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#Replacing the Key Cap
techconer · 2 years
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How to Fix a Broken Key on a Laptop - Tech Coner
If you have a laptop and have ever slammed your finger on one of the keys (or dropped your laptop), then you've likely experienced the pain of having broken a key on your laptop. For those who have never experienced this, I don't recommend that you try it! If you break a key on your laptop, there are several things that you can do to fix it, depending on the severity of the damage. in this article, I will tell you how to fix a broken key on a laptop.
Before You Start:
When you have a laptop keyboard with missing or broken keys, fixing the problem is possible. 
One way to fix your keyboard is by removing the keycap and replacing it with one in good condition. This process can be done by following these steps: 
1) Turn off the laptop and unplug it from the power source if plugged in. Remove any attached devices like mice, external keyboards, or anything else plugged into the computer. 
2) Find an object that will fit underneath the critical cap, such as an old credit card or something similar.Fix a Broken Key on a Laptop
Guide: How to fix a broken key on a laptop:
This DIY guide will show you how to fix a broken key on your laptop using the key retainer. All you need is just one material, which can save you from spending money on a new keyboard or, even worse, starting over from scratch. To find out more, keep reading!
 Once you have your broken key and its retainer, follow these steps: Take off your laptop's keyboard from its base. Insert both retainer pieces between keys to prevent them from falling out. Put it back in place and enjoy your computer as if nothing happened! If you are having difficulties, watch some of our video guides above and pick one that works for you. Fixing a broken key is no rocket science, so don't wait; fix it now!
Step 1 (The before) 
Step 2 (The fix) 
Step 3 (It's fixed!) #3 X5
Customer Support You can also email us or get help at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns regarding our manuals or parts. Your feedback helps us improve, so we want to hear from you! We hope this blog post has been helpful and if there is anything else we can do, please get in touch with us anytime.
Basic laptop keyboard key structure:
A laptop keyboard is made up of many different parts. The keycaps are the plastic caps that make contact with the keys, and the critical retainer holds the keycap in place. It can be challenging to fix a broken key, but fortunately, there are some steps you can take. First, remove any debris between the two parts of the broken key. Then use a small screwdriver or another tool to pry up both sides of the critical retainer while gently twisting it back and forth.
You should be able to remove both sides of your crucial retainer without causing any damage. Use tweezers or needle-nose pliers, if necessary, and replace them with a new ones. Always make sure you purchase one that's made specifically for your laptop. If you don't want to mess with fixing your keys, contact us, and we can help you with all your laptop needs.
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microdosing getting into mechanical keyboards by replacing my keycaps for the first time
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pearl-kite · 2 years
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WIP Wednesday
I have not been tagged for this, BUT
I HAD AN IDEA, and PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE
SO:
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Colors are very subject to change, I was mostly laying flats o3o
God I love drawing wings :3c
Going to tag @dizzydreamerzzz @ejunkiet @taelonsamadaand uhhhhhhhhhhh you
Optional as always <3
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🎶 pink like the color of my, keyboard 🎶
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aph-estonia · 9 months
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having a broken keyboard while being a homestuck fan and also surrounded by fellow homestuck fans is a sure-fire way to get everyone in the chat to call you caliborn
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webslingingslasher · 1 year
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I just think frat Peter could do me raw. CAN WE GET MORE FRAT PETER PLS
ask and you shall recieve!
Exasperated, “what do you mean you don’t have a condom?” 
Peter had his hands interlocked behind his neck, they pressed against the bill of his hat and caused it to lift slightly off his forehead. He’s looking at you for the answer, it’s not like you use them, sure, you do use them but not like he does, how are you supposed to keep track? 
“I don’t know! I don’t keep count!” 
He groans, his hands drop and hit his thighs. 
“What about the one in your medicine cabinet?” 
You point at him, “used it after the car wash fundraiser.” 
A whisper, “fuck.” 
Peter chews at his bottom lip, he’s trying to think of where he’s stashed them around your place. He figured he had one here, he always does. He started keeping an emergency stash when you started hooking up, that way he was always prepared. For example, tonight. It wasn’t in his cards to take you home when you asked with clasped hands and batty eyelashes how could he possibly say no? 
Still in his open flannel, a pure white tee poked through. Peter’s hands raced through your nightstand, each drawer came up empty. Which in turn made him ask where you put them, where you then replied you didn’t have any, which appalled him. 
You tried to help, “what about the one in your car?” 
You snapped your fingers, you both answered at the same time with a hidden glance, “drive in.” 
Peter’s eyes lit up, “roommate?” 
“Gay.” 
He ripped his hat off his head and scratched at his curls before replacing the cap, “goddamn it.” 
Peter feigns upset towards you, “this is your fault.” 
You press a hand to your chest, “me?” 
He nods, doubles down, “if you didn’t look so fucking tempting all the time.” 
You scoff, “oh please, it’s not my fault you can’t keep count.” 
“You should’ve kept count, they were here!” 
“You use them!” 
Peter fights with a smile, “you do too!” 
“Sure, but they don’t go on my dick!” 
Peter breathes in heavily, the last thing he wants to do is leave to go get condoms. He cockblocked himself. 
You gasp so hard he nearly jumps, “wallet!” You’re proud of the thought, you’ve just saved the night. 
Peter grimaces, “Ethan.” 
Your turn, “goddamn it.” 
Silence. 
Peter is awfully cute. You couldn’t stop yourself from begging him to take you home from his own party, and he was just as willing to bring you, he’s the one that dragged you out the front door. Not to mention you have been hooking up for months, and you are on birth control. The most important thing was that you trusted him more than anything. 
Like a pouty toddler he grumbles, he over exaggerates his movements. Car keys scraping off your side table, a hand slapping his wallet back in his back pocket. You watch with confusion. 
“Where are you going?” 
Peter clicks his tongue, “condoms?” 
You nod slightly, he’s downright delicious in that outfit and you couldn’t want him more.
Peter is awfully cute and you trust him. 
“Or I mean…” 
You trail, Peter waits. 
“We don’t use one?” 
Car keys hit the floor, his hat goes sailing. 
“Say less.” 
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summercourtship · 3 months
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WASTE NOT (18+)
or, the reader is travelling with the Ghoul when he discovers she's never fucked before. You figure out what comes next.
cooper howard/the ghoul x reader | warnings/notes: loss of virginity, masturbation, exhibitionism, piv sex, oral sex, barely proofread | side note: i might end up reusing this general plot for a longer multi-chapter fic, we'll see
read on AO3
Five hundred caps, two hundred upfront.
That’s how much it took for you to get out of the gilded cage that was your hometown, a decent sized settlement inside of what used to be a Rodeo stadium and aptly named for it. That’s all it took for you to escape your father, the mayor of said town who kept you under lock and key, both literally and figuratively. You’d tried to escape before, attempts that had been thwarted before they even began. It only led to you being locked in your room and only allowed to walk the town with a bodyguard, someone hired to make sure you didn’t run for it. 
Some people might say that it was a privilege to be cared for so much that you didn’t have to constantly fight for your life. You thought it was a surefire way to get you killed when you finally did leave his grasp.
Since running away, you’d done many things for the first time that most people did before they were even ten years old. Held a gun, caught your own food, killed a man. 
And the man you’d paid to take you through the wastes was the first ghoul you’d ever met. Your settlement didn’t ban them from entering, but they weren’t exactly welcoming either. But you’d been immediately drawn to him, which you at first chalked up to the novelty of meeting a new kind of person, the kind you’d only read about.
However, as you’d continued traveling with him and the novelty wore off, you quickly realized that the draw you felt to him wasn’t just because of culture shock. 
The Ghoul, which was the only thing you called him because he’d given you nothing else to call him, was sitting by the fire he’d built, a slow curl of smoke drifting from the cigarette hanging in his mouth. You looked over at him, observing how the light from the flames reflected off of his worn and imperfect skin. It was a sight you’d seen almost every night this week, but every time you felt like it was the first time you were seeing him. 
Your week was almost up. When you’d hired him, you’d told him you only wanted to leave your town for a week, just to experience the Wastes before returning to your “ivory tower,” (his words, not yours). It had taken some bargaining on your end (and you had to give him chems in addition to the caps) but it had worked. You were out of the clutches of your father, you were finally experiencing life for the first time.  
And you had no intention of going back when the week was over. 
You were sitting across the room, perched on an old bed that was still standing in the half-ruined house, though shack might be more accurate. An entire wall was missing, letting you look right into the starry night sky from your seat. But mainly you were looking at the Ghoul, who was looking after one of his guns. You brought the drink you’d been nursing- just a Nuka-Cola you’d found on your journey and saved for this moment- taking a deep sip of the fizzy drink when he spoke up. 
“Stop starin’ at me.” 
You choked, sputtering up the Nuka-Cola in your attempt to catch your breath. In your coughing, you only managed to spill more of the drink on yourself, an unfortunate chain of events that left you with a soaked through shirt. You cursed under your breath, looking down at the brown liquid that would surely stain the fabric. Did you even have a clean replacement in your bag?
Leaning towards your bag, you placed the almost empty bottle on the floor before flipping the flap, peering inside. 
“You might wanna take that off before the flies smell the sugar.”
Your current task forgotten, you stared up at the Ghoul, who wasn’t even looking at you when he said it. But the idea of taking your shirt off around him when you knew that he could see it was terrifying. However, he was right when he said you’d need to get the shirt off of your body soon and put it into your bag. Who knows how much sugar was in Nuka-Cola, how far its sweet scent would travel if it was out in the open. And you certainly didn’t want to attract any bugs your way. 
Sitting up straight, you cleared your throat. Your fingers worried at the hem of your shirt.
“Could you turn around…” Your voice trailed off at the look on his face, a brief glance your way. 
“It’s nothing I ain’t seen on other women.” 
“Okay, but I’ve never-” You stopped yourself from finishing your sentence, realizing exactly what you were admitting, but the damage was already done. The Ghoul leaned forward and you tightened your grip around yourself, as if the shirt still being on your body would protect you from his judgment. 
“You’ve never…?” The pregnant pause hung in the air between you, but you weren’t going to clarify. You didn’t move, which must have been enough of a confirmation for him because he whistled low in his mouth. “Why am I not surprised? You didn’t even know how to shoot a gun.”
As if shooting a gun naturally came before losing your virginity. (Maybe it did, you wouldn’t know). 
“Can you stop?” You huffed, your face hot. “If I had wanted to, I would have.”
But it seemed that any of your attempts to get him to drop the subject wouldn’t work, because he was looking at you intensely, an unreadable look in his surprisingly human eyes. Not for the first time, you wondered what he looked like when he was human. You’d tried before, to imagine what it looked like when his skin was smooth and he had a nose and hair, but nothing seemed to match his demeanor as well as being a ghoul did. 
“And why didn’t you want to?”
“I-” You swallowed nervously, your heartbeat in your throat choking you. “I didn’t see the point, not when my dad is probably going to marry me off to some geezer who can’t get it up anyway. And I don’t need your judgment about it.”  
You were now trying to hold onto any semblance of dignity you had left. Pretending like you’d made a conscious choice to not lose your virginity instead of it being a result of your virtual imprisonment by your father. Like you hadn’t yearned for the touch of someone else. (And, of course, like you hadn’t yearned at all for him over the course of the past week.)
“Do you touch yourself, at least?”
You froze, looking across the room at him like he was a Deathclaw. He leaned forward, perching his elbows on his knees. Like he could smell your apprehension, or worse, your burgeoning arousal. 
“Do you touch yourself?”
This isn't something you had talked about ever with anyone. But you couldn’t help answering him. “Y-yes.” If he looked surprised that you actually spoke, you couldn’t tell over your own embarrassment. 
“Show me.” When you didn’t respond, still sitting there staring at him like he had grown two heads, he sat back in his seat again, his hat dipping low. “Or don’t. I’m not going to force-”
You cut him off before he could continue, suddenly not wanting this opportunity to pass you by. After all, you only had this last night with him and then you would go your separate ways. If you horribly embarrassed yourself, it would only be for tonight. “Okay.” You think that this is your biggest streak of surprising the Ghoul. But he recovered quickly, a sly grin sneaking onto his face. 
“Take your shirt off first.” 
Nodding, you slowly reached down to the hem of your shirt, trying and failing to will your hands to stop trembling. Then, quickly, you peeled the sticky fabric off of your skin. You were a bit annoyed that you had managed to spill so much onto the shirt- it was a nice shirt, a rare find on the surface. But it didn’t matter now, considering where it had led you. 
You dropped your shirt onto the floor, unable to look at him as he surely looked at your chest. 
Suddenly feeling bold from his gaze, you did more than just take off the glorified rag from your chest- you divested yourself of all of your clothes, placing them into a messy pile by the mattress. You were now exposed to the elements and to his gaze, heavy as he looked over your body. Once again, he didn’t betray any of the surprise he might have felt. 
“Should I-”
“Lie down.”
You stared at him before you slowly lowered yourself, trying to keep your eyes on him. When you couldn’t anymore, you closed your eyes. If you couldn’t see him, it wouldn’t be nerve wracking to be watched. But even as you thought it, you could feel the heat of his gaze on you. 
“Touch yourself.” 
At his surprisingly gentle command, you exhaled shakily. Gently, you dragged your hand down your body, your breath quick. After a moment of teasing yourself, you pressed the pads of two fingers against your clit, rubbing a slow circle against the sensitive bundle of nerves. 
Immediately, you sighed, relieving tension you didn’t know had been building. While you had masturbated every night at home, you certainly needed the relief it gave you after a week of stress and almost dying. You were surprisingly wet, though not enough to qualify as dripping. your fingers circled your clit, your hips sudden bucking slightly. 
Across from you, the Ghoul groaned, and you tilted your head up, looking at him. His eyes were entirely focused on your cunt, watching the wet slide of your fingers over your folds. His teeth were clenched together, and you gasped at the sight of him watching you so intently before you bit your lip to muffle the sound. Then his eyes moved from your fingers, looking you straight in the eyes as he started to speak.
“I bet you touched yourself all quiet, trying not to let daddy hear you fucking yourself. But your daddy ain’t here, and I want to hear the noises you make.”  
You whined, his words going straight to your cunt. What was more painful was that he was correct- many nights you’d bit your pillow as you’d fucked yourself with your fingers, trying to keep quiet. 
“Go ahead, slip a finger inside-“
You stopped moving, looking at him again, taking the moment to catch your breath. 
“I’ve never really done that-“
The Ghoul cursed, and before you could blink he was off of his chair, moving closer. He was now knelt in between your legs, his gloved hands on your knees and staring up at you. 
“I gotta fuckin teach you everything, don’t I?”
Swiftly, he removed his gloves, throwing them onto the pile of your clothes. Then he swatted your hand away from your cunt before replacing it with his own fingers. At the dramatic shift in skin texture you gasped, immediately grinding against his rough fingers mindlessly as your hands flew to your mouth to muffle your cries. 
“None of that, I told you I’m gonna hear the sounds you’re making ‘cause of me.”
He moved down your body, pressing kisses and delivering brief bites to your flesh. With each nip of his teeth you gasped, torn between the desire to push his head away or beg for more. Then he reached your sex, pausing for a moment and letting his warm breath fan over you. You squirmed, unsure if you wanted to beg him to touch you or if you wanted to run away from the sheer overwhelming intensity of it all.
Then his mouth was hot against you, his tongue licking a thick stripe up the length of your cunt, and you wondered why you’d ever thought about not letting him do this. With no nose in the way, he was able to press his face fully against you. He dipped his tongue into your opening, flicking it against your walls and thrusting a few times, the movement of his tongue in addition to his fingers overwhelming. 
