#ALSO this was supposed to be a very loose and fast one once i dropped the initial idea but i got a bit carried away

[varjopeura]

a tomtom

[naeviskz]

WHIRLWIND ๑‧˚₊ ─── HHJ

synopsis ; you overreact just a teensy bit when you see hyunjin talking to another girl, but when you find out the actual reason why … you try everything you can to make it up to him.

genre 숌 non-idol au, boyfriend!hyunjin x girlfriend!reader | established relationship

words - 3.6k tags/warnings 숌 fluff, (some) angst? pwp, smut, reader gets very jealous easily/has possessive tendencies, small mentions of insecurities, v v v clingy & needy gf, marking, dry humping, dirty talk, oral (m), lowkey daddy kink, hj has a big cawk, breeding kink cause that’s my fave tehe. i will preface that oc kinda has a toxic way of thinking and it’s def not healthy to act this way irl !!

now playing 🎧 : cool with you by newjeans, streets by doja cat

☆ 彡

[ this my first ever writing that has smut in it so bear w/ me pls ;-; i’m still learning how to do this right haha, but lmk if you enjoyed this at all <3 **not proofread btw ! ]

“Let’s go on that one next Jinnie!!” You squeal like a giddish teenager as you point to the ride up ahead, violently pulling on Hyunjin’s hand his entire arm might just fall off.

It’ll be your 1 year anniversary in approximately a week, and what better way to pre celebrate than going to the amusement park and watching fireworks at night? You haven’t been to one in years, reminiscing all those times you were a kid innocently frolicking around, not having a single care in the world. Since you’re a fully grown adult now it’s an altered experience, you’re able to pick up on social cues and no longer need parental supervision. You forgot just how thrilling it was to let loose and have fun, all while spending it with your lovely boyfriend.

The current ride you’re both getting on is essentially a giant wooden pirate ship that swings in a horizontal motion, elevating you high up in the air. You don’t do heights very well but Hyunjin’s a little daredevil who gets off on the adrenaline rush. He’s tried convincing you to do skydiving but that’s just something you refuse to compromise on. Before going on the pirate ship ride you went on the teacups, which was probably your favorite one of today. You couldn’t stop giggling and teasing Hyunjin over how incredibly fast he was spinning the turn-wheel, almost forgetting that you were also supposed to contribute. Spending quality time with your boyfriend like this means everything to you, he makes you feel like you’re floating on a pink cloud whenever you’re together. Like nothing else matters but you and him.

As the day progressed, what was once a milky, pale blue sky has now become a smoky dull atmosphere. Night was approaching any minute, making the temperature drop dramatically— you regret leaving the house in just shorts and a crop top. Your limbs shaking and trembling involuntarily from gusts of cool air the wind casually blows, Hyunjin seems to take note of this and takes action immediately.

“Want my hoodie babe?” Hyunjin asks out of concern, ready to yank it off the minute you agree.

You profusely nod at his offer, unable to withstand the frigid weather for another second. He pauses momentarily to grab the hem of his Versace sweatshirt with his free hand, swiftly drawing it over his head and handing it to you. Underneath he wore a thin plain white tee, now suffering from the cold— but any sacrifice is worthy of making for his precious babygirl.

Quickly putting it on, your body feels instantly warmer from his body heat still embedded into the soft fabric. “You saved me Jinnie, I almost turned into a human popsicle!” Were you exaggerating a bit? Maybe, but that’s beside the point. You’re all cozy now in Hyunjin’s oversized hoodie, loving the fact that only you get to wear his clothes.

His eyes shape into crescents as he flashes an adoring smile, “my diet would only consist of peach flavored ___ popsicles for the rest of my life then.”

You swear he’s just the cutest, most adorable, sweetest thing to have ever walked this earth. Sometimes you wonder how you got so lucky to end up with a person as charming, and perfect as Hyunjin. He’d say the same about you too but there’s another layer to how you feel. You’re often very over protective and territorial over him, needing to know exactly where he is at all times and who he’s hanging out with. Most of the time he’s with you, either at your place or at his. There was a set routine you two had at this point, after he’s done with work he’ll call and let you know he’s on his way to yours. Hyunjin knows how paranoid you can get when he’s gone for too long so he makes sure to communicate with you as much as he can throughout the day. It’s hard to deal with someone as high maintenance as you but he makes it work, he likes that you’re always worried and concerned about him — he’d rather have a girlfriend like that than one who doesn’t care about him.

“Looks like the sun should be setting soon.. won’t be much longer ‘til the fireworks start!” You cheer out of excitement, part of the reason you wanted to come was to see them.

He nods in agreement, “you’re right, is there anything else you wanna ride before they start?”

As if your brain answered before you could even think, “You.”

His doe eyes widened at your bold reply, never quite getting used to your subtle dirty mind. “I’ll give you that in due time, don’t worry mamas.”

A little bit later on you challenged Hyunjin to try the ‘test your strength’ game and of course he couldn’t pass up a moment to impress you. He gets into a competitive sports stance, gripping the hammer tightly before he swung hard at the puck. The meter flew straight up and hit the bell on his first try, able to win whatever prize he wanted from the largest section. He lets you choose whichever plushy you wanted, a giant fluffy pink stuffed unicorn that you held in your other hand that wasn’t occupied with Hyunjin’s.

“Hyunjinnieee, ‘m getting kinda hungry,” you childishly whine in hopes of getting him to buy you both food.

Before he could even get a response out your eyes were already fixated on something. The glowing neon lights of a food stand selling mozzarella corn dogs, you’ve always wanted to try those as you see them all the time on TikTok. Without hesitation you make a mad dash for the line as you drag your innocent boyfriend along for the adventure. As you got closer you realize the lines pretty spread out, there was at least 20+ people waiting but you were willing to stay as you really wanted one.

Hyunjin detaches his hand from yours, making you question his sudden intentions, “be right back babe, m’gonna go to the restroom.” He politely excuses himself, “here’s my card just in case I don’t make it back in time.” Pulling his credit card from his wallet to hand you before venturing off.

“Don’t be gone for too long please, or else I’ll come find you myself.” You were dead serious too, honestly speaking you didn’t necessarily want him out of your sight but you trust that he’ll come back in a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully.

“I promise babe.” He reassures, giving a quick peck to your forehead before vanishing into the crowd.

After what seemed like an eternity, you manage to secure the corn dogs and pay for them with Hyunjin’s card. Realizing now that your boyfriend is still gone, it’s been a good 15-20 minutes and he promised that he’d be back. Now you have to go looking for him like a mother who’s just lost their child. Scanning every area of the park you came across, you begin to feel anxious when you don’t see him anywhere. A range of negative thoughts intrude your mind with possibilities of where he could’ve gone. What you weren’t expecting was for your intuition to be exactly spot on.

There he was standing in front a taco truck, talking and laughing with another girl. A girl you absolutely do not recognize and have no clue why or what she’s doing even having a conversation with your man. You couldn’t move at all, frozen in place as you watched the scene fold out in front of you, making you more livid as it continues. The mystery girl was pissing you off by the minute, the tiny skirt she wore barely left anything to the imagination and her body language was way too close for comfort for your liking. You had to put a stop to this immediately.

Slowly you make your way up to them, examining the situation further. The blonde girl tries to loom even closer to Hyunjin but he backs away a bit, a sheer look of fear and paranoia in his eyes. She keeps talking to him but he doesn’t really say much back, only half smiling and nodding. What makes you pick up your pace at lightning speed was when he pulls his phone out from his back pocket, as if he’s about to ask for her number.

You’ve seen enough, it’s time to intervene now.

Practically sprinting up to them you see the girl perk up when she sees you, giving a friendly wave and inviting smile as if she wasn’t just trying to steal your man a second ago. You’re ready to rip this bitches hair out and show her that she’s picked the wrong one to mess with today.

“Oh hi, you must be ___, it’s so good to finally meet you!” Her voice was so squeaky and high-pitched, not even in a cute way, just obnoxiously loud and annoying.

…How the fuck does this girl know who you are?

“Who the hell is this?” You snap at Hyunjin, completely ignoring the girl’s presence, “How does she know you?”

“I’m— ”

“I believe I asked my boyfriend, not you. Who is she?” You rudely cut her off to reiterate the question.

Hyunjin looks like he’s just witnessed a murder, his own murder to be exact. “This is Valerie, we went to high school together, I was just showing her your freelance work and all the cool designs you make ‘cause she’s looking for graphic designers and I think you’re really talented babe.”

Your heart just sank to the pit of your stomach. The balled up fist your right hand was clenching soon released itself, no longer in fight mode but flight mode from the sudden embarrassment you’re internally battling.

“Oh..”

“Uh, well it was nice talking to you Hyunjin! I’ll go find my husband now, but your graphics are incredible ___ and I’d love to hire you for a couple projects I have lined up. Here’s my business card!” She hands you the flimsy card stock and leaves in an instant.

Now you feel totally ridiculous for almost causing a scene and cursing out the girl and your boyfriend for just wanting to promote your work. You owe him an apology big time.

“I thought you were…”

“Flirting with another girl, seriously? You think I have a death wish or something? Of course I’d never try something like that. The first thing she saw was you as my lock screen when I checked the time. Plus she’s married, I don’t think she’d be that dumb.” Hyunjin further proves his case, making sure not to leave any details out.

“M’sorry baby, please forgive me.” You plead for forgiveness, regressing back to your softer, more gentle side “lemme make it up to you daddy.”

“Nngh! Hyunjin-” you keen into his ear as you rub your clothed heat against his toned thigh, holding onto him for stable support.

You seriously felt bad for acting out like that earlier, all you want to do now is make him feel so good he forgets all about your previous unhinged behavior. Lord knows what you’d do if you ever lose someone so important to you. You can’t think about that right now though. Right now was all about him and making him feel good, but you can’t help but get something out of it as well.

The backseat of his car was a bit cramped as he decided to take his smaller convertible instead of the SUV, not exactly bargaining that later on you’d be getting freaky in his vehicle. Nonetheless you enjoy each other’s company, not needing much space anyway — if anything you wanted to be as close to him as possible. If you could get inside his skin you probably would. You love Hyunjin more than yourself, often feeling like you aren’t good enough to be with him. Maybe the reason you’re so protective and jealous is because you fear he’ll leave you for someone better.

Lazily trailing your lips down further, placing small pecks here and there until you land on his neck, adorned with a dainty silver chain, nuzzling your face into the crook of it. He smells so good, the cologne he’s wearing along with his natural pheromones is an intoxicating concoction. You stick your tongue out, gliding the wet muscle over his bare skin, still feverishly rutting into him while listening to his ethereal moans.

“Mmm.. I love you.” He murmurs under his breath, slipping his hands underneath (his) your hoodie to feel you up. His hands travel upwards to find the valley of your breasts, still covered by the bra you’re wearing he slides underneath the cups to lightly squeeze them.

You nibble on his neck in response, harshly sucking on the flesh to leave visible love bites, you want to make it abundantly clear to the whole world Hwang Hyunjin belongs to you.

“I love you more Hyunjinnie,” you stop for a brief moment to say, “gonna prove it.” Which you will once you’re satisfied with marking his entire neck and chest with dozens of purple and red hickeys.

Even though he’s touching you, grinding his hard length into you and purring out your name, you need more. Craving to see and feel more of him, you tug at the hem of his t-shirt in hopes he catches your drift.

“Off. Now.” You demand sharply, getting more impatient by the second.

He obliges instantly, stripping the garment off his body to reveal the most gorgeous set of abs you’ve laid your eyes upon, he’s so unreal it makes you constantly question if you’re dreaming. You went from his neck to kissing his plump lips, his hand cupping the side of your face to deepen the kiss, both so desperate and horny for each other. Running your manicured hands down his beautiful body, just the tiniest flexing Hyunjin does with his muscles makes you go crazy. You need him to manhandle you, have you bent over and get fucked senselessly.

“Lie back Jinnie, m’gonna suck you off.” You command him to move, getting up from him so he can pivot into a more comfortable position.

He shuffles around, leaning into the leather seat before quickly undoing his pants and sliding them down his ankles. You get on your knees, disappearing between his legs to come in contact with his stiff erection. Tracing figure eights on his thighs, he hisses from your delicate touch. You couldn’t resist planting a chaste kiss to his stomach, leaving another wet kiss to his v-line. Any little touch makes Hyunjin’s heart beat out of his chest, he can’t get enough of you just as you can’t of him— high off each other like an addictive, psychoactive drug.

As you finally free his cock from the last barrier, his boxer briefs, you’re in awe from just how much precum he’s leaking already. His length stood straight up resting on his stomach, faint veins protruding around the shaft. You kiss his pretty pink tip while looking up at him with innocent eyes, grabbing the base of his cock, opening your mouth just a little to provide a few kitten licks. You’ve only just started but he feels like he’s going to come undone already.

“Shit-” he lowly grunts, feeling his cock pulsate in your tiny hand.

Taking him further in your mouth now, you manage to fit half of his length, bobbing your head up and down while keeping a tight suction on his cock. Hyunjin involuntarily rocks his hips into you, making you gag just a little from how big he is. You could never fit all of him (except for that one time you were super drunk and magically forgot what a gag reflex was) but you still try your best and that’s all that matters to him. He loves that you’re always willing to give him random blowjobs whenever and wherever, you both love public sex and the idea of possibly being caught. You take a short break to collect more saliva, spitting on his cock and spreading it with your hand to make it even messier. His mouth was permanently agape, staring down at you with lust filled eyes, not knowing how much longer he can last. When you start pumping his cock much faster along with swirling your tongue around it , he thinks he might just lose it. Panting heavily, he shifts underneath you in attempt to get you to stop but you keep sucking like the cock hungry slut you are for him. He’s seriously going to nut any minute if you continue at this rate.

“Babe.. you’re gonna make me cum if you keep this up…” he closes his eyes, almost giving in to what’s inevitably about to come.

“Isn’t that the goal?” You ask quickly before going back.

“No,” he says, slightly frustrated with you for not obeying, “fucking this tight little pussy is.”

You’re confused when he’s pulling you away from him, moving you from the floor and back onto his lap all in one swift action, manhandling you for real this time. “What’re you doing!” You raise your voice at him like a brat, to which he spanks your behind in response.

“Shh.. relax.” He shuts you up by pulling you in for a slow, sensual kiss.

You moan into his mouth, melting right into his touch like always. “Need you so bad please..” you whine for to feel more of him.

“Tell me what you need, I’ll give it to you baby.” He promises, lacing his fingers in your hair, looking at you with pure admiration.

“Your cock.. need your big fat cock inside me now,” you beg like a good girl, “please daddy, i’m literally soaking for you.” Shameless at this point with how you talk, but you know the dirtier you get the more Hyunjin likes it.

He can’t say no when you ask so polite that. “I’ll give it to you, I’ll give you whatever you want princess.”

And he does.

Once he rids you of your shorts and underwear, you’re back on top of him, lining yourself up with his thick cock that slides right in from you being so ready.

“Fuck you’re so wet baby.. you take this cock so well cutie,” he praises you in the hottest way possible. You’ll never get tired of hearing him talk like this to you, hence why you love to have sex so much.

“Only for you daddy.” You breathlessly spoke, getting used to his length for a moment before beginning to move. Slowly bouncing up and down his member at first until Hyunjin slams his cock into you, walls clenching as you feel every inch of him. You shifted from grinding on him in slow motion to picking up your speed, placing both hands around his neck. Hyunjin throws his head back in pleasure, wrapping his hand around your waist as the other grips the soft flesh of your ass.

“Mine… your cock is mine,” you’re going faster and faster, crying out as he matches your movements, thrusting back into you hard. “Only I get to ride this everyday.”

He doesn’t hesitate to agree, letting you know exactly who he belongs to. “I’m all yours babygirl, can have this cock as much as you want, use me to get yourself off..”

You feel like you’re about to come soon, legs shaking and spasming from his girth splitting you open. “Yes baby..” you couldn’t think straight anymore, “love your cock so much Jinnie..” You mewl from being so full and cockstuffed “mmph.. wanna have your babies.”

“Yeah? Want me to fill your little cunt with all my cum and get you pregnant, hmm ? That what you want pretty girl?” He sounded so pussy drunk he couldn’t even blame you for wanting to any of this.

One more thrust was all it took for the thread to unravel inside of you, seeing white, glowing stars as you get closer to your orgasm.

“Jinnie kiss me.”

He does as he’s told, grabbing your face to kiss you roughly, entering his tongue in your mouth to intertwine with yours. He’s so good at everything he does it’s insane. Maybe if the dick wasn’t so damn good you wouldn’t be half as crazy.

“I’m so close princess..” he announces, slipping one of his long, slender digits onto your clit, coaxing your release.

“Me too.”

Everything feels ultra sensitive to you as you approach your climax, whimpering as Hyunjin sucks on your perked nipples while you continue riding him. A sudden rambunctious crackling sound startles the both of you, but what you weren’t expecting to see outside were fireworks lighting up the night sky. You’d completely forgot how excited you were to see them, watching in amazement as all the vibrant colors morph together. Leaning in to tenderly kiss your boyfriend who was also momentarily distracted, you get back right to business, chasing after your highs. Hyunjin finishes inside you like you wanted, feeling his hot seed spill into your aching heat. You came undone shortly after, holding onto him while your bare chests collide. Fireworks detonate inside your body as they do outside.

As if the universe had orchestrated the perfect 1 year anniversary pre celebration just for the two of you; a perfect moment to seal your love with the glittering magic of romance and fireworks combined. Hyunjin’s so happy to have met someone like you, someone who loves him so passionately and so deeply. He may not understand why you think the way you do sometimes, or react with such brash methods, but he knows that you do it out of pure love. It’s a whirlwind of emotions dating you but he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world or have it any other way.

- 完 ♡︎

[shepscapades]

giggling kickimg my feet

I'm sorry I just love these two in your artstyle and in your au (dbhc docsuma save me, save me dbhc docsuma,,,)

Also I'm such a big fan of body language in your comics so--

uh

closed position! It's a sign of anger, discomfort and overall it can be seen as creating a barrier which well happens here, Xisuma was leaving when Doc stopped him, X doesn't want to talk to him but he still pretends like it's completely fine, the "Sure! What's up?" is bolder than his previous talking because it's clearly forced here, he really doesn't want to stay here any longer but on the other hand he also doesn't want to upset Doc (trying to please everyone huh)

it shows in how his speech is constructed here, he wants the conversation to end as fast as possible, he's not hesitant he just flatly anwers everything as if he didn't care about the outcome or about Doc's concerns, just dismissing him, shoving him away , trying to hide his nervousness from Doc but well.. failing as we can see in the next pages

Doc starts feeling uncomfortable and unsure, he's overwhelmed by the flat response because he knows Xisuma never talks like that, he knows him, he knows X would at least reconsider what he's saying

Xisuma's response really worries Doc here (love the visual of a shadow behind the speech bubble indicating that it's in fact supposed to be a bit worrying as a response) Doc is certain now that something isn't right, he talks about his concerns and once again rubs his neck which shows he's really uncomfortable right now.

Xisuma's tail stills and his speech bubbles become loose and foggy, as if he just started wondering about something, as if he started slowly coming back to his senses because of Doc's reaction, he's busy and doesn't want to talk with Doc but still he doesn't want to upset his friend and it's exactly what he just did. X becomes unsure he's unsure of himself 'what am I doing?' (also just a quick thought, I love his shoes, like what even are they)

it continues on the next page, his speech bubbles still loose and foggy, he's rubbing the back of his neck - he's unsure, he shouldn't act like that, he maybe even feels a bit bad about himself: how could he just dismiss Doc and his concerns like that? He's not himself and he knows it, his fins also drop which indicates his unsureness even more, he's afraid of himself (also his style of speech changes, he's not speaking flatly like before but actually hesitates a bit before saying anything)

Xisuma's concerns disappear instantly as if something took over him the moment he started getting close to thinking something isn't right (Evil X heheheheh <3) it's visible in his eyes (they deifinetely weren't pink before, it's kinda cool it's the only time we see them in this comic tho) speech bubbles: the lines are bolder as if they were forcing his thoughts to stay in them, to not wander around, to not overthink anything, to not think about anything else in contrast to the loose foggy speech bubbles. Also colour of the text changed, from Xisuma's normal toned purplish pink to very saturated pink, which could be a sign of control (this control doesn't last very long because in the next page it changes back to a bit more toned purplish pink but still a bit bolder than the one from the loose bubbles from before

the concerning thing is that X isn't as nervous as he was at the start, now he doesn't dismiss Doc with ending all of his statements with "." but with "!" (+the tail swishing) as if he was more cheerful now, as if he forgot about anything that just happened. Doc is ofc concerned about that (his eye glowing yellow, him standing in a closed position in the last panel, still unsure and unconvinced. Worried about his friend too, he knows something isn't right,,,

aye uh, I just wrote this in one sitting, sorry if this is nonsense but dbhc docsuma is doing things to my brain

I could ramble about this even more but I think it would lose sense after some time so tee hee

I could talk about manipulation and it's victims so much more but uhhh too much writing already, also love body language with all my heart so this is a treat for me

MAYYYY THIS BREAKDOWN IS INSANENNEEEEE I’m gonna clear up some of the emotions that are being traded here (like, I think X’s standoffishness might be more of a restless kind of thing than anger or annoyance) when I make the explanation/breakdown post, but MAN I just wanted to post this so I can thank u for your insanity and let you know it goes SUPER seen and I’m kicking my feet like a crazy person (there are a LOT of really really good theory posts and asks that I can’t/don’t want to answer yet so this is also me saying I read/see everything please know this) but i hated to let this sit in my ask box HEHE

It’s SOOO gratifying to see someone pick through all of the details :D and i can’t wait to explain everything in more detail!!! >:D

[libraryofgage]

Harlequin Prince (3)

Part of: Steve Deserves Good Parents, Actually

Debbie and Fester Addams One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six Rick and Evelyn O'Connell One | Two | Three Harley Quinn One | Two | Three (you're here!) 10th Doctor and Rose One | Two Scooby Gang (there are plans for this one lmao, so plz be patient with me orz) Jedidiah and Octavius (from Night at the Museum) One | Two Queen Clarisse Renaldi One | Two | Three Leverage Crew One

So that Suicide Squad Isekai anime huh (it's great, I love it actually)

Anyway, I'll be playing fast and loose with Batman canon so all the batkids can be around at the same time have fun with that cuz I did (also forgive me if anyone is a little too OOC; i'm here for a good time not a long time), and the little flashback bit will continue in the next parts as Steve meets more batkids ^_^

As always, if you see any typos, no you didn't UwU

----

Harley drops him off at Wayne Manor just after ten in the morning. She tugs a window open, carries him inside, kisses him on the forehead, and promises to pick him up in a week before climbing back out. Steve watches her until she's past the gate, clutching a Green Lantern plush his mother insisted he carry around because it'll annoy his Uncle Bruce.

Steve glances down at the plush, wishing his mother didn't have to go off on a mission when she'd just gotten out of Arkham two months ago. His wishes won't actually change anything, though, so he might as well make the best of his week with Uncle Bruce.

He turns on his heel, taking in the plain bedroom that will probably become his for the next few days. He holds the Green Lantern plush close and marches to the door, stepping out into the hall and choosing a random direction to walk in.

According to his mother, Wayne Manor can have anywhere between two and ten people staying in it at one time. She told him that Dick would be the most welcoming, if not the most confused, the girls would be the most fun, and Damien would be the most guarded, likely to consider him a threat for his entire stay.

It's just his luck that the first person he runs into is Damien. The other boy drops from the ceiling, blade of his sword glinting in the light as it comes to a stop just against Steve's neck. Steve freezes, glancing down at the sharp edge as Damien says, "Think very carefully before answering. Who are you, and what are you doing in my home?"

Steve looks away from the sword, tilting his head slightly as he shrugs. "I'm Steve. I'm staying here for a week," he says.

Damien's eyes narrow, and he takes a step closer, adjusting his arms so the katana doesn't move. "Says who? Does Father know you're here? Are you a spy sent by my mother?"

"Says my mom. Maybe. No," Steve replies.

A few more seconds pass before Damien hums. "Who's your mother?"

"Harley."

"Quinn?"

"Is there another?"

Slowly, Damien lowers the sword. "I suppose Quinn is somewhat reformed. How old are you?" he asks.

"Almost six."

"So, you're five," Damien says, nodding once. He sheathes his sword, apparently deciding Steve is no threat to him. "That makes me older than you, so you have to do what I say. Consider me your big brother for the week."

"Are you gonna make me hurt myself?"

"No."

"Mom said you wouldn't like me."

"Father said I should try being more trusting and welcoming. You are small and untrained, like a puppy. I could dismember you before you hurt me, which makes you ideal for practicing," Damien explains. He's quiet for a few seconds before getting a slight smirk. "Besides, it will greatly annoy my brothers if you obviously prefer me over them."

"I'm great at pretending as long as we can do fun stuff, too."

"Then we have a deal. You will act like I'm your favorite, and I will make sure you have fun."

Steve considers this, decides Damien is well on his way to actually being Steve's favorite, and steps closer. "Mom said Alfred makes the best cookies. Can we have some?"

"Yes," Damien says, "If you're hungry, then it's my responsibility to feed you as your big brother."

He offers his hand, seeming unsure when Steve takes it, like he isn't used to this kind of contact. Still, he doesn't pull away; he just hesitantly squeezes Steve's hand before leading him down the hall.

----

Not two days ago, Steve was telling himself he'd never set foot in Hawkins High School. Now, after getting the run down on the Upside Down (and holy shit did this place suddenly get a thousand times more interesting), Steve decides he'll just have to brave the brick walls to get Eddie out.

He leans forward on his motorcycle, arms resting on the handlebars as he looks up at the building. There's an American flag waving in the wind, faded paint on the outside, and security so lax it'd be suspicious in Gotham. Steve briefly considers leaving his helmet on, but he settles for placing it on the seat once he's off the motorcycle.

Walking into the school is easy. He doesn't even get stopped by the receptionist at the front desk. She just waves him in without looking up from her book. So, yeah, getting in is easy; figuring out where Eddie is might be a little harder.

He wanders the halls and stops the first student he sees, a girl with short brown hair carrying an unwieldy instrument case in her arms. Steve places his hands on the case and gently pushes down, flashing a grin when he can finally see her face. "Uh, can I help you?" she asks, her tone implying she very much does not want to help him.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone," Steve says.

Her nose wrinkles slightly in disgust. "Listen, dingus, if this is some kind of pick-up line dare, save it," she says, rolling her eyes. She takes a step back and Steve follows.

"Nope, definitely not," he says, "You're not my type, sorry."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, unless you're not a girl...," he says, voice trailing off and eyebrow raising as he watches her understand his meaning.

She blinks, her shoulders rising some. She glances around, confirms the hallway is still empty, and relaxes. "Word of advice," she says, "don't just say that shit where anyone can hear. People aren't exactly nice about it around here."

Steve flashes a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I can take care of myself, but thanks. Anyway, still looking for someone."

"Oh, right, uh, what's their name?"

"Eddie Munson. Know him?"

She blinks again, her eyebrows shooting up in slight disbelief. "Yeah, I know him. Whatcha need him for? He doesn't usually sell until after school."

Oh. Steve hums softly, filing away that tidbit of information for later. "Not here to buy. I'm here to take him somewhere fun," he says.

A few seconds pass in which the girl looks at Steve, drops her gaze to the instrument case between them, and then glances around the empty hall. "Well, shit, man, I wanna go somewhere fun, too."

Steve considers her for a moment, trying to figure out the logistics of fitting her and Eddie on his bike. Well, he can just have her sit on the handlebars or something. "Okay, but the instrument won't fit," he tells her.

The grin he gets in return tells him that won't be a problem. "Name's Robin, by the way."

This has to be fate, right?

"Steve. Nice to meetcha, Robin."

Robin's grin gets even wider, and Steve knows they'll be great friends.

---

"Eddie usually sits in a corner," Robin says, standing at the edge of the cafeteria with Steve. It's teeming with life, and Steve hears snippets of conversations that blur into one dull roar that settles over the space. It reminds him of bars in Gotham even more than the actual bars he's visited here in Hawkins.

He can't see into the corners from here, but that doesn't bother him. "Wait here," he says, flashing a grin at Robin before walking to a mostly empty table. He climbs onto it, reaches into one of his jacket's inner pockets, and pulls out an air horn.

Steve waits long enough to see Robin cover her ears before raising the horn in the air and pressing down. It blares through the room, drowning out conversations and forcing people at the surrounding tables to cover their ears. A few more seconds pass before Steve lets up on the horn, grinning widely at the sea of eyes turned towards him.

"I'm looking for Eddie Munson," he says, twirling the air horn in the palm of his hand.

Instead of a verbal answer, he watches as the eyes turn from him to a corner across the room. A few people even duck close to their tables to clear Steve's line of sight, allowing him to see a confused Eddie sitting with his friends.

Steve grins, pockets the air horn, and starts making his way across the cafeteria. He walks on tables, jumps between them, and narrowly avoids stepping on more than one tray along the way. By the time he reaches Eddie's table, most of the students have gone back to their lunches and conversations.

"How's it going, Eds?" Steve asks, crouching in front of Eddie with a grin. He glances at the other boys by him, notes the identical Hellfire Club shirts, and nods in acknowledgement.

"Better now," Eddie says, his startled blink telling Steve he definitely didn't mean to say that out loud.

Steve somehow grins wider. "Wanna make like a banana and split? I've got somewhere fun in mind," he says, popping up from his crouch before hopping off the table and into the narrow space between Eddie's chair and his friend's.

"Dude, really?" one of his friends asks. "We have a session today."

Eddie looks torn at that realization, halfway standing and stuck like that. "That we do, Gare-bear," he says, defeat bringing his shoulders down.

