#Ah I love setting up things that will be called back to in later chapters

[rogueshadeaux]

 Chapter Eleven — Limitations

I hadn’t tried this with regular water even, yet. The entire thing was still a theory, a hypothesis that wasn’t even fully thought out and yet I began the experiment process. My other hand came out too, gauntlets of wet slowly rising from my skin as if sensing my own hesitation and being put off by the idea. 

5K Words | 16 min read time | TRIGGER WARNINGS: look it's gonna be body horror from here on out lol my fav series as a kid was Animorphs. I might have issues.

We only got about three of the boxes out of Dad’s old bedroom before Betty demanded a pause; the living room was full, too full, of boxes, all still waiting to be unpacked. “Pick a package, kids! We’ll make three piles: home, donation, and trash.” Betty declared, pointing to spaces she managed to clear up on the floors. “We sort these quick, you all can run off and play with your powers after.” 

 “Betty, I am a grown man,” Dad mumbled, “I’m not going to go play with anything.” 

Betty just chuckled, shaking her head in the way a mother did when she knew her kid was lying. 

 Betty wasn’t lying when she said the boxes were full of old home supplies; every box was chock full of random house things, nearly all of them outdated. Brent barked out a laugh at some point, leaning the box over to show me a collection of VHS tapes and a player, saying, “Jesus, look at these relics,” and I could physically see Betty and Dad both age an extra ten years. 

 I was in the midst of pulling out a bunch of ceramic, brightly-colored and slightly-chipped bowls and pots when Dad was the next to burst out laughing, pulling out a red, deflated…something. “Oh my God, Reggie kept this?” He shook his head in disbelief. 

 “What, uh…” I reached over to feel at another end; it felt like a pool floatie. “What is it?”

 “There was this fad, when we were really young, to have inflatable furniture in your room. This,” he held up the plastic like a kill, bagged and tagged, “Is a chair. Reggie’s, not mine — mine was more tape than anything.” 

 Inflatable…furniture? Inflatable furniture. 

 We seemed both lucky, and consistently striking out, finding good things for the house while also filing through stuff that, in my opinion, belonged in a museum versus the house. Small dark blue drinking glasses that were printed, HAPPY NEW MILLENIUM 2000, a cast iron that Betty said was hers when she was Dad’s age, looking no less worse for wear. There was a box full of old rags and towels and, while they were scratchy and a bit worn, they’d do the job. 

 I opened another box, this one more worn than the rest, a folded filing of bursting colors immediately threatening to spill out from the pressure of being released. Soft browns and pure whites mixed with muted blues and reds woven into soft blankets, the patterns immaculate as I pulled one out. “Woah,” I gasped out. I had no idea how old it was, but the blanket was still so soft.

“Oh, goodness.” I heard Betty across the way. I looked up to see everyone was frozen. Brent had his head cocked to the side like a puppy, Betty was smiling sadly, and Dad…I don’t know what that face was supposed to be, but it definitely held a lot of emotion. “You found Ruth’s blankets.” 

 “Ruth?” 

 “My mother.” Dad said as flatly as he could manage, face still unreadable. 

 Brent caught his tone, looking over to Dad and then back to me, that silent twin conversation happening with the slightest twinge of our eyebrows. Betty, in an effort to either stoke the fire or kill it off, began to say, “Ruth learned how to do traditional weaving from our x̌əč̓usadad — traditional teachings. Long ago, those blankets were actually made of dog hair.” 

 “Dog hair?” Brent and I chimed in at the same time. 

 “An old breed that’s extinct now. The Akomish learned the technique from the Salish, long ago during trades.” 

 Absentmindedly, I stroked the blanket. It was soft, a bit scratchy like wool. “So this is dog hair?”

 Betty chortled. “It would have been, a few hundred years ago. The dog we would harvest the hair from evolved into a shorthair. That’s just plain wool.” She reached out expectantly, and I passed over the folded blanket, Betty fluffing it out to show the intricate shape in its weaving, the blank middle stamped with a blue fish, Akomish-style. “This was handmade by Ruth. She dyed the wool, wove it on that big loom you saw in the Longhouse, and painted sʔuladxʷ — Salmon — in the middle. She used to be the one to run the traditional weaving seminars at the Longhouse.” 

 I pulled out another blanket, undoing it to look at the tightly woven blue and white sheet with a bird in the middle, some sort of eagle or hawk. Felt older than the rest. “Here, Regina, give me the box.” Betty asked, standing from her place on the couch. “You both should pick a blanket later tonight, when you get back. That one, though,” she stressed, gently pulling the blanket out of my hand, “Is your father’s — had it since he was a boy. Based his tattoo on it.”

 I spun to face Dad, who pulled out of his depression in time to roll his eyes. “You have a tattoo?” 

 “Had,” he stressed. “Had it removed after we moved to Portland.” 

 When we fled to Portland, I could hear in the emotion of his sentence. Another piece of him, stripped away. 

 That box was the last on my side, Brent going through a final one full of china while Dad fished out a box of childhood toys he was adamant no one would want when Betty began talking about donating. He held onto the box with a tight arm though, guarding the Toy Story and old anime action figures as if they were gold. 

 Sure, no one would want them — except him, maybe. 

 “Alright!” Betty slapped her hands against her knees, looking at the vintage table clock Dad found now perched crooked on the mantle. “It’s lunch time. Let’s eat something, and then I’ll deal with the trash here while you go with the children, okay, Delsin?” 

 “Yeah,” Dad nodded. “Yeah, sure.” 

 Betty and I laid out makings for sandwiches, another bit of prizes she brought in the form of Walmart bags. “I have a microwave in storage somewhere in my shed I’ll bring for you,” she assured us, pulling an onion and tomato out of their produce bags before clicking her tongue, displeased. “Oh, I didn’t…we didn’t happen to find knives while unpacking, did we?” 

 We made the arbitrary move of looking for a utensil we all knew wasn’t there, conceding defeat after a moment. At least, until Brent said, “I wanna try something,” 

 We gave him a wide berth at his insistence, Dad catching my confused look with a shrug. Brent was chewing on his bottom lip hard enough to bust it, if it wasn’t already so weathered by his constant idle action, pulling his hands up to look at the palms. 

 The steel aura was returning, encasing him in their own mimic of football padding instead of simply being forearm sleeves, reflecting the sunlight pouring in from the kitchen window and casting little rays of light everywhere. I hadn’t realized it, but the skin on his arm took on a metallic shine when he used his powers, a silvery blush. 

 Brent hesitated for a moment, hands sort of caught mid-movement, like he’d been caught trying to yank a treat out of the cookie jar. He was…I wouldn’t say confused, but processing, eyes looking far past the granite countertop as he thought hard. 

 Eventually he found absolve, brows smoothing over as he brought his hands together like he was trying to warm them, a decent amount of the steel shavings traveling down his arm, wrapping around his hands in their own sort of hold. And then he forced everything apart all of a sudden, the steel around his hand bursting with the effort before pulling back in like negative gauge pressure, forming. Sharpening. 

 It was a ‘blink and you miss it’ sort of situation; in the span of half a second, the knife had already taken shape, an offset handle to keep knuckles away from the impossibly sharp-looking edge, all of it cool steel. It wasn’t anything special or intricate — but it was a weapon, an actual weapon that Brent caught midair when it began to fall, aura of steel sinking away into his skin. 

 “Show off,” I jokingly muttered, giving him a genuine smile when his head shot up to glare at me. “Think you can make a sword?” 

 The hostility melted off Brent’s face when he saw I was teasing, loosening his grip on the knife and holding it by the spine of its blade so Betty could take it. “I mean, probably?” 

 “That’s something else we should try today.” Dad decided. “See what kind of defensive tools you can make with your power. Keep making knives and shit and I’ll never worry about your safety again,” 

 “Delsin Xe’las,” Betty chastised, turning to begin cutting the onion, “Watch your language,” 

 “‘Xe’las’?” I repeated, turning to Dad. “Is that your middle name?” Delsin Xe’las. I only knew Damion Scott. 

 Come to think of it, though; Brent’s middle name was Si’ahl. “Latin,” Dad said way back when we first asked what it meant. “Your Mom and I met in a Latin class at school.”

Yeah, was definitely beginning to realize that was a load of bullshit, too. Were their names…I dunno, Akomish? Or whatever language the Akomish spoke. Chinook, maybe? I was beginning to feel left out, with the middle name Elaine. 

 Dad simply nodded. “Yeah. Named after some changeling and a white guy pretending to be Native in an old western,” 

 Was that…the ‘Delsin’ part or the ‘Xe’las’ part? 

 Betty interrupted before I could ask, the sound of her slicing onion going silent as she turned to look over her shoulder at me with watery eyes. “Regina, I just realized — I don’t know your power.” 

 Huh, she was right, wasn’t she? I wasn’t the one throwing beds into space or making convenient kitchen tools — I had no reason to show off. “Oh it’s, uh, water,” I said as if I were unsure of the fact. 

 “Oh, water!” Betty smiled, wide, like I just told her I won a prize or something. “That’s a powerful element. Source of life and all,” 

 Why was I blushing? “Yeah…” 

 “Jean, do the thing.” Brent said off on the side, now leaning against the countertop, giddy. 

 “The thing? What thing?” 

 Brent rolled his eyes, as if I was supposed to be able to access some twin telepathy bullshit and actually get what he meant. “Y’know. Evaporate.” 

 “‘Evaporate?’“ Betty repeated, now fully facing me. Oh, great, now I was trapped in the spotlight. 

 Even Dad didn’t seem like he wanted to save me, instead just electing to adopt the same lopsided smile Brent had. I rolled my eyes, demanding, “Turn on the tap,” to Brent; I didn’t know the rules of my power yet. Would I have to have a constant source of water to stay evaporated, or would I be safe until I wanted to change back? 

 But Brent dutifully turned the tap to drizzle, and I ran out of reasons not to show off.

 It was impossible to go from solid to gas without making a stop in between at liquid, turns out, something I hadn’t realized until I was standing there, still solid. Guess it made sense though — what part of me was supposed to evaporate if it was all skin? My sweat? 

 So I changed, skin and clothes fading into a blue that kept shifting in place, the water in me — that was me — seemingly never able to stay still. And as soon as the last of the cotton on my old socks turned to liquid, I burst away into the air, leaving the linoleum slightly wet under my now-evaporated feet. 

 I’d have to get used to how my senses themselves changed into something else; how my vision inverted into specks of blue that held place in the air, forming around the solids I couldn’t see anymore. My hearing was still there — it processed Betty’s gasp of surprise — but it sounded like…static? No, that wasn’t right. Like carbonation. Fizzes and pops and bursts replaced the noises, and yet I was still able to hear Betty gasp, “Oh my goodness,” 

 There wasn’t a lot of water at all in the air in here, I was surprised to realize. The closer my eyes traveled to the fireplace, the less water there was — and I even got the joy of watching more dissipate into nothing, the blue dying off as it finally got too hot to stick around. Outside the window, though, the flurries of snow were instead soft sparkles, blue with a glint to it that somehow translated with ease in me; frozen. The water pouring from the tap looked no different than it usually would, if I’m being honest. 

 At least, until it began to bend in the middle of its stream, the water particles swirling away and up to Dad as his slick silhouette absorbed it. 

 The water traveled up his arms, settled into the silhouette…but never disappeared. I watched them spread, encasing him in his own little shell and halting in place, ready to be used at his disposal. The entirety of Dad glinted now, no longer a shadow splitting apart the wet, but was the wet, a figure clear enough that I could see him look around, pause on my face, and cock his head to the side, eyebrows creased. “I can…see you?” 

 He could? 

 I opened my mouth to respond, a bit shocked to find that the words died off in my throat. I didn’t have a throat — that was the issue. No vocal cords to use. So instead I held up both hands, waiting for Dad to count off the number I was displaying. “Seven.” He deadpanned, the water somehow tracking his rolling eyes.

 I wonder if I looked the same to him as he did to me; a being of water, not a shadow. That was good, right? I mean, I wouldn’t be winning anymore games of tag anytime soon, but if he could see me at any point when I would need to evaporate, it’d probably make communication a lot easier. 

 I wanted to ask. God, I wanted to demand answers out of him of how it looked, but I couldn’t. There was no way to speak. So instead, deciding this was probably enough showing off for now as well, I went back to water, able to garbledly ask, “What does it look like?” as I began solidifying. 

 “What, seeing you when you’re gas?” He asked, continuing when I nodded. “It’s like…y’know when it’s a hot day and the road sorta warps a ways away from where you are? That whole illusion with the puddles of water? You look like that.” 

 “Weird, that’s not what you look like at all.” I commented. 

 “Do we look different?” Brent asked, taking the paper plate Betty offered. 

 I went into a whole explanation about how the world sort of shifts when I change, something Brent and Betty balked at — but Dad just nodded. “That’s a lot like when I’m invisible with the video power,” he commented. “Kind of like, radio waves or something in the air, broken up by solid objects.” 

 Right, he did have an invisibility trick! I forgot all about that. “Yeah, exactly. But you’re different when you absorb water, too.” 

 Dad was next to take a plate, throwing a quick thank you to the side as he asked, “Oh, really?” 

 “Yeah. When you absorbed the — thanks, Betty — when you absorbed the water, you sort of…looked like me when I’m liquid.” I threw four slices on bread on my plate. “It’s like I can see the water you’ve drained wait to be used.” 

 “Huh.” Dad simply hummed. 

 We made our sandwiches, falling into a comfortable silence as we ate until Dad demanded we go get dressed. “You two are going to be my guinea pigs today,” he declared, only partially joking. “I want to test out my theories on what you can do,” 

 So we got dressed, braving for the cold with jackets and the hats that Conduit gave us only a few days ago. It was crazy how long ago that felt; I was a normal kid freaking out over exams. No powers. I honestly still was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for my body to collapse with the effort of processing all of this. There was no way I was adjusting this easily to everything. It had to catch up eventually. 

 But for now, I went with the flow, scoring shotgun by zipping to the passenger side door as a rush of water, able to form around the body of the truck instead of having to pass the back end. “What?” Brent practically shouted from the other side as I busted out laughing, solidifying. “You can’t do that!” 

 “Can and did, bud,” I grinned as he came around the bed of the truck, annoyed. “Cry about it.” 

 We were off soon after, Dad only having to pause to wipe away the pillowy snow from the truck’s body. But we weren’t going back to the construction site. We headed towards the Longhouse, the eagle totem atop of it just clipping the horizon when Dad instead slowed down, turning right into an abandoned parking lot. 

 It was huge, and definitely was home to something at some point; there was a foundation threadbare of any actual building material, instead housing a pavilion full of picnic tables and frozen basketball hoops. Off on the edge of the woods was a man-made pond, decorative rocks and frozen waterfall all proof of a nice zen koi pond that’s been shut off for the winter. The tallest picket fence I’d ever seen ran along the edge of the cliffside, its sanded-down tops only just allowing you to see the edges of the Sound before it gave away to the gray horizon. 

 “We gonna shoot hoops or something, Dad?” Brent asked, only partially joking. He looked just as confused as I felt. 

 Dad didn’t bother responding, throwing the truck in part and pulling the e-brake. “Come on, let’s go.” 

 It had started snowing again, really snowing, the white static muting out our surroundings as Dad led us under the pavilion. “Alright, Jean,” he turned to me. “Yesterday, when you got hit with the relay — did it show you anything about snow or ice?” 

 Oh. That’s what we were doing here. “N-no?” I stuttered out, like this was a question with a right or wrong answer. “Boiling points and, uh, the triple point but not…nothing frozen.” 

 “Doesn’t the triple point involve ice, though?” Brent pointed out, shoving his hands in his pockets. We both were missing gloves, and definitely feeling the fact. 

 “I mean yeah, but like, I was the solid part of the equation. Y’know—“ I waved a hand around, motioning to myself. “This me.” 

“Well, regardless,” Dad shrugged. “I want you to try and drain some snow, and that pond.”

“But Dad, they’re frozen.” 

His eyes met mine, and he cocked an eyebrow. “They’re still water, aren’t they?” 

I didn’t have a good retort, which was frustrating, because something deep within me was just consistently repeating how this wasn’t going to work.

Nonetheless, I walked up to a snow pile, reaching my hand out and brushing it with the tips of my fingers, first. Soft, powdery. All fresh snow. 

 Pulling away, I reached out once more, with the aim to drain this time. 

 And immediately jumped back in pain.

 Instead of water rising, something stung, that white-hot bite that usually settles in your skin before the actual burn when you touch something too hot. I hissed, dragging out the f in “Fuck!” and receiving Dad’s chastising behind me before hearing Brent actually chuckle. “It hurts, doesn’t it?” 

 “Is that what it’s like?” I shook out my hand. The initial sting was gone, leaving behind a twinge in each individual joint of my fingers.

 “Yeah,” Dad confirmed, at the end of a nod when I turned to look at them. “But that’s strange. It’s water, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you be able to control it?”

 I shrugged, even if the question was rhetorical. Those visions never once touched on anything frozen. Was there really a difference? Was I restricted simply to the liquid aspect of it? 

 Even then, that didn’t make sense — I could turn into gas! I could change the water from gas to liquid in the air? What was it about the water being solid that was restricting me? But Dad did have a point. It was still water. It would even register on my weird aqua-vision when I was gas. But…come to think of it, I could only heat up water sources, too: there wasn’t anything in the visions about steam or fog or something. 

 I crouched low, looking at the snow and thinking hard. “I think it’s only water…” I eventually said, trailing off. 

 “Well, yeah, I thought we established that—“ Brent began sarcastically, but I cut him off. 

 “No, I mean: I think it’s only liquid I can deal with.” I didn’t take my eyes off the snow, each individual flake highlighted to me. Each one different. “I can warm up water, cool it off, but like…everything I saw? In those visions? None of them involve the other forms of matter. You know, as a gas, I see the water in the air. That’s not — water is always in the air, right? But it can be a different amount…” 

 Something began to crunch, Dad joining me in a crouch. “What’re you trying to say, Jean?” 

 “Dad, what can you do?” I turned to look at him. “With water?” 

 “Would you—“ he faltered, a bit taken aback by how serious I looked. “Would you like me to show you, or—“ 

 I shrugged. “Either. It doesn’t really matter; I just need to know.” 

 “Well.” Dad sat back on his heels. “I can shoot off water — at different pressures, too. There’s uh, the water stairs—“

 “‘Water stairs?’” Brent repeated, now standing directly behind us. 

 “Best name I could think of,” Dad sort of chuckled. “I can make little floating puddle of water by manipulating both the water and humidity to hold them up and like, bound up them—“

 “Humidity!” I suddenly shouted, making them both jump. That made so much sense! “That’s what it is! I don’t evaporate, I become humidity. I’m seeing humidity in the air, not gas.” 

 I looked at both of them, expecting understanding — and instead receiving bewildered looks. “Jeanie, I wasn’t a good student — I dropped out and all — so would you uh, mind explaining how those are different? Isn’t humidity gas?” Dad finally said. 

 Brent, though, took over. “I was literally just studying this for my exam. Humidity is water vapor, which is a gas, but it becomes one differently from evaporation due to the critical temperature to turn it into one. It’s below the actual boiling point of water.”

 “I still have no idea what that means.” 

 Brent chewed on his lip once more. “It’s — goddamnit how do I explain this—“

 Having already taken Chemistry — and with some newfound intimate knowledge of my own — I tried chiming in to help. “When you heat up water, the molecules move so fast they sort of break apart. That’s when they become gas; near each other, but they ripped apart, the heat being some kind of point of no return. They’ve gotta be cooled off to become liquid again. Humidity, though, is a mixture of a bunch of stuff, including water vapor. Vapor isn’t heated up to be gas and besides, it’s got the potential to easily become liquid again since it hasn’t passed that temperature, uh, threshold. It hasn’t been heated enough to actually rip apart the water bonds. They’re spread thin, sure, but it’s still moisture. That’s what I’ve been doing,” The realization settled in easily, and I said, “I’m becoming moisture in the air, not gas.” 

 Dad nodded, still seeming a bit unsure, but at least processing it as he asked, “Is that why I see you when you’re invisible? Y’think it’s the Conduit in me looking for water to drain?” 

 “Please don’t.” I chuckled.

 Dad joined in on the light humor, chuckling for only a moment before his eyebrows creased. “So, no snow or ice or anything?” 

 I shook my head. “Probably not.” 

 “So, wait,” Brent joined us fully now, crouched all the same. “You literally can only use water in its — fuck what’s it called—“

 “Brent.” 

 “Yeah yeah, sorry.” Dad’s face deadened, looking over at me in annoyance as Brent completely missed it, off in his mental notes. “…Liquid phase? I think that’s it. Would explain why you have to drain, at least. Your power doesn’t involve temperature or like, pressurizing the gas or solid into a liquid, so you can’t drain from ice.” 

 Dad shook his head. “But she said she can ‘warm up the water,’ didn’t you?” I nodded. “Isn’t that heating?” 

 Honestly, I shouldn’t have had an answer. It didn’t make much sense regardless of what way I looked at it. But it was there, glaring and obvious, as I processed the question myself. “I vibrate the molecules. I don’t heat them up,”

 “The vibrating is what makes them warm.” Dad finished, finally on the same page. “So then, in snow and stuff, do you see the water molecules?” 

 “I can see the water in everything if I look hard enough.” I shrugged, realizing how unhinged that sounded when said aloud. 

 “Can you vibrate the frozen ones?” 

 I wasn’t sure. But I got where Dad was going with this; if I vibrated them hard enough to heat, the snow would melt. I’d have water to manipulate. But would its state of matter mess with me being able to control the water molecules? 

 This was getting way too complicated. 

 But Dad wasn’t asking my opinion; he was asking me to try. And really I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? 

 So holding my hand out, I focused on the little snowflakes, my vision slowly shifting as I went from seeing it, y’know, normally, to how it looked when I was Vapor. Every single water molecule in the area lit up like a piece of glitter, its glow different frozen versus vapor. 

 My hand came out again, hesitating as I thought just how to do this. There wasn’t anything in the instructions that outlined how — I just knew I could. 

 Well, maybe.

 I hadn’t tried this with regular water even, yet. The entire thing was still a theory, a hypothesis that wasn’t even fully thought out and yet I began the experiment process. My other hand came out too, gauntlets of wet slowly rising from my skin as if sensing my own hesitation and being put off by the idea. 

 Linking the molecules from the snow to my ‘Conduit-ness’ started as a mental process. It’s something I can’t even pretend to fully understand, but it felt akin to waking someone out of a deep slumber; they sort of moved, shimmied as if trying to readjust under the comfortable blanket of snow. But when my requests became demands, and I forced them awake, they decided to fully make it my problem. 

 That sting suddenly came back, a heat that settled into the muscles on my arms and began prickling them with its stab, making me flinch. But the close knit molecules of the pile of fresh fallen snow I was concentrating on actually began to move faster. “Jean?” Dad asked cautiously beside me when I grunted. 

 I probably could have stopped. They were moving, mission accomplished, right? But I wanted to see if I could melt it, make it into something I could drain. 

 The longer I held my proverbial grip on the snow though, the more it hurt. “Jean, are you—“ Dad moved beside me, my peripheral barely catching how he moved to his knees. 

 Just then, though, my gauntlets, swirling and spinning, stopped. The ends of it on my hands and laying against my fingers began to frost over, the bite turning from a scathing heat to an absolutely unbearable cold, the needle pricks becoming full on stabs now as the frost slowly began to slip up my arms. 

 That first stab made me gasp out, strangled, concentration slipping for a moment and the molecules I was working on losing their momentum. “Jean, that’s enough.” Dad demanded, hand on my elbow. 

 “I’ve almost got it…” I gasped out. My arms began to shake under the pressure — or maybe the cold? I was freezing. The water was moving from a frost to a solid freeze now, and I couldn’t move my fingers at their first two knuckles. 

But the molecules were close to spastic now, and I just knew they were on the edge of liquifying. I’d just have to beat out whatever was making my arms freeze. So, shrugging off Dad’s hold, I pushed my arms forward, more water crawling off my back and down my arms to encapsulate every bit of my arm — including the already frozen bits — fighting back against the freeze with a cry. “Regina!” Dad chastised, shooting to his feet. He disappeared from my peripheral, hands gripping each of my shoulders and yanking me back. 

 It was right then, though, that the molecules burst away from their tight hug, snow melting away into a sad puddle no bigger than 6 inches across. I landed on my ass rather violently, knocking into Dad’s knees as the water disappeared from around my upper arms — but stayed on my forearms, layering atop the freeze and moving in violent waves in an effort to thaw them. 

 I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. I was literally beyond frostbitten, my fingers and the little bit of my palm that the ice had reached to numb of…anything. Frozen. I was frozen. I tried to move my fingers and nothing came of the action, not even that disconnected feeling after going numb. It was like they didn’t exist. “Dad,” I rushed to say, trying to flex the fingers again and again to no avail, “Dad I can’t feel them,” 

[teenidlegirl]

꣑୧ ݁.﹒𝓜𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝓜𝐄 𝓗𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐖𝐀𝐘 .ᐟ

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 ┆ 𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞

ઇ ˚ ݂ ֹ ꒰ miguel o’hara 𝓍 fem!civilian!reader ꒱ ! ۟ ׅ ♡

. ˚◞ ♡ 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚⠀˖ ࣪ ༘ you return to HQ and all of your spidey friends are happy to see you again. after a fun day with your friends, you return home but something feels off.

. ˚◞ ♡ 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕⠀˖ ࣪ ༘ fluff, goofiness, swearing, pet names, sprinkle of jealous!miguel, angsty ending

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traveling through portals is trippy but also low-key a mindfuck. one minute you’re standing in your living room then you’re in the main lobby of the spider society. it’s gonna take some time for you to get used to that. miguel is aware of your arrival. he set up your watch so it would notify him directly whenever you arrive at HQ. he’s currently in a mission but he notified you that he’ll join you afterwards. for the meantime, you search for your spidey friends. hopefully they aren’t occupied with missions but you don’t mind waiting. the society is filled with fascinating people and things so you’ll be occupied. perhaps you’ll make more friends here.

wandering around HQ, a cartoonish spider-man, or should say spider-ham, approached you with a wave. “[y/n]! welcome back! it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you!” spider-ham said happily.

