Tumgik
#I’m gonna half to make a second post with everyone else I couldn’t tag
le-petite-ivy · 4 months
Text
Tagged by @weeping-in-the-willows
@aro-manita-muscaria @agentlilicarter @moonthemagical @bazkrekkers @thebestieyoureinlovewith @taylorscrows @lactoset0lerant @harrringtons @smol-sorrows @sleepless-crows @chososlittlespacebuns @presidentroarie @evermore-crow @livingonpizza @morley-gang @livsarthaven @nerdyfuntheorist @demigoddess-of-ghosts @kaleb-is-definitely-sane @nikolaistealcoat @diorgirl444 @bidet-and-legolas @frogwithaflowercrown @lostinfantasyworldsbi @wizardweekly @ashlakh @spideydiwani @lilisouless @theoculus124 @sincerely-indi @darkpersoncreator @bluesakuramochi @waitingforthesunrise @eightpagesofprocrastination @aroacelesbiancalamity @ledizig @anxiety-lemsbian @grishaverse-chaos @shyamasyahi @greektragedybitch @strawberrybathbombs @radio-silencepdf @timeless-pdf @butyoupaintedmegolden @the-flower-faerie @givemea-dam-break @tfotaandstuff @totallynots8tan @deecube-is-a-dissapointment
31 notes · View notes
lilyswh0re · 2 years
Text
after - adrian pucey
date: july 22, 2022
summary: the aftermath
note: second part to strings. race and apperance isn't mentioned but y/n uses she/her
warnings: a couple swear words
a/n: two posts in one day is crazy for me. Ameila is giving Murray from ST hehe. The grammar is correct this time because I wrote this on my computer instead of my phone like i normally do. Also I learned how to do the keep reading break
tags: @limerenze @loverssfevers @ghostofscarley @dayangestre
Tumblr media
Come morning time, y/n was alone again. Alone with hardly any recollection of what happened a few hours ago. Instead of breakfast, the families opted for brunch, which y/n had walked into. 
“Sit!” Her father encouraged her. The only open seat, unfortunately, being across from Adrian. While she didn’t remember exactly what she said, she knew it wasn’t nothing. He was so passive this morning it almost hurt to watch them interact.
“Toast?” He offered her the plate.
She nodded and took a half slice, “Thank you.”
“We’re going down to the beach later.” Adrian’s mother informed them. Y/n just nodded.
Y/n’s mind was still on last night, everything was in place but it wasn’t right. Amelia–Adrian’s oldest sister–seemed to notice too, as she could not stop giggling into her tea cup. 
Adrian wasn’t kicking or pushing her, he was being awfully gentle. “Orange juice?”
“Sure, thanks.” It was becoming unsettling, not just for her but for everyone else at the table. Their mothers were overjoyed by the sudden change, as their lifelong dream of their children being together might actually occur.
“DId you have fun last night, Y/n?” Amelia asked. Y/n’s eyes went to the side to look at her before turning her head to respond.
“Yea, I might go out again tonight.”
“I bet, let me know so I can join you. You should come with us, Ade.”
“I’m still tired from last night.”
“Didn’t sleep well?” Amelia pouted.
He squinted at her to stop, “No, not really.” He hadn’t slept at all. He couldn’t believe he pushed Y/n away completely. She had been around for so long, put up with all of his antics, or so he thought. Truthfully, she put up with it because she had to but she would complain about it every chance she got.
“I’m going for a bike ride before we leave,” Y/n stood up from her seat. She went up to her room to change and to review what could have possibly happened to prompt Adrian’s sudden sickly sweet behavior. Staring at the posters on the ceiling, she fell back into her bed. 
They went to the party, that part she remembered clearly but as the drinks rolled in, her memory faded. Adrian brought her home, she got in bed, she told him that she hates him- SHE TOLD HIM THAT SHE HATES HIM. Her palm came down to her forehead. 
Stupid, stupid, stupid. 
She meant it though. All Adrian had ever done since third year was terrorize her and her friends. He wasn’t that 11,12 year old who wanted her to help him with transfiguration. He was now the 16 year old who flirted with girls he knows Y/n doesn’t like. He was the 16 year old who did everything in his power so Y/n couldn’t be able to bring home any boy who wasn’t him.
There was a knock on her door. “Come in.” It was him.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“You still wanna go on that bike ride? You’ve been up here a while.”
“Yea, I’m gonna go in a bit. You’ve been acting weird all morning.”
“To be fair, you were asleep all morning, it's past noon now.” Adrian smiled. It faltered when he realized you didn’t find it amusing.
“Adrian?”
“Yea?”
“Why are you like this?”
“Like what?”
“Like this! You’ve spent the past three years doing everything and anything to make me mad, to get under my skin. And then you act like you’re the picture of innocence!”
“You make me a jealous mess, Y/n! I’m sorry I’ve pushed your boyfriends off their brooms and hex them whenever they’re away from you!”
“You’re not entitled to me!” “I know that.” His voice was barely above a whisper. His head dipped back against the door frame.
“Just because our mothers want us together doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.I told you that as long as you treat me the way you do, I won’t go out with you and I meant it.” Her voice was firm but even if it had been wavering, Adrian knew it to be true.
He nodded and left.
Not long after, Amelia slipped in, giggling as she had been during brunch. “Lovers quarrel?”
“No.” Y/n pulled her new shirt down, “Your parents and my parents aren’t arguing.”
“Oh I know that. I was talking about you and Adrian.”
“We aren’t lovers and will never be.”
“Whatever you say.” She slipped out as smoothly as she slipped in, only her head was still inside the room, “Your brother and I have a bet, don’t let me down.” She winked.
“Get out. Amelia!” She chucked a pillow at the door.
Y/n rushed out herroom to the backyard, hoping no one else wanted to give their unwanted opinion. She got a running head start before hopping onto her bike.
“Bit mad, huh?” Her brother called out.
“Shut up, asshole!” The wind carried her string of insults to him as Y/n peddled away.
At the beach, the families set up a good distance from the water. Y/n had no intention of getting in the water so soon. So when she was asked to join a game of volleyball, she agreed almost instantly.
Adrian, on the other hand, got into the water as soon as he put his stuff down. He almost didn’t even realize when one of the boys wrapped his arms around Y/n to fix her form. He wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t been for his youngest sister who pointed it out. 
“Ads, who’s that with Y/n?’
“Just a friend.” He dove in, making Annabelle, who was on his shoulders, shriek at the cold water. 
They didn’t speak the entire time at the beach, until the very end.
“Adrian, can you please tell Y/n it’s time to go?” Her mother asked. Although he didn’t want to, he nodded and made his way towards her.
“Y/n, we’re leaving.” Adrian kept his distance from the pair. She turned to look at him as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at the shining waters.
“Bye,'' she said softly to the other boy. 
The car ride home was full of chatter and laughter but Adrian was miserable. Though Y/n was doing much better than him, she also wasn’t doing amazing. 
Amelia leaned into her, “Why the long face? New boyfriend wasn’t adequate?”
Y/n scowled, “He’s not my boyfriend and he was…fine. And it’s his last day here before he goes back to America so…”
“Huh seems you were robbed of a summertime romance.” Amelia leaned back in her seat.
“I don’t want anything with him! He was just fun to talk to!” Y/n whisper yelled. Adrian whipped his head back to look at them and accidentally made eye contact with Y/n, who quickly turned to look out the window.
“Ah to be young and dumb,” Her brother sighed. He laughed at the thud from Y/n kicking his seat.
“You’re three years older than me dipshit!”
“Language!” One of the adults called out.
The rest of the summer continued like that. Barely any acknowledgments between the two.
They were now in their sixth year and Adrian had been made headboy. Y/n now found herself in an empty compartment, waiting for her friends to arrive. Adrian stepped inside, sitting in front of her. “Look, I know I’m a total arse to you and you will never date me but if we could just be friends.” 
Y/n looked at him for a moment. He was being sincere, something that wasn’t very common towards her. She nodded, “Friends.”
Maybe even more but all in due time.
58 notes · View notes
swaps55 · 1 year
Text
Writer Tag Game
Tagged by @screwyouflightlieutenant. Thank you!
Tagging @mrsd-writes @crescentbunny @commander-krios, @stormikins, @pigeontheoneandonly @shadesofmauve and anyone else who would like to play, if you so desire!
Do you write in order?
When inspiration strikes I’ll scribbles lines for future scenes, but I write almost exclusively chronologically. The only exception has been Sonata. I wrote the beacon nightmare, panic attack, and kiss in the rain before I wrote most of the rest of the story, because they were so vivid in my head I couldn’t sleep. But Sonata in general was more like performing an exorcism than writing a story.
Note this does NOT apply to Opus as a series, which is all over the map. I wrote part of Cantata first, then Sonata, then half of Fugue, then Cantata in its entirety, then Concerto, then the rest of Fugue. It sounds insane, but I think it's the only way I could have written these stories the way they needed to be told.
Do you start with something in particular?
I usually have a hook or a goal of some kind in mind, be it a character arc, a plot point, etc. I have a quirk where I have to have a first line to work from. I can’t overcome the blinking cursor without it. The first line sets the tone, and I go a little feral if I don’t have that opening note.  
How fully formed does your writing come out on the first try?
I tend to write in layers. First pass through will be heavier on dialogue and lighter on prose, and then I layer in depth, nuance, context, plot threads, etc. If I’m writing slow and methodical, I’ll get pretty close on the first pass, but if I’m rushing to get an idea on the page, it’s usually a skeleton that needs some muscle on the second pass.  
How many drafts do you go through?
I do a lot of revision as I go, but I usually go through 3-4. First draft, first heavy revision pass, post-beta feedback revision, and a polish pass. Fugue would skew those numbers a lot higher, heh.
Tell me about your process?
Until the back half of Fugue, I was almost a pure pantser. I’d have a theme or idea for a one-shot or a chapter, and I would just sit down and go, and see what happened. My two favorite examples of this are from Cantata.
For the chapter “Infinity,” aka Kaidan’s ‘oh’ moment, the only thing I had to go on was ‘kaidan sleeps off a migraine in Sam’s quarters + star gazing.’ Also, that chapter wasn’t planned in the original draft at all. I added it last minute.
For the chapter, “The Things We’ve Done,” aka, Sharjila, when I initially sat down to write it, I didn’t know why they were there, what the fuck happened other than ‘thresher maw????’, or why they were mad at each other. I just thought it would be cool to maroon them on a planet in a life-threatening situation. Fun fact, because I couldn’t figure out the answers to any of those very valid questions, I said ‘fuck it, I’ll go write a fake dating prompt as a fun distraction.’ The fake dating prompt became Sonata, and it answered all my questions.
Fugue got complicated enough that I had to do a lot more plotting to make sure everything fell together, and I think that will carry over somewhat to Mezzo, the next fic, which is going to be a planning nightmare.
But normally, when I actually sit down to write, I write forward, then go back and revise/fill in holes, then write forward, go back and revise/fill in holes. If the train starts veering off the tracks I stop and go back to figure out where the jump is so I can fix it before I write forward.
I almost always ride a pendulum back and forth between, ‘I can do this. It’s gonna be great,’ and ‘I am a fraud and there is no way I can pull this off; I am going to let everyone down.’ The pendulum swings can last days, or happen within a single sentence. It’s wild.    
15 notes · View notes
sta7z · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
I posted 140 times in 2022
That's 140 more posts than 2021!
71 posts created (51%)
69 posts reblogged (49%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@sta7z
@kokichiis7
@sarcasm104
@segamascot
I tagged 72 of my posts in 2022
Only 49% of my posts had no tags
#isaiah’s idiocy - 52 posts
#stranger things x reader - 22 posts
#fruity four - 10 posts
#nancy wheeler - 8 posts
#fruity 4 - 8 posts
#robin buckley x reader - 7 posts
#stranger things - 7 posts
#nancy x reader - 7 posts
#robin buckely - 7 posts
#youtube - 5 posts
Longest Tag: 85 characters
#initially i thought this was editied. but then i remember how weird runway fashion is
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
“ Gonzo Loves Chickens”         Robin Buckley x Stutterer! Reader 
Okay so, I have a stutter and stuff, and that’s why I made this 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
“w-well” you stammered, getting up. “Well what? God you losers, so damn pathetic” One of the mouthbreathers said. “I-I-I-I’m going to tell Steve! And th-the-then” Troy interrupted “Oh my god, you really can’t talk straight to save your life! B-B-Ba-BAWK” He then started flailing his arms and making more chicken noises.
Later that day…
“Hey! I got back from work early and Geuss what I got for you!!” Robin, the only one who made you feel safe. You sat down your book bag and sat on the couch as your girlfriend continued her rambles “Well, I technically didn’t rent it since I didn’t have the money for it. Not saying I stole it! I’m gonna give it back-“ You chuckled “wh-wh-what is it?” Robin scrambled into her bag and pulled out a VHS tape and… “GONZO!” You squealed as you grabbed the stuffed toy from her hand.
“You’re so cute-“ Robin said, blushing. “Now, how was your day at school? I hope it was good!” You looked down, what do you tell her? Those jerks always called you names and laughed while you stuttered while answering questions. Which just made you stutter more. “Th-the-they called me a…” Robin didn’t say anything, just gave a look that seemed to say ‘I’ll wait.’ “A Ch-chicken” Robin gasped, absolutely taken aback. She grabbed you and flooded you with pecks to your cheeks and lips. “If anything baby, he wished he could be a chicken. Gonzo loves chickens right? They’re always helping him with jobs, doing acrobatics. Being a chicken doesn’t seem half bad to me!” You snickered slightly at Robin’s remark. You lifted your head to meet her gaze and kissed her.
“Oh yeah! You never saw your other present!” Robin said, pulling out the VHS tape again to reveal you and Robin’s favorite movie. “The Muppets” She gave you another peck on the cheek as she set up the movie. “So, who’s your favorite muppet and why is it Gonzo?” You laughed “W-well you see um- I-it’s because G-Gonzo is… what’s the word… f-ff- fun!” Robin smiled and nodded. You continued on with your rant about how great and mysterious the muppet was. And how he deserved his own film. You never felt more accepted than you did with Robin, everyone else would stop listening to your rants or you’d stop because your stammering would make everything take longer. But not Robin.
Tumblr media
45 notes - Posted August 27, 2022
#4
“Mom!” Steve Harrington x Little! Reader
Summary: Steve’s infamous nickname takes a wholesome turn. (Featuring Dustin and the rest of the fruity four)
“Hey Mom!” Dustin called, slamming the fridge shut. “There’s no food in here!” You and Dustin were over at Steve’s house. The man couldn’t cook to save his life, living off of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. “Okay okay I’m coming, god can you just not call me ‘Mom’ for five seconds.” Steve said as he sauntered down the stairs. “Yeah yeah whatever MOM.” You sat there fidgeting and hungry as the boys argued. You told Steve about your age regression but you hadn’t really regressed around him. You weren’t really sure what to do. Robin, Eddie and Nancy came downstairs and went into the living room. Steve and Dustin had been arguing about what to eat when Dustin turned to you and said “Y/N, what do you wanna eat? Mom- I mean Steve is going to the store ” You looked down at your feet, struggling to find the words you wanted to say. “I-I wan some Dunkawoos” Steve walked over to you and gently ran his hand through your hair. “You’re regressed right?” You nodded. Steve paused for a moment “is there anything else you want? A toy? Some chocolate milk?”
“Nuh uh Mommy I’m otay.” Dustin laughed so hard he almost collapsed, Steve just stood there absolutely dumbstruck. “Awww i see the little one has a soft spot for you Harrington. Or should i say ‘mommy’”. You felt the heat rushing to your face as you fiddled with your fingers. “Awww Mama nancy and mommy Steve, seems fitting enough.” Robin interjected giving Nancy a slight nudge. Steve picked you up and sat you on his shoulders, you gasped with delight “Cmon! I’ll piggyback ride you to the store okay?” You squealed with delight “Tank you mommy!!!”
i had this idea and I just had to do it-
Tumblr media
46 notes - Posted August 27, 2022
#3
“I Hate that I Love You” Dark!Yandere! Nancy Wheeler x Fem!Reader  )Part 1(
Disclaimer: this is a HORROR fic. And I do not endource the actions used here nor should they be replicated in reality. That being said, the warnings include:
Stalking gaslighting Spoilers for a book that came out in 1800-
꧁༺☽⛓ .♱. ⛓☾༻꧂
Nancy wasn’t one to be vulnerable. Sure she had a few flings with Steve and Jonathan, but it wasn’t until she saw you that she really felt something. Nancy wasn’t some lovesick fool, you weren’t perfect. No one is. But it’s something about you that made her feel… warm. But that warmth quickly raised to a boil when she saw you around other people. She wasn’t sure if she hated you or not. You made her hate everyone that came in contact with you. You were like a parasite, completely stuck to her, taking over her mind. You made her feel so… confused, that didn’t sit well with her. Nancy was constantly in control, there was a time and a place for everything but around you it was pure chaos.
꧁༺☽⛓ .♱. ⛓☾༻꧂
After school you went over to Mike’s House to play DND. About 2 hours in the phone rung upstairs and Mrs.Wheeler called you. “Your mother called, the teacher called saying you’re failing a class!” You huffed, you were never good at that class, but last you checked you had a B-… it was weird. You heard footsteps coming down the steps and turned to see Mike’s older sister. The two of you never interacted much, other than those weird stares she had been giving you for all these weeks. The two of you went into her room, she gestured for you to sit on her bed. “So, what is it that you struggle with?” You shrugged, “Grammar, spelling and semi colons and all that bullshit.”In all honesty you were a little scared of her. After the whole Will thing she changed, sure you never knew her before. But Barb talked about her a lot. Barb… maybe that’s why Nancy changed, you can’t judge a book by its cover after all.
After a few hours of studying you finally understood the topic and thanked Nancy. You were getting ready to leave when Nancy breeched your actions with her soft, yet demanding voice “Wait! Did you ever start the book? Frankenstein?” You shook your head. You were fairly good at reading things in a short time frame. Reading it so soon would only make you forget it later after all. But what’s a few more hours? Plus Nancy was… nice! Odd, but nice.
“For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart…” Nancy read aloud. Me and her alike felt this, mutual fear but familiarness when it came to Victor Frankenstein. His creation, his child, a monster. One he made while blinded by the light of his innocence. Nancy looked really upset, so, you recommended stopping there and studying together tomorrow. She agreed.
꧁༺☽⛓ .♱. ⛓☾༻꧂
The next day at school, you questioned your teacher about why exactly you failed. “What are you talking about? You’re actually doing extremely well. After this essay, I bet your B- will go straight to an A!” You were happy, who wouldn’t be, but she called, didn’t she? You shrugged it off, mayhaps she called the wrong parent. The school was huge, it wasn’t that unlikely.
You went into the lunch room, thank god. 45 minutes of free time. You usually sat with the boys. But they weren’t there? Perhaps they were with Mr. Clarke, some science project probably. You peered around the lunchroom for a place to sit. You felt eyes burning, seemingly through your soul, you turned around to see Nancy. She wouldn’t mind if you sat there, right? Nancy wasn’t one for small talk, in fact she stayed silent as you spoke with Steve about the many hilarious ventures him and Robin got into during their summer jobs.
Robin, speaking of her… “Hey Nance!” Robin came, seemingly out of nowhere and sat on Nancy’s lap. Wheeler broke her unwavering glaze over to her. “Oh get off of me,” she chuckled. “Hey Y/N!” You waved in a reply. Right. They were dating. How could you forget.
54 notes - Posted September 20, 2022
#2
🦋 My Little Butterfly🦋
Nancy Wheeler x Little! Reader
You were extremely tired after a really long D&D campaign. At the time Nancy was studying, she still is.
You stumbled up to her room as she sat writing a million Flashcards. “N-nace? Is you busy?” Nancy glanced up at you peeking through the door. “Aw, I thought I heard someone flapping up here,” she patted her lap “c’mere Butterfly.”
You snuggled your head into the crook of her neck as she softly caressed your hair. “My adorable little butterfly. Did you have fun?” You nodded, a soft yawn parting your lips. “m’ sowwy if i botherd you. M gonna go home…” You began to get up only for Nancy to gently grab your hand and give it a gentle kiss. “You know you’re too little to ride your bike right now, especially at such a late hour baby.” You sat back down on her lap, wrapping your arms around her.
“Shh Butterfly, it’s okay. Mama’s here, I’m here.” As she whispered sweet nothings into your ear you couldn’t help but drifting off into a deep sleep.
“I love you baby” is the last thing you hear before you fell asleep.
Authors Note: I’m still not good at fanfic writing yet 😅 I tried my best. I regress myself but if I got anything wrong please tell me!
63 notes - Posted August 25, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
“My Girlfriend is a Witch!” Witch! Robin Buckley x Reader
Tumblr media
A/N: another gift for the amazing @semishyguy! I know it’s a bit early for Halloween but shhh
☾(∩`-´)⊃━☆゚.*・。゚☽
Everyone had their suspicions about Robin Buckley, sure she was a little… weird. But no weirder than you or Steve or Jonathan. Your girlfriend had this strange infatuation with a stray in your neighborhood though, a little black cat with the widest yellow eyes you had ever seen! She named him “Y/N Junior”. The two of you never brought him into your house, primarily because he didn’t want to. But you bought him a little collar a while ago, and always gave him his favorite foods when he stopped by the door of either of your homes.
it was October 28th. Robin was lounging around the study hall and reading a book. “Hey babe! What are you reading?” Robin jumped and closed the book. “Nothing, love.” She hid the book behind her and you peered behind her. A questioning look on your face. “What book? You know I love reading with you!” She sighed and pulled the book back out. The title read ‘R.L Stien. Fear Street.’ You could’ve sworn it was a different color… and from what you saw it was a hardcover book. Not a paperback how it is now. You shrugged it off, maybe it was just a trick of the light.
You, Steve, Dustin, El, and Jonothan all went to Steve’s house to work on a project. You invited Robin but she said she would prefer to work alone. That was… a first to say the least. The two of you loved your half work- half interest rambling sessions. Then cramming everything 5 minutes before the presentation. The two of you were inseparable. Jonathan interrupted your thoughts “What ideas do you all have for our film project?” Jonathan fiddled with his camera. Dustin pulled out a lot of VHS tapes “well, you see, I’ve collected THE BEST horror movies of all time. It being October and all.” Steve rolled his eyes, “now I’ve got an idea,” Steve placed a loose piece of ribbon on his neck and gave his best ‘Hollywood accent’ “A big picture about a handsome lead role, that’s me. Finding the love of his life! A semi-secluded loner named… Breddie!” He said, picking up a piece of toast and chewing it. He gestured to El, “and then! They find and adopt a witch!” Everyone huffed an rolled their eyes.
“Speaking of Witches,” You said, “What’s everyone dressing up as for Halloween?” You looked around the room, “Well me and the boys are dressing up as Star Wars character’s. I’m Han Solo of course.” Steve shrugged “probably somebody hot. Chicks dig werewolves right?… does Eddie like werewolves-?” Everyone laughed. Jonathan broke the lighthearted tone of the conversation “has anyone noticed Robin had been acting… weird lately.” By ‘everyone’ he meant you. You shook your head and asked “why do you think she’s being weird.” “Yeah, like, more weird than normal?” Steve chuckled.
☾(∩`-´)⊃━☆゚.*・。゚☽ The Ring.
Jonathan described many odd occurrences. Robin seemingly disappearing fully between crowds, being late for something but popping up behind us randomly, and lately she’s always been reading something. You couldn’t help but agree. “Once, she got me this beautiful but extremely expensive ring for our 1 year anniversary.” You flaunted the Snake engraved ring for a moment. “But Steve, you as much as anyone knows how much the two of you get paid. Most certainly not enough to afford something like this.” Steve nodded and gestured to Eleven. “What do you think kiddo?” El paused for a moment trying to find the words, “Witch.”
🕸️🕯Later 🕯🕸️
You all considered using Eleven’s powers to spy but decided against it. Primarily because if anything bad happened Max would knock you over the head with her skateboard.
“Jonathan?” ”yeah?” ”Do you think… Robin could be like… apart of a gang or something” He stopped dead in his tracks and gave the most humorous laugh. He almost fell over. “ROBIN BUCKLEY??” You rolled your eyes, “it could explain the money, and why she’s always so late.” Jonathan nodded. “Understandable, but yet again. It’s Robin ‘Give me the newest Cabbage Patch Kid doll’ Buckley.” The two of you laughed. You parted ways as you showed up. You looked up at the house and noticed a crash sound coming from the top floor, Robin’s room. You grabbed the key Robin hid under the mat and struggled to unlock the door. You heard something fall from behind you.
“Junior?” You peered at the Yellow eyes that seemed to speak to you somehow. You shuddered and continued unlocking the door. “Robin? Baby? Are you okay?!” You shouted walking up the steps. “Yeah I’m okay!! I just erm- dropped something! My Teddy Ruxbin! You know how loud those things are!” You sighed in relief to hear your girlfriend’s banter again. “Doll! You can come in!” You opened the door, Robin’s hair was a mess. She was sitting on her bed, her window open. You closed it, shivering “Love, it’s freezing outside! You really shouldn’t have your window open, here let me grab you a jacket.” You headed towards her closet and Robin shouted “Wait!” You stopped in your tracks and turned around. “I- um- I I got you something!” You tilted your head. She grabbed your hand and gently kissed your fingers, with her other hand she pulled out a box of VHS tapes. It read “The Addams Family”. You gasped happily, you were either busy with schoolwork or your job that you hadn’t been able to catch the show while it was on. “Well I saw this, the entire collection and I couldn’t stop thinking about my little Moonray,” she pulled you onto her lap. “I would say I’m Gomez and your Morticia. But honestly Nighteyes, you are much much more ravishing.” She pulled you into a kiss, her black lipstick staining your lips.
There was still one thought on your mind, Where did it even come from? Her bag was far too small to fit it. There was no lump in her blanket… and why was Y/N Junior on the roof.
🔮🧙🏻‍♀️☾TO BE CONTINUED🕯🌙🌕
@semishyguy
83 notes - Posted September 2, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
2 notes · View notes
obeiii-mee · 3 years
Note
Can I angst for Mammon where he is in a really bad mood and his brothers are at it again calling him names. And already ask them kindly to leave him alone but they keep at it. And Levi says something and it's the last straw. The air around them get cold for a moment as he slowly looks up and he flat out threatens them to shut up before he puts them back into there place with a really dark and threatening voice, before leaving. And the look could rival Satan's or even Lucifers glare.
I think Mammon takes the abuse of his brothers but sometimes he isn't in the mood and want a little peace and it is very very rare for him to get pissed
Like he's the kind of person who would yell when he's upset but when he's down right pissed it's like really fucking scary
People forget that as much as he lets his brothers push him around he is still the second oldest and is powerful so 😬
Brothers+ undateables reaction
Mammon snaps:
___________________
This is something I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but I basically second everything you said. I believe that Mammon dislikes getting into confrontations but isn’t by any means weak or stupid. He is the second eldest. However he is also, arguably, the one with the most self control out of them all. He has an overwhelming amount of patience when it comes to his siblings and I like to think he puts up with all of their insults because he loves them. Then again, it’s very possible for him to go berserk after years worth of build up.
Thanks for the request!!! I had a bit of trouble at first because I didn’t know how I was going to format it but I like the way it turned out so I hope you do too. Uhh also I reached my word limit writing this so I couldn’t include Simon, Luke and Solomon. I do plan on writing for them as well but at this point I’m just trying to get this done. Let me know if I made any grammatical errors! I double check my writing all the time but sometimes mistakes got over my head! The undateables are short because honestly I view the brothers as the ones who will suffer the most out of everyone. I hope you enjoy reading it anyway!!
•Characters: Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphagour, Diavolo, Barbatos.
⚠️Warnings: Cursing, mentions of blood & gore and that’s about it.
___________________
For the past few months, Lord Diavolo’s pleasure of hosting parties and inviting people over had become more and more noticeable. It was pretty obvious that the Prince was lonely, isolating himself from others due to the responsibilities he has as the heir to the throne and a leader in the making. Attending his gatherings seemed like a down right chore for most of the brothers but you never had any problem tagging along. Besides, it felt nice knowing he seemed you worthy of coming to such important meetings. Your seven demons were, of course, also invited and per Lucifer’s orders, they all got cleaned up and dressed in fancy clothing to impress the regals prancing about the castle. Though the outfits themselves came with their own set of problems. Levi’s was way too tight; the collar seemed to annoy him more than anything else, judging by the patches of red skin on his neck. Satan accidentally ripped one of the buttons from his jacket off in a fit of rage earlier that day and was now silently fuming while poking his finger through the hole he made. Even Asmo spilled some water on his shirt before they arrived, ruining his pretty pink suit! Not to mention Beel was munching on his tie, having last eaten about 15 minutes beforehand. Lucifer pulled it out of his mouth and scowled at the saliva stains that were left behind. Safe to say they were all in a miserable mood to begin with.
