Tumgik
#Medalist fanfic
nyd-needs-cuddles · 6 months
Text
2 notes · View notes
Text
Weekly Jungkook Fanfic Recs:
Tumblr media
Some fine JK fics for your reading pleasure. Please show your appreciation to all the wonderful authors :)
Over The Odds: Billionaire CEO Jungkook makes you an offer you’d be a fool to refuse.  https://jungk0oksthighs.tumblr.com/post/682441385035644928/over-the-odds-collection-completed-ceojungkook
Dungeons & Dick: Your DnD group meets weekly and this time your DM, who also happens to be your boyfriend, plans on killing one of your party members until you thwart his plan leaving him pissed off and embarrassed. But Jungkook is not so secret about how much it turns him on when all the others have left.  https://jungkookiebus.tumblr.com/post/190268088251/dungeons-and-dick-jjk
Just Friends: The transition from best friends to best friends with benefits is never easy, especially when there’s a daddy kink involved. https://kinktae.tumblr.com/post/172263702969/just-friends-m
Bitchin': The 80s were a time of choices. Which perm was right for you? What color neon would you wear next? None of these choices, however, were more questionable than a certain deal you made with Jeon Jungkook. https://kinktae.tumblr.com/post/185646704844/bitchin-m Blackjack: Bangtan is one of the most vicious mafia on the West Coast, only six members are known by name though, with a mysterious seventh member dubbed as "The Shadow". You become indebted to the worst of the worst - how to get out? https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/165138875526/blackjack-master-list Ember Burning: The dragon riders of Duret Ghal are known across the continent: fierce warrors who take to the skies on their winged beasts led by their king Jungkook. You are the last dragon queen of Ashya, ruler of a dying species able to transform from human to dragon. When a foe emerges threatening both kingdoms, you find yourself forced to broker a peace with your former enemy. https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/643137431841947648/ember-burning-m A Holiday Snowdown: The Inn On The Hill is in trouble, you need money and you need it fast. Namjoon proposes a weeklong social media blitz with celebrity guest Jeon Jungkook: two-time Olympic gold medalist, world-class snowboarder and the nation's sweetheart. You happen to have met Jungkook before and sincerely hoped you'd never see him again. https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/671401371365507072/a-holiday-snowdown-m Paralian: A very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid. Pirate x Merfolk au. https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/186345871706/paralian The Monogamy Diaries: Namjoon is getting married and somewhere between the laughter and drinks, everyone has the same realization: Jungkook has never been in a serious relationship. In the name of all that is holy it is decided to find Jeon Jungkook a girlfriend. https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/190709693371/the-monogamy-monologues Love To Hate: Your mother ropes you into a blind date with playboy billionaire Jeon Jungkook. He stands for everything you loathe about the world you left behind, but you can't deny the spark of attraction between you. Intrigued by the promise of mutual satisfaction, you agree to one night in bed… and quickly realize you're in far, far deeper than you ever intended. https://kpopfanfictrash.tumblr.com/post/661587797603401728/love-to-hate-master-list
432 notes · View notes
kasaneteto · 1 year
Text
tumblr keeps suggesting Olympic medalist woman x reader fanfics to me for some reason. based on my likes???????
14 notes · View notes
elitesensbrain · 11 months
Note
hello elitesensbrain, this is not a question and more of a proposal. i think it would be fun to share how we got into the sens!! (mostly cause i think i have a pretty unique journey ((this journey is only interesting to me but i thought i’d just share anyways)))
first of all, how much do you know about jane austen fanfiction? all you need to know is that in 2018, ao3 user amarguerite created a pride and prejudice retelling set in the modern day world of competitive figure skating. in short, the bennetts are ice dancers, bingley is a single skater, and darcy is a retired 2x olympic gold medalist skater who is bingley’s coach (also he is québécois). how is this relevant to the sens? well spoilers for pride and prejudice + this fic.
in this fic, lizzy goes to hunsford (a rehab facility) for an injury and meets ryan fitzwilliam, ottawa senator. he happens to be darcy’s cousin. in this fic, they have a little summer romance. ryan fitzwilliam is a beloved character! this was my first experience with the sens, fictionalized or irl. and it was a good one! for years the only nhl teams i knew were the penguins and the sens! that was the entire league to ME.
flash forward 2 years later. we are All Stuck at Home. I have resorted to watching clips of my favorite game show, Jeopardy. one day, my youtube homepage recommends me “Alex Trebek Helps the Ottawa Senators Draft Tim Stützle.” at this point, I have of course developed a parasocial relationship with my favorite gameshow host and I click on this video. I am suddenly hit with a memory. “hey? isn’t this the nhl team from my favorite pride and prejudice fanfic? oh wow! it is! and ALEX TREBEK is announcing their pick? tim stützle you are my favorite nhl player!”
did i get into hockey back then? no, i did not. flash forward one year later. there is a popular tumblr post that goes around of a single twitter screenshot (the original tweet: 5 games for tkachuk being soft. the quoted retweet: his flesh was soft between another man’s teeth. hockey fans are insane.) of course i thought this was hilarious and wanted to see the actual video of somebody getting bitten. i sleuth around the internet trying to find who this tkachuk man is. ah wait? brady tkachuk of the ottawa senators? the sens yet again? and i watch that video. and i fall into the hole. the rest is history ❤️
thank you for this.
3 notes · View notes
melody-everbelle · 2 years
Text
Watch You Skate (Nathan Chen x Reader)
Tumblr media
Title: Watch You Skate
Pairing: Nathan Chen x gender neutral!reader
Word count: 176
Warning(s): None
Summary: As Nathan is skating through the ice in Sun Valley, he can’t help but admire you from the crowd.
Author's Note: This is my very first X reader fanfiction, so I apologize if it isn’t perfect! I was originally going to start off my fanfics with Stan Laurel from Laurel and Hardy, but my obsession with Stan isn’t so hot at the moment, so I’m writing about Nathan Chen first, since it’s quite easier, and I have a lot of ideas for them. Also, I noticed there aren’t any X Reader fanfics of Nathan on here, so I thought I’d write them and post them on here as my way of giving this guy some love. 💕
***
Here you are with your friend at Sun Valley, Idaho, where you watch a certain Olympic Gold Medalist skate through the ice, along with axel jumps, kicks, and flips, from the audience. As he continues skating, it appears he can't help but be distracted by you and your elegance, so every time he skates past by you, he gives a lustful look in his face, which causes you to blush and smile. Your friend, who's been with you in the crowd the entire time, notices your reaction and asks "So, do you like Nathan Chen?"
"Wait a minute, that's his name?" You ask.
"Yep, it is," your friend replies. 
"Pretty cute name if you ask me," you comment.
Your friend nods in agreement. As you take a look at Nathan again, he has finished practicing, and the crowd cheers. As you continue watching Nathan skate away, you sigh and say, "I may be awake, but boy, isn't he dreamy?" One of your hands is cupped to your cheek, and you smile as you're swooning over him.
4 notes · View notes
ao3feed-iwaoi · 1 year
Text
Broken Dreams
Read this masterpiece on AO3 at https://ift.tt/AdlYWNp
by Ziggypawsy
Toru Oikawa, all-time Olympic gold medalist, recently announced his retirement. With the reality of his entire career coming to end, Oikawa isn't really sure what path his life should be going in anymore. That is, until, he meets Hajime Iwaisumi, a complete depressed alcoholic. But despite his rough exterior, Iwaisumi seems to be all Oikawa ever needed.
Or: Iwaoi skating au where they're both depressed adults with shitty lives who need eachother.
--
Warning: This is a rewrite of a very old fanfic that was never finished, and I'm long past my Haikyuu phase so there is a chance I may not finish this ....
Words: 794, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Fandoms: Haikyuu!!
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: M/M
Characters: Oikawa Tooru, Oikawa Tooru's Mother, Oikawa Tooru's Father, Oikawa Tooru's Parents, Iwaizumi Hajime, Hanamaki Takahiro
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Ice Skating, Aged-Up Character(s), Adults, References to Depression, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Abusive Parents, POV Alternating
read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/AdlYWNp
0 notes
tandemunicycle · 3 years
Text
I had the idea of the iliad but instead of a war they were all pro gamers and I wheezed so much I cried
42 notes · View notes
wordsdrippinginink · 6 years
Note
Mihawk and Zoro at the renfair in MAS raises Luffy AU
“Are you gonna fight him,” Zoro asks the little girl clinging to her scabbard dithering outside of the small section that Mihawk had set up to be the knight and fight against challengers. “He’s not fighting right now and you look like you’re strong enough.”
“You think so?” she asks hopefully, clinging to her sword tighter. “I saw him fighting someone earlier and he was real good. I don’t think I can do even as good as that man. And he only had one arm!”
Zoro rolls his eyes, “That’s stupid, I bet you can do really well besides,” he leans closer to whisper. “That old man is really good friends with the one armed guy. They go all out, but the old man wouldn’t hurt you. If you do good, he’ll even give you candy. I can show you some moves?”
She gasps, “Really?”
“Yeah, the old man will be free for a while since the show is going on,” Zoro pulls out one of his own swords, plastic too because of rules. “I’m Zoro, his squire. Who are you?”
“Vivi! I’m a Princess!” she curtsies politely. “My mom really likes to come and she thought I would have fun.”
“I can’t break character, but it’s super fun,” Zoro agrees. “Now, hold your sword like this for me, okay?”
“Yes!” Vivi agrees shifting her grip to match his, letting him come closer to adjust it. “Thank you, Squire Zoro?”
“Yes. Now, copy me, Princess.”
“So, who is coming in,” Mihawk asks when Zoro steps into the arena to announce the new opponent. “Adult? Child?”
“Princess Vivi, she’s probably my age. Maybe.”
“I see. Send in the princess, squire.”
“Your next opponent!” Zoro raises his voice so that Vivi knows to enter. “Princess Vivi.”
Vivi is not much shorter than Zoro, her hair pulled back and blindingly blue the same way that Zoro’s is green, but she is nervous as she steps into the ring, but she holds her sword just like Zoro teaches each child that comes to fight him.
“I’m Sir Mihawk, challenger. I hope that you are willing to try to best me.”
“I will!” Vivi agrees brightly. “I’m gonna be a Princess Knight!”
Mihawk laughs, making sure to keep it low and villainous the way Zoro had told him was cool, “We shall see, Princess and only if you can first defeat me.”
He doesn’t go easy, testing her ability to remember what Zoro taught her and her reflexes, grinning when she catches herself after stumbling back too far and still catching his blade on the flat of her own.
“Well done,” he compliments, Zoro had told him that the children found him scary and intense, he was hoping that compliments would make them less scared of him. “But you have not won yet, Princess.”
Vivi steps forward quickly, twirling like a dancer, and pressing her little sword to his throat, gasping, “D-did I win?”
“Congratulations Princess,” Zoro sounds almost bored, which means that they will take a break after this fight and explore some. Perhaps Mihawk will convince his son to fight the ‘dragon’ again, even if Zoro thought it was for children. “You have won your spot amongst the knights of the realm.”
“I did?” Vivi bounces on her toes excited. “Really Sir Mihawk?”
“You did.” he reaches into one of the pouches on his side to pull out the small bag of assorted candies that each of his child winners would get. “Here is the first part of your prize, princess.”
