#I just did this to test out my gore skills | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lifewithdavefarts · 11 months

Text

DaveFarts - Episode 25 “Endurance Test” [Episode List] Tim gets a bit too cocky and challenges his gassy friend by (jokingly) doubting of his farting skills. Dave, whose farts are being as powerful as usual, if not more, gladly accepts the challenge.

This story was originally requested by StraightFartGods.

POV: Tim

The weather outside, despite being warm, wasn’t the best so our plans for the night, being a group of friends who’s starting to surrender way too easily (it’s because once you’re past 25, you get instantly old), we all decided to stay home, our respective homes even, so Dave and I ended up alone. We don’t mind that much.

Dave likes going out way more than me (though it’s not like I don’t know how to have fun) but he too cherishes some good, safe alone-time to recharge social batteries: we’re much more similar than we’d like to admit, which is why we get along so well. They say we’re “the odd couple”, but I think that weirdos simply attract each other naturally, even though they can look very different at first.

“Alright.” Dave said, walking into the living room. He was dressed as if we had to leave, so a grey shirt and a pair of good old dark blue jeans, slightly loose because he untied his belt. “I’m starving.”

“Pizza?” I simply asked.

“The day I’m gonna answer ‘No’ to that is the day you’ll know a skinwalker took my place.”

The power of pizza.

Even though we didn’t actively plan for it, the night slowly morphed into a “movie night”, just the two of us on the couch eating pizza and watching a cheesy, manly, toxic action movie that we can recite by memory because of how many times we watched it: “Bullet Gore”. Now that’s a title!

“Your face is history.” the male hero said, right before turning somebody’s head to bits with his shotgun.

We cheered as and had a sip of beer as if our baseball team scored the match point and enjoyed the unnecessary but fun gore sequences of the film.

“Too bad they ruined everything with the sequel.” Dave commented.

“Aw come on. It’s worse, but not that bad.” I replied.

“Never watched and never will.” he stated, taking a good sip of beer.

By the time the movie was halfway done (it was a surprisingly long flick), I had to turn up the volume because of some noises next to me making me difficult to hear what the characters were saying.

Indeed, Dave started farting, the way he does during nights like these, with pizza and beer acting as fuel for his already incredible talent. He was resting both his legs on the small table in front of the couch, his denim ass facing the TV, so I didn’t have a proper full view of it. I could, however, hear every single blast echoing in the room, with the terrible scent immediately following each thunder.

I would love to say that he was doing this because of my kink, but this is actually what being Dave’s close friend means: you better get used to his farts, because he’s gonna just casually do it in front of you whether you like it or not. He wasn’t even acknowledging that he was ripping one every few minutes, huge ones nonetheless, though once or twice he did snap his fingers to get me to turn to him, so I could see his smirk as he ripped one. Once again, he does this with our other friends as well, but he does seem to put some extra “care” into the teasing part because he knows I actually, well, like it.

But everyone’s got limits: the farts were huge, not overly long, but incredibly stinky. Even for my standards, it was getting a bit… stuffy in there, so I actually went for it.

“I know this is weird coming from me, but… can you tone it down a bit?”

Dave slowly turned to me with a serious, surprised face, and effortlessly replied by ripping a loud, almost wet one, renewing the stench he was immune to. This time it was one of his longer ones, around 7 seconds long.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you.” he managed to say while farting. “Did you say something?”

After the fart ended and a few moments of silence (ignoring the TV), I opened my mouth to speak again, but my friend’s ass spoke first, emitting another loud, long rip.

Dave gestured to his ear and slowly shook his head, as to say the he still couldn’t hear me, as if we were in a loud nightclub, but the only music piercing through my own eardrums was my bro’s loud fart.

That ridiculous scene actually made me laugh like an idiot, while also giving me the hardest boner so far of the night.

9 seconds and the rip was over.

“So, I did it.” Dave said. “You’ve been healed. I blasted your kink out of you.” he joked.

“Please…” I played along. “Those were like… low-tier farts, for your standards.”

“True.” he playfully admitted. “So don’t tempt me.” he threatened.

I hated that I found that… hot.

“I’m n-not… I’m just s-saying that the entire room smells like, I don’t know, rotten beer? Is t-that even possible?”

Dave laughed. “If only there was something or someone who could fix this!”

“What are you implying…?” I asked.

“Well…” Dave sat normally on the couch. “I assumed your lungs were better than this. But apparently you just can’t handle my power.” he said, with a cheesy smirk.

“Oh…” I got what he meant. “Well, maybe I’m not complaining because of you’re farting too much.” I leaned closer to him, as if we were doing some shady business. “Maybe I’m complaining because you’re not farting enough.” I dared to say.

My friend replied with a surprised laughter. “Are you seriously challenging me?” he didn’t sound offended or disgusted, just amused. But he can get cocky.

“Wanna bet?” I asked, indeed challenging him.

“Alright, get up.”

Dave stood up and I did the same: it truly looked like we were doing a business meeting.

“Challenge accepted.” he continued, and we firmly shook hands. “If I win, beers are on you for 3 months.”

“Deal.” I replied. “But if I win, we’re gonna watch ‘Bullet Gore 2’ later.”

While still shaking hands, Dave looked at me funny.

“Really? That’s it?” he replied, with a smile. “All of this just to watch a shitty movie with me?”

Funny how that’s the thing he found weird instead of, you know, the boner his farts give me.

“Yeah. Pretty gay, huh?” I joked.

“Okay…” he nodded, still somewhat surprised. “It’s a deal.”

We once again had this super manly handshake going on, just as an helicopter in the movie exploded in a fiery fireball, killing a bunch of henchmen and one of the main villains, with the shirtless muscular hero saying something like “Burn in Hell, you son of a bitch!”. Probably the manliest moment I ever lived through.

“So, let’s hear those toots.” I said, bravely.”

“Toots?” my friend replied. “I’m gonna blast your face so hard you’re gonna regret having this kink…”.

Dave casually threatening me like this… got me instantly hard. I knew he was just playing along but goddammit, why am I like this? Why is he like this? Why the fuck did I even accept this bet?! As my own mind made fun of me, my bro lied on this stomach on the couch, his tall figure occupying all of it, his nice jeans-clad ass facing up, looking like a soft warm denim pillow.

I simply managed to sit between his long legs and planted my face into that ass, still stinky for all the farts he ripped until that moment. My nose wasn’t facing down however, as I didn’t want to make it weird.

“Dude.” I heard Dave say. “Honestly, your lack of commitment to your fart kink disappoints me”. he then laughed, reaching for my head. “Be a man and face my ass.” he said, pushing my head deeper between his denim asscheeks.

I tried not to laugh myself at that weird statement, so I just obeyed and turned my head, facing down, now fully at the mercy of my friend’s powerful butt. I took a good whiff, enjoying the smell of almost 1 hour of loud, post-pizza blasts. As I did that, I felt the ass’ muscles relaxing, a sign that Dave was pushing one out, and indeed it came out immediately: an ear-piercing blast and made my face shake, almost wet-sounding, felt like a slap on my face.

My task was clear: not a single particle of gas had to reach Dave’s nose, so I inhaled it deeply and loudly as the fart kept erupting straight down my nostrils. I inhaled so hard and for so long that I actually surprisingly outlasted my friend’s 9 seconds: now the only noise we both could hear (besides someone getting shot in the movie) was me breathing his gas in… which made me realize how weird that was.

Am I making this weird? Too… “porn-y” for my straight friend? I love that he has no problems with me and my kink, but I don’t want to cross certain lines you know. He’s not saying anything… but his silence only makes it worse. I had to make sure.

“Dave.” I said, my voice being muffled by his ass, which made him laugh. “Am I making this weird?”

My friend simply turned his head, trying to look at me. I managed to get a quick look of his facial expression but the only thing on his face was a cocky smirk.

“Not weirder than usual to me.” he simply said. He then reached for my head, making it bounce a bit in his ass. “…Ready?”

Another fart erupted, which itself was Dave’s real answer to my question: “it’s fine”, he knows what this kink is by now, and he’s the one who basically challenged me to sniff it all up. Plus, if he was weirded out he knew he could just tell me and I wouldn’t be offended: we’re all adults here after all.

So there I was, my nose enduring some of the worst rips my friend ever gifted to me, the sheer power of those blasts being raunchier than his usual for some reason, maybe because of the beers being warmer or the mozzarella on the pizza being spoiled. No idea.

Or maybe it was just Dave putting extra efforts into his farts, if that was even possible. He’s the Fart King after all, so if he was somehow able to set custom pitch, loudness and power for each farts he ripped I wouldn’t have been surprised. Then again, he could even fart on command, so maybe he doesn’t need more buffs than he already has.

“Your face is history” my friend said, in a deeper voice, a clear reference to the masterpiece we were watching earlier.

And just like the henchman from the movie, my head was blown away by a sheer deadly force, this time in the form of Dave’s being unhinged, each natural blast somehow bigger and better than the previous one. I feel like that it doesn’t matter how this bet goes: I’m winning by simply having a bro like him.

I kept sniffing it all up as the blast rushed down my throat. He was good at farting, but I was also good at taking it. It’s like I said: weirdos work better together!

Yeah, I was taking it all like a champ.

“I could do this all night you know.” he boasted, during a rare moment of his ass being silent.

“What a coincidence: me too!” I bragged.

“Ohhhh… someone’s getting cocky back there.”

Dave really wanted those free beers, huh? He once again reached for my head and, with a firm grip, pushed it deeper down his warm denim ass, now almost sagging.

“Let’s see if you can keep your promise, shall we?” that was a threat.

There was like 10 seconds of silence, 10 never-ending seconds, but I just knew Dave was brewing something big, as he kept my head there (not that I was planning to move it anyway). Finally, he turned to me, with a cheesy grin, purposely trying to look like some kind of serial killer from a slasher movie before finish his victim off.

And then he hit me with his weapon of choice: the loudest fart I heard that night. It was big, it was powerful, it was deep, long. His hand didn’t move and my whole face was shaking because of the sheer power of the blast; I had to close my eyes ‘cause the gas was making them burn. How was it possible to fart so naturally and casually like this for him will always be beyond me… but I didn’t care. I managed to breathe that monster in with my mouth open, almost choking on my friend’s deadly gas.

Dave loved the challenge, but two can play this game! I could tell he was amused, disgusted and surprised by how good I was at enduring his powerful rips.

And finally, after 16 whole seconds, that impressive display of flatulence was over, not a single particle of gas reaching my farter-friend’s nostrils, as I promised.

“I believe you’re losing your touch.” I mocked him.

“With all the farts you've been eating, of course you'd be talking shit you ungrateful bastard!”

“Ohhhh sorry, someone's a little touchy.” I kept teasing him.

“Alright, I’m done holding back.” he sounded comically annoyed by my impressive endurance.

My friend slowly turned over until he was lying on his back, making sure he didn’t accidentally kick me with his long legs. He now assumed a more familiar position, the one he usually has when blasting me. He cocked his legs up, showing off his denim ass and a tiny bit of his red boxer brief, and wrapped his legs around me, pulling me closer to his gas source. His long legs had an even stronger grip than his hand, and my whole face was now completely planted into my friend’s ass.

“I’m feeling merciful tonight, so I’m giving you the chance to surrender now.” he stated, as his legs held me still, keeping my nose right between the rough fabric of his jeans-clad buttcheeks.

“Never.” I boasted. “…unless, you know, you actually want to stop because this is getting too weir-“

“Shut up!” he cut me off. “You just had to ruin my villainous speech, didn’t you?!” he laughed.

I just didn’t know what to say.

“Again, this is your last chance bro.”

I played along, knowing he was okay with it. “Hit me with your best shot, but don’t wound what you can’t kill.”

We both laughed like immature idiots, but Dave took my words at heart, because once we were done laughing at that ridiculous moment, he felt air being sucked inside his anus.

Yes, he switched to “on-command” mode, his secret weapon, his final secret move. Despite my face being there, my bro didn’t have any trouble at sucking more and more air through his ass like a vacuum cleaner, and the sound that made wasn’t that different from an actual fart. Every time I heard that “air-being-sucked-in” noise, as silly as that sounds, I think of a drumroll, the kind of tension that raises before the beat actually drops, because that’s what Dave’s farts are: something to look forward to… if you’re into it of course.

He’s been sucking air for like 20 seconds now and I started to regret my cockiness: when even a kinky bitch like me ends up being afraid of his own best bro’s farting skills, you just know something big, maybe too big, is gonna happen.

The anticipation made me hornier than ever, and the fact that it was, well, Dave, just Dave, my friend, made it even hotter for me. So casually, undeniably hot.

Finally, he stopped sucked air in, and I could hear Dave breathing (from his mouth) heavily, a sign that he was getting tired… and even his ass was getting sweatier and warmer.

“Your face is history.” my bud said again, in a comically deep voice.

We love that movie.

What followed, however, almost made me pass out.

The loudness was almost unnatural, I feared it could make me deaf. Imagine the stock sound of a fart, only longer, more powerful, airy, the most impressive fart Dave ripped in months, something so powerful that he can even feel the recoil as he pushed it out… just like a shotgun.

The more he farted, the louder it got, and I swore he was gonna tear a hole through his jeans this time, there was no way his clothes were able to endure that. I kept sniffing, breathing heavily, the fart’s pace being faster than my own breathing, if that makes any sense. 10 seconds already and the blast didn’t seem to lose any power: I almost got scared.

As the fart kept getting ripped, I felt Dave stretching his long denim legs wide to ease the fart out, which in turn made it sound even louder and deadlier. I felt like living a weird fever dream, probably because of all the poisonous gas in my lungs. But I also felt the luckiest man in the world.

I dared to peek over that denim ass, only to be greeted by Dave having the most evil smirk in the world, completely unfazed by how weird I was, how all of that was… but I could also see how tired and sweaty he was from forcing all those farts out, incredibly enough.

I planted my head back where it belonged, sniffing as much as I could, as if my life depended on it, even though I was almost passing out for all that stench… and the blood rushing down to my boner didn’t help to focus at all.

And yet… I won. The fart was losing power, ending with a quick series of toots, Dave’s legs crashing down the couch, his left one on my right side, his right one on my left side, and I got up myself, my face leaving that gas trap, finally sitting down normally on the couch.

I took a good look at Dave: he was indeed tired, sweaty, sporting a silly smirk.

“Is that how you look like after sex?” I dared to joke.

My friend laughed. “Hey, I love you bro, but you gotta settle for my farts.”

I patted one of his legs in response, as a cheesy way to thank him, and hopefully he knew how thankful I was. I mean, he already knew how aroused I was anyway, so why keep the fact that I’m grateful a secret?

Dave too adjusted his position, this time kicking me on purpose while doing it, and sat back normally.

“I gotta say, I didn’t except you to win.” he admitted.

“…win?!” I replied. “Bro… I was basically done. That last one almost killed me.”

We both laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

“Let’s call it a tie then.” he proposed. “Until next time at least.” he just casually said.

I simply turned to the TV, only to find out that the movie was over.

Did Dave just face-farted me for like… 30 minutes?! Time truly flew by.

My friend then reached for his beer and the remote. We some on-demand features on our TV and, after navigating the UI for a few seconds, he started downloading “Bullet Gore 2”.

“Really?” I asked.

“Well, if you can endure all of that gas, I can sit through a turd of a movie.”

I think he was gonna watch this movie with me either way, regardless of any bet, just like I’m more than happy to offer him a beer whenever I could, so all of this fart-bet was for nothing.

Then again, weirdos attract each other naturally...

End of Episode 25

#eproctophilia #davefarts #fart kink #fart story #malefarts

112 notes · View notes

yufloria · 1 year

Text

Old Roots Pt.1

TASKFORCE141 x Fem!Reader

Summary: Los vaqueros and you were childhood friends and they left without a trace before you entered adulthood.

Sorry if this took a while, testing weeks are a bitch and almost considered dropping and scraping the idea on multiple occasions :/

Also: I tried adding more story/ background and working on my descriptions and details skills!!! Tell me if this is better and feedback is greatly appreciated <3

Word count:6.4k!!! (Get comfy :3)

TW: Blood, gore, violence, CoD type of violence, injured reader

WARNING!!!!! IT MAYBE GRAPHIC TO SOME OF THE READERS

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

“Alejandro bajate de allí” you told Alejandro as he was playing on top of a stone hedge. “¡Por favor Ale!” screamed a very panicked Rodolfo while clutching to your arm tightly. “No worries I got this! I just need a little more!” He shouted back. This all happened after pointed out how delicious the red apples look hanging from tree. Alejandro being Alejandro and knowing how much you love red apples he is currently trying to reach from on top of the wall. But the problem was that all 3 of you were (at the time) really short. So, in the mind of a kid, he did the best thing he could ever think of which consisted of jumping off and hopefully getting the juicy treat for you. Growing up with him you knew what he was going to do with just a glint of his eyes. “Alejandro, no lo hagas, for everything I could ever ask of you please don’t do it.” Without a warning he just jumped off and landed on top of Rudy that you didn’t know when he moved but he tried to catch him. Both landed on their back on the rough patchy spot, the only spot without lush grass for some type of cushioning. You ran to reach them as fast as your stubby legs could go. Once you reached them you heard small sniffles, as you got closer Alejandro rolled off Rudy, he first looked at his scratched knee then at you with tear filled eyes and let all the tears loose. You were quick to pull him into a hug as your head rested on Alejandro’s shoulder you saw how Rudy also looked like he was about to burst into tears you knew he was because he was very scared of something bigger that could have happened to Alejandro. You just hold out your arm as in to invite him into a hug he quickly obliged. The three of you enjoyed each other’s presence until it was broken when Alejandro started giggling. The hug disbanded away from Alejandro just for him to turn around with a bright smile and holding out 3 red apples on a branch. “Ay, Alejandro...” You sighed out. Ruffling his hair, you quickly gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, he immediately turned red and shoved the branch in your arm and turned away and pouted. After pulling Alejandro to his feet, you guided them to a river and told Alejandro to wash the knee as well as he could while you washed the apples up stream. Rudy started to wrap a piece of fabric around Alejandro’s knee while you sat a little more behind them. “Gracias Rodolfo,” you praise as you give him a kiss on the check as a thank you. He also turned red and pulled his shoulders up to try and cover his blush. You distributed the apples to them and started eating them while staring out to the bustling town below. “Oye, when you grow up what do you want to do?” You ask out loud. Both Alejandro and Rodolfo hummed and tilted their heads as in thought. Alejandro was the first one to quickly stand up and shout, “¡Parar los tipos malos! And kick them out from here and make them never come back.” “That means joining the military, Alejandro! With the problem of the cartel, they are probably going to kill us just for joining!” countered Rodolfo. “We have to fight back some way or another. ¡Por nuestra familia!” You courage him with a warm smile. “¡Tienes razon! Juntos paráremos a todos ellos!” he shouted with a sudden boost of courage. You smiled fondly at both of them as you ruffled their hair and thought ‘Yes, together we shall stop all of them’!

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

The strong relationship between all three of you were building throughout the years started crumbling the moment you started entering your adulthood. You no longer spent that much time together anymore because there was simply no time, your mom fell ill and has been bedridden ever since when you were a teenager, you took the part of taking care of her as your father went out most of the day and always came back after dark completely exhausted. It was a blessing and a curse that you were the only child, a blessing because your parents wouldn't use that much money on food and plain necessities but a curse because you always felt that you must help and work around the house for your parents and take all the load of work. As for Alejandro and Rodolfo? They left without a trace, one day you are catching up on your lives and finding a day where you can enjoy a day like the “good ‘ol times” and the next they were nowhere to be found, you asked around, but all the leads came into a dead end and soon you gave up on looking for them. It was harsh for you to adjust without them and the only thing you knew was they were probably dead but maybe they were alive! But if they were alive, why didn’t they tell you or a letter or the very least a goodbye. A few months passed and your mother unfortunately lost her fight against her illness. Her passing was harsh and taxing on both your father and you.

On your father because he started picking up drinking again after he stopped in order to buy the few medications that your mother needed. But for you, after losing your friends that felt like almost younger brothers to you and now your mother. You felt like you had no one, especially now with an emotionally distant father. His drinking problem slowly started to get the best of him, and he started wasting so much that you could no longer help with your job. After he realized he didn’t have enough to continue feeding his addiction he started asking for loans from the cartel as he knew he had no way of paying them back.

He soon started to take his frustrations out on you which caused you to say out of the house most of the time, sometimes even sleeping in the old hideout all of you built away from the town to hide whenever the 3 of you would do mischief. It was a small house under a huge oak tree the leaves and branches hanging down low enough to hide the scraps and wood you collected to build and resemble a house. It was a paradise, at least when you were younger, it had a small play kitchen with a window that had curtains made if sewn together random fabrics that you found in the garbage. On the windowsill there was a small tin can that you always replace each day when you were play pretend that you had a bakery or sometimes a restaurant, that supposedly that Alejandro and Rodolfo were going to help you build so you could fulfil your dream on opening your own restaurant and so people could enjoy your cooking. You always think about that promise every time you enter the small house.

