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placeinthemiddleofnowhere · 1 year

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How 'bout I stay here and you fight?

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: Let me start off by saying I'm sooo sorry for the time it took me to update this, I know that it's been quite a gap since the last upload. Hopefully the wait was worth it though, because I have written about 30 pages for you here, so there's lots to sink your teeth into! As always, thanks for all your support and interaction and all the questions you have about the series, having everyone's lovely messages and art means a lot 💕 knowing I have this community to come back to while I stress out about life stuff is amazing, so thanks for being there! Enjoy the next update ☺️

Part 8 of A Rocky Start - Full Masterlist Here

-☠️-

“Ghost before you-”

“Before I what, Sneak?” Ghost spat, shaking with the effort it took to contain himself. “Before I tell Price? Before I jump to conclusions? What? You gonna try and tell me those aren’t what I think they are? Are you going to keep lying to me? Well go on then, tell me what you think I want to hear, Sneak. It’s what you’ve been doing this whole time isn’t it! You selfish little lying fuck.”

“No! I never wanted to lie to you Ghost, I just-”

“You never wanted to lie to me? Yet, you let me believe that König had screwed you over that day in the gym. Mustn't have been some cheap lay by the looks of things, that must have been you that clawed up his back like that! And to think all this time, I thought better of you,” he snorted, pounding the wall next to you with his gloved palm. “You made us look like idiots running around after you, trying to make you feel better all this time! You’ve had us all concerned about you while you’ve been fucking that cunt behind our backs!”

You whimpered and shrunk into the cold plaster at your back, distantly feeling like you were lying on a slab at a morgue. Everything in you said that it wasn’t long until you were going to be meeting your end. Ghost was wide eyed and loud as a lion as he tore into you, now slapping both his hands on the wall and sandwiching you firmly between him and it. You gulped and clenched your fists, trying to swallow the burning feeling that crept up your throat like a trail of gasoline. Everything was falling apart and you couldn't even see the pieces through the wreckage to try and save them.

“I didn’t intend for that to happen…it just happened that way. You assumed that König had slept around - I didn’t say it - I just didn't correct you. I couldn’t correct you!”

“Do you think that helps? Do you think it’s better knowing that you took advantage of my trust - in all of the 141’s trust? Do you know how much it hurts to realise that someone that you thought you could count on could be capable of deceiving you for months? That someone that you treat like family apparently doesn’t give a shit and would throw you away for a bit of Austrian Muscle? He’s barely even a person under all that fight and armour, he’s a fucking monster, Sneak, and yet you’ve left us for him!”

You clenched your teeth and rubbed the tears from your cheeks, furiously shaking even though you tried to resist. Ghost knew he had you overwhelmed. He was taking full advantage of your upset, taking his revenge on you now and tearing you down. After all those months you spent running ahead of him, keeping on top of all your lies, you’d really thought that you might manage to get away with it all. Not anymore. Your feet were knocked from under you now.

“I- It- It wasn’t like that!” You protested, choking on your words.

“How wasn’t it?” Ghost roared.

“Because he’s not a monster! We care for each other, he- he cares for me, Ghost.”

“Oh, clearly! You’d have to, it has to be worth it, doesn’t it? You’ve made your choice haven’t you? You’ve gambled your place in the 141 all these months and now your chickens have come home to roost. You think you broke our trust by going against my order that day on the field? How do you think this elaborate fucking lie is going to look to Price? It’s going to ruin you, Sneak.You’re going to break up the team!”

“You mean- you, and Pr- Price is going to kick me out?”

“Who knows what the fuck he’ll do! All I know for fact is that this is going to shake the trust of everyone here. It sure as shit rocked my faith in you, who knows what the others will think when they hear about this. Doesn’t make sense to keep someone around that’s capable of going behind our backs like this.”

A boulder settled in your stomach then. Ghost’s voice had dropped severely low, his angry snarling dying down to a quiet threat. His eyes were narrowed and staring at you with a deadly precision, betraying the scene that surely played in his head - the one where he strangled you for making such an idiot out of him.

“Ghost, please,” you whimpered, closing your eyes. “I didn’t want things to be this way. I had every intention of staying away, but it’s just…Well…I couldn’t give up on König, I care about the team and I love you all like brothers, but that doesn’t mean I could just abandon König and all the feelings I had for him. I just… I just thought that I could have both.”

You felt like an idiot saying it out loud.

In that moment a haunting realisation overtook you, the minute you opened your eyes and saw Ghost’s almost hollow mask sockets staring back at you through the gloom, you knew something. You’d made your choice all those months ago. You’d chosen König. That’s how everyone would see it anyway, they’d never understand how much you wished you could be a part of both worlds.

You knew Ghost could see exactly what you were thinking. He snorted as all the features in your face drooped, backing away from you. You sniffed and pushed yourself off the wall, barely keeping yourself from stumbling as you chased after him.

“Ghost, wait!”

He chuckled, his throat emitting a dark and choppy sound, one you hadn’t heard before. You shivered and tried to catch up with him, boots slapping hard and fast against the floor as you attempted to match his furious pace.

“Ghost, please, you can’t tell Price yet!”

“And why’s that, Sneak? You want a little accomplice in this, hm? You want someone else to go against Price just to make you feel better? The 141 isn’t a fuckin’ joke, even if you want to treat it that way.”

“I’m not asking you to lie!” you cried out, finally skidding to a stop in front of Ghost. “I’m asking you to wait.”

“Why would I do that?” he scoffed.

“Because we have a job to do,” you said, steeling yourself as much as you could even while tears still ran hot as acid down your cheeks and over your jaw.

“Oh, so now you care about doing your job, huh?”

“I care about you all, I care about the team, I care about this job more than anyone could ever know. Even though I fucked up…even though what I’ve done says otherwise, I do care. That’s why I’m asking you just to hold onto this until the job’s finished. I know exactly how this will go down Ghost, I know everyone will say the same as you have. Do you think this is what the team needs right before going away?”

You sighed and rubbed a palm over your sweating forehead, running your fingers over the wet strands of your hair. You’d been caught dead centre in your web of lies, the least you could do is untangle it with a sense of grace. Let your ruin come at the end of your last mission, let Price handle it all with a clear head, it was the least you could do. You had to make him see that.

“You can’t afford to lose anyone before you go after, Rousseau,” you continued, “Not the night before we leave. Just let me help you with this and then I’ll go to Price myself after all this is through. Just let me try to make things right and then…and then if- if Price wants to kick me out he can. I accept that…just let me help.”

Ghost halted in his tracks and balled his fists, kinetic energy fizzling away as he seemed to consider swinging them. You winced already, scrunching your eyes as you prepared for him to send you flying, but the hit never came. He opted for rolling his shoulders back instead and he paused on your words. For a moment, you worried he might reconsider and give you that well deserved blow, you weren’t completely relaxing yet. Tension sizzled through you both like a bomb fuse.

Deep down though, you knew he wouldn’t follow through on any of the dark thoughts swirling in his mind. Simmering in the burn of his gaze was a man that was deeply hurt. Even though you were probably one of the lowest life forms in his eyes at that moment, you were still family and he would never punish you like that. Even if he would willingly watch you go into exile.

“You’re telling me you feel fit to operate right now?” he asked, his words coming out with careful measure.

“There’s no other choice. I have to be,” you said with a bitter laugh, feeling like if you continued anymore, you might go hysterical. “All I know is that if we bring this to Price now, it puts the whole mission at risk and becomes a distraction. I accept that I fucked up, and that you probably can barely stand the sight of me, I do. For the sake of a mission though…don’t you think that we should get through this and let the team deal with it after? The last thing anyone needs is this. Please Ghost, you know I’m right. Even if this is the mission I go down on, at least let me do it without putting the others at risk because of what I’ve done.”

Ghost grunted and looked away from you, letting his body sag as he weighed your words. You’d gotten through to him, you’d delayed the inevitable. You knew it. You just needed him to say it.

You wished that he’d just tell you he’d let it go completely. For a hopeful second you wondered if maybe some time would stop him wanting to let Price know at all. Though that was never going to happen - if not for the fact that he was hurt from being lied to, then it would be the complete destruction of his faith in you.

Why couldn’t you have just listened to Ghost from the start? Why had you hurt him like this?

It was all getting too much to carry. Your heart thumped slowly and filled with lead and oil, thickening the blood in your veins like tar. Your whole body felt wrong, your lungs were gasping just to get by. Your head was spinning as it tried to process all that had happened, rattling with the drum beat of your pulse. It took every ounce of energy you had left just to stay upright, feeling like you might start swaying as you lingered in Ghost's heavy shadow.

“Alright,” he said eventually, voice gruff and distant. “Fine.”

You swallowed thickly and risked eye contact with him. That only served to reignite his anger though, the shadows in the hallway seemingly shivering around him as he loomed over you again.

“I won’t tell Price yet, but I’m warning you - you wait a single moment to tell him when we get back from this, then I’ll find that dopey Austrian cunt, and I’ll string him up and make you watch as what little light he has in him leaves his miserable fucking corpse. Do I make myself clear?”

You froze before nodding stiffly, body jerking as he shoved past you.

“Clear,” you whispered, talking to no one as you were left alone in the empty grey corridor.

-☠️-

You confined yourself to the darkness that night. You were alone in your room, curling your hands around your knees in bed with the lights off, heavily breathing like some kind of demented horror movie creature. The Only thing that haunted you though was your mind.

There was no getting away from it, no sharing the load with anyone else, who was there to tell? It was just you and your horrible thoughts, locked up tight together with no respite from any voices of reason. It wasn’t like you could tell the others.

König had tried to message you, but you couldn’t face him. You just messaged something quick back, reading only a couple lines of what he’d sent you first. You couldn’t talk to him either. There was no way he could know about what Ghost knew or otherwise you’d be kicking off the fight of the century.

Even with the complete lack of light in that tiny space, you still continued to see the bright whites of Ghost’s mask in front of your face. His hard blue eyes were burning holes into you like the pits of hell. It had your heart racing. Your skin felt too hot, your lungs burned with effort, feeling like they would burst with your heart ramming into them. Nothing could calm you down.

Knock.

You froze in your place, back stiffening somehow even further against the corner you’d shoved yourself into. You weren’t expecting company. Part of your mind wondered if Ghost had given in and told Price. Though as you thought on it for a few more seconds you knew in your heart of hearts that the moment, if Price knew about your relationship he sure as fuck wouldn’t come quietly knocking on your door. The sound was too soft, like someone that was trying to be discreet.

Only one person that could be - surely.

You padded over to the door and took a breath, holding the cold handle in your palm for a moment and letting it recenter you. If it was who you suspected it was, you couldn’t let him know that you’d been found out. He couldn’t get mad at Ghost and give you away. He couldn’t have the stress of your relationship reveal running through his mind while you were in an active warzone. If something were to happen to König because of your stupidity, then Price finding out about you both would be the least of your worries.

Why had you chosen the path that had put everyone you love into such a horrible position? Why had you lied so much to them all?

You swallowed the lump in your throat and closed your eyes for a second, only just opening the door as a tall figure had begun to retreat in the darkness. You watched as the giant stopped in his tracks and then you smiled softly when he walked back to you. The red tears of his mask were the first things to reveal themselves as he stepped into the flickering light that buzzed by your door.

“Did I wake you?” König asked, honey thick voice coming in at a low whisper.

“No,” you sighed, gesturing for him to come in, “couldn’t sleep. How come you’re here? You haven’t messaged.”

“I couldn’t sleep either. I wanted to see you before we left - see you alone,” he answered, stepping into your doorway. “And i did message, you messaged me back - remember? You were a little blunt with me, so I got worried.”

Oh.

You shut the door behind him and watched as he walked confidently past you and over to the lamp by your bed. He’d only been in your room a couple of times, despite your insistence he shouldn't risk showing up. Though even those stolen moments were enough for him to remember the layout as if the room were his own.

He flicked the switch on your lamp that sat on your bedside table and looked back up at you then. He was bathed in warm yellow light like an angel that had been sent to soothe your troubled head. Even his eyes seemed to melt through the edge that had settled over you.

“You don’t look very good, darling,” he noted, frowning over at you. “What’s wrong? Have you been crying?”

He tilted his head at you and with that, seemed to remember he was still wearing his mask. His eyes had grown wide like pale blue whirlpools. With fumbling hands, König tugged the fabric over his head and got himself out of the draped material, his tired face was revealed. His hair blew around before it settled into a messy nest on top of his head and his dark eyes refocused on you once he’d been freed from the hood. They were baggy with exhaustion.

You knew that feeling well. Not that you could tell him the real reason why.

“Hm?” he hummed, walking towards you now. “What’s got you so upset?”

You shook your head and tried to smile at him, accepting the hug that he wrapped you into with a sigh of relief. You didn’t have a good answer for him. Instead you pressed your head into his chest and inhaled his scent, taking in hints of gunfire and metal that his mask had left behind and, of course, the faint notes of your berry tea - betraying his thievery.

“Have you been stealing my tea again, mister?” you asked, trying to distract him.

“Me? Stealing from you? Never,” he chuckled, the sound reverberating through his body and soaking through to yours.

“More like all the time!” you grinned, finally chancing a look up at him again.

“Well really, you only have yourself to blame,” he said, stroking his thumb across your chin. “You should never have got me hooked on it if you didn’t want me to indulge myself every once in a while.”

“Mmm…Is that so?”

“Yeah, that’s so.”’

You shook your head at him and tapped him on the arm, prompting him to release you. He let you go, but followed immediately behind you when you went to sit on the bed. He took little time in swiftly drawing you back into his hold once again, nestling you both into the wrinkled sheets on your sad little bed, adjusting himself into your extra cushions.

His presence might have been making you feel uneasy, the pressure to not tell him anything growing with each passing second. However it was undeniable that the weight around your body was helping you, scattering your worries the tighter he held you.

“Are you going to tell me?” König pressed.

“Tell you what?”

“You know what,” he said dryly.

You huffed out a sigh. He wasn’t going to let it go though, he repositioned you then and made you face him, keeping you pinned and lying on your side.

“I know that the reason you smell of berries is because you don’t lift your mask all the way when you drink my tea. Then it gets damp and rubs off onto your shirt,” you said softly, smiling to yourself as you thought of him guiltily sneaking cups of it.

He looked down at you pointedly and rolled his eyes. Ok, so he wasn’t going to let it go then. You stared back at him for a moment before you lay back against his chest and proceeded to close your eyes, reaching out into the beyond to try and think of something to say. Anything other than the truth behind your insomnia.

“I’m worried about this op,” you whispered quietly. “And what comes after.”

“What? Why?” he asked, wrapping his arm around you tighter. “Why on earth would you be worried?”

“There’s a lot riding on it. It’ll be dangerous too, more than any of the other missions we’ve been on,” you shrugged. “Then there’s the unknowns that’ll come after it as well.”

“You know what will come after it,” König said, a smile weaving itself into his voice. “We will go to Austria together and I will take you on many adventures and buy you lots of good food, real food.”

You laughed a little at what he said and relaxed against him. You could feel the steady rhythm of his heart thudding away behind your head, working away, strong as ever. Maybe the world wasn’t going to completely end, you thought distantly to yourself, maybe even if you didn’t have the 141 you could still make the best of things. Hell, maybe you could move to Austria.

In choosing König, you weren’t going to be alone after you were kicked out. You would still have him. It didn’t lift the burden that was sinking your heart any, but it sought to bring some light back into your mind. The thought of mountain trails and mornings waking up to his gentle kisses and calloused hands trailing their way down your back weren’t so bad, maybe there was something even a little enticing about those thoughts...

Your life would be in tatters, sure, but it would still be worth living. There would still be some happiness, even if you were down the love of four family members… Even if you never got to speak to them again.

“I am looking forward to our trip, that’s for sure,” you replied measuredly. “I just…I mean- I guess I don’t know what things will be like after all this is over. We’ve been working together through this mission through our whole relationship and now that it’s coming to an end… I dunno - I guess I’m just intimidated by all the unknowns.”

You felt ok saying that. It wasn’t completely false. In reality you were far more worried about the situations you knew you’d face rather than the ones that were unknown, but ultimately Price being told about your relationship was still a mystery in terms of punishment.

You had no idea what he might decide to do with you once he’d found out about your betrayal. For all you were aware he could’ve been planning to send you off to one of the worst deployments that you’d ever known in your life. What then?

“You always worry so much” König sighed, tracing his hand up your body so that he could stroke the side of your face. “Know that whatever we both do next…no matter what…you will have all of my heart, and I will do anything to make sure that you get to hold it in your arms whenever possible…because I love you.”

You froze in place, eyes going wide as you processed what he said. He had spoken the unspoken, he had finally put into words the feelings that you knew were there, but both of you had been too guarded to let slip. He was telling you that he loved you, giving you a gift while you lied straight to his face.

“I love you and I will do anything to make this work. I’d dig a hole through to the otherside of the world just to be with you, there’s nowhere you can be sent to that I won’t find a way to reach you,” he whispered, pressing a kiss into your cheek.

You let a little breath of silence hang in the air for a moment and bit your lip, feeling a tear track its way down your face while you battled with your throat to stay silent. You couldn’t let him know what you were actually upset about.

You loved him too after all.

And for that reason you couldn't reveal the truth that Ghost had uncovered, it would send him spiralling. Would compromise him and mission. You could put him in danger, more so than you had already by involving Ghost - and soon Price’s - wrath.

“I love you too, König…” you murmured. “I love you so much.”

He let out a breath at your admission, you felt it whistling past your neck. You shivered, and tried not to think too hard on what would happen when he found out you’d withheld the truth from him that night.

“I love you so much, in fact, that I’m looking past the fact that you chose the night before a huge operation to tell me that,” you said with a laugh, trying to distract yourself from the demon’s in your head.

He laughed too. You both relaxed into the vibrations of each other's bodies and then lay quietly for a moment, staring up at the old scuffed ceiling above.

Though you couldn’t linger there for long. You pushed your way out of his almost iron grip and rolled around, propping your head up so that you could see his face. You were surprised to see the look of consternation that greeted you. It was like looking into a mirror. His eyes were half lidded as he looked down and his lips were pursed, the pink line of his scar stretching taught as he thought deeply on something.

“Well, seeing as you love me too… Would you offer me some assurance?”

You reached over to him and cupped his jaw in your hands, adjusting his face so that he’d meet your gaze. You searched his eyes for a moment and suddenly something clicked in the place as you were finally broken out of your wallowing.

“Assurance for whatever it was that you couldn’t sleep over?” you guessed.

He nodded, the scratch of his stubble sharply rubbing against your palm. You smoothed your thumb over his cheek and he leaned into your touch, somehow looking younger and smaller than he usually did.

“Things will be intense tomorrow…I will be breaching rooms with countless unknown men that will be shooting at us, and I’ll be having to make quick decisions - act on instinct. Whatever you see tomorrow, know that I love you and that I wish you didn’t have to witness any of it. In another life, I’d spare you from ever having to even know about it. I just need to know, that after we come back, no matter what you see, that you won’t run from me. As much as I’ve tried to protect myself, I know that that’s all over now. I know now there’s no way to save myself from the hurt, the same way I couldn’t protect myself from anyone else I’ve ever loved in my life. I just want to know that you’ll give me a chance to explain myself if you see something that you don’t like again… that you won’t leave me.”

Oh König…

You felt the remainder of your tears threaten to spill over and flood your sheets, but you held them back and closed your eyes instead, thinking for a moment. You hadn’t reacted well the last time you’d heard him at work. How would you react if you were to see him in action now?

You shuddered at the thought, but let it pass quickly. At the end of the day, you were all going there to reap an unspeakable violence to a group of people that had committed atrocities in return. There were no pure intentions and there were no good players between any of you. There was only putting an end to a group that threatened to kill innocents. If König was going to be at the head of the speartip, then he had to be damn sharp. You couldn’t have him ineffective with worry over what you might think.

Couldn’t put him at risk.

