#but if it was it went laughably badly because she just stood there half a field away and watched the person trying to tempt her over

[triangle-dog]

New session of classes (and hopefully I won't forget to write about half of them this time).

Nova was surprisingly excited when we pulled in. Like, almost 'we've arrived at the park' level of excitement. I guess she missed having class during the break between sessions? She had been being happy to arrive at the building, but it wasn't this level of excited and ready to go.

It's a new area to train in and with new dogs so she was more distracted this time than she had been during the last few classes of last session, but still nothing like that first class where she was very confused and concerned about walking in circles and being followed. She was lagging in her heel - which is unusual because she's typically forging ahead. I think she was trying to take in the new sights/sounds/smells and if so that's a huge improvement in her comfort from trying to pull off to a corner to observe from. Some of it might have been a pacing issue, she kept her heel much better when we were going faster.

Since I mentioned Nova has a decent downstay we're up first to practice the supervised separation next week. Eep. So we'll be trying to practice that in more stressful situations beforehand. Nova will not willingly go with a stranger, but I'm hoping a downstay and just incidentally having a stranger holding the leash will be comfortable enough for her.

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

2000 words of (checks notes) hbo rome, but Antony captures Brutus alive and no one is quite sure what to do with that. mostly unedited, sort of heading in a direction for sure.

Cassius is dead.

And,  

well.

Brutus is alive.

For whatever reason, Antony had decided to drag him back to his camp, and he sits in Antony’s tent like a child waiting to find out what punishment is going to get doled out while listening to Antony and Octavian shout at each other from some other place in the encampment.

Cassius is dead, and Brutus feels like he was cheated out of being able to take the honorable way out. Instead, he was ignobly marched back across a never-ending field of bodies, a prisoner, maybe something worse. To step between bodies of the men he commanded to their deaths felt like the worst kind of cowardice.

Cassius is dead, Brutus has the blood of his brother-in-law under his nails, and he feels inexplicably jealous.

The yelling stops, and after a moment, Antony steps back inside.

‘Great news!’ he says cheerfully. ‘You won’t be dying today!’

Brutus stares at him. Antony looks back expectantly.

In the back of his throat, the decorum that dictates social niceties threatens to claw its way out of his mouth, to show the appropriate gratefulness.  

Cassius is dead, and Brutus wishes that was his fate as well, so he swallows hard and says nothing.

When it becomes clear that Brutus won’t say anything, Antony pulls a seat over and sits across from Brutus, uncharacteristically serious. ‘I know that this isn’t really ideal for anyone,’ he says, looking Brutus in the eye. ‘But it is better to survive. Think of your mother, how much better it will be for her to get a letter from you than to receive one from me announcing your death.’

It feels like Antony is attempting something like reassurance, like he’s worried Brutus might take the stylus off the desk and shove it through his own neck (he had thought about it, and immediately discarded the idea) but all Brutus can concentrate on is how much he doesn’t want to think of his mother.  

Every personal betrayal, every manipulation at the hands of his own mother comes to the forefront of his mind and he can feel his expression twist into something bitter. ‘I’d consider it a personal favor if you would tell her that anyway,’ Brutus finds himself saying, and Antony laughs, sharp and surprised.

‘I didn’t think you had it in you to be cruel,’ he says, leaning forward.

‘You know, I never really wanted this?’ Brutus says, because now the words won’t stop spilling out of his mouth, ‘but she used my name, and Caesar couldn’t trust me after that.’

There is some emotion that Brutus can’t identify in Antony’s gaze, something quiet and calculating, not unlike a predator considering how to cast judgement.

‘You helped kill him,’ says Antony, tone neutral.

Brutus looks away, and back own at his hands. They aren’t shaking anymore, but on that day, he wasn’t sure they would ever stop. Cassius might have put the blade back into his hands, but he was the one who grasped it and drove it into the body of a man he had once considered to be like a father.  

Abruptly, he wonders if Octavian is somewhere on the other side of the material of the tent, eavesdropping on them like some kind of ghost.

‘I did,’ agrees Brutus, because there’s no sense in denying it or trying to claim some kind of innocence to the act. It runs in the family, even if he tried to deny that legacy before. He won’t try to pass blame for the action now. ‘You should let Octavian do whatever it is he wants to do.’ He sits up a little straighter and narrows his eyes. ‘What do you gain from this anyway? What benefit am I to you?’

Antony leans back, posture open and lazy. It’s not sincere, Brutus knows. It’s the false nonchalance that Antony presents the world when he wants people to look a little less closely, to take him a little less seriously, all the while planning out a series of strategies in the back of his mind.

‘Do I have to have an ulterior motive?’ asks Antony. ‘Maybe I just want to ruin Octavian’s day for a bit.’

He stands up before Brutus can reply, and begins to walk back towards the tent flap. ‘You’ll be staying here,’ Antony informs Brutus. ‘There are soldiers on guard duty, so don’t think about trying to escape.’ He looks at his desk, to the stylus, and after a brief pause of consideration, crosses the space in two easy steps to grab it. ‘Remember!’ he says, grinning. ‘Tomorrow’s a new day!’

Then he’s gone.

And Brutus is once again left with his hands, and Cassius’s blood.

•

At some point in the night, Brutus falls asleep.

When he wakes up, he is in Antony’s bed, with absolutely no recollection of how he got there. His hands, Brutus notices as he sits upright and pushes the blankets off of him, are clean.

‘And he lives!’ says Antony. He’s sitting behind his desk, watching Brutus from over top the paper in his hand. His tone is jovial, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. ‘If you wanted to go back to sleep for another hour, I won’t tell: it might be the last time you’ll get the chance to sleep in.’

The entire exchange is baffling.

The expression on Brutus’ face must convey as much, because Antony laughs. ‘Just because you are my prisoner doesn’t mean it has to be painful for us both.’

Brutus arches an eyebrow at the use of the possessive and makes a note to eventually find out the specifics of what Antony and Octavian had been fighting about. ‘I think you'll find that sentiment goes against almost every expectation someone might have if they found themselves held captive by a political rival,’ points out Brutus.

‘I like to think of us as people who could have been political allies under different circumstances,’ counters Antony. ‘We did work together for some time.’

‘I think’ says Brutus slowly, ‘that you have some ulterior motive you’ve been angling towards for some time.’

Silence, except for the general ambience of a military encampment the day after a resounding victory. Conversation, men looking forward to returning home, the sharp crackle of an early morning fire. Life goes on. When the sun comes up in full, the bodies left on the battlefield will begin to stink and decay under the full force of the heat.

The fight in Brutus, the revulsion that he will be used for another person’s end goals again, fades out of him, replaced with a quiet grief at the thought of the men he led to their death.

Antony snaps his fingers.

‘You look like you’re thinking unhappy thoughts,’ says Antony. ‘Do not. It’s always better to live. If you must spiral into melancholia, wait until I’m gone.’

‘Besides!’ continues Antony. ‘Soon we will be back in Rome!’

Brutus can’t think of anything he’s looking forward to less.

•

Brutus wishes more than anything that Antony had just given him a sword so he could fall on it.

Currently, the feeling is driven less by a sense of duty (what kind of man begs for mercy? comes the voice of his mother. I didn’t beg this time, mother, he would say in reply) or the open wound of loss, but instead by an intense awareness that he does not belong in this place anymore but more importantly 

annoyance.

If he thought he would have to wait around to see what Octavian and Antony were arguing about back in Philippi, he was wrong. The second Antony had set foot in Rome, with Brutus half a step behind him, Octavian immediately launched into an impassioned speech that started with, ‘You should be grateful to Antony, if it were up to me, I would have taken your head displayed it for all to see,’ (poetic in a grim sort of way, thinks Brutus) and ended with:

‘Don’t get too comfortable. You belong to Antony now, and he’ll do with you whatever he wants.’

It’s clearly meant to be some threat, but it’s laughable because Brutus knows this, everyone who’s heard about the outcome at Philippi knows this, there’s probably creative graffiti about it already going up on the walls of the city, and Octavian says it like Brutus hasn’t spent the last week trying to puzzle together why Antony wanted him alive so badly.

The facts of the world are as follow: the sun rises in the east, it sets in the west, Octavian has only become more insufferable over the years, and Brutus belongs to Antony now.

The only person who doesn’t seem to be aware of this is Antony, who continues to act as though Brutus is more of a peer that he had a minor disagreement and has subsequently forgiven.

‘It’s been nice catching up with you, Octavian,’ says Antony with a smile that conveys that the entire exchange has been anything but nice. ‘But I have things to do, matters to attend to.’  

Brutus says nothing.

Octavian levels him with one last bitter look before turning around and leaving the room.

‘Well!’ says Antony after a moment. ‘That went as well as to be expected. I have a feeling he thought I’d have you executed somewhere along the way back.’

‘He’s not the only one,’ comments Brutus dryly, and Antony punches him in the shoulder good naturedly.

‘I love that grim sense of humor you have,’ he says. ‘Come on, let us go home. I’m fucking exhausted.’  

•

Home, it turns out, is Pompey’s villa.

Or more accurately: it’s Antony’s now.

Brutus can see it on the walls, in the décor, in the choices of fabrics and design. It’s alive, it’s vibrant, it’s a complete antithesis of everything Pompey stood for.  

He likes it.

‘So-’ Antony starts to say, at the exact moment Brutus says:

‘What’s your endgame here, Antony?’

It’s a recreation of the morning in Philippi: the open, if somewhat confusing, amicability that doesn’t quite meet the eyes. The sense that Antony is thinking of things in stratagem, planning for some kind of outcome no one has even thought to imagine, much less prepare for.

The villa is nice. Brutus likes what Antony’s done with the place.

He also feels very much like he’s walked into the open mouth of something with very sharp teeth, and if he must be assigned a role in whatever Antony is gearing up for, he would at least like an idea of what’s to come.

Whatever Antony is searching for in Brutus’ eyes, he must have found, because the tension in his jaw disappears.

‘Some other time,’ he says finally. ‘Not today.’

There’s a promise in between the words.

Brutus tries to feel grateful for that, at least. It’s hard, because once, before all of this, he used to be--

•

--a person.

Antony shows him to one of the rooms, makes some remark about not leaving the villa, with a side glance at Posca, who does his best not to meet Brutus’ eyes, which is understandable. Antony takes off, and in the absence of anything else to do, Brutus decides to try and reinvent himself.

He can no longer be Brutus, descendant of a king killers. He is no longer a reluctant, albeit talented, politician, following in the footsteps of all the other politicians that came before him. He’s not even entirely sure what his status as a citizen of Rome is. In lieu of death, Octavian might push for exile.

The only concrete fact about himself now is that Antony wanted him alive, and so he belongs to Antony.

The lack of solid ground to stand on makes exile a tempting thought.

At some point in the afternoon (no further along in the process of reinvention than when he started) a young woman stops by: Cynthia, if Brutus recalls correctly. One of Antony’s slaves. She asks if he’s hungry, if he’d like an apple and--

--for a moment, Brutus feels like he’s returned to Philippi, standing defeated, surrounded by bodies. The dead don’t eat, they need coins for the afterlife, not food, the dead don’t eat, and he’s not a person anymore--

--Brutus says yes and follows her.

•

Antony is exhausted.

Octavian, he knows, is planning something. There is something ugly and spiteful inside of that youth, Antony can’t stand to be around him, no matter how much Atia dotes on him.  

When Antony returns back home late in the evening, he’s greeted with the sight of Brutus sitting on one of the couches, peeling an apple, while Cynthia stands nearby, slicing up a pear. He pulls the heavy fabric of the toga off his body and casts it across a chair, making his way towards the two.

Draping himself along the couch next to Brutus, he leans over and says, ‘Slice off a piece for me.’

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Posca watching the scene unfold from the quiet shadows of the evening.

Brutus cuts off a part of the apple so that the slice is stuck on the side of the blade, and holds it out to Antony, like this is an everyday occurrence, like Brutus isn’t pointing a knife at the person who owns his life.

He realizes it, a moment later, and freezes, but before he can course correct, pull back, apologize, Antony leans forward and bites the apple slice right off the sharp edge of the knife.

Brutus stares at him.

Or, more specifically, Antony is delighted to note, he stares at the line of Antony’s throat, his gaze lingering for just a second too long.

[anxiouslynumbme]

Carmuel Missing Scenes/Moments

Warning: (Mild Sexual Situations. Strong Language, Drug Use.)

3x05

________________________________________________________

Samuel couldn't sleep next to Rebe. Knowing he'd ruined her life, his guilt was always looming over his head. But it wasn't just about what he'd done to her mother.

He was using her to soothe his own pain and heartache, and he was currently experiencing a new level of self-loathing. He didn't know why he hadn't stopped her when she'd kissed him for the first time.

Not that it was an excuse, but Carla had just broken his heart for the hundredth time, and it felt like he couldn't breathe. He was sad, angry, and confused. But then Rebe'd kissed him, and he jumped into it, without thinking about how it would affect her. And then the police contacted him and everything went even farther downhill. He didn't know how to tell her, how could he just sit her down and tell her, he was responsible for her mother's imprisonment. Oh, and on top of all that, he couldn’t keep seeing her, ‘cause he cared about her as a friend, and it was unfair and selfish of him to lead her on. He couldn't tell Rebe all of that, all at once, it was a lot for anyone to take in.

He was being a coward, he didn't want - what felt like - his only friend to hate him.

He sighed loudly, opening the fridge to grab himself a bottle of water, before walking back to the living room, and slumping down the couch.

Carla.

Closing his eyes, he let her invade his mind. He'd been trying so hard to keep her out all day, and now that he was alone, he finally let go of all pretenses and allowed thoughts of her to fire up his insides.

He was in love with her.

He knew that what he felt for Carla was something he had never experienced before, not with Marina, or anyone else.

But what was daunting, was the fact that he was sure he'd never feel that kind of love for anyone else. Well, not in the same all-encompassing way he had with her.

She was consuming from the start, everything with her had felt intoxicating, feverish, crazed. But it’d also felt grounded, peaceful, and real. So real, it was terrifying. It hadn't been his plan to kiss her that day in the club, but he couldn't stop himself, her burning proximity had caused wild abandonment to take over. And even though, he knew she had done it to play him, it was still mind boggling that she'd actually kissed him back, and then she'd proceeded to fuck him into an explosive, confusing, and overwhelming emotional tornado. He'd never forget what it had been like to touch her for the first time, to kiss her for the first time, the reviving shock that rushed through his system, the second his skin had come in contact with hers. His whole body had ignited with a need he didn't think he was capable of feeling. He never stood a chance.

It was almost laughable, to think about how he'd thought he wouldn't fall for her. That he could've had finished his quest, without his heart getting crushed in the process.

And he kept going back for more. Talk about fucking masochism.

His phone vibrated beside him, frowning, he grasped it with a huff. Who was calling so late?

Carla.

He jolted up so fast, almost dropping his phone, his heart beating in his throat.

Was she really calling? Or did he actually think about her so much that he was hallucinating it?

He took in a shaky breath, tapping his thumb on the screen to accept the call.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

"Carla?" he could hear her breathing, and his, immediately picked up.

"Carla, please answer."

"Hey."  his eyes slid shut at her voice.

"Hey - did you mean to call me?"

"Yes."

She didn't lie. He smiled, but then he remembered the time, his brows knitted with worry. "Are you okay? It's almost three in the morning."

"I'm fine."

And she was back to lying, he should really get used to the disappointment. "No, you're not."

She exhaled softly through the phone, and his stomach instantly fluttered, wishing she were next to him. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I called, I was just sitting here and I couldn't - I, I - I don't - "

"Hey, hey, it's okay, you don't need to explain. Call me anytime."

She didn't respond for so long, he thought she'd hung up. But then he heard a muffled, gasping cry, and his heart stopped.

"Carla, what's going on?"

"Can you just talk?" her voice was so small.

"What?"

"Just talk. Say anything."

"I don't understand." his concern was still gripping him.

"Please, Samuel, just talk to me. Tell me something."

"Uh - " his throat closed up when realization dawned on him. She needed the distraction. "Okay, erm. . .I've never seen Titanic."

There was a moment before she let out a light giggle. "That's so weird."

"Hey! It's not that weird."

"No, it's weird, 'cause I've never seen it either."

"Really?"

"Hmm. People always make me feel like shit for it too."

"I know, as if we're uncultured or something."

"I swear, I haven't watched it yet, just to spite them."

He chuckled. "Agreed. People can be so annoying about that film."

"So, what other popular movies haven't you watched?"

He could feel his smile stretch even wider, all his worries calming down, as they started an impromptu discussion about overrated and underrated movies, Spanish or otherwise.

"It's been so long since I've just sat down and watched a movie," she said quietly.

"Oh yeah? How long?"

She didn't answer right away. "Since that dumb one you made me watch."

His heart constricted in his chest, he remembered that night so vividly, it was one of his favorite memories with her. She had come over one night, without even calling as usual, and while she'd had other plans in mind, plans he'd very much wanted as well, but at that point he was too far gone for her. He had just wanted to spend time with her, an itch in his skin that had needed to know her, to sit with her, so he could just watch her and listen to her speak. So he'd convinced her to watch a film with him first, though, they had only managed to watch half of it, before they both got sidetracked.

"We've established this, Carla. Spider-man is not dumb."

