#He's so nice and I like to draw mine with blessed butterflies

[awkwardpossum0]

silly sketch and one of my costumes from when I was an actor in the drama club and not a techie

I played Wikipedia

[pixie88]

Rory Bear

A/N: Those who play Lovelink know Rory O’Brien. He recently when grey on me, I miss him so decided to do a FF especially for him! He is one hot dad, who looks like Chris Evans. This might be a one shot piece or I might continue I’m not sure yet.  Let me know if you would like to be tagged or untagged!

Find my other Rory O’Brien FF HERE on my masterlist under Lovelink - One shots.

Comments always welcome!

Word count: 2317

WARNINGS: ⚠️ NSFW & Fluffy fluff

Disclaimer: Characters are property of Lovelink.

Pairings: Rory x MC - Laila

Enjoy!

It's been two days since I've heard from Rory while he was washing his car. I don't want to bother him, I know he's busy with work and Amy. So, I get dressed and take Winnie for a walk. It's a sunny winter's day, we spend an hour in the park playing fetch before I grab a hot chocolate from the food van in the park.

We are nearly home when I hear my phone, I pull it out of my bag and the screen lights up.

*Lovelink - Rory has sent you a message*

[Hi Laila, How are you? I was thinking about our last conversation and I have my answer, but I want to tell you in person.]

I reply once I get inside.

[Hey Rory, I'm fab thanks you? How is Amy? Oh ok, I'm glad you've have come to a conclusion.]

[I'm not great tbh. Amy is fine, she has an art show at school tomorrow night.]

[Oh no, what's wrong? Aww, bless her! Has she made an art piece?]

[I've missed you! I was thinking would you be up for coming? My mom and dad will be there too. So, I understand if it's too much too soon. Yeah, she's done a drawing of you.]

[I can't say I haven't missed you. Oh, are you sure you want me to be there if your parents are? Is this your way of getting me to the art show? Because it's working.]

[Yes, I want you there and so does Amy after you helped her at her dance recital she wanted to do something to say thank you. If it means you'll come then yes haha.]

[Fine, I'll come, but only because I'm curious about this drawing. Plus, I want to see you and Amy! What time does it start?]

[Thank you so much Amy will be so pleased about you coming! It starts at 6 pm but I can come and pick you up at about 5.30 pm?]

[Just Amy? Ok, 5.30 is great. Can't wait to see you both]

[I'm super excited to see you too! Great, I'll see you then.]

(He wants me to meet his parents? Does that mean he's ready to move on? I guess I'll find out tomorrow)

~*~*~*~

The next day I drop Winnie round to my neighbours house. I'm just finishing up. I decided on a blue blouse undone slightly and black jeans with knee-high boots.

Ding Dong!

He's here! I open the door, Rory smiles "Laila, you look beautiful!"

"Thank you! You look handsome yourself. Ready to go?" I ask.

"Aww, thanks. Yeah, Amy is in the car"

"Great, let's go!" We walk over to the car and Amy smiles brightly at me as we approached the car.

Rory opens the door for me "Such a gentleman"

He smiles "Only the best for you" 

He seems different from the past two dates lighter and more confident. He closes the door.

"Hey, Amy how are you?"

"I'm ok thanks. Are you?"

Rory gets into the car.

"I'm great thanks Amy" Rory starts the engine. It's not long before we arrive at the school.

When we get inside, Rory waves at an elderly couple I'm guessing are his parents. They make their way over to us "Rory, Amy and who might this be" the elderly lady says.

"Mom, Dad this is Laila. She's my date, Laila and Laila this is my mother Philippa and my father, Albert"

"Hi, nice to meet you both!"

"Rory you didn't tell us you were dating again! I'm so happy for you" Philippa says.

"She's beautiful too," Albert says.

"She is," Rory gives me a look that sends butterfly's through my body.

I smile.

"Laila, come on I want to show you my drawing!"

Amy grabs my hand and leads me to her drawing "Amy, this is beautiful!"

"I added Dad on to it. The love heart is you two falling in love"

"Oh wow! What's the rainbow for?"

She smiles "Nothing, I just wanted to add a rainbow"

"Oh ok! Well, it's better than any rainbow I have ever drawn!" We laugh as Rory and his parents appear behind us.

"Do you like it, Daddy?"

"Amy it's amazing, but I thought you said it was a drawing of Laila?"

"It is! There is Laila and there is you and that is you falling in love!" Rory blushes.

We look round at all the other art pieces Rory comes up behind me as I'm looking at a paper mache volcano. I feel his breath on the back of my neck "Are you ok?"

I turn "Hey, Yeah I'm fine you?"

"Laila, I'm sorry about Amy's picture"

"It's cute," I smile at him.

"Well, we have 5 minutes to ourselves can we talk?" he asks.

"Sure"

"On our last date you said you didn't think I was ready to move on," he says.

"I did and I also said you needed to think about what you wanted"

"Yes, you did," he says.

"So, Rory have you figured it out?"

"I did...Laila, I've had a long hard think about it and I'm ready! My walls are coming down for you!" He gives me a cheeky grin.

"Are you sure? I don't want to push you into something you aren't ready for!"

"Laila, I'm one hundred percent positive" His arms wrap around me, and he pulls me in tight.

I giggle "Rory!" I wrap my arms around him "You're like a bear! Rory bear!"

He laughs "Is that my new pet name?"

"It will be!" I laugh.

We de-tangle ourselves from each other Amy runs over excited "Laila, Daddy come on they're announcing the winners" she drags us over to where her teacher is on stage.

"Evening, parents and students I am proud to announce the winners from Falcon class. Third place goes to Isla Johnson. Well done Isla!"

We clap little Isla as she steps on stage to accept her award.

"Second place goes to Amy O'Brien, Well done Amy!"

Amy's face lights up as she turns to us "Yes! I got second place!!"

"Well done Amy!" Rory beams at her.

"Go claim your award! Amy!" Albert tells her.

She runs on stage and accepts her award. She comes back off stage, and we don't even hear who wins first place.

"This calls for a celebration! Why don't Grandad and I take you out for dinner sweetpea?" Philippa asks.

"Yes, please!" she turns to Rory.

"Daddy, can I go? Please?" Amy asks.

"Aren't Laila and I invited?"

She laughs "Daddy, you and Laila should have some time together!"

"Yeah, we'll watch Amy for a few hours. You two go and enjoy yourselves" Albert offers.

Rory looks at me with a look I have never seen from him before "Are you sure?" he asks.

"Of course! We love any chance to spoil our grandchild" Philippa says.

"Ok, but make sure you behave for Nanna and Grandad. OK?"

Amy smiles "Deal! Bye, Daddy!"

"Bye, sweetheart!"

Amy takes her grandparents' hands and leads them toward the exit.

Rory turns to me "Do you want to come back to mine? I could cook us dinner?"

"Ok, sounds perfect!"

We make our way to his car, and he opens the door for me "Thank you!"

He winks, closes the door, and gets into the driver's seat "Amy likes you"

I smile at him "She's a lovely kid! You did a brilliant job!"

He blushes "Thank you, Laila. You know when her Mom died, I thought how am I going to do this by myself and get it right?"

I take his hand "Well, you smashed it!"

He lifts my hand to his lips and places a small kiss against my knuckles.

10 minutes later we pull up to his house, he comes round to my side of the car and opens the door "You know I will expect you to open every door I go to walk through now" I laugh.

"It would be my pleasure!" He winks. He takes my hand and entwines his fingers through mine as he leads me to the house.

He unlocks the door and I step inside with Rory close behind as soon as the door shuts, he presses me against the wall his lips claim mine.

His kiss is full of passion, want, and desire. I'm pressed against the hard wall and his muscular body. I wrap my arms around him, his hands come under my thighs, and he lifts me up.

He starts grinding against my core "Rory" I feel he's stiff against me.

He moves us away from the wall, his lips never leaving mine. He guides us upstairs, kicks open a door and we fall onto his bed. He pulls away a little "Laila, I want you! I'm ready"

I giggle, "I kinda figured that"

His eyes are alight with desire "If you don't want this..."

I cut him off, he gets the hint. He moves from my lips and down to my neck and back up to my ear, his lips brush against it "You're so beautiful!" his hands start to unbutton my blouse his lips feather kisses against my chest.

I push off his suit jacket, pull his sweater vest up over his head and I grab his tie and pull him down towards my lips. He groans as his hand dips into my jeans, he brushes against me and I can't help arch off the bed. I yank his tie off and begin to unbutton his shirt.

I become breathless at the sight of his toned body. I flip us, crash my lips to his and work my way down his breathing shudders as I pepper kiss over his chest down to his abs "Laila!" I unbuckle his belt and he shifts helping me get him out of them.

I trail kisses up his inner thigh I pull him free of his boxers. He's hard I take him in my hand and circle around the tip he bucks up "Ah, ah, ah! Rory bear!"

He hisses in frustration "Christ...Laila!"

I work my mouth against him. His hand tangles into my hair moving me to his rhythm.

"Laila, you have to stop," he pulls me up onto the bed next to him, he moves to hover over me. He pulls off my boots and jeans in one swift manner.

His tongue invades my mouth, his taste still lingering there. His lips kiss along my purse line, my collarbone to my breast he unclips my bra and tosses it to the floor.

His lips cover my nipple "Crap Rory!" He moves to my tummy nipping as he goes definitely hard enough to leave bite marks. His hands pull at the waistband of my underwear until they are gone. He pulls a silver packet out of the bedside cabinet draw.

"Laila, it's been a while so I might be a little rusty" he lifts my legs his mouth finds my centre.

He moves my folds apart with his tongue I cry out unable to hold back a moan "Rory bear, you definitely have......not forgot how to do that!" I clutch his hair and move my hips wanting more.

He works against my clit "Nice to know I haven't lost my touch!" He doubles his efforts I'm barely holding on!

I pull him up to my lips he pulls away enough our lips aren't touching, but his forehead is against mine "Laila, are you sure this is what you want? Me? Everything that comes with me?"

"Yes! I want all of you!" This is all he needs to hear.

He rips the foil packet open with his teeth and rolls the condom on. He brushes his stiffened member against me and pushes past my entrance filling me. His lips forcefully captures mine, he groans. Each thrust he draws out slowly then thrust back fast and hard, I can't get enough of him!

My nails dig into his back, he hisses "God Laila!" His lips move to my pulse line every nerve ending feels electrified with each thrust, touch, kiss I can barely hold back a moan. I flip us both to his surprise "Whoa!" He screams.

"I need a bit of control too!" I start to move my hips riding him.

"By all....means I'm.....willing to....let....you take ohh god....the reins!" He struggles to get his words out.

His hands grasp my hips, and he bucks to match my rhythm "Ooooh Rory bear!"

He smirks "You know I love....this neeew pet name!" He groans.

He sits up placing his hand on the back of my neck, pulling me to his lips. He catches my lip between his teeth as he pulls me tight against his bare chest, "I can't..."

His lips brush against my ear "Let go, Laila! I'm barely holding on myself!" This is all it takes to send me falling over the edge. Rory shudders as he finds his own climax.

We are both panting barely catching our breath. He smiles up at me "Laila, that was...wow just wow!"

I smile "It was amazing!"

He pulls me into a soft kiss we are interrupted by the sound of his phone.

I collapse onto the bed next to him while he reaches for it. He reads the message "Everything OK?" I ask.

He turns to me with a cheeky smile "Just my Mom, she's going to have Amy for the night!"

"Oh?"

He lay next to me "You know what that means?" He smirks.

I try to hide a smile (I know exactly what it means by the smile on his face) "What does it mean?"

"Round 2" he pulls me onto him.

"HEY! You promised to cook me dinner!"

He smirks "We'll order in...After!"

He starts laying kisses along my pulse line, and we get lost in each other embrace again.

I’m tagging you because I know your a Lovelink fan lovely @khoicesbyk​

[xiaomoxu]

LUCIEN - Setting up Stall Date Part 3 and 4 (Christmas Date)

SPOILER ALERT!!

This is Christmas Date 2020 from CN server which hasn't been released on EN server yet. Might contains some spoiler.

Brace yourself for sweet moment from Lucien and MC ☺

I'm doing this translation for personal reason, so I'm sorry if there's some mistranslation. Kindly tell me if you found some :) feel free to read it~ ^^

I used Lucien CN name on it, Xu Mo.

Read the previous part here

PART 3

I was stunned for a second, then looked back and saw Xu Mo looking at the surrounding environment naturally.

Xu Mo: I like the decoration of this shop.

I blinked slowly and suddenly realized that he was rehearsing the scene of receiving customers with me.

Xu Mo: Miss, is there something on my face? You seem to be staring at me all the time.

Xu Mo's sudden "trick" was like a light feather, gently and just right to sweep away the tension in my heart.

I breathed out gently and took the wish card on the table to show him.

MC: Welcome!

MC: You can exchange any item for our wish card, write your wish and hang it on the Christmas tree in front of the door.

MC: Half an hour before the end of the market, we will select a lucky person to fulfill their wish.

Xu Mo: Do I have to exchange an item?

He spoke softly, then looked thoughtfully at the clock on the wall.

Xu Mo: It seems that the time is just right.

Before I could understand what he meant, I heard a slight noise behind me.

I turned my head when I heard the sound, something in the fireplace was slowly falling down the smokeー

A beautiful gift box hung from the end of the balloon and fell down, and finally stopped firmly on the ground.

MC: This is...?

MC: A gift from a Santa Claus who has not received professional training for MC.

I was pleasantly surprised to pick up the slap-sized gift box and shook it lightly, vaguely feeling that it was a square thing.

I was about to pull off the streamer, the bell at the door made a pleasant sound, and a young girl appeared before our eyes

Seeing the real guests come in, I carefully put the gifts -that I had no time to unpack- in my pocket, looked at Xu Mo and took a deep breath.

MC: I'm going by first!

When I brushed past Xu Mo, he seemed to encourage me and lightly squeezed the palm of my hand.

I turned my head and blinked at him, took the wish card and walked to the girl, explaining the rules of the wish house with ease.

The girl quickly showed a curious expression and took out a piece of chewing gum from her pocket.

Girl: Is this also can be exchanged?

I nodded enthusiastically and gave her the wish card in my hand.

Thinking of the "exercise" that had just been interrupted, I picked up another wish card and put it in Xu Mo's hand.

MC: Fulfill the rules of the Wish House, this is the wish card you just exchanged.

Xu Mo smiled and took the card and wrote. I just wanted to look up, but he turned around and gently pinched my cheek.

Xu Mo: Rather than taking a peek, I hope you selected it.

After speaking, he hung the wish card on the Christmas tree at the door of the wish house.

After a while, more tourists poured into the store. After explaining the rules again and again, everyone took out their belongings in exchange for wish cards.

Tourist A: This is the leaf I picked up from the ground, Can I change it?

Tourist B: And me, this is chocolate!

Tourist C: Is this a charity event?

Seeing the "business booming" in the store, and the excitement in my heart lasted for a long time.

MC: Please put the items to be exchanged with me, and then go to the side to receive your wish card.

Tourist D: Lady Boss, can this be changed too?

When I heard the two words "Lady Boss", I subconsciously turned my head and bumped Xu Mo's eyes into fullness.

He handed the card in his hand to the tourists in front of him naturally.

Xu Mo: Of course, please pick up your wish card from me.

I tried my best to suppress the rising corners of my mouth and put the things exchanged by tourists into the storage box.

Soon, the last wish card was also hung on the Christmas tree.

At this time, the Christmas tree has been clothed with a wish, and the layers of cards carry everyone's wishes.

Thinking that behind these different wishes, there is a person who is thinking about it, and there is a warm feeling in my heart.

Time passed quickly, and after a while, many familiar faces came back again in front of the door, which seemed to remind me that it was time to draw my wish card.

After checking the clock on the wall, I walked to the Christmas tree with Xu Mo and waved enthusiastically.

MC: Time is up, now we are about to pick up today's lucky ones!

MC: To ensure fairness and justice, I will blindly draw a wish card with my eyes closed and three circles!

After that, I closed my eyes in the undulating cheers, and countless cards slid across my fingertips, making a rustling sound.

After a few laps, after pulling off a card in the dark, I slowly opened my eyes

"Last year we were lucky enough to encounter mistletoe, so what will we encounter this year?

PART 4

Such a familiar handwriting, I almost recognized it without hesitation.

I turned my head to look at Xu Mo beside me, his brows and eyes curled, as if he already knew the result.

Xu Mo: It seems, I have always been lucky with you.

Xu Mo turned his head slightly, leaving a faint voice in my ear.

The butterfly kiss under the mistletoe appeared in my mind, as if the touch at that time was still between my lips.

Until my thoughts were interrupted by the sounds around me.

Tourist: What is it, everyone is so curious, let's announce it soon!

I looked at the content on the card, and after hesitating for a few seconds, I took a deep breath and read it out.

Sure enough, everyone was at a loss when they heard it, but it didn't take long for them to shout in excitement.

Tourist: Whose wish is this, hurry up and claim it!

Suddenly, Xu Mo held the palm of my hand and shook it gently in the air.

MC: It's mine.

As soon as Xu Mo's words fell, the surroundings boiled and several tourists pointed towards him.Tourist: The owner of Wish House!

Tourist B: What a coincidence! If she didn't close her eyes and rotate three times, I would really think it was a black box operation!

The surrounding voices fluctuated, and most of them were for Xu Mo to explain the meaning of the wish card. I hesitated and was about to divert the topic, but Xu Mo spoke first.

Xu Mo: I believe that when everyone writes down their wishes, they will think of the person they care about the most.

Xu Mo: Therefore, for me, the meaning of this wish is also a secret in my heart.

Xu Mo: Sorry, I can only reveal that much.

Xu Mo: Let this secret be known only to me and my "Lady Boss".

After the words fell, the tourists put on a meaningful smile and kept blessing us.

Subsequently, the Wish House gradually returned to its original appearance under the continuous blessings...

Finally, only me and Xu Mo were left.

(CG karma included as well)

Xu Mo came to me with two cups of hot drinks and sat next to me.

I took the cup and took a breath, there was a warm stream slid into my stomach. After I completely relaxed, I picked up the gift box in my pocket.

MC: There were too many people just now, and there was no chance to open it....

MC: It's done now. I want to open it when there are only two of us.

Xu Mo: I hope you will not be disappointed.

I shook my head in disapproval, and carefully removed the wrapping paper.

A beautiful snowflake specimen appeared before my eyes.

Every small branch extends from a flawless angle, like a work of art that cannot be reproduced.

MC: This is...?

Xu Mo: It comes from the first snow of the year.

Xu Mo: I was in the office that day and when I got back to my senses, I found myself standing in the snow.

Xu Mo: Suddenly I wondered if you would have the same regrets as me.

Xu Mo: "It would be nice if I could be by your side at this time."

Xu Mo: So I kept this moment.

MC: I'm just like you, thinking it would be nice if you were by my side at this time...

I lowered my head and rubbed my palms gently with my fingertips along the lines of the snowflakes, wanting to impress deeply in my heart.

MC: Xu Mo, I like this gift very much, especially...

It turns out that even when we are not around, we still have the same thoughts.

Although the movements of my hands are gentle, the surging in my heart has already turned over and over again.

MC: Xu Mo, now let me fulfill my wish for you.

MC: This is what I have always wanted to do for you, and it is also the original inspiration for Wish House.

I got up and walked to the window, hanging the "snowflakes" in my hand there. Then he raised Xu Mo's hand and walked to the shop window outside the door.

MC: Last year you told a legend under the mistletoe..

MC: Now I want to tell you a legend under "The Witness of the Window".

MC: In fact, no matter when and where, as long as two people care about each other, it is the most romantic legend.

In the slow confession, I kept looking deeply at Xu Mo, and his eyes followed my words, with shining brilliance flowing.

MC: So we have already realized this most romantic legend.

After speaking, I stood on my tiptoe and slowly tilted towards Xu Mo, and the breath of each other kept approaching.

Suddenly, the craze spread on my lips, soft and infatuating.

The cold snowflakes covered our body and then quickly dissipated on the hot skin. The Christmas music rang out in the sky also disappeared in my ears.

I don't know how long it took, he finally let me go slowly.

Xu Mo: If I had known it earlier, you did this to fulfill my wish.

Xu Mo: I might write a more "excessive" wish.

The corners of my mouth couldn't help but rise, turning my head to his ear and whispering.

MC: After today is over, the Wish House will be in my heart, always open for you.

The smile in Xu Mo's eyes grew deeper and deeper, the next second he stretched out his hand and hugged me into his arms.

-END-

[ellewritesathing]

Serpent Heart

Summary: Being Sabrina’s fraternal twin had its upsides but lately the downsides were starting to get to you. You’d made a plan to deal with it, and the only question now was if you were going to let Caliban get in the way.

Masterlist

Word-count: 1.6k+

A/N: hey guys so this is a little different from my usual fluffy clay boi but @hecatemacbeth7 requested this eight years ago and they’ve been so patient with me so i thought i’d post this today and then the next part of Faking It next week 💕 (also let me know if you want this to be a series?i don’t think i’m as good at angst as i am fluff but ya girl can try)

One of your earliest memories from after your parents died was listening in on a conversation between your aunts and one of their guests. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence - you and Sabrina would slip into one of your hiding spots and stay quiet until everyone left - but this time was different. This time their guest was a seer.

