#and i decided to take a route id never taken before just to see the world and i ended up on the side of some highway at sunrise and sky was | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

impossiblesuitcase · 2 years

Text

Mutually Moronic Marriage - part 8.

The next month, Cinder wouldn’t have had time to gloat anyway.

Cress was staying at the palace while she fixed the security with Kai at the helm as her biggest supporter. Thorne was more than happy with the stay, citing his injury as an excuse for well-deserved R & R and pampering from palace staff.

Cinder oversaw some of Cress’s work until she couldn’t put off her empress duties any longer. She didn’t even have time to head down to the mechanics. It was always the trick to calm her down, and without it, she was anything but calm.

It was the day before the State Opening of Cabinet. Tomorrow, the emperor and empress would stride through the Grand Imperial Hall in full regalia and deliver speeches on the government’s plans for the year. Cinder would announce her economic bill at the ceremony.

There was plenty of time to work on it, she had told herself with each passing month. So much time that she postponed meetings and lowered her weekly work quota for other more pressing issues. The security had to be fixed as soon as possible!

Ergo, the bill was now behind schedule. Kai had offered to help, but she’d dismissed it.

“No, no.” Cinder slashed her stylus across her port, erasing a long line of text. “It’s domestic,” she muttered, “not international trade routes.”

It was 11:24. Cinder had one last dress fitting before dinner. She’d cancelled her lunch plans with Kai—having a hurried bite in her office—giving her approximately five hours and thirty-six minutes to iron out the draft before submission at 17:00.

No stress, right?

The document was littered with scribbled notes and crossed-out paragraphs, tiny words and rainbows of coloured markers blurring together, causing the onset of a migraine.

She gulped down some water. It was not a miracle cure.

Reasoning that a moment-long break would help more than it would hinder, Cinder set down her port and found herself staring at the holographic pictures of her wedding day.

Many of the early protests against her becoming empress were for her priorities. Selene is too concerned with human rights, they argued—she’ll ignore the economy. Selene cares more about cyborgs and Lunars than regular Earthens, she’ll fail to protect the rest of us.

Cinder wanted to scream at it all. Of course she wanted to help cyborgs and Lunars. Of course she cared about the economy and every single citizen of Earth just the same.

But empresses weren’t allowed to scream.

“To be honest, you will never be loved by everyone—”

If Cinder failed to submit the bill in time due to her own poor time management, those critics would appear correct.

“—I’ve decided that I should start caring more about the opinions of the people that I love—”

All her public disasters. Every humiliating newsfeed digging into her every fault. Her body. Her personality. Her marriage. She had taken Kai’s advice; she so firmly tried to ignore it all, convincing herself that where it counted, she would make it count.

Her politics. Her outreach. Her compassion.

Oh it counted all right. The counting clock of her deadline, because she hadn’t done what she had assured everyone and herself she would.

“—And if they love me back, I won’t be afraid to make mistakes—”

Maybe she could take Kai up on his offer to help…

Tick, tock.

Tick.

No. She’d accepted this. She had to see it to its finish alone.

Just as she began to rub her temples, the door to her office made a loud, shuddering sound. The light at the ID scanner blinked and fell black.

She slammed her eyes shut. It was probably a trick of the light. Or maybe a power outage? But, peeling her eyes back open, the wedding portraits were still projected on her wall.

Cinder heaved out of her chair and crept forward. When she flashed her wrist under the scanner, the door stayed shut.

A second headache was forming.

The old-fashioned internal lock still clicked open with ease, so she wasn’t trapped. Cinder poked her head out.

The guards stood solemn in the hall, the windows cast sunbeams onto the floor. Nothing appeared amiss.

Rubbing at her shoulders, she dragged herself back to her desk. A painful swallow of saliva left a lump in her throat.

11:31, five hours and twenty-eight minutes left.

The moment she sat in her chair she bolted right back up.

———

“—because they’ll help me.”

———

The guards did nothing as Cinder jogged down the hall for the first door in sight—a maintenance cupboard.

She scanned her wrist. Nothing happened.

What had Cress said, that if you controlled one central door, you could control every door in the palace?

“No, no, not now!”

Cinder thrust her wrist under another two ID scanners with the same results. She sprinted back to her office to hastily lock it.

“Kyung-sik!” she panted, flailing an arm at the nearest guard. “Are our lockdown procedures in place?”

The guard in question seemed surprised. “O-of course, Your Majesty.”

“Then why aren’t the speakers going off?”

Understanding dawned on his face. “I see what you mean, Your Majesty. I’ll look into it.”

Kyung-sik left as she raced towards the elevator. None of the other guards accompanied her—a wise course of action, she thought, so they could evacuate everyone else.

Her mind churned. Terrorists? Another thaumaturge?

Cinder established a commlink with Cress. Six seconds of unanswered rings was too long for her patience. Her retina switched to Kai. Kai, I’m heading to the codebreak point now. Get everyone out of the palace.

What’s wrong? came his reply. I’ll meet you there.

No. The lockdown procedures aren’t working, focus on that.

She shut off the link. It was a stifling trip down the elevator with no way of anticipating what lay on the other side. But it was quicker than the stairs, and she wouldn’t risk losing a second.

The elevator opened to a flurry of workers at the same time a loud voice from the speakers met her ears. Yes, thank the stars—Kyung-sik had gotten the lockdown warnings going, though she couldn’t hear over the workers’ droning Your Majesty’s. It grew so loud that Cinder had her audio interface dull the speaker’s chant. With their eyes still on her, she pointed to the ceiling. “Follow the directions.”

Cinder tried to weave through the crowd, but as one line of staff parted for her, a new line would appear with respectful and very-poorly-timed bows. She stumbled over apologies and warnings on autopilot until she broke through, then belatedly recognised one man in particular.

“Wait! Yanlin!”

The familiar mechanic turned back to her. “Y-yes, Your Majesty?”

A new idea nibbled at her mind. She waved him over.

“Is something wrong?”

They rounded a corner with curious eyes darting their way. “Someone has gotten to the codebreak point,” she explained. “The doors have shut down.”

“Yes, I know. The head of staff told us about it last wee—”

“We have to disable the intruder’s connection to the mainframe. Cress wrote programming for the new ID scanners to protect the doors, but it needs to be activated first. You installed the scanners, do you know the access code?”

Yanlin’s mouth fell open and worked a few times to form trepidatious words, “Your Majesty, we never installed those new scanners.”

Cinder stumbled over her flats. “But I organised for all the parts to be sent to you.”

Yanlin slowly shook his head. “We didn’t receive anything.”

Her confidence wilted. Surely she had ordered them. She recalled visiting the mechanics multiple times and working with them—

Actually, she hadn’t helped. She’d worked on her own projects and given the others instructions for when the scanners arrived.

The more she concentrated on that promise, the more she doubted that she ever fulfilled it. She glazed through receipts on her retina for an order of Heston Model 3.1 scanners.

No, she had never ordered the parts, even if she had imagined that she’d done it.

Her face fell. “I’m so sorry, Yanlin, this is my fault.”

“It’s fine, Your Majesty, I know you’re very busy.”

“No. It is my fault.” The blueprint of the palace overlaid her vision. They were close to the medical wing. There was still a way…

A pang of guilt struck her sternum. This wasn’t Thorne, who had her next ten moves already mapped out before she even made her first. This wasn’t Wolf, whom she could trust to throw into battle and come out the other side with only a few scuffs. This was just a staff member, a nervous, bumbling mechanic whom she had put in danger by not doing her job.

Kai had been right. Cinder wanted to do things herself. She wanted to go after Dolion without any guards. She had wanted to change the security herself. That’s why she’d promised to fix the scanners, even prior to knowing the true scope of their security issues. Now was the worst time to start relying on others, but he was her best bet.

“Yanlin, I’m sorry, but I need you to do something.”

“Anything, Your Majesty,”

She cringed. “Don’t sound so eager. We have to sever the connection at the codebreak point itself, but the intruders could still be there. I can’t fix the system and fight at the same time. Can you disable it while I fend them off?”

Yanlin looked awed by the assignment, and bizarrely not afraid of the whole deathly intruders. Maybe Cinder had misjudged him when she thought him skittish.

“Uh, like I said, Your Majesty, anything.”

A list was forming in her head as they moved. Fight. Yanlin disables the codebreak point. Kai evacuates everyone. I might be dead, but if not, keep fighting until everyone’s out.

Staff were walking towards the medical labs, even with the speakers still going.

“Go!” she urged three women in lab coats. “Go to the meeting points!”

They exchanged quizzical glances and gradually turned around. Cinder had to do that for a dozen more people before she even left the hallway.

The more people she redirected, the more replaced them. Yanlin wasn’t walking fast enough, and there was no way that everyone would be evacuated at this rate.

It felt like the time with Dolion. She was struck with a memory: him laying on the concrete, hearing her say that she would never again put people into danger for her. She would deal with the problem herself.

And he had smiled.

At the time she thought it delirium, after all, she’d just tortured his mind, but retrospect was didactic. He knew something like this would happen again. When the situation arose, Cinder would make the same decision, and it would backfire, and people would suffer.

He had lost, yes. But she hadn’t won. Because all he cared about was gaining justice, and his justice would be her guilt. If she had followed through with her promise, they could seal off the threat while everyone fled the palace.

But she hadn’t, and now Yanlin and Kai and everyone in this palace was in danger.

She couldn’t make the same mistake again.

“Wait here, and tell everyone that comes through to evacuate,” she told Yanlin.

She back-tracked to the elevator lobby, finding people milling about and four guards stationed motionless along the walls.

“I need your help.”

———

Cinder sent most of the guards to escort staff outside. That was the protocol in the event of an evacuation, but she recalled that there was a lack of management, and with it, a lack of training.

Stars, she’d promised she was going to look into that, too...

The last guard tailed her and Yanlin to the codebreak point. Cinder raised a finger to her lips. Her other hand gestured for the guard to ready his weapon.

They took quiet steps though no sounds of life could be heard; the grand mahogany door was still stately and still shut.

Whoever had broken in must have controlled the doors from here and then left to infiltrate the security control centre. It occurred to Cinder now that Kyung-sik would have had the alarms turned on from that centre.

Good news: It was still guarded.

Bad news: The invaders would then be returning to this point to gain full control of the palace.

She addressed the guard. “Make sure no one approaches from this end.”

He nodded as Cinder guided Yanlin forward. She pointed to the metal box next to the door. “Wrench the panel open.”

“I’ve never had a guard escort before,” he was whispering in awe.

Cinder snapped her fingers in front of his face, and felt a little bad when he flinched.

Yanlin sheepishly reached for his belt holster but came back empty. He patted down his pockets. “Sorry, I was on my lunch break, I didn’t bring all my tools.”

She crouched by the box, resigned. The guard would tell them if anyone approached from behind, but beyond the door was unprotected. “Okay, um…I’ll deal with this, while you break into the door’s manual lock and seal it off.”

Yanlin moseyed on over to the door. Nothing had happened yet, and that was somehow more blood-curdling than an outright attack. It meant something was coming.

A red line flashed over her wrist as the box scanned her ID chip. Access Denied. Again. Access Denied. Access Denied. Access–

What was the point of being empress if you couldn’t even get approval in your own–

Wait. Cress had removed the ID chip function, as per Cinder’s request. Her heart tore between annoyance and approval.

As she had done weeks before, Cinder smacked her foot into the box. A shock of pain raced up her shin, and although it now featured a sizable dent, it remained closed.

She swivelled around, hoping Yanlin was having better luck only to find him slowly comparing different plier sizes with the lock. Oh yeah, no need to rush.

As if she’d prophesied it, footsteps began to pound along the floor on the other side.

Cinder gritted her teeth and shoved the correct plier into his hand, grabbing a larger one for herself. “Lock. The. Door.”

The tip of her finger opened so her screwdriver could emerge. With a quick dig at the panelling the pressure caused the seal to loosen. Cinder wedged the pliers into the crack and peeled it open. Inside the panel lay an inset for a universal connector cable.

Bile rose to her throat. There was little she hated more in the world than having to connect herself to a device. It was so inhuman. It made her feel like nothing more than a software system. But she swallowed her rising panic attack and switched from the screwdriver over to the cable and plugged it in.

The footsteps grew in volume.

“Have you locked it?” she pleaded.

Yanlin dipped his head in apology. 30% loaded. “Uh, not yet, I’m much slower without all my tools.”

Voices joined the footsteps, one gruff and one feminine and loud.

Cinder vaulted upwards, trying to reach the door while still connected to the box in vain. 65%. If she could help him lock it…but it was too far for her to reach. Eventually her jarred leg began to scream at her for leveraging too much weight on it.

A bomb ticked in her head.

100%. She bit back a grateful sob and hurriedly brought up the menu, searching for the killswitch.

The footsteps came to a stop. Yanlin hadn’t locked the door.

Disable automated transfer proceedings?

Enabling the killswitch, she tore out the cable and pushed Yanlin away. “Go!”

“P-pardon?”

To the guard stationed at the end of the hall, she yelled, “Get him to safety!”

She spun around and shoved her metal fingers into the lock, halting its turn. It was successful for seconds until whoever was on the other side used so much force that she flung her fingers away, lest they snapped off.

Backing up, she jutted out her stiletto knife and braced herself.

They were not intruders. The woman had disappeared, leaving Torin alone.

Cinder jumped, lowering the blade. “Torin! What are you doing here?”

Torin placed his hands behind his back. “I came to ask you that, Your Majesty. Your guards were concerned when you disappeared twenty minutes ago.”

“Did something happen?” Kai asked.

She hadn’t sensed him approaching from behind. Neither had Yanlin apparently, as he jumped and brushed back his lank hair with sweaty palms. “Your Highness, uh, Majesty!”

Speaking of Yanlin, it appeared he hadn’t put in much effort to run away to safety…

Cinder’s thoughts floundered through mud. Why wasn’t anyone panicking? Why was Kai still here, when he should be leading the evacuation?

Kai peered at her. “You said you were coming here. What for?”

Before Cinder formed the question, she heard her name being called. “Cinder! Thank you!”

That feminine voice that she’d heard earlier was now recognisable as Cress. She launched into Cinder with a tight embrace.

“Er, no problem?” Cinder patted Cress on the back. “But we still have to get everyone out and—”

“I couldn’t find the fault but it appeared just now when you rerouted the doors. The scheduled shutdown was useful after all, thanks to you!”

Cinder’s mouth hung open.

Kai stepped forward. “Torin, would you escort Darnel-dàren to the security centre so she can get the system back online?”

Torin bowed and led Cress away, steering her clear from walls as she blindly marched ahead, absorbed by her port.

In the newfound silence, Yanlin’s timid voice squeaked, “Your Majesty, may I take my leave now? My coworkers are expecting me.”

Cinder lifted her jaw. “Right. Of course, Li-jūn. Thank you for your help and putting yourself in dang—um, for inconveniencing yourself to assist me.”

“It was an h-honour.”

Just as he began to scurry away, Cinder called, “Yanlin?”

He startled like a sparrow caught in the oncoming path of a maglev train.

“I’ll order those parts in for you, ASAP.”

His mouth parted in an oh. With a hushed thank you, he hastened away to the guard faster than before.

Kai and Cinder were alone in the grand, beautiful hallway.

“The scheduled shutdown?” she murmured.

“Remember? Cress needed to restart the mainframe to find the errors in the system,” he prompted. “The palace advised everyone that they must use the doors manually for an hour.”

Cinder racked her brain, both organically and artificially. “...I didn’t know about that.”

The ticking bomb in her throat subsided into a metronome beat. It was Kai, she realised, tapping his foot against the hardwood floors. The drumming mixed with some other unintelligible noise, and Cinder allowed her audio interface to normalise. It finally brought the chant over the speakers to an audible level.

‘All automatic doors are disabled for a drill. This is not a lockdown. Use the manual system until the drill ends. All automatic doors—’

“You thought someone was breaking in, didn’t you?” Amusement trickled down his face, his relaxed posture, his crossed arms.

She fisted her hands on her hips. “How would I know otherwise? I wasn’t given notice.”

“I told you about it.”

“What? When?”

“At dinner on Tuesday night. After the meeting on Friday. Before bed on Sunday. At breakfast this morning. I reminded you.”

Vague recollections of Kai talking to her at those times helpfully re-emerged. She had had her thoughts fixated on different wordings for the bill, and had let his words pass by her.

The memories came easily to her now, and perhaps if she’d held her horses earlier and concentrated, she would’ve recalled them. Alas, Cinder hadn’t held her horses. Now the reins had slipped from her hands and the stallions were galloping away, far from reach.

“Oh.”

“But, if you did think someone was breaking in, why’d you have to come here? You said you installed new scanners so that the palace wouldn’t be affected by the codebreak point.”

Cinder shifted from foot to foot. “I forgot to.”

Kai hummed with the realisation.

Procrastination, forgetfulness, breaking promises. She was exactly like her husband.

Her eyes met his. He smiled deviously.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she groaned.

His tapping stopped, as did the chanting speaker. It now changed its tune: ‘Thank you for your cooperation in this drill. All regular operating systems will return shortly.’

She hung her head and relented, “Go on, you can say it.”

The smile grew.

“Love, you are a moron.”

“Yes, I am,” she conceded.

He draped an arm over her shoulder. She collapsed into his embrace. Her panic and terror melted with the warmth of his chest.

“Now, would you like me to help you finish the draft by the deadline?”

“Please.”

———

The Annual Peace Ball was never to be peaceful again, though Cinder guessed that it never had been in the first place.

No, there were no more threats of war or attacks by crazed soldiers or thaumaturges and Cinder certainly never let her ring out of her sight. But the ball itself would always be chaotic with jovial music and stuffy rich guests and the loudness of her awesome, weird friends.

It wasn’t peaceful, but it was fun.

Kai helped her finish her economic plan just in time. Despite burgeoning fears that it would be ridiculed and rejected, politicians and citizens alike took it seriously. She ordered, delivered, and personally helped install the promised ID scanners, and Cress’s work was brilliant; the palace was, if anything, overprepared for any threats.

For so long, Cinder had had to rely on others just to survive. And she still had to: in life-or-death scenarios, in empress duties, in emotional struggles. It wasn’t an act of defeat to ask for help. That sort of courage could be nothing but a strength.

The only other mishap to occur at a peace ball was on her eleventh year. Tressa had garbed her in a large skirt to conceal her growing baby bump, though it was all for naught. Cinder was handed an alcoholic beverage unknowingly and Kai snatched it away with a whispered “it’s alcohol,” before drinking it himself.

That whisper wasn’t quiet enough, apparently. Journalists read his lips and put two and two together, because if the empress wasn’t drinking, she had to be pregnant.

It wasn’t the way she’d wanted to announce it, still Cinder held her tongue when Kai apologised profusely to her. Never again would she berate him over a mistake when she was probably doing the same twice over.

If they were equally beloved and hated by the world, trying to please everybody would only be self-sabotage. Instead, they could focus on those they loved. Then they would grow, make mistakes and learn, and mess up and start all over again.

They were bound to make plenty more. After all, they both had their moronic moments.

But they loved each other anyway.

Notes - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

@cinderswrench @cindersassasin @hayleblackburn @spherical-empirical @salt-warrior @just2bubbly @gingerale2017 @zephyr-thedragon @holdmysparks @oceanspray5 @icarusignite @shellyseashell @kaider-is-my-otp @slmkaider @luna-maximoff-22 @cosmicnovaflare @kaixiety

Yay!!! Thanks for reading. I worked on this for quite some time so I’m happy to get it out there.

And there will be a bonus drabble next week! ;)

10 notes · View notes

spiribia · 2 years

Text

its funny because when i first played endwalker i was like its a sweet story but it doesn’t have a ton of emotional impact for me personally and now months later im still like venat help me. but i think whats really sweet about it that i havent see done a lot myself, regardless of how stories ive seen about the conundrum of like, what makes life worth living despite [list of grievances], is that endwalkies was like... you dont have to even know or have a concrete answer to that question. like even if the darkness stretches on and on seemingly indefinitely you can keep walking through it to reach the unseen end to it ahead. and im here too.

#talks #its so corny and you have to not laugh but at some point after i finished endwalker i had a dream i was walking to school #and i decided to take a route id never taken before just to see the world and i ended up on the side of some highway at sunrise and sky was #so resplendently beautiful i was like wow im so glad i lived and explored it. this is for you final fantasy xiv character venat.#like i actually thought that last part. in my dream

12 notes · View notes

miraculous-trinity-leo · 4 years

Text

Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8)

Chapter 6: Evade The Bats, and Beat The Crows

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

The girls are in the old living room setting up clues (that are absolutely... useless) around Gotham. One being a picture Harley and Multimouse took earlier that day.

"They might think to look here after they realize the clues are fake." - Steph

"Then where else would they not think to look?" - Maria

"W.E, I can get you and Harley in without them knowing easily." - Barbara said with a confident smile.

"But they'll have to go incognito... especially you Harley, no offense, but your outfit stands out just a tad." - Steph

"Ehhh, none taken, I'm sure I can tink of somthin' else tuh wear." - Harley

"I can help with that, but I'll need some clothes and some sewing supplies." - Maria said already thinking of what she could make.

Cass gave a nod and headed out of the room, after a few minutes she came back with t-shirts, jackets, sweaters, shorts, jeans, etc. and droped the pile of clothes infront of the group. She then handed Maria a sewing set she got from Alfred.

"Thanks Cass. I'll get to work on making our costumes." - Maria

"Let me help yuh wit' dat hun." - Harley said as she picked up most of the clothes for Maria

"Thanks." Maria

•—–·Let's see the Chaos shall we·–—•

"You never told us she could use magic!" - Red Hood looking under the table

"I wonder if she can infuse magic with coffee..." - Red Robin said looking in the cabinets for the third time.

"Stop looking for coffee!" - Red Hood

"She could've hidden in here." - Red Robin said while crabbing a mug

"I haven't had enough sleep to deal with this." - Selina then walked over and flopped herself on the couch and proceeded to fall asleep on impact.

"Maria get your tiny self back here right now or else!" - Tony

"Or else what? She Knows MAGIC! What else does she know that you haven't told us?!" - Red Hood

"... I never told you becuase it's meant to be a secret!" - Tony

"Oh, so now you agree with keeping things a secret?" - Red Robin grabbing the coffee

"What else can she do Tony." - Batman

"Well... she's great with tech, can kick butt in a LOT of different ways, has magic, and if she wants to, she can find and know where everyone or anyone is, but I think she gets massive headaches from a wide search like that." - Tony

"Anything else?" - Batman

(Tony thinkng of all the tiny gods she has in jewelery, and that she keeps Paris/friends and family safe on a daily basis, and that she is the well known designer MDC...)"No..." - Tony

As ivy was listening to them talk, she continued to search her garden, until one of her plants had a message fo her.

"Hello Ms. Ivy, please don't help Batman and Iron Man find us, we promise we'll be careful." - Maria

"Where are you?" - Ivy asked whispering into the plant.

After a few minutes Ivy got a detailed plan that Maria, Harley and the girls came up with to evade The IronBat group (Maria thought that would be better than ManMan group 'But it's Bat MAN and Iron MAN, so it has tuh be The ManMan group.' was Harleys defence, but Maria won that one.) and Ivy agreed to help as best she could.

•—–· Over to the Miraculous gang ·–—•

Plagg is cackling like there's no tomorrow.

"Guys something must be wrong, Plagg won't stop cackling, he won't even touch the cheese I gave him!!!" - Adrien

"There's no time for that, we need to find out where the hell Maria is!!" - Chloé

"Hahahaha, Ti- heheh Tikk- pffhaaaaaaahaha!!!" - Plagg

"He's trying to form words!" Adrien cradling Plagg in his hands "What is it my friend? Don't do this, you're to young...*sniff * you're to beautiful!"

"Hehehehe Shhhh- hahaha, she- she- haha...heheh- I'm so p-hehe-Proud wahahaha " - Plagg

"Proud?! She?! Where?! Who, is it Maria?!" - Chloé

"Hhhhhhhhahhaaaaaaaaaa" - Plagg

"Oh God he's wheezing!" - Adrien

"Hey guys, Peter and I got the snacks, found out where Maria might- oh kwami." - Alix walking into the room to a zombie looking Chloé, a panicked Adrien and the Kwami of death/bad luck/chaos laughing himself to death.

"Has he finally lost it?" - Peter

"She has become a true cat! hahahahahaaaaa heheheheeeeeee." - Plagg

Everyone in the room but Plagg "Oh fu-"

•—–· Over to the Batfam ·–—•

So everyone is panicking because for the past hour none of them could find Multimouse. Robin is sitting on the couch next to a now fully awake Selina, Red Hood and Nightwing are once again feeding each other the worst possible situation she could be in, Tony may or may not be hyperventilating, Red Robin is drinking coffee, and Batman is as stoic as ever... well on the outside anyway, on the inside, it's a warzone. Ivy is drinking her tea, slightly worried, but also hiding a small smile.

"What if we ask Oracle to try and help us find her?" - Red Robin

"... Right... Yes, ok let's do that... Bats you do it, I need to sit down." - Tony

•—–· Back to the girls ·–—•

The girls moved everything to the Bat-cave so they could set the route they would take, then the Bat-Computer started ringing.

"Hide!" - Steph

"Where, dere's nuttin' tuh hide behind!" - Harley

"Quick under the Bat-Computer." - Barbara

As soon as Harley and Maria hid under the Bat-Computer, Batman and the rest of the Batfam was on video call.

"Hey guys, what do you need?" - Barbara acting like nothing happened

"We need you to search for Maria, she's in a dark gray suit with pink accents, and she's with Harley." - Batman

"Ok, no prob, I'll contact you when I've found something." - and with that Barbara exited the call.

"Should we start heading out?" - Maria

"Yup, and here are your ID badges, don't lose them. I'll give our Batfam fake sightings, and lead them far away, then once you reach W.E I'll slowly start leading them closer to you." - Barbara

"Thanks, keep in touch if they decide to split up." - Maria

"Roger that." - Steph said giving a solute

•—–·–—•

Soon Multimouse and Harley are running over roof tops again, doing tricks, and stopping petty crimes, Barbara is leading the Batfam all over Gotham, and then they got to W.E, after Maria transformed back, they entered the building. Thanks to Babs, they entered without any problems and had free roam for the entire building, with some exceptions like new weapons designs, or the roof. They were hiding in the building for about an hour on the 7th floor when Barbara called in.

