#anyway that guy was a stain on the lives of everyone he was close with. glad he's dead! sucks that apparently his son is growing up to be | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

placeinthemiddleofnowhere · 1 year

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All I wanna do is go the distance

Pairing: König x Reader

Summary: You’re determined to find out why everyone thinks König is so scary, afterall he’s just some guy that’s taller than most people right? He’s probably harmless! Well, he’s a little scary, but you still like him anyway.

(No use of y/n or mention of gender/race)

AN: Hey guys, I'm super excited to give you guys this next chapter 💕 I have big things planned hehe

I would reccommend reading this oneshot, but as I am not jon favreau, you don't have to read extra stuff I make to understand the main stuff. Enjoy 😈

Part 7 of A Rocky Start - Full Masterlist Here

-☠️-

It had taken a few weeks for your head to get completely right again after the concussion. On some days you worried that you’d never get through the fluorescent infested hallways of the base without jamming your fists in your eyes ever again. Sometimes you’d catch Price staring at you with those concerned world weary eyes of his in the worst moments, when the headaches were screaming outwards, bursting through your skull. Though with enough time, and a lot of pain killers, the pain died down and dulled until you were completely back to normal.

It was a good thing too. For one, getting Price off your back while you were continuing to sneak around with König was a must, being under the microscope was only making the head trouble all the worse. And for another, which you were sometimes shocked to think was the secondary reason, you’d been going on more and more missions again as the 141 and KorTac got ever closer to tracking down Rousseau. Things were getting tense now, Ghost had been falling under a lot of pressure to perform and his temper was all over the place. Oftentimes you’d be the lucky one that had to chase him and calm him down.

In the months and missions after you’d come back you’d put away three of Rousseau’s men behind bars, including a very high level man that acted as his consigliere. Apparently he’d been worked on quite a bit since his capture. 141 weren’t privy to the intimate details of course, that was up to the CIA and KorTac, but as far as you’d all been told he’d given over a wealth of information on Rousseau’s location and even some limited blueprints of his hideout.

Price had told you all in advance that intelligence would be confirming your next mission in a matter of days, so you should all stick close to the base. You were actually getting ready for an upcoming training exercise, Rousseau’s man revealing the details on his base meant that command were adamant that you did a run through first and came up with a successful strategy for the big boss’ take down.

Luckily for you, because of the stay close order, that meant more time in your little airbnb paradise. The place was starting to feel like home. You were both etching yourselves into the apartment, carving your living narratives into it.

You could identify marks where König had been clumsy and dropped things or scuffed his boots against the wall. There was a tiny stain on the couch from where you’d come and sat after a mission. Lastly, but not least of all, was the curtain that had been sneakily stitched up to the railing after you and König had accidentally pulled it off several of its hooks when you’d grabbed it a little too enthusiastically one night. And on top of it all was the lingering smell of the room spray you’d bought a few weeks into renting the place, preferring the smell of ‘violet rain’ over the faint notes of tobacco that clung to the walls from other renters.

Sometimes you and König even liked to tell each other ‘see you back at the house’. It was becoming all so humdrum to you both.

You smiled as you glanced over at König one night, ruminating over your little routine. The warmth of you could’ve lifted the apartment into the air. It just felt so good to know that you had something that was yours, something that wasn’t your job, something that wasn’t a material thing, you had a life with König. It was most apparent to you when you watched him, when he was free of his hood and his armour and plates and he lay on the bed on his phone, unburdened from rules and duty. He undressed himself from the myth and lay comfortably as König the man, lounging in his boxers and T-shirt like any boyfriend would act with their partner.

Though that night, his brows were knit together in concentration and his lips were pursed, he was adamant that he be left alone for a minute to do whatever it was that he was doing. It intrigued you because he was rarely so mysterious, normally he’d tell you if it was a work thing, but this time he just waved you off and told you not to be nosy. That being the case, you were watching him closely trying to see if he’d give you any hints or signs of what was so captivating on that screen of his.

“I can feel those doe eyes burning a hole into me,” he chuckled, finally gracing you with his attentions.

“Can you blame me? You’re being all suspicious,” you shrugged, tilting your head a little to see if he’d explain himself.

“I’m not being suspicious, I just asked for some quiet.”

“You said ‘Sneaky, I have something I need to do, but don’t look’ and then when I asked if it was work stuff you said no. That - is suspicious.”

“Well it gave you an excuse to imitate me, so that’s something isn’t it,” he scoffed.

“Well, you know I do it so well,” you grinned, watching with delight as he rolled his eyes.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” you repeated, feeling as if you were copying him perfectly.

“If you think that’s how I sound then I'm surprised you have any kind of attraction to me,” he laughed.

“Well some days are a struggle more than others, but-”

You weren’t given the chance to finish your sentence, he’d forgotten all about his phone and thrown it from his lap, launching himself at you faster than any RPG you’d seen. In a matter of seconds you were pinned to the bed and fighting for your life, tears pouring from your eyes as he tickled you and trapped you underneath his annoyingly unyielding legs.

“What happened to the Sneaky that cried when I told them that I was bullied for my accent in school, hm? Now you’re making fun of me? I’ve got to say, that hurts me Sneak,” he said, an overdramatic fake upset lacing his tone. “You deserve every bit of this!”

You cried out and tried to protest, making a grab for his hands, but were merely shoved away when you made any kind of headway in distracting him. You wriggled and squirmed and screamed, but it was all for nothing. There was no way to make him stop until he wanted to.

“Kö- K…König, please!” you yelped, struggling to breathe. “Enough!”

You were beginning to feel like a struggling furnace as you endured his torture. Your lungs were burning from their failing efforts and you only screamed more as you grew tired of trying to fight back. The second he finally stopped his assault, you gasped in a huge lungful of air and laid back, groaning as you looked up at the blaring lights overhead and registered your sweaty forehead.

“Remind me not to bully you again,” you sighed, finally finding your voice again.

“Mhmm. I tell you all the time, but you just always insist on being so mean to me regardless,” he chuckled, unhooking his legs from your sides.

König came to rest beside you and tucked a stray strand of hair back in its place. His eyes scanned over your heaving chest and he laughed as he watched you attempt to struggle into a sit. Nevertheless you managed to wobble yourself upwards on the shaky mattress and looked down at him, then over to his forgotten phone.

“Will you do that again if I try to ask what you were doing so suspiciously on your phone?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he smiled.

His new favourite line. The way he said it, it always had the undertones of a threat, but it was never said outright maliciously. König could affect his voice with so much masked intent it would have your head spinning sometimes trying to work out what he’d do next. Sometimes you’d get lost thinking about how long he’d practised that. The unfortunate people that had come across his path and challenged him, ending up with a far worse fate than just your tickling. Though you never liked to dwell on it for long.

“What were you suspiciously doing on your phone, König?” you said, pulling yourself out of your thoughts before you got too sucked in.

“Well, if you must know…” he trailed off and made a jump toward you, pretending he was going to attack again.

“No! No, no, no! Not again,” you cried out, leaping away from the bed.

You made a mental note to thank Soap and Ghost one day, all their messing with you had made you quick on your feet. Instinctively, you threw your hands up ready to fight and narrowed your eyes, watching his every movement like a hawk. König remained on the bed though and sat up, laughing and shaking his head to himself as he picked up his phone again and scrolled through it.

“Please, Sneaky, you really think I’m going to be threatened by those fists?” he tutted, not even looking at you as you remained in your defensive stance. “Put them away and come sit down.”

“These hands have killed people!” you defended.

“Yes, I know that, you’re a good soldier.”

“Exactly, so you should be threatened,” you retorted.

“If I was anyone else, sure. You’d never hurt me though,” he said, looking up from his phone with a smug grin. “I’m your boyfriend after all.”

You felt your cheeks heat up and immediately covered your face in your hands. Every little bit of you was drowning in the feeling of your thundering heart.

König didn’t much care for that particular title, he usually preferred to say partner, but he knew how it made you feel and he weaponised it as much as he possibly could. Knowing that he was all yours still scattered the butterflies in your stomach and you always felt like a little kid in the face of his teasing. You couldn’t help that him being officially yours still got you so excited.

“Are you ever going to stop using that against me?” you mumbled, finally coming to sit by him.

“No. I like watching you get flustered,” he chuckled. “It’s very cute.”

Before you could protest anymore though, he slung his arm around your waist and pulled you in for a kiss, softly releasing all the fight you had left with his teasing lips and tongue. You were locked together for a few moments and sighed contentedly when he broke away, pressing your head to his shoulder and feeling ready to sink down into the bed with him.

Though it wasn’t time for that yet.

“Would you like me to show you what I’ve been working on?”

You opened your eyes and faced him again, watching his nervous smile grow. Seeing him look so sheepish re-sparked your curiosity and you nodded, ready to see what it was. He hurriedly entered his password and the screen flashed open, landing on the homepage screen with a shot of you both from one of your photobooth pictures from an impromptu date months before, before your concussion. Pictures he was adamant that he couldn’t let you keep because he had to protect his image, even if he was wearing his half mask at the time. As if he was somehow a much better secret keeper than you.

You smirked at the memory of all the playful bickering you’d done over those photos and shook your head, eyeing the screen again as König brought up his tabs. He clicked onto the latest one and it opened onto a confirmation email. It wasn’t what you’d expected, not that you were sure of what you even were expecting. As you read it you raised your brows and looked up at him, wondering what was happening.

“This is a confirmation email for renting a hire car from some company in Austria,” you stated.

“Some company has a name,” he retorted.

“I’m not going to insult you by trying to pronounce that.”

“I see you’re restraining yourself now,” he laughed. “Well yes, it is a hire car confirmation for a cheap company in Vienna.”

“And you’re hiring a car in Vienna because?”

“Because, in a few months time, I’m taking you to Austria. Now, wait! Before you protest, I’ve thought it all out and you don’t need to worry about explaining any passport stamps to Price. I’ve found us flights to Slovakia and a train that can take us from Bucharest into Vienna, and from there I can take you around to see the country for a few days.”

He hastily explained himself and you smiled as you watched his hurried hand movements, his body in a flurry of motion. It was particularly fun to see him turn his hand into, what you figured, was a high speed train. He looked at you seriously as he finished, waiting in a suspended state of worry to see what you’d say.

As if you’d disappoint him.

“You sat and booked all that just for us?”

“Of course. I’ve really wanted to take you for a while now, so when you said you had time booked off and the higher ups indicated this mission will be coming to a close soon...I thought, this is the time. So what do you say? Will you come with me?”

“Obviously! I’m so excited, I can’t believe it. I’m getting to go on holiday with my Boyfriend,” you laughed, this time making yourself squeal. “It's gonna be so good! We’re gonna eat so much good food and see so many cool places and oh- I wanna see those mountains you were talking about! Can we go?”

“We will see the mountains, yes. I’ve put time aside for that,” he laughed.

“You’ve planned the whole trip already?” you asked incredulously.

“Sneaky I’ve been planning this for weeks,” he smiled. “I just finished the last arrangements there. I want to keep most of it a surprise, but…I actually have one thing on there that I need to ask you about before we go though.”

“Oh?”

He pursed his lips again and looked away before looking back to you.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go out to Burgenland? To my mothers house.”

Your heart skipped a beat and somehow you managed to reach new levels of excitement. Meeting König’s mum meant a lot more to him that it did for most people. It came with a lot more meaning. Meeting König’s mum meant that he was accepting you as part of his family, it meant that he wanted you to know more of his annoyingly buried secrets. It meant that he’d have to tell you his name.

It’s not like his own mother would call him König.

It had been a sore subject for a little while. The cause of your only serious fights so far. You’d pushed to know a couple times, complaining that he wasn’t letting you in and that it was ridiculous that you were a couple and you wouldn’t even know what to call him if anything should happen. Something could happen to him out in the field and all you’d know is a codename, he could be taken away from you and you’d never know who he was.

Of course König argued that that was ridiculous and you knew more than almost anyone knew about him - excluding his mum of course. He claimed that his name was just a burden, that it was just something that would give people an excuse to take from you. Though you argued about that as well, if someone wanted to hurt you to get to him then they’d do it anyway. It didn’t matter if they believed you knew his true identity or not.

The last time you’d gone almost hysterical because the whole thing was so silly to you. The little airbnb walls felt like they were going to go flying with all the verbal mortars being thrown, like you were going to be swept up like something from the wizard of Oz. You’d both bickered back and forth, forming a dark comedy sketch, two squeaky little cartoon characters that were on the verge of strangling each other as you both held your ground.

“Why does it matter if I know! You keep saying people will come for me, and that it's more dangerous to know you, but it's not that. I know it's not that! Otherwise you wouldn’t be seen with me, you wouldn’t have let me come this close. You just can’t face that all your walls would have to come down. You just don’t want to let me in.”

“It is dangerous to know who I am, how many times must I list the reasons? But you know what, fine, you’re right.You win! I’d love to let you in fully, but yes I am afraid of letting you close! Even though you have no idea how much you’ve taken already. I’ve given you more of me than anyone else has ever gotten, even while it’s been hard. You have no idea how hard all this is for me.”

“Hard for You? I’m in a relationship with someone that won’t tell me their name!”

“Because it's the last thing I have to protect myself! If you leave me, what then? You could decide you want out of all this complication and find someone nice and simple and then where would I be? You’d have taken everything from me.”

“What am I taking from you? Knowing who you are is not taking anything from you König. Besides, I’m not leaving you. Why do you think I’m so hell bent on trying to find someone else when I spend all my time jeopardising my job just to be here with you? You think I like facing down Price knowing that he’d turn on me if he knew what I got up to in my spare time? I put the respect of someone that I deeply care about on the line, just so that I can be with you and you’re acting like I’m ready to run off at the first chance!”

“Because you’ve done it before!”

“That’s not fair and you know it.”

König may as well have turned and stuck a ten foot spear through your heart. You’d felt a tide of tears wash up in your eyes and you’d walked away from him then, not willing to let him see how much he’d hurt you. Not that that was an option. From his widened eyes alone, you knew that he’d known it was a mistake to dredge up old wounds, his sparkling blue irises dimming as he lost his self conviction.

“Wait! Hold on, I’m sorry.”

König raced up to you and stopped you in your tracks. His strong arms wrapped around you fast and held you snugly against his chest as pathetic droplets of tears streaked your burning cheeks. You didn’t bother trying to free yourself from him. You just whimpered and clung to him as he shushed you and apologised for what he’d said, kissing your dampened face like it was nothing.

“I’m so sorry. What I just said was stupid. Will you please come sit with me for a moment… I have something I want to tell you.”

A flare of anger and rebellion flared in you for a second. It was stamped out immediately, but just for a moment you wanted to storm off and tell him that if he wanted to keep you from knowing him then he’d done a great job - that that was it. Though, you couldn’t bring yourself to follow through. Even when you hated him at that moment, you couldn’t bear to see him upset again. You knew that you’d hurt him badly already that day you’d run from him in the park outside the base, you knew that you couldn’t bring yourself to do that again.

“Ok,” you’d sniffled.

He’d sighed and taken you to the couch, sitting across from you after propping you up against your favourite fluffy pillow. You held onto it with one of your hands, losing yourself in its soft textures as you threaded your fingers through it. König watched you play with the loose strands for a second before looking you in the eyes, his face a perfect picture of remorse.

“You didn’t really run away from me, that was silly of me to say.”

“I did run from you though, I ran from you that day you tried to explain yourself after the mission” you frowned, not able to help your crackling feebly. “You were right, I can’t act like I haven’t given you reasons to be wary.”

“No. You didn’t leave me then though. You agreed to work through things and I suppose that’s what we’ve been doing…with mixed results,” he said, laughing dryly. “You haven’t really given me reason to be like this. This is what has happened after years of keeping people out and I suppose…I’m just having a hard time adjusting to what it feels like to let someone in.”

“I know. I know that really,” you sighed. “It's just hard sometimes because sometimes it feels like things are as they should be, like everything we have is so normal. Then I snap back to reality and there’s all this stuff with work where we have to pretend to hate each other and then we have missions that don’t line up and we don’t get to speak, like not even a phone call a lot of the time. Then there’s this intrusive voice I have over it all saying- well saying ‘you don’t even know his name, what is it we really even have together’ and I know its ridiculous and we care about each other and I should ignore it all-”

“It’s not ridiculous,” König soothed. “I feel the strain of these things too.”

He leaned forward then and grabbed your hands, making you jump as you were taken out of worrying at the pillow. His calloused fingers rubbed against yours and his warm grip kept you grounded into reality. The scars that scraped up the backs of his arms jumped up at you in the warmth of the yellow lights, his whole body a patchwork of battered skin. You traced your eyes from his rough hands and arms, up to his bobbing adam's apple and to the depths of his ocean eyes and worried face.

König’s jaw was tensed and he breathed as he worked up to what he was going to say. Your own breath was held then, lungs burning as you waited for him to speak.

“Other people have let me down in the past. My mother moved us to Germany for a manipulative piece of shit that hated me and looked to rid himself of me at every opportunity. I grew up with few friends, in a country that wasn’t mine, and fought so hard for so long that I didn’t know how to be vulnerable. I met a woman after I was forced to join the army that told me I was a hollow shell of a man, and that no one should have to be sentenced to dealing with me…There’s times I’ve agreed with her too, I’ve moved through life feeling like half a person some days. Then I met you. None of what I’ve told you is any excuse to treat you badly, but sometimes I’m so set in my distrust that I can’t let myself cross the lines I need to be able to get to where you are….And- and for you…I’m working on crossing those lines, because you’re the only person I’d ever want to give myself to, but for now its a slow process. You’ve seen my full face, we’ve made love and I have given you almost everything that I can give you for right now. All of this is to say…well - to ask - if you would give me a little more time and allow me to keep working on things with you.”

Listening to him then, as his voice crackled and wavered with emotion, was so very difficult. He kept a hold of your hands the whole time, his fingers shaking as he went on. His whole body looked ready to crumble as he explained himself.

Though before he could be brought down by everything you leaned over and held him, winding your arms around him as tightly as they would go. You hugged him close for the rest of the night and whispered to each other in the darkness when you went to bed, giving your affirmations, like a secret promise, that everything would be ok.

As you thought back to that night, your body shook with an icy cold shock of frisson. You didn’t want to go through that again.

“I would love to meet your mum, König,” you said softly, swallowing as you tried to tactfully avoid another horrific argument. “Does this mean…that you’ll tell me your name soon?”

He smiled knowingly at you and nodded, stroking the warm apple of your cheeks fondly.

“I will tell you sometime soon, yes,” he confirmed, speaking warmly.

You felt a beaming smile shine brightly over your face and jumped on König, feeling full force of excitement as things seemed to be heading in a good direction. Everything was lining up. Your mission would be done soon, you and König wouldn’t have to worry about sneaking around anymore because the taskforce would have some downtime until you were called upon again for some other earth shattering mission. After that you were going to finally learn his name.

You sighed. It was almost too good to be true.

“You just gotta promise me one thing,” you said, shifting your tone seriously.

“What?” he asked, breaking away from your hug so that he could look at you properly.

“If it’s something ridiculous you have to prepare me in advance.”

He rolled his eyes and groaned, falling comically backwards onto the couch.

“I’m being serious,” you laughed. “If it’s something crazy like Wolfgang or Ferdinand I need to be prepared!”

“Do you really think that that’s what Austrian people are called?” he giggled.

“I have no idea! This is what I’ve been saying, I could see your passport in a few months time and could be having to fight myself not to laugh!”

“You would really laugh at my name if you thought it was silly?” he snorted.

“All I can promise that I’ll try not to,” you grinned, crossing your hands over your heart while he stared back at you with a displeased glare. “All I’m saying is that if I see something mad I can’t be held accountable for my actions.”

He rolled his eyes again and sighed dramatically, throwing his hands up into the air.

“I can’t believe I’m being lectured on silly names by someone called ‘Sneaky’.”

“Hey!”

-☠️-

When Price called you all in the next day, nothing could’ve prepared you for the shitstorm that was going to ensue. Though you were feeling the full force of it as you stood in the darkened labyrinth of the warehouse that had been set up to emulate Rousseau’s hideout. The 141 and KorTac had been told to find the best way to clear the base and get to Rousseau, but the problem was that you were taking too long and being overwhelmed by too many of Price’s fake men. There were just so many rooms that were connected to other rooms and it meant that a lot of men could get by each other undetected. It was a nightmare.

You’d run through the exercise around eight times already and the more that Price was making you reset, the more tension was being put on the team. It was only a matter of time till someone snapped. Although, given their quick temper and worn down attitude in the last few months, you were sure of who that person was going to be the entire time.

In the latest reset, you stood next to one of the floppy wooden walls and bit your tongue, watching on with fear as Ghost marched up to König and got in his face. They were almost mask to mask, eye to eye as Ghost took what little gap there was between them and cinched it tight. You felt every little notch in the wood then, backing yourself into it just so that you could force yourself not to get yourself in trouble by intervening.

“Stop fucking around you useless pile of shitting cloth!”

ouch.

“You’re blaming me for the reset?” König scoffed, squaring up his shoulders. “If you would stop lagging through the hallways and would get them cleared properly, then we might be able to get through one of these attempts successfully, Lieutenant.”

“It was your bright idea to split off with Soap and Gaz and leave us with Horangi. So far it’s been nothing but problems with you and your team rushing and getting hasty and now I’m done. We’re doing it my way again. Slow and methodical. Like it or lump it, king cunt.”

“Problems aren’t from me going too fast, they’re occurring because your team isn't clearing the halls properly, Ghost. I need Soap because Fender is out of the country, I need someone to blow the doors so I can breach plus the extra cover. Your idea failed five times already, why don’t we try to execute mine properly, hm?”

“I’ll fucking show you an execution, König!”

Ghost rammed König and sent him back peddling into the wall you were leaning against with heavy thud. You were sent flying forward as the wood bounced and watched as it rattled with the men’s efforts to take each other down.

It was like watching two stags lock horns, they were grabbing onto each other furiously and neither man seemed to want to let the other go. König swung his fist and Ghost dodged. Ghost tried to knock König unbalanced with a kick, and only succeeded in almost sticking his boot through the cheap chipboard.

The rest of you watched on helplessly. There was very little anyone of you could do to pull the two titans off of each other - Not if you didn’t want to get taken out of action in the process.

“Right! That’s enough boys!”

Price’s voice echoed through the warehouse, powerful and commanding as it sailed through the air like a brick. It smashed through the two fighters and in a matter of seconds König and Ghost were standing to attention, looking up at Price from his spot on the balcony. The blue light of the warehouse shone starkly against the white in Ghost’s mask, but it failed to stick on the inky black of König’s hood.

“I appreciate that its been a long day gentlemen, but that doesn’t mean you get the luxury of turning into little school boys that can’t contain their fucking tantrums!” Price bellowed, continuing to reset the temperature. “König, stop pushing so hard when the others are still trying to clear the rooms on the left side. Ghost, work faster and spread your team out. Reset and do it again!”

The Captain’s word was final. Even at the height he stood, illuminated by a few bulbs that flickered like burnt orange like cigarettes, you saw that he was in no mood to be argued with. He’d stood watch for all of the attempts and with every one that failed he grew more and more dissatisfied as your joint teams disintegrated into in-fighting.

Well, that wasn’t going to be a problem on this attempt. Not unless anyone was in the mood to invoke Price’s wrath.

All you marched off without another word, dragging your feet as you made your way back to the start point. Ghost was glaring so hard at König it seemed like all of you were staying purposefully clear of his path; attempting to avoid the crossfire. Soap and Gaz grunted a few words of annoyance toward each other on the way, but luckily you all made it in one piece.

A few tense moments proceeded to ebb slowly by. The clatter of doors and scrape of fallen soldiers and obstacles being reset was echoing throughout the building, the heavy breaths of men around you intermingled and all too eerily you began to feel like you were in the belly of a beast. It certainly appeared that way to your eyes, you couldn’t see much through the darkness. You’d have to position your night vision down again.

In the briefing before training, when you’d had the blueprints and locations revealed to you, you’d been told that your guys would be able to cut the power beforehand. They were sending your two teams in while Price waited with another team on standby. That way if Rousseau tried to make a clever escape, Price would be there to close in on him while you rid his headquarters of his followers.

All of it was easier said than done though apparently.

“If we fuck this up again I’m going home. Fuck the dessertion charges, prison’s better than this,” Gaz muttered.

“If we fuck this up again,” Ghost growled in disbelief. “You mean If your team fuck it up, Garrick.”

“Aw, putting the blame on us, LT?” Soap chuckled. “You’re so sweet. Maybe it's me just looking to spend a little more time with you.”

His laugh still held a little humour in it, even for all the torture you’d all been through. Although he knew for a fact that he had nothing to do with it. It was his big lumbering steam train of a teammate that couldn’t be let off so easily.

It was true what Price said, he had been moving too quickly. König was frustrated. Somehow, despite not even being able to see him most of the time, and at times just barely through the green haze of your goggles, you could tell he was finally feeling the strain of working with your team. He was getting antsy and forceful, trying to power through so that he could escape the stifling atmosphere that the other men created for him.

You wanted to tell him he’d only make it worse by prolonging the day. Though it wouldn’t have been a good idea to speak to him then - not with Ghost feeling the way he was.

“If we spend any more time down here you’ll all be wishing for a nice cosy jail cell by the time I’m done,” Ghost spat.

You flickered your eyes over to König and held your breath. He looked like he desperately wanted to make a comment on the situation, his eyes were narrowing in a familiar way, the kind of look he got when he was about to fight a point. You silently begged him to stand down and cast a wary glance over at Horangi, hoping he’d stop his friend from doing anything dumb.

Though in the end it didn’t matter. Price interjected before König could air his thoughts, entering the scene like a benevolent god shouting from above.

“Alright. Begin again in 5…4…3…2…and…”

The warehouse descended into complete darkness, all lights were off and it was just you and your two teams, huddled together in the lonely gloom. Ghost silently gestured for you all to get moving and with the rehearsed speed of a broadway play, you filed into two teams and braced as Soap got the first charge ready.

You drew in a breath and felt your heart thudding in your chest, it made you tighten your grip on your gun as every booming beat cracked out like thunder. You swallowed and scanned your eyes through the green fog, watching bleary eyed as Soap set the first charge. You looked away and hunched your shoulders, already tensing for the first explosion.

The door broke away and the charge sounded off with a dull boom, soon enough your teams were ‘firing’ on your fake enemy with your fake rounds. The guns clacked and clicked in a foreign kind of way and instead of screaming or disappearing in a spray they took a moment to notice the hits and would drop to the ground like seasoned actors.

Even despite that all though, the adrenaline felt all too real. The soldiers were growing smarter smarter, even hindered by the darkness,they had begun to forsee your oncoming attacks and fought back twice as hard as before now that they'd seen your strategy a few times. It was taking longer and longer to clear the first room.

Nevertheless, determined to stay in the exercise and take it through to its bitter end. You kept down behind Ghost and shot out at the hostiles, doing your duty and hoping it would be enough. Luckily for you the men fell after trading a couple rounds of fire.

“Horangi, stay on me. Sneak when I say the word I want you to move up ahead to the first room on the left. Horangi and I will cover you while you clear it and block the entrance on the otherside,” Ghost ordered.

“Copy that,” you responded, also hearing Horangi sound off similarly.

König had moved up already, but rather than have Soap and Gaz blow the next door, they were all taking cover and helping your team with the oncoming flood of men. Even as two separate teams you were now united in a common purpose - to improve the strategy and ensure you’d never be put through the exercise again.

Most of you hated having to do those sessions, rehearsing for the main event. After All It’s not like you can account for everything that can happen when the real mission goes live. Its not like the men would be expecting you like the hapless new recruits, that was only natural as you reset the mission for the ninth time in a row.

With that in mind, you kept your gun in your hands like it was superglued to you and marched on, following through with Ghost’s plan as he directed you forward. You gulped and sprinted toward the room, taking cover behind the door and angling your head so that you could spot the men that were spraying heavy fire just inches from where you stood. You blinked and took a breath, reminding yourself that you had the edge. You had night vision.

In a flash you whirled around and took out one of the men closest to you, diving behind a desk before anyone else could get to you. Already marking out your next target, you were relieved when you spotted Ghost in your peripheral and shot up.

“Support pillar, LT!” you shouted, marking out your ‘kill’.

Ghost acknowledged you and directed his gun toward the other two, and soon enough you were standing in an empty room, listening to the fire outside. Though you weren’t done, you hustled over to the entrance on the other side and tipped a desk over the doorway, making entry very difficult. Then seconds later another explosion went off and Ghost signalled for you to follow him, covering the rear of team König.

“On me, team!”

Horangi and you followed Ghost as closely as possible, heeding his every command as you cleared the rest of the rooms with slow and steady precision. König battered down every door with Soap’s help and with he and Gaz ploughing forward, you were able to keep watch of the rear as more men crawled out of the woodwork in an attempt to surprise you.

Even with the fake ammo your blood was pumping around your body like white water rapids and your breathing came fast and heavy. The clack of the guns and the sound of feet scrabbling against the crumbly warehouse floors were echoing around your head and before long you were beginning to feel wired, could feel your body shake as you grew ever closer to the end. This was it. An escape from the labyrinth and the endless blurry green of the night vision goggles.

“Ready?” König asked, standing prone at the last door.

Ghost and Horangi took out a couple of stragglers, and once they were down and static silence was ringing all around you, König was given the go ahead.

“One last door and then we’re home free, Gazzy,” Soap grinned, setting the door to blow.

“Yeah yeah, just blow the door, Soap,” Ghost growled.

The last breach felt strong enough to shake the ground you were standing on. Though you’d concede that by the time the charge went off, you were starting to shiver a little. You were full of anticipation, ready to sit down and get some rest before the actual mission. A good night’s sleep was within your grasp.

Once that door swung out, you’d realised that you’d never been so relieved to see a potential hostage.

The new recruit made a mighty effort to mimic Rousseau, he tried to go down fighting and raised his gun at you all. Though with six people on him he didn’t have a chance. All of you shrank back from his shots while he attempted to flee, though when you noticed that the recruits back was turning to run, you took your chance and barrelled toward him.

With every ounce of strength that was left in your body you tackled the man to the ground, landing softly on his thick padding - something Rousseau definitely wouldn’t have when it came time to dive on him. Even with your body protesting, exacerbated limbs crying out for a break, you wrestled his gun from his hands and pinned them to the ground. Fake Rousseau had nowhere to go after that, he was stuck below your body even as you heaved out heavy breaths and soon was surrounded by the rest of your team.

At long last it was game over.

“Alright, very good team,” Price’s voice called, “You can take off the night vision and we’ll turn the lights up.”

You were all too eager to follow Price’s command. You whipped the goggles up and looked around in the sheer darkness for a moment until the blue lights faded on and were then chased up by the stark flicker of the overhead lights.

Everyone was blinking hard, adjusting to the brilliance and grimacing as you all looked around the grotty old warehouse with new eyes. When it was set up with low lighting there was something very intimidating about the training area, though now that you looked at it in the new light you couldn’t help but compare it to waking up the morning after a one night stand.

The chip boards looked floppy and pathetic and the huge towering walls beyond your little simulated maze were covered in warning signs and caution notices. The mirage had cleared, and finally you could look up at Price properly, settling your strained eyes on his terse expression.

“Much better. That’s the sort of performance I expect from you lot, and that’s what I want when we launch tomorrow. Get yourselves cleaned up and get ready to meet in the hanger for oh-four hundred. You’re all dismissed.”

-☠️-

“Fucking Training exercises.”

You lumbered behind Ghost and made your way to the bathrooms, getting ready to wash up with the rest of the team, hearing bed calling out to you sweetly before your early start. Soap and Gaz were unsuaully quiet, meanwhile König and Horangi were their usual type of quiet. Ghost wasn’t satisfied with that though, he was muttering to himself and stomping down the hallway like a man about to fly himself off to Rousseau and end the mission himself.

