#but also my eyebrows are jet black and thick as shit so i’d have to bleach em

[pollenallergie]

what if i… bleached my hair?? and bleached my brows?? and bleached my latina ‘stache?? and bleached my hairy ass arms??? and what if i just dipped my entire body in a vat of bleach??? what then???

[cantpickonefandoms]

Gwen, It’s Cold Outside

It was a quiet, peaceful, afternoon on a Saturday in December. It was a chilly, windy, grey day, the perfect sort of day to stay inside watching movies for the entirety of the day. That was exactly what two teenagers had decided to spend their day doing, the boy and girl were currently seated on a couch with a bowl of popcorn being shared between them, and a Christmas movie playing on the TV in front of them. The boy, who had jet-black messy hair, and bright emerald-green eyes, spoke up. "I still say this is a Halloween only movie." His gothic companion rolled her eyes at his comment. "That's because you're closed-minded, Trent." "I am not!" Trent protested. "I've just always watched Nightmare Before Christmas around Halloween, never around Christmas." The Goth smirked at him. "Well, you can enjoy watching Nightmare Before Christmas once a year, while I get to watch it twice a year." Trent snorted. "Please, you and I both know you watch this movie way more than twice a year, Gwen." Gwen didn't look at all ashamed at the comment, in fact, her smirk widened. "Well, of course I do. It's the best Disney movie." "Mmm, yeah, no. Aladdin is way better." "That is complete and utter bullshit!"

Trent just grinned and shook his head, he turned his head, deciding to turn his attention back to the movie rather than continuing to bicker with Gwen. He smiled as he watched Jack sing his way through Christmas Town, even though Trent certainly didn't love the movie as much as Gwen did, he still did really like the movie. In particular, Trent loved the music, but he did also love the animation and the story, plus he found he had a lot of sympathy for Sally, having feelings towards someone who didn't reciprocate those feelings? Trent could relate. With that thought in mind, Trent's eyes flicked back to the Goth sitting next to him. Trent had known Gwen for nearly three years now, since they met in grade nine, he was one of the few people who succeeded in getting close to the Goth, and Trent was forever grateful that Gwen had allowed him to get past her walls. Trent couldn't pinpoint when his feelings towards Gwen had gone from being friendly to being a crush, just that at some point Trent had become very aware of how much he blushed around Gwen, and how often he stared at her when Gwen wasn't looking. As if on cue, Gwen suddenly turned her head to Trent, and Trent immediately snapped his head forward, praying that Gwen wouldn't comment on his staring, he could feel the heat rising on his cheeks, how did he almost always end up in this situation around Gwen? Thankfully, Gwen didn't say anything, and Trent kept his eyes focused on Nightmare Before Christmas for the rest of the movie, he had no intention of ruining his friendship with Gwen by creeping her out with his staring.

The final scene of Jack and Sally kissing faded out and the credits appeared on the screen. Trent sat up and grabbed the remote off the table and pressed stop. Gwen sat up as well and stretched her arms. "Well, that was fun." Gwen said as she stood up, picked her phone up, and looked at it. "7:00, I'd better get going." Trent stood up too. "Alright, I'll walk you to the door." Trent offered. Gwen nodded, and the two made their way towards Trent's front entrance. As they were walking Trent took a look out the living room window, and his eyes widened at what he saw. "Oh crap." Gwen overheard Trent and came back to him. "What?" Trent pointed a finger towards the window. "That." Gwen turned her head towards the window and her eyes widened as well. "Oh, come on! I have to drive home in that?" Gwen complained. While Gwen and Trent had been watching their movies, it had started to snow a lot, and as they were looking out the window, there was already a good twenty centimeters of snow on the ground! "Freaking Canada." Gwen grumbled under her breath. "Well, I'd better get going before the snow gets any worse." Gwen said, as she made her way towards Trent's front door.

"Er, hold on Gwen." Trent said, as he looked back out the window. It didn't look like the snow would be stopping any time soon, and Trent could barely see beyond the thick snowflakes coming down outside. Trent turned to look at Gwen. "Are you sure you should drive in these conditions?" Trent asked her carefully, he knew had to be very careful about how he worded this to Gwen, one wrong word and he knew Gwen would be getting very defensive about how she could take care of herself. Trent watched as Gwen's eyebrows furrowed. "Not that I think you're an incompetent driver or anything. It's just that it looks pretty bad out there, maybe it would be better if you stayed here, it might stop snowing sometime later tonight." Trent said quickly. "Or it could keep snowing until tomorrow. This is my best chance to get home tonight, Trent. I appreciate your concern but-" Gwen suddenly got interrupted by a buzzing sound, Gwen took her phone out of her skirt pocket and looked at the screen. "Oh, it's my mom." Gwen said as she slid her finger across the screen and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?... Hi mom... Mmm hmm... Yes, we did notice the snow... What?... Oh... Ok, well I guess I'll see you later, maybe... Love you too, bye." Gwen tapped the button on her phone and put it back in her pocket. "What happened?" Trent asked. "Looks like you're getting your wish Trent. I can't leave, the city closed the roads." Trent's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Oh! Do they know for how long?" Gwen shrugged. "Nope, it's for an undetermined amount of time." "Well then I guess it's the two of us for the next little while, since my parents won't be back from their business trip until tomorrow." Gwen nodded. "Ok." "So, how does some dinner sound?"

The pair sat talking and eating, they were enjoying themselves as they waited out the snowstorm. Trent took his and Gwen's plates and brought them to the dishwasher, then he turned to Gwen. "So, what do you want to-" Trent suddenly stopped talking as all the lights in the kitchen suddenly all blinked on, then off, then on again. Gwen looked at the lights cautiously. "Ok... That was weird." Gwen said. "Yeah..." Trent said, as he too eyes the lights carefully. "Hopefully that was it, and the lights won't shut off-" The lights shut off again, and this time they didn't turn back on. "Well, that's not good." Trent muttered. "Yeah, no shit." A moment later Trent could make out the light coming from the flashlight on Gwen's phone, Trent followed Gwen's example and did the same with his phone. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say the snowstorm caused this blackout." Gwen said. "That's the most likely scenario." Trent agreed. "And seeing as I don't think the snow is going to be stopping any time soon, I'm also guessing we're not going to be getting the electricity back for a while." Gwen added. "Probably." Trent said. "And I think it's safe to say that I'm probably going to be crashing here tonight." Trent nodded. "Which means you and I need to figure some things out. Like how we're going to stay warm." Trent's eyes widened. "Oh crap, you're right, no electricity means no heat." "Don't panic, Trent. All things considered, this situation could be way worse, we already ate so we don't need to worry about food, I think the only main concern right now is staying warm." "I'm not panicking." Trent said honestly. "I guess I just suddenly became aware of what sort of situation we're in right now." "Well, come on, lets focus on getting a few things prepared, shall we?"

After doing a search for flashlights, candles, and matches ("In case our phones die." Gwen had said.), Trent grabbed some of the thickest blankets he could find, and gave some to Gwen so she could get set up in the guest bedroom, while Trent brought his own blankets to his room. By the time they were both situated in their rooms it was already 10:00 and no electricity meant they couldn't watch movies, no electricity also meant no Wi-Fi, so Trent's laptop wasn't an option either, and neither of them really wanted to use their phones because their phones were their main light source and the only way they could currently communicate with their family ("This is really making me realize exactly how much we rely on electricity." Trent commented). With all that in mind Gwen and Trent agreed there wasn't much left to do other than try and get some sleep. After bidding Gwen goodnight, Trent headed to his room, changed into his pajamas, and got into bed. Trent laid awake, he wasn't afraid of the dark, but there was something Trent found eerie about the darkness in his room, maybe it was because it was pitch black in his room, usually he could see the light from the streetlight coming through his bedroom window, but tonight there was nothing but darkness. At least he wasn't cold, Trent had always been fairly resistant towards being cold, the cold didn't bother him all that much.

Trent continued to toss and turn, for some reason he just couldn't sleep. This went on for some time, until Trent suddenly heard a tapping noise. Trent sat up, looking towards his bedroom door, and this time he heard it for sure: A soft tapping on his bedroom. Was Gwen still awake? "Gwen?" "Can I come in?" Gwen was speaking very softly, and Trent wasn't quite sure why, they were the only ones in the house after all. "Sure." A moment later Gwen came into his room with a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders. "Couldn't sleep?" Gwen shook her head, she made her way over to Trent and sat at the end of Trent's bed. Trent observed Gwen's silhouette, there was some odd going on with her, Gwen wasn't looking at him, she was looking at her feet. "What's wrong, Gwen?" Trent asked. "I'm cold." Gwen said. Trent blinked on confusion for a moment, he couldn't understand how Gwen could be possibly be cold, with the mountain of blankets he had given her, but then Trent remembered something: Gwen was incredibly sensitive to the cold, she often said that she wished that she had Trent's ability to resist the cold. "Ok, do you want more blankets?" Gwen shook her head; she still wasn't looking at Trent. "I was thinking of another way we could both stay warm, actually." Gwen said quietly. "Ok..." Why was Gwen acting so strange? "I thinking... Maybe we could use... Body heat?" Trent blinked a few times, he was attempting to process what exactly Gwen was suggesting, then it finally clicked on why Gwen was acting so odd, Gwen was shy. Trent knew Gwen very well, and she was a lot of things: Sarcastic, tough, and blunt were words that came to mind, but shy? That was a new one, but Trent understood why, a boy and a girl who were friends sharing a bed was definitely a little awkward, thought Trent thought it might be little more awkward for him than it would be for Gwen, considering his feelings for her were more than friendly.

"Er, well- I mean-" Trent stuttered, he could feel his face heating up, he was suddenly very glad his room was pitch black. "Only if- If you're comfortable with it." "Would I be suggesting it if I wasn't comfortable with it?" "Well- I guess not, but-" "Trent, look at me." Trent looked up, and he was surprised to find Gwen looking back at him, he could just make out the twin glints coming from Gwen's eyes. "We've been friends for a while now, haven't we?" Trent blinked. "Yeah." Where was Gwen going with this? "And we're pretty close, right?" "Yes." "Then I think it would take a lot more than sharing a bed so we don't freeze to make things awkward between us, don't you?" Trent paused; Gwen's logic was pretty sound. Trent just hoped he would survive sleeping next to his crush. "Yeah, you're right." Trent could sense Gwen's trademark sly smirk spreading across her face. "I usually am." Trent chuckled at that, and with that, Trent screwed up his courage, shifted to the left side of his bed, and lifted his covers so Gwen could get in. A moment later Trent was lying face to face with Gwen, being this close to Gwen's face, Trent could make out her facial features in the dark, her snow-white skin, her charcoal-coloured eyes that Trent could spend forever staring at, her pointy nose, and her lips. God who knows how many times Trent had imagined kissing her, leaning in and pressing his lips against hers, he had often wondered what her lips would feel like pressed against his, he highly doubted it would ever happen though, he was positive Gwen only thought of him as a friend and- What was he doing? Trent suddenly came out of his fantasy and suddenly became very aware of what he was doing, he, in real time, had actually been leaning into Gwen's face. Trent quickly laid his head back on the pillow, and then looked at Gwen, she was still awake.

Crapcrapcrapcrap CRAP Trent felt like his face was going to burst into flames. "...Trent?" This was it; Gwen was going to demand to know what the hell he was doing, there was not getting out of this. "Are you ok?" Oh, apparently not. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Trent said quickly. "Ok..." It didn't sound like Gwen believed him, Trent didn't blame her, he knew he didn't sound very convincing. Trent yawned. "I think we should go to sleep now." Trent said. "I guess so..." "Ok, goodnight." Trent said quickly, then he threw his arm around Gwen and shut his eyes, then he became aware the he had out his arm around Gwen's waist. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Trent quickly lifted his arm off of Gwen, he could feel his face heating up even more. "Sorry." Trent said. "It's ok, I didn't mind." Had Trent heard that correctly? "You could do it again, if you want to." Trent could not believe what he was hearing, as if his face wasn't on fire as it was, what was Gwen trying to do? Make him combust? "O-Ok." Trent put his arm back around Gwen, and slowly pulled her towards him until Gwen's body was pressed against his. Trent silently marveled at how Gwen's body fit perfectly against his, like a puzzle piece. "You're pretty tense, Trent." Gwen commented quietly. "Oh, sorry." "You can relax, Trent, it's just me." But she wasn't 'just Gwen' not to him, she meant so much to him, and ruining things between them terrified him. Not that he was going to tell Gwen that, so Trent shifted a bit and allowed himself to relax, allowing himself to enjoy this moment of having Gwen right next to him. With that, Trent, and Gwen, fell asleep.

The next morning Trent awoke to sunlight filling his room, he took in his surroundings and recalled what had happened last night, and how Gwen had ended up in his bed. A part of him really didn't want to move, there was no way an opportunity to have Gwen this close to him was ever going to happen again, he really wanted to enjoy this, but at the same time Trent knew he should get up and find out if the electricity was back on. With that, Trent carefully shifted himself so he wouldn't disturb Gwen, and crept out of his room and headed downstairs. Trent made his way over to the light switch and pressed it, and to Trent's delight, the overhead light in his living room turned on. Once Trent had his confirmation that the electricity was back on, Trent decided to look outside, he went over to his living room window and looked out onto the street and immediately groaned. There was tons of snow, about forty centimeters of it, and Trent was not looking forward to shoveling it. Then Trent heard the sound of footsteps, and Trent turned around to find Gwen coming up to him. "Good morning." Trent said. "Morning, electricity back on?" Trent nodded. "Good, I'm glad, and how's it looking outside?" Gwen looked out the window and she groaned as well. "Can't wait to drive home in that." Gwen said sarcastically. "Come on, I'll make us some breakfast." Trent said, and the pair headed towards the kitchen.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, neither Trent nor Gwen were particularly talkative that morning. Trent wondered if it was because of him, sure the silence between them didn't feel awkward, but Trent couldn't help but wonder if he had somehow caused this. Once they had finished eating, Trent put their dishes in the dishwasher, and walked Gwen to the door. As Gwen was putting on her Winter clothes she suddenly spoke up. "You know, despite the situation being a little strange, I think I'd do this again." Trent raised an eyebrow at Gwen. "Oh yeah?" "Yeah, I'm honestly glad I wasn't snowed in with my mom and my brother, we probably would've only gotten an hour into it before me and Gavin would've tried to kill each other." Trent chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. I could think of worse people to be snowed in with for a night." "That's the spirit." Gwen said. "Oh, by the way, thanks for last night." "Oh, no problem." "I know it was a little awkward, but I don't think it was that bad overall, do you?" "No, you're right, it wasn't that bad." Trent said honestly. Despite me acting like an idiot. "Yeah, maybe we should do it again sometime." Gwen had a teasing grin on her face at this point, so Trent figured she was probably joking. "Y-yeah, maybe we should." Trent said, trying desperately to go along with Gwen's joke. "Yeah, maybe you'll actually kiss me next time." Trent's face went bright red, and his jaw dropped, whatever he had been expecting Gwen to say, it certainly hadn't been that. Gwen definitely wasn't joking; she had a dead serious look on her face. "H-how- How did you-" "Oh come on Trent, even in the dark it was kind of obvious what you were trying to do. Do you think I'm an idiot?" "No!" Trent cried. "I-I just... Hoped you hadn't noticed?" That sounded lame even to Trent, because of course Gwen had noticed. Trent looked down at his shoes, he couldn't look at Gwen now. She knew, the cat was out of the bag, this was the part where Gwen told him that she didn't feel the same way, then she going to leave, and that would be it. Friendship over.

"Trent?" Here it comes. Trent couldn't look up. "Can you look at me?" Trent didn't want to, he really didn't, but he also couldn't say no to Gwen. Trent looked up and into Gwen's eyes. There was no pity, her expression was neutral, and unreadable. "Did you honestly think I never noticed the way you blush and stutter around me? Or how you stare at me when I think I'm not looking?" Trent felt his face reddening even more. "Well- Yes? No! I- I don't know! You never commented on it." Trent pointed out. As Trent said it, a question came to him, why hadn't Gwen ever mentioned anything before? To spare his feelings? To avoid making things even more awkward? "What didn't you tell me that you knew, Gwen?" Trent asked her. Trent watched as Gwen chewed on her bottom lip nervously. "I was afraid I reading your feelings incorrectly. If I had been wrong about how you felt then..." Gwen swallowed. "Then you wouldn't feel the same way I felt about you." Trent's jaw dropped to for the second time. Had he heard that correctly? "Are- Are you being serious?" Trent asked. "Dead serious, Trent, I would never lie to you about something like this." Gwen said very seriously. Giddy happiness surged through Trent, Gwen had feelings for him. This was, without a doubt, the happiest moment in Trent's life. A grin spread across Trent's face, and when he looked at Gwen, he saw that she had a matching grin. He walked straight up to Gwen, Trent stopped when his face was about a centimeter from Gwen's, then he put Gwen's face between his hands, pulled her face towards his, and pressed his lips against hers. It was better than Trent had ever imagined. The kiss was short and sweet, but still perfect, Trent was the one who pulled back. "Gwen, will you be my girlfriend?" Trent asked her. Gwen's smile widened. "I thought you'd never ask." Trent laughed, then he pulled Gwen back in for another kiss.

End

[deleted-blog-29583]

I’ll request for something (and I’ll try to make sure it’s interesting ^^”) What about an Anti x reader where Anti meets the reader who is a fellow demon? Maybe the reader intervenes a fight between Anti and Dark? (Also for a possible tip to help get requests: sometimes people are too shy to show their users so it might be good if ya put on anonymous asks! :3 I didn’t know this before and didn’t get requests until I turned it on.)

Thanks for requesting, and i'll bare that in mind!! Thanks for the advice :)) and sorry this is out so late ah!

Savior | Antisepticeye x Reader

• • •

Characters: Antisepticeye x reader

Summary: Anti meets the love of his life a fellow demon and they instantly bond, but when Dark shows up, things get messy.

Warnings: Swearing? Fighting? Smoking?

• • •

The sky was a dark orange and the air was thick with the cold, the evening fading into a freezing night. You drew the cigarette slowly, savouring it's warmth, then releasing it in a ribbon-like silvery haze into the nipping air. Your jet black eyes scanned the horizon and you legs dangled over the edge of the bridge as the cars rolled past underneath you.

You knew for a human this was dangerous, but you were no human, so sitting on a bridge was meerly fun for a demon like you. The lights of Brighton shone brighter as the sky darkened, and you tossed the cigarette over the bridge.

"Littering's bad, ya know." A voice piped up behind you. Whoever it was, he was walking on the ledge of the bridge, clearly unafraid of falling.

"Walking on the edge of a bridge is bad, ya know." You imitated him, chuckling at your own joke.

"Whatever." He growled, sitting next to you. You were a little confused, but he seemed like a nice enough guy, so you didn't mind. "It's not every day you see another demon." He piped up. Your breath hitched.

"Another demon?" You questioned. "You're a-"

"Demon, yup. Nice to meetcha." He smirked, holding out a hand. He was a weird guy, but he seemed sweet. You shook his hand gently. His smirk faded quickly, clearly he wasn't used to smiling.

"What gave me away?" You asked, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear.

"Your eyes, dumbass." He replied.

"Oh, right. My horrible black orbs." You rolled your eyes sadly at your own appearence.

"Horrible? What drugs are you on." He shook his head with a chuckle. "They're...beautiful."

"Thanks." You replied, accepting the compliment from the cute stranger. "Anyways, i'm y/n."

"Anti."

"Anti..? Anti what?"

"Septiceye. Antisepticeye." He blushed a little, clearly a bit embarrassed by his full name.

"Cute." You chuckled.

"Shut up."

A silence befell you two, a comfortable yet chilling silence. You didn't even know him but something about him was calm, in a demonic way at least. Meeting another demon was always a treat, especially when they were friendly. You could tell he felt the same, he was sitting oddly close to you and kept glancing at you with soft eyes. He didn't want to admit it, but he liked you. Even though he didn't know you, he felt a connection. And it confused him.

However, the calm didn't last long, as another voise rose from behind. The cars seemed to all...stop, shifting and glitching.

"Anti, you know we can't be out here like this." It was a dark voice, a villainous voice, definitely demonic but not like Anti. This felt evil, even for a demon.

"Go away." Anti snarled. Clearly whoever it was hadn't taken any notice to you yet.

"I can't, exposure is not an option." It replied. "Huh, another demon. Interesting." He turned his attention to you, raising an eyebrow. You turned to face him, frowning.

"Fuck off." You replied, agitated at his tone and his entitlement.

"Yup. Definitely a demon." He sighed. "C'mon Anti, we need to go. And you, you should get back to whereever you came for."

"Leave her out of this, dark." Anti replied, snarling. Dark. So that was his name.

"Don't make me use force." Dark replied, eyes narrowing in anger.

"I'd like to see you try." Anti replied, hissing and leaping to his feet, eyes glowing green and a dark magic surrounding his hands. You stood up too, not in confrontation but in surprise, and watched as they began to circle each other.

"I'm so sick of you going around and thinking you control everyone!" Anti yelled. Dark raised an eyebrow, and his powers began to appear. He was clearly stronger than Anti, but that didn't stop him. The fight began, Anti was the first to make a move. His magic shot towards Dark but he fought off the attack quickly. This continued for a few minutes, and the longer it went on the more you wanted to help Anti.

A huge, black, swirling abyss appeared above Dark, and he readied himself to throw it towards Anti. You couldn't do notning, so you threw yourself at Anti and off the bridge. At that moment, the cars began to move again. Dark had gone, you could see him disappear off the bridge as you were falling. You both hit the ground with a thud, rolling off the road and into a nearby ditch, surrounded by shrubs and leaves.

"Thanks." He panted, as he stumbled to hi feet. "Sorry for disturbing your peaceful evening." He spat, seemingly sarcastically but he meant it.

"It's fine." You replied casually, still sitting on the ground. "Are you good?"

"Thanks to you." He admitted, annoyed at his dependency to you.

"You put up a good fight. I just...didn't want to see you get hurt. Really hurt." You shrugged, scratching your neck awkwardly. "Ah, shit!" You exclaimed as you went to walk forward, but fell back to the floor. A pain had suddenly spread across your leg, an unknown yet excruciating pain. You must've broken your ankle on the way down or something, but didn't realise until you needed to walk.

"Y/n?" Anti asked hurriedly, kneeling down next to you. He looked at your battered ankle and sighed.

"Fuck, i think it's broken..." you winced, trying to stand. You weren't upset or in pain, just frustrated.

"I can help you. It's the least i can do for you saving my ass. I'll take you somewhere, somewhere safe, and have you healed." He helped you to one foot, and leaned forward.

"Do you trust me?" He voice was quiet and low, and you scanned his face. Without thinking, you replied.

"Yes." Without warning, he scooped you into his arms and began walking. "W-what the hell?!"

"You said you trusted me, so i'm taking you somewhere safe, so you can heal. It's ok, it's not far."

"Are you sure? I can understand if you want to leave me here, i'll be fine on my own." You replied. He stopped.

"Let me help you. Please?" He asked, his voice softer this time. You could tell he wanted to make it up to you, for saving him. You sighed.

"Ok. Fine. Thank you."

"You need to get used to me." He said randomly, and you looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because i have the feeling we'll be friends for a loooooong time~"

[shawnsorangeglasses]

The Opposition - Part 1

2.7k words

the law student!shawn au is here and all because i can't keep my mouth shut or my hand down. meet Caroline (she'll get a surname later). today she has turned Shawn's morning on it's head.

warnings: none, bon appetit

Shawn saunters across the northernmost green lawn, deliberately crunching leaves beneath his heels. There's about five other people are heading in the same direction, weighed down by their heavy bags and arms full of folders. He remembers a time when he used to be like them. Green, small, and in a hurry. But he’d been in law school for two semesters now and the worst was behind him. He never had to join some stupid fraternity and even has an internship squared away at a decent firm just within city limits for next year.

His phone buzzes in his coat pocket but he doesn’t need to look at it. It’s only the alarm to remind him that orientation is in an hour. He’s supposed to be greeting incoming students today and participate on a student panel. Just enough time to grab breakfast from the cafeteria.

The dining hall is virtually empty as it is most early mornings. Other than a couple people sat by the window tables, the room was dead. Shawn meanders through vacant chairs while briefly checking his email. His employer for the summer break has yet to get back to him on details of his position at the firm. Any information he could get his hands on to prepare is invaluable to say the least.

Then a person bumps right into him right before he can pass the vending machines, spilling chilled water all the way down his front.

"Shit," she whispers, then turns reaches over to a table for some napkins. "Sorry, sir. I should have been paying attention."

"Sir?"

The woman takes a better look at his face. "Oh, you're a student. Dressed like the dean?" She hands him a bundle of napkins. "Halloween isn't for a couple of months."

Shawn has to stop himself from snatching them out her hand. "I have a panel to do this morning," he says through his teeth.

"The student panel? What time are you-"

"Do me and everyone else a favor and watch where you're going from now on."

She scoffs. "Excuse me, Trench Coat, but you ran into me. Try looking up from your phone for once. I was here first."

"Didn't you just apologize to me for not paying attention?"

"Yeah but that was before I realized you're a prick."

Shawn takes a closer look at her now that she's insulted him. At first glance, it looks like a mess, but he starts to wonder if she purposefully dressed this way. Her jet black hair is big and wild, contained only by a headband. She definitely doesn't look like any other female student he's seen this morning, wearing a faded Eagles t-shirt, black sweats, and untied sneakers. He checks his watch. Forty-five minutes.

"Listen, I’d love to stand here and win this argument, but I have somewhere important to be."

"Hm, hope your attitude improves before then," she says as she slips past him.

Shawn shakes his head as she shoulder checks him on the way out. He looks down at his wet button down and slacks. The best solution for now was to just button his coat and grab something quick for his stomach. He would not allow himself to be messed up by this stranger.

…

It's several minutes before orientation begins. Shawn is bounding across the parking lot, coat still buttoned up in the August heat. A few moments sat in a sunny courtyard table didn't do much to dry his clothes, but he couldn't afford to waste any more time. He ended buying an overpriced iced tea from the campus Starbucks and moved on. Harrison, his fellow SGA member and roommate, is waiting for him outside on the auditorium steps doing a crossword puzzle. He flashes that crooked smile at the sight of Shawn and scrambles to his feet.

"What happened to you? You're usually here before me."

"I just got sidetracked at breakfast by this girl."

Harrison's jaw drops, dramatic as usual. "You finally got a girlfriend?"

Shawn rolls his eyes. "Why is love all you think about? No, in fact this person in particular was actually pretty rude." He opens his coat. "She did this to me."

Harrison's eyebrows hike up. "Oh."

"I just want to do the panel and end this day already."

"Well just a heads up, we have a newbie, uh Caroline, joining the club. She's really cool, I think she'll be a nice addition."

"Good, because the last thing student government needs is another wrench thrown in the middle."

The dimly lit lobby is filled with students waiting to be let in. Shawn and Harrison cross the foyer and enter the vacant auditorium. In the center of the stage is a table and a young woman with her back turned to the seats.

