all the way down to its base. And the ridges. Oh, the ridges. You felt them as they entered you but you felt them more as he withdrew, pulling back just enough so he could surge back into you.

“Kai!” you cried out against his lapel as you felt the first orgasm hit you. Your body shook with every thrust he made. He made sure to drive all the way to the hilt with every stroke. He ordered the tongues to change up their speed, slowing down and softening the small circles on your clit and nipples.

But he didn’t stop them. “You are so beautiful. I want to watch you come apart like this forever.” Tenderly, he kissed your forehead again, a small gesture that was so different from everything else he did to your body.

And you loved it. “Yes, more. More.” You were going to come again. Your pussy was throbbing around him. You kissed his neck, wishing you had the guts to claim him as your own even as you clawed his uniform with need.

“I am yours,” he said, as if hearing your thoughts. “Even if you marry another, I will always be yours.”

You pulled back but the orgasm hit you before you could correct him. You squirmed in your seat, feeling juices pool out beneath you, as you stifled your cries in your hands.

“Stop,” you choked out. “Kai, stop.”

In an instant, everything stopped and you slumped against him with a contented sigh. You closed your eyes and drew in deep breaths, trying to organize your thoughts.

“I don’t want to marry another,” you declared.

You felt Kai freeze against you.

“If you would take me as your bride, I would like to be married to you.”

It was a bold confession, but you knew it to be true from the bottom of your heart.

Kai’s voice was serious as he spoke. “This is not just because of my powers, is it?”

“Oh, your powers help,” you said with a happy giggle. You leaned back and took his face in your hands, the way you liked to do whenever you wanted to tell him something important while he was being a jokester. “But I do love you, and I think I always have. You are brave to take a job in a world that is against you, yet you are kind to those that are not your kind. Like me.”

His eyes softened. “Because I love you.”

You kissed him gently on the lips. “See? You are sweet and make my heart flutter. I want to marry you.”

He pulled you in for a fuller kiss, wrapping his hand around your neck and messing up your braid a little. Images of you bent over hay bales with your breeches down to your ankles, ready to take his cock flooded your brain.

You moaned.

More images, this time of you in a wedding dress, riding Kai’s cock to orgasm atop a galloping horse.

Your pussy began to clench again.

When he pulled back, the both of you were breathless. “And I am the luckiest male, demon or otherwise.”

---

HULLO. DID YOU THINK I WOULD WRITE ABOUT A SUCCUBUS AND NOT ABOUT INCUBUS!KAI??? >:) Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!!!!!! This is my thanks to you for all your love <3 Please know that I see your replies to the stories but I don’t know how to reply to them using my fanfic account and not my main account LOLLL I appreciate each and every one of them!

PS: I also wanted to squeeze one more writing piece into my 2019 list hehehe

PPS: this story was inspired by yet another one of Larissa Ione’s novels :3 I read Passion Unleashed in 2015 and parts of it have stuck with me to this day! The hero is an incubus and the heroine is a human. At one point, he projects himself into her dreams and does dirty things :) And her swallowing his cum makes her uncontrollably aroused. I love amazing ideas from amazing minds *chef’s kiss*

[cabird]

A Red Letter Day: G&S

“Hey Sheckley.” Griggs called from across the deserted street. The sun was high overhead but  thick grey cloud cover hid it from view. The pair walked down the street, one on each side, checking if anyone was still in the neighbourhood. 

“What?” Came Sheckley’s slightly annoyed reply from the porch across the street.

Griggs chuckled to himself as he peered through the gloom filling the gated alley in front of him, before continuing his patrol down the street. 

“What do you call a vortigaunt that has problems with its powers?” He asked with a grin glancing further down the street. 

Sheckley shook his head. “We have a job to do. Can you please take it seriously?” He asked as he checked the door in front of him and found it locked.

“A vorti-can’t!” Griggs said, barely able to contain his laughter, ignoring the question.

Sheckley sighed as he stepped off the porch and continued down the street.

“You know you’re not funny, right?”

