#also ‘the adrenaline was nice’ AIDEN???

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Just read the newest sbg episode and um

What the fuck just happened-

[zkretchy]

Nothing like still feeling elated after a hard fought and won battle-and also hand holding because...them

[oneoftheprettynerds]

Just My Type: Dark!Steve x Reader (Mob AU)

Chapter 2 in the Lipstick and Crayons Series.

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Darkside

Main Masterlist

A/N: This chapter is 2K words more than the last chapter and I’ve second guessed every single line in this one. This story is getting a lot of traction guys and I’m equal parts happy and scared. Thank you for the nice comments, they do encourage me. Also I’m just ranting feel free to skip this note haha. Your support in any form: like, comment or reblog is appreciated greatly. Also you can dm if you want to be friends, God knows I need those. Hopefully, this chap was worth the wait. Also, I made a poster for this on the main masterlist so check that out, it might be foreshadowing dome plot.

Warning: Eventual Non-Con, Sickening Threats, Mob Themes, Violence, Death, Manipulation, a mild mental breakdown, Cheap Tricks later.

Genres + Characters: Mob AU, Single Parents AU, Steve Rogers x Reader.

Summary: Steve can't ever repay you for what you did. After meeting you, Steve believes his broken family is the missing piece in the puzzle of your own wrecked one. Indebting the crime lord to you has been the biggest mistake of your life, cause now you can't get rid of him, no matter what. Loyalty and favours go a long way in the mob.

Chapter 2: Just My Type

It had almost been a week since the incident and you had barely gotten a wink of sleep. When you drove back to your house that night, Steve surprisingly didn’t argue as you had expected. After that friend of his whispered something in his ears, you only assumed he was needed elsewhere and you couldn’t be more thankful for that. They escorted you to your car and Steve thanked you with a strained smile, words genuine but eyes calculating. You didn’t even wonder what went inside his head. You were thankful for the peace and quiet of your own car, content to just get out of the area and into your humble abode.

After you put the already asleep Grace to bed, you couldn’t bring yourself to get out of her room. You just sat on the floor beside the bed, hand intertwined with hers as you rested your head beside her tummy on the mattress.

Your adrenaline wore off and your limbs ached as your thoughts finally settled into place, the gravity of the catastrophe a few hours prior hitting you. Tears made their way down your cheeks as you realized that you both could have very well died tonight.

One bullet could have sealed each of your lives and you were basically defenseless had Steve not saved you against the creeping assaulter. You couldn’t commend yourself for even defending yourself against one attacker, the guilt of killing someone harboring in your tired head. Your quiet whimpers eventually wore you out, while Grace’s shallow breaths lulled you to sleep.

You didn’t manage to sleep for long though, every time your eyes closed, horrific images flashed in your mind. A blood curdling scream here, heaps of dead bodies there, with distant exploding sounds all around. You could see men clad in black holding guns to Grace’s head and whensoever you woke up, you just wondered how much more creative your mind could get, making these visuals so realistic.

When 8 AM rolled in, you didn’t wake Grace up even though it was Monday and you had work. You got up, changed into a long tee after a shower and called your office and then her daycare. You knew you would have a hard time going back to your normal life, to become trusting enough to leave her alone.

Your assumption about yourself was right. You took almost the entire week off, which your boss generously allowed you to after hearing your traumatic experience, which soon made the city news headlines. All your colleagues checked on you, almost once in the five day break you took, and sweetly enough offered to bring you anything you needed.

It was kind of them, but none of them could bring you what your heart genuinely craved: peace and assurance that you and Grace would be safe.

Even though Saturdays were off, you did go to work to see what you missed and where to start on again. You went in because you knew that the random spurt of resolution you got in the bathroom to collect your life, wouldn’t last.

To ease back into your normal life, you gathered your guts, called a babysitter and left home. You couldn’t bring yourself to leave Grace at the daycare just yet. One of your good friends offered to come in to the office and help you, even on the weekend and you were quite grateful to him.

When you both decided to take lunch in the nearby dining place, you both got to talking, the conversation obviously originating from ‘How have you been?’ and ‘Is Grace okay?’. You reminisced about how you used a photobooth to hide, grotesquely and uncomfortably chuckling when you remembered Sarah calling you her mom and how her dad saved you all.

You deliberately left the part where you killed someone and Steve shot someone too. You hadn’t come to terms with it yet and you stiffly restricted your mind whenever it tried to go down that lane.

He sensed how the conversation was becoming tense and distressing for you and briskly redirected the topic.

“I hope the dad was hot though?” He wiggled his eyes creepily and you snorted at his vulgarity, light for the first time in days.

“He was easy on the eyes; I will admit that.” You played along, recalling your girlfriends and how you used to ogle people.

“Don’t be a homewrecker though, I don’t support cheating.” He said nonchalantly, checking his phone as a notification bell rang off.

“He’s a widower.”

His eyes snapped up and met yours as his head tilted in confusion. “That’s a strange fact to know about someone you met for a few minutes.”

Steve’s even stranger comment about his dead wife popped in your mind and before you could stop yourself, you blurted that out as well.

“He even said and I quote, ‘She deserved what she got.’” He put his phone down, weirdly amused.

“Ooh Creepy! Do you think he is one of those husbands who kill their wives and bury them in the backyard? The podcasts always say that the psychopaths are visually handsome and charming. And his statement was quite vague and spooky.” He continued munching, and you felt that now Aiden was really paying attention unlike before.

“Steve did have a gun while searching for Sarah, come to think of it.” You drank your tea and awaited his response. What you did not expect was his eyes to widen and worry to cloud his features.

“Um Widower Steve with a toddler Sarah? At the place where The Vices attacked?” He mumbled, grabbing his phone and doing God knows what on it. Your eyebrows furrowed and before you could ask him what was up with his antics, he resumed.

“This is a long shot but I really hope your Steve didn’t look like this.” He positioned the phone in your vision, and you could already tell it was Steve by the sapphire blue of his eyes piercing through the screen into your soul. The picture was a month or two old, his hair was much longer when you met him than in the photo.

“This is him.” Your eyes met Aiden’s and worry visibly took over his features as his forehead creased and jaw tense.

He looked around the restaurant, finding it empty in the afternoon. He leaned and whispered, “This Steve of yours is dangerous.”

You interrupted Aiden, even though you already knew Steve was, the sight of his armed men still fresh in your head, and inquired, “Why do you say so?”

“It’s just like the fictional stories we hear from our parents, except here, in this city of ours, every myth holds true. There are really powerful men, untouchable by law, who reign the city silently and live luxuriously. Every shady, under the table deal you’ve heard of, transpires. Illegal trades, fraud schemes and bounty hunters are not fictional, they exist here. These men kill whatever hinders them and trust me, you don’t want to be the deer caught in their Jaguar’s headlights.”

Ice froze in your veins again, resembling the fear you felt that night but now because of your deemed ‘savior’. You convinced yourself that you had not wronged him in any way, instead had saved his daughter’s life.

“Are you in contact with him? If you are, distance yourself cleverly, don't block him immediately.”

“No, we just parted ways near my car, he thanked me for Sarah and was called away. It’s almost been a week and he hasn’t reached out if that’s what you mean. We didn’t exchange contacts and I don’t think I even told him my full name.” You explained yourself as if you were on the witness stand in court, trying to convince yourself more than Aiden.

“Pray that he doesn’t remember you more than that, if at all. I’m being totally honest here in telling you this, I’m genuinely worried for you and Grace. You are smart but he is powerful. He has unimaginable resources and if you become more than a speck of dust on his windshield, you are screwed. There is no exaggeration here.” You took his words to your heart and swore to be careful, if not for yourself then for Grace.

The rest of the day went by and you found yourself dwelling on and worrying about Aiden’s words. At least he put it out there as it was. Heeding his advice, you did google Steve on your phone, finally finding him in the topmost news headline when you added ‘Buck’ in the search bar as well.

‘With 38 lawsuits pending against businessman Steve Rogers, the filers have lost all hope in prosecuting him. All cases are being drawn out for indefinite periods of time by the Chief Justice Bruce……’

Aiden was right.

Businessmen was code for illegal mob heads. Cases being stretched on meant he was, in fact, invincible, at least to the common man’s fists.

You flickered through several titles, each one more surprising than the last. He was believed to be involved in the carnival attack, alleged for three hit and run cases that he didn’t lose but the witnesses swore they saw him driving and was also rumored to have brought in quintals of drugs just last week, but the packets just evaporated into thin air and there was no proof of their existence in the first place even on incessant searching.

Every crime of his made you shudder and you mentally thanked Aiden for pulling you out of your oblivion. Your mind raced and heart palpated and you cursed yourself for being so drastically unaware even after living here for almost four years. Technically speaking, Steve and you were even, him saving your life and you saving his daughter’s. No logical reason came to your mind for him contacting you ever.

You wished as Aiden said and assured yourself that your paths would never cross again, Steve not having reached out in a week, so hopefully never again.

That thought went out the window when you reached home to find a box awaiting you. Hannah, the babysitter you had called, informed you it came around 5 in the evening and was exclusively to be opened by you today.

Your mind raced as you paid the babysitter, your hands sweaty as you tried not to think about the gift and its sender. There was an apparently clear answer to who mailed it but you refused to accept that, courtesy of Aiden.

The box was of the height of Grace, it was black with red hearts painted across it; some red roses also sparingly adorned it. You opened the lid and found tons of red tissues and a multi-flower bouquet adorned with mostly red roses and a few purple and pink flowers.

Because of your frequent gardening in your backyard, you knew all the flowers’ meanings. To sum it all up, red flowers, especially roses were used for courting someone. Pink meant admiration, purple for beauty and you knew the ‘violet’ flowers were for loyalty.

As your nerves increased tenfold, you willed yourself to get it over with and empty out the box first, ignoring the little card in your bouquet, saving the ‘best’ for last. You find a mini bouquet inside but unlike yours, it had chocolates of every kind. You did read its card and cringed when it was for Grace, bothered not by the deed but by the doer.    

Further inside were some animal plushies, face masks, perfumes, scented body lotions and shampoos. Your head hurt thinking about the ‘single mother care package’ delivered to you by someone you refused to acknowledge.

As Grace sat in her playpen occupied, you dared to pick your card and read its message, your heart beating unrealistically fast for someone who refused to accept the cruciality of her situation.

~

I can’t thank you enough in this lifetime for saving my little princess. The gift of your help is more than anything money could ever buy for me. Please accept this invitation of mine for dinner tomorrow night, 7PM at La Bonne Nuit, as a symbol of my sincere gratitude for everything you’ve done. I’ll gets the kids covered and pick you up, you just be ready and look as amazing you always do.                                                                                           Sincerely,                                                                      Steve Rogers

                                                                                            ~

You stilled as you read it over and over again.

An invitation, your ass. Even in writing his authority portrayed, there was no question and hope for you coming, he just stated that you’d come. Looking pretty as always? You just met him once, in the middle of a calamity, covered in dirt and blood.

All the red roses and gifts screamed his romantic interest but you illusioned yourself into thinking they meant gratitude. You wouldn’t be able to digest it all otherwise.

Knowing what you knew now about Steve, you understood there was no denying the dinner tomorrow. You had to get out of his clutches and distance yourself, but as Aiden had so rightfully said, cleverly.

That night you laid in bed mulling over your next course of actions. You had called the gift shop to return the unwarranted presents you received but they said it was non refundable and anonymous to trace. You bitterly snorted in their face, they put a card with Steve’s name on it for heaven’s sake!

You didn’t flinch even when you realized you never gave Steve your address, neither for mailing stuff nor for picking you up. There was no number given to call him and thank or to call him and deny. The bastard had planned it all out, and you felt like you were driving in a one way lane, going deeper into the tunnel. Somewhere among your all-relentless fretting, you managed to finally sleep.

 When the doorbell rang, your eyebrows furrowed. It was just 6 PM and you weren’t expecting anybody else except for Steve. You had already begun getting ready, having developed a habit of keeping an extra margin of time now having a toddler. You still had to assemble Grace’s essential backpack, fill it with her meds and bottles.

While still putting on your diamond earring, you made your way to the door, unlocking it to find a redhead grinning at you. Before you could interact with her, a small body clung to your legs and you looked down to find the azure eyed kid that put you in this mess, Sarah, smiling up at you.

“Mama! You look pwetty!” She looked up in awe and now aware that she didn’t have a mother, you were even more so coerced into accepting this title rather than telling the kid that 'you are semi orphaned'.

“I’m Wanda, Sarah’s nanny. Mr. Rogers told me to pick her friend, Grace, up for the night?” So, this was what Steve meant. Bringing Sarah was proof enough of her legitimacy, but behind her you saw ‘Buck’ salute you from the driver’s seat of the black car. One of these days, you needed to learn his real name.

You invited Wanda inside and Sarah ran to Grace immediately, grabbing and whining while asking Grace to give her some popcorn she was munching on, her fist generously full.

In your open plan kitchen, you grabbed two plastic bowls, filled them with each with the tub of popcorn that sat in the microwave and handed each toddler one, fortunately quietening Sarah. Sarah obeyed Grace, in first thanking you, their ‘mama’ and then following her to her open playpen.

You faced Wanda again who sat on a barstool and kept on beaming. If your annoyance at her amusement showed, she sure didn’t let it falter the smile.

“Mr. Rogers told me you’d worry about your daughter, but I assure you she’d be in more than capable hands.” All you could focus on was how self-reassured she was. “I’ve served him for almost two years, the last family I served, I was there for 8 years and before them, I was employed for 3. I know the general bedtime and snacks, all I need from you is information about her allergies.”

You nodded and told her about Grace, her meds and what all you packed. When you got to know that her family owned the daycare Grace went to, you were finally somewhat convinced. After seeing them off, it was about fifteen minutes later, that the devil disguised in Prada showed up at your door.

You grabbed your purse and your keys. Wiping your sweaty palms on your dress, you opened the door. Steve stood there, a smirk lodging on his handsome face. His blue, three-piece suit perfectly paired with his cerulean eyes was impressive to say the least.

He was dressed to kill, and it appeared as if you were his first victim.

As your eyes took him in from top to bottom, his did the same lazily, taking their time, resting at certain places for longer period than others.

“You look stunning.”

You knew you did. You wore one of your more expensive dresses when you found out La Bonne Nuit to be one of the few seven-star hotels in the country. In hindsight, if you’d have dressed worse, maybe he’d have left you alone.

“Thank you.”

“Shall we?” He offered you his hand and you obliged with your palm in his. Your other hand pulled the doorknob while you stepped out, all alarms already set-in place. He waited while you locked and put the keys in and when you were done, with a soft kiss along your knuckles, he pulled you along.

The act surprised you, your stomach turning and your gut wrenching and you wondered if you’d be able to process the food after all, with your upset digestive system.

Like a proper gentleman, he opened the door for you and when you settled, he took his position at the driver’s seat. The silence was painful for you, your overthinking finally filling ideas in your head that you avoided contemplating about all day, focusing on Grace.

He was relaxed though; his humming was proof enough.

Mid way through, your thoughts were rudely interrupted when a hand housed itself on your knee. You glanced to find Steve’s palm slightly rubbing your knee. If it was meant to be assuring, you certainly didn’t feel like it.

You frowned and looked up to Steve who still had the arrogant smirk on his face, eyes straight ahead on the road, giving no indication of his inappropriate touching.

You wanted to swat his hand away but a brainwave dashed through your head and a disturbing thought made you halt, that whether he carried guns to restaurants as well, since carnivals were no big deal.

You ignored his hand and continued looking outside, pretending to ignore it as well as he did. Your scowl was a huge giveaway though.

You didn’t know that, but when your eyes found their way out, his finally rested on your face, the smirk growing even more.

Thankfully, apart from the incongruous touching, the dinner went okay-ish. The food and wine were impeccable, perfect even, the restaurant on the hotel’s top floors was so picturesque. You tried to savor your one-time experience there, knowing you’d no way be able to come back there.

Well, you tried to relish as much as you could while your mind still sat there, wary of the human in front of you. If you’d ignore your journey here, Steve was nothing short of a true gentleman, often making you wonder if you had imagined his hand on you.

This ‘friendly’ date you were having was probably one of the best you have had, he had left no expenses. He appeared to be interested in your work, about your childhood and about Grace’s but you swiftly avoided his questions about her father. He was growing a tad bit too comfortable for your liking and you still refused to entertain the idea that this was a ‘date’ date.

When you were finally onto dessert, the last course of your meal, your table was shadowed by the broad frame of a brunette and his date. He clapped Steve’s shoulder and Steve rose to hug him, you awkwardly smiled.

“It’s been far too long since you’ve been here, Cap. Why don’t you and your gorgeous date stop by my penthouse for a bit? We could finally go over the papers you sent me, in person?” He winked, they discussed something more and then went away, his date bowing and trailing after him as well.

Steve claimed his seat again, and finally told you about the interrupter. “That was my good friend, Tony Stark, always in a hurry. I’ll introduce you to him when we meet him later.”

“I think I’ll be heading home; you need not worry about my introduction, I hardly think we’ll ever run into each other again.” His eyes narrowed and you clarified, “Me and Mr. Stark, I meant.”

That’s good, don’t associate yourself with more of his kind.

“He was so kind in inviting you though, it would be rude to refuse.”

“It’s already late, Steve. And I’ve never left Grace alone for a night yet. What if she’s antsy? What if she is bothered? What if she feels unsafe? She's only used to very few people, and after last week, I-” You had started the sentence hoping to use Grace as an excuse but every word of yours succeeded in making you more apprehensive.

The carnival night flashed in your mind, along with the nightmares and you started panicking even more. Your hands clammy, your dessert spoon fell in your lap as sought your phone in your purse, hoping to call Wanda for an update. You felt like a terrible mother, who left her child with a stranger, only a week after she suffered trauma, just to go on a date with a mobster.

Steve reached across the table and grabbed your fidgety hands and as you wriggled to get your hands free, he softly called your name. Voice stern but vocals gentle. Your blurry eyes snapped to meet his while he guided you to breathe deeply, in and out.

His firm hold convinced you to listen to him, you’d never free yourself of them otherwise.

When you had calmed a bit, he withdrew his hands and fetched his phone. Your thoughts slowed down, and you wondered if anyone here was judging you. Your little scene, mercifully, went unnoticed by the other affluent people dining here.

Steve handed you his phone where four colored frames rested, the screen showing you Grace and Sarah cuddled in a frilly, pink four poster where Wanda sat too, her lips moving.

The feed was live and the screen muted, both the toddlers’ eyes fluttering close slowly, on the bridge of sleep.

You handed the phone back to Steve and drank your water while he rubbed circles on the back of one of your hands. You never freaked out like you did right now, always collected and never giving into anxiety. What had happened to you?

Well, In your defense, you had never experienced a disaster either.

“The kids are safe; I’m never putting either of them in harm’s way ever again.”

Your mind did catch the plural in his statement but you promised yourself you would not let it get that far and continued drinking your water, emptying the entire glass.

“The HD image you just saw was by cameras Tony recently developed. His technology is amazing, I’ll take you to his lab sometime.” You appreciated his attempt to redirect the topic but you also focused on how tech-savvy his friends were as well.

You hummed and agreed, trying to be ambiguous with your answer.

When you finished your dessert, you hoped he’d forget about his ‘friend’ Tony but to no avail.

“His penthouse is two floors above. He owns this hotel as well in case you didn’t notice.” He led you to the elevator as you recalled the Starks Group logo you saw earlier sometime.

Some AI named Jarvis opened the elevator doors for you in the living room of Tony’s penthouse. It was even more magnificent than the restaurant earlier, the place illuminated by several hues of different colours. Steve chuckled and strung you along, introducing you to a ginger-head named Pepper, who was Tony’s date earlier and went to search for his acquaintance.

She offered you wine but you politely declined, opting for water instead. She brought your glass to you from the extravagant kitchen and you both sat on the barstool there instead of the living room. Too anxious to say the wrong thing, you stayed quiet until her voice filled the deafening silence.

“So, Steve almost never brings dates around. You two serious?” She questioned, leaning towards you, waiting for some gossip, no doubt.

“Oh no! We aren’t dating. He just invited me for a friendly dinner. We merely met the other week.” You deliberately left out the part where there was bombing by crime families and attack on the common man.

“Honey, in the mob life, you don’t just introduce random people to the fam.”

Oh, she wasn’t being shy about the whole mob ordeal. It seemed weird to hear it from her, since you and Steve hadn’t used the word yet. Maybe he figured you already knew considering the circumstances you met in or how famous he was.

“We really aren’t romantically involved. This dinner was just a gesture of gratitude if I’m being truthful.”

