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basicjetsetter · 4 years

Text

Part III

♡ Pairing: Peter Parker x Black!FemaleReader

▹ Warnings: Mild Language, Small mention of suicide attempt, Start of the Slow Burn

▹ Words: 3.1k

▹ A/N: Get ready for the slowest slow burn of your life.

Peter Parker is your Soulmate.

Peter Parker is also Spider-Man.

Your bewildered brain tries to rapidly absorb this news as he swings you back onto your apartment’s roof and nimbly sets you down on your feet, safely away from the ledge.

Well, that explains all the times he went missing during school trips. Those days are like a distant memory now, but you hazily remember the day Spider-Man rescued your classmates from a collapsing elevator in the Washington Monument. It was all anyone in Midtown talked about for weeks.

The boy-next-door was your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man all this time. Shock lags in your system. For some weird reason, you aren’t that surprised by the sight of Peter in the Spider-Man suit or by the idea of him being an Avenger, and as you stand on this roof mere feet from him, all you're concerned about is what he might possibly say.

Your heart races as you skeptically watch him spin around to face you.

He rubs a quick, nervous hand against the back of his neck and then, in a split second, pulls off his mask.

Time’s barely touched him, but then again, you long pieced together that your Soulmate must have suffered from the blip. His slightly disheveled hair is still the same chestnut brown, and his cute, boyish features remain intact. The only thing different is his eyes. Nothing extremely drastic changed about them, but even in the dark of night, you spot that they’re somehow more mature than you remember, older in a way that oddly aches a small place in your heart.

All while you scrutinize Peter’s exposed face and apprehensively stare into his eyes, part of you braces for the fireworks to explode and all the stars in the universe to align. This is it, isn’t it? The fated moment your childhood stories preached to be an epically magical experience? Aren’t you supposed to feel something? Anything?

A cricket chirps nearby.

Peter clears his throat, extends a hand to you, and sheepishly says, “Um, h-hi.”

You stare at his hand until it drops down to his side.

“Oh, geez!” he smacks a hand to his forehead. “Sorry, sorry. That was dumb. You probably aren’t thinking about that right now. Are you okay?”

It takes a while to part your lips, and once they’re open, all that comes out is, “Huh?”

“Are—are you okay? You just fell off that ledge over there,” he adds the last part with a gesture to the ledge, as if he’s trying to jog your memory.

You glance at the edge of the roof behind you, then slowly drag your gaze back to him. “Yeah.” Shaking your head, you repeat louder, “Yeah, I’m fine. It was… it was an accident.”

He blows out a relieved breath. “That’s great. Glad I got to you in time cause that would have been a nasty fall.”

You try to hide your flinch, but you’re sure he catches it because he immediately casts his eyes downward, mumbling more apologies while shuffling from one foot to another.

Sobering silence clouds the air around you as the last five minutes replay in your mind. You nearly died. You were seconds away from ending your life. Peter Parker saved you.

Gulping past the enormous lump in your throat, you whisper, “Thank you.”

Both sides of Peter’s mouth quirk up into a soft smile. “You’re welcome.” He pauses for a few beats, appearing to choose his next words carefully, then says, “So… you’re my Soulmate.”

Hearing him speak the words aloud thickens the obstruction in your throat, and all you offer back is an acknowledging nod, which expands Peter’s smile into a grin so bright it trips up your galloping heart.

“I was beginning to think I’d never meet you. I kept, you know, hearing you say my name in my head, so I kinda guessed you were still out there somewhere. Just never thought you’d be in my neighborhood.” He holds out his hand again, and this time you grudgingly shake it. “We had Spanish together, right?”

Once again, you’re stunned into silence. How the hell does Peter even know you? Back in your high school days, you don’t ever remember speaking a word to him, let alone doing something memorable enough for him to know which class you took together. As far as you can recall, Spanish was the only class you shared, and half the time, he was too busy waiting for class to end to notice you.

While you search your memory's repressed files to trace back any time you may have interacted with Peter, he says your name, causing your eyes to flash to his.

“You know my name?”

“Yeah…” he answers like it’d be strange if he didn’t. “We were in the same class for a while, and you painted that really awesome Starry Night with my friend, Ned.”

Something faintly warm and fluttery pitches around in your chest, but you’re quick to stow away the feeling into a locked box. It’s just a compliment—nothing more, nothing less. He seems like a nice guy and all, but there is clearly nothing between you two. No sparks. No deep gazes. No instant connections. Nothing.

Disappointment stings like a cut in your chest as you hurry over to the ledge and gather up your art supplies. When you turn back around, Peter’s staring at you with disheartened confusion, furrowing his brows.

Words haphazardly spill out of your mouth. “It was nice meeting you, Peter, and um, thanks for saving me, but I gotta go cause I have work early in the morning, and it’s super late—”

“Wait, wait, wait!” he rushes, marginally lunging forward as you take a few steps toward the exit, hand outstretched to stop you. “I just—can you tell me where you work? Maybe I can come by, and we can, y’know, talk a little bit. Get to know each other?” he ends with a hopeful, lop-sided smile.

The “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea” sits right on the edge of your tongue, armed and ready for dispatch, but Peter’s anxious little smile stalls it in its tracks. Instead, you shockingly find yourself replying, “Hal’s Diner.”

Peter perks up. “Oh, cool. I know that place. It’s got good pie. So… um, guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” you mumble, trying hard not to kick yourself for giving in so easily. Out of courtesy, you force a small smile onto your lips and say, “Goodnight, Peter.”

He returns your smile ten-fold. “Goodnight.”

As the exit door shuts behind you, you hear the slightest Thwip.

Why couldn’t you just say no?

✦ ✧✦ ✧

Bright and early, you show up at Hal’s Diner thirty-five minutes before you’re scheduled to be there, currently helping Hal prep for the Sunday breakfast crowd. To say your boss was astonished to see you at the front door nearly an hour before opening would be an understatement, but he thankfully didn’t question you.

After everything that transpired last night, from the fall to meeting Peter, the last thing you expected was a restful night’s sleep, but you were zonked the moment your head touched the pillow. For the first time in forever, those words didn’t plague your dreams and your every conscious thought. Your mind is now gloriously quiet.

You finally met your fated person, and now, you can eventually move on.

Except, not really… because Peter thinks it’s necessary to get to know you. Not if you can avoid it.

With that thought looming over your head from the second you woke up, you zoomed through your morning routine and made it out of your apartment in record time. You didn’t really have a game plan or destination in the works when you left, but you knew that your hands and mind needed to be busy to keep the more pressing thought at bay. Hence, your reason for prepping with Hal. At the moment, he’s droning on and on about what a mess last night’s shift turned out to be while you peel potatoes.

“And that new hire, the Dennis kid, screwed up three orders. Three consecutive orders! Two of ‘em from the same couple. If the boy weren’t so good at cleanup, he’d be out the door,” Hal swears, eyeing his inventory list. “Looks like we’re gonna have to stock up on eggs again.”

You hum to show you were listening, but it didn't really matter. Hal could go on like this for days, with or without an audience.

He leans his heavy body against the gigantic industrial refrigerator, then perches his thick-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his bulbous nose. “Alright, now you mind telling me what’s got you here so early?”

“Nothing,” you lie breezily, taking your bowl full of naked potatoes to the sink to rinse them off. The hot water runs freezing cold but gradually warms as you painstakingly rinse the whole surface of every potato, struggling to keep your hands and mind busy. “Just thought I’d be a good employee and help out my boss.”

“Yeah, right,” he scoffs with a laugh, “If that’s true, then there must be pigs flying in Central Park.”

You counter, “Are you insinuating I’m not a good employee?”

“No. Good help like you is hard to come by these days, and everyone in Queens knows I’d be the first in line to praise your workmanship. I’m actually just expressing a nagging concern I have with you notoriously being late and then, in the blink of an eye, turning up here before I can even fit the key in the door. Now, either something’s real wrong or something’s real right. Which one is it?”

Experience with Hal and his prying questions over the last three years taught you how to lie tactfully. Always start with a full lie, then go with a half-truth to throw him off your trail. “I finally got more than four hours of sleep.”

“Great!” Hal beams, clapping his hands together. “Now, why’s that?”

You sigh exasperatedly, “For the love of—Can’t good news just be good news, Hal? Must there be an explanation?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll back off.” He pushes his glasses back up, harrumphing, “Just know that truth is too damn narcissistic to be kept in the dark. It always finds a way to be seen.”

With that, Hal grabs a tattered dishrag and a bottle of cleaning solution off the nearest counter and leaves you in the kitchen, heading out to the dining area to give the booth tables one more wipe down, grumbling about buying new upholstery for the seats.

Try as he might, Hal doesn't have a hope of scaring you into telling him the whole truth. You’re not rolling over that easily. No one in this diner is ever going to find out that you met your Soulmate, and if you’re lucky, it’ll stay a secret until literal pigs are flying in Central Park.

Somehow, someway, you’re going to figure out how to escape whatever this connection is because there must be some cosmic loophole for those who simply don’t want their destiny. There’s no way you’re the only person on this planet who’s ever decided to break from their Soulmate.

If there is any sliver of a connection between you and Peter, he’d understand why you can’t stay. He’d understand, and he’d move on.

You hold onto this hope throughout the rest of the workday. Hal doesn’t badger you again as the diner opens and the Sunday crowd comes bustling in, hungry for syrup-saturated French toast sticks and freshly brewed coffee.

Every time the welcoming bell at the entrance jangled, your eyes fearfully snapped to the door, expecting chestnut hair and a boyishly thousand-watt smile. And every time it wasn’t him, an obnoxious pebble of dismay sank to the pit of your stomach. Between serving customer after customer and watching the door, time slipped away from you, and before you even registered the difference, the warm afternoon sun streamed directly into the diner, and the last ten minutes of your shift approached.

Chris is dragging out a goodbye with a dazzled mother and her teenage son, inadvertently milking more tips out of them with a hilarious story about his favorite ketchup stain on his apron, while Wendy mops over the same black and white tiles for the seventh time, blinking in and out and stifling yawns. You set down two plates of grilled cheeses and steak fries for a young couple, smiling with your plastic smile and brightly telling them to enjoy their meals and to call for you if they need anything else.

As soon as you turn around to check up on the regulars sitting at the stools, the bell jingles, and there in the entrance stands Peter, cheerfully greeted with a perfectly timed, “Welcome to Hal’s, dude!” from Chris.

Your heart stutter-stops, then bursts into a full-on sprint, and before you even understand what you’re doing, you duck down, scurrying behind the bar. Two regulars on the stools, a middle-aged biker nicknamed Spikes and his buddy Garrick, lean over the counter with querying stares. Hastily, you mouth, I’m not here, and they curtly nod in unison, sitting back down.

On the other side of the bar, you hear Chris seat Peter in a booth that sounds dangerously close to your hiding spot, so you squinch down as far as you can go, balling yourself up in a position your knees and back will hate you for later.

“My name’s Chris, and I shall be your server this fine afternoon. Anything I can start you off with…?”

“Peter,” Peter fills in, then answers, “And a slice of Banana Cream Pie would be great.”

You intently listen to the scratch of pen against paper as Chris scribbles down the order. “Sweet, dude. I’ll bring that out to you as soon as possible.”

“Thanks. And, hey, um… does a girl named Y/N work here?”

Your eyes bulge.

“Yeah! Do you want me to get her?” asks Chris helpfully while you internally scream, adding, “I think she might be in the back. Could have sworn she was out here a second ago.”

The best scenario out of this situation would be if Chris miraculously misses your hiding spot, walks into the back and sees you’re not there, then comes back out, missing you again, and informs Peter that you must’ve gone home early. The absolute worst being Chris trips over you and nearly breaks his neck.

By the way things are shaping up, you might as well give yourself away.

“Y’all talking about the little miss with the bun in her hair?” Spikes gruffly interjects. “Cause you just missed her.”

You almost puff out a sigh as relief washes over you like a tidal wave. Spikes has got free burgers and milkshakes coming his way for a month.

“Huh… thought she was here.” Chris stays quiet only for a second, probably questioning the efficacy of his eyesight, before speaking to Peter again. “Sorry about that, man. Still want that pie?”

Just like that, your heart kicks into high gear. Please don’t say yes. Please don’t say yes. Please don’t say yes.

Again, to your utter relief, Peter says, “No, thanks, I actually gotta get going. Mind if I borrow your pen and paper real fast?” You hold in a tense breath as Chris rips off a piece of pad paper and hands it to him. More pen scratches against paper, then Peter speaks up, “Can you make sure this reaches her?”

“Definitely. Have a good rest of your day, and come back anytime, dude.”

You don’t uncoil yourself from behind the bar until the door jingles again and a good five minutes pass. Your muscles and joints achingly cry out from the mistreatment as you warily stand to your full height, and Spikes and Garrick give you a confirmational thumbs-up when you smile at them gratefully.

Chris, spotting you out of the corner of his eye, swivels around and gapes, “Where’d you just come from?”

“The back.” Not entirely a lie.

Chris frowns, “But Spikes just said—”

“I was leaving,” you hurriedly cut in. “But I—I, um, I forgot to…” Your eyes rove around the diner and land on the couple you recently served. You hit your head with your palm in an oops manner and nervously chuckle, “I forgot to give those guys their check. So, I’m just… gonna go and… do that.”

You skirt around Chris’s inquisitively raised eyebrow and head over to the cash register to tabulate the couple’s bill. That was a way too close call. And by the way Chris is still staring at you, it looks as if you’re far from being out of the woods.

Once you hand the couple their check, rush to the back and clock out for the day, and come back out in the dining area to leave, Chris is waiting by the door, holding up the triangled piece of paper Peter left for you.

“Some guy named Peter came by to see you. You know him?” A flash in his eyes dares you to deny it, as if he caught onto your game.

You defiantly square your jaw. “I might. Did he leave that for me?”

“Maybe,” he shrugs, “Wanna tell me who he is?”

“No, I don’t think I will,” you winningly grin as you snatch the paper from his hand.

Chris wears the same winning smile. “Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll ask him when he comes back tomorrow.”

You blanch, “Wh-what—what makes you think he’s coming back tomorrow?”

“All my customers come back. Always,” he promises. Chris never seemed like the type to issue positive threats, but here he is, threatening you with that friendly smile lighting his jovial face.

The promising threat rings in your ears as you walk out the door and head to your apartment. Halfway there, you remember the crumpled piece of paper grasped in your balled-up fist. You move out of the flow of pedestrian traffic, lean against the brick façade of a mini-mart, and unfold the paper.

Peter’s straight-forward scrawl reads: Sorry I missed you. Be back earlier tomorrow :) – Peter P., and at the bottom of the note is a phone number with an arrow pointing to it, saying, My cell #.

A small, itty-bitty smile flits across your lips as your eyes linger on Peter’s smiley face, and for the briefest moment, you’re transported back to the roof, losing your breath all over again as he smiles that innocently beautiful smile.

Avoiding him is going to be tougher than you thought.

...