For that reason, that “playhouse” you built together, was the sole reason you were still alive to this day because one day you were sleeping under the old tree. You were awoken by the smell of smoke and fire you immediately shot up from the makeshift bed and ran outside thinking that the town or the tree must have caught on fire but much to your despair it was your house. Of into the distance on a lonely hill where the house you grew up, played around, and made memories with your loved ones was ablaze with fire that looked like they could reach the sky and smoke that started making it seem like a twilight zone. You immediately started running towards your house. Your legs and lungs slowly started to burn and hurt as you made it on top. The flames produced so much heat that your eyes started to water. The townspeople were already trying their best to quell the fire. There was a human chain system that had water bucket from the nearby river. Your heart rate spiked once you noticed that you hadn't seen your father yet. You frantically started searching for him calling out his name and checking the face any man that seem to be the same age of your dad. Soon ice felt that was coursing through your veins, that the only possible way to find your dad was that he was in the house fire. As you turned to look back at your house, the roof collapsed like your lungs. You once again broke into a sprint to your house once you reached it you tried going in but an older woman no older that your mother caught your wrist. “¡No lo hagas mija!”. In desperation you shook her hand off from your arm and tried to run in but this time you were stopped by two ranchers, the same ones you would buy milk from every Sunday morning for your mom since she never liked her coffee black. This time they managed to hold you back as you tried to claw your way out from their clutches. “¡Suélteme! ¡Mi papá está allí adentro! ¡Por Favor salven a mi papa!” You watched as they slowly pulled you way from the burning house as tears rained down your face and your memories went up in flames.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

You were startled from your dreamless and restless sleep by a knock on the bedroom door. You were taking in your surroundings when the door opened to reveal the same women from yesterday.

Oh Yesterday... Oh yesterday...

The sweet lady was an old friend of your mom's. She always tried to help you with any small thing she could but as the years came; she just couldn’t go up the hill anymore. She must have sensed your sudden change of heart as your face contorted into a frown and grimace as you remembered the events the night prior. “Buenos dias hija. ¿Como Sigues?" she asked with a soft smile present on her face. Her soft hand covered your fidgety hands as your eyes began to get glossy with tears rimming your eyes. “Ay, mija...” she sighed and pulled you into a deep embrace it was probably your emotional distress of your resent events or the fact you haven't felt that type of hug your mother gave you every time you felt bad but this time the embrace had a beating heart. It was like a dam crumbling down and tears burst out has you grabbed fistful of fabric on her back as you let everything out and the sweet lady just stayed put, rubbed your back, and shushed as your tears reduced into small hiccups and sniffles.

The older lady grabbed you hand and gently pulled you up to your feet and with a soft voice she spoke, “Vamos, mija, there is breakfast downstairs.” Both of you sat down at the table and a breakfast plate was already prepared in front of you, it consisted of scrambled eggs with sausage, refried beans, and some freshly made tortillas the same one she used to make when she was well. You stared at the plate for a few minutes before forcing yourself to start eating. The sad tension was broken when a man which face was worn down by the years came in and took off his hat as he entered. “Buenos dias, ¿Como sigue la niña?” He asked his wife before pulling her way into the kitchen and soon it was filled with hushed, rapid whispers.

They emerged from the kitchen once again and stared at you with worry very present to their faces as they didn’t want to tell you something. Shaking his head, the older gentleman sat in front of you and placed his hat on the table. You stared in silence back at him urging him just to spill on what he had talked to his wife. “Mija...” he started but stopped once his voice cracked but continued “We found your father-” right before you could get your hopes up on seeing if your father was okay, he cut you off before you could even ask where he is “-but he isn’t with us anymore.” You deflated as you slumped into the chair and the food long forgotten. “Can you at least take me to him or tell me where he is?” You ask hopelessly.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Because your father wasn’t there when the fire started, he wasn’t even near when it happened”

“Then what happened?” With that question a tension quickly formed in the room which caused you to panic and tilt your head as in question “What happened” you pressed again. You saw that the couple glanced at each other talking with their eyes as they hesitated to tell you the truth. “TELL ME!” you shouted you couldn’t take it anymore the silence was killing you. At your sudden burst the older man seemed to react he simply stood up take his hat off the table before heading to the door. “Sígueme, por favor.” You walked a few paces behind him, and you took note that his house was barely on the outskirts of the town and the direction you were going was to the heart of the town. You people stop and look at you, men taking of their hat, and the townspeople just walked in a somber silence as you walked by.

You felt the hair behind your neck start to rise the more you walked deeper downtown. A hand was placed abruptly on your chest right before a corner to the church. The man just looked at you with so much sadness and sympathy. He simply pulled you into a quick hug and stated “Lo siento mucho mija.” ‘He is sorry? Sorry about what?’ You thought before you could voice your concerns, he pushed you back and squeezed your shoulders to let you go to see for yourself. To go where your father was. As you rounded the corner your eyes widened in shock, the image before you caused a visceral reaction that made your stomach churn and your skin crawl. You feel frozen, overwhelmed by the disturbing emotions that race through your mind.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

Your father or whatever remained of your father was displayed in the front of the church. He was crucified but it seems that all his limbs were ripped off from the torso they were held up by huge metal stakes. Oh Gosh! His head! His head was staked on the top of the cross. The tip of the cross went up where the neck was supposed to go but worst of all you could see the tip of the stake looked like it was about to come out from his right temple. But it seemed that the eyes were already gauged out before the decapitation and the tongue ripped out and thrown carelessly to the ground. It was a gruesome sight to see. You weren’t squimish on the sight of blood or death, most of the time you always took care of the chickens since that was the only meat that your mom only enjoyed eating so this shouldn’t be new to you. But this time it was your father, your dad, that took care of you, cherished you and raised you nondifferent no matter how much he wished to have a son.

You fell to your knees as you coughed and choked up with your own vomit. It hurt, it felt like your whole skull burn under skin, now the lovely breakfast was now spilled on the side of the street. Your heart felt like it was being crushed as your entire world seemed to shatter into a million pieces. You gasped for air, but the tightness of your chest made it hard to breathe. Your hands shook as the weight of the situation began to sink in as you tried to hold yourself together.

From that moment on, you vowed to eradicate every cartel and ensure they never threaten you or your home again.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

You left your hometown there wasn’t anything for you to stay, you lost everything and everyone you cared about. That’s how you find yourself in this situation trapped in this old, abandoned house, not because the cartel managed to get their hands on you. No, you are better than that just you were in the wrong place at the wrong time you were helping a small group of drunk ladies after a night out and being the only sobber one around you decide to help them reach the nearby inn but taking care of one drunken person was hard you had to deal with three one of them.

You were so preoccupied taking care that they wouldn’t hurt themselves that you didn’t notice men all in black approaching the group until a gruff voice broke out, “Buenas noches, señoritas, how are you in this fine evening tonight.” You head snapped back to the man that spoke and notice that he brought 2 more other men that you could see. You set the girl that was the most wasted down had their arm around your shoulder on a rock. “Buenas noches, gentlemen, is there something I could help you with sir?” You asked innocently you were new in this town, but you been long enough to know that they are not from here and up to no good. “No, but I could ask you the same thing do you need help young lady? Seems that taking care of three drunks proves to be a hassle for you, no?” he noted by closing the healthy distance with his men too. Upon saying that all the alarms of danger came in blaring in your skull as even the ladies who were a little tipsy, holded hands and hid behind.

You could take them on, but they were close enough for you to notice that they were armed, and you just could not let them have their way with the women. You stood your ground has you can now feel his horrid smell of alcohol and terrible oral hygiene fanning over your face. His hand slowly came to reach and hold your cheek caressing it lightly. That kind gesture would be welcomed if it weren’t for the predatory gaze, he had present in his eyes as he tried to grind his knee on you between your legs. Before you could fight back the girls behind you squealed which cause you to turn and see that more men came out of nowhere. The hand being so gentle on your face shocked you as if it turned into a cobra, struck your chin, and forced you to turn back at him. This time you refused his advances by biting his thumb until you felt blood burst inside your mouth then you saw a flash of white and your whole side of the face seemed to burn and throb. You looked up at him on the ground as you felt blood start to seep from your busted lip. “¡Pinche perra!,” he shouted and landed a hard kick in your stomach.

You now know that you couldn’t get out of here without violence. You used your low stance on the ground you advantage. You acted fast lifting your body with your left hand and swung your right leg at the side of his knees as your body twisted right. You felt your leg connect with a satisfying pain that coursed up through your leg but seeing land on his enough for the pain to subside just a little. You launched yourself at him, your right fist connected to his jaw you were about through more before a man behind you wrapped his arm around your throat and squeezed. Your hands immediately flew to scratch him, but he didn’t budge, just squeezed more. You panicked when you started seeing black spots on your vision. You started kicking much harder and slamming the underside of your fists on his thighs. You were about to black out until your left-hand graced what you presume is a knife on his hip; enclosed your hand on the handle ripped it off from its socket and swung back on his thigh and buried it deep enough to his bone. He released you and caused you to fall forward with the knife still in hand. You gently barely hold your throat as you take in huge gulps of air, coughing during the process. The tears barely began to subside then another kick on your back was enough to make you snap back to the situation at hand. You rolled over onto your back, forcing your feet together and kick them out with do much force to send them back a few feet back giving you the opportunity to get back of your feet. You hear a shout coming behind you and head whipped to dodge the knife gracing your cheek, the knife in your hand quickly made home to the stomach. The man just grunted and froze into place as you hold him and pulled the knife back out once then twice and then once more but at the end you twisted the knife and drag it to the side and let the man fall with an ungraceful thud to the ground.

The amount of blood that covered you was frightening but nothing new. The guy that you stabbed on the leg started to crawl away as the first man that started all this also had a knife of his own but unlike the man that it currently bleeding out on the side of the road, he was swinging and failing the knife around with so much speed that nicked you multiple times before you noticed his attack pattern. Swing left, Swing right, then a double step forward. Swing, swing, double step. Again swing, swing and block with the left and push forward and go behind him, grabbed his chin with the same force he had with you and tilted to the side and drive the blade stained with his partner’s blood home on the neck, you struggled to get the blade out once he hit the ground felt the blade slowly come out some audible spirts of blood as you push and pull the blade, you felt yourself getting weaker as the adrenaline slowly subsided within you. As you felt your blade about to get released, then a major force hit your temple, it was strong enough for you to leave the knife embedded in his neck. You landed in your back lightheaded touching the side of your head feeling your blood running down your face and down to the grounds.

There was a loud ringing on your ears as you stare up to the night sky, in your peripheral vision you saw the man that you let live, the on you stabbed in the leg, throw a medium size rock, that’s now covered in small splatters of your blood, to the side. He slowly bend down to get a much bigger rock, heavy enough for him to use both hands and lift it high above his head. You told your body to move, to react or something as he came closer to you with a staggering leg behind. Your vision became black in and out. One side of your brain was screaming at you to force your body to move while the other, stronger, and much louder side just told you to just stay don’t move. Your injuries were just too taxing on your body. Right before he could smash your brain in, multiple shots rang out, his body fell to the ground, but he was already dead before he hit the ground. You heard steps all around you then other male face came in close to yours and smiled with a grin with crooked teeth and a horrible breath, excitedly said to his men as you barely heard, “¡Estás una chulada! Let's take her to EL Sin Nombre, he’ll give us a big prize for this girl that can cause this much damage,” then everything faded to black.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

You woke up with a throbbing around your head it felt like rubber band squeezing eternally. Groaning out as you painfully slowly got up into a sitting position. You raised one of your hands to feel all the dried-up blood caked up on your face and immediately began scratching it off the best you could. You repeatedly open and close your eyes trying to get rid of the dizziness, once settled you took in off your surroundings. It was an abandoned rural house, the windows were caved in but covered in wooden planks, there wasn’t a door, a suspiciously stained deep brown cloth nailed onto the frame. The cloth didn’t do an excellent job of muting the sounds coming from the room next door.

Voices started to arise and slowly made their way towards your direction until finally a man reveal behind the cloth you squint your eyes at until his imagine of the night before appeared in your memory. You are proud to admit that you haven't held hostage too many times before, but you are ashamed to admit that acting like a defenseless and dumb civilian has gotten you out in multiple situations before, so you take your chances and play with that card. You got into character and just stared at him with alarmed doe eyes as he got closer to the makeshift “bed” of you can even call it like that. Before you can play your part, he beat you to it “Cut the crap,” he mocks “I- I mean- We know that you don’t just kill people like that even if it was part of “self-defense”, I saw it in your eyes you have done this more times than you can count,” He grinned out with the same teeth damaged by tobacco and his horrid putrid smell of his breath. “That is why I have you here, alive, so you,” he points at your chest and continues “can work for me, us, for a good pay... for what you do”. “What do you think it is that I do?” You seethe between your teeth. “Simple...” he stats “kill for us. For the cartel.” Acting stupid be damn! You knew that your face gave your true intensions away because before you could even react or voice your opinion. His hand enclosed around your throat squeezing with so much force that it seemed too much from his lanky built. He was smart enough to push himself over you, caging you with a leg on each side of your body and start squeezing with both hands. Your throat must have bruises from the night before because you felt paralyzed by the immense pain for a few seconds before your instincts to survive kicked in, you tried again scratching him on the hands, but nothing seems to work. He squeezed harder and pushed you deeper into the mattress as you tried pushing him away from you or at least scratch his face to know at least you did some damage to this poor bastard.

The weight suddenly vanished, and you felt something wet splattered on your face. The body onto of you slump down to the side with a hole straight through his skull. A sniper. Your blood ran cold as the people on the other side of the room burst out in a commotion when a load of rounds started ringing out by multiple people. Chaos was induced as the paper-thin walls didn’t do anything to stop the bullets and your heart felt like it was about to explode within your chest. Run, run, run! Was the only thing your brain was screaming at you. You stumbled around protecting your head; running and searching for an exit as bits and pieces of debris exploded all around you. Out the back door you heard the person inside had a radio that yelled in English! “Soap, get hold of her she’s the only one who might help us find El Sin Nombre! I’ll keep a look out up here.” They were looking for you in this case, hunting you! That being said you took off as fast as your legs could. A different voice broke through the radio and alerted the man inside once more, “Soap, she running to the blue two-story house southwest from your location!” “Shit!” you cursed out loud as more shots came... above? You look up there was helicopter orbiting the whole neighborhood that you woke up in. You already had a gun that was on the body of a dead man and ran the opposite direction where you first heard the shots and killing two men that had pointed guns in your path clean through the chest. You couldn’t even pat yourself in the back for killing a moving target while you were also in the move that is a first time for you today!

The ground started spewing upwards as bullets crashed into the ground near your feet. A sharp pain in your right calf causes you to stumble forward and crash to the floor with the momentum you had. You look down at your leg and inspect the wound, luckily it grazed your leg not before getting a quarter of a centimeter of your flesh away. You wince at the sight that started to burn and turned to look at the man named “Soap” a silly name if it wasn’t the fact that that he was currently hunting you and closing meter after meter to get you. You swiftly scrambled to get on your feet and limp to the house that had two floors. Some cartel members burst out of the house and paid no attention to you instead to Soap, you were internally grateful they managed to distract him and buy you some time. You bashed the door open with your shoulder and shot where you saw movement you swept the first floor and tried the best you could to run the second which thankfully was empty.

There was empty bookshelf next to the door you quickly rushed in pushing it if front of the door and lodging it with wooden floor lamp stand and tie it around the bookshelf happy with your work you look out the window to find a dense forest out in the outskirts of the town. If you can make it a few yards into the forest, you'll be free. Stomping up the stairs made you snap out of the daydream and raise your gun at the door, he tried the door only to discover it was locked. “Open the door! I don’t want to hurt you!” A thick Scottish accent rang out thought the silence other than your beating heart in your chest. 'Don’t hurt you, my ass!’ you thought as you pulled the trigger without hesitation until it clicks without a bullet. Jesus fucking Christ just your fucking luck! You wasted the last of the bullets on the bastards the floor beneath you and now some crazy ass psychos are after you! Groaning out silence you start looking for another escape route until the was a huge bang at the door behind the bookshelf.

Bastard was launching himself to the door trying to pry it open, not choosing to shoot because he might accidentally hurt you. You only started panicking when you heard splinters come apart at the door, that’s giving in to the repeated force. Out the window it is! Thrusting the butt of the gun to the window it shattered upon impact and chipped off the glass on the windowsill, the noise seems to agitate Soap more because he panically shouted “I know she’s escaping but I’m stuck behind this fecken stupid door! But I’m almost in, the door is about to give up!” True to his word the door did seem like it was 3 hits away of giving in. Bang! You turn to the door, and you saw his gloved hand slip in and take ahold on the side of the door near the doorknob refusing to let the door shut again. The second bang was heard when you were sitting on the windowsill, a leg on each side, and half of his body head included his head could now fit through the crack. His eyes widened as he knew your plan of escape when he saw your position. You knew he was going for the last blow as he retracted his body but this time instead of waiting for the bang when his body slammed to the door, you threw yourself out the window. You couldn’t cushion the fall and crashed to the ground it hurt like a motherfucker, but you couldn’t stop yourself from moving you started crawling and then you go to yourself up and running, limping miserably but running just a few more yards and you be free, you could taste it, tears started forming at the excitement. But then a huge force brought you to the ground once more but this time you couldn’t fight him off you couldn’t even move an inch, the force on top never budged and it was heavy enough to have your lungs struggle to function correctly. The man turned you onto your back and you were met with a horrific picture of a human skull that had deep dark blue eyes staring back at you with an emotion that you couldn’t quite decipher. He proved to be strong enough to hold both of your hands in one of his. The free hand was set the radio on left shoulder and spoke with a British accent “I have secured the running fugitive and we are a few clicks away from the forest Northwest from the location of Soap.” “We have actual visual on you, Ghost, preparing landing to proceed the exfil.” Hearing that Soap was apart a team all hunting you down made your head spin.

Panic once again arose from you as you desperately tried to get of the clutches to this terrifying man, but he didn’t move an inch the frustration got up to you once and just started crying silently as you stared longing at the forest next to you. You were so close and yet so far. Soap meets up with this “Ghost” man on top of you. “What did you do now Ghost? You made another beautiful lady cry again. It was probably because of that ugly mask again,” he teased once he saw your position under Ghost. “Probably if you didn’t do a shit job at capturing her, I wouldn’t be so rough with her but considering she slipped from you two times was the hardest thing to watch through the scope. She was also going to escape from us that third time and I had to take matters into my own hands and here we are, waiting on that helicopter to land and take our asses home with the only person that can help us find answers from El Sin Nombre.” Soap stays quiet but through the silence there was an audible smirk present on Ghost face behind the mask. The helicopter finally landed and Ghost grabbed the front of your shirt to pull you up to your feet and before you could start running, a black plastic zip tie was placed around your wrists by Soap, you could only glare at him as a firm hand was placed behind the base of your neck as a warning to not do any funny business, at least when Ghost was near.

The trio got on the helicopter you were met with two new more faces. An older man that seems to have the warmest smile with crinkled eyes that had a fishing hat that looked impossible to move considering the hat didn’t flinch at the huge gusts of wind the helicopter produced. His name was Price. The other man that seem the youngest of the whole group had darker chocolate skin and had the fullest lips ever on a man with a cap that told the same story as the hat of his older teammate. He introduced himself as Gaz and with the introductions out the way the aircraft lifted itself off the ground and into the sunset sky above.

Almost reaching the 25-minute mark and you have arrived on a small military base. Everyone got off the helicopter and in front of you there were already black SUVs formatted in a line. Everyone started walking towards the car, but you were limping, and Soap was the only one to notice and took your right arm and took off pressure on your wounded leg. Ghost turned around and raised an eyebrow at both of you. Soap simply shrugged and said with a smirk clearly present “What? It’s the least I could do after damaging some fine lady’s leg.” Once you were settled in between Ghost and Soap, even Price as the driver and Gaz the passenger. The car began to move with the help of the rear-view mirror Price made eye contact with you and said “Get yourself comfortable it going to be hours before reaching the location we need you in.” Get comfortable you did! After the stressful two days you had to experience and the amount of adrenaline you had to use took a toll on you because you fell asleep on Soap’s shoulder snoring lightly before the 30-minute mark.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ═════════

A/N: Idk why is so graphic but I feel like it fits the story especially if its about the cartel yk yk?

