#I just think that would be funny like yeah he’ll flirt with and seduce and fuck them for what they can give him

[deityofhearts]

I have got to like, write a coherent bit of info about my ocs and have it all be in like one neat place for each of them instead of bits and pieces of (usually random incoherent) info spanning across several notes in my notes app

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

@cloud-ya mentioning dislike of rita and elysia’s flirtiness actually got me thinking. because i do enjoy this trait of theirs a lot

of course most of this is personal taste but part of the reason I enjoy it is because in media most of the confident flirts are guys (who I am not into) or, occasionally, women who exist exclusively to be a villain seducing some protagonist dude

Rita technically falls under an adjacent category due to being an assassin herself, but she’s not a villain anymore, and she has quite a bit of development that makes her more interesting than an evil pretty face anyway. while it was funny (Tesla’s ongoing bondage hatred should get more jokes!!) I didn’t like Rita all that much until she showed vulnerability in Arc City. Like that’s when I got really sold on her— she’d been so confident up until then, but she got depowered and wounded and her friends started dying

Really a bad day for Rita and my whump loving ass was thriving. she recovered quickly, and she certainly didn’t break down, but she was really in a tight spot and that was a really fun moment. That CG where she’s on the floor? Hell yeah baby.

Anyway so Elysia it was completely different!! And I find that interesting.

I adore Elysia. Not because she’s easy on the eyes (though I understand the plethora of seeeeeeegs jokes, she IS very pretty) but mostly because of her absolutely shameless attitude. The flirting is hilarious, not just because she doesn’t hold back at all, but also because it’s put in contrast with Mei’s very firm “no” attitude. The writers really got a good dynamic going, with Elysia being completely out of control and paired off with more calm/stoic straight man characters to contrast her bullshit.

(for those who don’t know the straight man in comedy is the role of the normal guy in a duo, who’s going to give opportunities to make jokes, react to stuff normally to provide contrast etc etc. often the voice of reason used in a comedic manner, usually the butt of the joke but sometimes funny BECAUSE they have a good point. has nothing to do with lesbians)

Even better, Elysia in all her ridiculous attitude sometimes surprises you by being down to earth herself. Like the recollection where she tells Kevin mid angst monologue that if he dramatically hits a street sign he’ll have to pay it off. She always makes herself sound very reasonable but actual role reversal is hysterical.

Elysia, for all intents and purpose, is a Mary Sue. She’s good at everything, she’s well liked by everyone but villainous-seeming characters (Mobius), she’s basically perfect in both body and actions, she never fails anything and seems to find all of it easy. Even when she loses against Mei, she does so gracefully— and she’s quickly noted not to have given it her all anyway.

But she’s a Mary Sue the writers are very, very aware of; and she’s put in contrast with characters who don’t buy her charm because of that. It’s good writing, man.

Her archive entry is a good example of this:

If you really like tropes, you might have seen meta jokes of Mary Sues actually being terrifying eldritch entities seducing everyone. That’s basically what Elysia is. We don’t know her true nature, but her charm and talents don’t seem fully natural, and she’s DEFINITELY hiding something.

In summary, she’s a largely beloathed character archetype but actually written competently, and frequently subverted by her own environment to offset how insufferable the type of character she is would otherwise be.

To go back to Rita— Rita was mostly just underdeveloped early on. She was outwardly seductive, the maid thing was kinda weird, we had zero insight into any deeper motivations… she basically existed to be a hot, perhaps even fetishy obstacle. Most people do not like Rita upon meeting her, because she’s very shallow at that point. Early Rita even shares some of those insufferable Mary Sue traits— effortlessly tricking the heroes or murdering Gray Serpent— but there’s nothing to contrast it, so she remains a hot obstacle instead of a deeper character.

And of course, a significant bit of her character development is locked in the Dudu VN, so if you haven’t read that you don’t know much about her from playing the game, especially before she starts investigating Heliopolis.

So yeah! There’s just nothing solid to like!

Elysia can be interesting and likable from the start in part because she’s incredibly funny if that’s your sense of humor, and because you quickly realize she’s suspicious (mysteries are fun! mysteries get you to pay attention!). Obviously you CAN also dislike her, but most people seem to enjoy her. It’s less a matter of writing and more personal tastes or bad personal experiences clashing with how she was designed to be. I have a friend who really dislikes her because they’re wary of her and protective of their favorite characters, so they see her as sort of an enemy. The flirtiness and suspicious behavior can also be points against her, if that’s not your thing, etc etc. But for MOST people, Elysia is funny, mysterious and likable, as a bit of a parody Mary Sue who the writers are exploiting the archetype’s uncanniness of.

Rita on the other hand suffers from her fetishy design (both appearance and personality) and shallow early characterization, if you’re first impressions kind of pal you’re probably not going to like her easily. Her early writing isn’t great, so there just isn’t much to like. Even the development she gets later, the vulnerability, while I find it delicious, may not be your thing either… and she was even retconned to appear earlier in the story, like Hua, so she originally had even LESS build up. There just aren’t too many reasons to get attached to her, especially around her first appearances.

So yeah. In conclusion, I think comparing these characters mostly just shows how far the writing of Honkai has come! They’ve gotten really good at introducing characters in a way that makes most people WANT to know more about them, and then disseminating clues in the rest of the story. The visual-novel-as-a-reward format of ER is really suitable for it, too, so they played really smart on that.

[planecrashdreams]

Take My Breath Away

Peter Parker x Stark!daughter

Summary: The Avengers are close to unveiling The Vulture’s plan to destroy the city. They uncover that his son is throwing a ball with all of the most notorious villains within the city. It is decided that you, along with Peter, must attend to gather intel.

Warnings: *violence* *swearing* *fight scenes* *mentions of blood/wounds*

Peter & Y/N are 18

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., call everyone into the lab in 5 minutes, I need to have a meeting.” Tony announces while peering at the screen in front of him.

F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice floods the entire compound inviting everyone to meet with your dad. You however, were busy doing your homework with the boy you’ve had a crush on for what feels like a century.

“Ughh, not again. What does dad want this time?” You whine getting up from your chair.

“Come on, Y/N, it sounds important, he said he wanted us in the lab.”

“I’m not even an Avenger, why do I have to be involved?” You say slightly annoyed.

You and Peter were the last ones to join the meeting and your dad started talking almost immediately.

“I found a new lead on Vulture, his son Dimitri Toomes is having a party for all of the mafia bosses and criminals and that roam the city. This party is taking place tonight at 8pm. I’m going to get you Nat, and you Steve, to attend this party as a couple to uncover more intel as you can—“

“Wait, but, how old is this Dimitri Toomes anyway? Isn’t he just a kid?” Bucky interrupts.

“Yeah, isn’t he like 18 or 19?” Nat also jumps in.

“I don’t think sending Nat and Steve in for this mission is such a good idea, Tony. He would know not to trust them once he saw them. We need someone younger.” Bruce suggests.

“No, I’m not sending Peter in to do this mission. Peter hasn’t done many missions, and this one involves the mafia and every criminal in New York!” Tony says sternly.

“Well, we weren’t thinking Peter exactly...” Bruce says very quietly.

“NO! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD EVEN THINK TO OFFER MY DAUGHTER TO GO ON A MISSION!” Tony yells loud enough for the whole city to hear.

“Yeah, uh, Bruce, I don’t know how much you’ve had to drink but sending me for this? What!??” You say very frightened and shocked.

“Tony, I know you would never want to do this in a million years, but hear us out. Dimitri is a young man, he’ll be easily persuaded if something strikes his interest. If we send Y/N, she’ll intrigue him and make him lower his guard and he could reveal his father’s plans. If we do this, we won’t send her alone. Someone will be there to watch out for her.” Bruce explains.

“I can’t believe I’m actually having to consider this plan.” Tony confesses.

“I’ll do it if you guys keep a close watch of me. I just want to get it done and over with.” You agree to Bruce’s plan but almost regret it.

“Y/N wants to go through with it, Tony? Are you okay going through with this?”

“Ok. But she goes in and she’s coming back out as quick as possible.” Tony finally agrees.

“We need to get ready now, the party starts in a couple of hours.” Tony leads the way out of the lab.

“Y/N, you’re going to need a dress to wear to this party. Steve, you’re going to be her chaperone and you’ll need a suit. Nat, Bucky, Thor—“

“Mr. Stark? Can I come and help keep watch of Y/N?” Peter interjects.

“Peter I’d feel more comfortable with you staying here in the compound.”

“Please, Mr. Stark, my spidey-sense can be helpful for this and I want to help keep Y/N safe an I kno—“

“Okay! Peter, fine, you can help Steve keep watch. Just be careful, and if I feel you’re not safe I will pull you out from the mission. Got it?”

“Yes! Thank you, Mr. Stark.” Peter beams, now he can keep watch on you to make sure you stayed safe.

Everyone headed off to help prepare for the mission and you headed up to your bedroom to get ready for what you thought was possibly the worst party ever.

Nat hung a few dresses on your closet door for you to wear tonight. But one caught your eye. It was gorgeous, it was a shade of dark blue. The fabric was silky and vibrant. The colour made your mind wander to a certain boy whose favourite colour is blue. Peter. “Well, I guess the night won’t be as terrible.” You thought to yourself happy that you got to feel pretty at least. The dress was a ball gown and sparkled in certain lighting.

You put your dress on and had Nat help you style your hair into a princess braid updo. You did your makeup, a few layers of mascara and a layer of pink peach tinted lip gloss. A simple look, but still radiated beauty. Your wore a pair of little black heels under your dress and went on your way downstairs.

Peter dressed himself in a simple black suit that he wore to the last school dance. He even shaved and gelled his hair a bit. Steve also dawned a suit, but dark grey. They went over a plan of how they would surveillance the party while keeping an eye on you. In the middle of their conversation, you start coming down the stairs. Step by step, Peter comes into your view and you smile taking in how handsome he was, especially in a suit.

Peter gasped looking at you, he couldn’t believe how gorgeous you were and wished he could’ve been the one spending the night with you. Just thinking about Dimitri being with you sent him into an internal rage. But looking at your smile takes him away from that thought. He realizes you’ve been standing there for almost a minute and he hasn’t said a word to you.

“Wow, you look... pretty.” Peter says rubbing his arms.

“Yeah, you really are beautiful, Y/N.” Steve adds.

“Aw, thanks guys. And you both look very handsome.” You say shyly.

Peter looks up at Steve with an annoyed look, jealous that he made a comment about your appearance. Steve just laughs messing with Peter.

You, Steve, and Peter all drive to Dimitri Toomes’ party and discuss what the game plan will be.

“Ok, here’s what I’m thinking, Y/N goes in and scopes for Dimitri, she talks with him and get him comfortable with her. She’ll lead him on with questions about his family business. Once we get enough intel, she calls it a night and we get her out of there. Y/N, you’re going to go by a fake name and say you’re the daughter of the mafia boss, Lorenzo Bianchi. Just make up answers the best you can to his questions. We’ll be in your ear the whole night and we’ll help you talk to him. Peter and I will walk around the party to look for any suspicious behaviour and to keep a closer eye on you. If at any time you don’t feel safe anymore, say “my head hurts” got it?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’m still really nervous about this.” You say scared about the whole situation you were about to enter.

“Don’t worry, Peter and I are with you the entire night. Just act natural and you’ll be okay. We are here.”

The three of you enter and immediately disperse. You enter the ballroom and turn heads as you move towards the bar. As you get to the bar, your eyes meet with a seducing glare. It almost made you uncomfortable but it was oddly alluring. You notice this man is young and clean cut. He was wearing a lighter suit with a dark black shirt. He was very tidy for a criminal.

“That’s him, Y/N. Across the bar from you. Make your move.” Steve says in your earpiece.

You instead have a better idea. You made sure his eyes were still fixed on you and flutter your eyes slightly and order yourself a drink. Just as you predicted, he got up from his seat and made his way over to you.

“Excuse me, miss, I don’t think I know you.” He says with a dark masculine voice.

“You’re right, you don’t know me.” You say slightly shocked at how unintentionally confident you were coming across.

“Beautiful and funny, now I’m sure I haven’t met you before.” He chuckles.

“Dimitri Toomes.” He says now leaning on the bar bench beside you.

“Francesca Bianchi.” You say now making eye contact with the man.

“You’re Lorenzo Bianchi’s daughter? Wow, he never said he had a daughter. A sexy one too.” He says looking over you with a venomous sound in his voice.

Peter was listening to this entire conversation and he was starting to get annoyed by Dimitri’s tone with you. His fist was squeezed tight and his knuckles turned white.

“Y/N, flirt back with him. You’ve got him attention and he’ll be easier to pry if he’s getting your attention back.” Steve suggests.

Peter is now dying inside, having to hear the conversation that’s about to happen. He wants to pull you away and not have you be flirted with by someone who only looks at you as a piece of meat.

“Well, I’m his little girl after all, he wants to protect me as much as he can. He wouldn’t want me to go out and find myself a new kind of daddy.” You say looking deep into his eyes and slightly biting your lip.

Both Peter and Steve stood still, mouth agape at what they just overheard you say. Peter was slightly turned on by your confident tone and how on the nose you were. He was still of course bothered that you were talking to Dimitri. Peter tried to keep his cool for the sake of the mission and your safety.

“Careful what you say, sweetheart. Wouldn’t want to say something you don’t mean.” Toomes says towering over you now with a very condescending tone.

“Who said I didn’t mean it? And any way, how do you know my father?” You ask, trying to push for information.

“Lorenzo is a friend of my father’s. My father is working on a plan to run the city better for the mafia. And how do you not know this? Does your father know you’re here?” Dimitri asks slightly suspicious of you.

“My father doesn’t like women being involved with his business. I just want to look out for my father, I don’t want him getting into trouble is all.” You say hoping this puts him off your scent.

“Ah, the delicate princess, of course, I mean, if you were mine, I wouldn’t let anyone touch you, except me of course.” He says now trailing his fingertips along your forearm to your hand.

Unsure of how to react you just play along with him hoping Steve or Peter will help direct your next move.

“You’ve got him wrapped around your finger, Y/N. Try getting more info out of him. He’s buying it.” Steve guides you. Peter at this point is speechless, he was stuck in an internal rage. He wanted to kill this guy just because he touched you.

“Dimitri?” You say with a higher pitch now hoping to sound too cute to decline.

“Hmm?” He hums in response.

“Could you tell me what my dad is planning on doing to make the mafia run better?” You ask fluttering your lashes, not breaking eye contact with him.

“I don’t know, Princess. I think it’s best to keep you out of it. Your father thinks so.” He says looking at you, now taking your hand and pulling you up from your seat.

“We can talk over by the balcony, it’s more private there, and I like my privacy.” He says very ominous. You were now feeling pale, unsure of what he meant by that. As you both move towards the balcony, your eyes meet with Peter’s and he looked concerned. He followed close behind the both of you, not daring to let you out of his sight.

“Now, Princess, I’ll tell you just a little bit to give you piece of mind about your your father. Your father works by conducting drug runs across the borders and selling drugs to smaller criminal groups within the city. Lately, the drugs have been resurfacing and the police have been finding out what groups are in possession of these drugs. Your father made a business deal with my father to make these weak groups disappear. My father in turn, had your father invest in most lethal warfare for taking over the city. As of now, our fathers have almost successfully taking over a stronghold, and they’re not stopping there.” He says, taking pride in his father’s work.

“Wow, I never knew my father would actually be helping take over the whole city.” You say in fake awe.

“But enough about that, I haven’t been able to take my eyes off of you tonight, darling. In the moonlight you are just mouthwatering.” He says, moving closer to you taking a handful of your hair to move away from your neck. He leans in to start kissing your neck. You jitter from the sudden touch of his hand. As he kisses your neck you step away from him. You could sense Peter was near.

“What’s wrong, princess? I was just kissing you.” He says deep in lust.

“Oh, I.. know it’s just, I’m really thirsty, would it be possible if you could get me a drink?” You ask hoping he would so you could catch your breath and talk to Peter.

“Okay, I’ll be back, don’t move.” He says as he makes his way back to the bar.

You exhale deeply and Peter appears almost out of nowhere.

“Y/N! I can’t believe that guy! I want to kill him, if we weren’t on a mission right now I would do it right now—“ Peter whispers loudly.

“Pete, I’m okay, he’s creepy, but harmless. I got so much intel for him. This plan is working well so far, I’m going to try for a little more, and then we’ll get out of here.” You say trying to reassure Peter, but also starting to blush at how much he really cared about you. Does he maybe like you back?

“You gotta go before he comes back.” You tell him almost shooing him away.

A few seconds pass and Dimitri appears with your drink just in time that Peter wasn’t stood beside you.

“Thanks.” You say taking a sip from the glass.

A few minutes pass and your head starts to spin. Your vision is blurry and and your eyelids feel heavy. You tried to remember what Steve said to alert him.

“My head hurts.” You say mumbling, losing control of your voice.

“You know, you really shouldn’t trust people you don’t know, Princess.” He says darkly. Why did he do this? Did he hear you and Peter?

You lose control of your body and start to tumble forward, but a pair of strong arms catches you before hitting the hard ground.

..........

You wake, arms and ankles tied in a dark concrete room. Where was this place? Am I still at the party? You ask yourself.

Moments later you hear footsteps approaching the door to your concrete room. You close your eyes hoping that whoever it was would think you’re still unconscious.

The footsteps approach closer and closer until they stop directly in front of you.

A hand hits you across the face, you shudder from it and find that it is none other than Dimitri.

“Hello, sweetheart.” He says with no recognizable tone in his voice. You almost revaluated if the man even was Dimitri.

“So, you think you would just stumble into my party hoping to steal all of our information? And by the way I know your fucking name isn’t Francesca Bianchi! Bianchi has no children!” He says now very angry at your attempt to deceive him earlier.

“I saw you arrive at the party with those two men, as soon as I saw that, I knew to pay attention to you. Women who show up with bodyguards aren’t good news around here.” He scolds you.

“Now, do you want to tell me who you and those men are? Or do you want me to beat it out of you?” He says bringing his face down to meet yours, taking your chin in his hand.

“Go fuck yourself!” You shout, heart racing at your courage.

Dimitri laughs and suddenly slaps you across the the face. You can feel blood starting to drip from your nose now.

“Talk like a bitch, get slapped around like a bitch!” He yells at you even angrier.

“Do something stupid like that again, I’ll have kill one of your boyfriends.” He says with a sharp tongue.

Did he actually have Peter and Steve captive? You couldn’t help thinking it was your fault, he must have heard you talking to Peter before he drugged you.

“No! Do whatever you want to me but don’t hurt them!” You yell back at him.

“Aw, does someone have a little soft spot for them? I’m thinking you like the little one. He was so bothersome, following us all night. I just couldn’t get you alone could I?” He says with an irritated tone.

“It’s too bad too, I was really starting to like you, you’re quite the flirt.” He says as he shifts closer to you. You try to move away from him but fail, he picks you up and takes you out of the concrete room.

You now find yourself in tied in a chair in a room with mob men. All of them look intimidating, these men were decorated in scars and appeared quite muscular.

“Now princess, I’m leaving you here to think about what you might want to tell me. I’m going to visit your little boyfriends, if you try anything stupid I’ll fucking kill you instantly.” He says sharply and disappears.

You were beyond scared, you didn’t think much of Dimitri when you met him. You just thought he was a rich kid who thought he was a top dog. But now being at his mercy you were so terrified. You were even more scared thinking about what awful things he could be doing to Steve and Peter.

“Steve!.... Steve, are you awake?” Peter asks quietly hoping that the cap was okay.

“Yeah... I’m fine, my head is spinning a bit.” Steve reassures Peter.

“We gotta get out of here, Y/N needs us, I hope she’s okay, I don’t know what I’d do if she was hurt.” Peter cries out.

“It’s okay Peter, relax, we’ll figure something out and we’ll get Y/N. Just let me think of something.” Steve says now thinking of an escape plan.

Peter struggles in his ropes and realizes his knots were not as tight as they should have been. “Hey, Cap? I think I can get out of my ties.”

“That’s great, looks like someone underestimated you.” Steve says struggling in his ties hoping his were loose also.

Peter got his wrists free and is now working on his ankle ties. As he finishes freeing himself, the door starts opening and Peter resumes to his position when tied.

“Boys, you’re awake now?” A dark voice emerges from the black doorway.

“Why are we here?” Steve boldly replies.

“To answer my questions, that little girl certainly had a lot for me tonight. Now, you have the option to answer and be good boys, or, you can dodge my questions and have her get beaten again. Your choice.” Dimitri says coldly.

“You won’t put your damn hands on her you piece of shit!!!” Peter says, now having a nerve struck after hearing that you have been beaten.

Dimitri laughs at Peter’s reaction, “And what? You think you’re going to do something about it? You’re just a kid, and you’re tied!”

“Am I?” Peter says pouncing onto Dimitri, punching him in the jaw.

“Poor choice little boy.” Dimitri says pulling out a knife.

Dimitri lunges towards Peter with his knife and tries slicing Peter’s arm. Peter dodges Dimitri and elbows Dimitri in the face. Dimitri stumbles behind Peter and takes the opportunity to stab Peter in the shoulder. Peter gasps and lands on a knee in front of Steve. He slowly pulls the knife out of his shoulder and drops it on the floor. This only sets more of a fight in Peter, Peter grapples Dimitri and pulls him to the ground. They both wrestle and each try to knock each other out.

As Peter and Dimitri fight, Steve is in arm’s reach of Dimitri’s knife and uses it to cut the ropes from his wrists. A few moments later Steve has now freed himself and helps Peter knock Dimitri out. Peter exhausted, can still only wonder if you were alright. He didn’t want to take a breath, he needed to save you.

“We have to find Y/N!” Peter tells Steve, now running out of the room.

“Peter hold on, we need to be careful, we don’t know what are doing with her. And what are we going to do with Dimitri? We can’t just leave him like this.” Steve warns Peter of his reckless behavior.

“Do you want me to finish him? Cause I’ll do it!” Peter says very dominantly.

“No! We can’t kill him! We need him for more information. We should tie him up and come back for him once we find Y/N.” Steve explains.

Steve and Peter tie Dimitri to a pipe, making it harder for him to remove himself if he were to wake up.

“We should split up, listen you can climb quietly along the walls and the ceilings and not be seen. I’ll go search areas around here.” Steve leads.

Before Steve could even finish his thought, Peter was already on the ceiling making his way to a room.

“And Peter, be careful!!” Steve’s voice echoes.

You were sitting in a chair with five mutants surrounding you in a circle. Your wrists were bruising from the restraints and they wouldn’t budge no matter how hard you tried.

“Stop struggling, sweetheart.” You hear one of them say. “We don’t want to hurt your beautiful face.”

“Why am I tied up when there’s five of you? Is Dimitri afraid I’ll overpower you.” You question.

The same man turns around and slaps you hard across the face. You cheek stung and became numb in a matter of seconds. What the hell? Why did he hit me?! You think to yourself.

“You don’t talk about Dimitri Toomes like that. Show some respect.” He says enraged.

You decided to push him some more. You didn’t know if it was out of pure courage or pure stupidity.

“Why the fuck would I respect him? He beat me!” You scream.

“That man is the son of Adrian Toomes, he’s among the strongest men in the city!” He defends.

“He’s a child, he’s not strong, I know plenty of stronger men and women than him!” You argue.

The man grows more annoyed and tired of your stubbornness. He pulled his arm back and whipped his hand hard across your face. Your cheek burned and you could taste blood on your tongue. You barely let out a whimper.

“You keep talking, and I’ll fucking end you right here.” He says very seriously.

As Peter is crawling along the walls and ceilings of the concrete hideout, he feels the hairs on his arms stand. His spider senses were going haywire. He sensed you nearby. He could hear muffled voices coming from a room ahead of him, he rushed to the doorway and listened for your voice but instead he only heard cries of pain from you. He crawled into the room and met eyes with you. You smile now knowing you were going to be okay. You wanted to help Peter have a better chance at freeing you. You needed to come up with a distraction and fast.

“Hey, do you hear that?” You say curiously.

“Hear what?”

“There! Did you hear it now? It was a loud slam! It sounds like it’s coming from outside of this room!” You say trying to sound as convincing as possible.

“You better not be lying, Dimitri will torture you and your friends even worse than you imagined.”

“Fine. Don’t believe me. Dimitri might be fighting off both of my friends right now.” You say coy.

The man scoffs and slowly leaves the room not breaking eye contact until he fully leaves. Another man follows for reassurance. Only three men remained in the room. Peter could handle them, these men were much scrawnier compared to the other two men.

Peter slowly crawls down the wall behind you and plans his attack. He looks over to you and makes a web shooting motion with his hand. You nodded, knowing exactly what his idea was.

Peter stuck his wrist out and shot webs at man leaving him stuck on the ground. The other two men were now aware of Peter’s presence and began attacking him.

Peter shoots his webs at one of the remaining men’s wrists, removing his knife. Peter then punches the man’s jaw and swings him down. The other man was more difficult to fight. He was much stronger than Peter anticipated.

Peter swung his fist to make contact with man, the man dodges and makes a quick hit to Peter’s ribs. You could see the pain oozing from his face. You cried for Peter, wanting him to be okay.

“It’s okay, Y/N.” Peter says staggering in his place trying to get his momentum back. Peter tried to take another swing and hits the man in the cheek. The man is slightly fazed, but kicks Peter off his feet. The man puts Peter in a chokehold. You yell at the man to stop.

“You want me to stop? I don’t know, I think loverboy could take some more.” The man taunts.

As the man taunts you, Peter loosens the man’s grip from his neck. “It’s going to take a lot more for you to take me down that easily.” Peter huskily replies to the man.