“And the certificate,” Zoro agrees hurrying over with the fancy pen that the was suppose to be authentic. “You have to put her name down, Sir.”
“I remember,” Mihawk promises ruffling Zoro’s hair. “And what shall I put down, Princess Vivi?”
“Vivi Nefertiti!”
“There we are,” he blows on the page to make sure the ink won’t run. “And, if you wouldn’t mind, could I sign your sword? I sign the swords of each person who defeats me.”
Vivi nods excitedly, “Can I sign your’s?”
“Use mine,” Zoro mutters pulling his from his side. “Dad’s belongs to the faire, but this one is mine.”
“Cool!”
18 notes · View notes
st-just · 2 years
Note
do you need to (or is it beneficial to) read other wildbow stuff before reading Pale? I know people talk about Worm a lot. What's the best place to start with *gestures* all of that stuff?
Oh you absolutely do not!
...have a big post describing/reccing all the different things somewhere, but tumblr's search is being uncooperative atm, so
Super ultra condensed versions, I would start with one of
Worm - Bug-controlling girl is bullied in high school, has no friends, accidentally joins a team of quirky teenage supervillains and convinces herself she's going undercover. Contains: superheroes with cool/clever powers, a hilariously/terrifyingly pragmatic protagonist, constant escalation, Olympic medalist feats of rationalization, some light war crimes. This is the one with the big fandom, and also all the fanart (disproportionately high quality and amazing) and all the fanfic (...not). Start here to understand the memes.
Pale: Three teenage girls are recruited by the local monsters in their decaying northern Ontario tourist trap hometown to become witches and pretend to investigate the suspicious death of the regions most powerful spirit of violence, mostly so they tell any other nosy wizards of whatever variety who poke around that it's already being looked into. Girls turn out to be inconveniently heroic and competent and try to actually do the job. Contains: Dark urban fantasy, my favorite kitchen sink set of metaphysics/magic system from anything, a setting where basically no one is allowed to lie and consequently everyone's extremelly good at deceiving each other, Teenage Hijinks(tm), three protagonists trading off the POV each with their own bespoke issues. This is the one that's currently being updated, so it's what most of the live chatter is about. Also the best in terms of like, prose and character work imo. It's also the longest by a decent bit by now.
His other works are
Ward: Direct sequel Worm, you absolutely have to read Worm first to understand it. The two of them together are usually said to take place in the Parahumans setting, but that's also kinda sorta the general fandom name/tag, since he insists on all works being titled four letter common nouns out of I assume some religious prohibition on SEO
Twig: The unloved middle child. Totally stand-alone work, unrelated to anything else. Biopunk alternate 1910 starring a bunch of experimental superweapons adorable precocious children. Read this is your take away from worm was 'You know, this is good, but it could really use more unreliable narration and body horror.'
Pact: The previous unloved middle child, but has been getting much more attention now that Pale's a thing. Totally unrelated to Worm or Twig, shares a setting with Pale, but they're totally unrelated with only one very minor arguable cameo between them, and you can read either first without issue (Pale is on the whole better,but Pact is significantly shorter). Dark Urban Fantasy/Horror starring Blake Thorburn, Unluckiest Man In Canada, who sees his estranged family for the first time in years so he can tell his dying grandmother to go fuck herself and wakes up several months latter to find out a) she was a witch, b) she left him everything, c) his reflection has been replaced by a twin sister who lives in mirrors and d) karma is real, heritable, and he is its newest chew toy. Read if you finished Pale or Worm are you thought 'this was good, but the protagonists just have too much downtime and too many healthy relationships, and everything was too hopeful and easy for them.'
...not sure how helpful that was, but yeah, start with Worm or Pale, depending on which seems more interesting to you.
119 notes · View notes
silverynight · 2 years
Note
Hello! I recently came back to the KnY fanfic world bc of the new season and I love love love your work!! >< I love how each Pillar shows how much they love Tanjiro (very deserved!) and how Tanjiro is an oblivious baby! My favourite has got to be "Dead End" though!
Ah! Have you ever thought of a Modern AU? Or something like the future AU except it's them and not their descendants (if that makes sense lol). It would be funny to watch little Tomioka following around the high school student Tanjiro, and he'd have glaring matches with Rengoku who's the same age! Rengoku would boast that since they're the same age, they can do a lot of stuff together more, but since Tomioka is small, he can get a way with a lot of affectionate advances, like hand holding and kissing!
Obanai and Kanroji gives Tanjiro extra food when he visits their diner... Baby Muichiro saying "Tanjiro" as his first words!!! The Olympic gold medalist Tengen visiting a normal high school would cause massive news! There's other stuff I'm thinking of but this is all for now wwww
That'd be so cute and fun!
***
Thank you so much for reading my fics btw, I'm glad you like them. 😊
40 notes · View notes
dreamscapestars · 3 years
Text
The Ultimate Reylo Fanfic List
* = highly recommend (aka if you’re going to read anything off this list read this)
Canonverse AUs
***All Our Days - E - 221k - "I can listen no longer in silence."The hologram projection of his strangely handsome face is cobalt blue, flickering, and full of static. "I must speak to you, Rey. You… you pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me that I am not too late.” He groans, runs his hands through his dark, silver-streaked hair, then refocuses his gaze on the holorecorder. “I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Do not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death."Here the recording of Ben takes a deep breath, and looks down at something outside the holorecorder’s field of view. Perhaps at his hands, Rey manages to think, through the veil of shock and timid, fluttering hope. She wishes she were there with him, so she could take them in her own, and offer him the confidence to carry on.But this is only a hologram, so she must wait. Eventually, when he looks up again, his features have settled. He looks… Fierce. Determined. Self-assured."I have loved none but you," he says. - canonverse jane austen au 
trillions of molecules - T - 11k - Fake papers forged, contract signed and a navy blue jumpsuit with his name printed on the chest supplied to him, the man who called himself Solo was hired by the Felucian Transit Corporation as shuttle operator number B414. - tros fix it au 
There Shall I Be - N/A - 50k -She remembers the first and only time she saw him smile like this before and how it didn’t touch his eyes at the time and how it broke her heart.Now it fills her heart and gives her life.She shoves him back onto their blanket and climbs on top of him. She pulls off her sweater and takes him inside her again and rides him into the night. - canonverse far from the madding crowd au
*landscape with a blur of conquerors - E - 362k - "While I share your contempt for this situation in which we find ourselves, do not mistake it as apathy," he hissed through gritted teeth, dark eyes burning. "I hardly expect your disposition to sweeten, but I will be damned if I allow my future Empress to behave in a manner that reflects poorly on me and on the First Order!""If you allow?" She wrenched her arm out of his viselike grasp, batting his hand away for good measure. "I don't belong to you. I don't belong to anyone.""That might have been the case back when you were a scavenger on that pitiful scrap heap of a planet, but now?" His sardonic gaze flickered over her silk robes and the jewels woven through her elaborate braids. "Now you are the Chume'da, and the Chume'da belongs to her people. Their fate is entirely in your hands. Should you cross the line, it is they who will suffer for it. Am I making myself clear?""I hate you," she said bitterly. He sneered at her. "See? Already you are acclimatizing so well to married life." - arranged marriage au
Modern AUs
*the man, the stallion, and the wind - E - 17k - Weary and alone, Rey barrels west on the Trans-Canada Hwy in her old pickup truck. Weary and in need of a lift, Ben Solo stands by the side of the road with his thumb out, in the hopes of hitching a ride.One hell of a winter storm’s about to roll in, leaving them stranded. What ever shall they do? - hitchhiker au 
The Mechanic - E - 122k - It's a magical midsummer night, just made for following a persuasive, dangerous-looking lawyer to a hotel across the road from the party. But then reality catches up to Rey. - mafia baby au
*Soul Searching - E - 205k - Sixteen-year-old Rey finds out she’s soulmates with her English teacher -- in front of her entire class. Now the school gossips won’t leave her alone, prying for tidbits that Rey wouldn’t give them even if she had any. And she doesn’t. Because Mr. Solo is too horrified at being soulmates with an underage girl to even talk to her. - soulmate au
Mitan, Midi - E - 83k - After a French notary contacts Rey to inform her she's inherited a house in the Drôme (France), she decides from one day to the next to quit her job and move there. The house is pretty secluded, there's no service, no internet, no way to reach other people aside from the landline in the living-room.Ideal conditions, by her standards, as those theoretically should allow her to be perfectly alone. Theoretically. - french country side au
*A Treehouse Covered in Salt - E - 34k -High school senior Rey Johnson has lived next door to Ben Solo her whole life. The two could not be more different and at school, Rey wouldn't be caught dead in his presence. That doesn't stop her from sneaking out to their treehouse every night. Despite her unwillingness to be friends with Ben in the light of day, he has always been there with her in the darkness. - high school au
Initial - M - 45k - A Soulmate AU in which you are born with the initials of your soulmate marked on the nape of your neck. Easy enough, right? Except for two people who don't use their real names. - soulmate au 
Killing Me Softly - M - 32k - Rey clings to the hope that her husband will regain his memories after he survived a car crash that left him with amnesia. During her monthly visits at a medical facility with Ben, who now calls himself Kylo, she struggles to cope as he tries to make her let go of the past, and in turn, him with it. - amnesia au 
only child of the universe - E - 98k - The first time Rey meets Ben, they're carefree strangers getting high at the fair, alight and in love for a night. The second time is different. The second time is in therapy— where the asshole won't even acknowledge her. - high school au 
a place to go - E - 52k - All Rey Johnson wanted was solitude. A place to go where she could escape from the daily stressors and mayhem of her job. A place where she could enjoy some peace and some quiet. Her mentor Luke Skywalker's small cabin up north seemed like the ideal place to do just that. A week of seclusion was just what she needed.And then Ben Solo arrived. - snowed in au 
into the great laughter of mankind - E - 30k - There is something about watching Rey put her mind to task. Ben can't put a name to this something, exactly— all he knows is that it fascinates him like nothing else has in a long, long time."Dr. Solo?" She glances over at him. "What do you think?"I think I'm doomed, he wants to say but doesn't. I think the curse of the pharaohs has nothing on you. I think you are my Egypt. - archaeologist au
(now it’s) Time to Learn - M - 86k - “You’re a teacher?” Ben doesn’t look like a teacher. At least not like any teacher Rey has ever had. - teacher au
For Now - E - 8k - There are plenty of things he could say, but he doesn’t. Buying you muffins makes me excited to get out of bed in the morning. I wish I could go back in time and be the kind of person you could like. I don’t remember my life before you. ---------- When Kylo finds his soulmate, she doesn’t know, and he doesn’t tell her. - soulmate au 
Cupcake Wars - E - 36k - Entirely by accident, Rey ends up fucking someone who works for Snoke's Cupcakery. She's just blowing off steam. It doesn't mean anything at all. It certainly won't come back to bite her in the ass. - bakery au
The Food of Love - E - 60k - Rey picked up her first violin at eleven, finding a mentor in conductor and former-violinist Luke Skywalker. With the First Chair up for grabs, Rey is thrust into the spotlight as the youngest violinist to take First Chair in the NY Pops. But Kylo Ren - former violinist, former NY Pops cellist, formerly Ben Solo child prodigy - may take issue with Rey Nobody sitting in his grandfather's chair. - orchestra au 
Orion - E - 14k - Rey Niima finds herself in the Saharan desert trying to heal wounds from her life, and Ben Solo is there too, fixing himself along the way. - roadtrip au
Embers - E - 34k - All the myriad things he’d been—someone who made her laugh; the warmth on the other side of the bed; her best friend—those things, Rey had buried. Rey left Ben two years, three months, and sixteen days ago. But who's counting? - getting back together au 
Gilded - M - 11k - Everyone had two marks, one for class and another to identify a soulmate. She only had one: green rings on her finger, proof she was part of the laboring class. It made matters lonely, but never unbearable.Until she met him. He had two sets of marks—had a soulmate—and she did not. - soulmate au
flutz - E - 27k - Rey was determined to have no distractions during her first season in Senior Ladies figure skating.She swore that Olympic medalist and figure skating legend Ben Solo was not going to change that, no matter how intent he seemed on proving her wrong. - ice skater au 
oh autumn, oh teakettle, oh grace - E - 30k - "So let me get this straight," he says. "You're a dryad.""Quite so," she cheerfully replies."Like an actual—" His hand rises to make a feeble gesture at the towering elms that surround them— "tree-dwelling, speaks-with-animals, has-magical-powers, frolics-through-the-woods-in-orgiastic-pagan-frenzy dryad?"She wrinkles her delicately freckled nose. "Well, I don't know about orgiastic frenzy, that's really more of a maenad type of deal."He looks her up and down, taking in her pretty face and her slender figure in the skimpy white dress."Too bad," he mumbles. - dryad roadtrip au
A Proposal by Any Other Name - E - 188k - Rey and Finn have been A Thing for a long time now. Since she was eighteen, to be exact. When Finn leaves on a trip to Europe for six months for work, Rey finally chases after him to Dublin to do what he seems to be putting off: propose.She wants a family, after all.The universe has different ideas. Her flights are delayed, storms hit, she loses her tickets and everything seems to be going horribly. To top it off, she ends up stranded around a rather irritating man by the name of Kylo Ren. It goes about as well as you'd expect. - leap year au
endless summer afternoon - E - 63k - “My son's room is always made up,” Han had said, hitting a light switch as Rey clung to a dirty backpack in the dark hallway, “he never comes home. Warm bed might as well get some use.”Rey spared Han some of the dignity of his own longing assessment of the space that clearly hadn’t been looked at in a long time. An empty room in a quiet house. As gruff as he was, handing it off to some runaway nobody just because she was helping him rebuild a car was one of the kindest gestures she’d ever experienced, and had a hidden weight that she knew needed a respectful amount of privacy. Mysteries were often about unresolved sadness, and were usually only solved by the people who didn’t feel it.Rey is offered a place to stay: a spare bedroom once belonging to the mysterious Ben Solo. What does she do when she wakes up with him wanting his bed back? - roommates au 
Dandelion - E - 45k - Rey's an ex con and orphan, just released from jail after killing Plutt. She follows advice from her former guardian, Maz, and finds a job at Luke's coffee shop. Ben's a lawyer who lost his job and moved back to his hometown. He falls for Rey, unaware of her dark past. - coffee shop au
A Few Small Repairs - E - 69k - Ben Solo is a ruthless property developer, and Rey Johnson is the lone holdout on the block. She does not intend to give up what's hers, not for anything. (Not even for a pair of pretty eyes.) - property developer au
Unbroken - E - 7k - He found her sleeping in the stables, curled up in the stall of his newest, unbroken colt...