“hey porker! i missed my favorite pig!” you two share a high five. “i’m happy to be back!”

“nice to finally see that pretty face again.” a familiar british accent approached you.

“hobie!” you rush up to him and give him a hug, wrapping your arms around his neck.

the brit chuckles at your reaction, hugging you back with his arms around your waist. “i was worried i wouldn’t see ya pretty face again, love.”

you break the embrace to look up at him. “i missed that accent of yours and your jokes.”

“ah you flatter me, love.” he wraps an arm around your shoulders as you start walking down the hallway, passing by all types of spider-people.

you wave at spider-ham as he walks away to join a mission that he is required for.

gwen calls out your name as she walks up to you with a bright smile before pulling you into a hug.

you hug her back. “hey gwen!”

“you’re back! we missed you! everything okay? it’s been a while since we last saw you.” the blonde pulled back from the embrace.

“oh yeah. work has just been a pain but i finally got time to visit you guys! i missed my spidey peeps.” you smile at your friends, they reciprocated. you noticed a certain someone isn’t next to her which makes you a bit curious. “and miles?”

“he’s dealing with some things back at home. school and stuff like that.” the blonde elaborated. a beep comes from her watch, making her glance at it then back to you. “gotta go. see ya later, [y/n]!” gwen waves and smiles as she walks away.

you wave back then felt an arm sneaking around your shoulders. “why don’t we walk around, love?” hobie flashes a smile at you, making you blush a little.

“sure.” you nod with a smile as the two of you continue walking down the hallway.

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“so fuck the government, huh?” you giggle in the middle of your sentence while munching on a delicious croissant sandwich.

“those wankers are unless and don’t really give a shit about anyone.” hobie snacks on some lays, leaning back on the chair with his feet on the table. “well if it ain’t my favorite spider.” he looks past you, making you turn around to whoever he’s referring to.

a man dressed in a pink fuzzy robe approached you both. what captures your attention is the adorable redhead baby in the baby carrier. you’ve never seen anything so adorable, besides daisy and dogs in general. who is this little bundle of joy?

“oh you must be [y/n]! the lady miguel’s been talking about.” the man greets you with a smile and extends out his hand for a shake. “i’m peter, his best friend. and this—“ he gestures at the baby with his free hand. “is my daughter mayday.” the baby girl smiles and babbles at you. her tiny hands reach out to you as if she wants you to hold her.

you shake his hand, returning the smile. “nice to meet you, peter. and nice to meet you.” you shift your gaze to mayday, smiling at her. “hola, preciosa.” you say in a sweet tone, making the little girl smile and giggle as she reaches her arms out to you. oh your heart melts at the adorable baby; such a cutie.

“may i?” you glance up at peter, waiting for permission.

“of course!” he said happily with a smile. he carefully pulls mayday out from the baby carrier and hands her over to you which you gladly accept.

you held the baby securely in your grasp as you sat her down on your lap. “you are the cutest thing i’ve ever seen here.” mayday giggles in response as she starts playing with your curls, which you don’t mind.

“so how did you and miguel become friends?” peter takes a seat at the table, sitting across from you.

“well first, he saved my butt twice.” normally you would say ‘ass’ but since you have a baby in front of you, no swearing. “then he popped by my place and hung out a few times like besties.”

both men look at you with surprise looks. peter has his eyebrows raised in pure astonishment while hobie has that iconic smirk on his charming face.

“a few times? the man’s obsessed.” hobie jokes.

your snort, nodding your head. “oh i know. he’s a stalker but my stalker.” a hint of pride in your tone.

“well, it’s nice to know that miguel has a new friend. after being stuck with us, he definitely needs more and i’m glad he found you. you seem like a very nice person.” peter offers a smile.

you huff out a soft chuckle. “oh i don’t think i’m the nicest person but thank you. i try to be.”

“oh but you are! miguel says it all the time. well… not exactly but he definitely talks about you a lot in secret whenever he’s not talking about multiverse shenanigans. i just know it.” peter chuckles.

you look at the male with a shocking expression. miguel talks about you? a lot? you can’t help but you feel your heart skipping a beat at the confession. the man just keeps surprising you more and more.

“seriously?” you sound truly surprised.

peter nods happily with a dorky smile. “yep! he may not admit it of course because he’s so stubborn but he definitely does.”

your snort. “oh that we agreed on. he’s the most stubborn man i’ve ever met. i feel bad for you guys having to deal with that especially since he’s the boss. i could never work for a boss like him.”

both men laugh at your comment, mayday simply giggles and claps her tiny hands. you smile at her, can’t get enough of how adorable she is.

“he isn’t that bad, just anger management issues and stubbornness.” peter said, resisting to laugh.

“too stubborn up his techy arse.” hobie jokes.

you quickly cover mayday’s ears so she doesn’t listen to the curse word from hobie. the little girl just giggles and babbles at you, clapping her hands in excitement. the cuteness consumes you entirely. you uncover her ears as she keeps playing with your curls. mayday continues on babbling and you just tag along, agreeing on whatever she’s trying to say.

“oh miguel! nice of you to finally join us.” peter’s voice snap you out of trance only to find miguel staring directly at you and mayday.

“the vampire came out of his cave.” hobie jokes, earning a death glare from the tall brunette but obviously doesn’t bother him.

“you have a mission to complete. move it.” miguel points a finger at hobie, those crimson eyes glaring at the younger male.

the punky-looking spider raised his hands in air as he gets up from the chair. “whatever ya say, mate.” he turns to look at you, winking. “see ya later, pretty.” and with that, hobie walks away.

you and mayday wave at him then look back at miguel. “you’re so bossy to him. lay off him.”

the tall brunette rolls his eyes, disliking the idea of you defending hobie. “that delinquent isn’t intelligent enough to obey orders. if he was, i wouldn’t have to.” he folds his arms over his chest.

you shoot him an unimpressed look, eyebrows and lips flat. “he does obey orders, he’s just chill unlike you who’s angry all the time.”

miguel lightly glares at you but could never last forever. he just seems to never stay mad at you, even if he wanted to. before he could say something, the cute sounds of mayday’s giggles interrupts him. you, him and peter watch the baby laugh, making you and peter smile at her in awe. miguel had to resist smiling so he doesn’t screw up his intimidating demeanor.

“mr grumpy bug is a bit extra grumpy today, huh?” you whisper to mayday but still loud enough for miguel to hear, which he did of course. the little girl laughs as she turns to him, extending out her tiny hands as a sign for him to pick her up.

with a sigh, miguel carefully picks up the baby and carries her in his hands with a secure grip. the redhead baby smiles and babbles at him. he was so close to actually smile but immediately caught himself in the act. the last thing he wants is bombing his ego at work, especially in front of others.

“say cheese!” peter held up his phone and snaps a picture of the two without warning.

mayday is of course smiling and miguel is frowning like always. the amount of pictures peter has of them two is the same, a smile and a frown.

you cover your mouth to conceal your giggle, how adorable they both look. miguel heard it, making him feel embarrassed. there are definite hints of pink staining his cheeks. such a shy schoolboy.

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“how come you never told me there’s a burger of your face on it?” you try resisting the temptation to giggle in the middle of your question but failed to.

miguel groans out of annoyance, knowing you’d bring this up one day. “it wasn’t my idea. they developed it without my knowledge.” he doesn’t look back you, solely focused on the orange screens.

“i tried it, bomb as fuck. i understand why everyone loves it so much. i’ve never eaten a blue burger before so that was an experience.” you chuckle. “it’s kinda cute how they make your mask, the little red eyes on the blue bun. whoever came up with it is a genius.” you snack on a bag of doritos.

“they’re not a genius, it’s a ridiculous idea and should get rid of it.” frustration and annoyance laced in his tone, his hands curled up into fists on the desk.

“stop being a big grumpy bug and let people have their fun. like i said, it’s a good burger.” you said.

he side-eyed you with a offended look, cheeks slightly flushed. “i’m not a grumpy bug.”

a smirk graces your lips. “yes, you are.” you get up from the chair and slowly approach him. “you are a bug and always grumpy so… you’re a grumpy bug.”

miguel grunts in response, looking back at the monitors as an attempt to ignore your presence. god you get him so easily riled up. he hates it. or does he?

you tilt your head, staring up at him but more precisely his crimson eyes. two pretty rubies that are just so mesmerizing. to have color changing eyes seems so cool, you’re low-key jealous. red eyes seem badass, just so intimidating and pretty in unison. if you were to pick a color, definitely red like miguel’s.

miguel gets nervous from your staring. palms slowly turning clammy, very tiny droplets of sweat on his forehead, his pounding heart. god he’s never felt so nervous about being under someone’s gaze.

what are you doing to him?

“what?” his intimidating voice rings in your ears but doesn’t snap you out of trance.

“you have pretty eyes.” you confess so casually, still mesmerized by those rubies he has for eyes.

that makes his eyes tear away from the monitor and look at you with a confused look. miguel’s taken aback realizing how close you are to him, practically a few inches away. he grew more flustered.

“what?” he sounds genuinely confused.

you find his eyes pretty? are you serious? how can you find those infuriating red dots fascinating? miguel loathes them, wishes he never had that ability but it’s part of his spider dna. he isn’t a regular spider-man, not bitten like the others. only injected against his will which gained him these odd abilities.

but you find it fascinating?

that does something to him. it’s unclear whether it’s a good bad thing. either way, it shocks him.

unsure on how to respond to such a statement, miguel averts your gaze with a head shake and looks back at the orange monitors to forget the topic. those flushed cheeks still intact.

a smile graces your lips at his reaction. how cute, you thought. “i know you don’t like them but i do. i think they’re badass, gives me terminator vibes.” you swore the corners of his lips twitched upward but they don’t. “welp, imma head out. daisy misses me and i miss her.” using the watch he gave you, you opened up a portal, the vibrant colors appearing.

slowly walking towards it, you look back at miguel, who’s gaze is still on the screens. “later, grumpy bug.” with that, he glances at you but you already walked through the portal before he could say bye.

he watches the portal disappears after you, leaving himself alone in his office like before. the warmth of the room vanished the minute you left, now cold like it usually is. he misses that warmth; the warmth that you provided. miguel glances down at the floor where you were standing a few minutes ago, your compliment repeating in his mind.

you are something so… alluring.

your compliment repeats in his mind for the rest of the day, making his heart warm. for the first time, miguel smiles. luckily no one is there to witness it. maybe you will one day, you’ll be the only person.

‘your eyes are pretty too’ he wanted to say.

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it’s nighttime by the time you arrived home. daisy barks in excitement for your return as she rushes over to you. you swiftly scoop her up in your arms, petting her with a loving touch as she attacks your face with licks. oh she definitely missed you and you missed her as well. after a sweet moment, you set her down on the floor and walk over to your room. taking off the watch and placing it on your dresser, you head straight to the bathroom. afterwards, you walk to the kitchen to grab leftovers for dinner.

after eating and washing the dishes, you return to your room for the night. grabbing a nightgown from the drawer, you hear daisy growling. swiftly turning around, you look at her confusingly.

“what’s wrong, mamas?” you ask.

she never growls unless there’s something wrong.

oh you don’t like that.

anxiety slowly began creeping through your veins. grabbing the nearest object, which was your water bottle that has some weight in it, you cautiously walk towards the door. you grip onto the water bottle tightly, preparing to take a swing.

a million thoughts ran through your mind. it can’t be miguel, you just saw and he’s still at HQ. he wouldn’t just show up unexpectedly. he would land on your balcony and wait for your approval like tradition.

suddenly, you hear a small whine which sounds like pain. it’s daisy. turning around, a sudden force slams you against the wall. a scream erupts from your throat as your back hits aggressively against the wall before a hand covers your mouth, another hand pinning your hand against the wall. the water bottle drops onto the floor. some dark figure stands in front of you, unable to see who it is due the dark atmosphere and your slight blurry vision. you squirm under their grip, trying to break free but ultimately fail. muffled squeals vibrant against their palm as you continue squirming. you let out a yelp when you feel a sharp jab in your neck. the motherfucker must’ve injected something in you because you start to feel woozy. eyes fluttering and body weakening.

“nice to see you again, my dear.” a familiar voice said followed by a very familiar manic laugh just before darkness consumes your vision.

ᡣ𐭩ㅤㅤ ݁. 𝓣𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓  ˖ ࣪ ༘  @loser-alert @keepitreal001 @iamperson12280 @nostalgicdaira @flordelalunas @oharasfilipinawife @cho-coquette @lavenderslemonade @palesatan @awkward-d3rs3-dr3amer @lilscast @beanieboy23 @dorck26 @kakabskbskdnd @4crew @deputy-videogamer @36namey @sin4tra @holographicang3l @migueloharasoulmate @darlingz99 @opalesquegirl @freehentai @rinverse @colorfulbluebirdpainter @razertail18 @shadowzena43

© teenidlegirl. don’t steal, plagiarize, or translate my work. ♡

[jaegeraether]

Sunsets and footballers (Part 38)

Lucy Bronze x Reader (35) & Alexia Putellas x Character (6)

Masterlist (other parts here)

((**Don't be mad at me, please! Good stuff coming next chapter!**))

It was Friday morning and Lucy was just making breakfast when she heard Narla barking like crazy. Postman. She suddenly got excited and ran to the door, grinning at the package on her doorstep. It had arrived later than expected and she’d been like an eager child. Today was going to be a good day. A present. A hard training day for the game tomorrow. A bar dinner with Alexia after practise, and then YFN’s flight was supposed to land at 10pm.

She brought the little box inside and placed it on the coffee table in her lounge room so Narla could see it better. She was also interested.

“What’s this, Narls, huh? A present from mum’s girlfriend?”

Narla yapped at her as if they were having a conversation.

“Of course, you knew that, how silly of me. Oh, you’re going to love her. She’s coming tonight, remember!”

Narla yapped again, this time a little impatiently as Lucy tore into the box. She loved opening things; it was always like a Christmas present for her.

Inside she found three items. One was a new chew toy for Narla, a little football which she threw to her to stop her yapping. She loved it and Lucy wondered if it would last until YFN arrived. The second was a little set of sandcastle buckets with a shovel. It may have seemed like a silly little thing to most people, but not to Lucy. She immediately thought about how high and complex she’d now be able to build them with these. She grinned. YFN probably didn’t realise the monster she created by gifting those. The last item was a small blue polaroid camera.

She read the printed note inside the box.

Hi Luce,

We just hung up the phone and I already miss the sound of your voice.

I hope you and Narla like your presents. I’m excited for our beach mornings and sunsets!

As for the polaroid camera, I thought we could make some memories with it…

I can’t wait to see you again. I miss the warmth of you next to me.

I miss you.

YFN x

Lucy leant back against the couch and read the note again, unable to control her smile. 10pm tonight she’d be there. 10pm.

“A bit distracted, Lucia?” Mapi teased as her ball hit Lucy’s stomach before she had time to react.

They were standing in a circle, doing their usual training.

“YFN’s coming tonight.” Kiera teased from Lucy’s left, giving Lucy a light shove.

Alexia was on Lucy’s right and moved a little closer. “Your girlfriend is coming tonight?”

Lucy nodded, understanding the real question. “Yeah but not until 10pm. I’ll be with you until around 9:30pm. I figured we couldn’t be out too late anyways with the game tomorrow.”

“Ah,” Alexia nodded, though with a cheeky expression. “You are definitely not Spanish, Lucia.”

She slapped the opposite shoulder Kiera had, and Lucy rolled her eyes, used to being assaulted by everyone. What Alexia had meant was that in the Spanish culture, it was normal to stay up late and dinner around 9 or 10pm wasn’t unusual.

Jonatan called a break and Lucy pouted at Alexia as they took water bottles from the esky. “How long do you plan on staying out?”

The game was just over 300km south of Barcelona in Villareal at 4:30pm and their short flight left at midday. It wasn’t ideal for YFN who Lucy had also booked flights for, nor was it ideal for Alexia to be awake too late waiting for someone who may not show.

Alexia shrugged. “Midnight maybe.”

She had that determined look in her eye but Lucy could also see a little excitement there.

“Are you driving?”

“I’ll Uber.” Lucy didn’t like the thought that it allowed her to drink but she knew Alexia better than that. She wouldn’t drink before a game day.

“I’ll pick you up. I need to leave for the airport at 9:30pm though but you’ll only have to Uber one way.”

Alexia nodded.

“You two are going out?” Ona said, joining their little group huddled around the esky. Alexia always had people huddling around her, Lucy noticed.

Lucy found a soccer ball and sat down, looking at Alexia to answer.

“Si, but not for long.” She replied in Spanish.

Lucy scoffed. Five hours was definitely long enough.

“Lucia’s girlfriend in flying in tonight,” Asisat Oshoala teased. She was always being cheeky, especially with Lucy. They bantered well. Lucy looked at Ona for a reaction and she wasn’t surprised at her trying to hold her emotions together. She did quite well, to be fair.

“But isn’t it ah…storm tonight?”

Lucy sat up straighter. “What?”

“Oh, yah you’re right. Big storm tonight! Flights being cancelled already.” Oshoala shrugged.

“Already? It’s 5pm!” Lucy groaned and looked around for her phone. Alexia was quicker and knelt down next to Lucy, showing her the news report. The gesture wasn’t lost on Lucy. A week ago, Alexia wouldn’t have been this publicly empathetic towards her.

Lucy looked at the report. It was expecting most passenger liners to be cancelled, and the worst of the storm was hitting around the time that YFN was due.

“Fuck!” She swore between gritted teeth. Alexia rubbed her back. Again, an unusual new development in their friendship. She was pissed, YFN didn’t have much time off. She’d told Lucy the day before that she needed to be back for the games on Sunday, one of which was now starting earlier as she’d made a promise to Kyra.

She internally groaned at that. Her mind asked ‘Why does she have to be such a good person…” and then her mind also answered the question before she’d finished asking it ‘because it’s YFN and this is why we love her.’

The more Lucy read, the more upset she got. She gave Alexia her phone back and put her head in her hands.

“Is it that bad?” Kiera asked.

Lucy nodded into her hands and Oshoala answered. “Very bad weather. Very bad.”

Jonatan called an end to practise entirely then and Oshoala patted Lucy on the back as she walked towards the changing rooms. A few others followed suit until it was just Lucy. Or so she thought. She lifted her head, and wiped away the tears she’d been hiding. She jumped when she saw Alexia still sitting there.

“Sorry,” she gave a little smile. “Are you okay? We don’t have to go tonight.”

“No, we’ll go. It’ll be a good distraction, but I might be on my phone a little more to talk to YFN and check flights.”

“That’s okay. I’m happy you come with me.”

Lucy smiled at that mistake. “Let’s hope one of us gets the girl tonight, hey?”

Alexia had struggled to decide what to wear, eventually deciding casual was best. It was just a bar, after all. She was in dark jeans, white Nike’s, a white crop top exposing her midriff and a black leather jacket. She couldn’t even decide what she wanted to do with her hair and ended up with it down, however putting hair ties around her wrist in case she changed her mind.

Lucy texted just after 6pm and Alexia went to meet her outside. She was waiting in her car, furiously on her phone, and also dressed casually. Lucy loved her casual. She loved her oversized clothes and men’s shirts Alexia had noticed. It suited her well. Alexia saw her clothes better as she got closer. Light brown pants accented with a dark brown belt, her white and light brown matching Nike shoes of course, a tight white singlet and a brand new open white button up shirt. Lucy loved to accessorise also with necklaces and rings along with her studs and nose ring. Alexia tended to notice these little things about people as she loved fashion.

Lucy looked up from her phone as the door opened and looked Alexia up and down with her typical grin, this one more knowing, though.

“Don’t say a word, Lucia.”

“I was just going to say you looked nice.” She said as if she wasn’t also wondering how many times Alexia had changed. Alexia knew her better than that, though.

“Drive.”

They arrived to the bar already busy. Javier ran a comfortable, clean, bustling establishment and anyone could see the pride he put into it. It was due to this, that being busy wasn’t unusual. No matter the day or time, Javier’s bar was always popular, though tonight it was even more so as it was a Friday.

They entered the place and were greeted by a host Alexia recognised.

“Ah, Alexia!” He grinned and came over for their typical Spanish greeting. Lucy also did, and it was always funny to Alexia to watch Lucy have to be physical with people. She didn’t enjoy it. It’s one of the reasons she was so eager to meet her new girlfriend. “Javier has your spot reserved. Come, follow me.”

The host spoke in Spanish, though Alexia knew that Lucy knew enough to understand that.

“Reservation?” She asked behind her as they followed him through the crowd. She seemed overwhelmed by the place, and Alexia wasn’t surprised. She had also been overwhelmed the first time she’d come.

“Si, uh, it gets busy.”

“Yeah…”

“Don’t worry, Lucia, we are safe here from cameras and people.”

The girls in the team had spoken about the bar often. It was one of the reasons they liked it so much, because anyone who came to Javier’s knew to respect boundaries and that no sneaky photos or paparazzi were allowed.

“Here you are. Here are your menus, and the girls will be over soon for drinks.”

Alexia’s favourite spot was a booth that hung onto the corner of the drinks area which allowed drink service across the bar straight to the table. It also had a great view of most of the establishment including the stairs to the private rooms, and also the stage. Alexia looked around and couldn’t see Ridley just yet.

“Anything?” Lucy asked, still looking around the place almost dad-like.

“No.”

A server appeared across the bar and served them then. Alexia and Lucy both weren’t drinking and ordered mocktails instead. They would only allow themselves a few though as they needed to limit bad sugars and keep healthy. Alexia couldn't help her eyes wandering through the bar even though she obviously wasn’t there. She would have been very obvious is she was; surrounded by people and stared at like Alexia was at football games or events.

“It’s early…” Lucy reassured. “If she’s a true Spaniard, she won’t be here until later.”

“She’s not Spanish.” Alexia responded without even thinking about it.

“Oh?”

“She’s Australian.” She’d forgotten how she knew this, most likely through Javier or people she’d spoken to about her, and she never would have guessed. It’s only when she realised she was Australian that she could pick up that hint of an accent and match it.

“Oh, we both have Australian problems, do we?”

Alexia rolled her eyes. “Mine is a problem, yours is not.”

“Not unless you count the crazy people.” That made Alexia laugh a little. Lucy always loved making people laugh. “Tell me about her?”

“There is not much to say, I don’t know her…well.”

“When did you see her last?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“And you haven’t been back?”

“No. We’ve been busy.”

They had been busy, that was for sure. But Lucy thought it was also due to another reason. They ordered an early dinner, Alexia grumbling that no human should be eating so early. As they waited, she opened up a little more.

“I saw her…often for months here. Then she went for five months. Then I see her again. Then she’s gone for five months.”

“Wow, you remember her after basically ten months without speaking?”

“Si, it’s pathetic.” Now Lucy could see why she was so mad at herself. She couldn’t escape this woman.

“No it’s not,” she said sympathetically. Lucy didn’t usually open up but felt like Alexia needed it. “If YFN and I hadn’t gotten close, I would be thinking about her for years. She’s just…I can’t even explain. She just occupies a part of me.”

“Occupies?”

“Ocupa?”

“Ah…yes, like that. We talked to say hello and goodbye and sorry but that’s all.”

“You were talking about Javier the owner? Does he know where she goes to?”

“He said it’s for work, and she parties when she doesn’t work. Normally in Ibiza.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t seen her there.”

“Me too.”

They talked a bit longer about Alexia’s crush until the conversation shifted to football and then onto family and all things they’d never spoken about before. It had evolved to a natural conversation as if they regularly went out just to talk. They ate dinner as they talked, Lucy eating so fast that Alexia was genuinely worried for her and the amount of room she took up on the table. That was Lucy though, and she was unapologetically herself. She listened to Lucy speak about her family, Narla, and when she spoke about YFN she changed. She became someone else and Alexia saw her soften and smile without even knowing she was. She’d sent her a few surprises this morning and Alexia personally wouldn’t have wanted sandcastle buckets, but she knew it was perfect for Lucy. She was Captain and made sure to know her players well. Lucy was one of those players who could influence an entire team, an entire game. She was either high, high energy or very low energy and quiet. A few of the Barca team had been worried about Lucy’s personality clashing when she moved over, however it hadn’t been an issue at all. Alexia had watched as she came in almost shy and took the young players under her wing and slowly integrated with the team to the point where she was now her loud, happy self. That’s one thing she loved about Lucy, the fact that she was happy most of the time, always smiling, even when things were terrible. It was easy then to spot when she was actually going through something horrible, as it would be written over her face. On top of this, Lucy had always been a player she respected highly. Her determination, tenacity and self-confidence were always things Alexia had struggled with, though she never showed just how much. She always kept a brave face. Lucy’s ability to speak impactfully and stand up for players and female football all together were also qualities she’d admired. She hadn’t told her all of that, of course, but she knew Lucy respected her also from the way she treated her. They didn’t need to tell each other; they both knew.

They talked for hours just enjoying each other’s company until it dragged closer to 9:30pm and Lucy became more worried, checking her phone more often.

“Can she come?” Alexia’s limited English made it frustrating to speak, though she did it for her teammate.

“Maybe…there’s a few flights going but we’re unsure. She’s at the airport and they haven’t boarded yet. I…I think I’m going to leave anyway and go to the airport to try and find a flight for her. Will you be okay?”

Alexia nodded. “I’m okay, I will find Javier to say a hello and go home.”

“Do you want me to wait?”

“No Lucia, it’s okay. Thank you for tonight. Go and get your woman.”

Lucy chuckled at that and when they both slipped out of the booth, Lucy hugged her.

“We’ll keep coming back until she’s here, okay?”

Alexia was unsure if it was even worth it, but she nodded and watched as Lucy walked away.

Alexia found the host again and asked where Javier was. She’d seen him moving around through the bar but he hadn’t spotted her and had looked busy. To be honest, once she’d started a full conversation with Lucy, she hadn’t noticed much around them anyways.

“Javier is upstairs sorting out a little drama…” He admitted.

Alexia nodded. It wasn’t regular but it also wasn’t unusual for there to be some drama in the private rooms. She headed up the stairs, looking for her friend. Most rooms were closed, and some were open as they were being cleaned. She rounded the corner where her room eleven was and came to a halt when she saw Javier. He was talking to a figure leaned up against the doorway looking as relaxed as always. She was in dark jeans and a bra, no shoes, no jacket, just that.