He groaned against you as he lapped up your wetness, sounds of a man dying of thirst reaching an oasis. 
With a final wet sound, he removed his tongue before moving to suck on your clit, his hand moving from your thighs to return to your core. 
“Fuck, you’re tight.” He murmured as he pressed two of his fingers inside of you. You’d tried before to fuck your self like this but always found the feeling unsatisfactory. But his fingers were larger than yours, able to hit the places inside of you that you had begun to think were myths. 
It was overpowering, and any thoughts that weren’t about him quickly dissipated. 
Every indent and ridge of his skin dragged along your cunt and the sensation of being filled combined with the attention he was giving to your clit started to build you towards your peak. 
“Come for me, cmon.”
But even though you’d never come before at the hands of another, you knew what you wanted. You were afraid that if you came now, he wouldn’t actually fuck you. And if you were taken back to your rinky-dink town, you wanted to at least say you’d been fucked by someone you wanted. 
“I want to feel you- hm- inside me.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” His teeth were gritted together again, like he was so entirely focused on making you come that he didn't want to hear anything else.
“Yes, I do.” You raised your hips to meet the thrust of his fingers. “I want your cock, I need you to fuck me-“
“Fuck.” He murmured, eyes lidded as whatever shaky resolve about actually fucking you he had broke. “For someone who never killed before this week, you’re dangerous.”
With swift movement, he pulled himself out of his pants and climbed up your body, pressing his hips against yours. He hovered above you, the head of his cock rested heavy on your clit, his hips rolling once to grind the length against your wet cunt. 
“Please.” You murmured, raising your hips to meet his cock. He gave you a dark look, and if he had eyebrows you’re sure one of them would be raised as if to say ‘you ready?’
Then he started to press in, his thick head catching before he pushed through the tight ring of your opening. Your mouth was slack, eyebrows furrowed as you focused on relaxing for every inch that was slowly pressing into you. When you looked at him, he was entirely focused on watching his cock disappear into your wet heat. 
He was slow, but you didn’t think it was due to any care for your comfort. No, from the look on his face, you would hazard a guess that he enjoyed slowly taking your virginity, feeling each inch of you give way to his thick cock. He liked the surrender. 
When his hips finally nestled against yours, he rested for a moment, his breath heavy. 
“Ready?”
Okay, maybe he cares slightly about your comfort- the thought was quickly erased when he pulled out and slammed back in, filling you quickly. You cursed, your hands flying to the bed to scramble for something to hold on to. But there were no sheets on the filthy mattress. So instead, you reached up to him, grasping the back of his duster for dear life as he began to fuck you in earnest.
He lowered himself as you wrapped your naked legs around his hips, bracing himself on his elbows above you. 
“So fucking tight.” He murmured against your face. One of his hands slipped from where it was braced above you to circle around your clit, the pressure just enough to send you back towards your peak. “This cunt belongs to me now, y’hear?”
“Yes- fuck.” You babbled, and when he whispered against you to finally come, you did so with no hesitation. Your legs gripped him tighter against you, his thrusts shorter but more forceful with the constraint. With your cunt clenching around him as you sighed through the aftershocks of your orgasm, he removed his hand to suddenly grab your chin, looking you in the eyes.
“Where should I-“
“Inside me, inside me please.”
For a moment he looked like he was going to argue with you. But then you clenched down on his length again and his hips stuttered against you, a low groan escaping him. Reinvigorated, he began fucking you even harder, which had seemed impossible. 
“Take it, take my cum like a good girl- that’s it-“ his words left him as he finally finished, his hips pumping as he cursed and spilled his warm spend inside you. You hummed at the feeling of it, the tiny thrusts as he pumped you full of him dragging his cock along your sensitive walls. 
When he finally pulled out of you, watching as his cum dripped out of your opening, he looked back at your face with a sly smile. 
“I hope you have some RadAway at home.”
____
The Ghoul didn’t bring you back into the city. He seemed to think you were experienced enough to handle the last hundred yards of desert without him. I’ll come back later for the rest of my caps, I have some business I need to deal with. Did you feel a little bad that you were cheating him out of three hundred caps? Yes. But you hadn’t thought this far when you’d paid him the first time, and now it was too late. 
You barely said goodbye. 
Once you were out of sight, you took off running in the opposite direction, only looking behind you once to make sure no one was watching or worse, following. 
You were free.
____
Well, you were free for about two days. 
Then, one evening, you sheltered yourself in an abandoned house. Two stories, though you only peeked in the upper story to see if there was anything worth grabbing. You didn’t want to risk the floor falling out from under your feet. 
A noise in the doorway draws your attention upwards, to where the Ghoul stands, silhouetted in the setting sun, like he had just left for a second, not for days.
You’re allowed a split moment of happiness at the sight of the familiar figure before you recognize what's in his hands. You barely have a second to try and escape before, like a flash, he whips the lasso around your torso, drawing it tight and pulling you closer as you struggled against the rope. But it held fast, and with every passing second you were losing ground. Finally the pressure of the rope was too much and you collapsed to the ground, the sun bearing down in your eyes until a shadow fell over your face. 
“Y’know, when I went back to your little… Rod-e-o to collect on the final portion of my payment, I really expected to see you there. Tellin’ people you regret ever leaving. Maybe I’d have to rough you up a bit for the caps, though I’m sure you’d enjoy that. So imagine my surprise when I find out your father has put up a reward for whoever finds ya and brings ya back.”  He laughed, a cruel and humorless thing. “I’ll get paid for takin’ you out and takin’ you in. And the word around town is that there’s a man there willin’ to take you off your father’s hands.” 
His last words made your stomach sink, more than anything else he had said. It was something your father had threatened, even if he hadn’t meant it as a threat. Maybe he thought it was your dream to marry and have children. But you knew that whatever man he picked for you to marry would be powerful, powerful enough to ensure that your father would remain in office until he died. 
And powerful men were cruel. 
“No-” You gasped out, suddenly out of breath. 
“Ah-ah-ah.” The Ghoul tuts softly, leaning down. “D’ya really think a week is enough experience to survive out here?”
“I won’t go back.” You spit, renewing your struggle against the rope. “You can’t make me.” 
If you were a complete idiot, you’d say: I’d rather die than go back. Because while, in spirit, it was true, you knew that he would take your word for it. And you really didn’t want to tempt him to put a bullet through your brain. 
You may have fucked him, but you certainly weren’t anything special to him. 
“You don’t have much of a choice, sweetheart.” 
“He wants to marry me off!” You said, like saying it indignantly would change his mind about taking you in as a bounty. “I refuse.” 
“And what’ll you do when I drag you back?” 
Find a way to escape again, even if it takes years. 
Like he read the answer in your eyes, he stood up straight. 
“I sympathize, I really do-” You sincerely doubted it, but let him keep talking, “but unless you’ve got something better to offer me, I’m afraid you’re going in.” 
“How many caps is he offering you?”
“600.”
“I have more saved.” You laughed, though it lacked any actual humor. “Every cap he gave me for years, I’ve squirreled away. Not letting me leave my room really helped me save money.” 
“And how, exactly, are you going to get to your stash without your daddy finding you?” 
You tried to find kindness in his words and were surprised when you did. Though he may not have meant it, he had already given you a perfect out the night before. 
“No self-respecting man is going to want to marry a woman who fucked a ghoul. And no mayor will tolerate his daughter making a fool of him like that.”
For a moment, you think he takes offense to this. But then a smile creeps across his face, hot and hungry.
“Well then, I think we can come to an agreement.” 
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g0dlyunsub · 4 months
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on your own. | part two
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part one | part two
you’re strapped to an explosive and left with three minutes to convince spencer to leave you.
pairing :: spencer x fem bau!reader
contents :: general cm themes, mentions/depictions of stalking, kidnapping, death, drug injections (dilaudid), explosives, angst angst angst so much angst
word count :: 3.3k
author’s note :: it's out!! reader is so mean to spencer in the beginning, but it's all an act, i promise :( please read part one if you haven’t already, and let me know what you think!
accompanying song :: as the world caves in by matt maltese
taglist :: @myuhh8, @pleasantwitchgarden, @babyspiderling, @kitty-kei, @delusional-4-fake-people, @usuallyunlikelyfox, @themindofmoe
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can you hate someone for what they have done, but still love them for whom they had been? – jodi picoult, nineteen minutes
his voice instantly fills the deep chasm in your heart.
the woman you were – a soul eager to give and receive love – died a year ago. lynne davis replaced your smile with the expression of a self-loathing woman, fed you with humiliation instead of warmth, and made you forget the taste of human companionship. you watched yourself fall apart more and more with each passing day and you never grieved your own loss, for you didn’t have the time.
so when spencer finds you in your wrecked state, slick strands of hair sticking to your forehead and the cuts on your face begging for urgent attention with their swelling undertones of red, you instantly put your head down. hearing your name stings your skin with humiliation and trepidation.
you curse under your breath. your cap wasn’t on your head anymore, so there was no shadow under which you could hide your eyes. there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nowhere to fake. you were like a deer caught in his headlights, or like a rabbit caught in his bear trap, the shame swallowing you whole. maybe this was all karma coming to bite you in the back, its teeth sinking into your flesh so you would go cold in front of the one you once loved so selflessly.
still looking at the rocky asphalt floor, you contemplate whether you should make a run for it. for some reason, being chased down to the ground sounds more welcoming than being chased down with his words. you already knew a confession wouldn’t make up for your treason. so you turn and walk with heavy steps, steps weighed down with fear.
but spencer wasn’t willing to sit in silence for eternity. he felt a burning sensation crawl through his skin. all these months he was mourning your loss with the regret of washing the same hands that touched you. he relived your absence every day like a haunting crime, cursing his photographic memory for detailing every inch of your face as he ripped through your flesh in his imagination. he was hungry for answers.
his wide strides follow yours as the splitting sounds of the asphalt crunching under his shoes echo in your eardrums. each step pulls at the strings of your heart like a violent demand. crunch. say you’re sorry. crunch. say you’re sorry. crunch. say you’re sorry.
“y/n, wait.” 
you don’t stop. the air hits your tongue like bitter regret and sour ignorance.
“please!” 
the desperation in his voice knocks the wind out of you. hesitantly, you turn around.
you know he can smell the blood on you, the dirt rubbed into your wounds, and the grime stuck to your sweat. you clench your fist. you’ve seen this ending in your dreams so many times, where he lashes out at you with his boiling rage, and you listen because that’s the only justice you deserve. but you didn’t expect it to come so soon.
“you… you’re okay,” he says with a feathery voice, and his softness feels unintentionally cruel. why is he talking to you like that?
and why is he looking at you like that? you don’t deserve to be looked at with his puppy eyes, glossy with concern for you. 
why isn’t he yelling at you like a man seeking revenge, or glaring at you with monstrous rage?
your tone, by contrast, is icy and dark. “yeah, i… i am. you didn’t have to come looking for me.” 
“your stalker. what happened to him?” he ignores your statement and his cavernous eyes dig deeper into your gaze.
so he knew. you suck in a breath slowly as you grit your teeth.
“he’s down. i got him in the leg.”
a minute into a conversation that’s overdue by a year, and you’re already lying. but you’re so preoccupied with the thoughts of getting out of this helpless situation, you don’t realize how you’re putting down your defense.
he narrows his eyes as he studies your face. you hate when he does this, because you don’t know the thoughts he’s stirring in his head. 
after a second, he pipes up with a desperate roughness in his voice. “we need to get you to the hospital, i-i’ll let them know right now. let us help you.”
the urge to yell out no dances on your lips dangerously. you will not bring the others into this, especially not the rest of the bau. sensing the danger of his implication, you realize it’s now or never.
“there’s no need. i’m fine. i… really need to get going now.” 
you wish to say goodbye, just this once, but the hesitation that’s latched onto you since last year isn’t so easy to get rid of.
he scoffs and you think you see his hazel eyes flash with a speck of red. “yeah, just go and leave me, it’s not like you’ve done this before, right?”
your toes curl and dig into the foam of your shoes. his stare bores straight into your soul.
he doesn't give you a chance to reply. “all of our lives were in your hands. you didn’t think we had the right to know?”
his question sweeps your breath away. you wish he never asked. emotion cascades over you like a crumbling rock, and you can practically hear his rage gnawing at whatever patience was left in his body. 
“i just… i was never meant to make it this far,” you whisper quietly, so faintly you ponder for a brief moment if your voice is even audible. a penitent expression paints your face as you look away.
your response is the last straw.
spencer decides to wear you down to oblivion.
“you were never meant to make it this far? i didn’t leave my room for three weeks. for three weeks, y/n, i had to find a reason to stay alive!”
his icy tone impales your heart, and it’s a thousand times more painful than the needle your stalker pricked you with. but he doesn’t stop there.
“i’ll be honest with you because you can’t. i hated myself, y/n! did anything we ever talk about leave any impression on you? because the day you walked out of my life, just like my dad did, it really made me think that maybe everyone i loved was out to ruin me!” he throws fiery jabs with his words, each hitting harder than before.
with a crack in his voice, he adds, “i thought it was something i did that made you turn against me.”
a whimper threatens to leave your mouth. 
a choking cry sounds as he spills more heart-wrenching words. “i couldn’t pinpoint what it was, so i… i injected myself again so i could feel something. so i could feel sorry. it’s nothing you would care about, though.” he wipes his nose with the back of his sleeve, his chest heaving with shuddering exhales. 
you feel so stupid, so cruel, so god damned fucking stupid. his words tear your gut like it's a punching bag, knocking you down and throwing you around until you’re bruised to the bone. even the sun turns its warmth away from you, shunning you by making you face the shade. you stand like a lifeless doll, feeling your jaw clench as you bite down on the inside of your cheeks because the agony is too much to bear. 
for a year, you had to withhold yourself from running back to the office, to collapse into spencer’s arms. now that you were face-to-face with him, you couldn’t even look him in the eye to say you missed him.
“you’re right. i’m sorry that i couldn’t care. i don’t trust you, reid.” 
you shock yourself with the words that come out of your own mouth, and it feels like your body’s being controlled by someone else. the worst part, it’s not that he wouldn’t understand if you tried to explain. rather, it’s that you simply don’t have the time to explain. you couldn’t afford to toy with the idea of death when it was grabbing you right by the feet. 
“you’re lying.” his quiet voice ruffles the hairs on your neck, and you can almost feel the ghost of his hands brush your face. 
you certainly are. your shaking shoulders, your reddening cheeks, your watering eyes. your twitching lips, your sniffling nose, your sweating upper lip. the forced prolonged eye contact. after a year of not seeing each other, you wish he would’ve forgotten the behavioral markers that were your dead giveaway. but you couldn’t fool anyone with an eidetic memory.
with the outward shame crawling to your cheeks with a burning flame, your hands instinctively reach to touch the back of your neck. you stop when you feel a wire peeking from under your jacket collar.
shit.
“what is that?” spencer’s voice quavers with disturbed curiosity as he lowers his head to get a better view of your clothed neck.
you try to mask the wire by turning to the side ever so slightly, but spencer never fails to let a single detail slip past his attention. he’s already making steps towards you, and you take several of your own backwards, waving your hands.
“stop. don’t come any closer. don’t!” you yell, frantically shaking your head as you hold your arms up to try and bar him from coming any closer.
but he doesn’t listen.
he grabs both of your hands with one of his, overtaking your arms with such force you worry that he’s going to tear your limbs out, and unzips your jacket.
the last of your hope splinters like a glass vial.
a tear slides from your bottom eyelid, and you watch helplessly as it drops and trickles down along the vein of his arm. you hang your head low, afraid to look into his eyes.
but you’re forced to anyway, because the timer for the bomb on your chest activates with a beep, startling the both of you.
2:59.