She chuckled, as if you were a kid making stories and quizzed, “Gratitude for what?”

You trapped yourself into that one. You didn’t know how to answer her and your brain downright blanked. Surprisingly,, Steve came to your rescue and two voices interposed your conversation.

Steve called your name and as you turned to the men, he continued, “She’s the one who saved Sarah the other night. You know the story, Wilson probably got it printed.”

“Impressive, really. Hey, I’m Tony and I see you’ve already met Pepper, my fiancée.” He shook your hand and kissed your knuckles, much like Steve did earlier in the day. You bowed, smiled and mumbled a ‘nice to meet you as well’. They escorted you to the elevator and Tony continued.

“Well, it’s not everyday Steve brings brave and extraordinarily attractive women around. Welcome to the family, sweetie. She’s a keeper, Cap.” He winked while saying the last sentence and before you could correct him, Steve ushered you inside the elevator, bro-hugging him. As the doors closed, Pepper winked at you from behind Tony and a shudder ran through you.

Okay you had to make it clear, get on the same page.

As the elevator music filled the silence, you started, “Steve, look we aren’t-”, “I served in the army, that’s why Tony calls me Cap, short for captain.” And crudely got interrupted.

“I never wanted to get into the army, I thought people were fools to sacrifice the one life they got. But I went to make my mother’s dream a reality, I really loved her, you know? Sarah is named after her, my mother.”

His voice broke at the end and as much as you wanted to redirect onto your former topic, you couldn’t. This amiability of yours would be the death of you.

“She died alone in her bed; I was dispatched too far away to even make it back for her funeral.” He mumbled but you heard him clear as a sunny day, and he leaned back onto the wall for support while you awkwardly rubbed his shoulder to return the support he provided earlier during your mental breakdown.

He closed his eyes and gathered himself, taking deep breaths. As the elevator dinged, his eyes opened and he gave you a strained smile.  

The car ride to his mansion was painfully silent, his mind too sidetracked to focus on harassing you again. With all that you went through today, you almost forgot about that.

His mansion was enormous, twenty guards stood outside and even more patrolled the lawn. He took you inside his house, the interior even more detailed and scenic than Tony’s temporary residence.

You just concentrated on swiftly getting Grace and Uber-ing back. As Steve showed you earlier, Grace and Sarah hugged and slept and it was a meticulous task to untangle their limbs without waking either of them up andnd get Grace with her back-pack. You thanked Wanda on the way out, hoping to avoid Steve but somehow he stood outside before you, leaning on his sleek black car. He opened the door for you before you could refuse the ride. You settled with Grace in the backseat itself, trying to be smart.

He just summoned one of his guards to drive and sat alongside you in the back. You didn’t let the annoyance at his clinginess show though. You just focused on Grace who drooled over your shoulder.

Hopefully, there won’t be any point of exposure to him ever again, your circles didn’t match, both social and professional. Your Venn diagrams didn’t overlap anywhere. This should be reason enough to avoid meeting ever again.

He didn’t try anything even this ride around. You doubted it was hardly because of the toddler or because of the driver. He did as he pleased, if he wanted to he could very well grope you. Luckily, he wasn't in the mood.

When you reached your dwelling, you stepped out hastily, thanking him in a whisper. You fumbled to get your keys out, but since everything you held slowed you down, he caught up with you without even trying.

He took and held Grace’s bag while you drew the keys out, Grace still on your hip. He handed you the bag back, “So this is it, I guess?”

“Yeah, tonight was a total delight. Thanks for the dinner and everything, really.” You put up your best façade, hoping to convince him.

“It was, thanks to you. The company matters the most.”

You awkwardly chuckled and you sensed him leaning in, his eyes flickering shut. Your eyes closed as you turned your head to avoid him, so that his lips would peck your cheek.

They never came.

Your eyes opened to find his and he chuckled, leaning in once again swiftly, catching you off guard this time. He didn’t meet your lips though, he kissed the corner of your mouth, lips overlapping for a fraction of skin.

“In due time, baby.” He stepped back and strolled to his car leisurely, content in his own world.

You opened your door and slammed it shut, the peck feeling wrong on so many levels. It felt more sensual than a lover’s kiss, leaving room for intimacy and longing.

Your thoughts ran a hundred kilometers an hour, the most absurd but nauseatingly true being, this was a date and it was not your last encounter.

Steve smirked outside in his car, the dinner an absolute success in his opinion. Tonight just made him feel that you both were more than compatible for each other. You needing him during your mental breakdown, him relaxing under your shy touch, Tony’s approval, not that important though, and your anxiety for Grace was the best part, because he, more often than he’d like to admit, fussed about Sarah the same way, agonizing and fretting her well being.

A text lit up his black screen and his grin widened even more if possible.

‘The Stark cameras are up and working, Sir.’

[vagrantblvrd]

Modern day spy/assassin AU where former singer/musician/~artiste works in a cozy little coffee shop neatly sandwiched between a bookstore and, idk, a flower shop.

Expected to be one of the hottest new stars coming out of Oxenfurt if it hadn’t been for that scandal with fellow band member and rumored lover Valdo Marx over alleged song theft and so on. Followed by a messy break up - band and personal - and a drawn out legal battle that drained what money Valdo hadn’t stolen from him.

(And a year or so after all that Jaskier doesn’t like to think about too much before he got his feet back under him and a friend mentioned this coffee shop she frequented, and anyway, he’s doing much better now and also somehow ends up owning it himself when its previous owner retires and sells the business to him for like, five bucks, because the power of friendship or something, idk.)

One day on his way home he stumbles over someone half dead in an alley and is like oh, oh, no because the last thing he needs is another scandal attached to his name?

Like.

He’s kept his nose clean for just over six month now, has been playing around with new melodies and bought a new notebook for lyrics and whatnot. Looked into playing at some local places, not really wanting to be a megastar or whatever these days, but he loves music and performing in a little bar somewhere would be nice, you know?

ANYWAY.

Turns out the guy isn’t actually dead, thank goodness but might as well be? Has this medallion around his neck, a cat? Which, okay, whatever he’s seen stranger and he’s getting his phone out to call an ambulance or whatever, crouched next to the guy.

Memory from the CPR course he took in college surfaces in his mind - the instructor was hot and even if Jaskier never got the guy’s number he learned valuable life skills. (And also met Shani and that proved better than getting the guy’s number because she’s one of his best friends and also incredible and anyway.)

Reaches out to check for a pulse, which is when the guy grabs his wrist - surprisingly strong grip for someone who looks like he lost a fight with a freight train - and hsi eyes snap open and they are...extremely striking and not at all normal - cat eyes, to go with the cat medallion and hahaha, oh shit, this is bad, bad news, isn’t it?

The guy tries to threaten him, which. Not as effective when the growl he’s trying for just sounds sad and pathetic, and anyway, there’s something...not fear, no, in his eyes, that has Jaskier forgetting to put the call through for an ambulance.

It’s very close to fear though. Worry? Concern? Something that Jaskier relates to in some incredibly fucked up way.

(The way he felt when Valdo Marx fucked him over and everything he’d built fell apart around him, and anyway, yes.)

He doesn’t even know why, he does, or why he ends up hauling the guy up to his apartment and patches him up best he can with wwhat he has on hand.

Will probably end up being murdered by the guy the moment he’s on his feet, but eh, that’s a problem for future Jaskier, really.)

Anyway, Aiden - because of course it’s Aiden - is super suspicious of Jaskier and his everything and there is indeed a moment where he pins Jaskier to a wall with a kitchen knife - it was an apartment-warming gift from Shani and Essi and Jaskier’s more worried about it being damaged than Aiden slitting his throat, which just confuses Aiden?

Because what even is Jaskier and his priorities???

But he doesn’t kill Jaskier and the knife gets put back and aside from that little bump in their relationship they actually become friends after that.

Jaskier takes to referring to Aiden as a stray cat whenever one of his friends or whoever asks why he buys more groceries or hurries home after work instead of sticking around to gossip a bit the way he usually does.

 Aiden thinks it’s hilarious as opposed to insulting, which is great seeing as how Jaskier’s pretty sure the man’s a hitman or assassin or other similar career?

(Might be the way he mentions past jobs and his dark sense of humor and also the time he could have killed Jaskier if he felt he was a threat? So, yes.)

And Aiden, okay.

Got burned or something to leave him half dead in an alley for just anyone to stumble over and since Jaskier hasn’t made any fuss about him moving out decides he might as well stay where he is for the time being, you know?

He goes and gets a job...somewhere to help with rent and so on. Offers Jaskier enough hints to make it sound like he’s out murderizing people right and left the moment he’s out of the apartment, but then Jaskier sees him helping Triss bring in deliveries out behind the flower shop so he knows Aiden’s been fucking with him on that front and is like, dude, not funny.

(Aiden begs to disagree, but whatever.)

And then!

A month or so after Aiden’s back on his feet Jaskier runs into one of the owners of the bookshop next door?

New management and so on, and oh no, he’s exceedingly hot.

White hair and gold eyes and, sure, he’s not the most talkative guy around? But Jaskier’s cracked tougher nuts or some other way of phrasing it that doesn’t sound like a euphemism.

Also, also, there’s another painfully attractive man working there who is incredibly sweet and has a menace of a goat that they have instead of a bookstore cat?

Which.

Seems like a bad idea since Jaskier often hears about how Lil Bleater nibbles on the books if someone isn’t watching her and anyway, it means he gets to listen to Eskel lament about her latest misadventures while Geralt stands there and tries not to let on how amused he is by both the bookstoer goat and her owner and Jaskier is like shit, because Geralt and Eskel are so, so hot and he’s only human and Aiden, Aiden, do not laugh at his pain, you utter bastard of a man.

ANYWAY.

Shenanigans in which Geralt and Eskel think Jaskier has this insufferable bastard of a former stray cat at home and Jaskier piiiiines like a sad bastard while Aiden laughs and laughs and laughs.

(It should be pointed out that not once in all the time Aiden started working for Triss - and Geralt, Eskel, and Lambert - who Jaskier has heard all about but not yet met - have seen one another even though they spend most of the working day a few hundred feet apart, because Plot Reasons.)

And then!

Some shenanigans in which Geralt or Eskel - who are totally spies who are using their cozy little bookshop as a cover - get tangled up in trouble and Jaskier stumbles on them with this incredible sense of deja vu.

He drags them into the coffee shop to patch them up, and he forgets to lock the front door, which is convenient because then Aiden wanders in hoping for a free coffee?

(Power of ~friendship, and also roommates, and yes.)

Jaskier is kind of covered in blood - Geralt and Eskel’s - and Aiden is immediately in Assassin!Mode because he’s fond of Jaskier, right, owes him his life and such.

But also, Geralt and Eskel who have also had their oh, oh no he’s hot moment when it comes to Jaskier are likewise fond of him - and working up the nerve to ask him for a date, but that’s neither here nor there - go into Spy!Mode and there’s an honestly kind of terrifying, kind of sad stand-off.

Jaskier is in Adrenaline!Mode because fuck his life, of course Geralt and Eskel can’t just be incredibly hot bookstore owners and is like “If you fuck up my coffee shop I will not be happy, and also please consider my delicate sensibilities,”

Which manages to stop whatever fight was about to break out and he essentially does the Chris Pratt with the raptors thing, only with a couple of spies and his assassin roommate.

Pretends the three of them aren’t throwing menacing looks at one another as he patches Geralt and Eskel up and then is like “Well, that was fun!” because no, no it was not, and his heart is going to burst with all the tension and whatnot in the air. and hahaha, this is fine.

Which of course is when Lambert comes stomping through the front door and there is even more Drama and Angst because his ~forbidden relationship with Assassin!Aiden and heartbreak when it was assumed he’d been killed by his agency a few months back, but wait, he’s still alive???

And idk, just a lot of ridiculous spy movie cliche nonsense in which Jaskier is reluctantly dragged into things because he saved Aiden’s life that one time, and is piiiiining for Geralt and Eskel and of course he gets taken hostage and they have to band together to save him but shenanigans and ~plot twists and so on.

(And then when it seems all is lost Triss and her utterly terrifying girlfriend Yennefer actually save the day because they, too, are spies and Jaskier would honestly like to know if he’s the only normal person he knows or what, because really, what are the odds???)

Whenever the death-defying events and such are over Jaskier does, actually, go on a date with Geralt and Eskel and some smooching happens.

(Technically not their first, because that happened after they saved Jaskier’s life in that oh thank god none of us died moment after all the danger and excitement, but none of them mind, because smooches.)

Lambert and Aiden make fun of the three of them, but gently because they, too, are prime targets for mockery as they also decide to try a proper relationship and not just stolen moments here and there, and anyway, anyway

A year or so down the road Jaskier gets tired of coming home to find the two in compromising situations and is like, why, though, which conveniently happens around the time Geralt and Eskel approach him about moving in with them somewhere and he’s like, well, if he must, like he’s not thrilled about it because he’s kind of gone on the two of them, you know?

So they get this place big enough for the three of them and Lil Bleater and Aiden and Lambert get his old place and it all works out?

Sure, sure, there are a few close moments where Geralt and Eskel’s work puts Jaskier in danger, and that time whoever tried to kill Aiden targets Jaskier and so on?

But he’s like, eh, it happens, because obviously it does.

Which means Geralt and Eskel take it upon themselves to teach him to defend himself - and half the time it ends in smooches and sexytimes because hand-to-hand and being pinned to mats and adjusting his stance while learning how to use firearms and such, you know?

But also Aiden and Lambert teaching Jaskier knives and explosives - “I’m sorry, but one of these things is not like the others,” in regard to Lambert and his explosives, but it’s a ~bonding moment, so whatever.

(Also, also, that time Jaskier was able to defuse a bomb in some highly improbable and ridiculous bit of shenanigans with spy nonsense and Lambert being a smug prick about it for forever afterwards.)

And then Jaskier finds out Geralt has this incredible kid with Yennefer and what the hell is his life that all these people know each other and he doesn’t find out about it until ages afterwards, but anyway.

Ciri is awesome and after her Vesemir comes to meet the guy two of his sons are in love with, and Coen shows up along with other assorted characters I’ve forgotten and anyway, yes???

(Also, also, Yennefer happens to find out about Valdo Marx and she straightens out that mess quietly and efficiently in such a way that Jaskier doesn’t realize it until long after the fact and is like hm, because he didn’t think she particularly liked him, but apparently he was wrong? Which leads to brunch dates with her and Triss and gossiping about the other idiots in their lives and discussing Jaskier giving Ciri music lessons and anyway, yes.)

[advena87]

Lambert and Aiden on the Path Part 3

Here is Part 1

Here is Part 2

As with part 1 and 2 , this is when Lambert and Aiden were just building their bond. Please remember that they share one brain cell and mayhem is their natural habitat.

***

Aiden: You should cooperate with us, we need this information to kill monster. Thug: And what’s in it for me? Aiden, points to Lambert: He’ll stop doing it. Thug: Doing what? Lambert: *quickly grabs the thug and smacks his head on the table* Thug: Ow, fuck! Aiden: That.

***

Aiden: What's wrong with you?

Lambert: Off the top of my head, I'd say low self-esteem, a lack of parental affection, and a genetic predisposition for alcoholism, anxiety and depression.

Aiden: I really like you, but you are a terrible person to talk about personal stuff.

Lambert: Thanks, that means a lot to me.

***

Lambert: Stay where I can see you.

Aiden: What am I, a kid?

Lambert: Kids are baby goats. They're cute, and they have redeeming social value. You are definitely not a kid.

***

Village Chief: You are without a doubt the worst witchers I've ever heard of.

Aiden: But you have heard of us!

Village Chief: The neighboring village burned down because of you, so it was hard not to hear. There is a reward for your heads.

Lambert: We're getting the fuck out of here.

Aiden: But he heard of us!

***

Aiden: You're so committed to being not committed.

Lambert: Oh hell no, we don’t do that. I would rather bleed out and die than sit here and talk about my feelings.

Aiden: I understand that sarcasm is your thing, and I want to love and accept all parts of you, but can you please not make jokes about dying right now?

***

Aiden: I didn’t even stab him!

Lambert, sarcastically: I’m so proud of you. No stabbing Wednesday. New tradition.

***

Lambert: So that’s your plan?

Aiden: Please, I don’t plan! I scheme.

***

Lambert: You’re alive!!!

Aiden: Philosophically, arguable, but physically, yes I am.

*** 

Aiden: I think I know what's going on in your head, Lambert.

Lambert: Well then, welcome to the terror dome.

***

Aiden: Speaking of trouble, we should have run into some by now.

Lambert: What do you mean?

Aiden: You know, a villain, a booby trap...

*the street lights go out, leaving them in darkness*

Aiden: ... Or an ambush.

***

Lambert: Aiden, are you spying on me?

Aiden: I'm a cat. I'm curious. So kill me.

***

Lambert, waking Aiden: Hey- You ok?

Aiden: I'm dead.

Lambert: I know, you must feel like shit after that-

Aiden: No. I went into cardiac arrest eight minutes ago. I'm deceased.

Lambert: Oh, come on- *checks Aiden's pulse* What the fuck... How are you talking?

Aiden: Superior Cat witcher training. Indomitable will.

Lambert: You really don't have a fucking pulse!

Aiden: Just adrenaline and rage keeping me going. Also, a swallow.

***

*Lambert and Aiden are hiding from chase in the niche between the buildings*

Lambert: Is that your fucking hand on my ass?

Aiden: It was an accident.

Lambert: Aiden, your hand's still on my ass.

Aiden: IT'S STILL AN ACCIDENT!

***

Aiden: I need to get my business in order before I drag you into it.

Lambert: What if I told you I wanna be dragged into it? I could help, maybe.

Aiden: Why now? Why are you all of a sudden into me now?

Lambert: I don't know. I haven't overanalysed it, like you're about to.

***

* during the night hunt in the city*

Aiden: So, this is romantic... The two of us, full moon...

Lambert: Homeless guy pissing on a dumpster...

***

Lambert, to Aiden: You know, you have a talent for turning a bad situation into the worst case scenario.

***

Aiden: Hey, wanna help me commit a felony?

Lambert: What the hell?!

Aiden: Oh, sorry, my bad.

Aiden, whispering: Wanna help me commit a felony?

Lambert, whispering: Of course, dude, what do you need?

***

Lambert, holding Aiden in his arms: Can I have a moment alone with him?

Villagers: Of course *leaves*

Lambert: Now listen asshole, I know you're not dead.

Aiden: Yeah, no shit-

***

Aiden: Sometimes my mouth keeps moving before I can even think about what's coming out of it.

Lambert: Same.

Aiden: Your turn.

Lambert: Well, personally I'm a fan of ignoring a problem until eventually it just goes away or bite my ass.

Aiden: Same…

***

Lambert: I don’t need friends! I HAVE KNIVES! *throws knife*

Aiden: *dodges*

Lambert: I’m... Out of knives.

***

Lambert: [lists off his numerous enemies] Aiden: How does one man have so many enemies? Lambert: I’m a people person who drinks. Aiden: Ah.

***

Lambert: Every time I ask you to do something, you always manage to screw it all up.

Aiden: And yet you continue to ask me. You need help, mister.

***

Lambert: Looks like I got here just in time.

Aiden: What do you mean, just in time?

Lambert: You were in very big trouble.

Aiden: I had the situation under control.

Lambert: Mmm, I see. So which part of the situation did you have under control: the blocked entrance, the poison gas, or that guy behind you?

Aiden: Oh, you mean that one that’s too far away to worry about?

***

Aiden: I'll admit I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of.

Aiden: No, no, that's not true, I'm proud of most of them.

 ***

Aiden: Bottom line, are you in or are you out?

Lambert: Well then I'm out.

Aiden: Actually you're already in.

Lambert: Then why would you ask me?

Aiden: Because I thought you would go, "I'm in, Aiden!", and we would have had a really cool moment, but you kind of ruined the whole thing.

***

Lambert: Ok, let's go free an innocent woman.

Aiden: Nice. My dreams are coming true. You and me getting a lady off together.

Lambert: I mean, you know how that sounds, right?

***

Aiden: Do you love me? It's a simple question.

Lambert: It's not a simple answer.

Aiden: I know.

***

Aiden: Lambert, just give up before you embarrass yourself.

Lambert: Oh no, I never give up before I embarrass myself.

***

Aiden: Did I ever tell you how pretty you look when you’re angry? 

Lambert: Well I must look gorgeous right now because I’m furious! 

***

Lambert: Aiden, I was kidding myself. All that planning and reading… I don’t have a clue where we’re going.

Aiden: You’re doing great. Besides, we NEVER know what we’re doing. Remember cursed forest?

Lambert: You made cute plant food.