Peter then elbows the man in the ribs, knocking the wind right out of him. Peter removes himself from him and reverses the positions between them. He then grabs the man’s collar and punches the man hard, knocking him out.

Peter steps back still looking at the man. He is breathing hard. You look Peter over, glancing at all of his wounds. His neck was already bruising, his fists were bloody, his clothes were ripped and bloodied, his jaw was bruised. You also notice a large stab wound in his shoulder. When did he get that?! Peter was a mess and you blamed it on yourself.

“Peter... you’re hurt.” You say with tears in your eyes.

“Y/N, I’m okay, please don’t cry.” He says as he quickly makes his way to you.

You could see him breathing deep and hunch in pain when he makes certain movements.

“No, you’re not Peter. Every time you move I can see it hurts you. You were also stabbed, how long ago did that happen? This is all my fault, if I had been better at lying and not trusting Dimitri none of this would have happened.”

“Y/N this is not your fault at all! Please don’t blame yourself for this. Dimitri tried to fight me and he ended up stabbing me. You don’t have to worry about him, he’s not going to hurt you again. We’re okay, and we’re gonna get out of here.” He says now untying you from your chair.

“I put you into a situation where you got hurt, I couldn’t bare to watch that asshole choke you. I don’t know what I would’ve done if he actually killed you.” You say now sobbing thinking of what the outcome could’ve been.

“He didn’t, you’ve still got me. I would’ve chosen for him to take me down over you getting hurt.” He says comforting.

“I really don’t know what I would’ve done if one of those assholes had you like that. I could hear you crying. That’s how I found you. They’re lucky I didn’t kill them.” He says now getting very tense. You could feel it, being the only one with him.

“Peter?” You say interrupting him.

“Yeah Y/N?

You lean in wrapping your arms around his neck gently to kiss him. He takes control fast and kisses you deeply and sweetly.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since I walked down the stairs back at the compound.” You admit aloud.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since I met you, I just never knew how to tell you and I thought you only liked me as a friend.” Peter says now very shyly.

“And, you kinda took my breath away when you came down the stairs in that dress. You know blue is my favourite colour.” Peter admits.

You cut him off and kiss him again, reassuringly.

“I know! I picked that dress out of Nat’s options for you. I’ve had a crush on you for a long time, Pete.” You confess.

Just as you were leaning in again. Your dad busts the door in finding the both of you in an embrace.

“Y/N! ARE YOU OKAY! THANK GOD I FOUND YOU TWO!” Tony says very relieved.

Steve, Nat, Bruce, and Bucky enter behind and relax finding the both of you safe. Once Steve and Bruce see that you’re both okay, they breakaway from the group to find Dimitri to bring back for questioning.

“Dad! We’re okay! How did you find us?” You say beaming.

“I put a tracker on your bracelet so we could locate you in case of an emergency.” Tony says.

“Wait, I’ve had this bracelet for over a year now. You did just put a tracker on it now right?” You say suspicious.

“...”

“DAD! There’s a thing called privacy! You can’t stalk my every move!!..” As you get mad you slowly realize if it weren’t for your irratic father, you may never have escaped.

“Thanks, dad.” You say running up to him hugging him tightly.

He squeezes back, then realizes who you were hugging moments before when he broke the door down.

“Hey Peter, do you want to explain to me why you were hugging my daughter?” He says protectively.

“Dad! Stop! He saved me, if it weren’t for Pete I wouldn’t have made it.” You say defending Peter.

“And, I love him.”

“Ok.... And we will have a discussion about this later young lady. I don’t like the idea of you using the L word.” He says now leading the way out of the room.

The Avengers follow Tony, you and Peter are left alone for a moment in the room again.

“Thanks for defending me, Y/N. Did you mean that also?” He says softly.

“Yeah I did.” You say placing your hand in his.

You both follow along still hand in hand. “Also, my dad will get over us liking each other. He tells me how great of a guy you are all the time.” You chirp.

“What if he doesn’t? I don’t think he’d think I’m a great guy if I’m dating his daughter.” Peter says slightly concerned.

“Then it’ll be our little secret.” You say whispering to him.

“That’s a secret I could keep.” Peter says now smiling looking back at you.

[jimlingss]

ooo exciting !!! jungkook + romance/fluff + "kiss me" + e2l

Anonymous said: Can I request a fluffy jungkook fic with a touch of angst. Any AU you want and maybe a friends to lovers? Feel free to decline :)

Anonymous said: a fluffy “oh! you’re jealous” prompt with Jungkook pls? any au is fine☺️

Anonymous said: jungkook, prompt list 1 - #27: “Are you blushing?” :> i hope you have a lovely holiday season!!

Anonymous said: Friends to lovers!! Or enemies to lovers pls!! I love that shit

This is the most ambitious crossover of requests since Avengers lol jk.

↳ Suspended, Seduced, Surprised!

1.9k || 99.5% Fluff, 0.5% Angst || Jeon Jungkook || E2L, Huddle For Warmth!AU (sort of)

It started off with Jungkook coming out of nowhere and nearly scaring the living daylights out of you.

He laughed — that noisy sound that makes his nose scrunch — and you rolled your eyes, turning back around in the line. When the ski lift chair arrived, he asked if he could come too. You told him to kindly fuck off, but in the next second, he slid next to you, smiling widely.

It was too late for him to get off. Not when your feet was already lifted off the ground.

You don’t know why he’s so adamant about bothering you. If Taehyung didn’t tell you at the last minute that Jungkook was coming along, you would’ve just not come on this trip and ruin your winter break like this.

“Why didn’t you go with Sana?”

The ski lift is ascending upwards at an incline, moving past the coniferous trees and those skiing down the mountain beneath you. Luckily, it wasn’t too sunny or snowy out. But the air was still sharp with frost that’s long made your cheeks numb. Every exhale past your parted lips creates a cloud of condensation.

Jungkook’s thick brow lifts and he pushes his ski goggles up onto his head, on top of his blue beanie like yours. His doe eyes look at you. “Why would I go with her?”

You shoot him an incredulous expression. You don’t know why he’s playing dumb. “I thought you were trying to get cozy with her.”

The corner of Jungkook’s mouth slyly curls and he leans in. “Oh. You’re jealous.”

Instantly, your face contorts into a disgusted expression and a boyish laugh bubbles out of him. 

“I would,” he says, “but she already has a boyfriend.”

“She does?”

Jungkook hums. “Some guy two years older than us, majoring in finance.”

Oh. You didn’t know that.

Suddenly it sinks in that you’re having an actual conversation with Jungkook. One where he’s being a cocky asshole only a tiny amount and you can actually bear through it. It almost feels like you’re….friends.

But right as the thought comes to mind, the ski lift chair halts and momentarily swings. You jolt, looking at the chair ahead of you that’s frozen as well before turning around. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Everyone is seemingly as confused as you are. “It looks like we’re stuck.”

You groan. “Oh shit.”

Five minutes later, Taehyung comes wandering underneath you. He stands by a tree on the sidelines and cups his gloved hands around his mouth. “Oh my god!” he screams at the top of his lungs. “I finally found you guys!”

“Taehyung!” You shout back at him. “What’s going on?!”

“Well, I was looking around for ages and Jimin wanted to give up since he thought you went down to the lodge and I told him no way—”

“Dude!” Jungkook shrieks and you wince at the sheer volume of his voice. “We get it!”

You remember why he grinds on your nerves so badly. Everything Jeon Jungkook does just irritates you. Including the fact that he was currently trying to burst your eardrums.

“Right! Sorry! They said it would be fixed in half an hour! Hang in there!” Taehyung fist pumps the air with a rectangular grin as if it’s enough to encourage the two of you and you sigh loudly. 

“Whelp.” Jungkook settles back into his seat. “Looks like we won’t die.”

“Great.”

“Are you cold?”

You turn to the boy, surprised that he’s actually considerate enough to—

“We could always get naked, you know,” he adds, shattering the image of him that had curated in your mind for point two seconds and it flees as quickly as it came. “To converse heat.”

Your mouth opens, speechless. You shake your head. “Right when I thought you were being nice to me for once.”

Jungkook grins unabashedly. “I am being nice. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t flirt like this with anyone else and if you ask me, I think it’s working too.” The bastard leans in and you lean backwards to keep more distance. He bats his pretty lashes. “Are you blushing?”

You deadpan, “It’s literally negative thirty degrees out.”

He laughs again.

The both of you get comfortable, laying your ski poles across your laps, and looking out at the snowy mountain landscape that’s all too peaceful. Or at least until you feel a poke through your puffed jacket.

You look down to find Jungkook handing you a heat pack from his pocket. “It’s not much but it might help.”

“....Thanks.”

Strangely, the guy doesn’t brag about how kind he is or how much you should appreciate the gesture. He simply starts to hum to kill time. It’s soothing. Kind of nice to listen to even.

You enjoy it until he abruptly stops and asks— “Why do you hate me so much?”

You look at him. “Seriously?”

Jungkook smiles and it’s somehow reminiscent of a rabbit. “What? Nothing like confronting people when they’re trapped in a spot with nowhere to run, right? Plus, this is a good opportunity to be reflective, don’t you think?”

You scoff, not sure where to begin. But there’s no reason why you should spare him from the truth of why you grew to have such a strong distaste for him. If he wants to know, you’ll happily let him know. 

“How about for never calling me back after you slept with me? Is that a good enough reason for you?”

Jungkook’s head whirls over. The bomb’s been dropped.

You feel his stare on your profile. It goes deathly quiet. 

It’s the biggest resentment you held against him, what made his cocky attitude even uglier to you. Maybe you shouldn’t be so angry. It wasn’t like he vowed anything would happen afterwards. Maybe he thought it was supposed to be a no-strings attachment thing. But it wasn’t like that for you.

Jungkook acted interested when you first met. He sweet-talked you. He led you to believe there would be something more. And when there wasn’t— well, the rest is history.

You wonder if Jungkook’s shriveling up and cringing for asking in the first place or if he’s remotely ashamed. You hope he is. It serves him right. The audacity he has to talk to you casually after ghosting you so brutally like that is insulting. You wonder how he’ll respond, if he’ll regret bringing the subject up, if he’ll try to conjure some kind of half ass apology—

“Because you never gave me your number.”

This time, your neck snaps towards him. Jungkook’s gaze is unwavering.

“You’re the one who ditched me,” he says. “You were gone when I woke up.”

“I wrote you a note. On a napkin on the dresser.”

The man, in the blue snowboard jacket and black ski pants, frowns. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. Do you think I would lie about this?”

“Then I never saw it.”

It’s easy for Jungkook to lie. One of his many talents is his pretty lips that has easy words rolling off his tongue like butter. But by his expression, the slight pout of his mouth, the furrow of his brows, you can tell he’s being genuine. There isn’t any facade, any flirtation.

“I would’ve remembered if I saw it cause that morning Taehyung woke me up and he never wakes up before me. But he was whining because of his allergies and needed me to run to the pharmacy—”

The pair of you go silent.

It dawns on you both.

Kim Taehyung.

Knowing Taehyung and his godforsaken allergies, he must’ve taken the napkin and sneezed right into it. He probably threw it in the trash or took it with him and crumpled it into his hand. God fucking dammit. 

“It wasn’t my fault,” Jungkook murmurs, his eyes rounded at the realization.

You shift uncomfortably. The possibilities of what-if storm your mind. What if Jungkook saw it, what if he texted you or called you afterwards like he promised. What if you didn’t meet again on accident through Taehyung but continued the communication yourselves. Could he be sitting here next to you as someone more in your life?

But you brush the thoughts away as it overwhelms you.

“That’s funny,” you pipe up, mustering some stiff laughter, breaking the silence. “At least we solved one mystery.”

“Y/N.”

“It’s cold.” You wrap your arms around you. “We should stop talking and conserve heat.”

Jungkook nods and the pair of you quiet down. But without conversation, time drags on slower.

You peek a look at him and instead of being deep in thought like you thought he’d be, Jeon Jungkook is looking around, blinking with his doe eyes, the black strands from his bangs nearly pricking into them. He’s completely nonchalant and you internally sigh to yourself.

You’re not sure what you were expecting. 

Jungkook is Jungkook.

That note on the dresser probably wouldn’t have changed anything.

“Y/N.” He speaks up a minute later.

“What?”

“You know how we could keep warm?”

“What.”

“Kiss me.”

You could not roll your eyes harder.

An enormous grin spreads into Jungkook’s cheeks, irises twinkling from the snow’s refraction. The little shit has too much fun annoying you and he jumps at the chance to continue to egg you on, “Why? Too scared to? Think you might fall in love with me now that we cleared the air and you don’t hate me anymore?”

He bats his lashes exaggeratedly.

You scoff. “Yeah right. As if.”

“Then why not?”

Your head spins around to face him, momentarily taken aback at how he’s a few inches away but you conceal your expression just as quick. You don’t know why he’s so insistent on this terrible joke. “Why? Do you want me to kiss you?”

Jeon Jungkook’s grin taunts you.

You loll your head to the side, eyes narrowing into slits. “You think I won’t do it.”

“I’m just trying to improve the mood.” He sits back and shrugs, having too much fun watching your explosive reactions. “It doesn’t matter what I say to you. You’re a dog with all bark but no bite, Y/N. I know you too well.”

Your jaw clenches at the challenge. At his mocking tone. At the bastard’s audacity.

And just to prove him wrong, you grab Jungkook’s face in your hands and turn him towards you. In one breath, you aggressively slam your mouth against his. It almost hurts. Your teeth nearly clash. But you barely feel anything with your numb lips except for how chapped his lips are.

It’s a brief kiss, but enough to prove yourself.

You pull away with a cocked brow and small smirk, relishing in his wholly stunned expression.

At that same moment, the ski lift jolts and starts to move again. Someone behind you cheers. 

“You don’t know me at all, Jeon Jungkook,” you murmur softly, seductively and with the smirk still plastered on your features. The unloading zone approaches, so you move the safety bar, stand up from the ski lift chair and glide away.

Jungkook’s delayed, but follows after you helplessly a second later. You turn around while you still have the chance and he stares at you, blinking owlishly. 

“If you want to make me blush or get jealous, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than you have been, Jeon. You should probably work on your kissing skills too. Staying like a dead fish isn’t appealing to me.”

You glide away on your skis before he can get another word in. In the meanwhile, a grin slowly spreads into Jungkook’s cheeks and he decides to accept your challenge.

[sloppykyuu]

Issei and Hajime Pulling Your Mom

POV: you watch as your mom gets seduced by issei and iwaizumi. Lmao the POV was just funny youre the hot mom pls ALSO PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A HEAVY JOKE AHH IDK IM ASHAMED OF THIS BUT IT MAKES ME LAUGH

KEKEK IM HIGH RN AND THOT OF THIS BECAUSE IF I WAS SEXY MILF I WOULD FUCK THIS TWO even if I wasn’t a milf I would fuck them so HARD please ignore mistakes I’m zooted

Issei seems so mature for his age. His calm, laid back demeanor makes him seem so much older than he really is. He’s always got a lazy smirk on his face as he smoothly, slyly flirts with all the moms. It’s so obvious they think he’s good looking, always fixing their hair when he passes by, dressing a little flashier. tops cut deeper, shorts a little shorter. 

All the dads hate him because he’s taller and leaner then them, he’s seductive and flirty without even trying. His slow, smooth way of talking just makes you feel like you’re in a cliche romance movie. He’ll lean low to whisper things to them, smirking when he hears the way her breath hitches; swiping the frosting off your face and sticking his thumb into his mouth, cleaning it off; and subtly complimenting them, “I don’t know why you would say that, you’re hot for your age. Girls my age wished they looked like you.”

Yeah, he's a cheesy suave, protagonist in a romance cliche. And he’s seducing your mom right now, biting and licking his lips while looking her up and down in her swimsuit, body still tight. He’s rubbing the sunscreen into her skin, rubbing down your thighs, which is scandalous as is, but his hands are practically caressing your ass in front the whole soccer team and their parents.

You don't where he came from, or who’s friends with but he’s always around. Don’t be surprised if you come home from school and it killing your moms shit in her bed (or maybe even yours.)

Do I even need to explain why Iwaizumi would pull your mother?? You could cum just by looking at his bulging muscles while he lifts heavy boxes for the soccer booster. 

He is the man of everyone’s dreams, your mom wants him, you want him, and your dad wants to be him. He's strong, mature, and kind. He doesn't mean to sweet-talk your mom, he's just good with people, especially mothers. His mother taught him to be polite and thats exactly what he is. He’ll carry heavy boxes for you. It seems like the mothers have been overpacking just so they can watch the way his shirt stretches around his arms and back. They love using his kindness to their advantage, always asking if he can get them something just so they can watch the way his ass flex in jeans. Always grabbing his arms, while laughing or complimenting how strong he is (subtly comparing him to their husbands)

The dads, however, might even love him more. He’s a manly man (lol), keeps up with sports, knows about building things, and whatever dads like. He can help them out with a workout routine and get as buff as he is; “well in my prime I was this built!” and he just laughs along with them. They’ve been passing him beers since he was 17, no one’s questioned him either. Your whole family loves this man.

He’s always helping with setting up graduation parties, moving, etc. anything that includes heavy lifting- you will find him there and you will see everybody staring at him because he’s so memorizing.

He’s still a young man, he has needs. And you can tell by the way his eyes never leave your mother’s body. The way he leans back in his seat and spreads his legs, not so subtly  showing off the large dick print in is jeans. You watch as she flushes before watching as he signals your mom back inside the house and a light turn on in her bedroom from the backyard. While you talk and mingle with the guests at your house, your mother is getting her back blown out by Iwaizumi. 

[chryzure-archive]

AU rant AU rant AU RANT tell me about the Chrysijacks AU that came to mind once you finished reading this ask 👀

OKAY SO THIS IS KINDA HARD TO EXPLAIN, BUT!!! i’ve been playing with chrysi and jacks being childhood….. acquaintances, at the very least. they weren’t rlly friendly to each other, so i wouldn’t describe them as friends, but they sure did spend a lot of time together.

jacks was a new fate that was made by ???? idk, it’s just like he was born a fate (versus the actual canon, where i think he was made a fate as a young man… regretfully, i can only have this confirmed via the new book…. :(( but at least i get new jacks info from it) and chrysi’s fate-adjacent. since they’re close to each other’s age, they were engaged since they were young. mistress luck acts as jacks’s guardian—she’s overlooking his development into a full-grown fate—and she encourages all the fights between jacks and chrysi, since she thinks it will help develop jacks’s cruelty and ruthlessness. she doesn’t like that he’s the prince of hearts, because she thinks that’ll make him a weak fate.

anyway, you’d think the kid that’s a fate causes the most trouble. nope! chrysi gets jacks into a lot of trouble—but since she’s not a fate, and since she’s a charming little kid, she always has jacks take the fall for whatever chaos she causes. this clearly pisses jacks off quite a bit, so when they’re kids, there are many times where they get into a scuffle. (just to be clear, jacks didn’t start the scuffle at all!! he just will complain / be mean to chrysi, and she’ll respond by fucking launching herself at him and biting and kicking. jacks calls her a feral girl-thing instead of her name because of it.)

ACTUALLY, HERE’S SOMETHING THAT DEMONSTRATES HOW ALL THAT CHILDHOOD STUFF WORKS:

((disregard the way it’s formatted—i use writebox so i don’t have distractions and i don’t both to use italics))

anywayyyy, this continues until they’re abt 14—both of their families keep shoving them together, despite the continuous disastrous results—before chrysi’s shipped off elsewhere for a more “well-rounded” education (which is rlly code for her older sister trying to cover up a scandal of chrysi’s. she wants chrysi to come back a proper young girl.)

before she goes, however, she and jacks make a deal where they’ll happily break off their engagement if the other finds someone else to get married to. jacks leaps on this deal, since um. chrysi’s been tormenting him for years. find someone else? hell yeah, of course he’ll do that.

tiny detail jacks forgot: his kiss kills ppl. he actually never tested it on chrysi before, but i think his hope was that if their engagement ever went through, he’d kill chrysi with his kiss at the wedding.

and so jacks becomes notorious for burning through fiancées while chrysi’s off “learning” (little did nessa know that chrysi’s now hanging out in graveyards unattended—she became friends with many a ghost in the meantime 🥰—and hunting ghouls and the like).

by the time they reunite at the age of 22, both of them have been largely unsuccessful with finding someone to marry them. chrysi fell in love with a boy that, uh, did not like her fate-adjacent powers (more on that later), and so she’s not so happy about talking about fiancés, and jacks has. killed all of his. some on accident, some on purpose.

they both aren’t happy with the situation.

jacks doesn’t even know chrysi’s back from her “education” until she’s at one of his parties. he’s courting tella, turns a corner, and almost fucking screams when he sees chrysi hanging out, holding one of his special apples. she thinks it’s very funny.

actually, he doesn’t recognize her at first either 😭 he’s flirting with her (or threatening her. you can never tell with him), much to her amusement. eventually jacks catches on, and he’s horrified that he didn’t recognize her.

they’re both irritated that the other hasn’t found anyone yet (jacks could’ve sworn chrysi would succeeded in seducing that tris boy. chrysi immediately shuts that down, and jacks is suddenly concerned he’s going to be bitten by chrysi again), so they SUPER promise that they’ll find a way to break off their engagement.

SO. A LOT OF STUFF STARTS GOING DOWN. because jacks is doing his jacks thing—scheming for… what purpose? his own amusement? okay—and chrysi’s hiding things from him. which isn’t new, but it bothers jacks a lot more now, for a reason he can’t quite put his finger on.

ANYWAY, TURNS OUT that while chrysi was away, she started to develop powers similar to jacks—but rather than use love to her advantage, it’s fear. chrysi’s disgusted with herself for being able to do this. it terrified tris (for supernatural reasons and for normal reasons) and that’s why he broke up with her. and in addition to that, chrysi got the attention of a certain elias bloom. so she’s been dealing with a stalker and her new horrifying powers.

so jacks has his whole attempt of an engagement with tella, he’s worrying abt chrysi at the same time (but he swears he’s not actually worried about her), and chrysi’s dealing with the fact that she might be turning a little more into a fate than simply remaining “fate-adjacent”.

i don’t rlly have anything planned for right here, tbh. my thoughts pick up where jacks realizes he’s actually in love with chrysi, BUT APPARENTLY stalker elias bloom finds a way to break off jacks’s and chrysi’s engagement by getting engaged to chrysi (?? chrysi didn’t agree to it, so jacks is even more confused—since she’ll make it very clear that she only does what she wants to do). jacks immediately starts scheming (w a purpose this time!!) and yeah!!! yeah. idk where this is going BUT I WANT ELIAS TO TRAP JACKS IN A CARD AGAIN 🖤🖤🖤

mostly i wanted to explore jacks being a kid, so the most i have planned is the kid stuff 🥰

[lizzie-tempest]

Like would Yandere! Sans (Undertale, Underswap, Swapfell, Underfell and Horrortale) try to seduce your reader? They can be Headcanon or Mini scenarios, I don't care! I like your blog so much.

AAAAAHHH!  Thank you for your kind words!  <3

sorry i got to this so late ;A;

Undertale 

Sans tries to romance you like any boyfriend would.  He wants to give the impression that he’s a lovable, funny guy.  He doesn’t want you to see any of the bad parts of him and he DEFINITELY doesn’t want you to find out just how many people he’s killed in order to keep you to himself.

He’ll make you laugh and take you on dates.  He’ll be smooth af and will leave you a blushing mess at the end of the night.

It’s almost too easy to make you fall for him.  

And if it was THIS easy to make you fall for HIM, how easy would it be for someone to take you away from him?

No, he can’t have that happen.  He can’t lose you.  You belong to him!  His thoughts keep spiralling in this way until-

Your next date comes.  Sans gets you a drink, but it only takes the one for you to start feeling like you’ve been drinking all night.  What was in that drink?  

You curl up in Sans’ lap, burying your head in his shoulder and close your eyes sleepily.  He just chuckles, threading his phalanges in your hair as he teleports to his room, ensuring the door is locked.  

He’ll keep you with him forever.  Even if he has to keep you this way in order to make it happen.

Underswap

Absolutely tries to romance you.  He pulls out all the stops in a bid to sweep you off your feet.  All the effort that a normal boyfriend puts into Valentine’s Day?  Yeah, that’s your life EVERY SINGLE DAY with Blue.  

He brings you your favourite flowers, your favourite chocolates and candy, recites poetry, even jewellery that just happens to be the kind of thing you would wear!

I mean, it’s great and very flattering.  But how the hell did he find out any of that stuff when you never told him?  He must’ve found out from your friends and work colleagues.

It’s not like he’s stalking your every move and breaking into your house when your asleep so he can find out about what you like and don’t like (and he definitely doesn’t watch you sleep).  

:)

Underfell

Red...well, he tries.  He does make an effort to try and romance you the old fashioned way.  

It should be fine.  He���s flirted with lots of women!  Both human AND monster!  Except, you’re not just any woman.  You’re not like everyone else.  And where women swoon normally when he flirts, the same tactic is not effective on you.

Unfortunately, you’ve had far too many men interact with you in this same way.  You know how the game goes by now and you’re tired of being flirted with when you’re just trying to go about life.  So Red’s flirting doesn’t score any points.

So he changes it up.  He tries going with flowers and chocolates.  Girls like that shit, right?  Haha!  Not in this case.  The flowers give you hayfever, leaving you a sneezing mess.  The chocolates had peanuts in, which you happen to be allergic to and Red freaks out when you go into anaphylactic shock and have to be rushed to hospital.