She saw right through the two of you.

Luckily, she was much more benevolent than the other guests your aunts brought around. She laughed at your efforts to squirm away and asked if she could give you each a reading. Hilda wasn’t so sure if that was a good idea but Zelda encouraged any and all dabbling in witchcraft.

All she had to do was touch Sabrina’s cheek to tell her that her strong (though sometimes unfounded) sense of right and wrong would get her into trouble and that she would go through many trials before achieving greatness. She was a cat, blessed with nine lives and cursed with curiosity.

One little touch was all it took for her to tell you that you were a snake. You’d grow cold in the shadow of someone close to you before striking out on your own. Ambitious and cunning, you would always find your way into the sunlight.

The others forgot about that afternoon in a few weeks, too busy with other responsibilities or new obsessions, but you never forgot.

Almost ten years later and her words echoed through every step you took and every word you spoke. Would things have been different if you’d never met the seer? Maybe not, but maybe you’d feel differently about the plan that started forming when you went to Hell.

It all started when Lilith’s right to rule was challenged and Sabina - always quick to act, not so quick to think - made her claim to the throne. The same throne that would have been yours if you were born seven minutes earlier. The same throne that Caliban would later challenge her for.

Caliban was a tricky thing to understand. If you were a seer, maybe you'd know whether or not to trust him.

He wanted the throne, that much was clear, but he seemed to have taken an interest in Sabrina - then again, everyone took an interest in Sabrina. Harvey took an interest in her, Nick took an interest in her, and now Caliban had. It wasn’t that you were short of admirers, but that the only ones you took an interest in always preferred Sabrina.

And it’s not like you blamed them. Despite the way it may seem, you loved Sabrina. She understood you in a way that no one else did, even if she didn’t understand everything, and she loved you just the same. She was your other half, your better half.

That’s why you never put up a fight when it came to her; because at the end of the day, you cared about her happiness more than your own. You’d help her rule if she beat Caliban, and you’d figure out some harebrained scheme if she lost. It’s just the way that things were when it came to the two of you.

In the end, Sabrina got all the glory and you did all the work. Sabrina was the beautiful assistant that everyone looked at while you conned them out of their hard-earned cash. They all thought Sabrina was the magician anyway, so maybe it was time for you to debut your solo act.

So you let Caliban and Sabrina battle it out in Hell knowing all the while that you’d take the throne from whichever one of them won. Obviously, it would be easier if Sabrina won but you could handle Caliban, even if he had the hordes of hell behind him. After all, what was a demon to a Morningstar? A boy made of clay to an angel?

That kind of reasoning was why you didn’t mind when Caliban started following you around. He never spoke to you anyway; all he did was watch and keep his distance. You let him look at you all he liked because he didn’t realize that you were looking right back. He was curious. You learned all his little tricks in the week or so that he spent following you, and then you set a trap.

You went about your day just like it was any other, but went to the woods after rehearsals for the musical. Caliban didn’t come out of the shadows as soon as you expected, so you started drawing out other things to keep busy. You’d done it dozens of times before, and the whisps were always the first to come out.

They froze everything they touched in the already-cold forest, but you didn’t mind the cold. They danced across your skin and soon you were dancing and singing along with them. The sun went down while you had your fun, and Caliban came out with the moon. Pretending not to notice, you spiraled into him during one of your turns.

“Mind if I cut in?” Caliban asked, holding out a hand to steady you.

“That depends,” you said with a smile. You used your hand to open up his palm. “Do you know how to dance?”

“I’m not opposed to learning from a pretty little thing like yourself,” Caliban said.

Either he was a quick study or someone had already taught him. You didn’t mind either way. It was better than having him stepping on your toes, plus it felt nice to have his hand in yours and on your waist. The way he looked at you also sent some very annoying butterflies in your stomach into a flurry.

When the rest of the stars started coming out and the whisps were fading, you asked, “So are we going to keep dancing until the sun comes up or are you going to tell me why you’ve been spying on me?”

Caliban smiled and stared into the trees as he thought. All he said was, “You’re more difficult to understand than your sister and your friends.”

“How so?”

“Your friends are all very human with very human concerns. Sabrina included.” Caliban looked down at you and stopped moving. “But not you. You understand Hell, you don’t fear it.” He lifted a hand to your face and moved some hair from the side, watching where his skin made contact with yours before settling back on your eyes. “Tell me, Morningstar, is there anything you fear?”

Caliban started leaning in and your breath hitched. He smiled before pressing his lips to yours, and for a second you smiled too. For a second, you let him kiss you and hold you close. Once that second was over, you remembered that he was a manipulative demon who was using you to get the Throne.

You bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood and pushed him away. Caliban fell to the ground at the same time that the metallic taste flooded your mouth. You spat it out and knelt next to Caliban to keep him in the dirt with an icy hand. The cold radiated out from your fingertips and across his chest, but he didn’t fight it.

“You want to know why I’m not afraid of anything in Hell?” you asked, pushing down a little bit harder. “I'm not afraid because I’m the one they should be afraid of.”

The ice was snaking up Caliban’s neck but all he did was stare at your hand. “So you know a few tricks," he said. "I don’t think Hell is going to be very afraid of an ice princess.”

“They will be.”

You used your other hand to push some curls from his forehead.

“You’re willing to cross your sister in order to do it?”

“If I have to,” you said. He was silent for a few seconds so you continued, “Sabrina gets everything, have you noticed that? I never used to mind when, but now I want more.”

“And what is that you want?” Caliban asked.

“Earth.” You pushed down just a touch harder on his chest and watched the ice spread across the rest of his body. “You and Sabrina can fight it out in Hell - I’ll pick up the pieces of whoever’s left - but Earth is mine.”

Caliban was unusually quiet as he thought it over, realization spreading over his face as he did. Giving up your claim to the throne, helping Sabrina with the challenges, all the so-called secret trips to Hell … it all dawned on him at the moment it took you to freeze him to that spot on the forest floor.

“I could help you,” Caliban said in a quick voice. “We could make an alliance; I become King of Hell and you can do whatever you please here on Earth.” He looked back down at your hand on his chest for a moment before looking into your eyes again. “Or I could tell your friends about this clever plan of yours.”

“And who would believe you?” you asked. “It would be just like you, Caliban, to turn sisters against one another. You’d do anything for the throne, right?”

Caliban clenched his jaw and moved to break out of the ice that encased his body. His only problem was that he underestimated you, but that was everyone’s first problem. The ice was too strong for him to break it.

You leaned down with a smile on his face. “I’ll come back for you once this all over,” you said, ignoring him when he asked what you were doing. You pressed your lips to his and kissed him while the frost spread over his face. Pulling away, you gave a sad smile to his frozen form. “One day.”

Tagged:  @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e  @miss--moose  @marrypuffsstuff  @harryscarolinaa  @igorsbby  @foji2000  @mschfavngz  @artaxerxesthegreat  @thxmagic  @strawberriesandknives  @xealia  @hotmessindisguise  @sweetrogers  @reheated-coffee  @shelby-x  @perseny-blog  @millie-753  @luneerius  @shizzybarnaclee  @lettherebelovex  @throughparisallthroughrome  @ietss​  @thebookwormlife​  @mechanicalanimalz  @mariamermaid​  @nqbmf​

[fascinatedscrawls]

It’s Not about Death, but Life

Getting into the event was child's play. This one was outside of her normal area these days, but they were all basically the same. High society events were excuses the upper class used to show off their wealth and to show anything off you also needed people to show off to.

A press pass got her through the doors without even a pat down despite the baggie hoodie she wore.

Sloppy.

Byleth carefully didn't roll her eyes at the bargain bin security team. Instead, she made a point of looking reluctantly impressed by all the glitz and glam on display around her. In a hoodie and a knee-length skirt not even her strappy black heels could help her blend in with the guests. Hunching her shoulders in an visible act of self-consciousness, Byleth adjusted the hood of her jacket to cover her messy bun before moving forward into the fray.

Notepad in hand, Byleth slowly worked through the crowd making notes on current fashions, who was speaking to who, and who was very pointedly not talking to who. She reached the other end of the excessively opulent entry hall having filled out a sheet and a half of barely legible scribbles before she found an empty bathroom to clean up in.

Once the door was locked behind her, Byleth pulled the elastic from her messy bun and shook her head to let her pale seafoam hair fall back down over her shoulders. She deftly tucked the notepad and press pass into her jacket pocket along with her hair tie before reaching for the hem of her jacket. It pulled off easily over her head, though it mussed her hair a bit more in the process. She made sure the sleeves weren't inside out and set it neatly on the marble countertop next to the sink.

Lightly biting the inside of her lower lip, Byleth hiked up one side of her black dress so she could reach loose knot she'd made under the fabric earlier that evening. There it was. She undid the knot one handed with the ease of long practice. Straightening, she tugged lightly at the sides of her dress and she did a little shimmy, allowing the bottom half of the ankle length skirt to fall from where she'd hidden it before arriving. The dress was a solid black and the slits on either side of the dress went nearly to her knee. A classic look that wouldn't draw too many eyes.

Dress sorted, Byleth reached for her hoodie and quickly adjusted her makeup to suit the new look. Once that was done, she replaced the tools and pulled out a pair of thin black gloves. Biting her lips and inspecting her reflection, she gave her top one last adjustment to make sure the strap was secure around her neck before draping the jacket over an arm and walking back out into the party like a whole different person.

Passing the jacket to the nearest server was easy, a worried comment about finding it in the bathrooms and it was being taken to the lost and found for easy retrieval later.

The mansion belonged to the gala's host this year - another obvious display of wealth to their constituents and the public alike. It worked both for and against Byleth by providing a veritable banquet of nooks and crannies to hide in. For now it meant a lot of meaningless small-talk as she drifted through the rooms, 'oh'ing and 'ah'ing at the abundance of expensive antiquities the host and their family had purchased over the years as she searched for her target.

None of the other guests Byleth ran into knew her, which was a blessing. The only people that would be able to identify her on sight that lived in this particular region were ones she'd rather avoid.

Thankfully, she wasn't here for the host or his family. As the ones in the brightest spotlight, it would have made her night difficult indeed.

Instead, she was here for one of their close friends, a man who had made more than a few enemies on his own climb to the top. At least one of those took exception to the social climber's preferred method of ruining others’ reputations - usually by setting them up to take the fall for his dirtier schemes - and reached out to Byleth's agency after two years fighting to clear their name both in and out of court.

She found him on the third floor in one of the guest rooms. It looked like the family lent a few of them out to their closest friends so that they wouldn't need to worry about travelling on the day of the party. He was straightening his tie in front of a floor length mirror when she spotted him.

It was always so nice when her targets isolated themselves.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry." Byleth tipped into the room before catching herself on the door, standing unsteadily in her heels. "I'm afraid I've gotten quite turned around. You wouldn't happen to know where the closest bathroom is, would you?"

She blinked at the man as he looked her up and down, carefully showing no reaction when his eyes lingered in a few telling areas.

"Of course." His smile made her skin crawl and Byleth ruthlessly suppressed a shiver as he made his way over to her. "You can use mine. Right this way, sweetheart."

He guided her in, taking her gloved hand and pulling her away from the bedroom door before shutting it behind them. She giggled like the happy, slightly tipsy debutante she was pretending to be as he led her right into the bathroom, stumbling a little as they went. When he turned to close that door as well, she calmly slipped the garrote she just palmed from her thigh holster around his neck and pulled.

Byleth's face was blank as the man's struggles grew weaker. Strangulation wasn't her usual style, but she had to admit that it was less messy than a knife. Arterial spray was just so hard to anticipate.

Besides, her knife was a little too distinctive to use on jobs these days.

When she was sure that her target wouldn't be getting back up ever again, she maneuvered the body into the shower and turned it on to lukewarm. That done, Byleth left the bathroom, engaging the lock before shutting it behind her. Exiting the bedroom in the same manner, she made her way back down the hall to one of the rooms she already cleared in her search. Double checking that it was still empty, she quietly made use of the fireplace.

Her cotton gloves didn't burn that fast, but it didn't take more than ten minutes for them to be reduced to ash in the large wood-burning fireplace. As they burned, she wondered why a family with this much money wouldn't put in gas fireplaces for their guest rooms. Maybe they were worried that someone would forget to turn it off?

Once the gloves were nothing more than dust, Byleth began to make her way back down to the lower floor. Her contract was complete, there was no reason to stay any longer and she was happy to go. She'd hoped to never return to these flashy shindigs, but the rich were the most likely to contract a hitwoman and as they often targeted one of their own she supposed that was a pipe dream.

She made it all the way to the ground floor, moving slower as the crowds thickened, before she saw him.

The love of her life.

Claude von Riegan.

Her heart jumped for her throat and her stomach fell to her shoes.

He looked sharp in his three piece suit, his striking features standing out even in the sea of beautifully dressed people. It was hard to tell what drew the eye more, his handsome face, the confident baring, or his completely black clothing in a flock of glittering butterflies.

Byleth barely noticed any of that. She was too caught up in comparing him to the Claude of her memories.

His hair was longer and was looked better behaved because of it. A trimmed bit of scruff enhanced his jawline, reminding her of how she used to run her thumb along it when they kissed. Those last few inches put him a head taller than her and she wondered if she would just tuck in under his chin now.

Green eyes found hers and Byleth suddenly remembered that he wasn't the only shadow in this field of flowers.

For a moment, it was like the crowd around them didn't exist. His lips parted, jaw dropping ever so slightly as his eyes widened. Claude's skin paled under his warm tan.

It was like he was seeing a ghost.

Byleth snapped her own mouth shut at the reminder, teeth grinding a little as she swallowed.

Because he was.

Turning sharply, Byleth slipped through the crowds with a little more speed, ducking behind some of the taller guests as she did. Her roundabout plans of going to 'find' her jacket were scrapped. If he was here, there was no telling who else-

"Darling!"

Wrist caught, Byleth swung around to follow the unexpected tug. Her intentional stumble to hide the reach for her thigh holster was anticipated, her free hand caught in a familiar grasp.

Her breath caught in her lungs.

The black silk tie contrasted nicely with the fitted black vest.

"There you are!"

This close, it was clear that the shirt underneath them was actually a dark charcoal instead of black like she first assumed.

"I didn't know you'd be here, my dearest."

She swallowed and tried to force her heart to behave, to slow down, to move out of the way so she could breathe again.

"You should have told me."

Byleth forced herself to look up and meet those green eyes once again.

"Should I have?" Her tone didn't show any of her struggles thankfully, it was just as light as she needed it to be. In high society parties like this, every attendee was always listening intently for any drama they could find. "I thought you wanted me to stay home like mother."

Her very dead mother, at home in her grave.

"Never." Claude's voice was a little too vehement for the crowd. Noticing that, he released her wrist in favor curling an arm around her waist. Only when he was sure she wasn't going to brush him off did he let go of her other hand and begin guiding them out of the larger hall. "Who would even dream of telling you a thing like that?"

His face was calm, his voice now relaxed and almost joking. Claude was always a better actor than she was. However, the fingers at her waist were flexing hard enough that her dress was sure to wrinkle. Even if the others couldn't see it under her elbow, she sure could feel it.

It was just as steadying as she remembered.

She stealed herself against the nostalgia and the part of her brain that was screaming that she should run and never look back, that she should hug him and never let go, that coming to this party was a mistake, was a miracle.

Was fate.

"Oh, you know how grandmother is." Even as old as she was, the woman was still running the Garreg Mach Agency so far as Byleth was aware. "I thought for sure that she'd convinced everyone that she knew best."

"You know I never liked other people thinking for me, why would this be any different?" Claude sounded playfully put out. A glance at his face let her see the tightness around his eyes as he guided them into another hallway, ironically in the same direction as her 'lost' jacket. "If you'd told me I could have swept in and carried you away on my white horse."

His grand statement made another woman further down the hall chuckle and no one looked twice when Byleth chuckled and pulled an unresisting Claude into a side room by his lapels.

"You would have, would you?" She turned him so she could scan the room and then kick the door shut behind them before pressing him up against a wall. One arm slanted across his chest to hold him in place while the other pulled the gun from the shoulder holster Claude always hid under his suit jackets to point it at the underside of his chin. "Or would you have been the one she convinced to kill me instead?"

"Impossible." He replied instantly. "Nothing she could say would ever convince me of that."

Slowly, his unpinned hand came up. Byleth's eyes never wavered from his, but she didn't move to stop him as he brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. Warm fingers traced down her jawline and it was only as they lifted away that Byleth noticed that her blank expression had melted away in the process.

Taking a deep breath through her nose, she firmed her expression into a glare and clicked the safety off. She hoped that if he really did try to kill her here she could at least attempt to try and return the favor.

She cocked the gun and he didn't even flinch.

He was the best spy she knew. That didn't mean anything.

Claude's eyes were soft as he gazed steadily at her.

The memory of those green eyes looking at her with love and adoration merged with reality. Her heart lurched. She felt ill even imagining the possibility of him dying.

Damn it.

She pulled back and de-cocked the gun, letting that hand fall to her side.

"Say I believe you," Byleth said as though it wasn't obvious that she did. "What are you going to tell her about this?"

There was no way he was here for any other reason than information gathering. Claude despised this sort of gathering five years ago and she couldn't imagine that changing.

"Nothing." Smug in the face of her disbelief, Claude grinned. Relaxing under the arm still pinning him, he shrugged. "I left shortly after you did and headed back home, though I somehow did it on better terms."

Left Garreg Mach? To go home? Wait.

"Did everyone in the Alliance leave?" That was a lot of people. Byleth couldn't imagine Rhea letting that many competent people go, it would be too much of a threat.

"Not everyone and those of us who made it out needed to go further afield than you're probably thinking." Claude admitted. He tilted his head and Byleth could almost see him scratching the back of it. He may have suppressed the habit over the years, but the head tilt was exactly the same.

Light glimmered, the movement allowing one of his earrings to catch the light perfectly.

Byleth's eyes widened, the style of it reminding her of some rumors she heard when she was laying low in those first few years away from Garreg Mach.

"Almyra?"

Claude went tense under her arm for a moment before sighing.

"Never could get one past you, could I?" His rueful smile faded as she waited for an answer. "Yeah, Almyra. I've got family there, you know?"

No. She hadn't known. She suspected, but even as a rookie Claude played things close to the chest. Byleth couldn't fault him for it, they all did the same thing. They had to or they died.

Honest people didn't live long in their line of work.

Subterfuge wasn't a guarantee of safety either.

"Why then?" Why not before when he'd been complaining about the jobs they kept assigning him? When his input on larger jobs was ignored or when the younger members got pushed hard enough that he started picking up some of their work without telling them?

He looked confused at the question.

"Why would I stay if you weren't there?"

Byleth's heart wasn't content with being ignored any longer. It swooped and sped, raced and stopped, jumped and sunk. Her eyes felt wide on her face, but she was too busy trying to breathe to control her expression.

"As soon as I could manage it, I collected everyone who wanted to leave and I gave Rhea a choice." Claude was kind enough to ignore her dumbfounded reaction as he filled her in on what she missed while she was in hiding. "Let us leave or Almyra will bring it's forces to her doorstep. With all of the infighting she was already dealing with from Edelgard's end, it really wasn't a choice at all."

"You're here on their orders then?" At his slow nod, she continued, "Who else is here? Anyone that will tell her?"

Byleth survived the last assassination attempt by pure luck, she didn't think she could do it again.

"Shamir's here with me, but she left Garreg Mach with us. She never did believe what Rhea said about you."

"Shamir?" Finally stepping back, Byleth couldn't help but wonder if they often went to things like this together as she and Claude used to. If she was projecting her own wants onto what he said, imagining the feelings she hoped were returned when in reality he moved on without her.

Wait.

"What did Rhea say about me?"

"She said that your death was necessary, that you betrayed us and everything we stood for, yada yada yada." Making a dismissive gesture, Claude's face clearly showed what he thought of that and it was nothing good. "Trying to justify it all. I don't think even Seteth believed her. He didn't show up to meetings for weeks after."

"He found me." Byleth supplied, holding the gun out to its owner. "They threw me in the river thinking I would die, but I was found the next day and brought to a hospital. He found me there and found a place for me to recover."

Clipping the gun back into place, Claude whistled lowly.

"Seteth? I never would have suspected." He watched her as she turned towards the racks and boxes of lost items on the other side of the room. It was a good thing no one needed in the room earlier in their discussion. Weapons at a gala were always hard to explain away. "Why are you asking me about what happened then? Verifying your sources?"

The teasing tone had her throwing him an exasperated look over her shoulder before digging through the rows for her jacket once more.

"He set up a cash flow and then cut all ties to make sure Rhea couldn't trace him to me."

"So no illicit love affairs?"

Byleth stopped and set the jackets in her hands back on their racks.

Was that... jealousy?

Half-turning towards him Byleth gave him a look.

"None." If he was going to go there, she was allowed to ask as well. Right? "And you?"

"Love affairs? Me?" Claude gestured to his clothes. "Can't you see I'm in mourning?"

Mourning?

"For the whole five years?" He couldn't possibly still be mourning her. Please tell her he wasn't.

"For the rest of my life." He looked serious.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Byleth turned back to the clothing and tried to blink away the tears that sprung to her eyes at his sentimentality.

