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pillow-anime-talk · 5 years ago

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traditional & maternal s/o.

synopsis: You as a beautiful, traditionally dressed and perfectly behaved woman who shows maternal behavior towards your partner’s subordinates.

# tags: headcanons; current relationships; mature!reader; romance; fluff; slice of life; sfw

includes: female reader ft. yukichi fukuzawa, ougai mori & francis scott key fitzgerald {bsd}

— YUKICHI

↘ Fukuzawa is also a traditional man, so when he met you for the first time, he was genuinely delighted with your grace and your way of speaking. Your delicate tone of voice and perception of the world made a huge, positive impression on him. On top of that, you were really beautiful, and your flowery yukata perfectly highlighted your pretty smile, eye color and hair.

↘ You were adults, so your feelings towards each other were slow and mature. However, when you finally got into a relationship, shortly after that, you lived together in a beautiful old minka with a huge engawa, where you loved to relax and talk about his day at work or plans for the future.

↘ You made the most delicious tea in the whole world and you were a great housewife who loved to cook, bake and take care of others. Yukichi was even happier when you brought to home a homeless little kitten with a twisted paw one day. You took care of him together, considering the pet as your first baby.

↘ More than six months after you moved in together, you visited your partner at the Agency for the first time. Fukuzawa talked to you about his subordinates more than once, showed you their photos and always smiled slightly. And when Kyouka – who was wearing traditional Japanese clothes just like you – joined the Armed Detective Agency the man said that you two looked quite similar.

↘ When on that day, you crossed the area of the building and then knocked on the wooden door, you sighed a little, a bit stressful about meeting new people. Shortly thereafter, a tall, blonde-haired boy with a green notebook in his hand appeared on your doorstep and greeted you. You bowed as well, and then with his consent, you entered the office.

↘ “Have you had an appointment on any case, Lady? How can I help you?” Kunikida asked in a polite tone, and you shook your head.

↘ “I came privately. I made some mochi for you, kids.” You responded warmly. Your person immediately interested Ranpo, Atsushi and Dazai. “Ah, I didn’t introduce myself, I’m so sorry. I am Y/N Y/L/N. Nice to meet you all. Also thank you for taking care of our beautiful city.”

↘ “... How did I deserve to meet such a wonderf...” Osamu began with a broad smile, but the newspaper that hit him on the head silenced his happy lips immediately.

↘ “Stop scaring my partner, Dazai.” Fukuzawa walked towards you, standing next to your figure. “Something happened that you came?”

↘ “Oh, no, Yukichi. I just wanted to meet your almost adopted children.” You smiled at everyone in the room. “And I’ve done too much mochi.” You added when you went to one of the desks to lay out the colorful sweets. The members of the Agency were fascinated with you from the first second.

↘ Yosano was really happy to see her President with a woman who was so perfect for him. Kyouka immediately saw her deceased mother in you and held your yukata with each subsequent meeting, following you step by step. Naomi and Kirako loved hearing your stories and always asked you for tasty recipes. Atsushi, Kenji and Ranpo were your little babies to you, while Jun’ichirou was like your eldest son. Kunikida, on the other hand, was terribly ashamed of you, but finally overcame his shyness, stating that you were a wonderful woman and the future wife of his master. Dazai liked you, of course; even though you often scolded him because of his behavior, he still adored you and respected your person very much.

↘ Your beloved was more than pleased to see that you had such a good relation with his subordinates. You even had great contacts with Fukuzawa’s mentor, Mr. Natsume. It all confirmed Yukichi’s thoughts that you were the best woman he could ever meet.

— OUGAI

↘ Mori wasn’t surprised that another woman around him dressed in traditional kimonos and tied her hair in beautiful buns or braids. After all, he had Kouyou under his command, and before that, also had the sweet Kyouka.

↘ However, what got you all his attention is your kindness and dedication to others.

↘ Neither you, nor Ougai, nor even Elise will forget the day when three of you met in the middle of the street and at the same moment a thief ran out of the bank and his hand with the gun was automatically directed towards Elise who standing next to you. You covered her with your own body, fearing that a stranger would hurt her, but luckily nothing like that came, because Mori personally knocked him out and then calmed your terrified thoughts.

↘ He sincerely thanked you, then suggested a walk and a coffee in a nearby bar. Elise held your warm hand all the way and you were literally the first person the girl liked and trusted so quickly. I think she saw the mother in you, though she shouldn’t have thought so, since she was only Mori’s ability.

↘ But now we are here, a few weeks later, when you recognized the girl as your beloved daughter, and at the same time you became the wife of the boss of the Port Mafia, knowing very well what could happen to you.

↘ But even that, your relationship was really nice and warm; the man finally had someone to come back to, he had someone to talk to about something more than just work, he could cuddle someone and watch a movie or cook a delicious dinner together. Additionally, Elise could finally feel like a real, normal girl and could protect someone more than her own creator. They were both sincerely in love with you, albeit on different levels of this feeling.

↘ Your meeting the rest of the Mafia members was totally unplanned, because one afternoon your beloved husband called you to ask for important documents that he left in a locker, in his office, in your shared small apartment. Of course, you agreed to bring them to him, and on the way to the building you also went to the bakery to buy him and the cute girl something sweet to eat; you chose tiny fruit tarts and a few donuts.

↘ Ten minutes later, you entered the huge building very calmly, looking around to find an elevator or stairs. When you moved another few steps, you immediately stopped when the figure of blonde-haired Elise with a huge syringe appeared in front of you, and a black-haired – unknown to you – boy was thrown hard against the nearest wall.

↘ “Akutagawa senpai!”

↘ Your eyes widened when Elise hugged your stomach, covered by flowery, long yukata. You were still looking at the boy lying next to the white wall, who a second ago wanted to overpower you, probably considering you a threat from outside. You understood it perfectly well, after all, the Mafia had many enemies.

↘ “... Don’t touch my okaa-san!” The girl screamed, squeezing your body a little tighter. You touched her smol head, stroking the blonde locks, and smiled warmly.

↘ “Elise, my honey, you shouldn’t treat others like that, okay?” You asked softly, to which the girl nodded uncertainly. The security staff next to you, as well as Akutagawa and Higuchi, were shocked by Elise’s polite behavior towards your person. Who were you? “Where’s Ougai, my honey?”

↘ “He’ll be here soon. I was faster than him because I sensed you entering the building. I just wanted to say hi.” She replied with a blush and you laughed softly. “It’s for me?” She asked suddenly, pointing her finger at a paper bag with the smell of icing and kiwi. You nodded and handed her the brown bag full of sweets, then headed towards the still-lying boy and woman with the two guns in her hands.

↘ “Are you okay? I’m so sorry to cause the confusion, I didn’t want to look suspicious.” You whispered, stroking his head while guessing that the Mafia man in front of you is quite young. “Does something hurt you?”

↘ “... Oh, Y/N-chan, what happened?” Finally Ougai came downstairs and you smiled once again.

↘ “There was a little misunderstanding, but it’s okay now.” You answered softly, patting the twenty-year-old’s dark hair one more time. Ryuunosuke found your touch really soothing.

↘ “B-Boss...! Excuse m-me, but...!”

↘ “Hmm. I guess, all of you have already met my lovely wife?” He asked rhetorically, walking up to you, helping you to get up and kissing your forehead. “Be nice to her, otherwise you know what awaits you.”

↘ Akutagawa and Higuchi nodded slowly, swallowing the saliva in their mouths. The boy was really glad that day that Elise had stopped him, because it could end up really... bad.

↘ Needless to say, you gradually got to know more and more people and every member of the Port Mafia liked you; you were especially close to Kouyou, Gin and Yumeno, who became another baby to love for you. And also, despite the first meeting, Akutagawa adored you very very very much. You spoiled him as much as your daughter.

— FRANCIS

↘ Fitzgerald met you in the store when he was at one of the many sales. You watched him with a soft laugh as he selected pots and other cheap things.

↘ Of course he noticed you quickly; how could he not do that? Your traditional, long kimono and breathtaking hairstyle immediately caught his eye, as did your warm expression and amused, shiny eyes. So he replied with a big, manly smile, then started a conversation about how delighted he was with the items here and their prices. You two talked for a long time that day, and in meantime, he invited you for coffee at the nearest coffee shop.

↘ (Of course you had to take him there and teach him to use the menu card because he never has been in the cafe, lmao.)

↘ After eating a sweet, delicious cake and drinking a warm drink, you left the small building and moved on, still talking about your life and plans for the coming days. In the middle of Yokohama city, both of you found Miss Alcott who looking in shock at her leader who was so kind and affectionate turning towards a woman he had barely known.

↘ Louisa, as a great mind, immediately stated that you are a really good human, full of warmth, empathy and respect for other people. All of this was even more true when you offered two newly met people to use your own home to devise a plan for their actions to regain their good name, social status and money. Francis was more than grateful and Louisa genuinely happy that she didn’t have to rent something ugly and dingy.

↘ They stayed with you for more than a few days, and you, as a good housewife, continued to delight them with your tasty meals, desserts and scented tea.

↘ The natural course of things was that the man fell in love with you. However, before confessing his love to you, he first wanted to earn to ensure you a decent life; as his future, wonderful wife.

↘ That’s why he first returned as ‘The Great Fitzgerald’ and then as the man who took your heart and promised to treat you like a Queen.

↘ Of course you agreed; not for money or gifts, but only for him and his honest heart, because the whole situation has brought you closer to each other like nothing else. You supported him very much in his return and you were really proud and glad when Francis came to you one day in a fancy suit, took you in his arms and sincerely thanked you for the last weeks of support.

↘ Shortly after that, you became a couple and later, you became his fiancée. The man thought you were just his personal guardian angel and your getting to know each other was simply planned by fate.

↘ Miss Alcott was more than happy to see you two smiling and so beautifully in love.

↘ Now all you have been waiting for is a wedding and the enlargement of your little family.

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96thdayofrage · 4 years ago

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The Supreme Court agreed to review two aspects of the actor’s case.

The seven judges reviewed Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill’s decision to let prosecutors call five other accusers to testify about long-ago encounters that never resulted in charges or police reports.

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Judge Steven O’Neill has never explained why he allowed five women to testify in the second Cosby trial after allowing only one to do so at his first trial in 2017.

On Dec. 1–when it came to the Commonwealth’s rebuttal of the defense’s points of appeal attorney—Adrianne Jappe did not get through her opening comments before the judges began interrupting and interrogating her on the relevance of the five prior bad acts witnesses.

Justice Dougherty pointed out that one of the women – Lise-Lotte Lublin – had ‘no actual recollection of sexual contact’ but merely of losing consciousness.

Bill Cosby to be Released from Prison After Pennsylvania Supreme Court Deems Trial Tainted

Cosby DA reaches level of desperation as Supreme Court decision nears, fines comic for unkept grass

Cosby DA accused of prosecutorial misconduct for charging YC reporter amid heated email battle

Cosby DA won’t release emails that may reveal ‘locker-room banter’ about Pa. Supreme Court

DA Under Fire for Admitting Bill Cosby Gave ‘Exculpatory Account’ to Cops, Tricked by Phony Immunity Deal

Jappe angered members of the court after instructing them not ‘to consider’ statistics in their decision making, according to an aide of one of the honorable justices.

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» Jun. 6, 17′: Jurors were drowned in reasonable doubt ‘on day two’ of the trial when attorneys revealed the motivation behind the ‘witness cult’s’ testimony: a $100 million payday.

» ‘One lie begets another lie begets another lie’: The judge finally cracked down on overzealous prosecutors after they tried tricking him by rephrasing the same question six times.

» Jun. 9, 17′: The trial’s briefest yet most powerful cross examination that derailed the questionable proceeding in just fifteen minutes.

» Jun. 12, 17′: Moments before the jury left to deliberate, Cosby’s lawyers moved for a mistrial on the grounds that the chief accuser had changed her story nearly two-dozen times.

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» Apr. 25, 18′: Closing arguments for the second trial begin. The defense drops a powerful remark: ‘A case that was rejected. A case that was revived. I’ll show you the sequence.’

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» Oct. 10, 19′: Your Content obtains thousands of exclusive e-mails from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. Among the exclusive e-mail revelations:

» ‘First Order of Business, Lock Up That Creep Bill Cosby.’

» ‘Old Man’ Cosby’ Would Die If Jailed, Prosecutors Joked

» DA Mocked #MeToo Before, During & After Trial

» In 2015, DA Steele Claimed There Was An ‘Air-Tight’ Case Against Bill Cosby, Turns Out There Wasn’t

» Jun. 23, 20′: Bill Cosby is granted the opportunity to go before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a first-ever virtual hearing.

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wiypt-writes · 4 years ago

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Stark Spangled Banner

Ch15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve find Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane and, as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left running for their lives and are forced to seek help…

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! Violence, and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

A/N: Not one but TWO edits from @angrybirdcr in this one!!

Chapter 14

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion involving a Quinjet and some nasty looking road blocks, they made it out relatively unscathed all things considered and headed to the boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change. Katie told him to leave his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. At her suggestion, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible, he also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so.

They reached the hospital with no further issues. Katie was feeling the effects of the fight in the elevator and the leap of faith they’d taken out of it and was stiff and bruised but she did her best to keep pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” She looked at Katie’s face, her eyes taking in the bruising around her left cheekbone and the split in her lip.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged once more back into their shit.

“Where is it?” Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he reached up and threw down his hood.

“Safe.”

“Do better.” Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

“Where did you get it?” Natasha asked.

“Why would I tell you?” Steve countered.

“Fury gave it to you,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

“What’s on it?” Steve ask, ignoring her question.

“I don’t know,” Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. “Stop lying,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I only act like I know everything, Rogers.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn’t you?” Katie said, looking at her.

“Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in…”

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around away from Natasha, groaning.

“I’m not gonna ask you again,” Steve threatened.

“I know who killed Fury.” Natasha spoke as Katie turned to face her again. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he’s a ghost story.” Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

“Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me.”

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

“Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis.”

“Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” Steve half joked.

“Going after him is a dead end. I know, I’ve tried.” Nat stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

“Let’s find out what the ghost wants.”