Part IV

#peter parker #peter parker au #peter parker x reader #peter parker x black!reader #spider-man x reader #spider-man x black!reader #soulmate au #marvel fanfic #peter parker fanfic #peter parker angst #post endgame #post infinity war #peter parker soulmate au #pre far from home #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker slow burn #slow burn #black!reader #how to trust a heart

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h2bakugou · 4 years

Note

How about some headcanons for All-Might, Bakugou, and Tokoyami spending the day at an amusement park, or water park?

a/n: ooo!! i love this, and im an undercover simp for tokoyami so yes

headcanon: them taking their s/o to an amusement/water park

key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (e/c) - eye color / (h/c) - hair color / (y/q) - your quirk

warnings: fluff, swearing, slight anime/manga spoilers (takes place after the hideout raid arc/battle at kamino ward!!)

»»————-　★　————-««

all might/yagi toshinori

»»————-　★　————-««

All Might will most likely have to wear some sort of disguise, but it will probably just be some sunglasses and a hat.

He’s determined to take you on this date after you mentioned how you’d never been to an amusement park before.

“You’ve never been on a rollercoaster or-”

“Nope.” You laugh, cuddling up to Yagi on the couch while the two of you watched a movie.

The next day he woke you up early and was dressed in something light and casual.

“What time is it?” You mumbled as you rolled out bed after being told to hurry up and get dressed.

“Just about seven am.”

It takes two hours to get to where you’re going, meanwhile you’re under the impression it’s some hero thing, but when you begin to see the large rollercoasters peeking over the treetops everything comes flooding back to you, and there’s this excitement that begins to bubble inside.

All Might enjoys seeing you happy, and he’s super sweet too. He buys your ticket and the two of you sprint off into the park like children.

Your first rollercoaster, was a rollercoaster. You were tied between screaming in terror and laughing from joy. It was crazy, but you wanted to do it again.

“That was awesome!” You cheer as you exit the rollercoaster’s entry building.

“You looked mortified the entire time.” Yagi’s hand was holding your as you walked through the park, searching to find new things to do.

There was bumper cars, which was pretty fun, you managed to bump Yagi around a few good times.

Then there was the ferris wheel, which was even better. It felt cliché to sit in it and kiss when it got to the top, but, sitting in Yagi’s arms while he held you and kissed you gently was something you never wanted to end.

Until the cart reached the ground again and you had to get out.

The date continued when he brought you to the stands where you could win prizes.

Determined to win him something, you aimed high and fought strong. In the end, you’d both won gigantic teddy bears for each other, laughing about how they were going to barely fit in the car after.

When the park was finally closing, you left with some dessert food, but happy and thrilled with your first time at an amusement park.

Strapping the oversized stuffed bears into the backseats of the car was about as much fun as the park itself, joking to Yagi about them being your stuffed children and how they have to obey road laws.

When you arrived back home, you crash. Yagi and you both seem to change, though you don’t remember, and pass out lazily in the bed together, cuddled next to each other.

Overall, it was a great experience.

»»————-　★　————-««

katsuki bakugou

»»————-　★　————-««

Bakugou’s excited. He loves competition, so taking you to an amusement park seems right up his alley.

All the games he could play, and win, just to get you prizes. He’s sold the second you mention it.

When you arrive, everything seems to happen so fast.

You’re screaming and holding onto Bakugou as you ride some rollercoasters, it’s fun but equally terrifying.

There’s the one rollercoaster where you took your picture kissing, which Bakugou bought and intended to frame and keep forever.

Then there’s the carousel, which doesn’t seem super fun to Bakugou, but you’re dragging him onto the two person horse, setting him in the first seat while you climb on behind him.

“This is-”

Bakugou freezes when you wrap your arms around his waist and lay your head on the back of his shoulder. It’s endearing and so nice. Bakugou’s cheeks turn a bit pink from the turnout, but begins to try and out-rock the other kids and nearly knocks you off of the horse in the process.

After the carousel, Bakugou heads straight to the prize games, and the high striker catches his eye.

“Test your strength young boy!” The man calls as Bakugou walks over.

“Put it on the strongest setting.” Bakugou’s confident.

A little too confident.

“As you wish!” The man laughs. You stand back and watch and Bakugou picks up the large gavel-like hammer and swings it, striking the plate. The puck began to rise, but quickly fell. It moved up to the fourth tick before falling.

Bakugou stared at it in horror and whipped his head back and fourth in confusion.

“Can I try?” You ask, stepping out form the crowd. Bakugou hands you the mallet with a huff and stands back.

“Don’t change it.” You smile to the man running the game and step back, gripping the mallet.

You bring the mallet down quick with force you’d worked hard to have. Putting everything into one strike, you focused hard.

When it hit the lever, the puck rose and slammed into the bell with such speed, the operator thought it was going to fly off the track.

Bakugou’s mouth gaped as you left with a giant stuffed All-Might.

When the park closed you both left happy, even though Bakugou was still butt-hurt over the high striker game.

You fell asleep on the train ride back to U.A. dozing off on Bakugou’s shoulder.

You gave Bakugou the stuffed All-Might plushie and he was grateful. He had wanted to win it for you.

It was a great experience, and Bakugou would love to do it again.

»»————-　★　————-««

fumikage tokoyami

»»————-　★　————-««

Tokoyami brings you to an indoor waterpark, and it’s a very interesting place for a date.

Walking around, hand-in-hand, you point out a few slides that look like fun.

“Let’s do this one!” It’s probably the biggest one there, but Tokoyami nods in approval as you begin to ascend the stairs.

“Dark Shadow seems to be excited.” You giggle as Tokoyami and Dark Shadow stand in line beside you, Dark Shadow jumping around eagerly.

“He seems to have a mind of his own. I’m afraid he won’t be able to go down the slide, but he can live vicariously through me.” Tokoyami smiles, a rare sight, but a beautiful one nonetheless.

The first slide is fir for up to four people, but because it’s just you and Tokoyami, you’re seated across from one another on the raft.

It’s fun and exciting when you enter the slide, it’s dark and you can’t see anything, but as light begins to come into view, you feel yourself drop.

A shrill of joy rips through you as you come sliding down, water splashing all over.

Tokoyami seems to be fine, a few laughs come from him as he watches you try to stay in the raft, holding on for dear life.

After you slide out into the exit pool, Tokoyami sees something catch his eye.

“Come on, let’s go here love.” Tokoyami’s hand wraps around yours, pulling you along.

When you reach the spot, there’s not much there. A few other people are waiting around, but there’s no rides, no nothing.

“Did you want to get ready to leave or-”

A loud chiming interrupts you, and you start to look around frantically. As you look up, you can see a large bucket tip over, sending a large wave of water crashing down over you. You manage to give Tokoyami one last look before your drenched completely.

After, Tokoyami can’t help but laugh. He’s smiling and blushing as he looks at you, completely overcome with joy.

“That was, surprisingly really fun.” You laughed, giving him a wet hug. As water dripped off both of you, you decide it’s best to get some lunch.

You return to the park after letting your food digest and do a few more rides and activities before leaving when the park closes.

When you arrive back at the dorms, you rush to get into warm clothes and meet back up with Tokoyami at his dorm to look over the photo’s you’d taken together and even one you had done professionally at the park.

Falling asleep in each other’s arms wasn’t meant to happen, but the both of you were exhausted and it just happened. Dark Shadow eventually came out and made sure to cover the both of you up and cuddle up next to you.

»»————-　★　————-««

masterlist

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duuhrayliegh · 4 years

Text

watch your six - part two

pairing: eventual bucky x reader

warnings: some violence, trigger warning of sedation (it isn’t in there for a long time and the description of it isn’t super good BUT it’s still there), mentions of kidnapping, i think that’s it.

word count: just a bit over 3k

a/n: okay! here’s part two, i’m experimenting with the longer parts, so let me know what y’all think of it. bucky does make an appearance soon, i swear y’all :) just be patience with me babes. also, i know this isn’t like the typical fan fic because it isn’t in the second person but we’re powering through together. i hope y’all enjoy babes <3

p.s.: if y’all want to be added to a tag list for this series, shoot me a message and we’ll get it worked out

series m.list

ray’s m.list

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

I shot up from my bed, eyes wild and frantic searching for anything to ground me to my current surroundings. It was just a dream, just a dream. It was just a dream. Except it didn’t feel like a dream. Everything was too detailed, too crisp for it to have really been just a dream. I swung my legs off my bed and grabbed a hold of the fluffy white comforter. Groaning, I pushed my feet to touch the cold hardwood of my apartment. I made my way towards my kitchen and my coffee maker. I popped a breakfast blend K-cup into the slot and dumped a mug full of water into the side of the machine. Pressing the button, I turned while listening to the coffee machine force the water through the coffee grounds and filter and into my cup.

Looking out into my living room, I eyed my couch. It was intact with no bullet holes riddling the cushions. It was still the pristine white that I’ve spent many nights curled on watching movies. The dark stained wood coffee table in front of it brought memories of long study sessions with books and loose papers strewn across it. A faint smile graced my lips as I was reminiscing. The black coffee maker spit the last of the dark substance into my mug, so I reached into my cabinets and pulled out the essentials. I’ve never been one for pure black coffee, tastes like tar in my opinion. The aftertaste isn’t something that I want to deal with for as long as it’ll last.

I dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into the cup and then poured a dash of liquid creamer in along with it. Stirring the now light brown liquid, I raised the mug to my mouth and took a much needed sip. Sighing as I swallowed, I walked around to the couch in the living. Plopping down, I kicked my feet to rest on top of the coffee table. Leaning back against the cushions, I tried to process what my dream was about.

It was just too real to be a dream, right? It was awfully specific to be a dream. Squinting my eyes, I nodded my head and set my mug on the table. Reaching for my laptop and opening the first browser I could, I searched ‘dream analysis.’ Maybe they’ll have something that can give me an answer as to why it was so clear. Scrolling down the first website, my eyes scanning the bolded letters. Nine Common Dreams and What They Could Mean, oh perfect. Flying, being naked in public, teeth falling out, cheating, none of these are like my dream. I shook my head and swiped out of the website and back to the search engine.

It was late in the morning and the sun was rising to its peak when I finally gave up. It’s obvious what happened though, I’ve gone mental. Absolutely insane, just plain certifiable. No, no, that’s not what it is. My coffee now gone cold, I placed my closed laptop on the coffee table next to the discarded coffee mug. I stood and my head started throbbing. Deciding I would have a better outlook on things without a pounding head, I took a shower. The water was a pleasant, scalding temperature. Leaving the bathroom with my hair in a towel and another wrapped around my body, I changed into a simple pair of ripped mom jeans and an oversized t-shirt. Hanging my towels on the rack in the bathroom, I brushed my teeth and then turned out the light as I left.

Today was my one day off of work this week and I was going to savor it. Slipping on a pair of ratty sneakers and grabbing my purse from the hook next to the door, I left my cozy apartment. I locked the door and shoved my keys all the way to the bottom of my purse. I left my building with the intention of trying to shake off the nightmare that I had. To do so, I went into the coffee shop at the end of the block. I pushed the doors open and was greeted with a warm and inviting atmosphere. Dark floors gave way to twinkling lights illuminating the charcoal gray walls. Behind the counter, I make eye contact with the barista and receive a tight-lipped smile from him. “Hi, welcome to Beniot’s Beans. What can I get started for you today?”

I glanced at the chalkboard menu and ran my eyes over it quickly. I already knew what I wanted, but I needed to prepare myself to say it out loud. “Hello, can I get a medium caramel iced coffee to go, please?” I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet as he scribbled my order onto the clear plastic cup. He told me my total as I looted in my wallet for my bills. After placing the money in the register, he explained that they would call my order when it was ready. I nodded and walked off to find somewhere to sit that was out of the way. After situating myself on one of the comfortable armchairs, I pulled my phone out in an effort to discourage human interaction. After retrieving my order from the counter, I sat back down in the armchair, trying to decide what to do next. The hour was just rolling over to being almost lunchtime, which made me realize that I hadn’t eaten anything yet. Shrugging my purse back onto my shoulder and shoving my phone into it, I left the store throwing a small wave to the barista behind the counter.

Sighing contentedly, I made the trek back to my apartment while steadily drinking the iced coffee. Some people say coffee shouldn’t be cold, and then there’s people who have sense. Giggling to myself, I took in my surroundings. Brick buildings lined the small two-way road. The donut shop on the opposite side of the street had two cop cruisers sitting in front of it. The contrasting black and white paint with black lettering outlined in yellow was intimidating. There was no reason for it to be, but there was just an aura of discomfort encapsulating the cars. By this time, I had stopped, slurping on my almost empty iced coffee. Breaking out of my trance with a ring of a bell, four officers exited the donut shop. Two of the officers held off-white cardboard boxes, they were all laughing at something. I tilted my head and scrunched my brows, guess the stereotype about cops is true, they love their donuts. Sensing a stare, one of the officers looked around for the source. Eventually, our gazes locked and he winked. Uh, ew. Making a face, I shook my head and went about my way back to my apartment.

Despite that experience, it was nice to be able to have no specific agenda, just relaxing and going with the flow. My inner monologue stopped when I got to my kitchen and started deciding what to prepare for lunch. Finally landing on a box of macaroni and cheese to satisfy my hunger, I set to work. The pot of water now on the stove, I tossed my empty plastic cup from the coffee shop into the garbage bin. I went around to my living room and grabbed my coffee mug from earlier and placed it in the sink, after rinsing it out. I’ll wash that and the stuff I use for lunch after I finish eating. I dumped the box of uncooked noodles into the now boiling water. Soon, the macaroni was ready to be eaten, so I poured the cheesy noodles into a bowl. Hoisting myself onto the granite countertop, I began to inhale the food. Wow, okay I was hungrier than I thought. It didn’t take long to finish off the noodles. As I was washing the dirty dishes, the intercom system of the apartment went off. Weird, I wasn’t expecting anyone. “Who is it?” I inquired into the speaker box. “Hi, I’m looking for the inhabitant of this flat.”

My brows furrowing, I asked again, “Who is this?”

“Ma’am, please don’t waste my time or yours. Is this the woman who lives in this apartment, yes or no?” They sounded exhausted. “I need to speak with the woman who lives here.” I was shocked, this didn’t seem right. Alright, I’m a woman living alone in an apartment building. Some stranger comes to my building, asking to speak to me, so what do I do?

“Uh, yeah they’re not here. You’ll have to come back later.” The lie was easy. Safety first and all, right? There was no reply after waiting a few minutes, so I went back to doing my dishes. After drying and putting them away, I kicked my shoes off and settled into my couch with a fluffy blue throw. Flicking the TV on, I picked the home improvement channel. I stretched out on the couch while wondering how realtor Bessie May was going to find this couple the perfect home. Snuggling further into the pillows, I was able to drift off into a dreamless slumber.

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

It was loud banging that eventually roused me. Untangling myself from the fluff that wrapped around my legs, I toppled onto the floor. “I’m coming, hold your horses!” I shouted at the door. Who the hell? I swear if it’s my crazy neighbor again. “Marge! If this is you, we are going to have a problem!” I huffed my way to the door and yanked it open to reveal a group of men in what looked like dark tactical gear. Confusion overtook my facial features. I took a step back and tightened my grip on my door knob.

“Um… hi? Can I help you?” I questioned the group at large.

