#and the way he'd just give her his fruit without a second thought

[hanafubukki]

Concerning the Idia & proposing by pomegranate thing- what if he gives you the seeds slowly as he becomes more and more sure he wants to marry you? The first one he gives you is while he's at NRC. Just a single seed doesn't say anything, what's the harm in feeding you one just as a symbol of appreciation for what you are to him? Cue to a year or two later- he's no longer in school while you're still there (free housing, ya know?), but you're facetiming and doing everything you can to stay in contact/have a long distance relationship. He sends Ortho to visit you along with a gift basket, making sure Ortho has video proof that you ate the single pomegranate seed nestled among the fruit. Another year or two pass and you now live relatively close to each other. He's at your place, snuggled up to you on the couch as you're nodding off. He gets caught up in his feelings for you, of how much he loves you and would never want to live without you. His gaze never leaves you as he presses a seed into your mouth and you sleepily eat it. The fourth one is somewhat forced onto you- he had gotten jealous. You corner him into talking about his feelings, which leads to an emotional outburst. He corners you up against a wall, grimly speaking down to you. A pomegranate seed appears between his fingers and presses it into your lips, but you don't open your mouth. The rage he was displaying started to radiate away as you held strong until all his face showed was sadness. You know what he was feeling- what he was thinking. You were waiting for him to cool off. You take his hand in both of yours. He flinches. You can tell he wants to back up- to not be near you now- but he doesn't move away. Your lips part and mouth opens as you take the seed from him, looking into his eyes as you eat it (you don't know what's up with him and these occasional pomegranate seeds, but you know they mean something special to him). He hands are trembling now as his face starts shifting- he's gonna cry. You let go of his hands to cup his face instead and kiss his tears away as they start rolling down.

He's done for the night and laying in bed, ready to actually get some sleep. And what better way to fall asleep than to daydream of you. What naturally comes to mind first is embarrassing- your wedding. Nobody's watching so he let's himself indulge in his simping pleasures. Until he remembers (more like realizes). The seeds. He- He never thought your relationship would amount to anything- to continue this long. He figured you'd realize he was a loser, that you could do better, and one day leave him forever. That's why he never thought much about giving them to you- they were just symbols of his feelings for you that would never reach a critical number because you'd have left by then. He shivers. He's at 4. Not much more than half, but only 2 to go. What if he hadn't realized it in time? What if he'd given you the last two in another willy-nilly moment and unintentionally bound you to him for life? He knows what his options are. He knows, if he really wants to, he could leave you. Ghost you and never have you enter his life again. Never have another opportunity to feed you another seed. But he also knows- deep down he doesn't want to. Even disregarding the hope his heart cannot help but have, he wants to spend every single moment he can with you- up until the very last second. He's selfish like that. So he decides- he'll just ignore it. There's 2 left- that means he has 1 as a buffer before things get dangerous. It'll be fine. He won't feed you one again.

It happened again. He's at home, sitting on his bed as he reflects on his actions. He'd spent another day with you, as usual, and as the day was winding down... he was so in love with you. The idea popped into his head, "Feed her one. Give her a seed. You have to, you love her so much you can't bear it, so just press one more into her mouth- let it alleviate this positive pressure on your heart. Who cares if this will be the fith? It's the buffer seed. It'll be fine as long as you never give her another. It's fine, just do it!" And he had. And he was happy.

He hated his feelings ever since he'd fed you the fith seed. Day by day his desire to give you the fate-bounding sixth seed grew stronger and stronger. Again and again, he felt the compulsion to feed you another. But he had more willpower this time around, knowing what the consequences of his actions would be. It was difficult, but he'd held fast despite his tug-of-war of feelings- of loving you so much but having to not act on it. His suffering would be eased soon, however. You'd come to visit him but you were acting slightly off. Nervous maybe? No...flustered. You sat on his couch and gestured him to sit next to you, your knees angled so you'd also be facing each other. You were nervous, heat rising to your face, but you wanted to do this. Now you just had to start talking. "You know...Ortho told me." "??? T-Told you...what?" "What the pomegranate seeds mean." His heart dropped to his stomach as you continued talking, "He also let me know how many I've eaten so far. I feel like it's been way more than 5, but maybe that's because it's been over so many years." This is it, he thinks. It's gonna be over. "Have you... do you... would you want...? To... give me the last one?" He can't answer. The moment he does, you'll be gone (his appearance doesn't match his inner turmoil- with his blazing pink hair, blushing face, and dilated eyes). You can do this. You have to take the plunge. You take a breath to steel your nerves and raise your open palm. A single pomegranate seed sits in it. "I-I would like it. If you'd.... give it to me." He hasn't moved a single muscle. Is this rejection? "I-Idia?" You have unconsciously leaned closer to him, gravitating your face closer to his. The room is silent. You can't take anymore. You're about to pull back when you feel something tickle your hand. It's his slim, pale fingers, just barely grazing your palm. Now he's leaning closer as well, and he picks up the seed. He's yet to say anything- he's only staring at you. He lifts the seed. His pointer finger places it on the seam of your lips before his thumb gently holds it there, waiting for your permission to push it in.

(Extra: you move his hand away and pull him in for a kiss- your tongues pushing the seed around. You make sure it's in your mouth when you pull away, and you make sure to exaggerated your swallow so he knows it went down)

[in reference to this ask]

Hello Fake Date Sebek Anonke 🌸🌺💙

*grips you by the shoulders* Anonie, Anonie, the way I just gaped at this?? Wow??

It’s so cute?!! I adored reading it. 💞💞💙💙

@werewolfnamedraven, Raven you need to read this!!

Idia slowly coming into his feelings as time goes on is just -chef kiss-

The symbolism of courting you secretly but in his own way, you don’t know what it means, but you do it for him. 🥹💙

And then!! The sixth seed!! He could end his misery and make you his, but he doesn’t! Doesn’t allow that one last selfishness move his hand. Instead, you find out and make your choice. You ask him to give it to you.

It was your choice.

You chose to be with him ahhhhh 💞💞

And that kiss!!! That kiss!!

The kiss sealed the deal.

You are together now, not even death can seperate you two.

Fake Date Sebek Anonie, you’ve done beautifully!! I thank you in not leaving me in angst this time 💙🥰🌺

[zosanmylove]

Just imagining Nami and Robin being so motherly with baby Zosan...

Not in a "this kid needs to have a mom" way but more in a cool big sister and chill-cool aunt way.

Like of course, every single ones of the Mugiwaras are very excited at having a new shipmate, but these two are particulary excited about having a new girl on the deck. Since Robin joined the crew like...forever ago now, it was the first time they welcomed a woman.

I like to imagine that the two women will spoil that little lady, with cloches, that the whole crew gives her wich mades her wardrobe very...unique, and quality time. Like when it's time for Kuina to quit her parents room, aka the boy's dorm just with a wall for separation, she'll go in the girl dorm. Nami would give her a piece of paper and crayons and draw maps with her (the drawings of persons or boats are with Ussop, but still) so this kid have some sense of direction unlike one of her fathers, and it's a good occupation for them to wait for Robin to come and read them a bedtime story. The black-haired woman would sit at the edge of her bed, or when she has things to do in the room she's just grow an arm to hold her hand and read anybook she picked earlier with the other woman. Nami would listen to Robin and little comments Kuina sometime makes while she journals.

Also they would help the kid bathes when she become a toddler (because of course, her dads would take care of this until she can walks before relaying on the girls but still), like Nami and her pretending to navigate throught the Blues with little plastic toys and Robin just messes with them by making big waves.

And when she grows, they'll teach her to take care of herself. Of course the knows how to do so, she often work-out with Zoro to stay in good shape and Sanji taught how to have a good hygiene. But Nami would give her make up tips for when she's older, since herself didn't had anyone to do so growing upp, but she always thought it would be so nice... and Robin teach her to do her hair. She has so many hands, so useful! Also her and Zoro just happen to have the thickest hair out of the Mugiwaras (excluding Ussop and Brook, but they have a whole different texture so they might not be the ones to ask help to) and the girl being a litteral copy of Zoro (from the menacing look to the shape of their jawline and cheekbones, and of course grass-green hair, wich Sanji pretends to be annoyed by because now he has two mossball to look after), well the older woman is the best placed for such a role. She'll show her what products to use and how not to damage her roots when she applies it. She'll help her to do a bunch of hairstyle, starting off with a second's head of hers (thanks to her Demon Fruit) as an exemple and test-subjet.

And from this period no Mugiwaras can escape. The child's fake make up Nami bought her (without charging it!) could be seen on everybody's face. Well except Chopper, because he's scarred it wills damage his furr, but we'll see about him later. The Kuina has being walking around offering to do the crew's make up every now and then. Brooks, Jinbei, Robin and Franky would gladly sit right on the spot (or lay in Jinbei's case) and let the little lady "paint them pretty" as she says. Nami would also, guiding her or even making her her make up in return. Ussop and Luffy would straight-up fight to know who gets to be all decorated by her first. Usually Sanji would step up in these fights and steal their turn with joy, making his daughter happier than ever while the two others idiots are crying somewhere. Zoro would also allow her, he'd wake up from his nap just for these and would just forget about it so he stay like that the whole time until Sanji almost get an heart-attack because all the eye-liner and lipgloss went on the pillow and Zoro look like an ugly scarry sea creature sleeping like this.

This didn't really went the same for hairstyles are first, because "pretty hair are for aunty Nami and aunty Robin only!!" But then she spend some time with Zeff because the crew can't take a child where they are heading and the old man teaches her how to braid. And then it's over. The whole crew, would be granted with braids made by Kuina herself. This is also the reason Zoro let his hair grows, but before his daughter can style them another swordman cut them during a fight, causing the both of them to cry along side with Ussop, Chopper and Luffy who has no idea of what's going on but he wanna fell included.

Also when these 3 play princesses, no one is safe either. They'd wear crowns and big dresses, and Nami and Kuina would be so dramatic about it. Also Chopper would almost alway be with them, as the loyal monture of the dangerous pirate-princess Roronoa Kuina. Because of course, no one there tried to raise a damsel in distress, so most of the time they were evil princesses trying to conquier the world (it's Brook who suggested it first, and they went like this since then.). Sometime they had to fight off others princesses, all dressed-up and their make-up done by Kuina a bit earlier. Once they were attacked in the middle of a game and all of them had to fight of a bunch of marines like this while Chopper made sure Kuina stayed safe in a cabine. It's at this moment that Sanji realised heels made a pretty good weapon for him. He didn't want to take anything from his dear Robin-swan, but "I gave it to Kuina, these are not mine anymore, Cook-san" and his queen just handed it to him like "Papa doesn't like my gift?" and oh my it worked. It would never accept anything material from a woman, but his own daughter? She was his weakness. How could he says no??

And oh, the girls would definitelly have the talk with her. Maybe in their dorm, one night when she's around 11 years old. Oh, and Chopper is also there. She didn't got her pediod yet, but they thought it was better to tell her about it before she does. And both her dads agreed, knowing damn well Robin and Nami would do a better job than them. Robin explains what it means and how it could affect her mood or her strenght at the moment, while Nami is gently telling her it's natural, that she should not be ashamed of it and that it was a normal thing. Chopper gave the medical details of what exactly would happens inside her body, not getting into...the dirty stuff (sex). When Chopper left they told Kuina that they were personally using period-panties, because they're more pratical when it's time to fight and more healphy in general, but they still train her to put on a pad, just in case it occurs while she's lost in a island (yes, Nami's efforts were useless, this child was just a mini Zoro girl. It's like Sanji's genes didn't even try).

And as Kuina get older the three of them have girls nights. You may ask: isn't it girls night every nights since they're all in the same dorm? No, I'm talking about girls nights when they do self-care, mask and gossping. Sanji would make them all the snacks they ask for, and because Nami's a witch she'd just ring a bell to call him and he would come like a dog. Sometimes Kuina punched her for it tho. It happens that Ussop sometimes joins the gossip sessions, because he has been Nami's gossip buddy for YEARS. Then he'd just left, leaving the girls with themself. And that's when Kuina would step up. The two women wondered why they didn't think of this sooner. But Law sure did, when he saw this small girl covered in lipstick and mascara with blank nails. (I haven't see Law apprears in the serie yet and I just looked up AND HE DOESN'T PAINT THIS NAILS???? LOOK AT HIM. OF COURSE HE DOES.) He took some of his nail polish, not many colors tho, mainly red and black and while Luffy watched with big eyes, Law showed her how it was put. And now this has become her thing. Kuina would do the girls nails every now and then, and sometime the rest of the crew could ask for it if they wanted to. Sadly the two who never asked were her parents. One because it might fall off in the food and the other because he had very damaged nails from training, and he would never take the risk to ruin something his daughter did for him. And these night would be the one where she would try new thing, like giving a winter-like look to Nami's who usualy has warm colors like yellow, red or orange, and on the other hand, give colorful flowers to Robin instead of the dark-purple and blue she always ask for. Even if her parents didn't let her paint their, they would always compliments someone's hand if their daughter touched them. Zoro would be genuily impressed by the girls nails most of the time and say it, sometime Sanji would pick a fight because of dare he compliments women in his presense? And the two mosshead would be on the same side because if that ain't a hypocrite then what is? And the Cook on his side would just be a fanboy for his queen's art.

And like Kuina just being the closest to Nami and Robin, just after her parents and Luffy, of couse, so when she leaves the crew to follow her own path she just takes Robin and Nami apart for a hug only the three of them?? Yes, that is perfect.

[melodymay-k1tty]

GOD ENEL BF HEADCANONS

What would dating Enel be like?

A/N: I wanted to do one of God Enel, bcs I just like him a loootttt!!

⚡ Enel-sama! He is a very demanding man and has a high aim, after all, he is a “God”. For this same reason, Enel would handpick his partner, having to be someone "on his level". But, obviously, you couldn't be better than him at things, after all, he likes to be on top and in charge.

⚡ Enel-sama! He would give you servants. Of course, the “wife of God” could not get her hands dirty with such futile things. After all, to be at God Enel's side, she should be someone superior to others, and inferior only to him.

⚡ Enel-sama! As annoying as this sounds, you should be submissive to him. Do you want to do something he won't let you do? So you can't. And if you contradict him? He will punish you without the slightest remorse.

⚡ Enel-sama! But of course, dating Enel also has its good points. He's not just a body and pretty face. He would also stand up for you whenever someone would dare to mess with you. He knows the power he has, and he makes the best use of it. He'd say, “The only one who can touch that woman is me”, and he'd kill the nutcase who messed with you immediately, lightning fast.

⚡ Enel-sama! So you tried to hit him... What would Enel do? Well, he would first laugh at your pathetic thought that it might hit him. And of course he would probably kill you without a second thought. But he's amused by the situation, so he starts toying with you in his sadistic ways, and with his Devil Fruit powers, he'll leave you in a despicable state.

⚡ Enel-sama! On the other side, assuming you were fully submissive to Enel. Well, in that case, he would probably be "good" for you. You would earn a little throne than his, next to his throne. You could will with him wherever he went, and he would give you a life fit for a "goddess". But please don't forget...

“I am the God here.”

A/N: It was a little difficult to make this one, not least bcs I'm hundreds of chapters ahead of Skypiea. But I hope you enjoyed it!!🍎🩷⚡

[echantedtoon]

Monster Bride Part 4 Akaza

(Warnings: Threats. Akaza  fights a few people that might not end well. 

Also I know this is really late but I apologize. A lot of stressful things irl is going on and it's getting taking up a lot of time. Please be patient for future updates.

Next is Gyutaro.)

Quietly you stepped closer as and closer and CLOSER to the bush silently. Slowly behind the henhouse you went and stopped right in front of the bush. The wind blew swaying it's branches creepily and looked like thrashing arms. You grabbed a handful and silently and slowly pulled them back.

And you froze at what you saw-

The winds howled as the darkness crept across the skies. The darkness behind the bush shielded your form from the moonlight which cascaded down between the trees and clouds in the sky. The shadows danced and branches creaked as the wind blew them about. Like arms beckoning you closer to grab you away in their rough grip. Drag you into the shadows never to be seen again. You cracked an opening in the branches and looked out. The darkened sky looked out over the entire area. Tree branches swayed and night fell upon the ground. However you froze as your eyes met a pair of yellow irises staring directly back at you from the darkness.

A shadow ran from the bushes with a second.

You jumped in shock from the footsteps quickly departing from the bush and down into the fruit grove. "H-HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! COME BACK HERE!!" 

Your arms shoved the branches apart farther just in time for a man shaped shadow figure to go diving head first into the stream behind your house. A loud splash noise followed right after and you say there stunned....Did..Did you seriously just see that?! Did you seriously just see someone dive into the water?! Branches snapped and protested as you shoved them aside and pushed your way through the bush and started your way down the grove and stopped just where the bank of the stream met the water and looked out.

Nothing.

The calm river flowed along peacefully on the warm night without any problems in the world. You stared around the entire place but found nothing. It was like the...man? Whoever it was just disappeared into thin air. You stood there for a few minutes to see if anyone might've been hiding under the water..but no one showed. What just happened?! Who was that?! WHAT was that?! It certainly wasn't a wolf. Or a fox. Or any other animal you knew. A shiver ran down your spine. This was too weird. You needed to get back inside.

A form broke in the water's surface. A head of pink hair and yellow eyes bobbed up and down in the rippling water. Watching as the beauty picked up her kimono and tailed it back towards the house giving one last glimpse back allowing him to see her radiant face again. She was...so beautiful. He'd been carefully observing her for nearly three months now. She was wonderful. Her attitude. Her smile. The way she carried herself. He hadn't seen anyone since his beloved Koyuki years ago..But now...He felt something. Something WARM. 

It was time he made a move

You returned to your house and quickly slammed the shutters closed and locked both doors tightly. The thoughts of what that thing was swirling through your head over and over again...Until you came to the conclusion that you were seeing things due to it being dark and your neves being on end. With that solution out of the way it was easier for you to fall asleep. You'd sleep in tomorrow and forget about it. However that was three months ago now and now there you laid.  Deep in slumber for hours.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!!

Until you heard a loud knocking on your door.

Your head groggily sat your head up from your pillow blinking. Wild bed head framing your face and bunching up in knots...What? More loud knocks attracted your attention towards the front door and you slowly blinked again as your brain caught up with your tired brain. Someone was at your door. You groaned faceplanting into your pillow. Who could that be THIS time? It better not be that glasses wearing arse again! More knocks rang out and you glared at the door. 

"Alright, alright! I'm coming! " With reluctance you kicked off your blanket and pushed yourself up to slowly stand up. With a stretched you yawned before reaching a hand up to rub your face. "Good gods. What a way to start a day?" More knocking drew your annoyance to the door. "I SAID I was coming!" You snapped.

This entire week had been stressful. First that wolf, then one of your chickens went missing, and now it looked like you'd be bothered again. You attempted to fix your hair as you went over to the door, unlocked it, and opened it up with a deep frown. Only to pause seeing whom it was on the other side. A man stood there about your age. He stood just a foot and a half taller, with black hair, fluffy white lashes, and yellow eyes. But what was the most unusual thing was the strange lines of tattoos across his neck. You both just stared at each other until he spoke.

"Miss Y/n Tamayo?", he asked politely making you jump a little.

"I-...Yes? Who are you?," you asked eyes narrowed at him.

 "My name is Akaza Hakuji Soyama." He then bowed deeply at the waist before leaning back up and holding up a handful of purple flowers that looked quickly grabbed. As if he had just wretched them up from the ground before you answered the door. "These are for you. They're not nearly as beautiful as your eyes however. I hope I haven't come at a bad time."