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat hummed as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette on their way out to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha’s commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team, in which Katie and Natasha’s stealth skills really had been put to the test, although Steve hadn’t objected to one part in particular where he’d had to kiss his girl on the escalator, they had bolted for Natasha’s car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks.” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something.” Nat responded.

Despite himself, Steve couldn’t help but quip back playfully. “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat replied, her voice full of a smirk. “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat beside him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus, Nat!”

“What were your exact words?” Natasha continued, a teasing expression on her face. “Oh yeah, if that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-“ “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie hastily cut her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend went, he supposed that there were far worse things she could be saying.

“So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?” Natasha asked a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve looked over his shoulder at her. “And we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat.“

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don’t answer it though, you’re kind of answering it, you know?”

“What?” Steve asked exasperatedly.

“So before in the Apple store… you guys were like engaged…” She began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned and, upon hearing her, Steve felt something in his stomach tighten.

"That bad an idea huh?” He asked stealing a glance over at her.

“I didn’t say that.” Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” Katie shot him a look.

“You gonna grace my other question with a response?”

“Which was?”

“Whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” He stole another glance at her but before she could reply he felt Nat shift a little.

“You asked her?” She aised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, of SHIELD, of everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up.”

“What, like you?” Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it’s not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.”

"That’s a hard way to live,” Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

“It’s a good way not to die, though.” Natasha mused unconcerned.

“You know, it’s kind of hard to trust someone when you don’t know who that someone really is.” Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn’t want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn’t, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

“Yeah.” Natasha replied, looking through the window. “Who do you want me to be?”

“How about a friend?” Steve jumped in.

“Well, there’s a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.” Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every inch of her being. And she wanted him to know, in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.”

Steve’s head whipped round, his mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak.

“Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal.

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

And, surprisingly, there was no sarcastic comment from the back seats.

*****

“It’s some kind of recording,” Natasha frowned as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp and after a long search, just as they were ready to give up, Steve had spotted that the munitions building was in the wrong place. Further investigations had led them into a huge, underground bunker and, after an hour or so more of searching, they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal.

Natasha had plugged in the USB device into the port, which had activated the system and now, well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

“I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945.”

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

“Who is that?” Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

“Do you know this thing?” Natasha questioned sceptically.

“Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He’s been dead for years,” Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

“First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” Zola explained.

“How did you get here?” Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

“I was invited.”

“Operation Paperclip.” Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value.” Katie replied, her eyes still on the screen.

“They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.” Zola continued.

“HYDRA died with the Red Skull,” Steve snapped.

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” Zola said confidently

“Prove it.” Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

“Accessing archive.”

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original SHIELD founders.

“HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

“That’s impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you,” Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

“Accidents will happen.” The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed. By HYDRA.

When she spoke again, her voice was as desperate as she was. Desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem.” The screen drawled back

“You killed them?” Katie’s chest was heaving, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security.” Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feltl the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. “Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA’s new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum.”

Steve’s anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie’s had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

“As I was saying…”

"What’s on this drive?” Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

“Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Katie demanded.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

“Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops.” Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

“Who fired it?” asked Steve, as he starting to look for an alternative escape route.

“SHIELD.” She looked at him, then to Katie.

“Admit it Captain, it’s better this way. We’re both of us, out of time.” Warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. Catching on to what she was saying, he easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

“Get in!” Steve yelled. Natasha hopped down into the space, then Katie followed, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit a split second later. Instantly, heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above rained down into the space they were hiding in. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly as she spoke.

“Nat?”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as, following a third huge heave, light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty shove, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I am, but Nat’s passed out.” Katie blinked up at him, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down on the floor and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong. I think she just fainted, she doesn’t do well in tight spaces, like me.” Katie coughed harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer.

“Quinjets.” Her eyes grew wide.

“Let’s go.” Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble as they headed back to the truck.

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good five minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop.

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie looked down at her. “We’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So, where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie shook her head. “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie licked her lips. “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do. Any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie nodded. “And it’s a crazy one, but one that no one will ever suspect as no on in SHIELD knows the guy exists. Not yet anyway.” Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she finished. “Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve shook his head.

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” Katie snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Once they had tracked down Sam’s address, which was fairly easy to figure out when you had access to JARVIS via a StarkPhone, Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told him all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve, being the gentleman that he was, let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

“You okay?"

"Yeah,” She replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. “What’s going on?”

“When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra,” Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. “I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“There’s a chance you might be in the wrong business.” Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

“I owe you.” Natasha sighed quietly, “Both of you.”

“It’s okay,” Steve smiled.

“If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?” She asked quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

“I would now,” said Steve. “And I’m always honest.”

“Without question.” Katie added as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

“Well,” She said as she looked back at Steve. “You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing.”

“Well, guess I just like to know who I’m fighting,” Steve sighed in response, although she had hit a nerve.

“I made breakfast,” Sam’s voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. “If you guys, eat that sort of thing.” He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late eighties. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Doll.” He started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say was eating her up.

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” Katie sighed gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then.” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie swallowed, shaking her head “I don’t know what’s worse, Steve.”

She looked utterly lost and broken and Steve felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the three had shared in the truck and he knew just how to do it.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” He looked down at his girl as she gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears.

“No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up. “wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But Steve loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips. “You’re a nightmare.”

“Yeah but you love me.” She grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do.” His lips met hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on.” Steve took her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.

“You all look a hell of a lot better.” Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

“Well, it’s been an eventful twenty-four hours.” He responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked at Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next thirty minutes or so.

“So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?” Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam’s countertops.

“Alexander Pierce,” Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee. It was amazing how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place following food and caffeine.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Natasha walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

“He’s not working alone, Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star.” Steve continued.

“And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too.” Katie added, as the three of them shared a glance. There was another piece of the puzzle.

“So, the real question is,” Steve looked at Katie then to Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t.” Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

“What’s this?” Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

“Call it a resume.”

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

“Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission-that was you?” Natasha asked and Sam nodded. She then turned to Steve. “You didn’t say he was a para rescue.”

“Riley?” Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

“Yeah.” Sam answered gently.

“I heard they couldn’t bring in the choppers because of the RPGs,” Natasha recalled. “What did you use, a stealth chute?”

“No. These.”

Sam handed Steve another file and he opened it, his eyes growing wide as they looked down at Sam soaring through the air using what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

“I thought you said you’re a pilot?”

“I never said a pilot.” Sam countered with a little chuckle and a smirk.

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.” Steve shook his head.

“Dude, Captain America needs my help. There’s no better reason to get back in.” Sam almost scoffed.

“Where can we get our hands on one of these things?” Katie asked, looking up.

“The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall.” Sam supplied, his tone a little dejected.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” He almost smiled, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” Katie looked to the man who nodded. “Then yeah, I can track him down.” She affirmed, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All four of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if two of them did get caught, the other two still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they now had courtesy of some expert searching via Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” She spoke and Steve nodded.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss.”

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed. Your forty’s programming has been well and truly broken.” Steve rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so what does it matter?” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned.

“You wanna marry her…” She said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now.” Steve tried to shrug it off and Nat snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers! Soon as you can get a ring on it we all know you’re gonna.”

“Who’s we?”

“Everyone.” Natasha added sagely. “You two are like ultimate couple goals. It’s cute.”

Steve took a deep breath, staring ahead as he drove before he took a deep breath. “You know I kinda already asked her.” He looked back at Natasha who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly, but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted, and-” “Great proposal.” Nat cut him off with a snigger. “What did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle.” Nat mused. “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile. “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and, upon arriving at the base, they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched three guards, Natasha another two before they reached the room they were looking at. Natasha easily hacked the security codes thanks to something on her phone, Steve didn’t ask what, and they met no one on their way out.

Frankly, it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking but he wasn’t going to complain. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

***** Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for Katie and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

“So you know this guy we’re looking for?” Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

“Vaguely.” She sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. “But I can work with what I have.”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?”

“Simple, I’m going to check his work calendar.” Katie nodded at the laptop

“And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” She grinned

“Good morning again Miss Stark.” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour. Again. And it’s urgent.” “Of course.” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and access someone’s calendar without them noticing.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask,is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark? Maybe call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” Katie shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

Once she had explained what she needed, JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow him to access the information without being detected.

It didn’t take long. Fifteen or so minutes later Sitwell’s calendar flashed up and Katie gave a little yell of triumph.

“JARVIS, you are a genius, buddy!”

“Why thank you, Miss Stark. But I only have about sixty seconds before I will need to close down the connection.”

“Understood. Right let’s see where you’re at, you fucker.” Katie mused, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” He read, pointing at the screen.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked up at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half.”

“Cutting it fine.” Katie mused. “Ok, thanks J, you can disconnect.” “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it.” Nat’s voice instantly spoke as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm.”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat snorted sarcastically.

“And that’s going to be our only window before he’s back at the Triskellion at two-thirty.”

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA?” Sam asked.

“About twenty five minutes.”

“Okay, so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone.” Katie tapped at Sam’s laptop. “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District, so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat.”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There.” Sam tapped at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down. We can take him up high…”

“And kick him off the edge.” Katie nodded.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Okay so we got the where, now we need the how.” Steve sighed. “We can’t just pick him up at lunch. If the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

”But how do you get him to get in the car?”

“Simple. We give him a choice.” Katie eyed her gun where it lay on the table. “Do it or die.”

***** It turns out fear of death is a very, very good motivator.

Their plan went off perfectly. Natasha spoofed a phone number which Sam used to call Sitwell once he emerged from the restaurant after lunch. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, asking Sam why on Earth he would what he was being instructed to do.

And then Katie had aimed her gun sight at him from her hiding place, the red laser sight clear in the middle of Sitwell’s chest.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I’d hate to mess it up.” Sam smirked.

Sitwell, resigned to his face, followed Sam instructions and as he left the little plaza upon which the restaurant was situated, Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the bar Sam was sat at and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back.

“One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” She informed him, her voice low. Sitwell instantly tensed. "Miss Stark.” He grumbled out, seemingly more annoyed than scared. “Of course you’re involved with this.”

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of the security team with him had realized what had happened. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

“You made me a wanted fugitive.” She shrugged. “Didn’t have much choice.” She stopped walking. “Now, get in the car.” She ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car.” She repeated. Sitwell stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?” Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They drove two blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant.” Sitwell sighed, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was an arrogant little bastard, Steve had to give him that. The soldier easily manhandled the Agent onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where Sitwell had almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

“You’re right. It’s not.” Steve released Sitwell, smoothing out his suit, letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

“It’s theirs.” Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to Sitwell’s chest, sending him tumbling over the edge.

“So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?” Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah.” Steve smiled, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, as Sitwell’s screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola’s algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight’s targets!” He rushed out.

“What targets?” Steve demands.

“You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future,” Sitwell continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

“The future? How could it know?” Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

“How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it,” He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, “Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola’s algorithm evaluates peoples’ past to predict their future.”

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

“And what then?” He asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me.” He mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

“What then?” Steve demanded louder.

Sitwell sighed as he looked at Steve. “Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.”

**** Chapter 16

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled banner #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers fic #steve rogers fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfic #captain america #chris evans #chris evans characters

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soysaucevictim · 4 years ago

Text

“more than ever, hour (work is never over)”

Summary: Logan goes for a run, and hits a snag when Roman seems to have found himself in trouble. Again. (This happens about a year before “Cherry Cola”, to be clear. Sanders Sides, Gym Rat AU. One-shot. Ao3 link.)

Genres: Slice of Life, Fluff, Light Angst, Sickfic(?)

Characters: Logan and Roman centric. Janus, Patton, and Remus mentioned.

Relationships: Logince (platonic), Background Intrulogical (platonic/ambiguous), Background Roceit (sexual/QPP*), Background Loceit (platonic)

Warnings: Lots of numbers, Himbro Roman, Roman Is A Disaster, illness, over-training, sleep deprivation, heat exhaustion, (not as bad as what happened in “Cherry Cola”), vomiting (mentioned), Logan Is A Good Friend

Logan was running his typical checklists before setting out for another HIIT routine over at the gym. He highly valued maintaining his cardiac and overall health. He wasn’t in the medical field like Janus is and Patton used to be, but he didn’t need those credentials to appreciate it.

Considering he was a 28 year old Homo sapien, his maximal heart rate would be 192 beats per minute. Obviously, he wasn’t keen on achieving nor surpassing exactly that red zone. To say there were diminishing returns, would be an understatement. Remus would take the notion as a challenge… to be sure.

But that value was necessary to calculate his initial target – 65% of that, to be relatively precise. 125, rounded up. He intended to reach that after some warm-up routine and the first lap or two. He would consider this the yellow zone.

Once that holds reasonably steady, his next goal was to go for 87% at the highest intensity. So, 167 BPM. Holding that line for at least a minute. 2 minutes, if he was feeling particularly bold, he was in pretty good shape at this juncture. This would be more of an orange zone.

After the spike in intensity, he would go down to 50% for recovery, or 96 BPM. Rest at that load for 3 minutes, in the proverbial green zone. And then crank the figurative gears back up to the 87% target.

He intended to repeat this for at least 10 rounds. Add more, if energy is willing. Sounded like a plan.

To hit these marks, one of the simpler ways Logan enjoyed were via the exercise bikes. But today, he thought he’ll do some laps around the indoor track. He felt he needed to work in some more devoted arm action, and that would be a reasonable way to hit this workout paradigm. This outline seemed elegant and flawless.

He reviewed all of that while he swapped out his casual shoes for runners, in the locker room.

It was exactly noon when he approached the starting line. He popped in some earbuds to his prepared playlists.

He was listening to the mix named “Warm-Up Playlist”. He knew his fellows would jab him for the plainness of it, but the utility simply couldn’t be argued with. It was a selection of songs that started at 50, incrementing up to 100 BPM in tempo. It helped him keep his pace.

He stood to the side, spending a couple minutes doing some preliminary exercises. Ankle circles, leg swings, pelvic loops, arm circles, and hula-hoop jumps. It’s important to keep all the relevant joints stable and readied. Janus would probably congratulate his refreshing fastidiousness, among their motley crew.