"Yes it is, the whole concept is ridiculous. And they should really stop making them already."

"One day, I'll make you love superheroes."

Oh, shit Fuck, he probably shouldn't have said that.

"I doubt it," she replied with ease. Thank god, he didn't spook her.

"I don't. You'll be wearing full-on geek t-shirts in no time."

She laughed, the sound heating his gut. "Keep dreaming, Samuel."

Dreaming about her was all he did anyway.

As though she could hear his thoughts, it got quiet between them, but it wasn't awkward. He wanted so badly to ask her what was wrong, but it was pointless, she was determined to keep him in the dark, and as much as he hated it, he knew it would only push her away if he tried interfering again. And he was so happy she called, he didn't want to risk her hanging up.

A crazy idea abruptly appeared in the forefront of his mind. Maybe if he trusted her with one of his secrets, maybe she'd know he trusted her. Maybe then she she'd know she could trust him too. But he was scared of what she was going to say. Even if a part of him knew, she was the only one who could ever understand. He still didn't want to risk how she saw him, what she thought of him.

"It was - it was me," he stammered, running a nervous hand through his hair. "I told the police about Rebe's mother. Well, I agreed to help them."

"What?" she asked, voice filled with shock.

Then he told her the whole story, and why he had done it. She remained silent for a brief moment, and he could've sworn he stopped breathing during it.

"I get it." three simple words and he could breathe again.

He knew she would.

"I mean, you're certainly no boyfriend of the year, but I get it." she said.

He snorted at her comment, a weird feeling taking over him at her use of the word boyfriend, his body rejecting it. Fuck, he was such an asshole. He needed to break up with Rebe as soon as possible, if he had any chance of ever salvaging their friendship.

"I don't know what to do," he admitted quietly.

"Maybe someday, she'll understand. Her mother is guilty."

He couldn’t help but notice the few similarities. He knew Carla was still mad that he’d manipulated her feelings into confessing, and it had been the hardest thing he ever had to do, knowing the price was losing her. But a part of her had to understand, because Polo was guilty.

"I know, but I was being selfish, all I could think about was helping my family. Myself. And now her life is all messed up."

"Wait, why aren't they back yet?"

He gritted his teeth. "They told me it takes time."

"You think they're lying?"

"They better not be."

"You'll get them back, Samuel. Don't worry."

He smiled sadly to himself, her reassurance meant more to him than she could possibly know. And suddenly the pain of losing her came back full force, the unrelenting thoughts, that he couldn't have her, to comfort him, kiss him, and simply be with him.

Would he ever get her back?

Knowing better than to voice his thoughts, he simply settled on. "I hope so."

"Like they say, the things we do for family, right?" he said slowly, after a pause of silence.

"Yeah," she said, "at least yours deserve it."

His brows furrowed, her broken voice filling him with the need to hug her. Before he could utter a word, he heard a male voice in the background. It didn't belong to her father.

"Carla? You're still up?"

Yeray. She was with him. His fists clenched, was he at her house? Was she at his? The painful contraction of his heart wouldn't stop. His mind instantly imagining them in various sexual scenarios. He vehemently shook his head to himself. Fuck, no. He didn't even care to stop and think about his hypocrisy in that moment, his hurt and jealousy taking control.

"You're with him?" the bitter question slipped before he could stop it.

"I'll be right there, Yeray. " she paused, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry. Good night."

And then she hung up. The loss of her voice in his ear making him feel even more suffocated.

_________________________________________________________

The raging party around him did nothing but put him more on edge. His anxiety rising by the minute, Rebe was sure that the guy they were waiting for was going to lead her to the culprit. To him.

Rebe was talking to him, but he wasn't really listening, he was preparing himself for what was to come, he couldn't get rid of the pit in his stomach. He took a large swig of his drink, eyes roaming around the room, and that was when he saw her. Saw what she was doing.

"I'll be right back," he told Rebe, not caring if she heard him, but he could feel her stare on his back.

His feet were moving instinctively, advancing quickly in her direction, his heart thudding with confusion and fear. Once he reached her, he blindly went for her hand just as she was about to take another hit, slapping it away from her.

She gasped, looking at him, her eyes a little unfocused. "What the hell, Samuel?"

"What the hell?" he repeated lowly. "seriously, what the fuck are you doing, Carla?"

"Having fun. Go away." she beamed mockingly, turning around to leave, his palm instantly reached for her wrist, wheeling her back around.

"No, you're doing drugs," he bit out, his words sounding foreign to him. His disbelief at the sight in front of him still present in his belly.

"How observant." she rolled her eyes, before they widened and she smiled at something behind him. "Yeray! Over here!"

His jaw clenched at the sound of the name falling from her lips with such excitement, a second later, Yeray appeared next to her.

"Let's dance!" she grabbed Yeray's hand, dragging him behind her.

Samuel was rooted in place, staring at her as she danced, his shock drumming in his chest. What the fuck was going on with her? The contrast of what he was sure he knew of her, and what he was seeing was incredibly jarring.

The fact that she kept touching and doting on Yeray didn't help his spiraling emotions, he tried drawing in calming breaths, but the combination of witnessing her using drugs and then kissing Yeray was too much. He slammed his drink on the table behind him, his mind on one thing, as he strode towards her steadfastly.

"I need to talk to you," he said, reaching the spot in front of her, completely ignoring who she was dancing with.

"What the..?" Yeray said, confused.

"I'm busy, Samuel," she said, not even sparing him a glance. And he fucking hated it.

"Carla, it's important. We need to talk. Now."

"Nope."

"Carla - "

"Hey, she said she doesn't want to. Just leave," Yeray spoke from behind him.

"I'm clearly not talking to you."

"Well, clearly, she doesn't want to speak with you."

He ignored him, eyes on Carla as she swayed carelessly. "Carla, I have to talk to you alone."

"Seriously? Leave us alone, man."

He closed his eyes, trying to keep his anger in check. "Stay out of this."

"I don't think so." Yeray jabbed him lightly on the shoulder.

Wrong move, rich boy.

He pushed him back roughly. "I told you to stay out of this, you - "

"Ugh!" Carla interrupted impatiently. "Enough of this."

"I'll talk to you, happy?" she grinned sarcastically at him, before directing her gaze to Yeray with a warm smile. "I'll be right back, love."

His body lurched with disgust, hearing her call Yeray, love.

Without providing any further information, she started sauntering away, and he immediately followed. When they found an empty backroom, they both walked inside. Closing the door behind them, he turned around to look at her, his fuming heart halting for a second at the sight that greeted him.

She was leaning heavily against the wall, her whole demeanor from before entirely changed, as she regarded him with openly lustful eyes, a seductive smirk on her sinful lips, her slender fingers catching the hem of her dress, hiking it up tantalizingly slow.

Fuck.

"What do you want, Samuel?" her husky voice sent shivers straight down his spine, and right to his rapidly aching member.

She was too beautiful, too alluring. Everything about her was devastatingly unfair.

He inhaled sharply, trying to cool down his anatomy. "Don't try to distract me. You know it won't work."

Her giggle was sultry and airy. "It used to, though. Remember?"

Recalling their past trysts. Dangerous fucking territory.

"We're not leaving here until you tell me, what the hell was that out there?"

She was slowly making her way towards him, looking at him passionately. "You mean, dancing with my boyfriend?"

He blanched outwardly, and from the grin that spread over her face, it was the exact reaction she wanted, she finally reached him, just an inch away, and he prayed silently to have the strength to resist whatever she was about to do.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Oh, right, the drugs," she said nonchalantly.

The second she said it, it hit him as hard as it did when he'd seen her just moments ago. He took a step closer this time.

"This is serious, Carla. Why would you do that? How did you even get it?"

It was too easy to get drugs, he knew that firsthand. Valerio and Rebe crossed his mind. But they were smarter than to actually sell to Carla. No, there was no way it was them.

"So many questions." she groaned, "do you ever just live, Samuel?"

She was evading again. "What is going on with you?"

"Nothing is going on. You just like to ruin my fun."

He rubbed an agitated hand over his face, she was obviously influenced from the drugs, and this was going no where. "We'll talk about this tomorrow. Right now, I need to take you home."

"Fuck off. I'm not going anywhere." she scoffed, twisting around him, hitting his shoulder harshly as she started making her way towards the door. Once again, he had to catch her by the arm to twirl her back to him.

"Carla, you have to go home. I can't just let you go out there - "

"Let me?" she snarled, shoving him back, eyes shooting daggers. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"Carla, calm down, I only meant you need - "

"The only thing I need is to be rid of you. Which I can't seem to do, no matter how hard I try."

Her words never failed to hurt him, it didn't matter that he knew she was doing it on purpose, it didn't matter how many times she did it, her hold on him was stronger than even he could fathom sometimes. The way she could unravel him so easily, whether it was with desire, longing, doubt, or anger. She could break him so quickly, and the most pathetic part was, he didn't care.

"Listen," he began softly, "you're on drugs, Carla. And I'm just worried, so please, you have to be some place safe where you can sleep it off, okay?"

"And you think that place is my house?"

It wasn't the first time she’d made a similar comment, and she never elaborated. And if he asked her to, he knew he wouldn't be getting any answers, all he wanted was to get her somewhere, where he knew she would be okay till morning.

"Where do you wanna go then?"

Please don't say Yeray's. Just please don't.

"I want to. . ." she sang slowly, spinning in place, "stay out all night!"

"That's not gonna happen."

She laughed humorlessly. "You don't get a say in what I do, handsome."

He huffed. "Carla, I'm calling a car, you can wait here. And we're definitely discussing all of this later."

He took his phone out of his back pocket, but before his fingers could move an inch, it was snatched away from him.

"Right." she held the phone up in front of him. "no, thank you."

And then she flung it across the room at the wall behind him, he heard its impact, the phone clattering against the wall loudly before falling to the floor.

A low rumbling sound of anger left him, as he stepped towards her, pushing her back against the wall. "What is wrong with you?"

She simply smirked. "Oh, don't be mad, I'll buy you a new one."

He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. "Carla,"

"Actually, I take that back. I like it when you're mad," she whispered, her hands making their way up his chest, he immediately caught them, his skin already tingling.

"Carla, listen to me. Please go home."

"No."

"You have to."

She grumbled, "Why won't you just leave me the fuck alone?"

He sighed, feeling a twinge in his chest. "I told you. I can't."

She pouted mockingly. "Ah, poor Samuel. Look at you, so tortured. Just a walking cliche, aren't you?"

"I - "

"Your ex-girlfriend is dead," she interjected, and his stomach dropped at her words.

"And your brother is accused of killing her," she continued sardonically, "but we all know he didn't do it. I mean, he was fucking her, oh so lovingly, behind your back."

"Stop," he said through shallow breathing.

"You tried to reveal the truth, but you failed miserably. So your brother left, and your mother followed." she breathed in, looking him in the eye. "Then I left you too."

"And now." she snickered, "you're still chasing after me, while being with someone else. Marina would be so proud."

He shrank back, the cruel words pressing on his nerves, that was the last straw, he backed her further into the wall. "Whatever you think you're doing, is not going to work. And I'm not cheating."

"Oh, you are. Cheating is more than just the physical stuff. But hey, we can fix that if you want."

He flinched at the truth, which only made him angrier as he spat his next words. "I'm only trying to help you, because no one else seems to care."

Her eyes lowered, and for a split second he could see the effect his words had on her, but then she smiled, her arms circling his shoulders.

"Only helping, huh? So if I kissed you, you wouldn't kiss me back?"

He tried to answer, opening his mouth to tell her no, he wouldn't kiss her. But nothing came out, his gut, heart, and body, knew exactly what he would do if she touched him.

She leaned in closer, and his lungs momentarily stopped calling for oxygen. She softly brushed his lips, once, twice; feeding that ever growing flame, she had planted deep inside him the first time he'd kissed her.

"Please do - "

And then her lips parted his ardently, effectively shutting him up. The need for her, that he was constantly trying so hard to keep at bay, flared up with a vengeance as her taste hit his tongue. They both moaned, their mouths molding together in such a familiar, intense dance, that made his whole body ache with want.

Her hand traveled down his chest leisurely, until she reached his hardening length, palming him softly. He groaned, his fingers clutching her neck, driving his tongue deeper, as he devoured her mouth.

"Samuel." she gasped against his hungry lips.

That single, captivating utterance of his name, crashed into his foggy mind and alerted him to his surroundings.

"Stop," he rasped, wrenching his mouth away, when she went for him again, her hands trying to grasp his face, he seized both her wrists.

"Carla, stop!" he needed to control himself, "you're not in the right state of mind to be doing this. Or anything else. Go home now."

She blinked slowly.

"Get the fuck off then!" she then said sternly, struggling in his grip, before elbowing him away.

"You know what, Samuel? I will go home right now. With Yeray, that is," she told him, wheeling around and opening the door.

"Carla,"

"No need to worry, he'll take really good care of me." she sent him a wink, before storming out, an unbalanced sway in her steps.

He stood frozen for a second, his veins pulsing, palms sweating. His legs and brain finally caught up, as he marched forward.

"Carla!" There were too many bodies around, and he couldn't see for shit. Fuck, he kept bumping into people.

A few minutes later, he found her, and he wished he hadn't. His eyes fell on her and Yeray, locked in a heated embrace. His muscles tightened, his cheeks flushing with quiet fury. He watched as she drew back, grabbing Yeray's hand with a grin and pulling him towards the exit. They both climbed the stairs and right before she disappeared from his sight, she turned around, sensing his imploring gaze, and smiled.  

_______________________________________________________                  

"Samu, do you love me?"

It was a while after Carla had left, and while he'd been trying hard to pay attention to Rebe, it didn't work. He was thankful when she’d left for the bathroom, giving him time to breathe, and get rid of her bag. But ever since she came back from the restroom, she'd been acting weird.

He didn't mind her question, it was easy to answer, not so easy to vocalize. Because he did love her, just not in the way she thought he did. It was his opportunity to tell her, she just gave him an opening, and he needed to tough it out.

"Of course I do." he took a deep breath, getting ready for what he had to say next.

"I just had to make sure," she said before he could speak, grabbing both his hands and holding them up, he looked at his strange colored palms in confusion.

So she explained to him her whole plan. Guilt enveloped him tightly, his mind scrambling for something to say, but she didn't let him, talking over him, before quickly punching him and walking away.

"Rebe, wait."

She whirled around to face him again, scowling. "Who am I kidding? That wasn't the reason you got close to me. No, no, it was her. You hooked up with me to get over your fucking marchioness."

"Rebe, - "

"Don't you dare humiliate me more than you already have. Not after what I just found out. Be honest with me, you never saw me that way. I was nothing but a distraction to ease your heartbreak. Just admit it."

"I - I'm so sorry." he hung his head in shame.

She nodded in resignation. "I guess it's a little on me too. I wanted you so much, I chose to ignore what is so glaringly obvious."

She took a small step forward. "But snitching on my mother, I didn't see that coming. I thought you were my friend."

"I am. I'm sorry, but just let me explain,"

"Save it!" she snapped, briskly leaving him.

He was still reeling from what had happened with Carla, and that did not help.

He had lost Carla, his family, and now his friend. And during all of his turmoil, it was his bad luck, that his eyes landed on Polo, as he danced with Valerio and Cayetana. They were kissing, laughing, happy. He watched with an icy glare, letting his hatred and rage surge through him freely.

[ghostlyhamburger]

Pain

Prompt: Teeth and Claw Marks

Request: Chlonette

Rating: E

Read on Ao3

Chloe still told the hotel staff Marinette was visiting for a “school project”, even though they went to different universities.

They all wisely chose to look the other way when Marinette arrived and headed straight to Chloe’s room, a trenchcoat wrapped tight around her body, her stiletto heels clicking on the lobby floor.

She opened the door to Chloe’s suite with a keycard she kept just for these visits. She stepped inside and dropped her coat to the floor, leaving herself in a red vinyl bodysuit. It seemed modest on top, sleeveless with a neckline as high as her old supersuit had been, but it was cut high on her thighs, exposing long bare legs ending in black stiletto strappy heels. The suit was tight enough to show every small curve, from her breasts to her pussy concealed behind a hidden zipper.

Chloe was already at the door, kneeling by Marinette’s feet. She was nude except for a yellow leather collar at her throat. On a table behind her were all sorts of implements the two had used in their time together, cleaned and laid out for use.

“Mistress Ladybug,” Chloe murmured, bowing forward to press a soft kiss to Marinette’s foot.

“My Queen,” Marinette replied, her tone condescending. “Have you behaved yourself?”

Chloe hesitated before saying, “No. I screamed at my assistant, and I insulted a teenager’s outfit.”

Marinette selected a riding crop from the table, using it to tilt Chloe’s chin up to look at her. “Is that all?”

“No,” Chloe admitted. “I got a waitress fired because she brought me the wrong order. But I didn’t know she’d be fired! I just wanted her reprimanded or something!”

Marinette brought the crop down on Chloe’s breast, making her gasp. “That might be so, but you wouldn’t have called me if you didn’t want to be punished, would you?”

“No,” she admitted. “Please, Mistress, punish me…”

“On your knees, on the bed,” Marinette ordered. She grabbed a few toys from the table as Chloe obeyed, setting back the riding crop.