Lockjaw - M - 106k - Kylo finds Rey unconscious and near death on the side of a road, surrounded by twitching, wretched things looking to her for their next meal. Ever the altruist, he picks them off and takes her with him, saving her life in the process. It's no wonder that when she wakes she feels she owes him, and agrees to become his travel companion as he crosses the United States in search of safety and a new home. - zombie apoclypse au 
Everything to Prove - M - 13k - “The show,” he says. “It’s probably best if they don’t—if we don’t—”And Rey follows his line of thought at once. For all the program is one that doesn’t seem melodramatic—the height of drama in previous seasons came from someone’s cake falling over and that was about it—she does not doubt that the producers and cameramen would leap at the opportunity to make there be something out of nothing in their relationship—especially if there was something out of something.“Yeah,” she agrees. “Yeah, probably. We can pick baking stations that are…” but she doesn’t want to complete the thought. She likes baking next to Ben.“Or we can just be careful?” he suggests, sounding quite as pained by the prospect as Rey feels.“Yeah, careful. I can do careful,” Rey says at once and her lips are on his again and he’s laughing now, and she’s laughing, and she didn’t think laughter would be part of all this. She didn’t think it could be. But here she is, laughing and kissing and holding a man who, at some point, she’s going to want to beat.She does her best not to think of that now.It’s a friendly competition, after all. It’s not life and death. It’s baking. - great british bake off au 
*In Bloom - E - 13k - The flowers that bedeck her skin don’t lie—ballet dancer Rey is in love with her partner, Ben. But the years go by and his skin stays resolutely, devastatingly blank.He doesn’t love her. But when his hands are on her body, she can pretend. - ballet soulmates au
By Blood and Flame - E - 10k - Rey can’t go to her professors with this spell. She needs help, though, needs someone to do the spell with her, and she needs the best because it’s tricky. Dangerous.There’s a boy on campus. Powerful. Mysterious. He’s admired and envied, feared and loathed, depending on who’s talking, but for all everyone knows his story, no one seems to really know him. And Rey… Rey has been curious about him for… well, for longer than she wants to admit.She’s not sure if it’s good or bad luck that he’s the perfect person to help cast her spell. - magic college au
count the rings - E - 63k - “Because you’re sitting there all comfy, not looking at all bridal-” “I’ll just fetch the veil out of my backpack, shall I?” “-when you could be, you know, making a move on that fine-ass tree.” In which camping comes with unexpected consequences. - accidental marriage au
(won’t you let me) walk you home from school - E - 129k - Ben, a counselor in the upper school at the legendary Alliance Academy, keeps finding himself interacting with the lower school art teacher, Rey. He definitely doesn’t like it. - teacher au
follow in your form - E - 23k - Ben Solo wakes up paralyzed and angry about it.A story about dealing with change, holding onto hope, and finding love. - quadriplegic ben au 
*screwdriver - M -101k - Rey is a bright-eyed intern on her first campaign trail, Ben is an irritated data analyst, and how difficult can it be to get a legacy senator elected president? Apparently fucking impossible. - political au
9 pints - E - 83k - She knew next to nothing, and Google was largely unhelpful. All of her searches (“vampire sex rules” and “vampire dos and don’ts” and one very self-indulgent “average vampire cock size big?”) linked her to dated top ten lists written by anyone other than an actual vampire.Twenty minutes of frustrated scrolling eventually led her to a supernatural dating forum. The website was horribly aged, but still active. Questions were tagged, which meant that it was easy to narrow down her search. Vampire, she clicked, and Sex.--In which Rey gets suckered into shooting porn with one of Poe's pickiest vampire actors. - magical porn stars au
fine young cannibals - E - 27k - Kylo raised his head to the sky as he inhaled, his broad chest expanding even wider. His eyes fluttered shut, savoring the scent like a sumptuous meal. He grinned.“Oh,” he murmured, so softly Rey wasn’t even sure it was meant for her ears. His eyes slid to meet hers, scarlet and violent and hungry. “You brought a snack.”And then all hell broke loose.About three things, Rey is absolutely positive:First, she is totally, completely, and madly in love with her vampire boyfriend, Poe.Second, there is another vampire—an older, evil, definitely-not-hot vampire—that thirsts for her blood and wants nothing more than to kill her.And third, she is maybe not absolutely positive about either of these things. - twilight au
Epithumia - E - 46k- ἐπιθυμία, ας, ἡ: epithumia : desire, passionate longing, lust *** “No extra credit.” He made a noise that might have been a laugh. “You ask that every time.” “Well, I have to try.” Rey said, weakly. “Can you make an exception?” A lone eyebrow ascended his lofty forehead into his hairline. “Try harder, Miss Kenobi.” - college teacher/student au
Historical AUs (ranging from medieval to the early 2000s)
light carries on endlessly - M - 6k - “Traitor,” he told Cerberus gruffly not too much later, using both hands to scratch behind the hound’s many ears. What appeared to be a rat tail lay nearby on a blood-stained bit of stone. “What did I tell you about women with pretty eyes?”One wet tongue lapped at his wrist, and he sighed. “Right. Nothing.” - Hades and Persephone au 
The Witch in the Wood - E - 138k - As a knight errant of the kingdom of Alderaan, Kylo Ren has traveled the country, completing quest after perilous quest in search of redemption for the dark deeds of his past. When an evil witch captures the princess of a neighboring kingdom, Kylo reluctantly accepts the burden of rescue with the assumption that it will be a simple task.It is not. For the creature that lives in the woods is not a monster at all.Since her mentor died, Rey has lived in the witch’s tree and uses magic to maintain the balance of the forest. Her life is practical, repetitive, and simple—at least, until a wrathful knight thunders through her door and levels a sword at her throat. Yet something within the knight calls to her, a buzz beneath his skin that she recognizes.Without a doubt, he is not who he appears to be. - medieval witch au
Black Knight, White Queen - E - 53k - Luke Skywalker wrote his sister a letter on his deathbed, revealing that his ward is the orphaned heir of a family long thought extinct - and politically powerful. That letter fell into the wrong hands, and the secret of Rey's heritage is secret no more. The Emperor has managed to unite the Kingdoms, but he is old, and his son is weak. Seeking to ensure his son's claim to his throne, he sends his most trusted captain to bring the girl - willing or not - to be his son's bride. Rey is taken from her far-flung home, and plunged into a world of court intrigue, arranged marriage, political rivals, and would-be assassins - the black knight her constant companion and bodyguard. But even he, her dark shadow and protector, she cannot know whether to trust... - medieval bodyguard au 
Days to Remember - E - 42k - A man heads home after years of estrangement. What do you need from me? A woman leaves her world behind, a bird in a gilded cage. When we get to New York, I need help running away. -- I'll bring you to Boston with me. - titanic au 
*what if the storm ends - E - 61k - As a child, Rey is evacuated from London to the Yorkshire Dales during the Blitz. She spends the war in the care of the Solos on their farm, wandering the moors with their son looking for a legendary family artifact long lost. When the war is over, she returns to a city she no longer recognizes, and she writes a popular series of children's fantasy books based on her childhood in the Dales. After amassing fame and fortune with her stories, tragedy brings her back to the farm to see Ben Solo, once her greatest inspiration and now a widower. - post WWII au 
Take Me - E - 39k - Every night, at 8:30 pm, Rey and Ben get on stage and pretend to be in love with each other. At 9:15, they walk off stage and the actual fireworks begin. - 60s country singers au
I could have been wild, I could have been free (but nature played a trick on me) - M - 61k - “Did you know that I did not even learn your name until yesterday, when I married you?”His face flushed a darker red than it had at breakfast, and he attempted to defend himself with incompetent stammering, “I—I regret that. The situation, of course, would have been,” he wrung his hands together and stared at her feet, “It would have been preferable if we had known one another more. On several occasions, I did attempt to make myself known to you, but you seemed to have other preoccupations.”Rey could feel her face contorting into a sneer to spit out her barbed words, “Perhaps that was your cue not to marry me!” - regency arranged marriage au 
Patch - M - 20k - He is nineteen when he first sees her.She comes to the rink alone, laces her skates alone, strokes warm-up circles alone...He looks at her, really looks her in the eye, and he decides he likes what he sees.She may be young, but she is hungry and angry, and for now? That’s enough for him.It’s not like he has a lot of options. - 80 russian ice skaters au 
*The Great Big No - E - 165k - Kylo Ren is third generation rock royalty, a reigning brat prince starting to feel the burn of the fame he reached for with both hands. Rey is an aspiring singer on the verge of a big break, provided her A&R guy still has a job by the time she reaches LA. Their paths have crossed briefly, disappointingly, before. What happens when they collide? - 90s rock au
***go I know not whither and fetch I know not what - E - 119k - The year is 1994. The Iron Curtain has come down, the oligarchs have begun their rise to power, and Kyril Ren, a powerful member of the infamous crime syndicate Solntsevskaya Bratva, has been given a job: hunt down an estranged uncle who has been snitching to the FBI.Irena, nicknamed Rey by her adoptive father Luke, is a Krav Maga instructor in New York who has finally been able to obtain her original birth certificate from Russia. Turns out she was born in a little village named Vershinino, but if she wants to know more than that… she’s going to have to go there herself. - 90s russian mafia au 
we could plant a house, we could build a tree - E -124k - Ben takes a deep breath. “It’s—it’s a project. Conceptual art. You wouldn’t get it.”Rey presses her lips together to keep from laughing. She plans her next words quickly and carefully, determining what will get her the best reaction. “Really? Looks like you ruined a bedsheet to me.”His reaction does not disappoint. “Get out.” ** Seven-year-old Rey decides it's her duty to annoy the crap out of Ben Solo every single day she's alive. - 90s growing up together artist au
211 notes · View notes
rosella-writes · 2 years
Text
17 Things About Me
Tagged by @melisusthewee @noire-pandora and @morganlefaye79 so thank you!! Gonna taaaaag @darethshirl @dreadfutures and @queenaeducan
Name: Call me Rosella
Age: 27
Height: 5'3"
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Where do you call home? American Midwest (ope and uff da, y’all)
Any tattoos or piercings? Nope, I've never been able to decide. If I were to get tattoos, they'd be to cover my back and ankle scars.