After that micro-checklist was completed, he started going toward a brisk walking pace. He was going to check his heart rate after a couple laps to see how close to 65% he was getting.

Halfway into his first lap, he was nearly knocked over by a blur wearing a red crop-top sweatshirt and matching shorts. Roman, clearly not paying attention to what he was doing. Predictably. Logan snorted and rolled his eyes. He had to table his thoughts about his friend’s whole methodology (or lack thereof, as far as he was concerned), or else he’d fall too far out of rhythm!

Roughly a quarter of the way into the second lap, Roman closed in on Logan again, he was going at a jogging pace to a slightly faster walk to match up with Logan. Roman waved and smiled at Logan, “Hey! Didn’t expect to see ya here, Specs!”

Logan thought the voice was Roman-typically cheery. Frankly Logan would be mystified about this man’s energy, if he hadn’t met Remus first. “Salutations.”

“Why are you going so slooow? Wanna race me? I bet I can totally run circles around you!”

“No. I have a plan I intend to stick to, Roman. You know this.”

Roman melodramatically threw up his arms and pouted at Logan, somewhat impressively coordinated to his slow jogging. “Fiiine. I’m off – I want to see how many laps I can get in, like... the next hour. Adiós, for now~”

Roman went from a jog to a run before he could get a response. Logan tutted before refocusing on getting to that 65% - that yellow zone. After the second lap, he drank some water and checked his pulse… hmmm, 55%. It was time to hit a jog. He skipped a few tracks toward that range and worked to match.

By the time Logan completed lap 3, he reached and held at 65%. So, he turned on a 1-minute interval timer and his “HIIT Playlist”, on his phone. Much of the music went at 120 BPM, give or take 30. This phase, he was going to rely on his fitness bracelet to tell him where he’s at, not enough time to do things digitally… rather, manually or with his fingers, to clarify.

He and Remus programmed this thing to flash his percentage progress, freeing up some mental space to not need to calculate that value repeatedly, whenever he looked at the monitor.

He picked up to a run for about another quarter-lap and broke into a full-tilt sprint. Every 20 or so seconds, he glanced at the bracelet, while keeping the majority of his attention to his surroundings and form.

20 seconds, 73%. Not good enough.

40 seconds, 84%. Logan grimaced and pushed his cadence up a bit more.

50 seconds, 86%. For the love of Archimedes… it’s okay. It’s close.

BEEP! 60 seconds, 88%. Orange. FINALLY. Okay, he thought he had a good read now, being consistent for the next sets should be easier.

Time to, figuratively, dial things way down. He spent approximately 20 seconds running, 40 more jogging, and BEEP.

He took a couple sips from his water bottle, before spending the remaining 2 minutes going at a walk.

1 minute, 30 seconds, 78%.

BEEP. 2 minutes, 71%.

2 minutes, 30 seconds, 60%.

2 minutes, 50 seconds, 53%.

BEEP. 3 minutes, 49%. Green. Logan sighed to himself, “Margin of error, you have to account for it… anyways.”

Round 2.

20 seconds, 76%. Better.

40 seconds, 85%. Almost there.

50 seconds, 87%. Orange, again. Locked on, Logan smiled. Now hold this for 10 more seconds…

BEEP!

Second active rest cycle.

Once he got down to a walk again, he observed that Roman was on the opposite end of the track. Still going at what he could only describe as an absurd pace.

Roman closed in when Logan was 2 minutes into this interval. 69%, by the way. Logan groaned, some of Remus’s sense of humor “rubbing off on him”. Why must people ascribe such crudeness to an arbitrary number, he wondered.

Roman was panting quite loudly, shouting down Logan, “Nerd- Nerd’s got some SPEED!”

Logan took a swig of his water bottle. “This is not the first time you’ve seen me manage this.”

Roman looked like he just realized he should have followed suit, smacking his lips and drinking several gulps from his own water supply. “R-riiight.”

“You really should pace yourself. On everything. Honestly.”

“HEY. Only Snakey McSnakerson gets to tell me that!”

“Is he here right now? Am I wrong?”

Roman was back to pouting, “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”

“But you just-”

Roman cupped his hands over his ears, “Lalala – I can’t hear you!”

Roman ran off ahead of him again. Logan could only shake his head.

2 minutes 55 seconds, 51%.

BEEP. 50%. Green.

Round 3.

30 seconds, 80%. Not bad if he said so himself.

40 seconds, 84%. Margin of error.

50 seconds, 89%. Overcompensated somewhat, it would seem. Perhaps Roman’s competitive streak was “infectious”, today.

BEEP! 60 seconds, 91%. Orange, approaching red. Yeah, he was definitely overcompensating.

Third rest, fourth active, fourth rest, fifth active intervals... hitting his marks, pleasingly and without incident.

He was on his fifth rest, soon enough.

Once Logan was walking again, he thought he was up for extending his active intervals to 2’, for the next 5 sets. Things have been building palpable fatigue, but very manageable.

Roman still appeared to holding up, a short distance ahead of Logan, at this point. Perhaps he was slowing down. It was a few moments before the distance was closed again.

Roman was drenched, so Logan decided to ask him, “Are you quite alright?”

“Might be getting a little tired now, no big deal.”

Logan recalled some things Patton instructed all of them about and he looked at Roman more carefully as they walked slowly. Roman looked paler than usual. “Hmmm, is your head hurting, perhaps?”

“Maybe a little. Didn’t get enough sleep again, it’s probably that.”

“I imagine it couldn’t be helping but-”

Roman got a little agitated, “But what, Egg Head?”

“Are you nauseous?”

“I’m not ready to puke, not just yet, Bro Ham.”

“May I check your pulse? Or rather, how does it feel?”

“What are you getting at!?”

“Cramps? Dizziness?… I think you are exhibiting the signs of heat exhaustion.”

Roman looked like he was going to be short with Logan, but it was clear now that he was starting to get somewhat wobbly. Logan decided to prompt him again, “Here, let us go to the showers, you need to cool off.”

Roman knew he couldn’t fight Logan in his current state, “Fiiine.”

Logan was annoyed about cutting his workout short, but he could always resume later. This was more important, anyways.

Roman was lying on his back on one of the benches in the locker room. His outfit then saturated with cool shower water, holding a battery-power fan to himself that Logan let him borrow.

Logan was at his feet, “How are your symptoms now?”

Roman groaned, “You’re not “the doctor” in our group, would you please stop acting like it.”

“I do not wish to see you in the hospital, Roman.”

Roman sputtered a little, “Yeah well, I’m fine.”

“Stable, I suppose, yes. But I know you enough to know you are not “fine”.”

Roman almost shot up to rebut, but a wave of dizziness forced him back down. “Look. I just didn’t get enough sleep – mind was running a bajillion miles an hour last night. So many IDEAS to write down. And couldn’t get to sleep until way after… you know what? Nevermind.”

Logan did care and frankly saw a lot of similar tendencies between the two brothers. It disturbed him and made him wish he was able to help them get a better handle on their sleeping and general health habits. It seemed as though they were both at very high risk of something serious occurring. But at the same time, he recognized that this was not his area of expertise. All he could really do was try to be there for them.

“Speaking of which... I think I see my wall… approaching… going to-”

Before Logan could latch onto any inquiries about walls, Roman dropped the fan and started snoring. After a brief moment of worry, Logan was reasonably sure this was simply a nap, not a loss of consciousness. To his relief.

Logan thought idly, “I suppose I should at least inform Janus what occurred. Roman might not be fit to drive for a while longer.”

Logan tapped out a message, “Hey. I’m in the locker room with Roman. He likely had an episode of heat exhaustion, today. He appears to be doing okay right now. But I felt that it was worth mentioning it to you.”

It was not even 2 minutes before Janus responded with, “WHAT!?”

“He’s safe, just taking a nap. I suppose he wouldn’t mind if you took him home.”

“… omw. That dumb ass has some explaining to do. With love, of course.”

“Indeed, I shall see you shortly then?”

“Yeah, ttyl… thanks, btw.”

Logan supposed he should stick around to make sure Roman was safe before resuming his own agenda. He had to admit, like with Remus, he did enjoy seeing them get some greatly needed rest.

#spilled musing #sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #(*i think that may be a more accurate label to this AU's Roceit)#(honestly both the twins are complete disaster humans)#(but they're in good company)#gymrat au

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wrestling0neshots · 4 years ago

Text

Just A Hallucination - Randy Orton

The Undertaker is dead. Randy keeps seeing hallucinations, but you know better than to believe he can still be alive.

Requested by Charmione98 Originally posted on Archive Of Our Own.

----------------------------

"I'm out here tonight to address the situation with Randy, and more importantly why he won't come out here tonight." The crowd has a mixed response, after all Randy was supposed to have a match. But after the last few weeks he has decided it would be better if he stayed in his locker room. With the door locked. And barricaded. He doesn't want anyone entering his room.

"As you all know Randy has been experiencing some hallucinations of The Undertaker. The tragic and completely accidental death of Undertaker has really taken a toll on him." You explain. "Of course this is to be expected. And that's why he isn't out here tonight."

Again you receive mixed reactions from the crowd. You get the feeling they have been rather enjoying the torment your boyfriend has been suffering with. "I am sorry to disappoint you all but he is scheduled to have a psychiatric evaluation this week. Hallucinations aren't a good thing, and there is also an investigation into whoever is doing-" A bell toll rings out, the crowd cheers now. "That." You finish.

The bell toll was eerily timed, almost as if whoever has been messing with the lights and sounds for weeks knew what you were going to say. Which is impossible considering that you weren't even scripted to be out here. "Whoever has been messing with the lights and sounds, you will be getting fired unless you stop. It's not a funny joke, especially considering how much Randy is going through." Another bell toll sounds and you roll your eyes.

This is exactly the thing that has been causing the bulk of the issues. Unlike Randy you're not phased. You know Undertaker died that night. You saw the car crash. You saw the fire. The sparks. No one could survive that.

"Whoever thinks it is funny, let me tell you this, Randy might be bothered about it, but I am not." With the third bell toll the lights turn purple. You walk to lean against the top rope, looking entirely unimpressed with the situation. Someone is really sat in the back, having a laugh, finding the whole situation amusing. Well they have another thing coming.

"Turn the lights purple, keep tolling that bell. Hell, start his theme song and roll a casket down here. The Undertaker is dead. D E A D. Dead. He isn't coming back." At this the crowd boo's, clearly not happy with what you are saying. The lights flicker off, and back on, and at the top of the stage stands a man. A man in a black trench coat and a hat. An eerily familiar man.

With another flicker of the lights the figure is gone. You laugh. "That's a funny joke, it really is. Unfortunately for whoever is pulling the joke it doesn't affect me like it would Randy. I've already told you Undertaker is dead, gone, forever. I don't have any hallucinations. I know it's not real."

With that the lights turn off once more, for longer this time. You find yourself doused in purple light once more when they turn back on. "Someone is getting fired." You shrug, pushing away from the ropes.

You turn on your second step back, the pivot swift. You come to a just as swift halt when your vision is blocked by a figure. The lights flicker off and on again, and the figure is gone. You don't taunt this time. You don't even raise the microphone to your lips. You can only stare at the empty space before you.

There is nothing there, as there always was. There was never anything in that space.

You were alone. You are alone. Alone in the middle of the ring. No one to save you.

Not that you need saving. The Undertaker is dead.

The lights go off again, leaving you in total darkness. Your breathing is slow, your heart beating fast. It races in your chest, fear creeping in.

In the darkness you stay deadly still, the only movement you feel is the clatter of the microphone hitting the mat. You hadn't realised it had slipped from your grip.

Everything is silent. Too silent. Not even a trace of the crowd remains. If you didn't know where you were you would think you were lost in the deep dark of space. The darkness, the silence. It's peaceful, yet oh so terrifying.

A few purple spotlights come on. You blink a few times, eyes having adjusted to the darkness. You see nothing out of the ordinary, but make no attempt to move. Frozen in place is an understatement. You pray you are alone.

You feel the mat shake ever so slightly, your heart pounds in your chest. You're making it up. Hallucinating. Like Randy.

It shakes again. And again. Then stops. Everything is still.

You close your eyes, taking comfort in the darkness. Deciding you have to go.

Slowly you begin to turn, if you want to leave you need to leave that way. And you want to leave. You have never wanted to leave anywhere so badly.

Once you've turned half way you stop. You take in a breath, nothing will be there. Nothing can be in front of you except the ropes. Especially not The Undertaker.

You nod to yourself and open your eyes slowly. Nothing. You exhale, almost a sigh of relief. Nothing is there. No one is there. "Time to go." You mumble, stepping forwards.

You freeze as you feel a hand grab your arm, glancing down to find nothing there. A nervous laugh escapes as you look forward again, only for you to be completely silenced once you do.

You take an involuntary step back, tripping on what you can only presume is the microphone. You don't fall, although you feel no better with how the situation turns out. His hands are firmly planted on your waist, having restored your balance. Although once there they do not leave. Your breaths are shallow, but still slow. Your body unsure of how to react.

Your eyes slowly move up from his chest to his neck, to his face. It's him.

"You're dead." You whisper. He says nothing. He doesn't move. Maybe you're just imagining him being here. But why does his hold on your waist feel so solid? So real?

Finally you bring your eyes to meet his. They're hard, unforgiving. Filled with.. life.

And suddenly so are you. The adrenaline finally kicks in, the fight or flight response springing to action. With the toss of an imaginary coin flight is selected. You try to pry his hands from your waist, but his hold is firm. You pull and pull but his grip doesn't falter. Neither does his stare.

Fear fills every inch of you. Panic has settled in well and truly. Attempt after attempt fails. You feel trapped. Scared. There is no escape.

After trying and trying you finally give up. You let your arms fall limp, bringing your eyes up to meet his.

His gaze, although still hard, now has a hint of amusement. His entire expression changes, an evil grin stretching across his features. The amusement in his eyes turning to pure fire, a burning lust for revenge.

The lights return to normal, and you can hear Randy shouting in the background. It is quiet, but you can still hear it. A break from the silence you have been in for some time now. Randy's shouting gets somewhat closer, but he makes no attempt to come to the ring, clearly scared and still doubting what he is seeing. Unfortunately you know this is real. He is real. And you have no way to tell Randy.