“I expect all of you to behave in a respectable manner,” Lucifer flicked Belphie on the back of the head just as he began dozing off, making the youngest growl at him. He shot Mammon an irritated look “I’m especially talking to you Mammon. Don’t try to steal anything or I’ll cut your hands off.”
“I told ya big bro, ya don’t have to worry about me! I’ll be a golden child today! Promise!” Mammon held up his pinky as if he was committing to some kind of oath. The eldest darkened his glare and opened his mouth to say something else, but you interrupted in hopes of avoiding any bickering that might’ve followed.
“Look, there’s our table! Let’s go sit down. Lord Diavolo’s speech is going to start any minute now.”
Beel leaped at the table as soon as he sniffed out the appetisers, which were neatly arranged on the expensive tablecloth, shoving at least half of them in his mouth by the time the rest of you caught up with him. Having been seated, you quickly glanced around the room in hopes of spotting Diavolo. You bumped into Solomon and the angels before entering the castle, chit chatting with them for a while about the event. Even now, Luke was excitedly waving at you from across the room, using both of his arms. However, Lord Diavolo and Barbatos were the ones in charge of this party and you were yet to see either of them.
Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Mammon eyeing the golden utensils laid out in front of him. Not the biggest of surprises really. Anytime Mammon sees something along the lines of gold, he can’t help but snatch it away. And there’s obviously so many valuables scattered all over the place, including the silverware that was proudly presented on every table. You sucked in a breath of anticipation when he reached for one of the spoons, only to exhale in relief when he placed it on the bridge of his nose, trying to balance it.
“MC, look at this!” He tapped your shoulder, as always wanting your full and undivided attention as he demonstrated his newfound skill. You giggled at his antics with fondness as he accidentally let the spoon drop with a clatter and a quiet ‘shit’ coming from him. Lucifer pulled on his ear, like a mother scolding her child and whisper-yelled at him to stop acting like an idiot. The only reason the oldest chose a sit right next to Mammon was to maintain order and peace. Basically, he did it for disciplinary reasons.
“I understand that being impertinent is your full-time job, Mammon but keep this up and I’ll throw you in Cerberus’ room. Let him do with you as he pleases.”
“Lucifer, it’s not a big deal-“
“Yeah, OK,” Mammon hissed, picking up the spoon from the recently polished floor with a slight grin that didn’t quiet reach his eyes “I gotcha. Can-“
“Speaking of Cerberus,” Levi suddenly piped in, no longer fussing about his collar or nervously twiddling with his thumbs because of the massive crowd of demons surrounding him “Didn’t you force me to walk him last week when it was your turn to do it?? I only agreed because you promised to buy me the newest Ruri-Chan limited edition body pillow that came out last Tuesday! And you never did! And now they’re out of stock, you scummy piece of-“
The third eldest would’ve leapt across the table and aimed for the throat if you hadn’t pressed a gentle hand against his chest, making him sit back down with a huff. People were starting to stare at the commotion coming from your table, turning heads and muttering between themselves. You were slowly dying from embarrassment by the way, since you guys definitely became the topic of conversation for the other guests. The brothers were being too noisy to even notice and Lucifer himself was too preoccupied to see the scene they were creating which made you further slouch down into your chair, silently hoping for the ground to swallow you whole. The night really wasn’t going as intended. You could hear Solomon laughing at the brothers’ antics from three tables down.
“I guess that’s Mammon for you,” Belphie yawned, barely raising his head from table “He lies everyday, all day. What exactly is new here? And that says something since it’s coming from me.”
“I apologised for that!” Mammon whined, referring to Levi’s accusation and choosing not to address Belphie’s insult “I was gonna buy it but then I realised I spent all my money earlier that week anyway so I couldn’t!”
“Perhaps that wouldn’t happen if you learned how to save the money you earn properly,” Satan muttered, sipping from his glass of whatever beverage he had snatched from the servants earlier “Not like you know how to earn money in any way besides stealing it.”
You watch as Mammon clenched his fist “Can we please just move on-“
“I can’t believe that I was cursed with this moron for a brother,” Asmo sighed, almost theatrically, as if he was performing. And, in a way, he was. People were getting really interested in the drama unfolding over there. It was making you even more anxious, all those eyes staring at you. The Avatar of Lust was leaning so much on his chair, you were sure he was going to topple over and at this point, you kinda hoped he would. Anything to stop this momentum of hatred aimed at Mammon “You’re always getting us in trouble, you know. Hmph, we can’t go anywhere with you Mammon! You always end up ruining it for us! With your stupid schemes and-“
“I’m hungry-“
“Not now, Beel!”
“Cutting him up into tiny pieces for the witches will always be an option,” Lucifer chimed in, smiling at the thought.
Mammon snapped his head upwards at that. It was such an abrupt reaction, it made you jolt a little in your seat. You couldn’t miss the tension radiating from him, how quickly his body stiffened and exactly how hard his hands were gripping the edge of the table. His brothers were still paying him no mind, blaming him for this and that under their breath or being silently judgemental in Lucifer’s case. You worried for him because Mammon rarely acted like this; feral, in a way. Just so you know, he definitely noticed it. The look of concern plastered all over your face. That’s the only reason he released the table from his vice-like grip and slouched back against his chair. Satan went quiet and was staring at Mammon in bewilderment.
He disliked the idea of you watching him lose control of himself. He was your guardian. Your first pact. It’s important to him that your relationship is build around a pillar of trust. And he can’t even expect you to trust him if he exposes you to his demon form every time something inconveniences him. Mammon would rather cease to exit than have you fear him. So he kept his breathing regulated as the fog cleared his mind. The Avatar of Greed isn’t an angry demon. Snuffing out the the flame of rage he had fanned up until then was relatively easy. He just needed to get through tonight, then he could go home and complain to you about it once he got out of his brothers’ earshot.
“Why does he get to spend so much time with MC anyway? He’d probably sell them for a few Grimm any time of the day, wouldn’t he? It’s so fucking unfair. He won’t change no matter what so why risk MC’s safety? I will summon Lotan on him if he starts getting on my nerves.”
It would be an understatement to say that those words rubbed Mammon the wrong way, judging by the lack of immediate response. It was unexpected for him keep his mouth shut at a time like this. What was even more unexpected was the abrupt, delayed reaction he had a few seconds afterwards, resulting in his chair being flung back about 5 feet in that general direction. The seemingly deafening thud it made when it collided with the floor echoed around the dining hall, bouncing off walls and whacking people over the heads with the aggression behind it. A moment of pure, indescribably loud silence filled the crowded space as everyone else stared in shock at their brother, mouths agape and eyes bulging out of their sockets. Mammon would’ve laughed at their faces if it weren’t for the circumstances leading up to that point.
“What gives any of you the right to treat me like some sort of punching bag?” Mammon drawled, accentuating his obviously superior nature to almost every single demon at that table. He laughed, in an oddly half hearted way, before his sea struck gaze landed back to his siblings “Do not try to push me into a corner, because I will not handle it well. You’ve been having a field day with me for centuries now and I’m starting to get really ticked off, ya know? But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve done everything in my power to keep MC alive for the past few months and y’all are acting as if I’m out here playing with their life. Complain about me all you want. But...” He thumped the table, loud enough to make all the noblemen in the room flinch.
“Don’t you dare insinuate that I would ever put MC in danger, willingly or not because I will rip out your insides and paint the walls of this palace with them while hanging your intestines from these chandeliers. I will pluck your hairs out one by one, then your nails, then your eyeballs and then your teeth. You’re the ones that have put MC in danger’s way time and time again in the past few weeks, and you’re out here trying to suggest that I would even think about hurting them? Unlike every single one of you, who almost killed my human-you’re lucky I don’t have your fucking heads.”
He smashed his fist into the table again, using even more of his strength this time and effectively breaking the whole thing, the wooden legs giving out and shattering into thousands of splinters. Mammon spoke again, his voice lowering “MC forgave you. I didn’t. And I have no reason to. Not with how you’ve been treating me.”Once he spit that out, Mammon turned on his heel and left, slamming the door shut behind him hard enough to shake the whole building, leaving his siblings in dazed awe.
......
Even more silence. For some reason, all of the brothers at the now broken table ended up looking your way, silently questioning what they should do. It often ended up like this
You gave them all an unimpressed stare and a half-assed shrug “Don’t look at me. You guys fucked up.” Before sliding out of your seat and following Mammon out of the castle, sending an apologetic smile to Diavolo on your way out. Hopefully, you could manage to calm him down before everyone else gets home otherwise this might drag on for a while.
Lucifer:
-In all honesty, he probably saw the signs from a mile away and still decided to ignore them
-Maybe because he believed they weren’t being all that harsh on him, even if in Mammon’s eyes they were
-‘Harsh’ in Lucifer’s vocabulary usually means being hanged upside down from a ceiling or publicly executed, not a couple of mere insults
-Not to mention the eldest had always been horrible at communicating with his brothers when it came to emotions
-Despite Mammon clearly suffering from the treatment he received from his brothers, Lucifer refuses to believe he’s the root of the problem
-As the Avatar of Pride, he always had a hard time realising that all those words and the constant teasing, which he deemed to be pretty harmless, scarred Mammon a lot more than expected
-Once he actually comes to that conclusion, and after getting over the initial shock, Lucifer would probably feel the guiltiest out of them all
-Being the eldest means he carries quite a few burdens on his shoulders as most responsibilities fall on him due to his prideful nature
-He would blame himself for Mammon’s outburst simply because he’s the older brother and he should’ve known better, not just because he sees how a big of a role he played in all of this
-Usually, if his brothers do something bad, then he’s there to fix it within hours, that’s how it always worked
-Except he doesn’t know how to fix this exactly
-The problem is he has no idea how to approach Mammon after that sudden meltdown and he has no idea how to talk it out with him because he sucks at expressing himself verbally
-And since this took place in a public space, Lord Diavolo’s Palace no less, he felt really conflicted on what should have been done at that moment in time
-There was a lot of frustration, embarrassment and confusion in him for a good five minutes after Mammon slammed that door shut behind him and even after he gathered his thoughts together, he was still in shock for the rest of the night
-In any case, the whole event was promptly cancelled and everyone ended up going home earlier than expected, after Lucifer apologised to Diavolo about the spectacle they created (several times)
-When they finally get home, he decided to give Mammon his space instead of trying to knock at his door and instead went back to his room
-He knows they will need to solve this matter soon but there’s no way Mammon will want to see, let alone talk, to any of them just yet
-He’s sort of hoping he can apologise best he can next morning at breakfast, cross his fingers and wish for the best but judging by the venom that laced Mammon’s voice the night before, it’s not likely he will forgive any of them that easily.
Levi:
-If I were to guess, he saw the ending credits of his life flash before his very eyes as soon as those words left his mouth
-Levi felt a panic in him like never before, not even while playing his engaging horror visual novels at 3am in complete darkness or that one time he used Lucifer’s credit card to buy merch before being found out
-Must’ve forgotten his brother technically ranks higher than him on the power scale for a second there
-Or maybe he didn’t think his insults were going to affect him much
-They usually don’t
-Or at least that’s the impression he’s been under for a while now
-Mammon doesn’t snap easily under pressure but Levi must’ve really hit a nerve there that night
-While everyone was sitting in a short silence after Mammon left the building, he started twiddling with his fingers again the more he thought about it
-Because now he went from nervous to fucking terrified of what the hell was waiting for him when he finally got home
-He does feel guilty, nowhere near as much guilt as Lucifer feels but still pure shame
-However most of that guilt is swallowed by a steady fear and the constant worry of ‘how do I stop my brother from killing me?’
-Unlike Lucifer, I honestly don’t see him taking any sort of initiative when it comes to apologising to Mammon
-Not even because he doesn’t want to, but he would freeze up if he were to come face to face with him after that incident and then scamper back to his room like a rat in hiding
-So without your help, it’s likely the two won’t be speaking to each very soon which can honestly make life at the House of Lamentation so much more miserable
-In the end, if either you or Lucifer forced him to, he would say sorry by selling some of his merch and then giving him the profits (in secret but we all know it’s him)
-That is a big sacrifice on Levi’s part considering how precious his merchandise is to him
-But the idea that he’s gonna get murdered in his sleep by his older brother was getting a tad too real
-Besides, Mammon is still his brother and if he has to sell a couple of items in order to make him less mad, he would do it, albeit with a bit of grumbling
-Despite that, Mammon still refuses to come out of his room and sort of relies on you to bring him food because he doesn’t want to see his brothers
-Levi and Mammon would probably have to rebuild a lot of their relationship after this but it could easily take months for that to happen since Levi is too terrified to look him in the eye and Mammon is too upset to even hear his voice
Satan:
-He wouldn’t be the Avatar of Wrath if he couldn’t spot the anger within someone from a mile away
-He’s always been able to recognise the fury building up inside of him so for Satan it’s second nature to just know when someone’s on the brink of snapping
-It’s no surprise to say that he probably noticed Mammon’s wrath spilling out before anyone else did
-But alas, he realised it too late
-If he had reacted quicker, maybe he would’ve been able to diffuse Mammon before he exploded on them. Or not
-It’s difficult to tell if he could’ve actually helped because who was he to tell Mammon to calm down??? If anyone told him that while he was throwing a fit, he would probably break their necks-
-In the end, he just pressed his lips into a straight line and watched his brother throw his chair across the room
-Not gonna lie, he found it a bit entertaining purely because of the look on Lucifer’s face
-Satan had to try really hard not to crack a smile because he knew Mammon would probably smash a glass against his head or something
-Even so, he was the first to stand up and offer to go after him, though he wasn’t sure he could do much consoling
-Being so experienced with anger meant that he knew Mammon had built himself into a rage that he won’t be able to escape out of too easily
-Which is why he advises Lucifer to give Mammon his space once they get home
-Overall, the most understanding out of all of the brothers
-At this point in time, probably the least judgemental out of everyone and once Mammon comes out of his room for the first time in a while, either him or Beel is going to apologise to him first
-He may push and push him alongside the rest of his siblings but I feel like Satan doesn’t want to reach a certain low, like cornering Mammon into the frenzy he had that day ever again
-He might get pissy with him if he’s being too stubborn to forgive anyone after coming down from his intrusive thoughts
-And he really hates that Mammon had to remind them about all the times you had nearly died because of them, because he knows they won’t be able to make it up to you so why is Mammon upset about this????
-But he will try to maintain respect for his older brother from then on
-Even if the sharpest of remarks is on the top of his tongue!
Asmo:
-Asmo is the type to laugh it off and then start feeling really upset about it later on, the longer he thinks about the whole thing
-After Mammon storms out, he just assumes it’s another one of those ‘Mammon’ things and tried to brush the feeling of unease off him
-Even so, later that night the memory of Mammon kept coming back to him while he laid in his bed, unable to have a nice rest for the first time in how long? He’s always been really strict about his sleeping schedules after all
-Asmo’s observant, almost on par with Satan himself when it comes down to it. He definitely saw the gleam of anger, pent up frustration and hatred in his brothers’ eyes that moment and it legitimately scared him, even if it was for just half a second
-Honestly, he begins neglecting himself out of anticipation and worry which is a huge red flag for the Avatar of Lust who always holds himself at such a superior level compared to everyone else
-It may start out slow, but it has the same effect as a snowball rolling down the hill. It becomes more of a problem the longer it’s ignored
-Because he spends most of his days now debating whether he should try to coax his brother into coming out of his room and apologising to him, he forgets about himself
-Skincare routines are missed, pedicure appointments have been cancelled; hell, if Mammon’s keeps being stubborn, he may let his hair become absolutely filthy
-Asmo sort of relies on his brothers to provide the living environment he revolves around. If something is off with his brothers, he can not work properly either because it doesn’t feel right to do so
-Imagine a machine not working anymore because one of the clogs in it got stuck
-I can see Asmo feeling a decent amount of guilt when it comes to the situation but he still blames Levi for completely pushing him over the edge at dinner
-So now those two aren’t talking (it’s honestly so exhausting since they’re shoving the blame onto each other without stop)
-If Mammon decides to come out and hear them out, Asmo might get on his knees and beg because that guilt bubbling up inside of him may end up being his demise
-No seriously, MC might need to keep an eye out on him too while comforting Mammon because whatever he is doing isn’t healthy
-Takes Mammon’s outburst pretty badly and tries apologising to him many times but the second eldest still hasn’t said a word to any of them
-And that’s driving him into a fucking swirl of insanity at this point
-Of course, much like Mammon’s mental breakdown, this builds up over time but the result can be devasting
-If you pass by his room at night, you could probably hear him sob about how his brother hates him and it’s really heartbreaking to hear pained cries like that coming from such an overly confident demon like Asmo
Beel:
-Literally the only one here that doesn’t dish out insults onto Mammon every hour of the day
-He joins in very rarely and even when he does, it’s usually in good nature rather than malice
-Unless food is involved. Feelings (and Mammon) might be hurt if that’s the case
-Beel wasn’t listening to his siblings as they were diminishing Mammon, he was way too hungry to comprehend what the hell they were on about
-So he just started wolfing down appetisers until he noticed you looking all weary
-That’s the first thing that put him on alert
-And then the second born’s aura was also...off putting
-Might’ve actually tried to nudge Belphie to stop him from saying anything offensive to Mammon in this state when he realised how tense the atmosphere got
-Flinched when his brother left the palace, almost cracking the whole doorway on his way out
-Hunger is all but gone and at this point he wants to go home to check up on him
-Beel is a bit of a softie and he wears his heart on his sleeve a lot of the times
-He never did anything particularly bad to Mammon, not on the same scale his brothers did certainly and yet he still felt extremely bad
-Perhaps because he didn’t step in as much as he should’ve...?
-Either way, when his loved ones suffer, he has a tendency of putting the blame on himself because he feels it’s the only logical answer
-Honestly, he feels guilty enough to the point where it’s affecting his eating habits-which is obviously not normal for the Avatar of Gluttony
-Beel knows Mammon doesn’t want to talk to him but he still brings him food and leaves it at the doorstep of his room since he doesn’t want to come out and have dinner with them
-Or he relies on you to give it to him
-The thought of Mammon being so mad at them that he doesn’t even want to eat makes him feel so vulnerable
-As soon as he sees him for the first time since that night, he will probably be the first to apologise, even if Mammon isn’t in the mood to hear apologies
-Again, he’s trying to use food to make up to him (bringing him his favourites and paying for them)
-Even if he gets ignored, he’s still going to do it
-Beel is trying his best to say sorry to his older brother the only way he knows how to do so, but Mammon still doesn’t give in
Belphie:
-Could’ve been asleep the whole time Mammon was thrashing about
-Or at least that’s what it looked like to the average passer-by
-Kept one eye open to watch as Mammon finally snapped under pressure, having to raise his head once his brother broke the whole god damned table
-“OK, alright, storm off I guess-I have a splinter now-“
-Don’t trust that sarcastic commentary, he’s in deep thought on the inside
-Maybe he should’ve expected this but then again, he never would’ve guessed Mammon had it in him to be so aggressive
-Will narrow his eyes at him when he talks your death and scowl
-As if he didn’t already feel like the world’s biggest piece of shit, he had to bring that up
-As soon as he leaves, he turns to Lucifer and goes “See what you did? You broke Mammon. You suck, Lucifer.”
-The shifting of blame suits Belphie really well (it takes Beel side glancing him to get him to shut up)
-The Avatar of Sloth is too tired to even try to communicate with his brother so he goes straight to bed after getting home
-However, he actually visits Mammon’s dreams that night
-Or at least tries to, if Mammon is getting any sleep after that showdown
-It’s his way of checking in with his brother, helps him evaluate the situation
- Whether that works or not, there was definitely an attempt that required a lot of effort and you don’t see that very often with Belphagour
-It really demonstrates how much he actually cares for his family, even if he hides behind snide remarks and the likes of it
-However, if Mammon refuses communication, then he can’t do anything but give up
-He clearly won’t be able to convince him to step aside for a chit chat and why waste energy trying to force him to do so
-When the time comes, Belphie knows his brother will willingly talk to him (or at least someone else because he knows he’s not any good at comfort or apologies)
-At the same time, a lot of the things Mammon said during that party rubbed him the wrong way and seeing his twin suffer because of it is also pissing him off so patience may be running thin with Belphie
-Like Levi, there may be a lot of ice between the two from then onwards so it won’t be easy for them to find the middle ground in this whole argument either
-It could lead to a strained relationship if no one intervenes or even a physical fight if the youngest pushes all of Mammon’s buttons properly
Diavolo:
-The Future King feels guilty too, for some reason
-He is clearly not involved but he’s under the impression his party was a catalyst of sorts to the fight that broke out that night
-Diavolo wasn’t even in the same room when it happened-he heard shouting and growling from next door whilst talking to a noble about future arrangements in DevilDom and rushed in
-The sight was something to behold really; Mammon cornering all of his brothers and threatening them with pure venom in his voice wasn’t something you saw everyday
-More often than not, it was the other way around so the Prince had every right to be concerned
-He tried asking Lucifer what was going on after the second eldest slammed the door shut behind him and left but to no avail; the Avatar of Pride was in a state of shock and the only thing he did was apologise to him about a million times before his departure with the rest of his siblings
-Despite his worry, Diavolo tried not to get involved in the aftermath either, believing it’s not his place to interfere and hoping they would solve it out amongst themselves
-He did give Mammon permission to miss RAD classes for that week, thinking a small break is what he needed most
-Even drops by every now and then to check up on him (he just asks you how he’s holding up because he doesn’t want to pry)
-He can’t do much but watch from the sidelines, I mean this is a family dispute so it would be wise to just give them all a bit of space
-If it drags on for too long, however, he will be forced to do something because the brothers are all distracted and can’t get on with their student council work because of it
-Lucifer is even more stressed than usual and can’t even focus during their meetings so for the sake of his friend, if nothing gets resolved quickly, he will intervene and it won’t be pretty
-For now, he’s counting on you to make sure there are no further incidents but it’s unlikely you can stop a train once it’s set in motion so just hope Mammon doesn’t come out of his room until he’s calmed down
Barbatos:
-The butler is a Time Lord so it’s probably no surprise to find out he already knew this was going to happen eventually
-Not like he believed Mammon was going to take his brothers’ insults for much longer anyway
-Being the quiet and observant demon he is, he’s been keeping a close eye on the Avatar of Greed knowing damn well he was going to lose his patience soon enough and go on the offence
-If he knew this was going to happen at such an important moment in time, he would’ve warned his majesty beforehand but he failed to see the potential catastrophe awaiting his breakdown
-Again, he has no right to intervene
-Unless, of course, Lord Diavolo asks him to do so but really the most he can do is give you tips on how to deal with miserable demons
-I mean, you’re the one that’s going to be stuck with them for the rest of the year and this isn’t the type of conflict that gets resolved too easily
-Barbatos is clever so if there is still bitterness between Mammon and his siblings after an amount of time passed, he might try to change timelines (with the permission of Diavolo)
-He’s had enough of Beel coming over to eat his cakes and cry about his older brother hating him (believe it or not, the butler is definitely a bit fond of the sixth eldest so his cries did pull at his heartstrings)
-Basically, in the same position as the Prince
-He relies on you to get them all to make up but he knows it’s not likely to happen any time soon
-For now, he’s getting ready for the chain reaction this fight set in motion because there was no easy way to end this, considering they’re all vicious demons and all
—————————————————————-
Al~ im mad I couldn’t add Simon, Luke and Solomon-I want to write for them too >:(
1K notes · View notes
jackrrabbit · 4 years
Text
Spoiled Rotten /// Overhaul x f!Reader (18+)
Tumblr media
Request: What if Overhaul fucks spoiled rich reader because her dad owes the yakuza money and in exchange Kai takes the daughter as a form of payment using her as his personal stress doll whenever and wherever he wants making her into his perfect little doll
A/N: While I was writing this my roommate asked if I was okay bc cause I kept stopping to fan myself and blush lmaooooo god I’m such a brat. I did change the concept up a bit, hope that’s fine!
This is dedicated not only to the OG requester but also to everyone who read the excerpt I posted a while back and told me they couldn’t wait to see the finished product!! Love you guys ❤️
Tags/warnings: threats, dubcon/coercion, dom/sub, brat taming, degradation, exhibitionism, restraints, mentions of forced prostitution, verbal & physical harassment, kidnapping, kinda breath play?, long
The first thing you notice when you come to are voices. Multiple people talking to each other, speech overlapping in patterns you can’t make out. They’re quiet—not whispering for your sake, but quiet because you’re still half knocked-out and you can barely hear.
The second thing you notice is the pounding in your head and the lingering smell of something sweet spread over your nose and mouth.
The third thing you notice is the fact that when you try to blink your eyes open, your lashes brush against something soft and dark. You’re blindfolded…and gagged, and your hands feel like they’re cuffed behind your back. From what you can sense around you, it seems like you’re hunched in a kneeling position with your cheek flattened against the floor and your bare feet tucked under your backside.
At least you’re still in your nightgown. You can feel the frilly silk of it, a useless barrier between your skin and the cool air, and it reminds you of how you got here in the first place.
A loud noise in the night. Your father’s voice pleading. A heavy thump. The door to your bedroom banging open and a strange man holding you down to your bed…lifting a sweet-smelling rag to your mouth…telling you to “take a deeeeep breath, princess.”
“Hey, I think she’s waking up.”
An invisible hand fists itself in your hair and you whine in pain as your upper body is lifted off the floor. Once you’re properly upright, you hear squeaking, shoes against concrete, and the heat and breath and presence of someone behind you. Something rustles at the back of your head—you’re too scared to move so you stay still—and then the blindfold is being lifted off your face.
Once it’s gone, you have to blink for a moment even despite the low light of the dingy room where you’ve…apparently…been kidnapped. By the freaking yakuza. And for some reason, they’re all wearing bird-beak masks.
You close your eyes, almost wishing they hadn’t taken the blindfold off. You’d prefer to live in blissful ignorance of how decidedly unclean the floor is. How dare they let your face touch it? What happened to honor among thieves?
“Do you know why you’re here?”
Against your will, your eyes flick up to the speaker. He’s the only one sitting, and somehow that gives him a position of power among the others. The leader?
Unsettling golden eyes rest on yours, and you realize he’s waiting for your answer, so you slowly move your head from side to side.
“Didn’t know about daddy’s bad habits, huh?” This time the person speaking is behind you, the one who untied your blindfold, a thin man with lank, greasy blond hair. He’s the one who drugged me, you remember in a surge of panic, and you try to stand up away from him only for him to step on the chain that connects your handcuffs, jerking you back and pinning you—painfully—to the floor.
“Careful, Setsuno. I told you not to leave marks. Let her talk.”
“Got it, boss.” The blond—Setsuno—fumbles at the back of your head and then he’s pulling the gag out of your mouth.
You open and close your mouth a few times to stretch out the stiff muscles. “Oh. My. God. Was that polyester you just took out of my mouth? Do you have any idea how bad synthetics are for sensitive skin? I’m totally going to break out.”
A hush falls over the little room. You could hear a pin drop.
“…Are you complaining about the quality of the fabric we gagged you with?” the leader asks after a second.
“You may be yakuza, but you don’t have to act like savages,” you reply primly, aligning your knees together and sending a proud look off to the side.
“Ohh…little princess deserves better, does she?” Setsuno coos. He edges closer to rub his cheek against yours and laughs when you cringe away from him. “Boss, you shoulda seen her bedroom. All pink and frilly, looked like royalty lived there. Bet they treat you like a real princess at home, huh? No wonder your daddy’s in debt.”
“Daddy isn’t—“
“Your father…took out loans from my gang. My men came last night to collect,” the leader says, drumming his fingers over the armrest of his chair impatiently.
He’s wearing plastic gloves. Why is he wearing plastic gloves? Immediately your mind is spinning, imagining all the different gruesome possibilities of what they’re going to do to you. “That’s ridiculous. My daddy doesn’t need to borrow money—“
“Clearly he does, because it looks like he pissed it all away on his daughter.” The leader’s eyes are cold enough to make you shiver—although maybe that’s just the icy temperature of the floor soaking through your nightgown.
