#Remote Control Big Rolling Shutter

[rollingshutterinuae]

Modern Residential Garage Doors in UAE: Trends, Types & How to Choose the Right One

In today’s fast-growing real estate landscape across the United Arab Emirates, homeowners are putting more focus on security, style, and smart living. One element that plays a surprisingly big role in all three is the residential garage door.

If you’re looking for a residential garage door in UAE, it’s important to go beyond just price and aesthetics. The UAE’s climate, modern architecture, and smart home trends demand high-performance garage doors that are stylish, durable, and technologically advanced.

The Growing Demand for Residential Garage Doors in the UAE

From the luxury communities of Dubai Hills and Al Barari to family homes in Sharjah or Abu Dhabi, garage doors have become an integral part of residential architecture. With increasing car ownership, home automation, and a desire for modern design, the UAE market for garage doors has grown rapidly in recent years.

Why the Right Garage Door Matters

First Impressions Count: Garage doors can take up 30%–40% of your home’s front-facing exterior.

Security is Key: A robust garage door can deter intruders and protect your vehicles and valuables.

Weather Resistance: Sand, heat, and humidity in the UAE can damage poorly built doors.

Smart Homes Integration: New doors work with mobile apps and smart systems for remote access.

Popular Residential Garage Door Styles in the UAE

Choosing the right residential garage door in UAE starts with understanding what’s available:

1. Automatic Garage Doors

These are now standard in most upscale neighborhoods. With remote control or app-based access, automatic doors offer high security and ease of use.

Ideal for: Villas, gated communities

Features: Motion sensors, auto-locking, soft open/close

2. Sectional Overhead Doors

Made up of individual sections that slide up overhead, these doors are sleek, compact, and great for homes with limited driveway space.

Common in: Urban homes, townhouses

Materials: Insulated steel, aluminum

3. Roll-Up Shutter Doors

Known for their space efficiency, roll-up doors are commonly used in garages with low ceilings or limited side room.

Used in: Compact residential garages, car parks

Benefits: Easy to maintain, strong against dust and sand

4. Side-Hinged Doors

These doors swing open like traditional doors, offering a rustic and timeless appearance. Great for design-conscious homeowners.

Best for: Older-style homes, heritage villas

Materials: Wood, composite, or metal panels

Top Features to Look for in a Garage Door in the UAE

The UAE’s harsh climate and rapid tech adoption mean your garage door needs to be more than just functional. Look for:

✅ UV Protection

Helps prevent color fading, warping, or cracking due to direct sunlight.

✅ Sand Seals and Filters

Essential in desert areas to keep interiors dust-free and functional.

✅ Insulation

Reduces heat inside the garage—especially important if it connects to the house or is used as a workspace.

✅ Safety Sensors

Especially for families with children, these sensors prevent the door from closing if an object is in its path.

✅ Remote or App Control

Convenience and security are enhanced with Wi-Fi-enabled smart garage systems.

Garage Door Installation in the UAE: What You Should Know

Professional installation is non-negotiable. Garage doors involve complex mechanisms, and improper setup can lead to safety risks and costly repairs.

Look for:

Certified installers with UAE project experience

Brands that offer local after-sales support

Emergency servicing availability

Warranties on motor, structure, and finish

Pro Tip: Many Dubai and Abu Dhabi-based companies offer free on-site assessments and quotes.

Where to Buy Residential Garage Doors in UAE

Here are some leading names you can trust:

Hormann Middle East – German-engineered doors known for quality and durability

Danube Home – Popular retail brand offering stylish and affordable options

Al Suroor Garage Doors – Local provider specializing in installation and repairs

Ryterna UAE – Custom door designs tailored for residential projects

Always check for:

Customer reviews

Portfolio of past projects

Available customization options

Service and maintenance plans

Final Thoughts

Choosing the perfect residential garage door in UAE is a mix of design, durability, and digital integration. With so many options in the market, it’s easy to find a solution that matches your home’s aesthetic while providing the security and performance you need in the UAE climate.

Whether you live in a villa in Jumeirah, a townhouse in Yas Island, or a family home in Sharjah, there’s a garage door designed just for you.

[laurettabeier66]

10 Tips for Taking Professional-Looking Cosplay Photos at Home

The real story that goes on behind the scenes of cosplay isn’t just dressing up; it’s fandom, craftiness and love in disguises. However, even the most attentive cosplay do not appear as dreams without good photos. The good news? You do not have to go into a studio or use expensive gear in order to shoot great cosplay photos. Tricky Tips & Platform to Take Cosplay Photos seem Professional at Home

So, here are ten pro tips for making at-home cosplay photography look as good as your indoor costumes!

1. Conceptualize ahead of time

So, even before you head to pick up your camera or phone — what is the concept for this photo? Who is the character? What are their feelings or key image? Pick the vibe- If it’s a drama, fun, romantic or mystery… make your background , lighting and props match.

Pro Tip: Make weekly mood boards via Pininterest or Screen Shots for Inspiration

2. Natural Light Is Good

The absolute most critical thing in photography is lighting. Use natural light if you do not have real lights. Try to shoot natural light in daytime (of course this will also depend on the design of your window and how much sunlight gets it around a big wall hole where you can place them near towards there gently.

Do not take pictures in the harsh direct sun resulting from an overly blue sky and creating nasty shadows. You can use just a DIY white curtain as diffuser.

Read More: Cosplay Industry Trends: Insights and Analysis for 2025

3. Invest in Affordable Lighting

Level up and take control over your setup You can use a ring light, softbox or LED panel which are affordable and will even in small spaces. Always utilize 2 lights, one for the face (key light) and another on your background or making a rim light.

White walls or boards bouncing light could also create gentle shadows.

4. Clean and Non-Distracting Background Image

Your cosplay becomes lost in a cluttered background. Start By Creating A Clean Space Whether you have a plain wall, themed fabric backdrop or are using DIY paper roll.

Create a setting that works for your character; use basic setups like dark corners for villains, or floral arrangements for fantasy characters—depending on the backgrounds you’ve chosen.

5. Get a Tripod or Steady Surface

Good cosplays ruined by blurry photos. Get a stable shot using tripod. If you don’t, use a table or stacks of books to prop up your phone/camera.

Search for Mobile Phone tripods that have Remote shutters too or a timer so you can be hand free.

6. Master Basic Camera Settings

Basic camera features are so beneficial to know whether using a DSLR or even your smartphone. Focus on:

Exposure — You want your parts to be recognizable even in poorly lit Halloween parties!

Keep the nose, or eyes in sharp focus.

HDR mode: This is designed to capture more detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights.

Apps on smartphones that will allow mirroring: ProCamera, Halide and Camera+ for manual control over settings.

7. Be intentional in Your Editing

Yes, editing makes your pictures livelier attractive but not to a large extent. Repair the light source, restore darkness and balance of colour with applications such as Lightroom, Snapseed or VSCO. You can also use it to add light filters or gloss over small defects.

Themed edits (sparks, fog or magic effect): PicsArt of Photoshop Express

8. Pose and expression have to be on point

The best cosplay photos are good at getting to the essence of a character. Before the shoot, practice your poses and facial expressions in front of a mirror. Observe how your character is walking or refer to some photos so you can be true.

Add energy by taking some dynamic angles (ie. shoot from slightly above or below instead of straight on)

9. Props and Accessories for Depth

Props -add- Reality and Deepness to your Image. From something as big as a sword or staff to even the tiny things like potions or books are what gives your character life. HOLD PROPS NATURALLY EXAMPLE: LIKE HOW YOUR CHARACTER WOULD DO IN ACTION OR CONVERSATION;

Smaller background items (say: candles; books, or vines) can even set the mood.

Read More: How To Dress Up Like The Fastest Man Alive: A Flash Cosplay Guide

10. Practice Makes Perfect

Not everything works—and that’s perfectly fine! The more shots you take, the better your chances of getting a shot that suits everyone — and elimination rounds will encourage this experimentation by pushing states to try various angles and adjust for lighting signatures. As you shoot more, your eye will become attuned to composition; light and style.

Final Thoughts

From this video, You Can Learn how to Create Amazing Cosplay Portraits without having a professional studio. With the correct set up, by paying attention to small details and being a bit creative you can take at-home cosplay costume photos that appear out of magazine shoot.

Just a reminder, cosplay is fun! Be creative and try new things.

FAQs

So that begs the question: Can I still get good cosplay shots with just my phone?

Yes! Smartphone is a Swiss-Knife for us and the cameras in them are getting better with each new launch. If the lighting is good and you play with some edit apps, it may look pro-grade.

What Is The Best Time Of Day for Photographing in Natural Light?

The softest, most flattering natural light occurs in the morning (between 8 to 10 AM) and late afternoon (4–6 PM).

Expensive Props and Backdrops?

Not at all. Bedsheets, DIY props or printed backdrops are some of them. Quality trumps quantity

Posing for Cosplay photos How to Pose Correctly for Your Photos

Analyze the character you are creating and try it out through a mirror. Experiment with multiple poses and expressions either test-shoot using remote or timer

Which Apps For Editing Cosplay Photos

For your lighting and style edits, I suggest you use Lightroom or Snapseed, VSCO��(if not used for filter), PicsArt. For more complex effects, try Photoshop or Afterlight.

Source: https://urcosplay.com/10-tips-for-taking-professional-looking-cosplay-photos-at-home/

[jpptech]

Manual vs. Motorized Rolling Shutters: Which Option Is Right for You?

Choosing the right rolling shutters for your home or business is a big decision that can affect security, convenience, and energy efficiency. At Southwest Rolling Shutters Company Inc., we offer both manual and motorized rolling shutters to fit different needs and preferences. Whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly, simple option or a high-tech, automated system, understanding the benefits of each can help you make the right choice for your property in Cathedral City, California.

Manual Rolling Shutters: Simple and Cost-Effective

Advantages of Manual Rolling Shutters

Manual rolling shutters operate without any electrical system, which makes them a cost-effective option. Their simplicity can be ideal for smaller windows or areas where automated controls aren’t necessary. Since manual shutters don’t rely on electricity, they’re also highly reliable, especially during power outages.

Additionally, manual rolling shutters are relatively low-maintenance compared to motorized options. They don’t have electronic parts that may require repairs over time, and installation is often quicker and more affordable.

Best Uses for Manual Rolling Shutters

Manual rolling shutters work well for properties with a few windows or for smaller spaces. They’re also a popular choice for secondary windows, garages, or storage areas where electric operation may not be needed. For homeowners who want reliable and straightforward protection, manual shutters are an ideal choice, especially when budgets are a primary consideration.

Motorized Rolling Shutters: Convenient and High-Tech

Advantages of Motorized Rolling Shutters

Motorized rolling shutters are equipped with an electric motor, allowing you to control them with the push of a button, a remote, or even through a smart home system. At Southwest Rolling Shutters Company Inc., we offer motorized rolling shutters with battery backup, ensuring they continue to work even during power outages.

Motorized shutters provide an unmatched level of convenience. Imagine being able to close all your shutters at night with a single click or setting them to open and close automatically at specific times. This feature is especially valuable for larger homes or commercial buildings in Cathedral City, California, where manual operation might be impractical.

Best Uses for Motorized Rolling Shutters

Motorized rolling shutters are perfect for high-traffic areas or properties with multiple windows. They’re also ideal for people who enjoy smart home automation, as our systems integrate seamlessly with modern smart technology. Motorized shutters provide added convenience, making them a great choice for anyone looking to save time and increase their property’s security with minimal effort.

Which Option Is Right for You?

When choosing between manual and motorized rolling shutters, consider your specific needs, budget, and property layout. If you’re looking for simplicity, reliability, and affordability, manual shutters may be the best choice. They’re particularly suited for smaller spaces or areas that don’t require frequent adjustments.

On the other hand, motorized shutters offer unparalleled convenience and security. For larger homes, commercial properties, or tech-savvy homeowners in Cathedral City, California, motorized shutters are an excellent investment. They add value to your property and integrate effortlessly with smart home systems, providing you with complete control over your environment.

How Southwest Rolling Shutters Company Inc. Can Help

Whether you choose manual or motorized rolling shutters, Southwest Rolling Shutters Company Inc. is here to help you find the perfect solution. Our expert team can guide you through the selection process, ensuring that your shutters meet your specific needs and preferences. Contact us today to learn more about our high-quality shutter options and how they can enhance your property in Cathedral City, California.

[garage-door-repair01]

Repairs for Garage Doors by B&D

A garage door is a big door on a garage that may be opened manually or with the help of an electric motor. Garage doors are often big enough to fit cars and other vehicles so it’s necessary to find Service in Repairs for Garage Doors by B&D. Small garage doors with a single panel that tilts up and back across the garage ceiling are possible. Larger doors are often constructed of many jointed panels that roll up on tracks across the garage ceiling or into a roll above the entry. To offset the weight of the door and minimise the amount of human or motor effort required to open the door, the working mechanism is spring-loaded or counterbalanced. Some garage doors glide or swing horizontally, which is less frequent.  A conventional overhead garage door would have been constructed as a one-piece panel in the past. The panel was supported on both sides by an uneven parallelogram hinge lifting mechanism. Overhead garage doors are now typically constructed from numerous hinged panels that travel along with a set of tracks guided by rollers. The door may weigh 400 lb (180 kg) or more, but it is balanced by either a torsion spring system or a pair of extension springs. A motorised garage door opener with remote control provides convenience, safety, and security.  

Types 

 Aluminium garage doors are inexpensive, lightweight, rust-proof, and require little maintenance. They are prone to denting since aluminium is a weak material, and they are wasteful in terms of energy use because aluminium is a highly conductive substance.

Fibreglass and vinyl garage doors are composite systems with a steel core concealed beneath fibreglass or vinyl covering. They have polyurethane insulated foundation portions as well as various forms of foam insulation. These premium doors may match steel garage doors and look like wood, but they are more costly than steel units.

Steel doors, which are available in a range of sizes and designs, provide strength and security, are cost-effective, and may have optional insulating value. Two or three layers of galvanised steel with a low gauge number are offered for added strength.

Wood garage doors are attractive, but they require a lot of upkeep and can be pricey. Low-cost wood garage doors are prone to warping and breaking.

Services and Repairs

B&D Garage door repair businesses have specialised in a wide variety of garage door services, including the supply, installation, and maintenance of residential, commercial, and industrial doors, as well as spring doors, rolling doors and shutters, panels, and other door parts for manufacture. They also install and service automated door and gate openers. The service and maintain all brands and types of garage doors, gates, and motors. Customers may reach their service staff and specialists 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is suggested that doors be serviced by a trained service specialist once every 12 months to avoid major problems.

The businesses are in a good location to serve you. They can provide a no-obligation estimate if you call or contact them, and they have a crew of professional and friendly service technicians and sales personnel that embody our family-run business ideals. When your roller doors malfunction, you may rely on b&d garage door repairs providers to determine if they can be fixed or must be replaced.

[newsworld-nw]

BMW i7 xDrive60: Electric meets performance

The BMW i7 xDrive60 is large and imposing—and quiet. BMW Letter dimension It took some time for electrification to achieve European flagships, however now it is taking place in earnest. If you'd like a plug-in model of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, that is no drawback – you may get the EQS as a sedan or an SUV. Audi's efficiency pinnacle, the V-10 R8, exits the lineup at yr's finish, giving method to the RS e-tron GT. And the BMW 7-series sedan? Effectively, now it is out there because the BMW i7 xDrive60 with battery energy. And full opulence is maintained. Prime-of-the-line electrical vehicles, particularly European ones, are typically costly. That is prone to change at the very least barely over time, however the 2023 i7 xDrive60 as-tested was US$151,995. It contains many extras, as the bottom worth of the mannequin is US$119,300 Constructing EVs on devoted platforms has benefits, as they're initially optimized for batteries. That is not BMW's strategy, although, because the i7 variants sit on the identical platform because the gasoline engine 7-Collection. Meaning it is large (17.6 ft lengthy and 6,067 kilos), imposing (sitting on 21-inch wheels) and provides few clues as to what it plugs into. The automotive has the big kidney grille that BMW adopted for the 4-series, however should you look intently you will see it is a false entrance for many of the look. However the grill is "lively," that means it has shutters that open to confess cool air when wanted. By some means the styling works in an enormous method, however the higher and decrease LED headlights on all sides require some psychological assimilation.

Rear seat passengers get royal remedy and a drop-down display. BMW Contemplating the burden, it is not shocking that this i7 has a 101.7 kWh (usable) battery, which gives twin motors with 225 horsepower on the entrance and 308 horsepower on the rear axle. As large as it's, it might attain 60 mph in simply 4.1 seconds, although it feels extra succesful than neck-breakingly quick. It does its job with Rolls-Royce ranges of silence. Additionally protecting occupants remoted from street turbulence are adaptive shock absorbers and air suspension. Brake regeneration ranges may be dialed in, although should you endure from movement illness and need as a lot drive expertise as attainable, you will flip it off. The i7's cabin is especially plush, with full smoke white merino leather-based seats (a US$1,000 possibility) with therapeutic massage capabilities. The rear seats are additionally massaged (US$600). And the choice listing contains US$7,250 for seating within the rear Govt Lounge, which includes a 31-inch theater display that descends from the ceiling for passengers, a middle console and reclining seats with footrests. Local weather, seats and lighting may be adjusted by way of separate 5.5-inch screens for the 2 rear passengers. The Bowers & Wilkins stereo does not include the automotive; That is a US$4,800 further. First-class plane cabins have come alive, and lots of will likely be chauffeured by Chinese language executives. These executives should be affected person whereas recharging the i7. The official EPA vary is 308 miles, however some street exams have proven much less. The i7 can rapidly recharge 195 kW, including 100 miles in about 12 minutes, however 11.5-kW house charging will take about 10 hours to fill.

The massive BMW places a premium on cosseting its occupants BMW It is a type of new vehicles that ditches many of the bodily buttons in favor of on-screen controls. This may be annoying, though the ache will little question be lessened if the homeowners are fully at house with the menu. The gearshift is a gorgeous crystal gadget, which provides a way of opulence. Additionally out there is the single-motor i7 xDrive50, priced at US$105,700. The i7 xDrive60 will get occupants to their locations pretty rapidly. The automotive can't be referred to as "state" very quick. However if you would like your electrical i7 to essentially transfer, you will purchase a US$169,495 2024 M70 xDrive, which produces as much as 650 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque (in Launch Management mode). Zero to 60 takes simply 3.5 seconds. #BMW #xDrive60 #Electrical #meets #efficiency Read the full article

[sparkandwolf]

Without passion, we'd be truly dead (read on ao3)

Pairing: Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale Rating: General Summary: “You’re not going to make fun of me for this, are you?” Derek asked as his thumb hesitated over the play button on the remote. Stiles shrugged and grabbed the controller, pressing play before Derek could argue.

