#Aiden go to bed for gods sake

[shy-urban-hobbit]

Five times the Witchers learnt just how cat-like Aiden actually is

Biscuit making - Lambert

Lambert stared down at his friend, eyebrows raised in silent question as Aiden dozed lightly, plastered to Lambert so they were snuggled chest to chest in the small inn bed. He'd gotten used to Aiden purring in his sleep when the Cat witcher felt safe (and Lambert tried not to linger too long on how that made him feel) long ago but this…this was new.

The hands resting on Lambert's chest were rhythmically gripping and releasing the material of his shirt in tandem, the pinprick scratch of long, tougher than average fingernails just enough to feel through the fabric. It wasn't uncomfortable as such, in fact once he got used to it, when paired with the soft, barely audible purr it was actually quite relaxing.

Soon enough, Lambert found himself being pulled into sleep, either not caring or not realising that he himself had started letting out a steady stream of content rumbling of his own in response.

"Question for you, Cat."

Aiden didn't pause in lacing up his boots, "Ask away, Wolf."

"You know you were-" he clenched his fingers in imitation of the gesture, "I don't know - kneading - me last night?"

At that, Aiden did pause and Lambert had the feeling if he could blush he'd be bright red.

"I..shit. Sorry, I didn't even realise. I usually only do that around my siblings. I'll try to control it better."

"Didn't say it was a bad thing. " Lambert bumped his shoulder lightly against Aiden's, "I was just curious is all. I don't give a shit what you do, short of stabbing me."

Lambert tried to ignore the warmth blooming in his chest as Aiden let out a tiny purr.

Jumpscare - Eskel

Eskel hummed to himself as he bought in the last of the vegetables from the greenhouses for pickling. Glad to see that Aiden was already in the kitchen setting everything up and was currently busy with a keg of brine. Things had been a bit tense to start with when his little brother had rolled up with a Cat of all people but Aiden had made it very hard to not like him. If nothing else, he was always more than willing to lend a hand with chores - always a bonus when your home was in a near constant state of disrepair.

"Alright." Eskel said, dumping one of the sacks out onto the stone countertop, "That's the last of this year's crop. If we work quickly we should be done by-"

He was interrupted by a yowl next to him and if Aiden was an actual cat, Eskel would be inclined to think somebody had just stepped on his tail. Whirling around he saw no sign of the other Witcher. Until he looked up just in time to see Aiden hauling himself up to fully perch on one of the rafters, glaring at Eskel's haul.

"Eh...Aiden?"

"Get those things away from me." The Cat hissed pointing accusingly.

Now Eskel was even more confused, all that was there was a perfectly innocent pile of….

"You mean these?" He held up one of the cucumbers, causing Aiden to growl low in his throat in response. Eskel hastily dropped it again, "Ok, ok. I'll put these away for now and we can work on the beetroot instead. Ok?"

Aiden nodded but still refused to leave his perch until the offending items had been shoved back into the sack and into a cupboard.

Soundlessly, he grabbed a knife and began to peel and chop the beetroot.

"Cat thing?"

"Cat thing."

Zoomies - Geralt

Geralt couldn't sleep. Again. He was nowhere near desperate enough to go down the Djinn route again but by the Gods it was starting to get annoying. He just wanted one night where his mind wouldn't keep throwing up scenarios where he failed his responsibilities to Ciri, Yen, Jaskier, his brothers…he was just one man for fucks sake.

He decided to go check on the animals, Eskel had mentioned that the fence on one of the goat pens could do with repairs but it was already getting dark by the time he'd noticed. It was on the list for the following morning but his brother would be heartbroken if any of them had gotten loose and hurt in the meantime.

Turns out Geralt wasn't the only one feeling restless. As he entered the courtyard he caught sight of a figure seemingly in the middle of running laps along the wall. Too lithe to be Eskel or Lambert, too tall to be Ciri, it had to be Aiden. Geralt stopped for a second, unsure why until he realised. Aiden was moving fast.. too fast to be running it safely in the dark and frost. Even for a Witcher, that could be a broken leg or concussion at least if he fell.

As if the Gods had been reading his thoughts, Aiden lost his footing and soundlessly tumbled down onto the cobbles of the courtyard, landing in a heap. Only to bounce back up immediately as if nothing had happened and continue running laps at ground level instead.

Geralt felt his brow furrow as he continued watching, what the fuck?

"Couldn't sleep either?"

Aiden had come to a stop in front of him, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat and eyes darting around ceaselessly as he almost seemed to be vibrating in his own skin and using all of his self control to stay still and talk.

Geralt hummed in response before gesturing to the wall "You do that often?"

Aiden looked slightly sheepish as if he expected to be reprimanded, "Only a couple of times since I've been here. The mutagens. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to combust there and then if I don't move , for some reason it's worse at night. I think there was something meant to make us nocturnal, at least partially anyway. If I were on the path I'd go hunting or just go run pell mell in the woods for a bit. Doing that on an unfamiliar mountain didn't seem like the smartest thing though. I'm reckless, not suicidal."

Geralt huffed a laugh, "Well, don't let me stop you. Just don't make us find you lying out here with your skull cracked open in the morning."

Aiden gave a mock salute before going to mount the wall again, "Remind me to tell you about Cat Trials. Trust me, a fall from this is nothing. You could always run a couple of laps with me if you want? It's just, you look as if you could use something to tire you out too."

Geralt shrugged. At this point, why the fuck not?

Chirp - Jaskier

"Melitele's tits, it's cold. I mean, it. Is. COLD." Jaskier proclaimed as the two of them closed the door on the snow storm they'd just left, moving to hang his cloak and hood by the fire in the great hall, "I swear, if you and Lambert ever decide you're heading South for the winter I'm coming with you. Geralt can freeze his tits off up here alone, he'll survive. Unlike me. "

Aiden said nothing, although the bard had been around enough Witchers by now to know his companion was probably silently laughing at him as he removed his own cloak. Jaskier tsk'd at the snow clinging to Aiden's hair and moved to brush it out without thinking. The Cat let out a small but clearly audible "mrrrp" and momentarily pushed into the hand before he caught himself. He turned to face Jaskier, who was grinning at him like both Yule and his birthday had come early.

"Oh, well. That is just precious! " He exclaimed, clapping his hands together excitedly like a small child who's just been shown a magic trick, "Oh my dear, if all Cat Witchers make such adorable noises I may have a new favourite school. Do you all do that or is it just some of you? Purring's a given, every Witcher I've met purrs to some degree or other."

Aiden caught Coen's eye, the other Witcher flashing him a smirk which said 'You're on your own'

"That's it, I've decided! I'm making it my mission this winter to find out just how cat-like you are!"

"Do that and I'll hide your lute up in the rafters." Aiden said with no real heat, the Bard trailing after him asking questions about tables and glassware, distracted (for now) from the coldness of the Keep.

If I fits… - Vesemir

Vesemir basked in the quiet. There were perks to being one of the first ones to wake in the mornings. As much as he loved having his boys back safe and sound for the winter, after months alone the constant noise could become a little overwhelming at times, making these moments of quiet solitude all the more precious.

He made his way to the laundry room with an armful of bedding he'd found which probably hadn't been washed since the previous winter if the stale smell was anything to go by. No matter.

He quirked an eyebrow at the closed laundry hamper. He was certain he'd opened the lid earlier unless old age and senility were finally starting to get to him. Dumping the dirty sheets on the ground to free his hands he lifted the lid again.

And was greeted by Aiden blinking sleepily up at him, disturbed by the sudden brightness. Vesemir briefly took a moment to try and figure out what manner of contortion he'd used to cram himself into a space the boys had struggled to fit in even as adolescents before catching Aiden's eye. The two held eye contact as Aiden tilted his head in silent question, still half asleep. Vesemir wordlessly lowered the lid again in response before walking away shaking his head. It was too early for his boy's antics.

[adrianoakleyplay]

A bit on the side...

Ever since the 'break up' Aiden has been like a lost puppy. No,.. much worse than that, more tragic and self destructive than that. He drinks more, he spends more time away from the manor and the team. No one quite knows how to reach him. No one knows how to bridge the canyon that seems to have opened up between Aiden and, well, everything and everyone. He refuses to talk about it to Swift, though he has talked a little to Erik, who has always been one of the closer friends to him out of the team. Both men, introverted, who enjoy the quiet and have a somewhat self contained nature, gravitate towards each other platonically.

They are the two who you will most likely find sitting outside 'getting some air' during a party. Though it is no secret to the team, that Erik harbours some decidedly UN platonic feelings towards Aiden. There has long been something of a tension in the air between the pair, mostly due to the sense that Erik is just waiting for his moment to swoop and he is completely capable of playing the long game if need be.

Aiden however, only has one man in his heart, one man, light of his life & the keeper of his loins, and that man has shut the doors on him. Aiden understands Adrian's reaction. His sense of self worth damaged, his path, now unclear. Aiden didn't understand at first. At first it just cut deep. At first it felt like living without oxygen. But he knows Adrian, knows him well enough now to understand why he felt the need to take some time out after losing his powers, even though Aiden wishes with all his heart that Adrian would just… lean on him, for heavens sake.

Aiden is not at peace with the situation though, not in the slightest, no matter how much he understands. In fact Aiden's disappearances have mostly been him 'keeping an eye' on Adrian. Anything to be near him, even if it's from a distance. He must try to at least keep him safe. Swift knows this of course and one evening during a conversation with Erik about Aiden, he tells Erik what Aiden is doing and where he is, at the present moment. Erik then decides to 'keep an eye' on Aiden. He flies towards Adrian's city home.

As Erik approaches silently, he sees Aiden from behind, standing on a rooftop, motionless, statuesque. Erik stays back, not wanting to be noticed, not wanting to disturb…yet.

Aiden stands on a rooftop that overlooks part of Adrian's impressive ex warehouse home. With so much glass, it's not difficult to spy on Adrian in his old home from certain vantage points. Aiden has made it something of a routine now. Catching the vision of his Love, walking across from the kitchen, past the large green sofa, where they had some of their first kisses, to the staircase up to his bedroom. Or even, the higher level, maybe nothing but a towel around Adrian's waist as he walks from the bathroom into his bedroom. The bed has an ornate screen around it these days, so sadly, he cannot watch Adrian sleep there. Still, those moments, those glimpses, are so precious to Aiden, yet uniquely painful too.

Now as he watches, he is unsettled to see that Leo has paid Adrian a visit. Arriving there before him. Leo and Adrian are sitting on that green sofa. Adrian is crying, bent over, head in his hands, shoulders shaking. God how it hurts to see that, but Leo is there, rubbing Adrian's back and then wrapping his arm around Adrian's shoulders. Comfort Aiden wishes he was providing. He focuses in on their conversation, knowing it's immoral to pry in such a way, but he can't help himself…

'He misses you so much Adrian, he's not coping well… We all miss you.'

'I can't..I can't go back there, I can't see him, not like this' Adrian slaps his hand against his chest angrily. 'I'm a mess. How can I belong there now? I'm not Super, I'm not even able to produce any art anymore..I'm fucking useless Leo.' The tone of Adrian's voice, his hopelessness, breaks Aiden's heart again. How is it possible that one's heart can just keep breaking? What is left to break? 'No..no you're not! You're just going through something very difficult, but you are strong Adrian and you will always be one of us, there is always a home for you with us….' Leo strokes Adrian's face tenderly as Adrian's eyes, now lifted to meet Leos, wet & reddened, regard him desperately. Sweet Leo. Some blessed comfort in that touch and those words for Adrian, even if he can't quite believe them.

It makes Aiden feel something unwelcome. Something ugly.

The next actions happen so quickly, Leo leans in and kisses Adrian. Adrian puts his hand up against Leo's chest to stop him…shaking his head sadly. Leo looks down and apologises and there's a pause, but when Leo meets Adrians gaze again, Adrian leans in to kiss him this time and from there, there is a hunger in the two bodies in that scene that makes Aiden's blood run cold. He growls a pained 'NOooo!' And turns his body away quickly, then he sees Erik hovering in the air nearby. He's been watching! Aiden's lip curls in a kind of snarl at Erik, he is furious to have been watched, intruded upon, he's heartbroken and feels betrayed and he flies off at phenomenal speed, far too quick for Erik to chase.

Erik wonders what the fuck has just happened, what could possibly make Aiden fly off in such a fury. He hovers closer to Adrian's abode to where Aiden was, and there, through the large windows, he sees that Adrian's athletic, naked, tanned, though definitely leaner than usual body, has Leo pinned, face down on that sofa, his hips slamming into Leo's bare bubble butt with some force, Leo looking like he's getting the fuck of his life, mouth a jar, eyes closed, gasping words Erik can't hear. Erik watches for a little while and a wicked smile forms on his lips. 'Poor bastard…' Erik says quietly to himself, 'and now, I think it's time to take your man.'

The following evening, Aiden is taking a long hot shower. He lets himself cry as the delicious heat washes over him. He scrubs himself clean too, every bit of him as if trying to wash off the stain of that imagery that is still haunting him, Leo & Adrian. He didn't stick around to watch them fuck, seeing them kiss so hungrily and remove each others shirts so frantically, was enough. He's been present when the three of them, with a little encouragement from Vanessa, have had a little experimentation and it's been fun, but that, last night?…The two them, at a time like this, without him? It just stung, horribly. Aiden chooses to blame Leo more, for taking advantage of Adrian when he was so obviously emotionally fragile. Though he also knows deep down that Leo doesn't have a mean or conniving bone in his body… He emerges from the shower in a waft of steam, reaching for the large towel on the hanger and dries himself off methodically, then slips his soft clean bathrobe on. Little comforts like that, certainly make the body feel better, if not the heart.

But his heart, is so heavy. It aches, pretty much constantly. There's such a frustration built up in his body and seemingly no means of release. He rubs a smaller towel against his scalp, drying off his thick, wavy brown locks, then combs his still damp hair back off his face and behind his ears, sleekly. It's grown quite a bit over the past couple of months. He can't bring himself to be very bothered about such trivialities such as hair cuts and shaving hasn't been on his mind either, but right now he decides it's time to get rid of the short full beard that has grown, ruggedly gracing his chiseled face, so he gives himself a refreshing shave. Looking at his face in the mirror during the process, he can see the sorrow in his own eyes. If he was looking at someone else he'd be filled with compassion at such a face. But his own face…he can't muster such a feeling for.

Afterwards, he pads from the en suite into his room and gets on the bed, sighs deeply and reaches for the tv remote. Some mindless, escapist tv show might soothe his nerves.

There's a knock at the door. It sounds purposeful, furtive, urgent. Tuning his senses towards the door he can hear breath, he catches a scent even, and he can tell who it is. Erik. Aiden's nostrils flare with irritation. 'Go away Erik' He calls towards the door in a low, no nonsense tone. Erik knocks again, ignoring his command.

'Aiden, just open the door for fucks sake.' Something about Erik's confidence, his obvious alpha energy, his straight forwardness, tends to make people do things inspite of themselves, anyone would think Erik has Swifts mind control some times. Aiden is not immune, he sighs, gets up off the bed and over to the door at stupid speed, as though moving any slower would be too tedious. He unlocks his door.

Erik is also dressed for bed. Black silk robe and pj bottoms. His robe is open so that the lean musculature of his torso is visible as a tantalising pale strip between the smooth black material. There is also a glint of silver around Erik's hips. Aiden's gaze moves over that strip and that glint, a moment too long, then quickly back into Erik's eyes, feeling a little flustered by his friends sex appeal.

Erik regards him with obvious admiration, 'I approve of the shave!' He smiles sexily and reaches out and cheekily pats Aiden's cheek. 'Let me in then…' He says impatiently, and quickly eases past Aiden into his room. Aiden doesn't know whether he's coming or going. He puts his hand to his cheek where it was teasingly patted and shuts his door…then looking back into the room at Erik who has just waltzed in so nonchalently, all sleek and dangerous looking, he locks the door behind them.

'I didn't say you could come in Erik…' Aiden replies, his voice sounding resigned as he gazes over at the elegant figure now disturbing his discontent.