"Hey girls, you might want to be careful, I spotted some of Scarecrows goons a few blocks away, they seem to be heading in your direction, I'd say about 6mins tops until they reach W.E. Best to find a good room to stay in, or get out of there." - Barbara

"Thanks fawh de heads up Babs." - Harley

"Ok, we'll try to get out, let us know if we should turn back or not." - Maria

"Got it, and be careful." - Barbara

Maria and Harley then made their way back down, they were taking the stairs, because they figured it would be quicker, once they were on the second floor, they started to calmly make their way through the doors of the stairwell. That's when Scarecrows goons busted in, shouting for everyone to get down, Harley made sure to stay as close to Maria as possible as the goons gathered everyone to a wall. They were told to not move, talk, or do anything to anger them, once everyone was up against the wall, that's when Scarecrow came in. As he entered the room some of the employees started to look very scared, when Maria looked over to Harley, she saw her mouth 'it's ok', afterwards the goons had them all tied up and on the floor sitting down. Scarecrow scanned them before speaking.

"One of you will be testing my newest and most potent fear toxin as of yet. We can do this one out of two ways." He said lifting up two of his needle syringed fingers. "1. You can be a hero, and let yourself be my newest test subject, aka the boring way or 2. I pick whoever I want, aka the slightly less boring way. Now, who wants to go first?"

•—–· Over to Batman ·–—•

The Batfam was running around the other side of Gotham, now without Tony, because someone ( ehem Thor, ehem) was making a giant mess at Avengers Tower, and was fighting Loki... again. It was when they decided to call Oracle that things took another turn.

"Oracle have you foun- " - Batman

"They're at W.E. and Scarecrows there, I can't get in contact with them, and I can't get into the cameras at the moment, I need you to get your butts over there now!" - Oracle

"Wait you were in contact with them?!" - Red Hood

"Not the time! Just get over there before someone gets hurt!" - Oracle

"We're on our way." - Batman

They all then kicked it into high gear and were running to W.E, and out of everyone, Damian seemed to be the most visibly panicked, if him running twice as fast as everyone was any indication. At the speed they were going, they would be there in 20mins or less... hopefully.

•—–· Back to Maria and Harley ·–—•

So while Scarecrow was giving his little speech, Maria whispered into a plant to let Ivy know their situation, she wasn't able to get an answer before she and Harley were pulled away from the crowd.

"And what do we have here? Harley Quinn and a child. How interesting, well then, which one of you would like to test my new fear toxin?" - Scarecrow

"Eh, do me, I bet I got a lot o' trauma and fears from my time wit' Mistuh J. dat yuh would just love tuh see." - Harley

"... As tempting as that sounds I think I'll test it on your little friend here, after all, I know better than to mess with one of the Sirens." - As Scarecrow said that, one of the goons dragged Maria over to him. She didn't panic, she was actually really calm, which worried Harley even more because, remember all that emotional trauma she saw Maria had? Yeah, not the best match for the fear toxin.

As Scarecrow grabbed Maria, she locked eyes with Harley, and gave a brief smile before she felt a sharp jabbing pain in the side of her neck. Her vision went hazy, and from Harleys' point of view, she went a little limp from it.

As Maria started to see again she could hear screams, car alarms going off, and explosion in the distance, when she looked up, she saw them, her friends, her team... her family, they were all there lying infront of her... none of them moving, all of them were lifeless, looking as though turned into a gray husk of what they once were, and beside them were all the Kwamis, and their respective Jewelery, broken and shattered. She felt the tears fall as she looked around. Paris, the once beautiful city of lights, was now a wasteland, everything had a gray tone to it, people, animals, everything that had life... was dead.

And then she heard laughing, a sick disturbing laugh that was all to familiar... Lila. When she turned and saw Vulpina, she felt sick just looking at her.

"You have failed Maria, everyone you knew and loved is gone, all because you weren't here." - Lila

All she felt in that moment... was pure anger, she began to struggle, but somthing was holding her. She kept hearing that stupid laugh, and kept struggling harder and harder.

"You were never good enough, you were meant to always be our everyday Ladybug, but you never were, you never cared for us, and that's why, they're all gone, because you weren't good enough." - Lila

The last four words kept playing over and over in her head, until something clicked, she wasn't in Paris, so how did she get there? The last place she was at... was with Harley, she was in the W.E. building, and had fear toxin injected into her. As she came to that realization, she could hear the laughing fade just a bit, she closed her eyes and focused on finding everyone's souls, when she did, she saw that Scarecrow was right infront of her, a goon next to Harley, and a goon behind her, the other goons had left and were on the first floor. She snapped back when she heard Lilas' voice again.

"You always were stubborn and never accepted the real truth, as class president aren't you supposed to just roll over and do as you're told." - Lila

Maria was done listening to her, and decided to kick Lila in the face (since someone didn't think to tie up her ankles.)

"Just go rott in hell already you lieing fox!" - Maria

Maria didn't get any answer, all she knew was that she hit whatever was really infront of her hard. Maria then heard Lilas' voice morph into a heavier, more distorted voice.

"That's a first, guess I'll have to increase the dosage." - Scarecrow

She then felt another jabbing pain in her neck, all she could do was scream from the pain, her head was spinning, and all she could hear was laughing, sickening laughter that came from both Lila, and now Hawkmoth. One thing Scarecrow didn't account for, was the deep hatred Maria held for both individuals he made her see. Because soon after he gave her more fear toxin she got her footing, pushing back into the goon behind her before using the goons' grib on her to do a half backflip into kicking the guys face in, quickly knocking the goon out, when she stood back up she only saw Hawkmoth, surrounded by her lifeless team and family, she only saw red, and charge right at him. She kept punching and roundhouse kicking him, giving one final charge, ramming into Hawkmoth before she felt weightless. She never heard the panicked scream Harley let out, she never heard the shouts that came from the Batfam just reaching the second floor, before she hit something... something rapped around her holding her from falling any further, causing her to start thrashing around thinking it was Hawkmoth, before seeing he was also grabbed by something. She struggled ignoring the slight pain that went through her harms and legs. She slowly calmed down as she felt her feet touch the ground again, she then saw another Hawkmoth that was now mixed with Lila hug her, she tried to break free, but realized that it wasn't Lila or Hawkmoth... It was calming, and her voice was gentle, it was Ivy. She only heard a few words, that's when she felt something blow on her face, and after a few seconds, she lost conscientiousness.

Harley came sprinting down and was by Ivys' side in less than a minute. Ivy could tell Harley was worried and joined her in hugging a now sleeping Maria.

"I'm sawhry Ives, It all just happened so fast, and she was so awesome at kickin' Cranes @ss, I din't get her out of dere quick enough." - Harley said as she looked Ivy in the eyes, with tears threatening to escape.

"It's alright Harley, none of this is your fault." - Ivy replied comfortingly to Harley

As the two hugged Maria Batman came over.

"We'll take it from here." - Batman

"Hell no. We ain't leavin' her side." - Harley

Batman just let out a sigh, after he dealt with Scarecrow and his goons, Batman, along with his sons, Ivy and Harley, all headed back to the Bat-cave where the other girls and Alfred were waiting.

If anyone noticed Robin looking over to Maria with a concerned look, they just ignored it, and continued their way back home.

•—–·†·–—•

Chapter 6 complete! Hope you'll liked it, and are havin' a fantabulous day, stay safe and rock all those positive vibes. !BUG-OUT! 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜 Tag List 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

1st Place★: @animegirlweeb☕ , 2nd Place★: @jumpingjoy82, 3rd Place★: @zalladane, 4th Place★: @jayjayspixiepop, 5th Place★: @arty-shadow-morningstar, 6th Place★: @smol-book-nerd, 7th Place★: @irontimetravelflower, 8th Place★: @fandom-trapped-03, 9th Place★: @meme991001, 10th Place★: @buginetye, 11th Place★: @blackroserelina, 12th Place★: @jessigurl-design, 13th Place★: @adrestar , 14th Place★: @moon5608, 15th Place★: @little-bluestar, 17th Place★: @myazael, 18th Place★: @our-preciousss, 19th Place★: @wolf2118, 20th Place★: @nyx-in-line, 21st Place★: @kking13, 22nd Place★: @lunerlover2024, 23rd Place★: @moonlightstar64, 24th Place★: @corporeal-terrestrial, 25th Place★: @kashlyn, 26th Place★: @tbehartoo, 27th Place★: @heart-charming, 28th Place★: @solangelo252, 29th Place★: @t1dwarrior-of-earth, 30th Place★: @lady-phoenix-of-tardis, @lupagrimm

238 notes · View notes

ashintheairlikesnow · 3 years

Text

Haven Gray

CW: Abducted whumpee, description of missing person, captivity, BBU/WRU

Where Is Haven Gray?

r/FindTheMissing

•Posted by u/bananasare2appealing

3 days ago

In the summer of 20XX, 21-year-old Haven Gray texted family and friends to let them know a second job interview they’d just finished had gone well, and they expected to be offered the job.

They made plans to have dinner with a couple of friends to celebrate, but never showed up to the restaurant. They were reported missing by their parents later that night and have never been seen again.

Hey, everyone, this is my first attempt at a post like this, so I hope you’ll go easy on me! Haven Gray is a kind of a personal case to me, I went to the same high school a few years behind them and there was still a lot of talk about what could have happened and like, their picture is in a memorial frame in the hallway by the principal’s office. It’s just a really important case to me and I hope they figure out what happened to Haven one day.

Haven Gray was the oldest of three children born to Matthew and Maria Gray in the small town of Trenton, Indiana. Tall, with long wavy red hair and gray eyes, they stood out in a crowd in more ways than one.

Haven set records for their high school’s cross-country track team, played well on the school basketball team, and maintained a 3.5 GPA alongside plenty of extracurriculars and an active social life.

They then spent two years attending Trenton Community College, looking to finish out their degree at Indiana State University and go into the human resources field. They kept up a part-time job on the side, but during the summer before they would move to ISU, they decided to look for full-time work to help save up some money.

Haven’s mother Maria was interviewed after their disappearance by local news station INNW as saying that Haven was very excited about finishing up their degree and moving into their first real apartment.

Haven had seen an ad on a job-hunting website for a receptionist for a temp agency that specialized in placing HR professionals in nearby companies. Seeing a way to get some relevant experience before they finished up their degree, they applied and were contacted for a job interview.

Here’s where things get just a little weird, before they get even weirder.

Haven texted a photo of the strip mall where the job interview was, and noted that the company was not located in a well-maintained place, which made Haven very nervous. The signage also seemed brand new, which conflicted with information on the company website suggesting they’d been in that location for years.

They waited in their car and called the company phone. Only when someone came out to greet them did Haven go inside for the interview.

The first interview went smoothly, and Haven excitedly called their friends and family to say a second interview was already scheduled with the owner of the small company. It turned out, they explained, that the creepy location was no longer the company’s main location, and their second interview would be at a different address in a much nicer part of town.

They did not give any explanation, if any was given to them, about the reason for brand new signage if the business was in the process of leaving that address. On the day of the second interview, one week later, Haven’s mother saw them leaving in a deep blue top with satin detailing at the neck and gray slacks.

They exchanged goodbyes, and Haven reminded their mother they would be meeting friends tonight, either to celebrate a good interview or commiserate over a bad one.

“My comfort,” Maria Gray said in her interview with INNW, “is that I said goodbye and I love you. I have that, at least. So many don’t get that final chance. I just wish I had known it was the last time. I would have looked at them a little longer.”

From here, Haven is seen on camera at their ‘regular’ Starbucks a few moments later, ordering a large (venti) iced latte. An automatic speed-checker camera next to the highway captured their car with license plate clearly visible driving in the direction of the interstate a few minutes later.

Two hours after this sighting, they called a friend, Natalie Morales, to tell her that the interview had gone well and they believed they would be offered the job. Dinner that night, Haven said, would definitely be a celebration.

They texted three other friends, Maria, and Matthew - as well as a younger sibling. These are the last direct communications anyone had with Haven Gray.

“They didn’t sound scared,” Natalie said in her own interview with True Crime Podcast Now You See Them, Now You Don’t. "Not at all. I’ve thought about it over and over again, trying to ask myself, was there fear there? Had something already happened? And I just don’t think so. I think whatever happened, happened after they hung up the phone. They were excited, said the pay rate was way more than they expected for a receptionist job. The only thing is that they said the guy who interviewed them kind of... gave them the, you know. Made the hair on their arms stand up. You know what I mean? And I thought of that first, when they never... but he has an alibi.”

The man in question is Ladd Prescott, the stated owner of the temp agency Haven applied to. Ladd gave multiple interviews, off-camera and to law enforcement, but he did not leave the office and is seen on in-office security cameras and he is not considered a person of interest in the case.

The final image of Haven’s whereabouts that day comes from the CCTV camera at an ATM for Haven’s bank one hour after the final text message sent to their father Matthew. They are seen pulling up in their car to the drive-thru ATM, where they withdrew $300.

Notable about this footage is three things:

1. Haven appears to look directly at the camera twice, deliberately holding their gaze maybe

2. Their hair, carefully styled when they left for the interview according to Maria, is noticeably in disarray, and they do not appear to be wearing the same shirt they had on when they left (the footage is super grainy, so this is hard to tell exactly, but if you check here you can see that they appear to be wearing a white t-shirt).

3. A shadow just behind them moves independently of Haven, gestures a few times, and it appears - and police believe - that someone else is in the car with Haven Gray directing their movements.

Haven never arrived at the restaurant. When their friends attempted to contact them, the phone went directly to voicemail. This was very out of the ordinary for Haven, so friends called Maria and Matthew, who became immediately worried and contacted the police.

Haven Gray officially was listed as a missing person the next day.

Four days later, their car - with IDs, debit and credit card, a book they were reading, and their resume and list of questions from the interview all inside - was located at a nearby riverfront, abandoned. The only thing missing was the $300 in cash Haven had taken out of the ATM, and Haven themself.

A witness came forward later stating they had seen a man with ashy blond hair who appeared to be in his 40′s or 50′s smoking next to the car the day Haven was last seen. This man has never come forward or been located and his connection to Haven’s disappearance, if any, is unknown.

Law enforcement believes that Haven was abducted within half an hour of finishing their interview by someone who forced their way into the car, and likely directed to the ATM to take cash out and then met someone else or moved into a different car after parking Haven’s at the riverfront.

Weirdly, the riverfront was checked the day after Haven was declared missing, which suggests someone came back and moved the car after the witness saw the smoking man, then moved it back into place after the initial search of the area was over with.

Cell towers picked up pings from Haven’s phone for four hours afterward, heading due east. The nearest big city would have been Cincinnati, so it’s possible the abductor headed that direction. If they did, though, they took a winding route and Haven’s phone was turned off or discarded before reaching the city.

Look, I know this is a big conspiracy theory and there’s absolutely no proof, but I think Haven was abducted by WRU.

Why?

Three weeks prior to their disappearance, Haven attended a bar’s “singles night”. They mentioned to friends later that they connected with a man who worked for WRU as a handler, but then decided they couldn’t handle the reality of what he did and cut off contact before they could have their first real date.

(The handler in question has been cleared during the investigation, but I still have my suspicions)

I know this seems like the flimsiest reason, but Haven’s friends all say that the man was very upset by Haven’s discomfort with his job, tried to keep contacting them for days. I think the job interview is a red herring and it’s this handler guy who is behind it somehow - maybe him, or his friends.

Also, there’s a WRU Training Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio, only a few hours away... and law enforcement never even tried to get a warrant to search there. Easy way to get rid of someone if you did something to them, right?

(I know, I know, WRU has standards and does checks and all that, but seriously. Think about it.)

A year later, improbably, a farmer working to mow the ditch next to his fields found Haven’s cell phone in a ziploc inside a second plastic bag. The phone had been wiped to factory settings and no new useful information was found.

So, where is Haven Gray?

Were they murdered? Abducted? Will we find their body in a field one day? Were they just dumped in the river next to their abandoned car? Are they part of the WRU system now? No one seems to know, and reported sightings of them in Los Angeles, New York City, and even one mention from Sydney, Australia, seem hard to believe.

Haven’s mother Maria says they have no plans to declare Haven legally dead, and they intend to keep looking “as long as it takes”.

What Are Your Thoughts?

WRU NEW ACQUISITION INTAKE FORM FACILITY 005

SUBJECT: 549065

DATE OF ACQUISITION: 06.06.20XX

TIME OF ACQUISITION: 1:45 PM

LOCATION ASSIGNED: FACILITY 005, CINCINNATI, OHIO

PREVIOUS ALIAS: Haven Finley Gray

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH: 07.19.20XX

HAIR: Red

EYES: Gray

HEIGHT: 6′0″

WEIGHT: 153 lbs

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

DESIGNATION: Romantic

KNOWN SKILLS: Subject in school for business-related major, excellent with typing, record-keeping, work with Excel spreadsheets, etc. Subject reports regular workouts primarily consisting of long-distance cardio. Subject refused to provide details on sex life but is known to have been active in the dating scene of local area. Subject is known to be gregarious and social.

HOBBIES: Subject mentioned reading as a hobby, with primary interest in fantasy and science fiction. Three books located in subject’s car at time of acquisition.

KNOWN CONCERNS: Subject is showing some irregularities in heartrate, likely due to fear. No other known concerns.

KNOWN IMMEDIATE FAMILY: Matthew and Maria Gray, both living, location Trenton, Indiana. Grandparents are deceased.

SIBLINGS: Two younger siblings: Mark, brother, two years younger, and Penny, sister, four years younger.

METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Involuntary.

ACQUISITION DETAILS: Access to subject provided by local business. Subject was apprehended without incident by Handler Benjamin Ralford. Subject was given an injection of sedative and transferred to WRU company vehicle at 3:15 pm. The rest of the acquisition proceeded without incident.

ASSIGNED HANDLERS:

CONTRACT SIGNED: 06.09.20XX 5:55 PM

PRIMARY: Benjamin Ralford, per request, acting as primary. Handler and Processor, Romantic Division.

SECONDARY: Melissa Striker, Senior Handler and Processor, Romantic Division

SIGNATURE PROVIDED VOLUNTARILY, SUBJECT NOT SEDATED FOR SIGNING. SUBJECT SHOWED NO VISIBLE SIGNS OF INJURY AT TIME OF SIGNING. SUBJECT REPORTED FEELINGS OF FEAR AND CONFUSION COMMON TO NEW RECRUITS.

CONTRACT SIGNATURE: Haven Gray, aka 549065

PRESENT AT TIME OF SIGNING: Handler Benjamin Ralford, Badge #3345, WRU Attorney Ryan Alderson.

ESTIMATED COST FOR TRAINING: $125,000 USD

COMPENSATION TO BE PAID BY PROSPECTIVE: $500,000 USD

CURRENT LOCATION: Romantic Division Room #12, post-signing contract

TRAINING PLAN: ALL Positions 1-35, Flexibility, Sensitivity, Endurance, Dance, Socialization

COMMENTS:

I’m going to take every fucking thing out of that head and put back in only what I want to be there. I think they’ll fall in line once the Drip is really working on them. My professional recommendation is total illiteracy should be emphasized before moving on to other training. They’ll do better with focus and commitment on the skills we want to impart that way. I am also recommending absolutely no scarring unless there is no other option. - Benjamin Ralford, Primary Handler

Scribbled at the bottom of the paper and not put in to WRU’s digitized records system is a note in Ralford’s handwriting:

Should’ve gone on that fucking date, asshole

@astrobly @burtlederp @finder-of-rings @whump-tr0pes @raigash @orchidscript @doveotions @pretty-face-breaker @eatyourdamnpears @boxboysandotherwhump @vickytokio @whumpfigure @outofangband @downriver914 @justabitofwhump @thehopelessopus @butwhatifyouwrite @yet-another-heathen @nonsensical-whump

#epistolary #whump #horror fiction #epistolary fiction #going missing #captured #captivity #bbu #box boy #box boy universe #box buddy #nonbinary whumpee #allyn bb #wru intake form #wru intake paperwork #implied noncon #abduction tw #abducted whumpee

131 notes · View notes

wienerbarnes · 3 years

Text

Are You Growing?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (Cheek to Cheek) Word Count: 1,886 Warnings: mentions to alzheimers A/N: idk about yall but im loving posting about the earlier times w bucky n reader

MAIN MASTERLIST | CHEEK TO CHEEK MASTERLIST

You sit on Bucky’s couch, Alpine curled up in your lap, purring softly with closed eyes as you lightly scratch behind her ears.

Bucky’s sitting on the floor in front of you, in the place of where his coffee table used to be, which is now pushed into the corner for the time being. He rereads the instructions to put together his new bookshelf for the eleventh time now, still not understanding where exactly to put each screw.

You were no help to him, your first suggestion was to toss out the instructions and build to his heart’s desires; whatever felt right.

The last thing he needs, though, is for his bookshelf to collapse in the middle night and scare the shit out of him, so he tries his luck with the instructions.

He’s grateful for the ring of his cellphone, perhaps a break for a phone call will somehow make the instructions easier to read.

His stomach drops when he sees the caller ID as Rebecca’s retirement place. He pushes down his nausea and answers the phone.

“Hello? Is Rebecca okay?” He answers, quickly standing and moving to another room, not missing when your eyes look up at the sound of his sister’s name.

Is Rebecca okay? Did she hurt herself? Did she hurt one of the nurses? Is she dead?

“Hi, Bucky. Yes, Rebecca’s okay,” The receptionist Bucky’s gotten to know well responds, causing him to let out a sigh of relief, “She’s asking for you, is all. She’s… not eating. She didn’t touch her breakfast or lunch, she just keeps asking when you’re coming. I know you don’t normally come until tomorrow, but I promised her I’d call you.” She finishes explaining.

“Uhm… okay, okay. Tell her I got hung up at work and that I’ll be over as soon as I can.” He tells her, sparing a glance into the other room to see you peeking at the instructions on the ground.

“You’re amazing Bucky, thank you.” She responds, and all he does is hum through his anxiety before hanging up, returning to the living room where you sit.

You look up at him as if to ask if he is okay and he only stares back for a few seconds, thinking, before deciding, “Put your shoes on, we gotta go somewhere.” He tells you, voice still a little shaky from the scare of that phone call.

You don’t question it, recognizing that it’s probably not the time, and move to go grab your shoes by the door. Bucky silently pushes out air through his mouth, an attempt to calm himself down and get the nausea to go away. Rebecca’s okay, he reminds himself, she’s having a bad day, but she’s okay.

You’re worried at how quiet Bucky is and with how fast he speeds on his bike down a route you don’t really recognize. Finally, though, you see the sign in the distance, St. Francis Alzheimer’s Hospital, and you understand.

He parks the bike out front and turns it off, not yet moving, and you take off his helmet you’re wearing to get a better look at him. You say his name when you notice tears have gathered in his eyes; you’ve never seen him cry before.

“Sorry,” He wipes his eyes, “This shit is just so… exhausting. Everytime the phone rings, everytime I come here, I don’t know what I’m going to get, if she is okay.” He vents before letting out a long sigh.

You don’t know how to respond, choosing to rub his back as he composes himself. Bucky’s always been a tough rock; always knowing what to say, what to do, always knowing how to take care of everyone and how to solve everyone’s problems. You’ve never seen him so tired, so nervous before, and you see the toll doing this has taken on him.

Before you can say anything, he stands, “Let’s go.” He holds out a hand to help you off the bike and rests the helmet on the seat, knowing no one’s going to take it.

You follow quietly behind him as he enters and greets the receptionist, walking past the desk and down the hall. You feel out of place, not only here, in the retirement place Bucky’s sister lives at, but in public. You’ve barely left the apartment while you’ve been in hiding; you think this is the most amount of people you’ve been around in months.

Bucky approaches a door and knocks quietly before entering, “Hey, troublemaker,” He calls out, voice no longer strained or shaky as it’s been for the half hour, as though he flipped a switch to make himself normal again.

“Bucky!” You hear an excitement-filled elderly voice call out.

You enter to see her sitting on the bed, arms reaching out for Bucky to embrace him in a hug.

“Sorry, I’m late, I got caught up at the gym.” He tells her, hugging her back.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were at work, I just wanted to talk to you about the carnival, it’s coming this weekend.” You notice Bucky’s jaw clench for a second before loosening.

“It is, isn’t it. I’ll get Steve and we’ll all go together, I know how much you love the rides there.”

You linger by the door still, observing the interaction. How Bucky plays along so perfectly and so composed. You tense when you notice that Rebecca’s eyes have found you.

Bucky follows her gaze and snaps his head to you, “Becca, this is a friend of mine.”

You walk over and hold your hand out, giving your name, and she reaches out and accepts it, giving you a gentle smile, “A friend, huh?”

“Bec -”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, it’s really great to finally meet you.” You tell her.

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, too, I haven’t met one of Bucky’s friends in a while,”

“Rebecca -”

“Who was that floozy you brought home once, the one that Mama hated?” She teases Bucky, who now stands with arms crossed looking at you take a seat in the chair next to Rebecca’s bed.

“That was Madeline.”

“Madeline! My goodness, she didn’t last very long at all -”

“How about we talk about something other than my love life? Are you hungry, Bec?”

“A little bit.” She responds, and Bucky feels relief flood through his body. He nods and leaves the room to go fetch her lunch from one of the nurses.

“I love these flowers on your shirt.” Rebecca compliments, snapping your eyes away from the door Bucky exited out of and back to hers. They’re the same blue as Bucky’s.

You glance down at your shirt, one you thrifted with lilac’s all over them.

“Thank you, they’re, uh, lilacs. They symbolize growth. Like, change from ignorance to knowledge, innocence to wisdom, and all that.” You tell her.

She hums, “And are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Growing?”

You pause to think about it. Have you grown? Changed?

“Yes. I think so.” You respond.

“Well, then I’m happy for you.” She says sincerely.

You feel a knot swell in your throat at the validation, being greatly reminded of Bucky in that moment, and it’s then that he returns with a tray of food, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of juice.

Bucky places the tray on the small table that can swing over her bed, cutting the food on the plate for her small pieces, before moving to the fruit and juice, taking both lids off for her.

You watch as he takes gentle care in moving the tray closer to her, piling small pieces of food onto a spoon before feeding it to her.

She clears about half the plate before saying she’s full, which is more than enough for Bucky to be satisfied; it’s better than this morning.