“He had a couple payments overdue, so we stopped by to ask nicely for him to pay up,” Setsuno says, resting his chin on your shoulder. “Didn’t find too many valuables in your house, but then we got our hands on a real treasure.”
“Don’t touch me—“
“You don’t seem to understand the position you’re in,” the leader says. “When I made my contract with your father, he understood that obligations like these are inherited. Since he can’t pay his debt, you’re going to be working it off in his place.”
Working it off? You swallow. Somehow you don’t think he’s talking about your little part-time job as a receptionist at your daddy’s company. “You can’t make me do that.”
“I’m not sure you’re getting the gist, princess,” Setsuno hums. “What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna put you in a room, and then men are gonna give us money, and then we’ll let those men fuck you. All that money’s gonna go toward paying what your daddy borrowed. Sound good?”
For the first time since you can remember, you’re shocked speechless. They’re going to…what? But you’re a quick thinker, and instead of letting these filthy, awful gangters boss you around, you raise your chin haughtily to look directly into the leader’s eyes. “I don’t think so. If Daddy’s the one who got himself in debt, you can make him whore himself out to pay it back. You can’t hold me responsible for something he’s done.”
Another brief silence, and then you hear a whistle echo out from the corner of the room (and you try not to look toward it, reminding yourself that this can only get worse if they know how scared you are). “She’s got a mouth on her, Overhaul,” someone says.
Overhaul. So the leader’s name is Overhaul. How ridiculous; it sounds like a villain’s name.
“Aww, princess,” Setsuno says, and once again his voice is too close for your comfort. “Little spoiled princess doesn’t know how to shut her mouth and suck it up when things don’t go her way? Well…you’ll learn.”
You don’t want to know what he’s talking about, although if you thought about it for more than a second it’d be obvious. You suck in a harsh breath and the cool, damp air stings against your dry throat. “You can’t just make me—“
“Ohh, I think we can. See, if your daddy’s been spending all of the Shie Hassaikai’s money on his precious daughter, don’t you think you owe a little too? Like, this dress—“ you jump as Setsuno’s hand tugs on the thin, floaty silk— “was bought with Overhaul’s money, so it belongs to him, right?”
You keep quiet, not wanting to prompt him to go further, but when his hands stroke up over your waist to grope your breasts in full view of everyone else in the room, you don’t really have to guess.
“And, y’know, your daddy’s been keeping you nice and healthy with Overhaul’s cash, making sure you grow up into such a pretty girl…” Setsuno’s voice is a purr in your ear as his hands squeeze your tits almost lovingly, then pinch your nipples through the fabric. “So hey—if you think about it, this tight little body…belongs to Overhaul too. Isn’t that right, sir?”
You squirm in place as best you can but with the metal cuffs digging into your wrists, there’s nothing you can do to get away from his touch. You’re desperate enough to shoot a terrified glance up at the leader—surely there are rules about treating an innocent girl like this, even for the yakuza—but he looks as unmoved as before. “Get her out of my sight. We’ll give her a rest for the next few days, and then…”
“No!” you yelp, too panicked to keep up the pretense of confidence. “I won’t, I can’t do that, please don’t make me—“
“Shhh. You’ll get used to it, princess. And if you don’t…” Setsuno’s hand combs though your hair and then trails down your neck, tracing the path of your spine between your shoulder blades. “…well, you won’t really have much of a choice, will you?”
And then he’s tugging on your cuffed hands, pulling you to a standing position, but you wriggle away from him and do everything you can to stay planted on the ground so they can’t take you away from here, away from the only man who is capable of stopping this. Overhaul. “Please! I’m— I can work it off another way! I’ll be useful— I’ll—“
Overhaul leans forward a fraction in his chair, and you wonder if you’ve caught his interest. “What, exactly? How do you think you can be useful to me?”
You bite your lip and wrack your brains, not knowing whether the question is rhetorical. What skills do you have that would be valuable to them? Suddenly all the knowledge you’ve gained in your short life seems so meaningless. You’re a decent receptionist (well, decent is a stretch), but if Overhaul wanted someone to answer calls for him you’re pretty sure he would’ve asked.
Why did you spend your life learning such impractical skills? The four-year weekend course you took on horseback riding jumps to mind and you want to hit your head against the wall. Why didn’t you ask your father to sponsor a class in something that would actually matter in the long run? And what would even be useful to these people? Accounting? Bookkeeping? Extortion?
There’s nothing valuable you can offer. You’ve wasted your life, and now you’re going to pay for it. Seriously, the only thing you’re actually good at is keeping your boyfriends (or, rather, the men you cycle through once a month) happy until the novelty wears off and you get bored and move on to the next lovesick target—
—wait. Keeping your boyfriends happy. That’s a skill, isn’t it?
Once, a little bit after you turned eighteen, you’d had a rather illicit conversation with one of your more sexually adventurous friends about being a sugar baby. Your friend had just secured a very generous benefactor, and you’d been so intrigued by all the designer purses and vacations to Cabo that you’d almost considered trying it for yourself. She’d even helped you set up a profile on Seeking Arrangements that listed your physical features and interests, but you’d blanched when it came time to post photos.
“But why do men even like this?” you'd asked your friend after your picture-less profile received its dozenth unsolicited offer. “Rich, successful guys shouldn’t have so much trouble finding girlfriends that they have to resort to paying for sex.”
“It’s a power trip,” she’d replied. “Most men never get the chance to have a woman who’s willing to do and be whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. You’re his ideal girlfriend, his therapist, his wife, and his stress relief all in one.”
At the time, you’d decided against it, deleting your profile and telling your friend you’d rather just keep taking advantage of your real father doting on you than have to fake orgasms for rich men in their 50’s. But back then, you’d had a choice; now that you’ve been kidnapped by a gang who wants you to get fucked by a bevy of strangers to pay off a debt you’ve never even heard of, you no longer have the privilege of a way out. Or, at least, the options are a lot less appealing than before.
You tilt your head back to Overhaul, eyeing him for the first time with real scrutiny instead of prideful disgust. Judging from what you can see of his face under the ornate bird mask (and again, what is with the freaking bird masks?), he’s fairly young, mid-twenties at the oldest. Short, sort of wavy dark hair (you’ve always had a thing for dark hair), a trim suit and tie, and those eyes. Like he can read your mind just looking at you.
He’s…handsome enough, you have to admit to yourself. But it’s not just that. There’s something pristine about him, something untouchable that commands discipline. He’s clean. You and him are probably the only clean things in this hovel of a room.
“Well? I’m waiting,” Overhaul says.
And now that you’ve got the idea in your head, it’s almost too embarrassing to meet his gaze. But you can do this; you have to do this. At least it’ll be your choice, and—you’re hoping—it’ll be better than the alternative.
“I could be yours,” you tell him, taking pride in the fact that your voice isn’t breaking.
His eyes narrow and you think god, his eyelashes are long. It’s not fair. Men never appreciate having long eyelashes. What is he thinking? Is he going to kill you for even suggesting it? But it’s too late now…you have to dig yourself a little deeper if you don’t want to go through with their original plan for debt fulfillment.
You force your muscles to relax, knowing this’ll be impossible to pull off if you’re tense and biting down on the words like they’re going to choke you. If you’re going to make him believe it, you have to make yourself believe it too. “You… This job must be hard. Even for a—a powerful man like you, it has to be stressful, right? Always looking out for the interests of the gang instead of your own…needs.”
Overhaul doesn’t move, but you’re so focused on him it would be impossible for you to miss the way a single muscle in his neck flexes. You’ve hit a nerve.
You take a cautious step toward him, trying to channel the sexually-liberated vixen you consider yourself when you’re not in your nightgown surrounded by men who could murder you with their bare hands and not miss a minute of sleep. “You’re always giving, aren’t you? Looking toward the future of the gang? Doesn’t it get frustrating when—when a pretty thing is in front of you and you don’t even get…a little taste of her?”
Oh god, you can feel the humiliated heat rushing to your cheeks. How can you be saying this? You’ve played the role of seductress plenty of times before, but never in such a risky situation. You just have to keep moving toward him and hope it feels authentic enough to convince him.
“You’ve worked hard. And…like he said, my—my body belongs to you.” Now you’re close enough to Overhaul and he hasn’t stopped you, so you lower yourself onto the floor, knees bumping softly into the cold surface. Kneeling between his legs.
Overhaul stares down at you, gaze as sharp and cold as before—and you’re sick with anxiety, so scared you can feel your hairs raising up on end—but if he wanted you to stop, he would have said something, right? So you shuffle a little closer and nuzzle your cheek over the inside of his clothed thigh like a kitten, then raise your head up to him to give him your best bedroom look, the one that says, I want you. I need you. No one but you. The look no man has ever been able to resist.
“…You deserve something to yourself, sir,” you murmur.
There’s a collective intake of breath as every person in the room simultaneously realizes what you’re offering. Overhaul’s expression doesn’t change, but once again, a tendon jumps out white under the skin of his throat and there’s a creak of latex on leather as his grip on the arm of the chair tightens.
“Damn,” Setsuno says under his breath from behind you. Someone whistles. You’re pretty sure you hear the word ‘slut’ being tossed around, but there’s reverence behind it.
“And what makes you think you’re so valuable?” Overhaul asks.
You close your eyes to ground yourself for a second. He’s interested, you know that much. You’ve never really had to convince someone to want you, but there’s a first time for everything. Besides, you only have to look at him for a second to know he does want you, which isn’t a surprise. Who wouldn’t?
“I’ll do anything you want, be anything you want,” you tell him, echoing your conversation with your friend back then. “Take out your anger on me if that’s what you’re into. When you’re tired of me, you can consider my debt paid and let me go.”
“And?” he prompts.
‘And’? And what? You’re offering yourself to him, your body and your mind—what more can he possibly ask from you? You cast your thoughts around, wondering what else you have to give him. “And…and I’ll do it willingly. You, um—you look like a man who appreciates obedience.”
And that’s it. Your last shred of pride is gone. Not only are you offering yourself up to a man to use as his personal stress doll, you’re saying you’ll be compliant every step of the way. Knowing yourself, you’re pretty sure that’s impossible, but you just need to make him believe it long enough for you to find a way out of here. You can pretend to enjoy getting fucked by a gangster a few times. You’ll live.
But you’re naive. And with the stream of thoughts pushing through your head, you never really consider one thing, one essential thing: how you look pleading up at him in that pale pink nightdress—soft, pure, immaculate against the filth of the underworld, the only clean body that Overhaul’s seen in a long time.
And you’re right. He is a man who appreciates obedience.
“Willingly…so you’d be willing to prove it.”
Your head jerks up and down in response. Yes! He’s taking the bait, now I just have to get him alone and—
“Then demonstrate.”
When a moment passes and you don’t move, Overhaul tips his head to the side, gaze still locked on you, and gestures vaguely at his lap. You blink and then shy back, shrinking under the hungry gazes of the onlookers. “You can’t mean—in front of them?”
“And here I thought you were going to be obedient.” There’s no mercy, no amusement in his voice. No hint of humanity.
So he’s serious. He wants you to give him a blowjob in front of—how many? one, two three, four—four other men!? Your first instinct is to jump back away from him and your next is to slap him for even suggesting it; you can actually hear the jingle of your cuffs as you attempt to raise your hand. You’ve gotten a little kinky before—blindfolds, vibrators, maybe a hand tied to the bedpost with a Hermès scarf once or twice, but this is a whole different level. And the way they’re all looking at you…like they’re itching to see you brought down. How absolutely disgusting.
But Overhaul’s waiting for your answer, and you know full well that you’re not going to deny him.
“O-Of course.” You lean forward over the seat of the chair so your face is just inches from his lap. “Um. My hands...?”
They’re still cuffed behind you, but it seems like they’re going to stay that way when Overhaul gives a curt shake of his head. “Use your mouth.”
Once again, you’re stunned into silence. How are you supposed to—? Without your hands? It doesn’t even seem like he’s going to undo his pants for you. It’s like he wants to humiliate you…oh, wait. As soon as the thought crosses your mind, it’s clear that’s exactly what he’s trying to do.
You give him another doe-eyed glance, bidding him to at least undo his belt, but he remains unmoved. Bastard.
After aiming another glare at him (because as obedient as you’re attempting to be, you’ve never been good at concealing your emotions) you lean deeper in and take the stiff leather of his belt between your teeth, gently easing it out of the buckle and trying to ignore the mixture of earthy and metallic tastes it leaves on your tongue. It takes a few tries, but eventually you’ve got the tail of the belt out of the buckle and you pull your head back to guide the metal down until the belt is hanging open from its loops.
A rush of accomplishment surges through you when you get it open, and then you want to slap yourself. Accomplishment? From doing this with your mouth like an animal—like a dog? You can hear laughter and mocking encouragement from the men watching, but you steel yourself and dip back in to get Overhaul’s pants undone. The button is tricky, especially with your face nudging into the hard muscle of his abdomen through his shirt, but somehow you manage to tug the fabric slit over the button and then—delicately, delicately—clamp the zipper between your teeth and peel it downward.
“Oh, she’s good,” someone says from the background. Setsuno. You look up warily, but Overhaul’s eyes haven’t moved from you.
Now that you’ve got his pants open, you’re face to face (literally) with what you’re going to have to deal with. The outline of his cock is bulging the fabric of his boxers outward, and he’s not even half erect. You snatch a look back up at him—and damn it, you have to stop doing that, because every time you look into those golden eyes and that stupid bird mask you feel like a lamb looking at a bird of prey right before it snatches you from your safe little lamb-house in the meadow and—fuck, you just have to get on with it.
So you dip down and mouth over him through the fabric, spreading the flat of your tongue over the length of his thick cock. Your mouth feels like you’ve been eating cotton (probably because they drugged you earlier) but you force yourself to salivate, letting drool spill over your tongue and dampen his boxers. When you duck and spread your lips down on the place you can feel the tip stretching out, you know the friction must feel good, because despite the lack of even so much of a deep breath from the man above you, his cock is getting harder.
You nudge your mouth over the tent between Overhaul’s legs again, letting the heat of your breath wash over him—but when he doesn’t do anything, you pull back and blink up at his face. Does he expect you to get him off through his underwear? You could, but most of your moves depend on skin-to-skin contact. There’s no way you can get his cock out with your mouth like you undid his pants, so…what? “Are—are you going to take it out?”
Overhaul brings a gloved hand to his face to rub absently at one of the straps on his mask. “…Beg,” he tells you.
Your mouth drops open and you reel back from his lap like he asked you to lick the dirt off the floor. What!? He can’t seriously expect you to—to beg him to put his dick in your mouth when you’re clearly disgusted at the whole situation. When he doesn’t give any indication of retracting the statement, you can’t help the mocking sneer that forms over your face. “Please, sir,” you spit, and a deaf man could hear the spite in your voice.
Now, that gets a reaction. Overhaul’s eyes flash and you take a certain degree of pride back at the anger you’ve clearly inspired in him. But it’s extinguished as soon as you see it, and then he’s reaching down to cup your chin, tilting your head back and rubbing his thumb over your lower lip.
“I think you can do better than that, princess,” he says, and you can hear your own mocking tone reflected back in his voice. “Unless you’d like me to give my men a turn?”
This, more than anything, scares you. He must be able to feel the way your spine goes stiff, adrenaline rushing, your fight-or-flight instinct kicking in at the prospect of what he’s threatening.
“Each of them, one by one. Between the four of them, I think they could cure that smart mouth…although they might just break you in the process,” he continues, and then his thumb is pressing into your lip, into your mouth, and you loosen your jaw to let him in. You can taste the rubbery latex of his gloves and the other men mutter agreement, encouraging their leader to turn you over to them, and you want to cry.
But you hold the tears back. “Please, sir! Please, please may I s-suck your cock sir? Please!” Your voice is more terrified than obedient, but that’s probably what he’s into anyway. When he doesn’t say anything, you babble on, unwilling to let yourself get gangbanged by a group of men who could probably wreck your pussy in a single round. “Please, please, Mr.—Mr. Overhaul, um, boss? M-Master?”
“Sir will do just fine,” Overhaul says, apparently satisfied, and he pulls his hand away from your face to free his cock from his boxers.
You let out a hot sigh of relief and angle yourself back toward his lap so you can zero in on his cock (and, hopefully, do a little to block out how sickeningly degrading all of this is: how easy it is for him to threaten you; how he has all the power and you have none; how the men around you are goading you, taunting you and calling you things that should get their mouths washed out with soap). You can focus on this, and this, at least, you’re good at. You’ve always been good with your mouth.
It’s a nice dick, too, you have to admit to yourself as you stare at it. Perfect length, girth, and a thick, cut head that you know just by looking that you’re going to have to stretch your jaw to get around. All his hair is neatly trimmed and groomed, and he even smells good, clean and fresh like soap. You’ve never been in front of a dick that didn’t smell like day-old ball sweat, so this is a first. It’s got a nice upward curve, too, and there’s a bead of pearly precum oozing out of the tip. The kind of cock that’s made for penetrative orgasms—
No. Fuck. You cannot be thinking this. You cannot allow yourself to lust after a gang leader who thinks of you as little more than an interactive sex doll. A tingle of blood rushes to your cheeks as you feel wetness pool in your panties and you adjust your stance, shuffling your thighs apart under the pretense of getting closer and hoping Overhaul doesn’t notice.
If he notices, he does the merciful thing and keeps quiet (which makes you think he has no idea you’re feeling the way you’re feeling, because he’s probably never chosen to do the merciful thing in his life). He does, however, shift one of his knees farther apart to accommodate you as you crawl close enough to him to get your head all the way between his legs.
So now you’re staring up at that unfairly pretty cock and wondering how the fuck this is supposed to start, but—best just get on with it. Pretend it’s not him, pretend it’s…no, wait, pretend it is him, it is Overhaul, the same bastard who’s looking down at you like you’re trash, except pretend you’re in control. Because no matter how many orders he gives, once you’ve got his cock in his mouth he’ll have to be the weak one. Right?
Lightly, slowly, you trace the tip of your tongue in a wet path up the underside of his cock, sliding up from the hilt to caress every bulging vein with all the delicacy and accuracy of a surgeon. When you reach the tip, you flatten your tongue to curve it around that bulbous head and then slip it off, the suction providing a wet smacking sound as your skin leaves his.
The breath of his barely-heavier exhale ruffles your hair and you relish the knowledge that he’s getting impatient. Yes. The bastard can wait.
You kiss the tip of his cock, barely moving your lips around the slit, only enough to let your tongue flick out against the precum and gather the bitter liquid up in your mouth. And then—right when he’s getting annoyed, when you can tell by the tension in his body that he’s five seconds away from shoving your head down to fuck your face—you duck closer, relax your throat, and swallow.
Like a fucking python. Or so you’ve been told.
The exhale that escapes him isn’t light this time. You can almost hear the barest hint of a groan under his breath, but you’re more focused on holding down your gag reflex as you let that heavy cock hit the back of your throat. Once he’s all the way down (or at least as far as you can get him), you rock yourself back an inch and then take him deeper, forcing yourself to hold still so he can feel the walls of your throat convulse around him, sucking him in, dry-gagging on the mass that’s filling you up.
“Fuuuuck,” you hear someone whine, and it’s not even Overhaul. It’s one of the men watching, and you feel a perverse mixture of hatred and arrogance rise up in you.
Overhaul’s cock is too big for you to properly moan around it, but you give it a go anyway so he can feel the vibration of your voice through his skin. You’re rewarded with a tangible twitch with it sitting on your tongue, and—oh—your mouth is watering out of where you’re clenching down on him at the back of your throat.
Spittle slips out over your lower lip and onto your chin, but you ignore it in favor of jerking your head up and down in fractional strokes, trying your absolute best to get yourself down to his base but knowing that he probably doesn’t give a shit anyway, not with how good your throat feels around what you’re capable of stuffing in.
What were you saying about ‘valuable’, sir? you think, and then you pull your head off his cock, so slow it’s almost cruel, sucking your cheeks in and hollowing out so those wet walls are rubbing up on every millimeter of his skin. When you reach the tip, you savor it, letting your tongue do the dirty work and looking up at him through your lash extensions before you release him with a nasty wet pop.
“Holy fuck, can I have her next?” one of the other men says, but you and Overhaul are too focused on each other to even look and see who’s talking.
His gaze is trained firmly down at you, and—no way, damn it—he looks bored, like he could be waiting in line at the DMV instead of getting sucked off by you, a girl who’s been complimented by every man she’s ever been with (including her first) on her bj technique. You know he’s feeling it—he can fake calm, but he can’t fake the way his cock’s throbbing under your tongue as you lick up the shaft. Still, now that you’ve got it in your head that Overhaul’s not going to make a sound, all you can think about is forcing him to moan. Let him look weak in front of all his little lackeys.
With renewed vigor, you lap up the length of Overhaul’s cock in sloppy dabs, leaving strings of saliva dripping off your mouth and his cock only to slurp them up, audibly, wiggling your tongue over the tip when you reach it. And that, that gets him, because you feel more than see the buck of his hips into your face as he hisses out a curse.
And—oh dear, maybe you shouldn’t have done that—because the next thing you feel is Overhaul looming forward over you, hand gripping the back of your head, and is he going to force you down? You hate that—so you take the initiative, tilting forward to take him into your mouth again, head bobbing up and down so quickly that your hair is falling all over your face, but it’s okay, because he’s got you, he’s got you, got his hands combed through your hair holding it out of your face, pulling so lightly it barely even hurts, but it does hurt, and he’s guiding you up and down on his cock and it’s hitting the back of your throat every time, and—and it hurts.
You really shouldn’t have done that.
“Take it deeper,” Overhaul instructs, almost encouraging, although you’re not given the option to pull off because he’s holding you down, pushing you firmly toward the base of his cock. You sputter around it, gagging, and you’re almost fucking choking, and he won’t let you up.
God, you’re not—not breathing, you can feel your throat choking down on him—“breathe through your nose,” he says, and this man, this villain has no idea what he’s fucking talking about, because you’re trying, eyes stinging and then you can feel tears down your cheeks. You try to squirm back on your knees, but somehow the combined force of every muscle in your body is outmatched by his single hand on the back of your head—and—and—you squeeze your eyes shut, relax, open your throat as much as you can and—
Overhaul forces your mouth down to the hilt.
Fuck, is he going to keep you there? You can’t, you can’t—if you could move, you’d be shaking your head and begging him to let you stop and as it is you’re whimpering around his cock. Your throat is making gagging noises and you’re crying, actually crying, actually fucking crying on a man’s dick. So this is what it feels like to be used?
“Good.” There’s something lower and darker in Overhaul’s voice, a husky undertone from the growl he’s trying to suppress. “Hold still…remember, you asked for this.”
You did. You asked for it. Begged for it. Pleaded.
“Want me to forgive your father’s debt…? You’re going to have to earn it.” He pulls out an inch just to ram himself back in. You make a weak attempt to move your tongue around his shaft and you can feel the shudder all the way through him, his cock twitching where it’s locked in your throat. “Mm…good girl. Just a little—little longer—“
His fingers are tightening in your hair, curling around the strands and tugging instead of just applying pressure to your head. He’s close, you think, and then you struggle back, not wanting him to cum down your throat, what if you choke on it? Like, really choke? You don’t want it, don’t want his cum in your stomach, but then he sighs and tells you again that you’re a good girl, and ohfuckohfuck you must be so scared you’re desperate for praise because you feel heat rush into your cheeks and your cunt when he says it and you try to move your tongue like you did earlier and his hips jerk forward and—he cums. In your mouth.
It’s salty, you think. The next thing you think is that you want to gag, because you’ve never had cum in your mouth before. For all your sexual experimentation, you’ve never let a man cum down your throat like this, always telling them it shoot it on your tits or whatever because you are not a person who should have semen in her mouth, much less ingest it.
But right now, with Overhaul lazily dragging your head up and down for a last couple pumps on his softening dick, your choice isn’t spit or swallow. It’s swallow or choke.
Hot. Thick. The texture is slimy, so viscous you can feel it going down your throat in strings. Part of you wants to throw up. It’s repulsive. Filthy. You hate this.
Part of you has to shift your position again so you don’t have to feel your own wetness slicking up the insides of your thighs.
How. Is. This. Possible. You may have just had to swallow your pride (and not just that), but what about your dignity? You’re a good person…okay, well, even if you’re not a ‘good person’ per se, you don’t hurt anyone with your selfishness. You don’t deserve to be kept as a pet by a sadistic bastard who gets off on watching you almost pass out on his cock, and you certainly don’t deserve the humiliation of finding that you’re turned on by it.
And yet. Here you are. Still held securely in place until Overhaul slides you off him. As soon as your mouth is free you suck in a dizzyingly deep breath, but even that is too much for your battered throat and the breath turns into a cough; you instinctively fold down away from Overhaul so the mixed saliva and cum you’re hacking out spatters in cloudy white flecks across the floor instead of on his clothing.
“Stop that,” Overhaul scolds, hauling you back up by your hair and forcing your mouth closed with a hand on your jaw. “If you make a mess, you’ll be cleaning it up.”
Considering what he just made you do to him, there’s no doubt in your mind that he’s implying you’ll have to lick it off the floor. You clench your jaw, holding back the convulsions of your throat as best you can, and hope he doesn’t press the issue.
Now that you’ve got your coughing under control, you can start to sense things that you had been tuning out before: the men hooting and wolf-whistling and applauding your performance, the traitorously persistent throb of your clit pulsing under your panties, and Overhaul’s hand releasing your chin to pet down your neck. “Now. What do you say when someone gives you a meal?”
Just you wait, bastard. I’m going to tie you to your bed and set fire to it. But you’ve got the sense that that answer won’t go over well, so you take a deep breath and look up at him again, meeting those piercing gold eyes with your own. “Thank you, sir,” you say in a soft whisper because it’s all your abused throat can manage.
“That’s right.” His hands feel colder than the concrete under your legs as he spreads his hand down your neck, only to toy with one of the lacy pink straps of your nightdress. “Stand up.”
You stand shakily, too cowed to even consider stepping back from him. Without warning (much less permission), Overhaul lifts the hem of your stupidly short dress up past your thighs, exposing your panties and lower belly to view.
“Hold this in your mouth,” he says, and after only a few seconds of hesitation you open up and bite down on the fabric so you’re effectively holding up the skirt for him. Overhaul skims gloved hands down the sides of your hips and comes to a rest when he reaches your panties—and why did you have to wear these today? Shiny red satin in the front; the back is just flowers worked in crimson lace. You know exactly how good you look in these panties, and judging by the things Overhaul’s men are saying, they’re more than appreciative of the view.
But Overhaul ignores them in favor of hooking his fingers under the elastic and pulling the panties down until they’re resting stretched between your upper thighs. You don’t have to see them to know there’s a string of slick connecting the lips of your cunt to the fabric, betraying in full technicolor detail how turned on you’ve gotten just from sucking him off. He gazes down at your pussy and then up to you as if waiting for you to admit it, but you stay silent.
“Well, well. What a nicely-trained slut I’ve found myself.” He gracelessly pulls the panties the rest of the way down your legs and lets them fall to the ground. “Do you always get this wet when you let your boyfriends fuck that smart mouth?”
It takes you a second to comprehend that he’s expecting an answer. “N-No, sir,” you reply, voice muffled by the fabric you’re still holding between your teeth.
“I suppose I can’t leave you like this, not after you took me so nicely.”
Does he mean he’s going to get you off? No freaking way. You drop the hem of your dress, let it flutter down over your thighs, try to scramble back, but his hand on your waist keeps you from moving. “I— It’s okay, I don’t need—“
“No, I think you do. I think I’m going to reward my pet for a job well done.” He leans back, eyeing you without sympathy. “I’d have you touch yourself, but—“
The mere possibility that he might remove the handcuffs has you straining against them again, and the sound of metal against metal rings out from behind you.
“—but, I think it’s best to keep the cuffs on for a few days…until you’ve settled down.”
Days? He can’t leave you in chains for days, helpless and powerless, so easy to take advantage of. “You can’t,” you whimper, and even though you mean for it to be a decisive statement, with your throat ravaged and hoarse it’s downright pathetic. Overhaul doesn’t even bother reprimanding you for talking back.
“My men have been patient,” he muses, and an enthusiastic wave of agreement wells up from the others. “Any of them would be happy to do it.”