'And yet, here I am. And, I know…I know you're probably still pissed at me' Erik says calmly, looking around Aiden's room and then meeting Aiden's gaze. 'You had no right to, to spy on me like that…What were you thinking?' Aiden scowls as he speaks, emotion colouring his voice, his expression. 'I was concerned. We're all concerned about you…Besides, what gives you the right to spy on Adrian like that? What are You now? Some kind of stalker? Not your best look love.' Aiden bristles 'That's different! I'm making sure he's safe! Without his powers now…he's alone and fragile and I can't just sit around and do nothing!' Aiden snaps. 'So back the fuck off, I don't need your concern!' 'Too late old friend, you have it…' Eriks says unwaveringly. 'And, by the way, he's more capable than you're giving him credit for. He can certainly move those hips of his…'

'ERIK! Don't.. even…' Aiden warns…his heart starts to beat harder, he feels like he could punch a hole in the wall, though doing so would make much more damage than a hole.

He grits his teeth,clenches his jaw and glares at Erik. Erik raises his hands…'Forgive me….' He takes a deep breath. 'It's just that I hate to see you pining over him like this. You don't owe him your loyalty. Certainly not now….' Erik dares to approach Aiden, even though he looks most forboding. Forboding in seemingly nothing but a slightly fluffy bathrobe. Erik looks down Aiden's body, he might have underwear on beneath that robe though. All the better to rip off, if so.

Aiden feels Eriks gaze. It makes him feel both self conscious, and alarmingly, it makes him feel excitement. His cock has the audacity to twitch at Erik's predatory appraisal of him, when he should be alone now and wallowing in misery. Not turned on, Jesus fucking christ.

Erik is close enough to reach out and touch. He smells incredible. What the hell kind of erotic aroma is that? Thinks Aiden, nostrils flaring again only this time to take in the scent. Aiden blinks rapidly, uncomfortably and looks away. 'Erik…you should go….'

'Hmmm,see… I don't think you mean that.' Erik reaches out and puts his hand against the exposed area of AIden's hairy chest, boldly, sliding it up the side of Aiden's neck. His thumb strokes the area firmly. It sends tingles down Aiden's spine.

Touch, blessed touch. There's a part of him, his heart, that wants to resist this, there's no way he would ever see Erik in a romantic light, he wouldn't spend a moment thinking of any kind of sexual interaction with Erik usually….But now, after everything, his body has so much need. He's so touch starved, that another part of him, the flesh, wants very much, what it wants. To give in, to yield, to be taken.

Aiden tenses though, he can't quite bring himself to just relax into Erik's touch…yet, his eyes start to water again. He doesn't want to weep in front of Erik. Fuck that…Yet, a tear escapes, his lip quivers. He just wants Adrian really. He misses Adrian so much. Erik's hand moves off Aiden's neck to thumb the tear away, but says nothing of it. 'And… I have something for you.' Aiden meets Erik's gaze and frowns…Erik lets go of Aiden to reach into his robe pocket, he then dangles an object in front of Aiden on his forefinger. Aiden recognises it as the collar Adrian had to wear as punishment last year, a collar that blocks super power.

Aidens mouth falls open in confusion. Erik continues. 'They did it, our science department, they reconfigured it so that now, it can block your power.'

'What..?.' Aiden, frowning, takes the collar from Erik and studies it. It looks practically the same as he remembers, but instead of a blue substance within it, it now has a shiny black substance, like liquid obsidian. Just touching the collar with his fingers, is making him feel a bit drained. Erik can see the effect, 'Yes, be careful…' He takes it back from Aiden's hand.

'So, I have an offer, just for you Aiden' Erik says seductively. He reaches out with his left hand, taking Aiden's right wrist. Aiden allows it, Aiden is intrigued. Next thing he knows, his hand is being put against Erik's loins. And what loins they are. Erik is hard. Erik is fucking hung…What he'd heard about Eriks manhood, is all true. Due to feeling awkward about looking down at Erik's body, he hadn't noticed the big tent in Erik's silky black Pj bottoms. Aiden's mouth gapes with surprise, and then he slams his jaw shut self consciously. But he doesn't move his hand away. What is he doing? His own cock is now at a semi. He realises fully at last, that he does want Erik to touch him, to take him, to accept whatever Erik wants to do to him. He's got nothing to lose.

Aiden bites his lip and looks at Eriks mouth, he looks so smug, so knowing, so effortlessly self assured. Erik gently releases Aiden's hand and after a beat, not straight away, Aiden moves his hand away. 'So you see…I want you Aiden. If you wear this collar and submit to me…I can give you the release you need. The release you deserve. No strings attached. Just two friends enjoying each others bodies…' Erik says smoothly, reaching out to clasp Aidens jaw.

Aiden's mind is still stuck on 'submit to me' and it's like the trigger has been pulled within…He's only ever given himself to Adrian, but now and with the aid of that collar he can freely submit to Erik, maybe just this once?

He looks down solemnly. His chest rises and falls with a deeper breath. He finds himself acting before his thoughts catch up, sinking to his knees before Erik. Looking up at Erik's handsome form as though he is about to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist. 'Yes,….I submit.' The words fall quietly out of his mouth. Erik smiles knowingly…and then…holding the collar before Aiden, 'That's, 'yes Sir'.' He smiles. ' May I?' Asks Erik, the only time he intends to ask for permission for the rest of his time with Aiden. 'Yes.. Sir' Aiden nods and continues to look up intrepidly at Erik, Aiden's big, pretty eyes still wet, now full of wonder and some anxiety. Erik places the collar around Aiden's meaty neck.

The effect is immediate and it doesn't feel good. Aiden groans and slumps forward, feeling sapped of strength. Erik reaches under Aiden's chin and pushes his head back up. Holding Aiden's jaw firmly. 'That sensation won't last. Hold yourself together, slave….The collar does not have a lock on it presently, so you can remove it should you wish to. Understand?' Erik sounds so serious, so strict, it makes Aidens cock stand to attention, despite the feeling of just having lost something intrinsic.

Aiden nods his head and blinks to clear his vision. ' I want you to stand for me.' Erik says sternly and then stands back to allow him to rise, a bit wobbly, but surprisingly, managing it.

'Take that robe off. I want to see what is Mine for the night, to use as I wish.' Erik's ominous words send shivers down Aiden's spine. He slips the robe off his shoulders obediently, feeling shivery, aware of his own thick, hard cock standing out proudly towards Erik, as Erik reaches around his own waist where he wears a thin chain like belt with 7 smallish metal discs attached. A couple clink now in Erik's hand as he unattaches them, all whilst drinking up the sight of Aidens nude, powerfully built body.

The sight of the metal discs, make Aiden swallow nervously. Metal, oh the things Erik can do with metal…

[jaskierswolf]

hhnfjjjf hi wolfie, I'm getting Dadralt feelings, so how about 2. all encompassing hug from the promptlist, possibly baked together with 31, swaying side to side whilst hugging? Love you~

Have some Corvo Bianco retirement! Minor gerlion.

CW: TW3 spoilers, canonical character death, alcohol

Hug Prompts!

_________

Retirement suited Geralt, despite all his protests in his youth. Turns out that Corvo Bianco had been exactly what he’d needed to lure him into leaving the witcher life behind him for good, well, almost for good. He still took occasional contracts at local vineyards, but most days were spent managing his estate and practicing gwent with B.B.

Possibly the best part of living in one place that wasn’t a crumbling keep in the depths of the Blue Mountains, were the visitors. Corvo Bianco had become a hub for all of Geralt’s oldest and dearest friends. His own bed was now shared most nights with Dandelion, the poet leaving his cabaret behind after just a few months, to nobody’s surprise. The only things Dandelion had ever committed to was his work as a bard, and Geralt.

After Dandelion, had come Lambert, Eskel, and Lambert’s apparently alive friend Aiden. They’d swanned into Geralt’s kitchen one winter morning with bottles of shitty vodka and white gull, and demanded a night of drunken shenanigans for old time’s sake. It wasn’t quite the same as the drafty old halls of Kaer Morhen, and none of them were able to bring up Vesemir and his dreadful taste in hats just yet, but it was familiar and warmed Geralt’s heart. It was good to know that he still had his family despite abandoning the path.

After the witchers of Kaer Morhen was Yennefer. That had been a surprise considering how they’d left things with the Djinn wish broken, but she’d turned up on his doorstep looking as beautiful as ever, smelling of lilac and gooseberries, and everything had been okay. She’d dragged him out for a picnic in the surrounding fields, and they’d talked and bickered just like they always did; no hard feelings.

He’d been in the middle of a game of gwent with Dandelion when Ciri had popped into the living room in a blur of bright turquoise light. The poet had fallen off his stool, hat tumbling from his head as he landed with a loud thud. Ciri had just laughed at them both before flying into Geralt’s waiting arms.

It was always the same whenever they met, Geralt would drop everything just to hold the young girl in his arms, praying to gods he didn’t believe in that this would be the time when he didn’t have to let her go.

“Ciri,” he greeted her warmly, holding her to his chest, barely able to keep the tears at bay. He wasn’t sure whether it was Destiny or just fatherhood, but he knew there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for his daughter, and letting her go was always heartbreaking, like cutting out a piece of his soul.

She laughed again and spun them round in a circle, before settling into a gentle swaying motion that seemed to drag all the tension from Geralt as they danced to some unheard song.

“Hi Dad,” she murmured, still not letting him go, which was alright by him.

[advena87]

Kaer Morhen shenanigans (but mostly Lambert’s)

Just imagine the young witchers in training at Kaer Morhen, raised by  tired papa Vesemir. (long post!)

.

* 3 am *

Lambert: I’m scared.

Eskel: Why?

Lambert: There’s a monster under my bed and it’s really ugly.

Geralt, from the bottom bunk: Honestly, fuck you.

Berengar: Lambert, for fuck's sake, shouldn't you be asleep?

Lambert: I'm supposed to be many things. I live to disappoint.

Geralt, kicking Lambert’s top bunk: Shut the hell up!

Lambert: Ouch! My armkle!!!

Berengar: Your fucking what now?

Eskel: His wrist...

***

Lambert: * threw a bomb in the castle*

Geralt: *falls off his seat* THIS IS WHY VESEMIR DOESN’T FUCKING LOVE YOU!!!

 ***

Vesemir: I AM AT A LOSS FOR WORDS!

Berengar, narrating: Despite being at a loss for words, he continued to yell at us for 10 minutes.

 ***

Vesemir: The kids always accuse me of having a favourite.

Vesemir: That’s not true.

Vesemir: I love Eskel and the not-Eskels equally.

*moment later*

Vesemir to young witchers: Alright, listen up, you little shits.

Vesemir: Not you, Eskel. You're an angel, and we're thrilled you're here.

 ***

Lambert: Did I do something wrong?

Vesemir: You've done so many things wrong, it feels unfair to pick just one.

 ***

Lambert: We have bad news and good news, which one do you want to hear first?

Vesemir: Good news first.

Lambert: We won't do it again...

 ***

Geralt: My witcher brothers have always got my back. Except for Lambert. You never turn your back on Lambert.

***

Vesemir: Ah, finally a moment of peace.

*sounds of crashing and destruction outside*

Lambert: Everything's fine!

Vesemir: Everything better be fucking fine.

 ***

Vesemir: What were you two doing out this late?

Geralt: We—

Vesemir: Five words or less.

Lambert, counting on his fingers: We. Had. A. Fight.

Vesemir:

Lambert:

Lambert: Bitch.

***

Geralt: Vesemir loves me more.

Eskel: He loves us equally, Geralt.

Lambert: I could stab you both and see who he helps first.

Eskel:

Geralt: Oka-

Eskel: I FEEL LIKE THERE ARE STEPS WE COULD TAKE BEFORE THAT

***

Lambert: Vesemir, you have to do something, this fucking goat has shit in the middle of the courtyard.

Geralt: Talk to Eskel, Lil'Bleater yelled at 3am for an hour today. The goat must go.

*later*

Vesemir: Eskel, there are screams in the middle of the night and faeces in the courtyard. I think about implement a no-pets policy in Kaer Morhen.

Eskel: Oh my god, Vesemir, you can’t just throw Lambert out like that.

***

Berengar: We are kind of missing something, guys.

Lambert: Cohesion?

Lambert : Teamwork?

Lambert : A general sense of what we are doing?

Geralt: Eskel is not here!

Lambert : Oh, that too.

***

Lambert: *throws the door open, looking panicked*

Eskel: What did you do?

Lambert: NOBODY DIED

Eskel: WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?!

Berengar: Where is Geralt?

***

Vesemir, texting: Answer your phone.

Lambert, texting back: Give me a minute, I lost my phone.

Vesemir: Very well

Vesemir, 5 min later: You're a terrible child. You're killing me. You're killing your father, Lambert

***

Vesemir: You use sarcasm to distance people.

Lambert: And yet you're still here.

***

Vesemir: Coen just died!

Lambert: Its about time.

Vesemir: What?!

Lambert: Sorry I was on the phone with Geralt.

Vesemir: What did he say?

Lambert: Berengar is dead.

***

*After sudden teleportation by accidentally activated hidden portal in the castle*

Eskel: Uh, are we in heaven?

Lambert: No chance, I highly doubt they would let me in.

***

Lambert: I screwed up big time.

Berengar: Lambert, given your daily life experiences, you’re gonna have to be more specific.

***

Lambert, entering the room: Good morning, parental figure.

Vesemir, not looking up from his coffee: Good morning, problem child.

***

Vesemir: If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.

Geralt: What if it bites me and it dies?

Vesemir: That means you're poisonous.

Geralt: What if it bites itself and I die?

Eskel: That's curse?

Lambert: What if it bites me and someone else dies?

Vesemir: That's correlation, not causation.

Lambert: What if we bite each other and neither of us die?

Berengar: That's kinky.

Vesemir: Oh, my god.

***

Lambert: Ugh. There’s always that weak bitch in the group who isn’t down with murder.

Lambert: *glares at Eskel*

Eskel: Well SORRY I have MORALS-

***

Vesemir: Why is it, when something disastrous and drunk happens, it is always you four?

Berengar: [covered in glitter and wearing sunglasses indoors]

Geralt: [sporting a hickey the size of planet earth on his neck]

Lambert: [with a split lip and a shiner]

Eskel and Lil’Bleater: [covered in pancake batter]

...

Here is: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Daily Lambert

also Keira & Lambert’s love story, Aiden & Lambert’s love story and… this.

...

[ejzah]

A/N: Just a little fic for next season. Totally ridiculous.

***

It’s Good To Be Back

“Hey, man, good to see you,” Deeks greeted Sam as he and Kensi walked into the bullpen. Standing, Sam leaned over for a fist bump. “You too, Callen.”

“It’s crazy what a few weeks away from each other will do,” Sam commented with a smirk as he squeezed Deeks’ shoulder, and then hugged Kensi. “I think I actually missed you two.”

“Really? I didn’t think about any of you the whole break,” Callen said. He was reclined in his chair, feet up on his desk.

“Rude,” Deeks commented lightly.

“So I take it you had a nice time with Anna?” Kensi guessed.

“Yeah, we did.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much.” Callen smirked, apparently having no plans to share his vacation with them.

“Alright,” Deeks said, leaning against his desk. Kensi joined him after tossing her bag on her desk, and automatically threaded her arm across his back. “What about you, Sam?”

“I got Kam and Aiden to come down for a week and we spent most of it on the boat,” he answered, smirking again. “And then I visited with a friend.”

“Ooh, would this friend happen to go by the name Katherine?”

“No comment, Kensi.” He gestured between them. “It seems like you two has a good time. You’re all bright eyed and bushy tailed again.”

“We did,” Kensi agree, glancing at Deeks. “You know, surfing.”

“Swimming.”

“Huh, you look a little less tan than I would have expected for all that time on the beach,” Callen commented shrewdly.

“Uh, yeah, we, uh, also took the opportunity to reconnect,” Deeks explained. Linking fingers, they shared a private smile, and Kensi’s cheeks warmed a little. Sam made an exasperated sound behind them.

“Oh for god sake, did you guys even make it out of bed?” he asked. Deeks inclined his head, considering.

“Occasionally. We did have to eat.”

“You seriously spent three whole weeks just having sex?” Callen asked and Deeks wasn’t sure if he was disturbed or impressed.

“Do you really want to discuss this? Cause I’m sure Deeks could provide you with plenty of details,” Kensi said pointedly.

“Nope, I’m good.” Callen responded immediately.

“I’d rather shoot myself in the knee again.”

“Wonderful. It’s good to be back,” Deeks decided, grinning down at Kensi.