Chloe held still as Marinette inspected her body, cupping her breasts and pinching her nipples. Her hands slid over her stomach, her hips, her ass. She slid her fingers between her legs, pumping them inside Chloe for just half a second.

“You’re already so wet,” Marinette said. “Just what I expected from such a naughty, slutty Queen.”

Chloe bit her lip, her pussy aching to be touched again as the shame from Marinette’s words burned in her mind. The arrangement she had with Marinette was strange, but god she wanted the other woman to hurt her. The lust clouded her mind so much that the humiliation she suffered only added to it.

Marinette pulled on a leather glove, flexing her hand and admiring the thin metal spikes embedded in the fingertips. “Ten for getting someone fired,” she said, “Five for screaming, and five for the insult. This will hurt, so you are permitted to make noise this time.”

“Thank you, Mistress Ladybug.”

Marinette brought her gloved hand down on Chloe’s ass without any warning, the small spikes leaving angry red scratches on her skin. “That’s one.”

She continued spanking her former bully, each slap methodically counted as the metal in the gloves scratched her ass cheeks again and again, drawing thin lines of blood. Chloe moaned and cried out at each one, but she was good and didn’t move.

Marinette needed this as badly as Chloe did, needed to feel in control. She knew that under the vinyl she wore, she was just as soaked and needy as the blonde. But Marinette was patient, and she knew she had to punish her first—how else was Chloe ever going to learn to be nice?

“Fifteen,” she said, letting her hand fall to her side as she surveyed the damage to the blonde’s ass. That would hurt her for a few days.

“D-don’t I have five more?” Chloe asked. “Mistress?”

“Lie on your back and spread your legs,” Marinette directed, pulling off the glove. She pressed her fingers to Chloe’s pussy, finding and toying with her clit, rubbing the small nub to make it swell. Once the blonde was moaning with need, Marinette drew back her hand and delivered the last five spanks quickly directly against her clit.

“Aah!” Chloe cried, her hips bucking up against Marinette’s hand. “Please, Mistress, more!”

“I don’t think so,” Marinette replied, a vague smile on her lips. She moved her hand to the zipper on her suit, undoing it to reveal her own pussy. She sat at the head of the bed, her legs spread wide. “Tell me, my slutty Queen, do you want to taste me?”

“Yes,” Chloe murmured, turning over again to rest on her knees.

“Ask nicely,” Marinette chided.

“Please, Mistress, may this slutty queen lick your beautiful pussy?”

Marinette smiled. “You may.”

Chloe crawled forward and dipped her head to press her mouth against Marinette’s pussy, her tongue finding her clit and flicking against it before pushing into her folds.

Marinette tilted her head back, enjoying the oral. Just a few years ago, the idea of Chloe Bourgeois eating her out (and doing it well) would have been laughable. But now she had her former bully between her thighs, worshipping her pussy and bringing her to a wonderful orgasm.

Once Marinette came, she tugged on Chloe’s hair, signaling her to pull her head back. The blonde looked up, her lips still wet with her Mistress’s arousal.

“That’s a good little slut,” Marinette cooed. “Stay there for a moment. You may touch yourself, but don’t come.”

Chloe nodded and reached her hand between her legs, her fingers lightly rubbing at her clit. Marinette stood from the bed to grab another toy, a thick silicone dildo nestled in a harness that she slipped onto her hips.

“Do you want this cock in you?” she asked, idly stroking it. When Chloe nodded, Marinette said, “Then get it ready.”

Chloe opened her mouth and obediently took the dildo down her throat, her tongue pressing against it, coating it with her saliva to use as lube. She whimpered as Marinette pushed her hips forward, fucking her face.

“A slut queen like you would love to have a real cock in you, wouldn’t you?” Marinette teased, holding Chloe’s ponytail to keep her head in place. “Maybe I should get Adrien to come fuck you sometime.”

Chloe abruptly pulled away, glaring at Marinette as she spat out, “Fucking yellow! Don’t bring him into this.”

“Sorry,” Marinette said, her demeanor softening instantly. “I got carried away. Do you still want me to…?”

The blonde nodded, moving onto all fours on the bed and wiggling her rear at the other girl. “Come on and fuck me already. I’ve been so bad, Mistress…”

Marinette grinned and moved onto her knees behind Chloe, lining up her cock with her pussy. The blonde was so slick that Marinette was able to slide the full length into her in one thrust. “This is what you wanted, slut?” Marinette murmured, pulling back to slam her hips against hers hard. “My cock filling you up?”

“Yes,” Chloe moaned, arching her back and pressing herself into Marinette. “Please, Mistress, may I come?”

“Not yet,” Marinette replied. She smacked Chloe’s ass, causing the blonde to hiss in pain as her hand met her scratches. “I think I deserve to play with you a little more. Beg me.”

“Please, Mistress,” Chloe groaned, unable to stop her hips from moving, fucking herself against Marinette. “Please, fuck me hard, fuck me, let me come, please…”

Marinette slid her hands along her body, roughly pinching her nipples before ordering, “Come now.”

One more thrust, and Chloe broke, screaming, hips bucking wildly, her hands grasping at the sheets as she came hard, so hard that she collapsed onto the mattress, pulling off of Marinette’s cock.

Marinette stood from the bed and calmly walked over to Chloe’s nightstand, picking up the phone to call for the hotel to send up a tray of Chloe’s favorite chocolates and sparkling water. She then returned to the table of toys and grabbed a tube of soothing cream to rub onto the blonde’s sore ass.

“This still doesn’t make us friends,” Chloe muttered into her pillow.

“I know,” Marinette replied. “Same time next month?”

“Yeah,” she replied. But as Marinette stood to leave, she reached out to grab her arm and stop her. “Hey—you won’t tell Adrikins, will you? I don’t want him to know that I’m…”

Marinette gently removed her hand. “I won’t. He still thinks we have monthly spa dates and that we’re making an effort to get along for him. I’ll tell him you said hi.”

Chloe snorted derisively, but smiled. “I mean, he’s half right. Thanks, Marinette.”

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Alien movies are military training videos.

Thirteen years after what became known as the “Contact Wars” a relative peace had been established between the Ureti Conglomerate and the Terran Federation.  The Ureti were several species which had banded together for mutual protection, their leadership following closely along the lines of a military council with members from all Conglomerate species represented. The Federation was made up of all human nations on both their homeworld and outlying colonies under the leadership of an elected general secretary.  The war started over a disputed colony on the planet Karkova where human settlers were driven off by a Conglomerate mining detail. Some deaths on both sides happened which resulted with fierce back and forth between the two powers. It didn’t take long for open hostilities to be triggered and full scale war was declared soon after. The Conglomerate assumed that with their vast technological superiority the war would be over in less than a solar cycle. Instead, it devolved into a grueling thirteen year conflict which saw countless lives on both sides lost and in some cases entire worlds were devastated. This was the first major setback the Conglomerate had experienced against a foe they were assured would be no threat. The humans standard weaponry was so basic that they relied on firing metal projectiles at high speeds instead of concentrated energy rounds and their fleets were limited in the distance they could travel. Yet still their advance was that of an onrushing tide. They laid ambushes for Ureti fleets, sabotaged supply lines far inside Ureti territory, launched seemingly suicidal raids on orbital platforms and facilities crippling the ability to refit. The planetary invasions soon followed and despite once again being outmatched in weaponry Federation forces were able to time and again overcome impossible odds.  With the war reaching ever closer to the home worlds of Ureti the leadership made the move to sue for peace. They gave up several outlying colonies to the Terran’s along with the rights to several mineral and gas mining outposts. In truth these facilities and planets were so badly damaged that to rebuild them would have been far more expensive than simply uprooting the populations to less damaged worlds. The real reason such measures were taken was so that the Terran’s would not be suspicious when the Ureti wanted the Terran military to allow special “advisers” from the Ureti to be attached to Terran forces. The cover was these advisers would be there to ensure that the Federation would honor the peace accords, but in reality they would act as spies to learn how such an underdeveloped species had been able to anticipate and overcome the Conglomerate.  ------- Lilith Shilva strode through the halls of the Terran base. She was an Ureti adviser assigned to the Terran assault frigate “Hammer of Texas”. In many ways she nearly passed off as human herself, were it not for her reverse jointed limbs and ten fingered hands. To those that paid her any mind they assumed she was solely focused on reading the information packet and moved on. It was so easy to cover her real intentions it was almost laughable. Lilith’s species had excellent peripheral vision with such clarity so even though her eyes were focused on the meaningless information packet she was really taking in everything else around her. Uniform symbols, response times, any technical device, etc.  She was observing everything and yet despite being stationed here she was no closer to achieving her mission than when she started ten weeks ago. The lack of progress led Lilith to assume that somehow the humans had learned of her mission and were intentionally misleading her by covering their tracks.  It’s what she would have done, but the sheer size of the mascaraed seemed unlikely. The entire crew of the ship along with support staff and troop detachments that had moved on and off would have to had to been on the play, and by Lilith’s count that would have been nearly 5,000 personnel. With so many people it was possible that one would let slip and reveal the game, yet none did.  So lost in thought and observation Lilith failed to notice someone calling out her name until she felt an hand nudge her back to the present. “Lilith!” She turned and looked down at the human calling her and sighed.  “Greetings attache Philip. Is there something I can help you with?” In truth she had no interest in helping the little man that had been assigned to her as a guide. She couldn’t put her fingers on why she disliked him, in truth he was polite and cordial. It might possibly be due to his starry eyed gaze he had whenever he was looking at her. He probably thought he could attempt to mate with her, a thought alone that nearly made her displace her stomach contents.  “I was wondering if you cared to join me and some of the other crew members tonight for a get together?” Lilith couldn’t help but let out another sigh as once again attache Philip was inviting her. It seemed that ever since their posting together he tried to get her to further interact with him and the crew on a personal level. Because it did not advance her mission she had politely declined each time. “I apologize attache Philip, but I will be busy.”  Philip appeared crest fallen once again. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” “Indeed, my apologizes once again but I must be going.” Lilith turned and resumed her walk.  “It’s just that..” Philip said as he began walking beside her. “Jenkins from engineering got a care package from Terra that he’s been waiting for for weeks now and..” “I apologize again attache Philip but I have pressing work to be done.” She was in no mood to further entertain his ramblings and once again attempted to extradite herself.  “I just remembered that you mentioned wanting to learn about human culture and Jenkins got a movie that’s a prime example of it.”  Lilith stopped walking and turned around. “What is a “Movie”?” Philip perked up sensing a chance. “It’s a type of recording used for various purposes ranging from entertainment to training.” Training? Lilith paused to consider. It seemed these movies were crucial enough for human culture, possibly even used to pass along crucial information to a wide sect of the population.  “On second though attache Philip,” she gazed at Philip “my work load can wait until tomorrow. I would be grateful to join you.” She then smiled at him. She was still unsure why showing her teeth seemed to trigger feelings of pleasantness for humans but it was a trait she picked up on. “Philip smiled back excitedly. “Great! Come down to the rec room on deck 7 bulkhead D around 8pm ship time. We already have food and drinks so you just need to bring yourself.” “I look forward to it.”  -------------- Lilith approached the designated room Philip had mentioned and entered. The room appeared to be filled with people sitting on a variety of furniture such as chairs or “couches”. She gazed around for several seconds before spotting Philip who smiled and waved at her, motioning her over to him. As she got closer he moved over some opening more space. “I’m so happy you were able to make it in time!” He patted the spot next to him. “You got here just as the movie is about to start. I saved you a spot.” Faking a smile once more she nodded and took the space next to him. “My thanks attache Philip.” He laughed as if she had just spoken a joke. “You know you can just call me Philip. You don’t have to add my title in front of it every time.”  Lilith was about to respond when a crew member stood up in front of the crowd and the crew members began cheering and clapping. “Right, my name’s Jenkins and I’m the sponsor of tonight’s movie night addition.” A further round of cheers and applause sprang up. “Enough of that. Let’s just get to the movie!”  The lights went dark. Lilith tapped her head and activated the hidden recording device she had implanted. A projection device appeared from the ceiling and began displaying a picture. Words began slowly appearing from the darkness which spelled out “Independence Day”. ------- Two and a half hours later the lights came on and the crowd began shuffling out. Philip turned to look at Lilith. “So, what did you think?”  Lilith remained frozen in place for several moments, still contemplating what she had just seen. The human species at a far earlier point in time with far less advanced technology defending their planet against a vastly superior enemy. And according to the time frame this was several hundred years old.   “It was.......it was...” She couldn’t find the words. She had stumbled upon the secret to the human victory. This previous invasion several hundred years ago must have trained them well enough. Even the Ureti didn’t have the technology that the human’s enemies possessed in the film. “It was that good wasn’t it?” Philip asked. She didn’t fully understand how he could remark that it was fun watching millions of his own kind killed. “How did your planet recover after such devastation?” Philip cocked his head to the side. “I don’t understand. Did you think that was real?” “Wait, it wasn’t?”  Philips began laughing and Lilith felt insulted. She stood up suddenly and glared at him. His giggles slowly died down as he examined her expression. “Wait, you’re not joking?” You’re serious?” “Yes! How can you laugh at the slaughter of your own people!”  “Lilith, I see now that there has been a misunderstanding. Everything you just saw was fake.” Lilith felt like she was being mocked again and continued to glare at him. “Really, it was! All special effects and actors.” Lilith could sense the serious tone in his voice which only made her more confused. “So....the destruction wasn’t real? None of it?” Philip motioned for her to sit back down which she did.  “The people you saw were what we call “Actors” and the movie you watched was a..”, Philip struggled for a word she would understand, “ a scenario. Yes, a  scenario of what could happen.” Lilith was slowly understanding it. This “film” as Philip had called it, was a military simulation of a scenario which had humanity outgunned and on the defensive. It was shaped as a form of entertainment so the larger population would watch it and unknowingly gain the necessary knowledge of what to do in such a situation. Lilith could not help but shudder as she realize that the Terran’s leaders had devised such a cunning method of training their entire population in military tactics.  “Do you understand now?” Lilith was drawn back from her thoughts. “Yes, thank you for explaining it to me. I apologize for for my reaction over this misunderstanding.” She needed to leave at once and report back to command she had found the source of humanities advantage in the war. She would also need to acquire the film itself as evidence.  “No worries Lilith, I understand it must seem pretty shocking for someone of a different culture.” They both stood up and began moving towards the door. “I hope you’ll join us again for the new film tomorrow.” Lilith stopped.  “You mean there are more of these films?” “Oh yes!” Philip said, excitedly gazing at her again. She smiled back as it now appeared obtaining a copy would be far easier if there were several of them. “This one is called “Alien” and is a bit scarier so you can hold on to me if it gets too intense.” “Wait, you mean there are more than one of these films?” “Why of course.” “And each one tells a different scenario?” “Oh yes! If you want I have my own collection we can watch together if you’re interested.”  Lilith smiled a real smile for the first time since she arrived on the human ship. “I would find it most enjoyable.” She remarked as they walked away, realizing that Philip would become a vital source of human training scenarios.  ---------------------- + 5 months later Ureti command was feeling anxious. They had not received a report from operative Lilith in several dozen cycles now and feared that she had been discovered. The potential fall out ranged from discovery of the wider operation at large resulting in political backlash, to reigniting the war. So when a report from operative Lilith finally arrived most of the senior command breathed a sigh of relief and gathered to view it.  “This is operative Lilith Shilva making report number 0240. I apologize for not responding sooner and will accept any punishment upon my return but first I wish to explain my actions for the delay.  While stationed aboard the Assault Frigate Hammer of Texas I discovered a form of human training material that was being dispersed to the population as entertainment.” The senior commanders grumbled. Training material was nothing new to them.  “I developed a relationship with my attache Philip and used him as a source to discover how in depth these training materials went. It seems for the last several hundred years human leaders have made military training scenarios into “Entertainment” for the public. These scenarios ranged from a full scale invasion to a single strike force infiltrating the planet. In the majority of the situations the human combatants are vastly outgunned both in numbers and technology. The initial fight is often lost forcing the remaining population to go to ground. From here humanity often is forced to come up with unorthodox tactics and methods to regain the initiative.”  This slightly surprised the senior staff. The idea of facing a foe that was superior to themselves had never crossed their minds as most often they encountered primitive species.  “These scenarios have been in circulation for several hundred years now and individual households even have collected different scenarios that they found the most “entertaining”. Entire groups have formed around certain selection to discuss and debate the scenario and devise better ways for survival had they been in them.” The command staff was now in shock at the sheer scale of tactical aspect humanity had applied. These films had turned the general population into strategists while masking it as if it was meant for enjoyment. Even those that did not become commanders in the Terran military would still have an understanding of tactics and strategies. Effectively they had turned themselves into and army of generals.  “ My final assessment is that by placing repeated situations of inferiority and at a tactical disadvantage, human leaders have been trained to think of radical tactics that would otherwise not even be considered. They have been trained to use the unusual and at times crazy suicidal plans to overcome their enemy. What’s more it also has pointed out the flaws within the Ureti military. By constantly believing ourselves superior to all those around us we have narrowed our overall vision. We lack that creativity they posses and have become so assured of our superiority that we can not think outside of standard doctrine.” “At this time I am continuing my research into these films with my source who is actively providing them for me to watch provided we do so alone in his quarters. I will attempt to acquire as many copies as I can and pass them along back to you. With any luck we can learn from these and adapt ourselves for the coming wars.”   