“fuck. y/n, you…” the harshness of his voice scathes your already-wounded heart.
you shake your head, the darkness closing in as you fight to keep a steady breath.
“i need you to leave right now, spencer reid,” you beg with the words of a desperate plea.
“no,” he responds sternly, a glare splitting your walls with such anger you clamp your mouth shut. 
he forces the jacket off of you and turns you around to get a better view of the electrical components. he reaches for his phone, but you grasp his arm before he can call for a bomb squad.
“don’t bother. we don’t have time.”
and your cover’s blown. the moment you say we, you know you’ve made a fatal blunder. if you really didn’t care, you would’ve let him dial the number.
he knows you care deep down, despite your abrasive words. 
“four wires, red, white, blue, and yellow,” he begins, and you know your denouement is set in stone. 
2:40. 
“if we cut the wire or fuse connecting the trigger and the explosives then we’ll have a chance at disarming the bomb. we still need to account for the possibility of a secondary trigger or the existence of several detonators, as well as if there’s a trigger mechanism that monitors when they’re being cut.” you can’t tell if he’s trying to comfort you while he starts his inchoate examination or if he’s trying to comfort himself. maybe it’s both.
“spencer, i’m begging you, please. go,” you say as you try to move away again, but he backs you up against the brick wall of the alleyway. he grips you even tighter, nails digging into your skin. it hurts like scalding pain.
you’re dying for him to stop trying. 
the kid inside of you cries a bitter symphony of hot, painful thoughts. you don’t want to die, not when you have decades ahead of you to redeem yourself. but you reason that you don’t deserve a good ending, and that spencer is the only one that should come out of this alive. 
but then again, survivor’s guilt is a dastardly power.
2:15. 
“spencer, please. it’s my last wish.”
he looks at you for a brief moment, locking his gaze with yours. he’s so close to you yet feels so far. 
“l-look. i need you to let me concentrate,” spencer says shakingly, lightly tracing his fingers along the blasting cap. your breath hitches in the back of your throat, and you forget how to exhale.
1:59. 
sweat trickles from your forehead, and you don’t dare move to wipe it. you hear his elevated breaths and watch as a concentrated expression overtakes his face. 
you close your eyes.
you hear the bickering chirps of the birds in the distance, the sounds of construction as steel clashes against steel, and the faint laughter of women ringing out like freedom.
it’s a beautiful rhapsody to listen to when you’re dying in the subtlety.
1:30. 
you open your eyes. in a stupor of fatigue, you decide to apologize.
“i’m so sorry, spence, i’m so sorry.”
it feels pathetic to say it now.
“i’m such a coward,” you cry, and you carry the blame with your fingers as you try to release his grip on your arm one last time.
1:15. 
“d-don’t. say. that.” the tears are now streaking down spencer’s face, merging at his chin and dropping like raindrops to the floor.
“you need to leave,” you croak out, biting back a bitter sob as he tries to look at the device harnessed around your chest again.
“please,” you try once more.
“i’m never leaving you.” his hushed voice cracks and slaps against your eardrums like whiplash.
0:59. 
“i never stopped trying to reach for you, y/n.” he breaks the brief silence like waves crashing against the coastline.
“you didn't say goodbye and a part of me thought you were coming back,” he continues, and you break down, the words gutting you like a brutal kick to your stomach. the waves relentlessly lap, rumbling deep in your shredded horizon. 
“i… encountered your article in the news journal by chance,” he reveals, and your heart plummets even further.
of course. how naive of you. how could you forget that he was subscribed to every news journal, when you knew he read the news columns and the advertisements every day? you should've known you would fall straight into his hands.
“all of the linguistic features screamed that it was you. you… never moved up to new york.”
a hiccup leaves your chest between gasps.
“i confirmed it was you by asking garcia to cross-check every writers’ name and id in the database.” his knuckles are white, and the vapor from his breath fogs the silver metal of the device.
“i went to every managing editor’s residence to ask if they knew anything about you,” he huffs and you hear a click as the glass shard he’s using as a makeshift knife saws through something. you don’t look down.
0:20. 
“i eventually came across the right person, because she gave me your email address. i sent you that email 48 days ago regarding your article, the hygiene hypothesis as an explanation for the increased rates of allergic disorders.”
“that– that was you?” a breathless whisper escapes your lips as disbelief tangles your thoughts.
you remember the email as clear as day. it was the only email that complimented your style of writing among the crowded stash of spam mails, and you starred it so you could look back at it any time. to think that spencer would never reach out to you online because he hated electronic correspondence made you completely overlook the option in the first place.
but did it matter? knowing this or knowing that couldn’t change your fate — and because you couldn’t even convince the man you abandoned a year ago to leave you, you were bringing him down with you.
0:10. 
you sigh.
what a shameful ending, to seal your fate in the arms of someone who never deserved to share your pain. what a terrible ending, to have just three minutes to let the world know your time is up. and what a regrettable ending, because even after losing everything you ever had, your stalker’s still forcing you to reap what you sowed.
if it makes you feel better, spencer, i've lived with regret every day since i left you.
if it makes you feel better, spencer, maybe in an alternate universe you and i never met. 
if it makes you feel better, spencer, you won’t ever see me again.
they’re all fragments of an apology left unsaid.
“why did you go through all of this… after everything?” you ask.
you don't expect an answer.
you let your hand fall to the ground because you don’t deserve to hold his.
0:03. 
0:02. 
0:01. 
——
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“because i needed to hear you say it to my face,” a shaking voice pulses from your right ear. 
it sounds too real to assume that you’re in heaven.
you open your eyes. spencer’s eyes are already fixed onto yours, radiant under the sun's golden rays. they're almost blinding.
you look down at the timer.
it’s frozen at 0:01.
a quivering exhale leaves your mouth, and you let out a painfully scratchy sob. spencer’s hands lie pressed against the wall right above your shoulders, and his hot breath fans over your neck as he leans over you. his mop of hair lightly brushes against your skin, and goosebumps scale down your body as you catch your breath.
you then feel him tear the explosive vest away from your body, the sounds of velcro crisp against the still air. 
you don’t even ask how he did it. he’s alive, you’re alive, and that’s the only thing that matters.
a million thoughts buzz in your head, and you don’t know what to say, so you just breathe out his name with panting breaths. 
“you didn’t have a choice.” spencer gives you a sorrowful smile, and his words seem to absolve you of all of your mistakes.
with an angelic stare, he takes in the sight of you. every tear, every eyelash damp with your sweat, every crack in your dried lips.
“please don’t ever leave again, y/n. i don’t want to lose you.” he says beseechingly, his face peppered with glimmering tears. the sentence burns your tenderest flesh.
“i won’t, i promise,” you whisper hoarsely, and the two of you fall to the ground slowly, taking in each other’s hold for the first time in a long time.
as you hear the sirens sound in the distance, you let yourself succumb to spencer’s grasp and whisper a hundred thank you's against his chest. 
how beautiful, the way your heart beats in unison with his as he murmurs words of abounding love and warmth, the way his arms press against your convulsing muscles to summon comfort, and the way you don’t even have to say a word for him to understand.
because in every universe, spencer will fight everything and everyone to extinguish death from your sight, even when you have nothing to return. 
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The Machinist 1
Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, such as possible bullying, misogyny, noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.
Summary: your new boss sets his sights on you. (short!reader)
Characters: August Walker
Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜
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Your forehead pinches and your eyes singe. Your brows dip as you focus on your tasks, your hands firm on the small cylinder as you smooth the edge. Your work is tedious and precise, but you work off muscle memory. It all comes naturally. 
You lean in as you finish off the small piece, slowly pulling it away from the spinning wheel. You hit the stop and admire your handiwork briefly and label it before putting the piece aside in its coordinated container. You keep your space as tidy as you can, as organized as possible to avoid anything missing or overlooked. 
You lean on the tall stool you never use; it’s too high and this job isn’t really made for sitting. You take off your safety glasses and pull the bandana down from over your hairline to sop up your sweat. Your shoulders are tight and sore and your lower back tugs from your half-bent posture. 
You fix your bandana and near the work table again. Your old station was too high and now this one somehow is too low. It’s like a cruel trick. 
You pull the next blueprint up on the screen, clacking on the keys to zoom. It’s simple. You’re sent the schematics and you make whatever’s needed. It is a less than exciting job but it pays the bills. 
As you put your materials out in front of you and ready the borer, the noise of the factory forms a calamitous wall around you. You’ve learned to tune it out, you hardly notice when Bill swears at his lathe or Joe and Sakir argue over one thing or another. You keep to your work. You keep to yourself. 
Before you can start your next job, you sense a shift in the air. Voices quiet, machines slow and some stop. You peer over but can’t see much from your vantage in the corner. You claimed the station even though the air flow is crap. You prefer that you’re not center among the chaos. 
You begin by shaping the steel into a flat circle, then bore a hole in the middle. You’re going to have to be careful with how thin the sheet is but any thicker and it will impinge the hinge in the blueprint. You’ll have to make that too. 
The odd lull seems to flow across the factory floor like a tide. You peer up only as the air seems to stagnate. You see a man approaching. You don’t recognise him but he’s not very much different than most men you work with; ball cap, plaid shirt, that overly macho stance. 
Unlike most factory men, he isn’t built like a noodle or with an extra pouch around his middle. He’s tall and lumbering and his shoulders broad. Across his upper lip, he sports a dark mustache, and his blue are somehow bright and dark at once. 
“Hello,” he approaches as his bold tone rolls like thunder, “machinist?” 
Your brows knot together curiously as you shut off the borer and set aside the parts. You turn to him completely, “yes.” 
“Ah,” he reaches into the bin and takes out the cylinder you just finished, “fine work. Detailed. The labeling is clever.” 
You’re wary. You’re used to the men talking down to you. It’s not that unusual but something about him is loftier than you’re used too. 
“Engineer?” You wonder. He has to be. Their degrees seem to overload their egos in a certain kind of way. 
“Supervisor,” he puts the part back in the green container, “first day. Did you not receive the notice?” 
“I did,” you assure him. You read the notice on the lunchroom wall but it didn’t matter much to you. He isn’t the first replacement to pass through the position, especially since the buyout. 
“August Walker,” he offers his large hand. 
You eye it and reach with your glove, mindless of the darkened fabric, and dully recite your name. He squeezes, in the way that men do, trying to prove their strength. You simply allow him his little display before rescinding your hand. 
“How long have you worked here?” He asks. 
You look around. You notice Bill watching and a few others trying to act like they aren’t. You know what they’re thinking. If fat needs to be trimmed, naturally it should be the girl. 
“Three years,” you answer. 
“Really? Work like this, I’d have guessed longer,” he muses, “by looking at you, though, I might have guessed you just started.” 
“Mm,” you grumble and turn back to your parts. 
“Compliment,” he says bluntly. 
“Right,” you utter. “Got work orders.” 
“So, you do,” he agrees, “but I’m your boss.” 
You hesitate and pull your hands back from the table. You face him again as he stands on the other side of the table’s arm. You step up to your side and look up at him. 
“Is there something I missed? A task I should focus on first, sir?” You ask. 
He snorts and one side of his mouth lifts up in amusement, “not much for water cooler talk, huh?” 
“With due respect, I’m on the clock.” 
"Due respect," he echoes.
His eyes flick up and down and you withhold your discomfort. It isn’t unusual. Your coworkers are more often in miserable marriages or eternally single. They all can’t help but ogle you now and again, even if you dress exactly like them. Nothing special. Not the girls at the bar or the wives they once loved. 
“Well then, maybe I’ll run into in the lunchroom and you can tell me all about yourself,” he plants his hands on the table and leans over just slightly, “I’m dying to know how someone like you ended up in a place like this.” 
You tweak a brow and cross your arms. Right. He’s one of those. Just like the rest of them. This isn’t your place, you’re an intruder. 
“I mean, why would you come here and sweat over all this dirty work when you could be put up in a kitchen, huh?” He wonders with a smirk, “but I’ve seen the men around here, none of them got the guts to put you where you belong.” 
Your chest rises and falls as a swell of anger comes over you. You know the best way to react is not to. So, you don’t. 
“Sir, I’m right at home right here,” you assure him and turn back to your station. 
You ignore him as you adjust your glasses and adjust a setting on the lather. What you wouldn’t do to put his face to the grinder. He isn’t worth the damage his thick skull would do to the wheel. 
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gunnerfc · 7 months
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Replacement? | Steph Catley x Matildas!Reader (18+)
Summary: You get called up to the national team for the first time after making big waves in the women’s A-Leauge. After hearing just how good you are, Steph feels like her position on the team is threatened.
Warnings: age gap (R is early twenties/close friends with Kyra), fingering (r receiving), oral (steph receiving), pet names for R (“good girl”, “pretty girl”), Steph being called ‘captain’ during sex, Steph being kind of mean, thigh riding (Steph)
WC: 3.4K
AN: in honor of Arsenal's win in front of 60K! 🤪
Steph ignored the notifications from Instagram and Twitter, knowing it was the squad announcement for The Matildas’ upcoming friendlies against New Zealand. She knew her name was on the list without having to look. It was Kyra’s voice that pulled her from her thoughts as she was eating. 
“Y/N finally got a call-up! It’s about time,” the midfielder all but shouted. Steph’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Y/N? She hadn't heard your name before but you were seemingly close with her younger Arsenal teammate.
Before Steph could ask who you were, Caitlin beat her to it. “Who’s Y/N,” the forward asked in between bites. 
“Y/N Y/L/N, we played together in the youth teams! She’s a left back just like you Steffy,” Kyra explained, directing her last statement towards the defender. 
“Where is she playing now? Back Home,” Caitlin asked, more interested in knowing about you than Steph was. 
“Yeah, for Perth I think,” the midfielder responded as she picked up her phone again to text you ‘congrats’ on getting called up for The Matildas.
“She’s really good, I’m surprised it took this long for her to get called up,” Kyra added after sending her text. “Might have to watch out for her, Steph,” Kyra joked as she stood to go join Alessia and Vic at their table. 
Steph lightly chuckled at the younger girl’s words, trying to ignore how Kyra was singing your praises about how good you were. The thought of you, who she didn’t even know, plagued her thoughts the rest of the day. 
Steph would be lying if she said Kyra's words didn't affect her. She knew the young midfielder was just joking but her words sent her into a spiral. The Matildas’ captain spent the next few days before they had to leave for Sydney watching any and every video she could find of you playing. 
And Kyra was right, you are good. Normally she would be excited for new call-ups, wanting to see everyone get the chance to represent Australia and bask in that feeling of getting their first cap. But something was different with you, something Steph couldn't place her finger on. 
After a long flight from London to Sydney, the three Arsenal players were finally headed to the team hotel. They were some of the last to arrive, having a later game than some of the others. A staff member met them in the lobby with room assignments and keys for the stay and Steph thanked god when she was given a room to herself this camp. It meant she could be deep in thought about you without having someone question if she was okay. 
It was late when they arrived, most of the team had already eaten and retired to their rooms for the night knowing tomorrow would be full of nonstop training. It wasn’t until the next morning at the team breakfast that Steph saw you in person for the first time. The defender couldn’t spot you right away but she heard your voice that she immediately recognized from the numerous post-match interviews she watched of you.
Steph subtly looked around the room as she fixed her plate, following your voice to a table with Kyra and Mary. The three of you were deep in conversation about something Steph had no knowledge of and she had to force herself to look away from you to find her seat at a table with Caitlin, Hayley, and Alanna. 
“Why do you look so pissed this morning,” the Man City player questioned almost immediately after Steph sat down.
Steph’s eyes were wide at the accusation, having thought she was keeping her expressions under control. The defender went to answer but her Arsenal teammates beat her to it. “Her replacement is here,” Caitlin laughed, receiving a glare from Steph.