[andramsimming]

Thank You

Long time no see! Had some time to work on some posts in the middle of my kitchen renovation - God, it is draining, LOL. Thank you so much for your patience and support, I really appreciate it  ❤️

Aiden really enjoyed having Grace around, She managed to make the house feel like a home and always brought light into his heart every time he saw her smile and play with Ethan.

Suddenly it dawned on Aiden! He loved Grace.  Loved her as more than a friend! How could he had been so blind? Maybe it had been his desire to try and work things out with Brenna for Ethan’s sake, that had kept him from realizing it. But not anymore. He was done with Brenna - she had made her choice. 

All of a sudden, Aiden felt a stone being lifted from his shoulders. His whole idea of a family was crooked. He and Ethan was a family and Grace belonged to that family too, he was sure about that. She was the last piece that made the puzzle whole and he was determined to make her realize that, Determined to show her how much he loved her and how much he and Ethan needed her. 

He took a deep breath. Grace was putting away the laundry and keeping an eye on the baby monitor, they had just put down Ethan for the night.  Aiden mustered all of his courage, now was his chance!

“Grace?...” Aiden asked while folding a sweater of his before passing it to Grace. “Yeah, what is it Aiden?” Grace replied still concentrating on the baby monitor. Ethan was half asleep and romped around in his bed.  “Well... I’ve really enjoyed having you here. You’ve truly been God send” Aiden said, starring lovingly at Grace. “Oh! Don’t worry about it, Aiden” Grace chuckled, “I’ve enjoyed hanging with you and Ethan. Besides you have helped me through my lowest points, it’s only natural that I’ll be here for you, when you need it”. “I appreciate that, Grace, More than you know and I was thinking, how about we get a sitter for Ethan tomorrow evening and go out?” Aiden asked. Grace looked curiously at him. “I thought we could visit the little bar downtown and grab a couple of drinks” Aiden continued. Grace looked surprised, probably because they haven’t been out partying since before he got married to Brenna.  “How about it? Feel like dressing up to go dancing and drinking?” He asked.  Grace smiled, “Sure! That’ll be fun” she exclaimed and closed the drawer. 

Aiden was beyond happy, this was perfect! Now all he had to do was book the sitter. 

[parkertech]

Tattoos & Tears - CHAPTER 1

a/n: on everybody's 18th birthday, they get a tattoo of their soulmate written on their wrist. for you, it's your best friend who you thought you got over. who even has a girlfriend of his own.

warnings: swearing

———————————————————————

It had been exactly a month since the trip to Europe. You spent the entire week by yourself, isolating yourself from Peter. You didn't want to, but after seeing him kiss MJ on the bridge, seeing your crush since the 7th grade kiss another girl, your heart shattered. He sent countless texts, but you ignored them all. If you even thought about him, the tears came out like a waterfall and the aching in your chest became stronger.

By the time the week was almost over, you realized something. Despite the jealousy, insecurity, and overall terrible feelings you felt, you realized Peter was happy with MJ. And all you wanted for him was to be happy. So, you sucked it up, and shoved your feelings down.

You came back to school happier than ever. You convinced yourself Peter was just a crush that didn't work out. To your surprise, life was easier like that. When you were introduced to MJ, you found out you had a lot more in common than you thought. You didn't feel a ping of jealousy when Peter and MJ kissed or hugged or showed any sort of PDA. You just rolled your eyes playfully and complained about them being cute.

Eventually, even Ned had his own girlfriend—Betty Brant. Betty joined you and MJ, and all of you became a trio. Everything was perfect.

And everything brought you to right now. You were walking to your house with Betty and MJ, you being in between them, chatting about the usual. Until Betty brought it up.

"Wait...isn't it your birthday soon, Y/N?" She said a little shocked. Your eyes widened along with MJ's.

"Holy shit you're right! I have only a week left!"

"And then you get to find out who your soulmate is!" Everyone's 18th birthday, was their famous day. Not only because you became basically an adult and almost graduated high school, but it was also because your tattoo would come. It would reveal the love of your life.

"Who do you think it could be?" MJ spoke up. You shrugged your shoulders while thinking.

"Maybe Aiden in Physics?" Betty sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. "What? I think he's cute and has potential! Plus we went on a few dates that weren't half bad."

"Oh please, Aiden? We all know who it really is, Y/N." She gave you an obvious look, and you just shook your head with a confused expression. "Brad Davis!" It was your turn to roll your eyes.

"What, you don't think he's cute?" MJ asked a little shocked.

"It's not that! I just...I don't know..." Okay, you had a tiny crush on Brad. But you never admitted it. Because he kind of became a player after the blip. Every girl found him hot, and leeched onto him. Which kind of started his reputation. You didn't want to be one of those girls, but you couldn't help it with his soft hair and gentle, yet mischievous smile. Not to mention, his muscles....

"Oh, please! You do know! It's gonna be him, I bet $100!" Betty exclaims.

"Well then I bet $100 it's Aiden. Just to compete." MJ counters. You giggled at the both of them as they finalized their bet. All three of you eventually made it to your apartment, and said your last goodbyes. You rushed to your room and spent a few hours on your phone, before getting to the more important things. In the middle of your homework, you heard a tapping at your window. You knew it was Peter before you even saw his familiar, bright smile behind the window. You hopped off your bed with a matching one, and opened the window for him.

"Whatcha doin' here, Spidey?" Peter didn't go to your window often, since usually at this time he'd be with MJ.

"MJ's at a peaceful protest and I'm bored out of my mind." He replied matter-of-factly. You rolled your eyes before moving aside and letting him climb in your room. He dropped his backpack on the floor before leaning over your bed and landing face first into the mattress. You chuckled a little before doing the same thing. He then fixed himself so he was on his back, and you turned so you were on his side.

"Someone's getting old in a few days!" Peter said sing-songy. You groaned before burying your face into your blanket at the mention of your special day.

"I knowww! God, I'm not ready." He chuckled at your response.

"Whoever your soulmate is, if he hurts you even once, I'm kicking his ass." Peter said firmly. You raised your eyebrows at him, a little surprised at his word choice and confidence.

"Whoa, who knew Peter Parker had the balls to want to actually kick someone's ass?" Peter just gave you an unimpressed look.

"Shut uuup! I'd totally be able to. I can stop criminals, for fucks sake." He countered. You scoff at him before sitting up.

"Speaking of my birthday, of course I'm gonna have a party, and it's mandatory that you come." Peter rolled his eyes while you put on a puppy face you know he couldn't resist. It always worked, whether it was asking for your favorite candy from Delmar's, or help with homework.

"Y/N...you know how I feel about parties..." Peter started. But you interrupted him.

"Nu uh! You're going! It's a necessity! No refunds, nada!" Peter realized there was no out on this, which caused him to groan a little. You sat there, expectantly waiting on an answer. Peter dragged it out, creating more suspense.

"Fine...only because it's you though." You squealed and gave him a bone crushing hug. Peter found himself hugging you back, and hiding his face in your neck. He could smell your perfume, and almost took a good amount of air to get a better smell. But that was weird. That's what weirdos do.

The rest of the night was spent watching Star Wars movies, cracking jokes, and Peter's constant complaining about your party. You constantly reassured him you'd make sure he would have a fun time, but that didn't stop him from dreading the event. Your fun ended when he got a text from MJ saying that she was back from her protest and wanted him to spend the night. Peter sighed a little loudly, which snapped your attention from the movie to him.

"What's wrong?" You asked in slight concern.

"MJ's back. I gotta go..." Peter felt a little guilty honestly. He barely spent time with you like this, and you were always so understanding. He didn't want to leave. Tomorrow was always another day, but this is his girlfriend. Everyone knows how the girlfriend feels about the girl best friend. But MJ wasn't like that, right?

"Oh, okay..." You didn't mean to sound so sad, but you knew how rare this was just as much as Peter.

Then a weird ache came back in your chest. You cleared your throat, holding your heart while Peter furrowed his eyebrows at you.

"You okay over there?" You nodded and waved him off despite how much it seemed to knot up.

"Yeah, I think it's just heartburn or something." You felt your cheeks flushing and grabbed the cold glass of water on your bedside table and took a big gulp. Peter kept eyeing you in confusion, but nonetheless kept packing up his things and opened your window.

"Okay, well...see you in History tomorrow?" He asked as his leg was resting on your carpet and the fire escape.

"Yeah, you're acting like we don't go to the same school, stupid!" You both shared a little laugh, and then you felt a weird wave in your stomach. Your face fell a little, but not enough to be noticed. You both exchanged one last goodbye before Peter was heading down your fire escape back to his house, where MJ was waiting.

On his way home, Peter felt a weird tugging at his heart. He found himself missing you, more than usual. It was probably because you two didn't spend after school hours with each other in a while. Right? Right.

You on the other hand, were wondering why your body was reacting that way to Peter. It's how you used to react to him when you had feelings for him. But you didn't anymore. You didn't. Have. Feelings. For Peter Parker. Even if you did, he's in love with MJ. And you can't do that to MJ. So there it is. Problem solved.

Letting out a long heavy sigh from your thoughts, you changed from your school clothes and put on a hoodie with some sweatpants. You turned off your bedside lamp before getting in your bed, pulling up the blanket to the middle of your ears. Your thoughts were still on how you reacted to Peter today. But you said it yourself. You got over him.

Peter is nothing more than a friend.

But there was a tiny voice that you tried to silence at the back of your mind.

Are you saying it because it's true, or saying it to convince yourself?

———————————————————————

Taglist 🏷: (you can always ask to be here!)

@marvel4geeks

[teenwolfalltheway]

Stilinski family

Plot: (requested by anon)  Hi I was wondering if I could have a Teen Wolf imagine request where the reader is Stiles sister and she’s seeing Aiden in secret.

Word Counting : 1078

Pairing : Aiden x reader (well, we don’t get to see that here but… yes..)

warnings : none

a/n :   Soooo, this is pretty much just Stilies acting as an annoying older brother, or , the way i think he would be, i hope you enjoy!!! I know this isn’t what the request asked for exactly but… I couldn’t help myself.

It was almost past midnight when y/n returned home from her secret date with Aiden. She insisted on keeping their affair secret because she knew how much her brother stiles despised that boy, though she didn’t know why. After Scott and Stiles started attending High school they grew apart. Her brother started being a lot more secretive and he spent a lot more time with Scott, more than he used to at least..

She tiptoed quietly to her room careful not to wake her brother on a school night. Her father had a night shift and he wouldn’t be home till morning. She went to the fridge to find something to eat before going to bed when the lights turned on. She jumped scarily and looked who was there.

“Where were you young lady?” Her brother asked with a suspicious look on his face

“Hey! Stiles! How come you’re awake now? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?? You’ve got classes tomorrow.” Y/n to change the subject but her brother wouldn’t let it slip so easily

“Yeah, but so do you, and yet you return home so late! Where were you anyway?”

“Nowhere I was just coming from a group study, the assignment is due tomorrow and we had to work till late” She went with the first lie she could think of and even if her brother wasn’t a werewolf he still knew when his little sister lied to him

“Oh c’mon , you don’t even have any books with you, nor a bag, or a laptop” he squinted his eyes and got closer “ where you with Scott?”

“With.. what? Why would you even assume that? No I wasn’t with Scott” She said taking a step back since her brother came a little closer as if he was trying to detect her lies from her expressions

“Hmmm… that’s weird, cause, you know, I heard the wheels of a motorcycle just after you entered the house”

“Well, I mean a lot of people use bikes to go around..”

“Why are you wearing perfume?”

“Stiles don’t be ridiculous, I always wear perfume!” The teen girl tried to leave the room but stiles quickly followed her

“No no no no no, you will stay here, until I’m satisfied with your answers!!!!” Stiles put on his big brother voice and caught his sister door as she tried to slam it shut

“Can you stop being so annoying? I wander how we are related!”

“Don’t try to avoid this conversation! Who were you with?” The boy insisted

“Oh for God’s sake Stiles, why are you even interested in what I do? Get a life” She sassed back a little annoyed by her brother’s persistence and finally closed the door.

Stiles took a few steps back unsatisfied with his sister and went to his room making a mental note to check her phone in the morning.

Not a long time passed and y/n woke up from her alarm. She stretched on the bed and slowly got up to use the bathroom. Once she closed the door another one opened. Stiles was now tiptoeing towards her nightstand where her phone was charging. He unlocked it and quickly went to the messages.

“Lori”

“Mason”

“Sydney”

“Ann”

And the list went on… he didn’t find anything suspicious, but he knew that something was going on. He went to check on the calls but he only found Sydney’s and occasionally his or dad’s name on it. He quickly went to check on her social media but he heard the water stop. He locked the phone and tried to get as far as he could without any noise. Y/n’s steps where heard while he tried to soundlessly close the door to her room. As he dragged the door and took a step backwards his back touched another body. He jerked quickly and turned around only to face his father looking at him questionably

“What the hell are you doing Stiles?” Noah asked him irritated. He had a long night and he was looking forward to go home and have a relaxing day sleeping in his room, not find his two kids messing around with each other. “Dad…Heyyy….  Ok, hear me out” Stiles said as he dragged his dad away from his sisters’ door “I think Y/n’s seeing someone” He said seriously concerned “Ok, so?” “SO?? Dad , she came home late yesterday, and she put on her perfume, and then she lied to me about studying when she didn’t have any books or notes or..” “Stiles Stiles cut it! I don’t know why you are so concerned. Your sister is quite responsible and I trust her. You should too! Unlike you, I never found her listening to my phone calls or, roaming around the woods trying to find dead bodies!” “Yes but dad! She lied!” “So have you, multiple times!” “Yes but only to protect you, I bet she was hiding something” “how do you now that?” “Well, I don’t but I’m trying to find out, so I went to her room to check her phone…” “You checked her phone?!, Stiles, what were you thinking?” “shush !!! She might hear you!” “Stiles, stop talking please, and get our head straight! Your sleep deprived father just wants some damn peace! Leave your sister be!” “But dad!!! I’m telling you something is not right!” “Do you got any proof? Or is this another of your thoughtless accusations?” “well, I didn’t find anything on her phone but I heard a motorbike outside the house when she came”

The sheriff blinked a few times trying to understand his son’s unreasonable train of thoughts, but gave up quickly turning around and walking towards his room

“Dad! Daaaad! I’m talking to you!” Stiles called him shaking his head, while he was once more ignored. “Stay away from your sister!” his father said back closing the door to his room.

Y/n was now ready for her day, dressed in a very cute outfit that she knew Aiden would love and turned to check her messages. She quickly tapped on Sydney’s name that she had secretly named Aiden’s number and read that he would bring her coffee to school. She locked it one more time while getting out of her room and closing the rood behind. Of course her brother couldn’t resist going through her phone but living with him her whole life, made her able to predict most of his moves, so she was quite prepared.

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Vietnam, New York and Hawkins (Sriracha, Part 35.)

Description: A problematic college student gets the worst summer job of the ‘83 - Jim Hopper, the Chief of police in your hometown will have you as his secretary since his old lady Flo has two months lasting holiday. It was agreed so Hopper could keep you far away from all the trouble.

Part Summary: Coming back to Hawkins meant only one thing in Hopper‘s mind. Bringing all the memories down, bringing the relationship in front of another test. But this one was about to show you if this is the over or not.

A/N: It gets intense. Intense, my babez. Because my Hopper detective story book just arrived and isnpired me for some cool stuff.

Warnings: ANGST: Serious angst. They go hard on each other this time.

Word count: 3.1 K

Tagging:  @nemodoren, @creedslove, @missdictatorme, @ysljordy​

Master list: H E R E

You took a pretty long time before getting better. It was three days of you having high fever, coughing, and not being able to move. You barely gained some consciousness; not even when Harrington or Hopper came to check up on you. When the doctor came to see you, he asked your mom to keep the eye on you - keep you hydrated, sometimes waking you up to have at least a slice of bread or to take a piss.

You were done for. Nobody was that surprised about that since you laid down onto the snow only in a dress on a stormy night. Some obvious consequences were coming for you.

But you did wake up one morning at felt normal enough to at least walk downstairs to have breakfast. Your legs hurt like living fuck, you could barely walk and every step you took was taken with a half-screamed cuss. Your mom was in the kitchen, listening to a mixtape that was familiar to you.

You, before you entered the kitchen, stood there for a while; it were the Romantics because, of course, she found your old mix in one of the boxes that mysteriously disappeared out of your room. They were there before you got sick - but they were gone when you woke up. And it wasn‘t pleasant to hear that fucking song when you had a dream that Jim carried you home in his fucking arms when he wasn‘t even there.