Griggs shrugged, still smiling broadly as he continued forward down the street. “But you love me anyway.”

Sheckley sighed in exhasperation as he crossed the empty street to meet back up with Griggs “This place looks deserted. What ever happened here, looks like we missed it.”

Griggs stopped, raising his hand as he spoke in a hushed tone. “Wait, do you hear that?”

Sheckley frowned. “I am not in the mood for your jokes.” 

“Shush! No, listen!” Griggs scolded, peering down the street. 

The air was silent for a few moments. Then the rhythmic sound of distant, heavy steps could be heard echoing off the walls of the decaying structures on the block. 

“Shit, Strider!” Sheckley grimaced. “We need to get out of here!” 

“We can take it!” Griggs affirmed, running ahead. “If we keep splitting its attention between us, we can take it out.” 

“Griggs! Get back here!” Sheckley shouted, giving chase as the strider’s heavy footfalls grew louder. “You stupid idiot.” He muttered himself. 

Sheckley stopped at the end of the street and peaked around the corner of the building. Moments later, he was sprinting back toward Griggs. “I changed my mind.” 

As if on cue, a Gunship whizzed overhead at speed, heading somewhere in a hurry.  

“Glad you came to your senses!” Sheckley shouted. “Over here!” He signalled Griggs toward the boarded door of an apartment. Leading with his shoulder he easily forced the door open. The steps of the Strider echoed uncomfortably close now. 

They stormed the abandoned building and raced to the staircase; hastily climbing the dusty steps. 

The squeal of the strider, now on the street in front of the building, shook the structure; causing dust and debris to rain down from the ceiling. They left the stairwell and hunkered down in an open, empty apartment. The walls were barren save for the peeling paint. The windows were boarded only allowing thin rays of grey light into the dim room.

“Shhh.” Sheckley growled at Griggs though they couldn’t see each other’s faces in the dark room..

“What are we going…” Griggs was cut off as Sheckley grabbed his forearm tightly. 

Sheckley sat down, leaning against the wall by the door. Griggs listened, recovering his breath, his mind working to concoct a plan.

The strider had stopped in the street just past the apartment building. Now the sounds of more gunships passing overhead and APC’s driving through the street could be heard as a Combine convoy began passing the building.  

Sheckley released Grigg’s arm and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes. 

“What now?” Griggs whispered. 

“Now, we wait.” Sheckley replied, his eyes still closed. “May as well take a seat.”

Griggs mulled over his choices for a few minutes, silently pacing in the dark before sitting down next to Sheckley.

There was only the sounds of Combine vehicles for a few moments before Griggs spoke.

“Why do you always volunteer to go with me?” 

“Hmm?” Sheckley grunted, not bothering to open his eyes. 

“When I get sent out on tasks, you always end up tagging along.” Griggs repeated.

“Oh? I didn’t notice.” Sheckley replied, still seeming disinterested. 

Griggs was quiet for a few minutes before speaking again. “Well thanks. I am glad you’re always around to have my back.” He admitted.  

“It’s nothing.” Sheckley replied. “Everyone needs someone to watch their back, and you are a medic, so you can patch me up if I step on a nail or fall down some stairs.” 

Griggs nodded to himself silently. “So.. that’s it?”

“Yup.” Sheckley replied without hesitation. 

“Nothing else? No other reason? You haven’t felt a connection… between us?” Griggs probed.

“Have you?” Sheckley questioned, still not looking over at the medic.

Griggs was quiet for a beat, his throat was tight. Combine vehicles rumbled past the apartment block. 

“I don’t know how you could bare growing attached to anyone knowing they could be dead tomorrow.” Sheckley said. “That’s more frightening to me than the boogie men at Nova Prospekt. 

“Everyone needs a reason to fight.” Griggs retorted sharply before, suddenly becoming sheepish. “Being at peace... one day….  with you; is mine.”

Sheckley put his arm around Griggs, pulling him closer to his side with a smirk, still resting his head against the crumbling wall. “Seems like a good enough reason to me.” 