“At least it’s over now,” you sighed.

“Would’ve been over a long time ago if we hadn’t started improvising with the hired help,” Ghost groused.

“How many times, Ghost. We tried your plan and we failed, we worked mine out and we passed,” König growled. “Doesn’t matter how many times you whine about it, the plan worked and that’s all that matters.”

“Is it? Is that all that matters?”

“Yes. We all wanted out and now we’re out. Job done,” König groaned. “What else is there to bitch about?”

“It’s not bitching when I have legitimate concerns about letting a private contractor shit all over my team’s dynamic and split us up!”

“What dynamic is that? The one where you get them all killed?”

Ghost flew toward König again, except this time none of you were allowing it. You, Gaz and Soap leapt toward your Lieutenant while Horangi acted as a barrier, keeping a steady hand on König’s flaring chest. All of you struggled as Ghost threatened to explode, but in a matter of seconds he calmed enough to see he wasn’t going to be allowed his revenge and broke away, grumbling that he’d leave it.

König watched the exchange between you all and laughed to himself, the little titter escaping the thick fabric of his hood even as he tried to keep it soft. You glared over at him, not appreciating his antagonising just as you’d managed to get a grip of Ghost, though he rolled his eyes at you and walked off.

Only when he was around the corner did you finally feel it was fit to let Ghost have it.

“What the fuck was that, LT?”

“What do you mean what the fuck was that?” he growled.

The way Ghost looked at you, the way his eyes glinted like he was settling on a new target, normally would’ve had you crumbling like brittle harling in a storm but you were resolute in your mission. You straightened your shoulders and walked up to him, not letting the disappointment fade from your face.

In your periphery, you caught your fellow teammates giving you a shared look of fear. Soap and Gaz more than made up for what you lacked in that moment, but you ignored them keeping your mind focused completely on Ghost.

“Price cleared the op to run just as we practised it there, just as it was successfully run and you want to have a go at König because he happened to make a valid suggestion?”

“I’m not having a go, I’m pissed that we’re taking orders from paid guns that shouldn’t even be here in the first place! This was supposed to be our mission, Price assembled our taskforce back together all to take down Rousseau and what happens? The government get involved with KorTac and suddenly we have to play nice with money grubbing slime balls. It’s all not right, Sneaky, and I won’t sit by and take it!”

“It might not be right, but it's the situation we’re in. You might not like König, and things have been…not ideal with all thats happened, but like it or not he made a good call and Price recognised it for what it was.”

Ghost grunted and was about to fire back another load of verbal ammunition, though Soap interjected before he could say anything else.

“Sneak’s right, Ghost. If they’re telling you to let the König thing go, then let it go. Sneak has the most right out of anyone to be pissed about König calling the shots, and they’re not. Fuck sake, Ghost, even Price hates the man. If Price likes his plan, then its a good plan.”

You raised your brows, surprised at seeing Soap opposing Ghost for once. He walked over to you and stood shoulder to shoulder, holding the giant back as he teetered on the verge of a rampage. The warmth of Soap brought a calm to your bones and now that you knew you had someone else supporting you, you let out a breath you’d barely been aware of holding.

You so rarely had to butt heads with your Lieutenant, you’d never get used to the feeling. Your bones felt like they were rattling with the energy it required.

“You don’t have to worry about the team dynamic, Ghost,” you continued, hoping to expel the last of his anger. “In fact arguing with König is more of an issue than anything that he or any of KorTac can do. We get through this mission and take down Rousseau, then KorTac will leave and we can get back to our jobs until the 141 is called on again. If we fuck this up then we’ll be dealing with losses and we’ll have to keep working with them. We just need to get through this and its done…ok?”

Ghost sighed and cast his eyes down to the floor. Silence reigned for a few beats, but eventually he looked back up and eyed you and Soap and Gaz who’d moved to your other side. The blue in his darkened irises could’ve been swamp water with the way they’d been tainted with frustration. Though even with all of his anger at the situation, he had visibly sagged as he recognised he was looking at things wrong.

“You’re right,” he grunted, rubbing his head and furling up his mask. “I’ll go apologise and see if I can’t get through the rest of our time together without murdering the bastard. Like you say, Sneak - not long till he fucks off.”

With that he left to go slink down the hall and catch König, still grumbling to himself even as he retreated. You and the rest of 141 laughed as he turned the corner and eyed each other, smiles slowly spreading across your mouths as if you’d just turned up to a mad hatters tea party. A moment of euphoria shared as you thanked your lucky stars that Ghost didn’t go Godzilla on all of you before he carried on with murdering König just as he’d said.

Though a small part of you still worried for your boyfriend. You’d winced a little when Ghost insulted him, but on the other side of the coin, you realised that with the mission coming to a close soon you’d be able to stop the obligatory concerns that came with König being on base. Soon you could carry on with your illicit affair and not worry one bit that Price would be any the wiser. What you can’t see can’t hurt you, right?

“Thought for sure ma neck was gonna get snapped there,” Soap chuckled.

“I know, I was picturing being the next skull he wore,” Gaz laughed, his nervousness expelled in a low rasp. “Fuck, Sneak. Next time you want to go on a crusade, give us a bit of warning.”

“I’d have loved to have given myself warning,” you snorted, still in disbelief you’d stood up to Ghost. “It just came out of me out of nowhere. If anyone was getting scalped there, it was gonna be me.”

“Well…at the very least, thank jesus,” Soap smirked, “Ghost listened rather than wringing yer little brass neck. But you know what, Sneaky? Next time you decide to have a brave moment like that, leave us the fuck out of it!”

“Yeah, let us get out of the blast radius first, and then go at him,” Gaz laughed, slapping your shoulder.

With that they both walked off to the showers together and you rolled your eyes, following after them so that you weren’t hanging around the hallway by yourself. Your weary boots slapped against the floors and you continued to joke as you rounded the corner, feeling at ease as you got your mind focused on getting ready for the mission and the calm that would ensue after its completion.

When you got to the changing room though, you frowned when you saw König’s things scattered. Normally he wasn’t one for throwing things around, he was usually quite careful to pile things up. However his shirt was sprawled on the ground and his trousers were hung over the benches like a set of bowlegs straddling a horse. Most unsettling of all was when you’d glanced down and saw the wooden bird you’d given him months before laying on the floor just under his upturned pockets.

“Huh, big man must’ve been in a hurry to shower,” Soap noted.

“Probably wanted to try and hurry to avoid Ghost,” Gaz snorted. “Not that I can blame him, I’d hide from the LT too if I knew he was after me.”

You laughed along with the guys because it seemed like the thing to do, but the smile on your face dropped instantly afterward. Something wasn’t right. You gulped and looked over the mess of his clothes one last time and bit your lip, barely feeling the harsh scrape of your canine against your soft flesh.

“You gonna wash up, Sneak?” Gaz asked, elbowing you out of your thoughts.

“Huh?”

“You’re standing there like a spare prick, Sneaky,” Soap laughed. “You gonna shower? Or are you cooking up a little pre-mission prank?”

“Don’t encourage that, Soap,” Gaz laughed. “We need to put all that to rest. Like Ghost said, this is the last time we have to see the guy. Let’s just get past it and pray we don’t ever work with KorTac again.”

“I’m not planning anything,” you said, stopping Soap in his tracks just as he picked up the hem of König’s shirt. “I agree with Gaz, let’s leave it, alright? I’m just gonna see where Ghost got to first then I’ll go shower. His stuff’s not here, so he must’ve gone off and I figure I should make sure he got away from König in one piece.”

“Ghost getting away from König?” Gaz snorted. “Think I’d worry more for the other way around…if I gave a shit about König that is.”

You gave another little weak laugh and walked off without anything else to say. You didn’t have anything else in the chamber. Your mind was too busy reeling and wondering where Ghost got to and why König’s stuff was laid out everywhere and all the ways you could combine those pieces of information into horrible conclusions.

You walked through the doorway to the opposite corridor and mindlessly carried yourself forward while your skin burned too hot and your stomach tightened into tiny knots.

Did they have an argument? Did Ghost notice something about König’s things that gave you both away? Had he seen the bird and known it was yours? If so, how? You’d never shown anyone else the bird that you could remember, but then you cursed to yourself as you remembered your less than sound mental state and struggled to try and remember if you possibly had told the guys or shown them the bird at any point.

Why did König have to carry it around with him? Why couldn’t he have left it in his room on base or secreted it away somewhere safe?

Were you being crazy? You reasoned you were being crazy. Maybe he really had just left his things in a hurry. Perhaps he did just want to get through his-

You felt your blood run cold when you heard a low growl tear you from your thoughts and speak your name, your real name.

“You look lost.”

You glanced up after trailing your eyes along the gloomy grey floor and shivered as you finally noticed Ghost towering above you, casting a mighty shadow. He had his eyes fixed on you like a shark, cold and deadly as he surveyed your trembling form. He was glaring hot pits into your skin and from that moment on you had absolutely no doubt that he was onto you.

He’d never looked at you like that in his entire time leading you. He looked furious, distressed, agitated, so many emotions were etched those glaring dark eyes of his and you were losing track trying to figure out how to best appeal to him.

“I was trying to find you,” you murmured, barely speaking above a whisper.

“Why would you be doing that then, ay?” he gritted out, walking toward you cornering you into a wall.

His boots sounded against the floor like canons. With the way he was acting, you worried he’d shove you and crush you underneath them. Though maybe that would be kinder than the fate he had in store for you…

“You.. you- uh, tossed König’s things didn’t you?” you whimpered.

“I did.”

“Why?” you breathed, feeling your eyes welling with tears before you could even attempt to think of calming yourself.

“I’ll admit I got angry at the thought of having to go crawling and apologising to him and I lost it. I knocked his things off the bench. It went everywhere and shit went scattering out his pockets, y’know he left his wallet in his trousers, stupid cunt. Shouldn’t even have personal shit on a training exercise, but I suppose that’s what happens when you hire a bunch of undisciplined mercs… you know what I happened to see when I spotted his wallet though? You have any guesses, Sneak?”

You gulped and all of a sudden, it became all too clear to you exactly how Ghost had caught you out.

“The photos,” you whispered.

“That’s right,” Ghost growled, “I saw the fucking photos of you two poking out of it.”

Next part here

#König #König x reader #konig x reader #konig #könig fanfiction #modern warfare 2 #modern warfare fanfiction #mw2

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parkersbliss · 2 years

Note

can you do 31 33 and 50 with five?

Bitter Half | F. Hargreeves

pairing: five hargreeves x fem!reader

wc; 800ish

warnings: blood?

synopsis: five couldn’t be selfish even for the sake of his own life

requests: CLOSED

prompts: 031: “Just shut up and kiss me.”

033: “How much did you hear?”

050: “Need cuddles.”

Masterlist | Taglist | Prompt list

—

Fear.

That’s all you could feel.

“Somebody help him!” You shouted, dropping down to his side. You pull back his shirt to find blood staining his skin and his face an unnatural pale color.

“Five!” You shout, cupping his face with your hands. “Why wouldn’t you say something? Are you insane?”

“Sorry, pretty girl, but you have to keep going… so close,” He whispers before passing out.

“Five!” You continue to shout. “We need to get help!” You said, spinning to face Allison and Diego. They both nod, helping to pick him up and take him back to the car.

You lay his head on your lap as the other two get in the front and begin to drive. You run your anxious hands through his hair, feeling them shake as he gets paler by the second. Stupid Five and his god complex, his need to save the world. For once, he could just put himself first. You swear Five stresses you out more than any other person you’ve met. And yet, in that stress, you found comfort in him. He was the one person you felt safe with, the person you trusted with your life.

He was like your better (maybe bitter) half.

“You’re gonna be okay, Five,” You whisper, though you’re not sure who you’re trying to convince more, him or yourself.

When you get back to the Academy, Allison and Diego carry him in as you look for Grace.

“We should’ve taken him to the hospital,” Allison said.

“A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some questions.”

“Yeah, well, so does the shrine in Harold Jenkins's attic,” Allison quips back.

“Guys!” You scream, waving at the boy. “Five?”

“Grace!” Diego calls out, searching for his mom. She rounds a corner smiling at Diego, who points towards Five, she nods, taking him from Allison, and you follow her upstairs.

Grace sets the boy down on the bed softly as you grab a chair and sit in the corner, trying not to disturb her work. The whole time your knee bounces with fear as you stare at him.

He actually looks peaceful when he sleeps.

When Grace finishes up, she smiles at you, squeezing your shoulder and reassuring you before stepping out and offering you some privacy.

You’re grateful for that because you had a lot to say to the unconscious boy.

You pull your seat closer to him, grabbing his hand and softly kissing it. “You’re an idiot, you know,” You start. “Would it kill you to be selfish just once? You’re just so… annoying! You run around trying to save everyone but yourself. What happens if that gets you killed? Then what? And I don’t want to hear that ‘I’ve lived a long life’ bullshit. I think… I think we deserve a long life together. I deserve to get to wake up with you every morning and make fun of your coffee addiction and… and love you.”

You sigh, squeezing his hand and blinking away the tears. It was weird admitting how you felt towards the bitter old man. You were sure the only person he loved was Delores anyway. Which was why it’s good he passed out.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is if I’m going to keep having these stupid feelings for you, you gotta stop getting yourself shot at. Or I’ll shoot you myself.”

“You go on about me not dying and then threaten to kill me?” A voice chuckles. “Kind of thrown for a loop here. Which one do you want?”

Your breath hitches in your throat when you see a pair of green eyes set on yours. “You’re awake!”

You wrap your arms around the boy, careful of his wound, while also trying to pull him as close to you as possible. He responds just the same, wrapping an arm around you.

But then you pull back with wide eyes. “How much did you hear?”

Five just shrugs with a mischievous grin. “Oh, I don’t know. I really liked the part about living a long life together and coffee addiction, oh, and—”

You cut him off with a flushed face. “I get it! Just… shut up and kiss me.”

Five’s hand is quick to find the back of your neck, pulling you closer as your lips meet in a tender kiss. Your hands cup his cheek as you press against him. He tastes like coffee, which you expected, but you could grow to like coffee if it’s like this.

He pulls back before going in for one more sweet peck and then lays back on the bed. His green eyes trace your face, and you feel embarrassed under his gaze.

“What?” You ask with a light scoff.

“Nothing,” He says. “Need cuddles.”

His hand finds yours, bringing you back towards him, and you let him pull you into his chest. His arm wraps around your shoulder as you lean your head on him with a content sigh.

“I promise to stop almost getting shot at,” Five says.

“Go—”

“After the apocalypse.”

You don’t bother arguing with him, considering you’d be dead whether he did this or not. Instead, you press a kiss to his neck. “Okay.”

He hums, pressing his own kiss to your forehead. “And then you can shoot at me all you want.”

“Even better deal.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d like that one, pretty girl.”

“Only when it comes to you, pretty boy.”

— END —

#five hargreeves x you #five hargreaves x reader #five hargreeves #five hargreeves x reader #tua five x reader #tua five #tua fic #five x reader #five x you #five x y/n #tua #the unbrella academy #tua s2 #tua s3 #aidan gallagher #five headcanons

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moon-alight · 1 year

Note

Hi, i loved ur "nightmares" jo fanfic and wanted to request an ot9 reaction where they have a nightmare where they lose their s/o and can't find their s/o (and they like cry a lil cuz i feel like nicho cuz he's a softie and maki would a bit but let's leave it at that cuz it's a ot9 reaction) and srry for my vad english, anyway i love ur writing so yeh bye-bye 💗💗

Hello! :) I like this idea, I think it's absolutely adorable. . . also, what does everyone have with nightmares? Do you guys need someone to talk to or something? I'm glad you like my writing and your English is good enough for me to understand so, you're good. <3

Masterlist

&Team reaction to waking up from a nightmare and not finding you

Warnings: fluff, angst, sad &team

Word Count: 1359

-K

He wakes up in the middle of the night with a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. The recent events of his nightmare still fresh in his mind, he reaches out to find you but somehow can't.

He quickly opens his eyes and looks around. The spot on the bed where you would usually be is empty and right now he really would've loved your support. He looks around before remembering that you are currently at your house because you have to wake up early tomorrow.

He turns on the lights, sits up on his bed and stares at his phone on his nightstand. He has a discussion in his head, contemplating whether or not to call you but he decides against it. 'It was just a nightmare anyways' he would tell himself.

(He would tell you the next morning and you'd both talk about it which makes him feel better)

-Fuma

He has had livid dreams, sure, but never did he have such a livid nightmare and honestly, it scares him. He opens his eyes and looks around wildly only to find your side of the bed empty.

"y/n?" His voice is shaky but he tries to hide his fear as much as possible. He throws the blankets off of him and stumbles through the hallway. He hears faint voices come from the living room and decides to check it out only to find you watching tik-toks on the couch.

"Hey, baby." You say, smiling softly.

"What are you doing here?" Fuma asks, sitting down next to you. You close your phone and put it down next to you.

"I had a nightmare and didn't want to wake you."

"Me too." Fuma replies and wraps his arms around you. "We shouldn't have watched Nightmares on Elmstreet last night."

-Nicholas

His nightmares are usually about bad performances or something but this one was much, much worse. He lost you, the love of his life, after an argument which he could've fixed. When he wanted to apologize, he got the news that you had died in a car accident.

It all felt so real.

Especially because you two fought literally right before going to bed. He reaches out once he wakes up but you're gone. Instant panic spreads through his body. Did you walk away? Did something happen? Are you gonna break up with him?

You walk inside the room two minutes later to find your boyfriend crying on the bed. "Nico?" You ask, your voice is soft as to not scare him. He looks up, his eyes red and there are tear stains on his cheek. You had never seen him like this.

"I'm sorry." He whispers, you run to his side and sit down next to him. "We fought and you left and then you died! I couldn't say how much I love you, I couldn't say how much you mean to me--" *Hiccup* "You were just gone."

"I'm here, love." You assure him. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise." You pull him in your arms. "I love you, doesn't matter how much we fight I will always love you."

-EJ

He is stressed out. He has been ever since he got the role of leader which meant that he now has so many responsibilities meanwhile he also tries to take care of you. . . it's a lot. Nightmares aren't very uncommon but you not being there is.

He wraps a blanket around his shaking body and he is off to find the love of his life in the middle of the night in the dark dorm. Boy is determined to find you and ultimately does. He sees you stand at the kitchen counter with a cup of milk in your hands.

He walks over and embraces you from behind, letting his body weight fall on you. You jump slightly but laugh when you realize it's your own personalized teddy bear.

"Hey, baby. What's wrong?" You ask, taking another sip of your drink.

"Nightmare." EJ mumbles back. "You weren't there."

"Oh, I'm sorry, bubba. Want some milk to make up for my absence?"

-Yuma

He is absolutely terrified but will pretend he isn't just for the sake of being the protective boyfriend who doesn't need protection but the moment he realizes you're not there. . . he freaks the hell out!

"Princess?" He sits up and looks around with sleepy eyes. "Angel?" A scary sound comes from outside and he's up. "Sweetheart?" He asks again. Nothing. "Bab---AAAAAHHHH!!!!"

You slam your hand over his mouth to stop him from waking the other boys though you're sure they're awake by now. "What's wrong?" You ask but Yuma doesn't reply, no, he wraps his arms around you and holds onto you like you're his lifeline.

"I thought you were kidnapped!" You chuckle and rub your hand through his hair gently.

"Let's go back to bed, shall we?"

-Jo

My baby. ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡) Anyways, he would wake up and stare at the ceiling unable to move. When he finally catches his breath he feels around the mattress with his hand only to find that you're not there.

He would want to go look for you but he's absolutely terrified to even as much leave his bed so he waits this one out. When you finally return to the room he does sit up and looks at you with teary eyes.

"What's wrong?" You ask, cradling his face in your hands. He sobs lightly and you gently wipe his tears away.

"Just a nightmare, it's stupid." You reassure him that it isn't stupid and climb in beside him. Jo holds onto you like a koala for the rest of the night, just making sure you won't leave again.

-Harua

Has a dilemma when he wakes up. Harua had positioned himself against the wall with his phone in his hands, your contact is visible but he isn't sure if he should call you. You were at home, asleep peacefully, he shouldn't wake you but he had clicked 'call' before he could stop himself.

"Yes?" Your groggy morning voice sounds. Harua feels so damn guilty about waking you up. "Harua?"

"M sorry." He reaches to end the call but your voice stops him.

"What happened?" You sound so worried, so caring.

"Nightmare."

"Want to talk about it?" You ask. He hears blankets shuffle and knows you're sitting up now too. So he decides to talk to you about it.

-Taki

He feels indifferent. He had a nightmare but he has had them many times before. . . then why is he currently grabbing onto his phone like an idiot? It rings four times before you pick up.

"Yes?"

"Where are you?" Taki asks, knowing you should've been besides him but you weren't.

"Bathroom."

"Oh, ok." He hangs up and stumbles out of bed. He walks towards the bathroom and knocks a couple of times.

"Yes?" You ask again, still tired from waking up only seconds ago. The door suddenly opens and Taki walks inside. You're glad you just pulled your pants up before he came in. "Hello, a bit of privacy?"

"I had a nightmare." Taki tells you, he looks rather shaken up. You quickly wrap your arms around him and comfort him the best you can.

-Maki

Pain. He feels pain. So much that he can't breathe properly and tears stream down his face. It looked and felt so real. He reaches for his phone and calls you immediately.

"Sorry for waking you." He apologizes when you have picked up. "But I had a nightmare and didn't know what else to do." You were up, you couldn't sleep so this sounded like the perfect opportunity to go to the dorms since you live close by.

"On my way." You arrive about seven minutes later and find him on the couch. His hair is messy and he is still wiping away his tears. "Oh, Maki." You say softly and sit down next to him.

He clings to you and buries his face in the crook of your neck. You chuckle lightly and rub up and down his back, comforting him.

#&team #&team scenarios #&team headcanons #&team reactions #&team imagines #&team drabbles #&team k #&team fuma #&team nicholas #&team ej #&team yuma #&team jo #&team harua #&team taki #&team maki

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autumnshighlady · 10 months

Text

I’ve Always Liked to Play With Fire (part 16)

NESTA ARCHERON X ERIS VANSERRA X FEMALE!READER

summary: the moment you’ve all been waiting for, that’s all i can say

warnings: Night Court slander, pro-Tamlin,

word count: 7.7k (y’all better appreciate how long this is)

DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE

a/n: THIS IS THE BIGGEST CHAPTER YET GUYS!! so much is revealed that i’ve been planning for MONTHS, i’m so excited to share it with you. please send me all your reactions!

feedback is appreciated, just no hate pls! these are just my opinions, i’m more curious to see how you all like the writing and characterization and storylines!

part 1 // part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10 / part 11 / part 12 / part 13 / part 14 / part 15 /

read on ao3

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The stench of blood and shredded flesh was choking your senses, clogging your throat like the thickest oil. Everything was happening in slow motion through the stained glass as Hybern’s soldiers retreated, crowing their victory as if it took a great deal of skill to slaughter a defenceless village. Their cries were muffled, as if you were underwater. Every limb ached, too stiff and heavy to move even an inch. No amount of effort could get you to lift your head up.

You were going to die here. That much you had accepted.

What would be the point in living anyway? With your entire village dead, you closed your eyes, waiting for the embrace of death to whisk you away. Each breath was like shredding a knife through your chest, what was taking so long? Everyone else was gone, yet you were cursed with the ability to still draw breath.

A strange, white flicker drew your eyelids open. Everything was blurry, but even in your dazed state you could tell that something was happening. Groaning, you stretched out your fingers. If you had a voice, you knew you’d be screaming at the pain from such a simple movement. As your palm outstretched, something warm and gentle closed around it, as if the sweet spring breeze itself had formed a hand of its own to clasp yours. The touch was gentle, reassuring even. It flooded you with a sense of calm. Was this what death was like?

The white flickering from the bodies in the village erupted in a shower of starlight and sunshine, glowing tendrils rising from the mangled fae in your line of vision. They descended upon you like smoke, and the warm touch around your hand squeezed once before agony overtook your body.

You didn’t know if you were screaming or not. Your throat burned as if a dagger had slashed it open. Your abdomen ached, as if it was being hacked apart by a longsword. It felt like Hybern’s soldiers had descended upon you with their weapons, striking and cutting a thousand times. You heard nothing but the ringing in your ears as your body shook with spasms.

Please just let me die faster, You pleaded to the Mother. I can’t take this. Just end it already.

Even throughout the unbearable pain that wracked your body, you could still feel the warm sensation like someone was squeezing your palm. You wondered if it was your mother, preparing to guide you into whatever afterlife lay ahead. But the pain didn’t stop, didn’t end. It just kept going for what felt like eons. And then, like a weighted blanket was being laid over you, it stopped.

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

“Wake up.”

You opened your eyes and groaned, Rhysand’s voice making your already pounding head worse. You had endured hours of hearing it scraping against your mental shields, pressing to try and find a way in. You had felt his anger, his frustration and disbelief at not being able to get through. Every ounce of his hatred had been flung at you like a thousand arrows, making you see right through the High Lord.

You felt his self righteousness, his true feelings about how he didn’t give a shit about anything but his precious circle. Even them, he looked down upon – including his own mate and High Lady. As Rhysand flung his thoughts at you, you read them like paper on parchment. He may love Feyre and his family, but at the end of the day he needed control. And there you were, a stain on his image, a brick out of place at the foundation of his empire, threatening to bring the whole thing down.

Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court, feared you.

He was afraid of your influence, how openly rebelling on him and calling out his lies might spread ideas to others. Especially with Nesta, Cauldron-made, on your side. The thought of Rhys being afraid of you would have made you laugh, if you weren’t tied up in a cell for days on end. You weren’t even sure how you were still alive

You never figured out what happened that day your village was attacked, after the slaughter ceased and you were left alone. Every time you closed your eyes, that glowing light from the bodies around you haunted your dreams. You weren’t sure if it was even real, if any of it actually happened or if your mind had made it up. But you had felt different since that day in a way that couldn’t be explained. It was as if something coursed through your bones, waiting to answer a call.

You were changed that day, and for months you had chalked it up to your state of mind being altered by something so traumatic. But you had been in this cell without food for longer than your body, even as a faerie, should have been able to survive. Something that clearly also perplexed your captor as he stared at you.

“I don’t understand you, (Y/N).” Rhysand said with lethal calm. “Nothing about you makes sense. You happen to survive a slaughter at the hands of Hybern, you infiltrate my court and make a magical bond with Nesta Archeron that nobody has ever seen before, and you somehow resist my magic. I want to know how you’re able to do that.”

You spat up the blood that had been pooling in your mouth. “Go fuck yourself. Prick.”

The High Lord chuckled, but continued as if you hadn’t spoken. “And to top it off, you’ve been scheming with Eris Vanserra this whole time. Plotting to overthrow me, perhaps? To rip my court out from under me like Feyre did to your beloved Tamlin? If it is revenge you are after, I suggest you rethink your plan.”

You said nothing. It would be pointless to argue with him. Anything you say would be twisted and used against you, so you held your tongue.

“It matters not,” Rhys continued, pacing back and forth with his hands in his pockets. “Because you failed in whatever it is you wanted to accomplish. You are here, locked in this dungeon where nobody can find you. And whether I grant you a merciful death or not depends on you answering this one simple question.”

Rhys stopped pacing, and leaned towards you. His face was inches away from yours, violet eyes boring into you like lasers. You could feel his breath on your face as he spoke. “What spell did you use to cast the bond? Gwyn’s story only tells us so much, if any of it is even related to this, but I know there’s more to it”

You huffed, cracked lips stinging with the effort of speaking. “You seemed to have a list of other questions, what happened to those?”

“Oh, I have other ways of finding out the answers to almost everything else. But with Nesta Archeron tucked away somewhere in Autumn, you are the only other person who can speak to the magic of the spell.” Rhys’ slender finger caressed your cheek, making you squirm with discomfort. “And if you cooperate like a good girl, how about I make you a deal? I will let Nesta live out whatever shit life she wants in Autumn in peace, provided you give me what I need.”

Your breath lurched, the horror of his insinuation dawning on you. Rhys never intended to let Nesta live peacefully in Autumn, not because he cared for her safety in the clutches of Beron, but because losing her made him look weak. Even if Nesta was married to Eris and protected by the whole of Autumn, Rhysand would take every opportunity he could to hunt her like a dog and bring her back.

No doubt he’d paint himself as the hero of the situation. Poor Nesta Archeron, stolen away by the evil Autumn prince and made a bride against her will. Rhysand would save her from her terrible fate, dragging her back to the Night Court to be hailed a saviour. And that would be the last time Nesta ever stepped out of Night, he would make sure of it. Under the illusion of caring for his beloved sister in law, of course.

You glared at him, but he only chuckled again. Rhys leaned away from you and stood back upright, picking at the sleeve of his shirt casually. “It matters not,” He said. “Azriel is on his way right now. He’ll tell me what he’s discovered, and when the sun rises over the mountains, he will kill you.”

It felt like a bucket of ice had been dumped on your body as you remembered the fading voices of Rhys’ command to his spymaster before you had passed out. You didn’t know what Azriel would do. On the one hand, he had stood up for you in a way that Rhys clearly hadn’t expected. But on the other, he has been loyal to the prick for five centuries – holding out hope that would change now was foolish. All you could truly hope for was that he granted you a quick death.

“What if he didn’t find anything?” You croaked. “Still gonna kill me then? I thought you were desperate to find answers.”

“If Azriel cannot find them, then there is nobody that can,” The High Lord countered simply, as if he were making idle chit chat. “And then whatever secrets you’re so determined to keep die with you, the magic along with it. That’s something I can live with if not knowing at the end of the day means protecting my court.”

You laughed bitterly. “As if you care about that?”

Rhys’ eyes narrowed, his body stilling like a predator frozen before the kill. “Excuse me?”

“You sure don’t give a shit about most of it.” You challenged brazenly. “The women in Illyria who still get their wings clipped, anyone who has the misfortune of living outside Velaris, you don’t care about anyone but yourself and your little family. You rule because you like the power, not because you care about the people your power is supposed to protect.”

“I have outlawed wing clipping in Illyria–” Rhys growled, but you interrupted him.

“And without enforcing it harshly you have only ensured that the practice of wing clipping becomes more underground, leaving females to die from mangled procedures.”

If looks could kill, Rhysand’s would have obliterated you. But you couldn’t help but smirk to yourself at the anger you elicited from the High Lord. Judging by his reaction you knew that he knew you were right. He just hated hearing it.

“I see Azriel taught you too much.” Rhys hissed.

“What did I teach her too much of?”

You flinched as Azriel’s voice echoed in the chamber. Out of the shadows he appeared, melting into the space of the dark cell like wax. His expression was unreadable, and he did not look at you. He faced his brother, not sparing you a single glance.

“Azriel, I am very glad you’re here.” Rhys’ voice singsonged, an obnoxiously chipper tone to it. The smug look on his face made you tense up preparing for the worst.

Gwyn was the only other person who knew about what magic was used to cast the bond between you and Nesta. Your gut twisted at the thought of Azriel going to her for answers. The priestess had sworn she would never breathe a word, but in more ways than one Azriel could be… persuasive. Rhys had already figured out the story the spell was based on by going into her mind, if he knew what else she had found….

You were certain of one thing though: if Azriel had harmed Gwyn in any way, you’d tear him limb from limb.

“I assume you’re going to be more helpful than this one here regarding information on the bond?” Rhys continued, crossing his arms proudly.

Silence that was almost too loud took over the cell for a few moments, until Azriel uttered one word from his lips. “No.”