“König, I promise that whatever I see…whatever I think or feel in the moment…I won’t shut you out. We can talk about it all when we get home again. But whatever you do, don’t put yourself in harm's way trying to protect my feelings. We’ll make it through this together, no matter what, ok?”

He smiled at you, a twinkle returning to his sapphire irises. He turned and kissed your hand, you still held his head, and you both closed your eyes for a moment, revelling in the private moment between yourselves.

“Ok,” he finally replied. “I feel like I can sleep now. Why don’t you try to get some rest as well? See if you can shut off that busy mind of yours.”

You both settled into a silence after that, letting yourselves relax into the calm. At some point you turned back around and a little while later, König switched off your lamp. In the back of your mind you worried that you’d be discovered come morning time, but König assuaged your fears before you could air them and whispered to you, tickling your ear as he told you that he’d set an early alarm.

“I love you, König,” you whispered, your half smile lost to the night.

It felt like something to giggle over, like a secret between school children. You could barely contain your smile.

“I love you too,” König replied, pressing a kiss to your temple, “I’ll love you always.”

-☠️-

König had stayed true to his word and had left while the sky remained dark, shutting off his near silent alarm on the second ring and scurrying out quietly before anyone would be any the wiser. Anyone that didn’t already know anything anyway.

It felt like Ghost had almost sold you out the moment that you’d stepped foot onto the transport. The sound of your boots nervously clanging against the metal ramp drew his attention, and all at once his conversation with the Captain ceased and he fixed his eyes on you with a glare.

It was enough to freeze you into place, forcing you to maintain eye contact with him until he released his mental hold over you. You Clutched furiously onto the handle of your backpack, hoping like hell that it wouldn’t shake too badly.

For a few painful seconds you were stuck still, though just as you thought that Ghost might say something after all, he turned away again and blanked you completely. Price gave him a frown and said something low under his breath, but whatever it was Ghost shook his head and carried on with what they were discussing before.

It was like some kind of twisted game of red light/green light. If that’s the way he’s going to play things this’ll be a hell of a way to go out, you thought to yourself. That is if you even made it out of the mission.

You were supposed to be on Ghost’s team, and at that point you weren’t completely convinced that he would bother too much to look out for you anymore. No, now it was just you and Horangi, and as much as König seemed to get on with him, you and he had never exchanged more than a couple of words to each other.

Would Soap and Gaz offer swapsies?

You shook your head at the thought of Gaz ever going off plan, especially one that Price had approved. No, instead of hoping for better, you faced reality and took a seat far away from Ghost, throwing your stuff down for what felt like the last time. You sank down on your cracking knees, settling next to your bulging bag and holding it like a plush toy. The squishy material was solid under your grasp and made a great pillow for you to rest your head on. It was enough to lull you into a sense of security, enough to make you close your eyes.

“Sneak!”

Your head shot up and you lost your breath, staring wide eyed into the direction that you’d heard the voice come from. Was it Ghost? Was he going to reveal everything just to spite you now that you were getting comfortable?

No. Soap looked down at you instead, shooting you a grin as he saw how much you’d shit yourself at his shout. Stupid bastard. You hit out at his leg and huffed when he sat down next to you, feeling like his loud obnoxious voice in your ear was just about the last thing you needed.

And just to sour your mood more, just to make matters all the better, he shoved your shoulder and almost sent you keeling over and tumbling over to Ghost and Price. As if Ghost needed another reason to want to get back at you.

You threw your hands out and pushed yourself up, attempting to shove him almost twice as hard back. He’d dodged at the last second and had you wheeling forward this time, though at the very least you had your bag to fall onto instead of Ghost this time.

“What the fuck are you being so childish for?” you grumbled, recovering and rubbing the sore spot where he’d shoved you.

“Ooft, someone’s grumpy, eh?” Soap tittered, smile never leaving his face. “Did you not get much rest last night?”

You grunted and folded your arms, staring straight ahead like you might melt the plane’s walls.

“The fuck does it matter to you?”

“I’ll take that as a yes then - as usual.”

Soap raised his brows, challenging you to defend yourself. Normally you’d probably shove him again or throw a verbal barb at him, but that day you were in no mood to play. Especially not when the truth was going to come out sooner rather than later, and you weren’t convinced you were going to be on joking terms anymore.

No, it wouldn’t be long until he knew about you and König, and your mind was already filled with the sight of his angry frown setting itself upon you. It was better that you didn’t make it all worse by pretending everything was fine, you reasoned, so that being the case you ignored him and planted your head back down on your bag.

“Crabbit little twat,” Soap snorted. “Better find your sense of humour before you wake up again. And if you’re gonna be in a mood with me, then you can forget sleepin’ and drooling all over me too!”

You grunted in response, and gave him nothing else. You were too sick with worry to respond properly, even despite the ache that developed as you realised that that might be one of your last ‘friendly’ interactions with him. The weight in your heart increased tenfold, feeling as if it were a sand timer growing heavier by the minute. Better not to think about it. Better to shut it all out, to shut down.

Unsurprisingly your mood wasn’t lifted by the sleep you caught up on. It only served to keep you from agonising about your situation until the plane slammed down onto the dodgy countryside landing strip. That shocked you back to life again. From then on, until you reached the safe house, your mood remained sour and kept the others from bothering you much.

When you got there, of course, you had to buck up and try to act normal. You couldn’t have the others picking anything up, couldn’t let them think you were anything else except tired and grumpy. It wasn’t that far outside the realm of normal, you never slept very well whenever you had to travel away anyway.

When it came time to go over the briefing, you quietly set yourself as far away from Ghost as you could muster and stood around the projector wall, listening to Price’s briefing intently while you locked your arms into a folded position. The light splashed across his face in brief interludes, his weight was shifting from foot to foot as he walked you all through the plan in his booming voice, he was restless. He was right to be.

Price knew that the intelligence that had been gathered was of questionable accuracy - he told you all as much and Laswell confirmed it. She didn’t look that much more confident that him. The men who’d spilled their guts to the interrogators had varying degrees of incentive to reveal the true nature and layout of their base and all of you knew that they were highly fantastical to boot. It didn’t matter how many exercises you’d run through, none of you could’ve really known what was in store for when you raided the warehouse.

You’d looked round the room as he’d talked about that, scoping out the faces of all the men that you were going to fight alongside. Your eyes slowly ran over the 141, König, Horangi, and all those of the other team that Price had assembled to lock down the perimeter. There were hard eyes all around, everyone stayed quiet, listening to the captain until his very last word. Even Laswell had limited interjections, she was just as stone faced as everyone else, letting Price take the lead.

“I want all of you to be at the top of your game. On a mission like this there is zero and I really do mean zero margin for error! You make a mistake on Rousseau’s home turf and you will get yourself or one of your teammates killed. All of you must communicate, I want clear positions and status updates on comms. You will tell me where you are in the warehouse and you will let me know who you come across, is that clear?”

You all responded, an impassioned “yes, sir!” rang throughout the room, ricocheting off of the walls and back into the crowd like a bullet.

“Good,” Price said curtly. “Now, enough talking,we move out in thirty minutes. And remember - Zero margin for error! Clear communication! Don’t get yourselves killed.”

“Yes, sir!”

You all sounded off for the last time and set to work scurrying around, gathering gear and preparing the trucks for departure. You’d be driving out until you reached the edge of the forest and from then on you would be trekking out to the compound, a group of old warehouses that had belonged to a logging company before it had gone out of business years before. You were in for a hard day.

Though as Ghost reminded you, when he icily stared at you from the otherside of the room, the hardship wasn’t going to end at capturing Rousseau. Your problems were only going to multiply from that day on.

You were the first to break eye contact that time, nervously shifting away and grabbing your gear, double checking your ammo and your pockets. You stroked your hands up through the curves and rough textures of your armour and bags and went through your mental checklist, trying to fill your mind with something other than all the swirling thoughts that threatened to compromise you.

“All good, Sneak?”

You snapped your head to your left side, meeting Gaz’s tilted stare.

“All good, Sergeant,” you answered, repacking a few of your rounds.

“Sergeant?” he chuckled.

“Did your rank change while I was asleep?”

“No, but you seemed to,” he shrugged.

“I’m stressed, there’s a lot at stake here,” you said, swallowing down another of your silly lies. “But all that matters is that I’m here right?”

Gaz shook his head as you reminded him of the words he’d said to you months before. Ever since he’d lectured you about letting König distract you, you liked to tease him and call him mini Price, reciting his words back to him without fail. I wanna go out there knowing you’re here with us and not turning yourself into a walking target. You’d do your best Price impression whenever you recounted them.

You didn’t bother this time - not while Price was in the room with you. Gaz rolled his eyes and patted your back, almost turning away to sort his own things before a smile lit his face.

“Well with a good attitude like that I might just keep you around when I get promoted to Captain,” he laughed, walking away before he could see the smile dropping off your face.

Gaz might’ve wanted to keep you around - but would Price?

-☠️-

It was unsurprising, to say the least, that you were going to discover John Rousseau’s last stand wasn’t going to be easy. No. He was intent on going out with a bang.

It had been a difficult breach, you’d lost a couple of the men that Price had sent to crack the warehouse open with you. They’d fallen in the fatal funnel that had been created when the enemy worked out your entry point. Despite the high levels of bloodshed though, König remained mostly unharmed.

You’d tried not to let yourself get distracted by him, but even still, had found your eyes magnetised to him at times, had seen him shooting quickly and forcing enemies close when he needed to, basically folding people in half in an effort to break them. Some of the sounds their bones made still echoed in your ears.

Everything had moved so fast. Your mind had very little bandwidth to process it all. One moment you were on the first floor, desperately trying to locate the stairs and get to Rousseau’s ‘war room’, the next you were deep into the building, continuing to blast through doors with Soap at the head while you, Ghost and Horangi secured the rear.

Gunshots echoed out throughout the hallways, lights flickered and sparked and rained down electrical orange confetti as they were shot from the ceiling and swung out like some kind of deadly assault course. The floor in front of you flashed white and gold and soon you were drowned in darkness. All the lights in the room crashed down into their final resting places.

Ghost was in the room across from you, Horangi was with him too. You’d decided to separate when you’d seen a lone man run into the little office, you were convinced you’d seen someone hauling a massive gun across his back. It was hard to be sure what it was, maybe some type of PKM, but whatever it could have been would do a lot of damage, you knew that much. Though now, as you were left alone in the shadows, it had felt like your mind had played tricks on you.

Your breathing was shallow, and no matter how thick your earbuds were, your ears were still ringing from all the abuse they’d had to endure. It felt like you’d been crammed under an old church bell and someone was hitting it on all sides. There was a lightning storm in your head and a heatwave through your whole body.

Part of you was almost begging to be in the debrief with Price already.

You flicked your night vision down and scoped the room, tracing through the green fog for any signs of enemies. There was nothing obvious. The pulse of your speeding heart thumped away steadily in your ears while the room remained deathly still. Where the fuck are you?

Something flashed out of the corners of your eyes and before you could even turn to see it, you were being overwhelmingly set upon. You stepped backward and leveraged your weight, getting yourself in a good position to strike your assailant and baulked when he stopped you in your tracks and smashed you against the wall.

Ouch.

The air shot out of your lungs, your goggles had skewed over your eyes, but after a few seconds of shock you were thankfully able to dodge the figure from hitting you and shoved them off to your side. With tears in your eyes, and knees screaming out, you got yourself up.

It was fight or die. You picked up your gun, scraping the heavy weapon against the floor, and unloaded it into your attacker, just as he tried to rush you again.

His body collapsed to the floor in a spray of mist and you watched motionlessly as he fell forward and into a lifeless heap at your feet. The gun was like a lead brick in your arms, but still you held it aloft, waiting for anyone else that might try to get the drop on you.

Why’s it so quiet?

“Sneak, what the fuck was that?” Ghost called out. “And where the fuck did you run off to?”

You could hear him distantly through in the other room, but his voice was also straining loud and clear over the busy comms, you knew your reply would be too. All of you had been running around for a lot longer than you would’ve liked. Then again, it was a blessing that you were still up and kicking if anything. There had been so many surprise attacks launched on you, you were lucky to only sport a few bruises for your troubles.

“In the room across from you LT. Took down an enemy, heading back to you now.”

You took one last look around the ruins of the office, and once satisfied there were no more hidden assailants, you walked toward the doorway. After plastering yourself to the wall, you took a look up and down the hall, pivoting out a little just to be sure no one was going to take a lucky shot. All clear. Well, one end of the hallway anyway, the other was completely blocked off by a stack of fallen units and desks.

Probably not a good sign.

Were they directing you?

You crossed the threshold fully and bolted into the next room, locking eyes with Ghost as he perched his foot on a fallen desk chair, it was rattling from his weight. Horangi gave you a nod from Ghost’s side and glanced over to the head of the room, keeping watch over Soap as he set up his charges with no small amount of grumbling. That wasn’t a good sign either.

Your body was getting tired, your back was aching from all the weight you’d been hauling round. The only thing getting lighter was your ammo. You were praying that you were close to the end, hoping that wherever this supposed room was that Rousseau had locked himself into, it was going to reveal itself soon. You didn’t know how much more you could take.

“Stay on that door Sneak, make sure no one else goes looking for hiding spots” Ghost directed. “What’s taking so long, Soap?”

You turned and followed Ghost’s order, side eyeing König as he stood over your struggling teammates, dwarfing Gaz and Soap under his watchful stance. He was breathing heavily, you could see the dramatic rise and fall of his hood giving away his fatigue. Other than that though, you were relieved to see that he was still unhurt.

Focus!

You snapped your attention to the hallway again and ignored your boyfriend, pulling your thoughts away from him completely. It had been a long time since you’d been on a mission with König and you were unused to the amount of space he took up. He was clouding your thoughts, sending your brain churning out worry like a spitting volcano as he kept charging through doorways and getting up close and personal with men as if he were indestructible.

You shook your head and cast your eyes through the shadows, watching out for movement. You couldn’t linger over König any longer.

Soon you realised that there wasn’t any noise. It wasn’t right. Things never went the way you’d trained for almost one hundred percent of the time, but it was strange that there hadn’t been more men around. You’d encountered most of the men on the way in and now that you were further into the heart of the building they were sprouting up in numbers few and far between. That combined with the fact the building felt strategically blocked off in areas was all just one big red flag, waving and buffeting like a sail in the breeze.

“LT, there’s explosives already set here,” Soap shouted. “I couldn’t be sure before…but they've hidden them in the door casing. Powerful stuff by the looks of it too. If we try to get through this we could end up blasting ourselves to the moon by the looks of it.”

You whipped your head around and back to the group at the door, watching as they all stepped back. All at once everyone's heads snapped to Ghost and he frowned deeply enough that it could be seen through his eyeblack.

“Price, did you get that?” Ghost asked, speaking clearly for the comms.

“Copy,” Price said, his voice crackling through all of your headsets. “Can you find an alternative route ahead?”

“Not on this floor,” Ghost responded. “This is the only way up.”

“Fuck!”

You winced at Price’s outburst and bit your lip. Should you speak?

Fuck it.

“There haven’t been a lot of men compared to what we expected either,” you noted. “Anyone else get the feeling we’ve been set up?”

Everyone else seemed to have the same thought, Gaz nodded your way, König looked like he wanted to scratch his way out of the walls and take you with him, Ghost narrowed his eyes. Was he annoyed you’d stated the obvious? You frowned over at him, but he moved shortly after that, sidling up to the window and taking a cautious peak outside. His back visibly stiffened as he caught a glimpse of something.

“Price, there’s a truck heading out the gates to the south side. Do you see it?”

“We’re tracking it now. Ghost, take both of the teams out of the warehouse, whatever’s going on, I don’t like it. Meet us back at the extraction point, copy?”

“Copy, Captain.”

Ghost motioned his head in the direction of the doorway you were still guarding and while the others filed toward you, you stayed in place. You had to ensure no one would surprise them while they stepped out of the room. Ghost passed you and patted your shoulder, his touch like a lightning shock to your system.

As much of a professional as he was, you hadn't expected him to be at a point where he was making an effort to praise you. A warmth spread over your chest then.

Nevertheless, you couldn’t let yourself get too carried away. You put it to the back of your mind and followed up the rear of your group, looking around as you passed through the hallways of fallen men. Bodies littered the floors and by then most of the hallways were dark and devoid of any lighting. The green haze of your night vision goggles continued to wave unsettlingly and the crunch of debris was ever present under your boots.

“We need to move slowly and quietly,” Ghost directed, heading toward the front of your group. “If the bastards have set up bombs there’s no telling what way they were trying to direct us and what happens if another one of them catches us alive. Any one of them could have a detonator, and we know from previous encounters they’re not shy about martyring themselves for the cause.”

Your heart rate picked up, but still you kept marching ahead. The group moved forward like a little troupe of ants, following your masked leader to what you hoped was safety. Each skittering stray piece of furniture under your feet had you jumping, every breath you took was like a gust of wind. Even with your ears ringing it felt like every bit of muffled noise was coming through like the beginnings of a dance anthem.

Knowing that someone with the power to blow the whole building on you might jump out at any second wasn’t great for your weakening composure. That wouldn’t stop you though. Your group powered on down the halls until you reached the lower stairway, and each of you took every step with care, pointing your weapons in different directions just to be sure that every angle was covered.

With your gun pointed down, you were able to see that there was activity on the bottom floor, you could see people moving down below. You tapped Soap on the shoulder and pointed them out, allowing him to pass on the message until it carried on through the line and down to Ghost. All of you stopped moving then and watched the little group, stuck in silence while they propped open a piece of wood that had been covering a doorway in the stairs.

Ghost extended his arm and gave you all a series of clear hand signals, watching down the line to make sure you all read him clearly. Stay silent. Stay on me. We’re following them.

There was more pressure than ever to make sure that your steps were soundless. Your heartbeat was in your ears and your body was buzzing with how tightly your muscles were wound. Every step took you closer to the bottom and to the hatch, every successful movement gave you hope that you wouldn’t be found out.

When your group reached the bottom, you were able to see that the men had replaced the sheet of wood and old construction PVC to try and hide the secret exit. Clearly that hadn’t been meant for your eyes. Perhaps it was lucky that you’d come to the stairway at the right time - it was hard to say, maybe they’d meant for exactly that to happen.

Ghost looked to König and together, without having to communicate, they shifted the board and König took position at the front. As always, he was first to breach.

All of you crept into the blown out entryway and were surprised to find a tunnel at your feet, complete with a very haphazard ladder built down into it. Aside from that, the little room you were in was empty. König replaced the piece of wood over the door once everyone was inside and soon you were surrounded in complete shadow, staring around at the others through the green hues.

“Price, we’ve found a tunnel under the stairway of the building. What do you want us to do?” Ghost enquired, keeping an eye on the tunnel to make sure no one down below indicated that they’d heard him.

The comms were quiet, nothing but the ghostly whisper of static crumbling away at your ears. All of you eyed each other, stares hard enough to the cut the air between you all. The little room was getting hot with all of your bodies filling it, each breath getting harder to take.

“Price, come in,” Ghost demanded. “Laswell? Anyone?”

Nothing.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Soap breathed.

You pursed your lips and kept your stare fixed on Ghost. His eyes were jumping between you all like he was deciding on his lunchtime football team. He took a moment to think, trying to bring clarity into the stuffy room, he was probably waiting for Price to come back in too, but nevertheless the line remained dead.

“Right. Here’s what we’re gonna do. More than likely this entire building is rigged to blow, we need to get out, but more than likely this tunnel is a sign that Rousseau must be here. He would never have left all his men behind, he likes to make a show of being on base and ‘protecting’ and taking control of his men. König, you’re gonna lead Horangi and Gaz through the back entrance at the loading bay and head to the extraction point, find out why command isn’t talking to us. I’m taking Sneak and Soap with me and we’re gonna see what’s down there, see if we can’t dig Rousseau out.”

“What?”

All of you turned your heads as König spoke, the sharpness of his voice coming out muffled through his hood.

“Did you not hear me right?” Ghost asked.

“I heard you clearly, Lieutenant,” König sneered. “But I don’t agree with that course of action. You can’t just go wandering around tunnels with only two people with you, that’s suicide. Price gave his orders before the line went down, he was very clear, therefore we should all be going to the extraction point.”