Whatever problem there seemed to be this morning that caused Bucky to come over here in a rush is gone. To you, it was like his presence was the only thing she needed to feel better; it’s like there wasn’t anything wrong in the first place.

Soon enough, the two of you leave, with a promise from Bucky that he’ll see her tomorrow on Thursday and they’ll go to the carnival this weekend.

You don’t mention anything else about the visit to Bucky the entire way home, and choose to help him on the floor of his living room for the rest of the evening instead.

Thursday and Friday pass, and Bucky goes to Steve’s on Saturday.

“Remember that girl I told you about? The one I’ve sort of become friends with? That I’ve been looking out for?” Bucky stirs sugar into his coffee, his sweet tooth showing up more frequently since he’s been hanging out with you.

“I remember.” Steve says, sitting down next to him at his table with his own cup of coffee. Steve’s is decaf, though.

“I, uh… I took her to meet Rebecca.” Bucky doesn’t meet his eyes, waiting to see what his reaction will be.

“Oh?” Steve responds, setting his mug down and resting his aged hands on the table, paying all attention to Bucky now.

“There was a situation on Wednesday, Becca wasn’t eating and she was at my apartment -”

“At your apartment?”

“So, I just took her with me -”

“You haven’t even taken Sam to meet Rebecca.” Steve tells him, making Bucky stop.

He pauses for a moment before continuing, “When I saw Bec on Thursday, she remembered her.”

Steve’s head tilts, processing his words.

Bucky continues, “I went to go see Bec on Thursday, and she asked me about her, apparently they talked about some flowers and she wanted me to bring her some so she can see them in person. Asked when I was going to bring her to see her again.” He finishes explaining.

“Wow.” Is all Steve says.

“Rebecca… doesn’t remember anything. I mean she remembers me and you, but she barely remembers anything she and I talk about when I visit, barely remembers her kids. But she remembered talking about lilacs with this girl she’d never met before!” Bucky says, still in disbelief.

“...Must be something special about her.”

“Oh, don’t you start now, too.”

“Just saying. Maybe you should bring her here sometime.”

“Nah, I didn’t even plan to take her to see Becca. That was a risk all by itself, taking her out in public like that.” Bucky glances up to see Steve smirking at him with that stupid wrinkled mouth of his.

“Stop looking at me like that, would you, punk?!”

Steve chuckles, “She sounds like a sweet girl.”

“She’s my friend, Steve.”

“I didn’t say she wasn’t.”

“But you’re implying -”

“Implying what? What are you thinking?”

Bucky huffs and rolls his eyes, Steve twisting his words around, and he realizes he won’t escape this conversation without teasing.

“Whatever. She’s just a friend. If that. We just hang out sometimes, I help her do things that I had trouble with when I got out of HYDRA. I’m just around to help her.”

“Sure, pal. That’s nice of you.”

Bucky sighs, standing to go refill his coffee, and Steve smiles to himself, glad that Bucky’s met someone like you, and glad to see where it’ll inevitably lead, even if the two of you don’t see it yet.

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes onshot #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes fanfiction #marvel #lol dummy

98 notes · View notes

imagine-loki · 4 years

Text

Midnight Stroll

TITLE: MIDNIGHT STROLL

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: One Shot

AUTHOR: mooncat163

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine that you struggle with sleep walking, and one night you manage to get to Loki’s room. The next morning he wakes to find you snuggled against his back, and wonders how you ever got past the security spells he’d cast.

RATING: General

NOTES/WARNINGS: just fluffy stuff, sleepwalking

— —

You’ve been up for close to seventy-two hours straight, copying VHS surveillance tapes to digital in an attempt to isolate and identify players suspected of gearing up for a major weapons heist. Any attempts to make you rest before you collapsed were rebuffed: you were determined to complete the process and make positive ID’s as soon as you could.

“Hey.”

The greeting was soft so that you weren’t startled when Steve came up behind you. He glanced over the monitors before looking at you.

“Hey, Cap,” you replied, and turned your head slightly. “I’m almost done, just have about twelve hours left-“

“That's why I’m here,” he said. “You’ve been at it for close to three days, and you need to rest.”

“I’m good,” you protested. “Jarvis has already isolated footage for me, I just have to-“

“Rest,” he said, firmly. “Jarvis, bookmark where she’s at, but she’s not allowed to start again until she’s eaten and slept.”

“Yes, sir.”

“But I-“ You turned your chair to face Steve after the computer monitors went blank.

“No.” He urged you out of the chair and then ushered you from the room. “Tony agrees, and none of us want you to become overtired.”

You still wanted to protest, but there wasn’t any point in doing so. Jarvis wouldn’t allow you to access the files until Tony or Steve agreed to it, and there wasn’t a way to subvert the AI. You knew this because you’d tried several times, just to see if you could and to see how badly you could annoy Tony.

You had managed one small victory: you’d renamed some of his music files, so that instead of the heavy metal songs he liked to blare at random, Jarvis would end up playing teen bop songs. Tony didn’t talk to you for a week after that, although you could see by the gleam in his eyes that he was slightly impressed by the feat.

Computers had always been your ‘thing’, and you could set up networks and track down problems in record time. When you worked with the electronics, your mind visualized the connections and routes in schematic form, enabling you to pinpoint the failing areas. When it came to analyzing data, you could do so just as quickly.

Steve led you to the elevator, and the ride up to the Avengers’ level was made in silence, then his hand in the small of your back guided to the dining table, where the rest of the team sat.

“Glad you could join us,” Tony said, grinning when you cut your eyes at him.

You sat down across from Loki and Thor, then helped your plate with food as it was passed to you. You offered them both a tired smile, which Thor returned with a wink. Loki nodded, and although he didn’t smile, his green eyes were lit with amusement. A warmth spread through your veins, making it hard to look away from him, but you finally managed.

If only he wasn’t such eye candy, you thought. Or maybe such a snack...a tall, tall, snack…snack-a-licious…

You smothered a giggle that almost escaped, but then strangled on the sip of water you’d just taken. While you coughed into your napkin, Bucky tried to help by patting your back, but his strength knocked you forward enough where you almost face-planted into your plate.

“Bucky!”

“Sorry.”

You composed yourself while keeping your attention on your food. You weren’t very hungry, even though you’d subsisted only on coffee, protein snacks and candy over the last few days. As you began to eat, it became difficult to keep your eyes open. Now that you were still and quiet, the lack of sleep caught up with you fast. The others watched as your head began to drop lower and lower, until your fork clattered onto the plate as you fell asleep while sitting upright.

“Come on, sleepyhead.” Steve scooped you up and carried you to your apartment, where he put you to bed.

— —

Later that night, Tony was still in the common room when you padded quietly on bare feet into the kitchen. You went to the fridge and stared at its contents for several minutes before taking out a yogurt cup.

He watched as you shuffled to a drawer for a spoon, and he started to ask if you needed help when you struggled to open the yogurt, but you did manage to get the lid off after a couple of minutes.

“Are you alright?” He asked as you consumed the yogurt in four large spoonfuls.

You didn’t respond, just dropped the spoon into the sink, and the empty cup into the garbage, and left. Once back in your apartment, you crawled into bed, pulled up the covers and went back to sleep.

— —

Several hours later, Loki stirred from a deep sleep when something woke him. He listened for any movement in his apartment, but all was quiet. Something wasn’t right, though, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

He started to get up, but then realized what had disturbed him: a warmth against his back, along with a bare arm across his waist. To say that he was stunned would be an understatement, since neither should be there.

Loki carefully grasped his bedfellow’s wrist and raised it enough to try to determine who had invaded his space, and he didn’t need three guesses when he recognized the intruder’s bracelet.

Pixel.

He couldn’t help but think of you by the nickname that Tony had burdened you with due to your computer skills. None of that was important, however. What was important was why you were in his bed, and how you had managed to avoid the spells that he cast each night that would alert him to any intruders. It was a habit that he kept, even though it was unlikely that he’d be attacked in his own suite, and he felt a bit uneasy that you hadn’t triggered any of them.

Loki carefully shifted until he faced you, and the movement was enough to turn you on your back. He braced up on one elbow while he looked into your face, and recognized the exhaustion it reflected. He knew that you’d been working hard on the surveillance videos; too hard, it seemed. He frowned at that, and decided to speak to Stark about letting you stay awake for days on end, as it wasn’t necessary since Jarvis could easily help run comparisons.

“Hey, Pixel.”

He brushed hair out of your face before shaking you gently, but you didn’t stir. He tried again, with no success: you were dead to the world. He considered taking you back to your own bed, but an urge for mischief kept him from doing so. He rather wanted to see what your reaction would be come morning. So, he adjusted position slightly so that your head was pillowed on his arm, then he put the other arm across you and pulled you closer.

— —

Early the next morning, well before dawn, you awoke slowly to find that something was very, very wrong.

Your sheets were softer than you recalled, you were curled against someone’s side, with your head on their shoulder, and this someone had their arms around you. Slowly, carefully, you sat up, and the shock when you recognized your bedfellow had you turning toward the edge of the bed.

Loki.

Before you could disengage fully from his embrace, he turned with you, and drew you even closer to his chest, where he held you firmly. You laid still for a couple of minutes, not wanting to disturb him, hoping to escape before he woke. Then you carefully tried moving his arm from across your waist so that you could slide from beneath it.

“What’s the fuss, pet?” Loki asked, sleepily.

“Why are you in my room?”

“Your room?” You felt his smile against your temple.

“My room! And my bed!”

“Are you certain about that?”

Your brow furrowed in confusion while you slowly looked around, then your mouth fell open in astonishment when you realized where you were. Nope, not your room, but his.

“How did I get in here??”

“That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?” He asked, while burying his nose in your hair. “How you got in, and got past my security measures.”

“I don’t—wait, security measures? You mean booby traps?” You whispered, aghast.

He almost laughed aloud at that, and would have if your tone hadn’t been so horrified at the notion of triggering one of his spells.

“Don’t worry, Pixel, there isn’t anything that will cause lasting harm,” he chuckled. “So, first order of business: why did you come here?”

“I’m not...oh...cripes…” you rubbed your face with a groan.

“Yes?”

“I’m so sorry...I must have been sleepwalking.”

“Oh?”

“I haven’t done it in years, though...I guess being up for close to four days straight triggered it.”

“I see,” Loki mused over that for a moment. “But how did you get past my spells?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t,” you replied. “Are you sure they’re still intact...never mind, forget I asked.”

You’d backtracked on the question when his arm tightened slightly; you could imagine that his expression would remind you that he was a master sorcerer who was at least nine hundred years in age, and that he would know if his spells had failed.

“I should go,” you told him as you tried again to move his arm. “I’m very sorry for invading your space…”

“It’s early yet, why not stay?” He asked. “You’re delightfully warm.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I should.”

You were painfully aware that your gown’s thin straps left your arms and shoulders bare, and the hem only reached to your knees. There was no way that Loki hadn’t noticed it either, just as it hadn’t escaped your notice that his chest was bare. Thankfully, you could tell that he had on pajama bottoms. Thank God for small mercies.

“I was a perfect gentleman last night,” he commented. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” you replied, quickly. But do I trust myself?

Loki hummed softly before he ran his hand down your arm and changed your gown into one that covered you from your chin to your feet, and from your shoulders to your wrists. You were quite sure the thing would strangle you, since you were a restless sleeper.

“Geez, did you raid Steve’s grandmother’s closet??”

“Just trying to be helpful,” he replied with a chuckle, before he changed the gown again.

This time it was a green shirt with flowing sleeves, open neckline and a shorter hem which reached your knees. It wasn’t lost on you that he’d put you in his color.

“Better?” He asked.

“Yes, thank you,” you replied. “But I should go....”

He held you more firmly, and drew his legs up behind yours to trap you further. He was reluctant to let you go now that you were in his arms. He’d watched you for months now, slowly warming up since you treated him the same as anyone else, perhaps even better. He wasn’t sure how you’d managed to get under his skin, but he found himself wondering how it would feel to hold you, to kiss you...to have you.

When Loki refused to let you up, your heart began to race at the implications. Was he interested in you? Or just being mischievous because you had accidentally climbed into his bed? Either way, the proximity to his bare skin had you shaking; it wouldn’t take much for you to give in to his request.

“I’d like for you to stay,” he whispered, before he’d turned your face toward him.

When his lips found yours in a gentle kiss, your reticence flew out the window.

Yes, that did it.

#Submitted one shot #God of Mischief #Loki #Others #Lover #submission #mooncat163 #midnight stroll

170 notes · View notes

rosalynshields · 4 years

Text

The Soldier’s Chase

By: Rosalyn Shields

Pairing: Dark-ish Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: Kidnapping, Violence, Killing, Explicit language, Reluctance/Non-con, Unprotected sex, Breeding Kink, Oral Sex (female receiving), Vaginal Sex, Smut. I hope I didn't miss anything.

This is for JTargaryen18′s Haunted House 2020 Challenge

The Premise: A celebrity haunted house for charity will be open one night only, Halloween night. You spent days trying to get a ticket online for the event. Thanks to a bad day on Halloween, you get there only a minute before the line closes. You’re the last person to go in and thinking that’s either really bad (everyone is tired or would be in a hurry to see you out) or really good (maybe you’d get some extra time with the one you came to see).

You are never seen again.

While you are walking into the Haunted house... HYDRA is using Halloween to bring forth Captain America's Mate but it just so happens that the Avengers were attacking the base at the same time. You escape. Once Steve realized who they had... he immediately went on the hunt. The allure of having someone that is HIS and his alone is too tempting. So, you are in an alternate universe scared out of your mind in the woods being stalked by a predatory Captain America... who also happens to be a werewolf.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N

You were running late. This was particularly annoying as you were on your way to a haunted house event in your area. It's a one night only charity event that you had spent days online trying to get a ticket for. Once you heard that Chris Evans was going to be there dressed up as Captain America you had to get tickets. Steve Rogers is quite the weakness for you, and you couldn't resist seeing Chris Evans rockin' the Cap look.

Of course, everything had to go wrong today, normally you love Halloween but sadly you had to work that day. It has been the most stressful day filled with pointless meetings and small talk. You should’ve just taken the day off. From the moment you arrived you were running behind schedule which lasted all day. By the time you were finally able to leave work you were almost two hours behind your normal schedule.

This only left you two hours to get changed and drive the hour to the haunted house. You can only pray there wasn't a lot of traffic because while normally it didn't take long for you to get ready you wanted to be perfect. The Haunted house rules wouldn’t allow you to wear a costume which was a shame since you had a few amazing costumes that would have gone perfectly within the Marvel Cinematic Universe but you had a few things that would work in a pinch.

You could have gone with a 1940’s type of outfit that you knew would have made quite an impression on Steve Rogers. You figured that most of the other women who paid to see Captain America would go that route not thinking that you guys weren’t meeting the actual Steve Rogers. Who knows what was to Chris Evans’ taste? So. Instead, you decided to go with something similar to SHIELD Agent’s tactical outfit.

It wouldn’t scream costume and it made you feel sexy and badass and that's all that really mattered. Black long sleeve under armor shirt with a form fitting leather vest over it, black tactical pants and belt with black combat boots. If it had been a straight up costume you would have added a fully equipped utility belt and shoulder and hip holsters fully equipped with fake guns. Maybe you would have also sewed on a SHIELD patch or something as well.

It was all pretty easy to move in and it was both airy enough to keep you cool but heavy enough to keep warm if need be. Since it wasn’t a costume you settled for your normal outing stuff as you are a lone female heading to an event alone in the city. It was probably overkill but you packed a couple of knives, a combat knife in each boot and pepper spray in your left front pocket. Along with your ID, phone, keys and a couple of pens

Hopefully, they don’t have a metal detector because explaining why you have knives on your person would probably be difficult. They weren’t large knives, but people tend to get touchy over that sort of thing. It was all for self-defense, you were one of the few that got self-defense classes that included close quarter combat and weapons. All in all, you managed to get out on the road within 45 minutes but knowing your luck today traffic was going to be insane.

Traffic was insane. What would have normally been an hour drive max took almost an hour and a half. You managed to arrive at the Haunted House event minutes before they close the doors. It was pretty clear you were the last person there, which is either really bad because it's possible everyone is tired or in a hurry to see you out. Or really good and maybe you’d get some extra time with Chris Evans as Captain America. Swoon.

“You barely made it in time, I was about to close up.”

“Sorry, traffic was insane. Oh, here is my ticket.” you reply as you show your phone for the electronic ticket to be scanned.

“Ah, you got the Captain America package. Go ahead, you should be able to get some one-on-one time with Chris Evans.”

“Great. Thanks.” You replied, shoving your phone in your side pocket.

As you walk through the doors (thankfully no metal detectors) you start to look around, you can see each room of the Haunted House was carefully constructed for each celebrity and their special characters. You kind of grin as you spot Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes. If you had time you would stop by their rooms as well but for now you wanted to see the man you thought of as your Captain.

As you get closer to the Captain America room you could feel the anticipation rising, you had been looking forward to this since the first Captain America movie came out. You had always felt connected to Steve Rogers and you had no idea why. So, you resolved to meet Chris Evans and hopefully get over this strange obsession with Captain America. As you walk into the room your eyes widen as you take a look around.

It looks like a HYDRA facility that is in the process of being raided by the Avengers. You could see Chris Evans standing alone. He was leaning up against a control panel in his full Captain America gear causing your heart to skip a beat. As you started to walk closer to finally meet him you started to feel woozy. It was as if each step you took was being weighed down and your vision started to blur. As you reach Chris Evans darkness overtakes you.

Chris Evans' mouth drops open in shock as he watches the girl in black disappear before his eyes just as he took a few steps towards her so he could talk to her. He brings his hands up to rub at his eyes figuring it was just a figment of his imagination. The Halloween spirit messing with his mind. It isn't till the next day when he hears about Y/N Y/L/N missing from the Haunted House charity event from the night before on the news that he started to truly freak out.

~~~~~

An Alternate Universe

The doctor sighed deeply as he watched the last of equipment being set up. They had one shot at this, using a combination of science and magic to accomplish their goals. They are planning to use the magic of the full moon of All Hallows Eve plus the use of The Foster Theory which is portal technology to acquire an incredibly special person. A Mate. More accurately the Mate of Captain America. A Mate, a valuable asset. Once they have the Mate they can truly begin.

She would be the perfect undercover asset once they get her to comply. She would be the perfect subject to be brainwashed and secretly embedded within the Avengers. As a bonded Mated pair, they can have quite a bit of control over each other and not just emotionally. The Mate of Captain America under the control of HYDRA can accomplish much in HYDRA's name. First things first they need to bring her here, possibly through time and space.

It doesn’t matter from what time or from what country or dimension as long as they get her. They could not fail, they needed her for their plan to work. The doctor gives a self-satisfied smile as the last component is completed. All they have left to do is wait for the moon to be full. Then, they can flip the switch and say the words then she should appear. If she doesn't arrive then they have to wait another year for the perfect conditions to try again. The time has come.

The moon was full. The lead Agent walked up to the portal and nodded to the scientist. He started the scientific portion to make the portal and he proceeded to say the words that would focus the portal on the good Captain's Mate. At first the HYDRA scientists watched the alternate dimension taking notes on Subject M's world. Then the lead Agent gave another signal and they fine-tuned the portal to just their future asset.

They observed her long enough to realize where she was headed as they spotted him. She was about to meet with the Captain America of their world. They couldn't allow that to happen. They focused the portal again to get in as close as possible. The lead Agent nodded again at another agent. The new Agent prepared to grab Subject M once the portal was close enough. As she got closer to Captain America, they could see her clearly feeling the effects of the portal.

Once she was about 5 feet away from Captain America the unknown Agent's hand shot out. It went through the portal and grabbed the girl just as she fainted backwards. She fell back into the portal landing right into the waiting Agent's arms. They succeeded. All their planning and preparing. They succeeded! They brought Captain America's Mate from another dimension. Now all they had to do is prepare for Subject M to wake up so they may begin their good work.

Perhaps, she would be cooperative, but it was unlikely that the Mate of Captain America would be willing to follow HYDRA's plans. But with brainwashing much could be accomplished. Y/N woke up completely disoriented and confused with her head pounding. He hands went straight to her pounding head refusing to open her eyes. The last thing she remembered was seeing the handsome face of Chris Evans before nothing. Did she faint?

She didn't even get to meet Chris! The thought that perhaps he was still around you caused you to gingerly open your eyes. You winced as you took in the bright lights. Well, it looked as though you were still in the Haunted House. More specifically in the HYDRA base looking room. Which meant Chris Evans could still be there. You couldn't believe you fainted. You stop your rambling thoughts as you finally take note of your surroundings.

Your eyes narrow as you finally notice the dozen men and women surrounding you all wearing the HYDRA uniform. You also noticed the hard examination table you were laying on with distaste. What the fuck? You thought.

"Ah, Subject M. You are awake. Thankfully, the interdimensional travel didn't knock you out for long."

"Wow, you guys are really playing up the whole HYDRA costume. Also, my name is Y/N, Y/N Y/L/N." You informed him sitting up. You were amused and impressed at their dedication to their costumed personas.

"Ah, Miss Y/L/N. I have some bad news. We are not playing it up as you so eloquently stated."

"What?" You asked. You were very confused.

"You are in fact here because we brought you here."

"Okay… where exactly is here then?"

"You are in HYDRA facility 7-5 Alpha but to be more direct you are actually in an alternate universe.

"In an alternate universe? You are fucking with me, right?"

"No. I am in fact not fucking with you," the HYDRA goon replied mockingly.

He then made a hand gesture to another Agent who started up a machine. A portal opened up. You gasped as the portal proceeded to show you Chris Evans frantically looking around before rubbing his eyes as the Haunted House closed. You could see the clear differences between the Haunted House room and this one. There, you could tell the HYDRA Base's so-called equipment was fake.

"Why am I here?" You asked.

It was vastly different from where you were now. Everything was real, the equipment, the portal. Everything. You swallowed the lump of fear as you shifted your legs. You moved both of your feet slightly. It was a very natural movement that looked like you were just shifting around or twitching. You noted the feel of the knives that were still in your boots. They didn't pat you down, they just laid you on the examination table.

"We have brought you here from your universe as you are the Mate of a high-profile target."

"Mate… what the fuck are you talking about?" You exclaimed.

"Ah, you must not have Mate's in your world.

"No, HYDRA dick face. We do NOT have Mate's in my world."

"Subject M, you will show some respect, or you will be punished as needed." He growled waiting for acknowledgement at your nod he continued.

"What do you know of werewolves?"

"That they don't exist… They are fictional beings that can typically transform into wolves. They have supernatural strength and healing factors. Depending on the lore they can have special powers. It would be really fascinating except they do NOT exist."

"In our world, werewolves exist. You Mate is one of the most powerful werewolves in our world and you my darling girl is his mate. His true mate.”

“His Mate? His true Mate? I don’t understand.”

"In our world a Mate is precious. Your perfect match in every way. Your mate can influence almost everything about you. You would do anything for your Mate. Mate bonds cannot be broken."

“How could I possibly be someone’s Mate? I’m not a werewolf.”

“In your world? No. In ours? Perhaps. Perhaps not." The goon shrugs.

"No matter, you are his Mate my dear and we have you. You will be our most valuable asset. Once you are prepared you will be given to your mate then you two will bond and then HYDRA’s plans will begin.”

"So, who the fuck is my high-profile target of a Mate?" You ask, making sure to bring your hands up to mimic quotations around the word Mate.

This is fucking bullshit. Sounds like they intend on giving me to some random guy to basically be raped to cement this Mating bond so they can control him through me.

"Why, you were already on the way to see him in your world. His name is Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America."

"Captain America?!? Captain America is a werewolf?" You exclaim just as a huge explosion goes off shaking the base.

"Sir, the Avengers have infiltrated the base."

"Agent 37, take Subject M out of here. Take her to safe house 9-3-5 Charlie. They must not retrieve her."

"Yes, sir." Agent 37 replied before grabbing your arm to lead you out of the base. His grip was tight as he started to drag you through the halls. You could feel the walls shake with each explosion as they got closer. You don't know much about this world, but you had to escape. You do not want anything to do with the so-called unbreakable Mate bond.

While you don’t exactly mind the idea of fucking Steve Rogers you had to get back to your world. You doubted he’d ever let you leave. Another explosion rocked the base causing the agent to lose his grip on your arm. You acted fast. You bent down to grab both knives from your boots before lunging forward in one fluid motion stabbing the agent with both knives. The wall behind you exploded giving you a way out straight into a forest.

Shoving your knives back into your boots you ran.

~~~~~

The Avengers

The fight was brutal as HYDRA agents fought in mass doing everything, they could delay the Avengers. After a while Iron man and Captain America made it to the Control Room. Iron Man focused on taking out the HYDRA agents as Captain America was trying to protect the main console. He was still rusty on most modern technology, but they seemed hell bent on trying to destroy this particular equipment. It didn't take long for the final agent to go down.

"Guys, as soon as you're done clearing the place head towards our position. I'm going to go through their tech and hopefully I'll have some information by the time you're done."

Steve watches as Tony steps out of the Iron Man suit and starts to work on the slightly mangled console. Steve managed to keep the damage to a minimum when the scientists tried to destroy it, but it still had sustained some damage. Steve kept watch as Tony worked with his shield at the ready. They had cleared most of the base but there could still be HYDRA Agents out there waiting to ambush them.

It took Tony a little while to properly hack into the HYDRA network as some of the more sensitive components were destroyed in the struggle. Tony gasps in shock as he reads some of the doctor’s notes and starts to frantically look for the digital recordings that the doctor referenced. He didn’t want to tell Steve what they were up to until he could verify if they managed it or not. IF they managed it, he needs to know what happened to her, to Subject M.

“What are we looking at Tony? What were they trying to accomplish?"

“Steve. You need to look at this.” Tony tells Steve with a note of urgency in his voice.

"What is it Tony?“ Steve asked. He then proceeded to put his shield back onto his back harness.

"Tony, what's going on?" Natasha asked as she walked into the room followed by Clint.

“From the looks of things, they were trying to bring someone over from what looks like another dimension."

"Another dimension?" Clint asked.

"How is that even possible?" Natasha asked.

"They were using a combination of The Foster Theory and for lack of a better term magic."

"The use of dimensional energy similar to the Bifrost plus an added magic celestial event…" Thor started.