Rhys blinked in surprise. “No?” He said. “You mean you honestly found nothing?”

A tentative flicker of hope ignited in your chest. Azriel was stone faced as he answered to his High Lord. “Correct. The library was of no use, even the restricted section. I found nothing resembling the bond (Y/N) and Nesta used.”

The High Lord’s eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head. “Interesting. You are usually more useful than this, Az.”

“I explored all of my available resources and found nothing.” Azriel’s voice was monotone, no emotion or life to it. It was the voice of a spy, unreadable and impossible to decipher. It made you nervous, unsure of what angle he was playing at. Azriel was not stupid, he had to know Gwyn would have been the one to give you and Nesta access to the information.

Which means whatever his reasoning was, he chose to keep Rhysand in the dark.

“Pity.” Rhys clucked his tongue in disappointment. “I know dear Amren was dying to find out what spell it was. But it doesn't matter anymore. I guess we’ll all have to live with the disappointment, won’t we?”

Azriel remained motionless as he spoke. “I am sorry I failed you.”

Another minute of silence overcame the cell. You barely even breathed, heart racing with every passing second. Until Rhys spoke the words you had been anticipating for days. “Kill her.”

The shadowsinger shifted, standing more upright. As your heart dropped into your stomach, you anticipated him reaching for truth-teller. If he had kept the information about the spell out of Rhysand’s hands, you took it as a sign he would make your death quick and clean at least. And so you closed your eyes, finding yourself for the second time in one year waiting for death to come and claim you.

“No.”

Azriel’s firm words made your eyes snap open in confusion. Rhysand was taking a deep breath, as if trying to keep himself calm and collected before he spoke. “And why not?” The High Lord said icily.

“Because this is wrong.” Azriel said, shifting his weight as if the mere act of disobeying his High Lord caused him discomfort. He glanced at you, eyes softening for a second as he spoke. “And she is my friend.”

“Please,” Rhys scoffed angrily. “No she is not. She was manipulating you, you fool. Maybe her pretty face kept your shadows distracted enough from figuring that out, but she is not your friend. She is your prisoner, whom your High Lord is ordering you to kill.”

“I said no.”

You glanced uneasily between them, not expecting Azriel to openly defend you like this. Rhys, apparently, felt the same thing. His breath was uneven, and his voice laced with rage as he spoke. “What has gotten into you, Azriel? Are you really going to disobey me like this?”

Azriel argued back, trying to reason with his brother. “Rhys, what we are doing to this female is wrong. All signs point to her wanting just to be free, not to bring harm to your court. She has no desire to overthrow you, or whatever bizarre shit your brain has come up with. Killing her would be wrong.”

“SHE IS A FUCKING THREAT TO MY COURT!” Rhys suddenly bellowed, his loud yell hurting your ears as it echoed throughout the chamber. Without warning, Rhysand shoved Azriel against the wall, a loud crack sounding as the spymaster’s wings collided with solid rock. He groaned in pain, but did not fight back.

. “And I am ORDERING you to do your job and eliminate her.” Rhys growled at him, pressing his neck into the wall. “If you do not, then I–”

“Do it yourself, coward.” You spat with as much defiance as you could. You hated seeing Azriel let his brother overpower him, watching him give up because he thought he deserved punishment for disobedience. You did not necessarily see eye to eye with the shadowsinger on everything – hell, there were times where his bystanderism made him just as bad as the rest of his circle.

But you could not let this happen to you, because it was all your fault. It was because of you he was in this position – his job, his family, his life on the line because he was trying to help you.

Rhys froze, pausing whatever blow he was about to land on his spymaster before he slowly turned to gaze at you. “What did you just say?”

“I said…” Every word was an effort, but a surge of determination flooded through you. “Kill me yourself, you fucking coward. Do your own dirty work for once.”

Rhysand snarled, letting go of Azriel with a shove. He stormed over towards you and grabbed your throat, hand gripping it like talons. His face was pure rage, the ugly face behind the charming mask, the illusion finally shattered. “I’m going to enjoy this,” He spat in your face. “And when I’m done, I’m going to drag Nesta back here kicking and screaming if I have to. And she will meet this very same fate once I make her scream.”

Something deep inside of you snapped. A strange sensation coursed through your bones, filling your broken body with life once again. Your wrists no longer ached, your back was no longer stiff. You could barely hear over the roaring in your head as you pictured Nesta’s beautiful face in your mind. The ringing in your ears became so loud, and before the High Lord of the Night Court unleashed his dark mist upon you, the world went white.

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

Wake up.

It was not the snarling, arrogant voice of Rhysand that greeted you, but a soft female one. It was familiar yet foreign all at once, the sound of both one voice and a thousand altogether, blended like a strange melody. Your eyes fluttered open, and you were met with a familiar scene.

Your village.

The bodies had gone, only ash and dirt remaining where they once were. The buildings remained in ruins, like the memorial of an ancient city. Vines had begun to curl over the rooftops, circling down the sides of what remained of the houses that Hybern did not burn down. Flowers had blossomed across the earth, a stark contrast to the death and destruction that had occurred on the very same soil all those months ago. You glanced at your arms, which were free from the cuts and bruises inflicted upon you in the dungeon. You felt no pain.

“Do you remember what happened that day?”

You jumped as the female voice sounded behind you. Whirling around, you were met with a tall female. She had olive skin and warm brown eyes, with long brown hair that shone like the rays of the sun itself. Her face was kind but strong, and she wore sparling robes that almost blended in with her skin. She emitted an otherworldly glow, a kind of radiance that shook you to your very core.

“Who… who are you?” You stuttered.

The female smiled softly, her elegant hands clasped together. “I am Estelle.”

Your mind raced, putting together the pieces from Gwyn’s information. “Like… the mother goddess from the story? Jayana’s lover?”

She nodded. “A millenia later, and I find myself missing her every day. Much like you miss your Nesta.”

You took a steady breath, shaking your head. “Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?”

The goddess chuckled softly. “No, my child, you are not dead. You are here for a reason, one which requires an answer to my question. Do you remember this day?”

You paused, taking a few steps back and scanning the clearing. Your heart ached at the sight of it so empty, so quiet and lifeless. It held so many good memories, ones that were now tainted with bloodshed and violence. “Not all of it…”

“Do you ever have dreams, my child? Dreams where you’re back in this clearing, body seized with pain so violent it felt like you were dying a thousand times?”

You felt her presence follow you as you wandered aimlessly. “Yes…” You muttered. “Are you going to tell me that really happened?”

“Is that what you want me to tell you?”

You whirled around, facing the female once again. “Look, I don’t know what the hell is happening right now. Or at all, frankly. I’ve had enough riddles, can you please just tell me why I’m here?”

Despite your anger, Estelle showed no sign of hurt at your sharp words. There was sorrow behind her eyes, an understanding, one that you felt could see into every inch of your soul.

“You know my story, correct?” She said softly. You nodded.

“Good,” She continued. “When I absorbed the life forces of my fallen comrades, I felt each and every one of their deaths. It tore through my body like a riptide, and I was sure it was going to break me. I felt their rage, their fear, their anguish as they were slaughtered much like your village was. And after that day, I held a new power, one that allowed me to escape Hel and break the realms of the world apart.”

Your throat was dry, a dizziness overcoming you as the weight of her words dawned on you. Every dream you had about that day, every nightmare that ended in blinding light and pain was the exact experience that the goddess in the story had felt. “What are you saying?” Your voice was quiet as you asked a question you were pretty sure you knew the answer to.

“My child,” Estelle said. “The same thing happened to you. What you felt that day was the life force of everyone in your village flooding into your body. You felt each and every one of their deaths, and I am sorry you had to experience that. But it happened for a reason.” You weren’t sure you were breathing at this point. You rested your hands on your knees, trying to stabilise yourself. “Do you mean….” Your voice stuttered as you spoke. “Do you mean that… what I felt that day… what I felt afterwards…”

Your voice trailed off, but a warm hand on your shoulder reassured you.

“Yes. Your body now possesses the life force of hundreds of deaths, a power you can shape and wield however you choose.”

The feeling of the goddess’s hand on your shoulder struck something in you. All those times you felt that invisible touch, that reassuring presence that you thought you had imagined… You had thought it was maybe the Mother, but it dawned over you that it had been Estelle this whole time. Hers was the hand that held yours as you felt the deaths of your friends and family rip through you. Hers was the voice that helped you stay strong as Rhysand tortured you.

“This whole time…” You said breathlessly, her presence behind you like a warm light on your back. “I thought it was the Mother guiding me. But it was you.”

“My dear, we are one and the same.”

You whipped around to face the goddess. “You’re the Mother?”

Estelle simply smiled. “The war that took Jayana from me was centuries before Prythian was formed. After I escaped Hel, I wandered about the universe, utterly lost. Until I found this untamed world, unguided by any spirit. I did not ask to be named the Mother, but my true name had been lost in my years alone. So I became her, but I never forgot who I was. And I never will.”

You ran a hand through your hair, mind spinning with the overload of information. The story of Jayana and Estelle was not only true, but Estelle was the Mother herself, the being that watched over Prythian and was worshipped all over the land. Not only that, but you were living what Estelle had experienced hundreds and thousands of years ago.

“Why?” Was all you could ask, not knowing what to say.

“Not everything has to have an answer,” Estelle said, taking your hand in her own. “And I urge you not to expect to know the explanation for everything after this. But as for why you are here, I needed you to know the truth. You refused to believe your dreams, and chose to try and forget about them instead of asking yourself if they were really just imaginary. You possess the power of life now, just as I do. And you are in a terrible situation, my child. I ask that you recall my story, and use this power to find your way back to your mate.”

Even in this strange dreamy reality, time seemed to stop. Mate. The world itself seemed to spiral down upon you as the word replayed in your head over and over again.

Nesta was your mate.

“But… but Cassian is Nesta’s mate.” Was all you could sputter out. Something stirred in you, as if awoken by the realisation. It was like the bond, but stronger. Its presence in your chest was undeniable, reaching out as if it were searching for its other half.

“Fae folk can have more than one mate in some instances. Nesta Archeron has more than one, but Cassian is not one of them.”

“How–”

Estelle cut you off, more urgency in her voice than before. “I have already told you not to expect the answers to every question you have just yet. All will reveal itself in time. But Jayana and I were mates before I created the spell that allowed us to communicate. Therefore, in order for the magic to work, the spell had to be done between two mates. The daemati-like powers is the only thing that spell gives. Everything else you feel? That deeper connection to Nesta? It was already there in the mating bond. The spell had nothing to do with it.”

“Holy shit.” You gasped, blood racing. “So you’re saying… Nesta and I are mates, and that’s why the spell worked?”

She nodded. “And why Rhysand was not able to activate it. It can only be done so between two mates, no matter how powerful an outsider’s magic is. And your magic is also the reason he cannot get into your head. You are protected from all other daemati magic.”

“I’m going to pass out…” You muttered, taking a seat on the log a few feet away. Within seconds, Estelle’s, or the Mother’s, appeared beside you.

“Everything happens for a reason, my child. You received those powers for a reason. You came across my story for a reason. I didn’t have a chance to use the spell to find my way back to my mate, but you do. Seize it.”

That strange presence in your bones you had felt after you woke up from the massacre, it wasn’t imagined after all. Deep down, you had always known something otherworldly happened. But you had spent months pushing it aside, trying to ignore it out of fear of what it was. “This is all just happening inside my head, isn’t it?”

Estelle’s long robes rustled in the breeze. “Of course it is,” She said. “But that does not mean it’s not real. Across the universe, there are multiple realities. Multiple versions of oneself that may seem like different people, but are all variants of one another. With beings like me, that does not happen unless we make it so. You, (Y/N), are an incarnate version of me. It’s why this is happening in your head. I am not some external being that is inside your mind right now. I am you, and you are me.”

You were the Mother incarnate. Holy shit. It felt like a dream, but the presence beside you was too strong to be anything but real. “If people have variants of each other,” You asked, trying to keep your voice steady. “Does that mean….Nesta is Jayana?”

“In a sense,” Estelle responded. “The connection is not direct like with you and I. I saw your situation when Hybern attacked your village, and I kept you alive by having your body absorb the life force of the dead just like I had. And thus, you became a version of me. Nesta Archeron is her own person, but fate seems to like its parallels. I see much of Jayana in her. They both have the same temper, both represent a death goddess feared across all the lands.”

You frowned. “You mean you aren’t the decider of fate? I thought everything that happened was with your guidance?”

She laughed melodically, the sound like the song of birds on a spring morning. “No, my child. I decide many things, yes. But not all. None of us do, and we do not know what does.”

Estelle’s words echoed in your mind like a hurricane, threatening to overwhelm you. But it didn’t, because in a way, everything made sense. She had no reason to lie, even if this was just some bizarre dream or afterlife sentence. The way you felt that connection to Nesta, that force in your body that threatened to explode when you were angry, it all aligned with what the goddess beside you was saying.

“I cannot linger any longer,” Estelle murmured, covering your shaking hands with her own. “But remember how I got out of Hel. Find that power buried within you and rattle the stars with it. I will always be there alongside you, my child. You are never alone.”

You turned to say something, another hundred questions racing through your mind, but the world around you glowed as the Mother faded into the light. Within a few seconds, she had gone.

Once again, you looked at the clearing around you. The marks on the earth where the bodies had lain seemed to glow, calling out to you. A force deep within you sung in response, begging you to release it. As you poured over Estelle’s words, you recalled how the magic she absorbed allowed her to burst out of Hel and free herself.

Rattle the stars.

Her wording was deliberate. The Night Court was represented by the stars. You knew not the extent of your powers, but if your theory was right, you could make the entire Night Court feel your fury.

And so you closed your eyes, and let the clearing slip away as you let that power you’d been pushing down surge through you. It felt like you were falling, the clearing swallowing up as you descended into a void of light.

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

It could have been a millenia you were falling, or perhaps a second. As you let yourself go down into the base of whatever power lay within you, you felt memories crash into you all at once. Your mother’s smile as she presented you with her freshly baked scones. The feeling of Nesta’s lips as she kissed you for the first time. Lucien pressing a cold cloth to your head when you were sick. Eris holding you as you danced in the Hewn City. Rhysand’s smirk as he carved into you like a piece of meat.

The rage that boiled up as Rhysand’s face flashed through your mind quickened your plummet, your power bubbling up and ready to overflow. And so you opened your eyes.

A look of horror crossed Rhysand’s features as your eyes glowed with a bright white half a second before his magic went to strike you down. Dark mist collided with pure light as you exploded with a war cry of ancient times.

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

White hot rage was all you could feel as you unleashed yourself. Rage of the Spring Court souls whose life forces you had absorbed crying out with you for vengeance against the Night Court. Rhysand was thrown back, Azriel too as your light exploded. The walls around you crumbled, your chains shattering as everything around you came crashing down. The earth beneath your feet shook, the rock from the prison walls flying a hundred feet out to either side.

Wind ripped against your face as the mountain your cell had been inside crumbled away before you, creating avalanches of stone whose impact upon the ground sounded like thunder. Your blood sang, as if the life force within you was happy to be used. Surprisingly, Velaris was visible in the distance – you had thought your prison would be some remote mountain in Illyria. But perhaps Rhys knew that’s what everyone would assume, and keeping you closer to his home would keep you from being discovered.

Out of the shadows, Rhysand and Azriel appeared from the smoke, coughing violently. As they finally opened their eyes to look at you, pure wonder crossed their faces. You didn’t have to look down at yourself to know you were glowing with that same light Estelle had. Your gaze landed upon Azriel, who froze like a statue as it landed on him.

He didn’t cower, or scurry away. He simply gazed at you in awe for a few more moments before dipping his head, bowing before your presence. Rhys, on the other hand, got to his feet and snarled.

“What are you?” The High Lord hissed, gathering dark mist between his fingertips.

“I am Life,” The voice you responded with was not entirely your own – it was ancient and prophetic, with the authority of a god. “And your court has taken everything from me. You will pay for your crimes, High Lord Rhysand.”

Rhys made a vicious noise, talons of mist forming at his fingertips. You quickly realised that despite what you had just done, you had no clue how to defend yourself with your power. But before he could make the first blow, a ring of silver fire burst through the air and surrounded him, accompanied by a fierce roar from the sky. As you looked up, letting your eyes adjust to the bright daylight, you gasped at the sight before you.

Three dragons were flying towards the ruined mountain. One black, one silver, and one gold. The golden one was without a rider, circling the ruins around you and crying out. A familiar redhead was perched atop the black one, golden armour shining in the midday sun.

Eris, a golden flame atop a black fire breathing mount, had come to your rescue. But it was the silver dragon your eyes were drawn to, and that piece in your chest that had spent the last few weeks reaching out to Nesta crackled with excitement as you gazed upon the silver dragon’s mount.

Dressed in red, scaling armour was Nesta. Even from the ground, you could see her silver eyes glow in the same shade as the flames surrounding Rhysand. She had the wrathful look of a death goddess as she descended with her dragon, its silver wings creating hurricane like gusts of wind as it hovered before you and Rhys.

Nesta and Eris had come to save you.

You couldn’t help but glance at Azriel, who seemed sagged with relief. Your throat closed up with emotion – the spymaster knew Eris and Nesta would show up, and likely told them exactly where.

“Nesta.” Rhys growled, staring up at his sister-in-law with anger. “Leave.”

“Not without (Y/N).” Nesta’s voice was clear and strong, commanding Rhys like a queen commanding her subjects. Her dragon roared furiously at Rhysand, causing the High Lord to flinch.

“Dragons?” He sputtered, coughing as the smoke from the silver flames blew in his face. “What… how?”

“You have your surprises, Rhysand, and I have mine.” Eris piped up, landing his black dragon on the ground. The earth shook with its impact, sending more rocks crashing down the remains of the mountain.

Weariness took over your body, and you felt the light begin to fade as your magic retreated.

No no no, You cursed to yourself, trying to summon it again. But every muscle in your body ached from the sudden surge, unable to bear any more magic. You felt helpless again, trapped. Rhysand tried to take a step towards you, but scurried back as the ground once again shook, this time behind you.

The golden dragon had landed right behind you and let out a vicious roar towards Rhysand, its eyes glowing with fury. It stood protectively over your shoulder, towering over you menacingly in a way that promised certain death to anyone who made a move.

“Dragons are protective creatures,” Eris said. “I wouldn’t get any closer.”

“You’ve invaded my court,” Rhysand hissed. “This is an act of war.”

Eris chuckled. “Technically, you declared war first. We’re just finishing what you started.”

Before anyone could speak up, a horn sounded from the ridge in the distance. You whirled around, the motion making you slightly dizzy. But your eyes were clear as ever as the banners of the Spring Court appeared over the hill.

Armoured bodies marched in synch as soldiers approached on horseback, led by none other than Lucien. His cloak streamed behind him in the wind as he loped towards the scene of the wreckage. You nearly wept, not having seen him since he rescued you. From the look on his face, Lucien felt the same way.

A different type of roar was carried fast in the wind, and a mighty beast winnowed in front of the army and led the march. Its elk-like antlers and massive body sped ahead of his troops with his great stride, bounding towards you.

“What is going on here?” Rhysand demanded, unable to hide the slight panic from his voice.

“You started this war when you stole (Y/N) from Spring,” Eris said coolly, patting his dragon. “We’ve found it in our best interests to align with Tamlin over the matter, not you.”

The dragons did not react as Tamlin’s beast form landed right beside them, growling. Tears streamed down your face in relief – the High Lord you had looked up to, the male you had helped get back on his feet, had joined in on the effort to save you.

“Rhysand.” Tamlin growled in greeting.

“If this is some sort of revenge plan on Feyre–” Rhysand began, but was quickly interrupted.

“This is not about her,” The High Lord of Spring snapped. “This is about (Y/N). You have kidnapped and imprisoned an esteemed member of my court, which is considered an act of war. I do not want to shed blood, but we will if you refuse to let her return to me.”

“(Y/N) is a member of my court now.” Rhys responded, evening out his voice. You knew he was trying to put on his collected mask, but it was cracked and slipping. You snorted at the weakness of his voice, and the dragon behind you made a similar noise, as if it was mirroring you.

“Is she?” Lucien said, halting his horse next to Tamlin and looking at Rhysand with a hatred you didn’t know he had. “Because she is still registered as a member of Spring. You never opened any accounts or filed any legal documents with her name, so according to the law there is no proof that you have taken her in as an official member. Which means you have wrongfully imprisoned a member of another court.”

“This is absurd.” Rhys scoffed. “Get out of my court. Now. This is my business.”

“Hand (Y/N) over and we will.” Lucien responded. The armies of the Spring Court halted a few metres behind the dragons, hands clasping their weapons, ready for the order to jump into action.

Malice glittered in Rhys’ eyes. You knew he wouldn’t give up easily, not when you had already made him look weak once. “No.” He said firmly.

No sooner had the syllable left his lips did a band of silver fire wrap around his throat. He cried out in pain as the flame danced, licking at his skin but not quite burning. The silver dragon’s roar turned all eyes to Nesta, and your heart jumped at the sight.

Nesta had stood up on her dragon’s back, silver flames wrapped around her fingertips and arms. The clouds darkened above everyone, thunder rumbling in the distance as her eyes glowed brighter.

“You locked me up.” Nesta’s voice was cold as ice and sharp as steel. Nobody moved a muscle as it echoed alongside the eerie cries of the wind. “I helped you, dozens of times. And you locked me up because I didn’t cope with the war YOU dragged me into in the way you deemed acceptable. I was an object to you, one to use and exploit when it suited you only to lock me away again when you were done. None of your circle has had any respect for me, Rhysand. From the beginning, you have pitted yourselves against me because it’s easier to make me the bad guy than take a look at your own flaws and mistakes. You took my human life, my money, my house, and everything I had. I was never a person to you, just a problem.”

Even Tamlin had gone completely still as Nesta twisted her hand, causing another band of fire to appear. This time, it bound Rhys’ hands and ankles, forcing him to his knees. Black mist attempted to make its way through the fire, but was rapidly quenched. Rhysand’s magic was no match for Nesta’s fury.

“I am taking my life back, Rhysand.” Nesta said. “And you and my sister will have no say or part in it. Do not come after me, do not try and bring me back here. If you try, I will burn you to nothing but ash.”

Rhysand growled, thrashing against Nesta’s fire. “Azriel!” He barked. “Do something!”

The shadowsinger was pale faced, surveying the scene before him. “Let her go,” He said sternly. “This is a fight we cannot win.”

You found your feet again, standing up on shaky legs. You summoned more magic – your body protested, but you ignored it as a shimmering white gag wrapped around Rhysand’s mouth, joining his silver flames.

“This isn’t a debate.” You panted, the weight of your tattered, shredded dress making you want to collapse. But you relented. “I am leaving with them, and you will let me.”

Tamlin’s beast form crawled towards Rhysand, growling. “I was wrong to lock Feyre up, I know that.” He spat. “But don’t pretend like you didn’t do the exact same thing to Nesta and (Y/N).”

Rhys mumbled something through the gag, but was ignored. You felt a nudge, and the golden dragon was gently pushing its snout into you. You placed your hand on its nose, letting the beast inhale your scent.

“Zorzimril says it’s time to go.” Eris quipped, smirking down at you. “Let’s get you out of here.”

You nodded, glancing up at Nesta. Your mate.

Her eyes were locked on you, and a faint tear ran down her cheek. Tentatively, you reached towards the spell-made bond. Nesta?

I…. I can’t believe I’m hearing your voice. Nesta’s response came, and so did your tears. Your lungs shook as you inhaled deeply between sobs.

Me too.

There will be time to catch up later. Come, let’s leave.

The golden dragon had lowered its shoulder to the ground and looked at you expectantly. Tentatively, you climbed onto its back, grasping the horns down its spine as you settled yourself. From the view on dragonback, you surveyed the site you had been standing on. Rubble from the mountain was everywhere, the great peak crumbled into a small hill. The gags on Rhys had disappeared, but he remained kneeling, face twisted with anger. Azriel stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder and giving Eris a slight nod. Tamlin and Lucien stood side by side once again, united with a common cause. Your heart swelled as you recognized the faces of the soldiers they brought – many of them fae that you had taken into the manor after losing their homes to Hybern. You could see it in their eyes that they had come not just because they were ordered to, but because they wanted to help you like you had helped them.

“Let’s get out of this wretched court.” Eris sighed, winking at you.

“Wait.” You said as an idea popped into your head. “I have something I want to do first.”

Nesta smirked at you, knowing exactly what you meant.

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

You, Nesta, and Eris soared on dragonback through the Night Court, approaching the Inner Circle’s mountainside cabin. You relished in the cold air whipped across your face, having not felt fresh air in weeks. Zorzimril happily flew you alongside Nesta, making happy growling noises as the excitement of what you were about to do made you jittery.

As your dragons approached the cabin, they stopped, hovering in the air above it. You looked towards Nesta and Eris, and they gave you a nod. You shouted the command Nesta had taught you, and Zorzimril unleashed a torrent of flames upon the cabin. The scent of burnt wood filled the air as the structure was quickly engulfed. Within ten seconds, it was reduced to ash.

And so the three of you flew to each remote residence of the inner circle, making sure it was away from the city before burning it to the ground. With every palace set aflame you whopped with delight, causing Eris to chuckle. It was satisfying, watching their luxuries burn down while half of Illyria was starving and poor. The Inner Circle had fled to the River House, the one shared residence of theirs that remained intact due to it being in the city centre. You did not want to punish innocent people for the crimes of their leader, like Feyre had done to your court. No, this was proper vengeance. And you relished in it.

Despite your exhaustion and pain from the last few weeks, you let yourself cheer and cry out on the back of Zorzimril as you soared through the air between Nesta and Eris, headed for the thicket of the autumn trees in the distance, leaving the Night Court behind you.

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tbmunson · 2 years

Text

Lace & Leather - Gareth Emerson X Fem!Reader

Summary: You fill in on bass for Jeff. Your boyfriend, Gareth, busts his lip. Your brother, Eddie, helps you get laid. Basically part 2 to Tattoos & Trig. (Everyone is 18+)

Warnings: SMUT. 18+. NO MINORS. Blood kink. Praising. Dom!Gareth. Needy!Reader. Unprotected sex. P in V sex. Public(ish?) sex. Gareth being a simp. Brother!Eddie knowing about your kinks/sex life. As always let me know if I missed anything.

WC: 2300ish (I know I previously said 2100ish but I edited and added)

Masterlist

"Jeff's sick. Can you cover bass for practice today?" Eddie asked, peeking into your open bedroom door.

You looked up from the Rolling Stone magazine you'd stolen from the convenience store and nodded. "Yeah, I was going anyway." You said, dog earring the page about the new KISS record.

"Oh, were you?" Eddie raised his eyebrows suggestively and turned around, but not walking away.

You rolled your eyes and stood from the bed. You hadn't been able to make mention of seeing Gareth the last three months without Eddie's suggestive looks and stupid laugh. "Do you, like, want me to fuck him or something?" You asked, stepping into the skinny jeans you'd pulled off of the floor.

"Not particularly." Eddie was facing the hallway while you dressed.

"Then why do you keep making those stupid faces?" You grabbed the Iron Maiden t shirt turned tank top out of the closet before changing into it. Your black lace bra was visible since the arm holes stopped even with your belly button.

Eddie shrugged. "Because I know you guys haven't."

You pulled the frizzy dark curls into a ponytail and laughed. "And how would you know?"

"Because you haven't told me. You tell me everything." He glanced back as he heard you sit on your bed to lace your black leather boots. "But it looks like you plan on doing it tonight." His face soured as he took in the lace and the skin.

You rolled your eyes and tied the laces. "You guys never let me actually play on stage with you. Gotta live my rockstar fantasy somehow."

"Yeah? Gonna have him snort a line off your ass while you're at it?"

You looked up at him rolled your eyes. "If he wants to." You knew he was kidding since none of you did anything harder than smoking weed.

Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes. "He's gonna be shit today, distracted and all." He said, turning to walk out of your room.

"Tell Jeff not to be sick next time!" You called after him before standing to grab your bass from the wall.

You and Eddie pulled up to Gareth's house having placed bets on how long the boy would be able to focus.

"I bet ten minutes. Five if you actually put on the lipstick." Eddie smirked, looking at the deep cherry red tube you had in your hand.

"I don't think you give him much credit. I think he'll be fine until I start sweating." You swiped the pigment across your lips as you looked into the small vanity mirror.

"I think you give him too much." Eddie said, opening his door to get out.

You rolled your eyes and followed in suit around back to get your instruments.

"It's Eddie and Y/N!" You heard Kevin call to Gareth as you closed the van doors.

"Hey!" You smiled and waved, taking steps towards the garage.

Gareth peeked around the wall and his jaw dropped. "Whoa." He was too far away for you to hear, but you could see him practically drooling.

"Maybe we both overestimated him." You looked up to your brother, who was smirking at the boys in front of him.

"Jeff's got the flu so Y/N is filling in for him."

Gareth swallowed hard as he stepped out fully to hug you. "Hey, baby." He sounded timid as you wrapped your arm around him, pulling him closer to your level.

You pressed a kiss to his cheek and giggled. "Hi." You smiled at the lipstick stain that was delicately stuck to his skin now.

"We're still having practice, right, Eddie?" Kevin asked as he watched the two of you.

"That's the plan until Gareth can't carry a rhythm." Eddie replied, watching Gareth's hand slip lower and lower. "Let's get started yeah?" He said rather loudly before Gareth's hand could reach your ass.

You pulled Gareth down and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before releasing him and walking over to plug your bass into the amp.

Gareth tapped out a basic beat on the drums and you joined in with your bass to warm up.

"It's creepy how they just do that." Kevin mumbled, hooking his guitar up as well.

Eddie chuckled and nodded in time with the beat before adding a riff to it. "Kinda like that?" He asked, smirking.

Practice was going well until, like you'd predicted, you got sweaty.

Gareth couldn't keep his eyes off of your glistening figure as you jumped around, and definitely not when you stepped up to the mic to be the backup vocals for your brother. There was something about the way you used your entire body, standing on your tiptoes, using both hands to bring the mic to your mouth. And don't even get him started on how sexy he thought the contrast in the angelic tone and rasp of your voice was. Gareth's grip on his drumstick came loose as he hit his snare, causing the stick to bounce back up and hit him in the lip.

"Ow, fuck!" Gareth covered his mouth as the tinge of blood made its way into his mouth.

You quickly stripped the bass from your body and placed it on the stand before jogging over to check on him. "What happened, baby?" You asked, squatting down in front of him.

"It slipped and busted my lip." He answered, mumbling through his hand.

You moved his hand away from his mouth and nodded, grabbing the bandana from your back pocket. You didn't always copy your brother, but when you did, it was something practical. "Let me clean you up." You said, pouring some of his water onto the cloth.

He nodded and let you work clearing the smudges blood from his face so you could find the spot it was bleeding from.

"Come on, Kev. Let's give them a few minutes." Eddie said, nodding his other friend away from the garage.

"I can't believe I did that." Gareth mumbled as you pulled him up from the stool and towards the couch.

You bit your lip and nodded, watching the blood trickle from his bottom lip. "It happens, baby. It's okay." You were thankful Eddie had taken Kevin away from here as you watched the deep red bead form and spread into Gareth's lips. Eddie knew about the blood kink.

"Are you alright?" He asked, placing a hand on your shoulder, drawing you back away from your fantasy.

You nodded and blushed. "I just really wanna kiss you right now." You looked down into your lap.

"But my lip is bleeding." He replied, moving his hand to the side of your neck so you'd look at him.

You nodded and whimpered as the blood dripped down. "I know, Gare. I know, it's weird but..."

"But you like it?" He asked, looking into your eyes.

You nodded, flicking your gaze between his eyes and his bloody lip.