He feels awful about it, of course.  So naturally he goes and visits you in the hospital.

This time though, he just plays it safe.  He makes a card for you, saying both “Sorry” and “Get Well Soon” as well as picks up a little bunny plush.  If there’s one thing he’s managed to learn about you, it’s that you love bunnies. 

When he sees you, you’re kinda shocked at seeing him and you’re almost about to yell at him.  But then this big intimidating looking skeleton monster with the sharpest teeth you’ve ever seen just bursts into tears.  

He’s blubbering and sobbing out apologies and your heart just melts.  It’s become obvious that he didn’t mean any ill intent.  You kinda figured when he started freaking out the first time.  

It’s when he sheepishly hands you the card and plushie that you realize just how cute he is.  There’s a heartfelt apology inside and the plushie is so soft that you just love it instantly.  He really isn’t like the other guys who’ve tried to romance you.  He’s genuine.  And so, you ask him on a date.

He’s so happy at this that it’s like watching a kid at Christmas.  But on the inside, he’s calculating and trying to process everything he’s learned from this.

The whole world seems to be against you.  You need to be protected.  Not just from others who could take you away from him.  You need to be protected from the world!  

It’s okay.  He’s here.  He’ll take care of you.

Horrortale

Axe doesn’t bother with romancing you.  He doesn’t have time for that and it’s just not his thing.

So he does what he does best.  Hunting.

He catches you off guard.  You’ll be walking home from work.  It’s dark and there’s no one around.  The perfect opportunity to whisk you away.

You don’t suspect a thing as he creeps closer.  Axe has had plenty of time to become the perfect hunter and he puts his skills to use as he persues you.  He doesn’t make a sound, he stays in the shadows.  It’s almost like he’s hunting in the Underground again.

But this time he’s not hunting for food.  He’s hunting his cute little mate.

And when he grabs and pulls you around a corner and into a shortcut, he can’t describe the joy he feels at having caught his prey mate.  You’re completely helpless when he takes you to his basement.  No one can hear your screams.

It’s okay.  You’ll learn your place eventually.  When you realize how dangerous this world really is, you’ll learn to love him and will come to appreciate all that he does for you.

If not?

Well, he has other ways of stopping you from escaping and keeping you in line.

Swapfell

Why would he bother trying to romance you?  He is magnificent!  You should be asking HIM on dates!  

No!  Don’t walk away!  He didn’t say you could leave!

To put it simply, he tries to romance you.  But the two biggest problems (besides the fact he’s a yandere) is his ego and how tsundere he is when trying to talk to you.  It’s a double whammy with this skelly.  He’ll say something utterly romantic and then throw an insult at you and you’ll be left reeling.

Black will carry on with this for so long that you eventually get tired of the emotional whiplash.  You still like him, but you’re not sure if you can ever be romantically involved with him if he’s going to treat you like this.

You try and tell him this, but he won’t be listening.  At least, he won’t be listening to the important parts.  He’ll have selective hearing and will instead listen to the parts of the conversation that he can piece together to make it SOUND like you are trying to pursue him romantically.

You could say: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go on a date with you when you treat me like shit most of the time.

He will hear: “I can go on a date with you.” 

He’ll block the rest of it out.  

And if you try to protest, well he was able to train Mutt.  He’ll have no trouble in making you into the obedient pet he knows you can be.

[kcatta-wodahs]

Trans, Enby, or anything not Cis MC + OM Demon Bros!

TLDR; they all fuckin love you okay you’re wonderful

Lucifer

It happens right away honestly, as he is your introduction to Devildom 

You arrive suddenly in the student council, with no fucking warning, and with a bunch of people who are saying they’re demons. And like yeah okay sorcery obviously exists in your world so we can work with this but

He looks at a file, and states your deadname, and in a fit of bravery or just “i guess im here now” you correct him. 

The silence after that is palpable and every negative emotion you’re feeling as you wait shows up on your face. 

Lucifer only has a slight frown, looking at the paper, and at you, before it clears.

“Oh. Humans. I understand.” He marks something on the paper, and repeats your name. Your real name.

“Should I assume that the pronouns listed are incorrect as well?”

He calls for a RAD uniform that you’re most comfortable with, while Diavolo gushes over “HUMAN!!!”

Okay, cool, you’re hanging with demons now but at least they respect your pronouns? Guess this is your life. Your next question is whether you’re dead lol

So he knows the whole time, but it doesn’t change a thing! He loves you the same.

When you’re closer, he is very to-the-point about caring for you when you’re feeling dysphoric.

He offers you tips, makes sure you maintain your voice training even if you’re embarrassed about it, and always pushes you to express yourself how you want.

Hell maybe they use that princely riches to get you whatever surgeries you might want!

And he will *very clearly* show you how much he likes your body, however it is. 

After all, by the end of the game you belong to him, don’t you?

Mammon

When he's first assigned to be your guardian or whatever in Devildom, he didn't get the memo. 

Didn't read the paperwork, cause he's just like me and puts off homework for way too long.

So he doesn't know these pronouns of yours that Lucifer has fixed in the documentation.

Which means, unfortunately, you have to correct him when he first speaks to Levi about you.

What's funny about it is that he'll complain about LITERALLY EVERYTHING having to do with you and you being a human and UGH he has to take care of a FRAGILE HUMAN

But when you correct the pronouns he doesn't even fucking blink.

You don't even explain.

You just say the correct pronoun after he messes up, and then he repeats you and *continues complaining about you* but this time in the correct pronouns.

This is the first moment out of a million of "hidden endearing things about Mammon" that you will come to learn.

Later, when you're closer, he will always be there to stand up for you and put up a fight if anyone wants to give you shit.

He will defend you to the end of time. 

And he adores you. If he -- The Great Mammon -- adores you, then you must be perfect. So you can tell your stupid human brain to stuff it with the negative talk.

Leviathan

This one is written as AFAB

When you deny wearing the Ruri-chan dress for him, he's sad.

He KNEW you thought he was weird… and his thing for Ruri-chan was weird… and weirddmmm

So, you hesitantly tell him that… no, truly its not because of Ruri-chan

You just.. feel so sick when wearing dresses.

Something in you physically hurts, and you feel so *wrong* when in a situation where you're supposed to act "girly".

And you tell him that you don't really identify as female. You try to avoid that image whenever you can.

Levi is so touched that you would tell him and be honest with him.

He hugs you tightly and then turns beet red.

"D-Does that mean that you m-might.. kabedon… as Henry….?"

Cause he has that costume too and has never told anyone that he def would be seduced by his TSL hero.

You can get behind that one, and seeing how flustered he gets around you being yourself (through Henry?) has your confidence skyrocketing

This makes way to you flirting with ya boi 100% more often to see his adorable face.

Beelzebub

You go with him to work out, which is nothing really new, but this time he's looking at doing endurance training

...by swimming.

You have no idea what to do. 

He didn't think twice about it, either. He didn't assume there would be any problem at all. 

But for some reason your brain decided that his helpful and loving attitude wouldn't extend to this? Brains are silly when scared.

You try not to tear up when he questions why you've frozen in the doorway when he told you his plan.

You have no reason to be ashamed, or fearful, but the suddenness of the moment overwhelms you.

"I can't wear a swimsuit," is what comes out.

He pauses and then just looked vastly confused. He thought humans could swim..? Anyone could wear a swimsuit. You were wearing clothes right? What's the difference?

You wrap your arms around yourself, tryiing to soothe your nerves. "It's.. It shows too much.."

Then he looks you over, causing you to blush further, and he tips his head. "But you look nice."

Well if you weren't blushing before, now you definitely were. But it's not that. You hold your breath.

You try to explain without actually saying it, almost as if the word transgender has been blocked from your internal vocabulary. 

But this babe just insists that you look great no matter what. Is it scars? Like everyone here has scars, it's okay. Weird toes? You should see Belphie's. There's a reason he wears socks all the time. 

That almost makes you giggle, and you use that courage to say that you're trans.

He pauses for just a seond to blink. "Oh... nobody cares about that here."

He pulls you into a hug while you struggle for words. He tells you that you don't have to go swimming if you don't want to.

But he makes sure you know that he thinks you're wonderful. You're strong and brave and amazing. He will fight anyone who makes you feel differently. 

Asmodeus

This one is AMAB

It’s seeing Asmo be unequivocally himself that gives you the courage to do it.

You haven’t even told your human friends yet. Your human family.

You’ve known for ages, but..

Seeing Asmo flounce over to you wearing the most STUNNING evening dress has you weak at the knees, for reasons other than he assumes.

He assumes that you’re wildly in love as you duck your head and try to mumble something through your shaking breaths, and of course, who wouldn’t be?

But when he coaxes you to speak up for him, delight of a whole different kind lights up in his expression.

“Could you… make me as pretty as you?”

Oh, darling, he wouldn’t even need to try.

He dolls you up, hosting a lovely makeover session in his room. What he doesn’t expect is for you to start crying when you look at yourself in the mirror.

Asmo’s unshakeable confidence is shaken. He rushes over to you, trying to brush away tears and learning what’s wrong.

That’s when you tell him what you’d been hiding for so long.

The adoration in his eyes catches you off guard, and he takes your hands lovingly. “Oh, honey..” he mumbles, affectionate and sweet instead of seductive. “What’s your name?”

He takes you out shopping the next day, and is always ready to help you be yourself. 

He makes the switch almost instantly, and calls you the prettiest thing he’s ever seen even when you’re just waking up in the morning and kind of feel like a toad. 

(You blame him for those mornings, though, since he’s the one working so hard to *thoroughly* exhaust you the night before.)

Satan

This one is AFAB

You and Satan have begun meeting rather often for tea. 

It’s even gotten to the point where you’re both perfectly happy to sit in silence around each other. You’ve never been more comfortable.

But today, chaos reigns, and it has decided to make you clumsy today. Not even like, oh “that’s reasonable” clumsy.

No, you were enthralled in your fucking book, and you MISSED. 

Tea, all down your chin and neck, and you hear a snort of derision.

Satan is looking at you, very clearly amused. “Very graceful.”

You huff and puff out your cheeks at him to prevent from blushing. “Shut up. Do you have a towel?”

Looking no less amused, he just pulls a new shirt from the dresser behind him and offers it to you. 

You guys are chill. Good friends. Like. You don’t want to get up to go find a bathroom to change in. Your book is good and like Satan’s not about to be a creep, so you ask if it’s cool if you just change there, and he shrugs in response.

So, you swap shirts quickly, but when you’re dry he’s looking at you curiously.

“You have battle scars.”

You realize that you’d never told him. About your past, or your surgery, and you suddenly feel very self-conscious. 

“It’s- .. Not exactly,” you fumble out, realizing that now, instead of finishing your amazing book, you have to deal with *coming out?* Ughhhhhh. “They’re from a surgery.”

Satan’s eyes don’t leave you. “I’ve read enough about the human world to know what they are,” he said, then he nods to himself. “I didn’t know you’d had such a fight.”

You are either very, very impressed or very, very confused and you really don’t know which to lean towards just yet. 

“I’ve never been in a battle, Satan.”

“You fought to become yourself,” he answered, a small smile tracing his lips. “You never cease to impress me.”

Belphegor

The best part about becoming best friends with Belphie is the snuggle naps. It's the sweetest, calmest thing.

He is a little confused about why you insist on hugging a pillow when you nap with him, though.

He admits, its adorable. When he's big spoon he loves looking at you as you snuggle the big fluffy pillow. 

When he wants to face you, though, he wants to be closer, he doesn't really understand it. He doesn't want to make you uncomfortable but also.. why?

Eventually, he tries to get answers out of you by teasing you about getting closer *intimately*. 

He does expect the blush.

He doesn't expect the look of despair that you hide from him.

He's stunned for a moment before demanding to know why the hell you would look so sad about that.

You try to shake it off, but Belphie's nothing if not persistent and annoying when he wants to be.

He learns that you have been trying really hard for months now to hide your body from him. To keep your personal info private, even while snuggling. 

You didn't know how he would take it, after all. 

What if he got something he wasn't expecting?

Honestly, Belphie sulks after hearing this. He flicks your forehead and glares at you for doubting him. 

But he looks you dead in the eyes and reminds you that you could never convince him you were anything less than perfect.

If you expected him to be disappointed by whatever you hid during snuggles, he would never be. You would never be a disappointment to him.

Your next nap together doesn't feature the pillow between you, which makes your heart feel fit to burst while he snuggles you closer. 

[doorsclosingslowly]

They've Made of Our Bodies a Bleeding Stair

Jesper and Kaz try to retrieve Inej from Ketterdam without being recognized and murdered—and without Kaz getting ransomed back to Ravka as the the wayward Sun Summoner.

11k | Sun Summoner Kaz AU pt. 2 | Jesper/Kaz, Inej, past Kaz/Darkling content note: non-linear narrative, explicit sex, roleplay of past rape

“I want you to be him.”

“Of course,” Jesper replies. Then, articulately, once his brain’s caught up, “Uh. What?”

“The Darkling.” Kaz has turned his face away. He’s looking at the ramshackle marriage bed that takes up the bulk of this room he’s lured Jesper into. He unerringly picked the right closed door, too; he skipped the squeaky floorboards, as if he knew the exact layout of this—but it’s Kaz. He knows everything, even some dilapidated house in the Kerch countryside. The bed was probably a masterpiece of craftsmanship, when it was carved from some dark wood, a thousand years ago or whatever. The way it looks, it must’ve been old already when the previous owners of this farmhouse got it, and from the state of the house, they abandoned this place decades ago. Quite a lot of the furniture’s missing, either sold off when the place was left or stolen afterwards, but that bed was too worthless already.

The mattress is still there too. Probably fucking teeming with moth larvae and maggots and their combined accumulated shit, so it doesn’t bode too well for Jesper, how forcefully Kaz is staring at it.

“Please say it doesn’t involve the bed.”

“You said yes,” Kaz rasps, which is all the information Jesper needs to start gagging. Fake-gagging, for now, but if he sees even one wriggly little worm he’ll…

Bed. Darkling. That still doesn’t really… Want you to be him—oh—

“Yes, Jesper.” And how the hell with his ramrod tense back still turned towards Jesper—Jesper, who’s done nothing at all, hasn’t said anything except to register his displeasure at the idea of bathing in insect faeces and their squirming little manufacturers!—how the hell Kaz has realized that Jesper’s figured out what he probably means—it must be a confidence trick. Kaz likes those. But how—yeah, it’s not the point, but trying to understand whatever magic Kaz is using on him right now is much, much better for Jesper’s sanity than dwelling on the fact that Kaz might just have insinuated that he wants Jesper to pretend to be the Darkling, specifically the Darkling from that time he told Jesper about back in the Little Palace, the time he threw up after. The time he thought he could suppress his discomfort with touch long enough to seduce the Darkling into a partnership—seduce seduce, which means he wants—to flirt with Jesper? To sleep with Jesper? Is he actually saying he—

Oh. There’s a cracked mirror on the wall above the bed. That’s how Kaz saw his face.

Jesper would chalk the hallucination up to a hangover, but he’s not even drunk. Neither is Kaz, unless this old ruin of a farmhouse they broke into this morning is hiding barrels of wine the local youth haven’t made off with yet. Also, if he was hallucinating Kaz propositioning him he would—well, Jesper at least hopes he’d have enough self-respect not to make himself a stand-in for the man who bought and imprisoned Kaz for two years, controlled him by using his fears and modifying his body and cutting him off from every other person in the whole court, taking every single object he could have used to protect himself, and whatever those weird spines in Kaz’ chest are he’s probably responsible for them too. Jesper would not, actually, like the first and probably only time he’s allowed to kiss Kaz to be some kind of revenge-by-proxy thing where he recites the Darkling’s lines while Kaz swallows back bile, and then Kaz beats him up. Or murders him. It’s pathetic, but Jesper always imagined that kiss a little sweeter. Kissing over Haskell’s corpse. Kissing over the Darkling’s corpse. Kissing over the corpse of some other piece of shit who’s stupid enough to try using Kaz as their possession.

“Just warning you, I don’t have the costume or the script, so don’t expect something worthy of the Komedie Brute,” is what Jesper says instead.

Kaz’ eyebrow quirks. “You’re acted before, haven’t you? Improvised. You can flirt your way into anything. That was the main reason I kept you around.”

“You kept me around because I’m gorgeous, funny, and an incredible shot. I just play myself, if it’s seduction! Why would I improve upon perfection?”

“This isn’t seduction. He’s already locked me in the Little Palace for months at this point. Two escape attempts have failed. This is… speeding up the process,” Kaz says, nonchalantly enough it makes Jesper want to puke.

Which won’t help anything. He’s already agreed. And Kaz doesn’t care about moral objections, only practical ones. “I need more info. I haven’t actually met the Darkling.”

“You’ve met powerful men. You’ve met men who believe their righteous cause entitles them. You’ve met men mired in greed and vengeance—you’ve met me.”

“I like you.”

“Pretend you don’t, then. You used to complain about me in the Slat—of course I know, I knew everything that went on in the Dregs. You hated the way I seemed to know everything, and held it over you—so does he. You disliked my single-minded focus, the way you all seemed like pawns to me, my mockery. The way I held myself as something far superior to you. That’s a start.” Kaz limps a slow quarter circle around Jesper, and his dark eyes are burning with loathing. Jesper would hold him if he could. “You’re not asking why?”

“Uh, now that you mention—”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

Jesper sighs. Of course. He’s never expected anything else. Then he stands up straight, assuming his best the stick in my ass is so long it’s knocked the word fun from my brain pose that hopefully may pass for authoritative and slimes out, “What business, Mr Brekker?”

“Sun Summoner. Or Sunshine. He figured out Brekker’s a fake name on the first day.”

“Kaz Brekker’s a fake name?!” Jesper should have seen that coming, really… what does he even know about Kaz Brekker, truly? Except—

“It’s a name. It’s real enough. It’s feared. It’s mine.” Kaz’s eyes travel over the cobwebbed wall of the farmhouse bedroom, as if he was searching for the next lie to spin. Except that isn’t one of Kaz’ tells—Jesper’s seen him bamboozle and convince marks of the most stupid tales, and when Kaz wants them to believe him, he looks earnest. Young, depending on the role he plays, old, eager, stupid or wise. He doesn’t bother lying to Dregs, or rather: he doesn’t bother convincing them, usually. All his words are backed by the brutality of his cane. Who could be stupid enough to question even his weirdest utterances. “It just happens not to be one I was born with.”

“So what you’re saying is, the Darkling’s just not Kerch enough to get you?” Jesper grins. “Ketterdam, really—you know, I always really liked that about the Barrel, that healthy dose of ‘You are who you want and we don’t give a fuck to correct you.’ Anyway. Got it. You’re Kaz Brekker, but he’s a dick. Mr Sunbeam, what brings you into my office this evening?”

“The fete, Aleks.” Kaz shrugs off his coat, and then the purple kefta, too. He holds out the kefta in front of him, like he’s expecting Jesper to put it on. Well. That’s as good a start as any, and so Jesper turns and lets Kaz dress him into the robe he never wanted to wear.

“Then he says, ‘You must be nervous. After all, there are few gatherings in the Ketterdam slums that involve such spectacle.’” Kaz has sanded down his rasp somewhat, sounding almost smooth and seductive. He goes into a spiel of the Ravkan court and the inferiority of the Barrel that thankfully, he carries all by himself. Jesper wouldn’t even know what to say, except ‘Stop talking shit about the Barrel, you prick’ and that’s not exactly in character.

Kaz’ eyes periodically dart down to Jesper’s hands, and he realizes he’s fidgeting with the hem of the kefta’s sleeves. He stops.

“I am ready,” Kas says in his normal voice. His normal talking to a mark voice. “I realized what this demonstration represents—that I belong to something greater. It is as you said—we can offer Grisha and Ravkans hope. We. Together.” He stands up straight. Equally on both his legs. He winces. He’s not holding his cane, Jesper realizes. He’s not wearing his gloves. “I am ready to stand by your side. We should be partners. The Sun and the Dark.”

“Uh… great. We’ll be great together. Do great things. Better partners than enemies. Some of those rumours even freaked me out, you know—that kid with the wind-up toy in his throat—”

“Think before you speak, Jesper,” Kaz hisses. “Never let me lead. Never give me control. Every word is a cue to corral your prey where you want it—whether a compliment or a barely-there hidden threat.”

“Is that what you do?”

“Sometimes.” Kaz meets Jesper’s eyes. The tense mask of his face breaks into a smirk. “To be honest, I find the subtle craft of manipulation is wasted on you. You’ll obey anyway. Let’s go back to the start, and focus.”

Jesper shrugs off the kefta again and then lets Kaz dress him, again. He does his best imitation of Kaz, of that early Kaz before Jesper learned how he takes his coffee and before he saw the brutal twist of his face, that one time when the Dime Lions had Jesper on his knees and shoved a gun in his mouth. He plays the imperious tactician in his office who told his goons to drag Jesper up four flights of stairs with a bag over his head, ready to be shot for his debts, and then sold him on the one thing that gave his life meaning.

He insults Dirtyhands’ father and mother to his face, and gets really into it, too: Ketterdam’s full of idiots who’d miss the love of their life because they were busy trying to pry cobblestones off the streets to sell for half a sausage, and the harbour’s so filthy even the fish won’t fuck in it—keeping the brothels in good fish-ness, haha. Because the fish rent rooms so they don’t get fishy sex diseases from the water. Do fish get diseases from sex?

“Kill me now,” Kaz moans, and that one’s probably deserved.

“Anyway, my Sun Summoner, I’m sure you’ll perform well,” Jesper says with just the tiniest hint of slime.

“I am ready. I realized what this demonstration represents—that I belong to something greater. It is as you said—we can offer Grisha and Ravkans hope. We. Together.”

Jesper moves slowly, idly: not caging him in against the bed yet but definitely implying he can and will.

“I am ready to stand by your side. We should be partners. The Sun and the Dark.” Kaz swallows. “‘That means a lot to me. You mean a lot,’ is what you say now.”

How come the Darkling’s not constantly slipping on his own slimy slime trail?

“That means a lot to me.” Jesper gives Kaz a deep, smouldering look. The pockmarks on his cheeks. The jumping muscle in his jaw. The hint of a pained grimace from standing unaided. The boyish grin when he’s totally fucked over another gang boss and gets to gloat. The vicious hatred when someone touches his Crows. Licking powdered sugar off his gloves. “You mean a lot.”

And that’s it. The way Kaz looks at him—this is when the Darkling makes his move.

“I have been waiting for you for so long,” Jesper purrs smarmily, closing his eyes, moving in for the kiss, and—Kaz isn’t there anymore.

It was a single step backwards, because Kaz has hit the edge of the bed already, face blotched with humiliation, and the way he looks at Jesper is—angry is the least terrible interpretation. If he backs out now, Kaz is going to kill him for pitying him or catering to a weakness that honestly—how is not wanting this weak? But Kaz is Kaz, and Jesper’s just Jesper, and—

“Focus,” Kaz hisses. “You own Ravka. You will own the Sun, too. You have waited for this triumph—take it.”

“Why don’t we take this to the—” fuck you, Brekker, for making me say this— “bed, then? Take off your clothes. Don’t be scared.”

That’s a good dig. The kind of insult that looks super caring, unless you know Kaz enough to understand he sees any crack in his image as a dangerous failure. Jesper’s getting the hang of this malicious flirting thing, finally. When this is over, he’ll need to scrub the slime off himself twice.

Kaz looks at Jesper while he disrobes. At him, Jesper hopes against hope, at the real person he’s roped into his worst scheme yet with a goal that’s still totally obscure; at Jesper and not the asshole he’s imagining in his place. Kaz’ eyes trace his cheeks, dance over his shaved head, catch on the lips.

Jesper takes off his boots and gun belt, and the kefta. He undoes the fly of his trousers, pulls his dick out, and stops. He glares at Kaz, daring him to object to the attempt at making this slightly less miserable—Jesper’s the Darkling, he’s in charge, so Kaz can fuck off with his masochism. He’s done undressing. He’s not taking off his shirt or trousers. That layer of cloth stays on.

But Kaz doesn’t object. He stands up straight, naked, brittle, wincing, and then glancing away he mutters, “Ignore the antlers. He hadn’t done that yet.”

Fucking Darkling.

The antlers stick out of Kaz’ collarbones, uneven tines of—possession, mutilation, and Jesper’s eyes catch on a tiny set of grooves on the left one. The scabbed-over cuts underneath. The bruise from the gunshot. And even despite that horror, Kaz has a nice chest. Serious muscle, a street map of scars and a smattering of dark hairs—it feels weirdly improper to stare at him, so Jesper’s eyes dance down to his knobbly left knee and the softly twisted right thigh with its knots of scars, up to the face where he’s biting his harsh pretty mouth, and down again. His dick is nice, fat but not too long, rooted in a tangle of dark curls.

It’s utterly limp.

It’s pathetic, how much that hurts. Of course he isn’t into this. Of course he doesn’t find Jesper remotely attractive. Of course this is just some weird masochistic proxy powerplay for him, some attempt to prove he’s stronger now and can bear it or whatever the fuck, and Jesper’s just the sad stupid body he’s using to enact it.

And of course not even that is enough to make Jesper bow out. Kaz asked.

“Do you want me to suck you off first? Get you in the mood, even a little?” It’s not just for Kaz, that offer, though the whole thing will probably be less painful and awkward if he manages to coax out some arousal. It’s not for younger Jesper, who fantasized about being ordered to blow his boss as penance more often than he likes to admit. No, this is so Jesper can bury his face in Kaz’ pubic hair for a minute. And cry.

