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quietmyfearswith · 4 years

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when you’re insecure ; preferences

warnings — body/weight insecurities, swear words, mentions of death, bit of angst??? bit of fluff???

characters — andy barber, steve rogers, ransom drysdale, jake jensen, bucky barnes, lance tucker, carter baizen, syverson, will shaw, august walker

a/n — so i read @gotnofucks’ drabble about how certain characters would react when the reader calls herself ugly and was inspired to write something similar to that ❤️ dont forget that you guys are beautiful and worth it!

their love language | with their little

masterlist

The utensils hitting the dishes was the only sound heard as Y/N and Andy ate in silence. The latter stealing glances at the girl; for he felt that there was something wrong. “I’m done eating,” Y/N declared, as she placed her hands under her chin and looked at Andy. Midbite, the lawyer had to pause and worriedly looked at her, “What’s wrong, honey?” Even though Y/N had an idea of what he wanted to know, she shrugged as she convinced him, “Nothing’s wrong.” Swallowing down his food, he was able to talk to her , “Honey, I know you well enough to know that there’s something going on in that beautiful mind of yours and a reason as to why you ate quickly.”

Feeling his warm hand grab onto hers, it was his silent way of coaxing her into confiding in him; that he was more than willing to listen to what she had to say. Taking a deep breath, she unconsciously found her hand squeezing Andy’s — as if finding the courage to say what’s bothering her. “I just don’t feel good,” she admitted, and before Andy could further pry for information she continued, “Like I’m gaining weight and it’s making me look ugly?” Shoulders sagging, Y/N sound defeated as she dismissed her own revelation, “It’s stupid I know, but you didn’t need to hear that.” Disagreeing with what she said, Andy rapidly shook his head, “It’s not stupid if it’s disappointing you,” Y/N could only offer a small smile with what he said, “If you feel as if the changes happening to your body are making you ugly, then I’m not doing my job to make you feel confident and beautiful.” She wanted to protest and say that there was nothing Andy could do to remedy the situation; but she knew better than to interrupt him when he was using his “lawyer” voice and reasoning. Lifting her hand up, he planted a kiss on her knuckles as he comforted her, “You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and I’ll do everything in my power to make you feel and see it. You may not like the changes you see, but I think it just makes you even more breathtaking.”

“It was absolutely crazy to see how Ilsa was more than willing to jump out of the chopper even though she knew her parachute was faulty,” August laughed out loudly upon recalling the events of the mission he’s just been to. They both were sitting on the couch, a glass of wine rested on Y/N’s hand while the other curled itself in August’s toned arm. Gulping down his beer, he shook his head as he once more at the recollection of what happened; upon seeing how the memory had such a positive impact on him, there were two thoughts lingering in her mind. The first one was that it was great to see August relaxed and happy. However, the envious part in her considered that perhaps she couldn’t always provide him with this joy — perhaps Ilsa could? “She really seems like a real package then huh?” Turning his head to her, August chuckled a bit even though the comment made him wonder with what she meant, “Yeah I guess you can say that.”

“Do you see you see yourself with someone like her?” If his confusion was just at the down low, August’s confusion could now be visibly translated through his furrowed eyebrows and shocked face, “What?” The simple question was just the surface of a web of follow-up questions he had, but he figured the time he spent with Y/N made her understand that he had a lot of questions that needed to be answered; and she did know what the simple question meant. “It’s just you seem so fascinated with Ilsa, so maybe she’s someone you want to settle down with. Someone who'll always make you feel excited and happy, I guess.” The beer bottle he was holding was placed down on the coffee table as he turned to her. “I don’t know how you came up with this analogy, but the only one I really see myself settling down with is you.” Y/N gasped out at his confession, her eyes were glossy as she felt overwhelmingly touched. “You think so, August?” Kissing her deeply, he spoke as his lips were against hers, “In this chaotic world I live in, you’re the only thing that keeps me sane and your love is something I surely do not deserve, but I’ll kill every bad guy if it meant I’d be worthy of it.”

“What’s this sticky thing?” Bucky groaned in disgust at the gooey and slimy thing he touched as he was stroking the stomach skin underneath Y/N’s shirt. They both were watching a show they got hooked on, and the super soldier just loved feeling her skin any chance he got. “It’s a new cream I got,” Y/N informed him as she giggled at his disgusted expression; he suddenly thought it was a good idea to smell the foreign substance and was disappointed to find out it wasn’t the most alluring fragrance. “Why did you put that disgusting cream in your body?” The question seemed to disappoint Y/N as she moved slightly away from him and fiddled with her fingers. “Just felt like I should put some cream on my stomach,” Her explanation had Bucky even more confused than he previously was.

“Can you explain more, doll?” Upon saying this Y/N felt uncomfortable to open up what has been bothering her; but when she looked at Bucky he had this worried and soft look that made her do so anyway. “I’m just insecure about the stretch marks that I have there — so I thought why not buy a cream that removes it.” Bucky’s initial instinct was to hold his girlfriend close as he whispered, “I understand why you felt the need to do so love, I mean that’s how I felt for a long time with my scars,” As he mentioned that, he could feel Y/N nodding as she recalled instances where she caught him staring in the mirror with disgust at his wounds, “But what’d you do? You kissed them and reassured me how they’re a part of me; and that I’m not really as ugly as I make myself out to be.” Kneeling on the floor, Bucky raised her shirt and wiped off the lotion she had rubbed on herself, and began placing kisses on it, “You’ve reassured me multiple times on my scars, now it’s my turn to do the same for you.”

“Damn Raiman is one badass chick,” Jensen whistled as he and Y/N were watching Black Mirror. As the said character was currently hellbent on getting the mission done, Y/N couldn’t feel uneasy with his comment. She knew about how initially her boyfriend had been attracted to Aisha; though she remains good friends with her, she still couldn’t help but compare herself with her boyfriend’s former crush. Turning her head to him, she could see how he was clearly enamored with the female soldier. But upon feeling her stare at him, Jensen looked at her and smiled, “What are you looking at huh?” Despite his teasing, Y/N couldn't find it in herself to reciprocate and continue the light-hearted banter. “You have a type, do you know that?”

The skin in Jensen;s forehead wrinkled in confusion, “A type?” Y/N nodded as she further explained, “You like women in the army, or at least those who aren’t afraid to go on dangerous missions.” Despite her explanation, it still did not satisfy the tech genius as he asked, “What?” She pointed to the screen where Raiman was currently shown on screen, “You like her and you were attracted to Aisha; so it really makes me think why you like me.” Finally putting the pieces together, Jensen could only chuckle at her analogy — not making Y/N feel better. After calming down, Jensen wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and kissed her forehead, “You have nothing to worry about, babe. I only liked Aisha because she was the first girl I talked to for a while; a shit excuse but yeah that’s really it. Raiman might be a badass but she sure lacks empathy. And I’m with you because you make me feel safe, loved, and appreciated. In fact you’re exactly my type.”

Y/N and Sy had just finished eating but they haven’t left the dinner table yet as they both were engrossed in conversation which was made even more delightful as they sipped on some wine. “So what, you’d be willing to lay down your life when you were in duty?” Y/N knew how dedicated her boyfriend was; the medals hanging on their wall were evidence of it. Nodding, he first took a gulp of his drink before justifying, “What better way to go than by defending your country, I guess.” Placing her chin on her hand she then pried more, “But wouldn’t you rather stay alive and continue fighting for your country?” The former soldier couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle; he didn’t know why his girlfriend had this sudden interest in his purpose or motivation when he was in the army. “Fair point, but I don’t know I just wanted to go all out.”

Though his justification was incomplete, it gave her all the confirmation she needed that he was this man of so much dedication and love for his country he was more than willing to give his all. “I feel like I don’t deserve you,” She found herself sighing to him adoringly, which caused him to look at her as if she had told him unbelievable news. “What?” Was the only thing he could mutter because he never thought of that way and he always thought that it was him who didn’t deserve her due to what he’s seen and done. “I don’t know I just feel like you’re this incredible person who’s selfless and passionate. Seeing what you achieved in the army makes me feel so small when I’m next to you,” Y/N didn’t expect that she was able to confess this to her boyfriend as she feared he might dismiss her. But Sy was awed with how highly she thinks of him considering he frequently doubts himself. “I don't know how you were able to come up with that idea, but I can tell you that you do deserve me. You loved a man who is scared and someone who’s seen unspeakable horrors, yet decided that I was worthy of your love and affection. And honestly? I think your existence served as my guardian angel during my time on active duty.”

“Angel, I’m home!” Lance announced as he shut and locked the door behind him, “Folding in the laundry!” Upon hearing where she was he then walked to where she was, seeing how she was folding clothes and pressed a kiss on his girlfriend’s forehead. “How was the training session?” Lance helped Y/N and grabbed folded clothes as they both made their way onto their bedroom. “It went great! Crystal did well in her flips and splits today,” As Lance went on about how their training session went well, Y/N could feel herself start to go down the spiral of insecurity. Unsure if she was able to mask it well, opted to nod along in silence. “Plus, her dance outfit came in today and it looks stunning! And it really looked good on her when she tried it on,” That remark of Lance’s was the final straw for Y/N as she walked out of their bedroom and moved to their ensuite bathroom.

Shocked by her sudden display of disinterest at their conversation, Lance followed her and waited after she was done splashing water on her face. “Are you alright, love? I’m sorry I got all excited about what happened today; what was your day like?” Instead of filling him in with what the day looked like for her, she dwelled on what he was rambling on, “Can’t blame you, sure seemed like you had the best day.” The gold medallist recognized that tone and choice of words and he called her out on it as he grabbed both her hands and turned her to face him, “Love, I know that what you said is sarcastic based on your tone and words; because if you haven’t noticed that’s how I converse with Hope,” Lance took it as a good sign that she chuckled which encouraged him to go on, “So I need you to tell me what’s bothering my beloved.” Her eyes looked at his, hoping that there was some other way she could tell it to him. But with his hands gently fondling hers, he somehow managed to coax her into speaking, “I just feel like it doesn’t matter what Crystal does but you’ll always be amazed with her. And it’s not just like today that you talk about her with so much admiration,” Despite feeling better since she voiced out her side, Y/N still felt silly about what she opened up about; Lance however found it helpful that she opened up about it. Pulling her into a tight hug, the gymnast rubbed her back comfortingly, “I’m so sorry for everything I did to make you feel that way. I promise to only speak highly of you and not any other girl out there.”

“Can I help you with anything, Steve?” Y/N wondered as she walked in on the Captain’s office area in their home. Peeking his head up from the computer and paperwork he had, “Not unless you can help me decipher these messages of HYDRA officials?” He groaned out in frustration which made Y/N chuckle and shake her head, “I’m sorry I don’t think I’m smart enough for those.” Just before she walked away to grab him another cup of coffee she heard him mumble out, “What’s new? No one really knows this shit.” As she was heating the beverage, she tried to convince her not to be so offended with what he said. That it was probably the result of stress and dissatisfaction from the lack of progress talking. But she knew that hit close to him since it was something that she had always been insecure about. Pouring the hot liquid on a mug, she then walked back to where Steve was and give it to him.

“Here you go,” She placed the mug on his desk and was about to walk away when she felt her hand be pulled back. “Why don’t you come here and stay with me for a while?” She didn’t even have time to answer as the super soldier already was maneuvering her so she could sit on his lap. “I don’t know, maybe it would be better if you go do that smart thing you were attending to,” Steve was able to pick up that there was something off about what she said. “Is there a reason you’re speaking to me that way, darling?” And as Y/N shrugged her shoulders, the Captain had all the confirmation he needed to come to the conclusion that there was a reason for why she was acting this way. “I just feel like, I’m not smart enough to be with you,” Upon meeting Steve’s bewildered look, she then took it upon herself to explain more, “I’ll never be able to help you out with these missions and reports; so why are you settling for me and not someone who’s real knowledgeable about all this,” She ended her explanation by pointing at the the different documents Steve had laid out in his desk. Kissing her temple, Steve hugged Y/N tightly as if he wanted her to know that he didn’t have those doubts. “I don’t think that you’re not smart; just because you don’t know a whole lot about these doesn’t erase the fact about how incredibly intelligent you are about your field of work. And so what if you’re not knowledgeable about HYDRA? It’s better because you’re not tainted by the malicious acts they did. Being with you is not me settling; in fact, it’s me finally finding something I searched for and needed.”

“Thank you so much, Melanie,” Y/N heard Will thank his assistant when she entered his office. As the aforementioned worker said it was no big deal as she exited the room to give the two privacy, Y/N announced, “I can come back later, bub, if you’re busy.” But her boyfriend shook his head as placed the files he was handed down on his desk, “Nonsense, come over here! I missed you.” And as they both shared a hug, they hugged tightly as if they were trying to explain how much they loathed having to spend time away from each other. “Brought you some lunch,” She placed the paper bag on his desk, careful not to stain any of his documents. “You shouldn’t have! I was just about to ask Melanie to grab some for us.”

Maybe it was the way her act of getting him food was easily dismissed; but the fact that he thought of relying more on his assistant ticked Y/N off. Standing up from the chair’s arm she was sitting on, her reply of, “Sounds like you don’t need me then,” had sass in it. The businessman however speculated that something was up. “You’re not leaving until you tell me what brought about this change of mood,” He pointed out her body as if the problem was something that could be seen. Y/N rolled her eyes to which her boyfriend tsked at; a way of telling her that there was no way they weren’t resolving it right now. “I just feel like you’re placing such a high regard or like you’d rather Melanie do things for you,” She sighed as she crossed her arms. Sighing as well, Will smacked himself internally for making his girl feel this way. Standing up from where he was seated, he pulled her in for a half hug which gave him the opportunity to look at her as he reassured her, “I don’t place Melanie in such a high pedestal, okay? It’s just I’m used to her assisting me for work and I’d rather put her through all the hassle instead of you. But you do me the greatest and biggest favor of all — you put up with my shit, look after me when you know I neglect myself, and love me unconditionally.”

When Carter told Y/N that they needed to go to this gala, he took it upon himself to take a day off to go shopping. The latter always claimed how the former went overboard when buying her an outfit and accessories. Less than a day prior to the gala, Y/N shocked Carter when she let it slip how she had no plans of attending the said event. “What? Why not?” The CEO panicked as he turned to face her. Wiggling in her seat, Y/N countered, “Well why do I need to go in the first place?” Sighing, Carter wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, prompting her to lay her head on his chest, “Because it’s a celebration of the company’s accomplishment and I would really love for my inspiration and the love of my life to be there to celebrate it with me.” With his explanation, Y/N couldn’t really find a rebuttal to it, and he could sense that she had no answer so he inquired, “Why do you not want to go, love?”

Tucking her head under his chin, Y/N then decided to unveil her reason, “I have nothing to wear.” Flabbergasted with that, Carter couldn’t help but ask, “What? Didn’t we go out shopping last week? Do you wanna go right now?” Y/N calmed Carter who was already making his way to stand up so he could get ready to go out. “It’s not that I don’t actually have clothes to wear; I do but,” She trailed off, not knowing how to properly say it. “But?” Carter wondered, and Y/n decided to just say it bluntly, “Nothing looks good on me.” Disbelief with just he heard, he looked at her as if he was expecting she would claim it was a joke; but upon seeing how she didn’t take back what she said, he then understood that she was indeed serious, “What do you mean nothing looks good on you?” Y/N then bit her lip nervously, Carter then pulled her lip and gently coaxed her to explain. “I was trying on the clothes we bought, and just nothing looked good on me. I mean, they’re pretty dresses so I figured maybe it was me who’s the problem. Like I can’t give justice to the dress.” Baffled with what she was saying, Carter put both his hands on her cheeks, making Y/N face his serious face, “Baby, that’s got to be the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard; and I went to a private highschool full of privileged fucks. I think what you really mean is that all the dresses we bought don’t compliment your assets properly,” Seeing her shrug nonchalantly signified how he was getting through her, “And honestly? You can come up to the gala in just your pajamas and still look drop dead gorgeous.”

“Is there any way I can not go on Sunday?” Y/N ‘s small voice was barely above a whisper, but it didn’t fly past Ransom’s keen ear. Looking up from his phone, he looked down from where she laid on his lap, her eyes looking hopeful. “Why don’t you want to go?” This wasn’t the first time he brought her over to Harlan’s home and dined with his family. Granted, she was risking going inside a lion’s den and being devoured by the predators. “Because your family’s gonna be there and we both know how disastrous these gatherings can be,” Though she made a point, both the trust fund son and his girlfriend knew that was a lame excuse to forfeit from the gathering. “Baby, you and I both know you handle these gatherings well; remember what happened when you told Walt off?”

Upon bringing up the instance where Walt had made an off-handed and misogynistic comment to which didn’t sit well with Y/N, resulting in her lecturing him about why his statement was problematic, the girl could only scrunch her face up. “It’s because of that I don’t want to go,” she mumbled quietly. But if there was one thing Ransom learned and developed after dating her for so long, it was to listen carefully to every sound she made for it all meant something. “I may not have heard what you said clearly, but I know that you said something. So better speak up, princess and tell me what it is about this Sunday’s dinner that makes you not want to go.” Y/N knew there was no way they could drop this subject since Ransom had set his phone down and looked at her seriously. She then covered her eyes with her hands as she confessed, “I just heard about Walt and Linda talk about how they never wanted someone like me for you.” With that revelation, Ransom round himself agitated and infuriated with how his family members had the balls to comment on his love life that made him very much happy. Letting the back of his knuckles caress her cheek he consoled her, “Just so you know, my family can eat shit for thinking that they can give nasty and irrelevant comments about what makes me happy. You make me happy and love me despite my spoiled ass. If anything it’s me who doesn’t deserve to be with someone as amazing as you are.”

#quietmyfearswith #my writing #chris evans x reader #sebastian stan x reader #henry cavill x reader #andy barber x reader #august walker x reader #bucky barnes x reader #jake jensen x reader #syverson x reader #lance tucker x reader #steve rogers x reader #will shaw x reader #carter baizen x reader #ransom thrombey x reader #ransom drysdale x reader

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coeurdastronaute · 4 years

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Essays in Existentialism: Grinch

Previously Day 31

Clexa: You’re basically a grinch but let’s see if red Xmas lingerie fixes anything 😉

“I don’t want to go.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

With an exaggerated sigh and low rumble of complaint, Lexa flopped on the couch and covered her face with her hands, hoping to hide from the news. Everything was stupid and she felt the inkling of a tantrum in her muscles. She didn’t want to have one, but she felt it and it was like driving a car with bald tires in a blizzard.

The dramatics did nothing for her girlfriend though, who just continued to empty the bags on the kitchen counter and adjust the radio that played low holiday classics in the background to the rather dreary Tuesday evening. Lexa peaked from beneath her hands and sighed because Clarke was pretty and got whatever she wanted. Still in her scrubs, hair tied up, she hummed along as she put away the food.

The apartment was well versed in the holiday spirit despite Lexa’s disinterest in the entirety of the season. The tree was in the corner, there was garland hanging from the counters and windows, there were lights in the window, stockings on the TV stand, and there were candles that smelled like warm apple pie. Clarke wasn’t overwhelmingly forceful with her holiday spirit. It all came so naturally. She slipped things here and there until it was suddenly the middle of December and Lexa didn’t recognize where she lived.

Friends for nearly three years, and dating for just about one, Lexa wasn’t sure how she was going to explain that she just didn’t like the holidays. There was no real impetus against it, just that she felt exceedingly lonely and sad and lacking, like her entire body was a husk, the feelings and growth and love sucked out like a thick milkshake. There were reasons, she just didn’t like them. There were reasons and she didn’t want to have to share them.

“What if I wait here for you to get done and then we can watch those stupid Christmas movies you like?”

“It’s just a party.”

“A Christmas party with all of your friends.”

“With all of our friends.”

Lexa groaned again as Clarke shook her head and made her way around the kitchen and into the living room. She made her way to the couch where Lexa crossed her arms over her chest as she sunk into the pillows.

Petulant, Lexa watched as Clarke moved to straddle her on the couch. She didn’t move because her apartment was decorated and she couldn’t change it.

“I’ll give you a little something special as a reward if you go.”

“I don’t need bribery, Clarke.”

Clarke leaned down and kissed under her jaw, slow and soft and warm.

“But you’ll accept it?”

“I’m not going to say no.”

XXXXXXXXX

The stupid Christmas party was not nearly as bad as she’d expected. It never was, and Clarke was always right, though Lexa would scarcely be able to admit something like that. Not so easily and not about that.