"It's okay, baby. Go for it." He smiled, tugging the small cut aparts and creating a slightly heavier blood flow.

You timidly leaned towards him, connecting your lips and moaning lightly as the feeling of his blood on your lips.

One of his hands pulled your scrunchie from your hair to grip it as his other traced down your back and into the pocket of your tight jeans.

Your mouth opened more and your tongue licked the line of blood that had dripped towards his chin before you reconnected your lips with his.

The feeling was unfamiliar, turned on so much with blood in his mouth, but he loved it. The hand in your pocket squeezed your ass before tracking up under your shirt to your sweat dampened skin.

"Should we take this to your bedroom?" You asked, knowing the other two band members, one of which being your older brother, were still poking around somewhere outside.

Gareth shook his head and pushed a button on the wall for the garage door to close. "I think they'll get the hint."

"Looks like practice is over, Kev." Eddie said as he took a drag from his cigarette.

You smirked, pulling your shirt over your head.

Gareth leaned back towards you but instead of kissing your lips he smeared the blood down your neck, sucking hickies into your skin. He would wince once in a while as his busted lip reminded him it still hurt, but he would push it off to the side again quickly as he focused on your needy whines.

"Gareth, baby please." You rolled your hips up into his desperate for some friction. You moaned when you felt how hard he was through his jeans.

He pulled back, admiring the drying blood trail from one side of your neck to the other and down the valley of your boobs. "You know, Sugar, I never thought drawing flowers on you in math class would lead me here. You under me, covered in my blood, begging for me." His fingers trailed over the cup of your bra as he spoke.

You whined again, louder, needier. "Need you so fucking bad, Gareth please."

He reached down to unbutton your jeans as quickly as he could before tugging them down just enough to slip his hand into your panties. "Oh, yeah, looks like you are needy, huh? So fucking wet for me baby. Goddamn."

You moaned out as his middle finger slipped up and down your folds.

His free hand reached down to unlace your boots as he worked you over with his hand. "Such a good girl." He mumbled against your ear.

You turned your head and pressed your lips to his again, sucking his bottom lip, running your tongue over the cut.

As soon as your boots hit the floor Gareth pulled back. "Do you want this?" He asked, standing in front of you.

You stood and nodded. "Yes. Please, get naked." You begged pushed your jeans and underwear off of your body before tossing your bra which landed on his drums.

He stripped just as fast, standing with only his skull and crossbone necklace. He spun you around and pushed you so were kneeling on the couch. He used his knee to spread you further.

You did as instructed, spreading your legs to where he guided you and rested your elbows against the back of it.

Gareth reached out out, dragging his hand up and down your soaking wet cunt before wrapping his hands around his cock and giving it a few pumps. "You ready, baby?" He lined himself up at your entrance and leaned over you, kissing your shoulder.

"Yes. Yes please." You pushed back slightly, whining at the feeling of him against you.

He placed his hands on your hips and pushed into you with a groan. "You feel so fuckin' good." He stated, his voice a low growl into your ear as he bottomed out.

You mewled, unable to even speak. You only nodded in response, squeezing the back of the couch until your knuckles turned white.

He started slowly, one hand working its way around to your clit and circling the sensitive bundle of nerves. "So fuckin' good for me. Takin' me so well." He said, gaining speed as he continued to pump in and out of you.

"S'good." You couldn't get anything else out as you moaned, back arching. You rose higher and higher until your back was flush against his chest.

The hand that wasn't rubbing slow, teasing circles around your clit had wound its way up your body and was squeezing the sides of your throat in order to help support you.

Your lower stomach tightened as you felt yourself getting closer and closer. "Don't stop. Please. Please. Just like that Gareth, fuck."

"That's it. Say my name again baby."

"Gareth. Gareth I'm gonna cum. Please can I cum?" You dug your nails into his arm as you clung to him like your life depended on it.

"Yes, yes. Fuck." Gareth moaned as your walls spasmed around him, pushing him directly into his orgasm. The whimpers and groans that escaped him, directly into your ear intensified your pleasure.

You gasped for breath as you came down from the high, limp in his arms.

Gareth laid you down on the couch and moved to grab a towel from the dryer put you grabbed his hand.

"More." You whined, pulling him back towards you.

"You want more?" He asked, a small smile on his face.

You nodded, opening your legs again. "Fuck that cum back into me, please."

He shuddered and nodded. That was one of the filthiest things he'd ever heard and he wasn't going to deny you. "You're so fucking pretty. I love you, baby." He said, slipping back into you gently.

You smiled and hid your face in the crook of his neck. "Promise?"

He kissed the top of your head. "I promise, Sugar."

"I love you too, Gareth." You looked up him, red faced and sweaty. You laced your fingers behind his neck and pulled him down to kiss you, making him rest most of his body weight against you.

He didn't break the kiss as he slipped his hands under you, lacing them in your hair.

His strokes were slow, deliberate. He kept a steady rhythm as he tapped the soft spongy spot inside of you, bringing you closer to the edge each time.

Your moans suffocated inside of his mouth as he kissed you, showing you just how much he did love you. Your hands fell down from his neck to his chest and around to his back where your nails scratched lightly against him.

"You almost there, Sugar?" He asked, pulling away just a few centimeters to look at your face.

You nodded at him, eyebrows knitting together.

One of his hands slipped back down your body to apply a bit of pressure to your clit. It only took about a minute of this to send you over the edge again, Gareth right behind you, kissing your face and neck until you stopped writhing beneath him.

"I'm gonna marry you one day, Sugar." He said, pulling you up to sit in his lap.

"Oh yeah? What'll the theme be?" You asked, smiling at him.

He looked around and smirked. "Lace and Leather." He chuckled, making reference to your bra and panties and your leather boots.

"I like that, Gare."

"You done fucking my sister? I'd like to come back in, please!" Eddie called from outside, causing you both to grown.

"Lemme get dressed, Eds!" You called back, but pouted when you weren't able to stand up on your jelly legs.

Gareth chuckled and gathered your clothes for you before getting back into his.

#gareth emerson #gareth stranger things #gareth the great #gareth emerson x reader #gareth emerson x fem!reader #gareth emerson x y/n #gareth emerson smut #stranger things smut #stranger things

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arlecchno · 1 year

Text

mission accomplished [ scaramouche x reader ]

twenty-seven | purple hearts

prev masterlist next

receiving the medal of valor on christmas eve wasn't the only thing you got for christmas.

warnings: gunshots, wounds, blood, hospitals, kind of gory at the start, swearing, angst if you squint, use of childe's, signora's and scaramouche's name, yae miko appearance, pining, therapy talk, my very minimal knowledge on kissing, yes it's a happy ending guys

a/n: wtf this chapter is 11k+ words this is way more than what i had intended to write so i really hope no one minds 😭 this is the very long awaited chapter that everyone's been waiting for so i hope this is up to your expectations... happy reading and merry christmas ☃️ (90% proofread btw pls lmk if i made a mistake)

grammatical errors may occur so please let me know if i've made any mistakes!

you stood there frozen as you heard two gunshots that resonated around the cabin, closing your eyes shut from the loud sound.

you're not dead, are you?

but as you heard the sound of someone collapsing on the floor, you opened your eyes, snapping back to reality.

yun jin was on the floor, hand covering up her chest as she breathed heavily. you were about to question why she'd be doing that, before seeing blood seeping through her shirt, staining both her hands and clothes.

widening your eyes, you stumbled back.

the young woman raised her hand from the fresh gunshot wound to see its condition, before groaning in pain. you were able to see it for yourself, but when you realized it was only one gunshot wound, you froze once again.

you were sure you heard two gunshots.

if she's only got one, then the other one must've hit…

snapping your head to the door, you looked for the other person that could've gotten shot, but when the sight of the only person you had never expected to be at the door greeted you, your heart immediately stopped.

scaramouche held onto his wounded shoulder with one hand, leaning on the doorframe before he finally dropped to the floor, gun already discarded.

before you knew it, you were already on your feet as you ignored yun jin's cries of help, running towards scaramouche. you crouched down, hurriedly looking at the deep wound on his shoulder, blood flowing out quickly.

“shit.” you trembled in your words, looking at the gory scene in front of you. “w–wait here. i'll– i'll get you something to stop your blood from flooding out.”

with shaky legs, you stood up and walked back into the cabin, hurriedly finding a clean cloth. once you did, you went back to scaramouche, before you were stopped in your tracks by yun jin's hand holding your leg.

you snapped your head down to look at her. “let me go.”

“he's... he's gonna die anyway, just give it up already.” she croaked out, groaning in pain as she finished her sentence.

kicking out her hand from your leg, you stepped forward. “go and rot in hell, yun jin.”

you ignored her as you crouched back down beside scaramouche. “this– this is gonna hurt, but hold on to me, yeah?” you said, breathing in before you pushed the cloth onto his wound harshly, causing him to hiss in pain.

“it–it's okay, kuni. you're gonna live, i'll make sure of it.”

the sounds of sirens can be heard from afar, and you let out a few shaky breaths as you continued with your actions, hands already covered in his blood.

“stay with me, please.”

that was the last thing scaramouche heard before he went unconscious.

you were sitting in the waiting hall of the hospital, eyes shut as you rested a hand on your forehead, elbow placed on your knee.

someone touched your shoulder, making you look up to them with red, puffy eyes.

“archons, you look like shit.” childe commented, wrapping himself with a blanket that was given to him by the paramedics earlier. you didn't bother replying to him as he sat down next to you, letting out a sigh.

childe leaned his head back until it hit the wall, and he stared at the ceiling for a while.

the only sound that occupied the silence were the soft footsteps of the hospital staffs walking around on the pristine tiles.

“you know, scaramouche was exactly like this when you were the one on the hospital bed back then.”

you slowly turned your head to look at him. “what… what do you mean?” you asked, voice still shaky.

“looking like this.” child pointed out to your figure, where you looked like someone who hadn't slept in a week, hair all messed up and eyes as red as they can possibly be. “i think he looked way worse though.”

you let out a breath between a scoff and a laugh, neither annoyed nor amused with his statement. “he couldn't have possibly looked this bad, we were still at each other's throats last year.” you remarked, causing childe to perk his head up as he sat properly, looking at you.

“you really should've seen the look on his face.” he chuckled. “guy was raking his hand through his hair and everything, even screamed at me and all.”

his words got you slightly laughing, letting out the smallest giggles. childe smiled at you fondly, relieved that he got your mind off the situation right now, even if it was just for a fleeting second.

the ginger scanned his eyes over your figure, bandages and ointment were littered across your body, the results of your fight with yun jin.

“she, um– she didn't make it, by the way. thought i should tell you that.” he announced.

you averted your eyes to your lap, avoiding his gaze. “i... had always thought viktor was the serial killer ever since i was given the case, i had never expected it to be yun jin, ever.” you said after a beat of silence.

“no one expected it either, y/n. it's not your fault you didn't catch on.”

“why… why didn't you tell me about her sooner?” you asked, referring to when she had revealed that childe and arlecchino were threatened to keep her identity a secret.

childe sighed, looking away. “you heard her earlier. she had eyes on our every move, and i– i really… i seriously didn't want to snitch for the sake of my family's life, especially my siblings. they don't deserve to go through the shit i'm facing at this risky job.”

you lifted your eyes to him, looking at his expression. for a person who had just gotten kidnapped and tied up by a serial killer, and for someone who had his whole family's life threatened, he looked… normal.

for the years you've known childe, this sight wasn't uncommon to you. sure, he's had his moments, but for the most part, he handled his emotions very well. even during stressful times catching criminals, he'd always remain neutral and stayed calm, with a blank expression on his face.

you'd say his eyes were always soulless, even.

“i'm sorry you had to go through that.” you blurted, causing childe to arch a brow as he averted his attention back to you.

“mine's really nothing compared to what you had to go through in that cabin.” he said. “i mean, really. facing off the person you had always thought as the most innocent must not have been easy.”

letting out a breath, you ignored how the chilly atmosphere was nipping at your skin. “it's… it's nothing.” was all you said, not wanting to worry childe even more.

he only furrowed his brows as he stared at your clearly hurt expression, but didn't continue on prying further. he figured the only thing occupying your mind right now was something else, or rather, someone else.

“he's gonna be okay.”

“what if he's not?” your voice cracked, looking back down to your lap to avoid childe seeing you like this.

childe placed a hand on your shoulder. “y/n.” he called out to you, and you hesitantly tilted your head to look at him. “that guy's strong. i'm sure a gunshot wound is nothing to him. don't underestimate a little guy like scaramouche.”

you snorted, bringing up a hand to wipe off the tears that threatened to fall. the ginger next to you sighed, before engulfing you in a hug. he reached his hand to the back of your head, rubbing his thumb over your scalp in a comforting way. his free hand moved to your back to rub circles.

you took a second to react, before hugging him back, resting your forehead on his shoulder. it was evident that you needed this, given the situation.

“you two are going to be okay, i'm sure of it.”

“thank you, ajax.”

childe hummed, hugging you tighter before pulling away after a moment, caressing your cheeks with his hands before he stood up, blanket in his hand.

the tall man draped the blanket over you, and you thanked him once again. childe smiled at you.

“i'm gonna go and check on arlecchino and the others in the other waiting area. i'm guessing you want to stay here until his surgery is over, right?” you nodded at him. “then i'll be on my way. i'll see you later.” he said, turning around to the other end of the hall.

he was already a few steps away when your voice halted him in his tracks.

“ajax.”

childe looked at you from over his shoulder, and you smiled at him.

“thank you for helping me with the case, you helped me a lot. i'll treat you to something once we're back to the usual.” you said.

childe smiled back at you, before turning his head back. “you owe me to fix me up with someone!” he shouted through the empty hall, before he disappeared after going through a door.

you merely shook your head as you let out a few airy chuckles, amused with the fact that he still hasn't let go of the deal you made with him a couple months ago.

sighing, you leaned your head back, shutting your eyes.

this was gonna be a long night.

“how long do you think it'll take for the wound to heal?”

“since it's nothing major, i'd say about a month or so. he'll be able to get back to his usual routine once he's discharged, you needn't worry about him.” the doctor explained to you as you two finally arrived in front of scaramouche's designated hospital room.

you turned to look at the doctor. “thank you, doctor.” you said before letting out a huff.

“you must be tired.” he announced, glancing at you. “being a police officer in this nation must be tough.”

you smiled. “ah, i’m used to that already. being a doctor is not that easy either, no?”

he laughed as he scribbled something on his clipboard. “i've been on this job for decades, kid. nothing ever comes easy in this life.” he said, opening the door for you two to enter.

“i'm just glad i get to save another patient today.” he pointed out to scaramouche, who was still unconscious from the surgery he had earlier.

the tall man walked over to the end of his hospital bed to write something on the clipboard that was placed there, and you slowly made your way towards scaramouche.

once you were at the side of his hospital bed, you averted your eyes to his bare shoulder, all bandaged up. you quickly moved your gaze someplace else, the sight you were seeing reminded you too much of your own incident.

“you're not used to it, huh?”

you glanced towards the doctor's direction, before you chuckled awkwardly. “no, i… i went through the same thing last year, gunshot to my shoulder.” you pointed to your shoulder, the same place that scaramouche had been shot, except that yours were lower and way more major than his.

the doctor hummed, placing back the clipboard at the hospital bed frame. “wow, it's really a miracle you survived. gunshots to that area usually don't end well, you know.”

“yeah, he saved me just in time.” you flickered your eyes back to scaramouche, looking at his unconscious form.

the doctor nodded a couple of times, heading towards the door. “then i'll leave you two be.” he turned his head around just enough to look at you. “i'm sure you two are meant to be.” he remarked, before leaving the room.

his words left you in confusion, but you ignored it as you turned to look at scaramouche once again.

the only injury he had was the gunshot to his shoulder, so the other parts of his body barely had any scratches, except for the litters of healed scars from old cases.

sighing, you brought a chair to the side of the hospital bed to sit. you rested your arm at the edge of the bed, the other reaching out to his face.

you brushed a few strands of his hair away from his forehead, before resting your hand on his cheek.

the sight of a sleeping kunikuzushi was something you barely got to see, the only exception being the times you had shared a bed with him.

and he'd usually be up the second you laid a hand on him, so for the ravenette to still be sound asleep as you rubbed his cheek would be a rare occasion. you slowly retracted your hand from his face, leaning back to your chair.

was this how he felt when i was the one on the bed? you thought to yourself. if it is, then, it really is a hurtful sight to see.

the thought of seeing scaramouche lying there on the bed was both hurting and worrying you.

maybe if you had reacted sooner, you would've prevented him from getting shot.

maybe if you had kicked out the gun from yun jin earlier, you would've given him a chance to walk out the cabin with no injuries.

maybe this is your fault after all.

—

scaramouche shot his eyes open.

the white ceiling was the first thing that greeted him, causing him to quickly realize where he was.

he felt something caressing his arm, and he snapped his head to the side.

you were looking at your phone on a chair with one hand, the other placed around his arm as you played over his skin with the tips of your fingers.

“y/n?”

you tilted your head to look at him, eyes wide. scaramouche had a confused expression on his face as he looked at you, the slight swelling on your eyes with eye bags under them being as visible as it could be.

he scanned his eyes over your figure next, bandages were scattered across your body, with visible and clean cuts greeting him.

“i'm fine, kuni.” you said as you placed your phone on the table beside his bed, as though you had noticed his lingering gaze on you.

scaramouche furrowed his brows. “did yun jin do this to you?”

“yeah.” scaramouche furrowed his brows even more as you confirmed his question. you huffed as you avoided his gaze. “you don't need to worry about her anymore, she's… gone.” you informed him.

scaramouche tried sitting up, but groaned in pain. “shit." he cursed, and you quickly helped him up. “didn't know it'd hurt this bad.” you slightly laughed at his sentence.

“yeah, the next few weeks are gonna be hell for you.”

scaramouche all but rolled his eyes, before looking back at you. “are you… really okay? i don't think either of us had expected her to be the serial killer, but it must be especially hard for you. she was practically your friend.”

“it's– i'm fine, i guess. things happen, and i'm just relieved that this case has finally come to an end.” you said, but your words betrayed your clearly hurt expression.

scaramouche wanted to ask, but he figured it'd be best to save for later.

“i'm... sorry.”

he frowned. “what are you apologizing for?”

“you wouldn't have gotten shot if i had reacted sooner and stopped yun jin.”

“that's not your fault, i was the one who barged in the cabin, it was bound to happen anyway.”

“but i would've–”

scaramouche reached out a hand to grasp yours, holding onto you loosely. “you should stop blaming yourself for everything, y/n.” he said, and you looked up to him, eyes glossy with tears that were threatening to fall. “what's important is that i'm still here by your side.” he continued.

he had a fond smile plastered on his face, one that was only reserved for you.

you blinked, and the tears that were hanging loose had fallen, running down your cheeks. “you're too sappy for someone who throws insults at me on a daily basis.” you chuckled, hand tightening around his.

“only for you.”

scaramouche brought his free hand to wipe the stained tears on your cheeks, and you rolled your eyes.

the three words repeated in your mind, causing you to let out a small smile.

yeah, only for you.

for the duration of scaramouche being treated at the hospital, you've got yourself busy with yun jin's case.

even though everything was over, you still had a couple of things to finish up before you could hand in the case file to the tsaritsa.

and right now, viktor was sitting right beside your desk as you're typing on the computer.

“so… fatui precinct, huh?” he tried breaking the silence.

the usual busy precinct was, well, busy. your colleagues and other police officers were walking around getting their jobs done, and naturally, it was the same for you too.

it's only been a few days since the incident had occurred, yet you were already back to your daily routine. it felt odd at first, arriving at your beloved precinct after being absent for months wasn't exactly the best feeling. but you've gotten used to it quick, and now, you're already better than ever.

“yeah, it's pretty tough here.” you commented, typing on your keyboard for the next few seconds before you turned to look at viktor.

he was, for the most part, nervous. maybe it was the fact that it was his first time being in a police station, or the fact that the reason he's here is because of the charges he may need to face for killing someone.

viktor sweat as you stared at him intensely. you sighed, removing your hands from the keyboard to place them on your lap instead. “i've asked the captain if we could lift off your charges completely.” you started, and viktor was already shaking in fear. “unfortunately, you'll still need to face jail time.”

“but!” you exclaimed by raising a finger, causing him to jump in his seat. “good news is, you'll only need to serve for six months, and it should start once you've graduated. i figured that you'd want to finish your degree first, so i've asked to delay your sentence.” you continued, resulting in viktor to sigh in complete relief.

he suddenly bowed to you in his seat. “thank… thank you so much!” he shouted, albeit a little too loud, as your co-workers looked at him confusedly. “i– i really appreciate your help, uh…” he leaned back, eyeing the long silver name plate at the side of your desk, your name engraved on it. “detective?”

“you can just call me y/n.”

“won't it be weird? you're four years older than me, right?”

you rolled your eyes. “did that stupid ginger tell you that?” he nodded at you, causing you to let out a groan as you snapped your head to childe's desk a few feet beside you.

he was chatting up with another police officer, but as if he had read your mind, he turned to look at you. you were furious, and childe thought there was actual smoke coming out from your hot ears as he squeaked from afar, turning away quickly.

you huffed, looking back at viktor. “it's really fine. we're basically friends now.” you remarked. viktor hummed, head hanging low, as if he was in deep thought.

“still can't get past it, huh?”

“how… how do you do it, y/n?”

you raised a brow. “hm? do what exactly?”

“move on from things like these.” he mumbled. “you're a detective, cases like these aren't exactly rare for you, so how do you cope?” he asked, head perked up to glance at you.

you were taken aback by his question, unable to answer him immediately. it took you a moment to figure out an answer, but it served no use, you had none.

exhaling, you spoke. “i haven't moved on from this case either, if that's the answer you're looking for.” you started, averting your eyes to your computer, the file for yun jin's case opened on the screen. “usually i wouldn't hold on to the people involved in my undercover cases, let alone be close with any of them. but this time, i subconsciously did.”

“because of that, i got attached to yun jin. i really felt like she was a good friend to me, and i had a fleeting thought that she'd be in this precinct one day working under me, she talked a lot about this place. i probably should've seen that as a sign.” you let out an airy chuckle, though no amusement laced your voice.

you looked back to viktor, and he was listening to you intently. “well, naturally it would've been the hardest for you, since she was your girlfriend.”

“we… weren't exactly a couple.” he blurted, causing you to widen your eyes. “it's kind of like, relationship of convenience, i guess. she told me that if i let her use my name for her crimes then she'd help me pay for my tuition fees.” the brunette sighed as he finished his sentence.

you stayed silent for a second, before speaking. “i'm… sorry you had to go through that, viktor. she's gone now, so you don't need to worry anymore. you'll be under the custody of this precinct until you graduate, so there's nothing else that could bother you now.”

“thank you once again, y/n. i'm glad you cracked this case, even if i was your prime suspect for the longest time.”

you smiled at him. “just doing my job.” you replied, before standing up. “well, i'll see you out, then. if there's anything you need, i'm just one call away.” you offered your hand to him, and he reluctantly accepted.

even though this case has taken a toll on you, mentally and physically, you were glad that everything's resolved now.

now the only thing that's in your way is the load of paperwork of the case that you'll need to finalize and submit.

“you wanted to see me, cap’?” you asked as you held the door of the tsaritsa's office open.

she looked up from the piles of paper she was signing. “ah, yes, detective. take a seat.”

sitting down at a chair in front of her, you scratched your head awkwardly. “do you, uh, want to see me because of the paperwork for the case?”

“not precisely.” she propped her arms on her desk as she leaned closer. “i want to ask how you're feeling.” she said.

you raised a brow in confusion. “how i'm... feeling?”

“correct.”

“i think i'm feeling okay? well, the case kinda took a toll on me because of the thing with yun jin, but other than that i don't think–”

“i'm not referring to anything case-related.” she cut you off before you could even finish your sentence.

you blinked. “are you asking me about scaramouche's current condition? well, i do feel kind of bad that he had to take that bullet–”

“i'm not referring to his incident either.” she cut you off once again, causing you to furrow your brows even more.

if not those, then what could she even possibly be talking about?

as she stared at your perplexed expression for the next few seconds, she gave up on leading you on.

the tsaritsa sighed. “your feelings for the balladeer.” she finally revealed, which caused you to jump in your seat. “i'm guessing things happened between the two of you during your time away from the precinct?”

“i…” you trailed off, unable to give her a proper answer.

things did happen between you and scaramouche, which happened quite often, if you may. of course you two are now way far from being enemies, but also too far from being normal colleagues, so, what exactly are you two?

“it's– it's complicated.”

the tsaritsa looked at her watch wrapped around her wrist. “fortunately for you, we have about… all the time in the world.” she commented, averting her attention back to you. “you can tell me everything.” you looked at her with pure shock, baffled with her current mood.

your captain wasn't always the kind of person who'd ever pry on someone's personal business, let alone someone's feelings.

but she had always been the kind of person to purposely pair you up with scaramouche for the sake of her ‘otp plan’, as what you had heard from childe one time. even for this serial killer case, the tsaritsa had been the one to assign you two to solve it.

so for her to outwardly ask about your feelings for the balladeer, it'd seem like she was thinking of getting you two together again.

huffing, you glanced towards the window of her office, the snow continuously falling down from the sky as it decorated the city. you stared at the weather outside for a moment, before speaking, eyes still glued towards the window. “fine. i'll tell you everything.”

and as you turned your head to look back at your captain, she was already smiling with that all knowing look. you wanted to groan at the sight.

“i'll be here to listen.”

—

as you finished your side of the story, the tsaritsa stared at you, blinking once, twice, never faltering.

you groaned. “i know it's stupid and crazy, but yeah.”

“and you still think you have no such feelings for him?”

“well, yeah…? am i not supposed to?”

the tsaritsa slammed hed hand on her desk, causing you to jolt. “of course you're not supposed to! you clearly have feelings for the balladeer!” you winced at the tone of her voice.

if someone were to watch you from outside the tsaritsa's office, they'd think you were getting scolded, or fired, even.

“n–no i don't!” you tried denying, but as you looked at the tsaritsa's furious expression, you trembled in your seat. “o–okay fine! m–maybe i do– but what's even the point? he hates my guts, if anything!” you exclaimed.

she stared at you with a deathly look. “do you seriously think he still despises you?”

“y–yes…?”

“how are you even my best detective?”

you crossed your arms. “hey!” you grumbled. “that guy's unreadable. how am i supposed to know if he could still stand me or not?” you complained.

“him sleeping right beside you on the same bed wasn't clear enough?”

“well– that's– that's different!” your cheeks heated up at the mention. “fine, so what if he doesn't hate me anymore? doesn't mean that he likes me or anything.” you countered.

the tsaritsa suddenly choked, coughing as she looked elsewhere, as if she knew something.

you looked at her suspiciously. “do you know anything?”

she avoided your stare, shooting her eyes everywhere but in your direction as she sweat nervously. “of course i don't know anything. that's absurd.” she had her hand formed into a fist as she covered her mouth.

you stared at her even more, deathly, even.

she groaned. “okay! maybe i do know something!” she blurted out before she could even stop herself, lowly cursing to herself, which was unlike her.

“i knew that you knew something!” you exclaimed as you stood up. “tell me!” you slammed your hands on her desk as you leaned down.

if someone were to look from outside the office, they'd think you're the one who's scolding the tsaritsa, instead of the complete opposite.

“fine! i'll tell you if you take a seat like an obedient person!” at this, you were suddenly back to your chair, leaning back as you crossed your arms.

“start talking, captain.”

—

“what…” you trailed off as you brought up a hand to cover your mouth in shock. “he loves me!?”

he loves you? what? when? how? why?

the tsaritsa cleared her throat. “i'm hoping you could keep this a secret.” she said as she shut her eyes, shaking her head to herself. “but yes, he said he loves you.”

“how do i know you're not lying?” you asked, still in denial.

“i'm your captain, i would never lie to my best detective.” she started, opening her eyes. “and also, if you still don't trust me, you should tell him your feelings, and see what he'll reply.” she said, and you gawked in astonishment.

“that's unbelievable, i'm not gonna do that.”

“then say goodbye to your relationship with him.”

groaning, you flailed your hands in the air in frustration. “okay– whatever! i'll tell him how i feel!” you shouted, covering your face as your cheeks heat up once again, flustered at the thought of the scaramouche to have such feelings for you.

the tsaritsa sighed in relief. “good, years of my hard work is finally paying off.” she mumbled lowky.

“did you say something?" you asked, peeking through the gap between your fingers.

she jumped in her seat. “nothing!”

you looked at her skeptically, before giving up.

how are you even gonna tell him how you've been hopelessly in love with him for the past few months?

before you knew it, a month had passed, and scaramouche had already been discharged.

you had spent your time while he was at the hospital by finishing up the case, occasionally going back and forth from the hospital and the precinct to check up on scaramouche.

sometimes while you were at the hospital, you'd be discussing the paperwork with him. some other times, you'd just spend time with him by talking about your day, the people you've arrested while he was gone, and the silly little things you faced on that day.

scaramouche would always listen to you, and sometimes would jokingly add a snarky comment whenever you did something stupid, just to spite you.

you, of course, didn't mind any of it. if anything, you'd always reply back with an insult or two right back at him.

the ravenette had just been discharged, just a week before christmas eve. he'd only start working after christmas, as what the tsaritsa had informed him earlier, so he didn't exactly know what to do to kill time.

you were at precinct working, and you had already called him the other day to inform him that you wouldn't be able to fetch him from the hospital once he's discharged due to the load of shit you have to finish at work.

scaramouche didn't mind of course, saying that he'd just head back to his apartment after getting discharged.

but instead, there he was, sitting on the all-too-familiar couch, waiting for the person he hadn't seen for the past month.

“ah, scaramouche. you're here early.” someone said as they opened the door to the room to enter.

scaramouche snapped his head to them, and he nodded a couple of times, before moving his gaze back to the coffee table in front of him. “i didn't have anything else to do.”

“what brings you here? if i could recall, you don't have any scheduled meet ups with me until after christmas.” they said as they took a seat on a couch in front of him. “after hearing of your incident, i held off on the therapy appointments for this month.”

he clicked his tongue. “like i said, i didn't have anything else to do.” scaramouche said, tilting his head up to look at his therapist, who was already staring back at him with a worried expression.

“you've been my client for almost a year, scaramouche. i could practically read you like a book by now. and by the look of your face i assume you have something on your mind, else you wouldn't have shown up at my office here on my day off.”

rolling his indigo eyes, scaramouche groaned as he leaned back on the couch, hands coming up to cover his face. “you've really got to stop with that stupid quirk of yours.” he complained.

“is it y/n?” they asked suddenly, causing scaramouche to retract his hands from his face, tilting his head to look at his therapist.

he stared at them for a few seconds before breaking eye contact, scoffing. “maybe.” he mumbled out, before groaning once again. “i… i don't know. she's been on my mind ever since i got this stupid wound on my shoulder, and i don't know why i couldn't stop thinking about her.”

“hasn't she always been on your mind?” they asked, looking at scaramouche's confused look. “if i can remember, the reason you started getting treated here is because of her, too. her incident from last year took a big toll on your life.”

scaramouche looked back at them. “well this… this is different. ever since i said this… this word, i haven't been able to shake it off from my head.”

“what word?”

“love…?” he trailed off, not sure if he was asking or stating his sentence.

his therapist widened their eyes as they jumped in their seat. “you confessed to her!?”

at this, he jumped too, eyes wide in shock. “n–no! not like that!” he exclaimed, quickly denying. “i uh– i told my co-worker that i love her in the midst of um, i'm not really sure how to say this if i haven't told you the whole story.”

“...well, since you've already disturbed me on my day off by barging in my office, then sure, what the hell. tell me everything.” they said as they leaned back to get themselves comfortable.

scaramouche furrowed his brows, flickering his eyes elsewhere to think about it. “...fine. i'll tell you.”