“Hey, who you‘re hiding from, jackass?” - Someone circles arms around your waist and picked you up, making you scream. - “Jesus fucking Christ, Y/N, you stink.” - Aiden laughed into your ear before hugging you tight. He didn‘t make it on Christmas, but now, you had that bastard home.

“Hi, oh Lord, you‘re so big, fuck-face.” - You mumbled before hugging him once again. You were a bit delirious since you were out of order for the last four days.

“How did you called your sister, young man? And what about you, young lady?” - Your mom came forward, making you both jump, your old dog following her. That reminded you about the songs playing once again. Your and Jim‘s playlist. The one tape he bought you in  ‘83 and to which you added more and more songs.

“How are you? We‘ve been worried.” - Aiden asked you and made sure you followed him to the kitchen to eat something.

“It was pretty wild. I had some crazy dreams, I must‘ve fainted in the restaurant I was at with Steve. Was he mad?” - You asked quietly, nibbling at a piece of pomelo you took from the table.

“Why you think so?” - Your mom asked as you sit down the table, having Aiden pouring you a cup of coffee. You nodded, trying to think of the words to express what was on your mind.

“It was like... I was there with Steve and we noticed a hobo standing in the storm. Steve went to talk to the man, then sent me there... And it was like... Jim standing in front of me. I must’ve slipped and hit my head real hard.” - You looked at Aiden, who was giving you a look back. - “It hurt. To see him. But it was so nice at the same time.”

“But... He’s here.” - Your mom stated carefully. You almost spat the pomelo back on the table when your stomach contracted with sudden pain. Your hand was trembling and you were... You couldn’t understand what was happening around you.

“Jim carried you home that night. He looks bad and he was through a lot, you can just see it on him. And he didn’t want to talk about it with any of us.” - She continued more quietly. You could feel your breath hitch in your throat. How many times are you going to go through that? Having Hopper by your side only for him to disappear again? You didn’t know what was worse - losing him, again, for a long time, thinking he had died and giving up on your life or... To have him back, not knowing when will he disappear again.

You haven’t even spoken to him, you haven’t seen him properly, but you were already afraid that if he’s back, it surely means that one day, he will disappear again. What kind of a sick joke was all of this? Were you ready to see him? Did you want to talk to him? Did you need an apology?

“Hey, come on, sis, calm down.” - Aiden caught your face into his palms, making you look at him. Great. Now, you had tripped out again. You had another of your panic attacks and broke down in tears and fear without realizing it. - “You’re good, come on. You’re not alone in this.” - Your younger brother whispered to your hair, making you slip into the embrace.

Your mom wasn’t glad to see you like this. But this time, just as the last time, Jim had a reason not to come back for a long time. Even though he was presumed dead for the last six months, leaving you alone with Eleven. And if your mom knew something about Hopper it was that Hopper was a good guy. He treated you and your baby girl with respect and love, so even if it was breaking her to see you so desperate, he deserved a chance to speak up. To tell you what happened before you’d tell him to go to hell.

“He’s not here... Not now. Have a bath, take a while to come around that information, talk to the man. He looks miserable enough. Maybe even more miserable than you, sis.” - Aiden chuckled to your ear. You straightened yourself slowly, gently wiping the tears away. You were nodding. Aiden helped you to the stairs.

“I’m taking parents to New Orleans for the weekend to meet Lena’s parents. You two will have plenty of space and time to talk. Yell at him, break some plates, call him a jackass, just try it with him, yeah?” - Aiden reassured and you nodded again, trying to calm yourself down. - “Wherever that son of a bitch was, he came back from the hell and searched for you in the worst night he could try it on. That’s what I call fucking love.”

Aiden was probably right... For the most part. That could be seen as love. But were you really in love with Hopper at that time? Or was it the memory you’ve carried in your head? Was it the wish you had in your heart? Or were you in love with the real Jim?

Were you still in love with the guy who was taking Tuinal out of prescription, who had bad nightmares, who was broken-hearted so many times it turned him aggressive, paranoid, and hurt? That dude who fucked almost every bachelorette in Hawkins before you made him settle down? Would you still give up on your scholarship if you had to make the decision again? Would you stay there for him if you’d how much pain waits after that?

You didn’t know. You honestly couldn’t answer that question. That was why you went to the guest room after spending almost an hour in the shower. Before stepping in, you took in a deep breath, preparing yourself. But the room was clean. There was only his bag in the corner of the room along with a few boxes of clothing you managed to save from the rampaged cabin. But then you saw it.

That fucking small tube of blue pills on the table. You went for it - just to look at the date printed on it. It said he bought it four days ago. Why the fuck was it half-empty then? Were you really in that phase again? Taking drugs? That was what Hopper was up to again? Surprisingly, you couldn't find anything more interesting - no post, letters, photos, his wallet, nothing. It was maybe he wasn’t there, that would be logical, but you wanted to know more.

You got the chance an hour after your family packed all the stuff into one car. Your parents obviously knew why Aiden suddenly planned a trip to New Orleans, they weren't dumb, but your talk needed to be down and to be honest, you two couldn't be bothered during that time. It will be hard enough for both of you already without your parents inserting themselves. Which would, of course, happen since neither of them could stand their baby being hurt by anyone.

You were just snuggling with Lady in front of the fireplace, drinking some hot cocoa when you heard the door quietly close. Hopper was a bit worried - anyone was there, he didn't know that they're leaving and you were in your bed with fevers. Or, that was what he thought before he put the groceries on the countertop, seeing you sitting there.

But you didn't turn to look at him. You were too scared of that. You just moved closer to Lady. Neither of you spoke for ten to twenty minutes - Hopper was just standing there, which was honestly unnerving you. But you got why didn't say a word. You didn't know how to start either.

"Six months." - Slipped past your lips as you worked your way up to Lady’s ears. - "I was left alone in Hawkins for six months. And suddenly, you just appear in front of a restaurant I'm having dinner at and..."

"I scared you, didn't I?" - Hopper asked as quietly as you talked. You shook your head right away.

"You confused the living fuck out of me. Why me? What did I do to anyone to deserve this? Having the man I love taken from me... Twice, might I say, just for a stranger to come back?" - You looked at him for the first time, having tears in your eyes. That was when Hopper felt it's not going to go well. This was it. The last stop. A final talk - resolving into a fight where you might or might not break that the things off with him.

And as for you... Your eyes widened as you watched the man. You didn't know him, but this, for God's sake, wasn’t Hopper at all. This man no matter how tall he was, appeared thin. Like if a rough wind could break him apart. His skin was almost see-through, his eyes were... Without a single drop of passion in them. He hadn't got hair or his significant mustache, let alone the beard. There was a slight stubble, yeah, but that was it. And let's be honest, he must've been looking way worse when he came to your home.

"All I asked for, was you. You as a whole. With all your troubles, thoughts, ideas, even the dumb ones. I didn't ask for pain so intense that at times, I couldn't get out of bed. I didn't ask for having shirts reminding me of the man I loved. I didn't fucking ask for having hallucinations of you walking into my room, hugging me when I cried myself to sleep. Do you even realize what have you done to me? Or did you didn't think about that?" - You asked with a small smile. It wasn’t a happy one, though. This one was painful as fuck. It made Jim sit on the couch behind the fireplace just so he couldn't see you looking at him.

"I don't know what should I tell you." - Hopper told you honestly. That was when you got up, having Lady following you around, taking the tube of pills and putting it next to him on the conference table so loud, it made a bang.

"Start with the truth, perhaps?" - You asked the man, looking down at him. You had the upper hand and you knew it. You fucking knew it. You could feel the power of breaking him apart at the tips of your fingers. Just as he broke you apart. In your eyes, Hopper would deserve it.

"Believe me when I tell you that Tuinal is the smallest thing that happened to me." - Jim mumbled and got up as well, pacing around. And there it was. - "Because the shit I've been through you a) can't even imagine and b) wouldn't believe."

"Oh, I wouldn't believe? Come on. Jim, honestly, when I look at you, I don't even feel relieved that you're back. The only thing I see is pain. Because the first thought I had when mom told me you're real was ’oh fuck, how much time I have before he leaves again? A week? A month? A year if I'm lucky?’" - You told him honestly, having tears streaming down. But your voice was just cold. Colder than ice.

"I did insane shit just to come back to you! Look at me! Do you think that I'm fucking proud to walk around lookin’ like a piece of shit? Do you even listen to what you’re saying?" - He started to yell for a second, making your blood freeze in your veins for a while. He never yelled at you like that. This was aggressive, he had done that before, but he was hurt. Just as you were. - "Every fuckin’ day, every shitty second of the last half of the year, I had you on my mind. You and Eleven were the only thing that made me goin’. When I was freezin’ to death, starvin’ or didn't even feel my fuckin’ body, I had you on my mind, wishin’ you would... Not even kiss me. Just to touch me. Just to look my way. That was the only thing I wanted. But the only thing you talk about is you. How you're hurt. What kind of a son of a bitch I am. Do you even realize how much are you hurting me?" - He asked a bit unbelievably, making you stop for a second.

Jim had his points, that needed to be said. You didn't exactly see through your bubble. But that made you only angrier.

"Grow the fuck up and pull yourself together, James. You're not five. You're fucking twice my age, you should know what you're doing. I am young and I could've had a life somewhere if you..." - You yelled back, pushing into his shoulders, hitting him into the shoulder. - "If you didn't even come along. If you didn't make me work as your secretary, I could be starting a family in Indianapolis, loving someone, I could have kids, maybe an actual future and career... Instead of spending three years in here... Loving you." - You yelled sitting on the ground, having Lady coming to snuggle into your thigh to comfort you. But you couldn't be comforted.

"You said you're not in love anymore?" - Hopper whispered emotionlessly, sitting down a few feet away from you. It felt so... Uncomfortable and painful. But maybe that was what you needed to break out of the chains. You looked at him over your tears, trying to calm down.

"I honestly don't even know anymore." - You answered honestly, looking into the flames once again, having no emotion except pain in your face. Hopper was doubting himself just a few feet apart from you, crying as well.

It was so known. Falling out of love and screaming hurtful things at each other. He already knew that from the time he and Diane were getting a divorce. He wasnt happy since that time until he met you, puking on his car, making him horrified. But when he fell in love... Oh Lord, nothing could bring him down to see the reality around. Nothing had the ability to make Hopper fly in the clouds just as your presence had.

He vividly remembered the days he was driving you to town, having you singing You Don't Mess Around With Jim into the whole morning Hawkins. The nights snuggled in the trail while he played Helplessly Hoping so you could sleep and feel safe and sound. The images of him making you breakfast, bringing it into the bed just for the food to end up on the sheets as you put your hand on his jaw, kissing him. That was his definition of love and safety. Two persons in love emerging into one since that was what felt like the right thing to do.

Which obviously was long gone for you. And from some points of view, he could see why you weren't able to open up just as he did when he carried you home. You were happy that Hopper came back, somewhere deep inside, but that was long forgotten under the layers of hatred, anger, pain, grief, fear, and depression.

"But I don't even know who I am. I got lost, like, I was in a dark place when you weren't here. Since El left for Maine... I wasn’t able to live a life." - You whispered after a while, still smoothing Lady laying by your side.

"Can you give me one last go before you tell me to fuck off for good? I swear that this time, I will tell you everythin’. The whole truth from the beggin’ to the end." - Hopper looked you in the eyes. You closed your eyes, thinking about the answer. Was that a good idea? No. It surely wasnt. Did he deserve it? Yes, he probably did.

"Fine. One last chance. One last shot and if you fuck up, I won't ever see you again. You will just disappear. You won't touch me, kiss me, look at me weird, or, you're gone. You will be acting like my roommate." - You informed him, standing up. He only nodded, looking into the flames.

"We'll talk tomorrow, I'm just too fucked up to pay attention now." - You said before going to your bedroom, locking yourself in. That night, you cried yourself to sleep again. Not because you missed him - but because you were afraid that most likely, he will be leaving the other day.

[andtheyweredeskmates]

Of Latte’s and Lingerie- Chapter Eleven

Thank you guys for reading. I was super productive and wrote two chapters today so enjoy. I’m not gonna keep linking every chapter like I usually do because it takes forever but I’ll start linking to the first, last and next chapters and there’s always my AO3 link if you need to read a chapter in between! Anyways, loving the feedback! Love hearing from your guys!

AO3 - Chapter 1- Chapter 10

Taglist: @catsssmeow @toodaloo-kangaroo

It was a long time before Adrien got to see Marinette again. He was sure to text her at least every night, asking about her day, getting to know her, but Marinette was working long hours to help Audrey prepare for the upcoming show, so she didn’t have time to go our for more coffee. Adrien considered a few times to offer to bring her dinner, but he felt nervous. Upon Nino’s recommendation however, he did attempt to flirt with her. Unfortunately that wasn’t really going according to plan.

When he tried his lines came out a little like this:

Coffee Buddy:

So you have a cat? I bet she’s not as cute as you

Or

You’re parent’s make sweets? I’d love to sample the goods.

And finally, his most recent disaster

The only thing that would make your lingerie line better is you wearing it

Adrien hit his head back against the headboard.

“WHY.” Smack.

“DID.” Smack.

“I.” Smack.

“SAY.” Smack.

“THAT.” Smack.

It was official. He was an idiot. He was coming on too strong and he knew it. He’d always imagined that when he finally met the girl of his dreams he’d be suave and cool and he was anything but. He’d never had issues with girls before… although he’d never really been that interested in one either. Of course, texting was making everything worse. He had no idea how she was really reacting to his comments behind the screen and it was making him crazy. It’s been nearly two weeks since he’d seen Marinette and he was starting to think she might never want to see him again.

At the sound of his phone buzzing he lunged for it.

…

Marinette was bright red. She stared at her phone while her brain attempted to reboot itself. She thought up a thousand ways to respond, no- a million. They ranged from “Thank you” to “Well do I have a surprise for you” but she couldn’t bring herself to type any of them. She’d been texting her hot man friend for two weeks now and she felt like a teenager. It was fun and exciting and unbelievably nerve wrecking. She wasn’t completely dumb. She could tell he was flirting. But she also wasn’t entirely convinced that he liked her as much as she liked him and that was terrifying. For god’s sakes that’s exactly why she had broken up with Luka. She just couldn’t return the same feelings that he was showing her. She was beginning to realize how awful that feeling must have been.

Her mind was going every where at once. Surely it shouldn’t take this much effort to respond to a flirty text. Do normal people have this problem?

“Marinette!” Marinette jumped and dropped her phone on the floor.

“Ah!” She yelped.

“You are so jumpy, what are you doing? You’re staring at you’re phone like its going to eat you. Can we focus please?” Audrey was standing in the corner of the conference room, leaning against the wall. She had a dry erase marker in her hand and she was writing on the window which was acting as their makeshift drawing board.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” Marinette apologized. She bent down to pick up her phone and nearly shrieked again when she saw it. It was absolutely fucking destroyed.

…

Adrien pouted when he saw it was just Nino texting him.

DJ Bubbler

Hey man, I think me and Alya are actually gonna go grab a bite to eat. You mind if I bail tonight.

Adrien sighed.

Adrikins

Nah its cool. I’ll probably go to bed early

That was a lie. Adrien knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he got some sort of response to his text. He was a worrier by nature and he wasn’t really sure why he thought that wouldn’t apply to women. It was Friday and he didn’t have to work tomorrow so staying up all night wasn’t really a problem, but his sanity was already starting to waver. The scenarios in his head were endless.

Maybe she’s just busy at work? She doesn’t have her read receipts on so there’s no way of knowing I’ve been left on read but if she doesn’t have time to respond I can’t be upset.

Maybe she thought it was such a cute, flirty text she literally died. Adrien wondered briefly if that was considered manslaughter.

Maybe she thinks Adrien is a total idiot and doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. That was clearly the worst-case scenario here.

Adrien couldn’t handle the stress so he hatched a plan.

…

Marinette couldn’t help but be antsy throughout the rest of her late night meeting. It was nine o clock and she still had no idea what to say back to “Aiden”. Not that she had a way of responding anyway. She’s definitely going to have to get a new phone.