Instead, she sipped her drinks and let herself be dragged around, because her girlfriend was happy and she was a sucker.

“You look very cute.”

“Shut up,” Lexa groaned under the teasing as she tossed her keys on the counter and Clarke tripped over herself taking her heels off in the hallway.

“I mean it. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you all night.”

Lexa found herself struggling to tug the stupid sweater off, getting tangled in it as she rolled against the wall, falling against it and making the pictures vibrate with the thump. A few seconds of wrestling ensued before she popped it off, her hair a wild mess with the effort. Slightly overheated, she tried to catch her breath.

“I know you hate this time of year,” Clarke sighed, leaning forward somewhat. She couldn’t escape the hold that the wall seemed to have on her as well. “But I appreciate that you put up with it with relatively little complaints.”

The house was quiet, the late hour softening the single light left on in the kitchen, but Lexa could see how dilated Clarke’s eyes were, and she could hear the tilt to her voice that usually accompanied good things. She wasn’t sure how it suddenly got very difficult to not rub her thighs together.

“It’s not that bad.”

“You’re amazing, and I have a present for you.”

“It’s not Christmas yet.”

“Do you not want a present?”

Clarke said it as she unbuttoned a button on her shirt, and Lexa forgot the date entirely, let alone any complaint she might have about anything in the world at all. She enjoyed the way Clarke wobbled and at the same time looked like she knew exactly what ever muscle was doing.

“I do. I want one.”

“Even though you hate this season,” Clarke persisted, standing a bit straighter as she looked down at her own fingers doing some slow unbuttoning. “And abhor the fake feelings of joy that should exist universally all year round?”

“That doesn’t sound like me.”

“You kicked over a snowman.”

“He was in the way.”

“You ate my niece’s cookies for Santa.”

“I didn’t know…”

The words trailed off as Lexa snapped her mouth shut and gulped at the red lace that was on display and a shirt got tossed to the side. Dazed by the surprising display, she felt the floor spinning for an entirely different reason than the alcohol from the party.

“What if we made some new Christmas memories?”

“Like what?”

Pants were unzipped and Lexa kept staring. She wanted to touch but she also couldn’t imagine doing anything else but looking. She was in love with Christmas and the colors and the gifts. She was ready to don her gay apparel.

“Seriously? I’m standing here in a fancy new bra and you--”

Before the words came out, Lexa surged forward, her lips snagging Clarke’s mid-sentence. She pressed the half-naked girl against the wall and cupped the lace eagerly, roughly, quickly.

“Merry Christmas.”

Clarke couldn’t hide a squeal as her girlfriend picked her up, carrying her toward the bed.

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fiveisnumber1 · 4 years

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Timeless - Five Hargreeves x Reader

Word Count: 3135

Warnings: none

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

_________________________

Pt 7 - Welcome To The Family

After your dance, you and Five continued to talk and hang out enjoying the slightly staler donuts and the lukewarm pizza. It was not until you looked out the window and saw the stars in the sky that you realized how late it was. As much as you didn't want to leave you knew that you had to go home since you hadn't told your parents you were sleeping over at a friend's house nor did they even know you had left. Reluctantly you said,

"This has been wonderful but I think I need to be getting back home."

"Do you have to?" Five pleaded

"Yes, I don't want my parents to report me missing in the morning" You reply

"Fine, but can I at least escort you back to your house?" Five asks

"Why of course." You reply

Holding your flowers and teddy bear with one arm you grabbed Five's hand with the other. Barely a second after the two of you jumped from his room to yours. You placed the flowers down on your desk and the teddy bear on your bed before turning to Five. Giving him another tight hug you quietly say,

"Thank you for everything Five. You pushing me to the ground was the best thing to ever happen to me."

"And you are the best thing to ever happen to me." He quietly replied

The two of you stood there in the silence not wanting to let go of each other but knowing at some point you had to. Slowly the two of you let go of the embrace. Five gave you a smile before flashing back over to his room. Tired from the events of the day you got into your bed, held your teddy bear tight, and fell asleep to the thoughts of the dance you shared that night.

Once Five had returned back to his room he flopped back on his bed, a wide smile across his face. He was tired but he couldn't sleep because the memory of you calling him mon cherí replayed over and over again in his mind. It wasn't just the words that made him so overwhelmingly happy it was the fact that the words came from you. He didn't understand why or how you were able to overwhelm him so much but one thing he knew is he never wanted you to stop. Five stayed awake for a while just replaying the night in his head but soon enough he had succumbed to his exhaustion and fallen asleep. One thing for sure is that even while he slept he was excited for what the next day would bring.

His siblings had a different plan in mind though. Luther taking on the leadership role woke the rest of his siblings up and brought them to the parlor. Diego and Allison were ready to find out what was going on while Klaus, Ben, and Vanya were more apathetic accomplices. Did they want to know? Of course, but not enough to wake up early on one of the only days they'd probably get to sleep in because their father wasn't around.

"Did you have to get us up so early Luther? This is earlier than our typical schedule." Klaus complains

"Yes. We all need to be present so we can question him. We're stronger together." Luther replies

Klaus lets out a defeated sigh. Luther, Allison, and Diego stood up and waited for Five to wake up and come downstairs. It took a while, so long that the other three had fallen back asleep on one of the couches. When the children heard their brother coming down the stairs though they all got ready to strike. Strike with their questions that is. Diego smacked Klaus' head so that he would wake up.

"Ow!" Klaus exclaims jolting up waking Ben and Vanya in the process

When Five walked into the parlor and saw all of his siblings there he said,

"Morning. Why are you all just sitting down here?"

"Five, why don't you take a seat," Luther says gesturing to a spot on the couch

"Uh, alright." Five replies

He slowly walks over to the open space on the couch and sits down. He looks at his siblings confused and asks,

"What's going on?"

"We just have a few questions for you." Diego replies

"Okay? Go on." Five says

"Well, given recent circumstances..." Allison starts

"We were just wondering..." Luther continues

"What's your girlfriend's name?!" Klaus interjects

"What? (Y/N) isn't my girlfriend." Five retorts

He then realizes what he had just said. He not only admitted your existence but he told them your name.

"Shit!" Five yells jumping up from his seat "None of you better say anything or I'll slit your throats one by one."

"Calm down Five, we're not going to tell anyone," Allison says

"How can I trust that you guys won't hold this over my head as some type of blackmail, huh?" Five retorts

"We're siblings, we wouldn't do that," Vanya adds

"Why are you getting so worked up about this anyway? She's just some girl." Diego asks

"(Y/N) IS NOT JUST SOME GIRL. SHE IS MY BEST FRIEND AND I LOVE HER." Five yells

The room goes silent but the volume of the words Five had just said was louder than anything. Five stood there in a moment of realization. He loved her. He loved (Y/N). The silence hangs in the air for a bit but then is cut by Klaus exclaiming,

"Awwwww our angry little munchkin is in love! How sweet!"

"At least he found someone outside the family," Diego whispers to the three siblings on the couch

The four of them start to chuckle to themselves. Allison then turn to them and asks,

"What are you guys laughing about?"

"Oh, nothing," Klaus replies

"Whatever," Allison says with a shake of her head

"Can we meet her?" Ben asks

Five snaps out of his trance and looks towards Ben. Soon all his siblings were begging to meet you. They wanted to know all about you and see what made their sarcastic grump of a sibling so happy. Their incessant chatter became so overwhelming that Five burst and said,

"Fine! Just stop asking me."

While the rest of his siblings celebrated, Five went to the kitchen to grab his breakfast from Grace and then immediately flashed up to his room. He really wasn't excited to introduce you to the rest of his siblings. Especially after he had just admitted he had feelings for you. What if they embarrassed him? What if they ended up not liking you? What if they told you how he felt and you didn't feel the same and you didn't want to be around him anymore? All these thoughts flew through his head as he chomped down on his breakfast anxiously waiting for your arrival later that day.

His siblings downstairs though were excitedly prepping for you to come over. Not only were they excited to meet the person that their brother was in love with but you would be the first outsider of their own age that they got to meet. They were prepared to ask you so many questions because they wanted to know every little detail about you. They even asked Grace to make snacks for the occasion without mentioning what the occasion was for (although Grace had an idea of what it might be).

As the day went by it became close to the time in which you typically arrived. Five became more and more anxious as the minutes ticked down because he was hesitant to introduce you to the rest of his family. Pacing back and forth he tried to think of a way out of introducing you but it was too late because when he turned to pace in the other direction you were already sitting on his window sill.

"What's wrong?" You asked him

With a deep sigh, he replied,

"I don't know how but my siblings found out about you and they really want to meet you."

"Well then let me meet them." You respond "but let's do it my way."

Five looks at you intrigued. You wave your hand to call him over and then whisper your plan in his ear. Five looks at you with a devilish smirk and nods in agreement. Five heads downstairs with you invisibly trailing behind him. When he enters the parlor he addresses his siblings with a smile saying,

"Well, here she is."

"Where?" Vanya asks

"Right here!" you say as you phase your head through Five's chest

The six other siblings start to scream in panic at what you had done. You phase back out of Five and stand to his side. The two of you fall to the ground and bust out laughing at the fear you had caused his siblings. Five stands up and extends a hand to help you off the ground. Then when the six other Hargreeves siblings calm down and stop screaming you try to introduce yourself but before you can respond Grace and Pogo run into the room.

"Children, what is with all the commotion?" Pogo asks

"Are all of you okay?" Grace questions

The children nod their heads but then turn to you causing Grace and Pogo to look your way.

"Uh hi. I'm (Y/N)." You say nervously

"Oh, you must be Five's new friend!" Grace says cheerfully "The kids have been so excited to meet you! Let me go get the snacks I prepared!"

When Grace exits the room Pogo looks you up and down before saying,

"So you're the child from across the street with unexplained powers."

"Well yes, but uh...I wouldn't quite say they're unexplained." You reply

You avoid the gaze of everyone nervous about how they might react to you. You can feel the intense stares of everyone in the room waiting for you to explain how you can do the things you do. You then feel a familiar hand grab yours. Turning your head Five gives you a reassuring nod. Taking a deep breath you turn your attention back to the crowd in front of you before stating,

"I was born on October 1st, 1989 at 12pm."

Some of the kids' jaws drop while others eyes go wide. You try to calm your nerves as you can feel yourself shaking

"Go on." Pogo requests

"My mother was not pregnant when the day began but yet she had me anyway. Ever since I was a child I've had these unnatural and unexplained abilities." You continue

"What are your abilities?" Ben asks

"Well, simply I can manipulate molecules. Through practice I've taught myself to do some things but since molecules make up everything I know I can probably do more, or at least improve upon what I can already do."

"So what can you do then?" A stern voice comes from the parlor entrance

"Master Hargreeves, I did not expect you to be back so early," Pogo says shocked

The kids look over to see their father standing there. Five grabs your hand tighter and pulls you slightly behind him as if to be a wall in between you and his father.

"Well go on then, if you aren't fooling my family then you will show us these abilities you claim to have."

Fear struck your heart after hearing the stories from Five of how he treated him and his siblings but you knew you were stronger than him. You had powers beyond belief and he did not. Gaining your courage you step forward and look at the old man sternly before stating,

"Oh, it would be my pleasure."

You feel a rush of power and adrenaline course through your veins as you show off what you can do. Turning invisible you make your way over to paperweight lying on a desk. Making yourself visible again you raise the paperweight into the air and turn it into a liquid and then into a gas. Walking forward you phase through everything in your path from chairs, to tables, to statues. When you arrive closer to the other kids you make the paperweight reappear and ask,

"Which one of you is the strongest?"

Luther stands up and steps forward.

"Put your hands out."

Luther does as he's told and once he is ready with his hands out your drop the paperweight that is immensely denser than it typically would be. Just as Five had with the quarter, Luther immediately drops to the ground hard enough that it actually dents the floor.

"I- I can't lift it! It's too heavy! I can't get it off me." He yells

As you continue to make the paperweight denser than it should be you then disappear. Disassembling yourself from in front of the children and reassembling yourself right behind Mr. Hargreeves. You then ask sternly,

"Was my demonstration to your satisfaction, sir?"

Reginald turns around visible shock in his eyes. You did have abilities just like you said and somehow they were more developed than any of his children thus far. You could be a good asset to assist his children in becoming stronger and more developed. Reginald regains his composure and comments,

"Your powers are impressive, although your attitude is not."

"It's not attitude, it's called freedom of expression." You retort "It's something you acquire when your parents actually love you."

Such a sharp tongue for such a small girl. Although Reginald wouldn't show it he was almost impressed. He didn't quite like your ability to stand up to him but the more he saw of you the more he figured he could use you to improve his own children's skills. If they could become efficient in combat with someone who had the ability to control molecules then they would be able to take on anything. The two of you stared each other down before you said,

"I am going to depart earlier than I typically do so you can spend some quality time with your family. I will be back tomorrow though whether you like it or not."

And with that, you were gone. Everyone watched as you left in shock and awe of not only of your abilities but the true power you had of putting Reginald Hargreeves, the cruelest man these kids have ever known, in check. And from that day forward you became a key part of the Hargreeves family even though you weren't their sibling. You brought a different dynamic to the group that they hadn't had before.

To Grace, you were another child to take care of. She adored you in the same way she adored all of the other children in the household. Although you were not there all the time you still mattered a great deal to her and she enjoyed hearing about your time at school or something you did back at your home. She tried to encourage you in the same way she encouraged all the children to do their best and when you struggled she was there to support you.

To Reginald and Pogo, you were a key part of the development of the Umbrella Academy. Each day when you came over you agreed to train with the children on the condition that you and they were able to play and hang out afterward. Reginald despised the lack of structure but he despised not using you as a combat training mechanism more. With you around the kids learned new strategies to take down threats that were unseen and controlled parts of nature that they could not. You also improved upon your abilities by being able to do them naturally and not have to concentrate all the time. You were also able to learn new skills such as self-defense and offensive fighting maneuvers and the ability to use the molecules around you to create things such as fire, water, or smoke. With each practice session, you, Five, and all his siblings grew stronger.

But to the children, you had the greatest impact. You became a comfort to them. First of all, the fact that you were able to get them legitimate free time where they could just play was a miracle and they were forever grateful for that. Second of all, you gave them a connection that they had never experience. You became a friend, one that they greatly needed and never had before. You and Vanya bonded over your love of classical instruments. You played the piano and she played the violin. To her, it was nice to have someone who shared her passion but also someone who saw her as more than just ordinary. You made her feel special and like she was important in a house that had thrown her to the side. For Allison, you were the girl bestie she could never find. The two of you would talk about anything from pop culture to make up to boys. You even snuck her some magazines every once in a while. The two of you looked out for each other, she kept your secrets and you kept hers. To Ben, you were just a nice addition. Compared to all his siblings who were constantly ready for battle and always ready to use their powers you were just normal. He was shy but he felt like he could open up and talk to you and that's all he really needed. As for Klaus you gave him an outlet to get all his energy and need to be entertaining out. You were his perfect audience and he took great comfort in knowing that you accepted him as is more so than his family. To Luther and Diego, you were a fierce opponent in training but more so you made them feel strong. They both felt a strong desire to protect you because you protected them. For Luther, you helped to reassure him that he was a good leader and he was worthy of being Number One. And for Diego, you helped him with his stutter without judgment and listened to the feelings he was keeping inside.

And then there was Five. You were already his best friend and even though you branched out to the rest of the family you always reassured him that he was your number one pick out of the Hargreeves siblings. Every moment with Five was better than the last and each time you were with him you found more and more things to love about him. You didn't know it but Five felt the same about you. Although neither of you saw it everyone else could see how much the two of you meant to each other. In combat, you two would always work together and look out for each other. At the end of the day no matter who you had spent time with earlier you always went back to five and he always went back to you. You were each other's best friend and confidants. Closer than close, you two were inseparable. Every day was spent with each other and your shared upcoming birthday was no exception.

tag list: @xplrreylo @joebob15274 @insatiable-ivy @fruitsaladtree @angelpeachamber @academy-umbrella @lizziel1410 @ir3neeee @faith-quake @aliens-with-colas @eddiomyspaghettio @lady-celeste25

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sunflowersandotherthings · 4 years

Text

cuddle duty (aaron hotchner)

request: “imagine reader and Hotch have a daughter. the reader goes to the store with jack for groceries and come back home to both of them laying on the couch watching a movie and she’s slowing falling asleep in his arms so he can’t move. (she could be 3 or 4 years old)”

a/n: ahhhh! this is my first ever request. I absolutely love this idea so much and I really hope that I do it justice. hopefully I’m doing this right lol. thank you so much for requesting this!

about 1k words

warnings: none, i think. overwhelmingly fluffy!!

gender neutral reader

masterlist

“Alright everybody, tell me what you want from the store.” You say, mentally preparing yourself for going out in the cold, rainy weather to restock the house for the week. You walk into the living room where your little family is sitting, playing a new board game that JJ had given you guys the other day. Seeing your three favorite people playing together on the floor of your house absolutely melted your heart.

The kids start yelling out the most random food that comes to mind (mostly candy, so not actual food). After getting a reasonable list of things, you kiss Aaron, Jack, and your daughter goodbye.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come?” Aaron asks, standing up and putting his hands on your forearms.

“I’m sure, love. Getting the kids packed into the car takes way too much effort anyways.” You laugh, giving Aaron another quick kiss before slipping your shoes on and moving towards the front door.

“Wait! y/n!” Jack yells, getting up from his spot on the floor, “I wanna come with you! Pleaseeeee?”

You look at him, looking up at you with those puppy eyes that you just cannot resist. You turn to Aaron, silently asking if he was okay with being home with just your little girl.

“We’ll be fine. You two go.” He says, and Jack runs back over to him to give him a hug goodbye.

“See you in a bit, buddy” Aaron says before looking towards you and saying, “Have fun, love you!”

You shout back your own goodbye before heading out the door, taking a second to watch as Aaron turns back to you guys’ daughter, trying to teach her how to actually play the game instead of just throwing the pieces around the room.

When you get back from the store, Jack is sitting in his booster seat half asleep. You park and turn towards him, admiring how much he resembles Aaron in that moment.

“Nap time, buddy?” You ask quietly, only getting a grumble in response from the mini-Hotchner.

You bring Jack in the house first, going straight into his room to lay him down in his bed before kissing him on the forehead and going to bring the groceries in the house. On your way back, you stick your head into the living room, where Peppa Pig is playing at a low volume. You walk further in to see Aaron laying on the couch, his eyes closed. Your little girl is laying on top of his chest, breathing evenly. You kneel down next to them, stroking your girls head, admiring her cute nose and thick, dark hair that she definitely got from Aaron.

“Hey baby.” Aaron grumbles, snapping you out of your trance. You turn to him, his eyes cracked open. His hand is stroking your daughters back.

Instead of responding, you lay your head down on an open spot on his chest, still kneeling down on the floor. You can hear your little girl's soft puffs of breath and Aaron’s heart beat from where you lay, and you close your eyes to enjoy the moment. Aaron moves his other hand to lay on top of your head, his thumb stroking back and forth.

“I love my little family.” Is what he says, and you feel your heart swell at least 2 sizes. His arm moves from your head and wraps around your shoulders, pulling you impossibly closer. You lay there for a few seconds, and you can tell that Aaron is starting to slowly drift to sleep.

Your phone begins to buzz in your pocket, and you know that that’s the only possible thing that could pull you away from this moment. You stand up, bringing your phone to your ear. It’s Reid, asking you about a detail from a case a couple of months ago that he couldn’t recall.

“Aren’t you supposed to remember everything?” You whisper into the phone. He responds by beginning a tangent about how eidetic memories work, something you’ve heard before. Multiple times. You sigh, promising him that you’ll send him your case file later, and then hang up.

Aaron is watching you from his spot on the couch, both of his arms now wrapped around your daughter.

“I’m gonna go bring the groceries in, and then I’ll be right back.” You say, sticking your phone back into your pocket.

“Let me help you,” He says, starting to shift around on the couch. You put your hand on his shoulder, conveying to him that you want him to stay there.

“I’ve got it. Right now, you’re on cuddle duty.” You laugh, grabbing a blanket and pulling it over your partner and daughter.

“Well, cuddle duty is a very important job. I guess I’ll stay here. If you insist.” He says, kissing your still-sleeping daughter's head. She sighs, wiggling around a bit before snuggling further into her Dad’s chest. You smile, watching them just lay together before running outside and putting all of the groceries away at record speed. Once you’re all done, you go back into the living room to see Aaron standing up, his daughter cradled in his arms. You furrow your brows, looking for an explanation as you meet his eyes.