"You can't just say things like that. What if I actually died? You shouldn't be tied to a dead woman, you should be happ-" He was suddenly beside her at the coat rack. She cut off in surprise when Claude reached out and turned her towards him once more.

"Without you I will never be happy. Alive, sure. Content, if I'm lucky. Happy?" Leaning in, his green eyes searched hers for something. "Never without you."

Clothes dropped from Byleth's hands once again as she reached out, fingertips brushing along his cheekbone before following the line of his jaw like she did so many times before. She felt him shiver under her touch. Eyes trailing to his lips, she then looked up at those green eyes and thought she knew what he was looking for just a moment ago.

Moving her hand to his shoulder for balance, she leaned in.

Claude met her halfway.

They kissed.

They kissed and it was everything she remembered and more.

It felt like they'd never stopped.

Like that five year gap was nothing.

Like it was a lifetime.

Her free hand wound itself into his hair, pulling him down and finding it just as soft as before even as it tangled around her fingers.

His hand slipped down her shoulder to her back, following her spine until it found the old scar hidden just below the open back of her dress that had never felt his touch until now.

It felt like she was finally home.

"Ah! Um, I, er, need to get to the rack- I mean, the coat stand?"

Byleth pulled back, turning her head away from the door. Her fingers slipped from Claude's hair as he chuckled sheepishly at the man bringing in some more lost items.

"Looks like we got a little distracted while trying to find her jacket." Claude caught her eye and, with her back turned to the man in the doorway, she covertly mimed straightening a hood before ending in a symbol they used to use. "Do you think a hoodie would have been hung up or folded?"

"All jackets are hung, sir. I believe the softer jackets are to the left." The voice was unfamiliar, definitely not the one she'd handed the jacket to in the first place then. Good.

With that direction and the additional light from the hall, Byleth quickly located the jacket. Claude wrapped up the small-talk with his usual finesse and they were on their way.

The jacket was deftly folded in on itself with the strings tied together and worn with confidence as a particularly shapeless shoulder bag. While she was dealing with that, Claude messaged someone on his phone one handed. The other was still holding her close as they headed for the entrance.

"Shamir's going to meet us out front with the car, if that works for you?"

"It will for now." Byleth agreed with a small smile.

"For now?" Raising a brow at her growing smile, Claude turned and looked at her with playful suspicion as they pushed through the crowd.

With both of them controlling their reactions so as to not cause a scene, it was probably better to tell him now rather than later.

"There's someone I'd like you to meet and it will require us going to them in the morning." She blinked up at him with a perfectly straight face before turning back to the crowds in front of them. Byleth watched him closely in her peripheral vision as she continued casually, "You could say I'm a lot more like my father than anyone expected."

They did attract a little attention on their way out when Claude bit his tongue so hard trying to stifle his response that it bled.

[talesofphantombandits]

Zero to Six ~ Chapter 3

Ahoy ladies,

I hope y’all had a nice Christmas, mine was great but really exhausting. Anyway, here’s chapter 3 I hope you like. Please let me know what you think. Again if you’re interested in being tagged in this series let me know <3 

Thank you once again for the amazing support (even though am still not sure it’s good enough for such praise) I love you all.  

Warnings: mild swearing, and some small talk about kinks. Nothing major.

Tags:

@i-am-sarah , @whothefuckstolemykeds , @drowsyrrog , @culturefiendtrashqueen , @rogue-barnes-16--main-account , @alliwantfromyouistomakelovetome , @sueeatstheworld , @valerie-weasley , @bleona2808

______________________________________________

‘Meet me at the cafe down the street at 17:00, make sure to wear something dark. And a cap. P.s. Remember don’t say anything to the others about this. -One.’

One week after One had rudely woken me up at 3am to declare that I come on the new mission, I honestly was starting to get impatient waiting for news. That’s until this morning when I received this text. 

I got up at about 10am that day, made myself some food then climbed back into bed to do some more research.

It got to about 12:30 when I finally pulled myself out of bed to shower, got changed and make myself look decent but made sure that I would blend in with the crowd.

I then went into my specially set up computer room, I put on my headset and turned coms on.

“Anyone online?” I queried while typing my password into the computer. 

“Well if it isn’t my favourite lady.” Four spoke.

“Four.” I said surprised. “How come you’re up so early? don’t you normally stay up late flirting anonymously with women online to get yourself off?”

He just scoffed. “Excuse me what do you take me for?.”

“She’s not lying though is she? I think I’ve accidentally walked in on you enough time’s Four. I have to bleach my eyes every time.” Two chimed in.

“Shut up Two you should feel blessed. Wait Zero what the hell! are you stalking me?” He shouted in an urgent tone.

I gasped. “Is that a confession? I may have looked into all of your internet histories. You know routine checks.” I shrugged even though they couldn’t see it.

“Jesus women.”

“Look I’m just doing my job, keeping everyone safe.” I said. “Anyway, am here to ask that if everyone’s done their respective research please send it to me. I can update Ones dater base as fast as possible, then we can get on with the mission.”

“Already sent you it Zero, I’ll talk to you two later, three is calling me for some target practice.”

“Bye Two have a good practice, not that you need it.” I giggled.

“So you’re stalking me?”

“Darling did you not listen? I have to look into everyone's internet history now and again for security reasons.” 

“But you’ve still looked into my internet history.” he hissed.

“Don’t worry Four, your’s isn’t the spiciest.” I laughed. “So who’s is the worst?”

“That sir I can’t disclose.” I clicked my tongue.

“Puft you’re no fun Zero.”

There was a moment of silence while I typed up some new found research on the Dictators brother that we were trying to find.

“Four.” I said quietly.

“Yes sweetheart?” I rolled my eyes at the nickname, ignoring the butterflies it gave me.

“Do you ever miss being alive?” 

“why would I miss being alive when being dead is so free? I mean yeah there’s somethings I miss and would maybe change like how One treats us. But the freedom of being dead makes everything almost worth it.” He paused for a moment. “Is this about what I said the other day? am sorry for going off like that, I was just so overwhelmed by Six’s death. I guess I crossed a line.”

“No, no I get it. I just feel so lonely some times. I guess I kind of miss friendships but mostly relationships”

“I mean I wouldn’t blame you, as you said you’re always cut off from us. I’d feel lonely too if One had me copped up in a apartment twenty-four hours, but just remember that just because you can’t see us doesn’t mean that we won’t always be here for you. You can talk to any of us if you need to.” Four said sincerely.

“Thanks.” I looked down at my watch and gasped “Oh shit I’ve got to go!”

“Oh and Four.”

“Yes darling?”

“I wouldn’t have pinned you as someone with a marking kink.” I giggled. “STOP STALKING ME, I SWEAR TO GOD WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I’L-” I cut off the coms in a fit of laughter.

I ran into the cafe peering at the clock to see it was 17:05.

“Am so sorry One.”

“You’re late.” He didn’t even peer up from his phone.

“Yeah well if you haven’t noticed I haven’t really been out the house much lately. Coffee shop was tricky to find.” I said annoyed.

He just peered up over his phone at me with an annoyed expression. I just held my hands up in defence.

“How come I can’t tell the other guys about this?” 

Suddenly a hot chocolate was placed in front of me. “Because where’s the fun in that?”

“Five?!” I suddenly stood up from my seat at the sight of the very talented doctor in front of me.

One hissed at me for being too loud, which made me suddenly sit down and try to hide my face.

“Nice to finally meet you Zero, One asked me here to help get you ready for tonight.” Her accent was so beautiful that I just slowly nodded in acknowledgement to her words.

I shook my head to clear the mist. “Wait tonight? the mission is tonight?!”

“Yes.” One was still looking at his phone, I wish that I could just slap it out of his hands but I restrained myself.

“Look, It would be nice for a full explanation rather than you constantly looking down at your phone. This is my first mission, am not afraid to say that am a little anxious about the whole thing.” I picked up my warm drink and took a sip.

“Fine.” He finally put the phone on the table. “It’s simple really. You’re just going to be a normal bartender, serving drinks to anyone that comes up to the bar. You’re going to be constantly listening out for information that may help us. There’s going to be very important people there tonight so keep your eyes peeled, ears open. Which also means that coms will be off, for you at least.”

He paused to take a sip of his coffee. “I’m going to need your full attention on everyone. Think you can do that?”

“I think so, I mean am constantly listening to you idiots all the time. The team is going to be there too right?”

“They will be blending in with the other guests and doing the same as you, while Two and Four attend to some other business. I’ll be in and out.” Suddenly Ones phone started ringing. “I have to take this.”

He got up to walk outside.

“You okay?” Five asked stroking her finger over the top of her mug.

“I think so, I just don’t want to mess up I guess.” I said looking at my hands in my lap.

“You won’t, besides me and Four will be right there if you need us.” My eyes shot up to the doctor.

It only just truly dawned on me that I would actually been in the same room as Four.

Five must have seen this. “Don’t worry he’s just as sweet as he is over coms, yes he can be annoying at times but don’t be afraid to just slap him in the face. Or in your case maybe a kiss to shut him up.” She smirked.

I laughed but felt my checks heating up. “Thanks Four, but I think the slap would be more effective.”

Before she could say anything else One came back announcing it was time to leave to get ready.

Five had dressed me in black skinny jeans paired with some smart black boot Doc Martens, a crisp white top with a dark green velvet waist coat. My hair was down in soft curls, my makeup a light natural look with a dark purple lip. Five said it would spice it up a bit. 

The venue was classy but a little alternative which meant that I blended right in. I’d had a few jobs when I was ‘alive’ one included a bar slash restaurant, so playing the the bartender role wasn’t going to be a chore.

I started off by cleaning glasses, the room had only started to fill up. Lucky I’d already seen Five enter the room with a man on her arm, probably someone very important but also incredibly stupid that she can learn some important information from. She discreetly winked at me from across the bar.

I just smiled at myself and moved to served a couple to my left. 

Suddenly the air shifted, for some reason that I could not explain my eyes where draw to the entrance. There he was, blonde slicked back hair and a black tux that hugged his toned body.

Four. 

Chapter Four

[ma-sulevin]

Ya bitch is back! I have officially run out of pre-written material now, and I’ll be writing each chapter the week before it goes live (yikes). I’ll try to stick to my schedule. Also? I think we might have sixteen chapters. Stay tuned.

Pairing: Sharky Boshaw/Female Deputy Rating: E Warnings: Canon-typical violence, but nothing particularly explicit I don’t think Word Count: 5625, chapter thirteen of fifteen (sixteen?).

Read it on AO3 instead and say nice things.

—

Burke is still unconscious when Mattie finds herself dragged back to wakefulness by nearby voices. She curls on her side to look at him, bringing her threadbare blanket up to cover most of her face, and just… lets herself sit in the quiet, in the stillness, enjoying just for a minute the peace that comes between waking up and having to fucking do things.

Nobody’s bothered to take Burke out of his gear, and she stares at his vest, remembers the way the butterflies had swarmed over it like it was a flower. He’d been so happy in the bliss — still sort of condescending and obviously an asshole under the good mood, but he’d been so much happier than when she first met him at the jail.

How long ago even was that? Weeks? Months? She’s totally lost track of time, doesn’t even know what day of the week it is (or what time it is) and she has no idea when she’s found herself. It isn’t quite winter yet, it hasn’t started snowing at least, and even though the cold snap in the air at night is too much for her she knows it’s going to get worse.

Christ, she is not fucking walking around the Henbane after Faith once winter really hits.

There’s no fucking way.

Has her birthday passed? That's a reason to find out the date if nothing else is.

She draws in a deep breath and forces herself to sit up, letting the blanket pool around her waist. She's spent enough time wallowing on the cot; she has more to do before she can really rest.

She chews on her lower lip as she considers, goes over her list of things to do in the Henbane. Tracey wants that statue of Joseph gone, the youth camp needs clearing, the vet needs tracked down, the production of bliss stopped. 

Just thinking about all that makes her want to curl back up and sleep for eighteen more hours, but that's not who she is. She can do this.

She has to do this.

She doesn’t have any choice.

She’s almost done restocking her ammo (and trading a bag of what Sharky has carefully and clearly labeled “oregano” for his flamethrower part) when Whitehorse comes through the outside door. The bag of oregano disappears almost as soon as the sunlight hits it and she struggles not to just start laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

What has Hope County come to?

If Whitehorse notices the transaction, he doesn’t mention it. Instead, he launches directly into the next thing he wants her to do in the region: Cougars are taken to a place called “the Misery,” an abandoned mining operation farther north in the region on the edge of the river, tortured, and killed if they don’t agree to walk the Path set forward by Faith. 

It’s a fucking nightmare, and Mattie’s agreeing even before she stops to think about it.

She’s sore, and she’s exhausted, and she doesn’t know if Burke is going to survive, and she can’t really breathe out of one nostril because of all the bliss pollen, and the last thing she wants to do is spend hours driving across the county and fighting cult members who just don’t give a fuck if they live or die.

Then again… how can she say no?

---

There are hostages still in the Misery when they get there. She can see one on the roof, hands bound behind her back and head hanging low, kneeling between two peggies with their rifles in their hands. 

There are probably more, but she can’t see them from here.

She should have called Grace or Jess to help. 

This isn’t a job for fast-and-loud, it’s a job for slow-and-quiet.

She’ll have to make due.

The first few peggies, the ones patrolling the outskirts of the cult-claimed property, fall easily under her sniper rifle. She watches dispassionately as they land in puddles of their own blood, only hesitating long enough to make sure one has died before moving onto the next.

Behind her, well out of sight of the patrolling peggies, Hurk and Sharky are muttering to each other about something she can’t quite hear. They’re keeping each other busy and watching her back, and it’s such an amazing change from her first few days in the Resistance, sneaking around John’s region and constantly dying that she nearly starts to cry. Tears well in her eyes and she has to wipe them dry on her sleeve before she can shoot again, almost totally unable to see.

How can she ever pay them back for what they’re doing?

The answer comes to her as the next peggie falls.

She can take down the cult and give them their home back.

When the last peggie she can see falls, she drags herself to her feet and switches to her handgun, signaling to Sharky and Hurk that it’s time to move in. They go as quietly as they can — which is not all that quietly in the scheme of things — and they take the Misery from both sides.

The whole building is sinking into the river, and Mattie sloshes through water up to her ankles as she creeps through the first floor. She falls into habits from the Academy, moving inexorably forward without worrying about what the boys are up to on the higher levels.

There’s another peggie, a hostage kneeling in the water with her hands bound, and he falls with two quick, silenced shots from her pistol. The hostage flinches, curls in on herself, and she tries to rip herself away when Mattie kneels by her side to cut her bonds.

The woman makes a run for it without stopping to thank her.

Mattie moves on.

Sharky meets her at the top of the stairs, shotgun in a white-knuckled grip, face grim.

“You’ll wanna see this.”

She doesn’t know what she expects based on Sharky’s attitude, but it certainly isn’t three dead civilians suspended in cages over the Henbane. One of them was reaching a hand through the bars when they died, and blood still drips from their fingers into the water below.

Bile rises in her throat, pushed on by the guilt that she wasn’t fast enough, that she spent too long deliberating about what to do, too long watching them through the scope on her sniper rifle. She swallows hard, takes a shuddering breath and swallows again. Sharky leans against her, his weight a comforting pressure at her side, and she grinds her teeth together hard to keep her reaction in check.

“Okay,” she says, voice low. “Okay, uh…”

Whitehorse’s voice comes over the radio before she has time to figure out what to do, before she has time to figure out how to get these people out of their cages and figure out who their families are so they can actually be buried like they’re real people, and he’s warning them that they’re about to get more peggies. A cult priestess is on the way, because why wouldn’t that be a thing in Faith’s region, via the river, and Mattie opens her mouth to say they should just leave but it’s too late.

There are a couple mounted guns on this side of the Misery, and the boys each take one, and she switches to her AR-C and ducks as low as she can behind the metal wall.

She hates this.

She’s good at it.

She manages to bring down the first peggie boat she sees by spraying it with enough bullets that the inflatable part bursts and the three peggies riding in it fall into the water. Sharky cheers from off to her right, yells that she’s doing a good job, and then bullets from his mounted gun join hers.

It’s chaotic and it’s messy and the people in the boats are shooting back at them as they weave their way up and down the river, back and forth in front of the Misery like they’ll be able to wear them down through sheer annoyance, and Mattie chews on the inside of her cheek until she tastes blood.

She ignores the explosions she hears out of habit, because they’re too far away to mean she’s in imminent danger, and traveling with Sharky and Hurk have taught her to expect some measure of nearby explosions anyway.

If she stopped to think about how different her life is now, she’d cry, so she won’t.

Another boat joins the fray, spinning around the nearest curve in the river with a spray of water, and Mattie’s rifle clicks empty. 

“Shit. Hurk!” She drops to her knees behind the wall, turning slightly toward Hurk as she fumbles with another mag. “Boat!”

“On it, boss!” His voice is as cheery as ever, the strain barely audible under the optimism, and she can see him turning in the right direction out of the corner of her eyes. Bless him.

She doesn’t know when it goes wrong, when everything takes a sharp turn to the left. Is it when she’s sliding the new mag into the rifle? Is it when she’s taking half a second to crack her neck to get the kink out of it? Is it when she pops her head up over the metal wall to scope out the river instead of shooting right away?

She doesn’t notice it right away either, doesn’t hear the lack of gunfire from Sharky’s side, doesn’t hear him falling or calling for help. She only realizes something’s wrong when she doesn’t hear him cracking a joke about the cult priestesses being hot, or blurting out some awkward story about him making out with someone near here when he was growing up, or complaining about all the dead bodies piling up around them.

She only realizes when it’s quiet.

“Sharky, man, where’d you go?”

She closes her eyes and pushes her knuckles into the scar tissue on her chest, folding in on herself. Hurk doesn’t know. He hasn’t seen this before.

“Dep? Do you see—?” He cuts himself off when he realizes what must have happened, when he sees Mattie curling in on herself and away from him, and she just listens as he starts to wail.

“Wake up, Sharky, please, c’mon, man…”

She finally makes herself look when she’s fully on the floor, all of her weight resting on the cold metal, blood and river water seeping into her jeans. Sharky’s flat on his back near the mounted gun he’d been using, Hurk poised above him, pushing rhythmically into the center of his chest.

CPR.

Sharky wasn’t breathing.

“Dep, help me with this, c’mon!”

He’s begging, voice wet, desperate, and Mattie crawls over to him through the fog wrapping around her. It feels like before, like the three-second delay from when she’d almost been hit by the semi is back and trying to hold her captive.

Sharky’s green hoodie is stained dark with blood that’s no longer flowing, the puddle under him bigger than however much blood is left inside him. It seeps into Mattie’s jeans too, covering her knees and her hands as she puts her them on his chest, then on his neck looking for a pulse she knows she won’t find.

“No, no, no, no, no.”

Hurk is chanting his denials, still trying to force Sharky’s heart to restart, tears and snot covering his face.

“The fuck are you doing? Help me!”

Mattie reaches for Hurk’s hands, tries to pull him away, but he doesn’t let her. He keeps going until Mattie hears the tell-tale snap that lets her know he’s cracked one of Sharky’s ribs.

“Hurk, it’s okay. It’s okay, you can stop.”

“Fuck you, ‘you can stop’,” Hurk yells, absolutely howls, voice wrecked with his sobs. “Fuck you, he said you loved him.”

She starts to cry too. “I do, I do love him, Hurk. He’s okay. He’s fine. He’s fine.”

“He’s dead.”

“He’s not — he is now, but he won’t be. We just have to go to his trailer and you’ll see, I promise. I promise, Hurk.” She reaches for him again, and this time he lets her stop his movements even if he only moves his hands up to cradle Sharky’s body against his chest. “If we go to his trailer, he’ll walk right out to see us.”

“You finally lost it,” Hurk says, voice cracking. “The bliss made you insane.”

“No, it didn’t, I promise.” She hesitates, then stands up, wiping her face with the backs of her hands. She can tell she’s gotten his blood on her face when it goes all sticky instead of dry, but she ignores it. “Come with me, please.”

Hurk studies her for an endless moment, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. Whatever he sees in her face must convince him she’s serious, because he’s nodding before she realizes it and standing with Sharky still cradled in his arms.

“Get the launcher,” he says, voice subdued, and then he’s turning around and carrying Sharky’s body down the stairs.

Mattie grabs up his RAT-4 and follows.

Hurk takes his time tucking Sharky into the backseat of their car, laying him across it and tucking his legs up so he’s resting comfortably. Mattie puts the rocket launcher in the trunk and then climbs in the passenger seat when it’s clear Hurk wants to be the one to drive.

They’re silent all the way back across the Henbane and up the mountain to where Boshaw Manor rests down the road from the Moonflower.

Hurk keeps crying softly, not making any noises louder than little gasps to catch his breath. Mattie keeps her eyes on the bloodstains on her knees as they dry into stiff swaths of denim. 

She’s never going to get Sharky’s blood out of the fabric, and she chokes on a sob.

This is ridiculous. She’s seen this happen before, she knows Sharky’s okay. She knows as soon as they get to his house, he’ll be hanging out on his couch or lighting shit on fire, or whatever it is he does when she’s not around to watch him. She knows he’ll come back and he’ll be exactly as happy as he ever was with no memory of what happened to him, but…

She can’t watch someone she loves die and not feel anything.