"In that case, consider this a kidnapping," Steve tells them, grabbing Eddie's hand and pulling him up. He wraps his arm around Eddie's shoulders, winks at his friends, and promises, "I'll have him home before six, though."

Eddie's friends exchange glances, and Steve graciously pretends not to notice the puppy dog eyes Eddie aims at them. After a few seconds, one of them stands up, towering over Steve and outweighing him by a good bit. He clears his throat, glances at the other two, and tries to sound intimidating as he says, "Make it five thirty, and no funny business."

Steve nods and offers a mocking two-finger salute. "Yes, sir," he replies, flashing a grin before taking Eddie's bag from his seat and dragging him to where Robin is waiting.

"So, where are you kidnapping me to?" Eddie asks, managing to stick close to Steve despite having to weave through chairs and tables.

"Nothing special, really. Just an abandoned laboratory in the middle of the woods that has a gateway to another dimension filled with faceless monsters. Oh, and Robin's coming, too. Don't worry, though, I won't let you get hurt. "

He glances over to meet Eddie's wide eyes, something warm curling behind his ribs when Eddie finally smiles and whispers under his breath, "Fucking metal."

-----

Tag List (definitely still room, so let me know if you'd like to be tagged!):

@nectandra, @y4r3luv, @just-a-tiny-void, @dotdot-wierdlife

@midwestharpy, @twilitdragoneye, @disrespectedgoatman

@lawrencebshoggoth,

And now, a meme:

[writeforfandoms]

Warrior Song 7

Find the series masterlist

Okay we are still playing real fast and loose with canon. In fact, a lot of canon rules have gone out the window by now. Just roll with it. It’ll be fun. 

Blue Team plus medic and Fernando experience some unintended side effects of an unknown pollen. 

Warnings: Cuddle pollen, swearing, medical jargon, discussion of touch starvation. 

Word count: 2.9k

Master Chief/John-117 x f!reader

Blue Team made surprisingly good company. Sure, they didn’t talk a lot, but they were all easy with each other, and took instruction well. 

Because of course you took charge of making camp and making sure everyone actually ate. Since your expertise as a medic wasn’t needed, this was close enough. 

It had been a week and a half since you all started on this quest. So far, there had been four more bases and some searching for clues. Despite the lack of actual progress, Blue Team didn’t seem disappointed.

If anything, they seemed to be relaxing a little, slightly more open with you and Fernando both. 

“They’re heading back,” Fernando told you, standing lookout behind you. 

“Okay.” You dug out one more wild onion and put it in your basket before you straightened. “At least we’ll have a good dinner tonight.”

“I still can’t believe you caught one of those things,” he muttered, referring to the rabbit-like creature you’d managed to snag for dinner. 

“Just because they can eat MREs until the end of time doesn’t mean I want to,” you shot back with a prim sniff. You brushed off your knees as you stood, gathering up your basket. “Are they very far?” 

“We’ve got time to get back to the Pelican.” Fernando smirked and started walking. “As long as you don’t lag behind.”

“Hey!” Pouting, you jogged to catch up to him. “Just for that, I’m not going to give you any of this delicious soup.” 

“Aw, come on, you like me too much to deny me.” 

“We’ll see about that.”

The friendly bickering continued back to the Pelican, where you set Fernando to chopping up the onions while you worked on the meat. This had turned out to be a good spot - quiet and open enough to see any potential problems coming, with a small river in the opposite direction the Spartans had gone. You’d even gathered up enough firewood to keep a fire going all night. 

The meat was in the stew pot by the time Blue Team trudged up, all of them half-covered in bright yellow pollen. Your mouth dropped open. 

“What the hell happened?” you asked, blatantly staring. 

“Some flowers threw up on us,” Kelly answered, dry and vaguely disgusted. 

“They ejected all their pollen at us,” Linda corrected, though she also sounded vaguely disgusted. 

“We’re going to wash,” Fred added. 

“You want some rags?” You were already standing to get some for them, poking the meat one more time to be sure it would be fine for a minute. 

“Might as well.” Fred waited while you grabbed a handful of rags, tossing them over. With a lazy salute, he went after the others in the direction of the river. 

“They look ridiculous,” Fernando said once they were probably out of hearing range.

“Right?” You couldn’t help but snicker. “Seriously, I thought they went rolling through a flower field or something.”

Fernando cackled. “I will cherish that mental image forever.” 

You finished adding everything to the soup and gave it one more stir before you nodded. “Well, soup just has to sit and cook for a while, the longer the better. Think we should go help them scrub, or leave them to it?”

Fernando made an exaggerated thinking face, rubbing at his beard. “I suppose we should help,” he agreed on a sigh. “Or they’ll be out there all night.” 

“Copy that.” You smirked at Fernando’s huff of laughter, and the two of you headed after the Spartans. 

All four of them were in the river, scrubbing at the armor, which still had pollen clinging stubbornly.

“This might be easier if you take it off,” you said, planting your hands on your hips and surveying their progress critically. “Fernando and I can help that way.” 

Fred waded back to shore, pulling his helmet off and handing it to you first. “Thanks,” he mumbled, looking faintly embarrassed. “The pollen is more… resilient than anticipated.”

“We’ll get it off. Eventually.” Setting down his helmet away from the potential splash zone, you and Fernando helped him take off the chest and back plates, and you each got scrubbing. 

“The hell is this made of?” Fernando grumbled, glowering at the chest plate. 

“Something very stubborn,” you huffed, raising your clean hand to rub under your nose briefly. You made a triumphant noise as you scraped the last of it off the back plate, and set it aside. “Kelly, I’ll get yours next.” 

Kelly walked over obediently and helped you get her chest plate off, which was practically coated in pollen. You sat to work on it while she scrubbed at her legs. 

“Joy, you made note of these flowers, right? And have labeled them as avoid at all costs?” 

“I did,” the AI confirmed. “I’ll upload the information to your tablet as well.”

“Thank you.” You wiggled your nose as it itched again, dipping your rag in the water to get rid of the pollen before getting back to scrubbing. 

“You’re up next, Chief,” Fernando said far too cheerfully. “And don’t object, Fred is helping Linda.” 

John sighed but relented. He even took off his helmet, the last to do so, as he let Fernando wrestle the back plate off. You couldn’t help but snicker at the sight. 

“Boy am I glad dinner is cooking,” you muttered. 

“You cooked?” Fred whipped around to look at you. 

“Look, I don’t know how you live off of MREs, but I refuse. Yes, I cooked.” You set the chest plate aside and motioned Kelly closer to help scrub the leg armor. 

For a few minutes, everyone was silent. You noticed Fernando shifting closer to you until he was pressed back to back with you, and you pressed back into him. Oh that felt nice. You could probably nap like that. 

And then Fred sat next to Fernando, armor off, radiating warmth. And he pressed into your little tangle. 

That was even better, and you hummed a pleased note. 

“Joy.”

The almost-sharp command from John made you look around, immediately wary. 

“I’m on it,” Joy agreed. On what? You didn’t see anything. Linda settled near you, hands twitching. 

"How do you feel?" John crouched in front of you, looking you over quickly. He even started to reach for you, but checked himself. 

"Okay," you answered slowly, frowning. His concern was making you concerned and was quickly spiraling into outright anxiety. "A little jittery? A little cold? Kind of tired?" 

Fred made a little noise behind you and pressed against you, very nearly toppling you with accidental strength. 

"Everyone up," John snapped, getting to his feet. He hauled you up after with very little apparent effort. 

"Chief, whatever this is, it isn't poisonous. Vitals are all holding steady," Joy piped up from his helmet. 

"Back to the Pelican." John's voice was hard, allowing for no argument. 

Nobody actually complained, just grabbed all the gear and started walking. You ended up carrying two helmets - John's and Linda's. There was also a gun. You definitely hadn't picked that up, and had no idea where it had come from. 

That sounded like a later problem. 

You were getting cold, shivering as you walked. Fernando, walking ahead of you, didn't seem to be much better off. 

But it wasn't far to the Pelican, and everyone was quick to set things down. 

You were the first to crack. You inched closer to John until you could lean into his side, and then you sighed as you started to warm up, already feeling better. Fernando nearly jumped to join you, squishing you just a little between the two men. 

"The hell is that?" Fred asked, even as he was sandwiched between Linda and Kelly. 

"Well, if I had to give it some kind of a name, it seems to be… cuddle pollen?" Joy sounded caught between amusement and sheer regret. 

"Cuddle pollen?" The question from Fernando was slightly muffled because he refused to lift his head from your shoulder. 

"Well, you all seem to need to be touching," Joy explained slowly. "But your vitals are all fine! Some minor temperature fluctuations, but everything else is within standard ranges for each of you." 

You shrugged. "Cuddle pollen. Huh." You huffed a little. It was getting harder to actually think. "I vote dinner first, then bed." 

Nobody actually opposed you, so you tore yourself away from the absolutely divine warmth of John's side to serve the soup. John very nearly grabbed for you, but restrained himself at the last moment. Fernando, on the other hand, was quite happy to take your place. Traitor. 

Dinner was silent. Not the same kind of silent as usual, but the kind of thick silence that comes from a whole group of people who can't think straight enough to hold a conversation. You ended up on John's other side, with Kelly's feet on one of your thighs. Which did eventually make you grimace and pluck at the undersuit. 

"You all should get changed. There's spare clothes for you." 

"Spare clothes?" Linda lifted her head like a predator scenting prey. 

"Uh. Yeah." Suddenly embarrassed, you ducked your head. "Thought people might need them. At some point." 

A moment later you were lifted off the ground in a bear hug. Fred didn't set you down again for a few moments, and then he lumbered inside to change. 

Joy definitely had to prompt you and Fernando to put out the fire and to change into dry clothes, but that was fine. Actually, that gave Blue Team time to rally, and rally they had. Every pillow, bedroll, and blanket had been combined on the floor of the Pelican into something resembling a comfy sleep space. 

Fernando was quick to cuddle up between John's back and Linda. John himself was sitting up, watching you. 

At least until you got within grabbing distance. 

One moment you were trying to figure out where to join the cuddle pile, the next you were in John's arms being manhandled with your back to his chest. With a satisfied rumble, John laid down and curled around you, a protective barrier between you and the rest of the world. 

Well. A protective barrier between you and the Pelican, since the ramp was up and the ship was entirely closed off. 

"Was that really necessary?" Linda asked, sounding more amused than aggravated. 

John didn't answer, just tucked his head against the back of yours, clearly intent on holding you. 

There was a bit of almost drunk-sounding giggling from… Fernando? And a grumble from Fred. 

And then a soft snore. 

Warm and relaxed and utterly content with this arrangement, you laid your hands over John's arms and closed your eyes. 

Soft talking woke you, and you blinked rapidly. You were warm, your head pillowed on something surprisingly firm and warm. A careful shift of your weight confirmed that there was someone behind you. 

“Morning, sunshine.” Fernando crouched in front of you with a shit-eating grin. 

You made a rude noise at him and rolled away from the person behind you to lay flat on your belly, hoping to ignore everyone and everything for a little while longer. 

“You need to drink something.” Fernando set a bottle down next to you. You knew it was a bottle because he put it right next to your head, so the chill of it seeped to your skin. 

“Why.” You didn’t lift your head.

“Prevent dehydration. Also, I bet Chief needs to get up by now.”

That made you squeeze your eyes shut. “Tell me I didn’t cuddle him all night,” you whimpered.

“It was adorable.” That came from Kelly. 

You swore softly but sat up, grabbing the water bottle and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Movement to the side of you got you to glance at John, still dressed down in the shirt and soft pants you’d picked up for all the Spartans. 

“Don’t worry, Linda is an aggressive cuddler,” Fernando stage-whispered to you. “I’m just glad nobody kicks in their sleep.”

“Fred used to,” Kelly piped up. “As a kid.”

“Not for long,” Fred grumbled. “Why do you even still remember that.”

The two bantered back and forth, and the bantering helped to put you more at ease. Although, really, now that you were awake you felt great. You didn’t feel tired or achy at all. That was quite possibly the best sleep you’d had in… months.

Which got you thinking about why. Human contact. It had been ages since you’d cuddled with anyone, let alone the human heater that was John. You still didn’t get a lot of hugs, not on the Halo with things as they were. 

A quick look showed Fernando looked better too, the circles under his eyes already fading, shoulders more at ease. The Spartans were harder to read, but they certainly seemed more relaxed this morning, willing to banter. 

Everybody in the Pelican seemed to be suffering from touch starvation to some degree, and the cuddle pile had actually helped. You hadn’t even thought of it, had never even considered, and yet. Proof sat before your eyes. 

Setting your water aside, you focused on Fernando. “How do you feel?”

“Fine. Good, actually.” He shrugged. “Good night’s sleep will do that.”

“And you?” You looked at Kelly next. 

“Fine.” 

“Fine, or better than fine?” 

She hesitated, which was as good as an answer. So you looked at Fred, who shrugged but also looked down as the bridge of his nose went pink. Linda met your gaze with a little smile. 

And John… John held your gaze, something warm and affectionate there. 

“Huh.” You chewed on your lower lip for a moment before you stood. “Joy, where were those flowers?” 

“You’re not going to find them?” Fernando leaned closer to you, squinting at you. “Did you overheat? Are you feeling okay?” 

You waved him off, turning away. “I feel great, actually, which is what I’m trying to investigate. That cuddle pollen actually seems to have had a positive effect on all of us, even if only through lowering barriers so we could sleep in a pile and put a dent in our undoubtedly massive touch starvation debt.” 

“Touch starvation?” This time Linda asked, watching you with interest. 

“Humans are pack animals,” you told her, searching for your shoes, one of which had vanished. “Hugging actually reduces cortisol, among other things, allowing for better sleep. Helps block stress hormones. Boosts oxytocin. All that good stuff.” With a triumphant noise, you grabbed the wayward shoe and stuffed your foot in it. “There have been dozens of medical studies about the positive health impacts of hugs, cuddling, all of that. So, conversely, people who go without touch for a long time become touch starved, it can be pretty serious.” 

“Still doesn’t explain why you want to go find the plants.” Fernando put himself between you and the ramp, arms crossed over his chest.

You paused, tapping your fingers against your thigh. “I’ve never seen anything like that pollen. I don’t know if it could be helpful, medically speaking, but probably. I’m not on the R&D side, I don’t know. What I do know is it’s something new and therefore worth documenting, at least.” 

“You’re not planning to sprinkle it in our food or anything, are you?” He eyed you almost warily.

You jerked back, honestly hurt. “I would never! Look, I may do some ethically questionable things, like shouting my more stubborn patients into submission, but I would never do anything like that.” You hit the button to lower the ramp a little harder than normal, turning away from Fernando. “I want you all to have breakfast and drink a full bottle of water, just in case.” 

And then you left, stepping around Fernando and ignoring his verbal stumbling, hopping off the ramp before it had even finished lowering. 

You didn’t slow down until you heard footsteps behind you. You paused and then shrugged. Whoever it was could catch up to you if they wanted. 

Of course, you’d also left without a way to talk to Joy. So you just… wandered off the way you’d seen Blue Team go yesterday, and hoped for the best. 

“You need to head more west.”

You paused long enough to let Linda catch up to you. She was without armor, since you’d left so hurriedly. Come to think of it, you had no way to even gather some of the pollen if you did walk to the plants. 

“Sorry.” You grimaced. “This is silly. We should go back.”

She shrugged. “In a bit.” 

You let your shoulders drop, looking away. “Well. I’m glad you lot slept well, at least.”

She nodded slowly. “It was… nice. Odd. But nice.”

“Maybe you should make it a new Blue Team tradition,” you offered, half-joking. 

“Pretty sure John won’t want to restrict it to Blue Team.” The look she gave you quite clearly indicated something you weren’t ready to admit just yet.

“Yes, well.” You shrugged. “That sounds like a John problem.”

Linda dipped her head to acknowledge the current stalemate. “Take your time,” was all she said. 

You weren’t sure how to respond to that. So you didn’t, not really, just turned away to see if you could find any other useful plants here. 

And if you desperately wanted to crawl back into that makeshift bed with John, you kept it firmly to yourself.

[eltube]

(new fic!) Evil-Adult-Anon

I wrote this fic as a gift for @kndrules’ birthday this year (Happy Birthday Jay!) and after he mentioned it offhand someone was interested in reading it—so I am posting it here for all to see!

It takes place in our adult AU, where—for reference—sector V members are about 35 years old. This fic doesn’t feature sector V, though; it stars Cree!! Who is in her forties, a Japanese history professor, and still coming to terms with her life after Father. (Father is recently in prison—basically, if you have any questions about the details of this timeline, feel free to ask about it.) It also features special guests (The) Steve and The Toilenator, though you may not recognize him at first.

Enjoy!

With every step she took into the hotel lobby, Cree gripped the shoulder strap of her canvas bag a little tighter. She had tried to dress casual, but put-together: one of her nicer cardigan sweaters, the pants she actually ironed, and her new shoes with the fancy broguing on the sides. Her locs were tied back in a small, loose bun behind her, and she figured that–at least if nobody zeroed in on the death grip of that one hand on her bag–she probably looked pretty composed from the outside. 

She needed the death grip though, because the farther away she got from her partner’s familiar car, the more she felt her bravado slipping away, already making a smaller woman under this big, domed ceiling. Steve had told her way too many times that she’s “got this,” working his clueless magic that once again made her enough of a fool to believe him. Now, the stronger illusion of her–the stranger who so confidently waved at Steve as he dropped her off, as if this was all her idea–was looking down at her real self with a mixture of smug superiority and pity. 

She ran her palm along the bag’s material as she walked on the lobby carpet, grounding herself (as she had been taught to call it) by feeling the bumps along the surface. She recognized and remembered the shapes of the file folders, overflowing with booklets of paper, packed inside. Cree had brought her students’ essays along with her, like she always did during exam seasons in case she had a few moments to catch up on marking them. 

In this case, bringing the student papers along had been a kind of silent, last-ditch prayer of desperation. Like, maybe this whole thing would actually be cancelled, right? Everyone would go home, not even knowing she had shown up, and she could sit peacefully alone on these pearly white couches until Steve’s band finished practicing, just reading first-year history students’ takes on bushido and cracking up without a care in the world. 

It wasn’t going to happen–but honestly, she just needed the fantasy to get her out the door. As the knots in her stomach were reminding her very loudly now, she really did not want to come.

Trying the grounding again, Cree focused on the surroundings of the hotel as she moved towards the conference room, reminding herself to “name three things” for each of her senses. She had resisted this strategy at first, how babyish it sounded. To her displeasure though, she had to admit that when she actually tried it eventually, the damn thing worked.

I hear…the front desk people typing. Luggage carts. A fountain.

I see…ugly wallpaper. Plants. A snack counter…huh, looks like they have ice cream. That logo is familiar. 

I smell…what do hotels smell like? The scent of blandness? Parfum du nothing? ‘Clean stank’? Sure, those count as three things.

I taste…DAMMIT! FUCK! SHIT!

A jolt of surprised rage yanked Cree out of the ritual. She strode directly into something blocking her path, priming her to explode at whoever put it there–and then, just as fast, a wave of hot embarrassment followed. She realized she had knocked her foot against a sign outside the conference room. It was, actually, the exact sign she was supposed to be looking out for.

 “SUPPORT GROUP HERE,”--the text on the cardboard seemed to be shouting out loud to mock her as it toppled over. Cree couldn’t help but project onto it like it was a person she hated, some shrill little kid maybe, pointing and going LOOK WHAT THIS WEIRD LADY DID for the whole hotel to hear. Scrambling to catch herself and prop the thing back up–make it be quiet–Cree looked around, praying that no one had seen her “calm” herself into a clumsy mess. Luckily, it seemed like it was a secret between her and the security cameras at most.

“So much for mindfulness,” she muttered to herself, silently cursing her therapist. That lady was definitely going to hear about the mess she caused with her advice next week. On the bright side, though, all the potential awkwardness Cree felt around walking into this conference room seemed tamer in comparison, now. She let out a long-suffering breath, reasoning that she had come this far, and put on a brave face as she crossed the threshold.

—

The room was set up just the way Cree had imagined it–she couldn’t tell if she found this funny or downright irritating, the cliche of the scene. The circle of folding chairs, the table of cheap coffee, the name tags…it all felt like the setup of a joke at her expense, and when she found herself taking a sharpie and actually writing Cree on one–eugh—that was the punchline. 

A nametag, as if these people didn’t know exactly who she was. Even if she had changed her hair or her mannerisms much in the last 15 or so years, she was, she noted bitterly, the only Black woman in the room, so she would always be unmistakable. 

At least no one’s staring at me. At least not until my back is turned. 

The cheap label stuck to the right side of her sweater, she kept her hand on her bag as she sat slowly down in one of the chairs. It was stiff, but she took some small pride in having good posture. Others in the room, many of whom she was surprised not to recognize–shouldn’t I know everybody here?--were all milling around and making small talk, like friends. They smiled at each other, touched shoulders, laughed; they probably came here dutifully every second week while she was hiding at home.

People started to take their seats around her, and Cree tried to block the lonely resentment building in her gut from showing on her face. As the meeting started and the scattered conversations died down, she closed her eyes and conjured up her confident self from the car again, a witch conjuring ghosts of the past. She would need magic not to screw this up.

Directly across from her, one middle-aged man stayed standing with his hands folded; he, she assumed, was the group leader she talked to on the phone. 

“Welcome, everybody,” he said, and his familiar voice confirmed Cree’s guess. “Now that everyone’s sitting, we can start.”

The man, tall and Latino with greying hair and broad arms, had already introduced himself to Cree last week as Paolo. He was friendly enough, and thoughtful enough with his direct invitation to attend the meeting, that she tragically couldn’t refuse it anymore without looking like a complete jerk. And as always seemed to be the case with these people, he said he knew who she was, but she never remembered meeting him–and again, she wondered if this tendency to erase people’s names and faces from her memory made her arrogant. 

She tried to console herself with the fact that, at least in this case, there were reasons Paolo might have been forgettable; ice cream men were always wearing those stupid hats anyway, and they all looked the same in uniform. It’s not like she was hanging out with them back in the day—they were never even invited to those Anti-Kid Bingo Nights. 

Ugh, she had almost forgotten how much she hated those.

“First of all,” Paolo continued, with the attention of the room bringing Cree back. “Thanks to everyone again who brought food. Feel free to say something about your recipe when we do the circle…if it’s not a family secret!”

There were good-hearted chuckles scattered around Cree where the older members sat, the kind she hears from the tenured professors pushing 70 at work. When she’s not scared of getting a day older, part of Cree looks forward to getting to an age where unfunny jokes make her laugh like that.

“Now, we’ll start with me like always. We don’t have too many new folks here today,”--and Cree felt his lack of eye contact with her here was deliberate–��but it’s always good to introduce ourselves just in case. So, hi everyone. My name’s Paolo–feel free to share just your first name, or your last too, whatever’s comfortable–and, well, when I’m not running this group, I’m the Ohio regional representative of Tasty Taste. It’s been really rewarding for me to help build the new face of the company, and, hey…I’m sure it’s also rewarding for us that I’m able to offer free ice cream to everyone here.” 

There was a murmur of chuckles from the group again, and Cree remembered the stand she had passed on the way in, the shape and colours of the logo all clicking into place. The new face of the company. So the stand used to belong to…hell, maybe the whole hotel used to be his. Suddenly she felt a pang of nausea, like the chair she was sitting on might be coated in poisonous slime.

Paolo went on. “I’ll pass the intros around the circle now, and feel free to share anything about yourself. It can be a fact about you related to the group or not! Then we’ll go into a theme for this week’s discussion. Lou, you’re on my right–why don’t you go ahead?”

Paolo sat down, and the man next to him looked up and smiled at the group shyly. He was white and semi-elderly, with a belly but stringy, gangly limbs, and he sported a decidedly balding head of thin blonde hair. Cree didn’t recognize this guy, either, and assumed he was another ice cream man. How common was it, she wondered, for men like Paolo to still be working at Tasty Taste now?

“Hi, I’m Lou,” the new man said, and something about his voice sounded instantly familiar. “I brought some quiche today, but it is a bit of a family secret with my husband and me…” He grinned. “Um, I work as a [gastrointestinal specialist] now, but for a long time I guess people probably just knew me as a guy who walked around wearing a goofy costume…a guy who no one liked.”

With that bit of context, in his timid voice, it dawned on her. Holy shit. Her mouth fell open, shocked by how bizarrely normal he seemed across from her now. That’s the Toilenator.

Nobody noticed her gaping expression while Lou continued, now so clearly resembling a time-lapsed version of the villain, like a parody act that walked offstage. “It’s been great for me to get to know people through this group,” he smiled, “And I’m glad more people are coming every time. Sigmund doesn’t come with me since it’s not his experience, but he says he can really tell it makes a difference and he’s grateful to all of you.”

Lou sat back in his chair and the group clapped, something that Cree gathered was customary during this “introductions” phase. She awkwardly raised her hands and clapped once, feeling distinctly stupid, like she was at show-and-tell or something. How long has the Toilenator been married? 

More than that—though she realized how cruel it was, while he was being vulnerable—Cree was embarrassed to think she had any common issues with the Toilenator. 

As the next few people introduced themselves, their words blurred into nonsense and this parallel between them horrified her more and more. She was suddenly haunted by a mirror image of herself, wearing an oversized toilet seat around her head, getting bullied by people—who were, by all accounts, total freaks themselves—is that the kind of company she was seeking solace in? 

More people spoke, mostly ice cream men, or B-list villains, or some guy who watered the lawn at the mansion. Ignoring them, she wondered if the Toilenator had any of the same messed up problems as her—maybe he even went to the same therapists about it. Maybe right after Cree left those offices, all woe-is-me, this old guy walked in after her, clearly doing so much better about it since he can be at home making quiche all day. As if all of this couldn’t be more humiliating, now the Toilenator was beating her at therapy! 

“…would like to share something?”

Cree looked up as she noticed the room was staring at her, expectant. It was silent now, no one else sharing, meaning it must have been her turn to speak. She stupidly opened and closed her mouth and sat up straighter, running her hand along her canvas bag nervously again.

”I, uh.”

Paolo was looking over and smiling patiently, and the patience of it sort of made it worse.

”Sorry. I’m…I didn’t bring anything. Didn’t know it was a potluck. I um…well, you all know who I am. I’m Cree. You know me whether you met me back then or not. Everyone keeps telling me to come to one of these things, but I never felt like I…I dunno, deserved it. But now I’m here, so I guess I have to catch everyone up.” 

Once the first words were out of her mouth, it became a kind of compulsion to speak, which in a way was a mercy. She caught faces with eyes burning into her, but fought the urge to try and read their thoughts.

”So, I was Father’s apprentice. For…10 years? Something like that.” 

Speaking his name made it real. She might as well jump right into it. 

”I guess, you know…I realized in my mid-20s, that after everything I worked for, I wanted out. It wasn’t worth it, and he never intended to give me any of the power he promised. I guess a lot of you worked for him for money, but he never even paid me. Then I realized it was his future or mine—he didn’t want me going to school, didn’t want me doing anything that took me farther away, and I guess…something in me sensed it would only get worse. I took a chance, I left, I cut contact and left for college and didn’t look back. I was scared he’d come after me but lo and behold the case against him came together just in time. And it’s only with him in prison that I feel like I can say anything without putting everyone I know in danger, so I’m not used to…saying anything. But I’m trying to start.”

 The room was listening intently, with a kind of respect that she only got in a really good lecture—the kind she never expected and worried she couldn’t rise to. She kept talking anyway, facts spilling out of her that she was always worried would explode if exposed to the air.

”I had some distance from everything, and I compartmentalized everything from back then until I graduated, but…you know, I still live with all the shit I did, while I worked for him, while I was trying to prove that I could be him someday. What I did to kids, to my own kid sister…and I went to him, right? And I did it year after year, and I convinced myself they deserved it. I didn’t think it was right to call myself a victim, because of that. Sometimes I felt I should have been sentenced with him. But becoming…”

 She took a shaky breath, feeling the full weight of the listening silence. “…becoming a teacher, when I’m working with my students…they’re all adults, right, but even then, I keep thinking…the power I have over them scares me. When I think about doing to them what he did, I feel sick, and it just makes me realize…damn, it was wrong when it happened to me, too. I was like that back then, just…young, and powerless, and wanting to impress someone who could move me up. No matter what it took, right? And he knew that. Even the guilt I’m feeling now, it…he made me feel it on purpose. And it worked.”

Cree had her eyes trained on the floor now, on a space between her shoes, and she was afraid to look up after saying what she knew was far too much. These people connected to her by Father’s common thread of abuse—she didn’t know if their pity or their total apathy to her pain would be more devastating. Whatever reaction there would be, it was the one she was afraid of—it was the escaping of the story, the reveal to the world, that hurt her every time. 

—

Cree felt her arm quickly shoot up to her face to wipe at a hot tear escaping. She and Steve had joked on the way over about how her crying was an inevitability, that it was just about how many fugitive tears she let get away. She thought she had prepared for it then, but she never could.

”Cree,” Paolo said in the silence, his voice sounding even-toned and not so sympathetic as to taunt her. “We are all so glad that you came to a meeting. And though it may not be at all close to what you’ve experienced in its intensity, I think you’ve put words to a dynamic that many of us in this group felt in our work lives for a long time.”

Cree bit down on her cheeks and braved glancing up again, seeing that several people were nodding respectfully, including Lou, who had an indisputably kind smile on his face. She wanted to mock it, but it was too genuine for that.

The woman sitting beside Cree wordlessly handed her a tissue and a glass of water, which she sheepishly accepted. When Paolo continued he addressed the entire group, taking attention away from her, helping her come back from where she had gone.

”Many people have said in group before,” Paolo said, gesturing to the circle, “that we have feelings of guilt, like you described. That we feel we can’t be considered Father’s victims, because we weren’t children when he hurt us, or because he didn’t hit us physically, or because we only suffered abuse in the workplace and not interpersonally.” There were more nods around him. 