Griggs rested his head against his friend’s shoulder, feeling relieved and closing his eyes as well. “Sheck…. I’m hungry. Did you bring any rations?” 

-C.A.Bird

[2manyfandoms2count]

#MarichatMay Day 19

Today’s one-shot follows day 16′s (do not disturb): Marinette has made a tuxedo suit for Chat. Hope you enjoy! 

@marichatmay

---

Day 19: Tuxedo Chat

Ladybug and Chat Noir stood awkwardly at the top of the Eiffel Tower, their patrol finished, but not quite wanting to leave yet. There was something to be said about spending time on Paris landmarks at night, almost alone. It was like some kind of magic settled around you, like being in your own snow globe. Any brutal mouvements would disturb the harmony and break the spell.

“I really should go, I have some homework to do.” Chat said reluctantly. He was in no hurry to get Home, where he’d be eating alone, as always. His father seemed to get busier by the day, and Nathalie unfortunately joined the designer a lot to ensure the development of the Gabriel Agreste Spring collection stayed on track. 

His hunched back, flopped ears and overall resigned expression screamed his reticence to leave, so Ladybug decided to buy him a little time.

“Oh by the way, I saw Marinette Dupain-Cheng earlier and she asked me to tell you she finished your suit.” She ventured. “She told me you can come by anytime to adjust it.”

“Like right meow?” The way his face lit up might have made her jealous had they been talking about him going to see any other girl.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure you can check? Worst case scenario, she says it’s too late, or that she’s busy.” She shrugged, pushing away the thought that she would never be to busy for him, nor would he ever be too late. “Later, Chaton!”

She left with a well executed swing of her yoyo, intent on getting a head start on him.

With Chat Noir having promptly acted on his paw-mise (his words, not Marinette’s) to get Marinette and Adrien another slot for her to make him try on her designs, the young girl had felt guilty about snapping at him and had ended up making him a suit anyway. It was the least she could do, since he’d also somehow managed to get her an extension in the time she had to design her Agreste collection.

Marinette detransformed as she landed on her bed, quickly rustling around her room to get all her sewing kit out. She was consolidating a button that had come slightly loose when she heard a soft knock on her skylight. She climbed to her mezzanine, securing her sewing knot as she did so, and opened her window to let her visitor in.

“Hey Marinette, hope I’m not...”

“How timely! I was just finishing up your shirt.” She waved him in.

“You don’t look very surprised to see me.” Chat looked almost disappointed.

“Kitty, you’ve come over pretty much every evening this week. I would’ve been surprised if you hadn’t come over tonight.” She cheekily smiled at him over her shoulder as she went down the stairs.

Chat blushed imperceptibly and followed her. He took a seat on her chaise as she reached for one of the cover bags hanging on a rail and took out its contents. 

“Here, you can try it on.” She hesitated. “Do you need a screen, or...”

“Nah don’t worry, this catsuit is staying on.” 

Even if he technically wasn’t naked, she still felt uncomfortable looking at him dress so she turned around and fidgeted with her sewing machine.

“Marinette, this is... wow.” He breathed out after a while, which she took as a cue to look at him. 

Just as she’d thought, the cut she’d chosen fit him perfectly. Marinette looked at him proudly parade around her room in the tuxedo, and was unable to refrain from thinking about how handsome he looked. Well, that might not have been the exact word she used. She chuckled as he marvelled about the white, kitten-shaped buttons she’d used for the shirt, the hole she’d left for his bell, the paw-shaped cufflinks, the matching green tie and pocket handkerchief.

“Wait, you forgot something.” She carefully reached for his lower back and threaded his tail through a specially-made opening. 

His excited gasp made her very giddy inside. “I love it, you’ve thought about everything!”

He hugged her tightly, taking her by surprise, ad kissed her on the head. He let go of her before she could react, having spotted her full-size mirror.

“This is truly the cat’s meow, I’m halfway to becoming a white cat!” He joked as he examined himself in the mirror, a satisfied smile drawn to his lips.