She buries her face in the crook of one elbow, pulling her feet up on the seat so she can curl in on herself, and she tries to hold in her wail since Hurk is sitting in the driver’s seat.

She’s not alone.

She doesn’t have to be alone.

She jumps when she feels fingers on hers, flinching away just out of instinct, but they don’t go away and when she looks up, it’s just Hurk, reaching out to comfort her the way he knows she likes it best.

She wipes her snotty face on the handkerchief still tied around her neck and holds his hand in hers as they finish their drive.

Sharky’s SUV is in front of the trailer when they pull up the gravel drive, and Hurk grumbles something Mattie doesn’t hear because she’s too busy throwing herself out of the car and running toward the door. 

“Sharky? Babe, you here?”

The front door isn’t locked, and it slams open as she bursts through. It bounces off the opposite wall and hits her as it swings shut again, and she takes the bruise on her forearm in her haste to just get the fuck inside.

“Sharky?”

“You here, cuz?”

She can hear Hurk outside, voice low like he doesn’t really believe he’s going to hear Sharky’s voice calling back to him. It’s like he’s humoring her, and she lets him, because she knows, she knows Sharky’s going to come back. 

He always has, just like she always has.

It’s like they’re meant to be.

The trailer is damningly empty even so, a fine layer of dust on everything like it hasn’t been used in a bit. She looks in the bedroom, shoulders into the bathroom, looks in the fucking closet like he’d be hiding behind the door, before bursting back out into his yard like her hair’s on fire.

Hurk is standing there, staring at the pile of tires, hands in his pockets and head hanging low on his neck.

He’s given up.

She won’t.

She can’t.

“Sharky Fucking Boshaw, you get out here right this second!”

She uses her Cop Voice by accident, despite the swear word, hands on her hips and chin up to project. A small flock of birds lifts off from the other side of the house and scream accusingly back at her, but she doesn’t care.

If Sharky doesn’t show up right now she’s going to fucking lose it.

“Hold your goddamn horses, shit, can’t a man clean out his bunker in peace? Jesus.” Sharky keeps up a steady stream of complaints as he climbs the ladder that leads up out of his bunker, nestled under a shed roof and behind a rock.

She hadn’t even known it existed to look there.

Hurk meets him at the top with a bear hug so strong it almost knocks him right back in, and Sharky squawks in protest. Mattie’s knees go out as relief hits her harder than one of Hurk’s hugs, and she sits down hard on the lowest porch step and closes her eyes. 

“Get off me, man, the hell are you doing? I love you too, Hurky, but you gotta—” His voice lowers, morphing from loud protests to normal-volume concern. “What happened? You okay? Is Mattie—”

“I fuckin’ saw you die over at the Misery!” Hurk’s voice has not softened, is now almost as loud as it was when he was swearing at Mattie over Sharky’s dead body. “You got shot down by the peggies and you quit breathin’, and—”

His voice trails off again, gets muffled like his face is being pushed against something, and Mattie’s pretty sure that something is Sharky’s shoulder but she can’t bring herself to open her eyes to look. She doesn’t have the energy while her jeans are still stiff with blood.

The silence stretches on ast he boys comfort each other, leaving Mattie alone to sit on the porch with her temple resting against the rail. 

She jumps when Hurk starts talking again, just a few feet away from her, loud and incredulous. Sharky gives her a soft look when he sees her flinch, but he doesn’t move from Hurk’s side.

She’s seen Sharky die a few times now.

Hurk hasn’t.

She doesn’t realize she’s been asked a question right away, not until Hurk repeats himself a little louder.

“What’s going on here, Dep? What the fuck happened?”

“I don’t know,” she says, voice quiet, catching on her dry throat. Hurk opens his mouth to argue so she tries again, louder this time: “I just… ever since we tried to arrest Joseph at the compound, when… when something bad happens, I just… I wake back up a couple minutes before, with enough time to fix it and keep going.”

“What’s ‘something bad’?” Hurk’s not ready to let her talk her way out of this one, and he sits on the porch next to her, one step up, turned to face her a little with an uncharacteristically serious expression twisting his mouth. “Say whatever you mean.”

Sharky follows his cousin, pushing between the two of them to sit behind Mattie. She starts to lean against his legs, but he pulls her up until she’s sitting in his lap and he can wrap his arms fully around her waist. She lets him, moving with him, and tangles their fingers together without thinking about it as she tries to find the words to answer Hurk.

“Right after the helicopter crash,” she says, speaking slowly and weighing each word before she says it, “I was escaping with Burke from the compound. He was driving and I was trying to keep the road clear, and one of the peggies managed to get a grenade right through the window.”

Her voice catches as she remembers seeing the grenade land in her lap, and she clears her throat to keep going.

“It exploded, and it hurt, and then it happened again. I threw it back out the window and it got the guy who threw it, I think, and we kept going. It… it just keeps happening, Hurk. I… look.” She pushes her left sleeve up to show him her forearm, covered in tally marks. “I’ve… I’ve been shot, I’ve been strangled, I’ve drowned, I’ve fallen off of things? I’ve exploded, I’ve crashed vehicles, a plane landed on me once…” Sharky’s arms tighten around her, so tight she can barely breathe, but she pushes forward. “Every single time, I wake back up with enough time to correct whatever I did wrong.”

She runs out of words and she licks her dry lips as the silence lays heavy between them. Sharky kisses her back, then rests his cheek against her.

“So you die? You die and then you come back? Like a, like a fuckin’ video game?”

She can’t tell what Hurk is feeling from the way he responds. The look on his face is almost carefully blank, like he’s trying not to show her what he’s thinking, and she stiffens in Sharky’s grip.

“I can’t explain it better than that, Hurk. I die and then I come back and then I have to do this all over again.”

Hurk looks at Sharky, then back at Mattie. “And that happens for Sharky too?”

“Yeah. Sharky and Jess both, probably Boomer too. He kind of comes and goes. Jude, from up in the Whitetails, died on our way into Jacob’s bunker and was back the next day in the Wolf’s Den.”

“I don’t remember being at the Misery, though.” Sharky’s voice is kind of quiet, quieter than usual at least, and he presses his forehead against Mattie’s shoulder for a second before he adds, “Everytime she shows up and says somethin’ bad happened, I don’t remember. I’m just here, hanging out, waiting to hear she needs me somewhere.”

Hurk heaves himself to his feet without a word and goes into the trailer. A second later, the door on the other side opens and closes. 

“You okay?” Sharky pulls Mattie closer, kissing her cheek and then resting his chin on her shoulder while he waits for her to answer.

“I will be,” she says, because the whole truth of it is that she’s not. The first time she saw Sharky die, she reacted the same way Hurk had, had nearly lost it, had only left his side because John’s people kidnapped her from under Grace’s nose. This is the third time at least, and she had to see him bleeding out again, had to see Hurk facing that fact.

She’s not okay, but she will be.

Hurk comes back through the trailer before Sharky can say anything else, wide-eyed and mouth a little open like he’s seen something he wasn’t expecting.

“The body’s gone.”

Sharky sits straight up. “What?”

“Your body’s gone! We brought it with us, and it’s gone!”

Sharky takes a deep breath against Mattie’s back, and then he chokes out a laugh. “Well, uh’course it’s gone, my body’s right here.”

Mattie sags against him, too tired to laugh at his simple summary of the situation.

He’s not… he’s not wrong.

Hurk puts his hands on his hips and stares down at the pair of them, at the still-chuckling Sharky, always ready to laugh off his problems, and at the pliant but smiling Mattie, absorbing comfort through body contact the way she always does, and heaves the heaviest sigh Mattie’s ever heard.

He turns around without another word and disappears back into the trailer.

“You sure you’re okay?”

Mattie shrugs, jostling Sharky’s head a bit, but he doesn’t let her go. He needs this as much as she does, somehow. He never seemed to get tired of how she always wants to sprawl across him.

She loves him.

“This helps.”

He squeezes her again and stays quiet until Hurk comes back, then he’s groaning in the exasperated way only younger siblings can manage. “C’mon, man.”

Mattie opens one eye, not sure when she closed it, and finally starts to laugh for real as Hurk settles down on the steps next to them with a lime green bong in one hand and one of Sharky’s many lighters in the other.

“I should arrest you for that.”

Hurk offers her his most beautiful smile even as Sharky grumbles behind her. “You love me too much to arrest me.”

Mattie’s grin grows. “That depends on whether or not you’re planning to share.” Hurk’s eyebrows lift. “It’s not like anybody’ll be able to tell the difference between this and all the bliss we’re constantly breathing anyway.”

“You make a hell of a point, Dep,” Hurk says, and he passes it over.

Mattie doesn’t even pretend not to know what to do.

The three of them sit together on Sharky’s porch, soaking up the sun and the company, gradually breaking apart to raid the stores in his bunker for snacks before coming back together like they belong that way.

Mattie thinks maybe they do.

She tells Hurk more stories that he doesn’t know, like how long it took her to escape John’s bunker, with enough time and the gentle high of the weed to protect her from the insane feelings of hopelessness she felt, the way she thought she’d never see the sun again.

It’s nice to be able to fully relax, to let her guard down and clearly talk about everything that’s happened. It’s nice to have people believe her -- it’s nice to have someone else trust her like Sharky did, even though Hurk was harder to convince.

“I’ve always felt like we’re just trapped in a circle,” Hurk confides, finally, squinting off in the afternoon sun to the other side of Sharky’s property. “Like… we’re just always doin’ the same things over and over, you know? Maybe this has been goin’ on the whole time.”

They mull it over, considering, in silence, as the sun sets just a little more. If it wasn’t for the occasional wafts of bliss pollen on the breeze and the lingering threat of the peggies, it would be a perfectly relaxing afternoon. What could be better than spending quiet time with friends, cuddled up with the man she’s in love with?

She almost ignores it when she hears Faith’s singing. It’s not uncommon to hear her, and really if it wasn’t so goddamn creepy it might be nice, she has a lovely voice. It’s just that the singing is almost immediately followed by actually seeing Faith standing in the middle of Sharky’s yard, halfway between the still-open bunker door and the pile of tires.

Sharky and Hurk don’t react, so Mattie knows it’s just another fucking bliss hallucination. She watches Faith out of the corner of her eyes, trying to listen to Hurk over Faith’s singing.

It’s fucking annoying.

“Hey!” She pushes herself up and out of Sharky’s lap, batting away his grasping hands that are trying to pull her back. The boys laugh as she stumbles a little on legs that have partially gone to sleep, pausing to grab one of the larger pieces of gravel that make up Sharky’s walkway. “Get out of here, you fucking cunt.”

She throws the little rock while the boys laugh behind her. Faith disappears into a shower of sparks and bliss pollen, creating a swirling cloud that grows and coalesces right in front of her. Faith smiles, a wide and beautiful expression that Mattie would have found cute in any other circumstances, and then… 

The boys yell, but Mattie can’t move.

“Welcome to the bliss.”

---

Okay, Faith is pissed. Mattie’s not sure exactly what pushed her over the edge -- maybe calling her a cunt? That would be a good guess -- but she’s absolutely furious and Mattie’s caught up in her wrath.

This is something else that makes her feel like a Seed, the ability to tap into that unbridled fury, even tempered as it is by the undercurrent of desperation. That feels like John more than Jacob’s detached calculations or Joseph’s steely anger hidden under manipulations.

Of course… Mattie’s furious too.

She’s never been so angry.

“I don’t understand! Did you think you could just continue to do what you wanted without consequences? I’ve been reasonable, I’ve been fair. You are just so selfish!”

If Mattie never sees the inside of a fucking bliss forest again, it’ll be too soon. Faith pushes her and Mattie sails backward and she knows she can’t fight it, so she doesn’t bother. She has to just let Faith scream at her until she gets distracted, then Mattie will be able to fight back.

Maybe this time will be the time she can get in close enough to the real Faith to kill her.

(Although… how has Faith been manipulating people through the bliss like this? How is it even physically possible? It’s almost worth taking her alive just to find that out.)

(Almost.)

“You forced someone to leave that didn’t want to go.” Faith bares her teeth and grabs Mattie’s sleeve. She tugs, and then they’re in the jail instead of the forest, watching Burke and Virgil play cards. Mattie actually smiles a little at this, even though she still really fuckin’ hates Burke.

At least he’s up and walking around, yeah?

“All so you could be, what? A hero? Do you know what ‘hubris’ is? Arrogance before the gods. The Greeks saw it as a dangerous form of pride that invoked the goddess Nemesis who would seek retribution…”

A chill settles over Mattie as Faith’s words settle into something cold, the boiling anger settling into something even more deadly.

She floats around Burke as she speaks, touching his back and shoulders, guiding him to stand, to draw his weapon (why does he even still have that, holy shit), to shoot the screaming Virgil in the center of his chest.

His scream cuts off as he falls, and Mattie tries to rush to his side to help, but…

She’s in the bliss.

This isn’t real.

Right?

Right?

Seeing Virgil fall feels real. Seeing Burke point his pistol at her feels real. Hearing him parrot back Faith’s words feels real too, horrifying in its clarity as they say, “I’m sorry to have to do this. I wanted there to be another way, but you made your choice.”

It’s terrifyingly real to see Burke walk to the jail’s control to open the outside gates to the peggies. It’s terrifyingly real as he turns back to her and says, without Faith’s prompting, “I told you I didn’t want to leave.”

It’s terrifyingly real to see him lift the pistol to his chin and pull the trigger without hesitation, without even acknowledging her screams.

---

It’s easy enough to ignore Faith's voice in her ear with Whitehorse’s pleas for help getting cut off over the radio, with Tracey’s horrified demands for help taking over. The boys let her drive back to the jail without argument, without really acknowledging the fact that she fell into another bliss hallucination that wasn’t really a hallucination at all.

Sharky doesn’t mention that he held her as she went limp, or that she screamed as she saw what Faith wanted her to see, or that her body had been rocked by a seizure before she pulled out of it. She can feel it in the rawness of her throat, in the pinched muscles still trying to relax, in the Sharky-sized fingerprint bruises on her arms.

He just stays quiet as she tears down the mountain just a hair too fast to be safe, only to slam the car into a skidding stop at the base of the jail’s driveway. 

It’s swarming with peggies.

It’s easy enough to ignore Faith’s voice as the three of them split up, as Mattie sneaks around the back of the jail, killing peggies and angels alike as she goes until she’s able to climb up and over and in. She can hear the screams of peggies suddenly catching on fire echoing through the vents, she can smell the smoke of Sharky’s flamethrower and hear the resonating booms of Hurk’s RAT-4.

It’s easy enough to ignore Faith’s voice until she frees Tracey from the peggies and they find Virgil in his makeshift office, blood all over his face and the floor and the cabinets. He’s not breathing, doesn’t start even as Tracey cradles his body with more tenderness than Mattie expected, checking his pulse as Mattie fruitlessly puts pressure on a wound that’s long stopped bleeding.

It’s not easy to ignore her voice as she croons, “You tried so hard. Isn’t it sad, knowing it’s all for nothing?”

She can’t even cry. She doesn’t feel anything as she sits down hard on the floor, jeans already stained with Sharky’s blood soaking up Virgil’s too, painting a damning portrait of her failures. 

It really is all for nothing.

Tracey pulls Virgil’s Cougars pin off his sweater, staring at it as she shakes with sobs. “This is what she does,” Tracey says, and there’s no question about who she is, “takes, destroys.”

There’s a history there, and Mattie doesn’t know the whole story, but she knows, deep, deep down, down in her bones, that Tracey’s right.

She just nods and drags herself to her feet in automatic obedience, Tracey’s words blotting out Faith’s in her mind.

“Find her. Kill her. Don’t let her get away with this.”

[carryonsimoncarryonbaz]

whumptober day 8, 10, 11, 12

Ok I’m totally falling apart as far as staying on schedule here so tonight you are getting another combo fic, incorporating four prompts!!

Day 8: Stabbed

Day 10: Unconscious

Day 11: Stitches

Day 12: Don’t Move!

Penelope

It started off easily enough. Cross the water to Long Island, a uninhabited islet near Hampshire. It didn’t take us all that long to get there. Langstone Harbour is a little over an hour from Watford.

Took longer than that with the bus but there’s no helping it.

I must say the Mage is simply terrible with logistics. He saddles Simon with missions but never tells him how to get there or how to get back. He doesn’t even spring for tickets or reimburse Simon for expenses. I’ve half a mind to send a letter to the Faculty Board or the Coven but I don’t want my mother getting wind that I’m helping Simon. I’d probably be able to hear her yell from here. And Morgana knows what spell she’d magic up to stop me from helping again.

I’m not going to risk that. I’d rather deal with the Mage’s stingy ways than have my mother find out what we’re doing.

It turned out that this place isn’t much of an island at all, name notwithstanding, although my preparatory research did reveal that it was inhabited in the Bronze Age and even up into Roman times. That’s why the Mage wanted us to go there.

There’s some sort of talisman he’s discovered through scrying. I didn’t think the Mage believed in crystal balls or images in pools of enchanted spring water.  Simon says he uses all available means of magical discovery and that scrying is a fairly common practice in Wales. That’s where the Mage is from. Simon says he rarely speaks of it.

We made our way to the island right before dusk and I magicked up a causeway. Simon wanted to steal a boat. Why steal when we can use magic? A stolen boat leaves a trail, a memory for the Normals, something out of the ordinary. A magickal causeway and a judicious “through a glass darkly” is all that’s necessary for something like this. No one will even know we were here.

Or so I thought. The Mage neglected to mention that this island is protected by the Mer people. And that this talisman has some magical significance to them. Typical.

We made it over without incident and I cast a few finding spells, using a sketch of the talisman the Mage had provided. It took about an hour but we found it, plucked it out from the center of a stone mound and stashed it in Simon’s pocket, wrapped in a scrap of cloth.

One of Baz’s linen handkerchiefs to be accurate. Simon can be so petty sometimes.

It took a fair bit of magic to keep the causeway up that long—the island was a fair distance from the coast, and the span wasn’t as simple as a footbridge across a river or ravine, like I’ve done before. I could feel my magic waning as we made our way back across.

Which is, of course, when the Mer people showed up. They rose up out of the water, on either side of the causeway. Dark-haired men, heavily muscled, wielding tridents at us. Mer people have their own kind of magic and they don’t particularly like anything crossing over their watery domains. Particularly not mages. There is all kinds of history there, none of it good.

I could see my causeway start to shimmer ahead of us. We only had a short distance to go, the shore wasn’t that far ahead, but then the causeway had flickered completely away in front of us, leaving me and Simon balanced on the edge. I darted a look behind me.

Merlin’s teeth. They’d erased it behind us too. We were stuck on the little remnant, surrounded by them.

Reasoning didn’t work. Simon called the Sword of Mages and made quick work of a few of them, slashing through their tridents and slicing some arms off as he did. It got a bit ugly then. Simon got blurry at the edges, like he gets when his magic rises up. He was moving so fast I could barely keep his sword in sight. He had me tucked behind him with a “can’t touch this.”

I don’t know why he didn’t do it over himself too but Simon never casts protective spells on himself.

He won’t weatherize himself either, even if it’s pouring rain. I don’t know if he forgets or he’s just incapable of doing it. I think he just forgets. He doesn’t think of himself that way, as needing a shield or a defense. Just everyone else.

We were outnumbered and Mer people are fierce when they’re feeling slighted. Or anytime they’ve got strangers near them, to be honest. I was trying to cast nets and churn up the water but it was difficult to cast when I was stuck behind Simon and hard to avoid getting him tangled up or knocking him off this remnant of my causeway.

A trident had whipped in front of my legs but the spell held it off.

Simon hadn’t been so lucky. He got speared in the side by another raging Mer-man. It was enough of a shock to make him go off. We ended up on the shore, under a tree.

It takes me a moment to clear my head and brush the sand off me. That’s when I get a look at Simon.

He’s bleeding and there’s a huge gash along his side. It looks like he got stabbed and then the trident tore along the surface of his flesh. It’s nasty looking.

Wide. Gaping. Blood pouring out of it.

“Don’t look at me like that, Penny. I’ll be fine. Just give me a “get well soon” and I’ll be alright.”

His breathing is too fast.

I point my ring at him and it gives me a half-hearted glow. Fuck a goblin. I need more power than this. I point it at him and cast a “get well soon” and a “right as rain.” The bleeding slows up and his breathing slows too, but the wound is still there.

I can’t think of any other spells right now. “Early to bed” comes to me and I cast it. Simon grabs my hand. “It’s all right, Penny. It’s better. I can manage.”

He can’t, the great thumping git. He’s got a bleeding hole in him, literally a bleeding hole, and a good eight-inch gash along his flank.

I need help. I don’t know how I’m going to get him back to Watford. The bus will take too long and we’ll draw too much attention if he’s bleeding on the bus. I doubt a “nothing to see here” will last long enough, the way I’m casting right now.

I find a blanket in a rowboat nearby and I cast “sanitized for your protection” on it before I tear it into strips to bind Simon’s wound with it. I make it snug enough that he gasps when I tighten the last bit.