Last song you listened to? Reflection by Christopher Larkin for the Hollow Knight video game
Last movie you watched? Spider Man: No Way Home
Last book or fanfic you read? the sky in all its splendor by @darethshirl (oh my godddd I implode whenever there’s even a HINT of Dorian/Solas okay)
Do you collect anything? Stones and minerals. My favorite one is a labradorite orb, followed closely by my bismuth specimen.
Morning person or night owl? Morning person.
Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist? Pessimist, and not by choice? I grew up preparing for the worst — trying now to learn how to hope for the best.
A quote you live by?
You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. / You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.
—Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
Are you an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert? An introvert, but I love people... in theory lol
Do you believe in an afterlife? I'm not sure. I think about it a lot but I've always been a bit too focused on it, so I'm trying to move away from that to live a bit more.
A weird or fun fact about yourself: I play bagpipes and can’t read music despite being a grade three gold medalist lmaoooo
If you could have coffee with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? Hildegard of Bingen, full stop. Although I don't think she'd like coffee and would ask for beer instead.
8 notes · View notes
Text
Ml prompts (salt edition)
As I promised, this are just some of the plots for fics that I been thinking, a few for a while, others today or this week. Not all of them involve Lila, and even in those she’s not always the focus (Not all of them can be considered ‘salt’ exactly, while others can be labeled as ‘actions have consequences’).
In case anyone want to use them this are the rules (I can made them since this are my ideas):
First of all I want to be tagged for the original idea.
No OOC or bashing of any character (except Gabriel).
No Alya salt unless it’s minimum and only if she’s redeemed at the end. She already gets more than enough hate from the fandom.
Other than that, please refrain of using any of the tropes mentioned in this post:
Max has a crush on Lila, that’s why he keeps believing everything she says (I thought this long before the twitter comment; besides it says that Max’s asexual, not aromatic).
Kim wants to be supporting since she’s his best friend’ first love, even if he doesn’t believe all of her tales (he’s not ruining his chances to become an Olympic medalist following a training regimen that Lila insist ‘was created for my great uncle, a platinum medalist’).
Alix’s getting sick of Lila, if she wanted to hear some self-insert bad fanfic she would spend more time with her brother.
Juleka wants to believe Lila and follows her advices about 'how to be a good model’ until her family intervenes.
After getting several comments complaining of how the Ladyblog’s really unorganized, Alya finally decide to create a side blog (Miracutales) for all the fan-arts and fanfics links her followers keep sending her, and with Nora’s help she spends a whole afternoon fixing her blog. When Lila’s finally exposed the blogger freaks out until her sister comments “Wait, that interview? I send it to your fanfic blog ages ago”.
Lila going on and on to Mylene about a movie actor the other admires, how they’re 'like this’ and that 'I can introduce you to him, he thinks of me as his niece’. Meanwhile the rainbow haired girl’s just nodding with a forced smile while the Italian keep spewing bullshit about her favorite theater actress.
Nino barging into Marinette’s room dragging his little brother, saying that she needed to watch over him on his place since he has a date with Alya. Cue to Alya clearing her throat from the other side of the room, where they were working on a school project.
Lila stole Nathaniel’s sketchbook the day before an important meeting and hid it in Marinette’s locker. Ignoring almost the whole class insistence that she didn’t do it, that anyone could’ve put it in there since there’s no locks, he grabbed her own sketchbook from her bag and ripped it into pieces to everyone’s horror. Marc saw this and he’s akumatized; once it’s all over he still ends their partnership*
*Although cruel, I don’t believe that this is so out of character for Nathaniel. He already has proven to have serious anger issues in Reverser and Evilustrador (While I don’t hold him responsible for what he did under Gabriel’s control, comparing him to other akumas wanting to get revenge of Chloe it’s worrying how much pleasure he seemed to find while tormenting her).
Adrien keep blowing off plans to hang out with his friends to go away as Chat Noir, using the excuse that his father keep adding things to his schedule. One day after he canceled once again, saying that he has a last minute photo shoot, the boys are hanging out in the park where they cross with Vincent. He tells them that he’s the only photograph that Gabriel Agreste trust to work with his son, and that Mr. Agreste was away on a trip for the weekend so Adrien’s schedule was pretty much free until his father came back.
It’s election time again and the Mayor’s opposition has a new slogan: “If he can’t even control his daughter, how can we trust him to protect this city best interest?”
Someone as a joke proposed Xavier Ramier (Mr. Pidgeon) as Mayor. He won.
Felix GV returns and once again pretends to be his cousin. He’s dragged into a photo shoot with Lila; he may be a bastard who hates his uncle and he may be annoyed with Adrien but he still has standards.
With the end of the school year near Alya’s just relieved that since they’ll start Lycée they wouldn’t have to deal with Chloe and Bustier (with her fairytales for assignments) ever again. Until a conversation with Marinette.
“What do you mean we would have Bustier again next year? We’re done with Francoise Dupond! She was your teacher for five years in a row*?! That woman is an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER??!”
*Until Chat Blanc Marinette’s been in Chloe class for five years now, at least four of them with Bustier according to picture’s day. Their class’ in middle school a.k.a three years so…well, that explains a lot about her teaching methods.
Marinette decides to let go of her crush on Adrien (not bashing), and with Alya supporting her choice (even if she doesn’t totally agree with giving up) Rose becomes the new captain of the Adrienette ship; trying to get them together against her friend wishes.
After discovering Hawk Moth’s identity Marinette decides she’ll never be like him and toss aside her dream of be a famous fashion designer. She either finds a new dream or simply opens just a small store away from the spotlight, with sporadic commission for people she’s close to.
At last, I like to call this section’s “Responsible Adults (Are trying their best)”
Marinette doesn’t know every celebrity under the sun, only Jagged, Nadja and maybe Clara. Gina Dupain, world traveler extraordinary, however has a rare gift when it comes to meeting new people by chance without knowing who they are*. 
(“I sat beside this guy once in a plane, he was such a charming young man. Here, there’s a pic” “Nonna that was *insert celebrity here*!” “Who?”)
*This in the only kind of celebrity insert I would aprove.
Surprise inspection from the French educational department (whatever it’s called), some heads are going to roll.
Officer Raincomprix at first was happy that Sabrina stopped hanging out with Chloe and made a real friend; then he realized that this girl was even worse than the Mayor’s daughter.
The school nurse accidentally cause an international affair after calling the Italian Embassy asking why the Ambassador’s daughter didn’t have the proper vaccines for all the travels she keep claiming to have made.
After seeing Nathalie faint in the middle of a car drive, a worried Gorilla brings her to the ER. While checking her vitals (she’s still unconscious) a nurse accidentally knocks her brooch out of her coat, and while putting it back a strange creature materialize in front of them.
“Any of you has Ladybug in speed dial?”
One of the Agreste servants (let’s be honest, how else would that place stay clean) discovers Hawk Moth secret lair.
“I don’t get paid enough for this”.
274 notes · View notes
herewegobacktomoon · 4 years
Text
Freaking out
Hi everyone, this is the first time I write a fanfic. I did because after watching 4x03 episode, I had some thoughts about how I would have liked to see Maya and Carina dealing with the freaking out. So, in order not to get crazy, I decided to note down my ideas, hoping that you may like it or interact with me, about what you were expecting or about your ideas about the episode!! I hope you all enjoy the reading. 
“So Carina moved in, this morning she made me French toast and I... I know “how nice”, “what a lovely gesture”: my super, super hot Italian girlfriend got up earlier to make this gourmet breakfast and I sat there nearly breaking out in hives because it was so... it was so nice. I mean, too nice? I kept looking around my apartment at her things on my bookshelves and her vagina art, and her bras drying in my bathroom, and I was like “Is this my life now?” I mean... I'm allergic to monogamy, and I moved in with my girlfriend during a pandemic, and there's something wrong with me because she's perfect and I want to be with her.I want to live with her, but it's like my body has a security system that goes off at all the wrong times. Or maybe it's just that Carina is light and lovely and I'm not. I'm dark and messy as hell.”
Maya was heading back home from work, with all these words floating in her head.
It had been an overwhelming day, with all the Sullivan's related stuff, the report, Dixon who did nothing but throwing up roadblocks, Warren who had lost his PRT, and last but not least the call, which had been unpredictably scary, above all for Miller.
The only good thing was that, with Andy, they had started taking one step towards each other, trying to acknowledge some of the mistakes they had made and led them to have their friendship hanging by a thread.
Although apparently she didn't have time to think, all day she couldn't help but thinking about Carina and what had happened that morning.
She thought about her words and couldn't figure out how she was feeling; guilty for what she had said to Andy, angry at herself for not having been able to talk to Carina, or just messy, but it was probably all of them.
She took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions, trying to establish some kind of order between all that chaos she had in her head, and stepped inside.
A warm and soft voice immediately welcomed her “Hi bella, how was your day?”.  
Before Maya could answer, Carina had already placed a gentle kiss on her lips, smiling widely but with her eyes not as bright as usual.
Maya felt her heart thudding, a feeling only Carina was able to provoke: “Quite long and tiring, but at least, it all went good. What about you?” she said, walking towards the couch, both to relax a bit and to avoid eye-contact with her girlfriend.