[synvamp]

HAPPY PLACE 7

Just love me! Fluffy, slow burn, angst!Qrow has met his match and Clover begins to reel in his catch... 

(Part One HERE)

Title: Healing

Fair Game – Part Seven / 10?

Rating: M

---xxx---

  The briefing started at 8:30 sharp. Qrow was on time but distracted. He watched Clover’s biceps tense and relax as he ran through the mission allocations. They were so defined. Qrow knew the guy was strong but arms like that… it was just excessive.

  How the hell am I meant to focus?!

  “..and Qrow,” Clover said, his eyes just flicking to meet Qrow’s haggard morning gaze for a split second.

  Wait, what? But he hasn’t finished the assignments yet…

  “…and I’ll go with Marrow and Harriet. It’s about time we got onto the grim that have been skirting the southern walls. Any questions?” Clover asked, pausing that perfunctory split second that all managers seem to have in common, “Alright then, good luck out there.”

  Qrow blinked.

  Yang and Blake wandered over, smiling at a shared joke.

  “Clover let you off the hook today?” Yang smirked.

  “Seems so,” Qrow mused, spacing out over her shoulder. Clover was laughing with Marrow about something; the boy’s tail was wagging like crazy.

  “Well, at least we’ve got something fun to do! Sphinxes and Manticores are always good to work up an appetite and it’s beef tonight!”

  Blake smiled, “It’s meatloaf.”

  “Ugh! Oh well, I guess there’s always dessert. Hey, are you with me?” Yang waved a hand in front of Qrow’s face.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

  “Well it looks painful,” Yang laughed, “Come on! We can’t sit around all day, we’ll miss the transport out,” she grinned and bounded off.

  Qrow watched as Clover put his hand on Marrow’s shoulder and guided him out of the room. Just before Clover walked through the door, he turned and gazed at Qrow with those perfect turquoise eyes, flicked his wrist in half a salute and was gone.

  The day passed in a blur. It was nice to hang out with Yang and Blake. He always enjoyed Blake’s quiet, no bullshit manner and Yang was… Yang. She really was Tai’s sunny dragon. All joy and flames. They worked him hard and kept him distracted. Between the grim and the banter, the day flashed by. It was almost enough to stop him from thinking about Clover… but not quite.

  Why did he allocate me to a different team? Why didn’t he even talk to me?

  But it wasn’t like Clover had brushed him off… he’d given him that seven thousand watt smile and that cocky salute…

  “Oh no, he’s gone again,” Yang said, “Qrow… Qrow… come back to me! Don’t walk towards the light!”

  “Ah, shut up…” he grinned.

  They were walking back into the mess hall and Qrow could smell the meatloaf.

  Yang looked at the plates and slumped in disappointment. Blake gave a tiny smile of I-told-you-so and went to sit with Ruby and Weiss, who were arguing about peas.

  “Mint is disgusting,” Weiss complained.

  “But it’s like eating peas after brushing your teeth!” Ruby enthused.

  “My point exactly,” Weiss said imperiously, prodding the peas on her plate as if they had just crawled out of a tar pit and died there.

  Qrow looked across the room. The Ace Ops were at the next table, well… four of them anyway.

  A deep, confident voice called out from behind him, “Look who’s finally back.”

  Qrow turned slowly; Clover was standing behind him with a tray of dinner. He looked at the tray then back to Qrow again. “Meatloaf day. I guess my luck has finally run out.”

  “I kind of like it,” Qrow said.

  “What have I told you about punishing yourself?” Clover smiled, “Meatloaf is self-harm Qrow and you deserve better.”

  Qrow smiled in spite of himself. The little spark of joy flickered in his chest but then the doubt surged again, “Why did you send me away today?”

  “How about you get yourself some… let’s just call it food… and come sit with me?”

  “Alright,” Qrow marched off and grabbed dinner. He actually did like meatloaf. It reminded him of a huntsman he used to know. Great guy but a terrible cook… all except the meatloaf which was actually glorious. Funny how it’s the little things that you remember.

Clover was sitting at a table by himself slightly away from the others. Qrow wondered if they should sit together… but he pushed the doubt down hard in his chest. He wanted to know what was going on a lot more than he cared about his laughable reputation right now anyway.

  Clover looked up as he dumped his tray on the table and huffed into the chair.

  “Long day?” he asked, green eyes twinkling.

  “Long enough,” he looked at Clover with accusing eyes.

  “Hey, hey,” Clover raised his hands in a gesture of peace, “I decided we should have a little space.”

  “You decided, huh?”

  “Yes. I wouldn’t want you to get sick of me now, would I?” he smiled warmly and Qrow did his best to try to remember that he was annoyed.

  “I guess not…” Qrow muttered, poking his meatloaf. It was grey. Maybe Clover had a point.

  “Why, did you miss me?”

  “No!” Qrow said, far too quickly.

  Clover laughed, “Well, I’m guessing that you haven’t cleaned your quarters?”

  “Amazingly, no. I hired a maid service and they sent this absolute hottie so I was kind of hoping that he would come b..”

  “No way,” Clover shook his head, “but nice try. In that case, if you’re feeling lonely you could always swing by my quarters around eight tomorrow. I thought a night in might be nice.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “The day after today? Unless you can’t wait of course.”

  Qrow glared at him.

  “Alright then, I’ll take that smouldering rage as a yes. See you tomorrow night.”

  And with that, Clover stood up, flexed that amazing ass of his and strode off.

  ---xxx---

Qrow couldn’t sleep and spent a good hour prowling the barracks before dawn. He knew that he was hoping to meet Clover, hoping that he was also pacing the halls, hoping that he was out here… somewhere… maybe even looking for him.

  But he didn’t see anyone. The day passed in a haze of sleep deprivation and coffee. Clover sent him out with Jaune, Ren and Nora this time. It felt like a favour of sorts because he could really use a distraction and Nora was… a hell of a distraction.

  Today they got beef. Yang was thrilled and even shouted Ruby down when she tried to start a food fight, pleading with her to save it for one of the many days when they didn’t actually have something edible.

  Qrow couldn’t focus. Clover wasn’t there. He’d been there for the briefing, made an excuse about having executive meetings and vanished.

  I bet he’s doing some stupid massive romantic thing, getting things ready for tonight. What an idiot.

Qrow smiled to himself and thought about the soft pink glow that spread across Clover’s cheeks when he was embarrassed. How can someone be so confident and so easily flustered?

  Qrow went back to his room and had a shower; he put on a black shirt and jeans and just sat. Somehow, eight o’clock finally came around.

  He learnt his lesson and waited until eight to leave his quarters. Even then he still hovered on the threshold of Clover’s door, heart sputtering in his chest. Finally, he knocked softly.

  “It’s not locked,” he heard Clover call from inside.

  Qrow opened the door. Clover was lounging on the couch in sweats and a dark green t-shirt. He had a game scroll in one hand and a fight scene in full swing on the screen in front of him.

  He was playing ninja warrior.

  Clover glanced up at him and smiled, “Hey, come in, sit down. I’ve just got one more round.”

  Qrow did as requested. It was strange, being here in Clover’s room. Not being the centre of his attention.

  Qrow let his eyes wander. There was a landscape painting on the wall, a beautiful sweeping view of a green valley with steep peaks rising on either side. Majestic. Tranquil.

  There was a couch, a TV, a bed, a bookshelf, a little kitchenette… everything neat and normal.

  Qrow thought of his own room, which was a merciless black hole brimming with chaos.

  This guy really has his shit together.

  Clover delivered an epic combo, ending the match.

  Show off.

  Clover grinned and held the controller out to Qrow. “A little birdie told me that you are no push over.”

  “Well, you should always believe random animals that speak to you.”

  “I take it on a case by case basis,” Clover grinned, “I bet Yang I could beat you. She has this ridiculous opinion that you’re some kind of ninja legend.”

  “Well, I suppose I can’t disappoint my nieces can I?”

  “That’s never going to happen.”

  Qrow looked at him.

  He felt tightness in his chest and a smile welled from somewhere deep.

  He kicked off his shoes and jumped onto the couch, “I am going to own you.”

“That so?” Clover laughed, moving so there was more room.

  They played for an hour or so, their talk becoming easier as the time wore on. Clover was actually better at ninja warrior even than Qrow, much to his delight.

  “I bet you’re cheating,” Qrow laughed, as he got his ass handed to him yet again.

  “You’re just old.”

  “You did not just say that!” Qrow laughed and turned to poke Clover in the ribs.

  Clover put down his scroll and wrapped his arm around Qrow’s shoulders. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

  “No, I think I’d fall asleep.”

“Thanks,” Clover chuckled.

  “No, it’s not you I just slept really badly.”

  “We could call it a night. I can walk you back to your room if you want,” Clover’s fingertips pressed ever so slightly on Qrow’s shoulder.

  “It’s dark.”

  “Yes?” Clover said.

  “It’s a long way.”

  “I suppose it is,” Clover agreed.

  “It seems like a bit of an inconvenience.”

  Clover put his hand on Qrow’s cheek and kissed him. He just wanted to live in the smell of him, the taste of him. To just drink him in.

  “I suppose you could just stay here,” he said softly.

  “If you insist,” Qrow leaned forwards taking one slow and fulfilling kiss in return.

  Clover turned and wrapped the slighter man in his arms, picking him up, pulling him onto his lap.

  He felt Qrow’s long fingers caress him, one hand tousling his hair and the other untucking his shirt, “Would you like to move to the bed?��� Clover asked, smiling to himself as Qrow’s fingers moved quickly onto his shirt buttons.

  “Here is fine,” Qrow breathed into his ear as he pulled Clover forward to pull the cloth from his back.

  “Well,” Clover mused, slowly taking his belt off, “Let’s see if I can keep you awake then.”

    ---xxx---

Part Eight

[starstruck-thirst]

Chrollo Lucilfer: Fools Errand (April Fools piece)

Warnings: None

The abandoned building hideouts got old after some time. Each one had a similar feel to them, mostly empty, crumbling from disuse, and oddly cold. But the spiders used them almost exclusively and you weren’t one to complain since you felt lucky that you were even kept around.

Currently Machi was keeping you company as you read in a corner, waiting for Chrollo to show up from a job he had taken Pakunoda on. He didn’t give many details, which often he didn’t, but the cold air when he had told Paukonoda to follow him had made you uncomfortable and nervous.

It was hard to focus on the book in your hands. The paragraph on the end of the page lost its meaning with each attempt to read it. Normally you’d give up on the book in favor of a new task but there was literally nothing else for you to do while you sat around. You weren’t allowed a phone, there were no other books around, and Machi wasn’t particularly fond of you.

Finally, you gave up after the fifth attempt. It had just become frustrating and couldn’t even serve as a proper distraction. You attempted to shut the book quietly so as not to draw Machi’s attention, but as the pages closed you could feel her focus on you. Having become so used to it, it didn’t even bother you anymore.

Closing your eyes, you leaned your head back against the cold wall behind you and did a few rounds of deep breathing to clear your mind.

A steady flow of images passed through your mind.

Meeting Chrollo by chance in a dirty alley.

For whatever reason he had decided to bring you into his circle.

Since that day you hadn’t known peace. Always with one of the spiders at all times, only feeling slightly alleviated when Chrollo was around.

He brought you clothing, and little things that you could keep around for a short while.

Slowly he had romanced you. When he was gone you longed for him to come back.

When had you stopped trying to find an opportunity to leave? To go back to your everyday life?

A phone rang out. Immediately Machi answered it, but you kept your eyes closed letting your mind remain calm.

“Yes, I can bring her. Half an hour? Understood.” She paused for a moment before ending the call. “We’re going somewhere.”

You looked at her in surprise. Only one other time had you moved locations without Chrollo, and it was when things had gone badly. “Is everything okay?” you asked her standing up.

“I don’t know.” She had already been on her feet.

“Is Chrollo okay?”

“I don’t know,” she responded again without any change in her neutral tone.

As she lead the way out of the building that was currently serving as the hideout, you twisted your hands together feeling a sick, nervous feeling building in your stomach. If something did happen you had always been sure that you would be abandoned, no harm no foul. But how would you feel about him being gone? Or even how would you feel if Chrollo disposed of you? Now he was your world.

The potential that you would literally vomit was higher than you would like to admit.

You kept pace with Machi once outside. Making sure you walked next to her so that she could easily see you, but also so no one could try to separate the two of you as easily. You knew how traveling worked already, if you ventured too far you’d be retrieved- and it wouldn’t be done nicely if you really tried to be difficult.

But admittedly, you didn’t want to try and separate from Machi. You wanted to go to Chrollo. You needed to know he was okay.

It took almost exactly thirty minutes to get to a store that Machi stopped in front of. The windows were large and mannequins in nice clothing populated each one. You looked at her in confusion, but she just nodded at you.

Taking her subtle hint, you went into the store, ignoring the ‘closed’ sign on the door.

The store was well lit but completely quiet. “Hello?” you called out walking through the store towards the back. Racks of nice dresses were everywhere, several displays of long gowns on the walls and you didn’t even want to touch them because of how pretty they looked.

You didn’t want to call out to Chrollo just in case he wasn’t there, and you didn’t want to imply you knew him or his name to anyone that could be looking for him.

Your sick, nervous feeling grew.

“Oh, there you are.” Phinks came out of a fitting room that was in the far back of the store. His tracksuit stood out in the store, and you couldn’t have mistaken him for anyone because of that.

“Um. Yep. Here I am,” you replied awkwardly. “What’s-“

“There is a dress in here. Change into it. It should be your size.” He moved out of the way of the fitting room and watched you as if he was impatient.

At least he had used his words, unlike Machi. “Okay…”

You did as he has told you. A long gown had waited for you with fresh under things and shoes. It felt a little weird to put on underwear that Phinks had in theory laid out for you (why hadn’t that been Pakunoda’s job?) but everything had fit as he had promised. The shoes were heeled, but luckily not a height you couldn’t handle.

Leaving the fitting room Phinks appeared from around the corner. He looked you up and down before giving a nod, “Good. There is a car outside.”

“Can I at least… know what is going on?” you asked wondering if you should grab your old clothes as you looked behind you.

“Don’t worry about those. Chrollo will explain everything when you get there. But you better go now,” Phinks replied as he waved you off before going into the fitting room you had just left.

There was blood on the back of his track suit, and you decided not to be the one that pointed this out to him as you left the store in a hurry.

All you cared about was that you finally knew Chrollo was safe. He was at the next destination. That was all that mattered in this moment.

A black car was pulled in front of the store, hazard lights on while it waited for you to get inside. And foolishly, you did. You hadn’t checked to make sure it was the right car, just merely assumed it had been.

The back of the car was walled off from the front with a dark glass screen and you couldn’t even be sure of who was driving. But again, it didn’t matter. Chrollo was so close.

Without any warning, the car drove off. Idly you looked out the window wondering what the hell was going on, but you were so grateful that you didn’t have to walk as the car took you across Yorknew to a large, elaborately decorated restaurant on the other side of town. Women in dresses just as fine as your entered into the business on the arms of men in suits, and you looked at each pair hoping to not see Chrollo with a woman on his arm.

Would this be how he told you he was bored?

Again, without even trying to speak to the driver you left the car and headed into the bistro impatiently. Once inside and faced with the hostess you realized you had zero idea of what to do next.

“Hello, do you have a reservation?”

You faltered. Did you? “I’m meeting someone.”

“Name?”

You gave her your name and the smile she gave you was so uncomfortably large that you almost stepped backwards. “Oh! Yes your date is already waiting for you!”

Now your stomach turned in a different way. Date? Was that just because in a place like this you had to be on a date?

“Follow me,” she said as she turned on the balls of her feet and headed into the dining area just beyond the hostess podium.

The tables were full of couples and small groups illuminated only by the low table lights, their faces in half shadow. The entire atmosphere was sultry and a bit scary.

The hostess led you to a small elevator, which struck you as odd, and you entered it with her. You could see her still beaming and it made you uncomfortable.

With a ding, the doors slid open. The private dining room was surrounded by windows, the darkening city looming just outside as the man-made lights speckled the ground below. A candle on the table was the only light and it cast a lazy glow on the first course that waited. Chrollo’s familiar silhouette was already sitting at the table, a glass in one hand as he looked out into that picturesque scene.

“Have a good meal,” the hostess chimed making you remember yourself.

“Thank you,” you managed, stepping off the elevator into the room.

Chrollo’s attention was drawn to you now and he stood to wait for you as you slowly made your way to him, doing your best to not walk like the shoes were uncomfortable as they bit into your heels. The anxious disgust in your stomach was less malicious now, but it still persisted as you arrived at the table.

“I’m glad you could make it,” he said to you with a sincere smile. You wondered if he had come into the restaurant with is hair slicked back, or if he had prepared while waiting for you. The three piece suit he wore didn’t feel out of place even though you could see his tattoo so clearly.

It wasn’t until you finished taking in his attire that you almost scoffed at his statement. It was too normal and conversational. You never had a real /choice/. It was almost a laughable statement. “I was worried you were hurt,” you said honestly Chrollo took you into his arms.