“Are you sure you don’t need help? I’ll be gentle, I promise.”

Javier gave her a sceptical look. “It’s all sorted. Go back to your entertainment for the night.”

He spotted her out the corner of his eye then and turned, giving a polite wave and beckoning her over. Ridley’s eyes fell on Alexia and refused to move. They looked her up and down unapologetically.

“La Reina.”

“Alexia!” Javier gave her a proper greeting.

“Hello,” she said in Spanish with fake confidence. It took every fibre of her strength to not look at Ridley, though she could feel her stare burning into her. “I came to find you to say goodbye.”

“Ah, I’m sorry I couldn’t see you and your friend earlier, it’s been a nightmare, let me tell you.”

Before Alexia could respond, one of Javier’s security was beckoning him up the hall and towards where she assumed the drama was occurring. He said his apologies and left to sort it out.

“You’re leaving?”

Alexia looked to Ridley, barely holding her demeanour. “Si, I’ve been here for a few hours, catching up with a friend.”

“I didn't see you…”

“I was in my usual spot,” she smiled politely and couldn’t help but wonder who was in the room behind her. “Have you been here long?”

“Just arrived. We must have missed each other.”

There was a silence then as they stared at each other. Alexia saw Ridley’s pupils dilate as she tilted her head. She looked over Alexia’s face at each of her features, her eyes tending to settle a little longer on her lips. Alexia held strong her confidence for the sake of appearance but couldn’t help her eyes darting into the room and back out. Ridley smirked at that. She really did notice everything.

"I hope you have a good night.” She turned to leave but Ridley’s response stopped her mid turn.

“Would you like to watch?”

It was the same question as that last time she’d seen her and just like then, Alexia hesitated. Her eyes met the teasing gold flecks dancing around Ridley’s dark eyes, though she couldn’t form a response. Unlike last time though, Ridley stepped into her space; the woody, spicy, musky smell melting her, and said something different. “That wasn’t a no, la Reina.”

She waited, though Alexia could still give no response and when Ridley stepped to the side, Alexia found her feet moving her into the room. She stopped as she heard the door click behind her, the locks sliding into place. Ridley’s hands found her hips and gently guided her into the darkened room. She was worried what she’d find, though it wasn’t unexpected. There was a woman, a very attractive woman, lying naked on her bed. Her blonde dyed hair was loose and across the pillow, her wrists tied together and to the bedframe above her head. She also sported a blindfold and a set of headphones.

Sensory deprivation. Alexia hadn’t tried it before, but it looked…incredible.

Ridley made sure the look on Alexia’s face was to her satisfaction before she leant over her other woman and pulled the headphone off of one ear.

“Baby, I have a guest here. She’s going to watch and help. Is that okay?”

“I trust you.”

“Good girl. Be patient, baby, you’ll feel good soon enough.”

She put the headphone back over her ear and kissed her gently on the lips. Alexia’s stomach dropped at that and she felt jealous. She wanted to kiss Ridley. She came back to Alexia, standing in front of her.

“You look nervous, Alexia.”

Something in her body awakened at that. It’s the first time she’d said her name. Ridley noticed and smirked, her fingers touching her cheek lightly.

“Ask me anything.”

“Is she your girlfriend?” Alexia whispered.

“No. She’s someone I sleep with.” Noticing Alexia’s unsure look, she continued. “She gets tested often. So do I. We satisfy each other.”

“You’ve been with other women though.”

“So have you, la Reina. I’ve seen you flirting around this bar with different people. You’ve been up to these rooms as often as me.” Her Spanish was impeccable, and the tiny hint of an Australian accent melted her.

Her words also shocked her. She’d been keeping track of her?

The question must have been written on her face because Ridley ducked down close enough that their lips were almost touching. “Are you here for me?”

Alexia found herself too proud to answer that.

“Hm. Will you tell me if I admit to you the reason I’m here?” Her lips found her ear where she whispered. “I come here to see you.”

Alexia shivered, her head moving towards Ridley.

“W…What do you want from me?”

“Oh many, many things. For starters, I’d like to see you doing what you’re told. Can you do that?”

Alexia nodded. Pride out the window.

“Good girl.” Ridley ghosted her lips over Alexia’s teasingly. “Now get on top of her and kiss her.”

She stepped to the side so Alexia could better see the woman on the bed. She felt Ridley behind her carefully taking off her leather jacket and placing it on a spare chair in the room. Without thinking too much about it, Alexia was on top of the gorgeous woman tied to the bed and Ridley watched as Alexia kissed her. The kiss was soft at first as the woman got used to Alexia, and then it became more open mouthed and with purpose.

“That’s enough.” Ridley said almost harshly. She guided Alexia through what she wanted her to do. To kiss her neck. To suck her nipples. To work her mouth down her body until she was settled between her legs. Ridley settled above Alexia, her mouth at her ear.

“Eat.”

Alexia did as she was told. She tasted the woman on the bed whose body gave away just how much she wanted Ridley. She was soaked.

Alexia made quick work of her; her mouth assaulting her clit. The woman on the bed wriggled desperately, moans and whimpers coming from her mouth as Alexia worked.

“Good girl. Fingers now too.”

Alexia’s fingers teasingly ran around her hole, feeling it clench around nothing. It must have been too slow for Ridley though as she took Alexia’s right hand with her own, lining up their index fingers and pushing them both in. The girl on the bed sucked in a breath and gasped at the feel. Ridley controlled her and Alexia’s fingers into the woman for a few strokes until she pulled hers out and left Alexia to finish the job. Alexia felt herself squirming excitedly and then Ridley’s hand slipped between Alexia’s body and the bed, finding its way down her pants and to her core.

“You want this?” Ridley asked in her ear.

Alexia nodded against the woman’s clit.

“Out loud.”

Her mouth popped off of her clit just to respond. “Si.”

Ridley’s fingers moved into Alexia’s folds like she knew her. She teased her clit while Alexia was getting her woman close. She just didn’t know how close Ridley was getting her.

It only took another minute for the woman to scream out asking for Ridleys permission to come. She didn’t give it until Alexia was also close and relished the feel and image of them coming simultaneously.

As Alexia came down, the warmth on her back disappeared as Ridley stood. It was then that she realised what she was doing. Ridley wasn’t kissing her. She was using her for the woman on the bed. Ridley didn’t want Alexia, she wanted her.

Alexia was ashamed of what she’d just done. She stood and felt the panic overwhelm her as she darted for the door. Ridley managed to catch her, holding her against the door with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not just one of your girls you can control.” She had no idea where that came from but suddenly she remembered who she was. Strong, confident Alexia Putellas, Captain of Spain and Barcelona.

Ridley’s worry fizzled away as she realised Alexia was okay, just mad at her.

“I don’t think of you like that, Alexia.”

Again, that name from her mouth sounded like it dripped with honey.

“This,” she gestured to where she’d just been, “this makes me feel like that.”

Ridley looked like she’d been expectedly exposed and she leant down as if to kiss Alexia but stopped herself short. Alexia had been watching her closely, wishing she hadn’t stopped. She wanted her, not some random woman.

“I…I don't know how to give you anything else…” Ridley admitted with a pain in her eyes Alexia couldn’t understand.

“Ridley?” The voice came from the bed. Alexia’s heart sunk. She was so conflicted with no idea how or why.

“You need to go to her.”

The look on Ridley’s face said that she didn’t want to be anywhere except right there, with Alexia.

“I…” She leant forwards again, letting herself show just how much the footballer mesmerised her. Her fingertips brushed Alexia’s lips ever so softly and they parted under her touch. Ridley. Ridley. Ridley. It was like a chant in her head. All Ridley needed to do was give up that control, but they both knew it was more than that. “Yes, I do.”

Ridley composed herself and took a step back, the two watching each other for a little before Alexia turned and left.

Her back hit the wall outside as she took some deep breaths and shivered, trying to understand what happened. She needed to control herself. She had a game tomorrow.

Alexia took out her phone to order an Uber just as a message from Lucy appeared.

Lucy: All flights cancelled. She’s not coming. Do you need a lift home?

[layce2015]

The Boys (Soldier Boy x Female!Supe!Reader)

Chapter 2: The Only Man In The Sky

Chapter 1/ Next Chapter

"You sure you wanna go see her?" Bethany asked me after I called her on the phone the next day. "Not really but...it must be important if she's contacting me." I said. "I'm not sure if I like it." Bethany said and I giggled. "I'll be okay, Mom." I laughed, sarcastically. "Hey, I know you can handle yourself but...I still worry." Bethany said. "I appreciate it." I said as I pace along the living room.

*3rd Person POV*

M.M. hears a knocking at his door and he goes to answer it. He opens it and sees Butcher standing there, his hands behind his back, and he lets out a sigh. “All right, mate?” Butcher asked him and Janine, M.M.’s daughter comes up next to her father. “Bloody hell, Janine. You shot up. You remember your Uncle Billy, don't you?” He asked and the girl stares at him before nodding, slightly.

”Here. I got this for you.” Butcher said as he pulls out a box of a Lego set of Vought tower. “You and your dad can build it together. 523 pieces of family fun.” Butcher said and M.M. glares at him.

Later, Janine starts on working on the Lego set while Butcher and M.M. talk. “Okay, one, you don't just pop up here. You call first. And, two, eff Soldier Boy. I don't give a mothereffin' doo-doo how he checked out.” M.M. argued. “Ah, bollocks. He didn't die like no hero. I'll wager he went out on his knees, begging like a right cսոt.” Butcher said. “What the f...” M.M. grumbles then he exhales a she gesture to his daughter, who heard them. “Sorry, love.” Butcher tells her then he continues to talk, quietly.

”Look, if there's a weapon out there that killed Soldier Boy, then it can kill Homelander. And that's got to be worth something. Now, we're working our way through his old team. Frenchie and Kimiko are starting with the Crimson Countess, and I'm gonna hit up Gunpowder and Mystic Shade.” Butcher said. “Sounds like you got everything covered.” M.M. said. “This ain't just anyone. It's Soldier Boy. You could close the book on him once and for all. For your dad. Your family.” Butcher said.

”Fuck off with that shit.” M.M. growls then he starts to breath, heavily, before he continues. “My father died hunched over a desk, obsessing over a dead man, while he was ignoring his two living children. And I almost did the same thing to her.” M.M. said as he gestures to his daughter and Butcher looks over at her then back at his old friend.

”Thanks for coming by.” M.M. said and Butcher sighs. “You're doing a bang-up job with her, mate.” Butcher said and he goes to leave but then M.M. sighs. “Butcher, hold on a second. I might have one thing.” He said then he goes to his room and into his closet and pulls out a file that his father had on Soldier Boy.

Meanwhile, (y/n) and Bethany enter Voughtland and see all the kids running around, laughing and screaming, as their parents try to keep up with them or buy them the overpriced food and merchandise. “It’s crazy here.” Bethany said as her and (y/n), who was wearing jeans and a hoodie with the hood up, walk along the park. “Yeah, Vought has gone more chaotic with The Seven than they did with Payback.” (Y/n) mutters as they walk. 

“You jealous?” Bethany asked her and (y/n) scoffs. “Fuck no.” She said and Bethany laughs as they go to the theater, where there was a poster that advertised the showing of Soldier Boy’s life. (Y/n) stops and stares at it as a memory pops up in her head.

Flashback

*(y/n)’s POV*

It had been months since Ben and I were sent overseas with the army to help out what we could. But we also did some film and photography for Vought as they brought a filmmaker and a photographer to get us to recreate certain moments of the war. And in between those moments or fights, Ben and I got to know each other a bit better. He was a bit cocky and full of himself and a bit rude but…he had this charm about him that I was attracted to.

And now the war was finally over and all the surviving troops were celebrating as was everyone around the world. Ben and I were sitting at the busy bar as the troops were cheering, laughing, singing and talking loudly as they all drink copious amount of beer.

I smiled at the scene, feeling relieved that this mess was all behind us. But I was also feeling dread as that meant I had to go back to my bastard of a husband. “You good?” Ben’s voice asked and I shake myself out of my thoughts and look over at him. “Yeah…just…” I laugh a bit softly. “Just still surprised that it is over.” 

“You don’t sound very thrilled about it.” Ben points out. “No, I’m happy it’s over. I just…” I then trail off. “You don’t want to go back home?” Ben asked me and I sighed. “Is it that obvious?” I asked him. “Yeah…” he said and I turn my head to look at him. “You know, we’ve been getting to know each other these last few months and you still haven’t told me about…Adam, was it?” Ben asked and I sighed as I take another long sip of my beer.

”Well, I’m sure you know my backstory is a load of garbage. I wasn’t born with these powers…they were forced upon me.” I explained as Ben listens to me. “My darling husband…” I sneered before I continued. “…he faked a doctor’s appointment for me when really it was for me to get a shot of Compound V and get these powers.”

Ben’s eyes widen at this then it furrows in anger. “He what?” He asked me and I scoff out a small laugh at this. “Yeah, right ol’ bastard. I wanted to divorce him when I found out but…” I stopped then take another drink. “He basically told me I couldn’t do that, be it would ruin my career before it even began.” I added and Ben did look angry after I explained.

”That son of a bitch. I should go have a word with him when we get back.” Ben said and I place a hand on his arm. “No, don’t.” I plead to him. “Why?” He asked me. “I’ve seen what happens when you have a word with people. It would just make everything worse. Besides, I don’t want to put you in any trouble.” I said and Ben raise an eyebrow at me.

“Look, let’s just enjoy this night and not worry about my failing marriage.” I said and he gives me this look then sighs. “Fine.” He mutters as he takes a sip of his beer. The rest of the night went uneventful as we enjoyed the party until it was time to get ready to head back home.

But once we got home and saw the press just swarming the airport to mainly get to me and Ben, Ben did something I was not expecting. Once we got off the plane, we waved at the press as they took many pictures and the people from the news report came out to film us. Then Ben turns to me, takes my chin to make me look at him then kissed me right there in front of God and everyone.

I hear the crowd go absolutely crazy but I was too stunned and shocked at what just happened and what is happening. And the terrible thing is I didn’t want it to end, this was honestly the best kiss I’ve ever had in my life. And even though there was a part of my mind that was screaming at me to tell Ben to stop, to push him away, I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

So, I kissed him back and I could tell that is what he wanted me to do as I feel his lips curl up into a smile as we continued to kiss. Moments later, we break the kiss and I felt breathless once his lips were away from mine and I raise my eyes to look at him and he gives me that damn flirty grin I’ve come to like so much.

”Maybe that’ll help with your little problem.” He mutters to me before he winks then turns to the crowd as he puts an arm around my shoulders and waves at them. I stood there and I’m sure I just looked mystified and confused because my mind was running for miles as I realized what he just did.

And I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

“What the hell is this?!” Adam asked me as he holds up the paper the next morning. “What’s what?” I asked him. I was sitting at the table in the little kitchen area of my room at Vought Tower and Adam just came in after going out to get the paper. He slams the paper down on the table in front of me and the first thing I saw was a photo of me and Ben kissing. And the title reading: America’s Newest Sweethearts?

”How long?” Adam asked me, angrily. “How long what?” I asked him. “Don’t play dumb! Now, tell me the truth, how long have you been fucking him behind my back?!” Adam asked me and I stare at him, stunned. “Are you crazy?! I mean, is that what you actually think of me?!” I asked him then he slams his hands on the table again.

”I’ve seen the way you look at him! And I know you’re still angry with me for what I did but I never thought you’d go this low!” He yells. “Because I wouldn’t! That kiss was something Ben came up all on his own. I didn’t expect it!” I argued. “And yet, from what I heard, you didn’t reject it!” Adam shouted and I glared at him.

“It’s just a publicity stunt! To make the people go crazy, okay! It’s for the money, get over it!” I spat at him and he looks at me surprised. “Are you serious?” He asked me. “What? I thought this was what you wanted. Me being a Supe to make money for us. You know how Vought works. They’ll do anything to gain the public’s approval.” I sneered and he huffs at me.

Then he turns and starts to walk out. “Where the hell you going?” I asked him. “Out.” Adam growls as he slams the door and I scoff.

*3rd Person POV*

Ben was walking towards his room in Vought Tower, seething with anger. He had just been to see his father and showed off him being the hero. But he didn’t get the hero’s welcome he expected from his father. His father told him he wasn’t a real man, that he took a shortcut and told him he was a disappointment, probably one of the worst things a father could say to their child.

He heard a door slam but he ignored it as he makes it to the door of his room. He goes to unlock the door when he heard stomping footsteps then a voice calls out to him, in an angry tone. “You!” The voice said and Ben shuts his eyes for a moment, really not in the mood to deal with anyone.

”Look, Buddy…” Ben started to say as he looks over and sees it is Adam that is coming towards him. Adam then grabs him by the collar of his shirt then slams him up against the wall. “You son of a bitch! You think you can take her away from me!” Adam shouts at Ben. “I’m only gonna say this once, cocksucker. If you still want your teeth, then I suggest you let go and back away from me.” Ben threatens, in a low calm voice. 

But Adam wasn’t having it. “What gives you the right to kiss (y/n) when you know she’s my wife?!” Adam asked him. “You could have any woman you want, but you go and kiss her! You can’t have (y/n), she’s mine!” 

“You know what I think? I think a piece of shit like you doesn’t deserve a woman like (y/n)!” Ben growls as the sound of a door opening was heard. “And you do?!” Adam asked as hurried footsteps come up and Ben grabs Adam’s hands and shoves him towards the other side of the hall.

”Boys, stop!” (Y/n)’s voice shrieks as she gets in between the boys. Ben was about to walk towards Adam, who continued to glare at him, but (y/n) turns to Ben. “Ben, Ben, Ben….hey, hey, look at me…look at me…” she said as Ben death stared at Adam but then he looks over at (y/n).

For some weird reason, just looking at her calmed him down a little as she places her hands on his shoulder. “Ben? Since when were you two on a first name basis?” Adam asked (y/n), upset, and she turns to face him. “What does that matter? Just be grateful I’m not letting him beat you to a pulp right now!” She exclaims as she glares at her husband. The two stare at each other for a few silence moments before Adam sighs.

”You know what, (y/n)? You’re gonna get your wish.” Adam said then he walks off and (y/n) lets out a sigh before she turns to Ben, who is about to enter his room. “Ben, I am so sorry…” she started to say but Ben shakes his head. “I’m not trying to be an asshole but I really don’t want to talk right now, (y/n).” Ben grumbles and he enters his room and shuts the door.

(y/n) frowns at this as her heart felt broken then she makes her way back to her room. She shuts the door and started to burst into tears, letting out the emotions she didn’t know she was holding in. She wipes her eyes then looks over at the cabinet that held some bourbon.

She normally doesn’t drink a lot but the whole bottle of bourbon was sounding good right now. So she goes to the cabinet, grabs the bottle and begins to drink from it.

Present Day

(Y/n) continued to stare at the poster until Bethany comes up to her and places a hand on her arm. “(Y/n)?” She said and (y/n) pulls out of her thoughts and looks over at her friend. “You ready?” She asked and (y/n) sighs. “Not really…but let’s do it.” She said and they head inside the theater as does Frenchie and Kimiko.

They get inside and take a seat and Bethany pats her friend’s shoulder. “You sure you’re gonna be okay seeing this?” She asked (y/n). “I think so.” (Y/n) mutters, unsure. The lights start to dim and the screen comes on as it starts to play the film.

"Soldier Boy grew up in the birthplace of American liberty. Born poor on the mean streets of South Philadelphia, he learned the values of hard work, tenacity and bravery. He used those values to prove America's exceptionalism to the world." The narrator of the film said as it shows various pictures of Soldier Boy's life. Then it shows a clip of Soldier Boy in the trenches with the American soldiers.

"Okay, boys, let's give these Krauts some hell." Soldier Boy said and he leads the men on out into the battlefield. (Y/n) bites her lips as she remembers those days. "He and his partner, Mystic Shade, defended us against the encroaching Red Menace." The narrator said as it goes to another clip and shows Soldier Boy and (y/n) in the Congress, which takes (y/n) by surprise as she sees herself sitting next to Soldier Boy. "Congress, we have a list right here of avowed Communists." He said as he holds up a file.

"He helped guide America into a brighter future, and along the way, he found the love of a good woman..." the narrator said as it shows Soldier Boy and Mystic Shade, their arms around each other and a smile on their faces. (Y/n) lets out a heavy sigh and Bethany turns to her and places an arm around her. She gives her a concerned look but (y/n) nods, assuredly.

"...which made his sacrifice all the more noble, when he gave his life saving us from a nuclear holocaust." The narrator said as it shows a melted down nuclear power plant. Then the screen goes black. "Please join us in saluting Soldier Boy." The narrator said and there was scattered applause. 

Then a spotlight comes on and the screen slides up to reveal Crimson Countess walk out onto the stage and begins to sing. “Fuckin’ hell.” (Y/n) grumbles, annoyed.

When the night was dark

And the dawn was cold

From sea to shining sea and mountains' majesty 

He did it all For the red, white and the bold

'Cause he's America's son

As she sings, she brings her hands together and uses her power to shootout the red ball of energy she makes. It goes flying over head and the ball of energy explodes and engulfs the room in red light as Countess continues to sing.

A shining beacon of freedom

He's America's son

After the show, Countess was in her dressing room and was crushing up some pills as the door opens. "At your request, Countess." The voice of her manager said and Countess looks up at her mirror and sees the familiar face of her old partner. "Well, well, well, never thought I'd see you here, Misty." Countess said with a smile as (y/n) pulls back her hoodie.

"I mean, you're basically a recluse. Some people even think you're dead." Countess taunts as (y/n) glares at her. "What do you want, Crimson?" She asked as she folds her arms across her chest. Countess turns in her seat to look at her. "Can't I say hi to an old friend?" Countess asked. "You and I are nowhere near close enough to be considered friends." (Y/n) sneered and Countess gives a fake offended look.

"Oh, my dear, Misty...." Countess said, dramatically, and (y/n) rolled her eyes at this. She always hated it when Countess called her this name, it irritated her to no end which she figured that's why Countess does that. "Are you still mad that Ben and I dated?" Countess asked her. "I don't know...you mad that he dumped you to get back together with me?" (Y/n) asked, snarky, and Countess drops the act.

"No, actually. I really don't give a fuck." Countess said as she goes back to her table then starts to inhale some of the crushed up pills she made. "But I will say one good thing about him, he was great in the sack." Countess said and (y/n) rolls her eyes.

"Why the hell am I here, Countess?" (Y/n) asked and Countess turns to her. "Well, seems like that whole Girls Get It Done shit has been a big deal lately. And I figured maybe get us girls back together from the old team." Crimson said and (y/n) glares at her.

"You know, you, me and Tessa. We could show those bitches in The Seven who the real female heroes are." Crimson said and (y/n) shakes her head. "Not just no but fuck no!" (Y/n) said and Crimson was taken aback. "Well, why not? I mean, clearly you're not doing anything! Tessa and Thomas are apparently gonna host Herogasm here in a few days and of course I've had a music career." Crimson said. "And I like it that way. I got out of Payback for a reason, Countess!" (Y/n) shouts.

"Yeah because you were becoming a washed up Supe and Ben isn't around to fuck you senseless like the dirty whore you really are!" Crimson accused and (y/n) snaps as she waves her hand and Crimson goes flying back and hits the wall, hard. (Y/n) starts to breath heavily as she glares daggers at her old partner until she looks down at her hand, which was shaking.

"You can never even begin to THINK what I've been through the last forty years!" (Y/n) growls as she glares at Crimson, who gets up. "Oh boo-hoo, you're boyfriend died and now you live all alone in some farmhouse in Kansas. Get the fuck over yourself, Misty." Crimson sneers. "Fuck you!" (Y/n) spat and the two women continue to glare at each other before (y/n) turns and heads for the door.

"Go fuck a chimp, Crimson." (Y/n) spat and she slams the door behind her, puts her hood up and walks out of the room and down the hall, passing by Frenchie and Kimiko as they get ready for their visit with Crimson Countess.

After dusting herself off of the confrontation,  Countess goes to sit by her dressing table and gathers up more pills and crushes them. "Next!" Countess shouts as she goes to snort up the crushed up drugs and exhales as the door opens, Kimiko and Frenchie enter her room. "You seem a little old for the Countess Tea Package." Countess said once she looks up and notices them. "We're young at heart." Frenchie said as Kimiko comes up to Countess and holds up her phone to show her what she typed.

I like your music

"Oh, sweetie. Can't you talk?" Countess asked Kimiko after she read her message. Kimiko shakes her head, shyly, and Countess smiles at her. "Would you like to hear something new?" She asked her and Kimiko nods. "Okay." Countess said and she leads Kimiko to her laptop to bring up a music video while Frenchie is looking around the room.

Chimps don't cry

No, chimps

Don't cry... 

"You know that chimps are physically incapable of crying? But that doesn't mean they're not crying on the inside." Countess said, dramatically, and she goes to look at the video while Kimiko turns to Frenchie and begins to sign language to him.

She's nice.

She's nuts! 

No, she's not.

Let's get it over with!

Fine.

Kimiko then turns to Countess and grabs her. "Wh-What are you..." Countess shouts when Kimiko slams her up against the wall. "Wh-What are you...Ow!" Countess screams as Kimiko hits her. "Don't let her hands touch!" Frenchie shouts and Kimiko separates Countess' hands. "Ow! Let go of me, you bitch." Countess shouts as Frenchie comes up next to her while Kimiko holds her up against the wall.

"No fireball if your hands don't touch, oui? You stay quiet and relax. She will hurt you." Frenchie tells her. "What do you want?" Countess asked him. "We want to know about Soldier Boy." Frenchie said. "What the fսck do you care about Soldier Boy?" Countess asked, confused. "We want the truth about Soldier Boy, not the merde you've been giving us in your appalling show. How did he die? Who killed him? Talk." Frenchie demands.

"The show is the truth, mοthеrfսckеr." Countess said as there was another knock and the door opens as a kid and her parents come in. "He died a hero." Countess tells them just as they hear the family coming in.

Seizing the opportunity, Countess knocks Kimiko off of her then runs out of the room. Frenchie and Kimiko then chase after her as she runs out of the building and out into the park.