Marinette visibly shuddered at the thought and sat down, a vague memory, almost a concept, appearing in her mind. Why could she visualise a Chat Blanc? And why did he feel like bad news?

“Are you alright, Purr-incess?” Chat turned around, worry filling his eyes.

“Yes, it’s- it’s nothing.” She replied, her gaze slightly distant as her hand flew to her forehead as if to check if she had a fever. She sounded like Nathalie. 

He rushed to her, gently taking her in his arms. She nuzzled against him, her eyes closed, trying to shake away the feeling of dread that had overcome her. She felt him purr lightly against her cheek, his hand rubbing her arm up and down in a comforting gesture. She breathed deeply, his familiar cheesy, leather-y scent calming her as she did so. 

After what felt like forever, in the best possible way, she broke away, putting on a brave face as she did so. 

“Sorry, I really don’t know what happened there.” She apologised.

“Well if that’s the effect this suit has on ladies, I’m not sure I should wear it!” He attempted to laugh, but his eyes still showed how concerned he was.

“I’m sure it wasn’t anything serious. It’s probably just getting late.” 

“Yes, I’d better let you get to bed.” He got “undressed” and stuffed the suit back in its bag, then took Marinette’s hand and carefully escorted her up to her bed. “Thank you, Princess. This is honestly one of the best gifts you’ve given me.” He kissed her forehead, ignoring her confused look. “Just... just paw-mise you won’t overwork yourself too much?”

“I paw-mise, kitty.” She kissed him back on the cheek. “And I promise I’ll tell you if this happens again.”

“Good.” He hopped up on the balcony. “Sleep tight Princess.”

“You too Chat. Don’t let the Ladybugs bite.” She winked.

She heard him laugh as he made his way back Home. She held on to the happy sound to fall into a peaceful slumber, in which piercing blue eyes did not make a single appearance.

[comic-the-adventurer]

The Origin Of The Order [C1]

“Hurry up, Ivor!”

A ginger boy with the name of “Soren” energetically sprang away from the schoolhouse, of the step of the establishment’s staircase, his boots scraping the dirt beneath his soles as he turned around while one foot hit the ground, graceful as could be. In a movement of enthusiasm, his scarf’s loose end waved behind him slightly, cutting through the summer’s air in motion, the same for the drawstrings of his hoodie. It was summer at last! After numerous months of academy, he was remarkably thrilled to have time to sit back, relax and enjoy the stress-free glow! Hell, he was so excited the schoolbell didn’t even ring yet, he ran out a second before the chime went off which would be the signal for the conclusion of class for the ensuing several weeks! He couldn’t wait to play with his good, probably best, friend, “Ivor”--The irony--all throughout the holiday. The two had been good allies since around the beginning of the school-year and ever since then, the pair have always hanged out whenever possible. Because of that, Soren was eager to call out for him in exhilaration and he did just that, soon before the schoolbell rang;

“It’s finally summer vacation!”                                                    

- - -

The schoolhouse immediately filled to the brim with children’s cheers and exclamations as the bell fell out. The doors of the school were swinging open. Not a second went by without a younger running out of the building, shouting in glee. Students eagerly rushed down the few stairs onto the ground, some jumping, others running. The delight of the concept of this wonder-filled holiday commenced to the calls of names, footfalls and everything in-between to be let into the atmosphere of this play of an environment twice more than it usually would on any ordinary schoolday, same for the mirth and laughter of the children. In the background, Ivor wasn’t a fan of Soren just running out ahead of him. It was something that happened every day though, so he was used to it. Besides, he knew Soren for a while and if he knew anything about him it was that he was a very energized and enthusiastic person and that nothing he could think of would be able to stop him from his passionate personality and nothing besides isolation ever did, did it, Sorie?

“Soren!” Ivor called out, running up to him, his longer, sable hair in the wind. “It’s not polite to make a friend run!” 