Your body is suddenly lifted from the ground altogether, you find yourself being cradled. You can see Randy now, he stands at the base of the ramp. You can hear him shouting, but you do not know what.

Clear as day the voice of man carrying you echos all around. "Randy, you took my life. Now I'm going to take yours."

The lights cut, silence falling. You can't even hear Randy anymore. You don't know where you are, but you're not in the ring. You doubt you're in the arena.

As a light appears you realise you're right. You're not in the arena. You don't know where you are. All you know is that you're next to The Undertaker, who is very much alive.

#randy orton #the undertaker #oneshot #wwe fic #wwe #x reader #fanfiction #randy vs undertaker #2005 #hallucinations #undertaker #randys partner #mind games

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nocturnegyser · 5 years ago

Text

The feels

Warren x Reader (raccoon)

A/N: I’ve had this typed out for a while and I wanted to go do more Warren x Raccoon material, I just decided to actually go through it, it still probably sucks but I tried. I’m not a professional in any sense, anyways, enjoy :3

———

Summary: Warrens been acting strange.. (y/n) tries to find out what’s happening with him, wonder what it is?

———

Having only been going to her new school for 2 months, (y/n) has already met so many cool people. She even started her band called ‘Clean Trash’, ironically not with Warren on the drums.

The one replacing Warren on drums was a 5th grader named Ryan Husk, his muatation allows to move any liquid with his mind, their bassist being an 8th grader named Mars Palenski, his mutation gives him a giant rats tail and ears, pretty similar to (y/n)’s raccoon ears and tail.

Needless to say, (y/n) was getting along just fine, she was keeping up with her classes, nothing perfect but she didn’t care, just as long as she was passing.

———

Waking up one morning for breakfast, (y/n) nader her way to the kitchen for hopefully some marshmallow mateys, one she got there she saw Warren standing at the stove preparing food, both locking eyes when she walked in.

This reminded (y/n) of their first proper time meeting, although instead of giving Warren a death look, she smiled and wished him a good morning.

Warren doing the same, (y/n) was grabbing the cereal and milk, in the midst of preparing her breakfast.

“I can make you some french toast if you want” Warren offered

“Huh?.. oh.. yea ok” the still waking up very tired raccoon girl sitting down at the counter

Peter and Alex then walking in greeting both a good morning, then returning a good morning back.

Peter then smelling the french toast “Oh man! I love your french toast!” Peter getting excited

“Fuck off, I’m not making you anymore after what happened last time” Warren staring daggers at Peter while setting a plate in front of (y/n) and himself

“What happened last time?” (y/n) asked pouring syrup on her stack

“Well basically-“ Peter started then Alex shortly cutting him off “He finished all 24 pieces Warren spent almost an hour making, he didn’t even get a single bite”

“Dang” (y/n) responded while taking a bite “Hey, what do you expect from me? I was too hungry!”

“Some damn self control would be nice” Warren still staring daggers at Peter, both opting to eat the same marshmallow mateys (y/n) was planning on eating

———

After finishing (y/n) washed her dishes and offered to help Warren clean up but he insisted she go and get ready for classes, she took him up on it and go ready for the day, washed her face, brushed her teeth, hair, ears and tail.

(y/n) and Warren didn’t have any classes together, their schedules didn’t really cross paths a lot, even morning breakfasts like that were rare, (y/n) was content with their schedules not matching up all the time, she was happy with whatever time they did spend together if any at all.

(y/n) mostly ate lunch with Jubilee and if she wasn’t available for lunch then Mars and Ryan would eat with her.

It was after classes when Clean Trash would practice in the unused music room, that is if neither Ryan or Mars had homework.

She had a policy if either of them had homework before coming to practice they would have to finish it before they turn the amps on, or if they got in trouble they wouldn’t practice that day, they didn’t practice on the weekends though.

“You guys got any homework?” (y/n) asked her band mates, “No,” both answered truthfully

“Ok, let’s begin with ‘My heart is a futon’” (y/n) taking initiative

“How do you come up with these song names?” Mars asked

“I dunno, just whatever comes to mind, mind counting us off Ryan?” (y/n) pointing at Ryan, guitar pick in hand

“One, two, three, four, one two!”

Warren just so happened to be passing by the music room the band was in and overheard them playing.

Wanting to go unnoticed, he peeked in through the window watching and listening to them play, mostly focusing on (y/n) though.

Jean shortly caught him watching them and overheard what he was thinking

She has a really good singing voice, not to mention how her hair falls perfectly while playing..

“Wow,” Jean interrupting his thought “Never seen you this head over heels for someone, must be pretty special”

“Hey! I’m not ‘head over heels’, okay?“ Warren realizing she knows exactly what she’s talking about “They just sound really good is all”

“Right, just like what you thought on the ride to the movies” Jean flustering the already flustered angel boy even more “You think you’re ever going to tell her?”

“How do you- look, quit reading my thoughts okay? I don’t have anything to tell her” Warren becoming a little defensive “We’re just friends”

“Warren, you’re only friends for so long before she moves on” Jean trying to convince him

“Moves on? what’s that supposed to mean?” Warren asked confused

“You’re going to see what I mean, just waiting around doing nothing” Jean then walking off

Move on?... does she mean... no

Warren takes one more glance of (y/n) playing before walking off

———

In his room who he shared with Kurt, laying on his bed thinking to himself

Should I tell her?... Will someone else come along?...

Kurt and Alex bursting in throwing Warrens train of thought off, both seeing his worry almost immediately

Kurt, trying to be a good friend crouched down near Warren “You have immense sadness in your eyes friend, tell us what’s wrong?”

Warren, not wanting to talk about it, but not wanting to come off too mean, “Ok Blue, listen, I don’t want to talk about anything, especially with you” eventually just walking out in a huff

“... Think it was something I said?” Kurts ears flopped in a sad manner, Peter assuring him it was him “Ah jeez, he’s been like this since our horror movie trip plan fell through, must’ve really wanted to watch that movie..”

What would I ever say.. How would I even say it... when.. should I say... GAH! I hate this! I’m going to workout

Walking in the locker room , he ran into Scott already talking to friends.

His friends having already gotten ready before him, they went on ahead leaving Scott alone with Warren.

“Hey Warren! I haven’t talked to you since the horror movie fail, how’ve you been man?” Scott trying to spark a small conversation getting ready

“Yeah I’ve been fine” Warren already disconnecting from the world around him

“Yeah, you never told us how your trip to the music shop with (y/n) was” Scott joked

“It was fine” Warren replied coldly

“Fine enough you started acting less cranky all the time?”

“It was until you opened your mouth” Warren getting done before Scott and heading into the gym

———

In her room, (y/n) and Jubilee are planning the elementary classes Summer picnic, it was a special request by Charles.

“So that’s 25 turkey sandwiches for the kids with nut allergies.. and 45 pb & j’s.. in total thats.. 70 sandwiches, whoooff” (y/n) laying back in her bed just wanting to go to sleep even thought it was only 4:37pm

“Ok Scott called the ice cream parlor and they did have each classes flavor selections, but we do have to go pick them up ourselves the day of,” (y/n), Jubilee, Scott and Jean have all been tasked in helping plan this picnic for some time.

“Ok I guess that just leaves... actually making the sandwiches, sorting the sandwiches, and picking up everything else.. ugh, I don’t hate these kids but why do there have to be so many of them” (y/n) was super exhausted

“Doesn’t your reality manipulation allow you to multiply objects?”

“I don’t have it under control yet, so as of the moment.. no”

“Well not taking the easy way goes to show how much you care right? Besides, isn’t one of your band members attending this picnic? Ryan Dust, right?”

“Husk, and yes, he is coincidentally in the class I’ll be helping supervise”

“You see? wouldn’t it be just awesome for little Ryan to his bands leader working hard?”

“Ugh... I guess so”

“Well I gotta get going” Jubilee started packing her things, “I gotta meet with Jane and discuss seating arrangements, see if you can get any help with the sandwiches, maybe ask Warren?”

“Why Warren?” (y/n) confused why Jubilee specifically said Warren

“Why not Warren? Doesnt Ryan look up to Warren as a drummer? I’m sure it would make Ryan super motivated to see two people he looks up to working so hard”

“Yea ok but-“

“Hold that but. I gotta go, talk later”

With that over, for now, (y/n) started cleaning up the mess of papers on her bed and grabbed her phone to call Warren, voicemail.

Huh... guess he’s busy right now.. I’ll ask again later... but I might forget to ask later and he might over book his schedule, he really needs to stop doing that... Oh! I know! I’ll set a reminder on my phone! this phone has a reminder app doesn’t it?

Navigating her phone proved to be more difficult than she anticipated, considering she’s had her phone longer than a month, it was still her first phone, her brother got it for her before she left, she never really got around to learning how to use it.

Getting frustrated not finding what she needed using her phone, (y/n) opted to asking Warren in person

———

Running around the whole mansion looking for Warren and even asking people who knew him if they saw him around, no luck.

Until she ran into Kurt and Peter in the main hall, (y/n) immediately running up to them and asking both if the saw him anywhere.

“Uh, yeah last we saw him, he was heading to the gym, looked like he was going through it,” Peter answered, Kurt immediately agreeing, “Ja, He stormed off after I asked him what was wrong..”

What was wrong? Going through it? What’s happening with Warren?

Peter then reassuring Kurt it wasn’t his fault Warren was upset, “Dude, I told you, he’s been like this since that movie we went to go see sold out on movie tickets, like I said, he’s probably just pissed he didn’t get to see it”

“Been like what?” (y/n) now concerned

“Well it’s kinda difficult to explain but more happy in a way kinda, but also crank now that he’s more happy, y’know?”

(y/n) understood what he meant, “Yea.. well I’ll ask him about it once I find him, thank guys,” (y/n) then running off towards the gym, the two boys nodding and continuing on with their day.

———

(y/n) made it to the gym, not having really used it yet, she just ran in looking for Warren, she figured she’d look for his wings since they were easy to spot.

After a few minutes of looking, (y/n) eventually spotted Warren lifting weights on a bench in the back.

She was waving and shouting to him hoping he’d notice but he wasn’t paying attention and had his music in.

(y/n) decided she’d approach him and get his attention that way, upon approaching him she tapped his shoulder hoping it would get his attention, big mistake.

Tapping Warrens shoulder triggered his fight instincts and whipped around with full wing span, cutting (y/n) in the face.

She fell to the ground dazed holding her face, Warren immediately realizing what he’s done he immediately runs to her and gives her a towel to cover her cut with.

Scott noticing the commotion ran over to help Warren rush (y/n) to med.

———

Outside of med Warren was pacing back and forth while Scott was sitting on a bench, both waiting for Hank and (y/n).

Warren couldn’t stop pacing, Scott tried to relieve him,” Hey look, worst case scenario, she just has some light scarring..”

Warren immediately erupting, “No! Don’t you get it??! This whole thing means I haven’t changed a bit since Apocalypse!!,” Warren having remembered his nature when he aligned with Apocalypse over 2 years ago.

“Hey! Now don’t say that! You obviously didn’t mean to hurt her, you obviously aren’t the same from then“ Scott trying to assure Warren he isn’t the same from back then, “Look! even you and Kurt can live in the same room! Surely that means something”

“Yea, not like we ever talk,” Warren denying everything Scott was saying, Scott still trying to convince him otherwise, “Even Kurt considers you a friend now, he never saw you as a bad guy Warren, no one has, not even Charles”

Warren still not listening stormed off again, tears almost forming in his eyes, not too long after, Hank brought (y/n) with a clean bill of health apart from the bandage on her face, and a lollipop

“Nothing too bad, the bleeding stopped, it’s best to keep the bandage on to prevent bacteria from getting in,” Hank explained to Scott

“Thanks Mr. Hank, also for the lollipop” (y/n) gratefully thanked, then looking around for Warren “Where’d Warren go?”

“Oh, Warren... he needed to go... take care of something,” Scott nervously told (y/n) not wanting to worry her by telling her he stormed off because he’s afraid he’s the same as when he was with Apocalypse

“Oh... I just needed to talk to him about something..”

“About the sandwiches for the picnic right? Jubilee asked Peter if he could help, with Peter the sandwiches will be done in a second”

(y/n) shaking her head, “No, not that... I needed to ask him about.. something else”

Scott a little confused but realizing, “You’re not.. mad at Warren now are you?” Scott reluctantly asked (y/n)

(y/n) shaking her head again, “Of course not, I probably shouldn’t have snuck up on him like that, it’s just as much my fault I got this that it his,” (y/n) immediately placing the blame on herself for something that obviously wasn’t her fault or Warrens

Both Hank and Scott try to reassure it wasn’t either sides fault

“Well, I know he didn’t mean to hurt me, I just... I need to talk to him”

“Well.. it’s probably not the best time to... bother him, he’s got some .. things to take care of right now,” Scott trying to avoid even more problems between them

“Maybe, but he’s.. my friend, I need to know if he’s alright” (y/n) then speed walking off to go find Warren

“Ah jeez...” Scott sighed

“Think they’re... actually going to talk about... that?” Hank asked

“I dunno, I just hope they’re able to work things out”

———

Having run through the whole mansion looking for Warren once again, (y/n) was certain she knew where he was, but to no avail. On her way back to her room, she noticed the attic ceiling hatch and realized.

“Tch- could he...,” (y/n) began opening the hatch letting the ladder down then ascending up into the attic.

“Hello-“ (y/n) checking to see if anyone was up there, then there he was. Not wanting to alarm him again, she slowly arose from the hatch and go up slowly as to not to alarm him. Warren was just sitting on a window sill looking out, lost in thought

W: *Why did I do that... I told myself she.. I was going to...*

(y/n): *Ok, I can see he isn’t paying attention again... this time I’ll... I’ll call him softly as to not to trigger his attack again*

(y/n) reluctantly took a step closer, stepping on a creaky floorboard thus alerting Warren, Warren looked over and sat up immediately, panic in his eyes.