“Who? Y/N,” Hayley spoke, nodding her head in your direction. Caitlin answered, telling her she was correct which drew a laugh from both Alanna and Hayley. 
Steph ignored the trio making jokes about you taking her place, hoping to get on the field as quickly as possible. She was determined to show Tony that he didn’t need to consider someone else for the friendlies, that she had it covered.
Steph opted to sit by herself on the bus ride to the pitch, tuning out her teammates and thoughts about with music. During all the warm-ups the training staff had the team doing, Steph’s eyes never left you. You caught her eye a few times, sending her a friendly smile each time but only getting a glare in response. 
You weren't sure why Steph was seemingly annoyed with you, you hadn’t even officially met her yet. Tony had split the team into different groups based on positions to run through different drills and you took this opportunity to introduce yourself to Steph.
“Hi! I’m Y/N, you’re Steph right,” You had a bright smile on your face as you spoke to her while some of the other defenders ran through the drill. 
“That’s nice, but you should be focusing on what we’re doing,” Steph gave you a pointed look, nodding toward your teammates. Steph didn’t look at you long enough to see the confused look on your face and it didn’t help that you could hear Alanna snicker behind you.
You shook off Steph cold attitude and did exactly as she said. You focused on what the staff were saying and how your fellow defenders ran the drill. You noticed slight mistakes they made that allowed for a goal from the forwards and took it upon yourself to correct them when it was your turn. 
You did exactly that as you tackled the ball from Hayley, allowing Lydia to safely collect the ball. As your foot connected with the ball, you could hear encouraging shouts from Kyra and Mary on the sidelines, cheering you on. You were the only defender that kept one of the forwards from scoring.
“Good job, kid,” the Real Madrid player praised as she offered you her hand to help you up. You took her hand, sending a small smile as a thank you before joining the other defenders.
Steph had a scowl on her face as she watched you successfully tackle Hayley. She knew you were good, she spent the last few days analyzing everything about your style of play. What pissed her off was that you seemed to not realize how good you were, that everything you need always worked out in your favor without you really having to apply much effort. 
“Still think she’s going to take your place,” Alanna quipped from behind her, laughing at the captain’s face. 
For the rest of the training, Steph tried to ignore you. Each time you did something well, the staff and players were cheering you on and it was getting to her. Training finally came to an end a few hours later and everyone was ready to get back to the hotel for showers and to relax. Throughout training, you got closer with Alanna and Ellie, and from Steph’s point of view, she saw it as a connection forming that might translate on the field.
Steph found her seat on the bus but before she could get her headphones out, Caitlin joined her in the seat next to her. “Y’know, if you weren’t being so closed off, you would see just how nice she was,” the forward teased, earning a laugh from the two who sat with them at breakfast. 
“Fuck off, Caitlin,” the defender growled, hitting play on a song to tune everything out. Caitlin laughed at her before getting up to sit next to Alanna. Steph was pissed at the idea of you starting over in the first game and considering how well you did in practice, that seemed like a possibility. 
Returning to her hotel room, she quickly headed for the shower, needing to wash away every thought from training. You had gotten under her skin without meaning to and it was driving her crazy. Steph quickly got dressed before heading to the conference room for dinner, ignoring everyone who tried to speak to her. Though it wasn’t many given that they could see the anger on her face. 
She didn’t want anyone to question her so she bit the bullet and sat down at the same table from this morning, though this time Ellie had joined the group. This time she had to listen to the four of them talk about how good you were, which she knew they were just trying to mess with her.
From your table with Kyra, Mary, and Charli you kept looking in Steph's direction, hoping she would look up from her food and make eye contact with you. She might have brushed you off the entire day for no reason but for some reason, you felt drawn to her. You watched as she finished her food, not bothering to stay after she was done as she quickly stood up from the table to dispose of her plate. 
You watched her quickly leave to head back to her room and you took this as an opportunity to speak to her alone. You told your friends goodnight and were out the door just as quickly as Steph was. You found her room and stood outside, debating whether or not you should knock. 
The part of you that wanted to confront your captain won out as you lifted your hand to knock on the door. On the other side of the door, Steph groaned at the sound not wanting to face anyone again. Without looking through the peephole, Steph jerked the door open, coming face to face with the one person she couldn't stop thinking about.
“Hi,” you mumbled as you locked eyes with Steph. Her jaw was clenched and you'd be lying if you weren’t a little turned on at the sight of her pissed off, especially with you.
“What do you want,” the defender huffed, annoyance lacing her words as she spoke.
“Um, I just… I just wanted to say I was sorry if I did something during training to make you mad. It wasn’t my intention to do so,” you stuttered, finding the carpeted floor much more interesting. 
Steph watched you fiddle with your hands as your eyes stayed locked on the floor. Steph lightly scoffed at your words, of course, you came to apologize for something you weren't even sure you did. 
“Look at me when you’re talking to me. I’m your captain,” Steph had never pulled the captain card with anyone before, but something about this was different. 
You quickly looked up at the older woman, your face heating up from your slight embarrassment. You nodded your head, letting her know you understood. Steph’s eyes scanned up and down your body, before her eyes locked with yours again. Without saying anything, Steph pushed her door open further and stepped to the side, allowing you into her room.
You felt excitement fill your body at what might happen once you stepped through the threshold. The door was closed quickly behind you and you were roughly pushed against it. Lips were on yours before you could realize it, kissing you harshly. You moaned into the kiss, your hands coming to rest on Steph’s neck as hers kept your hips pressed against the door.
Your lips moved against each other roughly, lightly biting each other’s lip as you made out. Steph pulled away first, her eyes dilated as she took in your dazed state. Your breathing was heavy as you locked eyes, letting her dictate what happened between you.
Steph pulled you further into the room, stopping at the foot of the large bed. “Be a good girl and strip,” the older woman instructed, eyes never leaving yours.
You nodded as you quickly undressed, throwing your clothes off the side. Steph’s eyes took in your naked form, licking her lips as she did so. You could feel that you were already wet and Steph hadn't touched you yet. The defender took her time undressing herself and it was your turn to check her out. 
Steph pushed you onto the bed, nodding her head up to tell you to scoot up the bed. You listened as your breathing picked up, watching as Steph climbed up the bed before straddling one of your thighs. You both shuddered at the contact, the room growing warmer as the seconds ticked by.
You felt yourself growing wetter the longer Steph went without touching you, attempting to rub your thighs together out of instinct but failing as Steph’s thigh was in the way. “You listen well, pretty girl,” the defender teased watching your chest rise and fall rapidly. 
“Please,” you croaked out, needing her to touch you, to make you cum. The pet name makes you feel weak.
Steph smirked down at you, raising her pointer ringer to your lips, pushing in on the for you to suck. You did as she wanted, sucking on her finger as you held eye contact with her. Steph’s brain short-circuited as she watched you suck on her finger before adding her middle finger as well. Steph pulled her fingers from your mouth with a quiet “pop,” a string of saliva connecting your lips to her two fingers. 
She trailed her fingers down your torso, leaving a wet trail in their wake. When she reached your dripping cunt, she smirked to herself at how wet you already were. Tentatively, she pushed both fingers into you, groaning at the feeling of being inside you. You moaned at the feeling, your head falling back onto the pillows that were propped on the headboard. 
“Faster, p-please,” you whined below her, needing more from her. Steph loved hearing you beg her to fuck you and she listened to you, speeding up her fingers slightly. 
Steph watched from her place on your thigh as two of her fingers thrust into you, feeling herself grow wetter at the sight of her fingers glistening with your cum. You could feel how wet she was against your skin, wanting to make her feel the way she was making you feel but your mind was preoccupied with the pleasure she was giving you.
The wet sounds of her fingers fucking into you mixed with your low moans filled the room, driving the defender crazy. Her fingers sped up again, needing to hear you get louder, she needed to see you fall apart. Her two fingers that were pushing inside you hit that familiar spot, drawing a loud moan from your lips. Steph's fingers continued hitting that spot as a familiar coil tightened in your lower stomach, you were so close to cumming for the first time.
"P-please, Steph. I've been a good girl, please let me cum," you croaked out in between moans, your eyes welling up as the pleasure. Hearing you beg became one of Steph's favorite sounds in that moment and she was determined to make you beg again.
"Are you sure you deserve it, pretty girl, I don't know if you've been good enough," the defender husked, fingers curled inside you.
Steph took in the sight of you spread open for her as her fingers fucked into you. Your back arched as you threw your head back against the pillows, hands gripping the hotel sheets beneath you. Your hips bucked up to meet her thrusts, helping her fingers go deeper.
You locked eyes with your captain and she could see the desperate look in them. "I've been good, I promise! please let me cum, p-please" you choked out, eyes screwed shut as a few tears escaped from the sides. You weren't sure you could hold out for any longer. 
"Cum for me pretty girl," Steph instructed as she drilled her fingers into you.
You came on her fingers hard, your eyes tightly closed as your hips bucked. Steph watched as you fell apart, keeping her fingers moving inside you, helping to ride your high. You could feel a second orgasm quickly approaching.
Steph's hips were grinding against your thigh as she placed her free hand on your lower stomach, pressing down on your skin as she thrust her fingers. You came again around her fingers as you chanted her name, filling the hotel room with your moans.
Steph pulled her fingers out of you as her hips moved against your thigh, chasing her own high.  She brought her fingers to her mouth, tasting you on her fingers as she moved against you. You opened your eyes slightly and watched the defender fuck herself on your thigh as she sucked her fingers clean. You let go of the sheets to place your hands on her hips, guiding her to her first orgasm. Steph fell forward, catching herself with one hand beside your body, the other holding yours that rested on her hip.
The feeling of her clit hitting your flesh was almost enough to make her cum. You watched as she chased her high and flexed your thigh to help her. It was Steph's turn to moan loudly as she made a mess all over your thigh. 
Steph kept her hips moving slightly as she came down from her high, not wanting to lose contact just yet. You sat up so you were face to face with your captain, pulling her into a deep kiss. You moaned at the distant taste of yourself on her mouth as your tongues battled for dominance. Steph's hips came to a stop on your thigh as you broke the kiss, both of you breathing heavily.
"I think that's two to one, pretty girl. Care to make it even," your captain teased, a smirk on her face. You matched her smirk as you flipped the two of you over, leaning Steph against the pillows that rested against the headboard. 
You left harsh kisses down her torso leaving marks to form in your wake, pulling away as you reached her bellybutton. "Is that order from my captain," you looked up at her with hooded eyes, seeing a deep look of arousal in her eyes. 
"Yes," the older woman husked, watching as your smirk returned to your lips. You placed a quick kiss right below her belly button and a few nips on her hip bone before sliding further down the bed to face her still dripping core. 
With your right hand, you held her thigh open, stretching her out for easier access. Your left held her thigh that was now placed over your shoulder. You blew lightly against her, the cool sensation making her jolt and her jaw fell open with a quiet groan. 
Steph moved her hands to gather your hair in a makeshift ponytail, pushing your head closer to her. You gave small nips to clit before sucking the bud into your mouth drawing a loud moan from the woman above you. Her hips were moving again as she moved against your face in an effort to gain more pleasure. You pulled away from her clit with a loud noise before quickly thrusting your tongue inside her. 
With the way she was fucking herself on your face and holding your head against her cunt, you hardly had to do anything. The taste of her made you moan, sending vibrations through her that made her bite her lip to quiet herself. The sounds of you fucking her echoed off the hotel walls, driving you to go faster. 
Steph could feel herself getting closer to her orgasm and she fell over the edge when you looked up from between her thighs through hooded eyes. She could see the teasing glint in your eyes which was enough to let go. The defender came all over your face, soaking your mouth and chin.
You would have stayed there longer but the sensitive feeling was too much for the captain as she pulled your head back with the makeshift ponytail. The sight of you with her cum coating your mouth and chin drove her crazy as she sat up to pull you into a searing kiss. 
You both moaned at the taste of her, before pulling away when air became a problem. Both of your breathing was heavy as you stared into each other's eyes.
"Looks like we need a tiebreaker, captain," you teased with a playful smirk, knowing it would get under her skin. Her eyes darkened once more as she flipped your positions.
This was never how you pictured your first call-up to the national team would go. But as you and Steph went back and forth, pulling orgasm after orgasm from each other, you weren't complaining. You weren't sure what this meant for you and your captain but every part of you hoped that it was something that would continue whenever you saw her next.
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batboyblog · 7 months
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Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #7
Feb 23-March 1 2024
The White House announced $1.7 Billion in new commitments from local governments, health care systems, charities, business and non-profits as part of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The Challenge was launched with 8 billion dollars in 2022 with the goal of ending hunger in America by 2030. The Challenge also seeks to drastically reduce diet-related diseases (like type 2 diabetes). As part of the new commitments 16 city pledged to make plans to end hunger by 2030, the largest insurance company in North Carolina made nutrition coaching and a healthy food delivery program a standard benefit for members, and since the challenge launched the USDA's Summer EBT program has allowed 37 states to feed children over the summer, its expected 21 million low income kids will use the program this summer.
The US House passed a bill on Nuclear energy representing the first update in US nuclear energy policy in decades, it expands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reduces reducing licensing fees. Nuclear power represents America's single largest source of clean energy, with almost half of carbon-free electricity coming from it. This bill will boost the industry and make it easier to build new plants
Vice President Harris announced key changes to the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. The CCDBG supports the families of a million American children every month to help afford child care. The new changes include capping the co-pay families pay to no more than 7% of their income. Studies show that high income families pay 6-8% of their income in childcare while low income families pay 31%. The cap will reduce or eliminate fees for 100,000 families saving them an average of over $200 a month. The changes also strength payments to childcare providers insuring prompt payment.
The House passed a bill making changes to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The 8(a) is an intensive 9 year program that offers wide ranging training and support to small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged, predominantly native owned businesses. Under the current structure once a business reaches over 6.8 million in assets they're kicked off the program, even though the SBA counts anything under $10 million as a small business, many companies try to limit growth to stay on the program. The House also passed a bill to create an Office of Native American Affairs at the SBA, in order to support Native-owned small businesses.
The White House and HUD announced steps to boost the housing supply and lower costs plans include making permanent the Federal Financing Bank Risk Sharing program, the program has created 12,000 affordable housing units since 2021 with $2 billion and plans 38,000 additional units over ten years. As well as support for HUD's HOME program which has spent $4.35 billion since 2021 to build affordable rental homes and make home ownership a reality for Americans. For the first time an administration is making funds available specifically for investments in manufactured housing, $225 million. 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing, the largest form of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, particularly the rural poor and people in tribal communities.
The Department of Energy announced $336 million in investments in rural and remote communities to lower energy costs and improve reliability. The projects represent communities in 20 states and across 30 Native tribes. 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, one of the projects hopes to bring that number to 0. Another project supports replacing a hydroelectric dam in Alaska replacing all the Chignik Bay Tribal Council's diesel power with clear hydro power. The DoE also announced $18 million for Transformative Energy projects lead by tribal or local governments and $25 million for Tribal clean energy projects, this comes on top of $75 million in Tribal clean energy projects in 2023
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg put forward new rules to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. Under the planned rules mishandling a wheelchair would be a violation of the ACAA, airlines would be required to immediately notify the passenger of their rights. Airlines would be required to repair or replace the wheelchair at the preferred vendor of the passenger's choice as well as provide a loaner wheelchair that fits the passenger's needs/requirements
The EPA launched a $3 Billion dollar program to help ports become zero-emission. This investment in green tech and zero-emission will help important transportation hubs fight climate change and replace some of the largest concentrations of diesel powered heavy equipment in America.
the EPA announced $1 Billion dollars to help clean up toxic Superfund sites. This is the last of $3.5 billion the Biden administration has invested in cleaning up toxic waste sites known as Superfund sites. This investment will help finish clean up at 85 sites across the country as well as start clean up at 25 new sites. Many Superfund sites are contained and then left not cleaned for years even decades. Thanks to the Biden-Harris team's investment the EPA has been able to do more clean up of Superfund sites in the last 2 years than the 5 years before it. More than 25% of America's black and hispanic population live with-in 5 miles of a Superfund site.