"Caroline," Harrison calls out, "this is Shawn. The guy I was telling you about earlier."

Shawn almost chokes on his drink when she turns around. Of course, it's the young woman from the dining hall, dressed very different from before. She's traded her sweats for a slim red dress and her once wild hair is tied back in a neat bun. A wry smile plays on her lips, which now also wear a dark brown paint.

"Trench Coat," she chirps.

"You?!" Shawn can't control his tone. His voice echoes all the way into the lobby.

"I don't fucking believe it." Caroline places a hand on her backside. "Have you fixed your attitude yet?"

"You two know each other," asked a very confused, but also amused, Harrison.

"Unfortunately," Shawn bites. "She's the reason my clothes are a mess."

Caroline hops down from the stage and jogs up to them. "It's just water. And again, you ran into me."

Shawn blinks in disbelief. "Who the hell let you on SGA? On this panel?"

"I did."

Attie Bartlett emerges from behind the curtain with another chair for the panel. She's fairly easy to mistake for a student with her 5'2" stature and simple clothes. The only thing that gives her away now is the patch of gray on the top of her hairline. Shawn composes himself in her presence. Attie's been the SGA sponsor since long before he enrolled.

"I don't know what's going on with you kids, nor do I care, but you need to get backstage and wait to be called."

Harrison and Caroline run past the curtains. Shawn stays put, frozen at the edge of the orchestra pit. He contemplates diving head first into the music stands. Attie's just about to walk to the entrance and let the new students in when he stops her short.

"Ms. Attie, you can't be serious about Caroline," he whispers.

"I know," she sighs and keeps walking, "she's a tad different from what you're used to. But give her a chance. She might surprise you."

"I hate surprises."

"Go. Backstage." Attie gives him the look and Shawn sulks away. As he's passing the curtain, he tosses what's left of his tea in a nearby trash bin.

Naturally, Harrison is chatting away with Caroline in the girls dressing room. Shawn peeks inside from behind the door. "Harrison, you and I can't be in here."

"It doesn't really matter if there's only one fully clothed girl in here, Shawn," says Caroline. "I grant you passage."

He steps into the cramped room, "I wasn't talking to you."

She's staring back at him, smug and smart in her little red dress. Harrison is sat on the counter in front of the wall mirror. The vanity lights above his head make his usually brown hair glow with a tinge of red orange. Shawn takes the space next to Harrison, leaning back with his arms crossed, eyeing Caroline. She holds his gaze, not at all bothered.

"You guys, this is so great," Harrison beams. He continues to ramble on about how SGA needed more girls since the last few graduated this past spring. Only Shawn's not really listening. He's watching Caroline, taking everything in. Thick, dark eyebrows. A dimple in one cheek. Large, sharp nose. All of it impossibly irritating. Especially how even when she's not smiling, the sides of her mouth still curl upwards like she is.

Harrison's still reeling. "She's like a girl you, but relaxed. I'd say we might be a solid friend group again."

"We're not friends, Harry," Shawn mumbles. This makes her ears perk up and her eyes narrow.

"Well, why can't we be?" Harrison, all the more hopeful, moves next to Caroline. "I mean this feels right."

"Yeah, Shawn," Caroline chimes in. "This feels right."

"Quit saying 'feels' like that." Shawn rises to his feet, so he's just barely towering over Caroline. "I won't go that far, but I suppose a welcome is in order. SGA and the Student Mentors take any and all who qualify and I have to trust Ms. Attie made the right decision, as much as I may disagree."

Caroline extends her hand, beckoning Shawn to shake it. He takes hold of it cautiously. "I look forward to working with you Shawn."

Attie knocks on the door and it swings open. "Hey, come get in place you three."

…

The newcomers had plenty of questions and for whatever reason took a strong liking to Caroline. Every word that fell out of her mouth was charming and funny. No other person in student government had that kind of effect on people. And although he'd never say it out loud, Shawn was impressed.

Then orientation ends and Shawn can't leave fast enough. He and Harrison are halfway down the steps when his friend pulls on his sleeve.

"Oh, there's Caroline."

Sure enough, she is standing a few feet away from them, earbuds in, scrolling through her phone. Her hair is out again. "Let's invite her to lunch with us," Harrison says and starts to walk in her direction.

Shawn yanks on his jacket. "Harrison, she doesn't want to eat with us," he hisses

"How do you know? We haven't even asked her yet. Caroline!"

She takes a second to look away from her phone. "Yeah?"

"We're going to Waffle House right now. You wanna come?"

She glances at Shawn but he immediately averts his gaze to the nearest tree. "Only if it's okay with him."

Harrison glares at Shawn, and he sucks in his cheeks. "Sure," he says, forcing a smile, "the more the merrier."

Caroline skips down the steps to join them at the sidewalk. Harrison links arms with her while Shawn keeps his flush at his sides, hands stuffed deep in his pockets. As walk they off the campus grounds, he starts to relax. Strolling like this always clears his head. He seldom ever walked anywhere without being pressed for time.

"So what're you two studying," Caroline asks.

"I'm majoring in literature and Shawn's in criminal law," Harrison says proudly. "You should see him in the mock trials they put on every other weekend."

"I do okay," says Shawn.

"He does fantastic," Harrison corrects. "Last semester, he owned Jared Price's ass in every single trial."

Shawn suppresses a smile. Harrison enjoys boasting about his friends and he always means every word.

"So that's what you meant when you said you'd 'win this argument' in the dining," Caroline murmurs.

Shawn almost didn't hear her say it, and she's pretending he's not there when he looks her over.

"I may have been a bit coarse when we met this morning. I apologize. You caught me at a bad time."

Her lips twist into a pucker. "I'm sorry for spilling ice water down your pants."

For a brief moment, her eyes meet his. Shawn’s the first to look away when his face feels hot. He clears his throat for no reason.

"See," Harrison squeaks. "We are friends!"

"Don't push it Harry," Shawn warns.

The Waffle House sits on the corner of the school zone's intersection. Despite being a visual sore thumb to the otherwise professional office buildings lining the block, it often stays packed with kids either from the high school or college campus. This Friday however, the crowd was rather thin.

The three students walk into the small diner. Somebody recently put "Mr. Blue Sky" on the jukebox. Harrison makes a beeline for their coveted booth. It was the perfect spot in the corner window and not far from the music.

Caroline takes one side of the booth, and Shawn takes the other. Harrison is sat in the middle. A waitress named Joanne meets their table shortly after they sit down to take the drink orders.

"I'll be right back," she says then dips back into the kitchen. Shawn begins to unpack his laptop. The paper he was revising last night reappears on the screen. He picks up where he left off.

Harrison looks up from his menu, "Shawn, Kate told me she wanted to talk to you."

His nose twitches at the sound of her name. "Tell her I died," he says, not missing a beat.

"Or you could go listen to her?"

"Who's Kate," Caroline asks.

"A good reason to take a shot of cyanide," Shawn sighs.

"Shawn, be nice," Harrison insists. He turns to Caroline. "She's his ex. And probably first real girlfriend. And he needs to talk to her before my data runs out from her texting me about you."

Shawn types faster. "We were hardly anything for two weeks before she completely ghosted me and now she wants to talk? Hard fucking pass."

"First girlfriend," Caroline repeats. "In college?"

Shawn stops typing, "I didn't make time for relationships before now. Besides, I was trying to get into law school."

Harrison leans in Caroline's ear, "Which is insane with his face and body. I had three boyfriends total in high school and I'm a barely a seven."

"Not everybody can be a man whore like you Harrison," Shawn mumbles.

"I am not a man whore," he huffs. "I'm just charismatic. Something you could try a little harder to be."

Joanne comes back with an orange juice for Harrison, two mugs for Shawn and Caroline, and a pot of coffee. She takes their orders again and pours the coffee before leaving. Shawn takes a handful of sugar packets and tears them open one by one over his mug. He's on the fourth packet when he notices Caroline and Harrison staring fondly at him.

"What," he asks, now suddenly very anxious.

"I've just never seen someone load their coffee with so much sugar," Caroline says. Harrison stifles a laugh.

"Well it tastes like hot dirt plain," he claims, nodding to her mug. "So enjoy your cup of hell."

"And I here thought you'd be the mom of the group when it's actually Harry."

"Aw," Harrison coos.

Shawn's eyebrows furrow. "What the hell does that make me?"

"Probably the moody teenager."

Harrison covers his mouth. "Oop."

"Or the old man," she adds. Harrison snorts.

"Alright alright, I get it," he shuts his laptop. “You two are a barrel of laughs.”

A different waiter arrives shortly thereafter with three plates of waffles. The lunch goes well into the afternoon. Caroline made origami frogs out of napkins. At one point, Harrison recited his lines for a Shakespeare project perfectly. Shawn just sat back watched as he entertained Caroline with soliloquies and monologues. He has no choice but to admit this really does feel right.

They end up slightly  overstaying their welcome in the Waffle House and Harrison has to leave for a rehearsal at 3:00 PM. Shawn offers to walk Caroline back to the dorms. To his surprise, she gladly accepts.

“Does this mean we’re friends now,” she asks a few minutes in.

Shawn examines her before. She’s crunching leaves under her toes. “I guess I can make an exception.”

“Well thank you, your honor,” she says, bowing deeply.

Shawn rolls his eyes, “I’m studying to be a lawyer, not a judge.”

Caroline shakes her head. “Always so serious.”

“What’s wrong with serious?”

She shrugs “Nothing. But what’s the harm in loosening up?”

Shawn stops and looks at the enigma before him. She’s looking back at him, waiting for something to happen. He looks around and spots a cluster of dandelions in the grass. He picks one up and sticks it behind his ear. “How’s this for loose,” he asks, holding his arms out.

A cheeky grin spreads across Caroline’s face. She snags a few more flowers from the ground and carefully threads them into his hair. What’s stranger is Shawn lets her. She takes a step back to view her work. Her lashes flutter happily. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

taglist

@spider-mendes @sebsdreamboat @innositer @sauveteen @sinplisticshawn @sohani02 @yourkidsfavbabysitter @imaginesofdreams @matchamendes @gxccicoffee @daisychains4 @tnhmblive @nervousaroundmendes 

[the-recusants-sigil]

Hey again!! Thank you again for the brilliant request- I’ve been editing while I work all day, so sorry for the delay! BUUUUUUT here is Part 2, with Xaldin~

Enjoy! <3

Xaldin

Words: 2784

-It didn't happen often, but at this particular moment, Xaldin was in deep shit.

-His mission was straightforward, and in an ideal situation, there wouldn't have been any danger to begin with. How a simple reconnaissance mission could go so horribly wrong was beyond him.

-In a rush to get out the door that morning, he had skipped eating and hadn't bothered to prepare. No potions, no ethers, not even a packed lunch.Nothing. Though he hadn’t eaten much the day before, either, he wasn't going to bother going back for anything. After all, it was just a pithy little recon mission; what could possibly go wrong?

-A lot, as it turns out.

-He was just supposed to be surveying the land around Beast's Castle. That was all. He was to report back with details about the landscape, the foliage, the climate and anything else that stuck out to him as noteworthy; basically, he was scouting for possible synthesis materials and nothing more. He was not to engage in combat of any sort with anything unless it became entirely necessary.

-An hour in, and what had happened? Wolves. Wolves happened. 

-He noticed them following him at a distance, first. Just a few, with jet black fur, watching him for a few moments and then darting off into the cover of the thick underbrush. They weren’t aggressive, or so he thought. But after the sun went down, he noticed more and more sets of yellow eyes peering at him. Surrounding him.

-It was a large pack, larger than he'd ever seen. Normally, dealing with them would be a cakewalk. In terms of firepower, Xaldin was certainly at an advantage with several lances and power over wind. But these wolves were different. He hadn't seen it at first, but after impaling one  of the beasts, it occurred to him that these were, in fact, Heartless. They hadn't immediately seemed like it, but as the first few burst into clouds of shadow, he was certain that these weren't actually run-of-the-mill timberwolves. Three more of them charged him head-on while the rest of the pack closed in on him. As soon as he dealt with those three, another two leapt at him from behind. Every time he dealt with one, it seemed two more were there to take its place.

-It was more than he could keep up with; the swarm of Heartless was faster and stronger than he'd anticipated, and they were starting to chip away at him. They lunged as soon as he turned his back, gnashing teeth and razor claws tearing at his cloak and ripping  through his flesh. 

-At this point, tired and hungry with nothing to heal himself, Xaldin knew he had to find a way out. With a shout and a strong gust of wind, he propelled himself over the ring of Heartless and towards, what he hoped, was safety. He had hardly any energy to use his powers, though, and barely any energy left to run. And where would he go, he wondered? He had gotten soft. This would have been nothing for him to deal with before.

-Exhausted, hungry, and resigned to failure, the Whirlwind Lancer raised his right hand and summoned a corridor of  darkness to take him home. Something heavy crashed into him from behind; the set of jaws clamping down on his forearm and the Heartless sending him tumbling through the corridor were the last things he remembered.

-At least, from that world, anyway. He could tell right away that something was off. This was, decidedly, not The World That Never Was, because he'd never seen a damn cornfield anywhere in that world. There was also no moon in the sky, whereas back home, the faintest beginnings of a heart-shaped moon hung low in the sky. Something had gone wrong. He knew another corridor just wasn't possible right now, and he briefly wondered what he could do.

-The opportunity to grab a bite to eat had presented itself, though, and he plucked an ear of corn from a stalk before peeling it and biting down. He spit it out immediately- raw corn was tough to chew and, frankly, disgusting.

-He could hear the occasional roaring, whooshing sound not far from him, though, and an acrid smell hung in the air like something had been burning. But it was something, and anything was better than standing around this field with who knows what kind of Heartless. He pushed his way through the stalks as he marched towards the sounds, lifting his boots high to keep them from getting stuck in the loamy soil. It couldn't have been a strawberry patch, oh no. It just had to be fucking corn.

-And suddenly, as he shoved aside the last few cornstalks, he was out in the open. Back on a paved road, just like the roads in the World That Never Was. There was that rumbling noise again--

-A truck horn blared at him and he jumped out of the way just in time as the massive thing went barreling past. Up close, he felt the roar of its engine in his chest, and as it passed, he counted his blessings he hadn't ended up plastered onto the front of it. He watched the eighteen-wheeler thunder down the road and disappear into the night. Apart from the near-death experience, the place didn’t seem too bad. The stars were very visible here, unlike the World That Never Was, and it seemed... peaceful. If he squinted, Xaldin could make out a cluster of lights shimmering in the distance. City lights.

-He looked down the road to see another pair of lights coming, this time from the opposite direction, and he summoned what energy he had left to wave vigorously at the oncoming car.

-You hadn't expected any surprises on your trip back to college. That morning, you'd said a tearful goodbye to your family several hundred miles away, and now you were on the home stretch- five more miles of corn and alfalfa, over the bridge, and back to business. So when a tall man in a torn black coat jumped in front of your Jeep and began flailing wildly, to say you were a little offput would be putting it mildly. As you slammed on your brakes and brought your car to a screeching halt, the man collapsed, falling face first onto the asphalt.

-You were dead tired and not in the mood to deal with any of this, if you were perfectly honest, but what were you going to do- leave him to be vulture fodder? He was still breathing, that much you could see, but you'd want someone to help if you were in his position. You flicked on your hazards and got out, examining the man carefully, one hand on a small pocketknife just in case.

-...............

-How you managed to smuggle him into your apartment without your roommates asking questions was a goddamn miracle. It was also fortunate that you had the unit right next to your elevator, so loading him onto one of the move-in day dollies and getting him up to the fifth floor was a cakewalk.

-In no time, you'd laid out some towels and dumped him unceremoniously onto the couch. He was covered in large gashes, bruises, scrapes, and dirt. You were able to get a closer look at him now: he was tall and broad-chested, with muscles that visibly strained the fabric of his coat. He had long, black hair twisted into braids and prominent sideburns. He looked like some kind of... warrior. While you gathered some supplies to at least clean and dress the wounds you could see, you wondered briefly if he was an actor or something.

-So what had left him this badly hurt? Whoever did this could, and hopefully would, catch a battery and assault charge at the very lightest for what they'd done. 

-The second you touched his arm with a cloth wet with peroxide, his eyes flew open and he looked around wildly. They were an intense violet- mesmerizing, totally unique, like tanzanite.

-”What are you doing? Stop that.”

-You certainly hadn't expected him to be so rude. “Excuse me? I'm trying to help you!”

-”You don't know what you're doing, lass,” he growled, taking the cloth from your hands and undoing the zipper of his coat. The black undershirt he wore was also in tatters, making it even easier for you to see the definition of his abs. It occurred to you, then, that this guy was fucking ripped, and it might not be a great idea to piss him off. “Why did you stop to help me?”

-”Couldn't just leave you. So... do you remember what happened to you? Can you tell me your name?”

-”...Xaldin.”

-”Come again?”

-”My name is Xaldin.”

-”Ah.” The two of you sat in silence for a while. He continued cleaning and dressing his wounds, and you contemplated the whole scenario. Either he remembered everything and wasn't talking, or he remembered perfectly and didn't want to say. Whatever the case, you decided not to press the issue. 

-After a long pause, you finally spoke. “I'm Y/N. I forgot to ask, do you want some water? Something to eat?”

-He looked up, eyebrows raised. “Tea would be lovely if you have any, lass. And anything to eat, really. Very hospitable of you.” He was gruff, straight to the point, yet... something about the way he held himself betrayed that rough exterior. And he hadn't tried to murder you or steal any of your things, which he would have had no trouble doing. That thought made you feel a bit better.

-It dawned on you, though, that there was no food in the apartment because you'd been gone for three months, so you carefully helped him down to the car and drove across town in search of a drive thru open at two in the morning. Finally, you settled on a local burger joint, and as you pulled in front of the menu, you began rattling off recommendations. He wasn't clueless, though- he'd seen these things before, once.

-Those went out the window, though, because Xaldin leaned past you, out the car window, and started ordering. “I'd like two large Number Fives with extra bacon, curly fries with both, and two chicken sandwiches with a side order of chicken tenders. And-”

-You cut him off furiously. “Xaldin! I don't have that much money!” you hissed. He shrugged lightly.

-”I do,” he replied, producing a heaping handful of little yellow... somethings. They were sparkly, sure, but you doubted very much that they would let you pay with what resembled a handful of D&D dice.

-”$48.20, please pull forward.”

-”Shit!” You cried. “Dude, what the hell?”

-”Don't worry about it,” Xaldin said as you pulled forward to the cashier.

-Of course, when Xaldin said “don't worry about it”, what he really meant was, “I'm going to intimidate the cashier into giving us that food”. The young man took one look at Xaldin and decided it wasn't worth the trouble; you sped off towards your apartment with two massive bags of food. Maybe picking this guy up was a mistake?

-But over the next few days, you became accustomed to each other. He stayed in the apartment, for the most part, resting and reading the books on your shelves. You watched him glance through Romeo and Juliet before bitterly flinging it to the side. In your conversations, you were quick to note that Xaldin was a pretty angry guy. Or, at least, it seemed that way. Other times, he was almost eerily placid, like he wasn't quite aware that he should be feeling or acting a certain way. He mentioned heartbreak and a past lover offhandedly once, and it made you wonder just how much this poor man had been through.

-He talked a bit about work, too, and how exhausting it had been. After a surprise termination at his old job, with no severance package or anything, the new job had worked him to the bone from day one. He worked with most of the same coworkers, which was both a positive and a negative according to him. Xaldin noted that this was his first proper “weekend” off in years, and of course it would be spent covered in lacerations.

-At this point, you produced a tall glass and a bottle of red wine from your wine rack. You  uncorked it for him and filled his glass about halfway.

-”Drink up,” you offered. “Sounds like you need it.”

-You spent more time together than you intended to, ditching syllabus week in favor of taking care of Xaldin. There was just something about him that drew you to him. It could have been his voice, the way he worded things, watching his walls come down bit by bit... 

-And just as you enjoyed being with him, you were starting to grow on him, too. He dared not smile in front of you, goodness no, but he showed his growing affection in different ways. When he picked up a package of sausages in Target and tore it open right then and there to get to the good stuff, you panicked and told him that it needed to be paid for first. He listened.

-He picked up on the hints of sadness in your voice when you talked about home, about the family you'd left behind, about all of the pressure on you to strive for greatness when, really, you just wanted to find happiness. Xaldin understood, and for the first time in a long time, he was genuinely sympathetic.

-It was at precisely that point that alarm bells started going off in his head and he knew he had to RTC. 

-He didn't plan on telling you he was leaving. He'd already caused enough turmoil in the past week. But whatever it was about you that he found so comforting, so relaxing- it was so easy to drop the warrior act and just be himself--

-That night, the two of you were mixing drinks and watching The Bachelor, thoroughly enjoying tearing the contestants apart. Even that part of you, he liked- you could be just as vicious as he was and he didn't have to pull punches or mind his manners. You could keep up with him. He hadn't had a connection like that since--

-Since--

-Xaldin's brain short-circuited and the next thing you knew, the man had turned to face you, gripping both of your arms gently yet firmly in either hand, gazing at you with those gorgeous tanzanite eyes. Your breath hitched in your throat as you realized what was happening.

-His eyes snapped shut as your lips collided with his. You pulled yourself into his lap and grabbed a fistful of hair as he deepened the kiss. He wasn't as rough as you imagined he would be; on the contrary, he moved slowly, precisely, enjoying every moment with you. When he nibbled at your lower lip, you obliged, and his tongue swept inside your mouth to explore.

-Five minutes turned into fifteen. Fifteen minutes turned into an hour. It wasn't until the doorknob on the front door rattled that the two of you scrambled off of the couch and darted to your room for a little more privacy.

-..............

-It killed Xaldin to leave the note. It really did. But there were too many liabilities, including his growing affections for you, and he needed to get back to the Castle. With a dull ache in his chest, one that he had long since forgotten, he placed the note on your nightstand and opened a corridor to take him home.

-You awoke the next morning, groggy and sore, with thoughts of cooking a big breakfast for the man. Your heart sank, however, when you noticed the empty spot next to you where Xaldin had been only the night before. Part of you expected this to happen, but it didn't make the hurt any less real: there was no way he was in the bathroom or something, he was just gone.

-A folded piece of notebook paper rested on your nightstand. You knew exactly what it was the moment you spotted it. Slowly, tears welling in your eyes, you unfolded it tenderly and read the neat cursive handwriting:

Y/N,

Sincerest apologies for leaving unannounced, my dear. It was the easiest way for us both. Thank you for showing me kindness, hospitality and warmth; thank you for offering me reprieve from an unforgiving world, however short; and thank you for being a ray of light in a sea of darkness. Until our next meeting.

Yours,

X ~~

[barnesthesarge]

Here For You (4)

Bucky X Enhanced!Reader

Summary: The Avengers have a new enhanced on their radar when they run into you during a HYDRA extraction mission.

Warnings: swearing, violence

A/N: I FUCJING HATE WRITING THE WORD SUIT BECAUSE I ALWAYS WRITE SHIT FIRST

TAGLIST: @ellaorelizabeth @dreamyalienz

“Y/N, I’m sure you’ve tried on your suit?” Tony had his eyebrows up expectantly.

You gave him a funny look, “Tony Stark gives you a new sick-ass suit and you expect that I didn’t try it on as soon as I was alone?” You teased and he grinned.

“Good, you’re going on a test run today, I’m sending you with Wilson and Barnes, data collect. You’ll be briefed in an hour on the Quinjet, be ready.” You grinned, your very first mission.

“I will, thank you Tony.” Tony patted your shoulder and left on the elevator, Bucky snuck up around you and grabbed the coffee pot, purposely getting in your space.

“Hey doll.” He greeted, “excited for today?”

“Hell yes I am.” In turn you got in Bucky’s space to grab sugar for your coffee, shoving your side into his.

“D’ya mind?” He smirked and jabbed your side, and threw his metal arm around you before you could even scram. “I’m excited to see how your training has paid off. You kicked my ass before you even had training, I can’t wait to see what you can do now.”

“Two weeks of training isn’t much, Fucky.” He side-eyed you.

“You better watch yourself.” He threatened playfully.

“Why? You just said I could kick your ass.” You turned and booped his nose, squirming out of his arm to drink your coffee at the table.

Steve put his newspaper down, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips, “So, you two..” Bucky sat down beside you with his eyebrows raised, then shaking his head at Steve. “I’m just saying be safe and watch each other’s backs, Y/N this is your first mission, I have a feeling Bucky is your backup and Sam is gonna watch from above. Don’t be too nervous but don’t go in cocky, alright?” He winked at Bucky. “Watch her back punk.” He went back to his newspaper and Bucky looked at you with a funny face.

“Truth, honor..” he mouthed at you, you smacked his arm as Sam walked in to make his own coffee. “You’ll do great doll, if you can kick my ass, you can kick anyone’s ass.”

Sam perked up, “The ability to kick your ass is easy Barnes.”

You raised one eyebrow, “Sounds like a challenge, you trying to start something?” Sam smiled at that.

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, we’ll just have to see how much your combat has paid off, newbie.”

“I wouldn’t do it Sam, Y/N is kinda tough.” Bucky coughed.

“Yeah but I can kick your ass Tin Man. Easy.”

“Tin man?” You giggled, and Bucky groaned.

“Don’t give her anymore bad nicknames, Bird, I’ll end you.”

———————————————————————

The mission was easy, data extraction, get in get out. You’d done more at a HYDRA facility alone, without a map, and without a fancy suit. Your new suit was made of thick material that was somehow still good on mobility, even though it was tight. It came with boots fitted perfectly for your running capabilities. Tony had even gone the lengths to get you eyewear that was like Sam’s, showing you threats and anything else you could need.

The suit was all black and beautiful, you loved the way it looked, it was sleek and fitting. Bucky sat next to you on the Quinjet and listened to you talk about it for ages.

“It does look really cool doll.” He said, “Makes you look badass.”

“You guys are gross.” Sam chided and you raised your eyebrows.

“What are you saying.” You crossed your arms and he chuckled.

“If I knew I’d be third wheeling the whole time I would’ve made Vision go.” Bucky tensed.

“We aren’t a couple.” You informed and Sam looked at Bucky weirdly.

“Then quit acting like it, I’m talking to you, Terminator.”

“We’ve arrived.” FRIDAY spoke over the intercom, you slipped in the comm you were given and smiled at Bucky.

“See you soon Sam-I-am.” You winked and ran alongside Bucky into position.

Sam made his rounds from up above and confirmed it was safe to proceed, Bucky ran slower to make sure you could keep up. You made a staircase so neither of you had to climb the fence. You’d also opened the door and took out for the first wave of agents.

“Jeez Doll, you gonna let me do anything?” You flashed him a grin and gasped when several agents started down the hallway with big guns.

You threw a shield between you and them, looking to Bucky, “We need to get down this hallway, the room is just to the right..wait! I just remembered!” You formed a gun out of your powers, something your personal coach taught you.

“Yeah that’s great and all, but that pistol isn’t gonna get us through those guys, and something tells me more are coming.” Bucky chuckled and you nodded.