Aiden: And this village near Novigrad, how you got us locked in prison?

Lambert: I got us locked in? That was totally your fault!

Aiden: See? It’ll be fine.

[crowleyellestair]

Headcanons on how the wolves + Jaskier would react to a s/o who is due for their period soon and thus very testy/wheepy? I have just been an atomic bomb this month and it’s driving me and everyone else nuts 😖

AN// I’m sorry it’s rough right now, I feel you 100% I hope you can relate and feel just a touch better through this by laughing or feeling some fluff

 The thing about the boys at Kaer Morhen is that they weren’t really aware of what was happening. Triss had explained it a winter prior due to Ciri’s first cycle, but that hadn’t meant that they were used to it. Sorceresses don’t have these problems, and that was the type of women they were around most of the time. Close friends were always invited to the keep, and when Y/n was invited, it stirred the castle into territory most people wouldn’t think it would go.

Vesemir was the first to notice, being the soft dad he was

-Being as old and as trained as he his, he could simply tell

-He had been quite the gentleman as a young wolf, and was familiar with what to do in general

-Not wanting to truly treat you differently, he still asked for certain chores to be done, keeping you up and walking, but not having to move too much

-Honey and black tea would be specially made for you in the morning, as well as having your seat warm by the time you came down for breakfast

-He made certain your clothes were washed separately and more frequently, wanting to help you feel as clean as possible. The scent of sweat or musk never helps on that front

-Since he also cooks, as well as take care of laundry, he plates your food before taking the large pots to the table. The others thought it was because you became his favorite, and while that was true, he made sure to add extra ginger as that helps with cramps. He had regrets for not growing fennel this season, but he was glad to know that his ginger stock can help make you feel comfortable

Lambert was the first to experience it

-There were pranks to be had between you two

-While Jaskier can take what has been dished, his revenge pranks were never as funny

-He was the one who wasn’t afraid to be rowdy with you, and he found out the hard way that you weren’t up for it

-The witcher had been stalking you through the rafters, waiting until he could pounce

-Cramps weren’t necessarily terrible when approaching time, but you had stopped to rub your lower stomach for a moment, trying to sooth anything before it started

-That was the cat-wannabe’s time to strike

-He slid down the wall behind you, though close enough to whereas he landed, his arms wrapped around your shoulders and he wrapped his legs around your torso in a piggy-back formation

-You immediately went off, turning and falling against the wall

-He evacuated before he would be smashed and as he rounded to the front of you, smirk plastered on his face, you cuffed him as hard as you could

-The tears didn’t come, but the unnecessary adrenaline mixed with the already foul mood

-“Not today, Lambert, I swear to Melitele.”

-His eyes went wide, and he truly felt bad.

-You had never raised your voice, even after that one time he glued your mug of ale to your hand

-He threw out a quick sorry and practically flew down the hall in the direction you had just come from

Geralt had noticed next

-It had been the smell

-Not that you smell, but with the extra mutations, he could sense something

-It had been a familiar thing with Ciri, but he simply couldn’t place it

-He walked in on it as your room was on the way to his

-You had a plant, one Vesemir entrusted you to grow, but unbeknownst to you, it wasn’t really important. He just thought you might like a little life in your room. The plant began to wilt however, and leaves started to fall. You were in mourning, resting and crying against the wall

-The White Wolf stepped in to ask if you were ok, not realizing the situation before, but quickly stepped out when the real water works started. You clutched the plant to your chest and wept

-He made a swift and silent exit, trying to not interfere with your grief nor the scent in the air

Eskel, the soft soul, hadn’t noticed anything

-The brunette had either been held up in the library trying to fit his new finds into the shelves or he was with Lil’ Bleater

-You had made contact with him in the area where the goat roamed, fawning over the dear

-He had simply thought you shared the same kind of bond with the animal as he did

-It actually pleased him thoroughly to see it, a small grin plastered on his face

-You even went as far as picking the lil’ guy up and holding him

-He hadn’t noticed it then, but looking back, you were certainly too into it

Jaskier found out through the three younger witchers asking

-“You’re fully human, so what’s happening?”

-“What do you mean?” The three other men sitting him down in the main hall’s table. Lambert looked hurt and uncomfortable, and in the smallest voice any of them had ever heard from him, he said,

-“She yelled at me.” Geralt nodded, also noting the difference in behavior

-“Her smell is different. Not bad, just off. I also found her with a plant, crying.” His tone was rough and almost angry, upset with himself for not knowing what was going on, nor knowing how to fix it

-“Now thinking about it, she did seem aggressive in her coddling with Lil’ Bleater.” Eskel’s hand flew to his scarred cheek, a habit he developed whenever he thought something was very wrong

-It took the bard a moment to think of ideas, but the realization still came quickly

-He felt confident in his knowledge, though he had certainly been lucky in his life, never really being in contact with the disastrous side of a period

-Being dramatic, but also very out of his depth in this area, he told the men to leave it to him

-He shouldn’t have

-Jaskier ended up on his ass for trying to give you a massage and for making a mess of your bed by putting frozen wildflower petals over it

-Vesemir stepped in finally, overhearing the conversation, and explained that it wasn’t a voluntary thing. That Geralt could sense the intense shift in hormones, and you were lashing out, but not because you wanted to. He, being logical and a great dad, exaggerated how much you didn’t mean it, and how you most likely felt bad. Subtlety was needed for the situation, and no one needed a grand gesture. It was simply another week in the life of someone with ovaries, and you shouldn’t be treated too differently than usual, simply with a little more care.

The boys understood, but still felt bad for whatever reason. Jaskier was the first to think of a discrete apology, realizing a surprise massage was definitely not the way to go about it. He had come up to you late the same night, a hot rock wrapped in the nicest towel he could find, in hand. His same bubbly atmosphere stayed with him as he gently handed it to you. There wasn’t an actual conversation between the two of you, but he explained somewhat,

“I’ve heard that heated pads where better than massages anyways.” He knew that when he received a soft smile that it was okay.

Eskel was the next to think of something you might appreciate. He had a favorite book, despite reading many titles over his time. Embarrassingly enough, it was a smaller romance novella about a noble woman falling in love with a dwarf that worked in her families mine. You didn’t need to know it was his favorite, but he left it in your spot as an offering, knowing how he becomes so wrapped up in the book that he looses a sense of reality while reading it. He simply wanted you to lose yourself or whatever you felt, even just for a moment.

Geralt had become spoiled on his travels with Jaskier and Ciri. He fell in love with chamomile oil and honey exfoliation soap. The scent wasn’t overbearing, and the small grains in it from the oat really made one feel clean. There was a bathing order for everyone, his lining up right before yours. Geralt had extra bars, leaving one for you one night. It was like the others, just with a hint of orange zest. He knew you wouldn’t smell or sense what he could, and again, it wasn’t bad, but he knew how you appreciated feeling clean before this.

Lambert was the last to think of something. This had been traumatic for him, the young witcher taking a liking to you more than he had with someone since Aiden. He never thought he had to apologize for anything, nor has he ever had to come up with something to make someone more comfortable. Of course, he knew he didn’t have to, but he truly cared, and wanted to do something nice. And that came in the form of fur a week after the boys’ realization.

He was always freezing, and always wrapped in fur blankets. He had made sure he had the best furs, scratchy furs being uncomfortable. His favorite was a black and grey wolf pelt he had taken from this overly large wolf he found in the Skellege mountains. No matter where he dragged it, how many times he washed it, or overused it, it continued to be the softest thing he’s felt. Lambert would be spotted frequently at night being wrapped in said fur as he would pad down to use the bathroom. The fur had been cleaned and placed on your bed one night, though when you ventured to his room to ask about it, he was hidden. He was watching of course, and only relaxed when he watched you shrug and wrap the blanket around your shoulders. They all wanted your pain to leave as you mattered to them. They all wanted you safe and secure, but none of you can help it. They all swore they would try their damndest to make you comfortable in caring ways

[cilldaracailin]

Save Me

Hello my Tumblr Lovely’s,

Normal service has resumed on my blog and I am back to post the next part of this Robyn and Taron story.

Random side tangent though.... I bought this today!

And I am ridiculously excited to get it and we won’t talk about how the shipping was nearly the same price as the product but I cannot wait to get my hands on it! It’s Care Bears! And original 80′s bears! Just living my childhood now!

Anywhoo, moving on. No major disclaimer needed for this part. Tiny bit emotional and a little angst but nothing else. Also I don’t know Taron.

Suze xx

6

“Relief is a wonderful emotion, highly underrated. In fact, I prefer it to elation or joy. Relief lets the air out of the Tire of Pain.”

Once Robyn had tidied away the picnic blanket and she put the cups in the dishwasher in the kitchen, she took Taron’s hand and they walked back upstairs, the last to arrive, everyone sitting and chatting as Aiden got the next part of the course ready to go. They took the two seats at the end as before and Robyn’s nerves had settled until Aiden came to the part about bleeding and the different types of wounds associated with bleeding and when the trainer mentioned gun shots, he quickly stopped and immediately looked to her.

“It’s fine.” She assured him. “Go on.” Her hand squeezing Taron’s hard completely disagreed with what she actually thought and when his hand returned the tight grip, she knew he was feeling just as uncomfortable as she was.

Thankfully, Aiden didn’t linger on the subject of more severe wounds, concentrating on what they would most likely find in a creche. Ten minutes before four, he was handing out the pages with the quick quiz for the attendees to fill in, Robyn grinning when Taron asked for one too.

“I may as well. I have sat through it.”

Robyn finished the multichoice questionnaire quickly and looked to Taron as he hoovered over a and b on question seven.

“It’s c.” She whispered to him, seeing Taron grin and circle c.

“What is this one?” He asked pointing the question number two.

“A.”

“Thank you.”

Robyn looked to the left when she was elbowed by Emma sitting beside her. “Cheater.”

“He wasn’t here for the first part of the day.”

“Sure.” Emma smiled. “That’s your reason.”

With all the quizzes collected and corrected, everyone passed the refresher course and were then handed their certs, Aiden quickly hand drawing out one for Taron too, giving it to him with a grin and handshake.

“Thank you all for coming today and giving me your full attention. I know it is not an easy course to take but everyone gave their all and I very much appreciate that. Now enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

A babble of chatter filled the room as a happy mood of being free from weekend training circled the air. Robyn turned to Taron and gave him a tiny smile, suddenly feeling a whole new level of exhaustion fill her. Keeping it together during the training, she could finally fully breathe again but that shame that had been pushed to the side that morning when Taron appeared was quickly creeping back in.

“Stop it.” Taron could see her overthinking once again, now that she wasn’t distracted by the course and he leaned a little closer to her, knowing the increased volume of the conversation in the room would cover his words. “You are not to let yourself fall back into the guilt I know you are feeling. I am happy to be here with you. Too much has happened for us today to go backwards.”

She nodded in agreement and then acknowledged the staff who walked past them saying goodbye as they had some hurry in their step to leave the playroom and make the most of what was left of their weekend. Soon it was just her, Taron and Emma left in the room along with Aiden as he tidied up after the course. Once the room was somewhat empty, Robyn rolled her neck and letting go of Taron’s hand covered her mouth as she yawned.

“Why don’t you and Taron head back to yours.” Emma had noticed how neither Robyn or her male friend had even tried to make a move once the course finished and they still sat on the little chairs. “Been a long day for you both.”

“I will help you put the room back together.” Robyn stood up and went to pick up the chair she was sitting on but was stopped by Emma.

“The girls can do it on Monday. They will have lots of time before the children come in. Take Taron and go home.” Emma tilted her head a little, her eyebrows motioning towards Taron.

Robyn easily read the body language from Emma and knew she had to face the fate of Taron’s clear disappointment as he spoke to her outside earlier. “Yeah alright.” She turned to Taron. “Ready to go?”

“Absolutely.” He nodded. Desperate for some privacy and his chat with Robyn, he also really wanted a shower and some sleep. Getting to his feet, he looked to Emma. “Thank you.”

Emma smiled a little. “No need for you to thank me. It was nice to see you again.” She hoped Taron got the hidden meaning behind her words and as he stepped forward to give her a hug, she knew he did.

Once they said one last thank you and goodbye to Aiden, they headed downstairs and while Robyn collected her belongings from her locker, Taron waited in the office. He heard a clash and clang as she dropped something and when the curse came from her lips as she dropped her keys again, he stepped into the hallway, watching as she juggled her belongings, reaching forward to take her purse before she dropped it too.

“Robyn?” He caught her keys just as the slipped from her hands too and he was left holding all of her things except her coat.

“Shit sorry Taron.” Robyn walked past him into the office and dropped her coat on her chair. “Don’t know what is going on with me.” She took her things from him, putting everything into her handbag, except her keys, leaving them on the desk.

“I have an idea.” He said kindly and he stepped in to give her a hug. “Adrenaline is gone and that tiredness is really settling in. Thoughts of things to come.”

“I hate that I did this to you.” She spoke into his chest.

“You have done nothing to me except protect me but you just went around it the wrong way and here in your office is not the place for this conversation. Let’s go back to yours.” Taron placed a soft kiss on her head. “And I am driving.”

Robyn lifted her head from him. “You are driving?”

“Yes.” He picked up her keys from the desk. “I am not letting you drive home like this. I know I am tired but your tired is so different to mine. I will get us back to yours and don’t even try to argue with me over it.”

“Whatever you want rocketman.”

He smiled as she used his nickname. “Great. Let’s go.” He picked up his sunglasses and hat, putting both on before swinging his bag over his right shoulder.

With everything in her hands except her keys, Robyn pushed the door release button and let them out of the creche, making their way to her car. She smiled as Taron crossed her path, getting to the car first at the driver’s side, unlocking the car and throwing his bag on the back seat, Robyn slipping into the passenger side. Strange having someone else drive her car, it was something she never thought Taron would ever have to do but inside she was happy for him to take over the short drive to hers, trusting him completely to get them there safely. At the moment, he was definitely the perfect person to have behind the wheel. She watched him adjust the seat a little, before he pulled his seatbelt on and then started the car, Robyn turning the radio down. The drive was quick and quiet and as the car rolled down the cul de sac of where Robyn lived, they both gave Lizzie, her mam a wave as they passed by her childhood home, Lizzie outside talking to the neighbours. Robyn cringed at the thought of her mam seeing Taron in her car and driving it too only imagining the questioning she was going to get when she saw her mam next.

As Taron parked the car outside her house, making sure the hand break was pulled up properly, normally what was a happy feeling inside at having Taron in her home, knowing it was some decent rest for him, was replaced by an overanxious and troubled sickening feeling for Robyn. She waited for Taron to grab his bag and then once he had locked the car, let him unlock her front door and turn off the alarm.

Once inside, Taron pulled off his glasses and hat and left his bag on the island and stood in the kitchen waiting for Robyn to hang up her coat. She slowly made her way to stand beside him, knowing full well what was coming, her eyes on the floor, avoiding looking at Taron.

“So, I want you to go into the bathroom and run yourself a nice hot bubble bath.”

Robyn’s head shot up. “What?”

“You heard me.” Taron moved a little closer to her. “It has been a hard morning and you just need to re-energise but also heat up.”

“Taron…”

“What I want to say will take me about a minute and it needs to be said when we both have clearer heads and taken some time for pumped up emotions to calm down a bit and preferably in a cuddle in my corner of the couch. We need to make sure words are not exchanged when we are still stumbling through what happened today. I know right now, my mind set isn’t perfect and seeing you perform the CPR has made me understand why you didn’t want to tell me about the training but I still needed to know about it so what I want you to do, is go and run a nice bath, put some music on and then after I take a shower we can sit and work some niggly things out. Then we put one some crappy TV in your room and sleep.” Taron placed his hands on her cheeks. “If you don’t run it, I will and you know I don’t know how to make the bath salts melt properly.”

Robyn smiled at him under his hands. “I would love a bath.”

“Go. I will find something to amuse myself with around here.”

“I have no doubt about that. Thanks Taron.”

“Take as long as you need. Is cwtch on your couch?”

“Of course.” Robyn answered him.

“Think I might go and catch up with him.”

“Feel free to raid the fridge Taron.”

“Baked goods?” He asked his eyes opening wide.

“Maybe.” Robyn side stepped around him to her countertop beside the fridge and pulled a plate towards her with a round cake cover on top. Taron came to stand beside her and as she lifted the lid, heard the gasp of excitedness from him.

“You made the chocolate cupcakes with honeycomb!” He reached forward to swipe at the pale chocolate frosting on top of the cake, eating the light frosting from his finger. “And you made them without me.” His voice held a tinge of sadness.

“When I don’t sleep, I bake.” Robyn answered with a shrug. “I also didn’t know you were coming and I wanted to practise them before I made them with you. Just to be sure.”

“Tastes good.” Taron picked a piece of honeycomb and ate it. “Delicious. I know what I am going to do now when you are in the bathroom.”

“Cwtch can’t have chocolate.” Robyn looked to him. “Don’t feed him cupcakes.” His smile was beautiful and the first one all day where his dimples appeared. “I don’t want to wash him.”

“I promise, I will be the one eating the cupcakes.”

“Good. Make sure you explain to cwtch that he will get his corner back too.”

“My corner.” Taron corrected quickly. “Cwtch was kept in a drawer under your bed before I came along.”

His answer made Robyn smile and she loved being able to have the little jokes and silliness with him. It was upsetting that it had been missing for them all day. “I am going to go now though I have a feeling I am going to come out to you covered in chocolate, in a chocolate coma on the couch.”

Taron shook his head. “You won’t. Go and take some time to relax.”

With a nod, Robyn walked away from him in the kitchen and headed for the bathroom through the laundry room, closing both doors behind her. It hadn’t been an idea that crossed her mind herself but after Taron made the suggestion of taking a hot bath, it was all she could think of and at the bath, got the plug in and hot water flowing quickly, adding an over generous amount of coconut bubble bath into the water, white foamy bubbles swirling in the water straight away. The tropical scent floated through the bathroom and as the water continued to flow, steam rose from the deep bath. Robyn walked into her bedroom, frowning at the mess she had left it in, the bed unmade, clothes thrown across the place. Even though she hadn’t really spent much time in her bedroom over the last few nights, it was still a state. She picked up a few random items of clothing and rolling them into a ball, threw them into an empty cubby hole in her wardrobe, then routing out one of her matching pyjama sets, laid it over the silver radiator bars in the bathroom and turned it on.

The bath was filling nicely and she unzipped her work fleece, throwing it into the open laundry hamper, turning to the mirror and sighing. She looked wretched and it was going to take more than a cosy sleep with Taron to rid of her the dark circles under her eyes and a lot of hydrating masks to sooth dry skin. She bent down and opened the cabinet drawer under her sink and flicking through her face masks, pulled out a pink sheet mask, perfect for rehydrating tired skin. She turned her attention back to the bath, getting to the taps just in time before the water reached the point where it would slop over the side once she got in. Going to her bath bomb wicker basket on the window, she picked up one she knew would match the coconut scent of the bubble bath and taking it from the paper packaging, threw it into the water, hearing it fizz. Once stripped and her clothes in the hamper, she eased herself into the water, wincing a little at the heat but as her body got used to the temperature of the scalding water it was glorious. Lifting her hand from the water, she pressed the button to start the bubble jets and left them on an easy sprinkle setting and then opened the face mask, placing the moisture filled sheet on her face and then lay her head back.

“Alexa, play Robyn’s piano favourites.” She called out into the bathroom, immediately the electronic device granting her wish. “Alex set an alarm for twenty minutes.” Alarm set and music on, Robyn closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind, to stop herself from thinking about everything she could. To forget how she had betrayed Taron’s trust and how she had a lot of grovelling to do for him which also involved as many head massages as he would like.

Taron had already eaten two cupcakes and was on his third as he stood in front of the piano, admiring all of Robyn’s framed pictures, particularly the ones of him and her at all of his red carpet appearances that she had accompanied him to. By far his favourite was the one Stella had taken of them in the hotel room and it was clearly Robyn’s favourite too as it took pride of place among all the photos of her family and friends. He was happy to have a little walk around, saying hello to her fish, looking out into her garden, smiling at the memory of sitting outside last year eating breakfast. The couch was calling to him but he was waiting to sit down because he knew once he sank into the comfiness of her corner couch, it wouldn’t be long before he had a nap and he wanted to stay awake until he just got his point across to Robyn that from today, things would have to change between them.

Eating the honeycomb from the cupcake, Taron had spent a good ten minutes wandering around her living area before he had to give in to some of the weariness he was feeling and sat down on the couch, nowhere near the corner but closer to the glass doors. He had just got settled when there was a knock on the front door.

“Robyn?”

Taron’s head turned to see Lizzie walking in, her face in slight surprise at seeing him sitting on the couch.