“Bloody hell, Penny.” “I can’t have you bleeding out, Simon.” My voice is curt but I pull his arm over my shoulder and we limp our way to the station. He rallies a bit for the trip home.

It feels like we’re traveling forever.

We finally make our way to Watford by cab and blast it, the bloody drawbridge is up already. Fuck a nine-toed troll. I am going to skin the Mage the next time I see him, I swear to Merlin.

What am I going to do with Simon? I need to get him inside, I need to get him to the infirmary. We’re standing here, staring at the drawbridge, at the moat, at the gap between us and the wall, trying to figure out what to do.

Simon chooses this exact moment to pass out. He slumps right down, sliding away from me and falling into a heap at the moat’s edge. I drag him back. The mer-wolves have a keen sense of smell and I wouldn’t put it past one of them to crawl up out of the water to investigate the scent. They have a unnerving nose for blood.

I’ve had enough of bloody mer-creatures for one night, thank you very much.

I’m wracking my brain trying to think of a way to contact Agatha. If I could reach her she could get the nurse or the Mage or even Miss Possibelf, if the Mage is gone. He’s gone half the time as it is. He sends us off on these blasted missions and isn’t here to claim the artefact he sent us to find in the first place, the barmy bastard.

I’m on my knees casting “get well soon” on Simon again when I hear a voice calling my name.

“Bunce?”

I look up to the ramparts and see Baz’s pale face shining in the moonlight.

“What the devil are you doing out there, Bunce? And what have you done to Snow?”

Beggars can’t be choosers. Baz Pitch is a blessed sight at the moment.

“Stop chattering, Basilton Pitch, and help me. Simon’s hurt and I can’t get across the moat.”

He frowns down at me and for a moment I think he’s going to turn away. Next thing I know he’s over the ramparts and floating down across the moat, calm and collected, as if he casts “float like a butterfly” every day.

“What’s the situation?” he asks, as he lands, sinking to his knees next to Simon. I can see why Simon gets irritated with him. He even makes kneeling in the mud look elegant.

I give him as vague a story as I can. He shakes his head at me. “Can’t the Mage do his own dirty work?”

It’s startlingly close to my own opinion on the matter. It was fun and exciting the first years. But we’re sixth years now and it’s getting a bit irritating to always be at the Mage’s beck and call. It would be nice if he did some of this on his own. I don’t know why it always has to be Simon.

Baz’s grey eyes meet mine. “I don’t know if I can carry him over the wall with the spell,” he says.

I know that.

“And I can’t magic the drawbridge down.”

I know that, too.

“Can you get the nurse, Basil? Or Miss Possibelf?”

He looks down at Simon then and in an uncharacteristic motion takes Simon’s hand in his, pressing his fingertips to Simon’s wrist. “His heart’s racing. How bad is he hurt?”

“Bad enough. I got the bleeding to slow down but the gash wouldn’t heal.”

Baz’s nostrils flare at my words.

Oh fuck.

I point my ring at him, leaning over Simon menacingly. I hope I look menacing. I’m not sure. I probably just look tired. “Don’t move, Baz. Stay back.”

He knocks my hand away. “Calm down, Bunce. I’m not going to hurt him. I may loathe Snow but this is perhaps the least sporting way to inflict damage on him.” His expression softens. “Let me help.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t trust you either. Now will you shut up and let me help or not? You’ve dragged me into this, I may as well make myself useful.”

His wand is in his hand and he’s pointing it at Simon. I want to push him away. I want to shout at him to stop.

I want him to help me.

He casts a “get well soon” and I can feel the power of it. I press my fingertips to the blanket bandages and they come away wet.

“I think we’ve got to close the wound. I think that’s the only way we’ll get the spells to actually take.”

“Unwrap it then.”

“Can you handle it, Basil?” I’ve never addressed this with him. I’m not even sure I believe Simon. About Baz being a vampire.

But I can’t risk it. I can’t risk Simon.

Baz raises one eyebrow and quirks his lip. “I can handle a little blood, Bunce.”

Baz

Aleister Crowley, I hope I’m right. Thank magic I fed just a bit ago. I’ve got a full belly, blood sloshing through me still. The rats were plentiful tonight and I was thirsty.

It should be fine. Everything should be fine.

The scent of Snow’s blood hit me when I was still up on the ramparts. It’s what made me look down. I know that scent.

I’d recognize it anywhere.

I’ve smelled it all too often; from when I’ve hit him myself, from all the nights he’s crawled into bed after one of the Mage’s missions.

He smells like bacon and warm cinnamon buns. Like hazelnut coffee and campfire smoke.

He smells good enough to eat.

I can’t let myself think like this.

I have to do this. I have to help Simon.

“It’s fine, Bunce. Unwrap the layers yourself, if you don’t trust me.” That keeps me from getting blood on my hands. I don’t know if I could handle that right now.

Bunce meets my eyes and we stare at each other for a long moment. Then she nods and unwraps what looks like a plaid fleece blanket from around Snow’s waist.

The gash is ugly. It’s ragged and a good six inches in length, gaping near the stab wound but tapering off at the end. There isn’t much active bleeding. It seems the spells have at least managed that.

I don’t know how to heal a wound. I’ve not had to do this before. Experimentation seems a bit risky. I try to think of something that might bring the edges together but my mind is a bit of a blank, between the glimpse of Snow’s freckled skin and the rising scent of his blood surrounding me. I may be a tad woozy from it all.

Bunce shoves me. “Do something.”

“I’m trying to think what to do.”

She huffs. “If you can’t think of a way to seal the wounds then we’ll just have to stitch him up.”

“You must be joking.”

“I’m waiting for a better idea from you.”

She’ll be waiting a long time then. I’m blank other than healing spells so I hit Snow with a few more of those to stall for time. The wound narrows a bit and the bleeding stops completely, thank magic.

He’s still out cold. Blood loss and shock, I’m assuming.

“A stitch in time” I cast and a threaded needle shimmers in front of me. I’m not sure if I should use my wand or my hand to direct it. Bunce makes the decision for me. She grabs the needle and starts to make the first stitch. She manages to make three uneven stitches before she groans and covers her face with her hands.

“Ugh. I don’t know if I can do this.” “What do you mean you don’t know if you can do this? You asked me to help. I’m helping. Come along now, Bunce, stitch away.”

“I can’t. It’s awful. The way the needle feels going through his skin and the way his flesh quivers when I do it.” She shakes her head. “You do it.”

I stare at her. “You can’t be serious.”

The glare she shoots me over her glasses is menacing. Bunce can be quite terrifying when she chooses.

I bite my lips. I do not want to touch Snow’s skin. That would be an absolutely terrible idea. I may want to trace the constellations of moles that dot his chest and abdomen but now is most certainly not the time for that.

What am I thinking? There’s never going to be a time for that.

I shake my head to clear it.

I really can’t afford to get any of his blood on my hands.

I lean over him, wand pointed at the needle Bunce has abandoned on Snow’s skin. “I’ve got this all sewn up.” I make the sewing motions with my wand and the needle parallels my movements, slowly stitching up the wide wound, inch by inch. I make her tie the knot when I’m done.

She casts a “sanitized for your protection” on the blanket remnants, which is truly an inspired spell. I’ll have to remember that one.

Once she’s got Snow all bandaged again, she moves to place his head on her lap, gently stroking the hair off his face.

I imagine it’s me doing that. I think about how his curls would slip through my fingers, how the calluses on my fingertips would catch in his hair. How I’d stroke the side of his cheek . . . bloody hell, I need to stop this.

I drag my eyes away.

“Anything else I can do, Bunce?”

“Cast another healing spell, would you, Basil?”

I cast another healing spell. And another. Just in case.

I don’t think I can magic Bunce and Snow over the wall. We’ll just have to wait until morning, when the drawbridge comes down. Or flag the goatherd down at sunrise and have her magic us over. Fiona says she may be unassuming to look at but she’s a powerhouse when she chooses.

I wouldn’t know.

The night is getting cooler and the breeze picks up. I magic my coat into a blanket and Bunce does the same with her jacket. We wrap them around Snow and huddle together for warmth, Snow’s head still pillowed on Bunce’s lap.

He’s inches away, closer than he’s ever been before, except when we’ve been fighting.

It’s too much, having him here like this, so close, so still, so quiet. It’s unnerving. I’m worried that he hasn’t woken up yet. I’m worried he’s lost too much blood. I can feel his heartbeat, steady and strong though and I try to convince myself it’s just exhaustion and blood loss.

I can’t help it. I reach over and lay my cold hand on his forehead. It feels warm but not too warm. What would I know? I’m not a normal temperature myself.

Snow turns his head into my palm and rubs his forehead against my hand. I snatch it back, not daring to meet Bunce’s eyes.

She places her hand where mine was. “He’s not running a fever, if that’s what you’re worried about, Basil.”

“I’m not worried. Just thought I’d check is all.”

I get another one of Bunce’s penetrating stares. I don’t say anything. I just lean back against the tree we’re huddled under and tilt my head up to look at the stars.

I follow the patterns of the stars but what I see in my head are the patterns on Snow’s skin.

It’s going to be a long night.

[detroitbydark]

Moonbeams and Ridinghoods Chp 5

Pairing: Werewolf!Haz/Reader

Word Count: 1500+

Summary: Harrison takes Tom’s order to heart and Y/N makes the choice to accept or decline his apology.

A/N: Guess who got a new computer? This girl! Will I get more writing done? That remains to be seen but at least I can put a cut now! This chapter was a bear to write for whatever reason. The next one seems to be coming along a bit easier.

The tube is fairly empty this late at night. The feeling of utter solitude is a little ominous, like if you step from the empty car you’re going to find the world has come to an end and you're the last person left alive.  

A chill creeps up your spine as you scroll through your phone. That’s it, no more horror movie marathons for you.

 You respond to a text from Emily. You keep it short and sweet, still not sure how close you should get with someone who was friends with Harrison. She’d seemed genuine when she’d called the day before, hadn’t mentioned Harrison once. It had been nice to have another woman to talk to and you’d found you shared a lot of the same interests food and fashion included. You’d made tentative plans for a dinner date later in the week at a “great little wine bar” she raved about.

The thought of Harrison has you opening his message.

Harrison: I’m sorry about the other night. Can I take you out to dinner? I want to apologize.

When you’d seen it earlier, glancing at it between med pass and documenting, you’d been almost excited to see it But you’d  gotten busy with an elderly woman going through the DTs and didn’t respond. Now you’d had time to think and you weren’t so sure you should respond. Between the way he’d pulled away from your kiss like you had the plague or the straight up ghosting you’d been privy too you weren’t so sure he was a person you needed to be getting excited about. Your brain chastised you for giving too many chances to people who didn’t deserve them. Your heart said people make mistakes and you shouldn’t write them off. You were stuck somewhere in between the two.

As you exit the tube and make your way to the street you can’t help but watch the way your breathe comes out in a fog from your mouth. The waxing moon is bright and the night is cloudless making it crisp, bordering on cold, as you shove your phone and hands in your pocket for warmth. Your apartment is three blocks from the tube station and you keep your head down as you listen to the sound of your sneakers on the pavement.

You’d really liked Harrison. He was charming, bordering on cocky, but you found something about that so appealing.you wanted to bask in his attention, fall under the seat of his easy confidence. He’d made you feel comfortable without even trying. 

You’d let yourself be open to him in a way you hadn’t in a long time. It wasn’t like you’d never been ghosted before, but than you’d never really cared. It happened and than you’d  block their phone number and move on. 

You’d already opened up your contacts to erase Haz twice and both times you’d faltered and distracted yourself from completing the task. 

You yawn tiredly, as you reach your building, slinging your backpack off your shoulder to find your keys.

“Long night?”

You nearly come out of your skin at the soft question and drop your backpack. The open front pocket spills onto the sidewalk and you curse quietly as you dip down to clean up the mess.

Harrison pushes up from his seat on your steps and moves to help you. He crouches down grabbing your wallet, handing it to you. Flustered, you snatch it from his offered hand.

“What are you doing here?” The words come out too high to be cool and collected and you wince externally at the sound of your own voice.

“I...you didn’t answer my text.” He says drawing your attention up while you shovel the last few items, a pack of gum and a few tampons, back into your bag. He looks good crouched there in faded denim and a black leather jacket over an old band tee. He also doesn’t look nearly as apologetic as you feel he should.

“You didn’t answer mine!” You snap waspishly before taking a steadying breath zipping the pocket closed “It was one date that didn’t end well. I didn’t think I was under any obligation to you.”

You stand to your full height and he to his own. In the street light he cuts an imposing figure. He looks down his nose at you before he takes a deep breath and his posture loosens. His blue eyes soften as he looks at you, holding you trapped in place.

“Y/n, I never intended to make you feel bad-“

You cut him off before he could say another word, “Well you did Haz. What the hell happened? Huh?” You ask stepping closer. “We had such a nice time. At least I thought we did-“

“We did! I-“ you hold up your hand.

“If we had such a nice time why did one kiss make me feel like a leper?” He has the good grace to look away from you, breaking the spell he had on you.

The silence between sits for one beat, than two and you hike your backpack up higher on your shoulder. Screw him.

“You know what? I don’t have time for this?” You go to pass around him when his arm shoots out and grabs your wrist. You look up with narrowed eyes. His baby blues narrow right back before you can see him force himself to relax again.

You shake out of his slackened grip.

“If you’ve got something to say, say it or fuck on along somewhere.”

“Y/N, I really like you.” He starts.

You laugh

“Are you kidding me?”

“I do!” He asserts, “let me finish, ok?” 

Your arms cross over your chest and you nod for him to say his peace.

“I don’t date much and I don’t let myself get distracted much but you…” he’s trying to find the words and instead of snapping back like you want to you give him a moment. “Something about you makes me want to get to know more about you. Actually,” he corrects, his hand rubs at the back of his neck as he speaks. “it makes me want to know everything about you. I want to know all the cliche bullshit they talk about in the movies. I want to know what makes you smile and what your favorite movie is, where do you want to go on holiday, how do you take your coffee?”

Your arms loosen, falling to your sides.

“I know I ran off like a fucking wanker. I ignored you and made you feel bad and I just want to say I’m…” he takes a deep breath and steps within touching distance of you again. “I’m sorry. Whether you give me another chance or not, I’m sorry.”

“Why did you have to run though?  Explain that part to me?” You demand softly.

“It scared me.” He admits quickly, like the words felt gross on his tongue. You can’t help but laugh.

“I scared you?” 

Harrison takes a deep breath. When he exhales a cloud of fog forms around his mouth. 

“I’ve never kissed someone and felt like I never wanted to stop.”

It sounds like such a bad line but it’s said with such sincerity that you can’t help but feel like the romantic lead in one of the trashy novels your mother used to hide in her closet. You’ve never been good at staying mad. It was both a blessing and a curse. You’re not sure in this situation how it’s going to play out.

“Haz-“

“All I’m asking for is a chance, Y/N.”

“No more disappearing?” You ask hesitantly. He shakes his head. 

“I need you to be straight with me Harrison.” You warn. The corners of his mouth begin to flicker up into a hopeful smile.

“I won’t make you regret this.” He promises stepping closer and taking your hand. His skin is hot as his thumb brushes over the back of your hand. A light wind blows sending a chill up your spine. He looks searchingly at you like he wants to say something instead he leans in a presses a gentle kiss to your forehead.

“You should probably go inside before you catch a cold.” He murmurs.

“You know that’s not how that works right?” You ask as he takes a step away. He just gives you a small smile and a shrug.

“It sounded good.”

You bite at your bottom lip, “you could come up, I think I have some tea in the cupboard somewhere?” You offer. Harrison shakes his head slowly. 

“I’m gonna do this right. I’ll pick you up Friday at 7? A proper dinner date?”

You feel a nervous smile springing to life. 

“Yeah.” You answer softly.

“Like in ‘yes’?” 

“Yeah, as in ‘yes’.” You laugh at the megawatt smile you receive. The slick exterior he’s always shown is cracked just enough for you to see a giddy boy underneath. 

“Awesome. Great.” he says. “I will… well I’ve got a thing to do now but I can call you later this week.” You nod excitedly as you back up your steps. Harrison backs down the sidewalk for a few paces before turning and heading toward his car parked on the street. 

You manage not to break down in a fit of butterfly induced giggles until you’ve made it in your apartment, resting your back against the worn wooden door. 

Now, you had a bigger issue. What were you going to wear?

[iraniq]

Just kids’ stuff

planned part one: https://iraniq.tumblr.com/post/167766473412/united

unplanned part two: https://iraniq.tumblr.com/post/182277422122/avalanche

definetly haven’t even thought abut it part tree:*read below* 

4:43

Daniel crying like it's the end of the world. Empty bed, since El, went to feed him. Warmth is back. 6:02 Rose stole Ava's blanket - fight. El wnet to separate them in 2 beds. Warmth is back.

7:12

Brandon went to ravish Niq's secret stash of sweets - she is having her mother's voice, that is currently echoing through all the walls in the house... Warmth isn't back yet.

7:37

Em went to check on Daniel and he is crying again... The sound is getting louder. She is caring him in the bedroom... Where is warmth to fix this...

10:03

Everyone are gathered for breakfast, dressed. Behaving... El had a nervous break down and yelled and cried. So Joker send her on a walk and took charge of the offspring for the day.  - So... - He looked at his children, positioned around the half circled table. - Why are you so mean to your mom? Ha! She ruined her pretty butt to bear you all... Show some respect, damn you! Niq was one eye and hand on her phone and she raised the other.  - I was...  - Shut it! You were the one who ruined her at 1st place.  - You were the one who got her pregnant. - she yelled, could she not have this annoying voice.  - I was around 20, I just wanted a scratch - he yelled back, hoping the rest won't get or worse, remember what her said - ... Anyway. - he compossed himself and fixed his hair. The older one sighed. He slammed his fist on the kitchen table and they all winced.  - Listen what... You either fix your bratty attitude, or I am calling you a 'hormonal behavior' till you turn 22. She mumbled "Fine", the rest were quiet and the baby was whimpering, trying to lick it's snot.  - Em! Fix the baby. The 7 years old, got a napkin and stole the snot, which made Daniel quite unhappy. The twince were moved on his both sides so they can make silly faces, so he could be quiet.  - Daddy, is it true you put us into mom's vagina? - Rose asked. Since Ava was busy with Daniel. Em chocked on her laugh when Niq kicked her to be quiet. Brandon, was falling asleep, since he wasn't digesting.  - Yes, do you have a problem with that.  - Well you shouldn't ... Since you dislike us. - the girl's eyes got watery.  - I don't dislike you... - he pinched the bridge of his nose. - I just hate when you make your mother sad.. She isn't here to be your slave. I hate when she is crying, and whoever makes her cry, will have a problem with me.... Even if that's you... - he pointed at all. - And I can be so much more than an idiot your mother laughs at... you got your jerkness form me, and you definitely don't want to see it back at you... I can be scary as hell, if I want to.. Ask your sister! - he pointed at the older one. There was this situation, several months before Niq turned 10, that one of the guards was way too... Interested in her well being. He even once sneaked in her room while she was taking a bath... After this day, the only person responsible for the kids is their mother, who has all variaties of guns needed... Even Em knows hot to use teaser and is always carting a pepper spray. And the youngsters know how to scream loud enough to awake 12 levels tall building. This was the main reason, today was the 1st day she raised her voice at her father... Since this particular day.  - So... You all properly behave, or I will be the one in charge and I won't let your mother save you from my wrath anymore. They all silently nodded and he served them breakfast. Niq got boiled vegetables and cheese with juice. Em got fruit salad with 2 pieces of dark chocolate. Brandon got 200grams of pure raw dried meat that he ravished like a wild animal. The twice got pancakes with honey. Daniel got a bottle of mom's morning milk. The whole day the kids actually had fun. Their dad was around all day. Reading papers and plans and writing and drawing something. When he was done, he let the kids color some of the shapes on a light blue map. They were all given a color and pointed a place to fill. Since they weren't exactly hungry, they had fruit and vegetable, their choice, each for lunch, after that they were let for 2 hours on their own to run and scream in the back yard. Niq was responsible to prevent fights. It was sunny and warm, so it was ok, no risk of getting sick. The baby was inside, on a swingy bed, that J rocked while working. They even had a bath together. The big Jacuzzi works perfect as a kids pool... If needed. Later they all needed a nap from exhaustion. Dad tuckled all in, on his yoga mattress. And kept on readibg while they all slept. At some point the twins woke up whining and went to sleep on dad's lap. Brandon was snoring and Em was kicking him, gently...  taking turns with Niq to cuddle Daniel. After dinner... And no protest form Niq's side about the meat. They even had time for yogurt desert, even the Joker ate, although it wasn't almond or soya milk. They mixed it with fruits and pieces of dark chocolate.