Carina hesitated a little, and then answered, with her voice struggling to sound confident “My day was quite tiring too, I've picked up all my stuff from the boxes and cleaned the house. Now you can sleep well, no more mess around!” she added, smiling, trying to push away what was bothering her.
Maya hinted at a smile, a faded but sincere one, and she went towards the bathroom to take a shower, as if it would have washed away all her insecurities.
Meanwhile, Carina started making dinner, to switch her mind off, but the attempt turned out to be quite an awful solution.
Her head brought her back to that look on Maya's face, to those beautiful warm eyes who seemed to be actual ice that morning. She could tell Maya was absent-minded, but she could only speculate about it as she didn't say a word.
She hadn't said anything to her girlfriend, but as a 100% Italian woman, she had been thinking about it all day, trying to understand what could have been the reason for her reaction, making assumptions which were not helping at all. Her mind started wandering in the darkest places possible and she couldn't stop it from doing so. She had strongly tried to keep herself busy, but it hadn't been that useful.
She wanted to talk to Maya about it, but she was also afraid that a wrong word may have caused a new storm that she had no strength to handle alone right now.
When Maya came back to the kitchen, the situation wasn't that different: she had washed away the sweat, the smog, all the dirt her skin had absorbed in a full-day of work, but her own words, each doubt, every single fear kept stuck to her.
“The dinner's ready, I made you my specialty: panzanella di farro and then, there's also a surprise baking in the oven!” Carina said, getting closer to the table and to Maya, leaning to kiss her forehead.
“I don't deserve you. You're perfect.” the blonde replied, caressing her girlfriend's face, staring at her for a whole minute, as she was a creature who came from another world.
If she could see a light, a stable one, in that storm that had engulfed her that morning, it was her love for Carina: she had no doubt about it, about what she felt for her. It was just that she had to find a way to live that feeling free from anxious thoughts and fear.
They both sat at the table, having dinner quite silently, exchanging just a few words, the necessary ones to keep a conversation going without actually having it.
Half an hour later, between some sips of white wine and some bites of an extremely well-cooked meal, Carina got up to take a sweet-smelling pie. As Maya saw it, she rolled her eyes and claimed:
“Oh God, I'm gonna get sooo fat. Baby, my sweet tooth will undoubtedly thank you later: you know me too well.”
Without even thinking about it, with a soft voice which followed a deep sigh, Carina let these words come out of her mouth: “I wish I would...”
Maya froze: her whole body stopped responding after hearing these words. She knew Carina's tone was warm, with no angst in it, but it was as if her words had switched on something inside her.
With insecurity biting her tongue, Maya asked “Hey babe, is there something wrong?”
Carina's expression suddenly changed, making Maya feeling concerned, as she didn't see it coming at all.
The Italian's eyes got wider, but not with joy: they were teary, struggling to look straightforward as she lowered her head, not to show that she was feeling like the world was crumbling down.
Maya took a step closer, cupping her girlfriend's face in her hands and kissing her softly:“I'm here for you. Tell me, what's going on?”.
“I don't know... I, I don't know how to explain it...” Carina said with her broken voice, in the attempt of keeping her tears in.
Maya took her by the hand and led her to the couch, where they sat, with Carina resting her back on Maya's chest, wrapped in her arms as she tried to calm down.
When they were all cuddled up, probably feeling safer, Carina tried to continue: “ This morning, while we were having breakfast, there was this look you made that...that worried me. I have been thinking about it all day...”
Maya immediately realized: she wasn't the only one who had had to face a storm that day.
Although it was hard for her, to explain her feelings, she decided to try, to make an effort to show Carina it wasn't about her.
“I know...” she said breathing heavily “I freaked out...”
Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on Carina, as if she was afraid to lose her, to make another false move.
The Italian noticed it, but she didn't move, she felt safe. She just took Maya's hand, stroking it softly, to let her girlfriend know she was there, listening to her.
“Why?” she asked warmly.
“Because I don't know how love works... And the table time, was it breakfast or lunch or dinner, never felt like something good to me since I was a child. It was a time for rewards or punishments: there were no in-between, no emotions to be showed.”
Carina's heart started beating faster, as if it was following the pace of Maya's.
“Oh Maya, I'm sorry... I didn't think of it as a possible trigger for you, I didn't want to upset you.”
She turned towards her, for another kiss, before Maya could add “Carina, it's not your fault. Actually you didn't upset me at all: I think that French toast made me orgasm”.
Carina giggled childishly, also quite proudly, and then asked “Why didn't you tell me that? You know that I'm here for you, and I hope you can trust me enough to open up with me. It's hard, I'm aware of it, but we can do it together, one step at the time.”
Maya nodded and squeezed her hand, trying to find the right words to not mess everything up again.
She didn't want to hurt her girlfriend, but she feared not being capable of it: she knew each word as a huge power that can either save you or destroy you.
She hesitated and Carina got up from her chest, now sitting right in front of her, their hands still intertwined: “You can talk, directly, I can handle this. What matters now is that your feelings find their way out, so that you can feel lighter and free.”
Maya was looking at her admiringly: with Carina, everything was different. Everything had always been different, since their very fist meeting, at the bar. It was as if her eyes could read Maya's soul, in such a pure way she didn't think it was possible.
Then, she let out a deep sigh and said: “The more I get to spend time with you, the more I think I'm the luckiest person on this world.” a very much needed kiss interrupted her speech again, but it was worth it. It gave her enough confidence to keep talking.
“Well, you know... I feel like it's kinda weird having this conversation with my girlfriend, but I need to, so...as you probably know, in my CV, just right after gold medalist champion and Firefighter captain, you can find “queen of monogamy”, I mean you could have found it if you had read it before I had met you. Ok this is quite awkward...” Maya was twisting her tongue, but Carina smiled at her, with a smirk which somehow reassured her. “Keep going, this story caught all my attention, Miss Maya – monogamy is for the weak- Bishop”.
Maya couldn't help but smile “I keep wondering why Vic can't just keep her mouth shut sometimes, my position is quite embarrassing at this point. Anyway...all this just to say that this was my life before you: occasional hook-ups which were nothing but an enjoyable night of self-care. But I've never known what loving someone feels like...I mean, most of my relationships, with my father, my mother or even my brother had always let me down, because of them or because of me, I don't know... but what happened is that I decided to throw away my feelings, shutting them up so that I didn't have to face disappointments anymore...”
Carina stared at her, listening carefully to every single word the blonde was saying and never loosening her grip on Maya's hand, delicately rubbing her thumb over it, to remind her that she had no intention to leave.
Maya's heart fastened her pace, causing her little trouble breathing, but she continued: “With you, it's different. Everything is new, my life has completely changed. To make things clear, it's not my “monogamy queendom” that I miss, because I love you so freaking much you have no idea. What I'm lacking of is a start point, a path to follow. I do truly love you like I never loved anyone else, but it feels like my body has a security system that doesn't allow me to do what I'd like to.
I fear that I could hurt you and that freezes me, every time...”
As Maya's eyes were starting to become sadder, Carina noticed it and took her into her arms.
Between a light kiss on the shoulder and a deeper one on the neck, Carina says “I know, it takes time to learn new stuff, above all where it's a totally new experience. But I want you to remember this: if I'm here, if I stayed, it's because I love you. It's true, people can hurt each other, but that doesn't mean they can't also heal each other. You made a mistake, it's true, but I forgave you and every day that goes by, your presence and your love are able to mend my scars.
I love you Maya and if you don't know the path to cross, it's not a big deal: we'll build one of our own and we'll find out how love works.”
Maya knew, in that precise moment, that asking Carina to move in with her, was the best choice she could have ever made: her words had made the storm in Maya calm down, leaving a little fire lit up, one of those fires which only ignite happiness.
Out of the blue, without saying a word she stood up, Carina looking at her with no clue of what was happening, and she grabbed her by the hand, pulling her in for a hug. Carina couldn't help but smile, kissing her girlfriend lips, lowering to her neck, and then finding her way to her collarbone.
With a smirk and her eyes full of both happiness and love, Maya said “I may not know what path to follow, but if we have to build our own one, I'm sure our first step is towards the bedroom.”
Carina nodded with a smirk “No doubts, Captain. I'll follow your lead”.
39 notes · View notes
stelladonna · 3 years
Text
Writing a Korrasami fanfic where Asami, a journalist, writes a magazine story about Korra, a former gold medalist swimmer, who sails around the world solo to heal herself after a tragic accident renders her unable to compete. Asami gets an inside look on sailing life, following Korra around for a few weeks and falling for the blue-eyed beauty in the process. 
Anyway, now this song is stuck in my head: https://youtu.be/e5MAg_yWsq8?t=175
youtube
9 notes · View notes
Text
ancient names, pt. xviii
A John Seed/Original Female Character Fanfic
Ancient Names, pt xviii: even as a dream
Masterlink Post
Word Count: ~7.4k  
Rating: Mature; nothing explicit, just mentions/references.
Warnings: almost none, though some descriptions of Elliot's recent actions, as well as some colorful threats and some poor decision making on John's behalf. This whole chapter is basically Elliot suffering and that's probably why it was so hard to write.
Notes: Hello my friends! I am once again asking for your patience as I come to you with a chapter full of emotional manipulation and almost no physical plot movement! All of this felt important to dig into and though it may not be the most fast-paced (or smutty) chapter, I hope that you still enjoy it nonetheless. Drama abound as we are slowly but surely closing in on the end.
I want to give a super special thank you to @shallow-gravy​ for listening to me whine and complain about this chapter as well as lend me their eyeballs so that I didn't go just fucking nutso trying to write this thing. As well, @lilwritingraven​ has been SO sweet, cheering me on and keeping my spirits up even when I think this was one of the harder chapters for me to get through; and everyone who comments, kudos, likes/reblogs depending on what platform you're on, thank YOU so so so much. It really keeps me going!
As always, my most beloved @starcrier​ put her eyes on this and let me feel less like I was going insane. I love you so much and thank you for loving my girl Elliot as much as I do!! God knows she DESERVES it.
“We should get our story straight.”
John’s voice wrangled Elliot out of her brain. She’d been trying to mentally prepare herself for whatever mind games were about to commence, but John stepping in front of her to block her way into the chapel and speaking was enough to yank her right out of it.
“Get what story straight?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Her gaze flickered to Boomer, waiting expectantly, and she made the quiet little motion for sit ; he did, obediently.
“Our timeline,” John clarified, “for—”
“You know, for someone who insists his brother doesn’t scare him,” Elliot interrupted, “you sure act like you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar every time he wants to talk to you.”
The brunette’s mouth twisted into a grimace. His arms crossed, mirroring her own.
“I don’t ,” John said, speaking slowly, “want Joseph to get the impression that because we are romantically entangled—”
“Please stop.”
“—that it somehow compromised the work I was doing with you before,” he finished.
“But it did,” Elliot pointed out mildly. “Or did you forget telling me about how long you’ve wanted to fuck me for?”
She saw, for a brief second in time, irritation spike in John’s expression. All this time it had been Elliot smothering him, stopping him from saying the words out loud—but there was something a little liberating about doing it herself, like she had discovered something sharp that had been hidden inside of her all along. It wasn’t useful enough to be used as often as she would have liked, of course; but that didn’t stop her from getting some satisfaction in seeing John’s expression clamp down because the control freak couldn’t stand the idea of her derailing his perfect plan.