“(y/n)!” Warren stuttered

“Hi! uh.. I just wanted to check up on you ‘cus I heard from Peter and Kurt that-“ (y/n) trying to be friendly with Warren then cutting her off

“(y/n)! y-you shouldn’t be here, it’s not-“ Warren spat out nervously with (y/n) cutting him off in return

“Ok ok I know I know, you had some stuff to think about but, I just wanted to say I’m sorry I snuck up on you like that, I should have probably alerted you before approaching you, you just had your music in I didn’t know-“ Warren then cutting her off once again “Look. (y/n), I am truly sorry I cut your face but.. you shouldn’t be around me, I’m just-“

“What? Dangerous? just ‘cause you have metal wings? there are people in this world without metal wings who I’m scared of more than you”

“(y/n)-”

“I know you didn’t mean to hurt me like that I just.. at first I wanted to ask you about sandwiches but.. Peter and Kurt told me you’ve been ‘going through it’, their words not mine, and I just wanted to see exactly... what it is you’re going through..”

“(y/n), listen, you don’t understand, I’m the Archangel of Death! I don’t belong anywhere here, I just-“ Warren spewed out with (y/n) cutting him off again

“Warren! just shut up and listen to what I have to say!” she bursted out, continuing “I know you don’t mean any harm even whatever happened in the past, I’m not sure what all happened but that’s hopefully why I’m here, I just want to be there for someone who makes this place feel more like home even though we don’t meet up a lot”

“y/n), I-“

“Being here was scary but being here with you.. made it less scary, I don’t know if you feel the same way about me but.. I want. to be there for you when I can, Warren” (y/n) then taking a step closer knowing Warren can’t go anywhere

“Being around you.. I feel.. like maybe being here isn’t so bad, like maybe I can actually make something of myself here, like maybe.. you aren’t so bad..” (y/n) holding herself with tears welling up in her eyes

“I don’t know if you feel the same around me but.. that’s how I feel.. about you” (y/n) finally finishing

“(y/n)...” (y/n) holding for impact, entirely expecting him to reject her feeling, “I feel the same way about you,” Warren then taking a step closer

(y/n) almost gasped not believing what she heard

“Being around you.. brings me to a simpler time in my life and.. whenever we do meet up or bump into each other that feeling washes over me completely and.. I thought you hated my guts when we first met. You calling me angel boy, me calling you trash panda.. I never thought you’d want to talk to me ‘cus..” Warren expanding his wings and motion to them “I also wanted to be there for you when I could but.. I never saw you during the day, so I just..”

Both of them just stood there, looking into each other’s eye, then both taking another step closer to one another.

“Can I..” Warren started, looking deep into (y/n)’s yellow golden eyes, “Can I.. kiss.. you?”

(y/n) tears streaming down her face, just stood there looking up at Warren, not even answering him, she jumped up wrapping her arms around his neck just going for it. They kissed, Warren holding her close to him, (y/n) hasn’t felt so safe since she moved, Warrens wings around both of them. After what felt like forever only being 8 seconds, they separated kissing still holding each other.

“Well... ever kiss a raccoon face girl?” (y/n) joked

“He he, uh.. no but it was definitely a fine start”

Both chuckling before kissing again

———

A/N: if this sucked plz tell me, bully me if it was actually bad :D

#raccoon x warren #warren worthington headcanon #warren worthington iii x reader #warren worthington x reader #warren #warren x raccoon #raccoon #raccoon reader #reader #x-men #x-men fanfic #head canon

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stardestroyer81 · 4 years ago

Note

Psycha is one of my favorite characters of yours, so I'd love to learn more about him!

I would definitely love to talk a little bit more about him, since he is one of my favorite characters/S/Is I've created as well, so I've decided to make a fact post for him similar to the headcanon post I made for Clairen!

- As revealed in this post, Psycha is a known writer, and finds that he excels in English class because of it. He likes to write short novellas and on occasion screenplays. Psycha also likes to draw, though he considers himself being 'decent' at it. This is an understatement, however, as he tends to put a lot of attention to detail into even the smallest of sketches. When going class to class at Aether High, he carries around a notebook which contains a vast selection of drabbles and doodles, though he will usually keep his works to himself due to his sheepishness. - Psycha, while still a novice, also knows how to play the acoustic guitar, and has one of his very own on a stand in his room. He finds that sitting down and strumming away vacantly makes for an excellent form of anxiety relief. Just like his skills in drawing and writing, he is self-taught in the art of guitar playing, and merely considers himself a 'causal player'. Word has it that he is attempting to write a small song for someone special... - Psycha wouldn't be a true S/I if he didn't have an interest in video games; which he absolutely does. He is a console collector and perhaps Aether High's biggest arcade cabinet geek. While he doesn't usually speak of it, Psycha is amid the world's greatest at a 1982 arcade title called 'Cosmic Crusade'; his personal best score is 473,800, set back at a local arcade in his previous hometown. If you see an arcade cabinet with a high score belonging to 'PSY', you know Psycha has been there. - One thing that Psycha is known for is his attention to detail. Everything from his locker at Aether High to his class materials to his own bedroom is neat and orderly down to the most minute of details. Being locker neighbors with Forsburn (Who, as another stark contrast to Psycha, has a ridiculously messy locker) is admittedly a chore for him, and he will often try and tidy up the hyena's locker (Which doesn't even stay locked) any chance he gets as it bothers him that much. - Psycha, in addition to having social anxiety, will sometimes struggle with self-esteem. This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why he considers his friends at Aether High as family, because they help him see that he has qualities to be proud of on the days that he can't. He will be very reclusive about these bouts of self-doubt, but is perfectly content with opening up to someone he can trust. - Psycha adores physical interaction of any kind, be it hugs, hand-holding or even something as straightforward as a high-five. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Psycha is a hugger— and given how soft he is (Both physically and literally), it's quite hard to refuse a hug from him.

#Star Speaks #Ask #Lovers of Aether #LoA #Psycha #S/I #Coolness #This had some display issues on desktop tumblr but I think I've fixed it. At least now I can see the ask.#That said... if someone as gentle as Psycha would offer you a hug... wouldn't you accept it?#I know I would!#He's just so S O F T ! ! !

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kooks3uphoria · 5 years ago

Text

A/N: I’m gonna be honest and say that it’s been a hard week and I wrote this for the sake of putting something out for you guys. I don’t really have a title for it. The plot is kinda non-existent and I don’t really know where I was going with this. I have a list of ideas that i want to write about but I’m not really getting any feedback which obviously isn’t required or anything but I just don’t know if you guys are enjoying what I put out and it’s kinda making me lose the want to write.

Anyways, Jungkook is kinda shy in this? Gets a little bold at the end but goes back to being a soft baby. I don’t really have a description cause I don’t know how to summarize whats going on. This wont be going on my masterlist until i figure out what to call it but I hope you enjoy!

You weren’t necessarily someone who looked for trouble but it always managed to find you. Whether it’s in the form of a fight or just sticking up for the people you care for, you were always the winner in those scenarios. This led to the label of “bad girl” being slapped on your forehead and is now what you’re known as in college. Almost everyone at your college knew about you and were warned not to get on your bad side. All the stories circling around campus along with your resting bitch face made it easy to believe. Only a selected few knew about what happened the night you were officially deemed a certified bad bitch but everyone else knew from past or more recent stories.

Out of all of the stories you and your friends have heard, the most popular one by far was the one where you snatched a girls weave off during a fight and proceeded to bash her bare head in outside a club. the problem with that is that it was the only part of the story that everyone talked about. If people knew what happened prior to you beating her ass into a bloody pulp, they would’ve thought it was standing in your friend’s defence which turned physical. It wasn’t your fault she was basically trying to sexually assault one of your best friends.

The night started off fine. You went out to drink with a couple of friends. You, Lisa, Rosé, Wendy, Hoseok and Jimin were all seated at the bar. You were all laughing and chatting until this girl came up to Hoseok. She got really touchy with him while they started talking. Hoseok was too nice for his own good and couldn’t outright tell her to stop when he started feeling uncomfortable. He was trying to subtly push her hands away but this girl just couldn’t take the hint. It was when her hands dipped down and rested on top of his crotch that he started looking around desperately. Luckily for him, you were watching the whole time, not getting a good vibe from this girl the moment she walked over. When he looked over at you, you were already looking at him and the panic that shined in his eyes was your cue to step in.

Things got physical fast and the whole beating her head thing occurred after the two of you shared a couple of colourful words. Both Jimin and Hoseok managed to pull you off of her before you all left her. Videos were recorded and shared but other than that nothing happened since it was considered another catfight.

While most of the other stories were tamer than this one, it didn’t stop you from getting scared looks from the girls and heart eyes from the guys. To put it simply, the girls were scared of you and the guys wanted a bad bitch on their arms to flaunt. You couldn’t care less about them. You were just trying to get to your 8 am class without actually giving in to the idea of dropping out. Not that you were a bad student or anything but these professors started getting on your nerves.

You walked through the door and took a seat closer to the back of the lecture hall. You were sipping your coffee with your eyes closed when you felt someone sit down beside you. You opened one of your eyes to see that Jimin was the person who occupied the seat next to you.

“Are you coming to the game with us tonight?” Jimin asked, motioning toward Lisa and Wendy.

“I mean like, I guess I’ll go. Hoseok already asked me to go to the last couple of games he had and I didn’t show cause I was binging Greys Anatomy so I guess I have to go,” you said, throwing your head back at the thought of having to go out tonight.

“Well, Yoongi is the captain of the team so I have to go to support and these two want to go just to look at the other guys on the team so,” Jimin said, trailing off at the end. You let out a little scoff.

“Wow, when did you start dating again? Like last week? And already going to his games? Jimin’s whipped!” you said loudly so that others around you could hear. This earned you a smack on the arm by Jimin, a couple of eyes looking over to the two of you and chuckles from both Lisa and Wendy. Just as Jimin was about to retaliate, the professor walked in and the sound of her painfully monotoned voice reverberated through the room.

It was currently 5:30 pm and the game starts at six. You were definitely going to be late but better late than never. You put on an oversized hoodie and a pair of black skinny jeans before throwing some slides on and walking out the door with your phone and keys in your hand. If you took the bus, you could get there in 15 minutes but just like any other college student, you were broke and walked to save a couple of dollars for your next meal. You got there a little after six and found your friends quickly since they were the loudest ones there and were seated in the very front.

You took a seat next to Rosé and took your phone out. You were going to start scrolling through your Instagram feed but the crowd suddenly went crazy. You looked up and saw Hoseok hanging off the rim of the net. Your eyes widened at the realization of what just happened. Putting your phone back into your pocket, you stood up and joined your friends cheering. You felt a pair of eyes on you and your eyes scanned the bleachers before scanning the court. You eventually locked eyes with the point guard, who shyly looked away after getting caught. You don’t know why but you felt a little tingle of sorts in your stomach and couldn’t figure out what it was.

Once the game was over, you and your friends waited by their locker rooms for them to come out. For some reason, the whole team came out at the same time. Usually, they would trickle out one by one so you were surprised when all 14 of them walked out the door. When hoseok walked out the door, his eyes lit up when he saw you. You made your way through the people and threw your hands up for a hug.

“Who knew little Hobi could be so good at ball? You’ve gotten better since the last time I saw you play,” you cooed, pinching his cheek. He scoffed and pushed your hand away.

“Yea, that’s because the last time you saw me play was like the first game of the season,” you shrugged at his words as the others came over to congratulate Hoseok.

You separated yourself from the group and pulled out your phone. Before you could turn it on, you felt someone’s presence nearing you. You looked up to find the little doe-eyed point guard making his way towards you. The tingles in your stomach returned and a smile made its way on your face. You barely even know this kid so why is he able to make you feel this way? From the brief stories Hoseok told you, occasionally seeing him on campus and in some of your classes, you knew of him but never spoke.

“Hey,” he greeted you. Even though he was on the basketball team he didn’t carry the same cocky attitude some of the other players sported.

“Hey,” You said, tucking some of your hair behind your ear.

“It’s really nice that you came out to support Hoseok hyung today. He played a lot better today, probably cause his girlfriend came,” He said chuckling. Your eyes widened at his words.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” You said way faster and louder than you wanted to. This earned you a couple of weird looks from your friends and some of the members of the team.

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume but the hug you gave him when he came out and you pinching his cheek like that, it...it just kinda made me think that you were together since-,” you chuckled at his rambling. You could see the panic in his eyes.

“You don’t have to explain. He’s one of my closest friends but we aren’t like that. I just tease him like that,” you cut him off. Jungkook was about to say something but was cut off once again, this time by Hoseok who threw his arm over his shoulder.

“Jungkook, I see you’ve met (Y/N). She’s kind of stupid so I wouldn’t recommend hanging out with her for long periods of time just in case she kills your brain cells-” Hoseok rambling was cut short by a smack at the side of his head, courtesy of you. You were now in a glaring match with Hoseok. Your attention was quickly drawn away from said man when you heard the most heavenly sound. Your eyes softened at the sight of Jungkook letting out little giggles at you two.

“Well anyways, me and (Y/N) have to go since she promised me ice cream after the game,”

“I never promised you shi-”

“Jungkook, would you like to come,” well, that shut you up. You both looked at said man, waiting for an answer. Jungkook smiled softly at you before answering.

“I would love to,” you felt your lips curling up in a smile.

“But my grandmother is actually in the hospital right now and I promised I would visit her today,” your smile dropped at the fact that he couldn’t come with you but your heart warmed at how sweet he was.

“Oh, sorry to hear that. Is she alright?” you asked. As bad as it sounds, if it was anyone else, you wouldn’t care enough to ask.

“She’s fine. She had a minor surgery earlier this week but she isn’t allowed to leave until a couple of days from now,” Jungkook said scratching the back of his neck. Usually, you were very good at keeping your emotions to yourself and keeping your poker face on at all times but right now, anyone could clearly see how soft you were turning for this boy.

“Hope she has a smooth recovery dude, but we should get going,” Hoseok said, now throwing his arm over your shoulder.