“Ma’am, we’re looking for the permanent resident of this apartment.” The man to my left said. He was short and stocky, he was also the only man wearing a dark gray suit. “Are you the permanent resident of this unit?” He continued while trying to see over my shoulders and into the living room.

“No, they’re not here right now.” I repeated the lie from earlier. I had an inkling this had to do with that, what else could it be?

“Well, do you know when she’ll be back?” He pressed, still stealing glances into my abode.

“No, she didn’t say. You’ll have to come back later. Goodbye.” I stated while closing the door. I was almost home free until a combat boot clad foot was stuck into the door frame.

“You see ma’am, this really isn’t the time to be lying to me.” The suited man explained. I took a deep breath and continued trying to close the door.

“Well, I’ve already told you all I know. The person who owns this place isn’t here right now.” The door was stopped yet again by the same foot.

“Ma’am, you need to invite us inside. We have things to discuss.” Suits ordered.

My brows raised, “Or what?” I scoffed, “Look you need to leave before I call the police. Good day to you gentlemen.” Another attempt to close the door was once again defeated, but this time the door swung in. Allowing entrance into my apartment. My eyes widened and I rushed away from the door, putting as much distance between the group of men and myself.

“What the hell are you doing! I’m calling the police.” I reached for my phone that was laying on the coffee table. It was snatched away from me by a man in tactical gear. His hair was cropped and dark, he slipped my phone into one of the many pockets of his vest. I raised my eyebrows at the man, and began demanding my phone from him.

“Listen ma’am, we’re going to need you to come with us.” Suits insisted. My gaze darted to him, if looks could kill man. “We’re allowing you the privilege of getting a bag of your necessities.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm my ever rising nerves. I brought the heels of my palms to my eyes, trying to clear the fogginess of sleep to process what Suits was saying. “We don’t have all day. Get your stuff now.” I shook my head and started refusing.

“Yeah, that won’t be happening. I’m asking you one last time to leave my apartment before I start screaming.” I crossed my arms over my chest in a protective stance. They’ve got five seconds before I raise hell. Suits made a face that looked like he was disappointed.

“Grab her.” The man who took my phone advanced at me. His whole hand covered my upper arm, lifting it and beginning to drag me to the door. I started kicking out, clawing, trying to make contact with anything that I could hurt. Damage, don’t stop fighting. Don’t give in. Whipping my upper body around, I managed to scratch the man's cheek. He cried out in pain and his grip loosened for just a moment. Long enough for me to wrench my arm away from him and run towards the front door. My path was interrupted by a wall of a man. Towering over me, he wrapped both of his arms around my torso. Effectively stopping all of my movement while he turned me in his grasp to face Suits once again.

“Help! Someone help me! Help me!” This was a quiet enough building, shouts like that would surely gain someone’s attention, right? “Help! Someone help me, please!” I was screaming my throat sore. Not stopping until there was a large hand placed over my mouth. Even then, there were muffled cries that could be heard throughout my otherwise silent apartment unit. Stifled sobs were leaving my lungs in heaves. Suits approached me and shook his head,

“It really didn’t have to be like this but, of course.” He turned to one of his goons and nodded his head towards me. I began screaming again as the final goon stepped forward. His hair was slicked back and I could smell the hair gel that he must have just dipped his head into. Hair Gel reached into his pocket and brought out a small white case.

He unzipped the case and gestured to the mass of a man behind me. My head was moved to expose my neck, I struggled against Mass while Hair Gel approached. Screaming and thrashing trying to disrupt what I thought was about to happen. Hair Gel assembled a syringe, outfitting it with a blue capped needle. Hair Gel extracted a clear liquid into the syringe, he got closer to my jolting body, glaring at Mass.

“Hold her still, you buffoon.” He grunted at Mass. The grip around me began cutting off my circulation to the lower half of my body. Not deterring me in any way, I still made it as hard as I could for Hair Gel. There was a pinch on the side of my neck, and then a warm feeling passed through my body. Mass’s hand was still covering my mouth and his arms around my torso, if it weren’t for that I probably would’ve fallen straight to the ground. Oh hell man, what am I going to do now?

My body went limp in Mass’s hold, and my mind was starting to become fuzzy. Looking around at the three men in front of me, I worried what was going to happen. I’ve seen Taken. I know what happens to girls who travel alone. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen to people like me. Suits sighed yet again, looking disinterested in the whole affair. Suits looked to the man who I scratched and shook his head at him.

“You seriously let her get her hands on you?” Suits mocked, “That’s pathetic, Gomez.”

“Pathetic? She was clawing me, man!” The man, Gomez, defended.

“It doesn’t matter, you idiot. You still aren’t supposed to let it happen.” Suits berated Gomez and then waved him off, “Go get the stuff. And don’t mess it up this time, ya got that?” Gomez rolled his eyes at Suits, but nodded anyway. He left the room towards my bedroom. My eyelids started drooping, I willed them to stay open a bit longer.

“How long’s it gonna take that stuff to kick in?” Suits asked Hair Gel.

“Oh, it starts working immediately.” Hair Gel finished replacing everything in his white case, turning to me, he continued, “The body reacts to the compound right away, inducing temporary paralysis. It’s really quite remarkable to watch it in action.”

Suits glanced at Hair Gel, “You mean to tell me it doesn’t make them unconscious? What the hell did I bring you along for?”

“Of course it makes the victim unconscious, what do you think I’m stupid or something? It just takes a couple of minutes for the enzyme to break down for the brain.” Hair Gel tilted his head while looking at me. He gave me a once over and if I had any kind of control over my body, there would’ve been an unmistakable shiver that passed through my body. Gomez emerged with a duffle in tow and dumped the closed bag on the couch.

“Don’t forget the laptop, Gomez.” Suits reminded him while his attention was on the kitchen of my apartment. “Alright, let’s go.” With the effort it takes to lift a feather, Mass carried me bridal style out of my unit. My eyelids were becoming even more heavy and I screamed and shouted in my head, but my mouth just wouldn’t move. The four men made their way out, passing my crazy neighbor Marge.

“Can I help you boys with something?” Marge’s door was open, and she leaned up against the frame, watching this scene go down.

“Nothing to be worried about ma’am. This is official government business.” Suits reported, simply shrugging off Marge.

“Government business?” Marge shrieked, and a glimmer of hope flashed in my head. Marge won’t fall for your bullshit Suits. She’s going to save me. “I always knew there was something off about that one.” What the hell, Marge?

“Like I said ma’am, nothing to worry about. Now if you would, just go back inside. We’re done here.” Suits advised. Marge, who was none the wiser, bounced her shoulders and turned back into her own unit. She could be heard through the door explaining to her guests that her next door neighbor was always strange and never really sat right with her.

“Doesn’t surprise me they’re taking her away. I always knew something was off about that girl. I told you so.” Marge howled with laughter after her statement. My last hope dashed by my crazy neighbor’s complete ignorance and lack of acknowledgement for her surroundings. Mass began his descent of the stairs with a steady pace. The constant rocking back and forth of his body weight served to lull my eyelids the rest of the way closed.

#bucky x reader #eventual bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #james buchanan barnes #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #sebastian stan #bucky fanfic #female reader insert #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes

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octupus-on-the-moon · 3 years

Text

I`m the favorite

Pairing: Non, just the Wilson family and Red Wing.

Wordcount: 2689

Warning: Non

Author´s note: This little story is based on this post of this super cool blog @justsamwilson, check it out too.

The moon stood high above a lake bathed in darkness; only a soft light, that emerged of a house near the shore, reflected on the water surface. The air was pleasantly warm and humid, around the double-gallery house, whose blue color almost seemed black between the shadows. Crickets were chirping and fireflies humming, only the subdued sound of conversation and laughter, coming from the residence, disrupted the almost complete silence.

The Wilson family was having dinner. James Barnes or ‘Bucky’ as everyone called him, came over to spend the weekend. The kids where specially excited about Uncle Bucky’s visit, he was the only one with enough time to play. Sam and Sarah were also glad that he came over every once in a while, to help out with whatever he could.

Now after a long day of fishing, cleaning and packing up deliveries all were enjoying Sarah’s gumbo.

“The soup is amazing Sarah” Bucky praised her with a warm smile, she blushed looking down at her half full plate.

“Thank you. It´s a family recipe. I can write it down for you if you want” Sarah replied, tucking a strain of hair behind her ear, earning an annoyed look from Sam who was sitting across from her.

“That won´t be necessary, if I want some I just need to come here. It´s really good so I’ll be around a lot” Bucky chuckled tilting his head and taking another spoon full of gumbo. The boys whispered at each other giggling.

Sam sighted irritated “Okey enough flir…”

A loud melody coming from his phone in the pocket of his jeans interrupted Sam.

“Oh it´s Torres” He said tapping on the screen “Hi, what’s up?”

A distorted voice, only understandable for Sam, came out of the phone as he stood up. “I’m with my four-favorite people in this world having dinner” He explained, walking out on the porch into the friendly night.

The scraping of spoons continued unaffected.

“Of course, I’m his number one favorite nephew and person” Stated Cass out of the blue, blowing at his glasses that tarnished under the steam of the hot soup.

“Ha. You can´t even eat a soup right” AJ opposed, whose glasses where perfectly clear “I´m older than you, so I´m his favorite”

“At least I can take my glasses off and stop seeing your ugly face” Cass snapped back sticking out his tongue.

Sarah took a deep breath “Stop it you two” she scolded both, clapping her hand gently against Cass´s head, who was sitting right next to her.

“Well, I´m his partner in crime and I saved the world with him, so I would be his favorite number one” Bucky added, innocently starring at an interesting spot on the wall, while Sarah glared at him.

“That’s not fair. Just because he didn’t let me go with him” Cass pouted “I could have saved the world too”

AJ rolled his eyes behind his glasses. “You couldn´t even walk back then, dummy”

Sarah quickly chewed her last bite “Hey, we don´t talk like that in this house” extending her right arm over to the front side of the table to clap softly AJ´s head, as she did before with Cass. “And you are all wrong. I’m his sister. I know him longer than any of you. So obviously I am his favorite” She taunted, challengingly looking towards Bucky now.

Turning their eyes into the same direction, the brothers waited expectantly a response; causing Bucky to clear his throat and shift his torso to sit up right. “Oh really” he said still searching for a quick answer.

Then his eyes lit up “IIIIIIII spent five years with him in a weird glitch reality. That” Bucky paused dramatically “Makes me his number one”

The mention of that unfortunate time stiffened Sarah´s shoulders, but went unnoticed by the boys who high fived, twisting around on their seat, to see their mother´s reaction.

“Aha. After a month you probably bored him to death” Sarah countered with a serious tone “I can cook him all his favorite meals, ergo I´m the favorite”

The brothers quietly glanced over to Bucky, who did not appear amused either. The last words altered the atmosphere. It was chilly in the room, yet the temperature had not changed.

Bucky lifted his chin pretentiously “Pff. That´s nothing. Sam went two years on the run for me” his voice had a harsh undertone, that was not there before “I am his favorite”. Sarah stared back at him with ice cold eyes and the brothers hold their breath.

The tense moment passed as soon, as Sam’s heavy steps entered the room “What did I miss?” he asked with the always welcoming warm tone he had.

Bucky relaxed, as far as he could, picking up his spoon pocking the remains of his soup.

Sarah turned her head, letting down her shoulders, with a bright beam “Not much. How´s Torres doing?”

The dinner went on as before, polite conversation and more gumbo, but something unkind lurked in the air among the plates.

A silent dare between Sarah and Bucky settled.

Prove each other who was the favorite.

***

The weekend passed under an invisible contest between Sarah and Bucky.

The kids thought it was a fun idea persuading uncle Sam to admit who was the favorite number one, by doing extra nice things for him. The brothers gifted Sam some self-painted comics, with their cool uncle Captain America saving their day and helped him cleaning his super suite, among other little chores; But quickly let go of it, when their uncle Bucky and Mom took it to the extreme.

Bucky was constantly around Sam asking him at any given moment if he could help him or do it all himself instead of Sam. From renovating the whole cabin of the boat, to just serve him a coffee. Always being polite, letting out any teasing or offensive joking, which rapidly irritated Sam.

Unlike Bucky, Sarah, worked in the background: Serving the meals he most liked, bringing a refreshing lemonade under the hot sun of July or checking on the boats motor, so it would not die while Sam was out fishing. Smiling and being nice, without drawing to much attention on herself.

Sam did not mind being so well attended by his loved ones the first hours of that Saturday morning. After lunch he started to feel that something was off, apart from Bucky´s suspicious behavior. On his way back to the boat after a little break he realized, that the Boys were quieter than usual around their mother and that Bucky had not flirted with Sarah in more than 12 hours, which was nearly a miracle.

As almost every Saturday, Bucky and Sam, kept working on the boat.

“Hey Buck, can you pass me that screwdriver?” Sam asked looking straight at the doorless frame in front of him.

“Yes of course. Do you need something else? Can I help you with that?” Bucky passed him the screwdriver, looking interested on the hinges Sam was exchanging.

“No, it´s fine, you check on that doors paint” Sam replied, signing towards a freshly painted door leaning against the rail of the boat.

"Just" he stopped for a moment turning around to see Bucky in the eyes. "One question"

Bucky nodded enthusiastically, unusual for his serious persona "Of course, what is it?"

"What the hell is going on with you all?" Sam asked leaning against the doorway, crossing both arms over his chest.

"Us? Nothing. We're just doing what we do every weekend?" Bucky’s enthusiastic face fell apart, making place for his familiar icy expression. Without awaiting another word from Sam, he turned around to keep working on the paint of the door.

Sam sighted. He knew that face far too well and now he was more than sure that something was up. But Sam never got far pressing Bucky to tell him what he knew, felt or thought.

He will need to ask the boys what is going on.

Sam pressed a button on what at first sight could be a wristwatch. It was actually a remote for Red Wing. Sam made a second one for daily use. Red Wing is not only a weapon for him; he could be quite useful for many things.

"Red Wing locate AJ and Cass, tell them they should come to the boat" Sam quietly order into the remote. "Then I want you to fly over my position and take pictures"

The roof of the cabin was leaking since Sam had memory. Bucky wanted to climb on the cabin earlier this morning, since Sarah lent their ladder to one of the neighbors. But with the boat slight movement and the wet surface of the cabin roof, Sam did not want him to get hurt. With a few good pictures of Red Wing, they could see what needed to be repaired and do it the next time both had a free weekend.

***

Almost an hour passed, till Red Wings hum, announced the arrival of the two brothers.

Sam did not worry; both often went down to the village to play soccer with the other kids.

"Hey uncle Bucky, hey uncle Sam. What's up?" AJ questioned tiredly climbing on to the boat. The two were covered in mud and Cass was holding a brown round mass of what must be a soccer ball.

"You two had fun I see" Bucky said smiling at them.

"Only your mom will not be pleased when she sees you two like that" Sam added, smirking towards Bucky, who nodded accordingly. "Anyway, you need to clean up and I need to talk to you. Dinner must be ready soon" Sam answered AJ's question.

"Buck, I'll be back in a second. Then we can hang in the door and finish up for today" Sam's bracelet remote beeped. Red Wing had sent the pictures to his phone.