“I am absolutely going to make fun of you for this, there’s no doubt in my mind.” Derek’s groan was drowned out by a British voice introducing the next episode and Stiles moved his focus to the recap, trying to take in the things he might have missed from not watching the show from the beginning.

For @sterekvalentineweek day six: Passion

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Derek exclaimed as Stiles popped open a bag of Cheetos, barely escaping the puff of powder that breezed out. “Scott and Isaac have both referred to you as the ‘resident nerd’ and you’ve never seen the cult classic that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” Derek shook his head and clicked over to one of the streaming services and a very badly edited photo of Sarah Michelle Gellar came into view. 

“I saw the movie! Doesn’t that count for anything?” Stiles asked. By the displeased look on Derek’s face, Stiles figured that it very much, in fact, did not count. “It definitely doesn’t strike me as the kind of show you would be interested in,” Stiles noted, hoping the change in subject would force Derek to stop glaring at him. 

“It wasn’t, at first, but it--” Derek cut himself off and leaned his head back against the back of the couch, taking a breath as if preparing himself to make some big admission. Stiles stayed quiet as Derek rubbed his palms against his thighs. “Laura loved it. She and my mother would watch it every Monday night and Laura had these ridiculous posters on her wall of Buffy and Willow and--” Derek cleared his throat and Stiles could hear the emotion behind it. 

When he said nothing more, Stiles chimed in, “So, are we watching it from the beginning or are you gonna show me your favorites?” Derek turned to Stiles with a grin so wide, it had Stiles’ heart constricting in his chest and his stomach face flushing with embarrassment. He wasn’t sure when he had become able to make Derek smile like that, but he was extremely happy he could. 

“I think you’ll never wanna watch another episode if we start with season one so…” Derek trailed off and clicked through a few episodes, his eyebrows rising and falling and his nose crinkling in decision. Stiles had never seen him look so childish, so innocent, and all he wanted to do was watch this stupid TV show with Derek forever. 

“Find one?” Stiles guessed and Derek turned to him with another wide grin. Derek grabbed the bowl of popcorn from the coffee table, settling in as he nodded at Stiles slowly. 

“If you have questions, you can--”

“I’m gonna ask about a million of them,” Stiles interrupted, taking a noisy bite of his first Cheeto and stealing a handful of popcorn from the bowl on Derek’s lap. “You’ve gotta have all the answers, though,” Stiles warned, holding a cheesy finger up to Derek’s face. Derek rolled his eyes and smacked it away, Stiles’ laughter filling the air. 

“You’re not going to make fun of me for this, are you?” Derek asked as his thumb hesitated over the play button on the remote. Stiles shrugged and grabbed the controller, pressing play before Derek could argue. 

“I am absolutely going to make fun of you for this, there’s no doubt in my mind.” Derek’s groan was drowned out by a British voice introducing the next episode and Stiles moved his focus to the recap, trying to take in the things he might have missed from not watching the show from the beginning. 

“Passion; it lies in all of us. Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir, open its jaws, and howl,” Stiles heard the voice of the broody looking guy on TV, but underneath was a shy whisper and when he glanced over at Derek, he threw his hands over his mouth to stifle his giggles. 

“Derek, oh my god,” Stiles choked out through his laughter, placing his snack beside him before it toppled over. 

“What? It’s an iconic quote!” Derek argued. Stiles nodded and tried to be serious - he really tried - but Derek mouthed the next few words as if trying to hold them in and Stiles groaned. 

“Just say them,” Stiles relented as he paused the show, turning to face Derek who was pressing his lips together tightly. 

“You’re going to make fun of me…” Derek said, narrowing his eyes at Stiles. 

“Of course I’m going to make fun of you, but I’m gonna do it whether you say the rest of the quote out loud or not, realistically,” Stiles countered. Derek sighed and pressed play again, his eyes not leaving Stiles’ as the male character started speaking. 

“It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?” Derek finished as the extraordinarily loud and obnoxious theme music blasted through the speakers. Stiles covered his ears and glared at Derek whose laughter rivaled the shrill of the guitar. 

“If I didn’t know this was a 90’s television show, this music would have completely given it away,” Stiles commented as the sound faded into the show again. 

“Just… keep watching,” Derek demanded, though his voice sounded shy. It was as if he was scared that Stiles wouldn’t like it and that made Stiles fall in love - with the show that is - even more. 

Throughout, Stiles would make comments so that Derek knew he was paying attention. He would shout out, “He killed her fish? Man, that’s so fucked up” and, “That crazy vampire girl talks in riddles like Deaton.” Each time, Derek would nod in response, chuckle, and smile. He would even glance over and make sure Stiles was paying attention if he was quiet for too long. Sometimes, Derek would even chime in with his own comments. 

“There’s something messed up about this teacher, but I mean, that might be some leftover Beacon Hills High School trauma.” 

“You think?” Derek commented with a huff, clearly remembering the weird amount of evil teachers that made their way into Stiles’ classrooms. Derek had always hated them the most as they spent more time around the pack than he was able to. He had never admitted that out loud, but Stiles knew it was true.

“I want Joyce to punch him,” Stiles noted, cheering when Buffy and Willow came into view, chanting words that sounded like something Lydia would say. “Oh my god, did she just devamp the house? I wish I could do that with werewolves,” Stiles teased, holding his arms up in defense when Derek flicked his nose.  

“You can, you idiot, it’s called mountain ash,” Derek retorted, reaching over Stiles to grab a few Cheetos. Stiles pretended not to notice that they were closer than they ever had been. 

When the episode turned more serious than Stiles had expected, he curled into Derek’s side and shoved his cheek into his warm chest. It wasn’t that he was scared, but he didn’t think that Jenny was about to make it out of there alive due to supernatural circumstances and that hit a little too close to home. When Angel broke her neck, Stiles turned his face away as Derek’s hand settled against the back of his head, brushing through the short strands comfortingly. 

There was sadness filling his stomach as the cute British librarian walked up the stairs and the music swelled. When he glanced up at Derek, there was a tear falling down his cheek. Even still, he whispered the words that left Angel’s lips, “Passion is the source of our finest moments; the joy of love, the clarity of hatred, and the ecstasy of grief.”

They stayed pressed together like that, neither of them making a move to turn away. Stiles listened to the steady beat of Derek’s heart and the way it jumped during more action filled moments. When the too long silence made him jittery, Stiles spoke again, knowing his words would tick Derek off enough to argue. 

“You know, Xander has a point,” Stiles stated after Xander said exactly what he was thinking. Someone should have really murdered Angel before, but Stiles guessed there was something he was missing. 

 “Are you kidding? Buffy is right and Giles is going to get himself killed if he doesn’t think about his act--!” Derek paused a few moments before sighing, “Wait, that is exactly what you would do.” Stiles grinned at him and nodded. 

Stiles loved the easy way they bickered back and forth on the plot Derek seemed to understand down to the most minuscule detail. He loved the way Derek related to the characters, felt for their losses and their grievances. He knew, even after only one episode, why Derek had been so attached to the show. It was beyond a familial memory, that much Stiles was sure of. When Angel’s voice narrated again, Stiles gazed up from where his head had rested on Derek’s lap for the last few minutes. 

Again, Derek whispered the words, “It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace, but we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank.” Derek seemed to tear his eyes away from the show and they met Stiles’ with just as much passion as he was speaking about, and finished, “Without passion, we'd be truly dead."

Stiles thought his heart stopped at the intensity of Derek’s gaze and the softness of his voice and realized that Derek was bearing his soul to Stiles by showing him that bit of his past. He was letting Stiles in, hoping Stiles would take the invitation openly, and asking him to stay. 

“Did you like it?” Derek asked hesitantly as if scared of the answer. 

Stiles pursed his lips and pretended to think about his answer before deciding, “Can we watch it from the beginning?” 

[clumsyclifford]

hi i have some continued thoughts about the gif set i made earlier but i’m just thinking about like baby boys writing nothing personal and jack just like feeling really down on himself one day bc he doesn’t know what he’s contributing and alex tells him he named this song for him bc he is so important i don’t know there are so many THOUGHTS TO BE HAD why are they like this

hi paige i don’t know if this was supposed to be a prompt but i took it as one because i’m me hope that’s okay <3 (also here is the gifset in question, warning for max damage)

read it here on ao3

-

“Hey, where’d Jack go?”

Flyzik looks up from his laptop and glances around the control room. “I dunno,” he says. “I thought he was here.”

“I leave for two minutes,” Alex says, sighing exasperatedly. “We need to put a bell on that kid.”

“Believe me, if I could, I would,” says Flyzik, returning to the all-important task of probably talking shit on Twitter or whatever he does when he’s taking up studio space. 

Squire, whose playing had been arrested upon Alex’s re-entry, starts the guitar line from the top. The unfinished track fills the small room. Alex considers handcuffing him just so he’ll stop playing that one fucking guitar part.

At this rate, he’ll be sick of the song before it’s even released.

“I’m going to find Jack,” he announces, not that anyone cares. In a halfway attempt at defiance, or being annoying, or whatever, he snatches Flyzik’s coffee mug off the table.

“Hey,” Flyzik says half-heartedly without looking up. “Give that back.”

“You’re fired,” Alex informs him.

“Joke’s on you, I quit this morning,” says Flyzik.

Alex rolls his eyes and leaves the control room.

There’s really only one place Jack is likely to be (okay, two places, but Alex has just come from the bathroom and he’d been the only one in there). Alex heads for the lounge. The TV is on, playing a commercial for mattresses. Occupying the entire length of the couch:

“Jack,” Alex says. “Where’d you go, man, I thought we were working on the song.”

Jack makes no indication that he's heard Alex at all.

“Dude,” Alex says, coming into the room and facing Jack. The way Jack is slumped into the cushions, it looks like he’s been lying here all day, not for two minutes. “Were you just waiting for me to go to the bathroom so you could bail?”

Jack shoots him a glare, but again says nothing. Alex frowns.

“Are you good?” he asks, sinking to the floor with his legs crossed. He sets Flyzik’s coffee on the table at his side. “Is something wrong?”

Jack groans. “Can you leave me alone?”

“Hey,” Alex says, hurt. “What —” He breaks off. Obviously Jack doesn’t want company — or at least not Alex’s company, which stings — and if Alex doesn’t want to be a dick, he should leave. 

Except Jack is already kind of being a dick. So.

“Dude,” Alex says again. Jack keeps his eyes on the TV over Alex’s head. “Can you at least look at me?”

“I’m just taking a break, what’s the big deal?” Jack mutters.

“The big deal is you were fine five minutes ago when we were tracking the guitar,” Alex says irritably. “I leave for two seconds and when I come back you’re gone? ‘Taking a break’?”

“Yes, Alex, I came to jerk off in peace,” Jack snaps. “So can you piss off?”

Alex huffs. “Stop being an asshole when I’m just trying to understand what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong, dude!” Jack finally looks at him, though it’s clear he would rather not be. “You don’t need me to finish the song, okay? You have Squire to do the guitar, and if he can’t do it then you will, so I’m just gonna sit this one out, alright?”

Alex stares at him. “The fuck do you mean, we don’t need you to finish the song? You need to learn it. And Squire’s just doing the demo track anyway. Meaning technically he doesn’t need me for it, either.”

“Alex, you wrote the fucking song.” Jack crosses his arms. “It wouldn’t exist without you. Unlike me.”

“You…would exist without me?”

Jack glares at him, again. “No, the song would still exist without me. And it would have a guitar part, without me. I know my role in the band, Alex, I’m not getting any ideas, okay? I’m the one who makes inappropriate jokes on Twitter and collects bras during shows. I don’t contribute in the studio.”

The gears in Alex’s brain grind loudly to a halt. “You don’t — what? What?”

Jack draws his knees up to his chest and looks back up at the TV. “Am I wrong?”

“Uh, yes?!” Alex says emphatically. “Extremely wrong, what the fuck? Since when is this a thing? You really feel this way?”

“Oh my God, it’s not a big deal,” Jack grumbles. 

“It’s a big deal to me,” Alex retorts. “You think you don’t contribute when we’re in the studio? You’re, like, the reason most of these songs get made. If you weren’t here we’d still be on our first record.”

“You don’t need to therapy me,” Jack says dully. “I’m fine with it.” 

Which is obviously not true. Jack’s shuttered expression and bitchy attitude don’t exactly communicate ‘fine.’

“I’m not trying to ‘therapy’ you,” Alex says, making air quotes. “Whatever the fuck that means. I’m trying to tell you something you should already know.”

Jack sighs wearily. Somehow he seems to sink deeper into the couch, like whatever’s weighing him down is only getting heavier. “Alex, it’s fine.”

“Stop saying it’s fine,” Alex says sharply. “It’s not fine. Did someone say something when I left? Is that why the mood whiplash?” There’s no way. Squire would never, and Flyzik hadn’t even been on the same planet. Not that Flyzik ever would, either, but then again, they make a lot of fucking jokes around here. Sometimes the kind of joke that hits a little too close to home. Call it an occupational hazard of living and working with a bunch of guys in their early twenties; none of them really know when to stop.

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. 

Jack’s gaze flits between Alex and the TV, which has really been playing commercials for far too long. He seems to realize he’s not going to escape this conversation, and with an almighty sigh grabs the remote and hits mute.

“No one said anything, okay?” There’s a pause. Alex waits patiently while Jack gathers his thoughts. “It was just that, like, you were there, and we were joking around, and then you left, and like…Squire kept playing the part, Flyzik was still on fucking MySpace or whatever, and, like, I don’t know. It just felt like if I left it wouldn’t matter, so I did.” He barks a humorless laugh. “And I was right. It didn’t matter.”

“It mattered to me,” Alex says. “I came back and you had abandoned me with Squire and Flyzik. You think I want to be stuck with them?” 

One corner of Jack’s mouth pulls up, barely, then drops down again. “I’m fine,” he says a third time. “You can go back and finish tracking the lead. Just call me when you need me for something.”

Alex considers this. “You know, I could use a break, while I’m here.” He takes a sip of Flyzik’s coffee, which is absolutely disgusting and also room temperature at this point. Jack frowns at him.

“You’re in the middle of demo-ing a song,” he says flatly. “‘Best Friend Knows,’ right?”

“Well, as you so eloquently pointed out, Squire can track the guitar,” Alex says. “And in fact is tracking the guitar. And has been for half an hour. He doesn’t need me for it, either.”

“But that’s not the fucking same and you know it. You wrote the song.”

“Yeah, so what? It’s not that great of a song. Anyone could have written it. I bet Andrew has fifty better songs in his back pocket.”

“But Andrew isn’t in the band,” Jack says. “The whole point is they’re your lyrics that you write for your band.”

“And you play the guitar,” Alex counters, raising his eyebrows at Jack. “Yeah, there are a billion songwriters and guitarists in the world. Anyone can play guitar, but there’s only one All Time Low guitarist, and it’s you. You’re our guy, Jack. You brought the band together, you keep it together, and you keep us moving forward. So what if you’re not writing lyrics? There’s way more to being in a band than writing the fucking lyrics. I promise you, man, without you we’d still be playing the fucking Dulaney Talent Show. We’d be fucking nowhere. We definitely wouldn’t be in L.A. recording our second full-length studio album.”

Silence falls as Alex’s words hang in the air. They’re both quiet for a moment. The Red Bull fridge buzzes in the background, and even more faintly comes the sound of Squire relentlessly playing the same lead part for what has to be the millionth time. 

“If you say so,” Jack finally says, although he doesn’t really seem to believe it. 

“I do,” Alex says firmly. Jack is the heart of the band more than anyone else, the beating pulse that keeps them alive no matter what shit gets thrown their way. When they were traveling from venue to venue in a shitty van, Jack was the one who kept spirits high. In their earliest days, Jack had held them together like glue, as if he could tell that something really special would happen as long as he didn’t let them go.

And he’d been right. There’s no All Time Low without Jack. That’s always been obvious to Alex.

“I think it’s an awesome song,” Jack quietly adds, as an afterthought. “No one else could’ve written it, so take that shit back.”

“Mediocre at best,” Alex says. “But there’s still time to make it better.”

“I like it,” Jack insists. “It’s cool. You’re a good songwriter.”

Alex waves a hand. “All the good lines are from Squire.”

“Well, I don’t know any of the words,” Jack says, a hint of his usual dry humor making a comeback. “But I bet that’s not true. All the best lines always come from you.”

“They’re meh. There’s not even a good line for a title. ‘What Your Best Friend Knows’ is just the most repeated line, but like, I don’t know. It’s boring.”

“So just call it something else,” Jack says. “The title doesn’t have to come from the song. You might have heard of a little album called From Under The Cork Tree? It’s by this super underground band, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of them.”

Alex laughs a little. “Yeah, okay. I guess.”

Another pause fills the room. Finally Jack says, “If you want to hang out, you can, but stop trying to therapy me.”

“I’m not trying to therapy you! It’s called being your friend, you dumbass.”

“Well, cut it out,” Jack deadpans. There’s the Jack Alex knows. 

Alex smiles at him, even though he knows it makes him look very sincere, more sincere than Jack probably wants from him. “You made your band bed,” he says. “Now you have to lie in it.” He half-stands and clambers onto the couch, and Jack stretches his legs over Alex’s lap. “What are we watching?”

“I don’t know,” Jack says, reaching for the remote. “It’s been commercials since I got here.”

“Jesus Christ, don’t these people have anything better to do than advertise all day every day?” Jack unmutes the TV. An episode of a show neither of them know is playing. Alex rolls his eyes. “Which channel is playing Lost reruns, do you think?”

“Only one way to find out,” Jack says, raising the remote like a wand. “Hope you brought a board ‘cause it’s time for some channel surfing.”

“Oh my God, you’re so lame.”

Jack snickers. “Maybe there’ll be a line you can use for the song title. Like a ‘Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner’-type thing.”

“In Lost?” Alex says skeptically. 

“Maybe, you don’t know.”