Countess shoves people out of the way then turns around to see Frenchie and Kimiko still gaining up on her. She stops, brings her hands together and shoots her fireball at the duo but they duck and the fireball hits the man in the Homelander costume, making blood and guts explode everywhere.

People and children began to scream but with some of the people near the mascot were protected by a force field. Frenchie and Kimiko jumped back at this as kids and adults scream, cry and run as does Countess.

Frenchie turns around and sees the white hoodie woman again, her arms were stuck out in front of her. They share a look before the woman lowers her arms and runs the opposite direction and it suddenly clicked with him who she was. "Putain de merde! That was Mystic Shade!" Frenchie said as Kimiko looks in time to see the woman run then signs at him.

Should we go after her?

"Butcher said he was gonna deal with her." Frenchie said as he takes her arm and Kimiko looks around to see a few kids still looking frighten and distraught at the man in the Homelander mascot costume, or what was left of him, before she and Frenchie leave the park.

*(y/n)’s POV*

Bethany pulls up to my house as I sigh. “You okay?” She asked me, for what had to be the hundredth time. “Yes, I’m fine. Just…wasn’t expecting any of that.” I said. “It looked like she was attacking those two people. Did you see them?” Bethany asked me and I nod.

“But I don’t know why. That’s what’s bugging me.” I said as I think. “Well, I’ll talk to you later.” I said as I get out of her car. “Okay…” Bethany said as I shut her car door and head into my house.

I entered the house and give a sigh of relief before I head to the kitchen. “You have a lovely house.” A male voice, with a cockney accent, greets and I jumped a bit to see a man with black hair, a beard, jeans, black shirt and a long black leather jacket, sitting at my kitchen table.

”Who the hell are you?” I asked him, angrily. “Billy Butcher, love.” He introduces as he nods to me and I realized this is the man that Maeve told me she was working with on capturing out of control Supes. “I just thought I’d pop by and ask you a few questions.” Butcher asked me as I go over to my liquor cabinet and take out a bottle of whiskey.

”I thought I told Maeve that I didn’t want to be bothered.” I said with a growl as I grab a couple of glasses. “She did tell me that but…I thought different.” Butcher tells me and I glare over at him. “So, from what I understand, you and Soldier Boy were close, right?” Butcher asked me and I begin to pour a glass of whiskey. “Okay, to save you time, yes, Soldier Boy and I were a thing. We had been on and off through out the years. In hindsight, we kept breaking up because of just stupid petty stuff but he would always find a way to win me back. Anything else you want me to answer, re-read that file I gave to Maeve.” I tell him.

”Well, before I go, there’s something I want you to elaborate on.” He said and I sighed, realizing this man is not gonna leave, and I pick up the second glass. “Would you like a drink?” I asked him as I hold up the whiskey bottle. “Oh, how very courteous of you.” Butcher said, in a bit of a surprised tone.

”Just being a good host, even if you were a surprise guest.” I said as I pour him a drink. Then I pick up my glass and his glass and I walk over to the table and hand him his glass. “Thank you.” He said and he takes a sip.

”Maeve’s told me about your rivalry with Homelander and how you think all Supes are bad. But I will tell you this, Mr Butcher, not all of us are like Homelander. I know you don’t want to hear it but it’s the truth. All I want is to live a normal life and put that life behind me.” I said and Butcher rolls his eyes towards the ceiling. “I appreciate your honesty, but it’s the actions of many of those cunts against your word that makes it hard to believe you.” He replied.

”Believe whatever you want, Mr Butcher. As for me, all I want is to be left alone.” I said, taking a sip of my whiskey. “You know I visited your old teammate, Gunpowder.” Butcher said and I lowered my glass, glaring at him. “And let’s just say, things didn’t go well.” Butcher said and I feel my heart sink. “Did you kill him?” I asked him and he nods.

I gasped and closed my eyes as I turn my head away. “Not the response I expected…” Butcher said and I turned back to him. “He was a kid when he joined the team. Poor boy.” I said, sadly. “Huh? See, I heard you didn’t really like any of your teammates.” Butcher said. “Yes, some of them I didn’t get along with but Gunpowder was just an eager kid, trying to prove himself. I looked after him, made sure he didn’t fall down the same rabbit hole a lot of young Supes do.” I said. 

“And yet, he put in a complaint about Soldier Boy’s abuse.” Butcher tells me. “I did the best I could with Soldier Boy. He would get in a few hits on Gunpowder but I always intervened if I saw he was about to go overboard.” I said as Butcher takes a swig at his drink.

”And did he ever abuse you?” He asked me. “No! He never did.” I replied, firmly. There was a long bit of silence between us before I go back to my drink. “Look, all I want to know is what happened to him? How did he die? Because I know that crap Vought pushed out is a load of bullocks.” Butcher said and I sighed.

”If I tell you what I know, will you leave me alone?” I asked him and Butcher stares at me then nods. “I don’t know what killed him. I was knocked out and when I came to, the others told me he was killed. We were in Nicaragua, '84, working with the CIA.” I said and Butcher furrowed his brow. “CIA?” He said, confused, and I nodded. “Who was the case officer?” Butcher asked me and I had to think. “Oh, fuck, what was her name….uh, Grace? Uh, Grace...Grace Mallory, that’s it!” I said, snapped my finger, and Butcher looked surprised by this.

”Judging by the look on your face, I’m guessing you know her?” I asked him. “Yes, yes, I do.” He said, determined, and he gets up from his chair. “Thank you for the drink and the talk. As promised, I will leave you be.” Butcher said and he leaves the kitchen then walks out the front door of my house.

I let out a sigh of relief and run my hands over my eyes. “What a fucking day.” I grumbled.

That night, I was cleaning up Ben’s old shield as I had the TV playing, which is broadcasting Homelander’s birthday. I didn’t really give a shit but I needed something playing in the background. “So let's give it up for Starlight and the man of the hour himself, Homelander!” A-Train said, who was wearing this colorful version of his old suit. I guess from the colors he is representing Africa; which from what Maeve told me about him, he is the last person to do something like this.

Music plays and cheers were heard as Starlight and Homelander go on stage as Homelander and A-Train shake hands then he leaves. “Wow, I'm so honored to be with you guys tonight to celebrate my dear friend and mentor Homelander. I'm here to do more than wish you a happy birthday, though. I'm thrilled to be announcing a project that is near and dear to my heart.” Starlight said and I snort as her saying Homelander is her mentor.

Yeah, I bet he is. I thought as I finished polishing the shield then look up at the TV.  “The Starlight House is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping homeless and at-risk youth.” Starlight starts to explain until a voice shouts. “Hey, Homelander! Your Nazi died!”

”Well, damn.” I muttered as the crowd murmurs. “Homelander...He's just, he's a human. He's just like the rest of us. And we all make mistakes, right? But we all deserve second chances. In that spirit, Homelander has agreed to donate $10 million...” Starlight said then she laughs softly. “…to the Starlight House, which is, I mean...” she said and there was applause then Homelander says. “No.”

”Give...Come on. Give it up.” Starlight said as Homelander shakes his head. “No.” He said. “Give it up for this guy.” Starlight said as she was trying to control the situation but Homelander looked like he was done. “No. No. No.” Homelander said and the applause stops and the crowd goes quiet. “Starlight lied to you just now. She did. I don't make mistakes. I'm not just like the rest of you. I'm stronger. I'm smarter. I'm better. I am better. I'm not some weak-kneed fսcking crybaby that goes around fսcking apologizing all the time. And why the fսck would you want me to be?” Homelander said then he looks straight at the camera.

“Don't you dare stop rolling, Roger!” He shouts and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This man is losing his mind. “All my life, people have tried to control me. My whole life. Rich people, powerful people have tried to muzzle me, cancel me, keep me impotent and obedient, like I'm a fսcking puppet. You know what? It worked. Because I allowed it to work. And guess what? If they can control me, then you can bet your ass they can control you. They already do. You just don't realize it.” Homelander said and I nod a bit as I was kinda agreeing with him there.

”I'm done. I am done apologizing. I am done being persecuted for my strength. You people should be thanking Christ that I am who and what I am, because you need me. You need me to save you. You do. I am the only one who possibly can. You're not the real heroes. I'm the real hero. I'm the real hero.” He said and the whole place stays silent and I shake my head. “And you lost me, crazy asshole.” I muttered and I shut my TV off.

@winchestergirl1720 @deans-spinster-witch @mimaria420 @wirdbeimaufhebengebunden @kitsun369 @jesllianaquilesrolonsworld @deangirl96 @demodemo909

[matttgirlies]

Matt & Me🎀

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

a story heavily based on Priscilla Presley’s Book “Elvis & Me” based in the 1950’s - 1970’s.

fem! reader x singer! matt

disclaimer!! - in no way am i saying matt would ever support or do these kind of things, for the sake of the book certain unethical things do happen at times.

warnings - age gap,, sexual references

y/nn = your nickname for anyone confused🩷

Chapter 5

For the next two days I locked myself in my room, unable to eat, unable to sleep. Finally my mother said, “This isn’t going to help. Moping around here isn’t going to bring him back. He’s gone. He’ll be getting into his new life, and so should you.”

I forced myself to go to school and found myself swamped by photographers and reporters who were calling me “the girl he left behind” and barraging me with questions.

“How old are you, Miss y/ln?”

“I’m, uh—”

“Your records show you’re only in the ninth grade.”

“Well, ah, yes, that—”

“How long have you known Mr. Sturniolo?”

“About  . . . just a few months.”

“What is your relationship with him?”

“We’re  . . . just friends.”

“Has he called you since he returned?”

“No, but—”

“Did you know he’s seeing Madison Beer?”

“What?”

“Madison Beer.”

Suddenly feeling sick, I excused myself and left.

Each day there were calls from the United States, with offers of first-class round-trip tickets for me to appear on TV. I declined these as well as offers from top European magazines requesting interviews and photo sessions. Letters poured in from lonesome GIs all over the world. I had attracted their attention, perhaps as a soldier’s sweetheart. I also received letters from Matt’s fans, some friendly and some disheartened that maybe they had lost him.

Days passed into weeks and I became more and more resigned to the fact that Matt was now dating Madison Beer and had completely forgotten me. Twenty-one days after he left, the phone rang at three o’clock in the morning. I jumped out of bed, ran to answer it, and heard his wonderful voice.

“Hi, Baby. How’s my Little Girl?”

“Oh, Matt, I’m fine,” I said. “Only I miss you so. I thought you had forgotten me. Everyone was saying you would.”

“I told you I’d call, y/nn,” he assured me.

“I know, Matt, but there were photographers here and reporters and they kept asking me questions, and—oh, Matt, is it true you’re seeing Madison Beer?”

“Hold it. Hold it! Slow down,” he said, laughing. “No it’s not true that I’m seeing Madison Beer.”

“But they said you were.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear, Little Girl. You’ll find people trying to stir up trouble, just to make you upset. She’s a friend, Baby, just a friend. I’m appearing on her father’s show, and it was all set up for her to be here at my press conference when I returned to the States. I miss you, Baby. I think about you all the time.”

After that first phone call, I spent all my time writing and rewriting letters to him, but he never wrote back. Then one day he called, sounding very excited.

“I’m leaving for California in two days, Baby. I’m starting my first movie since the Army.”

All I could think about was whether he’d fall in love with his costar. As casually as I could, I asked, “Who’s your leading lady?”

Matt burst out laughing. “You don’t have to worry, Baby, I haven’t met her yet, but I hear she’s real tall. Her name’s Juliet Prowse. She’s a dancer and she’s engaged to Frank Sinatra.”

Relieved, I asked, “What’s the name of the film?”

“Wouldn’t you know it,” he answered, “G.I. Blues. I think it’ll be pretty good. I’m a little concerned that there are too many songs in it, but I think it’ll work out. It had better, or I’ll have a few choice words to say.”

A few weeks later Matt called again. His enthusiasm for G.I. Blues had turned to bitter disappointment.

“I just finished looping the goddamn picture,” he said dejectedly. “And I hate it. They have about twelve songs in it that aren’t worth a cat’s ass,” he said angrily, and then added, “I just had a meeting with Colonel William about it. I want half of them out. I feel like a goddamn idiot breaking into a song while I’m talking to some chick on a train.”

“Well, what’d the Colonel say?” I asked.

“Hell, what could he say? I’m locked into this thing. Already been paid,” he complained. “They seemed to think it’s wonderful. I’m goddamn miserable.”

“Maybe the next one will be better,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, starting to calm down. “The Colonel’s requested better scripts. It’s just this is my first film since I’ve been back and it’s a joke.” There was a long pause as static filled the line. Finally Matt said, “I gotta go, y/nn, and I can barely hear you. I’ll call you soon, be good, I love you.”

I was living in a state of suspended life, waiting for Matt’s infrequent calls. There was never a pattern to them. He would phone out of the blue after three weeks—or three months. He always did most of the talking, chatting about his current film or his costar. Occasionally, he’d talk about Nicole, saying their relationship wasn’t what he had expected when he returned from the Army. He was no longer sure he wanted to be with her. I didn’t know where I stood. Time and distance had created doubts and questions; I wanted to ask him, “Where do I fit in your life? Or do I?”

Matt was still mentioning that he really wanted me to see Graceland, especially at Christmas, when it was its most beautiful. He said I’d meet Pauline, the maid. Matt called her Pauline VO5. He laughed and said, “I’ll tell her, ‘O Five, I’ve got a little girl I want you to meet.”

This gave me some hope of a future. I wanted to believe him when he said he still cared for me. But during the periods when I did not hear from him, I couldn’t help but doubt that I would ever see him again. I heard his latest hit record, “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” and felt sure that he’d fallen in love with a girl named Marie.

That summer, Paul Anka was on a European tour. He was to make a guest appearance at a nearby Air Force facility in Wiesbaden. I slyly arranged for my mother to drop me off at the time specified for his arrival. My intentions, unknown to her, were highly contrived and they had to do, strictly, with Matt. I wanted to ask him if by chance he knew Matt and if Matt had ever mentioned me. But when he got out of his car he was surrounded by fans, and I was too shy to push through the crowd to speak to him.

I gleaned every bit of news about Matt that I could. I listened constantly to the overseas radio and scanned every article in The Stars and Stripes newspaper. But each story about Matt I read only upset me all the more. Besides Nicole, he seemed to be romantically linked with many beautiful young starlets in Hollywood—Tuesday Weld, Juliet Prowse, and Anne Helm, among others.

I wrote him: “I need you and want you in every way and, believe me, there’s no one else  . . . I wish to God I were with you now. I need you and all your love more than anything in this world.”

It was a cold, snowy day in March 1962, nearly two years since Matt had left Germany. In the late afternoon, I received a call from him. It had been months since we last spoke.

“I’d like to make arrangements for you to visit me in Los Angeles,” he said. “Do you think we can work it out?”

Stunned, I blurted, “What? I’m not sure. Oh God, I wasn’t expecting this. It’s going to take some time, some planning.”

I didn’t think my father could ever be persuaded to let me go. There were several phone calls with Matt trying to say all the right words to please my parents. I had separate talks with my mother, hoping she’d help me convince Dad.

Once again Matt met every one of Dad’s demands: that we wait until I was out of school for the summer, that Matt send me a first-class round-trip ticket, that he send my parents an exact itinerary of my daily activities for the two weeks I’d be in Los Angeles, that I be constantly chaperoned, and that I write my parents every day.

The next few months might as well have been years. I marked off each day on the calendar until we would be together.

Los Angeles

When the plane landed in Los Angeles, I found the terminal bustling with vacationing students. But I easily spotted Nate Doe, who was still working for Matt.

It was good to see Nate. His big smile and warm embrace were comforting. I loved hearing him tell me I looked great. I didn’t think I did. The last time Matt saw me, I had been fourteen years old and five pounds lighter. I was afraid that he might be disappointed when he saw me, that he might send me home the next day.

I got my first glimpse of Los Angeles when we drove in from the airport. It was beautiful, a far cry from the drabness of postwar Germany. As we passed the MGM studios in Culver City, Nate said, “That’s where Matt films most of his movies.” Soon we were speeding along the legendary Sunset Strip and through the large wrought-iron gates of Bel Air. I was entering a world I’d never experienced. Every home along the winding road seemed grander than the one before.

We turned in at Matt’s house on Bellagio Road, a large home modeled after an Italian villa. We were greeted by Matt’s butler, who introduced himself as Arnold and said, “Mr. S is in the den.” As we walked through the door, I could hear loud music playing and people laughing. Nate led me downstairs.

Before entering, I took a deep breath. The years of waiting were now over.

In the dim light I saw people lounging on a couch and others standing over a jukebox, selecting songs. Then I spotted Matt, dressed in dark trousers, a white shirt, and a black captain’s hat. He was leaning over a pool table, ready to make a shot. I wanted to run to him, but this roomful of people was not the setting I had dreamed of for our first meeting. I continued to stand there, watching him.

He looked up and saw me and after a slight pause his face lit with a smile. “There she is!” he shouted, throwing down his cue stick. “There’s y/n!”

He made his way over to me, picked me up in his arms, and kissed me. I held onto him for as long as I could—until he put me down. “It’s about time,” he said, joking. “Where have you been all my life?”

Aware that every eye in the room was on us, I was uncomfortable and embarrassed. I quickly wiped the tears from my face before anyone noticed. Matt took my hand and introduced me around, and then we sat down together.

“Baby, I’m so glad you’re here,” he kept saying. “I can’t wait to show you around. You’ve grown up. You look great. Let me look at you. Stand up.”

As his eyes surveyed me, I became increasingly self-conscious, and I didn’t want him looking too long. He might find flaws.

He looked terrific, although I was surprised to see that the brown hair he’d had in the Army was now dyed black. He looked thinner, happier.

“Don’t go away,” he said. He kissed me lovingly, then returned to the pool table to finish his game. The night seemed to go slowlytoo slowly. While Matt continued his game a few of the girls eased their way over to me and started talking. They said Matt threw parties almost every night.

Hearing this and watching him as the night progressed, I felt out of touch with his new life, even though the girls told me he talked about me often and even showed my pictures around.

Playing pool, Matt laughed and joked around, and when one of the girls bent over the table to attempt a shot, Matt poked her in the backside with his pool cue. She shrieked in surprise and everyone laughed,everyone except me. I couldn’t help noticing that there had been a slight change in Matt. He’d left Germany a gentle, sensitive, and insecure boy; through the course of the evening I’d see that he now was mischievous and self-confident to the point of cockiness.

He also seemed quick to anger. When a girl cautioned him to watch out for a glass that was perched precariously on the edge of the pool table, he shot her a dirty look, as if to tell her, “Move the glass yourself.”

I felt a surge of uneasiness. I was unsure of what to do or say. Between shots he’d come over and give me an affectionate kiss, ask if I was all right, and then move back for his next shot. Meanwhile, the curious stares of his female admirers never left me.

It was after 12:30 a.m. when Matt finally sat down next to me. Now it was like the old days in Germany: He was suggesting that we go to his bedroom. “Up the stairs, the first door to your right,” he said. “The lights are on. I’ll be right up.” I started to rise. “Wait a few minutes, until I get up and leave,” he said. “That way it won’t look so obvious.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked that. I knew he was protecting me, but there were so many pretty girls around, I wanted to make sure everyone knew he was mine—at least for as long as I was here. I’d waited too long to be discreet. I got up, stretched a little, and politely said good night to everyone, hoping they would know exactly where I was going.

I ran up the stairs and easily found Matt’s bedroom. How different it was from his ordinary-looking quarters in Germany. I never imagined him living in such luxury—thick carpets, exquisite furnishings—but the room had a welcoming, lived-in feeling.

And then my eyes fell on the king-size bed in the middle of the room. I immediately thought of how many women might have slept there  . . . whose bodies he had embraced. . . and even worse, whose lips had passionately pressed his and driven him to ecstasy. I couldn’t think about it anymore.

I walked over to the French doors, which overlooked the driveway, and saw Matt’s guests exchanging good nights as they got into their cars. Knowing he’d probably be coming up soon, I rushed into the large adjoining bathroom.

Within ten minutes, I had jumped in and out of the bathtub, combed my hair, brushed my teeth, and dusted my entire body with some powder I’d found in the medicine cabinet. I put on my favorite blue pajamas and stood motionless before the door leading to the bedroom. I was so apprehensive that I was unable to open the door. This was the moment I had both longed for and feared. I sat down on a chair and remembered that when I’d been fourteen, Matt had said that I was “too young.” Now that I was sixteen I tried to imagine just what this new Matt, who I hardly knew at all, might be expecting of me.

About fifteen minutes later, I heard him as he opened the bedroom door, yelling down to his cousin, Billy Smith, who also worked for him: “Don’t let me sleep later than three tomorrow, Billy.” Then I heard him close the door, lock it, and call out, “Where are you, Baby?”

“I’m in the bathroom,” I shouted. “I’ll be just a few more minutes.”

“Don’t take too long. I want to see my girl.”

I still couldn’t move.

He called again: “What are you doing in there, y/nn? No one takes this long to get ready for bed.”

It was the moment of truth: Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and walked out. Matt was lying on the bed, facing me. I walked slowly toward him, climbed into the bed, and lay down next to him. Our faces were only inches apart. It was such an unexpected moment of tenderness that I was mesmerised looking into his eyes. We lay there for what seemed like a long time, staring at each other until our eyes filled with tears.

Matt softly touched my face. “God,” he whispered. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you. You’ve been an inspiration to me. Don’t ask me why, but I haven’t been able to put you out of my mind since I left you in Germany. It’s been the one thing that’s kept me going.”

I couldn’t hold back any longer: Tears streamed down my face. Matt took me in his arms and held me close, but I couldn’t get close enough. If I could have gotten inside him, I would have.

“It’s gonna be all right, Baby. I promise you. You’re here now and that’s all that matters. We’ll have a good time and not think about you going back.”

As we lay in the dim light, he soon discovered that I was still as untouched as he’d left me two years before. Relieved and pleased, he told me how much this meant to him. It was as if every feeling I had as a woman began to emerge, and I began kissing him passionately. I wanted him—I was ready to submit entirely to him. He returned my passion. Then, abruptly, he stopped.

“Wait a minute, Baby,” he said, speaking softly. “This can get out of hand.”

“Is there anything wrong?” I was fearful that I wasn’t pleasing him. He shook his head, kissed me again, then gently put my hand on him so I could feel for myself just how much he desired me, emotionally and physically. He pressed his body to mine and it felt wonderful.

“Matt, I want you.”

He put his finger to my lips and whispered, “Not yet, not now. We have a lot to look forward to. I’m not going to spoil you. I just want to keep you the way you are for now. There’ll be a right time and place, and when the moment comes, I’ll know it.”

Although confused, I wasn’t about to argue. He made it clear that this was what he wanted. He made it sound so romantic, and, in a strange way, it was something to look forward to—just as he had said.

Later that night he told me that I had to stay with friends of his, George and Shirley Barris. Although I protested, Matt said, “I don’t want to go back on my promise to your father. Besides, if he found out you were staying with me, he’d make you go right home.” It didn’t make any sense, but I got out of bed and Matt had Nate drive me over to the Barrises’ house, where I would spend the night. Reluctantly.

Later I found out through one of the wives whom I had befriended the reason for my spending that first night with George and Shirley. Apparently Nicole had been sent back to Boston the day before, and Matt was taking precautions to avoid any awkward situations for himself that might have resulted from late-night phone calls.

Excerpt from: "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Scribd.

This material may be protected by copyright.

a/n - longer chapter to make up for the last shorter one🩷

[spicywhenspeaking]

If I'm There: Chapter Twenty-One

when you realize the significance of the monkey (∩˃о˂∩)♡

read from part one here!

summary: Noah and Natalie met in high school and developed a relationship through their love of music and art. Falling in love, innocent and young, they think nothing can keep them apart. However, sometimes in the pursuit of your dreams the things we love the most get left behind.

this is a complete work of fiction, some characters while based on real people are totally made up. :)

word count: 3.6k , edited by me ....soooo if you see something spelt wrong no you didn't.

taglist : @lma1986 @cookiesupplier @notingridslurkaccount @blackveilomens @thisbicc @laurpartyprogram @concretenoah @thebadchic @jessitpwk @madomens @samanthasgone @myownthoughts12

I picked up Erin from Ashely’s house at around 10 am the following morning. I don’t think anything will ever compare to her seeing me and running with excitement into my arms for a big hug. I just hope she still feels that way later today when I tell her about Noah.

“I missed you Mom!” she calls out and I pick her up and swing us around in a circle. “Oh my sweet girl, I missed you so much!” I tell her and kiss all over her cheeks and the top of her head. We finish gathering her things and thank Ashely and her mom again before we eventually get into the car and head off to begin our girls’ day. “So nails first or food? How are you feeling?” I ask as I turn on the radio and begin backing out of the driveway. 

“FOOD! Please! We only had cereal for breakfast and you know I need more than that.” I laugh because I know exactly that. My girl can eat! “Okay, so first food and then nails!” I say, then reach over to turn up the radio when I hear “Dancing Queen” by ABBA come on. We sing our hearts out on the drive to our favorite breakfast spot near our house. We sit in our regular corner booth by the back window. I order a coffee and a full stack of pancakes with eggs and bacon. Erin orders an orange juice and the same amount of food and I know she’ll finish it all. She recaps me on the last two days and all the fun she had with her friend, “but I missed you and Hales a lot. I’m happy to be back home now.” she says stuffing a huge piece of pancake into her mouth. “I’m happy you’re home too little bug, but why don't you take smaller bites? I don’t need you choking thirty minutes after getting you back.” She smiles with her mouth full of food, “okay” her muffled voice comes out and I can’t help but laugh. 

With breakfast finished the two of us head to the nail salon and I decide we should really pamper ourselves and we get the deluxe mani/pedi package. The salon I like plays old MTV music videos on big TVs all around the room. The sound of Paramore while my feet soak in the soothing heat and the massage chair digs into my back puts me into a state of complete relaxation and I find my mind wandering. Stuck on a moment from the night before, Noah and I sitting together on the couch and our almost kiss. If things were different, if we lived in an alternate universe and it wasn’t ten years later I would have closed the distance and would have let myself be sucked into his gravity. He has everything he wants now, his music, his band, it’s what he left to find ten years ago.