“This is gonna be gross.” You used your powers to slice the agent’s in half, all falling down and becoming nothing instantly, “come on.” You grabbed Bucky’s hand and built a bridge up, pulling him into the room.

You shut the door and gave Bucky the flash drive, “Alright, be my Yoda. Where do I put it?” Bucky raised an eyebrow.

“Doll I haven’t watched Star Wars.” You rolled your eyes and shoved him forward and watched Bucky plug it in. The computer began flashing and doing all the work for you.

“Hey, heads up guys, FRIDAY says the self destruct on the building is activated, you have five minutes.” Sam was in the middle of fighting too, you hoped he was good on his own.

“Oh fun, I love time limits.” Bucky grunted, the flash drive was only 33% complete. Bucky pulled out his gun. “And someone’s coming.”

“Shit, here!” You blocked the door off and Bucky sighed.

“No no, that doesn’t eliminate the threat, let me go kick ass.” You nodded and Bucky stepped outside, you heard gunshots in the hall and prayed that they were only from Bucky’s gun.

“Three minutes.” Sam said just as the flash drive finished. You unplugged it and shoved it into a pocket.

“The flash drive is done, Bucky let’s get out of here.” You threw open the door and went towards the gun shots, helping Bucky finish someone off. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Lead the way Dollface.” You didn’t run into any more agents as you both used your staircase over the fence again, running back to the jet. Once you were inside, the whole place exploded, flames rising in the sky, smoke billowing. The sounds of the building structure groaning and collapsing loud and prominent.

The Quinjet started immediately and flew away, “How’d it go?” Sam asked, a sense of proudness in his voice, it made you feel good.

“Y/N kicked ass! I barely had to do anything!” Bucky jabbed at your side excitedly, “You were so awesome out there.”

You shrugged it off, “the training paid off, I couldn’t have done it without that.”

“Psh, I’ve seen you do it without training.” Bucky winked and you flushed.

“Sounds like you kept Barnes occupied with nothing, Bucky can I get a word in the medbay really quick?” Sam dragged Bucky into a separate room so you walked across the room and got a water.

You could get used to this.

———————————————————————

Bucky kept thinking about what Sam said. Sam pulled him into the medbay, “Bucky please tell me you asked out Y/N already.”

“What?” Bucky was shocked, “Why would I do that?” He chuckled, trying to act cool.

“Because you like her? And she obviously likes you back?” Sam rolled his eyes.

“Y/N sees me as a friend, that’s it.” He paused, “And so do I about-towards her.”

“Don’t be stupid Bucky, a girl like that doesn’t come around often, and a girl like that doesn’t always like you back. Ask her out, and if she’s not into it just say you meant it in a friendly way.” He scolded and then left the room.

Bucky now raised his fist and knocked on your door, “Come in!” You yelled. He opened the door and sat on your bed, both of you freshly showered.

“Hey Y/N.” He greeted, he watched you type away furiously on your laptop.

“One sec Buck, I’m almost done with my report.” You typed for another thirty seconds and then stopped, “There we go.”

“I finished mine in like two minutes because you did everything.” Bucky grinned at you proudly, it was amazing to see the way you focused when using your powers.

“Oh shut it. You’re being modest.” He rolled his eyes and pinched your cheek, you swatted his hand away.

“Anyways Doll, I was thinking..to celebrate a successful mission, why don’t we go out together and grab dinner, just me and you.” You raised your brows.

“Just us? Sam was there too y’know.” You giggled.

“Do you like him or something? I think he’s a bit of a punk.” Bucky teased, but suddenly nervous.

“Sam’s cool, I just figure if we’re celebrating a mission we should invite the people involved, plus I need more friends.” You shrugged.

“Oh well let me rephrase it, I want to celebrate how much of a good team we make.” He saw you frown, “there’s always plenty of time to make friends with everyone else.”

“Alright sure, yeah we can go out.” He saw a thoughtful look in your eyes, “Just me and you.”

———————————————————————

“Bucky this place is a bit fancy.” You chuckled nervously, he had an arm linked with yours as your waiter brought you to your table. It was in the back of the restaurant, a restaurant that was rather fancy for two friends celebrating success.

Bucky again pushed your chair in for you, and sat down across from you, in the center of the table was a candle. “Tony suggested it doll, and I figure why not? Only the best for you.” He winked, flashing you a million dollar smile.

Bucky looked handsome tonight, his hair in a low-hanging bun, and a nice three-piece suit. He had a red tie to match your dress, he told you it mattered that you both match. “That’s awfully sappy for you, Fucky.”

“Sappy? Aw man, I was hoping you were into that.” He chuckled, the waiter came back with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

You took a sip of your wine, “Since when do you care what I’m into?”

Bucky’s brows furrowed, “Well I figure since you’re staying in one place you might wanna find someone.”

“Oh?” You blurted, Bucky’s face looked panicked.

“Yeah because—um—maybe I might know someone you’d..like?” He spit out.

“No thanks Buck, I don’t wanna date any of your friends.” You bit your cheek.

“What if I know someone who likes you?” Bucky just about whispered, he was leaning across the table now, two strands of hair on each side poking out.

“Like..someone I know?” You felt stupid.

“Yeah you know him..he’s just really scared.” You frowned.

“Like how scared? Do I even talk to him?” You barked a laugh.

“Doll yes, why don’t you just tell me your type and I’ll let you know if you’d be into him.”

“You think I have a type?” You cocked a brow.

“There’s gotta be something?” Bucky’s cheeks heated up.

“What’s your type?” You were trying to change the subject.

“Y/N, my type doesn’t even matter in this situation.”

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” You excused yourself without another word. You felt stupid leaving because the conversation was steering somewhere uncomfortable. You felt even dumber realizing that Bucky didn’t like you the way you liked him.

When you returned, there was dinner rolls at the table. “Hey doll, I ordered for you.”

“Thanks.” You sat back down and drank the rest of your glass of wine. “Did you see that the live music just arrived?”

“I did actually, maybe we should go dance before our food comes. It’ll be a bit.” He suggested.

“Dance?” You turned your head to see a bunch of couples slow dancing on the floor in front of the live music.

“Yeah doll, what do’ya say?” He stood up and held his hand out to you.

“Sure.” You took his hand, trying to avoid awkwardness. Bucky brought you over to the makeshift dance floor and put one hand on your waist, his metal one holding yours as he led you.

You swayed with him slowly, he pulled you a bit closer, “you know somethin’ doll?” He chuckled and moved closer to whisper in your ear, “You still didn’t tell me your type, I’m trying to be a hype-man here.” You felt chills crawl up your spine.

“Bucky..” you looked at him softly, “I don’t know who you’re trying to set me up with, but I promise you there’s only one guy I’ve had my eyes on and he doesn’t feel the same.” He raised his eyebrows.

“Who?” You rolled your eyes, “No I’m serious, it might be the same guy I’m talking about.”

You looked away from him, a huff escaping your mouth, “I don’t want to talk about this. If I wanted you to know about my nonexistent love life, you would.”

The rest of the dance was silent, when the song ended you pulled away and went back to the table. Bucky tried to get your chair but you shot him a glare. He sat back down across from you.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” He mumbled guiltily.

“It’s whatever.” Food was set down in front of both of you and the waiter came back with more wine. Dinner was awkward and quiet, neither of you wanted to stay for dessert, and when you finally got home you didn’t even thank him for dinner, instead you went into your room and shut the door, locking it behind you.

You felt like garbage, Bucky wasn’t interested in being anything more than friends, and you were sure of that now. You hated that he wanted to match, it didn’t matter. Between the two of you was nothing more than a friendship, you felt so stupid for thinking otherwise.

———————————————————————

Y/N hadn’t talked to Bucky in days, he hated that you instead spent your free time in the gym with earbuds in, or spending time with Sam. He hated that he was jealous of Sam even though you weren’t as nearly close to him as you were with him.

He watched now as you threw your head back and laughed about something he said. He couldn’t even tell if you were mad or upset, either way he couldn’t help but think about how stupid he was to try and confess his feelings over dinner. He couldn’t stop bringing it up no matter how uncomfortable you looked. He just wanted you to know, and he felt like he was screaming out into the void about it right now. Hearing your laugh directed at someone else was debilitating.

He couldn’t take it, he stepped into the dining room, interrupting Sam, “Y/N can I talk to you about something, please?”

You looked up at him, a frown on your features, it stung like poison. “Yeah I guess. I’ll see you later Sam.” You were wearing a sundress and sandals, were you going somewhere?

You followed him into his room, he turned the light on to reveal an unmade bed, and books scattered around his bed. “Sorry about the mess, I-I’ve just been lonely.”

“You’ve survived an entire year without me, don’t be so dramatic.” Bucky laughed at that.

“It’s one thing to not see or hear from you over the course of a year, and another to have you at an arms reach and feel like you’ve never been farther.” You shook your head at him.

“You could’ve talked to me. It’s not like I told you to fuck off or anything.” Bucky scoffed.

“You would’ve!—Not my point. Look there’s something I wanted to tell you, and I was trying to tell you at dinner but I went about it the wrong way and I’m sorry for making you so uncomfortable.” You crossed your arms.

“You’re still trying to pry into my love life? What is the deal Bucky? It’s not like it’s your business?” He sighed and shut his eyes.

“Doll please liste—“ you stopped him.

“You know I actually asked FRIDAY what that stupid pet name means right?” He opened his eyes and stared at you dumbfounded, had you figured out his feelings? Were you mad? “I’m not your girl Bucky. And honestly it’s not cool to tease people about their feelings. I thought you were my friend at the minimum. I don’t even think a decent person would tease someone else like tha—“

“Y/N listen to me! Please!” His arms shot out and you stopped moving. “I don’t even know in the slightest what you’re going on about. I’ve never once teased you about anything except for when I flirt with you, which brings me to my main point of what I’ve been trying to say but failing badly. I..I like you Y/N.” It was like the world around him stopped, but you shot him a weird look.

“Are you pulling my leg?” You asked him seriously.

“No doll I’m not pulling your leg. I’ve had a stupidly large crush on you since we first met in that stupid HYDRA facility.” He stopped talking for effect, “Having you away from me for a year might’ve made it deeper.”

“God you should’ve seen my newspaper collection of articles about you.” You blurted suddenly, “Or maybe I should tell you I thought about you every day, and sometimes that you were my only tether to sanity. You got under my skin and never fucking left.”

“Wait is this a confession on your part too?” Bucky had an amused expression on his face, “Please don’t stop talking about your secret shrine of me.”

You opened your mouth to say something snarky but began to laugh instead. You leaned your forehead into his shoulder, “You did such a horrible job trying to tell me over dinner.”

“Don’t remind me doll.” He kissed your hair, “I want nothing more than to go back and smack myself, or maybe just tell you.”

You looked up to him finally, his lips were just inches from yours. He closed the distance between the two of you and kissed you slowly. He pulled away too soon and studied you carefully.

“Want to go on a real date tonight?” He questioned.

You raised your eyebrows at him, “Yes..yeah!” You broke into a grin, “I’d love to go on a date.”

———————————————————————

Bucky found himself in Tony’s office, looking smug. “What do you need Barnes? Calibration off in your arm again?”

“I have a date tonight.” He smirked as Tony turned around, looking shocked.

“Who’s the unlucky lady?” Tony asked, making Bucky beam even prouder.

“Y/N.” Tony dropped his tool on the floor and choked on nothing.

“WHAT!”

———————————————————————

You danced with Bucky comfortably, him whispering jokes into your ear. You grinned up at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Am I allowed to tell you how handsome you look?”

“Depends.” Bucky had chosen a much better restaurant this time, it was smaller and less fancy, which made you feel less self conscious.

“On what?” You gave his metal hand a squeeze and saw a quick upturn of his lips.

“If I get to tell you that you look beautiful.” You rolled your eyes at him, still having a hard time not smiling at him.

“You’re the worst, I’ll start calling you Yucky.” Bucky barked a brief laugh and started bringing you back towards the table where food was arriving.

“Only if I get to be your Yucky Bucky.” Your eyes widened as he helped you with your chair again.

“That’s the most terrible-horrible-grossest thing you’ve ever said to me.” You started, “I hate it so much. I think my phone is ringing for an unknown emergency so this date is gonna have to end.” You teased.

“Jeez Doll, I thought you were serious for a moment.” Bucky started cutting his steak.

“I was.” You winked at him. “Can we get ice cream after this?”

“It’s pretty late darling.” You pouted, groaning exasperatedly.

“Well if I knew I was going on a date with a grumpy old man, I would’ve taken Sam instead. I bet Sam would take me to ice cream.” You held back a laugh when Bucky almost spit his food out in horror.

“Fine we’ll get ice cream!”

———————————————————————

“There’s an enhanced on the radar, it’s gotta be her.”

“Shut the fuck up Scott, I’d hope that was obvious. Everybody get ready, she’s coming.” You burst into the room and put a shield between yourself and every armed soldier.

“Are you guys talkin’ bout me? My ears are ringing?” You chuckled and Bucky came in through the backdoor and took out every soldier with his large gun.

“See I told you it was a good idea!” Bucky beamed at you, dropping his tough-guy act in seconds.

“I still stand by the fact I could’ve done it quicker. And it wouldn’t waste ammunition.” Bucky rolled his eyes and pulled out his flash drive, downloading needed data while you kept watch.

You took out a helicopter trying to escape, watching as it landed harshly in the woods in front of the HYDRA facility and erupted in flames.

“Remind me to never piss you off.” Bucky bit his lip and put the flash drive in his pocket. “Shall we finish this?” You nodded, heading off in the opposite direction of him.

By the time you were finished with your mission, three giant enhanced soldiers were knocked out and taken in a separate jet to Bruce, and Bucky looked more exhausted than you.

“Goodness, you break a hip or something?” You patted his shoulder and handed him a water bottle while FRIDAY brought you both back to the compound.

“Doesn’t that come later?” He wiggled his eyebrows at you suggestively.

“I can’t believe you just tried to seduce me by accepting an old-man joke.” Bucky gasped.

“Is it not working?” A frown appeared on his face.

“No it is.” You winked at him and pressed a firm kiss to his lips.

“God I love you.” He stood up to go back to kissing you.

“I love you too.”

———————————————————————

A/N: I think I’m done with this? Idk maybe I’ll come back and write a longer ending but yeah I hope you all enjoyed!

[chemically-imbalanced-romance]

Sanders Sides Clique!AU

Max: hey everyone send prompts

Max: *makes this garbage instead*

- I wanted to make a punk!au bc I’m obsessed with @asofterfan’s and I’m Starved For Content™ but punk isn’t smth I know too much about but you know what is?

-Emo

-Emo things

-I’m better at the sad part of pain than the angry part

-Virgil and Deceit are the emo boyos.

+ Virgil is a transboy because I’m projecting and after he decided to come out, he said “fuck it” and decided to change everything else he hated about himself, too

* He was always super inspired by Deceit from afar- Watching him flirt and laugh and socialize and straighten his back and walk with his chin up and he was high key aesthetically pleasing

+ Dece ((deh-see)) is the most Extra™ emo in the school. He’s got lip and eyebrow piercings, wears this really flowy black and gold trench coat and combat boots with spikes. His hair is jet black and he refuses to leave the house without a thick coat of eyeliner and what do you mean it’s contacts no my eyes are actually that dark what fuck off-

+ Virgil was inspired by the look, but went with a more tame version of it. He dyed his hair a vibrant purple and began religiously applying foundation and black eyeshadow under his eyes, but otherwise stuck with ripped jeans, Converse, and hoodies. He was so proud of his new look that the next day he forced up the confidence to walk straight over to Dece and show him.

+ They got close fast, and were best friends for the majority of two years before Logan convinced Virgil to cut him off for his lying habits.

+ Virgil and Dece were both destroyed, and Dece didn’t come back to school for two weeks, but Logan took care of Virgil until he was back into a better headspace

- Logan is not only really subtlety goth, but a prodigy in psychology and sociology.

+ He wears dark jeans and black or gray collared shirts, unbuttoned to the top of his chest, and his hair is naturally black and for the most part messy.

+ He can’t be bothered to fix it, there’s too much to do.

+ He has a lip piercing and messes with when he’s focusing and usually has a bunch of rings, or at least a couple necklaces on at once

+ Draws sharpie tattoos on himself when he’s bored

- He and Virgil met a year after Virgil met Dece because Virgil was having a panic attack in the middle of their English class and Logan was, 1) the only one who knew what to do, and 2) The only one other than the teacher who wasn’t laughing at him

+ Virgil kinda hung on to Logan like a lost puppy after that. He kept his guard up reeeeaaaall high in case of any sign Logan didn’t want him around anymore, but Logan actually quite liked his company and grew comfortable with him fast.

- Patton is the most bubbly, outgoing, sweetest scene kid there is.

+ His hair changes from a variety of pastel colours. His hair is naturally super light blond and the pastels fade quickly, so he’s able to come to school with a new colour pretty much every month and a half.

+ His favourite? Bubblegum pink.

- Doesn’t know what gender roles are.

+ ((He does but you’ll never know))

- *comes to school in a skirt and knee socks*

Administration: You have to go change you can’t be wearing girls’ clothes

Patton: What? These are my clothes!

Administration:

- One day Logan notices Virgil staring at him because he’s wearing the cutest purple skirt ever and he needs it where did he get it and he’s wearing it with this black crop top that just shows a strip of skin and he’s just ??? Fashion icon??? Role model??? M u s t h a v e

+ So Logan’s just like “bitch to do smth” and Virgil’s ????? “I’d rather die”

+ So Logan just gets up and Virgil’s entire world ends as Logan goes over to him, but Logan doesn’t bring Patton to the lunch table- He talks to Patton for a few minutes, Patton looking absolutely delighted, and comes back saying, “He’ll sit with us on Friday, is that enough time to prepare?” and Virgil’s ???? shit i’m in love

- Remy and Roman are 1) theatre bros and 2) The most annoying people in the whole entire school.

+ Every morning for two weeks straight after they listened to BMC together Remy, at seven in the morning, at the top of his lungs, the second Roman walked into the classroom door, sang “ROMAN MAKES AN ENTRANCE”

+ the first time he did it, Roman screamed in terror and then laughing so hard he cried and had to go to the nurse’s with an upset stomach

+ Roman is an actor and refuses to believe he won’t go into every audition with a 100% chance of getting the lead role.

+ When this doesn’t happen, he’s bummed and Remy and him listen to Hamilton and then he’s pumped up again and ready to kick ass in whatever role he did end up getting

- Remy is mostly stage crew. He helps with the sets and the soundboard. Sometimes he plays an extra, but the only reason he really loves theatre so much is because of the atmosphere.

+ Theatre is both Really Gay and Really Loud which is pretty much Remy summed up

- Remy and Virgil met pretty early on, before Virgil was even friends with Dece, because Virgil stayed after almost every day to help work on the sets. He did most of the sketches and then helped choosing colour pallets, before dropping off some Wendy’s or smth and disappearing

+ Roman didn’t talk to Virgil until they met officially, since he was too focused on being #perfect, but Remy was constantly bitching about being tired and an insomniac and UGHGHGHGHGH VIRGIL DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCEALOR THESE BAGS ARE ATROCIOUS

V: Uhhhh I have some eyeshadow?

Re: ...

Re: Sorry honey I know it’s your look and everything and I support you but that is not a fashion trend I stan ROMAN DO YOU HAVE ANY CONSEALOR-

((How many different ways can Max spell counselor bet))

+ So one day Virgil brought him a Starbucks along with the usual food he brings for the people who stay late, and Remy’s like “I’m adopting you you’re my boyfriend now”

((You, with one (1) brain cell: What ship is this au????

Me, an intellectual: All of them))

- One day Logan picks Virgil up afterwards because they planned to stay the night, and came face-to-face with Remy

+ Logan was completely baffled because they seemed so close but Virgil never mentioned him before?

+ He played nice but when they were alone, he was actually quite upset when he asked Virgil why he never told Logan about him before, and Virgil just shrugged and muttered “didn’t think he’d stick around long enough for there to be a point”

+ So of course that Will Not Stand™ and Logan invited Remy to go out with he, Virgil, and Patton at some point and Remy dragged Roman along

+ Logan took Remy and Roman aside at one point while Patton distracted Virgil with an arcade game and said under no certain terms that if they even made Virgil kinda frown one (1) single time they would d i e

+ Remy’s not phased and Roman pretends not to be, but the two R boyos leave a few hours later and Roman turns to him and goes “I almost pissed myself”

Okay lol that’s what I got rn but tALK TO ME ABOUT THIS AU I suddenly love it with all my heart lmao

Also a big thx to Jude bc seriously they should be respected and looked up to and loved Ily thanks for existing

[lolabean1998]

Avengers Fanfic - 3rd Super Soldier (Part 8)

Bucky's POV!

"You've been staring out that window for over an hour now sugar, what's troubling ya?" A large woman with warm eyes and brunette hair asked.

"Just thinking is all, thanks Maggie." I replied to the woman as she poured yet another cup of coffee.  It hurt that you'd left, I felt as though my heart had been torn apart. I was in agony.

"Loki said we'd find you here. What you looking at Buck?" Steve asked as he sat down beside me whilst Banner and Tony sat opposite them.

"Top floor second window on the right." I replied shortly, eyes fixed on the window. Steve having super human eyesight as well moved his gaze to the window I had directed him to, watching intently as a figure moved back and forth past the window. He was just about to call it wishful thinking when the petite figure moved past the window carrying what appeared to be a large wardrobe.

"Is it her?" Tony asked when Steves eyes flew open. "Steve what did you see?"

"She's up there, moving stuff around. Buck how'd you find her?" Steve asked curiously, Tony and Banner had searched the whole room for clues only turning up a newspaper, that also had nothing.

"The newspaper." I replied, his gaze still fixed on the window, my voice sad and low.

"We searched it, there was nothing on it." Banner gasped irritated that he had missed something.

"Invisible ink, you weren't meant to see anything. She made a deal with the landlord, she gets to stay there if she does up the top floor. Got a job a a private courier and is returning the clothes we bought her s soon as she can afford her own." I reported, ignoring the disbelieving faces opposite him.

"So you're telling me that if i had just scanned the paper like i was going to I'd have found her without going through all of this." Tony ranted throwing his hands about gesturing to the situation at hand.

"No, she wrote it in a code,a code she made up when we were kids." I had to take a deep breath to steady his voice when he spoke about the code. She may not remember me and Steve but she remembered something. Something's better than nothing. It's a start. I thought moving my attention to the group. "We should go, she kept it a secret for a reason. She doesn't want us around."

"She chose this place for a reason Buck. The whole of New York to choose from and the only place willing to make a deal just happens to be opposite our favourite diner. The place you always come when things are getting too much at the compound." Steve reasoned, he knew how much I was hurting but he also knew how much you were hurting. You wanted to bury yourself in work to drown out the flashes and emotions tearing you apart inside. You never were one for emotions that weren't bubbling giggles or furious rage, dipping a toe in sympathy when absolutely necessary.

"I won't ask again Steve. Leave her be, it's what she want's." I snarled flashing cold Winter Soldier eyes at the group, smirking to myself when the quickly scurried outside without a word. Works every time.

Your POV!

It had been almost a month since you'd left the compound and after working day and night, the apartments you had been fixing up were almost complete. You had spent your days running around the city delivering parcels and important letters to rich people and gang members. Spending your nights working on the apartments, you had torn out everything from each one deciding it was easier to start from scratch. After a final lick of paint the whole floor was transformed from back end motel to four star apartments. The landlord had been so impressed with it he had offered to let you stay for free if you did the rest of the building. The look of surprise on his face when he saw your petite figure carrying heavy loads, working harder and faster than a team of builders and contractors.

You were just about to jump in the shower to wash off the paint spotted across your face when there was a hesitant knock at the door. The fuck does he want now? I'm already redoing the whole fucking building. You grumbled to yourself as you strolled past your new, modern day open kitchen towards the heavy oak door. "Coming Mr O'Malley!" You called to the door as it knocked again. "What's up Mr O'Mall-" You were cut off when you opened the door to see Nat and Wanda instead. "You're not Mr O'Malley. You're not Mr O'Malley at all." You stated feeling a little confused. "You guys look like shit come in. Just made a pot of coffee so help yourselves and Maggie dropped off some blueberry muffins earlier so tuck in." You offered leading the inside, smiling as the two girls grabbed a muffin and filled two large mugs to the brim with fresh coffee. "What's up guys?" You chirped hopping onto the counter top.

"What's up guys?" They mocked snarkily, glaring at you with daggered eyes.

"Hey don't give me that, i gave the clothes back and started paying back the money it cost to house me." You said defensively, holding your hands up in surrender.

"I'm gonna kill her." Wanda grumbled after a large swig of coffee, sending your eyebrows into a worried and confused frown.

"We don't care about the clothes or the money! We care that you left!" Nat snapped, rolling her eyes at your dumbfounded expression.

"More specifically, we care that you left without HIM!" Wanda continued setting her mug on the counter before her shaking hands spilled it all over the nice white tiles.

"What the fuck are you two on about?" You demanded looking at the dark circles around their eyes and their peculiar body language.

"BARNES!" The pair shouted in chorus making you jump and spill your coffee, luckily it only went on your shirt which was already covered in dirty and paint.

"His nightmares are getting worse and since he's stopped bothering to even attempt sleep he's been even more grumpy than usual." Wanda explained, her voice shaking with exhaustion and a strange blend of anger.

"It's making training impossible, none of us can keep up with him. He looks like hell and his temper is even worse!" Nat finished through a mouthful of blueberry muffin.

"Why you telling me? Go run to Steve or someone. Now if you don't mind, i have to jump in the shower quickly before work so if you could the door on your way out that'd be great." You snarled, giving them a snarky smile as you strolled into the bathroom slamming the door once you were in. You quickly stripped and stepped under the powerful jets of water.

After a quick shower you threw on a pair of black jeans matched with a baggy blue t-shirt and your favourite navy blue combat boots. They were the only thing you refused to return. Your turned the corner to the small courier service shop to pick up your load for the day.

"Y/N my darling how good to see you!" A thick, joyful Italian accent hit you as you entered through the back, you gave a bubbly chuckle at the large man who strode towards you with open arms, groaning as they wrapped around you squeezing you into a hug.

"You saw me less than thriteen hours ago what do you want Anthony?" You groaned with a pained chuckle. The large man placed you back on the ground releasing you from his death grip before stepping back to grab a large rucksack filled to the brim.

"Vincent couldn't make it in today, got into a bar fight with some guy and the guy broke his jaw. Said something about his lack of respect." Anthony replied shaking his head, neither of you were surprised the kid had a reputation.

"Doesn't surprise me, Vinnie's always getting into shit. Didn't think he had such a weak chin though. Must've been some fight." You mused swinging the heavy rucksack onto your back and jumping on the steel blue bike in the corner, for some reason the colour of it gave you strange sense of security.