“Well, hey Taron. I thought it was you I saw in Robyn’s car. Driving it too I believe.” She closed the door and walked in towards the couch. “I didn’t know you were coming for a visit this weekend.”

“Well, it was a last-minute trip.” Taron stood up. “Just quick one.” He walked around the couch to greet Robyn’s mam with a light hug. “A real quick one.”

“Robyn normally tells me when you are coming over. It has been a while.”

“Just had a last-minute free day.” Taron shrugged. “Easier to get to Kilcreen now that I am in Belfast filming.”

“Now that she did mention.” Lizzie said with a small smile.

“It’s been busy but great being closer. No planes.” Taron tried to sound as upbeat as he could. “Always a plus.”

Lizzie saw Taron fold his arms over himself, the clear dark circles under his eyes and how he was faltering on his feet. “So, let me guess. My wonderfully stubborn daughter decided it would be in hers and yours best interest not to tell you about the first aid training she had this morning and but someone rang you to tell you and my first guess would be Claire but I am sure it was Emma and you came to Kilcreen to stand by Robyn as once again she insisted on taking on everything herself and it has been a horrible morning for both of you where neither of you got any sleep last night and Robyn is struggling once more with the frightening things that happened to you and her last year and you poor thing are here to help her but suffering through it just as much as she is.”

Taron’s mouth dropped open a small bit but his eyes closed as he nodded his head.

“I swear that daughter of mine. At times like these she is her father’s daughter. Not related to me at all. Come and sit with me.” Lizzie placed a gentle hand on Taron’s shoulder and they walked to the seats at the breakfast bar. “Sometimes I wonder if a sibling would have been good for her. She always had her cousins around, they only live next door but she is so stubbornly independent that maybe having a brother or a sister would have just opened her up more to the idea of sharing feelings and then since Keith…” Lizzie stopped to look at Taron who was avoiding her eyes. “Well, that fucker changed her into this broken scared girl and unfortunately since then she has always been out to close into herself. It wasn’t until she met you that I noticed a change in her but it seems she has been back to her old ways.” Lizzie reached for Taron’s hands. “I am so sorry she is making your life a little troublesome. Her heart is definitely in the right place just her mindset still needs to be shifted.”

Taron gave her another small smile. “She is not troublesome at all. In fact, she is wonderful.” The words came from his lips before he could stop them and knew his tired face blushed. “What I mean is…”

“I knew I liked you the first time I met you in her garden.” Lizzie smiled at him. “But the way she has treated you this weekend is not right.”

“She was under a lot of stress this morning.”

“Still no excuse for what she did Taron. Considering how close you two have gotten and how much she loves you, it really was very unfair on you though. She didn’t stop to think how her pig-headedness would affect you and not even a second thought to giving you a simple phone call. You came such a way for her and I am sure it has put you out some.”

“Not at all. I figured something out with work.” Taron insisted.

“I am sorry Taron.”

“You don’t have to apologise for Robyn. I actually admire her stubbornness; how independent and strong she is. Granted at times, she really pushes herself too far and honestly, I was hurt by what she did today.” Taron looked to Lizzie, afraid he was going to offend her. “I know why she did it and I am not mad at her.” He quickly said. “But I just need her to see that I am here for her, especially when it comes to things that involve me, like the CPR. I want to be there for her. She has done so much for me.”

“You sure you a man?” Lizzie asked with a chuckle.

Taron returned the chuckle. “Last time I checked, yes.”

“You have a good heart Taron.”

“Blame my mother.”

“Now Taron, I have spoken to your mother and she is a lovely woman.”

Taron nodded. “The best. Lizzie, I don’t want you to be mad at Robyn either. She is already feeling shit about not telling me and I am going to talk to her about what she did but honestly, I think something may have changed for her today. I saw a different Robyn earlier, one that finally seemed to understand just how much she was actually hurting herself more than anything.”

“But she is hurting you too and she can’t do that Taron. I can’t imagine today was any way easy on you too. Had to be hard watching the training.”

“It wasn’t nice.” He answered. “I saw the CCTV footage, I know what she did but it was so close to me in the creche and so very real and even though I am tired and need to sleep, I am sure I will have a few unpleasant images in my head for a while, might find it hard to drift off.”

“And get back to work.”

“Actually, they might help with my character.”

“It was still something you could have been forewarned about, something you could have talked through together rather than just being thrown into it.”

“Robyn threw herself on me to save me all those months ago, it was the least I could have done for her and to be honest, I do think doing the CPR for Robyn and for me, was good for us. Hopefully the start of the emotional healing we both need.”

“I hope so Taron because I have seen Robyn broken before and I can’t bear to watch her go through it again.”

“You already told me how strong she is and she is a serious survivor Lizzie and like I said, there was a little bit of a change and realisation after the CPR. I think a little light bulb might have gone off for her.”

Lizzie was so thankful for the patient man sitting beside her. “I really hope so but a lot of that is down to you Taron. You are the one perfect thing going for her at the moment and I really don’t want that to change but if she keeps blocking you out, I am worried that it…”

“It won’t.” Taron interrupted her quickly. “I am not going anywhere. Believe me, I am too involved now to go anywhere plus if she keeps baking me chocolate cupcakes, I can’t see a way out.” He joked.

Lizzie placed her hands on Taron’s face, finally making him look at her properly. “You have given her so much, already helped her more than I can explain but I don’t want her treating you like this because you deserve the same love you give her in abundance and believe me Taron, she does love you but as you also know, has a lot of demons to conquer.” She leaned into gently kiss his forehead, Taron smiling as it was the same delicate gesture Robyn always gave to him. “Thank you for being so kind to her, for treating her right.”

Taron placed his hands on Lizzies. “Your daughter did something for me that I will never be able to repay her for.”

“You have no idea how much you have done for her already Taron.” Lizzie took her hands from his face. “She still hasn’t stopped talking about that tent you made for her and that bracelet hasn’t left her wrist.” She was so glad to see a smile fill his face. “And I cannot even begin to explain to you how much her confidence has grown, how those little weekend trips to see you just excite her. It’s new and it’s wonderful and I just need to thank you for giving her back her spark, for helping her get it back.” She moved to give him a hug. “And don’t be afraid to give her a little bit of hell for what she did.”

“Lizzie…” Taron tried to break the hug but Robyn’s mam hugged him tighter.

“She listens to you Taron and I honestly think, if it comes from you, it means so much more than coming from me or her dad.  I know how much she loves you and of everyone in her life at the moment, you are the one person she will not want to disappoint.”

“Just a little word.” He agreed. “A small one. She already knows.”

“I am sure she does Taron but make sure she knows. I don’t want her to lose you.”

This time it was Taron who hugged Lizzie tighter. “She won’t. I am sorry to say but she is kind of stuck with me and hopefully for a very long time.”

“I think her dad and I might just be ok with that.”

Taron laughed. “My mam is pretty chuffed too.”

“Someday we are going to have meet your family.”

“I very much look forward to that day.”

Their heads turned as they heard the music in the bathroom stop.

“Guess that is my cue to go. I don’t want her to know I was here.”

“I won’t say a word.” Taron agreed. “Thanks Lizzie. I needed a little pick me up.”

“I can only imagine but I think Robyn might be able to help with the rest.” Lizzie stood up and walked around the breakfast bar, stopping to look to Taron. “Ask her for a head massage. I have heard you like those.” Lizzie left him with a little wink and wide smile, another deep red blush filling Taron’s face as she left.

Lizzie had only left when the bedroom door opened and Robyn walked out, looking more refreshed and slightly happier in herself, wearing the matching white ski pyjamas he had found in her old bedroom when he had snooped through her shelves.

Robyn was so glad she had set the alarm because she had found herself dozing and the jingle woke her up, with a little splash, the water now luke warm, a lot of the frothy bubbles gone. Carefully getting out of the bath, she hopped into the shower to wash the glitter residue off from the bath bomb but also to wash her hair. Slipping into her warmed pyjama’s she was thrilled to have washed the day off, glad it was mostly done with and as she sat drying her hair, felt very apprehensive about what Taron had to say. Disappointing him was a suffering she didn’t want to have to go through again but knew he needed to have his say and was going to let him, hoping she could keep herself together to listen because seeing Taron in pain was her worst fear.

When she walked out to her living area, he was swinging around on one her breakfast bar stools. She walked over to the bar, smiling as he continued to twirl around.

“Having fun?”

“Lots.” He answered spinning once more. “Have a nice bath?”

“It was perfect.”

“Feeling warmer?”

“Much.”

“Wearing your Eddie pj’s?”

“Not my Eddie pj’s but yes.”

“No shorts?”

“Not for the moment.” Robyn walked around the breakfast bar to stand beside him. “The bathroom is all yours.” She looked over his shoulder to the plates with the cupcakes, noticing some missing. “Your tummy happy too?”

“Very.” He agreed with a grin. “They were yummy.” He got down off the stool. “I am going to go and shower.”

“Take as long as you want. I know you love that rainfall shower or I could run you a bath if you would like.”

“Thank you but no. I will stick to a shower.” He walked to the island and picked up his bag. “I may have to borrow a few things in your bathroom. I am not too sure what I packed in here this morning.”

“You know you can use whatever you want.”

Taron nodded and started to walk away from her but turned back. “I like your pictures. On your piano.”

“Me too.” She answered him. “Go and shower.”

He nodded at her and walked into her bedroom, dropping his bag on the bed. He pulled his jumper off and dropped it beside his bag, his shirt landing on the duvet next. He zipped open his bag, rummaging inside and sighed as he realised what he had packed. One clean pair of boxers and some sweat pants. Thrown at the bottom of his bag was a can of deodorant and a toothbrush. It seemed that packing in a rush and haze of disorientated worry and annoyance had not worked in his favour and he realised he was going to need to borrow more than a few things. Walking into the bathroom, he opened his belt as he went, inhaling the gorgeous feminine scent left in the neatly organised wash room from Robyn and her bath. He turned on the shower and stripped down, leaving his clothes in a pile on the floor. He was going to have to ask Robyn would she mind if he put a wash on if he was going to have any clean clothes for tomorrow.

The shower was definitely needed and more beneficial than a bath and that powerful rainfall shower just pounded on tired muscles. He quickly washed his hair, used Robyn’s lime shower gel and as he stepped out of the shower, saw the towel waiting on the heated radiator for him, Robyn still looking out for him in the smallest of ways. It was so warm on his chilly skin and once dried he put on the one pair of boxers he brought with him and the grey sweat pants. He picked up the black jumper and his shirt from the bed and headed back into the bathroom to pick up the clothes he had left on the floor and walked into the laundry room and put them in the empty laundry hamper. He grabbed a fresh towel from the shelf and was towel drying his hair as he walked back into the living room, Robyn standing in the kitchen at the hob at the counter.

“Could I borrow a t-shirt?” He asked walking over to her. “I seemed to have left everything behind in Belfast.”

While Taron showered, Robyn whisked up some eggs, cooking them slowly in a saucepan and had some bread in the toaster waiting to be pushed down. She felt a little hungry and knowing how many cupcakes Taron already had, figured he would like some food. She turned when she heard his voice, her heart fluttering as he walked towards her in just his comfy sweatpants.

“My t-shirt?” She asked him.

“Technically one of mine but yes one of yours but as I gave it to you it will fit me and perhaps, I could borrow it for tonight? Or the hoodie?”

“Sure of course. You stir the eggs and I will get it.”

“Eggs?” He asked coming to stand beside her, taking the blue spatula from her hands.

“I thought you might have been hungry.”

“A little.”

“Eggs ok? I can make you a sandwich.” Robyn quickly said, worried her simply choice of food wasn’t the right choice for him.

“Eggs are perfect.” Taron nodded as he kept stirring. “No need for sandwich. I will happily eat some eggs and toast, maybe a cup of tea.”

Robyn gave him a little smile. “Let me go and get the t-shirt for you. You watch the eggs.” She held her hand out for the towel he was using to dry his hair and he handed it to her. She then walked away from him and through the laundry room, dropping the towel into the laundry basket, seeing his clothes already in there, making a mental note to pop a wash on for him when they were finished talking. She made her way in through the steamy bathroom and to her wardrobe. Reaching into the cubby hole that held her pyjama tops, she found Taron’s blue t-shirt he had given her mixed in with her other band t-shirts. She carried it back out to the kitchen. “Here ya go.”

“Thank you.” Taron passed the spatula back to her and fluffed the folded blue material out, slipping into it, inhaling the wonderful fresh scent of fabric softener as he pulled his head through. “I literally brought four things with me.”

“Bit of rush to pack this morning then.” She asked him as he smoothed down his t-shirt over his chest.

“Yeah and in a very sleepy haze.” Taron leaned his left hip against the counter.

Robyn pressed the toast down and handed Taron the spatula so he could continue to stir their eggs. “I promise you will sleep well tonight.” She moved to the kettle and lifting it from its perch, filled it at the sink, then clicking it back in place and switching it on.

“As I always do in your bed. Any chance I could put on a wash too?”

“Of course Taron. I saw your stuff in the hamper. You know you don’t have to ask.”

“Great. Thank you.” He let her take over the stirring of the eggs.

“Want me to help you?”

“No thanks. I got it. Want me to put your stuff on too?”

“Please.” She called back to him and he walked to the hamper in the bathroom and gathered up her clothes. Once at the machine, he pushed all of her bits in, his clothes after. He then added the powder and fabric softener, getting the machine going. Robyn had shown him how to use her washing machine before and he was a whizz at it now and once he was sure it was whirling round, made his way back out to Robyn in her kitchen.

“Want some help?” He asked coming to stand beside her again.

“Can you do the toast?”

“Of course.”

It took them five minutes to dish up two plates of hot scrambled eggs and triangles of buttered toast, with a pot of tea for Taron and they sat together at the breakfast bar, both eating in silence, both finishing off all the food in front of them. Robyn wasn’t surprised to see that Taron had cleaned his plate and finished most of the tea in the teapot but more so that she had eaten everything as well. It was the most food she had eaten in two days but now that the food was gone and they moved to wash up, she could feel the guilt and shame filter back into her as she dried the last fork, putting it in its place in the cutlery drawer. She knew Taron needed to have his say, that he definitely deserved to defend himself, but she hated that he had to do it and really wasn’t looking forward to see that horrible sadness in his beautiful eyes again.

As Taron dried his hands, he could see a change in Robyn and that light heartedness that filled the room earlier was gone and they hadn’t spoken a word to each other in the last twenty minutes which wasn’t unusual for them. They had sat in silence together on many occasions but it was so obvious Robyn was once again back in her head and torturing herself.

“Come and sit with me.” He said gently, taking her hand with his left, dropping the tea towel on the sink. He led her to the couch but avoided sitting in the corner, instead sitting near the edge guiding her past him so she sat his right. “Robyn…”

“Taron you don’t…”

“Just let me say one thing.”

“No Taron.” Robyn placed her hand over his mouth, stopping him from talking. “Just no.” She took her hand away from him and waited a few seconds to see if he was going to interrupt her again. When he didn’t, she continued speaking, turning around to face him. “You don’t have to explain it to me and honestly I don’t think I can listen to you tell me again that my selfish actions have hurt you because that is the one thing I never ever want to hear you say again or for me to ever do to you again.” Robyn took a quick breath, trying to keep ready to fall tears at bay. Knowing that she had hurt him, that he admitted to her that she had done so, was something she was never going to forget so easily. “I know you know I am sorry but there shouldn’t have been something for me to be sorry for. It was so easy for me to slip back into my old ways, when I promised you two weeks ago that I wouldn’t do that anymore but old habits are hard to let go of but let me tell you something, I never ever want to see the hurt in your eyes or in your voice again.” Robyn reached for his hands and cupped his two warm hands between hers. “It is not an excuse for what happened but I am still getting used to having someone like you who isn’t my family or friends and you probably figured I don’t tell them everything either.”

“Robyn…” Taron started but stopped when Robyn shook her head at him.

“I just need to you to understand how disappointed I am with myself for hurting you so. I was so caught up in my own misery that I never thought how you needed to know about the training, about how it would affect you too and that is wrong Taron. It is wrong for me to just cut you out, to be so unaware of your feelings and own emotions from the CPR and of all the people around me, you are one I don’t ever want to treat like that.” Robyn rubbed his hands with her two thumbs. “You have been nothing but kind to me and you only deserve to be treated with the same respect you give me and I know my words are probably shit at the moment but I give you my word, when I say I will tell you everything and share with you all these important things you need to know and let me start with assuring you that I have not had one nightmare since London and that’s why you haven’t had a late-night phone call from me. I wasn’t lying when I said it was daily visions but I think now they just might be gone. Before the CPR it was all I could see but once we finished, they vanished. I think it was the anxiety attached to the CPR and when that was done, a serious weight was lifted from my shoulders.” Robyn gave his hands a light squeeze. “But if they come back, I will tell you.” She let go of his hands and sat back on the couch, running her hands through her hair, looking to him, trying to put as much sincerity into her words that she could manage without crumbling on the couch in pity. “I swear Taron, I value and regard you in the highest esteem and I will never forgive myself for how I have behaved and treated you, being silent and not sharing with you and if you want to rant at me some more, I know I deserve it but Jesus Taron I will never ever let you down again or have you leaving work to come and talk to me because I know how important your work is to you and how much this movie means to you and you shouldn’t have to leave to come and chastise me for acting like a child and…”

Robyn found her words cut off as she was pulled into a tight hug, Taron’s two strong arms wrapped around her back tight as he closed the gap between them, turning to face her so he could hug her hard. She melted into him and slid her face in his neck, breathing in that wonderful fresh scent from his clean skin and hair, locking her arms around his back too.

Taron had watched Robyn go into one of her endless speeches and instead of her usual words of encouragement, she was straight into another apology to him and he could see her doing her very best to hold her tears in and keep her voice steady, feeling how hard she was squeezing is hands, not even noticing she was doing so. He knew she was sorry and as he had said to her mam earlier, could see the change in her and had a feeling that finally something had clicked with Robyn and her mindset had finally shifted to where she knew she could and must trust him and he wouldn’t hurt her in return so it was very easy for him to hug her, ending her apology and he hoped the firmness of the hug was enough for her to realise that all was definitely forgiven.

“No more tears, no more apologies.” He said into her shoulder. “I know.”

“Taron, if you…” Robyn began but he stopped her by tightening the hug.

“You have just said everything I wanted to say to you so I am not going to repeat it. It’s been a hard day for both of us and now we put it behind us and move forward and if we really want to go into people leaving work to chastise the other, don’t forgot you skipped a day’s work to come to New York to me. We are even and you and me have been through way too much to let today change us. You know I forgive you and you know you don’t have to apologise any more to me.”

“But Taron we can’t just leave it like this. I hurt you so much.”

“You did and you know this. I am not made of steel and I can feel just as much as you can and I know you didn’t mean too. It was the pressure of the course and taking it all on yourself and not leaning on others for support, leaning on me but I trust that from now on, you will talk to me. I am only a phone call away and a two-hour drive now too and Robyn I really think we are quits on the who has ever made the other person feel worse. Let’s not forget Paris either. Both of us have made mistakes but we are going to move on. I know you are sorry chicken. I am always here for you. That is never going to change. Please just don’t shut me out again.”

Robyn moved her left in circles around his back, while her right trailed up into his hair. “I won’t. I am…”

“Shh…” Taron soothed gently. “I know and it’s done. I don’t want to hear any more talk about it. Been a shit day for both of us and now we are definitely putting it behind us and moving on.” He moved his head to give her cheek a little kiss.

Robyn felt her whole body finally relax and she smiled at his little kiss. “Thank you.”

“Just make me more chocolate cupcakes.”

They both laughed, that light mood returning.

“I will make you whatever you want and hand deliver it every evening to your set if it is what you want.”

Taron moved away from her and back into his place on the couch. “Is that a promise?” He asked with a wide grin.

“Whatever you want rocketman.”

“Cookies.” Taron answered before she even finished speaking. “White chocolate chip cookies.”

Robyn laughed again. “Done.” She sat back into the couch, feeling Taron move closer to her so their shoulders were touching. “I will make some for you to bring back with you.” She turned her head as she saw him nodded happily in agreement to the cookies. The tough conversation wasn’t as tough as she thought it was going to be and all she knew was that she had never met a man like Taron before who was so willing to accept her flaws and give her the best hugs she had ever had.