I look over at Eric who’s set the chair to the back-patting setting that has her voice bouncing “Ah, ah, ah, m-o-o-m, d-o-o-o I s-o-u-n-d w-e-i-r-d.” the smile that breaks across my face is full of love as I take in the beautiful girl in front of me. “You sound perfect baby,” I say and ruffle her hair softly. The rest of our appointment goes by in a relaxing daze. We laugh while Erin tells me about her last two days. We finish up and I mentally prepare myself for the conversation we are about to have. I am going to tell her about Noah. I just hope she doesn’t hate me afterward. 

We get back to the house and she rushes into her room to unload her dirty clothes and reunite with the stuffed animals she had to leave behind. “Fluffy! I never want to be separated again!” I hear her exclaim from outside of her room. Before talking to her I head into my room and open my closet door, I’m looking for a certain shoe box. “Where the hell is it?” I ask myself, “Ah ha!” It’s nestled deep into the corner hiding under the Carhart hoodie I borrowed from Haylie who stole it from who knows. I take a deep breath and lift the lid of the box. On top are several photos of me and Noah, some of the two of us, and Nicholas as well. Wadded up in a tight ball is the Bring Me The Horizon shift Noah gave me all those years ago. There’s also a CD, some random ticket stubs, drawings, and more pictures at the bottom. I decide to just take the whole box and head towards Erin’s room.

Knocking on the door I hear a soft, “Come in!” I walk into her room and see that she’s decided today is the day she’s going to reorganize her bookshelf. 

“Hey sweety, can I talk to you about something?” I ask and try to hide the nervousness in my voice. “Umm yeah, is everything okay? You sound weird.” So I didn’t do a great job at hiding it. “Yes, everything is okay. There’s just something that I need to talk to you about. Something important.”

Two lines appear between her eyebrows and her face contorts in confusion. “Is this an I can keep working and listening important or do I need to sit next to you on the bed?” she asks and I pat a spot next to me on the bed to wordlessly answer her question. “Oof, okay,” she whispers out and climbs next to me on her bed.

“You remember how I told you that I got pregnant when I was still in high school but my boyfriend and I had already broken up?” she continues looking at me with confusion all over her face but nods slightly, “Yeah, I remember. You said you two never saw each other again.” I take her hand and smile, trying to fight the tears in my eyes.

I open the box and hand her a picture of Noah and I. “His name is Noah. This is your father.” She takes the photo and looks back and forth between me and and younger version in the photo. “You look so different,” she says and I huff a laugh. “Yeah, that’s what growing up will do to you.” 

“Where is he?” she asks quietly looking up at me. “Well, he’s actually in town for a few days if you would like to meet him.”

“Where has he been?” she asks and that takes me off guard. I struggle with what to say, not wanting to keep anything from her but also not wanting to upset her. “He’s been in Los Angeles. That’s where he works.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s in a band, playing music, and sings all around the world.”

“Hm,” she says and I’m not sure what she’s thinking. 

“So he didn’t want me?” and there it is. The knife in my heart makes it hard to keep the food down from earlier but I push through, remaining strong.

“Oh no sweety, that’s not true at all. He didn’t know for so long. It’s very complicated adult stuff. Things that took me a long time to understand myself” I try to explain to her. 

“Will you tell me when I’m older the complicated stuff?”

“Of course baby, I’ll tell you anything you’d like to know about him.”

“Is he nice?” Erin asks in a quiet shy voice, “Do you think he would like me?”

I wrap her up in my arms and squeeze her tightly, “he is very nice and he will like you very much I promise.” I run my hand down her head, soothing her soft brown hair.”Does that mean you’d like to meet him?”

The air is still in the room as Erin takes time to think. Her small face scrunched in concentration. “I think I would like to meet him, yes. But are things going to change? My friend Brody’s parents don’t live together and he goes to his dad’s house every other weekend. Do I have to do that now?” I pull her closer until my head is resting on top of hers. “Nothing will change without you making that decision. Right now, we take things one step at a time.” she nods her head and wraps her arms as tight as she can around me.

“Would you be interested in meeting him tomorrow? He will be leaving again soon with his band so we won’t see him again for a few weeks. I can tell him we can wait if you’d be more comfortable.” I’m also definitely scheduling an earlier therapy appointment for her this week. Her head remains buried in my side while she takes everything in. I am giving her all the time she needs to process, so if she wants to wait until he’s more available I don’t blame her. 

“I think I would like to meet him. But what if you just invited him over here? So I can show him my stuff and maybe he will like me even more?” 

I move back so I can take her small face into my hands. “I can do that but I need to to listen to me now, there is no one on this planet that could possibly not like you Erin Howlston and I know for a fact that he will love you so much because you are you and you are perfect,” I emphasize my point my giving her cheeks a little squeeze. “But you have to think that because you’re my mom.” she quips through pursed lips. “And he’s your father, so by your logic, he must also think that,” I argue back and I see her eyes turned down slightly in the corner.

“But he made you sad right? That’s why you broke up when you were in high school. I don’t want him to make you sad again.” My heart swells. While I drop an atomic bomb of information about her life she’s worried about my feelings. I must be doing something right with this whole parenting thing.

“Sweetie, that was a long time ago. My heart is all better now and I’m not sad anymore. I am so so so unbelievably happy with our life. With you and Aunt Haliey, Uncle Kyle and Aunt Mags, and little Natasha. I think Noah is a very good person and he wants to be in your life because he cares about you. Even without having met you.” She gives me a small smile and hugs me again.” okay, I want to meet him. You said tomorrow right?” she looks up at me with her deep brown eyes that have always been just like his. “Tomorrow it is. I will give him a call later today, but what do you want to do now? Play? We could watch a movie? Or draw together?”

Quickly detangling from my arms she races to pick up her paper and stretching pencils, “Drawing please! I need help with the cat I’m drawing.” 

We spend the next few hours drawing together on her bedroom floor laughing and listening to music. For Christmas last year she asked for a Google Mini so she could ask it to play music whenever she wanted. Now we are listening to “The Very Best Of Otis Redding”. When she was a baby I listened to it all the time. I used to sing “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” while rocking her to sleep. Sometimes I walk by her room and she is listening to it while reading or playing with her toys and it reminds me of holding her when she was so little and how she would hold my finger so tightly.

I feel the tug of guilt in my gut about Noah having missed those moments but force it down, there’s nothing that can be done about the past but we can create new memories with the three of us together. Even if Noah and I aren’t together we can be the two parents that Erin needs. Maybe we can even be friends.

Later, once Erin wanted time alone to play with her toys I went into my room to call Noah. I haven’t been able to talk to Haylie about any of this yet, she woke up late with a hangover and had to run out of the house for the day to meet with her editor to talk about her next book release.

I close my door most of the way, only keeping a small sliver open in case Erin calls out for me. I sit on the edge of my bed and hit the green call button on my new Noah contact page, It rings a few times before I hear the sound of him picking up on the other end.

Hey! Natty, how are you doing? How’s it going?

Hi Noah, things are good. How are you? 

There’s rustling in the background of his call, “oohh is that Natalie??” I hear who I think is Folio.

Yes, shush…not you Nat! You don’t have to shush. Sorry, Folio is being an idiot.

I’m good, just working on some new remixes for our deluxe album.

I just finished talking with Erin and she suggested I invite you over tomorrow to meet. Is that okay?

Tomorrow sounds great! What time is good for you two?

How does 12:30 work? I can order us sandwiches from the sub shop in town, Erin’s favorite.

Perfect, 12:30 is perfect. Thank you so much, Natty. I won’t let you down again. I promise.

I try not to blush like a preteen at the way his voice goes almost breathless as he makes his promise to me. 

Um. so I’ll see you tomorrow then, bye!

I try to rush off the phone as fast as possible before I let myself word-vomit anything stupid.

Bye Natty, I’ll see you tomorrow, looking forward to seeing you and meeting Erin. 

A few minutes I hear Haylie unlock the door and head into the house and she calls out like she did the night before. “Honeys!! I’m home!” she calls from the front room. “Hey Hales!” Erin and I both call out.

Before I have the chance to call down to her to come up so I can relay everything that’s happened since we separated after the concert, she is racing up the stairs taking two at a time. She swings my door open, stepping into my room with a huge face-splitting smile on her face. “Sooo?? How did it go?” she asks moving closer into my room and creating the same small gap in the door before sitting down next to me on the bed. “Well, before I drunkenly barged in. sorry about that. That Folio knows how to throw them back, he’s pretty hot don’t you think?”

She has this twinkle in her eye when she says it and I laugh and roll my eyes at her. “It went well, he was a little upset at first which I wasn’t surprised by. He cried I cried, it was very emotional. He wants to meet her and then stay in Austin during their break in between tour dates.” As I recant my mind whirls and everything hits me more than I expected. “He said that he wanted this life with me, wanted the family and the happiness and the love that he should have fought harder for me, should have never let me go.” I try to keep my voice steady but I can feel my throat getting thick with emotion. Haylie wraps her arm around me and remains quiet while I continue telling her all about what happened. “And then when I was showing him pictures in her baby book there was this moment..” I slowly trail off and she pops forward and her eyes widen in surprise.

“What kind of moment?” she asks in a voice that goes all jelly-like and I manage to look slightly shameful before I tell her. That I so easily folded in his presence is borderline embarrassing, just shows how powerful his hold is still over my heart. But right now I can’t think with my heart, now is the time to think with my brain. While also considering Erin’s heart. 

“We might have almost kissed,” I tell her while I bury my face in my hands. “OH MY GOD! NATALIE !” she shrieks and I quickly throw my hands over her mouth. “Shush! Haliey oh my god, Erin will hear you!” and just like that I hear her little voice calling from down the hall, “everything okay in there?” she asks. “Yes!” “Everthing is fine!” we answer in unison and I think she retreats back into her room.

“You almost kissed him! How? What did he say? Did he lean in? How did he act after the almost kiss,” she shoots out the questions in a rapid-fire succession and I rub the sides of my temples before answering her. “Um. I guess he was kind of leaning in, he was doing that thing you know. When a guy looks between your eyes and your lips. I felt so weak. Oh my god, I almost kissed him, and then the book fell and I remembered what we were doing and why he was there and I felt so stupid.”

“You are NOT stupid! There were a lot of emotions flowing, you hadn’t had a moment alone with him in years and it’s not like when you broke up you two weren’t completely and totally in love with each other. It’s not like those feelings just go away.” she says while rubbing up and down along my back. 

“I just can’t do that with him, It’s not a good idea for the two of us to do anything that could jepordize Erin’s happiness.” I nod to myself, wiping one of my hands down my face and then raking them through my hair. Haliey and I flop backwards onto the pillows while I finish catching her up on everything that happened, including my conversation with Erin and then my phone call with Noah right before she got home. 

“You want me to clear out tomorrow so y’all have some privacy?” she asks and I balk at the thought. “No way! I would never ask you to leave your own house. Plus, you’re such an important person in Erin’s life, I’m sure she would also want you here.” 

The three of us spend the rest of our evening lounging in the living room watching TV in our pajamas. We make homemade pizzas and cookies for dinner together in the kitchen while singing along to Disney’s greatest hits. We end the night all cuddled together on the couch watching Erin’s favorite movie “The Secret Life of Arrietty” and when she falls asleep I carry her up the stairs into her room and deposit her into her bed. I gently kiss her forehead and turn on her glowing nightlight before closing the door and heading back to help Haylie finish cleaning the kitchen. 

The next day is quickly upon us and I nervously watch the clock ticking away as we get closer and closer to 12:30. I picked up the subs a few minutes ago so hopefully Noah isn’t late. No one likes a soggy sub.

Just seconds before the second-hand crosses over the 12 on the clock there is a knock on the door that causes me to jump straight out of my seat. Haylie laughs at me as she rubs my shoulders walking past and into her room. She told Erin that if she needed her at any time to just barge in and get her. I walk towards the door and Erin suddenly looks very nervous and gets up to hide behind my back. “Are you okay baby?” I ask her quietly before answering the door. She nods her head against my back and whispers, “Yes, I’m fine.” she gripping the back of my jeans but I think if she didn’t want to do this anymore she would say something, she’s just nervous. Hell, I’m nervous. 

I open the door and Noah is standing there with a bouquet of wildflowers in one hand and a stuffed monkey in the other. “Hi,” he says in a soft and nervous voice. I return his greeting with a warm smile. “Come on in” I open the door wider so he can come in and Erin scoots along with me not quite ready to reveal herself. “How are you doing?” he asks and hands the flowers over to me, “these are for you.” He gestures to the monkey, “And this is for Erin.” she peaks her head out from behind me and looks up towards Noah and the monkey. “That’s for me?” she asks quietly. Noah crouches down to be at her eye level and hands out the toy to her. “Yes, this is for you. Do you like monkeys?” He asks and I see a small smile appear on her face. “I do like monkeys. I saw some at the zoo a few days ago with my friend Ashely.” She holds out her hand to accept the offering. “Hi Erin.” he says with a warm smile, “I’m Noah, it’s very nice to meet you?” She slowly eases out from behind me and is now standing beside me and at eye level with Noah, still crouched. “It’s nice to meet you too. Even though you made my mom sad.” 

Oh, Jesus, this is going to be an interesting afternoon.

Next chapter

[sugar-grigri]

Hi there! Hope you are having a nice day! I really love your csm analyses and meta! It's specially great because I don't understand literary symbolism at all, I'm learning a lot. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on my boy Yoshida. What do you think is his role? Is he only an obstacle for the romantic relationship between Denji and Asa? In a world where every detail has a deeper meaning, why an octopus? Hope you have a great day!

The octopus trap 

I think that if I asked every Chainsaw Man reader about Yoshida, most of the time I'd be told either "I have no idea what he's going to do" or, more precisely, "I keep expecting him to do something, but he doesn't end up doing anything".

You mustn't let your hair stand on end when you read remarks like that. Yoshida is my favorite character of Part 2, yet if I were to describe him succinctly it would be in exactly those terms.

When I say not to be annoyed by these remarks, it's because they're not the result of a lack of writing, a lack of development or even a depreciation of the character, these descriptions only underline the originality of Yoshida's writing.

Yes, it's surely worth clarifying what I mean by all this... 

Let's take a look at things chronologically. Yoshida's first appearance comes just after Asa, who has just discovered she's possessed by the war demon, is unable to set foot inside her school, a victim of anxiety, school phobia and, above all, Bucky's death. 

Yoshida suddenly appears during this scene. He is also quickly associated with Asa, as the demon-hunting club puts him in Yuko's and the protagonist's group. We all said to ourselves: great, something's going to happen between these two! She's dying of shame, so Fujimoto is bound to use this to create more interaction between them.

When Asa comes across her bullies, who have attacked her locker and shoes, only Yuko comes to comfort her, and Yoshida simply fades into the background. It's strange, because it was as if he had brutally hidden himself from the progress of the scenario and the reaction he might have had to this kind of situation. Keep this in mind. 

Then Yoshida reappears in chapter 103, as if Fujimoto were accidentally placing an ink blot in the background, Yoshida simply blending into the background until he hits his target. For the reader, this creates a certain "ah yes, where the hell has he been?" situation, and the element of surprise is intensified by the fact that this is Denji's first appearance as a human in Part 2. This time, Yoshida doesn't disappear into the background, as if evaporated, he appears when no one was expecting him.

Put that in the back of your mind too. 

Then, when he tries to put Denji's goal of a girlfriend into action, he introduces him to Asa Mitaka, whom we suspect, subconsciously or consciously, to be Chainsaw Man's love interest. So we're all thinking (myself included at this point), he's surely going to be the magnet between the two! Which turns out to be completely untrue, as Yoshida brutally declares that Asa has no business getting close to Denji.

This point not only shows that Yoshida's narrative function is hard to pin down, it also proves something else: he's not omniscient. He's not, as I've read, this absolutely perfect string-puller, since it's clear that he doesn't grasp until later that Asa may not simply be a young girl obsessed with finding a boyfriend, but a possessed one who might disturb the target he's watching: Chainsaw Man. 

The aquarium was Yoshida's observation ground. Yoshida has no desire to be active, as evidenced by the telephone scene where, after Asa has been humiliated by his failure to call anyone, he shows Denji his phone, arguing that he can't get a signal anyway. Now I'll get to that line : "Do you think CSM would eat it for us ? The Death devil"

Whether it was making you believe that Yoshida is a genius string-puller, this line made you believe that the boy had something to do with the demon of death. Fujimoto wouldn't ruin so many mysteries surrounding one of the most anticipated demons so unskillfully. That's why it's necessary to interpret it differently. A line belongs to a whole, and this scene between Yoshida and Denji is not a scene that escapes its whole, on the contrary, it has consequences.

It serves to show two things: firstly, Yoshida is aware of Chainsaw Man's ability to erase other demons, which was surely reported by Kishibe who learned of it in chapter 84, proving firstly that the public hunters are now aware of this ability. Something that had never been said before. Then we come to the most interesting part. Yoshida makes it clear in this scene that they've been locked up for three days, and the cases illustrate how each of the students is dealing with their own mortality, with Haruka crying, Nobana flips out, another prefers to be physically active to keep himself busy, while Yoshida prepares to die. As for Denji, he's been through worse, and is cooler than the others.

Then Yoshida pointed out, "Do you think Chainsaw Man would eat the demon of death?" This triggers Denji's act of kindness, as he realizes that he can also "suppress", "devour" fears in his human form, by taking action. Denji has noticed that Asa is looking to be active; she's the one who offered her a date, so she's the one who has priority to receive comfort, so Denji comes to devour the fear that paralyzed the protagonist. All the more ironic given that the demon they were all really facing was the demon of famine. 

I know everything I'm saying sounds disjointed at the moment, but hang on, I need to be a bit descriptive before I connect all this.

The same phenomenon of script feinting will occur, not to make it look like Yoshida will be a love rival, a friend of Asa, the magnet between Denji and Asa, or the demon of death.

No, this time, in chapter 133, Fujimoto makes it look like Yoshida will be a great antagonist by proposing Denji's horrible dilemma of either being human and living with his family or being Chainsaw Man without it. But it all falls apart when he realizes that Denji chooses both, leaving Yoshida completely out of his depth. This time Fujimoto erases all the mystique around this character, he's not the player who moves the pieces against Fami, he's just a mediator. 

The same phenomenon occurs when he locks Denji into this normal life that doesn't suit him, placing him in Fumiko's hands, leading to one of the least "normal" chapters, chapter 137. 

I think that with all this, you're beginning to grasp a certain idea: Yoshida's purpose is a narrative feint, he's a character with indecipherable eyes for us to place all our doubts and mysteries in. The questions just pile up, and we project them through Yoshida, who answers none of them. 

So who is Yoshida ? 

The only thing I can say is that he's a mystery. And when I say this, it's not to clear my name, as nothing can be said about him, because he is written as such and should be appreciated as such. I often read that his eyes, fully black like Kishibe's, are not only perhaps a sign of kinship but also a sign of deep despair. I think it's precisely in this way that we can miss the originality of these characters. 

Kishibe is not placed in the deepest despair, what makes him so strong, what makes him still here, being practically the only veteran of the public hunters (did you notice how young the public hunters still were?), is that he has accepted and internalized the madness of the system, bows to it instead of fighting against it, but is not dominated by it as someone unreasonable would be.

Whether it's Yoshida's black eyes or Kishibe's, the latter are simply the eyes of acceptance of the system. That is to say, their pupils are no longer illuminated by that little personal glimmer, seemingly devoid of emotion, since they are simply a reflection of the darkness of the system, of what's going on through them.

Yoshida's eyes are the eyes of a mysterious system that constantly stares at the characters without responding to them. 

And now you're probably wondering, Anon:

What about the octopus ?

This is surely the most interesting answer to Yoshida's question.

When you're looking for meanings for octopuses, your first instinct is to think of mythology, isn't it? Leviathan, Kranken, Akkorokamui, the octopus is the subject of a multitude of legends, whose interpretations are intertwined, creative, healing or destructive, beneficent or maleficent, or even the subject of great divergence from the public, cute? Or monstrous? 

This follows on from the previous statement: the octopus is a being onto which all concepts can be projected, even if they are contradictory. Yoshida's narrative function is the same: we project whatever we can onto him without him acting on it.

What's the one piece of information you could give me with any certainty? The fact that he's a demon hunter, right? In other words, the only thing you could say about the octopus is the environment it lives in? No ? 

Do you know how octopuses are caught ?

Have you heard of the Japanese octopus trap? Specifically, the takotsubo? In fact, they're not really traps at all, but a form of passive fishing in which simple pierced stones or clay pots are placed on the seabed. The octopuses then enter these pots to protect themselves, using them as shelters to protect their fragile bodies. Above all, when the pots are brought to the surface, the octopuses don't even try to escape, pressing themselves against the walls. 

Yoshida acts like these octopuses, not fighting the system, but rather embracing its walls, thinking he's safe when in fact he's trapped.

Hidden within this obscure system, the octopus has no idea that it's not safe, but has headed for its own destruction.

Now the connections make themselves. The only answer those big black eyes can give is a reflection of the system.

Asa is rejected by her classmates, by this micro-society that is school? The system appears.

Fans cheer Chainsaw Man on, as society is increasingly forged around him. The system takes an interest and invites him for coffee.

As Asa is rejected after her second date with Denji, the system will only add to her loneliness.

Chainsaw Man is a being whose function is to eliminate fears? The system will remind him of this.

Is Chainsaw Man an idiot? Will the system still try to control him, even if it means inhibiting him?

What if we were to use the metaphor of the octopus trap to provide the opposite answer ? Yoshida sticks to the walls of the system.

What does the system do? It weaves itself around Chainsaw Man.

Is this such a good idea ?

[alemonyoyo]

No Country for Young Humans - Chapter 9:

Hi everyone!

Here is an actual LONG chapter for you. I have a feeling you guys will like this one :3333 ! Sorry for this chapter taking a while, hopefully the previous little nugget of lore could tide you over for the time being!

Thanks so much for the kind comments! Love you all.

NOTE FOR READING: A Parodia is a type of Cactus Flower!

Missed the previous chapters? Check out the Masterlist!

Words: 3283

Tags: GN Reader, Angst, (I don't wanna give the rest away)

Summary: Out on a bet, ready to capture your own beloved Sheriff, things get off track, and an encounter with a dangerous foe leaves more than just scars.

Chapter 9 - The Encounter: Undertale Yellow OST: 038 - Sandstorm Approaching + 069 - Getting The Thoughts Out

The whirling winds spin around you, the barrier between sky and sand breaking in the passionate dance of battle. You felt Moray right behind you, saw the shine of their rapier in the corner of your eye. 

Something launched your way, the eager panging of a rubber bullet piercing through the air.

You quickly dodged it, manoeuvring on the small path you had been led to, pulling Moray aside with you as the two of you huffed out in frustration.

“Shit, he’s gotta be just down there-” They said before dashing forward on the thin path, rapier in hand and ready to strike. 

The ground beneath you was frail, the thin path sloping off into steep cliffs on either side. North Star had led you up here, figurative tail between his legs as he ran from you and Moray’s keen approach. No wonder he brought you here, you’d have to navigate this terrain pretty carefully if you wanted to keep up.

“C’mon!” Moray yelled out over the swirling sound of the wind. Hesitantly you walked forward, quickly finding your footing amongst the stone and sand before confidently shifting into a dash, quickly meeting Moray’s pace.

You were too drunk prior to know that your bet with North Star would be a bad idea. Too hazy from the buzz of the alcohol to think such a thing through.

“You couldn’t catch a bandit if you tried!” Moray had fired out towards Star, you remember it clearly despite the drunken panging in your head. North Star had sat, offended, across the bar as you jokingly backed up Moray’s claim, “I bet if you tried to catch a bandit, they’d catch you!” You remember teasing, your face flushed.

And that’s when he had challenged you to that very thing. To hunt him down as if *you* yourself were the very Sheriff of the Wild East. With Moray as your feisty deputy, you agreed, setting off much later in the afternoon, slightly sober yet all the more groggy, to catch your beloved prey. And of course, he led you up here; the mountainous cliffs of the Dune’s upper terrain.

By the time you had caught up to Moray, a strange sight came into view. The cliff’s path split two ways, continuing on ahead you could see a row of square-shaped mechanisms.

“What are those things-?” You asked out into the thick air. It carried you worried tone over to Moray who quickly responded,

“Boulder dispensers.” Ah, of course. “Star’s gotta be ‘round here.” They continued, before directing their gaze down the other of the two paths. “I’ll go down here, you check behind the machines. Call out if you need me.” And with that, Moray left, eagerly darting away with such elegance, you almost couldn’t tell that it was only mere hours ago that they were more smashed than you were.

Now all was quiet except for the warm hum of the machines, which seemed to be off for there were no boulders being dispensed. You reached for your revolver, your precious gift from your adored prey. You were gonna catch this bandit fair and square!

Narrowing your eyes, focusing your gaze, you began the slow walk past the behind of each machine. Checking the space behind the first one, you were met with nothing but a lone cactus, choked out by the desert sands which clutched at its base. Poor thing. Moving to the second one; nothing. Third; nothing. Things weren’t looking good. You only had one machine left at this point, and you could seldom hear a sound. Maybe he wasn’t around here after all.

Checking behind the final machine, you are once again met with the quiet emptiness that subdued the air of these cliffs. Nothing! Though, this last machine has a letter stapled to the back;

“Built to order by Hotland Mechanics. Signature of Ownership: North Star.” Of course- of course your Sheriff, enthralled by all things invigorating, would have custom “Boulder Dispensers” commissioned for The Wild East. Looking closer at the machine, they sure looked expensive. And there were four of them too. Seems you have an expensive taste.

You shifted on your feet, retreating back the way you came. Seems North Star has escaped your clutches once again. That slippery bastard! He really was the Sheriff for a reason! The ground crunched beneath your feet, the hot air making your head spin, a wild concoction of drunken stupors and heat stroke mingling in your head to produce the most mind numbing headaches.

Wait- No. This was no headache.

Reaching a hand to your head, you felt a cold liquid brush your fingertips. Looking down at your hand, red and wet. Something had hit you!