“I don’t know what your freaking out about Mari, just buy a new one, you aren’t exactly poor,” Audrey had said rolling her eyes. “I ought to know, I’m paying you.” Marinette didn’t know how to explain that it wasn’t the purchase of a new phone that was the problem. But it wasn’t just her boy problems that was distracting Marinette. She hadn’t eaten since her lunch break at noon and she was starving.

Audrey seemed oblivious to Marinette’s lack of presence. She was currently berating Marinette’s assistant about how everything better be perfect or he would definietely be

“-Fired. Understand Fabio?” The assistant was so terrified he didn’t even bother to mention that his name was really Francis. He just nodded feverishly.

The meeting was interrupted by Audrey’s secretary.

“Um, excuse me miss, there’s someone here to see Marinette.” Audrey glanced at the secretary with a look of interest.

“Oh? Who?”

“I’m not sure ma’am he just asked that he could bring her some dinner.” Marinette was suddenly very present. Who on earth would come here to bring her food? Audrey grinned.

“Well why don’t you send him in?”

…

Adrien’s plan was fairly solid. He would just bring her food in and talk to her. It would be pretty obvious if she didn’t want to talk to him anymore.

The secretary came back to the front desk and eased into her chair.

“Go on in to conference room B sweetheart. It’s just down the hall.” Adrien nodded and smiled.

“Thank you.” He made his way down the hallway with determination, forcing himself to be confident.

“I am Adrien Agreste and I can talk to a woman.” He muttered to himself. He opened the door and walked in tucking the Chinese food he had under his arm.

When he looked up he saw three people gathered around a large table staring at him.

“Adrien?”

Next Chapter

[lydisms]

only human | self para

word count: 2000 (it’s really long sorry)

summary: after being sent back to eichen house, the orderlies pick up where they left off with Lydia. only this time the experiments get rid of her powers completely instead of amplifying them and they work on different types of torture.

trigger warnings: torture, violence, mention of needles

When Lydia opened her eyes she recognized the familiar white walls immediately. She was sitting in the middle of a room at Eichen, her hands shackled to the arms of the chair. On the side of one wall by the door read “Supernatural Unit.” There were a group of orderlies in front of her smirking. Lydia didn’t remember much after being driven back to Eichen so she imagined they knocked her out at some point. “Welcome back, Lydia. You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting for this moment.” Actually, Lydia figured. She had fought quite a bit of them in that building and Lydia always knew they wanted revenge. She feared they were going to kill her immediately after hearing Charles and her dad were sending her there. “Thank God for your father and his friend. When we offered them money to have you committed here, they jumped at the opportunity. Do you want to know how much your life is worth? $200. How does it feel to have a father who hates you that much?” Lydia didn’t want to listen. She was doing her very best to focus on anything else and to drown out their voices. The banshee needed a plan to get out- that was her main concern. Not the fact that her father was willing to be paid off to get rid of her. “Of course none of us had any idea how fast it would happen. You made it easy for us, Lydia. You and that monster in this town.” There were five orderlies. Lydia had begun counting so she could distract herself from what they were saying. Five; she could easily knock them out. Then she’d just make a run for the exit. It couldn’t be that hard, right? “Now you’re back where you belong. No visitors this time and escaping isn’t possible. We have plans for you. It’s a shame your friend isn’t here, though. Maybe we should bring her in for old times sake too. Talia, right?” The mention of Talia was enough to get her attention, though. Lydia couldn’t help herself and she immediately spit in one of their faces when they got close enough. “You bring her here and I’ll kill you.” Lydia warned, but before she could say anything else one of the orderlies was slapping her in the face. That was it for Lydia. She wasn’t going to wait any longer and she immediately screamed in their direction. All five of them fell to the floor unconscious shortly after and the shackles on Lydia’s wrists were broken. She got out of the chair and made a run towards the door. Unfortunately for Lydia she was greeted by six more orderlies and a taser right outside the door. Lydia fell to the ground and before she could even try to scream again or fight back, one of them hit her in the back of the head and she remained unconscious.

Lydia groaned as she woke up once more. This time she wasn’t in a chair but she was laying down in a bed with the same familiar shackles on her hands and feet this time as well. Lydia pulled to try and break free on instinct but it was no use. Every part of her body was aching with pain and her vision was blurry. She blinked a few times to try and see clearly when she noticed blood on her pillow. Immediately Lydia brought her hand up to her head to see if that’s where the bleeding was coming from. There was a bump but thankfully not another hole drilled into her head. But that’s when Lydia noticed some marks on her arm as though a needle had been pricked into her skin. And she saw an orderly coming with another needle. Lydia immediately tried to scream to fight them off again, but the scream came out completely normal- there was no wailing, no sound vibrations, nothing. Lydia tried again and it was the same thing. In fact, her throat was starting to burn and feel like it was on fire. “W-what did you do?” Lydia mumbled, shaking her head at the orderly who was laughing. “Your powers are gone now. Good luck trying to fight your way out of here.” Lydia shook her head furiously again. “No.. you didn’t.. that’s not possible..” She was starting to become tired all of a sudden. Maybe she was hallucinating. There was no way they were able to take her powers away, right? Fear ran over her entire body as she tried to figure out what they did to her when she was knocked out and what kind of twisted experiments they must have tried on her. She was fighting to keep her eyes open but the room was spinning and suddenly Lydia was asleep again.

“Wake up.” Lydia heard someone yelling at her and she immediately flinched, only to be reminded that she was chained to a bed. Her wrists were starting to hurt and she wondered what they had been doing to her. Her body was in too much pain to have just been sleeping all this time. Lydia felt honestly sick to her stomach- even more so when she remembered that they somehow took her powers away. What was the point all of this? What did they want from Lydia? She was starting to wonder if their truly was no end goal here except to completely torture her. Maybe kill her, which was a lot easier now that she couldn’t defend herself with her abilities. “We’re going to take some trips down memory lane. Remind you of all the reasons you’re here. We’re doing Beacon Hills a favor by keeping you here. All you do is kill people.” He said in the cruelest tone of voice. Suddenly he was pressing play on an old recorder and Lydia heard the recording of her Grandma being murdered- the one she heard at Eichen a few years ago. Only this time, Lydia didn’t have Stiles with her to distract her from the tape. She couldn’t focus on the sound of his voice. God, she missed him so much.

The tape replayed for about an hour before Lydia began to beg them to stop. Though she might not have if she knew what was coming next. A needle was injected into her arm and the pain was unbearable. Lydia screamed until she couldn’t scream anymore, wondering what the hell they had injected into her. The second she stopped screaming, her eyelids were once again becoming heavy. Only when they closed she wasn’t asleep. No, she was seeing visions of the night her mother died. When that memory was over, it switched to Allison dying. Then Aiden, Nate, Ariel.. everyone Lydia loved who she ever had to watch die. The memories were being dragged out of her mind and playing on repeat. Lydia felt like she was in her own personal hell. Once in awhile the memories of death would stop and instead were replaced with some of her most traumatic moments. Finding out her sister had died, being killed by hunters, Jackson and the abuse he put her through, having a hole drilled into her skull, tormented by Peter, Charles, Death, the list went on. 

Everyday would be a mix of weird experiments on her followed by those worst memories being played on loop in her mind. To the point where Lydia couldn’t see anything else anymore. She was becoming so delirious that the memories were starting to become a bit twisted. There were moments where her mother was screaming at her that this was all her fault, or the same for Nate. Things that Lydia knew didn’t actually happen but she was so out of her mind that she couldn’t figure out what was real anymore. There was a sound of a drill repeatedly playing and Lydia didn’t even know if the orderlies were doing that to mess with her or it was her own mind.

She didn’t even know how long she had been in Eichen. It felt like an eternity when in reality it had only been five days. If breaking Lydia was the endgame here, they were pretty damn close. The only thing keeping Lydia going was the fact that she needed to get out of here to get back to Stiles. It was all she wanted, and it gave Lydia the strength to not completely give up. That’s why when one of the orderlies came in to change one of her bandages and they had to take her shackles off to do so, Lydia fought back immediately. They might’ve thought she was too weak to do so but it didn’t stop Lydia. She kicked him in the groin so that he fell to the ground and then Lydia grabbed the closest thing she could find- a walkie talkie- and hit him in the head with it so he was knocked out. She slowly peered out the hallway and the coast was clear so Lydia took off running; only to be met with ten orderlies at the end of the hallway.

Lydia could see a couple possible outcomes. Either she went willingly back into her room at Eichen and continued this torture for who knew how long. Or she could fight back- which she knew would either end with her reuniting with Stiles and her friends, or her dying. It was a risk she was willing to take. There was no way in hell Lydia was going down that easily. She took a deep breath and charged at them. Maybe they took her powers away but she could still fight, and she would do so until she physically couldn’t anymore. Only problem was they had actual weapons. Guns, tasers, knives, you name it. Lydia was doing her best to fight back and she knocked a couple of them out but eventually they managed to get her on the ground again. One held a gun up to her head and another shook his head. “No.” He said before kicking Lydia in the stomach. “Let’s have some fun with her first.” And then the punching, the kicks, even a few knife cuts and everything else came. Lydia didn’t know how long it lasted but she could barely move afterwards. She knew eventually she was going to die on this floor if she didn’t do something soon and that was not an option. Lydia knew she was not a weak person. They could take her powers but those abilities did not define her. With whatever strength Lydia had buried deep inside of her, she was able to reach forward and grab a gun that was tied to someone’s boot. She couldn’t see through her swollen eye and the blood that was on her face but she was able to shoot him in the leg. After that, it might’ve been a mix of adrenaline and the overwhelming desire to make it out of this alive, but Lydia stood up. Her leg might’ve been broken at this point so it was a miracle but she ultimately lifted herself off the ground. Lydia wasn’t going to die here. She wanted to get home to Stiles, to see her friends again. She had to. It was enough to give her the energy to fight these guys. Ten guys and Lydia took them all out with no powers. And after that she headed for the exit and didn’t look back.

The strawberry blonde practically crawled out of the Eichen doors. Once she was free and the adrenaline wore off, Lydia was hit with the pain again. She could hardly breathe and she knew multiple bones were broken. She just needed to get home.. but- she couldn't make it. Lydia tried and tried with every ounce of her being but she only made it about .1 miles from Eichen before she collapsed on the side of the road, leaving a trail of blood behind her. 

[jaskierswolf]

Heartbreak Hotel

Or the dating show Geraskier AU based on an idea by my wonderful friend @slythnerd (Also on my AO3) 

Geralt took a deep breath and pulled at the tie around his wrist. The cameras weren’t rolling yet and he was seriously considering jumping out of the window. He was grateful that he wasn’t one of the original contestants. He wasn’t sure whether he would have been able to cope with all the build up and hype before entering the hotel. The set to the show was essentially the top two floors of a hotel, and one of the reasons he hadn’t made a break for the nearest window. He did enjoy being alive despite how much he liked to grumble about it. Geralt was going to be the first new contestant since the season had started just over a week ago. With any luck everyone would be happily paired up and he would be allowed to go home at the soonest available opportunity.

He’d only agreed to this shit show for Yen’s sake. He was pretty sure that her and Triss just wanted to laugh at his discomfort.

“Mr Rivia?” Some attractive young brunette with a clipboard asked.

He raised an eyebrow at them. “Yeah?”

“Are you ready?”

Geralt looked back down at the wristband. It was pink, purple and blue. He gave a small smile. When he’d been filling out the application form he had hovered over the box for bisexual for over an hour. He wasn’t out to his family yet. Yennefer knew, but that was it. Well at least coming out on one of the most popular dating shows in the world would mean he’d probably only have to do it once.

He grunted and nodded, dropping his wrist to his side. “Yeah.”

_________________________

Jaskier was seriously starting to doubt his life choices as he flopped dramatically across the laps of Virginia Stael and Valdo Marx who were curled up on the sofa together. Jaskier had tried to woo  the ‘Countess’ as he affectionately called her due to her love of expensive jewellery and designer clothes, but she’d reached an ‘agreement’ with Valdo. They had a game plan. Everyone in the damn hotel knew it and he hoped the viewers at home could see it too. The pair of them barely tolerated each other. They would split up as soon as the show ended. They’d only chosen each other because they’d both deemed the other to be the most attractive out of the contestants. It was shameless and it was loveless. Well, not entirely loveless, despite their personality clashes and endless drama, they did end up shagging rather loudly every night, much to Jaskier’s displeasure as he had the misfortune of having the room next to Valdo.

Valdo wasn’t even that attractive.

“What are you doing, Jaskier?” Valdo snapped.

Jaskier rolled his eyes and extended one leg as he gestured to himself. “Lying down. Obviously.” He muttered.

“There’s a free chair.” Virginia pointed out in her snooty I-am-holier-than-thou voice which made Jaskier feel incredible glad that his attempts to seduce her had failed.

Unlike most of the contestants, Jaskier wasn’t playing for the money. He’d been naive to think he’d be able to actually find love on the show. What had he been thinking? Everyone else was catty and brutal and he just wanted to be loved god damn it.

Although, the sex so far had been spectacular so who was he to complain?

“Where’s… who are you paired with at the moment?” Valdo glowered at him, with unfairly pretty green eyes.

Ok so maybe he was that attractive, but fuck Valdo. Not literally.

Unless….

No.

Bad Jaskier.

The man was an arsehole. He did not deserve to get fucked!

Jaskier sighed again and patted Valdo’s cheek. “Priscilla but she broke up with me.”

“And why did she do that?” Virginia asked.

“I made out with Aiden.” Jaskier hid his face n his hands and moaned. “but in my defence the challenge was to kiss who I thought would be best in bed! Priscilla is lovely and I really like her, but Aiden just looked like he could fuck the living daylights out of me, which incidentally he can.”

Jaskier’s attention was drawn away by a woman behind a nearby camera who was obviously trying to hide her laughter and failing. Most of the time Jaskier was able to ignore the cameras but sometimes they just really got on his nerves.

“I was being honest!” He snapped and pouted. “I thought honesty was the key to all healthy relationships.”

No one had a chance to reply as the elevator doors opened and a god of a man walked out.

“Holy shit.” Jaskier’s jaw dropped.

This was it. He was in love. The man had silver hair that looked like it had been woven out of moon beams. It was pulled back into a messy bun revealing a truly sinful undercut on both sides of the man’s head. He was wearing a loose black shirt with the top few buttons undone and the sleeves were rolled up to the elbows. He’d paired the shirt with some tight black jeans. Oh god his thighs could probably break Jaskier.

Jaskier let out a pathetic whimper.

The noise drew the hot guy’s attention and holy fucking cock balls… his eyes…

Jaskier was going to drown in those eyes. He licked his lips and he stared unabashedly at this fucking work of art, that is, until he was dumped on the floor by Valdo shoving him hard. “Oi! Fuck it, get off!” He yelped as he landed on his arse.

His eyes snapped back up to the new guy and he blushed. The man was smirking at him, clearly laughing at his misery. Jaskier gave a little wave and the scrambled to his feet so he could introduce himself. “Hi! I’m Jaskier!”

“Geralt.”

Jaskier could have melted on the spot. How was his voice that good? Fuck it was better than sex.

“Jaskier.” He replied and then swore. “I mean. I already said that. Hello.”

“You said that too.” Geralt chuckled.

“Well what else am I supposed to say? I just met you! I can hardly start asking you to bend me over that table and…” He cut himself off and clapped his hands to his lips.

“Shall we start again?” Geralt asked, still smirking although there was now a faint red blush on his cheeks, probably embarrassed by Jaskier’s outburst. He extended his hand, which, Jaskier noted with absolute delight, had a bi wristband tied neatly on it. “I’m Geralt.” Jaskier grinned and shook Geralt’s hand, making sure his own matching wristband was on display. “Jaskier Pankratz. Nice to meet you.”

“Cut the cameras!” A voice called out through the speakers. “Everyone, we have a newbie Geralt Rivia. He’ll be joining and he will be leading our next challenge. We love the drama but try and give the man a warm welcome. Jaskier! Excellent. We’ll work with that. The viewers are going to love it! Ok. Rolling!”

Jaskier groaned and gave Geralt a sheepish smile. “Urgh. I’m sorry. Looks like they’ll be pairing us together for a few challenges.”

Geralt frowned. “Can you say that with the cameras running?”

Jaskier shrugged. “Not everything makes the cut. They get a lot of footage. There’s a whole bunch of people not even here that are being filmed right now. It’ll get cut and pasted until they get what they want.”

“So why did they cut the cameras?”