[staliaqueen]

bittersweet | 20

pairing: stiles stilinski x oc a/n: part 20 y’all! I can’t believe I’ve actually written this far. until bittersweet my longest wip was literally 4 chapters long. thank you so much for loving and supporting my work, you’ve helped me come so far! warnings: swearing, mentions of death and murder.  wordcount: 1723

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Stiles

The ride to the Sheriff’s Station was silent. It was a very particular silence that I didn’t know how I felt about. It wasn’t awkward, but not comfortable either. I guess there was just a lot of tension in the air. Or rather a lot of tension between us. Neither of us knew how to resolve it so we just sort of sat there in silence. 

I guess just telling her would release some of it, but for some reason, this felt like a very awkward time to do it. Though maybe there wasn’t a non-awkward time to do something like this. I had no idea how to start, and it wasn’t like there existed a handbook of ‘How To Tell Your Former Enemy and Still Not Really Friend That Werewolves Are a Thing’ out there. 

My mind was so clouded with thoughts of what had just happened at Marcel’s anyway that I couldn’t concentrate. At the forefront of these thoughts was Colin. What was his deal, really? I wanted to ask Valerie about him, but I knew I shouldn’t. I didn’t even have the right to feel this way. Who was I to barge into her life and start asking questions just because I didn’t like something?

Before I knew it, I was pulling into the parking lot of the Sheriff’s station. Scott and Kira were, of course, there already. When the jeep was all parked and done I rolled down the window and leaned out, cards ready, to talk to them. 

“Okay, this one will get you into all of the perimeter doors, this one to the evidence room, and this one’s for my father’s office.” 

Scott looked down at the cards and raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t steal this, did you?” 

I shook my head. “No. I just cloned them using the RFID emulator.” 

“Is that worse than stealing?”

I shrugged. “It’s smarter.” 

The, by now, pretty scared looking Kira asked Scott if she could ask him a question and they walked out of earshot, leaving me alone with Valerie again. 

“An RFID emulator huh?” 

I turned to look at her, not expecting her to speak, much less smirk at me. 

“Yeah.” 

“That’s pretty impressive, Stilinski. You just gained a good amount of your respect back. Congratulations, you’re no longer in the negative numbers.” 

A smile pulled at my lips at Valerie’s callback to the first good moment we shared together. “I’m glad to hear that.” 

Just then Scott and Kira returned outside my window. 

“Okay. So, now almost everybody’s out dealing with the blackout, but there’s always somebody at the front desk. There’s dispatch and usually a night shifter or two. You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster, all right? Nobody uses it. Now, we’ll stay watch and I’ll text you if anyone comes out, but, Scott, if you get caught, I can’t help you. My dad’s under investigation for impeachment, ‘cause of your dad, so, if anything happens I will run and leave you both for dead.” 

Kira looked a bit frightened at my bluntness, and her eyes traveled over to Valerie in the passenger seat. Knowing what she was thinking, I decided to shoot down her hopes as quickly as possible. 

“Sorry Kira, but she’s in the car with me. I go she goes.” 

A snort escaped Valerie’s mouth and she gave Kira an apologetic shrug as if to say ‘what can you do’. 

“Got it,” said Scott. “Thanks. Seriously, dude.” 

“I’d ask my dad, you know..”

“No, I know. I get it.”

“Alright, just, uh, hurry up.” 

Scott and Kira nodded before setting foot for the service entrance, and just like that, the tension in the air was back. It felt sad to counter the fleeting nice moment we’d just had with something this tragic, but I knew it had to be done. 

“So I guess this is when I tell you everything,” I said quietly, keeping my eyes on the steering wheel. 

“I guess it is.” 

I took a deep sigh to gather my thoughts. So my had happened lately that I didn’t know where to begin. I figured it was best to start at the beginning, just to give some background info, then go onto what I wanted to clear up most. 

“Scott is a werewolf.” I gathered enough courage to look over at Valerie to gauge her reaction, but there wasn’t much to see. She didn’t seem all that surprised, which was understandable. Her brain had probably made that conclusion a while ago, she just needed someone to confirm it. 

“So was Erica, and Boyd. So is Isaac, and so are Ethan and Aiden.” 

Nothing changed in Valerie’s expression, she just kept her steady gaze straight ahead, barely even blinking. Her face was extremely tense, probably from the strain of keeping all of her emotions inside. 

“You know Derek Hale?” Valerie gave a very small nod, like she was afraid she was going to break if she moved too much. “Erica, Isaac, and Boyd used to be part of his pack.” I threw in a quick explanation of alphas, betas, and omegas. “Now Isaac has shifted alliances to our pack.” 

I took a deep breath once again as I finally arrived at the thing I wanted to clear up most. But it was also the part that would be the hardest for her to hear – yet I knew that she needed to know the truth. 

“The reason I told Ethan to stay away from you, is because he and Aiden used to be a part of this pack of just alphas. Really evil alphas. It was they who killed Erica... and later Boyd.”

Valerie fought hard to keep her neutral expression, her jaw clenching even harder as she forced the tears to remain in her eyes, not willing to let them fall down. 

I gave her a minute to think about the information she’d just learned, before I went on to explain how Lydia was a banshee and what had happened with Allison and her family of hunters. 

Once I was finished, I settled back in my seat and let the silence wash over us once again. I kept my eyes on my hands as I played with my keys, trying to give her as much privacy as possible, when I noticed that key I didn’t recognize once again. My eyes narrowed as I held it up, examining it closely, trying to figure out where it came from. But alas, I was prevented from doing so again when a sudden light blinded my eyes. 

I looked out the front window and my gaze settled on the car that had just pulled into the parking lot. My eyes widened when I saw who the driver was. Agent McCall. 

“Ah, hell,” I muttered, reaching into my pocket for my phone. In the corner of my eye, I could see that my words had alerted Valerie to the situation. When my phone was in my hands I typed a text to Scott as quickly as possible. 

“Come on, Scott,” I muttered, eyes shifting between my phone-screen and Agent McCall, who had stepped out of his car and was making his way towards the station. Scott still hadn’t seen the text. 

Fuck it, I thought as I shoved my phone back in my pocket and placed my hand on the door handle. “I’m so going to regret this.”

I pulled the door handle down, but before I could open it a firm hand was placed on my shoulder. 

“No,” said Valerie strictly. “You can’t get your dad in trouble. Wait here, I’ll handle it.” With that said she stepped out of the jeep and hurried down the street. Before she disappeared out of sight, she cast me one final warning glance as an extra precaution to make sure I wouldn’t follow her. 

Thinking it was in my best interest to do as she said, I leaned back in my seat, tapping my fingers on my leg, waiting for her to return. 

After a while (I couldn’t tell you how long it took even if I tried) Valerie walked out of the Sheriff’s Station, and I hurried out of the jeep to meet her. 

“How’d it go? What happened?” 

She stopped in front of me, running a hand through her hair and casting a quick glance back at the Station. “Good, I think. I distracted him for as long as I could. I’m pretty sure I bought them enough time.” Her eyes met mine and suddenly I found myself looking away from her. My hand flew up to scratch the back of my head as I pretended to look for Scott and Kira while wondering why the hell I felt so awkward around her all of a sudden. 

“Stilinski.” 

The call of my last name made me look at her again, mainly because of how soft her voice was when she said it. I found myself being trapped in her beautiful eyes again, as if the faint blue flames were hypnotizing me. Valerie’s stare on me got heavier as well, and the tension in the air shifted immensely, only I didn’t know to what. 

Valerie’s mouth fell open, but only a faint sound could escape before she was cut off by the sound of footsteps. She turned her head to Scott and Kira who were running toward us, and just like that, our moment was broken. 

“We did it,” said Scott, grinning. “All the pics are deleted.” 

“God that was awesome!” exclaimed Kira, bouncing around as she was still high on the adrenaline rush from breaking into the Sheriff’s Station. “I mean, terrifying, completely terrifying, but – kind of awesome. I’ve never done anything like that before. Have you?” 

Scott’s mouth opened, and we exchanged a glance, wondering how exactly to answer that question. 

“Yeah, once or twice,” I said. 

Kira nodded, exchanging a look with Valerie and looking impressed.

“So I guess I should take you home,” said Scott, turning to Kira. 

Kira’s face fell a bit, but she nodded, and she and Scott walked towards his bike.

Valerie turned to me, a look on her face very similar to Kira’s and said, “I’d rather you just take me back to Marcel’s.” 

“Actually – would you wanna go to a party?” 

(not my gif)

taglist: @idontgiveahufflefuck64 @woyee

bittersweet taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24​ @theholydestiny​ @1967-chevy-impala-called-roscoe​ @cherry-sweet-cherry @kingidols-blog​ @xceafh​ @purple286​ @bilesxbilinskixlahey​ @chipster-21​ @profoundscissorshandsdiplomat @michellebarista​ @mey-rapp​ @nicole-lynne​ @lostinwonderland314​

[winter-fairy-seed]

Blood Blossom

A small tale for my buddies. 

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

Red Flower - Prologue

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

There was a large gray facility building that bore a hole on one side with what seemed to be the remains of a semi-truck. This is the place your team discovered a few days ago on a clean water search, and promised to return to to search for resources once you’re more prepared. The hole, which seemed to come from an explosion, allowed the grass to meet the cemented floors that were now hidden by crisp white snow. It gave your team the reassurance of an emergency exit if anything dangerous lurked inside. You waited patiently by the hole, slightly shivering, staring into the distance of snowy hills. You wore leather pants with a red hooded faux fur jacket, only carrying a small duffle bag on your shoulder and brown leather fanny pack on your hip. You and your team had just finished the final wave of a resource sweep, and were now packing everything up. You were a herbalist and a medic, so you didn’t have much to pack and were never as successful on your resource hauls as the mechanics and scrap collectors.

“___”, a voice called from a few feet away, “are you all packed up?”

It was your teammate Aiden, who wore a brown fleece jacket with a fluffy hood and a nice pair of leather gloves. He was the “blacksmith and armourer” of your group, repairing and handling all of your weaponry and protective chainmail. You looked down lifting your hand over both bags and gave your teammate a warm smile and a nod. He walked closer leaning forward to pull the duffle bag over your head and around his own shoulders. You jerked your eyes up and slightly pouted.

“I could’ve carried it….but thank you…” You sulked only for a second but felt thankful for the gesture.

You recently injured your shoulder in the forest on the day of your luckiest find. It was about a week ago when your team stumbled upon an old camp that had an old greenhouse full of hanging herbs and cabbage.

There was no sign of recent human life but there were signs of panic, like old papers scorched, too damaged to read, scattered all over the tents floor with random items thrown across the ground. There was an old weathered bookcase, empty, and a small wooden foot table that sat in the middle of the camp. That was the least of your worries as you found yourself practically bolting to the greenhouse. The herbs were up pretty high, out of reach of the scurrying animals on and under the ground, and the cabbages were underneath plastic wrapping that was staked into the dirt and soil. Collecting the cabbages was easy, but getting to the herbs seemed nearly impossible on your own. Aiden was too busy salvaging what he claimed to be “parts of high grade weaponry”, and Rojsa, a girl with short brown hair who had been close friends with Aiden before this apocalypse, was completely out of the question. So, while The Watch searched the perimeter, and the scribes and linguists did their best to decipher what was on the damaged papers, you were busy dragging the small foot table all the way to the greenhouse, getting a few questioning stares from your teammates and The Watch.

When you reached the greenhouse you pulled the table as closely under the herbs as you could get. You shook the table a few times, testing its balance. It seemed...sturdy enough? You placed your bags one either side of the table, hoping it would even out the weight, then climbed up. You reached as high as you could and managed to get two hanging baskets of what seemed to be Serpyllifolia. You joyfully, but carefully brought them down, setting them aside the table. You quickly crawled back up the table, feeling more confident than before and reached for the two highest hanging ones that looked like Mint. Mint is something you haven’t come across as much as you’d liked or expected. You had to hop a bit to get it, but it wasn’t a problem for you who now day-dreamed about days full of patients with no fevers or hot breath. As your fingers latched onto the plant, your left leg went a little too far (given your weren’t paying as much attention) and caused the table to falter and fly on its side. It didn't take long for the small greenhouse to come crashing down as the pots hook pulled the tough wire that held everything up. Aiden and a few other of your teammates from The Watch rushed over immediately, expecting the worst, only to find you huddled up happily with the pot of mint and a sheepish smile on your face. It quickly turned into a wince as your adrenalin subsided and you felt a surge of pain in your right shoulder where you had cushioned a pot’s fall.

Since then Aiden has been extra careful and watchful, not trusting your mischievous antics. It made you feel like a child, but you couldn’t lie about how safe you felt with a pair of eyes watching your back.

----------

It seemed that the team had just about finished packing and was moving along as Rojsa stepped quietly behind Aiden and held onto the sleeve of his jacket. You turned around, and just like that you all made your way back out into the cold. 

For safety, there are 4 people in The Watch that are sent with each group when going on recourse sweeps, so there are two in the front, and two in the back. They keep a close eye out on your surroundings as the navigation team of cartographers backtrack and find the safest way back home. You’ve walked for what felt like 30 minutes before you all took a water break and to rest and warm up your cold feet. There were two people of The Watch that stayed and watched while the other two took others to use the bathroom. It was strange at first, with The Watch, but they respectfully gave you your privacy while making sure the coast was clear so you learned to accept and respect.

You couldn’t help but drift your eyes across the landscape, softly blowing warm air onto your hands and rubbing them together. From a distance, your eyes caught onto something dark and green with a hint of bright red. You took a few steps forward, leaning your body as though it would help you see clearer.

“___” Aiden's voice rang and your eyes snapped towards him, “I’m going to the bathroom. Try not to get into any trouble... please...”

He jerked his eyebrow at you and you huffed shaking your head, unable to respond. He would’ve stayed until you responded if it wasn’t for the fact he had to pee really bad, so he squinted his eyes and walked off pointing his finger at you as a comical warning. You stuck out your tongue and smiled. As he disappeared through the crowd of people, your eyes slowly shifted back to the bright red that shined in the distance. Feeling appropriately guilty, you shifted your gaze to the two Watchers and slowly crept away. Your blood rushed, as you felt terrible for having already caused trouble in the past yet embarking on a new potential disaster. A small argument broke out about water distribution (nothing crazy, but nobody wants to draw too much attention so out in the open) so you took advantage of the distraction and managed to get away unnoticed. 

Your eyes never left the red glow, only breaking when you felt a root grab onto your shoe under the thick snow. You stumbled forward a bit at the small incline, rolling twice. You landed perfectly on your bum and laughed slightly to yourself before wincing at your stressed shoulder. You shook your head, reminded yourself of how dangerous this could potentially be and became cautious once again. You got up, dusted yourself off, and continued. The red glow became brighter as you got closer, the detail of the flower more visible than before. It has the shape of a lily with small deep speckles. It was covered slightly by fallen snow and surrounded by what looked to be a patch of ivy. You scanned your surroundings carefully , making sure not to get too distracted.

The Flower had large red petals that swirled counterclockwise, with a honeycombed middle. The white of the snow made it look like a drop of blood on a white canvas. You reached into the bag on your hip and pulled out some elastic bandage in which you wrapped your hand and arms comfortably. You carefully stood over the flower and reached out. It was more tangled into the ivy than you initially expected and struggled a bit. You suddenly heard a twig snap and the gentle thud of falling snow and immediately froze in your tracks. You listened keenly for any other signs but the forest lay dead quiet once more. Now, with your blood pressure rising and heart pounding, you slowly stepped back strengthening your stance in the deep snow, ears still keen. You wondered if it had been one of the watchers taking someone to the bathroom and felt embarrassed and nervous until you heard snow crunch as if someone was walking from your far left. It fell silent again and you turned immediately, backtracking through your previous footsteps. You looked back at the flower, wondering only for a second if you should stay. “Maybe I can stick my hand through and run....the cuts and rash are worth it...” you thought, also pondering if you had stocked up on oats and honey before the winter started. “What could be out here?? A bear?? Maybe an Elk??” you thought to yourself. It was still dead silent and your anxiety worsened. You decided you’d save yourself first and try to convince someone to let you bring troops from The Watch with you to come back for it. Though, you feared they’d say no given you don’t know what plant specie it is, nor a better description that won't make it sound like “a pretty flower”. If it’s not essential, you’re sure they’d refuse. You’d definitely ask, perhaps leaving the “there may or may not be a bear lurking around the area” part out. You continued to tiptoe towards the rest stop at a faster pace. It felt like there were eyes on you, but you think that’s the fear talking. You stopped in your tracks and thought to yourself “I shouldn’t lead whatever that is back to camp…so how do I.....” while checking behind you for any signs of life. You steadied your breathing and carefully pulled the small map that the cartographers gave everyone when trailing new grounds. You cursed yourself for not marking down where you had gone since stopping to rest. You heard another twig snap, eyes shooting up behind you as your eyes almost missed a shadowed figure in the distance. It didn’t look like a bear… nor human… You shivered at the thought and turned to the map once more and hastily looked towards your footsteps. You marked them with uncertainty on the map then began to walk diagonal to them, being extra careful walking up the slope. You created a zigzag trail and re-met your old footsteps after 45 seconds of walking (you counted). The red of the flower, now out of your line of sight, faded from your mind as you turned around again, looking at your trail of frenzy footprints and thin trees. You hadn’t heard any more branches and didn’t hear any footsteps that weren’t your own, so you continued the normal trail and arrived at the rest stop successfully.

You looked around at the familiar faces and didn’t spot the curly head of Aiden and sighed out in relief. You turned back towards the deeply forested area and watched closely down your trail. You only blinked ever so often from the wind, when in the distance you caught a glimpse of a small antler. Your breath hitched a bit, but you felt relief that you didn’t trail a hungry creature to the rest stop.

“Hey! C’mon, everyones moving!” A watcher shouts for you and you snap back into reality. Aiden is quick to follow up shortly after, bombarding you with complaints that he couldn’t find you until now and you continued back to the safe zone with the rest of the group.

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

You’ve arrived back at camp, located in an abandoned neighborhood covered in foliage and barricaded with walls and fences crafted by the builders and architects. The one who crafted a levering door, used by The Watch to keep lookout, was actually a good friend of yours, Ilora. After being taken in by The Watch when they found your stranded, you met Ilora briefly as they took you on what felt like an open house tour of the community, as well as a job interview as they assigned you a role based on your skills. 

You walked beside Aiden and Rojsa, following the rest of the group into the Centre where you organized and recorded your findings with the rest of the community. It was also a good place for trading and checking up people with your fellow medics to make sure no new sicknesses or fevers have occurred.

You finally made it to your room, trying your hardest not to flop down in your bed and sleep then and there. You removed your winter-wear and under armor, and rushed to the bathroom where you flipped a golden hourglass and ran a hot water bath. You didn’t turn off the water until the last drop of sand reached the bottom. This was how your community utilized the hot water system, and you thought it cute that everyone had matching hourglasses in their bathrooms. You stripped yourself of dirty clothes, throwing them in a small basket beside the tub, and softly stepped in, breathing out as the hot water cupped your skin. You sighed a sweet relief and fully relaxed your muscles. You reached to your left and grabbed a small jar of pink petals off or a small stool, opening it and sprinkling just a few in the soapy water. You placed the jar back on the stool and leaned back once more, humming to yourself as you played with the petals. You closed your eyes, and the first think that greeted you was the glow of the twisted red flower. You imagined what it would feel like to touch the petals, how soft they would be. You imagined if it could heal, or if maybe it tasted good like water lilies? Your thoughts drifted from the red hues to the black shadowy figure that seemed to lurk in the distance. You began to fabricate the curve of the antler, and how you assumed it was a branch at first sight. You wondered of the loud snapping of branches and your eyes shot back open as the sounds reverberated in your mind, bringing back the shivers you felt in that moment. You closed your eyes for one more second and breathed out a long sigh before finally washing up and getting out.

Now wrapped in soft wraps, you head towards your bag where you open everything up to sprawl it across your desk. You had already organized your supplies back at your office, so all you found were your pens and journals and the marked map. You had a mossy brown journal that you’ve used to record the geology of certain areas and the important plants that reside there, but it could not be seen in the mess. You become a bit nervous and looked towards your bed not remembering if you threw it there, yet nothing can be seen. You conclude that you’ve left it in your office and throw on a quick sweater and some sweat pants and fluffy boots. You grab a small tote bag that was hanging from the coat hanger and rush out towards your greenhouse.

Your office, a humbled log house, and your family sized greenhouse are located on higher grounds, close to the farmland. It has a beautiful view of the community. Next to it stands a patch of forestry where you collect wild herbs that originally grew there, sectioned off from the rest of the forest for safety and checked daily for maintenance. This was actually in ruins when you first arrived, but has long been renovated and fixed up after you convinced the architects and builders that it was the perfect spot for a herbalist and medic.