Kaz raises an eyebrow. He sounds arch and ice cold when he asks, “Jesper, do you think the Darkling would suck my dick?”

“He should have. Saints, what an asshole,” Jesper shoots back before he can think. “You need a better class of lovers.”

“By which you’re of course implying that you are much better than Aleksander Morozova, the General Kirigan, the Black Heretic, eternal Conqueror and crowned Emperor of Greater Ravka, Salvation to Grishadom, Master of the Fold and He who chained the Sun, et cetera and so fucking on and so fucking forth the Darkling himself?”

“Given I just offered you a blowjob without bringing useless power shit into it, yes.”

“Wrong data, incoherent formula. Correct answer.” Kaz’ grin is crooked. Inordinately fond, and Jesper would have settled for no longer desperately hiding terror but this is—

Yeah.

“I’m going to try to make this roleplay as realistic as I can, but I don’t know if I can forget enough about how to have sex to sink to the Darkling’s level. Also, you don’t happen to have the address of that Grisha Tailor who mutilated you back there? I need them to make my dick look weird. Corkscrew, maybe. Some warts. It’s probably green. I’d peg him for advanced neurological syphilis but I am about to sleep with you, so— ”

“Did you know, Jesper, that the Darkling always wears a gag when he has sex?”

“Shutting up now, boss.”

“Don’t shut up,” Kaz replies instantly. Very, very instantly. “Just keep your disparagements somewhat plausible. And… rare.”

Only to jolt me back, he’s asking. “Got it. So I guess I’m supposed to loom over you a little? How close do you want me?”

“I’ll need to—” Kaz turns around and bends over to root around in the pockets of his coat, and it’s even weirder, worse, looking at his ass when Jesper knows Kaz doesn’t like him back. Kaz tosses over a tiny bottle. Oil. “Give that to me. Tell me to prepare myself.”

“Just saying it once more, boss. You don’t have to go through with—”

“Stop thinking about the Kaz Brekker you know,” Kaz hisses. “Stop anticipating my reactions. Stop caring. You are the Darkling. You have been waiting for the Sun Summoner for decades. You’ve formed your picture of them. This delinquent flinching little rat you bought doesn’t quite fit, not his limp, not his fear of touch, not his pathetic need to assert himself, but, well… you have time. He’ll learn how to make himself fit into the space you provide him. He’ll become your Sun Summoner.”

“Have I told you yet that I’m going to kill that piece of shit?”

“You’ve mentioned it, once or twice. In the last hour.”

Jesper bares his teeth: a grin, but not. A promise. “Good. I’ll hold his mouth open while you stuff him full of black powder and set him on fire.”

“Stop stalling, Jesper. That won’t make it any easier.”

That won’t make it not have happened.

“If you’re sure this will help.”

Kaz nods.

“Lie down on the bed, then. Is there a—no, no pillows here, roll up the coat and slide it under your hips.” Jesper turns his face away, listening to the timid, stuttering squelches of Kaz stretching his asshole. Jesper doesn’t know what would be worse: if, after everything, he can’t get it up… or if he can.

Well. He’ll have to. His dick will just have to obey the dictates of the situation, just as Kaz’ body was made into the Sun Summoner. He’s young. He’s still looking at Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, naked, who asked Jesper to sleep with him, and that’ll have to be enough. They’ve gotten this far. They’ll force their way through. That’s how you do it. That’s how you gamble. How you lose big. Kaz might have once tried to explain to him something about sunk costs and throwing good money after bad, but Jesper ignored him that night and lost a hundred and twenty kruge to Specht, and he’s never looked back.

“Okay, Mr Sunshine. Let’s consummate our fucking partnership,” he grinds out when Kaz has gone quiet, takes the bottle to slick up his own uncooperative dick, and carefully, he climbs on top of Kaz. The clothes were a good decision: Kaz barely flinches when he kneels in-between his legs and pulls the sleeve over his hand to carefully guide his right knee to rest on Jesper’s thigh.

Kaz is staring up at his face, breathing, just breathing. The antlers in his collarbone frame his bright face—brighter than the candles should allow, like maybe—and his focus is rigid and he’s breathing, breathing quickly—

“Is this teaching you anything yet?”

“Not really,” Kaz rasps, after too long. “Or—I think—maybe it was—” he glances at Jesper’s pathetic, unhappy limp dick. His face twists. “I thought you were into me.”

This is— “I love you. Kaz Brekker, whoever you are. I don’t give a fuck about this Sun Summoner bullshit. I love you. I love you,” because this is—Jesper can’t do this. He can’t. His elbows are locked: he can’t drop his body any lower. He can't go lower than this. “I love you,” until it’s finally over. “I love you. I love you.”

☼

“And I’m telling you again, I don’t know what he does Tuesday evenings,” Jesper hisses.

“You were still with the Dregs, three months ago!” Kaz is wiping his cane clean. It didn’t even really get dirty—they mostly used kitchen knives to do the deed, and in the case of a maidservant who unwisely came to work in the middle of the night, a bullet that Jesper’s already collected and reshaped into something functional, because he might not get to buy new ones. Desperation. Frugality. The Kerch are rubbing off on him. It’s good, though. The fact he’s cleaning the wood is all the confirmation Jesper will likely ever get that Kaz does like the new cane Jesper made him from a cute straight rowan sapling, reinforced with the metal scavenged from all but the most essential buttons on their hodgepodge of clothes. At least there’s one thing of Jesper’s he values. “How can you not know the behavioural patterns of your boss? Are you that brainless?”

“No-one knew what he was up to! He barely came by the Slat. He wasn’t that interested in us.”

“You worked for Per Haskell, Jesper; you worked for that man for years—for nearly as many as I did, when you ran off to Ravka—and now you attempt to convince me you barely know his name?” Kaz still doesn’t look quite as harsh as he used to, or maybe that’s just Jesper hankering for their past. Well, he didn’t used to explain his plans to Jesper as if he was an imbecile—but then, he didn’t used to need Jesper. He had more stooges back then. Now, he only has one. Ally. Friend.

If it’s as weird for him, though, as it is for Jesper being back in Ketterdam after he didn’t die on his revenge suicide plot and the city didn’t, either—well, he might still get murdered for stealing the Sun Summoner or skipping out on debts or something completely unrelated, and Ketterdam’s… well, she’s weathering having her ruling class torn apart twice in short order, once by the Darkling’s conquest and now, by the slow collapse of the Darkling’s overstretched realm after he’s lost his saint/weapon/doll.

The Barrel’s fine—as glary and miserable as it ever was, anyway, but though Kaz would probably insist most of the Mercher’s Council had their hands in gang business one way or the other, their reach was indirect, mediated and secretive enough for the chaos tearing up the Geldstraat not to trickle down as quickly into the slums. And anyway, the involvement of the merchers only ever made life worse for most people. The plight of the rich can only be a blessing.

Right now, they’re inside a nice place in the Zelver district. Close enough to power to feel the death throes, and even disregarding the political manoeuvring and debris and panic everywhere, just looking at the house from the outside made Kaz twitchy, somehow.

His energy almost matched Jesper’s trigger finger.

It’s Haskell’s house, so that unease makes sense.

Haskell’s expensive secret new house far outside the Barrel that they’re despoiling now. They looked as out of place in the beautiful Zelver district as any Barrel rats, with their heads shorn close to the bone so they’ll look different enough to not get recognized and faces wiped with dirt, dressed in a melange of Ravkan clothes they haven’t found a chance to replace yet and tawdry Barrel flash for everything else.

Kaz was wearing two coats when he entered the house, an old rose and amber paisley trench that even Jesper admitted is hideous, though now it’s splattered with blood that actually really ties the colour scheme together. Still gross though, and luckily slung over the chair. Along with the purple kefta Kaz hid underneath, the one he still hasn’t given back. Or burned, which is what they did to the other Ravkan overcoats. On the streets his two coats bulked up his frame so much he looked like a kid that Jesper’s never met, dressed up to play a gangster’s role. He looked nothing like the Sun Summoner anymore, and only somewhat like Jesper’s imagined baby Dirtyhands crawling out straight from the harbour, fifty kilos sopping wet and ready to kill a man and feast on his entrails.

Now, he’s stripped down to a ruffled red shirt over a green undershirt—he conspicuously shunned the yellow one next to it on the washing line—and light blue pinstripe trousers. The shirt is a little large in the shoulders, and he’s cuffed the trousers. They stole everything from a cottage on the edge of Ketterdam. Not quite Barrel flash, but almost—alike in style but with better fabric, something a town edge kid probably bought to look like a cool gangster. Or something Jesper would have bought to look special for a very special date. If he squints, he can almost imagine—it’s the morning after, and—

Ever since the Little Palace the idea of Kaz naked has totally lost its lustre. The idea of his muscular but scrawny, scarred chest, his wiry tattooed arms, his ambiguously demonic hands—it’s all overlaid now with a flimsy ugly sleeveless yellow paper taffeta gown. With normal hands, kept bare as humiliation.

But maybe—maybe they sat together, not on a log in a forest but on a sofa this time, and then in the morning Kaz was cold and he stole all of Jesper’s clothes to wear over his own. That’s much better. (Maybe he just wanted Jesper naked all day…)

Jesper won’t let the Darkling steal his fantasies, too. They’re—

Ouch. Fucking ouch.

Jesper really shouldn’t have added tiny spiky worms to the side of the cane, but Kaz’ indignation was just too funny.

“Let me make this clear—” Kaz rasps, once he’s regained Jesper’s full attention. Half-full. ‘Like he’s plundered Jesper’s wardrobe’ is still such a good look on him. “We are both hunted. Neither of us can afford to be caught outside on the streets of Ketterdam and let whoever saw us live. If we’re going to make Haskell’s house our temporary base of operations, we need to make his death as inconspicuous as possible. We cannot safely anticipate which of his visitors to eliminate and which to fool unless we know whether they, in turn, may be missed.”

“Well,” Jesper mutters. “Mitki might come by. If the neighbours don’t chase him off.”

Kaz raises a single, dirt-encrusted eyebrow.

“Mitki’s the newest lieutenant. Might have made it this—”

“Not Anika? I can understand why a flake like you didn’t rise in the Dregs ranks, but she—”

“Ambush. Dime Lions, five weeks after you disappeared.”

“Rotty?”

“Slit throat. Still no clue who did it.”

“Specht? Pim? Neeta? Big Bol?”

“Razorgulls, knife, last year. Bullet to the head, same day. Hellgate. Hellgate.”

“Muzzen? Ruk? Keeg?”

“Another ‘Gull stabbing, just before I left. Hellgate, again. Keeg just disappeared, though. Might still be alive somewhere over the True Sea, if he’s clever. Not that he was, he’s probably floating, poor sod.” Jesper shrugs. After a while, it just gets too much: the beginning of the Dregs’ end is seared into his brain, but there aren’t enough synapses for the tenth—or fiftieth—dead friend to hurt as much. “There’s a reason why I didn’t think twice about running when I lost those fifty thousand. Like I said, boss, it’s been a shitshow since you left. Haskell never wanted for new ones, since he got his kids fresh off the street, but he just stopped giving any shit whatsoever, and since you weren’t there to pick up the slack… well, I can see why he didn’t care, now.”

Jesper spares a bitter look for the mountain of kruge next to Haskell’s foot, the mountain he offered Kaz as soon as he saw him, long before Kaz even tried to hack off both his hands and feet with a dull meat cleaver. Long before Kaz had to settle for cutting down to the bone and then wrenching Haskell’s extremities from their sockets by sheer force of hatred, while Jesper puked into the kitchen sink. The mountain he’d never have amassed as the boss of a gang as shambolic as the last years of the Dregs.

The mountain that’s going to pay off Inej’s indenture tomorrow.

Haskell allowed her to rot there. It’s only fair he pays for her freedom with his life.

“Everyone we could use is gone. And you…” Kaz tips Jesper’s chin up with his cane. The world shimmies a little. “You, of all the old Dregs, survived.”

Jesper shrugs again. This is too much to confess to Kaz, of all cruel bastards, probably far too much, but—they’re sitting in the living room of Jesper’s former boss, the man who sold Kaz out to the Darkling and used the prize money to live in luxury, while letting his gang die on increasingly pointless ill-planned errands. The other end of the table is still flecked and puddled with slow-drying blood—not to mention the corpse, or corpse-pieces, laying there—but over here, they have a bottle of expensive whisky they found in a cabinet and they’re trading swigs from the bottle, all bitter and clean.

“I didn’t take it too well, when you and Inej just disappeared, and then my friends kept dying. Might have gone on a couple of benders. Might have lost some games. Might have lost some fights. Might have had some sexual encounters with people who turned out to be massive creeps. Consequently, I may not have been technically around to be asked to go on some of these errands, or perhaps I just didn’t notice because I was drunk.”

“Jesper.” Kaz doesn’t even sound surprised. Wow. Thanks for having faith in me, boss.

It’s not really that humiliating, though, now he’s said it out loud. He spent two years making bad decisions and occasionally braiding Inej’s hair. Kaz spent that time getting turned into a doll. Who can say what’s worse? He takes another deep gulp and grins. “You know me, boss. I need some external structure in life. I really need a commandeering asshole dragging me into his schemes to be my best self.”

“And yet, you outwitted the Darkling.”

“That wasn’t difficult, to be fair. Tell them I’m Grisha, search the Little Palace, shoot Kaz Brekker in the head, get executed…” Jesper trails off. When the silence grows teeth, he takes a pull of whisky that’s so desperate it makes him cough, but Kaz is still letting him stew.

They don’t really need to talk about it, though. No value in going over what happened in the Little Palace. No value in discussing anything. Everything is fine now. Yes, Jesper did want to kill Kaz. Yes, he’ll die for Kaz.

And they both know why.

Kaz steals the bottle. It’s incredible, actually, Jesper was just holding it—well, maybe he’s a little more drunk than he thought, but Kaz would probably like being complimented on his pickpocketing. “I didn’t even see you steal that bottle,” Jesper says.

“I’d be angry you’re drunk,” Kaz rasps. “But you’ve been completely useless at all stages of the current plan so far. And the previous one, by your planning—I always forget, in my amazement at what you accomplished, that you failed.”

He says that, but his cheeks are flushed pink with alcohol. His pupils are wide when he looks at Jesper. He raises the bottle to his lips and tips his head back, swallowing what should have easily been ten more swigs of whisky. Thieving bastard.

☼

When Jesper awakes on Haskell’s second softest chaise longue in the receiving room—neither of them was particularly eager to climb into Haskell’s bed, and, in Jesper’s case, not particularly still able to walk up the stairs either—his mouth is dry, his bladder full and the light is poking his brain even through closed curtains and eyelids. And Kaz—he searches the whole house after finishing his business, but yes, it’s true—Kaz is gone.

So are his cane and his current Barrel flash coat and the kefta, which means Kaz is probably safe. Well. As safe as the escaped Sun Summoner can be. Not kidnapped, at least. More alive than anyone stupid enough to cross Kaz’ path.

He’s taken Haskell’s kruge, and left a note.

In Kaz’ sharp hand, the note reads, “STAY.”

It’s underlined three times, and on the back side Kaz has written, “or you will die,” which to be fair is pretty ambiguous.

‘Die’ as in, ‘I mistrust your competence and assume you’ll get yourself killed if you move a finger?’ Or as in, ‘I’m warning you I won’t go out of my way to save you?’ Perhaps it’s a straightforward ‘Disobey and I am going to personally murder you and piss on your corpse?’ All are very real possibilities, knowing Kaz.

To really understand the message, Jesper needs to get into Kaz’ mood when he woke up—hungover, but how much? Enough he hates the entire world, or so much he hates Jesper more? Also, his current way of thinking. Jesper’s usefulness. A point in favour is the fact that Jesper saved him from a fate worse than death, but on the other hand, Jesper forgot to extract a deal from him and Kaz is so Kerch it hurts, which means he’s pared down solidarity and reciprocity and love into exchange, into deals, and all Jesper’s offering are the first three. They shared a bottle of whisky next to the corpse of their old boss, though, and in general Kaz looked like he was having fun more than once on their dirty, miserable long trek out of Ravka. Way more fun than he had in the majestic Little Palace. Also, Jesper’s incredibly likeable. He’s beautiful and funny and stupidly in love with Kaz without asking anything in return, so really it only makes sense that Kaz has finally succumbed to his charm.

(He dug his hand into Jesper’s hair, that night on the fallen tree and twice afterwards, but—maybe that was only to make Jesper squirm.)

Well, he enjoyed Jesper’s company while they fled from Ravka to Ketterdam, at least. That’s the crux of it.

So why would Kaz anticipate that Jesper might want to run anywhere? There’s a well-stocked kitchen here. A far more sensible assumption would be that Jesper might want to make some waffles or go on a morning jog. No, not that one. Enjoy a lavish breakfast. Have a bath, perhaps, after spending two weeks crawling through the Ravkan forest and the Shu countryside and stowed in the belly of a wine cargo ship and then countryside again, this time Kerch. Jesper’s feet hurt just thinking about it, and that Kaz managed to get here, even at the half-speed they settled on, speaks to—well, the same bull-headed masochism as always, but the fact he still refused to even consider stealing a cart or horse or approach any larger settlement before Ketterdam means he must be even more terrified of the Darkling than Jesper can imagine. He refused to leave any trace whatsoever. (And yet he’s back in Ketterdam, the one city in the world he was connected to before the Little Palace, because…?)

Ketterdam is the only city, village, collection of buildings and people they’ve been to for weeks, which means it’s the first chance Jesper has to gamble, but—even he knows not to stake anything on the possibility there’s someone left in the Barrel who doesn’t know about Jesper Fahey, he who owes Pekka Rollins fifty thousand kruge and just skipped town, kill immediately with extreme prejudice.

Well, Rollins is dead now—the only gang boss courageous or aggrieved or hungry enough to try and covertly resist the Darkling, go figure—but whoever’s head Lion now probably won’t even let Jesper try to spin an argument about how he really owes that money to ‘Pekka Rollins’ Dime Lions’, not any successor organizations. No such luck, and anyway, people stupid enough to bounce on their debts are fair game to any gang in the Barrel. They don’t cooperate on much, not even for mutual benefit, but murdering dishonest gamblers? That’s a team sport.

Jesper’s last recklessly suicidal plan worked out fantastic, so maybe he should find a card table. His luck’s turned. He could win millions.

Which Kaz definitely would anticipate, and warn him away from. Kaz is a buzzkill. Just because Jesper’s going to get murdered on sight in the Barrel…

Because Jesper’s gonna get murdered on sight in the Barrel.

If Kaz wants to rebuild his status in the Barrel, there’s no bigger liability than Jesper. And Kaz wants to, surely. He worked his way up inside the Dregs carefully and diligently, spent more time than anyone sane would inside a tiny attic office adding up numbers, and sucked up to an utter piece of shit like Haskell, just so he could one day become a Barrel boss. And now, to rise again, he has to cut off the dead weight.

Which means Jesper.

That’s why he left.

It’s not even a betrayal. They don’t have an agreement for life after reaching Ketterdam, let alone one that says Jesper can follow him forever and ever just like in the good old days. Inej—but Inej’s actually useful to a new Barrel boss, as soon as her indenture’s paid. Jesper’s the weak link here. Jesper’s screwed.

Which doesn’t mean he won’t go down fighting. He knows the way to the Menagerie—the quickest way, the scenic route, the paths least commonly trafficked by Pigeons and the ones usually avoided by staadwatch or gangsters. He knows Kaz well enough to guess which one he’s taken. If he hasn’t woken too late—and by the sun’s position, it’s still early in the morning—then he has a chance to pass Kaz off and… insult him? Beg? Cry? Sell his father’s soul for a position in the new Dregs? Maybe he’ll just have to wear a Komedie Brute mask for the rest of his life and it’ll be fine. He’ll figure it out later.

Jesper draws his shoulders up to his ears while he scurries through empty alleyways, the collar of his fancy pseudo-Barrel flash coat turned up. He’s almost glad that Kaz made him go hatless and shaved bald—thoroughly unstylish and un-Jesper enough he might survive the morning—but there are drawbacks to the disguise in the damp chill.

Also, the disguise isn’t good enough. After some minutes, Jesper notices that some clusters of metal stay at roughly the same distance to him. Eight clusters of—round, small, definitely mostly kruge with a few Ravkan coins thrown in. Thirteen guns. A rifle. Two of the coin clusters are fairly close together and move in unison. Jesper’s dealing with seven shadows, then.

That’s—a lot.

Jesper’s had a little more training being a Durast now, but what he could really use now is combat training. He hasn’t even been in a battle in over a month, unless you count handing Kaz knives while he carves up Per Haskell, and since Jesper had to puke right after, you probably shouldn’t. He’s fought rabbits. Jesper’s sure fought some rabbits in Ravka. Two deer, too.

He could probably escape his pursuers. It would take time, though, time Jesper doesn’t have when Kaz is leaving him behind without a word. He’ll just have to kill them quickly.

At least there’s one of his favourite surveillance detection routes nearby. One of the rare aboveground tunnels in Ketterdam, not used by Pigeons for obvious reasons of creepiness and also because it just leads to a big courtyard behind a factory: a courtyard that’s easy to escape, when you know the gate’s lock is broken. Kaz showed it to him, just weeks after Jesper got recruited, after the second time the ‘Gulls got the drop on him and beat him to a pulp. In the courtyard, he made Jesper shoot some sparrows and some pigeons to prove his worth. Not crows, though, and for a year Jesper believed that detail was just thrown in to test whether Jesper would obey nonsensical orders. It’s still a plausible explanation.

He’ll just have to ask Kaz, after he begs him for a role in the new Dregs. After he kills these seven pursuers.

If.

He catches the first man off-guard and blows his head off when he exits the tunnel, but after that, it’s a stand-off. Jesper, hiding behind a massive wood barrel for cover, against six men ducked into the mouth of the tunnel.

Jesper manages to pick off another man by firing into the tunnel and blindly redirecting the bullet into the first nook, but the second attempt at using that trick doesn’t hit anything, and neither does the third. He has eight bullets left now, and five enemies. Even Jesper can tell that’s bad odds.

Retreating across the courtyard, though—the first few meters are fine, there are enough wine barrels and he can just dash from one to another, slightly nudging bullets off their course so none hit him.

Those guys have far too many bullets left, though, by the time Jesper’s forty meters away from the gate. Forty meters without cover. His pursuers aren’t bad shots either—likely Dime Lions, because there’s no way a Liddy would ever get so close that Jesper has to redirect their bullet—and they’re cautious enough that only two of them are crouched behind that barrel next to the tunnel, now, while the rest are still hidden inside.

This might get a little tough—but if Jesper starts manipulating bullets more obviously, will that information travel to the Little Palace? They know the Sun Summoner escaped with a Fabrikator. Is he painting a target on Kaz’ back?

Is he—

Bloodcurdling screams and groans, and Jesper’s too far away to hear any thwacks but his senses have expanded and he knows that metal coating intimately. Knows that cane.

Kaz emerges from the tunnel opening, Inej behind him, and—

Boom.

The Dime Lion’s shot him.

Right in the chest, and Kaz stumbles, falls to his knees.

Keels over.

Jesper shoots wildly while he runs over, whirling the bullets around the barrel that the Dime Lions are hiding behind—two left, Kaz wouldn’t have let any of the ones in the tunnel escape—desperate to hit something or at least keep them distracted and scared long enough to get there, or for—Inej’s pulling Kaz back by his coat, and she’s still wearing a sheer Menagerie dress, she probably doesn’t have any knives to protect—nothing’s hit yet, nothing’s hit, and all Jesper’s bullets are in the air whizzing around but he’s not hitting anything and Kaz is down and Kaz—

Kaz pushes himself to his knees, and then he stands up.

He’s breathing hard, and in the ugly rose/amber/bloodstain trench there’s a hole above his heart, sooty and burnt, but he’s still alive, Kaz is alive, he’s—

“What are you?” a Dime Lion gasps. Jesper’s finally got a bead on her. He sinks three bullets into her head.

“I just killed…” The other one is less lucky, and Jesper only manages to hit his stomach before he runs out of airborne bullets. He’ll die, but it won’t be quick.

“I crawled out of the harbour before. I’ll do it again,” Kaz rasps, and before the Dime Lion manages more than “Dirty—” a wet squelch informs Jesper of his demise.

That’s all of them.

“Kaz, you—” Inej’s much quicker at Kaz’ side, but he moves away before she can touch him to check his injury. Moves quickly enough he’s probably not on death’s door. He is a good actor, though. She looks at Jesper, and he’s about to join her in begging Kaz to get some medical aid, at least, but then Kaz shrugs off the ruined trench coat.

“Those kefta aren’t entirely useless,” Kaz rasps, grinning like an amused fucking asshole who almost gave Jesper a heart attack.

And then, Inej wraps herself around Jesper.

“You’re alive! I was terrified,” she shouts against his chest, slapping his back and grabbing as if she can’t decide whether to kill Jesper or never let go. “I thought you got yourself killed! You just disappeared, no word, I thought—”

“I may have lost a game where the stake was fifty thousand kruge?”

“You—Jes—” Inej squeezes him harder. “I told you to stop. I’d rather have you, with me, than have you die trying to pay me off.”

“I almost won! But there was no chance I’d get out of it, without indenturing myself, and—it all worked out, didn’t it? You’re free! Which reminds me…” Jesper takes off his own coat—blue and green and purple wave patterns, very fancy, a bit on the small side for him—and lays it onto Inej’s shoulders. It suits her, too—it drowns her a little, sure, but the way the coat reaches down to her ankles looks regal, and anyway, Kaz is a good sewer. He’ll fix this. “Can’t have you catching a cold.”