“Yes well, the more time we spend in that school, the more time summer is gonna pass by us, Ivor and I for one, am not letting a second of this spectacular vacation pass by!”            

“We’re going to be asleep for the majority of it, Soren.”                                       

Ivor reminded his green-eyed friend of that in an eye roll, shortly before he turned to the dirt trail the both of them had always walked aside home, prompting Soren to follow him to the dusty path that led to their home village which they shared. The two accompanied each other on their saunter which wasn’t a short distance from their school but not a long one either. It was good, however, for it gave them more than enough time for the pair to talk, mainly discussing their plans of the ventures and activities they would be doing throughout the season break, exclusively involving only the two of them, alike to how they always did. They weren’t sad about that either. They never needed nor did they have anyone else to be getting in the way of their hang-outs with one another. Ain’t that ironic?   

“We could always go to the beach, Ivor.” 

“I’ve told you about a million times, Soren! I can’t swim! What I would be doing would be making a laughing stock out of myself!” 

“Very well, forgetting the beach...we could...go and explore a cave...!” 

“With kitchen knives? I prefer to live, thank you.”

“Ivor, where’s your sense of adventure? I recognize that you like to explore!”

“Well, yes…” Ivor sighed, “Listen Soren, I just...don’t want to get in trouble just as summer is starting, alright?”

“I understand...all that I wish is that you’d lighten up a bit. It’s best we take chances and do things...! Without taking chances...well...life is point–” 

Arg!  Soren’s vision took a blur briefly in distress as his eyes took a cross in startlement. He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his perception from blear. His hands felt a dirt trail, small pieces of dust clouded his arms throughout. Once his mind was freed from confused he gazed up and saw a boy and a girl before him, standing on the field ahead where the clay route had yet another fork of right and left, the greenery with an overhead carven, numerous feet behind the quad that truthfully looked like something that should be of a world-wonder. Ivor was knelt on one knee next to his gingered friend, though his robe didn’t seem to help his action. The boy who Soren had fumbled into had a shaved head whist the lass had some shorter light brown hair, the bloke’s expression could be said to be unimpressed but a bit mad. The lass was more neutral than anything but clearly expecting someone to say something. You didn’t change one bit, did you, Ellie?

“Do you mind looking where you’re going?” The boy asked with a slightly rude tone but not that he was screaming, the boy brings his hands open-palmed above his head in a sarcastic movement, "Here I am, innocently trying to talk with my friend and you have the nerve to bump into me...!” 

The unnamed lass did nothing more than a facepalm at her friend’s play but she didn’t say anything. Soren got to his feet and quickly dusted off any possible dirt that could have came onto his clothes when he fell onto the dusted track and quickly settled the loose end of his scarf back into the place around his neck, how it was beforehand. Ivor stood back up almost in sync of Soren who took a glance at him. Ivor didn’t really seem to be offended or remarkably concerned about Soren’s moderate injury. It was nothing more than a small fall, after all. 

“I should have been looking where I was going and I’m sorry I crashed into you,” Soren takes his arms down a bit which were previously at the same height as his head, a surrender-like stance, fingers loosely fixed and opens his eyes, slight sarcasm removed, “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Yeah, I don’t think a small bump would break my neck, if you didn’t know.” 

“Magnus, hear yourself,” The girl stepped up, reaching an arm out, almost cutting off her bandana-wearing friend, “He clearly didn’t mean to.” The lass unpressed shrugs her arms, palms open, “Do you really think that they’re out to get you or something?” 

The boy sighed a breath of sass because of his friend’s remark. Nevertheless, he turned gazed back at the ginger and black-haired, looking at a slight angle. The damsel in a dress, for the first time, in the thirty seconds that Soren and Ivor knew the lass, was the one to speak up instead of the bloke she had for an associate. She first did a sigh of the air regarding her dismissal of the event;

“I’m sorry about him.” The girl slightly waves her hands apart, around the same height as her chest, “He can be friendlier but when he remembers that the world doesn’t revolve around him, it starts to make him intolerable.” 