“We’re going into the bedroom. We’re both on cuddle duty now.” He says, making his way towards your shared bedroom. You follow him, stopping to cautiously get Jack from his bed and bringing him with you. Aaron smiles when he sees Jack in your arms, secretly melting at the way he clings to you.

The four of you lay down, cuddling up together, happy as can be.

#aaron hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner x gender neutral reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x y/n #hotch x reader #hotch x gn reader #criminal minds #hotch fluff #aaron hotchner fluff

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itmeansofthesea · 3 years

Text

Moving Day

Well this one got me all in my feelings. This was supposed to be lighter and funnier and somehow it got away from me. Instead it's this beautiful thing?? Maybe I'll try to write a funnier version later, but thanks to @dobega for reminding me of the domesticity conversation that led to the end. Any longer and I would have to make this a series, but if that's something you're interested in I think I could swing it. Enjoy, y'all.

Warnings: like one curse word? I think that's it... It's also overwhelmingly sweet imo so just be ready for that.

Had Charles Vane known that becoming ally/friends with James Flint would involve helping him, his boyfriend, and his boyfriend’s wife (his girlfriend?) move into their new house, he might have just gone ahead, taken the warship and let Peter Ashe hang Flint and be done with. Not really, but… maybe?

He honestly isn’t even really sure how he got roped into this. It was a couple of weeks ago when he, Jack, Anne, Max, Flint, Thomas, and Miranda were all sitting at a table upstairs in the brothel having dinner. Billy was out showing Abigail around Nassau and Mr.s Gates and De Groot were just trying to get a moment’s peace at some smaller tavern at the other end of town. Silver and Madi were out having some sort of alone dinner thing (Jack had called it a “date” and then called Charles a “heathen with no sense of romance”), and this all left the motley crew to sit around with whatever the brothel’s cook had dreamed up and a metric ton of ale to wash it down.

Charles didn’t fully understand the situation Flint had with the Hamiltons, but whatever it was clearly made Flint happier than Charles had ever seen him. He was all smiles and laughter and joy. It warmed Charles’s heart (just a bit) to see his friend so happy, because they certainly had become friends. He mentally joked about leaving Flint to hang, but to be honest it would be difficult to imagine his life without the people sitting around the table with him now. At least, it would be difficult to imagine something resembling a happy life.

They’d stopped to refuel in Savannah after Charlestown and somehow or another word got to Flint about a plantation full of the disgraced sons of London’s elite that were now more or less enslaved in the prison colony. If there was one thing Charles was always down to do (and there were many things he was always down to do), it was hunt down a slave master and free people from bondage. They’d split when they got to the plantation- Charles after the master of the house and James off to find Thomas. Finding Mr. Smith hadn’t been difficult and dispatching him was even easier. Once that was finished, Charles made his way outside to find Flint in the arms of another, taller man and both of them appeared to be weeping. He felt like an intruder watching them, so he busied himself with checking the plantation for anyone else who may need to be released. When they made it back to the ship, Miranda leapt on the man who Charles realized must be Thomas, and after a minute of holding on to him she grabbed Flint into their embrace.

In time all of the introductions were made, and suddenly the Charles/Anne/Jack crew expanded to the Charles/Anne/Max/Jack crew and the Charles/James friendship expanded to include Charles/James/Thomas/Miranda. They also intercepted Abigail Ashe on the way, and James and the Hamiltons promptly adopted her on the spot. She and Charles had some reacquainting to do outside of Eleanor Guthrie’s influence, but he at least thought they were making progress. She didn’t seem nearly as terrified as she’d been of him when she followed Eleanor through the gate, so that was something.

Fast forward a few weeks and here they all were finishing their chicken and ale when Jack began asking about where the Flint/Hamilton/Ashe family intended to live. Miranda’s house was too small now that they had Abigail, and Billy had attached himself to Abigail as an older brother figure so usually where one of them was, the both of them were. Of course with Billy came Mr. Gates as his surrogate father, and while they’d made it work for the last couple of months, everyone was feeling a bit cramped.

Jack and Max volunteered to host them at the brothel, but they politely declined. Charles half considered offering to let them stay at the fort, but figured that may not be the best idea considering they also had Abigail to consider. Not that he couldn’t keep his men under control, but he also knew that she had memories of that fort that she may not want to be surrounded by all the time. He certainly knew that was the case for him, and yet he stayed… for some reason. Maybe he should take Jack up on the offer to move into the brothel…

Thomas mentioned that they’d been asking around and found a house a bit more inland from Miranda’s that had been abandoned for the last several years. It would take a bit of fixing up, but they planned to go ahead and move in and then work on it as they lived there. Before Charles fully knew what was happening, Jack had volunteered Charles, Anne, himself, and Max to all help them move with the added bonus that he and Max would help with the decorating if Miranda so desired their assistance. Max enthusiastically agreed and elbowed Anne in the side prompting her to shrug a shoulder in agreement. Jack looked at Charles with those wide puppy-dog eyes and before Charles even knew what he was saying he’d agreed to help. The look on the Flint/Hamilton’s faces almost made it worth it.

At the time.

That was then.

Now it’s moving day. What on earth had they gotten themselves into?

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

When Charles and company arrived at Miranda’s house early the next day, one cart was packed and Thomas, Billy, and James were in the process of loading another one. It was decided that they would stay behind and the Ranger crew plus Max would go with Miranda and Abigail and get things unloaded. Mr. Gates was out helping Mr. De Groot careen the ship again since the last time was a bit of a disaster.

The moving crew pulled up to a slightly rundown looking two story house with columns on the porch and an overgrown garden to the side. Miranda smiled and squeezed Abigail around the shoulders before jumping off the cart to start unloading. Abigail took the key to the front door and unlocked it, but had a little trouble pushing it open since the summer heat made the wood swell in the jamb. Jack went to help her push it open while Charles and the others started getting things off the cart.

“Just put everything in the front for now, we’ll get it sorted later,” Miranda instructed as she pulled a crate of books from the back. She passed it to Charles who noticed the copy of Reflections by Marcus Aurelius on the top. He recognized it from a conversation he’d had with Flint on the way to the plantation. That was his and Thomas’s book, the one object that kept them tethered together to all this time. Flint’s book with Miranda was Don Quixote, which he also noticed on top of the stack. It’s not that Charles couldn’t read (Teach made sure he could), it had just never been particularly useful to him. You don’t have to know how to read to split logs, haul rope, navigate the stars, or fight the English Navy. Besides, he’d never really had the time to sit down and rest long enough to read. Maybe he should change that. He set the books down to the left of the open door and went back out for more stuff.

Max and Anne pulled down a trunk of clothes and carried it into the house together. Charles volunteered to switch with them, but he was told in no uncertain terms that they could handle it themselves thank you very much, so he left them to it. He passed Miranda and Abigail carrying small crates of what appeared to be dishes. Porcelain. Hadn’t he and Flint had that conversation just a few days ago? About how fragile porcelain and books were, and how fragile a civilized life was, and how it all came down to capitulation and letting society numb you into obedience? Now he was willingly helping Flint settle into that obedience. Is that something a real friend should do? Charles wasn’t sure, so he jumped into the back of the cart, pushed a trunk to the edge, and hauled it out of the back of the cart to take inside.

Miranda stood in the foyer with her hands on her hips trying to put together what each room should be when the furniture arrived. Charles motioned to the trunks on the floor and at Jack who was just standing there in slack jawed awe.

“Would you like us to move these upstairs?”

Miranda turned and smiled up at him. “Sure, thank you, Charles.”

“Jack, let’s go.” Charles barked and jerked his head toward the trunks.

“You can’t honestly expect me to be able to help you carry that upstairs.” Jack raised an eyebrow and looked at Charles like he’d lost his mind. Charles scowled and opened his mouth to reply when suddenly-

“Good thing we got here in time then,” Flint’s voice sounded amused coming from behind him, and he turned just in time to see Billy and Thomas carrying in a table. Miranda’s smile widened as she directed them to the right and Flint walked over to Charles to help with the trunk.

“My hero,” Jack cooed jokingly at Flint before catching Charles’s eye and backing away. “Yes, yes, I know. Fuck you, Jack. I’ll let you save your breath.” Jack raised his hands and walked away to follow Miranda and see if he could start setting the table or something.

Charles just rolled his eyes and grabbed his end of the trunk.

“On 3?” James asked. Charles nodded. “1, 2, 3,” James counted off and they both lifted at the same time. It was heavy, even for the two of them.

“The fuck’s in this thing?” Charles grunted as he started backwards up the stairs.

“I think these are Abigail’s… From what I understand, women’s clothes are far more complex than ours,” James laughed.

“Not here, they aren’t…” Charles thought back to Eleanor’s outfits, but also realized that Abigail and Miranda were nothing like Eleanor, therefore they would likely be dressed more like Max, in which case it made sense. Thank God they weren’t like Eleanor. Nassau couldn’t handle another one.

“So, if you can’t understand why a man would want domesticity, why are you helping four of them move into a house?” James looked amused, and Charles honestly wasn’t even sure he had an answer.

“I still don’t understand it. To the left,” Charles moved to get his back to the doorway and James moved with him. “However,” they set the trunk down inside the room and straightened. “I think I am starting to understand wanting peace.” He sighed. “And I don’t know, maybe I do understand it. I tried to tell Eleanor that we could take part of the gold and settle down, have a life, a couple of kids… but she would never have that. I told myself that wasn’t me wanting domesticity, that was wanting someone else to depend on me, but…” he took a deep breath and walked out onto the landing where he could see Jack and Anne below him. James wordlessly followed. “Maybe I’ve had other people depending on me for a long time. Actually, I know I have. It’s why Jack wouldn’t come with me when I left with Teach- he didn’t want to have to depend on me when he’d built something of his own here. I didn’t expect that to hurt as much as it did.”

“But it did,” James whispered beside him.

“It did. I guess because I was hoping that our friendship would be enough for him to come with me, but in the end his need for independence won out. I can’t blame him, especially after all the shit I put him through with Eleanor-”

“Excuse you, you both put us all through that,” James smirked and bumped Charles’s shoulder. He earned a grunt in response. James just chuckled and noted the small grin gracing Charles’s face out of the corner of his eye. James knew at one point that comment would likely have resulted at him having a knife in his face. He was thankful they’d progressed past that.

“Anyway,” Charles emphasized the word, “seeing you with Miranda and Thomas, and even adopting Abigail. It seems peaceful. Maybe that’s part of domesticity, maybe it isn’t, but either way, it looks nice. It’s not something I can have in that fort probably, but…” he trailed off.

James waited a beat before asking, “what?”

“I am happy that it’s working out this way for you,” Charles whispered. “If anyone deserves all of this, you do. You all do,” he ignored the water welling up in his eyes as he put a hand over Flint’s over the railing.

Flint didn’t even bother ignoring his tears. He just let them go as he watched his family make their home together for the first time in a way that included all of them from the very beginning. He whispered, “thank you. So do you, you know?”

Charles chuckled humorlessly and swiped a hand across his face.

“I’m serious,” James looked at Charles who turned his head in response. “They are my family, but you are now, too. You don’t show up to save my life from the man who ruined my life, help me blow a port city to hell, kill its governor, and then stop me from murdering Jack Rackham for taking the Urca gold I’d been after for years without earning the title of brother. Even if you did steal my ship first.” James smirked and bumped Charles’s shoulder again.

“Yeah… I’m not sorry about that.” Charles shook his head and laughed.

“Wouldn’t expect you to be,” James chuckled, “brother.”

Charles looked at his family and back at James. “Brother.”

#black sails #charles vane #ranger crew #anne bonny #jack rackham #bs max #james flint #flinthamilton #thomas hamilton #miranda hamilton

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gubes-sweaters · 4 years

Text

Never Be the Same (part 2)

Author's Note: This is part two to the once shot I wrote called Never be the Same. I honestly didn't like the one shot, and I was surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reaction. A lot of people on Tumblr wanted a part two so here it is. I’ve re-written this like three times and this ending I’m semi happy with. Also, don't worry there's a cute fluffy ending.

Content Warning: Arguing, idk just really sad for like half of the story.

Word Count: 2.8k

Never be the Same (part 2): You Have Us

I wake up in a cold and empty bed the next morning. The blankets on Spencer’s side of the bed are still made, so he didn’t come home last night. The sun is stinging my already burning eyes from crying all last night. What did I do? Can we come back from this? I can’t call him and I have no clue where he’s at. I start to get worried to the point that I’m nauseous. I haven't been feeling very good as of late, but I'm chopping it up to the stress of Spencer coming home. I’m trying to think that this feeling in the pit of my stomach as of late is because of how he distanced himself. At first, he wouldn’t keep his hands off me, and he followed me around literally everywhere. Once week three of him being home rolled around, and he started teaching I became a second class citizen. I’m not sure what the freak out was about yesterday because after Spencer got home we didn't have any problems with sex. I mean it only happened once a day or two after he got home, but I thought because it already happened that it would come naturally to us once again.

There's this feeling of nauseousness in the pit of my stomach as I feel the bile rise in the back of my throat. I quickly run to the bathroom and release all of my food from last night. After a minute I can finally pull myself off of the ground and brush my teeth. As I go to brush my teeth a little part of my brain remembers a similar situation I was in about a month before Spencer went to prison.

-Flashback-

“Hey, are you okay?” Spencer consoles me as I’m hunched over the toilet. Despite being a germophobe he insists it’s okay because I need help.

“Yeah I might’ve picked up a stomach bug from work,” I say with my head resting on his shoulder.

He pulls me into a tight embrace before helping me off the ground. I walk over to the sink and go to brush my teeth, but as I do Spencer puts his hand over mine and shakes his head at me.

“You shouldn’t brush your teeth right after you throw up. Just gargle some mouthwash it’ll have the same effect except you’re not brushing the acid into your teeth and gum line.”

“What would I do without you.”

“Probably have problems with plaque,” he says before kissing the crown of my head.

-End of Flashback-

I took Spencer’s advice from a while ago and went to use mouthwash but I couldn't find any. I check the medicine cabinet, a cabinet where we tend to keep extra toiletries for his go-bag, and finally, I check in the cupboard underneath the sink. When I grab the mouth wash I also knock over a small box. I pick it up and I’m reminded of the same day as the mouthwash memory. That day I've never seen Spencer as anxious, excited, and happy.

-Flashback-

“Are you sure? I think you’re being a little over dramatic,”

“I'm completely sure that we should at least check. Between your nauseousness, acid reflux, fatigue, vertigo, and now you’ve missed your cycle twice. I think we have reasons to be at least a little suspicious. Please just take the test for me,” He says while passing me the box with two tests in it.

“Fine, but I don’t think I’m pregnant. So don't get your hopes up,” I say before walking to the bathroom.

I take one of the two tests and Spencer and I wait the ten excruciatingly long minutes. Eventually, the timer went off, and we just stared at each other silently begging the other one to look. Eventually, I conceded because I'm super impatient. I picked up the stick and there was only one line there wasn't even a faint tiny second line.

“As disappointed as I'm sure we both are, we have time. This means that we can both do some pre-planning for our little genius.” I tell him with a sad look on my face reflecting the same look Spencer has on his face.

He just nods in silence. I can tell this really hurt him. Partly because he was so sure, and he's not one to be wrong normally. I can tell that he's mostly disappointed that I wasn't pregnant because he wants to be a father so bad. At least he took my advice for taking this time to plan very seriously. He came home the next day with three baby books which he read them all before I even finished cooking dinner.

-End of Flashback-

That same feeling Spencer had that I lacked the first time I took one of these tests is now very present, but this time I'm the one with the feeling. Something in my gut is telling me to take this test. It’s really stupid because I don't want to worry about my boyfriend and a baby. This couldn't be a more inconvenient time. I'm not on birth control because I've had a bad reaction to the pill in the past, so it’s possible. My heart is telling me, yes, but my brain is telling me no that I'm stupid and I should be worrying about Spencer right now. I go against my brain's wishes and I take the test. In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the test results I set a ten-minute timer, and then I call JJ. We've been friends for a long time now, and she's the reason I met Spencer. When it rings through I assume she’s busy, so I decide to call Garcia instead.

“What's up sugar plum?”

“Hey Pen I hate to ask this of you, but I'm really worried about Spencer. I know he always leaves the house with his work cell no matter what. He left last night and hasn't been home since. I'm worried about him. Can you at least tell me if he's okay?”

“Of course doll. Give me a moment. Is everything alright between you two?” she asks while her fingers were furiously typing away at her keyboard.

“Yeah, just a little bit of a disagreement, nothing to write home about.”

“Okie Dokie his work cell first pinged off a cell tower near Morgan's house, then pinged off a tower near a bar down the street, then finally he’s been at Morgan’s ever since. Is that all I can help you with?”

“Yes, thank you! I owe you one.”

“Oh please sugar the pleasure is all mine.” She says in a flirty tone before hanging up.

Next on the agenda is to call Morgan. I know him pretty well because I was dating Spencer for a couple of years before he retired from the BAU to be with his son. I call Morgan but it rings through. I decide that I might get better results if I talk to Savannah.

“Hey girly! Let me guess you want your boyfriend back;” She says in a goofy tone.

“Huh?”

“Spencer came here last night and said he needed to blow off some steam. He, Derek, and Hank went down to the park about half an hour ago. He didn't look upset at all today or yesterday, so I don't know what he means by blowing off some steam. Either way, he and Morgan have been all smiles all day. I figured something was off because he came here with tears in his eyes, but he hasn’t been crying since-”

Beep

The alarm interrupted both of our thoughts. I walk over to the test as I stammer out a sentence if you can even call it that. With a shaky hand, I pick up the test and look at the stick with two very defined pink lines.

“Hey...hey...um can I come over and talk to Spencer there. We had a bit of a disagreement last night. I think it would be best if someone like Morgan with a level head was there. Only if it’s okay I don’t want to intrude,” I say, my voice and hands shaking as my eyes start to well with tears.

“Nonsense you’re always welcome at our house. Any time of day I'll let the both of them know you’re coming over once they’re back from the park.”

“O--okay I'll see you in a bit,” I say before hanging up.

I decide that I need to calm myself down before driving far out to Morgan’s house. I go to the dollar store not far from our apartment and decide to take two more tests just in case. I also took this time to collect my thoughts and come to terms with the fact that I’m pregnant. Holy shit I’m pregnant! Sure enough, both tests also came back positive. There’s only one possible time it could’ve happened so that means I’m ten going on eleven weeks along.

I drive to Morgan and Savannah's house with two of the three tests in my purse. This isn't the perfect time but I hope that Spencer will hear the good news and the old Spencer might come back to me at least part of him. I take a deep breath as I put my car in park, preparing myself for the worst and best possible situations. As I knock on the door I can feel my heart speed up faster and faster. The door opens to Savannah with a big smile plastered on her face.

“Hey, it’s nice to see you. I’ve missed you so much and I'm sure Morgan does too.” She says before stepping to the side and welcoming me inside.

“It's nice to see you too. Spencer isn't upset is he?”

“No, he's actually sitting with Hank in the living room. He and Morgan have watched Hank trip over his feet for the past hour.”

We both walk into the living room and sure enough, the sight is enough to melt anybody’s heart. Hank uses the coffee table for balance, and he's walking back and forth between Spencer and Morgan.

They both look up after Hank falls on his butt once more. Spencer gives me a tight-lipped smile and Morgan picks up Hank before walking over to me.

”Spencer explained what happened. He doesn't know how to apologize for being so defensive and scared. Be a little lenient on him.” he tells me in a very calm and patient voice. The type of voice that a father should have. I baby talk hank and take in how much he's grown in a short amount of time before making my way over to Spencer. Savannah and Morgan leave the room monetarily and I sit next to Spencer in an awkward silence for a couple of moments.

It was completely silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. It wasn't until the silence was broken by the sniffles Spencer was trying to contain. I turn to see that hot tears are streaming down his face, and he's looking at me not like he's not angry but scared. I reach out to touch his arm and I hate the way his muscle tensed under my touch. Is he that disgusted with me? He can't even let me be near him comfortably.

“Can you please say something...anything at all.”

“I’m scared,” that's all you hear out of Spencer before he starts sniffling once more.

“Spencer why? Is it me? Did I do something wrong?”

“I’m scared of myself. I’m not the same person I used to be. I’m scared you’re going to leave me because I'm not the same. I'm just terrified that I might hurt you even.”