Panicked, you looked around, shifting on your feet every which way. A blur flashed before your eyes before you once again felt a sharp pain, this time on your shoulder. You cried out, the stinging feeling bursting with an unbearable warmth, the blood soaking down the sleeve of your shirt, making the needy fabric cling to your skin.

You had to get out of here, lest this pursuer get the best of you. Turning to make your escape, the blur of a figure manages its way into view, blocking your only path of retreat. Looking at them from afar, they are far larger than any monster you had seen thus far. Sturdy, a wide chest, a face with draconic features covered with a metal helmet and matching suit of armour. A Royal Guard.

The monster wielded a large sword, almost machete-like in appearance. It was sharp enough to cut through you with a brief slice. 

As you contemplated their appearance, the monster failed to move or utter a word. Only gripping at their sword before they barrelled out into a charge, racing at you with uncharacteristic speed. You quickly shifted to your right, leaping in between two of the machines. The monster overshot, giving you time to dash behind them and try to escape.

You bolted out of the gap, trying to make it to the crossroads where Moray had left you; call for their help. As you neared the end of the path, you heard a crash just beside you. The monster, far more agile than they appeared, had leapt atop the machine. They had the upper ground now. But without warning they shot down from their height, brandishing their weapon at your skull.

As the beast charged down, you felt the whole world slow. Was this what death felt like?

You were wounded, wearing nothing but the flimsy clothes that The Feisty Five have gifted you with. You had no means of defence. No shield. Only a means of attack, something you weren’t willing to do.

Suddenly, you feel a tight grasp around your waist, before being tugged harshly to the left, the ringing sound of a bullet shifting you to your senses immediately. You’re safe. Safe yet tied up in the fibrous clutches of a rope, your hero at your side none other than your beloved Sheriff. 

“Get behind me.” He almost yells out, and you do as he says, too wounded to fight back atop such tricky ground. You saw as Star's eyes narrowed on his target as he wielded attacks that phased through reality. A monster's characteristic use of magic didn’t abide by the laws known to cripple the surface’s realm. The piercing attack of a magic bullet could penetrate any armour, and so North Star sent reams of bullets the Royal Guards way.

In response, the guard, expression hidden by their helmet, darted forward, sword aimed to slash instead of stab. One wrong move and North Star would be knocked off of his balance, sent tumbling down the cliff, or slashed to dust before your eyes.

Breathlessly you watched as he darted away, trying to struggle out of the rope to be able to provide some sort of aid. Your hands clutched at the ropes sides, tugging and pulling at it before you eventually had to give in and cut it. The rope fell to the floor, laying limp.

“Ah, Shit!” You heard him yell out, turning quickly and grabbing for your gun. He was injured, a deep gash across his torso that leaked dust out of every crevasse. Crumpled on the floor looking up at his enemy. The beast had its back turned to you, only now, its head was exposed, its helmet lolling on the floor beside Star.. As they loomed over him, you felt your panic set in. 

Before you could rush over to intervene, another bang of the revolver shot out, causing the world to go quiet.

You stood in your place, paralysed by the sight before you. Right through his head. Right where his brain would be- He-

The Royal Guard toppled to the floor, and Star quickly shifted away to avoid being squashed. Crying out in pain as he did, the both of you deeply wounded. 

Rushing over to him, you felt the panic well into thick rivulets of tears, rushing down your face faster than you could run. Reaching him, you got down on your knees beside him.

“Oh my god. Oh my god.” It was getting harder to see, your tears making a kaleidoscope of the world around you. North Star’s face distorted, yet from this parodic view of the world, he had no wounds. Blinking out the tears you held him in your arms, “Fuck, I’m so sorry. Star, I- You didn’t-”

“It was a pleasure, darlin’.” He smiled up at you through the pain, “I’ll be just fine as long as you can get me back home.” He managed out.

“Guys!” You heard the cheery voice yell out before shrieks of panic were felt behind you. Moray came dashing over, “Oh- oh my god.”

Before they could even ask what happened, you jumped into action, slinking an arm beneath North Star’s knees, and another behind his back. Trying to shift up from you kneel, you carried him, before Moray leaned in to help.

“Fuck, you’re injured, you can’t carry him!” Yet you persisted, letting Moray hold him by the legs as your arms shifted under his shoulders, his head resting on your chest.

The both of you made quick work of getting down the cliff, though the journey was littered with your sobs and tears. It was embarrassing, as Moray only held a terrified expression, and Star seemed to only be in pain. Yet here you were with the lesser wounds, crying out as if you had been pulled limb from limb.

“Don’t cry, deputy.” You heard him mumble up to you. Moray’s eyes lit up at the title. He had never called you that in front of the others- “It’ll be okay! Our doctor is the… the be-” He was fading, his eyes faltering.

“Oh fuck.” Moray mumbled as you both quickened your pace. The Wild East gaining in your view. 

“Stay awake Star, c’mon, please.” You said to him, trying to pull at whatever energy he had left in him, “Star, I can’t do this without you please, just a little longer.” You plead through sobs, feeling your head also grow light as you bled out of your own wounds.

You eventually entered the town square, the townsfolk that stood by all turned in shock from the sight of their Sheriff so deeply wounded. You ignored their barrage of questions, rushing Star into the hospital instead.

“Doctor! We need an actual doctor!” Moray yelled out, helping you shift North Star onto one of the beds.

The sight reeled in your head, of him splayed out on the bed, a heaved expression as he tried to fight a smile for you. You felt yourself fading, being met with the delicious pain of the floor against your temple, then all went dark.

-

Deja vu trickled over your senses as your eyes shifted open. The familiar breeze breathing its life through the open doorway composed the atmosphere of your resting place. The sheets beneath you were rough, yet they were clean. You shifted up from the bed, gaining your bearings as your head reeled in pain, your vision blurring with every turn of your head. 

“You’re up.” The sound of his voice made your heart skip a beat. He was alive- Thank god he was alive.

Turning to him, you recognised where you were, the hospital. Having been here only once prior, when you first entered the Wild East. North Star was laying in the very bed you left him in, his torso bare except for the thick bandages that wrapped tightly around his stomach.

“Star- '' You called out before getting up hastily, fighting through the blurs of vision to rush over to him and take him in your arms, being careful not to hug too hard; he had already hurt himself enough for you. “I was so worried- I thought you had died- I just, fuck. I’m so sorry.” You pulled away from the hug, looking him in the eyes as you spoke. Even after everything, he still wore his hat. Relentless.

He managed to prop himself up against the headboard of the bed, shifting his grimace into a grin; “It’s all right sweets. As long as you’re okay.” You hated hearing that. That he was willing to put his own life on the line for your own. You sat down in the bed, feeling its springs creak beneath your weight. North Star’s life was infinitely more valuable than your own. In terms of the world you now dwelled in, you’d be far more valuable dead. Far more useful.

“Please don’t do that again.” His gaze shifted away from you as you spoke, looking out into the space, contemplating nothing at all.

“You know I will.” He replied in a flat, breathless tone. Nodding, you clasped your hands in your lap, feeling the pain in your shoulder where the blade of the Royal Guard had slashed you. Fuck! The Royal Guard- They were- “I can’t say I’ve ever killed a Royal Guard before. Can’t say I’ve killed anyone before.” His tone faltered, his expression scrunched. He couldn’t help but turn away from you, and you felt the pain in his expression leak into the surrounding air. His pain becomes your own. 

You leant into him, placing a tender hand on his cheek, “You saved me. I won’t say you had to do what you did but if you didn’t- well, then we’d both be dead.” You shifted closer to him, bringing your legs onto the bed to sit beside him, bare shoulder to bandaged shoulder.

North Star nodded to himself, clasping his own hands in his lap. The silence that fell between the two of you was solemn, contemplative. North Star was no killer, for killing wasn’t just. Yet, you saw that Royal Guard topple in front of you, laying limp like a doll, gaping wound in their head. You felt him tense beside you; his shoulders shifted as his arms folded in on himself. You couldn’t help but reach your hand out to hold his, squeezing slightly as his fingers accepted your embrace.

The brisk breeze carried with it the shrill sound of the outdoors, bringing in with it an uplifting sense of safety. You had survived, North Star had survived, yet the tense sob which broke out into the quiet air shattered any sense of comfort you once held. 

He was turned away from you, yet you could hear through the slight sniffles that the tears had begun. 

“Star,” You reached over to him, poising your hand gently on his face as you turned him your way. He brandished far less tears than you had, but to your credit, you thought the love of your life was about to die.

“I killed someone.” His voice broke, rippling with sorrow. He placed his hand on top of yours, leaning his face into your touch, “And I don’t regret it.” He shook his head slightly, your hand feeling the movement on the sensitive skin of your palm. It was too painful to look at him this way, yet having nearly lost him earlier, you took every chance to get a glimpse of him. He looked up at you, eyes clouded with tears, yet he wore a smile, a hopeful smile. “I swore to myself that I’d keep you safe, no matter who got in my way.” As he blinked more tears rolled out, creating streams down the side of his face; waterfalls.

Your other hand shifted, and now you cupped his face in your hands, loving how real he felt. He was here, not a figment of your hazy mind, still drunk off of painkillers and alcohol. “Yer brave enough to handle yourself, I know that. But, I want to be there for you.” His gaze pierces into your own. He meant it. 

You wanted to reassure him, tell him you’d always be there for him. That what he had done for you was more than enough. That you loved him, that you live for him. But the words wouldn’t come out, lest you risk another sob. Your hands trembled against the side of his face, before pulling him close to yours, your lips pressing against his in an effort to show what could not be said. 

His lips were uncharacteristically soft, and against yours felt like heaven. Like the sweet relief of a cool breeze on a warm day, the warm scent of the Parodia’s rolling in the wind. At first he seemed taken aback by the sudden display of affection, and you felt him tense under your lips before his mouth accepted your own. The kiss was tender, soft, delicate unlike the battle earlier that day. And yet it was brief, over the next second as you pulled away from him, looking down with a flushed face. His own teal-ridden features looking up at your own in shock. 

You shifted your hands off of him, giving him the space to process what had just happened. Frankly you needed the space yourself. This was it. You had given it all away with little subtlety to your name.

“St-stay with me. Please?” You heard him mumble under his breath, his voice sounding different.

“I’ll stay here as long as you need.” You breathed out, relieved.

“Right here.” He replied quietly, almost possessively, grabbing a needy hand to your arm. 

He laid down on his back, and you slipped under the covers beside him. You turned on your side, as his arm wrapped over your shoulder, pulling you close to him. You leant your pounding head against his bare chest, wrapping an arm around him.

The warm air simmered throughout the hospital, leaving you both in a daze, sleep knocking at the back of your eyelids. As you felt Star hold you tight, you could hear his heart pounding. You drank in the moment, letting the sweet syrup of the kiss linger on your lips as his body, so close to yours, tethered you to this realm. It wasn’t long before you felt his breathing steady, feeling the rise and fall of his chest beneath your head.

“I love you, Star.” You whispered to him, knowing he couldn’t hear you. And then you too, drifted off into a quiet slumber.

***

“Chujin Ketsukane… He had a wife, didn’t he?”

“I believe so, lived in the Dunes, around the Wild East.”

“Ah yes, Ceroba. Can’t believe she would do something like this.”

“Head into the Wild East first thing tomorrow. Bring your weapons.”

“Will you be accompanying us, Undyne?”

“Of course. I want to be the one to catch her in her filthy game.”

[janicho88]

When It All Falls Apart-Chapter 1

Pairing- Jensen x Reader

Word count- 1,069

Warnings-Not much for this chapter. Pregnancy talk (Will last a good chunk of the story) But it's not the reader. If I missed something let me know!

A/N- Birthday Post 1. Apparently, I can't write short stories. Not that I've been writing much lately. This was a one shot, then three part, and here we are with another series. Thank you to @writercole and @leigh70 for your help with this. You two are amazing!!

Summary-Y/N Padalecki loved acting on Supernatural.  Working alongside your older brother and your boyfriend, but after ten seasons the guys have chosen to hang up the guns.  Now the three of you are moving on to other projects, but that’s all that needs to change right?  While you have moved to Austin to be closer to your family and boyfriend, Jensen is working elsewhere.  Distance is only the start of your troubles.

Series Masterlist

“Aunt Y/N, Aunt Y/N!” Tom calls for your attention.

“Yes!  I’m watching, I really am,” you tell the young boy as you set your phone down on the table next to you.

“No you weren’t.  You were watching your phone,” your nephew argues back.

“I’m sorry buddy, but you really do have my full attention now.”

With a dramatic huff, the young boy gets himself ready to run through his self-made obstacle course in the backyard.  Your brother Jared and his wife, Gen are in the house talking with your parents and Gen’s while you volunteered to keep Tom busy out here.  The little man is right, you have been staring at your phone, hoping for a message, call, anything to come through.  Giving up on it, you focus on Tom running over to the slide.

“How’s things out here?” a cheery voice questions, as its owner sits down beside you.

“Good, Tom is just about to finish up his obstacle run.  I think he is anyway.  How did it go in the house?” you ask your sister-in-law.

“Great, they are all so excited.”

“Did you have any doubts?”

“Not really.”

“When are you telling Tom?”

“Just before we tell everyone else, so another month or so.  Just in case he spills the beans.”  

“He does take after my brother in the talk first, think later aspect.”

She laughs, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle three of them.”

“Wait, you’re having twins?  You didn’t tell me that!”

“What? No.  Jared, Tom and this baby will make three.”

“Ah, I got you now.  You are going to have your hands full.”

“Definitely.  Are you sure you want to move back out soon?  I’m going to miss having you around.  I’ll split custody of you with Jensen.”

When your boyfriend went out of town for work five months ago and wasn’t able to come home much, or at all, you started sleeping over at your brother's.  That turned into you just temporarily moving into the guest bedroom because you didn’t like staying alone in his empty house.  First, he was gone to film a movie in Chicago for three and a half months, and off to Toronto days after finishing that to start filming The Boys.  You have been working on a Netflix series filming just outside of Austin, then are going to join Walker, when it begins filming in August.  At least Jensen is supposed to be home just before that.  Just under two months to go, you think. 

You try to hide it, but she still catches the slight fall of your face at her comment, but before Gen can say anything, or you can respond, Tom is calling for you. 

“Aunt Y/N, did you see that?”

“I did!  Amazing job Tom, you are getting so fast.”  

“That’s ‘cause I’m four now.  Soon I’m going to start getting as tall as daddy.”

“Yes, you are.”

He goes back to play, and Sadie, Jared’s German Shepherd, chases after.  Gen is sitting there watching you.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, just peachy.”

“Are you sure?  You’ve spent a lot of time staring at your phone lately.  I’ve noticed you seem to be a bit down.”

“Hey Y/N,” your brother calls out, “mom and dad are getting ready to hit the road.”

Saved from answering her question you jump up.  “I need to go see my parents off.”

“Tom, Grandma and Grandpa Padalecki are heading back to San Antonio.  Let’s go say goodbye,” your sister-in-law calls to her son. 

You make your way inside before she can continue her questioning.  No, things aren’t really great, but you don’t want to talk about it right now.  Putting a smile on your face you walk inside to face your parents.  Goodbyes are said, hugs are exchanged and before long you are standing in the driveway next to Jared waving as their car pulls out. 

“Mom and dad can’t wait to spoil another grandbaby,” you say as the two of you walk back inside.

“No they can’t.  As happy as they have been for Jeff and I, just wait until you and Jensen have your first kid.  You’re mom’s baby girl, she is going to go nuts.”

“Yeah, hard to say if that’s in the cards,” you mumble, but Jared still caught it.

“Jensen loves kids, I thought he couldn’t wait to have a few?”

“Yeah, I just don’t know if it will be with me.”

Jared stops and stares after you walking ahead of him through the living room, “What??  Did something happen between you two?  Do I need to go up to Toronto and kick his ass?”

“Nothing has happened, just drop it,” you call back over your shoulder as you hit the stairs and head for your room.

Gen is standing in the kitchen doorway and looks over at her husband, “what’s going on?”

“I’m not really sure.  But I’m going to make a call and find out.”

“Ah, no you aren’t.  We don’t know what has her so off.  If something is going on with the two of them, if she’s just stressed and tired, or maybe it really is nothing.  You aren’t going to call and worry Jensen if it’s nothing.”

“She’s my little sister.”

“Who would kick your ass if you made that call.  I’ll see if she’ll talk to me tomorrow.  I’ve noticed she’s been off for a few days, I was trying to give her space.”

“I could find out right now.”

“I know it’s hard, but turn off big brother mode for now.  Don’t make me hide your phone, Mister.”

“Fine, I’ll let you talk to her first.”

“Good boy, now go find your son for his bath please, while I check on my parents outside.”

 Gen leans up and gives Jared a kiss before she walks away.

Up in the guest room you are curled up on the bed trying not to over think what your brother had just said.  You can’t help the tears that begin to fall.  You’ve been with Jensen for four years now, it would be a lie if you said you hadn’t thought about having a family with him before.  He has been your rock, safe place and well, everything for so long.  You just weren’t expecting things to go the way they had.  That steady rock you leaned on had become a landslide. 

Thank you for reading!!

Chapter 2

Tag list

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WIAFA-

[joyswonderland1108]

Weird.

First of all and before anything else, good morning to me (It's currently 3:28pm for me lol) i set my alarm right at 9:00pm KST so waking up to my baby bunny is just

Today JK really said "It's OT7 for y'all bitches" love to see that, he also talked about GOLDEN and how it was a term used to describe him, like golden closet

Uhm he also said that he wrote a poem called "Golden" and spoke about the present which to him was a golden time. I can't believe he didn't mention golden maknae T-T Unless i missed that part.. But anygays, ah! Muy precioso 💜

Now the point of this post is something that i might've mentioned before but i've seen it today again and i was scratching my head. I'm not gonna mention names, i'm not gonna say what they do as to not narrow the possible search for who this is, but one thing i can say is that they're a Jikooker.

Now don't get me wrong if you want to follow solo accounts that are unproblematic, just post about X member, hype them up, without being disrespectful to other members, then you do you again i'm not going with a herd mentality the whole "I don't like this person so unfollow them, report them and block them" to me as long as there's nothing problematic then you do you.

The thing is that this person for a while now but even today has been liking and reposting very solo-ish posts, the type of posts being mad about comments asking JK to play this or that member's songs, saying that this live should've been about him yada yada, and this is just MY take, my non-solo take, feel free to agree or disagree.

The thing is, JK himself suggested to play songs, if members songs weren't suggested then other artist's songs would've been suggested, this is not the first time he puts on music on his lives and if anything to me JK looked really happy listening to the different members songs, he even said that he misses the members and this is not even the first time he reminds us that he is looking forward to 2025 when they will all reunite again, yet some people are having their panties on a twist that people talk about 2025.

You say that the live was supposed to be about him and his upcoming album and my question to you is, what in a 1h+ live can he say about an album that is yet to be released without spoiling anything? Am i missing a chapter here or did any other member talk for 1h about an album that is yet to come out? The only thing we know so far about the album is that the design, what comes in it, there are 3 different version + the WV one, there are 11 tracks including 3D, Seven Explicit and Clean version. So exactly what do you want him to tell you and i like to say that again WITHOUT SPOILING his album?

I want to also remind you that he was on Stationhead for 3 days where he took the opportunity to talk about 3D so again making him repeat the same things he said during those 3 days will just be repetitive for him. Why can't we just respect the fact that JK actually loves his members and genuinely wants to be reunited with them later and that he actually appreciates listening to their songs and the different colors they each have?

There's just too much projection here, just because YOU want him to talk about himself it doesn't mean that HE is uncomfortable talking about other things. A little reminder that JK had no problem calling out problematic comments before and even said that he is ignoring some comments, so instead of treating him like a child who can't make a decision for himself, know that if JK wanted this live to be about his album only, that is coming on November 3rd in case you forgot, he would've done that, he would've actually said that today's live he wants to focus on talking about it.

I want to take this opportunity to bring back something that had me rolling my eyes so far back i could almost see my brain. When there was talk about a world tour and people gave a logical explanation as to why it MIGHT not be possible based on JK's words, not anyone else's. Yet some people took a very solo-ish position to the matter bringing up the subject about MS and how he is still young and doesn't have to enlist right now that we can't make the decision for him when HE himself talked about the subject and made it clear that he too will be enlisting so they can all come back in 2025. (And by the way that one person liked and reposted those type of posts too..)

I don't know if people realize that by projecting sometimes you're basically discrediting a member's own words and wishes, we are here to listen to them and listen to what they want us to understand, yes i don't get to make decisions for them but YOU also don't get to do that.

Why don't you take the opportunity of using the remaining time for the album release to prepare questions you want to ask him about the album cause by then he would be able to talk a lot more about it, you can even prepare some questions for the possibility of him coming live after his KBS show later? Like instead of dramatizing every situation, think wisely, don't think with your own selfish feelings and remember that as much as you are a human and have feelings and needs, JK does too, he doesn't have to accommodate to what YOU want.

And again and again and again, JK is a grown up, i don't know how many times he needs to tell you, to show you, for you to understand that he isn't on a leash, he will do whatever he wants and if he doesn't like something he will simply not do it there's no gun pointing at his head to do something.

I don't know how do people even find time to whine when they're watching his live and seeing him happy, smiling, i find myself dumbly smiling back no time for drama, i'm just happy to see him on a lengthy live after a long time, i'm just happy to be sitting here watching him sipping on his concoctions, enjoying the music, singing, showing us his lil Tiktok corner, etc..

Please learn from him and grow tf up.

Salutation.

(I might do another post later and i say i MIGHT because this is a cultural one and people never seem to be ready to accept culture diversity --")

Side note: STREAM 3D AND PREPARE PLAYLISTS FOR GOLDEN!!!!

[watsittoyah]

Namor x Black OC

Hate That I Love you..

Slow burn, enemies to lovers, unhinged behavior, sexual content but later on in the chapter also slight changes to the gods I talk about in the story, this is all for fun and fiction.

Warnings: Possessive behavior, oral sex,

Obsessive behavior, stalking, dark Namor

Nakeya’s Pov

Age: 10

“Mother, tell me a story.” I ask as my mother brushes my long black hair. “Which one?” My mother asks. “Tell me about how the goddess Hunab-Ku.”

“Ah, I should’ve known, you love that story. Come lay on my lap and let me set the scene.” I lay down and hear her hum a sweet melody.

“It is said that she was the priestess of Talong, a kind and loving woman. But her people were dictators and ruthless rulers. The king was her younger brother and he was the opposite, he wanted war, he wanted chaos and he wanted to rule with an iron fist. If he had it his way he would have ruled all of Talong, Talokan, and Wakanda. She couldn’t stand there and watch the king shed more blood of innocent people, so instead she prayed to the gods and they had answered her prayer by giving her the flower of life. And with that she crushed the flower and consumed it giving her the gifts of controlling the water and the creature that inhabit it. Before the king could invade Talokan she had drown him and his army. She made the remaining people of Talong promise that they would not raise a hand of war to the surrounding nations. For if they did, the priestess would unleash her wrath among them. The people soon after called her Hunab-Ku, the goddess of water. She had lived over one thousand years, and passed down her gift to her child, and that child passed down that gift to theirs. And so on and so on.”

“Mother, will I be like her? Will I keep the peace among the nations?” I ask my mother. She leaned down and kissed my temple gentle. “My little one, you will do great things for this nation. For it was told before you were born.” I smile at her words and raise my pointer finger causing the water in my cup to swirl and dance on the ceiling. “I hope I will be the best priestess to this nation.” I whisper as the water forms into a flower…

🐢🐢🐢

Four hundred years later…

“Tet-uke! Ride the wave!” I tell my racing turtle as I catch up to my brother. “Nakeya you won’t win! Just go back to mother and read your boring books!” Ordain taunts as he gets a further lead in the race.

“You’re going to eat those words.” I hiss as I take a calm breathe. I feel the waves under me jump high and I raise my hands. The water crashes down on Ordain and I win by default. He comes up for air and I kiss Tet-uke on her head. “Good girl.”

“You cheated!” Ordain yells as he comes up for air. “Cheated? I did no such thing you never said no powers.” I say with a smirk. “That was implied Nakeya! I want a rematch!”

“Name the time and place you big baby.” Ordain flares his nose at me and before I could retort we both yell in pain as we hear our mothers siren song.

“Let’s go.” Ordain winces as he dives under water. I click my tongue and Tet-Uke dives down. I sign to Ordain that we don’t tell our mother that we were turtle racing, and he signs back that he’s not stupid. He won’t tell anything.

As we get to the throne room, we both kneel before our mother as she stops her siren song. “Why are both of you so winded? Were you two racing above the surface again?”

“No mother.” I lie. She gives Ordain a raised brow. “Yes, mo-“

“You snitch!” I snap at him. Our mother clicks her tongue and I go silent. “Ordain, go put on your ceremonial clothes and meet your father in the emerald room. And as for you?” My mother grabbed my ear making me wince.

“Mother, mother. Mother please, you’ll rip my ear off.” I beg. “You come with me we have much to prepare.” As I walk with my mother she lets my ear go and Ordain gives an apologetic shrug. I rub my ear and roll my eyes at him.

“Mother, do I have to be part of the dinner? I’ve never came before.” I ask her. “Yes, Nakeya. This is very important. Your father is having this dinner as an olive branch to the leader of Talokan. Our people may have been in peace for many years but there is still animosity. Now, you will put on your ceremonial dress and be on your best behavior. And Nakeya?”

“Yes mother?” I ask as we stand in front of my door. “Behave yourself. No water magic and Tet-uke stays in her stable.” I sigh defeated. “I will behave, I promise.” I say as I cross my fingers behind my back. “I saw that.” My mother says as she goes to swat my ear. I duck and run into my room.

In there I see Via smiling. “So we have to put on the corset?” She nods knowing how much pain it is going to cause me. “Can I pay you in gold to not put that on me?”

I take very small breathes as I try to breath in my tight dress. My chest seem to swell in the top. “If the leader of Talokan is blind, he is going to see clear as day when he sees me in this dress.” I mutter as I make my way to the emerald room.

I open the doors and see someone standing there, they turn as they heard me and I freeze. “Where is everyone?” I whisper as I enter the room. The person I seen was a man. He had a gold chest plate on his body, heavy emerald earrings with a matching nose piece. I look down and I see wings on his ankles.