Before she can reply—tell him again she wasn’t worth risking his life and freedom in every card game he could for two years, when she definitely is, she’s Inej, he’ll do anything for her—he runs away and searches the dead Dime Lions for a new coat for himself, all their money, the rifle, and picks up the used bullets too. Knowing Kaz, he’ll want them to leave this place soon, and Jesper can’t very well try to convince his boss he needs to keep his sharpshooter around when he has no bullets left.

Speaking of—Jesper saunters over to Kaz when he’s done. With his most careless grin, he says, “I want my goodbye kiss before you ditch me.”

“I left you a note,” Kaz rasps. “I should have remembered you can’t read.”

Which as good as counts as a promise that Kaz didn’t intend to leave him behind: that, and the adrenaline of an easy gunfight has Jesper grinning widely. This is the life he wanted. The life he yearned for during the last two miserable years. The Crows are back, baby. He asks, “What now, boss?”

“We leave. Before anyone comes to investigate those gunshots.”

“Novyi Zem?”

“No,” Kaz rasps, just as Inej says, “They’ll let us drown.”

“They what?”

“Move.” Kaz starts limping past the factory, and then doubles back one street over—in the general direction away from the sea. Jesper and Inej quickly flank him. “I went to the Fifth Harbour before I paid off Inej’s indenture. It’s near empty. Old man there said no boats go to Novyi Zem or Eames Chin right now, and no boats come back. Because nothing gets unloaded. Kerch ships can’t dock there. They all get stranded at sea.”

“People started running when Ravka cut us off from the continent,” Inej mutters. “Before the invasion. And now the Darkling’s gone, the Kerch Grisha are either running or dead.”

“Too many refugees, apparently. Something about culture and scroungers and economic migrants. Novya Zem’s closed its ports to Kerch.”

“But I’m Zemeni—”

“You’re just a person. Those borders don’t exist to help you. The harbour watch don’t exist for you, the government doesn’t exist for you—if there’s a choice between cementing their power and your life, every bureaucrat worth their salt will choose the former.”

Jesper wants to argue, but actually, he’d trust Kaz over Novyi Zem a million times. Kaz saved his life when Ketterdam and Kerch would have swallowed him whole. Novyi Zem isn’t any different. “So we’re stuck in Ketterdam, then, where I’ll get shot on sight and you’ll easily get tracked by the Darkling. I only remember one safehouse that’s still uncompromised, as of last month anyway, unless you think we should go back to Haskell’s, boss?”

“Inej,” Kaz rasps. “That shop over there. Buy us a cart. We’re going to Lij.”

“What’s in Lij, boss? Why Lij? Where is Lij, anyway?”

But Kaz doesn’t answer him. Even aboard the cart, directing their new donkey with a seemingly perfect grasp of the roads leading to a small southern Kerch town none of them have ever been to, he refuses to elaborate. He looks tense, though. Jesper reshapes his many new bullets while he walks alongside. If there’s a fight waiting for them in Lij, they’re going to win.

☼

Kaz paces the length of the room. Window, door, window, door—there’s not much space beside the marriage bed, and the air draft of his passing caresses Jesper’s shorn head.

He’s put back together now, dressed in his socks and his boots and his underpants and his trousers and his gloves, though his torso’s only covered by the open purple kefta. Despite the cane, he limps more heavily than before he trekked for weeks through the Ravkan forest. He’s not fully recovered yet, if he’ll ever be.

Jesper’s on the floor. He climbed off the bed—off Kaz, after he ruined Kaz’ stupid get proxy-raped by the proxy-Darkling again plan. He said what he said, and the silence that followed was all the answer he’ll get, and then he sat down on the floor. It’s as good a place to wait as any. Probably more hygienic than the bed, anyway. He watched Kaz dress, until he almost looked like the Barrel lieutenant they both wish he was still allowed to be, and now he’s watching Kaz Brekker Dirtyhands the Sun Summoner pace holes in the old dusty floor of an abandoned farmhouse an hour’s walk outside of the small Kerch town of Lij.

He’s not getting murdered, though. Not for what he almost did. Not for what he said. That’s as good as this was ever going to go.

“It was worse this time.” Kaz directs his rasp towards the floor. He doesn’t stop moving. “I froze. Why was it—it was you. I knew you were—you’d never—with you it should have been more tolerable. Not worse.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, boss.” Jesper still can’t decide whether he should be ashamed that he was too squeamish to go through with it. Kaz doesn’t seem as angry as he could be, that Jesper totally fucked up this whatever-it-was-supposed-to-be. Not the mocking disappointment he doles out at Jesper’s predictable failures—gambling, distractibility, lateness, no impulse control and so on—and not the seething hatred when Jesper does something he hasn’t anticipated.

“I turned it over and over in my mind. For a year. What I did wrong. How I could have turned this to my advantage. How to excise this weakness. I thought I’d found—but there’s nothing.”

Jesper would offer to brutally desecrate the Darkling’s corpse again, but it clearly doesn’t help. Kaz won’t let this go. Never mind that he was a teenage thief imprisoned in a palace. Never mind it was him against the whole entourage of the most powerful Grisha. The man who crowned himself Emperor.

Sometimes you’re just fucked. And there’s nothing you can do. Life isn’t fair.

“There is a way to beat him,” Kaz hisses. “And I will find it.”

“You did. Sort of.”

“What—”

Jesper grins a shark-grin. “You’re not in Ravka now, are you?”

“That doesn’t count.”

“Why doesn’t it? No, boss, listen—he didn’t beat you alone, either, right? He had his Tailor making you into a doll. His Fabrikators locking your cage. His soldiers. Hell, Haskell selling you out—so really, it’s your victory that I found you.” Now that Jesper’s trying to explain his gut reaction, it just seems more and more logical. “Why can’t you have your own gang? You practically rescued yourself. You took a look at a boy who’d have gotten shot in a few weeks because he couldn’t pay is debts and he couldn’t stop fucking gambling—you had me dragged up to your office. You took that chance. You saved my life so I could save yours. That’s… planning ahead. Planning years ahead. Well done.”

Kaz finally, finally stops pacing. He sinks into the mattress just slightly to the right of Jesper, so he can sprawl out his legs without making contact. He looks at Jesper, but he’s silent, and his face isn’t giving anything away.

At first, that makes it feel like he’s actually listening. Actually considering what Jesper told him, and agreeing. Kaz is a quick thinker, though. He doesn’t need this long to realize that Jesper’s correct, which means he’s coming up with counterarguments—arguments why actually, he’s still weak or whatever and needs to force himself—and Jesper really, really can’t watch him do this to himself again. Why this, anyway? Why is this the weakness he fixated on?

“Why is that creep so obsessed with making you touch people, anyway?”

“Because it’s easy. Necessary. Even a child does it. Touch is what makes us human, and the Sun Summoner is human, whatever lies he tells himself,” Kaz recites. His eyes are bright. Wet.

“Bullshit. You terrorized the Barrel for years and it didn’t matter at all that you never touched anyone. It was just you. It didn’t even really sink in for me, that you don’t touch people, until I saw the way he dressed you up, how miserable you were.” That’s probably a good place to leave it, but Jesper’s livid. Jesper could mince and mangle fifty Darklings with the pure force of his loathing, and there’s not even a single one around here. That energy has to go somewhere. “You’re trying to tell me the Ravkan fucking palace couldn’t change protocol a little and adapt? If it never mattered in the Barrel, it never mattered at all. He just picked something. If you’d been allergic to shellfish, that’s the only food he would have served you, and he would have said you’re weak for your windpipe swelling up. He wasn’t able control you because touch made you weak. When you’re in control, it doesn’t matter. Because you fucking kill whoever touches you. You don’t bow to them. They bow to you.”

Kaz doesn’t reply. He doesn’t look away from Jesper, though. He just stares down at him, with his eyes still wide and still wet. He mutters, “You’ve turned quite opinionated in my absence, Jesper.”

“In your presence. I’m quoting your words back to you—sort of, it was about the cane, and I’ve forgotten half of it. But you were right. You were always right.” Jesper laughs. “See? Now you’re teaching yourself through time and space! Your masterplan is incredibly fucking elaborate!”

“My—I’m not falling for it.” Kaz is grinning, though. “If I agree now—by this time tomorrow you’ll have done something incredibly stupid and you’ll throw the whole Everything I do is your triumph because you saved me thing in my face. I’m not responsible for your awful jokes!”

Pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, Jesper wails, “My plan! My ingenious plan! Foiled by the dastardly Dirtyhands, oh no!”

Kaz laughs at him. Kaz laughs, and laughs, and Jesper joins him.

It takes a while before Kaz stops, gasping for breath. No-one in Ravka’s ever told a good joke, Jesper decides, because he’s made way funnier jokes before that Kaz didn’t even chuckle at, but gift horses and mouths and so on. Colour’s returned to Kaz’ face: his cheeks are blotchy and red, even after his breathing’s evened out. Kaz mumbles, “You know, that’s exactly how I imagined it.”

What? Oh. Jesper’s sprawled on the floor, leaning back on his elbows, his shirt pulled out of his trousers—his trousers, which are open, and he still hasn’t tucked away his dick. He forgot. There were more far important things to do, and now… well, he probably looks more debauched than Kaz in his purple kefta, with just his prick exposed to the chilly night-time Kerch air while he lounges on the ground. He ghosts a finger over it.

“Do you want me to—do you want to watch, boss?”

“I’d—” Kaz swallows. “Saints.”

Jesper turns a little, so Kaz can get a better view. He doesn’t undress, in case that’s an integral part of the fantasy, just gently trails his fingers down his still-limp dick—though it’s definitely waking up now—and looks up at Kaz.

Kaz doesn’t meet his eyes anymore, but that’s fine: more than fine, when he’s alternately looking at Jesper’s cock and at Jesper’s lips. Jesper darts out his tongue, and Kaz’ pupils blow even wider. Jesper licks down his palm and starts jerking off in earnest. “Hey, boss,” Jesper mutters, and when the head jerks up Jesper blows him a tiny kiss.

“What do you think about?” Kaz rasps.

“I just look at you. That’s enough. I like your face.” The tiny quirk of his lips, the way his eyes dart back down. “What are you thinking about, boss?”

“I didn’t expect you to enjoy this as much.”

“Seriously, boss, I know you’re not that stupid. How many times—”

“Not me,” Kaz mumbles. He gestures obscurely at the room. Jesper. The wall. The floor. The floor again. “This. It’s—not proper. Demeaning.”

“I wasn’t feeling demeaned until you started talking—”

“I was going to make you my right hand, once I took over the Dregs. Not my whore—”

“You were?” slips out, small and breathless, before Jesper remembers that this is for Kaz. This for him to enjoy. The warmth expanding in Jesper’s ribcage can wait. “There’s nothing bad about this. You like it. I like it. I don’t see anyone else in this room, and even if—a very clever guy once told me that you don’t bow to the world. You make the world bow to you.”

☼

It’s scratching that wakes Jesper. Scratching like the sharpening of a knife, quick, impatient, desperate—but it’s Kaz who’s on watch right now, Kaz who found this shallow cave they’re spending the night in, and Kaz wouldn’t let any danger come this close unnoticed. Unfought. Kaz wouldn’t just leave Jesper to his fate—would he?

He wouldn’t. At least not yet.

Kaz is sitting at the mouth of the cave. The moon drenches his matted dirty hair in its white glory, his handmade trousers, his naked wiry chest. His chest which he hasn’t bared for a second since Jesper gave him the kefta, even pulling off the Sun Summoner chemise that they tore into threads while still wrapped up in both of his coats: but now he’s half-naked, head bending down to look at those tines sticking out of his clavicle. Those antlers, those keratinized tumours, those bone cancers. Whatever those mutations are, he wants them gone.

In the right hand, he’s holding the knife that Jesper made from buttons so they could cut the blanket into trouser-shapes. In the left hand, he’s holding one of the protrusions growing from his body.

And then, he starts hacking again.

Viciously, helplessly, like a sick rabbit mutated into its own trap. He misses, once, and the knife sinks into his collarbone: but silently he tears it out again and cuts at the cancerous bone, and the knife’s sharp but the only dents that Jesper can see are tiny, glowing, lighting up the knife that’s flecked with his own blood.

☼

Jesper stirs the potato chunks. Thankfully, the old hearth still works, at least after he and Inej fed it with firewood they brought from the market, and so he’s cooking potatoes in butter and water. He mashes them up with some heavy wooden implement he found in a cabinet, once they’re soft enough—he washed it of course; he doesn’t want to eat moth shit—and then Inej passes him a wooden board of carrots in neat small identical pieces. Show-off. Jesper loves her so fucking much.

“Careful, don’t let it burn,” she says, twirling her knife, and Jesper—well, he meant to stir the pot of what’s apparently becoming stamppot. He did. He didn’t mean to think of how he’ll get Inej and Kaz out of Ravka—

And that’s when Kaz limps into the kitchen. He wasn’t still asleep when Inej and Jesper went into town to get some food—as if the Bastard of the Barrel ever sleeps in, even when he’s far from his titular Barrel—but he begged off the trip. He told them to say they’re working for Johannus Rietveld, if they’re asked, who’s apparently inherited this farm, but—they weren’t asked a thing, anyway, and who knows what Kaz did in the meantime. Who knows what weird cover identity he’s cooked up that they haven’t yet had to invoke. And whether it’s weirder than the one Jesper just created.

Jesper gives him a tender little smile. “Had a good morning?”

“No.”

“Because of last—”

But Kaz can read Jesper at least as well as he can read himself. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he rasps. “You’re the least terrifying person I’ve ever met.” Which probably means Yes, I’m rattled, but I won’t take it out on you. Too much.

“Thanks, darling.” And obeying Inej’s sharp elbow, he goes back to stirring the potato mash, and the slices of rookworst smoked sausage she’s dumped into another pan as well. “We decided Inej needs a proper homecooked meal, now she’s free, and we both haven’t eaten anything worth eating for ages, either.”

“You cook?”

“I grew up with my Da. It was either him or me. We traded off, if you want to know, and I’m pretty good apart from when it mysteriously turns into charcoal. And we didn’t find any Zemeni spices in the Lij market—this isn’t Ketterdam, and this old trader I talked to, she said it’s because maritime traffic to Novyi Zem is down to trickles at this point there’s a real dearth of spices, she couldn’t get them at any reasonable price—”

“Don’t burn the stamppot,” Inej orders.

“Anyway, we found a recipe tacked to the wall behind the oven, so that’s what I’m making now. Something super Kerch. Stamppot—you’ve ever eaten it?”

Kaz makes a sound that’s deeply indecipherable. Jesper can’t even tell whether it’s mournful or happy.

“Anyway, we’re almost done. Spinach now, please—Inej made me stick to the recipe, you know—and then the fried sausage and some salt and… you’ll stay with us for lunch, right, even if it isn’t royal Little Palace fare?”

“We ate unseasoned burnt rabbits in the forest,” Kaz replies curtly. He’s gotten over whatever strange emotion took hold of him, then.

“Yeowtch, they were awful. Why didn’t you remind me to take them off the fire. I know how to smuggle us into Novyi Zem,” Jesper says, carrying the deep pot over to their chosen clean bit of floor. Next to the windowsill, so Kaz can sit down with a little less discomfort—the house has been cleaned out apart from the marriage bed, really, and making Kaz go in there now… Making Inej go in there now, when it’s where last night he and Kaz had sex… And it’s not like they were loud, but who knows what Inej read into them pacing around each other for an hour. This is much less awkward. Besides, Jesper’s recently had some great experiences with floors.

Inej doesn’t stop playing with her knife, even after she balances her stamppot served on woodboard on her knees and digs in with her slightly bent spoon. She hasn’t set it down all morning, even carried it into town when they went looking for something to eat, and while she’s been supervising Jesper’s cooking—making sure he’s reading the recipe, keeping him on-track, bickering with him over unclear or illegible instructions—she’s been twirling it around her fingers. A truly remarkable feat, given that it’s the piece of shit knife that Jesper cobbled together from coat buttons, and he didn’t know what he was doing at all except that it should probably be sharp. Inej really needs to talk him through the finer points of balance if she wants him to overhaul the thing.

“They’re not letting in any more refugees from Kerch, you said,” Jesper starts setting up the explanation for his ingenious plan, while he passes over Kaz’ portion and another spoon he dug out from the bottom of a cabinet and small-scienced back into shape.

“The rich Kerch started running first, when the Darkling advanced. Anyone who’d ever had a Grisha indenture… They probably got in. They had the money. As for the rest… well, we’ve all heard of what happened in Fjerda, unless we’re Jesper and too busy drinking and playing Makker’s Wheel—”

“Hey! I was trying to pay off your indenture,” Jesper complains, while nibbling on his surprisingly decent if underspiced potato mash. “I’m Zemeni. They’ll let me in.”

Kaz still hasn’t touched his food. He hasn’t put it away either though, hand cradling the board instead of throwing it at Jesper. Maybe it’s because he’s too curious about the plan. Jesper should have waited, but he was too excited, and now Kaz is frowning as he replies, “So you keep saying. How does that help us? I assume you wouldn’t leave the two of us behind, after all that trouble you took.”

It feels good, to hear him say that. Almost good enough to forgive that Kaz doesn’t like his lunch. “That’s where my plan comes in. I’ve finally figured it out. If we’re married—”

“We can’t marry each other,” Kaz rasps. Before Jesper gets too sad about that, he continues, “In case you haven’t yet learned to count, we’re three people now.”

“I know. That’s why I’ve been thinking it over for so long. But divorce exists, you know so I was thinking that our story should be—and I’ll write to Da, but I thought you should probably agree first—I married one of you and then fell in love with the other but I still loved both, so I was trying to—”

Inej coughs. Laughs. Yeah, she’s definitely laughing at him, and then she says, “You’re going to tell your father about your marriage in a letter—your multiple marriages, because not only did you get married without inviting him, you already traded in your wife for a younger, prettier model. You lothario!”

“If you think that Kaz—actually, are you younger than Inej?”

Kaz, spoon in mouth, glares down at him.

“I’m trying to save our lives here. I’d appreciate some cooperation! And Da will forgive me, when he sees how happy I am with my new bonebreaking gangster wife and my old knife-twirling gangster wife who I had to divorce for petty bureaucratic reasons. Do you like it?”

Another spoonful of stamppot disappears into Kaz’ mouth. His eyes are closed while he chews, and then he looks away. His voice is hoarser than normal when he mumbles, “It tastes exactly the way I—it’s good.”

“Better than unseasoned rabbit charcoal. Anyway, it might throw the Darkling off our scent some more, if we disguise Kaz as a woman—and don’t be sexist. Women come in all shapes and sizes, no-one’s going to suspect a thing. Also we’re from Ketterdam. If any woman like Kaz can marry anywhere, it’s here. It’ll be a scandal, if they refuse to honour our marriage. Letting a few poors drown outside Zemeni borders, sure, but breaking the mutual recognition of administrative documents?”

Jesper is actually pretty proud of his reasoning here. That makes it even more annoying when Kaz rasps, “No-one will ever believe I’m your wife. I can’t even touch you.”

“No-one’s going to believe I love you? Are you sure?” Jesper flutters his eyes up at Kaz.

“He has a point, Jesper. You won’t be the first desperate refugee forging a marriage to leave.” Inej twirls her knife again. “You’ll need to act the part.”

“We’ll just tell them the truth.”

“Which is?”

“You don’t want to be touched, and if they have a follow-up question, they’d better direct it to the barrel of my gun. I’m not letting anybody non-consensually grope my beloved Kerch wife. Never again. Not over my dead body.”

“Won’t they think it’s weird if Kaz—sorry, your beautiful Kerch wife doesn’t let you touch him?”

“I don’t care. I told you. Let the world bow to us. I love my ingenious, vicious Kerch wife, completely independent of any physical contact we may or may not ever have. I respect my stubborn loyal deadpan Kerch wife far too much to cross those boundaries just for social custom. Also, my sweet murderous Kerch wife has a mean right hook.”

“Thankyou for the demonstration of your acting skills,” Kaz rasps drily, scratching his spoon on his serving board for the last flecks of stamppot. “We’re not going to Novyi Zem, though. There are more amplifiers than just the Stag he forced into me, and we’re going to find the rest. I’m going to tear apart every miserable molecule in the Darkling’s body, cell by fucking cell.”

“And you just let me keep talking?”

“It was entertaining.” Kaz licks his spoon, and then the board. Any second now, Jesper will tell him there’s more left in the pot. “Write your Da. We’ll keep your plan as a backup, in case everything goes horribly wrong. You’ll need a ring, though, to make it official,” and Kaz starts rooting through the kefta pockets.

Jesper can’t breathe. Is Kaz really…? He can’t breathe until he looks at Kaz’ stretched-out, gloved hand, and—

“How the fuck did you steal that one?! I was just wearing it!”

[benny-lafitte]

Seducing Santa

Ship: Dean/Cas/Benny, Dean/Cas Tags: Alternate Universe, POV Benny Lafitte, pre-destiny, Fluff and Humor, Recreational Drug Use, Christmas Inspired Rating: Mature Word Count: 2196 Summary: Benny’s dressed up as Santa for Jody and Donna’s daughters, but when he gets home, his roommates are just as excited as the kids were. They ask Santa for a naughty present Benny’s happy to give them, but only when they’re not this high.

Read it on AO3

Snowflakes litter all over Benny's red coat as he walks towards the entrance of his apartment complex from his car. Even in the stairwell, he is still cold. He thought the coat of his Santa costume was warmer so he didn't bring anything to wear over it.

He takes the stairs two at a time as he rushes towards the warmth of the apartment he shares with his best friend, Dean, and Dean's boyfriend, Castiel. His cold fingers make it hard to find the right key for the door, but once he opens it, warmth washes over him.

As he's taking his boots off, he notices the smell of mulled wine in the air. He walks into the living room where he finds his roommates cuddling. Benny takes off his Santa hat and fake beard while he's walking closer.

"You two had mulled wine again?" he asks as he tosses his hat and beard on the coffee table. Having his own beard didn’t save him from the itchy fake one, as Jody and Donna's little girls would've recognised Uncle Benny in a minute without it. It was a close call even with the fake one.

"Look, Babe, Santa's here!" Dean exclaims while he tries to mute the tv, but the way he changes channels three times before managing it makes Benny wonder about his sobriety.

Dean is sitting on the far end of the couch, holding Castiel close. Benny sits down next to Castiel and looks over the small table to see what else they've drunk. There's nothing else besides two mugs, a small plate and Cas's water bottle.

"Did you two get this tipsy from mulled wine?"

"'Course not," Dean slurs.

When Dean doesn't explain further, Benny turns to Cas who says, "We made magic muffins."

"Cas said we should leave you some, but I got so hungry," Dean blurts out like a child who is caught stealing cookies.

Benny's in for a fun night with the high couple. Alex and Claire exhausted him with the bubbly energy only excited little girls have, so he won't be enjoying this night as long as he wants to. He hopes it'll be an easy ride to tuck his roommates into bed.

"I wanna sit on his lap." Castiel's stage whisper to Dean breaks Benny out of his thoughts.

The couple is always way too flirty with him, even when they're sober, let alone when they're tipsy, so he goes along. "Wanna tell me what you want for Christmas?" he asks.

His answer is giggles from both men before Castiel nods.

"Go on then," Benny taps his thighs.

When Castiel comes closer on the couch on unsteady knees and throws a leg over Benny, he's surprised. It's not the way he expected Castiel to sit on his lap, facing him and being so close.

Dean scoots closer to them on the couch, but he seems unfazed by Cas's behavior, which encourages Benny to ask, "Have you been a good boy, Castiel?"

The pair giggles again. Dean leans against Benny as he laughs, while Castiel burrows his head into the crook of Benny's neck.

"I've been so naughty, Santa," Cas whispers into Benny's ear.

"Oh no," Benny pretends disappointment, "bad boys don't get presents from Santa."

"I promise to be good next year," Cas rushes out while he leans back to look into Benny's eyes.

"Then you'll get a present next year," Benny smirks at him.

"What if it's for Dean?" An excited smile plays on Cas’s lips as he finds a loophole.

Acting like he contemplates the question, Benny moves into a more comfortable position under Cas’s weight. His question is for Cas, but he turns to Dean to ask, "Has Dean been a good boy?"

"I'm a good boy," Dean giggles while Castiel says, "Dean's always a good boy."

"Alright then,” Benny smirks at Dean before turning back to Cas, “what do you want for Dean?"

Castiel leans close again with a wicked smile, "I want you to tie him up with tinsel and fuck him hard while I watch you."

Benny is taken aback by Cas's bluntness. It's one thing to flirt, it's a whole another thing to ask your roommate to fuck your boyfriend. Not that Benny doesn't want to, but it takes him a moment before he can react.

"Naugty boys don't get to watch, Castiel," Benny teases.

Cas leans back again to fold his arms over his chest with a pout.

Dean lays his head on Benny's shoulder as he says, "You should put him on top of your tree, Santa." Dean is laughing at his own joke that's not even half as funny as he thinks it is, but Benny finds it endearing.

"I think I should put you both to bed," Benny says, turning more serious.

"Yes, please, Santa," Dean smirks up at Benny.

"Me too?" Cas asks hopefully, unfolding his arms to put them around Benny's shoulders.

"You too," Benny answers, knowing full well they're not talking about the same thing. "C'mon," he slaps Cas's thigh, making the man giggle again. He helps Castiel climb off of him before turning to Dean to get him on his feet.