“Oh Spence, you didn't hurt me and I know you wouldn't. If you’re referring to last I know you never would. We need to talk about this. Why did you even go to Morgans in the first place.”

“I knew that I'd be far from you. Morgan had to learn more than once how to feel normal again after a traumatic situation. He also knew what it was like to possibly lose Savannah. I just needed a distraction. I'm sorry I snapped at you, but I didn't want you to press the issue.” He says just barely above a whisper. He can't even look me in the eyes he feels so ashamed. If he does make eye contact it’s a split second, and he looks like a kicked around puppy.

“Spencer… I’m not going to act like I know what you’re going through, but something I can do is be with you the whole time. I get Morgan is like your older brother and you look up to him, but this kind of feels weird having this serious conversation here.”

“I know it feels like we’re invading a bit, let's just go home.”

-time skip-

“This feels much better,” I say as I throw my keys on the countertop.

“It sure does.” He says standing right behind me.

Before he can protest I wrap my arms around him so tight I basically have a death grip on him. After he relaxes into my touch he starts to nestle his face in the crook of my neck.

“I’m just scared of losing you, hurting you, or upsetting you. I realize pushing you away and yelling at you did nothing but put me in jeopardy of doing all three.” He says as I can feel each breath pass along my neck. It feels like home because this apartment isn't home without him.

“You’re not going to lose me. I love you so much. I'll always be there for you… we’ll always be there for you…” I trail off.

“Yeah I know… wait who else?” He asks while pulling me from him just enough, so he can see my face. With a proud smile from ear to ear I decide it’s now or never to tell him.

“Well, we won’t get to meet them yet. Give it about six months.”

“Wait, you're pregnant?” He asks totally dumbfounded. An IQ of 187 to 60 just like that. I just nod as the tears start to fall, but instead this time they’re happy tears.

“Oh my god! I’m going to be a dad!” He says as he picks me up and twirls me really quick.

“Wait, are you okay? I didn’t cause too much stress right? We’re going to have to do so many things we don’t have enough time. What if I’m not ready?” Panic thickly laced in his voice. His head is obviously going a million miles a minute. I need to bring him back down to earth and quickly.

“Love it’s going to be okay. I saw you with Hank today and I’ve seen you with Henry and Micheal. They all absolutely adore you. It’s going to take time, there's still a lot of healing. It’s all going to be okay because we’re going to have the little family we’ve always wanted. We can worry about all of the details tomorrow. I just want to be right next to you for the rest of the night. Okay?” I say as I lead him to the couch.

“Okay,” He says with a larger than life grin on his face. He leans in to kiss me and this time it wasn’t rushed or filled with dread. It was like he was putting all of his love into one tender little kiss.

“I wish we had more time at Morgans. To think that’s going to be us one day soon. Hank was so adorable waddling around. He couldn’t even get a couple of inches before he fell back on his butt.” Spencer says as he wraps his arms around me. We're cuddling in a way that we're both lying on the couch but my back is to his chest. He rests his chin on my head and his hands on my lower belly.

“Spencer I love you so much, but you have no room to talk. You don’t have much better coordination, Hank might even have you beat.” I giggle a bit before leaning back into him even further.

He laughs at me, and he knows it’s true because he doesn’t even try and rebut what I just said. Finally, everything feels like it’s right back into place. Sure, Spencer will never be the same again, but we can work with what we have. Deep down he’s still just as loving, hopeful, kind, caring, and empathetic as he once was. It’ll just take time, and we have about six months to spare.

Taglist: @rexorangecouny @haylaansmi

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid angst #Criminal Minds Fanfiction #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds angst #post prison reid #post prison spencer

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bansept · 3 years

Text

Protector

Part 3

It was long to come out, but it’s here! A few more moments between our love birds, but defintely more important things about what happened in this part.

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

For the next few days, life had been unsurprisingly blissful for both the officer and his protégée : Orihime Inoue spent her nights working on her computer, carefully being silent while Ichigo let sleep hit him hard as a brick, his documents all over him while his mouth was opened to let silent snores escape. Then, morning came, and a curious routine started to take place, with Ichigo doing his morning exercises in the room given to him, Orihime taking yet another sweet drink before heading to bed.

As if they had been friends since forever, they tended to their lives and watched over the other, stealing a few glances here and there. Orihime, once awake, would give more information on the bakery, the times she went there, the people she used to know. Ichigo, listening carefully, would note it down and try to think on it, before getting dragged outside by the arm.

That was something new too. Physical touch.

Ichigo, being the nice and respectful man he was supposed to be, had decided to absolutely not let his physical attraction to the young woman take over. Nothing would happen, because he was controlling his body and mind, and that was it. But that was forgetting how convincing gardening, sharing dishes or simply talking with her was complicated. She had touched his arm once, to ask a simple question, and it was an electric shock running through his body, from head to toe. The auburn haired woman had stared at him with a tiny blush before scooting away, apologizing immediately. Little by little, more touches, more arm grasping to prevent a fall, shoulder taping because, apparently, Ichigo was funnier with the woman then he ever had been with his friends and family.

So it didn’t surprise him when Orihime had asked him to help her change the light, since he was basically here to help. But… Well…

“You what?”

Eyes wide opened, mouth hanging, blush creeping on his cheeks, he looked like the perfect idiot.

“Could you please hold my waist while I change the light, please?”

It was ridiculous. For many reasons, as in, he could change it for her, or he didn’t need to hold her waist for that. But the most ridiculous thing of all was thinking about refusing her proposal. Ichigo wasn’t stupid enough to understand a basic flirting method.

“I… Yeah.. I can do that.” He muttered, letting the satisfied and overwhelmingly smiling woman take her time to climb on top of the chair. “Just… Be careful not to hurt your hands.”

If he could hit himself, Ichigo would, but it was impossible now, his hands very, very carefully placing themselves on the woman’s hips. They didn’t dare to do more than hover, digits sweating and face incandescent.

In such a situation, it was easy, and evident, for both the young people to hope for more : faking a fall and land in Ichigo’s arms, for example. But they were rapidly brought back to reality, the policeman’s phone buzzing loudly in the silence of the intimate scene.

“Ah… Sorry.”

Ichigo apologized, taking one hand off to dig in his pocket.

“Yes?... Hello. Yes, I am with Miss Inoue.”

The hand still lingering over her jeans was very much a reminder of it. She smiled at him, mouthing a ‘thank you’ before getting back on the ground.

His hand didn’t move much.

“Everything is going alright, there are no signs of any threats against her. Yes… Hm, I see. I will. Thank you.”

Orihime stared at the man on her side, watching him hang up and sigh before turning his face in her direction.

“Is everything alright? Was it the police station?”

“Oh, yeah. Everything is good, they have more intel on how the explosion occurred. They were suggesting me to go there to catch up on anything that might be interesting.”

He answered, shrugging, and placed his phone back where it belonged. Now it felt like things would really work : after days, 6 to be more precise, of knowing nothing and suggesting to the public it was but a mere dysfunctioning oven that had caught fire and exploded, the investigation could finally take a good turn. The culprit would hopefully be found soon.

Orihime had not answered, and Ichigo looked back at her to see her eyes darting to her hips where his hand had remained.

A beat.

“I’m sorry!” He yelped, pulling his hand away fast, the feeling of being burned coursing through his veins.

Orihime laughed openly, the blush on her face as evident as her timid smile.

What was left of the bakery was surrounded by tape to prevent any curious eyes, a few police officers gathered around a table to drink a coffee and discuss matters. The tallest of the team, a dude with brown hair and glasses, watched as Ichigo arrived with Orihime.

The light-haired man was dressed as a civilian once again, jeans with a blue shirt, and the other officers couldn’t help but notice he seemed… less grumpy then usual.

“Kurosaki Ichigo. I am here with Miss Inoue Orihime to ask a few questions.”

Ichigo told his partner, voice deep in concentration, while Orihime bowed shortly, looking around. This place, the memories she used to have… It was strange, and definitely painful to return.

After the fire was extinguished, nothing made much sense. What had been the place to expose the delicious friandises and cakes was gone, blown away by the wind of the explosion, the home made decoration all over the place, drawn and painted by the proud owners’ grandchildren had vanished. All the happiness had disappeared, only ashes and bodies left behind.

And the owners… A part of Orihime had wanted not to know the state they were in. whether or not they could be recognized. But the other part wanted to know everything. Because she knew she could have suffered the same fate.

“Miss Inoue?”

A gentle voice brought her back to reality, grey eyes blinking a few times before focusing on the brown ones she had come to get used to.

“Yes… Sorry, I zoned out for a bit.”

“It’s alright.” Ichigo gave a kind smile, one that made her heart and stomach roll together. “If you want to, you can go see inside. Just tell me whenever it is too much for you.”

Orihime nodded once again, turning around to slowly walk to the ruined building. She could feel a pair of eyes on her at every step, and it was reassuring to know that at any problem, any moment, Ichigo would come to help her.

“Is this a graduation picture?”

They returned to her house shortly after visiting the site, Ichigo with more info on the states of the other victims and if they had any memories, and Orihime with a new found resolution to help.

Five people had died. Numerous others had been injured. She was part of the very few with no physical injuries. Whoever did this needed to pay for it.

“Yes. When I used to sleep at night.”

She joked, face brighter than her thoughts when a smile grew on it, sitting down on the sofa next to Ichigo, crossing her legs under her.

Ichigo rolled his eyes playfully, shaking his head as he gazed at the picture, obviously focusing more on her than any other students.

“True, but the smile from the “now” you is better.”

“Ah, don’t tell me about it. If you think school is stressful and selective, then the NAOJ of Mikata is Hell. I was so stressed every living second, because I wanted the job so bad.”

“Competitive much?”

“I heard some students were taking drugs to not need sleep or food so they could study more. So yes. A lot.”

Ichigo raised his eyebrows at that, shooting up his eyes to stare at the woman.

“And I heard of people taking drugs to avoid studying…” He joked, and was so fucking proud to see her laugh at this. Damn if he loved it.

Focusing his eyes back on the picture, the man watched all those young and tired faces, none of them smiling, and placed his finger on the picture frame.

“This girl seemed to not like you much…”

A foreign blond woman, her hair cut at shoulder’s length, glared daggers at the younger Orihime, irritably holding the glasses in her hands while obviously mumbling something under her breath.

Next to him, Ichigo heard Orihime sigh.

“Ah, yes… All of us were aiming for the moon, a good job with a good salary. It was the same for her. At first, we were all friends, trying to help each other. But the competition got the best of us. And a good job wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to be an astrophysicist to make my brother proud. She didn’t have any goal but to be better than anyone. But her methods were despicable, and she was rejected by the academy. While I had no business in this, she hated me in particular for that.”

Orihime sighed once again, rubbing her hands on her jeans.

“I hope she’s doing well… I can only assume how hard it must have been for her…”

Ichigo wanted to agree, but the frown on his face had returned.

Whoever this girl was, she didn’t have the same heart as Inoue, that was obvious. And he would investigate this.

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What will happen next, oh as the writer of this, I wonder hehehehe

#bleach #ichihime #ichihime fanfiction #ichihime writing #ichihime headcanon #ichigo x orihime #protector #fluff

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withcolebrock · 4 years

Text

Three Empty Words

Summary: Colby and Y/N realize they are no longer in love

Warnings: swearing? I’m not sure of others

Word Count: 3,346

Author’s Note: First angsty piece in a hot minute?? Would you look at that haha. I really had a good start on this and then I lost momentum. but I still think it turned out alright???? It’s also a long one so enjoy that hahah. And this was literally inspired by Three Empty Words by Shawn Mendes. such a beautiful song, ya’ll should listen to it. anyway. I hope you guys like it and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! This is my Gif!

She let out a sigh as she pulled the car door open and sat down into the small car. She placed her purse down next to her feet, while looking towards Colby in the driver seat. “Hey, how was work?” he asked, giving her a once over.

“It was busy,” she let out a breathy laugh as she buckled her seatbelt. He smiled softly as he began pulling out of the restaurant parking lot. Colby reached his hand over and turned up the music. She stared down at her hands as silence fell between them. It was awkward and quiet while she tried to find something to say. “Uh,” she cleared her throat, “How was your day?” she asked, trying to find some conversation.

He glanced towards her, seeing her looking away from him. “It was fine, mostly tanned and swam a bit,” she nodded her head slowly. He pressed his lips together as he continued driving down the dark street. “The cats were there right before I left,” he said suddenly, his voice slowly got quieter as he spoke. She lifted her head slightly looking towards the boy beside her.

“That’s good,” she clenched her jaw, “They hadn’t been there in a while.”

“Yeah,” he whispered, nodding his head slowly. For the rest of the ride to her apartment they sat in uncomfortable silence. The only sound was the music on the radio. Colby pulled into the parking garage, and parked beside her car.

“Do you want to come in and hang for a bit? I’m sure Ollie would love to see you,” she said, slightly hopeful. Ollie was her younger brother, he lived in her apartment alongside their mom. Colby’s mouth opened slightly before shutting it.

“I can’t, I have a video to film with Sam, but please tell him I say hi,” he smiled widely. She forced a small smile as she nodded her head.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow at the house for the party?” she unbuckled her seat while reaching for her purse.

“Yep,” he said quickly. She glanced towards him again before she started pulling the door open. “Bye love you,” he said while he shifted his gaze towards his phone.

“Love you,” she responded as she shut the door. The walk to the elevator wasn’t far, Colby sat and waited for her to get into it before he started to drive off. She stepped into the elevator and watched Colby start to pull from the parking lot, she sighed while she pulled out her phone. Through the few text messages she got, she stared at the background.

It was a picture from a year ago, it was taken at one of the many pizza nights they had. In the picture she was in the midst of laughing while Colby came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. His face was scrunched into her neck, a wide smile to his features. She didn’t remember that she took the photo until she found it months later. A small smile formed to her lips as the memory came flooding back to her, she admired the blue streaks in his hair. It was probably the last clear happy memory she had with him.

She was happy, of course, but nothing was the same. When the boys moved into the new house, it felt like everything changed. Nothing happened specifically, but something happened. She reached the door to her apartment and pushed it open. She was soon greeted by her four year old little brother. “Y/N!” he cheered as he ran up and hugged.

“Hi buddy,” she smiled as she lifted him in the air briefly before putting him back down. She rested her purse onto her kitchen counter as she walked towards the living room. “How was your day?” she asked as she sat down on the couch, Ollie followed her and sat down beside her.

“Good!” he yelled. Y/N and her mom laughed as they looked towards each other. “Colby coming over?” he asked excitedly. Y/N smile fell as she looked towards Ollie, she shook her head. “Why not?” he whined.

“Colby has work to do tonight, Bud, maybe tomorrow,” she ran her hand over his head, creating a small laugh from him. She glanced down to her watch and saw that it was past nine. “You should be in bed,” she sighed while looking towards her mom. She shrugged while standing up.

“Let’s go Oliver, let Y/N relax, say goodnight,” she spoke while she took a hold of Ollie’s hand. He whispered ‘goodnight’ while walking towards his room down the hall. She forced a smile as she walked towards her bathroom. She sighed as she placed her phone down onto the counter while she started to take off her clothes.

She pulled up the covers as she climbed into her bed. She sighed while adjusting the pillow beneath her head. She brought her phone towards her face as she started to scroll through twitter. Most of her feed involved Colby, since his fans loved making edits of them together. They were overwhelmingly supportive of their relationship; which was shocking.

A few tweets that she saw were mentioning Colby and Amber. She was confused as to why they were mentioning them, out of nowhere. She switched over to Instagram and saw that Amber had posted a small video of them both together. Y/N’s eyebrows knitted together while she looked over the video. She wasn’t angry, she didn’t truly feel anything. She sighed while she dropped her phone down beside her.

~~~

The party was starting to come to a close as everyone was finding their places to sleep off the alcohol they consumed. She wandered around the kitchen picking up random pieces of garbage. She hoped that the small cleaning she was doing would help in the morning. “Hey, what are you doing?” Colby said walking passed her, lifting his gaze from his phone. She didn’t look up from the red solo cups on the countertop.

“Cleaning,” she said simply. He squinted his eyes as he looked her body up and down.

“Are you okay?” he continued to ask. She took in a long breath, finally meeting Colby’s eyes.

“I’m fine, I just don’t want to do this in the morning,” she snapped. She didn’t know why her tone was falling so harsh. She just wasn’t in the mood to talk; rather talk to Colby.

“Okay,” his voice was barely above a whisper, “Do you want help?” he asked. She shook her head.

“I’ll meet you in your room in like ten minutes,” she sighed, meeting his eye. She forced a smile while she continued to pick up the litter of trash surrounding the room. He nodded while he walked away from the room. She began picking up the rest of the trash.

After about ten minutes she placed the garbage back against the cabinets as she started heading towards the staircase leading towards Colby’s room. She pushed the door open and glanced towards Colby who was sitting on the edge of his bed. His head shot up looking towards her. “Hey.” she whispered as she walked towards the other end of the room and started changing into her clothes.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked as he watched her throw on one of her hoodies. She clenched her jaw as she walked over to the bed. She shook her head. “What’s wrong?”

“Why’d you lie about filming a video with Amber?” she asked as she sat down beside him. He furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered last night. “I mean, I don’t care if you film a video with her, but why did you lie about it?”

“I didn’t lie, I told you I was filming a video with her,” he defended as he quickly ran his fingers through his hair.

“You said with Sam,” she shot back as she stuided his features. His lips parted slightly as he let out a small sigh. He shook his head slightly as he stood up from the bed. She rolled her eyes as she lifted the comforter and began to climb under it.

“I think you just misheard me or something,” he sighed as he lifted up the comforter. She faces away from him, and he does the same. Their bodies lay far apart from one another.

“Yeah, probably,” she mumbled as she shut her eyes trying to fall asleep.

“Love you,” he whispered.

~~~

She took a sip of her water bottle as she slowly nodded to Tara’s question, “Yeah, I just put in my two weeks so I’ll finally be out of that hell hole,” Y/N said laughing, Tara laughed with her.

“Dude, that place sucks,” Tara explained. Loud footsteps behind them forced them to look behind them. A shirtless Colby was walking towards them, his hair was messy as he was rubbing his eye. He didn’t even look at the girls as he continued walking through the kitchen.

He shifted his head back, glancing towards Y/N as he opened the fridge, “How long have you been down here?” he asked, taking a bottle of water. Y/N sighed as she shifted her gaze back towards Tara. Tara shifted her gaze towards Colby but she quickly shifted her gaze back to Y/N.

“An hour or so,” she mumbled while she avoided his gaze.

He nodded as he started walking back towards the staircase, “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming down here?” he asked while continuing to take steps towards the stairs. She shrugged her shoulders. He clenched his jaw, “Can you come up there like soon?”

“I’ll be up there in a minute,” she forced a smile and he jogged away. She covered her face in her hands as she let out a small groan. She began rubbing her eyes. Tara’s eyes widened as she shifted her gaze from Colby towards her.

“What the hell was th-are you guys okay?” Tara questioned while lowering her voice. Y/N shook her head while covering her face in her hands. “Did something happen?” she continued.

“No?” she said in a questioning tone, “Like nothing happened, but somethings off,” she explained. Tara stared towards her expectantly. “Like one day out of nowhere everything just stopped being good,” Tara’s lips fell into a pout as she looked over Y/N’s features.

“You guys seemed so good last night, what happened?” Tara asked while brushing her fingers through her hair. Y/N furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips forward.

“That’s the thing, we are good, but we are just not lovey dovey anymore?” Tara stared towards her with confusion written over her features. Y/N swallowed hard as she shook her head, “I can’t tell you the last time we cuddled before we went to bed,” her voice trembled slightly and her eyes widened, “I can’t even remember the last time we’ve kissed.” her eyes widened as she looked towards Tara.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry, Y/N,” Tara sighed as she pulled Y/N in a hug.

“I should a-I should probably go up there, huh,” Y/N said as she pulled away from the hug. She took a hold of the bottle of water and chugged it. She tossed in the trash quickly.

“You need to tell him how you feel,” Tara said while Y/N began to walk away. Y/N nodded as she walked towards the staircase. She jogged up the stairs.

She pushed the door open slowly, peeking her head into the room. She saw Colby sitting on the edge of the bed. His body was now covered with one of his XPLR hoodies.

“Hey,” she whispered as she shut the door behind her. He lifted his head and forced his smile. She began walking towards the bed slowly as Colby stood up from the bed. She stopped in the middle of the room and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Are you happy?” he asked suddenly. She took a step back as she cocked her head to the side. He turned his head away while he ran his hand over her chin.