And Pt.2 is in the making :3

193 notes · View notes

gorebek · 2 months

Note

Bro you should def infodump e v e r y t h i n g about your Torbek swap au

only if you wanna of course 👉👈

Its hard to do literally everything because im stupid and cant put thoughts to paper but i can talk about a lot of stuff i have in my head

big disorganized yap session below cut

I plan on drawing a ref EVENTUALLY but some of the core stuff i want to add is gorebek being younger and shorter because he got the operation done a couple years before torbek

and he gets it done willingly so its less of a botch job like toebek the pipes that go through his body are more neat i guess is the best word they look cooler and he has actual clothes that are also adapted for his new additions

im thinking hunter fit like torbek but also idk... I still want to incorporate the suit but idk how i hate designing clothes

For how they met they never had any pre operation interaction like no working at the carnival but he was released post operation like hey go hunt people trying to fuck with us and given the carnivals whereabouts or something idk and when he gets to the inn and threatens them and powers up torbek fronts and just immediately starts crying and hides gricko is the first to reach out and realize hey this dude is pretty chill and then they take care of torbek until gorebek fronts again

Gorebek in this is probably like early ouaw torbek whos very new to things and the world torbek is that but way worse they both only know operations and experiments and whatever they were told without really experiencing the outside world while gorebek socialized torbek literally never has in his existence (himself, probably has cofronted and seen gorebek talk but its different)

idk how exactly this would go but i feel like he would follow them at first after the fight being like yess yes evil secret intel and slowly get accepted into the found family realizing they actually care for him and dont treat him like a creature to test on unlike insert evil people (release the duke backstory after hiatus so i can make this more accurate pls ouaw)

i think this process would be WAY way longer for gorebek then it is for torbek torbek probably fronts more often and connects with everyone while gorebek rarely lets himself get the chance to bond with anyone

in this i dont think gorbek is like explicitly evil i think he is acting on his beliefs and can be more connected to the carnival then canon gore

but i think that connection will be very co dependent after being held for so long and being told he was a tool he would probably crave that feeling of being needed again even if its warped and fucked up and probably act out but also crave love and the acceptance like torbek gets so gorebeks relationships would all be extremely hot and cold and constantly changing while torbek is just chilling (mostly)

Gorebek is also very self destructive i can see a shit ton of stuff they do being fucked up because gorbeks ego takes over or he just doesnt care what happens to him or those around him and when torbek is fronting for quests hes just clumsy and still very unaware and fucks it up like that

In canon ouaw torbek gets smarter and more leader-y even if the group doesnt wanna go with what he says and i think gorebek would try to be like this but fail he would definitely get smarter and learn a lot but leader-y not so much i dont think he would plan anything and fail because of it

Talking about reverse gorebek makes me want to talk about canon gorebek parallels and how i think canon gorebek plans everything meticulously and is an extremely good leader because hes given the skills to because he doesn't front he controls the witchlight while reverse was thrown to the wolves without developing skills because he cant harvest it like torbek can but torbek was given up on like canon torbek and just kinda tossed out as well idk idk

I did not reread any of this sorry if theres a bunch of mistakes im just ranting

#txt #LONG txt #ask #Wow i heart being able to rant #Theres probably more but its late and my thoughts are everywhere

14 notes · View notes

wehaveimagineshere · 1 year

Note

Request for Admin Frost! Could I request headcanons for Soap, Konig, and Ghost realising his feelings for gender neutral reader?

Hi I’m so sorry this took so long! I had to do some research on their backgrounds to make sure everything I wrote was accurate. I deffo went overboard but I hope you enjoy! I 100% enjoyed writing my first MW request ☺️☺️

TW: Blood, slight gore

Soap

• You and Johnny were childhood best friends and neighbors growing up. You would beat up anyone who made fun of him for any reason and he would do the same for you. When you were teenagers you would still do the same

• At the age of 16 you would join him and his cousin on trips to the base to see what it was like. You both absolutely loved what you saw and made plans to join as soon as you can

• You would tell Johnny to wait to join the SAS until he was 18 so you could join together but he decided to try to enroll anyway. He would lie about his age and would be caught and rejected every single time. You would laugh at him every time he came home and say I told you so

• You turned 18 before he did but decided to wait for him before you joined. Shortly after, you were both able to officially join the selection for the 22 Regiment. Both of you excelled in every single test and worked extremely well and smoothly together as a team

• Captain Price was evaluator for both of you and recognized your natural skills and dedication to get the job done as quickly as possible with little to no casualties on your team. While you trained as a pilot and intelligence expert, Johnny trained as a sniper and demolitions expert

• You had an IQ of 146 which made your planning for missions extremely successful as you were able to plan for every possible situation and a resolution for any potential problem you can across

• Price recruited you both for his Bravo Team to secure cargo for possible WMD’s. It’s where he gets the call name Soap which you laughed at when he told you. He’s proud of it tho and whenever anyone asks what the hell kind of name is Soap you laugh to yourself and try to conceal it when he shoots you a playful glare

• It wasn’t until Johnny nearly fell to his death until Price caught him, did you realize that you loved him much more than just a childhood friend

• You cried that night. Reality hitting you that you could lose him at any moment with this type of profession. Either one of you could lose your life just like that

• You debate telling him over the next week few years. When you try to tell him, someone or something always stops you. And there are times where you aren’t on the same mission together and don’t see each other for several months on end

• You felt yourself fall deeper for him when one night a Military Police officer kept hitting on you and touching you without consent outside of the bar you and Johnny were enjoying yourselves in. When Johnny comes back after using the bathroom and witnesses your altercation with the man, he comes up and punches him in the face. Knocking him out and he locks the officer in his own vehicle. You tell him that you love him that night and kiss him. But the next morning he wakes up with a hangover and says he doesn’t remember anything bc he was too drunk. You feel dejected

• A couple years later you join Price’s TF141 in the fight against Hassan

• Due to your excellence in planning and executing perfect directions, you’re able to find out the possible location of the compound Hassan is taking refuge in

• The team and Shadow Compamy takes Hassan to another town where you’re told not to kill him and are ambushed by the Mexican Army and cartel yet again. To the horror of everyone, especially Johnny, you did not make it to the extraction

• Johnny couldn’t sleep until they find you. He was searching everywhere and interrogating all cartel members in the hopes of learning of where you were taken. He wants to kill anyone who would think of taking you from him. His rock. His best friend. The person who he loved but was too scared to tell

• The team and Shadow Company get intel that you were taken by a cartel boss named El Sin Nombre and they want all the intel you have

• Johnny volunteers to infiltrate the compound as a hostage. When he’s being interrogated it’s Alejandro who discovers your location and the bad shape you’re in. You’re tied to a chair and they broke your leg so that you couldn’t escape if you were able to untie yourself

• He tells you that the group is here to capture El Sin Nombre and to rescue you. That it was Soap who helped discover the location

• You ask where he is and Alejandro tells you the details of the mission and you’re horrified. They could kill him. They killed another man right in front of you, his blood and brain matter sprayed on your face

• Alejandro tells you that he needs to go back downstairs but they’ll be coming back for you soon. When you hear that, you’re both worried and excited to see Johnny again. It’s been a hellish week. You just want to be in his arms

• Johnny is told to go wait upstairs and he meets up with Alejandro. He tells Johnny that he was able to find you and tells him the situation you’re in. Johnny feels enraged. He wants to kill every single person in this compound. But your safety comes first. Alejandro tells him what room you’re in and they split up

• When you see each other again you both bust into tears. You’re so relieved to see that the other is alive and Johnny quickly cuts the rope tying you down and carefully pulls you into a hug. You both finally felt like your heart was back together in once piece

• While the group and Shadow Company capture El Sin Nombre and kill the other cartel members, Johnny carefully carries you to the medevac so that the medics can take care of your wounds

• He never stops holding your hand. Not when they had to rebreak your leg since it started healing wrong, not when he learns the cartel boss is someone Alejandro used to be acquainted with, and not when you passed out due to exhaustion as you flew back to base

• He was there the whole time you were in the hospital. Knee bouncing and hands shaking while he waited for you to wake up

• After 3 days you finally slowly come to, you notice the smell of sterile chemicals and a bright white light. When you open your eyes the room is blurry but to your left you see Johnny leaning over the hospital bed asleep while gripping your hand

• Your slight movement instantly woke Johnny up and he immediately rushes to sit up and starts tearing up. He tells you that he couldn’t sleep knowing you weren’t beside him. And the exhaustion finally got to him the moment you were back in his arms. You ask him how he found you. And he said he tried to think like you when thinking like him wasn’t working, which made you both chuckle and smile

• You both start to say something at the same time but Johnny tells you to go first. You tell him about the night at the bar a few years ago. How you told him that you loved him and how you kissed but he said he didn’t remember. Johnny is shocked. He wishes he did. Then you would’ve gotten together a long time ago. He asks if you still do, bc he loves you so much he doesn’t know what to do with himself

• Of course you still do. And you share a long awaited passionate kiss

König

• König met you when you were both new recruits in the military at the age of 17

• During your recruit days you tried to have conversations with him. You were so curious about the giant man beneath the mask. The conversations you did have were always work related and when you asked him personal questions it always turned awkward

• You both signed up to be recon snipers but König was rejected due to his size and inability to stay still. You on the other hand, were ranked in the top 5

• König comes over to congratulate you but you can tell there’s a hint of sadness in his tone. So you tell him that no matter what he ends up doing, he’ll be phenomenal at it. And that you wish he was able to do what he wants

• He thanks you and you don’t see him again until you’re both recruited to join KorTac a few years later

• You’re surprised when you see him. His mask has changed and you could only tell it was him by his voice. You didn’t know it was possible for him to become bulkier but the man was the size of a mountain

• You’ve changed as well. You were able to hone in on your sniping skills and became one of the best snipers in the world with 247 kills under your belt in a short amount of time

• He walked up to you and said he remembered you from being recruits and asked you how you’ve been. You felt your heart skip a beat. You didn’t think he’d outright start a conversation with you

• You told him that you were doing well and asked him how he was, not expecting him to tell you anything just like how he was before

• But he tells you that he’s been doing well as well. That he took down Al-Qatala in Berlin which was involved in human-trafficking and managed to take down all 12 fighters single handedly and freeing the hostages. They were scared of his mask tho so his team had to take over

• You were throughly impressed. You told him how you were able to keep your whole team alive by sniping every enemy you saw with 100% accuracy

• Later on you both are constantly put together on a team to do extremely dangerous and difficult missions. Patching each other up when you get injured and having a lot of deep conversations when huddled up together in the safe house on cold nights

• You ask him why he never really talked to you before when you were recruits and he tells you he had severe social anxiety and it was hard for him. It took years of practice and therapy to start to be comfortable with it. Tho he never easily opened up to anyone like he has with you

• Over a few months you realize that you’re in love with him. You love who he is as a person. It gives you a warm feeling but you’re also scared. You don’t want to tell him your feelings in case he rejects you. You’re content with what you have

• It’s König who confesses first

• You’re on a mission in Russia during Christmas time and you’re trying your best to keep warm in the safe house during the harsh winter storm

• You’re sharing a blanket by the fireplace and keeping close contact so that the body heat keeps your fingers and toes from falling off

• König can’t hold it in anymore. He sits you both up and tells you that he needs to get something off his chest even tho this probably isn’t the best timing

• You tell him it’s okay and you feel your heart racing. Did he find out that you’re in love with him? Is he going to reject you and say he never wants to see you again?

• He quieted down your worries when he took both of your hands in his and looks you in the eyes. He looks extremely nervous

• He says that he’s been in love with you for years. Since you were recruits. That he’s so grateful for these missions to get the chance to get to know you and fall even deeper in love

• You feel the blush spread across your cheeks as he tells you this and your hands begin to slightly tremble. You tell him that you love him too

• He feels giddy and decides he wants to show you his face. And when he takes it off you didn’t think it was possible to fall in love even more but as you gaze into his pale, blue sea eyes and see his perfectly shaped nose, you ask him if it’s okay if you can kiss him

• He says yes and you lean in to gently press your lips to his. It’s the sweetest kiss you’ve ever had in your life and as you pull away and smile at each other, you both know that you want to spend the rest of your time together

Ghost

• You are a new addition to TF141 with high speciality in weapons and combat. Laswell told Price that she wanted you to join the team in the mission to capture Major Hassan Zyani

• The team was informed about a new member that would be coming within a week after Hassan escaped from their first capture due to the Mexican Army and cartel

• Ghost didn’t really have much of an impression or opinion about you at first. He honestly didn’t think they needed another member on the team but they can’t go against a direct order

• You kind of reminded him of Johnny in a way, with the way you always have a more positive look on things and try to crack jokes with him

• You and Johnny will even team up to poke a little fun. You’ll try to have Gaz join you, but he’s too terrified of the harsh glares and curses the Lieutenant sends your way to even think about doing something like that

• Despite your smaller stature, you’re one of the only few people who are able to go toe to toe against Ghost in combat without getting your ass beat in 5 seconds

• One time even managing to best him with the result of you straddling his lap with a knife to his throat

• It’s after that when you’ve slowly but surely managed to worm your way into his heart. He starts to pay a little more attention to you and your whereabouts

• He sees you as a close friend. Even goes to far as to tell you his real name and bits and pieces of his traumatic past

• His heart skips a beat when you hug him for the first time. He thinks nothing of it and passes it off as just being surprised with physical contact

• It’s not until you’re shot by Graves during the betrayal in Las Almas does he come to realize how much he cares for you

• Alejandro is knocked out and he sees both you and Johnny are on the ground covered in blood and he felt his heart stop

• When he yells at you and Johnny to escape and sees you both sliding down that hill, shooting at the enemy, he never felt more scared in his life

• Were you okay? Where did you get shot? Johnny was shot too, are you going to be able to protect each other?

• When he hears the radio crackle and your voice coming though, he felt like he wanted to fall to the ground in relief. But he had no time for that. He needed to help get you and Johnny out of there

• When you meet back up at the church he runs straight to you to check out the damage from the bullet wound and to make sure that you’re okay

• It’s when sees his hands covered in your blood and he realizes that he doesn’t just care for you, he loves you. He loves you so much that he doesn’t know what to do anymore. But he does know one thing, he needs to tell you. Today was too close of a call and he doesn’t want to live with any more regrets

• When you’re back on base and getting medical attention for the gunshot wound and, to his horror, some stab wounds you must’ve got during your escape, Simon comes into the room, sits down, and reaches for your hand

• You’re surprised. The only physical contact you’ve ever really had is when you’re training or the occasional hug you’d give him. You look down at the hand clutching yours and feel your heart race

• That’s when he tells you that he loves you. Seeing you get shot and not knowing whether you’re gonna bleed out or not was the worst agony he has felt in a very, very long time

• Btw Soap witnesses all of this but he knew how you both felt for each other a long time before y’all figured it out

• In private quarters he’ll take his mask off. The first time you share a room together alone he gains the courage to do it. You stare at his face for so long he starts to feel a bit self conscious and looks away

• But you put your hand on his warm cheek to get him to look at you and say that his jokes about being extremely handsome are actually true

• You look at his lips and then his eyes in silent permission. He understands what you want and meets your lips in a sweet and sensual kiss. The kiss gets a little heated but your bullet wound isn’t quite healed yet for anything spicy to happen

• Simon will show you all his scars and tell you the stories behind them. Some are pale that have healed with time and others are freshly pink. The ones on his back tickle when you run your fingers over them

• You go on every mission together from now on. With your specialty in weapons and combat along with Simon’s excellent sniper and leadership skills, you’re a powerhouse that cannot be taken down. Being alone in the safe houses ain’t too bad either, if you know what I mean

#anonymous #mw2 #johnny soap mactavish #johnny soap mactavish x reader #johnny soap mactavish mw2 #könig #könig x reader #könig mw2 #simon ghost riley #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley mw2 #admin Frost #trigger warning blood #trigger warning gore #trigger warning violence

43 notes · View notes

jessiemeows · 6 months

Text

Lost and Found

Chapter 2 - Sunset at Camp

Word Count: 2.2k

Pairing: Spawn Astarion x Durge/Female Tiefling.

Prologue. Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3.

Warnings: 18+, mentions of blood and gore, fluff, death, let me know if a miss anything.

Astarion trailed a few steps behind his new acquaintance, allowing her to lead him through the wreckage. He started to notice they were traveling back to the beach where they both originally woken up.

“Any idea where you are going, darling” he inquired quizically “because it seems to me that we’re just going in circles.”

“Yes I know, where I am going,” Eris replied to him in confidence. “ I am looking for someone, she can't be too far from the beach. Unless she’s dead, but I choose not to think about that.” her voice began to trail off.

“Who is it that you’re looking for?” Astarion pressed.

“A half-elf, she helped me on the ship. I’m hoping she can provide further healing for my injuries. My attempt at my potion helped, but my burn is still very painful, and I fear the possibility of infection. Her name is Shadowheart, she’s a cleric like me.”

“So I see, aren't you a paladin as well? Serving a deity must be quite exhausting," Astarion remarked, clicking his tongue in amusement.

“I don’t remember much about my past as a cleric and paladin All I know is that when I woke up on the ship, I felt the presence of Selûne and was bestowed with divine abilities," Eris explained.

The two were now walking side by side, Astarion gazed at Eris intently. “You don’t remember anything?” He asked. He hadn’t realized she had memory loss until this moment.

“No, not really. All I knew was my name, Eris Othzal, and the rest of my memories have only started to resurface. I believe I may have known a ranger at some point, as I possess knowledge of certain ranger skills. But the details remain hazy," Eris admitted with a shrug and a faint smile.

“Must be from the tadpole,” Astarion muttered.

“Or I hit my head hard.” Eris began to giggle. Astarion couldn't help but feel his mind begin to drift by being charmed by her sweet laugh.

"Yes, that would certainly explain things about you," he scoffed, rolling his eyes at her and letting out a low chuckle

“Wait! I think that's her!” Eris exclaimed now sprinting towards a figure sprawled in the sand. “How did I not see her, she was so close to me.” Eris knelt beside the dark-haired woman, who appeared to be unconscious and carefully assessed her for any signs of life.

“I think she’s just sleeping,” Eris murmured, then proceeded to gently shake the woman's shoulders.

“You-you’re alive, I’m alive, how is this possible?” the woman was now waking up, bombarding questions to Eris. As the two women began to converse with one another, it became apparent that the memories were hazy after the crash.

“We need to find a healer fast,” said Shadowheart, with urgency in her voice.

“Speaking of healing, could you please heal this burn for me, I don't have any healing magic left, and I am almost certain it will be infected soon.” Eris pleaded, recounting the events that led to her injury and hinting at Astarion's involvement.

“You kept him around after he tried to kill you?” Shadowheart’s gaze bore into Astarion.

“I mean, yes. He’s infected just like us. I would've done the same, I think.” Eris replied, now looking at him with her big soft eyes.

“Well it's in the past now, isn't it? We should all be moving forward, hm?” Astarion retorted with his words laced with venom, mirroring Shadowheart’s challenging stare. Rolling her eyes at Astarion, Shadowheart proceeded to heal Eris, who sighed in relief. “Gods, thank you, it feels so much better now,” Eris exclaimed and began testing her weight.

‘Anything for the person who saved my life.” Shadowheart said smiling at Eris. “Now let's get moving, lead the way Eris.”

After looting a couple of dead goblins, the group made their way to the roadside cliffs located a couple of miles away from what appeared to be the ruins of a temple.

“Somethings going on with that rune,” Eris remarked, while cautiously walking towards it..

“Eris, do be careful,” Astarion warned. He had no desire to rescue her from another predicament as he had with the mindflayer. Ignoring the warning from him, Eris reached out and faintly touched the rune with her fingers, causing her to recoil in pain. Suddenly, a hand emerged from the rune, startling all three party members.

“A hand? Anyone?” a voice came from the sigil.

Astarion's gaze was fixed on Eris, who appeared to grow paler by the second as she stared at the hand before her. Suddenly, she slapped it.

“Ow! Perhaps I should have clarified. A helping hand? Anyone?” the voice exclaimed from the sigil.

Astarion couldn’t help himself but laugh. In the brief time he and Eris traveled together, he felt they would have a little fun as she seemed to have a mischievous spirit in her. After Eris interrogated the sigil, she managed to use what was left of her divine magic and successfully pulled him out. The tiefling stumbled and fell, crashing onto Astarion due to the recoil from freeing the man, he quickly reached out and grabbed ahold of her waist before she could hit the ground.

“Hello, I’m Gale of Waterdeep!” the strange man said while dusting off his robes and everyone gathered themselves

While Shadowheart and Eris engaged with the new wizard of the group, Astarion found himself only half-listening. His gaze was fixed on the setting sun, its warm glow casting a serene light over the beach and fiery nautiloid.

“I took control of the ship, landed it safely, and saved the day.” Eris boasted to the wizard. Astarion couldn't help but snort at her words.

“That vast, burning wreckage behind you somewhat contradicts your story, but here you stand, so who am I to argue?” the wizard retorted sarcastically, his tone had a hint of amusement to it.

Astarion once again found himself lost in thought as he gazed at the breathtaking sunset. The sky transitioned from a vibrant orange to a pastel pinky hue. A sight he hadn't witnessed in nearly two centuries. He felt entranced by the sight casting an enthralling glow over the landscape. Suddenly, he felt a gentle nudge on his shoulder.

“Are you coming? We are going to set up camp here for the night,” Eris said, her eyes fixed on him. “Do you like the sunset?” she then asked.

“I’m used to the busy city, so it's rare to see it like this.” Astarion lied

Eris nodded in understanding. “That is true, it is beautiful." her words began to trail off while she stared at the scenery before her. "but you should set up your tent now before darkness falls, unless you want to set it up when it's pitch blackout” she advised, turning to find her spot. Astarion sighed heavily and swiftly followed suit.