Ushering the couple into their room, Benny’s surprised how easily they climb on their bed. When two pairs of hands grab Benny's red costume, he realizes he was naive. Trying to withstand the force of their pull, Benny says, "If you want me in your bed, you gotta ask me when you're both sober"

"But I'm horny now ," whines Cas. Beside him, Dean has given up and now he's sprawled out on the bed.

"Your boy's right beside you," Benny says as he manages to extract Cas's hands from his coat. Straightening up, he continues, "I bet he'll happily let you fuck him."

"But I want you to fuck him," Cas complains from the middle of the bed where he is still sitting.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow." With that, Benny makes a beeline for the door before either of them could launch themselves onto him.

Going back to the living room, he takes Cas's water bottle to the kitchen to fill it up. He finds Dean's bottle on the counter, already full. Dean always teased Cas for the bottle until he started asking Cas to give him some water when he had nothing else around him. After a fair amount of teasing, Cas got Dean his own bottle, which he always forgets somewhere.

With two bottles in hand, Benny walks back to the couple's room. Dean is lying in the same position Benny left him, but now Cas is snuggled up to him with his head buried in Dean's neck. As Benny gets closer, he realizes that Cas is in the process of sucking a mark on Dean's neck.

"Sorry for interrupting," he mumbles while he gets around the bed to Dean's side. He places the bottle on the nightstand and leans closer to look at Dean. He seems to be asleep with his mouth open, but Benny wants to check up on him, so he calls his name, "Dean?"

Dean opens one eye with a groan. "What?" he slurs, half asleep.

"Everything okay?" Benny asks while studying Dean.

Gaining interest in the conversation, Cas stops his ministrations of Dean's neck to look at his boyfriend.

"This bed is sooo comfortable," Dean says louder than necessary. "Like I'm laying on clouds, man," he finishes with some hand movements that hit Cas, but the man doesn't seem to be affected by it.

It makes Benny smile as he tells them, "You need anything, you let me know." Walking to the other side of the bed, he places Cas's water on the man's nightstand.

"He's so beautiful." Cas's voice makes Benny turn. Cas is on one elbow, staring at Dean who closed his eyes again. He lifts a hand to caress Dean’s face with a finger, but Dean bats it away.

"Yeah," Benny breathes, almost only to himself. "You both are."

When Cas takes his eyes away from Dean to look at Benny, he has a beaming smile on his face. Benny winks at him before turning to the door to leave. He hears snuffling, so he turns back one last time to see what's happening. Dean is on his side now, with Cas spooning him from behind.

Content that the couple is fine, Benny leaves them to sleep. He hopes they'll have enough courage to invite Benny to their bed tomorrow when they have a clear head.

Benny is an early bird, but Dean is right behind him on most mornings. Today, Benny’s alone in the kitchen to make some scrambled eggs with bacon on the side. He checked on Dean and Cas one more time last night, but he hasn't seen either of them since.

He places the last pieces of bacon in the pan when he hears footsteps from the hallway. They stop right when Benny thinks they would enter the kitchen. Then there’s whispering that Benny can’t understand.

“Morning,” Dean shuffles into the kitchen after the whispering stops.

“Good morning, Benny” Cas follows him.

“Hey,” Benny glances at them. Cas sits down at the table with his water bottle in hand, but Dean walks up to the counter to pour both of them coffee. Turning to Dean beside him, Benny asks, “Have you recovered from the giggles?”

Dean rolls his eyes without an answer. Benny smirks as he watches Dean shuffle back to the table with two mugs in hand. Turning back to the stove, Benny plates the last of the bacon.

He takes two plates into hand to place them in front of the couple before going back for his own. Dean and Cas are sitting opposite each other, so Benny decides to sit at the end of the table.

There’s silence after the quiet Dean and Cas’s thank yous. Benny is amused by the awkwardness of the other two. Cas is eating with downcast eyes, not sparing a glance at Benny, while Dean seems more comfortable, but not quite his usual self.

“So, uhm,” Dean stutters between bites of eggs. “Were the girls happy to meet Santa?”

“They were very excited, yes,” Benny answers shortly, not even trying to make it easy for the couple.

“Good,” Dean mumbles, “that’s good.”

“They were not the only ones who were excited to meet Santa last night.” Benny teases with a smirk. Cas almost chokes on his coffee while Dean lets out a snort.

“We just asked for some presents,” Dean looks at Benny, but he averts his eyes with a coy smile the moment Benny raises his eyebrows.

Benny’s surprised it’s Dean who goes along with the topic Benny just brought up while Cas was the more determined one last night. It fits their usual dynamic better, Benny thinks. Dean is outgoing and flirtatious, while Cas is quiet and amazing at pretending to be innocent, but Benny knows better by now.

Testing the waters, Benny says, “You were very naughty while doing so.”

“You know, Santa,” Dean plays along, “you could punish us-”

“Dean!” Cas’s horrified yell interrupts Dean. “We need to apologize,” he turns to Benny.

“No need for that, cher,” Benny turns serious. “Unless you don’t actually mean any of it.”

“We do, Benny,” Cas reassures him with a hand on his arm. “But it’s not the way we wanted to talk to you about it.”

“It’s also uhm not-” Pausing, Dean looks at Cas across the table. Benny doesn’t know how many times he’s witnessed their wordless communication, but it always amazes him when it happens in front of his eyes.

Breaking his eyes away from his boyfriend, Cas turns to Benny. “Sex is not all we want,” finishing Dean’s sentence, he nervously bites his bottom lip.

Benny is taken aback by this turn of events. He didn’t dare to hope it’s more than a couple’s experiment at a threesome. The feelings for Dean he long ago pushed deep down are bubbling back up. Dean’s gorgeous boyfriend allowing it all and being interested himself is a huge bonus Benny can’t wait to take advantage of.

“We can wait and see where it goes if it’s not what you want,” Dean rambles on, which makes Benny realize what signals his silence must have sent.

“Don’t feel pressured, Benny,” Cas squeezes Benny's arm, “we won’t make it awkward if you say no.”

“Calm down, you two,” chuckles Benny. “I was just thinkin’ ‘bout where to take you two for our first date.”

It’s the couple’s turn to stay silent as they process what Benny's just said. Cas lets out a long sigh while a beaming smile appears on Dean’s lips.

“Thank God,” Cas whispers before going back to his eggs and bacon.

“Thank Ash for the good quality weed,“ Dean says, still stunned.

Benny barks out a laugh with the couple following him. Cas’s trying not to spit out his breakfast while Dean takes the opportunity to steal a piece of bacon from his plate. Looking at the endearing sight in front of him, Benny can’t wait to take them out on a date, both together and separately.

[natsukitakama]

Here we are for some Jean request then ! I was thinking of modern!au headcanons where Jean and Reader have been close friends for a long time, but as years flow, they begin to develop romantic feelings for each other, each one thinking its unrequited. However at a party, they end up kissing but get interrupted before they can talk it out :c (And perhaps I should find a shorter nickname than reincarnation au!anon ahahah, Rei is fine)

Author note : Hello Rei Anon, hope you’re doing okay ! Your request is so sweet ♡ I hope I did justice to your request, this is going the first I wrote for JeanBoy. Modern AU hit different I just love them ♡. Unfortunately I never find much Jean’s content but he is just a sweetheart I learn to love him through the anime.I hope it won't be too OOC.  Enjoy ! Let me know if you enjoy this ;) 

I do not own that gif credit to the owner 

Warning : Fluffy / Gender neutral / Frustrated ending / a little bit of angst 

Masterlist 

As long as you can remember Jean was always by your side. Your first at school when no one talked to you he was here, when you decided to go into football’s club he was here with you. You two have met the day you move on on his district your house was quite close to his. You were playing on the street while your parent was busy moving each furniture for your new house. 

He never saw you before, he tried to show off a little bit because that kid doesn’t know how to make friends without showing off. 

It works you were kinda impressed by him and you went with him quickly after. 

You never separate from each other since. Indeed both of your parents understand that you were kinda close so they did everything so you could stay together : in class, in club, no matter what you were always with him

His aura relax you, he always pretend to know everything and 99% of time it was. It was such a relief for you, knowing he would be there no matter what. When it came to him, he really enjoys having you as a friend not only did you praise him (which was huge ego boost for him) but you were also faithful. He never experienced someone being like this before, most of the times his friends were friends with other people but not you. 

You were child when you two met, so you know nothing about love so obviously both of you thought you were close friends but nothing more. 

However, when you joined junior high school you started to think that maybe you were more than friends. 

In fact, you were in second years unfortunately for the first time you weren’t in the same class as Jean. At first both of you were sad, but you took it as an opportunity to appreciate even more the time when you two would be together. Even if you make friends with other people, you still share a lot of time with Jean like during lunch or practice since your class used to work by pair. 

One of your friend teased you about how close you were with Jean, about how he always managed to go into your class to find you. How he was always showing off in front of you.  To his you just replied that he was always like that, it’s literally how you two became friends so ? 

But the more they talk to you the more you were questioning your own feeling , what if you were in fact in love with him ? You would feel right ? Since your feelings never changed for Jean it means that you aren’t in love with him ? 

On the other hand, Jean was questioning himself too. Not because some friends teased about it (he never cares he just yells at them to back off), but he started to notice some things on you. Like the way you decided to style your hair, the way you smile or cracked a laugh when you thought someone wasn’t noticed. The way you always plays with your hair when you started to getting nervous. It couldn’t help but find it cute. But it wasn’t like he was in love with you right ? 

Wrong, both of you were so wrong and you were about to find it on the worst way 

One day, Jean received some cute letter on his desk asking him to go into a special place for a talk  he was supposed to meet someone on the rooftop. Every student including you know why, he was about to got a confession from someone. 

You couldn’t help but felt your heart squeeze at this idea : Jean with a Significant other ? Jean dating someone ? You shouldn’t feel sad about this, it’s not like you two were flirting or anything. You were his friend, just his friends. Your friends noticed your behavior and already understand the real problem behind that. They tried to talk to you but you deny everything : no you weren’t in love with Jean and even if you might be that doesn’t matter cause he definitely not sees you that way anyway

Turns out Jean did have a confession that day, but he doesn’t what to do with those feelings about you. He wasn’t sure if he was in love with you or not, in addition you definetly not saw him like this not after everything you two have been through. You were more like sibling that lover. 

At least that what he thought 

So Jean started a relationship with a girl, her name was Nina. They look very good together and as much as it hurts your heart you couldn’t agree more. 

They seemed so happy together. Nina was absolutely gorgeous, she was smart good with sport, she was a cheerleader, got a tone of friends. She was everything you weren’t, you just couldn’t not understand why Jean chooses her instead of you, he was so incredible, so soft, so smart he always knows what to do and he is so funny. 

Jean is perfect she was perfect everything make sense, how could be interest on you anyway ? 

You were his buddies, hell does he even see you like this ? What if you were just a little puppy someone who just followed him in order to be close to him. 

The more you think about it the more you become distant to him, and it kills Jean seeing you like this but he doesn’t know what to do about it. Hell he doesn’t even know what makes you sad ? Since he agreed to become Nina’s boyfriend you tends to less talk to him telling him it was fort the best cause you didn’t want to cause any trouble to Jean (and it was true). 

Instead you started to learn to live without having jean by your side, but it hurts you. It hurts not having a text from him, not seeing him on the morning, not walking with him. It hurts you seeing him doing all the thing with there instead of you. It kills you to see him being happy while you weren’t, at the end maybe he never needed you but you did. 

For the first couple of months, you couldn’t sleep without crying on your pillow you missed him. You miss seeing him showing off as if he needed to prove a point, how you regret never told him he never needed to do that, telling him how much he means to you and that you would always do no matter what he would do. 

He was kinda a dork sometimes but you loved it even if when he was arrogant you find it attractive, his cockiness seduce you, his insecurities melt your heart, his smile warmth you. 

How could be that blind ? 

You always loved him, you just weren’t aware of that 

All you wish was to come see him and start again as if nothing happen, but it’s been so long since you two have talked no matter how hard you wanted this it seemed like there were nothing good to say for fixing your relationship. So you kinda let things go. 

Fortunately your friends was behind your back, they noticed how sad you were since Jean started his relationship. They already planned something to force you two have the talk you deserve 

When it came to him, he wasn’t as happy as he thought he would be with Nina. Not that she wasn’t good with him, but he couldn’t explain but his relationship with her doesn’t sound right as if he wasn’t with the right person. 

It doesn’t help that he suffered from your lack of conversation, he gets so used to have you with him all the time that he felt empty without you. Even his girlfriend who barely knows you since you didn’t talk to them, noticed that his boy suffered from your missing. As much as it bothered her, she had to admit you were a huge part of Jean’s life but she couldn’t know how much you were important to him

At this point, he went after Marco asking him some advice cause he was confused. Was he in love with you ? Or was he just sad because his friend wasn’t with him anymore ? 

« Here the thing, I used to be with them since I’m a kid you know ? They lived close to my house, we’ve become friends without I could realize it. I was a pretty bastard with them at first I was showing off like I was so much better than them and they just follow him, play with me, protect me when I was into a fight. Next thing I know I couldn’t just be far from them  

I see you were pretty close since a long time … What about now ? Did something change ? 

Yeah well, as you I’m dating Nina since 6 months now and they just stop hanging out with me claiming they will cause trouble. But they weren’t. 

How did you know that ? Maybe they felt that Nina wasn’t confortable with that 

But- 

Did you ask Nina about it ? 

Who cares about Nina this is about Y/N ! (Couple second later) I’m sorry I shouldn’t yell it’s just… I don’t know since they’re not with me I’m feeling down you know ? As if something was missing. I-I guessed I just miss them  

*chuckle* well you already have all answer why did you come ? 

I don’t know I guess I needed to know if it was right 

What ? Being in love with Y/N it sounds legitimate to me 

But what about Nina ? I can’t just bumped her 

What about this, try to talk to Y/N just to see how they felt about you and after that you would see what you’ll do with Nina. You know ? Step by step » 

Everything seemed to run its course, your friends were planning a party to celebrate your last year in junior high school while Jean was decided to talk to you and he’ll do it while everyone would be busy celebrating 

You weren’t supposed to go at the party, you didn’t wanted to go at this party. Seeing all people being happy, seeing Jean dancing with Nina was too much for your broken heart you still need to heal after all. But your friend somehow convinced you to go. 

And you did. You ask your friends to help you with your outfit while you mentally prepare yourself for what’s about to happen. 

During the whole day before the party, Jean was pretty calm and distant he knows at some point he would have to talk with Nina and he was afraid he might hurt : after all she doesn’t deserve to be hurt like that. It was as if she could read into his mind cause when they were about to go into the party she told him « Go, you need to talk with them we’ll figure out what to do next. I’m not angry with you, I should see that coming » 

So did he, he walked through the crowd looking for you. After everything, he needs to tell you how he really felt about you this time he was ready to be the little puppy. He missed you so much. The he saw you. 

You were with you friends dancing as if no one was around you, the way your body move with the sound, you were in your own word relaxing but he also noticed some things who have changed about. Did you loose some weight ? You seemed a little bit tired than before ? Did he do that to you ? He won’t forgive himself for treating you like this 

You deserve so much better and he was ready to do it 

He came closer to you, footstep by footstep, as he came closer he started to feel his heart squeeze, he has some difficulty to breath, his stomach twisted as he became more anxious. He knows it gonna be hard, he knows open-up to someone is never easy but he’ll do it. He has to do it. 

When he faced you, he forgot what he has to say so instead he took your wrist on his hand pleading you with his eyes to follow him. Not sure what to do you just look at your friend who push you to follow him. It’s been a lot of days since you two were this close and as far as you can remember he never touch you. The feeling of his firm touch on your wrist warm you and you swore you were blushing, you hoped he won’t see it because of the darkness. 

Couple of minute later, he got you on a private place kinda far from the party and you couldn’t be more thankful for that. Most of the time you were more relax on private and peaceful place but now having him and you all alone make you uncomfortable. After all you were avoiding him since he started his relationship, you weren’t sure anymore if you wanted to talk to him. 

You two stare at each other not knowing what to do or what to say, no matter how spaced the room was it was like you two couldn’t breath properly, you swore you could feel the warmth from Jean’s body and he could feel the same about you. 

Should I told them ? Was everything on both of your mind 

« Look Y/N I’m sorry for… 

Y-You don’t have to apologize for anything Jean besides I’m the one to blame I avoid you since you started to date Nina while I shouldn’t do that. B-But you know I wanted to … I mean I tried to but I didn’t if you … » 

You were so anxious that you become a whole mess, your face was nothing but read, you could even feel tears rolling from your cheeks as you felt embarrassing for not being able to speak properly. You gets hiccup as you couldn’t calm yourself. You couldn’t see jean because your sight was blurry from tears but he was looking at you with a sad expression. 

Never did he expect you to feel like this from him, no one ever did. He watched as you were confusing yourself trying to find your work for a better sentence, anyone in the room would feel pity on you but not jean instead was overwhelmed from warmth « I love them » was everything on his mind. 

Before you could even notice, his hand were on your cheeks stroking it while rubbing the tears from your eyes. In a blink of an eye, his face was an inch from you tilting yours with his hand on your cheeks, one moment later you felt it. His lips were on yours, at first it was a chaste kiss. But then, your arm find their way on Jean’s neck as you let everything out of your mind and deepen the kiss. You would everytime in the world to process what happen but for now you wanted to enjoy the kiss. His lips were soft and warmth as you imagined but he was more gentle with you, as if he was holding the most precious thing of the world. 

Unfortunately for you, you had to stop as you heard some voices. Not wanting to get caught in such private moment, you broke the kiss but neither of you stop staring at each other. 

What would happen next will depend on you. 

[samcaarter]

So this fic threatened to turn into a long fic, and I do not need another WIP at the moment. But I couldn't stop thinking about this trope, so I'd really like to know if it's something you, guys, would be interested in reading. Basically, the idea is that everything's almost the same except Sam and Jack are "secretely dating, but our friends don't know it, and they want us to get together." ~1900 words, for now anyway

"So you think we should just keep it quiet?"

"Yes," Sam says, chewing on her pencil. "At least for the time being. It's bound to raise questions, and I don't want to deal with them right now."

Jack looks at her seriously. "You can't mean..."

"That I got this job by sleeping with you?"

"You’ve been working on the damn thing longer than I've known about it," he says, his voice rising.

Sam puts the pencil down and smiles at him indulgently. "You know it doesn't really matter. Plus General Hammond is my godfather."

He gets up from his chair and walks towards her. "And you made that thing work. On your own. You've been part of this program for, what, 3 years now?"

Sam nods. "Yeah, but it still won't change anything. Not right away."

"So what? You're going to 'gain their trust' first? That's not fair."

She tugs on his hand and he leans down for a kiss. "Welcome to my life," she murmurs before his lips touch hers.

***

It's late when Daniel catches her in the control room. Not a lot of people are around, so he takes a seat next to her and watches her run a gate diagnostic.

"So, I hear you're the one who made the Stargate work," he says.

Sam glances at him. "So did you."

Daniel shrugs. "All I did was figure out the last symbol. You, on the other hand”–he draws a circle in the air with his finger–"made the gate spin."

She smiles, it is nice to be appreciated. "It was a team effort, really."

"Ah, you're too modest, Carter," a voice behind her says. A voice she knows all too well.

"I don't believe I am, Colonel," she says not turning to look at him.

"No, he's right."

"Give credit where credit is due?" Sam asks.

"Exactly."

"Well, then I believe I should congratulate you, Colonel, on convincing an enemy soldier to switch sides and save all your lovely backsides." She grins at Jack.

Daniel gapes at her, but Jack tries not to smile, she can see that clearly.

"Why thank you. I knew my charming personality was going to come in handy one day," he says and it feels suspiciously close to flirting.

Sam turns back to look at the computer screen and then rises to her feet, she’ll come back in two hours. "Well, maybe you can charm everyone who serves the Goa'uld to the light side?" she says as she walks past him, not stopping to wait for his reply.

He doesn't say anything, but she can feel him and Daniel stare at her retreating back. Maybe they shouldn’t be quite so flirty on the base though.

***

When Sam slams the locker door closed and then proceeds to kiss his face off, Jack doesn't think much. Literally. Because his brain is a little foggy, and there's nothing inherently strange in Sam kissing him.

But there is an annoying little voice in his head that keeps insisting that they're keeping their relationship quiet, and that Sam would never risk someone walking in on them in the locker room. Making out. Like it's the last thing they'll ever do.

So he puts his hands on her shoulders and pushes her away. Except Sam doesn't move an inch. She only makes a sound of protest and kisses him harder.

For a moment he stops thinking altogether. Whatever she wants, she can have. And if she wants him in the locker room, who is he to question her, really?

The common sense and the last shred of his self restraint win. And he tears his mouth away from hers. "What the hell, Sam?"

She doesn't seem put out by his tone at all. "I want you. You want me?"

He does, oh he really does, but that's when he notices the gleam in her eyes. Not the usual arousal induced gleam, he knows that one too well, but something wild. Her hair is tousled, too, and there is no way she’d ever wear that tank top on the base.

The recent episode with Johnson may hold the answer to that question.

Sam doesn't wait for him to say anything and kisses him again. Jack feels his will melt away like an ice cream in summer heat, but there is something not right with her. And he doesn't want her like that. No matter what his body says.

She slams him onto a bench and he groans. "What's gotten into you?"

But it's like she doesn't even hear him. "I want you."

She leans down to kiss him again when he rolls them onto the floor. His hand automatically cradles the back of her head to protect it. There's no doubt he'll tease her about this later, but first he needs to make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with her. Or fix it, if there is.

***

All in all it really doesn't surprise him that there are bad things they can bring back through the gate. Though it doesn't make him panic. He thinks it should, but it's a complicated topic to think about, so he just stands in the control room and stares at the game.

"Jack! There you are," Daniel says as he walks up to him. "I got on the internet to do a little research on Australopithecus and, whoa, what happened to you?"

Jack touches his neck, feeling the scratches. "Oh, I got into a little wrestling match with Carter." Daniel looks confused. "I guess she's got whatever Johnson got. I had to drag her off to the infirmary."

"Did she try to start a fight with you?"

He really feels like he should confirm it and be done with it, but his brain and mouth don't seem to be connected anymore. "No, she tried to seduce me."

Daniel just stares, processing the information. "Oh. You poor man."

Jack gives him a look, does he think it's funny? "No, it wasn't like that. She was... like a wild animal."

"Is she alright? I should go see her."

That makes Jack narrow his eyes at the other man. "Why?"

Daniel frowns. "Why? Because I care about her." He starts to turn, but Jack grabs his jacket, startling him.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I care about her. She is my friend," Daniel says carefully, realizing that something isn't right.

Except it's a little too late. Jack flashes back to his and Sam's conversation about their relationship. And how no one, including Daniel, knows that she's his. The fact that Daniel has a wife he loves completely escapes Jack's attention. All that's left is this need to claim Sam. His grip on Daniel's jacket tightens. "She's not yours to care about."

"Okay, I don't. I don't care about her at all," Daniel says clearly trying not to antagonize Jack further, but it only spurs him on.

Sam's clearly sick, and he claims to be her friend, but doesn't even care about her wellbeing? Hot white rage fills Jack's entire being and he punches Daniel in the face, knocking him down onto his ass.

He only vaguely hears shouting before he’s dragged away.

***

They don't talk to each other after Janet figures out the cure. Sam tells herself it's because there wasn't any time, but she still has no idea what happened to Jack. She only knows he got infected, too, and that he volunteered to be Janet’s guinea pig. It's something she really wants to talk to him about, but later, right now they have to save Daniel and the other Touched.

And Sam's going with SG-1 and SG-3.

They find Daniel in the company of the Touched, and what seems to be in the company of Tuplo's daughter.

"Daniel, you're married, for god's sake," Jack mumbles under his nose, and then gestures to everyone to tranq them.

"I'll give him an injection," Sam says getting up to her feet and moving towards Daniel and the woman.

They don't look happy at all, snarling and crouching as if preparing to attack her. Sam freezes, she can't get close enough without them tackling her, and waits for someone to shoot them. Jack doesn't disappoint. She turns to see him standing several feet behind her, his gun still pointed at the now still form of Daniel lying on the ground.

"Thanks," Sam says.

"Sure." He doesn't look at her, but instead gestures to Teal'c. "Let's take him to the Light side of the planet. He'll be our proof."

***

"We'll teach you how to take care of the rest," Jack says, helping Tuplo and Melosha up to their feet, before turning to walk back to the city.

She falls into step beside him, trying not to think how they could've infected their entire planet

"Uh, I hear you got into a fight with your roommate." Jack's words startle her out of her thoughts and she looks up at him.

"Oh, yeah, it's nothing, really. There won't even be a scar. Apparently I started it," she says rolling her eyes.

He looks her over and smirks. "Guess we're lucky you're usually so nice and polite."

She wants to at least poke him in the ribs, but they're not alone, so she settles for glaring at him.

"Who's so nice and polite?" Daniel asks from behind, having caught up with them.

"No one," Sam says.

"Well, definitely not Jack." He moves to Sam's left side and then glances at Jack.

Now she's curious. "What makes you say that?"

"Uh, he," Daniel says smiling. "He actually punched me in the face."

Sam feels her mouth open and turns to Jack. He looks like he wants to be anywhere else, but, she notices, doesn't move any quicker.

"Yeah, he did. And you know why?"

"Why?"

Daniel's grin is absolutely huge now. "He was, uh, defending your honor, I think."

Sam frowns, but Daniel doesn't seem to notice.

"Yeah. He said you tried to seduce him, and then got all alpha male, I guess."

"Daniel," Jack says, his voice tight.

Sam feels her face turn red. She remembers it quite clearly. But now she'd like to know just how many other people know about it, too.