“This isn’t the time to disagree with me, König.”

“It is if you’re going to get yourself and two of your subordinates killed,” König said, clearly gritting his teeth. “Not to mention you’re abandoning us with god knows how many men waiting outside to stop us from leaving.”

“Nice of you to care about what happens to us,” Ghost remarked, “Then again there’s probably only one person you’re trying to protect here, isn’t there?”

Your stomach dropped to your feet. It was like a small fire had broken out in the room and now you had the urge to go beating down the secret entrance and throwing caution to the wind. Was this really going to happen?

“What’s that supposed to mean?” König asked.

“You know what it means. Now would you like to press the issue or would you like to get back to your job and do what you’re being paid to do, you fucking goon.”

König seemed to shoot you a sideways glance, you couldn’t really tell with his visor down, but before you could think to warn him otherwise he decided that it was indeed time to press the issue. Every fibre of your being wanted to throttle him then. If your choice was crawling into a death tunnel or ending up in an argument between Ghost and König during an operation, then tunnel of death it is!

“Paid personnel or not, at least I’m trying to get us all out safely,” König retorted.

“All? Trying to make sure we all get out, or just trying to make sure you’ve got a warm hole to crawl back to at the end of this? Which is it really?”

There was an almost tangible silence in the room. It was as if there was a thick bubble coating you all, preventing a single whisper of noise from escaping. You couldn’t even hear the others breathe, not over König anyway. He was panting like a charging bull, breaking through the bubble, he sounded like he was ready to tear Ghost down into a stump.

“Ghost, what’re you talking about?” Soap said, not able to contain himself. “We shouldn’t be arguing, we should be moving! Let’s just go.”

“You’re not going down into that tunnel, Sergeant!” König warned, making a move to stop Soap.

“Or what?” Ghost asked, rising to his full height and jumping into König’s path.

König stood silently, he didn’t say anything - but he didn't allow Ghost to intimidate him either. He stood perfectly still, besides straightening his back, and eyed his opponent. The two of them looked like windup toys ready to strike.

“Nothing to say?” Ghost sneered. “Then move.”

“Lieutenant, be reasonable,” König said.

“I am being incredibly reasonable, König,” Ghost laughed, a dark chuckle rumbling from his throat. “In fact, judging by the way you’re acting, maybe Sneak can tell you just how reasonable I’m being.”

Everyone’s heads turned to you, navigating the thick silence that followed with ease. Their night vision goggles stared you down as if they were being programmed to move in sync. You swallowed a thick lump in your throat and gripped tightly at your gun, holding onto it like it was the only thing tethering you to reality. What were you supposed to say now?

“What’s going on?” Gaz sighed, clearly at the end of his tether.

“Tell them what’s going on, Sneak,” Ghost ordered. “Tell them exactly why this little song and dance is happening right now. Go on. Let them know why Captain Rags has his face in a twist over you going down into the tunnel. Let’s get it out there for the world to know.”

Every one of his words hit you like a knife in your gut. There were blades sticking out at all angles and it was taking all your strength just to stay up. So this was it? You were truly going out in a blaze, but it was far from glorious.

“Sneak?” König said, his voice strained with confusion.

“König, Ghost found the pictures in your wallet when he knocked your stuff off the rack yesterday,” you said quietly. “He knows we’re together.”

“What the fuck!” Soap whispered.

“Sneak, what do you mean you’re together?” Gaz asked. “You can’t be together, Price will fucking kill you…”

Horangi remained silent.

“Apparently they’re not ones for following orders,” Ghost sneered. “Otherwise we wouldn’t even be having this discussion would we?”

Ghost looked between you both and you growled out at yourself, sinking into disbelief that all of it was really happening. It felt surreal to be standing around arguing in a building that was full of god knows how many explosives. Why was it that König could never just follow orders? Why couldn’t you? The room was so hot it felt like you were all starting to cook, smelt like it too.

“König, just do as Ghost says and take the others,” you commanded. “At this rate we’re all going to get blown up and this whole argument won’t even matter.”

“Sneak-”

“No, König! Just go, we can all talk about it later.”

“That’s if you even make it back later!”

“Don’t think like that. Just take Horangi and Gaz back to extraction and find out why Price hasn’t answered us. Otherwise none of us are getting out of here!”

König continued to stare for a second more, but finally he’d seen sense. He shook his head and furiously muttered something to himself in German before he walked back to the exit. He gave you one last look and with that, slid back the wooden panel and walked out with Horangi in tow, missing only Gaz as he left you all.

With the door open and König gone you felt like you could breathe a little easier again, but as soon as you looked back at the others, the feeling went away. Gaz shook his head at you and walked out, mumbling something that was too low to hear and soon it was only you, Ghost and Soap left.

“Steamin’ Jesus, Sneak. What the fuck were you thinking? Have you really been lying to us all this time?”

You sighed and looked at Soap, watching the way his mouth downturned in disgust. A horrible nauseous feeling permeated in your stomach and in your throat, but you couldn’t pay too much attention to it. You had to keep your head on more important things.

“Clearly I wasn’t thinking,” you sighed. “Look, I’ll answer whatever questions you want after we’re out of this, but we need to get moving.”

“Agreed,” Ghost said, already heading for the tunnel. “We’ve had enough distraction already.”

Ghost cut Soap off from interrupting, shooting him a hard look before he took a flashbang from one of his holsters and primed it. He threw it down the tunnel and waited for a reaction. Nothing. After being met with silence, he quickly flew down into the darkness, leaving you and Soap up top. Soap surely burned a hole through his night vision and into you.

You shivered and followed Ghost, cautiously setting your foot on the ladder, not liking the way it wobbled with Ghost’s weight and yours. There wasn’t much to be done about it though. You had to get down there quickly and make sure he had backup.

You scurried down and stuck one foot behind the other, releasing each of the metal rungs like they were on fire. It didn’t take long until you were at the bottom and eventually Soap followed you both and rather nicely decided against booting you in the head on his way down, dropping to your side instead.

“There’s no one here, but they’ll have heard that, no doubt,” Ghost warned. “Stay close and lets find out what these fuckers are hiding down here.”

You nodded your agreement and followed him down the tunnel, watching the rickety support beams with a cautious eye. König had been right to worry.

What’s he thinking right now? Is he hurt?

Not again, stop thinking about him. Focus!

The tunnel didn’t seem like it had been in operation for very long. Something that had seen more use would surely have been built better, you reasoned, not looking like it could crumble at any second. As you took a few more twists and turns and continued to follow the path it didn’t seem to get much better. The walls looked hastily dug out and like any little disturbance might bury them. Though as you all turned another corner and followed the winding walkway, you were surprised to find yourself in a rather large cavernous room.

It was built solidly and looked far more like a permanent structure, it was supported by thick metal beams from which overhead lights were suspended and hanging down from long wires. It also contained a plethora of scaffolding like shelves, housing a few abandoned looking wooden crates, some of them looked like they’d been raided, others were dusty and dark with disuse. You flipped your goggles up and watched the two men at your sides repeat the action, finally noticing the true extent of all the grime and blood that had covered them both.

“What is this place?” Soap wondered out loud.

“Looks like some kind of storage facility. Well, it was one anyway,” you remarked.

You didn’t miss the way Soap narrowed his eyes at you from the side of his vision. He advanced forward through the looming racks while you stayed behind and watched the other men go. You had to give yourself a second for the bile to stop rising in your stomach. To say that being on an op with two men that had it out for you was making you feel uneasy was an understatement.

However you didn’t have the luxury of lingering on for very long. Once you noticed Ghost heading to the set of shelves that blocked your view of the head of the room, you started to follow after him, ensuring that he’d have some cover. Part of you felt better being around someone that had had longer to digest the news.

Once you’d flown past the racks and over to Ghost you began to realise that there was a thrumming noise emanating from the far side of the room. It rumbled and growled and grew harder on your ears the closer you got and as soon as you made your way round the racking you saw the source of it. A big set of metal doors.

Soap joined you from the otherside, clearly finding the rest of the room just as empty as you had. Ghost looked over to Soap then and back at the door, motioning for him to get close.

“Soap, do you have the borescope?”

“Aye, hold on, I’ll sort it.”

Soap reached into his bag and pulled out the long snake of wire and fetched his drill. From there he made a small opening in the door with quick precision and sent the coiled camera through, taking a look at the monitor as he did so. The monitor quickly flashed on and you and Ghost were able to peer round and see a flurry of men running around a mixture of freight and pickup trucks, loading cargo onto them. There were some that were beginning to drive off, halting just as they made it onto the big ramp then ran up the far side of that room.

How on earth had they managed to hide that?

You frowned as you watched on, realising that the last trucks were beginning to get closed up and prepared for driving off, you could hear the echoes of the doors being slammed shut. The men were shouting louder now, driving each other to go, go, go. You watched Ghost out of the corner of your eye, waiting for him to make a decision. All until the final man walked into the centre of the room, he was surrounded by a group of heavily covered up muscle men toting machine guns like they were little more than big boys with pretend sticks in the playground. The man walked in the centre of them with a confident strut - he looked just like he did in the videos.

“Holy fuck, is that Rousseau?” Soap whispered.

Ghost nodded tightly.

“Brothers! We have done well today, the enemy safehouse has been destroyed and the rest of the soldiers will still be trapped in the warehouse trying to route us out. Let us leave and go to our new base, onwards and upwards my friends!”

The enemy safehouse has been destroyed? Price? Laswell? Were they ok?

You widened your eyes, but you didn’t get much time to think about Price and the others.

Rousseau had sped over to one of the trucks and once inside, had set off a cataclysm. The doors to the ramp opened, bathing the basement in startling sunlight and from there the explosions began, a loud series of bangs that shook the room like a hurricane, each one unsettling the walls and floor as they got closer. It felt like a tiger leaping ever closer, ready to land straight onto your belly and tear you open.

What the fuck!

“We need to get out of here!”Ghost roared. “Head for the trucks, we can try to get into the one at the back.

He kicked at the door and luckily it burst open, allowing you all to run forward and into the next room. Because the room was so long, you were still covered by shadow and no one seemed to notice your group’s appearance. No one was shooting at you anyway.

Your throat burned as you ran, your mind was racing, intent on following Ghost as he stuck to the walls, keeping yourselves hidden in the darkness. He was racing out ahead while you and Soap tied with each other, running neck and neck and panting like hounds as you propelled yourselves ahead of the blasts. The room was really shaking now and while the last truck began to pull away and ascend up the ramp, your eyes teared up.

No, no, no. Not like this!

You pumped your legs a little bit harder and Soap did the same, managing to sprint ahead like you were all in a murmuration, moving fluidly and in sync with one another. With that effort made, you all managed to jump onto the last truck, detaching from the wall at the last minute before attaching yourselves to the back. You all grabbed onto what holds that you could, affixing yourselves to the bolts that kept the doors closed and held on for dear life, watching on with horror as you saw the warehouse burning up in the distance, leaving it in a trail of smoke.

It was then you were finally able to hear the crackle of comms and a blended mixture of broken up accented shouts, German, Korean and English. The others were trying to contact you.

Had they made it out ok?

“Gaz, is that you?” Ghost shouted out, trying to adjust his headset while he gripped onto the bolt. “We’re on Rousseau, we’re out of the warehouse. Did your team make it out?”

If you weren’t busy being terrified for everyone’s lives you would have rolled your eyes.

“LT, is that you?” Gaz called out, his voice finally coming through clearly. “Are you all ok?”

Ghost didn’t get a chance to say anything to that, he was quickly cut off.

“Lieutenant, respond!” König snarled, his voice snapping out like an angry wolf.

“We made it out,” Ghost confirmed. “Did you hear what I said? Where are you? We’re following Rousseau, we’re on one of his trucks. His men must’ve been instructed to set this up for him upon capture. They must’ve had a plan to move when they knew we were coming.”

“We made it out, we started heading for the extraction point, but we got cut off by Rousseau’s forces in the woods. He must’ve left men behind to try and stop us from getting out, we got em’ though. We still haven’t heard any word from Price. What direction are you heading in? Should we follow?”

“We got word that they destroyed the safe house,” Soap said. “Price and Laswell might not’ve made it.”

You finally turned and looked up, blinking back at the rush of air as you changed direction and looked at Soap. He looked like a terrified cat that had got itself stuck up a tree. Both of his hands must’ve been white knuckling the bolt from under his gloves - he was holding onto the same one as you, standing over you while you crouched low and hooked your feet into the groove of the bevelled doors. The extra grip was helping your shaking body.

Why couldn't Ghost have just let you and König pair off? You’d have taken jungle warfare over hanging off the back of a speeding truck anyday. It would have avoided the whole stupid argument back at the tunnel too. In that moment, while you held on for dear life, you realised that there was a lot of things that you’d have wished that could’ve been done differently.

“Don’t follow us,” Ghost said, taking back control of the line, “Try to find out if anyone made it to the extraction. You hear that, König? Make sure that we can make it out of this, don’t do anything stupid!”

“Hard to say what’s stupid when your definition seems so different to mine,” König snarked.

“König, don’t be a smartass! Just try and find Price so we can get Rousseau,” you growled.

Ghost tilted his head at you, clearly surprised that you’d been the one to tell him off for that. As much as you were relieved to know he was ok, and as much as you’d like to comfort him, you knew the mission was much bigger than yourselves. Getting everyone out safely and trying to successfully capture Rousseau was the most important thing and you could only do that if you were apart.

The line remained quiet for a second.

“Ok, we’re heading to the extraction again now,” Gaz confirmed. “We’ll let you know when we reach point.”

“Copy, Sergeant.”

You looked up at Ghost and then at Soap, watching as both men struggled with staying stuck to the truck. This wasn’t going to work long term, you could feel your own arms wanting to give out, it wouldn’t be long till you’d all come tumbling off and crashing onto the dirt road. You had to figure out a way to get to a more secure location.

“Ghost, do you think you can hold on to the truck and try to support my weight at the same time?” You asked.

“Why?” he barked.

“If you hold onto me, I can try and climb up the truck and get myself on top,” you explained.

“And then what about us?” Soap growled. “All very well sorting out a nice place for yourself up there.”

“If I move up there, then you can crouch next to Ghost and open the door on the side we’re standing on,” you said, glaring up at him. “That way we can all hold it so it doesn’t swing out and you two can climb in and shut it.”

This wasn’t the time for accusations. You waited for them both to share their thoughts, and jumped when the truck hit a bump. It almost sent you all flying. Soap yelped and hugged into the bolt tighter and Ghost grunted. You fumbled as your feet were displaced and wobbled, your hands slipping off of the bolt and sending you sprawling backwards.

Ghost reached out and grabbed you in the nick of time, just when you thought you were about to be grated parmesan on the side of the pebbled road. You huffed out a breath and grabbed a hold of the bar, swallowing down your pulse as it tried to climb out of your throat.

“Right, get on with it,” Ghost said, “I can only hold you for so long.”

You shook your head and had to remind yourself of the plan. That close call rocked you.

Without any more interruption, you grabbed onto the bolt on Ghost’s side with both hands and swung your legs up, planting them against the wall while Ghost kept his hand flat against your back. As you got higher up, his support dwindled, but from there you were able to reach around the top and kick your legs against the doors. With one last grunt you were able to get yourself fully on top of the truck, but kept yourself belly down on it, ensuring that you wouldn’t be seen.

“Ok, I’m gonna hold onto the door now. Open it when Soap’s in position.”

The other two fumbled around, getting themselves steady. After a few moments of contoroting themselves around one another they were able to open the door, it was heavy and it took everything in you not to go flying out with it even with Ghost holding it from his position too, but you were able to stop it just enough so that Ghost and Soap could climb in as they both took turns to hold the door alongside you.

Once they’d disappeared inside and snapped the door shut, you realised that there was a small fault in your plan when you were left gripping on for dear life. Not to mention how much colder it was on top with all the wind rushing past your face. Then there was also the bugs…

“Nice work, Sneak,” Ghost congratulated, voice coming in quiet over the line. “I’m gonna get soap to drill a hole in the ceiling. Have you got your knife with you?”

“Yeah, why?” you asked, frowning as you slowly worked out where he was going with this.

“That should give you something decent to hold onto.”

“Are you serious? Can’t you guys cut a hole in the ceiling for me?” you huffed.

“Who do you think I am, Qui-Gon fuckin’ Jinn?” Soap retorted, you could hear the drill going in the background. “Must’ve forgotten my lightsaber at home. Beyond blowing the thing off, how am I gonna cut a hole in the roof, sneak?”

“I’m not asking you to melt the whole roof off soap, you must be able to make a small hole with that drill, just make a few drill holes and weaken the metal!” you growled.

“Negative. We need you up there, Sergeant,” Ghost interrupted. “We need someone who can see ahead and tell us when the trucks are stopping or if we leave the forest. If they reach base or they leave us with no cover we need to get ready to jump off and hide.”

You sighed and watched as the drill bit poked its way out behind you, grating through the metal with a sound like grinding teeth. You would need to turn and slide forward a few inches to be able to reach it, but it looked like that was your best way to keep on top of the truck.

Without anymore stalling, you flipped around and watched as it disappeared and appeared a couple times more, forming a ragged little line. That would be enough for your knife to eat through.

You shakily reached behind you and to your knife holster, gripping the handle like a vice in your hands, whatever you did you couldn’t let it fly from your hold. With that in mind you quickly extended your arm and stabbed it through the hole, gritting your teeth as your hand slammed into the metal. That was surely going to bruise,

“Could’ve done with some warning, Sneak,” Soap huffed. “You almost took my finger off.”

“Poor baby, maybe you’d like to swap places,” you retorted. “See how you like holding onto the top of a truck with nothing but your hands.”

“Watch it, or I’ll send that knife flyin’ out,” he barked back.

“Shut up, Soap,” Ghost growled. “Keep the line clear. Sneak, let us know what you see, copy?”

“Copy that, Ghost.”

You hardened your gaze onto the horizon, watching as the trees came waving by and flew into your periphery, and adjusted your position. With both hands firmly wrapped around your knife, you were deadset on keeping your fingers wrapped around it with a snake like constriction. In that moment you were picturing it as Rousseau’s neck, already seeing red as you thought about Price and König and all the shit that you’d been through since chasing after the bastard.

You were going to get him. You were going to make him pay.

If König, Gaz and Horangi didn’t get back to you soon with good news, then you were fully prepared to unleash hell on him. It didn’t matter what Price was going to do when he found out about you and König, it didn’t matter about the rising blood and seething vitriol that would surely come with the revelation. Price was the one that helped shape you into the soldier you were, he was the one that had gotten you back alive from countless missions, he was your reason for marching on in some of your toughest fights. He cared about you and he believed in you - it was why he was so protective in the first place.

If Price was gone then it wouldn’t be long until the killer met the same fate…of course only after suffering for their actions in the meantime.

Next part here

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

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sunkissed-zegras · 22 days

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★ NSFW HEADCANONS ─── CC²²

❪ requested -> “Caitlin nsfw hcs I beg”❫

─ warnings | nsfw under the cut, read at your own discretion!!!!