He seemed to study me as I entered the room and I bow my head slightly. “You must be the priestess of Talong.” He speaks in a gentle tone. I look up at him and my throat becomes dry.

“You’re beautiful.” I blurt out. I see his lip twitch into a smile and I recover quickly. “How do you know I am the priestess?”

“Because your eyes are as Grey as stone and your tribal markings…they are unique to Hunab-Ku.” I feel myself blush and bite my bottom lip. “And you must be K’uk’ulkan, I’ve heard many stories about you from when I was little.”

His eyes trail down my body which only makes me bite my lip a bit harder. “And what stories have you heard, little priestess?” He asks as he takes a step towards me.

I swallow hard, hating that I can’t breathe properly. “I heard that to your people you are a god, you have protected Talokan for many years and you want to have peace like my father.”

He nods and he reaches out, moving a lock of my hair behind my ear. His touch made my skin burn in a way I couldn’t describe, but I wanted him to touch me more, I wanted him.

“You know little priestess, I’ve heard how powerful you are. And I must say your beauty in person can not be described in words.” He leans in close causing his breathe to tickle my ear. I swallow a moan and when our eyes meet, I knew he would either love me or ruin me so that no other man could satisfy me.

The doors behind us open and K’uk’ulkan moved away from me quickly. And looked past me. “Ah, my friend, I see you’ve met my daughter, the priestess.” My father says on a boastful tone. K’uk’ulkan smiles and walks past me to greet my father. I turn and see Ordain giving me a look but I ignore him.

My mother motions me over and we sit down at the long table. My father and mother both sitting at the head, my brother sitting beside me. Two of K’uk’ulkan’s guards stood behind him and he sat right in front of me.

His eyes did glance at my chest and I find myself sitting up straight to give him a view. “Don’t be such a Kaaye' dorado.” (Gold fish) Ordain hissed in my ear. I kick his leg under the table and he jerks back in pain.

Our mother gives us a glare and we both straighten. I mouth my sorry to her and I sit there listening to the boring conversation between my father and K’uk’ulkan.

“…I have many plans for this union King Odess. And to have our two nations join together as allies would not only strengthen our numbers but would prolong the life of the people. Especially if we combine our vibranium together.”

“Yes, Talong and Talokan would benefit greatly. But since Wakanda had revealed themselves it is rumored that the land dwellers are trying to seek if there is more vibranium. And they are now searching the waters. I am sure King K’uk’ulkan that you would agree that that isn’t a wise idea to allow this. Or for them to discover us. We must act now and keep both of now nations as such, a secret.” He nods in agreement with my father.

“Mm, I have also heard that there may be a device helping the land dwellers to find our vibranium. That must be destroyed. I have put my strongest warriors together and I would like to invite you and your people to join our forces on the front lines.”

“Wouldn’t that be a barbaric idea?” I speak, causing my parents and brother to give me a dirty look. “I apologize for my daughter’s outburst, I have spoiled her and allowed her to speak her mind when no one has asked.” My father says as he takes a drink.

“It is fine. I like compelling conversations. What would you suppose we do, priestess?” K’uk’ulkan asks as he stares deep into my eyes. I glance at my parents and then back at him. He nods letting me know to speak.

“I believe that in union of the two nations would be a great idea but the resources we have can help keep peace. Our people have lived over thousands of years, we have no illness. We have a way to help those on the surface. I want them to understand that the vibranium we have here shouldn’t be weaponized. But put to better use. I know that the goddess would want that for not just Talong, but for your nation as well, King K’uk’ulkan.”

He looks at me and as he was about to speak my father laughs breaking whatever words I had spoken into pieces. “Nakeya, you live in a fairytale, and I do envy that. Now king K’uk’ulkan, I would like to speak more about my people joining the frontline.”

I look down at my fingers keeping back the tears, because I know the goddess in me doesn’t like the talk of war, she wants to prolong the peace.

I hear my mother clear her throat and I look at her. “King K’uk’ulkan, I’m sure that the priestess would like to show you her gift.” She nods and I stand.

“If everyone is done with their drinks, I would like to show you all a vision I had last night.” I take a calm breathe and feel my eyes roll back. The liquid in everyone cups rises up and I move my hands to orchestrate the liquid in my image.

“I saw a nation, a nation where the ancestors would be proud.” I smile and the liquid turns into a great big kingdom. I glance around the room and everyone was in awe.

When my eyes rest on him, he was staring at me. Not like a magician, but he was staring at me as if I was the answers to his prayers. I feel my magic shift a bit and it swirled around him making sea flowers dance around his head. He smiles at that and I raise my hands to help the liquid disperse into the air. Everyone claps and I bow to thank them.

As I sit back down I hear my father call to King K’uk’ulkan. “Now that the party tricks have been displayed, I would like you to invite you and my son to talk in a more private setting.” The three of them stand and leave the room. I look after K’uk’ulkan and sigh. “Nakeya, come. Let us go do your studies.” I feel myself try to slouch as she mentions my studies to me. “Yes mother.”

🐢🐢🐢

“Finally I can take off that corset, thank the goddesses.” I say as I stretch my torso and take a deep breathe. I’ve been studying for the last three hours and I decided to take a break. Via had peeked into my room for a moment. “My priestess would you like anything?”

“No I am fine, Via. Tell me are they still talking in the private room?” She shakes her head. “No, King K’uk’ulkan has left and the our king is in his chambers with the queen.” For some reason it made me a bit sad that he left without saying goodbye to me.

Then again who am I to expect him to say goodbye to me?

“Ah, well I’ll just take a break and get back to studying, thank you Via. If I need anything I’ll call for you.” She bows and leaves my room. I sit back in my chair, bitting my thumb nail thinking about how I can get out of studying.

Tap tap tap

My head snaps to the left and I see a dark figure outside my window. I gather water and create a spear, ready to defend myself.

I peek out the window and lower my spear. K’uk’ulkan bows and I open my window. “I thought you left.” I say to him as I splash my water spear away. He gives smirk. “How could I leave without wishing you a farewell, little priestess?” He leans in and I feel a blush on my brown cheeks.

“You know the king doesn’t respect you.” He comments. “My father is a good man, complicated, but a good man.” I say defending him. “Are you sure? He dismisses your title, he tears down your dreams of peace. If you were mine, I would treat you as such.” He says to me.

If you were mine. I repeat those words in my head and feel my heart flutter.

“Treat me like a little priestess?” I say teasing. “I would treat you like a goddess. Because that is who you are. I would never allow someone to disrespect you let alone treat your gifts as if they were mere tricks.” He says as he studies my face.

I suddenly feel small in front of him and I twiddle my fingers. “Don’t do that.” I say looking down. He lifts my chin making me look at him. “Don’t do what?”

“Make me feel important. Make me feel as if I can do anything. I know the goddess is inside of me. She is strong, but I don’t feel strong.” I try to look away from him but he doesn’t allow it. “I see a strong goddess, I see a ruler, a queen, and if you’ll allow, I see you as mine. And my gift to you is to give you the peace that you crave. There will not be another drop of blood after the gathering. I promise you that.”

I swallow hard. “How can you promise me that? How could anyone promise me that?” He strokes my cheek and rubs his thumb over my bottom lip. “Because I know I can keep that promise. And you’re worth keeping that promise to, my little goddess.” He leans in and I feel my eyes flutter close, waiting for his lips to meet mine.

But the kiss never comes to my lips. Instead of kissing my lips, he kissed my forehead. “When I keep your promise I will kiss your lips. I must go back to Talokan now.” He whispers against my head. He moves back and I nod as he leaves

in the shadows.

“Until next time my little goddess.” I hear his whisper and I watch until he is gone. “His little goddess…I like the sound of that.” I say with a smile gently playing across my lips.

🐢🐢🐢🐢

“I don’t like the thoughts of you out there on the front lines, Nakeya.” My mother tells me ask she takes my dark hair and braids it back into a crown. “Mother we’ve spoken about this, father wants me to come only so I can keep anyone from dying. I should be grateful that he sees me as such.” My mother lifts my chin after she tucks my braid in.

“Little one, I don’t want you to think you have to please your father just to have peace. You can always tell him you don’t want to go.” She leans her head against mine and I close my eyes. “Mother, if this is how I can help then this is how I do so. Besides, I have these gifts. Why not use them.” My mother kisses my cheeks and calls Via over. “She is ready for her tribal face marks. And Via be sure to tell Aya that he is to make sure my children and husband don’t get caught in bloodshed.”

“Yes my queen, I will send the message.” She tells her as I sit still for my marks. In my gut, I knew this wasn’t the way. I know we could get the land dwellers away from our vibranium without hurting them. But my pleading has gone on deaf ears.

I meet my father and brother in the ready chambers along with our best warriors and I take a few deep breathes. “Ready to go see your boyfriend?” Ordain asks as he makes kissing noises. I narrow my eyes at him and flick my finger causing him to trip on water. “Hey!”

“Enough you two! Nakeya up front.” I march up to my father and he takes me aside. “How are you feeling?” He asks me. “I am fine.” He gives me a look and points to my fingers as I twirl them. I drop my hands by my sides and he gives a chuckle.

“You know your great grandfather use to do that. Whenever he was nervous he would play with his hands. He said if his hands weren’t playing together they would have caused the Talon nation to fall. I know I don’t treat you like your brother. But I want you to know you are my greatest treasure.” I look up at my father in shock.

“Don’t be shocked, Nakeya. I know you want peace but this is necessary. You haven’t seen these land dwellers. They are savages, they mind the golds of their lands and they kill each other for them. This is for the nations. This is a good thing.”

“Father, I understand where you are coming from. But I just know if we can show the land dwellers the right way, the nations could be stronger. I know it.” He touches my cheek and nods. “When we get back, I would like to hear your ideas.” I smile at him. “I look forward to this talk, father.” He nods and gives a smile. He turns and that is when the other warriors enter the room. I look past them seeing, king K’uk’ulkan. I haven’t spoken to him since the night we first met which have been a few days.

When I look at him all I want is for him to make me his. I crave his attention and I feel that he has bewitched my dreams ever since that day. I even imagine his kiss on my lips. I stare at him longingly and I feel a light shove to my shoulder and I turn to see Ordain. “Stop staring it’s creepy.”

“You’re one to talk. Akari said she’s hoping you lose a leg so you don’t approach her any longer.” Ordain scoffs at this. “She’s just playing hard to get. Careful little sister, she’s going to be your sister-in-law soon.” I roll my eyes. “Then I’ll take your leg just to protect the poor girl. I’ve seen how you look after a long nap, ugh it’s not pretty.” Ordain puts me in a headlock and I jab him in his rib cage making him yelp. Everyone looks at us and we quickly stop.

I see King K’uk’ulkan looking at me and my heart skips a beat. He looks away quickly and I wonder if I did anything wrong…

🐢🐢🐢

We were all in position. Waiting in the dark of the ocean. As the land dwellers continue with their search, I could feel Tet-uke become restless. I coo her and stroke her head. “I know, the waters do not like this. And you can feel it. Soon there will be peace. I know it.” I kiss her head and we dive under the water.

I swim with Aya by my side and we get close to the massive ship. Namora had signed to us to now do our siren song. I look back at my father and brother as they moved across the waters and my eyes land on him. He was looking at me and I feel my chest swell.

Our heads quietly break surface and our siren song rings for every land dweller to hear. They stop what they are doing immediately and one by one they drop into the waters.

I hear the warriors break the device that the land dwellers were using to help them find the vibranium. More land dwellers crash into the water and I feel calm. But that feeling lasted only a second.

Somehow some of the land dwellers hadn’t heard the siren song and started to shoot at us. We duck in the water and I click my tongue to tell Tet-uke to go under the ship.

I hum and more sea creatures answer my call. I raise my hands and they begin to slam into the ship causing it to tip on it’s side.

“Jump ship!”

“Over board!”

“Swim!”

The land dwellers scream out. Two had manage to get into an air craft, ready to leave. “They mustn’t get away to tell anyone about us!” I hear my father scream.

I open my mouth and release my wrathful cry. Causing the waters to shake. Under me I feel the slick tentacles of my greatest creation. I click my tongue twice and his tentacles shoot out of the water grabbing the air craft out of the sky.

I blow in the water and my kraken snaps it in half and eats it. I shut my eyes hearing the land dwellers screams of mercy.

As our people make sure each land dweller has drowned, I find Aya frozen still in the water. “What?” I look where he is looking and he grabs me. “My priestess, please do not look, for I have failed you.” I push away from him and I see my brother holding something in his arms.

“No, no, no, no.” I feel my entire body become cold as I see my father’s lifeless body. “Ordain, bring him to me! I can save him!” I yell. I see the sadness in my brothers eyes and I rush to him. Grabbing at my father.

I feel a pair of arms wrap around me and I let out a cry. “Let me go, I can save him! Please!” I scream in agony as I look into my father’s lifeless eyes. “Shh. I am sorry my goddess. Your father fought like a great warrior. And his life was cut short. We must mourn our fallen now.” K’uk’ulkan whispers in my ear. I cling to him and bury my face in his neck. “I can save him..” I say as my vision blurs. “I know…I know Nakeya.” He says as he holds me.

🐢🐢🐢

It has been over a month since the loss of our people and the loss of our king, and the pain still feels fresh. My mother has loss much weight, my brother is to be next in line but he doesn’t want it. As for me?

I feel nothing now. I am numb. As the nations mourn with us, I just nod, telling them thank you for coming. I don’t want to speak anymore so I excuse myself and go sit in my fathers chair in his private study.

“We might not have been close, but I’d lie if I said it didn’t hurt that I won’t see you anymore.” I say as I inhale my fathers scent. I sit there in silence take a shaky breathe.

I don’t want to feel sadness, or pain. I need to push my emotions down the furthest pit and watch them whither away and die with my people, with my father.

“I figured you’d be alone.” I jump and look up to see K’uk’ulkan standing beside me. “I didn’t hear you come in. I apologize.” He shakes his head. “No need, you are hurt and I didn’t want to interrupt….” He kneels down so that we are both eye to eye.

“I will keep my promise to you. You do remember it correct?” I nod and wipe a tear that had threatened to slip down my cheek. “I remember.” I whisper. He touches my wet cheek and he searches my eyes.

“I wish I could’ve been more help. So that you’d wouldn’t cry.” I give him a sad smile. “You know, I keep playing that moment in my head, how I could’ve saved him, or how if I had been fast enough. I know we mourn and then we let their spirits go into the heavens with our ancestors, but I am selfish. I do not want him to go. I don’t want to let this go. I want revenge, I want the land dwellers to pay for what they have done to us. I was wrong to think they could be peaceful.” I hiss.

He touches my hand and I calm a bit. “Land dwellers are nothing but a cancer to the world. When the mourning period is over I would like to propose a plan to secure our waters. But I will not go forward until I get your blessing.”

“Why me?” I ask. “The way you can control the waters to your whim, the way the creatures of the sea obey your words. I would be a fool to go against you, little goddess.” I smile at his words and he seems to stare a bit too long.

“I have something for you. In case you ever need me…” He takes out a conch shell and hands it to me. “Just blow on this and I will come to you no matter what.”

“Why are you so kind to me?” I look up at him from the conch shell and my throat dries because he looks as if he wants to take me away. “Did you know that my people were once land dwellers? I know, it’s a very shameful thing to say right now, but when my mother had passed, she wanted to be buried on her native land. So I granted her wish, a few of my people and I had walked on the land and there we saw the land dwellers. They were not inviting to us, in fact they attacked us. And so I did what I had to do. I’ll spare you the details of the massacre. When all was done, there was only one man left. He looked at me and called me a child without love, and with one strike, I had ended his life. When it comes to my people I am their god, I am K’uk’ulkan. But to my enemies, I am Namor. I am kind to you because I can see myself in you. We both want justice for our people, we both want peace, we both…”

He leans in close and pulls me in. “…want our nations to be joined together and become something great.” He whispers against my lips.

He places his hand on the back of my neck and he pulls me close. Our lips touch and I sigh into the kiss.

At first the kiss was gentle and sweet, but it turned into hunger and passion. It was as if we couldn’t get the distance between us any shorter.

He sucks on my tongue and I moan, clenching my fingers in his hair. He picks me up off of the chair and sits down, having me straddle his lap. I feel his erection against my clit and I groan moving my hips. He holds them in place and I feel him grin against my lips.

“Such a greedy little goddess. Do not worry I will give you all of me.” He says as he presses his erection against me harder. I open my mouth to give a ghost of a moan. “Shh, we must be quiet. Let them mourn while I worship you.” He moans as he allows me to pleasure myself on his erected cock. He grabs the back of my head and yanks it back, exposing my neck to him.

He gently bites and I let out a groan. “Let me worship your body, let me be your only pleasure my goddess. No one else can have you, no one else can even look at you. You’re mine.” He bites harder and I grab onto him, humping him harder. “I’m gonna cum.” I moan out loud.

“That’s it, I want your orgasm. But not this way.” He yanks me up and he knees before me. I try to stand but my knees and legs are weak. “I’ve got you.” He whispers as he lifts my dress above my belly button. I feel his mustache tickle my pubic hair and his breathe caresses my clit.

“A follower gets on their knees for their god when they want to worship them. I get on my knees for you so you can speak tongues to yours.” He lifts my leg, placing it on his shoulder and my eyes roll back as he twirls his tongue against my clit. I grip his hair and throw my head back.

I buck my hips fast, feeling my orgasm build up again. Just as he predicted, I start speaking in tongues as he fucks me with his tongue. He grabs onto my ass as he licks me faster. I look down and he was staring at me with lust in his eyes.

I stutter that I’m coming and he keeps pace making my body shake violently. I feel him give one more suck and I moan out his name, falling into his arms.

He licks his lips and leans down to kiss me. I taste myself on him and suck his tongue causing him to moan. I place my hand on his chest and I feel a shock to my body. My eyes roll back and I see K’uk’ulkan in front of my father.

It was the day his life was cut short. I was watching through K’uk’ulkan’s eyes. “They mustn’t get away to tell anyone about us!” I see my father yell. I then see a stone blade in K’uk’ulkan’s hand and he grabs my father shoulder, impaling the blade deep into his chest. The chaos of everything going on made this is perfect time for this act of betrayal. The gasp my father gave made me want to throw up.

“W…why?” My father whispered. “Because this nation only needs one king.” He removes the blade from his chest and lets it drop in the water. My father tries to hold it together. “My daughter will end you! You demon!” K’uk’ulkan leans in close to my father. “I’m not worried about your daughter, she will soon be my wife and we will rule over this nation. It’s a shame you won’t see her vision come true.” And with that he snapped his neck killing him quickly.

I gasp out of the vision and I push myself away from him. “Are you okay?” He reached out to me and I jerk back but remain calm. “I am fine, I just remembered my mother asked me to help her with the burning ceremony. Thank you for the distraction.” I turn and before I take a step he grabs my wrist and it took all my strength not to snatch it away from him. “Don’t forget this.” He hands me the conch shell and I take it. “Thank you.”

“I meant what I said, call me anytime and I will come to you.” He says as he releases my wrist. I nod and leave. I try not to run out away from him but I manage to get to my room. I throw the conch shell and wipe my lips angrily.

I keep getting flashes of my father’s betrayed face. The blooded blade falling in the ocean. My fathers neck breaking. Before I knew it I had felt my knees give out and I threw up. I wipe my mouth and I scream in anger. I just had that monster touch me intimately, the same monster who murdered my father.

Via had ran into my room and she saw me angry cry. “I know my priestess, we all miss the king.” She had helped me up and told the servants to clean up my floor. She had drawn a bath for me and I didn’t even feel the hot water on my skin.

“I’ve got it Via.” I tell her. She leaves me alone and I lay back in the water letting myself sink to the bottom of the bathtub. I make a water form of K’uk’ulkan and with a swift move of my finger I decapitate his water form.

“Your enemies call you Namor, well I’ll be calling you amongst the dead very soon.”

[jellifysh]

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things (extra!)

Or, You've fallen back in love with your ex (and his boyfriends, too!)

Ot7 x reader (fluff, a few years later, mentions of pregnancy and babies)

A/N: until I finish the next chapter of Ride With You, I'm gonna upload other stuff I had been working on <333

"Ah, honey, you're home!" Jin smiled widely at you from the kitchen, a bowl propped up on his hip. "I've made the most delicious foods for you, come sit at the counter." He said, gesturing to the shiny marble countertop. You smiled, taking a step towards him.

"But she can't eat without washing her hands!" Taehyung responded, beckoning you towards the bathroom. "Come wash your hands before you eat, dove." He called your attention towards him instead and you turned towards him, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

Before you could even say a word, your attention was pulled into another direction, Hoseok taking your hand and spinning you towards soft chairs, making you giggle. "No, angel, come sit with me on the patio."

Namjoon heaved a big sigh, standing in the middle of all their childishness and rubbing the brow of his nose. His feet tapped against the stone flooring of the department store as he scolded them. "Boys, please, we're here to get lighting fixtures for the nursery, not to play house."

"But Joonie, you can't tell me this kitchen unit doesn't look incredible." Jin said, stepping out of the model kitchen display. "This color countertop would be perfect for our house, wouldn't it?" He stepped up to Namjoon, placing a hand on his shoulder, begging with his eyes for him to agree.

Namjoon leveled him with an unimpressed look. "You try to buy a new kitchen everytime we come to IKEA. We're here for one thing and one thing only."

"I don't know, I'm with Hoseok hyung on this one," Jungkook piped up, feet propped up on the low table as he reclined on the model patio set, getting comfy on the cushions like it was his own. "I think the baby would like a comfy patio couch."

"The baby won't even be able to sit for like, four months." Jimin scoffed. "Anyways, if we're taking anything, I think it should be this rocking chair. Look at how comfy it is!" He practically melted into the chair, sinking into the soft pillows.

"We already have a rocking chair. You picked it out yourself. We don't need another rocking chair." Namjoon stated, trying his best to keep from going home with twenty more things the house didn't need.

"I think we definitely need more paint." Taehyung said, finally done messing around with the fake bathroom. "The mural we're painting is bigger than we thought, and we're low on forest green."

"Alright, you guys go get more paint, and only paint, and me, Jin, and Yoongi..." Namjoon spun in a circle. "Where's Yoongi?"

"I can go look for him," you piped up. Immediately, the boys were shaking their heads, Jungkook motioning for you join him on the patio couch.

"You shouldn't be doing too much walking, bunny, you'll put too much stress on your ankles." He chided, taking your hands and pressing kisses to your knuckles.

You stayed standing, however, rolling your eyes. "I'll be fine. I've barely done any walking in the last couple months. The store isn't that big, and I'll sit once we get home."

"Still, you shouldn't go on your own." Jimin frowned in concern, hands raising to hold your hips, one moving up to rub your belly. It hadn't been long since you started showing but it was quickly becoming obvious. You'd been holding back on buying too many maternity clothes so early, though the boys seemed bent on buying you a whole wardrobe's worth. The sundress you were wearing mostly concealed your bump, but your loves seemed to focus on it no matter what you wore.

"Once I find Yoongi, I won't be alone." You argued back playfully. You pecked him on the lips and pulled away from him while he was stunned. That was something you loved, that even after dating all these years, you could still kiss them and they would react like it was the first time. "Good luck finding light fixtures!" You chirped, practically skipping away down the aisles before they could chase after you.

You strolled down the halls, idly humming and rubbing your belly, looking at all the things being sold. It was crazy how there were so many items in each unit, it was like everything someone could ever want in a room was here. Wall mounted decorations, various rugs, you even saw small garden fountains in their outdoor section. You had to keep yourself from going and just watching the water drip, the serenity would keep you trapped for hours.

Where was Yoongi? You wondered, walking around and turning corner after corner, no sign of him. He had been very hands on in the construction of the baby's room, so you figured the hardware or electrical sections would be his most likely location. But he wasn't there, and considering the other boys weren't in the lighting aisle either, you guessed they had gotten distracted again on the way there.

Giggling to yourself, you continued on. Maybe Yoongi was by the baby furniture, where the cribs and mobiles were, he had gotten pretty hands on with the crib, insisting on making one himself, but you didn't find him there either, just more things you added to your mental wishlist.

You were quickly becoming unsure of where he was and you considered going to find the other guys and giving up, or even just calling Yoongi, but you kept going, checking one more aisle.

And there he was, by the IKEA stuffed sharks. You sighed in relief upon seeing him, shaking your head with a smile. "And I thought you were staying on task." You teased, walking up to him.

He didn't turn around to look at you as you walked towards him, just wrapping an arm around your waist when you stood next to him. His eyes were fixed on the plastic ones of the IKEA shark's, as if it was telling him something telepathically.

"Do you think she would like a shark?" He said, quietly.

You smiled widely, thinking of your baby in her crib with a stuffed shark's three times her size. "I think she would love it." You responded just as softly, leaning your head onto his shoulder. "But then again, she'll probably love anything until she's about two or three. Then she'll develop her own personality and likes and interests."

He let out a small puff of air, a sound you had come to recognize as his way of chuckling. "When you say like that, it feels like it'll go by so fast." He murmured.

"It might," You shrugged. "Or maybe it'll be a crawl. Or a combination of both. Either way we'll be doing it together." You turned your face up towards him, and he turned to look at you finally, mirroring the same soft look in your eyes.

He pressed a kiss to your forehead, his hand moving to cup your stomach. "Do you think we could have one?"

"A baby? We are having one."

"No, I know, but I mean like..." he stopped, choosing his words carefully. "One thats ours. One that looks like you and me."

"You have a long line," you chuckled, thinking of how the others had wanted the same thing. "Taehyung keeps saying, 'when we have a baby' this and 'our baby' that. And Jin is already planning to add more rooms to the house."

"I can wait." He smiled, his cheeks and eyes soft.

"Then yes, I think we can have one." You nodded, picking up a shark. "Eventually." You tucked the shark under your arm, taking your phone to call the guys and see if they were ready to leave. Yoongi took the shark from you and held your free hand, walking you towards the front. You looked up at him and smiled, phone to your ear as you listened to the dial tone. You had been surrounded with nothing but love for so long and were soon going to share it with another loving being, one growing in your belly. Sometimes you worried you would mess up somehow.