You may have been through a lot in the past hour alone, but there is no way you’re going to let those rowdy criminals have their way with you. You send a nervous glance around the room and as predicted, not a single one of them looks like they have the slightest shred of control over themselves.
None of them…except Overhaul.
Still eased back in his chair, he looks just as relaxed and unaffected as he did when he was explaining your father’s debts to you. But there’s something flickering in his eyes, something he isn’t going to say to you, isn’t going to say out loud. A challenge.
Maybe, once again, he’s waiting for you to ask for it yourself. And if it’s a choice between him and one of the grimy ruffians who’ve been looking at you like dogs look at meat, you know what you’d prefer. Well—really, you’d prefer option C: none of the above (your current state might be uncomfortable, but you’re not so wanton that you’d rather cum in front of strangers than keep your legs together). Unfortunately, you’re starting to come to terms with the fact that ‘no’ is no longer an option.
Overhaul’s stare flicks from you to an unseen figure behind you, and you can tell he’s about to summon one of them over so you force yourself to move, lurching forward and climbing into his lap to straddle one of his thighs with all the grace you’re capable of. You feel the stir in the air when he inhales sharply, surprised, and his masked face is so close to your neck that you wonder if he can smell the lotion you put on before you went to bed last night.
It’s one of your favorite scents: vanilla, lilac, orange blossoms. You bought it because it smelled pure.
“Please, sir, I don’t want them,” you breathe next to his ear, injecting every ounce of sexual frustration you’re feeling into the needy tones of your voice. “I’m yours. I belong to you, just you. No one else—please, sir…Overhaul.”
He’s quiet for a long, tense moment, and you think he’s going to hit you, or maybe even kill you for your disobedience. Push you off his lap at least. But just when you’re teetering on the edge of jumping back from him and begging for forgiveness for talking out of turn, you feel it—a low rumble of laughter from deep in his chest.
Big, cold hands wrap around the sides of your ribcage under your breasts and his fingernails dig into you through the layers of latex and fabric. He tilts forward, forcing you to arch away and all you can think about is how horribly weak you are compared to him. Are you trembling? Will he be angry if you feels how afraid you are?
“You know, I guess I’ll keep you after all,” he hums, stroking his fingers through your hair and down your neck. “How does that sound, princess? I think you’d like that very much, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” The response comes all too easily, even if the words taste bitter in your mouth. You’ve never said the word ‘sir’ so much in your life…but as he repositions you on his lap and slides a single hand up the inside of your thigh under your dress, you bite your lip and decide to hold back your protest.
If you’re going to have to learn manners, you’d better do it sooner rather than later. Something tells you Overhaul’s not going to accept any less than your best behavior if you want to pay off your debt.
6K notes · View notes
syncopation53 · 2 years
Text
Alright I’m just gonna get some personal thoughts out of the way in regards to the newest season week
To start off, I don’t have the season pass. I can’t listen to any of the post-PsiOps lines other than what’s available on YouTube, so there might be additional context that I’m missing that would be obvious to any other player who does actively play. I don’t engage with Destiny content every single week, I play for maybe half a day per week if I’m lucky just cause that’s how my adhd brain works plus real life takes precedence over fictional lives.
That being said, I was indeed angry about Crow’s decision and accidental murder of the Psion. I was looking at things from a certain one of my character’s perspective and saw the potential good being able to actually enter a Hive Lightbearer’s mind and see how exactly the Light affects it in that way, and maybe find out if Savathûn was more directly involved with raising the Lucent Brood than the Traveler/Ghosts are with the Guardians, even if they were kept in a perpetual state of not-dying. Watching previous weeks content, I realize Crow has a lot of empathy for them (hell I do too, I’d love nothing more than for us to have an alliance with the Lucent Brood as well), but I still mainly sided with Saladin in regards to the aftermath. It was a reckless decision that Crow made without anyone else’s knowledge that led to the death of an innocent person. He shouldn’t have done what he did even if it was out of misguided altruism and he now has blood on his hands in his second life.
I don’t know how well I can explain my thoughts or if this just seems like I’m trying to retroactively backtrack so I don’t get torn to pieces by bigger and more popular Destiny blogs on here, but I was never against Crow. I loved his character and arcs in all the seasons leading up to Risen. I still very much enjoy him as a character. I don’t think of him as Uldren, they’re two separate people in my mind, and I’m definitely not a Cayde stan who has advocated for Crow to be killed for the actions done in his past life that he (before Lost) couldn’t even remember. I act and feel a lot of the story through my characters, and Fireteam Phoenix would defend Crow from those kinds of people in a heartbeat. All of them, without question. Which is why it hurts to see phrases like “if you were angry at Crow this week get off my page” and “the people who are angry at Crow for this have always hated him from the beginning.” Not trying to point fingers or direct the blame onto anyone, I’m just saying that it hurt me personally to read those words in the tags after watching the cutscenes when I have always been a fan of Crow.
And I was indeed upset, not only at Crow’s decision but also at the writers for making yet another conflict that will split the already black-and-white reactionary fandom (though, thankfully, this season there’s no obvious strawman for everyone to direct all their hate towards). Personally I think the cutscene after the fact felt a little bit rushed and probably could’ve waited a week to let things fester a bit, but time will tell where this new plot will lead us and what Bungie has in store for everyone at the end of Risen and in the seasons beyond.
Here’s hoping that the writers can stick the landing with this one yet again.
21 notes · View notes
rae-gar-targaryen · 4 years
Text
alight with the lights out | diego hargreeves x reader [tua]
A/N: Thank you for all of your interest after I posted the teaser! It was VERY surprising and humbling; I’ve NEVER had so many people ask for a tag before. I only ask that if you asked for a tag, you interact with this fic SOMEHOW. And go find another story you love and REBLOG IT! LET THAT WRITER KNOW YOU LOVE THEM!
I’ll be honest, I’m very nervous about this one. I’m not sure if it turned out as good on paper as it did in my head. Please let me know what you liked and what you didn’t!
Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x vigilante, powered!Reader; this one may read a bit more like an OC because I’ve given the reader backstory, powers. She’s (you’re) a vigilante who regularly runs into Diego. I keep the physical description vague, so I hope you can still imagine yourself! 
Warnings: Language; who doesn’t love getting a little sweary? Violence, fighting, references to a shitty childhood, and separately, implied sexual assault (nothing graphic, I promise); angst and angsty dialogue; SMUT-- 18+ ONLY PLEASE; lots of cocktease dialogue, fingering, pierced nipples (the reader’s not Diego’s-- sorry), biting, rough sex, choking. Romance is its own warning. Fluff.
Word Count: 12.1k of sexy, self-righteous vigilantism, half-baked metaphor and of course, at least one literary reference. 
Summary: Diego Hargreeves, aka The Kraken, is secure about few things in life; one of those things being his vigilantism. He’s a hero. Until he meets a fighter who shares the same hobby, albeit with different methodologies. Diego isn’t quite as certain about her, but her mysterious abilities make him think he and his siblings aren’t the only ones in this world with power. If only she and Diego could just stay out of each others’ hair. It’s a good, old-fashioned ENEMIES TO LOVERS, lads!
Link to my playlist of songs that inspired this fic: here
Tumblr media
NOT MY GIF
----
You wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. That was rule number one. Hell, if you could get away with it at all, you wouldn’t hurt anyone. 
But Mr. Adler hated children. And he had made it his mission to not understand you. To regard you with the utmost disdain. And unfortunately for you, Mr. Adler had married your mother when you were six years old. 
You had never known another father. Your mother refused to talk about the circumstances of your birth, or of the man who had supposedly been responsible. The lack of identity loomed like a large question mark over certain portions of your life. 
And Mr. Adler, that loud, controlling lout, was not about to fill that void. 
When you were in elementary school, you began to feel like you were different from the other children. Watching them carry about their days with their steel-pressed pop culture lunch boxes and not a care in the world. While you sensed your music teacher’s sadness when her cat had died. You could feel every anxiety that passed through your classmates on the day of a spelling test. You didn’t know why you could feel these things. You just could.
Prominently above them all, you could feel Mr. Adler’s hatred for you, like a thick, toxic wall every time you passed through your front door and into what was supposed to be your sanctuary. 
He shouted at you for inane things, like the pantry door being left open, or the fact that your mother was tired after cooking dinner, insisting you never did enough to help. As a child of eight, what did he expect you to do? You kept your room clean, cleared and set the table, helped your mom water the plants in her garden. What more could Adler want from you?
Still, Mr. Adler’s hate for you colored your every interaction with him, the world you saw him through tinged with an orange-red lens of rage. 
You had never tried expanding upon your grasp of others’ feelings until you had witnessed a boy in your class push your pigtailed classmate, Annabelle, down on the playground. Anna’s shock, fear and sadness had bitten into you from the other side of the sandbox like an unwelcome spider bite, sudden and itchy. 
It didn’t sit right with you. To you, how was this boy any different from Adler? Reigning terror over someone else just because he thought he could. You’d recognize that red-orange tinge in another person anywhere. 
You stood, marching over to the boy, gripping his wrist firmly in your stubby, grubby fingers. Quick as a flash, you were met with every emotion this boy had ever felt -- annoyance at Anna (she wouldn’t share her toys. How selfish, the boy had thought); anger (how dare you grab him!); and finally, prominently, fear. 
Fear looked different for everyone, you had noticed. For some, like this boy, it was an ugly green, so like jealousy. For others, like Adler when he’d been drinking, it was an inky black you could drown in. Fear was clearly the strongest. You knew that now.
You gripped the boy’s fear in your own mind, pushing it to the forefront until he began to cry, his eyes welling with the sudden fear he couldn’t understand. 
“You won’t do that again,” you said. Turning to Anna, you offered a hand to help her up, but she just shook her head, pigtails flying, and scampered away from you. 
Your teachers were clearly afraid of you after that. Could sense that something wasn’t right. Anna? You thought she’d be grateful ... but the chilly pale yellow of her fear, and everyone else’s, followed you wherever you went. 
Fine, you thought. If they wouldn’t be grateful for what you could do, you may as well help yourself. 
From then on, you exploited your teachers’ happiness -- pop quizzes became less frequent. Everytime they wanted to scold you for incomplete homework, they were left grasping at straws and with the daze of an emotion they couldn’t name. 
Adler hated you for it. 
“I knew there was something wrong with you,” he sneered over your mother’s weeping objections. “I don’t know what it is, but I know there’s something.” 
Once you reached 18, you left for the neighboring bustling metropolis and didn’t look back. The world was full of people like Adler, like the boy in the sandbox, like your teachers, who tried to use their own fear to feed their hate, to exploit others. To exercise false power over them. 
Well, you wouldn’t have it. If it meant a few of those assholes got hurt, well, so be it. 
You lived like that for years. Until --
---
"I hope you choke on it," you hissed, watching the smoky black tendrils slither their way around the man, constricting -- bringing him to his knees, hacking and gasping. "I see your fear, I feel it all. You deserve this, you know you do," you lectured, advancing toward the man, your hands raised. 
He was seconds away, you knew it-- and then one more scumbag would be off the streets for good ...
Things were going your way, you were in your favorite position in an altercation-- you know, the one where you had the upper hand? Everything was coming up you, until--
Your ears were met with a whizzing noise mere seconds before a sharp, shiny something nicked your cheek and lodged into the wooden beam just past you. 
Your gaze left the piteous man before you long enough to see what looked like a small, but dangerously sharp, knife embedded in the beam. You reached up and plucked it from its resting place, spinning it in your palm before catching the hilt in a clutching grip. You turned to see where it had come from, your eyes catching a dark blur flipping from the fire escape of the opposite building, before said blur landed at your feet.
Standing at his full height, the blur-- no, the Kraken himself-- towered above you.
You had to admit, the stories didn't do him justice. Standing before you in head-to-toe black and a harness replete with shimmering, twinkling edges and danger, you could've sworn he was your knight in shining leather. His cropped hair and facial scars gave him the air that he was every bit as sharp and deadly as the many blades that adorned his body. His oilslick eyes so like mirthless pits of danger, daring to suck you beneath their surface. He was, in a word, imposing.
Regarding you from behind his Venetian domino mask, he spoke, "Miss I'm gonna need you to drop the knife and let this man go."
You snorted.
"You're joking, right?" Not giving him a chance to respond, you chuckled as you swung at him with the hand still holding what you now knew to be his blade. 
You'd give credit where it was due, Diego Hargreeves, aka Number Two, aka the Kraken, was every bit as fast as they'd said. In this regard, the stories and Umbrella Academy-related media hadn't been wrong. 
Diego dodged your swing, bending his body back before twirling around to strike at your torso, like a snake, with his heavy, hammered fist.
The hit knocked the wind out of you, effectively breaking your concentration, and, devastatingly, your connection with the previously fear-choked man cowering in the alley behind you. As you recovered from Diego's hit and swung around to check your quarry, you could only watch as he shook himself from your fear-induced trance.
He scraped and scrabbled to get up off his knees as Diego shouted at him to "Go, just get out of here!"
You snarled and swung a well-aimed high kick at Diego's head, connecting with just enough of his jaw to drop him. As soon as your proverbial window opened, you turned from Diego to run after the man. But even grounded from a blow, Diego was formidable. He shot his arm out and snagged your ankle, yanking you to the ground. 
The gritty pavement scraped your palms as you attempted to catch yourself on your way down, growling as you glanced up to see that loathsome cockroach of a man slip out of the alley, huffing as his bloated legs carried himself far away from you. 
You tossed a glance over your shoulder to see Diego righting himself as he stood up, looking down at you before shrugging, offering you his hand.
"Not a chance," you scoffed, knocking his hand away. You rolled slightly back, arched up, and used your hands to help you spring as you lept to your feet in one smooth movement. You landed with a thud of your boots, your feet spread apart, and arms raised in a boxer's stance. 
Diego had the decency to look slightly surprised at your obviously-dangerous athleticism. He shook himself slightly as he regarded you. 
Besides, he thought, taking in your stature, it's not as though you were any match for him. No way.
"Why would you get in my way, Umbrella douche?" You bit out harshly, glaring daggers at the knife-wielding Kraken.
"Come on, hot stuff," Diego shrugged. "If you know who I am, you gotta know it's not like I can just let you mug that man with … well, whatever you were doing to him." What he had seen you do in the alley seemed to be catching up with him as he cocked his head and queried, "What exactly were you doing to him, by the way? I mean, other than hurting a civilian?"
"A civilian?" You spat. "You don't know what you're talking about, do-gooder. If you knew what he was, you wouldn't be defending him so staunchly." 
“And what was he?” Diego pressed. 
“That dickless fuckhead would-be-rapist isn’t worth the shit on your shoe,” you snarled. “And you let him get away. Nice job, hero,” you sing-songed the last word mockingly, taking advantage of Diego’s lowered guard to level a swinging hit to his nose. 
Your punch landed with a satisfying crack, Diego stumbling back, shaking his head. 
“What in the ever-loving FUCK is wrong with you, lady?” Diego shouted. 
“Take your hits like a big boy. Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of ‘Big Deal?’ ” you asked, advancing toward Diego, fists raised. 
“Honey, my reputation precedes me for a reason,” Diego quipped back, blocking your next swing and making one of his own toward your gut. 
The two of you sparred in the alleyway, whirling and spinning in a very violent dance between two unwilling partners -- Diego, clearly pulling his punches, while you were obviously preoccupied with your rage at your escaped quarry. 
Diego flipped and spun and swung his fists with a speed that bordered on unnatural. His jabs and kicks annoyingly landed, as you were really only able to block just about every other hit. Fuck him for being so fast. 
So it was true, you thought, the superpower hype was real. Well, two could play that game. 
At Diego’s next hit, you caught his fist, allowing the contact to create the connection you needed, feeling for Diego and any underlying emotion that would be his undoing, before latching onto your favorite-- past the overstuffed confidence, you tasted simmering rage. Beyond that? A tiny prickle of … was that??…Ah, yes, the stinging, burns-so-good zip of lust... File that one away for later … and beneath it all lay Diego’s stammering, stuttering, suffocating fear. 
You dug your proverbial claws into it once you found it, bringing it to the surface, manifesting it into your signature smoky tendrils. 
Drag them down with their own fear. 
Diego’s eyes widened as he looked down to see his legs wrapped in what looked like snakes. Suddenly, his worst memories of fearful days under his father’s tyrannical reign were the only things in his brain. The shouting proclamation his own inadequacies in his father’s too-posh voice pounded within his skull. It was all he could think about -- Your presence before him seemed to dwindle, he couldn’t focus on you, try as he might-- when he was overcome with the feelings of every bad memory he had ever suffered through bearing down on him like the crushing weight of the ocean, pulling him under with the riptide of his own panic and inadequacies.
What the fuck was this shit? 
He pushed through his sudden indifference toward you to regard you, the woman stood before him. Diego’s fist clenched as he took in your own grip clutching around his wrist. Your eyes were closed as your face was screwed up in concentration. 
Repulsive. You were repulsive, he suddenly thought. How could he have cared so much about hurting you when his own terror and agitation sat heavy on his tongue, like ugly curdled cream?
But he hadn’t always felt this way-- not his usual modus operandi, was it? So what was this? Was this-- you?? Was this what you had done to that man?
Diego began to dredge himself through his own agitation, past his father’s lilting abuse… through the mire of never-quite-being-enough against Luther... dragging his proverbial feet through a bog of his own self-hatred. Just long enough to wrench his wrist from your grip, grabbing you by the shoulders and spinning around, slamming you probably a little too hard into the wall behind him. Your eyes snapped open as your head made a minor thwack off the  alleyway-- you had just enough time to tilt your head to the left as Diego brought one of his knives down, driving it into the wall a sliver from the space your face had previously occupied. 
Diego bore his weight on his toes, leaning his imposing height into and over you, panting and snorting heavily through his nose. You looked at his eyes behind his mask-- hardened flints of pissed-off-superhero glared back at you.
“W-wh-What the F-f-UCK was that?” Diego spit, lip curling over his teeth in a gruesome snarl. 
A fleeting flicker of shame passed through you. He hadn’t really done anything to deserve that, had he? Before you shook yourself out of it-- No! He let that rat-faced motherfucker get away! 
You fixed your face into an impassive mask of your own before you chirped, annoyingly, “What was what?” 
Diego chuckled mirthlessly, shaking his head.  “Nuh-uh. How did you do that?” Diego pressed, leaning even closer to you, if that were possible.
“Do what?” you chimed innocently, tilting your chin up, eyes meeting Diego’s from beneath your lashes. Maintaining your feigned ignorance.
“Don’t do that,” Diego snarled. “Don’t play dumb. I think we both know at this point-- you’re alot of things, and dumb isn’t one of them.” 
“You’d know all about playing dumb, wouldn’t you, pretty boy? Or for you, is it not really playing?” You reached up and ran a finger along his sharp jaw before tweaking his chin and dropping your hand back to your side. You sighed at Diego’s stone face. Honestly, it was so boring when they didn’t bite back.
“I don’t know what to tell you, cutie pie. I can’t help it. People are just drawn to me,” you quirked an eyebrow. “Or repulsed by me. I really haven’t decided.” You fluttered your eyelashes at him, ever the pretty picture. 
Diego leaned further into you, pressing your back further and further into the wall. All the while, his leather-gloved grip creaked around the handle of the knife he’d plunged into the wall next to your head as he gripped it tighter. 
“Huh,” he mused, scoffing at you lightly. “Ya know something, doll? I just don’t fuckin’ buy it.” 
“Babe, if you wanted to play bad cop, all you had to do was ask,” you smirked as the stone face slid from his features and gave way to "surprised face."
“Honestly, honey,” you slinked up Diego’s body, propping yourself onto your toes and brushing his lips ever-so-lightly with your own as you spoke into his mouth, “Did you really think you and your reject siblings were the only ones in this whole wide world with a little … taste … of power?” you purred. 
Ah, you thought, and there it was. 
The warming, zinging hum that your ability recognized as Diego’s lust crept through your fingertips that were currently resting on his chin. You were sure if you took the time to analyze exactly who was feeling what, that this feeling of craving wouldn’t be as one-sided as you’d otherwise have hoped. Diego was, you had to admit, very pretty -- for a man. 
The swirling galaxies in his midnight eyes regarded you with confusionangerwant.  Had you really just -- kinda kissed him?
You took advantage of Diego’s surprised state to knock his grip from your shoulder and shove -- hard. Diego toppled back, and you took off as fast as your enhanced body would carry you, cutting down the alley and away from your fascinatingly frustrating new rival. 
Diego took in your retreating form from his final resting place in the disgusting alley’s concrete. Slamming his fist into the rough-gravel ground, groaning out his frustration and anger.
You were gone. 
What were you? 
Were you really like him? Like the others?
---
Diego shuffled into Hargreeves Manor, determined to see who else was around. Surely they, or Pogo, would know if there were others like them out there. Had he been the only one to run into one? Was it all a hoax?
As he wandered into the cavernous, but simultaneously stuffy, living room, sure enough-- there was Klaus, sprawled across the couch, arm slung over his face in a restless nap. 
“Klaus!” Diego barked, startling the spindly man from his perch on the couch and onto the floor. 
Klaus looked balefully up at his brother from his spot on the carpet. “Jeeeesus, Diego, really? What do you want that made that necessary,” Klaus grumbled.
“Have you seen Pogo?” 
“I haven’t seen anything but the back of my eyelids for the last several hours, thank you very much,” Klaus replied, “Although, I did have a very good dream about running into an old friend of mine in the grocery store. He was always so convinced he was straight. But I think the rest of my dream calls bullshit.” Klaus chuckled to himself. 
“Yeah, whatever, man. I need to talk to Pogo,” Diego stressed, turning to leave the living room.
“Well, wait, wait, wait. What is so important?” Klaus queried, clambering up and lumbering across the room to catch Diego’s arm.
Diego sighed, facing his brother. 
“Do you think … Do you think we’re the only ones like us?” He asked.
“Well, there’s no one like you, brother,” Klaus chuckled, taking on a rumbling, Diego-esque mocking tone, “I’m Number Two!” He cackled to himself for a moment before coming back to himself with a sigh. “And honestly, we all know I’m an original. So I’m not sure I take your meaning.” 
“I mean… it couldn’t just be the seven of us, right? There’s a lot of other people in the world… it just makes sense others could do things like what we can?” Diego pressed.
Klaus started. He had never seen this look in his brother’s eye before. The unhinged mania of a fight? Sure. Crushing doubt? Obviously. But not this … fierce certainty buried beneath a question. This was new for Diego. He must be serious. 
Klaus blinked, regarding his brother, before slowly nodding. “I mean… sure… theoretically, there could be others. But I don’t know any. Why? Did you find someone?” 
Diego drew in a breath, unsure of how much he wanted to reveal to Klaus. After all, you were his nemesis. His pain in the ass. His whatever you were. 
Diego crossed the room again, back to the couch Klaus had previously occupied, before sitting down in a creak of leather and clink of blades still strapped to his harness. Propping his elbows on his thighs, he placed his head in his hands. 
“I don’t know. I think so? I found her while I was out patrolling, and I … I don’t really know how to describe what I saw.” 
Klaus placed himself next to his erstwhile sibling, tucking his feet beneath himself as he sat, reaching up to pat Diego on the shoulder.
“There, there, big guy. Just… tell me what happened,” Klaus crooned.
Diego launched into the story of finding you in the alley, choking the man with your smoke without even laying a hand on him. He described to Klaus how the two of you had fought, and how you had called the man a “would-be-rapist” before knocking Diego to the ground and making your getaway. 
“Well, she sounds hot.” 
“Helpful, Klaus,” Diego deadpanned. 
“Oh, isn’t it obvious, sweet Dee?” Klaus chimed at the end of Diego’s story. At his brother’s nonplussed look, Klaus continued. “She’s just like you! She likes to put on her Batman underoos and fight crime,” he chuckled. “Even if she is like… us… she clearly can do something different. But I think the most telling thing is how obviously into her you are.” 
Diego sputtered, “Wh-what?? I am not into that … psycho. Whatever she can do, that’s all I want to figure out.” 
“The lady doth protest too much,” Klaus sing-songed. “Whatever you say, brother. But I think the only way you’ll really figure it out is if you run into her again. I mean, we know dad had his secrets. If he knew about other powered children, don’t you think the Umbrella Academy would’ve been a lot bigger? The world is a big place. I’m sure there’s more out there, but, um… we just didn’t know about it until now?” 
Diego sighed deeply. “Oh, joy,” he muttered. Ignoring the tinge of excitement that passed through him at Klaus’s suggestion he seek you out. 
Klaus clapped his hands joyously, cuffing Diego’s shoulder, shaking him. 
“A nemesis, Diego! How sexy! How exciting!” 
---
Your encounter with one of the Umbrella Academy had left you slightly shaken, to say the least. You were so careful when you went out. No one missed those assholes you took care of. Honestly, you were doing the city a favor. 
Patrolling on any given night would yield one or two men who were plotting something less than savory. And all it took was a brush of skin to determine their true intentions. 
You sighed angrily, ripping off your bodysuit and stomping across your apartment to your shower, yanking back the curtain and twisting the knob forcefully. 
Hot water began to pour from the showerhead, steam filling your bathroom. You regarded your reflection in your bathroom mirror, a distinctly palmlike-bruise adorned your shoulder from where Diego had clutched it, not to mention the scrapes that lined your body from your repeated meetings with the concrete during your sparring. 
You met your own eyes in your reflection, regarding yourself as balefulness gave way to venom. 
Honestly, that toadlike little nobody had deserved what you were about to do to him. You had watched him from the back of the bar as he had annoyingly pressed his presence onto a poor girl who was just trying to enjoy her drink. Her drink that the toad had slipped something in when he thought she wasn’t looking. He even went so far as to grab her wrist with his stubby little hands. That was the final straw. 
You steeled yourself, letting the lustful, rowdy feeling of the other bar patrons that permeated the air like thick smoke take you over. Putting on your best, beguiling smile, you crossed the room and brushed your hand over the man’s bare arm, letting him feel the tingling want that you had absorbed. Simultaneously, you felt everything of his disgusting intent-- the hateful, possessive desire for the girl, the hurt he intended to inflict to trample his own inadequacies and sadness. 
Oh, yeah, you were right about this asshole. 
He looked up at you, disgusting gaze lingering on you, before forgetting all about his intended prey, pushing back from his barstool and venturing behind you out into the alley. 
The rest, as they say, is history. And an annoying vigilante type who had an ass that just wouldn’t quit once encased in black leather just had to rain on your proverbial pain parade. 
Diego Hargreeves… Of course you knew who he was. Everyone knew about the Umbrella kids. And you knew the man once-dubbed The Kraken was still doing his best Caped Crusader (sans cape) and kicking ass by night. Annoyingly self-righteous, really, you thought. Choosing ever-so-delicately to ignore the hypocrisy laden in your thought. Is that not, in effect, what you were doing? Albeit with a little more emotional manipulation and bloodshed. 
As you thought of Diego, your fingers traced the slim, sharp cut his knife had made in your cheek as it surged past you. 
You let the remnants of Diego’s rage that you had felt overtake you, amplified by your own, as you slammed your fist into the small mirror over your sink, letting the shards clatter to the ground around your feet.
Payback was a bitch, and so were you. You didn’t know if Diego Hargreeves was a praying man, but he had better hope to whatever deity would listen that he didn’t run into you again.
You wouldn’t be so kind twice, you told yourself, climbing into your shower and letting the blood and grit from your body swirl down the drain. 
---
As luck wouldn’t have it, your gods were decidedly not on your side. And clearly whatever deity you had mentally implored Diego to pray to was on vacation. 
Because you ran into that maddeningly beautiful dipshit, several times over the following weeks. He would do his best to bust up your party, stopping you from exacting your special brand of vengeance. You’d exchange a few quips and blows before running off before he could ask you the question you knew was burning in his mind. 
You managed to evade prolonged encounters with Diego until about another two weeks later. Too soon, honestly. 
Or not soon enough? God, your inner voice was desperate and annoying. 
You encountered Diego again while you were propped against the wall of a seedy dive on the other edge of town, assessing each person as they passed. While your power worked best if you could touch, some feelings were perfectly easy to pick up from a distance. 
So far, nothing. Just a few gross, horny bikers and depressive barflies. It was a maddeningly slow night. And you doubted you were needed here. 
Just as you were about to call it and head to another hotspot, a familiar prickle passed through you. You glanced up, across the street. 
Sure enough, on the neighboring rooftop, perched Diego Hargreeves in the flesh, surveying you like some kind of Great Value Nightwing. 