He chuckled and the sound soothed you enough that you wrapped your arms around him in return, resting your head on his chest. “It’s cute how you worry.”

You gripped the back of his jacket as your heart picked up a little. “Is it? Is it cute… how much I care about you?”

The mood sobered again and Chrollo used a hand to tilt your head back. His eyes weren’t as wide and observational as normal, and instead were softly narrowed at you as he looked over your face. “Do you love me?” he asked in a tone that was serious, but soft.

You could feel a lump in your throat. He had asked you so directly and you hadn’t been expecting it. “Yes. I do love you Chrollo.”

He smiled, looking pleased as he kissed you on the forehead. “I was going to wait until after dinner but… Sometimes things have to go with the flow. You can’t force things to go at a pace that you want. No matter how much you want to do that. Do you know what I mean?”

“No?”

He quietly laughed at you again and let you go. Reluctantly, you too let go of him as he stepped back from you. In what felt like slow motion, Chrollo bent one knee to the ground and stared up at you with his large, dark eyes. You stared down at him in almost a quiet horror.

He mumbled your name as he reached into his jacket pocket and, even though it was the most cliché thing in the planet, you put a hand to your mouth. “I take anything I want. I even took you from your very own life. But I didn’t expect that you would take something from me.” He produced a black box, it was black and smooth, made of dark wood.

“You took my heart when I left my guard down. And now I intend to take it back.” White fingers pried the box open to reveal a golden band with a dark ebony stone centered around four white stones. “Marry me.”

You cried, you said yes. Chrollo stood and put the ring on your finger, on the verge of tears himself and you shoved your mouth to his, shoving your tongue into his mouth with vigor.

Chrollo renounced the spiders and promised to never murder someone (unless they would try to hurt you) ever again. And that he would do his best to never steal even another penny for the rest of his life.

You moved to Yorknew, into a beautiful house painted yellow, to reflect your beautiful new sunny life.

The life of a housewife was hard in its own way but rewarding. Chrollo worked for the government, catching criminals like the spiders. And every night you knew that he would come home, have a drink, and fuck you over the dining room table. The kind of simple and blissful life that you knew you both deserved. And you were just two fools in love.

And after a full year of this engaged bliss you two finally tied the knot on a perfect spring day. The grass was already green, and the air just cold enough that the heavy white dress didn’t make you burn up through the long ceremony.

As you kissed Chrollo in front of the preacher and a single witness, you knew this would be the best day of your life.

The best April 1st you would ever experience.

(Happy April Fools everyone. With Love, Star. <3)

[cchellacat]

Working On It

Love All The Marvel Ships Challenge 

Day 5 ~ Kissing

Exactly no one in the Tower was surprised at how well Darcy and Bucky Barnes bonded once he and Steve moved back to New York.

Darcy’s bubbly personality coupled with her insatiable drive to fix people had her stalking the former Winter Soldier within hours of him stepping foot in the Tower.  She was dogged in her determination to welcome him.

Under her constant assault of charm, light flirting and encouragement to join the larger group for dinner and movie nights, Bucky slowly came out of his shell.

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

The first time she kissed him was in the heat of the moment.  She’d been running form Sam after he discovered she’d replaced all his coffee with de-caff.  She’d burst into the gym, breathless and giggling wildly when she came across her new friend.

“Hide me, quick, or Sam is gonna string me up.”

Bucky had flicked his eyes towards the vault box and lifted the top, revealing the cavity within.

Darcy wasted no time in running over and trying to climb in, but being short had its disadvantages.  Before she could complain Bucky had lifted her up, princess style before lowering her in with a wink and replacing the top.

A few minutes later Sam had come huffing into the gym.

“Barnes, you seen Lewis?”

“Not since yesterday, why?  You need her for something?”

“Yeah, something.” Sam muttered angrily before leaving.

Darcy held back the cackle that was threatening to burst.  The top lifted and Darcy spring up like a jack-in-the-box, flinging her arms around his neck in a victory hug.

“My hero!”

He pulled her out and placed her down again but before he let go of her she placed a smacking kiss on his cheek.

“Thanks, big guy, gotta go…  don’t forget, Saturday at 7, dinner and a movie.”

She was gone before he could do more than lift a hand to where she had pressed her lips.

Bucky stares in consternation at the door, wondering what the hell just happened.

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

Steve’s not stupid, he’s seen the change in his friend ever since Miss Darcy Lewis had steamrollered into their lives.  The girl is hell on wheels and doesn’t seem to take no for an answer.

There had been the Welcome Back cupcakes with silver frosting and red star sprinkles, Steve had nearly choked when she’d thrust the plate into Bucky’s hands, fully expecting him to react badly, but instead he had frowned at the girls hand, a tiny crinkle appearing in the corner of his eyes as he took in the silver pained nails, her middle finger’s adorned with a bright red star on each.  Steve wasn’t sure what it was that Bucky found funny about it, but he had.

Then there had been the Harry Potter movie marathon she’d insisted they sit through.  She’d provided pop corn and chips and beer and had proceeded to talk the whole way through, her feet propped up in Bucky’s lap like they belonged there as she explained everything she felt was culturally relevant.  She ignored Steve’s attempts to indicate that she was invading Bucky’s space and, when about an hour into the first movie Bucky had grabbed her ankles to keep her still he’d thought the worst.   Instead Bucky had just pulled her closer until her calves were over his lap and he’d slung an arm round her to support her back.  Darcy had just snuggled right in and continued her ramble while Steve gaped from the armchair.

It had taken a few months for it to sink in with Steve that Darcy treated Bucky the same was she did everyone, with irreverent respect, tongue in cheek humour and tactile affection.  She was a hugger, she cooked for people, she always had a way of cheering everyone up, even on the worst days.  Other than Pepper, Darcy was the only one allowed into Tony’s lab without a security override.  Bruce positively beamed as she chattered to him over breakfast tea and even Natasha let the girl drag her off shopping or to the spa.  He’d thought at first that the art supplies that kept showing up in his apartment were from Tony or Natasha, but no, Darcy Lewis had somehow figured out his favourite brands and needs and provided them without expectation of thanks.

Bucky seemed to get the full experience though, she brought him shopping and encouraged him to buy things that made him feel good.  She brought a pile of books after Bucky had casually mentioned his love for science fiction.  And every Saturday night she made him dinner and played the big band music Bucky had loved back in the 40’s.

That’s what he walks in on, the music’s blaring loud enough that neither of them hears him come in and he stands still and watches the couple before him.  It’s like he’s suddenly back in those crowded dance halls in Brooklyn.  It’s like seeing a ghost he’s thought long dead.   Bucky is grinning at her as she laughs, spinning out on the floor and letting him swing her through the air with shrieks of delight.

He doesn’t stay, but backs out of the room slowly, feeling as though he’s seem something he shouldn’t have.  Before he can close the door, the music stops and the two clutch each other breathlessly, Darcy leaning into him, Bucky’s hands on her waist.  He watched as his friend presses his lips into her hair-line bestowing a kiss, and thanks her for the dance.  The radiant smile she returns to Bucky hits Steve like lightening.

As Steve walks away he ponders exactly what it is he’s feeling, but honestly it’s a jumble of emotions that all lead back to one fact.   Where Steve had failed to find his old friend inside the damaged shell of the winter soldier, Darcy Lewis had succeeded.  She’d brought him back, slowly but surely.  Instead of the jealousy and resentment he knows is itching in the back of his brain he focuses on the gratitude instead.  He can see where it’s headed, this thing between them and he resolves then that he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they get their chance at happiness.  Bucky deserves nothing less from his friend.  Steve will protect Darcy Lewis till the day he dies because he knows, if something happens to her, Bucky will retreat and allow the soldier back.

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

The first time he does more than press a kiss into her hair, it’s not because anything monumental happens.  It’s a day like any other, Darcy has handed out packets to all the Avengers with the briefings for the press conference later that day and she is rushing around the common kitchen making sure everyone has had breakfast as she tops up her coffee and fixes one for Bucky since he’s only just come in.  When she brings him the coffee and places it on the table in front of him he turns his head and gives her cheek a quick peck in silent thanks, she squeezes his shoulder briefly before leaving, calling out to remind everyone they’re due in the lobby at four.

Darcy keeps her smile fixed firmly in place until she reaches the elevator and the door close and then she allows herself a moment to freak out a little.  He’d just kissed her, right in front of everyone and yeah, okay, he’s been pressing tiny kisses into her hair for a month now when they danced or snuggled on the couch and she hadn’t taken it as anything other than brotherly, but that…. That was… well it was something else entirely.  It had felt like a sleepy morning hello, the sort of kiss you gave your other half after months of living together, like a part of your daily routine that needed no explanation, but they were just friends, right?  Except friends didn’t have lunch every day and spend evenings watching Netflix together while cuddling on the couch….  Christ on a cracker, has she been dating him and never even noticed?  Did he think they were dating?  Were they?

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

Christmas was only a week away and the Tower was hung with holly and mistletoe, trees were festooned with ribbons and tinsel and Darcy was about ready to cry with the preparations for the Christmas Eve ball.   All she wanted was to go home and sleep for a week.  Instead she was stuck counting chairs, ordering the place cards for the dinner and finding a seating arrangement that wouldn’t lead to a political nightmare.

She was just about to leave the common room and head to her apartment when a voice stopped her.

“Darcy, I’ve been looking for you, Doll.”

“Hey Bucky, what’s up?”

She was standing in the hall just outside the kitchen when he caught up with her.

Before he said a word, he looked above her and raised an eye brow.   She tilted her head and smirked.  There was a bunch of mistletoe hanging right over where she stood.

They both unconsciously moved a little closer.

Unbidden, her thoughts all went right there.  He was so close she could smell him, the intoxicating scent sandalwood and gun oil making her dizzy.  Although they spent a frequent amount of time together and he had kissed her cheek a few weeks ago, she still hadn’t managed to figure out a way to make a move on him.  Now, overhead was the perfect way to settle the question once and for all.

“Huh, I guess I’m just gonna be stuck here till someone kisses me.”   Her teeth catch her lower lip and she looks up at him with big blue eyes, willing the universe to please, just please listen to her just this once.

Bucky thinks if he doesn’t make a move now, they’ll still be where they are this time next year.

“Could be a while, everyone’s out right now.”  He drawls mischievously.  

“Yes, they are.”  The smile on her face widens as he draws closer.   He’s got this look in his eyes, like he thinks she might back out, but that is so far from the truth as to be laughable.

Darcy hooks her fingers through his belt loops and tugs him even closer, till there’s hardly a space between them at all.  He mirrors her earlier expression, that bottom lip of his held down by his teeth like he’s stopping himself form saying something particularly filthy and a thrill runs up her spine

Slender fingers walk a path up his chest, and he catches her waist in one hand, their bodies now pressed together hip to chest and Darcy feels the hitch in her breath at the warmth of him.  His other hand runs through her hair, tugging the locks back from her face before his thumb traces a line down her neck.

There’s a moment in that silence between them, before they kiss that feels like the universe paused for just a second and it makes her head swim.

Pressing up on her toes, her belly fills with butterflies.  His eyes darken and the hand on her moves smoothly around till it’s splayed against her back, keeping her steady.

At first, it’s just a light brush of lips, both of them figuring out how this will work.  It grows stronger and deepens, heat rushes through her blood as she hooks her arms round his neck and sinks her fingers into his hair.

The little moan he makes draws a smile to her lips and he traces the seam of her mouth with his tongue, begging entrance.  Now it’s her that moans, as he teases into her mouth, all hot and wet and tasting like coffee and cherries.  Nothing could have prepared her for the sudden zing of fire rushing through her core, the insistent need that ached for far more than a simple kiss.  He felt it too she knew, if the way he intensified the assault on her mouth was anything to go by.  Then she was drowning in him, sparks dancing over her skin where he touched her, his hands seeming to be everywhere at once.  For those blessed minutes the only thing that existed for her was him, the firmness of his chest, the soft sweetness of his lips and the strength of his arms holding her up.  Lightheaded they finally broke away from each other, surety and excitement in every short breath.

“Do I need to hang mistletoe everywhere to get you to kiss me like that again?”  She asks him with a grin.

The soft smile he gave her turned to full blown laughter and he picks her up, spinning her around as she yelps in surprise.

“Don’t need nothing except you, Doll.”

NEXT

@captain-rogers-beard

[bibliomint]

short story // 3000+ words

Angst, swearing, OT3. It’s messy and painful. like real life.​

Caleb was one who was almost bipolar in his affection. He would go through periods of constant need for physical attention, then swing in the opposite direction and practically hiss at the idea of even holding hands. It was a little bizarre, but after being together for three years, we had all gotten used to it.

As I stood at the sink, washing dishes, I felt hands slide into my front pockets. I jumped, dropping the chopsticks with a clatter.

I felt the person behind me shake in the attempt to conceal his laughter. “You’re a jerk. Take heavier steps next time, yeah?”

“No thanks, maybe just be more aware of your surroundings next time.” Caleb pressed a kiss behind my ear.

I let out a huff, dropping the chopsticks into the dish drainer. “Whatever. How was your day?”

“Exhausting.”

“200 level chemistry class giving you hell again?”

“What else would? I don’t have Kieren in any of my classes.”

I snorted. “Kieren would make your classes fifty times better.”

“He would just throw things at the back of my head when the professor wasn’t looking.” Caleb rested his forehead on my shoulder.

I giggled. “Well, yeah. You act like this is a problem.”

He changed the subject, nosing along my neck. “You smell good. Are you wearing perfume?”

“No, but I did shower a half hour​​ ago.”

“I like it.”

I failed to hold back a shiver at the feather-light touches, a tiny, breathless whimper escaping as he trailed hot, open mouthed kisses on my skin.

“What’s good, my party people?!” Kieren called out as the front door slammed shut.

We both started, Caleb withdrawing as the last part of our trio sauntered into the kitchen. Keys were tossed onto the table, eyes widening at my flushed cheeks and Caleb’s irritated gaze.

“Oh, y’all were getting freaky. Don’t let me interrupt.” He opened the fridge, nervously avoiding Caleb’s gaze.

Too late, the mood had been completely ruined. I dried my hands, greeting Kieren with as much excitement as I could muster. “I’m glad you’re home! I missed you! How was your day?”

He swooped down, pecking my lips sweetly. “I missed you too! Classes were boring.”

At some point, Caleb had stalked out and both of us had missed it.

“Okay but like, how badly did I fuck up?” Kieren asked me quietly when we both noticed he was gone.

“I mean...we weren’t doing much but I think he was In The Mood.”

Caleb hadn’t felt like doing anything remotely sexual for two months. It was a new record, and had been making us both feel anxious that he might never feel like it again.

Kieren’s eyebrows raised. “Really? Shit.”

I bit my lip, watching him slide leftover chinese takeout into the microwave. “Not sure how to approach it.”

“Me either. Maybe bring it up tomorrow morning? Since he’s more of a morning sexy times person.”

I held back a laugh at his phrasing. “Yeah, sure. If he doesn’t mention it himself.”

The youngest of us leaned his back against the counter. “How are you?”

“Me? I’m okay.”

“Are you still stressed about that paper?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t gotten any easier.”

“Sorry babe.” Kieren frowned. “I’d write it for you if I could, but I know next to nothing about brains.”

I giggled. “That’s okay. I appreciate your moral support.”

He smiled brightly. “I’m good at that part! I will bring you snacks and kisses when you’re struggling.”

“Perfect.”

“Also have I told you that this one girl in my physics class keeps hitting on me and asking me to go out with her?”

My eyes widened as a shot of jealousy stung me. “Wait, really? Is she cute?”

His nose wrinkled. “Hell no. But I finally got so fed up with her that I told her I was gay. She then said that we should still be friends because, and I quote, ‘She would make me straight’.”

I choked. “That’s—what in the world??”

“Right? I’m kind of scared of her now.” Kieren shuddered. “Maybe I should ask Caleb to walk me and then kiss him in front of her or something. Anything for her to get the memo.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure if you tell him he’ll be on board.”

He smiled, sitting the now empty container on the counter. “I hope so.”

I walked over and leaned into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “What’s up?”

“Feeling lonely.” I mumbled.

“You have an excellent man and an almost as good other man and you still feel lonely? This is a crime.” He gently rocked me.

I smiled. “Which one are you?”

“The excellent one, of course.” He laughed.

I lifted my head, smiling up at him. He leaned in and bumped his nose against mine. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” He smiled, kissing me softly.

After a moment, I laid my head back on his chest, listening to the steady sound of his heartbeat.

“Would sex make you feel less lonely?” He asked innocently.

I froze, then buried my face in his chest. “I—you—you can’t just say things like that out of the blue!!”

“But it’s not random.” He protested.

“Kieren!!”

“For real though. Would it?”

I thought about it. Sex wasn’t an infrequent thing between the two of us; if one of us was in the mood, it wasn’t hard to get the other one to agree.

“Yeah, probably. But like...I miss Caleb. He’s here but he’s also not, y’know?”

“Yeah. I know.”

I cast him puppy dog eyes. “Go talk to him? Please?”

Kieren squinted at me. “But you’re the one wanting sex.”

“But you’re the one who got in the way.” I squinted back.

“Fair enough.”

I slipped out of his arms, and he wandered off to go convince Caleb to be a little softer.