Bonus: Sweden cleared the final major barrier to become NATO's 32nd member. The Swedish Foreign Minster is expected to fly to Washington to deposit the articles of accession at the US State Department. NATO membership for Sweden and its neighbor Finland (joined last year) has been a major foreign policy goal of President Biden in the face of Russian aggressive against Ukraine. Former President Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and declared he wants to leave the 75 year old Alliance, even going so far as to tell Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" with European NATO allies
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traveler-at-heart · 10 months
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Secrets
Summary: You try to keep your relationship a secret!
Natasha Romanoff x Fem!R
It was fun at first.
The thrill of sneaking around, secret glances, hidden touches. It had been quite a ride to get to where you were with Natasha, and knowing how the team could be, you both wanted to keep your relationship to yourselves, at least for a little while.
One of your secret spots were the stairs. With a building so big, it was natural that everyone took the elevator. It was the perfect place to meet the redhead and more often than not, the conversation progressed into an intense make out session that left you breathless.
“Is the elevator broken?” Steve asks as you come back from one of your little escapades. You jump at his presence, your mind still thinking about the feeling of Natasha’s lips on yours.
“Uh… no. It’s working just fine. I like to take the stairs to… exercise”
“That’s a nice idea. Maybe I’ll try it one of these days” he nods.
Cap and his obliviousness, sweet old man. He has no idea you’re all flushed for reasons that have nothing to do with coming up the steps.
Still, you think nothing of it. He was probably trying to be nice when he said it was a good idea. The next day, when you’re lost in Natasha, intoxicated by her supple lips and the way they move against your own, you miss the sound of heavy footsteps and an off key whistle.
“Crap” Natasha is the first to react, breaking apart. You turn to look down, Steve taking the steps two at a time.
Fit bastard.
“Morning!” he says, too happy for your liking.
“Oh, hi, we were just…”
“We?” he echoes, and you look around. No trace of Natasha.
“I mean, me. I was just taking a break. I think I’ll go back to taking the elevator”
“You sure you’re ok?”
“Yeah, just a bit agitated. Nothing to worry, Cap”
Steve nods and smiles.
“I told everyone about your great idea. I think people will start using the stairs more”
“Oh, that’s just peachy”
Once again, he is oblivious to your actual feelings. After he’s gone, Natasha jumps from behind the staircase.
“Jesus, how did you manage to do that so quickly”
“Well, you always have to be ready for a quick escape, detka”
Natasha leans forward and pecks your lips, but before she can do anything else, you drag her back to the hallway.
“You heard Cap. Our secret spot is no longer secret”
So far, you haven’t found a decent replacement for the stairs, except for a supply closet. And by God, you are not that desperate.
As you cook dinner, Natasha comes up behind you, and you relax against her.
“I’ve missed you” she says against your shoulder, placing small kisses that tickle you.
“I missed you too, love”
A hand goes around your middle and she toys with the hem of your shirt, lips kissing your neck, and that sweet spot behind your earlobe that makes you shiver.
“Nat” you moan, and you don’t know if you want her to stop or keep going.
Yelena answers that for you as she steps inside, eyes widening. You draw blank, because honestly, how can you explain this?
Natasha takes matters into her own hands, literally, as she hugs you and pretends to do the Heimlich maneuver.
“She’s choking” Natasha says and Yelena scrambles around.
“Oh, my God, Y/N, please don’t die”
The redhead pretends to help you, squeezing your middle and you cough.
“I think I’m…”
Unfortunately, the blonde is too freaked out and pushes Natasha away, thinking she’s helping you.
As she presses against your sternum, you are suddenly out of breath and you swear you can feel your ribs cracking.
“Ok, I’m fine, Yelena, thanks” you break free of her hold, sure that your sides will be bruised next morning.
Yelena doesn’t let you cook anymore, so you end up with a dinner of mac and cheese, and Natasha’s sister sitting in the middle while you three watch tv.
“I’m sorry” Natasha says when her sister gets up to grab another soda.
“Just for the record, this isn’t the type of choking I had in mind”
“They’re gonna be here any minute” you say against Natasha’s shoulder.
“I know” she bites your neck and you sink further into her lap.
The Quinjet, out of all places is where you find some privacy. The rest of the team will join shortly, as you have a recon mission.
But you can’t keep your hands to yourself and you end up naked, straddling Natasha’s lap as she moves her fingers inside of you.
“God, you look so pretty like this” she says against your chest.
“Nat, more” you plead. It’s too much and too little at the same time. She listens, moving her hand faster and your hips match her pace.
“God. Yes” you collapse in her arms.
“Request to open gate” FRIDAY informs and you curse, because you want more than a second to catch your breath.
Sneaking around is getting old now.
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up” Natasha says, helping you up. She looks proud when your legs shake.
“Shut up” you say, which only makes her smile wider.
While the team enters the Quinjet, you go back to the bathroom with Nat as you hurriedly put your suits on.
“Red? Y/N?” Tony calls for you.
“Here” you raise your arm, feeling a bit tense. Maybe you pulled a muscle.
Stark nods your way and starts the Quinjet, while Steve goes over the plan with everyone else. You stay seated, vaguely aware that something feels different but you can’t tell what it is.
“Be careful” Natasha says when you part ways, squeezing your hand.
Your job is to keep an eye on the guards at the south gate and stop them if they are called to attack the intel team.
Which unfortunately does happen, so you run to shoot, kick and punch at every one of them.
There are two guards left, and as you reach for your gun, something incredibly unexpected happens.
Your suit opens right in the front, revealing your red lacy bra.
“What the fuck” you shout, looking down.
The guard in front of you opens his mouth, completely enthranced by your cleavage.
“New strategy?” Tony flies over, knocking him down. He sends the last man standing across the room.
“No! I don’t know what happened!”
You try to cover but the leather is not giving in.
“Ok, well. We’re done here so you can put all that” he gestures to your chest. “Back in the Quinjet”
Rolling your eyes, and with your arms crossed in front of you, you walk back to the jet.
As you lock eyes with Natasha, you finally notice how her own suit is loose on the shoulders.
You switched when you were getting dressed.
“I like this new look” Sam wiggles his eyebrows and Natasha sends a widow bite straight to his ass.
“Oops” she shrugs her shoulders as he glares.
Feeling a little better after that, you go inside and find a t-shirt to cover up.
When you leave the bathroom, everyone is silent.
“Ok, it’s not like you all haven’t seen boobs before. So get over yourselves. Except Steve, he gets a pass” you bark at them.
“I’ve seen boobs before” he tries to say but no one pays attention.
Natasha stays silent and you think she might be upset or reconsidering this whole thing.
You expect the worse as you land and she leads you back to your room.
“Nat…”
The redhead holds her finger up, taking your shirt off and sinking her face in your breasts.
“Really?”
“Mine” she grumbles, her hands squeezing possessively.
Well, at least some good came out of it.
The atmosphere is tense.
Clint, Wanda, Peter and you are playing Jenga.
Honestly, you are the one at a disadvantage here. With Clint’s aim and the enhanced individuals, you don’t stand a chance.
The way Natasha looks at you from across the room doesn’t help either.
It’s been a few days since you were together. Fury called her for an urgent mission and you had to resist the urge to sneak into the Quinjet and beg her to fuck you against the console.
And now, she’s back and you can’t wait for the night to wrap up so you can wrap your legs around her while she eats your…
“Gah!” Wanda screeches, knocking over the tower. “My mind, my eyes”
Crap.
“Wanda, a word?” you plead, dragging her out of the living room while Clint and Peter stare.
“You” she slaps your arm. “And you” she glares at Natasha as she approaches, pushing you both to her room.
“Sorry, we are keeping it a secret for now”
“But your thoughts are so loud” she massages her temples, clearly distraught. “I was so focused on the game and still I could hear everything, see everything”
“Sorry” you grimace. “Do you think you could… not tell anyone? For a bit”
“Oh, trust me, I’m very eager to pretend none of this happened”
“Thanks, Wanda” Natasha says and the girl nods.
“It’s nice to see you both happy. Just try to keep your thoughts to yourselves”
“We’ll try”
Wanda nods, walking out. Natasha’s quick to push you against the wall, eyes darkened by lust.
“Wanna tell me what was on your mind?”
“Can you at least wait for me to leave the hallway?!” Wanda screams from outside.
“You have ten seconds, Maximoff”
“Thanks, I hate you”
You figure a little distance from everyone will do you good.
So, you get tickets to a Yankees game and spend the day in the city with Natasha.
Even if you are only a half hour away from the Compound, among the sea of people, no one looks at you when you hold her hand, or share a kiss in the middle of your walk.
“This is nice” you smile, bringing her hand to your lips.
The first half of the game is slow, but you enjoy the time eating popcorn and making comments with Natasha about the score.
During the break, several people in the audience are featured in the screens. A girl chugs an entire beer while the crowd goes wild.
“Damn” you laugh, but the next image you see is you, next to Natasha.
The kiss cam.
“No, we’re fine” you wave your arms and the crowd boos. “Ok, not nice!”
“Don’t be such a baby” she smiles, pulling you closer.
“Pretty sure Steve and Bucky are watching the game back home”
“You jump, I jump” she leans forward, allowing you to decide if you wanna do this or not. As your lips meet in a short kiss, everyone starts clapping and cheering you on.
“Are you sure about what we just did?”
“Very. I’m tired of hiding. You make me happy. What’s wrong with that?” Natasha says and you smile against her lips.
“You are so getting lucky tonight”
But before you can kiss her again, both of your phones go crazy with texts from everyone on the team.
Tony: Is this why Wanda asked me for a way to erase her memory?
Sam: Now I know why you electrocuted my ass, Red!
Wanda: DONT COME NEAR ME
“Still think we made the right call?” you roll your eyes as the texts keep coming.
“Absolutely, detka” she says before kissing you softly.
Yeah. It’s gonna be ok.
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bunnylovesani · 9 months
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A Birthday Affair 2
Summary: Past midnight is when the real birthday celebrations start and the best gift you could’ve asked for is to get stuffed. Full of cake, of course. You just better hope Padme doesn’t wake up.
Content warnings: P in V sex, oral sex, cheating, generally immoral activity lmao
WC: 3.2k
“Would you stop whining about it already? Give me a fucking minute to put on my shoes and I’ll get you the stupid replacement.” Anakin yells in Padme’s direction, on his way to buy you another birthday cake after the last one went up in flames.
“It’s not for me, it’s for her!” She points at you and Anakin sighs, giving you an apologetic look.
“Yeah well, she doesn’t seem to be half as fussed about it as you are.” He grabs the keys by the door and throws on a navy blue baseball cap. “Be back in twenty.” He seems to say only to you and the act of defiance doesn’t go unnoticed by Padme.
“God, what a jerk. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately but he seems to be even more unbearable than usual.” She steps out onto the terrace of your shared apartment and you follow her. “You spend every day with us, tell me- has he said anything to you? You know, about us?”
You shuffle on your feet nervously and let out a huff. “No, nothing.” You decide to keep your lies simple and easy to follow.
“That’s even worse!” She whines. “He doesn’t mention me at all?”
“I didn’t say that.” You deflected nervously.
“So he does talk about me?” Noticing your hesitance, she puts her hand on your shoulder reassuringly. “Relax, you can tell me. You’re my best friend in the whole world, I’d never get mad at you for telling me the truth.”
“I got something that’d test that theory.” You think as you scratch the back of your head.
“Look Padme, I don’t know what to tell you- I mean he doesn’t talk badly about you, but he doesn’t mention you all that much either.”
She pauses for a moment and takes a step back, observing you closely.
“So what do you guys talk about then?” She shoots you a scrutinising glare.
“W-what?” You kick yourself for how suspicious you’re coming across.
“You heard me. We’ve been roommates for a good couple of months now.” She paces up and down the terrace. “When I’m at work and you two are alone, what do you talk about?”
“Oh, you know. The usual. Nothing special.” You reply honestly. Up until this evening, you hadn’t crossed any boundaries with Anakin- unless you count your fantasies. In which case you’d crossed them multiple times in multiple different positions.
She looks at you with narrowed eyes, processing your response for a moment before she releases a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been feeling a little paranoid recently.” She slumps down onto a plump deck chair and breathes in the cold night air. “He seems distant, like he’s not really here with me, you know?” You take a seat beside her, not sure whether it would be more morally reprehensible to comfort her or to change the subject.
“I don’t know Padme, it’s between you guys- I don’t wanna get involved.” You hear the irony in your words as soon as they leave your lips.
“Of course, ‘m sorry for being such a downer- and on the eve of your birthday too! I’m gonna throw you the biggest rager tomorrow, I’ve invited so many cute guys - just for you.” She rambles excitedly and you bite your lip in guilt.
A short while later, Anakin comes home to a very lukewarm reception from Padme, who complains that the cake he bought isn’t good enough- it wasn’t the right size, the right flavour or the right colour. You thought it was perfectly fine.
After a brief but heated argument, Padme decides to call it a night and retreats into her bedroom down the hall.
“I’m sorry about her.” Anakin whispers, treading lightly over to you. “She’s acting even more insufferable than I’m used to.”
“Funny, she said the same thing about you earlier.” You smile, knees feeling weak when he returns it with his own twinkling grin.
“I can’t wait until it’s you I get to go to bed with, not her.” He speaks softly, reaching up to brush his knuckles against your cheek.
“Me neither, but we can’t do things like that anymore. Not until you deal with Padme.” You vowed, looking over his shoulder.
“I know, I know, I’ll deal with that soon-“
“Anakin! Come to bed!” Padme interjects with a high-pitched and entirely repellant screech.
He rolls his eyes so far back into his head you wonder if they’ll ever come out again.
“I’m coming!” He yells, throwing his arms into the air with a measure of agitation you’d never seen before.
“I gotta go, angel. I’ll see you in the morning yeah? My pretty birthday girl.” He grabs your chin lightly before planting a peck on your forehead and retreating into the bedroom with an indignant sigh.
You stayed up for a little while longer, deciding to tidy the mess of pillows and plushies strewn along your bed. As you readjusted your teddies, you let out a dreamy moan at the memory of your romp earlier this evening. You snake your hand between your thighs as you sit down, feeling deliciously sore- head spinning with the reminder of how right it felt to have him buried inside you. Only being granted the pleasure of having him once wasn’t anywhere near enough- you felt like you were going through withdrawal, unable to form a single thought that wasn’t about him.
Resigning yourself to a long sleepless night, you slipped your most expensive silk nightie on and crawled under the covers. Glancing over to the clock on your nightstand, you saw that it was 1 minute past midnight- officially your birthday. You wondered if Ani got you anything nice, focusing on hypothetical presents rather than allowing your guilty conscience to creep in.
Speaking of creeping in, you hear the door knob squeak with a careful twist and a festive pyjama-clad Anakin enters your room.
“Ani! What are you doing here?” You whisper, motioning to securely close the door shut.
“Sorry, I couldn’t wait- just had to come see you. Happy birthday, baby.” He hands you a charming white gift box wrapped tightly in a pink silk bow, his large palm making it look tiny.
“Can I join you for a minute?” He gestures towards your bed and you’re torn.