⇨ missing out on updates? check out my wcbb masterlist!

cait is a top, i will not be taking any other suggestions sorry

jk but like... sometimes she'd be down if you took control but she def wants to hold the title of "top" LOL

strap game goes insane, it takes her a while but once she gets into it, she GETS INTO IT

yall have a collection atp, sometimes she'll just buy one cause the color is cute 😭😭😭

as soon as she gets used to the strap itself, whewwww ur gonna be gasping for air when she's done

also after she gets used to it, she def tries diff positions

but cait is a simple girly ─ missionary, cowgirl & backshots r where it's at

she's a backshot warrior, it gives her a power trip cause she lovesssss having her hand all up in your hair and like pulling you upward for a kiss for pushing you down in the pillow

it gets her goin for sure

she loves when you ride her strap, oh my godddddddddddddd it gets riles her up to no end

i feel like she only uses the strap if she wants to absolutely wreck you yk, she wants to see TEARS by the end of it

jk but yall know what i mean

if she wants to be more soft and personal, she'll use her fingers, mouth or she'll just straight up ride ur pussy

babes doesn't care like... she just wants to be close to you

she's definitely a yapper, she'll will either be really really soft or really really... degrading

it depends on what you like (cause her life mission is get you wet as fuck) and how she's feeling

sometimes she just wants to be quiet and really enjoy you, so again her being really vocal depends on how she's feeling

if she's on a game high, like she just won the game of her life, she's talking your ear off

however, if she just had a really tough game where she just feels crushed, she just wants to be as close to you as possible and she won't really be talking

if she just had a rough ass game, yea u won't be walking tmr morning just take the day off 💕🤗

either way ur getting the sex of your life sooooooo

oh and she's a fucking menace when it comes to oral, she DEVOURS YOUUUUUUU

like she'll eat u like it's her last meal ever and i truly mean it

oh she LOVESSSS edging to overstimulation, like she'll hold off your orgasm but then she'll overstim u til you're CRYING like...

then she's all like "thought u wanted to cum baby???"

she's just a menace

going back to the whole rough games, she also loves when you go down on her

except you're on ur knees and she has your hair in a nice ponytail (or just it holding your head) 😌😌

just the power she has over gets her wet as fuck and like...

after a rough ass game, she needs the ego boost trust me😭😭

i feel like she really likes receiving but she'll go down on you too of course, it doesn't matter

she's a receiver tho for sure, i feel like after she rearranges ur guts she just wants to get eaten out too 🤗

so she'll either sit on ur face or just have u in between ur legs and honestly U LOVE GIVING BACKKKKK LIKE 😫😫

her aftercare is top tier though, no matter what the circumstances are, ur getting water and cuddles after

cause at the end of the night she's just a baby who wants cuddles come on nowwwww

she's really serious in the moment but after she'll be giggling like "can't believe i called u a fucking slut, sorry bout that" 😭😭

she's so unserious

she won't fuck you anywhere unless its in private, the media already scrutinizes everything she does so her eating out her gf in a bathroom won't really help😭😭

also it just doesn't get her going, like she'll tease u and shit but she wants to take her time yk

she now has a chronic fear of getting caught cause kate walked in once

ya she still hears ab it to this day

"remember the time where y/n was-"

"shut UP"

yeah she locks the door now even when no one's home

↳ make sure to check out my navigation or masterlist if you enjoyed! any interaction is greatly appreciated !

↳ thank you for reading all the way through, as always ♡

#caitlin clark #caitlin clark x reader #caitlin clark imagine #caitlin clark smut #caitlin clark headcannons #iowa wbb #wnba draft #iowa hawkeyes #iowa women’s basketball #indiana fever #wnba basketball #wnba #wbb #wnba x reader #wbb smut #wbb x reader #wcbb x reader #ncaa wbb

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bellaxgiornata · 2 months

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do you have any head cannons for how Frank would take care of you on your period? i have endometriosis and my periods are really rough, i just started mine and couldn’t help but wonder how he would try to comfort you 🥹 congrats on your recent milestone!

Thank you!! And oh friend, that sounds rough and I hope you're doing well making it through yours this week! 💕 I definitely have some thoughts on how Frank would take care of his significant other when they are on their period--especially if it was a particularly rough one (or if they were always rough and painful). Frank is just a big softy under his hard exterior, and I feel like his caregiving side (that isn't seen often but definitely exists) would certainly come out seeing his partner struggling and in pain. He would make it his personal mission to make them as comfortable as he could. But I'll throw all my thoughts below the cut for this one!

Frank would know exactly when you were on your period just by looking at the pain etched across your face because of the cramps. You wouldn't even have to ask, he'd already be up grabbing you your preferred painkillers and bringing them straight to you without a word.

He'd get you a nice warm shower started first thing and demand you take it to help with the pain while he fixed you breakfast/coffee/tea. And he would absolutely refuse to hear you tell him not to worry about you. "That's what I do," he'd say. "I worry 'bout you 'cause I care. I'm always gonna worry 'bout you. Now don't argue with me and get in the shower."

On the worst days of your period he'd be telling you that you should be taking it easy for the day. And if you had to go into work? You can bet he'd be grumbling to himself about how "that’s a buncha bullshit" and you deserve a sick day because you're clearly not feeling alright.

At the beginning of your period, he'd make a special stop after work at the store to pick up all your favorite comfort snacks to help cheer you up for the week. Because he knows the smile he'd get from you when he walked through the door with your favorites in hand and he could never pass up an opportunity to see it. And if you were low on painkillers, pads, or tampons? You can bet he'd have no issue picking those up, too.

Before bed at night, he'd sit down with you on the couch and let you choose to watch whatever you wanted, even if it was some ridiculous romantic comedy you've seen a hundred times or a reality show he absolutely hated. Sure, you might get his occasional commentary on it ("Who honestly thought up the idea for this?" "That ain't how that works in real life"), but you wouldn't hear a single complaint to turn it off. Though he'd certainly give you a very specific look if you joked about telling your friends that he'd been watching it with you.

Frank would absolutely be cuddling you while you relaxed, too. Maybe your legs would be draped over his, or maybe you'd be laying atop him on the couch. However you felt most comfortable, he wouldn't complain. And you could always guarantee that his fingers would absently trace patterns over you as you lay there, offering comfort he wasn't even aware he was giving.

At some point while you both relaxed you'd hear him say, "C'mere, let me help, sweetheart." And you'd know you were about to get the most relaxing back massage that would just about put you to sleep from his large hands that somehow always knew the right level of pressure to use.

When it was time for bed, Frank wouldn't mind being your personal heating pad. You want to lay curled around him? Use him as the big spoon to your little spoon? He'd happily comply because he remembered how you'd once told him that his body heat helped to dull some of your cramps so you could fall asleep.

#bellas 2.5k follower celebration #frank castle headcanons #i think he'd be a big softy if you were on your period and really going through it #frank castle #frank castle x reader

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1d1195 · 4 months

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My Friend's Toyota I

🎶 here she is! Based on the song of the same name, by Asiris 💕 I wanted to write this before spring arrived. It's just a few parts (I'm thinking 4 right now) only because the first part got so long 🤭

~8k words

Warnings: college!Harry but otherwise none really. Just wanted to write a cute romantic story. Maybe the tiniest bit of angst (but maybe not in this part just yet). This part is a little ramble-y but I promise it'll come together quick.

But this... angel he had bumped into...

She was going to star in all his fantasies now.

Can’t believe September’s already over / Looked for stars and I found a supernova / praying to God that I can hold her close / ‘Cause I know she’s worried ‘bout the snow / She said “Darling, should I bring a coat?”

Harry thought he was more excited to go to university than anyone had ever been. “For drinking right?” his friends from school asked with a laugh. They chatted about it all the time during the summer before they all left their hometown in favor of the new chapter of their lives. Harry liked drinking, sure. It was fun but he enjoyed hanging out with his friends more. At least when they were in university they wouldn’t be drinking illegally anymore.

But Harry was a bit of a hopeless romantic.

He believed university was the surefire way to meet the love of his life. The person who would knock him off his feet, make his heart grow three sizes too big for his chest, and simply just... feel like he was right where he was supposed to be.

The first semester of university came and went.

Harry didn’t meet the love of his life.

He had Mitch. His roommate and one of his best friends from home. But Mitch was in love with their friend Sarah and unfortunately, he didn’t feel the same way about Mitch as Sarah felt about him. But that was okay. He still had lots of time to find the person that would make his stomach flutter.

But spring semester came and went too.

Harry tried to find her. He went on dates with several women he met in classes and at parties. He heard the whispers and rumors about him. It made him a little sad that some of the women he went out with never corrected the rumors. His longest relationships were no more than a month, but Harry couldn’t help it that he didn’t feel the spark he was looking for and ended things before they really got going.

It was supposed to be all-encompassing. Make him breathless. Knock him to his knees. Maybe he was being ridiculous. At the age of almost twenty he was being unrealistic to want something like that. He was young. There was plenty of time for love.

But was it so bad that he wanted it now?

His dorm room with Mitch was a suite and they each had their own rooms. They decorated the main room with the help of Sarah to make it homey (and also stopped them before they used empty vodka bottles as décor). Their dorm was one of the “party” dorms, but they rarely hosted. Harry and Mitch wanted their place to be a safe place. It rarely saw more than ten people—and that was only when he and Mitch were pre-gaming with other friends to go to a party off campus. Sometimes Harry brought his friends back if they had too much to drink. It made him feel better knowing they were in a safe place. Sarah even brought back a girl that was too drunk to make any good decisions of her own accord. Harry minded over her with worry because the poor thing was all but sobbing as she threw up most of the night and whined about how sad she was.

Harry actually dated her for about a month after—some kind of savior complex that he should have known doomed their relationship from the start.

So, he kept waiting to find the love of his life. But he couldn’t help but feel discouraged as he complained to his mum and Gemma over the summer that he didn’t find her that first year.

“Honey bunny, it’s too early to think like that,” Anne smirked. “You’re so young.”

He shrugged. “I guess. M’jus’... Mitch has Sarah,” he reminded them.

“I know, but...” Gemma smiled sadly at him. “You’re not Mitch. It’ll happen when it’s supposed to happen.”

Well Harry didn’t meet her the following year either. Twenty came and went. He continued hearing rumors about his body count. The only ones ready to defend him ever was Mitch and Sarah but he simply didn’t care. The girls he met at parties, bars, in class, they all continued to flirt with him and when Harry felt the hope of a spark, he chose to pursue it—not because of the rumors, not because he felt like he had to in order to find the love of his life, simply because he was young and enjoying his life.

But September of his third year.

Oh.

Harry was appalled that as a third-year student, any of his major professors deigned to have an eight-AM class. It felt like death as he walked with the throng of people headed to the correct buildings when the sun was barely high in the sky. His eyes felt droopy, and he was certain he yawned the entire walk from dorm room to classroom.

His backpack was slung over his shoulders. He shouldn’t have gone out last night. He wasn’t hungover, but he was just so tired. The chance of meeting the love of his life could have been at that party. That wasn’t an opportunity he was willing to miss.

“I told you,” Mitch muttered to him liking eight-AMs more than the average college student. Get it out of the way. He stuck his foot out causing Mitch to stumble a bit and he smirked with a low chuckle. “Idiot,” Mitch grumbled.

Harry didn’t know what he wanted to do with his degree yet. Another component of divine intervention he was hoping would appear in front of him. Love and career. He hoped the universe would help him figure both out sooner rather than later.

Mitch veered off to his own building and Harry counted down the minutes until he could trek back to his dorm room. Harry was yawning—again—and shook his head trying to perk himself up as he made it to the building where his classroom resided on his schedule.

Harry chose a seat in the back of the room. Put his head on the desk and tried not to think about how his bed might be his real soulmate.

Harry was much more awake now that his professor had re-sparked his interest in microeconomics. All his classes were econ-based this year and he was honestly super excited to look at different facets of his major and maybe that was divine intervention. He had four required economic electives: sports, law, history, and statistics. Additionally, he would be taking a math class that was a pre-requisite to the class he needed for next semester. He tried not to think about it too much.

With a pep in his step, he no longer felt like going back to his dorm and sleeping as he told Mitch he would be doing instead of joining him for breakfast. He wanted to go to his next class or the bookstore. He wanted to geek out over the intro lecture he just heard to someone that would care and wouldn’t brush off his nerdiness. What he really wanted was someone to kiss at the end of the day and tell him all about their classes and ask what he wanted to do for dinner—whether it was dining hall food or a date in town.

“Hi Harry,” someone called as he fantasized about his little dream life. He didn’t even see who it was, so he turned to catch a glimpse.

“Hi—” he started to call politely. If it was someone he knew, he didn’t want to be rude. As he turned, he must have shifted into the path of someone else’s walk to class. He bumped into someone with about half of his body. He knocked her phone out of her hand. Also made her stumble off the sidewalk a bit. “Oh, sorry, love,” he said bending for her phone before she could. The water bottle she had tucked in her bag also fell to the ground. “Are you alright?” He was hopeful he didn’t hurt her, but who knows, she could have tweaked her ankle on the edge of the walk and Harry would have felt horrendous for the whole rest of the day.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” her voice was a bit rushed. “I just transferred here this semester, and I’m all turned around and I’m going to be late—”

Harry glanced up at her having gathered her belongings from the dewy grass and finally caught her gaze. She stopped speaking when Harry looked at her. He swore his heart stopped. They were off the sidewalk, now. People were walking quickly to and from their classes. Harry could feel the gaze of people who knew him as he walked by. Trying to figure out who the girl was he was talking to.

Harry knew he hadn’t found the love of his life yet due to lack of connection. They liked Harry well enough, and he honestly was fortunate to have had a few girlfriends who were kind, intelligent, and pretty. Those he had dated the past two years simply didn’t scratch that itch for the fantasy he had: asking about his day, telling him about hers, and what did they want to do for dinner.

But this... angel he had bumped into...

She was going to star in all his fantasies now.

They hadn’t spoken in thirty seconds while Harry dreamed of happily ever after with her. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Where are y’headed?” He asked quietly.

She shook her head rapidly and pulled her phone from his hands. Harry tried to memorize everything about this moment. The concentrated expression on her face while she scanned her phone screen. “Umm... Livingston 210,” she sighed. “Am I going the complete wrong way?” She asked nervously. “God this is so embarrassing. I spent all day yesterday walking around trying to map out my paths and I had to park in a different lot, and I am the worst with maps and directions,” she rambled.

“No, no,” Harry shook his head. “S’this way. Let me walk you,” he offered. “You’re fine,” he promised glancing at his own watch. “You’ll... you’ll be early,” he reassured her.

She blew out a relieved breath. “Really? Don’t you have a class to get to?” She asked. “I don’t want to put you out—”

He shook his head quickly. “No, not... not at all, love,” he murmured. “M’happy t’do it. Got a break before m’next class.”

Her face took on this gorgeous smile that Harry wasn’t sure he would ever be able to forget. The relief was palpable. It seemed almost excessive, like he was a doctor and told her that she wasn’t ill and not that her class was only about a three-minute walk. But Harry adored that smile. The way her eyes lit up along with the curve of her lips. “Thank you, so so much. I’m so nervous and know absolutely no one—except my roommate. But she doesn’t have class until noon. Plus, my transfer credits went in late last week so the schedule I had planned is all different than the one I made in June. I really almost considered just leaving and transferring back—”

He chuckled at her little ramble. He liked it a lot. Way more than he probably should have for having met her only ninety seconds prior. He wondered if she always did that. The need to find out was nearly unbearable. How could he prolong the conversation? How could he get her number in the next two minutes it took her to walk to her class? “C’mon,” he tilted his head toward the direction he had come from.

Was he being ridiculous? Maybe.

But this was what he wanted. The way his heart stopped. He couldn’t ignore that. Was he holding his breath? Was she feeling the same warm tension that was covering his entire body with the need to look at her? This was it. She hadto be it. The love of his life. The first day of third year. His heart felt... whole.

“Oh good, this is familiar,” she sighed with relief. Chuckling, Harry held the building door open for her to pass through. “Do you like candy?” She asked as she entered.

Blinking curiously, Harry wondered if she had some conversation in her head that he wasn’t privy to that resulted in such a question. “M’sorry?”

“Candy?”

“Uh, yeah. Of course,” he smiled at her curiously.

“Okay, I’ll get you candy as a thank you for walking me, then,” she promised with an assured nod of her head.

Harry was floored by her kindness to a stranger. It made him feel so overwhelmed that he ignored how ridiculous it all seemed for him to act like this. So that meant she wanted to see him again. He chuckled. “Y’don’t have t’do that, love. S’not out of m’way,” he reminded her.

“I know... but you don’t know me, and you look important.”

“Look important?” He repeated dumbly and gestured to the stairwell for her to ascend. He followed beside her hoping he didn’t look as creepy as he felt feeling so overwhelmed with how he already felt about her.

“I don’t know, everyone was staring at you while we walked over,” she shrugged.

He smirked. But he was surprised he missed that. Usually, he noticed when people called out to him. “Everyone?”

She nodded. “I think a few people even did a double take,” she explained. “So, you must be important.”

He rolled his eyes with another little laugh from his lips. “Uh...I don’t think m’important,” he admitted. They stood a few feet away from the door labeled 210. “S’really no trouble. I jus’ left m’eight AM from here,” he promised. “Was jus’ going t’get breakfast. M’happy t’help.”

“Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. I promise I’ll get you candy,” she said glancing at her watch and then the classroom door. “I like to get a good seat for the lecture. I’ll... see you around...?” She waited for him to fill in the missing information.

“Harry,” he said wiping his hand on his leg before holding it out for her to take. The first time he would touch who he was certain was the love of his life.

“Harry,” she repeated, placing her hand in his while introducing herself as well. “I’ll see you around.”

His heart was aching with something that had to be a cross between infatuation and undeniable love. Her hand felt so nice in his and it was just a handshake. Imagining their fingers twined together made him ache with want. “Wait,” he said right as her hand touched the doorknob. “Where’s y’next class?” He asked. She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened her schedule. “Uh... Sawyer,” she said reading off her phone. Harry’s heart leapt. “312.”

He felt tingles all through his body. From fingertip to his stomach, to the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. “Yeah?” He asked rhetorically. The question was more for the universe; it’s way of telling Harry she was here. “I’ll walk you,” he promised. “We’re in the same class.”

She turned her face briefly from him—maybe an effort to hide the blush that was covering her cheeks and making Harry fall even harder for her. “Yeah?” She wondered.

He nodded. “I’ll meet y’at the front of the building when class gets out, yeah?”

She smiled. “Okay, thanks, Harry,” she sighed with relief heading through the doorway. “Enjoy your break,” she called over her shoulder.

Harry floated back down the steps. Honestly, he wanted to wait outside her classroom, but he just met her, and he wanted—no needed—this to work. Wanted it to work more than anything. The smile plastered on his face had his cheeks hurting but he couldn’t stop. He nearly sprinted to the closest dining hall where he told Mitch he would meet him for breakfast.

“Sorry, m’late. I jus’ met the woman m’going t’marry,” his voice was all airy, falling into a seat beside Mitch with a dreamy look on his face.

“Whoa,” Mitch chuckled. “You look sick.”

“I feel sick,” he laid down onto a second chair. Backpack still on. He looked like an idiot, but he couldn’t help it. He was in love.

“Glad you met her, Harry. Finally, right? Can you act like an adult?” Mitch muttered cutting up the waffle he had on his plate. Sitting up he smiled at his friend.

“We have class together next.”

“Isn’t that your math class?” He wondered. He thought about the schedule Harry was insistent about putting on the fridge so they could find each other if needed while at home. For emergencies. But Mitch didn’t understand why the schedule needed to be on the fridge if Harry made him commit it to memory anyway.

“Yeah, so?”

“You hate math.”

“No one likes math,” he grumbled.

“Maybe she does. Maybe she’s not your soulmate.”

“Shut up,” he dropped his bag in his seat and headed to get food. Upon returning with his tray, about three other people said hello to him. One girl stopped him asking if he was coming to her party this weekend and one of the guys that he knew from his pickup soccer games asked if he was available tomorrow night for a game at the rec field. “If she likes math then... jus’ mean she completes me. Still m’soulmate,” he shrugged.

“You got an answer for everything,” Mitch laughed.

Harry found her sitting on the barrier wall to the mini garden outside the building. One of her legs stretched along the length of the cement ledge and the other dangled off the side. With the need to get her to class on time, Harry didn’t have time to ogle her at all. But now, as he approached her, he noted she was wearing a pair of jeans and a pair of trainers. Obviously, her worry about being late to class must have meant she considered sprinting if it got late enough. Her T-shirt was this light orange-pink color. Like she was modeling a sunset. She had a book propped on her thigh and she leaned over reading, like she was simultaneously doing yoga while reading.

“Hey,” he called. Her head perked up and she smiled, putting a bookmark in between the pages and swinging her leg over to say hi.