Or a little harder, depending on how you looked at it.

I followed him, wanting to watch it play out. It was common knowledge that Kieren had the tact of a brick through a window, meaning this confrontation wasn’t something I wanted to miss.

Caleb was stretched out on the couch, texting someone on his phone and completely ignoring Kieren who had settled on the floor in front of him.

“Babe?”

Nothing.

“Babe?”

Silence.

“Caleb?”

Caleb held up a finger, telling Kieren to wait, then went back to typing. Kieren shot me an exasperated look; I could only shrug. Better to play by his rules than to not play at all.

Caleb sat his phone down. “Sorry. I was emailing a professor. What’s up?”

We both relaxed. Good, he wasn’t being a jerk intentionally.

“I wanted to apologize for um, earlier. Crashing your party and whatnot.”

Caleb just gazed at him. Kieren hurried on. “So, yeah, if you’re back to feeling ready to slide on into third base, then go ahead.”

Silence.

“Could you please say something?”

“What do you want me to say?”

I relaxed at his tone. Caleb didn’t sound angry or cold; he sounded amused, presumably by how flustered Kieren was.

Our dynamic was interesting. While Kieren and I fed off of each other’s energy, Caleb subdued me and made him such a nervous wreck it was laughable.

“I don’t know, anything I guess! Like if you’re angry at me and how I can make it up to you or if you wanna fuck me or if you’re just tired and want to be alone or how you’re feeling in general or how your day went or—“

Caleb cut him off by sitting up, grabbing Kieren’s shirt and pulling him roughly to crash his lips against his. Even though Caleb was barely taller than I was, standing at the slight height of five feet, seven inches, Kieren was 6 feet exactly and always allowed himself to easily be molded into whatever shape Caleb desired.

“You want me to fuck you?” Caleb swiped his thumb across Kieren’s bottom lip.

The younger man stammered. “Well, yeah, but no, but like—“

Caleb raised an eyebrow. Kieren’s shoulders slumped. “Katie was the one who originally wanted your dick, not me.”

“Originally.”

“You’re irresistible?”

“You’re just a hoe.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

I held back a laugh. What a rollercoaster this entire conversation had been.

My eyes widened as Caleb sat back, pushing Kieren back to the floor with his foot. “Don’t leave me waiting.”

“Now?” Kieren choked. “But what about-?”

“She can wait. I want you right now. Just you.”

I tensed. Oh. I didn’t like that.

Kieren’s eyes flickered up to me, the anguish clear. What was he supposed to do? Caleb was easing back into his want for physical touch, and while we didn’t want to stop him, knowing this was sketchy territory, his words...stung. Caleb knew it was me that wanted the physical touch, not Kieren, but he also knew the youngest wouldn’t turn him down.

I weakly gave Kieren a thumbs up. The signal that everything was okay. “Have fun” I mouthed, then slipped upstairs. I didn’t want to intrude or to overhear the things I apparently wasn’t allowed to share in.

The spare bedroom in our apartment had been turned into a study, and the foldout couch was something we rarely used.

I slept on it that night. It was uncomfortable and lonely and I cried.

Kieren had confided that Caleb wanted to spend the night together, just the two of them. “He says things will be back to normal tomorrow. I’m sorry. I hate this as much as you do, but he won’t listen to me. One night is okay, right?”

I tried not to listen to the noises coming from across the hall. Tried not to listen to the tiny voice whispering “this is why you were hesitant on being poly” and “nice job, loser. The first time in two months Caleb’s horny and he doesn’t even want you.”

Yeah. I cried.

The next morning I thought things were back to normal. Caleb kissed me hello, smiled at me, and I felt better. I could pretend yesterday never happened.

“Oh, yeah, he’s picking me up from physics so we’ll both be home at the same time.” Kieren told me, his hair sticking up in wild directions.

“Okay.” I smiled, trying not to think about how this must have come up in the pillowtalk. “Let me know how it goes?”

“Of course!”

That subway ride to campus was miserable. I tried not to think about how I was being excluded.

One night. That’s it. Don’t get so caught up in it, Katie, really. It’s fine. I insisted, and for a while, it worked. I could convince myself that Caleb was just catching up on missed time and opportunity. Things would balance out soon enough.

“The girl gagged and ran off when Caleb kissed me. A couple of onlookers cheered. It was great.”

“That’s so cute, aww.”

“I love you.” Caleb told me when I opened the door.

I could hear the but in his voice. “But?”

“I want to spend the night with just Kieren. I feel bad for him constantly getting the short end of the stick in this relationship.”

“Dude, my ass hurts. Can—“

Caleb turned around and must have shot him a look, because Kieren fell silent. I swallowed.

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Can I get my clothes real fast?” I couldn’t believe I wasn’t allowed in my own room.

Caleb stepped to the side.

“Caleb, man, I don’t like excluding her from this.” Kieren sat up, leaning back on one hand. “This is a three way thing. Excluding someone doesn’t sit well with me.”

“It’s not exclusion. I just don’t have enough energy right now to split it between both of you. I’m focusing on you because I’ve neglected you lately.” Caleb argued.

“Yeah, okay, but—“ Kieren tried to protest.

“It’s fine. I get it.” I interrupted.

Both boys turned to look at me. Caleb looked impatient but Kieren looked visibly upset.

“It’s tiring to date one person, much less two. I’m not upset.” That was a bold faced lie, and they both knew it. “Whenever you feel up to it. Take your time.” I told Caleb sweetly, trying to disguise how close to tears I was.

I dropped my clothes off in the study, grabbed my keys, and left the apartment as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to hear them fighting.

One more night. Things will be better. I told myself, walking as fast as I could until I was sprinting, tears blurring my vision. The words echoed in my head in time with my footfalls. One. More. Night.

It was two weeks. Two weeks passed of me not being allowed to sleep in my own bedroom. Two weeks passed of only goodmorning and goodnight kisses. I hated that nothing seemed to change. Kieren still fought Caleb about it and Caleb still refused to be swayed. Nothing I said could change his mind.

One night was particularly bad. I had my headphones in, but I was staring off into space and not really paying attention to anything at all.

“If you don’t change I’m breaking up with you.”

I yanked out my earbuds, my heart freezing. What?

Murmured voices, words I couldn’t understand.

Silence.

“Why haven’t you told her?!”

“I don’t want to hurt her!”

“You already have, you idiotic asshole! It’s too late! If you had said earlier that you weren’t sure then she wouldn’t cry herself to sleep every night!”

Silence. A sob, one, two. Not Kieren. Murmuring.

Silence.

Distorted words that sounded bitter.

I pulled my knees to my chest. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know if I wanted to know.

The morning was rough. When I went to kiss Caleb good morning as always, he turned away. The rejection, so out of the blue and yet something I had been fearing would happen, made my heart break. Kieren was cold to both of us, kissing my forehead instead of my lips and casting Caleb a harsh look. The older man flinched.

“What’s going on?” I don’t know why I dared to ask.

“Caleb has something to tell you.”

I turned. “If it’s what I think it is, I’m not mad.”

Green eyes searched my face. He bit his lip, running his fingers through his hair. “Promise?”

“Pinky promise.”

“I’m not demisexual. Something’s changed, and I can’t...I don’t love you anymore.”

Something broke in my chest. That’s what it was. Of course it was.

“For how long?”

“Five days officially. Three weeks probably.”

Oh.

Three weeks. He’d been lying to me for three weeks.

“You knew?” I turned, looking up at Kieren.

“Only since last night.”

That’s what they had been fighting about.

The fact that tears weren’t streaming down my face was probably due to the fact I couldn’t breathe.

They told me I had had a panic attack. They had wrapped a blanket around me, tried to get me to come back to the present. It took a while.

It was humiliating.

I felt so unbelievably hurt that I couldn’t even look at Caleb. Kieren was a little better, but all I could wonder was if he was lying to me too. Was he not pansexual anymore and just didn’t want to tell me?

Caleb had said it had been sudden. He just woke up one morning and couldn’t feel it anymore. He didn’t want to believe it and kept trying to convince himself.

It hadn’t worked.

I guess I did something. To turn him off completely. What had I done? I couldn’t think of anything, and I was so caught up in it that I had another panic attack.

That strangled feeling, that crushing sense of terror——

I hated it. I hated how worried they looked, how they didn’t know how to comfort me anymore. A wall had been erected.

None of us slept in the same room anymore. It was like Kieren couldn’t bear to rub it in my face that he was still taken. Caleb completely avoided me. If they were hurt over losing one person, it was worse for me. I had lost two people that I still loved. One still loved me. But there wasn’t room for me anymore.

It was time for me to go.

“I love you.”

I hated that line. It was a lie. A temporary feeling that didn’t last. Three years of that so called feeling had died in one night. Three years of shared happiness and struggle and complete devotion. Of giggles and kisses and nightmares. Of tight hugs and all-nighters and soft words. Of mingled breaths and movie nights and slow dancing in the living room. Of promises.

“Good things come in threes. What a joke.” I slammed the trunk shut of my car.

Kieren watched me pack my car from the front porch, miserable. I took the coffee cup from him; he caught my hand, his mouth opening.

“Don’t apologize. Don’t tell me you love me, or you’ll think about me, or you hope to run into me at college.” I said.

He was quiet for a moment, then, “It’s hot.” He glanced at the cup in my hand.

“Thanks.”

“I’m sorry, I love you, I hope to see you again.” He said hurriedly, his voice catching. “I wish you wouldn’t go.”

It wasn’t fair to him. Why was he still dragging this out? Why did he keep digging at the open wound?

“Let go.” I pulled my hand from his and stepped down off the porch.

Only when I had put my car in reverse did I glance back at him. His shoulders were shaking, and I watched Caleb step out and lead him back inside.

A pained keening noise tore its way out of my throat as I left the apartment duplex. I hit the steering wheel, once, twice. Poly relationships are cute in theory, but they don’t work. I don’t know why I convinced myself it could.

[artificialqueens]

Extra Credit: Part 2 (Shalaska) – Rosie

Summary: University professor Sharon Needles goes into damage control after realising the slamming hot blonde she hooked up with in a bar is actually one of her students. But if she’s so scandalised, why is a naked Alaska now straddling her in her office?

A/N: I’m completely blown away by how well Part 1 was received, so thank you so much to everyone who showed it some love! Please enjoy Part 2!

It felt like the room was spinning.

Sharon’s vision tunneled and everything was a blur – except Alaska.

A lump formed in her throat, squashing any attempt to speak, not that Sharon could even verbalise herself. The silence in the room felt like it was closing in on her, and the longer it went on, the worse it felt, like dead air on a radio.

“Uh…” Sharon finally tore her intense gaze from Alaska and turned to the PowerPoint slide projected behind her, grasping for something, anything, so that she could continue on.

But as she looked at the gigantic, black letters on her slide, all she could read were the words SHE’S YOUR FUCKING STUDENT.

Sharon squeezed her eyes shut, willing away the moisture that had gathered there before opening them again. She caught sight of the title of the slide, ‘Assessment’.

“So!” Sharon exclaimed, spinning around to face her class. “Yeah, um. With your first assignment… don’t panic, just look at the two best concepts…”

She taught the rest of the lecture on autopilot, relying more on the words on the slides than she ever had before, her mind a complete clusterfuck of emotions, thoughts and fears.

You fucked a student, you fucked a student, her mind screamed as she outlined different marketing strategies with a perfect poker face.

For the following session she looked everywhere but at Alaska, ignoring that side of the room completely. She sped through her content and she didn’t care if her students were struggling to keep up, it was only the first week of the semester and this would all be going up online later. After finishing her content with 15 minutes of the session still to go, Sharon dismissed her students, who were more than happy to be leaving early.

She bolted to her office, walking as fast as she could in her heels without it looking suspicious. Stepping inside the elevator, she didn’t dare look at herself in the mirrored walls that surrounded her. She hated herself; she didn’t need to be trapped in a small space with her reflection multiplied like a haunted house.

With her head down she powered to her office, paranoid her colleagues could see the guilt written all over her.

But just as she rounded the corner, a blonde quickly stood up from the chair outside her office.

Sharon gasped, coming face to face with the last person she wanted to see.

“Sharon I—“ Alaska started, her voice shaking as much as her hands were.

“Don’t,” Sharon hissed quietly, cutting her off. What was Alaska thinking? They couldn’t do this in the hallway of the business faculty office.

Sharon glanced to her left and saw Willam Belli, a Senior Advertising Lecturer, typing away on her computer, her office door wide open.

“Ah, yes!” Sharon said loudly as she fiddled with her keys before jamming the right one in the lock. “I have the extra credit forms on my desk, I just need you to come in and sign them, please.”

The door finally opened and Sharon pushed her way inside, holding it open for Alaska before forcing herself not to slam it shut. Her door had a sheet of glass inserted into it, and she reached up and pulled the blinds down a little too forcefully, desperate for some privacy.

Alaska sat down in one of the chairs opposite Sharon’s desk. She didn’t ask if she could take a seat, but Sharon was pacing back and forth and it all looked so professional and serious that it just seemed like the logical thing to do.  

Alaska had been in a situation vaguely similar to this before. In Year 11 she skipped class for the very first time to comfort Courtney in the girls’ bathroom after her then girlfriend Adore had broken up with her. It was a short lived rebellion as their French teacher had scoped them out and their asses were hauled into the principal’s office, Alaska a quaking mess as she waited for her mother to arrive.

The comparison was stupid and laughable, but right now Alaska felt like she was 16 again, sitting in an office on the verge of tears as she waited for a reaction from an older woman she wanted to please so badly.

Sharon stopped pacing and turned to her, her eyes wide.

As Alaska sat there with her shoulders tense and her hands fidgeting in her lap, Sharon was finally able to look at her properly since last night.

Last night her hair was perfectly styled into soft waves that framed her face. Now half of it was haphazardly thrown up into a messy blonde bun on top of her head.

Last night her makeup was smoky and sultry. Now it was mostly gone, except for the black eyeliner that was smudged along her lashes.

Last night she wore a tight skirt that Sharon had hitched up before she had sunk to her knees to bury herself between her thighs. Now she wore a preppy little black and white gingham skirt with a matching top.

She looked different today. She looked younger. She looked her age.

“I am so, so sorry,” Sharon almost sobbed, the words rushing out of her.

She knew the both of them were involved in what had happened and she knew they were both adults, but Sharon was the older one here. Sharon was the meant to be the responsible one. Sharon was the professor and Alaska was her fucking student for Christ’s sake.

“I’m so sorry this happened and this is just such an awful and shitty thing that neither of us could have predicted,” Sharon rambled, her throat getting tighter and her tone sounding increasingly panicked.

It felt like she was hatching an alibi with Alaska, covering for them for when the SWAT team eventually kicked down Sharon’s door and hauled her in front of the court. The SWAT team dealt with student/teacher affairs right?

“It wasn’t anybodies fault this happened, neither of us could have known—“ Sharon continued, the anxious word vomit continuing to spill out of her mouth.

But Alaska cut her off.

“I knew.”

Rendered speechless, Sharon stared at her, hoping she had misheard.

Alaska looked at Sharon, her heart going a mile a minute.

“You knew?” Sharon’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Alaska watched as the older woman sagged slightly before resting herself against her desk for support. Sharon’s eyes went from being wide and fearful to narrow and seething.

“I knew,” Alaska said again. She hurried to get the next part out, scared Sharon would cut her off or that she would lose her confidence.

“I was in your lecture yesterday morning. I saw you and instantly thought you were incredible and then you came up to me at the bar and I thought I was dreaming but I wasn’t and you wanted me—"  

“Oh my god,” Sharon said, closing her eyes as her hands clutched her chest. She wanted to burst into tears. Instead, she looked at Alaska.

“I could lose my fucking job over this,” Sharon said, her tone terrifying normal, and it was a good thing they were in an office space and Sharon couldn’t raise her voice because the restriction was probably one of the only reasons she hadn’t collapsed into a heap on her carpeted floor.

“My entire career, gone,” she continued. “And you knew—“

“See!” Alaska exclaimed, interrupting her before lowing her volume. “This is why I left this morning,” she said as she leaned towards Sharon.

With Sharon slightly perched on her desk so close to where Alaska was sitting, Alaska had to look up at her as she spoke, her wide, innocent eyes looking even bigger.

“I didn’t leave this morning because I didn’t care about you. I left because I was too scared to tell you in case this is how you reacted—“

“Oh yes because finding out about this mid lecture was such a better fuckingalternative,” Sharon snapped.

Alaska’s face crumbled at Sharon’s words, hot tears finally bubbling over and spilling down her face.

Sharon expression dissolved from one of anger to shock as she watched the younger girl break down, her lips quivering and her shoulders shaking.

“Oh no, no, it’s okay,” Sharon whispered, ripping a tissue from the box on her desk and passing it to Alaska. Her body wanted to reach out, wrap her arms around Alaska and kiss her forehead while reassuring her everything would be okay. Her mind, on the other hand, screamed at her for continuing to think in the same way that got her into this mess.

Alaska dabbed her wet cheeks before sucking in air and continuing.

“I just didn’t want to ruin last night. I just wanted everything to be okay for a little longer. But, I don’t know, I didn’t think things through, and I definitely didn’t think I would sit in the front row. But oh my god, I never did this to hurt you…I just really liked you…”

Her voice wobbled on the last word as a fresh wave of tears gathered on her lash line.