Alex highly doubts Lost will have any cool one-liners that could double as song titles, but it’s not a bad idea, pulling an iconic movie quote the way Fall Out Boy did on Cork Tree. The gimmick isn’t really the All Time Low style, but there’s a first time for everything.

Besides, Alex thinks, glancing over at Jack, whose attention is trained on the TV, I think I know the perfect movie.

—

“What?”

They’re back in the studio the following day. After yesterday’s minor emotional hurdle, Jack seems to be doing much better. Right now his eyes are wide in surprise as he stares at Alex.

“‘Keep The Change’ —”

“I know the quote,” Jack interrupts, a smile stretching over his face. “That’s the name? Of the song?”

Alex grins. “Has a cool ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? This is the best day of my life,” Jack enthuses, beaming. 

Alex shrugs. “Well, someone gave me the great idea to use a movie quote for a title. This felt fair.”

“Alex, I literally love you so much, you don’t even know,” Jack says. “Just for this, I’m giving you my firstborn.”

“If you ever have children, God save us all,” Flyzik says dryly from the far side of the room. He’s not wrong, but Jack doesn’t even act offended, still caught up in the excitement of the song title. 

“Hey,” Alex says in a low voice, kicking lightly at Jack’s leg. “For the record, I’d never in a million years have thought to use a movie quote title.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Jack says.

Alex gives him a meaningful look. “That’s my point, man. Next time you think you’re not contributing, just remember this, alright?”

The shadow of realization passes over Jack’s face, and he shakes his head incredulously. “You are such a piece of shit,” he says, although he doesn’t seem upset. “This was just to make a point?”

“I didn’t do it to make a point,” Alex says. “I did it because it was a good idea. But it does make a point, because you thought you weren’t contributing in the studio, and this is proof that you are.”

Jack sighs. “Point taken.” A little bit of humility colors his expression. “Thanks.”

Alex gives him a cheeky smile. “You are welcome,” he says airily, and throws an arm over Jack’s shoulders. “And now I think we both have some guitar parts to learn, am I right?”

“Yup,” says Squire, as if he’d just been waiting for his cue. “Jack, you wanna track this?”

Jack glances over at Alex, who grins. “Yeah,” he says, stepping forward and taking the guitar out of Squire’s hands. “I’d love to.”

[sienna-writes]

Butterfly Blood || novel update

chapter three

I initially had a lot of trouble with this chapter. It’s been through about three drafts and it’s still nowhere near perfect, but I’m working on just moving forward with the novel now and am trying to quit obsessing over revising because... it’s unrealistic to expect a first draft to be perfect. 

The first draft of this particular chapter, though, was basically all dialogue, and all very poorly executed dialogue. (Dialogue is absolutely the weakest aspect of my writing but I’m working on it.) On my second attempt at the chapter I initially attempted to create an outline, thinking this would help me find a direction. However, in my next writing session I ended up totally ignoring the outline and just winging it, and the second draft was formed. I really liked the events in the chapter now but still wasn’t happy with some of the individual scenes so I reworked it yesterday morning. The argument between Rowan and Karmen still needed revision  because Karmen’s character within it was totally inconsistent to his usual disposition. So! The final (for now..) draft is a more stripped back, since Karmen is too disassociated to get as angry as he did as quickly as he did, and I think the tension and the build up is a lot better timed and more... muted? It’s less overt, more subtext heavy, and I'm relieved because that is what I had been trying to achieve all along.

Again, it’s not perfect, but it has evolved and it is definitely better than before. 

The chapter is just over 3000 words now, but I am only going to be sharing the main, gritty extract. The other scenes are less exciting, but I also suspect they need the same amount of work till they're even remotely sharable. (I was going through a bad writing slump in this chapter lol.) I really hope you enjoy it? I'm ultimately quite proud of how it turned out in the end :)

excerpt:

[Rowan has missed her GP appointment + her dad uses it as an oppurtunity to also be angry about her slacking in school]

    “I’ve booked another for tomorrow morning. You’ll miss some school, but I figured that’d be an incentive since you don’t seem to care about that anymore.” There is now an edge to his voice that hadn't been there before.

    Rowan visibly flinches, digging her fingernails into the supple skin of her palms. The dents purple then fill with blood. She locks eyes with her father, searching for the reason for his sudden anger. He has struck a nerve and he knows it.

    “Miss Phelps called.”

    She pushes her toes into the dirt, white sneakers now blotted with dust. “Oh.”

    He doesn’t ask for an explanation, simply straightens his back like an ancient scroll unravelling itself and meets her gaze finally. Karmen stands with his chest puffed out and his chin pointed forward. It is apparent that he won't ask her side of things. He’s heard enough, and has his made up his mind about her already.

    Rowan pushes past him to get inside. Karmen doesn’t shift as she squeezes by his statuesque stance. His face twitches like a camera shutter, so fast she can barely believe the change in his expression. She convinces herself it didn’t happen and throws her bag onto the couch, almost tempting another lecture. A tamer one. Something he could murmur through his daydream fog before slipping back into his silence and letting everything remain undiscussed. Like it normally is. Her slipping grades. Her laziness in class. Not writing a single word in an entire school day. Talking back for little to no reason.

    He turns as her rucksack lands, his footsteps looming behind her. Something sharpens the air between them, but she can’t tell what. The elephant is in the room and it is wrecking the place. They watch the destruction mutely, each waiting for the other to intervene and consequently letting the walls crumble into ruin. The old house audibly creaks, it is so quiet. Finally, Karmen speaks. “What’s the matter with you?”

    Rowan runs through all the excuses she can think of. I was dropped as a child. I was a premature baby, so my brain must be under-developed. The content is so easy it feels obsolete. I’m being bullied. I’m just not as smart as you thought, dad, sorry. Teachers are liars and we both should have known this.  “There’s just too much.” She says instead, through gritted teeth, moving into the kitchen. “I can’t focus on school and have to be there for everyone.” It is limp and she knows it. It flops between them weakly like a helpless fish. She takes a glass from the cabinet and closes it softly.

   He consumes the lie like a starved ghost, though. Proving he doesn’t know her. Doesn’t know how absent a friend she has been of late. How she has become her father at school, numb and quiet. How, secretly, she enjoys the façade because people avoid her, don’t ask difficult questions, don’t tackle her with unnecessary comments about her long-lost mother. “Then stop being there.” He says simply.

Rowan scoffs. “I do enough of that at home.” She studies her dad’s face—clenched jaw and squinting eyes—as if it hurts to look at her. “Everyone’s always telling everything how things must be. I must participate, I must be smart not emotional, I must not slack for exams I know I will pass without a glance at my books”—suddenly an urge to twist the knife into his gut overwhelms her, she draws out the moment as she fills the glass with a thread of water from the tap—"I must deal with a stranger for a Dad and a god knows what for a mother. A shrieking banshee? An abusive fugitive? She’s probably become a social worker just to scorn us.”

    He rolls his lips, lowers his gaze and chews on the inside of his cheek, sucking it in. Rowan’s breath catches in her throat. In this moment he looks shockingly hollow. Did she empty him? Wind him with her blows? Spoon out his entrails with an ice cream scoop? Carve him like the roasted corpse of some great beast? Karmen puts two hands on the back of the chair opposite her, clutching it as if he might just fall over. His stare is cold and unsympathetic when he raises it toward her. “Don’t you want to make something of yourself?”

Yes. “What?” She laughs bitterly, placing the tumbler on the counter with a satisfying thud. “Like how you made something of yourself?” There is a terrible moment where he sits in the midst of the cruelty, shrinks into himself as if absorbing it, before his mouth creaks open and he lets out a broken shriek.

“GOD DAMMIT ROWAN!” Rowan flies back, arms sheltering her head instinctively as he reaches for the glass she placed on the counter, spins, and throws it at the wall. One big horrific movement. A cutting arc of his arm through the air and then the shattering. “Are you ever even listening?”

    Millions of glittering fragments of her life laid out before her, encircling her bare feet. She thinks of the sneakers she slipped off at the door, wishing she had them now.  Something about naked feet look so naïve, so vulnerable. Her toes shrink, curling inward. Her breath quickens and her hands begin to tremble. All this broken glass. All these fragments like a lifeline stretched between them. Her eyes blink away tears in different shards, her reflection is fragmented, her features lost and bobbing about as if at sea.

    “Are you, dad?” Rowan asks in an empty voice, staring at him till he flinches. He stares at the glass on the floor in shock.

    “I...” He crouches, sifting through it with his bare, shuddering, and unsure hands. “I don’t know why I did that...”

    Rowan gets a sudden urge to have the last word. Except she doesn’t speak. Her eyes settle on the glass and the idea flourishes like a flame in her mind, burning everything rational, everything he might think. To hell with appropriate. To hell with acceptable. One unsteady step. She expects a crunch or a crackle, but instead there is a damp muffle and squelch. Her spine rattles and her teeth prickle in response. A sunrise in her chest warms her throat but she presses against it with her palms, forcing it down. It is a scorching, molten pain. Third degree burns and all she swallows rays of light till she is drowning, gorging. Slipping through furnace tongue flames. Rowan gags. Bile and acid boils her tongue and the bright, burnt out orb slips into her stomach. She gulp, gulp, gulps every atom of the blaze that consumes her. Till she is heavy. She walks across the broken glass as he yells out. Let there be outrage. Let the sky fall. Its clouds embrace her limbs, draining everything fluid from her, letting her grow limp. Letting her rain. Heavy. As she moves away from the kitchen, she feels her footsteps peeling from the floor, warm and wet. And she is so, so heavy. Then she stumbles, splintered feet unable to keep her up—her legs can no longer hold her and her lava—as the pain erupts within her fierce and sharp and sudden. Flashing its ugly teeth. Catching one last glimpse before her vision goes dark, she sees a red ocean seeping into the living room. How could one body hold so much? Fast and gushing the rapids wash her dregs of consciousness away. It was just a few steps...

soo... yeah. Rowan walks on glass because, oh lord that girl has no impulse controls. 

I'm not going to lie, although it was a pain to get this scene to the stage I have just shared, I think it's one of my favourites in the book so far. I'm proud of how much it's grown. Also, I love me some dramatic descriptions of pain and characters being nasty... :”)

I hope you enjoyed this update! (if you did, reblogs really help me out, but absolutely no pressure <3) I’m also still looking for people to add to the tag list, so if any of this interested you, feel free to send me an ask, message or comment. :)

Tag list under cut (ask to be added or removed):

@alicewestwater @elaz-ivero @coffeeandcalligraphy @hanwatchingmovies @sirfitzroys @chloeswords @nev-953

[inucestlover]

The Coffee Shop AU

A RP from Inucestlover and GayleNightingale

from a tumblr prompt by Inucestlover.

Key:

InuYasha’s Thoughts: ‘____’

Sesshomaru’s Thoughts: ((____))

✿･ﾟ:✲: ﾟ･✿ ﾟ･✿･ﾟ:✲: ﾟ･✿ ﾟ･✿･ﾟ:✲: ﾟ･✿ ﾟ･

The sudden rainfall forces InuYasha and Sesshomaru to seek refuge in a nearby café. While inside, Sesshomaru orders a black coffee and some milk tea with cake for InuYasha. They sat inside a booth in front of the shop watching the rain hit the glass outside. After a while Sesshomaru glances at InuYasha. He is slowly drinking his tea as the cool light from outside shines on his face. It looks like a frame from a cinematic film and all Sesshomaru could hear is the light rain from outside, and his heart beating loudly.

He’s had these feelings for a while now but it’s becoming too hard to suppress. He leans slowly towards InuYasha—

“Hello! Sorry for the wait~ Here’s the cake y’all ordered!”

InuYasha turns towards the waitress and accepts the cake slice. Then when he faces Sesshomaru again, he’s frozen leaning across the table.

“Whatcha doing Sesshomaru?”

“I-I was gonna ask for a sip of your tea.” Sesshomaru responds.

————————

“Umm, sure. Here.” Inu shoves it to the far side of the table.

————————

Sesshomaru takes a sip of the milk tea, while cursing internally. ((What was I even trying to do just then?))

“It’s very sweet”, Sesshomaru calmly states. “How’s the cake?”

————————

Inuyasha watches Sesshomaru's face. ‘He's not gagging. Maybe he's ok with my hanyou germs.’ Hope arises in his heart. "Sesshomaru? Want to try a bite of my cake?" He puts a bite on his fork and holds it as he pushes it halfway across the table. His heart flutters.

————————

Sesshomaru stares at the fork for a moment before biting into the cake. The cake itself isn’t anything worthwhile, but the act of eating something given by InuYasha made it delicious. It is then when Sesshomaru noticed a light blush spread across Inuyasha’s face.

“Are you getting a fever? I told you to dry off properly before sitting down”

————————

Inuyasha blushes more and dips his head forward, his bangs covering his face. Mumbling he replies, “Maybe I am a little under the weather. Could you take me home and maybe stay awhile to make sure I’m okay?”

Sesshomaru’s heart skips a beat and the pounding in his chest quickens. It’s the first time he’s ever been invited to Inuyasha’s place. Up until this point, they would merely meet up at whatever place they need to be.

“Alright, I’ll go. Do you have medicine at home, or do we need to get some at a store?”

———————

Inuyasha shutters with excitement. Sesshomaru is going to come to his home. HE is going to come to his home! “Umm, maybe we should stop by the pharmacy? For Tylenol?” Inuyasha blushes brighter as he thought of another item at the pharmacy he could purchase.

———————

Sesshomaru begins to gather his things and stands up from the booth.

“Well the rain has stopped pouring outside for now. Let’s head to the pharmacy before it starts again.”

Sesshomaru then extends his hand to help InuYasha out of his seat.

———————

Inuyasha takes his hand and notices it's sweaty too. He peeks out of the corner of his eye at his brother. Sesshomaru looks calm, cool and collected. ‘Just my imagination. I’m just nervous and excited. Kami! He’s so handsome.’ Inuyasha sighs as he stands and gathers his belongings. ‘Can’t act too eager. Can’t act too eager.’ The mantra repeats as they walk through the door and out on the street.

———————

The pair begins to walk aimlessly in a random direction. InuYasha has been in deep thought since they left the café. His cute fluffy ears are twitching at the outside noises. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru is praying he can’t hear the beating of his heart. Whether it is on purpose or subconsciously, InuYasha hasn’t let go of Sesshomaru’s hand. Their hands are warm and fit perfectly interlocked with each other. Occasionally Sesshomaru rubs his thumb along the back of Inuyasha’s hand.

To break the silence, Sesshomaru speaks out, “Um, InuYasha, are we going in the right direction? I don’t actually know where you live.”

——————

Inuyasha is embarrassed. He hasn’t been paying attention and raises his head to look around the street. He doesn’t know where they are. Shuffling his feet, he stammers, “I guess I really don’t feel well. I don’t know where we are either.” Embarrassed, his face turns red again. ‘He’s gonna think I’m an idiot. He’s going to drop me at the door and bolt. I’m so stupid. Why would my beautiful, intelligent brother even want to hang around me?’ “Let me ask my smart phone.” He pulls out his smart phone and pings their location. Fortunately, they are two blocks from a pharmacy and just a little out of the way from his flat. Feeling a bit relieved that he isn’t a lost cause, Inuyasha steps forward briskly pulling Sesshomaru with him.

———————

With a tug, Sesshomaru is pulled towards the direction of the pharmacy. They quicken their pace as soon as InuYasha begins to recognize where they are. Now slightly out of breath, they both enter the store and buy the medicine they need

The rain is beginning to drizzle again and Sesshomaru suggests, “InuYasha, do you think we should run towards your place?” Then after a moment Sesshomaru remarks, “Can you run in your condition or shall I carry you bridal style? I don’t want to wait outside again.”

———————

Just then a truck goes by through a puddle and both men are soaked.

Inuyasha, drenched, looks to his brother. The silk shirt is stuck to his chest. Erect nipples are visible. The outline of his defined pectoralis muscles and serratus anterior capture the inu hanyou’s eyes. ‘If he carries me, I’ll have a nosebleed.’

——————

Sesshomaru is now visibly pissed, and glares at the direction of the truck. There are not enough words to describe how long he took to pick out and buy the best outfit for this date with InuYasha. ((They did that on purpose. Those fucking assholes)) It’s at this point when Sesshomaru feels InuYasha squeeze his hand and point the direction of his apartment complex.

——————

Inuyasha feels the air around him get heavy. His big brother has released some of his youkai. He knows he needs to do something quick. So, he gets on his tip toes and leans into Sesshomaru’s chest. “Help me, Big brother,” he whispers. “That’s my flat over there.” Then he pulls Sesshomaru across the street and up the stairs to the 2nd floor apartment.

Inuyasha knows the apartment is clean because he straightened it before their date in hopes that Sesshomaru would visit. But he doesn’t remember if he put up his sex toy.

——————

Before Sesshomaru knew it, he is inside Inuyasha’s flat. It is a lot cleaner and larger than he imagined.

There is a small kitchen near the front entrance that has a large red fridge covered in pictures of friends and reminders. And for a moment Sesshomaru’s wonders who they are.

In front of the kitchen is a bar table with three stools and further inside is the living room. There’s an old brown pre-owned couch, small wooden coffee table, and a tv hanging on the wall. On top of the table, InuYasha has aligned his tv remote and gaming controller to the side. Underneath the TV is a small cabinet filled with games, movies, and other stuff.

To the left is a small hallway that Sesshomaru presumes leads to Inuyasha’s room and bathroom. The door is open to his room. He wants to peek inside and see.

After finishing looking around the main area of InuYasha’s apartment, Sesshomaru remembers InuYasha’s fever!

“InuYasha, we need to get you out of your clothes!”

“Now?!”

——————

Inuyasha has been taking advantage of Sesshomaru’s distraction and is looking around for his anal stimulator. He would just die if Sesshomaru sees it. He is preparing to walk to the bathroom when he hears Sesshomaru tell him to strip. He startles and then moves forward to the bathroom. “I’ll just go to the bathroom and strip out of these wet clothes. Do you think you can find a robe for me in my closet? I have two. You are welcome to wear one while your clothes dry. The washer/dryer are over there. The tea pot is on the counter and the liquor is in the cupboard above the sink.”

A few moments later Inuyasha has torn the bathroom apart and can’t find the sex toy anywhere. He strips off the clothes and lays them over the shower door.

‘Brilliant. The toy isn’t here. I’m naked and my brother is in my room. Now what?’

——————

Sesshomaru takes InuYasha’s offer and walks toward the bedroom.