You sighed, pushing off the wall and crossing the street. Diego watched as you clambered up the fire escape to meet him on the rooftop. 
“Of course you would be here,” you chastised. “Are you fucking following me? I’ve been a good girl. Haven’t killed anyone in a week. I promise!” You held up your hands in mock surrender, coming to stand in front of Diego’s gloriously firm, leather-clad figure. 
“If you say so, Princess. Maybe I’m just here for a drink?” Diego cocked his head toward the shitty bar whose entrance you were haunting mere moments ago. 
“Doubtful, Underoos. I think…” you trailed off, circling Diego, tapping your finger to your chin in a pondering gesture. “I think you’re babysitting me. Making sure I don’t do your job for you and clean up the streets too well.” 
You ceased your vulture-like circling, coming to stand before Diego. His eyes bore into your own, once again partially obscured behind that stupid mask. As if you didn’t know what he looked like without it. Your eyes weren’t deceiving you when you saw Diego’s eyes flash a quick up-down of your body before resuming his stern visage. 
Oh good, you thought. You recognized the latent feelings buried beneath Diego’s anger. A new one brushed over you-- confusion… He still hadn’t figured you, or, more than likely, your power, out…
You weren’t left in suspense too long. 
“Tell me about what you can do,” Diego pressed, advancing toward you. You took a step back to maintain some distance… best if you can perpetuate some veil of advantage. 
“Ah, ah, ah, baby. It doesn’t work like that,” you chided. “You think I’m just going to spill all of my secrets because why? You’re cute? Try again. Ask nicely,” you smirked, pushing your lips into a tantalizing pout.
Diego rolled his eyes. You weren’t going to play fair? Fine, neither was he. Honestly, his fuse was too-fuckin-short for your shit. He wanted answers, even if he had to beat them out of you. Quick as a flash, he strode toward you, jumping into a flip and kicking you down to the ground upon his landing. 
You looked up at him, standing over your body as it lay on the gravelled rooftop, bringing your hand up to touch your jaw, where his boot had collided with your face not moments ago. 
You grinned widely, savagely, around bloodied teeth and split lips. "So that’s how we’re going to play? Do your worst, Big Deal. I like when it hurts."
With that, you swung your leg at Diego’s, causing him to topple beside you, where you promptly rolled over, coming to straddle his hips, bringing your hands to his wrists, the direct contact allowing you to bring his fear to the forefront. 
Just as you were about to choke him with the smoke of his own fear, Diego surged upright, his arms breaking free from the grip of your wrists, his own hands coming to close around your throat. He squeezed insistently, enough to break your concentration-- the smoke dissipating as soon as it had come. With that, he had managed to roll the two of you over, you flat on your back as one of his thighs came to rest between yours. 
You gasped, looking up at Diego with fiery shock looming in your eyes. 
“Wow,” you rasped, “I told you before-- if you wanted to play bad cop, all you had to do was ask.” 
Diego removed one hand from your throat, bringing it to his own head and ripping off his flimsy excuse for a mask. He regarded you with nacreous, tarpit eyes that glowed and glittered with the streetlights, his breath coming in ragged, uneven puffs through his sinfully full lips. His cropped hair was glistening with sweat borne equally from the heat of the night and your encounter. 
“Baby, I think you owe me an explanation first,” He pressed, squeezing your throat lightly, free hand pulling a knife from his harness that he spun in his fingers while gazing down at you. 
You whined, rolling your hips against where his thigh rested between your legs. 
“This would be so much more fun if you’d just do things my way,” you pouted at Diego. 
“Maybe I would, if you would bother to tell me what your way is,” Diego retorted.
“I could tell you, or I could show you,” you purred, rolling your hips again. “I’m all about more fun.” 
Diego sighed. The familiar buzz of lust radiating from your skin-- or was it his own-- that always seemed to hang over your encounters was pressingly prevalent and it was all he could do to not just give in. He gritted his teeth, and shook his head. 
“No. Come on. I know what you’re doing… whatever it is. Just … tell me what it is you can do. Tell me why you’re hurting those people,” he implored.
You scoffed, rolling your eyes, using your free hands to knock his grip from your throat and coming to a sitting position, as Diego remained crouched over you. 
“All you hero-types. You’re no fun. You want to know what I can do? That pleasant little hum you feel? That’s you. Well, it’s me. But it’s you. I don’t make anyone feel what they don’t already… but I can use it against them. That first night at the bar? That,” you shuddered, “That rat was going to force himself on some poor girl. I could feel his every feeling as he was preying on her. I had to stop it. It’s simple, honeybunch. I do what you do, but better. I’ll make them choke in it, their own fear, their self-hatred, their inadequacy, their lust, I’ll drown them in it, and they’ll thank me for it. Because I’m nothing if not merciful,” you gritted out. 
Diego’s mind reeled, jaw slack from your confession. He knew it! You were an empath, an enhanced emotional manipulator. Except you seemed to be able to manifest emotions into something tangible, something harmful. 
Suddenly, the weight of your confession seemed to crush Diego, you had exploited every feeling of his during your encounters to gain an upper hand. And he hadn’t truly known about it until now. 
You felt the surge of his rage, his disgust, his fear with you before he could say it-- 
“You c-can’t-- you can’t do that,” Diego said. “Kililng people who haven’t even done anything yet? It’s w-wrong. Y-you’re w-wro-wrong,” He stuttered out, clearly distressed, but advancing even further into your space.
“As opposed to you?” You bit out. “You wait until someone’s already hurting or hurt someone else to do something. How are you any better? Who are you to judge me,” you spit through gritted teeth. 
“You’re a killer,” Diego pressed, pushing back from you and coming to stand.
“Sticks and stones. So are you. But I don’t hate you for it,” you snarled, jumping into a standing position, squaring your shoulders before Diego’s imposing form. 
“You could always work with me,” Diego offered, “ We could take what you can do and just… re-tool it a bit.” 
You ground out a harsh laugh. 
“Unlikely, you absolutely patronizing dick. You don’t want anything to do with me other than to change me, control me. You’re just like them.” 
With that, you unleashed a slew and flurry of attacks on Diego, swinging your hips around to level a kick at his gut, knocking him to his knees, where your arm was ready to strike a heavy blow against his cheek, your rage fueling the unnatural strength behind the hit. 
Diego sprawled against the concrete of the rooftop, half conscious after blows you’d dealt him. 
You stood over Diego now, looking down at his prone form. 
“I would never want anyone who only means to stifle me. To take me apart until there’s nothing left. Never.” You spit a glob of bloodied saliva at Diego’s feet, leaving him in his semi-conscious, battered state-- the guilt only slightly prickling you. 
His fear-- choking on half-gasped words from behind the tremulous task of tripping over his own tongue-- followed you like a stuttering stormcloud. It stung. Knowing that he was afraid of you.
---
Okay. The guilt was more than slight. 
All he had wanted to do was help, right? 
Years alone with your power, the sting of Adler’s rejection as a child, it all weighed down on you like the crushing magnitude of Atlas. You didn’t really want to hurt him. 
You sighed, resolute. You just needed to make sure.
With that, you headed out in the storm. Headed toward Diego. 
---
The rain pounded on the walls of the Fighting Lion, plunking heavily like half-hewn nails tossed onto the small window in Diego’s back bedroom. He could hear as it landed on the brick, the wet stone and stormy atmosphere making the air thick with the scent of sagebrush and rain. 
A kind of whoosh passed through the room, prompting him to turn from where he was folding his laundry on the bed to see you propped against the door, legs crossed at the ankles, looking every bit as if you belonged. 
“Wow, Big Deal. Nice digs,” you said as you sauntered in the room, staring at the case at the foot of the bed that was full of Diego’s knives. “Not what I’d expect coming from a dude who hails from the city’s biggest mansion. But still -- homey.” 
Diego ignored the jab about his upbringing in favor of the real question.
“How did you get in here?” He asked, seemingly --and to you, maddeningly-- disinterested in your presence as he continued stacking his paired socks into their rightful place in his bureau. 
“Uh, have you seen this place? It’s not exactly rigged with ‘Entrapment’ levels of security,” you snarked, folding your arms across your chest.
“Does that make you a cat burglar? Are you Catherine Zeta-Jones in this scenario?” Diego glanced at you from his socks, cocking a strong eyebrow. 
“If you want me to be, sweetie,” you shrugged. “But, uh -- and don’t take this the wrong way, Diego, but you don’t exactly have anything I’d want to steal.” 
“Then I’ll amend the question. What are you doing here?” Diego asked, finally turning to fully face you, taking in your form as you stood by his bed. The sight causing a pleasantly-unpleasant little something to prickle across his skin. 
No, no, it’s not like that, he chided himself. Besides. You were an absolutely monumental pain in his ass. And his head. And basically every other body part of his you came in contact with. Nope, nope... Don’t think about her body parts “coming into contact” with anything of yours, he scolded. 
“Aw, well now, Big Deal. Maybe I just missed you?” You mused. 
“Doubtful. Did you come back to kick my ass with your freaky little homicidal chokehold some more?” Diego snapped.
Ouch. Maybe you had gone too far in your last little encounter. After all, wasn't that why you were there? To check on your favorite knife-wielding antagonist? To make sure you hadn't actually hurt him?
But what came out instead was--
"Is there any other kind of chokehold?" You hummed, arching your brow. 
Before he could stop himself, Diego retorted, “Based on our last meeting, I think you know there is." 
Momentarily stunned into silence, feeling the heat rush to your cheeks at the memory of his hands on your throat, you dropped your arms from where they were crossed at your chest down to your sides, hands flexing nervously. You chuckled.
"Heh. As tempting as that offer is, pretty boy, I only came to make sure I didn't ring your bell too bad."
Diego leaned against his dresser, tilting his head back and looking down his perfect, strong nose at you. 
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I must be going fuckin' deaf. Did you just say you slunk in here with your little kitten tail between your legs to say you were sorry?" Diego snorted, obviously pleased with himself as he saw the obvious fluster cross your face.
Okay, now he was pissing you off. You came here with good will and he sasses you? Two can play at that, as you two so often do...
"You must be fuckin' deaf, dipshit. I didn't say I was here to say I was sorry. I did say I wanted to make sure I didn't kick your sorry ass into oblivion. Which, you're obviously fine, so I'll just be going." You crossed Diego's room, breezing for the door.
Honestly, why did you think this was a good idea? Stupid, stupid, stupid…
Diego caught your arm as you passed him in your hurried attempt at an exit. You gave a half-hearted tug to pull your arm from Diego's grip, surprised to find how firm it was. You turned your head to meet Diego's gaze, throat closing around your sudden nerves. Diego's eyes were molten, boring into you with quizzical questions and low-burning heat. His grip on your arm afforded you an insight into the unique blend that was his confusion and simmering passion.
"What are you doing?" You asked.
"Come on," Diego drawled. "You clearly know what I'm feeling. But I have no idea what you're feeling. You have me at a disadvantage. I don't like it."
"Every time we meet, I have you at a disadvantage," you snarked. At the brief hurt that flashed across Diego's face, you sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I meant what I said when I told you I was coming to check on you … I just--" 
You looked down at your feet, the laces in your boots suddenly incredibly interesting to you. Diego's other hand gently gripped your chin, his thumb pressing into its apex, fingers curled beneath your jaw.
"D-don't do that-- keep going. Tell me what you're feeling for once," Diego implored, eyes meeting yours once more, lips ever-so-close to yours. “Please,” he added, softly.
Had your heart been thudding like this the whole time?? Was your jacket always this hot? All you could hear was the pounding sheet of rain, pressing itself into your brain, growing fuzzier. Diego's proximity to your person was decidedly distracting. Wholeheartedly overwhelming. 
Could he really not tell what you were thinking? You were certain at this point it must be written all over your face. Were you not being obvious?? Your burning ardor for him creeping through every inch of your person, drowning your intentions and better sensibilities in anything and everything Diego Hargreeves. You swallowed the lump in your throat before speaking.
"I'm feeling-- was feeling … guilty. The last time I saw you.. I h-hit you...  pretty hard. So, you win. I guess I am here to tell you I'm sorry." You brushed your fingers softly over the bruise that adorned his prominent, proud cheekbone. "I… I just wanted you to be okay. Because I think you were just trying to help. And that's stupid. It's stupid. I'm sorry," you hurriedly stammered. 
Diego relinquished his grip on your arm, allowing his hand to travel down your side until it met your waist. He cocked his head and studied your eyes with his own mercurial ones-- searching for any hint of mistruth in your confession, but seemingly finding none. 
After all, he too knew the honesty behind words that struggled to come out.
"You were… worried about me? You?"
"Let's not make a big thing of this, big boy. You're obviously fine. I shouldn't have come… An honest mistake. Won’t happen again," you started to turn your head, breaking his gaze. 
But Diego's grip on your chin firmed, forcing you to look at him again before surging forward and crushing his lips to yours. 
And, oh, this was bliss-- you were just sure of it. Your yearning manifested itself in the hand you had placed on Diego's cheek, cupping your hands to the sides of his face before dragging them back to thread through the closely-cropped hair at the nape of his neck, then passing your hands up through his longer hair toward the top of his head and tugging. You took advantage of the gasp Diego elicited at that sensation, sweeping your tongue into his mouth. 
Your shared lust bled through your connected skin, hands on faces and elsewhere…  washing over you both like warm static, a pleasant buzz akin to drinking just a little too much champagne. 
Diego’s hands tugged at the hem of your rain-dampened hoodie, tugging it over your head. Your newly-exposed skin prickled with goosebumps at the sudden chill. You had run over here in the rain, after all. Diego’s darkened, honeyed gaze reverently took in your form. 
Never one to waste an opportunity, you took the break in action as your chance to respond in kind-- peeling his skin-tight black crewneck shirt from his own gloriously-sculpted body. 
The two of you stood, staring at each other’s exposed torsos, ragged breaths dragging through the air of passion so-stifling the room like incense you’ve left burning for too long. 
Diego stared at your chest, breasts heaving from behind the scrap of lace that constituted your bralette-- were those piercings that made your nipples poke so prominently through the lace? WIth this realization, Diego felt himself harden. He lunged for you with a growl, scooping you by the waist and dropping you with a bounce onto his bed. 
His mouth latched onto your throat, sucking insistently while his powerful hands rested at the edges of the delicate lace trim of your bra, passing almost reverently across your ribcage. 
You gasped as he brushed a thumb over your nipple, feeling yourself growing wet beneath your leggings. You hmm’d a whine as Diego’s mouth found that spot on your throat, his thumb still rolling circles over your nipple. 
“D-Diego,” you gasped, sucking in air like you’d never properly breathed before.
“Yeah, baby?” 
“Take it off,” you glanced down at the scrap of lace that adorned your chest. “Please,” you intoned, sweetly. 
“Since you asked so nicely,” Diego said,” creeping his fingers beneath the lace to lift it off your skin. Suddenly, with that preternatural speed he’d come to recognize as a gift of those who were enhanced, like himself, you seized his wrist and squeezed. 
“It wasn’t meant to be nice,” you ground out. “Take. It. Off. Now.” 
With that, you released his wrist, and Diego gripped the lace where it rested beneath your breasts with this two hands and tugged, ripping your bralette cleanly in two, exposing your tits to his roving gaze. 
“There you go, Big Deal,” you preened in satisfaction, taking your own hands from where they had previously been resting along his strong abdomen, trailing them down to the top of his jeans. You popped the button on his fly and began tugging his zipper down, before Diego caught your hand as quickly as you had just done to him. 
“I’ve got this, baby,” Diego assured. 
With that, he brought his mouth down to your left breast, swirling his tongue around your nipple, taking the hand still clutching your wrist and planting it above your head. He released your wrist, trailing his hand, down your side until it met the waistband of your leggings. He pressed his fingers beneath the waistband, raking his fingers under your panties, to where you wanted him most. 
As he dragged a finger through your wetness, you gasped out a keening sigh. Diego’s long fingers working magic against your center, rubbing up and down your slit before pressing one, long finger inside. He lifted his mouth from your breast, pressing it to yours to swallow your moan with a searing kiss.
After a few more moments, Diego slid his finger from your center, retracting his hand from your pants, his other hand coming to meet it, peeling your leggings and panties from you in one fluid motion. You lifted and wiggled your hips to assist him. As soon as the leggings were free from your legs, you wasted no time in wrapping your bare legs around Diego’s waist, locking your ankles behind him and pulling him to you, dragging your hands up his neck and into his hair, hissing in pained pleasure as you rolled your hips against Diego’s still denim-clad hardness. 
Diego groaned as he felt your hardened nipples press against his chest, the microscopic bite of cold from your piercings as they touched his warm skin made him sigh.
The room felt like it was bordering on a hundred degrees, the previously champagne-drunk feeling of your shared lust now replaced with a frantic urge to taste and mark every inch of the other as their own. 
As you continued to grind your hips into Diego, he kissed you deeply, tongue sliding into your mouth, running along your own tongue and teeth, tasting every bit of your want for him as he succumbed to the heated buzz of the room. 
Your power had its benefits, he reasoned, if it meant this would feel so… resplendent. 
The mutuality of your shared passion was enough to do you in. You couldn’t be imagining that Diego wanted you as much as you wanted him. If that wasn’t the case, you both wouldn’t be burning like this, writhing atop his bed with pent-up passion and aggression. 
Diego broke his hands from where they had previously been digging bruises into your hips, coming up onto his knees to start shucking his own jeans and underwear off. 
And oh, he thought, you were a vision. As he looked at you while he stripped himself, he was overcome. Your half-lidded gaze swimming with hazy, unfulfilled promises, swirling lazily like the drizzle of sinfully sweet syrup over something forbidden. Your lips were flushed, swollen and lightly bruised from the punishing pace of your shared kisses. Your wickedly luscious curves and the glimmering slick between your thighs on display for only him. In this moment, he felt he could die under whatever your power would dish out, if it meant he died feeling like this. 
Now bared to you in his entirety, Diego positioned himself once more between your legs, his impressive length sliding to where he had guided it along your opening. 
You tossed your head back, eyes closed at the glorious feeling of his skin finally meeting yours where you wanted it most… but, still, it wasn’t enough. 
“Di- eh - go,” you panted, your glimmering gaze meeting his lustrously darkened one. “P-please, I need it. I need you,” you cried piteously, clutching his shoulders and grinding your hips once more against him.
Diego chuckled, only to happy to oblige. With a guiding hand and a smooth flex-and-thrust of his hips, Diego entered you with a powerful, needed thrust. You cried out, sound going straight to his cock, twitching from its rightful place inside of you. 
“There, now, baby,” Diego crooned, bringing his mouth back to yours and humming into your open lips. “Doesn’t that feel ... So. Much. Better?” He punctuated each of his last few words with hard, firm thrusts of his hips. 
You nodded, eagerly fusing your mouths together, rolling your hips in kind to meet Diego’s sweet, but punishing thrusts. 
“After all that shit you pulled with me,” DIego ground out, “It’s nice to know-- this is what you really wanted. Fuck--” he broke off as you clenched around him just right. “This is what you needed.” 
You whined your assent, keening and high-pitched. 
“Mmmm, I want y-you, as much as you want me,” you gasped out, Diego’s brutal thrusting brushing your clit with his pubic bone, bringing you ever closer, closer, closer to that teetering edge. You lifted yourself up to balance on one hand and meet Diego’s face where he was hovering above you, your sweat-slicked bodies pressing into one another with a delicious, filthy heat. You looked into his eyes, your jaw slack with the stupidly good feeling of everything he was doing to you. 
You turned your head to face his sculpted shoulder, and grazed your teeth there, biting into the apex of his arm. Diego hissed, obviously pleased with the feeling, bringing his hand to your neck, fingers wrapping around your throat and tearing your teeth away from his shoulder, guiding your mouth back to his with the pads of his fingers lightly pressing into your airway.
You gasped, the combined feeling of his kiss, his pressing, insistent touch, and his cock inside you brushing repeatedly against that spot of your inner walls causing you to clench, crying out your sudden, gushing release. 
Diego guided your head back to his pillow, clenching his fist, the same battered-knuckled boxer’s fist that had previously clutched your throat, now clutched around his bedframe as he hammered his final thrusts, pounding into you until he met his release, groaning as he came down from his sudden, bursting high. 
He sighed into your neck, the lovingly sticky heat of your sweaty bodies pressed together as he eased himself from you, pulling you into his side.
You sighed in contentment. 
Was everything Diego Hargreeves did punctuated with such beautiful, forthright power?
---
You both lie in the after, bodies pressed firmly together. It would have been romantically intimate had the primary motivator not been the lack of space on Diego's too-small mattress squeezed along the wall in his room. 
Nevertheless, you lie there in complete contentment, basking in the afterglow and Diego's delightfully even, rhythmic breathing.
Said lothario had his head turned into your cheek, nose brushing against your hair. His arm around you, curling you to him and trailing his fingers up and down your side at a slow, steady pace.
Why couldn't it always be like this? 
After all, fire doused with water still burns brightly at one time, but loses its penchant for destruction, tampered in cool, calming depths and leaving behind cooling steam. So, too, had you and Diego drawn a peaceable, but joyfully sweaty truce. 
In that moment, you could see yourself loving him. You know he'd let you, if you gave him enough time and enough of yourself. The man had not had enough love given to him in his life-- he fought for it, tooth and nail. And had come up woefully empty, like clutching at soft sand that slips through your fingers. He'd had the love of his siblings, sure. But this was -- understandably-- different. You recognized a chasm in him that you often thought you'd never mend within yourself. 
But he was so deserving of love. Whereas you? Well, the jury was still out. 
When you think of Diego, you couldn't help but think of strength. Assuredness. Agility. His aura burned red in your deeper sentiments. Power. You do associate his memory with annoyance, sure, but also a biting wit that he so-oft concealed. And an endearing sentimentality. And an iron will suffused with stubbornness.  
You had gleaned some of this from your foray into exploring his emotions, sure. But you don't use your power at every turn. The rest of it was every impression Diego had devastatingly left you with. You had learned so much of him, you yearned to share a piece of yourself, similarly eager for acceptance. Which then prompted you to share--
“You know,” you piped up in the dark, “You remind me a bit of the main character of my favorite books series-- Ever hear of ‘The Dark Tower?’ You know, the legendary Gunslinger?” 
Diego scoffed at that.
“Guns are for pussies, real men throw knives,” he stated primly, but still unable to conceal the smile in his voice.
“That sounds a little rehearsed, Big Deal. But I’ll let it slide. Besides, you don’t know what you’re missing,” you acquiesced, turning your head to face him, your noses brushing.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m not into all that bookworm stuff. Cuz, ya know, I’m not a fuckin’ virgin,” he chuckled. Obviously pleased with his middle school-grade burn. 
You met his eyes, yours widening in mock surprise. “Oh no?” you gasped. “Well, then why do you dress like one?”
Honestly, it had to be some kind of world record, how fast Diego’s face fell.
"I'm kidding, big boy. You know I dig the black leather," you crooned. Ever eager to smooth the waters of this moment, of his now furrowed brow, back to the placid lake it had been.
"You're goddamn right, you do," Diego chuffed, his grin now prominent in his voice.
You looked at him, your eyes travelling between his shining, ochre eyes and his full lips.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. 
“I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind.
"I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart," you recited.
Diego regarded you for a moment before brushing his lips across yours, kissing you warmly.
"What was that?" He asked.
"'The Dark Tower,'" you replied. "What? I like to read. You really do remind me of him. Surly, but just. Lost, but ever-searching. Pinpoint accuracy. Deadly. But hasn't lost hope." 
Diego kissed you again, running his hand down your body beneath the covers to grip your bum and roll your body over his, urging you to tarry with him on another burning exploration of one another's bodies.
Yes, you think, sighing as Diego's teeth graze that spot on your neck, his warm palm on your breast. You could easily fall in love with him… if you let yourself. You were probably more than halfway in love with him already.
Oh, no.
---
You awoke to the early-morning sun peeking weakly behind the remnants of fat, overstuffed rainclouds from the night before, purpling the sky as sunlight met grey. 
You took in Diego’s, sweet sleeping form-- his long lashes fringing his sweetly-closed eyes, his cropped hair mussed from a night of tugging, rolling, writhing. He breathed deeply, evenly, peaceably, as evidenced by the repetitive motion of his muscled torso, his long-fingered hands resting along his stomach. 
You couldn’t do this. Couldn’t taint someone so noble and beautiful with your special brand of poisonous manipulation. 
You couldn’t stop yourself as you spoke softly to the sleeping man beside you, coming to sit on the edge of his bed and brushing one hand through his soft hair. 
“You wanted to know about my power? It’s a curse. You think I want this? This? It’s isolation, Diego-- it’s eternal damnation. I shouldn’t be able to do what I can do …  No one should. It’s not a gift, it’s a curse. And it dooms me to a life alone,” your voice cracks as your breath catches in your throat, hitching over tears that were now, suddenly pooling in your eyes. “There’s no trust. It’s what I … It’s what I deserve.” 
With that, you left Diego’s room. Leaving him to wake alone to a cold one-half of his bed, fingers clutching over air and the warm memories of the night before. He blinked in confusion, the sting of your rejection settling beneath his skin. 
---
When you saw Diego again, it was nearly a month after your last… encounter. The sharp knife of anxiety and longing you so regularly felt in yourself since that day, you recognized immediately as emanating from Diego as you watched him limp away from what you assumed was a particularly nasty fight. 
“Big Deal!” You shouted across the street and through the darkness. 
Diego’s head whipped up, head turning to the direction of your voice, before meeting your gaze. He shook his head, looked away, and kept walking. Away from you. 
Ouch. 
Honestly, you could understand why he would. You had done the same to him a month ago. Walked away. But the pinging sting of his rejection dug at you, like glass into the thin skin between your knuckles. 
All you had ever wanted was for other people to understand. But mostly, now, you realized… You really only cared that Diego understood. 
You took off after him, enhanced speed helping you catch up to his limping form outside of a boarded-up, long-closed bar. 
“Diego!” You called, stopping in front of him, causing him to halt.
“What could you possibly want with me, after all this time?” Diego spit.
“I.. I deserve that, Big Deal. I do,” you glanced at your boots, scuffing the toe into the pavement. “Please, just… hear me out?” 
You looked up at Diego. Really looked at him. His beautiful, tawny skin damp with sweat from a fight, his usually bright and mischievous eyes sunken under the weight of tired bags that sat beneath them. He looked drawn, more exhausted than you remember. You caught sight of a particularly nasty, jagged cut on the side of his neck that had clearly only recently stopped bleeding, the splotching clot like a raised, splintering cut from a large cat’s claws. A particularly nasty bruise was already forming around his left eye and onto his beautifully-sculpted, prominent cheek. 
You rushed to meet him, your fingers coming to brush along his cheeks, mindful of the bruise. He closed his eyes at your touch, lashes fanning downward in defeat. 
“Who hurt you? What did they do, Big Deal? Who the fuck did this? If anyone hurt you, I would make them hurt. I’ll make them pay”
Diego dropped the knife you now noticed was previously-clutched in his right hand, bringing his hand to meet your wrist. 
“Don’t do that,” he whispered.
“Don’t do what? Kill the fucker who hurt you? Fine, I’ll just break their knees--” you started, before Diego shushed you.
“No,” he said, “Shut the fuck up. D- Don’t act like you give a shit. Someone who gives a shit wouldn’t bounce for a fuckin’ month. Not after a night like that.” 
Your hand left Diego’s face. 
“I… I deserve that,” you said. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” And with that, you plopped yourself onto the pavement, sitting on the sidewalk at Diego’s feet. Annoying? Sure. Dramatic? Sure. But if something is stupid and it works, then it isn’t stupid. 
Diego sighed at you, rolling his eyes before coming to sit beside you, gasping out in pain and clutching an obviously bruised rib or two on his way down. 
“Fine. Tell me what the fuck happened. Why’d you go?”
“Diego--” you started… “I-- I can’t be with someone when I’m like this. It never works,” you confessed. 
“Like what?” He pressed, bringing his hand to your knee. 
“I’m-- I’m a monster,” you cried. “Adler knew it. Everyone I meet knows it. It’s only a matter of time before you know it too. I just… I don’t know how to stop.” The tears you thought you could hold at bay were now creeping up and causing your throat to close around your words of contrition. 
“You’re not--” Diego began, but you silenced him with a harsh wave of your hand. 