“Hey,” Sharon said softly, “it’s okay.” She took Alaska’s hand in her own and squeezed it, and Alaska looked at the gesture with wide eyes.

“It’s going to be okay,” Sharon said firmly, reassuring the both of them.

Alaska nodded, her tears subsiding and her breathing beginning to normalise. A small smile tugged at her lips.

“I know this is corny, but last night was…” she trailed off, shaking her head as she struggled to find words to describe it.

Sharon actually laughed, and it was so refreshing after all the anxiety that had plagued her until now.

“Yeah, last night was incredible,” Sharon rubbed the back of Alaska’s hand with her thumb.

They sat there in silence for a moment, Alaska’s hand in Sharon’s.

“No one saw us,” Alaska said seriously. “No one knows.”

Sharon pressed her lips together. She knew where Alaska was heading with this.

“We can’t know that for sure,” Sharon said slowly.

“Well, there was barely anyone in that little bar last night, and then after that we went home. No students saw us, and none of your colleagues saw us.”

Sharon felt herself agreeing, and she hated that. She couldn’t continue this with Alaska. So why was she still holding her hand?

“Don’t you think it’s crazy that I thought you were incredible from the moment I saw you yesterday morning, and then that night you came up to me?”

She didn’t have to say the words, but they were both thinking the same thing.

It was meant to be.

Sharon didn’t look at Alaska but she was nodding at every word, so Alaska continued.

“No one saw us, and I’m a final year. I’m not going to be your student forever.”

“So you’re saying we wait?” Sharon asked.

There was a glint in Alaska’s eyes, as if she couldn’t believe what she was about to say next.

“I don’t want to wait.”

Sharon stared at her, Alaska offering a temptation Sharon had tried so hard to resist all morning.

“Me neither.”

With that, Sharon leant down slightly as Alaska arched up, their lips meeting and stars exploding behind Alaska’s eyes just like last night in the bar and Sharon was left to think how could this be so wrong when it feels so right?

“We have to be so,” Sharon said between kisses, “so sneaky.”

Alaska tilted her head back as Sharon kissed her neck, her smile growing wider as her eyes fluttered shut.

“So sneaky,” Alaska whispered, standing up slowly, only to settle herself down on Sharon’s thigh.

She rubbed herself against Sharon as their kisses became deeper and more passionate. She inhaled sharply at the friction of Sharon’s thigh against her now pulsing groin. Sharon’s hands settled on her slim waist as Alaska placed hers on either side of Sharon’s face.

Their lips moved together effortlessly before Sharon deepened the kiss, their tongues lapping against each other as Sharon held Alaska to her body. A hushed moan escaped Sharon, and the thought of having to be so quiet made everything so much better.

She snaked a hand past Alaska’s lower back and down between her cheeks. She cupped Alaska in her hand and squeezed, and Alaska clenched as Sharon’s fingers brushed against her entrances, even through her skirt material and underwear.

Alaska moaned into their kiss and instantly ached herself back against Sharon’s fingers, desperate for more, the raunchy act almost tipping her over the edge. Sharon smiled into their kiss as Alaska thrusted and whimpered under her hold, satisfied with how she was teasing the younger girl.  

“Sharon! I jammed the printer again!”

Sharon had never reacted so fast in her entire life.

She pushed Alaska away from her, the other blonde falling back onto the plush chair behind her, their bodies ripped from each other in a millisecond.

It was Willam, standing on the other side of the door, whining about the freaking printer that Sharon fixed that one time by accident and was now the person the office always came to.

Sharon sucked in a desperate intake of air in an attempt to control her breathing.

“I’m coming!” Sharon yelled back, and Alaska snickered at the words.

“Okay!” Willam yelled back. Neither of them breathed as they listened to the sound of her co-workers retreating footsteps.  

“That was so close,” Sharon whispered, smoothing her clothes and fixing her hair.

“That was so hot,” Alaska breathed. Her chest was rising and falling and her hands were still gripping the armrests. Her pupils were lust blown and the gloss on her plump, pink lips had been kissed away.  

Sharon wanted to fuck her right then and there.

“You need to go, I need to fix the printer,” Sharon ordered, even though she wanted nothing more than to continue.

Alaska picked up her tote bag before grabbing a pen off Sharon’s desk and writing down her number on a sticky note. She almost wrote her name, but knew better.

“I’ll call you,” Sharon whispered before she opened the door for Alaska to walk out.

Alaska was a few steps down the hallway before she turned around, not able to let the opportunity pass.

“Thanks for everything, Professor Needles!” Alaska said.

To top it off, she winked at Sharon before turning around and walking away, Sharon left to stare at her swishy blonde hair and short skirt.

*

It was almost absurd how not sneaky they were. It had started in the lectures.

The first lecture they had together after their initial encounter in Sharon’s office was almost an entire week later. Like her usual self, Sharon had arrived early to set up her presentation and prepare herself. Like her unusual self, Alaska had for once arrived early to a university lecture, being the first and only student to enter the hall.

She walked down the steps of the carpeted aisle, looking at Sharon standing behind her podium the entire time. Sharon finally noticed the first arrival and snapped her head up from her laptop, only to be greeted with the sight of Alaska clad in the tightest Lycra workout gear she had ever seen.

The thin, elastic material hugged every curve and arch of Alaska’s body. The grey sports bra she wore looked a size too small, so her already perky breasts were pushed together and up for maximum cleavage.

“Good morning, Professor,” Alaska said happily after Sharon had gawked at her approaching figure for a good five seconds. As she hopped down the last remaining steps, Sharon felt herself pulse as she noticed the way Alaska’s chest bounced as she moved.

“Morning…” Sharon replied, casting her eyes back to her laptop when she knew she would just look at Alaska again the second she got another chance.

Alaska knew this too.

Finally making it to the front row, Alaska walked to a seat in the middle before she purposefully threw her bag on the floor.

“Oops! I’m just so clumsy!” Alaska laughed, looking Sharon dead in the eyes before she leaned over in front of her.

Sharon unashamedly stared as Alaska bent down, the Lycra material of her black leggings not leaving much to the imagination.

Alaska had done a good job at throwing her bag down, as her notebook, water bottle and some pens were now littered across the floor, allowing her to arch, bend and wiggle her ass in the air for an ample amount of time.

Sharon felt her cheeks grow hot, both out of lust and affection, as she fought a smile.

You’re so stupid, she thought as she blushed, and silly and cute and pretty.

With her belonging in her bag, Alaska stood up properly and turned to face Sharon.

“By the way,” she said as she flicked some blonde hair over her shoulder, “I’m not wearing any underwear.”

Sharon hated herself for letting her lips part at Alaska’s words, for letting the effect the younger girl had over her be so obvious. Alaska bit her bottom lip as she lightly brushed her fingers against her crotch.

The old, creaky door at the back of the hall opened, and as a group of students entered for their 9am Monday morning lecture, it was like a spell had been broken.

Alaska took a seat in the first row, looking completely normal as she pulled her notebook out. As more students filed in, the quicker the lustful haze that had clouded Sharon’s mind cleared.

Sharon didn’t think Alaska would take it any further, the morning’s semi-public display of semi-nudity being enough ‘drama’ for her to handle before midday.

So she was surprised to see the Lycra clad blonde knock on her office door after their lecture.

“Oh, hi,” Sharon said as noticed Alaska standing in her doorway. “Alaska, is it?”

They both smirked at Sharon’s attempt at acting.

“What brings you to my office, Miss Thunder?” Sharon asked as Alaska entered the room and shut the door behind her.

She leaned against it slightly before a click was heard. After their close call with Willam, neither of them would forget to lock the door during their ‘meetings’.

“You never called me,” Alaska said, stepping on the back of her training and kicking her shoes off.

“What?” Sharon asked, confused by Alaska’s words and the fact that she was beginning to undress herself.

“I gave you my number,” Alaska clarified, “and you never called.”

Sharon hadn’t called because she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She had held the little yellow sticky note with Alaska’s digits on it each night, hyping herself up to call her before talking herself out of it.

Calling just felt too real.

When they saw each other in person it was different. It felt like another dimension, the walls of Sharon’s office, apartment or the lecture hall being their safe spaces where reality and the world outside didn’t exist. What would she even say, anyway?

“I know we said we’d be sneaky…” Alaska said as she slowly walked towards Sharon, “but if you don’t call me, I have to come to you…”

She slowly walked towards Sharon has she spoke, her thumbs hooking under the waistband of her leggings. Sharon turned around in her expensive leather office chair, the two of them now behind her desk and facing the back wall of the room.

Alaska pulled her tight, black leggings down her lean thighs and, as promised, she wasn’t wearing any underwear. Sharon’s straight-faced demeanour masked the fact her heart was pounding.

Alaska stepped out of the material, her eyes locked with Sharon’s as she did so.

Sharon couldn’t help herself. She reached forward and ran her hands over Alaska’s naked thighs, up over her boney hips and around and down over the curve of her ass. She pulled the other girl forward, her seated position allowing her to kiss Alaska’s stomach and abdomen.

“That tickles,” Alaska breathed, holding back a laugh as she tangled her fingers in Sharon’s soft hair.

“Come here, baby,” Sharon whispered, and Alaska spread her thighs, her naked legs straddling the lap of her professor.  

Sharon’s hands found their way under the elastic of Alaska’s tiny sports bra, and she pulled up the material, the garment leaving Alaska’s chest and dropping onto the office floor.

Alaska moaned quietly as she grinded her naked figure against Sharon’s clothed body, revelling in the feeling of her soft, sensitive skin rubbing against the material of Sharon’s dress.

Her lips found Sharon’s, and suddenly an entire week of waiting and wondering and fantasising felt worth it because the taste of Sharon and the feeling of being in her arms was worth everything.

Sharon’s hands found her chest and she cupped her breasts, massaging them before she ran her thumbs over the younger girl’s nipples. Alaska spread her thighs wider before deepening their kiss and grinding herself harder into Sharon. All she wanted was Sharon.

But Sharon put her hands on her hips, stilling her movements.

“You’re so wet,” Sharon smiled, sliding a hand down Alaska’s body. “You’re gonna make a mess all over my dress if you keep going.”

She pressed one finger to her pulsing bud as she spoke. Alaska immediately thrusted up, stifling a loud moan as she remembered where they were.

Sharon kept going, rubbing her fingers over and between Alaska’s slick folds.

“Then everyone will see it, and everyone will know why you’ve been coming to my office, or in my office.”

She slid one finger into Alaska, and Alaska clenched around her, her eyes fluttering shut and her mouth falling open.

“Ah,” Alaska’s breath hitched, and she arched her back, angling herself to feel Sharon deeper inside her.

She looked at Sharon with heavy lidded eyes and spoke words thick with lust.

“Let them see.”

At her words, Sharon plunged another finger into her, watching as Alaska’s eyes rolled back in her head.

With her toes touching the carpeted floor beneath her, Alaska pushed herself up before letting herself slide back down onto Sharon. She started slow at first, then picked up the pace, a string of moans held back behind a bitten lip.

“Look at you,” Sharon breathed, “rocking up to my office, fucking yourself on my fingers.”

Heat pooled between Sharon’s thighs, which were pressed together in her pencil skirt, Alaska’s naked body restricting her movements.

But she didn’t care. This wasn’t about her. This was about Alaska.

“Mmph—…” Alaska muttered, before Sharon’s thumb firmly ran over her throbbing clit.

“What’s that, baby?” Sharon asked, already knowing what Alaska was going to say.

Alaska sucked in a breath, moisture already gathering at the corner of her eyes.

“More…” she whimpered.

Sharon leaned forward slightly to kiss her collarbone before she lifted her lips to Alaska’s ear.

“Turn around,” she whispered, before she slowly pulled her fingers from Alaska.

Slightly confused, Alaska stood up, her legs shaky as she turned around. She sat back down, her back to Sharon’s chest, and then it made sense. Before, Sharon’s hands were cramped between their bodies.

Alaska leaned back and brought her knees to her chest. She only had to turn her head to the side slightly to kiss Sharon. With their lips connected, Sharon snaked her hands down Alaska’s front, two fingers returning to the warmth of her folds while the middle finger of her other hand circled the bundle of nerves above her entrance.

Alaska breathed in sharply and spread her legs further, the new position changing everything.

“You wanted more?” Sharon asked gently, before she slid a third finger into Alaska.

Arching her back, Alaska clenched, her walls grasping around Sharon.

“So good, feels so good, ah,” Alaska babbled, her mind clouding over under Sharon’s touch.

Sharon’s hands got faster, thrusting in and out of Alaska’s entrance and sending jolt after jolt of pleasure through her veins.

With her eyes closed, every sound in the quiet office was amplified, from her ragged breathing to the sound of Sharon touching her.

“You sound so wet,” Sharon whispered into her hair, as if reading her mind.

Alaska let herself gasp, the sheer reality of it all becoming too hot and dirty and overwhelming.

Sharon slid one more finger into her warmth, and Alaska’s toes curled. Her lips found Sharon’s, and as the older woman’s hot tongue slipped into her mouth, Alaska’s hand instinctively reached for her chest, massaging one of her hard nipples between her fingers.

The room, the building, and the world felt a million miles away. Alaska’s entire universe was Sharon and Sharon’s fingers and Sharon’s mouth on hers and how Sharon was making her feel.

And then she was coming, her walls spasming and her legs shaking and her mouth open in a silent scream as Sharon’s fingers fucked her through it. Heat spread throughout her entire body as she was finally pushed over the edge.

She relaxed against Sharon’s chest, gathering her breath as the lustful haze that had settled over her mind began to clear.

Sharon fingers were still working her, gently moving in and out and circling her sensitive bud, causing aftershocks of pleasure to ripple through her nerve system.

Alaska looked down at Sharon’s black skirt beneath her, and she was right – she had made a mess.

“Such a messy girl,” Sharon whispered into her hair, and Alaska was able to hear the smile in her voice.

Sharon gently pulled her fingers from Alaska, and Alaska already missed their presence.

Turning her head, Alaska watched as Sharon met her gaze before she put two slick fingers into her mouth, her plump lips wrapping around them to suck them clean.

She pulled them from her mouth, only to have Alaska bring her hand towards her and put the other two fingers into hers. She swirled her tongue around and between Sharon’s fingers, revelling in the taste of herself. Sharon pulled her fingers away slowly, only to bring their lips together.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, savouring a moment they didn’t know when they would get again. Alaska was the first to move, the air conditioning of the office finally getting to her naked form.

“I should go,” she said, grabbing her discarded clothes from the floor and pulling them on.

“I will call you,” Sharon insisted. “I’m sorry I didn’t. I just… didn’t know what to say? Hey? Sorry about that midterm I set? Wanna fuck?”

Alaska genuinely laughed, and it caused Sharon’s heart to rise. She wanted to make her laugh all the time now.

“No, no it’s okay,” she reassured. “I get it. I probably wouldn’t have picked up. I don’t know what I would have said either. It’s different, seeing you in person.”

“Yes! That’s what I thought,” Sharon said, relieved Alaska felt the same.

“Maybe don’t call me,” Alaska started, slinging her bag onto her shoulder. “That way, I can come and visit you again.”

They both smiled like idiots, wide and toothy and ridiculously happy.

“Okay,” Sharon agreed, “I won’t talk to you soon, then.”

“Exactly,” Alaska nodded, already planning their next encounter. “See you in next week’s class.” She fought the urge to lean over the desk and kiss Sharon goodbye.

As she opened the door to the office and left, she looked just as normal as when she came in.

Sharon, on the other hand, would need to find another skirt.  

[alas-poor-cesario]

IT (2017)

I went to see it yesterday, and it was the first horror film that I’ve went to the pictures to see. I usually just wait so that I can watch them on the couch with a pillow handy to hide behind when I need it. This got pretty long I’m sorry! There’s going to be spoilers below the cut!

First off the story: I actually liked it being just the kids in this film, I’ll get to the characters in a little bit, but there was no way that everything could have been crammed into just one film. That would have been far too rushed and some really key events would have had to be left out for it to work. I haven’t read the book so I can’t say how accurate to that it is, but the changes from the 1990 series were needed I think.

From the first real scare of the movie (the sewer scene with Georgie) it had this feeling of ‘Oh we’re really not doing what the series did, okay’ and it marked it as being it’s own thing. I thought that was needed since the series gave a lot to live up to. I remember looking over at my mam after Georgie’s arm got bitten off and he was crawling along the ground and I was completely shocked. It was a lot gorier and darker, especially considering a few minutes before I was laughing as he hit his head on that bar.

They also moved the time it’s set to the 80′s and I liked that. It made it a lot easier to connect with the kids, there’s more relevant pop culture references and jokes like the Molly Ringwald line. It was nice to have that because I had been thinking it just before  it happened. The other cool thing about setting the first half then is that the second one with them as adults will be a modern thing and it ties in nicely to it being 27 years after the series came out.

Characters:

My favourite character out of the film was easily Richie. He had the best lines in the film (for the most part) and he caught my attention straight away. He was loud, I found myself looking at him more in scenes because he would be the one talking and I was expecting to be annoyed by that but I actually really liked it. He made IT less scary and pulled the group together well.