“Oh Ani, you shouldn’t have. I-I don’t know, what if she catches us?” You try to reason but your attention has been stolen by the pretty box, which you eagerly pluck out of his hand.
“She’s out cold.” He perches at the foot of your bed. “You hear that? Sounds like a grizzly bear operating a chainsaw.”
You giggle at his words and peel back your covers, inviting him to lay beside you.
“Or a congested walrus.” You add.
“Driving a bulldozer.”
“Well now you’re just exaggerating.” You laugh into your pillow while Anakin shushes you, playfully hitting you with your teddy.
Clutching the box as you untie the delicate ribbon, you pull out a polished gold necklace with a satiny heart pendant- engraved with the letter A.
“Ani, I love it! But-“
“I bought this a week ago.” He interrupts. “My heart belonged to you long before you gave me your body. I want you to wear it and the next time I see Padme, I’ll tell her everything.”
“Really? The next time?” You ask incredulously. You’d expected this to drag on for a lot longer.
“First thing in the morning, angel.” He reassured you soothingly and you melted into his arms.
“Okay, help me put it on.” You tittered excitedly as he clipped the necklace in place, the delicate pendant lingering over your collarbones.
“Thank you. It’s perfect.” You held it in your hand and planted a soft kiss on his lips. Pulling away slightly, you darted between his dreamy eyes and his parted mouth, trying to resist temptation.
Before you could give in first, Anakin gripped your jaw with his hands, pulling you in impossibly close to kiss you deeply. You sucked on his tongue, moaning at the subtle taste of vanilla cake frosting and minty toothpaste.
“No, wait. We shouldn’t.” You proclaim breathily, though you know your empty words were nothing but a pitiful attempt at making you feel like you’d at least tried to abstain.
“Then why does it feel so right?” He silences you by pressing his lips against yours once more, all resistance fading away under his gentle touch.
You squirm under his weight as he climbs on top of you, kissing and sucking his way down to your thighs, which he pins open until the sides of your knees are lying firmly against the bed.
“Can I taste you, sweetheart?” He asks in a hushed tone, rubbing his thumbs against your soft skin.
You nod in response, hoping that on some level not speaking would make this whole thing less sinful. Anakin doesn’t press you for a verbal response, taking no time at all before he pulls your panties off and delves his tongue into your pussy. Your hand flies over your mouth as you slip out a breathy moan, the warm feeling of his mouth enveloping your clit overwhelming you. His nails dig into your fleshy hips and his grip around your thighs strengthens- swollen veins protruding through his forearms as the adrenaline courses through his blood.
You whimper into your heart-shaped pillow, gnawing at the frills as you feel the tip of Ani’s tongue working circles into your sensitive bud.
“You taste so good, baby.” He raises his head and you take in the sight before you: lips parted, wetness dribbling down his mouth and half-lidded eyes glaring at you lustily. “I can’t wait angel, ‘m sorry.” He mumbles, getting on his knees and dragging you down by the legs. He doesn’t bother removing his plaid pyjama bottoms, simply pulling them down and letting his cock spring up over the waistband, achingly hard. You can practically see it throbbing, the tip a glistening dark pink.
“Can I? Please, baby.” He whines, rubbing his tip along your soaked folds. You nod once again but he seems unsatisfied.
“Talk.” He demands simply. “It still counts as fucking even if you didn’t say a word.”
You frown at him, not appreciating how he just burst your bubble.
“Fine.” You huff and he raises an eyebrow.
“Are you giving me attitude?” He comes closer, tip kissing your entrance. “‘cus now would be the wrong time to do that.” He hisses and slides right in, filling you up all at once and giving you no time to adjust to his size. You mewl and writhe beneath him, gripping the sheets as he puts all his body weight on you and covers his hand firmly over your mouth.
“Do you want her to hear us? Shut up and take it.” He spits venomously as he gives you deep and slow thrusts, his cock reaching all the way up to your guts. You moan helplessly as he holds you in a near headlock, silenced with his strong arms and legs pinned wide open to make way for him. Your legs tremble as your pussy greedily accepts his length, squeezing it with its plush walls.
“Slutty little pussy, ’s gripping me so tight.” He grins against your neck. You’re not sure what it was about sex that brought out such a dominant and mean side to Anakin- but you weren’t complaining. The sound of arousal filled the room, your wet slickness gushing against him as his balls slapped against your ass. Hearing the lewd sounds, he slowed down a little, cautiously guiding his cock into you in such a way that would elicit the least amount of noise.
Just as you fell into an entrancingly good rhythm, a knock was heard at the door.
“Hey, you sleeping? Anakin’s gone somewhere.” Padme’s sleepy voice reverberates through the door.
You look to Anakin for guidance with an expression of panic but he looks completely calm- doing nothing besides slowly removing his hand away from your mouth, still sheathed in you. You consider not replying and pretending you’re asleep but quickly realise the light of the lamp shining under your doorway is a dead giveaway.
“Um, I’ve just gone to sleep now.” You answered with bated breath, wondering why Anakin hadn’t pulled out yet. “Has he really? Dunno where he could’ve gone.”
As if this exchange wasn’t challenging enough, Anakin begins fucking into you again, a wild smirk plastered on his face as he thrusts in and out.
“Ugh can I come in?” She whines, no doubt wanting to rant about her failing relationship. The hunk on top of you reaches down and starts rubbing your clit, staring into you with great amusement as you unsuccessfully attempt to bat him off.
“Uh- um, no Padme I’m sleeping, ah we’ll talk tomorrow!” You tremble, hoping your words didn’t come out too shaky.
“What are you doing in there? Are you okay?” Suddenly the door swings wide open and Padme walks in on the sight of her boyfriend on top of her best friend. You only catch a glimpse of her face for a moment- a screwed up expression of horror and disgust- before she turns around and reaches for the vase on top of your chest of drawers. Anticipating her reaction, Anakin towers over you protectively as Padme hurls the glass vase in your direction- the water spraying over you both as it flies over the bed, smashing into a million tiny pieces against the wall.
“You fucking whore!” She screams. “And you! You jerk! How could you fuck my best friend?!” Anakin throws an unphased glance her way for a moment before turning his gaze towards you, brushing his hand against your face gently and locking your lips in a soft kiss. The look of adoration he gives you, ignoring Padme completely, reassures you that you are the only one worth his attention.
“Oh, I’m gonna be fucking sick.” She splutters as she walks out of the room, slamming the door shut and mumbling curses to herself.
“Ani, get off! I need to go talk to-“
“You don’t need to do anything other than be in this moment right now, with me.” He pins you down by the wrists and glares at you, pushing in until the very base of his cock is flush against you. You want to fight him, to get up and chase after your friend but the pleasure has made your legs numb.
“You can leave when I’ve made you cum.” He rasps, resuming his heavy thrusts and you can’t do anything other than cry out his name- no point being quiet now that she knows, right?
“That’s it baby, let everyone know who you belong to.” He moans, brows upturning and mouth parted. He looked so pretty like this, damp curls brushing against his forehead and plump lips formed into an inviting o shape. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head and your throat ran dry as you felt the tip of his smooth cock gliding roughly against that spot that drove you crazy.
“Fuck Ani, ‘m gonna -“ The words flew out your mouth as your release took you by surprise, seizing your whole body in ecstasy and eliciting a torrent of guttural moans from your pretty lips. He buried his face into your chest, groaning against your bare tits as he joined you in cumming, painting your walls with his seed.
Ani was nothing if not a man of his word- so he rolled off you straight after, freeing you to leave.
“I would advise against what you’re about to do.” He speaks calmly, covering his lower half in your sheets and stretching his toned arms out before placing them beneath his head.
You ignore his comment, throwing on a bathrobe and leaving the room to see Padme- furiously stuffing articles of clothing into various bags. A nauseating fear overcomes you when you realise you have nothing to say to her.
“Don’t.” She snaps, noticing your lingering presence. “Don’t even come near me. You are dead to me.” You twiddle your thumbs standing in the doorway of her room, not sure what you were expecting.
“I’m sorry Padme, I really am. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” You mumble, barely above a whisper.
“You didn’t mean to slip and fall on his cock?” She has angry tears pouring frantically down her round face. “That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that happens by accident.
“I meant I didn’t mean to hurt you.” You clarify gently.
“Well, you did. Oh my God, I can see his cum pouring down your leg.” She points in disgust and you cross your legs. “Is that what I saw earlier? I thought you spilt water or something, God I’m so stupid.”
“No, you’re not, this is all-“
“You’re right. This is all your fault, you dumb fucking slut. You’re nothing but a brainless whore.”
“That’s enough.” Anakin emerges, dressed in nothing but his boxers, a thin veil of glowing sweat coating his toned abdomen. “This was all my fault. If you have anything to say, you say it to me.” You cower behind him, thankful for his protective presence.
“Oh, I have plenty to say.” She barges past you both, carrying her bags out into the hallway. “A year’s relationship thrown away for a quick fuck. With that skank.”
“Don’t call her that.” He gruffly responds and you can’t help but think he’s being harsh.
“Spare me. What are you, her guard dog?” She scoffs, tears dried and replaced with a scornful bitterness. “You’re going to regret this. When the novelty wears off and you realise she means nothing to you, you’re going to come crawling back.”
“That’s highly unlikely.” He looks unperturbed, amused even - strangely nonchalant over the dramatic events unfurling before him.
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” She jibes, throwing her coat on and getting ready to launch another venomous attack your way when she’s interrupted.
“I love her.” Anakin states simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“You what?” Padme stops dead in her tracks, looking aghast.
“You what?” You parrot softly and he turns to face you, tenderly taking your face into his gentle hands.
“I love you.” He repeats, not an ounce of shame or regret in his words.
“I-I love you too, Ani.” You grab onto his wrists and gaze into his eyes with an adoring vulnerability.
“Rot in hell, you crazy motherfuckers.” Padme peels her eyes off the appalling sight before her, grabbing her bags and leaving the apartment with a thunderous slam of the bolted door.
You watch her leave with a troubled countenance painted across your face- but Ani never takes his eyes off you.
“I guess it’s just us now.” He smiles peacefully and you feel all your worries melt away.
“I guess it is.” You smile back, wrapping your arms around his strong neck and joining your lips in a passionate, cathartic kiss.
It’s not that you didn’t like Padme, nor that you were the kind of woman to choose a man over her friends. It was just him. You couldn’t help it- from this day forward you knew you would always pick Ani over anything else in this universe. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was your soulmate.
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@crazy4hotmen @erinkeifer @mortalheartache @arzua10 @mugwump327
Part 1 here
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libraryofgage · 1 year
Text
@holyangelstudentuniverse requested the following: Steve working at Bath & Body Works while Eddie is the mall pianist?
I love it omfg, your brain is fantastic I hope I did the idea justice
(if you see any typos no you didn't <3)
The old food court pianist was...okay. Technically, she was good; she knew how to play and rarely made mistakes. She was also clearly just there for the bi-weekly check (not that Steve can blame her), and her playing reflected that. The piano became the ideal white noise, loud enough to lessen the awkwardness of any silence but not so amazing that people couldn't ignore it in favor of conversing with each other.
The new food court pianist? He's a fucking enigma.
He's very clearly skilled, and he seems to actually enjoy the job. He plays like Billy Joel and Elton John met one night, had a piano contest, and then had a baby to create the perfect pianist. He's great and energetic and can play anything from Mozart to fucking Cardi B, and Steve wishes he'd quit already so he can actually focus on his own shitty mall job instead of getting absorbed in the guy's playing.
"You should just hook up with him," Robin says one day, hip-checking Steve as she passes by with a box of Cherry Blossom products. She restocks the soap bottles first, then the perfume, then the lotions, and finally the tiny hand sanitizers with their shitty little plastic flip-caps that Steve swears break for the fucking fun of it.
Steve, meanwhile, is replacing last week's sales signs with new ones. They're the exact same. They rarely change, actually. The only difference is the "expiration" date at the bottom, which changes if only to continually sell customers that sense of urgency that results in them buying $50 worth of products they'll forget about until the holidays come around and they need white elephant gifts.
He's almost done, too. All that's left are the signs by the metal gate pulled down over the store's entrance. They'll open it in about an hour to prepare for the mall's opening, but for now, it's staying down to discourage the mini-bodega clerk in the middle of the hall from flirting with Robin and trying to sell her shitty perfume like she can't just steal shitty perfume from Bed Bath and Beyond at the end of the day.
He waits until after he's switched the sign to turn around, arms crossed over his chest. His back is to the gate, and Steve would normally be too fucking paranoid about a blind spot to withstand it, but he's in argument mode.
"I barely know the guy," he says.
Robin snorts as she crouches, stocking extra hand sanitizers in the tiny drawers at the bottom of the shelf. "Yeah, but I know you, dingus," she says, her voice light and bouncing. "You hear the guy's muzak version of a Lil Nas X song and you're ready to marry the guy."
"I can just recognize artistic ability! Have you ever tried to make a pop song sound like a classic?" he asks.
"My point," Robin says, pushing some hair out of her face, "is that you should ask him out. Maybe you two can play piano together."
If she hadn't already heard it before, Steve would be immediately launching into an explanation of why that wouldn't work. Steve has never met someone he liked or trusted enough to actually play with them. Sure, he's tried playing with a partner before if only to say he gave it a shot, but it sucks. Especially when you don't like the person. You're squished together on an uncomfortable bench, sharing sheet music, elbows bumping as you both try to reach the proper keys to keep the song from sounding horrendous. It's Steve's personal version of hell on earth.
But Robin has heard that rant before, so Steve graciously spares her from hearing it again. For now. Until he's drunk, probably.
"What, I'm just gonna waltz up to the piano and ask if he's free on Saturday? Or, I don't know, try some dumb pick-up line like asking if he comes here often?"
"I'll be honest, it's not the worst pick-up line I've heard."
Steve and Robin jump, both whipping their head to look at the grate to see the food court pianist grinning at them (well, more specifically, he's grinning at Steve) from the other side. He's wearing a button-down black shirt with ripped skinny jeans, old Converse, and more accessories than Steve can count. There are chains on his jeans and a guitar pick hanging from his neck and an ear cuff and a stud through the edge of his eyebrow and so many chunky rings that Steve could use as an excuse to stare at his hands for an hour.
Robin is the one who breaks out of the shock first. She jumps to her feet and walks over to Steve, resting her arm on his shoulder and leaning against him. "But would it work?" she asks.
The guy grins wider, obviously looking Steve up and down to check him out before looking at Robin. "From Stevie here? Yeah. He's really rocking the apron," Eddie replies, winking at Steve.
Steve is about to ask how the guy knows his name, but then he remembers the name badge on his apron. He clears his throat, tearing his eyes away to glance down at Robin.
She seems to be having the time of her life right now.
"Well, uh, I'd prefer to know your name before trying any pickup lines," he says.
"Eddie Munson at your service," Eddie says, bowing to Steve with a dramatic flourish that he finds more endearing than anything else.
One look at Robin and her scrunched nose tells him she thinks it's a little over-the-top and, dare he say, cringe. Her opinion doesn't actually matter, though, since she'd be down bad for any girl that curtseyed at her.
Steve looks back at Eddie, noting the now expectant gleam in his eyes. He can't help an amused smile as he says, "Well then, Eddie," Steve says, stressing his name a little just for the fun of it, "come here often?"
Robin groans next to him. "Fucking hell, Steve," she mutters, slapping him upside the head. "I know you suck at flirting but you really couldn't come up with something better?"
"No, no," Eddie tells her, waving his hand dismissively. "I'm into it."
"And I'm out of it," Robin says, raising her hands in surrender before scurrying back to her Cherry Blossom products.
She's definitely still listening, though.