"You never fail to impress. Even I'd struggle with that bag but you? You just swinging it on like its any other round. Here's you list of drop offs and you're pay from last week as you asked and if you're done before three we have another set of VIP drop offs if you're up for the challenge." Anthony smiled at you before turning to walk back to the shop front.

"See you at three!" You called confidently pulling your mask and sunglasses over your face, clipping the buckle of your helmet up before heading out. Your headphones blasted with 1940's swing music as you whipped through the city, dropping off parcels and letters left right and centre. Fuck me i hate stairs! You grumbled to yourself as you tore your way up the stairs of a very prestigious feeling skyscraper, fighting your way to the top floor. You were faster than the elevator and you needed to shave as many seconds off your time as possible if you were to make it by three. You flew round the corner, past the elevators, through the woman at the front desk as she protested against you before crashing through the door to the delivery point. A tall grey haired man wearing a suit worth more than the building you lived shot up from his desk giving you a disgusted look as you shoved a form towards him for him to sign before placing the parcel carefully on the desk in front.

"Parcel is delivered and in one piece. Sign so i can get on with my round I'm on a tight schedule!" You breathed clutching your rib cage as you spoke, giving the man a bone shattering glare when he refused to speed up. "You have two seconds before i take it to your wife and tell her who it's from." You snapped grinning when the man immediately scribbled on the dotted line thrusting the paper back at you. "Can't believe that actually worked, BYEEE!" You chirped mischievously, bolting back towards the stairway and jumping down the stairs like your life depended on it.

The rest of your round went by rather smoothly, a few almost collisions with taxi's and trucks but other than that it was a breeze. You skidded to halt outside the shop with minutes to spare. Damn I've been slacking! You thought as you looked down at you're watching, you had found it outside your door a few days after you had moved out with a note attached to it say 'A good bye gift from a Captain and a Sergeant'.

"I told you she'd make it! She is the fastest courier New York has ever seen!" Anthony's thick Italian accent boomed through the shop as he strolled out to greet you, a hooded figure following close behind. "Y/N this is Mr Barton, he has a very important message to deliver and requires my best and brightest courier. I'll leave you too it." With that he gave you both an abrupt nod and headed back inside.

"You're not even trying to hide who you are so take the hood down. What are you, some high school drop out gangsta with a black eye and stash of weed? Come on man you can do better than that! What do you want?" You questioned feeling more and more annoyed by the minute, this was the second time today an Avenger had shown up. The figure dropped the hood revealing their face. "Barton! What a surprise, the was me thinking it was the hulk." You mocked rolling your eyes, arms folded as you lent against your pedal bike.

"You don't even care do you? Do you have a heart at all? Or do you just enjoy making other people suffer!" He snapped aggressively, taking you by surprise. This was a side of Barton you never thought existed.

"The fuck are you talking about?" You snarled in response, whatever was going on had nothing to do with you.

"I'm talking about leaving without saying good bye, shutting us out. Shutting your FRIENDS out! Shutting Barnes out and then when Wanda and Nat show up at your door you boot them out! Not even batting an eye to what they told you about you're friend! What happened? Did you get bored of toying with his emotions? Or maybe it's even worse, Maybe this is all part of your plan. No wonder you stayed with H.Y.D.R.A. for so long. You weren't a prisoner at all, you were part of them. One of the crew. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if you were one the ones torturing him. Even if you weren't YOU SURE A SHIT ARE NOW!" Barton bellowed, his voice echoed through the alleyway you were standing in. Your eyes went cold and you felt the hairs on your neck stand on end. He had crossed a line.

"You think I don't know what he's been through? You think i don't remember screaming until my vocal cords broke, begging them to stop. You think i don't know there's something going on? The way Bucky just HAPPENED to know my favourite food or how Steve saw right through me? How about how Bucky knew every one of my moves? And then all of a sudden not only am i the freak with super human abilities but I'm also the freak the can switch species! I have no idea who I am, no memory of who i was and to make things worse, no idea who they were to me. I don't want them to hold onto the hope that I'll be back to who I was because I don't want to let them down. Now piss off before your wife becomes a widow!" You roared viciously, your eyes were as cold as ice and your body was trembling with rage.

"Stand down little girl, i didn't come alone." Barton warned just as Vision and Rhodes landed beside him. You raised an amused eyebrow. "We aren't done yet." He snapped taking a step towards you.

"You were warned." You sighed dodging Barton and crashing your fist into Visions shiny little gem sending him flying back into the traffic and colliding with the front of a bus. Problem one is gone, can't be doing with super powers. You muttered to yourself as you grabbed Barton’s shoulder swinging him into Rhodes and leaping on your bike the second you a the chance. Can't fight in the city, too many people but there’s an abandoned building not far from her. That'll do. You peddle faster than you had all day as you thought up a plan, checking behind you to make sure they were still following. No sign of Vision FUCK! He's gone for back up! You cursed zooming through traffic towards the huge industrial site a few miles away. No no there he is. So they're going against orders. You figured knowing that if that had happened on a mission Vision would've gone for reinforcements.

"Give it up kid, there's no where to go!" Rhodes called from above as you skidded to a halt having arrived at your destination.

"Jokes on you. I planned to be here." You shouted before bouncing yourself off a nearby wall and leaping into the air grabbing Rhodes' foot. Climbing up before he had a chance to shake you, tearing off the excess guns and weapons as you went. An arrow pierced through your calf as you tore out a handful of important looking cables, gripping on tight when the suit dropped. "I take it they were important." You quipped pulling the arrow from your leg. The sight of bloody arrow triggered something deep inside you. Your eyes flipped losing any sign of life and your posture became more threatening, your eyes washing over Barton and Vision with blood thirst.

"That doesn't look good." Barton pointed out readying his arrow. You charged towards him dodging arrow after arrow as he fired rapidly in an attempt to survive. You caught site of Vision closing in and threw an arrow in his direction watching as it tore through his abdomen. Turning your attention back to Barton you swung yourself underneath and onto his shoulders before hurtling forwards and slamming him to the ground. The unmistakable sound of snapping bones rang out loud and clear as you twisted his arms behind him, disabling his ability to fire or fight. Standing up you pulled his right leg up kicking in his knee, nodding in approval as the joint popped out of place before twisting it slightly so he couldn’t pop it back in. Your eyes flicked over to Rhodes who was still froze on the floor, by the looks of things his suit had malfunctioned trapping him inside. The only threat left was Vision and with one smooth swoop you grabbed three large arrows from Barton’s side launching them towards Vision. The each plummeted into his chest and stomach dropping him onto his back, a pool of blood rapidly forming around him.

"Woah easy there Tiger" Tony called, his Iron Man shining in the afternoon sun. "I'm here to help you." He tried but you weren't having any of it, grabbing a brick from nearby and hurtling it towards him, snarling when he dodged it.

"Woah take it easy Y/N." The voice from behind you hitting you like a wave. The voice was soon followed by cautious foots steps inching there way closer, you tried desperately to turn to face your attacker but you body was frozen solid. The harder you tried to move the more pain shot through you and it was only when a warm arm wrapped around you pulling you in tight that you realised you had been screaming. "Easy doll, it's ok it's Bucky." The smell of his cologne mixed his natural scent intoxicated you, some how pulling out of the abyss you had fallen into. Your body collapsed in his arms as your mind began whirling.

"She ok? You got her?" Tony called landing beside Rhodes and leaning over to free him from the suit.

"Yeah, I'm going to take her back to her place. You good here?" Bucky asked lifting you into his arms.

"Yeah Nat's on her way with Wanda and the quinjet. I told them to leave her be, to leave it be. It's their own fault." Tony sighed pulling the arrows from Vision, chuckling as the holes in his chest and stomach began closing up almost immediately.

Bucky placed you carefully on the sofa wrapping a small blanket around you. He took a moment to explore your apartment, admiring your handy work as he inspected the kitchen. He had done a full tour of your small apartment and had yet to find any evidence that you had slept at all that month, the bedroom was empty holding nothing but a large wardrobe and a mirror. The floor however was littered with sketches and drawings, some were sketches of the team but most of them were images from her past, violent and dark and filled with horror. Images of the memory wiping, savage training, brutal torture and hooded figures. This is what she did instead of sleeping, she drew her nightmares. Bucky wandered around the room to get a better look at some of the drawings without stepping on any when a floor board let out an angry squeak. You've done this whole place to perfection but didn't change a squeaky floor board? I don't buy it. Bucky thought as he knelt down to investigate further pulling up the vocal floor board which was surprisingly easy to do. What he found inside brought tears to his eyes, stashed beneath the floor board was a small stash of sketches, all with one thing in common. Him. He slid down the wall, sketches in hand and began looking through them, taking great care in handling them. There were sketches of Steve's birthday, dancing in the bar, playing in the park and playing ball. Each sketch was done carefully with each and every detail added in, the total opposite to the rest of your drawings. Tears began trickling down his cheek as he stared at the small array of pictures, each with three happy smiling faces beaming up at him.

"You know it's rude to go through other peoples stuff." A croaky and hoarse voice muttered from the doorway. Bucky's head shot up, a sad smile pressed against his lips no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"There's supposed to be a bed in here. You're supposed to sleep." He stammered, trying to muffle the sorrow in his voice.

"I don't think that's what you're mad about." You replied weakly, your body language small and cowering. "I've made coffee." You slowly turned making your way cautiously to kitchen. Bucky wiped the tears from his eyes and cheeks before stepping over the paper surrounding him and making his way over to the kitchen watching as your trembled about trying to pour the coffee.

"Here let me." He offered stepping forwards to take the pot from you, but his movements were fast making you jump out of your skin dropping the pot and fleeing to hide in the corner by the sofa. Your whole body shaking and trembling with fear. Bucky had just managed to catch the pot in time saving it from spilling or smashing placing it safely on the counter. He crept over to you slowly kneeling to face you when he was a couple of feet away from you, watching as you flinched eyeing his hand warily when he reached out to you. She thinks I'm going to hurt her. The horror of what occurred to him made him choke slightly on his inhale. "Easy doll, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll never hurt you I promise. It's Bucky, just me. No one else is here and no one will ever hurt you again." Bucky promised soothingly.

"Bucky, Rabbit teeth Bucky from Brooklyn?" You questioned with a whisper, too afraid to turn your head towards him.

"Yeah It's me. Come on trouble i need you to come out of the corner." He soothed, placing a warm hand on your shoulders as he spoke. The moment his hand touched your skin you felt a wave over tears crash down on you, bursting from your eye's. Bucky didn't waste anytime before wrapping his arms around your shaking figure pressing a warm kiss on your head.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Bucky. I'm sorry..." You sobbed repeatedly into his shoulder, your hands clutching his black t-shirt.

"What are you sorry for doll? You didn't do anything wrong." Bucky smiled reassuringly, picking you up in his arms and carrying you to the kitchen placing you carefully on the counter top beside him.

"I hurt your friends and i hurt you, i left you... I forgot you." Your voice was hurt and apologetic, your big Y/E/C eyes staring up at him through puddled tears.

"None of this is your fault. Stop blaming yourself, your remembering now and that’s what matters." Bucky reassured pouring you a hot cup of coffee and searching through your fridge for something to cook. "Where's the food?.. Hang on, is your fridge even turned on?" He quizzed sticking his flesh arm inside and giving you an unamused glare. "Y/N have you eaten anything other than the food Maggie sent you?"

"Um, no. Guess i forgot." You shrugged sipping at the steaming beverage in your hands. Bucky let out an exasperated sigh closing the fridge, melting at the sight of your weary eyes and apologetic smile.

"I'll call Maggie, ask her to send us some food."Bucky groaned, moving to lean beside you resting his arm on your leg as he placed his order. You smiled resting your chin on his shoulder as he spoke.

"Say Bucky, How did Maggie know where i lived and why did she keep bringing me food I hadn't ordered or paid for?" You questioned after he'd hung up, the blush on his face said it all but you wanted to hear him say it.

"I found your notes in the newspaper and tracked you down, within about three hours of you leaving. Asked Maggie if she'd bring you some food up every now and then and to bill it to me." He admitted turning to face you, his hands resting on your legs as he watched you sip your coffee in thought.

"But i made that code up, theres no way you could've figured it out!" You exclaim pouting at him.

"Y/N i helped you invent that code when you were ten. We used it for everything." Bucky smirked, running a thumb a long your pouty bottom lip.

"You know if we carry on like this, Sam's going to win the bet." You commented fighting the urge to melt under his touch. Bucky looked at you in suprise.

"You notice that too huh." He smiled pulling you closer into him, his hands wrapped around your waist making you bite your lip, draping your hands over his shoulders as you did. "So who do you think should win? If you say Steve or Tony I'll slap you." He joked raising a pair of warning eyebrows.

"I was thinking more, Peter. Only another fews weeks and if you offer to stay with me to help with the renovations then we wouldn't have to hide it all the time. Its either him or Sam." You reasoned, your body lighting up each time he brushed his thumb against your side.

"Ok, i like it. The kid could use the win and It's better than Sam winning." Bucky agreed leaning into you just as the doorbell rang. "Of course!" He sighed hanging his head before pulling his wallet from his back pocket and striding towards the door. When he opened the door he was greeted with the smell of burgers, fries and onion rings, he smiled down at the young girl who handed him the food with an excited grin on her face. Her eyes flicking from his face, to his arm, to you in the kitchen and back.

"You're the Winter Soldier aren't you and she's your girlfriend, Trouble. Isn't she!" The young girl giggled, he had seen her around the diner a few times before, she was Maggie’s niece. Bucky smiled at her comment, the blush running to his cheeks when he heard the word 'girlfriend'.

"Yes but you have too keep it a secret for a little bit. Our friends placed bets on us so we're playing a trick on them ok?" He whispered secretively, giving her a friendly wink.

"I will i promise, Auntie Mags said to give you these peanut butter sticks too. Said she made them specially for you now that you're back together. Don't worry I'll make sure she keeps your secret." The little girl grinned handing him a small paper bag filled to the top with delicious pastries. Bucky smiled handing her the money for the food and giving her a large tip for keeping her troubles. "Nice to see you again Miss Y/N/N." She called before skipping her way back down stairs.

"Miss Y/N/N? care to explain doll?" He smirked making his way over to the sofa where you now sat, two sets of cutlery and dishes laid out alongside a fresh mug of coffee. You blushed at the question.

"I asked Maggie to keep an eye on you. Told her to keep me up to date on how you were doing. I think she knew what was going on before we did." You blushed, staring up at him through thick eyelashes making him chuckle.

"You're so cute." He smirked dishing out the food and pulling you further into his side.

"Hey take that back! I could kick your ass any day of the week and i did this whole renovation on my own. I am NOT cute!" You demanded fiercely only making the grin on his face even bigger, it took all he had to hold back the laughter desperate to fight it's way through but it was no use you could still see the humour and adoration his face. "I hate you." You grumbled rolling your eyes. Bucky smirked wrapping arms around you and pulling you onto his lap, caressing a hand over your cheek and holding your head gently as he lent in placing soft kisses over your cheek and lips. A smug grin plastering his face when he felt you smile against him.

"You sure about that doll?" He teased brushing the hair from your neck for more access but just as he was about to kiss your neck he stopped, moving closer your ear and whispering. "Foods getting cold." You shoved him playfully trying to force you giggling face into a scowl but it wasn't happening.

"You're such a punk!" You laughed moving off his lap and tucking into your piping hot food. We had time! You thought grumpily watching as Bucky flicked through the channels until he landed on an old black and white movie. "Ugh god, i forgot how old you are." You mocked sending him a cheeky sideways glance.

"Excuse you I'm only eleven months and two days older than you." He replied with a chuckle, your face lifting in surprise.

"How? No, Why do you remember that?" You asked in shock, it had been such a long time since either of you had remembered your time before all of this had happened and so much had happened, to hold onto a single scrap of worthless information like that was just simply amazing.

"Don't say it." He warned playfully, making you give him a questioning look. "I know what you're going to say doll. It maybe worthless to every one else but to me, it's one of the most important pieces of information in the world. The first five obviously being your favourite food, song, colour, the sound of your laugh and the colour of your eyes." He continued smiling deep into your eyes, he didn't expect you to remember anything. How could he, you'd been through so much and you'd only just begun the healing process.

"Peanut butter stick and Macaroni salad, Heart and soul, green but not just any green spring grass green, you laugh at the frog joke every time even though its awful and your eyes are steel blue with a grey strip through the left." You listed nonchalantly, moving your gaze from the ceiling to his face, smirking at the look of amazement spreading around his perfect features.

"How the hell...?" Bucky trailed off his mouth hanging open a little at his loss for words. You slowly pushed his jaw back up smiling nervously. You were Just about to ask again when Bucky grabbed your face and waist pulling you into a deep kiss.

"I take it i got it right then?" You asked with a smile against his lips. Bucky pulled away slowly, resting his forehead against your own, the emotion in that kiss had told you everything you needed to know, you had nailed it.

"Shut up and eat your food before it gets cold." He muttered moving back to continue eating the rest of the food piled on his plate. You couldn't help but grin smugly as he turned his attention to the movie on TV.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! WHAT WERE YOU IDIOTS THINKING?" Tony roared staring down at Rhodes, Barton and Vision, his face red with rage as he paced back and forth in front of them. Vision was almost completely healed and Rhodes barely had a scratch on him but Barton now had both arms in casts and had been signed out of active duty for at least six months.

"Bucky was losing his mind and she was a threat to civilians!" Rhodes defended.

"Oh that's funny because in the last few weeks she's been living there. There hasn't been a problem, she kept her nose clean and was actually making progress." Tony quipped viciously. "Do you think i didn't keep tabs on her? You think i just let her wander out into the big wide world on her own. The second Bucky found her i asked Maggie and Mr O'Malley to keep tabs on her, hell i even asked shield to put an undercover operative there in case something happened. And d'you know what? NOTHING FUCKING DID!" He bellowed making the trio leap back in their chairs.

"Hey Tony, can I have a word?" Steve’s head popped round the corner, saving the group from any further scoldings.

Masterlist

[catsundercherryblossoms]

|Ch. 13: “Please”| Her Forgotten Past // Attack on Titan Fanfiction

"Green smoke. Oluo, pass it on."

The smoke flares stretched into the sky like strings of green yarn, unraveling with the open breeze. I observed them intensely, hair obscuring my face as my horse galloped at full speed.

Oluo obeyed the Corporal's orders and he took out his own flare. He shot it so that the other sections nearby could relay.

"I've come with a message, sir!" A soldier raced towards us on his horse, frantic and sweaty. "It appears the right wing spotters have been wiped out! The early warning network is compromised! One of you will need to relay the message down the line!"

I gasped, but amidst the pounding of the horses' hooves, it was barely audible.

"You heard the man, Petra. Go." Corporal Levi ordered with a nod.

"Yes, sir!" She took off.

I could hardly believe it. The right wing? A whole section of soldiers were conquered that quickly? On top of that, the right wing was where I was originally placed, making it even more unnerving. If I hadn't been switched to here, the most safest place in the formation... would I still be alive? Or would I just be bits and chunks left on the battlefield, indistinguishable from the other fallen soldiers?

A chill went through me. I shook it away and glared bitterly at Corporal Levi, who rode besides me. The unpleasant surprise from this morning still burned in my mind...

"Everyone gather your horses!" Commander Erwin said. "We will depart shortly!"

Soldiers scrambled all over HQ, getting prepared for what would be a very, very horrific day.

I went to the stables and found my horse, wasting no time in gearing up and hopping on the saddle. Once I trotted out, I headed towards a group of twelve or fifteen soldiers. 'They must be the right wing...' I thought, and was about to join them when—

"Archer."

I looked back over my shoulder to see Corporal Levi there, mighty and unusually tall on his horse. A little ways behind him, the squad and Eren were hurrying to get their horses ready.

"You're with us." He said and turned without waiting for a reply.

But I was going to give him one anyway. "I've been moved?" I gaped. "Why?"

"Just do as you're told, soldier."

"But that makes no sense!" I protested and galloped up to him. "I'll be completely useless with you guys! Why do you need me in the safest part of the formation? I should be out there where the titans are, putting my skills to work! Who made this change? I want to speak to whoever's in charge—"

"You're talking to him! I made the change. I switched you. And there's nothing you can do about it. Learn to roll with the punches, brat. Now come on, we're burning daylight."

A bitter taste turned my tongue. Okay, fine. If he hadn't changed my placement at the last minute, I'd maybe be dead. But there's also a chance that I might've made it out alive, and saved a few lives as well by helping out with the titans. The scales were 50/50. Either could've happened.

"Thats where Armin was placed." I heard Eren mutter behind me.

I refrained from cringing. Armin, in the right wing? Shit. "At this point, we can only hope for the best." I said emptily. But despite the solid exterior I was trying so hard to maintain, on the inside I was plenty anxious. This whole expedition was going to hell, and everyone knew it. Hopefully, the Commander would order a retreat back to the walls soon.

But I couldn't be more wrong. Twenty minutes passed and still no sign of retreat. By then Petra had already returned from relaying the message and assumed her spot next to me.

"What do you think is going on?" I asked her. "Why aren't we turning back?"

"I don't know, but there isn't much we can do. Our duty is to just follow orders and trust the ones in charge." She sighed bleakly.

"I suppose thats true. But it makes you wonder what's going through the Commander's head..." I said, trailing off as I surveyed the landscape. We had been told at the start of the expedition to keep a lookout no matter what position we were in, dangerous or not. When I looked at Petra again, I was a little startled to see she was staring at me already. I pretended not to notice and faced forwards. Maybe she was staring at something past me in the distance... but when I checked again, her eyes continued to analyze me.

"Um, is everything okay?" I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable.

She snapped out of it. "Oh, sorry. I just... never mind." But her troubled gaze remained, focused on Corporal Levi this time, like she was immersed in a critical thought.

Whatever. I don't have the power to read minds. Besides, I'm sure it's just the ever-present anxiety of our current situation that's got her acting weird.

Ten more minutes of silence and uncertainty, and that's when something emerged in the distance.

"Sir," I spoke up, squinting at what appeared to be a mass of trees ahead of us. A forest. "Are we going in there?"

"Just follow me. And get closer together. The path is going to be narrow from here on." He said tonelessly.

Well... that wasn't exactly the answer I wanted. But as it turns out, I didn't need an answer from him anyway. My gut feeling was correct after all. Indeed, we were charging into the forest. Next thing I know I'm surrounded by verdant shades of greens and browns. The trees were so thick that they formed a canopy above us, blocking out all sunlight.

We continued in fragile, nervous silence. As I looked around, everyone wore confused expressions.

"Sir, come on." said Eren. "We won't see a titan until its right on top of us! Something's coming up on the right, isn't it? What are we supposed to do? Avoid titans, or defend the wagons?"

"Quit whining and move on from the obvious, already. None of those are an option anymore." Corporal Levi said.

I raised a jet-black eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Take a look around you. All these big ass trees. Perfect environment for ODM gear, don't you think? Now everyone calm down and just keep taking orders. The best survival tool is your brain."

What he said was true, as much as it pained me to admit it. But on the other hand... I also know that too much thinking and too much idleness can be bad. Reflex and quick action matters, too. Like pulling the plug in a sink, many deaths can escape down the drain if you don't react quickly enough to stop them.

What is this Titan anyway? An abnormal? It must be pretty powerful to have our plans this scrambled.

A popping sound. We looked up to see black smoke originating a mile or two behind us. Wait... a mile or two? How did it get so close? The damn monster will get here any minute now!

"Damn thing's been chasing our asses since the beginning!" Eld growled.

"Blades drawn, now!" The Corporal ordered, but I beat him to it. "It'll happen in the blink of an eye! Be ready!"

The whole world seemed to hold its breath. Patience is a virtue, they say. But waiting for what could possibly be your destruction is a tedious kind of torture. The seconds that turned into minutes were agonizing. Any moment now...

A soldier flew out of the trees. He hung suspended in air, alert and with a courageous heart.

I'll always remember him as the first brave soul to jump out, before he got brutally slapped aside by a giant hand. There was an inkling of red in the space where he once hung. But nothing more.

Her feet were the batons as they pounded on the ground like drums, running after us. Every aspect about her, from the skinless exterior to the frigid blue eyes, screamed murder. I had never seen a titan chase after a couple of humans with such ferocity. The desperation was clear as she tore down entire trees to clear the path. My heart palpitated faster and faster. I felt my pulse in my stomach, my throat, my ears, and even in the tips of my fingers as I clutched the reigns and urged my horse to go faster.

The female titan leapt towards Eren, reaching out to grab him.

"Eren, watch out!" I screamed.

He dodged it just in time, steering his horse closer to my side. Sweat dotted our foreheads. The whole squad struggled to make their horses go faster. Soldiers stationed in the trees tried jumping at the female titan, but they ended up dead. It was raining blood. This whole expedition was a blood bath. It angered me.

"Corporal!" Petra screamed.

"Its too dangerous, we're waiting on you!" Oluo said frantically.

"Corporal, your orders!" Gunther also shouted.

They looked conflicted. Why wasn't Corporal Levi letting them handle the situation? I could hear the screams of the soldiers behind us as they sacrificed their lives. But for what? Goddammit, what the hell is the Corporal's problem? Is he just going to let them die like this?

"Everyone." He finally spoke up after a long period of ignoring us. His steel eyes flashed. "Cover your ears."

He took out a canister similar to a flare. He raised it high in the air and pulled the trigger. We were too late to cover our ears, and the piercing sound that followed deafened everybody. Our heads felt like they were whacked by a hammer.

"An acoustic shell?" Eren said in surprise. Levi turned his head around to face us.

"Tell me, what is your job again? Is it to surrender to your emotions? No. This squad's mission is to do everything possible to keep this brat unharmed." Corporal Levi referred to Eren. "Till our last breath." He added, and faced forward again. My eyes widened. They were risking their own lives just to protect Eren? I can only imagine how horrible that must make him feel. "We will push ahead on horseback, got it?" Corporal Levi said with finality.

"Yes, sir!" They all responded.

Except me. "You're joking, right?"

The rest of the squad, including Eren, chastised me. But I could tell it was only superficial. Of course, a group of ass wipes like them would never turn down an opportunity to bow to their Corporal's orders. I bared my teeth at them. "Yeah, I said it! And I'm sure you're all thinking the same too! I mean, are we seriously going to allow this bloodbath to continue? You're supposed to be the best of the best! But look at you... You're running away. All it takes is the guts to turn our horses around and fight! Why is that so hard?"

"Know your place." Oluo said defensively.

Those words pierced me. I scrunched my eyebrows and looked behind me at the ongoing destruction. "You know what... I do know my place. And its at the heart of battle."

Their protests were nothing but failed attempts to get me to stop preparing my gear. I clenched the handgrips of my blades and aimed to shoot an anchor onto a nearby tree. I'll kill this bitch. No, I'll destroy her.

"Its better if you stay put! Even I recognize that— Johanna, please!" Eren looked at me pleadingly, his words drowning in and out thanks to the thundering footsteps coming up behind us. The moment was tense. Critical. If I didn't choose a perfect timing, I would probably end up like the others... nothing but red splotches. I focused on the trees as we rode past, shifting in my seat, ready to take off into the air any second.