“It comes up quite often, too, that members of the group are ourselves perpetrators—we hurt children on his payroll, and so we had no right to speak. And it’s true that many of us are guilty of things that we very well may not be forgiven for.” Paolo shrugged. “I’ve spoken to some people, former Kids Next Door operatives, who I hurt while I was an ice cream man. I want nothing more than to reconcile with them, but some of them—rightfully, I think—don’t speak to any of us. There’s a reason this group is for people who worked for Father. We all feel this tension. But it is powerful to break the cycle.”

Cree smiled, finding Paolo’s speech corny, but in a way that released some tension in her. The Toilenator—Lou, Cree reminded herself—was standing up and passing a dish around, apparently sensing an opportunity to relax everyone further. A thin elderly man looked over as he took a piece of quiche, adding his input:

“I had hoped I would see you at a meeting soon, Ms. Lincoln,” he said, and she immediately recognized his voice as the butler, Wintergreen’s. He broke into a smile at the way her eyes must have widened. “Yes, it’s been many years—and I often wondered if you were well, after you disappeared.” His face grew serious again, and he added: “I saw a lot of things back then that, if I could go back, I would not have allowed, or so I tell myself. There are people I would have protected. If I had been a better man…well. The point is to be a better man, now. Though a very old one, certainly.”

That old refrain of laughter, of middle-aged amusement at a tired joke, bubbled up and helped eat away at the nerves of the moment. Cree’s smirk was one of genuine mirth, this time. Her mind swirled with possibilities of what Wintergreen had been doing, feeling, all this time. Here was someone who served Father tea, who made the delightful children sandwiches for lunch. She had never even thought he had a conscience. But in its way, that must weigh on him, too.

Maybe she wasn’t—in every way—alone.

”I became a teacher after I left the business, too,” one ice cream man added, holding a hand under his quiche to catch the crumbs. “And I think what you said about teaching—seeing yourself in your students, and everything—well, that was a really good point. My students are adult learners, and in a new country, so sometimes when I see them lacking confidence, I remember how I felt when I messed up at work and Father exploded at me…you know, it takes me right back there. I’m not an angry guy, and I try to make class fun, but I just think…what if? What if that’s me one day? Sometimes I even have to leave the class because it messes me up. But, I don’t know if this is true for you…it makes it feel more rewarding to do it the right way. To be patient and not like some tyrant. I keep reminding myself that’s not who I am, because I get to decide.”

”I feel the same way about my patients,” Lou beamed, sitting back down now that the quiche tray was empty. “I love reassuring them, especially about things that are embarrassing, like stomach issues can be.” He shrugged. “Humiliation was a common theme in the ways all the villains targeted me, but it doesn’t have the same power anymore.”

”Damn, everyone sure moved up!” Cree thought aloud, laughing in spite of herself. “I guess the job market can’t be that bad, huh?”

”Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Paolo laughed back. “After all, this group is my big career move, and they pay me in quiche!”

The response to this quip was uproarious, so disproportionately so that Cree found herself earnestly cackling along. As the evening wound down, the relief of introducing herself gave way to a rush of endorphins, powering her forward. 

She had conversations with people her teen self would have never spoken to—wouldn’t have been caught dead sitting in a circle with. That old outline of herself would have called this group a joke, a bunch of expired villains sitting in a circle like a kindergarten class, a cautionary tale about what happens when you let yourself go soft. 

She would have laughed about that with her teen ninja friends and then gone home alone, tried to sleep with the pit in her gut, knowing that she’d have to meet him tomorrow, to give her report, to get her orders. In the back of her mind, Cree thought to herself how much she would have wanted to hold that lonely girl. How much she wished she could call her up and invite her here herself.

—

By the time Cree met the car in the parking lot, she had four phone numbers tucked in her pocket, scrawled on hotel stationary in shaky hands by people who swore they had gotten the hand of technology enough to stay in touch. She often told people she’d call them or text them, fully intending to throw their cards in the trash the second she left—she didn’t intend that, this time. Though she guessed that time would always tell.

Steve unlatched the door handle and grinned at her from the front seat, a fry from the fast food place nearby hanging out of his mouth. “What’sh up?” He said, lips full, and then swallowed quickly to free up his speech. “Band practice was awesome today, you’re gonna love the new album.”

Cree climbed in, slung her bag over her shoulder and onto the floor in front of her. She realized how heavy it was, what she had been carrying all day.

“I’ll judge that when I hear it,” Cree grinned back. “Did you get me a burger?”

“‘Course.” Steve shook the paper bag beside him. “Your go-to after a rough day. I’m guessing you need it, huh? Tell me about everything that sucked on the way home, I’m all ears.”

“Actually,” Cree looked out the window, watching the hotel start to roll past as the car moved. She smiled again despite herself. “I was gonna say you can have it. The eating’s pretty good at these things. And man, you won’t believe who made the food.”

[tired-reader-writer]

Putting the drabble(?) under a read-more because I don't feel so confident in this one. This was just supposed to be an excuse and vehicle for the solar eclipse and the Pilgrim's Bells ringing so if all the other parts sound jank, that is why!

I apologize for this 😭

The sun blinks.

Hilmes stills.

The sun shines unwaveringly, bright and blinding. Clouds may block it, mist may dim it, and the skies may bring it to rest every dusk.

But the sun does not blink.

It goes against every common sense, the very nature of the sun, but—

It blinks, now.

It blinks and blinks, dims and lights up and dims again like a star, the rays almost blinding in contrast when the light returns.

Until it doesn't.

From the sky, vanish the sun's light.

The air turns cold, and shadows dance around them, like a heat haze, like a mirage, and the malformed creatures halt to look at them. As if captured. As if mesmerized.

Zahhak halts.

The moon, realizes Hilmes. It's the moon, the moon devouring the sun, the moon granting them a boon. A celestial of the night, entering the sun's domain.

The sky children.

He looks at the sword in his hand. Glowing silver, starlight on the earth.

Rukhnabad was forged from a fallen star.

He can move again, he finds. Where before he and his army were frozen by the Serpent King's snare, the moon has lifted the pressure from their mortal bodies— it drops like a rock, and in turn the lack of weight lifts them up.

He feels light. He feels as though he could float away.

He raises the sword, Rukhnabad, jabs it upwards to the sky like a beacon, a guiding light, a breath of hope in place of the sun.

“Hark ye, mages and riders!” he cries out, his voice returning to him at last. “Arise, arise! The wretched snake's curse has lifted!”

A collective cry answers him, relief and hope blends one voice to the other until he can no longer tell which voice was whose, and how many there remained.

It is fine. It's enough.

“Endure, we must! Prevail, we must! Zahhak has been defeated once, he will be brought down once again! By us, by our hands!”

He thinks of Kaykhusraw. The hero-king. The slave. The traitor.

His ancestor.

“And we have with us, what the hero king never did! The key to end this, once and for all!” More like what he foolishly threw away, but this is not the place to say it. I won't do it, he swears to himself. I will not selfishly discard what should be dear to me. Zandeh and Irina flash in his mind at once, but also Kharlan and Saam and Bahman, his followers, his men, all of them, even the ones whose names he knows not.

The mages.

The little bird.

Areyan.

“Remember your brother and sisters. Remember that aid is coming.”

The sound of bells shall reverberate, sang to him the old crone, Break the heavens like dawn over the mountains.

“The promise shall be fulfilled…” The promise of victory, no doubt they would think, there is that too, but his mind dwells on the promise of freedom.

The promise Kaykhusraw broke.

And true tomorrow shall arrive again.

“But for that—” He points Rukhnabad forward, lightning trailing behind it in a dance, casting the shifting shadows in a starker light. “For that we must fulfill our role. Remember! Remember what it is that we set out to do! Remember the work that needs to be done!”

There's so much. There's so much to be done. Here and now, against Zahhak the Serpent King, but also beyond that, beyond everything, even when peace is restored.

The work will be never-ending.

He can't wait to get to it.

He can't help the feral grin that graces his lips.

The sun starts to blink again. The eclipse is about to end.

They need to act fast.

“Loose the arrows! Clear a path so that the second squad can bind Zahhak. We must hold on until—”

That is when the bells ring.

The song, it comes from beyond the horizon, from the east, west, north, and south, around them, all around them, filling the air and overlapping, amplifying each other until naught could be heard over them—

The sky laughs and laughs and laughs.

Like an echo, like light, like dawn breaking over the mountain peaks and thunder in a storm, ripples spreading across still-waters, the swaying of trees in the strong winds.

Like the world comes alive, like all spirits were a single soul made solid.

“Now, now!”

The mass of people spring into action. People, and spirits too. He feels them. They rush through them, past them, wading through the army of men as though they too were part of the charge, all the while the earth trembles and shakes beneath their feet and the sun flick-flick-flickers above in the sky.

And the sound of bells would not stop. He can scarcely hear his men's voice above it, can scarcely hear his own heart.

Well, that is fine.

He is not alone, that much he can tell.

Everyone is here. Even the ones he had sent away to find what had been lost.

They may not be here in flesh, in these plains where the battle takes place, but…

Undoubtedly, they are present nonetheless.

He loses himself in the ever-rising song as he rides forth, and drives the treasured sword in Zahhak's chest as ghosts unseen rend him asunder.

And then all is white.

The darkness is no more.

[enneamage]

Non-exhaustive and loose Ranboo lore-life post-- This one is a bit disjointed, I’ve got sleepybrain.

Being dropped in the middle of the Dream SMP actually sounds like a nightmare. It’s not exactly a polite server and seemed to run on trample or be trampled rules when lore was popping off. Ranboo spent a lot of time as a voyeuristic outsider because… he was a voyeuristic outsider, the joke is that he was a y/n for a while because his comeup was so fast and he got to be around the people he was watching in a remarkably short time. He found his way into the story by finding the people who needed him most, particularly Tubbo and Dream.

“People not sides” is definitely something that Ranboo actually believes. I’ve seen a lot of Twos be more attentive to the immediate individuals involved in a situation over what they’re ideologically attached to since they put an emphasis on one-on-one connection. He still has a moral code, but he’s much more likely to see and respond to people as unique individuals in a situation, especially as they relate to him.

Ranboo’s habit of overextending himself for others is real, and it comes from an interesting blend of humbleness and pride. He feels like he should be able to handle any task from a sense of duty, but also an over-inflated sense of competence and what ought to be done. This actually brings to light a bit of pride that’s hard to explain with Twos, “You need me, but I don’t need you.” There’s a feeling of responsibility to be hyper-competent, and an assumption that they ought to be able to be so.

Ranboo has talked before about how he was Therapist Friend in highschool and had to learn to step away from peoples problems because he couldn’t be reasonably expected to help them out beyond a certain point. Ranboo starts his character off with this in mind, but he still begins with a metric ton of people pleaser in him, and the very practical concern of trying to ingratiate himself with all these e-celebs. Don’t piss anyone off too badly. Over the course of his arc, Ranboo learns that trying to be everyone’s friend can be strangely destructive, and inauthenticity (even with yourself) will drive you crazy. C!Ranboo had a repressed traitor complex, playing every side and being deeply anxious that if something Otherwise Inconvenient leaked out about him he would face the consequences.

It's not a secret that early Ranboo was a fairly guilty guy, and he’ll talk about how the flashier (and slightly edgier) person that he is now was always just under the surface, just buried. While it might be easy to chalk it up to his upbringing and then-closeted sexuality, there was a lot more in his personality that came out once he resolved to come into his own.

Ranboo’s love of ARGs and detail-noticing was very baked into his solo lore, making it more engaged and involved from a viewers perspective. He made the most out of being as alone as he was on the SMP, which was a solid strategy imo. C!Ranboo is very affected by Ranboos sense of aesthetics (in the expansive ‘what is beauty’ sense—in this case beauty is terror) as well as his personality. He loves a bit of creepy and a bit of drama, and I wouldn’t begrudge him either.

There’s a strangely specific pattern that I’ve witnessed among Twos who get frustrated while roleplaying as meek. It’s one of those “not that many but it’s weird that it’s happened x many times” things. They get tired of their own character and nope out to come back as someone more assertive because they hit their breaking point, usually abruptly. Ghostboo is that incarnate—he was born out of a decision to shake up his roleplay relationship with Tubbo (and come off as a loving martyr while doing it) as well as step into a new shtick and a more assertive self. The death at the prison was a last-minute addition and actively made it so that Hitting on 16 would be a paradox—this was not how Ranboo was supposed to die, even if his death was planned. There’s some clips floating out there that show Wilbur being annoyed at Ranboo for this decision, but it’s a fleeting thing.

So Ghostboo is a whole new guy who is putting on a brave face and not feeling his feelings at all if he can help it. He’s basically inverted—he’s very openly confident now but secretly carrying around an emotional burden. I know he’s following some part so the Ghostbur template but it also feels very relevant to Ranboo’s transformation in real life, he was antsy to be able to become this.

We’re on the doorstep to c!Ranboo’s volume one resolution soon, and like all the others I’m curious what his end note is going to be. Both of his selves (dead and alive) seem to have access to his entire memory, so he’s going to approach the story as his integrated self in the end, all his facets present and accounted for.

[unknownjpegs]

i hope it rains today

She sits in the same spot everyday. A bench tucked close to the pond, a big tree right by it, shading her each and every time. Lark notices, because he takes the same running trail every morning; a path along the park that he finds mysteriously devoid of other runners when he’s early enough. He used to change it up, new scenery once in a while, until she started being there everyday. So he runs this trail now.

Everyday.

Lark slows by the same bend he’s always slowing by, even though he shouldn’t. This is the part of his run he needs to maintain, work on his stamina, shave off a minute from his time. This is the body of the run, as they call it, where the most calories are burned, where the most muscles are being fucking tortured. That’s the point of training—which he also isn’t supposed to be doing, necessarily. Outside the regimen his coach has given him, he’s only supposed to do light runs.

Lark has never been a light runner.

Still, he slows to a walk and then to a pause, where he steps off the trail a bit. There’s no one behind him, but the careful consideration is ingrained habit. He puts fingertips to his sweat slick neck, looks at his watch, pretends to count his pulse; she shifts on the bench a little bit, sloped shoulders, sketchbook on her lap. Lark has a watch that tracks his heart rate the entire time he’s running—a gift, actually, from the very coach that would be suplexing him into the fucking pavement if he knew Lark was overworking himself. Though, technically, as he stands there, chest heaving, panting out even, controlled breaths—he’s really not overworking anything. He’s completely stopped his run.

But his heart rate does go a tick up when the woman on the bench imperceptibly moves her head. Lark watches dyed red hair spill over her shoulder with that slight tilt, her pale skin beautiful in the slowly brightening morning glow that peeks out patterns between the tree leaves above her. Beads of sweat roll down his chest under the loose fitted tank, run between the defined lines of his abdomen. He adjusts the band of his shorts just a bit.

And for the first time since he’d noticed she’s there every morning, they make eye contact. His hands drop, fingers flexing, acid built up in his limbs to make them feel numb and hard. His chest is already starting to slow its painful heave, his shoulders relaxing and dropping.

Lark dares to lift a hand and wave.

—

The back seat is spacious enough, but his head still smacks into the car door anyway as he falls into it. Lark barely has time to assess bad it hurts before Matilda is on top of him.

“Ow.”

One of her slender hands brushes up underneath his head and touches exactly where the pain was splintering up across the back of his skull. He blinks up at her, dazed, and instead of wincing with the pain as her fingers find the exact spot his head hit plastic, he’s smiling. It’s just as dopey as his eyes are, spread across his face almost ear to ear.

“Oh my God,” she laughs, her knees up and hitching around his hips.

The wiggle room isn’t the best in the back of the mustang, and he finds his spine is half on the seats and half off, but he isn’t paying attention to that. He’s looking at the way her thighs are spread across him, acid washed denim stretched. His hands go there immediately, cup and jerk her forward a bit more. Her hand slaps against the window, her weight sinking heavier across his hips and making him flood hot and dizzying.

“You need to clean your car, by the way.”

“Huh?”

“Have a thing for McDonalds?”

Lark glances to the floor, then recoils at the sight of the fast food wrapper graveyard. He shoves himself a bit, so he’s not as close to it, glancing up at Matilda. She stares down at him with arched, expectant brows and sharp eyes. Her features are long and pretty, with a pointed chin and high cheek bones. It’s her nose, really, that made him pause. It was elegant and defined her face as so unique. Lark watches more of her silky hair slip from the tuck behind her ears. He wants to take a strand, feel it between his fingers.

He wants to use his fingers for a lot right now.

“It’s—” Lark pauses, cringing a bit. His hands still take an opportunity to spread and slide just so onto her ass. He tries to smile in a way he hopes is charming. “It’s my room mates car.” Her eyebrows dig forward, furrow and wrinkle, her eyes flattening. Lark smiles wider, fingers drumming.

Matilda’s hand flattens on his chest and drags down. Lark’s body bumps up on reflex. He sucks in air without meaning to, smile dropping to something a little bludgeoned as she slips it below his tank top. Then, just as slow, she slides it up to reveal his abdomen. His muscles flex at the feel of her skin, a slow roll of his stomach. The thick, black centipede across his side dances a bit.

“I’m still judging you, but—”

That small allowance makes him dart up, braced on one hand while his other slips behind her neck and pulls them into a messy open mouthed kiss.

***

The July rain is torrential. Absolutely slaps against Lark’s window, loud with the occasional crack of lightning, aftermath of thunder that rumbles the whole apartment building. Doesn’t really drown out the sound of Matilda’s panting, her gorgeous and loud moans, the slap of his thighs against hers. Her hand is yanking the silver chain around his neck, her other scrambling over his desk. Lark’s concentrating too much to pay attention to the scattering of items, his messy room just messier for it.

He keeps her lower half up, off the desk, hands gripped around her slender waist. He’s mesmerized by the press of his thumbs, so close together, indenting her soft skin. Every snap of his hips forward into her body makes her louder, makes the pleasurable twist of her face harsher. Matilda’s long legs stay hooked around his middle, tightening harder when he’s rougher with it.

“Keep going—like that—I’m so—”

On that cue, Lark lifts her entirely, pulls her closer to his chest. She makes a loud cry of a sound, arms snatching up around his shoulders as he turns them. They fall into the bed, his body a hard drive forward against hers—her breasts press warmly into his chest as he continues fucking, one of her hands jerking at his bleached hair. The smell of her skin on her neck drives him fucking insane, his teeth securing a place there and listening to the whimper it causes. She pants out his name (Elias, Elias, Elias) over and over again in a way that makes his thoughts fuzzy.

One of Matilda’s hands scrapes down his back, makes him hiss and arch up, hips slapping forward to fully flush against her and that’s when her whole body shakes against his. Lark watches her with blurry yet intensely focused eyes. Watches the way her eyes shut, her mouth drops open, her chest lifts from the mattress. One of her hands grips into his waist, the other curved around his shoulder. Her whole body trembles with it and the sound she makes—he’d print it on vinyl. Listen to it on repeat.

“Oh fuck,” she pants out, both her hands slipping to hold his waist. “Fuck.” She blinks wet eyes at him, his chest swelling with that satisfied ‘I did that’ sensation. Nothing ever made him feel cockier than making Matilda cum like that, full body with it, teary eyed and breathing hard. Lark lips a bead of sweat from his upper lip, his hand smoothing over her collarbone, down her sternum.

His other hand jerks at the strap to loosen it, his breathing slightly labored. Matilda’s inner thighs were pink from the abuse of his own, and he can’t help but look at them as he pulls the toy off himself and tosses it to the side. He wants his mouth there, kissing the sensitive skin, tasting her, dragging lips and tongue over her for the second time that night.

Matilda’s fingers dance over the lines across Lark’s hips where the band of the strap had dug in just a bit too hard. It tears his eyes away from her lower half and up to her face. Her cheeks are just as pink, just as tantalizing and easy to stare at. Lark smiles at her satisfyingly, lips curved up deviously, blond hair stringy in his face from the sweat.

“So, the green ones nice.”

She pinches his thigh. It makes him yelp and then fall forward, hands braced on either side of her ribs. Her hand slides down his sweaty chest, fingernails dragging all along his skin and making him shiver, making him moan and hang his head. Her hand finds him, fingertips toying softly.

“Your turn?”

“Matilda,” he pants, shoulders shivering.

“You should get a bed frame, by the way. I’m not dating a guy with a mattress on the floor.” His head lifts from where he’d been staring at her fingers touching him and he blinks rapidly.

“Are we dating?”

“Get a bed frame, Elias.”

—

Out in the kitchen, Xavier and Ben sit at the table, staring at him. Lark stands in front of the fridge, water bottle in hand, glaring back at them. Except for their snickering between each other, there is only the continued sound of the storm outside. He chugs the water, throat bobbing, shoulders heaving and then throws it empty toward the trash can. It misses by a wide margin and plunks onto the floor.

Xavier’s grin goes sneaky and Benny’s gets bigger and bigger, sleazier and sleazier.

“I told you two I’d have company,” Lark says thinly. He’d put on shorts to come out into the kitchen, but is otherwise bare. There’s scratch marks along his chest that Xavier’s eyes keep flickering knowingly to.

“Company,” Benny says with his fingers in quotes. He swings his pale blue eyes to Xavier who repeats the gesture, mouthing the word. “Company th-that’s like—oh, Lark, yeah, Lark, oh fuck, Lark!”

“Lark, you’re so hot. Oh my God, I love your messy room and your big CD collection.”

His face goes scarlet with heat, but he realizes they hadn’t actually heard anything—or hadn’t heard well enough. Because Matilda only ever used his name in bed, the name he liked to hear from her when she was moaning, writhing underneath him. She’d asked and he’d been so shocked he’d almost just told her Lark is fine. Nickname since childhood, he’d picked up from the street kid’s he broke into abandon houses with. Little songbird. But he liked being Elias to her.

“Wh-when are we meeting her?” Benny asks, slopping up a mouthful of cereal. Xavier sits there idly, fingers flicking at a rubik’s cube, slowly starting to solve it without looking down. He’s counting underneath his breath, but staring at Lark with big expectant grass colored eyes.

“Never.”

“Meeting who?”

Lark doesn’t have to look over to tell that Matilda has not put on all her clothes. Its evident by the way the rubik’s cube goes clattering across the floor and Xavier’s head tilts back. His eyes sweep up to the ceiling, cheeks flaming the same color as his hair. In direct contract, Benny leans forward, forearms to the table, snide mouth curling into an absolutely slimy grin. He lazily runs his spoon around the bowl of cereal.

When he does glance over her shoulder, he’s happy to see that she’d at least pulled on one of his shirts. Even taller, the oversized fit skims her thighs and it’s black, so it won’t be see through enough to see. He feels an immediate strike of possessive heat in his stomach at her bare legs however, long and slender and pretty as they are. Especially the bruise across the back of her thigh that is very hand shaped. She ducks around Lark to open the fridge and glance inside it.

“Matilda,” Lark sighs heavily. “This is Xavier and Benny.”

“I’m single,” Benny replies, winking at Lark, who curls his lip.

“That’s so shocking, you look like such a catch,” Matilda quips, swinging around to face all three men and cross her arms over her chest. Lark notices that it hitches the shirt up a just a little. He remembers his mouth against her cream colored thighs, working teeth across her. Lark goes hot across the face again, in the hopes that there are no angles that are going to reveal his mouth print to his fucking room mates.

“Oh, wait, I know you!” Xavier’s eyes have dropped somewhat, but he keeps his head comically tilted back. He waves a bit, grinning with all his pretty white teeth. “I changed your oil before.”

“That better not be a fucking euphemism, Xavier,” Lark mumbles.

“I think you mean metaphor,” he replies, throwing Ben an incredulous look. Benny nods, patting Xavier’s shoulder affectionately.

“Wow.” Matilda draws the o out in the word, laughing. She slides her palm across Lark’s waist, trailing fingers as she walks back toward his room. “Maybe a new apartment with the mattress.”

***

The door to his room slams open hard enough to knock pictures off the fridge, magnets clipping off—Matilda charges out, swiping at her neon blue jacket she’d tossed over the table. Along with it, a bag of chips whips to the ground, opening and sending Ruffles scattering everywhere. Lark follows, scrambling across the tile of the kitchen in his socked feet, crunching on an orange chip here and there.

“Will you wait?” he snaps, his voice thin and high.

“You’re funny,” Matilda replies in a tight, unhumored tone. Her hand slaps at the keys hanging on the hook by the wall, ripping them off and catching them in the air. Instead of leaving she whirls around to face him, and they nearly collide. Lark stumbles back, furious hands balled into fists. He doesn’t usually wear his anger so bodily. He doesn’t usually get this angry, actually. And when he does, it’s mostly ice, a cold shoulder, a furious silence.

“Those are my keys,” he clips out, teeth snapping on the words. Matilda glances down to them. Easy mistake, because they have the same key chain. A little Polaroid picture of them from a photobooth at some festival they’d both been dragged to. They had ditched halfway through to be alone, sit in the bed of Xavier’s truck in the parking lot and listen to a carefully curated playlist they’d been building for months.

“Ass,” she snaps and throws them. They hit his chest unceremoniously and drop to the floor. Matilda continues stomping toward the coffee table where Xavier’s foot rests. He stares up at either of them with big, bewildered red rimmed eyes. “Pass me those.” She points with a slim, dignified finger and Xavier listens immediately, looping his own into her keys and tossing them. She snatches them from the air, swivels on her heel and makes a beeline toward the front door.

“Matilda, stay,” Lark argues, hands raised.

“Ask one of your other girlfriends to stay the night,” she quips sweetly, pulling the door open. Her hair whips behind her as she leaves. The smell of her will linger all day, he knows. It always does.

Lark shoves his head out to watch her walk, with that particular sway that makes him stare every time. There’s a hot coal lodged inside his chest, a sensation that feels similar to when he’s run for too long and the lactic acid starts to hurt, hurt in his calves and his lungs feel like winter. Lark grinds teeth together, wills himself to stop, but instead, ends up yelling.

“I don’t have any other girlfriends! Just you and your ten other personalities!”

He slams the door shut, chest heaving furiously. For the first time, he almost understands why Xavier punches or kicks things when he’s angry—Lark doesn’t even get angry. He’s patient to a fault. He’s a pushover sometimes, even. But Matilda is so—she gets him so—

“Are you guys fighting?” Xavier asks, smiling from the couch. He sings the word, fighting and draws it out. His pink tongue touches the edge of a joint he’s rolling. “Cause Maran and Benji are coming over and—”

“Shut up, Xavier,” Lark snarls, turning toward his room. He hears cackling as he slams his own door shut with just as much force.

—

Lark ends up in Matilda’s room only a few hours later. They argue more, all the way from the entry of her apartment to the living room, into the kitchen. He follows as she wanders, brings the fighting to every square inch. They lose the plot of the argument quickly, too, without really anything to argue about. Lark isn’t even sure what had started the fit before, back at his place. Just that it had gone from angry to very angry quickly.

Now that they’d reached her room, it goes very very angry to falling into her bed. Yanking his shirt up as she jerks open his belt. He kicks himself up higher as she crawls over him and her nails drag down his skin, over his chest. He pants with excitement, veins open and flowing warm blood everywhere, all over him to every inch. His hands grip into her with an absolute reckless abandon he’d never had before. Lark rolls them, stronger than her, pins her to the bed.

It’s messy—and rough, because he knows she likes it like that. Wants it like that. Matilda’s body melts against his and her spitting fury turns to a delicate submission that Lark takes and devours. Pulls her hard against him, kisses hungrily along her collarbone, the beautiful pale column of her neck. His teeth nip her skin, make her whimper as her hands drag paths across his well defined back. Her mascara runs, her eye shadow smudging.

Lark pins her to her stomach, his hot breathing against the back of her neck as her fingers curl into her sheets.

I love you, he thinks as he kisses along her spine. As she arches and his knee shoves her legs further apart. You fucking drive me insane, I cannot imagine not having you, mine, all the time. His teeth skate over the curve of her hip, his hands flattening her hips to the bed. She makes a sound in half surprise, half pleasure. Matilda, I love you.

He isn’t satisfied with one, so he flips her over, his hand between her thighs bringing her toward another as she yanks at his hair. He looks at the way her body bends, chest pressed up. He lathes a tongue between her breasts, over her sternum, listens for the sounds of her getting closer and closer. Cups her jaw as she’s about to cum, makes her look at him, positions his mouth above hers.

The way her tongue extends already, as he’s spitting into her mouth nearly makes him angry. That anger just makes his hand faster, the way she likes it—so she cums again licking the bit of spit that hit her upper lip.

—

“Do you remember what I said that made you angry?”

“Probably something stupid.”

“Yeah, probably.”

He runs a hand through her hair, her arms tucked around him, head to his chest. That playlist got switched on again, while he was showering. It plays louder than it probably should for the hour, but he doesn’t care—neither does she. His fingers brush through the strands, pushing some behind her ear. She sighs out contently.

“I think you started it,” he offers. She smacks his thigh and makes him yelp and then laugh. Loud.

***

She hasn’t turned and seen him yet, so he enjoys simply watching her.

The art gallery lighting compliments her—or it only does, because it’s her. The guests look strange, odd against all the neon. Little washed out ghosts that meander the gallery, speaking softly under the ambient music, ooohing and ahhhhhing. The colors dance across the ground and the ceiling and the walls, just as much art as the actual installations. He finds it easier to look at than the people.

Matilda stands with a champagne glass in her hand, but hasn’t actually lifted it to her lips yet. It’s as full as it had been when someone handed it to her. Her other hand is tucked under her elbow, as if supporting herself. Lark can see a line of tension along her slim shoulders, a little tuck to her chin. She’s in heels, which makes her so beautifully tall he feels winded.. And she wears all that long, shiny hair into an artfully styled bun that has stray strands falling every which way, in perfect mess.