***

"What's going on uncle Sam?" Cass asked after all three had left the boat and were slowly walking to the back of the house to clean up their mess, before their mother saw them.

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you too" Sam replied.

"Nothing. What should be going on?" AJ eluded him, nervously side eyeing Cass.

Sam specified his question "Why are your uncle and your mom acting so strange?"

"Oh, about that..." Cass and AJ responded in unison, looking at each other. Then both giggled. And Sam's confusion grew even worse.

Then a high pitched and blurred voice, from inside the house, screamed at them.

It was Sarah. She opened the window "Look at you two. Who is going to wash that? And the grass stains on that jeans AJ?"

"I was goalkeeper" AJ said, loud enough so only his brother and uncle could hear it.

"You’re not going to enter my house like that! AJ I heard that. No talking back to me, you know that. You two are going to wash your own clothes, just so we are clear" Sarah's frustrated tone changed immediately as she saw Sam "Oh, hey Sam, are you done for today? Dinner is almost ready, but you can shower before that if you want"

The boys went around the house to follow their mothers request and get rid of the mud, while their mom was distracted; Sam´s question already forgotten.

It took him a beat too long to respond, but Sarah waited patiently “Yes we´re almost done. I’ll shower before dinner, but don´t wait for me. Bucky probably wants to…”

“Oh, don´t worry we can wait. It´s not like we’re starving to death” Sarah interrupted him with an exaggerated laugh.

Sam sighted again. The day was pretty busy, the sun hot and he was tired.

But curiosity killed the cat, right?

“Sarah” Sam voice now a little sharper “What is going on between you and Buck?”

***

With a frustrated huff Sam let the cold water run down his body.

Nobody knew anything, but everyone acted strange, he thought, massaging his temples enjoying the cool wet.

Sarah did not answer. She gave a short explanation about her relationship with Bucky, completely missing the point of his question. Then she vanished from the window, leaving Sam with his doubts.

Now he was trying to figure it out himself. What exactly he needed to figure out was unclear too. “What did I miss?” he questioned out loud in to the empty bathroom.

Everything was perfectly fine till today morning. They couldn´t have discussed in the morning, because he was always the first up on his feet.

Absentmindedly he soaped and rinsed his hair and body.

Then it struck him. Torres´s call. They must have discussed during his call. That would explain why the boys were so obediently quiet afterwards.

“But what could they have discussed about?” another question floating unanswered in the steamy air of the bathroom.

Sam stepped out of the shower, at the moment his Red Wing remote beeped. He sent the little drone out to look for bee nests around the house. They were pretty common around here, but for AJ deadly due to his allergy.

He must have found one somewhere.

Sam made a mental note to call the beekeeper, to remove the nest safely. But he dismissed the idea almost immediately.

Red wing.

Red wing was laying on the sofa last night, he probably recorded the whole evening. Bucky complained afterwards that Sam leaves Red Wing everywhere after repairing or upgrading him. He must have recorded the discussion between Sarah and Buck.

Without wasting much more time in the bathroom, Sam rushed over to his room, where Red Wing was patiently waiting for new orders on his bed.

“Red Wing, replay the audio footage of last night between” Sam rapidly took his phone out “7.35 and 7.40”

***

AJ and Cass looking shiny new in their fresh clothes, were nervously waiting for uncle Sam. Their Mother and Uncle were ignoring each other sipping on their glass of wine. The kitchen smelled amazing with the different pregnant spices of the casserole hanging in the air.

From the top they could hear Sam´s distinguished steps coming down the stair. At the sound of it, Bucky´s and Sarah´s posture changed immediately to warm smiles and relaxed shoulders.

Sam came down with a big grin on his face and Red Wing in his hands.

“Finally” Cass sighted, already grabbing the spoon to serve himself, just to get his hand clapped away by Sarah.

“Don´t be so impatient Cass, let your uncle take a seat first”

“Oh, don´t worry about me. Cass serve yourself; I still have something to say” Sam intervened his grin growing even bigger. Sarah and Bucky exchanged for the first time a glance.

“Red Wing, had been quite useful today” Sam said laying the drone on a little side table near the stairs. “Yes, quite useful” Sam repeated with a chuckle seating himself on his usual spot besides Bucky, who seemed really preoccupied over his strange behavior.

“I think if I ever stranded on a lone island, I would hope to have Red Wing with me” Sam kept on talking, taking the spoon from AJ, who already was pouncing his plate. “He could alarm me from any wild animals or even hunt something for me, without complaining or competing” he added savoring the confused expressions of his family “Yes, he truly is my favorite” Sam finished, passing the spoon to Bucky.

Sarah choked on her wine, looking over to Bucky, who couldn´t compute what was going on.

The boys bursted out in to a laugh, Sam gladly joined.

“How?” Buck asked knitting his brows, still holding the serving spoon, then his eyes shifted to the little red drone on the side table “Oh”

“Yes” was the only thing Sam managed to say between tears.

Sarah and Bucky looked at each other for another moment completely embarrassed. Then both grinned joining the others laughs.

After everyone caught their breath again, Cass broke the silence “But uncle Sam who´s your real favorite?”

Sam smiled at his little nephew “Red wing is real isn´t he?”

#tfatws #mcu fic #sam wilson #bucky barnes #wilson family #bucky fanfic #sam fanfic #marvel #mcu #captain america

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yelena-bellova · 4 years

Text

Don’t Be Afraid: Poe Dameron x Solo!Reader - Chapter Six

Chapter Six: Grief and Nostalgia

Series Masterlist

Plot: Reader and Rey run into trouble at Niima Outpost, plus they meet a man who’s wearing a familiar jacket.

Warnings: character death (major), angst, very little language

Word Count: 4.8k

A/N: I DREADED writing this chapter...I kept stalling on it because it kept bumming me out + action descriptions are hard for me to write for whatever reason. Now give me angsty dialogue and that’s my sweet spot 👌🏻 Anyway, I’ll keep it short and sweet. Enjoy! (Apologies for any typos)

————————-

“Alright, BB-8, y/n and I are going to load you into the netting. It’s sturdier than it looks, you won’t fall out.”

I’m not sure about this.

I rolled my eyes, “Bee, you flew back on a mission from Corellia practically hanging by your antenna with Poe as the pilot but netting on a speeder is where you draw the line?”  Yes, I did and yes, it is.

Rey chuckled, “Is this Poe a particularly reckless flyer?”

BB-8 whirled loudly in time with my chortle, “He’s the inspiration behind the word ‘reckless’.”  The morning sun had risen and Rey was doing a check on her speeder before she took us ti Niima OIutpost. I was leaned up against it as Bee did circles in the sand to pass the time. My hunger had fully set in, having not eaten in over twenty four hours and I was having intense stomach pains. I’d discovered a few spare credits in a pocket of my jacket and was eager to get some sort of breakfast.

“Okay, let’s load BB-8 in.” Rey said, the aforementioned droid defeatedly rolling over to us. We each took one side of him and lifted him into the netting, an unamused squeal coming from him. We echoed the noise, I’d forgotten how heavy Bee was.

“It won’t be for long, hang tight.” I said, bending down to eye level with him.

Rey stepped up to the seat and I followed suit, “It goes pretty fast so you’ll need to hold on tight.”

“Trust me, I’ve flown on many ships, I’m used to-WHOA!”  The speeder took off faster than I was ready for, I locked my arms around Rey’s waist and squeezed. I could hear her laughing at me over the ship.

“Shut up!” I yelled as we sailed through the desert, digging my chin into her shoulder to anchor myself further.

Turned out that the outpost wasn’t too far from Rey’s makeshift home. Within twenty minutes we were pulling up a couple hundred yards away from it.

“I thought you’d said you’d flown before.” Rey taunted, I was still clinging to her as if my life depended on it.

“Yeah, well, in my defense this thing doesn’t fly like the piece of junk I thought it was,” I said defensively as I separated from her and lowered myself to the ground. Rey laughed under her breath at me, joining me to lift BB-8 out from the netting and onto the sand. Rey slung her staff over her shoulder and gathered the parts she was going to sell,

“I’m going to see what I can get for these, then we’ll see what we can do about getting you two a transport.”

I nodded, “I’m going to die if I don’t eat so I’m gonna go see what I can find.”

Rey nodded and we both looked to BB-8 who seemed to be torn over who to go with. After looking between us, he rolled over to Rey. I gave an exaggerated gasp, “Traitor!”  We spent all day yesterday together in a desert. I’m going with Rey.

Me and her looked to each other, our faces forming ‘o’s’ before heading towards the outpost. It was decently packed, but not overly crowded. Rey and Bee went one direction towards a small building while I wandered the market portion. There were stalls with spices, exotic looking fruit I’d never seen, and other questionable looking food I didn’t feel like taking a chance on. After a few minutes of searching. I found a stand selling plain bread. I handed the seller a few credits and began picking apart at the small loaf, aimlessly walking around as I waited for Rey.

Every person I passed who looked even remotely like Poe, I gave a once over to see if it was him. I wasn’t sure how long it would take for him to make it across the desert. I knew it was almost impossible for him to already be here but I was so desperate to make sure he was okay, logic seemed to be taking a backseat to emotion. There hadn’t been a lot of time yesterday to focus on BB-8 and my’s conversation, but now that I was one step closer to finding him, things was beginning to flood my mind. What was I supposed to do when we saw each other again? Was I just supposed to walk up to him and say ‘Hey, super glad you’re not dead, I’m in love with you by the way.’? Did he really feel the same as BB-8 said he did? He’d been right about me and had gotten me to realize my feelings, maybe he was right about Poe too. At the thought of Poe telling me he loved me, I felt my heart start to speed up. Jeez, how had I not realized this until a frickin’ droid spelled it out for me?

“Well, that was a waste of time.” Rey huffed behind me, BB-8 rolling to my side as close as he could.

“No luck?”  ”He wanted to buy BB-8.”

My eyes widened as I looked down to him, if he were a child he’d be clinging to my legs right now. How stupid had I been to let him go into a place where they sold droids and parts?

“His compartments weren’t searched or anything were they? They didn’t touch him?” I asked urgently, bending down to examine Bee.

“What? No, Unkar didn’t touch him. I told him he wasn’t for sale.” Rey answered.

I breathed a sigh of relief and stood up to face her, “Thank you.”  ”What’d you think I was going to do,” she asked, her voice raised an octave, “Sell him?”

“I don’t know, you don’t owe us any kindness,” I responded, “Unkar probably offered you a lot!”

“He did, but...” she trailed off, looking down at Bee before back to me, “It wouldn’t have been right.”

I smiled and squeezed her shoulder, I had been right about her. The thought of leaving her behind and probably never seeing her again made me sad.

“Here,” I broke my loaf in half and handed it to her, “A sad attempt at repaying you.”

Rey chuckled and we began walking through the marketplace, BB-8 following closely behind. She explained that while there wasn’t consistent transport that came in and out of the outpost, plenty of people were bribable and could get us back. I didn’t relish the thought of flying back with some seedy character but there weren’t a lot of other options.

Out of nowhere, someone grabbed my arms from behind and gripped tightly. Another creature did the same to Rey whilst third one kneeled over BB-8 and threw a sack over him.

“Let him go!” I yelled, doing my best to squirm out of their grip. There was no way to escape without fighting dirty. I head butted him with the back of my head and his grip on me loosened for a second. I freed my arms and spun to grab his, placing him in the same hold he’d had me in. I kneed him in the groin, swept his legs out from under him and he fell. He groaned loudly as I looked over to Rey who seemed to have taken care of herself quite nicely. I was thankful I wasn’t on the receiving end of her staff. We kneeled down to BB-8 and I pulled the sack off of him, he was beeping wildly.

“Hey, you’re alright,” I assured him, rubbing a hand over his head. He looked around us and promptly froze,

Look!

“Look at what?” Rey asked.

Him! Look! Y/n, he’s wearing Poe’s jacket!

“Wha-“ I looked in the direction BB-8 said to and saw a dark skinned man standing a few hundred feet away. He was unmistakably wearing Poe’s worn jacket, the one he’d worn on this mission. We locked eyes, he looked nervous yet he looked at BB-8 as if he knew him.

“Him?” Rey pointed to Finn discreetly.

“That’s Poe’s jacket, don’t let him get away.” I stated right before Rey and I took off running towards him. The man was fast though and took off too. We ran through and past the various stalls as we tailed him.

“Keep on him!” Rey shouted before making a hard left turn, in my concentrated state I barely heard her.

As I neared him, Rey popped out a few hundred feet ahead of me and knocked the man to the ground with her staff.

“What’s your hurry, thief?” she asked, standing over him with the weapon aimed at him.

“What? Thief?” he sputtered, still panting from our chase.

I stood behind him, took out my blaster and fired a shot a few feet away from his head. He jolted and sat up, turning to see me.

“Do you need an exact definition of the word?” I asked loudly, a few vendors screaming at the shot I’d fired.

BB-8 rolled out from behind me up to the man and shocked him with his welding attachment.

He yelped, “Hey, what?!”

“You wanna tell me how you stole that jacket?” I asked, my aim never breaking from him.

“Look, I’ve had a pretty messed up day. So I’d appreciate it if you stop accusing me-“

BB-8 zapped him again causing the man to yell at him to stop.

“That jacket belongs to that droid’s master and my best friend, how did you get it?” I asked unflinchingly.

The man sighed heavily and threw his head back before looking to Bee and then me,

“It belonged to Poe Dameron. That was his name, right?”

Rey held her stance as I slowly lowered my blaster, BB-8 and I looked to each other warily.

“He was captured by the First Order. I helped him escape, but our ship crashed.”

“So where is he?” I asked quickly, tears beginning to blur my vision at what I feared this man was about to say. Poe wasn’t with him, something had happened.

“Poe didn’t make it...”

What happened the next few minutes around me, I couldn’t say. I distantly heard Rey call my name, I felt my feet carry my a good distance away from where we’d been and I felt my knees hit the sand.

Poe was dead.

Silent sobs wracked my body as I gripped handfuls of sand. Poe had cheated death for so long, escaped from seemingly impossible circumstances. I assumed this would be another one of his legendary stories. I began beating myself up for leaving him, if I’d stayed I could have saved him.

He died not knowing how much I loved him.

BB-8 rolled next to me and let out a heartbreaking noise. I put a hand on him as I finally caught my breath, the sobs dying down to a silent stream of tears. I wasn’t the only one who had lost someone, Bee had lost his master. We sat there for a moment, comforting each other as best we could.

Y/N, LOOK!!

I whipped my head up to see two stormtroopers speaking to the thugs that had attacked us. They pointed to us before doing the same to Rey and the unnamed man. He saw them too and grabbed Rey’s hand before running towards us,

“We gotta get out of here!”

Bee and I took off running with them just as blasts were fired past our heads. Rey screamed as one almost hit her, and it snapped me out of my grief. Poe would want me to keep running, he’d want me to save the galaxy even if my own had just died. We ran through and past stalls before Finn ducked us into a tent and began searching for weapons,

“They’re shooting at all three of us!” Rey exclaimed.

“You were seen with me, you both are marked now,” I said while checking BB-8 to make sure he was okay.