"Such as a full moon on All Hallows Eve?" Clint asked.

"I know not of this All Hallows Eve, but a full moon would suffice as a celestial event."

"So, it's possible?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, it's possible." Thor informed the group.

"Who were they-" Steve started before shaking his head and continued, "-did they manage it?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out but… Fuck. Looks like they managed it. Fuck."

"What is it Tony? Did they bring back the Red Skull, Hitler or something?"

"No. Maybe it's better to watch the surveillance footage as I try to explain."

"Explain what? Friend Tony." Thor asked as he landed softly in the large room.

"Before I have you guys look at this surveillance footage Steve you need to know… "

"Know what? Tony?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, Tony. You are starting to scare us."

"Keep in mind she came from another dimension…"

"Tony cut to the chase, you're stalling."

"Steve, looks like they found your mate. Your perfect mate and brought her here from another dimension."

"What?!?" Everyone exclaimed.

Steve stood there in shocked silence as he took it in. His Mate. His. Mate. His Mate. He just couldn't believe it. His Mate, who is from another dimension. He had to find her. He needs her. She would complete him. She would be the missing piece. His missing piece. The one thing that is his and his alone. He needed her. He needed the bond. They had to bond. A werewolf without a Mate is a loose cannon, the Mate-bond will stabilize him in every way he needs.

He couldn’t wait to have her in his arms. To bond. To cover her in his scent and be bathed in her scent. To be inside her, to fill her up. He was going to fuck her until she was covered in nothing but his scent and cum. He couldn’t wait to taste her and have his face covered in her juices. He bets she tastes delicious. He was going to fuck her so hard and so good that she’ll never think of leaving him.

"Show us the surveillance footage Tony. If they managed to bring her here. Where is she?" Natasha asked. Tony nodded before starting the security footage.

They all watched silently as the HYDRA soldier adjusted a machine and said some words before a portal opened. Tony made sure to take mental notes of this alternate universe that Steve's mate came from. They needed to know as much as they could especially if she wanted to go back. The HYDRA Agents did some fine tuning of the console causing the picture to change within the portal and a female came within view.

They all assumed that she must have been Steve's Mate. Steve's Mate walked into what looked like a Haunted House. The portal was adjusted again and they all silently watched as she walked through several exhibits. Tony found it fascinating as he spotted a few movie characters for their world as well. They all gasped in surprise as they spotted a man that looked exactly like Steve. Right before she was yanked through the portal into their world.

They noted her name as they watched the brief conversation between the head HYDRA goon and Miss Y/L/N. As the Goon explained the concept of Mate's they looked at Steve with concern as they realized his Mate had no idea. Werewolves and Mate's do not exist in her world. Which meant she could easily reject him. Once they saw the attack begin a new Agent grabbed Y/N and practically dragged her out of the room. They all looked towards Tony.

"Is there any more security footage?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, I tracked her through the halls with Agent 37." Tony replies bringing up the footage.

They watch silently as the explosion takes out a wall near them causing Agent 37 to lose Y/N's arm. They gasp in shock as Y/N suddenly reaches down to grab two knives hidden in her boots. Natasha is particularly impressed at the fluid motion Y/N uses as she quickly stabs the goon with both knives. Finally, the wall behind her explodes and she makes her escape before any of the Avengers could rescue her. Self-saving princess for the win.

“How long ago was this footage?”

“About 10 minutes.”

"We need to find her." Clint exclaimed watching Steve. He could tell that Steve was on edge as he kept shifted backwards towards the table his Mate was laying on.

He was the only one close enough to hear the low possessive growl Steve released when he saw his Mate walking towards his doppelganger in the security footage. Clint also heard the barely audible whimper Steve released at Y/N confusion and distaste at the concept of Mate's. Now, Steve kept taking deep breaths, holding it before releasing them. If he’s not careful he’ll go into a rut. Once Steve saw Agent 37 grab Y/N’s hand Steve snarled in rage.

No one touches his Mate. No one.

"Mine." Steve growled before bolting.

“Shit.”

"So, who's going after him?" Tony asks the group.

"Fuck you Stark. An Alpha Werewolf in a rut induced rage after his Mate. No thank you."

"He can contact us when he's ready for pick up. It's best not to get in his way." Natasha says calmly.

"I feel bad for anyone that gets in their way."

"I don't." Natasha says simply.

Steve took off at a full sprint down the hall and out towards the crumbling wall his Mate left through using his enhanced senses to follow her. Steve could feel the beginnings of the shift as he lost a bit of his iron tight control, he couldn’t help it. His wolf was very possessive over his Mate. He needed her. He stopped briefly at the body that had his Mate’s scent, he wanted to make sure he was dead and not just incapacitated.

Thankfully, he was dead. His Mate took care of him. She’s perfect. He needed to get to his Mate. She was his. He was going to kill anyone that tries to get in between them. She is perfect. No one could have her but him. He would make her accept him. She will mate with him. He will make her scream HIS name. He will drown her in pleasure. She will bear his young. She is going to be the most perfect mate.

~~~~~

Y/N

You ran. You could hear the soldiers behind you, they probably found the Agent you killed. You were sure they were looking for you, they needed you. You stop briefly to catch your breath leaning up against a tree. You can see the moon through the tree line, making you feel weirdly aggressive. You needed to be smart. You can't outrun them forever. They will find you. You could hear them moving through the woods. They were loud, not even trying to be stealthy.

"Now, now. Miss Y/L/N we know you are close by. You have a very distinctive life signature as you aren't a part of this universe. We can always find you." That just means you have nothing to lose you thought.

You heard one of the soldiers as he got closer to your position. You still. You grab one of your knives hiding it in the folds of your pants. As the soldier passes you hesitated, before this night you had never killed anyone before. But you are in a different dimension being hunted by HYDRA and probably the Avengers. With that thought you silently step behind one of the soldiers, walking behind him a few steps completely silent.

It was strange, normally you were loud as an elephant in the woods especially in the fall with all the dead leaves. You shake off the lingering thoughts before grabbing your target. One hand went over his mouth the other that had the knife went straight into his neck. He died quickly and silently before you gently put him down. Another strange thing, you were a hell of a lot stronger in this universe. Those HYDRA men especially in all that gear shouldn't be light but they were.

You shrug off all lingering thoughts of your newfound strength and take out two other HYDRA goons. All in the same manner of sneaking up behind them to kill them silently. You could feel your arms covered in blood. You were getting ready to take out your next goon before you heard screams. You doubled back to the last goon you killed and picked up his screams. You should have done this sooner instead of stalking the men one by one.

"Captain America is in the woods. I repeat Captain Amer-" You hear before the voice is suddenly cut off with a gurgle. Clearly Captain America found him.

"Listen up men, the Captain is in play and is looking for his Mate…."

"Mine," he growled.

The Captain's voice is deep and full of rage that you could clearly hear through the transmission. He interrupted what was sure to be the Commander's rousing speech. It isn't long before you start to hear screams and gunfire echoing all around the woods. You had been killing the HYDRA goons silently as possible to not be detected, Captain America on the other hand was making quite the ruckus.

It sounded like he was ripping them to shreds with all the noise they made. You look around frantically. There wasn't really any place that you could hide but you needed to find something. If he had heightened senses, he might not be able to find you with all the death and blood in the air. You considered covering yourself in more blood or maybe hiding under a corpse. There were a few of them around. You shuddered in horror.

The idea of hiding under a dead body freaked you out too much. Before you can find an adequate hiding spot the screaming suddenly stopped. It was quiet. Too quiet. Eerily quiet. He was coming. There's a very good chance he killed everyone and was coming for you. You started to frantically look around. You need to hide as soon as possible. You dive into some dense bushes burrowing yourself as deep as possible.

You suddenly started to hear rustling nearby causing you to freeze in fear while studying your surroundings. It was like he just suddenly just appeared out of the woods. He didn't make a sound. The moon gave you a clear picture of him, of Captain America. He was covered from his head to toes in blood and gore. He must have killed everyone, anyone that got in his way based on the amount of blood on his body.

"Mate." Steve growled taking off his helmet, dropping it to the floor while he sniffed the air. He knew she was nearby.

It was hard due to the amount of blood and gore on his body, but he could smell his Mate faintly. He had lost complete control when he heard the HYDRA Commander threaten his Mate. He shifted partly allowing his claws and fangs to come out before methodically killing each and every HYDRA goon that got in his way. He knew he must have been a sight to her, but he could also smell the blood on her.

They both had fresh kills on them. She smelled amazing. It was strange, the fresh blood only made her more tempting. It would be hard not to completely lose control when he finally mates her. As it was, his control was hanging on by a thread. He knew she was nearby, hiding. He took in another deep breath before going still. He found her.

You could feel every beat of your heart as it goes faster and faster in fear and slight arousal. You weren't sure why but when you shifted you could feel how wet your panties were. For some reason there was a part of you that enjoyed being stalked and chased. Also, the idea of him killing everyone in his way in order to get to you as soon as possible had you unreasonably wet. Clearly there was something about this universe that had you reacting oddly.

"Gotcha." Steve breathed in your ear from behind you. You jumped screaming as he grabbed you. He pulled you out from your hiding spot.

"Oh my God.”

“Mate“ Steve starts to run his blood-soaked face against yours.

“What are you doing?" You ask weirded out.

"Scent marking." Steve states simply before grabbing your blood-soaked hands and rubbing them along his face. You cringe away as you notice his claws, you face showing your distaste.

"What... What's going on?" You ask before grabbing his face to look him in the eyes noting the fangs. His eyes are blown in lust and need.

"You are mine. My Mate." Steve simply states before grabbing your face.

"I'm not your Mate. I'm not even from this world. Or dimension or whatever that HYDRA dick said."

"You are mine." Is all he says as he rubs his head alongside yours, giving you a blast of his personal scent.

"Please just let me go." You whimper trying not to breath in, his scent is wonderful.

"I can't." Steve simply states as he starts to rub his body against yours.

You can feel his erection straining against his tactical pants. You are trying to hold your breath which wasn't exactly easy to do when you wanted to hyperventilate. Every time you breathed in Steve's scent you could feel your head getting cloudy. Your body would start to produce more wetness and you needed to think. This caused you to let out an aggressive growl which Steve instantly answered back with a slight whine at the end.

"No."

Something inside of you, some kind of switch clicked on as you suddenly went from passive to aggressive. You started to fight. Kicking, screaming and hitting every inch of him you can reach. While he tried to restrain you, his arms went around your middle restricting your arms movement. Your hands went down towards where your knives were hidden. Grabbing one knife you flip it in your hand and stab backwards, your range limited due to his hold on you.

You manage to startle him enough to let you go but not injure him. You use the knife to keep him at bay slashing at him every time he attempted to get close. You see his eyes narrow before he hits your hand hard. This caused you to let go of the knife, it flew away from you both. You had one knife left.

You didn't hesitate. You ran.

~~~~~

Steve and Y/N

You ran. You used up a lot of energy and you had some issues breathing especially when you breathed in Steve’s tantalizing scent. You could feel him running after you, you were amazed that he hadn't caught up with you already. Something about this world has made you more than what you were before. You felt energized, like you could run forever when before you would have died after a half a mile. But you weren't a super soldier.

“What’s wrong sweetheart? Have I not earned you? Do you know how many people I killed to get to you? To protect you?” Steve asks. He was running right next to you clearly keeping pace with ease.

"Ahhh!" You screamed coming to a complete stop.

"Son of a bitch." You started to pant out of breath. God you hated running.

"Language. Sweetheart."

“Fuck you. You don’t know me."

"I know enough, my love. My Mate." Steve tells you before bringing you close, giving you a blast of his personal scent. You try not to breathe in as deep as you wanted.

"I. Am. NOT. Your. Mate." You bite out. His scent was clouding your mind.

"Stop. Saying. THAT." Steve growled. He was getting pissed off at your lack of compliance. You. Were. HIS!

Your eyes go wide at his tone. You could see him losing more of himself. His eyes flashed gold and his fangs grew larger. He was starting to lose control. You had to do something. You just didn't know what. Perhaps, it would be better just to humor him. You didn't want him to lose complete control and hurt you. Plus, you still had one knife left, you just had to get close enough if you were going to use it.

"Sorry, Captain Rogers." You tell him. His demeanor changes instantly.

"It’s Steve, sweetheart.” Steve practically purrs at you.

“Steve. You know I'm from another universe. I don't understand what it means to be someone's Mate.”

“It's okay sweetheart. I will teach you. Let me show you what it means to be Mates." Steve tells you before gathering you into his arms.

He breathed in deeply taking in your scent, holding you gently as you fought not to jerk in his arms. You squirm a bit as he rubs his blood-soaked body up against yours. He seemed very intent on rubbing as much of his bloody body up against yours. His body was firm all over and oh so very hard. It was hard not to marvel at how good he felt against your body. You could feel the blood and gore getting transferred over to your body.

It was gross. Steve could sense your disgust and resolved to distract you as he needed to get as much of his scent on you as possible. He started with gentle kisses that he rained down over your cheek, jaw, neck moving your hair out of the way as needed. You took in a deep breath as you tried not to moan causing you to take in the full effect of Steve's scent. It was like a drug the more you smelled him the more you wanted to smell him.

Fact was, you just wanted him. Period. You didn't stop Steve as he slowly unzipped the leather vest. His scent drugging you into compliance. Steve drops your vest to the ground as he gently bites your neck. You let out a moan so soft that Steve's enhanced hearing barely picked up on it. The sound of your moan caused him to smirk widely into your neck. He was getting to you. Your neck has always been a weakness for you.

Steve seemed to be focused on the right side of your neck giving that area lavishing kisses, licks and bites. With his scent in your nose it was hard not to gasp and moan. You did manage to notice that Steve kept going back to a specific area of your neck. It was strange. Steve noticed your attention and decided to distract you with a deep kiss. You gasped as you felt his tongue slide into your mouth.

First you pushed at Steve's unyielding body, but it had zero results. Steve refused to move an inch away from your body. Steve grabbed the back of your head keeping it in place as he plundered your mouth. Your hands originally came up to fight him but as he kissed you... Your hands came up and wrapped them around his neck instead. One of your hands grabbed onto his shoulder and the other went straight into his hair.

Steve pressed one of his thighs between yours bringing it up to rub against your core inflaming you more. The hand in his hair tightened as you suddenly yanked his head to the right. You momentarily lost complete control and bit his lip hard as you rubbed yourself wantonly against him. Steve let out a loud growl in response before moving his mouth from your lips to your neck. You loudly moaned as his huge hand slid underneath your shirt and under your bra. He gently fondled your breasts, teasing your nipples with the rough pads of his fingers.

"My beautiful Mate. I can't wait to taste you. Too feel you. To finally be inside you. You are all mine." The sound of his voice snaps you out of your lust induced trance. You stiffen up in panic, grabbing Steve's hands moving them out of your shirt.

"No, please. You need to let me go. I have to go back to my world." Steve growled loudly in displeasure before grabbing you roughly.

"No. You are MINE. You know you want this. You want me. I am your Mate. We are meant to be together."

You started to struggle. Steve growled at you in warning before gathering both of your hands into one of his. He then walked backwards until your back was pressed into a tree. Steve rocked his body into yours briefly grinding his pelvis against your hip. You could feel every inch of his rock-hard cock pressing against you. You bit your lip trying not to react. Steve then shifted bringing his thigh up and between your legs pressing right into your pussy hard.

"Steve!" You yelped. The friction hit you just right causing you to moan loudly. You were close.

Your eyes flashed gold briefly before closing tightly. Steve grinned. He knew what gold eyes could mean but it wasn't a sure thing. Yet. So he proceeded. He needed to make you cum. First will be on his thigh, then on his fingers, then his mouth and finally all over his cock. Then he will claim you. You will be his. He grabbed your rips rocking you onto his thigh. You squirmed when his other hand started to roam down your body.

His hand slipped into your pants causing him to growl low and deep as he felt how damp the lace crotch of your panties already was. His eyes flashed gold as his wolf started to battle for control. He needed to claim you soon. Steve rubbed your panties causing you to whimper. He made sure to get his fingers good and wet before taking his hand out of your pants. He brought his fingers up to show you how wet you were.

“See how much you want me?” Steve asked gently as he let go of your hands cupping your face briefly.

He gave you a soft brief kiss before bringing his hand up. Steve put his fingers into his mouth sucking your juices off his fingers. He moaned loudly at your taste. He loved how you tasted just as he knew he would. He couldn't wait to drink your juices straight from the source. He gently grabbed your hips before starting to rock you back and forth on his thigh. You arch your back in pleasure as your back hit the tree hard.

You try to rub yourself against him looking for the right angle in order to reach your peak. You needed to cum. You needed it. So bad. Your hands grip Steve's shirt bringing him in closer, you no longer cared about the blood or gore. He wrapped his arms around you bringing you up to his lips giving you a deep probing kiss. Before shoving one of his hands into your hair pulling it just enough.

"Steve!" You scream cumming as all over Steve's thigh drenching his pants.

You felt boneless and lax the orgasm taking the fight out of you. Steve on the other hand didn't waste any time. He took off your under-armor shirt tossing it on to the forest floor. He briefly admired your black lacy bra before his desires overtook him again. His mouth went down to lick the tops of your cleavage before sucking your nipples through the bra. It didn't take long for him to get fed up and literally rip the bra from your body tossing the pieces.

You moaned your head falling back into the tree as you felt his mouth and hand move simultaneously. Steve wrapped his lips around your nipple while sliding his hand back into your pants completely bypassing your underwear. Steve moaned against you, as you were so wet and so fucking tight. It was only one finger! He spread your legs a bit before sliding two fingers inside you. His fingers curled up hitting a spot that had you withering.

"That's it sweetheart. Cum. Cum all over my fingers." Steve demanded as you whimpered.

Steve's thumb started to rub your clit while gliding his fingers in and out of your pussy. You screamed as you exploded in pleasure cumming HARD before going limp as your legs failed you. Steve managed to grab you before you fell to the floor. He picked you up gently before moving you to a soft pile of leaves. Steve grabbed the top of your pants before pulling hard.

RIIIIIPPPPP

His super soldier strength made quick work of your pants shredding them. They were shredded in half from the top of your hips to your knees rendering them completely useless. Steve didn't bother to stop to admire your matching black lacy panties before ripping them off. Turning them to scraps. He needed to taste you. NOW. Steve frantically licked and sucked down your body wedging himself in between your legs.

“Want to taste you. Wanna taste what’s mine.” He whispered.

He lowered his mouth to your pussy and licked a stripe from the bottom of your pussy to your clit. Your body arched up against him in pleasure. Your hands went into Steve's hair as he growled low and deep in your pussy. He loved your taste. Steve moved both his hands to your inner thighs, spreading your pussy lips with his thumbs. He dives right in, licking and sucking at your wetness.

"You taste so good baby." Steve murmurs looking up at you. His face was covered in your pussy juice. He dived right back in groaning and growling at your taste. The wet squelching noises were obscene as he tongue fucked you deep. It felt amazing. You were almost there, your orgasm was so close you could practically taste it.