((InuYasha went inside the bathroom in hurry, most likely because the cold clothes were freezing his skin.)) Or at least that’s what he thought.

The bedroom is small and has a large queen-sized bed that takes 70% of the space inside. Next to the bed is a nightstand with a lamp and a digital alarm.

As he opens the closet door stuff begins to fall around him.

((That’s where all the mess is! I was beginning to think InuYasha is cleaner than I am.))

He begins searching for the two robes that are falling off their hangers in the back of the closet.

He carefully walks around the mess on the floor and returns to the dryer. Sesshomaru puts his wet clothes inside and wraps himself in the robe.

Heading back to InuYasha’s room he feels bad for disturbing the mess and starts throwing things back inside the closet. ((It is already messy inside. Why should I be the one to organize it?))

In the corner of his eye, he sees a container roll underneath the bed. Sesshomaru goes down to pull the container out and what he grabs isn’t what he expected. It feels like silicone and starts vibrating the second he touches it.

Quickly retracting his hand, Sesshomaru bends down further to get a better look at what he grabbed. Pulling it forward, Sesshomaru would have never imagined InuYasha owned a prostate massager. Standing up he tries to figure out how to turn it off when he hears the bathroom door open.

—————

Inuyasha peeks out the bathroom door. “Sesshomaru? Do you have a robe for me? I’m kinda cold.”

—————

In a panicked state, Sesshomaru finds and pushes the off button and hides the toy under a pillow.

((This is so stupid. It’s like a child hiding their phone before a parent walks in to check on them during the night.))

In a slightly higher tone before coughing to fix his voice, Sesshomaru replies, “Yeah. *cough* I have your robe. Just give me a minute to walk there”

He hands the robe to InuYasha with his head turned. He couldn’t bear to see Inuyasha’s face because the images of InuYasha using the toy have filled his mind. He feels the blush creep onto his face. In moments like this he’s grateful for his cheek markings. Most mistake his light blushes as part of the marks and he prays InuYasha does too.

“I’m gonna go wait in the living room while you get dressed”

——————

‘Man, I wish he would wait in my bed’ Inuyasha thought, but out loud he says, “Okay. Be there in a minute.”

He takes several cleansing breaths and then pulls the lightweight robe around his body and tightens the belt.

——————

Walking out into his living room he notices Sesshomaru relaxing on his couch, his legs spread comfortably, and his left leg uncovered by the robe. The long pale leg looks as though it has been sculpted from fine white marble by the great Michelangelo himself. ‘There is a divine being in my living room,’ Inuyasha thinks. ‘This is not real. I can’t let myself believe it. My heart will be crushed when I realize this is a fever induced fantasy.’

“Hey Sesshomaru? Would you like some tea?”

Then Inuyasha swoons and passes out.

——————

In an instant, Sesshomaru runs to InuYasha’s side. His fever burns the backside of Sesshomaru’s hand. Without a second thought, Sesshomaru carries his little brother to bed.

((Damnit! I’m over here thinking utter nonsense, meanwhile InuYasha’s condition is worsening by the second. I need to get some cold water))

Sesshomaru dashes to the kitchen and begins opening random drawers. Once he finds a decently sized bowl, he fills it with cold water and carefully takes it to InuYasha’s room. Using a small towel from the bathroom, he begins trying to lower his brother’s temperature.

InuYasha’s ears are flat on his head and his eyes barely open. The cold water hitting his skin causes a release of a small whimper.

Sesshomaru is then in and out of InuYasha’s field of vision. Bringing and giving him a variety of different things; Medicine, soup, ice water, etc.

But all InuYasha could remember before going to a dreamless sleep is a small kiss on the forehead.

——————

Inuyasha shivers from the fever. Moaning he mumbles, “I’m cold.”

——————

“Would you mind if I warm you up?” Sesshomaru whispers into InuYasha’s ear.

The bed creaks as Sesshomaru puts his whole weight onto the frame. It takes a long time to calm his brother’s temperature, but he is starting to look better.

The bed looks so inviting the more Sesshomaru moves towards InuYasha.

——————

“Oooh, you feel so good and warm,” Inuyasha speaks in his delirium. “How I wish you slept with me all the time. So warm...” The inuhanyou wraps his body around his big brother. Inuyasha couldn’t get close enough to Sesshomaru and begins to burrow into the small space between Sesshomaru and the bed.

——————

Sesshomaru wraps an arm across the smaller man’s frame, pulling him closer to his body. InuYasha responds by nuzzling his face into the nape of Sesshomaru’s neck.

——————

Inuyasha wakes to sunbeams peeking through the curtains. He feels so warm and comfortable. He considers rolling over and pulling the blankets up to block the sun and snooze another 10 minutes when he realizes there is warm air rolling across his ear every 6-10 seconds. He stops to process this revelation. Then he touches his blanket. It feels different.

SESSHOMARU is in his bed! Hugging him! Inuyasha's heart starts racing.

——————

Sesshomaru feels his pillow shift underneath his arm.

((I must have slept closer to the edge of the bed last tonight)), he sleepily wonders as he pulls the pillow closer to his chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Sesshomaru feels the pounding of InuYasha’s heart against his chest. It is then he recalls the events of yesterday. He opens his eyes and is greeted by InuYasha’s golden eyes staring back at him.

Maybe because it is early in the morning, but Sesshomaru can’t suppress his emotions and flashes the hanyou a smile.

“Good morning, InuYasha”

——————

“Ahhhh Uhhh Ohhhh. Sesshomaru? What—-Why? Wow.” Inuyasha is dumbstruck, embarrassed, speechless, and totally confused. He runs to the bathroom.

——————

“Huh?”

((What is that all about?))

Sesshomaru hears the bathroom sink turn on as InuYasha splashes some water on his face. With a deep breath of air, Sesshomaru sits up in bed. His robe falls off one shoulder revealing his sculpted chest. With one hand he begins brushing through the knots in his hair while waiting for InuYasha.

——————

Inuyasha splashes cold water on his face and stares at his reflection. Sesshomaru is going to think he is a complete idiot. He’d better go face the music. Head down he walks back into his room and starts talking. “Uhmm sorry. I’m a little confused why you are in my bed, Sesshomaru?” Just as he looks up, he sees the sculpted chest of the god lounging in his bed and he stares.

——————

After a big yawn Sesshomaru speaks, “You told me that you were cold and after spending hours trying to regulate your temperature, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving you here alone.”

——————

“Oh,” Inuyasha ponders. “So, you were just watching over me? I don’t remember telling you I was cold. I remember walking out into my living room and that’s it. Guess I owe you something. Thank you for watching over me when I was sick. And thank you for keeping me warm and Good Morning Sesshomaru.”

Inuyasha drew out the thanks so he could gaze over Sesshomaru’s perfect body. ‘I got to sleep with him finally, but I don’t remember a thing.’

“Did you sleep okay? Do you need some more rest? I ruined our date by getting sick. I was really looking forward to spending more time with you.”

‘Maybe I can get him to stay in bed a little longer,’ Inuyasha hoped.

“I can bring us some coffee and Danish to eat in bed,” Inuyasha cringed. ‘Was that too suggestive?’

———————

A light blush spreads across Sesshomaru’s cheeks when InuYasha calls their usual outing a date.

“Breakfast sounds nice”

InuYasha’s grins as he walks to the kitchen with a skip in his step. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru decides to move his body to give InuYasha a spot to sit.

((It’s a miracle InuYasha didn’t fall off))

Putting his head on the other pillow, Sesshomaru feels something hard underneath.

((THE FUCKING TOY! What the hell am I gonna do? Why didn’t I just throw it in the closet like everything else? Ok. Calm down Sesshomaru, we can figure this out. InuYasha is in the kitchen cooking and we have who knows how long before he comes back. Let’s just throw it back in the closet underneath the pile of forgotten outfits. That way he won’t discover you know about!))

Standing up Sesshomaru takes the anal stimulator 9000™️* and goes to open the closet door when he sees InuYasha at the room doorway.

*(I’m not actually sure that’s an actual product but it’s funny)

———————

Inuyasha dashes out of the bedroom and starts brewing two cups of coffee while he prepares two Danishes he has picked up for a special occasion— This was that special occasion if there ever was a special occasion! He finds a tray and puts the cups and Danishes on it and heads back to his bedroom. He plans to set the tray down on Sesshomaru’s lap and then sit down next to him after grabbing the TV remote. He had even thought to ask about watching cartoons

“Want to watch cartoons? It’ll be kinda like it was when we were kids. Could be fun.”

BUT all of that evaporates the second he sees the sex toy in Sesshomaru’s hand.

——————

“H-hi InuYasha”

*CRASH*

InuYasha drops everything. The two cups shatter as the hot coffee splatters onto InuYasha’s feet. But he doesn’t feel physical pain anymore.

Sesshomaru tries to defuse the situation, “Um, don’t worry it’s natural for everyone to masturbate! We all do it once we reach sexual maturity!”

((God dammit stop talking. Why can’t I stop talking))?

It didn’t help that he was gesturing with the toy still in his hand. “Hell, I even masturbate from time to ti-”

—————

Inuyasha grabs the toy from Sesshomaru’s hand and tosses it into the closet.

‘Time for another tactic.’ Inuyasha squares his shoulders.

“So that’s where it was. Well, I’ll just put that back in the closet, clean up this mess and, and, and we can watch cartoons.”

Inuyasha is having an out of body experience. He moves like a robot, cleaning up the floor and then walking back to the kitchen with the shattered remains of his self-esteem. Sesshomaru will never think positively of him again. He bends over the kitchen sink. He feels sick to his stomach from being so embarrassed. Why would his perfect brother ever want to hang out with him again?

Sesshomaru follows Inuyasha and comes up behind him as he leans over the kitchen sink. He hugs the hanyou from behind and whispers in his ear.

——————

“I’m telling the truth when I say that the toy doesn’t bother me. The only reason I panicked is because...for whatever reason my brain goes stupid whenever your around. And I don’t know why that happens.”

Sesshomaru pulls away and looks at his hands. “My palms get sweaty and my heart pounds rapidly against my chest whenever you're near. Butterflies are also constantly in my stomach. But as unusual as this feeling gets, I still want more of you.”

Sesshomaru pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

“I want to see you happy and healthy, of course like any brother would. But there is a part of me that wants something greater. And it’s not sexual or primal, it’s something more that I don’t know how to put into words! Have you ever felt that? And if so, what do you do? Cause I don’t know. For the first time in years I don’t know and it’s terrifying.”

——————

Inuyasha’s large round eyes sparkle as he looks deep into the amber eyes of his brother. “You mean it? This isn’t a fever fantasy? You want more of me? You don’t want to run away because I’m some idiot?

Inuyasha has completely turned around by now and is inches from being chest to chest with his brother. That amazing sculpted chest is right in front of him. He could touch it if he could be brave enough. He has always dreamed of kissing it and stroking his hands over the defined lines. He licks his lips to capture the drool that is preparing to escape.

His ears pick up a rapid heartbeat and his eyes get even larger.

“Your heart really is racing? For me? Pinch me.”

——————

Sesshomaru leans forward and kisses InuYasha, pushing him gently against the kitchen cabinets. Putting one arm around InuYasha’s waist and the other behind his head, his mind is blank as his body moves on its own. He can’t suppress these emotions anymore. And even more so as InuYasha melts in his arms. His lips are as soft as velvet against his lips. He wanted to make this kiss last forever.

Pulling away, Sesshomaru looks into InuYasha’s eyes and asks, “Does that answer your question?”

——————

“Yeh. But can you tell me again?” the inuhanyou smirks and leans in to recapture his brother’s lips.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Zombie.”

The story is staring o heat up a little bit, and soon you will all understand what I have been leading up to. Hopefully it will be fun and you will all enjoy what you are about to see.

GORE WARNING 

The outer Messier 32 deep space relay station hung suspended in the night sky overlooking the not-so-distant spiral vortex of it’s larger companion galaxy Messier 31, more commonly known as the Andromeda galaxy. As close as it was, it absolutely dominated the night sky seeming close enough that you could reach out a hand and touch its sweeping spiral arms, when in reality, it was thousands of light-years away.

The relay station itself was a small affair compared to your average UNSC or even GA transport vessel, about the size of a small range asteroid, designed and staffed by members of most of the major GA species, Rundi, Tesraki, and Vrul being the major players. The relay station was primarily there to intercept inter-warp communications between Andromeda and the Milky Way galaxy. Though there were more major communications hubs on the moons of the Rundi home world, transmissions tended to get jumbled, and remote relay stations had become a necessity to drown out some of the major noise and spearhead some of the less urgent transmissions.

Their engineering specialist, a Vrul with a sandy grey skin and red-orange eyes turned from where he floated by his console towards one of his Tesraki underlings, “We didn’t schedule any maintenance for the auxiliary docking bays did we?”

The Tesraki turned in his chair batlike ears twitching, “No, we finished that maintenance two cycles ago, why?”

“Strange.” The Vrul muttered turning back to his console, “The power to that sector just went off….. Perhaps we made a mistake with the wiring, have someone from maintenance head down there and take a look at the main breaker system.” 

Across the room, the Rundi relay director frowned and then turned to look at them, “Did any of you get a proximity alert on decks 6-7?”

“No, sir ... wait , aren't those the decks for the auxiliary docking bays?”

The Vrul nodded his large insectoid head prismatic eyes flashing in the dim spilling in from the uncovered observation window, “Yes….. perhaps the power shorted to the proximity sensors on the outer hull, why?”

THe Rundi turned back to his station, “I am getting some strange interference signals from a point on our outer hull, can’t tell what it is. Could just be a magnetic field artifact.” He turned back to the controls engaging the intercom as he sent someone down to check. 

***

Down on the seventh deck, the tesraki and Vrul engineering contractors stepped their way from the automated lift and out onto the silent, dark floors. Like the rest of the ship, the lights were supposed to be automated, but the entire deck was silent and filled with shadow. This may not have been a problem for the vrul, who could see somewhat onto the infrared spectrum, but for the Tesraki it was a little more difficult. The Vrul engineer waited in impatient silence  as the Tesraki, reached into his tool belt and removed a brightly glowing white stone. 

The vrul and the tesraki didn’t particularly enjoy each other’s company. One of them was here for the science and the other was here for the paycheck, neither of them saw much of a value in the other’s lifestyle, but they kept it civil as the tesraki engaged the comm attached to one of his large- batlike ears, “This is engineering.”

“Go on engineering what do you see?” 

“Not much of anything to be honest, but the lights are out….. I’m thinking an issue with the electrical.”

It the Vrul had the ability to roll his eyes, he probably would have, but he settled for floating further onto the deck and into the darkness. The Tesraki followed after casting his light upwards towards the ceiling trying to find any exposed wiring, sparks or any other indication where the problem might be located.

The Vrul hummed transmitting a shortwave radio signal directly to the comms system as only a vrul could, “I don’t see any hot spots on the walls, and the issue doesn’t seem to be localized. With all the lights out on this level, I am willing to bet that the problem lies with the main breaker system, there can be no other explanation.”

At his back, the tesraki suddenly spun to his right staring down one of the dark maintenance tunnels where the red light of the emergency auxiliaries hung overhead. It may as well have been completely black to him, as the tesraki aren’t capable of processing red light as humans understand it. 

The vrul glowered over at him, “What now.”

The tesraki frowned, “No….. I just….. I thought I heard something.”  one of his large ears twitched. Of course the Vrul wouldn’t have heard anything, it was a creature between natural and unnatural hearing SOME radio signals and SOME normal sound, but not particularly well onto either. The Tesraki however, had impeccable hearing rivaled only by the humans which they beat by a hair's breadth in testing conditions.

They continued onward when no other sounds were forthcoming heading their way towards the main breaker system. ON their way there, the Tesraki stopped a few times listening to the sounds of the ship. He heard nothing….. 

If he were a human he might have been able to feel the impending weight of dread slowly casting itself downwards over them like a blanket of snow on a silent snowy night. However, he was only a tesraki, and the Vrul was hopeless in intuitive situations.

They had just cut around the corner into the main auxiliary bay when the vrul stopped floating to a halt at the entrance to the bay looking down at the floor with his glittering prismatic eyes.

Busy listening to the darkness, the Tesraki almost plowed into his companion hissing in annoyance as he staggered out of the way, “What.”

The Brul didn’t answer staring down at the floor with wide eyes, and the fading yellow prints of heat on the floor slowly losing their brightness and fading against the cold metal. 

The fear hit him like a ton of bricks just then, and he turned, “We need to go.” 

The tesraki looked at him confused, “What do you mean?” 

“I mean we NEED TO GO!” The little creature roared, pushing against the much taller, heavier tesraki, and doing nothing. He froze just then eyes riveted on the hallway behind his companion, and the row of fiery white hotspots that cut horizontally across the hallway before disappearing into one of the side tunnels.

He could see the prints more clearly now. They were large, and patterned on that of a bipedal creature….. It wasn’t big enough to be a drev, but it was just big enough for…… by the heart of the motherworld please no….

“Human.” The vrul whispered 

“A human?” The tesraki wondered, “What about humans, you aren’t making any sense.”

And that’s when the sound came from behind, the sudden slap, slap, slap rushing up from the darkness. The two of them turned, just in time to see the dark face looming from the shadows.

The eyes against the dark skin were white, stark white and wild glittering with a thin layer of gelatinous slime. It’s white teeth were barred.

All teeth and eyes it rushed at them from the darkness feet bare against the floor, chest bare. The tesraki screamed, The vrul let off a high trill, and then the world was turned upside down, screams echoed up the corridors along with the long, maniacal laughter

“Engineering, engineering, come in…. engineering …..”

The testraki reached for his radio earpiece having crawled away from the initial attack on his hands and knees. Something wet slicked the fur on the side of his face. He grasped at the headset as the laughter grew. 

He turned to bring the headset to his ear….. And knew he shouldn't have. The human stood before them holding the vrul engineer in his hands lit from one side by sharp oblique lighting form the fallen white stone which had been knocked to the ground in the initial strike.

Even as he watched the human slowly curled his fingers into clawed talons and stabbed them towards the Vrul’s flotation sack. Nails pierced flesh, and then the human pulled….. Completely ripping the sack from Vrul’s dangling body. Copper bile spilled onto the floor coating the humans hands. The Tesraki screamed into the com trying to scramble away.