You just... blinked looking at him then to the flowers. Before slowly taking them from him. "I-...Thank you. They're very pretty." You then looked at him raising a brow. "May I ask why you're here? If you wish to purchase some fruit, you'll have to wait until I harvest them."

"I'm not here for any of your property I assure you. I came to start my engagement with you." He said it so straight forward and bluntly that it had you blanking a bit.

You. Slowly. Blinked. "I'm..sorry. What?"

"I wish to start my engagement with you." Your jaw dropped at the blunt statement. He held up a hand. "I have already seemed out your parents blessing. They informed me that if you allow me to court you then I'll have their blessings. That is why I'm here. Miss Y/n. I think you're very beautiful and smart. I've seen you many times before and I have come before you." With a thud he lowered himself to his knees and bowed again. "Please allow me to prove my worth to you as a husband."

Your jaw dropped. Your eyes budged. And your body froze just staring at the man. HE WANTED TO WHAT?! COURT YOU!? HIM?! Your jaw tried to make noise but all it had done was make you look like a fish. He continued to kneel there bowed to you unmoving. Who WAS this guy? You practically knew almost everyone in your small town but you'd never seen him before. Why you? Why now? You were no stranger to courters and suitors but...This was rather blunt and out of the blue.

''I-I....I don't-..." You shook your head pulling yourself together enough to look at him properly. "W-Well. That was very forward of you. I've never had someone so...blunt. But I should let you know that you might not be interested in someone like me really."

"I've already considered those factors," he said still not looking up.

"Well...You know I'm very reclusive and I like keeping to myself."

"I'll be sure to respect your privacy, boundaries, and space."

You blinked surprised. "I-...I'm VERY unladylike! I-Im very stubborn! And I say what I like! And I work hard and get dirty all the time!"

"I admire a lady's strength whether it's physical or emotional strength. I've also seen your personality and I deduced that I find that I like it."

You blanked for a moment flabbergasted about it before scowling. Ok. Here's the big one that ALWAYS guaranteed to drive them away. "I worked hard on my own property. Im not willing to share anything with a husband! Not. A. Thing. I don't even think I would want children that's how much I don't want to share!" You smiled. Surely hearing he wouldn't automatically get your property and you refused to bare any children would make him lose inter-

"That's perfectly fine." WOT- "I wouldn't dream of taking anything from you. That would be selfish of me. I wouldn't ever force you to do anything you didn't want either. I understand not every woman would want to be a mother. I'm content with just the two of us."

Silence.

You continued to stare at him mouth open agape as he still remained bowing to you.. before giving a sigh. "You're really making me feel bad for telling you a straight no. I've already told others that I'm not interested."

"I'm only asking for a chance. Let me prove to you that I'm capable as a husband. I'm strong, capable, and I promise to be good to you. All I ask is a single chance."

You hesitated. This guy was serious about it wasn't he? And your usual methods weren't driving him away. But...did you really want this? You DIDN'T LIKE pushy men courting you but maybe you could drive him away by just being yourself? With a small sigh you slumped your shoulders.

"Mr. Akaza. While I'm..flattered that you'd find me attractive enough to want to marry, we haven't even been on a date yet. I don't know you. We're literal strangers. If Im going to marry someone then I would at least like to know them first." You gestured to him trying to let him down as Nicely as possible. "And you haven't even asked me that, and..Well..."

"Rejecting another today?"

You jumped and both turned your heads to find another man standing there. A pretty familiar man actually. He stood there with a pair of glasses slapped over his face and an annoyed look to him. You both stared at him for a moment before he huffed again.

"I figured as much."

You blinked at him before glaring. "Oh. It's you again. What are you doing here? I haven't seen you since I washed you out last year."

He scowled harder. "Believe me if it were up to me I wouldn't be back here but my mother wanted to purchase some apples and you're the only one within walking distance who sells them."

You huffed. "Alright. I can do that since she's a nice lady but don't think this changes anything."

"My offer still stands but I shouldn't even make that offer since Id rather not have that awful personality passed down to my childr-"

"Shut your dam mouth."

The man with the glasses turned his head as Mr. Akaza slowly stood back up finally and turned to him eyes narrowed. "I beg pardon?"

"I said-" Akaza leaned forward enough to nearly touch Mr. Glasses's face. "Keep. Your. Dam. Mouth. Shut. Before I close it for you. Or are you stupid on top of being ignorant and rude?" You both stared at him stunned before you noticed that a very thick looking fist balled up at Akaza's side as if he was about ready to actually punch him anyways.

Mr. Glasses only huffed. "You're obviously new here. If you hadn't heard, Ms. Y/n has a streak of rejection towards suiters. She's a rather disobedient unladylike woman-"

It all happened so fast. One moment Mr. Glasses was standing there and then the next he was dangling in the air by the front of his kimono as Akaza gripped it in a tight fist. A few veins flared up in rage as he did so effortlessly. You stood there shocked at the sight before being able to speak.

"W-What are you doing?! Put him down!"

"Apologize." The man in his grip was lowered only slightly for Akaza to glare his flared eyes into his soul. "Or I'll be forced to break your jaw so you may never insult another woman in my presence again."

"MR. AKAZA!!" You grabbed his arm dropping the flowers and pulled..but found that he didn't budge an inch. It might've been like moving a mountain! "Don't hurt him! He's not worth it!"

"I will. Once he apologizes." His grip tightened up more. "Then maybe I'll show him mercy-"

"IF YOU DON'T PUT HIM DOWN I'LL NEVER ACCEPT YOUR PROPOSAL!!"

Akaza froze. Akaza's head snapped to you wide eyed. You stared back firmly with a scowl. After a few seconds he sighed through his nose. And Mr. Glasses was slowly lowered until he was placed down on his feet with a terrified look on his face. 

"Alright. I'll do as you ask but only because of my respect for you, Y/n." 

You sighed in relief and slowly let go but gave him a look. "Thank you. I don't know what had gotten into you but don't hurt him on my behalf."

"Of course. I apologize for acting so boarish. It won't happen again I assure you."

"Uh huh..." You slowly looked back to Mr. Glasses McRude who now trembled in the other's presence. "I hope you're not too hurt. Wait here and I'll get you some apples for your mother no charge. YOU." You snapped a glare at Akaza. "Leave him alone. I don't want you hurting him while I'm gone!"

"You have my word that I won't raise another hand to him again. "

You narrowed your eyes at him before you turned to walk back into your house. "Alright. Wait here both of you. I'll be right back."

Your form had just disappeared when Akaza yanked the other man closer to him by the front with the hand that still held him before giving a cold stare deep into his eyes with a frown. "Listen closely and listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once. You. STAY. AWAY. From my fiance. It took me too long to get this far and I'm not going back. If you do much as even THINK badly of her again then I'll keep my promise of making you eat your own teeth. Got it?" The man only gulped as a reply. "Good."

You returned a little while after with a small basket of apples and the man just silently took it from you before turning on his heels and fleeing the scene. He looked pale and shook to the core which made you give a look at Akaza whom only smiled at you happily. Your brows rose suspiciously.

"Aren't you going to leave too?"

He blinked confused at you. "What?"

You gestured to where the other man fled. "Aren't you going to leave too, Mr. Akaza? I figured your business with me would be finished by now." Didn't he get the hint you were trying to reject him?

But he looked even more confused. "No. I thought we had more business to discuss all things considering. Such as the wedding and the best time for one of us to move in with the other."

A glass shattering sound went off in your mind. "Say WHAT?!"

"Our wedding. We are engaged and it's natural that I'd want to be married after so many years of being apart."

"Are you insane!?" He blinked at your sudden blunt tone. "I never agreed to anyone's engagement! I don't even know you!"

He blinked. And blinked again. Before looking you up and down. Before again blinking. "Wait...You mean you...Do not remember me?" He placed a hand on his chest. "It's me." You still stared. "We met years ago as teenagers by a different river. I asked you to marry me and you agreed."

"Are you talking about the river by town that connects to the streams around here?" He happily nodded. "Tons of people go there all the time to fish or do laundry or..Or whatever. I can't remember if I'd ever met you and that was years ago! But I certainly don't remember ever saying yes to any engagements either!"

Akaza.. slowly blinked. "You... don't remember me? How can you not remember what we spoke to each other with?"

"How can you claim that I agreed to marry you!?"

"How can you claim that you didn't agree it you don't remember?"

You opened your mouth...but closed it before thinking. That..was a valid point. If you didn't remember him then what's stopping him from being right about you agreeing to marry him more than five years ago? Maybe you did agree to it. Or more likely teenage you accidentally gave him the impression that you agreed to it. 

YEAH!

That must've been the real reason you didn't remember agreeing to anything. You must've rejected him but he accidentally mistook it somehow for you agreeing to it, and with another rejection on the pile of others you just simply forgotten all about the interaction. Either that or Mr. Akaza here was lying to get you to marry him and was a very good actor. Either scenario was possible and would explain why you didn't remember him at all. Either way you still didn't agree with this. Not really.

"Alright. Let's say that I did agree, not that I am or did but just hypothetically. How come it took you this long to seek me out?"

"I have no excuses for not finding you sooner and I apologize for that deeply," he apologized with a small bow of his head, "But at the time I was dealing with many family deaths and...'unfinished business' with a few huma-...Men." He quickly corrected himself. "It also took me a while to get back to this area and start searching for you. I didn't know where to start, I didn't know where you were, and I only knew your first name. I was only able to find you three months ago when I caught a glimpse of you. I knew your beautiful face. It's not easy to forget."

"Why did it take you another three months then if you found me again?" You asked eyebrows raised. 

"I needed time to prepare courting gifts for you and I wanted to ask for your parents' blessings first."

"You asked my parents for their permission? Or to set up an engagement?"

"Neither. I asked for their blessings because I know that means a lot to families. However only you could decide to accept me or not so I didn't need to ask them but I did because I respect you greatly."

You stood there stunned not knowing what to say for a moment before blinking at him. He... really went all out and he's been looking for you for a little more than five years. You felt a bit bad for about to reject him when he seemed so ready and excited to marry you. But..You both were still strangers. 

"Alright. What did you tell me when I allegedly agreed to this?"

"That I would come for you and marry you before the blood moon happened. And I intend to do that before it comes."

You paused. "You mean that event that only happens every hundred years? That's two days from now."

"Yes. A lot of young women are already being thrown into marriages, and I've seen many people already starting to board up their windows and stocking up on supplies in town when I attempted to get your parents blessings. I feel very sorry for all the young women forced into quick marriages. I'm very glad you decided not to break off our engagement while I was away!" He smiled again wide, warm, and brightly. "I promise you I'll make you very happy for the rest of our lives together." 

You opened your mouth but shut up as he leaned forward to place a kiss to your forehead which was soft and warm. It made you pause as he smiled wider and leaned back to bow.

"I'll be back in two days time to marry you. I have to get a few things as well as settle a few matters and then we can hold the ceremony. Please don't fret about anything."

With one last smile he turned and began to walk away. You stood there stunned before a shot of red blasted through your face and you shook your head. Shouting a 'hey' you looked at him, only to pause seeing he was... Walking around the side of your house? What? Why was he heading towards your backyard? Quickly you made for your backdoor and threw it open. Just in time to see the bush by your henhouse moving slightly as if someone just walked through it. Akaza was fast! But...Why the heck was he heading towards your fruit grove?

"Hey! You can't just go back there!," you called out quickly following and pushing your way through the bush after him. On the other side you saw Akaza walking up to the stream behind your house. What was he doing? "Akaza! You can't just trespass on my property!"

He didn't even look back to you as you got closer. Instead he raised his arms up and without warning dove headfirst into the water. You skidded to a stop as a giant splash sounded off and your arms were thrown up as you were sprayed by droplets. After a few seconds you blinked before looking at the rippling water stunned. And there you stared longer as a bunch of bubbles bubbled up to the surface between the ripples... WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! Did Akaza just dive into your stream?! What the heck was he thinking?! Could he even swim?! You were debating whether or not to dive in after him when something just popped out of the water with another splash making you shriek in shock before you blinked...and froze at what you saw.

A pair of yellow irises and veiny blue sclera with fluffy pink lashes smiled up at you with a warm grin. A strange pattern of stripes covered his face and neck and what other part of his body that your wife eyed were able to see. Pale greyish-white like skin and a pretty pink head of hair. You stared there stunned, slack jawed, and wide eyed as he softly chuckled at your expression. 

"I think I might stand out in your mind now," he spoke with a smile, "I have a few things to get done but I'll be back in two days time to come claim you. Be ready by then, My Wife."

You said nothing as he turned and dunked his head back underwater. For a brief moment a large and powerful blue-pink tail rose out from the water before disappearing with another splash and then he was gone leaving nothing but ripples behind. You stood there shocked for the longest time before your face paled, your eyes rolled back, and you collapsed into the soft grass in a dead faint.

By the time you woke up two hours later Akaza was completely gone without a trace. The first thing you did was stare. The second thing you did was bolt back to your house and lock the doors behind you and there you remained the rest of the day. A whirlwind of thoughts clouding your mind. That was Akaza!.. Wasn't it?! You saw him dive into the water. You SAW that thing if it was Akaza! It spoke in the same voice as him! It looked JUST LIKE HIM just with different colors! And then he was gone!! What even WAS that?! A merman?! Siren!? Some kind of swamp monster!? You didn't know. All you knew was that this couldn't possibly have been a dream! Not in broad daylight! Even if it was, how could you be by the stream unless you were sleep walking? Heck. You ALMOST believed that it was just a dream and you were sleepwalking if it wasn't for the fact that you found the purple flowers Akaza gave you on the floor where you dropped them yesterday. It was then that it hit you hard. It WASN'T a dream! It WAS real! It DID happen! YOU REALLY DID SEE A MERMAN!!

AND HE WAS COMING FOR YOU IN ONE DAY-

With fear in your mind and trembling hands you went to work. Locking up your animals, locking up your doors tight, bringing in your pitchfork for protection, and pushing anything you could up against the doors as a makeshift barricade. There you remained all through the second day in fear. Fear building up more bit by bit as the hours ticked away and the night approached fast. Already the sun was setting and the night was quickly taking over the skies. You had to be quick. You had to hide! You'd hide in the bathroom and barricade that door as well just in case. You'd just gotten some food from your grove and was about to store it inside since you had no idea how long you'd be in there and would prefer to have some fresh water and food on hand just in case-

"Y/n!"

You squealed dropping the basket of fruit at the sound of a voice before you could even get to your henhouse. Fruit thudded against the ground scattering at your feet as you whirled around and froze at the sight of Akaza there. He wasn't trying to disguise himself as a human this time and was that menergerie of colors including the pink hair, only this time he had legs. A few droplets of water dripped off his body as he smiled wider and you froze.

"...A-Akaza..."

"Yes. I know I'm early. I apologize for startling you," he apologized holding up a hand with something shiny in it. "But I couldn't wait to see you in this."

"... W-What is it?" You gulped expecting it to be some kind of dead fish by the shiny scales but was surprised when he revealed a bracelet of pearls.

"I wanted to gift you something sentimental. Pure white pearls are symbolic for purity, innocence, and simplicity." He explained holding it out to you. "And they're often used in wedding ceremonies. I couldn't think of anything else that could be more perfect for this moment." He then held out his hand and gently grabbed one of your frozen ones. "It's my wedding gift to you. I can't wait to see how beautiful you'll look in it."

You just stood there frozen and stunned as he happily wrapped the jewelry around your frozen wrist. He stepped back admiring his handy work as you still looked on in shock. The shiny pearls felt smooth, slightly wet, and a bit heavy on your wrist and reflected the red aura of the moon as it continued to rise in the sky with you both standing there. And reflecting Akaza's bright smile.

"Beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous." You looked back to him as he held your hand softly. "You look absolutely radiant in that. I'm so happy for tonight. Aren't you?"

"I-..." You glanced back to the bracelet before shaking your head and taking a step back. He looked completely surprised when you pulled your hand from his. "N-No. I can't do this! This is crazy! ''I-I don't even know you!"

He stood there completely stunned for a good moment before he slowly relaxed. "...You still don't remember me? I would've thought that you'd remember after seeing me in my true form. Do you not remember how you helped me years ago?"

You immediately shook your head no. "No! What are you even talking about?!"

"Over five years ago, I was young and stupid and tried to kill a professional monster hunter. Unfortunately for me he was actually very good at his job and nearly killed me after entangling me in a net. Fortunately by some miracle I was able to escape but I later washed ashore still tangled up." He tilted his head with a smile back on his face. "I very much could've died from dehydration or another far more evil human could've discovered me. However you were the one who did and you helped me without wanting anything in return."

You blinked shocked. "I what?"

"I don't blame you for not remembering. After all we were both still children then. However I was already dealing with so much loss, and a kindness like yours wasn't something I wanted to lose again." He held a hand out again. "So I asked you to marry me and you agreed. Do you perhaps remember that day now?"

You continued to stare at him for a long while. Staring at his pretty yellow eyes and soft smile. No. He must've been mistaking you for someone else. You've never met a merman before although you did remember daydreaming about meeting one like him a long time ag-....

WAIT A MINUTE-

Your eyes widened as a distant memory replayed in your head.

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

"...Who...W-Who ARE you?!"

"...Akaza."

"Are you going to eat me?"

"I don't eat humans let alone women or children. ...Are you going to stand there and stare at me?"

You felt your body feel cold and frozen just standing there staring at the ..boopiy. creature? Before you. He stared at you with yellow eyes and veiny blue sclera eyes. Pink fluffy lashes matched his hair. His body had a strange line pattern to it as he just laid there staring up at you from being tangled in thick ropes around a admittedly beautiful blue and pink fish tail. You had just been wondering around by the stream and laid down for a nap after fishing unsuccessfully for a few hours now. Then you were woken up by the sounds of something big struggling along the riverbank to your left just struggling behind a thick bush leaning over the river. You assumed it was a beached fish or perhaps a deer that had gotten it's antlers stuck in the branches, however when you pulled the bush away you were shocked by what you saw. So shocked that you sorta..just went on numb autopilot staring at the boy your age struggling to untangle himself.

"I-....WHAT are you?! A-Are you a siren?!"

It was the boy's turn to look annoyed."Sirens and merfolk are two completely different beings. I wished you humans would stop mislabeling us."

Your eyes widened. "Y-Y-You're a merman?!"

"I'm glad you caught on. Now please stop staring. You'll draw attention to me and I don't need that right now."

You opened your mouth and closed it a few times before shaking your head and blinking. "H-How did you get here in the first place?!"

"I was being hunted by one of the Hunters. They're blaming me for a kelpie's killings although I'm sure they don't care." He watched as you stared at him a little longer before a hand touched his tail all of a sudden making him jump. "H-Hey! What are you doing?!"

You didn't answer. Instead tugging at the knots on the tail (that actually felt surprisingly smooth but wet) but found that the thick knots were too tight to be broken and you didn't have a knife on you. The ropes were also tangled up in the lower hanging branches of the bush. That must've been how he got stuck. Unfortunately it looked too terribly tangled up to get out without cutting it either. You'd be unable to cut him out....But.. Maybe he could slip out? He watched as you shifted to his tail and grabbed the ropes around it.

"What are do-AH?!"