"Please…"

~~~~~

Losing control

"Please, what? Sweetheart. Use your words."

"Steve, please make me cum."

"My sweet little Mate wanna cum? Cum all over my mouth sweetheart. Gush all over my face."

You shudder, Steve's dirty talk bringing you closer and closer to the edge. Steve held your hips in a vice grip and started lapping at your clit with his tongue. Your hands tightened in Steve's hair pushing his head down and rubbing his face all over your pussy lips when he started to suck your clit. You tensed up as waves and waves of pleasure hit you sending you over the edge. You gushed all over Steve's face covering it with your juices.

Steve kept licking and sucking you through your orgasm bringing you down from you high as you pussy started to get sensitive. Steve considered keeping it up and making you cum all over his face again but he needed to be inside you. He needed to feel your tight little pussy wrapped around his cock. You looked at Steve's face covered with your juices and his hair sticking up every which way from you gripping him and grinned. He looked wrecked.

"Stevie." You shoved your hands back into Steve's hair before pulling. You forcefully brought him back up to face level by his hair. You playfully licked his nose before rubbing your face against his affectionately.

Steve grinned. It was clear orgasms were making you more affectionate. It was also bringing out your wolf tendencies as you were currently scent marking him. Steve grabbed your face with both hands before bringing you in for a long and messy kiss. You felt boneless as you kissed him back tasting yourself on him. Steve's right hand started gliding down your body feeling every inch of your curves.

As he reached your pussy Steve gently slid two fingers inside you. He started scissoring his fingers to help stretch you out. After a bit Steve pulled his fingers out of you shushing your whine of displeasure. He backed up a little bit going to his tac pants trying to get the stiff material to release him. Finally, he grabbed at the crotch of his tac pants and pulled. He ripped just enough for him to pull his cock free, he didn't bother to take anything else off.

"Shit. Wait, Steve. We can't." You tell him as you take a good look at his cock. It was huge and thick. And oh so hard.

"Can. Must. Mate." Steve grunts out as he strokes his shaft a few times. His control was barely holding on, he didn't want to hurt you by accident.

You start to struggle. You didn't know what would happen if you and Steve had full penetration intercourse. For all you knew it could bind you to him forever. Who knew if you could ever be returned to your world? The separation might kill you both, you just didn't know enough. Steve grabbed both your wrists gently pinning them above your head. His other hand went to his cock slowly rubbing it against your soaking slit.

"Stop. Steve, you need to stop. We don't know what this will do."

"No. Mate. Need." Steve shook his head. He dipped his cock in slightly but never fully sheathed himself just making sure to get his cock good and wet with your juices.

"Steve, please." You weren't really sure what you were asking for. For him to stop. For him to fuck you. You really didn't know.

"Please what, baby?" He wanted you to say it but either way it wasn't going fucking stop him. He needed you.

"Please, Steve. Fuck me."

Your thighs shook hard as he reached down to line himself up with your entrance and he began to push in. He sank into you slowly stretching your pussy as he fed you every inch of his cock. Steve brought his mouth down to your neck kissing and licking as much as he could. He never stopped or paused until his hips were finally flush against yours. You felt so full, completely stuffed to the brim.

"So tight. God, sweetheart. You feel… god never felt…. You were made for me." Steve manages to get out.

"I'm going to make you feel so good, my Mate."

Steve started slowly at first, almost pulling out completely before gradually pushing back in. You had never felt so full as his cock kept hitting places deep inside you. It felt so amazing. You started to rock your hips back against him. Steve let go of your hands as you wrapped your legs tight around his waist. Steve started to pick up the pace.

"That's right my Mate, you are going to cum. You are going to cum all over my rock-hard cock. I'm going to keep fucking you. Then my good girl is going to come for me again… aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes… Steeeevvee…" Within seconds of your answer, your body seized up in a rush of pleasure cumming all over his dick.

"I can. Do. This. All. Day." Steve tells you. Each word being emphasized with a thrust.

"Fuck!" You scream cumming again.

Steve continued to fuck you while you gasped, writhed and moaned, completely mindless beneath him. He continued on and on as you kept feeling that rush of pleasure again and again. You lost count of the amount of orgasms Steve gave you as you just keep cumming and cumming all over Steve's cock. You could feel your body getting ready to tighten around him again as he wrapped his body around yours.

"That's it, baby girl. I'm going to cum all inside you."

"Ste…" You couldn't answer. You were too overwhelmed. You were somewhat aware that his thrusts were coming harder and faster.

"Are you a good girl? You want me to fill you all up inside?" Steve asked. This caused you to whimper in response as your cunt clenched Steve's cock at the thought.

"Do you want your Mate's cum all deep inside your well used cunt?" Steve knew he was getting close. He knew he needed to cement the Mating Bond between the two of you.

"Yes."

"Yes, what my Mate. Tell me. What do you want?"

"I want your cum. Please cum inside me."

"Cum inside you what?"

"Please cum inside me, Steve. My... Mate." You get out between clenched lips.

Admitting that you were his Mate caused Steve to lose complete control. He thrusted hard and deep causing you to cum instantly. He needed to cum inside you and make you his. He needed to fill you up with his cum. He needed you to smell of nothing but him. His was going to fill you to the brim over and over again until he impregnated you with his young. He couldn’t wait to see you swell up with his cub. You were his.

Steve brought his mouth down to your neck as he cried out above you. Licking your Mating gland before biting down his fangs piercing your skin easily. Steve jerked into you hard cumming deep inside you. At the same time, your head instinctively met Steve's neck and bit down. You both felt a jolt of pleasure as the bond snapped into place. This caused you both to orgasm again simultaneously.

"Mine." Steve told you. You could feel him. He could feel you as well.

"Mine." You agreed. You could feel Steve's feelings and thoughts just as he could feel yours.

You could feel his reluctance to leave your body and his desire. He could feel your blissed-out state and your confusion as you have no idea what to expect from a Mate bond. Steve reluctantly pulled out the sting of his thick cock leaving your body caused you to wince. You can feel the trickle of cum dripping out of your well used pussy. It was open wide from his thick cock and leaving wet stains on the crotch of what was left of yours and Steve's pants.

"Oh, my darling Mate." Steve started to get hard again watching his cum drip obscenely from your well used pussy. He gently pushed his cum back into your pussy causing you to moan.

Steve felt the moan go straight to his cock causing him to instantly harden. You could feel he didn't want to waste one precious drop of his cum. Your eyes flashed yellow as you felt the urge to mate again. You wrapped a leg around Steve before rolling your hip. This caused you to flip your positions with you on top. With a show of your newly acquired strength you shoved him down. It was your turn to be in control.

"Mine." You tell Steve. Eyes still yellow before raising your hips up.

"Mate." Steve gasps as you sink onto his cock slowly.

Once your hips finally met Steve pelvis you started to ride him frantically. Your hands digging into Steve's chest as you raised your hips up and down. The pleasure consumed you completely. You never noticed your hands. Your hands were slowly started to change from fingers to claws and your mouth started to grow fangs. Steve didn't notice at first as he started to moan and growl underneath you.

Once your claws started to pierce his skin did he notice your claws and fangs. He grinned as he healed instantly. Steve took care to watch his own claws as he grabbed your hips. He then planted his feet and started to thrust upwards causing him to slide deeper inside your pussy hitting your cervix with each thrust. It didn't take long for you to cum. You came all over Steve's cock with a scream.

"Steve!" You scream that ended in a howl. A howl that Steve instantly answered before cumming deep inside you.

"Your mine. Forever."

"Forever."

"Happy Halloween baby. I'm never letting you go."

#jshauntedhouse2020 #j's haunted house 2020 #halloween challenge #chris evans #steve rogers fanfiction

307 notes · View notes

oh-for-fic-sake · 5 years

Text

If They Get Married I'd Be Your Uncle

Masterlist

Warnings: swearing, mentions of sex, flirting, Bruce is frustrated

A/n:So been in a dc mood today and couldn’t get this out of my head i really hope you enjoy it xx

Bruce meets you when you both get called into the school and instantly wants you to himself.

If They Get Married I'd Be Your Uncle.

You grumbled as you walked up to the pretentious school pissed that it wasn't near any bus routes, cos these type of people don't use that sort of thing. The walk was long and arduous especially after the 10 hour shift you just finished cos some stupid little twat decided he didn't feel like coming in today and called in 'sick' at the last minute even tho you heard his giggling girlfriend in the back ground. Sighing you pulled out your hair tie slapping it up into a neater messy bun as you made your way into the school reception stopping ,you raised an eyebrow at the receptionist as she gave you a side glance pretending not to notice you. You looked up to the ceiling praying for some restraint because you'd had just about as much as you could take today and didn't need the snobby attitude of these people. After a few moments you looked at her.

"Excuse me I'm here to see Mr Koleman I'm running a bit late so could you sign me in?" you said as calm as possible she rolled her eyes.

"Mr Kolman doesnt take personal meetings on the school grounds" she said snidely dismissing you , you growled at the implication.

"I'm Jack Cookes sister you phoned me earlier?"

"oh? you have an appointment?" she said. you grit your teeth.

"Trust me if I didnt I wouldnt be here" she gave you the once over then reached a perfectly manicured hand beside her screen lifiting a clip board

" and your Mrs?" you shook your head

"Miss Cooke with an e" a chuckle and whispers rippled through the office as she checked you in and handing you a visitors pass. You snatched it and made your way down to the hall to a mini reception outside the principles office. As you opened the door you spotted your little brother supporting a bloody nose ,cut cheek and eyebrow. Ignoring everyone you ran across the room stopping before him and his best friend.

"Oh for fuck sake Jack, here let me look" you said tilting his face this way and that you looked beside him swivling on your feet pulling the boys face up.

"Damien are you ok- seriously you to?" you cut yourself off seeing a dark bruise on the boys jaw you tutted rummaging through your bag pulling out a pack of ibuprofen and small bottle of water passing it to them both.

"here take these" stopping as the principles secretary snapped at you.

"Miss! you cannot give medication to other student's god knows what they are!!" you rolled your eyes giving the sleeve of tablets to Jack who then popped out two and gave them to Damien before taking his own.

"Happy?" you quipped at her with an innocent smile then turned to Jack

"Jack please please tell me you still have all your teeth" he smiled showing a full set then looked at Damien who copied. You sighed in relief smoothing both boys hairs then placed a kiss on each of their heads. You continued coddling them unaware of the man behind you watching shocked as damien sat still letting you fuss over him. Bruce didnt know you from adam but damien apparently did

"Was it them again? I told you if your gonna retaliate keep it off campus!" you said kneeling in front of them hand on either boys knee.

"We didn't start it." your brother stated and you believed him , he and Damien get themselves into trouble I mean there a couple of teenage boys there bound to act up but he doesn't just 'verbally disrespect people and attack other students' as the teacher on the phone had put it.

"Ok what happened?" you asked they both looked down Damien spoke up first

"They started calling us names again, kyle tripped and blamed Jack for it getting him told off so i called Kyle out on it then they started calling us names again we told Mrs Hatt and she laughed saying sticks and stones" . Jack continued

"So I called her a drunk fat bitch who was at best a fucking baby sitter, kyle slammed my head into the desk for it cos he's a little ass lick." you sighed as Damien took over

"SoIi punched kyle in the face knocking him on his ass and Clarence hit me and Jack headbutted him then we were pulled apart"

"yeah were did you learn to punch like that? he went down like a sack of shit" Jack asked laughing damien joined him laughing you deadpanned as they high five'd one another.

"Ok guys thats neither here nor there the point is your teacher sat back and watched?" they nodded there teacher seemed to have a problem with your brother due to your social class, he'd been accepted as part of a new law that all private schools must accept a certain number of full scholarship students to give everyone 'an equal opportunity' you'd been complaining to the school about the bullying and the teachers attitude but nothing has been one it seems.

"So you didn't hit them first?" you asked Damien shook his head at you. you believed them they were good kids.

"Good but you know fighting isn't the answer right?" they shook their heads you stood up fully taking a seat beside them.

"Damien thank you for helping him and Jack fuck sake don't you know headbutting hurts you more than the other guy. I'm sorry this is still happening guys but I'm gonna take care of it ok? trust me?" they both nodded at you still looking a little sorry for themselves you swung around in your seat only now seeing Bruce sitting opposite you.

"Bruce Wayne, you must be Jacks sister Y/n was it?" you nodded as his hand devoured your in a hand shake.

"Yep that's me. sorry your boy got dragged into this" he chuckled waving it off

"He will always find trouble at least this time its for sticking up for his friend, im glad to finally have a face to put to the name they talk about you alot" you nodded at that couldn't help your breathing hitch slightly at his smile his eyes seemed to burn into you analyzing you. You flushed slightly under his gaze

"Good things i hope" he nodded at you licking his bottom lip damien sighed you loked away before smirking at Jack.

"You really called her a drunk fat bitch?" he laughed proud of himself

"Yeah, sticks and stone and all that thought id test it" you laughed out loud

"To quick for them huh? I see where your going with it tho smart ass" he smiled sheepishly

"Well it worked for you, had to give you a leg to stand on" you laughed high fiving him . Bruce flinched as the display made you look your age. your relationship with your brother was a strange one. One moment you had to be the 'politically correct parent' the next you could return to being his 'cool older sister', there was 12 years between you but it didn't bother either of you , it wasn't that long ago that you were in school so you understood him. You struck up a conversation with the two boys, Damien had been the only one in the school to get along with Jack and you were thankful that they found each other two peas in a pod and he seemed to be coming round constantly it hadn't taken long before you started mothering him to. They were always together at your house or the manor but youd never met bruce jntill today sure damien had spoke about him, convinced that the two of you would hit it off, you just laughed him off saying it was wishfull thinking, but you couldnt help but wonder as you sat across from the handsom man well aware of his eyes watching your every move. Bruce watched fascinated as you seemed to be on the same level as the boys , if he was honest he was happy to see Damien relaxed around someone. Damien constaly gushed about you to him and he could see why as his eye scanned you up and down taking everything in , you was certainly beautiful petite and slightly heavy set you had a young carefree air about you that still held a nurturing aspect , probably what drew damien to you the boy had never had a motherly type of women around him, hell even he felt drawn to you in more ways then one, he noted as he felt,his blood rush south. It had been a while since any woman had coaxed such a strong reaction from him. He'd never been one for the young domestic type but there was something in him that wanted you. He tried reasoning that it was because of the way you had coddled his son, or maybe it was that he missed that motherly affection himself, but no there was something more then that a deep atraction pulling at him.He could see why Damien had taken a shine to you he'd be lying if he said he hasn't already been thinking of a reason to meet up with you outside of school. It was rare that someone caught him by surprise and you had defiantly caught him by surprise. Clearing his throat he re-position himself on his seat as his boxers became tighter embarrassed and admittedly a bit confused as watching you mother the two teens had begun to arouse him. You looked over to him with concern.

"Are you ok Mr Wayne?" he inwardly groaned at the name and way you looked at him so innocently ,no idea what you were doing .fuck. He forced a charming smile

"Yes just wish they'd hurry up." you sighed pouting slightly

"It seems a bit stupid calling this an emergency then making us wait this long. twats." you snipped crossing your arms across your chest huffing he chuckled hearing the barely held back irritation, imagining just how bratty you could be, and exactly how he could deal with said bratty behaviour a shiver ran down his spine, he sucked through his teeth as his cock twitched at the thought his mind racing to other tempting scenarios of you and him, shaking his head he had to snap himself out of it. The door opened and you were both called in. He watched wide eyed as you rose your demeanor changed completely, gone was a fun loving motherly young woman and there stood a less than impressed mama bear under 5ft tall but walked like a giant. He blinked and staggered in behind you thankful that he opted for a longer blazer that helped cover his 'situation' once in the office you set down in front of Mr Koleman the principle a stout balding man that was king of his own little castle and like to let everyone know it.

Mr Koleman looked at you with distaste then smiled shaking hands with Bruce.

"Ah Mr Wayne good to see you again tho I hoped it was on better terms. Miss Cooke I'm glad you could come down today I wasn't sure you'd make it this time." he said condescendingly you smirked putting on your polite 'adult' voice.

"well I've been trying to get an appointment with you about these issues that I'm sure your fully aware of, however you seem fully booked so I'm glad I finally have the opportunity to straighten a few thing out" he grimaced as he took a seat behind the desk.

" Yes well I am a very busy man." he said

"Yes I noticed that when the receptionist mistook me for a personal visitor." you hear Bruce cough covering a laugh as the principle opened and closed his mouth speechless.

"Any way what was it you wanted to discuss Mr Koleman?" he scowled not used to being shut down by a young women. He leaned forward shuffling papers

"yes well we've been having problems with Jack for a few months as your aware-"

"Yes I'm aware that he is being targeted by his teacher and bullied by other students in the class which is being over looked and in some instances encouraged by the staff at this school. but go on." you interupted him staring at him unblinkingly Bruce gapped before collecting himself sitting back to watch the show the distinct feeling that you were going to rip this man a new arsehole.

"Uh-oh i was not aware of that"

"do not lie to me" you growled 'and here we go' Bruce thought he'd been with enough women to know that all hell was going to break loose as the quiet sweetheart form out side became a little spitfire in the office and couldn't help the a quick fantasy of you being this fiesty for him in his office. You pulled out a small red diary from your bag turning to dates in it.

"On the 4th of March I phoned the school and spoke to a Mrs Hatt to discuss cases of bullying she said that it was being taken care of and that I had no reason to worry. March the 12th Jack came home with bruises on his back caused by the same students they had tied knots in there ties and whiped him with them while getting changed for p.e, I had raised concerns about it nothing was done. I phoned again and once again was fobbed off by Mrs Hatt that there was nothing happening, then Jack comemhome with a sprained wrist, then it was bruised stomach, then a cut forhead and a brokennfinger from them smashing it in a door etcetera these incidents continued and I continued to report them and it was always the same names that popped up, the same three boys. I'd had enough on May 21st I phoned and asked to speak to you instead I got through to a Mrs Hamsten? the vice principle?" you watched as his face became paler and paler as you spoke he nodded. Bruced leant back eyes blown finding himself getting hotter as he watched you tear down the man infront of you.

"Yes and she said that the boys had been put into detention for it which turned out to be a lie another student confirmed that nothing had been done. I then put my issue in writing, I wrote a letter sent by recorded post to you about the issue and received a reply, sighed by you, that you have a no tolorence policy and would look into it, nothing has been done and now you have the audacity to call me up and have me come in here because he finally had enough and stuck up for himself because this little shit split his face open on a desk whilst the teacher watched? tell me Mr Koleman do you still want to pretend you dont know what I'm talking about because I've recored all the calls I've made about this." you tore into him as he shrunk further and further into his seat not prepared for you to come at him so direct. Bruce didnt know what the fuck happened to the sweet little thing he saw outside but what he did know was that was one of the sexist things he'd seen as you asserted yourself beautifully not giving the man time to respond. If it wasn't for Mr Koleman sitting behind the desk he'd already have you spread out on it underneath him. 'Another time'he thought to himself he licked his lips tugging at his trousers again trying to ease the ache in his cock as it strained against its confines.

"Ah yes well, now that I think about it I do remeber a letter" he stumbled over his words you nodded your head

"Yes I'm sure you do. Today was the inevitale blow up." He collected himself looking at Bruce for some sort of back up instead the billionaire scowled at him.

"Be that as it may there is no excuse for calling a teacher a drunk fat bitch." you nodded

"I agree how ever it was for science. Your member of staff who has neglected her duty to keeping my brother safe on school grounds ,has brushed off his bullying useing 'stick and stones' so he decied to test that theory by calling her a drunk fat bitch, turns out names do hurt and caused her to become agitated that she allowed him to have his face smashed into a desk by another student cutting open his eyebrow, cheek and bloody his nose. I dont think she should be able to teach if she cant practice what she preaches and certainly shouldnt be left incharge of children if she is that unstable that she would allow an attack to happen because her feeling were hurt."

"yes well he dragged Mr Waynes son into this-"

"Damien and Jack are friends Damien saw Kyle attack Jack and defended him which is more I can say for the staff at this school. I'm warning you Mr Koleman sort it out before I go to the press. How do you think that would look? when your school board find out that Mr Wanyes son was injured defending his friend when the teacher didn't lift a fucking finger. You wanna go there? cos I fucking will I've had enough." he sat up straighter alarmed, Bruce moaned deep in his chest but watching you was really doing it for him he didnt know why or care in all honesty he just wanted more of you.

"No, no theres no need for that. We can sort this out between us no need for the governors or press. Mr Wayne is there anything you'd like to add." he said trying hard to wrap up this meeting. You looked at Bruce who frankly you forgot was even there he shook his head looking strange, shifting in his chair uncomfortably.

"I think Miss Cooke summed everything up wounderfully, and she has my full support sort out these kids, I know that they have been causing Damien problems name calling getting him in trouble such and he has said the teacher dosn't do anything about it. I wont stand for it any more , if its not sorted out by the end of the week I will bring Miss Cooke with me and we will speak to the school bored in person." You let out a breath you didnt know you was holding relief flooded you as he said this slightly worried that he'd throw you under the bus. He locked eyes with you his pupils were blown wide and he was breathing heavy he winked subtly, you flushed looking back to the man behind the desk as he cleared his throat.

"Right well I will see to it personally and it will be sorted by the end of the week, you both seem to have concerns with Jack and Damien's teacher so as of tomorrow I will have them moved into another class whilst I investigate. I will phone you both up to check in with the boys I'm terribly sorry that it has been left this long." he stood motioning for you both to do the same ending with.

"The boys can leave early today while I deal with this." Bruce opened the door letting you through growling as the principle made a point to oogle your ass as you left, quickly standing between you blocking his veiw of you he glared at the fat prick his message was clear. That hot little spitfire is mine so back off. He stared down at him chest puffed out standing taller and broarder intimidating the little weasel until he looked away. Bruce smirked then left the office slamming the door behind him finding you explaining to the boys what was happening, joining you as they stood up getting there bags .

"you boys go out and wait by the car while we sign out at the front." Bruce instructed they nodded running ahead to the school enterance.

"The car?" you asked looked up at him shyly

"Yes i will give you both a lift" he said leaving no room for argument. You thanked him then spoke quietly looking down trying not to freak out as he stood closer then you thought was neccasary.

"Thank you for sticking up for me in there, I dont usually get like that but you know I get a bit protective." he chuckled at you showing off a brilliant smile

"Its no problem, to be honest I found the whole mama bear thing very sexy your lucky we we'rnt alone" he said winking you blushed

"Wh-what? sh-shut up" you squeeked out he shook his head at you as he put an arm out over you holding the doors to main reception you thanked him queitly skipping through feeling small catching yourself breathing deeper to smell more of his fresh scented cologne.

"No I'm serious any where else and well" he wiggled his brows at you making you giggle

"and the way you are with damien?ive never seen him like that" he asked trailing off

"Yes well he is a sweet kid, he comes over quiet a bit as you know Alfred drops him off and the boys go off doing their thing, just sort of started to mother him a bit sorry" he smirked at you

"Well if I'd known how stunning you were it'd be me dropping him off. And dont apologize I'm not mad just a bit jealous. Tho not for long" he said handing his pass to the snooty receptionist who gave him bedroom eyes before glaring at you for keeping his attention.

"J-jealous? of Damien why?" you stuttered then bit your lip blushing. He groaned the site of it as he throbbed agin nearly cumming as his cock rubbed harshly agains the soft cotton of his boxers, he just couldnt control it. oh he was definatly gonna have you for himself, somehow you turned him into a horny teenager all over again.

"Well he got to have all your attention earlier, hurts a mans pride when his son can capture a beautiful woman's attention and he cant." you looked away from him giving your pass to the secatary who snatched it with a snarl.

"Im hoping you'd show some mercy and come out for lunch with me?" you gasped snapping your gaze at him.

"Wh-what you mean to talk about the school?"

"No as in a date" he explained you froze feeling butterflies in your tummy looking at the gorgeous man.

"Date? now? like right now?" he nodded smirking thoroughly enjoying you being so flustered.

"yes now I dont have anything else planned for today." you gulped when he gave you a heated look you felt like a meal taking a step back

" I'd love to but I have to clean up Jack and-." you began your excuse only for him to cut you short.

"Nonsense he can come to the manor and spend the day with Damien, Alfred is a good nurse he will patch them up." you blinked trying to think of another reason as he stood staring you down at you waiting to for to decide feeling like a deer in the head lights you realized this alpha of a man wasn't going to give you much of a choice.

"O-ok if your sure alfred wouldn't mind watching him." you nodded shyly Bruce gave a triumphant smirk and threw an arm across your shoulders tucking you against him walking to the main doors.

"Alfred wont mind watching the boys." you both walked outside to the boys Damien sighed at his dad before Jack spoke up.

"Told you he was looking at her ass"

"JACK! He was not!" you screeched at him damien laughed and bruce unlocked the range rover

"I thought I was being subtle about it" you gaped at him speechless as he opened the passenger door the boys gagged getting in the back. You got in the car pouting to yourselfand Bruce climbed in.

"Fucking hell I've never seen her speechless, how'd you do that?" Jack said Damien scoffed

"Dad just keep your boner in your pants until were out of the way."

"Yer shes my sister dont need to see her sucking face." You blushed trying to shush the boys

"DAMIEN! He does not have a boner!"

"Uh yer he does look."You tired not to look you really did but it just sort of happend you squeeked covering your mouth faceing forward and jumped as bruce leant over buckling your seat belt whispering in your ear.

"I did tell you the mama bear was sexy" puljng away he spoke to the boys

"Dont worry boys, we will behave until your out of ear shot" You gapped as they cringed with cries of 'ew dad no' and 'come on thats my sister' he laughed at them patting your thigh before pulling out of the school

"So you asked her on a date yet Dad?" Bruce raised and eye brom looking at him in the rear view mirror pulling out onto the main road.

"Well we are dropping you both off at the manor does that answer your question?"

Jack groaned not sure if he likes the idea of his sister dating his best friends dad.

"dont you hurt her Mr Wayne I know where you live" you smiled at that finding it cute him trying to be the protective little man. The drive was quiet for a while before jack piped up.

"Holy shit if they get married I'd be your uncle" you groaned holding you face in your hands bruce only laughed

"Jack its one lunch date jesus"

".....Can I walk you down the isle?"

"JACK?!"

"What she means is well cross that bridge when we come to it" you stared at Bruce as he smirked enjoying teasing you the boys snickered in the back. You sat back wondering just what you'd gotten youself into.

#batman x y/n #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne imagine #batmom imagines #bruce wayned fic

1K notes · View notes

delta-roseblr · 3 years

Note

Lol, all the new info about the solangelo and delix kids made me want to have a fic just about them. So I was wondering if that would be possible? xD

Hello, Anon!

I know it has been forever since you sent this prompt, but it wasn't forgotten!

I hope this is worth the wait

_____________________________________________________

The Kids

· Because Solangelo and Delix both set down in California, Solangelo in New Rome and Delix stays in Northern California; they see each other a lot, as do their kids.

· The fact that Michael and Lee (Nico and Will's twins) and Mason (Felix and Dean's son) are a little more than a year apart just added to their drive to get together as a family. The kids could entertain each other, and they always got along well. The twins were challenging to entertain when they were little, so this is a big deal.

· Will and Dean always figured the three of them would always get along because, well, that was how they were, but Nico and Felix had their doubts. They figured that as the three got older and if (when) the twins started showing their demigod powers that they would drift.

· Nico and Felix turned out to be completely wrong, and the three just got closer as they got older.

· You would think, since Mason is the oldest of the three, he would take on the leadership role in the group, but that isn't how it works out. Mason is a pretty even-keeled kid. He definitely got Dean's tendency to want to put his head down and do his work. He can and does take the leadership role during team things like sports but not when the twins are involved.

· The twins are a damn handful from the moment they are born, and they never really change. Both of them are outgoing in their own ways. Lee is more competitive and will jump at the opportunity to take on a challenge, while Michael is more social- he can (and will) start a conversation with pretty much anyone he meets. The two are also a perfect storm of trouble because Michael will come up with an idea like they should buy fake ids and sneak into a club, and Lee will view it as a challenge, so he wants to do it, and they will absolutely find a way to talk Mason into joining them. Mason definitely tries his hardest to keep them out of trouble and manages to be at least somewhat successful sixty-five percent of the time.