The first person to finish setting up their tent was Gale, utilizing his magical abilities to hasten the process. With a swift hand and a series of incantations, the tent was up in no time. Gale then conjured a fire bolt cantrip to ignite a warm fire in the center of their tents.

"I hate to be bossy, but I am designating myself as the camp cook," Gale declared out loud to everyone. "And although supplies are limited at the moment, I will do my utmost to prepare a satisfying meal for us all tonight."

"Fine Gale," Shadowheart responded snarkily at Gale's self-appointed role. Eris chuckled at the banter between the two, her eyes scanning the campsite. Astarion had vanished, after setting up his tent leaving it empty.

"Hm," Eris mused aloud, a hint of concern in her voice but she quickly shrugged it off.

As she finished setting up her tent she longed for the warmth of soft blankets and pillows. Thoughts of adding hanging plants or other decorations to make the space feel more like home crossed her mind, but she quickly dismissed them. This little adventure would hopefully be over in a few days if they found a cure or worse turn into grotesque beasts. Whichever fate awaited them was uncertain, but one thing was clear - their time was running out.

Eris sat by the crackling fire, flanked by Gale and Shadowheart, who were indulging in dried fruit and cured meats. Gale extended a bowl of food to Eris, who graciously accepted with a nod, reciprocating his smile.

“Where is your pale friend?” Shadowheart interrupted by breaking the silence.

"Oh, I'm not sure. He set up his tent and must have wandered off," Eris replied casually while toying with a piece of cured meat between her fingers.

“I would be careful with him,” Shadowheart warned, her voice tinged with weariness.

"You don't trust Astarion?" Eris asked her gaze now fixed on Shadowheart.

“Trust is a rare currency Eris. I’m not sure I would spend it on someone who drew a knife on me moments after I met them.” Shadowheart responded coolly.

Gale, in the midst of eating cured meat, suddenly choked and exclaimed, "He did what?"

"It's fine. Please, let us focus on what lies ahead," Eris interjected calmly.

“Fine, I’m watching him though,” Shadowheart said, her eyes piercing into the flames of the fire. Eris gave her a reassuring glance before returning to her meal.

An hour had passed since Astarion left, leaving Eris to wonder about his sudden absence. Perhaps he needed to clear his mind, she thought to herself. She found herself drifting in and out of focus as Gale droned on about ceremorphosis while they both sat by the crackling fire. It wasn't that she lacked interest in his words, but the pounding headache and queasiness from her meal made it difficult to concentrate on him.

“Now we have tadpoles slithering through our heads like carnivorous foeti. That’s not abstract.” Gale said with his voice a touch of dismay

“I’m not too worried. We’ll find someone who can help us.” Eris reassured the wizard.

“That’s the spirit. Let’s be up with the lark- find a healer before the wee one gets hungry. Oh, Hello Astarion!” Gale exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "Welcome back, I have your dinner ready for you." With a flourish, Gale handed Astarion a bowl filled with an assortment of dried fruits and cured meats.

"Ah, yes. Thank you," Astarion said as he walked over to the campfire, his expression one of disgust as he examined what was handed to him. "Sorry for disappearing, I wanted to take a short walk."

"Nonsense!" Gale chimed in before Eris could speak. “It's been a difficult day, we all get it. But I will have to excuse myself, this wizard could use their beauty sleep or I’ll be malcontent any moment now. Goodnight to both of you. I will have to seek out Shadowheart and see if she’s already sleeping.”

Astarion sat close to Eris, placing his bowl to the side as he stared into the fire. "Not hungry?" Eris asked. "Not particularly," he responded dryly.

"I only ate half of mine because I felt sick, so you aren't alone," Eris said, trying to sound supportive. She found it natural to talk to Astarion, despite his grouchiness. She felt a similar connection with Shadowheart, but with Astarion, it felt more natural, as Shadowheart was more guarded.

After a moment of silence, they both began to speak at the same time. "Oh, my bad, you go first, Astarion." The tiefling insisted.

Astarion paused for a moment before speaking. “So, we’re resting here? Turning in for the night?”

“It's no feather bed, but it’ll do.” Eris responded as she wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees.

“I suppose. I’m not sure what I expected, really. This is all a little new for me. Nights for me mean bustling streets, and bursting taverns. Curling up in the dirt and resting is… a little novel.” Eris noticed his crimson eyes darting around their surroundings, as if he was on guard for something.

“I believe the right herbs can help make a soothing tea, I can make you one if you’d like. It could help relax you.” the tiefling offered sympathetically.

“Ah, no- tea isn’t really my drink. I’ll be awake for a while anyway. I need to process this.” he said, pointing his fingers towards his head. “You sleep, I’ll keep watch”

“Thank you, I’ll sleep better off that. I was going to ask first what you thought of the new companions.” the tiefling interjected.

“Ha! What do I think of them? Well, we’ve picked up a wizard who managed to get stuck in his own portal, which was hardly a promising introduction.” Astarion exclaimed, waving his arms dramatically. “And then we have someone whose parents hopefully meant well by naming their child Shadowheart. The name is a little ominous, don't you think? Unless she chose it herself, which is even more worrying honestly.”

Eris chuckled to herself, "Alright, have a good night, Astarion." She stood up and dusted off her night clothes.

"The pleasure is all mine. Sweet dreams," he hummed, watching her gracefully walk to her tent as the moonlight danced on her silhouette.

#bg3 #astarion #bg3 companions #bg3 durge #baldur's gate 3 #astarion ancunin #astarion x durge #astarion x female dark urge #fanfiction #writing #durge #dark urge #durgestarion #the dark urge #astarion x oc #astarion imagine #astarion my beloved #astarion romance

6 notes · View notes

writernopal · 1 year

Text

🍄Chanterelles🍄

A study that I did today focused on bringing dynamic elements to dialogue and writing the dreaded duel/action scenes. I'm not sure if this will make it into AASOAF 3 as canon material but I figured I'd take this as an excuse to practice a bit of characterization with Magdalene and Sartor since they are newcomers to the cast! Enjoy or don't! Do whatever you want!

WC: 2412 CW: animal death, language, mild gore, violence Characters: Mariel, Axtapor, Magdalene, Sartor

The forest came alive around us with the gentle din of the barely waking fauna, fog still rolling between the trees. The scent of pine and other such stout evergreens filled my nose pleasantly as the leaves of their deciduous neighbors crunched beneath our careful and deliberate steps. His just a few feet ahead of mine, confidently leading the way as if these forests had hosted him his entire life.

“It’s a lovely morning,” I remarked with a smile, hoisting my skirts in my hands as we went.

“Quite! I told you it was worth slipping away!” Sartor called back, “See there?”

I took another step through the thickets, steadying myself with a single forearm against a nearby tree. He pointed down a gentle slope to a small, shaded clearing. Even from here, I could see the chanterelles we’d been searching for dotting the landscape. Plump and yellow, like meaty spring flowers.

“How did you know there would be so many here?” I asked, coming to stand beside him.

He dropped his arm and let out a satisfied sigh. “Trade secret, I’m afraid.”

“O-Oh.”

He tossed a glance my way and barked a laugh. “You see those logs? With the moss?”

I nodded.

“They like to grow on those.”

“Is that so?”

“The woods here are just like the ones outside of Eves Moore. They are easy to find there too.” He started his way down the hill. I followed. “I spent a lot of time in those woods.”

“Because the town was so lackluster?” I teased with a smile.

He laughed and turned around, walking backward as we neared the bottom of the slope. “Of course! What are towns compared to bundles of fungus?!”

I giggled as he turned back around and made for the nearest patch of mushrooms. “My goodness, there are so many!”

“Mhm!” He exclaimed as he knelt down, fetching a small curved knife from a pouch at his waist. He began to cut at the base of a few mushrooms with a practiced ease.

“Oh, what sort of knife is that?” I asked as I knelt down at a cluster close by the one he’d chosen. I pressed down on my skirts as they puffed out to settle them around me.

“A foraging knife.” He replied in a focused manner as he freed a few mushrooms from the log they’d made their home on, “Ser Achart said I shouldn’t waste battle-tested steel on plants, so I saved up my silvers and bought this first chance I got.”

“Have you noticed a difference since using it?” I asked, pulling the small dagger Axtapor gifted me from the belt at my waist. It was rather different from his—pointed and sharp, similar to a paring knife.

He shrugged. “It’s mostly the same. I suppose the hook on the end helps get closer to the base of the plant. A more precise cut.”

“Hmm.” I turned my attention to the cluster of chanterelles before me. With one hand, I delicately gripped the head of a single mushroom and, with the other, sliced away at its base. Once freed, I tossed it in my basket and continued, making my way all around the cluster.

“But it still takes just as long…” His voice traveled as if he’d just turned his head to one side. “In any case, it makes Ser Achart happy I’m not dulling valuable steel anymore.”

“She seems rather particular. Axtapor uses his knives for just about anything.” I lowered my head to peek under the crown of a shorter mushroom.

He chuckled. “He’s not a knight.”

“That’s true, but he is skilled and knows all about different weapons…and he’s rather resourceful.”

He tossed another mushroom into his basket and fixed his eyes on me. I didn’t entertain the look, pretending instead that I’d not seen it.

“Look, I’m not going to argue who is better between Ser Achart and Lord Oxlo—”

“Lord Axtapor.” I corrected him as I placed the final mushroom into my basket and wiped my knife clean, “In the Empire, men are addressed as ‘Lord’ followed by their first name.”

“Well, we’re not in the Empire. And here, men are addressed as ‘Lord’ followed by their surname.” He countered from his squatted position.

I stuck the knife into my holster and smiled pleasantly at him. “Lord Axtapor.”

He wiped his knife clean and stowed it away in the pouch it had come from, tossing me a tight-lipped and capricious smile. “Lord Axtapor.”

A small but forced laugh rose from my throat as I got on my feet and dusted my skirts off. He returned it with more zeal, clearly attempting to project some superiority. I cleared my throat as I made my way to the next patch of mushrooms, doing my best to conceal a frown.

“As I was saying, I won’t argue who is better between Ser Achart and Lord Axtapor. That wouldn’t be fair to your lord. He falls sorely short behind my ser.” He said as he overtook me with a self-satisfied look on his face—eyebrows nearly risen into his hairline and eyes closed in a carefree way.

“Ser Achart is quite brave, but I don’t believe she can count the storming of Seyes Palace as one of her many achievements,” I said as we knelt down to collect more mushrooms.

“Nor can you count leading a battalion of six hundred men and sacking the city of Catelesmar among Lord Axtapor’s.” He replied in a huff.

“Axtapor is an expert sailor.”

“Magdalene knows how to steer a chariot.”

“Well, Axtapor is a talented hunter!”

“Magdalene is too! And she’s a great shot!”

“As is Axtapor!”

“Well—!”

A threatening growl vibrated its way through the air. I froze, as did he.

“Did you hear that?” I asked in a whisper.

He quickly nodded. “We have to get out of here— Gods above! Mari! Run!” He yelled as he abandoned his basket and shot up to his feet, pointing at something behind me in a panic.

I looked over my shoulder and screamed. A massive bear was charging straight for us! I scrambled to find my footing as the pounding of the creature’s giant paws could be heard behind us. Sartor danced on impatient and fearful feet, shaking his hand in my direction.

“Hurry!”

I clapped my palm to his and he swept me off my feet, carrying me under his arm as one might an oversized bedroll. Our screams bounced with each step he took, staying just ahead of the bear’s roaring. I chanced a glance back and saw the mass of brownish-black fur bounding after us, somehow gaining speed.

“Sartor, faster! It’s catching up!”

“BEAR! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.

At first, I thought he was silly for doing that, but we weren’t that far from camp. There was a chance someone might actually hear us and come to our rescue.

“Help!” I screamed, “A bear! There is a bear!”

“ORRAN BE BLESSED, A BEAR!” Sartor continued.

I drew in another breath to call out for help once more when I noticed that we’d not gone up the hill we’d come down. “W-Wait! Sartor, where are we going?!”

“Away from the bear, you little idiot!”

“This isn’t the way back to camp!”

“Who cares! We outrun the bear first, then figure out how to get back!” He said, tossing a glance behind him.

“Look out!”

“Shit!”

We collided hard with a wooden fence, bursting through it on impact. Each of us grunted in pain as we tumbled across the nearly bald but grass-covered ground. My instinct was to lay there nursing what would surely become many bruises, but there was no time for that now. I struggled to my feet, bumbling my way over to Sartor, who was now limping.

“Your leg!”

“I know! Keep going!”

“No—!”

We screamed as the bear roared once more, barreling its way through the broken fence. I grasped Sartor’s tunic, struggling to pull him along. The fence meant we were close to town, we just had to keep going!

“Come on!” I shouted.

“Just go!”

A flash of lavender painted itself across my vision. A familiar and fierce hissing followed as I watched Axtapor collide against the bear’s body. I shrieked, both out of shock and worry, as the creature shook off the blow and ran toward Axtapor. He whirled around, sidestepping the creature, and struck it decisively with his tail. It bellowed painfully as Axtapor faced it once more.

“Stand clear!” A voice called out from behind us, accompanied by the galloping of angry hooves.

I whipped around, catching the surprised and awe-stricken look on Sartor’s face before laying eyes on the heroic-looking Ser Achart. She was seated astride on her dappled mare, dressed in riding pants and a loose tunic, an arrow-knocked bow resting against her cheek. Sartor pulled me out of the way, landing us both in the grass. I braced myself against his arms, trembling as the bear reared up on its hind legs. It was nearly a foot taller than Axtapor.

“Take the bloody shot, Achart!” Axtapor called out.

He and the bear collided. Axtapor hissed, the comb on the back of his head, neck, and spine raised threateningly as his tail whipped violently behind him. The bear roared, beating him over the head, neck, and chest with its massive paws. Pained grunts flew from Axtapor’s throat as his muscles knotted angrily beneath his scales. He struggled to steady himself beneath its blows.

“Take the damn shot!” He commanded. This time a high-pitched cry escaped him as the bear planted a bite on his shoulder, shaking its head to tear his flesh.

“Axtapor!” I screamed.

With some summoned strength, he gripped the bear’s fur, lifted his feet off the ground, and sliced into its belly with his claws. The bear released him as it cried out—the two stumbled back, reeling from the exchanged violence. Axtapor stiffened his tail against the ground to hold himself upright as he struggled to catch his breath. Ser Achart rode in an arc behind Axtapor and fired two quick shots at the creature. But they did not more than enrage it.

It charged forth once more, rising as before, but this time Axtapor did not grapple with it. He launched himself at the beast, clamping his jaw shut around its neck and burying his claws into its shoulders and chest. It wailed loudly, struggling to separate itself from Axtapor. My eyes darted to Ser Achart just as the bowstring’s twang cut through the chaos. Both the creature and Axtapor hit the ground with a dull thud.

“No!” I wrestled myself free of Sartor’s grasp and ran toward the heap where they both lay.

“Mari, wait! It’s not safe!” Sartor warned.

The bear’s body began to twitch, stopping me in my tracks—a loud growling, the knocking of another arrow, and then a triumphant scream. Axtapor threw the bear’s corpse off of him, announcing his victory over the beast with violent coughing. He sat up and spit out some gruesome mix of flesh and fur, wiping his gore-stricken mouth with his forearm. I’d never felt more relieved, despite how covered in blood he was. I was just glad to see him alive. I glanced at the bear, spotting the final arrow buried deep in its eye. The blood drained from my legs, and I dropped down to the ground.

“What were you two thinking?” Ser Achart scolded as her boots hit the grass.

She was standing just beside her mare, arms crossed with a frown on her face. The horse, no worse for wear or nerves, had already started munching on the grass at its feet.

“We— we were collecting mushrooms…” I admitted like a caught child.

“At sun up? Told ye’s nay to venture out at this hour.” Axtapor chided, still panting from the ordeal as he found his feet.

“The patch is just a mile from camp. We were about to come back.” Sartor retorted as he rubbed his injured leg.

“These woods are dangerous. You should have taken an escort.” Ser Achart continued.

“We were just foraging.”

“Sartor.” I hissed and shook my head at him, hoping he’d understand that we were in serious trouble.

“No at sun up, ye daft cunt!” Axtapor yelled, “Ye nay even know these woods proper! If’n we had no turned up as so ye’s both would have been dead!”

Ser Achart flicked her eyes at Axtapor but didn’t seem to disapprove of his choice of words or the volume at which he expressed them. Sartor looked like he was already trying to nurse his ego back to health, so I doubted he’d have more to say.

“We’ll be more careful next time,” I replied, fighting away tears as I observed the bite mark on Axtapor’s shoulder.

“There will no be a next time,” Axtapor replied at a lower volume, clearly doing his best to avoid frightening me. He bundled a kerchief to his wound, grimacing as he put pressure on it.

“It was an accident…” I pleaded softly.

“You will take Ser Fonsa with you next time.” Ser Achart said, eyeing Axtapor with a nearly imperceptible scowl as she put a cape around my shoulders, “Let’s go.”

“Get the bear.” Axtapor barked at Sartor.

“My leg is injured.” He replied with a sneer as he got on his feet with some effort, “Come on, Mari.”

“Sartor, he’s hurt,” I said.

“Why can’t we just leave it here?”

“Creature as so nay needed to perish! Least we can do been to honor it by usin’ it whole. Now do as ye been told and gather it to ye!”

Sartor tossed an incredulous look at Ser Achart, who was waiting patiently on horseback. Her quick absolution from the conversation was surprising, even though I supposed it was in her nature to do something like that.

“I’ll help—”

“Nay. Let him handle it. Go on.” Axtapor gestured toward the camp with his chin.

I chewed my lip and did as he asked, listening as Sartor struggled but eventually heaved the bear across his shoulders.

The camp ate from the creature for several days, its fat was rendered, and the pelt was made into a fine coat for me. Less as a gift and more as a reminder not to wander off again. So that was the last time Sartor and I foraged together unsupervised…that they knew of.

#my writing #writing community #writeblr #aasoaf #axtapor #mariel #magdalene #sartor #cw: animal death #cw: language #cw: mild gore #cw: violence

11 notes · View notes

shoechoe · 1 year

Text

Last night, I finished reading Purple Haze Feedback. It was a lot shorter of a read than I was expecting it to be; I probably could've sped through it a lot faster if I didn't limit myself to just reading a chapter or two a day. Despite that, I can definitely see why so many people are obsessed with it; it does a lot in a relatively short amount of time. So, now that I'm finished with it, I'm going to give my overall thoughts of the novel. This will be fairly off-the-cuff, so sorry if it's a bit messy.

I think expanding on and giving a sense of closure to Fugo's character was the main purpose of this novel, and it accomplishes this goal extremely well. Fugo falling off the face of the earth was one of my big criticisms with Vento Aureo- I enjoy the concept of a character that's usually intelligent and level-headed but has an anger problem that renders them totally irrational when set off, but the manga just doesn't do anything with that concept. Because of that, I think a novel focusing on Fugo and where he went after he separated from the group was well-warranted.

I adore what Purple Haze Feedback does with Fugo's character. It explores his sense of regret for leaving the group and having his comrades die without him, he thinks about his actions and his thought processes that led him to this point, it expands upon his backstory that was relegated to just a sentence or two of dialogue in the original manga, and it gives him a character arc as he's made to go on a mission to prove his trustworthiness to the organization and he gains courage and strength he never had before. The second-to-last chapter where he thinks about Narancia and finally has the same breakthrough of why he was so willing to risk his life for a girl he barely met gave me chills down my spine.

Fugo is made into a genuinely great character in Purple Haze Feedback- I can absolutely see his appeal now. To avoid being overly wordy, he feels completed in this novel, and that's really what I wanted to see.

The things going on in the novel outside of Fugo are also interesting. The narcotics team served as the antagonists while also giving more insight onto the way Passione worked before Giorno became the Boss and also functioning as Fugo's "test".

The fights surprised me with how quick they were, but Jojo fights tend to get tedious for me with how dragged out they get, so that's not really a complaint. I imagine translating the manga's style of fights to novel format would be difficult, so I don't blame the fights of the novel for feeling a lot different than typical Jojo fights. A lot of the descriptions of the Stand abilities and the gore actually made me squirm a bit- particularly, Vittorio succumbing to his own Dolly Dagger and Sheila's vocal coords being controlled by Manic Depression were scenes that stood out to me.

As for all of the new characters, I definitely liked quite a few of them. I can't say I cared too much about Murolo himself, but I certainly liked his Stand ability. (Though I'm still a little unclear on how he managed to survive the helicopter crash...? Maybe I just missed something, though.) Sheila E. was a really good character; I loved her ability and her personality. At the same time, she reminded me maybe a little too much of Trish; she wasn't just a clone of her, but one of the biggest roles Sheila plays is to be paralleled with Trish, and I would've liked to see her do more, especially since she's supposed to be a skilled member of Passione instead of the innocent girl that Trish was. Her backstory with her sister Clara was also a little weak.

I felt as though the plot was also less than perfect. The ordeal with the Stone Mask kind of went nowhere- so did Volpe's powerup and desire to transcend his humanity in the final fight. That was the one moment where I felt as though the fight could've been aided by being longer.