To Lark, she stands out just as much as the neon lights. More so. He wonders why no one else is standing and staring at her.

When Matilda turns and sees him, the line melts. She sets the champagne flute down. He waves.

—

“You’re in so much trouble, huh?” Her pretty fingers pet his hair back from his forehead, tuck stray blond locks behind his ear. Her nail polish is a bit chipped—he had no idea why that makes his heart swell, insanely painful between his ribs. Lark has to tilt his head back to look up at her, and this angle makes him dizzy with the desire to kiss her, to feel her soft lips against his own. Neon purple halos behind her head from a snake design he knew she spent so long creating. His hand begs to sit on her waist, to touch her anywhere. But instead he keeps hold of the crutches underneath his arms.

“Nah. I’m coach’s favorite,” he promises, which is a lie and she knows it. Well, he is one of his coach’s favorites. That’s why him skipping this athletics comp is going to make Coach Fuller insane.

Lark can’t compete, with his ankle twisted. The brace is awkward underneath his dress slacks; because he’d actually dressed up for this event. Put on a tie and everything and had made Xavier tie it for him, because it was real and not a clip on. Lark looks up at her, the sparkle of neon across her eyes surreal. She tucks the hair further behind his ear, touches his neck and smooths her hand over his shoulder.

He’s supposed to go anyway. For moral support, or because scouts could still be among the crowd and talk to the coach about him. Because Lark is on track even despite his injury.

And truthfully, he’d be there. He’d been at all of them, injury or not. Competing or not. It made him itchy to not know how his team mates were doing, or to see his competition. Usually, anyway. But—standing there, watching her eyes spark as she departs to cross to an art collector, long legged and powerfully confident with her shoulders tight. He can’t find it in himself to regret skipping.

Lark knows she can’t spend that whole night with him. Lark knows she probably wont even be looking at him for most of it; that she has to mingle, discuss, sell an art piece here and there. But, he doesn’t mind tucking himself next to a navy blue art piece to watch. He doesn’t mind not running.

“I Hope It Rains Today,” someone reads from the plaque next to the dark blue piece he hides next to. Lark blinks a few times, his cheeks going dark pink and warm as he tries not to snicker.

***

“It’s my Grandpa’s birthday today,” Lark explains as he sets the cake down on the kitchen table. Matilda sits with one of her legs up, knee underneath her chin. Her eyebrow raises, because she…knows a thing or two about the Tanaka’s. More than anything, she knows Lark doesn’t particularly talk to them. Not willingly anyway. His phone only explodes with phone calls, one after the other, when one needs something.

“No, he was cool,” Lark laughs, flipping the top of the cake open. It’s red velvet, which had also been his favorite. He produces a fork for her that she hesitantly reaches for.

The apartment is empty; which is so fucking rare that Lark almost feels like they should be spending the time doing something else. Dance in the living room, jump on the couch, fuck on the floor or something crazy. Instead, he takes a bite from the cake, chewing and smiling at her.

Lark doesn’t mention Matilda not eating around others. He doesn’t mention her cutting portions when people are with them or watching—the same way Matilda doesn’t mention Lark logging his calories into an app, or making sure his macros are perfect. They don’t, because they aren’t sure how. Or because it would be a fight that doesn’t end with sex. They meet in the middle, with her ordering just an appetizer when they’re out or him skipping if it’s ‘junk food’.

“When my Grandpa came to America, he didn’t know his birthday.” Lark scoops up another bite with the fork. “His parents hadn’t recorded it. He knew he was born in the winter, and he knew his age, but not the day.”

“Really?” Matilda prods the fork into a big piece of the icing. She picks the chunk and puts it into her mouth, her lips curling at the edges.

“It’s not that unusual, honestly,” he explains, smiling back. He wants badly to dart forward, kiss that little bit of icing across her lower lip. “But, Immigration Services gave him a birthday.”

“Sounds American,” Matilda snorts as she takes another bite.

“Right? Anyway, he didn’t follow it.”

“So,” she licks icing from her lip, just like he’d wanted to. “It’s not his birthday?”

“Well,” Lark intones in a ridiculously dramatic voice. “That was what was really funny about Ojiisan.” He takes another theatrical bite from the cake. It’s dwindling, as they eat, bites missing in sloppy, unorganized chunks. Lark never eats cake—or he waits. He saves all that craving for this. And usually, he does this privately. A smaller cake. A treat, in his room, candle lit, portrait of his grandfather on his desk to eat across from. “He would just pick a random day in November and say it was his birthday.”

“No shit?”

“Like, every year it changed.”

Matilda laughs, her knee falling. She leans forward, with an arm over the table as she picks more at the cake. He watches her, the slow slide of her hair from behind her ear. She’s started dying chunks of blue, for her best friend. Lark loves the way the dye makes her hair feel, thick and soft. He stabs a piece of the cake.

He would have liked her. He would have thought she was funny and intelligent. He would have asked about her artwork, or told her she was too good for Lark while winking at him. He would have sat and ate cake with them.

Lark takes that next bite slower.

“You should tell me more about him,” Matilda says. He looks up at her. She puts a bite of cake in her mouth, her lips red from the icing. Her long leg extends underneath the table and lays across his thighs. Lark looks down at her pale skin, his bare hand sweeping up over her calf, underneath her knee. “Don’t tickle me!”

“I’m not,” he promises softly, smiling as he uses his fork to split off another bite of cake. Instead, his palm encloses around her thigh, his thumb rubbing gently against her skin. “Uh, he liked Bingo.”

“Like any good old person.”

“And he loved talking shit about people in Japanese.”

Matilda laughs again, her leg jostling on his lap a bit. His hand closes tighter, possessive in the sudden desire for her to know she is the most beautiful woman alive, and that she is his and only his and he’ll find a way to make sure she knows. That he says it to her one day, sometime, when he finds all the correct words to piece together into a perfect sentence. He holds her, watches her eat, laugh at more ridiculous stories of an old man that had made his adolescent bearable.

They finish the cake, mostly, with two little slices left. Lark writes XAVIER & BENNY on the outside and leaves it on the table, knowing the two will find and devour the rest.

[venusiangguk]

the water is alive | jjk (m)

>>pairing: jungkook x reader / himbo!jk x water nymph!oc

>>genre: strangers to lovers, smut, pwp, fantasy, crack

>>word count: 8.1k

>>warnings: human x mythical being ??🧚🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️, jk is so..., he is so special 😃, little himbo, OC FIJI WATER COOCHIE, slurp slurp, oc first time, magic, water smut, this is like 80% filthy crack, handjob, jk likes to kiss, oral (f), creampie, squirting, sexual tension, praise, multiple orgasms, dirty talk, voyeurism lowkey, jk likes it tho, spying, mention of milfs, nosy fish, outdoor smut, skinny dipping, jk just wants tits in his face ☺️

>>notes: omg long time no see 🤩 first of all this is supposed to be a lil thank you for helping me hit my first big milestone 🥺 we did it lads!! second, i was this 🤏🏻close to writing a magical water smut scene but refrained, third!!! i hope u like it <3 also ty @taegularities for betaing :*

>>summary: jk didn’t think finding a message in a bottle would lead to him drowning in pussy... but it’s not like he’s complaining. 

Being stuck in a bottle is no good. Sure, you could get out if you wanted to- you put yourself in there after all -but that would defeat the entire purpose. You’re trying to get out of the ocean, not back in it. This bottle is your ticket to freedom.

 Although the sun is beating hot through the glass, and the piece of paper inside of it takes up far too much space, you stay resolute. In your water form it’s not too bad, and luckily the bottle is wedged right where the ocean kisses the sand, cooling you off every time the tide comes in. All you need now, is for someone to stumble upon you and take you ashore. Which they will of course. Humans are stupid and entirely too nosy for their own good. You know they wouldn’t be able to resist the curiosity surrounding a message in a bottle. 

 You ripple smugly in the glass. You really were so smart, though finding a bottle with a cork loose enough for you to shimmy into was a task. Well, finding a bottle in general was a task. As romanticized as they are, they are very rare and hard to come by.

 Just like a human apparently. It feels like it's been hours since you’ve been in there. You occupy yourself by bitterly thinking about how you wouldn’t even need to go to these lengths, had you come to be in a fresh body of water rather than the ocean. Fresh-water nymphs definitely had the better deal. Being able to free roam to any lake, spring, reservoir, river. Walk on land. Not restricted to the ocean like you and your fellow ocean nymphs were. Never allowed to walk around in your physical form until a human gifted you your land legs. 

 Just then you feel the sand shift, and hear the sound of excited chatter.

 “Oh my god, shut the fuck up, look what I found,” someone says as they grip the neck of the bottle and wave it and you around. The world is blurry, moving very fast, but you can make out another human running towards the one handling you. He’s very pretty.

 “Is that… what if it’s for me?” he asks, cat eyes widening in awe. 

 Once again your world is shifted as the boy holding you drops the bottle down to his side. You feel woozy. 

 “You’re an idiot, Tae.”

 At least the human that picked you up has some sort of brain. Honestly, why would a crusty, barnacle adorned wine bottle have a note addressed to-

 “It’s for me obviously, since I’m the one that found it.”

 Or not. No brain at all in the human race, it seems.

 “So stingy, Gukkie,” the one not holding you says as he turns and walks the way they came. “C’mon, let’s go home so we can open it!”

 “Okay, I’m right behind you,” he says.

 But instead of moving, he brings the bottle, you, right up to eye level, peering curiously into it. He’s got big round eyes, and big front teeth that are nibbling on his bottom lip. His hair is long and wavy, slightly damp from a dip in the ocean perhaps. Very cute indeed. His thumb brushes away some of the sand at the bottom, revealing you to him. He doesn’t know you’re you of course, but the gasp he lets out makes you question it. Can he see you?

 “Awe man, there’s water in it…” he mutters to himself, finally starting to follow his friend, “hopefully we can still read the message.”

 You bubble unhappily when he looks away and holds you in the crook of his arm. Had you been in physical form, you would have rolled your eyes. Of course he would only be worried about the note. Humans and their lack of brains.

 ~~~ 

 “So tell me why we are doing this at Inu-Yasha spring rather than in our kitchen sink?”

 Jeongguk sighs, exasperated. Though his heart warms at the use of the childhood nickname for the small spring he and Taehyung used to frequent when they were little. Still do, swimming in it from time to time. 

 “Sentimentality. And it’s like 10 minutes from the apartment, which you could have stayed at by the way.”

 Taehyung groans. “Ugh, I’m going home, just bring the bottle and note back once you’re done with your ritual or whatever the fuck.” He trudges through the bit of greenery until he finds the path back to the apartment.

 Jeongguk stays behind, kneels at the bank of the spring. It’s quite deep, water a clear blue with a few little fish here and there, though they always run from him when he tries to spot them. He dips his hand in. Not too cold, despite the sun starting to set in the sky. The drive home from the beach was long and ate up most of the daylight they had. Probably about 2 or three hours left, give or take.

 Nevertheless Jeongguk hunkers down, grips at the cork of the bottle. It comes out surprisingly easy, with a loud pop! He hums. Must have been loose to begin with. Probably how the water seeped in. The water that he carelessly dumps into the spring. There wasn’t enough to warrant a large splash, but somehow it snaps back and a droplet lands in his eye, the salt water stinging just a little.

 He whines, rubbing at his eye before he frowns at the water with a scowl. Rude. He swears it babbles back, little bubbles popping angrily at the surface. 

 He ignores the apparently sentient spring as he struggles to get the note out until he groans in defeat, finally accepting that his fingers are just too thick to fit in the top of the wine bottle. So thick in fact, he’s struggling to pull it out. 

 He wiggles, and pulls with all his strength, face probably ugly and a little red from the strain. Surely it shouldn’t be this hard? What did he do to deserve this? Could he go on without his ring finger? He didn’t think so, that was one of his two best fingering fingers. Also where would his wedding ring go if they had to cut it off? He’s about to shed a few tears when at last! His finger comes loose, and he falls flat on his butt in the damp brush around the shallow edge of the spring. He sighs, looks up at the treetops, and then scrunches his toes in his sneakers. Perhaps he’ll just put his feet before he goes home. 

 With his shoes and toe-socks shed, he rolls up his sweats and plops the soles of his feet in the water, sighing at the refreshing feeling. He leans back on his palms, digs his toes into the soft floor of the spring. Taking a deep breath, he starts to hum a soft tune, tired from a day out in the scorching sun. The trip back was just as unbearably hot. 2 hours in Taehyung’s beat up civic, void of any AC. Maybe he deserves a full body dip in the spring… he’s earned it. The message in the bottle can wait. 

 He stands, sheds his shirt and his sweats. Pauses briefly when he’s just in his briefs. Should he? He fishes his phone out of the pocket of his sweatpants and checks the time before dropping them on the ground again. Around 4:30-4:45… people were probably settling in for the night, not likely to be roaming the woods, and more likely to be sitting at a dinner table soon. Plus he doesn’t want to walk home with wet clothes. He yanks his underwear down, bare for the forest to see. 

 He wades to the center of the spring, coming up to just under his pecs. Keeps an eye out for those sneaky little fish. The water feels good on his slightly sunburnt skin, red and just a little sore. There’s a little waterfall by one of the big rocks on the edge. He makes his way over, turns his back to the stream before he tilts his head, hands coming up to work the water through his hair. He rubs some over his body, on the back of his neck. He groans quietly at how nice it feels. Cooling on his skin. He moves out from under the flow, but stays close, back leaning against the rock. He lets his eyes fall shut as he listens to the stream trickle, it almost sounds like someone giggling.

 Wait. Someone is giggling.

 Jeongguk whips around, looks from side to side, in the water, and then up to the top of the rock, about a few feet above him. He gasps.

 “A mermaid-”

 Atop the rock you groan. Rolling your eyes while you rest your chin on your palm. You’re laying flat on your tummy, your long hair pooling by your elbow. 

 “A human,” you say mockingly. The boy purses his lips with an unamused expression. You smirk before sighing, “Why is it always mermaids this, mermaids that? You know, they are quite mean,” you put your open palm to your mouth, glance around a little like you’re telling a secret, “and a bit unsightly without their glamour if you ask me… Plus! Would a mermaid have these?” You shift so you’re sitting on your butt, dangling your legs over the edge before thrusting them in the stranger’s, Gukkie’s, face. You wiggle your little toes for emphasis. 

 Though the feet in his face are alarming, what’s even more so is the fact that you are naked and incredibly hot. Peeping Tom or not, Jeongguk wants his face in your tits. Another thing that is alarming is the fact that you clearly are not human. Far too beautiful to be mortal. Jeongguk has never been picky, however. You also just made fun of him for being a said human. Mythical creature supremacy if you ask him.

 “I guess not…” he mumbles, answering your question.

 You laugh to yourself before flopping to your back, sideways so that when you turn your head, you can see him. You smile at him before sighing and lifting your legs in the air above you, just admiring them. “I love them, thank you,” you say dreamily.

 “You’re welcome?” He’s not sure what he did, but he’ll take the praise. “So… what are you then?” he asks wearily, yet interested and hesitantly aroused. He wades a little closer.

 “I’m __, I’m a nymph!” you peep as you roll to your side. You rest your head on your palm, your other arm falling over your stomach, playing with the little bit of moss on the rock before gesturing grandly at the water in front of you. “This is my spring now!”

 Jeongguk is but a mortal human and it’s not his fault his body reacts to your nymph tits bouncing as you giggle and laugh and roll around on top of that rock. Like you’re putting on a show for him. He’s not hard yet of course, he has some self-control, but his dick is interested and it does twitch under the clear water… He tries to be sly, nonchalant as he grabs a nearby lily pad hoping to hide himself.

 You eye him from your perch, eyes glinting in amusement before you point your finger and flick your wrist with a quick swiping motion. The lily pad flies from his hold. He squeaks.

 “Wha- How did you-”

 “Magic, Gukkie!”

 Jeongguk’s about to question how you know that nickname but then you dive into the water and he panics. The spring is clear, but he can’t see you - it’s like you melted into the water as soon as you hit it. He spins in a circle trying to locate you until he’s facing the rock again, confused and scared, with a dick that is traitorously on its way to plump. Then he sees a dark figure in front of him, and he yelps again, trying to back away, his steps slowed down by the water. 

 The way you rise from the spring is like something out of a horror movie. The top of your head first, your hair dark and wet in your face, the length of it swirling around you in the water like black seaweed of death. Like you’re a water spirit, here to hopefully fuck him and then hopefully not leave him to drown.

 “I’ve never seen one up close before, nymphs only come to be as girls…” you say once your lips are out of the water. You stay mostly submerged. “Well,” you continue with a tilt of your head, contemplative, “I have seen a merman one but yours is much cuter!”

 Jeongguk blushes, and looks between his cock in the clear water and you in front of him. “Did you just-”

 “I was just curious!” you chirp, laughing as you backstroke away from him some, giving him a little space. Your tits are perky on your chest, nipples peeking out of the water while your paddle on your back.

 Jeongguk stares, unabashed. You just ogled him, so he shall do the same. You don’t seem shy, confident in fact, loving the attention. Maybe you’re just comfortable, or maybe you’re just always naked. 

 “Have you always been here?” he questions, swimming just a little closer. 

 “Mmm. No, you brought me here,” you reply. You’re pouting in concentration as you make little water droplets float around him.

 Jeongguk’s eyes cross as a drop hovers in front of his nose. “I did?”

 You hum an affirmative noise. “The bottle? I was in there, Gukkie.”

 His mouth parts into a little ‘o’, realization coloring his features. “My name isn’t Gukkie by the way, it’s Jeongguk. Why did you want to leave the ocean?” He’s assuming you wanted to leave, seeing as you seem happy in the spring. You’re making the droplets settle in his hair like a crown now. Jeongguk’s unsure how they don’t burst and splash all over him, but he’s amazed nonetheless. A simple man, easily entertained.

 “Ah… I have chronic- seasickness… the ocean just wasn’t for me…” you’re tongue is sticking out in concentration. “Plus when a human brings us ashore, we get legs! And we get to experience all the mundane things that happen on land!” You pause your handy work before bringing your leg up out of the water, calf by your ear.

 “Whoa…” Jeongguk whispers, inching closer to you. The hovering water droplets follow. “You’re really flexible.”

 You smile, before getting back to work. “Am I?”

 Jeongguk nods. You’re only a couple feet away now. He takes you in, how your hair is so dark, it almost has a navy hue to it. How the water twinkles and glistens as it glides down your skin. The swell of your tits can be seen above the water. He wants to know what you feel like.

 “Are you slimy?” he ponders.

 Your movements jerk to a halt, the intricate water crown bursting and promptly drenching Jeongguk, his wavy hair falling in his face. He gingerly brushes it to the side, mostly unbothered.

 “Slimy?” you repeat, tone offended. 

 “I mean like fish are slimy so I thought that maybe you would be too… you know to help you in the water…or something I don’t know I-”

 “Do I look like I am part fish?” you whisper angrily, “like those fishy fisherman fuckers?”

 Jeongguk chokes, “Fisherman fuckers? Wha- Why do you hate mermaids so much?”

 “That’s not important,” you wave a hand dismissively, water follows the path. “What is important is why you think I’m slimy?”

 He’s backing up, open palms raised in defense and surrender. “I don’t think you’re slimy! I was just wondering what your skin feels like!”

 You pause, cute surprise taking over your face. “Oh,” you say. Then, a lewd grin takes over your features and you do that thing where you turn into water before creepily popping up right in front of him. “Well why don’t you touch me and see?”

 You’re both in a shallower part of the spring now, the water only coming to just above Jeongguk’s belly button, and just below your boobs. His eyes flicker between them and your face.

 “For real? Can I?” Jeongguk’s a horny idiot, but he’s not a douche bag. Consent is key.

 You nod, batting your wet eyelashes at him. “You can.”

 He does not need to be told twice.

 Slowly his arms come out of the water, and he glances at you again only to see you looking down at his hands, equally as curious as him, it seems. He brings a palm up to rest on your shoulder, the other hovering awkwardly, before sliding down the front of your chest resting on your sternum between your tits. He swallows thickly.

 “Can I touch them?” he asks quietly. His pinkie reaches out, barely brushes the swell of your tit. The water dripping from his arms sounds loud in his ear.

 You're quieter than you were previously, a little in awe of his hands on you. You nod, quick and short.

 With both hands he softly cradles your boobs in his palms. They are big, some overspill happens even with hands as large as his. When he brushes his thumbs slowly, tentatively over your nipples, you gasp quietly, eyes still trained on where he’s touching you.

 “Does that feel good?” he wonders aloud. He feels like it should. It feels good for humans at least. But he doesn’t know if nymphs are different. Sure you look mostly the same, just sexier, softer —he squeezes your tits gently, groans under his breath— more plush than a human but-

 “Yeah, I like it I think…” You look up at him, and then back to his hands, and then to his chest. You bring your small hands to his pecs and copy what he’s doing to you.

 He laughs softly, bites his lip on a grin when you rub his nipples. Your movements are unsure though, shy and timid. He asks, “Have you ever been touched like this before?”

 You shake your head, eyes still on his pecs. They give a little when you squeeze. “No but I’ve seen humans do this stuff… and some of the girls have been with humans and they tell stories…”

 Jeongguk laughs again. You really were a Peeping Tom. He steps just a little closer to you. “What did they say about this stuff?” he whispers, sighs as he sees your eyelashes flutter when he rolls your nipples between his fingertips.

 “Um,” you say distractedly, “that humans know how to make us feel really good… a lot of us come to land just to see what it’s all about… you know, sex,” you whisper it quietly like it’s a dirty word, “All nymphs are quite lustful by nature but my kind don’t have it as easy as other nymphs because we aren’t allowed on land until we get brought here so we don’t get much human interaction…” your nails, naturally a little sharper than a human’s would be, dig into his chest when Jeongguk pinches a little at your nipple, pulling, “and there aren’t male nymphs in the sea… Ocean nymphs do live the longest though, so I guess that’s our perk,” you’re babbling but trail off when his hands smooth over your tummy, resting on your hips. He squeezes gently.

 “How do nymphs die?” Jeongguk asks curiously. Not exactly normal pillowtalk, but well. You weren’t exactly normal either.

 “Hmm, I don’t know much about other types, but water nymphs die when our origin source dries up, so… the ocean won’t be doing that anytime soon… but for fresh-water nymphs, like the ones that come to be in a well, or a stream?” you shrug. Again, your tone is distracted, hands roaming over Jeongguk’s skin. Fingertips of one hand running along his bicep, the other running along the lines of his stomach. It tenses under your touch, and a little breath gets caught in your throat when you see chills form on his skin. “You like this,” you state more than question, eyes peering into his excitedly.

 He hums, chuckling a little while looking down at your hands. “I do, feels good.”

 You shiver, the pit of your belly burning a little. “Wait, I want to feel good too... Will you show me, Gukkie?”

 Jeongguk pauses, hands still on your hips and he thinks for a moment. Should he show you? Should he fuck a water nymph he he didn’t even know existed up until an hour ago? He looks down his nose at you. Your wide eyes, swimming with emotion. Tiny hand eagerly gripping at him, a little too hard like you don’t even notice. Hair long and wet, draping over your shoulder, over the round of your chest. He swallows. Yes. He should fuck you. But first-

 “I think we should kiss- before we do all that.”

 You look at him skeptically, eyes dropping down to his lips. “Does kissing feel good?”

 He purses his lips in thought. “Um… yeah. It also leads to other stuff that feels good.”

 That seems to be convincing enough for you, seeing as you drag him over to where you first saw him and lean against the rock. “I’ve seen people kiss against rocks before so I want to do it here,” you tell him rationally.

 Jeongguk is trying not to laugh, and just nods, mirth swimming in his eyes. A hand finds your hip again, the other coming up to tuck some of your wet hair behind your ear. It’s pointy at the top, and adorned with a few little pearls that catch his eye. The small gemstones are light blue and shimmery in the glow of the twilight surrounding you. He rests his palm on your cheek, eyes searching yours whenever they come up from darting to your lips. 

 When his lips touch yours, the first thing he notices is that they are soft. Just like the rest of you. Soft and eager for his, quickly following his lead. You copy what he does, learning fast to open your mouth, move with him. To slip your tongue in between his lips every now and then. He wasn’t lying. It does feel good. Makes you feel hot, even in the cool water of the spring. 

 Jeongguk pushes closer to you, gripping your hips harder. With nowhere else to go, you’re pressed flush against the side of the rock with his body against yours. You pull away, and look down when you feel something poke your belly.

 “Oh! Your penis is hard now,” you look up at him with wide eyes.

 Jeongguk cringes. “Mmm, call it a cock for right now.”

 You nod once, a look of determination on your face. “Cock,” you repeat.

 Jeongguk smiles. Unintentionally corrupting you little by little. “Yes, cock. It’s hard now because I’m starting to feel good,” he says as he pushes against your tummy a little more, the tip rubbing against you. “You’re starting to feel good too, right? Are you wet?”

 You look at him strangely. “I am… always wet?” you reply unsure. 

 Jeongguk giggles, presses his face against your cheek as he bends down to whisper in your ear, “No, I mean here.”

 When he rubs the tips of his fingers just above your slit, you gasp, legs instinctively pressing together.

 “You’ve touched yourself before?” he questions.

 You nod, blushing. “Sometimes…”

 Of course you have. Though you aren’t sure you do it in the same way humans do. You use the water, maybe you’ll show him sometime.

 He hums, quizzically. “Can I touch you?” He brushes his nose against yours, his lips barely ghosting over your own. You reach to your tiptoes to connect them, but he pulls back, smirking a little. You huff, pouty.

 “I want to touch too,” you whine in a quiet tone, hands dipping into the water. 

 He watches the way your hands twitch when they get closer to his cock like you aren’t sure. “You can, I want you to… Just make sure you do it softly, okay? It’s sensitive,” he whispers.

 “Softly,” you repeat, fingertips just grazing the tip of him under the water. You bite your lip when his cock twitches towards you, like it’s eager to be in your palm. You shift on your feet, excited and buzzing.

 “Mhm,” he confirms, laughing a little. You’re like a little parrot, copying everything he says, the way he touches you. “Be gentle…” he’s whispering now, head kind of hazy from how turned on he is. His hips push into your touch.

 You nod. “Gentle.” Your fingertips grip his length, and you hear him let out a soft breath, his hands on your waist squeezing.

 You keep your hand like that, just your fingertips lightly moving up and down over his cock, eyes watching through the clear water of the spring, fascinated by the way his foreskin rolls over the crown. He’s making the softest, most delicate noises, hips just barely thrusting. He hums.

 “Stroke it, use your whole hand.”

 You look up at him, and his eyes are still on your movements, but when he feels your gaze on him, he looks up. He smiles a dumb, lazy grin. “You’re like so hot.”

 Your cheeks burn at the compliment and you let out a small surprised sound before speaking up. “Will you help me?” you murmur.

 Jeongguk makes a soft cooing noise as he places a hand over yours, making you wrap completely around his length. He moves your hands up and down at a steady pace, twisting at the tip. He moans, loud, a little breathy.

 “Yeah, just like that, keep doing that,” he praises as his hands start moving over your body again. He slips one into the water, slowly begins to move towards your slit, then finally between your legs. You mewl, and cant your hips a little, angling them so he can touch you more easily. He simply hums, pets gently over your pussy lips. They are plump and silky smooth, just like the rest of your body. He wonders if the lack of body hair is to help you in the water. He’ll ask later, when he’s not thinking with his cock.

 He slips his middle finger in between your folds, with his eyes trained on your face to watch your reaction. He watches as your eyes slip shut and he listens as you suck in a soft, but sharp breath. The hand you have on his cock stutters. He moans, cock jerking in your palm as his finger gently rubs over your clit, up and down, then in small circles. 

 Jeongguk’s fingers on your clit feel so good, different from yours and what you’re used to; his touching you a little rougher and faster than you do to yourself, a different sensation than when you use the water to pleasure you. As his movements speed up, so do yours, following his lead. You feel as he gets harder and harder in your palm, awestruck by the effect you have on him. Jeongguk bends some, kisses you hard, as he thrusts into your hand. He pants into your mouth, telling you how good you’re making him feel. The praise makes your cunt pulse, a whine slip from your lips.

 “I’m doing good?” you ask breathlessly. You’re hips are rolling into his touches, chasing the feeling.

 “Fuck yeah,” he moans, his fingers sliding from your clit to just barely press into your opening, teasing before finding their previous place. “Your hand feels better than my fleshlight, and I paid like… a lot of money for that.” His head falls back and he groans.

 You don’t know what a fleshlight is, and you’re curious, but unfortunately you don’t get to ask because out of nowhere Jeongguk’s hand is snatching the one you have on his cock off, and holding it away from him as his eyes squeeze shut and his brows pinch together. His chest is rising and falling in staccato breaths. You tense, worried that you did something wrong. 

 It hurts a little when you're pushed into the rock behind you due to how hard Jeongguk kisses you. He kisses a lot more than the couples you’ve seen. It feels good though, so you don’t complain. Instead, eagerly licking into his mouth. He laughs, low and shaky as he gingerly let’s go of the hold he has on your wrist. He cups your tits instead, squeezing contently. 

 “Sorry… almost came. Embarrassing,” he sings cutely with a playful roll of his eyes. He just looks at you for a moment like he’s committing you to memory, like he can’t believe he somehow got to be the human to hold your tits in his hands, before he states eloquently, “I wanna eat you out. Can I?”

 “Eat me out? What is that?” you ask distractedly as your hand tries to sneak back down to his cock again. It’s sticking straight up under the stream, red compared to the pale skin of his tummy. He backs his hips up staying out of your reach.

 Jeongguk’s eyebrows raise just a little. He wonders if you actually don’t know what he means, or if you’ve just never heard it phrased like that. Either way his cock feels like it’s throbbing against his belly at the idea of being the first one to taste you. If you say that’s okay, of course. Consent. 

 He presses his lips to your ear, “Means I wanna kiss you,” he cups your cunt in his palm, “here.”

 You stiffen, shoulders raising and the water droplets on your body rise too, floating above you till your body relaxes. Jeongguk’s mouth felt good on yours; you can’t even imagine how good it would feel down there. You cup your hands on his face and bring him down to your level to kiss him, legs wrapping around his waist as you hold him as close to you as you can, smiling into it after a short while.

 He grins too. “What are you smiling at?” he teases.

 You giggle, and look down at the water. “The fish are watching us.”

 To Jeongguk’s surprise that is exactly what is happening when he follows your gaze. In an almost perfect half-circle surrounding you both, are a bunch of small fish. He jumps a little and crowds your space even more than he already was. They swim a little closer in unison.

 “That is so… unsettling…” he murmurs. 

 “They don’t like you,” you whisper.

 He tsks, and rolls his eyes. “I knew they didn’t… but I can’t say I am fond of them either…” He pouts before whispering, “I can’t eat your pussy while they are watching, that’s weird.” He glances at his hands, frown increasing, as a small whine escapes his lips. “I’m getting pruney too.”

 You hum, laughing lightly to yourself. Humans are like little sponges, the way they absorb water into their skin. You pull him to the edge of the water towards the land and he follows obediently, extremely willing to go wherever you take him at this point, cock bobbing with every step he takes. His big hand squeezes yours affectionately every now and then. You lead him to the top of the rock where he first saw you, gingerly settling down on lush, soft moss with your knees pulled to your chest. Your body feels like it’s vibrating from the anticipation thrumming through you.

 Jeongguk does the same, sitting on his heels in front of you. He gently rubs his hands on your legs, pushing lightly, encouraging you to open up for him. He seems as eager as you, his hands trembling just a hint, his pink little tongue peeking out to wet his lips. You resist some against his hands due to shyness, but desire wins out the more he touches you, as his hands run over your body.

 “It’s gonna feel good, I promise,” he says as he lays on his belly, breath hot on your core. “I’m not good at that many things, but eating pussy?” he nods to himself and throws you an ‘okay’ sign with his fingers. “I’m like the best.”

 Without further ado, Jeongguk sets out to prove his skills to you. His fingers pet over your pussy lips at first, admiring how soft they are, so smooth under his fingertips. With his first two fingers, he spreads you open, and he literally whines when he sees how you glisten in the setting sunlight. Soaked and dripping already, a little clear drop leaking when your cunt clenches on nothing.

 “Awe, do you want my fingers too?” he coos, as he plays with that little droplet, gathering it up and pushing it back into your core as he sinks his middle finger into you slowly.

 You gasp quietly, a tiny ‘oh…’ falling from your lips. You spread your legs wider, and sit up a little so you’re braced on your elbows, looking down at him, at where his finger disappears inside of you. So slowly like he’s taking extra care not to hurt you. Inside, he curls it, making you jerk, keening at the sensation.

 “That feels good Gukkie…” you whisper. You take your eyes off your cunt and look at him. He looks back, smirks.

 “You feel good,” he throws back flirtily, “you’re so wet,” he comments, watching as his finger comes out shiny.

  He catches your gaze again, holds it as he brings his mouth down. He kisses just above your clit, just to the sides of it, each press of his lips making your hips twitch and squirm. All while his finger is still working inside of you. He sighs as he takes in the way you pussy swallows his middle finger, for just a moment longer before finally tasting you. 

 You taste fresh and clean on his tongue, almost like a drink of the best water he’s ever had. Fiji probably. He groans as he drinks you down, lapping slowly over your clit with a flattened tongue, the tip occasionally dipping down to your core, licking around his fingers to get a better taste of you. The noises you utter, the way you’re looking at him from above- all of you makes his cock throb. Drops of precum surely dribbling from the slit. 

 But he doesn’t touch himself, just focuses on you. On making you feel good.

 Which he’s doing a good job of. You let him know by the way your hips rock onto his tongue. The tongue that’s moving so slowly, yet precisely, over your clit. It’s the kind of pleasure that builds until it gets overwhelming. Every lick makes you more sensitive, makes you climb higher and higher. And when he adds his ring finger next to his middle one, it’s the kind of pleasure that takes over your whole body. It’s heavenly, especially when he starts hitting that spot inside of you.

 “Oh my gosh,” you whimper, tone kind of confused, like you didn’t know your body could feel the way he’s making it. 

 As he keeps curling his fingers, with his tongue still playing with your clit, you start to feel a sharp, intense sensation. A buildup that has your legs beginning to close as a natural reaction. But Jeongguk’s free hand pushes on the back of your thigh, putting your flexibility to good use, making your knees almost touch the ground beneath you. The sensation you were feeling only amplifies as he starts to thrust his fingers into you, harder and faster, almost a constant pressure on your g-spot. You gasp as your legs begin to tremble and your whole body starts to feel hot, burning as a new kind of pleasure pours over you.

 “Gukkie,” you whimper, head falling back. “Fingers, just your fingers, right there. God-” 

 Jeongguk’s a little affronted at you asking him to stop using his tongue, but when he sees the way your face is torn between pleasure and bewilderment, he gets over it. Your face is obscene and your tight little cunt is pulsing around his fingers and your slick is dripping all the way to the moss under you. You’re so fucking wet, lewd squelching sounds coloring the air of the woods as he fingers you. And then something is happening right before his eyes. Your back arches, as you warn him. As you tell him that it’s happening, that you’re gonna cum. 

 “Oh my god, fuck- please, please cum for me,” he moans fervently. 

 One last push of his fingers against your spot is all it takes for you to finish, pussy gushing clear liquid that floods his hand. His surprised moans mix with yours as his eyes find you, awe and wonder so apparent in them. You blush, eyes falling shut as he continues to work his fingers inside of you, his thumb finding your clit as he does. This makes you cum again, a smaller, different kind of orgasm than the first, but still just as intense and mind numbing. He keeps toying with your pussy, yearning to make you feel every last bit of pleasure that he can until your body is twitching, overwhelmed and spent.

 Jeongguk immediately brings his fingers to his mouth, sucking them in and slurping up your Fiji water pussy juice as he groans. “Holy fuck… do you always do that?” he asks around his fingers.

 You’re flat on your back now, chest expanding as you try to catch your breath. “No, it’s never felt like that before,” you whisper, giggling softly between words, a little delirious and spacey from how good you just felt.

 Jeongguk plops himself on top of you, resting on his forearms that are settled at the sides of your head. “You mean I did that?” he asks. You nod with rosy cheeks. “Oh my god I’ve never made a girl squirt before, I can’t wait to tell Tae,” he whispers with a stupid grin. Then he kisses you, a little too hard due to his excitement. “You’re so cool. So sexy and so cool. And your pussy tastes so good, I never want to be with a human girl again.” His hips are rocking into your cunt, his cock hard and hot against your messy core. “Fuck- please let me fuck you,” he begs. 

 He doesn’t need to beg. You were always going to let him. You’ve wanted him to make you feel good since you saw him strip down, and run his hands through his hair under the waterfall, little drops rolling down the curves and ripples of his muscles before disappearing into your spring.

 Experiencing human desires firsthand wasn’t the only reason why you wanted to come ashore; it wasn’t your priority. Your priority was the freedom that came with being brought to land. Jeongguk being the one to find you and give you that freedom, just seemed to be like a happy, sexy coincidence.

 You loop your arms around his neck, and bite your lip a little as you nod, hoping that the desire you feel for him shines through your eyes. Jeongguk nods stiffly as his eyes flit to your lips before kissing you hard, once again. Though this time, while his lips are on yours, one of his hands reaches between your bodies, grips the base of his cock. He rubs it between your lips, the tip brushing against your clit making you moan, high pitched and sweet into his parted mouth. 

 “It might hurt a little, but I’ll go slow. I promise,” he says with furrowed brows.

 You nod and brace yourself for the stretch. Virginity is a construct that doesn’t exist in the sea, but Jeongguk has a big dick, and you’ve never had any dick inside of you. A little pain was to be expected.

 But just like he promised, he goes slow. Sweet kisses planted everywhere he can reach as he sinks into you, little by little. And although it does sting a tiny bit, it’s not nearly as bad as you expected, not as bad as what your friends had told you. Nymphs could be a little dramatic at times.

 When Jeongguk bottoms out, you gasp, your sharp nails digging into his shoulders where your hands were rested. He hisses, and your brows turn up with worry when you see tiny little pricks of blood come to the surface.

 “I’m sorry,” you murmur softly, bringing a finger to your lips getting it wet with a little spit. You bring the wet digit up to the small wounds, pressing slightly. When you pull away, the small cuts are gone. You do the same for all of the little dots of blood. “Are you mad? Are you okay? I fixed it, I’m sorry,” you say again.

 Jeongguk is balls deep in the wettest, tightest pussy he has ever been in, real or fake, and you’re asking him if he’s mad. If he’s okay. He laughs a little, kind of airy and strained as he tries not to move before you’ve adjusted to him being inside of you. “You could carve your name into my skin and I would probably cum. I’m fine,” he says as he pecks your nose.

 Your eyes grow big at the little affection before you giggle. “Don’t get ahead of yourself… water nymphs can get mean and possessive… we are known to drown people if they are unhappy with them.”

 Jeongguk pulls out just a little before rocking back into you. You moan softly, eyes fluttering. “Mmm, I’m not making you unhappy am I?” you shake your head, distracted as he keeps up those slow thrusts, pulling out a little more each time before sliding back in. He hums, and you can hear the smile in his voice, “Nice, I only wanna make you feel good.” When he says ‘good’ he gives a particularly hard, long thrust, punching a gasp from you.

 “Oh you are, you’re making me feel so good, Gukkie,” you whine quietly, bringing your legs up to circle around his waist. 

 Your legs don’t stay there. When he goes onto his knees, he places your ankles on his shoulders, hands running along your skin making goosebumps pop up. You shiver and bring your hands up to his torso, just wanting to touch on him too. His abs tense when you pet at him, and he moans, his hips speeding up some.

 Jeongguk doesn’t know what he did in a past life to deserve being buried in your cunt right now. Maybe he saved a baby from a fire, or a kitten from a tree- whatever it was, he is so grateful to his past self for doing it. The way you mewl under him, soft whines of his name as you squirm when he fucks into you just right- it’s unreal. You and your slippery wet cunt are unreal, and Jeongguk is already so embarrassingly close. He curses as he fits his hands behind your knees and pushes until they are by your head. He rests most of his weight onto you, almost bent in half, pussy displayed and wide open for his cock that he plunges into you, fast and hard.

 “God you feel so fucking good, I don’t even want to fill you up,” he pants above you, “I just wanna keep fucking you forever.”

 “Yeah?” you ask, voice cutting out mid-syllable due to the force of his hips kissing yours.

 He nods, with dark hooded eyes. He looks down to where his cock is fucking into your cunt and he moans, loud, deep from within his chest. Gritting his teeth, he fucks you harder, more desperate than before, his fingers digging into the meat of your legs.

 You’re whimpering, soft moans of your own mixing with needy grunts escaping Jeongguk’s mouth. It sounds pretty to you, raw and blissful, as you watch the way his face contorts with pleasure as he gets closer. His brows pinch, and his mouth falls open. The deep grunts he was groaning turn into frantic higher pitched moans. His eyes shut, and his head tips back, sweat droplets running down his neck, pooling at his collarbones. His cock drags inside of you, your slippery cunt sucking him right back in everytime he pulls out.

 “Fuck, I’m cumming,” he whispers, hips still moving just a little less consistent than a few moments ago.

 “Yeah,” you say again, breathless as you look up at him. His long hair sways at the sides of his face with every thrust, and his eyes are squeezed shut like he’s concentrating, working so hard for his high. “Yeah, I want it, want you to cum, Gukkie,” you urge, hand coming up to push some of his sweaty hair behind his ear. 

 His body jolts at the sweet action, eyes opening for just a second to gaze at you before they snap shut as his hips snap forward, his cock spilling into your pussy as he trembles on top of you. You can feel how he throbs inside of you with every pulse of cum that shoots from his cock. He sighs as he milks his cock with a few more slow, lazy thrusts, some of his cum spilling out of you.

 You sigh with him, still petting at his messy hair as he composes himself. Composure to him is letting you un-pretzel and then resting on top of you.

 “That felt good,” you drone.

 He huffs from his place on your chest. He’s rolling one of your boobs in his palm like a squishy stress ball. “I think I almost blacked out.” He sits up a little. “Shit sorry, you didn’t cum again did you? Do you want me to-” he starts to move down your body, determined to finish you off one more time.

 You thread your hands through his hair, and pull lightly, signaling him to stop. “No I’m okay! The first one was enough, it was like- overwhelmingly good… and I had a baby one after that,” you tell him with a blush.

 The corner of his mouth quirks up. “I still can’t believe I made a mythical being squirt,” he moves back up your body and holds your face in his hands as he pecks your lips cutely before murmuring against them, “So cool....”

 You kiss back, for as long as you can. Up until Jeongguk shivering on top of you is too distracting.

 “Are you cold?” you wonder aloud, pulling away from him.

 “N-no,” he chatters as he chases your lips. You press your index finger to them to stop him in his tracks. He pouts, and his brows furrow unhappily. 

 “It’s getting late, you should go home,” you suggest lightly. “It’ll be dark soon… if I’m real, who knows what else lurks in the woods when the sun goes down.” You raise your eyebrows and try to tease a little.

 He grumbles, but does as you say, trudging down the rock to where his clothes are. You watch him from your rock, and try not to snicker when he stumbles while trying to get his legs into his sweats. When he’s fully dressed he turns and looks up at you, doe-eyes kind of sad and forlorn.

 “Are you going to be okay out here?” he asks, loud so you can hear him.

 You roll your eyes with a smile. “I lived in the ocean for centuries, I will be fine. I have the moon to keep me company.”

 His eyebrows raise. “Centuries? Kinda milfy of you.”

 “Milfy?” you question with a little pout.

 Jeongguk laughs softly, runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t worry about it.” He looks like he’s about to say more, but instead he just gives you a soft smile and a small wave before turning to pick up the bottle you arrived in and then making his leave.

 “Jeongguk!” you yell.

 He turns back quickly, like he was waiting for you to call after him.

 “Will you come visit me again?” you ask with a small, hopeful grin. Your head is tilted and resting in your palm, looking much like you did when he first saw you. 

 The smile that graces his face is big and bright even in the darkness that is starting to overtake the woods. He nods. “This has always been my favorite spring. Bye little nymph,” he says with a final wave.

You watch him go until you can’t see him anymore, his body disappearing into the brush. Still, you whisper a tiny, “Bye, Gukkie,” before diving back into the spring taking your water form for the night.