The human adjusted his grip. The smile that cut across his face was so wide it looked as if it was about to split skin curling up to take over both cheeks. It grabbed one of the Vrul’s legs, and then clamped a hand around its neck. 

It pulled, pulled so hard that blood began seeping from under its nails. The veins in it's arms bulged, as did it’s eyes.

The room was filled with a horrible ripping sound more green gore.

The tesraki howled in panic over the line not caring who heard just hoping someone did.

He tried to run, scrambling away blindly into the dark. Something slapped to the floor behind him and then the footsteps chasing. 

He was body-slammed hard to the ground, rolled onto his back. The human sat atop him grinning that horrible grin, a dark crack ran through one of the human’s teeth. Blood welled for his gums, from his fingers. The hand turned to claws and descended downwards.

***

Screaming, “Messer 31 relay, messier 31 relay, come in over….. Please someone please someone help us.” 

SLAM 

SLAM

The door shuttered inwards over and over and over again with the weight of the human’s body as it repeatedly slammed itself into the door, over and over and over again. They could see it on the cameras bleeding from its fingers and it’s hands. One of its fingers appeared to be bent, blood dribbled from its mouth. 

SLAM

But still it kept going lights flickered, a trail of bodies blanketed the ground before the door. The surviving support crew huddled in the room staring at the door with abject terror. The human took a step back, paused and then jammed it’s fingers into the door and began to pull. The arms strained the muscles bulged.

The human screamed.

There was no way he could get through that door had a maximum of nearly 1,000 pounds.

The door jarred open an inch.

***

“Messier 32 this is Commander Vir, of the U.S.S Harbinger sending tactical units to your position boarding now.” 

The human reinforcements thundered down the hallway regaled in full tactical gear flanked by two drev soldiers, one bright blue the other a deep bloody red. They could hear the noise before they could see anything, the deep animal screaming of something completely inhuman. The marines fanned out as much as they could in the hallway crouching low. 

They could be seen on the cameras just coming around the last corner as the creature pushed the door oven further joins snapping and popping. 

The whites of his eyes glittered through the open door. Then a dull thud. The door slammed shut as the human suddenly let go.

In front of them, the manic figure staggered and turned dark skin coated with splatters of red, green, and black. Blood trickled from his teeth from his skin from his eyes. It yanked the dart from it’s shoulder, and rushed them.

Three of the marines were picked up bodily, and thrown before anyone had time to react. Commander Vir jumped in front of the creature bringing up his weapon to block his body from the human’s gnashing teeth, and was forced to the ground by a horribly terrible force…. He was so strong.

Cannon ran forward, grabbing the human about the waist and locking him into a bear hug with his two pairs of strong arms. 

With a scream and one massive push, he broke the drew's unbreakable bear hug.

It took three darts to take it down…… the dosage recommended for horses. 

 ***

“You get it quarantined?”

“Yes sir?” 

“Blood tested.”

An exasperated sigh, “Yes sir.” 

“You should probably test the rest of the crew as well.”

Krill turned to look at the commander with a raised eyebrow, “It isn’t a “zombie”, commander, I assure you.”

Commander Vir glanced at the camera and into the viewing room where the ruined body was strapped down eyes wild and rolling kept down only by the nerve block they had placed on its spine.

“Looks like a zombie to me.” 

The Vrul turned to the his scans and shook his head, “Well it isn’t, its completely human. But I think I have found the cause of your problem.” He glanced over at the second, dark haired, human doctor sitting across from him peering through the eyelet of a microscope, “Dr. Katie.”

She glanced up from her microscope and smiled, “He’s right commander, it isn’t a virus or a bacteria, but our scans did pick up something interesting, evidence of extensive and intentional leasoning in the brain.”

“What do you mean?”

Krill looked up, “Scarring on the brain specifically in the amygdala, nerve tracts between the frontal cortex and the amygdala, the hippocampus, and peripheral pain tracts leading from the spine.”

Doctor Katie glanced at the monitor, “He doesn’t feel pain…. He doesn’t feel fear…. He doesn't feel compassion.”

Commander Vir blinked and glanced at sunny who returned his dark expression, “What exactly does this mean?”

“Well, looking at the security feeds you can get an idea of what it means.” Krill stood and began pacing back and forth across the floor, one of his many human-isms that he barely seemed to notice anymore, “The human body is estimated to utilize only 30-60% of the muscle fiber at one time, even well trained athletes reach the high end of this spectrum. The brain of you humans acts as a gating mechanism sending pain signals and telling the muscles to stop when something SEEMS to heavy when in fact you can lift much more under dire circumstances.”

Commander Vir nodded, “like with adrenaline, when you don’t feel pain anymore, and people like lift cars and shit.”

“Not how I would have phrased it, but yes. Humans have been known to lift up to 1,000 + pounds in this state. For instance, when he ripped the Vrul’s leg off.” Commander Vir winced, but Krill went on, “It would have taken almost 600 pounds of pressure to do that, and about 1000 to push open that door. However, these mechanisms are gated for a reason, at your full strength it is quite possible to rip muscle from bone….. In his case he cracked 12 of his teeth, broke five of his fingers, dislocated an elbow, ripped multiple tendons, and caused irreparable damage to his skeletal-muscular and tendon systems. “

Sunny leaned in, “And he felt none of that?”

Krill shook his head, “Not a bit.”

The group of them turned back to the containment unit.

“What does this mean?” Commander vir wondered allowed.

Krill followed his gaze, “It means….. Someone is experimenting….. And I would wager to say their experiment was successful.”

“What did they succeed at?” 

 “If I have to wager a guess….. Super soldiers.” 

[beckzorz]

Out of Nowhere (15/21)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/OFC Summary: An offhand comment at work draws Jesse Kaplan into the orbit of Bucky Barnes. Bucky’s excited at the prospect of normalcy, but there’s nothing normal about falling in love with the Winter Soldier. Words: 3718 A/N: The song for this chapter is “Ain’t Misbehavin’ - 2016 Mono Remaster” by Ray Charles on The Atlantic Studio Albums in Mono (Remastered).

PART 15: “AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’”

The two-hour drive north to the safehouse passed in silence. Natasha spent the bulk of the time frowning at her smartphone. Jesse pressed her forehead against the tinted window and dozed straight through sunrise.

Only once they pulled off the freeway did Natasha slide her phone back in her pocket with a sigh.

“Jesse.”

Jesse rubbed her sore neck. “Hm?”

“Once we get to the house, I’ll want to talk to you about what happened with Current Relief,” Natasha said. Her eyes were wide, mouth serious. “Is that okay?”

“About what happened last night?”

“That too. But I really wanted to hear what you went through.”

Jesse flinched. She pulled up her feet and wrapped an arm around her knees. “I told Bucky…”

“I know,” Natasha said soothingly. “He told me some of it when he first found out. I just want to hear it straight from you. Things can get lost in translation.”

“What, were you speaking in Russian?” Jesse pursed her lips. Natasha blinked; a smirk ghosted over her features.

“No,” she said. “But still. You had some time to rest. Think you’re good to talk? It’ll help us make sense of all the data. And talking things over can help.” She sighed. “To a degree, anyway. It’s better than not talking.”

Jesse turned to stare back out of the window, her cheek pressed against her knee. She hadn’t been able to talk about any of it with Bucky. She hadn’t wanted him to see her at her worst. Better to have written it out.

Jesse bit her tongue to keep from swearing. She should’ve brought the notebook with her.

But Natasha wasn’t Bucky. Maybe with a stranger, it wouldn’t be so hard to keep her cool. And if she did get all panicked, at least it wasn’t Bucky seeing her fall apart.

“Yeah. Yeah. Sure.”

“Thank you, Jesse,” Natasha murmured. She reached out and gently squeezed Jesse’s shoulder.

Wherever they were, it was disgustingly suburban—exurban, even. This was the sort of place people went when they had a flock of kids and a flock of dogs. They turned off onto an even more remote road. Sparse woods grew thicker as they wound along, reaching up into the dull blue sky.

“I don’t know how people live out here,” Jesse muttered.

“They have cars and they enjoy open space,” Natasha answered. “This is nothing. I know someone who lives on a farm. With a tractor.”

Jesse’s lips twitched. “How quaint.”

The car pulled up to a house at the end of the paved part of a narrow road in sparse woods. The road continued on into the trees as just gravel and dirt. Jesse stared at the two-story house. Big yard, shuttered windows. Dilapidated detached garage. The place looked semi-abandoned. There was no sign of life. Natasha opened her door, but Jesse paused.

“How is this place safer, exactly?” Jesse asked. “It looks like anyone could just… waltz on over.”

“It’s more secure than it looks,” Natasha said with a roll of her eyes. “Come on.”

Jesse sighed. “At least Bucky’s place had a doorman,” she grumbled, but she clambered out with her backpack and trailed after Natasha the weedy path to the front door. Behind them, the car peeled away.

Natasha didn’t put a key in the front door. She didn’t even ring the doorbell. Instead, she lifted the whole doorbell up off the wall and pressed her fingers in rapid succession over a tiny electronic pad. Jesse stared as a red light turned green and the door whirred, clicked, and swung open.

“Welcome to your safehouse, Jesse,” Natasha intoned. She led the way inside; Jesse shut her gaping mouth and followed.

Despite the unlived-in exterior, the inside was neat. Painfully neat, to Jesse’s eye. There was a garland of fake flowers hanging in the front hall, but without any hint of dust among the leaves or on the floor.

It all reminded her of the freaky neatness of her own room when she’d been brainwashed. Did the beds in here have hospital corners? She wouldn’t be surprised.

“That’s the way up,” Natasha said, pointing towards a staircase. “Don’t open this door. It’s locked, anyway.” She patted on what Jesse assumed was the basement door.

“What’s down there?” Jesse asked.

Natasha raised her eyebrows and looked Jesse over from head to toe. “Skeletons,” she deadpanned.

“Er—right.” Jesse bared her teeth in a makeshift smile and didn’t press the issue. She could just imagine a creepy SHIELD control center, with a hidden prison and a swivel chair in a dark room, surrounded by hissing monitors…

Jesse hurried after Natasha, who circled through the ground-level rooms at a sharp clip.

“Kitchen, pantry, living room,” Natasha rattled off. “Bathroom down here is off the kitchen. There’s an enclosed porch you can use through here. The hammock is nice. Just don’t open the blinds.”

“What can I do?”

“I’ll show you to your room, and you can put your stuff away.” Natasha paused on the bottom stair and caught Jesse’s eye. “You can keep yourself busy, right?”

“Of course,” Jesse said, eyebrows raised.

“Good.” Natasha climbed up the stairs two at a time, but her steps were almost silent. Jesse felt like an elephant in comparison, but then again, did she need to step lightly here? This wasn’t Current Relief.

“And here’s your room.” Natasha pushed open a door right by the top of the stairs. “Make yourself at home. Bathroom’s right there. I’ll be downstairs when you’re ready.” She disappeared downstairs, leaving Jesse alone.

Jesse rubbed the back of her neck and inched into the bedroom. It was small, smaller than most bedrooms she’d seen even in the city, with just one narrow dresser and a nightstand by the full bed. She glanced to the hallway with raised eyebrows. Even her bed was bigger than that. Like at Bucky’s place, both windows were covered. In a way, the soft lighting and red bedspread felt familiar. Safe. Maybe the same person decorated both places.

But there was no art on the walls. No Cyrillic poetry, not posters. No trace of Bucky, nor anyone else.

Jesse dumped her backpack on the bed and rummaged through her clothes. Everything was wrinkled, even the jeans. She spread them across the bedspread. Her fingers lingered on the smooth pillow.

How many people had been here? Was she the first in a while, or just the latest in a long line of helpless civilians caught up in something too big for them?

She climbed onto the bed and fell on her side, exhaustion seeping over her like a wet blanket. Was this the price for knowing Bucky?

Bucky.

Jesse curled up and hugged her hollow chest. Bucky, Bucky, Bucky—she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Everything circled back to him. The bedspread, the blank walls, her own damn aching heart. How long was she going to be caught in this spiral?

She wished she’d had the guts to just tell him before Natasha had dragged her off to the middle of nowhere. This would have been a great place to sob herself to sleep over a predictable rejection. Secluded, surrounded by strangers who didn’t give a shit about her… No chance of seeing Bucky by accident.

I’m such a coward.

Jesse’s heart wrenched a muffled cry from her throat. She clamped a hand over her mouth and took quick breaths to stifle her sobs. He’d never denied her a thing, yet here she was, drowning in misery. Sure, she could dream up a scenario that ended with him holding her, smiling, his lips on hers… But that would only ever be a dream. Add in even a drop of logic, and that dream was fool’s gold.

Bucky Barnes had better things to do than be with her, and she needed to get used to it.

Jesse dragged herself out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror. Well, she looked like shit. Bloodshot eyes, red nose, pale mouth. The lingering bloodstain on her blue dress made her wince; was there a laundry here somewhere? She’d have to ask.

Cold water helped with her face, but she was sure Natasha would see right through it. And she was right—as soon as she made it downstairs to the kitchen, Natasha looked up from her laptop and frowned.

“Were you crying?” Natasha asked.

Jesse looked away and nodded. She slid into the seat across from Natasha and knotted her fingers together in her lap where Natasha couldn’t see. “Sorry.”

“For christ’s—” Natasha cut herself off and stilled with effort. “Jesse. You do not need to apologize. This is not a fun spot to be in. You are allowed to have feelings about that.”

Am I, though?

Feelings, sure. Today, Jesse felt like a slave to her feelings. But expressing them? With Bucky off-limits and out of reach plus her own detestation of making a fool of herself, Jesse really didn’t think she wanted to. She screwed her mouth into as much of a smile as she could muster and finally met Natasha’s eye. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Good. Anyway,” Natasha continued, clearly glad to have gotten that out of the way and already back to typing, “I want you to know what’s going to happen here. We have people contacting your place of work and the local police, and we’ll keep you posted as needed. You’ll need to stay inside at all times. Once a week, someone will do a grocery run for the house, so write down what you’ll need for yourself. And there will always be an agent on-duty here. For now, that’s me.”

“How long are you going to be here?” Jesse asked, heart sinking.

“Another agent will be coming to relieve me tomorrow.” Natasha finished typing and glanced up. Something of Jesse’s feelings must have shown on her face, because Natasha sighed and closed her laptop. “You’ll be in good hands, no need to worry.”

Jesse bit her lip. How could she help but worry? This morning, she’d been safe at Bucky’s, safe with Bucky. Then Natasha had whisked her out to the middle of nowhere, and now she was going to be stuck here with a total stranger? Not that Natasha was a friend, but at least Jesse had met her before. She had Bucky’s approval. But Jesse wasn’t sure that the associative property applied here. Sure, Bucky trusted Natasha… but that didn’t mean he’d automatically trust anyone Natasha did.

“Do you know who’s coming next?” she asked.

“Richard Rensselaer. He’s worked with SHIELD for six years. He’s competent. Not particularly sociable, but very competent,” Natasha rattled off.

“So… a guy,” Jesse said.

Natasha raised her eyebrows and folded her hands together. “We can’t just reassign people at the drop of a hat. Besides, you stayed with Bucky.”

“Yeah…” Jesse squirmed in her seat as Natasha stared her down with the intensity of a thousand suns. “But I know him!” Jesse blurted.

“Hm,” Natasha said. She opened her computer, eyes still fixed on Jesse’s, and only after some stuttered typing did she glance down. “Not for very long. He told me all this started when you met—or because of it, anyway. Tell me.”

“Well, I don’t know when it all started,” Jesse said slowly. “We met at the Stark Foundation benefit… I guess three Sundays ago?”

Natasha nodded.

“I had to cover my coworker, who broke her ankle, and Bucky asked me to dance.” The sudden memory of being caught up in his arms brought warmth to Jesse’s cheeks. She hurried on. “And then I told him where Marilyn—my coworker—was staying. I ran into him there, and, um, I told him he should come dancing. And he did.”

“Seriously? You told the Winter Soldier he should go dancing?”

“Erm, yes?”

“You have some guts,” Natasha said, impressed.

“Well,” Jesse said, cheeks hotter than ever, “I think everyone should go dancing. It beats a whole lot of other things.”

“Still,” Natasha said. “James Barnes isn’t just anyone.” A sudden grin spread on her face. “He must be good, huh?”

Jesse bit her lip and nodded. Natasha looked back to her computer, but Jesse still had the sense she was being observed.

“Then what?” Natasha asked, fingers poised on the keyboard.

“Um, he came dancing.” Jesse tucked a leg under her and waited for Natasha to glance up from her typing before she continued. “And he asked if I’d be interested in teaching with him. For my work.”

“The Brooklyn Children’s Education Initiative.”

“Yeah, although we just call it BCEI,” Jesse said. “Multisyllabic words and all.”

All in all, this was an awful lot like a meeting at work, except that for once it wasn’t Jesse taking notes. That was a relief. If she had to talk and type and eventually try not to cry… That would be too much.

“And that proposal went through, as I understand.” Natasha was typing again, her nails clicking gently against the keys in a streaming rhythm.

Jesse nodded, but didn’t elaborate. How much did Natasha already know? Her blushes had been a blunder, she realized—Natasha could read people, couldn’t she? She was a spy. That was her job. There was no taking back what she’d said, but she’d gotten distracted by pleasant memories. No more. Let Natasha take what she could get, at least as far as her relationship with Bucky was concerned.

Besides, that relationship was already established. There was no need to get into details, and Natasha surely had no interest in Jesse’s feelings. Her chief concern was information about Current Relief.

“Tell me about the first break-in.”

Jesse took a steadying breath and launched into as neutral a narrative as she could manage of the morning she’d plunged her hand in the toilet and detailed the other little clues she’d half-ignored.

Natasha furrowed her eyebrows when Jesse finished telling how her day had gone after that. “You say you ignored it, but that’s not quite true,” she said. “Bucky said you weren’t sleeping well…”

“I’m a millennial; bad sleep schedules are practically a requirement,” Jesse said snidely, but her eyes stung. If she didn’t make jokes, she knew she’d cry, and she had as much pride as any Avenger. She rubbed at her pulsing temple. Natasha shook back her red hair and pursed her lips.

“Well, that’s not true, but go on. What next?”

Jesse talked, and talked, and talked. All the while, Natasha probed for more, more—more details, more emotion, more background.

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me about this Mike Fuller.”

“If they bugged your apartment, why didn’t they recognize Bucky when he came over a few days later?”