“Oh yeah, of course. Sorry again for not being able to join you guys,”

“Don’t worry about it. Next time, yeah?” You said to which he nodded back. You all said your goodbyes and went your separate ways. You friends left together and Jimin left with his new boyfriend, which left you and Hoseok to go and get ice cream by yourselves.

“Jungkookie huh?” Hoseok said, smirk on his face, not even looking at you. You scoffed.

“What about him?” you said, down at the flavours on display.

“Come on (Y/N), we’ve been friends for how long? I think I know when my best friend likes someone,”

“How could I possibly like him? This was the first time I’ve talked to him,” you don’t know why you’re getting so defensive all of a sudden but the idea of Jungkook made your stomach churn.

“A lot can happen when you first talk to someone. Don’t deny it. There’s no use. I see right through you,” before you could say anything, the worker behind the counter asked for your orders.

You couldn’t sleep well that night. Hoseok’s words ringing through your head.

~~~~

The next day, you woke up with a pounding headache. Was it the fact that you only got 3 hours of sleep? Possibly. Was it the fact that you went to sleep with wet hair? Doubt it but whatever. You rolled out of bed and got ready for your 10 am lecture. You walked into Starbucks for your regular order of overpriced caffeine. What you weren’t expecting this morning was to run into Jungkook. He saw you walk in and your eyes went from barely opened to wide and alert. There was a person between the two of you in line but Jungkook let him cut in front of him so he would stand beside you.

“Hey! How are you?” he asked sweetly. You returned his smile.

“Could be better. My head is pounding,” you said, letting your eyes fall closed for a second. When your eyes reopened it was met with a concerned-looking Jungkook.

“Do you want some medicine? I think I have some Advil in my bag,” he said. Not waiting for a reply, he swung his bag over to his front and began looking through it. He pulled out a small bottle of pills and handed it to you.

“Thank you Jungkook, but I don’t have any water or anything,” you said letting out a little chuckle, scratching the back of your head. He nodded before rummaging through his bag again, this time pulling out a plastic water bottle, opening it and then handing it too you. You smiled at him and quickly downed two pills. Once you were done, it was your turn to order. Jungkook ordered an iced caramel macchiato while you ordered an iced vanilla latte. Jungkook looked through his bag for his wallet to pay but you beat him to it, paying with the card you connected to your phone. The girl handed you a receipt and you grabbed Jungkooks arm, pulling him out of the way.

“You didn’t have to pay for me,” he said with a little pout on his lips since you wasted your money on him.

“Don’t worry about it. Think of it as a thank you for the Advil,” you said smiling at him. He seemed reluctant at first but said his thanks anyways. You got your drinks and began walking towards the lecture hall. The both of you talked the whole journey there and you were a little sad when he walked in the other direction towards the rooms his lecture was in. You sighed but walked into your lecture.

Halfway through your lecture, your phone vibrated against your thigh. You took it out of your pocket and saw it was an unknown number.

647-***-****

Hey

It’s Jungkook

I asked Hobi hyung for your number

I hope you don’t mind

You quickly saved his contact and texted him for the remainder of the lesson. Rosé tried looking over your shoulder a couple of times but you always leaned away when she did. It’s not like you were doing anything wrong by texting him. You just didn’t need your friends in your business right now. Once they know, the teasing would never stop.

~~~~

You and Jungkook ended up hanging out a lot throughout the month. By the end of the first week, you guys made it a habit to meet at Starbucks and walk together.

It was currently Saturday and you and Jungkook decided to meet at the Starbucks and get some work done down there. You were sitting at opposite sides of the table sipping your coffee and finishing some work when Jungkook decided to speak.

“You know, you’re nothing like how they describe you,” You roll your eyes at his statement.

“What did you think I was going to be like?” you asked, shutting your laptop.

“Well, after everything I’ve heard, I thought you were going to be cold. I was honestly reluctant to speak to you the day of the game,” he said chuckling.

“Everything they say about me is taken out of context. They never know what happens before or after the situation. They only care that I’ve gotten into some pretty nasty fights,” he proceeded to name some of the stories that he’s heard, which you cleared up, explaining what led to them.

“How about the time you got into it with Sana?” You laughed at the memory.

“That one doesn’t have a story. To be honest, she just really annoyed me and something she said that day ticked me off,” Jungkook chuckled at your honesty. You really didn’t want to listen to Hoseok but maybe you did like Jungkook. Gosh, it’s barely been a month and you think you like this guy. What has happened to you? You literally haven’t taken interest in anyone after your sophomore year in high school.

Eventually, you and Jungkook parted ways and you made your way back to your apartment. When you unlocked the door, you weren’t that surprised to see Hoseok lounging on your couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. He looked at you when he heard the door opening and waved you over. You sat down beside him and grabbed some popcorn, looking over at the T.V to see what he was watching. I

“Where were you?” he asked, pausing the movie.

“I was at Starbucks with Jungkook,” he smirked at you, wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive way. You gave him a little shove as your cheeks flushed with pink.

“I might actually like him Hoseok. What do I do?” you groaned out. Hoseok looks at you with wide eyes. He teased you for liking him but he didn’t think you would actually admit it. After what happened to you during your sophomore year, he really didn’t think that you would ever date again. You spent a whole 2 weeks crying to him after that breakup. You’ve sworn off boys ever since. It was a scary topic for you. You were hurt so badly by what happened. It felt like someone ripped your heart out of your chest and stomped on it.

The more you thought about your feelings, the more anxious you got. Eventually, you felt like you couldn’t breathe. You felt tears prickling at your eyes, threatening to fall. Hoseok saw and set the popcorn on the table before wrapping his arms around you. His cheek rested on the top of your head as you cried.

“Look, I know Jungkook alright. Even though he hasn’t said anything, I know he likes you. I see the way he looks at you when you briefly visit us during our practices. He wouldn’t do what that dumbass did to you all those years back. Don’t cry, baby. You’ll be fine. I’ll be with you through everything and if he does anything, I’ll rip his balls off myself,” his words calmed you. You couldn’t help but chuckle at his empty threat. What would you do without Hoseok?

~~~~

You found yourself sitting across from Jungkook once again today. You guys made it a weekly thing now. A couple of months have passed and although you don’t know if Jungkook feels the same, you’ve been falling deeper and deeper into this hole of feelings for the guy. Hoseok always said it was obvious how much he likes you but you didn’t want to get your hopes up too high.

You were writing down some notes when you felt a pair of eyes on you. You looked up and saw that Jungkook was staring at you. On normal days, he would immediately look away, but today, he kept eye contact with you. Before he could stop himself, the words fell from his lips.

“How are you so beautiful?” when he processed what he said, his eyes went wide and he looked away. You felt your cheeks heating up at his words and your hand came up to your face to try and cool it down. You didn’t look back up yet but you heard Jungkook mutter out a little ‘fuck it’.

“(Y/N),” you looked up as he called your name. He hesitated for a second before saying,

“I know we haven’t known each other for long but I really like you,” he said in one breathe. Your breath hitched. You sat there staring at him for a while. The silence he was met with was killing him. He did it. He ruined your blossoming friendship. He started frantically packing his things, trying to save himself the humiliation when you finally grew some balls and spoke.

“I really like you to Jungkook,” you said, giving him a small smile. His movements halted and he looked at you with wide eyes.

“Please let me take you out on a proper date,”

“I would love that,” you honestly don’t think you’ve ever smiled so big in your life.

~~~~~

All that could be heard through the apartment was squealing, mostly coming from Hoseok and Lisa. Jimin rosé and Wendy were silently jumping up and down at your news.

“So where are you guys going? What’s the vibe we’re going for? Sluty or casual? Are we trying to seduce him or?” Wendy asked. She was about to continue but was cut off by rosé.

“She’s going on a date, not to a club you idiot. She has to look nice but not like she put in hours of work into herself. We have to wait until at least the third date to seduce him,” the three girls dragged you to your room.

While rosé was picking out what you were going to wear for the night, Wendy worked on your makeup and Lisa was figuring out what to do with your hair.

You walked out of your room about an hour later and saw jimin and hoseok laid out on your couch, phones in hand. Lisa coughed from behind you and both their heads shot up.

“Wow, who’s this gorgeous little lady?” Jimin said, getting up to grab your hand and spinning you.

You were wearing some skinny jeans with a black tube top and Lisa’s jean jacket you stole from her a couple of months ago. It wasn’t anything special but you also didn’t sport your usual bum look. Your hair was slightly curled and you had very natural makeup on. Hoseok didn’t have time to compliment you as you heard a knock on the door. Hoseok walked you to the door while the others hid in your living room. You opened the door as Hoseok stood behind you.

The door swung open and there jungkook stood in all his glory. He was wearing black jeans, a white shirt with a leather jacket on top. It was simple but he looked so good. The both of you stood there for a while just looking at each other before Hoseok broke the silence.

“Have her back by 10:30. No later or I will hunt you down Jeon. Have fun sweets,” with his final words, hoseok shoves you out the door and slammed the door in your face.

“You look great,” he said shyly.

“You do too,” offering him a smile, you held out your hand. He quickly grabbed hold of it and laced your fingers together.

He ended up bringing you to the movies. He bought tickets to the newest marvel movie that came out. You didn’t have a problem with it since you wanted to see it too. You tried paying for the snacks since he paid for the tickets but he didn’t let you. Saying and I quote, “Can’t let the lady pay on the first date. That’s rude and I’m a gentleman” you rolled your eyes at his statement but just went with it. The movie was good. You and Jungkook share little whispers and giggles throughout the movie. You were honestly surprised you guys didn’t get shushed.

When you came out, the both of you flinched at the light coming from the street lamps. Your hands never left each other’s for long. Jungkook insisted on walking you back home and on your way, you guys passed an ice cream shop. You ended up dragging him in with you. You managed to convince him to let you pay for it and you guys walked out hand in hand and cones in the other. You ended up going for a stroll in the local park.

“You wanna try some of mine?” You asked, seeing him eye your cone. His eyes brightened and he nodded enthusiastically. Chuckling, you brought your cone up to his mouth and he slurped obnoxiously at the ice cream. You rolled your eyes before bringing it back and licking it to fix the now deformed part of the ice cream. Finishing your ice cream, you somehow ended up in a game of tag with Jungkook. The both of you running around the open space like children. You were running at full speed, not looking back but jungkook was right on your tail. Grabbing a hold of your waist he pulled you back, towards him. You lost your footing and felt yourself falling. You closed your eyes preparing for the impact but it never came. You opened your eyes and saw jungkook looking down at you with his little bunny smile on his face. Your arms made their way up his chest and around his neck as he pulled you up, his hands remaining on your waist.

“Can I kiss you?” He asked, looking right into your eyes. Not being able to form words, you nodded and before you knew it, his lips were on yours. His lips were soft and sweet with the remaining flavour of his ice cream. You pulled him closer, before pulling away for air. Looking into his eyes made you nervous so you rested your forehead on his chest. You felt the vibrations in his chest as he chuckled. He wrapped his arms around you and the two of you stayed like that for a while, just basking in each other’s company.

You walked back to your apartment hand in hand, with the biggest smiles on both your faces. When you made it to your apartment complex, the two of you stopped outside the lobby.

“Thank you jungkook. For everything. I had a lot of fun,” you said, standing in front of him. His hands slid out of yours and settled on the dip of your waist, pulling you in for a hug.

“Is this a bad time to ask if you want to be my girlfriend?” You blush at his words, shaking your head against his chest. He pulled away from you and grabbed both of your hands in his.

“Give me the pleasure of calling you mine?” The blush never left your cheeks as you nodded. Jungkook walked you up to your unit and before you could even pull out your keys, your door swung open all of your friends standing in the doorway.

“You’re very late,” Hoseok said.

“We were worried sick!” Jimin called from behind the crowd. You pulled out your phone and looked at the time.

“It’s 10:37 you pieces of shit,”

“Still! I said 10:30!” You were going to smack Hoseok.

“Sorry hyung. It was my fault,” jungkook said even though he did nothing wrong and your friends were just stupid.

“Damn right it’s your fault. I was about to call the police!” Lisa called out. You rolled your eyes. You felt yourself getting spun around and were face to face with jungkook again.

“Sorry I got you home late babe. I’m gonna go before Hoseok hyung actually beats me up,” he said chuckling, leaning down to peck your lips before waving to your friends and turning on his heel, walking towards the elevator. You waited for him to walk into the elevator before turning around. All your friends stood there, jaw dropped.

“Go inside you idiots,” you said, pushing them all inside. You spent the night telling them all the details of your date. Squeals were bouncing off your walls all night, you were surprised you didn’t get any complaints. They all left your place around 3 in the morning giving you time to wash up and go to bed.

The next day, you got up and got ready for your 10 am lecture. You walked out of your apartment with sweats and a sweater on. Your hair was in a messy bun and your bag slung over your shoulder. You were rubbing your eyes as you walked out the lobby.

“Wow (Y/N), is this how you treat your boyfriend?” You stopped in your tracks. Your head whipped around and you were met with jungkook staring back at you with amusement in his eyes. He walked up to your shocked form and grabbed your hand.

“Come on babe, we don’t want to be late,” he said, dragging you out the door. You and Jungkook walked together all the time but this was the first time you walked in hand in hand. You got looks from everyone. Some looked at the two of you in jealousy and others in shock. Jungkook gave you a little peck before you parted ways.

~~~~~

“My game is tomorrow night. You’re coming right?” Jungkook said, looking down at you as the two of you cuddled on your couch.

“Of course. I’ll be right at the front so you better do good,” you said, poking his cheek. He gave you a little chuckle before you two focused back on the movie that was playing on the T.V.

You looked up at jungkook, admiring his profile. You don’t remember the last time you were so happy with someone. Jungkook made you feel like yourself. He made you feel like you were floating on a cloud. You have been dating for a little over a week and it has been the best week you’ve had in a while. You don’t need any more time to know that you’re utterly in love with this man.

~~~~

It was the night of the game and you actually got there early. You walked through the big gym doors and saw the boys practicing. They waved as they saw you. Jungkook ran over to give you a quick peck before going back to practice. Hoseok looked at you in bewilderment since you were one of the first people to get there. Your eyes followed Jungkook as he ran around, doing drills to prepare for the game for a while before you pulled out your phone. The rest of your friends eventually made their way into the gym and sat in the seats you saved for them.