He yelp as you bluntly pulled his tail up by the ropes lifting half his body off the went muddy bank and pulled up. The ropes were tight on him. And he was pretty heavy! You grunted pulling at them eventually jumping up and down a bit and trying to hook your fingers under the ropes to try and get a better grip on the ropes- Until something gave. With a wet splat sound, his tail wetly slipped through the ropes and he landed on the muddy ground with a thud leaving you holding ropes in your hands. Akaza hissed in lingering soreness that throbbed from his tail and groaned laying there.

You blinked at the ropes before tossing them aside and leaning over him. "Are you ok?"

"Incredibly sore but I'll live." His eyes turned back up to you surprised for the first time since you both met. "But...you helped me?"

"I mean-...You were stuck. Was I not supposed to? If you wanted to get out yourself then sorry. I guess. I mean I'd want someone to help me if I was trapped somewhere. Wouldn't you?"

"I...I suppose so." He pushed himself to sit up on his elbows raising a brow and looking you over. "It's just rare a human would help someone like me willingly."

You shrugged and looked at him. "I mean you did need help. I'm not sure what else I would do with you."

He continued to stare at you up and down before just silently flipping onto his stomach and you watched as he dragged himself across the short bank and into the water of the stream with a few water shuffling sounds. Blinking you continued to watch as his head reemerged a moment later and he looked at you. 

"Never the less, thank you for your assistance. I would appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about our meeting. It would put the both of us in danger."

You huffed. "I don't think anyone would believe me even if I did tell them. I don't even believe this! I'm going to wake up from my nap and this'll all be a dream."

He chuckled. "Perhaps so...But still one good deed deserves another. What's your name?"

"My name is Y/n, Mr. Dream Merman. But I assure you that I don't need anything in return even from a dream."

He smiled wider. "Perhaps not." He then tilted his head. "...Are you married or engaged? Or do you already have a lover?"

"No. I mean you'd already know that being a figment of my imagination."

"Then I shall return to marry you once we're older. In a few years there will be a new blood moon. I'll be back to claim you then. Let this be my marriage vow to you."

"Ok. Mr Dream Mer-"...You blinked. "Wait. What-"

With a PLUNK sound, the head disappeared and you were left there stunned and staring slack jawed at the water. Whatever really happened just...gone. you continued to stare until you did the only thing that you could do in this situation. Go back to your nap, and sleep away the rest of this weird dream.

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

You continued to stare at him wide eyed and shocked as two powerful arms wrapped around your and gently pulled your body into Akaza's. His forehead dipping down to press against yours.

"Do you remember me now, My Heroine?"

"Oh my gods..." Your eyes finally blinked. "I agreed to be engaged to a dream fish."

The words made him end up laughing at you as you refocused. The red light of the moon reflecting off his eyes and making his colorful body light up like some beautiful stain glass windows before you froze again as a hand gently caressed your cheek. 

"Well, perhaps you will find this a little more satisfying than a dream.~ I already gave you my marriage vows, so allow me to seal our ceremony."

You didn't even have to ask what he meant when his face leaned ever closer and a pair of lips met yours.

[thepaintedlady00]

Nightshade

Chapter 23 | Chapter 25

TW: As always: language, mentions of drugs and alcohol, smoking, sex, general mature themes. We've got some Tony in this chapter, some clear violations of the law and personal property/privacy, Simone's back (...yaaaaayyy), I'm gonna blue ball y'all just one more time with the big conversation our two idiots gotta have, another painting, some mentions of grooming, Lena's not in the mood for any of the shit this chapter, Jake's being the good "friend" he is. Some lies get told, and finally our dummies have THE conversation but also not really xD Enjoy!

Chapter 24: Burn the Ice

The morning chill stung his face as he exited the car - a reminder that the snow could start any day now. With calm, leisurely steps his fine leather shoes echoed amongst the chaos of the city. It was loud and crowded and smelt like cheap street vendor food. Disgusting, he thought to himself, glaring at the slouched-back people running the dirty stalls for a minute before starting up the steps.

Her building was old and smelt of mold, something he couldn't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction about. It was obvious she wasn't living as well as she had been with him. The landlord gave him a wide-eyed look, one he was well accustomed to - the style of the rich was always something poor people gawked at - but all he did was smile that charming smile and offer the old man a wave as he made his way past.

At the door he let the others do their work, patiently drumming his fingers along the hard cover of the sketchbook while they did. The door made a loud creaking noise as it opened. “Wait here. I won't be long.”

The faint smells of cleaning materials and dust filled his nose. She'd been staying here less and less the closer the cold months got. A lingering trauma that made her unconsciously cling to that pathetic family of hers. A trauma he felt a burning frustration and an undoubtable swell of pride whenever he recalled it. Running his fingers along her countertop, looking at the living room filled with paintings she'd done after slipping away, Tony allowed himself a rare moment of quiet.

In that quiet Tony breathed in the faint smell of her cherry perfume with a grimace. He'd always hated that smell, hated the tiny fruit in general. But, he admired the malice behind it… The choice to douse herself in it was one clearly made to slight him. She could do nothing without thinking of him, even if it was in anger, for now, Tony enjoyed the simple fact that Lena still thought of him every day. It was a testament to a larger, even more satisfying truth.

This sad, pathetic little life she'd scrounged together was nothing without him.

Jules’ heavy footsteps intruded on his quiet, but he did so with respect so Tony would allow it. “He's coming this way.”

“How long?”

“Four minutes.”

“Good.” Right on schedule.

Tony set the sketchbook back on the counter and pulled the lovely orange flower from his breast pocket giving it a sniff before setting it on top of the book. Jules handed him the envelope with her name neatly printed in his decadent handwriting. “We'll see each other soon, my Lena.”

Jules had timed it perfectly, as he always did, right as Tony stepped out the door onto the steps of Lena's apartment the old biker turned onto the street. His eyes grew wide in terror and rage as he spotted him. Perfect. With a wide grin, Tony lifted his hand and offered them a wave before he slid into his limousine. “Take us home, driver. We're done here for today.”

*

A sweet smell filled Jake’s nose as he rolled onto his stomach, arm draping over the warm body lying beside him. The sweet, fruity, decadent aroma was one he recognized in mere seconds. Cherries. He happily buried his nose in that smell. Lena.

He cracked an eye open, catching that heavenly glimpse of the sun hitting her hair just right making it glow like fire. Pretty as that was, it paled in comparison to the sight of her bare back peeking out from beneath his covers. Her skin was soft as silk beneath the tips of his fingers as he lazily traced the snake tattoo.

The warm fuzziness that filled his chest made every touch, every smell, and sound feel almost dreamlike. He would have thought this was just another dream like he had the first time he woke up to her in his bed, but the sensations were too defined to just be his imagination. That and he felt so damn tired from the long night he'd spent in the throes of such physical activities.

With a pleased sigh, Jake recalled all the ways they'd made up for wasted time. He could still taste the sweetness of Lena's lips, still feel her soft skin rubbing so deliciously against his own. If he closed his eyes again he was sure he'd see the heavenly image of her moving on top of him. It was seared into his mind now just like his name felt forever changed now that he'd heard it on her lips as she came apart beneath him. The hickeys on his neck and the faint marks left by her fingernails clawing at his back would be more obvious things to remind him that last night had been real. Those marks would fade in a week or two unless he let her give him more, which he gladly would.

Lena had taken her time with him, kissing him, teasing him, working him so expertly he'd actually struggled not to come prematurely. She was just as talented as she'd built herself up to be and he felt like a damn fool for ever even doubting her. As if she needed more added to the list of all her perfections now she could add being the best he'd ever had.

She was vocal, not just in expressing her pleasure but in encouraging his own. No matter how hard he thought Jake couldn't remember ever feeling as satisfied during or after sex in his life. In between the three rounds of their newfound intense passions, Jake found himself… Present. Usually after an orgasm or two, he'd just fall asleep not caring if his partner did the same or not, but with her, he felt awake… Alive. 

They spent just as much time talking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company as they had tangled in his sheets. They ate, drank, and played with their cat whenever the little creature slinked from his hiding place. It all felt natural and oddly intimate and, for better or worse, Jake enjoyed it.

Physical intimacy was something he'd always excelled at. Flirting, foreplay, all of it came naturally to him. Jake had spent his fair share of time between the legs of beautiful women but Lena was something else entirely. Something new. Being with her made him feel like his pleasure - he - mattered just as much as hers. It was a concept he'd never truly understood, let alone experienced until now.

Ever since he could remember Simone - women in general - had told him exactly what they wanted from him. Touch me. Kiss me. Fuck me. Faster. Slower. Harder. They told him how to please them and he listened. It was a good time for all parties, but deep down Jake always felt that sting of emptiness. It’d been more about following their orders than it had been about just getting to enjoy the moment. He felt used… Like he'd only been good for a quick fuck and nothing else.

Normally Jake would have swallowed that feeling and forced himself to move… To physically shake off the very thought of it. He'd busy his mind with reading or mundane tasks like showering or cleaning. He'd build up the wall between him and whoever he'd fucked the night before - distance himself from feeling anything at all. Right about now, Jake should have been justifying his dickish, asshole behavior by repeating the words Simone had said to him since he could remember. This is who you are, love. You're just not built for ordinary people. 

Ordinary people turned out to be everyone. Everyone but Simone. And now… Maybe… Lena. 

He never truly understood how powerful feelings like this could be. He never knew that one person - even one as perfect as her - was capable of making him feel like an entirely different person. Jake felt more like himself, a self he barely even knew any more than he had in practically his entire life. He let the peaceful silence and that warm feeling in his chest stay as he curled further into the back of his sleeping redhead.

It wasn't until Hemingway climbed over both their legs, shimmying beneath the curtains and pushing them open to further blind him with sunlight that Jake truly woke up. Pleased with his work the cat proudly pranced across the pillows to stare down at him with an impatient and demanding meow. He couldn't help but chuckle as Hemingway slapped his forehead with a fleshy paw. Lena mumbled something in her sleep, burrowing her face in his blanket with a happy sigh that practically drowned out the cat's noise. God, he wanted to wake her up and kiss her, feel her, fuck her until they were both too exhausted to continue.

After laying in bed for a minute longer - until Hemingway was on the verge of exploding - he slowly slid out of the sheets and stretched his tense back out with a quiet groan. Briefly glancing over his shoulder to make sure that he hadn't woken her, Jake slid on a pair of pants picked his shirt up off the floor, and dished up Hemingway’s food with a quiet scold, “There, was that so hard to wait for?”

He cleaned up the remnants of the night, tossing the now nubs of melted wax in the trash and putting the leftover oyster shells in his sink. When he moved to put the champagne in his fridge he was bitterly reminded of how little food he had. Shit. He set the champagne back on the counter, closing the fridge to look back at the bed. Did he really want to have the conversation in some overcrowded, too-loud diner? 

The thought sat in his mind for a second as a list of possible interruptions made him shake his head. Nope. He wasn't going to risk not talking about this any longer because of anything. Maybe that Chinese is still good? Nope. Jake may have been lazy but even he was above serving month-old Chinese food for breakfast. 

Jake knew Lena wouldn't care about where they ate breakfast, but he didn't want to risk anything going wrong. Besides, Lena deserved a proper breakfast. He wanted her to know that he'd thought about this. That he was ready - willing - to put his best foot forward. Jake wanted to show Lena that this wasn't just a one-night stand and that he wasn't going to vanish now that he'd finally fucked her. More than anything he wanted her to see how much last night, she, meant to him.

He quietly put on his shoes and grabbed his keys and wallet. Writing her a quick note, he set it on his pillow and pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder. I'll be back before she even wakes up, he reassured himself as he turned and headed out the front door. The diner by his house would be open. It may not have been the best food, but it'd have to do.

I'm definitely going grocery shopping tomorrow. When Lena spent the night again, he'd be ready.

*

I woke to an abrupt slap to the center of my forehead followed by a loud, demanding meow directly in my ear. The silhouette of Hemingway's pointed ears was all I could see as he stood in front of the sunlit window. “Good morning to you too.”

Another demanding meow was the creature's only reply as I stretched my arms over my head and yawned. Hemingway jumped off the bed the second I'd sleepily rolled over to throw my arms around the body that should have been beside mine but wasn't. A nervous, gut-wrenching pit filled my stomach as I patted the empty mattress. “Jake?”

No answer.

“Jake?” I called out just a bit louder as I held the blanket to my naked chest and sat up in his bed, looking around his now-empty apartment. 

The bathroom door was open and the shower was off. His kitchen was empty, although cleaner than it had been when we'd finally fallen asleep. There weren't many places one could hide in an apartment as small and open as his. I shifted slightly, fingers brushing against a thin piece of paper on his pillow. 

Relax Princess, I just ran to grab us some breakfast. Should only be ten or fifteen minutes. Make yourself comfortable and DO NOT feed the cat again no matter how much he meows at you!

Air filled my lungs and my body relaxed back into Jake's soft sheets. He was safe. I was safe. Everything was alright.

For how long though? When he returned we'd have to finally have that discussion. The discussion. I'd need to have answers - need to admit just how much I'd fallen for him. The very thought of looking into his stupid, beautiful eyes and pouring my heart out to him made me feel dizzy.

Would he feel the same now that he'd achieved his original goal? Would Jake still want me as much as I still wanted him? And how much did I want him? How far had I really fallen since the start? 

Too far. Was the only answer I could admit to. I was naked in his apartment. I had slept with him in his bed. I was waking up with the cat we'd both unofficially adopted. There was no denying it. I was hopelessly, pathetically, irreparably in this - whatever this was. There was no going back to how things were before, not when all I could think about was just how perfect Jake's lips felt on mine and how amazing last night had been.

Sex was nothing new. It was something I'd had a lot of experience in, good and bad. I knew all the steps, all the moves, and still last night had taken me by surprise. Sex with Jake had been… different. It was unlike every other sexual experience I’d had. 

I often had to find ways to keep myself in the moment, something that got easier the more I was with someone or the more time had passed. But, with Jake, I was just there. I didn't need to remind myself to breathe. I didn't need to force my body to relax and repeat his name to remind myself whose hands were touching me. 

It was fun, exciting and intimate. Instead of feeling that shameful disgust, the one I needed to tell myself wasn't real, I felt at peace. There hadn't been a single moment when we were tangled together that I’d felt anything but completely and utterly cherished. I felt safe, unburdened by all the shit that'd been complicating even the simplest things in my life. Last night nothing else mattered, nothing but us.

Us. It was a word that made my lips quirk up in a smile. Us was simple. Us was what I wanted. And us was ultimately what I was most afraid of.

There were just so many ways it could all go wrong. I could fuck it up. He could fuck it up. We could both collectively fuck it all up. And then what? We'd just have to go about our lives working together, seeing each other every day, watching each other meet new people, and moving on? Even just the possibility of seeing Jake with anyone else made me feel sick. 

No, I thought sadly. We're in too deep for that. I couldn't live without Jake. His asshole attitude and his smart mouth, his smile, his laugh, he was entwined in my life now in a way I couldn't undo even if I tried. So, the choice was already made. I'd - we’d -make it work. No matter what I had to do to keep this from falling apart - to keep him in my life - I'd do it.

After surviving another round of Hemingway's desperate attempts to convince me to feed him, I was out of Jake's bed staring at the sulking cat as I searched for Jake's dresser. “Hitting me doesn't change the fact that you already ate!”

He hissed.

“You better watch that attitude,” I replied. “Or I won't sneak you any of my breakfast when Jake gets back.”

Hemingway’s eyes narrowed and with a moment of consideration before he rubbed himself against my feet. “Yeah, that's what I thought.”

As respectfully as I could, I searched Jake's drawers until I found his clothes. While they were kind of baggy on me, it was better than walking around in his blanket all morning. Besides, I enjoyed the way they smelt like him and felt softer against my skin than my own clothes had.

My eyes trailed along his shelves, taking a more in-depth look at his books and pictures and odds and ends that he'd saved over the years. There was so much history in his space. So many things that had been saved for a reason I couldn't know just by looking at him. Curiosity swelled in me, my mind running wild with all the possible reasons he'd held onto things. For the first time in a long time I wanted to ask questions and get closer to someone. I wanted to listen to him tell me every story and every detail about his life before I entered. I wanted to know every piece of him.

My fingers traced one of the seashells as his front door opened and he stepped inside with a bag from some diner. His eyes instantly found me, that shimmer in them making me blush and my heart soar. “Hey.”

“Hi,” he replied, clearing his throat. “Sorry, I was gone so long.”

“It's no problem,” I answered, watching his eyes take in the clothes I now wore. “I… Uh… borrowed some of your clothes. I hope that's okay.”

As he set the bag down his eyes continued to roam down my body, that sinful smirk answering me long before his words did. “That's fine, though I was looking forward to coming back to a beautiful naked woman.”

“If you'd been quicker you woulda gotten that,” I teased. “I just barely got dressed.”

He clicked his tongue. “Damn. Maybe next time.”

Definitely next time, I thought as my mind played through all the new possibilities available to us now that we’d crossed the threshold. Clearing my throat, I moved to stand next to him as he unpacked the food, distractedly watching his hands for a second before asking, “What's for breakfast?”

“The works. Bacon, eggs, sausage, waffles,” he watched my nose scrunch up and chuckled before pulling a box out of the bag and setting it in front of me. “Don't worry, I got you pancakes.”

“You remembered,” I replied, eagerly opening it to the smell of the sweet stacks. “I'm impressed.”

With a shrug, Jake shooed the cat away and leaned back against the counter. “Don't be. It's not like it was a big secret.”

We both took a few tentative bites before neither of us could contain our nerves anymore. “So-”

“We-”

Chucking at one another's interruptions I nodded to him. “You go first.”

Jake watched me, the ocean in his eyes rolling with tense waves and anticipation. “Well, I guess now's as good a time as any for us to talk about last night… and the ones before.”

Don't freak out, I told myself. Just be honest. “Yeah, things have been… Interesting… between us lately.”

“Good interesting?” He asked with a cocky grin, taking a step closer to me. 

I nodded, “Great interesting. Right?”

“Right.”

“So…” The words caught in my throat as Jake took one last step closer, putting us chest to chest.

His breath, slightly sweet smelling, rolled across my face. “So…”

“I… I want t-” The front door swung open and the head of blonde hair made my teeth snap shut in anger. 

Simone stood in the open doorway, that red-lipped mouth hanging open in shock for a moment before it closed. Jake turned, brows furrowed and the tension between us quickly shifted into just tension. “...Simone?”

She smiled at him, quickly with no sincerity before she looked me up and down and nodded to herself. “Lena. What a surprise.”

I bit my tongue and simply nodded at her while my eyes scanned the floor for my shoes. Jake watched Hemingway dart to his hiding place before returning his attention to the new interruption. “How was your trip?”

The mood soured further as Simone just shook her head, her eyes wide with rage and the smile on her lips quickly shifting into a sneer. “Oh, it was just fantastic. I always love dealing with my mother alone.”

Time to go. I knew if I stayed for even another sentence Jake would be pulling me off Simone and everything between us would be stained with chunks of blonde hair and blood. I may have been able to see her for what she was, but Jake wasn’t and an attack on her - physical or otherwise - would effectively jeopardize everything I had or may have had with Jake. I pushed my hair behind my ears and hastily grabbed my things, quickly pulling on my shoes. “I should go.”

“You…” Jake started to protest, but quickly thought better of trying to keep Simone and I in a room together for longer than necessary. “We can finish this later.”

With a nod I pressed a soft kiss to his lips and forced myself to smile through the disappointment in an attempt to show him I was still ready to have the talk whenever we could find the time. “See you at work.”

“Yeah,” he answered softly, breathing out a slightly relieved sigh. “See you at work.”