That, at last, gave Jesse pause. “I don’t know.”

“Bucky says he found multiple listening devices in your apartment. Didn’t you say hi? ‘Hi, Bucky, come in’ or something?”

“No-o,” Jesse said slowly. She bent her legs up and wound her arms around them. “I didn’t call him by name.”

Natasha stared. “Why not?”

“I don’t know!” Jesse cried. She pressed her forehead to her knee and stared cross-eyed at the crosshatched fabric of her leggings, willing her tears to stay tucked behind her eyes. Why couldn’t Natasha leave her alone? Sure, Bucky’s name rolled of her tongue like honey now, but back then it had felt like an imposition. She thought back to their first meeting. Had he even introduced himself?

No. He hadn’t.

“Moving on,” Natasha said. “Talk me through the rest.”

Jesse sighed.

—

“Bucky said you were smart,” Natasha said later, once Jesse had reached Natasha’s arrival at Bucky’s place. They were still at the kitchen table, but Natasha had gotten them both glasses of water, and the light slanted more and more through the curtains. “He was right.”

Jesse’s face burned. She couldn’t meet Natasha’s eye. “If I was smart, I probably wouldn’t have gone through all that. I would have—”

“Cut the crap,” Natasha interrupted, but she was smiling gently. “Even smart people get screwed over. All things considered, you did damn good. You saved that girl Liz, you realized something was wrong… Hell, you even got Bucky out of his comfort zone after what, meeting him twice?”

Jesse bit her lip to keep from snorting. The sniff she couldn’t help. “Alright, alright. Thank you.”

“If you don’t trust my judgment, you might as well trust his.”

Jesse’s breath caught in her throat; her eyes snapped to Natasha’s.

Natasha tilted her glass in a circle; the water sparkled from the evening sun streaming through the lace curtain over the western window. “Last week, he had some good things to say.”

Jesse bit her tongue hard to keep from asking more, but Natasha glanced up at her and nearly smirked.

“He was excited to be working on a normal project. With you,” Natasha clarified.

“Huh.” Jesse smiled ruefully and stifled a yawn. “Well, god willing we’ll be able to get back to it. Someday.”

“I’m sure,” Natasha said. She went back to typing. “Are you hungry?”

“Not really.” Jesse’s stomach did feel hollow, but the sudden heaviness in her limbs was more pressing. “I think I’m going to lie down.” She tried to stand, but her knees buckled. She fell heavily back into her chair and stared dimly at Natasha. This feeling… she’d felt it before. This was the same terrifying exhaustion that had come over her during her abduction! Jesse’s hand shook as she tried to push herself back up; tears sprang to her eyes as her tongue turned to ash in her mouth.

“No, no… Wha—”

“Woah, calm down,” Natasha said. She hurried over and slipped Jesse’s arm over her shoulders, guiding her to her feet. Natasha was slender and not even as tall as Jesse, but her arms were all muscle. “The sedative I gave you must be wearing off. It’s nothing to be worried about.”

Jesse had just enough energy to roll her eyes. “Shoulda told me,” she muttered. “Shoulda.”

“Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Natasha parrotted back. She led Jesse up the stairs one step at a time. “Almost there. And hey, look on the bright side. You’ll sleep really well.”

“Hmph,” Jesse said, but the moment Natasha guided her onto the bed, she was out cold.

—

Jesse woke to a pounding on her door.

“Get up and come downstairs,” Natasha called. “I’m about to leave.”

Jesse buried her face in the pillow with a groan. Natasha leaving? Already? Jesse propped herself up on her elbow, blinking blearily. The curtains weren’t thick enough to block out all the light. The brightness peeping around their edges made Jesse blink. She stumbled to the window and peeked around the edge; her eyes stung from the bright midday sun. The curtain fell back in place the second she stepped back, blinking furiously. How long had she been asleep?

Her blue dress was more wrinkled than ever. She was growing to hate the sight of it. The bloodstain, the wrinkles, the memories… This was the dress she’d been wearing when Current Relief came after her. When she’d been stuck in the hospital, afraid of every footstep. When she’d been sitting on Bucky’s bed, his forehead against hers and his breath on her lips.

No, dammit, none of that.

Jesse shoved the thought of Bucky aside as she yanked her dress over her head and tossed it aside. Would it be wrong to just ball the damn thing up and throw it away?

Maybe not, but she had no idea when she’d get replacement clothes. For now, all she had apart from a few changes of underwear was the blue dress, the leggings she was peeling off, a single maroon shirt, and a pair of jeans.

Jeans and maroon shirt it was.

In another minute, she was heading downstairs with a hand pressed tight against the wall for support. Natasha was in the living room, talking with a man with dark hair graying at the temples. Despite his hair, he looked no older than forty.

As soon as Jesse came into view, Natasha stopped talking to the stranger and turned to Jesse. “Jesse, this is Agent Rensselaer. Richard. He’ll be here for the next week.”

“Um, hi.” Jesse’s hand twitched forward, but Richard’s hands were buried in his pockets. He regarded her with a tilted head and a serious expression.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” he said. “Hopefully we can get you home before too long.”

“Thanks.” Jesse stuffed her own hands in her back pockets.

Richard nodded once and turned back to Natasha. “Anything else, Agent Romanoff?”

“No, thank you.” Natasha zipped up her jacket and pulled her hair free from the collar. “Well, Jesse, it’s been grand. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

Jesse smiled tightly. Natasha grabbed a black duffel bag from the couch and swung it over her shoulder as she headed towards Jesse and the door. Jesse opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of anything worth saying. Natasha didn’t want to hear please stay, that much was obvious. Everything else seemed unnecessary.

But Natasha stopped inches away and wrapped her free arm around Jesse’s shoulders. “Chin up, Jesse,” she murmured.

A tear eked its way out of Jesse’s eye. “Thanks,” she whispered.

Natasha let go and stalked away, the rustling of her clothes and the sound of the door opening and closing the only indication of her progress. Once the door shut, Jesse let out a huff and turned to Richard, who took one look at Jesse’s face and gave a smile that bordered on a grimace.

“Well, let me know if you need anything,” he said. He turned on his heel and took up residence in the kitchen.

Jesse stood alone in the living room. She spun on her heel and ran upstairs. Not until her door was closed and locked did she fling herself back onto her bed and let her tears overwhelm her. This was punishment, she was sure of it. Alone with a man she didn’t know, a stranger who had no interest in getting to know her…

Oh, why couldn’t she have just stayed with Bucky?

Jesse buried her head in her pillow and let herself cry. In the solitude of her room, no one was going to stop her.

A/N: Welp, there you have it... Sorry for an utter lack of Bucky, but he’ll be back soon. Everything circles back to him, after all... And yes, Natasha’s ‘someone who lives on a farm with a tractor’ is everyone’s favorite archer <3 Gotta love Clint!

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought :3

[rollingshutter]

Automatic Big Rolling Shutter Bangalore 

[thighhighsanti]

sweet but psycho

summary: Seoul has been a mess lately, people were getting killed and the mafia groups tried to gain control over the situation. Problem was, there were three groups and they all wanted to be on top. Y/N was.. an informant and hired assassin for anyone who offered her a good amount of cash. She kept her identity hidden behind a mask, keeping her private life and jobs separate. But this became more difficult when one of the big groups was out looking for her best friend. Can she really keep her identity hidden, and is her friend really the one they want?

word count: 2.6k

pairing: ok so in the beginning kinda minseok x fem!reader but might chance later, you’ll see why. 

tags/warnings: (these will mostly be the same for the entire series) Mafia AU, any kind of weapon, mayor character death, mention of blood, angst, mention of loss, descriptive death and fighting, smut in future chapters, kidnapping, stealing, hacking, uhh cages? Stockholm syndrome. mention of BTS and GOT7

Your name: submit What is this?

25 Juli 2018.

My legs swung on the sides of the building as I patiently waited, my headphones where on at full volume so all I heard was my music. That was until my music softened due to an incoming call. With a sigh I turned around to grab my phone from my bag. ‘Hmm?’ I mumbled into the phone after answering.

‘Target is on the move’ the voice on the other end said before hanging up. ‘As if I didn’t know already’ I whispered before leaning to the side and settling the rifle on the stand between my legs. As I hummed along with the song my headphones had continued playing, I looked through the scope.. He was almost in sight, and not to forget.. way behind on his and now my schedule.

I watched as my target, some important political person, got into sight. He walked up the stand to start his speech, which he spend the entire night writing. Which I would know, considering I had watched him write it.

‘Good afternoon everyone, thank you all for coming’ he began, watching as some people hurried to their seat. ‘I know you’ve all seen the news these past few days, so I won’t start with some bullshit story about how there is nothing to worry about.’ I snickered a little as some people turned to look at each other and some shifted uncomfortable in their seats. ‘For the few of you that maybe haven’t seen the news.. Let me make this short, basically some mafia groups decided it was a good idea to cause some fuss’ he said before letting out a sigh as some people started to get up and ask questions.

As I continued to watch I felt my phone begin to vibrate and my music softening again. I groaned before picking up the phone ‘what?’, I snarled a little to rude for everyone’s liking, I was talking to a mafia boss after all. ‘Why is this guy still talking, what’s taking you so long? Just take the shot!’ the voice said angrily. ‘Calm down, I was just listening to his interesting speech’ I mumbled as I hang up, not letting him continue. ‘It’s always the same with these guys’

‘However-’ he said raising his hands and getting everyone to quiet down. ‘-We will fix this city, we will take down the mafia and put a stop to all of this’ he finished as people started yelling in cheers. ‘Fine, time to end this’ I said to myself as I fixed my rifle, turning on all the right settings and… fire… The sound of the shot was being silenced by the silencer attached to the end, but also by all the cheering going on.

The cheering quickly turned into screaming as his body fell to the floor. The bodyguards around him ran over to help him, but it was already too late.. the bullet went straight through the head. I watched for a moment as people ran away, scrambling in fear of being hit.

After a few more seconds I disarmed the rifle, taking it apart and stuffing it in the bag next to me. As I stood up I grabbed my phone from the ground and watched as the money was being transferred to me. I swung the bag over my shoulder and put my hat on, walking to the fire escape. If I walked among a crowd I would look like some young college student, you would have no idea I had a deadly firearm in my bag. Luckily for me the running crowd also helped.

I stuffed my phone in my pocket before climbing down the fire escape, the bleeping sound imminent as the number of cash kept growing. After jumping down the last bit I quickly joined the groups of people, some were running towards the stage while others just tried to run away. As I continued to walk to my home I checked my phone every now and then, the amount of money still rising.

The mafia group I did this job for was a new and uprising group, they were the ones causing trouble. While the bigger groups just tried to calm things down and get back control. There are 3 mafia groups that are currently active in Seoul. The new group was called GOT7, nobody knew much about them. They didn’t do a lot of dealing, they just wanted others to know about them. They were also the ones that hired me for this job, they wanted the city to know they could do some serious damage with the right people.

The second group was called Bangtan, or something like that. They were more quiet, they had a few night clubs and from what I heard they gave good parties. I had also done a few jobs for them but they were nothing mayor, usually just a little ‘watching’ or get information.

And the last one was called EXO, they were probably the biggest and almost everyone had heard of them in one way or another. They were a group that also, surprisingly, had done some good to this city. You could usually find a few of this group in the area where I lived.

I might even had a few in my bar, which was my ‘normal’ way of income. My dad used to have a small bar on the side of town and right before he passed, he gave it to me. I did my best to keep it running, but with my other job it got kind of difficult sometimes. Luckily I had a few people helping me out, some of my remaining family and also my good friend Lu Han. They had all helped me with rebuilding some of it and they also helped me with changing the later added rooms, so I could turn that into my house. It was small but it wasn’t like I was there a lot anyway.

In all my time of spying, killing and beating people up I hadn’t really met with all the mafia folk. I preferred to do business over the phone, considering I didn’t want them to see my face. In the beginning Bangtan had asked for a meetup as they just wanted to know who they were working with, which was understandable.. And I had to admit, I was curious too. So when I did meet up with the groups or other people that need my ‘services’, I always wore a mask. Because of the money I got from all these jobs it was a good one too.

It pretty much covered my entire face but I could ‘open’ it at certain points, so you could either see my eyes or my mouth. It was made of this really strong steel so it was as good as bulletproof, although I had yet to test this theory. When I met with Bangtan I let them see my eyes, so there was a certain amount of trust with us. They trusted me enough to do some jobs for them and so far I hadn’t disappointed them.

GOT7 mostly offered the jobs like before and I hadn’t really worked with EXO, as they were kind of a tight group. Of course there were other people that paid for either information or to get rid of someone. I had even done some spying for a woman because she thought her husband was cheating on her.. and she was right. So I gave her the right photos and she got a divorce, not the best job but it was easy money.

It was around night time when I reached my apartment, the speech was in the afternoon so I had taken longer than expected . I entered my building through the back door, locking it behind me and walking to the desk. After throwing my keys into a basket I grabbed the remote and turned on the television, curious as to what to news had to say about the recent murder.

As I watched the news, where they just mourned and talked about the scandal that happened in broad daylight. The media was also accusing the bodyguards for not doing their jobs right, after all it indeed was light and they hadn’t even seen me. Not that anyone ever did.. but that was just plain sloppy.

I grabbed an apple from the basked and hopped onto the bar as I grabbed my phone from my pocket. The full amount of money had been completely transferred into my account, this meant I could also finish rebuilding the bar. After all it was my plan to stop my side job when the bar was finished and running smoothly.

I was pulled from my thoughts by the sound of someone unlocking the bar door and shutting it behind them, locking it again. Two of my workers, Kate and Anne walked in laughing to something they said. They greeted me as they came into sight, Lu Han walking closely behind them. ‘Are you really planning on working again, you do know you don’t get paid for that right?’ I mocked him as he just smiled at me. ‘Actually no, I just came to check on you and get drunk’ he laughed as he pulled me in for a hug, pulling me off the bar so Kate could clean it.

‘Well in that case you’re a costumer and we sir, are not open yet’ Anne giggled at my comment as she began to pull the chairs off the tables and setting them up. The two worked to tidy the place up as Lu took a seat at the bar, but not before grabbing a beer from one of the small fridges. His attention turned to the television as his brows furrowed. ‘This is getting out of hand, the mafia shot this guy in broad daylight and got away with it. What else are these guys capable of’ he muttered and took a swig of his drink. I simply shrugged my shoulders, causing him to look at me.

‘Does that not bother you at all?’ he asked me with surprise in his voice. ‘As long as they don’t touch my bar or my family I.. I don’t know, care I guess. It’s not even anywhere close by, I’m sure they won’t come here’ I admitted as I grabbed a drink for myself. ‘Ok girls, I’m rolling up the shutters’ I said before grabbing the remote and pressing the button. As the shutters slowly went up I noticed it was already super dark outside, the streetlights barely doing anything. ‘I hate this town’ Lu muttered as he took another sip.

It took only an hour or two before the bar was pretty much packed, it was Saturday after all. The girls were serving drinks and snacks to the people at the table as I took care of Lu and the others that were seated at the bar. Lu was pretty hammered, laughing at almost everything I told him. It was moments like this that I was happy I had a spare room, which is where he usually ended up when he was drunk in my bar… Or just drunk general, sometimes he went out to other places but he always forgets where he lives so he just gave the cab driver my address instead.

Lu looked around hazily before his gaze went to the front door and stayed there for a while. ‘Shit’ he muttered under his breath before quickly looking back ahead. It only took a few seconds before he got off his chair and started stumbling to the door leading upstairs to the other rooms. He typed the code into the lock pad and went inside, closing the door behind him which locked instantly.

As I tried to figure out who, or what he was running from a voice caught my attention. ‘Excuse me?’ I heard someone say, causing me to look towards the source of the voice. ‘Have you by any chance seen my friend, he was just sitting here a moment ago. But I think we walked by each other’ he explained as he looked around the room before looking back at me. The guy in front of me was wearing an expensive looking black suit and he just looked like… well trouble.

‘You say that as if I’m supposed know your friends-’ I started causing one of the guys behind him to snicker. ‘But I did see someone go to the toilets over there, but I don’t know if he’s the one you’re looking for’ I shrugged as I nodded in the direction of the toilets.

The guy turned around to the three guys behind him, who I assumed were here with him. He simply looked towards the bathroom, causing two of the guys to walk off in that direction. One stayed outside while the other one went inside, probably looking for Lu, who of course was upstairs.

I grabbed a glass from the bar, washing it a little before drying it with a cloth. As I did this I tried to keep an eye on the two guys at the toilets but the one in front of me grabbed my attention again. ‘Oh I’m sorry, I’m being awfully rude. I haven’t even introduced myself’ he laughed a little as he stretched his arm out to me, offering me his hand. ‘I’m Minseok I’m a friend of Lu Han’ he smiled at me, as he waited for my name. With a bit of hesitation I put the glass and the cloth away and offered him my name and my hand.

‘Nice to meet you, do you work here part-time?’ he continued the conversation as he waited for the two others guys, the one behind him looking around the room. ‘Actually I am the owner’ I explained causing the other one to look at me. When he saw I was looking at him he quickly turned to look the other way. Just as Minseok was about to say something the two guys came walking back from the toilets. One of them tapped his shoulder, causing him to turn sideways and look at them.

One of the guys leaned in a little as he whispered something into his ear. After a few seconds Minseok sat straight again and let out a deep sigh. ‘I’m sorry but I must leave’ he muttered before looking at me and running a hand through his hair. ‘I hope to see you again sometime’ he smiled at me before giving me a small wink and getting up. The group of four walked to the door and almost as soon as they stepped out of the bar you could feel the atmosphere chance.

‘Did you see that guy?’ the person that had sat next to him said to another as soon as they got out of the bar. ‘Yeah, you really think that’s him, that he’s that mafia boss?’ another said as they huddled together a bit, hoping to quiet their conversation.

I looked out the window, only to find them already gone. So they were part of one of those mafia groups in town, maybe that new one? I’d didn’t matter really, the only thing that did was how the hell they know Lu and what did he do this time to get involved with the mafia.

[devilbat]

Movie night gone wrong?

Imagine Loki watching a movie with you. You reach for the remote only to accidentally grab Loki’s cock over his trousers. What happens next…

Warnings: fluff

Note: I didn’t edit this or re-read any of it. It’s my first one posted on here. So yeah, sorry about if anything has been missed.