Steve rolls his eyes are her reaction and focuses back on Eddie. "So, uh, are you free on Saturday?" he asks.
"Completely free," Eddie says, taking a step closer to the gate and shoving his hands into his pockets. "How about lunch?"
"Yeah, I know a great pizza place."
"It's a date then," Eddie replies, winking at Steve. "By the way, any song requests?"
Steve blinks and thinks for a minute before asking, "Do you know Vienna?"
Eddie's grin tells Steve that he does, in fact, know Vienna. "Vienna it is." With that, he winks at Steve once more before heading back to the food court.
"That was painful," Robin says once he's far away enough.
Steve rolls his eyes and flips her off. "You're just jealous I've got a date and you're still too chicken shit to approach the Nike girl."
Robin practically squawks at him. "Oh, fuck you," she says.
"I'll leave that to Eddie, thanks," Steve says, laughing when Robin gags.
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peachsukii · 1 month
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Hihi, Peach!
I totally don't know if you're even taking asks, and you can ignore this if I you need to but! I had such a horrible, terrible day and I was hoping you could write something small to make me feel better about everything.. 😅
So, seven hours ago, I was a bright blonde but I needed a touch up so I went into the salon and payed 100 dollars for some upkeep.. I sat patiently for nearly six and a half hours, only to turn out with white/bleachy ashy roots and dark brown hair...... So not what I wanted! I sobbed in that stylists chair until my hair dryer and she just brushed ut off. Everyone has been telling me that it looks fine but compared ro the bright, beachy blonde that I came in with, I feel blatantly ugly now.. ☹️
Could you maybe write a super quick drabble or something about how Bakugo would try to comfort? If not, I totally get it! I adore your work so much.
Have the best day, lovely! 💕💕
Awww I'm so sorry to hear that :( There's nothing worse than getting the opposite of what you want, and paid for, done! I hope you don't mind that I use this little prompt for a Softie Sunday piece. <3
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₊✩‧₊ ⎯  picture perfect 『 ♡ Bakugo x reader 』
content // age 22, fluff. reader & bakugo live together, he dyes your hair for you. :) 『 #reis softie sundays + softie sundays archive 』
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Bakugo's sitting on the couch of your shared apartment, invested in his book while the TV buzzes in the background. He hears your key turn in the door and peaks over the pages toward the foyer, patiently waiting for you to reveal your new hair. You've been gone for over half the day - he assumed you'd be a few hours, but not...all day. Maybe you went with something completely different than usual?
When the door opens, you scuttle inside with your head hung low, a baseball cap covering your hair. Bakugo could somewhat see your hair sticking out from underneath. Why the hell were you hiding it?
"Didn't ya just get your hair done?" he calls from the living room. "What's with the hat?"
"I don't wanna talk about it," you say quietly, taking off your shoes and retreating to the bedroom. Without hesitation, Bakugo tosses his book onto the cushion and quickly perks up to follow you back to your joint bedroom. He leans on the doorframe, curiously watching you pace back and forth in front of the mirror.
"Somethin' wrong?" he asks, arms crossed over his chest. You slowly reach up to take off your hat, untucking your hair and letting it fall naturally.
"I hate my hair."
Bakugo gives you a once over, confused as to why you'd be upset. "S'nice. You're always pretty to me, sweetheart. What's wrong with it?"
"Over six hours and it came out the opposite of what I wanted. They stripped out my blonde color and replaced it with...this." You pull a strand of hair forward as example, showing off the new brownish color.
"I could fix it for ya," he proposes while walking over to you, fluffing your hair gently in his hands. "Used'ta bleach Red's hair for him back in school."
You sniffle and lean against his shoulder. "I'd like that."
He never ceases to surprise you.
Within the hour, Bakugo's back home with all the needed materials to fix your hair - toner, bleach, and gloss. Over the next few hours, he's tending to your hair to help bring it back to what you wanted, extremely focused on doing a perfect job. By the time you're all finished, it's way past his normal bedtime. You can tell by the look in his eyes that he's exhausted, but you're his number one priority - sleep can wait until Bakugo knows you're happy.
Once he's done drying your hair, he brushes it out for you before letting you look in the mirror, admiring his work. For an at home job, it's not half bad. He spins you around and playfully pushes you toward the bathroom mirror, smirking proudly when he catches your initial reaction.
"Wha'cha think?"
You're in awe. How the hell did he do this?!
"Katsuki...it's perfect!" you exclaim while flipping your hair around to see the subtle dimension of color shifting. "Exactly what I wanted. Thank you!"
He hugs you from behind and leaves a soft kiss on your cheek.
"Ya look gorgeous no matter what," he reminds you as he squeezes you tightly. "But I gotta say, I did a damn good job. Now let's get'ta bed already, I'm beat."
When you wake up the next morning, Bakugo compliments your appearance a multitude of times while the two of you are getting ready for work, reminding you just how beautiful you are to him in any light.
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I hope this made you smile! <3
all tags; @kirishimaeijiromyman @strwbrrykthv @slayfics
@maddietries @starieqq @liluvtojineteyam
@jays-adventure3 @simp-plague @napbatata @queenpiranhadon
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ronearoundblindly · 4 months
Text
Time and Tines (2/3)
Reasons (see previous or series)
Steve Rogers x Villain!Reader
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Summary: With the Winter Soldier on your side, Steve races against time to figure out why...and how to stop you.
Warnings for basically DARKFIC: talk of unspecified terminal illness, medical malpractice, gaslighting, revenge, gun violence, not overly graphic death but still death (not of Reader, Steve, or Bucky), and decidedly too-little editing. MINORS DNI. There's plenty for you to read on my Light Masterlist, but this isn't for you! WC 5242 (which is, yeah, way longer than it was supposed to be)
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Steve will do anything to avoid a fire fight with the Winter Soldier. There are too many people involved now, and he has to approach this situation delicately from all angles.
Steve just does not understand yet.
After hours waiting with agents in the dark of Doctor Avani’s house, convinced you’ve ordered Bucky to come right over and kill the man with brute force, nothing happened. There was no sign of anyone. Steve has to try something else.
A small army protects Salvatore while he searches your apartment. If the key to activating his friend is here, he needs to find it, destroy that information, and get a handle on why this is happening.
“This can’t be right,” Steve mutters, pushing past Agent Palmer (who drove) for a better look. “It’s too clean.”
Your one-bedroom would pass a white-glove test.
There’s so little…everything. It’s a far cry from the chaos Steve woke to find in the police station. His head throbs at the memory. He forgot what it was like to have his bell good’n’rung.
“Supe says she’s been selling off furniture,” Palmer calls from the doorway, “but he thought it was replaced. Boxes kept coming.”
Steve inventories a mattress with no frame, half a dozen hanging garments, no shoes. What were you buying? Where did it all go?
The desktop is bare. You’ve taken any laptop with you, it seems. That’s a small comfort. You clearly planned contingencies for your attack andor escape; it’s fitting you had the foresight to hide your research on the Winter Soldier.
Steve is still scared, however, because he sat with Bucky many times, listening to horrible tales of being trapped in his own mind, powerless, isolated in the midst of everyone, unable to control thoughts much less actions.
This one’s gonna take a few more beers for the friends to contend with, but with any luck and quick work, they’ll get through without bloodshed. He and Bucky will decompress somewhere peaceful. It’ll be okay.
He hopes.
Steve scans the lone bookshelf. The most curious edition is a history book about WWII, a few flagged pages open to reveal passages about Bucky’s service record, an underline beneath the location where the sergeant fell from the train, and a mail receipt for an address on Forsythe Avenue keeping your page. That’s all.
It’s not even a unique read. The book isn’t any more specific than an average school text. No other notes are made in the margins, so Steve turns the book upside-down and shakes, hoping for something to fall out. He rips the other books from the shelf and shuffles their pages until a picture comes loose—a polaroid of three women.
You’re on the right, fuller faced but it’s you. On the back is scrawled “the girls” with hearts on either side.
The book is handwritten, no label on the cover or spine, only an embossed mandala design. Steve’s stomach drops, but he opens to the front flap.
Property of Faith Williams
He swallows roughly and closes it, unable to step over that line of privacy. At the moment, he needs evidence of where you could have taken Bucky, and slow-reading someone else’s diary won’t give him that.
Forsythe Avenue might, but that’s just one tiny piece of the puzzle. 
Steve checks a different unlabeled book, but it, too, doesn’t have your name inside, just a ‘Z’ fancifully drawn amidst doodles.
Damnit. This is no help.
“Palmer, you finding anything?”
“No, Cap. Bills all paid. Nothing under the mattress. No mention of Barnes on any papers in the drawers. Not even a Cyrillic symbol.”
No trace, just like how you two disappeared from surveillance.
Steve shuts his eyes, head still throbbing from how hard the Soldier landed a blow to knock him out.
The agent wanders through the tiny kitchen. “Fridge is empty. Doesn’t look like she intended to come back here…if…actually, it looks like she barely ate. No condiments, no spices, nothing.”
“How long has she rented here?”
“Over two years.”
Shit. This is a dead end.
“Keep looking,” Steve orders, but he takes the two journals and heads for the car, pulling up your thin file again. You don’t hold any clearances or a government footprint. You were let go of from your last job with a severance package. Nothing overly generous. No medical leave mentioned. Benefits, including health insurance, would be intact. Based on your appearance earlier versus you in the photo, Steve chews on a few wisps of theories, but it’s not solid proof. Without more, Steve has no leads.
“Friday, any connection to properties on Forsythe?”
He adjusts to get comfortable in the back seat of the SUV alone, firing up a view screen.
There’s a low, sad sound that means the AI found nothing in your records.
"For her or him?"
Womp womp, it comes again.
Steve lets out a tense breath, “Where are we with bank statements?”
“Authorizations just came back,” F.R.I.D.A.Y chirps.
“What about medical records?”
“That one’s a lot harder, Captain Rogers. We have to—“
“Just analyze the financials first,” Steve sighs. His head throbs again, and he knows he needs sleep. There’s no time though. If he could just get answers…
Protections exist, of course, for good reason, but Steve feels the frustration of any detective. He’s trying to find a bad guy, and by 'bad guy,' he means you, not the man you’ve taken, not the man you are certainly going to order to kill for you.
Steve rests his head on the chilly glass and pinches his eyes shut. He’ll take a minute, review the money trail, and then interview the doctor. It seems a miracle that man was able to go home to his wife and sleep, even with security inside the room, down every hall, surrounding the house…Steve wouldn’t do it; he can’t even keep his eyes closed long enough for the dry sting to subside.
How could he be so stupid?
You weren’t staring at him from across the room; you were watching your mark, waiting for an opening. Sadly, it occurs to Steve that if he’d just let you inject Avani, Bucky would be fine, here by his side, and safe.
You are the threat, not his friend, but that’s a hard distinction. If anyone else sees James Barnes—who is the stealth assassin Winter Soldier, as far as they know—they’ll shoot. No questions. Steve has to find him first. He has to get to you first.
Bucky is compromised, but Steve won’t let it come to that. Buck shouldn't do anything he doesn't want to do just because some enemy hijacked his mind and body.
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“Feel better?” You twirl in the chair as soon as the motel bathroom door opens, steam billowing out.
Winter’s face is shadowed, pointed to the floor.
“Or…at least, okay? Here—“ you offer the seat next to you at the tiny table “—sit. Eat. Let me—I’ve got bandages for your knuckles.”
“Heals,” he grunts, sitting easily but with stiff posture, “fast.”
You let out a heavy breath, muttering, “makes one of us.”
The soldier reaches out for the file in front of you, but your hand pins it down.
“Uh-uh. Food first, and palm up here, please.” You wait for him to flip open the takeout container then blot antiseptic on the split skin. “Does that hurt?”
He shakes his head, focused on the meal before him.
Several months ago, an article was published about Bucky Barnes’ affinity for this one particular deli in Brooklyn, a third-generation shop. It listed his usual order.
You’ve made sure the bread isn’t soggy. You kept the spicy mustard on the side.
He makes a strange face, looking around for your portion.
“Not hungry,” you assure him, “I’m rarely hungry.” You secure the bandage like boxing wraps and spin the file around.
“Eat your food—” The command is soft, encouraging. “—while I tell you the story of how we ended up here.”
Buried in the file you’ve put in front of the Soldier is several lifetimes of horror. Maybe not everyone agrees with you, maybe not everyone cares, but that bastard Avani has to atone. For the next hour, you explain what’s expected of him, glancing every so often at the fancier hotel entrance across the street from your motel room.
It’s too early; you’d be very impressed if the Captain had followed those bread crumbs yet.
You planned so carefully for every obstacle. You anticipated so many setbacks. Men like Avani go down like great stone pyramids, not houses of cards, because their lives are built with safeties.  For him to fall, a thousand others have to be damaged, and each one of them will put up a fight to remain untarnished. That approach—the truth, and nothing but the truth—has gotten you nowhere. Diaries aren’t enough proof. The placebo effect is not a crime. Two women are worth far less than a functional, marketable drug.
Plus, they’re two dead women. The pyramid is now their tomb. Nothing ever changes.
No.
You alone cannot topple a pyramid. You’re too far gone. You’re just one person. For justice, you have to go straight to the top, to the man himself. One on one.
Well, one on one-plus-one. Your addition is the sharp-shooter who can get you the top, the target, Doctor Avani.
Winter’s mission is very simple, but he’s thorough, asking all the right questions, thinking of all the right options. You knew he would be perfect.
“Now,” you clap at the end of your story, rubbing boney hands together, “a rundown of my meds. Sound good?” You grab a zippered case from the foot of the motel bed. “Nothing complicated, but here—“ nudging out a syringe and one glass vial “—this is the emergency one. Use 10 milliliters of this if I pass out. Got it?”
The Soldier takes an enormous mouthful of his sandwich and nods, eyes flickering back to that single bed.
You smile sadly. “I…rarely sleep. I’m keeping watch for now. You’re safe. You’ll need the rest.”
He chews and adds more mustard before his last bite.
“Okay? Good.” Your smile fades, fatigue and restlessness swirling in your empty gut as you remove another medication. “Next is this one. Every four hours, twent—wait, no, I’m up to thirty CCs now…”
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“Sir,” Steve grits out with far less patience than he intended, pinching the bridge of his nose as if it will stop the throbbing inside his head, “you realize I am trying to save your life?”
Dr. Avani purses his lips in annoyance. “And you realize I am required to keep my patients’ confidence, right?”
Yes, Steve thinks, he’s said that several times.
“Are they current or former patients?” Steve tries to clarify.
So far, Salvatore slipped up only once. When Steve showed him the photo from your apartment, the doctor muttered something about ‘Faith’ and ‘Ziva’ knowing each other, looking confused, then immediately shut down.
Steve has to switch tactics. He doesn’t have time for this.
“Ok. We found over a dozen hotel reservations made with your assailant’s credit card, so look at this list—” Steve taps the smart screen to lay out a map with the names highlighted “—and see if anything stands out.”
“What have this crazy woman’s travel plans to do with me?” Avani bites out, rattling the tea his wife hands him.
A tremor. Not unlike how your hands shook at the table last night. Steve wonders if yours was because you are ill or because you were lying to him.
“Darling, your blood pressure…”
Steve sighs sympathetically to Mrs. Avani. “Thank you, ma’am,” he whispers, taking the next cup and saucer and clearing his throat. “Doc, please. I’m just hoping you can narrow this down for me. We still have no motive.”
“Insanity. Jealousy, maybe!”
“Jealous of what? Do you know what she might want?”
No answer, but Avani chews his cheek, eyes wide, while staring northwest on the map of hotels. Steve files that away in his mind.
The doctor returns to sipping his tea. “Do you know what they call people obsessed with finding patterns in chaos?”