“Look who’s here early. What did you say the other day about someone being whipped?” Jimin teased to which you rolled your eyes. You would retaliate but there was nothing to deny. You were whipped for this guy and you couldn’t say anything about it.

The game went smoothly and your boys won. You all decided to go out for dinner as a celebration for winning. You were sat in between jungkook and jimin at the Korean BBQ place you guys went to. Even though you were fully capable of grilling your own meat, jungkook insisted he do it and he ended up piling towers of meat onto your plate. You all had a great time but you were beginning to get annoyed at these girls sitting a couple of tables down from you. They were loud and obnoxious but the reason they were really beginning to piss you off was because one of the girls sitting there was eyeing up your boyfriend. You were going to get up and say something but Both Jungkook and Jimin told you to just ignore it.

Once all of you were done, you paid and left. The bunch of you were talking and joking around in front of the Korean BBQ place when the group of girls that annoyed you walked out. You were to busy laughing at something Hoseok said you didn’t realize the girl that had been eyeing Jungkook the whole night made her way over to him. Your laugh died down at the sight of this bitch sliding her hand down the length of Jungkook's arm. You stood there for a second, the anger building as Jungkokk did nothing to stop her. When you saw her place her hand on his chest, giggling at something he said, your body moved on it’s own and you walked over there, placing yourself in between the two.

“Someone should really teach you how to keep your hands to yourself and off my boyfriend” you said, grabbing her wrist and throwing her hand off your man.

“You’re his girlfriend? Pft. He could do better,” you couldn’t even describe how close you were to swinging at her.

“Call me when you’re ready for a good time sweets,” she said, using her hand to signal a phone. She gave him a wink before turning around. Your body moved fast and before you could stop yourself, your hand was gripping her hair and yanking down, making her fall to the ground. People around you have stopped to watch the scene play out. She was sat on the floor, hands grabbing at the hand that still securely held on to her hair.

“Say that shit again bitch. See what happens,” your grip only tightened as she screamed out in pain.

“Let go you crazy bitch!” This would’ve been bashing a bitches head in 2.0 if it weren’t for Jungkook snaking his arm around your waist, calming you down. You eventually let go and her friends helped her up before they all ran off. You let out a sigh and blew your hair out of your face. Jungkook turned you around so you were now face to face with him. He was sporting a little smirk on his face.

“Damn, was my baby girl jealous?” You scoffed at him.