As I turned I held Simone's glare, telling her without any words that she wasn't getting rid of me so easily. I grabbed the champagne bottle off the counter and slid out of Jake's apartment, closing the door behind me. The entire walk to Quinn’s I forced myself to swallow the lump in my throat and kept repeating positive thoughts to keep myself from crying out of sheer frustration.

I let myself in, setting the champagne on the table next to Quinn and Ari who just looked at me in confusion. “Good morning?”

“Yeah… Morning or whatever,” I replied flopping onto Quinn's couch and melting into the cushions.

“Long night?”

“Was it bad?” Ari asked, practically jumping up from the table. “I didn't think Jake could fumble the bag when sex was involved.”

“Simoneshowedup,” I grumbled into the cushions.

Quinn settled on the arm of the couch. “Say again?”

Lifting my head I turned and glared at her. “We fucked. A lot. It was great and then right when we were about to have the talk Simone just invited herself in.”

Both Ari and Quinn's mouths formed an O. “Yikes.”

“Anything we can do?” Quinn asked, gently rubbing my back. 

Flopping back onto the couch I sighed. “Kill me.”

*

The second the door closed all hell broke loose. Simone threw her bags to the ground and angrily stomped around his kitchen to open the wine she'd brought. “Can we not do this?”

With a joyless laugh, she glared at him. “Not do what? Not keep our promises to each other? Cause you sure as hell have already started that.”

"Jesus," Jake breathed with a frustrated shake of his head. "It just barely happened. What did you want me to call you during and let you know?"

Simone glared at him, her lips thinning into that tight line. "Do not mock me, Jake.”

“I'm not mocking you. I just… I don't fucking understand what you want from me.” His whole body felt so tight he was sure he'd explode any second. “One minute you're telling me to do what I want and the next you're pissed at me for doing what I wanted to!”

“I want you to show me some goddamn respect!” She shouted, slamming her hand down on his counter. “I have been carrying you since you were eight years old and it has been the only thing I've asked of you! Yet you still find ways of failing at that too!”

Jake felt that ugly swell of tears burning behind his eyes. He felt his whole chest ache and his mind sluggishly repeat the word. Fail. Fail. Fail. That's all you ever fucking do. You fail Simone. You failed your mom. You'll fail Lena too. That's all you're good for. Gritting his teeth Jake forced himself to breathe. He forced himself to stay standing, to blink the tears away and speak, “I do respect you. I respect you more than anyone else! I just… It just barely happened, Simone. I was going to tell you the second I got the chance-”

“And when would that have been?” She asked the anger in her voice never wavering. “In a month? Two? Until I had to walk in on you?”

“It would have been when I saw you!” Jake shook his head. “I tell you everything, Simone. I always have, I always will. That's what we do. We tell each other things, we trust each other.” Slowly he could see Simone's shoulders relax and that glimmer of love return to her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

She finally abandoned the wine and gently took hold of his face. “Of course I do.”

The ache dulled as she stroked his cheeks and he finally felt like his lungs were filling with air instead of acid. “I was going to tell you.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I do. I just… It surprised me. And you know how much I hate surprises.”

“I'm sorry,” he whispered.

Simone smiled and pressed her lips to his, a kiss that once would have sent his heart soaring but now made his gut twist in his chest as he inevitably thought of Lena. She pulled back and nodded. “I know.”

“Are we good?”

“Yes. We are. Honestly, now I guess I’m…” Simone shook her head as she poured her wine and with a heavy sigh, Jake prepared himself for the word he knew far too well. Disappointed. “Relieved.”

“What?”

She picked at Lena's discarded dress, shrugging a shoulder as if she hadn't just been screaming at him over this. “It's done now. You've gotten it out of your system and things can finally get back to normal.”

In some sense she was right. It was done now. He tamed the tiger just like he'd wanted. Normally that did mean that Jake would move on and things would go back to normal. If Lena were anyone else he would probably fuck her a few more times before ultimately tossing her aside in favor of a new fling. But she wasn't anyone else, she was Lena…his Lena. 

Jake didn't want things to go back to normal. He didn't want to feel that emptiness - the weight of being so alone and detached - again. So, Jake stared at Simone as she tidied up his apartment drank wine, and lectured him about how rude and selfish it'd been of him to abandon her over the holiday. For an hour - one that should have been filled with Lena's soft touches and breathy moans - Jake listened to his every flaw being brought to the surface.

Usually, he'd bite back and argue - defend himself against Simone’s angry accusations and slanders. But, that morning he didn't bother. Jake was tired, frustrated, and now anxious. Simone's interruption had put him and Lena right back where they started. Their pile of rain checks had barely been touched and now they'd have to restart the awkward, nervous, avoidant dance around each other. Only this time it'd be worse because they'd actually fucked.

This time the longer they went without talking about it the more likely they both were to write it off as some one-night stand and just go back to how things had been before that first kiss. The longer he sat with that thought, the more obvious it became that he couldn't survive not talking about this. Jake needed to know how Lena felt. He needed her to know how he felt.

“Are you even listening to me?” Simone snapped with a disappointed sigh. Before he could answer she'd rolled her eyes and turned away from him. “Of course you aren't.”

God it was going to be a long day.

*

The locker room was filled with gossip as I entered and shoved Sasha off as he jumped around me practically squealing, “Let me see, let me see!”

“See what?”

“Baby Jakey's work!” He replied. “From your sex!”

I glared at Ari, who sheepishly smiled. “Oh… Were you not telling people?”

“Fuck off. All of you,” I warned, opening my locker and getting changed as quickly as I could to try and avoid Sasha's peeking. The Russian only let up when a familiar broad-shouldered bartender set his bike down and entered the locker room. 

“JAKEY!” Sasha purred. “Take your shirt off!”

Jake brushed past him, shaking his head. “Not in the mood Sasha.”

“Oohhhh,” he glanced between the two of us. “Was the sex that bad?”

I whirled around and slapped his forearm, cursing him in Russian until he retreated from the room giggling with Ari. “Fucking dickhead.”

Jake and I locked eyes. Desire and frustration vibrated between us, but neither of those made my heart drop… the uncertainty in Jake’s eyes, the new sliver of doubt shining back at me did. Had Simone talked him out of whatever this was? Had she dug those talons into his back hard enough for him to abandon the feelings I knew we both felt? Or had all of this… everything between us really just been part of some long game for him? 

My racing thoughts must have been obvious, because Jake took a step toward me, mouth open to try and say something before Simone stepped into the locker room, happily humming as if she hadn't interrupted us at all. The apologetic look in his eyes was the only thing that kept me from punching that smug blonde bitch in the back of the head. I ground my teeth together and turned around to finish getting ready.

I left the two of them and their small talk in the locker room and headed to the table for family meal. Howard, who looked slightly tanner, offered me an apologetic look of his own that I didn't understand until I sat down and my eyes found the new painting hanging on the wall. Right. That's a fucking thing.

The vivid orange petals were splattered with red. I found my mind having to remind itself that it'd been wine instead of blood this time. The jagged cuts in the canvas and its slightly bent shape made it all too clear what'd happened to this particular empty showcase.

The glass shattered over the top of the painting at my feet, wine sloshing over the half-painted petals and the shards of glass slicing the canvas where it struck. If this had been any other circumstance I would have admired how artistic it made the piece look. But this was just another bender.

Tony lay on the ground next to the broken glass, laughing. It didn't matter how much or how loud he laughed, I could see the tired bags under his eyes and the hazed far off look that made me wonder if there was some human part of him deep inside. I almost pitied him, if just for one fragmented moment. 

Jules checked his pulse and shoved my painting aside to keep him away from the broken glass. Turning to me he nodded to the mostly incoherent man at his side. “Stay with him while I get the doctor.”

“Of course,” I obediently answered, moving to kneel beside Tony. Jules gave my shoulder a soft squeeze as he stood and hurried toward the elevator.

My eyes fixated on the broken shards of glass just a few inches away. I could easily take one and shove it into his neck or cut his wrists. I could make it look like an accident… Like he'd done it to himself. Before the fear or the guilt could stop me I was reaching for the largest shard.

“Lena…” Tony mumbled, voice quivering as his glazed-over eyes searched for me. “Lena?”

“I'm here,” I answered quietly, my finger lingering on the glass as I looked down at him.

He relaxed instantly at the sound of my voice, lifting his hand to search for me in the dimly lit living room. “I… I can't see. Lena?”

Pity, understanding, and sympathy slowly replaced the darker thoughts in my head. With a gentle sigh, I slid closer to him, taking his hand in mine and pulling Tony into my lap. “I'm here.”

“W… Will you stay?” He mumbled kissing my hand. “Will you stay with me?”

The reply was practically instant… trained. “Of course.”

Tony set my hand against his chest, forcing me to feel the beating of his heart that cruelly reminded me he was a living, breathing human being. “Promise?”

Staring down at the floor of broken glass and then at the tender, beautiful face of the man I hated and feared and… Loved… I nodded. The words sounded sincere but filled my chest with a numbness that made it hard to breathe. “I promise.”

It was a low blow, reminding me of my supposed love for him. Reminding me that I'd made promises… Attempting to guilt me back into obedience. What was worse though, was that it worked.

In an entirely, uniquely twisted… Fucked up way my whole body went into some old, automatic tense posture. My chest burned with shame and my head filled with guilt-riddled thoughts. You broke his heart. You abandoned him. You said you'd never leave… Grinding my teeth together and balling my hands into fists I forced myself to remember the truth.

Being with Tony hadn't just been lavish gifts and eloquent love letters and expensive trips abroad. Those moments were far and few between. Being with him was filled with venom and rage. Being with him meant being held down, fighting… Aching. It was full of bloodied knuckles, bruises, and broken glass. Obey or be punished. Obey or starve. Obey or drown. 

It wasn't love, I told myself, forcing that thought to be louder than all the others. What we had was never love.

*

Jake sat across the table from her, silently cursing himself for not offering her the reassurance she clearly needed in the locker room. The glassy, scared look in her eyes as she picked up on that tiny part of him that doubted if he deserved her, was stuck in his mind like a sliver. Beside him, Simone quietly ate her food while all he could do was watch Lena. Her eyes hadn’t met his again, unsteady they were fixed past him on the flower painting that now hung on the wall. He could see so much emotion raging in her distant eyes. Fear, fondness, guilt, shame. It wasn't like the other paintings. Those had just made her afraid, angry but this… This was one of those things he didn't understand and it made his chest tighten.

The only thing that drew his gaze away from her was the neatly pressed suit and the fucking pervert that wore it. Howard was back. To his credit, the manager barely looked at him, but Jake could still see the faint bruises that he'd done his vest to conceal. With steady steps Howard approached Lena, one hand holding a bottle while the other lifted, moving toward her shoulder.

Howard's eyes locked with his and Jake did his best to convey the ass-kicking he'd be dishing out if he so much as tried to touch her. Do it. I fucking dare you. At the last second his hand shifted to the back of the chair and a smug sense of pride made Jake's mouth twitch into a smile.

“A gift…” Howard told her carefully, setting the wine down in front of her. “An apology for my involvement.”

Lena’s gaze slowly drifted away from the painting to glare at the bottle. For a moment, her face remained expressionless before a thin, bitter smile spread on her lips. “Expensive.”

“And one of your favorites.”

She said nothing as she stood and began pouring the wine into her glass. Lena's eyes were fixed on Howard even as the glass began to overflow, wine staining the white tablecloth in seconds. The manager pursed his lips, disappointment and a mild look of frustration playing out on his still slightly discolored face. No one said a single word as the bottle finally ran empty and Lena set it back down.

Howard sighed. “Was that truly necessary?”

Still, without a single word, Lena knocked the glass over, sending wine down the table. She strode past him and toward the kitchen just as everyone at the table burst with laughter and gossip. Jake leaned back in his seat and grinned at Howard, enjoying every second of the manager's hateful gaze.

Simone looked at the mess with a disapproving shake of her head. “Such a waste.”

Howard's glare shifted to Sasha and Ari as they continued their laughter. With a snap of his fingers and a swift gesture to the mess he barked out the order, “You two, please get this tablecloth in a soak and clean this up?”

“No fair,” Ari pouted quietly as they started cleaning. “Tiger Bitch makes a mess and we have to clean it.”

“Nepotism,” Sasha answered almost flippantly. “Tiger Bitch is special baby.”

Jake took his plate and Simone's back to the kitchen, eyes finding Lena among the dish crew with ease. She had her head down, focused completely on washing the dishes in the sink. As he set his dirty plates down he watched the water, trying to gauge how hot it was in an attempt to tell how fucked up the painting and Howard had her. It was bad, but not as bad as the first time.

He didn't want to leave her, not when she was like this. A hand waved in his peripheral vision, drawing his gaze to the line where Isaac nodded him toward the door. A silent but reassuring message that he'd keep an eye on her through this shift. Jake spared one last look to the back of her head before he sighed and left the kitchen.

Service felt longer than it should have. Wave after wave of rich assholes poured through the door and gawked at that painting hanging on the wall with Lena's name on it. It made him feel angry and sick to his stomach even just imagining what horrible memory she'd tried to bury in that paint. And there these fuckers were, complimenting it… Calling it a masterpiece. Worse than that Jake knew that even if they knew the full story they'd still find it just as fascinating - maybe even more.

As he made the drinks and served the guests in front of him, Jake made it a point to glare at Howard. The disgusting man was practically trying to sell the damn thing. He stood beside the crowd, pointing out the details of the piece and praising the painter, who he'd already revealed worked in the restaurant. When he'd walked past the bar toward the kitchen it took all of Jake's willpower not to hit him again.

Only a minute had passed before his heart dropped into his stomach at the sound of shattering dishes. In an instant Jake was moving towards the kitchen doors, his heartbeat practically echoing her name. Just as he reached the end of the bar, Sasha fled the scene with a deviant smile, effectively blocking Jake's path. “The hell happened?”

“Tiger Bitch is not in a playful mood tonight,” The Russian answered. “Dear Howard was telling her that some of the guests wanted to speak with her about her painting and she just held up a plate,” he illustrated the throwing movement as well as the crash with his hands, “She threw a plate and told him she'd throw one every time he spoke to her.”

A part of him couldn't help but feel satisfied at how hostile she was acting towards Howard. She may not have known what he did, but Jake was glad she was giving him hell even if it wasn't for the worst of his crimes against her. But, beneath that satisfaction was the simmering worry that it would all be too much for Lena to handle and he'd have to watch her spiral into another night of panic and drowning her fears in alcohol. 

Sasha watched his face, reading it carefully as he set his head in his hands and leaned on the bar in front of Jake. “Something about those paintings puts Tiger in a bad mood.”

“Yeah, no shit,” he replied curtly.

“Tell me what you know, pretty Jake,” he urged. 

Jake leaned forward, looking around them for a moment as if he cared about who could hear them. “I know you should get the fuck off my bar and back to work.”

The Russian cursed and waved him off. “Ha ha, you so funny.” With a thoughtful look, he shifted his question, “So, what's next?”

“Next?” Jake asked with a pointed look.

Sasha smirked and gave him an innocent shrug. “Well, now that you've tamed the tiger you'll be taking on a new project, yes? A new hostess maybe?”

Turning his head to the hostess stand Jake caught the new girl bashfully averting her eyes from the bar. In the past, he would have felt a thrill at the idea of stringing along another sweet, innocent hostess… But now when he looked at her and saw those blushing cheeks that told him she was interested all he could think of was how boring it'd be. No one would ever be able to offer him even a fraction of what he had with Lena.

No one else would challenge him the way she did. It didn't matter how pretty the hostess was, she wouldn't tease him encourage him, or support him the way the redhead did. No one could be more beautiful than her, funnier than her, smarter than her, more badass, or fearless. No one would be Lena and if it wasn't her… Well, he just didn't want it.

“Nah,” Jake finally replied, returning to his work. “No new projects.”

Sasha made a shocked face and with a quiet, almost supportive hum he asked, “Who really tamed who?”

*

The second service ended, I grabbed my shit and left out the alley door. I'd wanted to wait for Jake to talk to him, but after seeing that painting and having Howard tell me about the requests some rich asshole made to meet me… It was too much. As I wandered the brisk city, desperately trying to force the pit in my stomach to dissolve with the movement, I had to continuously pull myself from wave after wave of old thoughts trying to plague me with guilt and make me doubt what I knew to be true.

It wasn't love. It was never love.

Everything I'd been through, all the years I'd spent moving on, and all it took was one painting to make me feel like that sad, lonely, dead little girl. One painting and in whatever fucking twisted way I was looking back on the times when Tony made me laugh or smile or feel anything good. Those memories were ones I had to combat with the truth and the truth meant remembering and remembering meant I couldn't just pretend like everything was fine.

Tony had not only been in the restaurant but had weaseled his way into Howard's ear, and quite possibly my aunt's. He'd hung the paintings to elicit a very specific response and I'd played right into it. The larger message was simple. It was a reminder that in this game we were playing, he was the king. He snapped his fingers and everyone would play whatever tune he wanted, me included.

Fear, anger, guilt. What was his next move? I wondered as I had many times before. And just like every time before, I hadn't the faintest idea. Even with all the time I'd spent with him to give me a clear picture of who he was and how he thought, I'd never been able to predict his moves. The one thing I knew to be a certainty was there wasn't a damn thing he wouldn't do and that meant everything I loved was at stake… that meant the people closest to me were in danger.

Ozzy, Peter, Patrick, Quinn, Prue, Nana, Abdul, Isaac, Dom, Scott, Ari, Sasah… Jake. They were all possible targets for Tony to choose from. It was terrifying to think about and so I forced myself to not think about it. The lights over Ozzy's bar eventually flashed ahead of me as I did my best to shed myself of the powerless feeling that was now firmly rooted in my stomach. I had to keep moving forward, even blindly. I had to focus on the good around me, even if it was just a tiny speck of it.

He wouldn't take this from me. He would never take anything from me again.

As I made my way to the door I heard the rumble of Dom's bike engine and felt a sense of relief wash over me. As he pulled into the bike spaces I reminded myself of my one advantage in this fucked up game. I had Dom. He wouldn't let anything bad happen. Not ever again.

He had a tired look in his eyes as he flung his leg over the side and stood, thanking the bikers around him as they followed suit.

“Busy day?” I called out, drawing his attention to me.

A thought made his brows pinch together as he sighed and walked toward me. “Yeah.”

As he walked with me through the bar door a faint, floral smell lingered on his jacket. I leaned in, smelling him a bit deeper. “You open a flower shop or something?”

“Huh?”

“You smell all flowery,” I replied tugging on his jacket.

Dom's face drained of any emotion as he shrugged. “Right. Yeah, I… Had some business with a florist.”

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Are you back in the game of wooing Mav?”

“No.”

“Oh come on, you can tell me!” I playfully urged. “You know I'm in full support of your “marriage”.”

With a sigh he stopped, gently placing a hand on my arm. “Lena… There's something we should talk about.”

A sudden tightness seized my throat at his serious tone and blank expression. “What's going on?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sasha and the group waving their hands in the air, urging me to hurry and join them. “Tiger! Come on!”

Dom glanced at them and quickly shook his head. “I… just wanted to give you a heads up that Nana's got a big celebration planned for your birthday.”

“Oh.” A relieved breath left my lungs in the form of an anxious chuckle. “Oh, good. Fuck, you scared the shit out of me!”

“Sorry,” he quietly replied.