—

to say that his therapist was shocked would be an understatement.

“that's…” they started, unable to form the right words. scaramouche merely rolled his eyes, raking a hand through his hair in frustration.

“what do i do now?”

they cleared their throat, recollecting themself. “well, i've said this a bunch of times already in the many appointments we had, but i'll say this again. you love her, scaramouche. just like you had said earlier during your conversation with your friend.”

“signora is not my friend.” he fought, before sighing. “do i really…?”

they smiled, genuinely. “yes, scaramouche. you're in love with y/n.” his therapist remarked once again, placing the clipboard they've been holding beside them on the couch. “and i think she loves you too.” they continued.

“...why do you think that?”

“what kind of person goes out of their way to go back and forth from their job all the way to the hospital, that takes at least twenty minutes in between?”

“a good friend?”

his therapist chuckled. “you kissed this ‘good friend’ on the forehead as a goodbye gesture, is that what friends really do?”

“does it look like i have friends? how the hell should i know that's not what friends are supposed to do.” he tried countering, but failed when his therapist gave him a sudden cold look.

he groaned. “okay, look. fine, let's say she does love me too.” he brought up a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “but what if she's not ready for a relationship? what if i'm not ready for one?”

“by the sound of it, none of you have any experience in this section of romance.”

“no shit.”

they laughed, which earned yet another groan from scaramouche, causing them to bring up a hand to wave him off. “okay– i'm done with teasing you.” scaramouche voiced out a small ‘good’ at their sentence, before they continued. “so what if you two are inexperienced?” they inquired.

“i've known you for quite some time, scaramouche. you've told me various problems you've faced, mostly about your dear y/n.” they said. “every time you talk about her, the way you talk about her, it has always made me think that you couldn't be more in love. and i wasn't wrong at all, you continued on talking about her on our appointments, and as the days go by, your way of talking about her gets more… softer and softer.”

scaramouche listened to them intently as they continued talking. “i'm sure you've realized it yourself at some point that you've gotten soft for her, no?” the ravenette slowly nodded, and his therapist smiled. “i think it was a great idea that you two were assigned for this case, and i have no doubt that your captain thought the same.”

“why would you think it was a great idea?”

“because that case was the push you two needed to break off that rivalry of yours.”

scaramouche widened his eyes at their statement, hands falling to his side.

“the reason you think that neither of you are ready for a relationship is because you two are already in one, if that makes sense.” they commented.

“it really doesn't.”

his therapist narrowed their eyes at him. “look, you two have always treated each other like lovers, as much as you don't want to admit it. and i'm pretty damn sure everyone in your circle sees it except you two. this case was the push you needed to actually realize your true feelings for her, what you really want from this complicated relationship. and now that the case is over, it makes you realize that you wanted what you had with her to last forever.”

“but what about that fight…?” he asked, hesitant. “we've never resolved that, and not that we would be stupid enough to ever do that.” he countered.

the person in front of him sighed. “that's the thing that's straining your relationship. if you figure that out, if you have a real talk with her about it, then there will be nothing that could stop you two from being together.” they said. “you and y/n are the ones that are preventing yourselves from taking the next step.”

“you just need one last push to seal this relationship.”

scaramouche wasn't sure if he should take their words into consideration.

it had been a week since that, and scaramouche is back at the precinct.

well, not exactly for work, no. it was for a special occasion, apparently.

“can't believe we're getting our medals on christmas eve.” he mumbled out as you helped him straighten up his commendation bars on its holder, placed at the top of his left chest.

the two of you were currently getting yourselves ready for the medal award for the contributions you both made during your case. it was snowing out at the precinct, evident from the roof just right out your floor.

and it was christmas eve. scaramouche wasn't exactly fond of the jolly season, for reasons unknown. he had always thought that the tradition was useless, and that it was no use to be celebrating, let alone waste your money on them. but for this christmas, he had done something, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad idea.

given how his therapist had been the one to suggest the idea, then it was probably going to end terribly.

you rolled your eyes. “it's not that bad, kuni. christmas eve is quite fun.” you continued helping him out with the badge holder. “is your shoulder okay though?” you asked.

“mm, it's fine.” he replied as you stepped back, looking at his attire for one last time.

you and scaramouche were both donning your official police uniforms, the dark shade of blue touching up your appearances.

if you had to wear this during the summer, then you probably would've died from both the heat and the layers of clothes. but it was winter, so the heavy layers of your uniform would keep you warm, which is the only time you'll ever be glad to be wearing it.

“hey, guys!” a voice called, and you two turned your heads to look at childe, wearing his official uniform too, in all his glory. “this is really cool, huh? you guys are getting the medal of valor!” he all but exclaimed, patting both of your shoulders.

the medal of valor is one of the highest honors in the police department, and it is given to those who had voluntarily risked themselves in the line of duty. you and scaramouche had been awarded this honor for your contributions and the risks you two have put yourselves in during your long term case.

it was safe to say that the both of you had done a good job closing the case together.

you snickered. “hey, what about this guy over here? he's getting the purple heart too, you know!” you pointed towards scaramouche, who rolled his indigo eyes at your statement.

ah, the purple heart award. it's an award given to the police officers that get injured while in the line of duty. for scaramouche's case, he had risked his life by getting a gunshot wound to his shoulder for saving your life, and he was granted the chance to receive such a high honor.

of course, you were more than happy for him. he deserved the award more than anything, and you couldn't be more proud.

“y/n!” someone called out to you, and you snapped your head to where the voice came from. pulcinella was panting as he was moving something within the precinct. “is it okay if you could come here and help me?”

you smiled. “sure! be there in a sec’!” you shouted, turning your head back to look at scaramouche. “i'll see you later, then?” you asked, and scaramouche nodded, softly smiling at you as you skipped your way towards pulcinella.

“so…” childe started, already grinning at the shorter male. “how are you and y/n? going good?” he asked, raising his eyebrows up and down in a teasing way.

scaramouche groaned at the ginger, walking back to his desk. “you're so nosy.” he complained, before pulling out his drawer. “i bought her something, as um– a christmas gift.”

“i thought you hated christmas?”

“i do.” scaramouche didn't deny, looking at the small black box in his drawer before closing it shut. “but y/n doesn't, so i guess i should indulge in this stupid season for once.” he complained, yet it betrayed his expression as scaramouche had a soft look on his face.

and if childe would look closely, scaramouche was almost, smiling.

childe gawked in awe, bringing up a hand to his clothed chest. “my dearest scaramouche had changed so much.” he said dramatically, which earned an eye roll from the ravenette. “and now he's proposing to my best friend!”

“what!? i'm not proposing, dumbass!” he whisper-shouted, slapping a hand to cover childe's mouth. “and could you lower your stupid voice!? y/n could hear us anytime–”

“hear what?” you suddenly appeared behind both scaramouche and childe, which caused them to startle, hurriedly bringing their hands to their sides.

childe was the one to speak first. “n–nothing!” he squeaked. “we were just boasting at how you're gonna receive such a great award! r–right, scaramouche?” he nudged his elbow to scaramouche's side, eyeing him to follow along.

“yeah.” scaramouche said flatly. although he seemed nonchalant, you could still see the bead of sweat running down his forehead as he avoided your gaze.

you squinted your eyes at them for a moment, before giving up. “well, we better get going now. the ceremony is starting soon and i don't want to be late to get my award!”

walking away, you went ahead of scaramouche and childe. they stayed frozen there for a minute before scaramouche grumbled, glaring at childe.

“i'll kill you if you tell her.”

—

the hall where your ceremony would be held was almost full now, police officers and higher-ups taking their respective seats.

you and scaramouche were standing on the stage behind the curtains, hiding away from the many people.

sighing, you stopped peeking your head out and looked at scaramouche beside you. “i'm kind of nervous.” you huffed, rubbing your gloved hands.

the two of you were fully in your attire now, your police hats were placed nicely on your heads, and you both were wearing your white and silky gloves.

“let's hope you don't trip yourself on stage.”

you glared at him, which earned a small chuckle from him. “i'm kidding. you'll do great, y/n.” he said, reaching out a hand to grab yours.

huffing, you peeked your head to look at everyone from below the stage once again, your gloved fingers interlocking with his.

“well, looks like it'll start soon. everyone's stopped talking–” you cut yourself off when you flickered your eyes to the podium on stage, shocked once you see a familiar woman standing there, her striking pink hair standing out.

you snapped your head to look at scaramouche. “what– why is your mother's wife on stage!?” you whisper-shouted, resulting in scaramouche to roll his eyes as he tugged you by your hand to get you closer and away from the curtain.

“she's the secret head commissioner that everyone's been trying to hide.” he informed, and you left your mouth agape. “she's the one who got the leads for the cabin.”

you blinked. “she helped you?” you asked, in which scaramouche nodded to your question. “what about your mother? is she here too?” you tried turning your head back to continue peeking, but was stopped abruptly when scaramouche pulled you back by your hand.

“yes– she's… here.” scaramouche mumbled, looking elsewhere. “miko called me a few days ago to tell me about it. you don't have to worry, i'm fine.”

you looked at him worryingly for a moment, before sighing. “okay then.”

at the same time you said your sentence, yae miko cleared her throat on the mic. both you and scaramouche quickly stood properly, hands reluctantly retracting to your sides.

“good evening, police officers of snezhnaya.” she started, looking at everyone below the stage. “as you might have noticed, i'm yae miko, the head commissioner of the police department. i've kept my identity a secret for a while, but for this ceremony, i've decided to reveal myself.” she announced.

you anxiously looked at the seating area where your friends and colleagues would be sitting at, reading each and every one of their expressions. some of them were shocked, and some stayed calm.

“we're here on this special day to commemorate the bravery of our two police officers from the fatui precinct.” she said, glancing at the paper placed on the podium. “today, we will honor them for their acts of heroism, for their exceptional acts, and for putting their lives on the line.” flashes of cameras filled her view, taking every moment to take pictures.

she looked at the hundreds of officers before her. “it is my great honor to present the medal of valor to detective l/n y/n, and detective scaramouche.”

yae miko looked at the two of you and nodded, a sign for you to come up from behind the curtains.

gulping, you glanced at scaramouche nervously. he gazed back at you and smiled, tugging you by your clothed arm to make you walk.

you looked at him for a moment before you exhaled heavily, slowly walking to the middle of the stage with scaramouche following along.

hundreds of claps and riotous cheers resonated around the hall, mostly coming from the officers from the fatui precinct. smiling, you stopped a few meters away from yae miko, scaramouche following suit.

an officer came up beside you, holding a tray of two medals of valor, and a badge of the purple heart award. “i would also like to present the purple heart award to detective scaramouche, for getting injured in the line of duty whilst saving detective l/n.”

yae miko stepped down from the podium, walking to your and scaramouche's direction. she stopped beside the officer holding the tray, taking one medal to place it around your neck.

you slightly tilted your head for her, and perked up once the medal's been tucked nicely around your neck. you smiled, thanking her.

she nodded, reaching for yet another medal of valor and the miniature purple heart medal for scaramouche. stepping towards him, she had a soft smile on her face.

once she stopped in front of him, scaramouche had a blank expression plastered on his face. yae miko held the medal of valor as she placed the ribbon of the medal around his head until it hung around his neck.

she then placed the miniature purple heart medal on the top left of his chest, right beside his commendation bar holder. she cleaned up to imaginary dust around his clothes, before she spoke. “i'm proud of you, kunikuzushi. you've done well.” she said, smiling.

scaramouche blinked a couple of times, before looking away shyly. “sure.”

apparently, your co-workers had thrown a special party for the both of you once you've arrived at the precinct after a change of clothes.

well, and also a christmas eve dinner.

“surprise!” everyone said as you and scaramouche stepped inside the briefing room, that was now decorated with a bunch of christmas ornaments and decorations.

you stared in awe as you scanned your eyes around the room, before landing on the tables that were usually placed in front of the podium, now combined together to make a long table, with various foods present before you.

to say that you were both surprised and happy would be an understatement. you were absolutely speechless.

childe shouted in the middle of the room, already holding a glass of wine. “well, what are you waiting for? come and dig in!”

—

the briefing room was full of joy, with officers eating up like there's no tomorrow, the christmas songs playing in the background, people chatting with each other, and so on.

it was exactly a joyful christmas eve dinner, and you couldn't be more happy to be spending it with your colleagues.

now, everyone had long finished dinner, and they were all either dancing to the songs playing on the speaker, or talking.

smiling, you looked around, peering over the many people dancing around. you frowned when you couldn't find the familiar tuft of violet hair.

“looking for someone?” someone came up beside you, and you flickered your eyes to look at them.

“oh, hey rosalyne. i, uh– yeah. i'm trying to look for scaramouche. have you seen him?”

she shrugged as she sipped on her glass of wine. “not sure, to be honest. he disappeared after everyone finished dinner.” she said, looking around.

“you're looking for the balladeer?” a voice suddenly popped up from behind you two, causing you and signora to jump in shock. you both snapped your heads back, looking at the culprit that managed to scare the both of you.

the tsaritsa was sighing as she held an empty glass in her hand. “what?” she looked at you two confusedly.

“you scared us!” you exclaimed, which earned a raised brow from the tsaritsa. rolling your eyes, you ignored her reaction. “you know where scaramouche is?”

the tsaritsa hummed. “i talked with him earlier. he's on the roof of our floor.” she said, and you smiled.

“ah, thank you, cap’!” you turned to look at signora. “i'll see you later, then!”

you were about to walk away when the tsaritsa's voice stopped you in your tracks.

“detective.”

you slowly turned to look at the tsaritsa. “yes?”

“please do remember what i told you a while ago.”

arching an eyebrow, you looked at her in confusion, before you finally remembered.

you should tell him about your feelings.

“oh… i'll um, i'll keep that in mind!” you hurriedly walked away, leaving signora and the tsaritsa.

signora played with the rim of her glass as she looked at her captain. “what did you tell her?”

“nothing important.” she shrugged, leaving a very confused signora as she sauntered away.

the chilly winter wind blew through your skin as you opened the door to the roof from your floor.

scaramouche was standing near the brick railing, propping his arms on it as he stared at the busy night of snezhnaya below.

you walked over the snow-covered floor, until you stopped beside him.

“hey.”

scaramouche glanced at you, before averting his attention back to the busy road. “you should head inside, it's cold out here.” he muttered.

“what are you doing here?” you ignored his comment.

scaramouche breathed out a huff, the action causing his own warm breath to appear in the cold air. “needed some fresh air. the briefing room was too crowded for my liking.”

you hummed, and the atmosphere turned awkward again. it was silent, and you had no idea on how to continue on with the conversation without making a fool of yourself.

the snow had stopped falling now, so the chilly air was the only thing that was in your way on christmas eve.

well, that, and this other thing you have in mind.

or rather, someone.

“i… know it's been a while, and i'm not sure if you'd be up to talk about it, but i'm just gonna go ahead and say it.”

scaramouche looked at you once again. “what?” he asked, confused.

“i want to apologize for everything.” you said as you looked down to the busy streets of snezhnaya from above. “i'm sorry for saying those hurtful words after that grad ball incident. i know i can't change anything to make you feel better about it, but i'm… really sorry. it was wrong of me to say all of that when you were just looking out for me.”

scaramouche eyes went wide, before he turned away. you perked your head to look at your reaction just to see him… chuckling to himself.

“hey! what are you laughing for?” you pouted as you nudged at him.

scaramouche waved you off, the soft laughter of his slowly coming down as he heaved out a breath. “it's just, it's been so long since that. i've already forgiven you, actually.”

“huh? since when?”

“since forever.” he said, looking at you. “it's fine, y/n. i want to apologize too for saying that you were naive and that you were too full of yourself with risking your life to save others.” you blinked up at him as he said those words.

turning away, you tried hiding your heated cheeks. “i– i... forgive you.”

and it was silent once again.

the two of you basked in the cold air for a moment, taking your time to start up a conversation again.

scaramouche was the one to break the silence.

“my mother came to see me while you were busy talking with other people at the ceremony.” he said. “she apologized to me for everything she's done, and told me that she'd do everything to fix our bond.”

you stared at him. “what did you say?”

“i… told her that it'd take some time for me to give out an answer.” he mumbled, playing with the empty can of beer in his hand. “she told me not to worry, and then she hugged me, and said those same words miko said to me on stage.” he continued.

the scene from earlier played back in your mind.

i'm proud of you, kunikuzushi. you've done well.

humming, you propped your arms on the brick railing. “it's good that she has the decency to at least apologize for the things she did, even though it was no use.” you replied, which earned a nod from scaramouche.

“yeah.”

it was silent yet again.

“you know.” you were the one to start the conversation now. “i never got to ask you how you feel about the case.” you said, and scaramouche turned his head to you.

you brushed the nape of your neck sheepishly. “well, since yun jin is gone now, and viktor has to face jail time soon, i thought you might want to talk about it.”

“what about you?”

“hm?”

“don't you want to talk about it?”

you blinked. “why would i?” you asked, which earned a scoff from scaramouche.

“i'm sure yun jin was more than just a stranger to you.” he said, looking at you with his indigo eyes. “and i'm sure finding out that she was the bad guy wasn't as easy as you tried convincing yourself it was.”

eyes wide, you stood there, frozen, before avoiding his gaze. “it's… it's nothing.” you lied.

“you know you can't lie, especially not with me.”

you huffed, resting your cheek on your hand as you continued avoiding his stare. “i'm fine.” you lied once again.

suddenly, scaramouche cupped your other cheek as he tilted your head to look at him, his face mere inches away from yours. his empty can of beer was long discarded from his hand now as he had placed it on the brick railing.

“you can talk about it, okay? i'll be here to listen.”

you stared at him with wide eyes, unable to form a single word.

“...fine.” you said, his hand still cupping your face. “i still get nightmares from it.” you finally said, earning a hum from scaramouche.

“yun jin was a friend to me. she was there whenever i needed her, she was always by my side during our time together, and she always comforted me, even after that fight we had.” you started. “it just– it feels weird that she was the serial killer all along, and that means that all of her time spent with me were all meaningless.”

you exhaled heavily. “i know that getting attached to other people while being undercover is the number one rule you should never do, but i really thought i had that special friendship with her.” you sighed. “she even promised me that we'd get transferred to the fatui precinct one day, even though i'm already here and that she only said that to mess with me.”

“but i guess it's just a lesson for me to never be trustful of people easily, even if they seem innocent.” you referred to yun jin, who used to be the most innocent girl you know, who's now someone that only served you the darkest nightmares.

scaramouche retracted his hand from your cheek, pulling you into a hug instead. you were taken aback for a second, before you reciprocated his hug, wrapping your arms around his figure.

you inhaled deeply, relishing in the familiar scent of his, that was oddly comforting to you. you're not sure if it was because you were already used to the smell or if it was the fact that you had hugged him a bunch of times that you'd remember his scent.

scaramouche rubbed circles over your clothed hips. you two had long discarded your official police uniforms, now wearing ugly christmas sweaters that childe had managed to get you both to wear them.

it was really cold out, but the warmth emitting from scaramouche was enough to warm you up.

you were the first to pull away, your arms still wrapping around his, as he was too.

“well, sad moment aside. we have matching wounds now!” you tried lighting up the mood, but instead, made it worse.

scaramouche stared at you with a perplexed expression, not sure if he was supposed to be disgusted or humored.

“what?” you smiled, grinning at him. “come on, it's funny! it's not always that you see people having matching gunshot wounds!” you winked, earning an eye roll from scaramouche. “well, matching tattoos, sure, very common, very boring, but matching gunshot wounds? that's totally extraordinary!” you continued convincing scaramouche until he too, was laughing along with you.

giggling, you looked at him fondly. “see? if you're laughing then it must be hella funny!” you exclaimed. “we should totally get a world record or something for this, don't you think?”

scaramouche merely shook his head as his laugh died down, until he was only smiling at you.

you brought up a hand to brush through his violet hair, pushing out the strands that were in his way.

the ravenette turned his head away shyly, hiding away his blush, earning a small chuckle for you. he was deep in thought for a few seconds, causing you to raise a brow.

“something on your mind?”

scaramouche snapped to reality at your question, turning around to face the brick railing once again once he fully pulled away from you. you did the same, still looking at him worryingly.

“i, uh– i just remembered that i got you something.” he said as he shoved his hand in the back of his pocket.

“hm? what for?”

“christmas gift.”

you furrowed your brows in confusion. “i thought you hated christmas, let alone the gifts.” you muttered, earning a nod from the ravenette.

“i do.”

“so why go out of your way to get me something?”

scaramouche stopped fiddling with the small box in his pocket. “well– um, just– just take it!” he stammered, and you slightly chuckled at him.

he slowly took out the object from his pocket, bringing it up until it was in your view.

“here. open it.”

in his hand was a small velvety black box, which earned a small gasp from you at the sight.

you hesitantly took the box in his hand, slowly opening it. a necklace with an amethyst pendant shaped into a small heart greeted you.

“kuni, this is… beautiful.” you stared at it in awe, before shaking your head. “no, um, i can't accept this. it must've been expensive, you should return it.” you closed the box back, handing it back to him.

“take it.”

“i can't accept something that must have costed a fortune–”

“they said no refunds.” he cut you off, and you huffed.

scaramouche opened the box instead, taking out the necklace from it as he stepped towards you. he opened the clasp as he put the necklace on you himself, closing it once the necklace was wrapped around your neck nicely.

he stepped back to look at you, smiling to himself.

you fiddled with the heart pendant in your hand, looking at it for a moment before you sighed. scaramouche turned away to continue looking at the building surrounding the fatui precinct.

“i didn't get you anything because you've always hated christmas gifts.” you said. “tell me what you want for christmas, i'll get it for you as a thank you for getting me this.”

scaramouche was silent, and you were worried he didn't want anything from the beat of silence. he, however, hid his face from your view to hide the blush that was creeping up his cheeks and ears as he said his next words.

“i want you.” he whispered, only enough for him to hear.

well, it was enough for you to hear. “what?” you stood there frozen, unable to wrap those words around your head.

were you really sure you heard the right thing?

was it just a figment of your imagination?

scaramouche was hesitant on saying it once again, still contemplating whether he should do it or not.

you just need one last push to seal this relationship.

his therapist's words played back in his mind, and he sighed.

fine, he thought to himself. this is the only chance you got.

“i want you.” he said it once again, this time more loud and clear for you to hear.

you stopped fiddling with the necklace he had given you earlier, hand falling to your side as you stood there, completely frozen.

it was comical, the winter air was nipping at your skin, and you really thought you were already frozen up from the cold if it weren't for scaramouche tugging at your sleeve.

“you've been quiet for the past minute.” he said, slightly pouting. “do you… not like me?”

“n–no! it's not that!” you quickly denied, hands coming up to make gestures. “it's– it's just um– i– i don't know!” you squeaked, turning to hide your flustered face. “i didn't think you would uh– have a thing for someone like me.” you mumbled lowly, hoping that scaramouche wouldn't hear your incoherent words.

“i only have a thing for you.” he replied, causing you to jolt. scaramouche didn't mind as he continued talking. “i… love you, y/n. seriously. i want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

you stopped, snapping your head to look at him.

“h–huh!?”

scaramouche cleared his throat, looking away to avoid your gaze. “i– i know we've been enemies for the longest time, but this case changed my views on you. now, i can't even stop thinking about–”

the ravenette was swiftly cut off from his words when you suddenly cupped his face in your hands, leaning in until your lips slotted into his.

scaramouche stood there, still in shock as you continued kissing him with your lips, that were really warm and soft to him.

it only lasted for a second before you pulled away. you inhaled and exhaled heavily, suddenly out of breath.

clearing your throat, you looked at him with flushed cheeks. “i–”

your words were cut off when scaramouche pulled you back into the kiss, one hand resting at the back of your neck, the other resting on your back.

you closed your eyes in content, bringing down your hands from his cheeks to wrap your arms around his neck instead, sighing into the kiss.

the kiss felt like heaven. it was gentle, yet filled with so much passion. the soft lips of his touching yours was something you had never expected to experience, yet you had no complaints.

if anything, you hoped this kiss would last forever.

you pulled away, breathless, once again. taking a moment to recollect yourself, you exhaled. “as i was saying–”

you were cut off once again as scaramouche kissed you, yet again. it seemed like he was still not satisfied.

grumbling, you pulled away, this time cupping his cheeks with your hands to prevent him from leaning in again to take your breath away.

“l–let me breathe and finish my sentence!” you huffed, breathing in and out as you stared at him.

scaramouche, was, well, pouting at you with that puppy eyes of his. he broke eye contact as he looked away, sulking. “s… sorry. i just wanted to do that for a while now that i got ahead of myself.”

his confession caused you to sputter into a nervous wreck, the words you intended to say died in your throat almost immediately. groaning, you retracted your hands from his face, falling to your side as you nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

“you're so bold when it comes to things like these.” your words were muffled from the skin of his neck, your warm breath fanning his bare skin.

scaramouche sighed, circling his arms around your figure as he pulled you close. he didn't bother replying to you as you two stayed like that for a moment, relishing in each other's presence.

“i love you too, kunikuzushi.”

you pulled back to look at him, and giggled as you witness the sight of his red cheeks that were forming from both the cold and your small confession.

scaramouche looked away quickly, turning his head sideways as he avoided your loving gaze. you brought up a hand to make him turn back to look at you, thumb caressing his warm cheek.

“so, that time when you were drunk and said that you were in love with me was true after all?” you teased, earning a groan from the ravenette.

“yes... i meant that.” he huffed as he looked at you grinning.

you suddenly frowned. “is your shoulder really okay though? will it be fine if i touch you around here?”

“it's really fine, y/n. don't worry about it.” he said, before smiling to himself, in which you slowly did the same.

you raised a brow. “what?” you asked, amused, grinning from cheek to cheek.

“i love you.”

you smacked his cheek lightly, flustered as your cheeks flared. “you can't say that out of nowhere! those words are still new to me!” you complained, causing scaramouche to chuckle.

“aren't you gonna say it back?”

“no.”

scaramouche pouted, giving you those cute puppy eyes once again, brows furrowing and all. “o–okay, fine! i love you too, happy?” you rolled your eyes.

“mhm, more than happy.” he whispered, leaning in to kiss you once again.

you took a second to react, before kissing him back, thumb continuing on caressing his red cheek as he smiled into the kiss, pulling you closer.

as if the archons have heard of your new relationship, it suddenly snowed, the snowflakes coming down from the sky as it landed around the two of you, tufts of white landing on yours and scaramouche's hair and clothes, but you both paid no mind as you continued on kissing, relishing in the moment on christmas eve, just a few minutes away from christmas.

—

far from your view, the whole squad was squeezing by the window to look at the scene in front of them, unable to prevent themselves from being nosy.

out of nowhere, a sniffle came, then, a loud cry.

everyone turned to look at childe as he wiped his tears with a tissue.

“dude, what the hell are you doing?” arlecchino asked from beside him, nudging at his shoulder. “you're embarrassing yourself.”

at this, he sniffled even louder. “they– they finally kissed! you have absolutely no idea– how long i've been waiting for this moment to happen!” his words were slightly slurred from his current situation, crying his eyeballs out as he looked at his two friends finally together.

“you've really got to find yourself a new hobby…” she muttered, before she ignored him as she continued looking at the two of you outside.

“aren't they gonna get cold?” pierro asked.

dottore snorted. “they're too busy making out to even think about that.” he curtly replied, eyes glued to the window. “probably won't even budge if i call them.” he waved his phone in the air, causing everyone to groan and grumble at him.

“you're gonna startle them, idiot.”

“go back home!”

“who even invited him?”

he frowned. “stop it, guys! i'm just kidding, let me stay here, please! i don't want to be left out!” he pleaded.

the sounds of everyone bickering went unperceived by the tsaritsa as she looked at you two from the corner of the room, eyes slightly tearing up.

looks like her years of hard work trying to get you two together had finally paid off.

sorry for edging you guys lmao it was fun while it lasted!

since this is the last chapter before the epilogue, i would like to give out my sincerest gratitude to everyone who've gotten this far into this series. it's been a long journey writing for ma, and the countless amount of support everyone has given me throughout this whole process will never be forgotten. i hope this chapter was something that everyone had expected and hoped for, even if it's long as hell. next chapter will be the epilogue, and i hope everyone would still be there as we come to an end with mission accomplished. thank you once again and have a joyous christmas celebration!

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thebiggestnaturaldisaster · 3 months

Text

An Early Christmas Present

‐-------------

This is the first not school related thing I have written in years. Its also completely self indulgent and for the most part something I personally experienced.

Barely proofread

Warnings: mentions of blood - this is fluff otherwise -

Words: 1.7k

Remus Lupin x gn!reader - no pronouns mentioned

Just a couple of months ago your close friends James and Lily had finally gotten married. It was a small ceremony but that didnt lessen the love or joy everyone felt. It was a long time coming, James had spent years pining after Lily doing whatever he could think of to get her to notice him.

Money is tight but still you lay there on your couch. Your long time boyfriend Remus laying between your legs peacfully reading. Your hand in his hair relishing in the close peacefulness, the book you hold in your other hand being long forgotten as your mind wanders. Christmas is soon and with that comes a plan to show Remus just how deep your adoration for him truly runs.

You can't help but laugh at him when he puts a Christmas tree ornament around his ear, mimicking something Sirius had made days prior. "Minerva was no different, you know? Cats and their small paws and high and mighty attitudes." He sneered while trying to hold in his laughter.

Tinsel is absolutely everywhere. Draped over furniture and little pieces scattered on the floor. Its easy. Sorted. Most importantly, it isn't in the way of the war currently raging just a few feet away. Swears are flying like the snowflakes outside.

You and Remus are tangled together fighting for your lives against the lights. You would swear they have a mind if their own, its the only explanation how they could tangle so severely after after being carefully put into storage. Would it have been easier with magic? Probably. Did either even remember that you could USE said magic? Not at all. The lights wrap tightly around you the plasric is cold against your skin contrasting greatly from the warmth of your boyfriend's hands trying to free you both.

As the lights are finally untangled you can see the tension leave his body. The way the light from the fire reflects off the bulb into his face is enchanting. You never minded the scars. Each time he came back from the nights of the full moons with a new wound you were there helping him heal. He hated it at first.

The marauders had a lot of secrets. They were pranksters sure, but you know better than most. Midnight escapades to the restricted section of the ancient library hell you were one of the few people who knew they're animagi. Remus shares everything with you. You let out a frustrated groan shoving yourself off out of your bed. The wooden floor creaks with your weight as you make your way out to the common room. Your eyes fall onto a familar head of red hair.

"Hey Lils, why are you up so late?" You ask her quietly trying your best to not startle her at the unholy hour of 3am. She turns her head with a slight gasp. Startled er anyway. Her eyes are puffy and her face is painted with the stains of freshly dried tears. The second you start to hurry to her side the tears come back. So you wait. You silently hold one of your closest friends into your shoulder until she's alright. It doesn't matter how long it takes.

"They-They're usually back by now. Why aren't they back?" She chokes out her words asking you a question you don't have the slightest understanding of. The scratching as they come out is audible. The guys. Your guys. You know they go ot and do whatever it is they do once a month, 'boys night' they assure you. Why would Lily be sobbing with worry lacing her voice because they're late returning from boys night? Your thoughts are short by the door to the common room opening. Their voices. Hushed. Worried. Tired.