"You're crazy!"

"Stand down, rookie!"

"JOHANNA!"

That last voice screamed just as I was about to fly off. Not only did it strike me as unexpected, but it also broke me out of my concentration. I growled and snapped my head towards him. "What?!"

It was... Corporal Levi. His eyes were slightly unnerved, staring at me with a mixture of disbelief and outrage. "Don't you dare."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't go and kill that murder-machine." I said testily.

He struggled for a moment. His lips formed a straight line.

"Thats what I thought." I said, proceeding to activate my gear.

"Please."

Everyone looked at the Corporal, taking a second to feel surprised in this moment of chaos. I froze and looked up, thinking I heard wrong.

But he repeated it again. "Just... please." His face was unreadable but his tone held a pinch of emotion. I don't know what it meant. Maybe this god-forsaken expedition has him going crazy like the rest of us. The Corporal never begs... right?

Something inside me tethered me to the horse, and reluctantly, I shifted to sit correctly in the saddle again. The others let out sighs of relief. By the time I faced forwards again, the Corporal had also turned his gaze ahead, and there was no telling what was going through his mind now, or what he felt inside.

It happened so suddenly that I wasn't able to process it until we were way past the scene. First, it was a flicker in the corner of my eye. A sliver of the situation. Cannons? Did I just see cannons in the trees?

Then the explosion. Branches shuddered and leaves fell. Smoke billowed behind us, but we never stopped fleeing. But from what? There was nothing there, I noticed as I glanced behind us, along with everyone else. The confusion was shared.

Oh. Oh.

We had a plan all along.

Well, technically not we. Our superiors did.

Relief spread across the group. I looked at Eren, smiled a little, and then looked at the back of the Corporal's head. So... he actually knew what he was doing all along. Why did he have to be so vague?

But the real question is... why didn't he tell us, especially his own squad?

I don't know why, but even though we captured the female titan, a sense of unease lurked over me. Our problems aren't finished yet.

*  *  *

"Wait, let me get this straight..." I said, "Every soldier that died out there... Every single one of them... they were simply martyrs so that we could capture this female titan?"

Eld nodded. "It seems so."

Eren, who stood next to me on this large tree branch, furrowed his brows. "That's... well, thats... I have no words. But don't you think Commander Erwin made the wrong choice?"

"Yeah, I mean, think about it..." I said indignantly. "He was willing to sacrifice all those soldiers on a gamble? A gamble with way too many risks? What if something went wrong? What if we didn't catch the female titan? Not only would they have died, they would've died in vain!"

"You two don't know this yet, Eren and Jo, but one day you'll know why Erwin was entrusted with the Scout Regiment." Günther said reverently.

As much as I admired the Commander, I took this with a grain of salt. One day, huh? Hopefully, I'll live long enough to know.

"By the way, you really should practice self restraint, Miss I-want-to-save-us-all." Eren said scornfully. "You're worse than me! What if you had died trying to kill that female titan? Hm?"

"Oh, please. You're making me sound self-righteous. I'm not Jean. And I wouldn't have died. I could've easily taken her on and spared a couple lives." I huffed.

Eren watched me intensely. "Don't you get it? Those other soldiers probably thought the same. Now look where they are. Not here!"

I felt my defensive get... well, defensive. I didn't like being reprimanded. Growing up, I was never told what was wrong and what was right, what was safe and what was dangerous. I didn't have anyone to tell me. So I just went ahead and did things and judged for myself based on the outcome. That's how it's always been, and how it always will be... right?

"Lay off, will you?" I said prickly. "So what if I did die? Big deal, soldiers die every day! I'll just be another number on a statistic. Nothing new."

Eren seemed taken aback. I could vaguely feel the other's gazes on us, but I ignored them, instead choosing to focus on my spoken words. Damn... in the moment, it just slipped out. But honestly, I didn't know I felt that way until now. The statement felt raw and true. Does this mean... I have nothing to live for?

Well, technically, that's incorrect. I sort of do. I still want to help humanity defeat the titans. But in retrospect, I guess that's just my purpose until I die. I don't have anything that makes me want to avoid dying. Nothing to make me stop and think, 'Damn, I really want to keep on living as long as possible'. If I had died today in this expedition, I still would've served my purpose. My death would've been one of many martyrs pushing the Survey Corps to do better, to keep moving forwards, to never give up, and not let us die in vain. In short, it would've been motivation. So yes, my purpose would've been very much served.

However, a reason to avoid dying... the concept seemed foreign to me.

"Is this how you view life? Seriously? If someone tries to take away your life, you're just going to buckle and say 'okay'?" Eren said in disbelief. Then, his expression hardened. I could see the muscle in his jaw clench. "I say that's crazy talk. Johanna, you're not just a number on a statistic. You're so much more. And if I lost you I'd... I'd..." He trailed off.

Oh... I looked down at my feet, stuck in an awkward spot between uncomfortable and flattered. I didn't think he felt that way. Of course, I feel the same way too. Anyone would. Nobody wants to see their friend die...

But somehow my mind was tricking me into thinking maybe... he meant more than just losing a friend. More important. Tied and bound with stronger feelings than the traditional, ordinary feelings one would have for a friend.

Maybe, I thought of him that way too.

Holy shit, I'm out of my fucking mind...

When I looked up again, Eren was looking to the side, cheeks ever so slightly pink. We stood awkwardly, with me brushing a lock of hair behind my ear and shifting my feet, trying to pretend this wasn't happening.

"Well? What made you stay?"

I looked at him again, surprised. "Um," I thought back to the Corporal, the almost worried look in his eyes, and the way he spoke that single word... "I've never heard the Corporal say please before. It doesn't seem like a word he just blurts out whenever. Or, I don't know... forget it. Maybe I'm just using that as an excuse because I shit my pants at the last minute."

That made him laugh. I smiled a little.

I heard whispering and I looked at the others, who were standing apart from Eren and I on the other end of the branch. The deja vu was instant. Just like how Petra had been staring at me earlier, all four of them were now staring at me collectively. It appeared as though I had caught them in the middle of a conversation.

I folded my arms. Once was understandable. But twice? Now that's just shady. "What?"

"Nothing." Petra shook her head, smiling nervously.

"No, seriously— what is it? You've been acting weird around me all day. Do you know something? Care to share it with me?"

Damn right they knew something. It was clear in their faces, no matter how much they tried to deny it. Something was up. But before I could interrogate them about it, a flare sound cut me off.

The streak of blue tore into the sky, rising high above the trees. Blue meant withdrawal. Withdrawal meant... returning to the walls. Safety.

A knot I didn't know I had in my chest loosened. Finally.

"That was quick. I guess they know who the female titan is..." I said as we dove off the tree, flying off on our ODM gear. The wind tousled my hair. I was overcome with a weightless feeling as I swung from tree to tree with my comrades. They chatted along the way, but I zoned out for most of it, wondering what would come next. We had our enemy, now what? The person is obviously a shifter like Eren. Will they be put on trial? No, wait— reel it back, Johanna. One thing at a time. The most pressing question right now is...

Who made it out of this expedition alive?

I shuddered at the possibility of my friends' absence on the journey back to the walls. No— get a grip. They're fine. Everything will turn out fine. We're going to return to the walls now, rest and probably have a cup of tea, and perhaps I'll finally unveil the reason behind Squad Levi's strange behavior around me.

"Oluo, Petra! For someone who wet themselves the first time, you've really come a long way!" Eld said and smirked.

That comment was enough to pull me out of my thoughts, and I laughed. Petra, on the other hand, screamed in embarrasment. Eren looked at her as though this was the most amused he'd felt in a while.

"I thought we agreed never to speak of it again!" Petra wailed angrily.

"How dare you!" Oluo exclaimed. "I have the highest kill count in this whole squad! Ha, imbecile."

Eld wasn't having it. "If you want to hide that stain behind your kill count, be my guest!"

"Shut your hole!"

"Wait, so did you spray in mid air?" Eren asked him, making things worse. Everyone laughed. Except Petra and Oluo, of course.

"Enough, enough. No one cares who pissed their pants. Just focus on getting back to Corporal Levi. Oh, and for the record, my pants have always been dry." Günther said.

A flare went off to my right. Green, meaning someone was giving us their location. Most likely the Corporal.

"I'll take this one, guys." I said and separated from the group for a few minutes, landing on a branch. I raked my fingers through my messy hair and took out the flare, shooting it straight towards the sky. Another green streak to accompany the one already present. Now the Corporal knew where we were. I headed back towards the group.

Not ten minutes later, someone popped up between the trees. They followed us closely. The hood of their cloak hid their face completely, making it impossible to identify them.

But I knew one thing for sure.

It was definitely not Corporal Levi.

End of Chapter 13

[forge-born-blog]

Forge-Born chapters 1-5

Chapter 6 Geneva island of amazons.

                                                     Forge-Born                                                  A New Odyssey                     Bang! .... Bang!!..... Bang!!.... The sound of mighty thunder as metal meets metal. Bang!!... Bang!!... Bang!!!... With each clap a flash of light illuminates the dark room. Between each strike we gain a glimpse of a humanoid like figure, only this is no man. The creature is truly a nightmare of an image. No even creature does not explain this being, a more apt description would be god. Hephaestus God of the forge. As Hephaestus strike his hammer against a large mound of steel he begins to speak loudly to himself, as though he were addressing someone else. " It was long ago in a time before man, before beast, before gods, before the entities Gaia and Uranus. When all that existed was Chaos and Darkness. A single spark was all it took and in moments the course of history would change. From this spark formed order, formed Gaia and Uranus. For millennia that spark was not to be seen, until one day the spark flashed once more and mankind had came into existence. Today I hope to be given a chance to see that spark. He places his hands on some object and they begin to glow a bright red & white. The object begins to glow and now we can see it. It appears to be a sculpture of a boy made of steel. Today is the day a new legend is born. With blood of iron and body of steel. The legend of the Forge-Born." Chapter 1 "Father!!" A young voice screams. "father look!" The boy points to the sea. As he does Hephaestus steps onto a beach staring at the boy. Now in the sun we can truly see Hephaestus. He is large taller then any man butt a far cry from a giant. His skin is thick like an elephant with discoloration all over grey white black his skin tone varies in blotches like ink blots. His eyes are sunken and unresponsive as though the intense sunlight doesn't bother him. His mouth is more like a beast with jowls and fangs. His body is strong, or at least it seems that way until you see him resting one palm on cane. As he slowly limps across the beach cane in hand he ask the boy." My boy how many times must we have this conversation." "Oh right heehee" the boy attempts to contain his laughter. Hephaestus somehow seems delighted with the boys laughter rather then angry. "Well what is it, tell me what do you see?" "Out in the water it's some big object with a tarp flowing into the wind." "Oh I see now" Hephaestus grins. "what is it father another sea monster?" "No boy it's a ship." "A ship... wait father does that mean there are humans." "I would most likely assume so." "Wow really?..” The boy gazes at the ship with wanderlust  "Father one day I'd like to be on a boat like that." Hephaestus's face sinks as he mutters "someday I hope you will get the chance."      7 years later         The forest is silent when suddenly a loud boom goes off. As the smoke clears we here a man coughing."Damn seems I was bit off on the ratios." As the man begins to stamp out small embers we notice the face is familiar to that of the young boy. Only now as a man he is something more akin to a warrior. His face is Fairly well, no Adonis but easy on the eyes. What stands out most though are his ember eyes. As the man is finished stamping out the fire a loud voice is heard throughout the forest. "Vulcan where are you what manner of messes have you made today?" Shit. the man responds. "Nothing to worry about father I've got it all under control." Hephaestus retorts "funny you said the same thing last time and now Pygmas has no eyebrow." The man's reaction is one of embarrassment. “Well whatever it is it can wait. I need your help on the forge.” After walking an acre Vulcan nears a mountain with a house along the side down below is a large cave that Vulcan enters. In it we see Hephaestus hard at work hammering down some item on an anvil. Surrounding him are 5 giants with one eye who all seem to be busy with their smithing. Finally Vulcan nears Hephaestus "Good now take this and hold it steady around the horn." Vulcan follows the gods instructions and grabs a circular object and presses it firmly against the edge of the Anvil horn. As he does this Hephaestus grasps a large hammer and starts beating against it "another shield huh." Vulcan remarks."Maybe , if you hold it still enough." As the two work together on the shield they begin to banter back and forth until Hephaestus ask a question. " So Vulcan what was it this time another one of your science inventions." Vulcan responds quickly speaking as soon as Hephaestus finishes his last syllable" yes I'm onto something amazing I just need to run some more test." "Could you use any help." Vulcan ponders his answer for a few seconds." Honestly I could, but I really want to try this one on my own father" “Oh can't wait to get out of your old man's shadow ehh boy." Hephaestus grins as he says it. "That's not it I just want to prove this to myself; to prove that I can become a builder like you." For a moment Hephaestus pauses then continues to beat on the shield " I'm very proud of you don't worry someday you will become an even greater craftsman then me." Vulcan almost cries at those words. All his life he's never admired anyone more than Hephaestus, he knew of the other gods yet the one he was always amazed by was Hephaestus. His father was strong willed and wise. Even while being a god he was humble and never thought himself above any creature and to top it all off he was an amazing craftsman. He could build anything : jewelry,trinkets, mechanisms, coliseums, and yes even weapons and armor of unimaginable quality. Suddenly they hear a loud bell. "They're here" Hephaestus says. "Who" ask Vulcan." The ones picking up this shield. As Hephaestus finishes putting on the last of the grips on the shield he tells Vulcan to greet his guest upstairs. Now inside the upper floor he sees a man draped in black and a younger one draped in purple and black he recognizes the first man but has no clue as to the second. While standing there pondering the mans identity Hephaestus walks in from behind him ah hades it's been some time uncle. Glad to see you the man shrouded in jet black cloak and corporeal darkness speaks and as he does so it fills the room with dread. "yes same for you Hephaestus  and you as well Vulcan." Vulcan pushes his curiosities aside and realizes his rudeness" Apologies lord hades" hades smiles although even though it is innocent to him on the outside it looks sinister" No need for apologies Vulcan you are family after all." Hades points to the smaller individual beside him donning similar attributes only in a purple shade" Excuse me allow me to introduce my son regon. It's his shield we've come to collect today." "Ah good to finally meet you Regon I've heard a great many things of you." Says Hephaestus, Regon then responds "As well I you smith. However I must admit I've heard nothing of you having a son Vulcan was it. Vulcan clenches his fist as though he's just been threatened and prepared to fight for his life. Hades speaks up "Regon do not pry. The smith is a powerful ally and respectful man leave it alone." Regon nods silently. " come with us the shields downstairs the cyclops are testing it." Hades is then reminded of something." Speaking of cyclops Hephaestus are you waxing them now?We ran into Pygmas on lookout and he seems to be missing the hair on his brow." Ha!Vulcan immediately covers his mouth trying to contain his laughter, you can see his body quiver as he chuckles with his right hand over his mouth and left hand to his side. The party just ignores him and heads towards the shield. When finding himself alone he uses the opportunity to break away and head towards his own lab deep in the forest. He has work to do otherwise he would have stayed. He rather enjoys hades as he seems to be the only God that respects his father and regularly pays him visits, he's also the only God his father allows him to speak to or come into contact with. In fact as a young boy when hades and Hephaestus were deep in conversation he would allow him to play with Cerberus. He doesn't know why the other gods hate his father or why they can't know of his own existence, but he came to realize long ago through his father and the cyclops stories, that the gods weren't the merciful or flawless beings they're portrayed as. While Vulcan fires up a forge in his workshop Hephaestus is back home speaking with hades. "Thank you again smith for the work you've done." " No need hades you practically keep me employed and I rather enjoy our talks. Not to mention you've kept the identity of Vulcan to yourself and for that I owe you greatly. I'd rather he not get wrapped up in the world of the Divine and immortals. "Speaking of that Hephaestus did you know where Zeus was headed today?" " No I'm afraid I have not contacted Olympus in years. I'm sure you're aware of my strained relations with our family." " Quitewell smith, then it pains me to say but I felt I should give you warning today Zeus visit's the Moirai.” The air turns hostile as a terrified Hephaestus exclaims "The sisters of fate! When hades?" " I do not know nephew I just felt the need to tell you so you might prepare yourself. I will be taking my leave I cannot interfere with my brothers affairs, however I felt I should warn you. Sorry that is all I could do." As he says this hades and Regon fall into a dark abyss. "Thank you hades for warning me, you've done enough." As hades disappears. Hephaestus shouts VUUULLCANNN!!! The words sound loud and carry deep into the Forest. Moments before this Vulcan was leaving his workshop and heading back home. "Finally!" he says to himself "A sword that isn't worthless." Vulcan raises an clothed item into the air, his face covered in ash and carbon with a grin as wide as the crescent moon. Vulcan thinks maybe with this he can go out to the world of man. Sword at his side he can become an adventurer and see the world. With this he wouldn't even have to fear the gods. Suddenly he hears his father cry out for him more panicked then ever before something is wrong just as he turns and pushes off the ground to run a flash of light comes down cutting through the air colliding with the earth, with a tremendous crackle and boom knocking him to the ground. This is thunder and what follows thunder is destruction. As he looks up at the ravaged earth in front of him he sees him. The King of gods, Power incarnate, Clade in lightning ZEUS and his eyes scream bloodlust. Chapter 2 abomination Gobsmacked and in awe. Vulcan lays they're paralyzed unable to run with frozen feet, not even able to find his voice to scream or speak. So shocked he even forgets how to breath Vulcan lies helpless. For years he's heard of the gods of there amazing power and heavy auras but he never expected anything like this. The pressure emanating from this god is like an ocean filling the air dragging him to the bottom helpless against it. He now truly understands what places gods above men. Lying there deprived of oxygen he begins to lose the strength in his body, but just as his eyes begin to close he catches sight of a familiar figure walking towards them with a cane." Vulcan did I not warn you of the presence of gods. It appears you'll have to learn now, focus your mind and will. Remember to not give in to a greater force, push back on the aura with your own and most importantly hide your fear.” With those words Vulcan begins to fall in and out of consciousness. As he begins to practice his father's teachings the weight on his chest gets lighter. Zeus and Hephaestus stand there watching the young man. To the world outside this sight is unexplainable and would go without understanding, but to those intertwined in the Divine this is nothing new. Thousands have died from sheer presence of the Divine alone. Gods can intensify or diminish the aura they place forward. Although many wouldn't know it from the current sight Hephaestus knows all to well Vulcan is gifted in this form of combat via godly presence. Against any average Devine being he would have already returned to strength but this is Zeus. Hephaestus stands there torn over his sons predicament, alas there's nothing he can do. He could fight Zeus in an attempt to stop the overwhelming pressure he exudes, but not only would he lose that fight in order to do so he would have to unleash his aura as well and with his and Zeus's combined pressures Vulcan would not survive. All he can do is stand and watch his son cling to life. Finally there's a breakthrough both men sense it a will of iron refusing to be crushed by the weight. Vulcans eyes open as his body rises like an undead corpse, gasping for air. Hephaestus is pleased Zeus however has not lost his angry demeanor. As Vulcan slowly makes his way to his feet with his arm pressed against the ground for support shaking, he can't believe it Zeus didn't lift a finger and he nearly died just from being in his presence. Hephaestus steps in front of Vulcan shielding him from Zeus's gaze before asking "what is it you are doing here Zeus?" Zeus responds with furry in his voice." Watch your tongue Hephaestus It is your king you are speaking too." Hephaestus bites his tongue and waits for a response. Zeus caring not for the concerns of Hephaestus waits some time before responding "I am here regarding a prophecy given to me by the Moirai." Hephaestus hesitates and thinks of his question before speaking. " May I ask what this prophecy is exactly." " The sisters have informed you have done the unthinkable. You have broken the greatest rule. You created new life where there was none. I am king of all none but me shall be allowed to create life. Hephaestus was I not lenient when the sisters gave me the prophecy years ago of your betrayal" Hephaestus interjects "Zeus, father I told you there was no betrayal I would never forge a weapon to kill you." Mid sentence he is cut off by Zeus" How dare you call me that you are no son of mine I casted you out of Olympus I showed leniency and even now you mock me with that abomination behind you." Vulcan is perplexed could he be referring to him. What's this on about Hephaestus creating life he understood all to well of the rule of life how none is supposed to create it not even gods for such life would go against nature itself. He knows such an act could never be forgiven and that the creature could not be allowed to continue living. Still why does he speak of him that way Vulcan is no creation. He was told he was the son of Hephaestus and a lower God. He knows nothing of his true origin. Many might be confused with this statement believing Gods to have created life many times however there are rules firstly life cannot be made where it did not previously exist you may turn a tree into a mortal however you may not turn stone to man. Two if it is made from nothing it may not have will nor mind of its own hence golems and lastly it may not be given the ability to pass on to a new generation. In creating Vulcan Hephaestus broke this covenant incurring the wrath of Zeus. "Your creation neither man nor God this creature does not belong in this world. Step aside and allow me to destroy it and I may be merciful to you afterwards. " Vulcan's heart clenches itself. To think the one who stands above would desire his death what could he do he couldn't possibly fight and hope to win. Run how can he outrun lighting. As Vulcan's heart races a comforting voice reassures him.  "Calm down my son no harm shall come to you. You have as much a right to life as any living creature and I will defend that right with my own life if I must." As he says those endearing and heartfelt words he stares at Zeus and says "I challenge you for the right to rule Olympus on the grounds of my blood as one of the twelve seats." Zeus grits his teeth seething with anger the surrounding environment begins to shutter. Hephaestus has invoked the right to challenge only a shameful God and weak ruler would refuse. Very well I will kill you first, then the abomination. I shall return with an audience at sundown to oversee. After Zeus leaves Vulcan drops to the floor exhausted. After a few hours the sun begins to set Vulcan wakes up at home. Suddenly it all comes back to him he leaps out of bed screaming no. Hephaestus comes and hugs him telling him to calm himself. Vulcan looks up at him tears in his eyes and ask why he challenged Zeus he cannot hope to win. Hephaestus looks down at him and says " Because you are my son." "But I'm not I heard him I'm not your son I'm not human not God I'm..I shouldn't exist." "Vulcan weather or not you should have existed isn't important the fact remains you do exist you feel you bleed you cry and laugh. I can no longer lie to you so I will tell you the truth Vulcan. Many years ago I lived with the Olympians at first I wanted to be one to be accepted by them but I never was for that I grew to despise them I became angry and vain and did many things I'm no longer proud of. Eventually in time I began to forgive them and place my heart at ease after that I was able to see the evil of the gods and there indifference to the plights of man. I pleaded with them and begged them to help the humans to show mercy, but alas my words fell on deaf ears. The gods were a conceited lot but still they were my family and I loved them and I had no intention to take my family to war. So instead I took up an oath of pacifism I vowed to never participate in there wars or the wars of man and that I would never forge another weapon. When Zeus demanded weapons I refused this deeply angered him he felt as though it was a challenge against his authority which had him grow paranoid of my betrayal. So he sought out the sisters of fate for guidance on the matter. That was when they informed him of a vision they had that I would forge a new weapon one that would kill him. Opun hearing these words he attempted to end my existence, but perhaps some small ounce of fatherly affection remained because he did not deliver the finishing blow; instead he banished me from Olympus and barred me from ever forging another weapon. In time I found this island of cyclops other creatures resented by their father for there imperfect figures. I became like a mentor to them taught them to forge and communicate. Still though life was lonely I missed my family even though they were cruel and unkind. I became so lonely I came up with an idea. What I was about to do was blasphemy to the highest degree. I was about to break the supreme rule of the Divine. Life shall never be created from nothing only Zeus himself may ever create new life. This law stands above all others the punishment for breaking it is death. In my lost state I began to work on my finest craft ever I would forge his bones of steel his blood of hot iron and his flesh of copper & bronze. Still such a task is no mere small feat. Although the law exist even without it none could perform this feat. Creating new life is tricky when Zeus Aphrodite and I created woman we nearly abandoned the efforts but some force greater than our understanding aided us. For you it was the same try as I might you remained a statue of metal. I don't know how or why but somehow something breathed life into you my son and on that day you came to be a creature born of the forge.” "But that means I am an abomination."  "Look at me son it is true you are neither God nor man. However you are no monster you deserve life just as any man. Here I found this beside you" he hands him the clothed item from before “I found it beside I had hoped you would not mind I had a look at it." Vulcan removes the cloth reveal a jade tinted blade. It's beautiful almost like an ornament. He's almost too afraid to ask but somehow finds the courage. “What did you think?” "Interesting indeed your work with a blade is truly remarkable however it is undeniably yours the work of a young man."  " What's that mean." Ask Vulcan "It's truly exceptional and Finely forged, incredibly sharp and well made. Only it's not suitable for combat. It's to be expected your young and inexperienced in war. Your blade is impractical it's appearance is a beauty and like that of a proper heroes blade but it would never be used In combat. You see a smith must not only make the strongest weapon he must also take into account the warrior wielding it and its purpose. Sometimes you have a smaller warrior so a large or long blade is impractical sometimes they have armor or shields so a sharp edge is useless other times it simply does not feel right from the grip or isn't designed to swing according to the Warriors method." With the more he describes the more Vulcan sulks which Hephaestus takes notice of. "Don't be disappointed Vulcan you are a fine craftsman and the blade is incredibly durable and sharp it shows how well your technique and skill at the forge is. This lack of foresight was on me I taught you all the secrets to the forge save  weapons. I wish I had more time to teach you but I'm afraid our time is up the sun is setting. Take this he throws a bag at Vulcans feet. What is this for are we going to run. No boy you will I will stay here and fight. But why we can bo-- I gave my word I challenged him now I can not go back on that. A man is nothing without his word. Humans taught me that and hopefully they can teach you the same. Go there's a ship waiting for you at the north beach. Inside that bag is a map you will head to Geneva a small island not far from here where you will meet your guide. You already know how to read the stars, but take this it's something I've been working on It will help keep you going in the right direction. Hephaestus shows him what appears to be a primitive compass. But father I can help you or maybe I can offer myself to Zeus you shouldn't have to die for nothing. No. Please! dammit boy I...fine you want to help. Hephaestus drops the compass. pick that up we will have use for it later. As Vulcan reaches down Hephaestus strikes him over the back of his head breaking his cane over it. He looks down at the unconscious Vulcan then back at his broken cane and mutters "You've got a hard head boy." He proceeds to pick him up and throw him outside into the arms of a brow less cyclops. "Pygma take care of the boy." Pygma nods and vanishes with Vulcan into the forest. As Hephaestus makes his way down the stairway he hears Zeus land and call for him Hephaestus show yourself I've come for your challenge with witnesses Apollo Hera and Athena. As he reaches the end of the staircase he heads to a corner of his workshop towards a locked trunk. Hephaestus! Zeus shouts I hope you have not suddenly realized you're fear and become to cowardly to face me. A golden draped man by Zeus speaks up "Father I must admit picking on a crippled and feeble old man does not sit well with me must this continue." Now one of the women by Zeus interjects "Careful Apollo the smith may be weak in body and his mind may also have confliction, but he is a seat on Olympus  for a reason even after being cast out. Father I beg you reconsider the smith would pose a great loss to us" "Silence Athena the smith has laid his bed... but if it will put you all at ease, I will make it quick.. " quick huh..." The sound of Heavy metal rattling follows the voice. "Perhaps you have forgotten just what a battle is like Zeus" the voice comes from the cave as a grinning Hephaestus steps out clad in armor from head to toe an arsenal of weapons on his person. He stands with one hand holding a large spear pressed into the ground almost as if replacing his cane the other hand holding a flail attached to a long chain. It's as though he were a gladiator of great legend. Chapter 3 Even Gods Bleed The other gods stand in shock of the sight before them. Zeus is enraged at the sight of Hephaestus in armor. "What is the meaning of this smith? I thought this was duel among gods." Unfazed he responds " It is"  “then why do you sully it with trinkets.” “Father you seem to misunderstand nowhere does it say armor or weapons are forbidden.” “I would think your pride wouldn't allow such a poor display.” “ Yes pride would stop most men however men are foolish a warrior knows the battlefield is not to be treated as a playground things like pride matter not in battlegrounds. You do what you must to win to survive to protect the ones you care for. Today you threatened my son and I would swallow my pride before I ever let you bring him harm. Come father today one of us shall die here on this battlefield.” After recognizing the danger Athena voices her concern. “Zeus be wise this is the smith and those are his hand crafted weapons I recognize them this fight will be dangerous nothing requires you to face him like this.” “ Silence Athena very well smith I shall teach you you're toys mean nothing before true power” as he says this Zeus hurls a thunderbolt. The smith slams down the spear into the ground in its path after nearing the spear the lightning draws to the staff discharging into the ground. Hephaestus spins his flail before throwing it at Zeus smashing against his face it flings Zeus clear across the field. “Father your power is what gives you strength but me my gifts of the forge lend me strengths I could never attain on my own I may be old & broken but do not believe me  helpless by any means." Zeus snarls at Hephaestus the smith grips his spear and with his good leg pushes off the ground leaving a crater at the point of liftoff. Zeus takes hold of the spear catching it as it pierces him. Only allowing it to penetrate a mere inch of flesh, then creating a burst of lighting that sends Hephaestus flying into the mountain behind them. After coming to his feet Zeus takes the spear and breaks it over his knee Hephaestus stairs at him with a fierce eyes “as I said Hephaestus toys” he says as he drops the broken spear. Then in almost an instant Zeus stands in front of Hephaestus still processing what just occurred Hephaestus is unable to react as Zeus buries his fist into his face following that blow is a flurry of strikes each more powerful than the last. Even fully clad in armor seems to mean nothing as Zeus's power does not appear to be diminished in any way. Hephaestus knows the strength of this armor well he once tested it against against the might of a tsunami and yet not even a scratch, but here it may as well be simple cloth. Finally after growing tired Zeus ends his onslaught he stands menacingly over the bruised and bloody Hephaestus. In that moment it what appeared to be a a man clinging to his last bits of life Hephaestus pulled his hammer from his side gripping the handle firmly he raised it to the air his arm shaking barely able to hold it. In this moment tears came to his eyes as he thought of his son, he knew it had not been enough time he could not die yet. So with every ounce of his being he whispered one word" Forge" he followed those words by striking his hammer down on the mountain behind. In a mere moment after contact a mammoth sized steel gauntlet erupted from the wall punching Zeus. Forcing him out of the mountain falling to the ground below with a large thud. Zeus and the other gods look up to the mountain to see Hephaestus axe in hand looking down upon them. He jumps down to Zeus as he sees this he respond by hurling lighting at him but Hephaestus pushes down with his axe splitting the bolt in two the landing all his weight on Zeus then grabbing at his shoulders he opens his large jowls and begins spewing fire and magma. Through the magma reaches Zeus's hand wrapping around Hephaestus throat stopping the red bile. With the fire gone we now see Zeus's face angry covered with burns and scorch marks. With his free hand he strikes Hephaestus but Hephaestus returns with a blow of his own forcing Zeus to relinquish his grip back and forth the gods trade blows however this is no equivalent exchange as Hephaestus strikes get weaker and far more infrequent, sometimes taking two or three blows before delivering his own. Hephaestus then grips the blade at his side and slices at Zeus's leg. Zeus responds but not quickly enough to avoid injury just to avoid a more serious strike. He then takes a few paces back as Hephaestus raise his sword at him. “Aiming for my legs eh truly a warriors cunning.” Zeus mentions. “Well I have to do something to slow you down after all my leg isn't quite as spry as yours.” Hephaestus points to his weak leg trembling at the strain. Zeus stairs at both legs then comments