The additions to Passione's past, on one hand, made a ton of sense (of course Diavolo pretended to be fighting the drug trade just so he could set up the market for his own drugs- of course he claimed to fight older organizations to gain the trust of his members- Jesus, why wasn't this in the manga?) but on the other, kind of just exacerbated the problems I already had with the original story (why are we still hyperfocusing on how the drug trade is evil and bad when we know that Passione was also doing several other things that would hurt the innocent, including directly murdering children? Also, once again, if Bruno has such a soft spot for kids, why was he okay with torture-interrogating and then attempting to murder Giorno, a middle school boy?)

The part of the novel that I have mixed feelings on the most has to be the way Giorno is treated. He doesn't actually appear until the very last chapter, but until then, he's built up by the characters to be this almost saintly figure that can read everyone perfectly and always makes the right decisions. I understand he's already compared to Jesus in the manga, but PHF feels especially over-the-top with it, comparing his voice to a pipe organ played at church and having Fugo literally bow down to him in the end.

To be brutally honest, for me, Giorno already feels like he has a sanctimonious air to him despite not even really being a good person himself, and in the manga, he really straddles the line between being interestingly set in his flawed beliefs and just being annoying. Seeing all of the characters revering him like this does make me roll my eyes a little. To be charitable, it does make sense that a bunch of criminals with no other hope would turn to their leader and see him as someone to look up to, even if the reality is that he is far from an angel himself, but I find it unclear if that was what the novel was going for. Still, though, this is far from a story-ruiner and the last scene with Fugo swearing his loyalty to Giorno was wonderful.

Overall, I really enjoyed Purple Haze Feedback. I think it's a wonderful addition to canon, and while it doesn't fix all of my problems, I would absolutely recommend reading it. I'm mostly kind of mad at myself for not doing this sooner.

#purple haze feedback #shoe talks a lot #rambles #you guys can send me asks about what i think about things i didn't mention here i'm perfectly willing to talk about PHF more

8 notes · View notes

liches-covered-in-lich · 9 months

Text

A bit late but *glares at tumblr* it's better be late than never ey?

But here is my 2023 art roundup! :D

General retrospectives under the cut per month if anyone is curious 😘

Jan: This was a gift I made for a buddy of mine! It was of his oc that the friend group collectively simped for and cultivated together, as a family. He's a great lad and a starting point for me to use stock textures for the general look of my art

Feb: An older design of my Miraak, but I really still like this piece. It was the starting point of me trying to learn how to draw characters interacting together. While I do think I can improve in some aspects, I still think it holds up really well and looks super cute!

Mar: Ah, gore. This was the beginning of me doing a 'soft' art style. It's of a melting Emperor Belos for the Tales of a Tyrant Zine (I believe the link is still active for access to the pdf? If curious, I should still have it around somewhere. It's pretty sick ngl). I really like this piece, it helped me deal with my imposter's syndrome in the group of Amazing artists as they really liked this piece of mine! And generally I love drawing gore

Apr: This was a commission for someone on tumblr! I used my softer style for this piece and had fun figuring out how to make the light imposing but not loose the main colors and details! Also fun fact - I had a friend pose for me holding a sign so I can get GOOD hand references as google was no help

May: Ah the first full drawing on Krita. This was a test on the art program as Autodesk Sketchbook was no longer working for me on desktop (tho I still use it for my ipad art!). It's of my HOK who I don't talk much about as they're just a Dude. Sorry Jhyth, I should do more with you

Jun: This bitch. Elyden I adore you, you're my favorite oc and one of my longest lasting ones but. . . It took so damn long to get a good design with him that showed his personality and wasn't a pain to draw. I really like his design here, I think he looks wonderful

Jul: A commission done for my Skyrim fanfic's editor actually! She's pretty cool and greatly improved my writing skills! And she paid me to draw a mudcrab in Sovngarde! What more do you want? I love this piece too as I learnt how to do backgrounds in my style that won't kill me in my detailed art style

Aug: Another commission done for a friend of mine! It was based off a doodle I did of his oc as a gift but he paid me to finish it as a full rendered piece! :D I got to draw a tiddy window and an evil throne!!!

Sep: An art collab I did with a friend of mine! Where we split the image in half and drew each other's ocs interacting! It's actually the same dude as the Jan's piece. I both hate loved working on this. His hands gave me so much trouble

Oct: My second favorite oc's revamped design, Lorelei <3 I love her a lot and I really love her design. I think it fits her perfectly and you can tell what she's about immediately by just looking at her. I adore this lady (also fun fact, she's the older sister of Elyden!). This drawing means a lot to me as it was me figuring out that I like drawing character references only in more fun poses in a sense

Nov: Funny thing, I finished that drawing yesterday. But it's a reference of my Rahgot! I chose this as my Nov piece as I feel like it was when I was getting better at character designs. In terms of practicality, function, aesthetics, colors, and visual language

Dec: A commission for an old friend of mine that I knew since...fuck me, I think...6 years? He wanted me to draw an antagonist for his body horror gundom ttrpg campaign! Even though he doesn't draw, his designs fuck so hard and I'm so glad I got to draw one fully <3 I love this piece and I think it was a great send off to the end of this year

I feel like I exploded in improvement this year. My skills and my methods for art became more practical and made my life a bit easier in general in the process (especially in the coloring department). And I cannot wait to see what I'll make for next year :D

Thank you all for coming with me to this journey <3 and have a blessed new year

#my art #krita #digital art #art roundup #2023 art recap #lichen art #art summary #artists on tumblr

2 notes · View notes

blackberrysummerblog · 2 years

Text

15 Questions

Thanks so much for the tags, @thewholelemon and @alleycat0306! And I’m sorry it took me an age to get around to replying, I’ve been meaning to I swear!

1. Are you named after anyone? I’m named after the title character in a historical romance novel, of all things 😜 I got chicken pox when I was 13 or so and my mom finally let me read it; the character has a very eventful life without ever getting the one thing she really wants, so…thanks Mom lol

2. When was the last time you cried? Ugh, I cry all the time. Happy, sad, angry…it all gets me going. The last time was probably a day ago after an extremely dumb argument with my husband and it was over 3 minutes later

3. Do you have kids? Two almost-adults! Yikes

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? I don’t think so? I tend to be pretty earnest I guess. I don’t dislike it, though

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? I spent way too much time thinking about this, mainly because I’m going to *first* notice whatever stands out. If you have spaghetti sauce all over the front of your shirt I’m going to notice that before nice hair or eyes, right? I think beyond that, physically, I’d take note of a contagious smile, and on a personality level I’d notice if someone were particularly sunshiney or grumpy. I have a weird and desperate love for both, in real life as well as fiction

6. What’s your eye color? Gray, though the kind that often gets called blue. It’s not a very exciting color

7. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings every time. I can appreciate an open or tragic ending for its realism and/or artistic message, but it’s kind of the same as seeing a deeply ugly or tragic piece of visual art that you can appreciate the skill, vision, and message of in a museum, but do you want it on the wall of your home to look at all the time?…I mean, some people definitely would, but it’s not me. I like an ending that makes me feel happy or at least hopeful (I’m capable of and have written endings that aren’t, but these days I’m not very likely to, at least in fanfic). As for scary movies, I like the idea of them but seldom get on with them. I don’t like gore full stop, and while I do enjoy tension and jump scares, it can get overwhelming. I’m very much the person who will sit there burying their face and/or literally jumping in the air when I’m startled

8. Any special talents? I like to think I’m a decent writer, and I used to be a pretty good artist, but I’ve let it go a long time and these days when I sketch something I’m kind of appalled at how the skill atrophied. I’m sure it would improve again if I worked on it—I’m good at really visualizing something in my mind, which I think is the most important thing about being able to create any kind of art. On a more quotidian note, I’m really good at research and I’m a fairly good cook. I love love love to eat, so that helps motivate me in the kitchen lol

9. Where were you born? Arkansas

10. What are your hobbies? Reading, writing, walking, cooking, looking at art, trying new food. Classic introvert

11. Do you have any pets? Five dogs and two cats, it’s a proper zoo up in here

12. What sports do you play/did you used to play? *tries not to laugh*

13. How tall are you? Just barely over 5 feet

14. Favorite subject at school? I started listing my faves and it turns out it was pretty much everything but math, which I feel like I’m bad at but my test scores always indicated I was slightly above the average, so I suppose I must be ok at it. I like learning and enjoyed most of my liberal arts and science courses, but I’m going to narrow it down and say literature

15. Dream job? Writer! (I would very much not be good at this because left to my own devices I procrastinate like hell) I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years that I found interesting though, and I like doing work that I find meaningful. My current job lets me feel like I’m doing good in my community and the world, and most of the time it’s an extremely full work day, which is honestly better than having too much time on my hands.

Gah, I’ve really not been on tumblr much in the past week or so, so probably every single person I’ll tag has already done this. Please don’t think too badly of me (and if you haven’t done it and don’t have the energy, no big deal. Take care of yourselves!) @papierhakuphoto @shutup-andletme_go @captain-arealias @onepintobean @j-nipper-95 @rwithoutaspoon @martsonmars @cutestkilla @maedhrosrussandol

#tag game #15 questions

7 notes · View notes

myheartismadeofstars · 2 years

Text

I posted 22,820 times in 2022

55 posts created (0%)

22,765 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bladeobrona

@ziseviolet

@faerieshearth

@whiteknightinblackarmor

@inthemoodformoodboards

I tagged 605 of my posts in 2022

#omori - 8 posts

#lmao - 6 posts

#pokemon - 6 posts

#omori sunny - 6 posts

#omori kel - 5 posts

#tgcf - 4 posts

#hualian - 4 posts

#xie lian - 4 posts

#svsss - 4 posts

#omori hero - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#(you know sam's girlfriend who called him a creep for working at a motel and fixing her drain and forced him to take a dog he had no abilit

My Top Posts in 2022:

Headcanons for skills Nie Huaisang has that Da-ge actually approves of:

Math (while he tests very poorly, Huaisang is very good at practical math)

Astronomy (bless Fatal Journey for this)

Rites (Huaisang proves to be pretty good at remembering how ceremonies go, when he doesn’t adamantly refuse to participate, usually due to being too emptional to focus)

Archery (Huaisang is a Great archer! So long as the target isn’t moving... but he probably wouldn’t starve if he needed to hunt for himself)

Butchering (Huaisang butchered his first animal when he was seven, but he witnessed butchering since he was 3. He’s not actually afraid of blood or gore, he’s just very clean)

98 notes - Posted January 30, 2022

I think people are sleeping on the idea of Damian taking Anya's surname when they get married. Damian eventually realizes how bad his family is, and Yor and Loid have always been kind and loving. So he associates Forger with a loving family, plus Anya is so attached to Forger. Also I just like the sound of "Damian Forger"

also something something "new blood old money"

207 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

Okay I am still pretty knew to the hanfu community but I want to know: are Hanfu season specific like kimono are? Like would it look strange to wear hanfu with spring flowers on it in fall? I've looked for information on google but I don't find the right information. Obviously kimono is influenced by Hanfu but that seasonal thing could easily be something Japanese specific.

232 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

Thinking about how Leon and Hop have at least 3 adults living in their house...but LEON (who has to be ~5-8 years older than Hop) raised Hop. Like??? That’s literally the biggest red flag for a neglectful family I’ve ever seen? I wonder if Hop was an accident and Leon was the only one who really was invested in his little brother (also Hop isn’t exactly a name I would normally see for a child...but if a little kid named them?). And Leon would have learned early that mistakes could mean Hop gets sick or hurt. No wonder he became so observant and while he gets lost most of the time...he can find Hop when he’s in danger (Slumbering Weald). This means that he became very guarded so people can’t find his weaknesses, and it did benefit his pokemon training. Then Hop started looking up to him, and he started getting praised for being “Unbeatable” so he parrots it. (Because if Leon was forced to care for Hop, he probably wasn’t getting his own needs met. At the very least not his mental/emotional needs, so he probably relies on praise for his self esteem). I think Leon being defeated by Eternatus was the first time he ever was forced to rely on someone else (and it was Hop!! And Victor/Gloria) and then being dethroned as champion...it made it possible for him to finally find something for himself. He doesn’t have to be the perfect champion. He doesn’t have to raise Hop anymore (but he still adores his little brother). He can LOSE! He can MAKE MISTAKES! And Galar and Hop won’t suffer for it! He doesn’t have to be perfect anymore!

246 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I think Loid should become a father figure to Damian. Damian sees how good Loid is with Anya and Damian starts wanting his attention too. Like Loid comes to pick up Anya after a test and Damian "casually" points out that he got full marks! And Loid smiles and tells him he's impressed and that his father should be proud. Damian would still be tsundere about it, but he'd look up to Loid. Crush on Anya, looks up to Loid, lots of reason to hang out with them. Loid is thrilled that Damian talks to him all the time. And he really starts to hate Donovan after realizing how unhappy Damian is.

I just think Damian should have a good relationship with his future father-in-law! (especially if Loid picks up on his crush on Anya)

901 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #i just got into omori #but somehow it became my most used tag?#mostly because I don't tag things I'm not posting myself lol

2 notes · View notes

sugasgrowl · 2 years

Text

Duplicitous [Chapter 5: Mole]

It’s been SO long since I’ve posted a fic, let alone updated for Duplicitous. The last two years have sucked the life out of me, and I’m just now in a place where I’m feeling creatively inspired again. Expect updates for this story, I don’t plan on letting this baby go anytime soon! As I mentioned in a standalone post, I have edited all previous chapters of this story and tweaked some of the plot points. If you want a detailed explanation as to why I did this, please check out my post.

AO3 link: here

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 (coming soon)

Pairing: Jungkook x named OC (Oh Nari), Jooheon x named OC (Oh Nari)

Genre: Mafia au, multigroup (Bangtan and Monsta X focused. A few other idols mentioned.)

Word Count: 15,257

Warnings: Mentions of guns and knives, alcohol use, smoking, Taehyung has a Hard Time, mentions of death, mentions of of gore, toxic relationships, (attempted) emotional manipulation, as usual Jooheon is a massive piece of shit, some moments of fluff :’)

Fic Summary: For the past eight years, Oh Nari has not existed. Instead of being a person, she has been a shadow eternally indebted to the Monsta X crime family for getting her off the streets and away from her murderous father. But when using her skills in covert operations to help take down a rivaling mafia known as Bangtan, information comes to light that changes everything she’s ever known. Loyalties are tested, alliances are formed, and lives are at stake as Nari fights for family, truth, and freedom from the duplicitous life she’s been forced to live.

Chapter Summary: Nari learns life changing information. Teahyung reveals what happened the night of Leah’s death. Things take a turn with Nari and Jungkook.

Nari felt like she was going to throw up the entire flight home.

Paranoia gnawed at her like a starving hound, made her stomach churn as she sat silently curled up in one of the luxurious leather seats of their private jet. Her back was rod straight and her eyes flitted anxiously from face to weary face. No one gave her a second look. Not even Yoongi as he stretched out across his seat, shoes tucked in the compartment under his seat and sock clad feet barely hanging off of the foot rest.

Had he not told anyone after they parted ways to pack up?

Her brows furrowed as she blankly stared at him resting so unperturbed in the beige oasis that was the cabin. Baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. Arms crossed as he dozed. He was a cat stretched belly up in the sun. Relaxed. Unbothered. Why wouldn’t he immediately gather the others and let them know that she was a rat? That she was the mole? The second he had suspicions that anyone else was against them, he would have done that. He did do that. It just didn’t make sen--

She jumped when Jimin slid into the seat across the table from her.

Stunned and wide eyed, she expected him to scream at her. To confront her about everything she knew to be true--that she was the one who unknowingly got Kim killed, that she was the one who should have died instead of Son. That the basis of her entire relationship with Bangtan was built on a foundation of lies. She expected him to yell until he was red in the face and those veins bulged in his forehead and neck and spit gathered in the corners of his mouth. Her heart was a cold, unforgiving hand wrapped around her throat.

Jimin cleared his throat and awkwardly scratched at his nose. Shifting in the seat, he licked his lips and looked at her with the softest eyes she’d ever seen on him. “I...um…”

His nervous chuckle made her blink in surprise. “Well. Tonight was...intense.”

He didn’t know.

“Yeah,” she managed to say with a steady voice. Her small smile felt stiff. Fake. Because it was. “It was definitely something, that’s for sure.”

“And on top of that shit with Monsta X, you busted your face,” he half teased. “At least the meeting with Zhang went well. Now Choi will be off our asses.”

Oh fuck. Oh no. Oh fuck.

“I--”

“Yoongi told us about what happened.” He winced as he shamelessly eyed the cut on her brow and the darkening bruise billowing out around it.

She froze. So they did know? Why would they--

“The timing had to have been perfect for that.”

She hummed with a nod and a plastic smile. Palms sweaty and heart hammering in her chest. “Yeah. It hurt like a bitch, too. What’d...What’d Yoongi say about it?”

Jimin’s angelic face broke out into a full on, blinding smile as he bent one knee and hugged it to his chest. He hadn’t smiled at her like that since she seduced him at the Galaxy. “He said he came to find you in the bathroom and tell you that we were about to get changed and head home, and he opened the door just as you were about to walk out and ended up hitting you. Said he felt like shit, since you just essentially saved Tae’s life and handled that shit on your own.”

So….he lied. For her? Yoongi lied about her injuries? Why? Why would he do that when she deserved to be ripped limb from limb?

Maybe he just wanted to keep things stable until they were on their home turf. She suspected that as soon as they walked through the door, he would expose her for what she was. And as terrified as she was, she couldn’t blame him. Not in the slightest. He trusted her and gave her this opportunity with the hope and confidence that she would make them even more successful than they already were. She betrayed him.

“Which is kind of… well..” Coffee colored eyes fell to the table as his full, pillowy lips curled in an uncertain grin. “Um...I… I’m not good at this, Jesus--”

When he looked back up at her, she couldn’t help but stare back at him curiously with her brows knitted together and her face twisted in confusion.

“Nari…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I think I owe you an apology.”

“Wh...what?” She nearly choked, head tilting slightly as she leaned a bit closer.

“I’ve been a dick to you since you got here.” His grin widened, flustered. If she looked close enough she could’ve sworn his cheeks grew pink, that faint flush of color spreading like strokes of watercolor paints. Like a freshly blooming peony. If she didn’t know him personally, she would never have believed that he had taken the lives of countless men into his own capable hands. He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Serpent that convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. As dangerous as he was, Nari still couldn’t wrap her mind around it when he looked so cherubic.

His smile faded as he forced himself to swallow the lingering, bitter taste of the anger he tried to hang on to for so long. “Tonight you… I dunno, tonight you stepped in and made sure to diffuse the situation. That’s not something most people in our line of work do. Most people like us just...they just react. Guns blazing, knives out, ready to kill the first person who pushes their buttons.”

He was right, she knew that. She knew that better than anyone. If this very situation happened, if she was still with Monsta X, she would’ve slashed their throats and blown their brains out before they even realized she had moved. She wouldn’t have diffused a goddamn thing.

But she was different now. She cared about Bangtan differently than she had cared about anyone since her mom died. And it was all so fucked. She was so fucked.

“You kept him from getting himself killed,” Jimin murmured, quiet enough that Taehyung wouldn’t hear him from where he was curled up and facing away from everyone. He hadn’t spoken a word since Nari instructed Jimin to take him back to his room, but he most certainly threw her a withering glare as they made their way out of the hotel. “He’s my best friend. I’m...I’m thankful that you stepped in like you did. Anything we would’ve done would have just made things worse.”

He was...thankful?

“Don’t thank me.” She let her fake, brittle mask fall away. Seriousness made her tone heavy. “Really. I just...I was just trying to keep everyone safe. I’ve seen a lot in my time as a hitwoman, and guys like Jooheon just want to raise hell. Wanna keep slicing until they hit that soft spot so they can watch you bleed.”

He shrugged. “Still. We’re safe because you acted fast and restrained Taehyung.”

Nari didn’t want to accept the compliment. She wanted, much to the more logical part of her brain’s dismay, to tell the truth for once. She wanted to own up to her shit. A part of her found comfort in the promise of well deserved punishment. She deserved to be crucified for putting them all in danger. Every day she lived in that house, the day Jooheon would undoubtedly burst through the door with all of Monsta X to slaughter them crept closer and closer.

Maybe they’d do a drive by. Just get it over with.

Unwanted images of their inevitable demise flashed behind her eyelids. Of them crumpled in heaps on the floor, half their skulls missing and their blood shining on the linoleum of Sejin’s like a menacing lake. Jaws slack, skin too pale. Shards of glass and debris scattered around their slowly stiffening bodies.

The mental image of Jungkook’s empty, glassy, unseeing eyes made her sweat.

She forced herself to send Jimin an appreciative nod.

He left without saying much else, but soon Jungkook came and took his place. He settled into the seat across the table from her and reclined back in it, a small and thoughtful smile spreading across his face. Seeing him alive and well calmed her uneasy stomach and racing heart.