· The twins love showing up at Mason's mortal school events, so even though they do not go there, most of Mason's classmates recognize them. They are also pretty much honorary members of Mason's lacrosse team. While Mason gives them shit for being menaces, he really likes when they show up, it definitely stops things from getting boring.

· Mason visits New Roman as well, even though not as much because going to New Roman can be a process as a mortal going to New Roman. Still, he has teamed up with the twins and a few of the other children of the seven around their age to case a little harmless trouble on the weekend.

· Btw, Dean has had several conversations with a teenage Mason about precisely what to do if he finds himself being hit on by a horny god (with very specific things to say to Apollo or Dionysus). Mason considers these the most embarrassing conversations he has ever had with his days. It's bad enough that his middle-aged dads still act like teenagers half the time and CAN'T keep their hands off each other. He doesn't want to hear about how Greek gods had tried to bone them back in the day. Grandpa Solace jumping in with "Just remember, Apollo isn't nearly as good in bed as he claims, and you can take my word for it" doesn't help with the awkwardness. He would rather have to go through the birds and bees talk a million times over.

· All three of these boys are NOT STRAIGHT. Michael is gay, while both Lee and Mason are bisexual. It's hard to say that Michael or Lee "came out" because it happened so organically. There was no sit everyone down and tell them moment. Instead, it was just "I LIKE like that boy" or "that boy is really cute" when they were like twelve. Mason takes FOREVER to admit this to himself and even longer to admit it to anyone else. Michael and Lee KNOW way before Mason admits to anything, and neither of them lets him hid from it. Lee tries the comforting approach hoping Mason will admit it while Michael goes more the exposure therapy route- he'll point out cute guys and ask what Mason thinks. He tricked Mason into going to a few gay events without Mason knowing until it was too late to back out.

· FYI, Mason comes out to Lee first, but only because they get into a fight because Lee is flirting with a boy; Mason secretly has a massive crush on (or at least he thinks it's a secret, but everyone can tell). Michael is solidly pissed about this for months, but that doesn't stop him from trying to play matchmaker.

Dribble:

The rain had stopped, and Mason supposed he should have been happy about that, but the lingering sense of tension and danger made it hard to appreciate. He, Michael, and Lee had already walked one block north of Gypsy Bar, and Mason was hoping as they put even more distance between themselves and the bar that sense of unease would dissipate at least a little.

They had been walking in silence for several minutes. That was a rare thing, and Mason hoped it meant that it was one of those rare occasions that his cousins were thinking about how horrible their idea had been, but Lee killed that hope the moment he opened his mouth.

"Well, we had to try," Lee declared.

Mason looked over and up because, of course, Lee was at least three inches taller than him. That would have been more annoying if Mason was at all insecure about his height, but at six foot he was comfortable. Also, he had a couple of inches on Michael, which helped.

Lee's hair looked practically white instead of its usual light blonde under the street lights' harsh glare, and his complexion seemed extra fair. Even his freckles were lost in the artificial light. Not surprisingly, there wasn't a single sign of worry on his face.

Maybe if Mason had Greek god powers, he would have been relaxed too, but he didn't. That call for adventure that Lee and Michael had just seemed like asking for trouble to Mason, the mere mortal. "Not with the worse fake IDs in history," Mason pointed out yet again.

"They were not that bad!" Michael was quick to defend.

This was not the first time Mason had heard that, and it didn't make it any less ridiculous. One of Michael and Lee's dads was literally a doctor that could heal people by touching them. There was no fucking excuse for their inability to see what was right in front of them. Why Michael had even bought the IDs, having seen them, Mason would never understand.

"They looked like they were hand-drawn by a preschool," Mason pointed out, "And the names were ridiculous."

"Pictures didn't look much like us," Lee agreed.

Michael let out a long, loud sigh, pushed a dark strand of hair that had fallen out of his ponytail and into his eye line, and tucked it behind his ear. While Lee looked like the stereotypical California surfer dude, Michael almost looked Mediterranean. He had light brown hair that he had grown out over the last year and now almost exclusively wore tied up, and he naturally had a more tan, almost olive complexion. Even with the differences, it was impossible not to recognize the two as twins immediately. They both had the same sharp facial features, lean and athletic builds, and light blue eyes.

Mason was the obvious odd man out in the group. His hair was somewhere between a light brown and a dark blonde, and his eyes were hazel rather than blue. His build was boxier, and he was definitely wider in the shoulders than his cousins, but that might have been because he had been playing lacrosse since he was eight. His facial features were also a little more square and angular. It might not have been a stretch to believe the three of them were related, but no one was going to mistake them for triplets.

"Okay, that is enough with the pouting," Michael declared with just a little bit of annoyance in his voice. Mason was a little surprised it had taken that long because usually, the more outrageous and destined to fail one of Michael's plans were, the more annoyed he got when it did, in fact, fail. "At least we got a fun story out of it," he stated.

Knowing Michael, he really did see that as a win which was crazy. Mason fucking loved his cousins. They were literally his best friends and really always had been, but sometimes they were crazy to be around. Mason put that on all the demigod stuff. After all, if you have literally trained to fight monsters since you were a little kid getting fake IDs and trying to sneak into a twenty-one and over club probably didn't sound all that crazy.

Mason wasn't exactly a fucking nun. Sneaking into a bar didn't sound completely crazy but trying to get into a bar known for checking IDs with comically bad fake IDs did.

"We are lucky they didn't call the police," Mason pointed out flatly. The bouncer had decided to take pity on them for some reason after giving them one hell of a fucking lecture, and Mason would forever be grateful. "Or worse, our parents," he added with a shutter.

"What are you worried about?" Lee asked with a laugh, "Uncle Dean and Uncle Felix would have been totally cool."

Mason gave Lee a serious look. "Nothing about my parents is cool," he stated firmly, "No matter how many people say otherwise."

"You really are a master of denial," Lee commented teasingly before patting his shoulder and adding, "It's kind of impressive."

The fact was Mason was well aware that his dads were pretty cool. If they had been called and told Mason had been caught with a fake ID trying to sneak into a bar, they probably wouldn't have even yelled at him. Neither of them were big yellers. Mason would have gotten one hell of a disapproving lecture which Mason was convinced was worse than yelling ever could be. He definitely would have lost a whole bunch of privileges for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, Mason had been hearing about how cool his dads were since he could remember. The fact that Felix getting early releases of video games all the time helped. Dean always bringing Mason and his friends for ice cream after practice when he was younger didn't hurt. As he got older, he just became the one with the cool parents in all his friend groups. It got old after a while, and that was before the term DILF started getting thrown around.

He would have been more annoyed if it was anyone besides Lee and Michael. They had it just as bad as he did, even if it was slightly different. Uncle Nico was practically a legion among Demigods for all the questing he did as a teenager, and even if he had just sat on his ass, he was still the son of Hades, which was a big thing. Uncle Will didn't have the history with all the questing, but he played an important role in some battle, which was enough to give him some fame. The twins had to deal with their fair share of people going full-on hero-worship over their dads, and then there was the fact that Uncle Nico had worked as a model for like five years.

Mason might not have been truly pissed off, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to flip Lee off for that comment. He did grin as he did it, at least so it was clear that it was all good.

They had walked about half a block as they had talked, and they made it about a block more in silence before Michael huffed. "So what are we going to do now?" he asked. Mason went to answer but barely got an opportunity to take a breath before Michael held up a finger to cut him off. "And the answer of going home is not allowed, so just don't even say it," he stated firmly.

Mason didn't get why going home, playing video games, ordering a pizza, and hanging out was such a bad idea. His dads were out on a date night, so they probably would have had the house to themselves, not that that mattered. According to Michael, that was just not an acceptable way for them to spend their evening, and in fairness, he had made that clear before then. That didn't mean that wasn't exactly what Mason had been prepared to suggest, but he wasn't really surprised that Michael warned him not to before he got a chance.

Mason stopped and looked around to get a feel for where they were. Since they were in West Berkeley, it was more his stomping ground rather than the twins. If it were New Rome, the twins would have a list of places they could go and things they could do, so he guessed it was on him to at least come up with one suggestion.

If he was honest, he only had a vague idea of where they were, and it wasn't a part of the city he visited often, so he didn't have the best idea of what was around. Ultimately, he went with the first thing that came to mind. "There is a really cool vintage bookstore like two blocks from here," he stated, pointing in the direction he thought it was.

It might have been the first thing he had thought of, but Mason didn't think it was a half-bad idea. He had been to the place a few times with Dean because Dean had a radar for little bookstores, and it didn't matter what they were doing or where they were supposed to be; he had to go in. It was such a well-known fact that Felix always looked up where bookstores were when they went on vacation so they could plan when they went. The little bookstore that Mason couldn't remember the name of had actually been pretty cool.

"You found an answer worse than go home," Michael commented flatly, "Why do you hurt me like this?"

Mason rolled his eyes because now Michael was just overdramatic. "They serve coffee and stuff," he informed.

"Coffee actually sounds pretty fucking good," Lee admitted, which was a good sign. Of the two, Michael always wanted to do something big and over-the-top. Lee could be like that sometimes, but he was more likely to see reason when Michael was just suggesting something crazy. Usually, if Mason could get Lee on his side, he had a chance. If Lee backed Michael's idea, then it was only a matter of time before Mason agreed to whatever insanity had been planned.

Michael stared between Mason and Lee with clear disapproval. "We can not go from trying to sneak into a 21 and over club to drinking coffee in a used bookstore," he stated with disgust before just shaking his head with disappointment, "Honestly, what is wrong with you two?"

"Okay," Lee declared, managing to sound just as unamused by Michael as Michael was with them. Lee was infinitely better at dealing with his brother when he was being dramatic than Mason was. "How about we go into that pizza place-" he pointed past Mason toward a small pizza place just across the street from where they were standing, "-and talk to the cute girls that are walking in."

"Well, that doesn't sound like fun for me!" Michael grumbled as he turned and assessed the option for a split second. "Oh, there is a couple of boys that could be cute! I don't hate that idea."

Mason gave in and turned to see what they were talking about and immediately wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "Oh my god, could you too stop staring," he hissed as he turned his back on the scene and hoped no one saw him.

They should have gone to New Rome.

Of course, both Michael and Lee were staring at him, and he knew they were going to ask. Neither of them was precisely known for letting things go either.

"What?" Mason shrugged, sounding more defensive than he meant to, "They are people from my school."

Michael and Lee exchanged a look that was never a good thing. It was one of those weird twin silent communication things they would do, and it usually meant they were about to tag team, Mason. It never worked out well.

"You know them?" Michael asked, although he managed to give the question far more weight than such a simple question should have had.

Lee was even less subtle as he stared at Mason with obvious suspicion, "How come we don't know them?"

Obviously, Michael and Lee didn't go to Mason's high school because they were in New Rome, but they hung around with Mason enough that they knew all of Mason's school friends and a fair number of his classmates. It wasn't necessarily weird that they didn't know someone that Mason knew from school, but it was a more rare occurrence. On this specific occasion, it actually made a lot of sense because they were people Mason only recently started getting to know.

"It looked like Theo and a few of the other kids from the theater club," Mason explained. Mason was not a theater kid. Even if he had wanted to be, he never would have had time with lacrosse and soccer. Since he was a junior and apparently would benefit from diversifying his afterschool activities (so saith his guidance counselor), he joined the AV club and somehow ended up helping with the school play, so he got to know some of the theater kids over the last few months. Not a big deal in the slightest. "And for the record, you two aren't entitled to know all my school friends," he pointed out just to prove a point.

Michael and Lee exchanged another look.

"Theo?" Lee questioned.

"Interesting," Michael commented.

Mason's heart jumped into his throat. Had he said that name? He hadn't meant to, but it must have just slipped out. He was absolutely fucked because the twins weren't going to let that go, and that was the last thing Mason needed. Theo was just a dude with great hair that made Mason feel weird sometimes, and he didn't want to talk about that.

Play it cool, Mason told himself through his internal panic. He shrugged, which felt like the most unnatural gesture ever. "He hangs out with a lot of the AV kids helping with the play," he explained. More accurately, he hung around many band kids helping with the play, and Mason had to adjust the audio equipment a fair amount. After talking a few times, Mason may have invited him to hang out with the AV kids, and the guy took him up on that. There was no fucking way he was telling Lee and Michael that story. "I've learned his name. It isn't a big deal," he stated. That at least was true, and no one would convince Mason otherwise.

Michael and Lee were silent for a long moment, just staring at him before Michael broke the silence. "You know what? Pizza sounds fantastic," He declared before turning on his heels and starting across the street. He was halfway across before he called over his shoulder, "And I love a good theater club. Always fun gays."

Lee patted Mason on the shoulder, which turned into him practically pushing Mason forward toward the pizza shop. "So, which one is Theo exactly," Lee asked in a mischievous tone.

Now Mason wished their wrong fake IDs had worked.

16 notes · View notes

starshipsofstarlord · 4 years

Text

Chaos After the Storm

There had been a storm which came crashing down on all, with a name to make the destruction feel that much more humane. The kooks were lucky, they had generators which could reboot their power, dousing their houses back into the light with electricity and keeping them cool by the air conditioning. If you did not live on Figure Eight however, you were residing in the Cut. You were a pogue.

And you were, a pogue that was. The definition was that you did not have masses of money like the wealthy families that lived in luxury. It meant if a storm hit, like Agatha, it took longer than an hour to recover from the after affects. Weeks, sometimes even months it would be before you had to stop using candles as a source and could revert back to the lights that hung from the ceilings.

Currently, you were pulling fallen branches off of the driveway, removing them from the roof of your parents’ car. They were heavier than they looked, and as you discarded another from on top of the vehicle, you noticed a crack in one of the back windows. It was only small, but to cut expenses, it probably wouldn’t be repaired until the damage became worse.

You turned your head as you heard the riveting of a bike. A red bike was driving towards you, its engine slowing before it came to a stop at the start of your drive. JJ dismounted it, not needing to remove his helmet as he never wore one, and in an instant you dropped your duties and ran to him.

Concern was the reason, the day the storm hit, hours prior to its interference, his face had been bare of injury. But now, there was a purple bruise covering almost half of it.

“That son of a bitch.” You muttered as you let him wrap his arms around you and burrow his head in your hair. It disgusted you that a father could treat his son in such a way. Sure, JJ was a troublemaker, and loud, and liked to smoke and drink despite being underage, but none of that made him deserve such treatment.

“It’s fine.” This wasn’t the first time you had witnessed this behaviour from him. JJ would always try to play the incident as though it was no big deal, but he was wrong every time. It mattered, because he was in pain, and you feared one day his father would go too far, not that he wasn’t already, and kill him.

Pulling away from his desperate embrace, you winced as you studied his face. There was a fearful depth to his eyes, and they reflected that he needed you. And he did, you were his protector, his safe place, his fellow pogue. You were also his girlfriend, but that bit was the least bit relevant right now.

“Don’t say that.” It was not fine, and you could see that as clear as day. “We need to do something JJ, this can’t keep happening. I’m ready as soon as you are to stand up against that man, but only when you give your go ahead.”

To take action against his father, you needed his consent. It was vital. He had to want it just as much as you did, it was his father and it pained you to see how much JJ suffered. If it wasn’t for the storm, you were sure the boy would have snuck into your room that evening or the two of you would have stayed in John B’s spare bedroom. But both of your parents wanted you home, clearly for very different reasons.

“They won’t believe me, the sheriff’s department think of me as a liar.” There were tears collecting in his ocean eyes, and it made your own water in response. A 16 year old should not have been so accustomed to the scolding of pain at such a young age, but here he was, on the verge of crying from the torment he received.

Frowning, you grabbed his hand, squeezing it for the search of giving him reassurance. “There’s evidence.” You looked sadly at his face. He was such a strong guy for how much he went through. You knew he liked to shut it off, but if he gave in he would never have to again. He’d never have to pretend the fading marks meant nothing in front of you and the rest of the pogues, or feel like he meant so little that he could throw his whole life on the line. “And witnesses. You’re a victim JJ, and that’s okay. Don’t be strong for me, okay, be strong for yourself. I know you, and I know that you can do this.”

In response, his bottom lip trembled, a sob wracking through the parting of it. Once again, he attached his body onto yours, needing to be comforted by the contact. On instinct, you allowed your hand to stroke up his back and play with the bottom of his hair. It really was an honour and a curse to be able to see JJ at his most vulnerable.

….

JJ had been in the room for almost an hour. You had kept checking the time on your phone as you sat in the waiting room, nervous for him. The officers hadn’t allowed you in there with him, and you were aware that had made it that bit more difficult for him.

John B sat beside you, wringing his hands and fiddling with the bracelets on his wrist. JJ had asked him to be here with him, he needed the support of the two people closest to him in this scenario. You looked over at the boy, giving him a small smile. He could see right through your minor façade, he sensed you were scared. If Will Maybank was not brought in and punished by the authorities, JJ would suffer more than ever before. Neither of you wanted that, but now he had been willing to take the risk.

That itself indicated that his time with his dad inside during the storm had been different. Worse would be a better word. You didn’t want to imagine what ways JJ had been pained, not only with fists but words. That man had a poisonous mouth, toxic from all of the alcohol that ran through it and tainted his speech.

You felt a hand reach for your own. It belonged to John, and he allowed you to hold it. It reminded you of the old times long before the treasure hunt, or his relationship with Sarah, or even before Pope and Kiara joined your little group. In those ancient times, it had just been you, JJ and John B, and to this day you were all as strong as thieves.

“I’m so proud of him.” The boy spoke, tapping his converse covered shoe against the leg of his seat. The shoes had seen better days, they were still stained from when he was dropped down into the murky water of the well at Crain Estate.

“As we should be.” You kicked his foot with your own to stop the irritating habit he was coercing. Biting your lip, you dipped your own foot ahead of you, deciding whether or not to let your thoughts out. It would be okay if you did, you were speaking to the thoughtful, adventurous, kind John B after all. “The only thing that scares me is what will happen after. Say theoretically Will gets busted for this, what will happen to JJ? We don’t know if he can be as persuasive as you were and avoid child services.”

“No matter what happens,” he began, swallowing in thought for a second, “we’ll be there for him. We’ll fight for him and whatever he wants to do after he’s free.”

“It’s weird.” You spoke. “No matter how many times I’ve came here to try and bail him out, which obviously doesn’t work because of my age and dodgy IDs, I always dreamed of being here for the right reason. This reason.”

JJ had definitely became less afraid of his father after he had fought him for the money that he had stolen, but something had changed during the storm. He had become stronger, and realised how he could really adapt to survive.

As John was about to speak, the door to the room JJ had been taken into opened, and the pair of you quickly stood. The officer exited first and JJ was behind him, looking as though he had seen a ghost. The thought that he had reflect to all of the times he had been hurt made you feel guilty, but as your mutual friend had said, proud altogether. It even made you fear that the plan had not worked, and that there would be no possibility of charges pinned against the abuser.

He spoke to the officer quickly, nodding and then began his route over to you and John. Hope melded into your skin, and you even went as far as crossing your fingers behind your back. JJ gave a small smile, putting his arms around one of your shoulders and the same with John B, pulling the two of you into a group hug.

“They’re going to want to speak to you two, is that okay?” It was the first time that you had seen JJ appear so small in himself, almost as if he was concerned that you would not be willing to do such a thing. That was ridiculous, you would do anything for the boy, and so would John B.

“That’s good with me.” You kissed him on the cheek, noticing how that cheered him up a little. “Now how about we take a little break from this for the day, and go celebrate?”

…..

It had been organised beforehand, that everyone would be waiting at John B’s place, no matter the outcome. If it went sideways, it would cheer him up, if it went good like it did, it was a celebration.

As you all sat around the fire, JJ stood, with a beer in his hand.

“I want to say a toast.” It was very different from one that a kook would do, and that was what made it so special. “Thankyou to everyone that is here, you are the best friends I could have, and Sarah.” He tipped his beer in her direction. “We’re pogues, our thing is living shitty and doing stupid things to get money.”

“You can amen to that.” Pope said, kicking the rock that the little bit of gold left was buried under.

You sipped on your beer, looking up at your boyfriend and taking in every word he said. “I know my life had been pretty shit, but you guys are the good part of it. I never would have done what I did today if you hadn’t been there for me all these years. You guys are my family, my real family. None of you would ever hurt me, instead you will and have helped me heal. And this girl here,” he looked down at you, “has been my rock. We broke the no pogue on pogue rule long ago, and that was the best thing I ever did. But she’s more than a broken rule to me, she’s my shelter, my home, the love of my life.”

Sarah couldn’t help but aw at this and leaned back into her boyfriend as a blush rose up from your neck and onto your face. “She’s the real hidden treasure, she’s worth so much more than gold. If it wasn’t for you (Y/N/N), I’d be searching for something that I would never find. Okay, that’s it.”

He sat back down, frowning at Kiara as she shook her head at him. “What?” He asked, slinging his arm around your shoulder.

“You ruined that beautiful speech, you might want to come up with a better ending.” Even though the initial end to his toast was not as sweet and heartfelt as the rest of it, Kiara did notice how even then you did not stop looking with adoration at the boy. It was good to see the two of you so hassle free and happy.

JJ turned his head to you, worried. “So no macking?” You couldn’t help but laugh. The boy sure knew how to ruin a moment and make one at the same time. You were just glad that was what the chaos after the storm had diminished to, for now at least.

#jj x reader #jj maybank #jj mayback x reader #jj maybank imagine #jj maybank one shot #outer banks x you #outer banks x reader #jj imagine #jj maybank x y/n #jj maybank x you #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x oc #rudy pankow x y/n #rudy pankow imagine #rudy pankow x reader #rudy pankow x you #jj

214 notes · View notes

lovestrucked-again · 4 years

Text

Sanguine II Mafia

Genre: Mafia AU Warnings: dark themes, blood, guns, creepy evil guy. Word Count: 2.7k

Summary: You’re a second year med student taken in by the house of NCT. It’s not uncommon to be the last to learn things within the house but when your safety is threatened, you’re forced to leave home with no option. But it only makes things worse.

Part 1 || next ****

You don’t even take a second to think things through. Your rationality and sensibility gone out the door when the man mentioned Taeyong being unconscious. You could only puzzle all the things together. For Taeyong to be unconscious would mean the other guys were also in danger.

You clutched onto your phone, debating whether you should wake Lucas up or not but the warning to come alone rings in the back of your mind. You creak open the door and switch on your phone light, using it as a torch as you quickly slip on a proper shirt and pants. The keys for the car are on the nightstand beside Lucas. You tiptoe over, desperately trying to keep quiet while he sleeps completely oblivious. The idea to leave a note crosses your mind, by the time he wakes up you would be long gone, and who knows maybe this will be my last time seeing him.

But the vibration of your phone and the notification popup your screen shows brings you out of the thought.

Unknown number: I’m waiting.

The text leaves you sprinting out the room.

The drive home is completely silent apart from the swimming thoughts surrounding your mind. The freeway seems to be completely deserted, letting you speed down the straight road whenever possible. You don't realise how long has passed with your hands gripped on the steering wheel until the sudden ring on your phone causes you to jump.

You glance over at the Bluetooth mini screen displaying the caller ID, Lucas. The corner of the screen shows the time, 6:03am. The ring continues for over a minute and then disappears. The second ring coming through doesn't surprise you as he tries again. The thought to turn off your phone isn’t possible as the unknown number may call, so you reach for your phone and disconnect it from the Bluetooth of the car, switching it to vibration mode.

The guilt inside you begins gnawing in your stomach as you drive and your phone continues vibrating on the passenger seat beside you. As desperate as you were to answer, you didn't want to risk it, and besides, Lucas would be safer if he wasn't bought in.

Everything looks normal on the outside. None of the windows are smashed, the house seems to be stable, nothing looks like its collapsing. The house seems visibly fine but it's the dozens of unrecognisable cars along your street that's concerning. There’s at least 10 vehicles; vans and cars included.

Deciding it’s better to stay hidden for as long as possible, you take the back route, driving through a dirt road hidden by a KEEP OUT sign. You park a bit further back from the house to ensure the sound of the engine isn’t heard.

You sneak in through the back door, heading for the top floor of the house to check out the situation. The commotion in the living room indicating to you where everyone is. As you tip toe up the stairs, a loud roaring laughter comes from the floor below. You decide to take a peek, getting on your knees and crawling to the edge of the railings which overlook the living room.

The amount of people crowding in the living room makes it seem tiny. But you can easily pick out your members from the 20 or so individuals.

The first person you notice is Taeyong who seems to be barely conscious, his arms roped behind his back as he’s tied against a wooden chair, a man with a gun standing beside him. The rest of the boys stand behind with what looks like a gag preventing them from speaking, their hands tied by rope, faces bloody and bruised, a gun also resting at their heads. Your eyes can only glimpse at them, not baring to lay your eyes on anyone for too long.

It's a slight breath of relief knowing not all of them are here. You can only see a few of the guys which would mean the others were safe, at least that's what you hoped.

Jaehyun was standing in a pool of blood, the red seeping through part of his shirt on his right shoulder indicating a heavy wound. Beside him, was Yuta and Jeno. The swift glance over them letting you know none of them seemed visibly injured, apart from the stained clothing. The last person you noticed brought a gasp out of your mouth. Winwin was leaning against the couch for support, his hands left untied as he presses onto a bleeding patch on his lower abdomen.

Tears instantly form at the side of your eyes as you scramble back from the sight, making sure you’re unable to be seen before you start shaking, the fear now kicking in. Breathe, don't panic.

You crawl back forward, you had to see how many enemies there were. You had to think of something quickly, but the image of the scene below continues to invade your mind. There’s no time.

As your about to stand, making your presence known, a hand tugs you back down. The other hand of the person instantly whipping around your mouth to prevent the squeal that comes out.

“It’s me, Mark.” A whispered voice says into your ear. He feels you relax against his body before letting go and you turn to face him. He looks stressed, His eyes are red, the veins popping out while his shirt’s covered in colours of blood and dirt. “What are you doing here?” Mark asks, tugging you to the back of the wall.

The men from downstairs continue talking, deep rumbles of laughter invading your ears.

“I-I got a call.” You’re so relieved to see Mark. Even in this situation, seeing him and knowing he wasn't hurt was reassuring, “What happened?”

“I can’t explain this now; you have to leave.”

“Where’s the others? A-are they okay?” You ask, desperate to know.

“They’re fine.” He tells you, “Y/N listen to me.” He grips onto your shoulders, turning you to face him properly, “Johnny and Haechan are outside near your car. You need to leave okay.”

“I can’t just leave!”

“We’ll take care of things here.”

“That guy called me here.” You tell him, “He’ll let them go if I talk to him.”

“That bastard.” He mutters underneath his breath.

You know there’s no chance things can end nicely in this situation and you weren’t prepared to let anyone die today. But knowing the boys for so long, there was no way they would bring you into this. You can hear Mark as he turns around to whisper to the wall, presumably informing Johnny and Haechan about the situation through the ear pierce.

This would be your only chance to go down there alone. You prayed Mark wouldn't be stupid enough to follow you. It would be pointless for him to reveal himself alone. While he continued mumbling into the earpiece, you took a deep breath, preparing yourself. Now or never right?

And then you stood up properly, and walked down the stairs.

“Y/N!” Mark lets out a hissed whisper in surprise, attempting to grab onto your wrist but fails.

The noises stop from downstairs as a larger built man sitting directly in front of Taeyong stands up. His eyes now trained on you. You recognised him by his face.