“What?” she mumbled.

“Sorry, it’s just I’ve been dying to ask.” he asked again as he took a small step towards her. She didn’t respond at first, she just kept her gaze on his as she studied his features. His eyes were teary as he looked towards her.

“Honest?” she whispered.

“Honest,” he repeated, a small smile to his features.

“I’m not,” she let out as she looked into his eyes. His face fell as the words left her lips. “You said to be honest,” her voice was quiet. He took a step closer to her while nodding his head.

“Yeah, I knew that’s what you were going to say,” he sighed, “But I just didn’t think-I don’t know,” he dropped his head slightly as he ran his hand across his lips. She took a step closer to him as she gave him a once over.

“I’m assuming you aren’t happy either?”

“We haven’t really been ourselves recently,” he walked toward the bed. She took a few steps near him. He pressed his lips together as he avoided eye contact with her.

“It’s been longer than recently,” she said quietly, he let out a dry breathy laugh. He sat down while leaning his body against the pillow. She clenched her jaw as she stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. She pulled a few pieces of her hair behind her ear while taking in a shaky breath. “When was the last time you said you loved me?” she asked. She didn’t know why she asked, the words just fell out of her lips.

“Last night, what, why?” he asked his eyebrows strongly knitted together.

“Yeah, did you mean it?” She started taking small steps towards the bed, studying Colby’s features intently. His face fell as his shoulders slumped.

“I love you, I do-”

“But not as we used to,” she let out, her voice cracking as her eyes slowly started to tear up. He bit his bottom lip as he turned his gaze away from her. She walked towards the bed sitting beside him.

“I do love you,” his words fell out as his tone got quieter. He was trying to convince himself that he did, he knew he did but he hasn’t felt it. Her lips quivered as she tried to say something but she couldn’t. His eyes flickered down to her lips, and his body suddenly straightened. “I can’t remember the last time I kissed you,” he let out furrowing his eyebrows. “Why can’t I remember the last time I kissed you,” he covered his hand over his mouth.

“I don’t think we can do this anymore, Colby,” she let out her head shaking lightly as she spoke. A small sob left her lips. She raised her hand and wiped her eye of the tear ready to fall.

“What-what do you mean?” his own voice trembled as he spoke, his cheeks began to flush. She shut her eyes harshly while licking her lips.

“We can’t keep pretending we are okay,” she let out, “We can’t even remember the last time we’ve kissed, we don’t even try to cuddle at night, Colby. We say ‘I love you’ like a fucking reflex, not like we should. How can we pretend that this is normal?” he stared at her blankly as he processed everything. “God Colby it’s been months since we’ve had sex,” she sniffed as a tear fell onto her cheek.