He looked exhausted but ethereal. Hair grown far past his cheekbones and messy like he’d just pulled his sweatshirt over his head and run out of his and Hoseok’s hotel room without a second thought. The oversized hoodie hid his sculpted chest and arms, made him look smaller and softer. The ghosts of dark circles were just beginning to show beneath his doe eyes, that all too familiar sleepy pout etched into his rosebud lips.

He didn’t praise her. Didn’t comment on the damage to her face. He was just there, a warm and familiar comforting presence. He knew her well enough to know that she didn’t want to talk in that moment. But she could tell from the tightness around his eyes that he wanted to check on her. He wanted to ask a million questions, wanted to know what really happened. If she was okay. But he didn’t. He simply passed her a bottle of water before laying back to stretch out just enough to prod her knee once with his Pokemon-themed sock covered foot.

When he closed his eyes, relief flooded Nari’s chest at the silence that settled like fresh fallen snow. She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to be praised or thanked. She wished Yoongi would have told them the truth about her. She wished Jungkook knew. She wished everyone knew. She hated not knowing what game he was playing.

But at least she was prepared to lose. She could handle not knowing the game, as long as Bangtan won.

The air in Yoongi’s office was frigid. Stagnant. Jooheon’s office was cold--icy even. But it was like the unwavering chill of permafrost. Constant. Yoongi’s cold was a deadly frost sweeping across the world while you slept.

She sat in his desk chair, heart flopping helplessly against her ribcage. Her hands tucked themselves between her bouncing legs.

She barely had time to put her bag on her bed before he was knocking on her door and telling her to follow him down to his office. His tone was...unreadable. Not angry. Not clipped. If anything, he sounded almost gentle. No tightness around the eyes. He was just Yoongi.

He leaned back against his desk, towering over her and making her feel microscopic.

Being inside that room with him felt like being inside a vacuum. Soundless, breathless. Even her thoughts felt too loud in the thundering silence as they stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak.

He didn’t. He watched. Calculated. Nari could feel him dismantling her bit by bit, wearing her down. Taking her apart, taking notes, and putting the pieces back where he found them. She could feel it as if he were doing it with his own hands. She was a specimen to be studied.

“Why aren’t I in the warehouse right now?” She pressed, quiet but fierce. She couldn’t take the silence any longer. His smirk sparked heat in her stomach, annoyance she couldn’t stomp out with the toe of her boot. “Why haven’t you gathered everyone yet? Why am I not dead yet?”

“Do you want to be?” He tilted his head, brows lifting beneath his fringe. A glimmer of amusement shone in his onyx eyes.

She couldn’t fight the scowl curling at her mouth. “I’d rather get this over with than drag it out. We both know what you saw--”

“What did I see, Nari?” He crossed his ankles and settled into the dark wood of his desk. All too comfortable with this game.

Her lips pressed into a tight line. She didn’t want to say it. Before that moment, she expected him to just drag everyone to the warehouse and wipe her off the planet. She hoped for that.

Her jaw clenched. “What do you want me to say, Yoongi? That I got drilled by Jooheon two minutes before you came in? That we had sex, that--that I’ve--”

“That was more than just sex,” he dumbfoundedly scoffed, satoori dripping from his every word. His eyes narrowed. “He nearly fucking killed you, you idiot.”

She ran a hand through her hair, eyes widening in disbelief as she gestured wildly. “Why does that matter? Why does that matter to you when I’ve been the mole this entire time--?!”

“I know,” he gritted out, glancing at the office door. “I’ve known since the beginning that you were a mousy piece of shit, you rat. How stupid do you think I am?”

She recoiled. Had she been that transparent? Was she that bad at her job?

He chuckled, eyes tearing away from hers as he scratched at his jaw. “Surprised?”

“How did you know?”

He shrugged. “I knew you wouldn’t just show your face and expose yourself after all that time unless there was an ulterior motive behind it. I was curious. So I took a shot in the dark and waited to see what it hit.”

Her mouth was cotton and sand. “You knew from the beginning?”

“I had my suspicions. They were just confirmed when you went and met Jooheon. Not to mention, my desk chair was out of place after your little attempt at digging up information.”

She silently cursed his perceptive eye.

“You had me tailed.” She all but growled, fingers digging into the arms of his chair.

His smug grin made her bristle. “I tailed you myself. If my suspicions were wrong, I didn’t want to cause any tension or distrust with the guys. Couldn’t risk anyone talking and word reaching the rest of the group. But I was right. As usual.”

Months. He’d known for months. She’d been tiptoeing around like a fucking fool, and the whole time he knew everything. He kept up the whole fucking act, even killed one of his own men for no reason. Kept his closest men in the dark.

A tense, angry quiet settled over them as she struggled to smother the prideful work ethic throwing a tantrum in her mind.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Her nostrils flared as she ran her hand down her face.

“Because of how you reacted to killing Son.”

“That was three days ago. I’ve been here for months. Why the fuck would you kill Son if you knew it was my fault?”

His cocky expression faded and melted into an odd twist to his pink mouth. His gaze dropped to the floor as he unfolded his arms and gripped the edge of the desk. “Son had been stealing from me and talking shit for I don’t even know how long. I’m not happy about it, but it had to be done. Just a two birds, one stone kinda situation.”

He took a moment and let the truth settle in their bones. His eyes were staring past the office and into memories of when he first met Nari. “I wanted to keep an eye on you. See what Jooheon was planning. And those other fuckers. My gut told me you’d change alliances.”

“Why?”

“Because of Jungkook,” he replied, a frustrated edge to his voice. “Because every time he’s part of the equation, you let your guard down. Because the more time you spend around him, the more human you get.”

She simmered. Furious. She did not. She was more professional than that. She’d never let a man sway her alliances.

But she did. She did with Jooheon, and now she was doing the same thing with Jungkook. Was she really that easy to manipulate? Was she that easily driven by men?

No. Jooheon manipulated her. Jungkook softened her. There was a difference. Yoongi was right. Jungkook was a weakness, she’d known that from the beginning. He changed her. They changed her.

Yoongi shook his head slightly, sucking on his teeth with a hiss. “I am surprised that the Dragon has kept such a distance from you, though. As much money as he’s poured into your training, I’d assume he would be on your ass.”

Nari wheezed with a punched out breath. The mere mention of his name made her lungs tighten. He was the noose around her neck, cinching tighter with every wretched memory replaying through her mind.

The blood drained from her face in a sickening chill. “What?”

He looked at her from the corner of his eye and took in her rattled appearance. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Her voice was a breathy, shaky rasp.

She was standing in her living room again. Years prior. Heart skipping and fingers trembling and numb as she looked on at her father. Everything in slow motion. Everything frozen, hands of the clock hovering motionless in stunned fear. She was looking on at her mother, icy, deadly gunmetal kissing the pale skin of her forehead. Her father’s mouth twisted into a wolfish smile. It was all happening again. She was helpless--almost eighteen and powerless. Defenseless. Everything painted red.

The low rumble of Yoongi’s voice made her snap back to reality, sweat prickling at the back of her neck and her breaths ragged.

He made his way over and reached over her to log in to his desktop. The blue light of the monitor illuminated his face as he typed away, eyes tense with concentration. He clicked on the file. The password protected file.

After typing in the code, he tapped on the screen with a finger and looked down at her. “You mean to tell me you didn’t know about this?”

A picture. Two men lounging at a club, both with drinks in front of them. Clearly in a deep discussion as dancers and scantily clad women traipsed around with trays of more drinks. There was no denying that it was Jooheon and her father. Even if it was dark and a little grainy, she knew those faces anywhere.

It made her stomach twist.

“When was this?” She could hear the clench of her jaw in her voice.

Yoongi crossed his arms. “The night before Kim was found dead.”

No. No. This couldn’t be happening.

“I don’t believe you.”

He knew? Knew all along that it was Jooheon who fucked over their arms deal. Knew what she was. Knew her plan.

If it was true, if Jooheon was working with her father, it made perfect sense as to why he would risk her life and take out Kim. Her father couldn’t have more competition.

He snorted and clicked to the next image. The same club, but a different day according to their change in outfits. His eyes stayed on the screen. “The day after the bank robbery.”

The next photo was in a different location. The very park where she and Jooheon had met. The quality of the picture was startlingly clearer than the previous ones taken from security camera footage--clearly one of Yoongi’s men had followed them and hidden somewhere to take them. “The day before we met at the Galaxy.”

She wanted to throw up. That was the day that she and Jooheon had their last night together. The night where he took her to that lavish Italian restaurant and fucked her senseless when they got home. When she let him touch her and kiss her and feel her. She worshiped him that night, and he let her. He let her do it after meeting with her father, knowing what that monster did to her. To her mother. Not a flicker of guilt or remorse on his face.

Yoongi clicked through the contents of the file. Photos, call logs, text messages, even bank statements. All available thanks to none other than Kim Taehyung, Nari guessed. Her father had been paying Jooheon off for years.

The last photo in the album--the first photo, chronologically--made her eyes burn.

The same Italian restaurant that Jooheon often took her to. Her father sat across from him, his hands steepled in front of his face. He always did that when he talked business.

The date was stark white against the low lighting of the photo. January 15, 2014. That was just a few short days after she fled to Korea. Maybe two weeks after she turned eighteen. She was still on the streets then.

“Do you really think it was coincidence that someone in the same field as your father just happened to find you and recruit you?” Yoongi lowly said, eyes hard and glinting with a look Nari couldn’t quite put her finger on. “He’s power hungry and greedy--he wanted as much of a guarantee for success as possible. What better way to do that than to become an illusionist? Watch one hand while the other slits your throat.”

She couldn’t move. Frozen. “What are you saying? Why do you even have all of this?”

“I’m saying that Monsta X has been the face of your father’s operation. Jooheon’s men take the fall when things go south, while your father’s men do the heavy lifting behind the scenes.” He enunciated every word, every syllable, like he wanted each one to cut. “Monsta X is the face, and Lotus is the fucking brain.”

The world spun. Tilted harsh and unforgiving before her very eyes. She’d been working for her father since she was eighteen years old. She’d been killing for him. Stealing for him. Committing sins--unforgivable, nightmare inducing sins that had begun haunting her more and more after her conscience arose from its dormancy. All she’d been doing was his bidding, following his orders. Jooheon was merely the messenger. Everything she’d known was a lie. Everything she said she would never be, she became overnight.

“Don’t worry. No one knows that you’re the Dragon’s daughter but me.” Yoongi rolled up his sleeves. “I’ve been accumulating this information for years because I knew there would be a time when Lotus would try to eliminate us. Bangtan hasn’t always been a threat, but now we are. And clearly your father predicted that, and wanted someone he could train specifically to get rid of us. Taehyung hacked what I told him to hack, found everything I asked him to look for. But I made sure to keep you out of the eye of the others. Because I knew they would want to kill you. You know Jimin and Hoseok. They’d want to find a way to kill you before you ever snuck in. I thought it would be best to wait. Because if we waited, we could either turn you and use your information, or I could kill you myself.”

Yoongi knew what she was and plotted her death in case he couldn’t turn her. He manipulated her, too. But his manipulation didn’t feel like Jooheon’s. It didn’t feel like the cold, biting prick of a blade edging her towards a certain way of thinking.

Her mind drifted back to the day that Jooheon found her. He strolled up to her shivering body with purpose. On a mission. Somehow, he seemed taller than all the bright and shining buildings towering around them. His confidence was an entity of its own, added what felt like ten feet to his height. Power radiated from him in waves, and she was immediately awestruck.

Back then she thought he chose her because he had been watching, because he thought she was everything he needed--that Monsta X needed. It seemed too good to be true, too perfect even then. Him with his designer suits and shining shoes that reflected the helpless, cornered girl that she was in the glint of their leather. But she never let herself think about the truth that stared her in the face. Because that meant that there was no escaping him. There was no freedom, no getting out of this lifestyle. There would be no peace. Her father would always find her.

Jooheon lied to her. There was no love. There had never been a relationship. Every single moment with Lee Jooheon was a ploy to manipulate her and further her father’s agenda. For money, for power. The few good memories, although sterile even when she was blissfully ignorant, were lies. The words he whispered to her as they made love were poison meant to weaken her enough to comply without question. The reason she had been so tightly woven in Jooheon’s clutches was because she was meant to be.

Nari’s gaze was focused on Yoongi, unwavering. Hardening with each passing second. “So you’re not killing me?”

“Not unless you ask me to,” he softly muttered.

“What does all of this mean for my position in Bangtan?” The almost excited, furious sharpness to her tone made his lips curl at the corners.

“Well,” he smirked, chuckling with a slight tick of his head. “How committed are you to eliminating this threat, Nari?”

Her eyes glowed. “I want to watch the light leave Lee Jooheon’s eyes.”

Yoongi grinned then. Pride showed through the subtle cracks in his nonchalant exterior. “Then none of this will affect your position in Bangtan.”

He pushed off the desk and headed towards the door.

“Yoongi,” she called. When he stopped in his tracks, fingers wrapped around the knob, she bit back a cold half-smile. “I’m pulling the trigger.”

Jungkook lured Nari into the soft glow of his bedroom before she could slink past undetected. All it took was the soft, honeyed way he called her name as she left Yoongi’s office for her to follow the sound and shut the door quietly behind her. Sora greeted her excitedly at the door, tail wagging and eyes bright. Her happy bark got Jungkook’s attention more than Nari’s presence. When he looked up from his phone, concern creased his brow, made his gaze heavy as his kind eyes locked on her bruising face.

There were a few beats of stunned silence as she stood, awkward and still overwhelmed from her conversation with Yoongi, in the middle of his room. He looked like he had so much to say, so much he wanted to ask. Understandable, considering she truly did look like she’d been chewed up and spit out.

Although there was no malice in his stare, it still made Nari’s stomach dip with guilt. The weight of it was a coin free-falling down a well, finally breaking the water’s surface at the bottom with a light plunk. She lied to him for people who didn’t give a shit about her, for people who just saw her as a pawn. For people who wanted him and the rest of Bangtan dead. By the look in his eyes, it was obvious that he knew the excuses for her injuries were less than truthful. He deserved better. She wanted to be better.

As she broke the frozen atmosphere and slid into bed next to him, he pulled back the covers to make room. As always, he was a human furnace. She didn’t realize she was cold until she was pressed thigh to thigh with him and nearly melting.

He was quiet, contemplative. Despite being a grown man, there was something childlike about the way he was sitting cross-legged in the sheets and how he ruffled his dog’s golden fur as she jumped onto the bed to nudge his face with her head. Strong, tattooed arms hugged a pillow to his chest. Something about it made her chest ache in a way she didn’t know how to process.

Curling up on her side and peering up at him through her lashes, she bit back a chuckle at the look of absolute worry plaguing his handsome features. “Stop it.”

“I’m not doing anything.” His slow, lopsided, lazy grin seemed to make the world stop turning. “I’m just thinking.”

“A lot of good that’s done us tonight.”

“Does it hurt?” It was immediate. Like he’d been holding it in for hours. Like it had been gnawing at him.

She doubted he meant the sting of betrayal. The reminder of her wound had the raw, aching skin throbbing as she nodded. “Yeah. Jin hooked me up with a couple of little stitches at the hotel before we left. Nothing serious, I’m fine. Just have a headache is all.”

His silence was anything but quiet, Nari could nearly hear how quickly his thoughts flipped through questions like a revolving door.

“Are you okay?” He was almost hesitant to ask. After seeing her handle pain, sadness, and discontent in a variety of ways, his least favorite way to see her was masking that pain. He knew she was hiding something, he just wasn’t sure what. “Tonight was scary.”

Humming and scratching at her nose, she avoided his gaze and instead traced the ink that decorated his arm. “Of course I’m okay.”

“Yoongi didn’t just hit you with the door.” Doe eyes flickered to her injury. “Did he?”

“Why do you wanna know?” She joked. “Jealous? I mean, I get it. He’s a good looking guy. I’d probably want to be me, too, if I were in your shoes. Beautiful man all worried and in a tizzy over me.”

His lack of response made the smile melt off of her face and twist into a sour purse. Her fingers never stilled, still trailing along his tattoos. “No. He didn’t.”

“What happened?” His voice was soft, but there was a hidden edge--something in the vicinity of fear, maybe just west of it. When she didn’t respond, he wrapped his fingers around hers to deprive her of the one distraction offered her when his face was so damn close to hers. “Nari?”

She couldn’t tell him, not yet. Not without Yoongi by her side, anyway. Not only was it risky because she was unsure of how he would react or if he would tell everyone else, she was also ashamed. The longer she spent away from Monsta X, the more she realized that she didn’t like the person she had become. The things she’d done were terrible even for those in the mafia. Yes, Jooheon and her father had done a fair bit of work to instill fear when people heard her name, but she had to hold herself accountable for the sins she willingly agreed to commit for the same reason.

Mouth curling into a scowl, she tried to hold back the frustration in her tone. “Why do you want to know? Why do you care, anyway? I’m a big girl, Jungkook, I don’t need you to worry over me all the time.”

Hurt toed along the edges of his expression. The sharpness that hardened his sweet voice made her shrink--she didn’t like seeing someone so good verge on anger because of her. “Why do I care? Nari, we’re friends! Of course I care about you, I-- I know you’re an adult, I know you’re strong and independent. I admire those things about you, but you shoulder all of this shit alone and don’t ever talk about it. I care about you, whether you like it or not.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off in an irritated snap. “Let me finish.”

“We’ve shared a bed together, we’ve talked, we’ve gotten close, hell, I’ve even held you as you cried. I care if you’re hurt, and I care if someone hurt you. You don’t have to like it, that’s fine. But you can’t stop me from being scared shitless when you randomly come back from the bathroom after all that tonight looking like a battered housewife. I gave you space and didn’t say anything on the plane because I knew you needed time, but if-- I mean, did Yoongi--? No one laid a hand on you on that terrace, so something must’ve happened--”

He cared. He truly, genuinely cared. He was kind, and funny, and warm. If she was a snake, then he was the sun protecting her from the creeping cold. He wanted to protect her--even put himself in danger to keep her safe tonight. He was so beautiful, and finally she realized love didn’t have to hurt. It didn’t have to be manipulation and hollow promises.

Her body acted on its own accord. His voice faded to a startled and confused silence when she sat up to be nose to nose with him. Heart galloping in her chest, she hesitantly touched his cheek. When she spoke, her voice was shaking. “Would you still care about me if I kissed you?”

Blinking, his eyes widened. His voice cracked, and had Nari not been so nervous, she might’ve laughed. “I said you couldn’t stop me from caring about you.”

How long had she been wanting to do this? Since that night at the Galaxy? How long had she been ignoring the way Jungkook made her feel just because she was scared that he would treat her like Jooheon did? Thinking back, she supposed part of it was that she was scared of leaving the life she was led to believe was good for her and that she had always known.

Heart hammering, she slowly leaned forward until the tickle of their lips brushing sent a faint chill down both of their spines. The smell of his eucalyptus shampoo and remnants of the cologne that clung to him made her let out a shaky breath. Nerves electric.

Jungkook’s large, warm hand slowly slid up her side, thumb stroking comfortingly through her shirt. If Nari didn’t know better, she would say that he was a little shaky. The tip of his nose grazed hers, eager but hesitant. Waiting for her lead. Almost pleading. Gentle, respectful as all of his touches were and had always been. Wordlessly, he gave the faintest nod, a breath fanning out across her skin, as if he was both giving permission and begging for her touch.

Taking the plunge halted time. His lips were warm and inviting, the soft sigh of relief against her mouth had them both melting into each other. His lip ring’s biting chill stole her breath away. The kiss was tender and slow, like both of them were scared of popping the bubble and overstepping.

Nari was falling. Plummeting through space and time. Finally getting to taste him, to let him in, had her chest aching and twinging. She prayed that he meant what he said and that he wouldn’t hate her after it was over. That he would stay.

Jungkook couldn’t take it anymore, the hesitancy and restraint making his nerves hum with static. Both hands slid up Nari’s arms to cup her face, to hold her closer. To kiss her deeper.

His tongue teased along the seam of her lips, drew a shudder from her and made her heart stutter in her chest. Nari felt the thrum of his pulse beneath her palm when she rested her hand on his neck--racing. Nervous. Excited. He was excited to kiss her, something so gentle made him weak.

Something about it made her feel like she was on fire, threatened to consume her.

Their breaths fanned out across each other’s skin as she pulled back just enough to let her eyes flicker up to his, reeling.

He was pink in the cheeks and ears, eyes somehow both soft and glowing as he looked down at her with pupils blown. Caught between warmth and a sensual pull, an air about him that seemed to shift as her taste lingered on his tongue. He looked sinful, but the purest form of it. Man’s first sin--curiosity. Temptation. Not tainted and corrupted by malice.

Shoulders shaking in a breathless chuckle, he gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. His voice was a low murmur. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Nari took a deep breath, thumb lightly running along his pink lower lip as she gathered her bearings. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to, Jungkook.”

Before he could speak, she pressed her lips to his again in a soft, lingering kiss. She pulled away with a wet smack and gave a small smile when his brows furrowed, gaze confused. “I’m okay. That’s all that matters.”

He didn’t move when she got up and made her way out, didn’t say goodnight. Mentally, she swore that she would tell him everything as soon as it was safe.