“I was a mark before I met you two,” the man said, “Does anyone have blasters around here?!”

“Wonderful, I fell in with the galaxy’s two most wanted people,” Rey grumbled.

“Don’t forget BB-8,” I quipped, earning me an annoyed glare from Rey.

The man then shushed us and stilled himself, there was a distant sound in the sky. He suddenly grabbed Rey’s hand and pulled me to my feet,

“Stop taking my hand!” Rey said through gritted teeth as we began running again through the outpost. We didn’t make it far out before the shrieking sounds of TIE Fighters followed us and fired at us. The blasts hit near us and the four of us flew through the air, landing harshly in the sand. I groaned and scrambled to my feet, Rey pulled the man to his feet and BB-8 rolled to me.

“All good?” I asked them, receiving nods from everyone.

There were more TIE’s coming in as we sprinted towards Unkar’s shipyard. We needed to put as much distance between us and this sandy wasteland as possible. I half expected Poe to swoop in, taking the TIE’s down one by one in his X-Wing, showing off while doing so. Tears began to enter my vision again and I had to force myself to blink them away, my grief had to wait.

“We can’t outrun them!” the man yelled over the blasts.

“We might, in that quad jumper!” Rey pointed to a ship in the near distance.

“We need a pilot!”

“Between the two of us,” I gestured to Rey and myself, “We’ve got it covered!”

“What about that one?” he asked loudly, I was too focused on the quad jumper to care at what was bringing up.

“That one’s garbage!” Rey responded just as our ship exploded in front of us. We came to a halt staring the wreckage,

“The garbage will do,” I declared before following Rey and Finn in the other direction. When I saw our ship of salvation, a grin broke out across my face.

It was the Millennium Falcon.

How it had ended up on Jakku, I didn’t know. I didn’t even care, all that mattered was it was there in the moment I needed it the most. I found myself running faster and ending up in front of our ragtag group. I bounded up the already lowered ramp and found myself in the heart of the ship. I breathed in the scent, it was dusty from having sat unused for who knows how long yet it was also exactly how I remembered it. But just like my grief, my nostalgia had to wait as Rey and the (still) unnamed man entered with BB-8.

“Gunner position is down there,” I pointed and the man ran in that direction, “Rey, I need you up front with me.”

I made a beeline for the cockpit and she followed quickly, I took a seat and pressed a button. The ship roared to life and I chuckled,

“I missed you, baby.”

“Have you flown this thing before?” Rey asked with confusion as she took the seat next to me.

I adjusted the controls and flicked some switches, “It’s a long story, but yes.” I looked over to her as she pressed a few buttons, she looked genuinely nervous.

“Hey,” I put a hand on her shoulder, “We can do this.”  She nodded and I pulled the lever, the ship rocked as it rose from the ground like a phoenix from the ashes. It tilted and spun from it’s long period of misuse, and it had been so long since I’d flown it, I was admittedly rusty.

“Look out!”

I screamed as we slammed into the town’s archway and destroyed it. I quickly steered us away from the wreckage and the ship flew forward, TIE Fighters in tow. I took us higher into the air with the intention of getting off the planet.

“Stay low! Stay low!” I heard from the gunner position.  “What?” Rey replied.

“Stay low! It confuses their tracking!”

I shook my head, “You better be right!” I let go of the yoke and Rey pressed a few buttons, “BB-8, hold on!”

“We’re going low!” Rey shouted. I pulled the yoke again and we did a complete loop before evening out and heading straight towards the TIE’s. They dodged us before swinging back around and resuming their attack, one of the blasts hit us and shook the whole ship. The man had yet to fire a single shot yet and it was beginning to worry me.  “What are you doing back there?” Rey yelled, “Are you ever going to fire back?!”  “I’m working on it!” he shouted back, “Are the shields up?”  Rey located the switch for the shields quickly and flipped it as I swung us to one side to dodge a shot. The man quickly began firing shots at the fighter but missed, I doubted he’d spent much time in the position. We were hit again and I yelped, the two First Order pilots were either insanely talented or I was spectacularly bad at flying. The Solo side of me was too cocky to even consider it being the latter. But if we didn’t shake these guys there was a good chance they’d hit an engine and we‘d be done.

“We need cover quick!”   “We’re about to get some,” I replied, “I hope.” The last part being mumbled under my breath.

Rey continued adjusting controls as we stayed low, I made a sharp right turn past a rock formation. The ship banked so hard at such a low altitude that we drew a line through the sand. I hoped what the man had said about the tracking systems was correct information because flying the Falcon was 10 times harder when you weren’t in open space. We were headed into a ship graveyard, probably fron the legendary Battle of Jakku a few years after the death of the Emperor. I’d heard stories about it since I was young from my dad followed by my mother chastising him for retelling war stories to a child. A chill went down my spine as we passed a wrecked Star Destroyer.

I serpentined through metal wreckage, occasionally bumping into something as the man fired more shots, only missing by a few inches. There was another wrecked ship ahead of us and I was reminded of a move that I’d seen Poe pull in battles. No other Resistance pilot was brave enough to do it most of the times, but I was confidant enough in my abilities that I thought I could pull it off. I flew directly towards the wrecked ship and at the very last second possible, with Rey calling my name worriedly, I pulled away and swung left. It looked like we had lost one of the TIE’s. Right after that, the turret fired a shot at the other fighter and it landed perfectly.

“Nice shot!" Rey yelled back to the man, unfortunately the joy didn’t last long as the fighter I thought had crashed tailed us once again.

“Damn it!” I exclaimed just before the TIE fired a shot that definitely hit us.

“The cannon’s stuck in forward position, I can’t move it! You gotta lose ‘em!” the man called out.

“Ideas?” I asked Rey whose eyes were locked onto the main Star Destroyer ahead of us, I could practically see the gears turning in her head.

“Switch seats with me, quickly.” Rey directed, while I may have been the better pilot, she had the upper hand in knowing the terrain. She seemed to be a quick thinker too, a trait I admired. Somehow we maneuvered around each other without a hand ever leaving the controls as we switched roles. I wasn’t sure what she was planning to do, but at this point we were way past distrust.

“Get ready!” she called.

“For what?” both me and our amatuar gunsman asked.

The answer we received was Rey passing the Star Destroyer three quarters of the way before swinging the Falcon back around, heading right into the rear of the Destroyer. I was mumbling a few curse words in another language under my breath, there wasn’t much left for us to do after this to get the fighter off our backs. As we maneuvered through it, I was simultaneously uneasy and fascinated at being inside an abandoned Star Destroyer. We were quickly approaching the other side of the ship with no exit plan, luckily Rey spotted the sun coming through a hole in the side and made a sharp turn. I’d hoped that the TIE pilot’s reflexes weren’t fast enough to do the same but when did things ever work out as I needed them to? He was still on our tails, but when I glanced over at Rey, I could tell she had another good idea. Before I could blink she pulled back down on the yoke and the Falcon began to loop back down before facing the TIE head on. I knew exactly what she was doing. The man fired a perfectly aimed blast at the enemy ship and it exploded, I could hear his cheer from below deck. Rey pushed back down on the lever and we straightened out, she steered us up into the sky.

As soon as we were off planet, Rey put the ship on autopilot and we leaned back in our seats, exhaling deeply. I looked over to her and we both began laughing,

“Did we just do that?” she asked, still in awe of our escape.

“I think we did,” I chuckled.

I could hear the man’s footsteps coming up the ladder and two of us exited the cockpit to find him standing out in the corridor. The three of us began singing each other’s praises in a flurry,

“Good shooting!” “That was some flying.”

“You’ve got to teach me how to do that.” “You were a complete natural!” “I’ve flown some ships but I’ve never left the planet,”

“Your last shot was dead on.”

“That was amazing.”

“You two set me up for it!” “It was perfect!” “I can’t believe we actually did that!”

How are we supposed to get back to base now?!  The three of us turned to a frazzled BB-8 and Rey kneeled down in front of him,

“You’re okay. He’s with the Resistance too. They’re going to get you home…We all will.”

While I appreciated Rey’s loyalty, my focus was now on the fact that the man standing in front of me was definitely not a part of the Resistance. It was fact and not ego when I said that I was the General’s daughter, everyone on base knew me and this guy clearly didn’t.

“I don’t know your name,” Rey said quietly, addressing him.

He stopped for a second before responding, “Finn. What’s yours?”

“I’m Rey, this is y/n. She’s with the Resistance too.”

I gave Finn a knowing look but managed to smile as to not alarm Rey. By the panic in his eyes, I could tell he probably knew he had been made. I didn’t have any intention of letting him float back to wherever he came from, he had helped save our asses and seemed too nervous to be a spy. I began to open my mouth to say something when my eyes fell on his jacket, Poe’s jacket.

My grief couldn’t wait any longer.

As if Finn knew what I was thinking about, he began talking. “Y/n, I want you to know I tried to save Poe. I really did. He kept telling me how important it was that he got back to his girl.”  I bit back my tears and nodded, “And I’m grateful for that, Finn. That you helped. I-I just need a few minutes.”  I didn’t stay long enough to see their reactions, I walked quickly through the corridor and made my way to the captain’s quarters. Thankfully, the access code hadn’t been changed and I was still able to escape. Shutting the door, I turned to find that little had changed in the room that used to belong to my parents. Not that there had ever been much that could change about it, it was kept very minimalistic. A cot, a closet, a door to a refresher.

It didn’t take long for me to fall apart as I slid down the wall to the floor. Poe was actually gone. I’d never get to hold him again, I’d never get to hear his laugh, I’d never get to wait in the hanger for him to see his X-Wing return from a mission. I’d never get to tell him how deeply in love with him I was, I’d never know what his lips tasted like, I’d never know what our future may have looked like. He spent his last few moments desperately trying to get back to me, his girl. I hugged my knees and rested my head on them, feeling the tears soak through the material of my pants. I had to make it through the rest of my life without my best friend and the love of my life. It just felt cruel that both of those roles belonged to the same person. I needed to hear Poe’s voice more than anything right now, I needed to hear him crack some inappropriate joke before reassuring me that I was going to be perfectly fine. Though I knew there was no ‘fine’ to go back to.

My grief changed to anger that surged through me like an electric charge. The First Order had taken Poe from me and they were going to burn for it. I refused to believe for a second that my brother may have possibly been a part of it. Had Ben been the one that tortured him or fired whatever shot had brought Poe down, I’d have to accept that there truly was no good left in him. I wasn’t prepared to face a world where Poe was dead and there was no hope for my brother.

“Y/n, you better get out here!”

Finn’s voice broke me from my thoughts, I dried my eyes and exited the cabin quickly. The hallway was dark except for a few emergency lights, Finn grabbed my arm and dragged me down the corridor,

“Rey had to do a repair on the ship but right after, this happened,” he explained, gesturing around us.

We entered the cockpit and found Rey sitting in the pilot’s seat,

“Someone’s locked onto us, all controls are overridden.”

“Shit,” I mumbled, Finn proceeded to place a hand on Rey’s shoulder as he got higher to try and see something.

“Get off!” Rey grumbled, “See anything?”

Finn sunk back down in the co-pilot’s seat, he looked like he’d just stared down Snoke himself.

“It’s the First Order,” he breathed, they’d found us. I’d been stupid to think there wouldn’t be a ship waiting near from Jakku to capture us.

“Okay, think, what do we do?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

Finn pointed at Rey, “You said poisonous gas?”

“Yeah, but I fixed that,” she replied confidently, clearly the repairs she’d done hadn’t been minor.

“Can you unfix it?”

We looked to Finn like he was insane before the metaphorical lightbulb clicked above both our heads. The three of us sprinted through the ship till we reached the lounge. We each grabbed a gas mask before heading down into the open grating area.

“C’mon, Bee,” I urged, Rey and I grabbed him and attempted to lower him down. I miscalculated how much he weighed and we dropped him on Finn.

“I’m okay,” he groaned, “BB-8, get off me.”

Rey struggled with pulling the grating over us and came back down to work on the controls.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Rey asked Finn.

“Yeah, their masks filter out smoke, not toxins,” he replied.

“How do you know that?” I asked in a faux innocent tone, observing the anxiety in his eyes when I posed the question. The sound of the ship ramp lowering was loud and the lights came back on.

“Hurry!”

Rey continued fiddling with the controls until we heard the sound of the ship door opening and footsteps. I was already running through strategies in my head, surrender was probably the smartest option. But the urge to take down each trooper in a blaze of blaster fire was tempting too. One of my hands stayed planted on my holster, ready to defend us if necessary. There were two voices, though I couldn’t make out what was being said. I held my breath as the footsteps came closer, suddenly the grate was lifted and the three of us raised our hands in surrender. Though mine were lowered at the sight of who was standing above us,

“Dad?”

“Y/n?”

———————-

A/N: Fear not, obviously we’ll see Poe again but a lot of shit has to go down before we have our reunion. Also, I love writing the friendship between Rey and the Reader. Two supportive badass women kicking 🍑 together! Let me know what you thought!

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hanadolphieron · 4 years

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WE HIT 200 EVERYBODY!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 200 FOLLOWERS!!! I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!!!

and you guys know what i promised whenever i reached this milestone...

MY EIGHTH GRADE STORY ABOUT A MONGOOSE!

it’s not 2.6k words what are you talking about

@sarahbkwl i know you’ll love this and @kaepopsicle i think you will too <3

The Demonic Mongoose of the Wild West

Bert the Bird, the demonic mongoose of the Wild West, roamed through the underbrush, searching for ants to eat. A tumbleweed ran across the bland terrain, hit Bert up the side of the head, and sent him flying. After a few long seconds, Bert slapped the ground with a resounding squeal. A big thwack echoed across the desert. A frog ribbeted. Bert sneezed.

Unfazed, Bert continued his search for ants. He sniffled and snuffled along the ground, dancing to a nonexistent tune. His overly small paws bounced in rhythm, doing kicks so high they would give the Rockettes a run for their money. A few stumbles added variety to the dance. Completely calculated, I assure you.

After a while, Bert forgot what he was doing and decided to head into town. The ants were spared another day. The saloon was not. Bert the Bird threw his whole body weight into the doors of the tavern, a meager attempt at forcing them open. The doors unsurprisingly didn’t budge, as the demonic mongoose only weighs half a gallon. Luckily, a cowboy-hatted, blue-jeaned, spur-wearing, collared-shirted and dusty faced yeehaw man came strutting through the doors.

Bert the Bird took his chance and scrambled after the male yeehaw. He stopped, waiting for the perfect time to reveal his identity. Everyone in the saloon was peacefully (except for the two hoodlums brawling in the corner) engulfing liquid bread.

Letting out an astounding yowl, Bert the Bird silenced the room. Heads turned, watching as Bert stood there, threatening them with his not-so-mere existence.

“Is it really him?”

“Don’t shoot- I got two kids!”

“Big Ol’ Bert Bird!”

“It’s the demonic mongoose!”

Whispers, gasps, yells, and one nervous bark filled the room. The mongoose smirked to himself.

Bert mobilized. Moving south, the mongoose headed towards the snake in the corner. His reptilian lawyer, who was currently playing cards with a yeehaw female, hissed in greeting.