“You don't understand. You wanted to know how it works? I’ll tell you. The power works based on the other's emotion, sure. I amplify what they feel. Cripple them with it, even. But that's not all… it only works, really works, if it's something I can draw on. They feel what I want them to feel-- because I feel it too …" you admitted. “Everything I ever do to someone else I can only do because I know how it feels. If I want someone to hurt, they’ll hurt… I -- I don’t want to do that to you, too.” 
“You won’t. Not with me,” Diego pressed. 
“And how can you be sure? Even now, I feel how pissed you are at me for leaving. It’s humming beneath your skin. I can feel it.” 
Diego nodded, picking up the knife he had previously dropped and beginning to spin it around in his hand. 
“I know it because I felt it. When we were together,” he sighed. “We both, we both can do these things. Anyone else would piss themselves if it was turned against them. But you look the danger of what I am in the face, and you laugh. When we’re together, we’re matched. The way that room felt? I know what that was.” 
You sat, stunned at Diego’s read of the situation. 
“I take back what I said the first night we met,” you said. At the question in his eyes, you continued, “You’re not dumb. That was… that was… something. But I know how to flex my power. I know what fells all men. Fear is a powerful emotion." 
Diego smiled at you. 
“I hate to break it to you, princess, but I’m not scared of you. I know you think I am, but I’m not. And you know what's even stronger than fear? Love."
You looked at Diego, blinked. He blinked back. You then turned your head with a mocking, retching, gag.
"Jesus, Big Deal. They teach you ‘Hokey Catchphrases 101’ at Dysfunctional Superhero Camp?"
“Hey,” he jostled your shoulder with his. “You know I’m right.” 
You stood, offering Diego your hand.
“Come on, big boy. Walk me home?” 
Diego acquiesced, coming to stand with a stifled grunt. 
“You’re lucky I heal quickly.” 
With that, the two of you walked down the street. You matched Diego’s stride, mindful of his injuries. As you walked side-by-side, your fingers brushed. Before you could stop yourself or think better of it, you took Diego’s hand. 
When you reached your door, you turned to Diego, fiddling with your keys. 
“Everyone’s distinct, you know? Everyone feels differently. Wears their hearts on their sleeve, so to speak. But with everyone, it’s a different emotion. Some flaunt pride. Some are more passive. Do you want to know what I feel when I see you?” 
Diego glanced down to where your hands were still joined. He brought them up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to your knuckles. 
“I want whatever you’ll tell me. You’re such an open book,” he admitted sarcastically. You rolled your eyes.
“Come on, I’m being serious here. You feel... you feel...” 
At Diego’s urging look, you continued. 
"You feel like warmth. Like I could wrap myself in you and never feel the biting cold of my heart again. And when you're not around? The absence of you is worse than any feeling I could ever exploit. I hate it when you aren't here."
Diego stared at you in silence for a moment, before he spoke, “I really think you should open the door now and let me take you inside.” 
You smiled, pleased that your honest confession had gone over well, the smile morphing into a smirk. 
“As you wish, Big Deal.”
And in the morning? Well, In the morning, you and Diego were still wrapped up in one another. 
You looked into Diego’s swimming, honey-and-tar eyes, tracing your palms down the sides of his jaw and cupping his cheeks as you told him, “You have my whole heart. It’s yours -- crush it, hold it, bury it in whatever you feel ... Do whatever you want with it, I don’t care. Just say you want it-- that you want me.” 
“I want you.” With that, he kissed you deeply.
---
You were a master of emotional manipulation. To do that, you had to have a decent handle on your own emotions. For years, you’d rested on your own laurels of your mastery of self, indulging only in the most passing of forays into others’ feelings for the sake of your own.
So why on Earth were you so fucking nervous? Why couldn’t you get it under control?
Yet, here you were, hand in Diego’s, fingers laced, on your way to Hargreeves Manor to meet his siblings, months after your mutual confessions of want. The two of you had been inseparable. 
Diego clearly sensed your unease, because he turned to you, squeezing your fingers in his own, planting a sweet kiss to your forehead. 
“They’ll like you,” he promised. 
“How can you be so sure?” You worried, trying to keep all of them straight in your mind based on Diego’s stories, anecdotes and descriptions. 
“Because I like you, and they love to annoy me. So they’ll definitely want to buddy up,” he chuckled with a shrug. “Baby, you’ll be fine.”
With that, you found yourself standing in the ornate living room with five nonplussed persons who introduced themselves to you one by one.
As the largest of the group approached you, you beat him to the punch.
“You must be Luther,” you said, pumping your arm in a handshake where his hand comically dwarfed yours. 
Luther blinked. “How did you know?” 
"Easy,” you said, “You look like a 'Number One.’ " 
Luther straightened, obviously pleased. "Important?" he asked.
"Self-important."
This caused the lithe one with the smudged eyeliner who had introduced himself with a wink as, “Klaus, darling,” to howl with laughter. 
“She’s fuckin’ got your number, Luther,” he gasped out between his chuckles. He turned to the seemingly-empty air beside himself and said, “I know! She is fun!” 
The group found itself sitting around the living room on the various, overstuffed furnishings, in a fun little Q-and-A circle, which was only getting easier all the time, as you found the Hargreeves siblings’ obvious bond to be so endearing. The glamorous one you knew to be Allison had queried about your power, curious as to how you and Diego had met. 
Diego had recounted your first meeting to the group, and proffered an explanation of your powers with, "She takes the idea of 'wrapped up in your emotions' and makes it literal."
“And how did this come about?” Klaus queried, gesturing his long fingers between you and Diego. “It’s not like that first meeting was full of warm-and fuzzies.”
“I don’t know … We’ve …  run into each other a few times,” you offer with a shrug and a shy grin. 
Klaus clapped his hands, a large grin adorning his face.
“Oh-ho! I like this. Diego’s girlfriend beats the shit out of him on the regular!” Klaus happily sang to the massive living room. “Or is that how you two, you know, keep it exciting?” he intoned to Diego in what must have been the world’s loudest and worst attempt at a whisper.
“She does not beat the shit out of me,” Diego protested, rolling his eyes at his brother’s swaggering antics.
“Right, right, you beat the shit out of each other. Honestly, I get it. Kinda hot. No judgment from me, you crazy kids,” Klaus smiled and held up his hands in surrender, flashing you the “Hello” and “Goodbye” on his palms. “Diego told me about you the day after you first met. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it myself when I’m ever-so-alone at night,” he added with a wink. 
All you could do was chuckle. Who couldn’t love Klaus Hargreeves? 
After that, the questioning from the gathered siblings dissipated into a casual little party, with people pairing off to speak in groups of just them, and with drinks from the open bar being passed around amongst the siblings. Even Five. If you were honest, it was strange to see a thirteen-year-old boy drink frozen margaritas. But you’d had to remind yourself that he was actually older than all of you. Honestly, you’d tried not to think about it too hard. 
In between drinks, you found yourself engaged in silly banter with Klaus and Vanya, laughing at Klaus’s stories of eating bagels from dumpsters and his bantering memories with their brother Ben. You responded in kind with stories of your own-- making your elementary school teachers believe they’d had crushes on one another by exploiting their repressed desires, making your classmates piss themselves every Halloween with some prank or another ...
While Vanya was a bit more reserved with her amusement, you’d caught a smile playing at her lips. Klaus outright howled. 
“Oh, you truly belong here, don’t you? Reggie would’ve haaaated you,” he gestured at the stern portrait of their father. “Which means you’re absolutely perfect for our dear Diego,” Klaus proclaimed, lacing his fingers through your own. 
With that, Klaus turned to you with a conspiratorial giggle and hmm'd into your ear, "You know what they say, peaches. 'A scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly.' And if we're being honest, Diego deeeeeeefinitely thinks he's fly." 
You laughed, choking on your sip of margarita. You’d never felt a kind of discordant unity like this one. 
With Diego’s family… with Diego, you felt like you truly did belong.
As you and Diego lay together in bed after the day with his family, he’d asked if you felt comfortable.
“Of course, love.” You pressed a small kiss to the tip of Diego’s nose, nuzzling your own against his. “They were wonderful. You’re wonderful. Thank you for sharing all of this with me.”
Diego gazed lovingly at you, eyes, a deep, endless pit of an eclipse, brimming with golden honey streaks of mischief. 
“I can’t wait to share everything with you,” he whispered, pressing a kiss into your shoulder and settling beside you comfortably. 
Ah. So that’s what that warm, soft, cotton-y, cloud-like feeling you had begun to experience since you’d began your relationship with Diego was ... Comfort. Funny how it blended so seamlessly into the burning, cinnamon-tinged, blooming one you’d come to recognize as his love.
---
Tagging: @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @winters-buck @qveenbvtch @forever-rogue @ali-cide @fleetwoodmactshirt @stellarkyun @zeldasayer @ayeayecaptaingally @nappingtopknot @holographic-carmen @mandaloriane @pascalplease @phoenixhalliwell @white-wolf-buckaroo @melon-eyes @pancakepike @noturjacky @johnc0nstantine @amarachoren @outrebanx @yespolkadotkitty @agentpike @cryptkeepersoul @netflixandzayn @deadpoolcouldshootme @manchuria @flhorah @halerune @spideymanreads @athousandbuckys @imagining-constantly @dovesgrangers @ravenoussss @pyrosag @rzrcrst​ 
1K notes · View notes
mrskurono · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
REPOST FROM MY NON WRITING BLOG title: breakdown of break through || Kageyama Tobio x fem!Reader a/n: again, a repost from my real old blog I just got tired of going back onto it to find this when I wanna comfort binge it. So I’m just posting it here for easy access for myself word count: 3k tags: fluff, friends to lovers ish trope, timeskip!Kageyama, adults enjoying two (2) beers with a meal, unedited character(s): Kageyama Tobio (hq) synopsis: Tobio arranged for you to come pick him up when he came back for a visit. His plane was early. You were on time. Suddenly you’re eating a meal with his family like your back in high school all over again. This time though he finds the words he couldn’t before.
Tumblr media
Through break down or black out that name lit up on your phone like none other.
Tobio.
Now though you were getting a slough of texts. Phone humming in your hand. Giving you no time to look at the messages and look for the black haired man in the crowded airport. Once more you glanced up at the gate number knowing it was the right one he told you. Where was he then?
Fed up finally you skip past all the texts just to call him. Only a single ring on the other end and you spoke before he had a chance, "Where are you?"
"What?"
"Where are you?" You repeat into the phone a little sharper than intended, "I'm at the gate I thought you were going to get off?"
"I'm already off, I'm at my place I thought-"
"Oh my god when did you land then?!" Huffing you were about to hang up and find the incriminating texts that said when his flight got in. Of course you didn't because Tobio stopped you.
"I told you when I left things were early so I'd be landing about two hours before and we didn't have a layover." Tobio's voice pauses on the other end as you groan loudly into the phone speaker to let him know how displeased you were. "Wait, where are you?"
"I'm at the terminal you idiot!" With little care for anyone looking at you like the mad woman screaming into your phone that you were, "Where are you already?!"
"My place I told you! Are you going to come over or not?!"
"W-What?" You stop a second like you didn't hear him, "What?"
"I said are you coming over? I thought we were going to hang out."
Not what was agreed on. In fact you intended to pick him up and the idea of hang out was maybe you'd grab a bite to eat then that be it. You hadn't seen one another in, oh well, it had to be two almost three years now. Sure you texted each other almost every day. With regular facetime happening weekly. The idea of seeing each other face to face though. It left your stomach tight and a bundle of nerves a little less than understandable. He was a big shot volleyball player now. Being friends with a celebrity felt weirder to you than you cared to admit. You thought if maybe just a lunch and then he could go see the guys things would be alright. Instead now he was asking you to come hang out at his place all of a sudden.
"What?" You echo yourself for a third time like he asked.
"I told you to come over! I thought that's what we were gonna do!"
You swallow the lump in your throat as you grip your phone tighter, "Wait- What about the others and Shoyo I just thought-"
"Just come over already."
Undeniable click on the other end when he hung up. No second to dispute it in the moment. You wanted to hang out. You really did. But something ate you. Nerves. Maybe this was a bad idea. What you had going was perfect and seeing each other for the first time in years seemed like you were going to ruin something. Unsure what there was to ruin. You two were friends. This white knuckled grip on your phone seemed silly. But why wasn't it going away?
Shaking the nerves out like you could simply whisk them away. You pocketed your phone ready to still yell at him for mixing up such a simple schedule and making you go to the airport like an idiot.
Last time you recalled being at Tobio's place was for a going away party. Of course his own because his mother threw it and all of the volleyball team and tagalongs were included. It was fun last time, with everyone that is. Yachi and Kiyoko to be with, you really enjoyed yourself the last time you were here. But now you wondered if you could have just as much fun without all your friends around to buffer you.
One might mock the twenty something year old for keeping his stuff at home. Repeatedly Tobio asked why would he move when most his time was spent in Germany. He came home to see family and friends anyways. Keeping his things there only made more sense.
Finding yourself wrapping your knuckles on the Kageyama's door after you finally made it to where he was and not the airport. It took but one wrap to be greeted by the setter in a heartbeat.
"Tobio!" Your eyes widen, having to actually tip your head back to look at him. Was he this tall last time you saw him, "Your- Where is-"
"My mom's out with my sister. You missed that cry fest already," His blue eyes roll to the back of his head only for a second. Followed by a cheeky smile. An actual smile crossing his lips as he looks down at you for a moment. Perhaps realizing he really was looking down at you, "It's uh..."
"Been a while?" You feel the tips of your ears getting warm.
This was stupid. Utterly insane.
You saw him almost every week on the screen of your phone. Why was this so much different? Why couldn't there be someone else here to buffer this for you.
"Two and a half years since you came and saw me in Germany," Tobio palmed the back of his head with that crooked smile on his face wearing a hole in your heart.
You look him up and down, still in athletic gear like it was all he owned. Actually that was probably true. He was shit at figuring what to wear so Tobio just opted for brand loyalty of anyone who gave him free stuff. Those athletic shorts a testament to that fact considering you at least tried to wear something nice and clean to pick him up at the airport he decided to leave from.
"What the hell is with you not telling me you left early!?" Snapped back to the indignance you felt at the airport and the drive over, you cross your arms with a peeved look.
"That's not true!" He dug into his pocket for his phone. Quick to shove it in your face of your text conversation last night. Tobio pointing out the text he explained poorly as an early flight. You couldn't focus in the seconds following when the fresh scent of his familiar deodorant hit you.
It'd been so long. You'd forgotten how much you loved the way he smelled even when you were in school together. To think it still made your chest as tight as it did back when you were teenagers. Almost enough to make you not notice your name in his phone.
There, tacked onto the end your name was a heart. A double take in order. That was until Tobio realized you weren't looking at his text. And right away he yanked his phone away from your view. Cheeks dusted with red as he fidgeted and tried to push his hair back off his face to no avail. Absorbed too much in his phone you hadn't realized his hair was wet as well. Explaining why you could smell his familiar deodorant so easily. He'd obviously taken a shower.
"You took a shower like I haven't seen drenched in sweat?" You break the forming ice between the two of you in an attempt to not let it get any worse. Even if your ears feel as hot as the sun. Your attempt seems to ease something between the two of you and Tobio let a bit of a smile soften on his features.
"You gonna stand out there like an idiot?" He looked at you point blank.
"You gonna ask me to come in like a decent host?" You shoot back.
Maybe you didn't need the buffer of everyone else to hang out with your friend.
Explaining his mom and sister had gone to go get things for dinner as well as pick his grandma up. The offer to stay for a home cooked meal was extended to you quickly. Apprehensive to accept seeing as things were going well now but maybe not so much later. You didn't want to overstay your welcome. Tobio really wasn't going to take no for an answer. Even repeating that dinner was going to be served and it was one of your favorite concoctions Mrs. Kageyama made. Unsure of the last time you had a home cooked meal like that. You begrudgingly accept because your stomach really did speak up for you.
First met with the fear of how long you and Tobio might be alone together. It thankfully wasn't enough time for you to stick your foot in your mouth. Both his sister and mom showed up with grandma Kageyama in tow. All three women more than excited to see you since it'd been a few months since you stopped by. Tobio's mom showering you in affection as her 'good' child seeing as you came to visit far more than her son. A cranky Tobio argued that he lived all the way in Germany there was just no 'coming over' to visit. He hardly won that argument.
Much like the times in high school when you came over. Mrs. Kageyama asked if you would help with dinner. Extending an extra set of hands to meal prep meant you did find a bit of a buffer from being left alone with Tobio for too long. Ironically though instead of spending his time on his phone or something capturing his attention on the tv. Tobio was in the kitchen with the rest of the family helping with what little prep there was to spare between the four of you.
He really was shit at cooking but it was cute to watch the world renowned setter get scolded by his mom even at this age. Each time you giggled he'd shoot you a glare that only lasted a few seconds. Unable to hold it as his cheeks would gain a dusting of pink and he'd just huff and go back to doing it better like his mom told him to.
This felt good. This felt like home. It had been a while since you felt like this.
"And dinner is done!" Mrs. Kageyama was happy to announce the mini feast. More than you ever thought was needed for a dinner. You suspected maybe her son being home had something to do with it. Though with how much she made you expected some more visitors. That was dashed though when you realized he still ate like a horse. Snickering you won't deny Mrs. Kageyama knew what she was doing in the kitchen. Everything you eat feels like a warm hug. And that wasn't just the beer you had with dinner speaking for you. This really felt amazing.
"Hey," Tobio stood above you once he'd clear the table after his mom and sister said they'd be back after dropping grandma Kageyama off, "You want another?"
A second you realize he's looking down at the empty beer in front of you, "Um-"
"I was gonna have another anyways," Tobio gives you an answer before you can have a chance.
Matching cans he brings you one but mentions he's going to go sit outside for a bit. Wondering if you'd like to come with. Stuffed with dinner you were pretty sure you could move if you forced yourself to. So you find yourself trailing him to the back patio ever so familiar to you.
Outside looks so much different than you remember. No more volleyball net. The sets of poles gone. No random volleyballs left out or scattered everywhere. You'd seen this yard a million times since graduation but for some reason it felt weird sitting out there with the volleyball fanatic himself and not a single volleyball in his grasp.
The crack of his beer reminds you of the one in your grasp. Following suit you open your own and take a sip before setting it on the table next to his. Alone together but you could do this.
"...how long you planning on staying?" Out of everything, he hadn't told you how long his little vacation was going to last this time.
"I don't know." A very unlike him answer. You turned to him just to see Tobio looking out at the yard in front of the both of you with a glazed over look.
"What about the team? Did everyone come back with you too?" Figuring everyone was on break then, Kōrai, Wakatoshi and Fukurō must have come back to visit family too since they weren't a bother in the last video call you had together.
"I don't know." Again with the vacant look. Tobio was earning a scowl from you now. He only had a single beer with dinner too so he had no excuse to be this spacy. Seconds away from getting the grumpy side of you, he turns to meet your gaze, "I took a little bit of time off."
Wow.
There hadn't been anytime off since graduations. Not any on purpose that was. Tobio had been moving forward to make sure he wasn't left behind just like the others did after graduating. Getting to where he was now was no easy feat. For him to take a break was utterly concerning.
"Did something happened? With the guys? The Schweiden team are-"
"No, it was my choice." Tobio looked at you then down to your pair of drinks, "I had something bothering me."
"Alright you know what-" Huffing you square up with him across the patio table, "What the hell? First you don't tell me when you're getting here. Then you get here hours early and don't tell me. Your mom made you re-chop the garlic twice and you didn't say anything. And you haven't mentioned harassing Shoyo over the phone one time. What's up with you?"
Blue eyes staring at you from across the table. Much like the way he stared at you the day he told you he'd be going to Germany. Unlike then the stomach lurking feeling you got from that day didn't measure up to now. Tobio's fixed expression unreadable on his familiar yet so different face. You were looking at your friend but someone entirely new in front of you all at once.
Between the time you waited for an explanation and when he moved forward. Time sped up. His lips against yours before you knew it. In a moment so fleeting that you weren't able to do anything but stare at him when he came back into your full line of sight.
The way you didn't say anything sent him into the first real glimpse of an old fumbling fool, "Oh god no! I- That wasn't- Shit wait y/n no I-"
"You-" the word bubbled in your throat all at once, "-kissed me."
His blue eyes grew huge and the setter looked down at the lips of your hardly touched beer can, "I- Wait listen ok I-"
"Again."
"What?"
"Kiss me again."
Tobio's eyes darted up from the cans. You were looking at him. The same way you did across the gym all those years ago. With such a conviction that his skin tingled with lively vibrance nothing in the world compared to. He could feel his hairs stand on end like they were saluting you. And he bit his lip once nervously expecting you to back down. When you didn't though. He knew he had to.
Slowed down from before. To take a moment to savor everything about it lost in the urgency of the first one. Tobio's lips met yours like they were old friends. Kiss as tender as you imagined. It wasn't until your hands were up cupping his face. And his fingertips grazed the skin of your cheek as he did the same. Did you really make the realization of the knot of nerves in your stomach loosening all at once.
"...I came back to see you." Tobio confessed against your lips. He found his words even though he reluctantly didn't want the kiss to end, "I couldn't focus and- I wasn't doing great at practice- Things were off I just couldn't-"
"We talk every day," You give that out like it's the same. You're a liar if anything. None of it was the same and none of it would be the same now they you had the buzz of his lips against yours, "I don't understand- We just-"
"I think I love you-" Tobio blurted.
No going back now.
Cheeks as red as the day you first kissed his knuckles after nationals. Tobio could only blink a few dozen times as it was hard enough to think of the right words when he was focused. Now his mind was leaving him at a million miles an hour and everything he'd rehearsed was for nothing in this very moment. All Tobio could think of was the hum of your lips against his. Comparing it to how he always imagined it would feel. And realizing now, it was so much better than that.
He swore he could see his reflection in your eyes. Quickly Tobio tried to recoup the plan he had made on the plane ride, "I just- Hold on ok- It's just- Ever since we were kids- I guess a long time- And being in Germany- It feels weird away- I love it but it doesn't feel completely right- I came back to see you and- I didn't mean it exactly like-"
"I love you too." The words swelled in your chest like a school girl. Here you were in your twenties confessing like a fool. Somehow it felt better than keep it all in these years. You find more to go along with just blurting that out like he did, "I mean- I think I've known for a while- A long while. This feeling, I don't know a lot of things I guess since I don't travel the world like you. Even when you were so far away I couldn't shake this-"
All over again and for only the third time in a lifetime. Tobio leaned in and kissed you. Practice making perfect with him like always. This time his hands found yours to squeeze them tight. Fingers wrapping around your palms with the warm of them taking over your hands.
Tobio was slow. He waited an entire plan ride plus almost a decade to do this. Through break downs or break throughs, your lips lit up more in him than anything your name in his contacts could ever do.
127 notes · View notes
lilcoffeecup · 3 years
Text
Late night coffee and confessions
This is my entry for the fluff/angst Maribat April. This is the fluff piece to @onlyganymede-maribatedition‘s angst piece with the prompt of “I think I love you; You think?!” their fic was really good, I definitely would recommend checking it out. I’m really sorry for posting this late and for the short length but I hope it turned out okay. Enjoy :) @maribat-angst-fluff-april
Marinette had recently moved to Gotham a few weeks ago, after the disaster that was Paris, she had needed a fresh new start and Gotham was that for her. Growing up in a bakery, she wanted to keep a small piece of her past with her and that’s how she ended up becoming a barista at Café Levant. It was a small café, but the manager Micheal and fellow barista, Sera were both good people and made her feel not so alone in Gotham especially during the dreaded night shift.
Tim had always frequented to Café Levant when he wanted his coffee fix at 4am these days since Dick, Bruce, even the whole floor was trying to get him coffee dry, the traitors. Thought it was a nice walk and he always got himself a little a little treat and of course his love, his life, coffee. W.E was a little far away from Café Levant but worth the walk with the delicious chocolate croissants that were baked fresh daily there, and the nice baristas there even gave him the leftovers if there were any occasionally.
Just as Tim was walking in for his late night/early morning coffee fix while almost walking into the door, one of the newer baristas was making brewing a fresh pot. Marinette was her name; Tim was reminded by her a quick glance at her nametag and for a second Tim thought he was looking at a female version of him.  With her having the same expression as his on her face, of not having had sleep in over a week, and of just being so done with everything that all that mattered was finishing the task at hand then passing out for a couple days.
Pouring the coffee into what looked to be a very large cup, and taking a long sip, Tim waited to place his order. “No offense but I’m not gonna greet you with the way too chipper ‘welcome to café levant bs’ because honestly its way too early to have to deal with that, for both you and me. So just tell me your order and wait right there for me to gather enough braincells to make your drink.” Marinette said pointed to a little further from the order station with a card name card type of tag saying ‘pickup’s’.
Tim blinked for a few seconds then seemed to become somewhat coherent again “Uhhh, can I have the darkest roast coffee please?” It was Marinette’s turn to blink, as far as she knew, she was the only one able to stomach the darkest roast that they had and everyone else ended up saying that they couldn’t except for that one guy the others had told her about. “Are you sure about that? Almost no one is able to stomach that, weaklings” Mariette ended up muttering at the end. “Yeah, I’m sure, and as large as you have with as many espresso shots as legal” Now Marinette’s mind was spinning and not just the 4am spinning, no like actually spinning because “if you want to copy my order then go ahead, it’s your funeral”
Just as Tim was about to reply, Riddler burst through the doors carrying a gun in his hand, “Give me all your money, c’mon empty the register NOW”. Marinette didn’t look the least bit frightened though she did look like she wanted to punch someone. Tim realized that the other two workers had stepped back, and so did he since he wasn’t Red Robin right now but Tim Drake-Wayne.
“Do you honestly have nothing better to do right now then rob a small-time café? And, rude much, I was clearly talking to a zombie like myself here and you just had to go and burst through the doors as if I would care” Marinette ended up saying in a bored tone while looking for a frying pan to smack Riddler over the head with. After successfully finding what she was looking for, she nodded her head in the direction of the back-area of the café to Tim “Just head on in there with Sera and Michael, I’ll be with you again in a moment”
For the second time since Tim had entered the small café today, Tim was almost sure that this was all a dream and not reality. Logically speaking, how would a petite little seemingly French not that he wouldn’t look her up on the Bat-computer later would be able to take on Riddler. Before he could protest though, he was ushered into the back by the 2 other workers and when inside and looking at his somewhat concerned face, started snickering “Don’t worry about little Mari, she packs more of a punch than one would think”.
A few minutes later, Marinette walked in with a half-conscious but fully terrified Riddler tied up screaming “Look at what you did! You made me drop some of my precious nectar, my coffee, you monster.” Riddler ended up blubbering “I’m sorry okay! I’m sorry! I’ll never rob this café again! Just please, please don’t hit me with your coffee pot, it hurts.” When she saw Tim’s still concerned look, she gave a glance at her co-workers and when they simply shrugged and started to walk back to the front of the shop to go back to what they were doing she ushered him back to the front
“Are you okay?”, Tim was simply shocked “Am I okay? I wasn’t the one who took down the Riddler, are you okay?”. “Yeah, I’m fine just kind of lost a piece of me with my spilt coffee” “Mood.”
“Anyways, here is your order, I made it just like mine so be careful, it packs a big kick” Tim took a sip “Oh my god! I think I’m in love, you are, hands-down, my new favourite barista! This reminds me of the coffee I used to be able to have before those traitors betrayed me and tried to get me coffee dry” Tim didn’t know if it was just him, but he thought Marinette’s eyes twinkled a little more after that. “Oof, that’s tough, my parents back home tried the same and let’s just say when they were unsuccessful, they didn’t bother trying again” “Don’t worry, I would be a hypocrite if I tried to tame your coffee intake because I’m the same”. Both Tim and Marinette ended up talking throughout the night, and both felt a spark. Marinette didn’t want to seem as pushing herself onto Tim and Tim didn’t know if Marinette would feel the same. In the end, when Tim was just about to leave, he gathered up all his courage and internally said goodbye to the amazing coffee and café if this ended up going south, then decided to say it because he didn’t want the night to end, he didn’t want to leave her. Marinette, seeing that Tim was meaning to say something hoped that it was what she wanted to hear.
“I think I love you”
“You think?!”
~fin.
89 notes · View notes
fairyhee · 3 years
Text
Chocolate eclairs (pt.1)
“Aren’t you a Valentine’s day hater, though?”
“Only because I don’t have a date and I’m bitter about it, but you can change that.”