“Hi!” She chirped excitedly. “I was afraid I missed you when I ran back inside.”

Back inside? He frowned. “Did y’class end early?”

“Yeah... almost a half hour ago,” she shrugged hopping off the ledge. “Syllabus and all. Doesn’t happen that often to me—I’m majoring in accounting and finance, so all my classes just jump right into the lectures and lessons. But this is a sociology class that my other school didn’t offer but I have to take here to graduate,” she explained with an eyeroll. “They were insistent.”

“M’sorry y’had to wait,” he frowned.

“Don’t be sorry,” she smiled. “I got to read a bit and—oh!” She twisted her backpack around her body and into the zip pocket. She retrieved whatever item she was looking for and held it out for him to take. “For walking me,” her voice was so sweet.

Harry felt his jaw fall open just a bit as she placed the Twix bar in his hand. “Twix is my favorite, but I got Starbursts too if that’s more your vibe. Reese’s if you like peanut butter. I wanted a variety just in case and it won’t go to waste regardless—”

“Twix is m’favorite, too,” he said turning the bar over in his hands. He looked up at her as if she really was placed right in his path. Fate. Out of nowhere. Like a star exploding out in the universe and dropping this angel in its spot.

She smiled. “Excellent,” she said. “Where’s Sawyer, then?” She asked while zipping her bag again and heading toward the walkway when he walked her to the building earlier. “I want a good seat,” she reminded him. Since she got him his favorite candy bar—and simply because she existed and was without a doubt going to be his favorite, period—he wanted to make sure she got the seat she wanted.

He wanted to make sure she got whatever she wanted.

Was it normal to want to hold someone’s hand like this? Harry’s immediate thought was no. It wasn’t normal. Wanting to hold hands with someone the way he was craving to hold her hand had to be the most abnormal thing in existence. Every Tuesday and Thursday for the next three weeks, he waited outside Livingston, watching her descend the front staircase to the main floor. They chatted the entire ten-minute walk to Sawyer where they shared a math class. She insisted on sitting closer to the front than Harry would ever consider but he was immediately enamored with how sweet she was and there was no way he could let someone else sit beside her.

Tuesdays and Thursdays were slowly becoming his favorite days of the week. They were his weekend even with a packed schedule on the two days. Talking to her was everything he had been longing for the last two years of school.

On Sunday, he slept until almost ten-thirty. He was lying in bed while scrolling through his array of social media and other correspondences. He heard the shower running, so either Sarah or Mitch must have been well after a night of drinking.

Three weeks. After three weeks of pining and walking her to and from class, he got an email on a Sunday.

The subject line read: Be-Twix you and me I’m glad we’re friends. He threw himself out of his bed and paced the main room trying to figure out if it was Mitch or Sarah in the shower. He knocked. “Sarah!”

“Sorry, Harry. She’s sleeping,” Mitch called.

He opened the door anyway. “She emailed me.”

“How 2002 of her,” he snorted.

“You’re useless,” Harry grumbled closing the door shut. He truly considered barging into Mitch’s room and waking Sarah for a girl’s opinion but after doing the very same and seeing way more than he was supposed to of his two friends, he opted for figuring it out himself. He vaguely wondered if there was a way to open an email faster. He must have read it a thousand times and it was only four sentences long.

Hi Harry!

I was wondering if you would want to study for our exam together? I like having someone to study with, but if that’s not your vibe I understand :) Let me know either way! This is my number if you would prefer texting.

Harry thought there were no prettier ten numbers than the ones that formed her phone number. He was immediately ready to text her but luckily had the wherewithal of checking the time stamp of the email to see if he was looking desperate but struggling to care. Fortunately, the email was from a little after seven-thirty.

He could have chatted with her for three hours longer if he hadn’t slept so late.

Hi, it’s Harry 😊

Hi! Glad my email didn’t scare you off. My roommate said that my Twix pun was horrendous.

It’s adorable. Thank you for emailing. I’d love to study. I work until five... I can meet you somewhere?

Do you like coffee?

I love coffee 😊

Do you think it will be cold around five? I’m still getting used to the weather around here. I want to bring a coat.

Harry made a mental note to pack an extra sweatshirt in case she got too cold. Can’t hurt to bring one. You never know what the weather will do around here.

Forty minutes a week.

Forty blissful, perfect minutes in the month of September had been spent chatting with the stranger that bumped into her on the first day of the fall semester. The sun was warm despite the breeze chilling her skin. It wasn’t nearly enough time but she somehow managed to fall incredibly hard for him anyway.

It was a bit ridiculous.

Her roommate—and only friend—was also a transfer student. However, Allie was much more outgoing than she was. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have fun; it was just different than how Allie enjoyed herself. Allie made friends everywhere she went. Their off-campus but university-owned apartment was always in flux of visitors from her classes, her club tennis team, or just someone she met while eating lunch in the dining hall between classes.

Allie was a good judge of character though, so she never worried about someone of bad rapport traipsing through their place. Also, Allie was always sure to keep everyone away from her room, of course.

But Allie had no problem flopping on her bed around ten in the morning and nosily glancing over her shoulder. She had left her email open anxiously waiting for a reply from the most handsome guy she had ever had the pleasure of meeting. “Be-Twix?! Sweetie, that’s atrocious,” she rolled her eyes. She groaned in response.

“I... I don’t know,” her face felt hot with shame. She really liked Harry. “It seemed like a good idea at the time... maybe that’s why he’s not answering me,” she frowned.

“Maybe he just sleeps like a normal college student and doesn’t wake up at the ass-crack of dawn,” she said knowingly patting her knee reassuringly.

“Have you seen the leaves?” She whispered almost in awe. “I went for a walk to get a bagel and—”

“I’ve seen them,” Allie smiled with a shake of her head at her silly friend. The adoration she had for little things was admirable, sweet, and just... if Harry Styles broke her heart, she would break his face. “I lived here my whole life, remember?”

But she didn’t live here her whole life. So, she was in awe—her first true fall since she was a toddler that she didn’t even remember. There were pictures of her jumping into a pile of leaves with her mom that her dad had just painstakingly raked. The south didn’t have pretty leaves like this in the fall. Palm leaves didn’t change color other than wilting brown when it was too hot. She intended to spend every minute looking at the beautiful hues of orange, red, and yellow so as not to miss the pretty season she hadn’t gotten to enjoy for most of her life.

After another agonizing thirty minutes of waiting for him to respond (and breathing with sweet relief that he did want to see her later) she told Harry that she was worried about it being cold later in the evening. She had grown up closer to the Tropic of Cancer which was now roughly 15 degrees south of her current latitude. She hated the heat; it made her skin feel dirty and oily with sweat all summer long. Her hair was too thick, her skin naturally too warm. Just thinking about her thighs sticking to her leather car seat in July was horrific.

But her parents had grown up and met here on this pretty autumn-picturesque campus. Somewhere not quite freezing (at least not yet, so she had been told) but not quite suffocating with heat like home. They left here when she was two to situate themselves in Hell’s sauna room. After taking the general requirement classes at a state school, she wanted to transfer up north to the university where her parents fell in love. Call her a hopeless romantic, but if she hadn’t found the love of her life amongst the bathing suit, half-clad guys on the beach during the last two spring breaks, then he probably wasn’t in the south. Instead, she hoped she might find him around the ski slopes.

She hadn’t anticipated finding Harry before her first class started.

Forty minutes.

That was how much time Harry generously gave her outside their shared class combined on Tuesday and Thursday each week.

She wanted more. Greedy with want and didn’t know how to do it without tying it to school. Part of her worried because what if he just pitied her and now didn’t know how to get away from her? They had class together; he couldn’t be rude. Even if he didn’t like her the way she was already falling for him, it was very obvious that Harry was a good person.

“Just be careful,” Allie warned lightly. “Harry has a bit of a reputation I hear.”

She frowned and shrugged. She knew what Allie meant. People around her weren’t exactly subtle and while she listened to music in the dining hall while she ate, or studied in the library, or even just read her book. Those around her whispered. They had seen the pair of them walking to class. Apparently, Harry never looked like that before. The whispers included Harry having plenty of girlfriends. Sometimes two or even three at a time. That just seemed ridiculous, and she felt so sad others talked about him behind his back. There were even quiet bets about how long she would last in the list of Styles’ conquests.

So, she understood that Allie was just trying to look out for her. “Well... I like him. He doesn’t have a reputation around me,” she shrugged. Allie frowned for a moment. She was so sweet.

“Just be careful with your heart,” Allie looked at her with a bit of worry in her eye. But her smile was encouraging. “It’s too good for university guys.”

She had only known Allie about three months longer than she had known Harry. They both moved in at the start of the summer, working off campus and getting to know one another as well as the area (not that it helped her directionally illiterate mind). Allie was lovely and all the things she wanted in a college-best-friend that she never really got from commuting to the local college when she lived down south. “I think you would like him.”

“I can like him and still want someone better for you,” she shrugged leaning in the doorway. She didn’t want to taint the image of perfect Harry. But the stories she heard weren’t easy to ignore. She had seen him at parties since her best friend met him on her way to her sociology class. It was hard to miss him. It was like he was the star of every party.

He drank with his friends and girls obsessed over him. To her friend’s nearly naïve point of view, however, Allie hadn’t seen Harry flirt back. He was helpful and kind to those that drank too much; guiding them outside and gently pulling a girl’s hair back for when she threw up in the shrubs. It was endearing in a lot of ways. But she would still kill him if the rumors of a string of girls was true. If her new best friend was just another notch in his belt, Harry was dead. “You are so sweet to believe in the good in everyone. I just don’t want you to be heartbroken if he isn’t as lovely as you think.”

She smirked looking at the emojis and rapid influx of messages Harry was sending her trying to coordinate timing and picking her up, so she didn’t have to walk. “I won’t,” she promised. But she didn’t say that she thought he was better.

Harry was fifteen minutes late. He blamed the table he was waiting on before he left. They were overbearing and wanted their meal comped—that much was obvious. Looking for the smallest hiccups to rebuke him. Harry begged his manager to seat them in another section. Having waited on them before, but no dice. His heart was in his throat wishing he had time to go home and change but he couldn’t. If he was a moment later, he was sure he was ruining everything.

Unaware of Harry’s worry, she waited patiently on the bench outside the apartment building the university had taken as more dorm suites. She continued reading her book trying not to think about how maybe Harry had better things to do than study for a math class on a Sunday. Especially after work. But he had texted her he was running late, and he was on his way.

She was glad she decided on a coat, it wasn’t freezing, but her thick skin ill-suited for hot weather was already thawing and feeling the chill of the early October weather. She spent an embarrassingly long time sorting through her athleisure wear trying to decide. Something suitable for studying at a coffee shop that wasn’t overstated but not quite sweatpants.

Right when she thought about calling Harry, he appeared in front of the bench. Parking and getting out of his car quickly and hurrying to the passenger side. “I am so sorry,” he said hurriedly dragging a hand through his curls. She admired the motion; enjoying how mussing them didn’t matter much and they fell right back into place. She cleared her throat and shook herself out of her own staring at him.

“For what?”

“M’so late, love. S’rude. M’sorry,” he repeated.

“Oh...it’s...it’s really okay. I was already out here—”

“S’cold,” he frowned eyeing her sweatshirt and the coat at her side.

“I’m okay!” She promised. “Is everything alright?” She asked and stepped toward him putting her hand on his forearm. He thought he might explode at the feeling of her skin on his. It was more intimate than their handshake, and she got the feeling she wanted to twine their fingers together again.

Harry seemed to breathe with a sigh of relief, and he looked at her with this stunned expression. She couldn’t figure out why. “Yeah,” he nodded. “Jus’ felt bad being late.”

“Oh,” she blinked. “That’s okay. I wasn’t in a rush or anything—”

“No, love,” he shook his head. “M’sorry because I wanted t’see you so bad,” he sighed. He ran his hand through his hair again making her heart take off at a speed that had to be unsafe for her health. Almost immediately she felt light-headed. He wanted to see her. He just told her that. There was no hiding it. She could feel that emotion thick in his voice.

“Oh,” she repeated, completely stunned and confused. “Really?” She asked in complete shock.

“Yes, very, very much,” he sighed dreamily.

Her cheeks warmed hotly under his gaze. The pair of them stood there. Staring at one another as if they were statues destined to look at one another for all eternity, frozen in time to capture a moment like theirs. The October air was rapidly cooling, but she couldn’t feel anything but heat. Like she had stepped out of the airport terminal back in the south except this heat was not suffocating. It was so welcoming.

For a few moments they just stood there, her hand touching his forearm, gazing at one another. Part of her thought it would be nice to be a statue on the street. At least if Harry was beside her. Eventually, he shook his head ever so slightly and smirked. “So...coffee?”

She cleared her throat, smiling brightly. “Please.”

Just one week later, she was chatting with a friend from her sociology class. The moment he saw Harry, he knew Harry was there waiting for her, just as he had been since they met a month earlier. Harry recognized him from attending many parties that his frat hosted at one of the houses someone had off campus. His eyes seemed a bit surprised to see Harry waiting at the bottom of the steps, doing a double take at him waiting for the girl he was walking with down the steps.

“Hey Harry,” the guy said quietly.

“Hi!” She chirped gleefully. Her excited smile felt like too much on her face, but she had no way of knowing. She also didn’t notice the turmoil the guy felt seeing the competition between himself and Harry. (If she did know, she would flat out tell him there was no competition—other than school, Allie, and work, her mind was all about Harry.)

“Hi,” he said politely with a smile and turned toward the person he actually cared about talking to. “Y’ready for math, love?” He asked gently.

“Always,” she started for the main door. “See you around!” she called sweetly over her shoulder.

On Saturday, Allie asked if she wanted to go to a party with her. She was more than happy to stay in and read her book. But she teased her. “Harry might be there,” she winked knowingly.

As much as she didn’t pay any attention to the rumors about Harry, it was hard to fully ignore them the way she wanted to. It wasn’t that she distrusted Harry. No, if anything, she believed in him more than anyone else. But it did sound like Harry had a different party persona. She was not a party person. Honestly, she wanted him to have fun they way he wanted to. Going to a party just because he was there...

“That’s alright, I think—”

“Oh, come on!” She smiled sweetly. “I’ll help you get all dolled up and we’ll just have a couple drinks, and we can leave if you hate it. But if Harry is as smitten as you say he is, I bet he won’t let you leave,” she giggled.

Her face warmed at her friend’s assumption and she tried to picture a scenario in which someone as attractive as Harry would worry about little ole her like that. “Isn’t it cold out?”

“So wear another sweater!” Allie rolled her eyes.

“That’s not very college party of me.”

“Well, I would suggest an alcohol blanket, but I feel like getting you drunk before you even see Harry would be bad.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ll make me look pretty?” She asked quietly at her friend in the doorway.

“Prettier,” Allie nodded assuredly.

“Alright,” she sighed. “Let’s go to a party.”

Allie’s arm was looped through hers. It was freezing out. But honestly it felt nice. She was just a bit shivery. “I thought you said I could wear another sweater.”

“Sweetie, hiding your assets at a party would be criminal.”

She rolled her eyes with a smirk. They entered the door, dodging the guy standing at the door to keep people in and out very quickly. “Hey Allie,” he said.

She waved in response and headed right inside. She thought maybe it was a good thing Allie told her to skip the sweater. The heat inside the house was nearly as warm and humid as the airport terminal. The air was thick with the sour smell of alcohol, weed, and sweat. “I don’t know how people want to hook up with anybody around here. I can’t think of very many places that are less of an aphrodisiac.”

Allie smirked and pushed the pair of them through a throng of bodies toward the kitchen. She grabbed two red cups from the sleeve of them off the counter and asked the makeshift bartender—surely some poor freshmen pledge—to pour them drinks. Her gut felt a little off about the gesture. “I don’t know, Al,” she whispered softly.

“I’ve had them here before,” Allie promised reassuringly. She still wasn’t thrilled with the idea as she took the cup from her friend.

“Hey Allie!” Someone called. Allie turned, looking over her shoulder as she called back over the pounding music. Meanwhile she looked at the liquid sloshing along with the ice. She thought maybe she should have taken her chances with the jungle juice—no one would be stupid enough to touch that, even if it would end with her throwing it all back up at the end of the night.

The pair of them circled around the house, briefly stopping to watch the end of a rousing game of beer pong. The winning person slammed his beer back, dripping along the sides of his mouth triumphantly which made her smile. Allie rolled her eyes and tugged her out back. A bon fire was in the middle of the yard. Another sober freshman pledge, undoubtedly in charge of standing guard. The music was still loud but way less aggressive outside. There were other large groups of people outside as well chattering and drinking away. Allie worked quick; left her alone by the fire—which she was grateful for since it was warm. When Allie returned, she was already sipping her second drink, holding a third, and dropping her empty cup in the trash bin right near the house. Oof, her head was going to kill tomorrow.

“Harry’s here,” Allie whispered to her as she got close to her again. There was a twinge in her knees, like she might fall at the mere thought of him. It took all her self-restraint to not whip around to catch a glimpse of him. She wasn’t playing hard to get, but this was very much not her scene. She didn’t want to intrude on whatever fun he was having. “You should go say hi,” Allie nudged her.

She smirked, wanting to take a sip of her drink but still feeling hesitant so she just put the cup to her lips, like she was pretending to sip it. “Uh...maybe later. I don’t want to interrupt,” she responded directly in Allie’s ear. The good news was she managed to peek over her shoulder to see him standing a little ways away from the fire. It was too dark to make out any specific features or defining muscles but just the way he stood was hot. She felt insane for thinking such a thing, but it was impossible not to. He was so cute. He had one hand in his front pocket, a drink in the other hand, and just a plaid flannel layered over another plaid flannel. His eyes and smile were lost in the dark, but she could picture it. The light evergreen color that was simply her new favorite color along with the pinkest most adorable lips curling across his face and making dimples in his cheeks that would make the Grand Canyon jealous of their depth.

“I think he would probably die if you interrupted,” she snickered.

Briefly, she entertained the idea. She could ask how Harry was doing on his homework, but that wasn’t the best party talk in the world (even if she did want to know). But she was still a little nervous, especially outside class, their walk, and even their study not-quite date to chat with him about anything. A party was more than likely his element. She could see why. Girls were surrounding him ogling very much the same things that she probably ogled on her way to math class. He was easy to talk to, sweet, and of course very handsome.

She shook her head. “Do they have s’mores?” She asked suddenly.

Allie spit her drink back into her cup and laughed. “Jesus Christ,” Allie rolled her eyes. “No; college-students don’t have s’mores at a party.”

She frowned. “I feel like this party would be a lot better if it did,” she grumbled.

Allie wrapped her arm over her shoulder. “Don’t ever change, please,” she kissed her cheek. She laughed lightly.

“If we had a party with a fire, I promise there would be s’mores,” she was very decisive. “It seems sinful to not have them.”

“Hey, love.”

She felt her whole body stiffen and somehow soften at the same time. They both turned to his voice and now she could see in the firelight, that the red colors of his flannel contrasted so sharply with his eyes. The green seemed to amplify—even in the dark. “Hi, Harry,” she smiled sweetly.

“Didn’t know y’would be here.”

“Yeah...uh... this is my best friend and roommate Allie,” she gestured to the girl beside her. “She invited me,” she explained.

“Hi, Harry,” Allie held her hand out. “Heard lots about you. And seen you around a lot,” she said knowingly.

“Hi, Allie,” he said sweetly shaking her hand politely. “Thanks for bringing her,” he grinned winking at her flirtatiously. “Can I steal her from you?” he asked. “If s’alright with you,” he turned back to her, looking into her eyes so deeply she swore he was reading her mind. Not that there were any other thoughts than Harry, Harry, Harry.

“Listen Harry,” Allie said squaring her shoulders.

“Oh my God, Al,” she shoved her back a bit. “Don’t.”

Harry took a step away and looked back at Allie nervously. “This is my best friend,” Allie said with the third drink doing most of the talking.

“Allie!” She hissed.