You alway love movie night. It was even better now that you have convinced Loki to join you for movie night. Most nights it was just you and him all the other Averages were always on a mission or to tired to even keep their eyes open during the movies. And tonight was a mission night so it was just you and Loki holding down the fort.

“I don’t get it?” Loki asked looking at you with a Questionable and confused look. You had to remind yourself that he did watch Midgard movie on Asgard so every movie you watched was new to him. And tonight you decided to have him watch Star Wars.

You sighed. “What do you not get this time loki? You asked. Trying you head to him. As you paused the movie.

“The big furry one. Why is he listening to Han is it?! When he could obviously take over and be in charge?” Loki looked at you puzzled. You just looked at him and just shocked your head.

“They are friends Loki. That is all you need to know! Now just watch the movie. I’m going to get something to drink!” You said as you unpaused the movie. You throw the remote on Loki’s lap. You have seen Star Wars millions of times so you didn’t need to keep it paused on your behave.

“Can you get me some of the soda you like as well pet?” He asked coyly with a smirk. He knows how much you hate it, when he calls you that. Well you didn’t hate it really it just turned you on, Specially the way he says it, making you shutter.

“Why yes my king!” You said sarcastically as you rolled your eyes. You walked into the kitchen to grab drinks for him and you.

“Oh darling you should be keeling before your king when you say that, Like a good little pet.” Loki purred. Dear god would you keel for him if only he had the same feeling you had for him. He made your skin hum every time he was near. You walked back to the couch handing him his drink. His hand grabbed the Can his finger brushed against your wrist. His hand lingered on yours a little to long until you moved it from his to go sit down. Goosebumps slowly moved up and down your body. It was silent for awhile as you both watched the movie.

“Um L-Loki? “ You started to say. Looking at him from the corner of your eye. Loki turned his head to look at her.

“Yes my love? “ Loki smirked at you as he looked at you. It felt like he could know what you were going to say. You had to stop yourself from shivering from his gaze.

“Um sorry I forgot what I was going to say. “ You smiled and went back to watching tv. When the movie was over you got up to put the next one in the blue ray player. Loki sat there staring at you bet over your ass in his view. You were wearing leggings which he could see slightly throw them. Now knowing what type of panties you were wearing. He leaned forward licking his lips. Lust filled his eyes. He’s lounge pants got titter. As you stood back up, Loki leaned back against the couch as he adjusted himself trying to clear his wild thoughts and all the things he wanted to do with you.

He watched as you sat back down. Eyeing you body as you put your legs under you. You reach for the remote that you had thrown in his lap earlier, not knowing that Loki had a boner from watching you put a dvd in. You shifted trying to reach better you started patting for the remote as you put you hand on something hard not realizing what it was thinking it might have been the remote you really weren’t thinking as you moved your hand up. You gasped just as your realized what you did. You slowly turned your head looking like a dear in head lights as Loki looked right at you. He had a devilish smirk and hungry eyes. You moved you had as fast as you could. But Loki grabbed your hand.

“I-I’m s-sorry Loki. I didn’t mea-.” You stuttered but Loki cut you off. With his free hand he grabbed you by the waist pulling you on to his lap. His hand on your waist started to wonder down to your ass he let go of wrist and put his on hand with his other, he grabbed your ass hard pushing you right up against his excretion. You bite back a soft moan biting your lower lip. Loki grab the back of your neck bring you head closer to his. He rested his forehead on yours.

“Do you realize how long I have been waiting for this my pet?” He growled. Bring you in for a kiss first it was soft slow passionate, then it was rough needy wanted! You couldn’t hold back your moan this time as you moaned in to the kiss. Loki smirked. You wrapped one hand in his hair and the other grab a hold of his shoulder. You bit his lower lip and pulled a little. Making him growl again. You felt him pick you up and pushing you into the couch as he laid on top of you. He only stop kissing to let you both catch a breath. He started his attacking on your neck, push his fully aroused member against you low regions. His left hand still wandering your body as it slowly moved under and up your shirt finding that you were wear a very skimpy bra. He brush his hand over the thin lace.

“How long have felt the same my pet?” He growled again. Sending pleasurable shivers up and down your body. With another moan. His right hand tangled in your hair pulling a little. Making gasp out his name. Which made him start needing you breast pinching your nipple making it hard under his touch. “Pet!?!? His tone more demanding when you didn’t respond. Pinching your nipple hard

“The first day!” You cried out. Loki reposition himself moving his hard cock at of your clothed entrance, pushing it up against you hard. You dug your nails in to his shoulders. Gasping louder. “L-Loki.” You moaned again. Loki went back to kissing enjoying his torture on you.

“I should make you keel before me. Have you begging for me to continue.” Loki breathed out in between kisses.

“Loki shut up and just keep kiss me. You can have me keeling later in your bedroom. You whispered in his ear as he started to kiss and nip at you neck. You kissed right under his ear then nip at his ear. Making him moan.

“I think we need to continue this in my chambers .” He wanted to see you laying on his bed tied up and naked. Wanting to see your body to warship to own it to take it over and over again. He was losing his control. “Your are mine and mine a lone. Do you understand me pet?” He whispered with a devilish smirk looking right at you. He had removed his hand from under your shirt to brush the hair out of your face. He was loving the look of your hair all messy. You moved your hand to the back of Loki’s neck to pull him back to your lips.

You two were so caught up in the moment . That you didn’t here your name being called. Both of you paused to caught your breath and that’s when you heard a cough behind Loki. You looked around Loki’s shoulder and saw iron man first then the rest of the Average.

“Loki!” Tony practically growled. “Get off of our baby girl Averages. You rolled your eyes at the name he always gives you. You felt Loki get off of you slowly with his hand up, giving you his award-winning smirk. You heard his eheh.

“Tony!” You tried growl but it was more of a squeak. Tony looked at you like a worried father.

[narisjournal-blog]

A Lot To Learn (Part 6): I Never Knew

A LOT TO LEARN MASTERLIST

Chuck x Reader Fobwatch AU Word Count: 2,707

Chuck has a secret that even he doesn’t know. But you do. And you are sworn to protect him and keep his secret safe inside a fobwatch necklace you keep with you at all times.

You and Chuck need some time apart. In your panic, you fall back on one of the contingency plans that had been put in place. Chuck reassesses his role in the universe and tries to ignore the absence left in your wake.

Warnings: None really.

A/N: Thank you all so much for being so patient with me for this chapter. I got there eventually and I realised it was important not to rush it to just get it out. So I am happy with this chapter, after a lot of editing and work. 

Please give me feedback!

You needed answers and you needed them now. As you walked away from Chuck’s house, you frantically shuffled through all the contingencies he had talked you through. Was this an emergency? Each footfall became quicker, as though it would speed your thought process along.

Who was this Clockmaker? Why hadn’t Chuck told you about him? How much power did he have over you? Over Chuck?

Was he good or was he evil? Could things in life be so easily defined when you held the heart of God in your hand? Could you trust him, or should you be ringing all the alarms? Were you - more importantly, was Chuck - in danger? You needed help. You couldn’t do this on your own anymore. *** Chuck sat back down at the kitchen table with a sigh and held his head in his hands. He hadn’t really wanted her to leave. When she wasn’t around he felt the emptiness creeping back in. Like he forgot his purpose and reason for existing. He rubbed at his eyes. And she was right. That wasn’t healthy. Even if she was his girlfriend, it wouldn’t be healthy.  How had he grown so dependant? But whenever she was near, she just had this kind of pull to her. Like gravity. It was like she had some kind of power over him and he just wanted more. Was he being a jerk for pushing this? She didn’t want things to become physical, maybe he should just respect that. He should definitely respect that. But it wasn’t that simple. What she was saying and what she was doing didn’t add up. And she never said why. He pulled his phone from his hoodie pocket. He should text her. He stared at it for a while. What would he even say? He put it down on the table and pulled his laptop out instead. Maybe it was better not to think about her. So he scanned over his latest prophecy instead. Maybe he should give Sam a call and see if they needed any help. He read through it several times before he threw his hands up. ‘Nope,’ He said to the empty house. ‘I have no part in this play.’ What would he even do, while Sam and Dean saved the day? Provide moral support? They didn’t need him. He was all but useless.

And yet he kept being told he was important because he was a prophet. She had said it herself. That was his most valuable asset. Maybe that was why she hung around him like a bee on a honeypot, he mused. What if she really was just after the glory? What if... what if she really was just using him for his prophecies? What if she never really cared about him at all? And there he was again, thinking about her. It was difficult not to when every movement he made was accompanied by the scent of her perfume on his hoodie. Was it deliberate? Had she made sure the thought of her was embedded into the very fabric that adorned him? He found himself breathing it in, leaning into the thoughts of her.

He caught himself and rolled his eyes.

‘Come on, Shurley,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Get it together.’

He looked back at his laptop, pulling up his emails. Not that he ever had anything but Dominos spam. One new e-mail flashed up on the screen.

‘Becky Rosen,’ he said out loud. He had got into the habit of speaking, mostly because she was usually there. But when he was by himself, the loneliness crept in and he found it comforting to feel like he was talking to somebody.

‘Becky?’ he repeated, scrunching his face up wondering why she would be e-mailing. He clicked onto it. Of course – it was about the book convention thing tomorrow. Details of when to arrive and what the program was.

He sighed. It had all been quite unexpected. Becky was passionate, to say the least, and she had taken the whole thing very seriously since she discovered Sam and Dean were in fact real.

It looked like her and the publisher had gone all out for this; there was to be a ghost hunt and everything. His eyes stopped as they scanned over the part that said ‘Q & A’. His jaw tightened.

He never had been very good at speaking in public. Running his hands through his hair, he wondered if saying yes to all this had been a big mistake. It wasn’t like anyone would actually turn up anyway.

He really had hoped that she would come with him. It would have made it all seem a bit easier.

He hadn’t really intended it to seem like she was his girlfriend. The thought hadn’t really crossed his mind. He just wanted her there for moral support, and because he was particularly fond of her. The thought of going without her made his stomach churn.

He shook his head, trying to think of something else. He opened a word document. He was a writer. Maybe he should do some writing. People always said it was therapeutic, right?

***

You walked for a few blocks, mind racing, before you started to think about where you were heading. It wasn’t like you had anywhere to go. You stopped in your tracks and flagged down a taxi.

There was one place that might be useful right now. You told the driver the address and watched out the window as the streets flew by. It wasn’t far, but you needed to get there as quickly as you could.

You cradled your burning arm, all the while wondering what purpose the Clockmaker could have in cursing you. Was it just a warning? Or worse, did he now see you as a threat?

Either way, you had to find a way to heal this. You couldn’t risk Chuck seeing it and asking questions, and you also didn’t know what it might do to you.

‘Here,’ you instructed the driver and he pulled up. You gathered up the money you had left, having just enough to pay him.

You stood outside the old, run-down storage unit and waited for the taxi to disappear from sight. You exhaled a breath that lingered in the cold air.

The windowless building looked uncared for and weathered, but mostly ordinary. Several other units stood alongside it, each looking exactly the same. Only you knew the secrets held within yours.

Chuck had helped you pick the place out. He had been adamant it should be this place, God only knows why. You felt like he’d picked the most remote, threatening looking place in the whole town. But you trusted him. You had to.

You glanced nervously around to make sure no harmful passers-by lurked or unholy watchful eyes hid in the shadows.

‘If I die here because some stabby Joe thinks it’s his turf and you never see me again, you’ll only have yourself to blame, Shurley,’ you whispered, shoulders tensing with the unease you felt. The old Chuck would have found that funny, you thought.

Mostly satisfied that you were alone, your hands shook as you turned the key in the shutter. You let it rise enough for you to slip inside, lowering it again and locking it behind you.

It was dark and dingy, even as you clicked the small light on. The smell of dust infiltrated your nostrils and you realised how long it had been since you had needed to come here.

The devil’s trap was still intact, and the warding Chuck had taught you adorned the walls like ominous graffiti. To others in the outside world they might seem unnerving, but to you they were the most comforting thing in the world. Apart from Chuck’s warmth against you and his arms around you. You shook the thought off.

You slid down the door to sit on the cold, concrete floor, holding your head in your hands.

It had been going fine. Everything was fine and he was safe. The seizures were scary, but they were under control and you only appeared when you were needed. You had let that slide and now you had become far too involved in him and his life. Maybe you had just made everything worse.

Tears tumbled down your face as all the emotion of the last few days caught up with you. Your hands were shaking and you felt the weight of it all heavy on you and pulsing through your blood. Your arm throbbed where the bandage constricted against it. You pulled off the bandage from your arm and took in the thick dark veins that were spreading and throbbing like roots that led to a dark core. And what made it worse was that all you wanted to do was to tell Chuck. To show him so he could help you, save you from this unknown fate. He would stand up for you. He would fight for you. But he couldn’t right now. Even if you did tell him, he didn’t have the power to help you. And tricking him into using it was what had got you into this mess in the first place. You couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t time. Time. You examined the intricate details of the clock that hung around your neck. It struck you that this wasn’t just a prison for Chuck. It held you captive also. As long as he was vulnerable, you were bound to him and you were also vulnerable. ‘But what if there’s an emergency, Chuck? What if something happens and I can’t keep you safe?’ You had whispered as he embraced you.  You remembered the mischievous glint in his eye as he had given you the emergency plans. They were in Big brown envelopes he somehow found amusing. You shook your head to clear it. This wasn’t the time to freak out. You had to do something. That was why you were here. Slowly, you pushed yourself up to stand once more.

You pulled open drawers and raked through them, forgetting exactly where you had put them. That had been part of his plan, of course. He made you forget so you would have to think twice about using one of the contingencies.

You thought twice. You thought several times, and each time you came to the same conclusion; you needed help. This wasn’t OK anymore.

You stilled your mind to focus, slowing down in your frantic search. You let your memory and the power that hung at your chest guide you. Soon enough, you found one. The brown envelope was simply marked with the letter G.

You ripped it open and dropped to your knees on the floor, scattering the contents in front of you.

A feather floated to the floor. A vial of red liquid you could only assume was blood rolled across the concrete. A scrap of paper with instructions written in Chuck’s surprisingly scruffy handwriting shifted in the draft.

You took a deep breath and picked up the instructions. Carefully you followed each one, pouring the blood into a bowl followed by the feather and then the fob watch from around your neck. You found a box of matches in one of the drawers and struck it, dropping it into the bowl.

‘I now invoke the mighty and powerful Archangel Gabriel to stand behind me.’ You paused. ‘Uh…Thank you,’ you muttered quickly.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. You thought it hadn’t worked, and your fists began to unclench as you resigned yourself to the thought that you really were on your own.

But then somebody cleared their throat behind you. You whirled around.

A man no taller than yourself with slightly unkempt brown hair stood before you in nothing but a pair of red and white love-heart adorned boxer shorts. He held a lollipop in his hand, paused half way to his mouth. His eyebrows were raised but his face was set. It was like he was trying to decide whether to be amused or pissed off.

‘Can I help you?’

***

Chuck’s fingers flowed across the keys without him even really thinking about it. The thoughts and concepts flying across his mind played out across the screen almost effortlessly. He couldn’t say if it was a detailed geological fact sheet or poetry. Maybe somewhere between the two.

He pushed himself to stand and made his way up the stairs to the bathroom. It was about time he at least freshened up. He had to learn to look after himself, even when she wasn’t here. He was a grown man, for goodness’ sake.

He thought over his vision and what he had just written. He wanted to show her, to ask her which she thought it was. He sighed. He was tired of trying to push thoughts of her from his mind.

So he let her swim around his thoughts once more.

He had had a vision of a beautiful place. He didn’t know where it was, or why he was being shown it, but he wanted to take her there. The words on the page went into detail about how the rocks had set and formed; crystals within crystals and beautiful coloured sediments.

The things his brain could conjure, he mused. There were parts of the world and pieces of history tucked away in the corners of his memories that sometimes floated to the surface when his mind was clear enough. Sometimes in the quiet, when he let his thoughts play, he felt like he understood the patterns and systems of the universe in all their intricacies and complexities.

He felt like he watched it all before his eyes and smiled at the incredible privilege this prophet-business gave him.

And yet, when it came to understanding one human woman, his mind was a blank page.

He ran the cold tap and splashed his face. The cooling sensation ran through his body.

Looking back over biblical history, prophets and religious figures never did have much luck or time for the ladies.

He sighed. What cruel, capricious God would tease him with such a beautiful, loyal, loveable woman and then withdraw the means to understand anything about her?

Perhaps this was temptation. Perhaps he was supposed to prove his loyalty?

It would help if he could look into the face of this God he supposedly served and understand something about him too.

He stared in the mirror at his own face, each crease around his eyes seeming more defined and more worn. He ran his fingers across his cheeks, stroking the rough, unkempt hairs of his beard. He couldn’t remember the last time he had groomed it, but he didn’t care to now.

He smoothed the pads of his fingers over the patch of grey that had formed at his chin. How subtle these changes were, and yet one day he knew he would awake to see an old man staring back at him. If he was lucky enough to live that long, he thought.

He ran the tap again and wet his fingers to run them through his messy curls. He moved through to the bedroom and paused to look at the tangled bedsheets she had left where they lay. He imagined her peeling them back and emerging wearing only that t-shirt of his.

He sat down heavily on the bed.

What was going on with her? She had been so upset by whatever had disturbed her dreams and was suddenly afraid of how close they had become. What had made her panic?

He knew she hadn’t really slept for the rest of the night. He hadn’t helped, he knew that. Her skin was soft and her back had arched and pressed into him.

But even when they had settled and she cradled her head into his shoulder, as he drifted between dreams he could feel the flutter of her eyelashes against his neck.

Her mind was racing, he knew, but she wouldn’t tell him why. He wanted to help her, to ease her mind and make her feel safe.

But he wasn’t sure he was really the right man for the job.

Everything list: @quixoticcat @afanofmanystuffs @trashforwinchesters @yourewelcomeforbeingmyfriend @featheredluci @natasha-cole @greenappleeyes @bisexualdolphinthings @i-dont-understand-that-url @misszombicorn Rob/chuck list: @tas898 @destielschild @girl-next-door-writes @nekodresden85 @winchestergirl-13 @a-banana-for-your-thoughts @jelly-beans-and-gstrings @kocswain A lot to learn: @dont-hate-relate-pls @drailea @pancake-pages

If you want to be added to a tag list, leave a comment, drop me an ask or a message :)

[dee-vine]

Shutter Speed Ch. 14

This chapter sucks (writing wise) and I struggled so much but it’s a good chapter I swear, and it’s extra long because I felt bad for not getting it out sooner like I planned. I hope you guys enjoy it!