"You weren't yourself, I know. An apology would still be nice."

"Will you shut up then?"

"I will."

"Fine. I'm sorry I got infected," Jack says and then does quicken his pace.

Sam and Daniel stop and watch him move away from them.

"I guess you should've been more specific," Sam says, biting her lip.

"Next time I will," Daniel says cheerfully.

Sam raises her eyebrows, thankful that she's not on the same team with these two giant children, and starts walking after Jack.

"Hey, why’d you pick him?" Daniel asks catching up with her.

"I'm not talking about it. Ever." But he doesn't seem convinced. "I'm not above telling the Colonel that you keep bugging me, you know."

Daniel gasps. "You wouldn't."

Sam grins. He really doesn't need to know that she can very well punch him herself just yet.

[kwrittink]

Bloody love 7

Pairing: Park Jimin x Reader (princeBTS!au)

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Language, mentions of sex, mentions of nudity, jealousy, mentions of injury, mentions of murder

Words: 6,189

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Crying yourself to sleep was a first for you, thought sleeping in Jimin's arms felt as familiar as if you've never stopped doing it. Upon opening your eyes, you found yourself still held by his arms in a loose embrace, the warmth of his bare skin seeping through your nightshirt and giving you a cozy feeling you've yearned for long. 

Sighing quietly as to not wake him up, you tried to shift and free yourself from his hold, stopping only as you realized the depth of his state of undress - you've known that habit of his since childhood, but it had slipped your mind till then -, since your movements made the blanket fall off his hip, dangerously hanging over his bulge, threatening to expose him completely. One more tug at the blanket and...  

“Why you always move so much sleeping, Y/N...” Jimin's grumble almost made your soul leave your body, eyes glancing up at the prince that frowned while still in his half-sleeping state, eyes shut. His arms tightened around your figure more, and thought you wanted to just get up and leave from embarrassment - you've been distancing yourself from him so much and then suddenly spent the night crying on his arms - you had brought the situation on yourself and actually felt too comfortable to really gather will to leave. Him just accepting to comfort you without any questioning also warmed your heart, and you found yourself smiling softly while watching his sleepy face.  

“Is not my fault you feel like a furnace, Jimin,” you trailed off as one of his eyes opened to look at you, hesitant grin forming on the corner of his mouth when hearing the informality of your addressing. “Even thought you still sleep naked, and I don't have any theories as how you still manage to keep so warm.” You quipped, quickly glancing down his body and having the prince sit up alarmed while bunching the blankets to his side and covering up better. The action made him release you and with a breathy chuckle you rolled to the side, watching astonished as the man that shared his bed with you a couple of times in the past - be it for just sleeping or other matters - and was known for being one of the flirts of the whole country blushed profusely, tip of his ears matching the violent pink of his cheeks.  

“That is a consequence of feeling too warm at night,” his head turned to you but his eyes didn't meet yours. “My apologies though, I wasn't expecting your visit at all.” he admitted and you shook your head, hand touching his back and making him shudder at the coolness of your skin.  

“No need to apologize my prince. I broke into your room completely unexpected, even for myself...” As Jimin finally glanced up your face you were the one to look away, retreating your fingers with a sigh. “I had so much in my mind, and woke up in despair, didn't know what to do or where to go, but suddenly ended up here.” You tried to explain, sounding apologetic and sorry, rant only stopped by the prince which twisted his torso to pat your head endearingly, something you didn't think you'd feel anymore. Looking up at him you saw his frowning expression breath taken away as you stared back into his eyes, framed by disheveled fringe.  

“You know you can always count on me, Y/N. I'll always be there for you,” Jimin said and at that moment you wanted to, needed to believe him, despite everything that had been said about the prince and how his absence in your life had changed you and your feelings. It didn't mean you were completely empty and he had no effect on you - much the contrary, as those recent days demonstrated -, but time had made you build some walls around that part of yourself that at the moment needed to crumble a little. You needed him, since Jimin was probably the one that could understand and help you better than anyone else. At the end, he's all that I have in this world.  

As tears rolled down your cheeks once again, you saw you've also hurt him in the process of protecting yourself, despite of his words of support. Sure, you didn't handle rejection very well back then and shut Jimin off your life suddenly without even hearing a word from him. Your cold stares, disdain and the distance put between you two were the reason the prince's hand hesitated to touch your cheeks and wipe your tears, frown deepening with insecurity of doing something wrong. He didn't have the objective of seducing you - even if it would be pretty much easy, due to your current weakness of mind and his improved looks -, but only being a friend and a shoulder you could cry on, and that was why you just leaned on his hand and shut your eyes, nodding silently. Finally crying had opened a gate of hidden truths, and you didn't bother to force it closed, at least not at the moment.  

“Excuse the intrusion prince Jimi- Oh, I'm so sorry!” Your head snapped to the side, on time to see an old maid carrying bunch of sheets and blankets on her arms, but fumbling startled at the sight of you two in bed, turning around quickly and closing the door, probably leaving the room as fast as she could. Sighing, Jimin's head dropped low, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose in distress. 

 “Ah great, now they are going to start a rumor about you too. I was sure to have locked that damn door last night...” Shaking his head he softly punched a pillow near him, a frustrated pout forming on his lips. You snickered, growing to chuckle at the phrasing which kinda hurt due to your injuries, but the situation was funny enough to keep you laughing the pain away, as you clutched the side of your hip. The sound must have interested Jimin as he turned to glance at you with a confused expression on. 

“It's funny because I should have been the first rumor, no? Since I was the first one...” You explained grinning, prompting the male to scoff and shake his head at your silliness, looking away as his cheeks were dusted in pink once again and he hid his face burying it into a pillow. You giggled more at the irony of being the only one in Park that people didn't talk about being of Jimin's long list of conquers, even though he never made any efforts of hiding that from anybody at the time. 

“You should have been the only rumor, being honest. Even thought that was nobody's business anyways.” You weren't sure if he meant for you to hear his mutter, but as you calmed down and breathed out the last of your laughter you saw one of his eyes peeking at you, unsure and fearful that the truce bubble you had around each other was popped by something he said. You didn't know what he meant and didn't want to ask either, a feeling in your gut that you wouldn't like the answer.

“Yeah, I should,” you decided on that answer as vague and meaningless as it sounded, smiling sadly at the future king of Park. “Still, I think I should go back to my room before the others start looking for me. Changkyun might sleep like the dead but I think once he wakes up and figures I’ve left, he'll have me tied to the bed this night.” You tried to give fresh air to the conversation, since it felt a little gloomy with the mentions of the past. Everything's tied up, so there's no use to try and separate parts. 

 “Sure, just give me a minute to get dressed and I'll walk you back.” Jimin sat up once again, this time reluctant to just get up the way he was and fetch his clothes by the chest on the bed, much different from the other day when he practically challenged you to look at him in his natural state. I can't say I didn't irked him enough to that, I understand what it meant for him when I said that I didn't mind seeing him naked, it was mean of my part I have to admit. I could practically feel the anger irradiating from his body then. 

“You don't need to bother, prince. I'm perfectly able to walk see-” You wanted to ease him from his worries, but actually did the opposite. Somehow one of your legs was numb and the knee gave out, making you stumble as you tried to hop off the bed, and an alarmed Jimin held you by the arms to steady you ending up standing right in front of you, stark naked. And to say you stopped your eyes from wandering through his body would be the greatest of lies. Thought you didn't regret to have done that, despite being obviously caught by the object of your ogling. Time has done him good. You atested, wide eyes going back to Jimin's flushed face.  

“It's okay, it's not like I've haven't seen y-”  

“Another naked man before, I know.” a sigh left his lips, hands dropping from your shoulders as he turned around and walked towards where his clothes were placed. You snickered at the way he cut your words, wiggling your prickling foot to make it better. He does still feel bitter.

“I was going to say that it wasn't like I haven't seen you naked before, but yeah. Things look different now,” you shot back and had the pleasure to have Jimin looking up at you while buttoning his shirt, eyebrows shot up at your statement and lips gaping slightly in perhaps need to ask what exactly you meant with that phrase. Not wanting to give further explanation, you turned around to fetch the robe provided in his room and without a second thought put it on, slowly walking towards the door, while the prince resumed fumbling with his clothes and hair, following you right after. 

Walking back to the room - having Jimin particularly close to you for support but not touching in any way - you were met with a frantic Changkyun leaving the bedroom you were set at first, looking around desperately as he mumbled rather annoyed something along the lines of 'murder that General myself' which prompted you to giggle knowing there was no heat to the words but would also like to see him try, if that was the case. You thought yourself pretty much capable of handling him, even with half the strength you possessed. 

“You look about to have a heart condition, healer. Kinda ironic, if you ask me,” twirling on his heel Changkyun sent a glare towards your way, softening just a little to see the prince beside as he walked up to both of you. He looked disheveled, clothes tousled and misplaced, a shade under his eyes denoting that he was having little hours of tranquil sleep.

“And you look very much cheerful for someone who was recovering from a two-day shock.” You would have blushed at that, weren't the information about how long you had been unconscious set into your brain. 

“Two? Did no one tried to wake me?” Reaching out you clutched Jimin's arm in surprise, looking from the healer to the prince as he widened his eyes back at you, shrugging. 

 “Changkyun said that you should wake up on your own, maybe the body needed the rest. I agreed with him, since I had things mostly under control.” He answered, nodding towards the healer. 

“And I also asked to avoid upsetting you in any way so you won't fall unconscious again. You truly gave us a scare, lady.” The scolding ways of that boy prompted you to scoff, but still was already annoyed that you've been out that whole time - and out of date of everything happening, mostly when it also concerned you.

 “I am going to be truly upset if no one tells me anything. I need to know what is happening, as a General. I can't afford being convalescent-”

 “Now you'll have to be convalescent till Changkyun deems you healthy. This is a king's order, Y/N.” Kihyun's booming command came just beside you, and thought he was frowning, the hand placed on your shoulder only showed concern and care. “We are lending our intelligence to prince Park while at it, so only worry on getting better and you'll be back on duty in no time.” Said, and you kept yourself from glaring at him enraged. You understood the concern but he wasn't your king to obey. Once again, you turned to look at your prince, a silent question in your eyes. He looked back, eyes boring into yours.

“I'm sure as you are strong you'll be good in no time General, I trust on it,” started slowly, as if searching better terms for what he was about to say. “And once everything's right, I'll be the first one to inform you about what is happening.” You squinted at him for a split second, suddenly not understanding why he was being as stubborn at the others - well you were being stubborn yourself, but with reasons -, when Jimin knew quite well it was your body that was injured, not your mind. Surely I want to jump on the back of a horse and grab the first sharp thing I see and ride as fast as I can to Park but I'm not that stupid. “I'm sure it'll be sooner than you expect.” Oh. Now I understand. As your expression relaxed, the corner of his lips tugged slightly upwards, noticing your understanding of his message. He would be telling you everything later on, when nobody was watching. 

With a sigh, you then turned back to Yoo's king and nodded slightly in understanding. He then beamed at you, smiling brightly as proceeding to tell you how glad he was to have you awake, and how worried he was - Changkyun even teasing him about how he had wanted to try to kiss you and see if you'd wake up, making you chuckle more as you noticed Jimin rolling his eyes discreetly - while getting you back to the room, tucking yourself back inside the now cold covers. 

The king was working really hard on his occupation, and would be really successful keeping it up, while fixing some minor security details. It was tempting to offer your services to the Generals and speed up some process, but you also believed firmly in what your father told you once, to observe progress and only keep an eye on loose ends. So you decided you'd let them be, and see what would the come up with. But there's this loose end that bugs me a lot, what Hanjae said back then about the king's family... As the ruler himself carried trays with food inside of the room - for you and for them - you frowned slightly, unconsciously staring at his face trying to remember his father's features. 'Finishing what he started with the murdering of Yoo's royal family'... You remember hearing something of the sort before blacking out, but... 

 “Is there something on my face, General?” calling you out, Kihyun made the other two look up at you while he leaned to place the silver tray in your legs, face close and eyes focused on yours. Again, you had to admit he indeed was handsome and though you were a little shy for being caught staring - as the blush on the back of your neck indicated - you still stood your look, which could be considered as bold or insolent, but was just asserting on dominance. You weren't scared by him neither fell for his charms, and still a little annoyed at him for restricting your freedom. 

“No I was thinking, you just happened to be in my line of vision, Majesty.” As he looked away sort of bashful and sat down on a chair nearby you picked the cup Changkyun served, taking a sip and ignoring the bad taste of the medicine mixed with some herbal flowers - that had surely the intention of masking the sour taste but failed grandiosely. “But now that you've mentioned, I was thinking about how you don't resemble your father at all, rather...”

“My mother.” at the comment Kihyun withered like a flower, almost sinking into his chair nibbling bread with a small sigh. His eyes now didn't met yours, rather looking to a blank point on the wall. The mood in the room dropped immediately, dark shades falling over Kihyun's eyes, as his fringe covered them. 

“My apologies, the fact it was a delicate matter escaped me.” you tried, grip tightening on the cup to have touched such weak spot of his life. With a sad smile he shook his head at you, reaching to touch your feet over the blankets soothingly. 

“Don't be, I like talking about her,” said the king in a barely audible whisper, and you felt your heart wrenching at his pained expression. “She was very dear to me, I was raised by her. Dad was a good king but not a present father, and it only got worse when she died, together with the rest of the royal family.” Kihyun started explaining, and a sense of dread washed over you when meeting his eyes again, understanding the relation of what Hanjae mentioned before. 

By the corner of your eye you saw Jimin halting his movements as well, catching on what he was saying but stopping himself from commenting, being this much sensible towards the king. “People used to say she was the most beautiful woman to step foot on this world, and to say that it made me proud to hear constantly how I resembled her... But it was a long while ago, Changkyun was still a student at the time.” Said, and that only stressed how recent the matter was, if you were doing math correctly. Changkyun is a very smart healer that is, but is young to be perhaps a year or two fresh out his lessons... It feels like that is directly chained with my father's... Murder. It was hard for you to think about his death that way now, felt like it had just happened again. 

“Still we all feel the loss of our Queen. In a way we were all left orphans, since she also had a big heart.” Changkyun pipped in, fondness in his eyes as he mentioned her, but didn't dare to look up as he prepared a concoction surely directed to your injuries.

“Oh yeah right, you were one of her favorite children,” the king scoffed, a soft smile playing on his lips at the memory. “She always mentioned that if she were able to bear more child she'd like to have him as a son too. At first it irked me but she was right, you are a good brother.” The raven-haired man scratched his nose a little shy, cheeks turning slightly pink with the compliment. That also made you smile, because as well as in your kingdom, you felt that way about Jimin's parents more so towards his mother, having not met yours properly. 

Still, you were preoccupied with those events and would like to have information about that, but the moment wasn't right for asking around. Maybe Jimin can give me a light on the matter, if he still plans to tell me anything. 

 “Was a great loss indeed, my condolences. We didn't have notice of those events, or else...” Jimin's voice came out more like a whisper and you shuddered upon looking at his face, grief also written on his features. “Still we now have a chance to clear this occurrence, and most definitely will have justice done.” glancing up the prince's gaze hardened with determination and as he turned his head slightly to you with a nod, you realized the angry and blood-hungry glint on his eyes, present only before you passed out that day in the Interrogation Room. A fiery soul indeed. He means for me to have my justice as my father as well, but he needs to have his head set straight and not fall to temptation with murder as I wanted to for a moment. 

“Thank you, prince. Don't worry about the condolences, my father and I made it so that no other country knew about this, in fear of being attacked. For a matter of pure luck, the day the carnage happened I was out with him at Kim, talking with them about an alliance... Marriage, you see.” Jimin chuckled dryly as Kihyun explained with a roll of his eyes and you almost scoffed, thinking it similar with Jimin's situation, what Sonhyun was trying to do to the prince... Too similar, to be precise. “And when we came back by night, found practically everyone dead. Our family, the maids, old Generals-”

“Excuse me king, but why exactly Kim? Was it just by chance you two were heading to that country?” You interrupted Kihyun, head tilting to the side as curiosity took the best of you. The man only shrugged, but then again Changkyun popped on the conversation, clearing his throat. 

 “Oh no that I recall overhearing, with the excuse of your Majesty.” As the royal nodded, the boy turned to look at you, mouth in a tight line. “There was this counselor here, escapes me the name right now, but he did mentioned casually to the former King to try make alliances with Kim, since there were other kingdoms interested on the Kim's younger child. Said he heard that from another counselor from the south, and that should be done as soon as possible, seeing that the prince was already of age. Interesting enough, that counselor was also found dead,” you nodded slowly, the hurry from their own counselor too strange to be considered normal. We're from a south land, but wouldn't it be too much of a coincidence?

“I was advised that by our counselor too. For some reason he was also in a rush to have me married to the Kim princess,” Jimin commented, frown creasing his brow. “Maybe they have something to do with this?” The prince proposed, but you shook your head immediately, dismissing the idea.

“They have beach and are growing rapidly with their resources and gold. Must be why the interest on them was so great. I had someone doing some research for me, at the time it was proposed to you and found nothing the slightest suspicious.” The way you threw yourself under the horses was only noticed by Jimin, as his eyes demonstrated. Shutting your eyes for a long second you cursed inwardly, knowing he'd understand that your nosing on the matter was simply because of your personal curiosity, since those matters had nothing to do with you, even being about the kingdom's security. As you opened your eyes, caught the prince looking away from your face, taking a sip of his tea to hide the small amused quirk of his lips. 

 “I've also heard that they have opened business with another countries overseas, the first ones to do so. That also would have need to have really large boats for crossing oceans, and for us that is a really good technology to have.” Kihyun commented, and you found yourself nodding with interest to wash away your embarrassment. 

 “Apparently at Park research and information gathering is quite efficient, if I have any saying. Also a very reliable and needed resource, we could do great use of that.” Changkyun noticed it too, great. 

Upon downing your medicinal tea, you glared at the healer which only smirked lightly back smugly. Jimin snorted and you were near throwing a butter knife at him as he masked it with a cough, shoving food on his mouth next, face brighter with joy. Sigh. Keeping you facade would be tougher then on. 

 But did you really need to? Did you have to just go back to your cold and stoic self when you had total understanding that Jimin had the utmost respect for you to not take advantage of the situation you were in - both of you? The walls were build for a reason, though.  

To think all of this was so well orchestrated by Sonhyun... It was the start of the afternoon when Jimin got out your room to give you privacy to bathe and Changkyun could change your dressings, a crease deep between his brows as he pondered. Years planning these murders and ways to conquer kingdoms, striving for wealth and power... And for what? Self benefices? How short would that be, if one day he would perish too, leaving nothing but a tyrannic stain on history? Thought, sighing as he walked back to his own room, wanting nothing more than a hot bath and get properly dressed to work. 

 I also need to find a way to show the letters to Y/N. The kings prohibition is silly, endearing in a way but still overprotective. And the General didn't like it one bit. A grin played in the corner of his mouth recalling your deeply annoyed expression towards Kihyun, as he put his foot down. It took him straight to the times where a tutor would censor you from doing something considered only for the males - which Yoongi and him struggled to do - to not harm your delicacy as a lady. Generally it didn't work, since you ended up proving a lot of instructors wrong throughout the years after doing exactly what they told you not to with excellency, proud smile to match. As he sank on the warm water, Jimin sighed. The memory had almost been enough to distract him from the king's hand on your shoulder. Almost. 

 It was starting to get annoying how quickly he gave into his jealousy those days, being used - well not used, that's a strong word for the feeling... Perhaps accustomed was better - to men putting their hands on you. Maybe his undisclosed interest on you gave this numbing but also burning feeling on the prince's gut. Maybe it's because I'm still just a prince and he's a King... Sinking further he huffed, making some bubbles on the water, irritated. Even if he knew you better than to expect you to marry Kihyun just because of his title, what irked Jimin even more was knowing there was that Hyungwon man also attracted to you. 

 Nonetheless, Jimin recalled proudly your flushed face as soon as realizing you had gave yourself up on spying him - he could say that, given that the matter of his arranged marriage wasn't disclosed to anyone besides the royal family at the time -, when it was proposed to Jimin an alliance with Kim through marriage. She still cares, even if a little. The smile returned to his lips, and he let himself be giddy also by the morning which he wasn't able to process till then, shocked by the fact that you were conscious and crying while being just woken up. It had been a long while since he woke up with you on his arms, and right before he really was aware of his surroundings that morning, Jimin could have sworn he went back in time to when you were just two younglings without any major responsibilities and only each other to love. His heart also healed a little as you acted so tranquil and casual about finding comfort on him, much different from the rejection he was dreading to suffer - but was prepared for. Jimin could confirm that in the end you also comforted him. 

Sure, there was no certainty that the peace would stay that way, he didn't know what exactly to expect from you when you got back to Park, nor even if it was okay to be more amicable at this moment. Jimin was literally stepping on eggs with you, trying with every ounce of his soul to avoid making a mistake that would kick him back to stake zero once more. If there was one thing he was feeding the most at that time it was his hope, grasping with both hands delicately to not suffocate it. 

 Resuming his relaxing warm bath, Jimin then got properly dressed and decided to go check if any birds had arrived with letters for him. He knew it was a little too soon to expect answers from Park due to distance and the discretion Commander SeokJin and Mina needed to have, but he was really glad to see the black crow - a particular symbol of Min - on a perch, waiting neatly for a man to take the mail out of the tube attached to the body. 

“Now I saved you for last not because I'm scared, not at all,” the man with a hair that could be considered white spoke, and as he walked inside the lounge were the birds were usually treated before sent off Jimin thought for a second he was being addressed to “But I know for a fact crows like to peck on people's eyes, so if you could just stay still and let me... Ouch!” As the mailman reached to take the tube off the clasp the crow pecked his hands but not hurting him, more to just scare him, which achieved its goal causing Jimin to chuckle to himself, amused. He knew why Min had the bird as its kingdom symbol, and it wasn't just because it was eerie and dark like they liked to present themselves to be, but because the big bird was a very smart feathered creature. Yoongi's great grandfather - or maybe even before him - had a tremendous liking on the animal and changed the kingdom's crest to it and it actually was quite famous at the time. 

“They say animals smell fear, mister. Min's crows in particular like to be feared. They have a big ego, just like the rulers.” The prince stepped closed the lounge, containing his smile as the other twirled away from the crow and pressed a hand to his chest, frightened. 

 “My sweet lord, you almost made my heart stop. I... I mean, your Majesty I-I'm sorry,” the man scrambled to correct himself, making Jimin chuckle, waving a hand at him dismissively. 

“Don't worry I indeed sneaked up on you, thought it wasn't intentional, mister...” the prince extended his hand at the starstruck other, this one understanding the trailing off as a cue to introduce himself. 

“Lee Jooheon, at your service, prince. I'm the royal's messenger, among other jobs.” Said the servant, bowing his torso after shaking the royal's hand. Nodding, he dismissed the need to formalities, turning to the bird that observed the interaction with a tilt of its head. 

 “Very well, I see the night birds really flew fast last night. Do you need any assistance?” He asked, trying to keep the corner of his mouth from curling upon seeing the hesitance on that man's eyes. 

“No, I was just... It's rare to receive Min's crows around here so I'm not used to them. I take that it's for your Majesty?” Jimin nodded, almost reaching out to help the mailman when the crow threatened to flap around and difficult his job. He threw a glare to the bird, knowing it was smart enough to be doing that on purpose. They used to give me a hard time too, when we were little. 

 With a little help, Jooheon was able to get the papers from the royal crow, checking if they were for JiMin - actually there was one to you too but being the prince's subordinate JiMin was able to take it with him - and delivering them with yet another bow and an apology. Giggling a little the royal thanked the mailman, advising him to take care with the bird, that could be rather mischievous. 

 Getting back to his room, he decided to open Yoongi's letter right away, interested in the single-page letter the Min prince wrote in a hurried writing, fast response to the urgent letter he sent the night before. 

 Park Prince, 

 My - and the extra from yours for that matter - forces will be at your disposal for any necessity. Once the General wakes up and is okay to think about the next step, please inform me so I can take needed measures according to what she seems fit. 

 I've informed her uncle of the attack as soon as I read of it and while keeping ourselves from going to Park and act on the still-to-be-convicted assassin, I had to stop Sir Gun from heading to Yoo and transport the General for better care, since you've informed me she is been taken care really well by the healer - methods that from what you've described I found myself really curious about - so I will be trusting her on you to that, since you will demand our Y/N the General to be treated with utmost care. 

 Now drawing isn't your best asset that is to be sure, but I asked the scholars to take a look at the symbol you sent me, and they informed that it belongs to a certain cult from another country, and I imagine that your current counselor and some other members of the court are part of it. As soon as you regain control over Park we'll be joining forces to investigate this further on.

 For now, I beg of you to let me know as soon as Y/N wakes up. 

 Prince Min.

“Any good news?” As JiMin sat on the living space that preceded the guest room he was in, the sound of your voice made him whip around, hand clutching his chest as his eyes met your figure clad in a simple blue cotton dress, hair loose and arms crossed over your chest, hiding the huge golden crest of Yoo embroidered there. This is done on purpose, isn't it? He thought, eyebrow twitching in slight irritation.

 “I see stealth is a natural skill of yours.” he breathed out as his heart rate subsided to normal, and watched with hidden joy a grin forming on your lips upon having startled him. Not wanting to appear that much pleased with his reaction you stepped with the most steady pace you could towards him, taking a seat on the chair across him. 