~~~~~

pls this jk was so fun to write lmao also ahhhh my first time writing a squirt scene , i hope it was ok lol AND TY FOR READING FRIENDS!!  i know its a little bit of a niche pairing but it was fun to write so i hope you enjoyed it <3 if you did, pls do all the things: like, comment, reblog, share, send as ask~~ love hearing what you think :) and again!! ty for helping me hit my milestone i love u guys *smooches*

[luimagines]

Could I pwetty pweashe have a scenario for each of the boys where reader is loopy with fever or from poison and the whole time they are just laying the compliments on real thick and going on and on abt how much they love their boys 🙏🙏🙏

Masterlist

Yeeesssss!!! Will do!

Here we go. Boys under the cut! Immediate Reader!

***

You were trying to go and find some food for dinner at Wild's request and found some interesting looking berries. They looked like blueberries from your world but there was purple thorns on the bush instead, with yellow trimmed leaves.

You grabbed a few and retraced and marked your steps to find your way back to the bushes. You thought that maybe one of the boys would be able to identify the berries and know if they were actually edible or not.

You stashed them away and grinned to yourself. It was a possibility that they were good but if they weren't- there was other ways to use the berries.

You still needed to find food that your group actually is able to eat if the berries aren't worth anything.

You hear your name being called and it startles you enough to take a step back and look behind you.

You trip on a root and crash against the forest floor- falling onto a separate patch of the same berries. Pollen and dew shoot up from the impact and you're forced to inhale it all in.

There's instant discomfort in your lungs and in your head, and you can already feel the multiple places where the thorns have pierced your skin and ripped your clothes.

You take a while to pry yourself out of the bushes, pain littered in all places you didn't even know you could hurt.

You cough and inhale more of the pollen that hasn't settled yet.

A massive headache begins pounding against your temples and back of your head.

You hear your name being called once more but this time in concern and blink away what you can. You groan and try your best to stand, falling to one knee in a coughing fit with pain and discomfort all throughout your joints and muscles.

You look up and smile despite it, a slight giggle of hysteria on your lips. "Hi Link! Guess what I found!"

Warrior "Oh sweet name of the three, what happened to you?" You see Warrior walk up to you and reach out his hand.

You giggle again and reach out to him. He grabs you and tries to lift you back onto your feet but your legs gives out from beneath you and you fall again.

"Hello~!" You lift out your hand and show him the berries. "You know if theses are good or not?"

"Nope." Warrior smacks them out of your hand with a backhanded swing. "Those are known for being highly toxic in.... depressant... components... Don't tell me you ate them?"

You grin and shake your head. "Nope! I didn't know if they were good or not...but I fell~!"

Warrior's face does that thing where he looks concerned but is only marginally capable of hiding it. "On the plant?"

"Link, you're so smart!" You get to your feet and fall nearly on top of him. Warrior is quick to catch you and hold you with his hands on your waist and you grin up at him, adoration pooled in your eyes. "That's what I did~! Man, you're so strong. You're stronger than I thought you were. Your arms are so toned too. I didn't think you had this much muscle."

"Ok. Let's get you to Sky." Warrior rolls his eyes and begins to more or less drag you away from the plants and back to where you think the group is. "Or maybe Four, this is his Hyrule anyway. Maybe he'll know how to get you fixed up."

"See, this is why I like you so much. You're always so fast to come up with a plan and you're so caring. You're so smart. You're so great." You giggle and try to follow his footsteps but find it really hard to put one foot in front of the other.

After what felt like a few seconds, (but was really ten minutes of Warrior fighting you and gravity (not successfully) to keep you upright), Warrior gives up on your non cooperative limbs and picks you up bridal style and begins to carry you away from the infested area.

"Link, I love you."

"I love you too." Warrior waves you off with a playful roll of his eyes.

"No.. but I really love you!" You insist, getting loud for no reason and place your hands on his face. You give him a squish and lean into his space. "You have to understand this. I would do anything to you."

"I know you would." He laughs. "I'd do anything for you too."

He shakes his head out of your hands and grins at you. "I think you're a little drunk from the plants toxins."

"Nuh-uh." You pout. "I'm too strong for that. I'm completely........ ok."

"I believe you." Warrior bites his lip trying to keep his cool before he absolutely looses it. He's both touched by your words and concerned for your well being. He supposes you're more or less drunk and loopey. It's not the most desirable circumstance but he's sure that those cuts on your skin and tears on your clothes can be handled more easily than the up coming hangover.

You fall silent after a second and look up at him. You poke his cheek and his nose and grin, hugging him close and snuggling into his chest and neck. "Has anyone ever told you that you're very handsome?"

"I think that's the more common compliment." He admits.

"And your eyes are very pretty and very blue and you have very long eye lashes and it's all very pretty. And you have a strong jaw."

"Do I?"

"So strong and sharp- it could cut glass." You say seriously. "And your hair always looks very soft and shiny and silky and I want to play with it but I don't want to make things weird. And you're so cool! You're so smart. You're so nice. And you're great with kids and people and everyone likes you so much, so quickly and it's so cool to watch you work and fight and-"

"You're going to keep going forever unless I stop you, aren't you?" Warrior swallows and tries to fight his upcoming blush. He had thought that you were joking for a moment but the more you talk the more it hits that you're being genuine.

You furrow your brows and hit him with the most innocent doe eyes you don't know that you have. "Do you want me to stop?"

Warrior almost trips at that way his heart skips a beat and he chuckles awkwardly. "Actually... No. It's ok. I don't mind."

"You deserve the world, Link." You say finally and go back to resting with your head in the crook of his neck. "I just wish that you could see that, you stubborn man."

"I'll... try my best."

"Good."

Time "Oh no." Time sighs and makes his way over to you. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"My head hurts." You admit and drop the berries from your palm to cradle your temple. "I was trying to look for food... I think I found it but I also... don't."

Time kneels in front of you and places the back of his hand on your forehead. He hisses at the temperature and places his hand under your chin. "Why do you keep finding yourself in situations like this?"

"You boys keeping putting me situations like this." You mutter and try to stand. Your legs fail you and Time lurches in front of you in order to catch you.

"Do you see me as a boy?" Time raises an eyebrow.

"NOT that I'm complaining." You ignore his question and pat his face. "I love you guys, so much but like...This is what happens when I care about people. I end up in stupid situations."

"Maybe Four will have somethin to help out this." Time admits and picks you up without any further thought. "Let get you some help."

"Link, you're so great." You sigh and press your forehead against the crook of his head. His heartbeat is strong and he's cooler than you thought so you sigh in contentment.

"You're so calm and I always feel safe around you and you give the best hugs." You grin against his ear and Time has to stifle the upcoming chuckles from his chest.

"Do I?"

"The best hugs." You reiterate and snuggle closer. "You can ask Wind, he'll agree."

"I'm sure he will." Time let's a snort pass and he nods to Four as he passes. "They fell in a berry bush."

"Blue berries! With pretty leaves and thorns!" You cry out with an arm outstretched to the sky. "Not good for food, no no no, but good."

"Well... I'll start the antidote." Four sighs and walks away to his pack, immediately digging through it for the ingredients that will help you out.

"Four!" You sing and turn your head back into Time's neck. "Isn't Time the best? He's so strong and gentle and nice and he's so great."

Time lets more laughter fall from his lips as he places you on the ground next to his supplies. He says your name with a slight whine and begins to beg. "Please."

"Beeeeeesst hugs." You ignore him.

Four snickers from the other side of the camp and pulls out a bottle.

"I adore you Old Man. I don't think you get told that enough." You continue. "Like, you always try so hard to be a good person. You've gone through so much and you had no reason to start your adventure or to keep helping people and doing stuff but you care so much so you're here still and I think-"

Oh no, Time thinks, you're crying.

"Ok, ok, it's ok." time kneels next to you and puts your hair behind your ear. "No need to be upset. I'm here and everything's ok."

"But you've been hurt so much!" You pout, tears pooling in your eyes. "And yet you're still here and no one thanks you and you try so hard to watch over all of us and even then-"

"That's enough." Time frowns slightly and shakes his head. "I'm just doing what I'm supposed to."

"No one is making you." You pout and lay down on the ground. "You're not listening to me."

"Believe me, I am."

"Here." Four comes up to you and hands you a little bottle filled with viscous green liquid. "Drink this."

"I don't wanna." You pout. "I don't feel good."

"It'll make you feel better." Four tries again, before Time takes the bottle from his hands and uncorks it.

"Drink it." He says, in a tone which means there no room for argument.

"You're such a dad." You complain and grab it from his hand, placing it to your lips and begin sipping it slowly.

Time shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair. "What are we going to do with you?

Wild "Oh boy, I don't think these are good for eating." He says with a slight grimace. "We should probably not get near these. Let's go clean you up, yeah?"

"WIILLDD!!" You grin and reach your grabby hands in his direction. "Beautiful boy, how are you today~?"

Wild coughs a little and tries to hide his discomfort by avoiding eye contact. "I'm... fine... How are you?"

"Everything hurts~" You admit and look up at him with pleading eyes. "Carry me?"

"Oh boy, sure, why not?" He sighs and wraps around your shoulders and hooks the other under your knees, carrying you effortlessly through the thicket.

"How did this even happen?" He asks out of curiosity.

"I heard you call my name and fell."

"Fell where?"

"In the bush." You mumble with a pout and cross your arms. "It's all pokey and my clothes are ripped and I think I'm bleeding."

Wild bite his lip and hisses. "Sorry."

" 's not you're fault." You look up at him and pat his face. "You're too nice. I just wanted to help and got hurt like stupid me tends to do."

"You're not stupid." Wild scolds you gently. "You are incredibly smart."

"You're the smart one."

"Think so? I think some of the other will disagree."

"Well they can eat my shoes."

Wild coughs out a laugh again in a vain attempt to hide how uncharacteristically serious that was for you and how the unexpectedness of it made him lose it on the inside. "I don't think those would taste good."

"No.... But I need them so maybe they eat my hat instead." You nod to yourself in full serious before gasping slightly. "They should eat Legend's hat instead, then they'll really be sorry."

"Oh my god." Wild snorts and goes to cover his face before remembering that he's holding you.

He jostles' you in the process and the movement cause your headache to flare up. You whine and put a hand to your temple. "It hurts."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Wild frowns and puts the information away for later. "We'll get you back to camp and figure something out ok, maybe you should take it easy for a little bit."

"Link, you're so good to me. I don't deserve it."

"I think you do- I say you do and I'm going to tell Time to keep you down until you feel better."

"Noooo."

"Yeeesss."

"But you're always doing something for someone else, who's going to help you with dinner?" You complain and flop your arms around- regrettably because your head ache flares up once more. "Oh, ouch, ouchies..."

"I think I'll be fine." Wild rolls his eyes. "I've done it before I can do it again."

You hum sadly and shimmy your way into his arm to get more comfortable. "You're a good person. You're so smart. I love hanging out with you. You know that? You're so fun to be around and talk to and you're always so.... good."

Wild looks down on you momentarily before returning to the the forest ahead of him. "Thank you."

"I wish..." You start and cut yourself off. "I wish there was more I could do help you. You help so many people- I think there's someone in every stable in your Hyrule that you've helped... not to mention all of Hateno Village and like- you built Terry Town... It's so good-you're good. I wish more people were good."

"Are people not good?" Wild asks you as he walks through the green.

"I like to think that some are. I don't get to meet a lot of them." You admit and settle your head against his shoulder. "My home's not as nice as here."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm going to miss you guys."

"We're going to miss you too." Wild replies automatically.

"I think I'll miss you most." You hum and close your eyes. "Good people should get good things and you didn't get a lot of good things... Someone should fix that. I want to fix that."

Wild doesn't respond.

Twilight

“Oh!” Twilight winces. “I should have warned you about those. Four told me they’d be in the area and that we’d have to avoid them. You ok?”

“I fell... in the bush.” You pout and begin to sag your shoulders. Guess they weren’t edible after all.

Seems like they’re quite bad actually.

“I’m sorry.” You sniffle and try ignore the tears beginning to pool in your eyes. “I didn’t mean too. I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

“Well no, not exactly.” Twilight rushes to your side at the side and brushes off whatever leaves and twigs he can see from your clothes. “Does anything hurt?”

“A lot of things hurt Twi.” 

“Can you be a little more specific?” He tries, with a small tilt to his head.

“My head... and I think there’s a lot of tiny cuts on my arms and back.” You try to stand again and Twilight is quick to help you with a stabilizing hand on the small of your back. “There’s more thorns in the bushes than I thought there’d be.”

“Ok, we’ll get those looked at ok. Four should have something to help you in the mean time.” Twilight takes a few steps with you, wrapping an arm over your shoulder when he realizes you’re more intoxicated than he thought.

You put your full weight against him without realizing it and place your head on his shoulder. “Twilight?”

“Yes?”

“I appreciate you so much.” You take a breath and sigh. “You’ve been the first person there to help me out with whatever this adventure seem to throw at me. You’re always taking care of others... like Wild and Wind and Legend and I know you look up to Time but so many of us are looking up to you too and I guess I want to say thank you. There’s a lot of good in your heart and I’m glad I get to see it.”

“I appreciate you too.” He says in reply.

“But I don’t do anything.”

“I’d beg to differ.”

“You’re too dignified to beg. I don’t think you’d ever have it in you.” You grin. “I admire the way you hold yourself and don’t let anyone talk down to you- like that guy in that old Castle Town- or where ever we were. And like, you can throw a good punch too. I thought you broke that guys jaw!”

“Admittedly... Not one of my greater moments.” Twilight hisses at the memory. Time gave him a nasty look for that one and he’s still working off the penalty for it.

“It was super cool though.” You cock your head to the side, looking at his profile as you stumble through the forest growth. “He totally deserved it, don’t let Time let you think otherwise. I was tempted to punch him too or get get Wild and let him go crazy against the guy.”

“Wild probably would have set him on fire.”

“It would have been funny.”

“No it wouldn’t have.”

“Not to the guy, maybe.” You giggle. “But see, you’re always thinking about others and how’d they react and how to go about things that makes you so smart and you’re so cool.”

“Thank you.” Twilight stops the two of you for a moment and readjusts his grip on you. “Are you feeling any better?”

“No. My head hurts.”

“Well, we’re almost there and then we can get started on fixing this ok?” 

“Ok.” You mumble and go back to mostly resting against the country boy. 

“You’re really great with animals too.” You say randomly. “I’ve never a horse that close with its rider or how all the cats just gravitate towards you.”

“The cat thing I’ll admit is special to me, but are you trying to tell me that the horses of your world aren’t treated right? Because they bond really well with humans and dogs alike.”

“Why dogs?”

“Uh-”

“Well everybody likes dogs, I guess that’s a given. It's not even a question really. I don't know why I asked.” You shrug.

“Yup. That’s what I meant.”

“And no, well I don’t know... I don’t see a lot of horses in my home world so maybe you’re right and I just have bad examples.”

“Of course I’m right.” Twilight says with a grin. “Horses are great!”

“You’re great Link.” You try to hide your laughter at how genuine and boyish he sounded. “I’d take you over a horse any day.”

“Well I’d hope so.”