"God Moony, you could at least pretend like you're trying to walk." James's voice was quiet but in the otherwise silent common room he might as well have been yelling. It earned him a growl from Remus. No reort or quip. Thats when you noticed the blood. Oh the blood. It covered his shirt, his arms, and even his face. You couldn't see Remus's entire face but you saw enough through the brown curls that shielded you from the worst of it. The others didn't look much better. You want to go to him, need to go but something is stopping you. A hand. A well manicured hand connected to a Lily who's demeanor isn't far different from any of the guys. She shakes her head, such a simple action has tears coming to your own eyes. If she spoke you aren't sure. Your heart is beating so hard you cannfeel it in your skull. The tears don't come until Sirius looks up and makes eye contact with you. He mutters something under his breath as his face contorts from pain to panic.

You didn't know it back then of course, but looking back it was pretty obvious that you'd fall in love with him. That'd youd move in together and do everything you could to make the pain just a little bit more bearable.

"Rem dear? Can we paint a Christmas ornament this year? It'd be cute to exchange them Christmas Eve." Your voice is soft, gentle. The smile on your face reminds him of the day after you found out he's a werewolf. After you yelled at them for 10 minutes straight about danger, lying, and worrying Lily.

"Of course dove. That sounds like a wonderful idea!" His voice is chipper. A similar tone to his old days of pranking. A plan was hatching you just weren't sure what. It was mutual.

You sat at the table paint in hand doing your best to get the lettering just right. He's the love of your life and if it's going to take a little extra effort to make this special it was worth it. The table likely disagreed. Different colored paints are everywhere, different brushes, and oh the water cup that you put nxt to your now inedible tea. The letters on the sphere spelling ' WILL YOU MAR' taunting you. It doesn't matter how nice your hand writing is, once its on an ornament you've never written in your life.

You put the long finished and dried ornament on the back of the tree. It'll be better if he works for it you think. The fire is still young, it'll grow in a short amount of time, likely full size by the time your teas cool enough to drink. A content sigh escapes through your lips as you look around. Your home is small but its full of love and memories. Remus has had trouble finding work due to his affliction, but that isn't to say he does nothing. He works odd jobs and when there's nothing he makes sure your house is tidy and fixes whatever he can if it breaks. He will never admit how guilty he feels, but you know. Each book on the shelves, each cup on the cupboard, and even each stitch in the quilt you made together shows the amount of care you have for eachother. The pain just as much as the love.

Remus gets up quickly, only a moment after finishing his tea. You watch as he takes a breath and gently takes your hand in his. His hand is calloused and scarred but the feel the feeling is familar and calming. Each scar a mark of honor to you, but another thing to be ashamed of to him. He brings you next to the tree and prompts you to close your eyes. It feels like an eternity before you feel something round in your hand.

"Yours is on the tree love. I'm sure you'll be able to find it." You dont open your eyes until you finish your sentence. His bavk is already turned to you, not that you could complain you feel like you're going to throw up. This is it after all. Your relationship is about to permanently change one way or another. Anxiety seems reasonable to you. You look over the ornament in your hand, scanning it mindlessly at first lost in your own thoughts. You can't tell Remus has nearly stopped breathing as he searches the tree slowly.

A laugh. You can't stop it before it comes out. Written in sloppy letters are the words you spent forever painting. 'Will you be mine forever?' There's even a heart. You slap your hand over your mouth immediately after the laugh. You saw his shouders and back flinch at the sound, just as you watched his hand close around your equally sloppily painted proposal. He straightens up but doesn't turn around.

"I know we don't have a lot of money, and I know you could do and deserve so much better than me and what I can offer." He pauses to calm his breathing completely unaware of the tears threatening to spill from your eyes "But please dove. I will always do whatever I can to make you happy and you will never regret saying yes. I love you and I solemnly swear I will always love you."

You cant answer. Your brain is reeling and your lungs can't keep up. Another laugh, with this one the tears come. The only thing you can do to try to ease his growing dread is to take hold of his wrist. Giggling, you can't stop yourself. It's not cute, its a mix of giggles and cries as you try to speak. His arm is tense you can feel his hesitation, like a statue not fully carved. You quickly tap at the ornament in his hand. He gets the hint you assume, because you hear him laugh. You feel hin relax under your touch. You probably sound insane to anyone passing by your quaint little home. His lips are soft against yours. They've never felt more perfect. He pulls you in, his arms holding you close, you wrap your arms around him trying to pull him even closer to you.

Your little home so full of love and life has never felt more comfortable than in this moment. This perfect moment with your fiancé. With the perfect plan to propose at the same time.

Neither of you needed a ring. You'd get them eventually, but there was nothing that could've made this moment any more precious.

#remus lupin x reader #remus lupin #my writing #marauders #my fic #fluff

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the-ravening · 4 months

Note

*blinks* ...Michelle's Bday fic? ("It's a common name," she murmurs to herself, "so go ahead and put those hopes down.") (I have a doc on my desktop named 'For Shan' and no mistake about it it's something you will get someday. 😂 )

Thank you to everyone who tagged me in the latest round of the WIP game going around. I will not be participating this time because I never even finished answering my asks from the last time and it’s been dragging on my conscience ever since.

Speaking of which… Michelle! I’m sooooo sorry it took me this long to answer your ask from last year. Of course “Michelle’s Bday fic” was for you!!! You and me 🤝 starting bday fics for each other and not finishing them.

It was supposed to just be a small little hurt/comfort wound cleaning in the shower thing, but I didn’t get it done in time and I felt so self-conscious writing for you because your words are always so beautiful.

Anyway, I have almost 3k written but doubt I’ll be finishing it any time soon, so please accept this meagre offering of a long snippet (aka the first 1.6k of the fic).

Hope you’ve been doing well! Sending you love and kisses forever 💗💗💗

Three sets of heavy footsteps trudged through the front door of the safehouse, slow and lumbering in their exhaustion. The air around them was thick with the iron tang of blood and a persistent tingle of burnt gunpowder rattling around in their sinuses, as they slipped into the kind of quiet torpor that always followed a difficult mission seen to its end. Though it had gotten a bit dicey at times on this one, they’d earned the satisfaction of having completed their objective and made it back alive in one piece. Well, mostly in one piece, Bucky thought, running his eyes critically over Zemo’s broad back as the man stepped into the apartment’s living area ahead of him. There was a conspicuous tear in his beloved long wool coat, the fabric slashed and stained dark with blood below his left shoulder blade.

“All right,” Sam said, voice deep with weariness. “Let’s take a look at your back, Zemo.”

“Merely a shallow flesh wound. I’ll be fine,” Zemo demurred.

“Knowing you, that means they probably hit a major organ and you’re about to pass out on your own carpet,” Sam grumbled.

“Really, is there so little trust between colleagues these days?”

Sam and Bucky took simultaneous deep breaths and sighed heavily at the irony of this statement rolling off the tongue of this particular colleague of theirs.

Before Sam could come up with any further argument though, they were interrupted by a tinny sound blaring from somewhere in the depths of his leather jacket. It quickly developed into the sunny tones of a song Bucky only knew because Sam had once told him it was called “‘Fuck You’ by CeeLo Green… C’mon, man, you don’t know that one?” and only recognized from how often this personalized ringtone went off on Sam’s phone.

“Man, already? Doesn’t this guy have anything better to do than stick his nose up our asses after every mission?” Sam groaned as he fished his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen with his thumb to answer it. “Secretary Ross. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

He turned to Bucky and rolled his eyes as he held the phone to his ear, no doubt listening to Ross droning on on the other end of the line. Putting his hand over the mic, he stage whispered to Bucky, “Take care of Zemo for a few minutes, would you? I have to deal with this,” and then he wandered off into the office and closed the door behind him.

Left alone with Zemo, Bucky glared at him, wanting nothing less than to have to babysit him in Sam’s absence. On the other hand though, he really didn’t want Zemo to die of organ failure today either.

“If it were serious, I wouldn’t be standing right now.” Zemo lifted his hands in that placating gesture he liked to do so much, the one that Bucky found particularly annoying when directed at him. But he couldn’t help noticing Zemo holding back a small wince of pain as his arms came up.

Bucky sighed. “There’s a whole lot of possibilities between ‘okay’ and ‘dead’, Zemo. At least let me take a look and help you clean it out. There’s no way you’ll be able to reach back there.”

“More than anything, what I need right now is a shower,” Zemo huffed and turned towards the bathroom, effectively ending the discussion.

Bucky scrubbed a hand over his face and wondered if this would be the day Zemo finally died for real on his watch. After everything they’d been through today, he didn’t have the mental energy to argue with the man, but what was slightly worrying was that it seemed Zemo didn’t even have it in him to bite back in that flirty, teasing, infuriating way he normally did. Bucky hoped that wasn’t a sign that he was secretly bleeding out internally. They were both covered in sweat and blood and grime and gunpowder, so maybe he could let this go for now and they could pick it back up once Zemo finished his little beauty spa routine in there.

“Well?” Zemo drawled, and Bucky glanced up in time to see the man looking over his shoulder at him as he stepped through the doorway. Zemo raised an eyebrow. “Are you coming?”

Bucky stood in stunned silence, watching Zemo disappear into the bathroom, leaving the door wide open behind him. The innuendo was clear, but Zemo was all innuendo all the time, and maybe Bucky was the one misconstruing it by considering for even a moment that there was any serious intent here.

He really did want to check out Zemo’s injury—though maybe want was a bit too strong a word there. What he wanted was to pour himself a whiskey neat and sit down on the couch and forget for five minutes that Zemo was his responsibility. But what he’d gotten instead was an opportunity to make sure their notoriously secretive parolee didn’t end up with sepsis down the line from an infected knife wound, or worse. Bucky sighed again and reluctantly made to follow behind Zemo, as if drawn forward on a persistent leash that he could never quite shake off.

The bathroom was overly large and opulent, as tended to be the case in Zemo’s scattered family properties-turned-safehouses, which they now took advantage of whenever their missions allowed—though a more pretentious person might call its design spacious and modern. As he stepped into the room, Bucky was hit with the loud hiss of the shower, its rushing spray battering the black tiles as it heated up to temperature in its glass enclosure.

In the centre of the room, Zemo stood like a dark and ragged headland dropping off into the sea, as he slid his coat over slumped shoulders to land in a heavy tumble of eroded rock at his feet. Bucky was certain that no matter the air of indifference that Zemo put on, he was well and truly far along the road of fatigue, because under normal circumstances the man he knew would never treat his favourite things with such lack of care.

Zemo drew a sharp breath between his teeth as he brought his shoulder blades together in a weak attempt to shrug his double shoulder holster off. Even the most incremental of movements seemed to exacerbate the pain of his injury.

“Here, let me just—” Bucky muttered as he strode up to Zemo and stopped him gently with a hand on his shoulder. He tugged carefully at the slide adjuster on the back of the harness, loosening it, and then reached around to slide his fingers underneath the leather straps, tucking them snugly against the meat of Zemo’s chest. Slowly and gingerly, he worked the straps over Zemo’s shoulders and slid them all the way down his arms, finally dropping the holster with its guns atop the heap of Zemo’s coat on the floor, gun safety be damned. It really was that sort of day.

Letting out a small sigh of relief, Zemo fumbled at the buttons of his ruined shirt with tired fingers. Bucky tried not to let the worst of his imagination run wild as his eyes tracked over the torn and blood-soaked fabric, hoping it looked much worse than it really was. Once Zemo got the shirt spread open, Bucky helped him slide it off too, revealing the expanse of his pale shoulders and a Pollock-esque smear of blood down his back, red speckled all around like so many more lurid stars dispersed amongst his freckles.

Bucky squinted scrutinizingly at the wound, its raw and red gape a wrathful mouth, lips split and spitting vitriol. Despite its gory appearance, it looked clean and fairly shallow—the blade had likely caught on a rib, sparing him from any deeper damage. It was still bleeding sluggishly, though not enough to be dangerous, already clotting. It’d certainly need a few stitches, but Sam could take care of that easily once they cleaned it up.

While Bucky was focused on assessing the cut, Zemo was dead set on shedding the rest of his soiled clothing, like a birch tree unraveling its bark layer by layer, to expose the smooth and fresh golden skin beneath. Muscular thighs flexed as he kicked off his boots, tac pants following in their wake, slipping his thumbs into the elastic waistband of his underwear and tugging them down over the firm globes of his ass. Bucky caught sight of a deep pair of indents on Zemo’s lower back—his dimples of Venus, his brain supplied unhelpfully—before averting his eyes. He told himself the flush of heat he felt on his face was a result of the rising temperature in the room, a consequence of the roaring shower. He swallowed around a lump in his throat that definitely wasn’t there.

Now shamelessly naked, Zemo tugged open the shower door with his right hand, muscles rippling over the uninjured side of his back, and stepped into the spray of water.

Bucky had a brief moment debating with himself the merits of just leaving Zemo to his shower and going to get himself that drink after all, but that was promptly quashed as Zemo let out a loud moan at the first cascade of hot water hitting his body from the rainfall showerhead above him. That deep, throaty sound hit Bucky dead-on and proceeded to run over him like a high-capacity freight train, and got him dropping his pants pretty fucking quickly. Making quick work of the rest of his clothes, Bucky stepped into the shower and pulled the glass door shut behind him with a soft click.

#answered asks #WIP meme #writer asks #ravening writes #winterbaron #winterbaron fic #fic WIP #@shadowslament

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dumdumsun · 6 months

Text

Wax and Wane

A/N: And finally, Chapter Sixteen! Thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their lives to read this installment. I've gone through hell and back throughout the writing, editing and uploading process of this one. And I'm just talking about my personal life.

I've had a very rough few months and I'm still not in a good place at all, but I'm hoping winter break coming up will give me the time I need to heal and get back to my normal self. Because I do not like the way I've been feeling lately.

I'm sorry for all the late uploads, the shows I was doing had me forgetting all about you guys, but I'm v grateful for everyone who still supports me and this series. The next installment will take quite some time to write, seeing as I'm not even done outlining it. But I sure as hell am not going to ignore it, so don't ever doubt that.

I'm so sorry for the way I ended this installment (I'm not sorry at all, actually), the vision for this has been here since I had the idea to make this series. But anyways, thank you once again for your love and support, see the end of this chapter for anything about the next book, and enjoy the final chapter ❤️

Warnings: major character deaths, minor character death, violence, blood, death/dying, mentions of blood, death, blood and guns

Word Count: 8976

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Chapter Sixteen: Heart to Heart

El wasn’t sure at all where Mike and Max were taking her, and she was certain they didn’t know, either. As far away from Billy would be ideal, but they couldn’t stay in the mall. It was too dangerous and it wasn’t where their friends were. They hadn’t seen where they went, but it was clear they were now gone.

“In here. In here.” Mike directed them into an open room where an elevator shaft was. “Okay. Come on, come on, come on…” He muttered as he repeatedly hit the button.

“Where’s (Y/N)?” Max suddenly asked, and just like that, another wave of panic went through the three. Doc was nowhere in sight. To put Mike’s terrified look at ease, Max decided to take a look back into the hallway in search of her friend.

Instead, she found her brother.

His skin was completely decorated in pulsing black veins, his matted hair stuck to his face with sweat, his tank top was torn in places and covered in sweat stains. Max widened her eyes as he limped down the hall towards her, towards El. There was no question about it, he had to have been responsible for Doc’s disappearance.

“Billy…”

At the sound of his name, Mike and El whipped around. Max teared up as he continued forward.

“Billy, you don’t have to do this.”

She knew that if she didn’t get through to him, he would hurt her, then Mike, then Eleven. She just hoped her words would reach him.

“Billy. Your name’s Billy, Billy Hargrove.”

He was far too close for comfort.

“You live on 4819 Cherry Lane.”

Her voice rose in panic as she watched him ready his arm.

“Billy, please, I’m Max, I’m your-”

Max was smacked across the face hard enough to send her to the ground, unconscious. Billy turned into the room, spotting Mike standing protectively in front of El. The boy threw himself at Billy, but was thrown into the metal pipes against the wall, knocking him out when his head slammed into them.

El let out a yell as she stretched her arm out to him, but Billy had used the same move he had on Doc. He shoved her arm down, grabbed her face, and rammed her head into the wall, then threw her across the room into another wall. Huffing out his breaths, Billy picked her up from the ground and slung her over his shoulder, striding back into the hallways.

Doc was dead.

There was no doubt that the blood loss and the head trauma had drained her completely and killed her. She couldn’t feel anything, she couldn’t hear anything, she couldn’t see anything. There was just darkness. It was sad, she thought, that there was nothing after all the trauma she had gone through. No paradise, not even more turmoil. Just her and her thoughts.

Then there was sound. It was faint, a bit muffled, but it was sound. Then there was feeling. The dull throb in her side, in her forehead, in her temple. Then there was sight. Her tired eyes creaked open to get a blurry image of the ruined Starcourt Mall food court. It was exactly as she had left it, shattered glass, the setup of tables in disarray, the skylight broken in.

The Mind Flayer. It loomed menacingly before the night sky, peering down at Doc with a tilted head, as if it were challenging her. She went to move, but found herself bound on the small staircase by rope. Where the rope came from was a mystery to her, but that was the least of her worries. Above her was the Mind Flayer, planning to wreak havoc, none of her friends in sight, and unable to move any of her limbs.

A very twisted idea of the afterlife.

Doc slumped against the wall behind her just as she heard footsteps nearby. Her body ached too bad for her to twist around, so she waited for the unknown figure to show themselves.

Her eyes widened when Billy passed by her, carrying Eleven over his shoulder. When he reached the top of the staircase, he hoisted her off his shoulder and into his arms before gently laying her on the floor. From where Doc was, she could see her sister coming to, slowly blinking her eyes open as Billy neared her ear.

“Don’t be afraid.” He whispered. “It’ll be over soon. Just try and stay… very still.”

Both Eleven and Doc followed Billy’s gaze as he looked up into the night. The Mind Flayer’s silhouette lowered until the light of the mall cast away the shadows and revealed its fleshy form. It snarled as it stepped towards El, readying a tentacle from its mouth. Doc watched with teary eyes as El whimpered and tried to scoot away. She tried to muster up as much energy as she could to fight against the rope, but her head spun with every move she made. She couldn’t let it end like this.

A colorful explosion went off in the side of the monster’s head, causing it to wail and stumble about. From the second floor balcony, Lucas stood with his homemade stick of dynamite, the explosives sporting a spark that ran down the fuse.

“Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!”

He launched the firework right into the mouth of the monster, exploding in yellow and orange sparks that painted the mall in bright lights. Nancy and Jonathan chucked their explosives at it as well from a different area on the balcony, the Mind Flayer crashing into a nearby pillar.

“Hey, asshole!” Steve screamed from another side of the balcony with Robin at his side. “Over here!”

Just as the Mind Flayer turned to him, another firework was launched into its agape mouth, this time exploding in reds and pinks. Will ran to Lucas’s side and joined in, hurling his explosive off the balcony. Each time the monster was hit, Billy cried out in pain and jolted his body.

“El!” Doc called out, catching her sister’s attention. “Help me get out of this!”

El took one look at Billy before scooting backwards towards Doc, unable to stand due to her leg. She fully turned around and hurriedly crawled over to her.

“Watch out!” Doc suddenly screamed just as Billy caught up to El and grabbed her by her injured leg, dragging her across the floor and back to her original place. “Eleven!!!”

“Doc!!!”

Billy flipped Eleven so she was facing him and grabbed her by her collar, slamming her back down onto the ground. Showers of sparks rained down in brilliant bursts of yellows and oranges and reds and pinks, the Mind Flayer stumbling and crashing about the area into walls and pillars. Doc watched with a sort of amazement she couldn’t quite describe, hinted with terror. Everyone was at risk right now except for her, and she could barely move.

“We’re almost out!” Will screamed when he turned to the nearly empty basket containing the explosives.

“I know!” Lucas shouted back before throwing another. Noticing this, Steve quickly brought his walkie up to his mouth.

“Dustin! We’re out of time!”

“Hurry!” He could hear Dustin scream, but he wasn’t talking to him. He was talking to Joyce and Hopper, who were tasked with turning off the machine that was blasting a hole between dimensions. “Close it now! Close it!!!”

Back in the employee halls, next to the elevator, Max was coming to. Her face hurt like hell, the girl sporting a bruise along her cheekbone where she’d been hit by-

Billy.

Gasping, she lifted her aching head and looked around the flickering room, finding Mike not too far from her on the ground. He had yet to awake, meaning he was just as clueless as her. “Mike…”

She painfully got to her knees and crawled over to him. “Mike. Mike.” When he didn’t answer, she began to shake him as hard as she could. “Mike. Mike. Mike, get up. Mike, can you hear me? Mike! Mike!”

With a startled sound, he was flinching awake.

“Hey, come on.” She grabbed him by the arms and helped him to his feet, silently wincing at the blood dripping from the bridge of his nose and across his cheek. “You okay?”

Mike dazedly let his gaze wander in search of two figures he had yet to see. “Where’s El and Doc?”

The two bolted down the hallways, trying to blink past the flickering lights. They strained to listen for footsteps that weren’t theirs, but their hearts were beating too loud in their ears to hear anything else.

“Wait, wait.”

Mike dropped to the floor when he almost tripped on a piece of fabric. Max stopped at his side and watched as he carefully picked up a black headscarf with red raven feather print on it.

“Isn’t that (Y/N)’s?” Max shuddered.

Mike’s stare turned cold.

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

Doc moved against her bindings, her body crying out in protest with every inch she moved. She needed to get out there and help. Billy was still atop of El, the man clearly wanting to end her, but every time the monster nearby was hit, so was he. With every burst of color, his body jolted and tensed, the man growling in pain. Even from where she was sitting, she could see that El had realized the same thing.

Billy was still in there.

In the Void, Doc tried to twist her arm from Billy’s hand, El barely able to make him budge. His teary eyes didn’t stray from Doc, only locking harder on her.

“El,” She weakly called out, El snapping her head over to her with wide eyes. “He showed us so much hate and fear!”

The woman lovingly laughed before happily whooping and cheering, clapping her hands for someone who wasn’t El. They turned to see a little boy with a surfboard in his hands running towards the woman, scaring off the rest of the seagulls nearby.

“But the first thing he showed us was something beautiful!”

“Get away from me!” She ripped her arm from his grip, picking up a plate and throwing it at him. “I said, get away!”

“You- You whore!”

Billy shot out of his seat and ran up to his father, throwing himself at him. “Stop it! Don’t hurt her! Don’t hurt her!”

Doc inhaled shakily. “There were so many horrible things, but that was what he wanted to show us first!”

His grin grew at the kiss she planted on his forehead. “That was at least seven feet!”

“That’s the source, El! The real source!”

El’s wide gaze returned to Billy when the literal whirlwind of memories resurfaced in her mind. She latched onto the most beautiful thing she could remember and shakily gasped. “Seven… feet.”

Billy halted, brows furrowed.

“You told her… the wave was seven feet.”

Green sparked above him as tears swam in his blue stare. It’s like he could still hear her cheers for him, her loving laugh as she whooped. Suddenly, it was becoming difficult to breathe.

“You ran to her, on the beach.” El tearfully continued.

He could feel his bare feet splashing in the warm water, his board falling from his arms as he ran to her with a proud, excited grin.

“There were seagulls.”

Yes, he could hear their caws growing distant the farther they flew away. He had carelessly scared them off in his haste to her. He tilted his head at Eleven, bathed in red as his eyes widened at her.

“She wore a hat… with a blue ribbon.”

He gasped. It was becoming clearer now.

“A long dress… with a blue and red flower.”

It beautifully blew in the wind as she gazed at him.

“Yell- Yellow sandals, covered in sand.”

Pinks poured behind him as he looked off in thought. He painted the picture, her picture, in his mind so vividly. It was like she was never gone.

“She was pretty.”

He let his eyes softly close so he could repaint the way her lips stretched back and curled into a lovely, toothy smile that reached her tender eyes, her joyous laughter that followed. And he smiled at the memory.

“She was really pretty…”

When Billy opened his eyes, Eleven was illuminated by blue, then green, then yellow, then a darker blue. She was crying. Crying for him. Smiling for what used to be him, what used to make him the person he used to be. And he smiled back, nodding in agreement, in remembrance.

“And you…” She sharply inhaled. “...you were happy.”

Green washed over him as he thought of that little boy, standing at the edge of the water, a surfboard bigger than himself under his arm, a smile too wide for his face directed at his mother. He had never smiled that bright or that genuine since then. He never wanted to, never needed to.

He felt fingertips brush against his cheekbone, but he didn’t flinch. He allowed Eleven to cup his face in her hand, closed his eyes and even leant into it. It had been so long since he felt a comforting touch. Not one that left scratches and bruises and blood. But one that made him feel warm and cared for. Safe.

The green melted to blue over his face as he slowly blinked his eyes open.

From the balcony, Nancy held her last set of explosives up to Jonathan. “Hit me.” She nodded, her boyfriend lighting the fuse. Once she could feel the heat of it near her hand, she hurled it off the balcony with a grunt. Lucas’s followed right after and they burst two seconds from each other in pinks and purples.

“We’re out!” Will screamed, holding up the empty basket.

“Dammit!”

Doc felt the roar of the Mind Flayer in her chest as she flexed out her fingers, her power rushing to the tips of them. She wiggled them through the small gaps in the rope and touched them to the fabric. She painfully grunted as she focused on tearing away her bindings. The pain in her head and side throbbed with every pulse of her power, but she continued on.

Billy looked up at the Mind Flayer, who was no longer being assaulted by colorful bursts of gunpowder. The man stood to his feet and Eleven feared that she had reached for Billy only to be shoved to her death. Neither she nor Doc had seen Max and Mike rush in through Scoops Ahoy, stopping abruptly at the threshold of the parlor in shock.

El scooted away, closer to her sister, as a terrifying tentacle crawled from the mouth of the monster, its teeth gnashing at her. When it shot itself at her, she used her arms to block her face, ready for the pain.

But it never came.

When she uncovered her vision, she was able to see Billy holding off the tentacle with his bare hands. “No!” He screamed, straining against the strength of the monster. It screeched and pushed back against Billy, readying one, then two, then four more tentacles.

“No!!!” Doc screamed, but she was too late.

Billy screamed in agony when one of them sunk its teeth into his side. But his hold loosened when another went into his other side.

“No, no, no!” Doc cried, blinking past her bleary vision as she charged her power higher, the fabric of the rope unraveling from itself. She couldn’t let anyone else die. “Come on! Come on!!!”

Billy limply dropped his arms when several more tentacles pierced into his stomach, his spine, between his shoulder blades.

“Close it now!!!” Dustin shouted from Steve’s walkie. “Close it!!!”

Billy fell to his knees, arms out wide, as if daring the Mind Flayer to hit him again. He even released a war scream past the black blood spilling from his lips.

Doc let out a short yell when the rope fell in bits of itself to the ground, the girl falling forward and holding herself up on wobbling hands and knees. But once again, she was too late. The Mind Flayer had sent one more tentacle right through the center of Billy’s chest, silencing his screaming.

“Billy!!!”

At the sound of Max’s shrill scream, Doc weakly raised her head to watch the Mind Flayer rip all its tentacles from Billy’s body, the man falling to the ground, silent.

No. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. Not after Brenda. No one else was supposed to die except for her. Except for Doc. She couldn’t let this go on any further. There was no telling when Joyce and Hopper would close the gate, so she had to take matters into her own hands.

The world tilted and spun the whole journey to her feet. She sobbed a bit as she forced her back to straighten. It amazed her how much blood was stored and pumped within the human body, because she believed she had run out multiple times from the moment she was bitten. But she pushed on, muscling her way to where Billy once stood.

“Doc.”

She stopped short when she felt a hand on her ankle. Doc looked down to see Eleven gripping her. “D-Don’t.”

“Let go, Eleven.”

“Please.”

Doc tried a smile, heaving her breaths. “It’s okay… Let go. I’ll be okay,” She mustered the strength to free her ankle. “I got you and I love you.”

Eleven didn’t have to say it back because Doc knew. She wasn’t planning on a goodbye, she just wasn’t sure how what she was about to do would affect her mind. Turning her head forward, Doc fought to keep her eyes open and stretched both her arms toward the Mind Flayer. It stepped closer to her, inspecting her up close, awaiting her next move.

“I should’ve done this a long time ago.”

Doc grunted as she curled her fingers, the monster shrieking and recoiling away from her. She felt the black veins spreading from her fingertips to her shoulders. Both her arms shook uncontrollably as she reached her power right into the mind of the monster. A deep gasp lurched from her as the veins spread up her neck and face, surrounding her bloodshot eyes that rolled to the back of her head.

Every single victim of the Mind Flayer called out to her. Their screams and pleads and murmurs crescendoed and decrescendoed in echoing harmonies that made her head swim more. They each showed her the day they were flayed. It started with Heather, then Tom and Janet and Brenda, then Bruce, then so many civilians that she had seen walking around town.

Classmates from school.

Neighbors on her cul-de-sac.

They showed her nothing but fear and horror and gore, their faces smothered by the Mind Flayer’s tentacles, the sludge forced into their bodies. The suffering they’d all gone through shook her to her core so bad, she was screaming out sobs. It was the hardest she had ever cried.

Taking a step forward, she moved past the memories and the screams to tear into the monster. It screeched and stumbled about to escape from her, but she had it in her grasp. Doc screamed so loud, she didn’t feel her feet leaving the ground, didn’t feel her body levitating higher and higher. All she could process was the overwhelming desire to kill this entity. Put an end to everyone’s suffering.

If it wanted a queen, then it would receive her.

Everyone watched in awe as Doc rose above the Mind Flayer, bringing it down to its metaphorical-but-possible knees as she tore into its stolen flesh. She had never felt so powerful. She wasn’t healing what had been hurt, but she was taking away the pain.

It was what her powers were for. It was what she was for. She was pushing herself beyond limits she never had before. If it wasn’t the splitting headache telling her that, then it was the blood dribbling from her nose for the first time. And even though her skin felt like it was on fire, her head was pounding, her wounds were widening, her vision was blackening and the black veins were practically encasing her whole body, she was so proud of herself.

Doc didn’t even notice the Mind Flayer aiming a tentacle for her.

She didn’t hear the warning screams from her friends.

She didn’t even feel the tentacle pierce her in the stomach.

It wasn’t until it had driven through her back that she felt a white-hot pain everywhere. She slowly lowered her quivering arms as she slumped forward, a blood river spilling from between her lips. She choked on it a little, but made sure to cough as best she could to release it from her lungs.

“(Y/N)!!!” Will screamed, sobs racking through his body as he leaned into the balcony.

Eleven desperately stretched her arms out with a sobbed scream, hoping that whatever bit of her power she had left could save her sister, but nothing reached out to her.

Nancy had stumbled into Jonathan, unable to process what was happening. She covered her mouth as hot tears spilled down her face. She was completely incapable of doing anything for her little sister.

Mike blinked over and over in hopes that this was all a sick dream. He wanted to wake up, he needed to wake up. He wanted to scream her name, to run to her, to cry for her. But he was frozen. He watched as she tried to raise her arm, but it would tremble and fall again and again.

This time, Doc felt when the tentacle was yanked from her body. The force of it sent her head flying back. For a moment, she swore she was suspended in the air, but she realized it was just her world slowing down. Her bloodshot (e/c) eyes rolled back into place as she hiccuped for a breath.

Then, she felt something close, and she knew it was the gate. The Mind Flayer screeched and snarled as it threw its body all around, smashing into the balcony and into the other pillars it hadn’t crushed already. Without its tentacle or her powers holding her in place anymore, Doc’s body dropped.

It was so slow for her. She squinted her eyes past the smoke in the air as she let gravity take her. It scared her for a moment, but she couldn’t quite remember what all this was for.

Everyone who was forced to watch flinched when the Mind Flayer crashed to the ground, motionless, but it was Doc they worried for. They watched as she fell through the air, blood staining her mouth, skin and clothes. The lights above began to flicker and a sinking feeling set in Mike’s stomach when he saw the very familiar particles surrounding her as she fell.