“I love her so much,” tipsy-Allie was very loving and adoring. A bit flighty too. If she didn’t have a rush of alcohol spinning her blood quickly through her, she might have been a little less aggressive.

“I see,” Harry smiled. “I will take really good care of her Allie. I promise. Y’have nothing t’worry ‘bout,” he shoved a hand back in his pocket. He looked at her shyly, knowing that Harry was also talking directly to her and not just her tipsy best friend. “I should have asked though,” he said with a smile. “D’you...want t’hang out a bit?” He asked.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes, please.”

“How polite,” Allie snickered. Her smile faded rapidly as she glared back at Harry. If she wasn’t so focused on him, she might have missed the way he gulped nervously. “Don’t break her heart, Harry,” she pointed accusingly at him.

“Allie, enough!” She pressed a hand over her face.

“Don’t leave without me, either. I’ll be with my friends,” she said and flitted away as if there was nothing abnormal about her behavior.

“I’m so sorry about her,” she whispered still with a hand over her face. Harry chuckled and shook his head.

“No, s’okay. S’good she cares ‘bout you so much,” he nodded. “I agree completely,” he assured her. “M’really glad t’see you. I was so surprised and distracted...I wasn’t thinking clearly. I should have asked first t’steal y’away...” he glanced at her full cup. “Don’t like your drink?” He asked.

“Um...no, well. Kind of. I’m a little wary of accepting it from someone I don’t know.”

Harry didn’t try to talk her out of how she felt which made her heart flutter more. “S’a good point...d’you want t’walk to the bar down the road?” He asked.

“I’d have to leave Allie,” she smirked. “Not sure I want to put that on someone else.”

“Hold on,” he said and rushed off to the house. It was only a couple minutes, if that. But he reappeared with a can in his hand. “I pulled it out of the fridge when the kid was turned,” he smirked.

She giggled. “My hero,” she laughed and sipped it without fear.

“So... d’you want t’go...find some place quieter t’talk?”

She glanced at the house. “Is there somewhere to talk?” She asked.

“Yeah... m’friend Niall and his friends are hosting. He’s got a keypad lock on his door, and I know the code t’his bedroom.”

“You always try to get girls into your friend’s room?” She asked quirking an eyebrow at him while sipping her drink. He chuckled and shook his head.

“No, s’nothing like that, love. Jus’ want some privacy.”

“Well, that’s fine by me, even by the fire, it’s chilly out here.”

“You’re cold? Here,” he pulled off the top flannel and draped it on her shoulders then put a hand on her lower back to guide her back toward the house. She could feel the stares of others on them as they meandered back. “S’not even winter yet. S’gonna be tough on your southern blood,” he smiled.

She smiled. “My parents are from here. I think there’s some northerner in me yet. Just got to get it out of hibernation.”

Harry chuckled. “You’ll still need a coat, love,” he promised.

If Harry was going to offer his own clothing to her, she wasn’t sure she’d want to bring her own coat at all.

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#harry #harry styles writing #harry styles fluff #harry styles blurb #harry styles blurbs #harry styles smut #harry styles angst #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x reader #one direction #one direction writing #my friend's toyota

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andy-clutterbuck · 2 years

Photo

5x02 | Strangers

#Papa Bear 🐻💕#Rick Grimes #Judith Grimes #*#rg #S5 #hello welcome to the tour #on your left you will see A MAN™#judy feeding her daddy 😭😭😭😍😍#bout to make like that time i played Life and had so many kids i had to get an extra car #babies are not even my thing but he holds one and i'm 6 months pregnant asking where we should put the crib #that baby knew she was in good hands #(◡‿◡✿) all the kisses #put all the babies in those big ol hands #excuse me but The Nose™

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chrissturniolosbitch · 2 months

Text

NEEDY

a/n- this is very bad, and random (i also made this at 12am on a school night!)

warnings- oral, creampie, use of y/n, caught, and language

summary- y/n gets caught staring at matts hands, so he does something about it.

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

"bro y/n are you listening?"

chris says suddenly snapping me out of my trance, i was to busy studying matts hand to be listening, "um yea." i lied. Ive been looking at matts hands for the past 35 minutes

wondering what great things they would do to me.

"then re say one fucking word i said!" chris snapped at me leaving me speechless, "thats what i thought" chris said in a know it all way leaning back onto the couch getting comfortable.

ding

i got a snapchat notification from, 'matt?' i thought to myself.

i opened my phone looking up at matt not understanding why he couldnt just tell me whatever he was snapping me about.

'oh shit its a photo' i thought to myself furrowing my eyebrows almost automatically clicking the image

'holy shit' i was not expecting to see a picture of his dick.

"wdf is this matthew?"

"you think i dont see you staring at me? not just me but my hands?"

"idek what youre talking about matt."

"go to my room. naked. now."

read 1:43 am

as soon as i read the last sentence he sent me i got up and started walking to his room, "where are you going y/n?" matt asked knowing exactly where the fuck i was headed.

"um." i cleared my throat, "im h-headed to your room. I dont feel to good." I already could feel my cunt dripping in arousle, "im gonna head to bed too then" matt said standing up smirking at me, "oh okay." i said turning back around practically sprinting to his room, him following behind me.

as soon as we entered his room he grabbed me by the waist, "fuck matt" i said pulling my shirt off.

"damn ma you roaming free 'round here?" he said hooking his mouth to my left boob, since i didnt have a bra on.

matt moved us over from his door frame to his bed, throwing me down moving his mouth from my left boob to my right.

"shit baby, can i taste you." he said this statement more as a demand rather than a question, "anything you want matt" i said tugging at his waistband. All he did was nod, and with a tic of approval i pulled his pants and boxers down in one swift motion

his rock hard dick slapping his stomach, that shit was bout 8-9 inches.

"fuck matt." i said as he pulled down my shorts and laced panties down painfully slow, "i want you to taste me already" i said removing my legs from the last peice of clothing covering me

"say no more" he said giggling, going down on me im one swift motion.

as soon as his tongue hit my clit, immediate pleasure spred throughout my body. Waves of enjoyment sprung through my body

"shit im already so close matt please" i said gripping his hair bucking my hips into his mouth, "cum in my mouth baby" as soon as those 5 words left his mouth the knot in my stomach became undone

slowly matt stopped and kissed me, "isnt it your turn matt?" i said cupping the side of his face staring into his peircing blue eyes, "shit. If im being honest... i came already. twice."

"matt what the fu-" i was about to finish my sentence before i heard a ding from my phone

it was chris

"you both are nasty as fuck." chris stated arguably correct.

i rolled my eyes, and showed matt. We both looked at each other and started bursting out laughing

"i know!" is all i replied with before shutting my phone off and kissing matt

"thank you matt." i said looking at him, "any time." he said kissing me one last time.

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i hate this. I HATE THIS. i hate my life 💕

#chris sturniolo #matt sturniolo #nick sturniolo #sturniolo #christopher sturniolo #nicolas sturniolo #sturniolo edit #sturniolo fanfic #sturniolo smut #sturniolo x reader

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circe69 · 1 year

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heyyy! i love ur writingg sm I recently discovered ur blog - (I also love ur biooooo!), I had this idea and I thought I would share it w you!

imagine reader is simon’s wife/fiancé and a medic, and like an old married couple, reader tells Simon off in front of the rest of the 141 and he’s like lost for words 😭😭 that’s all, I just wanna hear your thoughts hahah! much love 💕

aww thanks so much anon! you're very sweet :3 hopefully this was what you wanted! sometimes i get requests and just run with it...lol enjoy!

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"You seriously should not have done that, Ghost. What were you thinking out there?" You shouted as you walked into the shared kitchenette. You were following Ghost and trying to keep up with his large strides, but you were not even close to catching up.

"I was being careful, Y/N, but even if I wasn't, that's what I signed up for when I took this job." He slammed his handgun on the table and started ripping off his vest and gear in an inpatient manner. You were too distracted to notice that the rest of the troop was also in the kitchen, eating quietly as you entertained them with your bickering.

"Look, I'm just trying to make sure you know you don't have to-" You paused, "risk your life all the time." You were making a cup of coffee as Ghost caged you in from behind, pressing his chest against your back and kissed the side of you neck carefully, slowly. All you heard was the clearing of throats, most likely coming from Soap, and the heartbeat steadily thumping from Ghost's chest.

"Don't worry about me so much, Miss Medic." He started walking away as you slammed your mug down on the counter, "Well, you can't just tell me to not worry about you! For goodness' sake, I would've killed myself if you'd died." Tears were starting to brim at your waterline, and they would've poured if Captain Price hadn't abruptly stood up, "Simon, a word?"

Ghost rolled his eyes, reluctantly following Price like a little kid getting in trouble. All you saw was the two of them walk into Price's office and the door shutting behind them.

You turned back around to mix sugar into your now-cold coffee. "Don't worry about it too much, miss." Soap said as you sniffled, "As brilliant as the man is, he doesn't think he's worthy of being looked after."

Soap got up from his seat, folding the newspaper he was reading, and walked over to you. Putting his hand on your shoulder, " 'Ts not his fault though." He patted a few times before sliding the newspaper underneath your coffee mug, letting the spilled coffee soak through the material.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

"Simon, you have to remember why that woman does what she does. It's not 'cause she needs you to be unwounded for insurance reasons, it's not like she needs you alive to stay hired. That woman loves you," Price said, pointing at the door signaling he meant you, the said woman standing in the kitchen.

Ghost sat down in a chair, leaning his elbow on an armrest and leaning his head on his hand.

He sighed aggressively, "I know." He rubbed his face with a gloved hand before he repeated, "I know, Price."

"Well then, do something 'bout it!"

Ghost looked Price in the eyes for a good minute before nodding slightly and standing up from his seat and opening the door to the kitchen. Price sneaked out from behind him, leaving the kitchen after whispering, "There's some paperwork that's calling me." Simon smirked knowing good and well that every paper he'd need was in the room they were just in, but quietly watched as Price walked off into a different room entirely.

You sat at the table, with your cup of coffee and blank eyes staring into space. Ghost stared back at you, hoping some satellite would signal to your brain that he was sorry, that he really did love how you needed him, but staring alone wasn't going to get through to you; he was going to have to speak.

He sat down in the chair across from you, the metal screeching at his size, his knees slightly bumping the table and making your coffee ripple.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. You finally looked up at him, resting your head in your palm. He loved the way your cheek looked smushed against your hand, the way your eyes looked at him when you wanted to say something but didn't know exactly what.

"It's okay. I was probably being a bit overprotective. Over someone that doesn't really need it." You said, gently placing your foot on top of his giant boot underneath the table.

He smiled at the action and started slowly bouncing his foot up and down, moving yours on top of his. "Who said I don't need it? I get into trouble all the time, you know that."

Chuckling at the thought, you said, "You're reckless," underneath your breath. He noticed, however, "So bloody reckless," he repeated as he stood up from his seat and circled the table around to you.

Ghost towered over you, and as you stood up, he still was over a foot taller than you. His chest was at your eye level, and he loved the way your chin upturned in order to look at him properly. Sometimes he'd pick up your jaw for you and hold it in place with his giant hand.

"You forgive me?" He said, leaning down to your face.

"Of course." You stepped a little closer, slightly teasing him by pushing your body against his.

His finger met your jaw, tracing the soft outline of it, while staring dead at your mouth, "Good." Ghost started to lean into you even more and put his lips on yours until the door opened, "WAHOOO THEY MADE UP! GAZ GET IN HERE NOW." Soap exclaimed at the sight of you and Ghost in close proximity, the way you should be. You heard Gaz running down the hallway, his dog tags rattling against each other before he slid on his toes into the room. He slammed a hand on Soap's chest, "See, I told you they'd be fine. They're practically already married anyways; nothing could break the old geezers."

#ghost x reader #ghost x you #simon riley x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon riley x you #ghost x y/n #simon riley fluff #ghost fluff #modern warfare #simon riley #circe69scribbles

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ghostlykeyes · 7 months

Note

Hi, love your writing! Could I perhaps get some headcanons of Hearsteel with a (GN) tattoo artist partner? I'm a tattoo artist (apprentice) myself, and very curious. Thanks! 💕

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HEARTSTEEL /TATTOO ARTIST READER ♡ Gender Neutral ♡ SFW ♡ No TW's ♡ I did Sett, Yone, and Kayn since they are the only HS members I'm writing for right now. ♡ Anon!! I would love to see some of your work sometime if you're comfortable sharing !! <3

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KAYN

Inspired by your art, Kayn buys a shitty tattoo gun off Amazon and messes around with it. He's not serious about tattooing, not really, but he thinks it's super cool that you do it. And, like anything he thinks is cool, he wants to try his own hand at it. (Plus, he wants to impress you. Oh, he may act like the picture of Rhaast he inked into the top-right edge of some practice skin is no big deal, but he actually spent like four hours on it and inside he's just screaming for you to compliment it.)

Protect your practice skin fiercely, because Kayn will absolutely nab some if he's bored. It's not uncommon to pull out a rubber sheet of practice skin and find scratchy sketches of demon masks and glowing eyes.

Kayn lets you tattoo him, as long as he gets to pick the design. He assures you he'll sit well, but it's a lie. He's a squirmy subject. Not because of the pain, mind you—he doesn't care about that. No, he's fidgety at the best of times, and with you so close to him, with you breath and your hands sending tingly heat across his skin? How is he supposed to keep still? Threatening you'll never kiss him again if he doesn't chill the fuck out might do the trick, though. Contemplating a life without good-morning kisses has him doing his damndest to sit still and let you do your work.

While Kayn likes all of your work, he's especially fond of the dark, the creepy, and the ultra-stylized. The more morbid drawings fit his bad-boy image, and the stylized ones? He respects innovation in all its forms, and he loves to see your artistic boldness so plainly expressed.

Kayn often sends you pictures of graffiti that he's proud of. In truth, he does it more for the property damage than artistic expression—but that's besides the point. He's picked up some skills along the way and of course he's going to use them to impress you.

If you ever, ever have a problem client, Kayn will explode in their face. Expect loud words, shoving, maybe a punch or two getting thrown. And if you don't want him exhibiting that kind of behavior in your shop? Well, fine, he can play nice. Just don't be surprised if you find out your little problem client finds themselves with "DUMB FUCKING CUNT" keyed into their car door. Kayn denies any and all knowledge of doing this. "Must've been Rhaast," he claims, but you're not so sure. Either way, it's a warning signal for your future clients to behave.

SETT

After you're sore from a long day shrimp-hunched over someone's leg, you don't even have to ask Sett for a massage. He already knows you're cramping up and he knows just how to make his fingers work. "Lay down," he tells you, and waits for you to get comfy before straddling your back. "Hold still, 'kay? I'm gonna take care of you, don't even worry 'bout it." His strong fingers gently rub at the knots winding up and down your spine, and he smooths the pain from your muscles. And this isn't some five-minutes-and-done back rub, either— he's committed to getting you right. Chat about your day, ask about his. He'll be up there for as long as you need.

Even if he's not interested in getting tattoos yet, Sett still loves your art, and he's willing to commit to something a little less permanent. Any time he's about to leave on tour and won't see you for a few weeks, he asks you to Sharpie a design on him. Whatever you want, wherever you want (just try not to abuse the privilege—he will never forgive you if you draw something embarrassing on his pecs the night before a huge show). He thinks it's sweet to have that little reminder of you etched on his skin. Sett will send you periodic updates of your sketch. If it's holding up well, expect to witness Sett twisting around awkwardly to show you in his daily post-gym selfie. When it's gone? He sends you a photo of blank skin, with a solemn text: "he's dead :(" . Don't worry about the untimely demise of this picture, though—you can draw him another as soon as he gets home!

Sett keeps some of his favorite flash designs of yours framed in his room.

It doesn't matter that he doesn't have any tattoos—if you or your shop sells t-shirts, Sett will wear them, and he'll do it proudly. He loves to represent you. All someone has to do is ask about it and it'll send him on a ten-minute (minimum) rant about his kickass tattoo artist partner, how talented and awesome they are. If you don't have a sleeveless option, though, don't be surprised if the sleeves "mysteriously" disappear.

YONE

Yone is interested in getting some traditional Japanese work done, but not for some time yet. Just know that whenever he's ready to ink up, if you're willing to tattoo in that style, you've got a client for at least a full sleeve, if not two. And when the day comes? Oh, Yone sits like a dream. He's the client from heaven, barely flinching and only taking breaks when you need a second to stretch. It's a bit difficult to convince him to put down his work, though, so be prepared to listen to Yone building some song beats with his free hand while you're buzzing along his other arm.

You both have rather demanding jobs and schedules, but Yone enjoys your quiet moments working together. He plugs away at his music while nearby, you finalize designs for clients and work on new flash pieces. Whenever he needs a break, he comes over and tenderly rubs your shoulders. Yone watches you work, occasionally breaking the silence to ask about certain design choices or what kind of client this tattoo is for. Watching you draw gives him a sense of peace.

Since he knows you work long hours, Yone always gets you a drink on his morning iced coffee run. He gets you lunch sometimes, too, if he knows you'll be spending the day in one long session and might not want to leave the shop. Yone knows what it's like to get lost in your work better than anyone, but he wants to make sure that even if you're in the zone, you've got something to drink and a bite to eat nearby. Now, if only you could get him to take care of himself the same way...

Dating Yone brings you a lot of new clients. Even though he left the mainstream music industry some time ago, he's still got friends within it. If anyone asks him for advice on where to go, of course he recommends you, which means you get your fair share of music artists coming to your chair. Of course, they always tip fabulously (they risk Yone's wrath if they don't).

Yone comes to you for advice on a lot of Heartsteel's artistic visuals. Their loud, messy, brash style meshes well with tattoo aesthetics, so he likes to run creative choices by you before implementing them. He also asks you to design some merchandise, if you're okay with doing that. Whatever you come up with, the guys absolutely love. Consider yourself the creative lead for all future merch endeavors.

#heartsteel headcanons #heartsteel x reader #heartsteel kayn #kayn x reader #kayn/reader #sheida kayn #heartsteel #heartsteel sett #sett x reader #sett/reader #sett #yone x reader #heartsteel yone #yone/reader

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whxre-bxby · 1 year

Note

May I request mansk smut. I barely see anyone write for him and he just needs some love 😭😭. Just some sweet love making for him and the reader 💕

YES MISS GURL HERE WE GO BITCHES

"Late Night Feels"

Mansk (recom/Na’vi) x Y/N (recom/Na’vi f.)

Summary: During a game night with a few recoms, you can’t help but notice Mansk’s lingering eyes. When you confront him about it he gets shy before confessing and the man is whipped. After his heartfelt confession, you can’t keep your composure anymore and you both go to his room.

WARNINGS: SMUT, Fluff (so freakin cute), swear words, praise-kink (Mansk), f. Oral receiving, penetration, Mansk whimpering (yesss), breeding kink, mating

Masterlist

Word count: 9421

The recom team had built many new routines since being brought back to life on Pandora. One of them started when neither of us could fall asleep because our bodies felt so foreign to us. We were able to play it off during the day in front of everyone, but once we were left alone, most of us couldn’t stand it.

I was having a second life crisis, almost breaking down in front of my mirror. To calm down, I needed to leave the confined space that was meant to serve as a room.

I ended up in the cafeteria/kitchen for the recoms, holding a glass of water and staring into nothingness.

Mansk was the first to enter the kitchen after me. My presence startled him a little but we were both so out of it I didn’t even notice anyone walk in. He also got himself a glass of water and that was when Lyle walked in. Following him came Zdinarsk and then Ja. That was the group. The others seemed to have fallen asleep normally.

We cleared the air by agreeing that we were extremely uncomfortable, but no one wanted to talk about it including me. So instead of talking, Lyle suggested we play cards to get our minds off of things. No one had anything better to do, so we agreed.

That’s how the routine of a weekly game night started. Every Thursday, we would meet after curfew in the diner by the kitchen and play cards around a table. It lightened the mood and definitely helped.

Today was a Thursday. The lights had all been turned off and everyone had gone to their rooms. The only people awake were the human soldiers assigned night watch and they were on the other side of the facility.