 “And yet the Majesty of this kingdom defied my intelligence by putting General Hyunwoo to keep me from leaving the room,” you scoffed and Jimin let out a chuckle, not surprised at all at your cunning, in fact pleased to see you running over Kihyun's orders. “Anyways, it won't be long till they come searching for me and I really wanted to know what happened after I was knocked out...” Jimin nodded and straightened up, ready to inform you of the recent events of the couple days you've been unconscious. 

Besides, despite knowing the importance for you as a General to be aware of the situation in hand, the prince was really relieved to have you thinking with him, since he actually was with such turmoil inside his head it was really difficult for him to think about the whole matter from a political and military vision at the same time. 

 “So General, as you know we had captured our attacker, the former member of council Hanjae still living...” he started, not missing the way you nodded and how your eyes bore on his, this focused expression and a serious glint in your eyes that had him hesitating. It was very clear that you took your job very seriously, and if Jimin was being honest with himself, it was frightening, more so the fact you resembled your father completely. Though scary, it's also thrilling, I'll let myself admit.

 Clearing his throat, he continued explaining the raw facts till there, any and every evidence discussed and every letter sent and received yet. All the while watching your reactions, a silent listener as ever, thoughts and theories to be formed with efficiency and intelligence, as it was usual for you. For some reason he recalled Yoongi's words, of that being his only and last chance to settle things, but how could he, which such grave crime developing in front of his eyes? 

 Still, observing your face while you thought, he probably never had such urge to marry you before, even if the urge was always present. 

[imaginethatawriter]

I meant pursuing in a romantic sense, sorry bout that

Logan Howlett

Bad at flirting.

I mean when has he ever been good at expressing any kind of emotion that isn’t anger or irritation.

Good luck trying to ever figure out what he’s actually feeling. 

One minute you two will be hanging out having a good time, maybe sharing a beer together and making fun of people. And the next minute he won’t even look at you. He’ll act like you never existed. 

It is the most frustrating thing in the entire universe and it’s all because he doesn’t know how to properly process his emotions. If he get’s carried away in the moment he loves to spend time with you, but as soon as he realizes that he might actually have feelings for you more than mutual respect it’s all over. 

So I don’t really know if Logan would ever really “pursue” someone. It’d probably be more like you forcefully pushing yourself into his life until he finally acknowledges that he cares for you. 

At that point it’s pretty much a done deal that the two of you are an item and he’s not going to let you get away. 

Even when you two are an explicit item it’s not going to be very exciting. He isn’t a huge supporter or PDA and isn’t a master of showing his affection through words either. 

You’ll have to guide him through the process but eventually he’ll catch on and he’ll manage to give you a few romantic moments whenever the two of you are alone. 

Charles Xavier

Charles is pretty good at flirting even though he doesn’t do it very often. 

He tends to be very in tune with peoples feelings so he is the first person to pick up on whether you’re having a good day or a bad day. And he some how always knows how to make you feel better if you’re having a rough day. 

He doesn’t shower you in gifts or make grand gestures to get your attention. Instead, he’ll get to know you gradually and become one of your closest friends. 

Is he scared of the friendzone? Absolutely not. Even all you want to be is friends that is totally ok with him and if you’re interested in him romantically then he’s confident enough to get there. 

He remembers a lot of random facts about you without having to put effort into it. He just knows it. 

He’ll always remember your birthday and he will always get you a present even if you tell him not to. 

In that same line of thought he is an amazing gift giver. Everything he gives to you is filled with so much meaning that there have been one or two occasions where you almost cry because the presents are so specific and powerful. 

Charles is also the king of random acts of kindness. He’ll offer to fill your drink for you or get you a snack. He’s always going out of his way to make you comfortable and happy.  

Erik Lehnsherr

Not great at flirting honestly. But not the worst either. Pretty average all around.

He’s got a lot of stuff going on in his mind so he doesn’t have a lot of brain power to dedicate to romance and wooing someone. 

But that doesn’t mean that he’s just going to ignore you. Expect to get a huge amount of attention whenever he’s trying to recruit someone. Which brings me to an interesting point. 

If you’re staunchly on Charles’ side about the whole mutant fight then Erik will never stop trying to convince you that his side is the true path to greatness. 

You’re probably the only person that he isn’t willing to destroy to reach his end goals. 

I’m imagining that thing that villains do where they show up out of the dark out of nowhere trying to seduce the hero to the dark side only instead of promising power and control he uses the mutual attraction between you two. Manipulative? Yeah a little. 

If you already believe in Erik’s side of the fight then Erik has more time to actually flirt with you. 

He is very upfront when he compliments you. For example he reminds you of your power and potential almost every day. He always wants you to know that you can do anything that you set your mind to. 

A little more uncommon is when Erik will compliment your physical beauty. It’s not something that he spends a lot of time on but he does talk about it every now and then. Again he’s very upfront about it, telling you outright that he thinks you look perfect. 

Peter Maximoff

You’d think he’d be a pretty decent flirt because he’s a very laid back person, but think again!!

If he’s just playfully flirting with someone he doesn’t actually have feelings for he’s smooth. He’ll throw out compliments, cheesy pick up lines, causal touches, and the stops.

But! if he has a crush on someone he is a bumbling disaster. He forgets everything about flirting and being smooth.

Trips over his word constantly.

His mouth starts moving way faster than his brain is coming up with words so he ends up repeating the same syllable over and over again.

You are a very patient person luckily and you never comment on his stuttering but he is horrified at himself.

He will go through phases of wanting to be within a foot of you and never wanting to see you. He just can’t seem to get his heart to stop pounding when he’s near you, but he also loves the feeling.

I’ve actually written headcanons for Peter flirting before but I’ll reiterate that Peter does not share his food with anyone, but he will absolutely share his food with you. Without a doubt.

In fact, if you have a craving for a certain kind of junk food, Peter will get it for you without hesitation.

This often leads to you being very surprised and flustered which ends up flustering Peter.

The closer the two of you become as friends, the better it’ll get. He’ll get more comfortable and treat you like a normal human being.

He’ll still be extra sweet on you though. Ask him for anything and he’ll do his best to give it to you.

Especially if you’re asking for a date.

Alex Summers

Probably the only person here who kinda knows what he’s doing.

And still he’s not the greatest. But let’s be honest how many people in this world are actually grade A flirters? Not many

He’s just really sweet and understanding.

He’s absolutely the guy who remembers small things about you. He remembers when you mentioned that one of the walls is painted your favorite color. He knows what a few of your favorite foods are and what you like to listen to.

He’ll just casually buy you presents and gives them to you with a nonchalant friend. Friends get other friends presents right? Even on totally random days. It’s totally fine?

Alex will compliment you randomly throughout the day.

Oh are you wearing a new dress? It looks so pretty. You look so pretty today.

Oh did you get a new haircut? It compliments your face so well.

If you pay enough attention you can definitely tell that his face is much more open to you than it is to others.

When he starts getting really serious he tries to be more upfront about his flirting, but he kind of screwed himself over because he was already being super nice to you. So you  just think that he’s being extra nice.

So he has to be pretty explicit.

“Wow you know we’d be a pretty great couple right?”

“If we were dating we’d go to dinner whenever you want.”

You love his jokes!

He’s going to have to say that he likes you and ask you out.

Scott Summers

Scott is the most awkward.

I mean he’s the classic teenager. Doesn’t know what he’s doing and in general isn’t really great with figuring out what he’s feeling in the first place.

But he tries.

hangs around you a lot just trying to spend time with you and get you to notice him.

Which you do of course because every once in a while he’ll say something really funny and it makes you laugh.

Honestly his flirting is really obvious because of the fact that he’s so awkward.

He turns bright red any time he tries to compliment you or ask you to hang out so you immediately know something is up.

Scott refuses to ask anyone advice about it, but he get’s advice whether he wants it or not. Is is always useful advice? Absolutely not. Especially if it’s coming from any of the other students or his teammates.

The only person who ever gives him half way decent advice is his brother and he would rather die than take it because he feels like Alex is just patronizing him.  

He’ll get there. In the mean time it’s pretty cute to watch him try so hard.

[cultgambles]

Got a Secret, Can You Keep It?

i am so excited for Wayward Son. i can’t believe rainbow rowell told us DURING PRIDE MONTH and we have to wait until 2020??? an icon, truly. Ahhh, i’m a little rusty at writing..but i had fun anyway. 

Prompt: Simon and Baz had been dating for years, but they must keep it a secret...

Word count: 1220

Masterlist | Requests? open

S I M O N

“Simon!” Penny yells, exasperated, “You need to stop talking about Baz, it’s driving me crazy!”

“What!?” I can’t, he’s a danger! He’s probably plotting to end us right now!”

“Just look at him!” Penny grabs my face, turning it towards the brooding teen. Baz sneers. “Does he look like he’s plotting anything?”

“What are you staring at, Snow?”

“I’m not staring. I’m just looking,” I snark back. I would look at him all day if I could. And I practically do.

“We’re changing the rule. Simon, you’re not allowed to talk about Baz more than three times a day. It’s two less than before. Can you handle it?” Penny nods towards Agatha. “How do you feel?? Like, your boyfriend is always talking about someone else.”

Agatha blushes. “It’s no big deal to me.”

Of course it isn’t, I snort. I gave one last look towards Baz, to which the other boy raised his brow.

Truth is, Agatha and I had broken up two years ago. She claimed I only saw her as an endgame; not a ‘now.’ We still haven’t told Penny, but that’s a story for another time.

B A Z

“What’s his deal?” Niall asks.

“Why the hell would I know?” I grumble, stabbing my dinner with a fork.

Dinner finished shortly, we bid each other adieu.

I snuck one last glance at Simon, he was engrossed in his cherry scones. I sigh, he’s always so messy.

Once at my room, I change into pyjamas and close the window.

S I M O N

I yawn. “Tired of thinking of Baz yet?” Penny jabs.

“No, never. I am gonna go to bed though. See you guys tomorrow!”

“Night Si,” Penny and Agatha chorus.

“Baz, why is it so hot in here?”

“What? It’s cold as fuck.” Baz sighs, getting off his bed. I shrug, and we push both our beds together. We get comfy and turn the lights down.

I’m stroking his hair. “Baz?”

Hm? Baz grunts, looking up at me.

“I hate this.”

He freezes. “Hate what?”

“I hate sneaking around and pretending we hate each other when all I wanna do is kiss you everywhere,” I frown.

“What would everyone think? The Chosen One running around with a Pitch.”

“Stop calling me that. Besides, I wouldn’t mind running away with you. We could take Penny and she could bring Micah and we would all live together in a big house.”

“Sounds nice, Snow.”

“We’ve been hiding since sixth year.”

“I know. I count the days until we’re out of here,” Baz says softly, entwining his fingers with mine.

“Can’t we just--”

“Does Penny know you broke up with Wellbelove?”

“No, but--”

“Exactly.”

B A Z

“Crowley, Simon! What are you doing here?” He’s standing there, mud and snow caked on his boots, right in the middle of a snowstorm. (Ha! Snow.)

“I missed my boyfriend!” he says excitedly, pressing his body into me for a hug. I spell him clean as a whistle and bring him inside. “Also, I found out who Nicodemus is.”

“Wh-you did? Who is he?”

“Ebb’s brother.”

“Ebb your ex?”

“Ebb the goatherd.”

“I’m glad to see you,” I say softly, catching his hand in mine. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Alright.”

I hand him one of my jumpers. “How did you get so dirty?”

“I walked. None of the cabs would take me here, they said it’s haunted.”

“It is.” (He’s a fool.) (But he’s my fool.) “Come here.”

He all but falls on top of me, burying his face in my chest. “I missed you,” he mumbles.

“It’s been a couple of days, Snow.”

“I know, but I missed out on you for six weeks. Where were you?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I say, kissing his curls.

“Wake up, Simon. Bunce is here.”

“What?” Simon’s morning voice will be the death of me.

“She’s got some new information.”

Simon throws on some of my clothes as I resist the urge to run my hand along his chest.

“See something you like?”

“Buzz off,” I push at his chest, then curl my fingers into the jumper’s fabric and pull him into a kiss. His kisses are to die for. What am I going to do?

The doorbell rings, and I reluctantly pull away. I hear Vera letting her in, but I’m more surprised when Wellbelove is there too.

“A-Agatha!”

“Hi, Simon.”

“Simon! What are you doing here?” Bunce asks.

“Same as you,” he responds.

“Uh, okay? Now listen…” Bunce spews off information while Snow catches Wellbelove up. She looks shocked.

“We need Nicodemus.”

“Wellbelove could do it,” I shrug.

“Do what?”

“She’s pretty. Maybe he’ll tell us something,” I shrug. Agatha blushes.

“Nobody’s seducing a vampire,” Simon says. I frown.

“Don’t lie, Snow,” the words come tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop. The cat’s out of the bag. “That’s not what was happening yesterday. Or the day before. Or--”

“What is going on, what do you mean he’s lying, Baz?” Bunce shouts.

I look at Snow, who nods his head slightly.

“I--I’m hopelessly obsessed with Baz,” Simon blurts. I resist the urge to face palm.

“We know that, Si, remember? We had to make a rule that you can’t talk about him,” Penny chides.

They had to make a rule for him?

“No, I mean…”

“We’ve been dating since the end of sixth year,” I say, threading my fingers through his.

“Simon, you’re gay? So..so were we a lie?” Wellbelove looks close to tears. “Baz, you weren’t flirting with me in the woods?”

Bunce smacks her on the head. “People can be bi, Agatha.”

“I was trying to make him jealous. He’d been ignoring me all day. What’s a bloke have to do?” I explain.

Snow leans over to Bunce.

S I M O N

“Yeah, remember when he was walking funny the next day?” I whisper.

B A Z

If I could blush, I would.

“SIMON! Inappropriate!” Bunce screams, laughing.

“Wow, two years then?”

“Yep,” he smiles, all teeth.

“What an interesting turn of events, yada yada yada, let’s get back to the problem at hand--how do we get Nicodemus to give us answers.” Bunce shakes her head, curls going in all directions.

“Wait. I can’t do this. This truce thing? You guys being all chummy chummy? I have to go. I’m going to be late for the Christmas Eve party,” Wellbelove shrieks, running out the door.

“Uh, I guess that’s my cue,” Bunce stutters, following the other girl out. “And Simon, I see that’s why you couldn’t stop talking about him.”

“Well, I think that went well,” Simon laughs.

“Yeah, if you mean your ex not being able to handle it and running out, it went great,” I bite my lip.

“Oh, don’t you do that,” Simon waves a hand at me.

“Don’t do what?” I ask innocently.

Simon pulls me onto the bed with him.

Aleister Crowley, I’m living a charmed life.

[padfootagain]

Cute Alphabet : Frank Castle

Here are the answers to my cute alphabet for Frank Castle! It's the first thing I've ever written for him, so please, tell me if I'm wrong somewhere in his characterization. Hope you like it, and thank you for requesting it :)

Affection : What are those little things they do to show you that they love you?

 Let's be honest here, Frank Castle is a teddy bear. Yes, he can kill a bunch of guys without being even tired, but when it comes to love, he's a huge softie. If he loves you, he's tender. He would never hurt you, and he wants you to feel loved. He'll just drop random kisses on your face, wrap his arms around you from behind while you cook dinner, hold your hand when you walk together on the street... little tender gestures but he offers them every day.

 Birthday : What do they do to celebrate your birthday? What is the thing you need to do to make them happy on their birthday? Are they good at giving gifts?

 He'll buy you a cake where it's written 'happy birthday' and bring you a few balloons as well with a stupid smirk on his face as he stands on your threshold. You'll just eat dinner and drink way too much wine, which ends up kissing and cuddling and crawling to the bedroom.

 Just coming over to see him is enough, a night all for the two of you listening to old songs and drinking a lot. And if you really want to please him, buy him a gun.

 He's clumsy with gifts. He's awful actually. He tries, he really does try. But he doesn't get it. Which is strange, because he does listen to you, and he knows things that you like and don't like, but somehow when he tries to connect the clues together to find a new gift... the pieces just won't fit. So he keeps on buying you little things instead, like flowers or things of the kind that he knows that you will like at least, even if they're not original.

 Cuddles : Do they like to cuddle? Big spoon? Little spoon?

 He loves to cuddle. He loves to hold you in his big arms and to pepper kisses on your forehead. But he loves it when you wrap your arms around him and he can rest his head in the crook of your neck as well. He just feels so relaxed then.

 Dating : What are they like on their first date? And those after that?

 He's funny actually. He's funny because he tries to sound clever and flirty and he's not good at it. He's nervous as well. So after a while you just can't help it, and in the middle of your meal you just ask him to act naturally because it can't be him. He does. And the date is not less funny after he quits trying to impress you, on the contrary. But you like him much more after that...

 The more you know each other, the more relaxed and natural he is. He starts to trust you, even if it's hard for him to do so. He's been betrayed so much before after all. Somehow, you manage to convince him to trust you though, and he soon does. Which means more dates, longer dates, and more enjoyable ones.

 Evolution : How fast does your relationship evolves? Weeks, months, years?

 He's broken. You know it, what happened to him and his family is too terrible for you to even imagine that you could understand his pain one day. You don't push him. You have feelings for him, and you know that he likes you, but as long as he won't take the first step you won't try anything either, and that's exactly what needs to be done. He will never forget his former life, and you must show him that you don't want him to forget his family. Eventually, he'll move on, more or less. At least he'll try to live again, instead of merely surviving.

There is also the fact that Frank is slow to trust someone. As I've just mentioned, he's been betrayed too much before to fully trust people now. It takes time. But he trusts you a bit more every time you see each other, until, eventually, he could blindly leave his life between your hands. And then there is nothing left to stop him.

 Flirting : Do they flirt a lot?

 He tries. But let's be honest it makes you laugh most of the time. Which kind of seduces you but not in the way he would like to.

 Generosity : When they're with you, is it about you or about them?

 He wants you to feel loved. He wants you to know he's earnest, so he does pay attention to you and tries to make you happy.

Although, you know how much he needs to be loved. He deserves so much more affection than what he has received, so you do pour lots of sweet things on him, and he loves it.

 Honey : Do they use pet names? What's their favourite for you and for themselves?

 He likes classics. 'Babe' is his favourite.

Through you he tries to heal wounds of his former life, so don't make any allusion to his life as a soldier, especially through pet names. 'Babe' is great, stick to it.

 Isolation : How do they react when they are away from you?

 He hates it but he bares it. He doesn't complain. He tells you that he misses you but it's not meant as a blame. He'll leave little notes in your stuff that you find one by one while the two of you are parted, and it's just so sweet...

 Jealousy : Are they jealous? How do they react if you are jealous?

 He does trust you. If he is with you and your relationship is serious, then it means that he trusts you with his life. It's the rest of the damn planet that he doesn't trust. Yeah, he's jealous when a man looks at you in a way he doesn't like. And he is so diplomatic, as you know... so if the guy insists despite the kisses Frank and you have exchanged that clearly stated the nature of your relationship... the guy will probably lose a tooth or two.

 He doesn't want you to be jealous, because he knows that it worries you. He knows that you feel the same and that your jealousy is not ignited by a mistrust in him. So he reassures you, and it's soon forgotten.

 Kisses : Lots of them? Peppering ones? Languid ones?... What about your first kiss?

 He loves kisses. They're the sweetest things after all. He loves kissing your neck and your forehead, but he also needs you to give him lots of kisses, preferably on his chin or his lips.

 Light up : What do they do to make you feel better after a rough day? How can you lighten their mood?

 He'll prepare a bath for you, make you dinner, open a good bottle of wine and leave you rant about your day. Then cuddles on the sofa in front of some stupid TV show. Yeah, he's good at making you feel better.

 You need to hug him to comfort him. Long hugs. Lots of cuddles, whispering sweet words in his ears. He needs to be reassured then, so you have to bring back his confidence inside him.

 Mommy : How do they react to parenthood?

 He's so scared. It brings back too much for him to handle. He can't live all this again. No, being pregnant is not a good news for the two of you. You don't blame him though, you understand. He can't handle to have a child again when he lost his family once. Through you, he was trying to overcome the death of his wife but he can't overcome the death of his children, and he knows it. And you know it too.

When you tell him that you'll keep the baby anyway, it's just a lot of tears for both of you.

He never considers leaving though. How could he? So he stays and he's terrified. He's terrified and sad, memories messing so much with his head that for the last few weeks of your pregnancy, he's not sure if he can handle it.

But then the baby is here, and he's holding his child in his arms. And he thought... he was certain that it was the children he had lost that he would see all over again in the newborn child. But they're not here. Instead it's your hair that he recognizes, and your nose... He cries so hard, but none of you care, it's the first time that he smiles in weeks. He will never forget the life he lost but this child is his ticket for a new life, and he promises himself to make everything that is within his power to make it perfect for the three of you.

 Nurse : How do they take care of you when you're sick? How do they behave when they are sick?

 He forbids you to go to work and forces you to lay down and stay in bed under warm covers. He makes you lots of tea and soups and sends you around a thousand texts during the day when he's not with you. He's just so sweet...

 This man thinks he's unbreakable. Yes, he did survive to a lot of things, it doesn't mean that he's not exhausted and feverish when he catches the flu. You swear, you have to call for help and ask Curtis to make sure that Frank will stay in bed and rest.

 Objects : Are there any object, song, place that have a particular meaning for them or for the two of you as a couple?

 Everything that deals with the family he lost is special, and you don't touch anything. Never. You don't ask him questions either, you don't want to wake up painful memories. You leave him open the box where he keeps all his memories whenever he feels the need to remember, and you don't complain, you just leave him alone with his former life. The day he calls for you because he wants to show you something, you hesitate, but walk to him to sit next to him on the ground anyway. He shows you a drawing his daughter had drawn for his birthday. He tells you the story behind it, a tender smile on his face. You struggle against your tears, but listen anyway, remaining silent as he speaks. But then he picks another object, and another story follows, and then another, and another... some of them have you both crying, some make you laugh, some are just tender, in any case, you both end up spending the entire night talking about what he lost, and when the two of you finally close the box and go to bed for a few hours of rest, it's already dawn.

 Partners : Are they looking for flings, one-night stands, partners to be with until their last breath? What makes them fall for you?

 You're his attempt to live fully again. You're his last chance, and he knows it. No, you're not just a fling. He hopes to find a sense of love again, and he wants to find it through you.

 Quarrels : How is it to have a fight with them? What do they do to make you forgive them? What do you need to do to make them forgive you?

 Shouts. Lots of shouts. He'll take a walk to get calmer. When he comes back with a bleeding hand you know that he has punched a wall.

 He buys you flowers and comes to you with a sheepish expression painted all over his face, and he'll merely hand you the bouquet, mumbling a mere 'I'm sorry. Was my fault.'. And of course you let him in.

 You have to insist to make him forgive you. If he pushes you away, then come back to him anyway. Come back again and again until he listens to you. If he listens, he'll forgive you.

 Rings : How do they propose? The wedding? The honeymoon?

 Marriage is such a great leap to take. It takes him a long time to finally imagine that he can ask you without feeling too guilty because of the wife he lost. So when he means to ask for your hand he's impossibly nervous. He knows it's the kind of things you have one shot at. He prepares dinner that night, and you wonder why there are candles alit all over the room. He's clumsy when he kneels before you at the end of dinner, his voice deep and mumbling, the speech messy but earnest. And he looks at you with eyes so full of hope...

 The wedding is little and intimate. Your closest friends and family only are invited, and it's the same for him. You thank Curtis for helping the two of you preparing everything.

 You go to Spain for your honeymoon. You've always wanted to go there, and he just can't refuse you anything anyway. And he has to admit that it's pretty perfect : lots of things to visit, sun, sea and lots of time left to be in bed... perfect.

 Secrets : Do they keep secrets from you and how do they react when they learn that you've been hiding something from them?

 He struggles to talk about his family, but you can't blame him for that, and it's not really about keeping secrets, it's about hurting too much to speak. You will never know what he did when he was still in the army, but you don't really care. It's in the past now, you want to be his future.

 If he doesn't speak about his past, he accepts the fact that there are some things that happened to you that you don't want to share. As long as it's in your past, all is fine.

 Tease : Do they like to tease you? How much humour is there in your relationship?

 Yeah, he likes teasing you. It's part of his humour... and of his attempts to flirt.

 U-turns : What can transform your relationship in a good or bad way (what makes them confess their feelings or scares them off)?

 What can make your relationship go further is his trust in you. He has lots of work to do on his own heart to accept to try to love another woman than his wife as well. You two just need time.

 Pushing him to talk about his family, or not wanting him to think about them is the worst thing you could do to him. That's quite obvious that it would upset him though, and you understand that he needs to go back to them from time to time even if he doesn't want to share it all with you. So it's not really a mistake you could do anyway.

 Voicing : How hard is it for them to talk about their feelings? How do they tell you that they love you for the first time?

 He feels so guilty for loving you at first. He feels so guilty, he buries his feelings deeply in his chest and denies them for a long while. It's only when you tell him that you love him that he starts to let his feelings run through his veins again. He doesn't say it back at first. When he's absolutely certain that he loves you, he goes to visit the tomb of his wife. He stays there for a long while. But he's more peaceful after telling her about you. And when he comes back, all drenched from the heavy raindrops, he just hugs you and whispers the three magical words in your ear.

 Waking up : What is it like to wake up by their side?

 He's often up very early, and then you can find him preparing breakfast for the two of you, his short hair still wet from the shower.

 Yielding : What do you have to do to convince them to do what you want?

 He's easily convinced. He can't refuse anything to you. He loves you too much for that. You just have to ask. If you use your puppy eyes, it's the end of him.

 Zoo : Could they have a pet with you? What kind of pet?

 He loves dogs. They're loyal and trustworthy, he has no problem with the idea of getting one with you.