Bert squeaked out a snarl. The room gasped as he continued advancing towards the vertebrate.

“Where are your federal income taxes, Bert?” the snake wheezed (she’s old.)

“Don’t have job,” Bert replies, edging closer.

“Oh yes you do, you’re tasked with eliminating my kin, aren’t you?”

“Huh.”

Desktop App (the snake) sighs. Bert remains confused at the word choice beyond his vocabulary (he barely managed to graduate Childhood.)

“You,” she motioned to Bert, “Fight,” she imitated punching using her tail, “Snake,” she slithers.

“No.”

“Bert, fighting snakes is your entire livelihood, you can’t deny it.”

“No!” yells Bert, as he jumps in for the kill, attacking Desktop App’s neck. He misses and consumes a mouthful of table leg.

Desktop App lunges for Bert but doesn’t manage to take a chunk out of his arm as intended.

Instead, she falls to the floor as Bert stumbles out of the way on accident after his head h hit the table and he careened into the floorboards, away from Desktop App.

Hissing, the reptile flops back around to face the mongoose, but Bert is already gone. He has seemingly vanished, but if you had looked closer, you would have seen a small, fluffy tail disappearing around the corner.

Panting, Bert bounds across the rough terrain. His stubby legs aren’t used to moving at such accelerated speeds, and collapse after a few minutes. However, he’s far enough away from the town that he can’t see the outline of it. Belly heaving on the floor, limbs splayed out around him, head resting on the ground- Bert takes a cat nap.

He wakes up three hours later. Squeaking and jumping up, Bert continues to run. He has no idea what he’s doing or what he’s escaping, but he vaguely remembers that something dangerous was about to happen. To let loose his panic, the poor mongoose screams repetitively.

The surrounding life forms are irritated by such disturbance and one decides to stop him.

Eduardo, The Valiant Frog of the Wild West, stands in front of Bert as the mongoose propels towards him. Bert shows no sign of stopping, because when he sees an obstacle, he gets scared, and his first reaction is to run, which involves speeding towards the obstacle at Mongoose Mach I.

However, Eduardo stands his ground. Suddenly, Bert stops, sniffing the air. Frog. Leaning closer, he gets close to Eduardo. “Frog,” he says.

Eduardo stares. “Is that all you have to say, young mammal?”

Bert The Bird says nothing.

“I have heard you are seeking sanctuary from the snakes. You will find none until you banish them all from these lands. Otherwise, they will always be lurking, slithering under your feet, watching you.”

Bert hiccups, and lets out another scream. He clumsily poises to run again, but Eduardo yells out, “Stop!”

Bert does exactly that and lays down on the ground. Eduardo shakes his head. “This is hopeless,” he mutters.

“Go north,” Eduardo says slowly.

“Who?” Bert asks.

“North is not a life form, it’s the direction you are facing right now,” Eduardo points his walking stick to help Bert understand, “The snakes’ base is there. It’s hard to miss. Go find it and save us all!”

Bert squawks and starts bouncing north like a kangaroo. Shaking his head, Eduardo retreats to his spot under the sand.

After a while, Bert sees a structure like a laboratory, and stops. Settling down near the side of it, the mongoose burrows into the sand. It’s nice and shady next to the metal wall with a snake drawn on it, and it’s even out of the sun! A perfect place to spend the night. He curls up, wraps his tail around his small body, closes his eyes, and drifts off to sleep.

He awakens fifteen hours later, yawns, and stretches, gripping the ground with his claws. But, instead of the ground, he feels something slimy and scaly. Too frightened to utter a sound, Bert the Bird lets go of the thing, then grabs it again. This time, he adds more force and crushes it. It makes no noise. Bert sniffs it. Danger.

Bert slowly hightails it around the corner. He finds himself inside the structure. He sniffs again. The air tastes different. Spicier. Cautiously, he pads forward, tiny paws making no sound.

Hearing voices, he crouches low to the ground to camouflage himself. He doesn’t realize that the building is white-painted metal, and he is a furry brown mongoose. Bert slinks closer to the sound, not stopping. He wants to see who’s speaking.

Suddenly, the floor drops out from under him. Bert meows loudly, scared out of his mind. He plummets five feet, and lands in some dirt. The air is knocked out of his lungs, and Bert sits on his buttocks like a human, wheezing. Shaking his head like a wet dog, Bert stands up and observes his surroundings. He’s in a dark room with no light. So, he’s unable to see anything.

Snorting, Bert decides to use his other four senses to get a feel of where he is. Bert’s never been this resourceful before.

He pats around at the dirt under him and slowly moves forward. He immediately hits a wall. Snorting again in contempt, he turns around and is met with another obstacle. Snorting even louder, Bert jumps five feet in the air in dissatisfaction and blasts straight through the roof of the dark hole.

The surprise of his heroic and super-mongoose actions scares him, and Bert jumps again. However, this time he doesn’t snort. Mobilizing again, he trots down the hallway. The voices have stopped, but Bert hasn’t.

A crossroads appears in front of him. He keeps moving and hits the middle dividing wall face first. Startled, he blinks twice in a row. Turning around almost completely, he takes the left path. He sees a door on his right as he moves down the path, and Bert turns quickly to enter the room.

Four snakes stare at him. Bert recoils, barking at them. They seem unaffected by his terrifying show of terror and hiss at him, “Why are you here, mongoose?”

“Who?”

The snakes sigh.

“Where are your federal income taxes?” they inquire, just as Desktop App had. Bert doesn’t answer. “Bert, you have been in debt to us for years. Each time you fight us, we lose purposely so someday you will have to pay us back for all the victory we have given you.”

“I disagree.”

And with that, Bert runs away, hooning down the hall and bursting out the door. He feels different. His head feels heavier, less empty, like something’s in there. Brain cells, he thinks to himself! He’s finally found some! The chemicals in the snakes’ lair must have given him some.

The ground disappears under his paws as he runs ferociously towards town. He must inform them of the nonconsensual agreement between him and the snakes regarding debt. He doesn’t understand what federal income taxes have to do with it, so he decides to disregard those for now.

The low skyline appears on the horizon, but Bert has no energy left. Slowly, the mongoose begins to decrease speed until he drags himself to a stop. Being awake for three hours is too much for a mongoose. Bert falls asleep a mile out of town.

The next morning, Bert wakes up and sneezes forty-seven times. Immediately, despite the sleep in his eyes and mussed-up hair, the valiant mongoose bounds towards town, making it there within the span of ten minutes.

The people are hiding in their houses, frightened of poor, misunderstood Bert. He meows pathetically. Suddenly, his voice acts without him thinking about it, like he’s saying a prophecy. He says, “Humans! My name is Bert the Bird, The Demonic Mongoose of the Wild West! But I do not claim that title! I am just Bert!”

He pauses, waiting for an answer. Silence.

Bert continues, “I need your help. The snakes have tricked me. My past lack of brain cells made me victim to a devious scheme- each time I fought a snake, the reptile would lose purposely, consequently indebting me to them. I never consented to this agreement or trade! I need your help defeating these reptiles, as the ferocious mongoose you know as Bert the Bird is not me, and I am just a mere mammal. I do not seek revenge, just justice.”

Bert the Bird looks around, partly perturbed by his voice acting on its own, and partly to see if there were any takers to his courageous call.

A door creaked open. Bert looked hopefully towards it and saw a badger.

“BADGER!” He screeched. Perhaps not the wisest call, but it sufficed, as Badger came hurling out the door towards Bert. (in fear.)

However, once he saw the wide, hopeful smile spread across Bert’s face, all fear dissipated. A few other animals slowly left the security of their homes and Bert was soon surrounded by a kingdom of squawking, ribbeting, barking, meowing, mooing, squeaking, and aggressive flapping.

“We will help you!” a turkey said. Cornbread was his name.

“YEAHHHHHHH!” came an overly loud yell from a rare blue land shrimp. (Her entire body consists of a voice box supposedly; Bert had heard stories.)

Resounding expressions of agreement echoed throughout the square. “I am unendingly grateful for your assistance. Do we have any weaponry in this town?”

“Cabbage catapults,” growled an ostrich named Oallllyieee (exact spelling.) Bert could barely hear the baritone bird.

“Pitchforks!” squeaks a rare yellow land whale. (This is the Wild West we have some interesting species.)

No one else reported any items, so Bert assumed that cabbage catapults and pitchforks were the extent of their defense system.

“Let us prepare! Up and at ‘em!” Bert inspired, moving to go follow the animals as everyone streaked (not that kind of streaked) towards the barn located on the outskirts of Editing Reference File, the town.

Everyone grabbed pitchforks, except for the bears and tigers (and the cacophonous rare blue land shrimp) who prepared the cabbage catapults.

Lining up along the northern edge, all the animals positioned their attention on the outline of the snake structure at the top of the hill and waited.

Not for long though, as a thunderous kerplonking and whooshing resounds from the hill. Hundreds of slithering noodles rampage towards the rest of the Wild West’s animal kingdom, slapping their tails against the sand in an uncoordinated fashion. These reptiles don’t stand a chance.

“Catapults at the ready!” roars Bert. The tigers’ claws fortunately abstain from becoming stuck in the voluminous leaves of the green vegetable. One of the bears, however, is not so lucky and now has large, round, leafy hands. He uses this to his advantage and begins to beat up some slimy thugs.

“Fire!” Bert triumphantly yells once the snakes are in range. The cabbages hit the snakes dead-on, and an estimated sixty-three of them remain motionless. Not dead, just unconscious, as cabbages are not deadly projectiles no matter how hard you shoot them.

The snakes keep heading for the opposing army, and Bert screams, “Charge!”

Shrimps, buffalos, common loons, rhinos, tamarins, cows, and more trample two-hundred-sixty-four reptilian noodles. The head snako calls for a retreat. Bert’s militia hesitates, letting them fall back and re-group. Bert’s army is considerate, unlike the scaly, legless bodies.

Instead of asking for a surrender, the snakes turn around, screeching, and attack again. Bert charges at them. The chemicals in the snakes’ lair had not only given him knowledge, but also some speed.

Using his stout legs, Bert kicks those floppy worms out of the park! None of the snakes get even close to hurting Bert, he is just too fast. Cheering erupts from the Southern side. The North deflates and retreats again.

This time, only one fishy noodle comes back. He is wearing a lop-sided top hat and looks like a prestigious pirate.

Heaving, he goes up to Bert. Bert quirks up a hairy eyebrow.

“We surrender,” the sophisticated mustache-having snake breathes.

“I accept,” Bert responds, “But you must promise to leave the South alone. Stay back in the North with your failure of a capitalist economy.”

Johnny Smith, the snako, snarls but retreats, saying, “To the North!” His army dejectedly follows, slithering slowly. A cloud of dust appears and hides their retreat. Bert watches to make sure it was not a mask to hide a second attack. It was not. The sand settled, showing the snake structure’s door opening to let all the reptiles in.

The Southern crowd cheers. No one is hurt and all is well! Bert is named Bert The Bird the Speedy and Slick and is unanimously proclaimed sheriff of Editing Reference File. He is now free to live his life as he chooses, saving the world and making uplifting speeches to his fellow citizens.

Sometimes he struggles to feel satisfied with all the stress on his shoulders and misses his easy life back on the plains. He goes back sometimes and reminisces about the times where his head was empty, and a brain did not disrupt his inner peace.

But he remains in Editing Reference File as a hero (who can pay his federal income taxes.)

*The directions have nothing to do with the Civil War, my brother is paranoid and is making me put this here.

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steve-hairingtons · 5 years

Note

hi could u do a fic where u and steve have been dating for a couple of days when you get trapped on the bus with him from season 2 with the kids and you go out instead of him to fight the demogorgons and you have your first kiss before you go outside despite his objections? thx

word count: 1.7k

WARNINGS: violence, worried!steve

You walked with Steve to a rusty car, hiding Dustin and Lucas as they shook hands. Steve banged a chair against the car, scaring the kids.

“Hey! Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is this random girl?” He pointed to Max. “We lose light in forty minutes. Let’s go. Let’s go, I said.”

“All right, asshole! God!” Dustin said.

“Okay! Stupid,” Lucas mumbled under his breath.

“Be nice,” you whispered to Steve. “They’re just kids.”

“I know, I know. I’m just frustrated,” he said, throwing his arm around you.

“I know. But Max isn’t the only one helping. That’s the whole reason I’m here, you know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

A little while had passed and it was dark outside. The windows on the bus were covered, guarding you, Steve, and the kids from danger. Lucas sat on top of the bus with his binoculars, keeping watch.

You sat next to Steve, who was flicking open and closed a Zippo lighter. It was starting to get on your nerves, but Max cut him off with a question.

“So you really fought one of these things before?” He nodded slowly and kept flicking it. “And you’re, like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn’t a bear?”

“Shit. Don’t be an idiot, okay? It wasn’t a bear,” Dustin said. You looked at him and furrowed your brows.

You’d known Dustin for a few years. He always came into the arcade you worked at and was always super nice, which is why it shocked you to hear him being rude.

Steve had given him the advice to play ‘hard to get’ towards Max, who Dustin and Lucas had a crush on. But ‘hard to get’ and being an asshole were two different things.

You all recoiled a bit at his comment.

“Why are you even here if you don’t believe us?” he continued. “Just go home.”

“Dustin,” you said harshly. “Be nice.”

“Geesh,” Max mumbled. “Someone’s cranky. Past your bedtime?” she asked as she climbed the ladder to join Lucas on the top of the bus.

“That’s good. Just show her you don’t care,” Steve said. You slapped him on the arm and he looked at you.

“I don’t,” Dustin said quietly. Steve winked at him. “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.”

“Just so you know, if you had treated me like that, I would’ve slapped you in the face and not the arm,” you said to Steve. You looked back at Dustin. “Don’t be a little asshole towards her, regardless of if you like her. It makes you look like an idiot,” you said bluntly. Dustin didn’t respond. “You’re awful at advice,” you finished.

“Why the hell are you so cranky? Is it past your bedtime?” Steve said, still flicking the Zippo.

You grabbed it out of his hand and stuffed it in your pocket. “I was supposed to go to dinner with my parents tonight, and they probably have a search party out for me at this point. I didn’t expect to join a monster-hunting team at four p.m. out of the blue.”

“We need all the help we can get,” Dustin said.

“Yeah, well, you were a dick to Max, who’s trying to do just that, so…”

“I don’t want her here.”

“And she clearly doesn’t want to be here. She’s going through a tough time right now, so just leave her alone.”

“How do you know what she’s going through?”

“Because she’s my friend, Dustin. When she comes to the arcade we talk. She just wants friends, and you’re not doing jack shit except making her hate her life even more than she does now. I mean, shit, she’s got Billy as a stepbrother. She misses California. She had to pack up her whole life and move here. So just leave her alone, for God’s sake.”

“That’s not my problem,” Dustin said.

“Dustin, I swear to God if you keep this shit up, I’ll slap you myself. Drop it. I get that you’re trying to prove something, but it’s annoying. Not just to her. It’s annoying to me. Zip it.”

He just stared at you, and you felt Steve’s eyes on you. You crossed your arms and sighed. You could hear Lucas and Max giggling.

“Looks like she’s made a friend,” Steve said, nudging you.