“Important announcement. Make sure people are actually listening. I doubt they actually stop rolling.”

“Hmm.”

“Sooooo….” Jaskier linked his arm with Geralt’s. “Did you want the tour?”

Geralt laughed. “Will there be any tables?”

Jaskier tripped up instantly and spluttered as Geralt caught him around the waist. “Geralt!” He choked.

“Relax, Jaskier. I was joking.”

“I should hope so!”

“Mostly.”

“Geralt!”

_____________________

Four days in and Geralt was more relaxed than he thought he would be. Most of the contestants gave Geralt a wide berth. He was more than a little out of place. He wasn’t really sure how he’d ended up being chosen. The rest of the contestants flirted easily and could all talk for hours about their ‘types’ and what they were looking for in a partner.

When asked Geralt had just shrugged, he’d glanced over at Jaskier who had been busy braiding Priscilla’s hair and not paying much attention. Jaskier was currently paired with Priscilla, they’d been arguing when Geralt had first joined the hotel but had since rekindled their love, if you could call it that. Geralt had ended up pairing with Kiera. She was pretty enough and had taken a shine to him during his first challenge. He wasn’t that interested in her but he’d promised Yen that he would give the show a fair shot. So he was trying.

“What about you, Buttercup?” Priscilla winked at Jaskier.

“Oh umm. Me? Fair hair, pretty eyes… a voice like a dream.” He sighed wistfully and Priscilla turned to kiss him.

Geralt averted his eyes. He didn’t enjoy it when they kissed. It made him… uncomfortable.

Yen would say jealous but Geralt scoffed at that. Jaskier was his friend. They often hung out around the hotel when they weren’t being filmed with their respective partners. Jaskier was the only one Geralt felt he could really talk to. He let Geralt talk for far too long about Roach and the other horses at the ranch. Kiera had just laughed and made a joking about riding Geralt then shut him up with a kiss.

It wasn’t a bad kiss. It was just not what he’d been expecting from a partner.

He was on the wrong show.

Geralt groaned. “I’m going to my room.” He muttered. “Headache.”

Jaskier jumped up. “Are you ok, Geralt?” The brunet put a hand on Geralt’s arm and looked at him with such open affection that it made Geralt ache.

Fuck.

He was falling in love with him.

Geralt pulled away sharply. “Fine.”

“Oh. Right then. I’ll just, I’ll be here if you need me then.” Jaskier mumbled and slunk back over to Priscilla, taking her hand and decidedly not looking at Geralt.

“Fine.” Geralt repeated and fled the room, glaring at the camera man on his way past. He just needed to get away and be alone for a bit.

________________________

“I just. I don’t know what to do!!” Jaskier whined as he shifted in the armchair for the third time that minute, moving so his feet were draped over the back of the chair and he was hanging upside down over the edge. “Priscilla is very pretty and we both like music. We’re thinking we could start a band after this is all over, compose music together. She’s incredibly talented, maybe even better than I am, and oh ho! Let me tell you that I don’t say that very often!”

“So what’s the problem?” The person behind the camera asked.

“I just don’t love her. I thought I did but then in walked Geralt and it was like the universe rearranged itself and Geralt was in the centre.”

“How poetic.”

“Yes, yes.” Jaskier waved his hand and then scrambled up so he could sit cross-legged on the chair. He was getting head rush from being upside down. “It all sounds like a bad rom com but I swear. God, and then he had the audacity to be kind!”

“Not many people see him that way.”

“Bollocks!” Jaskier glowered at the camera. “He’s just shy but once you get him talking I swear he’s worse than me. Oh and his sweet darling Roach, has he shown you a photograph? No? Well that is tragic. She’s gorgeous. Stupid name for a horse though. Oh and he has this collection of little horse figurines that he paints. It’s just the sweetest. I swear if he proposed tomorrow I would say yes.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah….” He sighed longingly. “I could be Mrs Geralt Rivia. Oh wait no. Fuck! He’s going to see this eventually. Shit. Can you edit that out? What do you mean no?! Fuck!”

____________

Geralt stared at the envelope in his hands. It was the challenge of the day. It was almost the end of Geralt’s second week in the hotel and soon people were going to get eliminated. He almost hoped it would be him, except that would mean leaving Jaskier behind. He wondered whether they could exchange contact details before he left. No, that would be weird. Jaskier was still paired with Priscilla.

Kiera had thankfully moved on.

“Umm.” Geralt blushed as he reread the words. He hadn’t participated in one of the infamous kissing challenges yet. His first challenge had been more of a get to know you type, after that the worst thing he’d had to do was a strip dance to ‘Toxic’, that was bad enough. “I have to kiss the person that I’m most likely to propose to after we leave here.”

“Sweet mother of…” Jaskier groaned and Geralt turned to look at him.

His friend was already blushing although Geralt supposed it was rather warm in the hotel. It was supposed to encourage the contestants to wear skimpy outfits to lure in more viewers. Jaskier as a result seemed to never be able to do his shirt up properly. The dark chest hair that trailed down into Jaskier’s tight fitting denim shorts drove Geralt mad. How anyone could resist the urge to pin Jaskier down and kiss every inch of his chest, was beyond Geralt.

Perhaps Yen had been right. Perhaps he really did need to get laid.

“Seems a bit forward.” Geralt muttered. “I’m not even paired with anyone.”

“Oh just snog someone already. Propose!?” Valdo scoffed. “This isn’t Married at First Sight.”

Valdo was right. This was too personal. He couldn’t.

“You don’t have to do it, Geralt.” Jaskier’s hand was on his cheek. “Let’s just say you have to kiss the person you think is cutest. We’ll all agree on that.”

“I won’t.” Kiera muttered.

“Shhh!” Jaskier hissed at her. “The challenge is a dig at me, something I said in the diary room. You shouldn’t have been dragged into it.”

“Hmm.” Geralt leant into Jaskier’s hand before he knew what he was doing. Jaskier had always been generous with the casual touches and Geralt lived for every single one. He hadn’t realised how much he’d been craving that physical touch before he’d met Jaskier. “Ok.” He nodded.

“Ok?” Jaskier asked, letting out a shaky breath and pulling back slightly but Geralt gripped onto his wrist to stop him.

“I can do it. The challenge.” He nodded.

It was now or never.

He loved Jaskier. He wasn’t ashamed to admit it. It was fast but then the circumstances weren’t exactly normal. They’d been living in each other’s pockets for two weeks and Geralt loved him.

He lunged forward before he could lose his nerve and captured Jaskier’s lips in a bruising kiss, cupping Jaskier’s cheeks in his hands to hold him close. Jaskier melted against him and wrapped his arms around Geralt’s neck, returning the kiss eagerly and moaning as their lips parted. Geralt had been dreaming of kissing Jaskier ever since the brunet had licked his lips when Geralt had first laid eyes on him. Every time Jaskier chewed on his bottom lip Geralt had imagined running his thumb along the soft pink skin and gently pulling it away from his teeth. Now all Geralt wanted to do was bite it for himself, so he did. Jaskier let out a sinful moan and pushed his body up against Geralt.

Geralt’s head began to spin. God the things he wanted to do to Jaskier. The noises he could pull from him. “Jaskier.” He breathed as he reluctantly let Jaskier go, resting his forehead against Jaskier’s and running his thumb along his cheek.

“Uh huh…” Jaskier mumbled and gripped onto the fabric of Geralt’s shirt. “Winter wedding then?”

Geralt laughed. “How about dinner first?”

Jaskier scoffed and buried his head against Geralt’s neck. “Fine, a spring wedding then.”

“Hmm.” Geralt muttered and kissed Jaskier’s hair. “We’ll see.”

_____

More witcher fun

[advena87]

Let's bring Cat to Kaer Morhen!

I always think what would happen if Lambert had the opportunity to bring Aiden to Kaer Morhen at least one winter. How would other witchers react to him and whether Aiden would get along with them.

Of course, the most difficult thing would be with Vesemir, the old witcher still holds a grudge against Cats, doesn’t trust them and is terrified by the prospect that his youngest son is involved with one of them.

Geralt would be curious, both for Aiden himself (he is a notorious cat! Is everything that is said about them true?) and his relationship with Lambert. Lambert is an asshole, Geralt will have a hard time believing that he has made a real friend, and when he finally does, he will understand that it is not about friendship. And it would be hilarious for him.

Eskel immediately realizes what is happening here and is immediately tired of it, because Lambert and Aiden (especially Lambert) have a communication problem and cannot determine the status of their relationship. Lambert denies it, Aiden sabotages it. Eskel has no patience for watching these two morons and their stupid actions.

(I warn you right away, it will be long!)

.

*right after arriving at Kaer Morhen with Aiden*

Vesemir: Do you really trust this Cat that much?

Lambert: If I murdered someone, he’s the person I’d call to help me drag the corpse across the floor.

Vesemir: * glare *

Lambert: Oh, you think that disapproving glare works on me after all the times I've seen it?

***

Geralt: Have you been yelled at by Vesemir yet?

Aiden: I'm not scared of him.

Eskel: So that's a no.

***

Vesemir: Stay away from Lambert.

Aiden: I take that as an invitation.

***

Vesemir: Remember, no tricks, no lies, no trouble!

Eskel and Geralt simultaneously: Yes, Vesemir!

Lambert: Kiss my ass, Vesemir!

Vesemir: I wasn’t talking to you. *glares at Aiden*

*later*

Aiden: Wow, your dad really hates me.

Lambert: Don't worry, he hates me too.

Aiden: No, I think he hates me because he loves you.

Lambert: What kind of fucked up logic is that?

***

Lambert: Look guys, I need help.

Vesemir, glaring suspiciously at Aiden: Love help?

Geralt: Financial help?

Eskel: Emotional help?

Aiden: Help moving a body?

*Everyone looks at Aiden*

Aiden: ... What? You'd be surprised how often he needs this kind of help.

***

Lambert: Vesemir, not all Cats are crazy.

Aiden: Easy for you to say, you're not one.

Lambert: You don't make it easy, Aiden

Aiden: And you can't lie to them. I AM a lunatic motherfucker with lethal combat skills.

***

Aiden: *under his breath* This is bullshit.

Vesemir: Did you just curse? Because we don’t talk like that in this god-damn, mother-fucking house.

Aiden: ...

Vesemir: Shit.

***

Aiden: Son of a b-

Aiden: *notices Vesemir*

Aiden: Penis!

Aiden: That wasn't any better.

***

Geralt: You don’t know my family. What you call the Apocalypse, I call Sunday dinner!

Aiden: The Apocalypse on Stygga Castle was always on Fridays.

Aiden: My mentor served the boar for dinner.

Aiden: It was the only day of the week that we were allowed to eat meat…

Aiden: And then he made us fight for it to death.

Geralt: Man, what the fuck? Is he serious?

Lambert: I don't know. On the one hand, I hear a different version of Friday dinners every fucking time, on the other, he always cries when we have a peaceful dinner on Fridays.

***

* Sunday dinner*

Vesemir: Uhm, Cat, that's where I sit.

Aiden: So sit next to me.

Vesemir: No, I sit there.

Aiden: What's the difference?

Vesemir: "What's the difference?"

Lambert: Oh fuck, here we go.

Vesemir: In the winter, that seat is close enough to the fireplace to remain warm, and yet not so close as to cause perspiration. In the summer, it's directly in the path of a cross-breeze created by opening windows there and there. It faces the kitchen at an angle that is neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, nor so far wide as to create a parallax distortion. I could go on.

Aiden, getting up from the seat: Okay, I get it.

*Later, Aiden and Lambert in private*

Aiden: Now seriously, he really, really, REALLY hates me.

Lambert: No, he just really, really, REALLY loves that chair

***

*Geralt and Eskel try to make drunken pranks on Lambert with Aiden's help. A few things went wrong*

Geralt: You were only supposed to create a diversion, Aiden!

Eskel: That was complete destruction.

Aiden: What do you want from me?! I'm Cat witcher, man! It's what I do!

***

Lambert: MERRY CHRISTMSS MOTHERFUCKERS!!!

Aiden: FUCK YEAH BITCHES LETS GET IT POPPIN *plays Mariah Carey*

Geralt: Guys... it’s 5 am.

Eskel: Don't make me have to get out of bed and beat the shit out of you.

***

*after another drinking party in Kaer Morhen*

Eskel: What happened last night?

Geralt: Strangely, I have no idea. Wait. *tries to remember something* Nothing. Weird. Disjointed. My memory is completely blank.

Eskel: It sounds disturbingly familiar.

Geralt: Eskel, why is there a shower cap on your head?

Eskel: I'm sure there's a very easy explanation to this.

Geralt: Is there a very easy explanation as to why you're wearing sandals that aren't yours?

Eskel: Where are my boots?

Geralt: And why are you wearing a gold chain, Eskel?

Lambert, wakes up realising he is spooning Aiden: Oh fuck, please tell me this is a dream.

Aiden, waking up: Calm down, fluffkin. Come back to bed.

Lambert: Whatever you think happened last night didn't happen, because nothing happened you got it?

Eskel: That's nice, Lambert. Way to belittle the man.

Aiden: Yeah, Lambert. I do have feelings.

Geralt to Aiden: What is all over your face?

Aiden: I can't be sure. *checks his face* Oh Gods. You didn't see a mad dwarf dealing a fisstech, with a hook for an arm, did you?

Eskel: … what?

Geralt: N-no.

Eskel, to Lambert: Why do you have a black eye?

Lambert: Okay. It's nothing to freak about. Everybody relax. It's no big deal, it's just a small shiner.

Geralt: Lambert's absolutely right. His lover's spat with Aiden is really none of our business.

Lambert: Nothing fucking happened between us!

Aiden: Are you as disappointed as I am? And now seriously, we have to find that dwarf before Vesemir does.

***

Aiden: I have flaws! What are they? Oh I don’t know…

Aiden: I sing in the shower. Sometimes, I spend too much time being drugged and drunk.

Aiden: Occasionally, I’ll commit first degree murder.

Aiden: But please, please, may I date your son?

Vesemir: NO!

***

Geralt: What does Aiden think about your friendship?

Lambert: I don't know, I try not to bother him about this kind of stuff.

Geralt: You mean like your thoughts and feelings?

Lambert: Yeah.

*meanwhile*

Eskel: So, why do you put up with him?

Aiden: Because I'm desperately in love, that's why. And because Lambert is a great man, and I think one day, if we're very, very lucky, he might even be a good one.

*later*

Geralt: So what exactly is going on between the two of you?

Lambert: Nothing. Really. We're friends, that's it.

Eskel: You're idiots, the both of you.

Geralt: Are you sure you aren’t dating Aiden?

Lambert: If I am, I certainly wasn’t informed of it.

Geralt: To be fair, if any of us were dating someone without realizing it, it would be you.

***

Lambert after arguing with Eskel over Aiden: I can take care of my own... friend.

Lambert: Wait, where is he?

Eskel: *snorts*

***

*after Lambert refused to be Aiden's boyfriend*

Eskel: Let me get this straight: Aiden told you he wanted to be with you and you said ‘no’?

Lambert: I said no.

Geralt: What the hell is wrong with you?

Vesemir: Dumbass!

Lambert, Eskel and Geralt: *looks at Vesemir in surprise*

Lambert: Look, I have my reasons, okay?

Eskel: What the hell could they possibly be?

Lambert: He always wanders fuck knows where, getting into trouble and keeps flirting with other guys, and when he gets dumped, he suddenly comes running back to me? Look, I'm not a fucking rebound, all right?

Vesemir: You're too proud to take him back? What exactly do you have to be proud of?!

***

Eskel: Did you and Lambert get in a fight?

Aiden: Lambert had a fight. I was being perfectly reasonable.

Eskel: You guys are idiots, did you know that?

Aiden: In our own defense, we actually do know that.

***

*Lambert, Geralt and Eskel drink together after Lambert had a fight with Aiden*

Lambert: Guys, I don’t know what Aiden wants anymore! What am I supposed to do? 

Eskel: May I speak freely? 

Lambert: Yeah.

Eskel: I’m so bloody sick of hearing this shit day after day: “Guys, what am I to do? I told him I love him, I took it back, I’m afraid of commitment, I don't understand my own feelings!” *grabs Lambert* FOR THE FUCK’S SAKE! MAKE A MOVE! DO SOMETHING! DO YOU WANT TO REGRET THIS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?!