I smiled, feeling a little calmer now that I knew I could go play cards and not have to sleep.

As usual, I walked through the empty corridors and into the cafeteria. Ja and Mansk were already there and were currently pushing the tables together. I greeted them, getting the stack of cards from beneath the counter and grabbing a chair to sit by the table. Within a few minutes, Lyle and Z-Dog had arrived.

Now, we were all sitting in a circle, with one light on in the corner as we played. The game had been going on for about an hour and we were still having fun. I was getting slightly tired and Ja had yawned next to me so I wasn’t the only one.

“How ‘bout one last round and then we call it a night?” Ja suggested, taking everyone’s cards and shuffling them.

“Hopefully Lyle won’t lose again.” Z teases and I chuckle, taking a sip from my glass. Mansk smiles to himself before staring down at his hands. He’s sitting opposite me.

“No need to worry. I’m feelin’ this round. It’s my time now, people.” Lyle assures with a grin, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table.

“Whatever you say.” Ja returns the grin, passing out a new round of cards to everyone again.

We played and guess what? Lyle did in fact not win. Nor did he even get anywhere close to it.

I placed my cards in the middle with a smile, showing that I won. All the others had gotten rid of their cards already and it was just Lyle and me. Lyle was still holding at least seven.

He huffed, throwing his cards to the middle in defeat.

“You guys are cheatin’. Ja’s shufflin’ it wrong.” Lyle argues and I bite my lip to contain laughter. Ja looks almost offended.

“That’s 5 losses in a row.” Mansk says and I nod, while my grin widens. Z-Dog is pressing her fist over her mouth to cover her smile but Lyle sees us.

“Okay, quit laughin'. I’ll beat you both now.” Lyle adds, taking his new set of cards and looking at them.

“How about we play until Lyle doesn’t lose?” I suggest and Z laughs while Lyle huffs in annoyance.

“Sounds good.” Ja adds, leaning back on his chair.

“Okay, then this is the last round.” Lyle states, building up a confident attitude to beat the game. Mansk looks up at me and we exchange looks, questioning Lyle’s words but we suppress laughter to not upset him.

I think you know what’s coming.

Let me ease your mind and inform you, that that was indeed not the last round we played.

The game went on for another good 30-40 minutes, with Lyle refusing to speak after each loss of a round. Ja would quietly shuffle while we exchanged mocking looks. Lyle wasn’t having it.

Finally, Lyle hadn’t won first but had not lost.

The rounds before where he lost would have been a little boring if it wouldn’t have been for one person in particular.

Sitting across from me were lingering eyes belonging to Mansk. He wasn’t wearing his signature shades and I caught him looking at me a few times. The looks were harmless and innocent, yet I felt like there was more to them.

I wondered what had caught his eye because I was definitely not wearing anything impressive. I had a loose and oversized t-shirt on, which I slept in and some comfortable shorts that had pockets which I loved.

I wasn’t wearing a bra and my hair was messy. It wasn’t the first time I hadn’t worn a bra around them. Z also wasn’t because we were about to head to bed anyway. Except for today, my shirt was grey and not black so I guess my chest was more visible. But he wasn’t the type of guy to rudely stare so I don’t think that was it.

Anyway, Z-Dog was holding the last cards and thereby lost while Lyle celebrated in her face. She was annoyed she lost to him and said goodnight before walking off. I was smiling to myself as he followed her down the hallway, repeating how easy it was to beat her and how she made a mistake. As if he hadn’t lost the last 10 rounds in a game he most likely made up and even suggested in the first place.

Ja yawned again, rolling his shoulders and finishing his water before walking towards the hallway.

“See you tomorrow guys. Was fun with you.” he said and I smiled.

“Good night.”

With that Ja left while I still sat at the table with Mansk. I finished my water while he put the deck of cards back into their box.

Seeing all the empty glasses around the table I sighed and pushed my chair back. Getting up, I collected the glasses and carried them to the sink, leaving Mansk behind at the table.

Of course, Lyle had been drinking some sweet juice and not water so his glass had stained red. I turned on the tap and started washing up.

Behind me, Mansk had noticed my actions and wanted to help out. He returned the chairs to their original spots and pulled the tables back apart before slowly walking to me.

He stopped, observing you from a small distance. He had been trying to not get caught up in his thoughts while playing but it was difficult with you looking this good to him. He knew you wouldn’t understand if he told you, but he loved how you looked right now. To be honest, he always liked the way you looked but right now, it was the best he’s seen yet.

The way the huge t-shirt draped from your smaller figure almost covering your shorts and riding up slightly there where your tail was had him mesmerised. Your loose and let down hair which was finally for once not restricted and pulled back in a ponytail or any other hairdo you did with your braid and hair made him unable to stop staring.

You looked so comfortable and real to him. In military uniform and during training, he found you intimidating and would choose to not approach you. Now, you looked like you had finally let your guard down and were more welcoming to him. That's why he looked forward to game nights. He looked forward to seeing you as you were. Not the tough girl that sometimes even scared him. Don’t get him wrong, he always thought you looked hot, even when training or fighting. But he felt as though he could not talk to you then. Now, with the others around and during games, it was easier and you seemed nicer.

I felt his presence behind me and I brushed it off for a good 10 seconds until it started distracting me from washing up properly.

Glancing behind me, I see Mansk comfortably standing and watching me. When he sees me turn my head around, he quickly turns away and places the stack of cards back underneath the counter that I got them from.

I return my gaze to the cups and smile to myself, loving the effect I had on him. It was a surprise when I noticed how Mansk would get intimidated by me, but I decided to have some fun with him.

Luckily, he didn’t walk away. Mansk walked up next to me, picking up a glass and helping me wash up.

“Oh it’s okay, I had that.” I say, not wanting him to feel pressured into helping me. A small and faint smile stretches across his face.

“I’m not gonna just leave you here to clean up after everyone.” he replied, his voice a little hoarse but nevertheless soft and kind.

“How about just watching me instead, huh?” I tease him, grinning and nudging his side with my hip while my tail flicks in his direction. In contrast, his tail stops comfortably swaying and his ears lean back a little.

I notice his tenseness and look up at him, the grin turning into a smile.

He’s blushing, but I won’t point it out just yet. There’s more I can do.

I finish washing the cups and Lyle’s sticky glass, placing them on the bottom of the sink. Mansk is still rubbing away at his glass like he was a few minutes ago.

“I think it’s clean.” I speak up, seeming to pull him out of his thoughts. He opens his mouth to say something but I’m already pulling the glass from his grasp and placing it to the others. Mansk doesn’t stop me.

“Can you pass me the towel?” I ask and he glances at me, his ears perking before looking to his side. It seems to take him a while to process what I said, so I nudge him a little.

“Please?” I give him innocent doe eyes and his ears perk forward even more, his eyes staring down into my own.

“Y- yeah, sure.” he replies, trying to pull himself together and he hands me the towel.

“Thanks.” I say, taking a glass and drying it. With the second glass I take out, I turn around, with my back facing the sink while I lean against it and stare into the open and dark cafeteria.

Mansk reaches for another towel, takes a glass and continues helping me dry them in silence.

“If Lyle doesn’t start winning, we’re gonna have to come up with a new game.” I chuckle, trying to ease the atmosphere for him because I could tell he felt awkward even though he was quite good at hiding it.

“Yeah.” Mansk smirks, dropping his head a little and chuckling. “Ja knows a few. It won’t get boring.”

“It wouldn’t get boring anyway.” I say, hinting at his previous lingering eyes. He doesn’t quite catch up, or maybe he does and he tries to avoid that conversation.

“It wouldn’t? With Lyle always losin’?” he asks, glancing at me. I smirk, putting the previous glass away and grabbing a new one.

“Nah. You kept it interesting.”

I can see from the corner of my eye how his tail stills again and his body tenses. Our body language is much clearer now as Na’vi and he has become easy for me to read.

He doesn’t reply but I hear him swallow.

“Was there something on my shirt?” I ask, continuing to push it, knowing damn well my shirt had little to do with his staring. I wanted to fluster him and have him stutter until he was forced to confess everything.

“Uh- no. No your shirts fine.” he starts to talk, stumbling over his words. His voice is unsure and he doesn’t seem to know what to say. “I, uhm-”

Even through his deep voice, one could still tell he was nervous. I loved it.

Mansk also always spoke clearly and used minimal words. To have him fucking stutter is amazing.

“Oh shit, is it see-through?” I gasp, pretending to panic and he does too.

“No- No no it’s not.” he says, turning to me and I bite my lip, giggling.

He realises I’m messing with him and turns back to face the room in silence. Yep, he’s embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, I just find it funny that I can tease you.” I say, unable to hide my grin. He smiles but his ears are strained back. A nervous smile perhaps?

I press myself against his side, knowing the initiated body contact will frustrate him.

“You need to loosen up, Mansk.” I say, all innocent again while I caress his leg with my tail. He doesn’t move, he just stays still. I can hear how quickly his heart is beating, even through his unsteady breaths.

“Aw, come on. What is it?” I say, playing stupid and nudging his side. “You don’t like me? I can leave if you want?”

He scoffs a little. Not in a rude way, but to himself.

“Of course I like you, it’s not that.” he speaks and I smile again, putting the cup down and facing him.

“What is it then?”

A minute of silence passes before he speaks up again.

“I don’t know what you mean.” he says, but clearly he is suppressing something.

“Do I make you nervous?” I ask, looking up at him and his eyes shoot to me, hinting at panic. Bingo.

“Is it because I’m not wearing a bra? Was that why you were looking earlier?” I tease, knowing it's not the reason.

He grimaced at the thought of you thinking he was looking at you only because your chest wasn’t covered with a double layer like usual. Mansk was admiring all of you before and would never want you to think of him rudely checking you out.

“No.” he states, almost whispering. His voice got caught in his throat.

“No? You don’t like my chest?” I ask, faking those wide innocent eyes again. His gaze returns to me and he opens his mouth to answer but no words come out. I watch his adam's apple bob as he swallows nervously and there I have my answer. His response makes me grin and he knows he fucked up.

“I wasn’t lookin’ because of that.” Mansk says, seeming almost irritated. I don’t say anything, I only glance at him again, waiting for him to elaborate.

He’s looking down but my silence makes him glance back at me too. He had to keep talking now.

“I just- think… you know. You look nice.” he says, his voice fading into a mumble. His words take me by slight surprise.

“I look nice?” I ask, chuckling a little. A small wave of panic flows through me when I realise my reaction might discourage him but luckily it doesn’t.

“Yeah. You look comfortable. It’s beautiful.” he pushes the words out and they electrify my heart, sending waves through my body that kill all the tiredness.

“Fuck, now you’re making me feel special.” I giggle, clutching my face in my hands and letting them slide down. The next time I look up, he is already looking at me again.

“Tell me more,” I beg him, wanting to hear everything that’s on his mind.

He looks surprised. As if he were expecting me to walk away after he said that. Mansk listens.

“You don’t look as… badass, like you do when training.” he says and my own ears perk up. What does that mean?

I questionably look up at him, wondering whether this was becoming insulting or cute.

“Which I don’t mind.” he saves it, quickly. “You look amazing when you train. Fuck. But I’d never be able to talk to you like this.” Mansk seems to be forgetting he’s confessing his deepest secret and is focusing on making sure I understand without feeling uncomfortable.

“You think I look good?” I ask, staring deeply into the empty room.

“More than just good. Fuckin’ angel.” he mumbles, looking like he wants to retreat into himself because he’s said too much. He looks down, slightly turned away from me.

“God, you’re making this hard for me.” I chuckle and he glances back at me, confused. Mansk looks worried as if he made a mistake.

“I wanted to tease you more but now you have me fucking blushing.” I say and his ears perk all the way up. His worry fades when he realises that I am indeed blushing. And his eyes widen and almost sparkle when he reminds himself that it's because of him.

“You look even prettier.” he mumbles.

“Stop. This is not how the tables were meant to turn.” I talk over him, making him smile.

“Hm.” Mansk mumbles, putting the things down and turning away to leave.

“Where are you going?” I ask, wondering why the conversation was ending at the best part.

“It’s late, I thought you wanted to go sleep early today?” he answers, stopping in his steps and turning around.

Does he really think I’ve been playing with him just for kicks this whole time?

“Late my ass. I’m not done with you.” I say. He had put the towels back and just stared at me with curious wide eyes. His lips were slightly parted too. This was the cutest and most attractive man ever.

“You think I tease you for no reason?” I ask, quickly putting the glass down and grabbing his hand. He lets me lead him away from the sink and out of the room. Even though he’s much taller and could easily resist, he lets me pull him away.

“Where are you goin’?” he asks, seeming a little hesitant. More confused and self-conscious. He didn’t know whether he had done something wrong and if he had he would never forgive himself.

I curse. “Of course, they put the women’s rooms on the other side of the fucking facility.”

Mansk watches my every move intently. In the back of his mind, he can imagine what the best-case scenario would be but he knows that there is no way that will happen so he doesn’t question it.

“Where’s your room?” I ask and he looks at me as if he’s seen a ghost.

“What?”

“You heard me. Come on.” I say, smiling at his shocked face. “Unless you don’t want this. Then I can go.”

Mansk can’t believe his ears. Want this? The man has needed this for the past month or two. But he doesn’t want to be the one to bring it up in case you aren’t thinking of the same thing. He treasures the talks he has with you and he would never risk losing that.

“Don’t want what?” he asks.

“Mansk, I need you. Right now. If you want to fuck, tell me where your room is and let’s do something about it.”

He gulps, his eyes just staring at me as his mind goes blank. That was it, Mansk was blown away and officially couldn’t believe the events unfolding before him.

“Hm?” I ask, spurring him on because I was getting a little more desperate than I wanted to be.

“207…” he whispers. Realising his voice is gone he clears his throat and tries to keep himself composed.

I nod, turning around and walking us there. Luckily it was close, much closer than my room. We arrive at his door and I stand there, looking at him to unlock it but Mansk is once again just gazing at me.

“Keys.” I say, becoming impatient. Every time I looked at him I felt my body become hotter.

“Really?” he slowly asks, his ears perking forward, giving me all his attention.

“Really what?” I ask, trying to figure out what he’s going on about.

“You want me?” His voice is so soft and the way he unsurely says it melts me. It seems as though he is still a little worried I’m messing with him again and that his feelings will be hurt. This huge bulky man in front of me suddenly seems like this tiny, fragile, cuddly bear. His hand is resting in the pocket of his sweats as his slightly slumping posture no longer shines the intimidating energy it does when he wears his uniform and shades.

“Mansk, you are the reason I go to those goddamn game nights.” I start explaining, catching on to him feeling unsure about himself. He needs reassurance and I get that. A year ago I would have too.

“You think I’d be going just to see Lyle lose his shit every time. I mean it can be nice but you make it better.”

His face lights up and the doubt is slowly being washed away. The man can’t believe what he’s hearing. He lifts his dropped head to meet my eyes.

“You happen to also look absolutely fucking amazing and this new tank top you’re wearing is really doing it for me. So if you would kindly open this door-”

I’m cut off by Mansk hastily getting his keys from the pocket of his sweats, which have to my delight started to strain and swiftly unlocking the door. He effortlessly pushes it wide open and extends his hand out to let me go inside first.

“Thank you.” I whisper but it's barely audible.

The little gesture makes my heart flutter and I step inside. He walks in after me, flicking the light on and kicking the door closed.

I quickly scan the room before turning back around to face him. He’s thrown his keys onto his nightstand and his eyes met mine. Again, Mansk didn’t want to be pushy and initiate the contact in case I had changed my mind. But god, had he been longing for your touch for so long.

I sighed, knowing I was down bad for him. My no romance in the workplace rule was long gone right now.

I take a step towards him so that he is closer to me. He is still a head taller so he peers down as I extend my arm and cup his cheek to pull him down to me.

“Kiss me.” I whisper. The words make Mansk think he’s in heaven.

Mansk more than happily obliges, shivering from excitement at the touch of you on his cheek. Our lips are just inches apart as we share breaths for a few seconds before both of us can’t stand it and our lips finally meet.

I relish in the moment while Mansk’s mind is getting blurry from the wonderland he is in.

The kiss deepens and I wrap my arms around his neck. Finally, he feels more confident and one of his hands holds the back of my head, right under my braid, while the other slides down my waist.

I notice how he keeps it on my waist and my waist only, not sliding down below my hips. His respect and politeness amaze me and I add it to the list of things I love about him, but right now it needs to change.

I slide my palm up his arm, gently holding his hand before pushing it down further.

Mansk’s ears perk up and he inhales shakily through his nose when I put his hand down on my ass.

I pull away while doing this to see his reaction and make sure I’m not overstepping any boundaries. His wide eyes meet mine again and I watch how his pupils expand the longer he looks at me.

I give him a small smile, to reassure him but also because I couldn’t hold him back. I felt so happy being around him and that he liked me this way made me want to scream and jump around.

His large hands on me made me feel safe. Even though I knew I was capable of protecting myself, this felt nice. Better than nice in fact. I was in heaven too.

“You’re so beautiful…” he whispered, his eyes flickering between mine slowly. My own eyes widened at his comment and my breath got caught in my chest. He really meant it, I could see that he did. I’ve never felt this appreciated and it made me feel a little emotional in fact. I wanted to return the feeling to him and make him feel as good as possible because I started to realise that he meant so much to me.

Without further hesitation, I slowly leaned in again, letting my eyes flutter closed. Mansk watched me with heart eyes, closing his own eyes and drowning in euphoria from the feeling of our lips meeting once again.

I press my body against his this time, wrapping my arms around his neck while one hand runs over the back of his head. In the process, I sway my hips forward and against his abdomen, feeling what I could only hope and anticipate was his erection.

Mansk groaned into the kiss and I felt him shiver again. Seeing him be so responsive to my touch had me craving to hear more from him.

I let one of my arms drift down from his neck and run along his strong shoulders. I was never able to identify my exact type but feeling his muscles really had an effect on me. His almost extreme strength was amazing to me and the fact that he rarely used it to its full extent made it that much better.

I flatten my palm out while Mansk deepens the kiss, slipping his tongue past my lips. I gasp but push myself further into him, letting him know I loved it. Fuck, he really knew what he was doing.

His one hand was still gently resting on my ass while the other pulled me further into him by my lower waist. Our tails flicked around behind us uncontrollably and subconsciously showing our excitement. Snitches.

I ran my palm down his bulky chest, feeling his muscles and the texture of his tank top. I fumbled with his dog tag, wrapping my hand around it and bringing him down closer to me by gently pulling at it.

He responded by holding my body even closer as if he never planned on letting go.

I then let my hand drop and dipped my fingers underneath his top, feeling his warm and bare skin beneath. He sighed at the feeling and we pulled away, both almost gasping for air.

I gripped the hem of my shirt and peeled it off, pulling it over my head. Mansk saw my movement and quickly followed, throwing his tank top to the side.

When his eyes met me they changed from being half-lidded to opening wider again. It only now occurred to him that I was half-naked before him and he was clearly having a hard time not being polite. Mansk looked away and I could see how nervous and worked up he was.

I giggled, putting my own top over a chair in his room before taking a few steps to him again. He slowly looked at me, keeping his eyes firmly on my face and not letting his gaze falter. His expression makes me smile.

“You can look, you know?” I say softly, watching his ears twitch at my words. “I’m yours if you want me to be.”

Mansk’s breath got caught in his throat and I saw how flushed he was, trying his best not to fold in front of me. Slowly, he let his eyes drift from my face to my lips, then my neck, bare collarbones and finally to my chest.

His lips parted as he shakily exhaled and stared at me in awe. I never had anyone look at me like that before.

Another small sigh left his lips while he was still processing the fact that this was happening to him. You trusted him enough and wanted him enough to be in his room like this with him.

I take a step towards him, my own gaze faltering as I admire his bare, sculpted torso.

My hand raises and Mansk is brought out of his little dream by my touch. I rest my palm on his chest, slowly tracing it over the patterns on his skin and down his abs, to his v-line.