🍫optional bias x reader (h/n means his name)
🍫enemies to lovers, kinda slow burn?, flirting (smut in pt.2)
🍫inspired by: 5sos-valentine
[I know Valentine’s Day has already passed but I got this idea while daydreaming a few days ago and I couldn’t help myself. And also maybe I love this made-up celebration a bit too much and I don’t want to accept it’s over. If you dislike cheesy stuff this might not be for you lmao]
When it comes to Valentine’s, people are always either hardcore fans or hardcore haters. While you were definitely part of the first category, you just couldn’t understand how anyone can dislike a celebration that’s meant to spread love. And also, the pretty lingerie, the sweets, the champagne and the sex, hello?? You would have them any day of the year if you could. And if you had someone to celebrate with, in the first place.
As for people in the other category, they could hate it all they want but in your eyes they were probably just painfully single. Not that you weren’t, but you never wanted to let that spoil the fun. So what if you were single? What one can do with a partner, you could very well do on your own. So every year you made plans to do everything you wanted, but on a solo date instead of with somebody else. Love yourself first, right?
So on the morning of february 14th, after you were done with your self-pampering ritual, you stepped out for coffee and pancakes. The plan was that after breakfast, you would stop by the lingerie store and treat yourself to a nice set, then buy some sweets from the french bakery, then go home and get all dolled up for the evening, when you had reserved a table at a pink-themed restaurant, beautifully situated on the top floor of one of the highest buildings in your town. It was definitely among the most popular spots for that day, but you couldn’t care less that you were going by yourself. You could have gone with one of your girl friends, if they weren’t all already taken and spending the day “watching netflix”.
Thinking about the peaceful day that was ahead of you, you had almost reached your first destination. Your favorite cafe held an event today and served red pancakes with chocolate hearts as a special menu, as well as v-day themed coffee cups that you couldn’t wait to take photos of. As you entered the cafe, you spotted a familiar silhouette by the counter. He didn’t have to turn around for you to confirm it was him, because as soon as you heard him order his ice americano, your perfect day was already ruined. It was h/n. 
Instead of saying hi, you groaned as you approached the counter. “Who drinks iced coffee in february? You have serious issues.”
He turned around, seemingly suprised to see you at first, but he quickly got to back to his usual self. “Only cool people can drink iced coffee, you wouldn’t understand. And also, a ‘good morning’ would have been enough.”
“It was good until I saw you, so now I can’t say that anymore, can I?” you said while scanning the menu. “One rose lemonade and the special strawberry pancakes with fresh cream, please.”
From where he was standing, you heard a dramatic gasp. “How can you tell me I have issues when you ingest so much sugar from this early in the day? If this is what you have for breakfast, what the hell are you having for dinner?” You wanted to slap that overly exaggerated shocked expression off his face.
“None of your fucking business. Now if you don’t mind I’m gonna walk to my table and go on with my day. If I spend another minute with you I’m afraid it might turn bitter and cold, like you and your beloved americano.”
You were beyond irritated that you had to put up with his shit today, too. You had met h/n at a party during university because of a mutual friend, and you immediately found out you had absolutely nothing in common, except both wanting to excel in your field and to be right at all times. Both of you had strong opinions and just wouldn’t back down. Every time you met, your personalities clashed, and the useless arguments and snarky remarks wouldn’t stop coming. It certainly didn’t help that he was so handsome and so good at what he did (he was a singer in a band) and that everyone else always complimented and admired him, because that made his ego grow and everything just annoyed you even more. Handsome boys always had to be over-confident and you hated that with a passion. The worst part was that he had every right to be confident, but you would never admit that. You weren’t sure what his opinion was of you but you didn’t care to know.
While you were sat at your table, scrolling through your phone and trying to block the previous conversation from re-entering your mind, he just casually sat down across from you at the table, putting down not one, but two iced americanos.
For a few seconds you stared at him blankly. “Can I know what the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m gonna try to convince you that americano is the best coffee.”
“Ha, nice try. What makes you think I would even try it? It’s way too cold outside to drink. Haven’t I told you I don’t want bitterness in my life?”
He smirked. “I asked the barista to put 3 pumps of sugar syrup in it so it can be at least remotely drinkable for you. You will also need someone to watch over you, since I expect you to have a heart attack from all the sweetness, so, before you ask me to, no, I don’t want to leave your drink here and fuck off. So since you’ll be stuck with me until you finish your breakfast, tell me, what have I done to make you dislike me so much?” he placed his chin on his left hand and took a sip of his americano. “I’m curious.” rather than annoyed with you, he looked rather playful.
“Wow, you seem to be having a lot of fun interrupting my day. Glad at least one of us is having a good time. If you want me to touch that drink, you better take out at least half of that amount of ice cubes. After that, we can talk.”
You didn’t expect him to actually do what you said, but he stood up without a word and slowly walked to the counter to ask the barista to fix it. He was so tall, that the strings of the heart shaped helium balloons that were floating around the ceiling reached his eyes, so he walked around the cafe shielding his face with his hand. Why did you find that cute all of a sudden? It’s like you had just realized that his height was very attractive to you. When he turned around, you were smiling at him.
He gave you a wide-eyed look while he was placing your drink down for the second time. “Now you’re smiling at me? Did the sugar from those pancakes get to your brain already?”
“It’s just kinda funny seeing you between all those heart-shaped pink balloons after our last argument.” He had argued that all these holidays, like Halloween, V-day, Mother’s day and so on are made up for purely capitalist purposes and people who celebrate just feed into the consumerism. Besides, his social media posts had appeared on your feed the other day, because he had shared a bunch of memes poking fun at the cheesy traditions. “So what are you doing here today anyway, I thought you were a Valentine’s day hater?” 
“Only because I don’t have a date and I’m bitter about it, like you said. But you can change that.”
You quickly looked up from your plate to check for any sign that he’s joking, but he definitely wasn’t laughing. His eyebrow was cocked up and an annoying smirk was planted on his face. He looked so hot, it was absurd.
His proposal, combined with your own thoughts, made you burst into laughter. You were annoyed at the fact that you were considering it. “Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself? Of course I can change that, but do you really think I will?” you asked ironically. You took a sip of the iced americano, hoping it would cool down your brain and help you think straight again.
He smiled. “I don’t know, but the fact that I just made you laugh is a good sign. Also,” he said pointing at the coffee, “you just drank that and didn’t complain. You just accepted my drink and I got you convinced it’s not bad, both at the same time. That’s three wins in a row for me.”
Shit, he was right.
“I love it when you talk back to me, so I’m almost feeling sorry I left you without any comeback to that.”, he laughed. “So what other plans do you have today? What else do I have to try to ruin?”
“Oh, just a bunch of uninteresting things. I’m sure a self-proclaimed cool dude like yourself would be bored just hearing about it.” That was it. Your defense had fallen, you were actually starting to like him, but you still wouldn’t admit it, so now you were adamant to prove you were completely uninterested in him and he didn’t affect you even in the slightest. You were even willing to accept him tagging along when you went shopping if he wanted. Half because you wanted to spend more time with him without actually accepting his half-hearted date proposal, and half because you wanted him to think you don’t care even if he tries to bother you.
“Well, I don’t have anything better to do today. You asked me what I’m doing here, I actually simply came to get coffee. So do you mind if I come with you? Annoying you is more fun than doing nothing on a sunday.” 
Perfect, you thought. You fake-rolled your eyes. “Whatever. You’ve already ruined my day, it can’t get worse no matter how much you’ll talk. Let’s go shopping, I know men are absolutely crazy over this activity, so let’s see how much fun you’ll have there.”
“Try me.” he said while finishing his drink. 
You smiled and, having finished your breakfast, you stood up.“You might want to have another americano to-go, to keep you from getting tainted with my sweetness. Get up, we’re going to buy chocolate eclairs.”
...
part 2
153 notes · View notes
cherryonigiri · 4 years
Text
S/O that thirsts over anime/game guys
reposted bc wasn’t showing up in the tags + I want to keep nsfw under the cut
@nononononojustno asked: Okay so could you write a headcanon where 2 random boys (can you pick then? I love all of boys from hq) and Ushi-kun where they walk on their gfs fangirling or thirsting over another anime/game character?And she was talking how hot he is? How they would react?👀😂 have a great day/night and dont forget to eat and get rest, love you💕
A/N: hahahahaha i laughed while writing this. FYI these are all based on legit crushes i had on anime/game characters at some point in my life - see if you’ve watched the shows i’ve watched :) ILY I PROMISE I’M DOING MY BEST TO EAT THREE MEALS A DAY AND GET ADEQUATE SLEEP MWAH. also i went overboard and added an extra boy bc why not. These are a little shorter since there were 4 characters but I hope you enjoy!
Content warning: implied nsfw for Atsumu + slight nsfw hcs for Matsukawa (both are under the cut)
PS: If anyone wants a spicy sequel/one shot for matsukawa i’m open to the idea 👀👀 let me know in my inbox!
Ushijima Wakatoshi
Ushijima definitely knows you’re into anime + games
Having visited your dorm room on multiple occasions he’s seen your extensive collection of manga, anime posters and you always seem to be playing on your switch whenever you have free time
Of course, he notices a significant portion of your collection is centered on male characters
And you’ve definitely mentioned a few games to him - Ikemen Sengoku, Code:Realize, Hakuouki (wow i’m really out here exposing myself) etc.
He doesn’t really mind though? Like - at the end of the day these are 2D men, whereas he is a very real boyfriend
At least he thinks he doesn’t mind
Recently, he notices that you seem to be on your phone a lot, and you seem to be texting the same group chat very often
He asks why and you laugh - it’s not actual text messages you’re just trying out a new otome/simulation game called Mystic Messenger. He finds the name silly but he just brushes it off he’s definitely J E A L O U S
Until one day he walks into your room while you’re calling one of your friends to freak out about that specific game
You sound kind of teary from outside the door “Oh MY GOD OH MY GOD I GOT THE GOOD ENDING WITH JUMIN!” and “[friend name] I THINK I CAN DIE HAPPY I’M MARRIED TO JUMIN HAN WHAT MORE DO I NEED IN LIFE” and “HE’S SO FREAKING ATTRACTIVE UGH I AM BLESSED”
He’s like who TF is Jumin and immediately bursts into your room looking pissed off
Poor babie is all like “you’re married?” and “if you had someone else you were interested in you should have told me.” “Who is this Jumin Han???” 🧐
Oh my god you start cackling, but you manage to tell him that NO you are not married and that Jumin Han is a fictional character from the game you’re playing
Ushijima looks confused after you explain - why would you find fictional men attractive when you’re already dating him?
Tendou almost dies laughing the next day when Ushijima tells him about what happened
Oikawa Tooru
Since practice finishes pretty late he usually goes to see you at your house at night, but tonight things wrapped up earlier - he’s excited to spend more time with you
You’ve finished up most of your homework so you’ve just been rewatching Attack on Titan since you’re super excited for the new season
You’re kinda distracted/have headphones on so you don’t hear your boyfriend knock on the front door. Your mom answers it and lets him in and he climbs the stairs
He can hear your fangirling (freaking out) over something as he walks towards your room
You jump in surprise when he opens the door, because you thought he would be a bit later but immediately release your pent up excitement
“Tooru just LOOK at him he’s such a bad ass like oh my gosh he literally has swords and he’s still running around slaying the MPs who have guns. God whenever he gets angry he looks so hot,” etc. etc.
You’re shoving your laptop in his face, showing him gifs and video of attack on titan, specifically the captain of the survey corps that you are obsessed with
Tooru gets it - for him its space, shitty alien films and astronomy. For you it’s video games and anime - or more specifically, handsome characters from said franchises
Even though he understand that it’s something you’re passionate about he still makes a whole show about whining how you’re in love with Levi Ackerman (lmao i still thirst over our favorite captain) instead of him
“y/n i’m taller than him! And more handsome! He has blood on him all the time! And he’s super annoying because he’s obsessed with cleaning.” *cue pouty Tooru*
You probably shouldn’t tell him that you are an avid follower of the levi x reader tag on tumblr
Tooru still somehow finds out you’re also reading reader insert fanfic and goes BERSERK with his pouting and whining - literally everyone and their mothers have heard his sob story about how “his darling y/n is leaving me for a short germaphobic asshole”
The rest of the team finds it hilarious - the end up pranking him by posting pictures of Levi in his school locker or texting them in the volleyball groupchat (Oikawa is Suffering™)
Makki and Mattsun get him a Levi keychain for his birthday and cackle when he chucks it violently into the nearest trash can
Miya Atsumu
Doesn’t really know you’re into anime/gaming at first
I don’t think that’s on purpose - Atsumu just has such a one track mind when it comes to volleyball and he’s always busy with practice
so he just kinda doesn’t really give all the anime merch in your room a second glance even though it’s a dead giveaway
I bet Atsumu secretly watches some superhero anime - probably shounen stuff like My Hero Academia, one punch man etc.
He probably starts to notice you’re into anime/games because you’ll play games on your phone/gaming device all the time
One day he notices you’re giggling + blushing while looking at your screen. He’s curious to he heads over to you when coach says they can have a break
Peeks over your shoulder because he wants to know what you’re playing - but instead he’s greeted by some 2D samurai guy called Harada Sanosuke asking you to marry him
“Huh, I didn’t know you were into this kinda stuff y/n” tries to sound playful but internally he is screaming / ?????? WOT I DIDN’T KNOW MY S/O WAS INTO OTOME GAMES
Atsumus pretty chill about it at first, he probably teases you a lot about playing the game but isn’t really bugged about it
“Maybe you should thirst over your boyfriend instead of a fictional character babe~”
I mean - he knows he’s attractive and why be jealous? You only really play the game when he’s busy and you don’t really let the game play seep into your dates/hangouts
But one time he walks in on you reading some ~spicy~ hakuouki x reader fanfic and he’s like are u serious
Like you were lowkey quiet screaming to yourself and muttering “omg omg omg” when he walked in and you definitely tried to close your laptop so he couldn’t see what was open in your browser
Too bad Atsumu has mad reflexes and manages to prevent you from making your computer go to sleep
Briefly skims whatever it was that you were reading and smirks at you
“Hey, if you really want something like this, why don’t you let your real boyfriend deliver” before kissing you
Matsukawa Issei
Look, Issei just wants a chill movie/tv show night where the two of you can bundle up on the couch and binge whatever anime you feel like
Has everything set up - this man is ready to go: snacks? he has all of your favorites, couch? filled with soft pillows + multiple pillows. Attire? Comfy sweatpants shirtless 🥵
Last time he chose the series for your binge sleepover so he let you choose what the two of you were gonna watch this time
Turns out you decided to watch Psycho-Pass - it seemed like a pretty cool show, he was down with the whole dystopia/psychological concept
Starts out pretty normal, is appreciating the action + mystery elements and is glad that you chose that show
About halfway through the anime you two decide to take a break - he goes to the kitchen to refill your snacks, leaving to stretch you back.
When he comes back with more food, he notices that you’re hunched over your phone, typing something
He sneaks up behind you after he puts the food down, “Whatcha reading there babe?” You squeak and try to hide your phone, but not before he sees the words kougami x reader typed into your tumblr search bar
Lit-rally exCuSE me what - he’s not mad (more amused than anything else) but he also kind wants to tease you (bc Mattsun is a little shit)
“Is that the reason you wanted to watch this show?” he asks playfully. “He’s pretty hot tho, I kinda agree with you there babe.”
Now that he’s released the floodgate, he can’t stop your occasional comments like “omg how does he look so GOOD when he’s punching someone” or “he could shoot me with his dominator and i’d still say thank you”
The thirst comments are kinda getting to him, so he decides to take things in a different direction
“Let me what I can show you with my dominator~” L M A O I’M SORRY THIS EXISTS
Suddenly you’re being pulled onto his lap, and pressed against his bare chest, Issei barely gives you time to adjust before he’s kissing you roughly, tongue plunging into your mouth
His hands wrap around your hips pressing your core closer to his own, and you can feel his hard-on pressing into your stomach
He’ll be sure to suck a dark hickey onto the side of your neck and his hands travel under your shirt, just to remind you who your real boyfriend is
Needless to say, you won’t remember a single thing about the second half of the show after the night is over couch sex? Couch sex 😏
897 notes · View notes
knchins · 3 years
Text
Bad Day - Shinsou H.
Tumblr media
Summary: Shinsou can always sense when you're having a bad day. Good thing he knows exactly how to cheer you up.
Pairing: Shinsou Hitoshi x Fem!Reader
Rating: E
Word Count: 1.6k
Warnings: AGED UP CHARACTERS, c*nnilingus/oral, v*ginal fingering/s3x, consensual quirk usage/mind control, squirting, comfort (w/o hurt), pet names, some praise k!nk, fluffy ending
Notes: This was for a request but I realize now the person is no longer following me. Probably should have checked that before writing this lmfao. Oh well, it happens and no hard feelings. I hope everyone enjoys this piece anyway.
 Hitoshi could always sense when you were having a bad day, even as he did surveillance around the beat that the agency had assigned him to that day. It was a nagging little voice in the back of his head telling him that something was wrong with his girl. Maybe you were stressed about work or got some bad news. Whatever it was, the profound bond between the two of you had him already knowing the best ways to cheer you up after he clocked out for the day.
 When he got home, he found you moping on the couch. He couldn’t help but smile at just how well he knew you. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
 You mumbled something inherently into the cushions of the couch, a mistake as he immediately used his quirk to have you sitting up. “You should really use your words, kitten.” He joked as he released you from his hold.
 You pouted at him softly, “Bad day.” You mumbled, “I just want to crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of the week.”
 He tutted as he kicked off his boots, “Can’t have you doing that now, can we?” His eyes locked in on you, looking like a wildcat that had just found his prey. “Want me to make you feel better?”
 The open invitation had you squirming already. You knew what he was asking for: further consent to give him control over your body. Of course sometimes things in the bedroom could be tricky when he used his quick. You couldn’t use a safe word or motion when he had control over your body, but that just meant that he had to keep your trust. Despite putting yourself in a situation that could potentially be dangerous with anyone else, a villain perhaps, you knew that you were completely safe in Shinsou’s care. Sometimes not having control over yourself was the best type of relief.
 “Yes, please,” You replied with a grateful look on your face as he once more overcame your mind with his quirk. Shinsou had you stand and walk into the bedroom as he followed with a satisfied smile on his face. He had you undress before laying down on your back.
 He peeled off his shirt and tugged down his pants so he was left in boxer briefs before settling between your legs. He looked up at you, again looking like a predator ready to pounce.
 He placed tender kisses on your inner left thigh as he forced you to watch him work. Your legs spread as far as they’d possibly go for him, putting your pussy on display for him. Despite all the things he could do with his quirk, making you aroused was not one of them. He had to do that naturally, which he didn’t mind at all. Warming you up was the best part of sex for him. It always had been.
 Now as he took two fingers to spread your labia apart, you could feel the subtle heat growing. The need for his touch, be it his fingers or his tongue. Anything against your clit right now would be heaven. Shinsou seemed to know this as he blew onto the nerve bundle to elicit a reaction.
 You only realized that he had released his hold on you when you were able to whine with need. Your hand went to the back of his head of unruly purple hair and forced his mouth to your lips, grinding on his face desperately as he chuckled into your folds.
 Of course, he could have easily punished you for doing such a dirty thing but he knew better than to be mean to you right now. Using his superior strength he lifted his head away from you, nose and chin dabbled with evidence of your arousal now. “And here I thought you could behave, Kitten. Are you ready to listen?”
 Another pout formed on your lips as you mumbled a response, “yes…” As soon as the words left your lips you were anchored to the bed again, but he did not have you move your hand. Instead he had you press his face back into you once more as he lapped at your neglected clit, rolling it with tongue and sucking on it hard enough to make tears spring to your eyes.
 Despite having control over you, he didn’t want you to simply just lay there. He enjoyed you being an active participant, even if he was the one making you do it. He had your hips rolling against him, nails digging into his scalp, and when he granted you the use of your mouth and vocal chords he had you moaning for him too.
 Shinsou easily slipped in two fingers into your hole, pumping them in and out at a feverish pace. He built a solid rhythm between the use of his body and yours. That tight coil of pleasure quickly wound itself in your lower belly, pressure building before finally releasing in one orgasmic rush of euphoria.
 He worked you through the high with kitten licks and gentle thrusts of his fingers until you were breathing at an even rate again. He pulled away from you long enough to take off his underwear and sit down on the bed with his back to the headboard. He then had you move to straddle him, hand on his shoulders for support as you hovered over his standing erection.
 His hands ran up and down your sides playfully, knowing fully well that you wanted nothing more than to be seated down on top of him with his cock bottomed out inside of you, but he held you there in place with a triumphant smirk on his face. “You still want me to have control, baby?” He asked, once again letting you go.
 Instead of answering you forced yourself downwards, allowing his tip to slip into your pussy at last. Shinsou was laughing at your impatience, giving a shallow thrust upwards as you sank down further. Your eyes rolled, head tilted back as your hips rocked slowly. “I’ll take that as a no.” He said, grabbing onto your hips to keep them steady as he began to pound up into you, knowing the exact pace that had you crying for more.
 “Hi-Hitoshi,” you moaned for him, the sound music to his ears. Your nails were digging into the flesh of his muscular shoulders, creating small half-moons. The small biting pain of your grip just spurring him on.
 “Look how good you’re taking my cock, kitten.” He cooed into your ear. “You’re just the perfect little cocksleeve, aren’t you? I’m gonna make you feel so fucking good.”
 He adjusted his position, pushing you back onto your back as he moved forward on top of you, never ceasing his rhythm as he forced your knees back onto the bed, forcing you into a mating press. The new angle allowed his cock to brush against that special spot inside of you, stimulating it relentlessly.
 You cried out for him, toes curling as in increased his pace. Shinsou grunted, driving into you even harder as he felt himself nearing his climax. He looked down at you, “Do you trust me, kitten?”
 “Y-yes,” You choked out, allowing him to wash over your mind as everything seemed to just go numb. Your body was like a rag-doll, moving without any sort of restraint. He pressed his thumb to your engorged clit, rubbing a few small tight circles as he forced an orgasm upon you through both his quirk and his ministrations.
 A clear stream of ejaculate sprayed both of you, coating your lower abdomens as you continued to come undone. Your second orgasm was much more powerful than your first, your walls tightening around Shinsou’s cock in a way that had him cumming as well. Your cunt milked him for all he was worth as he panted and released your mind once more.
 “Do you feel better now, princess?” He asked as he pulled out of you and rested your legs down on the now soaked bed. You nodded your head, mind still fuzzy from the afterglow of such a powerful orgasm. “I’m gonna run a bath for you before cleaning this up, okay? Just lay here and rest for a moment.”
 Shinsou got off of the bed and went into the bathroom, running a hot bath with bubbles before helping you inside the tub. You sank down into the inviting water, closing your eyes and letting out a sigh of relief. “Can you join me?”
 He looked taken aback, not expecting you to be so in need of his touch still. Sometimes you preferred to be left alone in the bath, but on the rare occasion you did want company. He grinned, “Let me take care of the sheets first.”
 You nodded and waited a few minutes as he gathered the soiled sheets and threw them into the washing machine. He then came back into the bathroom and slid in behind you, pulling you to his chest and resting his head on top of yours. “Are you going to tell me what had you so down earlier?” He asked one you were both finally settled.
 You told him about the awful day you had, where everything just seemed to go wrong. He listened thoughtfully, never interrupting. He simply let you vent out your frustrations until there was nothing left to say. “Well, tomorrow is a new day.” He said, kissing the crown of your head. “I’m sure it’ll turn out better. Just stay in the moment with me. We can watch a movie or something and pass out on the couch together.”
 “I love you, Hitoshi.” You mumbled appreciatively. He always knew how to cheer you up.
 He nuzzled his nose into your hair as he laughed softly, “I love you too, kitten.”
Tumblr media
Masterlist and Request Rules are linked in pinned navigation!
You can join my permanent tag list for this fandom or more by filling out my new tag list form! Link can be found on my pinned navigation post!
178 notes · View notes
steve0discusses · 3 years
Text
S5 Ep 15 Pt 2: Don’t Trust Anyone Who Wears a Floor Length Robe Over Their Casuals in Yugioh
Hey, it’s my birthday, so I’m gonna release this early because the rest of today I just have to work like an adult and that’s no fun.
In the first half of this episode we dunked the worlds smallest plane into a lake and so this second half of the episode involved the kids running as far away from their only responsible adults as they could.
Tumblr media
Which like...took whole of less than a second for them to peace out and enter mortal danger.
...I’ve never been in a jungle in India but...I have seen the Jungle book many times...and there’s like tigers and stuff in there, right? and tons of monkeys that are hella mean? And freakin snakes? They sing jazz and scat? That’s some terrifying stuff.
Like these city kids have to learn at some point to fear the woods. But they just freakin don’t. And strangely, the most dangerous thing in these woods isn’t even a snake or something, but a human man just being as suspicious as possible lying prone on the ground.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
(read more under the cut)
The card cultist happens to have a British accent, because this voice acting team freakin loves to pull out their British accents. It’s not as lowbrow as Valon, but it’s not as...well whatever Bakura is supposed to be. He’s a lot more tame than Bakura’s, but still very British.
I don’t know if this is because British English tends to be taught instead of American sounding English in many parts of India, but, most likely they just wanted to do an accent. And like...he’s an archeologist...and so the stereotype is there...but honestly, the decision of making this guy British gets weirder and weirder as this episode goes on, get ready for it. None of you are ready for what I assume is the very obvious plot twist of this freakin guy.
Catfish of the century, this freakin guy, I’m pretty sure.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Yugi immediately believes this completely out of place white British stranger in the Indian backwoods next to this inaccessible lake and immediately thinks “yes, my Grandfather crash landed in India EXACTLY where I’m standing right now, and now I must save him.”
Thankfully, Yami exists to gently and politely tell Yugi to hella stop.
Tumblr media
Also, I like that Yugi has finally stopped wearing his school outfit out of school. But, he is instead wearing a jacket that is so close to his school outfit I honestly couldn’t tell until the end of this episode. It’s like...I think one shade more purple, it has white piping, and his undershirt has a center seam. It’s nice Yugi has 3 versions of the same black sleeveless undershirt, and this show cares enough to show that tiny factoid about Yugi’s closet.
So, because Yugi is a dumbass and Pharaoh has to just sit back and watch this happen so he can say “told you so” later, they follow this random cultist they found in the woods. Much like Hansel and Gretel, we snack on cake crumbs all the way to the witches house, which in this case, is an undiscovered monolith you would have easily seen from outer space.
Tumblr media
HMMMMMMMMMM.
Tumblr media
And so get ready for this:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Hey guys.
Remember how Alexander the great was buried in a pyramid?
Now because they’re name dropping Alexander, that’s actually kind of helpful, because Alexander the Great’s favorite damn horse in the entire world died while he was at war with India so he named a city after it. It’s believed to be in Punjab, which is in the Northern part of India
Tumblr media
Which means we first of all, definitely crossed the tallest mountain range in the world to get here, and also means that we are like...in some really disputed territory of India right now, and it is crazy that these kids went here for a vacation completely unsupervised.
Another fun fact about Alexander is that when he died, it took 6 days for his body to decompose. At the time, they thought it was because he was a God (or in Yugioh’s case, Extremely Cursed) but nowadays historians think it’s because it took him 6 days to fully die. He just wasn’t dead yet. Had to give it a minute and the ancient Babylonians just got way too excited.
Anyway, Alexander super died in Babylon so I don’t know what the hell he’s doing in India. There is a fun spot in History where his body did get dragged to a couple different places, meaning we probably did lose the original Alexander and there’s a lot of people just guessing at where he ended up...but putting him clear up in India sure was a choice when one of his assumed burial sites was literally Egypt, which would be a more fitting location for a Pyramid and a more fitting location for this show.
Especially since Alexander was trying to invent a new race and culture...it seems a little strange he’d be buried in such a massive pyramid, but maybe he got a really, really good pyramid deal from the funeral home when he was like 28 and just figured he’d change it before the time he died at 32.
Which...now that I’m older than 32, how crazy is it that Alexander the Great died at freakin 32? You blink twice and you’re 32. Is history seriously trying to tell me this guy wasn’t like secretly 62? That maybe he just celebrated his 20th for like 20 years in a row as a royal mandate? I just feel like history is playing pranks on me with Alexander.
Anyway, our weird shady new archeologist guy is named Alex and so take that as you will.