“Ellie!” Magnus shouted forcefully to “Ellie,” hands clenched and drawn to his heart. The scene causes Ivor and Soren to have a small laugh as “Ellie” rolled her eyes with a smile of backhand before loosely bringing a hand to just below her throat;

“The name’s Ellegaard, by the way. I habitually go by ‘Ellie,’ though. This is Magnus. AKA, the world’s best rogue.” Ellegaard hastily nods her head down, clenched hand in sync.

“I’m taking that as a compliment!” Magnus announced proudly, both wrists on his hips.

This is yet another case of the kids having a cursory case of laughter while Ellegaard and Ivor shook their heads both donning unimpressed smiles. Honestly, none of them understood if they were laughing at Magnus or with him, though Magnus was wearing a proud beam, therefore, it was likely the ladder if anything. They did seem to have a sense of humour. Perhaps these two aren’t so bad, after all. Given the fact that these two unfamiliar kids gave their names to the duo, Soren took it upon himself to provide him and Ivor their customary introductions, bringing a hand to his chest, talking a bit slowly at first;

“My name is Soren and this is my friend Ivor. Do you two live around here? I have never seen either of you before.” 

“Don’t answer, Ellie!” Magnus interrupted, hands hovered above his chest, “They may be creeps...!” 

“Stop being so paranoid.” 

“The worry can be understandable,” Ivor added quietly, close to interrupting Ellegaard, turning his head slightly aside, an out-of-character thing to say. Nowadays, at least.

Although Ivor spoke this one-liner nearly alike to inaudibly, a wave of hush befell upon each and every one of the kids in result, leaving the sound of a slight breeze and distant, unimportant voices all to the ears of the four. Ivor had single-handedly brought them all to an awkward silence, uncomfortable for all of the children for a few, thin seconds, though it felt like longer before Soren discontinued the inconvenient deadlock on any kind of known social cue with an apprehensive shrug, more to the right and a proposal which he said slowly;

“Perrrrrrhaps we could be friends? Ivor and I were planning some plans for the summer! If you want, you can join us.” 

“All I was going to do this summer was study redstone techniques,” Ellegaard raised an arm swiftly as she said that, closing her eyes and raising her shoulders with slight sass, “So, I wouldn’t mind.” 

“Yeahhhhhhh, I got nothing better to do either,” Magnus said glinting away with a shrug before turning back to Ellegaard addressing her, “Ellie, we should include Gabe.” 

“Gabe?” Ivor asked slowly, tilted head, “Who’s that?” 

“Gabriel,” Ellegaard answered, “He’s our friend. He’s likeable.” 

“This will be excellent!” Soren exclaimed, clapping his hands together, “Ivor and I were discussing how we were going to go and explore a cave later! You both could come too!” 

“I never agreed to that!” Ivor retaliated in a gasp, his hands bitterly closed and brought to his chest. You know something? It’s kind of funny how some people never change even throughout the span of several years.

“Well, if purple-eyed is up to it, so are we,” Magnus asked casually, one hand on his hip, “Where you two wanna meet?” 

- - -

The four children processed to discuss their plans to go on an adventure through a cave that same night which wasn’t quite a ways from Ellegaard’s, Magnus’s and “Gabriel’s” village, though their village wasn’t a very far venture from Soren’s and Ivor’s town either, which was good. It might be a dangerous risk, lives might be put in jeopardy but that would mean nothing more than it also being an adventure. After talking it over with one another, Magnus promised to bring wooden swords for the group, Soren promised to bring torches for the four, Ellegaard promised to inform their unseen friend, Gabriel to come along and, most importantly, each kid promised not to tell their parents that evening and go with the other few at nightfall without their parent’s knowledge or consent. Who knew that an adventure could be sparked by a clumsy action? What would happen if Soren wasn’t distracted? Maybe The Order Of The Stone would’ve never existed...! If only, huh?

This is the story of how The Order Of The Stone first began. Their Origin. This Is The Origin Of The Order.