“It's okay. I promised Nana she could go all out this year and… I dunno…” Glancing back at my group, at my brothers and Quinn and Prue, the restaurant crew… Jake… I smiled. I had these people in my life. They may have been in danger by being here - being close to me - but they were here nonetheless. None of them cared about possible dangers, they still chose to be here with me. The weight that had made everything feel so heavy slowly eased as I looked at my friends… my family and smiled wider. “Maybe it won't be so bad this year.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he mumbled, giving me a pat on the head. “That's real good, kid. Now go on. Enjoy your night or whatever.”

I caught his arm before he could go too far, squeezing it and offering him a sad smile. “You been to visit her yet?”

Dom's whole body tensed. He likely thought I forgot, or maybe he just didn’t want to talk about it, but with a quick shake of his head, he answered “No… I don't know if I'm gonna this year.”

“Well if you do, tell her I said hi.” I knew that Dom didn't really believe in ghosts or angels. I knew to him Sarah wouldn't hear him or even know if he'd visited at all, but every year I still encouraged him to go to her grave as some kind of birthday gift to her. He had yet to do it, but I could tell that speaking of her fondly from time to time - acknowledging that his sister existed and had been important - helped ease the hurt in him a little.

But, tonight that didn't seem to be the case.

Dom averted his gaze, cleared his throat, and nodded to the group with a firm, “Go on.”

The chaos of the night continued as expected. My friends and their antics helped me push all the bad the day had to offer back into their boxes and as I met Jake's eyes over the bartop. I was scared that he’d still have that speck of doubt lingering in those beautiful eyes, but as he stared back at me all I could see was the desire. It reminded me of the good… of the possibility that I could have something normal.

Remembering how right it felt to kiss him, to feel him in every way physically possible made me flush with a shameless want to do it all again. Jake's never-faltering gaze didn't help either. It was like he knew exactly what I was thinking and that he wholeheartedly agreed. As the night progressed and the bar slowly started to slow I found myself avoiding leaving it. The pit in my stomach, though lessened still filled me with a lingering and old voice urging me to take the quickest, easiest path away from potential heartache. End it.

That conversation we didn't get to have was now right in front of me and I felt scared. Terrified that something had changed. If Jake told me he wanted to move on from last night it would gut me. But if he said he wanted us to be something official… That thought made me feel almost as sick, just in a different way. Get him as far away from you as possible.

How many men had come before him? All of whom I'd deeply felt for and all of whom Tony had destroyed in some way or another. So what would he do to Jake? What would Tony do to the man that I cared for most… The man who was different from every other in a way I didn't even fully understand. Protect him.

Ozzy set a hand on my shoulder and nudged me to the door. “Go on and get some rest, dear. You've helped enough.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, accepting the kiss on the head and making my way out the back door where I attempted to steel myself.

The gym was quiet, with only a few lights left on to illuminate the old pictures on the walls. As I looked at my dad's smiling face in every photo that scared voice in me quieted, instead replaced by his. “Why you gotta fight me every step of the way?”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I’d replied coldly, angry and terrified. Dad had done nothing but offer me love and acceptance since I’d gotten back for the summer, two things I knew weren’t given away for free. He wanted something but instead of telling me what it was chose to play some cruel game instead. 

My dad’s shoulders slumped slightly, a sigh falling from his lips as he stared down at me with a pitiful look. I prepared myself for his disappointment, but it never came. “I don’t want anything from you, Lena.”

Shaking my head I swallowed hard. “Everyone wants something from me.”

“Alright,” he finally relented. “I do want one thing. I want you to live.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I asked, timid but still angry. 

“You’re alive, sure,” he replied, carefully reaching out to touch my shoulder. “But this ain’t living. This hostile… bitterness you’re carrying, it’s not what life’s supposed to be like. Especially not for a kid.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, guilt filling my lungs as another failure was added to the list.

Dad bent down, forcing our eyes to meet, and smiled. “Don’t be sorry. It ain’t your fault. Just… let us help you. Let me help you, sweet girl.”

With tears building in my eyes, I answered, “Okay. I… Sorry I’ve been making it so hard for you.”

He pulled me into his arms and kissed my head. “You make my life, all our lives, better just by bein here. All we want is for you to see that…” He pulled away, taking my face in his hands and smushing my cheeks the way he thought was funny. “Come on. Let’s go start livin, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The sound of the alley door opening spurred me back into motion. As I headed up the stairs to the apartment I could hear Jake's steady footsteps following me. His movements didn’t sound rushed or hesitant, just steady. My heart hammered in my chest and my head filled with a hundred thoughts, a hundred voices all shouting different things at me. Jake appeared in the stairwell, hands in his pockets as he put one foot on the bottom step before stopping himself. “Now a good time to talk?”

The longer I looked down at him the quieter my mind got. Nodding I opened the door and shrugged. “As good a time as we’re probably gonna get.”

He trudged up the stairs with a faint smile on his face and all the noise, all the extra baggage weighing me down fell away. The smell of alcohol, faint cigarette smoke and Jake’s colognue reminded me that I was here. I was in this moment, not the ones in Tony’s paintings or in picture frames. I was here. I was alive and now I wanted to live.

Jake stepped inside and quietly watched me as I closed the door behind him. “You okay?”

“Yeah!” I replied, clearing my throat and taking a tensely casual position by the table. “Why wouldn't I be?”

He shrugged. “You seemed to be kind of somewhere else today… after seeing that painting.”

My jaw clenched as the ugly emotions in me wanted to return. “Yeah… That wasn't great but, I'm okay now.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No.” I laughed a little to myself, forcing my body to focus on that feeling of steadiness and safety that Jake’s presence brought me. “Besides, we have other stuff we need to talk about, don't we?”

Now he looked just as nervous as I felt. “Yeah.”

“We're kind of horrible at this, aren't we?”

Jake nodded in agreement, chuckling before he spoke, “Yeah… okay… Fuck it, I'm just gonna start. Neither of us do well with labels,” Jake offered before quickly stammering over his own words. “Not that I'm against labeling this as… Whatever. I just mean…”

“Why put a label on things when we're still figuring out exactly what things are?” I finished, ignoring the slight sting of disappointment that festered in my chest by focusing on the wave of relief.

“Exactly.” He scratched his head and cleared his throat. “So… We… keep it casual.”

“Casual,” I agreed. Casual was fun, predictable but most importantly safe. Casual was familiar to both of us and given everything that had happened - changed in our lives and in our friendship - maybe that was a safety net we both needed. 

Casual.

Jake nodded, taking a careful step forward. “If someone were to ask what we were… What would we say to that?”

I watched his lips, resisting the urge to end all the tedious talking by kissing him. “We'd say we're casually seeing each other? Friends with benefits? Fuck buddies? Whatever feels right to you I'm fine with.”

“So, you're a girl I'm seeing… casually?”

Nodding I forced myself to meet his eyes, not that it helped either of us stay on track. “And you're a boy I'm seeing casually.”

Jake's hands slid around me, urging me to lean into him. With that simple touch, everything else faded into the back of my mind. I felt myself relax into him, my body finally able to focus on those tingling sensations of desire and excitement. “And since we're seeing each other, casually, it'd be perfectly normal for us to kiss, right?”

“I think it'd be expected, really.”

“Good,” he mumbled, running his thumb over my lower lip. “I liked being your friend and all, but I don't think I can go any longer without fucking you again.”

As if it had a mind of its own my tongue slipped out to lick his thumb and tug it between my teeth for a second. I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, teasing… Testing the waters… Inviting him to fuck me as much as he wanted? “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Smirking, he brushed my hair behind my ears. “That.”

His lips further erased every ounce of tension, guilt, disappointment, and fear from my lungs. The way his hands cradled my face replaced everything with a warm fuzzy sense of safety. The painting, Howard, Simone… Nothing else mattered. As long as I had this, him, somehow I knew everything would be alright. 

When he pulled back for air he smiled with a quiet sigh. “This is how our morning should have gone. Sorry about Simone.”

“It's alright. We’re here now.”

“Mmm,” he hummed, leaning back down towards me. “I haven't been able to think about anything else all day.”

Before our lips could connect again I threw one last taunt at him, “I knew you liked being my friend.”

Jake rolled his eyes, warm hands sliding down my cheek to take hold of my hips. “God you're insufferable.”

I ran my hands down his chest and whispered against his lips, “You like it.”

“Shut up.” Our lips finally touched, soft hands quickly turning into heated grabs at one another's clothes.

With a half step forward Jake pressed me into the back of a kitchen chair. His tongue invaded my mouth as his hands pulled my sleeves away from my shoulders, clearing a path for his lips and teeth to follow. The way his lips felt against my skin was something that made me shiver. Jake was… How had he put it? Adept in the art of pleasure? Smug bastard… And completely right.

“God,” Patrick groaned the second he opened the door. His hand slapped over his face, covering his eyes and sighing in defeat. “Guess I should get used to that now that you two are officially a thing.”

“Casually,” Jake and I both corrected.

My brother blindly made his way around the kitchen table. “Yeah yeah, “casually” whatever ya say. Just keep alla that “casual” touchy-feely shit in your room or something.”

“Sorry,” we both mumbled watching Patrick run into his bedroom door before quickly opening it and fleeing inside.

I nodded to my bedroom door and smiled as I tugged Jake toward it. He followed, pushing the door closed behind him. I practically pounced on him, pressing my chest into his as I pulled his head down to reconnect our lips. Jake stumbled slightly causing the door to rattle. Before we could say anything else Irish folk music blared through Pat’s speakers. A crystal clear message.

“Shhh,” I whispered against his collarbone with a giggle. “We have to be quiet!”

“I'm not the one that needs to worry about that.” To prove his point he took a handful of my ass and ground himself against my core, pulling a sharp - loud - moan from me.

“Nope! I'm leaving!” Patrick shouted as the music turned off. “You two have an hour before Pete gets back! For the love of god, be done before then!”

I smirked at Jake. “Now I finally have you all to myself.”

“Looks that way,” he replied. “You gonna entertain me?”

“Of course! What kind of host would I be if I didn't?”

His eyes sparkled with lust as he watched my mouth move. “Well, what's your plan?”

Leaning in I pressed my lips to his neck, occupying my hands with his belt and starting the slow drag of my body down his. When my knees hit the floor and I'd gotten Jake's pants down I looked up at him, fluttering my lashes and smiling at him. “I'm sure I'll think of something you'll enjoy.”

*

My dearest Lena,

In the unlikely event you're reading this letter I simply wished to send you a simple reminder of my devotion to you. A token of my love will be finding its way to your door soon and soon we will be reunited once more.

Yours, Anthony

Dom stared at the letter, examining each line as meticulously as he would an engine. He needed to know what the sick bastard had planned. Needed to know how to protect her from whatever was coming. Tony wouldn't make it easy or fair. He never did and this time was different. He was braver than before, bolder in his actions than Dom had ever seen him. 

After the beating he'd given him upon hearing all he'd done to Lena, Tony should have been cowering in some far corner of the world. He should have been terrified to even set foot in the city again and yet there he was, in her apartment, waving at her landlord, waving at him. 

The longer he held the evidence of Tony's visit the more guilty he felt for keeping it secret. Lena deserved to know. Her brothers had the right to know about the danger. They all deserved better than he could give them.

With a sigh, he lifted the lighter to the corner of the paper and watched the fire spread to the cursive words in ink. He dropped it into the empty bin and picked the orange flower up off the table before tossing it into the fire too.

He should have killed Tony a hundred times by now. A mistake he wasn't going to make again. Then and there Dom silently vowed that the next time he saw that fuckers face he'd put a bullet between his eyes.

[yelenasdiary]

Different Kind of Love || Part IV

Pairing: CEO! MobBoss! Natasha Romanoff x Assistant! Reader (Platonic)

Summary: Working for Natasha was never easy and being a low-level assistant for the CEO wasn’t where you thought you’d be after working your hardest for 2 years. After catching you in tears on Christmas Eve, Natasha’s cold ways start to warm up.

Dark Themes | Language Warning |Mentions of Sexual Assault | Violence | 2.9K | 

Notes: Dylan’s dialog is meant to sound like how a 5-year-old would talk and his nickname is Dyl and not a misspell.

Different Kind of Love Masterlist

"Good morning mommy!" Dylan yarned while stretching his small arms, "Good morning bug" You smiled softly as your son tiredly made his way over to you wanting nothing more than for you to scope him up into your arms until he's small body became more and more awake. "Look at your hair Mr" you chuckled as you picked him up, "somebody slept well by the looks of it" you added placing a kiss on his slightly chubby cheek. 

"There's the big boy!" Natasha entered the dining room with a smile before giving his curls a little ruff, "good morning, Aunty Nat" Dylan replied as he snuggled into you before another yawn came along. Natasha stopped in her tracks and turned to Dylan instantly, "I'm sorry, he's just woken up" you excused the title he'd just given Natasha, "no, no, it's fine" Nat smiled, "It's sweet" she added before taking a seat at the table just as her personal chef came with pancakes, waffles, fruit, yogurt, omelets, eggs, bacon, cereal along with all different kinds of juices and of course, coffee and tea on a large tray. 

"Mmm" you hummed as the chef started to place the over-the-top breakfast on the table, "Look Dyl, you have a big choice to make for breakfast this morning" you rubbed his back while he paid no attention to the food being placed on the table. "Thank you, Peter. It looks lovely" Natasha looked up at her chef without giving a smile, "would you please ask Pepper to get me the daily paper?" she asked. Peter nodded as he finished up dishing breakfast and taking the large tray back to the kitchen. 

"You know, a smile can go a long way" you looked over at Natasha with a raised brow, "what? I thanked him, didn't I?" Natasha looked slightly confused, "It looked like it hurt you on the inside" you joked, "what if it did?" Natasha chuckled as she poured herself a mug of coffee. 

"Is that waffles?" Dylan turned his head to look at the table covered with breakfast, "it sure is little man. Do you like waffles?" Natasha looked over at Dylan and smiled softly, "Waffles are one of his favourite foods" you answered as Dylan nodded his head, "what do you like them with?" You looked at Dylan before fixing his messy bed hair. "Ice-cream!!" The little boy perked up still snuggling into you. 

"Peter!" Natasha called loudly; within seconds the chef entered the room. "Yes Miss Romanova?" he asked politely, "Can I get a bowl of vanilla ice-cream?" she asked before sipping her coffee. 

"Aunty Nat didn't say please" Dylan did his best to whisper quietly to you. 

"Please, Peter. Could we please get a bowl of vanilla ice-cream?" Natasha corrected herself even adding a soft smile to the chef before he nodded and walked back into the kitchen. "Did my 5-year-old son just get the powerful and bossy Natasha Romanova to use her manners?" You joked. Natasha playfully sent you a glare as you helped Dylan sit in the seat beside you. 

"Do you mind if Kate comes around and watches Dylan while we're at work? if not, that's totally okay" you asked, grabbing Dylan a clean plate, "I can always have her meet us at my apartment". 

"Uhm, why don't you just bring Dylan to work today?" Nat dished herself up a bowl of yogurt just as Peter returned with ice-cream and the newspaper, "Thank you" she smiled softly at him just to rub it into your face.

"Yeah mommy!! Can I come to work with you today?" Dylan's big blue eyes looked up at you with excitement. "He has a routine with Kate and he's doing really well" you looked over at Natasha for a moment before you helped Dylan with his waffles and ice-cream. "I don't want your sitter going out of her way to come here, can she pick Dylan up from the office?" Natasha suggested, almost hesitant to have Kate come to the condo, "thank works perfectly, thanks". 

----

"Kane?! Kane Lowes?" one of Natasha's lower ranking men, somebody in the drug dealing business asked in surprise. Kane nodded and mumbled under the thick layer of tape covering his mouth. "What the fuck are you doing here, brother?" the man ripped the tape off Kane's mouth, "Matt, you've gotta get me out of there! The lady is fucking insane man! Please, untie me!!" he begged. 

"Who? Natasha? That's my boss" Matt chuckled before lighting a cigarette. 

"Your boss?! What the fuck man?! She's fucking crazy!! Come on dude, please just let me go, I won't tell anybody I saw you here"  

"That looks painful" Matt pointed at the rusted nail shot through Kane's hand, pinning him to the chair, "Promise you won't say shit? Because I don't want the boss shotting me point-blank between the eyes for you" he joked as he pulled out his pocketknife and cut Kane free before helping him free his injured hand. "FUCK!" Kane hissed in pain, "sorry, man. Anyways, what the hell did you do?" Matt asked. 

"Nothing, she just kept asking me about what I wanted with my son" 

"You have a son now?"

"Yeah, he's name is Dylan. He's 5 years old" 

"Who's the lucky honey?" Matt grinned as he puffed his cigarette. 

"Do you remember, Y/n? Y/n Moore?" 

"Oh yeah! Fuck she was a lot of fun that night, ay!" 

"Shut up man! She's saying shit about that night!"

Matt just laughed as he continued to smoke his cigarette, "So what? She gets pregnant then acts like she never wanted that night to happen? she was all for it from what I remember" 

"Just show me how to get the fuck out of here! I need to see Y/n"

----

"Be a good boy for Kate, okay? I'll come see down to the park at lunch time and we can get an ice-cream if you're good" you lent down and placed a kiss on the top of your son's head, "He's always good for me, after you little dude" Kate smiled with Dylan's hand in hers, you smiled as you looked up at her, "please call me if anything happens, okay? I'll tell you more when I finish work but if you see anybody acting strange, I need to know about it" you informed the young brunette. "Of course, you know he's safe with me" Kate assured you, unaware of the photo Kane had sent you a few days ago. 

You watched as Kate and Dylan walked to the elevator and waited until the doors closed before you took a deep breath and knocked on Natasha's door. "Are you sure you're ready to do this?" Natasha looked up from her computer as you closed the door behind you, "if it's going to stop Kane from taking my son, yes…I'm ready" you sighed, preparing yourself to share your story detail by detail with the police. 

"Hey, I'm not going to make you do this, but it will help build a case. Would you rather talk to me about it first before the police come?" Natasha asked, standing from her desk as tears slowly started to fill your eyes. "Natasha, he drugged me, I can't remember a lot of that night" you looked at her, "But you remember saying no" your boss reminded you as she walked over to the sofa in her office, patting the empty spot next to her before you sat down. 

"Just take a moment, breathe" Natasha gently rubbed your back, "You did nothing wrong; Dylan is safe and so are you. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'm right here, okay?" she added, you nodded in reply and closed your eyes for a moment trying to remember the night that changed your entire life. Your thinking was soon ruined with the vibrating sound coming from Natasha's desk, she excused herself and unlocked the bottom drawer of her desk.

"I have to take this; I'll only be a moment" she gave you a soft smile before stepping out of her office. 

"James, what do you want? I'm in the middle of something!" she scoffed in a hushed tone. 

"It's that Kane guy, he's gone" 

"What the fuck do you mean he's gone?!"

"I don't know, looks like he was cut free"

"Fucking find him Barnes! Don't call me until you've got him, this time don't let him fucking go!" Natasha snapped, her nostrils flared as she hung the phone up and shook her head. 

"Is everything okay Miss Romanova?" The question only made Natasha more frustrated as she turned to see who it was. "If you spent more time worrying about your fucking job instead of me, Sally then maybe I wouldn't be like this!" Natasha snapped before making her way back to her office. 

----

By the time lunch time came along all you really wanted was to be with Dylan. Natasha was clearly stressed and on edge the entire time she kindly held your hand while the police took a statement, you weren't sure if it was your story or something else, but you wanted to give her some space. 