You held a lantern, glowing a warm orange, as you stepped quickly through the cold. On any other night you’d look towards the farmlands and sigh with serenity, but on this particular night, your eyes were trained towards the forest. You knew that your portion had been sectioned off and that it's highly unlikely even a bear could break through the wall and fencing, but you couldn’t help but wonder.

You scrambled through your supplies and even checked in the greenhouse. Maybe you were recording data and forgot to take it back? Still, nothing. Like a morning bell, the sound of soft footsteps could be heard outside. You stopped scrambling and listened carefully. You began to feel a bit shocked, as the footsteps were coming from the small patch of forest. “Is there another medic? Why this late?” you thought to yourself, trying your best to deflect the thought of the shadowy figure you saw in the snowy haze before.

You decided to sit still and stay low to the ground. You weren’t particularly terrified because your office door did lock, and it was locked. Your greenhouse is connected to your office through a built passageway, which you luckily obtained through the argument of “keeping out small animals” and putting the lives of people who need medical attention at stake.

The footsteps were slow and careful, with a strange pattern to them that you couldn't make out yet. They continued towards your office until they became a bit faint, then came to a complete stop. You stayed curled over, listening closely. It seemed as though whatever was out there didn’t realize you were inside, and you wanted to keep it that way. You heard a small thud and you could hear the footsteps returning the direction they came, but this time they moved with more haste. The sound of crunching snow disappeared into the distance of your forested area.

A few more moments had passed and the silence continued, making you feel safe enough to slowly lift your body. You sighed a bit at the ache of your bones, having been in the same position for so long in a cold room. You peeked out through the window where you heard the steps and saw a line of small tracks that looked like...hooves? With your eyebrows burrowed you stepped back and grabbed your lantern and tote and turned towards the front door. “The journal can wait” you thought to yourself, scurrying to unlock the door and return to your room. As it whipped open, your body forgot the cold as you nearly tripped on a small black sack placed by the door. You shook your head and blinked a few times. You checked your surroundings, noting the deer tracks stopped just a few feet from the small wooden step in front of the door. You looked back towards the patch of forest, but nothing could be seen in the deep night. You decided questions could wait and lifted the sack, rushing back to your room.

Once returned to your room you placed your boots on a small rack by the door and rushed to your desk with an empty tote and a sack in hand. You carefully placed the black bag and plopped into the chair looking at it with ambivalence. You rubbed your warm feet together and clumsily unwrapped the velvet string. Your heart began to race when your eyes fell upon a mossy brown journal, that now wore small water stains. You quickly pulled it out, checking front to back and opening it up to make sure the information wasn’t ruined from the water damage. Looking at the crisp cream pages and stroking the thick texture caused a sigh of relief. Now, less afraid, you grabbed the sack and flipped it upside down to make sure nothing else was in it but nothing more fell out. You decided to lift the bag over your head wanting to figure out the black fabric material. As it blocked the light, like falling snow, a red flower fluttered down onto your cheek. You flinched slightly in shock fearing this was a trap and that it was a poisonous bug, but came to realize from the delicate touch it was the soft petals of a flower. The flower, now lying softly on your desk, looked deep and bold in the faint light of the lanterns in the room. You felt as if you were in a fever dream. You delicately pressed your fingertips onto the small stem of the flower, some of the roots still attached, and lifted it closer to your face. You were completely and utterly encapsulated by its beauty and the subtle smells of honey and rust. You quickly opened up your mossy journal and sketched the image of the flower the best you could. You were in your own little world now, thinking and pondering the red flowers qualities and how it could be perceived and used. You tapped inside its honeycomb center and found a pocket of seeds in which you wrapped warmly and tucked away in a tiny fabric bag. You pulled out your map and began writing down what happened and what you saw and discovered. You wrote and wrote without realizing you were drifting off. The sound of small bells and the faint image of a small antler were your last fabricated thought before drifting off to a deep sleep........

[ghostburs-blue]

Lost and Found

Part Five

By the time they all got to the tower, it was 2:30 and the adrenaline had worn off Aiden. She was dead tired and wanted to sleep for the next month. However, she forced herself to stay awake long enough to go with Tony to the medbay. Tony woke Bruce up to check and make sure Peter was okay. Bruce had given them the green light.

He said that Peter should be waking up soon and his body was just in shock. He wasn’t in a coma, and should be awake in the next 2 hours.

So, Aiden didn’t let herself sleep until Peter woke up. She kept slapping herself to make sure she didn’t doze off, or would put earbuds in and play really loud rock music (i LoVe LeD ZePpElIn!).

It was around 5 in the morning when Peter started to stir. Aiden immediately looked up and ran to his side. Peter opened his eyes groggily and focused on her face.

“Aiden?” he whispers. “What am I doing here?”

Silent tears stream down Aiden’s face as she leaned forward to kiss his forehead and smile at him. “You’re at the Avengers Tower, Petey. Do you remember what happened?” She asked. Aiden pressed a button next to the medical bed that would alert Tony and Bruce that Peter was awake.

“All I remember is coming to you and thinking that you hated me.” At this, Aiden starts to cry harder but still stays quiet. “And then you said something about staying with you but I couldn’t, and now I’m here.” Peter momentarily forgot about the gash in his side and gestured around wildly before wincing and putting his arm down. Aiden immediately pulled down his blanket to reveal his bare chest, but she could care less as she checked to make sure he didn’t rip the stitches. Peter, on the other hand, felt extremely exposed.

“Well, after that, I finished cleaning you up. I didn’t know what to do, so I called Tony and he brought us here. I’m just glad that you’re awake, Petey.” She says the last part in a whisper. Still facing Peter, Aiden straightened up and announced, “Are you guys going to say something, or are you going to keep standing there, staring at us like weirdos?”

Peter looked up, confused about how she knew people were there. Aiden simply crossed her arms and spun around to face them. However, Aiden had underestimated who was there. She had just thought it was Tony and Bruce who came to check up on them. Oh how wrong she was.

The entire Avengers team stood in front of her, Tony and Bruce at the front with the rest fanning out behind them.

Tony turns around and looks at them, spreading his arms with a what did I tell you? look on his face. Natasha’s eyebrows were raised with surprise (but Aiden swore she saw pride in them too), while Steve looked downright shocked.

Bruce was the first one to walk over, ignoring Aiden’s comment as he checked Peter’s vitals and his injury.

“He’s good guys, don’t worry. Just make sure you don’t train until I give you a go, okay? Aiden spent a long time on those stitches and we don’t need you messing them up.” He directed the last 2 sentences to Peter while the other gasped in shock.

The loudest voice was Steve’s, however. “SHE STITCHED HIM UP?!” He practically screeched. It wasn’t out of hate, however, just pure surprise and shock that a 16-year-old had done such a job. Tony laughed and nodded.

“I seemed to have forgotten to mention that she was the one who he came to because he trusted her with his life, she was the one who cleaned him up, she was the one who did his very professional stitches, and, oh yeah, she is the one who’s literally a trained fighter?!” Tony exclaimed. Even Peter looked surprised.

Wanda and Natasha both walked up and extended their hands in greeting. “Hi Aiden, it’s nice to meet you. It’s wonderful to have another female around here to balance out all the unbearable testosterone!” Natasha shouted the last few words out to the rest of the group behind them, while Aiden and Wanda doubled over in laughter. Natasha turned to the side. “Anyways, let’s introduce everybody. I’m Natasha, please just call me Nat. This is Wanda, Steve, Bucky (call him James to make him mad), Sam, Tony and Bruce you’ve already met, Thor’s actually here for once, Pepper, Happy, Vision, Clint, and Scott! Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Drax, Mantis, and Groot pop around from time to time as well. Oh and F.R.I.D.A.Y. is the A.I. around here. Just call ‘Friday’ if you need anything.” Natasha points to each of them as she calls out names, then waves her arm around to indicate the A.I. F.R.I.D.A.Y says hello, then goes quiet again.

Tony steps forward and claps his hands together. “Well, that was rather heartwarming, but we have to get back to business here.” Walking over to next to Peter’s bed, he picked up the now bloody and torn suit. “I’m going to revise this to make it untearable, okay? And we’re all going to leave you two,” he pointed to Aiden and Peter knowingly, “some time to talk shit out. A lot just went down in the past few hours and you guys need to make sure you’re on the same page.” With that, everyone filed out of the room, leaving Peter and Aiden alone.

Peter smiled at Aiden sheepishly. “I’m really sorry for barging in again.” Then, he frowns. “I can see you wanting to fall asleep every five seconds you know? I’m not blind,” he stated. Unfortunately for Aiden, she was in the middle of a yawn.

“I’m sorry what? What are you talking about? Who, me? What’s being tired? What’s sleep? Never heard of her before!” She rambled, proving Peter’s point of how drop-dead tired she was. “Okay fine. I’m tired. But before I go, we seriously need to talk.” She took a deep breath and before letting him say anything, Aiden continued. “It wasn’t fair of me to just block you out like that. I- I have a bunch of trust issues from my past that keeps stopping me from doing things. As you also know, I have depression, which honestly is a horrible combination. So, as you can probably guess, it’s not the easiest to become friends with me. But I have also been told that I’m a very aggressively caring person when you actually become my friend, so watch out for that.” She winks at Peter, causing him to laugh.

“Wait so, does that mean we’re friends?” He asks confused. Aiden rolls her eyes.

“Boys are so thick. Yes, we’re friends. God honestly, how do you guys survive?” She says, dramatically throwing her hands in the air to make a point. “Okay, now that that’s sorted out, I really am tired. I’m going to go find Tony and ask where I can sleep, okay? Bye!” She called over her shoulder, already halfway across the room.

Aiden headed out of the room, only to almost bump into everyone. Aiden looked up, then frowned and crossed her arms. “You guys were standing there the entire time, weren’t you? You guys heard everything,” she sighed, running a hand down her face. “So now more people know about my problems. Great, just great. Can someone just tell me where I can sleep? I’m walking on borrowed energy right now.” She mutters. Nat and Wanda laugh, taking it upon themselves to bring her to a guest room.

Immediately, she jumped onto the bed and got comfy under the covers. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was a goner. Wanda and Nat exchanged smiles, then quietly turned off the light and closed the door.

--

a/n - sooo the next chapter heats up quite a bit! Idrk what to say here okay bye

[call-me-mister-midnight]

Aiden’s Highway to Hell: Watch Dogs/Hazbin Hotel Crossover

Hey everyone, I’ve started writing my first ever fanfiction and I’ve gotten great reviews over at AO3, so I figured I’d share it with all of you, as well! Not sure if I should post the whole story over time or not, but for now, I’ll leave you the first chapter and link you to the full story on AO3. Be sure to like and review! I’m also open to suggestions if you have any.

Summary: After the events of the first Watch Dogs, Aiden Pearce finds himself on the wrong end of a rescue gone wrong and ends up in Hell. His only ticket out? Through the Happy Hotel, where he must repent for his crimes and give up his vigilante ways for good. Only true remorse and a change of heart will be his saving grace. Sounds simple enough, but when he finds an old enemy and some not so friendly demons along the way, Aiden will learn that the road to redemption is long and difficult. Will Aiden be able to turn himself around and live an honest life? Will he be able to escape hell? Or will he be exterminated? What else is in store for The Fox? Tune in and find out!

Chapter 1: Hellbound

It was a cold February morning in the city of St. Louis; a perfect day to start cleaning up the streets and getting back into the swing of things. 

At least, that’s what Aiden thought as he got in his car and began to head towards Indigo Drive, where his Profiler was informing him of a crime in progress.

‘Another day, another assault…’, thought Aiden as he floored the gas, tearing down the highway. ‘I’ll get this over with and then try out that new diner. Nothing beats a good omelet.’ As he got closer and closer to his destination, a sense of uneasiness began to creep up on the battle-hardened vigilante. Why did he suddenly feel this way? He took down many an armored soldier before this with relative ease. This was going to be no different.

3 miles to the crime scene.

The unsettling feeling only grew worse. Shaking his head in disbelief, Aiden did his best to ignore the fear. Fear is what gets people killed in this line of work. Although he realized the importance of trusting his gut, Aiden knew damn well that he was merely overreacting. Perhaps he could use a vacation, he had endured quite a bit over the past few months. That’s it, the work was just getting to his head. Nothing to be worried about.

1 mile to the crime scene.

Aiden started to have second thoughts about interfering with this one. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but something felt seriously off. ‘No, I must. I can’t stop now, not after everything I’ve sacrificed’ he almost pleaded to himself. ‘I’ll do it, even if it kills me’. The anxiety was starting to peak at this moment; Aiden could swear his hands were starting to sweat. Embarrassing. How could someone who was so used to dropping the hammer on every person who came in between him and his niece’s killers suddenly be so timid? He NEVER had second thoughts before in his entire life. He couldn’t imagine what Jordi would ever say to him if he could read his mind. Thankfully, he never had to find out. All he needed to worry about was incapacitating his target and getting the hell outta Dodge.

“You have arrived.”

The robotic sound of his GPS snapped him out of his thoughts, prompting him to hit the brakes in order to study his surroundings. Under the bridge, perfect. His target wouldn’t even see him coming. As Aiden exited the car and screwed the silencer onto his pistol, he felt a cold chill blow over him. Gotta love that brisk St. Louis weather.

He powered up his Profiler and started searching the docks where the giant blue circle he had come to know and (not) love glowed back at him on the screen. After around 5 minutes of searching, he finally found his target: a tall, slender man in a black hoodie with the hood raised. It didn’t get any easier than this. Aiden hid behind a bridge support, keeping a close but safe distance between him and his potential prey. The man was clearly not in a hurry; he had no idea what was waiting for him just 10 feet away. As Aiden continued to tail the man, he saw it: a woman and child were tied up and were squirming around on the deck of a red and white boat that was sloppily docked about 25 yards away by Aiden’s prediction.

Easy pickings.

Aiden holstered his pistol and prepped his baton. He was gonna make this one hurt. He pulled his mask up and quickly approached the man. With a few well-placed swings and a liver shot for the cherry on top, the man went down onto the muddy grass with a satisfying thud.

‘See? Not even remotely a problem.’, thought Aiden as he ran over to the boat to free the hostages. He couldn’t help but feel proud of himself; not only did he get to save a couple of lives, he also didn’t have to break his back to get the few joys of being The Fox. That was all fine and dandy, up until the part where Aiden realized he made a gigantic tactical error.

“See you in HELL, scumbag!” came the sharp, high pitched voice of a second person that Aiden didn’t even account for. Before he could even turn around to confront the ambusher, it was too late. There was a bang, a flash of blinding white light, so bright that even the blind would have to shield their eyes from it. It was strangely beautiful, not even the slightest bit annoying. No pain, no blood… nothing. After what seemed like hours of this, he could hear the faint sounds of sirens and yelling, before suddenly feeling like he was falling. Not just falling, but freefalling. As in, going down a rollercoaster with nothing but your own body, hurtling towards a seemingly endless void. His speed and velocity only seemed to be increasing. Holy shit, this was REALLY fast. How was he not on fire from this much speed?

Aiden, too terrified to scream or flail, simply closed his eyes and braced himself for what was inevitably coming. This was the end, he knew it. He should’ve trusted his gut and just went to that stupid diner. For a brief moment, he regretted everything he ever did. The Fixer contracts he carried out, the convoys he destroyed, the cars he had stolen, but most of all, the people he put in danger… Nicky, Jacks… no, don’t think about her again…. dammit… even Lena. For the first time in what felt like forever, The Fox felt tears coming on. The intense speed at which he was falling didn’t even bother him anymore. The regret was heavy, burdensome. All of his past sins came to haunt him one last time before he met his fate. He supposed he deserved it. What a bitter pill regret is.

WHAM!

Aiden felt an impact so hard, he thought all of his body parts disconnected at once. All of the wind was instantly knocked out of him, the beautiful white light now gone. He was dead. But wait… he could still feel his arms and legs. He could still feel pain. So much pain…

All of the energy once within his shaken bones instantly disappeared. He felt like he could sleep forever. Isn’t that what he was doing? He honestly didn’t know anymore. All he knew was, he was splayed all across some hard surface… asphalt? It felt rocky, like asphalt. He tried moving his left arm slightly. It hurt a bit, but he managed to get the appendage out from under his body.

So far, so good.

He tried moving his right leg and was greeted by a tremendous amount of pain that rippled throughout his entire body.

Not good. Horrible idea.

Clearly, he wasn’t dead. At least, he didn’t think so. Also, what a nice warm atmosphere he was feeling. Wait… atmosphere? He was dead! He started hearing other ambiance sounds. Cars passing by, the distant chatter of human sounding voices… what the hell was going on? Only one way to find out. He tried to pick his head up to moderate success, managing to catch a glimpse of a very dark sky and what seemed like a wall of neon before letting his head smack against the pavement-like surface again.

‘Ow.’

It was bad enough he got shot in the damn head, now he had to be reckless and let his skull drop like that. He lifted his head again, this time getting a clear view of what was right in front of him. Aiden couldn’t believe it: he somehow ended up in a city! But not just any city; it was a city bathed in an eerie red fog, with a brightly lit sign around every corner. The buildings were tall and strangely shaped, some tipping to the side, others having jagged edges that jutted out at very peculiar angles.

‘Where the fuck am I?’, thought Aiden as he very slowly managed to get to a sitting up position, every muscle he moved screaming out in pain. After a couple minutes of scanning his surroundings in more detail, Aiden noticed something else: nobody else looked human. Well, they did, but they somewhat resembled some kind of animal or something. He quickly looked at his own hands, his eyes trailing down his chest and eventually stopping at his legs and feet. Somehow, Aiden looked completely unchanged. Everything about him was completely normal from before.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he started to try and get to a standing position. This time around, he managed to get it right the first time. He felt some cracking here and there, which, compared to the previous attempt at moving, was a welcome sensation. Anything was better than pain at this point. Spotting a vending machine nearby, Aiden decided, against his better judgment, to throw himself towards it to at least have something to hold on to.

That didn’t happen at all.

Aiden ended up almost rag dolling right past the machine as he awkwardly plummeted to another painful and embarrassing defeat.

“Well… that went well”, scoffed the vigilante bitterly. After spending another seemingly long time to get back on his feet, it finally hit him: this was no ordinary vending machine. “Heroin… acid… cocaine… molly… what the hell?”

He was beyond confused at this point. A vending machine that dispensed drugs?

Before he could ponder the situation any further, Aiden’s thought process was interrupted by a long scream followed by a what sounded like a laser blast. Adrenaline now kicking in, Aiden headed towards the general direction of the noise. It didn’t take him very long to pinpoint the source: a pair of creatures, jet black in color with icy halos over their head, open firing on some person vaguely resembling a frog. Their laughter was very chilling, half robotic and half distorted with a moderate amount of static. The sound cut through the air like a hot knife through butter.

Suddenly feeling mortal again and terrified beyond rational thought for the first time in his life, Aiden bolted for the closest street as one of the creatures turned to face him with a menacing smile. Heart pounding, Aiden managed to quickly limp a couple blocks before the adrenaline left his body, forcing him to come to a screeching halt under a small overhanging roof, slumping against the wall to catch his breath.

Aiden quickly scanned the building. “Looks like a hotel. Perfect.”

Without further delay, he opened the door, which was strangely unlocked, and quickly hid inside and slammed the door shut. Finally feeling safe, he let all of his weight rest against the hefty metal frame. The air was very still. The seconds seemed like hours as Aiden tried his best to keep his breath under control. He thanked his lucky stars that the place was abandoned. At least, until he suddenly felt something extremely sharp and extremely metal stick him right above his spine, followed by an intense and hostile female voice coming from behind him.

“Don’t move a muscle, asshole, or I’ll end you.”  

Like this story? Get up to date with the full story at:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18106346

[fiveknivesdates]

How dirty, wild, blurry, juvenile (Chapter 2)

Camilla

After running for half an hour, then a whole hour of a panic attack behind a dumpster, I finally managed to find a place to sleep. It was early spring in Denmark, which meant short days, and it was safer to sleep when normal citizens were still outside.

Even though I managed to calm myself down that day, Erika and Aiden kept haunting me. And not just in dreams and thoughts, but in the real world too. I kept seeing them in the crowd. Sometimes walking, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, but always, always, looking. I knew they were looking for me. Maybe they were undercover cops or social workers. I even thought they were long lost relatives, trying to find me, but I highly doubted that. My mother’s family disowned her and any relatives from my father’s side would have spoken Danish to me.

Or maybe they were my mother’s relatives, come to collect what she left behind. Jokes on them, I am not going with them, no matter who they are.