“Not now, Steve.”

It was then you heard a loud, high-pitched roar. You looked at the window and then at Steve. You all turned and looked through the window behind you.

“You see him?” Dustin asked.

“No,” Steve replied.

“Lucas? What’s going on?”

“Hold on,” he replied. “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock. Ten-Ten o’clock!”

“What’s he doing?” Dustin asked.

“I don’t know,” Steve replied. “He’s not taking the bait. Why’s he not taking the bait?”

“Maybe he’s not hungry.”

“Maybe he’s sick of cow,” you replied. You backed up and Steve looked at you. You walked through the bus before Steve called out your name.

“Y/N? Y/N, what are you doing?”

You sighed and pulled the Zippo out of your pocket. You held it up and looked at him. “Just get ready,” you said as you tossed it to him.

“No. Mm-mm. You’re not going out there, are you crazy?”

“What other ideas do you have?” you asked as you grabbed the baseball bat with nails stuck through it every which way.

“I don’t know. But you’re not going out there.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“Y/N-”

“Please. I can do this. You can trust me.”

“It’s not you that I don’t trust. Do not go out there.”

You sighed before stepping over to him, pulling his face down to kiss you. You kissed him for a few seconds before pulling back. He blinked before gripping your hand.

“You can trust me.”

He didn’t answer. He just kissed you again and gripped your hand. “Be careful,” he said.

“I promise.”

You opened the door to the bus and slowly stepped out, gripping the bat tightly. Steve closed the door as you walked out into the fog. You walked a few feet before you heard growling.

You whistled for a few seconds. “Come on, buddy,” you said with a shaky voice and whistled again. “Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. Come on. Dinner time.”

“Y/N!” you heard from the bus, recognizing it at Steve’s voice.

“Shut up, Steve,” you said loudly enough for him to hear. “Human tastes better than cat, I promise,” you said to the Demogorgon again. You heard another growl.

That was when you saw a dog-sized creature standing there, looking at you. You froze for a few seconds before gulping. Its face opened a bit as you stood there with the bat pointing towards it.

“Y/N, watch out!” Lucas shouted.

“I’m a little busy here!”

“Three o’clock! Three o’clock!”

You turned to see two others circling around you, and that’s when you realized you were in over your head. You knew Steve was probably having a heart attack seeing you surrounded by three Demogorgons, but it was too late to back down now.

It was then that the bus door slammed open. “Y/N! Abort! Abort!” Dustin screamed.

You looked back at the bus but whipped your head back around when it growled. One of them charged you, but you jumped onto the hood of a car, rolled off the side, and landed on your feet as it jumped through the windshield.

As soon as you were on your feet, you swatted at one of them that jumped toward you. It went flying, and you started running toward the bus. The kids and Steve screamed for you to run.

You jumped in and Steve slammed the door shut as soon as the creatures jumped into it.

“Are they rabid or something?” Max asked, still clueless as to what they were.

“They can’t get in. They can’t!” Lucas yelled.

You grabbed a metal board and shoved it in front of the door as you and Steve held it closed with your feet. It was then that one of them poked their foot through. You grabbed the bat and hit it a few times as the kids ran to the back of the bus.

Dustin picked up his walkie talkie and screamed into it, “Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God? Anyone! We’re at the old junkyard, and we’re going to die!”

“Dustin, shut up!” you yelled. “We’re not gonna die!”

It went silent as loud footsteps rang out on top of you, walking toward the opening in the ceiling where Max was standing. She screamed before Steve grabbed the bat from you and ran over.

“Out of the way! Out of the way! You want some? Come get this!” he said, looking up at it.

Its face opened up and you stood between him and the kids, pushing them back. Not even a second later, it looked up, roared, and jumped off the roof.

Everyone went silent as roaring filled the air. You looked down to see Max and Lucas’ hands intertwined before they pulled them apart. You stood there for a moment in silence before Steve turned to you, cupping your face.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“You’re such an idiot,” he said. “Why did you go out there?”

“I’m fine, Steve. Nothing happened. Let’s just figure out where they went.”

He opened the bus door slowly with the bat in his hand. The door popped and made you jump.

“What… happened?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know,” Max said.

“Y/N scared ‘em off?” Dustin said.

“No,” you replied. “No way. They’re going somewhere.”

When Steve pulled up to your house, he put his car in park and looked at you.

“I thought you were gonna die,” he said. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m fine, Steve.”

“You could’ve not been fine.”

“But I am.”

“That’s not the point.” This was the most serious he’d ever been toward you. “You put yourself at risk tonight.”

“And if you had gone out there, you would’ve done the same.” He sighed. “One of us had to go out there. If one of us died, one of us still would’ve died. But I didn’t. I’m fine.”

“Again, that’s not the point. I could’ve lost you.” His voice cracked at that. “If I lost you-”

“Steve.” You shifted in your seat and reached over and grabbed his hand. “Hey, look at me.” He looked over and you saw tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m here. I’m sitting next to you. I’m holding your hand. I didn’t die. I’m okay.”

He sighed again. “Promise me you won’t put yourself in that position again.” You took a deep breath. “Promise me.”

You gave a small smile. “I promise.”

He leaned over and kissed you. It was different than a few hours ago. It wasn’t in the heat of the moment. It was genuine and full of emotion.

“Do you wanna come in?” you asked. He nodded.

That night, he held you close. Closer than normal. You knew you scared him when you ran out of the bus. But you decided to let him be upset that night. You were just glad you were both alive.

send me prompts!

#steve harrington #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington fanfiction #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x reader fanfiction #steve harrington x reader fanfic #steve harrington x reader imagine #sfw #stranger things #requested #one shot

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ashintheairlikesnow · 5 years

Text

Root Beer Floats: Kauri

CW: Vaguely referenced/implied abusive/controlling relationship, vague references to past abuse. Honestly this is just tooth-rotting fluff. Just a little drabble inspired by a talk about Whumpees and foods.

Takes place during Future Kauri’s early freedom - sometime shortly before Come Home. The referenced Jack belongs to @spiffythespook.

Tagging: @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @18-toe-beans, @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings, @giggly-evil-puppy, @whimpers-and-whumpers, @whump-chains, @whump-it, @lumpofwhump, @pumpkinthefangirl

The first bite of ice cream is slightly crunchy around all its edges, settled in the spoon he’d just dipped into the fizzing brown soda that fills the curving, swirling glass sitting before him.

He thinks of ice crystals and closes his eyes, enjoying the way the sharper ice-taste bits melt almost immediately to smooth vanilla cream, cold on his tongue, thick liquid coating it all the way around.

There’s just the barest, darkest edge to the vanilla taste, a hint of the root beer it’s been floating in.

“Oh, this is really good,” Kauri breathes out, and his tongue feels just a little thick in his mouth, like the ice cream is still there even though he swallowed it.

“Of course it’s good, kiddo,” The guy sitting across from him says. Kauri can’t quite remember his name - they’ve been panhandling the same couple streets for the past week or so - the guy takes on the early hours and Kauri pops up around the time he’s done in the afternoon. It feels, weirdly, like they’re coworkers stopping to grab dinner at the end of a long day.

Or it feels like what Kauri thinks coworkers are like. Owen watched The Office a lot, both versions. And Chuck, although there was a lot of people reading important things in Chuck so Kauri couldn’t always pay much attention to it.

Kauri in his sweatshirt, a t-shirt, and jeans, is squeaky clean compared to the man in his old army jacket with dirty hair. Kauri’s staying with Jack this week, which means showers every single day. It also means not having to spend any of the money he makes on food unless he wants to, because Jack feeds him and gives him a warm bed to sleep in and a warm friend to sleep with.

On Monday they had gone to the library and gotten poetry books, and every night since Jack has read them in his slow, halting reading voice, three or four poems at a time. Kauri curls around him with his head tucked under Jack’s chin, eyes closed. He could at least listen to the words he could no longer read for himself.

One of the poems had been about someone sharing a root beer float with a daughter, and Kauri had been thinking for days about what a root beer float might taste like.

It’s so good.

The root beer tastes sweet and dark, a sort of licorice taste almost, fizzing on his tongue and all the way down his throat. He doesn’t use the straw they’ve stuck in the top of the glass - instead, he uses the long-handled silver spoon to search out ice cream bites and sips of root beer alike, taking his time, letting the soda rest on his tongue until the fizzing stops.

He can feel himself smiling around the spoon as it clicks against his teeth, just a little. The other panhandler grins at him - his teeth are yellowed from nicotine and hard living, but he’s nice to Kauri and always slips him extra peanut butter crackers if he gets some from the gas station down the street near their shared panhandling spot.

Owen had told him that people were mostly shit - mostly mean, mostly rude, mostly the worst versions of themselves. Nobody’s the way they are in movies, Kor-Bore, Owen had told him, over and over. You’ll never meet Isaac from Honor Bound in real life, guys like that don’t really exist. The world’s full of Gavins, in the end.

But Kauri was out in the world now, and finding that people… people were mostly good, if you let them be. Maybe not perfect, but… good.

A woman today had given him a hundred-dollar-bill - just leaned right out her window and said, “Do good recklessly, darling,” and driven away. He’s going to take it home to Jack tonight, show it to him, tell him to take a couple hours off work so they can see a movie and go out to dinner, like real people.

Do good recklessly, Kauri thinks, and learn about root beer floats.

“What do you think?” The man asks, his voice low and a little hoarse. Kauri looks up at him, resting on his arms on the table, eating another bite of ice cream off the freezing cold spoon. This one is soft compared to the first few bites, and the vanilla and root beer flavors have mixed together, and he slurps the last bit of liquid off the end of the spoon loudly enough to make the man laugh.

“It’s good! It’s good. I wouldn’t, um, I mean I could buy a whole lunch with how much it cost, but… it’s good.”

“Still can’t believe you’ve never had a root beer float before. Where’d you grow up, fuckin’… I don’t know. Where did you grow up?”

Kauri swallows hard, then plays it off with a roll of his eyes, giving the answer that he and Jack came up with that first week he stayed with him, when Owen was still shocking him twenty or thirty times a day trying to get him to give up and go home. “I just grew up super sheltered,” He answers, and it’s not exactly a lie if he doesn’t know if it’s a lie, right?

“Even religious nuts get to enjoy a damn root beer float now and then,” The man says, jabbing a cheese-laden fry at him. The cheese sauce drips back onto the plate, landing on one of the only fries with no cheese already on it yet.

“Yeah, but… you know. My… my life was super strict.”

“That’s fair,” The man says, shrugging, “Mine was, too. Look, I’m not sayin’ you should be out here chowing down on burgers and fries every day, but you’re skinny as shit, man.”

“Yeah, well. I eat enough.” Kauri steals one of his cheese fries, and the man laughs at him and just gives a little wave to encourage him to steal more.

“Fuck off, kid, we both know you don’t when you’re out here flying signs with me. But your hooker buddy’s got your back this week, right? He’ll keep you fed, he prob’ly makes enough, right?”

Kauri’s smile fades, just a little, but there’s no judgement in the man’s voice. He calls Jack a ‘hooker’ the way he might have said your buddy who does marketing or your boyfriend. He didn’t tell the man what Jack does - but the man saw he and Jack together where Jack’s apartment is and put it together fast enough.

“Yeah, he makes sure I get enough to eat,” Kauri replies, and puts his cheerful smile right back on. The scar has nearly healed up, it only itches a little under the bandages he keeps hidden under high-necked T-shirts and Dustin’s black sweatshirt. He’ll have to go back and apologize, soon - the sweatshirt doesn’t smell like Dustin anymore, and besides… the whole stupid fight was Kauri’s fault. “He does, and, you know, I have other friends.”

“Right.” The man watches him for a long second, thoughtfully, eating from his own small cheese fry plate with contentment. “I hope you have friends enough, kid. This isn’t an easy way to live, and you shouldn’t do it for long if you don’t have to.”

“What else would I do?” Kauri asks, carelessly, but somewhere deep down, it’s real. He can’t read or write, he’s hiding a barcode still tattooed on his left wrist, he still can’t look in a mirror or say his old name without passing out, and Owen is still out there, searching for him. What could he do but this?

“Yeah. I get you. But look, start asking yourself questions like that, you end up just… stuck, doing the same thing, for years and years.” The man sighs, glances back down at his fries, then back up. “It’s a shit way to live long-term, kiddo.”

“Maybe.” Kauri smiles at him, bright and sweet, and the man smiles back, goes back to munching his fries, and the two of them sit in silence for a while watching people walking by them through the windows.

He picks up his silver spoon, grabs the last little bit of ice cream that’s held itself together, and pops it into his mouth. Creamy, vanilla-sweet, and the root beer flavor darker, just under the surface.

He gets a spoonful of root beer to wash it down.

“Just think of it this way,” Kauri says, finally. “This isn’t maybe the best choice, but it’s the one where I get to have root beer floats.”

The man gives him a long stare, and there’s a half-second of fear where Kauri thinks he knows what you are. Then he grins at Kauri, sits back with one arm up on the back of the booth, and holds his glass up in a lazy attempt at cheers. “To root beer floats, then.”

Kauri picks his big curvy glass up and clinks it against the man’s, root beer and vanilla mixed together swishing in the glass. “To root beer floats,” He echoes. “To doing one more thing I didn’t get to do before.”

“Cheers to that,” The man says, and goes back to watching out the window.

Cheers to that, Kauri echoes in his thoughts, and slurps another spoonful of root beer right off his spoon with a smile.

#whump #all comfort no hurt #erase to control #kauri just having a really nice day #I just wanted to write Kauri discovering root beer floats #which he literally never remembers having #trauma recovery whump #recovering whumpee #tw: brief reference to abusive relationship #fluff #unapologetic fluff

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gingerpeachtae · 5 years

Text

Concentric [11]

masterlist

Words: 10.1k (😅)

Genres: fantasy!AU, angst, fluff, enemies to lovers, eventual smut (?)

Warnings: dom!jk says hi again; some sexy times (nothing explicit)

Summary: You had been ready for the end of the semester. You had been ready to spend time away from your best friend, Jimin, and finally move on from the feelings you harbored. Yet, after your friend was forced to reveal a secret, you found yourself in a new world that was chock full of magic, war, and wonder. So, here you were, basically thrown into your own fantasy novel, with your best friend on one side, and six male warriors on the other.

A/N: 😅 😅😅 over 10k... eye- lol its a wild ride of a chapter... pls engoy!

“Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain!

“Secret!

“Secret tunnel! Yeah!”

“If you sing that song… One. More. Fucking. Time. I’m going to feed you to the next quigta we come across.”

You could just picture the annoyed expression gracing his face and you snickered to yourself. If he wasn’t holding you up by your legs, you have no doubt that he would have rubbed a hand down his face and shot you a nice glare.

“Oh, well I’m sorry that since we still haven’t found a way out from this lovely cave, I need to distract myself from our impending death where our friends never find our rotting corpses.”

Jungkook sighed in a way that could only be described as aggressive as he readjusted your position on his back. “Ugh, you’re so dramatic. Why does it have to be that song?”

“Because it’s a classic? And it fits our situation?” You leaned forward to rest your chin against your arm that was loosely wrapped around his neck. “Also, I better not hear you disrespect Avatar again or I will unleash hell.”