*Lambert absolutely terrified, runs away to his room without a word*

Geralt, shyly: Don't you think it was a bit harsh?

Eskel: What, you need some talk too? Because you and your sorceress  bullshit—

Geralt, scared: No, nope, I'm fine. I'm totally fine.

***

*Dandelion visits Kaer Morhen during the winter and is absolutely unaware of the on and off relationship situation between Lambert and Aiden*

Dandelion, about Lambert and Aiden: You know, you two make a cute couple.

Lambert: No, no we're not, we're not a fucking couple, we're single, two singles, like those individually wrapped slices of cheese that are friends, for the fuck’s sake!

Dandelion to Geralt: Did I pluck a nerve there?

Geralt: Yes, you did.

***

Aiden: Wait a minute! Are we hugging? Have we done this before?

Lambert: No. If you tell anyone, I'll slit your throat.

***

Lambert: Stop it.

Aiden: Stop what?

Lambert: Stop looking at me like that, or everyone here will think we did it.

Aiden: *grabs Lambert and kisses him deeply*

Lambert: Well, that'll throw them off the track.

***

Aiden: *leaving Lambert's room in the morning with Lambert's clothes on*

Vesemir, catching him: Don't you dare steal that shirt, I gave it to him for his birthday!

Aiden: Um... That's it? This is what you have to say in this situation?

Vesemir: Well...

Vesemir: Maybe you’re not a diabolical Cat sleeper agent out to infiltrate my family and destroy everything I’ve worked for.

Aiden: Truly, that’s all any guy can hope to hear from his boyfriend’s father.

***

Eskel: Someone has to tell Vesemir about this.

Geralt: Yeah.

Lambert Definitely, good luck Eskel.

Eskel: Wait, why me? It's your business!

Lambert: Because you're the scariest motherfucker.

Geralt: Eskel isn't the scariest! He just looks the scariest!

Eskel, sarcastically: Thanks Geralt, it was really uplifting.

Aiden, entering the room: What are you doing?

Eskel: We wonder how to tell Vesemir that you two cabbage heads are dating now.

Aiden: Oh, that won't be necessary. I'm pretty sure he knows about it.

Geralt: How so?

Aiden: He caught me sneaking out of Lambert's room in the morning in his clothes.

Lambert: Fucking WHAT?!

Eskel: How come you're still alive?

Aiden: I'm a cat, I always land on my feet.

***

Lambert: It's a package from Vesemir.

Aiden: What's in it?

Lambert: It's heavy. Must be his disappointment in me.

***

*After a fight with Vesemir, Lambert moved into the stable; Aiden is trying to get Lambert to move back into the keep*

Aiden: All right, I'll speak a language you understand. Five crowns if you move back in.

Lambert: Fifty.

Aiden: Ten.

Lambert: Forty-nine.

Aiden: A crown?! You went down a crown?!

Lambert: Okay, it's back to fifty.

Aiden: You know, you make it really difficult to love you sometimes.

Lambert: Yeah, that's what Vesemir says.

***

Lambert: Aiden, I need you to do me a favor.

Aiden: No, I’m not giving you anymore lap dances again.

Geralt: LAP DANCES?!

Eskel: AGAIN?!

Lambert: ANYMORE?!!!

***

Aiden about Lambert: He's got a great ass.

Geralt: Don't be gross.

***

Aiden: We have some exciting news.

Eskel: Okay.

Lambert: As you know, Aiden and I have been together for some time, and a lot of things I never thought possible now seem possible.

Geralt: Okay.

Aiden: After a careful evaluation of our relationship, we decided that the time was right to take a step forward.

Vesemir: *hyperventilate*

Lambert: Do you want to say it?

Aiden: Let's say it together.

Both Aiden and Lambert: We're getting a cat!

Eskel: This is why I've been saying we should keep champagne on ice.

Geralt: I think Vesemir is having a heart attack.

Both Aiden and Lambert: *evil laugh*

***

Aiden: We named our cat after the greatest man we know.

Geralt: What's his name?

Lambert: ...

Aiden, proudly: Vesemir.

.

[ygreczed]

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 ??

(...)

《I feel dizzy.》

Kidou opened his eyes and searched Fudou’s for a split second : he was drinking a beer when he had fallen asleep for a fleeting moment on the brunet’s shoulder. He sat up, avoiding the petrol blue stare on him, and thoughtfully glared at the half-empty bottle in his hand.

《How much did you drink ?》The strategist mumbled, licking his lips only to get a reminiscent taste of alcohol.

《Two beers…》

《You’re drunk ?》

《Huh… Yeah, maybe.》Fudou answered, his voice low and throaty.

The room was dark, Haizaki and Kira were sleeping on the floor with a blanket on them, Kazemaru, Shirou and Kiyama were resting on the God Stricker’s bed. The tv was off for hours now, and the other boys were sleeping, but Fudou and Kidou were whispering in the night just like two middle schoolers during a slumber party.

《I’ve never been drunk before.》Kidou let out, fighting sleep and trying not to let his head fall on the brunet’s shoulder again. 《How is it like ?》

《It’s like… hard to stay focused, and hum… to fight back impulsive thoughts.》

《What impulsive thoughts ?》

《I have… mmh something to ask ya.》

Kidou mentally went through the list of questions Fudou was likely to ask : something about soccer, about strategy, about himself ? He nodded without looking back at the brunet, anticipating the words that would come from his mouth.

《Could you sleep here… tonight ?》Fudou gulped and seemed to be searching for the right thing to say. 《'Mean, the others are sleeping here too. And I… hmm, kinda like your scent.》

《You’re definitely drunk.》

Kidou sighed with a smile fortunately hidden by the obscurity. He let his head lean against Fudou’s shoulder again, feeling the number 3 turning his head to bury his nose in his hair.

《You underestimate me...》 the mohawk whispered in a sleepy and gruff voice.《I’ll learn you, you’ll see… I’ll find out what’s on your heart.》

Kidou wanted to protest but the other boy immediately started to snore slightly. Did Fudou know anything ? He frowned as he felt exhaustion invading his senses, and closed his eyes ; in a last thought, he wondered if Fudou would succeedly read through him, and then he fell asleep.

(...)

Kidou wondered how to react when he saw Fudou knocking at his window, showing in a triumphal move the Cherry Bliss bottles he had just bought. He wasn’t exactly in the mood for that, actually. He opened the window, letting the brunet climb inside his room with his singular grin.

《I found some more.》 Fudou said, smirking as he turned toward Kidou to give him two bottles. 《Let’s end what we’ve started the other day. I wanna know what kind of playmaker you are.》

Right now, Kidou was the “I will destroy Ichihoshi”-kind of playmaker, so he didn’t answer. He looked down, and smiled when he realised Fudou was wearing the same belt and the exact same pants as the last time: those straight jeans were fashionably too big for him and would most likely fall on his hips without the belt.

Hm.

It was satisfying enough to forget about the Russian player for a moment. He reached out to grip the belt and pulled Fudou closer.

《I need this.》 he said basically, a shiver running down his spine as Fudou answered with a mischievous smile.

《Sure, Kidou-kun, help yourself.》

Fudou wasn’t going to undo the belt by himself, Kidou knew it. He amusedly raised his eyebrows as he reached for the buckle and started to undo it under Fudou’s thoughtful stare. He finally took the long belt and opened the two bottles the brunet had given him. Fudou smirked and took the offered bottle to clink glasses with the blond boy.

《So, let me guess what’s on your mind.》 the number 3 said with a fruity voice, the bottleneck resting on his lower lip as he talked. 《Ichihoshi ?》

《Why would I be thinking about Ichihoshi ?》 Kidou replied, trying not to sound too irritated.

《Because he’s a little fucker who thinks he can bullshit everyone without getting ass-kicked by the big brother. You are the big brother in case it wasn’t clear enough.》

Fudou seemed to find the situation in Inazuma Japan very funny. He turned his head and walked to Kidou’s bed to drop on it nonchalantly. The number 5 joined him carefully, not sure he wanted to talk about the Russian player now, and sat on the edge of the bed to have a few sips, under the brunet’s burning gaze.

《Hmm, so that’s what was bothering you lately huh ?》 Fudou guessed, and his low, quiet voice made Kidou shiver discreetly. 《Ichihoshi.》

《He’s dangerous.》 The blond boy replied, giving the other player an accusing glance through his tinted glasses. 《And you know that too.》

《He’s sure... Suspect. But please, this shithead isn’t dangerous.》

《You’re underestimating him. I saw… how he works. He’s responsible for Gouenji’s injury.》

《Are you scared he could hurt you as well ?》

Kidou didn’t answer the question, thoughtfully toying with Fudou’s belt : he deliberately avoided his gaze, stroking the leather with the pulp of his thumb, and slightly tilted his head forth when the brunet tried to make eye-contact with him.

《Wait… that’s not about you.》 Fudou seemed to easily read on his face, even though the blond was trying hard not to show anything. The brunet remained silent for a moment, before Kidou gave in to the tentation to look back at him : suddenly, a grin invaded the number 3’s lips and Kidou realised he couldn’t hide anything anymore. 《It’s about the captain, huh ? You fear Ichihoshi because you know he could harm Endou...》

《I don’t fear him.》

《Yeah, sure, hehehe…》

Kidou gripped his beer and drank half the bottle in one-go, while Fudou was sitting cross-legged next to him : in a quick glance, the blond boy realised the number 3’s jeans were showing his black boxers as he was sitting. So Fudou was this kind of boy ? Wearing fashionably oversized jeans as if he liked looking delicate and cheeky at the same time.

《What’s going on ?》 Fudou whispered next to his ear. 《You can tell me. I’m smart enough to understand, and not to tell anyone else.》

《I swore I would protect this team the day I got called to take Inazuma Japan’s uniform… I couldn’t protect Gouenji, and I almost failed in protecting Endou. I won’t let this little fucker make a liar of me again.》

《Endou, Gouenji, and you, huh… I see.》

They were his best friends : the light that brought him back to his senses, his precious teammates. Winning the FFI was their dream for too long, and was the only reason why they agreed in to being separated for the Reinforcement Committee. They were bound to fight the world’s best teams, together, or nothing ever meant anything.

Fudou finished his first bottle with two last sips and leaned toward the former captain of Teikoku to whisper in his ear :

《Try not to lose yourself in the process.》

Kidou catched his glare for a quiet moment, and couldn’t help but gulping when Fudou smiled, his hand touching his shoulder in a flirty manner.

《Endou brought you back in the light, don’t fall into the darkness again for his sake.》

《How can you know this all ?》 Kidou breathed looking at the brunet’s glowy lips.

《I told you I would learn you.》

Something in Fudou was irresistible. This wasn’t a feeling Kidou knew very well ; all of his relationships had always been ‘logical’ until he met Endou and Gouenji, yet he didn’t know anything about this lustful desire driving him at this very moment. Fudou was making him feel like he'd never felt before. It was warm, soft, and also burning, sparkling. Something was linking them, and he couldn’t determine what.

《Will you give the belt back to me ?》 Fudou demanded quietly after a brief silent minute.

《No.》 Kidou admitted with a smoky voice.

《Then give me something… in exchange.》

Fudou’s hand flew to Kidou’s goggles, his thin fingers brushing the central part, just between his eyes.

《I want your eyes.》 He let out in a breath, looking deep into his gaze through the green glass. 《I want to see what’s hiding in them.》

《What do you expect to see ?》 The blond inquired -the air seemed to refuse entering his lungs for no reason.

《Anything you’ll show me, Kidou.》

Kidou gulped silently and reached the back of the goggles with his right hand, putting the left one in front of the glass. In a slow, anxious move, he removed the blue accessory, revealing his closed eyes. He couldn’t believe he was going to do that : his goggles were the last wall separating him from the rest of the world, and he didn’t feel like facing it right now.

《I can’t.》 he finally muttered, his breath quickened while his eyes remained solely closed.

《I was expecting it.》 the number 3 answered in a mocking yet soft voice.

《Why did you ask if you knew I wouldn’t do it ?》

《You tried... this already tells lots about you, you know.》

Kidou wondered if he should put his goggles back to open his eyes again but he suddenly felt a breath near his cheek and froze. A light, brushing kiss fell on the corner of his eye.

《I would be careful if I were you. Ichihoshi is sneaky, and might be smarter than you think.》

Fudou’s lips disappeared from his temple and Kidou waited silently for one full minutes before he decided to open his eyes again. The room was empty and the curtains were floating from the late summer breeze entering by the open window. Kidou looked back at his bed, where Fudou was sitting a moment ago : the Cherry Bliss bottle cap was there, lying on the blanket like a signature.

The blond smiled slightly, and put the golden-and-pink cap in his pocket.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here is the second part ! I'm in vacations in the mountains and I have almost NO INTERNET... It breaks frequently because of night storms so I'm posting it now it works ahah.

As I said before the fic part is all written, I just have the comic parts to do... but I didn't bring my pc with me so -heh... I'll get back at it when I'll be back home, before going back to school !

(Still tagging some of my kdfd pals : @shawn-and-aiden-frost-9 , @inazumafocus , @funips , @maryseph )

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Pure (9/14)

Summary: Belle wanted to wait until marriage before she had sex for the first time. It was the one thing that still stuck in her mind after leaving her small town upbringing steeped in religious doctrine and abstinence culture. When her wedding night comes, however, the purity ideals of Storybrooke’s sex education are hard to shake off, and making the transition from virgin to sexually active is more difficult than she anticipated. With the help of a patient husband, Belle begins an intimate journey into understanding her body, her desires, and her identity as a woman.

Rated: E

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[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [Eight] [AO3]

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Pure

Nine

Over the course of their relationship, Gold had found out a lot about Belle’s hometown and the culture that she had been brought up in. Most of the time, they’d managed to laugh about some of Storybrooke’s more ridiculous ideas. Sex was one thing he’d never managed to get her to laugh about before they were married, and something he’d only just managed to get her relaxed enough to slightly giggle about since.

Now, he was beginning to think that she might never be light-hearted about it again.

He’d always tried to respect the town as much as he could. It was all very well Belle making disparaging comments about it; it was her home. She could slag it off as much as she liked. It was like him and Scotland. He complained about the weather and the food and was very glad he’d left the country when he had, but woe betide anyone else who decided to insult his place of birth. He knew that Belle would likely feel a similar protectiveness towards Storybrooke. He had never really been enamoured of the place, but he knew that it meant a lot to Belle.

Driving home to Boston after their disastrous trip to see Moe, it had been extremely hard to bite back all of the things he wanted to say about the place. Any love for it that he might have come to hold for it had been completely shattered with the way Belle had been treated there. He knew that she had intended to stay longer, to make sure that her father would be ok when he got out of the hospital after his surgery, but she was so close to putting him back in the intensive care ward that ultimately, they’d made the executive decision to put Aiden’s money to good use and hire a nurse to take care of him throughout his recuperation, allowing Belle to go back to Boston and breathe freely at last.

Ever since that first night, curled up together in a motheaten single bed in the inn, Belle had been distant and withdrawn. At first he had put it down to being worried about her father, but Gold soon realised that it ran far deeper than that, and God, he hated her hometown for what it had done to her, for the way it had broken her spirit so completely within just a few days of being there and facing the scrutiny. He’d tried to get her to forget the awful words that had been spoken, to tell her that they didn’t matter and that the opinions of the petty-minded locals were of no importance, but deep down, he knew that it would have little effect on her, because to Belle, they were of importance. They did matter. These were the people that she had spent her formative years with, people in positions of power and influence that she respected, her own father for heaven’s sake.

Naturally, she was going to take what they said to heart.

Gold hated them, but not nearly as much as he hated himself in that moment. His mind was in a constant state of struggle between feeling that he should have done more to protect her whilst they’d been back in Storybrooke and knowing that Belle did not want to be protected; the idea of husband as knight in shining armour and wife as poor lost soul in need of guidance and protection was one that she had been trying to shake off for as long as he had known her.

And of course, there was the little monster at the back of his mind that was feeling a little peeved that he and Belle had not made love since they went to Storybrooke. Their intimacy stretched to chaste kisses and him spooning up behind her in bed. They’d been closer and more demonstrative than that even before they had been married.

It was not so much the lack of sex that bothered him. As he’d reassured Belle on their wedding night, he’d been so long without it that he wasn’t missing it. He was used to long dry spells. It was more the fact that they had made such progress and now, with one visit to Storybrooke and a bunch of ignorant nuns, it had all been completely undone, and Belle was denying herself all of the things that she had learned. It felt like she was punishing herself for something entirely out of her control, and in doing so, she was punishing him as well.