“It's quite incredible how you've been able to fight while balancing on one leg.” “I've had practice. Tell me father would you reconsider allowing my son to live if I surrendered now and agreed to forge for you once again.” “I've already told you smith you're no son of mine and that abomination is no son of yours I cannot allow such a being to exist that challenges the very nature of the universe itself.” “ You mean you could not allow anything to exist that cannot owe it's very existence to you. This has nothing to do with gods the boy could never hope to challenge your place in the universe his power is not Devine. He's closer to man then God. Why should his life be invalid simply because he is neither, because his very existence is a blight on your dominance over this world.” “ Hephaestus  before I kill You I will rip out you're heathenish tongue.” “I see then” he stares at Hera and the other gods “mother brother sister please know that I tried to seek a peaceful solution I did not simply seek bloodshed.” As the blood began to drip from his palms they begin to glow and the blood begins to boil and burn. As Hephaestus breathes embers fill the the very air he exhales. He grabs his hammer then places one hand to the floor and again he utters the words " forge" instantly multiple large blades protrude from the ground aiming for Zeus. In retaliation he unleashes a wave of thunder atomizing the blades. From his side appears Hephaestus his open hand reaches for Zeus's face igniting the very air it passes through. Zeus however manages to avoid it Hephaestus quickly changes tactics shifting his position using his hammer he delivers a backhanded strike smashing Zeus's nose. After catching sight of this Hephaestus remarks "it has been a long time since I have seen you bleed father." Chapter 4  Hephaestus God of the forge Out far off the coast of the island floats a small ship in which Vulcan still lays unconscious. As the battle between gods rages on in the distant island, the sounds of the clash awaken him. He awakens unaware of where he is he looks around surprised to see himself surrounded by water. After getting his bearings he realizes he must have been knocked out and placed on this ship. The sounds of the battle shift his focus to the island. His chest Tightens as even out here he can feel the gods crushing auras. He thinks of the struggle his father must be facing, without hesitation he turns the ship around and heads for the island only by some act of universe or perhaps a god, a gust of wind catches his sails pulling him further out to sea. All he  can do is watch the island get smaller and smaller in the distance for he is now at the mercy of the winds and the sea. Back on the island the tide of battle has once again shifted as Zeus fueled by rage at his own blood ferociously beat down Hephaestus. However Hephaestus seems to be pleased. The smile over Hephaestus faces further infuriates Zeus prompting more brutality. Zeus doesn't understand so he ask " Why do you smile Hephaestus once I've ended your existence I will chase your abomination. None can escape me for I see all.” “ Hah you fool father you've become so arrogant in the time since I've seen you I'm fully aware of your sight and that of mothers which is why I gifted him a device imbued with magic capable of hiding him from you.” “ What. You lie smith.” “You know me well Zeus you know me to be capable of such feats.” Arghhh! Zeus lets out a howl as he summons thunder to strike Hephaestus. Leaving a giant scare in Hephaestus chest. Hephaestus however has accepted death and does not fear it. He thinks of his long life of his ups and downs his younger years. Hephaestus was not like other gods he wasn't born perfect. Angry at Zeus for having Athena with another women Hera set out to make a child of her own with no help from any man. She would give birth to what the world would see as a monster. At his birth Hephaestus was already horribly disfigured and ugly he resembled more the creatures of Tartarus then the Adonis's of Olympus. Still his mother loved him then. She named him Hephaestus after one of her other lovers. Zeus however could not stand him, while he gazed at the hideousness and imperfection of Hephaestus it drove him mad not only was he monstrous in form but his body was frail and weak smaller then most babies and barely clinging to life. He could never call such a pathetic creature one of his pantheon his existence was a smear on all the gods and his name. Still he chose to accept the child as his own for the sake of Hera but made sure to keep him out of view of the world. Every Night however the sounds of his cries would drive him mad as it only reminded him of his failure. This continued for some time until one night Zeus awoke in a fit of rage, Hera hearing the babies cries awoke to find Zeus standing at the cliff side of Olympus holding the infant. She pleaded and begged him not too but he ignored her cries as he threw the child with all his might down into the sea and rocks below. Zeus now believing himself to be rid of the blight returned to sleep. Only fate would still not be so kind for Hephaestus. The frail boy miraculously survived the fall. Only his body was mangled his leg broken beyond repair the infant was in pure agony. He cried but his howls were swallowed by the ocean as he began to drown. For sure he would have died had this sight had naught of caught the attention of a nearby water nymph.  The nymph dragged the child to an underground cave under mount Olympus here he nursed the child back to health. After a few years the child had been lucky enough to to survive and grow healthier and more hardy a complete contrast to his frail form as a child sadly however the leg could not be saved. A pity thought the nymph if not for that the child would have grown to be an unrivaled gladiator his physical prowess far surpassed any being before him. Sadly however he will never be able to walk without support. How cruel the gods are thought the nymph. More years had passed and Hephaestus grew interested in the forge after years of isolation for fear of Zeus actions should he found out the boy was alive and the nymph saved him the nymph pleaded for Hephaestus to remain in the cave. Owing everything to him Hephaestus agreed to stay they're till he reached maturity. Finally after a decade more he set out into the world it was not long after he made a name for himself as a smith. Eventually one of his pieces of jewelry made its way to the gods they demanded the name of the maker Hephaestus they replied. The gods were shocked although not relieved they still did not care for Hephaestus even in time hera began to regret ever having conceived him. Still they admired his craft. And order him forge items of equal beauty for them. Hermes was sent however upon hearing this Hephaestus refused still angered over the gods treatment of him and the loss of his leg. Request after request was sent and refused until the gods began to threaten him. Angry Hephaestus came up with a plan he sent Hera a beautifully crafted chair all the gods gathered around to see. Hera loved this chair it's only flaw once seated she could not unseet herself for sometime the gods laughed at Hephaestus joke only after hours had passed and Hera could not move they realized the severity Hephaestus had trapped Hera. None could release her not even Zeus so they sent gods down to ask Hephaestus free her they asked kindly he refused so in response they sent Aires God of war to threaten him but Hephaestus was different from the others he held no fear. In fact it was Aires who was shaken upon return to Olympus. Still the gods the pleaded until eventually he was offered a seat on Olympus and the hand of Aphrodite. Pleased Hephaestus released Hera. In the coming years Hephaestus would grow to have many more stories most erased or forgotten to history. In time his anger at the world grew until one day he would realize his faulty and the corruption of the gods. In time because of this he began to pity his family. He begged and pleaded for them to see there errors, but still no god respected him. Only his uncle hades also scorned and cheated by the gods would see the true worth and nobility of Hephaestus in time the gods grew more cruel to mankind and he grew more compassionate to them. This was the tragic and beautiful trajectory of his life. Even now as his father stands beating him to death Hephaestus cries for him for his family for humanity for his son. He forgave the gods long ago for they're mistreatment of him for the hundred unspoken stories of the wrongs they've done him the stories he was too ashamed  to tell his son. Hephaestus lead a sad life however he would do it again for all the brief glimpses of happiness he experienced. He regrets not being around to see his son grow and enter the world but he knows the wisdom he imparted on him would make him into a fine man. He knows one day he will find love and happiness and for that dying here right now would be a faire price to pay. With one last breath Hephaestus speaks once more to Zeus “father I forgive all the gods cruelties to me I forgive Aphrodite and I forgive Aires I forgive you mother and even now as you take my last breath from me I forgive you father. I know in your heart you do not hate you simply feel this is the only way to maintain order I know it brings you no pleasure or relief to kill me which is why you sent the nymph Zeus looks shocked. I know you feel responsible for maintaining order and that you've refused to shed tears for me not out of lack of compassion. I can see in your eyes this pains you far more than me.” He pauses needing to take a breath due to his condition. “But even though I love you all I cannot condone your actions you have been abusive to the humans cruel even. You have ruined lives and dictated them you may be gods but you have no right to rule over them. You toy with their emotions and force them to submit. Which is why I could not stand idly by any longer. The sisters were right I did forge a new weapon but not to slay you to defeat you to free humanity from the plague of the gods. For it is no mere weapon, he will break their chains. Cast the gods from their thrones. He is blood of iron and body of steel he is forge born he is my son and the last hope of not just humanity but of the gods as well, because he won't just save humanity from the gods he will save you from yourselves. He will open your hearts to love. Father he is my last gift to you.” And with those last words the brimming glow emanating from Hephaestus fades as he lies unresponsive broken bloody not the death deserved of a man of piece. Off in the distance still fighting against the winds Vulcan senses one of the auras weakening growing more frantic he struggles greater even cursing the sea and winds until finally the aura disappears completely. Even without eyes he knows all too well what has occurred. He drops to his knees in tears giving up his struggle as he howls at the loss of his most precious person. Today he is all alone in the world. A freak a monster an outcast with no place to call home. He kneels there weeping allowing the winds to drag him further out to sea. Chapter 5 a new odyssey Out in the oceans alone sits a young Vulcan his eyes red and sunken. He lies there motionless and and unresponsive to the world he is dried out and his stomach growls. A near few feet from him stand his supplies within its content are food and water for a week but still it remains untouched. For days he wrestled with his grief he was angry at Zeus at the gods for allowing it and mostly at himself for being helpless. It has been five days now since his father's death had it not been for his inhuman attributes he would have succumbed to dehydration already. However the effects of it have begun to take hold his mind is hazy and he sees ghost which are not there. The Sun's light has reddened his skin and dried his lips so much they're cracked and bleeding. A little bird flies onto the edge of his ship. It stares at him for sometime analyzing him almost as though he held intelligence. Finally after some time while lost in thought he heard a voice “Vulcan.”  Vulcan looks around but sees nothing . “Vulcan” again he hears it he begins to believe it is perhaps the sea playing tricks on him. The bird now flutters to him landing on his knee. He stares at it and it opens its beak and and the words “Vulcan have you gone deaf.” He cant believe his ears or eyes he believes the effects of the ocean and dehydration are now at play. What bird can talk he thought. So he ignored it believing it to be in his head the bird continues to call him. The bird even begins to peck at him unfortunately for the bird however although Vulcan looks human his skin is actually like copper and bronze  in fact as a child he often wrestled with snakes and beast thinking them to be playing all the while they were attempting to eat him but their teeth could not pierce his flesh nor could they crush him. In time the bird gives up flying away Vulcan believes it to truly have been a vision until ploop a birds droppings fall on his head he immediately sticks his head in the water to clean the feces off him. When he returns to the ship he spots the bird on his deck. He bears his teeth as he scowls “why you little shit I'm gonna roast you and have bird for dinner.” “Serves you right for ignoring someone.” Okay now he knows he's not crazy this bird is really talking to him “so you're real.” “ As real as the shit in your head now listen close if you don’t want me to shit on your head again” Vulcan nods his head. “What are you doing boy?” “Why I'm doing Nothing.” “ Exactly. You lost your father not your life” “ You know about my father.” “I know a great many things boy.” “ Who are you.” “ That does not concern you, you're actions however do concern me. It has been five days since your father's passing and yet you sit here throwing away the life he sacrificed his for.” Vulcan hears those words as they echo into his heart. Tears once again well up. “No boy no more tears the time for tears are over now is the time for hope.” “What's there to be hopeful for I've lost everything. And I'm currently being hunted by the most powerful being in the universe at any moment he so chose he could summon lightning upon me to drown me in this ocean" “ If he can boy then why does he not do so. To play with you, perhaps the gods are very cruel. Or perhaps you're father was far smarter then you gave him credit for. On that device he gave you to guide you” Vulcan stares at the compass he's been clutching on one hand. “On that contraption is not only a guide but a ward one powerful enough to hide you from the gods. They can't kill you because they cannot find you.” “Very well bird you have erased one concern but what about my first what have I to live for now.” “ You have you to live for boy you can now see the world as you've always wanted you can gain justice for you're father.” “ Justice hah” Vulcan laughs hysterically “you mean me to kill Zeus God of Thunder. I truly despise Zeus as well as the other Olympians but I was never taught to seek vengeance doing so would only tarnish my father's legacy. And even if I desired the death of the gods what could I do against them for centuries man has been at they're mercy why because they are loyal and subservient no it is because they are weak and incapable of fighting the gods.” “ True they are but still many have tried..” “ and many have failed” he cut off the bird “failure is the first stop on the path to success.” At those words Vulcan resend so to his mind to a time he was a young boy at the forge he sat there with a crudely made helmet weeping. When along came Hephaestus he stood over him and asked why he cried Vulcan responded because he had failed it was nothing compared to Hephaestus work he wasn't gifted at the forge. Hephaestus stayed silent for a moment then walked away. After a few minutes he returned to the weeping boy and dropped something at his feet that made a clang sound as it hit the floor Vulcan stared at the object unsure of white it was it was a piece of metal with a strange shape and varying thickness Vulcan finally gave up and asked what is it. Hephaestus chuckled and said “it was meant to be a chalice for wine.” Vulcan is puzzled now that he was told he can make out a rough shape of a chalice the, but it is so badly deformed and tempered he can hardly accept it. “That Vulcan was my first ever forged item. Like you I wept only it was for three whole days I began to think about my failure about how much that cup and I shared in common how my parents believed me to be a failure and casted me out. When I thought of that I stopped my tears because I realized I wasn't a failure I didn't deserve to be tossed aside and I would prove that I would forge the greatest chalice ever. Time after time I tried again and again to make a chalice one after another they failed some worse than others, some ashamedly worst then the one that had come before it but with each I learned I grew and one day I had accomplished my task it came out perfect. Vulcan failure is merely the first step in the path to success.” With those words Vulcans tears fade and a smile crept across his face. Then almost mirroring the child Vulcan In the presents eyes were given new life the somber expression was replaced with a confident smile as he took to his feet and ran towards his supplies terrifying the bird nearly crushing it as it screamed hey watch it. He took large gulps of water and food nearly choking himself he lowered the sail and steered the Ritter towards the direction of north on the compass. He turned one time to face the direction of his island even though he could not see it and shouted he turned back and thanked the bird only it had disappeared. He laughed Unsure if hid had been real or not but it did not matter because it had given him what he needed now with life in his eyes he scans his map and compass and set sail for Geneva. And thus began a new odyssey.

Preview-  chapter 6  Geneva island of amazons

[marvelsquicksilver]

Fake Dating

Request: write a oneshot where the lead keeps getting pressured by her mum to get a date and Steve offers. 

READER X STEVE

Word count: 2584

note it’s 4am and I didn’t really proof read this well, but I hope it’s okay lmao. 

“Yes mum I know thanksgiving is your favourite time of the year—“ I huffed down the line—my mother had been whining on the phone for over an hour and I couldn’t seem to find a way to end to the conversation. “I’m going to be there yes, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t have to work.” She chose to ignore the fact that my job was in fact extremely important.

 Steve looked up from his newspaper, a sympathetic but somewhat cynical smile etched on his face.

 “Sorry,” I mouthed an apology in his direction—I really shouldn’t have been having such a loud private conversation in such an open space. “Wait what?” as I zoned back in I heard her mumble something about knowing that I won’t bring a date. “What do you mean you’re upset I won’t bring a date? Who says I don’t have a date?” I can feel my face turn bright red as Steve raises an eyebrow in concern—I wave him off.

 “Well honey it’s just that you never bring one, I assumed this year would be the sa—“

 “I have a date mother,” the words were falling from my mouth before I could stop them.

 “You what?” she sounds astonished—I hadn’t realised I was such a disappointment on the relationship front.

 “I have a date,” I repeated myself, knowing I couldn’t back out of the lie. My palms began to sweat and I could feel my heart rate increasing. What had I done? “Anyway gotta jet, duty calls—see you Friday.” I quickly hung up the call and gulped down the lump that’d been forming in my throat. What was I going to do?

 “Since when do you have a boyfriend?” Steve chuckled lightly. As my partner on the job he knew me best out of everyone on the stupid base—so he damn well knew that I didn’t have a date.

 “Shut up Steven.” I snapped as I fell back onto the couch, grabbing a pillow whilst I was at it so I could suffocate myself.

 “Will you stop that,” he grabbed the pillow, his large frame towering over me. “Stop being so overdramatic all the damn time.”

 “Why?” I threw my hands up in the classic dramatic fashion that he’d been talking about. “I’ve already dug my own grave—I mean where on Earth am I supposed to find a date to my stupid thanksgiving dinner? Every guy on this base thinks I am a nut job.”

 He grabs ahold of my arms and hoists me upright. “Not every guy on this base thinks you’re a nut job.”  

 “Oh yeah and you’re so sure, how?” I narrowed my eyes at him letting him know this wasn’t the time to be fake sympathetic. “I’m going to die Steve, I’ll have to lie—say my fake boyfriend came down with a bout of violent diarrhoea.”

 He rolls his eyes and sighs in defeat knowing full well that I won’t stop being a drama queen. “Why don’t I just come as your fake date?”

 “What?!” I shot up like a rocket, “come again Rogers? Are you offering to be my fake thanksgiving date?” He really did pity me.

 “Well I know the most about you,” he shrugged, “and I’m sure it won’t be that hard?” He raised an eyebrow in question and I knew he was silently asking if my family were as crazy as me.

 “Well my family ARE a piece of work, but they’re nothing Captain America can’t handle.” I was lying. My family were a MESS. My mother could only be described as a walking lunatic and my dad—my dad was the complete opposite. He just didn’t say a word, my mother had the upper hand in their relationship and he just went with the flow. My older sister was a control freak and my younger brother was the textbook definition of stoner. We did not gel together at all. Steve was in for the biggest challenge of his life, but I wasn’t going to be the one to admit it.

 “Well then,” he patted me on the shoulder, “I guess I’ll go pack my duffle bag.”

 “Oh I could kiss you right now,” I jumped up from the couch and engulfed him in a hug—my arms barely managing to fit around him.

 “Easy there Tiger, don’t want to seem too eager.” He laughed lightly. “Plus,” he smirks as I back away, “I’ve always known you had a secret crush on me.”

 I almost choke when he says that. “Oh Captain,” it’s my turn to pat him on the back, “you are sorely mistaken.”

 --

 “I wish we would’ve just taken the bike,” I sighed heavily as I moved to undo my seatbelt. The sweater I was wearing was scratching against my skin and I was more annoyed at the world than usual—I was putting it down to stress. I had no idea how the whole fake boyfriend situation was going to work out, but it was making me fret like I’d never fretted before.

 “Usually most parents don’t approve of the boyfriend who rides a motorcycle.” Steve smirked as he stroked his beard—I was enjoying the rugged look on him. he’d gelled his hair back for the occasion and had conducted a necessary trim on the beard, but it was just enough to make me still want him to pin me against a wall, which of course was against his better judgment—and I would never, ever let Steve pin me against a wall, cause we were partners and that was all.

 “Are you okay?” he waved a hand in front of my face and I realised that I’d zoned out whilst thinking about him losing his morals.

 “Hmm,” I let out some sort of noise to let him know that I was still alive and on Earth, “let’s go.”

 --

 “OH goOd Lord!” My mother sounded like she was going to have an aneurism when she opened the door—it was definite excitement, but not because her favourite daughter was home, no—it was because her daughter with not one but 5 PHD’s had brought a man home.

 “Hi mum,” I felt so accomplished. “This is Steve, Steve this is my mum Lara.”

 “Nice to meet you!” He handed her the flowers he’d insisted on buying even though I’d made it a clear point that my mother had the blackest of black thumbs and killed every plant in her path.

 “No, no!” She engulfed him in a hug, “nice to meet you! (Y/N) hasn’t had a boyfriend in years and when she said she had one, well—“ she took a second to drink in his good looks, “I definitely wasn’t expecting you, especially because she isn’t ageing like a fine wine if you know what I mean.”

 I chose to ignore my mother’s rude comment.

 Steve let out a light laugh, “well, I think your daughter is extremely beautiful and I’m honoured you invited me to your thanksgiving.”

 “Oh Steven you’re so sweet, come on in and meet everyone else.”

 --

 “So Steve,” my father wiped the corner of his mouth with his napkin, “your mum wasn’t disappointed that you couldn’t spend thanksgiving with her this year.”

 I felt like I was going to throw up, I couldn’t even chime in because I was frozen.

 “Uh, no Sir—“

 “Dad!” My sister spoke up, “don’t be stupid, he’s Captain America, his parents are dead!”

 “JANE!” I almost stabbed her hand with my fork, it was such an insensitive way of putting it.

 “What?!” she rolled her eyes, “it’s the truth?” She really was thick.

 I could feel my face heating up and Steve could obviously notice my anxiety creeping up. He placed a hand on my knee, silently letting me know it was going to be okay.

 “Wait,” my mother paused, “how old are you?”

 “Well,” Steve cleared his throat awkwardly, “ I’m 25, but if we’re talking technical terms then 97.”

 “That’s fucking weird,” my brother decided to join the conversation, “she’s like, dating someone older than grandpa.”

 “ENOUGH.” I got up from the table. “What is wrong with you people? You have no fucking shame, c’mon Steve.” I tugged on his sweater, “lets go.”

 “It’s fine (Y/N)” he shook his head, “I’m fine, sit back down—it’s too late to head back home and your mum has gone through so much effort.”

 He was right, it was too late to drive two hours home and the rain had started so the roads were probably icy in the cold weather.

 “Fine, but I refuse to sit at this table any longer, I’ll be in the guest room.” I didn’t want to leave him out there on his own, but god I didn’t want to deal with that any longer. They were so rude and so insensitive, they just didn’t think when they spoke and it killed me. I stormed off from the table and hoped to god Steve would be okay on his own.

 --

 “Hey,” Steve whispered as he entered the room “wait are you crying?” he flicked on the bedside lamp and sat down next to me.

 “No,” I lied as I violently wiped at my eyes.

 “(Y/N),” he stroked my hair back from my face, “it really wasn’t that bad you know.”

 “You don’t have to lie, they’re fucking horrible.”

 He let out a small laugh, “noooo, they’re just a normal curious family!”

 “They’re a bunch of nut jobs who lack the intellectual capacity to think before they speak and I dragged you into this shit show because I’m pathetic and can’t find an actual boyfriend.”

 He let out a deep sigh, not saying anything for a few seconds. “Look, I was going to wait till the end of this trip to ask, but obviously it can’t wait because you’re just being ridiculous every time you say you’re pathetic.”

 “What?” I sat up, I had no idea what he could be asking.

 “I was uh,” he held the back of his neck nervously, “I was thinking maybe I could take you on a date after this whole thing? I mean I’ve been meaning to ask for months, but we’re both so busy.”