Wind

"What is it?" Wind tilts his head and steps into your direction, trying to piece together what happened to you with what little information he has. "You look like you got in a fight... and lost."

"I fell the bush of these berries! Look!" You grin beyond the pain in your head and hold your hand out.

Wind walks up to you and picks one up between his fingers, twisting it around before looking back at you. "Are these safe to eat?"

"I have no idea." You answer honestly. "I was going to as Wild if he knew but then I fell in this bush and got hurt so I gotta go get myself checked out."

"Well that explains why your clothes are torn." Wind snorts a little and holds his hand out. "Do you need help?"

You hum and try to examine yourself from the inside. Your head is killing you but you feel loopey and uncentered.

Maybe some help would be nice.

"Yes, please." You take his hand and let him pull you up. "Thank you Link."

"No problem." He grins. "Can you get back to the camp on your own?"

You hum again and try to take a step forward. But your knee buckles from beneath you and you fall the ground again. "Ow."

"Ok, guess not." Wind is by your side within seconds and helps you back to your feet. "That's ok! I'll just help you get to the others and maybe someone will know how to fix you."

"Yay." You giggle and lean on the boy. "Have I ever told you how great you are?"

"No." Wind grins and starts to lead the way. "I don't think you have."

"That's a shame. Shame on me. Because you are one of the best kids I think I've ever met. Don't let anyone change you, ok? You are.... so fun to be around and I'm so glad I met you and I'm going to miss you when this is all over and I think I'm going to try-"

"You think you're going to cry?" Wind looks up at you.

"No no... maybe." You tilts your head and close your eyes, putting your full trust and weight on Wind's shoulders. "I just... you're so good. And you're so happy and excited to see all these new things and I wish I was like that when I was your age, you know?"

"Uh-"

"And I hope that you get to do and see so many amazing things, Link. You're going to change your world, I know it and I'm sad that I won't get to see it."

"Hey-"

"You can't let anyone bully you, ok? There's a lot of people that would want to break your spirit and your joy and there's a lot of things that we want to do to keep you the way you are but there's only so much we can shield you from. I know you don't like it. I know you think you can't take it. But you shouldn't have to. You should have never had to. You should have had a chance like all the other boys and girls to be young and have a childhood and just be a kid but I'm so proud of you." You say and stop the two of you for a moment, pulling Wind in what you try to be a crushing hug.

"You're incredible, you know that?" You lean back and put your hands on his shoulders. "Link, listen, no matter what any else will ever tell you, we adore you. I think you're everyone's favorite, ok? There's so many things I want to show you myself if the Captain would let me.... I doubt he will because there not exactly things kids your age should know. Like throwing knives and hand to hand combat... But I think we both agree that it's all waaaay past that point. So anything goes!"

"Will you really teach me?" Wind lights up at the thought and be jumps a little on his toes in excitement.

"If you're up for it.. I'm sure that others will try to fight me though."

"I'll fight them."

"I don't doubt that pirate."

"What are you two talking about?" Warrior steps up and places his hands on his hips. "We heard you talking but missed it. What is.... what happened to you?"

"I'm just telling Wind how amazing he is and how much I love him and adore him and how cool he is for a thirteen year old and how I couldn't even come close to that when I was his age so I'm a bit jealous-"

"They fell in some freaky looking berry bush and I think they're poisoned." Wind explains over you. "They're acting a little loopey."

"I am. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OK." You shout and push yourself away from Wind, staggering on your feet and eventually falling on your butt onto the forest floor.

The sudden movement flares up your headache and your neck muscles stiffen around your shoulders, making it hard to move your head. "Oh, ow.... My head... That was a mistake. Mistakes were made."

Warrior hisses and sigh after watching you suffer for a hot second. "Alright, I'll go wrangle up some supplies. Can you take them back to camp on your own, Sailor?"

"I was already doing that." Wind raises an eyebrow.

"Alright then, then go back to doing that." Warrior smirks a little. "I'll be back."

He then nods a bit and walks away from your duo as Wind makes his way over to where you fell, pulling you back to your feet and wrapping your arm over his shoulders. "Did you mean what you said?"

"What did I say?" You try to twist your head around to loosen up your muscle and it only slightly works.

"Well... everything you said about me. Did you mean it?"

"I don't remember." You frown and furrow your eyebrows. "Probably... If it's all good things, then yes. Because you are good. And you deserve good things. And you might be the little brother I never had... but I wish you were my brother. You're cool. You're great. I love hanging out with you man."

Wind smiles softly and sits you down on a free spot once you reach camp again. "I can be your brother, it's ok."

"Awesome!"

Sky

"And what exactly did you find?" Sky raises an eyebrow when he sees you. He recognizes the plant but can't remember what it does or why he's seen it before.

"Hm... I don't think that's good." He sighs and walks over to you, picking you up with a sturdy hands on your elbows. "Are you ok?"

"A lot of things hurt right now." You admit. "Are the berries not good?"

"Let's assume they aren't." Sky smiles a bit and wraps arm around your waist to keep you from falling. "I think you should get someone to look at you."

"You have really long eye lashes." You blurt out and gently bring your hand to cup his face. "And I've never noticed how blue your eyes are."

"Ok, those berries defiantly aren't good." Sky snorts and picks your hand off of his face. "Let's get you back to camp, ok?"

"You're like... one of the nicest people here, you know that?"

"Well I certainly try to be."

"And you're always thinking of others and you're so good." You lean against him, putting your full weight onto his side. "I'm so sorry that you have to be here instead of your home. You're so important to so many people Link."

"You think so?"

"I know so." You pat his head with what little arm you reach. "You're at the start of this whole thing... You are... the whole reason Hyrule, as everyone knows it, exists to begin with. It all starts with you. Not everyone has that kind of legacy you know."

"Is that really my legacy?" Sky looks over to you and you grin brightly in his direction.

"Well aside from the stories of the hero I've always heard so much about growing up there's also like the hero lineage as well. Not to mention you also father... the whole Hyrule Royal Family Line. So I'd say you're pretty important. and your legacy is pretty big."

Sky stops abruptly and the suddenness of it sends you right onto the ground. "I'm the start of the line?"

"OOOWWW!!! SKY!" You whine and cradle your head with both of your hands. "That hurt! Why did you do that?"

"Sorry sorry sorry." Sky bends down and helps you back up, readjusting his grip on you a few times to make sure that even if he loses his grip again, he won't be sent careening onto the floor. "That was an accident. I did not mean to do that."

"That was mean."

"It wasn't on purpose I swear."

"Promise?" You rolled your head over and rest it on his shoulder.

"Promise." Sky bite his lip to hold in his laughter. "I'd never do that to you on purpose, not like this."

"Ok. I believe you." You nod. "I think if you really wanted to hurt me, you would have sent your army of birds against me or something."

"I do not have an army of birds."

"But you're building one."

"No, I'm not."

"You are though. Maybe not on purpose... Maybe you don't realize it. You do know that birds flock to you right?" You blinks your eyes up at him. "It's a crazy thing to witness. I think you could easily rule to world with nothing but cuccos by your side."

"What is it with you guys and the cuccos? What did they ever do to you?"

"I can't speak for the others but I say with full certainty that my Zelda has a wicked streak sometime and she was mercilessly attacked by them one day."

"Oh my goodness"

"I told her to leave them alone but noooo, she had to keep hittin' the poor thing and look where it got her. Those little things are ruthless and should be feared. She won't touch them with a ten foot pole now." You nod your head to your story as if you were telling Sky some age old wisdom.

"Does that mean the others-?"

"Most likely." You snort. "Serves them right."

"That would explain that."

"Sky, I'm really glad I know you... as a person and as a friend. I think you're really talented and great and good and I'm so happy you're here."

"I'm glad I met you too." Sky grins and waves over someone from the camp to come help him.

"You're my favorite ok, don't tell the others." You wink in his direction and let yourself be taken away from his side.

"Oh jeeze, thanks." Twilight snorts and picks you up bridal style, taking you further into the camp and laying you down by the small fire they've started.

"I'll take that secret to my grave." Sky smirks.

Twilight huffs a little and stands to leave. "You can take care of them then."

"That was the plan."

"Sky is a brave boy." You mumble from where you've been placed and reach out to him. "He deserves better than watching over a sick sack of potatoes. He's good at helping people. Someone has to make sure that he doesn't push himself too hard. He'll over work himself and then there would no more Sky and the world will be to dark to recover. There's no way we can lose Sky. He's too good."

"Have they been like the whole time?"

"Pretty much." Sky shrugs.

"I think I'm going to throw up." You mumble and try to push yourself upright.

The boys then scramble to try and manage the approaching problem.

It's going to be a long night.

Legend

"Oh for the love of- you look like you took a swim through the underbrush. What did you do?" Legend groans and comes to stand in front of you.

"I went for a swim?" You blink up at him, confused and a little disoriented still. "Is that what happened? I'm not wet... Am I?"

"You're joking." Legend raises an eyebrow and and places the back of his hand against your forehead. "Ok, maybe not."

"I can not believe the legend himself has graced me with his presence." You giggle and try to stand- not very successfully. "What a joyous day indeed."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Legend kneels next to you and takes one of your arms, lifting it up and wrapping it around his shoulders. "You're acting weird... weirder than usual anyway."

"But I love you Legend!" You cry and wrap your other arm around him. It's a clumsy hug and Legend almost throws you off. But considering you can barely stand on your own feet with his support, he supposes some more wouldn't hurt.

If he likes it then he doesn't say anything.

"I think you love the idea of me." He grumbles. "I'm not that great."

"See, you say that but it's not true!" You grin and nuzzle your head against his. "You put on this big tough attitude and your defensive but you love us and we love you and I know you sometimes slip more food onto Wind's pate when he's still hungry but he won't go for seconds. Or how you sneak potions and healing items into our bags when we're not looking and I know you gave Hyrule some of those magic rings of yours to protect him. Or how you banter with Warrior because you try to keep his stress levels low because he gets flashback of the war and we all know he feels responsible for us even if he has no reason to be. You're quick to point out any puzzles that Four misses... magic eyes and all that."

"Have you been watching me?" He snaps and tries to make his embarrassment with anger.

"Yes, because I find you interesting and I've been wanting to get to know you better but you're one prickly pear." You poke his nose and try to keep walking. "You don't let me."

It's difficult.

"I know you've been watching what weapons Wild goes through and keep track of what he's been using the most, what he's most comfortable with... I think you want to get him something..."

"I'm an apprentice blacksmith... I want to see if there's something that will survive that wild rat." He grumbles.

"Ooohh!! Even better! you want to make him something!"

"I hope your fever erases this from your memory... Make it into one big fever dream."

You laugh and try to hide the grimace from your pounding head. "I know you've helped Twilight with something- he seems a little lighter but I don't know what. And I know you've been watching how much sleep the Old Man gets and I know you've been helping him with it. I know you're watching how much Sky has been fighting and how much he travels and you're quick watch his health and his breathing problems."

"Should I be concerned that you've been watching me this much? Because if it were any other person I'd be fighting you and getting a restraining order. It's weird." Legend huffs and hoists you up a little more, trying to keep you from falling.

"You help so many people." You hiccup and groan, the pain in your head becoming a little more than you can hide. "You're always watching everybody else's back. You don't watch your own."

"Who says that?"

"You take care of everyone else but yourself." You whine and hide your face against his shoulder. "But I've been watching your back. It's ok. I know you wouldn't like it but I care about you too much to let you hurt yourself. Someone has to take care of you if you won't do it yourself."

"I can take care of myself!"

"But you don't."

"Hey!"

"MMmm... Don't yell please." You wince and grip his tunic tighter.

Legend stops for a moment and finally looks at your face. It's flushed completely red and you're beginning to have sweat roll down the side of your head. Legend bites his lip and hides the pause behind the pretend need to adjust his grip.

He can't tell if you've gotten better or worse but he's going to bet worse.

"I'll go get Time. Maybe we can figure how to fix this, ok?" Legend gulps a little and returns to dragging you across the forest.

"Ok."

"The things I do for you people."

"You're a good person."

"Hm."

"Link?"

"What?"

"Thank you." You mumble, right into his ear. "We don't say it often but thank you."

Legend feel the tips of his ears go a little pink and he scoffs. "Don't thank me for anything. I didn't do anything."

"You're a good person."

"I'll chock this up to the fever talking."

Hyrule

Hyrule hisses sharply and can already feel the ominous foreshadowing of the hours to come. "Did you get in a fight? Are you hurt? You're bleeding, that's a dumb question, don't answer that."

"Rule!" You reach your hand out. "Best booooy!!! Hello sweet heart, how are you?"

"What happened to you?" He kneels down beside you and begins to heal the miniscule cuts around your arms and your back. He can feel the magic go down your legs and heal what was torn there and come back up to work on the worst of it.

It's a little more damage that he'd like to admit out loud and he's a little worried that there's monsters nearby that would have caught the scent of your blood.

"I fell in the bush... trying to get berries to eat... I was supposed to find food for Wild to cook but I don't think I can do that any more. It's not good that there's not much to forage." You mumble, relaxed by the suddenness of your pain being relieved and the cuts you've sustained leaving your body.

Hyrule frowns and stops his spell. It's a shame he can't do anything about your clothes.

"I feel funny." You say and lean backwards, over judging the distance and force and nearly send yourself back into the bush behind you.

Hyrule snatches your tunic before you can do that and pulls you toward him. "Be careful... Did the bush do this?"

"I dunno." You shrug and frown as you feel the pain begin to come back. "Are you here to bring me back?"

"I might have to regardless. I think you've been poisoned by the plants."

"I feel funny, not dead."

"Well, let's hope that it doesn't come to that." Hyrule rolls his eyes and wraps your arm around his shoulders. "Come on. We need to get you checked out and see if there's anyway to help you."

He's trying to stay calm... but he hopes that it's mostly you being loopey and not actually in any danger. He doesn't recognize the plant- but he supposes that's a given since it's not his Hyrule and he doesn't know the scale of the dangers around here.

"I have a headache again." You groan and don't even try to help Hyrule in lifting you up.

"I... can't really do anything about that. Sorry." Hyrule sighs and readjusts his grip to lift you higher.

This time you do put a little more effort in standing up and slowly, you begin to make your way back to the camp.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with me right now." You mumble and lean against him. "There's so many others things you could be doing right now."

"I don't mind. I'd rather you be ok than do anything else."

"You're a good person." You roll your head back and look at his side profile. "I hope you get every good thing the universe has to offer Link. May your life be filled with peace and happiness and all sorts of good things."

"Like what?" Hyrule finds himself asking. It stuns him and for a moment and he wonders if he's asking because he doubts he'll have it or if it's merely to get you to elaborate more.

"Like many friends and family and holidays and puppies and kitties and candy and good food and good company and cupcakes and lemonade-" You begin to list off.

Hyrule looks back on his life and the people he's met and everything that's happened to him up until this very moment. Enough so that he ignores the rest of your list and only tunes back in when you've past onto a slightly different topic.

"There's so many little things to enjoy in life, you know. I know you're humble and underestimate yourself and I'm trying to change that because you're absolutely amazing and there's a lot you should be proud and show off a little more because you deserve it but I wish you'd let us show you that. " You roll your head around again and try to match your footsteps to his despite the fog in your brain.

You keep talking.

"It might be presumptuous to say this but I think this group may have been the best thing to have happened to you. And that makes me a little sad."

Hyrule stumbles a little and you follow suit. "Sorry, sorry."

"It's ok. You'd never hurt anyone unless they deserved it." You mumble and try to fight against the now pounding sensation in your head.

"Hurting?"

"Yeah... My headache got worse."

"I'm sorry."

"You apologize too much." You groan. "I can't wait to see the day where you do something completely outrageous and just own it, just unapologetically decide that this is the hill you're going to die on and fight every one else about it."

"That sounds like a lot of effort." Hyrule snorts and raises an eyebrow.

"I can't to see what is the stick that takes you there."

"I don't think that's how the saying goes."

"It is now. I said so."

"Of course. Naturally." Hyrule snorts.

"Link, we're friends right?"

Hyrule nearly stumbles again but catches himself this time. "Of course we are! Whatever made you think otherwise?"

"Nothing." You admit. "But I'd to be the kind of person that's on the list of good things your life. Like that list I was talking about earlier."

"I say you are." Hyrule nods to himself and sees the camp in the distance. Relief flows over him and he nearly sags from it. A smiles graces his face as he turns to you and lets you lean on him a little more. "And I'd die on that hill."

Four

"Oh no no no no no, not good, not good at all!" Four hisses and runs to your side. "Did you eat any? Please tell me you didn't."

"Are they not good?" You tilts your head and try to keep your vision on Four but it's kind of hard to focus on just one of him. You don't remember there being so many Fours.

"No! You're not supposed to eat them! They're highly toxic!" Four grips your shoulders and begins to look over your face and check your eyes.

"Did you eat any?" He asks again, stressing the question more than you think is necessary.

You shake your head.

"Oh thank Hylia."

"I feel in the bush though."

Four groans enough that it sound more like a subdued scream. "Why?"

"I tripped." You giggle and try to stand up. "I heard my name AND FELL~! Hehehehe.."

"Ok. This..." Four sighs and looks around your surroundings for a second. He doesn't find what he's looking for. "...is not ideal."

" 'm sorry." You say and feel your lip start to wobble a little bit. "I didn't mean too."

"No. It's my Hyrule. I should have warned you guys. This is my fault." Four scoots in your direction and wraps his arms under your knees and behind your back.

He effortlessly lifts you up bridal style and doesn't hesitate to begin carrying you back to camp. "Time is going to have my head for this."

"No, he likes you too much." You blinks away what you can and try to think beyond the simple thoughts in front of you. "Everyone likes you. you're a likable person."

"Well thank you, but believe me. There are people who don't me." Four says with a snicker.

"Who are they? I'll fight them. Just say their names."

"You don't know them." Four furrows his eyebrows and chuckles disbelievingly.

"I can find them. And then I'll fight them. How dare they not like you!" You shout to the sky and wave your arm around like it's nobody's business. "You're one of the coolest people I know! That I've ever met! And I've met a lot of people! I've met this group! And you're still the coolest! Tell me their names, Link. I won't stand for this."

"It's not a big deal."

"I'm about to make it one."

"I won't tell you their names." Four shakes his head. Mostly because they're gone already so who cares.

"Then point your fingers Smithy because I'll find them and you won't have to worry about them any more." You say with so much resolution in your voice that Four has to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"Believe me, I don't worry about them."

"Oh so someone else got to them then. Good good."

He loses and laughs anyway. "No, not like that."

"There should be only people who love Link! Link haters are not allowed or welcome! Begone with those thoughts!" You cling to him weakly and Four has to grip you tighter to compensate for your flailing.

"Hold still, you're making this harder than it needs to be." Four snorts and shakes his head. "I deserve this. I deserve this and everything that's about to come. I know it. This is completely my fault."

"It's not your fault my head's hurting." You argue and frown. Because it's true. Your head ache tat you've been sporting since the start of your conversation has grown and it's beginning to be impossible to ignore.

"It kind of is, considering that it's a byproduct of the brumble bush." Four sighs. "Luckily, the antidote is pretty easy to make. The down side is that I'm not sure if I have all the ingredients and we're a little too far away from town to get more. I wonder if Hyrule can do something with his magic to help out... or at least lessen the effects so that it wears off."

"Will it last long?" You mumble and cradle your head in your hand. "I don't like this, Link."

"I don't like this either." He says. "If you didn't eat any of it than you should be fine in a few hours and it'll wear off on it's own but I don't think you want to be like this any longer than you have to be."

"Man, Link you're so smart. You know so much." You sigh and rest what you canon his shoulder. "I'm so glad I'm your friend... that we're friends and I want to keep being your friend. Can we keep being friends? Is it possible to be friends throughout different lifetimes?"

"I don't know but we can certainly try." Four grins and makes it back to camp a little easier now that you're so riled up. "I'm glad we're friends too."

"Yay!" You giggle and lay on the ground with little fan fair and with little convincing. "There's no much we have to do still... as friends and as a group. I love you guys!"

"And we love you!" Four snorts. "Get some sleep- it'll go faster. I'll wake you up when I have the antidote."

"Ok Smithy." You let your head hit the ground and close your eyes.

Four looked over his shoulder to where you are and smiles a little wistfully.

Until Time make his way to camp and eyes your torn and slightly bloody clothes before turning to Four with a raised eyebrow.

Four hisses again and raises his hand. "I can explain."

"You better."

[tossawary]

2,500 words of the Moshang Forced Marriage AU, in which the PIDW plot is turned off and Tianlang-Jun doesn’t fall, but this only causes even more problems for Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua. Written on my phone. 

- 

Shang Qinghua stumbled back into his leisure house with a jar of Zui Xian Peak’s best light wine in one hand and a sack of Qian Cao Peak’s tastiest specialty melon seeds in the other. He kicked the door closed, kicked off his shoes, and then kicked back for some quality lounging. 

   “Ahhh, now this is more like it!” he declared, wiggling into the cushions worthy of a head disciple’s house. “It’s all shoving off my chores onto other people from here on out! Having flatcakes on order with a snap of my fingers! Making some other poor bastard deal with Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge - at each other’s throats even at Yue-Shixiong’s nice dinner to celebrate our future ascension, eugh. I’ve really earned this! I’ve suffered enough!” 

   He dropped the sack of seeds onto the side table and fiddled with the wine, embarrassingly clumsy despite the fact that he was sober. As always, he’d been much too chicken-shit to really indulge around other people. He needed his fast reflexes for ducking and running away when he was out and about! Plus, people would freak the fuck out if a transmigrator started running his mouth, giving everyone existential issues and shit, so him waiting until he was alone to drink was really more of a societal service here than sad. 

   The Transmigration System had also been a concern before, but not anymore! 

   Shang Qinghua raised his jar and laughingly declared, “The plot is dead! Long live the free author! Ah, this toast is a little late, but better late than never, huh?” 

   At long last, this transmigrator had managed to get into the Transmigration System’s settings and turn off the plot! It had honestly been a little infuriating just how easy it had been, once he’d hit on the right combination of things to open the right settings menu. There may or may not have been a lot of outraged shrieking and frustrated crying, after all the sweat, blood, and tears he’d shed to become the head disciple of An Ding Peak. All Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had needed to do, in the end, was flick a few buttons from “on” to “off”. Outrageous. 

   “No more missions! No more restrictions! And no more bad endings for anyone! Ah, at least for everyone besides Huan Hua Palace Sect’s old master, that is… but, heh heh, I really think that I and the new Empress Su Xiyan can live with that,” Shang Qinghua muttered, then took a drink, wiggling deeper into his lounging and feeling very good about himself. 

   He felt as free as a bird! As free as the wind! Why shouldn't he celebrate his newfound freedom and future as a Cang Qiong Peak Lord by doing a little bit of nothing at all? 

  Shang Qinghua shamelessly did his best to become a lump. As he toasted to the distant happy couple and the bouncy baby protagonist on his way, with wine and melon seeds both, he removed all but one layer of clothing, tossed his belt and his jewelry on top of the pile, and yanked everything out of his hair. He slid from a sitting position to a totally horizontal one without realizing how it had happened, then he let heavy eyes fall closed with the knowledge that everything was going to be so much better now. 

   A person knew things were good when they could fall asleep just like this. 

   Then a burst of cold air startled him into looking up at a shadowy figure stepping out of nowhere above him. Shang Qinghua shrieked with terror. 

   "SHUT UP!” the shadow snarled. “Get up!” 

   “What- my king?!” 

   Mobei-Jun didn’t wait and grabbed Shang Qinghua by the front of his robes, hauling him to his feet. The wine sloshed against the floor and the melon seeds scattered around them. Shang Qinghua yelped, choked, and then wheezed and flailed, and then yelped again as his loose robes got a little looser with the rough handling and he slipped in Mobei-Jun's grip. 

   "What- get dressed!" Mobei-Jun snapped, and then dragged him into the bedroom right away. 

   "The sight of my naked chest offends you this much, bro?!" Shang Qinghua thought, stumbling along. "There's not enough room in this house for two tits-out outfits?! What the fuck is going on?!" 

   Mobei-Jun threw Shang Qinghua towards the dresser. He just barely managed to catch himself, taking a hard wooden edge to the gut and stubbing his toe on its base, instead of falling and concussing himself at least. Shit! It still hurt, though! 

   "Get dressed!" Mobei-Jun snapped again, pointing at the dresser for emphasis. "Now!" 

   "Right away! Right away, my king!" With shaking hands, his heart thundering in his ears, Shang Qinghua pulled out the first set of robes his fingers touched. 

   "Not those!" 

   "Aah!" 

   Shang Qinghua dropped the robes onto the floor. They were the regular everyday robes of an An Ding Peak disciple, plain and sturdy, something that the demon had seen him in many times before. 

   "Wh- what's wrong with th-these?" 

   "Too plain!" Mobei-Jun barked, and stalked forward to shove Shang Qinghua aside and go through the dresser himself. 

   Shang Qinghua stumbled away and took shelter near his bed, quickly retying his current robes to prevent another fucking nip-slip or worse. He watched with wide eyes as Mobei-Jun threw his clothing to the floor as not good enough. The next drawer was yanked open with so much strength that it splintered and tilted crookedly to one side. 

   "My king, why-?! What's happening?! Are- are we going somewhere?! Who does this servant have to impress?!" 

   Mobei-Jun finished throwing aside everything in this drawer and tried to shove it back in, but it was too broken to be moved. The demon snarled, yanked the entire drawer from the dresser with another terrible splintering sound, and threw the drawer out of his way. It hit Shang Qinghua in the chest and sent him sprawling back onto his bed. 

   He lay there and wheezed without shoving it away, just feeling the impact rattle through his ribs. He heard another drawer splinter. 

   "Ah, so this is how I die?" he thought. "Just as expected: with a bang AND a whimper." 

   He pushed the drawer to one side and sat up, only to be smacked in the face with the robes thrown at him. They were the nicest robes he owned. The An Ding Peak Lord had ordered them for him for the coming ascension of a new generation of Peak Lords, so they had all sorts of fancy embroidery and several heavy layers, which meant Shang Qinghua fell back against the bed again under their weight when they hit his head. He sat up again and then gawked at these robes he had never worn and wasn't supposed to wear yet- 

   "Tianlang-Jun." 

   "Aha, what?" Shang Qinghua looked at the demon lord scowling at him. "My king…? What about Tianlang-Jun…? This- no. What?! My king, you can't mean to take this servant before the Demon Emperor, that would be ridic-" 

   "Get dressed," Mobei-Jun snapped. 

   "It's not Tianlang-Jun, right? Why-?! What's really going on here? Are we going somewhere? Are we meeting someone?" 

   Shang Qinghua got to his feet, but he didn't dare put the fancy robes on, like being nearly naked would save him from being dragged off anywhere else. No amount of nice clothing would ever make the likes of this displaced author impressive to the likes of the OP Demon Emperor, finally sitting on his late sister's throne. 

   "This servant can't serve his king to the best of his abilities unless he knows what the-" 

   "My father is dead!" 

   “...Wh… what?” 

   Mobei-Jun’s expression was like a thunderstorm. Shadows curled around his clenched fists, as light and heat fled this room that was suddenly even smaller than Shang Qinghua remembered it being. 

   "My father…" Mobei-Jun repeated, slowly, daring Shang Qinghua not to understand a second time. "...is dead." 

   Shang Qinghua stared in horror, the robes slipping out of his hands, which itched to count all the years that had just been skipped even though he knew he didn't have enough fingers. Thirty years or so? Definitely more than twenty. His breath came out in a trembling fog as he demanded: 

   "H-how?!" 

   "Tianlang-Jun," Mobei-Jun said again, through gritted teeth. 

   Good point! Good point! Who the fuck else could it be? The real question was why the fuck?! And also what the fuck was Shang Qinghua of all people supposed to do about clashes between OP demon lords?! 

   Mobei-Jun advances on Shang Qinghua, the shadows in his fists writhing like he's strangling them. "Tianlang-Jun took offense to some of my clan's foolish disrespect towards his human Empress and he made an example of my father. He has threatened to destroy the body unless a suitable gesture is made." 

   "But… the power of your ancestors…" 

   Mobei-Jun, looming over him, shoved him down to his knees to pick up the robes he had dropped, and snarled: "Get dressed." 

   Shang Qinghua snatched up the robes and skittered away to dress himself up for the slaughter. His heart was racing fast, but his mind seemed to be going even faster, almost too fast to actually think and also do things like make sure clothes weren't inside-out as he put them on. 

   The power of the Mobei clan rested in the ascension ritual in which the new king "consumed" the body of the old king. Spiritually and… er… possibly also physically? Shang Qinghua had no idea if the System had picked up on those implications or not. Anyway, if Mobei-Jun's father's body was destroyed, then he wouldn't receive that power-up necessary to enforce his rule, which would make him the target of every ambitious cousin and every greedy neighbor. The Mobei clan would probably fall into civil war and the rest of the northern kingdoms would follow them into bloody battle. 

   Shang Qinghua's favorite character, currently glaring at him for the fancy clothes probably making him look even less fancy by comparison, was sure to die. Mobei-Jun's shitty uncle had probably already picked the poisoned knife with which to stab him in the back. 

    "My king… what… what gesture is being made here…? This servant… this servant really needs to know how he's supposed to be of service…" 

   Shang Qinghua also needed to know whether or not he needed to take the first available window to run away. He definitely wasn't above leaping out of literal windows. If Mobei-Jun intended on hanging him over to Tianlang-Jun as a human sacrifice or some shit, then promises of loyalty might expire a lot sooner than originally planned! 

   At the question, Mobei-Jun's expression only darkened and the room darkened again with it. The cold seemed to spread from Shang Qinghua's skin deep into his twisting chest.

   "Marriage," Mobei-Jun said, again through gritted teeth. "Tianlang-Jun has suggested marriage to a human as a worthy gesture." 