I am very used to hiding from someone. When I was young, still living with my parents, I went to a small public school. I didn't get along with any of the kids there, so I’d spend every break hiding behind the trees on the playground, reading books or playing with sticks. Sometimes just sitting there, thinking. I don't remember what I thought about, I just remember the feeling of it. Life felt infinite, but yet so small. The whole world existed in that corner of the playground, and the whole world existed inside my thoughts.

I still feel like that sometimes, but now it leaves me sad. It's a cruel memory of the kid I used to be, who still lives inside of me. I guess this is the price of living as I do.

Seeing Erika and Aiden again today, I sigh in annoyance. They are standing in front of the fast-food joint where I had been hoping Stuart might be working. The old man sometimes gave me a box of chicken nuggets when there were leftovers.

Instead of approaching the pair, I snuck into the shop beside me. It was one of the mint-white colored shops, with a big sign on the front saying Normal. This place was like heaven for a homeless kid with little to no money. I didn't like begging, but when I did, I usually ended up spending my finds inside of this shop. It had everything, from rows and rows of every kind of soap, maxi size and travel size, there were toiletries, underwear, snacks, and tampons.

Those last two were what caught my eye. I had woken up today with a stain in my sleeping back and only two tampons left, and for the snacks, well I was always in the mood for pringles when my period hit.

Staring at the items of my desire did little to no good since I didn't have the money to buy it. In fact, I only had a couple of kroner in my pockets, not even enough for a pack of gum. So I did what I always did, I took them. Shoplifting was a skill I had as good as perfected. It was all about blending in with the other customers. I took two packets of tampons to compare them, but only one of them ended up back on the self. The other was smoothly placed in the worn-out net that I had taken with me today. I did the same thing with deodorant and pringles but stayed a bit longer to browse the shelves. Better not to rush out and raise suspicion.

After a minute or two, I left the shop with a confident smile on my lips. I couldn't wait to go back to where I hid my backpack and sleeping bag, so I could open up my Pringles can and devour them, one spicy chip after the other.

I wasn't that lucky, however, because as soon as I left the shop, I ran face-first into an old friend of mine. Officer Sunglasses. I didn't know his real name, never intended on finding out, but the truth was that he was the worst of all the pigs who patrolled the area. Officer Sunglasses had something against me personally. He knew I was homeless and had tried to help me get back into the foster system when he first took me in stealing a jacket, but I ran away from him successfully. One escape became twenty, and Officer Sunglasses' hatred of me grew more and more.

“Din lille-” He said. You little. The start of an insult he never got to finish, for I ran as fast as I could as soon as I saw him. Judging by his angry tone and the footsteps behind me, he had followed me.

I followed the quiet streets with fewer people to run into and fewer cars to run me over. I was fast, faster than him, so I used that to my advantage. If I was completely honest with myself, which I rarely was, I enjoyed this. I could feel the adrenaline inside myself, it felt like it drowned out every molecule of blood in my body. The wind felt nice too, it wasn't windy today at all, but as I ran the air cooled me down pleasantly.

It didn't take me long to shake Officer Sunglasses off my tail, but then I ran into another misfortune.

As I rounded a corner, I was suddenly standing in an alleyway, with Aiden standing in front of me, smiling.

“Hey, glad you made it.” He greeted me like we were old friends. I tilted my head in mock confusion and prepared to fight. I was sure that if I turned around, I’d see that Erika girl standing behind me.

“Let us talk, okay?” Erika appealed. Just as I’d guessed, she was standing right behind me. I turned halfway so I could keep an eye on both of them.

“What do you fucking want?” I raged. I had a pocket knife in my sleeve, and I was itching to pull it, but I had a suspicion that they might pull something worse on me, like a gun. I was completely sure that they were not afraid of fighting me, and I was afraid that I could not take on both of them. I could run, but I was also tired of them. It had been a week since they first approached me, and whatever they wanted to say, I wanted to hear. That last realization was scary.

“I know Aiden here came on a bit strong back in the library,” Erika started.

“Okay in my defense,” Aiden cut in. “We have been looking for her for years, and finally we find her in fucking Denmark!”

I glared at Aiden but didn't bother saying anything.

“Aiden please, we agreed that I’d do this.” Erika pleaded, then looked directly at me with her dark, dark brown eyes. “Camilla, this might sound really strange, and it is, but Aiden and I are a part of an underground…”

“Cult,” Aiden helped.

“No!” Erika yelled at him. “No, it's not a cult. It's like an organization of humans with special abilities.”

“Just say mental disabilities, for helvede.” I cursed, already knowing that this wasn't something I wanted to hear more of. I tried to push away, but suddenly Aiden’s hands were on my shoulders and my back was against the wall.

“See! I said kidnapping her would be easier. She is a stray cat, Erika,” Aiden laughed. I kicked him but that didn't seem to help me at all, as his grip on me got tighter.

“Yes, she is.” Erika agreed. “She is a stray, and we have to feed her before we take her back home.”

“You guys are fucking sick,” I said with disgust.

“I am sorry.” Erika just said. “But if you would just listen to us, we could explain. You are one of us.” She said the last part like it was supposed to mean something to me. I took the liberty of interpretation and shot back with “A fucking psychopath? Stalker? Kidnapper?”

“No,” Erika said while trying to calm me down. I could see that she was getting a bit frustrated with me. Good, I thought, let her feel what I have felt all week.

“Ever wondered why things just,” Erika began explaining, searching for the right words for whatever she wanted to say. “Go your way?”

“Things don't go my way,” I said, gesturing with my restricted hand movement to our surroundings, both indicating my current position between Aiden and the wall, but also my life as of lately, living on the streets in the bold age of nineteen.

“No, not that,” Erika pushed away. “Smaller things. How do you survive out here? And for so long? Without ever being caught?”

I didn't bother to say anything, so Erika continued. “Me, Aiden here and a few other people on this planet, we have a connection to the forces of life.”

“Like a Jedi,” Aiden explained as if that helped me the slightest.

“Yes,” Erika agreed. “Aiden, for example, is very good at controlling heat and can even make fires. Show her.” Erika bumped Aiden with her shoulder.

“Really?” Aiden grinned, letting go of me and pulling up his sleeves. I reached for my knife quietly, as Aiden took a few steps back.

I didn't know what I had expected. That he brought a lighter and started a fire? That he didn't do anything at all? I surely didn't expect him to light his own hands on fire. As soon as I saw the bright lights, I ran, getting a hit on Erika’s shoulder with my knife as I disappeared.

It wasn't the first time I had seen what drugs could do to someone’s mind, but it was the first time I experienced it myself. I couldn't figure out when I had taken them and figured someone must have slipped them into my food or water without me noticing.

As soon as I was sure they were not following me, I headed towards my temporary camp, just wanting to curl up in my sleeping back. Tomorrow I’d be starting my journey out of the capital and heading for another city, maybe Roskilde or Helsingør. Or perhaps this was a sign for me to do the things I had feared for years. Traveling out of Denmark and through Europe. Because of my Italian mother, getting Italian citizenship would be easy, and the prospect of living down in the warmer country sounded delightful, but the journey was what scared me. I didn't even have enough money to buy food in Denmark, let alone a ticket for any kind of train. I’d had to rely on sneaking into places I wasn't supposed to be or walking for hours on end.

I rounded a corner and saw the familiar sight of my baggage hidden behind a trash can, and almost sang in relief. I had enough time to take one step more towards it before I saw the boy sitting on the ground between me and my goal. In his hand was a baseball bat. Never a good sign. He stood up and looked at me, then his watch.

“Two minutes,” he commented. “That’s pretty damn fast.”

Then he swung and everything disappeared. <- Previous chapter // Next chapter -> Chapter index

[wiltedclown]

Episode Five: Colour

In which someone wakes up.

**********************

The fluorescent lights above me make me squint, but that’s the least of my problems. My entire body feels like it’s been ripped apart into individual molecules and hot-glued back together. Even the smallest movement accentuates the pain like it’s coloured in neon, bright and burning hot. My vision shakes, blurry with tears. I can’t scream, and it’s not just because of the cloth stuffed in my mouth. The world before us is in shades of grey and grey alone.

“look.”

I think I hear something, but I ignore it. Aural hallucinations haven’t done any good for me up until now and I refuse to acknowledge them now.

...Wait, no they haven’t? I’ve never heard things that aren’t there before in my life?

Yes, I have.

No, I haven’t.

No, I have, because remember that’s how I got here in the first place! Remember, I was walking in the forest and I heard someone calling my name, “Loreli!”, like my mum’s voice. But my name’s not Loreli, it’s Aiden. What? No, what am I thinking? I’m Loreli. Lo-re-li. Remember? Jesus, fuck this hurts.

I don’t think pain should be doing this to me. I’m not called Loreli, I’ve never met anyone called Loreli, I didn’t get here by listening to my dead mother calling me. Mum’s not dead though, why am I thinking that? She’s at home with Cecil. Fuck, she’s probably worried. What? No, mama died ages ago. Remember, I went to her grave and put those nice pink flowers on? No? I didn’t do that, I remember I talked to her, like, half an hour ago.

“Look at yourself.”

What the fuck’s happening? I feel myself begin to shake. I don’t know what’s happening. Suddenly it’s like I have twice the usual amount of memories and none of them are made-up. Is somebody in my head? No, is somebody in my head?

My face stings suddenly and I see a blur of movement out the corner of my eye. Someone grabs my face and jolts it to face them.

“Listen to me when I speak to you.”

All arguments in my head dim to an electrical buzz. I shut down. Well, whichever half of me that’s desperately afraid of physical contact does, anyway.

“That’s better.”

I’m looking at what looks like a person made of the void. They look like they’re an angel, full of soft pale colour, light reds and yellows and pinks with cyan shadows against their nose. Everything about them makes the back of my neck feel like ice. Half of my instinct says run, run, get out of there, get away from them, while the other half says stay, listen to them, they’re dangerous and will hurt you. Both halves seem to be in agreement that the person gripping my head could easily crush it and is bad news.

“Did you hear what I said?” I can’t answer. “No, of course not. I knew you’d be useless. Let me guess, you were arguing with each other over whose head it is?”

static. something about what they just said made everything burn ten times worse. the buzz in my ears turns into sharp crackles. it hurts.

“Well, whoever was winning is wrong. It’s neither of your heads. It’s your new shared head. Welcome to the world, Aideli.”

.

..;

.’13#’}{no;;.:

“Look down.”

we look down.

hovering above our body is what can be loosely defined as a soul. a more fitting word is a monstrosity. what it actually is is two souls, messily sewn together with scraps of void and space. that explains the burning.

the souls are two different colours, one dark red and one pale blue. they’ve been molded into two blobs so that they can be put together and look somewhat like one whole soul. the nightmare-coloured person flits around the workbench, prodding and poking at it, taking things out and so it’s not too large for the gaping cavity in our chest where ONE soul should reside.

“My name is Cecilia, by the way. You can call me mother if you like, although I’d much prefer you didn’t. I’m more like a… creator. There we go! Call me either Cecilia or your Creator.”

we don’t react. cecilia plucks a memory out from the middle of our now-combined soul and both halves react by screaming in pain.

“Well, at least your voice works! It sounds like just one voice, as well, rather than two discordant voices, which is what I was afraid of. I don’t want to have to put you under again!”

she took our names. she took my name and my name and now we’re just aideli. we’re one. we absolutely hate it.

“So, Aideli, I’m really sorry about all the pain. It’ll be over soon! I just need to take out two or three more chunks and then we’ll be all done and I can stitch you up!” another memory, gone. that one felt like something to do with our childhood. “I’ll be honest, you actually weren’t meant to wake up so soon, but I think it’s really for the best; this way you get to see what’s happening, at least! And I know your pain receptors are working!”

she pries out one last clump of memory and anything personal we remember is gone. how did we get here? where is here? we remember things like city names but anything about us is gone. our mother could be dead after all, but we wouldn’t know. that memory is sitting in the dish in cecilia’s hand.

“All done, Aideli! I’ll leave you to recover, shall I turn off the light?” noyesnoyesnoyesnoyes

“Nes” Cecilia pauses for a moment.

“I’ll just turn the big light off and leave the little one on my desk on, shall I?”

we’re left in darkness. our head still buzzes. we know that we had different names but we’ve forgotten them. it’s all wrong, why did she do this to us, why why why why why wh

***************************************************

We don’t know how much time passes before the pain stops. One day it just turns off and we can think coherently again. Our “soul” is back in our body again, at least. We still haven’t seen ourself but we’re afraid to, if we’re honest. All of the colours in the world are gone, replaced with monochrome and shades of grey; apparently, colour doesn’t exist in the Void. It kind of sucks, but it’s by far not the worst thing about our situation. (it is it is i hate it where are all the colours)

Cecilia’s told us a fair amount about herself, and ourself. Apparently she made us to be her friend (although we’d really rather never see her ever again) because she was a goddess cast down from the other gods and goddesses (good, she deserves it). She was exiled to the void and only recently discovered the human Soul. She took a liking to both halves of us and decided she wanted both of us, but only as one being. So she decided that she’d just… borrow our souls and make a new one. Our families “should have forgotten you exist, so don’t worry about them being scared for you! There’s no pain on either of your halves because neither of you remember each other!”. A wonderful example of her faulty logic in action. (faulty logic is an understatement.)

As it turns out, there’s a lot of pain on both of our halves. Physical and emotional. We don’t get along very well. We also detest the name Aideli. (it’s ugly like some sort of wine name) (shut up) Unfortunately, neither of us know our names. One of us prefers the first half of our name, though, and the other prefers the second half. Aid and Eli. (no, it was much nicer than Eli. it was like some sort of pretty flower name. I hate this. I want my name back.) (so do I, you aren’t special.) (at least I’m not some sort of fucking holier-than-thou asshat with a name like Aid) (my name isn’t Aid, that’s just a part of it.) (sure thing Aid) (catty bitch) (stupid dick) (we have more important things to do.)

Anyway. We’ve decided that, until we find a better name, we’ll just stay as Aid and Eli. We’re on the same team until we get out of here. Team Aideli. (that’s fucking stupid) (what’s your suggestion then, your highness?) (fuck off don’t be a dick)

(team aideli it is.)

***********************************************

After an unknown period of time, something happens. The room we’re in, chained to the table, disappears. Our entire field of vision is coated red. The black and white monochrome of the room is flooded with this new colour. We panic in two different ways; one half breaks down immediately, trying its best to scream and cry. The other half maintains its composure, searching desperately for an explanation. Both halves come to the conclusion that we’re dying. Neither half can deal with this fact and a sob works its way past our lips.

For the first time since our creation, we sit upright. This confirms our belief that we’ve died; heavy steel restraints have pinned us to the table for as long as we can remember, and they aren’t easily moved. There is no whirr of laboratory equipment, no tick-tock of the metronome on Cecilia’s desk, no static buzz of the surrounding Void. For the first time in our short life, we’re in total silence.

Standing on shaky legs, we shift ourself off the bench. Every joint clicks from lack of use, like we’re temporarily made of clockwork. The fog lifts, just a little. Shades of red surround us, the entire room bathed in a deep, bloody red. Hesitantly, a step is taken and we move forward. We have no idea where we’re going next, but we make a beeline for the door. It opens easily; bizarre, since she always locks it behind her. We aren’t complaining, though.

It seems like hours pass as we make our way up the hallway before us, trembling. Red, red, red, the only thing we see is red and silhouettes. It’s horrible, but it could be worse. We could still be trapped against that godforsaken table.

Footsteps. Our adrenaline glands overreact, pumping our bloodstream with adrenaline before we register what’s happening. We whip around to see.. nothing. We begin to run, the end of the hallway becoming clear. A red exit sign is the only source of light and we gravitate towards it like a moth. We count our steps, running in a rhythm, one-two-one-two we’re nearly there. BANGBANGBANG the footsteps sound like they’re catching up to us hurry up hurry up!

Bursting through the door, we keep running. We’re in a field and don’t try to look back. The field is still tinted red, though, so we suppose we aren’t out of it yet. Our lungs scream at us to slow down, take a breath, you can’t keep doing this but we ignore them, our broken soul begs us to lie down and just think for a moment but we can’t stop, there are still footsteps behind us and they sound metallic, organised, terrifying

“COME BACK AIDELI” we aren’t coming back “PLEASE I’M BEGGING YOU DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE” no no no no “LISTEN TO MY ORDERS AIDELI” no i’m not going back you can’t make me “I BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS WORLD I CAN TAKE YOU OUT” no don’t take me back there don’t hurt me again

My legs stop working. I turn around, ascending above fear into absolute abject terror. Something’s approaching. It’s a nightmarish version of Her.. Her hair, usually calm cloudlike puffs, has evolved into pale blue daggers, almost metallic. Her teeth are razor-sharp and the length of my arm. Her body is twisted and deformed, like someone took a model of her and melted it in an oven. Any friendly appearance she managed to keep is completely ruined. She is no longer a she. She’s a monster, a demon, a nightmare.

She approaches me agonisingly slowly. “Don’t leave me alone.” I can’t reply. She goes to touch my face nononononononodonttouchmegetawayhelpplease

the void hears your plea

Her eyes widen as black tendrils of Void emerge from the darkness and seize her by her limbs. A horrible screech fills my ears as she’s torn limb from limb, awful metallic-smelling blood drenching us as it spurts out from her torso, bones crack and crunch. Discordant screams disappear into the void as the Void swallows her in small bites. Her head is the last to go, melting back to its normal cloudlike state. A silent ‘o’ of horror rests on her lips and we look her in the eyes as we hear the awful crunch of her skull being crushed.

The red and the grey of the void smash out of existence and normal colour returns to the world. She’s gone. I’m free. I stagger backwards.

WE turn and sprint in the opposite direction. We’re crying, shaking, replaying the scene in our head. A few metres away we collapse into a ball, screaming noiselessly in the grass. we have to get away come on move we need to go come on come on you useless piece of

We pitifully drag ourself along the ground, staining our hospital scrubs with green, still crying, totally exhausted. We look up and wipe our eyes and observe the blurry landscape before us. A way away from us, we see a cave in the side of the mountain next to us. We crawl helplessly towards it, hiccoughing and crying.

Hours pass. Or seconds. We can’t tell.

We move slowly.

The sun hurts our eyes.

We can’t muster up enough energy to fight ourself.

Everything is too much.

We reach the cave.

We sleep.

[fuck-me-onii-chan]

Luciel let out a sigh as he watched the two enemies take off in the sky.

“Oh thank god, I thought we were for sure going to die,” Luciel said in an exasperated tone as he dropped Vinn and also sat down.

Eddie and Aiden came running over as well.

“Fucking cowards,” Aiden muttered.

“That was her...” Eddie started out with a whisper, however his tone began to grow louder and louder, “Somi, Kumpimook, Yugyeom! It was her! That murderer!”

Luciel gazed sulkingly at the night sky. He hated this. He wanted to go back home, to old times. But what exactly were old times? Before everyone in his class died?

No... before her.. Luciel thought to himself.

The girl that kept haunting his dreams, Kimi. She was the root of all of this. She did this, she murdered their whole class, killed herself and ended up blaming him, of course!

It’s so obvious, I don’t know how anyone else didn’t see this. It’s all your fault Kimi. All your fucking-

“Luciel!” Eddie called, snapping him back to reality.

“Huh?”

“We should head back, I called Luda, she should be ready to treat Vinn at home, can you help us carry him since it looks like you’re one of the most uninjured?”

“Oh uhm, sure,” Luciel said, carefully hoisting half of Vinn onto his shoulder with Aiden carrying the other side.

~~~~

Nearly a week had passed since the attack from Fei and Voland. The atmosphere in the house had become much more grim. They had tasted the strength of their enemy, and knew that they were no match.

Luciel always found himself hiding from the others due to their constant nagging for him to train. Thanks to the size of Eddie’s house, it was relatively easy to find a spot the others wouldn’t think of and then rotate them from day to day. Most of the time now, he took his phone as opposed to playing on a computer since that was too exposing. 

Within this timespan Luciel had managed to level up his virtual girlfriend to a virtual waifu. Though he sorely missed his panty pile in the gaming lab, Luciel made do with invading Luda and Anna’s rooms when they weren’t around, as well as Eddie’s mom’s closet.

He noticed however, that as the days went by, food became harder and harder to find downstairs. The snack pantry started looking empty, there were no leftovers, the fridge was almost always empty.

Tody, Luciel’s hiding spot was a room he had found in the attic. He found himself clutching his stomach, groaning in hunger. He knew this was their plan to get him out of hiding. Anna was the most likely culprit. They were limiting their food purchases to a meal for just enough people, keeping snacks and on hand so Luciel couldn’t steal it.

He clutched his stomach, curling up. Glancing at his phone, he realized the next meal wouldn’t be until sunrise. Luciel let out another groan as he buried his face into the sheets of the bed.

“If only I had a pair of panties,” he muttered as he forced himself to go to sleep.