He pressed his lips together while staring towards the floor as the memories of the last few months. The lack of intimacy and lack of love they shared came flooding back to him. He raised his head slightly as he shifted his gaze towards her, “We love each other but we aren’t in love anymore, is this what this is?” he asked with a sob leaving his lips. She didn’t know how to respond, all she could do was nod her head slowly.

~~~

It had been a few days since they decided to end things. It wasn’t easy, she wasn’t even sure they were broken up until she found herself texting him to get all of her stuff back. She needed a few days to find words to explain it to her little brother, who was very attached to Colby.

Y/N had asked Colby to stop by at five so Ollie and her mom were out of the house. She took the last hoodie from the hanger and placed it into a box, she let out a shaky breath. She didn’t want to cry, she didn’t want Ollie to see her crying or Colby for that matter. She left the box on her bed as she stepped out of the room. She sniffed as she blinked rapidly avoiding the tears forming in her eyes. “Hey, I thought you guys left?” Y/N whispered as she walked into the living room. Her mom turned around and let out a small laugh.

“I forgot the swim trunks,” she showed Y/N the bright blue shark swim trunks. Y/N forced out a giggle as she watched Ollie dance back and forth.

“You guys gotta get going before-”

“I know we are heading out now,” she said as a few knocks hit the front door. Y/N sighed as she shut her eyes. Her mom’s eyes widened as she looked towards Ollie, who was already excitedly running to the door. “Ollie, no get over here,” she said while waving her hands.

“But Colby, he did three knocks,” he whined as he walked towards his mom. She whispered a few things to him before walking with him towards his room. Y/N walked towards the door quickly as she peaked through the peephole, seeing Colby standing there. She pulled the door open, seeing Colby carrying his box. She stepped aside allowing him inside.

“I know I’m early, I’m sorry,” he hesitantly stepped inside, his eyes danced around the apartment. He looked disheveled. His hair was messy and he had big bags under his eyes. She dind’t look far off.

“It’s okay, I was just hoping you got here after Ollie and my mom left,” she let out as she shut the door behind him. He clenched his jaw as he pursed his lips forward.

“You haven’t told Ollie yet?” he asked, she shook her head. His lips fell into a pout, “I can tell him if you want,” he whispered. Her eyes widened.

“No, you don’t have to,”

“I want to, let me talk to him,” he said simply. She looked into his eyes, noticing them not being as bright as before. She called after Ollie as she leaned against the barstool behind her. Ollie came bursting around the corner as his eyes lit up from seeing Colby.

“Colby!” he cheered, hugging him. Colby leaned down and hugged him, he glanced towards Y/N who was already walking down towards her bedroom. “Can you come play legos?!” he asked excitedly. Colby fought off the urge to just say yes and let everything sneak by but he knew he couldn’t.

“Actually Buddy, I wanted to talk to you,” he whispered as he sat down onto the floor, signally for Ollie to sit beside him. Ollie sits down while pulling his knees to his chest. “I needed to tell you that I won’t be coming over anymore,” he explained, his voice broke as he spoke. Ollie scrunched together dramatically as he stared into Colby’s eyes.

“For how long?” Ollie asked while rocking back and forth. Colby took in a long breath.

“For a long time, buddy,” he whispered, trying to fight off the tears forming into his eyes. Ollie’s lip quivered as his eyes started to squint together.

“But I like it when you are here,” he let out. Colby nodded as he reached around Ollie and pulled him in for a hug.

“I liked coming over too,”

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deepgentlemenchild · 3 years

Text

Decided to post something I guess, a trashy bakudeku angst lol

Kirishima and Kacchan had started dating over the summer holidays and everyone had been overjoyed at the news. Everyone but Izuku. Under normal circumstances he would be thrilled that his classmates found love and comfort with one another. But these weren't normal circumstances and Izuku definitely wasn't thrilled. If anything Izuku was heartbroken, horrified and overwhelmingly resentful. Izuku wouldn't usually be so selfish, normally he would move on and let them be happy. But that's kinda hard when your so in love with someone that when you find out it's undoubtedly unrequited you contract the

hanahaki disease. If you don't know what hanahaki is it's a disease that suffocates your lungs by growing flowers in them and you can only get it if the person you love doesn't love you back. There is only three options to choose from once you contract the disease, option one is getting the flowers surgically removed, but it also removes all your memories of the person, so obviously not something Izuku can do considering he is who he is because of Katsuki.Option two is them loving you back, which is a no go with the whole Kirishima thing. The last option is probably the simplest, which is dying. Now Izuku doesn't necessarily want to die, but it's better than forgetting Kacchan, he loves Kacchan with his whole being and simply can't willingly choose to forget him, and there's no way of Kacchan loving him back so he really doesn't have any other options. All he can do is pretend to be happy for the new couple and hide his life threatening disease from everyone, can't be too hard.

So remember how Deku said it can't be too

hard to pretend to be happy for Kacchan and Kirishima whilst also pretending to not be dying. Yeah, well, he forgot to mention he and Kacchan had become best friends again and Kacchan spared no details when talking about Kirishima.One night while he had been coughing his lungs out Kaminari had walked passed his door and checked on him like the caring friend/classmate he is. "Hey Midobro, you alright in there?" He asked concerned after he knocked.A few seconds passed by before Izuku admitted defeat and let Kaminari in. "H-hey Kaminari-kun," he rasped with the ghost of a smile on his lips. Kaminari looked around the dorm room, seeing all the flower petals floating around. "Oh Mido," he said sadly as he pulled the boy into a bone crushing hug.

Weeks go by and Denks is still the only classmate who knows about Izukus condition, after Denks constant insistence Izuku finally told Aizawa sensei and his mum, but absolutely refused to tell any other peers. Denks and Izuku were doing everything together from walking to and from the classroom to hanging out whenever they had spare time. "Hey Deku," Kacchan started and Izuku nodded to show he listening "Do you wanna hang out tomorrow?" Before Kacchan had finished speaking Izuku was already shaking his head. "Sorry Kacchan, but me and Denks are going watch the new All Might movie tomorrow." Izuku apologizes.

"You're spending all your free time with that dumbass, when can we hang out again?" Kacchan asked irritably.

Izuku shrugged, "Maybe later, anyway I gotta get going me and Denks are having a sleepover." Izuku beamed and Kacchan rolled his eyes before going to sit with Kirishima on the common room couch. "ZUZU!!" Denks exclaimed excitedly. "You're hereeee."

Izuku giggled lightly. "Of course I'm here Denks, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Except maybe for a certain "Kacchan" hmm?" Denks waggled his eyebrows.Izuku blushed and puffed his cheeks indignantly before bursting into a coughing fit. "Oh, shit. Sorry Zu." Denks looked upset with himself as he pet Izukus back lightly.

"No no. Don't apologize Denks, besides Kacchan asked to hangout tomorrow and I said no cuz we've already got plans," huffed

Izuku once he could open his mouth with flowers falling out.

"Gasp. The world truly is changing. But even

so it's only cuz it's to do with All Might." Denks retorted.

"Humph." Izuku pouted.

Denki laughed at the adorable display before turning on his switch so the could play Mario Cart. As the night dragged Izuku only had a total of two

coughing fits more and even won a few races. Denki had noticed a certain spikey haired blonde glaring at him when he was hanging out with Zuzu at school and in the dorms, but he couldn't figure it out. Maybe Bakubro was upset that Denki had stolen his best friend which wasn't unlikely, or something completely different. Denki decided not to confront Bakubro about or even ask Zuzu what he thought of it because he thought he was overthinking it and maybe Bakubro glaring at him was normal.

Izuku was sat on his bed without Denks for the first time in over two weeks and was really missing the comforting pats on the back as he coughed his lungs out staring at the stunning red petals that matched Kacchans eyes like nothing else. If it weren't for the fact that the flowers were killing him he would call them beautiful, but considering they were killing him he'd rather call them stunningly evil. Izukus coughs became horrid, each one making his whole body tremor and more and more tears fell out the corner of his eyes and dropped onto the petals littering his bed. "I'm so sorry Kacchan. I'm so sorry mum, Denki, All Might, Aizawa sensei. I'm so sorry everyone." Izuku whispered out into the night not knowing if he would last much longer.

The next day Izuku avoided Kacchan like the plague, even going as far as to swap seats with Kirishima so he could sit further away from him. Denks kept giving him pittying looks from where he sat, knowing his best bud didn't have much longer. Everyone in class knew something was wrong with Izuku but didn't mention it so as not to upset him. As the day went on Izuku found it harder and harder to keep his coughs in and even harder to stay away from Kacchan.

After almost coughing in class Izuku decided it was finally time he went to the nurses office. When Recovery Girl saw who it was she almost rolled her eyes. "What is it this time? Another broken bone?" She asked sarcastically. Izuku could only weakly shake his head before he started none stop coughing petals, but mainly whole flowers up. Recovery Girls eyes changed from annoyed to immense concern almost immediately. She quickly guided Izuku on a bed so he could sit down. After a couple of minutes Izuku finally stopped coughing and looked up at Recovery Girl sadly. "I-i don't think I have long left Recovery Girl." Izuku admitted as tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Oh you silly boy." She shook her heard remorsefully. "You can still do the surgery you know? As long as you do it in the next twenty four hours, otherwise you're a true goner."

"I-i can't do that to Kacchan." Izuku whispered.

"Ok then love, is there anyone you want me to call so you can go home." Recovery Girl asked.

Izuku shook his head, "Can you bring Denks though," he requested instead. He didn't want his mother seeing him like this, it would make her sad and he didn't want to see her sad. Recovery Girl nodded and went to Aizawas classroom to grab Denki.

When she got to the classroom she knocked softly on the door. "Yes? What is it?" Aizawa asked through the door. Recovery Girl opened the door before speaking. "Izuku asked me get someone named Denks," she announced.

As soon as Denki heard Izukus name he shot his head up and after hearing the rest of it he jumped out of his seat and quickly made his way to the nurses office. Everyone else in the class looked perplexed besides Aizawa and Bakugo. Aizawa looked solemn where as Bakugo looked angry.

"Denks you came," Izuku spoke softly yet excitedly once he saw Denki burst through the door.

"Zu, baby. Of course I came." Denks said seriously as tears gathered in his eyes. Izuku smiled at him, though not nearly as bright as before but still as contagious as Denki smiled back sadly. They stared at each other for a long while, no words could be spoken to lessen either of their pain. The silence was eventually broken by Denki, who carefully embraced Izuku "you know Zuzu, I love you. More than anything. Your my bestest friend and the last few weeks have been the happiest of my life." Denki exclaimed as he cried the hardest he's ever cried.

"Oh, Denki. I love you too and I couldn't be happier to have you as my best friend. But you need to move on, make a new best friend. Kiris really nice." Izuku replied even softer than before. Denki just shook his head and cried harder. "I'm calling Bakugo." He announced. Izuku shook his head.

"Denki, please don't. I don't want him to feel guilty." Izuku pleaded. Denki ignored him in favour of pulling out his phone and tapping on Bakugos contact. It rang a total of three time before Bakugo picked up. "Pikachu, what's wrong with Deku?" He asked immediately. Denki shook his head, these idiots. "He's in the nurses office, come quick." Denki answered urgently before hanging up.

"He does care about you, you know that right? He may not love you like you love him but he truly cares about you." Denki finally addressed Izuku. Izuku looked away from him with more tears gathering in his eyes. Less thank two minutes had passed before Bakugo burst through the door with a panicked look on his face. Once his eyes met Deku they instantly filled with tears. "Izuku." He said softly before hugging him tightly. He looked into Izukus as if questioning him. Asking him who? Izuku looked him straight in his beautiful red eyes before kissing him straight on the lips. All of 5 seconds passed before Kacchan reciprocated and another 5 before Izuku went limp in his arms. At least I finally kissed him. Izuku thought before leaving his body to moving towards the light as tears blocked his vision.

#hanahaki #bakudeku fan fic #bnha angst #sad boi hours

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brownshouto · 4 years

Text

With the Sun in your hands

The first time Mafuyu came in contact with snow, he was exposed, skin untouched by cold tenderness. He awaited cruelty; snow is harsh, it makes winter ruthless, it shows no mercy, but unlike what he was expecting, its touch was soothing, soft, comforting.

Continue readind under the cut or on Ao3

Winter had a reputation; its cold seeped into your bones, snow burnt your skin until nothing but frostbitten flesh was left.

Mafuyu, a winter baby, grew up in a house on fire. There was no moment the flares wouldn't lick his skin, leaving angry welts on its wake. His mother, a wilting flower under the extreme heat, did all she could to shield him from the flame but he was inevitably burnt by it eventually.

The first time he came in contact with snow, he was exposed, skin untouched by cold tenderness. He awaited cruelty; snow is harsh, it makes winter ruthless, it shows no mercy, but unlike what he was expecting, its touch was soothing, soft, comforting.

Yuki arrived in his life like a blizzard. He turned his world upside down at first, very much like a first friend does, and then when his world indeed started collapsing on itself, he was the cooling snowflakes that graced his skin with kindness after the flames had hurt him, he held his hand steady as the hot air of the fire threatened to suffocate him.

"Mafuyu, as long as I'm here, no one is going to hurt you again." There was no way a child could be sure of that, but Mafuyu let the comforting words wash over him. He gripped Yuki's hand tighter, and at that moment, his promise appeared to him like words carved in stone, a magical contract never to be broken.

Mafuyu woke up to one of the earliest memories he had of Yuki. They were sitting down under the same tree where Yuki first found Mafuyu, their fingers intertwined. Yuki had dropped those words as Mafuyu watched him poke some bugs with a stick.

He smiled wistfully at the memory of the long broken promise, after all, death overwrites all contracts. He wondered if eight-year-old Yuki would have made the same vow had he known Mafuyu was destined to be the one to hurt him. Mafuyu closed his eyes momentarily; he could go back to sleep for a little while longer, he could bask in the early memories of Yuki, that ached so profoundly, or he could wake up to feed Kedama.

He ended up getting up; he had a dog to take care of and a flat to tidy up before his boyfriend came over to hang out during their rest day. He let a small smile grace his lips. His boyfriend Uenoyama would be coming over, maybe they could cuddle, that sure would fluster him, He loved to know he had that effect on his darling. He felt fortunate to be so thoroughly adored by such a radiant soul, a heart he had to treat with care to treasure it the way Uenoyama deserved.

By midday, he had nothing to do but to regularly check his phone, waiting for the text that would let him know his boyfriend was right outside his door. After 10 minutes of sitting on the floor with Kedama on his lap, impatiently running his hands through his dog's soft fur, he picked up his phone to text his boyfriend.

M: Where are you?

U: omw, sorry, I had to outrun a cat.

M: So do you want McDonald's?

U: I'll love whatever you get me.

U: ...Sorry, that was weird.

M: McDonald's it is <3 Hurry!

U: ok!

U: <3

He beamed at his screen. His heart was beating fast; he felt impatient in the most thrilling way, anticipation to spend time with someone he loved built up in his chest, overwhelmingly warm and gentle, and so he yelled as a response to his intense emotions.

"Mafuyu! are you okay?" his mom came into his room with quick steps and a worry written all over her face.

"Sorry I was just excited." He could see her face relax, and she gifted him a blinding smile. It had been a while since he yelled because he couldn't handle his happiness or yelled at all. Ever since Yuki's death, Mafuyu's emotions have been muted, dulled and grey. Uenoyama brought back some of that intensity to his feelings; they were just too much sometimes.

"Oh, that's great! Uenoyama is coming over, right? Do you have enough money to order food? Do you want some more? I could lend you some, I worked a couple of extra hours the other day, or you can cook if you wish to, I've heard that's romantic, or you could go-"

"Mom, it's okay, we are just going to order in and watch some movies, maybe walk Kedama again." His mom had sped up through all the possibilities, and Mafuyu knew she just wanted him to have a good time.

"Oh perfect, I'll be leaving for work in a couple of minutes, text me if you need anything."

"Okay, mom, good luck."

With that, his mom left, shutting the door behind her. Not even a minute had passed when he heard a knock on his door. He got out of his room to open it, expecting it to be his mom having forgotten something like she usually does. What he didn't expect was to see a red-faced Uenoyama at his door.

"Oh... hi, Uenoyama."

"You didn't tell me your mom was going to be coming out right as I was arriving."

"She wasn't. You are late."

"That means she was going to be here when I got here with just store-bought chips and a hoodie, that's not better!"

"Are you going to stay there or are you coming in?" Mafuyu smiled softly at his embarrassed boyfriend, he knew Uenoyama was hell-bent on doing the most to ensure his mom liked his new boyfriend. Funnily enough, Yuki had been just the same, even though his mom had known him for more than half his life, he still insisted on being nothing short of a gentleman whenever she was close. Mafuyu used to tell him there was no point since she had already seen him sick and covered in vomit from eating dirt that one time when he was 8.

Ah... these were all things he wouldn't get to experience again. Mafuyu didn't even remember when was the last time he'd made fun of Yuki for that.

His melancholy must have shown on his face because Uenoyama had that weird look in his eyes, he looked disoriented, and Mafuyu hated himself for putting that expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'm coming in, if I spend one more minute in this wind, I'm going to catch a cold." He quickly stepped aside to let Uenoyama in and closed the door behind him.

"So... do you want to get settled?" You know where the sofa is." He took the bag from Uenoyama's hands. "Oh, I forgot to order the food, can you do that? I'm going to put these in a bowl.

"Okay....cheeseburger with extra cheese, lettuce and no pickles, right?"

He walked back into the living room, where Uenoyama was now fiddling with his phone while sitting on the sofa, he took the bowl of chips in his hands as he dropped next to his boyfriend and kissed his cheek "You know me best."

"O-OKAY BURGERS ORDERED!" Mafuyu found Uenoyama's reactions too adorable to handle. He wanted to draw them all out, get to know this beautiful boy sitting next to him even further, see the look on his face as he kissed his nose or brought him home-made lunch to band practice, he wanted his expressions when he took his hand and kissed his knuckles, he wanted them all.

"Which movie are we watching?" he said as he picked up the remote.

"Ah! I asked Haruki for recommendations!" Uenoyama clasped his hands in determination only to whisper the words he said next, "I guess...we could do romance if you want."

"Mmmm," he nodded slightly, "Romance sounds good."

"Good! Haruki told me about this..." Mafuyu found himself zoning out while Uenoyama selected the movie, he had no words to express how cherished he felt, Uenoyama was trying so hard to be a good boyfriend because he cared about Mafuyu. It made his chest feel tight and warm in a way it hadn't felt for a long while, for a moment guilt gripped his heart with freezing hands, reminding him of the lost love he was so eagerly letting go. No. Yuki wouldn't want this. Or would he? He couldn't want anything anymore. He was dead. Dead .

"... and it's light-hearted according to him, do you want to watch it?" guilt squeezed his heart tighter, here he had a wonderful boy right next to him, and he couldn't give him the undivided attention he deserved, too busy mourning to be who Uenoyama needed him to be.

"Maf-"

"Yes, let's watch it." He knew Uenoyama had noticed, he always did. His eyes got this lost look that stabbed and twisted the knife deep in Mafuyu's soul every time he saw it. He knew he was responsible for it, but Uenoyama wouldn't tear his gaze away, he wouldn't run from it. He would look at Mafuyu and leave him feeling known, open and vulnerable.

He decided to cuddle up to Uenoyama to quiet his mind and stabilise his emotions. He ignored his boyfriend's squeak and placed his head below Uenoyama's chin and hugged his middle, the fabric of his hoodie was soft and brought him comfort, "Mmm, you are warm."

There was a knock on the door that made Uenoyama jolt away from the couch and upright, "IT MUST BE THE FOOD! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!"

Mafuyu pouted to himself, his relationship with Uenoyama was riddled with awkwardness and uncertainty, but Uenoyama was worth it, this novelty was new for him as well. His previous relationship was entirely different. He and Yuki had known each other their whole life, and falling in love had been seamless. Mafuyu couldn't pinpoint the exact moment a romantic layer had been added to his love for Yuki. They just fitted together like puzzle pieces.

During the first days of his relationship with Yuki, Mafuyu would be hesitant to kiss him or hold his hand. Yuki would respect his boundaries and not push. They already knew each other like the back of their palms. He remembers the first time Yuki kissed him; he had squeaked similarly to Uenoyama even after being asked for permission, and his ex-boyfriend had thrown his head back and let out a soft laugh.

He remembers it all, the clothes they were wearing, the look in Yuki's face, the way his lips felt against his, and his... laugh .

His laugh.... he couldn't remember his laugh. He had a vague idea of the ring of it, but he couldn't replay it in his mind.

He had forgotten his laugh! How dare he forget it? How dare he not think about Yuki enough to remember it still? How dare he forget the sound of his best friend, his lover, his life, laughing? NO! He couldn't be forgetting Yuki. This couldn't be happening. He promised himself he wouldn't forget him, not a single thing.

He forgot his laugh, he forgot, he forgot, he forgot, he forg-

"Mafuyu!" Uenoyama's voice was nothing but noise as his mind clogged up. How could he? How could he forget and live on to find new loves when Yuki's first and last would always be Mafuyu? How dare he forget when Yuki's death was his fault? How dare he find comfort in another when Yuki would never feel anything anymore. How dare he forget what he could never hear ever again? What could he do? He couldn't bring the memory back. He couldn't bring Yuki back, ask him to laugh one last time for him. What could Mafuyu do against the all-powerful passing of time? Time was always accompanied by oblivion, and against them, he was powerless.

In the background of his mind, he could register Uenoyama shutting the windows, turning off the lights, the television. Everything was too much, and he was left unresponsive. Uenoyama sat on the couch far away from him, far enough to not overwhelm Mafuyu.

As he slowly came back, he noticed more details in his surroundings. The forgotten food on the table, the bowl of chips turned over on the floor; surprisingly, there was no mess, Uenoyama must have cleaned that up, and Kedama was in being held by his boyfriend; otherwise, he'd be all over Mafuyu.

"Uenoyama..." he whispered. He had no idea how much time had passed.

"Mafuyu... are you here with me?" he asked.

"Yes"

"Do you want to talk or do you want a distraction...."

"Please just hold me."

Uenoyama approached him and softly rearranged him into the position he was in before Uenoyama left to get the food. He tightened his arms around Mafuyu's waist as well and kissed the top of his head.

"Whatever you are thinking... you are wrong." He heard Uenoyama say.

"I forgot his laugh." With that, his boyfriend's breath hitched, "I'm sorry, you don't deserve this... having me shut down on you because of Yuki." Uenoyama just hugged him tighter.

"Hey, hey... it's okay. It's true I don't know what to do when you get that look on your face because of him, but I want to here with you."

"But-"

"I don't know what to do with these feelings Mafuyu, all I know is I want to make you happy, all of you, with the parts of you I can't understand.

"I don't want to forget him."

"I'm never going to ask that from you."

"But you deserve-"

"What about what I want? I want to be with you and to make sense of these feelings. I want to help you, even if I don't know how to. I want to be by your side."

"You don't understand. This is never going to stop! I'm going to start forgetting more of him, and I don't want to! I can't expect you to wait on me like that!" He felt tears spill from his eyes.

"I'm here because I want to, and I've wanted it long before I accepted your confession." Uenoyama refused to let go of him, and Mafuyu felt the sudden need to kiss him, and so he did. He looked up to his boyfriend and leaned in, giving him a soft kiss.

"... You make me feel happy, you make me feel loved, tell me why I wouldn't want to be with you." A blushing Uenoyama managed to get out, and Mafuyu felt warmness spread across his chest. He was happy he managed to give Uenoyama back the love that was so selflessly given to him and not just take it.

"Even if I never forget him?"

"I'm not expecting that."

"I love you." And he meant it, with all his insecurities and his baggage, he would allow himself to love Uenoyama and be loved by him, and he would choose to be with him and continue to do so every day.

Now it was time for Uenoyama to hide his face in Mafuyu's hair, "I- I love you too."

They stayed quiet for a few moments, letting time pass while they held each other tightly.

After a while, Mafuyu took the remote and turned on the TV, "Mmm, we are watching a romantic movie, huh?"

"Yes, Haruki said it was a good movie," Uenoyama said while still hiding his face, stealing a moment to kiss Mafuyu's temple one more time before getting up to get their food.

At that moment, Mafuyu knew, he might not remember the exact shape of the snowflakes that used to soothe his wounds and tend to the welts on his skin. Still, he would never forget the cold gentleness of snow on his burning flesh, not even as the warm sun rays graced his face, but it was time for him to welcome the tenderness of heat that didn't consume or burn.

It was time for winter to welcome summer.

#given fic #given #my fics #text #mafuyama #autistic mafuyu

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drabbledragon · 3 years

Text

Linktober: Dark

Next up is day 10: Dark! I just wanted to thank you all for the likes, reblogs, and follows, and that I wish you all a very happy new year!

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26749021/chapters/69732201

Summary: There are circumstances that may lead one to take certain risks, and sometimes those risks lead to disaster.

Warnings: (Temporary) character death, mentions of violence, mentions of alcohol, and swearing.

Day 10: Dark

Wherever Time was, it was dark. There was not a single ounce of light here, and no matter where he looked or where he took a step forward, he was always met with pitch black. The darkness was suffocating, and he could feel his breath start to pick up once his hazy mind realised that there was no exit, that there was nothing to see, that there was no one else here to help him, and soon the whole room was starting to feel like it was closing in on him even though there were no walls and he suddenly couldn’t tell left from right or up from down or whether he was sitting or standing or lying down - it was all just dark, and it was slowly eating away at his sanity.

“You … out … right now …”

His breath caught in his throat. That fiery tone, that sweet, beautiful voice … that was … Malon, right?

Yes, of course. How could he forget the love of his life? The one he decided to settle down with on a small, peaceful ranch in the middle of Hyrule Field? The one who sang along with him whenever he played his ocarina and the one who watched beautiful sunsets with him as the last minutes of the day started to fade away? She was a constant soothing presence in his life, and he would never forgive himself if he ever forgot about Malon.

He stood still, hoping that in some way, listening to his wife’s voice could somehow lead him out of the darkness. It was strange that Malon’s voice was echoing from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and whatever she was saying was so choppy and fragmented that Time could barely make out the syllables of each word, but her voice was like a lifeline to him, and he was willing to try and latch onto it no matter how distant it was.

“What makes you believe that I should? I have not finished killing all the enemies here, nor have I finished correcting the mistakes in this timeline.”

This voice was deeper, colder, and more unforgiving than Malon’s, and each word rang out unnervingly clear in Time’s mind. The being’s tone was indifferent towards the words it was saying, as if the very notion of killing monsters and fixing mistakes in a timeline was just another mundane task that anyone could do. Time would’ve chuckled if the situation wasn’t all so disorientating. As if fixing something so complicated as a timeline was simple, he should know; he’s been struggling with trying to correct his mistakes for years now, and all his attempts have either led to the eventual destruction of Hyrule or to the creation of more timelines, which would only make his hair turn greyer from the added stress. Honestly, at this point, he was sure that only Hylia herself or some other god could fix this.

Wait. Another god.

Another god.

His heart was suddenly racing, the thumping in his chest and the rush of blood in his ears getting overwhelmingly loud. Had he really put on the Fierce Deity mask and become that soulless, heartless god? What were even the circumstances that led him to do that? He swore that he would only use that thing if the situation at hand was nearly hopeless - if his or his loved ones’ lives were practically hanging by a thin thread - but surely it hadn’t come to that, had it?

Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t really remember what had happened. The latest memory he had at the moment was having to buy a new shield for Wild because he broke it while shield - surfing, but that was nearly a day ago - or was it just a few hours ago? Or a couple of minutes ago? Or maybe weeks ago? For someone renowned as the ‘Hero of Time’, his namesake was definitely failing him.

How long had it been since he had given the Fierce Deity control over his body? How long had it been since he last saw light? How long had it been since he’d last seen Malon, or any of the other heroes for that matter? Where were the other heroes? Where was he?

“He … kill me … let … go.”

He lifted his head up at a dizzying speed and his eye widened with fear. No, what was Malon talking about? Why was she suddenly talking about ‘killing’ of all things? She knew so much about the Fierce Deity mask and its bloodlust so why in the world was she tempting that thing?

He sucked in a sharp breath.

He needs out. He needs out right now.

“Let me out!” Time yelled out to no one, but even if it seemed as such, he knew that the deity could hear him. “ Let me out right now!”

“Link … enough … let … go.”

“I know you can hear me! Let me out right now!”

“... Dead … stop … enough.”

“I will burn you to ashes if you lay a single finger on Malon! You hear me?! I’ll kill you!”

Together, he and Malon pleaded from two different sides, the latter’s coming out in careful demands and the former’s coming out in harsh screams. It was impossible to know what was going on outside, and it made Time feel all the more fearful because he didn’t know if he was off simply killing a few Moblins and Lizalfos, or was about to stab a sword through his wife’s chest. He needs to know what was going on. He needs out.

After what felt like an eternity, he felt the floor tilt from beneath him when the Fierce Deity finally nodded and said, “ Very well.” Time’s world was suddenly flooded with light.

His body was already pitching forward before his mind could even register it, and the feel of strong arms coming to wrap around his chest was barely felt through the numbness in his body. His head lolled wearily onto the person’s shoulder, and he didn’t even bother to move the locks of hair that pressed haphazardly against his face. His whole being was sagging with both fatigue and relief, and when he was finally able to make out the white dress underneath his chin and the sight of ginger locks, he used all his remaining strength to lock Malon into a tight hug.

“Link!” She shouted in surprise, but he only squeezed harder, refusing to let her go as if she would disappear without his hold. He buried his head further into her neck and breathed in the familiar scent of hay and home - cooked meals, slowly easing his shoulders when his mind finally registered that he was free from the deity’s hold, he was able to use his own body again, and that he was back home, safe and sound. He pulled away for a second, ready to scold his wife for even attempting to do something so reckless as standing up to a god, but froze when he saw the state of Hyrule Field.

The field - his home - was littered with bodies: those of monsters, humans, and Hylians all strewn about like tossed ragdolls. Blood coated the ground in dark, messy paint splatters on a grassy canvas, and the weapons and armor of the multitude of soldiers that came here were all broken into pieces, destroyed with clean and powerful slices. The whole place reeked of death, and it was nothing like the beautiful plains he was used to seeing.

What had the Fierce Deity done?

He didn’t even realise he was staggering until he felt his wife’s arms around him again.

“Link!” A frantic voice called out, and Time was barely able to recognize it as Malon’s. “ It’s going to be alright!”

He would’ve laughed if his throat wasn’t so tight. ‘Alright’? ‘Alright’? There was nothing that could be ‘alright’ about this situation; the Fierce Deity had killed innocent people - he had killed innocent people - and there was no magical way to grab all their souls and force them back into their respective bodies. They were dead, plain and simple.

His wife was leading him towards their home with one of his arms wrapped firmly across her shoulders and another arm delicately pressing his side to hers. Time could barely keep his heavy steps in time with Malon’s strides, and the right side of his face burned hotter than the flames on Volvagia’s back, but he tried to focus all of his attention on the determination etched onto Malon’s face, hoping vainly that he could draw some sort of hope from that.

His wife was settling him on their shared bed before he was even able to register it, and the soft plush of quilts and blankets did nothing to quell the massive pit in his stomach. Neither the sting of alcohol on his skin as his wounds were cleaned nor Malon’s gentle reassurances did nothing to bring him out of his shock; his mind was still lost in Hyrule Field, looking upon the corpses that littered the green like blooming weeds.

He wondered how long he had been gone for. Minutes? Hours? It could’ve very well been days if he was being completely honest. From the time he put on the mask to the time the Fierce Deity took it off, the Hero of Time was stuck in a dark limbo, where neither his senses nor time itself existed. He surmised that the only reason he was even able to rouse was because of Malon’s voice piercing through the darkness like an arrow to the heart, and he used that opportunity to frantically regain control of his body; otherwise, if he just let that chance flitter away, then he was sure the deity would just kill her along with everyone else.

He startled when a light touch settled on his shoulder, and his eye fell onto an anxious redhead.

“Malon?” His voice trembled like that of a fearful child, and the ranchhand smiled sadly at him.

“That’s right, Fairy Boy. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to the market to fetch some more supplies. I’ll be back in ten minutes, so don’t even think about moving, alright?”

With a tight nod, he watched her move towards the door leading to the hallway, but after a sudden thought came to mind, he quickly blurted out, “ The boys?”

He held his breath as his wife paused in the doorway, and he felt each second tick by excruciatingly slow. Finally, after what felt like years of waiting, she finally turned back and quietly said, “ It’ll be alright.”

The Hero of Time’s stomach dropped. The forced smile on his wife’s lips, the way she dug her nails into the wooden doorframe, the reassuring words she uttered trying to get him to relax even though his subconscious was telling him that he shouldn’t get such a luxury - he should’ve known that something was wrong. Something worse had happened while the Fierce Deity had possessed him, and the little child within him was too scared to find out.

The time between Malon coming home and tending to his remaining injuries was an absolute blur. He remembered her walking back into the room with a myriad of potions and bandages in her arms, and the idle small talk she tried to make as she immediately got back to work. Her voice was soothing, and Time did his best to listen to what she was saying but his mind refused to budge from the topic of the Fierce Deity and death, even long after his wife had left. He was just … numb; his body, his senses, his emotions, were all just numb, all because of a memory he could not remember.

A few harsh knocks pulled Time out of his thoughts, and the visitor didn’t even bother to wait for an invitation. Warriors came barging into the room within seconds, with Wild slowly trailing in behind him, his face well - hidden beneath his signature cloak. They stood together at one side of the bedroom, and the Hero of Time couldn’t even muster the courage to look either of them in the eye.

“What did you do?”

Every bit of Warriors’s words were filled with unadulterated rage, even if they were just barely above a whisper. As the seconds ticked by without an answer, he yelled out louder, “ Tell me, Time, what the fuck did you do?!”

The Hero of Time flinched at the words, and could only muster out a small, “ U - Um -.”

“Can you even begin to understand the gravity of your actions?!” And the Hero of Warriors didn’t even concern himself with formalities anymore. “ You killed hundreds of innocent people just for your own sick enjoyment! They were here to help us - sent graciously by the queen herself - and you just slaughtered them as if they were nothing more than pigs and cattle! And the way you killed Legend and Sky … exactly how long were you waiting to do that?”

No - Time’s breath caught in his throat - no, no, Hylia, he didn’t -.

“Are you happy that two of Hylia’s Chosen Heroes are gone now, with two others well on their way? I’m sure Hyrule loves being in a coma, and Twilight is just absolutely thrilled about bleeding to death!”

Time didn’t miss the way Wild stiffened at the mention of his mentor, nor the shuddering breath he took.

Warriors took a step forward as to shield the champion from Time’s gaze and growled out, “ Those four trusted you - we all trusted you - and you stabbed us in the back like the fucking traitor that you are.”

The Hero of Time flinched at the words. Traitors were the thing that their captain hated the most, and when he said that someone was a traitor, he wholeheartedly meant it.

His fingers twisted harder into the sheets underneath him. As pathetic as it was, he was scared. He was too terrified to ask the dreaded question of how he killed Legend and Sky, too terrified to see how bad off Twilight and Hyrule were, and too terrified to explain that he was under the control of a deity whose powers he couldn’t even begin to comprehend. He betrayed those young heroes who he had considered him as a leader and family, and he had undoubtedly shattered any chance of regaining their trust; all he could do now is wither under the captain’s denouncement and apologize for something that couldn’t be forgiven.

It was Warriors who finally broke the tense silence by sharply turning on his heel and leading the Hero of Wilds and himself out. “ You’re a filthy disgrace to the Kingdom of Hyrule,” He spat out. “ And if I find you anywhere near me or any of the other heroes, I’ll kill you.”

The slam of a door marked their exit, and the Hero of Time was left alone again.

The room was filled with a warm glow from the fading sunset, and all the small picture frames and knickknacks scattered about the place were highlighted in a beautiful orange - red. He would usually appreciate the breathtaking scene, happy that his cruel and demanding adventures had led him to living on a peaceful farm with his loving wife, but he couldn’t this time, not with the knowledge that this field was stained with the blood of innocent soldiers and heroes long before and after him.

He messed up - he fucked up - and he didn’t even bother to hide the small tears that dribbled down his face and onto the beautifully - quilted fabric. He worked so hard to keep the Kingdom of Hyrule at peace, and did his best to help those in need regardless of how demanding they were, but no amount of good deeds could ever bring back any of the people he mercilessly slaughtered. Who would he even blame for his actions? Hylia? The Fierce Deity? They were both deities that obviously didn’t care what a Hylian said about them; they would just go on with their respective existences, not even batting an eye at the millions they had killed for the sake of getting what they wanted.

But Time wasn’t like that: he was a person with feelings, limits, traumas, and regrets, and no matter how immune he thought he was to the problems of this world, he would always come tumbling back down from his high horse as soon as he couldn’t take being the Hero of Time anymore. He had become arrogant, the years of saving people and being a beacon of hope finally getting to his head and allowing him to take the risk of letting the Fierce Deity have control over him, thinking that in some way, somehow, he could finally regain some resemblance of control and transform back into his usual self. He was beyond stupid to think that such a simple Hylian like him could take on an otherworldly god, and he was beyond stupid to think that his plan, no matter how well thought - out, could outsmart anyone that had existed for millennia. What a terrible decision that was, allowing something as powerful as a deity to keep him in the dark while it went on doing whatever it pleased. If only he could turn back time and - .

He stilled for a second before his head shot up in an instant. He was stumbling to his feet before he even knew it, and was eagerly making his way over to wear his item pouch resided on the dresser. His hand dug greedily into the bag like a hungry wolf, and he didn’t stop until his fingers brushed against a familiar ceramic. The item came out with little resistance, and he couldn’t help but stare as the sun’s rays bounced off his ocarina’s blue shell.

He could do it: he could turn back time and prevent any of this from ever happening. The instrument was at his lips within milliseconds, his breath already ready to blow out the familiar tune, when a sudden thought came to mind:

What would happen to this timeline? Time knew for a fact that timelines don’t just disappear, if Legend’s and Hyrule’s, Wild’s and Twilight’s, and Wind’s eras were anything to go by, so what exactly would the Malon here be left with? Would the Link she knew just cease to exist? Or would a carbon copy of himself still exist with memories only the past him would know? And what about the other heroes? Would they go on in their travels with only four heroes instead of nine, significantly reducing their manpower and chances of success? And what if they failed to take care of the overarching threat? He could be leaving behind millions of distraught people to a dismal fate with no Hero of Time to blame.

But he couldn’t remain here; not when Sky, Legend, Twilight, and Hyrule were so close to an untimely death, if not already dead. So he would go back in time, prevent the Fierce Deity from ever having any control over him, and make sure that no one died at his hand.

With his mind made up, he blew into the Ocarina of Time, and watched as the seconds ticked backwards.

Time jolted as he was thrown back into time, and anxiously looked at his surroundings: it looked like he was outside a small tavern … yes, the one he and the Links had stumbled upon two days and 16 hours ago, and judging by the moon’s high position in the sky, it appears that this is the time they were about to leave. As if on cue, an irritated Legend groaned out,

“Ugh, does he always do this? I swear, Cityboy is going to drink himself into a coma one day.”

Warriors, the person in question, directed a dramatic pointed look towards the former and slurred out, “ Hey, I’ll go into a coma whenever I want to, thank you very much.”

A cheery Sky readjusted his grip on the captain’s arm and nervously laughed, “ It’s okay; I’m sure he’s a responsible drinker and knows when he’s reached his limit.” But then added in a smaller voice, “ But I don’t think drinking this much in one sitting is a good idea.”

“No, it’s fine! I’ve seen Wars drink a lot more than he did tonight! And the stuff they had here wasn’t even that strong anyways.” Wind chimed in, and Four from beside him could only stare in exasperation at the unlabeled bottle hidden behind the sailor’s back.

Wild jogged to the group seconds after and asked, “ Hey, are we gonna get going soon? Because Twi is rounding up all the dogs here again, and we don’t want another incident like last time.” And as if to emphasize his point, he jabbed his thumb towards the direction where his mentor was busy playing with a large number of said canines.

Hyrule regarded his travelling companion with an empathetic smile as he answered back with, “ Yeah, I think we were about to leave, right Time?” And when he looked to the group’s leader, he asked in a more concerned tone, “ … Time?”

The Hero of Time didn’t even realize he was staring at each one of them until a majority of them were staring back at him, each regarding him with a curious gaze. He quickly shook his thoughts away and said, “ Yes, we should get going before morning comes.”

So the group began to trek forward towards the inn they would eventually settle into approximately an hour later, all the while bustling about each other’s actions. Time smiled warmly at the group’s antics, but quickly set his jaw in a show of determination. He had another chance to set things right, and goddesses - be - damned if he let this opportunity just slip away.

He won’t let anyone die this time.

#linkeduniverse #LU Malon #LU Time #fanfic #linktober2020

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abundanceofsoph · 4 years

Text

SkyFire 3: Chapter 2

New York & Saturday Night Live: April 2017

Word count: 4.8k

SkyFire 3 MASTERLIST

Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter but I'm finally back at work after 75 days in lockdown. Updates will probably be a bit more spaced out than they were in Parts 1 & 2 but please know that I am still working away at it and I already have so many future chapters planned out that I'm really excited for.

This chapter is a bit of a long one and I thought about splitting it in half but figured you deserved the treat after waiting patiently.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you're enjoying the series and let me know what you think.

>Instagram posts

By the time Aurora woke up Monday morning, Harry’s side of the bed was cold, and he had long since left for the day. Since he would be appearing in multiple sketches on the upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live, he was needed for rehearsals all week. Aurora was thankful that she and the rest of the band weren’t needed until Friday and instead she was able to sleep in. Their flight had arrived in New York well after midnight and by the time they made their way to the tower they had both decided to head straight to bed. Aurora was fairly certain her father would have still been awake, working in his lab but she was far too tired for a reunion after hours on a plane.

Once she managed to roll herself out of bed and get dressed for the day ahead, Aurora made her way down the hall to the open plan kitchen/living area of the penthouse with its wide, floor to ceiling wall of windows looking out over the sprawling expanse of Central Park. Both Tony and Steve were sitting on the stools at the kitchen’s island bench, waiting for their daughter to wake up. Steve had seen Harry earlier that morning as he was leaving, and Steve had been coming back from his early morning run. Both he and Tony were eager to have their daughter home for an entire week and while Steve was happy to sip on his tea and read the morning while they waited, Tony was practically vibrating in his seat with barely contained excitement. Steve’d had to stop him twice from having JARVIS ‘accidentally’ wake Aurora up, so Tony was unsurprisingly the first out of his seat when she finally appeared.

Aurora was grinning widely and broke into a fit of giggles as her father rushed over and lifted her off the ground in a crushing hug. Despite having seen each other only two weeks ago, the craziness of the wedding hadn’t really allowed them much time to just hang out together and prior to the wedding they had spent a solid 5 months apart given the last minute changes to their Christmas plans in the wake of Johannah’s death.

“Missed you Dad,” she said, returning the tight hug.

“Missed you too Kiddo,” Tony replied, finally setting her back on her feet and allowing her to cross the room and fall into Steve’s arms.

The small family spent the entire day together, watching a movie and then moving down to Tony’s workshop in the afternoon so that he could work on a prototype for Stark Industries while Steve and Rori sketched on the sofa. It was reminiscent of how they had spent many evenings shortly after Rori first came to live with her fathers, the memories of those long nights brought a soft smile to her face as she sketched Dumm-e and Butterfingers, where they were attempting to help Tony, but instead were causing more problems than they were able to solve. Harry found them all there when he arrived back to the tower later that evening, grinning excitedly as he launched into his recounting of his first day with the SNL cast.

xXx

Since first meeting her father’s childhood best friend, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, three years ago, Aurora had slowly come to see him as a member of the family. For the first year that they had both lived in the tower together, they had coexisted amicably but had been far from friends, nothing close to the way Aurora was with the rest of the team. Even as her relationship with Sam had flourished quickly as he acclimatized to life as an Avenger she had struggled to be around Bucky. He hadn’t held her distant behaviour against her, knowing that while most of the team had been able to separate the actions of the Winter Soldier from Bucky himself, Aurora had struggled to accept into her home the man who had tried, on several occasions, to assassinate one of her fathers. Following the Columbia Shooting, she had surprised him by seeking him out during her recovery and their friendship had bloomed after her amputation surgery. Now, many years later Bucky easily filled the role of another uncle in Aurora’s life, a shift that had made Steve overwhelmingly happy.

It was late Tuesday afternoon and Steve went in search of his daughter, having not seen her since they’d shared lunch together. He expected to see her in the workshop with Tony, however his husband said he hadn’t seen her since breakfast. With the help of JARVIS he finally found her on one of the lower floors, the one shared by Sam, Bucky and Rhodey when he was in town. She was in the living room sitting across the table from Bucky, a game of Battleship between the pair. Steve suppressed a chuckle as he joined the pair, well aware by now of how much his best friend and his daughter enjoyed playing a variety of tabletop games together. Many arguments had been started over a game of backgammon or canasta.

“Who’s winning?” he asked, pulling up a chair beside Aurora and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m kicking his ass,” she smiled.

“She’s getting cocky,” Buck replied, “and it’s going to backfire on her in a minute.”

“Of course it is,” Aurora said, her tone dripping in sarcasm.

The game continued for a while, Aurora cheering and taunting when she sunk another of Bucky’s ships, mocking him mercilessly when he continued to miss her own turn after turn.

“I don’t understand why you always beat me,” he moaned when she won. “I mean surely your luck has to run out eventually.”

“It’s not luck, Bucky,” Rori laughed. “It’s about strategy and reading your opponent and I hate to tell you, but you are entirely predictable.”

“I’ll have you know I’m an excellent battle strategist,” Bucky retorted.

“Apparently you’re not,” Aurora bit back, a wide smile gracing her face. Steve let out a loud peel of laughter at their bickering.

“Excuse me,” JARVIS interrupted. “Miss Stark, you requested that I alert you when young Mr Styles returned to the tower.”

“Thanks J,” Rori replied, kissing her fathers’ cheek and jumping to her feet, ready to head towards the elevator.

“Miss Stark?” Steve asked.

“He said that Dad programmed him to call me that and no marriage certificate is gonna change it,” Rori explained with a roll of her eyes. “Dad could probably get him to stop but honestly I like it. I didn’t get to be a Stark for very long so it’s nice to be one when I come home.”

“You’ll always be a Stark, bug,” Steve promised, returning the kiss on her cheek and watching as she left the room in search of Harry on the upper floors of the Tower.

“Enjoying having her home?” Bucky asked.

“Absolutely,” Steve answered. “I miss her when she’s not here. Tony does too, even if he won’t admit it. She grew up too fast on us.”

“Can’t have been easy not meeting her until she was practically all grown up,” Bucky pointed out.

“No, you’re right,” Steve agreed. “Sometimes I wish we’d got to raise her, but I’d also never want to have taken away any of the time she got with her mom.”

“You and Tony ever think of having another kid?”

“We’ve talked about,” Steve said. “It’s not very easy process. The worlds come a long way since the 40’s Buck, but it’s still hard for two men to adopt. It certainly doesn’t help that we’ve got such dangerous jobs.”

“Guess that makes sense,” Bucky replied. “Never known you to back down from something just because it’s hard or because someone tells you no, though.”

“You might have a point there. Seems we’ve managed to accidently adopt Peter over the years so maybe we’re just meant to keep collecting teenagers.”

xXx

Something Aurora loved about the city was the way that New Yorkers didn’t care about anyone around them. Everyone was busy getting from one place to another and had very little time or care to look at those surrounding them on the crowded sidewalks. Aurora could easily wander the streets without being hassled as she went about her day. Occasionally a tourist would recognize her, but more often than not, a large pair of sunglasses and a hat pulled low would hide her enough to avoid all but the most astute fan. She wore a loose oversized cardigan which hung over the tips of her fingers completely concealing her prosthetic hand as she headed through the streets of midtown Manhattan, her hands full of shopping bags as she walked back towards Avengers Tower. She could have halved the time to get home by taking the subway, but the weather was nice, so she enjoyed the walk, reaching the towers lobby a little after 2 in the afternoon.

By the time she stepped out of the elevator and into the penthouse, she noted Steve, Clint and Bucky sprawled out on the sofas in front of the tv. She dropped her shopping bags onto the floor and launched herself onto the sofa cushion next to Steve, curling herself into his side as his arm fell around her shoulders, hugging her tightly against him.

“Where’ve you been all day?” he asked.

“Went shopping,” Rori explained.

“Do I want to know?” he asked with a soft chuckle.

“I bought wigs.”

“Why on earth are you buying wigs?” Clint butted in.

“Because with the tour coming up,” Rori said, “I want to try out some different hair colours, but I’ve never bleached my hair before and I’m honestly terrified of ruining my hair. So, wigs.”

“Do we get a fashion show?” Steve asked.

“Maybe later,” she mumbled, yawning widely before resting her head back against Steve’s shoulder and staring, glazed eyes at the tv.

xXx

The following day, Sam found Rori sitting alone against one of the large windows, hugging her knees tightly against her chest as she stared out over the city.

“Hey, you,” he said as he took a seat next to her on the floor. “You ok?”

“Yeah I’m good,” she replied, her voice soft and a little distant, her gaze remaining on the view spread out beneath them.

“Remember when you promised me you wouldn’t lie about how you were feeling,” Sam reminded her.

She sighed, her shoulders sagging and her head leaning forward to rest against the cold glass. “I had a panic attack last week,” she mumbled.

“When you got home to London?” he asked.

She shook her head. “On the last day of our honeymoon. This thunderstorm came rolling in out of nowhere the day before we flew home, and I just freaked out and ruined everything. I thought I was getting better.”

“You are getting better,” Sam argued. “This is the first panic attack you’ve had in months. That’s a huge improvement.”

“But I thought they were gone,” Rori sobbed. “I was just starting to feel normal again but I’m never going to be like I was.”

“No, you’re not,” he agreed. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but PTSD isn’t something you just get over. It’s going to be with you for the rest of your life, but that doesn’t have to mean there’s anything wrong with you and I’m sure Harry didn’t think you ruined the trip.”

“Of course he didn’t, he’s Harry,” she said. “He’s always so supportive and just wants to help me through it. It’s not even really about last week,” she admitted. “It’s more about what it says about the rest of the year. The rest of my life. When Harry asked me to join his band, I was terrified that somehow, I would do something to ruin it all, like that somehow my prosthetic would malfunction, and I’d ruin a show. Now I’m wondering what will happen if I have a panic attack at a show? There are so many things that can go wrong, and he’s worked so hard for all of this. I’ll never forgive myself if I do anything to damage that.”

“What happens if Mitch slips over in the rain and breaks his hand and can’t play the guitar? What if Sarah gets the flu and has to sit out a few shows? What if something happens with Adams kids and he has to leave the tour?” Sam asked. “There are so many what ifs and things that can go wrong but did you notice how none of those things had anything to do with anyone’s disabilities? There are things in your life that are going to be more challenging for you than they would have been if you hadn’t been shot. You can’t let that stop you from living. I’m sure Harry and Jeff have all kinds of plans in place for what happens if one of you gets sick and can’t perform, so maybe you should talk to them about your concerns and you can have some plans in place and that will help with the anxiety of it all.”

“You know I really hate when you’re right Sam,” Aurora mumbled, the corners of her lips twitching.

“I know,” he smirked. “But one of these days you’ll learn to accept that I’m never wrong.”

Aurora stuck her tongue out at him before letting out a tired sigh. “I’m just so exhausted. Like, my brain just never stops stressing over these tiny little things and it’s so exhausting to constantly be worrying about everything. I mean Christ, I chipped my nail polish at lunch and it’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last few hours which is ridiculous because who cares if my nail polish is chipped, but I’m going to be on live tv in two days and what if they want a shot of my hands while I’m playing and it’s not like I have time to go get them redone now.”

“Why not just tell the camera operators not to set up that shot?” Sam asked, always the rational voice.

“Yeah,” Rori nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Having said his piece, Sam stood up after giving her shoulder a quick squeeze and then walked away, leaving her to think about what he’d said. She was still sitting on the floor beside the window deciding how to bring her anxieties to Harry without adding to his already full plate when Nat appeared beside her. “Heard you could do with a manicure,” she said.

She extended her hand, helping Aurora up off the floor and then led her to the elevator and down to her personal floor. Nat didn’t press Aurora to talk as they settled down in her living room and set about removing the chipped polish from the nails of her right hand. Rori was grateful for the silence, not sure that she had the energy to carry a conversation but also glad that she wasn’t alone. Where others in the tower felt that they needed to distract her from her anxiety, it was always Nat that provided what she needed without her ever having to ask. Her thoughts whirled in her head as Nat applied the new pale yellow polish to her nails in slow, methodical strokes, Sam’s advice echoing in Aurora’s ears.

“You seem stressed,” Nat finally said as she finished the topcoat on the last nail.

“Just nervous about the show on Saturday,” Rori replied softly. “Live TV doesn’t leave any room for error.”

“I’m sure you’ll all do great,” Nat promised with a warm smile. “Now lay back and I’ll do a face mask and help you relax. You’re way too tense for a 22 year old.”