   "M-marriage?" 

   Mobei-Jun looked so fucking murderous that Shang Qinghua knew he hadn't misheard. He had to have misheard, though, because this was absurd. 

   "Marriage betw-between me and- and…?" 

   "Yes." 

   "And… you?" 

   "Yes." 

   Shang Qinghua should have been given an award for not fainting dead away. The System should have given him a million points for every second he managed to stay conscious, except… the System had essentially been turned off. No more points. No more plot. 

   No more Proud Immortal Demon Way plot, at least. 

   Ah, was this some kind of warped vacuum effect? A new plot come to take its place? 

   "There will be great riches." 

   Shang Qinghua refocused on the demon glaring at him. Riches?! What the fuck did riches have to do with anything right now?! 

   "Mobei Clan is the second strongest in the Demon Realm," Mobei-Jun informed him, but the demon was kind of scowling like he resented this now, instead of bragging. "You would not have to work again." 

   It was a really fucking weird day when being told that his Dream Guy wanted him and that he'd never had to work again was somehow bad news. It almost sounded like Mobei-Jun was… was… trying to persuade Shang Qinghua to marry him by offering wealth, power, and a life of indolence. All things that would tempt most people! Especially blindly greedy, thigh-hugging sect traitors like his character! 

   "Did… did Tianlang-Jun tell you… to just pick any human?" Shang Qinghua asked faintly. "There weren't… there weren't any requirements…?" 

   Clearly Mobei-Jun didn't want to be tied to Shang Qinghua of all humans! 

   "He asked - laughingly - if none of us knew any humans. I said that I did." 

   Okay, Shang Qinghua fully believed that Mobei-Jun didn't know any other humans. Mobei-Jun was on a deadline and didn't have time to go find the most acclaimed matchmaker or anything. By default, Shang Qinghua was the best, most handsome, most skillful, most wellborn, most desirable, and altogether most marriageable human Mobei-Jun knew - and he was not feeling super fucking thrilled by this victory. 

   "What… what did my king say about me..? What is the Demon Emperor expecting?" Shang Qinghua could only hope expectations had been set on the floor, preferably into the floor or maybe even underground. 

   "A disciple of Cang Qiong in my service." 

   "Oh…" 

   "Fix your robes." 

   "What? Oh, shit. Right away!" 

   Shang Qinghua didn't have a lot of experience wearing robes this nice and Mobei-Jun barking at him to look less like shit wasn't helping. The fact that he was sweating from nerves and his fingers were still shaking a little also wasn't helping. He skittered around to add tasteful ornaments and jewelry, some of which got violently rejected by Mobei-Jun as too ugly to show anyone, but looking down at himself, he mostly just felt like he was throwing shiny gold onto a pile of crap. How could this really fool anyone?  

   "My king, what… what am I supposed to say to the Demon Emperor? Do you want me to lie? To the Demon Emperor?!" 

   "Do not speak unless spoken to." 

   Sure, Shang Qinghua could do that, but was he really supposed to leave the talking to Mobei-Jun?! To Mobei-Jun?! The protagonist's right-hand man had not been known for his silver tongue! Did he think people weren't going to have questions? Like, "How the fuck do you know some random human?" Or, "Holy shit, you're really going to marry THAT one?" 

   "Isn't… my king, isn't Tianlang-Jun well known for his interest in humans and human stories… though...?" 

   Love stories! Shang Qinghua was pretty sure that the man loved a good love story! How the fuck were he and Mobei-Jun supposed to pull off a love story? And make it a love story compelling enough to convince a pissed-off Tianlang-Jun to grant the Mobei Clan mercy? Shang Qinghua wasn’t totally sure he was going to be able to do anything besides break down sobbing and curl up into a pathetic ball on the floor. 

   Mobei-Jun's face twisted slightly, in the way of an angry demon who didn't want to admit that his lowly human servant actually had a super great point. Tianlang-Jun had already proven himself a man who liked to play with his food a little. 

   "Do not tell some story," Mobei-Jun snarled finally. "Do not speak unless spoken to. Do not lie." 

   "Of course! Of course! Very wise not to lie to him!” Shang Qinghua told himself to focus on the logistics here; he was the logistics man; it was what he did. If he just kept focusing on the details, he didn’t have to think about the bigger picture. “This servant will remain silent until called upon, which… when… my king, when will that be? Tomorrow morning? I have to tell-" 

   "Now." 

  "-my martial sib- what?!" 

   "Now," Mobei-Jun repeated. "He is waiting." 

[struggling-with-time]

The Man That Is Wilbur Soot [Wilbur Soot x reader]

Paring: c!Wilbur Soot x Gender neutral!reader

Summary: Inspired by the Song Honey Honey by ABBA aka I took the line "I'd heard about you before I wanted to know some more"

Warnings: Fluff?

Words: 3.4K

Masterlist: Wilbur’s Masterlist - Event Masterlist - Full Masterlist

A/N: This was made for my ABBA event. Check it out here! (Also requests are still open! Click here!) btw, this was supposed to be like 1k

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

You had heard about Wilbur Soot before. Everyone had heard about Wilbur Soot the President of L’Manberg. The guy who stood up to the Tyrant Dream of the SMP. And came out victorious, unlike the others whose life has been lost to the Tyrant, and their names to the passage of time.

You can’t say, he didn’t intrigue you enough, for you to set out on the dangerous journey that is crossing the SMP. Because he did. His country did. The ideals that you’ve heard about did. Everything intrigued you enough to leave your village behind and track into the world.

So that’s what you did, backpack on your shoulders, map in hand. You set into the big world, on the tracks to the dangerous country that the SMP is. You barely get out of the village before you are able to hitch a ride.

It’s a merchant that is headed for one of the villages closer to the border. It’s a bigger village than your own. The name rings a bell, maybe a traveller has mentioned it when passing by. So you hitch the ride, he tells you about his trades. He’s a merchant of fabrics, listing many places you haven’t even heard of. But there is one that catches your attention.

“You’ve been to L’Manberg?”

“Before it became independent yes.”

“Tell me about it!”

And the merchant does, for the entirety of the ride. He talks about the few people that resided there when he passed through the back then settlement. You beg him to tell each detail he can remember. And he happily provides. You take note of every you hear in your notebook. Your travel journal. Your… well diary.

He’s a good man, you note to yourself when he pulls into the bigger villages. The sun on the horizon.

You’re much further than you thought you would be on your first day.

This is going to be a good trip.

---

This is going to be a horrible trip.

You’ve been wandering for days, the closer to the border of the SMP, the fewer carts had come by, and even fewer willing to take a traveller with them.

You sigh as you watch the sun starting to set, and you are forced to make camp once more. It has been days since you last slept in a bed. To be exact 16 days. You had only managed to stay in an inn for the first night, realising your small amount of money wouldn’t get you far if you spent it all on beds.

You are reminded of the people whom you met that first night, a girl who talked about how President Soot had come by the town in his own travels to the SMP, and she had met him. No not just met him. She had spent the night with him.

And you just couldn’t help yourself, you had to quill your curiosity somehow, so you had once again asked for details, and she had provided.

The fire you get going is better than the last one. Not that the last one had ever turned into a fire. It had rained in the morning, and most of the wood you could find yesterday was still wet by the time you wanted to settle down.

But today, you had been lucky, it had been sunny all day, leading to being able to find dry sticks and a couple of pieces of logs. That you could make into a fire.

A clear stary night over your head as you turn in for the night. Hoping to get at least a couple of hours out of the fire to keep you warm. And to keep the mobs away. Knowing you still have a couple of days of wandering left before you will reach the borders of the SMP. You sigh as you jolt down the few interesting pieces of the day in your notebook.

Not that anything of importance actually happened. But maybe out there someone would read your notebook and find the fact that you saw a parrot in a birch forest be found interesting.

---

You have under half a day of walking left when a cart is willing to pick you up. Turning the hours of walking into a mere hour in the cart. You can feel yourself squirm in your seat as the silence falls upon you and the woman who picked you up.

“…So… Why are you heading to the border?”

She lets you sit in silence.

Rude much?

But… You can’t really call her rude, she was nice enough to pick you up and take you to the border. Where she very unceremoniously dropped you off, and headed off east, seemingly following the border never crossing it. She was… weird.

You instead tighten your back, and head over to the guarded tollbooth. A man looking bored out of his mind and close to sleep sits there. Not even having registered the cart that was there moments ago.

How often do people come through here?

The thought crosses your mind. You know it isn’t one of the main border entrances. You know of one that lies further west. But still, a good 2 to 3 days travel away. Besides you’re pretty sure someone told you the toll at the busy entrances is higher than the ones people rarely use.

But now that you are here and can read the price yourself. It seems the person had either lied to you, or the price at the main entrances are a lot higher than you could ever think about paying.

An idea strikes you, maybe… Just maybe… The guard will fall asleep. Just maybe. You linger on the side of the road. Seemingly interested in the plants nearby. You start jotting down stuff in your notebook. Taking note of the size of the leaves, the colour. You mumble the information to yourself.

Your eyes keep glancing over, as his head slumps down further and further.

It barely takes you a few more minutes of stalling before the guard is full-on snoring. You barely catch yourself nearly letting out a sound in victory.

Silent. Right. No noise.

You can do this. You can sneak past him. You can be silent.

You suck in a breath, as you start moving as slowly as you’ve ever done in your life. Hoping to the sky gods the slowness helps you with being silent. And it does, to some extent. But your backpack still rustles around, and the loose stones on the pathway still skirt across the dirt.

But he keeps sleeping, and before you know it, you’ve managed to sneak past him. Sneak into a country. You did it!

You decide your celebration is best celebrated far from here, and you make your way on the now stone path.

---

It takes you a couple of days before you hit your first village. You’re surprised by this. Normally there is a city around half a days’ time from most border crossings. But this is the SMP. The fact that its citizens aren’t exactly allowed to leave. Is more than public knowledge in other countries. They are under the rule of a Tyrant after all.

You figure it’s time to sleep in a real bed, you deserve it.

You head straight into the in, it’s barely past lunch, but there is a plentiful of people in there already. You stumble a bit at the sight, you had expected a couple of patrons, not a room full of people. But nonetheless, you make your way to the bar.

Conversations bustling around you, a waiter running around, and either the innkeeper themselves behind the bar, or just a barkeeper. You aren’t exactly sure. But you wave them down anyway. Maybe she can help you find the innkeeper and ask for a room.

“Well, hello there, you look exhausted.” Your shoulders sink further down at the comment. Did you really look that bad?

“I was wondering if you had a room I could rent?” you ignore the rude comment and stick to politeness.

“I figured.”

“… So um… Do you have a room free?” You try once again.

“Sorry hun, but if you hadn’t noticed we are full right now.” You completely deflate at the answer. In return, she takes pity on you. “But if you ask around over at the stables, someone might let you on as a passenger and take you to the next city. It’s half a day by cart, so you might just catch one if you’re fast.”

You beam up that answer, profusely thanking her, before running back into the street. Before realising you have no clue where the stables are.

It takes you two people, and three wrong turns to find the stables. And nobody is preparing any carts when you get there. Just a guy saddling his own horse.

Ah well, it never hurts to ask.

You approach the guy.

“Hi!”

He looks a bit confused when you stand across from him, on the other side of the horse.

“Um… good evening?”

You smile at him.

“Can I help you?” He speaks slowly.

“Ah yes! Sorry! I’m a bit out of it. I’m trying to get to the next town over.” You happily tell him.

“And you’re telling me this because…” He trails off. Leaving time for you to answer, instead, you leave him hanging. Until he coughs.

“Because…” He repeats.

“Because I was thinking, maybe you were heading that way.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“I can pay…” You try.

“Well then, why didn’t you start with that.” He looks you and your baggage up and down twice before clicking his tongue. “We can make this work. Do you know how to hold on?”

You nod, and he settles onto his horse, waiting for you to do the same. You manage to hoist yourself up and onto the horse. It doesn’t even flinch at the added weight. You’re thankful to the sky gods for that.

He rides the two of you out of town and onto the road for the next town.

“What’s someone like you this far out in the country?”

“I’m a traveller.” You tell him.

“To the border? So you could look at it and head home?” He snorts.

“No no, I’m not from the SMP, I’m just travelling through. I’m headed to L’Manberg.” He snorts once more.

“L’Manberg? That bunch of spoiled brats.”

“Spoiled brats?”

He laughs this time.

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“You truly aren’t from these parts.” He comments, and let the conversation fade out after that.

You don’t question the man, instead just pays him as the sun starts to set, and you are once again in an unfamiliar village. At this point, you barely remember the route you used to take in your home from your house to the baker.

Okay, that’s a lie, that is a route that is embedded into your mind, that you could sleepwalk it. For the sole reason that the route had you pass the library. Which was a place you spent a lot of time. Especially after finding out about the interesting man of Wilbur Soot.

Some books portrayed him as a traitor of the SMP, others the hero of the folk. But every single depiction had one thing in common. That he was an interesting enough man for people to want to write about him.

And that made you interested in him. He had started a revolution in a country that wasn’t his. You weren’t sure where he was from. None of the books in your village had mentioned that.

You head into the inn, this time, it’s bustling from evening patrons, but nowhere as lively as the one in the previous town. The reception this time has a separate table. Which you welcome happily. This means you don’t have to cross another sea of half-drunken people you don’t know.

However once again, the inn is full.

What’s going on here?

This one is even larger than the other one and seemingly has fewer patrons. But you take the rejection with a head held high. Thank them for their time, as you head into the now dark streets.

You sit now on a couple of steps, you’re tired, exhausted, and just want to sleep in a bed.

The door opens.

You nearly leave your skin in shock. You had expected the owner to be asleep. Instead, an elderly lady stands there.

“Would you look at that? It seems I have a guest.” She speaks.

“No no, I’m just passing through, I’m sorry I just needed to rest for a moment. I’m sorry. I’ll be on my way!” You ramble on as you scramble from the stone step.

“Nonsense.” She tsks at you. “Come in you poor child.”

She steps back into the house, leaving the door open.

“You coming? Close the door after you, it gets so terrible cold at night.”

You find yourself following her. Closing the door after yourself. You carefully put down your backpack as she ushers you into a seat in the kitchen. Setting a plate of hot steaming soup in front of you. You nearly drool at the sight. You can’t remember the last time you had warm food. Especially not warm homemade food.

You are quick to dig in, and she laughs warmly at you. You feel comfortable here.

“Why were you out in the street this late? That’s no safe place to be.”

You stop the spoon still in your mouth. She laughs once again, but the kind air around her never leaves. You swallow and pull out the spoon.

“I’m making my way to L’Manberg.” You tell her.

“Ah, L’Manberg. I’ve heard about that place. President Soot right?”

“Yes, yes.” You nod at her. “Wilbur Soot.”

“Ah, the Antarctic prince.”

You stop once again.

“The what?”

“The Antarctic Prince?”

You hum.

“Ah my dear, President Soot is the second born of King Philza from the Antarctic Empire.”

You stare at her; this was new information. She laughs once more. You are quick to grab your notebook and write down the new information. How had something this important not been mentioned before? This explains so much to you. And it eagers you even more to continue the trip.

The man of Wilbur Soot only seems to keep getting more and more interesting as each day passes.

The kind lady offers you a bed and a bath.

You are more than happy to receive both. Although you would never admit that to anyone that you could barely recognise yourself in the mirror. And for the second realisation that night. You understood why the innkeepers didn’t want you around.

You’ve never slept as good as you did that night during your travels.

---

You stretch as you can feel the scorching heat of the sun above you. It has been three weeks since you left the kind lady. She had asked for her son to help you move deeper into the country, so you were closer to the border you are desperately trying to reach.

You had travelled with her son for about a week, when he had to start heading more west than south, you had thanked him as much as his mother. But he had brushed you off that having a travelling partner was nice, and that you if came back through he would love to hear stories of the famous L’Manberg and its citizens.

The map you had brought seems to not be well mapped in the SMP. It wasn’t something you were unprepared for, but it did surprise you how little it truly resembled the mapping of the roads.

But a map is a map, and a destination is a destination. So you head onwards.

And onwards…

And onwards…

And onwards…

Sometimes meeting other travellers now that you are deeper in the countries. The nights where you aren’t alone passes faster than the ones where you are.

You hear stories of L’Manberg you have never heard before, and retellings of events but in other perspectives.

It seems a lot of people have a lot of opinions on the small country. But you understand, you too would have a lot of opinions if a city suddenly started wanting independence from its country.

It takes you weeks before you start coming across people who have been near L’Manberg regularly. It gives you a sign of hope. You’re getting closer, your journey is reaching its destination.

---

It’s storming the day you spot the country on the horizon. It’s still storming by the time you reach the country. The SMP toll guard is seemingly nowhere nearby and you pass the border with ease this time. Luckily for you. Or else you would have to explain why a traveller like you didn’t have travel papers.

You had expected to be met with one of the cities of the small country immediately. But it seems they are further from the border. And by further, it takes you an hour at foot-travel to meet the capital of the small country.

The streets are bustling.

That’s when it hits you.

You’ve made it.

You’ve actually made it.

You might look mad, but you let out a laugh right then and there. A laugh of relief. A laugh of victory. A laugh of … being alive.

“Having fun there?”

You turn around, to be met with the eyes of a stranger. A tall brown-haired stranger, nonetheless.

“Yeah, I just… Yeah.” You trail off. You eye him up and down, he’s cute. You put your hand out to present yourself, your name, the country you came from, and the name of the village you used to live in.

“Wilbur Soot, President of L’Manberg.” He returns with a smile. You barely listen to his words. Too captured by his smile. When…

Oh.

Oh, sky gods.

This is the man.

This beautiful human being of a man is the man.

“You alright there?” He asks as he watches you falter for a moment.

“Yes, yes, everything is fine. More than fine actually.” You tell him.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” You smile at him, and he smiles back.

“So, what are you doing here? You are an awful long way from home.”

He starts walking, and you fall in step with him.

“I’m here to see the country. I’ve heard a lot about it.” Leaving out the unsaid, I’ve heard a lot about you. He didn’t need to know yet, just how intriguing you found him.

You follow him down the street as he points a couple of things out, a couple of buildings, a couple of people. You listen and stop to note something down a couple of times, and he waits, patiently. Until he leads you to the local inn.

He holds the door open.

“A drink?”

“Yes please.”

He finds the two of you a booth, and you easily fall into conversation.

He asks you about your hometown, you about his.

He asks about your journey, you ask about the revolution.

You continue this game of ping pong. And the further down your drinks you get, the more personal the conversation gets. The less you note down. Yet, the man himself never falters from being the most interesting thing you’ve ever encountered.

And the night moves along, your conversation following.

You don’t really know when his hand landed on your thigh. Or when your lips met his. But suddenly you’re stumbling into a room together.

His touch setting you on fire, and your touch egging him on.

Your head is spinning as your back hits the bed.

Your notebook is lying tucked away safely in your backpack, staying there all the way into midday when you finally wake up. Disorientated, confused, and hungover.

Sitting there in that bed, you can’t help but remember the words of the girl you met the first night. And you can’t help but agree with her. Wilbur Soot surely is a love machine.

You hear rustling beside you, and you turn your head.

He’s awake.

He’s watching.

He’s watching you.

You lazily smile at him.

And at that moment, there is nowhere else you would rather be.

You had heard about him before, and you wanted to know some more.

People later down the line found your meeting story anywhere from boring to fate. But one thing was sure, you entered L’Manberg with one goal in mind. And never left again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

[rogue-durin-16]

YOU DRIVE ME MAD

Summary: Fred's and Y/n's silly rivalry may have more to do with love than with hate; after a fatal incident, some confessions are made.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Reader

Genre: angst-fluff

Tags:

Fred Weasley: @whiskeyn-rain @lumos-solemn

Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog @amourtentiaa

Warnings: brief mention of violence, blood, language (this seems a lot darker than it is lmao)

A/N: idk man I just love this idiot so here it comes another oneshot. The reader's house is not specified btw. Enjoy <3

Rogue-durin-16 masterlist

Fred spotted me and walked to stand near me before asking jokingly "On your way to kill a man, Y/n?" Oh, little did he know.

"what is that?!" I exclaimed at the sight of my friend's bruised arm.

"uhm... Nothing."

"who did that to you?" I knew the answer before I even got it. My friend had gone to break up with that Cormac McLaggen the previous night; she had finally listened to us and ended that toxic relationship they had, but apparently she got a souvenir from it.

"It's fine- he didn't mean to- Y/n don't do anything stupid." Too late, I saw red.

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Weasley." I curtly replied bumping his shoulder while I walked past him, making his smile drop in confusion. I never missed the opportunity to start a playful argument with him, but, as I had said, I didn't have time for that.

With the corner of my eye, I saw him joining my friends in the task of trailing after me.

I spotted the bastard chatting with his friends in the middle of the hallway that led to the Great Hall. "Oi, McLaggen!"

"Evening, Y/l/n." That filthy grin vanished from his face when I kicked him in the balls, triggering some gasps from our peers and a grunt of pain from him.

"Listen carefully, you loathsome pig." I leaned over to be eye to eye with him. "If you dare to lay a finger on my friend again— if you even think about it— I'll become your personal nightmare." I stood upright again, his eyes full of hate and rage following my movements. "You don't deserve a bloody warning, but I'm a generous woman." Poison dripped off my tongue, my eyes throwing daggers at him as I stepped back and turned around.

My eyes met Fred's worried ones while I made my way to my friends; they surely had told him enough for the ginger to know this was no time for joking and teasing.

His gaze then flickered behind me with panic and I realized a tad too late I shouldn't have turned my back to McLaggen; at the end of the day, pride overpowered honour in a lot of Gryffindors.

I spun around, grabbing my wand from my pocket, but I wasn't fast enough; before I knew what was happening, Fred was in front of me, serving as a human shield from the jinx.

The unknown spell hit his back and propelled us in my friends' direction. I was quickly on my knees, sitting Fred up and earning a grunt in the process, which I initially thought was caused by the fall. "Are you mental?!" My friend casted an Expelliarmus at the younger Gryffindor, long forgotten due to Fred's actions.

"My back— AH!" He yelped when I tried to pull him up.

"OI!" A first year who had made his way to the first row of students frantically gestured at Fred's back. "He's bleeding!!"

"What?!" I made him lean on me to take a look at his white shirt, now stained with blood. What I thought to be a harmless jinx turned out to be fatal.

"He's not supposed to be bleeding!" Cormac shouted, as panicked as I was.

One of my friends said something about going to look for George while the others shoot off to look for Madam Pomfrey.

"I'm gonna kill him..." Fred mumbled through gritted teeth, his voice shaky and weak. He felt so fragile in my arms, and I couldn't help the tears stinging my eyes.

"Fred—" his hands, which had been gripping my forearms, lost strength as the boy's body relaxed. "For fuck's sake don't fall asleep."

"... 'm trying..."

"FREDDIE!" His twin brother rushed to us, falling on his knees by his brother's side.

"I'm sorry." McLaggen had walked to us, keeping a safe distance.

"YOU'RE DEAD MCLAGGEN!" George stood up before I could stop him. Luckily for everyone, Madam Pomfrey showed up.

"Oh Lord! Mister Weasley, quick! Help me with your brother!" The Healer commanded, and soon they were pulling Fred off my grasp and rushing to the infirmary.

I was left in the middle of the hallway with my friends showering me with worried questions and reassurance.

What the fuck had just happened?

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

During dinner, several girls and a couple of boys came to congratulate me for kicking McLaggen's balls, and it would have been a lot more satisfactory if Fred Weasley hadn't stepped in the middle.

As soon as I finished my meal, I headed to the infirmary through the now quiet halls, only to find there were too many people visiting.

Of course, George was there, along with their younger siblings and Lee Jordan, but in front of them stood Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall and none other than Cormac McLaggen himself.

"—already told you it wasn't for you!"

"How is that an apology, Mister McLaggen?" McGonagall scolded him, refraining herself from hitting the boy herself.

"You better fucking run, McLaggen, because the moment I can step out of this bed I swear on Godric I will—"

"Enough, Mister Weasley!" I almost pitied the poor woman. Her House was probably the most problematic. "All of you must go to your dormitories, Mister Weasley needs to rest." I stood on the entrance of the room, unsure of whether I should leave or enter, until Flitwick's eyes landed on my form. He redirected McGonagall's attention to me, and I felt the need of shying away. "Miss Y/l/n," I didn't miss the failed attempt of Fred to move; luckily, he was stopped by his sister. "I suppose you wanted to pay a visit?"

"Uhm... I did, Professor." I confessed, fidgeting with the sleeves of my robe. "I know it's late—"

"Don't take too long." She spoke, motioning everyone to follow her. "Curfew is still at 10." She reminded me in a warning tone, passing by.

As soon as they were out, I made my way to Fred, who lay on his stomach in one of the beds, the sheets only covering his legs an hips in order to avoid the clothing chaffing his damaged skin.

"You have a heart after all, huh?" He teased once I stood in front of him.

"How are you?" He frowned at my genuine question; the ginger surely expected me to make a witty comeback, but again, it didn't seem the time.

"A tad better." He gave me a reassuring half smile, deciding to drop our banter for a night. "Flitwick said he used a stinging jinx but casted it wrong." Fred huffed. "A bloody tosser."

He motioned at the chair behind me and I sat down, scooting closer to the bed. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that he had jumped in front of me. It had hit his back, but I knew it was meant to hit my face —what a mess that would have been—, and I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"It's not on you." I felt my face flaring up at the ease with which he saw through me. I wasn't the first time he did that, but it was the first time he didn't use it to tease me.

"I know, I just—" I sighed. "I don't know." Though my sight was casted down, I still felt his worried gaze on me. "I'm gonna murder him."

"I reckon George will overtake us both on that." He tried to laugh but ended up in a since instead. "Or Gin. Maybe they'll team up with Ron and we'll find a corpse in the Gryffindor common room tomorrow." This time it was me who laughed. "How's your friend?"

"She'll be alright." I informed, distracting myself with a loose string at the hem of my skirt.

"And you?" I met his eyes with a hum leaving my mouth. "How are you?"

"Been better." I confessed.

Silence.

"Can you pass me the water?" I nodded, holding the glass in front of him and putting the straw in his mouth so he could take a couple of sips. "Thanks."

"No worries."

Silence again.

"Did you eat something?"

He scrunched his nose. "Not really."

"I'll go grab something from the kitchens." I didn't get far before his long fingers wrapped around my wrist.

"I'd rather have you here keeping my company." I then sat down again, his fingers only leaving my wrist to intertwin with mines. "I'm not hungry anyway."

More silence.

"Your hand is really soft." I reckon those words involuntarily escaped his lips by the way his eyes widened. "I don't know why I said that."

"Yours is too, surprisingly."

"Surprisingly?" He quirked an eyebrow at me, and I didn't quite realise what his grin was about until I spoke again.

"I imagined they'd be more rough." Oh no. "That came out wrong— I meant—"

"That you've imagined what my hands would feel like?" He was trying to bite back a laugh at the way my face turned red.

"No!"

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Liar."

There we went again; the white flag was out.

"Fuck you."

"Please." My cheeks turned even redder, and I wanted to think it was because of the anger. "You look really cute when you blush."

"You look really cute when you keep your mouth shut."

"Then shut me, love." He wiggled his brows at me.

"I would, but I don't wanna punch you in this state."

"You're very agressive." He pointed out, shocked that I didn't get what he was implying. "I meant with a kiss."

"Ew-" I pretended to gag. "no!"

He tugged on my hand and pulled me to my knees falling right in front of his eyes with our faces inches away. "C'mon Y/l/n, we're dragging this on now." His eyes kept falling on my mouth after I had unconsciously chewed on my lower lip.

"We're... We're not dragging on anything." I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.

"Do you want me to start? Alright, you drive me mad." He forced his gaze to be fixed on mine. "You're annoying, rude and a pain in the arse." I huffed. "But you're also quick-witted and caring and brave." Gosh I hated how easily he made me blush. "Sometimes I want to punch you in that pretty face of yours but other times— most of the times— all I wanna do is kiss you." His thumb caressed the back of my hand. "Hell, I threw myself between you and that blonker without thinking twice!"

He raised his eyebrows, silently prompting me to say something, but I just didn't know what to say.

"Miss Y/l/n," Madam Pomfrey called, making me let go of Fred's hand an stood up. "It's almost ten o'clock! Let Mister Weasley rest." I nodded, not even looking in Fred's direction as I exited the infirmary.

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

FRED'S P. O. V.

The morning after the incident, Dean and Neville dragged in an unrecognisable McLaggen; they were probably the only ones who cared about that bloke enough to take him to Madam Pomfrey, though they did it half-heartedly.

I was discharged after three days in, right before lunch, and obviously, I was received as a hero; several people came to praise my bravery or ask how I was feeling, but I just wanted to see one person.

That night in the infirmary I was sure she felt the same way —hell, I had been sure for a couple of months— but after seeing her reaction, I didn't really know anymore.

I could always tell her it was a prank, and we would go back to our usual bickering. "Weasley!" Shit. "Fred!" She specified when the four of us turned at the call of our surname, almost jogging in my direction. "Can we talk?"

"Go ahead, darling." I prompted her without moving from my seat.

"In private?"

"Nah," I begged Godric for her not to see behind my grin the panic that produced me the mere thought of being left alone with her.

"Are you joking?" She huffed and, after taking a deep breath, she spoke. I wasn't expecting her to speak. "So you see, you're cheeky and stupid and not nearly as funny as you think." Ginny spit her pumpkin juice due to Y/n's harsh words. "but I... ugh! Okay— I want to kiss you too."

This time it was Ron who choked on his drink. "What's going on?"

"I feel like we missed an important part of this conversation." George commented.

This time it was Y/n who awaited for an answer. "This is literally the most embarrassing thing ever, so at least say something." She commanded in a rather rude tone, tapping her shoe against the floor.