PLEASE like and reblog and comment, it makes it easier for me to write if I actually know you guys like it. 

xx Dana

Ch 13 | AO3

Betty is tired. She got to work at 7:30 this morning, and didn’t even get a break until her shift ended at 3:30. All she wants to do is go home and nap, but she promised Jughead that she would go over there after work. She sighs and makes her way towards his apartment building, which is only a few blocks away thankfully. When she reaches it, she presses the button for his apartment number and waits a few seconds until the buzzer goes off, unlocking the door. She makes her way up the stairs, thankful he’s only on the third floor, and texts Veronica that she’s here and should take the car here so they don’t have to walk back home.

Before she knocks on the door, she smooths down her shirt and takes her hair out of its bun, running her fingers through it. She lets out a deep breath before knocking on the door, hearing the “come in” yelled from the other side. She opens the door and is met with an unpleasant sight-- Toni sitting on the couch next to Jughead, laughing with him and Archie about something.

“Hey Betty! It’s been a while,” Archie comments when she walks in, grinning at her. She smiles and closes the door behind her, hanging her purse up on a hook next to it.

“Yeah, my schedule has been insane, I haven’t had a chance to see anyone. Veronica’s on her way, also, I came straight from work,” Betty tells him. She glances at Toni before sitting in the armchair beside Archie, pointedly avoiding Jughead’s stare.

“It was your long day, right?” Jughead asks. Betty just nods, still avoiding making eye contact with him. She can feel Toni’s stare and feels a little self conscious, shrinking into herself. “You’re probably exhausted. We could’ve rescheduled, you know.”

“No, it’s fine Jug. I actually feel better now that I’m sitting down,” Betty amends, finally meeting his eyes. He looks concerned, his fingers tapping on his knee. He’s about to say something when Toni speaks up, clapping her hands against her thighs.

“Jones, we’ve been sitting here for hours doing nothing. Entertain me with something,” she says, poking him in the cheek. Jughead averts his eyes and flinches away from her with a laugh, Betty’s back stiffening.

“You’re asking the wrong guy, I’m not fun,” he answers, turning his head away from her. She pouts out her bottom lip and then, with a small smirk forming on her lips, sets herself on Jughead’s lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“But I always have fun with you,” she says lowly, almost purring. Archie’s head snaps up at the same moment Betty stands up from her chair.

“I’m going to get a glass of water,” she mutters to Archie, and all but runs into the kitchen. She feels angry, the image of Toni on Jughead’s lap stuck on repeat in her mind. She leans over the kitchen sink and turns on the faucet, letting the water run as she takes a few deep breaths. After a few moment she hears someone walk in, so she quickly grabs a glass from the dish rack and fills it halfway with water. She takes a sip before turning around, only to be met with the sight of Toni leaning against the fridge, arms crossed with a smirk on her face.

“You ran out so quick I almost didn’t see you,” Toni says. Betty’s free hand clenches into a fist, but she tries to keep her composure, gently setting her glass down.

“I’ve had a long day, needed to wake up. Plus, you didn’t seem to mind my absence,” Betty remarks, dragging her gaze back to look at Toni. She’s still smirking at her, but stands up straight and makes her way over to Betty.

“Is that...jealousy?” Toni asks in a taunting voice. She steps into Betty’s space and leans against the counter next to her, which makes Betty want to shrink away. She doesn’t though, instead stands her ground and levels her with a look that she hopes is intimidating.

“It’s clear we don’t like each other, so why don’t we be outright and say it, Toni,” Betty says. She turns to face Toni, their fronts aligned, and Betty can’t help but feel a sense of pride at the way she towers over her. Toni doesn’t seem phased, however, looking up at her with a fake smile.

“Props to you for your honesty,” Toni says. She holds eye contact with Betty, neither of them willing to back down until she smiles, taking a step back. “I think you should tell him.”

“Excuse me?” Betty asks, thrown off by the statement.

“I know you’re not dumb, Betty. And you’ve gotten my approval,” Toni tells her, walking away from Betty. She’s about to walk out of the kitchen when Betty stops her, still clearly confused.

“What are you talking about?” she asks, stepping away from the counter. Toni turns back around, rolling her eyes and sighing.

“Listen, you’re clearly gone for Jughead, and I think you should tell him,” she says with a shrug.

“But, you and him…” Betty starts, confusion clouding her face. It worsens when Toni laughs out loud, shaking her head.

“You’re so naive, that’s so cute,” Toni laughs. “If I didn’t already have a girlfriend, I’d definitely try to win you over.”

And with that, she’s walking out of the kitchen, leaving a confused and slightly annoyed Betty in her wake. Betty stays in the kitchen for another few minutes before making her way back out by everyone else. Toni seems to have left, instead being replaced by Veronica who is already cuddled up to Archie. Jughead is on the couch alone, a game controller in his hands.

“Did Toni leave?” Betty asks. They all turn their heads to look at her, startled by her sudden appearance.

“Yeah. She came back from the kitchen saying ‘I miss Cheryl’ and walked out, who I am assuming is her girlfriend,” Jughead says, pausing his game and turning back to her. “What were you guys doing in there that you were gone for so long?”

“Oh. We were just...talking. Getting to know each other,” Betty says, walking over to the couch to sit next to him. Jughead looks at her strangely, but she ignores it, turning to Veronica and Archie instead. “V, how is your cleanse coming along?”

“Really great. I’ve never felt more amazing, so I think I’ll keep it up,” Veronica says, leaning her head on Archie’s chest. Archie groans and throws his head back against the chair, Veronica shushing him in response. Jughead snickers from beside her, resuming his game. Betty turns away from the two lovebirds to look at him, watching as he focuses on the game. She thinks about what Toni said to her, considers taking him to someplace quiet to tell him the truth, like Veronica would want. If only she had the confidence to do that.

“Can I play?” she asks him. He whips his head to look at her, his player getting killed in the game as he does.

“Dammit! Um, yeah, sure. Let me get the other controller, I can teach you as we go,” Jughead says, getting up from the couch and grabbing the second controller from the tv stand. He sits back down by Betty, handing her the remote as he does. “So it’s pretty difficult at first, but I’ll walk you through it.”

“We just have to kill everything in sight, basically?” Betty asks, turning the remote over in her hands.

“Yeah, we’ll work as a team to do that. It’s really not that hard, press this button to hit or shoot, this to move, and that’s really all you need,” Jughead explains. Betty nods, running her fingers over the buttons as he starts the game. Right away, she’s off, killing everything she needs to before Jughead even has a chance to. She even catches the attention of Archie and Veronica, both staring at the game until they finish the level, looking at her dumbstruck. She looks from them to Jughead’s own surprised face, his mouth ajar.

“Would you believe me if I tell you that was beginner’s luck?” Betty asks with a small smile. In truth, she’s played a lot of video games with her dad, but they don’t need to know that. Jughead shakes his head and turns the game off, throwing his remote to the side.

“Remind me to never play against you in anything,” he comments. Betty giggles as Archie and Veronica stand up, Veronica dragging him away from the living room and towards his bedroom.

“We’re gonna have a chat. Don’t get too crazy out here,” she says, throwing a wink over her shoulder. Betty feels her face heat up as the door slams behind them, leaving a weird silence behind. Betty and Jughead sit there for a moment, until Betty remembers something.

“Didn’t you have a surprise for me?” she asks. His head shoots up to look at her, his face brighter.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” he says, angling his torso so he can face her. “So my boss at the magazine came up to me the other day and said she wanted to do a feature on me, as an upcoming photographer to look out for.”

“Jug, that’s so cool!” Betty exclaims, her hand falling onto Jughead’s knee. He smiles bashfully, adjusting the hat on his head.

“Yeah, I wasn’t really expecting it. And she also wants you to be featured in some way, because she says you have ‘progressed in front of her own eyes’ and might be a little bit obsessed with you. She wants a full feature, but if you don’t want that I completely understand,” he tells her. She stares at him, mouth slightly agape, completely shocked.

“Jug, that’s...why would she want to feature me?” she asks.

“Because of your progress. She says you have real potential to be big in the fashion world,” Jughead states with a shrug. Betty ponders his words, considering the offer she’s given.

“I don’t want to do it. You’re the one that should be featured, not me. You’ve worked so hard all your life and you deserve an entire magazine written about you,” Betty tells him, a genuine smile on her lips. Jughead looks up at her through his fallen piece of hair, an appreciative smile spreading across his entire face.

“Thanks, Betts. It means a lot,” he tells her, placing his hand atop hers. There is a moment where neither of them move, but they both realize how close they suddenly are. The air feels thick, and Betty can feel the words in her throat, but they get interrupted by Archie’s bedroom door opening, Veronica emerging. She has a few hairs of place, but everything else seems to be intact as she gives them a weird look.

“Did I interrupt something?” she asks, arching her eyebrow. Jughead doesn’t make a move to take his hand off of hers, so Betty doesn’t try to either, slightly shifting her body to look at Veronica.

“No, we were just talking about Juggie’s internship,” she says. Veronica stares at her for a beat longer, then nods and walks into the kitchen. Betty turns back at Jughead, who she notices has taken his hat off, and opens her mouth to speak when Veronica pops her head back in the doorway, calling out Betty’s name. When she turns around, Veronica is grinning wildly at her.

“Just so you know, I’m sleeping here tonight. So maybe Jughead can be the great gentleman he is and walk you home in place of me,” she says, winking at Jughead.

“What happened to your cleanse?” Betty asks, slipping her hand out from underneath his.

“Consider it a cheat day,” Veronica says, and then she disappears again. Betty looks back at Jughead, who has a look of disgust on his face.

“Do those two ever stop?” he asks, glancing towards the closed bedroom door.

“They’d go all day if they could,” she adds, shuddering at the thought. Silence falls over them, and when they hear the distinct sound of a giggle, Jughead jumps up.

“I’ll walk you home now,” he says quickly. She stands up to follow him, practically running out of the door to avoid the moans sounding from the bedroom.

The door closes with a slam, Jughead still looking disgusted. Betty can’t help but laugh at the entire situation, even as Jughead glares at her, shaking his head. “I need to find a new roommate.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, let them live,” she tells him. He doesn’t seem to be amused, but shrugs anyways, walking towards the stairs. They walk down and out of the building, Betty giving him a weird look when he holds the front door open for her.

“I’m being a gentleman,” he grins. Betty rolls her eyes and walks through the doorway and down the stairs, Jughead catching up to her once she reaches the bottom. They walk side by side down the sidewalk in a comfortable silence, their hands brushing against each other at one point. Betty looks up at him, but he’s still looking forward as if he didn’t notice. She glances down at their hands, then back up at his calm face, watching as he moves his hair out of his eyes.

“Where’s your hat?” she asks. He looks at her, patting the top of his head as if oblivious to the fact that it was missing.

“It’s too warm out for it,” he shrugs, looking forward again. Betty knows that’s not the actual reason, because she has seen him with that hat on some of the hottest days of the summer. She doesn’t press the subject, though, because they finally reach her apartment building.

“Do you want to come up for a drink? In celebration? We could watch a movie or something, since I’m sure you don’t want to go back to your apartment,” she asks, turning to him. He looks troubled for a moment, as if he doesn’t know if he should or not. Betty is reminded of Veronica’s party, then, and the unfortunate ending to night, regretting even asking. “Nevermind, it’s a silly suggestion.”

“No, no! I’d love to celebrate with you, I really would,” he finally says. Betty smiles with relief, taking her keys out of her purse and leading him up to her apartment. He’s quiet as she leads him inside and into the kitchen. Veronica keeps the cabinets fairly stocked, so she pulls out a few different bottles and sets them on the counter.

“Pick your poison,” she tells him. He looks over the three bottles, making a humming noise as he reads the labels of each one. He picks up the white moscato last, holding it out to her.

“The only wine you’ll ever find me drinking,” he says, a crooked smile on his lips.

“Great choice,” she says, getting the wine glasses out of the cupboard. “Take it out to the patio, we can watch the sunset.”

“Betty Cooper, are you trying to romance me?” he smirks, taking the glasses from her and holding them in one hand.

“Yes of course. Now go, I’ll be right out,” she tells him. He obeys without a word, Betty letting out a large exhale of breath as soon as he’s out of sight. She can’t get Toni’s words out of her head, and it’s making her see things in a different light. If Jughead truly does have feelings for her, will something happen tonight? She thinks she’s being as obvious as she can be without saying the words out loud. Liquid courage might be what they both need.

Grabbing a blanket from the back of the sofa, she makes her way out into the patio to find Jughead making himself at home. He’s pushed two of the lounge chairs together, the wine and glasses on a table next to one. He looks up at her as she opens the door, a pillow in his hands.

“Is this okay?” he asks hesitantly, setting the pillow down on the chair.

“It’s perfect,” Betty answers, and that warm feeling creeps up her spine when he smiles at her.

They settle down on the chairs, Jughead handing her a glass of wine and leaning back on his own chair. Betty watches as he takes a cautious sip, making eye contact with her while he does.

“Do you think we can finish off this bottle?” he asks when he swallows his sip.

“Easily,” she answers, taking a sip. “And that’s as far as we’ll go, because wine drunk is not a good look on me.”

“A lot of experience?” he asks.

“Not a lot. Veronica once declared we celebrate Wine Wednesday last year, and we each had about a bottle each. Let’s just say it got a little fuzzy and I had the worst hangover the next day,” she laughs, sipping from her glass.

“Wow, I can’t believe you are such a party girl,” he jokes. Betty rolls her eyes in response, swirling the wine in her glass.

“Veronica may be a bad influence sometimes, but I am in no way a party girl,” she settles.

“You guys were random roommates, right?” he asks, earning a nod as an answer. “Do you ever think about what things would be like if you hadn’t been paired with her?”

“My life wouldn’t be as exciting, that’s for sure,” she smiles softly. She had thought about it quite a few times, and had come to the conclusion that she never wanted to go back in time and change things.

“You guys are really great friends. You both care so much about each other,” Jughead comments. Betty nods, because it’s true. Veronica has kept her grounded so many times in the short time that they’ve known each other, even when she doesn’t know it.

“She keeps me sane, most of the time,” she says. She realizes that this conversation has gotten a lot more serious than planned, and for once she doesn’t feel like she has to stop it. Jughead looks at her like he’s studying her, but she doesn’t feel uncomfortable. Even when he takes one of her hands in his, running his thumb over her palm gently. She knows that he’s noticed it before, but he was smart to not comment on it before. Betty doesn’t like talking about that, especially with someone she hasn’t known for that long. But Jughead deserves to know. “I was doing okay, for a while. But a few days ago it happened again, not as bad though.”

“Why? Why does it happen?” he asks quietly, looking up at her with earnest eyes.

“I get anxious. Like a lot. And I don’t want to be, so I try to calm myself down, and this seems to be the only thing that works sometimes. And it doesn’t happen all the time, just in times when I’m really nervous about something. Or upset,” she tells him, letting out a breath of air she didn’t know she was holding.

“What made you upset this time?” he asks, running his thumb over the small crescents on her palm. She hesitates, because she can’t exactly say the sight of him and Toni made her upset. Instead, she smiles softly at him, bringing her glass up to her lips.

“That’s not important. I’m happy now,” she says, and she’s not lying. He smiles as she sips her wine, giving her hand a squeeze before letting go and leaning back again.

“I’m glad. I don’t like when you’re sad,” he says, finishing his glass of wine and grabbing the bottle. “Some more?”

Betty finishes the last sip and nods, holding her glass out to him. He refills hers first before his own, and they both settle back in their chairs. The sun is starting to set, so Betty grabs the blanket to drape over her legs. She looks back to see Jughead staring at her, and tilts her head in confusion.

“Sorry, I just- can I borrow your phone? Mine sucks and the lighting is just right,” he says. She grabs her phone from the table beside her, handing it to him.

“I don’t think I look good enough for a photoshoot right now,” she says, taking a quick sip of her wine.

“Not a photoshoot, just a prime photo opportunity. And you look perfect,” he tells her, opening up the camera and holding it up. Betty tries to hide her blush by glancing away and taking another sip of her wine. “Just hold your glass and look that way.”

He points in the direction he wants her to face, and is glad only half of her face will be seen. She’s starting to feel the wine hitting her, her head a bit lighter and she’s sure her face is getting red. Her lips quirk up in a smile just when he snaps the picture, and then a few more right after. She turns to him with a smile, and he angles the phone towards her so she can see the pictures. The lighting is perfect, glowing around her figure like she is an angel or something.

“Are you going to post this?” she asks him. He takes the phone back and sends the photos to himself, shrugging.

“Maybe. Is that okay?” he asks as he hands the phone to her. She nods and finishes her glass of wine, causing him to smirk at her. “Another one?”

“Only if you have one too. I’m not going to be the one responsible for finishing the bottle,” she says. He laughs and pours them both another glass. She talks to him about a book she finally finished as he edits the pictures on his phone. He eventually finishes, putting his phone to the side and wordlessly refilling her glass. She feels warm inside, and happier than she has felt in a while, and it’s not just the wine talking.

They finish the bottle as the sun goes down and the air gets colder. Betty covers more of herself with the blanket, unintentionally shifting closer to Jughead at the same time. He takes notice of it, looking down at her struggling with the blanket.

“If you’re cold we can go inside,” he says.

“No, I want to stay out here. I’ll be fine,” she answers, finally getting the blanket to completely cover her legs.

“Here, come here,” he says, and she looks up to see his arm open for her. She smiles softly and leans into his side, his arm draping around her shoulders. She adjusts the blanket so it is covering both of them, and then settles back happily. “Better?”

“You’re like the sun,” she mutters, taking another sip of her wine. She can feel the laugh reverberate through his body. “How are you so warm?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve only been described as ‘cold’,” Jughead answers, tightening his arm around her and rubbing her shoulder.

“You’re not cold. You’re the sweetest,” Betty says, jokingly pinching his chin. He laughs again, snatching her hand and moving it away from his face.

“Only for you,” he says, his voice quieter. Betty can almost feel the heaviness to his words, but doesn’t say anything about it. She instead rests her head on his chest, letting him gently pet her hair and talk about nonsense. She feels so at ease, so at home, like she could really get used to this happening all the time.

She loves Jughead Jones, and she’s not afraid to admit it anymore.