23:30

 - Hey baby! - Joker suddenly said.  - How you know? - El let out an half asleep and definitely exhausted whisper.  - I can recognize the steps of everyone in this house.  - How are the kids?  - Niq had an attitude at breakfast, but I shut her... Gosh, woman, she is so much like you... And not in the good way. El laughed. - Daniel was chasing the snot again... Several times... Almost got it! So close... But so far! - the Joker pretend a sad face and fake cry. - The twins had a fight over a fork again... Gave them spoons each, were very trilled. - he explained adjusting his glasses and continued the Sudoku. - Brandon ate Niq's meat for dinner, I pretend not to see, Em got whatever was left of Daniel's pumpkin... Thing. Babs, this shit looks gross, I feel the need to puke when I see it... Changing smelly diapers is a blessing... This baby foods looked like someone already ate it and disliked it and then puked it and...  - OK, got it... Next! - she slapped his shoulder.  - I finally managed to make a decent butterfly waffel. The twins were thrilled! Stared for several minutes before attack.  - How's Niq.  - Nice, since the other alternative is 'hormonal behavior'. El laughed.  - They were wild, and had light lunch.... 7... Finally!  - What?  - It's 7 here.  - I have no idea, Love. I suck at Sudoku... Don't remark on that! He chuckled.  - They had a nap and then movie and dinner and another movie and a national geographic about hiking while the dessert.  - Desert?  - Yes! I made it! - he sassily drank of his coffee.  - OH my...  - What are you doing woman... Why you hit me... - now he understood why El was craving to be alone even from him sometimes. These kids, just some lone time, for like 5min, without the annoying questions, attitude.  - Your milk is over... That one made "moo" at some point in it's life...  - Jesus woman... - he scrubbed the spilled coffee of his pants, visibly annoyed. - I know, I used yours.  - Mine?  - Yes... You are like a fuc... You are like a cow. Daniel can't possibly use all.  -  What?  - I made the pancakes with it. After the nap we had a cup with cocoa each, again of yours.... The yogurt... I put it into my coffee...  - It's Mother's milk! - El protested.  - So... It tastes good... No animal was hurt while... Gathering it. - he cleared his throat.  - Brilliant! - she raised her hands in the air, and her blood pressure was raising an well.  - Babs, Daniel puked twice today, although we have him bottle less of what you had prepared.  - Ok... - she said uninterested in the conversation and sat next to him, putting her feet in his lap, and ruining his Sudoku.  - Where were you?  - Hanged with Oz and Ed. They are so cute... Fancy mention, fancy clothes, fancy tea cups, no kids...  - No annoying husbands.  - Actually plenty of this. They both laughed.  - Come on, love... Daddy missed the kitten.  - J... That's why we have 6 kids..  - That's why we had 2! The other 4 were your fault... The twins know the V-word.  - Good, because they actually have one...  - Shush.... No such stuff for my kids. They are cute little babies. Please... I already have one hormonal child... With her... Hormones. - he raised his hands in the air and waved sacrcastically. - A matter of time to start pissing me with the boyfriend subject... - he growled displeased.  - I didn't heard you complaining the other day when she climbed to you kissing.  - I officially allow you to kill me the the day I whined about it. El smiked. They went to bed.

00:07

The warmth is back! ... until one of the 6 kids is awaken in several minutes ...

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[hellomelusine]

it's time to think outside of the box -spacedarcy

This is from the fluff/angst prompt list. I’m only about 2 months late in finishing this, and I’m not super sure it meets either, but maybe falls somewhere on the mildly sexy flangst scale.

This felt like equal parts prompt and threat. So thanks, @spacedarcy, I hope you like it!

“There’s no way this is actually going to work.” Finn’s voice crackles through her earpiece and she frowns, leaning out of position to look at him where he sips on a martini fifteen feet away from her.

“This was your idea Finn!” Rose hisses back and Rey scans the casino floor until she finds her playing blackjack.

“The boss said it was time to think outside of the box, and I didn’t see any of you coming up with any better ideas, let alone ideas at all. Plus, we get to pretend we’re spies!” Finn teases, and Rey rolls her eyes when she watches him down his drink. If he has many more he’s going to be a risk to finishing their objective.

“Can it you two, does anyone have eyes on our guy?” Poe interjects, amid a cacophony of background trills and music, before Rose and Finn can have another lengthy argument over earpieces. Rey finds Poe looking harried near the slot machines where an older woman is poking at him with her cane, large cup of quarters secured in her arm and can’t stop her grin at the sight.

There’s a chorus of ‘no’s’ that filter through the comms and Rey sighs, shifting in her too high heels and too short dress. She’s been standing at the upstairs bar for almost an hour now while fending off advances with little more than a scowl. She has a job to do and it doesn’t involve entertaining sloppy drunks.

All of this fuss over a bet between their bosses, the only catch was, the two of them couldn’t participate any further than laying out the parameters of the bet. No bodily injuries, no arrests, no outside help. Whatever team got their item first, with proof won, winning team picks the location of their next ‘team building conference’ which was just a fancy way for Han and Leia to treat them all to a long weekend vacation, at the close of fiscal year, while drunkenly going through teamwork exercises from google. Rey wasn’t sure that it helped their company’s profit at all, but it was at least good for morale. So here they were in a damn casino, of all places, trying to track down Kylo Ren, because he was the one from Han’s team that had the item they needed, while Rose had theirs.

“This is so stupid,” Rey grumbles, curling the edge of the napkin under her drink, “how do we even know he’s going to be here, and actually alone.”

“Leia might have mentioned, a few weeks ago, before the bet even started, that her son came here once a month to play in the high stakes room,” Finn slurs before hiccuping.

“Come on, Finn, seriously?” Rose again, quickly closing out at the table.

“I’m nervous, I just really want to win, and they are making these martinis way stronger than they should be,” he grouses, leaning more heavily against the ballistraude to pout. Poe snickers from the ground floor and Rey waves down the bartender, ordering a water.

“Here, drink this,” she tells him, shoving the glass under his nose after striding up to stand next to him. Finn grunts in thanks and turns to smile down at her as he drank. “All of it, we still need to get you home after this, when did you become such a lightweight?” she laughs, punching him lightly in the arm, making him spill water down his chin.

“Rey, rude,” Finn pouts, but Rey isn’t paying attention to him anymore, because she has found their mark.

“I’ll be right back,” she mumbles, eyes catching Finn’s one last time before she moves to follow him, muting her mic. The good thing about Kylo, is that he’s stupidly tall, which made him easy to follow, the bad thing is, he’s stupidly tall, so he has long legs and travels pretty fast. Rey curses her decision to wear the heels tonight as she pushes through the crowd, following a dark, maddingly glorious head of hair. Not that she ever thought about it, much, or complained with Rose that hair that nice was wasted on a man, no matter how good looking. At least he hadn’t been equally as blessed with enviable eyelashes, and what the fuck what she doing right now.

He turns down a hall and Rey edges around a throng of people talking and makes the same turn. She’s taken maybe five steps before a hand shoots out from an alcove and she yelps as she’s pulled into it.

“Rey?” he asks, seeming shocked to find her in front of him. “You’re following me.” He frowns now, and Rey huffs a little, wriggling in the small space.

“Do you make it a habit of pulling people you suspect of following you into small spaces like this?” She peers up at him, and realizes they’ve never actually been this close before and this was probably not the best plan based on the way her pulse is now racing.

“Sorry.” He’s so tall, and looks so abashed that Rey can’t help but smile. “You were following me though, what are you even doing - hang on, this is about the bet, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about? I love coming to the casino when the mood strikes. I was just leaving the bar when I thought I saw you, and, you know,” she waves a hand at him, accidentally backhanding him in the chest as she rambles “friendly face, thought we could maybe play a few rounds together.” She’s attempting to burn a hole through his shirt with her eyes, just to avoid lying straight to his face.

“You came here alone?” he asks, shifting his stance and drawing his arms up to cross them right in front of her line of sight. There is only one problem: they’re standing so close he definitely brushes against her front and she glares up at him, ignoring the way her nipples readily jump to attention at the touch. “Sorry,” he mumbles, and she thinks he might be blushing.

“I’m not here alone. Girls night.”

“Liar,” he smirks, and Rey fleetingly thinks he should probably do that more often, because he looks really good with the hint of a smile dancing at the corners of his eyes. “The whole team is here, aren’t they?” he asks, and Rey quickly shakes her head no, but it displaces her hair just enough that he can see the earpiece and he laughs. “I believe, my dear, you have been caught.”

Rey doesn’t care that it’s clearly sarcasm, his choice of phrase does something to her, a riot of butterflies suddenly fluttering within her. She rests her head back against the wall ignoring the sudden uptick in chatter in her ear as Poe and Rose realize she’s wandered off while Finn just keeps slurring ‘it’s fine’ at them. “Maybe that the was plan,” she drops her voice a register, trying for sultry, and watching his eyebrows pinch together. Rey has completely abandoned the original plan, but this one, she hopes fleetingly, will work out better in the long run. She shifts again, deliberately brushing her breasts against his crossed arms as she stands to her full height in her heels and hears him suck in a sharp breath at the contact. “Would you like to hear the rest of the plan, you know, since I’ve been caught and all.” Her fingers dance towards the belt loops on his pants and he tries to flinch away from her, but there’s nowhere to go, except flat against the wall.

“Rey,” his voice caught somewhere between a gasp and a groan, “we can’t - what are you -”

Her hands find their mark, index fingers looping through and pulling tight as his arms relax and unfold to settle at her hips. She hardly has to move, just a slight push up onto her toes and her lips just barely brush his. She smiles against his mouth when his fingers clench around her and she delights in the small noise he releases when she catches his lower lip with her teeth. “Kiss me,” she breathes, takes a moment to pull away to look him in the eye while she whispers, “Ben.” Rey shouldn’t be surprised when he does exactly that, but she is, and she feels the rumble of his laugh through his chest at the noise she makes when she’s the one suddenly back against the wall.

Three years, it had been three years since Leia hired her, and introduced Rey to her son, Ben (but don’t tell him, I told you his real name, that idiot son of mine is running around calling himself Kylo Ren, and that’s fine by me, as long as he’s back home) and Rey found herself with an inappropriate interoffice crush. She knew he wasn’t stupid, saw the way she looked at him sometimes, the same way Rey caught him looking at her. They were idiots for not doing something before now.

It’s desperate and hungry and messy and when he wedges his thigh between her legs Rey can’t stop the moan that builds low in her throat. He drags his mouth away from hers, leaving wet sloppy kisses against the line of her jaw as her left hand lifts and she cards her fingers through his hair while he works his way to her throat and then it’s his turn to moan when Rey shifts against him, letting her weight fall onto his leg, pressing into him, body warm and wanting for more as her other hand curls carefully around his back. Why had they waited so long, she thinks hazily, jolting when his teeth sink in where neck meets shoulder and sucks hard for a moment. Rey trembles against him as his tongue laves against the spot, soothing what she knew would be quite the mark.

“I’m waiting,” Ben hums against her skin, one hand drifting below the hem of her dress to find purchase on the bare skin of her thigh.

“Yeah, I’ve been waiting too,” she says breathlessly, cheek pressing against his ear as his mouth continues to work on her exposed skin. His laugh is a tickle of air across her shoulder and she jolts, realizing what he actually means. “Oh - oh, the plan,” she moans when he deliberately shifts his thigh beneath her, the pressure and friction causing a jolt of pleasure to shoot through her body. She pulls away, chest heaving. “Got it.” There, held between her middle and ring fingers of her right hand is Han’s business card. A loud cheer from somewhere down the hall, overlaid by the sounds of the slot machines half a hall and a balcony away jolts Rey back into awareness of just where they are. Through the earpiece she can hear Rose fussing over Finn, who still kept assuring them it was fine and she could hear Poe grunt as he smothered a laugh. Right, they were totally in public right now.

“What - when?” His pupils blown wide and Rey smiles softly at him, tugging gently on the hair that she was still running her fingers through before kissing the corner of his mouth.

“Before the kiss, actually,” she tells him, moving to tuck the card down the front of her dress, watching as his eyes darken further. She runs her hand up his chest, winding it around his neck to meet her other before pulling him even closer still. “I beleive that means we’ve won.” Rey laughs at the disappointed groan Ben releases and she shifts her hips closer to his, finally bumping against the erection that tented his pants, making Ben moan as she shifts again. “Don’t be such a spoilsport, it doesn’t suit you,” she teases.

“I didn’t even feel you take it,” he grumbles, moving away from her gently before adjusting himself in his pants while looking out of the alcove to make sure no one was watching them.

Rey rights her dress and smiles up at him, “A story for another time, but I wouldn’t be much of a pickpocket if you had felt me take it. Now,” she runs her fingers through her hair as she watches him fidget and try not to show his surprise, “let me let everyone know I’m fine.”

“And that you won.”

“And that I won,” Rey laughs lightly, switching on her mic once more. “Rogue squadron, this is Scavenger reporting.” She frowns at Ben when he snorts before she shrugs, flicking at his bicep in retaliation.

“Jesus, Rey, where have you been?!” Poe nearly shouts into the ear piece, making Rey wince.

“Oh, so we aren’t using the dumb names you came up with now? Even though I’ve completed the mission?”

“Yes we aren’t using the - you did what?” he is still yelling and Rey reaches for Ben’s hand, gripping it tightly before stomping back through the hall and the crowd to where she had left Finn, and sure enough, the rest of the team is there, fussing and anxious.

“I got the card,” Rey growls, plucking it from where it’s tucked against her chest and waving it at Poe.

“Girl, you definitely got more than just the card.” Rose drawls with a wink, leaning against the railing as Finn leaned against her. “Lips like that, I want to hear everything about it.”

Ben coughs from behind Rey, “Need I remind you, that I am your superior, Tico?”

“Meh, laterally,” Rose brushes him off, “but please feel free to let your mom know exactly why you’re throwing your weight around trying to get me fired. Honestly, you’d have a better time if you were throwing your weight against Rey, if you know what I’m saying.”

“Everyone knows what your saying, Rose, that was the least subtle thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth,” Poe groans, pinching at his nose as he takes several steps away from Finn and Rose, “how many drinks have you had?”

“None! I was counting cards!” she defends, kicking out at Poe.

“Shit, Rose, say that louder,” Rey hisses, taking a step away from the loud cheater, only to bump into Ben, who steadies her with a hand on her hip, while looking like he’s fighting a laugh.

“Please, they can afford to lose the money, it’s a goddamn casino. Odds are stacked for the house to win.” Her eyes dancing in delight as she took in her two kiss-mussed coworkers. “Alright, Finn, lets get you home.”

“It’s Bond, James Bond.” He slurs at them all, leaning forward a bit too far and stumbling, but Rose and Poe are ready to catch him.

“You’re a mess, buddy,” Poe sighs, slinging an arm around Finn.

“They were strong martinis!” Finn defends, letting himself be dragged forward and towards the elevator.

“See you kids on Monday!” Poe calls over his shoulder.

“You’re barely two months older than I am, Poe!” Ben shouts back.

“Counts!”

Ben lifts a middle finger to Poe’s back and Rey laughs before stopping abruptly when Ben turns to look at her. “I should go,” she chirps, “Finn told us your mom said you actually come here to play, and I’m sure -” Ben’s mouth met hers again, quick and hard. “Oh,” she sighs when he pulls away.

“I have two questions,” Ben says, leading them to stand in the space Rose and Finn had vacated, “one, what kind of terrible location are you guys picking? Two, would you like to get dinner with me?”

“What, now?” Rey asks, she didn’t know what time it was, but it had to be nearly ten.

“Yes, now.”

“Uhhh, okay, sure, yes. I would love to.”

“Perfect, there’s a restaurant downstairs I think you’ll love. Now, about the location.”

“Sure, there’s this lake not far from here, and we’re renting cabins,” she says with an impish grin, ignoring his groan as he presses the down button for the elevator. Rey turns into him, leaning up to put her mouth against his ear to whisper, “don’t worry, Solo, you play your cards right, and I’ll let you bunk with me.”

[a-butterfly-on-his-tummy]

The Path of Life and Love

“See ya later, alligator!” I say as Harry and I end the FaceTIme call with our daughter.

“I know a new one! I tell it?” Grace asks, holding the iPad in such a way that part of her face is being cut off, and we get a very beautiful view of the ceiling of Anne’s home.

“Oh tell me!! Tell me!!” Harry’s voice is laced with excitement as he leans in a little closer, waiting to hear the new way of saying goodbye.

“O-tay! Bye-Bye Butterfly!” Grace bursts into giggles as she tells her parents the new saying. Saying funny salutations has become a tradition, and it always makes Grace laugh.

“Oh I like that one!! Bug, we love yeh butterfly much! Call us in the morning okay?” Harry says, waving at the screen. “Be good for Gran.” He adds, smiling at his daughter.

“Kiss!” Grace kisses the camera, her lips expanding on the screen, and it makes me smile. Harry and I return kisses to the little one. “I kiss da baby goodbye?” I nod my head, moving the camera so that my 30 week bump can be seen. Once again, small pink lips take over the whole screen as Grace gives her sibling a big sloppy kiss.

“Love you, baby!! Talk to you soon!! Sweet dreams!” I wave to my daughter as my husband ends the call. Harry takes the iPad from my hands and places it on the coffee table.

“Oh I love her.” Harry says, letting out a sigh as he sits up; raising his hands towards the sky, he stretches his muscles, letting out a small groan.

“Me too. She is quite the goose!” I say, chuckling to myself as I recall the conversation we just had. “Wanna go lay outside with me? Feeling like I might want a nap.” I say through a yawn.

“I would love to.” Harry pops up from the sofa, holding out his hands so I can grab hold and use them to stand. My hand rests under my baby bump to give it support as I move my body out of the sitting position. Harry threads his fingers through mine as he guides me through the open doors of our private villa and out onto the deck that ends with a bed above the water.

The wood of the deck feels warm against my bare feet, and the sun feels lovely against my skin. I climb onto the bed, crawling across to make room for my husband. Stripping off his shirt, Harry climbs on the mattress next to me, pulling me in close against his inked skin.

“Thank you for planning this.” I say, resting my head against his shoulder. My bump is nestled close to his body, and I can feel the little one adjusting inside. Running my hand down my stomach, I rub back and forth in an effort to calm our baby.

“It’s relaxing, init?” Harry looks out across the ocean, and I can see his curls flying softly in the wind. In ten short weeks we will be parents of two children, and that just blows my mind. I am thankful that Harry planned such a private babymoon. Our villa in Tahiti is away from everyone, creating a private atmosphere that helps us to feel comfortable and not like we are being watched. After losing our last baby, we tried really hard to keep this pregnancy quiet, just in case something happened again, as the risk of miscarriage is higher after happening once. We tried really hard to keep it between family for as long as possible.

“Yes, and nice to get out of the cold.” I reply, tracing my finger against his butterfly, outlining the wings slowly, covering every detail.

“Can yeh believe that 8 years ago next month, a beautiful girl walked into my birthday party not having the slightest clue who I was. The room was filled with people who were there for Harry Styles, but she was only focused on the art.” Harry starts to recall the night that changed our lives forever, and I can feel my heart melting into a puddle that will rival the ocean that is under us right now. “From the moment we first said hello, my mind was pushing for one thing. To get to know that beautiful bird with a smile that was lighting up the world.”

“Like nobody else?” I say, trying to hold back my giggle as I look up at my husband to see if he got my reference to his very first single with One Direction.

“Hey, I’m tryin’ to be sentimental here.” His scowl makes me laugh because I know he is secretly proud of my reference.

“Okay. Continue.” I pat his stomach and encourage him to continue his story.

“And then I married her on what I believe to be one of the best days of my life.” His hand dances down my side, sneaking his fingers under the hem of my swim suit cover up. His fingers draw circles on the skin of my belly and it makes me feel calm and content. “Then, we created a beautiful, dramatic, creative soul that will change the world someday.”

“She gets the dramatic side from you.” I tease, and it makes Harry chuckle.

“And her eye roll from her mum.” Harry teases back, and I roll my eyes at his response. “Then we were blessed with 14 brilliant weeks, where we loved and lost and grew in so many different ways.” His voice shakes slightly as he talks about our baby in heaven. I can feel the tears begin to well up in my eyes, and I choose not to hold them back, allowing them to fall slowly down my cheeks. “And now, we are welcoming another baby. Our world has evolved so much in the last 8 years. But I wouldn’t change any of it.” He kisses my head and hugs me closer to his body.

“Harry? What can we do better?” I ask sincerely. In 8 years we have had a lot of challenges, and things get neglected, especially when it comes to our relationship.

“As parents?” Harry asks, holding his hand still as our baby begins to move against his palm.

“No, I think we are pretty good at being parents.” I smile as I make the joke because we learn and grow everyday when it comes to parenthood. Parenting isn’t easy, and I feel like I am constantly learning. “I mean with us. Is there anything that I am doing or not doing for you?” There is a moment of silence, where the only thing I can hear is the waves of the ocean crashing against the beach. Harry takes a moment to process my question, allowing it to sink in before he answers.

“Hmmm, something we can improve? We both get in our head at times, and I think we struggle communicating when we are in a bad headspace if I’m honest.” Harry is thoughtful in his comment and I agree with what he is saying.

“Yes, I tend to withdraw, isolate, because I feel like there are bigger problems that need my attention.” I add.

“Me too.” Harry says quietly. “So can we work on being open, honest, and raw about our anxiety and worries?”

“Yes. I think that is a good thing to work on.” Kissing his chest softly, I move my hand from his butterfly to the laurels that lay on his hips. “I think a lot of the time, I get caught up in the routine of being a parent that I feel like I don’t give us what we need. I want to work on giving us more time and attention.”