Nari couldn’t sleep. At the third hour of trying to find shapes and faces in the shadows thrown across the ceiling, she sat up with a sigh. Although it was the witching hour, the house seemed to hold its breath in wait for something. As if anticipating, uneasy. As if the house itself couldn’t find itself able to sleep, either.

On top of things changing between her and Jungkook, knowing that her role in Monsta X and Lotus was what got Leah killed had guilt slithering in her stomach like a bed of snakes. Seeing Taehyung so broken and emotional felt like he was accusing her directly. Of course, she knew that that wasn’t a productive way of thinking. She didn’t know. Jooheon and her teammates kept that from her in an attempt to hide the truth--that Nari was working for her own father. If she had found out…

She thought it over for a moment as she sat staring blankly into her moonlit bedroom.

What would she have done if she found out? Would she have done anything at all? Before starting this job, she was so blinded by Jooheon’s manipulation that she would have believed anything he said. A part of her questioned if she would’ve just stayed and continued to work for her father with no question.

Until Jooheon and her father were rotting, she supposed she still technically worked for her father. She always would, unless she put bullets in their brains. Her father would find her, always. She remembered what happened to her mother when he found out she was trying to leave him.

Kissing Jungkook was a mistake. Getting too involved with him like that just put him in even more danger, it was entirely selfish.

Nari threw her legs over the side of the bed and shivered at the bite of cold hardwood under her feet. If she wasn’t going to sleep, maybe she could at least binge something on Netflix. Maybe get her mind off of the memory of Jungkook’s lips on hers and the way his hands felt on her skin.

But when she slowly, quietly padded into the hallway, she halted in her tracks and stood staring at the sliver of light flickering underneath Taehyung and Namjoon’s door. Normally at this time of night, they would both be asleep--TV acting as a nightlight to protect the younger of the two from the demons under his bed. But the tone of the voices, the lilt in them, the slight waver, made her chest clench in a painful vice.

Taehyung was crying.

Creeping closer to the door and trying to ignore Cheddar happily rubbing between her legs, the wood met her temple with a cool and gentle kiss as she listened in. The voices were muffled, but she could still make out what they were saying.

“Taehyung, it wouldn’t have solved anything. You know that,” Namjoon’s deep voice rumbled.

He sniffled, voice ragged and shaking. “I kn-know. I know. But I just-- He took everything from me. It’s just s-so unfair-- Why-- Why does he get to live when Leah’s f-fuckin’--”

He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence before he was taking in a gasp of a breath.

A moment of silence passed before Namjoon spoke again, quieter this time. “You knew what you were signing up for when you joined Bangtan. She knew what she was signing up for when she stayed with you. We made it clear from the jump that there’s always the chance of shit hitting the fan. You remember that conversation.”

“Yeah, but--”

“There’s nothing you could’ve done,” Namjoon insisted slowly, enunciating every word. “There’s nothing you can do. What’s done is done. Killing Jooheon won’t bring Leah back.”

It won’t bring her back. But it’d feel good. It’d make Taehyung feel good to sink the sharpest blade he could find into that motherfucker’s chest. To scoop his eyes out with a melon baller. To crush his skull with Jimin’s bat. To make him pay.

Nari knocked on their door before she could stop herself.

The soft murmurs halted for a few brief moments. Namjoon opened the door a crack, sharp eyes meeting hers. The half second of silence was deafening.

“Can I talk to him?” She nearly whispered, chest aching.

The nod came after a few heady, thoughtful seconds. His voice was but a low plea breathed out into the dark hallway. “He needs to know that it wasn’t his fault. I...I’ve been telling him. But he needs to hear it from someone else.”

He slipped past her and made his way downstairs without another word.

Taehyung stared at her through the open door, puppy eyes glassy and lips curled over his teeth to hide the way his chin quivered. He looked like a little boy then, broken and in desperate need of reassurance. Like if she even looked at him wrong he would start sobbing. She didn’t even blame him, she would do the same if something happened to the people she loved.

Out of fear of the tremble in his voice, she walked in and shut the door behind her without asking for permission. Neither of them said anything, neither really meeting each other’s eyes as she swayed on her feet. Something in her wouldn’t let her move farther than standing in the middle of the room.

“I’m sorry.” The remorse in her voice was thick enough to cut with a knife.

He didn’t look at her. Just sniffed and wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. She almost didn’t hear his response. “Don’t be.”

She bounced a little when she sat down on his mattress, eyes locked on the creases and hills in the twisted sheets.

His eyes were somewhere else, elbows propped on his knees and hands dangling between his thighs. The long wispy curtain of his lashes shone with remnants of tears, lips still swollen and nose red in the flickering glow of the TV. Undoubtedly, he was thinking back. Thinking back to earlier in the night when he first caught sight of that inked dagger on the inside of Jooheon’s wrist. The one that scarred her hip. She wondered what horrors that sight dragged from his memory.

“You know that’s not who I am,” he murmured, quiet and heavy from the weight of his heart. His chocolate eyes gave her a quick glance. “‘M not the kinda guy who...who loses his shit. I don’t know what happened--”

“You got angry.” Her smile was miniscule, just the subtle lift of the corner of her mouth.

Taehyung nodded, overgrown waves falling in his eyes. Clearing his throat, he finally looked at her with eyes that swam with hurt.

“I know this is weird.” He tiredly gestured to Namjoon’s side of the room.

Neither side was impeccably clean, both had a few pieces of dirty laundry strewn across the floor. Taehyung’s side was mostly littered with the clothes from that very night, but the older man’s side of the room was a bit more untidy and lived in.

Namjoon had a mini trash can by his desk that overflowed with crumpled pieces of paper--all failed ideas or angry, emotional letters to people that would never actually be sent. Jungkook once told Nari that was something Namjoon did. Writing letters to people who he was on bad terms with. He said he’d never been a violent guy, but being wrongfully accused of rape and murder and serving time for a crime you didn’t commit changes a person.

Namjoon wrote letters to cope with his anger so he wouldn’t lash out. Tae bottled his up.

Adam’s apple bobbing, he forced away the lump in his throat. “I just-- I couldn’t s-stay in that room. Couldn’t sleep in there. Had...had night terrors ‘n shit.”

She put a comforting hand on his knee. “I don’t blame you. I’d be the same way.”

He was barely hanging on, close enough to tears that they slipped over his waterline and dripped from his eyelashes despite how hard he tried to keep his composure. Large, tan hands trembled as he clasped them tight.

All Nari wanted to do was make it right. She just wanted to right the wrong she helped take part in causing--she wanted justice for Tae. For Leah. And she would get it. At first, all she wanted to do after hearing the truth about Jooheon and her father was kill Jooheon herself. But after seeing and hearing the heartbreak that crippled Taehyung, all she wanted to do was ensure that he got revenge. She wanted to make sure that he got his chance to kill the monster that murdered the love of his life.

“It’s not your fault, Tae,” she softly said, sliding a hand down his forearm to rest on top of his clasped hands. “You couldn’t have changed anything about how it would’ve ended.”

And that was truth. Both her father and Jooheon were unstoppable forces when it came to the family business. If her father told Monsta X to kill Leah, she was dead. There was no saving her.

“You d-don’t know that,” he whimpered, eyes sliding shut and head falling forward so his chin nearly kissed the warm, honey skin of his chest. His phoenix tattoo curled and rippled along the curve of his shoulder with the clench in his muscles as he moved, bright reds and oranges and yellows muted from the glow of late night infomercials. The feathers seemed to brush his collarbone.

“I do know that.”

“No you don’t,” he hiccuped, pitifully wiping at the wetness streaming down his cheeks. “You w-weren’t there-- You don’t know what happened.”

Her throat tightened, eyes threatening to burn.

He took a deep, shaky breath and lifted his head to look at her. “I’d b-been looking into other crime families for Yoongi and j-just giving him all the information I found. I guess I got too close because--”

His handsome face twisted then, too overcome with emotion to finish his sentence.

“You don’t have to talk about it.” She rubbed at his back with what she hoped was a comforting touch. His skin was cool under her palm, soft and smooth. Part of her wondered if she should get him a blanket, but before she could go looking for one, he spoke again.

“That night Leah and I were the only two at h-home. It was so rare, y’know? There were e-eight people living in one house, so she wanted to take advantage of it. I was trying to finish up some work on my laptop downstairs, and she’d been begging me to just slow down ‘n spend time with h-her--” His voice broke at the end of the word, chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.

Nari could practically see it. The sweet, angelic face of the woman in those pictures, smiling and teasing Tae for working too hard. Maybe pestering him as she tried her best to get his attention. She could see Taehyung’s grin as he batted her away, hear the whine in his voice when he insisted that he was almost finished. For her to be patient. The epitome of domestic love, albeit in an atypical situation.

Taehyung’s shoulders shook as he tried to compose himself enough to speak. “I f-finally caved ‘n followed her upst-stairs. But when we got to the top there w-was this-- Fuck--”

He knotted his hands in his hair, elbows back on his knees as he sobbed at the memories replaying in his mind.

“There was a crash. They just— came r-right through the door.” He sat up, glassy eyes meeting hers in a desperate plea to understand. “I told her to h-hide in the closet-- I thought she’d be safe, Nari! I t-told her to h-hide-- In our cl-oset-- So I g-got my gun-- ‘N-- ‘N I went to see what it was.”

Taehyung’s bone rattling inhale made tears spring up in her eyes. “The guys always tol’ me not to c-call the cops if somethin’ happened, s-so I didn’t. W-why didn’t I j-just call the f-fuckin’ cops--?!”

“Tae…” She reached up to gently wipe at his tears, the slightly stubbly skin of his face burning hot. “You just did what they told you to do--”

Long fingers tightly wrapped around her wrists where she tended to his wet cheeks. “S-someone-- One of ‘em f-fuckin’ pistol whipped me in the back of the head when I turned the c-corner. I just fell like a useless sack of shit, I-- I couldn’t even defend myself--”

“You shouldn’t have had to,” she hushed.

He broke then, a sob wracking his body so hard that he folded forward and rested his forehead on her shoulder. Although he was much broader and larger than her, he seemed so small in that moment. Almost fragile, like he needed to be protected.

She wound her arms around him and squeezed. Maybe if she held him hard and long enough, she could pull his broken pieces back together. Maybe she could ease the ache.

“I w-woke up-- Tied to my desk ch-chair, ‘n they--” She could barely understand him, his sobs nearing full on wails. The pain of remembering was too much, that unforgiving, sharp, and slicing bite of nightmarish memories flashing behind his eyelids in startling clarity.

Long fingers fisted her shirt as he tried to anchor himself, hot tears soaking through the fabric and stuttering breaths huffing out against the skin of her neck. “They m-ade me watch--”

Her blood went cold. Having to watch them kill her. It wasn’t unheard of for that to be a method of punishment for Jooheon--for the mafia in general--but the idea of Taehyung being on the receiving end was like being dunked in an ice bath. She had never taken part in something like that simply because Jooheon wanted her to remain faceless, so she could leave no witnesses. But she would have if he’d told her to. She would’ve done it gladly.

Her stomach twisted.

“Shhhh,” she softly hushed, easing them down to lay on his mattress. Guilt gnawed at her. Had her palms and mouth sweating. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I know it hurts--”

He gasped for breath through a slick of tears, drool, and snot. “She was screamin’-- She wouldn’t stop screaming, and they-- There-- Was so much blood-- ‘N-- I couldn’t do anything! It’s my f-fault--!”

She could so vividly see it. The flash of terror in both Tae’s and Leah’s eyes as they realized what was about to happen. She could hear the wet, sickening schlump of Jooheon’s knife as it sank into her flesh. The audible slice of skin, the splatter of blood on the hardwood. She could see in her mind’s eye the way blood would’ve splattered across Taehyung’s face. His lips, nose, and cheeks marred with the stain of his lover’s blood. The way Leah’s face would pale as thee seconds ticked by. She could see the way Jooheon’s eyes would’ve been shining behind his mask, glowing bright and lethal.

She could see it, because she had committed so many sins similar to what was done to Leah. She had spilled so much blood on her own.

“Taehyung, listen to me,” she muttered as she pulled back to hold his burning face. “Look at me. Breathe with me, I need you to listen.”

The wheeze of his struggle to slow his quick and uneven breathing was a deep, phlegmy rattle. When the rise and fall of his chest somewhat matched Nari’s, she nodded at him and held his watery and defeated gaze.

“Good. Now listen to me.” Her tone was almost stern, that slight urgency there to hopefully edge him out of the spiral he was in. “What happened to Leah was horrible. It was absolutely horrific, and I can’t even imagine how guilty you must feel. But there is nothing on this Earth that you could have done to stop it.”

His round eyes welled with tears, swollen and pouting lips parted to speak before she put a gentle finger up to silence him. “Jooheon wanted Leah dead. He wanted to hurt you. You were just doing your job. He decided he was going to kill her to get to you, and you and I both know nothing would’ve changed his mind or stopped him. This is not your fault.”

His lower lip quivered, brows slanting as he took a moment to sniffle through a whimper caught in the back of his throat.

“Do you understand?” She asked.

He nodded.

“I need you to say it out loud.”

“No.”

“Say it.” She pressed, adamant.

The heavy pause between them was filled only by the quiet background noise from the TV and Taehyung’s hesitant squirms.

“Taehyung.” He looked up at her through a thick spray of lashes, sheepish. “Say it. It’s not your fault.”

“‘S not my fault,” he murmured, gaze falling to the sheets.

She fought to meet his eyes. “Louder.”

He pulled his face from her hands with a turn of his head. His mouth twisted in what was a weak, angry, heartbroken snarl as he furiously wiped at his face. “It’s not my fault, okay?! I get it! I know there was nothing I c-could’ve done. But, goddammit! I miss her!”

There he was.

She understood. Blaming himself was easier than to just accept the fact that nothing could have been done. That Leah’s tragic fate was inevitable. She probably understood more than most. She still blamed herself for her mother’s death. For what she prayed she could prevent happening to Bangtan. It was easier than digesting the idea that she was set up to fail from the beginning. That her poor mother was destined to die the moment she stayed with a kingpin.

Sitting up on her elbow, she nodded slowly. “I know you do. And you’re going to miss her every day. But I’m making a promise to you right now, Tae. You’re going to get even. I don’t know how. But I’m going to make it happen.”

His dark eyes hardened. “I’m gonna be pissed if you break that promise.”

“I would never.”

Flopping onto his back, he looked up at the ceiling and fisted his swollen eyes with a groan. “Seeing him tonight… Realizing it was Monsta X who did it… For the longest time, I thought knowing would give me closure. But all it really did was piss me off.”

“Knowing is just knowing. Knowing doesn’t do anything,” she sighed, laying on her back beside him and sliding one of her hands behind her head. “It just gives you more things to hate. More things to wanna rip to shreds.”

He hummed deep in his chest.

They both fell asleep as the sun began to rise.

Nari didn’t want to keep the truth hidden away from Bangtan anymore. She wanted to tell everyone more than anything. Keeping it from them was like a constant stone weighing in the pit of her stomach, a constant heaviness in her bones. She wasn’t sure what telling everyone would do. It would probably cause more problems than solve them. But the guilt was taking its toll on her.

When she brought the idea up to Yoongi as he readied a wire for her to wear to her meeting with Jooheon, he scoffed. “Do you know how fast they would snap your neck?”

Her brows furrowed. “I don’t think they would kill me--”

“Jungkook, Namjoon, and Taehyung wouldn’t kill you,” he corrected. Nimble fingers taped the wire to her bare chest as she stood in the middle of his office in only her bra. “Hoseok and Jimin would lose their minds.”

He was quiet for a brief moment before letting his eyes flicker up to meet hers. “Jin would want to kill you just because of your blood.”

“But I hate my father.”

“Do you think that matters to someone who had their entire family slaughtered by him?” Pale blue bangs fell into his eyes as he finished the last of his taping and shook his head. As he walked over to sink into his desk chair, she pulled her shirt back over her head. “Do you not see how this looks? Yeah, you didn’t know that he conned you into working for him. But convincing them that that is the honest to god truth is going to take time. A lot of time--”

“They deserve to know who’s living under the same roof as them.” She adjusted her collar and gave him a look. “We don’t have time to keep them in the dark, Yoongi. This could all go to shit before they found out. How would we explain ourselves if something bad happened? You’d look just as guilty as me if we don’t tell them.”

Dark brows sat low on his face as he thought it over. The subtle downturn of his sour pout gave away the bitterness burning in the back of his throat.

“If something goes wrong and they find out you’ve known who I am the whole time, the guys would never trust you again.” She crossed her arms. “You can’t run an operation like this without trust, Yoongi. We both know that.”

Rubbing the stubble on his chin, he exhaled through his nose and sucked on his teeth with a hiss. “I’ll think about it. It’s just…there are a lot of people in this family who have been fucked over by your people, Nari--”

“They’re not my people.”

“They were your people.” The relaxed way he leaned back, spineless, in his chair was a stark contrast to the way she fought the irritation of being associated with Lotus. “I mean… Jin and Taehyung both have had the people they loved most stolen from them because of your father. Jimin and Hoseok would never trust you again. That’s over half of our most important men.”

“They deserve to know.”

He waved her off dismissively. “I heard you.”

Before she could say anything else, he took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. “See what you can find out. I trust that you won’t do anything stupid.”

Scowling, she crossed her arms. “Have I done anything stupid up until this point?”

“Well.” He pointedly raised a brow. “You let Jooheon fuck you silly and batter the shit out of you. That pretty little goose egg on your face should be a reminder of that.”

He had a point, but she was bitter about it. The swollen and healing bruise throbbed as she bit her tongue.

“Just don’t get anyone killed.”

The only person that would be dying would be Jooheon. But even that would have to wait until everything fell into place. She couldn’t just kill him, he would have at least one person watching their meeting from afar. To make sure no one interfered. To make sure no one tailed Nari. If only they knew.

The knowledge that her whole existence for the last eight years had been a lie, had been a ploy to trick her into working for her father, made her blood boil even as she made her way towards the door. She trusted Jooheon. She pledged fealty to him, swore that she would do whatever he asked without question. The longer she thought back and remembered their time together, the more she saw just how fake everything was. He lied to her, manipulated her, threatened her, hurt her. He shrank her universe down to the size of a pinhead and made her believe she had the world at her fingertips. It was all a sham, every single bit of it.

Anger swirled in the pit of her stomach as she reached for Jungkook’s keys in the bowl by the door.

Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist just before she could grab them. Jaw clenched, blood pressure spiking, she knew her gaze was cutting when she whipped around to see who dared to stop her.

Jungkook’s doe eyes twinkled with something she couldn’t put her finger on. It disarmed her enough that she had to fight to keep her angry expression. It was useless.

“Why are you touching me?” she nearly whined.

His slight smile stretched wider, gaze soft. “How often are you going to steal my car before you go get your own vehicle like a big girl?”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. She really didn’t have time for this. Jooheon would have her head if she was late. Tiredly, she scratched at her forehead and sighed, keys in hand. “I just need it for a couple of hours. I’ll get a new one soon, I promise.”

His grin widened further. It infuriated her how handsome he could be without trying. How he could make her heart stutter in her chest. She didn’t want to be lovestruck, she wanted to be furious with Jooheon. But the lopsided way he smiled and her inability to bury the memories of how he tasted made that increasingly difficult.

He knew something she didn’t, and it didn’t help her shitty mood.

“Come with me.”

“Jungkook, I really can’t. I have an appointment--”

“It can wait five minutes.”

He was already traipsing off towards the garage, a happy little skip in his step. Rather than fight him, Nari decided to go along with it.

Before she could pass through the garage door, he turned towards her and gave a sheepish, anxious smile. “Close your eyes.”

“Seriously?” she laughed, rolling her eyes when he moved behind her and shielded her vision himself. Without her sight, her hands automatically drifted out in front of her. “You’re freaking me out a little bit.”

He cautiously began to lead her towards the garage, a breathless giggle sounding just behind her. “Don’t be freaked out.”

She shivered, a faint flush tinging her cheeks.

A moment later he was removing his hands from her eyes. “Ta-da!”

Nari blinked, adjusting to the sudden brightness. Her jaw dropped, eyes widening. “Holy shit--”

A motorcycle. The one she’d been wanting, similar to Tae’s. Matte black and sleek, like something out of Batman.

“Jesus Christ, I kiss you one time and you buy me a fucking motorcycle?!” She choked, whipping around to give him a bewildered look. “Jungkook, what the hell did you do? How much money did you spend on this?”

He shrugged, obviously flustered by the way he fingered at his red ears. “I got tired of you stealing my shit.”

Shaking her head, she crossed her arms. “No. Absolutely not.”

“What do you mean no--?”

“I can’t accept this, Jungkook!” She gestured to the bike just a few feet away. “This isn’t just like-- a fucking bouquet of flowers! This is a lot of money!”

“Nari, I think you’re forgetting that I have money,” he sniggered, baffled. “Like. A lot of it.”

She sent him a look, stern. “What, do I get a yacht if I suck your dick?”

His laugh was loud and unabashed, head throwing back.