I winced ever so slightly at the effort of getting up, but it was worth it when I saw her expression as I towered her; I reckon I had never seen her that sheepish before.

"That's a really mean way of saying you're attracted to me." I observed, quirking a brow at her. "Dunno why I fancy you so much."

"Well that makes the two of us." I couldn't help but chuckle at her attitude before cupping her cheeks and bring her lips to mine.

Finally.

Despite being a short, innocent kiss, was enough to make us both blush and grin like idiots.

"Awww" I rolled my eyes at my twin's mockery, knowing damn well I wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Why do I feel like I'm gonna miss you two being at each other's throat?" I couldn't care less about Ron's question as Y/n pulled me down for another kiss.

Almost bleeding to death seemed worth it in that moment.

[bioodorange]

||The Pastas At The Beach||

this was originally like an entirely different post but ehhh this ways better!

disclaimer Im setting this like, at a beach with a boardwalk and such next too it? Public beach, small time vacationing!

and that they conviently like..pass as human

I hope you guys enjoy!! remember too check out my announcement board!

taglist: @frozensriracha @creepy-bi-day @capricornartistsstuff @krayolacolor

Jeff the Killer

Jeff doesn't really do much at the beach

The salt water irritates his skin and he burns easily, doesn't want too deal with it

Spends most of his time asleep

Hogs all the damn towels by sprawling out all over all of them

Gets sand over everything that they brought with them

Forgets how wind works and it gets everywhere

When its time for some of em too go get food, he always fucking goes

Wants too walk around and do something, and maybe not get blamed for all the fucking sand when everyone sits back down

He wears one of those like protective long sleeved shirts? and red swim trunks that are just somewhat obnoxiously bright

While getting the food he has a brilliant idea

Befriends the fucking seagulls

Lures them back too their umbrellas and just vibes with his bird army

atleast he's not alone anymore?

Ben Drowned

first off I know like he doesn't go swimming

but imagine if he did

his fucking goggles get filled up with blood

gets weird ass tan lines from the blood on his face like, when he's not swimming

has too wear the goggles when he puts on sunscreen-

ok ok thats it

fucker wears like mountain dew swim trunks

and those arm floatie things despite not going anywhere near the water

He tries too sit around Jeff but that gets boring fast-

Just walks the fuck off without telling anyone, on a journey for adventure

Will spend literal hours sitting underneath the boardwalk until someone finds him

After that they get him like one of thise beach toy kit things

Sally's nice enough too fill the bucket with water too, so they can make sand castles and stuff

She walks along the shore line with him, gets pretty shells too

Also if Ben were too go in the water

He's a fucking shark magnet with all that blood-

But don't tell him that, he won't come back too the beach

Ticci Toby

Toby is very excited too go to the beach

He didn't get out much as a kid

Siked as hell too get in the water

Drops his stuff off as soon as possible and runs right into the water

And thats when he realizes he can't fucking swim

Awkwardly flaps his arms around until a wave moves him along too back where he can stand

Everyones kinda confused when he comes back like "?? You were so excited, what happened?"

"I can't swim :(("

Cody volunteers to teach him right away, like the great brother he is

The thing is Cody is a horrible fucking teacher

Another few minutes of Toby getting owned by some waves and Cody just screaming stuff like

"Use your arms Toby- no not like that how I showed you- no I'm not going too help how are you supposed to learn-"

That's when Kate drags him back too shore and Doby and Brian teach him instead

In a bit he learns and ends up having a lot of fun

I feel like Toby would really like boogie boarding?

A lot easier then surfing but still a good time

Also they have too tie a red scarf around his arm so they don't loose his ass in a crowd, or in the water

Third Base

so far, Doby's the only one on this list who actually came prepared

I feel like he'd use one of those face lotions that has SPF 30 in it already?

Smart enough so he doesn't have too smear sun screen around his face, can just use the spray stuff and get going

Also has shoes and sunglasses too go with each like swimsuit/outfit he brings

Mans is put together

Really likes collecting shells and stuff

Walks with Sally, shows her how too find them

Wakes up kinda early as it is? So its easy for him too go too the beach early and find the shells before the tide pulls them back out

It's one of his favorite times, actually

The suns just rising, a few shops are opening, only a handful of people are on the beach

Does it everyday as his "alone time" before everyone else wakes up

Spends most of his time with everyone kinda relaxing?

I can see him really liking those beach volleyball games

Or just playing frizbee in the shallow water!

Really, really enjoys making sand castles

Builds a moat and everything so it stays up when the waves start coming closer

X-Virus

Cody, another kid who never got much beach expierence

But acts like he did

Buys one of those waterproof, phone lanyard things

Forgets too fucking close it properly

Doesn't have the first idea of what seagulls are like

"Oh come on buys its fine-" gets fucking owned for his cheesestick

Lowkey scared of them after that

Refuses too eat on the beach after that

Sits with ben under the board walk and curls around his chips

Spends most of his time in the water

Wants too see how far he can go before the lifegaurd calls him back

Finds it funny as shit too just slowly go deeper while grinning at them

Until a wave slaps him in the back of the head

And then he gets scared of the deepwater too

After he looses Swimming Coach privellages gets really fucking salty and sulks on the beach

Kate takes pity on him and walks around the boardwalk with him

But he also didn't know you have too reapply sunscreen after you go swimming

Gets really really bad sunburn

Jeff, Ben and Toby take turns slapping it whenever he gets too cocky

Masky

This is gonna be a Dad Tim one, fight me

Really has no idea what the fuck is going on, but still manages too keep everyone together?

Tells the same story, atleast twice a day, about the killer wave that almost took his shorts off

Gets in fights with seagulls whenever they get realitively close too the group

Also buys one of those crappy beach wagon things too put their stuff in

Buys a mug and cheesy beer koozie

Doesn't enjoy the beach that much but gets excited too go?

Ends up sitting down for most of the time unless he gets dragged on walks

Might just kinda walk until the water is at his knees and just kinda stand there, and nod a little

Giving mother nature his approval

He takes Sally out and holds onto her stomach, lifts her up over the waves whenever they come

Asks her what she can see, before he drops her back down

Tries it with Ben, gets kicked in the gut-

Favorite time is when it's dark and they go

Not for a long time, just a few minutes too walk along the shore before it gets dark

Hoodie

Designated photographer

Is supposed too be taking photos but mostly gets footage of the stupid shit that happens

Like Jeff not being able too figure out the dishwasher or Clockwork wrestling with her dresser where only half the drawers worked

Just kinda sits back and watches things go up in flames

He's the designated like playlist guy too? On the drive over, whenever he got bored just

"Hey what song should I play?"

And watches chaos ensue

His vacation is watching everyone else have a bad time

Makes up for it though, saves them a shit ton of money by making dinner every night.

I feel like he genuinely enjoys late nights on the beach, like Tim

Gets some beautiful photos of the water, and people taking walks that he's pretty damn proud of

Maybe once or twice he'll join Doby for a walk too get pictures of the rising sun

Likes getting small things from the gift shops

Shark teeth, maybe a cheesy snowglobe

Something silly but nice too remember the trip by

Eyeless Jack

first things first, ya know those double-lens glasses? Like you flip up the sunglass part and theres normal lenses underneath? Someone gave him those

But their are crappy eyes painted on the normal lenses

He's very confused but its just ridiculous enough for him too like

The beach isn't his favorite place, I HC him as nocturnal and most things are open during the day

He takes too the rides and crappy carnival games that are open late at night

He can't see everything super well but makes up fun things for himself

Enjoys going on rollercoasters that he has no idea what the hell the drops look like

Fucking hates bumper cars

Can't tell where everyone's coming from or when

More nerve racking then fun

Whenever they go to the beach beach he just kind of chills

Akwardly curls up on a towel because he's big as shit

Where ever they stay he walks around, uses his echo location shit too find out all its quirks

"This walls more hallow then that one- those support beams in the lobby are doing a very shitty job of keep things together"

Loves sitting out on the balcony and just smelling the salt air, listening too people laughing and the ocean waves

Just the small details a lot of people miss

[laurie-stark]

Unwanted-Peter Parker

Summary: Y/n Stark gets more than she bargains for when she joins her Pops, Captian America, for the civil war of the century.

Pairings: Tony Stark x Daughter!Reader, Natasha Romanoff x Daughter!Reader, Steve Rogers x Daughter!Reader, Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Warnings: swearing, fighting

A/N: Just so you don't get too confused, Y/n is Tony Stark's biological child, however, she was raised by the Avengers and refers to Natasha and Steve as Mama and Pops. Also I wrote this a year ago LOL. Enjoy x

Part Two

New York, 2016

This was bad. Very, very bad. I had seen the secretary come in the compound over the screen of the security monitors. He marched into my home, unannounced and unwelcome, holding himself with purpose. I followed him over the screens, tracking his movements. I watched as he was led through the building, up the elevator and into...the conference room? Oh this was bad. Very, very bad.

I raced as fast as I could. By the time I got the to conference room, the whole group was already sitting in front of the secretary. I saw Wanda first. Her back was to me, but I could see her rigid frame and I knew something was happening. My  father saw me approaching through the glass walls. He shot me a look that said "Don't do it. Don't come in here." I didn't obey.

The secretary stopped speaking abruptly when I walked through the doors. He gave me a quizzical look, did a once over and immediately looked at my father. Surely I don't look that much like Tony.

"Sorry I'm late, no one informed me about this team meeting," I gasped, short of breath from all the running. Of course, this was pushing it. As much as I wanted to be a part of the group, fighting was not my style, so I often got left out of important Avengers activities. I got to live with them, but that was it. Tony rose from his seat. He mumbled an apology to the secretary and gently ushered I out of the room. I would have fought back, but seeing the look on my father's face was enough to shut me up. And I never shut up. The secretary resumed his story. Something about golf and a heart attack.

My dad turned to face me. "Look kid, I get that you want to know what's going on, and you will, but today isn't the day."

"Okay," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's okay to be curious," he replied, walking back into the meeting. "Stay upstairs, okay hun?" I nodded and started the trek back up to my room. I shut the door and flopped onto my bed. Out of my long list of pet peeves, this was number one. Sure, I didn't want to fight, but come on family, I should at least get to be in on what's going on! Maybe I could help. I have powers for God sake. I am more than capable of helping the Avengers. But they always saw me as the little girl who needs protection.

"April, pull up security footage of the conference room please," I asked. April, the AI I built, that was modeled after Friday, projected the video surveillance from the ceiling. "Volume up." The group was in the same position as from when I left. The secretary was passing around the room. There was a thick white book being passed around the table.

"The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place," Steve said quietly. "I feel we've done that."

The secretary looked down at him. "Tell me Cap, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" What? You were so confused. Why did the secretary care where my uncles were? No one answered the secretary's question, so he kept talking. I racked your brain to find the answers on my own. "...this is the middle ground." The secretary pointed at the book, now lying untouched on the table.

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Natasha asked.

"The you retire," the secretary responded. With that, he left the room and I scurried back downstairs.

Everyone was in the living room. I sat in the stairwell, again being uninvited to this group discussion. I listened to them fight. I figured out what was going on. The United Nations were being ungrateful little bitches and hated that they didn't have control over my family. So they gave an ultimatum: give in or give up. From the sounds of it, Uncle Rhodes, Vision and two of my four parents were in agreement with the accords. Steve and Sam were against it. Wanda hadn't said a word. Tension was growing high, I could feel it. I heard my father conclude that he won and a thud of the accords being tossed on the coffee table. Someone got up and left. Before I had the chance to act, the door to the stairwell was torn open. Steve pushed through and nearly stepped on me.

"Eavesdropping?" He smiled.

"You kicked me out, what else am I supposed to do?" I retorted. I noticed the tears welling in Steve's eyes. "Pops, what's wrong?"

Steve's glance fluttered to the ground. "Peggy. She, um..." was all he said. All he had to say. I  was smart enough to read between the lines. I stepped forward and hugged Steve. He smiled, grateful that he had me. I knew how much Peggy meant to him. When I was little, he'd always tell me the story about how they met, how they never got that dance. And every time I would make him dance with me. He even took me to visit her once. I was ten and it was Christmas time. Steve told me that he wanted his favorite girl to meet his favorite niece. Now that was all but a memory. I held him tight before telling him to go. It was okay, I could handle the others. He left without a second glance.

Within days the team was scattered. Steve and Sam had gone to Peggy's funeral. Natasha was off to the signing of the Accords in Vienna. And then all hell broke loose when the bombs went off at the signing ceremony. As always, I  were left home. I had no idea what was going on. At first this break in the team was about the Accords, but somehow Steve's old pal Bucky got involved. I didn't know what to think. The next thing I knew, everyone left for Berlin to rescue Steve and Sam from jail, leaving myself, Wanda and Vision at home.

When night fell, I was in my room, sulking as one would say. I was spending my evening flipping through Tumblr. There was a new superhero everyone was talking about. He called himself Spider-Man. New York based, focused on small neighborhood crimes. By YouTube footage alone, it was obvious he was a rookie. Soon enough, though, I accidentally conducted a full fledged search on this guy. He seemed shady. Sure, he's helping old ladies cross the street and all, but he just has a vibe. I couldn't put my finger on it. April broke me out of my research when she told me that there was a security breach in the compound. I pulled up the security camera footage and saw Clint Barton in my living room with Wanda levitating a knife at his nose.

I rushed downstairs. When I got to the living room Vision was holding Clint by the neck. I watched in silence as Wanda used her powers on Vision. She made it look easy. Slowly, Vision sunk to his knees. Wanda pushed further and the floor gave way. Vision was pushed through all seventy-four thousand levels of the compound. Wanda and Clint were about to turn to run out when you revealed yourself.

"Now was that really necessary?" I smirked. "We just had the floors waxed."

"Y/n," Clint warned.

"I'm not sitting on my ass," I said. Clint smirked and nodded. He knew he couldn't stop me anyways.

One car ride, plane flight and van trip later, I was in Germany. As it turns out, Steve wanted Clint and Wanda on his side, along with some ant dude named Scott. Scott was cool. Him and I sat together on the plane ride and watched Die Hard. He was asleep in the van when we pulled over in the airport parking lot. Clint told me to stay in the van. For once, I listened. I heard voices belonging to Steve and Sam. Clint slid open the van doors abruptly, shaking Scott awake. I chuckled to myself as he fangirled over my Pops. A voice over the intercom said something in a language I didn't know. A voice I didn't recognize said that the airport was being evacuated.

"Stark." Sam muttered.

Scott looked puzzled. Clearly he hadn't been filled in either. "Stark?" he asked.

I step out of the van. "Yes?" Steve and Sam look at me with wide eyes. Clint gave Steve a sheepish shrug. Behind their little blue car stood Bucky Barnes. I knew who he was. I learned about him in school. I knew he was some evil super soldier that attacked Natasha and Steve. He looked scary. He looked exactly like the type of guy to hurt my Mama and Pops. I held his glance until Steve spoke up.

"Y/n, what are you doing here?" Steve whisper-shouted. His voice always got quiet when he 'yelled' at me.

"I hitchhiked." I replied, knowing that at this point Steve didn't have the time to argue with me. He shook his head in defeat and took a deep breath.

"Suit up."

The airport was huge. Our group got suited up and started for the runway. I didn't know how Steve knew where to find my dad, but I followed him anyways. Before I could get any closer, Bucky held me back.

"It's, uh, not gonna be safe. You should stay here and keep low," he said. I frowned. I did not come all this way to not fight. But even still, I nodded. Bucky scared me. He and Sam took off in another direction to find the getaway jet. I laughed. This whole thing was ridiculous. My attention turned to the sound of my father and Rhodey flying down from the sky.

"Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in," Tony started. "That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?"

"You're after the wrong guy," Steve replied nonchalantly.

"Your judgement is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday-"

"And there are five more super soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find 'em first Tony. I can't."

"Steve," Natasha approached him slowly. "You know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?"

I took this as my cue. "No, but I will," I said, emerging from my hiding spot. I looked at the faces of your family. My gaze fell on Tony and my smile dropped. He looked angry.

"You brought my daughter into this?" Tony yelled, turning to Steve.

"Technically, I brought myself," I said. "You really think you were gonna leave me out of all the fun?"

Tony pinched his brow. "Y/n, this is serious."

"No it's not," I objected. "No, this got personal the second you thought you were gonna loose Pops to Bucky." No one moved after I said that.

"Alright, I've run out of patience," my father finally spoke. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Underoos!"

Before I had a chance to process, a red and black blur whipped past my head. It landed on top of a nearby van. It was Spider-Man. As in the Spider-Man. He had taken Cap's shield from him. I said nothing. My father could have recruited me, but instead he chose this little neighborhood nobody. That hurt a little. The Spider-thing and my father bantered for a minute. So he's never even been in a real fight before, I thought.

"You've been busy," Steve smirked.

Tony turned back to Steve. "And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint and Y/n, rescuing Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep-" he paused, sighing. "I'm trying to keep to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."

"You did that when you signed." Steve kept his cool. My father did not.

"Alright, we're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us, now, because it's us! Or squad of J-SOC guys with no compunction of being polite. Come on."

Everyone stood still, waiting. Steve put his web-cuffed hands in the air. Clint shot them free from a mile away. I saw Scott -or a tiny version of him. Spider-Man noticed too, right before Scott grew and kicked him in the face. My dad flew off to retrieve Wanda and Rhodey was ready to take on Cap.

"Hey Mr. Stark, what should I do?" Spider-Man asked. He sounded young.

"What we discussed, keep your distance, web 'em up!" My father barked, as he flew towards Clint and Wanda.

"Okay, copy that," Spider-Man replied. He shot a web at me first. It caught my arm and I got whipped to the ground. I glared at him.

"Really?" I hissed.

"Just following Mr. Stark's orders," He said before swinging off after Bucky. I was left on the ground once everyone dispersed. I tried pulling my hand out of the sticky material that was shot at me, but it was stronger than glue. I was forced to watch the action unfold and wait until Natasha ran past me.

"Mama, a little help here?" I called out to her.

She stopped for a second. "Sorry honey, I really don't want you getting hurt." She ran off and I groaned. No one ever wants me to get hurt. I suppose I should be grateful, but in a moment like this, gratitude is hard to find. I started toying with the web. I wondered if I could break down the molecules. Surely there had to be some sort of H2O compound in it somewhere.

My power surged through me, the current flowing to the hand webbed to the ground. I managed to manipulate the water out, just as I predicted I would. The substance melted off my hands. Gross, I thought. I wiped the remaining web on my pants and got up. The water from the webbing fell to the ground with a splash.

I stood up and examined my surroundings. Natasha was on the ground fighting Scott, who shrunk down and flipped her over her own head. The Black Panther was on the other side of the roof, battling Steve. I didn't move. As much as I wanted to be included, I couldn't bring myself to fight. Not now at least.

The two teams assembled, divided by a line on the pavement. How cinematic. I was on Cap's side. I never meant to fight against my father. If anything, I thought it was funny. I looked out at the team in front of me. They were all lined up, Rhodey, the cat, Tony, Nat, the Spider-brat. Vision hovered above them. A bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck. I were scared. I wasn't made to fight.

"What do we do Cap?" Sam asked.

"We fight." Steve moved first. We followed in suit. My dad's team mimicked my team's actions and walked closer. We  broke into a jog and then a full out run. This was really about to happen. I hoped that my family would go easy on me. I knew what I was doing. I reassured myself of that. I have done a bunch of training, especially with Wanda. I could move the freaking elements with my mind and manipulate gravity! As if the Spider-Man could beat that. I am Y/n fricking Stark. I can do this.

I put a smile on your face, contrasting everyone else's bitter looks. "I call the spider!" I yelled, just as everyone began the battle. Spider-Man heard me and slowed down just a bit. I cocked an eyebrow. He resumed his pace and ran straight for me. I ran headfirst towards him. He threw out his arm to web me, but I was faster. With a swish of my hands, I changed his gravitational pull and made his feet flip out from under him. He landed on his back with a hard thud. As gently as I could, I morphed the pavement under him to trap his hands. "Careful there, Spider-boy. Don't wanna get stepped on." I walked away. I made it about ten steps before I heard the sound of concrete cracking. I turned around and saw that Spider-Man was breaking free of his restraints. I was shocked. He has super strength. Great. I should have moved out of his way because the second he got one hand free, I was webbed against a truck.

"For the record," he said, getting up in my face. "It's Spider-Man." He swung off into the airport through a glass window. I watched the glass rained onto the ground. Taking a deep breath, I quickly removed myself from the webs. I needed a plan. A strategy. I thought about at the opposing team. Everyone was scattered around the airport. I thought about who would be easiest to fight. But then I realized, the strategy wasn't about how they'd fight, but who. There was no way in hell that my parents or Uncle Rhodey would even think about fighting me. The Black Panther didn't know me, so he was a threat. The worst Vision could do was pick me up and fly away, so he was in thr safe zone. That left the spider. I smiled to myself. Rematch time.

By the time I found Spider-Man, he had already webbed Sam and Bucky to the floor. He was perched on top of a light post, saying something about impressing my father. Sam's mini falcon whizzed past me and grabbed Spider-Man by the web. He got pulled out a window, banging his side into the pane on the way out. I ran over to Sam and Bucky. Quickly, I destroyed the webbing and helped them up. They both gave me a quick "Thanks kid," before running back out. I followed them, staying loose on their trail.

Once I got outside my eyes scanned the area for the Spider. I saw Wanda piling cars on my father and Natasha fighting Clint. Then I spotted him, fighting Cap. He was underneath a jet bridge . Cap threw his shield at the support beams and the whole thing fell on top of Spider-Man. He caught it of course, but Cap ran away. I formed my plan.

"Hey!" I called out. I walked around the collapsing jet bridge. I stood in front of the struggling boy. Or man, I didn't know. "Remember me?"

"Heh, how could I forget such a pretty face," he grunted, starting to fold under the weight of the jet bridge. "You wanna give me a hand?" I glared at his face comment, but lifted the jet bridge anyway. He ran out and I let it fall. Both of us stopped for a minute, gasping for breath beside the rubble. He was close enough to hit. So I did. Without warning I threw a punch of air at him. It hit him right in the chest and he got blown back into the side of a van. "What the hell man?" He got up and shot a web at me. I dodged and threw another gust of wind. It shot him out of the air. He webbed at a pole and swung past my face. I redirected his gravitational pull, but not before he got a kick to my face. We both got thrown in different directions. I landed hard on the ground, pain shooting up my spine. I got up first, now angry. Forgetting about my powers, I lunged at him and threw a punch. I missed and he shot webs at my feet, holding me down. Immediately, I dissolved them and Spider-Man's eyes widened. Well, his mask's eye holes did anyway.

"How did you do that?" He yelled. "What kind of witchcraft-"

"Its not witchcraft," I spat. "It's called manipulation of the elements, look it up. I figured there had to be some water compound in this and I was right. All I had to do was remove it."

"That's so cool! And how did you do the foot thing earlier? Was that just the wind you do or do you have telekinesis too? Are you like the Scarlet Witch?" He rambled on. I took this to my advantage and caught him off guard. I used the van he'd hit earlier to become his gravitational pull and yanked. He went slamming into it and groaned. When he tried to get back up, I was already five steps ahead of him. Morphing the earth metals in the van, I contorted it into a shell that crushed Spider-Man until he was covered and stuck.

I heard Scott say that he was gonna tear himself in half over the earpiece. I got distracted from holding Spider-Man down and turned to see a giant Scott. Spider-Man broke free. He tore the shell off himself and threw it at me. I was wacked across the side and fell the the ground again.

"Holy shit!" he says, looking at Scott. His back was to me and I gave him one last wind push. He fell on his face and I laughed. "Oh come on, don't you have some dolls to play with or something?" I just scoffed and walked past him, stepping past his hand that was on the ground. He let out a yelp and you kept walking. Dolls, I thought. I'm thirteen I don't play with dolls. I watched as the rest of the battle went down. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Natasha was standing just behind me. "Come with me." We started jogging off. It was natural for me to listen to her. I realized about five seconds in that technically she was my enemy right about now, but I shrugged it off. I ran through the fight, past the big Scott and towards a warehouse. I could see the outline of a jet get bigger as I approached it. Natasha stopped behind the entrance. She was waiting.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We wait to fight," She replied, not taking her eyes off the horizon. I came to realize this probably means I would be fighting her. Maybe she wanted to use me as a hostage or something. No, that's silly. Right?

Steve and Bucky got closer to the building I was in. They nearly made it until Vision laser beamed the shit out of a nearby communications tower. Wanda caught it before it fell, giving the two men time to race towards the jet. I stepped out to help Wanda. The both of us were able to hold the rubble long enough for Steve and Bucky to get through. I panted, proud of myself for getting this far.

A searing pain sliced through my brain. Both myself and Wanda fell to the ground, screaming. I could barely look up to see that Rhodey was sending some sort of wave through the air. The tower fell and Natasha was quick to haul me out of the way before I got crushed. I might be better than Spider-Man, but I definitely don't have his super strength.

Steve and Bucky still managed to get through the falling paces of metal and concrete. Natasha left my side and marched swiftly towards the two men. I couldn't hear them, but I could sense the tension from a mile away. Natasha lifted her arm, taser aimed and ready. Steve held his shield up in defense as Natasha shoots....the Black Panther? I guess she's on our side now? The jet started to take off and you watch an Natasha continues to battle the Panther. I fell to my side, wiped out.

My father flew into the warehouse just as the jet leaves. You thought maybe he was going to fight Natasha for betraying him. I was wrong. He was coming for me. He landed beside me and dropped to his knees. His helmet closed and I could see the worry plastered on his cut up face. He knelt beside me and gently held me up.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded, not really able to make words. He looked over at Natasha, who was looking at us. She had an apologetic look, but I know she doesn't regret letting Cap go. My father let me go and charged off after the jet plane. I lied down, enjoying the feeling of cold concrete against your skin. I closed my eyes.

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

I paced around the living room, driving Nat crazy. I knew that the second my father got home I would be in deep shit. So when Friday alerted me that Tony was home my heart rate went up 29373%. The battle, this fight, it ended worse then I could have imagined. Natasha told me that my father could have died. Rhodey was paralyzed from the waist down. I had no idea if I'd ever see my Pops again. This was bad. Very, very bad.

I slowly walked down the main hall towards the front doors. I was scared. My hands and the back of my neck were sweating. I knew exactly what was coming. Every time I had asked my dad if I could be an honorary Avenger, I got the same lecture. That it was too dangerous, I didn't have the proper training and it's too much for his little girl to handle. Even when I asked to just be a part of the business side of the team, Tony laughed and said no. I've broken a lot of my father's rules, but this was the line. And I had gone so far over.

As I approached the front door, I could hear my father speaking. I heard another voice too. My heart dropped. It was Spider-Man. Why was Spider-Man here? I ducked behind a wall and listened in to the conversation.

"...outstanding job kid. Your fighting technique was on par. And, listen, I know we're not allowed to have kids on this team, but if we need you again, we'll call." I heard my father say.

"Thanks Mr. Stark. This was so cool," Spider-Man replied. I wondered if he had his suit on or not. I wanted to know who this guy was. I revealed myself from behind the wall. The two looked at me. I looked at my father first and fought the urge to burst into tears. He looked awful. His face was all cut up and the black eye he got was still a little swollen. I glanced at the figure beside him and frowned. Spider-Man was a kid. He looked like he was my age. He had a mop of curly brown hair and doe eyes. He was almost equally as beat up as my dad and I gracefully took credit for that.

"Y/n, this is Peter. He's, uh, one of my interns. Kid, this is Y/n," Tony said. My annoyance turned to anger. Now my father was lying to me?

"How old are you?" I asked, eyes narrowing. I knew that I sounded rude, but this kid had kicked me in the face twice. I didn't think he deserved my manners.

"I'm fourteen," Peter gulped. A year older than me. And I kicked his ass, I thought. "You gave me quite a fight back in Berlin."

"Yeah and I beat your ass doing it."

"Speaking of which," Tony spoke up, "I have to talk to Y/n about that. Happy will take you home Peter." Peter nodded and said goodbye to my father. He said goodbye to me, to which I didn't reply. Peter frowned at that as he walked out the door.

My dad turned to me when the door shut. "What," he began, "were you thinking?"

"Well I-"

"No. This is where you listen. Do you know how dangerous that mission was. Do you know how many people got hurt? You saw what happened to Rhodey, that could have been you!"

"But it wasn't" I retorted.

Tony's frown deepened. "That is not the point. You put yourself in serious danger, and for what? So you could feel a little more included? You could have died. This was my one rule, my one ask of you, and your broke it."

"Oh, come on now, I'm a Stark, it's in our blood to not listen to our fathers." My father gave me the coldest look and I shut down. I took a deep breath. "Look, I didn't know that it was gonna be this bad. You know me, daddy, I'm not a fighter, I'm not some hero. You think I would have gone if I knew it would turn out like this? I thought this was just gonna be another one your you and Pops' stupid fights. And yes, I could have gotten hurt, but I think I handled myself pretty well. You saw what I did you that little protege of yours. I beat him to the curb."

"Y/n you were reckless. Peter was prepared for this, he was ready."

"And I still beat him."

"Y/n you're not listening to me. This is why I chose Peter over you. I would have taken you if I knew you wouldn't do something stupid. But you did anyway." And with that he walked away, leaving me, teary-eyed in the front hall.

Tony came by my room later that night to apologize. He said that he was sorry for being harsh, that he just cared about me and I scared him. I knew he meant it and I forgave him, because that's what we do. Besides, it wasn't Tony I was angry with. This is why I chose Peter over you. Tony's words echoed through my head. I knew that he loved me more, I'm his daughter, he had to. But I were jealous. Jealous that stupid Peter Parker got the praise for the work I've wanted to hear for ages. And mad at that stupid spider for being stupid.

This is when I decided that I hate Peter Parker.