“What if we spend an hour each day, just us? Kids are in bed, we can watch a show, or take a bath, or paint our nails. I do love a good spa night.” I don’t even have to look at Harry to know that his dimple is deep as he smiles. “Even if I am away, I promise to make time, even if it is fifteen minutes. Just for us. No Jeff. No kids. Just me and my darling.”

“I like that idea.” I say, brushing the hair out of my face. “Hey, I love you. So much. Always have, and I always will.”

“I love yeh too.” Harry kisses my forehead, tucking the stray curl behind my ear. “Thank yeh for being all in, and for loving me and our children.”

“You’re lucky you’re easy to love.” I giggle, biting my lip as I tease my husband. “Thank you for loving me, and allowing me to share this journey of love and happiness.”

“The pleasure is all mine, darling.” He smiles before capturing my lips in a sweet, soft kiss. We lay together, enjoying Tahiti with a new vision of our path in this thing we call life and love.

A/N: Happy National Best Friend day to my bestie and beta @whoopsharrystyles. This series wouldn’t be the same without you. Same with my life. It will forever be better because I know you!!! Love you friend!!

Read NOW on Wattpad!!!!!!!!

[kerbiesworld28]

Stay with Me?

Oh my God, this fic definitely was a joy to write. I was actually inspired by @asoeiki ‘s drawing and I wanted to write a little short (well, what was intended to be short) fic. I thought some sweet Iggy would be something nice. Tagging @ladychocoberry @lazarustrashpit @atarostarling @tales-of-a-fallen-star thank you guys for being awesome friends and I know I tell you that every time, but I just want to show my appreciation every time I post. Anyway, let’s get into the sweetness! 

SFW

Word Count: 1,171 words

I just got back from the market to the shared motel room with the boys.  You guys finally had enough gil to pay for a night at an inn, but we only could share one room. It's better than camping at least. I went to go get more ingredients for dinner that night, though it was usually Ignis's thing to do that. Well, considering we both work together when it comes to cooking, so it didn't bother me that I had to do it, I just enjoy Ignis's company. I will admit, I've always had a crush on Ignis ever since bring his apprentice. Noctis and Prompto went off to check out the town while Gladio went to check out the town's female population.

I walked into the shared room and placed the ingredients on the table. "Guess I'm the first one back," I said. As I was putting everything away, I looked over into the bedroom and I saw a very rare sight indeed. Well, I can see why it was just me going to the market by myself. Ignis fell asleep in one of the beds. I walked over, taking in the sight. He must've been so tired he never even took off his glasses. "Poor thing," I whispered quietly.

I gently reached over to remove his spectacles and placed them carefully on the nightstand beside the bed. Apparently, I wasn’t gentle enough because he started stirring immediately after I removed them. As I was trying to quickly come up with an apology for disturbing him, he just rolled to his side and didn't even move. "That was a close one." I was getting ready to leave the room, then I felt a gloved hand reach out for mine. "Where are you going?"

My heart sank once I heard that voice. "Ignis, I'm sorry. I was just going to let you sleep. I didn't want you to break your glasses either, so I put them up for you." I thought I was in so much trouble for disturbing him, but all I could see was a small sleepy smile on his face. "I appreciate you for being so considerate, though I must apologize for me being absent. Camping really takes a toll on one's sleeping arrangements." I couldn't help but smile back at him. "Well, I was able to get everything for dinner tonight." "Where are the others?" He asked. "I think Noct and Prompto were checking out the town, while Gladio was checking out the women of the town." A small chuckle could be heard from him. "Well, let's hope that they don't get into too much trouble." "I'll let you catch up on your sleep, Ignis. You need it." As I was ready to leave the room to make dinner, he reached out to me again. "Don't leave just yet".

Apparently, my heart wanted to sink another 10 feet into my chest again. "Is there anything I can do for you, Ignis?" He smiled at me and the following words that came out of his mouth just sent butterflies through my stomach. "Lay beside me for a while, Y/N." How can I deny that? Mentally pinching myself to make sure this was not a dream, I nervously got in the bed with him. I got in the bed beside him l pressed my back against the soft mattress. "This really does beat camping. I can see why you fell asleep so quickly." He smiled and said, "While I was able to rest, I must admit I did feel rather lonely without your presence, Y/N." I couldn't help but smile at him. "Lonely without me? You're treating me as if I'm that special to you, Ignis." "Well, it's true, Y/N. I've always had feelings for you ever since the day you've become my apprentice at the Citadel. I always tried to keep things professional with you, but this journey has made me realize that I cannot hide my feelings anymore. I hope you feel the same way."

A tear pricked the corner of my eyes at that sentiment. "Of course, I feel the same way, Ignis. I was always afraid you just thought of me as just your apprentice and nothing more. Now, I'm not afraid anymore. I want to see where this journey takes us." He reached his arm out to me and held me to his chest and he placed a small kiss on my forehead. "Well, I say we take in this moment as much as we can before the others come back." "Agreed." I nuzzled into his chest and listened to the sound of his heartbeat and allow the warmth of his body lull me to sleep. It was definitely a dream come true for me. When we woke up, we saw the others just hover over us. "So, you guys finally came clean to each other?" Gladio smirked. Ignis and I just looked at each other, finally processing what was going on. "Yeah, took you guys long enough," Noctis said. "I'm just happy I got pictures. It's a rare sight to catch Ignis asleep, but this picture is a lot better." Prompto chirpped.

"Wait a minute. You guys knew?" I asked. "Duh, it was all over your faces about how you felt," Prompto said. "Well, it seems like everyone thinks positively about our relationship, Y/N. Guess the blessings are already given." I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me. "We wouldn't have you guys with anyone else. You two are perfect for each other." Noctis chimed in. Ignis chuckled at that statement, "Well then, let's get dinner prepared, darling." Darling? Did I just hear that right? Once his feet were on the floor, he held his hand out to me to assist me up. Once I was up, he placed a gentle kiss on my cheek. "AWWWW!!!" the collectively chimed in. We finally had dinner prepared and we just mainly sat around and talked about the journey ahead. Once we finished eating, we all went to our beds. I laid in bed cuddles to Ignis's chest and just took in his embrace. "So, we're officially an item now, aren't we, Ignis?" "It would seem so, Y/N. And honestly, I couldn't be happier a man." I snuggled deeper into his chest. "But there is just one thing I want to do before we go back to sleep."

Puzzled, I looked up at him. Before I could say anything, he placed his hand under my chin and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. His lips tasted sweet and they were so warm. I felt a million fireworks in just one little kiss. As we pulled away from our kiss, he stared into my eyes and said "Better than what you were expecting, darling?" "You have no idea." I chuckled. He pulled me back into his chest and we proceeded to get more comfortable. "Sweet dreams, y/n". We then fell asleep holding each other. This was better than any dream I could ever have.

[edream93]

I’m Hooked On All These Feelings (Harry of Auradon AU) Part 2

Hello, hello! Remember that Harry of Auradon AU thing I did awhile ago (here’s the link for Part 1)? Well, here’s an update! Enjoy and of course let me know what you think either on here or on AO3 or FF.net. 

The sun shined down on the picturesque view of Auradon Prep students enjoying their day off from classes. Sitting on the bleachers, Uma tried to tune out the Tourney team’s coaches loud yells and whistleblowing as the group of boys ran drills. She pushed up the sunglasses that she had found (stolen) back further up her nose as she allowed herself to soak up the sun’s rays.

“And you’re sure this’ll work?” a timid voice asked next to her.

Uma spared a glance over to her side causing the pastel colored princess next to her shift nervously as she gazed at him over the rims of her glasses.

“Well, it’s no love potion, but it’ll definitely give you a bit a luck and confidence to help raise the odds in your favor with asking out whatever pretty face has caught your attention,” Uma shrugged turning her gaze back to the sidelines of the Tourney field where Gil was waving happily up at her from where he stood amongst the other cheerleaders. Uma gave a slight nod of acknowledgment which seemed to satisfy the boy before he began to talk excitedly with some other cheerleader. Audrey, who had apparently made it her mission to watch all the Isle kids scowled up at her from her place near Gil before shouting instructions at the others around her to get into position.

Uma rolled her eyes, glad that for the most part, Audrey focused most of her attention on Mal.

“O-okay. How much do I owe you?” the princess asked, drawing the sea-witch’s attention back to him.

“Not much,” Uma shrugged again, nonchalantly, moving her braids over her shoulder. “Just your voice.”

Biting her lip to hold back a laugh, Uma watched as the girl nearly toppled out of her seat, looking extremely pale.

“Kidding!” she plastered on a sickening sweet smile on her face. “Just kidding. It’ll be ten-fifty, angelfish.”

The girl smiled awkwardly, handing over the money before quickly scampering away, a small bottle in her hand.

Uma sighed, smile quickly melting on her face as she flopped back into her seat, tucking the cash into her boot.

If she sold a dozen or so more of her “luck in a bottle” - which was mostly just boiled sandalwood, ginger, and a few other nice smelling things Gil had managed to find (These idiots would believe anything you gave them when you had a mother who was infamous for her potions) - then she would be able to get one way bus tickets for herself and Gil to the furthest kingdom from Auradon. Shit was going to hit the fan, whether or not Mal and her crew got the wand and she wanted to make sure she was far far away from it all.  

She was nearly all packed up and ready to go to what was quickly becoming her corner in the library when she heard a now familiar voice shout out her voice from the field. Uma refused to acknowledge him, making her way quickly down the bleachers, ignoring the way she felt his gaze burning on her back.

The sea witch’s daughter had just made a few steps away from the bleachers when she heard the sound of someone running after her.

“Uma!” Harry jogged up next to her, slightly out of breath but sporting his usual boyish grin.

“You know,” Uma began, never slowing down. “Maybe this is a cultural difference but I’m pretty sure you’re stalking me.”

Harry snorted, gently grabbing her hand and placing another one of his too gentle, too passion filled kisses on her hand as he always did in greeting. “I’m sure a beautiful lass such as yourself is used to men, and perhaps even women, chasing after your affection, darling.”

Uma paused, unbeckoned memories right after Mal’s betrayal coming to mind, when people thought she was too weak and too defenseless to slash at their throats with a rusty kitchen knife of her mother’s. She had shown them.

Removing her hand from his grip, with an expressionless mask, Uma asked, “So that gives people the right to invade my space and do what they want with me? Because I’m a beautiful lass ?”

The boy took a step back, as if he was slapped before his face contorted into rage, something that Uma had never thought was possible for a person born in Auradon to make. She should have been scared but something within her told her that his rage wasn’t directed towards her. (And it would never be.)

“Uma,” his voice was firm, the accent he tried to hide growing heavy. “If I am bothering ye, then I’ll stop. Ye won’t see neither hide nor hair of me. I never meant-”

She put a hand firmly against his chest, stopping his rant. She should just say, “Yes, go away”, knowing that he would keep his word and leaving her with one less thing for Mal to nag on her about. No good came from the son of Auradon’s most celebrated and decorated hero taking an interest in the sea witch’s unwanted daughter. After all, no matter how his attentiveness made her feel like she was riding the crests of the tides, he would always be seen as a hero and she, a villain.

She was going to say that, to hiss and curse at his name, at people like his father who were the reason why her mother and everyone else’s parents were revived and forced onto the Isle. Why she had grown up not knowing her heritage or how she wasn’t given a chance to be seen as anything more than a sea witch’s daughter or Mal’s favorite punching bag.

“Stay,” her traitorous mouth uttered surprising both herself and the boy across from her.

“Stay?” he questioned, hesitant hope found in the corners of his mouth ( No, no, stop thinking about how soft his lips look , she mentally scolded herself).

Uma of the Isle rolled her eyes, a mischievous look in her eye as she grabbed the front of his jersey, tugging him firmly in front of her, ignoring the way that at this close distance she saw his gaze briefly linger on her lips and the butterflies it gave her.

“If you’re not afraid of the big bad sea witch stealing your voice,” she smirked.

A deep chuckle escaped his chest before he smoothly went into a kneel, taking her hand once again. Though his rage has passed, his voice was lulling in its unfiltered gruffness. She found she preferred it that way, wild and passionate, just like him.

“Well seeing as yer ma is safely behind a barrier and I only see a beautiful goddess before me,” he murmured, kissing her fingers almost reverently to the point where Uma forgot to breathe. “I’ll take my chances,” he winked up at her.

Unaware to the two, eyes were watching them. One of an untrusting princess afraid that history would repeat itself and villains would once again reign. Two other pairs of eyes looked worriedly between each other on the Tourney field, wondering who would be the one to tell a certain half-fae of this new development…

—

“Audrey says she’s bad news.”

“You’ll have to be a bit less vague as to who you’re referring to, little sister of mine,” Harry murmured into his phone. “Audrey says a lot of people are bad news, including you.” He kicked off his shoes and flopped back onto his bed.

Practice had finished hours ago and he had just returned from a small sailing adventure with one of Auradon Prep’s newest residents.

“You’ve lived amongst pirates, some of whom despite their morals were the best sailors of their time and they didn’t teach ye anything about sailing?” Harry had questioned incredulously. She had told him that she had lived on the side of the Isle amongst the wharfs and pirate ships, many belonging to scoundrels such as Barbossa and Blackbeard.

“Oh, some of them taught me many things,” Uma said with a casual flip of her braids over her shoulder that momentarily distracted him as he watched how the sun highlighted the blues and the greens and the white in her hair. His head snapped up at her though when he finally processed her words. She laughed, flicking his nose before leaning back into the sun warmed patch of field that they had found, away from the hustle and bustle and curious and always watching eyes of their classmates. “Harry, chill. They only taught me how to fend for myself. My mother may not give a shit about me but some of those pirates prayed to Poseidon, her father, before they were stuck on the Isle and are a superstitious lot. They might pillage and steal but they do have a Code.” She closed her eyes. “Besides, pirates were the last things I had to worry about on the Isle. Traitorous dragons on the other hand…” she sighed trailing off and he saw the way she clenched her fist tightly.

He wanted to ask her more, to know everything about her, but very early on he realized that if she wanted to tell him something, she would on her own time. He remembered when Audrey or Chad would withhold information from him when he was younger and how they always ended in a shouting match due to Harry’s quick fuse. But with Uma, though he still didn’t like it, he followed her lead.

“Well,” he sighed getting to his feet. “We’ll need to change that.”

“Change what?” Uma questioned opening her eyes to see Harry standing above her with a mischievous look of his own as he extended a hand down to her.

Tugging her to her feet, Harry grinned when she stumbled slightly into him. He gave her a devilish grin, which she rolled her eyes at but didn’t push away from him. “Well, can’t have a lovely sea goddess who doesn’t know how to sail. What kind of man would her sailor be if he didn’t help her fix that?”

He watched as Uma looked thoughtfully into his eyes, searching for something. After a moment, she stepped back with a soft smirk, something that he knew was filled with vulnerability rarely shown.

“Teach me then. So that there will always be winds in your sails,” she spoke softly, power in her words. Unintentional magic, but magic all the same.

A goddess’s blessing.

“Harry!”

The boy snapped out of his thoughts suddenly, hearing Calista Jane, or CJ as she preferred to be called, practically fume on the other side of the phone. (She hated to be ignored, even for a second.)

“The Isle girl,” his sister sighed frustratedly. “The one you’re smitten with and apparently daydreaming about in the middle of phone calls, dear brother. And don’t try to deny it. I’ll call and badger Ben or Jane for info. They’ll both sing like canaries, those two.”

The boy scrubbed his face tiredly. Though he loved his younger sister dearly, Calista Jane was already tiring him and he had only been on the phone with her for a moment. At least it wasn’t Harriet. (Seven seas, if it was Harriet this would have been much, much worse, he knew.)

“Manners, ya little fairy,” he chidded. “You’re still in trouble for badgering them when they wouldn’t tell you what I got you for birthday gift. And the Isle girl has a name you know.”

“And I’m waiting for you to tell me it. Come on, I’m all on bated breath and everything. Your attempts to seriously woo anyone will surely bring laughter to my ever so dull life,” CJ drawled dramatically on the other line before breaking out into giggles.

Harry had to pity her. Both of his sisters had been homeschooled back on Neverland, though they came to the mainland often enough. Harry, as his father’s heir had been sent off to Auradon Prep a decision that he still wasn’t sure how he felt about.

“Always know how to boost a man’s self-esteem, don’t you, Callie?” he groaned, waiting for his sister’s gigglings to subside.

“S-so,” CJ finally said, calming down. “What’s her name?”

Harry closed his eyes, unaware of the little smile that played on his lips as he thought of her. “Uma,” he breathed reverently, his mind calling up deep brown eyes and presence that could be as calm or as fearsome as the sea.

“Geez, you really do have it bad,” CJ laughed always perceptive of his emotions. And Harry would fully admit he did.

As soon as she had stepped out of the limo from the Isle, he was fascinated by her, pulled to her like the moon pulled the tides. She wasn’t anything like what he had been warned she would be like by the adults, the heroes who didn’t even know Uma but only knew her mother, Ursula.

She was a sarcastic lass with a sharp tongue and even sharper kitchen knife (he had learned that last bit when Chad had tried to flirt with Uma to get her Chemistry answers a few weeks ago. Harry wished he had recorded it. Chad nearly peed himself).

But Harry also knew that Uma, despite her cool exterior, was passionate and protective of those she deemed worthy. He had watched as she spent hours searching the library for books on how to help Gil with his reading difficulties so that no one here could look down at him. Watched as she fretted over him when he had a slight cold a week ago (he had initially thought her worry was hilarious until Gil had clued him, in that unassuming way that he always did, that many died from colds on the Isle).

And he watched (and hated) as that vibrant personality of hers dimmed in Mal’s presence. (Harry loved Ben like a brother but the other boy was too damn naive and smitten himself with Maleficent’s daughter, despite already being taken with Audrey. Why, even bother when the Mal sneered at him like she had stepped in something a dog left behind? Harry never really liked being in the same place with her for too long.)

“Is she, ya know, the girl? The one you’ve been dreaming about for years?”

Harry pushed himself up from his bed, needing to move, bare feet padding back and forth in front of his window.

“Now don’t go bringing that up, Callie,” he sighed trying not to think about the dreams he had since he was wee lad but it was already too late.

There had been dreams where all he heard was a haunting voice, demanding, urging, pleading for him to say something, a specific something that in his dream he knew and proclaimed with reverence but when he woke up he could never remember. There were some dreams where all he could hear was her crying, his heart breaking at the sound, at not being able to comfort her. Those dreams he hated the most because  he would often awaken to find strange bruises around his wrist, torso, and sometimes even around his neck like something long and flexible had been trying to squeeze the life out of him. (He had remembered the first time he had that dream, he had been six and it had taken Harriet hours to calm him down and reassure that it was nothing more than just a night terror.) And then, recently, there were some dreams where he was embraced by warmth, by her. He would feel a calming hand run through his hair, soft lips pressed to his cheek, his eyes, his jaw and neck, and then finally they would press against his lips and he felt like he was drowning in her with no regrets… (It was often horrible when he had those dreams at home where Harriet and CJ could walk in without warning. They would never stop laughing if they saw how…aroused a simple dream could make him.)

Harry leaned his forehead against the glass of his window thoughtfully, his frown melting away into a wistful look when he caught sight of a familiar teal head making her way to the dorms from the dining halls where had last seen her. His gaze followed her until he saw her safely enter the dorms, Gil trailing, as always, happily behind her.

“Maybe,” he finally supplied. “But she’s more than just a dream…She’s…she’s…real.”

CJ made a snorting noise, but thankfully didn’t comment picking up the tender and soft qualities in her brother’s tone. However, she asked something worse, something that Harry had been trying not to think about despite it’s approaching date.

“So, are you going to introduce your little Isle girlfriend to father and Harriet when we come to Family Day?”

[codename-bewareofthefangirl]

GoM + Kagami playing with their daughter please? It can be a range between playing house, tea party, dressing up, or fairytale roleplay where their daughter is the princess and the GoM member is the prince saving them from the dragon. Thank you! ^o^

Hi dear! I’m so sorry If I made you wait so much! I’m having a hard time right now and so it’s a bit difficult to write; however, don’t worry you all, I’m not abandoning this blog, I just have to go through this difficult moment and I’ll be back as before! I hope you’ll like it, even if it sucks a bit. I used things that happened to me with my little sister to make it more real XD

It took me a lot to choose the names of the girls (you can find the meanings at the end), so if you want to know why I’ve chosen them, just ask! I’ll be happy to explain my contort thoughts.

Have a nice day!

The GoM, Kagami Taiga as Fathers Playing With Their Daughters

Aomine Daiki

Being a father, Aomine had discovered, required more energy and braveness than he could have ever thought. However, he had always been determined to be the best dad ever so he was ready to do anything.

Playing Tea Party included.

And that’s why he was stuck in a tiny pink chair, with a porcelain teacup in his big hands. He was frowning and fidgeting, not understanding why those toys were so fragile and small, but, every time his daughter Mitsuko looked at him, he would grin fondly.

“Do you like the tea, dad?” The child asked, literally beaming. Her round, blue eyes were sparkling as she watched her dad playing. He was often traveling to play basketball, so every moment spent together was precious.

“Yes, it’s very delicious,” he replied faking to take a sip, “Thank you.” It was a bit embarrassing, but he was too engrossed staring at his daughter’ smile to mind.