(And maybe that had been what she really liked this little game they’d played, all along—the increasing frustration in his voice every time he’d cut in to her walkie talkie, like she could tell that he was losing control thread by thread.)
“I didn’t forget.” John managed to somehow sound both incredibly frustrated and nonplussed at the same time, like ambivalence was a tone of voice rather than an opinion that he could emulate. He continued, “I just think we should be clear about the timeline with each other.”
“Nothing’s unclear,” Elliot replied. “You’ve wanted to fuck me all along—”
“Well, now—”
“—and I finally let you,” she continued.
He sounded spiteful when he said, “Twice.”
“Twice,” she acquiesced, “but do we need to include details?”
John chewed on that for a minute. “Should,” he ventured, and he was clearly trying not to sound smug. “If it’s going to happen again.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think Joseph needs to know that.” And then, light-heartedly, “But if you think he does, we should include how you said please so very nicely for me—”
“Unnecessary,” the brunette interrupted. “Fine. It happened twice, the nature of our relationship is...”
“Tenuous at best.”
“... But not without hope,” John concluded. It took every ounce of her strength not to roll her eyes so fucking hard that she passed out; because yes , she did want to say, I know John was good, sometime, somewhere inside of him, and that means maybe I can bring it back, and if he said that he’d go with me I’d let him.
“Isn’t that right, El?”
Elliot sighed. She regarded him for a moment—grinning, handsome and boyish, flashing his teeth like the cat that had caught the canary. And handsome. He’s handsome, too.
“Whatever,” she relented, at last. “Is that all? Can we go in now? There are things I want to do with the day.”
As she reached around him for the door, John said, “So what are we?” and she groaned.
“ John.”
“I just think that—”
“You are ruining,” Elliot told him, poking a finger into his chest, “the mythos of whatever this is.”
John frowned. He looked like he wanted to say something; he looked like he wanted to say it and very terribly, but like he thought she might be mad if he did. Then again, Elliot had to consider that John said plenty of things that made her angry, and he did so knowing they would make her angry, and that there was no reason that he should start now.
“It shouldn’t be a mythos,” John said after a moment. “We’re… Together, you know—”
Elliot fished the carton of cigarettes out of her back pocket and tapped one out, lighting it. John had stopped himself to watch her, his gaze sweeping over her before he grinned again, wolfish and pleased.
“Does it stress you out?” he asked.
“Baby,” Elliot deadpanned, “if stressing me out was an Olympic sport, you would be a gold medalist.”
John plucked the cigarette out of her hands after she took one drag, dropped it on the ground, and stomped it out, much to her chagrin. One wasted cigarette.
“You owe me,” she said.
“I just want to make sure that we’re on the same page when we go in there,” he reiterated. “Nothing about the nature of our relationship affected the time that you spent in my custody.”
She eyed him. Out of spite, she almost wanted to agree and then say something completely different once she was inside—just to make him squirm, and all for stamping out her cigarette. 
“Fine,” she relented, at last. “But that’s all we say about it. I don’t think anything else needs to be said, do you?”
For one second, John opened his mouth again. It was all Elliot could do not to immediately groan; stupid, pretty John, who for some reason needed to constantly be talking, the same way a shark would die if it stopped moving. 
But then he said, “Sure,” and suspicion spiked high and hot in her brain. He leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers; the kiss was unhurried, but short, and succeeded in frying her brain pleasantly.
“Don’t try and distract me,” she snipped half-heartedly, even when she felt the blush crawling up her cheeks. He grinned as though to feign innocence, before he turned and opened the door to the chapel; when he stepped inside, it left her alone.
One blissful, serene moment alone. It felt more and more like she was running short on those. It was probably intentional. Whatever it was happening between herself and John—whatever this mythos really was—it was harder and harder to keep straight with him around her all the time, breathing her in and exhaling her out, hands and mouth and—
And if she just got one more second —
Inside, Joseph said, “You don’t have the deputy with you?” and John made a noise like he was surprised she hadn’t followed right in. Elliot motioned for Boomer to stay before she stepped inside and closed the door behind her; the movement plunged her into the dim, cool light of the chapel, illuminated only by the cut-out of the Eden’s Gate star-symbol, slanting golden light across the floor. Everything else was dark. Like a womb, living and breathing and spitting out cultists.
“I trust you’ve gotten sufficient rest?” came Joseph’s next question, and it was clearly directed at her. Elliot made her way to the front of the chapel and stifled a sigh.
“Faith said you wanted to talk with us?” she prompted, and Joseph looked like he was trying not to smile; the corners of his mouth ticked upward for a moment as he watched her. He liked to do that—let a silence linger between them, let it fester for a moment until she thought she’d rather curl up and disappear than stay there any longer.
He finally spoke and said, “It’s come to my attention, Deputy Honeysett, that your relationship with our brother John has developed.”
‘Our brother,’ he said. Joseph talking like he was the fucking Pope made her molars grind.
Before she could remark on it, Joseph continued, “It would stand to reason, then, that you are intending to enter the End with us?”
I want a home with you.
“Of course,” John said, just as Elliot said, “‘Reason’ is a funny choice of word for you,” and then their eyes met. John’s expression said we’re supposed to be on the same team, but as far as Elliot couldn’t bite back instinct so easily.
She knew John could be good. She knew it, and yet he insisted on acting otherwise, and it just made her think maybe she had been some kind of exception and he really was, all this time, just rotten.
“I know that you’ve had a lot to process these last few days,” Joseph continued lightly. “The devastating loss of Hudson, having to purge all of that old poison concerning your last boyfriend…”
Elliot felt the panic wash over her in an instant. It was the same feeling that she had gotten with Kian, but the kicker here was that she’d volunteered that information to Joseph. He’d gone digging around in her brain, but she’d given him permission to have it.
I don’t want John to know, something in her said frantically, he can’t know.
“Reconsider,” Elliot bit out venomously, “what you’re going to say next, Seed.”
A moment of silence lapsed between the three of them. John was watching her curiously, waiting, perhaps, for her to elaborate on her angry outburst. She wouldn’t. He’d be waiting until he was in his fucking grave and then some if he thought she was going to say anything about it.
“John,” Joseph said, glancing at the brunette, “I’d like a moment with our deputy.”
The brunette’s expression tightened. Something, just a tiny little something, about that statement bothered John, Elliot could tell—though he said nothing about it, and instead swallowed back whatever it was, clearing his throat.
“That’s not necessary,” she insisted, looking between the two brothers. “John, it isn’t.”
Don’t. Don’t leave me alone with him. Please. I’m so tired, I’m so tired, I don’t want to do this anymore. Not with him.
“I’ll be outside,” John said, but he said it to Elliot, not to Joseph, and it did so very little to inspire any confidence in her; that John thought he needed to explain to her that he would be close by only reminded her that there was something predatory about Joseph that John didn’t like, either. 
As he went to move past her, she grabbed his wrist out of instinct—the pads of her fingers brushed the crescent marks that she’d left on him that night in the river, and the differences in the ways that she gripped him now felt monumental.
The moment lingered, suspended, between them. John reached up with his un-gripped hand and brushed some of her hair behind her ear.
“It’s only a few minutes,” Joseph offered, as though it were supposed to comfort her. It didn’t.
She dropped her hand from his wrist, and his hand drifted from her face, and he was heading back to the door before she could figure out if she wanted to pitch more of a fit or not.
When the door closed behind them and left Joseph and herself alone, in the eerie stillness of the chapel, Elliot took in a slow breath. The last time she’d been alone with Joseph, she’d been doing what she knew he wanted her to—confessing to the things that hurt, the prickly, sharp parts of her that stung the most on their way out. She’d grappled back a thread of her control that day, but what should have been a catharsis had just felt—
Dirty.
“I know that you must be tired,” Joseph murmured, closing the distance between them. “You’ve been fighting for a long time, Elliot. Longer, I can say now with certainty, than before even us. Before this.”
Fuck you, she thought hatefully. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. You took everything from me, you wretched fucking man.
“I am tired,” she relented, desperate to keep that tiny bit of Joseph’s favor if it just meant that he’d stop trying to pry her open all the time. “But that doesn’t—”
“The End is coming,” he interrupted, though with the slow, rich cadence of his voice, it often felt less like an interruption and more a gentle redirection, “whether you believe it or not. But let’s say, theoretically, that it isn’t. That I’m wrong.”
Elliot’s mouth went dry. She didn’t like hypothesizing theoretical situations, least of all with Joseph. “Okay...”
The man had closed the distance between them now; his eyes were fixed on her, the relentless, dauntless part of him that did not soften to his Fatherly persona. He lifted his hands, and it took everything in Elliot not to flinch back out of instinct—his fingers brushed where John’s had just moments ago, trailing the slope of her jaw, landing on the feverish bruise marks on her throat.
“We retrieved Kian’s body from the forest,” he murmured, his fingers not leaving her neck. He looked to be inspecting the bruises on her neck, at the corner of her mouth.
The scrutiny made her skin feel sickly-hot. “And?”
“You obliterated his face,” Joseph said plainly. “Crushed each bony structure on it, caved him in. His eyes barely stayed in his sockets by the time you were done with him.”
Do you feel guilty for what that man did to you?
Elliot felt her stomach churn, the vicious nausea rolling around inside of her head. She could still feel Kian’s bones crumbling under each impact of the shotgun cold, dark metal, taste the arterial spray in her mouth. And just like that, she could feel Joseph digging his metaphorical claws in, cracking open her rib cage so he could stick his hands right into the gore of her.
Will you feel guilty about this, too?
“It—” Elliot felt her brain swoon dizzyingly; for a second, the only thing keeping her anchored was Joseph’s feather-light touch. “It w-was—self-defense—”
“ I know that,” Joseph murmured, “and you know that, and John—even Jacob, and Faith, and the others. We all know that, Elliot. But your friends from the resistance? Mary May, Grace... Pastor Jeffries...” His voice trailed off. “Do you think they’ll understand, when they read the reports of what you did to that man? Of the trail of bodies you’ve left behind yourself?”
“H-He was going to kill me,” and the words came out barely past a whisper; anymore volume and it would have been a wail. “ They were—”
“Yes,” Joseph agreed, “and you mutilated his body well past the point of death.”
“He deserved it,” she managed out, “he deserved it, he—” He was in my home, he touched my things, he pushed his way into my head, he took my Joey from me, she was the only good thing I had left and he took her.
“I know.” Joseph’s breath fanned across her forehead. “I know, Elliot. I hope—”
He stopped himself, and then he pulled back so that their eyes could meet, his hands cradling her face. It was both an anchor and invasion, this incessant need of Joseph’s to touch her. It grounded her to reality, but it also rattled violently through her skeleton, aftershocks of an earthquake she’d been living through for the last week.
“What I mean to say is, I only hope you understand,” he continued, his voice low, “this gift that we are giving you.”
I want a home with you.
“Do you?” Joseph asked. “Understand?”
What would Pastor Jeffries think? How would Mary May look at her? Sharky, and Grace—would they still like her spark?
Or was she ruined now, too, like everything else Eden’s Gate had touched?
Are you happy, Elliot?
“Yes,” she managed out. “I do.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
When the chapel door opened, John had been standing around outside for about ten minutes—enough time to hate it, enough time to look at Boomer waiting patiently at the foot of the stairs and think, fucking dog has better patience than I do.