The lights flickered one last time. For one blink of a moment, the whole mall was shrouded in darkness.

In the next nanosecond, the Mind Flayer was still laid unconscious. But Doc was nowhere in sight, the particles left in her wake. And then silence.

Mike absently took a step forward. It just couldn’t be. She was just right there. He couldn’t have lost his sister within less than a second. There wasn’t even a goodbye, a glance in his direction, last words between them besides a short argument. Taking a deep breath, he charged down the stairs, searching the area for Doc. He made sure to steer clear of the monster and the fires surrounding it caused by the fireworks.

“(Y/N)!” He tearfully called out, lifting and pushing aside debris. “(Y/N), answer me!”

“Mike!” Nancy was suddenly on the first floor and pulling him back from the fire. “Mike!”

“She’s here somewhere, Nancy! We need to find her!” He cried.

“Mike,” She placed her hands on her shoulders, hardly able to speak past her own tears. “Y-You saw her… d-disappear, Mike.”

“T-That means she’s somewhere! She’s not gone!”

Nancy shook her head defeatedly. She wanted so badly to hope for her sister, but she had hoped for Barb, too. She didn’t know if she could go through that pain again, the endless search, the heartbreaking deadends, the horrifying truth. But she also couldn’t go through one more second of Mike’s crumpled expression, so she nodded and helped him look under fiery debris for their sister.

Max slowly approached her brother. His shallow breaths were growing shorter the longer he bled out on the ground. Tears flooded her eyes as she watched him cough through the blood in his mouth and throat. “Billy…” She dropped to her knees and shook his shoulder. “Billy, Billy, get up, please. Billy, get up, please, please.”

“I’m sorry…” He choked out.

“Billy…” Her jaw dropped when he exhaled his last pained breath, his body going limp and his eyes glossing over. Still, she tried shaking him. “Billy. Billy. Billy, wake up. Billy, get up. Please, Billy… Billy!”

Max felt two hands on her shoulder and immediately crashed into the comforting arms. “I’m sorry…” El cried, letting Max sob into her. She kept repeating the same phrase over and over. “It’s okay…”

But it wasn’t. El’s eyes were stuck on the Wheeler siblings, who worked their way around the Mind Flayer to push debris out of their way, Mike practically flinging everything whenever they came up empty. She remembered when she herself had been encased in those particles, transferred to the Upside Down. But she didn’t have a gaping hole in the middle of her body and pools of blood leaking from various wounds.

It didn’t feel right to accept that Doc was gone for good. She was the most indestructible person she had ever met in her life. But what else were they to do? Hope she didn’t bleed out wherever she ended up?

No, she couldn’t be a fool like that. She couldn’t hope Doc had just survived what Billy hadn’t. He lay right there in front of her, hole in his chest, unbreathing and unmoving. So, with that sickening conclusion, she tightened her hold on Max and joined in her crying.

El just hoped that wherever her sister ended up, she was resting in peace now.

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

Dustin and Erica sat atop the hill, overlooking the almost peaceful night cast upon Hawkins. Starcourt Mall hissing black smoke was the only thing to disrupt that peace. Their work was done. The gate was closed. The monster was presumably dead. The only thing left to worry about was cleanup.

As if on cue, a whirring and beating of helicopter blades above caught the attention of the two children. Craning their necks up, they tried to count just how many helicopters were here to clean up a mess they could have prevented themselves. The military proved useless the last two times they were called upon, Dustin wasn’t at all surprised by their lack of punctuality.

Each helicopter touched down in front of the mall, soldiers jumping out bearing arms. The only individual amongst them without a weapon or a uniform was Dr Sam Owens, squinting through the wind the blades caused as he was escorted into the mall.

After the soldiers had inspected the entire Russian facility, nearly blowing off Joyce and Murray’s heads in the process, Sam was led to the now closed gate. It was just as he feared. The enemy was catching on and catching up. They had undone everything they had worked and bled and died for, just for them to do it all again. And if any of the Russians had escaped…

God help them all.

To cover up the horrific events of the night, the Mind Flayer’s body had been cleared from the mall, the small fires were made bigger, and then the fire department was called. A mistaken corpse one year, a deadly gas leak the next year, and then a mall fire the year after would have any conspiracy theorist springing from their chair in excitement, but it was the best solution to such a drastic situation. None of it had been revealed to the public yet, but with firefighters came news broadcasters and newspaper articles.

Joyce and Murray were currently being escorted out by the soldiers, the former desperately looking around for her children. Past the soldiers, she could make out the backs of several fire trucks. In one was Mike, wrapped in a blanket and crying into his knees. Nancy sat beside him, gently rubbing his shoulder with her face buried into the other. Off to the side, Robin and Max sat on a stretcher together, icing their wounds.

In another one sat Jonathan and Will. Joyce froze in her tracks, staring at them in shock as relief washed over her like a refreshing shower. When Will saw her, he was out of the truck in a flash, blanket forgotten. She let him run into her arms, the two clutching onto each other as they sobbed. “Thank god!” Joyce cried, running her hand through her baby’s hair. Her sweet baby…

Her eyes traveled up to find El wandering about, looking all around for her father. Joyce’s heart broke in two at the news she would have to break to the poor girl. She wasn’t sure how she could even voice it to her. But when El locked eyes with her, a questioning gaze within them, Joyce could do nothing but cry harder.

The devastation on Joyce’s face sent the realization crashing into El like a freight train. Her whole world was crashing all around her. Her sister and her father, in the same day… Her family, gone, just like that. Without parting words. Without a goodbye.

Just how it had always been for her.

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

Three months later marked the end of summer vacation. Those in school would continue their studies while the graduates figured out where their place was in the workplace. Or for those who wanted both, then there was no time like the present. Steve and Robin stood at the register of Family Video, watching as an employee reviewed their applications with a look of disinterest.

“Uh, just to be clear, we weren’t fired, you know.” Robin leaned on the counter. “The mall burned down and, like, killed a bunch of people.”

Keith, a former arcade employee, lowered the applications, that same expression on his red-dotted face. “Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know.” He droned before throwing down the papers and snapping at Robin. “Three favorite movies. Go.”

“Uh… The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise.”

He then snapped at Steve. “You, go.”

Steve widened his eyes. “Fa- uh- Favorite movies?”

“Did I stutter?”

“Uh… Animal House, for sure.” That answer received a scoff from Robin as Keith snapped for him to hurry. “Um…”

“Eyes on me, Harrington.”

“Yeah. Uh… Star Wars.”

“A New Hope?”

“Uh- A new what-now?”

“Which Star Wars?” Keith irritably asked.

“The one with the teddy bears. Duh.” He chuckled before imitating the squeals of an Ewok. His confidence faltered seeing Robin slump her head and Keith cringe. “No? Uh… Oh! The one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with the DeLorean and Alex P Keaton, and he’s trying to bang his mom.”

Keith dropped his jaw as Steve chuckled.

“The time… Yeah, those are my top three. Classics.”

His narrowed gaze moved to Robin and pointed at her. “You start Monday.”

Then it moved to Steve.

“You start never.”

At his disappointed and albeit embarrassed look, Robin sighed and scooted closer to her friend. “Will you just, um… Will you give us a minute?”

“Why?”

“Steve.”

The Harrington man looked up at Keith, who gave him a mocking look. Eyes cold, Steve swiped back his application and walked away from the register. Robin scoffed and took her friend’s place at the counter so that she was face-to-face with Keith. “Alright,” She whispered. “You have to understand, Keith, I know his taste is a bit pedestrian, but the dingus has other qualities.”

“He’s a douchebag of the highest order, Robin.”

“He was a bit of a prick to us in high school, I’ll grant you that, but he remains… a total chick magnet.”

Keith shrugged. “Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me, how?”

Robin widened her eyes and shook her head, leaning even closer. “Uh, Earth to Keith. The ladies will come in just to see him. They’ll come in in droves. Droves, Keith. We sold so much ice cream, they had to get a second shipment from Michigan. Goddamn Michigan, Keith. And these ladies…”

She inhaled deeply. “These ladies are hot… They’re so very hot. And there are too many of them for little Steve. He needs assistance. He needs your assistance, Keith.”

Keith shoved a cheese puff into his mouth in thought. “What’s in it for you? You got a thing for him or something?”

Just then, Steve had run into a cardboard cut-out of Phoebe Cates’s most famous moment in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He cursed as he fumbled to catch it, but hummed in satisfaction when he got a look at what he was holding, his application safe between his lips. Robin smiled at him and turned back to Keith.

“We’re just, um… We’re just friends.” She nodded.

“Oh!” Steve caught their attention again, pointing at the cut-out. “Fast Times. Fast Times. Ever heard of it? Top three for me, Keith.” He teased, eliciting a laugh from his friend.

At the Byers home, the interior was looking much more barren than it had half a month ago. Jonathan and Nancy carried a mattress together into a U-Haul truck. At the beginning of the yard sat a ‘FOR SALE’ stand, a sign reading ‘SOLD’ just above it. According to Joyce, this had been arranged for a long time now. It had just been a matter of telling her children and then packing up the house. And pack it up, they did.

Within the home, several boxes labeled ‘LIVING ROOM’, ‘MOM’S ROOM’, ‘KITCHEN’, ‘GLASSWARE’, ‘WILL’S ROOM’ and others of the sort were stacked within the otherwise empty house. Dustin sat in what used to be the dining room, organizing a box. Though, his work was currently at a standstill, for the couple sitting in what used to be the living room were currently mocking him with-

“Turn around

Look at what you see

In her face

The mirror of your dreams”

Max and Lucas sat with a box between them, happily singing with giant smiles in Dustin’s direction, the boy only staring at them, unimpressed despite their good vocals.

“Rhymes that keep their secrets

Will unfold behind the clouds-”

“Wait, did we get that verse right?” Max teasingly asked. “It’s ‘unfold behind the clouds’?”

Dustin gave a tight-lipped smile and a short nod. “Yeah, but you’re butchering it, so, could you please stop?”

“So, then join in, Dusty-bun.” Lucas blew him a kiss.

“Yeah, come on, Dusty-bun,” Max mocked. “Why don’t you join us?”

Dustin rolled his eyes. He knew he would never live this down. “You guys are so funny, you should be on Carson.” He monotonously spoke.

“Can’t we just hear your rendition?” Max asked.

“No.”

“Please? Just one verse?”

“No. No way. It’s reserved for Suzie’s ears and Suzie’s ears alone.”

Lucas and Max turned to look at each other, their expressions turning mischievous before-

“Turn around

Look at what you see”

Dustin, having no way to stop them, flipped them the bird with raised brows.

“In their face

The mirror of your dreams”

“Shut up, you guys.”

“Rhymes that keep their secrets”

“Stop! You guys, please, shut up.”

“Will unfold behind the clouds”

In what used to be the kitchen, Mike watched Will emerge from the hallway with a stack of books in his hands. As he placed them in the box between them, Mike’s brows furrowed at the Dungeons and Dragons manual stacked on top. “Whoa, dude,” He called out when Will began walking away. “That’s the donation box.”

“I know,” He nodded. “I’ll just use yours when I come back. I mean… if we still wanna play.”

Because everything may change once he leaves.

“Yeah, but what if you want to join another party?”

Will shook his head, relieved at Mike’s worry. “Not possible.”

Mike returned his smile a fraction of the way, a small chuckle escaping him, but it was gone as soon as it came. He had been like that ever since his sister’s funeral. It was like the occasion had confirmed something for him. Not her death, no. He would still hold on to the delusion that she was still out there somewhere, but it more so confirmed that she became a part of Hawkins’s cover stories. She had always been a piece of it since the day she was carried out of the school, in Mike’s arms, covered in blood, but this was different.

She didn’t walk out this time. No one expected her to come back.

Mike tried his best everyday to respond, to react, to blink and breathe, but it was all absent-minded. It was worse than when El disappeared. At least then, he was able to talk with people, despite his attitude. Nowadays, he and his mother were the same. Shells of what they used to be, running on routines and predictable conversations. Unable to focus on anything but her.

Will noticed the change in his friend’s mood and gave him a small nod before walking off. He wished his last few interactions with Doc weren’t somewhat estranged. It was the exact opposite of what he wanted with her. If not a relationship, then the unconditional friendship they’d had before. He didn’t want to accept that she was gone, but he and everyone else saw the gaping hole in her stomach. The blood crimsoning her face and clothes. He would be a fool to think otherwise. It was just a strange pill to swallow, the space she would leave in their Party. The space she had tried so hard to take up. And no one else would be able to take it but her.

A bittersweet breath sighing from his nose, Jonathan wandered into an empty room, devoid of a bed and posters. He leaned against the door frame and watched the room, hoping it would magically return to normal, hoping everything would.

“Is that… everything?” Nancy whispered from behind him, leaning against the other side of the frame. Jonathan shrugged.

“I guess so.” He sighed again before venturing into the bare space. “Seventeen years of my life… packed up in one day.”

It may not have seemed like it, but his bedroom was an important part of himself. It was his world he could go and tell his secrets to. It was where he locked out all his worries and fears. He escaped with his brother the wrath of their parents’ withering relationship behind the wooden door, he shared his innermost thoughts with the walls, he memorized the pattern of the carpeted floor. It was where he did his dreaming and scheming, he lied awake and prayed. The ceiling and windows watched his crying and sighing, the way he laughed at his yesterdays. Even when it was dark and he was alone, he wasn’t afraid when in his room.

He felt Nancy’s nose to his shoulder before her arms snaked around him from behind. His hands clasped around hers against his sternum. And, for a little while, they swayed side-to-side in their own little world.

“What if I just… don’t let you go?” Nancy gently broke the silence. The edge of Jonathan’s lips curled in amusement.

“I think…” He spun around to face her while never letting go of her hands and pulled her close. “...the new owners might kick us out.”

She swayed their arms back and forth in thought as she moved closer to him. “You could stay in our basement.”

He tilted his chin. “Your dad’d love that.”

“We could hide you in a tent… like El.”

Nancy’s throat suddenly closed up. El hiding in a fort in her basement the same night Will had gone missing was the reason her world and Jonathan’s collided in the first place. Their siblings being close friends was never enough for them to have any conversation outside of passing waves. So, he had watched her from afar while she had always looked past him.

And Jonathan wasn’t the only person she wanted to hold onto. The Wheeler home had been so quiet for the past three months. She couldn’t hear her sister humming with the radio as she undoubtedly sketched designs or altered an old dress of hers. The breakfast and dinner table set for six people every time because oh, Karen had forgotten again… she only needs to set it for five now. Mike never smiled, Karen always cried, Ted grew even more detached and Holly still couldn’t quite understand why her Docky was never home.

Doc had been so afraid to lose Nancy, that Nancy hadn’t even feared the thought of the other possibility. She remembered her life before her sister, but she couldn’t recall what it felt like. Doc had brought so much light and laughter and fun into their family. She taught them how to love each other in a way they hadn’t before. She taught them that family didn’t have to look like you or talk like you or bleed the same DNA as you. It was loyalty and acceptance, smiles and unconditional love. They chose her and she chose them, and she loved them with every fiber of her being. Nancy loved her with every fiber of her being.

But Doc was gone now. She lost her sister. And now she was losing her boyfriend.

“Hey.” Jonathan whispered as their foreheads gently touched. “It’s gonna be okay.” He lifted their joined hands, facing their palms upward. He gently ran his thumb over her scar, wrinkling the matching one on his own palm. They had received them two years ago, when working together to fight off the Demogorgon in this very home.

“As a wise man once said… we’ve got shared trauma.” He quoted Murray, the man they held thanks to for pointing out their clear attraction for each other. Nancy inhaled with a soft smile.

“So, what’s a little more, right?”

He chuckled and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “What’s a little more?” He tearfully smiled before bringing his girlfriend into a kiss and then a hug.

In another room, Eleven was packing the last of her things. She checked the closet she had just cleared out for any straggling belongings before her eyes settled upon a koala bear sitting high on the shelf. She reached up for it, but it was pushed too far back against the corner. With a sigh, she returned her heels to the floor. Hesitantly, she reached an arm forwards, trying to focus her powers on the stuffed animal. Only, there were no powers to focus on. She could still hear the high frequency vibrations she always did, but they were weak, barely holding on. Just like her. Panting, she let go.

“They’ll come back.” Mike grabbed her attention as he entered the room. “I know they will.”

She watched him easily reach into the closet and take down the koala. “Thanks.” She gratefully took it.

“You packed your walkie, right?”

“Yes.”

“Because you know that I’m gonna steal Cerebro from Dustin and call you so much, you’re gonna have to turn it off, right?”

They both chuckled for the first time in a long time. “Did you talk to your mom? About Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the okay. I’ll be there.”

It had only taken about ten tries before Karen had tiredly relented. She didn’t want to risk another one of her children being out of her sight.

“And then I was thinking maybe you could come up here for Christmas.” He continued. “And Will, too. You can come before or after Christmas, or whatever Mrs Byers wants, but I was thinking Christmas Day could be super fun, because we’d all have cool new presents to play with and, uh…”

Mike realized his rambling words and drifted. El lovingly smiled at his clear excitement. He hadn’t been like that lately.

“Sorry,” He chuckled in embarrassment. “That made me sound like a seven-year-old.”

She shrugged. “I like presents, too.”

“Yeah, cool. Yeah.” They both nodded. “I like- I like presents, too.”

“Cool.”

Their bashful grins were gone as soon as she moved past him. There was something left unsaid between them, something that needed to be brought to light before it was too late. The closer she drew to the door, the slimmer the possibility shrunk. But every time a sentence formed on their tongues, they swallowed it down in fear they would say the wrong thing.

“Mike?”

Eleven broke first.

“Yeah?” He turned around, trying to hide his agony. She sighed and twiddled her thumbs.

“Remember that day… at the cabin, you were talking to Max?”

“Um… I don’t think I follow.” He narrowed his eyes in thought, fighting off a new waved of tears because Doc was there, she was there and she was hurting that day and he barely paid attention to it-

“You talked about your- your feelings, your heart.”

“Oh…” He blinked. The confession. “Oh, yeah, that. Man, that was so long ago. Um… I don’t know, that was really heat of the moment stuff, and we were arguing and… I don’t really remember… What did I say, exactly?”

She gave him a knowing look. “Mike…” Very slowly, she walked closer to him. His eyes widened, a part of him waiting for another breakup. This time, she reached a hand up and cupped his cheek. “I love you, too.”

Mike stood there in shock as she dove in, pressing her lips against his in a kiss. Everything was happening so fast and he was trying to process it, and he didn’t want the kiss to end, but she eventually separated from him, a smile blossoming across her face. She slowly turned around and walked out the bedroom door, triumph taking over her smile. She didn’t see the way Mike’s face broke out of its shock with a dazed grin.

By the time El was able to breathe again, she was in what used to be Joyce’s room. “Donation box?” She held up the Koala. Joyce quickly looked up from where she was sitting on the floor beside a box labeled ‘HOPPER’. She opened her mouth to speak and quickly put down a piece of paper she was reading.

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

El furrowed her brows at the paper Joyce was clearly trying to hide. “What is that?”

“Uh…” She unfolded it and tearfully looked up at the girl. “It- It’s the speech Hop wrote for you and Mike.”

“Speech?”

“Yeah. Y-You know, the heart-to-heart.”

El only stared in confusion.

“He never talked to you, did he?” At the girl’s head shake, Joyce scoffed. Hopper always did like things his way. God forbid, she ever tried showing him the way.

“Can I read?”

Eleven figured she would have to be alone for this. So, she found herself laying on the carpeted floor of her old-new room. She took a deep breath to prepare herself before unfolding the notebook paper. The speech started off in blue ink with encouraging notes written to the side. The last thing in blue ink was a note in parenthesis reading, ‘LISTEN - remember to BREATHE’. The blue pen was obviously Joyce’s handwriting.

Under it was Hopper’s handwriting written in black ink, his words taking up the rest of the page and the back of it.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you both about. I know this is a difficult conversation, but I care about you both very much. And I know that you care about each other very much. And that’s why it’s important that we set these boundaries moving forward, so we can build an environment where we all feel comfortable, trusted, and open to sharing our feelings.”

(LISTEN - remember to BREATHE)

“Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, for so long, I’d forgotten what those even were. I’d been stuck in one place, in a cave, you might say. A deep, dark cave. And then, I left some Eggos out in the woods, and you came into my life and… for the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again. I started to feel happy. But lately, I guess I’ve been feeling… distant from you. Like you’re… you’re pulling away from me or something.

“I miss playing board games every night, making triple-decker Eggo extravaganzas at sunrise, watching westerns together before we doze off. But I know you’re getting older. Growing. Changing. And I guess… if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change. So, I think maybe that’s why I came in here, to try to maybe… stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were. But I know that’s naive. It’s just… not how life works. It’s moving. Always moving, whether you like it or not. And, yeah, sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s sad. And sometimes… it’s surprising. Happy.

“So, you know what? Keep on growing up, kid. Don’t let me stop you. Make mistakes, learn from them, and when life hurts you, because it will, remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you’re out of that cave.

“But please, if you don’t mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, keep the door open three inches.”

Eleven couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her, a sniffle and then a sob following. She dropped her head as she let the tears consume her. This was what Hopper had been trying to tell her and Mike. And they had laughed in his face. He was struggling to open up and they had laughed. What she would give to turn back the time and listen to him. To let him think his words over. To let him understand.

She lifted her head when she heard knocking on the open door, seeing Joyce standing there with a saddened look. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She squeaked out past her sobs, wiping her face clean. “Time to go?”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Okay…”

Alone again, El inhaled and exhaled deeply until her breathing was controlled. She clasped the folded note in her hands and nodded once. Glancing down at her wrist, she gently smiled at the people she wore. The blue hair tie Hopper’s late daughter used to wear, and the beaded bracelet with Doc’s name on it. She softly smiled at them, at her father and her sister. As long as she had their memories, they were never really gone.

Joyce was the last person in the house. The truck had been loaded and now everyone stood in the front yard, unknowing of what to do. She stopped in the door and took one look at her home. It hadn’t been this empty since before she first moved in. So much of her life occurred in this home. She was a married woman, a mother of two, then a divorced woman, a bereaved mother of one, then a mother of two again. So many smiles and laughs and breakdowns and heartaches happened within these four walls. So many Thanksgivings and Christmases and birthday parties under this roof. Change was necessary, yes, and she had high hopes for her new life…

But it didn’t hurt any less to walk away from this life she had always known. Inhaling the bitter and then exhaling the sweet, she walked outside, closing the door behind her.

Once Joyce was outside, everything started to sink in. It was truly goodbye. It was time. Will was the first to move, crashing into Lucas for a hug. The group then erupted into tearful goodbyes and crushing embraces. Joyce had given hers as well, but there was a point where she had to walk off and only watch from the side, unable to stay strong. When there was nothing left to say and no one left to hug, Joyce and El hopped into the truck while Jonathan and Will got into the car.

The driveway didn’t feel right to even stand in anymore. Without the Byers there, they stood in an empty space that wasn’t meant for them. But the remaining group didn’t bother moving as they watched the two vehicles grow smaller and smaller the farther they drove.

It was silent when Nancy departed in her mother’s car. And only short sentences were exchanged when the kids straddled their bikes and pedaled off. Mike took one look back at the house, and he saw a much smaller version of himself shyly knocking on the front door, hoping to spend some time with his brand new friend, William Byers.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he turned back around and followed his friends down the driveway and away from the life they had always known, and towards a new one they had to adjust to.

Max sat upon Billy’s bed, staring thoughtfully out of his window.

Erica smiled down at the Dungeons and Dragons manual given to her by Lucas and Dustin.

Sheriece sat on the steps of her porch, her hand weakly clasped with Dustin’s as she tiredly rested her head on his shoulder.

Mike hugged his sobbing mother tight in his late sister’s room, trying not to burst into tears when he caught sight of the roller skates next to the closet.

And despite the hurt and the tearshed, the world kept turning.

—————————————

Taglist: @yurtletheturtlehenderson @alexa-j-f @inthemourninglight @that-one-multifandom-chick @ariyabella @lonelywitchv2 @frogserotonin @mymomsdisappointment @hewwofriends @billieissad @get0ut0fmyr00m @143kae @satsuri3su @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived @unordinary-simp @raquel12 @roman0ffsheart @jjjennyxii @hereiamhereigo @wizardsgrace @meowiemari

THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT, "Point and Kill", IS COMING TO YOU SOON! Thank you for reading ❤️❤️

#stranger things #stranger things fic #stranger things x reader #st #st fic #st x reader #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #will byers #eleven #jane hopper #max mayfield #lost and found #break and mend #wax and wane

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artaxlivs · 11 months

Note

I'm looking forward to "Steddie BigBang Fic - Dirty Dancing AU"

AHHH! I'm so excited about it! I'm so excited about everyone's fics! I'm just ready to hype everyone up, yo!! Anyway, thanks for asking and here's the first glimpse:

With an exaggerated groan, Steve comes over to stand chest to chest with Eddie, “This is really close.” He says, blush staining his cheeks. “That’s because you’re facing the wrong way.” Eddie says, making a little circular motion with his finger. A deeper blush stains Steve’s cheeks but he turns on the spot. Chrissy’s smile is enough to make Eddie blush, too. She knows. “Okay so we’ll start like this.” Eddie steps a little to Steve’s left so they’re off center, he brings Steve’s left arm up, letting it curve naturally back to rest hooked over his shoulder. “Don’t hold onto my neck, just let the tips of your fingers rest there. Always light hands. Strong body, light hands, soft face.” Steve’s hand relaxes in Eddie’s, fingers allowed to curl as he breathes out and releases the tension in his whole body. Without being told, he naturally curls in toward Eddie, ducking his head so his forehead presses to Eddie’s cheek. Its perfect. Looks soft and delicate. Submissive. Eddie clenches his eyes shut for a moment. He cannot have that thought and live through this so he strikes it from his brain. “We’ll hold the pose for the first eight count and then,“ Eddie runs the back of his knuckles down the underside of Steve’s wrist, down his forearm and then down the underside of his bicep, brushing the curve of his underarm and the side of his pec. Or - he would have if Steve hadn’t burst into laughter and flinched away. “I’m sorry, sorry.” Steve’s laughter tapers off, “Warn a guy, jesus.” He gets back into position, still laughing under his breath. Eddie makes eye contact with Chrissy who’s biting her lips to keep from laughing as well. He trails his knuckles down again and barely makes it past Steve’s elbow this time before Steve is cackling and curling in on himself. “Steve.” Eddie says, tugging him back into place. He tries again. He’s halfway to his armpit and Steve’s biting down hard on his lips but then a laugh bubbles out and he twitches away from Eddie. Grinding his teeth, Eddie starts again. By the tenth time, Chrissy shouts over Steve’s laughter to just move on. They can tickle each other later. Eddie glares at her. She doesn’t even look apologetic.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things

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callsign-joyride · 1 year

Text

Rules & Regulations | 0.5

Summary: You work in the human resources department at NAS North Island. A noise complaint at a hotel leads to some unexpected endeavors - and an ironic workplace romance.

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x reader (no use of Y/N)

Content warnings: Fluff, Rooster can't cook but it works out, drinking but not getting drunk, smut (fingering - f receiving, protected pinv), Bradley is a consent KING

Series Masterlist | Next Chapter | Previous Chapter

“I’m gonna fuck it up,” Bradley said as Bob tried to show him how to cook.

“No, you’re not. These are easy, okay?”

“That’s what they all say.”

Normally, you weren’t the type of person to get nervous about dates. You hadn’t really gone on that many, but the concept didn’t freak you out, and you had already gone out with Bradley. But something about this was… Different. Everything felt like complete chaos as you FaceTimed Natasha with a pile of clothes on your bed.

“You’re gonna watch a movie and eat. You really don’t need to wear anything special,” she said. You let out a sigh before moving on to the next t-shirt that you had picked out as an option.

“Yeah, I know that but what if I wear a David Bowie shirt only to find out that he hates David Bowie? That would be so embarrassing.”

“Okay, one, he doesn’t hate David Bowie. That’s like a massive red flag and I would’ve told you about that a week ago. Two, honestly, I think that if he really hated your shirt, he would take it off… And you wouldn’t end up watching the movie but that’s beside the point.”

“That’s not helpful!”

“Relax. Wear a white t-shirt and jeans. Guys love white t-shirts.”

“What if I stain it?”

“Jesus Christ. I’m done. Goodnight.”

It was just your luck that it was going to rain on and off in San Diego for the next three days. Everyone was effectively grounded with paperwork being the only thing to do. Bradley had texted you his address in the morning, but you didn’t expect him and Natasha to walk into your office with their laptops. You didn’t say anything as they sat down and started to fill out the forms, mostly because you were so nervous about the date with Bradley. Things were going smoothly until Tom walked in.

“Oh shit! Fuck! Sorry, sir,” Bradley said.

“At ease, lieutenant. Anyway, I came to ask you what your plans for lunch were,” Tom told you.

“Oh, I was just gonna reheat my leftovers and work on more paperwork.”

Bradley looked dumbfounded as you and Tom had a full conversation. He was finally able to breathe again when Tom left the room.

“Okay, you didn’t tell me that the two of you were that close. Jesus Christ, I was half expecting to get reprimanded for what went down. I can handle getting chewed out by Cyclone and Warlock, but that man scares me.”

You and Natasha looked at each other and laughed. Bradley and Tom were practically family for a while. He didn’t talk about it often, but you knew what happened to Goose, and you knew what went down with Bradley and Maverick all those years ago.

Bradley walked you to your car at the end of the day, and you told him when you would be around his place. It was going to take you a few minutes to change once you got back to your apartment. Natasha had offered to take care of Viper in case you were planning on spending the night at Bradley’s, but you still didn’t know where things were going to go. You lived pretty close to each other, so that worked out nicely. Bradley’s place looked nice from the outside. You texted him that you were outside and he told you that you were welcome to just walk in, so that’s what you did. What you didn’t expect, though, was to see him panicking in the kitchen.

“Woah, what’s wrong?” You asked.

“I tried to make these crab cakes because Bob said they would be easy but I somehow managed to royally fuck it up and I don’t know what to do. There’s like nothing in my fridge.”

“Then we’ll order a pizza or something. It’s not a big deal.”

Bradley smiled and took out his phone to get the pizza ordered. Both of you put your phones on the coffee table and he got some drinks before putting the movie on.

“This looks scary. I don’t like scary,” you told him as the word “barbarian” came across the screen.

“I’ll protect you from all of the barbarians, babe.”

Bradley waited until the pizza arrived to start the movie. The first scares didn’t come until after you had finished eating, but Bradley told you to put your drink down mere moments before the first one. He stifled a laugh as you jumped and covered your eyes, but he was quick to put his arm around you and sink back into the couch. You were eventually laying on top of him, staring into the back of the couch. In fact, you practically refused to move until you knew that the movie was over.

“I’m probably gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life from that, so you better turn on something funny. Turn on Friends or something, I don’t know.”

“Okay, I will. Relax. Did you like the movie?”

“Um, I liked being in your arms. Made me feel a lot safer and not like anything was gonna get me. We’re not talking about the fact that I basically buried my face into that couch cushion.”

Bradley smiled before turning on an episode of Friends like you asked. Both of you picked up your phones and tidied up the area. You followed him to the kitchen as he carried both wine glasses and the box of pizza. He put the glasses on the counter and you sat by the sink. Both of you smiled when you got out your phone and put a playlist on shuffle. The first song that came on was Super Trouper by ABBA and you started to laugh as Bradley danced and sang around the kitchen. He stood in between your legs as the song wrapped up, the dishes having been done moments prior. You paused the music and wrapped your arms around his neck as he gazed into your eyes. Bradley sealed the moment with a kiss, and you leaned further into him.