“Wouldn’t need to be if you didn’t let her feel you up like that,” you were honestly over it and pushed yourself out of his grip, proceeding to walk back to your apartment. So much for having a good night.

~~~

You didn’t go to class the next day. You didn’t want to see him. You know it was childish. Skipping classes to avoid a boy but you felt a little bit of your heart crumble last night. Especially when he didn’t bother coming after you.

You were chilling in your room the whole day, only coming out to get food. It was about 5 pm when you heard a knock at the door. You didn’t invite anyone over and you didn’t order any food so who was it? You tiptoed to the door in case it was jungkook. If it was then you could just tiptoe back to your room and act as if you weren’t home. At the sight of his face through the peephole, you were about to do just that but looking down at the flowers in his hands made your heart melt. Even though you felt soft at how cute he was, you willed yourself to put on a mad face as you open the door. You were easy to crack though. His little smile as he held out the flowers for you to take broke you.

“I’m sorry baby. I’m sorry I let her do that. I should’ve shoved her off right when she started. I’m terrible and I feel gross letting her touch me like that. Will you forgive me?” His smile dropped as a look of disappointment appeared in his face. You hate how this man is able to break down your walls so easily. You were supposed to be mad! How did he make you feel bad about this? His expression made your heart hurt.

You walked out and slid your arms around his torso, resting your head on his chest. He let out a sigh before you felt him wrap his arms around you and his head rest against yours.

“I guess I’ll forgive you. But you have to cuddle me tonight. All night. That’s your punishment,” he chuckled at your words.

“Jokes on your babe. I was planning to do that anyways,”

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julemmaes · 5 years ago

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My saviour

“I’m the kid who never pays attention in class and you’re the one who always gives me the answer when the teacher calls on me” AU

A Matthew Fairchild and Lucie Herondale Modern Day School AU

Okay this is the very first time I write something like this, but I really enjoyed writing it, so if you’d like to read more (because for some insane reasons you liked my writing) let me know and feel free to send me a ship and a prompt. It could be anything from shadowhunters to acotar to tog.

If you find any mistakes in the language PLEASE LET ME KNOW, because as you can say from my bio, English is not my first language and I’d really appreciate constructive criticism.

That’s all, now go enjoy Matthew being a dork:)

Word count: 2,994

“Mr Fairchild? Perhaps you would like to be escorted to Miss Fray’s classroom? Perhaps you would draw in a more comfortable position.”

Matthew’s head snapped at the name of his favorite art teacher. He sat up straight, realizing that the gaze of twenty boys was fixed on him. He smiled at the teacher, putting the pencil on the desk and shrugging, “No Miss Wrayburn. I was listening, I am so interested in your lectures that sometimes I get lost in historical stories and I like to illustrate them.” He ended with a sly smile, resting his chin on his hands. Miss Wrayburn, noted for her severity as a history teacher, smiled in return, placing her book on the chair and crossing her arms on the chest.

“So if I asked you what happened between June 19th and 20th, 1944 in the Pacific you would be able to answer me?” She asked her and smiled at him with the same sarcasm. Matthew began to sweat: he had already brought home two very bad grades that week, if he brought a third one, his mother Charlotte would surely have sent him to a private school, and it would have been a suicide. Think Math, think. 1944, World War II, Japan, Roosevelt. His thoughts were interrupted by the small voice of the girl beside him, “The Battle of the Philippine Sea”, whispered with one hand in front of her mouth to avoid being seen by the teacher. Matthew stilled on the chair, before coughing and repeating what his classmate had just suggested. Wrayburn seemed surprised and tilting her head asked him one more question, but he had completely lost the thread.

The girl who sat next to him was beautiful. A stunning beauty. The locks of dark brown hair fell on her shoulders like waves and surrounded her delicate white face. The eyes of a pale blue were moving frantically, looking first at him and then at the blackboard, where the teacher was writing three important events of the war between the USA and Japan. He collected himself, looking again at the girl, before the teacher called him one more time, asking him to put into chronological order the battles she just wrote down. He answered quietly with the help of the girl and when Wrayburn considered it sufficient enough not to put a bad grade, going back to explain to the class, Matthew could finally bask in the beauty sitting next to him.

Her writing was so delicate and at the same time… ferocious. Yes, he was going to describe it as ferocious, as if writing were something that she did very often and gladly. Plus, she seemed to be writing down everything the teacher said, without missing a single thing. He wanted to introduce himself, but he didn’t know how to do it without disturbing her. Because she looked like the kind of student who would bite your head off if she lost the theacher’s train of thoughts.

He looked around again for the answer, as if looking at the door or at thewindow, the idea would appear in front of him. And that’s exaclty what happened.

He took a blank piece of paper and started scribbling something. The design took shape and a golden retriver appeared (which tremendously reminded Matthew of Mr Oscar Wilde, his dog) with a blonde hair like his and a sparkling green leash. Satisfied with his work he made a small cartoon over the dog that said “Pleased to meet you, I’m Matthew, but you can call me Math. Thanks for the rescue, could you help me with one last question I absolutely need to know the answer to cause my school career could be at risk if I don’t?”

He moved slightly away from the desk to see the final result and nodded smugly, bent the paper in two, before sliding it slowly towards the girl’s desk. As expected, she did not pay him much attention before the ringing of the bell and even after, as she collected all her things and put them quickly in the bag, she didn’t notice the drawing, putting it together with the rest of her notes. Matthew was about to walk to her and ask her what her name was in person, but as soon as he got up, he found himself in front of Thomas Lightwood, his lifelong best friend and the kindest person he knew. He passed him without ceremony to see if the girl was always in the class, but by now the only ones left were the two of them and the students of the next class were already entering and sitting at the desks.

He snorted taking his stuff and starting to walk next to Tom, headed to the science lab. An nudge from his friend made him turn his head in his direction, eyebrow raised as a question.

“Don’t make that face, you haven’t lost her. She’s with us in science. Has been for years actually.” he said putting his arm around him. Thomas was almost twenty centimeters taller than him, he was close to two meters, and he was huge. Last summer, he had put on more muscle mass than he liked to admit, and it had gotten even bigger.

“I wasn’t thinking I lost her, I just wanted to know her name. She saved my ass earlier, I could always buy her a coffee, you know, to thank her.” He reached his locker, trying to end the conversation, but Thomas didn’t feel the same way, “Sure, and Kit doesn’t blow up his house at least three times a week”; he giggled at his own joke before bringing a hand to scratch his neck. “Although, I have to be honest, I’d like to see you on a date with Jesse Blackthorn’s girlfriend.”

Matthew snorted posing the never-used book of history, and taking the unharmed one of science. Obviously she had a boyfriend. And of course it had to be Jesse fucking Blackthorn. Turning to Tom with a whipped dog face, he asked him if he was joking.

“Oh no, not at all. They’ve been together for a while, but like, just two years, and the fact that you don’t know they’re together is worrying. The whole school knows this.” he answered him as soon as they arrived at Thomas' locker, where the same ritual was repeated for the billionth time.

“I have to remind you that I don’t really give a shit about the people who are in this building or do I have to connect the dots for you?” Math asked leaning against the wall again. He was dead tired and they were only at the second hour. Thinking he was gonna stay in that place till four o'clock got his stomach twisted.

Thomas laughed and the conversation ended there. They saw Christopher outside the chemistry labs, tinkering with giant tomes and test tubes, while Mr Fairchild, Matthew’s father, tried to help him as much as he could without dropping anything. They didn’t have the time to get close enough that from inside the classroom someone was shouting and they both rushed to rescue anyone who had made two wrong substances react.

Tom and Math entered the biology classroom, taking place in the second-to-last row. A few minutes later the girl of history class entered. She sat down at the desk behind Matthew’s, who was about to turn around when the teacher came in, blocking his every initiative. The lesson began immediately and the boy could hear her pen running fast on the paper. He took out the necessary to draw and got lost in his world again and again and again. Until Tom hit him on the arm and he turned to his friend, asking what the hell he wanted.

“What the hell do I want? Well, Mr Fairchild, if you answer this question correctly, I might consider not failing you at my subject.” He couldn’t believe it. Not again. Matthew turned slowly to the teacher, reducing his lips to a thin line, waiting for the question that would end his life.

“If the function of ribosomes is selectively blocked in a cell, what do you immediately stop, Mr Fairchild?” Professor fade asked severely. He was ready to say that no one in that cabbage class would know the answer, but the voice of his guardian angel was as clear as light behind his back, “The translation.”

“The translation, professor.”

“Translation of what, Matthew?”

“Of RNA,”; she told him, once more.

“Of RNA, sir.” he nodded, seemed convinced of what he was saying, and sighed with relief when the lesson resumed undisturbed. He turned slightly, smiling at the girl from above his shoulder. She was staring at him and in her left hand, reaching out to him, she was holding a folded piece of paper. He took it without the teacher noticing and opened it discreetly. In the corner of his eye he saw Thomas trying to spy on what was written on the paper.

When he saw it was his drawing, his chest swelled. Next to her dog there now was a little blue bird, with her wings folded on her hips, so she looked angry. It wasn’t as pretty as his dog, and it looked like it had been drawn in a hurry, but it was very cute, and above it the inscription “What, do I have to save you again?” was clear in her perfect handwriting.

He had to refrain from laughing, because the drawing was most likely done right after the history lesson, so this would be the third time that Matthew needed to be saved.

He started drawing again, this time making a kitten trying to catch the bird from below, with the phrase “Don’t worry, this is quite simple. What’s your name?” He could have easily asked Thomas and he would have answered him in less than a second. When he put his arm back and felt that the paper was being taken from his hand, he smiled, beginning to mind his own business once again. Only when the bell announcing the end of classes rang did he realize that the only color he had used during that time was blue.

“My name is Lucie, Lucie Herondale. But you can call me Luce.” He saw a thin, pale hand appear in his field of vision, and he almost jumped out of the chair. He raised his head and shook her hand. He smiled in the only way he knew, with his dazzling charm, and when he spoke, the voice came out like a shrill sound, “I am-” he coughed several times, while Lucie giggled and there, behind her, was Thomas, eyes wide open, holding a hand to his mouth to avoid bursting into laughter, “You’re Matthew, yeah, I already know.” she smiled at him.

“Yeah, yeah. The dog. It’s mine. I thought it’d be cute and wanted to thank you for all these rescues. My mother would kill me if she found out that I didn’t study anything and I-” he was interrupted by the voice of someone who had just appeared on the classroom door. A boy as tall as him, with black hair and the eyes of a spooky, pungent green, was extending his hand toward her, while with the other one he was balancing himself on the door, “Lulu let’s go, Jamie and Grace are waiting for us in front of your locker.” He looked away from her to Matthew and vice versa a couple of times before smiling shily at the two boys.

Lucie turned to Jesse Blackthorn and with a movement of her head made him understand that she would be there in a minute.

“Of course, there’s no problem. I’d rather help people than see them fail.” she said turning to Math again, “See you in class, I guess.” She smiled at him one last time and, putting her hands in her pockets, went out, following her boyfriend into the crowded hallway.

Matthew remained with his waving hand raised in the air until Thomas' laugh awoke him from his trance. He looked at his friend, pushed him sideways to pass him, and unceremoniously he told him to fuck off.

“C’mon Math. It was ridiculous. Pathetic. Humiliating. I can laugh sometimes, right?”

“Why? With me you don’t laugh enough?” Christopher asked by appearing at Thomas' side out of nowhere.

“Jesus Kit, where did you come from?” said Thomas bringing a hand to his chest.

“From the chemistry lab, of course. By the way, Math,” he said addressing the blond one, “your father wanted to know if you’d eat at home tonight and I told him we were going out. Cause we do go, right? It is Friday and tomorrow mom and dad won’t be here, so I can go back anytime I want tonight.” Thomas was already nodding, starting to think in his little head the worst ways to risk their lives. Matthew was trying so hard not to think about Lucie Herondale, and that kept him from not being able to do so.

What an idiot he was. And that sound? Where did that voice come from? He was sure she was telling her perfect boyfriend right now how this dumb classmate who didn’t know shit had trouble controlling his fucking vocal cords.

“What’s going on in that empty head of yours?” Anna Lightwood. Thomas' cousin and Christopher’s sister, but also Matthew’s faithful friend, was dressed exactly like him that day, which made her pout, “Classy. But I have to say that they look better on me.” she smiled widely, taking him and Kit arm in arm, and heading for the next lesson.

Luckily, Matthew thought, we all have art together. That was his hour of leisure, even though he normally did nothing different, but at least he would get compliments from Miss Fray, or how he called her, Clary. He had met his art teacher outside the school, in fact it was he who had told her that their old teacher would retire and that there was a vacant chair. They had become close friends during a painting course and when he met her at school he had felt nothing but immense happiness.

“Our Matthew impressed some cute girl today.” said Thomas in the tone of someone who’s been around. Anna suddenly stopped in the hallway, staring at him with gaping mouth.

“And let’s hear, who would be the lucky one?” she asked, again walking. Christopher seemed interested, too, but not as much as his sister, who looked like a child on Christmas morning.

“Nobody.” answered Matthew at the same time as Thomas said, “Lucie Herondale.”

“Are you kidding? But you know he’s with Blackthorn, right?” She asked him in astonishment, as she glared him, as if he were the only fool in the world who did not know which couples were in this stupid school.

“Yes I know, and I didn’t impress, we just talked because she saved my ass a couple of times.”

They continued to speak even after entering the art lab and even during the lesson. Matthew was surprised when he noticed that the teacher pretended not to listen when she passed by them, but that she tended her ear to eavesdrop better.

The next lesson would be that of literature, without any of his friends, and thinking of having to spend a whole hour without Tom or Kit made him feel sick, but maybe today he could do it. A rest hour after all the comments and jokes Thomas made would have done him good.

He sat at the usual place and with a pleasant surprise noticed that on the other side of the class was Lucie. She was chatting with a redheaded girl who had little dark skin. Matthew remembered she was one of the newcomers and that she had a particular name, Carla… Carlotta perhaps. Consuela.

He began to stare at his hands with a thoughtful glare.

How was it possible that in all those years he had never noticed her? How was it possible that they had so many classes in common that they never spoke? He looked up once more to look at her and noticed that she had moved into the desk next to his and her friend sat right in front of her. He greeted them both with a broad smile.

“Hey Math, this is Cordelia. She’s from Paris. Cordelia, this is Matthew.” He smiled at him and Matthew’s world was once again a little happier.

“I’m actually from London, but I’ve been living in Paris for the last five years.” Cordelia explained before paying attention to Miss Loss, who had just entered. A strange fellow, Catarina Loss.

She had the skin of a cadaveric white, and the hair was of a sky blue so bright that sometimes Matthew would get lost staring at them by how much it was intense.

He heard a comment from Lucie about his memory-loss episodes and laughed silently, starting to scribble on the desk.

Twenty minutes passed before the obvious happened, “Fairchild, who wrote Songs of Innocence and Experience?” They can’t be serious, Matthew looked briefly in Lucie’s direction and she giggled before miming with her lips Wlliam Blake. Matthew almost laughed when he began to speak, but after that the teacher immediately left him alone. Cordelia also seemed amused, because she looked at him from above her shoulder smiling and returning to the reading shortly after.

He stared at Lucie, and thought that if anyone saw him they would think he was a pervert, because she turned to him, probably due to the intensity with which he was looking at her, and smiled at him.

Perhaps, to surprise her, he would start studying, so the responsibility would not fall on her alone, but in that moment, Matthew thought, it was enough to have his saviour by his side and everything would be fine.

Please leave a comment, even if you didn't like it, cause it would mean the world to me

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what-is-your-plan-today · 5 years ago

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Stark Spangled Banner Ch 15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve encounter Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane, and as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left reeling and are forced to seek help...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: None for this chapter bar them saying some bad language words and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Open for Tags- Ping me an Ask!

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion with a Quinjet, they headed to the small boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change, leaving his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. He also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible.

Surprisingly they reached the hospital, both relatively unscathed. Katie was feeling bruised but she kept pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” she looked at Katie’s face, which was already bruising from the blow she had taken before.

"Where is it?" Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he threw down his hood.

"Safe."

"Do better." Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Steve countered.

"Fury gave it to you," she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve ask, ignoring her question.

"I don't know," Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. "Stop lying," he said through gritted teeth.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Katie said, looking at her.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in..."

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around, away from Natasha groaning.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve threatened.

"I know who killed Fury." she said as Katie turned to face her again. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me."

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

"Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve half joked.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

"Let's find out what the ghost wants."

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat said as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette heading to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha's commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team they had bolted for Natasha's car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something” Nat responded.

Despite himself he couldn’t help but quip back playfully “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat said, her voice full of a smirk “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat besides him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus Nat…”

“What were your exact words?” she teased “If that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-” “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie said cutting her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend he supposed that there were worst things she could be saying…

"So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha spoke again a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve said, looking over his shoulder at her “and we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat."

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve said exasperatedly.

"So before in the store… you guys were like engaged…” she began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned, the red head had no idea how close to the bone she was. Upon hearing the moan, Steve felt something in his stomach stir.

"That bad an idea huh?" he asked stealing a glance over at her.

"I didn't say that." Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” she shot him a look.

“I’m still waiting on you telling me whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” he said, his tone teasing.

“You asked her?” Nat raised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, SHIELD, everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up…”

“What, like you?” Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a hard way to live," Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha mused unconcerned.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is." Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn't want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn't, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

"Yeah." Natasha replied, looking through the window. "Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve jumped in.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers." Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every bone in her body. And she wanted him to know, just in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.” she said, shaking her head, and his head whipped round, mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak. “Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal. She’d just said yes. She wanted to live together.

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

“Gross…” came a voice from the back seat.

*****

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said frowning as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp, Steve having identified that the munitions building was in the wrong place, and that had led them into a huge, underground bunker. After an hour or so more of searching they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal. They had plugged in the USB device which had activated the system and now…well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945..."

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

"Who is that?" Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha questioned sceptically.

"Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain," Zola explained.

"How did you get here?" Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

"I was invited."

“Operation Paperclip," Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." Katie said.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola continued.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Steve snapped.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said confidently

"Prove it," Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

"Accessing archive."

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original shield founders.

"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed? By the Winter Soldier? By HYDRA? When she spoke again, her voice was desperate as she was, desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem...” the screen drawled back

“You killed them?” she said, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security." Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feel the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. "Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum."

Steve's anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie's had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

"As I was saying…”

"What's on this drive?" Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Katie demanded.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

"Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops." Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

"Who fired it?" asked Steve, as he starting to look for an escape route.

"SHIELD." She looked at him, then to Katie.

"Admit it Captain, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time," warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. He easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

"Get in!" Steve yelled. Natasha hopped in, then Katie jumped down as well, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit just as he did so. Instantly heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash and heat in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above us rained down. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly a she spoke.

“Nat…”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as he gave a strong push and light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty cry and a heave, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

"Hey," he called “You ok?”

“I think so… Nat’s passed out.” Katie said, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong…I think she just fainted…she doesn't do well in tight spaces, like me...” Katie said, coughing harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer. Quinjets.

"Let's go." Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble. "Get back to the truck."

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down along the seat so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver's seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good 5 minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop.

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie said, looking down at her “we’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So…where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie said, “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie said, “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do…any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie said, and it was a crazy one, but one that no one would even suspect, as no one in SHIELD knew the man existed. Not yet anyway. “Nat, any chance you can look up an address?”

“Sure…” she said, pulling her phone of out her pocket.

Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she spoke.

“Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve said, voicing his concern

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” she snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue back but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told them all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve being the gentleman that he was let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Well, whatever it was, he wasn’t going to find the answer in here. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she replied quickly, too quickly.

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra," Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. "I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

"I owe you." Natasha said quietly, "Both of you." She added looking at Katie

"It's okay," Steve said.

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?" asked Natasha quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

"I would now," said Steve. "And I'm always honest."

"Without question." Katie said as well as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

"Well," she said as she looked back at Steve. "You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."

"Well, guess I just like to know who I'm fighting," Steve said in response, although she had hit a nerve.

"I made breakfast," Sam's voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. "If you guys, eat that sort of thing." He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late 80s. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Baby…” he started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say…

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” she said gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie sighed “I don’t know what’s worse…”

She looked utterly lost and broken and he felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the 3 had shared in the truck. He looked down at his girl.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” She gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears. “No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up “Wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But he loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips “you’re a nightmare…” he looked at her.

“Yeah but you love me.” she grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do…” he said, his lips meeting hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on…” Steve said, taking her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.

"You all look a hell of a lot better." Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

"Well, it's been an eventful twenty-four hours." he responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked a Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

"So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam's countertops.

"Alexander Pierce," Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee.

Steve looked at her, smiling softly. She was at it again, that analytical brain was going 10 to the dozen. It was amazing how different and better everything seemed once you’d eaten and how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world," Natasha said as she walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

"He's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve continued.

"And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too." Katie said, and there it was, another piece of the puzzle.

"So, the real question is…” Steve looked at her and Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

"The answer is, you don't," Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

"What's this?" Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

"Call it a resume."

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," Natasha then turned to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para rescue."

"Riley?" Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," Natasha recalled. "What did you use, a stealth chute?"

"No. These."

Sam handed Steve another file and he looked down at what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

"I thought you said you're a pilot?" Steve asked Sam.

"I never said a pilot," Sam countered with a smirk.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." Sam almost scoffed.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Katie said, looking up.

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall," Sam supplied.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. "Shouldn't be a problem." he said, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” She looked to the man who nodded.

“Then yeah, I can track him down…”she said, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind, in an attempt to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All 4 of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if 2 of them did get caught, the other 2 still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they had courtesy of some expert searching on Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” she said.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss” Steve nodded.

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed.” she drawled “Your 40s programming has been well and truly broken.” He rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so…” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned “You wanna marry her…” she said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now…” he said, trying to shrug it off and she snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers!” she laughed “Soon as you can get a ring on it we know you’re gonna.” “You know I kinda already asked her.” he said, looking at the red head who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted…” “Great proposal.” Nat sniggered, rolling her eyes “And what did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle…” Nat mused “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and upon arriving at the base they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched 3 guards, Natasha another 2 before they reached their room, and she hacked the security codes. They met no one on their way out, and all in all it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

And she had.

Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for her and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

"So you know this guy we’re looking for?" Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

"Vaguely." she sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. "But I can work with what I have…”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?" he asked

“First, I’m going to check his calendar.” Katie said, nodding at the laptop

“And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” she grinned

“Good morning Miss Stark…” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour…this is urgent.” “Of course…” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and get me into their server without being noticed.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask…is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark…call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” she shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow her to access the SHIELD remote log in without being detected.

It didn’t take long, 15 minutes later the SHIELD log in page flashed up.

“So People are lazy and 9 times outta 10 use the same passwords for all their accounts.” she said as she tapped away “And Sitwell is an arrogant ass hole, thinks he’s smart, clever so his password will be something to remind him of that, something that every time he types will feed his ego, remind him of what he’s doing right under everyone’s nose…”

And then it came to her. She took a deep breath as she typed in the words.

“Here goes…” she said, pushing the enter button. There was a short pause, before the Welcome Screen flashed up and she gave a yell of success.

“What was it?” Sam asked, hi-fiving her

“Heil HYDRA.” she smirked, tapping again. "Right, let's see where you're at, you fucker.” she said, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” he read.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half…”

“Cutting it fine…” Katie mused.

She had a quick scan through his emails, but there was nothing incriminating in there at all. Not that she had expected there to be, whatever HYDRA were up to it would be held on a completely different, hidden network.

“Ok, thanks J…” she said, logging out of Sitwell’s account “Can you disconnect.” “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it…” Nat’s voice said as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm…”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat said sarcastically.

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA…” Sam asked.

“About 25 minutes.” Steve said.

“Ok so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone…” Katie said, tapping at the laptop. “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District…so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat…”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There…” Sam said, tapping at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down…take him up high…”

“Kick him off the edge…” Katie said, shrugging.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Ok so we got there where, now we need the how…” Steve sighed. “Well can’t just pick him up at lunch, if the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

"But how do you get him to get in the car?" Steve asked

“We make him…” Katie said, simply, eyeing her gun where it lay on the table.

***** Turns out fear is a very, very good motivator. The plan went off perfectly. They spoofed a phone number, had Sam call Sitwell once lunch was over to instruct him to head to Sam’s car which was parked round the corner. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, until Katie had aimed her gun sight at him.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up” Sam smirked.

Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the restaurant and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back as he passed.

“Agent Sitwell.” she said “One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” Sitwell instantly tensed.

"Miss Stark," he grumbled out, seemingly annoyed, "Of course you're involved with this."

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of his security had realized what had happened to him. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

"You made me a wanted fugitive." she managed out through gritted teeth. “Didn’t have much choice. Get in the car." she ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car…” she said again. He stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?" Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

"Yeah, let's go."

They drove 2 blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant” Sitwell said, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was a cocky little bastard, Steve had to give him that. He easily manhandled him onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where the agent almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

"You're right. It's not." Steve said releasing Sitwell and smoothing out his suit letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

"It's theirs" Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to his chest, the two of them sending him tumbling over the edge.

"So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?” Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah…” Steve said, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by your mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, her too looking down as Sitwell's screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets!" he rushed out.

"What targets?" Steve demands.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future," he continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

"The future? How could it know?" Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores…Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future."

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

"And what then?" he asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me," he mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What then?" Steve demanded louder.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time," Sitwell answered hesitantly after a moment.