You’d walked into the meeting room one time and they’d forgotten to hide the photos sprawled out on the table. You picked up the photos along with the file on the table out of curiosity. The file contained more images, graphic ones. There was a photo of a boy, perhaps 4 or 5 years of age, lying in a pool of blood in an empty room. The words NCT stained onto the wall behind the child.

At the time all you could remember was crying. You had bawled you’re eyes out, terrified of the people you were surrounded by. The file slipped out of your hands and all the contents flowed out. You remember gathering everything in a scurry, wiping away the tears with the back of your hand simultaneously. All the images were of different angles in that room. Except one.

There was a photo taken of an older guy. He looked like he was in his mid-teens in the image but his facial features were very distinct, including the scar under his left eye which ran across half his face.

The guy staring at you, was him. Your mind went around in a frenzy, trying to piece together the possibilities of what he wanted with you. Why is he here?

“Well, hello there.” The guy greets, beaming a crooked smile from his position. Taeyong instantly whips his head around to follow his gaze. His eyes widen immediately, his mind gone completely blank seeing you here.

You stopped moving at the bottom step. Scared to get any closer to the man who was now slowly approaching you. You looked past him, meeting Taeyong’s eyes. For the first time since you met him, since he bought you into this family, he looked terrified. He was covered in blood and his face losing the usual bright colour in his complexion. Taeyong was the only one without a gag, but he was weak right now and it was obvious he would be with the bath of blood underneath his chair. He was barely conscious.

The others only stared at you, Jaehyun, Yuta and Jeno who were too shocked to move. Winwin who was barely conscious.

“Run Y/N.” Taeyong whispers out, his voice inaudible to where you are. The guy approaching you whips his head around to Taeyong, letting a little grin wash on his face before nodding to his men standing silently on the side.

You watch in horror as the guys gather around the members, kicking them from behind the knees causing them to collapse. The members can only growl as they struggle with the binds behind their backs and the fabric preventing them from talking. As one of the unfamiliar guy’s approach Winwin you realise he had fallen into an unconscious state.

“Don’t!!” You scream out, just as the guy’s foot swings into the air. The guy stops, everyone’s eyes now trained on you.

The leader chuckles, as the man in front of Winwin looks over at his boss, and then looks at you. The leader gives a little nod and the man steps back, leaving Winwin on the floor. Your heart drops and you can feel the air seep out of you.

“It’s nice to finally meet you Y/N,” the guy says, now just a metre away, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Can’t say I feel the same.” You mutter out, taking a step back up the stairs, to distant yourself.

The guy in front you laughs, taking another step closer. “I just want to talk.”

“Let them go and I’ll talk” You offer, watching his expression carefully.

He lets out a hum and you think for a second, he’s considering your deal, but the snicker following seconds later lets you know his answer. “How about we have a talk outside? Where there isn’t such a big audience?” He purrs, closing the gap between the two of you as he brushes away the fallen strands of your hair. You turn to face the side, not wanting to look into his intimidating gaze. But he brings a finger to your lips, forcing you to look up at him as he speaks, “Just the two of us.”

“Fuck off.” You spit out, your saliva hitting him in the face. He steps back in surprise, eyes shut as he chuckles to himself. His men in the room stand silently, shocked at your behaviour towards their leader.

“What a pretty bitch.” He laughs, wiping his face roughly. You step back too late, as he leans forward grabbing your jaw harshly.

“L-let her go or I’ll kill you.” Taeyong growls out, his voice still weak. Your hands are gripping at the guy’s wrist on your jaw, trying to fight your way free.

“You can try.” The man claims, turning around to face Taeyong.

“It wasn’t us.” Taeyong mutters out, his eyes closing shut as he tries to fight the pain from his gunshot wound.

“Really?” The guy asks, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He lets go of your jaw, stomping back towards Taeyong. “No one else knew about him except you Taeyong.” He spits out, jabbing a finger at Taeyong’s chest as he speaks. You watched as the guy visibly stats to shake, using more and more pressure as he jabs into the wound, “Only you knew him!”

For some reason, it seemed there was a deeper story between the two leaders, one which you had never learnt.

Mark who was still upstairs had called Johnny and Haechan in who were already at the back of the house for backup when you had gone downstairs. However, the three of them, now crouched at the railings, could only watch. Mark had called the members who were in the safe house, deciding they needed everyone to come to try even out the numbers at the very least before fighting back.

With just the three of them, there was no way they could win against the 15+ men downstairs. So all they could do was watch and wait, praying the members could hold on until then.

As the leader falls back onto his chair, exhausted at his outburst, you sneak a peek at the members’ injuries, finally being able to see the extent of damage from a much closer view.

Jaehyun seemed to be hiding his pain but the soft patter of blood droplets adding to the pool he was standing in needed to be attended to. Winwin was also losing too much blood and his unconscious state was making you panic. He needed help quickly, before it was too late. And there was also Taeyong’s physical state which was driving you insane.

It’ll be too late to save them if they stay like this for any longer.

“I’ll go with you.” You tell him, breaking the conversation between the leader and one of his men. You walk over to him, ignoring the blood splatters on the floor and the eyes of the members burning into you. “But we leave now. All your men in this house, outside the house, the ones watching us from afar. Everyone.”

He stands up, brushing off his pants and walks to stand in front of where you stopped.

“You’re a brave girl Y/N.” He leans in, tilting his head to the side so his lips are right at your ear, “But you don’t get a say in this situation baby, you’ll be coming with me anyway.” He moves back to watch your face fall, searching your eyes for the horror expressions he feed off.

But you’re not scared, not shaking, not doing anything that he was expecting.

“Please.” You beg him desperately, throwing away all the confidence you had before. He watches you, amused at the sudden change of attitude, but it's a nice thing for him. So he accepts your offer. His plan had only been altered slightly so there was nothing bad in it for him.

Originally he had told one of his men to be ready to knock you out and take you, leaving the members of NCT to watch as you were taken from them. But you just made his life easier by willingly going.

“Let’s go.” He commands, waving his hand at his guys to retreat. “We’ll listen to the princess’s demands.” He snatches hold of your wrist, dragging your feet to follow after him as he heads towards the front door. “After all, it’ll be more fun like this.” He laughs, directing his words to Taeyong.

The man guarding the door opens it, letting the leader step through as you trail behind, your eyes glued to the people in the living room.

You take a last look at everyone. The pleading eyes everyone was staring at you with. You knew Taeyong would probably go crazy mad for a few days. But you had faith. Faith that they would be okay now and faith that there would be a way for you to return home. ____

A/N: i really should edit this and I will edit this tomorrow but for now GOODNIGHT. <3

261 notes · View notes

voidselfshipp · 4 years

Text

Saved

Cw: violence, food

Ok to rb

It was late, she knew she shouldnt be out at this hour.

Yet here she was, a bag of food in her hand, another with her keys ready, her breath quickens as she feels the presence of someone behind her.

She had the strenght to take them, she knew she could defend herself.

But there is no worse enemy than fear, she speeds up, and the Man behind her also does.

Shes praying, seeing her appartment was two blocks away,trying to start running.

Another Man walks infront of her, she cant see his face,just a black and white mask, who as soon as she passes him gets infront of the stalker stopping him.

-- get out of my way, asshole-- the stalker said.

-- what where you doing following her?

She knew that voice,or well she heard it before,the moon shined as some clouds move away.

Rorschach...

She didnt think the anti-hero would be around this block, but thank goodness he was there.

The stalker resists and rorschach in a swift move makes him fall on the ground-- leave the woman alone-- his foot stomped on his chest-- go back to the hole that you crawled out of,you Filthy Scum!

The stalker freaks out and bolts running away from the anti hero.

He turns to face jerico,walking some steps towards her-- are you hurt? Did that bastard do anything to you?

--No, thankfully, thank you uh...for saving me...

--im happy to help, can I Scort you back to your home?

--yeah id love that...

Both walk togheter in silence, the appartment building was silent as ever, she says her goodbyes and enters the building.

Rorsarch, or well, Walter, sighs, scratching the back of his neck, the woman he saved was so beautiful, If she started talking while walking he wouldnt know how to react, hed get nervous, his face would heat up and wouldnt be able to utter a Word, surely making a fool out of himself.

He stuck around the block for a little longer, and Walked up the Fire scape stairs, he peeks his head and there she was, fifth floor, asleep on her bed, something curled up besides her, she rested soundly,and he lets out a loved full sigh, putting a hand on the locked Windows glass it started to rain, and he then sighed in annoyance.

And so he went back home,making sure he wasnt followed either.

He took routes nobody knew, he checked every corner and alley, nothing,no-one tailed Him to his home.

The door clicks Open, he locks it behind her and takes off his mask,breathing the fresh air.

Taking off his clothes changing into normal ones,leaving the others in his secret Office.

As he enters the kitchen hes greeted by this tiny pomerarian jumping at his feet, he picks the dog up and kisses its forehead-- hello princess,did you miss me?--the dog barks and he makes himself something to eat.

After dinner, altough, late dinner, he went to sleep,clinging to the pillow,thinking of the woman he saved.

And so, destiny kept making them meet, or more so, rorschach would always make sure shed be safe, even during the day.

Silently following her from a distance,oh how much he blushed when he heard her laugh, her sense of style, it knocked the breath out of him sometimes.

He wished he could do something,anything to talk to her, but he cowered every time.

One particular Day,she had it rough, when the day ended he saw her throw herself on the bed,and pass out shortly after.

Hed got her some chocolates and roses, left them there in her room as she forgot to lock the Window,he left them on her desk, silentely stepping out and closing the Window.

--Good night dear...--he smiled under his mask.

Jerico woke up by the licking of her pet dragon she sits up hugging him--mornin...

The dragon squeaks and she looks at the desk, finding the gift someone left for her, walking up to it she reads the note attached to the box of chocolates "I know you had it rough yesterday, I hope this helps, I know nobody gave you flowers before... I hope todays better.

-W "

Who could they be? How did they gor in there-- im...such...an...idiot-- she locked the Window and put the flowers in a base filled with water.

After eating breakfast she sat on bed, laptop on her lap, writing the next chapter of her second Fantasy novel.

Unkown to her, her savior did enjoy her first book.

Now rorschach wasnt a Man of fiction, but her writing was just so catching and interesting.

So here he was drinking coffee while Reading on his kitchen, princess sitting on the table eating her food.

He found out she was a writer when he snucked into her home and found the first book of her novel, "the clan of the Rose dragon" he decided to buy his own copy, and he was enjoying it very much.

That same night he did his patrol and stopped in jericos home.

There he was, hand on the glass, wishing he was there cuddling besides her, specially tonight,a very cold and rainy night.

-- are you gonna come in or Will you Keep there brooding

Seeing her Open her eyes while talking to him makes rorsarch jump back, she opened the window-- come on its cold outside

--i uh...didnt mean to bother you

Jeri chuckles-- nonsense, come on

He steps in taking off his trenchcoat, he sits on the chair right infront of her desk, she sits on the edge of the bed--thanks for making sure im always safe ror

He smiles at the petname,--just making sure that creep isnt around to harm you

She chuckles--y'know...I was thinking...I got some roses and chocolate the other week, did you get them for me?

Hes surprised,howd she knew?-- yeah...--he said scratching the back of his neck -- howd you figured?

-- well...youve been brooding in silence these nights...and the roses and chocolates...I just figured...I liked the detail, thank you

--im glad you like them...

Both stay in silence,he then looks outside and yawns.

--Want to stay the night? Its too late

He snapped his head to her -- what?

--want to stay the night? Its late, and youll catch a cold,cant have my savior sick -- she winks at him and he looks away with blush creeping up his cheeks.

--i uh..I dont wanna bother but...if you insist I can take the sofá

--no no..come here stay in the bed, its warm already, ill take the sofá in case you want to take your mask off, to give you privacy

Normally anyone would kill to see his face..but there she was, geniunly respecting such boundary.

--dont do that, ill take the sofa its your bed...besides I know I wont get too much sleep

She got into bed and patted the space besides her-- come here then,lets share

Hes taken back, jumping slightly in his Seat, blushing red, he was stuttering,she was so beautiful, he didnt know what to do with himself.

--i dont want to look like a creep, its your personal space

-- Its not being a creep if I invite you

He sighed in defeat and took his scarf and shoes off, he locks the Window and draws the courtains laying on the bed with her.

--Night ror-- she said her back facing his.

--night-- he whispered back looking at the bedrooms door.

The Next morning he woke up with breakfast on the nightstand, just a coffee and she made pancakes.

He ate the breakfast with the happiest and biggest of grins, he washed the dishes, hough the sun was already out, he stayed the whole day and at night he would go back home.

Both shared lunch and dinner, not too much speaking was involved, but her presence was soothing.

And now at night he was just about to leave,he hugs her tightly and whispers a soft goodbye.

She caresses his cheek-- come back tomorrow?..

His hand lifted her face by the chin--of course sweetheart --He caresses her Lower lip and presses his lips against her forehead, even while using his mask,the kiss was as if he didnt have the mask on.

He left back home missing her terribly, his lips longed for hers, to hold her, have her wrap her arms around his back...

Rorschach sighed in love, he loved her so much.

So the Next night he came back and as soon as he stepped into her room lifted her up, hugging her tightly and taking off his mask, at least up to his lips to kiss her.

She kissed back and pressed him against the wall where the Window is,he grippes the Windowsill with one hand, the other ghosted her Lower waist as her arms wrapped around his neck.

He parted his lips, she smiled pressing hers against his again, hugging her tightly he drops her to the bed where they cuddle the night away.

Its late, the rain hits the Window and the thunder struck the Sky.

She caressed his cheek, rorsarch sighed--can you promise me something?--he asked.

--Of course...what is it?--she asked leaning in.

--If I take this off, Will you Keep my identity a secret?

She nodded--of course,I adore you too much...id never snitch on you ror

He licked his lips at took the mask off, oh wait, she saw him before, he would follow her around the city,she always knew he was familiar to her in some way,never really knowing what seemed so familiar of him.

She kissed rorsarch holding him close, he hugs her tightly.

-- I love ya so much--he said hoarsely, kissing her again.

-- I love you so much too...ror

He smiled-- my names Walter...you can call.me Walter

She nodded and hid her face on the crook of his neck.

Theyd spend the night like that.

Theyd be okay togheter.

#f/o fic #cw violence #cw food #tw food #tw violence #🖤⬜you dont have to hide with me ⬜🖤

4 notes · View notes

hannahmcne · 4 years

Text

The Test of your Trial (Carlos vs Cruella)

Mal’s first official act as queen was to deliver Carlos’s court summons to him.

Carlos blinked at the envelope, studied the addresses written on the front, and then looked back up at her. “What’s this?” he asked.

Mal chewed on her lip. “It’s about your mother,” she said. “She’s been arrested and charged.”

Carlos blinked and his mouth fell open. Ben and Mal, in removing the barrier to the Isle, had acknowledged that many wrongdoings had occurred on the Isle that would need to be sorted out, but a majority of the villains were going without charges. Gaston had been charged for assault and rape, of course, and Jafar had had to pay a fine for making his son an accomplice to robbery and crime. Evie’s mother would serve community service for a few events that had happened while she was growing up and Mal’s mom… well, they’d just kinda let Maleficent stay a lizard. Hades had been completely pardoned for aiding Auradon. In most cases, the time they had served on the Isle negated the need for any jail time and Auradon was taking into account the fact that they hadn’t exactly served the villains and their children well and had inadvertently created a dystopic society. It hadn’t honestly occurred to Carlos that his mother would be called to a court as Auradon went through the hundreds of cases.

“What for?” Carlos asked. “Did she do something wrong?”

Mal’s eyes flicked down to the table. She’d asked Carlos to meet her in the Auradon Accelerated café where he was attending school. She’d hoped that would make the delivery easier. “Child abuse,” she breathed.

Carlos’s eyes grew even wider. “She’s not being acquitted?” he asked.

Mal shook her head. “Ben wants her to see a trial. He didn’t even finish reading the list of charges. He set it down after the first two and said she was going to stand.”

“What were they?” Carlos demanded.

“Mal drummed her fingers on the tabletop. Her lip was starting to go numb underneath her teeth. “They conducted an investigation of the house,” she began. “Found your old room and a few of her… toys. Also lists of chores and stuff like that. They tested a lot of the things in your room and found old blood and stuff like that. And, uh, I don’t know if you knew this, but the backyard area where she had you put the fire ashes…” Mal trailed off, still biting her lip as she examined Carlos.

“Yes?” Carlos asked.

“Bodies. Of children. They don’t know if they’re hers or not yet.” Mal ran a hand through her hair with an exhale. “I’m sorry, Carlos.”

“Bodies?” Carlos repeated with a choke. “No, no, they can’t be hers. Someone else must have put them there. I would have known.”

“The heat from the ashes preserved some of them pretty well,” Mal whispered. “I think Ben said that they have four bodies undergoing autopsies now. We’ll know by the time the court date rolls around.” She swallowed hard. “Sorry I don’t have much more information about it. Ben has taken on the case personally. He just asked if I would deliver this to you because… he thought it would come off easier from an old friend.”

Carlos exhaled and set the envelope down. “When is it?” he asked.

“Fourth of December,” Mal replied. “In three weeks.”

“Why so long?” Carlos asked.

“Because the investigation is still ongoing and because they wanted to give you some time to decide and to, well, prepare to speak. If that’s what you want.” Mal folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes. “Ben’s hand-picked the judge and the jury and set aside seats for everyone. It’s going to be public. He wants to know if you’ll speak against - or for her, if you want - by the first.”

“Sounds like he’s going to town,” Carlos sighed, sinking back into his chair.

Mal nodded. “He hasn’t taken up a personal case since Gaston’s came up, and that one only lasted a week.”

“He letting you help?” Carlos asked.

Mal shook her head. “Not this time,” she whispered. “Bias. But I’m still handling all the other cases from the Isle.”

Carlos nodded. “Is there… anything else?” he asked.

“Umm,” Mal closed her eyes to think. “One more small thing, I guess. Ben asked if, even if you don’t want to speak, if you’d be willing to go in for a physical. The palace would cover any expenses.”

Carlos hesitated, then nodded again. “I’ll think about it,” he whispered.

Mal got to her feet and slid a few bills onto the table to cover for the comfort food they’d ordered while sitting. “From Ben,” she whispered.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “Duh,” he snorted.

Mal gave him a little smile and then walked past him and out of the café, pulling a hood up over her hair as she left. Carlos heard the clicks of phone cameras as she left. It was still a little strange to think that Mal was grown up now, a wife and a queen, and no longer the vicious and delusional teen they’d all known.

He wasn’t the teen he once was either.

Carlos split the envelope open and began reading it. The official seal of Auradon was in the top right corner. The letter began “Mr. Carlos De Vil, you are hereby requested to join the prosecution of…”

He set the letter back down.

A slip of square paper was left in the envelope. He pulled it out and immediately recognized the over-the-top, fancy handwriting. “Carlos,” Ben had written. “I know this is hard for you, but I want to lay what happened on the Isle to rest. You deserve justice, as do the other children with cases like yours who will follow. Please consider it.”

Other children… Carlos set the leaflet down and exhaled. Of course Ben would take that route. Thinking of the big picture… advocating for all. He closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips to the bridge of his nose.

What was he going to do?

After twenty-two years on the Isle of the Lost, Cruella could barely fit into society anymore. Carlos had figured that at some point, she’d run into trouble with the law again. But he hadn’t realized it’d be for anything involving him. He’d moved forward with his life – he’d left the Isle behind him. Everything that had once happened… that had been a different him. A different time.

And here it all was again.

________________________________________________________________

“I’m here to see Cruella De Vil,” he mumbled as he produced his official ID and swallowed.

The guards examined the card and then gestured him forward through the metal detectors. It took a while to take off all his gloves and unload his phone and keys and watch and everything else, but then he was through and able to proceed. They summoned a guard to lead him through the holding cells.

The people behind the bars were all Auradonian. There weren’t many of them – Auradon had never been a very crime-ridden place. Most had sunken eyes and scraggly hair and yellowing skin. Even indigenous people with colored skin like Uma had yellow tones to their cheeks. Clear signs of drug use and health problems and general lack of sleep. Things Ben and Mal dealt with normally and would deal with once the Isle Cases were gone.

He was shown straight to his mother’s cell. Beside the door and behind enchanted glass was a small table with a desk and a place to speak through the glass. A chair was pulled up for him to sit down and he did as his mother glanced forlornly past the door and towards him. She got up and came to sit in front of him. His hands felt clammy and chilled.

“You’re pretty thin,” he said in lieu of a greeting as the guards walked away.

Cruella looked at her hands. They were bone-thin, with sagging skin and with dark marks stretching across her skin. The bags under her eyes could probably carry a marble or something. “Yes,” she sighed. “Age. Happens to everyone.”

“Are they taking care of you?” Carlos asked.

Cruella snorted. “Does Auradon ever take care of prisoners?” she asked.

“Not under Adam’s rule,” Carlos murmured. “But I’m told Ben changed tons of things. I wouldn’t know what it’s like to be a prisoner, but…”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Cruella agreed.

It was odd to be conversing with her like this. They’d never been able to carry a conversation before the barrier had come down. He’d introduced her to Jane in a series of bumbling descriptions and murmured names. Then they hadn’t seen each other and he’d heard through the grapevine that she was being placed in Auradon as Ben tried to evacuate the Isle in the build-up to the royal wedding and his and Mal’s honeymoon. But Carlos had been busy with school and then with applying for college courses, so he’d never looked into the rumors.

“What’s been happening?” he asked.

Cruella shrugged. “They went through the house,” she said. “And then came and said I was under arrest. What else is there?”

“Mal said that there were bodies in the backyard?” Carlos asked. Cruella blinked slowly. “You know about them, then?”

Cruella leaned back and drummed her nails against the desk on her side. Carlos closed his eyes. “Were they… did you know them? Or were they someone else’s?”

“Will you be testifying?” Cruella asked, avoiding the question with carelessness as she discovered a chip in her nails and began scratching and frowning at it. “Give me a file,” she demanded and Carlos pulled one out with mechanical compliance.

“Do you want me to?” Carlos asked.

Cruella snorted. “The king has it out for me,” she said. “I’m locked up either way. I’m sure he’d like to have you testify, though. Make you out to be an example. One of the ‘Core Four’ fighting against the abominable childhood he had.” She blew a bit of her hair out of her face. “I’ll need you to bring me things on court day. Hairspray, hair dye, a few other things. I’ll make a list.”

Carlos stared at her blankly. He didn’t know what he’d expected. An apology? A plea? She seemed almost indifferent – both to him and to her situation. As if she had won through loosing in the worst way possible.

He scooted forward. “Doesn’t it bother you?” he whispered. “You’ll never… you’ll never have your things again. The lampshades and the furs and everything. Aren’t you even a little sad?”

Cruella rolled her eyes. She did. Behind the glass where he could see them as if he couldn’t have said anything more ridiculous. “Oh pup, don’t be silly,” she chided and a chill ran down his spine. “You’re not asking whether I’ll miss my babies. You’re asking whether I miss you, and the answer is still no.”

Carlos got up. He pushed his chair back where it had come from and left without a goodbye. Cruella was not fazed by his departure. She wasn’t fazed by anything anymore, it seemed.

______________________________________________________________

Ben called on the morning of the trial. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

“I am,” Carlos responded, standing in his bathroom alone with his shirt off, looking at the old scars on his arms.

“Are you still okay to testify?”

“I think so.”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Carlos traced a long, old, ugly wound the stretched across his shoulder in the shape of a jaw. “I don’t think so,” he whispered.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. It was Ben waiting for him to continue. It was an emotional ploy he did without even realizing it – stay quiet long enough for the other person to get uncomfortable and start talking. Carlos didn’t feel like falling for it today. He stayed quiet until he heard Ben take a long and ragged breath on the other end of the phone.

“Hush,” he heard his friend murmur from a distance. It sounded like Ben had removed the microphone from under his mouth, but Carlos could still hear what he was saying. “Don’t do that,” he gasped. “I’m on the phone.”

“Is that Carlos?” Mal asked, sounding out of breath.

“Is that Mal?” Carlos asked. “You guys aren’t starting anything while you’re on the phone with me, right?”

“No!” Ben squeaked and a smile spread across Carlos’s mouth in spite of the day. “No, no, we’re not starting anything. Don’t worry.”

“Speak for yourself,” Mal mumbled as she got further and further from the mic.

“But you are good?” Ben asked. Carlos heard him kiss someone – probably Mal. “You’ll be okay?”

“Yes,” Carlos repeated. “I’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” Ben said. “Keep me posted.”

“I will.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye Ben.”

The phone line died, but not before he was treated to another one of Ben’s groans as Mal presumably began doing something wicked with him. Hopefully they managed to make it to court in time.

He stared up at himself in the mirror. A thousand disjointed images flashed before his eyes. What was he going to say? She would be right there – how could he prosecute against her?

But then again, how couldn’t he?

________________________________________________________________

She was led in without chains. Nothing holding her except for two guards who led her to the defendant’s table and helped her sit down. Carlos sat beside Ben and the lawyer the crown had hired to prosecute Cruella and couldn’t keep his eyes off his mother as she took her seat.

The room was circular with Ben’s hand-picked judge sitting on a raised dias. Cruella’s defendants were sat on the left side of the room in front of a half wall behind which the public had been invited to fill the area. On the right side was the prosecution, with Ben’s lawyer on the end, then Ben, Carlos, and the physician who had examined Carlos. Ben was currently leaning back into his chair. Mal, Evie, Jay, Jane and Belle were all sitting in the first row behind the prosecution and Mal was leaning forward to run her fingers through Ben’s hair and lean her cheek against his from time to time. They were still newlyweds by two months, so no one really expected less, but it meant Ben was distracted and not talking to him about what was about to transpire.

The room filled slowly. It took forever. Carlos felt like he might be sick as his classmates and teachers walked in to see what would happen. The jury, which was even farther to the left in its own little alcove, filled with dozens of different people from all sorts of jobs and statuses.

The judge called for attention. Ben himself got up to announce the prosecution and read through the summary of what they’re about to debate. Then he sat down and the lawyer stood up to read the evidence to the jury. There were long, long lists of things and stories that they’d collected from people. One story was about ‘an unnamed witness who built a place for Carlos De Vil to stay when his mother threw him out’ that he knew was Jay. Those stories were all substantial, though. Almost every child on the Isle had been thrown out at some point. Being beaten was somewhat common. No one could afford to feed their children, so neglect – voluntary or involuntary – was hard to pin.

It’s the examination of the house that Carlos was curious about.

The Lawyer finally began explaining what the police and detectives found when they went through Cruella’s Isle hideaway. He talked about elaborate places and expensive furs before they began talking about his bedroom. Carlos pictured it as they spoke. The spare coat closet with the furs he couldn’t touch and the pile of rags lying underneath the busted window where he slept. They probably found all his old, twisted wires and batteries from when he’d try to make things work. The lawyer talked about blood on the traps that were stored there and how it tested positive for human blood. He talked about the pieces of flesh and the bandage supplies hidden under his cot of rags. Then, he moved on to the most critical piece of evidence.

“The search also uncovered the bodies of six children in the backyard,” The lawyer announced and people stir. Some of them had fallen asleep – Carlos didn’t blame them – but they all perked up at the words “bodies in the backyard”. “All under the age of four,” the prosecutor continued. “The youngest being not even a few days old. All died of different causes. The oldest body, that of a two-year-old girl, was placed about thirty-months after the Isle was instated. She was killed with a bludgeon to the brain. A second four-month-old girl was strangled and buried under hot ash about a year later and a six-year-old boy with shattered limbs was discovered not far from her grave. We believe the boy must have died from the traumatic injury months before Carlos De Vil was born. One young toddler with damaged lungs was also recovered, her body having been placed sometime after the four-month old’s, and a stillborn baby was recovered from the corner of the yard. The last was that of a three-week-old baby girl whose neck was snapped back.”

“What are the identities of the children?” the judge asked.

“All were children of Cruella De Vil,” the prosecutor said. “We believe she killed her own children, either through accident or malicious intent, over the years.”

There was a stir throughout the room. Carlos turned to stare at Ben. “You didn’t tell me that,” he gasped.

Ben shook his head. “Didn’t want to,” he said with guilt in his tone. Mal was leaning forward with one hand on the wall and Ben was leaning against her hand for comfort. He was holding her other hand over his shoulder. Carlos didn’t understand – they acted like they were in pain all the time when they had to be apart. Newlyweds.

There was more evidence – more descriptions regarding the gruesome way the six children – Carlos’s older brother and sisters – died, but Carlos tuned it out in favor of shock and focusing on what was about to happen.

He was finally called to the stand.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” a man asks, holding a book of law for Carlos to swear on.