His wife drops the plate of biscuits unceremoniously down on the side table between the men’s chairs.
“Salvatore,” she snips with the same frustrated fatigue wrapped around Steve’s neck like an albatross, “behave.”
“No. None of these are familiar,” the doctor grunts.
Steve can’t accuse the man of lying unless he wants to risk an all-out breakdown in communication during this active threat, but he’s running out of options. He needs real information.
Usually Steve would have more respect for a man staying within the parameters of his vocation, but this is a unique and complicated situation. This is Bucky on the line. Steve’s had enough of secrets and red tape.
“Any idea why she’d mail something to Forsyth Avenue? Do you know anyone there?”
“Forsyth Avenue? No, I’ve never been in that area before, as far as I know.” Though Avani wrings his hands together, no indicates that’s a lie.
Wonderful. Steve’s never been this unsuccessful at gathering intel, and Avani’s status as the newly-appointed Avengers’ lead physician makes it tricky to push harder.
So Steve recommends Avani and his wife consider staying in a more secure location before he sets off to personally check the hotels in the northwest quadrant of the map.
He takes Agent Palmer, riding in the SUV while the two diaries sit in his lap, knowing now—as sure as he can be—that ‘Z’ is for Ziva, and she knew you and Faith Williams. Those are ‘the girls’ in the photo.
Without Ziva’s last name, he can’t do a general search, but there is a death certificate on file for Faith.
Three women. One confirmed dead. At least two ‘former’ patients of the doctor. All visibly ill in either the picture or in person. One mourning the loss of person(s) and out to kill the doctor.
The pit in his stomach grows. Something very bad is happening, yet while Steve has anything else to go on, he will not be reading another’s diary.
He can only hope that your medical records are finally available once the hotel searches are complete.
There’s even a possibility he’ll find Bucky at one of these. Maybe he won’t have to concern himself with the rest at all. Maybe he won’t have to think so hard about your motives for activating a Soviet sleeper agent.
Steve does think, however. He thinks hard enough to spiral as each reception desk is questioned, as all security footage is combed, as every building is cleared. He has to make some assumptions to make the pieces fit.
You believe Avani is responsible for your friends’ deaths—both of them, since when Steve interrogated you, you accepted his condolences—and believe their cause of death was whatever treatment Avani administered.
It’s sad, of course, but it happens everyday. Experimental treatments are just that. If you’re concerned about gross negligence, the doctor could easily be reported to the Medical Board. Considering the amount of research, forethought, and planning required, the Winter Soldier is one of the slowest possible solutions to your problem.
But…Bucky was just your contingency plan. You had an opportunity to kill Avani yourself, yet you still set other options in motion. You used a weapon theoretically deadly to only the doctor 
Steve still can’t understand, and it’s driving him nuts.
Finally, after the hotel reservations prove fruitless, Steve sees no other choice. He has to read the diaries.
He combs through the pages, growing nauseous as darker and darker layers of the situation reveal themselves, disturbed by everydetail except updates from the units on Forsyth Avenue or those stationed at the doctor’s house. Nothing is unfolding save the landscape in Steve’s mind.
He asks F.R.I.D.A.Y about the disease Faith and Ziva mention. He asks about the public records of the drug trial Avani lead and its results published just six months ago, after the last entries of the diaries. He notices the treatment was a huge success…for those not in the control group. Finally, he can’t continue.
His head pounds while his stomach churns.
In the early afternoon, Steve lays down to rest his eyes and reevaluate, but he’s met with only a blank  canvas and drifts to sleep instead.
He’s woken by a shrill ring of his phone.
“Yeah, Palmer, what’s—what? What do you mean he’s gone?” Steve jumps up, straps on his shield, and races to his bike. “The hell were you thinking letting him make a house call today? Where did agents—“
Steve’s foot slips right off bike for an instant.
“Avani led the driver to some suburban neighborhood. Forsythia Commons.”
It dawns of him just as the garage door squeals open.
Steve never showed Palmer the receipt. No one else saw the numbers to the address. Steve’s rattled brain finished the label with a street name he knew.
He was wrong.
Including battles in Germany way back in the day, he has rarely driven so recklessly, but Steve is nearly a half-hour behind now. He has to catch up.
Palmer tells him Avani went into the residence alone—for patient confidentiality—and after a while, agents couldn’t get an answer at the door. Upon forced entry, they found the woman who lived there bound to a chair with tape over her mouth and the doctor nowhere in sight.
Steve gets lucky.
On his way to exit the freeway, he notices a hole in the noise barrier wall past a slope of grass. He pulls over and asks Palmer what the backyard of the residence leads to, but Steve can hear the reverb of agent comms before anyone is visible through the brush.
“Friday, I need traffic camera footage from my location from thirty-five minutes ago. Were there any vehicles stopped on the side of the road?”
“Yes, Captain Rogers. A standard maintenance truck with the department’s logo shows up and leaves seven minutes later, based on ten second intervals.”
“The license plate, can you read it?”
“Quality insufficient.”
“The highway department, do they have any registered cars out here today?”
A long pause follows.
“Friday?” Steve barks.
“Negative, Captain. Inspection is slotted for the end of next week, not today.”
“Alright, follow that truck on the cameras. Tell me exactly where they went.”
He doesn’t bother to tell Palmer where he’s going because Steve doesn’t want them to know really. He needs a head start to find Bucky—to make sure it’s Bucky who is found and rescued, not the Soldier who is cornered and subdued.
The trail ends at a dilapidated office park near the river miles outside of the city. With his own, short fingernail, Steve peels away the Highway Department magnet slapped onto the white truck parked by one building.
Nobody else is in sight, and the truck cab is empty.
Across the nearest door is sun-shriveled lettering. “-alv—re Ava—, M.D” marks the third name in a list.
Steve doesn’t hesitate. He can’t. He walks right in, eyes adjusting to a cave-like darkness without electricity.
The voices are faint behind another set of double doors, but he hears them.
“I don’t owe you anything, bitch. I hope you die like they did.”
There’s a sharp slapping noise and someone spits loudly.
“Admit it. Admit what you did and you won’t die today.”
You don’t beg him to talk. You don’t plead with him. You sound weak but sure.
“Rot in hell,” Avani annunciates, and Steve flings himself through the doors, knowing what comes after such a taunt.
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You give him every opportunity to come clean. He could save himself, but Avani refuses while the camera records behind you. He calls you names. He calls your friends worthless. He says they were ’whores,’ but you will still send him back to the correct authorities if he tells the truth.
He doesn’t, he won’t, and you’re honestly pleased this is how it ends.
You don’t have a choice really; you must honor Faith and Ziva somehow.
Instead of the truth, Avani curses you, though not much could be worse than your current fate, even with Winter standing a few feet away, his gun drawn.
You have readied the syringe in your unstable hand and lift it to the doctor’s throat when—crash—Captain America bursts in and scans the whole room.
“Don’t do it,” he tries plainly. “You don’t have to kill him.”
You’re impressed. That’s faster than you expected, but Steve is looking at his friend to stop, not you.
“Shoot him, you idiot,” the doctor snarls.
As if Winter thinks the order somehow applied to him, he turns toward an open palm and a raised shield.
“SHOOT HIM!”
Winter doesn’t move the gun away from you and Avani.
Steve steps closer. “Bucky,” he starts slowly, “I’m not going to do that. I’m not here to hurt you. No one has to die.”
You need to buy more time.
“Soldat, show him.”
Only then does Winter lower his pistol and reach into a pocket at his chest, revealing the tuning fork that controls his own mind. Doing this will forfeit your exit strategy, but you’ll accomplish you mission. Winter’s mission is now secondary.
Steve’s eyes flicker from the fork to you.
After a tense breath, you give the command, confident the soldier will obey, locking your focus on Steve.
“Fetch.”
Winter sprints to the other end of the room and explodes through a wall and then a window to the lawn banking the river.
Cap makes a choice, his sad blue eyes full of pity, and it’s then you realize he knows.
He read the diaries. He understands what Avani did.
Steve bolts after the Soldier.
The doctor shrieks for his Avenger to come back, to protect him from his earned fate, but the hollow thuds of a vibranium arm and a vibranium shield colliding hum through the hole in the building.
The sound of fighting continues as you return the syringe to Avani’s neck.
Enough. Enough excuses. Enough lies. Enough time has been wasted on this man already. Enough is enough.
The end is more peaceful than he deserves. It’s quick and not nearly as painful as it should be. There’s no time left for suffering.
Salvatore convulses after collapsing on the stained industrial carpet, foam gently dripping from his mouth, a symptom of his condition when mixed with a common resuscitative cocktail, one you have to take frequently, one that spiked Steve Rogers’ adrenaline and nothing more. It kills Avani. His heart nearly explodes in his chest.
If there was ever a human that medicine should fail…
You only know he’s susceptible because Ziva knew. Heart conditions and caring for them are the sort of thing one knows about a person they love.
Avani promised to marry her, to leave his wife, to be with her after the drug trial succeeded. He promised she’d live, but he told Ziva she was taking the real medicine, ensured she took the placebo, and then gaslit her until the day she died.
Ziva spent the rest of her life loving a man who would make her happy and healthy, but instead, Avani made her life as short as possible.
He was not even that kind to Faith.
In her own words, Faith wrote how dying scared her, how she begged the doctor for the actual medication, how she offered anything to get it. Avani accepted. Faith did whatever that bastard wanted for months, all the while told she was healing.
Relief never came.
Faith was bedridden when a package arrived for her—a diary willed to her by a friend she’d lost touch with once you three weren’t gathering in the same hospital suite for the old treatments. That’s when she put it together, but Ziva had passed two months prior. Faith lasted only four more days, just long enough to bequeath the two journals to you.
The victory doesn’t feel as euphoric as you expected. You thought somehow you’d know that Ziva and Faith were proud and at peace, but you’re just empty and tired.
You stare down at Adani’s body, unfazed, when the tuning fork slams against a dangling metal doorframe and Cap shuffles through the rubble.
He’s scraped and beaten which isn’t what you ever wanted, just a necessary evil to fight evil. He watches as Barnes walks in from the grass.
“It’s me, punk. You can put that thing down.”
Bucky doesn’t wait for Steve, snatching the prongs right from his hands and tucking it back in his jacket.
There’s a moment where they almost hug before Steve remembers the doctor and rushes to the man at your feet.
“Call for help! I'm starting CPR.”
Barnes simply holds your gaze.
More sad blue eyes. It brings you hope that he will complete his mission.
You step away from the others to make for a cleaner shot, nodding that it’s okay, breathing a rough but weak “please” for emphasis.
“Buck?” Steve looks up as Bucky points his gun at you again. “What are you doing? STOP. It’s over!”
“His mission was never to kill Avani,” you hiss, unable to take your eyes off the perfectly-centered muzzle directly in front of you. “He’s here to kill me.”
“The hell—“ Steve climbs to his feet “—why would you shoot her?”
“I’m not going to jail!”
“You know what they’ll do to her, Steve.”
Both men take one step closer.
“There has to be another way.”
“I did this because it’s the only—“
“—can understand doctors who taking advantage and manipulating their patients better than anyone—“
“Put the gun down!”
“Pull the trigger! It'll be—“
“—told me he could do better than me,” Bucky barks. “Doc said, to my face, that he could make a better me. He wanted to make soldiers, Steve. More soldiers. Avani didn’t give a shit about what was right.”
You jump in. “If you found the diaries, you know what he was capable of.”
“That’s not how this works. We don’t condemn a man from—“
This time you step toward Barnes. “Just do it. Shoot me now.”
Steve lunges to take your wrist in his hand, your limb comically thin and delicate beneath all his enhancements.
“She doesn’t deserve to rot while they sweep this under the rug,” Bucky adds, voice low and serious.
“This is for the best.” You look at Steve now, and something heartbreaking swims in those morose pools, something unspeakable.
His head shakes, dirty, sweaty hair falling in his face. “What if there’s another way?”
“I don’t want to be saved, Cap. Let me go.”
You offer one final, soft smile, and Steve moves just as Bucky pulls the trigger.
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Steve completes his testimony before the panel opposite him. None of the questions are a surprise.
They’ve painted you as completely insane, demented, psychotic, and he can’t argue. What would he tell them? Yeah, but she had kind eyes, so, you know, remember her fondly? No, he can only remain quiet until he has something pertinent to add which is very little. Bucky had far more to offer, and he already spoke.
When Steve steps out of the counsel chambers, Maria Hill is waiting for him.
“Shame she ordered the Soldier to dispose of her body. Took the coward’s way out.”
“You make her sound like a rabid animal that had to be put down,” Steve grit out. 
“No, you’re right,” Hill admits, “but it was lucky she left the sound thing for—”
“Tuning fork,” he snaps, “which I destroyed. No one should have that. No one should even know about it.”
Buck does his best to calm Steve down with a heavy hand on his shoulder. “S’okay, pal. The interrogation footage has been wiped and unless someone with perfect pitch was walking by observation--”
“You know that’s not reassuring, right?”
The two huge men look at each other.
Steve finally mutters, “what about Avani’s widow?”
“All the blackmail sent to his mistress in Forsythia Commons was removed before Gloria even knew Sal was kidnapped, and I think it’s fair to say that lady is so grateful her name wasn’t dragged through the press that she won’t be bothering the wife. Good thing the doctor put her car and house in her name, or legally, this would get ugly.”
“Yes. We’re very lucky he was such a skilled adulterer,” Steve quips dryly. He regrets handing over the diaries for evidence. They weren’t mentioned once in any of the hearings.
Bucky flashes Steve a warning glare that reads, don’t start.
Hill obliviously flips through the folder in her hands, nodding. “All in all, this report amounts to an incredibly long lead-in of ‘use that PTO, boys!’ You earned it.”
“Understatement of the century…and I would know.” Bucky is a much better liar than Steve.
Thank god, they are fleeing to the middle of nowhere indefinitely.
Hill heads back to her office. “We’ll be here when you get back. Keep in touch.”
“No,” Steve counters. “I don’t think I will.”
Bucky and Steve leave in an old truck the next morning. They can’t seem rushed or impatient to get to their destination.
Casually accumulating supplies, Steve loads their bags in the flat bed with space for all repair materials they are likely to need. The cabin needs some work; the guys need to get their hands dirty and live simply for a while.
The team is happy for Steve; it’s been so long since anyone saw him moving forward in life, and, of course, he and Bucky deserve some peace and quiet.
No one else has any idea how hard-won this vacation is.
The drive takes all day because they can’t be in a hurry.
Steve takes pictures at every scenic outlook. Bucky climbs up onto some rock ledges to take selfies which Steve is not into. This earns him being featured as a blurry grump in the background of all of them, purposefully.
Eventually, the GPS-free truck pulls up to the place, a large A-frame style cabin that should be plenty big for two super soldiers.
Parked on the gravel path, Steve is careful not to ding the other car when he swings open his door. As Bucky heaves two duffels from the trunk, he calls out, “got the meds, too” and heads inside. Steve gathers up the remaining bags and trudges over, smelling something hearty and delicious cooking, listening to the tinkling, copper-coin wind chime hanging somewhere above him.
He doesn’t stop looking at his feet until they hit the top of the porch, spotting two smaller bare feet on the welcome mat.
There you are, holding the door open, layered in warm knits, more tired before but better than expected.
“Hey,” Steve breathes finally.
“Hey,” you say, your mouth twisted to hide an excited smile.
“Yes, hello,” Bucky grumbles from the living room. “Now shut the damn door. I’m hungry.”
Steve steps inside.
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[Last Part]
[Main Masterlist; Ko-Fi]
a/n: Sorry this took so long a fucking year! Tags will be in a reblog.
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