Bill is the leader of the group and his scenes were so emotional. I think this film caught his desperation and grief a lot better than the series did, especially in the third act of the film in the sewers. The movie had me pausing and saying ‘Oh my god was that actually Georgie’ because of the delay between him shooting ‘Georgie’ and ‘Georgie’ turning back into Pennywise and for that you got to see how Bill must have been feeling.

I liked Ben a little bit more in this adaptation especially when he first meets the Losers. I also liked the change to him being the historian of the group, he’s the new kid in town and so he’s looking up the history of the place. I do feel like this left Mike with something missing though since the town’s history was covered by Ben.

Eddie was brilliant. I said Richie has the best lines but truthfully he shares that position with Eddie. The one line that made me laugh more than anything else even after I left the film was the “gazebos” one. It din’t come across as cheesy or forced humour and I loved it. I also liked the kind of ‘only sane person’ role he played at times, waiting outside the sewer, criticising the group’s actions etc.

I’m so glad that they gave Bev a personality in this film. The series made her very two dimensional to me and I found myself just waiting for her to stop being on screen all of the time, but in this I couldn’t wait. She had some of the toughest scenes to watch in this but they balanced out by giving her some of the sweetest too like the ending and her meeting the Losers.

Stan was kind of forgettable in this and I can’t remember anything being said about birds which disappointed me. The bit with the painting gave me one of the bigger scares but I kept forgetting he was there until he spoke and then even after that I was too busy looking at the other characters to really pay him any attention.

The bullies reminded me of the bullies in Stand By Me and of Kevin Bacon. I’m not quite sure what they plan on doing with Bowers since he just fell down that well and presumably died. Patrick in the sewers and Henry being shot at by his father made me have moments of sympathy for them. They were just as much victims as the Losers if you take the idea that IT has been controlling the town and manipulating events.

Camera work/ cinematography:

Rather than this movie just being one bland film and having all of the camera angles really standard, they change and move and that adds to the unsettling vibe. The one that stood out to me was Bev confronting her father, just seeing that change and the slow movement made me really unsettled. The library went for more of a conventional ‘something’s chasing you’ set up and that worked well too, but my favourite thing about this film was that changing camera angle.

Effects:

This is where the film fell down in my opinion. Most of the scares in this seemed fake and they took me out of the film a little bit, not enough that I didn’t enjoy it, but just enough to be noticeable. The ones I remember were the dancing scene with the fire, the leper and the woman from the painting. They came across as being far too cheesy to me. I think if they had went with a little bit more in the way of practical effects over computer generated things then it would have been so much better.

But considering the series’ effects are a bit laughable to me now and when I first watched it I don’t think they did too badly.  IT starting the film as a scary looking clown with unnaturally bright eyes played on a lot of fears and while I can look at a screenshot and think that it just looks cheap and pretty naff, seeing it in the pictures for the first time gave me quite a fright.

Scare factor:

This film wasn’t necessarily the most scary film in the world however it did make me jump a lot more than the series did. The jump scares were built up to well and there was a few times I was lulled into a false sense of security before one which was done well. And there were times I was expecting something to happen like with one of the people in the background of the library or with the statue and clown when they’re sat at the fair.  The humour in the film broke up the scary aspects of it quite nicely for me and made it so that it was enjoyable and I could actually take in everything rather than just being scared of whatever was coming next.

Pennywise:

Skarsgård was never going to be Tim Curry. We’ve built up, and built up that image of Pennywise the clown for years and years and years and our imaginations have taken over and made him out to be one of the top horror monsters. If he had been dressed the same and acted the exact same way then I wouldn’t have liked it at all and would have just written this off as a stupid remake. Tim Curry’s IT was strange and I didn’t particularly like clowns anyway so he didn’t seem like the kind of fun type to draw in kids closer before killing them. Skarsgård’s IT plays to an audience that’s used to scary clowns and people being wary of them, granted I wouldn’t have stayed talking to the clown in the sewers like Georgie, but I didn’t mind him having the moment where he broke and growled at him. IT feeds off children’s fear and having this character who comes across as being just out of what feels comfortable works for him.

I prefer the way It looks in this film to the series. The lack of colour makes him more haunting, the hair and make up aren’t as cheesy and the outfit feels less cheap. His teeth and (what I’m assuming to be) the deadlights in this version were so much better.

[ataraxetta]

I haven’t gotten to do a Sunday Six in awhile, so here is 2100 words and essentially part one of the noctnyx fic! Very rough draft.

============

After a long, harsh winter, Spring had finally sprung. Birds were chirping, the sun was rising, the air was fresh, and in the sprawling metropolis of the Crown City, Nyx Ulric started his day by running face first into a door.

It was glass, and sturdy. His head colliding with it made a sound that would carry. He stumbled back a step with a grunt from the impact, ears ringing. When his vision cleared it was to Luche, Tredd and Crowe all staring at him with an expression on each of their faces like so many jokes had sprung to their minds they couldn't decide on which one to voice. Eventually, Luche cleared his throat around a smirk and said, "All right there, hero?"

"I thought it would open," Nyx said stupidly, blinking. Crowe and Tredd broke into unapologetic snickering and Nyx lifted a hand to rub at the ache in his forehead, his face hot. Every once in awhile, when Nyx was probably getting a little too cocky for his own good, the universe saw fit to take him down a notch. This, he thought, was one of those times. There wasn't much more humbling than pushing a door with perfect confidence that it will open and being wrong.

"You've gotta pull, dumbass," Crowe said, gesturing to the door handle. She shifted the weight of her bag slung over her shoulder and put a hand on her hip. "How long have you worked here again?"

"It's early," was the only excuse that Nyx could come up with. He may have been many things, but a morning person wasn't one of them, and sunrise drills were a cruel and unusual punishment, especially on his last day on duty before a two week leave. He'd been half-asleep up until now.

Crowe snorted and pushed past him, pulling the door open with an unnecessary flourish before striding through to the locker room beyond. Luche followed her, still grinning, and Tredd clapped a hand on Nyx's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, man. That was awesome."

"Shut up," said Nyx. Tredd wiggled his eyebrows and laughed when Nyx shoved him through the open door and followed him inside, where Crowe was regaling the rest of the glaives with the tale, and put up with the good-natured digs while he changed.

Sunrise drills on the obstacle course were a favorite of Drautos, who would usually come and shivvy them out of the locker room to the outdoor training grounds. By ten after five he still hadn't arrived, but a tardy Libertus slipped in as Nyx was tying his running shoes, glancing nervously around and heaving a sigh of relief when he didn't find the Captain. It immediately turned into a sharp squeak of pain when Crowe hurled one of her combat boots at his crotch with incredible precision from her place on the bench next to Nyx. He doubled over, clutching himself in pain. The others took little notice. Libertus earning a shot to the nads from Crowe was a regular occurrence. Nyx only grinned and shook his head.

"Oi!" Libertus complained, hobbling over to their bench. "What gives?"

Crowe snatched her boot out of his hands. "You were supposed to give me a ride in this morning, jerkoff, remember?"

Nyx snorted. Libertus had recently bought some piece of shit on wheels from a twitchy guy who had put some sketch on online. It was of indeterminate make and model, bright orange and boxy with only one working seatbelt and no heat or A/C, and the engine made a loud and chilling sound that Nyx could only describe as a cry for merciful death for several minutes every time it started up. Nyx gave Crowe a disapproving look. "You were gonna ride in that thing?"

"Shut up, it's a ride isn't it? Even if it is a piece of shit."

"It's not shit," Libertus said by rote. He rubbed the back of his neck ruefully and told Crowe, "I tried, but you was already gone when I got to your place!"

"Yeah, 'cause you never showed!" Crowe argued. She stood up threateningly, but only turned to tuck her boot neatly next to the other one in her open locker. If she ever had been actually angry, she was over it now. Her voice was sharp, trying to hide the concern when she said, "You said you'd be by at oh-four-hundred. I would've been late if I waited any longer."

Apparently satisfied that Crowe wasn't going to attack him again, Libertus went about opening his locker and getting changed, moving rather faster than he usually did with liberal worried glances at the door, as though Drautos was going to stalk in and call him out for being late. "Yeah, I think something must've happened - roadblocks up all over so the back roads were jammed, even out by us." More quietly, he said, "And getting through the Citadel gates to park took an act of the gods. Crownsguard assholes made me flash my ID and do one of those portable retina scanners before they let me through."

Nyx frowned. "Just you?"

"Nah," Libertus said to the floor, bent over to tug his running shorts up his legs. "Everyone, it looked like. I asked but they wouldn't tell me what was going on. You guys didn't get stopped?"

"Nope," Crowe said. She looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged.

Nyx followed suit, letting his curiosity go as he got up to put his stuff away. It was no use wondering about it, they wouldn't be told unless someone saw fit to tell them, and it was probably nothing anyway. The gate guard was laughably quick on the draw. They were just as likely to call a lockdown because of a stubbed royal toe as for an actual security breach. Nyx didn't have to care until he was told to. To Libertus, he added, "But we weren't driving. Came in through the staff entrance, didn't pass another soul."

"Yeah," said Crowe, leveling an innocent look at Nyx. "The only weird thing that happened to us on the way in was Nyx losing a fight with a door."

"Nyx what?" said Libertus.

Nyx sighed. It was going to be a long day.

*

Drautos never showed. They all headed out to the course at oh-five-thirty, and after another twenty minutes without an appearance from their Captain, Luche stepped up and ran them through the usual warm-ups and then split them up into groups for the training drills, which for a Sunrise run meant more aerobics than you could shake a stick at. Weapons weren't allowed on the obstacle course, which was sprawling and extravagant and would have been tough to run even if they could have warped and was nearly impossible to finish without. Only four could run the course at the same time, and they weren't allowed to leave the training yard until they'd each completed it twice, so the sun was high in the sky by the time they stumbled sweat-drenched and exhausted back to the locker room.

Nyx had been in the last group to go, along with Luche and two newer recruits who stayed collapsed and recovering on the grass and panting for breath while Nyx and Luche headed inside. Luche smirked and said commiseratingly, "Kids."

"Right?" Nyx agreed. When he looked over his shoulder to check on them, he saw one sitting up and discreetly pulling his phone out of his pocket, beckoning his friend over. It was technically against regulations to have a personal phone on you while on duty, but enforcing it would have meant putting half the glaive on gate duty most of the time, so rumors of whatever had happened to cause the upswing in security Libertus had run into this morning had already spread among their ranks by anyone who had a friend on the palace staff. Nyx didn't generally put much stock in what people were saying around the water cooler, but Luche had an even more constipated expression on his face than he usually did, and obviously something had happened, if Drautos was MIA on training drills that he set up himself, and just before they'd taken their second lap of the course, Luche had put some distance between himself and the rest of the unit to answer a call on his headset.

Lightly, Nyx prodded. "Any word from Drautos?"

Luche gave him a stern look. "Yes."

"Huh," Nyx said. When Luche didn't say anything else, he gave up all pretenses."C'mon, man. So is it true? There was an assassination attempt?"

Luche made a face. "All I know is that someone in the Crownsguard has been badly injured. The Captain didn't offer further detail, and until we're told otherwise it's none of our business, Ulric."

Luche could be kind of a prick. Nyx fought the urge to roll his eyes, but didn't push it. He had an hour before he needed to report in at the armory to oversee weapons training for the new recruits, so while Luche hit the showers Nyx made a beeline for the mess hall. Libertus, Crowe, Sonitas and Pelna were sitting together at their usual table, talking in low voices over their trays of...whatever the hell that was. Pelna's girlfriend Cecily worked in the palace and wasn't prone to gossip, so if there was any real news to be had, he would know it. He nodded a greeting as Nyx sat down across from him, and Crowe made a sound like an angry cat when Nyx stole a roll from her plate and bit into it before she could take it back. Mouth full, he said, "So fill me in."

Pelna said, "Sounds like there really was an assassination attempt."

"On the king? At the Citadel?" Nyx asked, disbelieving. Surely no one was that stupid.

Libertus shook his head. "On the prince, either at his apartment or somewhere between there and the university."

"No shit," Nyx said. "Luche said someone from the Crownsguard was injured. Must be the prince's personal guard, right?"

Pelna nodded, looking grim. "Yeah, the Prime Minister's son. Cecily didn't have details but she said it's apparently pretty bad. They're not sure if he'll make it."

Nyx sat back in his chair, mood sobering and feeling a little guilty about digging for juicy details. He didn't know Gladiolus Amicitia well, but he'd sparred with him a few times a couple years back, when he'd needed to learn how to train someone who could use Lucis magic. Nyx had liked him. He'd been huge and loud, full of life. He'd also been real damn talented, and would have only become stronger since the last time Nyx'd seen him. It was hard to imagine anyone getting the best of him.

"Was the prince hurt?" Crowe asked Pelna.

"I don't think so," Pelna answered. "Drautos had to escort him to the Citadel from his place personally, that's why he was a no show this morning. Cecily overheard someone saying that the king wants the prince to move back into the Citadel, but the prince threw a fit about it until His Majesty agreed to let him keep his apartment."

"Figures," Sonitas said, frowning with distaste. "He should never have moved outside the Citadel in the first place. His Highness doesn't realize the burden his childish bid for freedom puts on everyone around him. Or perhaps he does and just doesn't care."

Libertus snorted. "Would you expect anything different? Them <i>royals</i> do whatever they want, and fuck the rest of us."

Pelna shrugged, and Sonitas said, "I heard they're trying to decide who to assign as his bodyguard while the Amicitia kid is out of commission, and the king is personally involved. Everyone in the Crownsguard is probably pissing themselves for the chance to lick the king's boots."

"Yeah, stupid bastards," Libertus said. "Wonder who it'll be."

Nyx crossed his arms over his chest, making a face. He didn't know much about the prince but the baby-sitting gig was always a pain in the ass. He wouldn’t have wanted to be in the shoes of whatever poor sod was getting that detail. "Well, as long as it's not me," he said dismissively. Curiosity satisfied, pushed his chair back from the table. "If you'll excuse me, I'm five hours from two shiny, glorious weeks of leave - "

He was cut off by the others grumbling and lobbing their balled up napkins at him, and he ducked away, laughing, and turned to leave just as Titus Drautos opened the door to the mess and zeroed in on Nyx. Nyx felt his heart sink, knowing from the slightly apologetic look on the Captain's face what Drautos was going to say before he even opened his mouth, because Nyx's luck really was just that piss poor.

"Nyx, glad I caught you. I'm sorry to say that your leave has been cancelled. Hit the showers and gear up, then report to my office. You have a new assignment."

Nyx thought he might cry. Just sit down on the floor right there and sob while his friends snickered like assholes behind him. Instead he straightened his shoulders and said the only thing he could in response. "Yes, Sir."

[blondejournals]

5•8•17

Currently: laying on my couch and texting conner about prom and lexi about anime. Meredith went to bed but she just made me a nice playlist on Spotify. I ate dinner at like 9 tonight. I don't know where dad is but mom and my Dustin are upstairs Journal: Mayday parade makes good music. Michael had a good day today which I was glad for because at least he wasn't super suicidal but it also hurts to see him so fine and dandy after being a piece of shit to me. I know the right thing for both of us to move past it though. We can't change the past what is done is done. I feel very pathetic for having this account. Today school was alright. Lexi got out of 5 hour and her and mer and I want to the park. It was good for the most part but inevitably went back to talking about me and how my emoness has gotten to be so laughable and annoying. A truck parked me in so I couldn't leave when I wanted and I got frustrated and overwhelmed and cried. I managed to get Dustin in time but ah well. I made a post about Michael being a rat and jordan defended him. I told her what he did and she said yeah I understand but I was dealing with it badly. I am. I just want to be fuck up and face virtually no shame or consequences like everyone else seems to get to. I want to tell her she can shut up and eat dirt cause she drove drunk and left lexi at ben's house that one night. Trash. Whatever. I had a long talk with my mom after a 4 hour nap and we both cried a little. It wasn't happy. My mom isn't happy and I want her to be. God I just. If I ever get married bury me before I marry someone like my father. I dream I spend my life with someone who makes me laugh and is really all about me and I never have a pit in my stomach about them going behind my back because they love and respect me. My dad said something true. Sometimes you just meet people and you know they would never do something like that to you. I hope I know. More than anything if I share half of my life with someone I just want them to respect my mind and my opinions and agree that US means 50/50. I never want to grow old and find I'm holding my tongue to avoid arguments like my mother. On the other hand I'm so afraid that the more realistic reality is that I become my father. I get so paranoid that I'm being disrespected that I start disrespecting them to get the one up. I cried for like a good long while cause mer left me out of her prom photos and today when I posted a pic without her from prom and she asked why she wasn't in it she didn't even realize she hadn't included me. I'm so bitter all the time. It's not cute or charming or even respectable I'm just plain bitter all the time. I'm working up the courage to clear michael and i's chat. I want to take screenshots of all the shit that went down. All the bullshit he ever said to me. But I want to let it all go more. I just want to move on and forget. Otherwise I'm tying myself to pain. Yada yada. I probably should tend to the laundry and go upstairs. No homework is getting done tonight. I don't want someone to fight my battles for me I just wished someone cared so much that they stood in my corner and only my corner for a little while. Being alive is hard.