“We’re going,” Elliot said, moving down the steps. Joseph lingered in the doorway behind her.
John balked. Faith had said Joseph wanted to speak to both of them; she’d made it sound like there had been more for him to be a part of, and yet Joseph had just collected one-on-one time with Elliot for himself and that was it?
“We’re?” he asked. Her voice sounded thick. “To where? Joseph, didn’t you—”
The blonde walked past him, and with a single gesture of her hand, Boomer was trotting off after her. John watched her, and then looked back at his older brother; he was sure the confusion was written clear on his face, but true to his nature, Joseph let it linger for a moment before he said, “She requested a car to visit someplace important to her. I said it would be fine, if you went.”
“Where?”
“It didn’t feel pertinent to ask,” Joseph replied. John paused, and as soon as he turned to start walking after Elliot—and perhaps get more information than what it seemed his brother was willing to supply him with—Joseph said, “John?”
He stopped and turned to look at his brother, and said, “Yes?”
“The opportunity is slipping.” Joseph’s head cocked to the side, his gaze hardening. “Do not let your family down.”
John felt something—anxiety, perhaps, but probably more dread —creep down his spine at Joseph’s words. He swallowed and nodded once before he started heading off again, the slow IV-drip of his older brother’s casual, cloaked venom seeping straight into the marrow of his bones.
Joseph’s voice rattled in his skull. Tell me you can do this.
You can’t have both, Elliot’s mouth against his, voice teetering on something broken.
He gritted his teeth, catching up to Elliot as she pulled herself into the driver’s seat of a truck. 
I can. You’re mine, and I can have both.
“Ready?” Elliot asked, having elaborated not at all on what was going on and only expecting that he would come along blindly. Well, she was right—to some extent, anyway, because here he was, knowing only one thing more than before and that was that Joseph’s patience was enduring, but running thin.
John flashed her a smile when she glanced over his way. 
“As ever.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It didn’t get any more clear where it was Elliot was taking him. Perhaps “taking him” was a bit of a stretch—he was going along because Joseph had insisted, and even if he hadn’t insisted it probably would have been his first choice of how to spend the afternoon anyway.
They were running out of time. That much had been made clear to him, either by Joseph or by Elliot’s itching to get out of the compound; pulled two ways, and only one of them was able to give—Elliot, with the proper amount of planting, guiding. 
John knew that he needed to stay focused. There could be no more lingering, favoring glances; she would need to be his, and he would have to make it happen. 
Fast.
The blonde turned the truck up a long, winding drive that took them further back into the wilderness of Hope County and parked in front of a house that he’d seen only once or twice before, and only in passing; he’d even considered reaping it for himself, at one point, but it was far out and small enough that it would have been more of an inconvenience than it was worth.
“So,” he said, when she put the truck in park and pulled the keys out of the ignition, “where is this?”
It was a small house, but not as small as most houses in Hope County; by all accounts, the house was probably considered upper class —the snob in him wanted to scoff audibly even as the thought considering how fucking incredible that statement alone was—but the two-story ranch house screamed Gothic South at him, even though he wasn’t entirely sure where it was where Elliot’s parents hailed from.
All of the lights in the house wereoff; the wisteria climbing the trellis that arched over the pathway had just finished blooming, and some of its perfume still lingered; ivy climbed up the elaborate railing of the top front porch, and the garden had clearly been meticulously well-kept.
“My mom’s,” she replied after a moment, sliding out of the driver’s side and closing the door. She sounded more put-together now; whatever had transpired between herself and Joseph had shaken her, but only temporarily. She’d stuffed it down, locked it away somewhere far away from him.
Oh, John thought, feeling that little thrill of delight he got every time he thought Elliot might be about to let him in and under and through. Mom’s house, hm? Interesting.
Boomer leaped from the back without waiting for the tailgate to get dropped and raced excited circles around Elliot as she made her way up the bricked path. He barked once, twice, and then Elliot lifted her hand and he quieted just before she gestured for him to go and he took off running. 
“I drove past this place when I first came back,” John said as he followed. “Your mom likes gardening, huh?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Elliot sighed, lifting one of the flower pots by the front door to fish a key out from underneath. There was something bitter and a little humorous as she added, “Scarlet Honeysett would never lift a hand to garden, except —” And here the blonde lifted a finger quite dutifully, that little Southern twang peeking through. “For her rose bushes. Nobody goes around touchin’ her rose bushes.”
John glanced around the front porch. The steps up were lined with the aforementioned bushes, tiny scalloped fencing keeping them from being in the way of foot traffic while still on perfect display. Ah, he thought absently, the neuroses.
Elliot unlocked the door, nudging the front door open with her foot and stuffing the key into her pocket. John followed her inside, glancing around in the late-afternoon light; the polished dark wood floors, the carefully placed decorations, plush foyer rug, elegant painting on the far wall leading past the stairs.
It was luxe, to say the least. A portrait hung on the wall closest to the door, a photo of a young woman and her blonde look-alike toddler. John thought that it was the kind of thing that you only saw in the home of a woman who put her daughter into pageants and drank martinis at ten in the morning. 
“Elliot Honeysett,” he began, with no shortage of needling glee, “are you rich?”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “ I certainly am not,” she told him. “My mother, however, is a trust fund baby, likely has not worked a single day in her life. Papa Graves was a retired jockey—made a lot of money, real quick, invested it, retired...”
Her voice trailed off and she walked past him to the room on the right, fiddling around with something past his line of sight. He picked up a frame on one of the side tables; it was a young blonde girl, grinning ear to ear, sitting atop a buckskin horse, her fingers tangled into its dark mane,
“You like horses?” John called.
As if to clarify, she replied, “Animals.”
Something in the next room clicked. For a second, John’s brain panicked; a gun, he thought, a brief second of considering that Elliot had brought him here to—
And then the music started to play. It was older music that didn’t quite suit his picture of Elliot—the same girl that had blasted Guns’N’Roses on their way out from the ranch—but dreamy. Hazy. The perfect kind of music to suit the golden light of the late afternoon slanting through the gauzy curtains framing French windows. For a second, John thought he could forget himself: she had let him in, to the most vulnerable part of her, this place littered with photos and monuments to Elliot as a child, Elliot as a girl, Elliot before any of this.
Joseph hadn’t gotten this. Nobody had gotten this—not Joseph, and not her ex-boyfriend, and not anyone. Not anyone except for him.
See the pyramids along the Nile; watch the sun rise on a tropic isle.
Next was a gentle clink. It sounded like ice cubes in a glass. John moved down the hallway, picking up another frame—what he could only presume to be young Elliot, perched atop the shoulders of a red-haired man, grinning like a scoundrel at the camera.
He could hear the sound of liquid pouring a room over. As he walked, he realized the table—and the walls—were covered with photos of this man, this red-haired stranger, freckles covering his face. He was handsome. His eyes looked familiar, too.
Just remember, darling, all the while, you belong to me.
“John,” Elliot said from the sitting room—what an absurd thought; Elliot Honeysett, in a sitting room , and that’s what it was, a sitting room, “what are you doing?”
“Learning about you,” John replied. “Your parents left with the resistance?”
There was a pause. He thought that he knew the answer—the only pictures of the man whose eyes were mirrored by Elliot’s own were from when she was quite young. Maybe too young to even remember?
“Mama did, yeah,” Elliot replied. He heard a match striking in the room next to him. She didn’t elaborate on her father; everything in John was itching to pry, to slide just under her skin and figure out what was going on in that brain of hers. Per usual, her decision to remain tight-lipped concerning just about everything that held any emotional bearing on her proved the biggest obstacle.
I'll be so alone without you.
John rounded the corner back into the living room. Elliot had started a fire in the fireplace, kicked off her shoes, and in her hand was a drink; she looked tired , neck still mottled with bruises, but more relaxed than he thought he had seen her in a long time. Even more relaxed than when she was sleeping.
“Didn’t even make me a drink,” he tsked, walking behind the couch to the bar cart. “Just pulled me out here for a little vacation, did you? We could visit.” His gaze slid to her, still perched on the couch with her back to him. “About whatever you’d like.”
“Just wanted to get out of the compound. Felt like I couldn’t breathe in there.” She waved her empty hand in a vague gesture, as if to indicate he was welcome to help himself. “You really don’t stop talking, do you?”
“It’s my job,” John replied, “and you’ve forbidden me from using my mouth otherwise.”
“Oh,” Elliot drawled as he idled around the back of the couch, taking in every meticulous detail of her mother’s living room, “so all I had to do was forbid you and you’d stop doing shit?”
A short laugh billowed out of him. It was so strange to have Elliot like this—was this how she had been with Joey? With the other deputies, with her friends? What she was like before that pesky ex-boyfriend of hers?
Maybe you'll be lonesome too, and blue.
John walked around the side of the couch and sat next to her, regarding her amusedly. She side-eyed him like she didn’t want to exert the effort of turning her head all the way to look at him; when he reached up to brush his fingers along her jaw, she only tilted her head out of his reach for a moment before relenting.
“Might not have worked before,” he suggested. “You’ve definitely gotten more persuasive.”
“Ah.” She arched a brow at him loftily, letting him tilt her face so that she was facing him, and took a sip of her drink. “Maybe your brother is rubbing off on me. After all, romantic coercion isn’t really your style , is it, John?”
He felt his mouth sour at the words. Dropping his fingers from her chin, he instead lifted the drink from her hand; though she relinquished the glass readily, he did see her eyes narrow, just a little. “You just can’t resist, can you?”
He waited for the bite; a part of him anticipated it now, sat patiently, eagerly for the quick-strike of venom. It had become so intrinsic to their day-to-day that he couldn’t tell if he liked it more when she was prickly and headstrong or if he liked it when she was sighing his name like a prayer.
Probably the latter.
The blonde feigned innocence. “Resist what?”
John took a sip of the drink. It was a vodka soda—strong, burning on its way down. Maybe her drink of choice? Or someone else’s. “Picking a fight with me.”
“You do have an exceptionally punchable face,” Elliot acquiesced. And then, as though to soften the blow: “But you have lovely long eyelashes.” She smiled, angelic. “Like a lamb.”
“Fuck you,” John snapped.
“You can,” she replied idly, “if you beg. ”
John felt a flare of something—maybe delight, maybe shame —red-hot and searing in his chest at her nonchalant words. He wanted to stay focused; this was the perfect opportunity to pry more out of her, to really know her and figure out exactly what it was that made her tick, what got those little draconian gears in her head churning.
And they were draconian—after that little show she’d put on with Joseph, he thought maybe Elliot was just a bit more wicked than she liked to let on.
Regarding her for a moment, John set the glass back in her hand, the burn of the alcohol still lingering in the back of his throat. She looked comfortable, draped against the couch; before, being in the same room as him put her on edge, teeth grinding and eyes wild.
“Liked that?” he asked, forcing his voice to lightness, digging. “Having me beg for you?”
“Well,” Elliot said demurely, “who wouldn’t like to hear you begging for something, you smug fucker?”
He bit back his knee-jerk retort and instead willed his words out. “You really are filthy then, aren’t you, Deputy Honeysett?”
Elliot took a swallow of the drink and looked as though she were measuring something, weighing the pros and cons of it in her head. In a fluid motion that must have cost her quite a bit of labor considering the current state of her skeleton, she swung one leg over his lap and settled herself there; straddling him, one hand flattened and smooth against the fabric of his shirt, the other holding the glass and draped over the back of the couch.