"Mommy!" Dylan smiled widely the moment he saw you about to sit down next to Kate at the bench to watch him play on the playground, "Hey sweetheart" this smile instantly making you feel much better as you picked him up giving him a big hug. "Are you okay mommy?" he asked when he saw the few tears that still streamed from your eyes, "I'm fine baby, something just got in my eye on the way over" you placed a kiss on his cheek then placed him back on his feet, "go finish playing with your new friends then we'll get some ice-cream, okay?" you smiled. Dylan nodded with his huge smile before racing off to the playground. 

"Are you sure everything is okay? You seemed really worried when I picked Dyl up this morning" Kate looked over to you with concern. 

"Uh, yeah, uhm" you paused and pressed your lips together giving yourself a few seconds to scan the park for any sight of Kane. "Y/n?" Kate's concerned voice made you look at her, "I know I'm just Dylan's sitter, but you can talk to me about anything" she added once she got your attention. 

"Thank you, I do have to tell you something" you replied. 

"Sure, what's up?" Kate smiled softly. 

"It's about Dylan's, got I hate to label him like this but, his father or whatever" you rolled your eyes at the title, "He's not somebody I want hanging out Dylan and the other day he showed up at the apartment saying that he wanted to be in Dylan's life, long story short, uhm, he has been watching you and Dylan at the park closer to home and now he wants full custody. He asked my boss to be his lawyer" you explained trying to fight back more tears. 

"Y/n, I'm sorry, I didn't know! Nobody has approached us or anything and I haven't noticed anybody acting strangely around us. Do you have a photo of him? That way I can keep a better eye out and if I see him, I can call the police or something?" Kate suggested. 

"I just gave a statement to the police, and they said they'd serve him with a straining order but I don't have a recent photo of him to give you right now, but I have told the police that Dylan has a sitter during the week and I had to give them your contact number, I'm sorry I didn't say something sooner, everything has just been in the air" 

"Don't apologise, it's okay. Whatever helps keep you and Dylan safe" 

"Thank you" you softly smiled at the young woman before standing from the bench, "Dyl, lets get some ice-cream" you called out, "that includes you too" you turned to Kate. 

----

The rest of the afternoon was mostly just trying to get some last-minute deadlines completed before Natasha, who had locked herself in her office for the rest of the day, would come in letting you know her driver had arrived to take the 3 of you back to her penthouse. 

Email after email was sent, file after file was labeled, document after document was printed and all you could think about was finishing the day and spending some much more needed time with your son. Your favorite photo of him with your parents sat facing you in a small frame on your desk, next to it, the first professional photo of him as a new-born. A soft smile tugged at your lips just looking at the little boy who filled your life with so much love and happiness. 

"Miss Moore, Dylan is here with your sitter. Would you like me to send them up?" The young woman at reception called, "Yes please, thank you" you replied politely not noticing the time as you quickly finished filling out a document that would need Natasha's signature later on.

 "Come in" you said with cheer when you heard a soft knock on your office door, your eyes glued to the computer as you hit the print button. 

"What type of bullshit are you doing?!" the familiar voice made your eyes shoot up from the computer, "K-Kane, w-what are you…how?" you stuttered in shock, your fight or flight response making your legs feel like jelly. Kane threw a large stuffed toy, dressed as a young child to the floor. "Who the hell have you been talking too?" he demanded as he took a few steps closer to your desk. 

"Y-you c-can't be here!" 

"I just want to spend some time with my son, and you have me kidnapped and tortured?!" he ignores your statement, "what type of crazy bitch does that?! You don't deserve custody of my son!" he adds taking more steps until he's hands land on your desk. 

"I have n-no idea what you're t-talking about, but y-you need to leave!"

"T-t-t-, stop the pathetic stuttering! Where's my son? That's all I want!" He leans over to you, "He's not your son" Your eyes looked deeply into Kane's cold eyes before his hands wrapped around your computer screen and throwing it across the room. "Stop the bullshit!" he snaps, "You think I haven't heard the fucking stories you've been telling?! You're not fit to be a mother, look at you! You can't even look after him in the shitty apartment you call a home! He deserves better, he deserves to be with his father!" Kane's jaw clenches with his words. 

"I suggest you back away right now young man" Natasha's voice entered the room after hearing the commotion next door. "Fuck off! This doesn't involve you" Kane spoke as he turned around, "You!" he adds when his eyes at met with Natasha's raging glare, "You're the bitch who kidnapped me and nailed me to a fucking chair!" Kane turns his attention back to you, "you work for this crazy bitch?! Fuck no wonder you're so fucking crazy!" He spits. 

"I said back away!" Natasha warns. 

"Or what huh? You'll kidnap me again?!" 

"I have no idea what you're taking about, sir" Natasha tasing smiles softly, "But if you do not back away from my employee right now I will have no choice but to contact the police. I'm guessing you're Kane, right?"

"Go ahead! Call them! I'm sure they'd love to hear how you and your crazy fuck of a boyfriend kidnapped me and tortured me about my son!"

"I think you'll be surprised when they take you away in cuffs given that Miss Moore has a restraining order on you and you're already breaking that order by being here. I suggest you step away from Miss Moore right now" Natasha's glare deepens. 

"Kane, please just go" you added before Kane could speak another word. "You got a fucking restraining order on me?! Fuck sake Y/n! I just want to be with my son and you're making it impossible!" 

"You have 5 seconds to step away from Miss Moore or I will call the police" Natasha butts in. 

"Shut the fuck up!" he turns to Natasha, "this doesn't involve you! You've brainwashed her to keep Dylan away from me! Or did she ask you to kidnap me?!" 

"I didn't ask her to anything, Kane! Na-, Miss Romanova wouldn't do anything like you're claiming! She's a lawyer for gods sake! She's going to be representing me in court" 

"This crazy bitch is your lawyer?! Y/n she's fucking insane! I can't believe you allow my son to around this bitch" Kane shakes his head. 

"The police, please" Natasha says with a phone to her ear. Your entire body feels numb as Kane finally takes a few steps away from your desk, your heart felt like it was racing 100 miles per hour. "Hi, I have a young man here who an employee of mine has a restraining order against, he's being very threating and aggressive towards her. Can I please have somebody come down to Romanova lawyers?" Natasha continues. 

"Can't we just talk about this?!" Kane looked at you. 

"Thank you so much, yes, the reception will allow them straight up" Natasha hangs up the phone, "Sorry sir, I'm going to need to you wait on the 3rd floor for the police to come have a chat to you" Natasha adds with a dark smirk making you frown slightly at the red head. 

"This is bullshit!" Kane throws his hands up, one hand wrapped in a white bandage that your eyes couldn't stop looking at, "This way, please" Natasha said stepping aside so Kane would walk out the door. 

"Natasha" you spoke softly making her look at you, "what is he talking about? Why is his hand bandaged?"

Taglist: @marvelogic | @randomnessbecausewhynot | @blackwidow-3 | @lilsmeaux | @mmmmokdok | 

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Rogue realizes he has a crush on one of his henchmen. Just walks around to think what to do when he hears Y/N conversation with her friend.

"I am not taking dating advice from Ms. 'I have a huge crush on my boss for half of year and didn't do anything with it'"

"I have a plan! I'm just gonna keep my feelings to myself until I die."

"... You can't blame me for not listening to you."

Riddler, Scarecrow, MH, TF, BM

HELL YES. Anyone else imagining them walking by and overhearing this and being like '...wait what now?' And backtracking? I can't unsee 😂

He wanted to grab you and shake you. If you could stop plaguing his mind that would be great! Yet you didn't know. You hadn't a clue. When he headed down the hall to busy himself and try to somewhat forget that you were in the building, they overheard talking and what was said made him stop in his tracks.

The Riddler: Oh hell. You're joking right? I mean, anyone with a brain would have good sense to fall for Edward Nygma. The top specimen of humanity. But you're attracted to him at the same time he's attracted to you!? Is that why you were so jumpy a while back? He hears your plan but...if you think he isn't going to extravagantly inform you that he knows then you're wrong. You'd think the guy would just come out at say it since he's so bold. Nope. He wants to dangle it in front of your face and make you figure it out for yourself that he knows.

Scarecrow: Well in that case, he's absolutely fine with these feelings he has. If you feel the same then it can't be a bad feeling, right? He doesn't really know how to navigate this feeling but if you feel it too then perhaps he doesn't have to purge it somehow from his very being. He thought about you way too much and ignoring your existence just wasn't an option. He'd never give even a hint that he overheard anything. He walks away, more content with his situation than he was before.

Mad Hatter: He scurries off before anyone can notice him. When he was far enough away, he slammed the doors shut behind him. His eyes shifted from being wide with shock to twinkling with happiness. He giggled to himself as he slid down the door. Bringing his hands to his mouth briefly before revealing his grin. His heart pounded in his chest. "My special little rabbit...loves me." His tone held nothing but adoration. "I love you too, little rabbit." He mumbled to himself.

Two-Face: His brain stops working for a second in utter disbelief. How is that possible? You must be nuts. Wait six months!? What do you mean keep them to yourself until you die!? Surely you should tell someone!? Like a psychiatrist! The thought comes to mind about telling him and he can't help but feel like you're the forbidden fruit. That he knows better. So he won't say anything but he will be haunted by the 'what if'.

Black Mask: You're too far away to hear him chuckle lowly behind the door. But he very much enjoys this new information. He's coming up with ways to get you closer to him without any suspicion. He will be a little more flirtatious towards now. Expect lingering touches that aren't necessary but no one dares question it. Not even you, if you catch on.

[ruthlesslistener]

I don’t remember you explaining the hc that Pk fell in love cuz Wl tried to strangle him but please do at some point.

Wl, seeing this noodle of a mfer and getting to work: begone pest

Pk, discovering several things about himself in rapid succession: 👀😳💕

OKAY so basically my headcanon for how they met was that PK was a young adult wyrm scoping out territories to conquer, bc he was getting to that age where he had to either had land and followers of his own or become dinner, and upon his burrowing searches he happened to bonk into WL, who was another new pre-ascended god starting to just gain power in Kingdom's Edge, far from the Radiance's sight, but on the verge of discovery. Young WL panicked, of course, because wyrms are notorious for their ravenous hunger, aggression, and intense territoriality (things she heard whispered to her from the network of roots and mycellium she was connected to), so she did the most rational thing she thought of, which was to wrap a coil of root around the back of his head and YANK. She had him in a noose and was strangling him, but because wyrms aren't so easily killed and she was trying to act like she wasn't frightened of being devoured, she acted as cold and as high-and-mighty as she could, and demanded he state his buisness before she destroyed his physical form.

And PK fell for her INSTANTLY because not only was she proving her strength by nearly killing him (which is sexy as all hell to wyrms), she was the first instance of another god-to-be that he'd met who actually demanded to talk to him instead of just straight-up murdering him. So he touched minds with her, conveyed that he meant her no harm, and offered an alliance of sorts, where he would help her ascend, and in exchange, share territory with her. She accepted, albiet warily (because she was now in the human-esque dilemna of 'ah shit i grabbed a venomous snake by the throat and now i gotta find a way to let it go without it biting me), and that's when PK started to court her vigorously, and she became endeared by his gentleness and subsurviance. Because unknown to her at the time, the first stage of wyrm courtship involves an intense mandible-locking wrestling match (which holds the threat of death if one is too weak to impress or gets bored and decides to eat the other), but the SECOND stage of pairbonding after the violence is something closer to what we think of actual courtship, with gifts of meat or fruit, plenty of subserviance, etc etc, and she was so charmed by a supposedly-vicious entity crooning at her and giving her delectible chunks of carrion and infodumping about how he'd build their civilization that she was won over LONG before she realized what made him so into her in the first place

So tdlr, PK got nearly strangled to death after accidentally jumpscaring WL, another young god, and he was so enchanted with the duel combo of deadliness and her actually listening to him that he fell head-over-tail for her. Meanwhile, it took WL longer to come around, but him promising to give her a kingdom and generally being an absolute sap of a vicious world-ending being (and lots of carrion) had her falling for him in turn. A match made in heaven

(Something important to note is that they also had no genders pre-Hallownest, but accepted them later when their bugs assumed the big one (WL) was female and that the smaller one (PK) was male bc they had no clue what they meant. This has no bearing on their actual meetup I just think its really funny to headcanon)

[burntfleurs]

// under the tree.

"Just a little further," Aquila instructed, lumbering after Lanfen as they crested the hill.

Skirts hitched in her hands, she scurried up the knoll and, temporarily, out of sight. A few steps later brought the king up over it behind her, where he paused to wipe his brow of sweat. The heat out here was borderline sweltering, with the only relief found under trees with thick foliage. The one they'd gone in search of was a tree Aquila remembered from the days of his youth. Many times he had run off here, when his father sent him as an envoy to the south as a prince.

He found the heat to be overwhelming, much preferring the coldness of the North. It kept his blood from reaching higher temperatures, and his frustrations were manageable so long as he remained in cooler climates. Presented with the fruits of their two hour hike, he ceased his grumblings and continued ahead.

With low hanging branches, it was just as perfect as he'd remembered. Densely packed branches, full of lush green pear-shaped leaves, with a distinctive serrated tip. This was the well-known and reputable silverbark tree. Its sap and wood were used in purification rituals all the way up in the North, and as far as the southernmost peninsula. tincture made from its leaves and sap produced a strong healing tonic, the same one that quelled the new fire that burned within him each time the beast-blood took hold.

She'd been lucky to find enough to bring him back to health when his fever had descended upon him, interrupting their second week of his season. It was something that hadn't happened before, the king taking ill so fiercely and so suddenly. He was grateful to his queen, who had done an exemplary job of keeping his illness behind closed doors, and searching for remedies with determination.

He followed her as she bounded up to the tree, arms extended to spin around with the sudden breeze. It took her skirts in its direction, loose petals from a nearby cherrywood swirling around her. He was transfixed, watching the petals dance around her head before being carried off on a crosswind.

"This must be the silverbark," She mused softly, turning away from him to face the regal tree. It must have been fifty feet tall, branches thickly distributed with many leaves on each one. An ivy had begun to crawl up the trunk, cinching around its lowermost branches and forming a half-curtain, giving the tree the feel of a secret hideout. They could easily remain unnoticed here, at the heart of the Vorlan-Aestas border.

"It is," He replied softly, gently brushing past her, his hand sliding down her forearm and grasping her hand in his larger one, leading her up to it. "I used to come here all of the time."

"Is this another of your secret hideouts?" She teased, earning a wry smile as they stepped into the tree's shelter, the shade cooling them from the severe direct heat of the two suns. He was shirtless, skin covered in a sheen of sweat; his dark hair clinging to the back of his neck and the sides of his face and forehead. Without bothering to climb the branches, he flopped himself down at the base of the tree, settled onto the comfortable grass.

The queen took off her satchel, passing him a flask of an enchanted hydration essence, made by her own magic in the alchemy lab. He drank it without second thought, exhaling a sigh as the coolness enveloped him. She began to set out various cheeses, dried meats and a dense loaf of bread. She'd even managed to bring butter. He stared for a moment at the spread, laying out the blanket he'd been carrying in his bedroll bag for her to prepare it all on. He began to feel peckish then, his stomach grumbling as if in instant reaction to the scent of food. Such was the nature of the Khélek men, their desires simple and practical. Food, wine, their wives, and an unrelenting lust for battle.

They spent most of the day there, beneath the shade of the silverbark tree. When they'd had their fill of rest, they chased one another in the sparkling depths of the river not far ahead. It was sunset when they headed back, the firebugs lighting the way as the darkness settled in. When she became tired, he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way back to the manor, past the gleaming eyes of the servants and knights.

He had never known such peace... And without her, would never know such peace again.

[inmydr3amz]

✮ LET IT ONCE BE ME ✮ ​​

​🇲​​🇦​​🇽​-​🇪​​🇷​​🇳​​🇪​​🇸​​🇹​

✦ synopsis: in which max-ernest is finally picked first for once

⟡ series: fics inspired by song lyrics

✦ lyric prompt: (this was inspired by two songs!) "no wanted to play with me as a little kid, so i've been scheming like a criminal ever since, to make them love me and make it seem effortless" - mastermind, taylor swift "i got cursed like eve got bitten"; "just someone who wants my company, let it once be me" - the prophecy, taylor swift

⟡ content warnings: none just angst and comfort!

✦ word count: 559

✮⋆ a/n: i saw someone shipping cass and m-e and it felt like a crime (it is) so i'm here to remind y'all they're platonic besties!! basically sibings!! also tortured poets department core (the title) everyone go listen to it it's SO GOOD ⋆✮

Max-Ernest was always picked last for dodgeball (is it really picked if you're the last one standing and there are no other options?), always without a lab partner, always doing group projects alone. Ever since he was a kid, he felt out of place. He wasn't like any of the other kids, or like any of the adults, either. He wasn't like anyone he'd ever met. He wasn't much like anyone at all, really, and he knew it. It seemed like everyone else knew something he didn't, and that's why they just clicked with each other in ways he couldn't. Like they had a 6th sense he didn't. Or like they had all conspired a prank against him and he'd never be let in on the joke. He couldn't comprehend other people's emotions. He couldn't figure out what made them cry. But he could figure out what made them laugh: comedy, so he resolved to make people like him by making them laugh.

It didn't work. Not really, anyway. They'd laugh at him, not with him. It took him a while to understand the difference.

Then he learned that people like magic, too, so he figured that maybe that's what would make people like him. The response was worse than the last time, and still he would look around at the blur of faces in his English classroom as desks and chairs were rearranged into work groups that he was not a part of and felt oddly alone.

He spent most of his life alone, locked in his rooms (whether at his mother's or father's half-house) practicing magic tricks or reading up on his various joke books or studying his new random hyperfixation, like his just-diagnosed dragon fruit allergy (even thought he'd never even once come in contact with one) or Egyptian hieroglyphs, and still he never felt quite as alone as he did standing in front of his class, giving an oral report and looking out at a classroom of distracted classmates because no one really cared enough about him to pay attention.

Not alone, he realized one day. Lonely. He was oddly lonely.

He was standing in gym class. It felt cold now, as he looked anxiously at Cass and Amber, the appointed team captains, awaiting the dreadful feeling of being left for last at the mercy of whoever was unlucky enough to be sacked off with him.

There was a bit of arguing between Cass and Amber, so they were ordered to play rock-paper-scissors as a means to fairly choose who gets first pick. Cass won.

She stood there with an old, beat-up dodgeball in her hands, spinning it mindlessly. She barely looked around at her classmates long enough to properly weigh her options before she said, "Max-Ernest."

It almost made him jump. He was so unused to actually being chosen that for a second he thought there was somehow a second Max-Ernest in their class.

"Me?" he choked out.

Cass rolled her eyes and bopped her head to the side, whipping her braids back over her shoulders. "Yes, you, Max-Ernest. Hurry up and get over here!"

"Oh . . ."

His cheeks went hot and red as he awkwardly walked over to Cass' team, but it felt nice that the gym wasn't so airlessly cold anymore.

For the first time in his life, he was someone's first pick.

[leejiieuns]

+⏰ for sofia and luca!

+⏰ for a positive memory 

ok i'm gonna write this from luca's pov because ~reasons~ agfdjkg but you'll find out!! i hope... if i manage to put my thoughts into words

The droning of the woman on the television starts to grate on Luca, and if it is already irritating him when he’s the one watching the show, he can only imagine how his sister seated in the dining room feels, hunching over some papers as she tries to solve one math problem after the other. 

Fridays for Luca usually means leisure as their mother isn’t around, but it is always a different story for his younger sister. Finn would have been doing the exact same thing as Sofia, too, had he not been away on some international competition, and Luca thinks how lucky his mother is that she could just leave them on a Friday evening and not worry about a secret party, or a night out on the town. If she even worries. But despite initially wanting to watch the show, he looks around for the remote and turns the tv off so he could let his sister study in peace.