Hoseok picked up the phone, loud laughter coming through the line as they messed around wherever in the store they were. "Everything okay, angel?" He said, immediately worring over you. Even the sound of his voice coming through the phone reassured something deep in your soul along with the laughter of your loves. You knew that no matter what you'd be fine.

Because you were with them.

--

Taglist: @sunshinehobissunshine @pb-n-juju @bunnyrhe @7soulsbts @tinyoonsblog @royalchickens @urvirtualgfteehee @tazzi-baby @deathincarnation @alngelias @not-all-are-the-same @btsizlyfe @justsomoneliving @purplelady85 @just-me-and-myselfs @thinkaholicer @kookstempo @kosmicbomb @squishyturtle @fuckinglittlekitten @canarystwin @scuzmunkie @stupendousliteraturewritingoaf @sugarrush-blush @bt21chim @maries110911 @bjoriis @creatorspalace @highinhopess @little-dark-empress @onlythebest-106 @cestlabellemort @rapunzel76 @kamen-tenshi @totallynoanalien @singukieee @gingerupset @sunshinee0-0 @avadakadabra93 @lvrseok @musicismyoxygen @missinggot7 @silscintilla @jcrml @embrace-themagic

[allamericanb-tch]

you signed up for this thoughts (1)

currently riding off the adrenaline rush that was doing my final project for english literally 30 minutes before it was due. will i be pulling an all nighter? i hope not. i have things to do tomorrow. but it is entirely possible. it is currently 12:11 am on may 4th. i will be back with the time when i stop reading. ok. it’s 1:50 am and im done with chapter two. i’m tired but also im not but im going to force myself to sleep bc ill regret it if i dont. 

chapter 1

guys i need long rosekiller fic recs. this is so irrelevant but

cruel summer! i love swifties.

modern AUs are really starting to grow on me

guys i love dorcas so much she’s so cool i’m in love with her 

celsius jump scare (i just looked up the conversion and 30°C is 86°F which is PERFECT WEATHER what is regulus yapping about)

“honestly, straight guys. a mystery to regulus.”

“dorcas is almost too gay to function.” we should totally just stab caesar!!!

they’re in spain why did i think they were in australia

BARTY?!

yes dorcas you ARE a bad bitch

i’m living for dorcas and regulus friendship

lily! my love <3

remus!

JAMES POV!!! james is my favorite guys i love him so much

is james hispanic in this omg (wait yeah that would make sense if this takes place in spain…) hispanic james is so dear to me

MARLENE!!!! just a mention of her but i love marlene. so. much.

no why is he being mean ☹️ i mean i get why but james fleabag potter is the most Genuinely Nice Guy to every Genuinely Nice Guy

peter!

frank!!

hogwarts spa and resort 😭

regulus pov again!

rip bartylus ☹️

six weeks!

the tired is setting in i might just read one chapter and then go to sleep

omg black brothers reunion when??

james pov again! i’m glad this fic clarifies the povs i like that

eeee jegulus

sex wax mention

regulus pov again again! 

dorcas calling remus “tall dark and handsome” genuinely that phrase confused me so much for so long (it still does) like im just imagining them being enveloped in a perpetual shadow

what the fuck is a half british half american accent with a spanish twang

this fic is irking me, but generally all modern AUs do

“there go his plan for ogling” REAL

james pov again again!

sirius!

not lily thinking regulus is dorcas’ boyfriend

sirius is a short queen and i love him 

remus pov!!!

eeee sirius

wolfstarwolfstarwolfstar

PANDORA!!!!!!!

i love remus and regulus friendship

i love long end notes

chapter 2

“But also, he’s so freaking tired.” james being the realest ever

enemies to lovers wolfstar

SIRIUS BEING 5’5 i love it

regulus pov! 

oooooo

jegulus is jegulusing

i have to pee SO BAD rn omg

eee james pov

oh me oh my 

remus pov! 

dorcas!!!!!

regulus pov again 

chapter 3

i am back many hours later (i am driving to prom) (don’t worry i am not the one driving)

excited for this one

i have no idea what the work aspect of this fic is about

STOP DONT CALL SUNSCREEN CREAM AHHH

“i’m weird. i’m a weirdo. i don’t fit in. i don’t want to fit in.” 

platonic prongsfoot ❤️‍🩹

“i want to be marlene when i grow up” REAL

i hate the way paraphernalia is spelled so much

dorlene!!!!!!

marlene 😭 i love her so much

ew stop saying tall dark and handsome it’s so wattpad

dorlene is dorlening

i think regulus is going to stumble upon sirius rn

I KNEW IT AHHH

and he’s running away

AH james

jegulus is jegulusing

oh my god

this is so wattpad and im living for it honestly

“hello brother” BAH STOP

regulus having a canis major tattoo ❤️‍🩹

chapter 4

i stopped reading and it is now one more day later

james is so. james.

“Grumbling under his breath, he connects his phone via Bluetooth and finds his one sad playlist. It exists for emergencies only, but he thinks this qualifies.” HELP

regulus has been found 

jegulus jegulus jegulus

james 😭 

regulus having a peanut allergy

jamessss whyyyy ☹️

barty jump scare

stoppppp omg ew

lily!!!!!

pandora!! i love her so much

🎶you look like stevie nicks🎶

pandalily ?! eat. 

i love pandora so much omg

greyback ??

james and sirius 

chapter 5

what is 1700 in normal time

sirius leaving the note for regulus ❤️‍🩹 

remus “i can’t fucking stand you” lupin and sirius “you’re welcome to kneel” black

dorcas!

arepas mmm

dorcas!

PLEASE barty and regulus texting i can’t with them

i lpve moonwater

chapter 6

dinner ahhh

beer is literally just bread soda

james is such a mom friend

midnights !!!!!

NOAH KAHAN !!!!!

sirius has excellent music taste

jegulus ahhh

peter 😭 i love him so much

stop this is giving me the ick

WHAT THE F

i’m eating this enemies to lovers wolfstar up please they need to kiss so bad

jegulus

chapter 7

regulus just pining

yes sirius you’re absolutely right lost the breakup IS a banger

MATILDA IS NOT A SKIP

omg is it called you signed up for this bc of the maisie peters song. 

“There are only two reasons Sirius will get out of bed before eight am. Mortal peril or good waves.”

sirius and remus alone together ?!

KISS ALREADY

AHHHHHHH

wolfstar is wolfstaring

oh they’re really going at it

yeah that was really. hmm. i mean good for them honestly but

“Remus’ mouth twitches, then he looks at Sirius, who is trying very hard to avoid his gaze for some reason. It’s odd, and Regulus doesn’t like it. Did they have a fight or something?” yeah or something

sirius and regulus ☹️

marlene 😭 icon as always

james!

yay i love dancing

regulus being regulus (pining after james)

chapter 8

oh? hanky panky in this chapter ?!

no hablo español

regulus calling james mr darcy

THE HAND FLEX SCENE yes it is a classic

mcdonald’s so america core

james carrying an epipen for regulus ❤️‍🩹

omg they’re going dancing

james respectful king

omg daddy yankee mention we used to listen to his songs in middle school spanish class 

jegulus is jegulusing omg

sirius pov 

eeeee wolfstar happenings

moonwater friendship <3

CANNON FODDER 😭

chapter 9

lily!!!!!

pandora ?!

i love lesbian lily

pandalily!

keeping it platonic my ass

yeah inside joke. sure.

“If Mary finds out he took Remus into the staff corridor, she’ll neuter him” 😭😭

wow this author just loves the phrase “kisses their teeth”

i love sirius and regulus

BAH REGULUS AND THE TAYLOR REFERENCES i love him so much

regulus having no friends his whole life he’s just like me fr

james you menace

STOP SAYING CREAM IM BEGGING YOU

“While Regulus is having a small, private crisis” that’s one way to put it

i really don’t like barty in this which is sad for me because i love barty

“Do you really want to faint in front of Sirius like you’re a Victorian lady?”

what are they doing

please stop saying “#/10 would ___” it’s so millennial 

i was gonna stop here but i think i will read one more

chapter 10

hanky panky hanky panky

i love dorlene 

i love pandalily

we need more wlw centric fics if i was confident in my writing abilities that is what i would do

dorcas!! 

guys i love dorlene so much

being a multishipper is so fun bc i love marylily so much but pandalily eats every time

i love forced proximity

sirius having to run after remus bc sirius is Very Short and remus is Very Tall so real

oh they’re in the backseat now

oh jegulus

oh me oh my

THEYRE KISSING AHHHHHHH

stop i can’t believe it’s only been a week

they’re really going at it aren’t they

ew stop this is giving me the ick

ok im going to read another chapter

chapter 11

this is the last one i swear

sirius telling lily! underrated friendship frfr

marlene!

i love jegulus so much omg

i love the word magnanimous 

remus telling regulus

poor dorcas ☹️

“You’re like a pesky mosquito, you know that?” Remus groans, shaking his head. Unbelievable.

“Hmm, yeah, I guess. I mean, I’d like to bite you.” 😭😭 sirius you menace

regulus you menace

“You are a menace.” this is exactly what i’ve been saying

sirius jump scare

oh me oh my

i love pandora

oh ?!

ok reading the next chapter

chapter 12

oh me oh my

not imagine dragons 😭

hospital 🫡

eeeeee they’re kissing

wolfstar

sleepover ?!

why is this hilarious

sirius is such a menace

i love sirius and regulus so much

“Barty made Regulus feel like the world was against them. James makes Regulus feel like it’s them against the world.”

dorcas! 

dorlene ☹️

jegulus is jegulusing

ew stop this is giving me the ick

ok i actually have to sleep now 

[buthowboutno]

totally not late 15k hits post

hmm? what’s that? we hit 15k hits on ATWLP?? like, yesterday, right? mhmm? yes?

We’re just gonna totally gloss over how I’ve left y’all on a cliffhanger for the past two weeks but uhhh HERE’S SOME CONTENT PSPSPS I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTER IS COMING OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (my gf was visiting, i was too busy fawning over her to type xoxo.)

I would just like to say again that my readers are so fucking insane and talented and you guys have really been SUCH a huge support for every step of the way. It only took like three chapters to gain 5k hits!!! That’s absolutely /wild/. 

So anyways, to the stinkies that have been here since the beginning and the ones that have joined us recently, i love y’all so so much and here’s to the second half of this truly monstrous fic.

Beneath the cut: Donnie’s POV from the end of Chapter 15.

QuarkedUp: not dogging on the newbies but she may or may not have caused us to have to redo our entire experiment

BootyShaker9000: You? Not being outright facetious to someone?

BootyShaker9000: Who are you and what have you done with the short nerd?

BootyShaker9000: Follow up question, will you keep them forever?

QuarkedUp: I hate you

Donnie snorted at your text as it popped up on the screen. He caught May smirking at him through the corner of his eye while he typed a response.

“What, am I not entertaining enough company?” she asked, taking a sip of her cocoa and keeping eye contact with Donnie over the rim of her mug. May had pointedly left the matching set alone for you and Donnie.

Donnie had appreciated that with words he couldn’t begin to form yet.

“I fear there’s no way to answer this without getting on someone’s bad side,” Donnie said.

May snorted, setting her mug down and reaching for the tupperware Donnie had brought over. Mikey had made more lavender sugar cookies that he insisted that Donnie take over to you that night, nevermind the fact that you were coming over later tomorrow.

Donnie might have… left out that detail when Mikey had asked him.

“Ah, well, don’t let me get in between you and your partner,” May teased. She bit into a cookie and hummed appreciatively.

Donnie’s cheeks felt warm as he began typing again. He would never get used to May calling you his partner. Between her and Splinter, Donnie’s mind had been rife with intrusive thoughts about you.

Thoughts about grabbing your hand with his when you placed it on his knee, about sticking his face in his hoodies when you finally returned them.

Thoughts about…

Nope! Lock it down, Donatello.

BootyShaker9000: You do not.

BootyShaker9000: Would you like me to make you something to drink?

QuarkedUp: oh yes pl

BootyShaker9000: Have we reached the point in society where we just aren’t finishing words anymore?

BootyShaker9000: May and I just finished off the last of the hot cocoa, but I can make you a green tea?

Donnie got up from his beanbag and walked over to the little area where the kettle was set up, flicking it on and searching through the little drawers for the tea you liked.

“I’m so glad the two of you use the mugs I bought,” May said as Donnie pulled out the matching pair to his mug. Donnie gave May a soft smile before turning back around to retrieve the honey.

“We use them every time I come over. I think their excessive abuse of caffeine is the last thing keeping your roomie tethered to reality, if I’m being honest,” Donnie said. Not that he, admittedly, was much better. You had forced him to start limiting his Redbull intake to just two cans a day if you couldn’t have your third or fourth cup of coffee.

‘Turnabout’s fair play,’ as you had told him.

‘I’m an engineered weapon of war,’ Donnie said back, ‘I can handle a little caffeine.’

How rude of you to care about his well-being.

May cackled, reaching into the tupperware for another cookie, “That’s what they get for being an engineer. Us art majors just go insane in the poetic way.”

Donnie huffed a laugh through his nose, “How very Plath of you.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” May said. Donnie walked back over to retrieve his mug and took a long sip while he opened up his chat with you.

No new messages.

Weird.

BootyShaker9000: Sweetums?

“Has your roommate texted you in the last five minutes?” Donnie asked, setting his mug back down and tapping at his tech gauntlet to check your location.

“You’re… really overprotective, aren’t you?” May asked, but pulled out her phone all the same. With a few swipes she looked back up at Donnie, “Nothing since this morning.”

“Some might say I’m paranoid within reason,” Donnie said, focusing his full attention to his tech gauntlet. He tapped on your icon showing your location and pulled up your health stats. Heart rate slightly elevated, but nothing else too concerning, “My concern is backed up with years of empirical data and, for lack of better words, gut feeling.”

“I can refer you to some resources on campus for your anxiety, you know,” May said. She looked concerned, but Donnie just waved her off.

“Still not a student, but thank you.”

Donnie’s gauntlet started beeping obnoxiously, startling both of them. Donnie’s heart stopped when he saw the familiar notification on the screen.

“Something happened,” Donnie said, engaging his jetpack and taking off immediately through the open window. He didn’t wait a second to give May any explanation. How could he? How could he waste any second that should be spent making sure that you were okay?

He hovered above your last known location, finding nothing but the faint scent of your body wash and acetone that you had undoubtedly spilled earlier in your lab. Donnie dropped down to the ground and tried to trace where your smell was coming from. His eyes locked on his your hoodie that was folded neatly and placed on the edge of the sidewalk.

Donnie practically fell to his knees as he grabbed it. Your phone fell out of the front pocket as he did so with a note taped to the screen. Donnie’s hands shook as he picked it up off of the ground, thumbing the piece of paper open so he could read the messy scrawl.

Othello Von Ryan,

For old time’s sake, I’ll be frank. We have your partner and you have significant funds. There doesn’t need to be any hassle tonight, just so long as you follow every instruction.

Load $20,000 worth of Bitcoin onto a USB and go to the address sent to your phone. Bring no one. Leave your weapons behind. If you try anything, we will not hesitate to cut our losses and move on.

Consider our graciousness for your years of theft to be a gift for the happy couple.

–Purple Dragons

Donnie felt a eerie calm wash over him. It was like he had retreated into the back of his own skull, only merciless logic and cold fury guiding his next actions.

He pocketed your phone and rose from the ground with the hoodie in hand. He ran his thumb over the soft fabric, his mind completely focused while he pressed call on his phone.

“Leo? I’m going to need you to listen very carefully.”

[otomefiend]

Alfons Sylvatica

Story Event: Wicked love blooming in the dark night (part two)

Chapter 3 Bitter

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

I must admit, I enjoyed Al's bitter ending as much as the premium one. As per usual, do not enter if non-con is not your thing.

~~Part 1~~

Alfons: "Oh, are you 'awake' already?"

Kate: "Wha..? Huh...?"

My thoughts gradually became clearer, as if under the influence of his smile.

(W-why did I think of Alfons as my lover...?)

(I only just met him.)

I was astonished at the absurdity of what I had believed to be true just a moment ago.

(No way)

Kate: "So you were using your powers on me...?"

Alfons: "Nice guess. You're correct."

Alfons: "When I whisper while touching the nape of someone's neck, they immediately believe what I am saying is true."

He tapped his finger at the back of his neck.

(When? When did he touch me for the first time?)

*flashback starts*

Alfons: "We're lovers, who vowed to love each other."

*flashback ends*

(...Since then?!)

Kate: "Why would you do such a thing?"

Alfons: "You didn't like it? It was supposed to be fun, right?"

Alfons: "You don't get many chances to toy with the poor robin who got lost in the den of evil."

(I was deceived the whole time)

(Thinking about it, I felt strange from the beginning, so why couldn't I even think of his power......?)

(Is this as well due to his ability..?)

The person in front of me, who was my dear lover just a moment ago, changed into a demon.

Alfons: "Look, reality is always painful, isn't it? It's much better to dream."

~~Part 2~~

Alfons: "Look, reality is always painful, isn't it? It's much better to dream."

Kate: "....!"

When he reached out to touch my neck, I hurriedly covered it with both hands.

(I shouldn't be around this person...!)

I jumped out of bed and backed towards the wall.

Kate: "Even though I watched you today, what happened in the bar and in the almshouse..."

Kate: "How much of it was true? Where did the illusions start!?"

Alfons: "What's good about making it clear for you? There's no fun, nor pleasure in it."

Kate: "I need it to better understand you. I can't do that without knowing the truth..."

Alfons: "Shouldn't you just take what you see as the truth?"

Alfons: "What people consider 'truth' is a 'strong impression' after all."

He shrugged his shoulders as if to say he had no intention of continuing the subject.

(...I want to find out the truth somehow, but I struggle to get my head around it)

In a mess of emotions, feeling sad, frustrated and embarrassed, I straightened up my messy blouse.

Alfons: "Are you going to call it a day?"

Kate: "Huh, isn't it obvious?"

Alfons: "I hoped you'd enjoy it. "

He didn't even try to put his dishevelled clothes in order, still lying on the bed watching me.

I felt more and more confused.

(How can he be so calm...I can't believe it...!)

By the time I finished getting dressed, Alfons finally got out of bed.

Alfons: "Even though the illusion ended, the sun is yet to set."

Alfons: "Shall we continue playing lovers a little longer?”

~~Part 3~~

Alfons: "Even though the illusion ended, the sun is yet to set."

Alfons: "Shall we continue playing lovers a little longer?”

Kate: "...."

As he approached me, I involuntarily stiffened and backed away.

Alfons: "Ah! So cute, like a stray cat."

Alfons: "It's okay. I won't touch your neck again today."

Alfons: "This time, let's play 'lovers' while fully aware."

I pulled my lips tightly so as not to be swayed by the soothing voice.

Kate: "...Okay. It's my today's duty, so let's have a dinner together."

Alfons: "Heh, how commendable."

Smiling, he bent over.

(...a kiss)

For better or worse, I was able to get acquainted with his kisses in just one day.

I reached out my hand and covered his mouth.

Kate: "...no kisses."

Alfons: "So indifferent."

Giving up easily, Alfons shrugged.

The sensation of his lips on my palm lingered...

~~~

The fancy dinner we had that night didn't taste good at all.

~~~

A few days later.

Wanting to know what really happened that day, I went to the almshouse,

An unknown woman calmly introduced herself as the new director.

When I asked her about her predecessor, she swiftly answered, "I can't tell anyone but those involved," and walked away.

(... In the end, I didn't learn the truth.)

(But at that time...)

*flashback starts*

(What is this smell?)

(I think I've smelled it recently...)

Alfons: "Mission complete. It was just a misunderstanding after all. Thankfully It didn't turn out to be bloody, right?

*flashback ends*

Just before hearing his words, the scent that I smelled was,

Reminiscent of the scent of blood from that night.

(To make sure...I have no choice but to ask Alfons)

(Though I really shouldn't get involved anymore)

~~~

I was rushing through the streets of London at dusk, on my way from the almshouse to the castle.

(Huh... Alfons? And...)

His lustrous black hair had caught my eye just before he disappeared in an alley with a woman.

(I'll pretend I didn't see it. I shouldn't be involved anymore.)

(But...)

(In the end..... I'm still curious)

~~Part 4~~

Sad woman: "... then, see you again."

Alfons: "Yeah... I love you."

(...?)

As soon as I entered the alley and heard those words... I felt a painful sensation in my chest.

When the door in the back closed with a bang and the woman disappeared,

Alfons turned around as if he knew I was there.

Alfons: "Meeting alone again in such a dim alley."

Alfons: "You do like to go through a lot of pain, don't you?"

Kate: "This person…is she your real lover?"

Alfons: "Heh, no way. I'm just killing time showing her the illusion of love."

Alfons: "She agreed to it. Even if it's just an illusion, you need something to keep going.

(You're pretending to be a lover even though you don't really like her...?)

Kate: "Why would you do that..?"

Alfons: "Didn't I already tell you? It's for fun."

Alfons: "Those who are fed up with reality need some amusement, even if in the end it's just licking each other's wounds, right?"

Kate: "Does that mean you also have a reality you want to escape from?"

Alfons: "Mhm, of course. That's why I understand how they feel."

(What is he running away from...)

At that moment, I heard a soft meow,

Alfons: "...whoa."

~~Part 5~~

Kate: "Does that mean you also have a reality you want to escape from?"

Alfons: "Yes, of course. That's why I understand how they feel."

(What is he running away from...)

At that moment, I heard a soft meow,

Alfons: "...whoa."

A calico cat snuggled up to his feet.

(Kitten...? A stray cat... adorable)

Its sweet behaviour dispelled my annoyance.

Alfons bent down and traced the back of kitten's neck with his fingertips as gently as he earlier stroked mine.

Kate: "...At the very least, cats are attracted to you."

Alfons: "This? It's because I have catnip in my possession."

Kate: "Wh....a substance..."

Alfons: "Heh, it's simple, isn't it?"

Alfons: "...I'm sure the cat will appreciate being intoxicated with sweet pleasures."

(He said that he deceived me and played with me just to have fun, and I thought so too)

(Then, maybe that's not all)

When I was looking at his profile as he was petting the cat, an idea popped into my head.

Kate: "The black cat on that day. Was it real?"

Alfons: "Hmm, was it? I don't remember."

I felt like the truth of that day was hiding the real him.

I still don't have a clear understanding which of my memories really happened...

Kate: "There's something I forgot to say..."

Alfons: "Heh, what is it this time?"

Kate: "Please don't show me illusions again."

(I want to honestly face him)

Alfons: "... I can't promise that."

Alfons: "Such restrictions get me all fired up."

~~~

Wrapped in a sweet illusion, I wanted to discover his truth.

I couldn't stop this anymore.

[lgbtsana]

PROLOUGE — TIMES UP?

— based on the show ‘manifest’

no one saw it coming, not even you. if anyone had told you, the once happy life you had with yeonjun would come crashing down, you’d laugh right in their face.

he’d seen the good and the bad. he told you he’d take all your secrets to the grave, you knew he meant it. yeonjun wasn’t a good liar.

when you had finally started to be happy after all the losses in your life, why’d he disappear for five years?

choi yeonjun, a famous model– known all around the world– and your boyfriend, he was currently getting photoshoots done in america. he’d call you every night to let you know he’s doing well and he’d be home soon.

life was going well for the both of you. you’d just landed a gig at a local bar to perform with your band. it was a close friends bar, but a gig was still a gig, right?

huh yunjin, the owner of the bar—and your best friend, told you she’d set up a livestream so yeonjun would be able to watch. when she offered that, you had hugged her so tightly, she had to smack your back to make you loosen up.

“sorry, jen...” you hung your head down as you rubbed the back of your neck, embarrassed by your actions. “girl, it's fine. i told you i’d do this for you, and i am!” she gave a gentle smile as she reassured you.

this was why she was your best friend, she always had your back.

later on that night, you received a call from yeonjun. “hey babygirl,” he gave a sweet smile as soon as he saw you, “i’m getting a flight home tomorrow! i figured i’d let you know.” you nearly jumped with excitement, “ah, yeonjun i'm so happy! maybe you’ll get to see my gig tomorrow at jen's bar!”

before you realized it, you were actually jumping with excitement. he noticed it before you, but chuckled at the sight. “i wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

oh, how naive both of you were.

it had been radio silence all-day with yeonjun, but you knew there was a reasonable explanation for it. he was a busy man, you understood that very well. you shrugged your shoulders, “he’ll call later on, before he gets on the plane.” giving a gentle smile to yourself, keeping yourself reassured.

yet, you couldn’t get rid of that bad feeling in the pit of your stomach.

when your phone rang in your back pocket, your hand immediately dove in for it. yeonjun was calling, “hey, babe! getting on the plane, now? it’s late, isn’t it?” you checked the time, confirming your statement.

“yeah, it’s a later flight since the one i originally booked, was over-booked. i offered to take a spot, and here i am.” he chuckled softly. “hm, alright then. what’s the flight number?” you asked out of curiosity.

“uhm... ah! it’s flight 828. what, are you going to surprise me when i land?” he teased, “we’ll see about that~” you couldn’t help but tease back at him.

“calling for flight 828 passengers to board the plane.” you heard a voice on the intercom from yeonjun’s end. yeonjun spoke up, “that’s my queue, see you when i land. love you, bye!” before you could respond back, the call had already ended.

it was during your gig at yunjin’s bar when you got the call. the call that made the world around you breakdown, and your world disappear.

“hello, is this heo y/n? the flight that carried the passenger, choi yeonjun, it’s gone missing. we lost contact with it, i’m so sorry dear...” the older lady on the other ends voice cracked, but you? you fell to the floor, onto your knees. you broke down on stage, and your bandmates had to help escort you off.

all you wished, was for that moment before he boarded the plane to happen again. you wanted the chance to tell him you love him as well, but... you knew you could never get that moment back.

[] masterlist [] next []

well, this started off nicely, i hope. took a lot of brainpower for this chapter. i tried to make it as similar as possible, but tweak a few things with the plot. i have a few ideas on how to do chapter 1, but haven’t set on which idea i’m going with yet. whatever i post, that is the idea i went with. well, enjoy for now!

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