Tumblr media
I sure hope Alexander the Great was revived to wear khakis and bother children. Guy conquered the world once and was one of history’s Freakin Worst so he does deserve it, but also...it would explain why he thinks it’s normal to wear a Darth Maul robe over your business casual.
Anyway, lets enter the obvious trap pyramid.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Joey just wanted a nice time running around Northern India. He just wanted to eat some yummy chaat and look at some tourist destinations and maybe glance at a Bollywood star or two. But instead he’s gotta deal with spike floors because Yugi couldn’t say no to a cultist.
Also...one of those spikes clearly went through Tea’s feet, right? And she is absolutely fine? Just checking on Tea’s godlike strength and clearly it is still godlike.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Alex gives us a very long explanation of how he went upstairs and Grandpa went downstairs, and there was a door or something so Alex turned back around and Grandpa was gone.
All of those steps were probably plot relevant and I’ll probably forget all about it in 2 episodes.
Tumblr media
The thing is Alex...literally thinks he evaporated. Literally thinks that. But how do you disprove it to this freakin guy who like...might have named a city after his horse once and thinks that’s a normal and acceptable thing to do?
Tumblr media
and so Joey immediately leaps onto the haunted playing floor.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
the way Yugi said this line was sort of hilarious to me so I may cap it. If I remember to do it (I’ve been a little busier lately, with things opening up, as you can tell because my update schedule is in the toilet.)
So, if Joey jumps in...everyone else has to, also.
Tumblr media
And we say good bye to Alex and enter the new forest zone, which looks a LOT like the other forest we were just in.
Tumblr media
Nice Protoss armor.
Tumblr media
We get some hijinks from the local wildlife, which are all cards but real (but not real because we’re in a board game...don’t think about it) and the off brand Sheikah tablets have helpful monsters in them if you touch em.
This season may have been better off as a video game, being honest.
Tumblr media
Joey has gone somewhere else, despite going onto the same game tile, and he’s too busy on a mountain range to really help anyone out. So he’s just gonna vibe up here for a bit.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Tea got up after this point and said along the lines of “k, what’s next?” Because mortal danger does not affect her and she fears nothing.
At a beach somewhere, Tea and Tristan spend some quality time together forming a new family with whatever these creatures are.
Tumblr media
And Tea’s love of her winged angel comes full circle and now I will suffer this winged orb for the rest of this arc, pretty sure.
Please admire the number of belts on Tea. Her outfit is like max 00′s and I appreciate that. We’ve had a lot of questionable fashion on Yugioh, but they actually dressed Tea pretty on point this arc. Like I often feel like 00′s fashion is hard to define or describe, but it’s Tea right now. That’s it. She did it, it’s right there.
Tumblr media
Yugi gets a new flagship card for this arc, and this time it’s Celtic Guardian. Hell why? I feel like his defining card changes every single arc, and they need to like focus and just give him one. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s still Dark Magician...and maybe the show forgot?
Anyway, if you just got here, this is a link to read the rest:
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
I think I forgot that link in the last recap because yo it’s kind of been a while since I’ve updated, I feel. (well I had a graveyard post and those don’t count really) But, we’re back, we’re still going, slowly but surely.
35 notes · View notes
torielectra83 · 3 years
Text
Garak and the Jack Pack
Want to thank
@volixia669
for giving me the idea and motivation; this is the first fic I've posted and finished in quite a while. Also gonna tag
@unicorn-and-bluebells
and
@tirlaeyn
since their DS9-related posts are what helped lead me to this (if there's a DS9-related Discord I should join, let me know); note that I'm not much of a shipper (and I'm ace), so I wasn't quite sure how to approach the Bashir/Garak relationship; I just left it in the background (and the lizard man t-shirt).
“Oh, Doctor. There you are, and I….see you’ve brought company!” As he could see, Dr. Bashir was heading for the Replimat for his typical luncheon with him, only four other people were crowded around him. A skinny man with a mustache, a stocky older man with a timid expression, a rather gregarious-looking woman, and another woman who looked rather distant. “Oh, hello Garak. I’d like to apologize for being a bit late.”
“Oh, don’t worry, given what I’m seeing it’s very much a valid excuse.” Garak had heard about the other genetically-engineered people who’d been sent to DS9 to meet Dr. Bashir, but he’d been busy with orders at his shop; he’d been thinking about hiring someone to help out, actually. “Well, that’s Jack, Patrick, Lauren and Sarina. This is my...friend Garak, he runs a tailoring shop here on the Promenade.” “Oh, hi there, Hi. Uh, I gotta go over to the replicator, I’m starving over here.” Jack promptly excused himself, while Lauren made her way to Garak next. “Well, hello, Mr. Garak.” She promptly began her flirtatious attitude. “If you’re trying to seduce me...it won’t work. I am sorry, but I do not generally do one night stands.” Surprised and somewhat disappointed, Lauren backed away.
Patrick then approached Garak. “Do you make clothes?” “Yes, I do.” Patrick then grinned eagerly. “Good, because the clothes the institute gives us are too...itchy and things like that. Do you have softer clothes?” “Well, I can certainly make some? I believe Dr. Bashir said you need “sensory-friendly” clothing?” Bashir nodded; the term was an old term from pre-warp Earth. “I’ll do it at no charge; anyone who’s a friend of Dr. Bashir is a friend of mine.” He sipped his Tarkalean tea as Jack argued with the replicator over not being able to make something, while Lauren used the other one to replicate a bowl of Vulcan plomeek soup.
“And… Sarina, is it? I’ve noticed you haven’t said anything yet.” Garak simply saw the young woman turn, before holding up a PADD, with words written on it -- “I can’t speak, If you want to have a conversation with me, use this.” She promptly set the PADD down and continued to watch Jack’s tussle with the computer. “Sarina’s unable to speak, I can explain the whole thing later Garak.” Julian felt the need to pre-emptlively apologize for their behavior. “Oh, you don’t need to. I’m seeing people with a lot of potential here.” Bashir nodded. “So do I. And not many others do. That’s why I brought them here. I want to try and help them.”
“They seem to be helping themselves.” As Garak watched, Jack had finally managed to get something from the replicator that agreed with his standards -- a ham sandwich with Bajoran mapa bread. “So, this is the irrefutable Elim Garak, huh?” Jack asked. “Yes, and I see my reputation precedes me.” Garak said politely. “That’s right. Former intelligence agent for the now-defunct Obsidian Order, exiled and now working as a tailor here on DS9.” He said hastily before ripping into his sandwich. Garak raised an eyebrow. “And how did you find that out?” He asked, a tone of interest in his voice. “Oh, you’d be surprised what you can dig up on the extranet. There’s all sorts of unsavory rumors about you, like you causing a Cardassian doctor to break down by staring at them for four hours straight.” He promptly chugged from his cup of targ milk, before continuing. “And that your father was the head of the Obsidian Order, Enabrian Tain, and he got wiped out by the Dominion when the Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar teamed up, yeah, but they didn’t know the second-in-command of the Tal Shiar was actually a Changeling leading them right into a trap!”
“I...think we will have to pick up this conversation sometime later, Doctor.” Garak was getting rather uncomfortable at all this private information being practically shouted in the Promenade. “Oh, and I’ll see what I can do about those new clothes you requested, Patrick.” As Garak walked back to his shop, getting his mind off old events, he began pondering about what to do in the present. My orders are backlogged. I simply need help. As he opened his shop doors to see the current state -- half-finished orders, bolts of fabric all over and supplies in crates he hadn’t unpacked. “I must find someone to help me. I would get Julian but he’s too busy with being in Starfleet.” Garak sighed, and began getting back to working on an order.
Some time later...
Having returned from the Defiant, Dr. Bashir went into Garak’s shop, expecting to see it as it had been for some time -- cluttered and filled with things Garak was working on. He instead found it a hive of activity. Customers were entering and exiting, some waiting for their orders, others were looking at holographic models of new clothes to order. Bashir looked around in confusion. “What the…'' Suddenly, a figure blocked by their holding of several bolts of fabric maneuvered into view. “Look out, everyone!” Bashir knew that voice. “Patrick?!” “Oh, hi, Dr. Bashir.” Patrick didn’t even turn back as he carried the bolts into the back of the shop. “Patrick, how did you get here?” Bashir followed him, and realized the entire “Jack Pack” (as someone, most likely Quark, had nicknamed them) was working there. Patrick set the bolts down for Jack, who proceeded to start measuring what exactly was needed for that order. Lauren was busy inputting data of some kind into a PADD, while Sarina was sewing an order up. “Ah, Doctor, good to see you’ve returned home safe and sound!” Garak greeted him cheerily from behind his desk.
“Garak, what is going on here? How did they…” “Well, Julian. I saw their potential and I needed help. And so far, they have been excelling at everything they’ve been doing. I haven’t been this efficient, ever!” Garak looked positively delighted at this. It was rare to see him like this, and Julian was a noted expert on Garak’s emotions. “But...what about the Institute? And Dr. Loews?” “Well, she needed a vacation, and my offer to give them steady employment was something she couldn’t pass up.”
“Oh, well then. But...how are you so busy now?” Julian wondered. “Well, their brightness led them to not only help clear my backorders, but also introduce whole new product lines based on pre-warp Earth stylings. I will admit I knew little about it, but they have brought in several new kinds of clothing. Like this ‘tee shirt’.” Garak promptly held one up, the front reading “WWCKD?” with a small line underneath reading “What Would Captain Kirk Do?” “They’ve come up with several of these things. Like this one for the USS Voyager.” The shirt had a fictional flyer on the front with a picture of Voyager, underneath a “Missing: Reward” banner as if it were a lost dog. “We’ve also re-created other Earth fashions, from “bell-bottoms” to “zoot suits”. I must admit, they make most current styles of clothing look downright boring!”
“Yeah, Dr. Bashir! Here’s one we made especially for you!” Jack promptly handed him a T-shirt and headed into the front of the shop. Julian simply looked at Garak with an expression of disbelief. “Garak, we caught them trying to pass on classified information to the Dominion, and now, they’re recommending I wear a t-shirt that says ‘If lost, return to lizard man for reward’!” He said angrily, shaking the shirt in his hand for added emphasis.
“Doctor...these people needed another chance. One that nobody else was willing to give them. And another thing...they are still very useful analysts. They can predict trends, root out information and generally think far ahead of the game. To be quite honest, they’re the best analysts I’ve ever seen. “ Garak admitted. “Yeah, where else can you get a nice new pair of pants and information of Dominion troop movements?” Lauren commented.
“So...you’re basically running your own intelligence service out of this shop.” Bashir muttered, running his hand through his hair. “Well, there has to be a third-party intel service somewhere. With the Obsidian Order gone, there’s a market for it; we used to take on clients for analysis as a method for extra revenue. Strictly off the books, of course. So that’s what I’m doing now.” Garak reasoned. “And we aren’t just doing war intelligence either; we’ve got multiple projects for the Ferengi Alliance, the First Federation and the Gorn Hegemony for analyzing things like market trends, population censuses and whatnot.” Patrick nodded. “Yeah, Grand Nagus Zek and Ishka appreciate it! We got in touch with them thanks to the Ferengi maintenance guy, oh, what was his name…”
“Rom, that’s him. Real friendly guy. Came up with the self-replicating mines around the wormhole and keeps the holosuites running, real good guy.” Jack said at his normal speedy pace, before returning to his fabric measuring. Sarina promptly passed a PADD to Bashir, with a message reading “This is the best we’ve been treated in years. We’re working for ourselves, we’re constantly kept active, and we’re being paid 5 strips of latinum an hour.”
“Anyway, I’ll see you later, Doctor. We’ve got a lot to do before closing time today. After that we can meet at Quark’s, perhaps? Jack came up with this astounding holo-program based on another pre-warp Earth cultural thing, a “game show” called...Wipeout, yes. It involved picking the right answers and avoiding the wrong ones, it’s fascinating. But we have work to do and I’m sure you have work in the infirmary.”
Garak promptly ushered Dr. Bashir out of the store and back onto the Promenade. “...what just happened?”
16 notes · View notes
danny-chase · 3 years
Link
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman (Comics), Batgirl (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Dick Grayson Characters: Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon (momentarily), Alfred Pennyworth (mentioned) - Character Additional Tags: Stephanie Brown POV, Batfamily (DCU) Feels, Chocolate Milk, post mission talks, Damian Wayne is a brat with a heart of gold, Stitches, Canon Typical Violence, but not for long, because i like fluff better, Fluff, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, Dick Grayson is Batman, Damian Wayne is Robin, Sneezing, Coughing, Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne's almost parent, Stephanie Brown is Damian Wayne's almost big sister, And kind of Dick's little sister Summary:
Steph hasn't worked with the new Batman and Robin duo long, but she doesn't hesitate to come when they call for backup. Their family's a little rough around the edges, but she'll do what she can to smooth things out.
“C’mon, faster!” Stephanie hated when Barbara seemed anxious, when she was anxious, generally something was about to go wrong. Really, really, wrong.
 “I’m homing in on the coordinates.” Barbara was driving on autopilot, but she couldn’t resist saying the line. Damian’s tracker blinked closer and closer. The kid had run off earlier that night, Dick, however, was getting better at predicting when it would happen and followed. She’d been on call for backup, Damian needed space, but he was also a magnet for trouble and unfortunately for them-
“Robin retreat! Retreat! Get out of here!” Dick screamed over the comms. The kid shouldn’t be out in the first place, still recovering from a concussion. She rounded the corner. Victor Zsasz was pushing forward aggressively trying to circumvent Batman to get a stab at Robin. Dick was holding his own but kept taking hits for a dazed looking Damian.
“Get Robin and get out! Maneuver 23.” Barbara commanded. She was seconds away, Zsasz was too close, she wasn’t going to make it, not going to make it-
 “CATCH!” She complied, automatically responding to Barbara’s harsh tone, spreading her arms as the bike swerved right.
 “JUMP!” Damian appeared to do the same with Dick, who tackled Zsasz out of range.
 “FUCK!” She yelled, because Damian jumped right into the path of her oncoming bike and-
 They grasped each other’s wrists in a practiced motion, using momentum to swing Damian onto the backseat of the bike.
 “Holy fuck.” She whispered. Hadn’t expected that to work. Sure, they’d done it a billion times practicing, but like… damn. That was freaking awesome. But also-
 “Are you okay?” She turned to look back at a pale Damian, blood staining the right side of his uniform. He nodded curtly, she could see a sheen of sweat glistening under the streetlights. It took him a moment to collect his thoughts.
 “We cannot retreat, Batman needs backup! Turn around at once!” He demanded, swaying in his spot. On a motorcycle. She might die for this, but she turned around, pulled him closer (surprisingly without argument) and started applying pressure to his side. One hand on the wound, the other keeping him propped upright. Maybe she would die, but Damian would fall off over her dead body.
 “Yeah no, I’m just gonna try to keep your blood on the inside till we get to the Bunker.” She felt a raindrop plop on her forehead, all the more reason to keep on course. Damian was already injured and tired, she would not be the one responsible for making his situation worse. “Then you can bleed out in peace.”
   Stephanie sighed as she swirled milk and cocoa together on the stove, rain pattering steadily outside. Where would she be if she’d had a normal father, or a normal life? She had a standing invite to some party; she could be out with friends. But some little gremlin child would have been murdered by Zsasz blocks away and no. She wouldn’t trade Damian’s life for normality. She was Stephanie Brown after all, abnormal was her middle name, and she accepted it with pride.
 Sure, she wasn’t mixing alcoholic drinks right now, but she was mixing chocolate milk and that was close enough. Damian clomped up the stairs, and angrily settled at the table. Think of the gremlin, and he shall appear.
 “You shouldn’t have retreated.” He muttered, slumping in the seat. His cheeks were already flush from the exertion of walking up the steps.
 “And you should go to bed.” He glared at her, looking utterly nonthreatening in his pajamas. He was wearing one of Dick’s old t-shirts, oversized, draping down past his elbows. He must have his own clothes, but she’d never seen him sleep in anything else.
 “Then why are you preparing two mugs of hot chocolate?” He asked smugly. Well, as smugly as he could with twelve stitches in his side.
 “Because I know you won’t listen to me.” The grin was replaced with a frown. “But I don’t mind, that’s why I made enough for two.” She quickly continued. Damian stared ahead at a place on the table. She weighed her next words. They both knew fully well that he wouldn’t sleep until Dick made it home in one piece, and for that matter that she would either. Leaving Damian alone with his thoughts seemed cruel under the circumstances.
“You didn’t listen to me earlier.” He accused agitatedly, breaking the silence.
 “I don’t make a habit of listening to Robins.” She said with a smirk, attempting to lighten the mood. She carefully poured the steaming cocoa into the mugs, keenly aware of Damian’s eyes following her every move.
 “You listen to Gordon.” He pouted. She placed a mug in front of him and sat down across from him.
 “Most of the time, and she’s not a Robin. I don’t listen to you, Tim, or Dick, and certainly not Jason.”
 “Why not?” He challenged, not making a move to touch his mug, still glaring at her with a dark expression on his face. “You were a Robin, were you not? You think you’re above us-”
 “No, Dames, you gotta read the situation you know?” She took a long sip of cocoa. Damian crossed his arms. She sighed. “Look, if we always listened to Dick, he’d be dead already.” He nodded carefully. “Same thing with you and Tim.” His nose scrunched at the mention of Tim.
 “Don’t compare me to-”
 “Whatever it is, I’m not, I’m just saying, I’d be a lot happier if you weren’t shish kabobbed by Zsasz.” His brow furrowed. “Okay fine, I messed up, you probably would have been fine. We shouldn’t have retreated. But you were down, and we made a judgement call – not just me, Dick would rather die than-” Damian’s eyes went wide. “Poor choice of words, I take it back. He’s not going to die, he just…” God, what was she doing? What was she even trying to say?
 “I know you’re not worried, because you’re you, but if I was you, I would be worried, but I shouldn’t be worried, because Dick’s a badass, so he’ll be fine, and knowing that you’re safe will help him stay focused on the fight. So you’re helping by staying right here, yeah?” She leaned back against the seat. Smooth, real smooth.
 Damian’s lips were pursed by the end of her rambling. “I’m not worried.” She heard him mumble under his breath. He took a sip of cocoa. “Grayson is a competent fighter; he would not be so easily defeated.” She pretended not to hear his voice wobble slightly at the end. The poor kid.
 “He’ll be home any minute now.” She assured.
 “And he’ll yell at you for not making enough for him.” He added sagely.
 “Then he’ll yell at you for not being in bed.” Damian rolled his eyes.
 “I shall already be in bed by the time he makes it up the stairs.” So confident in his abilities. Dick probably let him think he got away with it.
 “Well, then he’ll anxiously pace outside of your room, and peak in to fuss over your stiches.” She predicted. Damian snorted, and took another sip of cocoa.
 “Damian, you could have been seriously hurt, you’ve got to be more careful!” He perfectly imitated Dick’s voice. Steph had to fight back laughter and swallow her cocoa. “Why did you give him sugar, it’s his bedtime?” He directed at her.
 “Robin, cease with the hot chocolate immediately.” She croaked out in a gravelly Batman impression.
 “Holy hot chocolate Batman!” Stephanie lost it as he did a perfect impression of Dick’s normal voice. Damian allowed himself a small smile.
 “Oh my God, you have to teach me how to do that.”
 “Are you sure you have the talent for it?” He asked smugly. She brushed off the comment. Smug Damian was better than sad and worried Damian.
 “Sure, also can you do Scooby-Doo?” Damian’s brow furrowed.
 “Who?”
 “What do you mean who!?” She half yelled. Damian flinched. “Okay, since we’re already up, you’re getting an education tonight, we’re moving to the couch, let’s go, move it people.”
   Two episodes later, Damian’s wide eyes still looked through the screen rather than at it. Not all things, she supposed, could be fixed with dumb cartoons and hot chocolate.
 “Brown?” He softly spoke, as the credits played.
 “Mm?” Silence resounded through the room. Whatever question Damian had died in his throat. “I’m sure he’ll be back any minute, he’s probably overseeing the trip to Arkham.” She guessed.
 “Yes.” Another pause. “He’ll be upset when he arrives home.”
 “He won’t be too upset.” Damian tucked his knees to his chest. “Everyone made it home safe.”
 “Father would have been angry.” She couldn’t deny that. Bruce was, well, Bruce.
 “But Dick isn’t Bruce.” She let the words hang in the air for a moment. “He was Robin too once, you know?” Dick got mad, heck, he killed the Joker like three days after she first met him. He’d been upset with her, for being Batgirl, but his anger wasn’t like Bruce’s, and it hadn’t lasted for long.
 “I know.” He turned to face her on the couch. “He’ll say he’s disappointed.”
 “Ah.” Her heart melted. “That’s always worse.” Damian rolled his eyes.
 “I’ve had worse punishments.” He paused. Damn the League. “But it’s… different.” Steph could sympathize.
 “My dad used to lock me in closets when he was mad.” Damian nodded.
 “I would too.” She groaned. Sometimes she was trying to have meaningful heartfelt conversations with a ten-year-old.
 “Brat. I’m trying to have a moment.” She complained. He fell silent, shrugging his shoulders, possibly as an attempt at an apology. “The point being my mom was always disappointed. And just because one sucked more than the other, didn’t mean both didn’t suck.”
 “Hmm.” Damian leaned back against the pillows. “But I had to do something, he was,” he paled slightly, his eyes widening, “Zsasz was going to kill children again.” He looked at her earnestly. “I couldn’t let him-”
 “Look, no one’s mad at you for trying to do something good. It’s just like… we worry about you, okay?” Damian rolled his eyes again.
 “No need I’m-”
 “You’re staying up until Dick gets back, want to remind me why that is?” He turned to face the rain smeared window. “It’s the same for him, and the same for me. We worry about you too, okay?”
 “You shouldn’t.” Damian muttered. “I’m perfectly capable on my own, I’m trained in twenty-”
 “Doesn’t matter how trained you are if you’re concussed.” She pointed out.
 “It didn’t matter if I was concussed in the League.” Assholes.
 “Well, this isn’t the League, and we care if you’re concussed.”
 “Whatever.” He fell silent after, gluing his eyes back to the screen in an attempt to block her out.
 “Just, let me know next time, and I’ll come with you.” Maybe she was imagining it, but she caught a minute nod.
 Carefully, she reached out, projecting her moves, and ruffled his hair. He didn’t seem much happier, some of the tension bled out of his shoulders. Maybe she didn’t know what she was doing, but whatever mediocre amount of comfort she could supply would have to be enough. She leaned back into her end of the couch, content to sit in silent companionship and let her mind wander off, no longer focused on the cartoon, but on a family forged in chaos.
   “M’ere bud, time for bed.” Someone whispered to her right. Cracking open her eyes slowly, the time on the television box read 3:28. Damian groggily groaned in protest next to her. As her eyes adjusted, she could make out the vague outline of Dick sweeping a tired Damian (who was clearly feigning sleep) into his arms. “You should get some sleep too.” He hissed at her, as his footsteps padded away.
 She stretched out on the couch, four hours of sleep, that wasn’t too bad, but her neck was definitely stiff after that. She groaned, turning on the lamp next to her, shutting her eyes again and slowly allowing them to adjust to the light. Dick popped his head back into the doorway.
 “You need anything? The guest room has some spare clothes in your size, we have extra toothbrushes, you can use my shampoo if you want.” He rambled off. It was strange, she could never tell if he was being nice to make up for his initial rejection, or if that was just how he was.
 “Don’t be too hard on Damian.” She curled into her spot on the couch. Dick stepped forward into view, leaning against the doorframe. A pink bathrobe was draped over his shoulder, his wet hair dripping. He tiredly sunk against the wall.
 “I won’t be.” He slid into a squat, then all the way down to the floor. “Was he mad I followed him?”
 “Probably. I think he was more worried you wouldn’t come home.” Damian’s last experience with Zsasz had been… unpleasant. And the villain had carried a grudge ever since.
 “Oh. Sorry it took so long, Alfred kick you guys to bed or something?” She nodded. They’d been whisked out of the command room before she’d hardly tugged off her cape. No doubt Damian would have tried to leave again if they’d been listening on the comms.
 “You’re okay?” It was so weird. She was sitting on a couch, talking down to a cowl-less Batman in a pink bathrobe, sitting on the floor.
 “Fit as a fiddle.” He sneezed, as if on cue.
 “It’s raining pretty hard.” Her eyes flicked towards the window.
 “You don’t say.” He deadpanned, following her gaze. “It let up about an hour ago. Zsasz is back and Arkham, we found the kids he grabbed, I was trying to track down any relatives.” She nodded, Gotham’s foster care system was abysmal, and the social workers overbooked. Finding relatives could save a kid from ending up in a supervillain’s lair.
 “All’s well that ends well.” Dick sneezed again. “I could have helped.”
 “Babs and I had it under control.” She rolled her eyes, typical of the ‘big kids’ to leave her in the kiddies room. “Thank you for watching him.” He nodded at the empty mugs. “It was sweet of you to stick around.” Warmth swelled in her chest at the remark, she didn’t need his approval of course, but it was nice to have it.
 “Yeah well, cut him some slack for me yeah?” He opened his mouth to reply, then paused to cough for a bit.
 “I won’t be hard on him, but no patrol until his stiches heal.” He assured, regaining his composure.
 “I’m sure you won’t patrol until your cold’s passed.” She commented sarcastically. It would do the boys good to spend some time together anyways.
 “Did Babs put you up to this? I-”, sneeze, “told her I was fine. You guys are worse than Alfred.”
 “Nope.” She popped the p. “But I think your kid might feel a little bit guilty about tonight, and it wouldn’t hurt to stay in with him.”
 “He’s not my…” Dick stared up at the ceiling. Tucking his knees up to his chin, just the same as Damian, he went silent.
 “He’s your kid.” She said after a moment. Dick smiled ruefully.
 “He’s your kid too.” She snorted. He was like the little brother she’d never had, not that she’d admit it.
 “Not a chance, he’s all yours and Alfred’s. Babs and I don’t work with minors.” Aside from the times she had.
 “Mmmhmm. So that’s why you were drinking hot chocolate and watching cartoons with him, because he’s not your kid. I guess you don’t think of him as family” He sighed. “And to think, I was going to bring you to the aquarium with us tomorrow, but if we aren’t your family then why even-”
 “Woah, woah, woah. Let’s not go that far, I want to see him next to penguins-er I mean, I want to see the uhh... You know what nope, not ashamed, I want to see the look on his face at the touch tank.” She paused. “Aren’t you rewarding bad behavior with that though?”
 “Well, don’t worry about it, he’s my kid after all.” He chided smugly. “In all seriousness, I just want to distract him long enough he doesn’t go out again.” Another sneeze. “Jeez, stupid rain. Also, Babs is coming, it’s a party.”
 “You’re sure he won’t see it as a reward?” She wasn’t taking children’s psychology for nothing after all.
 “Nah, knowing him, he might take it as a punishment.” He closed his eyes, leaning back into the frame. “But, I try to keep capes and normal life separate, he’ll be grounded from patrol, but I won’t ground him during the day for stuff he pulls at night.” That seemed reasonable. “He’s been doing really well with homeschool.” He opened his eyes again, looking fondly at the opposite doorframe. “I think he’ll really like the aquarium, he’s been studying aquatic life recently and-”
 Dick mumbled on for a while, listing all Damian’s accomplishments, how he was multiple grade levels ahead, and scoring well in all the classes they made for him. How he could go on to do anything he wanted, was on track to take college courses by the time he was in high school, and how bright his future was. Again, she was glad her life wasn’t normal, as he rambled on and on, pride shining on his face.
 “He’s so your kid.” She interrupted after a coughing fit, having lost track of the conversation. Dick blinked at her. “Bedtime.” He nodded, sneezing halfway through.
 “Bedtime.”
  They didn’t make it to the aquarium, as predictably, Dick was running a fever by the morning. But that didn’t stop the party. Barbara brought soup, Alfred made cookies, and Steph settled on the couch next to Damian, picking up where they left off, marathoning Scooby Doo.
 Dick picked apart the episodes from his isolated recliner (they quarantined him three feet away), Damian chiming in to predict the villain’s identity. Barbara grumbled about normal people being easier to watch TV with, and Alfred settled in a chair by the door. If Cass were here, she’d bounce off the walls, and Tim would lie on the floor. Pieces were broken and missing, but as the remaining members of her pseudo-family chattered away, she had hope that things, eventually, would work out.
29 notes · View notes