“I do,” Carlos nodded.

Ben’s lawyer and Ben have a quick discussion/escalating argument/fight and then the lawyer sits down and Ben gives Mal one last squeeze before getting up. Ben has a degree in law that he received alongside his graduation diploma and is, as such, able to question a witness without a major problem. Also, he’s the king who brought down the barrier to the Isle of the Lost and married the daughter of Maleficent, who had dragon-shapeshifting powers. At this point, he can do whatever he wants. All at nineteen. What a winner.

“Carlos,” Ben began, clapping his hands together in the same way he does whenever he wants everyone’s attentions. “Will you tell us about your mother?”

It was a very general question for a very specific reason. Ben wanted to know the scope of what Carlos was willing to share and then target the most important parts.

“She and I were never quite close,” Carlos started. “Growing up, I was there to do most of the chores. Like most other Isle kids, I was beat and hit and sometimes left outside.”

“Did you feel that Cruella cared for you?” Ben asked softly. Carlos felt his throat swelling up. Trust Ben to ask these hard-hitting questions.

“No,” he said. “She didn’t. She told me so.”

Ben exhales and steps forward to be closer to Carlos. “Carlos, was there every any other people living in the house with you and your mother?”

“No.”

“And you were unaware of the bodies in the backyard?”

“I first learned about them when Mal invited me to be part of this prosecution.”

“Taking those children into consideration, did your mother ever threaten you?”

Carlos’s hands shook even though he was doing nothing with them. “A few times,” he agreed and his voice cracked. “Almost every day, actually. Most of the time with small things, though. She told me I’d get locked out if I didn’t finish chores or that she’d b-hit me. Or that I would go hungry. Stuff like that. Normal stuff.” He flinched away from his own words as people in the audience exchanged looks. It is not always that he remembers it is not normal to abuse children in Auradon.

Ben tilted his head. “Did she ever threaten to kill you?” he asked.

Carlos swallowed hard. The memories are flashing in front of his eyes and cold sweat is dripping down his forehead. “Yes,” he agreed.

“Tell me a time,” Ben requested. Carlos closes his eyes.

“I…” he stammered off and then cleared his throat. “I came back late with Mal, Evie, and Jay. Someone had broken into the house while I was gone and had stolen a bunch of things. She was furious. She called me a thief and demanded I make restitution for not protecting the house. She said I had a week to make it all up or she would… well, she would kill me.”

Ben knew Carlos. They were good friends. Still, he glanced back at Mal and Jay and Evie to make sure it’s okay to keep asking before he said: “Is there anything else you want to tell me about that time? Specifics… how old you were?”

“I was thirteen,” Carlos nodded. “I turned thirteen the next week. And… she specifically said she would use my stomach to hang me up in the streets.”

The defense attorney pinched the bridge of his nose.

Ben nodded and stopped wringing his hands. “Carlos, were you ever hurt by your mother?”

The question made him freeze up. How could he possibly tell one? So many different instances came to mind. “Yes,” was all he could think to say. “But we all were.”

“Strike that from the record,” Ben requested, addressing the judge. “It’s irrelevant to the case and generalization.”

“So stricken,” the judge agreed.

“Carlos,” Ben called, walking a little closer. “You know I want the best for you. And for all of the Isle kids, correct?”

“Objection!” The defense attorney raised his hand. “You are leading the witness.”

The judge nodded and gave Ben a firm look. Ben nodded, took a deep breath, and then focused on Carlos. “Bearing in mind the others who will come after you and how you may feel when this is all over, is there anything in particular you wish to tell the jury?”

Carlos glanced at the jury. He glanced at his mother. He focused on Ben. Honest, hard-working Ben who was going to be elbow-deep in child abuse cases from the Isle of the Lost for the next five years, if he was lucky. He swallowed and ran a thumb over his index finger.

“There are a lot of things,” he mumbled. “Things I pushed out and grew up through. Most of the time, they just come back in pieces.” He reached up and squeezed his own shoulder before sliding the neckline of the red and black t-shirt he was wearing down. The scar in the shape of a bite was revealed and he watched several jury members take deep breaths.

“There was a cat,” he recalled. “One that accidentally came over with the ships. A cat that was black with poufy fur and one dead eye. She locked it in a room and left it there for two days until it was feral with hunger. Then she threw me in. It got my eye… I couldn’t see but I somehow managed to smash it into the wall. It bit me here and I obviously still have the marks.”

He reached down and lifted his leg up onto his thigh to trace his calf. “They’ve already talked about my room… it was a spare closet where she hung her old furs and left all these old bear traps… things you step on and they take off your leg. When I was seven, I triggered one, but it didn’t go off all the way. It mangled up my leg and I couldn’t walk. Jay happened to walk past my window, heard me calling for help, and snuck in to sneak me out. I couldn’t walk for almost four months and I had a limp until I turned twelve. She used to follow me around the house, screaming because I couldn’t walk straight and I couldn’t move as fast.”

Carlos combed his fingers through his head and found a bald spot. “She burned a ‘C’ into my head,” he announced and pulled his hair aside to show them. “She found a curved piece of metal and held it into the fire for a few hours.” He let his locks fall back into place. “I just… never understood it. I felt like it was normal punishments, even if my friends never went through the same stuff. And I understood that I was in danger, but she always made it feel as if it was my fault.”

“How would you describe your situation?” Ben asked.

“I was trapped,” Carlos replied. “Trapped until you took me away. I was living a life where she would never be proud of me and I would always be trying to make her proud of me.”

“Can you expand on that, please?” Ben asked. “Specifically, why do you believe she couldn’t be proud of you?”

“Because she hated me,” Carlos said and a weight lifted off his chest. The words began to come faster, as if he’d finally unlocked them. “She told me every day that she hated my guts and I knew it. It was just a truth… we grow up knowing that the grass is green and that food fills you… I knew that my mother hated me and I was only around to keep the house. I knew that one day, I would die, and it would probably be by her hand, and I was never sure if I wanted it or not because I thought it might be easier to be dead.”

Tears burned his eyes, but he pressed onwards as they came rolling down his cheeks. “She tried to murder me once, when she was drunk. In one hand she had a busted bottle of champagne… in the other a fire poker. She threw a heavy fur on me and tried to beat me through it. I think she was drunk. I passed out in my own blood. And when I woke up, I cried because I was awake and alive and I knew I had to clean up my own mess of vomit and blood before she saw it or she would do it all over again. I cried because I didn’t want to do the cycle again. I wanted to stay asleep so she couldn’t hurt me.”

Carlos had never known silence to be as quiet as if was in the courtroom as Ben pulled a box of tissues off the stand and handed them to Carlos. “No further questions,” he murmured, only loud enough for the judge and Carlos to hear, before he went to go sit down in his seat. Mal’s hand immediately tangled into his hair and she slid up to kiss the skin at the nape of his neck. Carlos looked down the line at his friends. Poor Jane was crying just as bad as he was.

The judge directed her attention to Ben’s attorney. “Any further questions?” she asked. He shook his head. “The defense may begin their cross-examination.”

Surprisingly, the defense team didn’t try too hard with him. They fired off a few things about where and when things had happened, but when they couldn’t trip him on the first few items they simply gave up. He was allowed to sit down and they began to fire statistical arguments at the jury. “This woman has served twenty-two years in prison and in an area that was not secured by Auradon government. How can we hold her to standards in a place where the law did not exist?” But it was clear that even Cruella’s defense thought she should be locked away. Hardly anyone listened to their lawful reasoning.

The jury left to make their decision and Cruella turned around to ask one of the people behind her for a comb. Carlos watched her fluff up her hair from a distance. He put his head down on the table until the jury walked back in. The entire decision had taken less than ten minutes.

Carlos listened to her be pronounced guilty and sentenced to life. Cruella seemed unfazed. She didn’t even glance his way. He didn’t understand. He had just helped put her away. Could she at least spare him that?

The court adjourned and people began walking away. Guards came to cuff her and put her behind bars. Without even realizing what was happening, Carlos was jumping over the table and running to break their path. “Mom,” he snapped, the word foreign on his tongue. “Look at me.”

Cruella rolled her eyes. “Why?” she asked.

“Don’t you understand?” Carlos demanded. “You’re going to prison. For life. And I put you there. Don’t you want to glare? Or be upset?”

Cruella’s cold, uncaring eyes skimmed over him. “What’s the point?” she asked. “I don’t owe you another thought and don’t think I give things away for free.”

And they walked by him.

She’d looked at him. He could feel those cold eyes like hands dragging him down.

________________________________________________________________

“What should I have done?” He asked Ben as they all crowded into the dark end of a restaurant. “I mean… she was right there.”

“I think you did wonderfully,” Ben said, dropping an arm around his bride. Her hair was covered so as not to draw paparazzi attention. “You don’t owe her anything.”

“I feel like I do,” Carlos snorted with a disbelieving laugh. “You know… she asked me for a nail file when I went to visit her and I just… did it. Because that’s my job. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“I do that,” Evie mumbled down the table. “My mom called and said she was out of mascara and I was down to the car before I realized that I have a life now and I don’t need to go help her all the time.” She sighed and sipped the smoothie she’d ordered. “I mean, I still went to help her, but it was just an automatic response. I need to work on it.”

“I think it’s just something you do for people,” Jane whispered. “You and Evie.”

“What about us?” Mal raised an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Ben began to laugh. “If someone asks you to do something, you’re all like: ‘why’, ‘what are you gonna give me?’”

“Whatever, Ben.” Mal scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Hey Mal,” Jay smirked. “Can I see your phone? Need to look something up.”

Mal sneered. “Use your own,” she snapped, then blinked and began to laugh when she realized Evie and Carlos had both reached for their phones to offer up sacrifice to Jay. The two teens blushed and put their phones back.

“I guess that’s right,” Carlos agreed, laughing a little. “It just felt different in the moment because I just… reacted. And it was such a small thing, but I’ve been so worried about testifying. Like… if she said not to talk about something, would I have?”

“Did she say not to talk about anything?” Mal asked.

“No,” Carlos shook his head. “She said she’d get me a list of things she wanted me to bring to court, but it never arrived. She didn’t even talk to me at all during court… barely even looked at me on the way out.”

Mal shook her head, “What a-“

“Don’t swear,” Ben cut her off. “You need to get into the habit, remember? Our publicist will go insane if you keep cussing during interviews.”

“Whatever,” Mal scoffed. “Just think of it this way, Carlos. Now she’s in a place where they’ll take care of her and you’re not required to go see her or do anything. If you do go, she can’t touch you and you can’t bring things into her anyways. This is just your way of gaining more control of your relationship with her.”

Carlos stayed silent for several seconds, swirling his straw in his soda pop. Everyone waited patiently for his response. “I like that,” he said at last. “I guess… I just have a little bit more control over how much control she has of me.”

“And that,” Ben picked up his drink and bumped it against Mal’s head with a sly grin on his face, “is something worthy of a toast. To Carlos!”

Everyone else picked up their glasses as well. “To Carlos!” Was echoed a bit too loudly around the restaurant. Patrons glanced over, and Carlos found himself blushing. Ben swung back the entirety of his drink in one go and dropped the glass with a thud before he and Jay joined up to squish Mal between them as hard as they both could. She squealed and, with one arm each (the remnants of her strength from the Isle) pushed them aside. Ben grabbed her arm and Jay began to help wrestle her down to tickle her.

“By the way,” Ben announced. “I’m paying tonight.”

“Way to flash your money at everyone, Ben,” Evie rolled her eyes.

Carlos laughed along with everyone as Mal squealed and tried to wrestle away from Ben and Jay’s joint attacks. Everything that had happened suddenly seemed very far away.

Notes:

#descendants #disney descendants #auradon #isle of the lost #carlos de vil #descendants carlos #cruella de vil #son of cruella #king ben #descendants ben #trial #child abuse #court #fanfic

44 notes · View notes

hedwigstalons · 4 years

Text

High Expectations - Ch15

Yup, this beast is still going and still growing. Life sapped my energy so it has been a lot longer between updates than I would have liked but I’ve been experimenting with writing out of sequence to make use of whatever creativity I can grasp. The plus side of this is that ch16 is in the editing stages and ch17 is also half written. But anyway....it’s taken a while but here is ch15 in the saga that has become affectionately termed ‘Bad Jeff’.

@willow-salix has been wonderful at helping be fix the plot holes and pick out the parts where I contradicted myself. I now have a proper timeline though (funky multicoloured spreadsheet and everything) so I shouldn’t tie myself in knots so much with the boys ages and milestones.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Fifteen

The incoming call notification had Virgil scrambling for his phone, fumbling with the handset while trying to swipe a call accept icon that suddenly seemed too small and fiddly to be practical. It took him three hasty attempts before managing to complete the action correctly, allowing him to finally speak to the brother who had been frustratingly out of contact. Scott had been in LA for three days and Virgil was now desperate for news but he had promised he wouldn’t interfere lest he call at the wrong moment and inflame matters further. It had been a nail-biting wait, forcing himself to be patient and trust Scott to call when he could.

“Scott, how is it?” It took him a moment to register that the face on the screen wasn’t Scott’s despite what the caller ID proclaimed. “Gordon?” He was surprised to see a younger brother rather than an older one.

“Don’t sound so pleased to see me.” There was an air of the old teasing Gordon making a slow return.

“Sorry. Of course I’m pleased to see you,” and he genuinely was, the face that looked back at him was still too thin and pale for comfort but the hair was clean again and the eyes had lost their haunted glaze, “I just wasn’t expecting it. Where’s Scott?”

“He’s here too.” The scene on Virgil’s screen shifted quickly as the handset at the other end was spun round to reveal its rightful owner who gave a little wave. “He said he was going to call you so I asked if I could go first.”

“Well, how are you?”

“I’m....okay.” Virgil had made him promise in the past not to lie about how he was feeling, it was one of the reasons he had been pulling away; it didn’t count as lying if you just omitted the truth. “It’s been a strange few days.”

“I’ll bet.”

“For a start I’ve found out that flyboy over there gets ever so twitchy if anyone else is at the controls of a plane. You’d best hope you never have to take him as a passenger in that bumble bee of yours if it ever gets off the drawing board. Or was it more like a turtle, that beast was green wasn’t it?” The look of fear that crossed Virgil’s face would have been comical if it wasn’t so genuine and Gordon was given the sudden reminder that, as far as Virgil was concerned, he wasn’t meant to know about their father’s vision. He was quick with his reassurances. “It’s okay, Dad told me about his rescue plans”

“He still won’t tell Alan though” Scott called out from across the room, “Dad has taken him out to fetch ice cream so we can talk freely for a few minutes.”

“Ice cream?”

“Yeah, I think he’s just trying to cover some of his own guilt. He’s still no Dad of the year though.” Scott's tone was derisive and Virgil could tell that tensions must still be running high. “He’s going to have to tell him sooner or later, he can’t just spring it on the kid that he is being dragged out of school and shunted across the world when the island move happens.”

“What, you mean like he gave us time to prepare for the move to LA?” Gordon snorted. “I don’t know about you guys but me and Alan didn’t exactly get much warning when we left Kansas.”

This surprised the older two who had known all about the plan, the many arguments were etched in their memories. In this case the problem child had been John. Scott had been making the transition from university to the Air Force and Virgil had been busy preparing for his studies at Denver but John had been on a path that didn’t align with their father’s business plans. The fifteen year old, with a coveted place at Harvard nearly in his grasp, had begged to stay so he could finish high school without interruptions; he had worked hard to stay two grades ahead of the curve and an inter-state move could undo it all. Of course letting John live alone had been out of the question, and Jeff had not been prepared to delay the move, leading to flares of temper and defiance that none of them had realised the middle child was capable of. It was only when Grandma stepped in, offering to return from New Mexico to become custodian of the farm and care for John during that final year that their father relented. With all of the concerns over John and his university dreams it hadn’t occurred to either of them that the youngest two hadn’t been told about the move. Evidently their father’s policy of ‘need to know’ was long running.

“Don’t worry Gords, Scott and I will make sure that Alan gets told. If Dad’s idea happens, and knowing Dad it probably will, Alan won’t just have another move sprung on him. I promise.” There was sincere honesty in those deep brown eyes and Gordon gave a subtle nod of thanks. “So tell me everything that has been happening over the last few days.”

Gordon recounted everything that had happened since Scott’s arrival, prompted by said older brother if he missed anything out. Virgil winced at the revelations. Even with the sanitised highlights he could tell that the last few days had been an emotional rollercoaster. In some cases the revelations were beyond his worst fears and he couldn’t help feeling proud of his little brother who had been living through harder circumstances than any of them had imagined.

“Which brings us to today,” Gordon brought the tale up to the present, “Dad’s decided I need to learn to fly seeing as this island he’s chosen isn’t exactly on the commercial air routes. Alan’s going to start learning too; Dad wasn’t happy about that idea but Scott reminded him that he started learning at Alan’s age. You should have seen him up there, Alan is an absolute natural.” Gordon’s voice glowed with pride at the achievements of his little brother.

“You didn’t do badly yourself” Scott cut in from across the room.

“So why were your knuckles white the whole time?”

“Hey, as you said, I just like being the one in control. It was no different when Dad was piloting and he’s clocked up more flight hours than the rest of us put together.”

“I can just imagine it” Virgil snorted, “you should’ve seen him supervising John when he was learning to drive.”

Gordon glanced across at Scott who had visibly paled at the memory, before turning his attention back to Virgil. “So yeah, I’ve now got to fit in pilot training and exams around getting back up to strength for WASP selection.”

“And WASP is definitely what you want? You aren’t just going along with it so you can get away from Dad? I know you’ll be able to do it, but please don’t enlist unless you’re really sure.”

Gordon wasn’t sure if that was the concerned older brother or the family pacifist speaking; WASP was still military after all and Virgil had made no secrets of his thoughts in that direction. But equally Virgil knew how stubborn he was and how he would never back down from a challenge and had managed to resolve his difference with Scott over the Air Force so he chalked the questions up to brotherly concern.

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s a good life Virg, something I can really make a career out of and the opportunities for officers…”

“Officer?” This definitely surprised the distant sibling. The widened eyes elicited a slight blush from Gordon.

“Um, yeah, that was Scott’s idea.” He was still having a little trouble reconciling himself to the notion that he was cut out to lead.

“Not just my idea” said brother called out from his perch on the bed, “the Marineville lot wanted to transfer you to officer training too. This time round you’ll just be applying for the officer steam from the beginning.”

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Gordon shot Scott a glare of mock indignation, earning a chuckle from Virgil “it’s a good life. And yes, this time I’ll be trying out as an officer. I’ll have to redo the aptitude tests, different benchmarks and all that, but we’ve been looking into it and my scores were already at the right level. There’s just one additional aptitude test for officers that I never took before. I’ve tried an online practice test and did ok so I should be alright. I’m booked in to take it for real in a fortnight. After that it’s selection at Marineville again and then hopefully I’m in. It’ll take a few months but by the summer I should have my first posting. The officer intakes don’t happen as frequently as junior ranks so I’ve got time to train.”

“You seem to have it all mapped out and not a college course in sight.”

“Nope. Thanks, both of you. It’s...it’s been a hard few months and I couldn’t see a way out of it all.”

There was a noticeable slump in Gordon’s posture and the light went out of his eyes as the memories of his recent trials flooded back in. It broke Virgil’s heart to see how on a knife edge his brother still was and he knew he and Scott would need to keep a close eye on their younger sibling for a long while yet. At least Gordon had a goal to work towards again; they both knew his steely determination and drive to succeed. Once he had set his sights on a challenge nothing would stop him, the Olympics had proved that.

“Any time. And don’t be a stranger. If Dad starts getting on your case again or you just need to talk to someone you know where I am. I’ve been told my couch is pretty comfy too if this new schedule of training and flying lessons allows you any time off.”

“Admit it, you just want me back for my cooking” Gordon smirked.

“Maybe…” Virgil gave his best puppy dog eyes, eliciting a chuckle from both his brothers.

Any further chatter was interrupted by the sound of the apartment door crashing open, announcing the return of Jeff and Alan from the grocery store, followed by Alan’s shouts that if they didn’t get out there quick there would be no chocolate chip left for them. Both knew better than to treat this as an idle threat so with a hurried goodbye to Virgil they departed to claim their portions.

xoxoxox

Life soon settled into a new routine. Jeff still rarely made it back for dinner, they couldn’t expect miracles over night, but he was getting better at being home before Alan went to bed at least. Gordon suspected that had something to do with the ‘discussion’ Scott had with Jeff the night before he returned to his Air Force base. The voices that drifted through the firmly shut study door had shown a flare of temper from both sides and Gordon had been grateful Alan was already in bed and so not around to witness the argument. It was just as well Tracys were good at putting on a front, by the morning of Scott’s departure the tension had been firmly suppressed and Alan had been able to say goodbye to his eldest brother without any hint of bad feeling spoiling the moment.

Where life before the Olympics had been a mix of school and swimming, so life for Gordon going forwards became a mix of physical training and flight theory with time in the air thrown in at the weekends. He passed the WASP officer aptitude test easily enough but the next available selection course date wasn’t until after his birthday, leaving him with several months to focus on gaining the appropriate endorsements on his pilot’s licence to allow him to transport himself to and from his father’s intended island base.

Gordon wasn’t bad at flying but he didn’t possess the raw natural talent of his youngest sibling. He was competent and thorough with a steady hand but he couldn’t miss the looks of pride Jeff directed towards Alan as yet again the youngest of the family performed a manoeuvre as if he had been at the control yoke since birth. It didn’t stop at looks either, all too often Gordon found himself on the receiving end of an unfavourable comparison only this time it was against his younger brother as opposed to his older ones and the arena was cockpit rather than classroom performance. Evidently, for Jeff, old habits were hard to quell.

This time though Gordon wasn’t facing his troubles alone. Scott would check in with him occasionally until an overseas posting took him out of contact but Virgil was his real lifeline. Virgil made sure there was never more than a week between calls and often the gaps were smaller if he sensed Gordon slipping back and becoming more distant. The brother who had taken on the role of counselor seemed to have an uncanny intuition when it came to Gordon’s mood.

The extended time around his father however was still proving difficult and Gordon found himself eagerly boarding a flight to Denver to catch a much needed break.

As ever, Virgil was there to meet him at the airport.

“Good flight?”

“It was ok.”

“Not tempted to crash the cockpit then?”

Gordon just rolled his eyes and carried on out to the taxi ranks. To his surprise though Virgil directed the cab to take them to the smaller private airfield out of town rather than the apartment.

“Sorry Gords” he got in response to his querying look. “You know Dad said you gotta keep up your air time and this was the only runway slot I could get.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the deal.” One of the conditions of a weekend with Virgil was that he got some time in the sky to make up for the lesson he was missing with his father. “Are you alright with me taking up your baby?”

“I trust you” Virgil shrugged. He wasn’t quite as in love with and overprotective of his plane as Scott was of his, but neither was he going to let on to Gordon that he had had a long and in depth discussion with their father about Gordon’s ability and competence before he had agreed to help with Gordon’s pilot education.

Gordon always thought it odd that Virgil had a plane but didn’t bother to run his own car, although the longer he spent in the air the more he could see the appeal. Scott of course had always loved flight and it was no surprise to anyone that a big proportion of his allowance went on maintaining a craft that screamed billionaire playboy. Virgil’s choice was more subtle and practical, if operating your own private plane counted as practical; perfect for hopping around the country from his central base in Denver to visit family on his own schedule. Despite also being in possession of big enough allowance to afford it John had neither car nor plane having declared that flying commercial was much more sensible for his main coast to coast journey and he wasn’t one for pleasure flying; he was much more interested in what lay outside the atmosphere, far beyond the reach of a mere plane.

At the airfield Virgil maneuvered his little hopper out of the hanger he stored her in and then passed control over to Gordon.

“Go on then, show me what you can do” Virgil prompted after giving Gordon a quick rundown of the specific take off speed and other essential details he would need to operate the plane safely. He settled back in the co-pilot's chair, exuding a calm confidence despite itching to keep his hands on the controls; Gordon might be his brother and Jeff had given assurances that all would be well but Virgil was still uncomfortably aware that he has supervising an unlicensed novice pilot.

His fears were soon dispelled once Gordon started going through the motions in textbook fashion including performing his own pre-flight checks despite having watched those same checks being performed just a few minutes earlier. A short burst down the runway and they were up in the air. It wasn’t graceful and Gordon lacked the finesse that came with experience but Virgil was pleasantly surprised at the amount of progress Gordon had made in such a short space of time.

The problem with flying though is that unless you are practicing something like aerobatics then just keeping a plane in the air is actually pretty easy, it’s the take off and landing that takes skill. They weren’t making a journey so there was no real navigation to do beyond avoiding the restricted airspace and corridors used by the commercial flights and the weather was clear so flying by instruments was unnecessary. All in all it was a thoroughly untaxing lesson, allowing them to relax and enjoy the time together.

“So how’s your project going?” Gordon asked as he banked to avoid flying directly over a village.

“It’s okay. I’m on track to be done by the summer.”

“What will you do after that? Move back to LA or stay out here?”

“Neither, hopefully.” Gordon gave his brother a questioning glance of surprise. “Got to get space rated for Dad’s project. Me and John’ll be heading out to Tracy College for that, just waiting for confirmation of a course place.”

“Space rated?” He had realised John would need to undergo astronaut training in preparation for life on a space station but most of the project specifics were still a mystery to him.

“Yeah. Someone’s got to be able to play taxi service for John and I might need to take a rotation on call monitoring; he can’t live off planet forever.”

“Sounds like plans are really coming together for it. Does this mean Scott will need to get space rated at Tracy College too?”

“Scott…” There was a heavy pause and Gordon took his eye off the sky to regard his brother. Virgil’s brow had furrowed into a frown and when he spoke again there was a heaviness that told of hidden arguments. “Scott isn’t joining, he’s sticking to the Air Force.”

This surprised Gordon. In the few conversations he had had with his father about the project, usually confined to a cockpit where Alan couldn’t overhear, Scott was talked about like Virgil was, as a committed member of the team. His role as first responder and pilot of the envisioned rocket plane had been presented in terms of undisputed fact. No wonder the topic made Virgil look stormy, he was a peacemaker and if Scott wasn’t fitting in with their father’s vision Gordon could imagine that the arguments had been many and explosive.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

“So what’s going to happen there? Surely you can’t manage with just the three of you?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think there is a contingency plan but Dad seems so sure Scott’s going to change his mind and do it. They’re both as stubborn as mules though and neither wants to give up their dream. It’s a good project, the tech looks amazing and we could really save lives. I can see Scott’s point though, he’s made a life for himself away from Dad and, well, you know yourself what Dad can be like for giving orders.”

Gordon knew all too well what it felt like to be on the receiving end of those orders, particularly when they were at odds with your own plans. At least Scott had the advantage of physical distance as a buffer to the disapproval and if push came to shove, if Jeff cut Scott off as punishment, the Air Force pay was enough to live on even if it meant Scott had to change his lifestyle to suit the lower budget.

Gordon made the final approach back towards the airfield, diverting the full attention of both brothers to monitoring the landing. As with the take off it wasn’t polished and it wasn’t pretty but it was safe and Virgil found himself once again admiring just how far his brother had come in such a short space of time. He wondered if, given time, Gordon would join the team. Jeff hadn’t made any mention of Gordon taking on a role in the rescue organisation, even if he was now allowed to know of its existence, but there was no denying that having an extra pilot on books could only be a good thing. Maybe one day he and Gordon would fly together, the more time he spent with his brother the more he enjoyed the company although, Virgil reflected, if they were to fly as a team he would be happier if Gordon took the co-pilot’s position.

With the plane back on the ground and safely returned to her berth in the hangers Virgil pushed all thoughts of Gordon joining the rescue business out of his mind; unless their father issued the instruction there was no point even considering the option. And anyway, Gordon was heading off to the military like Scott had so who knew if he would even want to join the project. Better to just let their father know that the required flying lesson had gone without a hitch then settle back to enjoy the weekend.

#High Expectations #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Gordon Tracy #Jeff Tracy #Virgil Tracy #Scott Tracy #brothers looking out for each other #military careers

25 notes · View notes