Then this in its turn, the annoyance at their suddenly deceased sex life, made him feel angry at himself for even thinking that way in the first place. Belle was going through hell, that much was clear, and here he was, thinking with his cock instead of his brain. Belle needed his help, but he didn’t know how to help her without it seeming like he just wanted sex. How could he ask her about what was going on in his head without coming across as a thirsty bastard with his own interests at heart? Belle was hurting and it killed him to see her that way, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t raise the subject with her. All he could do was watch her flounder.

He slammed his fist against the workbench, the smarting pain a momentary distraction from his tumultuous thoughts, and Jefferson jumped three feet into the air with the sound. Gold felt a little guilty; he’d been so caught up in his own thoughts that he’d forgotten that Jefferson was in the shop with him, cleaning up the vintage frocks and headwear that they’d received in an estate sale the previous week.

“Did the bench do something to offend you?”

“No, no. The bench is an innocent victim in this drama.”

Jefferson laid down his sponge and took off his gloves, coming over to the workbench and patting Gold’s shoulder.

“No offence, Aiden, but you’ve been out of sorts ever since you came back from Storybrooke. I thought that Belle’s dad was going to be ok?”

“He is, more’s the pity.” The snarl was out of his mouth before he had chance to stop it, but at least Belle wasn’t around to hear it. He shot Jefferson a worried glance, but his friend didn’t seem to be too worried by the outburst. He seemed amused more than anything.

“There’s definitely something going on that you’re not telling me.”

There was a lot going on that he wasn’t telling Jefferson; he wasn’t accustomed to talking about his sex life with anyone, even if he knew all the lurid details of Jefferson’s whether he wanted to or not.

“This goes deeper than a normal hatred for one’s father-in-law.”

Gold sighed. “It’s private, Jefferson. And that’s not negotiable.”

“All right. I’ll leave well alone. You know I’m always here if you need a friendly ear or two. Is Belle ok?”

“Yes.” The answer came out too quickly out of a desire not to discuss it, and Jefferson’s eyebrows ended up in his hairline.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Belle’s fine, I’m fine, Belle’s dad’s going to be fine, now can we please drop the subject!”

“Ok, well, like I said, I’m here if you need me.” He made to put his gloves back on, then stopped. “Aiden, we’ve been friends for a long time; you know that you can trust me not to take anything you tell me any further, and you know that you can tell me anything. I know you’re not one to wear your heart on your sleeve and you much prefer to bottle up all your feelings until you explode under the weight of them, but I’ve told you time and again that’s not healthy. Whatever you’re going through, you don’t have to bear it alone.”

He did, though, that was the trouble. Gold sighed. How could he even begin to explain his woes to Jefferson? He’d never really held with the idea of a problem shared being a problem halved. It wasn’t fair to burden all his problems onto Jefferson; and it wasn’t as if Jefferson could offer a solution so it would be a pointless endeavour. Unless, of course, Jefferson could help…

He shook his head. No, that was utterly absurd. This was between him and Belle, and he would have to find a way to get through it on his own. It wasn’t fair on Belle to drag someone else into their intimate life. It would be as if he was complaining about her, which he categorically did not want to do.

He loved Belle, and he didn’t think that anything could happen between them that would make him stop loving her. Even if they never had sex again for the rest of their lives, he would be grateful for the amazing few weeks of intimacy that they’d had, and he would never stop loving her because of this enforced celibacy.

Even as he told himself this over and over again, he couldn’t help some doubt beginning to creep in. He would never hold her upbringing against her; he knew that she couldn’t help the mental trap that she was now in. But did Belle know that herself? Did she realise that, or was she thinking that he was angry with her for withholding sex? How could he let her know that it wasn’t a problem without addressing the elephant in the room?

What if she was regretting marrying him in the first place? If she’d stayed local and married someone from her own town, who’d had the same upbringing as she had, someone her own age; then she wouldn’t be having this problem. Gold tried to tell himself that she would have been miserable, because she never would have experienced (well, very likely wouldn’t have experienced) all the things that he had taught her and helped her to discover about herself, but then again, she couldn’t miss what she’d never known. Maybe it would have been better for her to live in ignorance.

He shook his head. He couldn’t wish that upon her; he had spent enough time in Storybrooke to know that the life there wasn’t one that he would wish upon his worst enemy, let alone the woman he loved.

Gold sighed again, and Jefferson just raised an eyebrow, clearly hoping for an explanation as to why his friend was so out of sorts, but Gold wasn’t going to go down that route. He stood up quickly, leaving his tools out on the bench and carefully stepping over Jefferson’s work on the floor.

“I need some air.”

“Right. Yes, that’s exactly what you need,” Jefferson muttered, sarcasm dripping from every word. “I think what you actually need is to stop pretending that you don’t have feelings but hey, I’m only your best friend and business partner, so what do I know?”

Gold just ignored him and stalked out of the shop, walking quickly down the street in no particular direction, just trying to get rid of all his nervous energy.

There was nothing that he could do to help Belle, or to help himself. All he could do was stay quiet and hope that she would find some kind of peace in her own time. If he gave her the space she needed to feel safe and come to terms with everything, then hopefully she would not misread his intentions.

Perhaps it would be best if he started sleeping in the spare room.

X

Belle was in a quandary. She was in more than a quandary. She was in a state of downright mental turmoil and it was now so bad that she had got to the stage where she couldn’t sleep.

She shifted onto her back, staring at the ceiling in the dark and wishing that she knew what to do. God, she wished that she had never gone back to Storybrooke. She knew that she couldn’t really blame her father for having a heart attack, but if he’d never had it, then she never would have had to go back to her hometown, and she and Aiden would still be living the blissfully happy marriage that they’d had before that fated trip. She would still be living in wonderful ignorance of the way the world saw her, and they’d be making love on every surface of the house.

Well, perhaps not every surface. Even before Storybrooke, Belle had still been somewhat sceptical about doing it in places other than the bed.

She sat up, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. Life would be so much easier if she was ready to have a baby. Then no one would judge her for having sex. She’d get pregnant, and she’d be a mother, and no one could accuse her of being a whore then. The only trouble was that she wasn’t ready. The thought of being a mother scared her, and she couldn’t in all honesty bring a child into the world if she wasn’t going to be in a fit state to take care of it. That wasn’t fair on her or the child.

So, naturally, her only choice had been just to stop having sex, the two voices in her head at constant war with each other. One of them was screaming that it really didn’t matter what the nuns thought of her, that she didn’t even live in Storybrooke anymore so why should she care what the town’s opinion of her was? Why shouldn’t she enjoy sex like she’d been doing for the past few weeks? The other was yelling equally loudly that she should never have been enjoying it in the first place and what she was doing was a sin, that the union of man and wife was for the purposes of procreation, that’s why sex was so sacred and had to wait till marriage, after all. If you’re not doing it to make a baby then you shouldn’t be doing it at all!

And then there was a third voice, a calm, rational, placid voice that kept poking her with a sharp fingernail and telling her that she wasn’t the only person in this marriage, and she wasn’t the only person that she was denying when she had entered this period of sudden celibacy. Aiden was suffering as well. She knew that he was missing their previous intimacy. On the days when she woke up before him, she could feel his erection pressing into her backside where he was spooned up close against her, and on the days when he was up first, she could feel the chill emanating from the shower. He had never pressed her, never once mentioned the fact that their wonderful progress had ground to a screeching halt overnight. He had never expressed any dissatisfaction or frustration, but she knew that he must be feeling it, and in a way, she’d feel better if he was angry with her, because then she could be angry with him back instead of being angry with herself.

It was the ultimate paradox. She shouldn’t want to have sex, but at the same time, she was supposed to satisfy her husband, wasn’t she? She was hardly being a good wife if she was leaving him wanting all the time like this. There was no wonder that he’d stopped sleeping in the same bed as her.

Maybe, as long as she didn’t enjoy it, it was all right. She’d be performing her duty as a wife, performing a necessary sacrifice to make sure her husband was well satisfied; surely she couldn’t be considered a whore if she was doing that, surely that couldn’t be living in sin. The only trouble was, of course, that Aiden loved her, would never do anything to hurt her, and would certainly never make love to her without ensuring that she was enjoying herself just as much as he was. He’d rather not have sex at all than have it and think that Belle was just performing a necessary chore.

And she didn’t want it to be a chore. She had so many happy memories of learning with Aiden, of discovering all the ways that he could make her body sing, and her his. She didn’t want that to be marred with any experiences that were anything less than pleasant.

Maybe women just couldn’t win. It all went back to Eve. She was still being punished for the original sin. She was a whore if she had sex, and she was a bad wife if she didn’t. There was no way out. She should have just become a nun and have done with it.

Belle grabbed her pillow and threw it across the room with a scream of frustration, grabbing Aiden’s from his empty side of the bed and burying her face in it, bursting into a flood of hot, angry tears.

She missed her husband. She missed having sex with him. She missed feeling all the wonderful things that he could make her feel. She wanted him so badly, and she hated herself for wanting him. She hated herself for having let the nuns get under her skin, but now that they were there, she couldn’t get them out again. It was like they’d taken over, making her feel guilty about things that she had just about managed to stop feeling guilty about.

She felt worthless, like an entire part of her identity had been ripped away and replaced with that one hateful, horrible word. Whore.

She screamed into the pillow, beating it with her fists. To the outsider, she would have looked mad. She felt mad; she was so full of self-loathing and conflicting thoughts that she could well have been going insane for all the sense her own mind was making to her at the moment.

Deep down, she knew that it was not her fault, that it was the worldview she had been brought up into that was deeply flawed and contradictory in itself. She’d always known this, and the fact that she could no longer view these things rationally made her hate herself all the more.

“Belle?”

Aiden crept into the room, picking up her thrown pillow as he came across, sitting down on the bed beside her and taking her in his arms. Belle let herself be held, leaning into his side as the pillow absorbed her snotty sobs.

She wondered how long this breakdown had been in coming. Would she have been all right if she had never gone back to Storybrooke, or had that just hastened it? Had she just been ignoring all the warning signs before, going too fast because it felt too good?

“Oh Belle, my love.” Aiden held her tighter, kissing the top of her head. “You’ll be ok, I promise.”

That was the problem, though. Belle didn’t think that she was going to be ok. She had reached a cliff, tumbled over, and was now in freefall. She didn’t know how she was going to claw her way back from this. All she knew was that Aiden’s arms were around her and she didn’t ever want him to let go. Since before their marriage, she had always felt safe in his arms, and she needed the comfort he brought her now.

Finally, there were no more tears to come, and she wiped her face, resting her aching head against Aiden’s chest.

“What do you need, my love?” he whispered. “What can I do to make it better?”

Belle shook her head.

“I don’t think that there’s anything you or I can do,” she mumbled.

“Oh.”

He sounded so crestfallen, so defeated. He wanted to help her so badly, and she had no idea how he could.

She had no idea how she could help herself.

[hekategoddessofthenight]

Reunited Pt.1

Daniella

Welp here I am, going home for the 10 year high school reunion, after I talked myself into going just to rub my success in my old classmate faces, granted I only had a day to decide seeing as it's Friday night and it's currently Thursday, I packed my bags and bought a ticket for the next flight out to Alabama, I felt my IQ plummet the second the planes tires screeched along the tarmac, I grabbed my overnight bag out of the overhead compartment and dragged my feet off the plane and walked into the airport terminal.

My big brother Cash who is 5 years older than i am and who never left the state,  and his wife were the ones to come and pick me up seeing as our parents moved to the beach after I moved away leaving the house to Cash and his wife Ashlyn.

Cash is your typical good ol southern boy, never without the bluejeans with the dip ring in the back pocket of every pair thad been permenatly rubbing into it from years of rubbing again the seat of his pick up truck, his work boots that I had to hide from him when he and Ashlyn got married during the summer of my junior and senior year of high school.  

“So Dani, how is the big city?”  Ashlyn asks me as I toss my bag into the cab of the truck, it's been awhile since I been home and by a while I mean like 4-5 years and in that time not only have I lost some of my southern twang but I keep forgetting what my family sounds like and wow.

“it's a new adventure every day, I can’t get enough of it.” I tell her

“Cash, do you hear her my god she’s lost her southern drawl and picked up a northern accent! You really need to come home more Daniella or at least call more.” she says and Cash pulls away he just sits there nodding his head in agreement going mhmm as he spits his chew into the bottle.

“I will do just that when I have the time, works been crazy, I have so many books to read and decide if they are worth publishing I hardly have time for anything else, I had to beg my boss to even let me come down here for a few days.” I say as I pull out my ipad and skim over the latest manuscript of an up and coming romance author.

As we pull into the driveway of my childhood home I grab my bag and head in the house to my old room, Cash and Ashlyn boxed up alot of  my stuff and shoved it in the closet to make my old room into a spare when mom and dad come up to visit but the posters of New York on the walls, and the millions of pictures I took when the senior class trip went to Manhattan are still up.

That trip, that was it from the second I stepped onto the busy city street and smelt the ammonia filled subway I knew that was where I wanted to be, where I belonged.

I toss my bag onto the bed and start to unpack my bag, hanging up the strapy V-neck Chanel dress before it wrinkles and setting my black Louboutin below it all ready to go tomorrow night.

I change into some jeans and a T and head out to the living room, and watch them for a little bit. Cash is working the computer seeing as he does some kind of online job and Ashlyn is getting ready for the night shift at the local nursing home. “I'll be back.” I say as I steal the keys to the truck and head for town, it's been awhile since I been home but DAMN, after being in a city that never sleeps and going to a town that literally closes at 5 pm sucks, I wonder around town, its small but when I was little I thought it was huge but now this is small, as I wonder peering into some of the old shops I use to go to I can see that they have been closed up for some time also there is a thick layer of dust collected onto the glass, as I keep walking I’m waiting the the enviable shoe to stop and someone I went to school with or someone that has known me my entire life to recognize me and then word spreads like wildfire that I am here and I’m not ready for that.

not only have I changed emotionally but I have physically as well, I lost some weight, which I didn’t have to work so hard at seeing as I live in a city that I walk everywhere in but I also changed the way I ate when I moved their, I tried every single place that was labeled as southern comfort food in the first year I was their and nothing compared to my momma’s cooking but my taste has expanded now and I’m sure that I will not be able to find good fresh sushi here.

after touring the town I made my way up the the next major town for the world famous Gibson BBQ, after walking out with the few things I have been craving I manage to make it back home, I settle down in my room with my food and read some more of the newest novel I have been assigned to read over, after a few hours I finished the book and decide that it is worth publishing, I sit my iPad down and scan my old room, I rummage threw the closet and spot my old years book on the shelf and seeing as I have the reunion tomorrow it might be best if I figure out who is who again, I’ve kept up with some people when I moved thanks to social media, but its sad looking back and seeing that almost 80% of the graduating class is all ether married or have a few kids by now. Except me.

As I flip threw the book I happen to come across Aiden Rose, I use to help him pass English he was the high school heartthrob every girl wanted him including me and every girl was always trying to be my friend to try and get close to him but it never worked, I mean the closest thing I ever came to what one would mistake for a date with him is when we went to the diner for a last minute english paper he needed help with.

I had the biggest crush on him I mean for christ sakes I was a bumbling idiot when he was around, always stumbling over my words, tripping over air and up stairs it was sad, I would often have the thought of what if, what if he asked me to prom or what if he asked me to go to homecoming, or even asked me out on a date and gave me a kiss, but the biggest what if was what if i didn’t look the way i did, i was the short girl with the dopy looking glasses who always got her work done well before anyone, i was the girl who spent most of her free time in the library reading books all the time or writing in my notebook of stories i thought of, all of them being romance novels. to him i was just the girl that would help him pass his classes nothing more.

I wonder what he’s been up to since then, last time I saw him was the night of graduation after the ceremony, he hugged me and thanked me for all the help over the 4 years I was helping him, the next day I was on my way to NYU for journalism, I occasionally would look him up over the last 10 year but people change so much that I wouldn’t know if it was him or not. I wonder if he will be their tomorrow, I sure would like to know what he does now, I’m sure he maybe took over his family’s ranch or maybe he works at the local store, who knows but I’m sure I will know more tomorrow, that is if he even shows up, no point in worrying about it time to get some sleep.