 “No.” I knew why I was saying no and it was because I wanted to date him more than anything in the world. I’d been so obvious, trying the small things, but he just never picked up on them and I knew that if he really liked me he would have gauged it. So I knew deep down that I had to tell myself I didn’t really like him and that he was just my partner.

 “What?”

 “I said no, you’re only doing this because you pity me and I don’t want that. You’re so perfect, and I’ve honestly been telling myself for so long to just push the feelings I have for you aside because I’m me and you’re you. You’re also my partner and I don’t want there to be any weirdness when you realised that I’m not what you want because I love you so much platonically and then have a little crush on the side. So NO I won’t go on a date with you because; a I don’t think you mean it and b I’m not good enough.”

 “Don’t be ridiculous! If you like me too then why not take the leap? You’d let me pretend to be your boyfriend but not actually try it?”

 “Steve,” I was getting upset again, “you don’t have to lie okay. You’re so perfect and I’m this!” I signalled up and down to show off what a joke I am. “There is literally no one who could want me at this point in time.”

 “Well, no.” He retorted. “Stop saying that I’m perfect and that you’re pathetic and that no one likes you—because that’s a lie, I definitely like you. You’re so damn smart, you have 5 PHDs, you’re goddamn funny and you always bring me my favourite sandwich on my birthday. Then on Christmas you try and bake my favourite cake, cause you know I miss it and even though it doesn’t turn out right I appreciate it more than anything because you tried and it’s the little things. Oh and lets not forget the fact that you’re always helping me with things on my list. You make my life feel normal and you’re always remind me to keep trying to be a better person and I want that in my life constantly, not just when I’m at work.”

 There was a lump rising in my throat, “I-I don’t know what to say.”

 “I mean, saying yes to the date would be nice,” he laughed.

 “But you’ve literally just seen my dysfunctional family in action, how could you want me after that?”

 “Okay first of all, there is nothing wrong with your family! Second of all, I’m asking to go on a date with you and not your family.”

 “Oh jeeze here I was thinking you wanted to take mum out on a hot date.”

 “Seriously (Y/N), I want to try this.” He laced his fingers through mine.

 “Yeah?” I bit my lip. I really wasn’t sure if he was serious.

 “Yeah.” He nodded.

 “I mean then yeah I guess I could go on a date with you.”

 “That’s the most positive thing you’ve said all night.” He grinned.

 “I mean, I was crying two seconds ago.” The night had truly been a roller coaster and I guess I could thank my mum for one thing—making things so awkward that Steve Rogers asked me out on a date.

 “You know what?” He inched closer.

 “What?” I breathed—he was so close I could smell what was left of the cologne he’d put on 16 hours ago.

 “I was right when I said I knew you’d had a crush on me.”

 I sucked in a breathe before pushing him away “oh get out.” Of course he had to mention that.

 “Noooo,” he pulled me back in, “you don’t get away with it that easily.” Before I could register what was happening his lips were pressed against mine. For some strange reason the first thing I could think was that they were sweeter than I’d been expecting. I looped my hands around his neck, pulling him closer in the process. He flipped us around so that I was able to straddle him, somehow our moths stayed connected the whole time.

 There was so much urgency in the way we grabbed at each other—it was as if neither of us could get enough—close was not close enough. He let out a small moan as our bodies moved in sync. I didn’t mind the way his beard lightly scratched at my skin, the beard burn was worth it when it was Steve Rogers.

 His hands lay at the small of my back—his thumbs gently traced circles into my skin. “God you’re really good at this” I breathed against his mouth. “How much practice have you had?”

 “I practice on my hand.” He said, with the most serious face I’ve ever seen. The two of us stared at each other for about ten seconds before bursting out laughing.

 “It would seem that my funny side is rubbing off on you.” I snuck in a small peck.

 He raised an eyebrow, “I was being serious.”

[spookyspaghettisundae]

The Empty Room

It looked like any other tall office building downtown. An ominous skyscraper in a concrete jungle. A sizable number of its windows glowed in different shades of yellow, dotting its exterior to contrast the nightly sky.

Two men stood in a narrow hallway on the building’s ground floor, right outside of a simple maintenance room. Even after dark, they could have heard the traffic from the streets with some car horns honking. Though as far as James and Leroy were concerned, the world might as well have not existed in that moment. Both of them felt heavy, like their limbs had doubled in weight and their bellies had been filled with bricks. They stared at the lime-colored door to the maintenance room. An overwhelming fear had paralyzed them both.

James finally budged, wiping some sweat from his forehead with the back of the sleeve of his blue janitor overall. His eyes remained transfixed on the shiny silver knob of the door.

“It’s been like five minutes, for fuck’s sake,” James said. He had forced himself to keep his voice low in a failed attempt to whisper, but the words rode on such a panic that they sounded loud and angry instead.

“I told him to not go inside,” Leroy replied, finally peeling his eyes off the door. He grabbed James by the shoulders and turned him, so he could look him in the eyes. Gently shaking James to the beat of every word to add emphasis, he said, “Calm your tits. The weirdo who can fix this’ll be here any second.”

James brushed Leroy’s hands off and waved his own arms around as if he was swatting imaginary flies.

“Don’t tell me to calm my tits! First Bill, then Simon. The fuck’s this weirdo gonna do about it?” When James asked that, he leaned in towards Leroy, so close that it made Leroy wince when his face was sprayed with some spittle that accompanied James’ outrage.

Leroy frowned and wiped his face while he finally managed to steel himself.

“This guy’s the real deal,” he countered.

“The fuck does that mean?”

“He—well, he looks a bit like, uh, Criss Angel—”

“The wrestler?”

“No, not the wrestler, stupid,” Leroy said with a sigh.

James laughed. It came out high-pitched and sounding fake, followed by him nervously asking, “What, really? The Las Vegas magician douchebag?”

“Well, yeah. Yeah, like him. I know from a friend of a friend—”

“Oh, come on.”

“Listen, the things this guy can do is amazing! And weird. But mostly amazing. He kinda does this for a living.”

“Leroy.”

“What?”

“Two people straight-up disappeared. And you called in a stage magician instead of security? Or the cops?”

“Look, man, I don’t want any trouble, okay? You know how hard it is for an ex-con to find a sweet job like this? No, believe me, my friend Milo wouldn’t bullshit about this. I heard this guy can make things combust. Or one time, he cleanly ripped a guy’s nose off. And he's—”

James interrupted him there with a, “Wait, what?”

Ignoring him, Leroy continued, “Like, an exorcist, or something. Not a stage magician, y'know?”

Leroy finally stopped rambling. He scratched his head and ruffled his own hair in the process, looking past James. James raised his brows and moved to get in the way of his line of sight, trying to re-establish eye contact.

James tried to keep his voice down again but it came out more like a screech when he incredulously asked, “Exorcist? Man, what? Do you even hear what you’re saying?”

“Dunno if ‘exorcist’ is the word I’d use, but finding lost people is kinda my thing,” a silky, unknown voice said behind him. It came right from where Leroy had been looking past James.

James spun around and assumed a pose with raised hands that looked like a cartoon caricature of some karate stance. The two janitors stared at the new arrival. This third figure was dressed in a long black trench coat, wearing jackboots, torn dark jeans, a dirty ‘Ride the Lightning’ T-shirt, a spiked collar around his neck, and enough make-up to make a goth or punk from the 1990s blush. His hair was styled in a jet-black fauxhawk tipped with red highlights and he had a few silver piercings adorning his lip, nose, and eyebrow. He carried a small cardboard box under one arm. Even the thick, smudged mass of black eyeliner under his eyes could not conceal the heavy rings of fatigue underneath them.

James and Leroy stared at the box sitting snugly under the weirdo’s arm. It was brown, with some pictographs warning of fragile contents and a 'This Side Up’ accompanied with an arrow indicating that the box was being held upside down, and silver duct tape having been used to sloppily seal the box’s flaps. As the ensuing awkward silence dragged on, the man cleared his throat and used his free hand to pull a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of a coat pocket. He struck the edge of his cardboard box with it till a cigarette popped out of the pack and he guided it up to his lips, swiftly putting the pack back into his pocket in a fluid motion.

“Hey, this is, uh, a no-smoking—,” James started saying. The sentence died in his mouth.

The stranger just stared back at him and said nothing. He then pulled out a stainless steel Zippo and flicked it open, lighting his cigarette with it, before putting the lighter away and continuing to stare at James in the meanwhile. As if he was challenging him.

“Okay,” James said. While the stranger took a few deep drags from his cigarette, James’ head swiveled to Leroy, and he asked, “Who is this dickhead?”

Leroy shrugged without peeling his eyes off of the stranger. The stranger continued smoking nonchalantly.

“I’m Kevin, but you can call me boss, or god, or something,” the stranger said with a wide grin. The grin faded instantly, and he looked around the shiny hallway. Then he peered past the two janitors at the lime door. The corners of his lips drooped ever so slowly until it looked like he wore a frown upon his face. Without looking at the two other men, he suddenly blurted out, “Milo tell you what I want?”

This time, Leroy cleared his throat. Nervously. “Uhuh,” he mumbled and started digging around in his overall’s pocket. He produced a wad of dollar bills held together by a rubber band, a discolored PEZ dispenser with the head of Elvis Presley, and a bronze antique-looking pocket watch. He held the handful of objects out towards Kevin, presenting them on an open palm.

Kevin stuck the cigarette in the corner of his mouth and grabbed the items with his free hand. He sniffed like someone with a cold and examined them close up.

James looked at Leroy and without saying anything out loud, his face and lips clearly asked, 'What the fuck?’ Leroy ignored him and observed Kevin with intense curiosity.

Kevin sighed, and his words slurred a bit because of the cigarette clamped down in the corner of his lips, “These one-dollar bills?” He scoffed and pocketed the items before he added, “Okay, rest’s good. I take it y'know you’re 'bout fifty short, jus’ give it to Milo when you can, he’ll get it to me.”

He walked towards the two men, approaching the lime door with determination. They stepped out of his way as he stopped to stand in front of the door.

James asked, “What’s in the box?”

Kevin either did not pay attention, or he ignored him, asking them without turning around to look at them, “This is the room, yeah?”

He took some more drags from his cigarette before leaving it in the other corner of his mouth, then he leaned against the door. He cupped his hand between the metal door and his ear and listened through the door as good as he could.

“Uh, yeah. So, first Bill went in before his shift ended, and we all thought he had gone home, but then—”

“Yeah. Uhuh. Sure,” Kevin replied simultaneously, and his tone betrayed how he had not paid attention to anything Leroy was saying. “Look, I don’t need your life story. Two people entered, never came out, and the room looked empty every time, with no other exits, right?”

He sniffed again and took another drag from his cigarette while looking back at Leroy.

James suddenly asked, “What’s in the box?”

Kevin still ignored him.

“Yeah, but one more thing,” Leroy said, also ignoring James and staring intently into the Kevin’s weirdly calm eyes. “There was a knocking coming from inside the room, every now and then,” he said, then swallowed like something was stuck in his throat. “Then, just before you arrived? Whispers from inside. Like a little kid’s. Nearly shit my pants.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes when he looked back at Leroy upon hearing that and then took a painfully long-looking drag from his cigarette until it looked like the cancer-stick had burned down its filter. He then flicked it onto the floor and stamped it out with the heel of his boot.

“Okay gentlemen, I got this,” Kevin said.

James sounded upset this time, “Seriously—what’s in that box?”

Kevin and Leroy continued to ignore him while Kevin reached out to the doorknob on the lime door. He twisted the knob, which was followed by a hollow click, and the door opened with an eerie creaking sound that did not fit the cleanly, clinical image of the sleek concrete-steel-and-glass office building they were standing in. Kevin sniffed again and leaned forward, peeking head-first into the room and swiveling his head to get a good look.

The room was devoid of human life. It was also far from empty, though. Inside it were shelves with cleaning chemicals, racks with mops, buckets, other cleaning implements, a workbench, and some power tools on other shelves.

Kevin stepped inside and swung the door shut behind him. James and Leroy both flinched when the door slammed into the frame and Kevin audibly locked it shut from the inside.

James immediately started pacing back and forth on the spot.

“Roy, who is this guy? And what are we telling the cops if he disappears too?”

Leroy groaned, bending over to pick the crushed cigarette butt up off the floor where Kevin had stamped it out. “Beats me. And, well, if he disappears too, nobody will be the wiser anyway, right? C'mon, have a little faith,” he said in a futile attempt to calm down James. Leroy himself sounded more fearful than before Kevin had shown up. He walked over to one of the rounded steel trash bins and dumped the cigarette butt inside it, then haphazardly wiped some of the ashes across the floor with the bottom of his sneaker, smearing them more than anything and creating inky-black streaks on the otherwise shiny floor. “Shit,” he muttered.

Growing impatient and with no less panic in his voice than before Kevin had arrived, James said, “Okay, that’s it, I’m calling—”

A sharp and sudden shout from inside the room caused James to stumble a few steps away from the lime-colored door in shock. A massive force flew into the door from the inside with a thunderous thud. Something that sounded like a dog or a child whimpering followed, and a series of expletives that sounded like Kevin was shouting them from farther away than should have been physically possible from the interior of that small room. Glass shattered, and then another tremendous thud of something slamming into the door with such force that it felt like it would get torn right out of the frame any minute now.

Leroy took a few cautious steps away from the door, and then the bedlam of strange noises ceased. James and Leroy stared at the lime door with every fiber and muscle in their body tensing up, expecting something worse to follow, but what felt like a painfully slow minute came and passed until they looked at each other with quizzical expressions. James nodded at the door and Leroy shook his head. James nodded at it again and Leroy shook his head with more zest. They repeated that non-verbal exchange a third time before Leroy said, “No fucking way.”

James insisted and Leroy sighed and swore again before he approached the door. His trembling hand closed in on the doorknob, and he held his breath when he started twisting it and opening the door.

Leroy swung the door open and shouted, “Hah!”

Nobody was inside. The two janitors focused on the inside of the maintenance room. It looked like a fight had taken place inside with various items littering the floor and one of the overhead neon lamps having been shattered. Leroy saw something blurry and unfathomable in the darkest corner of the room—all teeth and mouths and nothing else—and he started screaming. James lunged forwards, grabbed Leroy by the shoulders and yanked him back which in turn pulled the door shut because Leroy’s hand had clamped down around the knob in sheer terror. It slammed shut, and the two men tumbled onto the ground.

The shuffling of tiny feet scampered up to the other side of the door, and something scraped up along its surface. Leroy and James crawled and scurried away from the lime door while a terrified yelp escaped James’ mouth. Both of them bumped into the hallway’s wall opposite from the door, and they backed up against it, frozen in fear instead of fleeing headlong from the source of their panic. More scratching, then the doorknob started turning. And then it stopped moving. More scratching.

The sounds stopped, and the men realized that they only heard their own breathing and hearts thumping while they awaited certain doom to explode out of that door.

The lime door opened with an eerie creaking noise. Kevin stood there with a bleeding gash on his forehead and scrunching his left eyelids shut. He hugged the cardboard box against his chest with a single arm and touched the gash, then expressed feelings of pain with a grunt.

James stammered, “What the—what the hell just happened?” His glances swept back and forth between Leroy and Kevin. It dawned on James that Kevin was not holding the box casually anymore, the stranger in the black trench coat was gripping it so tight that the cardboard was bending under the pressure and Kevin’s knuckles had turned white. “Motherfucker, what’s in that box?” His hand shook as he pointed at the box in Kevin’s grip with a meaty finger.

Kevin sighed and blinked a few times, as if his eyesight was faulty, then answered, “You don’t wanna know.”

Leroy blurted out, “What about Bill? And Simon?”

Kevin’s eyes widened and before Leroy realized that the stranger in black probably had not been interested in their names, he saw dread in the man’s eyes for the first time in their brief encounter. Kevin slowly shook his head. Both James and Leroy felt a sinking feeling in their stomachs, like their bodies had turned into lead and they were about to conk out from dizziness. Kevin had said nothing, yet the fearful expression in his eyes spoke terrible volumes about the fate of their colleagues.

Kevin produced another cigarette in a swift motion, lighting it up and turning his back on the two janitors as he walked away. The two men in the blue overalls started getting up and looked at each other in disbelief, then followed Kevin with their gazes as he left them, walking down the hallway. His footsteps echoed through the bright halls, and he arrived in front of the elevator which he summoned with several impatient button presses, even continuing to do so after the doors slid open. A warmer light spilled out of the elevator and bathed him in it while it greeted him with a soft-sounding electronic 'ding’ to signal the doors having opened.

James wanted to say something, but then something inside the box thumped and jerked around in Kevin’s arms. The cigarette fell from his mouth, and it looked like the box moved with such disproportionate strength that it jerked the man around where he stood. Kevin rammed the box against the edge of an elevator door and then shook it a few times, triggering unnatural garbled sounds and a blood-curdling bestial roar to come from the box’s insides.

Kevin whispered something to the box, but he was too far away for it to be clearly audible. Leroy narrowed his eyes and could have sworn he had heard him say something like, “I have plans for you.”

“Sweet Jesus, what’s in the box,” James yammered, sounding desperate and less like he asked anybody—and more like he had resigned to never learning what was inside that box.

Kevin picked the cigarette back up off the ground, and took a drag from it while he disappeared from their sight as he stepped into the elevator.

There was another roar, and then the elevator doors slid shut.

—Submitted by Wratts

[thecreativeangel]

Burning (Peter Parker x Reader) Hogwarts AU

Peter Parker x Fem!Reader

Part five of the Improper series

*Please don’t plagiarize my work, thank you :3*

Summary: Another thing you learn at Hogwarts is that smoke is never good, Peter was standing a little too close to you, and you never know who to trust, and no one is safe.

Warnings: Umm… swearing. Wizard racism? Oh, and Peter being a hot little bitch. Yup. 

Words: 3,477

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You sat alone on the fur rug in the empty Gryffindor common room, watching the flames in the fireplace flicker and steadily die down, almost melting into the scorched wood. All the others had gone to bed but you stayed, not bothering to check the time as it passed. Today was the end of the first week at Hogwarts, now your fifth year and today you had yet another fight with Peter. It was, as always over something stupid, but that didn’t stop you and him from arguing. The fight was over an article that the Daily Prophet published about spies in Hogwarts and the argument would have gone on for hours if Professor Binns hadn’t forced you two out of the classroom, raising his voice to tell you class was over twenty minutes ago. You had yelled that Peter was wrong. There were no spies in Hogwarts and the Prophet was only doing it to stir up tension. Like we don’t have enough of that already. You think bitterly. 

The last flame was blown out by a gust of wind from the open window, grey smoke rising from the fireplace. Peter’s angry face was stuck in your brain no matter how hard you tried to get rid of it. It wasn’t my fault. You think stubbornly. He was the one who kept talking. He provoked me! Your eyes stung, growing watery and you blinked twice to clear them. Wait, I almost never cry. What…

In your deep thoughts, you didn’t notice how the air around you grew dense and hot, almost blistering your skin. Smoke make your eyes water, but it wasn’t coming from the fireplace. Ugly gray clouds were floating into the common room through the open window, curling around the chandelier on the ceiling and drifting closer to the ground as more entered. You frowned and stood up, taking careful steps to avoid stumbling, as the smoke now clouded the room like fog, making it hard to see. Your eyes not only watered but now they burned, the smog growing thicker with every passing second. You stumbled over the corner of a chair, putting a hand over your mouth to stop from coughing and inhaling the smoke. The open window let moonlight stream into the common room but it was stopped short by the ugly smog.

When you reached it, you had half a mind to close the window and ignore what was happening outside. The view of the quidditch field looked normal, if a bit hazy, until you heard shouting and taunts of glee as someone roared “Incendio”. One of the viewing stands burst into flames and toppled over as the midsection gave away. You gasped but only inhaled more smoke, coughing and slapping a hand over your mouth and nose.

The teachers viewing stand was being covered in fire, the tendrils snaking up and swallowing it whole. You yelped and stumbled back when another spell was shot and it exploded on a goal post, flames dancing around the metal ring. Cheering erupted from below, just barely heard over the cracking of wood as another viewing stand came down, smashing on the burned grass.

You ran up the stairs of the boys dorm, throwing the door open so hard it almost broke the hinges. A few boys were jarred awake and stared at you, some muttering curses but most of them stayed asleep, rolling over to face away from you.

A mousy looking blond pulled the covers up to his chest, a pinched expression of annoyance on his face. “Hey, you can’t be in here.”

You payed him no attention and sprinted over to their window, opening it for a better view of the field and your breath caught in your throat. All round you the boys began to make disgusted faces because the smoke drifted in from the common room and the window. From this angle the quidditch field looked even worse, even the grass was ablaze and spreading.

“(Name), what are you doing?”

You whipped around to Peter’s voice, seeing him leaning against a bedpost, waving his hands around in an attempt to clear the smoke.

“The fire-It’s bloody everywhere!” You stutter, rushing to shake the rest of the boys awake. Tear were forcing themselves out of you, a reflex to the ashy air. “O-on the field, and t-the stands-there’s someone down there!”

Your ran your fingers through your disheveled hair, a wild look in your eyes as you shut the window and ran for the stairs to the common room, ready to warn the girls. Peter grabbed your hand and jerked you back, sending you tumbling into him.

“What. Fire?” He asks steadily. At least he tried to sound calm, but the tremble in his voice was there.

“The f-field, it’s- I heard someone yell, a-and-” You doubled over in a coughing fit, your lungs searing hot and blistery. Peter pulled you back up, holding both your wrists with his hand. Your were too close. His fearful and panicked face was just inches from yours and for some stupid reason, you found it hard to think.

“There’s someone on the field?”

You nod once, flushing red when you felt his ragged breaths so close to you. Stop it. I just fought with him earlier today. Now is not the time for this. That snapped you out of your thoughts and you pulled out of his grasp, backing away to the stairs.

“I have to warn the others.” You say, already one foot out. “Peter you have to get them out.”

He just stood there, also red in the face, staring at you with a mystified expression. Your eyebrows furrowed. “NOW!”

Peter jolted out of his trance as you turned and ran to the girls dorm, more confident than before.

“There’s a fire on the quidditch field! Everyone out unless you want to suffocate!”

The girls got up more hurriedly, sensing the true panic in you and sniffing the air, detecting the smoke. The Fat Lady looked overwhelmed when students streamed out of her portrait, meeting a disgruntled Professor Rogers in the hall.

“Everyone follow me!” He yells, turning around and briskly walking in the direction of the courtyard. Professor Romanoff and her Slytherins turned the corner and almost run into Professor Rogers.

“Minerva ordered all teachers to take the students to the courtyard.” She locked eyes with Professor Rogers, her eyes showed utmost shame. “Steve, the Prophet was right.”

Professor Rogers motioned for his students to follow and walked alongside Professor Romanoff as they whispered to each other. You tore to the front, nearest to the two professors, the mention of the Daily Prophet catching your undivided attention.

“-I saw them Steve!”

“Natasha it’s going to be alright. If we can get the kids to safety-”

Professor Romanoff came to a sudden halt and you almost head butted her back. “You have no idea how bad this is!” She hissed, bristling visibly. “At the same time as the fucking Prophet published another one of their rubbish stories? It’s like they knew. They knew it was the right time! When the Ministry finds out they’ll fall the blame on me-”

“Not right now, Natasha.” Professor Rogers whispers urgently, nudging her to keep walking. Professor Romanoff stomps forward even faster than before, muttering things. Both the Slytherins and Gryffindors looked panic stricken, struggling to catch up with the long steps of their heads of houses.

Professor Romanoff barely stepped a foot on the cobblestone of the courtyard when a jet of blue light streaked past her right ear, hitting the stone pillar behind her. It exploded into thousands of pieces, scattering on the floor. Kids shrieked and screamed at the unforeseen explosion. Professor Romanoff and Rogers ducked and drew their wands out of nowhere. Professor Rogers held his arm back to stop his students.

“Stop! Don’t fire!”

Professor Banner sprinted from the courtyard followed by the Ravenclaws.

“They’ve surrounded the land! There’s nowhere to go,” He panted out. “Minerva said to get them to the dungeons.”

Then he ran, his Ravenclaws sprinting after him. Professors Rogers and Romanoff shadowed his actions, hoarding their students with them.

“We’re going to die.” Inigo says hysterically. “The Death Eaters and their kids are gonna kill us.”

“Shut your mouth!” You snap. “The Prophet could be wrong yet.”

“The Prophet is right!” Inigo cries out. “What does it take to get it into your thick head that You-Know-Who’s old followers are recruiting? Traitorous, manky little b-!”

“Shut up Inigo.” Peter barks, appearing at his friend’s side. “She helped get us out of the tower, that’s worth something.”

“I don’t care!” Inigo shrieks, pointing to you. “She’s been helping the Slytherins, I know it! Pull her sleeve up, I’d bet there’s a Dark Mark!”

“Steve, can’t you keep your students under control?” Professor Romanoff seethes through clenched teeth. As soon as she finished her sentence, someone’s cold scream came from down the hall.

“Avada Kedavra!”

Professor Romanoff raised her wand before you could even think to react. “Protego!”

The students scattered like ants being stomped on. You ran to the hoard of Slytherins sprinting to the quidditch field and grabbed Abigail’s hand, pulling her back.

“Don’t go to the field you idiot!” You yell at her, pulling her down another hallway.

“We have to! The Hufflepuffs are cornered there! Stella’s-”

“What?” You shriek. “The field was burning! Why would Stella follow them?”

Another streak of green flew past Abigail’s head. You skidded across the smooth floor, swiveling on your heel. A group of people in black hoods and masks appeared in a burst of dark light, their wands pointed at you.

It was Abigail’s turn to pull at your arm, both of you breaking into a sprint to get outside. “Shit, go back!”

More green light illuminated the corridor as you and Abigail ducked in an attempt to avoid the blast.

“P-Protego!” Abigail burst out, carelessly aiming behind her. The killing spells stopped, shattered by the invisible shield she cast. You raced to the courtyard, people in black cloaks closing in from all sides. What unnerved you the most is they didn’t chase after you. The Death Eaters walked forward slowly, whipping their wand as they wordlessly fired jinxed and curses at running students. A group of staff members and students were standing in a circle in the middle of the courtyard, hurling spells at the advancing Death Eaters. You fired a body bind hex at one of the taller figures. They collapsed to the ground, arms and legs pinned to their sides.

The most powerful Death Eater was dueling Professor Banner and Nurse Maximoff at the same time, flicking their wand in long, lazy movements. With one more spell, he blasted both staff members back, sending their bodies skidding across the floor.

“ENOUGH!” He roared, his voice impossibly deep and fractured by the mask. Death Eaters and students alike stopped fighting in sheer shock. He cackled like an insane asylum patient, unafraid despite having at least twenty wands pointed at him. “I’ve only come to collect the willing. They know who they are.”