“I’m happy!” she clapped her hands and bounced near to him, to pour another cup, “See, I believe Miss Bunny doesn’t like it…” Mitsuko whispered in his ear with a scowl.

Aomine hid a smirk and faked to frown too, “Miss Bunny?” asked pointing a finger to the plushie seated in front of him,

His daughter nodded gravely.

“That’s very rude,” he shook his head in disbelief, “Do you want me to kick her out, kid?”

The girl chuckled covering her mouth, “No, no dad! We’re friends! But we’re arguing!”

“Uh, really?” Aomine asked as she offered him some plastic cookies, “Why?”

“We had a fight.”

“A fight?” he replied surprised, mimicking to bite the cookie.

“Miss Bunny stole my basketball,” she explained with a pout and Aomine had to masque another chuckle. His partner had already told him that Mitsuko couldn’t find the basketball anymore and had cried for three days straight. It seemed the poor Bunny was the culprit now.

“Have you asked her where it is?”

“Yes, but she didn’t say it!” The child glared at the plushie, “So, I punched her in the face.”

Aomine nearly choked, coughing. Trying not to laugh and showing a serious expression, he patted his daughter on the head and forced her to look at him in the eyes.

“Oi kid! You shouldn’t punch your friends, even if they made you mad,” he scolded her mildly. The girl crossed her arms. “Kid?”

“Fine…’m sorry.” She replied with a sigh.

“Good, now apologize properly.” Mitsuko rolled her eyes in a totally Aomine-like way, but reached the plush and took the rabbit’s paw in her hands.

“I’m sorry Miss Bunny. Let’s be friends again.” She begged earnestly.

It was so cute that Aomine regretted not having his phone to take some photos.

“Good!” Aomine smiled and stretched to ruffle her hair, a shine of pride in his eyes, “Now pour some tea for me and Miss Bunny, she said she wants more.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely yes.”

Kise Ryouta

Kise was comfortably seated on the floor, with the back against his daughter’s bed. Yua was curled on it and was playing with his hair; her little face was scrunched with concentration and her chubby fingers carefully combed the locks.

“What style do you want, dad?” she asked squishing his cheeks.

“Mmmhhh…I’ll leave it to my favorite hairdresser!”

The girl beamed and clapped her hands.

“Braids?”

“Oh!” Kise gaped with excitement, “Do you think I’ll look good with them?”

She nodded with a bright smile.

“Daddy looks good with anything!” she chirped before kissing his forehead. Kise swooned, covering his mouth with a hand as he screamed in his mind how cute his daughter was. He felt so blessed.

The child resumed playing with his hair and fought hard to style two tidy braids. Kise was so happy for having decided to keep his hair long. He was determined to enjoy his playtime with Yua for as many years as he could.

“Pink or blue hair ties?” She asked again, furrowing as she looked at her vast collection of hair pins and such.

“One and one?” Kise suggested with a smirk and the girl thrilled enthusiastic.

“That’s perfect!” She agreed; her favorite color was pink, but her dad’s was blue so…that was the perfect compromise. Yua also added a butterfly hairpin for his bangs on the front, her favorite one.

When she finally finished, she gave him a mirror to look at her masterpiece.

Kise faked to hold his breath in awe.

“I’m gorgeous!” he said caressing the braids and the child wrapped her arms around his neck.

“See? I told you!”

“I bet it’s all thanks to you!” he replied with a proud smile, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “So, should we go and show around my new style?”

Yua considered it briefly, before showing him her puppy eyes.

“Can you braid my hair too? So that we look the same!” she pleaded with an adorable, innocent smile. Her dad was whipped to that.

Kise chuckled, “Sure love, sure.”

Akashi Seijuurou

It was a beautiful sunny day and Akashi was seated in the garden together with his daughter, Aiko. They had a drawing block each and pastels were spread around them, as they draw quietly, humming a children song together.

“Look, look dad!” the little girl chirped excitedly as she gave the final touch and stood up with the paper in her hands. She stumbled in Akashi’s arms, proudly shoving in his face her drawing. “It’s you and me, dressed like a prince and a princess!”

It was a very clumsy drawing, typical of a child, yet Akashi widened his eyes and gave her a surprised look.

“This is beautiful!” he complimented her, “You’re becoming very good!” Akashi added stroking her hair affectionately.

Aiko beamed and pressed it to his chest.

“It’s a gift, for you!”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure!”

“Thank you,” he kissed her forehead, “Then I’ll give it mine to you!”

Akashi gave her his own drawing, the portrait of his daughter with flowers in her hair. The child thrilled in excitement, looking at her own face in awe.

“This is so beautiful…”

“Do you like it?” Akashi felt so proud of that reaction.

However, the child shadowed a bit as she nodded.

“What’s wrong?” he asked carefully, lifting her chin.

“Mine…is not good as yours,” she admitted sheepishly.

Akashi blinked and he had to restrain a fond smile.

“Are you sure?” he asked faking a furrow, “I prefer yours.” Her head perked up immediately and she scrunched her nose in disbelief.

“You’re lying,”

“I’m not lying, lying is bad,” he chuckled, “I really like it.”

“Really really?”

“Really really,” he assured her with a serious expression, “And why don’t we made a pretty frame so that I can put it into my office?”

Aiko thrilled enthusiastic and jumped on her feet, dragging him by the sleeve.

“We’ll do the prettiest frame, together!”

Murasakibara Atsushi

“And three spoons of sugar…” Atsushi read quietly, as he was standing in front of the counter of the kitchen with a big apron. On it, there was clumsily sewn “Best Dad”.

“It’s four, daddy!” His daughter, Ume, chuckled, poking his side. She was standing on her tiptoes on a chair, leaning so much to look at the book that was surely going to fall soon.

“Ah, you’re right,” he hummed nodding, “You’re so good at reading already,” he patted her head with a small smile.

“Daddy! Not with the hand with the flour!” But she was laughing happily even as her hair became white, faking to push him away in her pretty violet apron.

“We’ll take a bath later while we wait for the cookies then,” He reassured her and she faked to pout.

“Together?” Ume inquired, usually against the idea of bathing. Drying her long hair took too much time.

“Together.”

She seemed satisfied and resumed looking at his calm dad as he prepared the dough for the cholate cookies.

“Can’t I eat it?” she asked at some point, eyeing it with a hungry face. She even licked her lips.

“It’s bad for your tummy.” Her dad snatched away the bowl and the girl whined, batting her eyelashes.

“Pleaseeee!” Oh, the puppy face.

Murasakibara sighed. Well, he had never been a responsible adult when food was concerned.

“Here,” conceded stretching her a spoon of dough. She chirped and ate it immediately, humming in approval.

Then they started to finally make the cookies with cute animal-shaped cutters. She made each one meticulously and nodded proudly when they came out right: it wasn’t that easy when some animals had so many legs.

“Ah! Let’s use the kangaroo!”

“Uh? I thought you didn’t like it?”

“It reminds me of Uncle Aomine.”

Murasakibara nearly choked on his saliva. Useless to say he was going to tell his friend as soon as he saw him.

“I had a wonderful idea!” Ume suddenly exclaimed, “We should do all the cookies like the Uncles and the invite them to eat!”

The man had to suppress another laughter.

“Are you sure you want to share? They eat a lot.” He teased and the child scrunched her nose.

“Well, maybe we can share only some of them…?”

“Deal.”

Kuroko Tetsuya

Kuroko looked around the small living room, a smile ghosting on his lips.

“Ah…let’s see, where could Rai be?” ha asked purposefully aloud, hands on his hips. He heard a chuckle but feigned ignorance and went to look under the table in the middle. Then he checked under the couch and inside some boxes of toys.

“Nothing!” he exclaimed surprised and shook his head, “Is it magic?” he wondered, searching behind the door and then in the oven of the small, plastic kitchen.

Another fit of giggling.

He could see her daughter hidden behind the curtains; she had his vanishing powers, but on the other hand, her voice was thrilling and after she had learned to talk he did never fear to lose her around again. To his immense relief.

“What if she has left me?” he asked sitting on the ground and crossing his arms, “I’d be heartbroken, my cute Rai.” He wasn’t the best or most emotional actor, but for his daughter was enough.

She tensed and silenced, a bit worried and Kuroko sighed again.

“I want to cry, I miss her so much…”

“DADDY!” The little girl rushed out of his hiding and flew in his arms, “I’m here!”

Kuroko burst into a laughter, hugging her close.

“Here you are! So, you didn’t abandon me?”

Rai pouted and poked his right cheek, “I’d never abandon you! Did you forget we were playing hide N seek again?” she scolded him.

Kuroko widened his eyes and nodded, “You’re too good at this, I forgot and got scared.”

The girl chuckled covering his mouth; she was satisfied that her dad missed her so much.

“Dad you’re hopeless!”

Kuroko laughed fondly, “Yes, I couldn’t live without you.”

She nodded and left a kiss on his nose, “Don’t worry, I’m staying here forever” reassured him before she grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up, “Let’s try again! This time I’m going to search for you!”

“Are you sure?” he mocked, knowing that he was extremely good at that game, but Rai rolled her eyes like an adult.

“Yes, I can win against you. I’m the only one who can always find you, I’m your princess!” she professed with a proud smile and Kuroko melted inside, ruffling her light blue hair as he stood up.

“Alright, I count on you then.”

Midorima Shintarou

“And then the knight took his sword and-”

“Does he want to kill the dragon?” The voice of her daughter, Yoshiko, interrupted Midorima.

They were in her bed, tucked under the blanket in their pajamas. It was their daily, special moment together: Midorima reading her stories and fairy tales. However, as always, she didn’t like how things went and Midorima had learned to adapt fast to her tastes. She was a smart child, but she thought about things too much and simple stories didn’t entertain her too much.

“I think so,” he replied, biting down a smile as he saw a pout on her lips.

“Why?”

“The knight wants to kill the dragon so that he can save the princess,” he explained patiently and she crossed her arms.

“That’s stupid!”

Midorima raised an eyebrow, “Language, Yoshiko.”

The child widened his eyes covering her mouth and smiled sheepishly, “Sorry dad!”

Midorima knew it was Takao’s fault for that, even if he was incredible with children he didn’t have filters, and sighed.

“Why you don’t like it?” he asked instead of scolding her too much and she darkened again.

“If I were the princess, I’d have befriended the dragon and left on my own.”

Midorima chuckled amused, “It sounds more interesting.”

“Yes! I mean, it’s a dragon! You can’t kill it! We could go on fantastic adventures!” she thrilled tugging his sleeve and he decided to close the book, placing it on the bedside table.

“Really?” he asked faking surprise and she nodded.

“Yes! Do you want me to tell you our story?”

“I’d love it,” he smiled before pulling her closer to his chest and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She snuggled comfortably against him and fought a yawn.

“Once upon a time, there were Princess Yoshiko and his dragon Shin-chan…”

Kagami Taiga

The living room of the Kagami’s was full of roars, laughter, and giggles. Kagami Taiga himself was crouched on all four in the middle of the carpet, emitting animal noises as his daughter Hikaru fought him with a wooden sword. He had even some whiskers drawn on his face and the girl wore a pink dress.

“How could you kill my prince, you monster!” she screamed, a cape on her shoulders as she angrily waved her weapon.

Kagami growled and clawed at her. She shrieked but avoided, before launching against him with a battle yell.

“DIE!” Hikaru hit his heart.

Kagami raised on his knees with an incredulous expression, keeping the sword against his chest. He emitted a pained cry and staggered around, then stretched a hand towards her daughter and dramatically whispered a broken…”P-prin-cess…”

Finally, he fell on the floor and closed his eyes.

The girl covered his mouth and reached him to cradle his head.

“Oh no! I could! He was my prince and I killed him!” she sobbed hard curling around him and caressing his hair.

Some seconds passed in silence before Kagami tapped her hand and opened his right eyes.

“Hikaru, for the magic to work, you have to close your eyes!” he whispered.

“Ah!” she remembered, immediately shutting her eyes closed, “Sorry dad!” replied, worried that their inexistent public could hear them.

Kagami repressed a snort and slowly stood up, as his daughter continued to cry; he draped a red cape on his shoulders and took a plastic sword and a crown. Then he knelt and shook the girl.

“My princess,” he called in a serious tone, “I’m here! You killed me when I was a dragon, but your warm tears of true love have saved and brought me back to life!”

She gasped loud, “My prince!” and jumped in his arms, as he spun her in the air.

“You’re alive!”

“It’s all thanks to your magic!” He kissed Hikaru on the forehead and she beamed happily.

“Now we’re going to live happily forever after!”

Kagami nodded and suddenly lifted the girl to put her on his shoulders.

“And I can still transform into a dragon now that you saved me, so we can fly towards new adventures!”

The child chirped and laughed delighted, grabbing his hair.

“Then let’s fly to the end of the world and back!”

“As you wish my princess!” Kagami grinned before he started running all around the apartment.

 Mitsuko: Child (of) Light

Yua: Yu is “tie, bind” and A “love”, but Yu can also be “excellence” or “gentleness”

Aiko: Little Love

Ume: Plum

Rai: Trust

Yoshiko: Child (of) Wisdom/Righteousness, but Yoshi can be also “good luck”

Hikaru: Brightness

[geordiesaffer-blog]

How is everyone doing? Still hanging in there? I sure hope so... I've been keeping busy with my stitching, reading, beginning a new (non-cross stitch)  project (which I'll let you in on some day soon!), trying to limit my news intake, and connecting with family members via Zoom and Board Game Arena . Since this whole strange Covid-19 saga began for us in mid-March, the only person I've talked to face to face is my husband! Such a strange feeling...  My family met up for a virtual game night on Easter Sunday (on Board Game Arena) and it was wonderful to see everyone's smiling faces. My oldest son and daughter-in-law in California, middle son and girlfriend who live 30 minutes away, and my youngest son in the Washington, DC area all connected online for games of Yahtzee and Sushi Go. I basically just watched and coached my husband a bit in Yahtzee as only five players could play at a time.My stitching has been hit and miss--still having trouble settling, but I do try to sit down each day for a couple hours in the evening. I know you've seen these designs stitched up many times, but I hope you don't mind seeing my versions... First, is the Easter Holiday Hoopla design by With Thy Needle and Thread. I fell in love with this cute bunny the first time I saw him and am so pleased with how he turned out. I loved the colors on the chart and chose some similar overdyed threads from my stash to stitch him. He is stitched "over one" on 28 ct. ice blue Jobelan so the stitched area is a mere 2" X 2". I finished him into a circle (just traced a drinking glass to get the shape on the mounting board), padded the board with batting, and added a silk handmade cording trim. A mini-pompom gave his tail a nice fluffy look.  Easter Holiday Hoopla finishThe round piece is simply glued onto a fabric-covered piece of sticky board and placed in a rustic looking 3.5 inch square brown frame. I purchased a bunch of these frames from an eBay seller, years ago, who had used them to display his butterfly collection (no, the butterflies were not included--thank goodness!). They sure have come in handy over the years and can easily be painted. Here is another of the frames that I painted and distressed last year for a different Easter finish that resides with my oldest son and daughter-in-law in California.An Easter finish from 2019--such a cute bunny!My second finish is so bright and cheery! It is called "Easter Wreath" and is a design from Tiny Modernist. The bunnies also have white mini-pompom tails like I used in the Holiday Hoopla finish above. They, too, are stitched "over one" on 28 ct. white lugana. I used the suggested DMC colors for everything except the carrots. I wanted a darker looking carrot so I used DMC 976. And, because of a slight counting error--my carrots are just a bit longer than those charted. Oops! It doesn't affect the overall look so I just left them larger. Ripping out "over one" stitching is the worst, so I avoid it whenever possible! I kept the finish very simple as the design itself is very "busy." Just a handmade cording in that pretty shade of blue that I love so much!"Easter Wreath" finishHere are both of my new Easter finishes together--looks like we had a big party going on on Easter Sunday, doesn't it? Nope--just me and my husband. It was a quiet day, but certainly one we'll always remember due to the circumstances. I didn't even get most of my Easter decorations out this year--it felt like too much of a chore for some reason. I've been gradually learning that now is the time to cut yourself some slack--be kind to others, but also to yourself. These are unnavigated waters and no one really knows what the next day will bring...I absolutely love the pretty teal blues in these two finishes!I also got a very sweet Easter card from my friend, Gabi, in Germany. She knows how much I love stitched bunnies (or any bunny, really!) so she made me this lovely card. Thank you so much, Gabi--I always love hearing from you and being the recipient of your pretty stitching!Easter card stitched by my friend, Gabi, in Germany!Much of my Easter seemed to be spent on the phone reminiscing with my mom, exchanging old photos via text with my siblings, and looking through old photos. The photos below brought back such wonderful memories of times with my three boys--dyeing eggs, hunting for baskets, and making a bunny cake each year. Oh, I miss those days so much. These were all taken in the late 80s / early 90s as you can probably tell by all the red and blue.  I think, back then, clothing designers only made boys' clothes in combinations of red and blue! It's so nice how things have evolved. And yes--they all have the same haircuts--courtesy of my husband. He sure saved us a ton of money through the years by cutting the boys' hair until they became teens. He even cut my hair when it was longer--not sure if I trust him to cut it at this shorter length, though! What are you doing about your hair? Trying to cut it yourself, getting a loved one to cut it, or just letting it grow? And we won't even talk about the hair coloring issue--yikes! By the time this is over, I'm going to have a very wide "skunk" stripe where my hair is parted, that's for sure! Time to let it go gray? I also made a couple of masks for myself and my husband. Oh, dear! I am really  not good with a sewing machine... The first one took me two hours to create, and, although the second one was easier--I do struggle!  I used one of my husband's old shirts for the green checked one (mine) and a piece of quilting cotton for my husband's. They are "okay"--mine is a bit too loose around the sides. I found another tutorial that might work better for small heads on YouTube so I might give that one a try this weekend. Wish me luck!My two masks--pretty good, but I need more practice!Comfort foods still seem to be appearing on the menu at my house and I found this delicious recipe for apple crisp right here. When I make it again, I'm going to try about 3/4 as much sugar and maybe even take it down to half as much. It was plenty sweet!  We enjoyed this as our Easter dessert (and for the next two nights, too!). Have you been whipping up any tasty comfort foods during this lockdown period?Do the apples make this a health food--ha ha!! Watching old television shows seems to be comforting to me right now, too. My husband and I have started watching an episode of Cheers (on Netflix) each night before we go to bed--a light, fun show that doesn't upset us or keep us awake. Honestly, I think we've both been sleeping better lately... And I've begun watching Downton Abbey again from the very beginning. You see, I never watched the final season, so I decided to begin all over again. I absolutely love it-- and I really think I'm picking up on so much more of the dialogue than I did before. The Dowager Countess's (Maggie Smith's) lines are just so delightful, aren't they? "Edith, you are a Lady, not Toad of Toad Hall!" ~ "What is a weekend?" ~ "Every woman goes down the aisle with half the story hidden." I could go on an on! And the scenery, the dresses, the jewels--sigh... All so well done. I still haven't seen the movie, but plan on watching it after I finish the series.  Anyone else have any comfort watching television shows to recommend? So, how many of you have talked to friends or family using Zoom? I had a Zoom get-together with my three sisters-in-law (on my husband's side) on  Tuesday and, after some initial difficulties connecting on my end, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing their faces and catching up with them. They live in Indiana, Ohio, and Connecticut so we rarely see each other anyway. We already have plans to meet this way every other week. At the end of our session, the following question was posed to us so I've decided to use that as my "Getting To Know You" inquiry this week:  "Have you found a "silver lining" in this period of being confined to your home?" In other words, few love being stuck at home, but is there something nice in it that you've discovered? For me, that answer is easy! Yes! I've discovered that my husband and I can live together happily and quite easily (other than the occasional disagreement) after he retires. I was truly worried about that, as I was so used to being home alone,   but--so far, so good! How about you?Giveaway Time... I haven't had a giveaway in a while... so how about the chart for this lovely red house sampler? It is simply two pages removed from a magazine (sorry,  I don't know which one) and if more than one person wants it, I will draw a name. All you have to do is: 1) mention in your comment that you specifically want to be entered in the giveaway,  2) answer the "Getting To Know You" question above, and 3) include your email address if I don't already have it. You may enter until April 29th, 2020 and then I'll pick a winner and announce it on my next post. The chart will be folded and mailed in a legal sized envelope to save money on postage. Good luck to all! If you are interested in winning this pretty red house sampler chart, see above!I'll leave you with what, to me, has always been a sign of hope and comfort each time it blooms. This orchid was given to me when my father died on October 31, 2014 and it still blooms almost yearly. Each time it blesses me with these beautiful white and fuchsia blossoms, I think of him and feel like he's visiting me. And this year, that feeling is especially needed and meaningful. It's an absolute perfect time for it to be blooming with all the worries and unrest swirling around us these days, isn't it?This special orchid always brings me comfort...So, more of the same for a while--at least here in Pennsylvania. We are shut down until at least April 30, probably longer. The hardest part for me in this whole thing is being unable to visit my mom--I miss her so much. It is extremely lonely for her having no family https://www.patternspatch.com/1/bunny-stitching-as-the-days-slowly-pass/ https://stitchingdream.blogspot.com/2020/04/bunny-stitching-as-days-slowly-pass.html