But the sudden lack of background noise seems to have disrupted her concentration, and her head snaps up and she looks at her brother with furrowed brows. "Why did you turn it off? Weren't you watching that?" she says in German, preferring still to use their mother tongue despite having lived in France for more than a year now.

He turns to her and shrug, muttering something about how it was boring as he stood from the couch and makes his way to the kitchen. Luca thinks about how Sofia must have been annoyed by the sound too and yet, she is concerned about him turning it off, knowing it is a show he likes to follow now and then. This is why he is always secretly worrying about her. The day she starts to think about herself is the day he’ll stop being worried.

Luca inspects the contents of the fridge, lips pursed as he considers what he wants to eat, and after quick deliberation, reaches for an apple. 

"Oppa?"

"Hm?" He makes his way over to the table, and hands her his bitten fruit. "Did you want the apple?"

She shakes her head and grabs two sheets of papers, pulling back one of the chairs near her as if asking him to sit. Luca obliges and begins studying the papers, eyebrows furrowed as he tries to make out the writing on it. His sister might be a genius, sure, but she definitely does not have the best penmanship.

"I have to write this paper on this artwork, and I don't understand it. Could you explain it to me?"

His eyebrow shoot up and he looks at her, incredulous. She’s never asked for help before, or if she has, never from him. Why would she, anyway? She was smart-- smarter than both him and Finn combined, and she doesn’t need them-- especially Luca. And yet, she is looking at him expectantly, holding up the pieces of papers in his general direction. 

Luca slowly sits on the seat next to her, gingerly takes the papers from her hand, and says, “You don’t..understand...it? You don’t understand?” 

“I do, but it’s just-- I trust your opinion on this more than my own. You’ve always been better at this than me, so can you help me? Please, oppa?” 

It isn’t true. There is nothing that Luca could think that he would be better at than Sofia, and yet, there she is, asking him for help on something. And this isn’t like their mother, too, who used to ask him questions she knew he couldn’t answer, for his sister could never be cruel. 

And so he looks at the artwork and the accompanying text, and begins to speak his thoughts on the matter. Gingerly, at first, worries he might say something wrong despite knowing the artwork quite well. His second statement ends up sounding like a question and he pauses, unsure, waits for her to correct him or tell him she doesn’t need his help after all, but she doesn’t. In fact, she nods her head, seemingly agreeing, and the look on her face tells him she is very interested in what he has to say. 

He slowly gains confidence as he watches her listen to him intently, scribbling down on her notebook every now and then again, and he thinks about how it doesn’t even truly matter to him anymore if their mother sees him, because despite knowing full well that she doesn’t need him, Sofia never fails to make him feel that he is wanted. 

[briefcasejuice]

daredevil headcanons!

a giant list of comic, live action, etc. daredevil headcanons i've been growing in a twitter thread since april. or march, i think.

COMIC/LIVE ACTION AMBIGOUS: • matt knew all the college gossip bc of his super-hearing and he'd tell it all to foggy who'd bride people candy in exchange for gossip/rumours. • on his way from class matt would pass a fruit stand where he'd examine each strawberry for the perfect one and bring it back to the dorm for foggy. • foggy can solve a rubik's cube really fast and he's incredibly proud of it. he always eventually does it in front of a new friend & it's kind of like a functional version of the butcher story. matt used to be able to solve one really fast before he lost his sight & he continued to try solving one with the help of his powers but it never worked until foggy got him a braille one; then he got intimidatingly good at it again and foggy regrets indulging him. • matt doodles - like gibberish but for drawings? because he gets restless during late afternoons and when he's not around foggy takes them and adds his own stuff. sometimes matt will run his fingers over the ink and notice that foggy's turned his nonsense into a cat or something and take it home to stick it on his fridge just because. karen also hates it because they leave them all over the office and it gets into her files, her bag or in the pages of her books. • matt and karen use wired earbuds; foggy has airpods. • matt fucking loathes carbonated drinks. • matt loves wheat thins. • matt spouts sun tzu lore when he's drunk; foggy talks about hamilton. • in college, people thought foggy was gay but since everyone knew matt was a whore they all expected it to also extend to other gender identities. • foggy is pan; matt is bi but only 'cause he rushed to pick a label and he can't be bothered changing it. • matt has bpd.

COMIC: • matt has a bunch of weighted blankets bc the pressure blocks out external stimuli (it's canon that he filled his bathtub with water and floated in it when his senses were too sensitive as a child). • kirsten is black - matt used to straighten her hair for her because he knew the perfect temperature to get it really well done but without heat damage. • blindspot had to leave the country because he's an illegal immigrant but matt has a part of his salary set for monthly trips to wherever blindspot lives. • when matt was in prison in zdarsky’s first run he only sent and received letters from 4 people - foggy, kirsten, elektra and sam. sam (blindspot) would give him a rundown of everything happening outside the us because prison television only showed national news. • matt taps his foot to music he hears blocks away sometimes without noticing and it annoys the hell out of foggy but he doesn't tell matt to stop because it's rare that he doesn't have self control over bodily movements like that 'cause y'know - ninja stuff. • sam taught matt bits of mandarin whenever they were on breaks when he was working with matt at the da's office. • sam would tell daredevil about his day and mention how much be looks up to matt and daredevil would often go silent whenever he's talking about matt. (this is live action canon) matt sucks on his lip when he's comfortable enough in any environment to be visibly nervous. • matt and mike both doodled idly. they weren't really cool drawings, mostly just scribbles but matt was getting pretty good at drawing inanimate objects before he was blinded, now he just scribbles. mike still scribbles but at one point in high school he took an art class and actually liked it so he kind of tried enough to get 80s. he does a full fledged drawing or two every year now. nothing exciting, he drew butch this one time and someone in a waiting room another time but he still scribbles.

LIVE ACTION: • matt's laptop doesn't work all that well bc it's second hand but he knows just the perfect amount of pressure needed to make this specific key on the keyboard work just right. • matt's hair in nwh was a product of foggy and karen messing with him or that was just plain mike murdock. • foggy takes photos of matt like all the goddamn time and matt hates it & they're awful but he's conventionally attractive so they all look fine. in college foggy used to sign him up for dating sites as his Wingman™ and used some of those photos. • foggy reads fanfiction and so does matt but he only listens to what foggy recommends while foggy is the one that searches for fanfics when he gets really into some kind of fiction. • foggy set aside some of all the money he'd made in big time lawyering (in defenders and s3) for matt's therapy and first aid supplies.

masterlist -> AO3 -> part II

[mountswhore]

Would you write for Jorgi, having a kid with someone else and he’s scared to tell the girl he’s dating because everyone before her just ran off the second they got to know. Y/n eventually comes by without letting him know when he has the kid over and she meets him/her and it’s just really fluffy and she gets along well with his kid. And he’s super surprised but also happy. I’m sorry it this is weird :)

𝐩𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬 — jorginho

summary: you showing up out of the blue was shocking for jorgi, but not in the way he expected.

notes: requests are OPEN.

"Goodnight, my sweet," Jorgi cooed quietly to his daughter, rubbing his hand over her head as she finally dozed off. It was his weekend with her, and he'd cancelled on a date night with you today as he still couldn't find it in himself to tell you. How do you tell someone you have a kid? Shouldn't you make it known on your first date? He'd given you the stupidest of excuses: saying he was feeling quite tired from his week of training.

The pair of you had been dating for a few months, finally calling it official at the start of the year. It was now March, and Jorgi was still holding back the fact he had a daughter. He wasn't ashamed of it, far from it, all he wanted was to show her off to you. But he didn't know how you'd react, he didn't know whether or not you liked children or not.

He'd told his little Eloise all about you. How pretty you were, how funny you were, how much you made her daddy happy. She was curious, always asking to meet you. But Jorgi could never give her that, not yet, anyway.

As much as Jorgi missed you, he was excited for his weekend with his precious Lu. It was a nickname she'd given herself, after trying to say her name for the first time. Jorgi cherished that moment, and now stuck to calling her Lu.

It was a Saturday morning, and Lu had woken up her daddy earlier than any of his working days. She leaped onto the bed and shook him, her messy, brunette hair falling into his face. Grimacing, Jorgi finally opened his eyes and smiled at his daughter, pulling her into a tight squeeze.

"Morning, amor." He croaked, as he could feel her already pulling away.

"Morning daddy, can we play in the puddles?" She asked, looking over to the droplets on the windows. And Jorgi sighed, everything reminding him of you. You loved the rain, and all the horrible British weather. He knew that if you ever met Lu, you'd bond over your love for the rain. And it always kept him hopeful.

"Sure we can, but we need breakfast first."

Lu was sat in her chair at the island, Jorgi cutting some fruit to put alongside the waffles he'd made. And he was startled to receive your usual text in the morning, his cheeks warming at the few hearts you’d sent alongside your message.

Morning, darling. Hope you’re feeling well rested today! ❤️❤️❤️

This was going to be a quiet day for him and Lu, and he could only dream that you'd get to spend it with them at some point in the future. That was if you didn't run away at the sound of him being a father, having to be around a kid sometimes, not even knowing whether you liked the idea of having children or not. It was too soon, but the longer he left it, the heavier it was going to sit on him.

You were browsing the aisles of Sainsbury's, a basket in your hand as you scanned the shelves for things Jorgi would love. You were planning to surprise him with a bag of goodies, and hope to cure his exhaustion with a bit of TLC. Of course, the thought of intruding sat on your mind, and you'd hoped he wouldn't mind you showing up uninvited.

Once the bag was secured, you lugged it to your car and began your journey to Jorgi's home. It was quite a way away, as he lived in a private area, and you didn't mind the dreadfully long journey. Just before you left the car park, you checked your phone, your heart skipping a beat at the sight of his message on your lockscreen.

Morning, my angel. ❤️

Jorgi was not expecting to hear a knock at his door. At noon. Lu's mum wasn't due until tomorrow, no deliveries due today, nothing. So he left Lu to watch Paw Patrol, and answered the door. There you were. An overflowing Sainsbury's bag in your hand and a huge smile on your face. His first instinct was to hug you, kiss you, pull you into his house and refuse to let you leave. But his daughter was here, the one he'd been going out of his way to hide from you.

"I bought the hot meal deals you li-" Your sentence was cut short by the introduction to Paw Patrol, the show you were unfortunately familiar with due to babysitting your twin nephews. Your eyes scowled, Jorgi could see the cogs struggling to turn in your brain, this was it. The façade was over.

"Why are you watching Paw Patrol?" You asked, letting the bag sit by your feet as you waited for Jorgi to answer. He stood there, a nervous smile on his face.

Before he could even begin to answer, Lu came running out of the living room. And Jorgi had lost the opportunity to say she was a relative, when the little one asked for her daddy.

"Daddy?" She called out, looking in the direction of the kitchen and finally turning to see him and you by the door. It was a strange situation, because Eloise knew you, but you knew nothing of her.

"Surprise?" Was all Jorgi could manage to say.

You were sat on Jorgi's couch, bewildered as you had his daughter on your lap. She began talking to you about Paw Patrol, and you responded with as much enthusiasm as she gave to you. Jorgi's heart was melting at the sound of you two from the kitchen, as he made you a tea. He knew it was a lot to take in, hence he was making you your favourite beverage.

Jorgi brought it through, placing them both onto the coffee table and telling Lu to go back to playing with her Bratz dolls. You held the mug in your hands, letting the hot drink warm up your cold fingertips. You planned to cuddle and binge watch something on Disney+ together, not find out he had a daughter.

"I meant to tell you sooner, and I understand if you don't want to-" Jorgi was beginning his apology, eyes flooded with concern as he bared the thought of losing his girlfriend today, his first girlfriend since his last messy breakup.

"I don't care that you have a daughter," you spoke, quiet so Lu didn't pay any attention to you, "not like that," you quickly apologised, "she's adorable, I love her already, but I wished you would have told me as soon as we began dating. I would've been well acquainted with her by now."

Every ounce of pressure Jorgi was feeling had now dissipated, and he had a quick burst of hope for the future with you and Lu. "I'm sorry."

"You are the pretty lady!" Lu exclaimed, startling the pair of you out of your conversation and looking at her as she shoved the shoes onto her doll. Little did she know you still had two boxes worth of Bratz accessories and dolls you'd been waiting for an excuse to use.

Jorgi nervously laughed, hoping his own daughter didn't embarrass him by spilling everything he'd said about you to her. But what else were kids put on this Earth for if not to embarrass you?

"My daddy talks about you, you're the pretty lady," she admitted, pointing at Jorgi but looking at you. She had the tone of a kid who thought they were very wise for knowing something that was common knowledge, and you loved it. She resembled Jorgi so much, in so many different ways, it was hard not to laugh with her.

"Really?" You asked, looking over to your boyfriend, who sat there with a reddened face.

Eloise had quickly changed interests after glancing at the raindrop-adorned window. "Daddy, can we play in the puddles now?"

Jorgi's mind went to you again, knowing how much you loved the rain and everything it did to the Earth. He could see you getting on with his daughter so well. "Yes, you can. Do you know who else loves the rain and puddles?"

Eloise frowned, waiting for her daddy to answer himself.

"Y/N does."

The little one gasped, standing in front of you and grabbing your hands. "Come on, let's go. Let's play in the puddles!"

[bay-did-nothing-wrong]

Sorry to send in so many asks; it’s okay if you don’t answer, but I have another suggestion

In Asian cultures, a parent cutting up fruit for their child is one of the most common forms of affection; how would the gf react to splinter Bringing them a bowl of sliced fruit and her finding out what it means?

Okay, so full disclosure, I AM NOT ASIAN, I am entirely relying on your expertise and I'm gonna be praying I don't do or say anything offensive. Edit: So, I read up and omg this is cute. Okay. You ready? Here we go.

Synopsis: Reader is stressed out and Master Splinter and his boys are there to offer some comfort.

Genre: Fluff,crack, comfort, non-ship

Mood-setter: frad - first date

Notes: Y’all better appreciate this one coz I relearned html just for this one post.

Leo had promised to help you get your mind off work and stress and given as you were unfamiliar with the field, Mikey, being the ever supportive sweetheart that he is, had tried to rope both Raph and Donnie into it. The moment the deal was sealed, though, was the moment Master Splinter had interjected saying it'd do the team well to engage in this "group exercise".

So, Leo sat there in front of you, teaching you the art of guided meditation, with his brothers flanking you on both sides. Perhaps it didn't help that Mikey sat right by you, and he seemed incapable of NOT fidgeting around, readjusting, repositioning, and making whatever kind of noises.

So you were constantly distracted! Not just by him, but by your own thoughts too. You could not stop thinking about where your career was headed, or how every minor decision may have immense consequences!

Just as you were getting frustrated and nearly quit, a serene presence entered the dojo.

"May I interrupt?" he strolled into the dojo with something in both his hands.

He knelt on the ground next to where Leo was on the matted floor.

"To get free of your mind's chains, you must find where they are bolted. Give yourself time and space to think, child." he then said something to the boys in Japanese which you could not understand, as you seemed to finally catch onto what he meant but before you could word your response, he'd lifted himself off the floor like a specter and was already halfway across the room.

All that remained of his presence were five mismatched bowls of assorted fruit in front of each of you.

How the hell did he carry five bowls? Two in each hand and one in his tail?

There were some slices of peeled apple, some orange wedges and a couple of prefect cubes of watermelon.

Leo looked only pleasantly surprised by this, unlike Mikey who seemed overjoyed by the appearance of healthy snacks snatching the bowl up, closely followed by Raph and Don, meanwhile you were still stuck on how an elderly rat could move so quickly at his age where you in your blooming youth were scared that if you yawned too violently you'd break your neck.

"Let's take a little break." said Leo as he picked up his bowl of fruit and started munching a piece of watermelon.

That's so nice, you think, of Master Splinter to bring you some healthy snacks for when you take a break.

“It’s nice your dad tries to diversify your diet of just pizza with something actually healthy.” you comment giggling yourself, wondering how much workout you would have to do to eat as filthy as these guys and still be this fucking buff.

“That’s not what this is.” he chuckled back, munching on a wedge orange.

“What do you mean?”

“A bowl of fruit is a form of... " Don paused his explanation for a second, staring directly into a slice of apple as if it were the apple of knowledge,"... affection. Of care. It's how he says he cares without saying it.“

"Means you’re family to him." Raph filled in, and kept munching on his own fruits.

“Another way you could be family tho-”

"SHUT UP, MIKEY!"

You made sure to give Splinter a huge hug the next time you saw him, that was your way of showing affection.

.

.

tagsgsgssg:

@shadow-ninjas @mysticboombox @turtle-babe83 @aurora-the-kunoichi @go-shameless-weeb @samyp05 @thatonegothicgirl @remmushound

[kylosgenesis]

Teardrops on Fire

Synopsis:

Steve Rogers is the last Alpha of the an almost extinct Lycan pack. With only less than 100 members left. Steve must produce an heir to ensure the species survival and reduce the chance of attacks from others. Omegas are rare, and betas have a hard time producing children. Steves reality is finally setting in as his obligation of producing an heir faces a major set back.

Reader is the last suitable omega to mate with Steve, due to the fear of her daughters fate in the pack, her mother kept her hidden from the pack after her own exile. Only her mother, and Bucky's family know of her existence. Bucky is Steve's right hand man, and the packs best warrior! He and the reader developed a friendship and bond over the years, but age forced them to become distant.

What happens when she presents and her first heat cycle comes? Her body is in excruciating pain and a strong fever quickly overcomes her body. Facing the fear of her daughters possible death, her mom calls on the only person who can save her at this point, Alpha Steve! Bucky and the alphas friendship will be tested. The reader will be faced with her love for Bucky or her duty to the pack.

warnings: quick mentions of minor character deaths, A/B/O dynamics

Chapter 1: No longer children

The nights in the outskirts were loud, filled with crickets, and nature! The smell of the woods is all she'd ever known, her mom was exiled from the pack when she was pregnant with her, but only a select few knew of her existence. Those who did, protected her mom out of respect. She was kind and strong, she brought her daughter up on her own in a harsh, and desolate part of the woods. Still within pack territory, but at least an hour journey on car. Following the waterfall all the way to the bottom creek where the water came to a halt, and the cascade fell into a peaceful flow, That’s where she called home. There was only just an abandoned hunting cabin back then, but her mom rebuilt it with bloodshed, and tears. For a long time she managed on her own!

Winnifred Barnes was a kind woman, the only other person she'd ever known, Winnifred was a beta from the same village her mother came from. Every so often she would sneak out of the village, and travel down unto the creek with supplies, and fresh bread to deliver to them. She barely saw her, but her favorite memories involved her. She had a son, his name Was James, but he hated being called James. He went by Bucky.

~15 years ago~

“Here fishy fishy, I’m a friend” she'd had taken out a fish trap to the creek and spent the entirety of the morning watching fish just swim by her feet as they neatly avoided the trap she'd set up “ fishy, fishy please come “ she'd sighed in frustration! Whenever her mom came to the river, she made it look so effortless. She would just sing, and it was like animals wanted to be surrounded by her presence! It never took long for them to catch dinner and return home. “ Maybe it's because you're scaring the fish away with all the talking and paddling your making!” Bucky said with a smirk!