She glared at him and took the keys from his hand. “I’m only accepting this because I have to be somewhere important and I’m running late. When I get home, we’re having a serious conversation.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

The world looked so much better when it was smeared before her at high speeds. Like art, like a painting. Shops and neighborhoods were streaks of color, all sounds faded to nothing but the consistent growl of the engine. Everything became so insignificant when she leaned down and zipped through the streets. The fear she felt to see Jooheon again melted away, left behind on the roads of Seoul. Exposed to the elements, she had wings. Riding a motorcycle was liberating, but actually driving one… She felt free for the first time in so long.

The bike below her hummed, nearly purring at finally getting to stretch its muscles. It felt like both an extension of her and its own living entity.

Maybe she would have to thank Jungkook after all.

The park was empty and eerily still. The only person for what felt like miles was Jooheon, dressed in his usual sleek suit and gleaming shoes. He stuck out like a sore thumb, too dapper and put together for a place with rusting garbage cans and disk golf baskets.

When he heard her approaching, his head snapped up, coal black eyes narrowing. His slicked back and inky hair seemed to shine even in the overcast afternoon. “You’re late.”

She checked her watch as she eased onto the picnic table’s bench across from him. Late by just two minutes. But two minutes was two minutes too long when she was already on thin ice with Jooheon. “I’m sorry. I was trying to get out the door, but Jungkook got me a gift, and I didn’t want to seem suspicious by being urgent.”

He nodded in the general direction of where her bike sat. “That your little gift?”

“Yes sir.” She didn’t dare look away from him. Hatred rolled her stomach and made her blood boil. Swallowing the urge to draw her gun and shoot him dead right then and there, she forced herself to be as truthful as she could. “He has feelings for me.”

“Did you fuck him to get there?” He asked, serious.

“No.”

“You should.” He was matter of fact. Like Jungkook wasn’t a person who deserved real love, like manipulating him should have been as easy as ordering coffee at Starbucks. ”You need to solidify that. Make him fall in love.”

She bit her tongue and clenched her fists below the table until her nails threatened to cut into her palms. “I plan on it. I’ve been in too long with too little payoff, I need to get as much information as I can so we can just end this shit.”

“You’ve given me almost nothing to work with.” He lit up a cigarette and carelessly blew smoke into the wind. “If you really wanted access to information, you’d fuck Min.”

Her jaw tensed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll have to consider that.”

How dare he. Yoongi had been nothing but good to her, he’d been the only leader she’d ever known to show her what truth looked like. She wondered if he heard Jooheon say that through the wire under her shirt.

Black eyes locked with hers. “I expect real information this time.”

“Taehyung is shaken. He’s not at his best right now. The gala messed with his head.” The bullshit story she and Yoongi crafted rolled off her tongue with ease. Lies, but close enough to the whole truth that Jooheon wouldn’t ask too many questions.

“Good.” He smirked. Cocky as he took a lazy drag from his smoke. “Fucker’s too good at his job. Maybe he’ll stay distracted this time.”

She wanted to strangle him.

“The meeting with Zhang went well,” she continued, somehow able to keep her composure despite the screaming desire to make him pay. “He agreed to help get our hands on enough guns to appease Choi. He’s shipping them straight to a dock in Busan. Min lost a shit ton of money in all this, Zhang only agreed because he would be getting sixty five percent of the money from Choi for the sheer inconvenience. Yoongi didn’t want to fight him and end up creating more bad blood, he has enough of that.”

She pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and placed it in the middle of the table. “Here’s some of the information for one of their accounts. I snuck back into Yoongi’s office and found some paperwork locked away in his safe. Nearly got caught, too, but I saved myself.”

He eyed the numbers carefully before folding the scrap of paper and hiding it away in his jacket pocket. “How much money is in this account?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. Yoongi gave her the information for one of their oldest accounts, one that had a large chunk of money, but not enough cash that would completely drain them. They had more money than Jooheon or her father would ever know, more than she would know. Jooheon was just arrogant enough to believe that they raked in less cash than Monsta X or Lotus. “I think he opened the account in 2014, so it’s probably got a decent amount of money. But who knows how much.”

Nodding slowly, he thought over her words. He flicked ash from his cigarette and gave a cold smile. “This is a good start. You’re finally making progress, and a decent leap at that.”

He took her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles. The sensation made her skin crawl. “This will all be over soon. They’ll be dead, and you’ll be on your way back home.”

She prayed the loathing in her gaze came across as excitement. “How much longer?”

“A few weeks,” he clipped. As he stood and adjusted his jacket, he barely gave her a second glance. “You should talk to a plastic surgeon about your face. That cut will scar, and I can’t have you looking like you’ve been so stupid as to get your head smashed on a counter for future jobs. You have to look perfect and nonthreatening.”

She bit her tongue so hard she tasted blood. “Yes sir. I’ll talk to someone, I’d hate to look like someone had ever wanted to hurt me.”

He walked around the table and leaned down to grip her chin. “You’re finally doing your job. All it took was a big cock for you to act right. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future.”

The next few days Nari spent fuming over the things Jooheon said to her. The way he spoke to her as if she were nothing, like what happened in the bathroom was nothing out of the ordinary. Truthfully, nothing had ever been normal between them. That was becoming more and more apparent the longer she was away from him. He was manipulative, cold, using her for his own gain. But the way he reacted at the gala was like he was losing it at the mere thought that he could lose all sense of control over her.

He had always been terrible, but it was obvious that he was spiraling--slipping further into his darkness. Maybe he could feel that he was losing his grip on her despite her having every right to throw herself into seeming as if she were one of Bangtan. Sure, she had switched sides. But he had no way of knowing that. At least not for sure.

In the Bangtan house, all had been quiet since they came home from Shanghai. No passive aggressive comments, no distrusting glances from Hoseok or Jimin. Yoongi carried on as normal, keeping all of his and Nari’s secrets tucked away. The others were none the wiser.

Things with Jungkook were…good. It was almost dizzying how different things were when she was around him. After their kiss, he respected her space and didn’t push anything, but there was a constant lingering tension that left them hovering around each other without either of them ever acknowledging what had happened or Nari’s injuries. Mere days passed before one of them cracked, and it certainly wasn’t her.

He came to her as she was on her laptop going through their records to see who still owed them money. In Yoongi’s words, she was to “make note of who needs their cages rattled.” They’d handle it at Cards the following week.

She didn’t notice Jungkook walk into the living room until Sora pranced in behind him, collar jingling and tongue hanging out of her mouth happily. He was dressed in nothing more than athletic shorts and a baggy t-shirt, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from wandering across his muscled frame.

She ripped her gaze away and continued with her work.

Leaning down over the arm of the couch, he bit back a smile. “You’re very focused.”

The corners of her mouth twitched as she glanced up at him, blue light shining on her face from the screen. It didn’t take much to rid her facade. “And you’re very observant.”

He wanted something. She could tell. Whenever he wanted something, he had this excited energy like it was taking everything in his power to coolly and smoothly lead into his pitch. Eager and nearly vibrating, like an untrained puppy fighting the urge to jump on strangers.

She narrowed her eyes in playful suspicion and slowly closed her laptop, crossing her arms. “You want something.”

He scoffed and made a dramatic show of looking around the room to find where on earth she would’ve been inspired to have such a thought, eyes twinkling and teeth on full display in a sly grin. “Who? Me?”

“You’re bursting at the seams. Out with it.”

There was a brief moment where he simply stared at her, gaze soft. It made her cheeks warm. “Are you hungry?”

Nari blinked, confused. Her eyes flickered to her plate on the coffee table where the crust of her sandwich from lunch less than an hour prior remained.

Jungkook’s eyes quickly followed, widening as his cheeks flushed pink. “Oh. Uh--”

“I just ate. Um…why?”

His brow pinched, expression perturbed.

Why was he looking at her that way?

“Really?” He asked after a stretch of silence. His smile faltered the slightest bit, and she worried that she had done something to offend him. He shrugged then, gaze falling to the floor as he let out a strained chuckle. “Okay then.”

“What? What did I do?”

“I just thought you might want to grab a bite with me,” he shyly muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. His weight shifted from foot to foot, unable to stay still. “You know…after the other night.”

Oh.

She blinked in surprise, lips parting. He wanted to go out with her. On a date. Because they kissed, and he liked it.

“Oh-- Oh. Oh my god--”

He waved her off and headed towards the kitchen, eyes never leaving the hardwood beneath his feet. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine, I just thought--”

“I’m not hungry,” she blurted, skin crawling in humiliation. “But I will be. Later. Tonight.”

His head snapped up, that beaming smile back on his face. “Yeah?”

Her face hurt from the way it grinned back at him. “Yeah.”

Strong, tattooed hands shoved themselves into his pockets as he nodded, pursing his lips in an amused line. “Cool.”

Later that night, she had to calm herself as she got ready. Which was dumb. She was an assassin, she shouldn’t turn to mush when a pretty boy with soft lips wants to take her on a date. But everything with Jooheon was so different, even when they were starting their relationship it was a part of work. They slept together to celebrate her first kill, and a few weeks after that he began treating her as his significant other. If he wanted to go out to dinner, he simply told her they were going out. There were no nervous smiles or giddy laughter.

As she put on her lipstick, she realized Jooheon never even officially asked her to be his girlfriend. She just…was.

Fuck, was she nervous. She didn’t know why, she knew Jungkook wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. But clearly she didn’t know how to navigate any real romantic connection, and she really didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of him again.

Which was also dumb. He was just a man.

When she met him in the kitchen at 8pm sharp, he was leaned up against the countertop scrolling through his phone. As she entered, he glanced up, only to do a double take. Immediately, he tucked the device away into his pocket and stared at her with a look that could only be described as awe.

“You look beautiful,” he breathed. The way her eyes nervously glanced down at her clothes, he immediately cleared his throat and collected himself. “You look nice.”

Thankful that he reeled it in a bit, she gestured to him across the way. “So do you, holy shit. You clean up nice.”

And she meant it. It was just a fitted button up tucked into ripped black jeans, but the perfect way his hair was swept off his face to reveal his dark brows led her to believe that he spent just a little too long standing in front of his closet and mirror to get it all right.

The ride to the restaurant was awkward for all of ten minutes before Jungkook was blasting some bubblegum pop song and singing as loud as he could. At first it was clear he was trying to at least carry the melody, if not actually sing well for his own enjoyment. But once he realized she was paying attention, he started putting on a show. He sang passionately, voice cracking in tuneless, giggly shouts.

As she sat there grinning at him over the console, he glanced at her with both hands on the wheel and hollered over the music. “Come on, you don’t know this song?”

She never sang, never bellowed lyrics on a midnight drive as glowing street lights whirred by in neon smears. But something about the unbridled glee that illuminated his dark eyes made her join in. She barely knew the lyrics, but he didn’t seem to mind. The garbled way she shouted the melody in a string of vowels and misplaced consonants made him throw his head back and laugh, and that made the embarrassment worthwhile.

It was hard to stay nervous when he had a way of dissolving tension.

When they got to the restaurant, he opened both the car door and the front door of the establishment for her. It didn’t surprise her very much, just because of course he was a perfect gentleman. But even though she almost expected it, even though she wasn’t surprised, there was still a brief moment of her muttering out a flustered thank you. Unable to look at him longer than a brief second.

It was a small place sandwiched between a cafe and a cosmetics store. One corner of the sign was dim, a single bulb blown after countless years. Through the window she could see other customers gathered around grills and drinking together, too caught up in meat and liquor to give a damn what happened beyond the entrance. It had been a while since she went out for barbecue, let alone somewhere that was such a little hole in the wall.

Sitting across from him at the restaurant was almost bizarre. The only times she had ever been out with anyone in the last eight years, man or woman, was merely a precursor to killing them. Other than Jooheon, of course. Looking back, their outings were just for show. To flex his money and power. He never held the door open for her. Never gazed at her with soft eyes. He never even asked her what she wanted to eat or gave her the opportunity to decide what she wanted.

It was in that moment that she realized she’d never been on a real date at all, and that brought the nerves that buzzed like electricity under her skin back full force.

“This place isn’t super fancy, but their food is amazing,” Jungkook shyly said as he hungrily watched the group of older men one table over flip their pork belly with a mouthwatering sizzle. “I know you’ve probably had barbecue a million times, but--”

“I love barbecue.” Her lips twitched in a guilty smile. “I just have never manned the grill.”

His eyes widened, flickering to the waitress as she brought them their drinks. He thanked her, quickly turning his attention back to Nari. “You’re Korean and you’ve never cooked your own meat?”

“No, I haven’t, thank you very much.” She narrowed her eyes playfully. “I didn’t know it was required upon receiving your birth certificate.”

He took a sip of his beer. “Oh yeah. It’s definitely government mandated. There’s a card for it and everything.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you must know, I…I was never allowed. My ex was controlling.”

Curiosity bloomed in his gaze. She had never mentioned any past partners before.

She couldn’t help but feel a weight lifted off her shoulders just from referring to him as her ex. Obviously he wasn’t aware she’d decided they were no longer a couple, but he’d find out soon enough. There was something liberating about keeping something for herself for now.

Jungkook leaned his elbows on the table, not looking up when the waitress brought their meat. “And grilling was where he drew the line? That was his schtick?”

“Everything was his schtick,” she deadpanned darkly, popping one of the complementary puffs into her mouth. “I wasn’t allowed to do most things.”

He sensed her change in tone. Sensed the subtle way she retreated into herself, into whatever memories of this ex plagued her. Maybe even haunted her. He knew she had some trauma--he just assumed it was all because of what happened to her mother. The thought that someone would control her, or would even be able to, baffled him. She was so strong, powerful. She commanded a room.

Whatever asshole tried to control her was probably not one to be trifled with.

He took the tongs from the plate and slid around the booth to sit beside her. He held them out to her, brows lifting expectantly. “You wanna learn how?”

She stared down at the metal tongs. Something spread throughout her chest and crept up to make her throat tighten. Dark eyes peered up at him as she hesitantly took them. “Really?”

His hair bounced in an emphatic nod. “Absolutely. I’ll walk you through it all, you can do everything.”

Everything?

He must’ve taken her silence as disgust or maybe rejection, because after a moment he shrugged with pink cheeks. “Or not-- I mean. I can do it, I’d be more than happy to--”

“No.” She was thankful she managed to keep herself from getting teary at the small freedom offered to her. It felt so stupid, the whole thing. Not knowing how to do something so easy and that everyone else around her knew. The fact that that was something Jooheon tried to control in the first place. That she would let him have that much control to begin with. “Teach me. Please, I wanna do it.”

Jungkook taught her everything--when to cut the meat, when to flip it. Just the right amount of pork belly to put on the grill at a time. It was all so simple, she probably could have figured it out herself if given enough time. But what mattered was that he let her do it. He gave her the reins and merely directed her, always gentle, always warm. He never made her feel like a child for not knowing how to do something that seemed to be common knowledge. His toothy grin was ever present, encouraging her.

They sat thigh to thigh in the booth, laughing and eating together. It felt so normal. Not at all like just days prior they were in a standoff with seven wolves and praying they made it out alive. Like they were just two people, each intrigued and enthralled by the other’s presence.

He tried to feed her a lettuce wrap, his own cheeks stuffed round and bulging as he held it out to her.

She cut her eyes at him in exasperation. “Now what about me says that I’m a woman who likes to be fed?”

He nearly choked on his food, that endearingly ugly laugh slipping out for all to hear as he covered his mouth and put the wrap back on his plate. After he swallowed, he shrugged and wiped his hands. “I dunno, I thought you’d like it.”

Nari took a drink, soju burning all the way down to her stomach. She smirked. “That’s your move, isn’t it?”

“My move?”

“The thing you do to really make the ladies go wild on a first date.”

His head tilted guiltily, tongue rolling against the inside of his cheek as he pushed up his sleeves. He gestured lazily, holding back a laugh as his arm draped across her shoulders. “Not just ladies, I don’t discriminate.”

She was surprised by his honesty. Not because he should keep that information secret--hell, she was the same. But it was something they’d never discussed openly before. It was probably just the alcohol in his system making him loose-lipped, but he hadn’t drank much at all. A part of her deep down hoped that maybe, just maybe, he felt safe around her.

She grinned and crossed her legs. “And how well does this usually work out for you, lover boy?”

“Fifty-fifty.”

Grimacing, she leaned back against the seat and relished in the warmth of his skin radiating into her frame. “Sounds like you need a new move.”

Looking down at her with an amused smile, his gaze flickered briefly from her lips to her eyes. They shone in the overhead lighting, as bright and sparkling as the night sky. If she looked hard enough, she could just make out the Big Dipper. There was a brief pause that made her stomach climb up into her mouth. His face was so close to hers.

Lowly, he murmured, “Maybe you’ll have to give me some ideas.”

The ride back to the apartment was painfully tense. Nari felt like her body was on fire. It took everything in her to hold herself together, and that was something she’d never experienced before. She’d felt desire, but never…this. It was excruciating, and she knew it would end badly. Jungkook didn’t know the truth, and she couldn’t let this go further than it already had until he did. Going on a date with him was a mistake, it was selfish of her to go when so much of her was still hidden from him. He would feel differently about her when he knew, she couldn’t let it escalate. She felt bad enough.

Initially, the ride home was tense because of how he looked at her like she could do no wrong. Because his hands were strong but gentle. Because of the lazy, lopsided, crooked smile he wore as he spoke. The way his dark hair swept off his forehead and behind his ears. But the realization that acting on any of that tension before telling him what she was would be misleading and deceptive quickly shifted the tension from sexually charged to a stiff silence.

She stared out the window and cursed herself for the pain she would eventually cause him.

As they approached the door to the penthouse, Jungkook gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist as she began punching in the keycode as soon as it was within reach. Worry creased his brow, lips parted as he tried to find the right words.

She waited, gave him the time to piece together his thoughts.

“Are you okay?”

It caught her off guard, the genuine concern in his voice. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He let her go, hand instead rubbing at the back of his neck. Broad shoulders raised and dropped in an uncertain shrug. “I dunno. You just got really quiet. I just thought we both were having fun, and then it was like… I don’t know, like nobody was home.”

She couldn’t fight the thaw in her facade.

Softening, she gave a small, reassuring smile. “I had a great time, Jungkook. Promise.”

The tension in his shoulders eased a bit, a subtle and almost imperceptible sigh of relief breathing out through his nose. He bit his lower lip with hopes to contain his smile, nodding as his eyes looked at anything but her. His hands made their way into his pockets as he let a teasing grin slowly spread across his handsome face. “Me too. Even if my move didn’t work on you.”

Awkward, hesitant, she leaned closer and craned her neck to press her lips to his cheek.

The moment her pink lips met his warm skin, her heart skipped. The proximity of him, his warmth. It made something in her defenses lower. It made her crumble. The familiar scent of eucalyptus and his cologne made her linger there, fighting the urge to touch him. To taste him. To do what she wanted.

He turned his head when he sensed her hesitation, lips suddenly a breath away from hers. Smile fading as his eyes grew heavy lidded. The air was thick and heavy with everything left unsaid. The entryway seemed all too silent, the walls even holding their breath in wait. Any noise could tip the scales, jerk them back to reality.

He seemed to draw her to him like a magnet, that invisible pull that’s unquestionable and undeniable. She felt that tug just beneath her ribs. She wanted so badly for things to be different. To be able to just give in without second thought. To live without that shadow lingering in the back of her mind and controlling her thoughts. Influencing her happiness.

Tattooed hands freed themselves from his pockets just so he could gently brush a strand of hair from her face. She felt herself let him. Let him tuck her hair and softly carress her cheekbone with the backs of his fingers. She let him slowly, cautiously walk her back until she arched into his chest from the chill of the wall as it nipped at all her exposed flesh. He was so warm, it was like standing on the sun.

Their breaths mingled, parted lips catching on each other as they restrained themselves. Neither was courageous enough to take that next step, to take the plunge. They hovered there in the painstaking, magnetic abyss--noses brushing each other, eyes fluttering closed. Her hands slid up his chest, and he sighed at her touch. Her touch alone literally drew breath from his lungs. It set her ablaze, made her ache.

Strong hands drifted down her sides and made her shiver, so patient in their slow descent. One anchored at her waist to ground her. The other slid up her neck, burning hot and scorching her eager, sensitive skin.

When he kissed her, dread swirled in her stomach. She couldn’t do this. As much as she wanted to, as good as he was, he had to know the truth first. He deserved that.

At the faint brush of his lips, Nari pulled back, heart hammering in her chest.

The spell was broken by the sharp, unforgiving prick of reality’s thorn. The walls sighed in disappointment, all air rushing back into the world. Stale and stagnant.

As if he knew it was coming, Jungkook rested his forehead on hers in defeat.

“Goodnight, Jungkook,” she whispered with a small, apologetic smile.

Without another word, she unlocked the door and went inside without him.

#jeon jungkook #jungkook fic #jungkook x oc #bts fic #bts fanfction #monsta x fic #mafia fic #bts mafia #bts mafia fic #gang au #fic: duplicitous #mobster jungkook #mobster yoongi #mobster jooheon

28 notes · View notes