I look up, redoing the same thing but this time feeling his shoulders too.

“You’re so pretty…” I whisper, not thinking about my words. They just slip out.

Mansk was speechless, watching your hand travel over his torso. You liked the way he looked? He knew he didn’t look bad, he just thought it was regular for the military and especially now for Na’vi. But you liked it. You liked him. It’s official now, the man is whipped for you.

I grin, loving his innocent and gentle reactions.

Slowly, I apply pressure on his chest and push him backwards. Mansk takes a few steps in the direction I need him to and within seconds, the back of his knees hit the frame of his bed and he is forced to sit down.

I stay standing in front of him and lean down to give him another kiss, before pulling away again. He leans forward, chasing my lips, not wanting to end the contact.

A smile forms on my lips as I find his begging eyes once more. They shoot down to my hands and abdomen once he realises I’m pulling my shorts and panties down.

Mansk inhales sharply as I step out of the last bits of clothing I have on and just watches me in admiration. I happen to also notice how almost painfully strained his sweatpants have become.

“You look like an angel…” he softly says, his eyes scanning and taking all of me in. I scoff, unable to handle all the compliments.

“I want to make you feel good.” I whisper, climbing onto him. Mansk smiles at my reaction and leans back a little to give me space. I sit on his lap with a leg on either side of his and wrap my arms loosely around his neck again.

He keeps looking at me while having his hands firmly placed on the bed.

“You can touch me too.” I grin, biting my lips and he lets out a soft chuckle, feeling a little embarrassed that he keeps getting caught staring.

His hands gently caress my waist and thighs and one confidently moves down to my ass.

He squeezes my cheek and I sigh, letting my eyes close for a split second. Knowing he’s getting a reaction from me, Mansk feels more confident to touch more of me.

His right-hand pushes a few strands of hair over my shoulder and then slowly drifts down to my chest. He watches my reaction for any sign of discomfort but he doesn’t get it and soon he is caressing and massaging my breasts. I sigh again in pleasure, letting my head slightly fall forward, almost landing on his shoulder.

Mansk can’t stop himself from melting into me and he pulls me closer, letting his head drop to the crook of my neck, gently kissing the skin while his hot breath sends butterflies to my stomach.

I trace the muscles on his back with my hand while the other holds onto his shoulder. My tail caresses his leg while his own one repeatedly thuds against the mattress in happiness and excitement.

As mentioned, Mansk is in heaven and he lets himself finally relax completely against me.

His face leans down in between my breasts and both his hands wrap around my waist, hugging me and pulling my closer to him. I respond by cradling his head and holding him, feeling how my touch-starved state is finally being cured.

We just relish in each other's touch for a few minutes, our hands tracing up and down the other's body before I slowly pull away and support his head when he lifts it up. My palm cradles his flushed cheek as we lock eyes again.

“What do you want?” I ask him, wanting to give him whatever I can. “I’ll do it.” I say, and I see how his eyes light up. He must be thinking of something.

“Just tell me and I can help you.” I whisper, kissing his cheek before moving down and gently biting his neck.

Mansk whimpers when I nibble at the skin of his neck and it makes my stomach twist with more excitement. I hold his head again, peppering kisses to the area.

I look up at him again and he takes another deep, shaky breath.

“Please tell me. I want to make you feel good.” I say and it seems to affect him.

Mansk is surprised by your words. He wanted to worship your body and here you were, offering him the same. You were too good to be true, but he wanted to please you before you even got started with making him feel good. There was something he had been longing of doing for the past months he had you on his mind.

We locked eyes again and he looked away before I made him look at me again.

“Sit on my face.” he whispered and I froze, replaying the words in my head. That’s what he wanted?

“Please.” he breathed out. That’s all the confirmation I needed.

“Yes, baby.” I reply and he shivers at the name I gave him. Slowly, I push him back so that he is laying beneath me. I lean down to give him a kiss of appreciation before I move up his body, eventually hovering over his head. The mattress dipped around his head as he watched me get in position.

Once again, the man's eyes were wide and his pupils were blown. He lifted his hands up, gently resting them on my hips as I found my stability.

Mansk’s eyes were fixated on my bare heat for a few good long seconds before his gaze flickered up and met mine again.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to do this and I didn’t want to hurt him. He seemed to catch on to my uneasiness.

“Y/N, let me make you feel good.” he says, sounding a little desperate. His breath is uneven while his hands try to slowly pull my hips down.

“But that’s what-”

"Please.” he breathes out again. I now notice his glossy, begging eyes and it makes me gulp. All I can do is nod and when he starts pulling me down on him, I don’t stop him.

I’m hovering right above his face and I gasp when my core makes contact with his nose. He leans his head up and I feel his tongue swipe up between my folds.

I gasp, biting my lip while staring down at him. This was completely new to me.

Before he can continue, Mansk wraps his arms fully around my thighs, tugging me further down one last time before locking me in.

I am almost literally sitting on his face now and Mansk can’t stop himself from digging in. His tongue works wonders, circling my clit before licking all around it and then teasing my entrance.

When I feel him do the last thing I whimper, letting my head drop forwards and leaning on my arms in front of me. Holy shit. My breathing becomes ragged.

Soon enough, Mansk starts devouring me like a starved man and I’m completely losing it. I’ve become a panting mess, having to bite down on my fist to not make any extremely loud noises. It feels so amazing my thighs start to quiver around his head.

Suddenly, Mansk circles my entrance and then pushes the tip of his tongue into me.

“Holy fu-” I swear, inhaling sharply while arching my back. I push myself up, leaning back and steadying my hands behind me on his bare torso.

Mansk doesn’t stop and I notice how his tail almost starts to wag when he hears the noise I made.

I can feel my orgasm approaching and my mouth drops open as I try to keep my composure.

“Mansk-” I whine out and he groans into me when he hears his name. “I’m so close…”

I try to suppress it, just to make this moment last a little longer but suddenly I feel light waves of vibrations beneath me, going straight to my core. I especially feel them on my hands that are resting behind me, on his bare chest.

Mansk started fucking purring while comfortingly stroking my thighs and that was all it took for me to lose my mind.

“Mansk! Oh my god.” I moan, my words gradually becoming less audible. He tightens his grip on me, completely locking my lower body down so that I literally can’t move or lift my hips off of him. He continues to tongue fuck me, riding out my orgasm while my legs shake and my vision becomes blurry for a few good seconds.

I lean forward, my mouth gaping open while my tail tightly curls around one of his arms.

Once I’ve finally come down a little, Mansk continues to lick me but he is a whole lot gentler now. His hands loosen, and slowly drift down my waist, giving me the opportunity to sit up.

I lift myself off of him, leaning forward and lifting a leg over his head so that I was now sitting next to him.

My face was now flushed too and I was a panting mess, my ears slightly drooped to the sides.

Mansk sat up, turning to his side to face me. He had a prideful grin on his face which made me smile. One of his hands found mine and he held it, making my heart flutter.

I watched him lick his glistening lips and my eyes widened. He was amazing.

“How was that?” he asked. I would have expected it to be said in a teasing manner but it seemed like a genuine question.

“You made my vision go blank for a few seconds.” I gasp, unable to hold back a small laugh. “Holy shit, my legs are still shaking.”

His grin returns and he smiles to himself. This was by far the best moment on Pandora for him.

I notice the tent in his crotch area and make it my mission to have him as fucked out as me.

Steadily, I move over to him, straddling his waist again. His grin slowly fades when he watches my movements in a lust-drunk haze. His erection was becoming a little painful for Mansk but he would ignore it if you told him to. He would eat you out for hours if you asked and quite literally do basically anything for you right now.

I settle on his waist and go to touch him but Mansk gently stops me. I lock eyes with him a wave of worry floods me when I see how hesitant he looks. Maybe I did something wrong or took it too far.

“Y/N?” he softly asks, his eyes looking sad.

“Yes?” I answer, my voice hinting to worry.

“I really like you…” he says, his voice quiet, barely above a whisper. I just listen, knowing there is more to come.

“I really don’t want this to be just a one-time thing.” Mansk adds. He was worried I was just using him to get off.

“Mansk, I want you. No one else… just you.” I say, watching his ears twitch and noting every little reaction. “If you want me too, this will definitely not be the only time we do this.”

He seems a little relieved but not quite fully.

“Do you feel the same way?” he asks, and I wonder for a few seconds. “I mean, romantically. Not just through attraction.”

“Yes.” I whisper, letting my tail caress his leg. “Mansk, I think I love you.”

His eyes light up at the words. He can’t believe it.

“I love you more.” he whispers, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead to mine.

“Not possible.” I add, smiling. My heart is racing and I just want to litter kisses all over him.

“Let me take care of you now.” I whisper, moving my face close to his. He exhales a shaky breath in response, his eyes not leaving mine.

I press our lips together, unable to get enough of him. The taste of me is still lingering on his lips and something about it turns me on even more.

I run my hand down the back of his head before feeling all over his toned torso. My kisses move from his lips to his jaw, before giving attention to the other side of his neck. His heavy breath is fanning against my shoulder and he buries his hot face in the crook of my neck.

My hands slide down, tracing over his v-line and running along the waistband of his pants, making him shiver.

Mansk lets his eyes flutter closed as he focuses on feeling my fingertips caress his skin and near the place he needs me so desperately.

I tuck my fingertips below the waistband and move back slightly to look at him.

“Can I?” I ask, wanting to make sure he was okay with this.

“Fuck yes.” he breathes out and his answer makes me smile.

Slowly, I start to tug his pants down and he leans down on his arms which are on either side of him and lifts his hips up along with me on them. I pull the pants down and let them fall behind me, down his ankles where he kicks them off.

Mansk sighs in relief as his dick is freed from its previous restraints.

I don’t move, staring down between our bodies with parted lips and I feel my mouth start salivating. He was bigger than I would have ever imagined. I’m saying his dick stood up to almost the same height as my stomach.

Mansk notices and his ears droop a little in embarrassment. Good embarrassment. His face was flushed again and he looked mesmerising.

“Don’t be embarrassed, you’re such a beautiful boy.” I say, cupping his cheek and loving his shy reaction. My praise made his heartbeat speed up and it warmed his heart.

The big stone-cold giant had found someone who brought his heart to life.

I reach down in between our bodies, tracing down his now bare abdomen before gently wrapping my hand around the base of his throbbing member. Mansk shudders at the contact, trying to contain his excitement.

I bite my lip, gently stroking him a few times just to test the waters.

Mansk’s shoulders relaxed and his lips parted at the feeling, but his tail was going wild.

I want to show him how much I love him so I start peppering kisses to his shoulder, collarbone and then chest. He sighs in pleasure, letting his head drop forwards again while I keep a slow pace.

I grip his bicep to hold myself against him, my head now resting on his shoulder as I slightly tighten my fist around him and speed up the pace just a tiny bit.

Mansk presses his forehead into my neck, panting against my warm skin. I rub my thumb over his sensitive tip, which I now notice is leaking a few beads of precum and Mansk whimpers, closing his eyes again.

Hearing him make that noise had my stomach twisting in excitement and made me feel needy all over again.

I lean forwards, readjusting myself on his lap when my braid falls over my shoulder. Mansk saw it from the corner of his eye and lifted his head to look. We were both still getting used to our new bodies and that included handling a long piece of braided hair with a nerve cord in it.

Seeing it seemed to spark the same idea in him as it did in me. We knew now how Na’vi connected themselves with Eywa and the creatures of Pandora. They used their queue. It was also roughly known that the same was done for mating between two Na’vi.

Mansk looked up at me and I stared back, thinking about it for a while.

I picked up the end of my braid, examining my hair and then Mansk slowly reached behind him and pulled his braid over his shoulder.

My eyes shot to his one and we exchanged eye contact in silence for a few seconds.

“Do you want to…?” Mansk asks, whispering this time.

I smile. “Mhm.”

“I’m not sure exactly how-”

“It’s fine, I read the manual.” I confirm, knowing most of the team just skipped through the files before we were reborn. The files informing us about our new bodies.

He smiles. Of course, I read it.

I pinch the end of my queue, revealing the nerve strands that move around like tentacles, searching for a source to connect to.

Mansk mirrors my movements, doing the same with his queue. We watch them for a few moments before he brings his closer to mine.

I do the same and we watch as the strands find each other, entangling in one another and forming one strong cord which glows with white light.

We lock eyes and our pupils subtract before blowing wide again as we feel electricity shoot through our bodies. The feeling is slightly overwhelming and it feels like we just gained new senses but I can now feel him and vice versa.

I hold on to him to steady myself and we both breathe through it before Mansk presses his lips to mine. I immediately kiss him back, feeling twice as turned on now.

I shift my hips closer to him, wrapping my arms around his neck to hold him close to me. Mansk lets his hands roam my naked body, running them up and down my slightly arched back before attaching one to my breast.

I purr against him, breaking the kiss and rubbing my cheek against his. I’ve never needed to be so close to someone before.

He bucks his hips up, desperately needing to feel some friction or touch and I help him out.

My hand wraps around his shaft again while our formed tsaheylu strand hangs between us.

Mansk inhales sharply and I lift myself up a little, to line him up with my now-aching pussy.

He watches, holding his breath as I rub his tip between my folds, covering it in slick. His hands grip my hips, not pushing me down, but just needing to grab onto something.

Slowly, I ease myself onto him, my hand grasping his shoulder as I close my eyes and focus. Mansk lets out a ragged breath, watching my movement with half-lidded eyes.

I let myself sink down about halfway, taking a few deep breaths just to get used to his size. My body seemed to be extra sensitive and all my senses were activated.

I move up, leaving just his tip inside me before sinking all the way down and bottoming out. Mansk is biting his lip to try and suppress his noises but a whine still leaves him. I gasp, leaning my weight on him. Already, I felt overstimulated.

“You feel so good…” he whispers, his voice hinting to how needy he feels.

“Fuck, sorry. Give me a minute.” I answer, feeling a little lightheaded.

“Don’t fuckin’ apologise. I’d wait for hours if you need me to.” he breathily answers, pulling me against his chest and wrapping his hands around me.

His answer goes straight to my heart and I want to fucking smother him in kisses. “God I love you so much.” I say, kissing him again. The kiss is sloppy because we’re both a little overwhelmed but it feels so good.

After a few moments, I roll my hips making Mansk break the kiss and gasp slightly. I do it a few more times and watch him unfold before me. All tension and stress left his body and he let his head drop into the crook of my neck again.

“Holy fuck-” he mumbles against my skin as I continue my movements.

Then I lift myself up a little again, before lowering myself down. This time it felt more like a thrust because we were both covered in wetness and precum and I got used to his size which hit my cervix every time I bottomed out.

Mansk hisses, his ears flattening back.

Soon, I managed to keep a regular pace and Mansk supported me by lifting my hips with me. One of his hands slid down my hips, gripping my ass before digging into the flesh between my thigh and ass.

“So good.” I mumble, my eyes fluttering closed as I slowly get lost in the feeling. I notice Mansk’s pinned back ears perk up for a second before returning to their previous position. The man lives for praise.

I try to speed it up a little but this whole situation has me overwhelmed and I’m still so sensitive from my last orgasm, my legs starts shaking and giving out. Mansk notices and helps me still my movements.

“You okay?” he asks and I nod, breathing heavily.

“Sorry, I-”

I’m cut off by Mansk lifting me off of him and laying me down on his bed, while our queue’s stay connected. I stare up at him as he turns and climbs on top of me, smirking. Oh, this man was going to be the death of me.

“No apologies.” he whispers, reminding me of his previous words. I gulp, my eyes not leaving his and I nod.

“Let me help.” he whispers, his gruffy voice sounding a little hoarse.

Mansk presses a soft kiss to my cheek, gently pushing my legs open before he lays his hips between them.

He aligns himself with me again before slowly pushing all the way in. Both of us sigh in relief and then Mansk reaches for my hand. He interlocks our fingers before placing our intertwined hand next to my head and leaning against it.

My eyes find his again and he looks at me for permission to move. I nod eagerly and almost instantly, Mansk pulls out and sets the same pace I had before.

I feel a pressure build up in my stomach and I desperately need him to continue so I envelop him in my legs, wrapping them around his hips and pulling him in even further.

“Fuck, yes. Just like that.” I moan, dropping my head back and gripping his shoulder with my free hand.

His eyes widen and he feels almost feral when he hears those words. The fact that he is the one making you feel this good and no one else makes Mansk feel prideful. He was worried you were into Ja, or worse, maybe even Lyle. But all Mansk’s worries were gone because you were in his room, naked on his bed, whimpering and moaning his name while being bonded through tsaheylu with him. This is more than he would even ask for.

“Don’t stop.” I whimpered and he nodded, completely under the spell of lust.

“Yes ma’am.” he whispered and I smiled. It was cute the way he wanted my validation. I liked having such an effect so easily on such a huge man. After all, he was a marine too and followed orders.

I felt my need grow in my core, making my pussy clench ever so slightly around Mansk with every thrust.

The feeling had him over the moon. His eyes were fluttering closed every now and then, always flicking to your face to be met with the wonderful sight of your pleasure flushed expression. Not that he was doing better. Mansk had been down bad since you got here.

“Y/N,” he whimpered, his head dropping down while he continued to role and rut his hips into me. “I’m close…”

“Me too, me too.” I whine, cupping his cheek in comfort while my nails slowly dug into the skin of his back. “It’s okay, keep going.” I add, needing to feel the release again. Mansk seemed desperate for it too.

He sped up his pace just a little and now every thrust felt like pure heaven. His movements became a little sloppy now, indicating he really was close.

“You’re doing so well.” I whine between clenched teeth and he moans in repsonse, slowly losing his mind.

His eyes shoot to mine and I nod, pulling him closer by my arms and legs. Mansk deeply thrusts into me and I come undone. My eyes roll to the back of my head and my mouth drops open while my pussy clenches around him. Mansk thrives between my trembling legs and pushes himself as deep into me as possible before releasing his load. I moan his name over and over again as I feel my body shake and my vision black out for a few seconds. The warmth of his cum feels like heaven to me it makes me lock my legs around him.

Heavy breathing and panting fill the room and I see Mansk’s arms tremble. I pull him down, letting him know it’s okay to lay on me and he follows my movements, gently lowering himself down onto me.

I cradle his head while my other arm halfway wraps around his back. His face is once again buried in the crook of my neck and I press my cheek against his, absolutely thriving with the warmth of his body.

Mansk wraps his arms under my waist, hugging me while still being buried deep inside me.

We stay like that for a few minutes, regaining our breath and enjoying the other’s company and body.

Our tsaheylu’s disconnected and fell apart which Mansk felt. He looked at them before meeting my gaze, the scene reminding him of something.

“Please stay…” he whispers, while giving me the softest puppy eyes ever. I wasn’t going to say no, but now I definitely couldn’t.

“Of course.” I smile, blinking through my teary eyes from the orgasm. “I don’t want to leave.”

“You don’t ever have to.” he replies, smiling at me. I giggle, running my hand through the hair on his head before he kisses me again and carefully rolls off my body. Surprisingly, he manages to stay inside me and doesn’t pull out.

He pulls me onto him this time, so we’re laying chest to chest and I look up at him while resting my chin on his torso.

“Is it okay if we stay like this?” he asks me, rubbing his thumb against my cheek before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I lean into his touch, adjusting myself to get comfortable.

“Yes please.” I answer with a soft chuckle, not wanting to lose the feeling of him inside me. Somehow it was comforting and I’ve never felt better or safer in my life. Being in his arms was the safest place I could be.

“I want to be close to you.” he says, nuzzling his face against the top of my head and I smile again.

“I love you.” I blurt out, wanting to remind him of that because this is definitely the best thing that has happened to me in fucking ages.

His ears perk forwards and the words and he smiles, letting them droop to the sides.

“I’m so lucky to have you.” he says, squeezing me and making me laugh.

We exchange a few more words before Mansk covers us both in his blanket and leans over to turn the light off.

His arms stay wrapped around me and I fall asleep tracing the specks of light and the patterns in his skin.

Tag list : @drinking-tea-and-be-obsessed

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