Aurora did as she was told without argument, laying back and closing her eyes as Nat spread the cool clay over her face and then she started massaging her long fingers into Rori’s scalp. Once the mask was finished and Nat had cleaned it away with a warm cloth, she set about rubbing moisturizer onto Rori’s face, soothing the pinched muscles between the younger woman’s brow until she fell asleep under Nat’s hands.

When Harry arrived back at the tower a little over an hour later he found most of the team in the penthouse, however his wife was conspicuously absent from the group. He asked JARVIS if she was downstairs in either of the studios, his brow furrowing when the AI informed him that she was in Agent Romanoff’s private quarters and he headed for the elevator.

Nat was sitting on the other sofa across from where Rori was sleeping peacefully, a book in hand when JARVIS’ voice filled the room and she was thankful that she had asked the AI to lower its volume when Aurora had fallen asleep.

“Mr. Styles is requesting access to your floor Agent Romanoff,” JARVIS announced in a hushed whisper.

“Tell him to come in,” Nat replied in an equally soft tone.

A few moments later, the elevator doors opened at the end of the hall and Harry strolled into the room, his eyes immediately falling to his sleeping wife. “Hey,” he whispered to Nat. “Everything ok here?”

“She was getting a bit anxious about Saturday, so we had a bit of a spa day to help her calm down,” Nat explained.

Harry nodded and then headed over to the sofa, sitting on its edge next to Aurora’s hip and reached out to trace his hand along her cheekbone. “Rors?” he soothed. “Time to wake up love.” As she began to stir, Nat left the room allowing the couple to have some privacy.

“You’re home,” Rori mumbled, her voice thick with sleep and a soft smile lifting the corners of her lips. “Missed you today.”

“Heard you had a bad day,” Harry said, pulling her up and into a tight hug. “Sorry I wasn’t here.”

“S’ok,” she replied as she pressed her face into the crook of his neck. “Just got in my head a bit and spiralled.”

“Feeling better now?”

“Much,” she promised. “Always feel better when you’re here.”

“Mitch text me about 20 minutes ago that their flight landed so they’ll be here soon. Wanna come upstairs with me? Think Steve’s cooking a massive dinner.”

Aurora nodded her head and laced her fingers through Harry’s as the headed for the elevator doors.

xXx

Aurora tried to hold back her anxiety as she walked through the door with Harry, Jeff and the rest of the band Friday morning. She knew she was doing a poor job of it when Harry squeezed her hand tightly in an attempt to comfort her. She was angry at herself for her nervousness, knowing that she had performed on bigger stages in front of live audiences in the past, but she couldn’t seem to overcome the fear that she would make a mistake that would make Harry look bad. She could always deal with embarrassing herself, but the idea of screwing up everything that Harry had worked for was what truly made her terrified.

The set was a blur of activity and Harry led them down the halls towards the set where their equipment had been set up. Sarah headed straight to her drum kit and the boys picked up their guitars while Rori and Harry walked over to where the keyboards where a grand piano was waiting for her.

“You look like you’re going to be sick babe,” Harry said. He kept his voice low, whispering in his wife’s ear as she sat down on her bench seat, not wanting draw anyone’s attention to their conversation. “I know you’re going to nail this. Just gotta trust me.”

“I know,” she replied. “God anxiety is such a bitch.” Harry chuckled at her little outburst and then he kissed the top of her head before walking over towards the microphone stand.

They spent the rest of the day running through the two songs they would perform the following evening. They discussed the lighting and camera set ups, making sure that everyone in the band and the crew knew exactly where they would stand and which way the equipment would move during the live broadcast. Occasionally they would take breaks for Harry to go work on the sketches he would be appearing in or they would stop so that Aurora could remove her prosthetic for a while. In the year since she had started wearing the prosthetic hand, Tony and Peter had redesigned the original many times, constantly upgrading and improving it’s coding to make it easier for her to wear for longer periods of time. Despite these upgrades, she still found it hard to wear for too long and after about 4 hours of prolonged use she would start to get horrible tension headaches from the transmitting device she wore behind her left ear. It was for this reason that the majority of their soundchecks were happening on Friday so that Aurora wouldn’t be required to play before the show was ready to go to air. She was always uncomfortable whenever plans had to change in order to accommodate her disability, but Harry had assured her repeatedly over the course of the week that it was not a big deal and that they wouldn’t have been needed much on Saturday afternoon anyway, so it wasn’t even that much of a change to the schedule.

By the end of the day, Aurora was exhausted. They had taken plenty of breaks throughout the day, but she knew that she had definitely pushed herself, never wanting to be the one to call for a break and know she was paying for it. She had her prosthetic off and stuffed into her bag before they even reached the car that would take them all the few short blocks back to the tower. She sat in the back seat beside Harry and let her head fall against his shoulder, closing her eyes for the quick 10 minute drive.

“You alright love?” Harry asked quietly as they pulled up in the underground carpark of the tower.

She hummed in response, letting him lead her out of the car and into the waiting elevator. “Just tired,” she promised. “It was a long day.”

“It was,” Harry agreed, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. “Went great though. Think tomorrow’s going to be amazing.”

Aurora wasn’t the only one who was tired and after such a long day of rehearsals, everyone in the band was happy to return to the tower, the inviting smells of dinner greeting them as they stepped out of the elevator to see the entire team crowded around the dining table, waiting for them. Aurora’s eyes lit up as she saw Peter at the table and immediately rushed over to him, pulling him out of his seat and into a hug, her exhaustion evaporated in the wake of seeing him again for the first time since they’d arrived back in town.

“God, where have you been all week?” she asked.

“Sorry been busy with school and patrols,” Peter replied. “I usually only have time to come over Friday nights and on the weekends.”

“Lucky we’re not leaving till Monday then,” Rori smiled. “Otherwise I wouldn’t get to spend any time with you at all. Now talk to me, how’s it feel to almost be finished with High School?”

Harry watched them with an amused smile as they sat next to each other, talking excitedly about Peter’s upcoming graduation and which colleges he had been accepted to. They barely stopped talking throughout the entire meal, completely oblivious to anyone else at the table. Harry hadn’t spent a great deal of time around Peter, given how much time he had spent on the road with One Direction or off filming Dunkirk while Aurora had still been living in the tower full time, but it didn’t really take a lot of time to understand why Tony, Steve and Rori had all rushed to absorb Peter into their little family. He was such a nice kid, always energetic and excited about anything going on everyone’s lives and he was joy to be around. He had so seamlessly fit into the family dynamic that everyone considered him a Stark in all bar name. Harry had once asked Rori about his place in the team, and she had smiled brightly, explaining how happy she was that while she and Steve had always had their art to bond over, she was relieved that Tony now had someone that could keep up with him in the lab and that he could teach Peter and watch him improve. She’d always wanted a little brother and now she had one in Peter. Tony and Steve had already experienced the emotional minefield of establishing parental roles without stepping on the memory of Rori’s mother, to it had been so easy for them to find a way to fill those same roles with Peter over the last few years without diminishing May’s place in his life or erasing the importance of Peter’s parents. The Avenger’s had always been a messy, happy, found family, and with the addition of Peter and May, and then with Mitch, Adam and Sarah, the family just seemed to keep expanding and Harry could see how much Aurora loved having each and everyone of them crowded into the penthouses dining room.

xXx

Saturday was a blur of activity and rushing around, and before Aurora realised someone was yelling that they were going live in 10 minutes. She was sitting out of the way with Sarah on one side of her and Adam on the other, waiting for their time to perform. Harry was off getting ready for the first sketch and they had a small tv hanging on the wall nearby so that they could watch the show while they waited. The first half of the show went off without a hitch and all four of them simply tried to keep out of everyone’s way until a technician came over to heard them towards the set. They were all situated behind their instruments by the time Harry joined them and he quickly ducked over to Rori for a good luck kiss before taking his place at the mic stand and waiting for the signal to start. One of Aurora’s knees was bouncing beneath the piano and there was a slight tremor in her right hand as she closed her eyes and took a few deep breathes on the darkened set. She tuned out the camera’s and the studio audience, her attention narrowing down to her instrument and Harry a few steps in front of her as she began the opening chords of the song. For a few brief seconds her piano was the only sound as the lights began to lift, and Harry’s voice rang out through the studio. As they hit the pre-chorus Rori and Sarah added their voices to the mix and then all of the other instruments joined as they entered the chorus. All of Aurora’s nerves disappeared as Harry belted out the lyrics of the chorus, and in the brief moment right before the second verse he turned, catching her eye and winking before returning to the microphone. In the final lines of the song, right in the middle of the most difficult notes, Aurora heard Harry’s voice falter and he missed a line. She tried to hide a grimace, knowing that he would be kicking himself for slipping at the end of the song. The moment the camera’s cut away she was at his side, arms wrapped tightly around his waist and he pecked her lips quickly. She attempted to comfort him before he was quickly whisked away to change into the costume for the next sketch.

By the time they returned to their little set for their second song Harry appeared to have shaken off the slip up and everyone, including Aurora, was buzzing with adrenaline and ready to go with their second performance. This time the grand piano was gone, and Aurora’s keyboard was positioned behind Harry’s spot at the centre of the stage. With all the sketches out of the way, Aurora watched happily as Harry allowed himself to enjoy the performance. As they finished the song and the audience cheered, Harry quickly pulled his guitar strap over his head and walked over to where Rori was seated behind the keys. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her softly. “That one was for you my love,” he whispered as their lips separated.

“So proud of you,” she whispered in reply. “You absolutely killed it tonight.”

NEXT CHAPTER

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#skyfire fic #Husband Harry Styles #harry styles fanfiction #dad!tony #ptsd #domestic fluff #iron dad #step dad steve rogers #aurora stark #harry styles #tony stark #found family avengers

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ardent-musings · 3 years

Text

The Girl Who Vanished (Part 1)

Chapter 23: Family Matters

Ana and Neville reunited after few days had passed. Even though Neville was nervous when he first met her, he looked forward to seeing the girl in green again. She wasn't put off by his stuttering, she didn't even make fun of him slightly. Instead of judging him, she was kind to him and that was something the young boy didn't get to experience much. Excited by the prospect of a friend, Neville decided he was going to cling to this good thing as long as he could.

"Okay, Professor Sprout said this plant would grow better in a dark spot," the boy explained excitedly as he held the potted purple plant in his dirt covered hands.

"I do live in the dungeons, Neville," she chuckled which made his round cheeks tint a light shade of pink.

"I know, but I'd like- I would want to check up on it too, if that's okay."

Ana saw the boy start to slump again, like he did when he felt like he said something wrong; she didn't want him to feel like that. Whether or not he knew it, Ana was happy to have a friend who didn't side-eye her when she talked about plants during dinner. Lucian couldn't get the handle of it, Alex and Calista were always discussing something muggle, and Aeron hated dirt, so Ana was effectively out of luck among her friends. But perhaps she had a new friend in the skittish Gryffindor boy.

"No, you're absolutely right, Neville. We'll just have to think of another spot," she acknowledged with a smirk, "And I think I know the perfect place!"

She jumped from her spot and led the younger boy back into the castle with a skip in her step. The boy giggled and followed right behind her as she clumsily weaved herself passed people and around the corridors, nearly running into them all. He had only been at the school for a month at this point so he wasn't entirely sure where she was leading him, but Neville trusted the snake wholeheartedly.

Ana turned back with labored breath from both exhilaration and exhaustion as she took the boy to the library. He figured it was an odd place to suggest until she continued walking into the far back room, one that he had never seen before when he had looked for a book before. It was tucked away and out of sight from the main floorplan and he could see why it would be a great hiding spot for their shared plant.

When she was positive no one was watching the two, she opened the door with a wave of her wand and walked back into the room he ran away from during her first year. The room was giant with its familiar tiered steps and dark arches that led to nowhere. Every window was boarded up which made Ana shiver at the lack of warmth, but it was perfect.

"This is fantastic, Ana! I couldn't have thought of a better place," he complimented as he handed her the potted plant. He turned away from her as she surveyed where in the room she would put it, eventually she settled on a dark nook in the far back end of the deserted room. It looked right at home, and the leaves of their baby plant stretched as it settled into the shade.

Ana began telling Neville how she had to run away from a prefect last year and that's how she ended up in this very room, giggling at the ridiculous memory. It felt so strange to think about how scared she was of this room to only survive a Quidditch fire later that very year. She continued reminiscing for a moment, until she realized Neville's mind was entirely somewhere else. Instead of listening to her rather unimportant anecdote, the shivering boy was mystified by the floor length mirror Ana forgot was stored at the base of the steps.

Neville stared into the antique looking glass with longing, his eyes were welling with emotion and his fingers fumbled at the hem of his sweater sleeves. It was as if he was put in a trance, not even the sound of her approaching footsteps got the boy to break his focus. Ana stood off to the side so her reflection did not tamper with whatever was making Neville so entranced.

"You okay, Neville?" the worried girl whispered, she feared speaking at a normal volume would disrupt whatever he was experiencing.

"I see my parents," he mumbled almost silently as his hand reached out and touched the glass ahead of him, which resulted in his scared face erupting in a soft smile. His nose sniffled. "Come look," he pleaded without meeting her gaze as he stepped aside to allow the girl to join.

Ana slowly trudged to his other side, taking up the vacant spot in the mirror. In the reflection was herself and Neville, but along with them was a kind looking woman, a grinning man, and a baby.

"Is that you?" Ana pointed to the little baby the woman was rocking to sleep. Neville nodded back to her through the reflection. The woman looked positively elated at them, her smile stretched from ear to ear while the man beside her chuckled softly at the two. It looked like a happy family, which proved to be true as the man dipped his head down to place a gentle kiss on her mirrored head. Ana was a bit unnerved by Neville's father giving her a kiss on her head, even if it was just an image, but she accepted it regardless.

"You guys look happy, Neville," she chimed softly at the boy who refused to look anywhere other than directly in front of himself.

"We were, at least that's what my Nan says anyways."

At the sound of Neville's desolate tone, Ana began to notice just how silent and tense the room was. Before she got a chance to comment on what he said, Neville's head fell to the ground, focusing on his shoes as he began to make his way out of the dark room. With a final glance at the mirror, Ana shuffled out into the rest of the library to follow him. The halls were silent as they walked with each other; Neville's whole energy had changed since he looked into the mirror and Ana could sense just how alarmed he looked.

"Neville are you okay?"

His long lashes fell over his hazel eyes, trying to hide whatever he was feeling from her gaze. Ana was worried he was going to shut her out as he gulped at her question.

"It's just... when I first met you and heard you were a Slytherin I was worried. Slytherins and Gryffindors aren't known for being friends."

Ana watched the boy speak as if his emotions were entirely drained, almost as if someone else was saying the words for him. Neville's eyes were empty as he stared ahead of them, his body moving on autopilot as they navigated the vacant halls.

"And then when I heard you were a Malfoy, I just- I," he began stammering, waddling as he tried not to trip on his long robes, they looked a bit silly as they hung below the young boy's feet, "I figured you were going to hate me."

This wasn't the way she figured this conversation was going to go, all they were supposed to do was find a suitable location for their plant and yet their adventure had taken a turn. She wasn't sure why her being a Malfoy would make him more nervous than the fact that she was a Slytherin, but by the way he refused to look at her again, she realized his fear was very real. He was known to be quiet and nervous for a lion, but Ana just wanted to give the boy a chance to be comfortable around her. That was her plan at least.

"Why would I ever hate you, Neville?"

"Well, I mean- your –your family and mine-"

He was beginning to lose his breath, choking on his own words as he grew nervous yet again.

"You don't have to say anything Neville," Ana comforted the boy before he could entirely spiral into a pit of nerves, "If you can't say what you want to right now, that's okay."

His little front teeth poked out as he offered her a gentle smile, letting out a deep huff of air at her kind words. The two of them were situated it a split in the hallway, one path leading to the dungeons and the other she figured would send Neville to Gryffindor's common room. Ana became overwhelmingly aware of the fact that they were now out in the open. If anyone saw her with a Gryffindor, it would probably catch the attention of some wandering eyes. Quickly and before a person walked by them, Ana smiled one last time at the boy while he waved and squeaked his goodbye as they walked to their common rooms.

Ana worried a bit at Neville's blunder; she had never known that her family and his had some sort of strained history. If she was ever made aware of a wizarding family, it was usually because her father had some business to handle. Or her mother had connections with another pureblood family. The fact that the Longbottom's were never included made the hair on Ana's neck stand on end. If they weren't talked about, Ana could only assume that her family didn't respect them. Maybe Neville wasn't out of his mind when he judged Ana before meeting her, she lamented. The idea of someone being scared of her before she even got the chance to introduce herself made her stomach twist in both sadness and anger. If only her name didn't hold so much power. If only her name didn't ignite fear in other people. If only her name wasn't her own. Perhaps she'd be happier.

It had been hard for the core five to hang out in the common room since the fight that took place a few week ago with Draco and his little crew. For their safe, it would have been smart for them to stay away; the scratch on Flint's face had just started to disappear from his horrid face. Whenever Alex saw the Quidditch captain, she smirked at him and to all of their surprise, he kept his distance. The guy was an even bigger coward than they had anticipated.

The whole situation hurt Ana more than she let on; seeing her little brother run around with them pained her. He was always so cheeky and happy with her at home, no matter how depressing the Manor itself was. But now, he would hardly pay attention to her, he was always running off as his little posse followed close behind him. She was fearing she wouldn't get a chance to truly hang out with him without the threat of another fight between her friends and his. His friends were also rude little brats she concluded, they were intolerable in every way.

Despite the threat of another run in, all five of them were sitting on the floor of the common room, gathered around one of the coffee tables. Calista was painting Alex and Ana's nails with a stash of nail polishes her aunt had sent over for the girls. Ana's nails were already a pretty maroon color while she was now applying a deep hunter green to the other girl. They were all giggling over the way Snape had tripped on his robes earlier that day, bringing a well needed distraction to a concerned Ana.

Lucian sat beside her, waiting for his turn to get his nails painted while Aeron just sat and quietly watched the whole process intently. Multiple issues had been weighing on her mind, she had no idea how to make sense of the Draco situation, but she hoped she could get an explanation for something else that was bothering her.

Ana turned to Aeron once Lucian had redirected his attention to his sister, "Can I ask you a question?"

Aeron's eyes widened at her sudden seriousness, but he nodded nonetheless, a patient smile painted his pink face. His hair was no longer hiding his face, Ana rejoiced quietly. She was happy to see he didn't bother to shield himself from his friends like he did at the start of the year. He wasn't fearful of them, which only encouraged Ana to bravely ask the boy something she was dreading.

"You said your uncle talks to you a lot about the wizarding world and magic families right?" She tiptoed into the terrifying topic.

The boy just nodded as his eyes drifted back to Calista who was now painting Lucian's nails white, "He did."

Ana's breath caught for a second, fearing her next question. Not because the question itself was scary, she was just worried she'd hate the answer.

"Can you tell me whatever you know about my family and the Longbottoms?"

"Why on earth would you want to know that?" Aeron's attention was now fully on the blonde girl, his voice raised in concern as she shushed him gently. "Actually, I'm surprised you don't already know."

She knew this was going to be a difficult conversation but she didn't expect Aeron to be so alarmed by her curiosity. The dungeons seemed to be colder this night despite the roaring fire only a few feet away from them. It was either the increasingly colder autumn that was causing her to shake or their current conversation. Ana figured it was most likely both.

"I told you, my parents aren't known for telling stories, but from what I remember, your uncle is. Please, Aeron."

Ana wasn't opposed to acting a bit childish if that meant the boy would spill. She gave the best pout she could which made the boy roll his eyes at her obvious attempt to get him to open up. The snarky reaction helped relax her a bit, it reminded her that she was speaking with a friend, not someone who would judge her.

"Okay, fine, Malfoy," he chuckled, as he propped his head up on his elbow that rested against the coffee table. His chuckle was unfortunately short lived, "Have you ever wondered why your aunt is in Azkaban?"

That was not a good way to start off this conversation; she did wonder about her aunt, but the one time she asked her father about it, he yelled at her to the point of her almost crying herself to bed. After that she never went back to her father when she had a question; and her mother was almost equally as private. For her own sake, Ana learned early on to just keep whatever she thought to herself. The thought of her aunt having anything to do with the Longbottoms was alarming to say the least.

"What did she do?"

Ana remained still, while Aeron stared at her apprehensively, his brown eyes looked more gray than chocolate as he messed with his shaggy hair. He took one glance at the other three and gestured for Ana to follow him to a quieter part of the common room, "I don't want you to freak out," he revealed once they were alone.

"What did she do," Ana blurted, growing more anxious by the question the longer it remained unanswered.

"It's not just her," he began as he teetered his weight from one foot to another, "It was your aunt, her husband and a few more death eaters."

Aeron's voice decreased to a cautious whisper as he uttered the last two words to her. The term was something Ana had heard in passing by her father. She didn't dare ask him about it though.

"After the war tension was still high. It had gotten better, but things were still intense for everyone. Purebloods, halfbloods, mud-" he paused for a second, almost as if a shock had ran through his bones, "muggleborns. No one felt safe even though the fighting had stopped. A lot of people were killed from the war but even among the survivors, enemies still remained. Your aunt's enemies were the Longbottoms."

That piece of information felt like someone ripped her throat out of her neck. "Enemies?" Ana croaked, fearing what else the boy would tell her about Neville's family.

"They were on opposing sides and to your aunt, the war apparently wasn't over. My uncle said that they captured the Longbottoms and did truly unspeakable things to them. Unforgiveable things," Aeron frowned, his bushy brows crinkled as he retold the story, "My uncle didn't say much more, only that they were no longer the same after it all went down. That's why your aunt and uncle were arrested."

She felt sick. Actually, physically sick at the news and she wiggled her nose to distract her from how devastated and unfair it all was. The longing look that Neville had when he stared and his parents in the mirror all made sense now. His fear over Ana being a Malfoy made sense. Her whole reputation made sense, Snape's comments about her lineage from the year prior suddenly felt incredibly appropriate. All she wanted to do was sit, or possibly scream as the room around her looked more blurry by the second.

"I'm sorry, Ana. I truly am."

Ana nodded at the boy; he surveyed her reaction to the truth that had been kept from her for so long with a kind smile. She felt herself shutting down, her brain putting her body on pause in an attempt to process it all. It was overwhelming to learn that she shared blood with someone who destroyed the life of a boy she considered a friend. Perhaps Neville wouldn't want to be her friend anymore, and Ana feared having to give up the younger Gryffindor boy because of something her family did.

Alex and Lucian's laughs interrupted her panicking mind, keeping whatever tears she had from falling. They looked so happy as Calista finished painting Lucian's toe nails, Alex was holding her brother's feet down as he tried to wiggle away. Ana giggled at the sight, the sound brought a smile to Aeron's face which was softening the longer he watched the girl in front of him.

"Come on," he nodded towards the, trying to draw attention away from the devastating conversation they finished. Ana agreed as she wiped at her drippy nose.

Alex was no longer holding Lucian captive, although his toe nails were now a light blue. His face was bright and infectious, it practically forced her own face to match his smile. Even though she felt empty on the inside, the bit of warmth she found from him and the rest of them began to help her. When Ana sat back down near Lucian, he held out his hands to compare nail colors with her. He was so delighted by the little smiley face Calista put on his thumbs, which was such a Lucian thing to do, Ana hummed.

"You want your nails done, Aeron?" Calista offered.

He took a second to decide, his eyes hopped from friend to friend, seeing just how happy they all looked at the moment with their now colorful fingernails. Even Ana's face was cheering up a bit as she waited for him to answer.

"Okay, go for it," he rolled his eyes despite plopping down next to the only muggleborn in all of Slytherin. The sounds of their laughter filled the cold air when he immediately pulled a neon purple out of all the options available to him. Ana assumed he would pick a black or gray color, but his smile intensified as Calista began painting his nails the pretty purple. Seeing him with Alex and Calista made her sigh gratefully. It was the best feeling to see them go from hating each other to joking and acting like genuine friends. The boy that sat in front of her now was a different person; hopefully a happier person.

The common room door's clattering closed, making the sound echo within the room, the growing footsteps belonging to Draco. It was too late for the first year to be roaming the castle. Ana would know, she snuck out for half the year, deliberately breaking curfew. He made a beeline for the dorms, not even taking a second to glace around the room.

"Draco!"

He jumped at his name being called, and yet at the sight of his sister, he still continued towards the stairway. It irritated Ana; he never ignored her when they were home. On the contrary, it was usually Ana who searched for moments of solitude since Draco always preferred to be near her. His current behavior was not her little brother, worry began to fester in her gut as he continued on his way.

"Draco!" she sat on her heels and hollered at the blonde boy who then sprinted away from the group, disappearing entirely. His little blonde bush of a head appeared a moment and then vanished the next. Trying to get him to stay still for a moment was proving pointless, the idea of giving up made Ana unwell. She just hoped whatever he was going through would come to an end soon; she needed her brother back.

"Watch if Callie! I want my nails painted not my whole hand!" Aeron giggled at the girl whose hand had slipped.

Lucian saw Ana's frown and with a hope filled grin, he held up his thumbs to her, revealing the smiles that were decorated on them just moments before. It was dumb and silly, but Ana smiled nonetheless, as he stomach filled with bubbles of warmth. Her friends always knew what to do to help her. Even if Draco was running from her, she had a group of people who continuously showed up for her; that tiny revelation made Ana's heart swell in her chest making her settle into her seat and hum as the cold dungeons brought her peace. These dungeons brought her a family.

#fred weasley #fred weasley smut #fred weasley fanfic #fred weasley x oc #bibiana malfoy #the girl who vanished #tgwv #tgwv 1-23 #enemies to friends to lovers

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