You wanted to cruciate him then and there, to end it all now, but you couldn’t.  Do it! Your brain yelled. Do it now! Stop him! Nothing happened for a moment. Everyone was standing there, all had their wands raised, all on high alert. And then- a seventh year boy stepped out of the circle, calmly moving around Professor Rogers like it was nothing. Without hesitation, he stopped at the side of the man who yelled. A dark haired girl standing right next to Professor Romanoff walked forward, ignoring the gasp from the red headed professor. She had her head low, presumably from fear, or maybe humiliation for being called out in front of her head of house.

The powerful Death Eater jabbed his wand under the girl’s chin, forcing her to look up at the betrayal on the faces of her peers.

“There isn’t anything to be ashamed of, child.” The man spoke softly to her but you assumed he was addressing everyone there. He was honeyed and appealing, a dark and dangerously persuasive undertone to him. “Your parents would be proud to know their girl joined the cause.”

“I know of the suffering the Slytherin house had endured,” He boomed, grave and stoic. “My message to you is this. Do not try to earn the trust of the other houses. They aren’t worthy! They aren’t purebloods! They don’t understand the power that you have at your fingertips!”

“Join me,” He says, quieter but even more alluring. “We can rid the world of weakness and dirty blood…together.”

The Death Eater flicks his wand one last time and disappears in a burst of dark magic along with his followers, the boy and the girl who stepped out. Abigail is unable to move but at the same time is shaking next to you. You don’t know if it’s from fear, hurt or shame that her own housemates betrayed the school. Your body is still frozen but the gears of your mind are whirling at impossible speed. You lean closer to her ear.

“Hide,” You whisper, clutching her hand. “Find Erin, Keira and hide.”

She stares at you with wide, horror stricken eyes. “W-Why?”

“The Gryffindors’ll kill you, Abby.” You whisper back, quivering ever so much. The other students were beginning to wake from the terror induced stupor and you were getting jumpy. “He-he took Slytherins. He made you the b-bad guy. Please, please hide.”

She gives you a solemn look and nods before racing off in a random direction.

“Hey-where is she going?” Inigo screeches, preparing to run after Abigail. You grab the edge of his robe and throw him to the ground. The teachers look too occupied with treating hexed students to care.

“Don’t you dare follow her you git!” You spit, your nostrils flaring. Inigo hops up looking murderous. You shrink back on instinct. Oh Merlin, what’ve I done.

“Inigo, stop.”

Peter steps between the two of you like a shield. “The teachers are here. They’ll see you.”

Any forgiveness or good nature you felt for him melted from your heart. You wanted to yell and scream, to punch Peter in his stupidly perfect face but the energy was gone. His words were so heartless, like he forgot all the times you were his friend. The corners of your mouth twitched, preparing to fight back but nothing was said. The same freezing numbness that came when you saw him was heightened, making you shiver despite the abnormally hot night air. You gave him one last miserable look and spun around on your heel, running the same way Abigail went.

For a month now you kept passing the house elves scrubbing away a spray painted message on the castle walls. They varied from the side of those who wanted to join the Death Eaters, to those who said they were going to hunt down all the people who will betray Hogwarts. Some talked of riots and wanting to kick out Half Bloods, and others declared that Slytherin should be cast out of the school. Every time, you hugged the books tighter to your chest and avoided looking at the spray painted notes. Muttering broke out in the crowd surrounding the courtyard as you passed it to get to Professor Xu’s class. You would have kept walking but a loud, collective gasp rippled through the students, seizing your notice.

The crowd became silent as loud coughing echoed across the courtyard. You stepped into the mess, slinking your way around the countless bodies. In the center, wheezing into a white handkerchief, was Professor McGonagall, her face the color of the feathers on a snowy owl. Nurse Maximoff had a reassuring hand on her shoulder while Professor Odinson helped carry heavy suitcases down the steps from the Clock Tower. A tall man with brown, slicked back hair and an overly pointy nose stood stiffly next to them, hands clasped around a piece of parchment.

“Do not fear, children,” The tall man was saying. “Your dear Professor is not in mortal danger. She is, however, sick to the point where her duty as headmistress is an uncalled for obstacle preventing her from attaining health.”

Professor Stark shot the man a glare from where he was standing next to Nurse Maximoff. More muttering ensued, followed by some disgruntled yelled objections. Professor McGonagall raised the hand that held her handkerchief to shut everyone up.

“It’s going to be alright,” She says hoarsely. “My not being headmistress should not stop the school from functioning properly. When the Ministry recommended my… ah, demise, they unanimously chose the same wizard. Headmaster Cordell was more than happy to accept their recommendation and-”

“How come Professor Fury can’t take your place?” Someone in the crowd shouts. Her question sparked a new wave of protest.

“He was Deputy Headmaster! He’s supposed to take over!” A boy’s high pitched voice yells. More shouting from the crowd.

“That’s enough,” The new headmaster projects, his voice so loud the professors all jump, and McGonagall actually winces. “The Ministry has decreed that I am the new headmaster and I assure you the school is in good hands! It is my impression that Hogwarts has gone mad with these petty rivalries between houses, and I plan to end that!”

He drops the sternness for a half smile and a silky, sympathetic tone. “The school’s function will go on as usual, even if your beloved headmistress must go.”

The new headmaster gives Professor Odinson a pointed look. The professor narrows his eyes but picks up the rest of McGonagall’s luggage and begins to trudge through the students who part to make way. Nurse Maximoff’s brows are furrowed but her eyes are glassed over as she leads McGonagall through the path Professor Odinson created. Younger students tug pitifully at McGonagall’s robe, pleading that she stay. Older kids refuse to see her leave, choosing instead to look the other way. You don’t feel tears form in your eyes but another heavy weight is placed on your shoulder, them already being permanently hunched over.

Long after everyone shuffles away, you are still standing there, rooted in place. You stare at the same place where the man stood. She’s not coming back. You tell yourself. McGonagall isn’t going to come back.

“They’ve been sacked.” Keira announces during a trip to the Three Broomsticks, sitting down at the table across from you. “Professor Odinson and Professor Stark are gone.”

Erin chokes on her butterbeer. You slap her on the back to clear her airways. “H-how?” She exclaims, struggling to get the words out.

“The hell you mean, ‘how’?” Keira says furiously, but it wasn’t directed at Erin. “They were kicked out of the school! Dismissed, fired, laid off! The question is why?”

“They were too close to McGonagall,” You offer, drumming your fingers on the table. “That’s the rumor that’s going ‘round, anyway. Headmaster Cordell’s hired a bunch of new guys, and they all look like convicts.”

Abigail sits down on the bar stool next to you, her eyes wide and her stance skittish. “Professor Banner’s been sacked too.” She mumbles, her face a shocked, unmoving mask. “Headmaster Cordell came in to see how he was teaching and started asking so many questions. And Banner-well you know how he has his little episodes. He kinda freaked out, started muttering things. Had to rush out before he exploded.”

She stared at her drink, her eyes growing unfocused. “Banner kept saying the same thing, over and over again. ‘It’s happening again, it’s happening again.’”

“I know what he means,” Michelle says, swirling her butterbeer around the glass. “You remember when Binns was talking about the lawful year in 1995? When Dolores Umbridge took over and made all those changes?”

“But he-he can’t!” Stella blurted. “Come on, let’s stay positive. What is the chance that Headmaster Cordell will actually change everything? Almost none! Sure, he’s creepy, but that means nothing!”

“Fine, we can be positive.” You say, taking a swig of butterbeer. “Let’s talk about something else?”

“Sure,” Michelle deadpans. “How’ve things with Peter been?”

All the girls groan and roll their eyes at the same time while you resist the urge to repeatedly hit your head on the table. Instead, you rested your head in your hand and looked out the window of the Three Broomsticks. You were still hopeful. Yes, it was true at the time. Looking back, you had no idea how badly things would escalate from that point on. And if you did know, maybe you wouldn’t have chosen to stay at Hogwarts another year. 

Tags:  @madithemagicalfangirl, @makaylahoran, @inelasco, @girlygirlbishop, @kaitlynthehuman, @mcheung0314, @damnedangel98, @thecamphogwartssoldier, @flopmalum, @janybaby

[its-buckysbabe]

Zelus (3/5)

im so sorry it took so long to get this chapter up - life had different plans for me and i had to deal with that. everything is back under control now, which is good, but at the same time i have a lot of uni work to deal with and since this is my last semester i gotta make sure i do decently good.

the positive that came from all of this is that i have a pretty strict schedule for the next few months which means i have regular times i can write and as such im gonna do my best to upload regularly, every friday. i dont know if there’ll be another chapter this friday but i’ll try my best!

also this sounds really weird but honestly i channeled my inner DJ Khaled while writing this.

Characters: bucky x reader

Summary: Y/N tells Bucky that she isn’t the jealous type and so it turns into a sort of competition to see if he can make her jealous. based on this prompt by @buckyprompts​ 

Warnings: mentions of Stockholm syndrome. 

Word count: 2,250 words

Also read here: AO3

Masterlist Part I, Part II,

Weeks passed without another incident, so much so that you’d honestly completely forgotten all about Bucky’s little challenge. The entire team was scattered about on the Quinjet, each tending to their injuries, with some even tending to the wounds of the hostages you’d just rescued.

This mission had been a little different to the things you usually dealt with. You had been trailing and apprehending a businessman who was also involved in illegal international arms dealing - and by ‘involved’ you meant that he was singlehandedly responsible for about 80% of all guns and weapons bought on the black market in the entire world. The mission would have normally been something you’d leave to the international community, perhaps the team would offer their assistance to NATO or whoever, and be done with it. But this mission had been particularly personal to Tony, understandably so, and as such the whole team had gotten involved. Even Thor was on standby in Asgard, ready to travel through the realms at a moment’s notice.

Thankfully everything had gone off without a hitch and you were all on your way back to the tower, to return to your relative normalcy. First, though, you had to drop of the hostages at the FBI headquarters. Unannounced. Which would probably cause a shit-tonne of paperwork. Which would probably shave at least two entire movies off the Fassbender marathon you’d been mentally preparing for the duration of the flight.

You were in the middle of making mental calculations, trying to figure out when it would be best to take your designated bathroom breaks when you locked eyes with Bucky across the Quinjet. He was sat with three of the seven hostages, and judging by his body language he was doing his best to ignore them. He was angled away from them, his head turned even more in the opposite direction even though that left him starting at the wall. His shoulders were tense and his hands were balled into fists. You also noticed that he was still wearing all of his weaponry, strung across his frame on strategically placed hooks. You couldn’t help but snort at that. Trust Bucky to be the one to run into open gunfire to rescue complete strangers but then leave an AK-47 strapped across his back so he didn’t have to speak to him.

He heard your snort and broke his scary façade for a second to wink at you, knowing you’d understand why he was doing his best to appear menacing to a few harmless civilians. Though you did belatedly realise that they were all women, which may have also been another factor in Bucky’s unease. Bucky was completely incorrigible, a flirty man who was not ashamed of his sexuality and very in tune with it. He loved to tease, make innuendos and he also had a wicked sense of humour. It did take a while to get to that level of comfort with him, though. You remembered when you first met him, how standoffish and distant he’d been and how that contrasted to the playful and charming man that emerged the longer you knew him.

Regardless, you grinned at him, silently basking in his discomfort. You knew that he wasn’t genuinely uncomfortable. He could hold a friendly, and professional, conversation with these women if he chose to. He could play the part of a hero but he also got incredibly flustered and somewhat frustrated when people he didn’t know would flirt with him. Which was bound to happen judging by the looks on the women’s faces. Not that you could blame them! Bucky was always handsome but there was just something entirely different about his aura when he was in his tactical gear. It was dark and sexy, a thrilling danger surrounding him.

Suddenly Bucky’s eyes lit up, and a cheeky smirk was prominent on his features. He rolled his shoulders back before he shuffled in his seat, turning his body towards the pretty woman to his left. He opened his legs, essentially manspreading on the small bench, and crowding the woman’s space with his very presence. Not that she was complaining. Her eyes lit up and she rearranged herself too, almost straddling the bench in a bid to minimise the remaining space between herself and Bucky.

He started talking, and judging by her reactions he was laying it on thick. She blushed and laughed and giggled. He brushed the hair out of her face and she gently rested her hand on his forearms. You watched with mild interest from your seat, nudging the almost asleep Sam next you. He startled awake, immediately looking for a threat in, still running on his adrenaline. You shook your head before pointedly looking forward until the sleepy Sam followed your gaze to Bucky and his new friend.

“That man does not know what he’s getting himself into, does he?” Sam asked, humour very apparent in his voice. You knew Sam’s relationship with Bucky and you also knew he would immensely enjoy this. Which was precisely the reason you’d decided to wake him up from his well-deserved nap.

“Nope.” You replied, popping the ‘p’.

“How bad do you think she’s going to be?” Sam wondered aloud, his lips quirking up slightly the longer he thought about it.

“She seems really nice but, honestly, I think he’d fucked.” You said in a matter-of-factly.

“And why are you enjoying this so much?” Sam asked you a moment later, seemingly only now realising that you were watching your boyfriend flirting with another woman with rapt attention.

“Because I am not pulling her off of him later on.” You answered as you turned towards him, mischief clear in your voice.

“See. I knew there was a reason you were my favourite for a reason.” Sam grinned at you, slinging his arm across your shoulder and pulling you into him.

“Thanks, birdman.” You laughed back at him, affectionately slapping him in the chest.

“Y/N. Sam.” Steve’s voice broke the silence you had found yourself in. Both you and Sam were just content watching Bucky dig his own grave until Steve showed up.

“Steve.” Sam nodded at him, not taking his eyes off the train wreck that was happening across the jet.

“Dorito.” You said in the same voice as Sam, though you couldn’t help but look at Steve. You loved his reaction whenever you called him that. His eyebrows would always rise in surprise and then his face would turn red. He still got flustered when people made comments about his physique, especially ones that were complimentary even if they were teasing, and you found it absolutely adorable.

“I thought you agreed to stop that?” Steve almost whined. So adorable.

“No.” you shook your head, a grin on your lips.

“Alright.” Steve simply shook his head at you, mocking disappointment though you could see the small smile gracing his lips.

“What bring you over here to the fun side of the jet, Stevie? Shouldn’t you be off somewhere on the phone explaining to the FBI why we’re flying into their facility unannounced?” You asked after a second, partly curious but also partly hoping to move this whole conversation along so that you could continue watching Bucky set himself up for trouble.

“Nah. I figured I’d call a few of them ‘son’ and then sort of wing it.” Steve said as he shrugged.

“He’s really good at that! You should’ve heard the speech he gave at SHIELD with the whole helicarrier thing. I still can’t believe he came up with that off the top of his head…” Sam exclaimed excitedly. He looked up at Steve with something akin to awe in his eyes, to which he replied with a tiny little smirk.

“Actually, I came over here to ask you what’s going on with Buck?” Steve explained though by the end it sounded more like a question.

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“He’s over there flirting up a storm with one of the hostages and you’re sat here with Sam…” Steve said slowly, vaguely waving his hand at you.

“Hey! That’s a perfectly logical choice! She’s finally had enough of you senior citizens and also if you go black you never go back. Isn’t that right, Y/N?” Sam said indignantly. He turned to you at the end, mouth cocked in a smirk and eyebrow raised in what he assumed was a suave expression. He just looked silly to be completely honest.

“Sam. Samuel. My friend. My colleague. My teammate. I’m asking you for the sake of humanity to never, ever, ever, say anything like that ever again. And I mean ever.” You said seriously, as you took one of his hands between yours in what was meant to be a comforting gesture but really only caused Steve to barely contain a chuckle at the scene before him.

“Damn… Ain’t you ever heard of letting a brother down gently?…” Sam grumbled as he walked away, probably to go find Natasha somewhere and annoy her for a change. You patted the empty seat and Steve lowered himself into it.

“Anyway, I’m not bothered. I know Bucky wouldn’t genuinely do anything like to me so it’s alright.” You told him simply. It was true. You never thought for a second that Bucky would ever cheat on you. And also he was smarter than that. If he were ever to do something like this he would definitely not be doing it in a crowded space with his friends, and especially not a few metres away from you.

“I realise that but she might not?” Steve questioned. It seemed he was still in ‘Captain America mode’ and was only thinking of the civilian’s wellbeing.

“I’m betting on it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome, Stevie?”

“No?”

“Right, well. It’s this thing where you fall in love, or what you think is love, with someone who’s kidnapped you. Which is beside the point here but what I mean is that she’s just come out of an emotionally stressful situation, and your best pal Buckaroo is offering her safety and affection.” You explain

“So?” Steve questions you, apparently not following along.

“Stevie, she’s gonna latch onto him like a magnet.” You deadpan.

“Oh.” Steve replied articulately.

“Yeah. And I am 100% not dealing with that.” You carry on, vaguely gesturing in Bucky’s direction.

“I see.” Steve says, a wicked grin plastered on his face. He leans forward a little, finally as interested as you were in the situation that was unfolding in front of you. You settled into his side, resting your head on his shoulder, content to watch Bucky ruin the rest of his day.

Barely ten minutes passed and Tony was pulling the jet into descend. You still found it difficult to comprehend the speed of the Quinjet. Sometimes you really loved his obsession with technology. Honestly, after being part of the Avengers taking commercial airplanes would never be an option again.

The second the jet touched down and the emergency lights turned off everyone jumped into action. Steve got up and fetched his cowl and shield, Sam checked on Redwing as he strapped himself back in and everyone else made sure they had all their equipment firmly attached to their person. You were currently buckling your tactical suit back up, watching with amusement as Bucky tried to extract himself from the hold the girl had on his arm. He finally managed to shake her off, none too gently, and tried to walk away to safety. Which is when she very promptly burst into tears.

It wasn’t big, ugly crying. She didn’t scream or wail. A few tears streaked down her face, and honest to God you felt bad for her. You momentarily thought about going over there and comforting her yourself when you saw Bucky exhale heavily and close the little distance he had managed to create between himself and her. He gingerly placed his hand on her back, gently running it up and down; trying to console her but the look on his face almost killed you. You genuinely had to place a hand over your mouth to stop your pealing laughter from escaping.

Bucky’s face was scrounged up, expressing his discomfort. His body language screamed that he really didn’t know what to do; he stood a little further from her than was social convention and he held his left hand in mid-air, not really sure what to do with it. At this point Steve had made it back to your side, quickly finding the source of your delight and looking on with an amused smile.

Finally the door opened and the tarmac made itself visible. FBI agents stood by the jet, waiting for the team to descend. You turned to follow Steve out, but turned around at the last minute and walked over to Bucky, a spring in your step. He looked so confused, and just entirely overwhelmed that you almost felt sorry for him but then again he’d brought this on himself.

You took his still suspended metal hand in yours; shaking it firmly while looking him straight into the eyes before you muttered the words you’d been planning to say for the last 45 minutes.

“Congratulations, you played yourself.” You said with a pleasant smile on your face, Bucky looking confused at your words. You strutted off the jet to join Steve, intent on hearing his freestyle speech.

Somewhere in the distance you heard Sam cackle.

Tags:

@skeletoresinthebasement

[lcmawson]

So, WordPress is being awful and not letting me post the preview of the sixth Freya Snow book to my website.

I’ll post it here for now and hope that it stops acting up later.

There was another preview scene in the end of WITCH, but I thought I’d post a more romance-y one now.

Hope you enjoy!

Freya went back out on patrol that night. Usually she was just on the look-out for rogue Demons causing trouble, but this time she made sure to stay around the city centre, knowing that that’s where the most covens, nests, and packs were clustered.

The night, however, remained silent, leaving her to mull over her earlier conversation with Sarah and Mel.

After an hour or so, she found that she was just thinking in circles.

She decided that she simply didn’t know enough about the War to make any definitive judgements, so she called on Amber to see if she had any answers.

Her guardian appeared next to her as she wandered over the business school buildings on the university campus, on her way to check in on the uni wolf pack.

“You okay?” Amber asked. That was usually how she greeted Freya, and the Angel couldn’t blame her. She had a nasty habit of only calling Amber when she was in real trouble. It wasn’t intentional, she was just forgetful and didn’t have the best sense of how long it had been since she had last seen somebody.

“Yeah,” Freya assured her, “there’s just been some trouble that I hoped you could shed light on.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Disappearances. Whole groups of magical beings just disappearing over night. Apparently people in black armour and masks are dragging them from their homes. It’s… scarily efficient.”

Amber seemed to pale. “Does anyone know who is behind these attacks?”

Freya shrugged. “Not really. Lady Caroline is doing her best to look into it, but she has no real leads. Mel and Sarah, however, seemed to think that it was the work of Enhanced. I said that can’t be right, since my mother corrected the timeline so that there were no more Enhanced, but then I thought maybe it was copycats or something, looking to use the spectre of the War to rattle people.”

“Freya, your mother may have corrected the timeline, but the Enhanced had been fighting magic for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if their technology allowed some of them to slip through the cracks.”

“So, wait, you’re saying that there are Enhanced in this timeline?”

Amber sighed. “I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be so quick to rule it out.”

Freya folded her arms at that, feeling the chill of the night air. “So, what? The War will start up again?”

“I doubt it, Freya. We’re stronger now, and they will be weaker. I doubt many are here, even if some are. If they are attacking, why now? Why after so long? Maybe they can’t reconcile being in a timeline without the War. Maybe it’s a suicide run. I doubt we’ll see anything even close to the devastation of the War.”

Freya nodded, feeling a little better at that, though not entirely.

“Though you should be on guard if you encounter an Enhanced. They have the ability to nullify your magic, no matter how powerful you are.”

Freya’s blood froze at the thought. She could fight, sure, but she mostly relied on her magic to keep her safe. If she was no longer able to do that…

The thought of being so vulnerable made her shiver.

“I’ll be careful,” she assured Amber.

Her guardian left at that, allowing Freya to refocus on her patrol.

The uni wolf pack seemed fine, so she decided to make her way down to the quayside, sensing for magic along the way.

Despite her sensing, however, she missed the faint static of someone masking their magic, allowing her to be caught completely unaware by the dagger that came to lodge itself in the side of her thigh.

“Fuck!” she yelled, struggling to stay standing as she sent a barrage of flame in the direction that the dagger had come from.

She yanked the blade from her leg, pulling a healing potion from her belt and pouring it over the wound to staunch the flow of blood.

By the time she was done, a Demon appeared in front of her.

“Oh, for the love of the Creator,” Freya muttered as she shifted behind him, throwing his dagger into his shoulder.

He howled in pain, trying to grasp at the dagger. Once he realised that it was futile, he quickly turned back to Freya, who’d used his distraction as an opportunity to catch her breath.

He turned his pain into Dark Energy, sending a large barrage at Freya.

“Shit,” Freya cursed as she rolled out of the way. Usually they couldn’t generate that much Dark Energy, given how quickly it became draining.

The next thing she knew, however, another figure had jumped down behind the Demon, whacking him over the head with a baton.

He spun around to face this new opponent, his Dark Energy flickering out as he refocused on non-magical combat.

After a few moments, Freya realised that his opponent was a woman, though her figure was flattened beneath black, tactical gear. Her jet black hair had been braided and pinned up, to keep it out of the way.

She fought with a baton in each hand, her technique flawless as she constantly kept him on the defence.

Then she spun around, letting Freya get a clear look at her face.

Alex.

Freya found her mind racing. Alex was Human. She knew Alex was Human.

After not realising Sarah was a Witch at first, she had gotten much better about checking.

And yet, here she was, holding her own against a Demon.

Alex delivered a kick to the Demon’s core, knocking him down to the ground.

Instead of advancing on him, Alex ran over to Freya, grabbing her hand.

“Run!” Alex told her as she dragged her along. “He won’t stay down for long!”

Freya did as she was told, still thoroughly confused by what was going on.

Alex kept running with her, zigzagging across the rooftops of the city. After a while, they came across a rooftop car park. Alex pulled her to where a jeep was parked up against a wall, the two of them crouching into the small space.

“What are we doing here?” Freya hissed, unable to find a way to sit where she wasn’t touching Alex.

As her adrenaline faded, the place where Alex had held her hand seemed unable to release the warmth of her body heat.

“Hiding,” Alex told her. “The Demon will give up after a while.”

“Why didn’t you just kill him?”

Alex raised an eyebrow, looking a little hurt. “You really thought I would kill someone?”

“Well, I don’t know, you just came out of nowhere and started going toe-to-toe with a Demon! It kind of gives me the idea that you might not be who I thought you were.”

“I could say the exact same thing about you,” Alex retorted.

“Okay, fair point,” Freya muttered.

“You know, all of this negativity is only going to draw him to us,” Alex said, leaning a little closer to Freya.

Freya felt her breath catch at her proximity, her heart thundering in her chest.

“Usually I just let them find me,” Freya said, her voice coming out as little more than a whisper. “Then I arrest them and let the Demons clean up their own.”

Alex gave her an appraising look as she seemed to be assimilating the new piece of information.

“Well then,” Alex said with a smile, “by all means, brood away.”

Freya glared at her. “I do not brood.”

Alex’s smile widened into a grin. “You kind of do.”

“Brooding implies unnecessary angst. I have just the right amount of angst for my situation, thank you very much.”

“I’m sure.”

Freya simply continued to glare, though she loosened up after just a moment as she realised that she was only proving Alex right.

Before Freya had a chance to wonder if stopping her glare was allowing Alex to win, Alex closed the gap between them, kissing her.

Freya stiffened momentarily with shock, but she quickly melted into the kiss, her hand going to the side of Alex’s neck, just beneath her hair, allowing her to feel more in control of what was happening.

Alex took that as an invitation, moving her leg over so that she was straddling Freya’s lap, her hands on her shoulder and neck to steady herself.

Freya brought her free hand to Alex’s hip as her body flooded with desire.

Alex moaned into her mouth, grinding against her so deliciously that Freya couldn’t help but whimper.

Alex moved the hand on Freya’s shoulder down to her breast, palming it through the thick fabric of her sports bra.

Freya gasped at the sudden move, drawing Alex closer.

They jumped apart, however, at the blare of a police siren below, both of them still acutely aware that they were being hunted.

Alex was grinning when Freya turned back to her.

“I knew I could get you to lose the frown,” Alex said, causing Freya to splutter.

“Seriously?” Freya demanded. “That was what the kiss was about?”

“Well, that and getting the Demon to lose our trail. You might want to fight him, but I think I’m done for the night.”

Freya rolled her eyes. “You know, this just means that I’ll end up fighting him again tomorrow night. And now he knows about you and your… ability to fight Demons?”

Alex’s smile faded. “Oh, would you look at the time?” she said before running off in the opposite direction, jumping down a fire escape to the street below.

Freya sighed, deciding not to follow her as her mind combed over everything that had just happened.

Alex’s non-magical gear.

Her knowledge of Demons.

The way the Demon’s magic spluttered out when Alex had fought him.

“Shit,” Freya muttered after several moments. “She’s bloody Enhanced.”

There’s no preorder for this book, but you can subscribe to my newsletter to be alerted on the 14th when the book goes live. You’ll also be given access to a bunch of free books, including one that’s exclusive to subscribers.

If you need to catch up on any of the previous books, here are the links:

HUNT

WHITE

WINGS

ORACLE

WITCH