“I suppose,” she said, her eyes flickering over his face, “that you’re going to offer to cleanse me of my sins?”
“You’re a quicker study than you let on,” he replied, grinning. “You’ve confessed, but you’re hardly clean. ”
“You should hear yourself.” Elliot’s voice was clipped coming out of her mouth, even as John’s hands came to her hips and tugged her down more firmly against his lap. Her fingers undid one of the buttons on his shirt. “ ‘You’re hardly clean’. You sound so fucking stupid—”
“Let me baptize you,” John insisted. He tried to stuff away his irritation at her words, but it was hard to—even when the sharpness of her words was punctuated by a kiss, her lips parting silkily against his as she sighed, the sharp bite of the vodka chasing the warmth of her mouth. Joseph’s low, murmured threat sat heavy in his chest. “Let me—”
“Drown me?” she said with no absence of venom, even when she said it against his mouth. “Or was that just a one-timer?”
“It’s different,” he snapped. His hands slid beneath the hem of her long-sleeved shirt, tracing the dips and curves of her before splaying against her spine. “It’s different when you choose .”
She sighed; for a moment, John thought she was going to slide off of him, but she stayed, shifting idly on his lap and making the temperature of his body spike. Wicked, wretched viper, he thought, but it was affection blooming in his chest. Wicked and wretched, but mine. Legally bound to me, and all mine.
Besides; where was she going to go, after all of this? She didn’t seriously think she was walking out of Hope County like nothing had happened.
“You gave Joseph what he wanted,” he continued, feeling a little spiteful even as he kept his hands in the slope of her hips. “How’s it feel, knowing that?”
Elliot’s mouth twisted in a grimace. His words had sucked the wind right out of her sails; he saw the impact on her face, meteoric in its destruction.
She said, “John, don’t—”
“I will ,” he insisted, watching her take another dutiful swallow of the alcohol in her glass, “and you did. You gave him exactly what he wanted, after spending all this time insisting you were going to kill him the second you got a chance to. You’ve had a chance. We all know what you did to Kian; all it would take is what, ten minutes alone with him? So, I’ll say it again, how—”
“Worse,” the blonde interrupted, her voice thick with an emotion that John couldn’t quite pin down, “than giving you what you want.”
Yes yes yes, the monster inside of him chanted. He could feel it writhing just beneath his proverbial fingers; so close to sticking the wings of her little butterfly, that special thing that she didn’t want him to have or know. Yes, all mine, give it to me, I deserve it.
The air felt thick, molten-hot and bubbling between them until he thought he was going to be dizzy from trying to breathe something so oxygen-thin. He could feel the flutter of Elliot’s pulse, unsteady and hammering, against his chest: not the heartbeat of an apex predator, but that of prey, snagged and caught and his.
John pressed his mouth to the slope of her neck, tightening his grip on her; his tongue traced the marks left there just below her jaw, and then he murmured, “Tell me how it feels to give me what I want, El.”
Elliot’s free hand had tangled into his hair, knotting there and gripping just a little tighter at his words.
“Good,” she managed out. Her voice barely broke the sound barrier of a whisper; that single word alone gave John a vibrant surge of triumph in his chest, billowed the breath right out of him. But when he pulled back to look at her, she finished off the rest of the vodka and set the glass on the side table before she plunged on, “I had a dream the other night.”
A brief pause dragged the silence on, with only the music playing absently in the background as she righted herself on his lap.
“It was after my walk with Faith,” Elliot continued. “You were there, and—it was just a stupid dream, but—”
“Dreams can be prophetic,” John said, because whatever she was unraveling was making her upset, and he wanted it; that little tremble in her voice, so sweet so sweet, the same kind of sweetness he’d wanted to taste that night he’d first gotten his hands on her.
When he opened his mouth to continue to encourage her, she slapped her palm over it and said, “Shut up or I’m going to lose my train of thought.”
John made a muffled noise of acquiescence. Elliot dropped her hand from his mouth and took in a short, sharp little breath.
“You were there, and you kept saying things like… That you wanted to be—mine,” she explained, and this whole time she hadn’t been looking at him, but she did now. “That you wanted a home with me, that we would—after Kian, we would leave Hope County and for a second—I fucking—everyone, and everything, it’s all gone to shit and for one fucking second when you were saying that I didn’t—I didn’t feel—”
So close, John thought, watching her try to work around the words that she wanted to say but that fought against her entire being to come out. I just need to hear it. That’s all I need.
“Alone,” Elliot finished softly.
It was the perfect opportunity; Joseph had made it clear that they weren’t going to be waiting to finish off the Family to retreat for the End, and that meant that John only had so much time to bring Elliot around. This was the moment that he had to take advantage of, to tell her about their marriage and hope for the best.
“It wasn’t,” John said after a moment. “A dream, I mean.”
The blonde stared at him for a moment. Her expression was guarded. “What wasn’t?”
“That night that you came back from your walk with Faith,” he began, “you weren’t feeling well, and I walked you back to the bunkhouse—”
“Uh-huh.”
“—and I told you that I didn’t want you to be alone anymore—”
“John.”
It’s fine, he thought, even when Elliot’s expression flattened and emptied out, it’s fine, it’s fine.
“—and that after all this was done, I would leave with you, and I wanted a home. With you.”
Elliot blinked. A few moments passed. Surprisingly, there was no fury radiating off of her; she looked blank, like she was still processing and taking in all of this information. Like maybe it hadn’t quite hit her yet.
John opened his mouth, very deliberately, to proceed and inform her of the next part—the completely fine and totally normal agreement to get married when Elliot said, “So you lied to me?”
His mouth closed. “Sorry?”
“I asked you about it,” she began, and now she was biting the words out, “the next morning. In the chapel. Jacob was there, and I asked you if something happened—”
“—less like it happened—”
“—and you said, John, that I walked myself to the bunkhouse and went to sleep.” Her fingers had fisted into the front of his shirt now, gripping, as if she were preparing for him to try and squirm out from underneath her. “I fucking knew you weren’t telling me the truth, I fucking knew it because my gun was on the table and I’d never fucking put it there to go to sleep, you stupid fuckhead—”
“El,” John said, lifting a hand, though he didn’t know why; maybe in an effort to soothe her, maybe to block any incoming blows, but Elliot smacked his hand out of the way.
“You fucking weasel—”
“Elliot, listen to me!”
Bad, John thought, and he hadn’t even told her about the part of this that was the most legally binding, the part of this that didn’t make her a Honeysett at all anymore but a Seed. All of that softness from before had evaporated in the heat of her rage. Bad, so fucking bad, fuck I’m fucked fuck.
“I’m gonna fucking dig the decay out of your teeth with a hunting knife, you lying piece of shit,” Elliot snapped. “You saw what I did to Kian, huh? I let you fuck me, and you lied to me—”
“I was—”
“—fucking rotten through and through—”
“Elliot,” John managed out, scrambling for something as he ducked an otherwise well-timed blow; he snagged her wrists, both of them, to stop her from landing any kind of hit. “I was embarrassed, okay? When you came in the next day and you didn’t remember, I—freaked out. Jacob was there, and I thought you’d kill me if I didn’t tell you, and also that you’d kill me if I said it front of Jacob, and I didn’t want to say it in front of him anyway because it was about how I was going to leave with you rather than stay with them!”
Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth pressed into a thin, hard line. It was a lie —a big fucking lie, in a lot of ways, but most importantly a big lie-by-omission, but though he knew it John thought certainly there was no fucking way in Hell he was going to bring that part up to Elliot now, too.
She’s clearly emotionally fragile, he reasoned, I should wait until a better moment.
“Why’d you want me to get baptized then?” she snapped. “If you were planning on leaving with me?”
“Because,” John said slowly, come on come on come on, “Joseph—knows about us, and it would be suspicious. If you didn’t.”
Elliot stared at him. “And?”
“ And,” he insisted, “I planned on telling you in the car on the way out of the compound that night, and then we got hit, and we went on Kian’s fun little nightmare carnival ride, and—”
“Shut up.” Elliot yanked her wrists out of his grip and passed a hand over her face exhaustedly. John wanted to keep talking—it was instinct to want to weave the most elaborate tale that he could in the face of Elliot’s fury—but he did as she said, keeping his mouth shut as she processed whatever it was she had taken in.
Her hand dropped from her face, and she stared at a spot on the wall over his head for a minute before she sucked her teeth and said, “You don’t fucking lie to me, John.”
“I—”
“You don’t fucking lie to me,” Elliot reiterated again, “because if you do, I will find out, and I will make you fucking suffer.”
John regarded her warily. He knew that he needed to tell her. He knew that he should, because if this was any indication to how she was going to handle it, the full truth would be astronomically worse. It would be best to get it out of the way, let her process it, and maybe by the end she’d have come around to the picture he’d paint of them, together, as the End crept in; safe and in the bunker and—
“Okay,” he replied, “no lying.”
“No fucking lying.”
“Got it.”
“And if you do—”
“Skeleton pulled out of my body,” John supplied, lowering his hands hesitantly back to her hips. She eyed him through her lashes for a moment before she seemed to relax a little, sucking her teeth and crossing her arms over her chest. As each second ticked by that she didn’t make good on her violent promises of emergency tooth surgery, John felt more and more confident that he had assuaged the monster and reached up to gently unlace her arms. She balked at first, and then relented after another few heartbeats; when she allowed him to pull her arms around his neck, Elliot let out a soft little exhale, like she’d been holding her breath.
He said, trying for lightness, “I like when you get scary.”
“Did you mean it?” she asked, ignoring his little playful remark. When John looked at her expectantly, looking for some elaboration, she took in a breath and said, “About... leaving?” And then, with concerted effort: “With me?”
Soft —she was so soft, right then and there, and only for him. It was in moments like this when John wanted to drag her down into him, kiss her until his lungs ached, until their breath mixed and intermingled; to capture something like this and keep it his and his alone, forever.
He’d tell her. He’d tell her when things were better—when she wasn’t so emotionally raw, when she hadn’t lost so much so quickly, and when she’d have a more level head about it. She’d feel safer, more secure, with this little white lie; and then he’d tell her about the End again, once things had quieted down for a few days, and explain the importance of having her by his side. As his wife.
“Yeah, El,” he replied. “I meant it.” And then, because she was staring at him with those eyes—wary, cautious, guarded—he took her face in his hands and said, “I’m yours.”
“Don’t,” she managed out, and now her voice was really wobbling, “don’t fucking lie to me again, John Seed.”
She’ll see that I did this for us. 
“I won’t.” And technically, sort of, it was true—he wasn’t going to tell her another lie now that she’d just said not to do it again. Unless she asked again. But she wouldn’t. So it was sort of like he was doing exactly what she wanted, wasn’t it? 
Elliot’s forehead brushed his. She let out a sharp exhale. “I don’t have anything left,” she said after a second, “anymore.”
He pressed his mouth to hers in a kiss—luxuriated in, drenched himself in it, indulged in the feeling of her leaned into his touch.
“You have me,” he said against her mouth. “You know that.”
“Yes.” Elliot’s voice was an exhausted murmur; her eyes fluttered shut. Got you, John thought, dragging his thumb along the slope of her cheekbone, and she said, “I know.”
Got you, hellcat.
20 notes · View notes