~flashback end~

Looking back, that was her first memory of Bucky. He was older than her. Maybe 12 at the time. He didn't let that stop him from being her friend. He taught her to fish that day! She went home with three small trouts and some catfish. she was stoked to show her mom the progress she'd made! She knew her mother often worried about her. She was alone, but Bucky brought a spark of life and joy into her life, she couldn't quite comprehend.

Years went by like that! She saw Bucky almost every week! He taught her everything she knew now!

They hunted together! Fished! Started fires!

They could spend hours around the woods within their own imaginations. She'd pretend that the king of the forest had kidnapped her, and hide! Bucky would use his tracking skills to find her! He was always the knight in shining armor, and they'd be gone for hours within our own world. As she grew older, she knew his interests would one day shift!

They stopped playing like kids, his body began to change, and her body did too. She no longer imagined the trees were magical , and she was a princess! Bucky no longer was the knight to the rescue! The world started to become more real, and her childlike imagination faded! Along with her favorite memories of Bucky.

It was the day of her tenth birthday! Winnifred showed up with a delicious tart, she was so exited when she heard her voice from across the cabin, her little heart nearly burst with excitement as she raced to meet her. Her happiness faced as she noticed Bucky was not with her! He hadn't come!

He had presented an alpha! He had officially grown up and had a different mindset now, he'd have duties and would soon start his own life. His days without responsibilities were over, He had a new life and had to to help take care of a pack now!

She had cried all day that day, her mom could tell she was inconsolable! Once again she was alone! Her only friend was gone, and it was just the two of them once again! She knew Bucky wasn't dead, but as the years went on without him it was like she was dead to him!

They saw Winnifred one a month at least, sometimes Rebecca, Bucky’s younger sister was with her. As Rebecca grew she too presented! She was a beautiful beta, it didn't take long for her to find a role and love within the pack.

Two years after Bucky stopped visiting had passed, and she was once again alone! She didn't know much about the people from the village, but Rebecca painted beautiful stories with her words about her friends and the guy she wanted to be mated to.

She used to fall asleep to her stories, and would imagine what they were all like! How Bucky was doing? what if she was there? What did being in love feel like?

Secluded from the world she loved books! They were her escape into any world she could wanna be in. As she grew older hunting became less fun, and more of a necessity! Her mother was growing older and weaker, she could see the strain that household tasks did to her body. She no longer sang when she cooked, the piano she used to play sat in the corner untouched, only collecting small specks of dust. Her life, just seemed monotone to her. Wake up, live, repeat! it was like she gave up living, while still being very alive! Losing a mate would often take a physical toll on the body, as well as an emotional one. She had noticed that when her mom lost her Pa, she lost half of herself along with him! She tried to be strong, but without a bond your body starts to become frail! Winnifred said her mother used to light the whole pack with her smile and kindness! She was so beautiful there wasn't a day she didn't have fresh flowers from prospects at her door, and that was long before she presented a as a beta.

She began to take responsibility for housework, gardening, and making sure there was protein on the table. In our household nothing went to waste! We used furs for shoes and clothing, Winnifred had been kind enough to donate us her old sewing machine once she was able to afford a new one.

Coming home from the lake after a long day of fishing, she tucked her old leather boots near the door. They were a couple of seasons old and needed to be reinforced with a new leather, but they were the best she could do with the nearly approaching winter season. Tossing the bucket full of freshly caught trout on the kitchen sink. She took the scales and bones out before neatly placing the fish on the freezer. It wasn't much, but it was enough to last through the harshest part of winter season. They still had a few months to prepare, but she didn't want to be caught off guard. Hunting big game was next on the list, they'd have enough to get them safely though.

After dinner they sat down near the fire! Her mom reminisced about her friends when she was young, and her father. Specially how much she loved him! You knew he was a good man, but it was no secret he had a temper, and a hard time taking orders. It was because of him you guys were banished! Her mom never wanted to talk about what happened, or how he died! She knew it must've been something bad. Despite everything they were lucky to be allowed within pack territory. Being outside a marked territory was very dangerous, and not many could survive the cruel nomad packs that would kill, steal, and rape any wondering females outside of a protected territory.

That night as she laid in her small bed. She looked to my side to see a hoodie. It was so small now! It used to belong to Bucky. She vividly remembered him giving it to her! One day, it got too dark, too soon! The walk back to the small cabin became straining to her small body. Bucky offered his hoodie to provide an extra layer of warmth. It still smelled like him! He smelled of pine and firewood with hints of fresh morning rain, his scent was comforting! Still to this day she couldn't let go of the thought of him.

Little did she know that would be the last time she saw Bucky!

That flashback brought her comfort, and soon sleep overcame her. Waking up the next morning felt as if she'd hunted an entire season, and hadn’t rested a second. Her hips were screamed for her to stay in bed longer, head spinning, and fluttering stomach, she pushed it all aside! She rose up to get herself some water, the thought of a nice warm tea with some fruits and maybe some nuts already alleviated her body, and caused her to salivate at the thought of relief.

As she walked into the kitchen to see her mothers usually tender eyes, She saw the opposite! Her mothers tender smile and eyes had fallen! Her eyes became filled with tears as she dropped her mug. Ignoring her aching body, she ran to comfort her in a hug! She hadn't seen her mother cry often, but at this very moment she sobbed, and looked at her in disbelief! It wasn’t tears of pride, it was pain that filled her words. She knew it was coming! They had hoped when the day came, she'd present as a beta, just like her mother! Her mother was apologizing with her soft sobs and tears. She had brought an omega into the world, the implications of being an omega without status or protection meant that a bad heat could kill her! Or a wandering cruel alpha could hurt her and claim her if I wasn’t careful.

This changed everything! She was an omega!

Bucky Barnes POV:

Bucky stepped out of his pickup truck. His hair was getting too long to handle, but he hadn’t had the time to get it cut. He had been away from the pack for what felt too long. He missed his mother’s cooking and the mead that Natasha's pub brewed fresh every morning. He couldn’t wait to shower, and become one with his bed.

Steve had entrusted him with a supply run for winter. Blankets, medicine, extra food and anything that could be used to fix an electric grid in case the power went out like the last few times. The village was nowhere near desolate or old, but the decline in births and the battles against other packs had left their village vulnerable.

Steve was his best friend! he had inherited the title of the pack leader from his father. He was caring, and would do anything in his power to keep his pack safe and prevailing! Bucky was only a year older than Steve! Growing up with him was the best childhood he could ever imagine. Steve’s father wasn’t as kind as forgiving as Steve was! Steve would often fall victim to his fathers outburst. His father needed a strong healthy Alpha heir, and Steve was small and often sickly.

His dad often reminded him he would never be a leader, and he probably wouldn’t make it past his fist designation season. When his father died ten years ago, little did he know that in only one summer that boy would tower over the pack at 6’5 and had the strongest and most intimidating glare a leader could have! What made him a leader was he had the heart, he was still that scrawny little kid on the inside, but with a giant heart.

Steve had fallen into his role as an alpha so naturally. He made sure everyone was taken care of! He took care of the widows! He made sure that the sacrifices their husbands made to protect the pack wouldn’t be in vain! He’d deliver wood and food from those supply runs Bucky would often make before every winter season. Steve and him were also 2 of the 4 teachers in the village. Wanda and Sam would take turns with the students as they tended to their own families as well. But Bucky knew that Steve was in a hard position, omegas were becoming rarer and rarer. The few omegas in the pack were already mated long before Steve presented. And the few unmated betas had difficulty getting pregnant. Less than 20 kids had been worn in the last 15 years, and that worried Steve! Their pack was declining in numbers and was soon gonna become vulnerable to invasion.

Bucky was grateful that his role as Steve’s right hand man was less straining than Steve’s. He was more of a warrior than a leader. He patrolled, and defended the pack from intrusions. He was the best hunter the pack had. Steve teased him about never crossing his way when he was on a mood, but he just loved the woods. He liked the calm! It reminded him of a simpler time, a time with her! He often wondered, how she was doing?

After he presented he had to leave behind all those childhood memories, it often hurt him to think of her. She was special, and kind. She must’ve been so hurt when he stopped coming over. When his mom first made him come with her to the outskirts to visit a friend, he had been so angry at his mom for not letting him stay over at Steve’s.

Seeing her near that creek trying to lure fish in by talking to them, he knew he’d never be the same! He assumed the role of a mentor in her life. He's spent years teaching her how to hunt and fish, and the best ways to start a fire, they even competed on who could hunt the biggest game. She was a little less than half his age, but she had a fire to her. They were equal in the woods and you couldn’t tell her otherwise.

Then one night they hunted for too long! Night came, the sky opened up to rain, the temperatures dropped; he could tell she was starting to grow tired. The hair around her face became wet, and her lips were quivering. She smelled different than she usually did, It was delicious and intriguing to him! She smelled of coconut and honey, but with small delicious hints of lavender.

He couldn’t pinpoint why he was able to smell her that night, but after driving home he was met with waves of pain and rage. Like he needed to run away, and stay locked in at the same time! That night he presented as an alpha! He realized the world smelled different now and everyone had a distinct smell. But nothing or no one has yet to ever smell as good as she did that night. He was scared of himself; he was an adult alpha now.

Looking back on the memories of her, he thought she’d probably be a lot older now. She probably wouldn’t even remember him. He was not a 16 year old boy anymore he had the battle scars and beard to prove it.

After delivering the supplies around the village and finishing his patrol, he drove home! His house wasn’t fancy or big, it was enough for him to just lay down, and occasionally read or watch some tv.As he pulled up into his muddy driveway, he saw his mom's car, it wasn’t weird for him that his mom was in his house. She often came around to do some cleaning, and drop off some warm food for him when she knew he’d be back from a long day.

When he entered his home there were two scents, his moms, and a scent he hadn’t smelled in ten years. It was her mom, but what was she doing here in his house with a look of pain on her face? Winnifred motioned him to sit down! Her mother looked older, she’d grown weaker since he last saw her. She also smelled different, but it wasn’t her smell! He could scent her, her smell was mixed with her mother’s, but still ever so lovely and potent. There was something scaring him about your smell though.

As to confirm his suspicions his mom met his confused gaze, and confirmed what he already suspected from that hint of her lingering smell. Bucky could barely breath, he felt like he'd received a punch to his gut.

She’d presented!

She was an omega!

He had to let Steve know! It was his duty to let Steve know of this omega, she could save the pack. She was the first unmated and fertile omega in the pack in the last 25 years. To keep her hidden would be a crime against the pack. Steve needed her, he deserved to have this happiness.

Then why did it hurt Bucky so much to give up this Omega?

Taglist: @austynparksandpizza

[kaiparker-avengerssmut]

Their Doll 11

Silent scream

B.Barnes x Stark!Reader, S.Rogers x Stark!Reader

series synopsis:  y/n Stark, all records of her non existent, and yet Hydra still find her. When she is kidnapped by a certain super-soldier and no one believes her, she finds herself searching for unexpected familiarity in her not-so-distant past.

Series Warnings: smut, violence, torture, swearing

Chapter Summary: y/n gets shut up

Warnings: mentions of violence, swearing

A/n: The timeline in this has been altered, as there I things I wanted to include but I also wanted this fic to follow the storyline/timeline of Winter Soldier and Civil war.So for purposes of this fanfic, Peter Parker was discovered by Tony at a much younger age - when he was bitten - and has been an intern with him since, almost like a protégée.(For the purposes of this story Peter was bitten much younger too - more like when he was 9 or ten rather than 14/15)

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

"Fuck you." I snapped, mustering all the saliva I could before spitting it at his face. He flinched back when it splattered over his cheek, his fingers swiping through the spittle before he was shaking it from them and standing back to his full height.

"It appears this one is never going to cooperate. If she won't give us information, why let our experimentations on her possibly...benefit the girl the the future?" The general spoke menacingly to the guards behind me. "How about way find a way to shut her up?"

My heat thudded so hard in my chest it was like someone was punching me from the inside, all air knocked from my lungs before I was being hoisted up to my feet again with two rough grips on my upper arms. My chest heaving, I coughed a ragged breath before composing myself. The glint of the silver blade in the corner of my vision sent my eyes bugging out of my skull and my mind into a flat panic.

So, I did what any rational person with my capabilities would do. I began to hum the deep melody - one a seldom sung - and a smirk crawled its way onto my now curved lips. Clearly, the general was prepared, but the two guards behind we weren't so lucky.

A desperate cry pierced my tune, harmonising with my voice as I heard the havoc I was causing. This was the first time I'd enjoyed a kill, the very first time I'd wanted to use my powers for such a horrific reason. I'd only ever used this part of my power a few times, but this was the only time I'd been fully lucid whilst doing so.

Some people want nothing more than to blow their enemies' brains out, and trust me when I tell you; It felt good.

However, luck was never on my side, and the General had come full prepared. He wasn't even affected, it must've been something to do with the funny earpiece he was wearing.

As my eyes met his, the General's face held non of the cocky, smug tones that I'd expect. No, the only word I could use to describe his old and crinkled features was pure ire, and it was directed at me.

"You conniving, vile little bitch!" He snarled, the flash of silver weeding a sense of utter and complete dread, tangled with fear inside of me, uprooting my confidence. I don't remember a lot after that, to tell you the truth. I know the blade sliced along my throat. I know everything was rained black. And that's about it.

...

Awakening with a gasp was the last thing I expected to happen. The sight of the blade risen in front of the general burned into my mind, almost as if it'd been scorned against my flesh. But here I was: awake, gasping for breath, completely surrounded by doctors I'd never seen before.

My hand instantly flew to my neck, a stinging sensation pulsing from the delicate skin. I hissed as my sweaty palm made contact with the bandage, the material corse and scratchy against my skin. As a doctor waddled over to me, needle in hand, I flailed desperately, a silent scream ripping from my throat.

Hang on a second-

Silent scream? I tried again, the shrill noise that should be tearing from me simply vanishing as it hit my throat. My eyes widened with the realisation, my bottom lip wobbling as I suddenly pieces together what had happened.

He said he'd have to shut me up, didn't he? The thought made me want to scream loudly, that the blade had touched my skin and left me with no defence.

They took away the hell they'd reigned upon me, something I'd wished I could be rid of for years, and now I was disappointed. Maybe this was their plan all along, that little voice in my head sang. The tears pricked at my eyes, which rolled back lazily as the scratch of the needle poked at my neck.

...

My calloused fingers ran over the cut tirelessly, trying to itch somewhere that I could never seem to find. I don't know how long I was sedated for, but since waking up the bleeding had stopped and there was now an offensive red line that slid horizontally across my neck.

Every time I touched it, it coaxed a wince from me, and yet that's all I seemed to do. It was like poking a bruise, I guess. The more it hurts the more you want to do it.

They'd returned me to my cell, clearly very little need for restraints against my weakened, starved and dehydrated body. I could see the flesh thinning on my arms, my ribs pressing painfully against my skin. Not only could I see the hunger, but I could feel it.

Manifesting, biting, gnawing hunger. The type that are you from inside out, devouring everything of you until the only thing you could think about was eating. Huh, I guess I was already at that stage then.

My eyes remained locked in place, glossy with the endless tears as I stared at the floor. If I really looked hard enough, the still wet blood smeared over the floors of the hallway resembled something close to strawberry jam. The thoughts of the sickly sweat substance spread over a perfectly toasted piece of bread, accompanied with a big glass of fresh orange juice and washed down by a large coffee made my mouth water. The booming rumble in my stomach made the groan, even more drawn out than expected when I remembered all I'd get to eat today: a small bread roll and a tiny glass of water.

Sadly, the sink in my cell did not contain drinking water. The liquid was so discoloured that I purposely avoided washing me hands, preferring to possible have my own germs coating my hands than whatever they were giving me. I'm not kicking you about, I genuinely think the water was filtered through a clump of fucking horse shit, mixed with fish guts and complimented with a hint of rotting fruit. If I could help it, I'd be dodging that water like the plague (if it didn't contain one already) for the rest of my life.

I'm not really sure why, but my head snapped up in surprise why the door sprang open, a single guard entering.

"The general requires your presence." He deadpanned, eyes cold as eyes and sharp as a knife as they stabbed through me. I wanted to fight back, stay glued to the spot and snap back some snarky remark, but in my current condition I almost couldn't bring myself to care where I was about to be taken, or why for that matter.

I stood without a word, silently following the man until we reached an unfamiliar metal door. I found it almost laughable, really, that they'd reduced my strength so much, that no one even considered putting me any sort of restraints anymore.

The door was pushed open with a child-like whine emitting from its rusty hinges, the metal scraping over the concrete floor painfully. The guard simply grabbed my arm before tugging me into the room, letting the door shut behind his with a hollow thunk.

"Ah, she has arrived!" The general's voice exclaimed, a deviant smile spreading over his thin lips. "And just in time to meet Mr Pierce, too." He said menacingly.

I felt embarrassed, exposed, stood before the room of men. My hair was a mess, tears streaking my reddened face, eyes puffy from crying and the only clothes a wore was a now-battered hospital gown. My eyes darted around nervously, trying to avoid the blonde man sat before me, chin resting in his palm as he surveyed me.

"Why is this one...important?" The man asked, eyeing me up and down before his eyes seemed to fixate on my neck. The scar.

"This," the general spoke, but Mr Pierce kept his eyes on me, "is Miss y/n Stark." Mr Pierce's eyes widened ever so slightly, but it was barely noticeable.

"As in Tony Stark?" Pierce pondered.

"The very same." The general smirked.

"She seems awfully...quiet, for a Stark." Pierce said with almost a hint of disgust, eyes still glued to my shaking frame.

"That's because we shut her up." The general snapped, awfully harshly.

"Is that the scar? How fresh is it?" Pierce jabbed his questions, curiosity clearly becoming him in the moment.

"Indeed. Our doctors here are very good, Sir. They had her all patched up and out of bandages in just three days." The general bragged, shoulders back and head held high as if he was posing for a portrait.

"I see." Pierce mused, brows furrowed in thought. "What do you plan to do with her? Now that she can't tell you anything?"

"Oh, trust me, sir. She wasn't giving anything up either way," he paused, striding over to me and yanking my head back with a fistful of hair, my back mow  pressed to his chest and his mouth at my ear, "isn't that right, sweetheart?"he clarified, and I didn't hesitate to nod my head as much as his grip would allow.

"So why isn't she dead?" Pierce gritted, seemingly annoyed. "It's not like Tony's attached to her, he never looked for her and I've never even heard him mention her."

"But then they'll keep coming. I don't want the avengers on my back, and I'm sure you don't either." Pierce hummed in agreement. "She's with them - her and that Captain America guy arrived together - so why not use her to send a message?" The general suggested.

...

That's how I found myself tied up, wrists bound and gun to my head as I sat shakily in a chair in the middle of the quinjet. I had no clue how long I'd been since that day, but I do know that I had been sedated once again. The flimsy hospital gown allowed a shiver to chill me, skin  forming goosebumps as I sat before the open door or the quinjet.

"You will tell them exactly as I just did. Got it?" The general pressed, pushing the gun into my head hard enough to make by head throb. Tears biting at my eyes, I nodded furiously, now determined to live with the promise of being free again. "Good. Soldat, make sure she gets back to New York without being seen, I'd hate to have to spill more blood than we intended." The general demanded, a figure rustling its way out of the shadows at the edge of the room. A gasp tore from my throat at the sight of him - clad in black leather and arm as silver as the moon. The soldier - my soldier.

But he simple stared through me, eyes blank and clouded in a coldness I'd never had directed at me from him before.

"And make sure you don't fail this time, soldat." The general snapped. The soldier nodded solemnly, the echoing of boots thudding filling both their ears as the general walked off the ship.