The kiss was fueled with passion and desire. Things became more heated as you unzipped Bradley’s shorts and he put his hands under your shirt. You let out a breathy moan as he started to pinch and roll your nipples through the thin lace of your bra. He sighed into the kiss when you started to palm him through his boxers. He caressed your thighs and started to kiss up and down your neck when everything suddenly stopped.

“Is everything okay?” You asked with some hesitation.

“How are you feeling? Like how much have you had to drink?”

“I’m sober.”

“D’you wanna keep going with this?”

You didn’t hesitate as you hopped off of the counter and waited for Bradley to walk you to his bedroom. As soon as the door was closed, he was careful as he held you against the wall and started hungrily kissing you again. You were eager to start taking each other’s clothes off, and Bradley’s pupils were blown with lust after he unclipped your bra and haphazardly tossed it away. He took your phone out of your pocket and placed it on the nightstand before laying you on the bed.

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he said.

After you nodded your head, he pulled your pants off and hovered over you. You pulled him down for a kiss, grinning as you thought about what was going to happen next. With one arm by your head to support himself, Bradley trailed his hand down your stomach and closer to your center. He quickly found your clit and used his thumb to rub it while one of his fingers slid into you. The action made you moan into the kiss and wrap your legs around his hips to give him a new angle.

“You’re so wet for me,” he groaned into your ear. You chuckled and pulled him in for a kiss. He started to go faster and you almost hit your climax before he abruptly stopped.

“Bradley,” you whimpered.

He shushed you before standing to take his pants off. He grabbed a condom from the drawer on the nightstand before hovering over you again. You started to get impatient as Bradley teased your entrance with the tip of his cock. You were already a mess and he wasn’t even inside you. Bradley was slightly surprised when you pulled him down for a kiss, but he used that time to ease himself into you. Both of you groaned in pleasure once he was fully inside of you, and you didn’t want to let him go. His thrusts quickly became erratic as you were forehead to forehead.

“Oh, Bradley, fuck!” You screamed as he started to rub your clit while he was thrusting into you.

“That’s it. Want you to cum on my cock. Think you could do that for me? Hm?”

“Yes! Oh, don’t stop.”

Bradley kissed you as you came, and he wasn’t too far behind. He groaned and stilled inside of you as he came. He stayed inside of you for a little bit as your breathing started to go back to normal. You slightly winced as he finally pulled out of you. He disappeared into the bathroom to get rid of the condom and grab a warm washcloth to clean you up. During that time, you decided to text Phoenix to ask her to feed Viper and take him for a short walk. You put your phone down once he walked back into the room.

“Sorry, was just texting Nat for a favor,” you said. He smiled and handed you one of his shirts for you to wear.

“That’s fine. Hey, do you wanna spend the night? I don’t wanna make it weird but I wanted to ask.”

You looked at him and smiled. Of course, you wanted to stay the night, you just didn’t want to be the one to ask. His eyes filled with joy when you told him that you were more than willing to stay. You got up and went to the bathroom and he texted Bob about what happened. Everyone else had been at The Hard Deck, and Phoenix knew exactly what kind of text Bob got when his face turned bright red.

“So, do you think they still would’ve hooked up if he didn’t royally fuck up those crab cakes?” She asked.

“I’m not answering that.”

Bradley got up to make sure that the front door was locked, and he filled two glasses with water when he was on the way back to the bedroom. You fell asleep in his arms not too long after that. When you woke up the next morning, you were surprised to find his side of the bed empty. Nat had texted you a few minutes before you woke up and asked if she needed to feed Viper his breakfast. You got out of bed and stretched your legs. You were sore from the events of last night but it wasn’t anything too bad. There was music coming from the kitchen, and it was mildly surprising to see Bradley cooking breakfast.

“Good morning,” he said as he leaned down to kiss you.

“Good morning indeed. I thought you didn’t know how to cook,” you jokingly said.

“I only know how to cook a few things semi-decently. I hope you’re okay with bacon and eggs.”

You nodded your head and grabbed a plate before getting your food and heading to the table. Bradley could barely keep his hands off of you as he had you sit on his lap. You melted into his touch as he started to trail his hand in between your legs. He grinned as he kissed your neck and heard you moan while his fingers trailed over your clit. You were trying to eat your breakfast when you felt him start to leave a hickey.

“You’re gonna leave marks!” You exclaimed.

“I’m okay with that.”

“I thought you were hungry.”

“What if bacon and eggs aren’t the only things I want to eat this morning?”

“You’re an animal,” you said with a chuckle.

You didn’t leave Bradley’s house until later in the morning. Neither of you really wanted to part from the other, so you offered to let him go with you to walk Viper on the beach. It wasn’t a surprise that he immediately accepted the offer. You put on the same clothes from the night before and grabbed all of your stuff before heading out to your car. It was a little messy, but Bradley was willing to overlook the empty Starbucks cup and granola bar wrapper. Nat wasn’t at your apartment, but you wouldn’t have really cared if she was.

“Hey, buddy,” you said as Viper ran over to you. Bradley closed the door while you gave Viper some pets and you kicked your shoes off.

“I’m gonna go shower and change my clothes real quick,” you said as you walked to your bedroom. Bradley nodded his head and sat on the couch. When you said quick shower, you really meant quick shower. You were in and out of the bathroom in five minutes. Bradley was slightly taken aback.

“You ready?” You asked as you slid your shoes on.

“Yeah.”

Even though you lived five minutes from a beach, the one behind The Hard Deck was better. Maybe it was the fact that you knew Penny pretty well or the proximity to the base, but it was your favorite beach to walk Viper on. There was also the fact that it was pretty low traffic, so no one bothered you while you were on your walk.

“I didn’t know you used the beach back here,” Bradley said.

“Really? I feel like you would’ve seen me before.”

“No, I would’ve remembered a face like yours. And Phoenix never would have let me live it down.”

You stopped in The Hard Deck to get a bottle of water, and Penny started asking a ton of questions about how things were going with the two of you. You gave her your honest answers, but Bradley seemed embarrassed by everything that was going on. He was actually relieved when she finally let you go. It was a low-tide kind of day, so you walked closer to the water. The entire walk lasted about half an hour, and you took Bradley back to your apartment. He ended up staying until later in the evening.

“Okay, I think I should get going now. I really enjoy being around you,” Bradley said as he pulled you in for a kiss.

“How are you getting home?” You asked.

“I’ll walk. It’s nice out anyways.”

“Okay, well, be safe and text me when you get in the door.”

Once he left, you grabbed your phone and laid on the couch. A random episode of Criminal Minds played as you scrolled through your social media. You tended to lose all track of time when you were on the couch because half an hour had passed and you didn’t even realize it. Bradley texted you that he made it home safely and you smiled at the message. You finally texted Nat to update her on where things were going, but you weren’t going to tell her everything that happened. (That was saved for the “Wednesday debrief”.)

“I think I’m in love with him,” the message said.

Taglist:

@littlebadariell @cycbaby @luckyladycreator2 @idontcare-11 @blue-aconite @maverick-wingman @shawty-fenty @littlemisstopgun @rosiahills22 @katieshook02 @justanothermagicalsara @caitsymichelle13 @smoothdogsgirl @adoringsebstan @cherrycola27 @alexxavicry @mrsjaderogers @mak-32 @thefandomimagines @tallrock35 @caatheeriinee07 @bradshawseresinbabe @atarmychick007 @3sriracha

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster x reader #bradley bradshaw #top gun maverick #rooster #rooster top gun #bradley bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw series #x reader #reader insert #rules and regulations #hr girl

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callmemana · 11 months

Text

Arms Wide Open, Catch Me If I Fall:

Chapter 4: Birdie’s Eye View

Word Count: 5k+

🚨Warnings: inaccurate Naval descriptions, angst and floof.

A/N: dividers by @sligheach-sidhe , cover by me ( @callmemana ). Thank you @bayisdying for proofreading!

A/N: There will be a change, each chapter will be at least 3k word count. Also, this will be my main focus on writing.

After the big blow up with Bo, Bird walked to the Garcia’s with Ozzy following close behind.

Tears stained her cheeks as she made her way to her bedroom and cuddled with her dog.

She would go in tomorrow and talk with Cyclone about redacting the offer to join the team, if it wasn’t too late.

If Robert didn’t want her here, then she’s not gonna stick around to take anymore of his awful behavior.

He’s acting like he did the last week he was in Lemoore right before he broke her heart.

Bird was a forgiving person, but she didn’t know if she could forgive him for this.

She got up and started to pack everything but the essentials back up into the boxes, she’d ask for tape and help loading her truck tomorrow.

Ozzy kept trying to nip at her legs, telling her to stop.

But Bird’s mind was already set, as soon as she could she’d talk to the Air Boss and ask to be stationed back in Lemoore.

She was just finishing up her last box when Baylie and Mickey came home.

“Why are you packed? What happened between you and Bob?”questioned Lucky.

“He was an asshole and pretty much told me he didn’t want me here. I’m going to talk to Cyclone tomorrow about being transferred back to Flordia. I’m not staying somewhere where the only person I really know doesn’t want me to be.”

“Maybe he was just surprised to see you is all,” offered Mickey.

Bird laughed humorlessly, “Trust me Mickey, what he said wasn’t because of that. I mean, seriously! How stupid am I to come here thinking that he’d be happy to see me? He was right, I ruin everything.”

Tears prickled at her eyes as she fixes her glasses.

“Birdie, what do you mean?” insisted Lucky, teeth slightly grinding together.

“Hey, you haven’t ruined anything.” reassured Mickey.

“He said that the whole week before he left, said I ruined his life and everything I touch. I can’t do that to you guys too.”

“Bird, you haven’t ruined anything for us, if anything you’ve made our lives better.”

“How? I’ve done nothing but cause trouble since I got here!” she cried, taking her glasses off to clean them of tears.

Baylie pulls her into a hug and Mickey joins soon afterwards.

“Because you have made our grey outlook on Bob turn to color. We only knew him as the shy man he is, and now, we might be able to see an outgoing, sarcastic, and whatever else he’s hidden from us, man.”

“You just don’t know him well enough yet. He was shy when we first met at bootcamp.”

“Oh, we need to know all of the stories about the young Robert Floyd.” declared Lucky.

Ozzy ran over and decided to also join the group hug, giving everyone sloppy puppy-kisses all over their faces.

“Oz, Ozzy, ok, ok, thank you bubs!” laughed Birdie as she lightly pushed him away, fixing her glasses on her nose.

She sniffled and wiped her eyes, standing up in the process to head to her room.

“I best be gettin’ to bed, I gotta be up early to see Cyclone anyhow. Thank you both for everything.”

The couple gave smiles and bids her goodnight.

The next morning Bird does her morning routine, walks Ozzy, and drives to base earlier than necessary.

She’s trying to navigate her way to the Air Boss’s office when she accidentally bumps into someone.

“Oh I’m so sorry! Here lemme help you,” blurted Bird as she immediately gets to the ground and starts to pick up the scattered papers and folders.

The woman was olived skinned and dark brown curly haired.

“It’s not a problem, I can pick them up myself, I wasn’t watching where I was going anyway.” the woman laughed, holding her hand out towards Amanda.

“I’m Alana Metcalf, most people here call me Cinco or Cin. Are you new? I saw that you were looking a little lost.”

She took the woman’s outstretched hand and shook.

“I’m Amanda Hallett, callsign Birdie, but I also go by Bird. I’m not gonna lie, I am incredibly lost.” Bird laughed, cheeks burning a bright pink.

“Well maybe I can help, who are you looking for?”

“The Air Boss, Beau Simpson. I need to talk with him about transferring back to my old base.”

“Oh, did something happen? Not enjoying San Diego?” she asked.

“You could say that. I just don’t think it’s a good fit for me.”

“Ah, I see. An ex is here huh?”

Birdie’s eyes widen and jaw slacked, “How did you know that?”

“I’m kinda friends with Bob and the dagger squad. Actually, my boyfriend is on the team too.”

“Oh…” said Bird before she put on a fake smile, “what’s his name?”

Cinco could see through the smile, but decided to table that for later when she could speak to Bob.

“Jake Seresin, but his callsign is Hangman.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“He is sometimes,” nodded Cin, “It’s because he always hangs his wingmen out to dry.”

“And he’s on a team? He sounds like he’s an ass. No offense!”

Cin laughs, “None taken, I know he can be one. He’s shown it many of times.”

The two women stopped infront of a wooden door with a name plate that read, ‘Simpson.’

“Anyway, here’s Cyclone’s office. I hope that you reconsider going back, I can tell that you will be a big part of our lives already.”

“And how can you tell, you just met me Cin.” Bird questioned jokingly.

“Because that man’s eyes still sparkle when you come up in conversation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bob like this and I can’t wait to see how it ends.”

“So, you know?” she asked, eyes casted down.

“No, but I don’t think I need to know more than that he loves you.”

“He might’ve before, but he doesn’t now. Thanks for being my guide, I appreciate it.”

Bird gave the woman a little wave as she knocked on the thick door, waiting for the ‘Come in.’

Once the command was given, she entered and saluted the Air Boss.

“You are relieved, Leutenant,” he declared, looking up briefly to see who was there.

“Hello Vice Admiral Simpson, I was wondering if it was too late to ask if the contract could be void and I could be stationed back in Lemoore?”

“Not liking the company Hallett? I believe at one point in your first time here, you were very close to Leutenant Floyd.”

“Yes sir, we were, but recently ended our relationship.”

“How sad. Unfortunately, Hallett, it’s already been cleared and recorded. You’re stuck here until farther notice.”

“But Sir-”

“I didn’t ask for excuses, Leutenant. Just be glad it’s only for six months. Now if your done,” He shifted his eyes to the door.

That was not the news Bird thought she would be getting, Cyclone never liked her anyway.

So why does he have to be so determined to keep her here?

Unless he thinks this will be torture for her being near Robert, which it most likely will be.

She exited the room, leaving his door open just to piss him off more.

Bird went down the hallway a little and braced her back on the wall, groaning loud.

“Well who do we have here?” a woman with a British accent asked.

“I’m sorry if I interrupted you ma’am, I’m Leutenant Hallett.”

“No harm done here, I was just having breakfast at my desk with my friend. I’m Rachael Kazansky.”

Bird looked at her phone screen, checking the time. The meeting with Cyclone went on longer than she initially thought.

“I am so sorry but, I have to get to the hanger. It was nice meeting you though!”

Dragon smiled as the blonde woman scurried off.

She arrived late, the high ranks already in the room and stood off to the side.

“Nice of you to finally join us Leutenant Hallett,” announced Cyclone.

“I’m so sorry, Cyclone! Someone told me to go to Hell, I couldn’t find it at first, but guess what? I finally found it! And I just knew I’d see you here too!”

“Everyone, this is Leutentant Amanda ‘Birdie’ Hallett, graduated second at Top Gun in her class.” stated Maverick, a wide smirk on his features.

Robert muttered a displeased, “Birdie.”

Laughter poorly covered up could be heard around the hanger, mostly by the students. When Bird looked over at Warlock, he winked at her with an amused smirk on his face too.

“Back on the agenda, Maverick.”

“We will be doing an exercise to start training for an upcoming mission. The hard deck is at ten thousand feet and will not be broken this time. We’ll take Hangman, Rooster, Coyote, and Birdie first. Get suited up.”

With that, we all filed out of the door and headed to the locker room.

“You must have a big pair of balls on you if you can sass Cyclone without hesitation.” said a tall, blond haired man with sea green eyes.

“Cyclone’s had it out for me since my first time at Top Gun. Bob and I got yelled at all the time by him.” Birdie said as she rolled her eyes.

“Wrong, you and Thena got yelled at and Smiley and me tried to get you out of it.” smiled Bob.

“Yeah right, like I don’t remember the reason you got your callsign. You are just as much of a troublemaker Bo.”

She didn’t see the smirks and looks exchanged by the others.

“Since y’all know my name, I think it’s only fair I know your’s.” stated Bird.

A dark skinned man with a mustache spoke first, “I’m Reuben Fitch, Payback and Fanboy’s pilot.”

The next was another dark skinned man, a little lighter in shade, “Javy Machado, Coyote.”

“I’m pretty well known everywhere I go. Jake Seresin, callsign; Hangman.”

“Wow, maybe you should take the dick outta your personality. Your ego isn’t as big as you think.”

“So what I’m hearing is that you think-”

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll sack you so hard that your grandkids will feel your pain.”

“Damn, she doesn't play.” said a man with a 70’s porn-stache.

“Damn straight, and you are?”

“Bradley Bradshaw, Rooster.” he held out his hand, which she gladly took.

“It’s nice to meet you Rooster.”

They all came to the doors that separated the locker rooms.

The women went into the one on the left, the guys on the right.

Bird was halfway out of her civilian clothes when a small, shy woman came up to her.

“Hi, I’m Raven Mouse Fischer. I haven’t been on the team very long, but if you need any help with anything, I’d be more than glad to help!” chirped Mouse with a wide smile.

“Thank you Mouse, I might have to take you up on that offer,”

“I’m Bob’s pilot, Natasha Phoenix Trace. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Natasha. Thank you for keeping him safe when I couldn’t, I appreciate it more than you know.”

Phoenix was a little surprised when Bird brought her into a tight hug.

After the little meet and greet in the locker room, everyone was outside in the hanger getting ready to get in the jets.

Bird had her sky blue helmet on with the bird silhouette on the front with her callsign under and her squadron on the sides.

She wanted to have someone pat the top to ‘see if it works’ but didn’t want to ask anyone yet.

Bird saw Bo and looked away, there was no way she’d ask the man who had made a new crack in her heart not too long ago to do the preflight ritual with her.

“What’s wrong Bird?” asked Rooster as he stood by her plane.

“Nothin’, just missing old traditions we used to do before flying.”

“What did you do before?” he smiled, looking down at her.

“Used to smack the top of our helmets so we could ‘see if it was good’ and now I don’t have anyone to do that with.”

Without second thought, Rooster slapped his hand against the top of her helmet and whispered, “Good luck Bird. You don’t have to be scared to ask us to continue the traditions you did back in Lemoore, if they make you feel comfortable or a superstition you have we will help make you calm.”

Bird’s cheeks burned slightly, “Thank you Roos, I appreciate that.”

Bradley lightly pounds his fist on the top of her helmet again, “Anytime Bird. We’re all family now.”

She nods, looking away from him briefly before the other two men join them.

“Ready to fly Bird and Chicken?” asked Hangman, a smirk on his face.

“Yeah, Bagman, let’s get in the sky.”

It took a while but soon all were in the air with the oxygen masks on and communication was silent.

Bird was flanked by the men, all looking around for Maverick and seeing nothing.

“So what’s your story Birdie?”

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t wanna, Bird.”

“It’s fine. Grew up in the midwest, went to bootcamp and then after I graduated I went to Top Gun.”

“What about when you met Baby On Board?”

Rooster’s voice cracked through the radios, “Leave her alone, Bagman.

“Woah man, we’re just trying to get to know our fellow aviator Rooster.”

Bird rolled her eyes at the men, typical.

“I’ll leave that to Robert when the time comes and HE wants to tell you.”

“Ooooh, she’s super mad if she’s using your name and not your callsign huh Baby On Board?”

“Why do you always have to be a dickhead, Bagman?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘always,’ I did save your life Chicken.”

“He did,” echoed Coyote.

Rooster was quiet after that and started to go a little farther ahead of them.

They flew for a little longer in silence before Coyote voiced everyone’s concern, “Where’s Mav?”

All four of us looked around, not seeing anything. “Oh fuck, he’s under our noses.”

After that was said, Maverick came up from out of nowhere. “Good Afternoon Aviators.”

Bird was the first to move out of the way, Rooster following her and Hangman and Coyote breaking off to the left.

The fight was on.

It took twenty six minutes for Maverick to shoot all of us down.

If we were supposed to be the best of the best, how come it took so little time for him to beat us in a dog fight?

Bird got out of her jet, took off her helmet and then gripped it in her fist angrily. She knew she could be better than she performed today, otherwise she wouldn’t be back at Top Gun.

“Don’t let this bring you down, we all got our asses handed to us and I bet you everyone will today too.” Rooster shook her shoulders lightly and a smile on his face.

Hangman and Coyote came over to her plane again and praised her flying as they all made their way to the rec room where everyone else is.

Once inside the room and out of the blazing sun, she saw that Bob was still sitting right infront of the radio with eyebrows furrowed and bitting him lip.

What was he so worried about, he had no right to be for me. He lost it the day he broke my heart.

It was later in the day when everyone had failed and walking back to the locker rooms that everyone was talking and laughing together again.

“So Bird, would you like to go to the Hard Deck later?” asked Mickey, a smile on his face.

“No thank you, Mickey. I should unpack, I’m going to be here for a while.”

“Oh that’s great to hear, how long?” chirped Mouse.

“I’m here for six months, then wherever they send me afterwards.”

Lucky glares at Bob, angry at that he almost made her go away.

“We can help if you need?”

Bird smiled, “Thanks for the offer, but it won’t take too long.”

“Well if you end up needing help, don’t be afraid to call any of us.”

“She wouldn’t need you Bagman, Birdie has Mickey and me to help. Also stay away from my house or I’ll kick your ass.”

Jake put his arms up in mock surrender, eyes wide and a smirk on his lips.

The three of them went back inside the Hard Deck and grabbed the others and went out back to talk on the deck.

Once all of the aviators had sat down, Bob took a deep breath.

“I think I might owe y’all an explanation on why I’ve been acting so short tempered lately.”

“I’d say.”

“Shut up, let him speak!”

“Yeah, I wanna hear why.”

“Well, before we left for the mission, I was engaged,” he took his dogtags out of his shirt and showed the ring.

A dainty little gold ring that looked as if it was sticks with small diamonds decorating it was on the chain.

“To an aviator named Birdie. I broke off the engagement and then moved to San Diego a week later.”

Bob ran his hands in his already messed up hair, “So when Lucky was giving hints as to who the new member was, she was just reminding me of her. I didn’t want to think about Bird, so instead I got angry and shut everyone out. I’m sorry.”

“Why? Why break up with her, she’s a pilot too. She’d understand.”

Bob laughed sadly, “Because I’m in idiot. I don’t really want to get into it tonight.”

“Hate to break it to you Baby On Board, but I already kinda knew. Seriously, I mean, did you forget that I have access to personal and personnel records?” sassed Cinco.

“I’m so glad that you found your forever Bob and I can’t wait to meet her! What’s she like? Chirped Mouse.

Baylie took point in answering this, “She’s amazing, beautiful, fantastic, lovely, smart, funny, sweet…”

“Okay, we get it Bay, if we weren’t married you’d marry bird and make her one of your sister wives.”

“Damn right I would, too bad I’m stuck with your ugly ass.”

“Ouch.”

“Can we please get back to the matter at hand?”

Bay shrugged while Mickey put his hands up in mock surrender.

“As you were saying Bob?”

“I messed up and broke up with her the harshed way possible so she wouldn’t think about me when I was on the mission. And with her back in my life I can’t help but have those feelings again.”

“So you never got over her?” questioned Phoenix, eyebrows furrowed.

Bob shook his head, “No. She’s my everything. I’ve known her since I was eighteen, we met on the first day of bootcamp. I knew by the end of our first date that I was gonna marry her.”

Dragon and Whiskey just screamed in happiness at the confession, they had never really heard Bob speak so passionately about love before and wanted nothing more than to hear everything he had to say.

Mouse was the first to speak, “That’s really sweet and I’m happy you found someone who makes you feel like that, but…” she took a deep breath, trying to find the right words that wouldn’t offend him, “If that’s true, why did you end things with her?”

Lucky stood behind Mouse, arms crossed and head nodding to the words that the shy woman had said and added. “You really are a dumb motherfucker aren’t you Robert?”

Tom and Ron exchanged glances before nodding in agreement with their pseudo daughters, only to get smacked by their wives in the back of the head.

The other guys had awkwardly chugged their drinks and avoided eye contact with Bob, not wanting to be caught and having to defend the man.

Rooster, that sap, was the one to speak first, “Do you still want to marry her? Just hearing what you have to say about Bird tells me that you aren’t over her yet.”

Bob answered immediately, “Of course I still want to be with her and marry Bird. I have no doubt in my mind that’s always been her in my heart and always will be.”

“Then we’ll do everything we can do to help you get her back. I don’t speak for everyone, just for me, but I want to see you happy and I get the feeling that the only person who can make you happy, is Birdie.”

Bob smiles, a sight the Dagger Squad hadn’t seen for a while, “She does, she really, really does make me happy.”

Hangman slaps a hand over Bob’s shoulders, “I’ll help you Baby On Board.”

One by one they come up and touch Bob’s shoulders or the top of his head, all agreeing with Jake.

He gave a half smile now that he knew his friends were going to help, he felt his chances of getting his Bird back rise.

Not too long after that the crowd became too much for his wandering mind, so he went home.

The next day on base was awkward to say the least. He knew she was in San Diego, but what he didn’t know was when she would show up at Top Gun.

Maverick had already started the lesson with all of the high ups behind him and to the side.

There was a door being abruptly opened and everyone looked back as Vice Admiral Simpson spoke, “Nice of you to finally join us Lieutenant Hallett.”

She walked her way down the middle of the desks in the many rows that the other aviators sat at before she opened her mouth to no doubt sass the man.

“Birdie.” he whispered breathlessly, head casted down.

She sat down and the lesson went on while the others giggled or laughed behind hands or coughs.

Maverick picked four of us to go into the air for the first flight test and after a weird interaction in the hall to the locker rooms, everyone else crossed the tarmac and made their way in the break room.

Bob kept his sights on Bird the whole way, she glanced at him as she walked to her jet. He couldn’t get the thought out of his head. The happy memories that the two shared while back in Lemoore.

He missed the preflight ritual that they did, along with smiley and Athena. Bob gave a half-assed smile, but that didn’t last too long when he saw Bradley pat her on the head while she wore her helmet.

He can still remember the day that she got her helmet and designed it. Bird was so proud of herself, she hadn’t painted in years and was worried that it wouldn’t come out how she wanted.

Another great memory that he had made with her. Bob wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation from the radio, more on watching the sky and his Birdie fly like she belonged there.

When the exercise was over and the four pilots entered the recreation room, Bob’s focus came back into the world.

He was worried for her, he knew how taxing mentally it was to be called the best of the best, only to be shot down so quickly.

He knew that he had no right to be anxious about her. First this wasn’t a real mission, just a practice.

Secondly, she wasn’t his fiancee anymore, he held no claim to her. Especially after the way he acted the last week in Flordia.

Mickey patted his back as both got up and headed to the tarmac, pilots following their WSO’s, today was just going to be hard for him it seems.

After everyone had gone twice and shot down, both times, the day was over and everyone went to the locker room to change into civvies.

“So Bird, would you like to go to the Hard Deck later?” asked Mickey with a smile on his face as the group walked down the halls and to the parking lot.

“No thank you Mickey. I should unpack, I’m going to be here for a while.”

“Oh, that’s great to hear, how long?” chirped Mouse.

Bob was happy that she’d be staying, he really wanted to take the time and win her heart and trust back.

He felt Lucky’s anger through the glare she was giving him as they walked. Bob knew he deserved it ten times over.

Robert knew that once they heard the whole story, they’d hate him, Hell he hates himself still.

“We can help if you need?”

Bird smiled, “Thanks for the offer, but it won’t take too long.”

“Well if you end up needing help, don’t be afraid to call any of us.”

“She wouldn’t need you Bagman, Birdie has Mickey and me to help. Also stay away from my house or I’ll kick your ass.”

Jake put his arms up in mock surrender, eyes wide and a smirk on his lips. Bob rolled his eyes, he hates when Hangman’s ego acts up.

They all go their separate ways and plan to meet up a little later at The Hard Deck for drinks.

When Bob got home he immediately collected clean clothes from his bedroom and then got into the shower to wash away the day.

He didn’t feel like wearing his Khakis today at the bar so he opted out for an old Carhartt shirt, jeans, and that trucker hat he loves so much but never really wears anymore.

Bob grabbed his keys to the old Chevy truck and drove to the local Navy bar. After he parked, he didn’t really want to go inside, he knew by the cars that everyone is here again.

With a large sigh, he turned off the truck and went through the doorway of the building.

Immediately Bob spotted his found family and threw himself on the cushioned booth seat, surrounded by the group and handed a cup of water that had already been on the table.

Silence wasn’t something that the Dagger Squad did often, but when it was, it's because they were thinking.

It brought warmth to his heart that they actually wanted to help him, but also worried him for when they realized just what type of man he was.

Even if he only did what he did to not break her heart more if he didn’t make it from the Uranium mission alive.

He knew it was only a matter of time before they either kicked his ass or never talked to him again.

Which he deserves, no doubt in his mind about that.

Lucky being the biggest threat if the story got out, she already saw Birdie as a little sister and is protective of her.

He’s seen Baylie’s rage and never wants to be on the receiving end of it, but that might just be what happens.

Dragon was the first to speak after the silence had stopped, “So, what are you thinking about doing to get her back?”

Bob shakes his head chuckling nervously, “Honestly Dragon, I don’t have a Goddamn clue, Amanda won’t even look at me for longer than a second and barely talked to me today.”

“Oh yeah ‘Bo,’ she barely talked to you.”

His head snaps to Lucky, anger in his eyes. “You can’t call me that.”

Bob knows that Baylie won’t back down and he wouldn’t be surprised if she probably already knows the story or at least a little bit of it.

“How bout Bam? Can I call you Bam?” she questions sarcastically, Bird obviously told Mickey and her something about his childhood.

“No and you never call me anything but Robert or Bobby so stop using Birdie to get under my skin.”

“Why when it clearly works so well.” she smirked, the others around him smirking too.

They were all very entertained by this and he didn’t like that just bringing up something about his past could get him so angry.

“Children.” demanded Cinco, done with the fighting.

“Anyway,” said Dragon, getting them back on topic, “we need to start small, so she doesn’t get suspicious of what we’re doing.”

They all nodded, agreeing with her. Now they just have to brain storm ideas until they find the best one for Bob to start gaining Bird’s trust and friendship again.

Some ideas that were thrown out didn’t sound like something that Bob would do, more of a Jake thing.

Big gestures and an exclamation of how sorry he is, Bob is more of the quiet type, small gestures and slowly gaining the relationship back the right way.

It took many hours and many rounds of beer and water (for himself) before the group decided on a plan and paid their tabs before going home.

Bob stopped Mickey as they exited the bar, his friend slowly turned around, a smile on his face.

“How is she doing? Is she settingly in nicely?”

The other wizzo lightly slaps his back,“She’s doing good Bob and I’m not gonna lie to you, because you're my friend, she seems sad. She’s putting on a happy act for us, but we can see it in her eyes. Bird keeps busy around the house when we get home from base. If she can’t find anything to clean, she’s either in her room or walking Ozzy.”

Bob smiles, “Birdie has two brothers so she was the only sibling to actually clean when asked and her room was her get away from her brothers who pestered her a lot. I’m worried about her, Mickey. I hate to see her like this, this girl has been nothing but smiles and rainbows and I don’t think I’ve seen her this way except the last night I was in Lemoore.”

“Hey man, like I said yesterday, we’re gonna help you get her back. This is the first time I’ve seen you smile since the wedding and if she can do that by just being in the same room as you or even just being mentioned, I think what you have is worth the it.”

Bob gave Mickey a little side hug before they went to their cars. Lucky was in the front seat of the Garcia’s Jeep, blasting music and headbanging to the lyrics, making the men laugh.

He took off towards his house, listening to her favorite song and smiling like a total idiot.

Birdie’s Basket🧺: @dragon-kazansky @mrsjaderogers @bayisdying @starlit-epiphany @gracespicybradshaw

🏷️ list: @luckyladycreator2 @interstellarloneliness

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