~~~~~

“Uhm, Luciel, can we talk outside?” A green eyed girl asked shyly, avoiding the gaze of all her upperclassmen.

“Sure?” Luciel replied, as he stood up, giving a wide grin to his bespectacled best friend, Anju.

As they both left the classroom, he heard some hoots and catcalls from his classmates.

He followed her outside to the place by the vending machines.

“Aha, sorry about them, Kimi,” Luciel said, scratching his head.

“It’s okay,” Kimi replied, still looking down.

Luciel and Kimi had been talking a lot recently. At first it was only Anju who knew, but as Luciel and Kimi grew closer and more open, the entire school had heard of them. 

Of course, the two weren’t necessarily dating just yet. Anju had always pushed Luciel to make it official, but he wasn’t entirely sure of Kimi’s feelings to him, and didn’t want to make anything uncomfortable.

“Luciel... I need to tell you something,” Kimi said, looking up at him.

“What is it?”

“I...” She began, pausing to take a deep breath, “LOVE YOU!”

And just like that, time felt as if it had stopped.

Luciel felt his cheeks growing wet.

“L-Luciel! Are you crying?” Kimi asked, her face turning red.

“Ah AH! They are! Ah, this is so embarassing,” Luciel stuttered as he used his sleeve to wipe his face.

“D-does this mean you don’t have the same feelings?” Kimi asked, her eyes lowering again.

Suddenly, she felt her chin being tipped up as Luciel planted his lips onto hers, “Don’t be silly, of course I love you too.”

She grew even redder, “T-then why were you crying!”

Luciel laughed, “Because I’m so happy, that’s why!”

Kimi laughed as well as she hugged her new boyfriend.

“Can I say it one more time?” Kimi whispered, her head leaning against Luciel’s head.

“Anytime,” Luciel replied.

“I love you.”

~~~~~

Luciel woke up to the scent of food downstairs.

That damn woman... Luciel muttered to himself as he got out of bed. He took his toothbrush and toothpaste with him as he wandered the halls, searching for the closest restroom to brush his teeth.

After his morning cleaning, he trudged down the stairs towards the kitchen.

“Well look who it is,” Vinn said, looking up from his novel.

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!” Eddie cried, standing up from the table in shock.

“I wish,” Luciel muttered to himself as he sat down.

“Luciel! So good to see you!” Anna said, a victorious smile on her face, “Where’ve you been hiding?”

Luciel ignored her as he folded his arms, looking the other way.

“Answer your elders you useless pervert!” Luda snapped.

“Luda, if we’re too mean to him, he might go into hiding again,” Eddie whispered to his girlfriend. 

She tightened her grip on his hand turning to him.

“Eddie, darling,” she began, “You’re too nice for your own good sometimes. We both know Luciel has been absolutely useless in every way possible and that he’s continuing to avoid his responsibilities which could ineveitably put you, my boyfriend in danger!”

As she continued with each word, she seemed to go faster, resulting in a slightly concerned look from Eddie.

“I’m right here you know,” Luciel said, glaring at the petite girl.

“Well then, why don’t you take to my advice, and become useful?”

“Well for one, I never asked to be dragged into any of this,” Luciel replied, his voice raising.

This time, it was Aiden’s turn to step in.

“Alright kid, listen, I’m getting real tired of your bullshit here. Do you think any of us wanted to be dragged into this mess? Do you think I wanted to be framed for mass murder or end up in a Russian prison? Do you think Eddie wants to know he can never see his friends again otherwise they’d die? To be coerced into cheating on his old girlfriend? Or Vinn? Do you think he wanted to know his lover was nothing but scum?” Aiden said as he had pointed to each person in the room, “No. No one wanted this. But are any of us bitching about it? No! Everyone here is working their ass off so we can fucking kill Harris. But you? You’re too busy playing hide and seek to even assess the situation!”

“So what? Harris has nothing to do with me unlike the rest of you!” Luciel retorted, “I’m not involved in any of this! I’m not in any military, I’m not super rich, I’m not the co-founder of any sort of organization! I don’t even fully understand how I got here!”

“Well here, let me lay it out for you!” Aiden snapped, “You’re here because you have the ability to take other powers which leads to attention from people all around, Harris included. And if Vinn hadn’t picked your ass up, maybe Harris would have! And trust me kid, this is a lot better than being under Harris’s grip. So why don’t you show a little sense and actually thank us?”

“Thank you? For what? I don’t need help with anything okay? I had a plan perfectly set out!”

“And what about that institution that kept monitoring you?”

“They were going to stop eventually!”

“Yeah eventually as in when they sold you to Harris, afterall, no one wants to keep watch of a little time bomb.”

“What did you call me?”

“I’ve heard all about it, the proof is undeniable, you murdered your entire classroom,” Aiden sneered, “It’s unbelievably stupid how much you try to deny it when-”

“SHUT UP!” Luciel shouted, his hands covering his ears, “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

He felt his heart racing, the thuds all the way to his ears. He could hear the sharp breaths he was taking as well as the stickyness from the sweat on his palms.

He glanced around the room, all eyes were on him.

Why? What are they looking at! Stop it! STOP!

Before anyone could react, Luciel had turned the other way, running out the door.

I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them all! Luciel cried in his mind as he ran as far as he could. Why are they blaming me? None of this is my fault! I’m not like them!

Once the adrenaline had wore off, Luciel found himself, once again, at a park.

He pulled out his phone, quickly scrolling to his virtual waifu app.

Before he could begin to talk with it, a strangely familiar voice interrupted him.

“Oh, we meet again.”

Luciel jolted as he looked up from his phone to see a wavy haired man, draped in a kimono, ears and tails.

“It’s you! The cosplayer!” Luciel shouted.

“A what?” The man asked, unsure of what Luciel was referring to.

“A cosplayer! Costume play! You’re dressing up!”

“What? No I’m no-”

“Yeah yeah, those ears and tails give it away,” Luciel replied, folding his arms smugly.

The man curled his lip, pausing for a moment as he was unsure how to respond.

He sighed as he decided to show Luciel his foxfire.

“See? These ears and tails aren’t fa-”

“But I mean, sure you might have a fire power but there’s no way you can have tails and ears like that, I mean come on!” Luciel goaded.

The man grabbed both of Luciel’s hands, “You idiot! These ears and tails are real!”

“H-hey I don’t think you want to touch my hands...” Luciel said, uncomfortable by the man’s invasion of space.

“Oh? Why? Afraid you’ll take my power?” The man taunted, before narrowing his eyes, “Try it.”

“Okay whatever you say,” Luciel said, attempting to start a fire in his hands.

The man smirked at Luciel’s confused expression.

“Wait why can’t I...”

“Because I’m not human you idiot.”

“Huh? Wait! How’d you know I could take powers!”

“Because you’re about to be my prisoner,” The fox said with a wicked smile as he leaned closer to Luciel, “Sweet dreams~”

With the last words, Luciel's vision had turned black, passing out.

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Basic rundown of the roguesmol's personalities? Pretty please?

Ok the roguesmols in summary, in order:

Tobi is awkward and weird.  He’s not very good with social interaction and spends a lot of his time watching dramas or reading.  He’s a reptile lover, gets around on heelies, and wears aviators when it’s sunny out.  Let it be known he has a wonderful sense of humor, but it’s also like 95% memes and puns.  His smile also lights up the whole room because it’s just so damn precious.

Dorothy is a mix of her parents in a lot of ways.  Like Jon she is spiteful, snarky, extremely clever, and cynical, but like Diana she’s determined, good-natured, and can come off as very charming and charismatic (people tend to like Dorothy, despite her being difficult at times).  She’s not very social despite this and doesn’t really have that many friends).  Along with this she is good at reading people and navigating their emotions and demands, on the other hand sometimes she just doesn’t really care what other people want, from her or otherwise.

Pluto’s personality is nowhere near as intense as other people in the family.  He’s often overlooked by people outside of the family.  While as intelligent, good-natured, and sharp-tongued as Dorothy, he is also quiet, reserved, and shy.  Some people on the outside think this is proof of poor treatment, but this is just how Pluto ended up.

Zeke can be as charismatic and charming as Dent was in his early days, but physical and emotional abuse has made it hard for him to trust others or his own feelings, and he has a very low opinion of himself.  Zeke is quiet and usually rather sullen.

Eva was raised by Nora primarily and as a result takes after her.  She is friendly, kind-hearted, and gentle, though she is also rather cynical and has her father’s tendency for dry humor and snide remarks.  Despite her cynicism, Eva loves fairy tales.

Violet takes after her father in many regards.  She is innately musical like him and can be very vindictive, but she’s also cheerful and witty.  Violet is, however, despite all this, relatively soft-spoken and quiet, mostly due to her meta-ability.

The best description I can think of for Clover is “little shit” because she’s the queen of snide remarks, mischievous, and loves tricks.  Her only really close friends aside from Lavender are Barbara Quinzel and Ellie Nygma.  She likes plants a bit more.

Lavender is mellow compared to her sister.  She’s gentle and soft-spoken, but not without Pamela’s sharp tongue and independence.  She is quiet and kind but by no means a doormat.  She essentially lives by the motto “do no harm, take no shit”.

Ayah is a cheerful, friendly girl, a little awkward at times but nice and she does her best.  Despite her unsuspecting personality, Ayah is a skilled boxer and likes to help Dork Squad 2.0 when they’re causing trouble in Gotham.

Hunter is as friendly and kind-hearted as Ayah, but oftentimes his emotions are a lot softer, gentler.  He seldom gets angry and is relatively quieter.  He has a habit of letting slights roll off his back, and is generally regarded as a gentle giant.

Aiden is energetic and excitable, as well as being very warm and caring.  Like Tobi he loves puns and is pretty good at making them.  When he gets extremely emotional he’ll sometimes go nonverbal, and true to form can have a bit of a hot temper.  That said he’s basically accepted his powers and how much of an oddity they are.

Aisling is the typical eldest sister, acting a bit more like a mother to her two brothers than a sister.  As Lonnie wasn’t a very good parent, Aisling ended up filling in the role for him, making her responsible, neat, and caring.  She is also very protective of Max.

Max was treated the worst by Lonnie, and as a result is not very keen on social interaction or trusting others.  He’s introverted, prone to snide remarks, and asocial.  That said he is seldom grumpy and a complete daredevil.  If it’s dangerous and gives you an adrenaline rush, Max probably loves it.

Niall was Lonnie’s favorite, so he is the most like Lonnie: childish, immature, chaotic, and rude.  He acts like a bit of a spoiled brat and can be rather arrogant, which drives his older siblings crazy, especially Max.  Niall also is a lot more forgiving towards Lonnie than the other two.

Sarah is laid back and friendly.  She talks softly most of the time and is usually at least okay with most people.  She has an incurable wanderlust and loves exploring abandoned places in her spare time.  She tends to find that they’re good places to practice gymnastics too.

Andrea is extremely cheerful, almost annoyingly so (think Glinda from Wicked), but part of this is a front (she acts cheery to make her mother happy).  Andrea is a touch vain and judgmental towards people, particularly when initially meeting someone.  That said she does try to be friendly to everyone.

Ellie is pretty much a cat.  She can be elegant, beautiful, and quiet, but she can also be obnoxious, lazy, and downright rude.  That said she is, no matter what, very graceful and agile, and quite easily charms people when she wants to.

Lizzie can be as charming as Ellie, but she’s also an utter geek.  She is extremely passionate about the things she likes and loves talking about them.  Like her father, she can be very single-minded when she wants something.

Barbara is a mix of most of Harley and Joker’s...loudest qualities.  She’s loud, obnoxious, infectiously cheerful, and unfortunately also very temperamental.  Some people find it hard to get along with her, though she is still very friendly.

Todd is as much of a showman as his father, and like Barbara is very cheerful and friendly in a rather infectious way, but Todd can also be a bit air-headed and isn’t so consumed by his own wants that he forgets the needs of others.  He’s selfless, essentially.

Leo is quiet, but has a whole host of snide remarks and sarcastic comments to say in response to people when he decides it’s a good time.  Leo is regularly very serious or apathetic but can break from that rather quickly under the right circumstances.

Gwen is shy and quiet, but often very friendly and cheerful.  She prefers to hide behind Lizzie or Dorothy than talk to people, though she is rather confident with her technopathic abilities.

Jeremy is passive aggressive and snide.  He can be extremely rude and sarcastic, but usually accepts when someone tells him he’s gone too far or needs to apologize.  He doesn��t quite like people in the first place though.

Cosette is gentle, friendly, and likes talking to people, but usually prefers time alone.  She’s a bit of a showman like Todd, and loves singing and dancing, especially to upbeat music.

Marcus is nervous, shy, and jumpy, but he does his best to be friendly.  He has a bit of a mean streak and has a bit of a habit of putting his foot in his mouth.

[thecoliverlibrary]

Losing you hurts like hell

Gift Type: Fan Fiction Title: Losing you hurts like hell Author: @dreamerxnheaven Recipient: @valeriianz Rating: Teen+ Warnings: None Word Count: 1737 Author’s Note: I really hope this is at least a little bit like you imagined it to be an I hope you’ll lke it :)

“Connor? What are you doing here?”

His sister looked and sounded tired, her arms wrapped around herself in front of her doorstep, looking at him like she wondered if he had completely lost it.

Maybe he had. Connor couldn’t tell – he had been driving for hours on pure adrenaline with the music so loud that a part of him wondered why he hadn’t been stopped by the police. And wouldn’t have that been hilarious? Getting away with murder just to go to jail for driving like a maniac.

“Are you hurt? Did something happen to Oliver?“

The sound of Olivers name snapped him out of his thoughts and he almost laughed hysterically. Of course. Gemma had no idea that they had broken up in the first place. He had thought that he could fix things, that he could win Ollie back.

“He broke up with me.”

Gemmas eyes widened almost comically and again, Connor almost laughed.

“He broke up with me a couple of weeks ago because he needed space and time on his own and I -.”

Of course he wanted to get away from him. He was no good in relationships, he was good for a quick fuck or two, but nobody would bring him home to meet the family. Aiden had even called him by nothing but his last name the first time they had met after Aiden had dumped him. And the guy before him – well he had made it certainly clear that being with Connor was more work than he was worth. Damaged, slutty Connor Walsh.

He felt Gemma’s arms around him (when had his sister even moved?)and something in him broke. A sob escaped his lips and he buried his head on her shoulder, shaking violently. He shouldn’t even be here, he should be at their flat, with Oliver, in his arms, watching some dumb movie, eating takeout or simply make out with him. He shouldn’t be at his sisters doorstep crying his eyes out over a broken heart.

“I love him, Gemma.”, he whispered hoarsely between sobs, “I love him and he just left me like – like I never meant anything to him in the first place, like-”

Deep down Connor knew that he was being unfair, that Oliver did what he thought was the best for him and that he tried to deal with the break up in his own way, but a much bigger part of him didn’t want to be fair or objective. He wanted to cry and shout and curl up under a blanket, just for a while, to forget that somewhere out there the love of his life was probably not even thinking about him.

“Oh darling.”, Gemma mumbled and he felt her press a soft kiss against his temple. “Come on, let’s get you inside first.”

He let himself be pulled inside, still shaking and tears running down his cheeks. Connor knew that he probably looked like a mess right now but for once he couldn’t bring himself to care. For years he had convinced himself that he wasn’t one for relationships, that they just weren’t worth the trouble. And then Oliver came along with his smile and his cute glasses and his warmth and before he knew it Connor catched himself lowering his guard, letting him in, showing him the true Connor Walsh. The one who got insecure, who sang in the shower and who made breakfast and even the fucking crossword.

Maybe he had expected too much. Maybe he had relied too much on Oliver -

Oliver. Even his name made everything inside of him ache, made him want to jump right back into his car, right back home, to him, to ask him, beg him, for another chance, just one Ollie, please, just one, I need you, please.

He didn’t notice that Gemma lead him towards the guestroom, until she gently urged him to sit down on the bed.

It was like a part of him hadn’t caught on to the fact that Oliver had dumped him. Or at least he had thought that they could fix things between them, that soon enough he would be back in Olivers arms and their apartment before he knew it.

But today, in the clinic, something had snapped inside of him. Oliver seemed -

He seemed happy and while Connor wanted nothing more than his happiness it still felt like a punch in the face that, apparently, everything Oliver needed to be happy was to be away from him.

Oliver didn’t want him anymore.

——————————————————————————————————

A whole week passed like that. For the next day Connor had called in sick, but the day after Gemma had driven him to the clinic herself with the very real threat of kicking his ass if he would sabotage his future (What Future? Connor wanted to ask, You wouldn’t talk about my future if you knew what I did.) over a guy.

And now he saw Oliver every day, knowing that Oliver was moving on (he had to, he didn’t look even half as shitty as Connor was feeling and he didn’t knew if he wanted to punch him or fuck him because good god those suits were hot and Connor still couldn’t look at Annalises desk without getting flustered) while he was aching to feel his warm skin under his fingers, to run his hand through his soft hair or just to hear him talk about his day or the new Star Wars movie.

Connor had tried. After two days being miserable he had gone out, chatted up a guy and ended up fucking him in an ally behind a bar. And yet, after the guy (Edmund? Edwin?) was gone Connor didn’t feel better. What made it worse, he hadn’t stopped thinking about Oliver, not even once. There was a horrible, aching hole in his chest and fucking random strangers behind bars wasn’t going to fix it.

Apparently he was way more drunk than he had thought.

Connor blinked slowly, looking at the guy next to him who was leading him out of the bar. “Y'know.”, he mumbled, “You really look like my Ex.”

The guy snorted in response, something Connors drunk mind just couldn’t understand. “Oh, that’s a good thing.”, he explained and the guy suddenly walked slower. “I mean it’s dark as fuck, but – like – you look a lot like him and – and that’s he good thing because he’s beautiful.” He leaned more into the stranger, “He’s beautiful and smart and perfect and I ruined everything” A tiny part of him knew he was rambling but at the end of the day – who cared, really? “I – I cheated on him and he forgave me and I don’t know how but I went and fucked things up again and now he doesn’t love me anymore.”

The guy was silent for a couple of minutes but Connor didn’t even notice.

“It’s my fault.”, he finally mumbled, “I lied to him. I wanted to protect him but he knew I was hiding something and he couldn’t love a liar. But now he’s gone and – and that doesn’t even mean he’s safe because now he’s working for her, and it’s all her fault because she made us do this in the first place, if it wasn’t for her – if it wasn’t for her I would still have him and -”

“We’re at your apartment.”, the guy interrupted him.

“Do you have a cold?”, Connor mumbled, “You sound weird.”

The guy sniffed. “I – go to sleep, Connor.”

Connor jut nodded and let himself into the building.

It wasn’t until he laid in bed that he wondered when he had told the stranger Michaela’s address.

Or his name.

Outside Oliver leaned against the door and closed his eye, tears streaming down his cheeks. Connors words were echoing inside of his head.

When he had seen Connor leaning against a table all by himself and completely trashed he hadn’t even hesitated to lead him outside to bring him to Michaela’s, which was just around the corner. Connors weight had been warm and solid against his side and Oliver had missed him, but he also didn’t need long to realize that Connor was so drunk he didn’t even realize it was him he was talking to.

And now he doesn’t love me anymore.

As if he could ever stop loving Connor, even for a heartbeat. As if he could ever stop missing him.

He had tried, god had he tried. And Thomas had been nice, but at the end of the day he wasn’t Connor and every single reminder of that, every time he had done or said something that Connor never would his heart had ached a little bit more for the man he no longer had in his life, So he had called things off with him this evening before he went out to get drunk and to forget about the disaster that was his love life.

Instead he had bumped into his Ex (and didn’t the reminder of that fact hurt) and now his words were replaying in his head over and over again.

Like Connor mentioning lying and secrets. A part of Oliver couldn’t help but wonder if Connor would actually answer him if he went over tomorrow and asked him. After all Connor had said he would do whatever he wanted if that meant Oliver would give them another chance. Did that include the truth about whatever it was Annalise made him and the rest of he Keating five do?

With a last glance towards the building he knew Connor was in right now, he turned around and slowly made his way towards his own flat, replaying every single word Connor has said in his head, wanting nothing more than to turn around, knock at Michaela’s door and tell him to come home.

But even now, with hiss heart aching for Connor, he knew that that would be a bad idea. He knew he couldn’t be with him, no matter how much he wanted to, until the younger man started to finally be open and honest with him.

The next morning Connor woke up with a hangover and a text message that made his heart ache in the best and worst way possible.

[Oliver 01:30 am] I don’t know how much you remember of last night but we need to talk. Please come over when you read this.