“Alright little human, let’s settle down and not say things we aren’t capable of.”

“Hey! I’m being serious!” You tried saying it as hard as you could, but a hint of pout managed to creep its way into your voice.

“Mhmm. Sure you are.” Jungkook laughed. “And going off whatever you’ve been singing, I’m going to say that ‘Ablatar’ thing is horrible.”

You slowly lifted your head off your arm to regard the male you couldn’t see.

Welcome to hell, buddy.

You unwound your arms, lightly gliding your fingers against his neck as you did so. The slight touch of your fingertips ghosting across his skin caused a shiver to run down his body that you couldn’t see but definitely felt. You smiled to yourself as you moved your hands lower to hover above his torso. To keep your balance, though, you had to tighten your legs around his waist and lean your front further into his back.

“Wh-what are you doing?” His voice came out breathy.

“I told you what would happen if you disrespected Avatar again…”

With that, you attacked.

Digging your fingers into his sides, you began to viciously tickle the male. Immediately, his entire body tensed up for a heartbeat before wiggling and squirming violently. All the while, you cackled manically.

“Ahh! St-stop! Y/N! Fuck-ahh-ing stop!” In an attempt to dislodge your hands, Jungkook threw his elbows out wide.

His efforts were futile, though, because you were determined, dammit. Nobody gets away with insulting the great Avatar the Last Airbender. Not in this house cave. Not on your watch.

“This… is… what… you… get!” You half-screeched, half-laughed.

With his elbows lifted, you changed course to attack the delicate flesh just below his armpits. The sensitive area made Jungkook yell even louder. Abruptly, he let go of your thighs, letting your body drop. With a yelp, you stopped tickling him and tried to blindly grab at his arms so that you wouldn’t fall on your ass.

Also, you had no idea what was beneath you and being penetrated by a stalagmite was really not on your bucket list.

Unfortunately, you didn’t manage to grasp the male’s arms in time, so you fell to the cold, damp ground in a heap of splayed limbs. Groaning, you rolled to your side and began massaging your poor bottom.

As you rubbed the tender meat that was your bruised peach, you heard Jungkook breathing heavily above you.

“That… that was mean!” He whined, still gasping for breath.

You rolled your eyes while snorting. “So is disregarding Avatar and doubting me.”

You heard him shift closer and you stilled, praying that he wouldn’t retaliate and tickle you back. You would be at a severe disadvantage in fighting him off since you were below him and you couldn’t see.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and hit him in the balls if I flail enough…

As you were mentally planning your defensive maneuvers, you suddenly felt arms snake underneath you. Then, you were easily heaved up. The action made you yelp again, which in turn caused Jungkook to chuckle as he placed you over his shoulder.

“Let me down, you heathen!” You gave his body a smack.

Your eyes widened when your hand, instead of his back as you anticipated, met the firm plumpness of what had to have been Jungkook’s booty.

“Oh, so you would rather walk around… in the dark… on your own?” You could hear the teasing smirk seeping into his voice.

You huffed before placing your elbows on his back and resting your face in your hands. “No.”

“Good girl.” He gave your own butt two gentle pats and set out walking again.

“Hmmpf. This is so not as comfortable as before, I just want that to be known.”

“Too bad, sweetheart,” he said lightly. “This is your punishment for playing around. Deal with it.”

“Ugh, whatever. Just find an exit, would you? I don’t want to look at your nasty butt for long.”

“First, my butt is not nasty. It’s spectacular. Second, you can’t even see my ass right now so be quiet.”

“Its ugliness penetrates the dark.” You began to tap your hands against his butt as if the cheeks were drums.

You had to do something to keep yourself entertained.

Jungkook just laughed and shook his head, continuing his march through the cave as he muttered about how it was at least better than that atrocious (amazing) song.

“It’s been four hours!” Tae gripped his hair and pulled it in frustration. “They should be back by now!”

Jin walked over and placed a gentle hand on Tae’s shoulder to get him to stop stressfully pacing. The younger Saeni turned and clung to his brother’s frame, who began to rub Tae’s back soothingly.

“Maybe they got lost on the way back?” Jiae spoke up softly.

Hobi scoffed and crossed his arms, the metal from all his blades clinking. “Kookie? Lost? That would never happen.”

“Hey, you don’t have to dismiss her like that. She’s just trying to help.” Jimin frowned and stepped up behind the lilac-haired girl in a protective manner.

The kiela’s spy raised a single brow. “I didn’t dismiss her. I just stated a fact we all know.”

Namjoon was quick to step between his brothers, his yellow eyes flashing with warning. “Calm down. Your bickering isn’t helping.”

Jiae turned and placed a hand on Jimin’s bicep, murmuring that Hobi wasn’t being rude and that he should listen to Namjoon.

Jimin met Hobi’s eyes over their leader’s shoulder and sighed before lowering his head. “Sorry, hyung.”

Then, they heard the unmistakable sounds of someone approaching. With a jolt, they all swiveled their heads in the direction of the footsteps, thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was their missing friends.

But it was only Suho, Mingi, and Chungha returning from their search. As the trio slowed their jogging to a walk, the kiela and Jiae still looked to them with held breaths and hopeful eyes… but the court guards shook their heads. No sign of you or Jungkook.

With a tiny yell of frustration, Jimin then looked toward Yoongi, who was lounging on the ground with his back against a tree. “Hyung, can’t you find them?”

His pink eyes slowly rose to meet the half-Saeni’s brown ones. “No… I’ve tried but I can’t feel Kook’s energy. It’s like nothing’s there.”

“The draikensu…” Tae looked up to Jin’s face, his blue eyes wide and glossy with sudden fear. “What if they-”

The eldest was quick to shush him, not wanting the worried Saeni to consider such things.

“Kook wouldn’t let any of those bastards do shit,” Hobi said with conviction. “Honestly, neither would Y/N.”

Most of the kiela nodded their heads in agreement, but Jimin ran a hand through his apricot locks. “But then, where are they!?”

“He said he wanted to take Y/N to the cave we passed by yesterday.” The mint-haired magic user stood up and brushed off his pants.

Tae whipped his head toward Yoongi, hope dancing in his eyes, while Namjoon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before replying. “And you decided to wait until now to mention that.”

Yoongi only shrugged in response.

Namjoon mumbled a curse under his breath directed at the male before trotting over to where his mace rested on the earthy ground next to his sleeping mat. Once the heavy weapon was securely strapped behind his back, he addressed the other Saeni and ordered them to quickly gather their things.

“So, you’re telling me that there’s this creature… with red eyes and large wings… and your people call it Mothman?”

After approximately twenty or so minutes of you non-stop drumming on Jungkook’s butt cheeks and the male complaining that his rear was going numb, he finally let you return to his back. You eagerly climbed up, glad to not have to hold your head up to keep from passing out anymore.

“Mhmm!” You rapidly nodded your head in excitement and leaned your face forward, so it was closer to his. The metal of his earrings touched your neck and you briefly recoiled from how cold they were before leaning back in. “And it’s supposed to be able to fly faster than a hundred miles an hour!”

“Is that… fast?”

Oof, right. He probably has no idea what that measurement equates to.

“Yes, it’s very fast. Super fast. Like ZOOM fast!” You emphasized your words by making a weird upward slashing gesture with your hand.

“Zoom… fast…?” He whispered in a confused, yet amused, tone. “I just don’t understand why you call it Mothman.”

You shrugged and started to swing your legs, praying you wouldn’t accidentally ram your foot into a rock formation. “It’s big, grey-brown, and has massive wings. Allegedly, it’s like an abnormally large, humanoid moth. Hence, Mothman.”

Jungkook made a noise of slight disgust. “Sounds like something that should be squished.”

“Hey!” You slapped your hand against his chest. “Let Mothman live in peace! It just wants to fly around and be a happy, lil moth!”

“You said it’s supposed to be taller than Namjoon…”

“And your point?”

“That’s not ‘lil,’” he said pointedly.

You hummed, thinking, before replying. “Eh, it can be.”

“How in Illai’s name can that ever be considered little?”

“Compared to Godzilla, he’s a very smol bean,” you responded matter-of-factly.

“Who?”

“Godzilla! He’s this big, spiky, powerful lizard thing! And I mean really big. Like seventy Namjoons stacked on top of each other big.”

“Seventy Namjoons… whoa…”

You giggled at his wonderous tone. “Yup. He’s a big boy.”

“You know who else is a big boy?”

You rolled your eyes.

This guy…

You decided to mess with him a bit.

“Namjoon? I mean we are using him as a measurement tool.”

“What? No. Try again.”

“Hmmm… Jin? He’s got those wide shoulders.”

You felt him release a deep breath. “Try again.”

“Tae? He’s a sweetie pie but can probably get down to business, if you know what I mean.” You wiggled your brows, disregarding that he was not facing you.

“No.” You heard a sliver of annoyance begin to creep into his voice, making you snicker internally.

“Well, Hobi dresses like an NSFW enthusiast, so-”

“Not him.” He paused for a second before adding, “And what does that even mean?”

“Not Safe for Work.”

“What the-”

“If I need to explain what that means, then you’re probably too young to need to know my dear child,” you informed with a grin.

Laughing at his blubbering, frustrated attempts at protesting your statement, you suddenly gasped and tightened your hold on him in fake realization.

“Oh, I know who you’re talking about! It’s Yoongi! He radiates big dick energy.”

With a long, sharp inhale that signaled he was at the end of his patience with you, he slowly let the air out of his lungs. “I’ll give you one last try.”

You hummed, pretending to think hard before lifting your shoulders and dropping them. “There’s nobody else that comes to mind.”

“You really love being difficult, don’t you?” Jungkook huffed, which made you laugh, the sound echoing off the cavern walls.

“What can I say?” You teased, sending a puff of air to the back of his head to ruffle his hair. “You’re just not ‘big boy’ material Coco.”

“That’s not what you said before your first sparing match.” The males voice was laced with knowing.

It was your turn to protest; whining that for the last time, those were Tae’s words, not yours.

He only made a skeptical noise in response.

You opened your mouth to defend your honor more, but instead squealed in happiness when you saw a small dot of white appear far in front of you.

“You really think they’re okay?” Tae asked his mint-haired brother while brushing his damp locks out of his face.

Luckily, the rain had let up to the point where it was only drizzling now. It wasn’t enough to make Yoongi bother to convert the magic shield he had placed over the camp into individual ones for each party member as they made their way to the cave, though it was still enough to get their clothes and hair a little wet.

The magic user turned to look at the grey-haired Saeni, who was usually so aloof and exploding with joy, but now filled to the brim with worry for you and their youngest brother. Dark eyebrows drawn close together, sharp blue eyes downcast, hands fiddling with each other. Yoongi knew that both you and Jungkook were extremely close to Tae, so he could understand why the male was worried sick. The older Saeni took in Tae’s wilted appearance and sighed before subtly waving his fingers. They briefly glowed a light, mint blue as his magic placed an invisible barrier over Tae’s head that kept the lazy rain off and sent a gentle warmth down.

To other magic users, it wasn’t the most “responsible” or “proper” use of his magic. They would have thought it was below them to do such a thing, but Yoongi didn’t give a shit. He just wanted his little brother to feel better. Even if it was only by a little bit.

“Like Hobi said, they wouldn’t let anything happen. To themselves or each other.”

Tae looked at is brother and gave him a small smile and nod, really hoping those words were proven true.

Yoongi then saw a blur of orange walk up beside him and waited for Jimin to ask yet again.

“Can you try just one more time hyung?”

Yoongi knew it was useless. He had already tried to locate Jungkook through their kiela bond numerous times and each attempt came back empty. But he nodded and did it again anyway. Hands glowing once more, Yoongi closed his eyes and concentrated. Trying to focus in on his brother’s energy and location… but got nothing. Not even a whisper or a trace. Releasing the air from his lungs, he opened his eyes and looked into Jimin’s brown orbs, not saying anything. Just shook his head slightly. The apricot male groaned in response and ran a hand through his hair, averting his eyes from Yoongi’s sorry ones.

Jimin’s chest began to heave in panic as he began to spout out how he had told Y/N to stay behind because he was worried something like this would happen.

“Hyung!”

Yoongi’s head snapped up toward Namjoon, who was gesturing at him to come to the front of the pack. Leaving a panicking Jimin to be consoled by the others, the mint-haired Saeni jogged forward to meet his leader. As he approached, his eyes widened as he took in the mass of fallen rocks.

“That’s why you can’t feel him, right? Your magic can’t reach that far underground.” Namjoon said tentatively.

Yoongi nodded. “Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do now? Dig those idiots out?”

Namjoon shook his head as the others finally arrived at the collapsed entrance, gaping at the massive pile of rock.

Crossing his arms and walking up to the crumpled entrance, Jin asked the group whether anyone saw another opening that might lead into the system.

When no one spoke up, the eldest released a deep breath and fixated his dark eyes on one Saeni. “What do we do Joon?”

You were practically vibrating as you neared closer and closer to that patch of light.

Please, please, PLEASE be a way out.

Jungkook’s back was comfy and all, but you wanted light for fuck’s sake.

As you got even closer, you were able to make out that it was an opening in the ceiling of the cave, letting in a beam of soft sunlight as well as a tiny waterfall of rainwater.

With a gasp, you pushed at Jungkook’s back and wiggled out from his hold until you were on your feet.

“Y/N!” The male called after you as you went to rush forward.

He shot an arm out and grabbed your wrist, stopping you before you could run ahead and possibly hurt yourself. You still couldn’t see directly in front of you, after all. You could only see that beam of freedom.

“Jungkooooooook!” You whined as you tried to yank your wrist away.

When that didn’t work, you began trying to simply drag the Saeni with you.

The male planted his feet firmly on the cavern floor and tugged you back to him. “Y/N, stop! You still can’t see properly, am I right?”

Throwing your head back with a groan akin to a temper tantrum, you replied, “Yes, you’re right, but what does that matter? It’s right there. Let’s go already!” You reached out and grabbed his hand holding your wrist with your free hand and tried to pull him along again.

“It matters because there’s a bunch of fucking holes in the floor between us and the exit. So, unless you want to enjoy a natural, underground slide, I suggest you wait patiently while I lead you.”

At his words, your body stilled as you pictured yourself taking a plunge down into the rocky bowels of the earth.

“Mhmmm, that’s what I thought. Now, hold my hand and waist and follow me. Slowly.”

You let Jungkook move in front of you then did as he instructed; slipping one hand into his and interlocking your fingers while the other fumbled against his torso until it settled on the tiny curve of his waist. Without a sound, Jungkook reached down with his free hand until it rested over yours lightly touching his side. He gently curled his fingers so that you were forced to grip onto the fabric and straps underneath your palm. Satisfied that you had a firm hold on him, he reminded you to stay close before taking a step forward.

He weaved around all the holes and protruding rock formations, though to you, it just felt like mindless wandering. But, minute by minute, that beam of light came closer and closer. It was basically taunting you.

Come here, baby. I’m ready for you!

Within the next thirty seconds, you were finally ten feet from the light. Squinting, you reckoned that the opening was about eight feet above you. Not very far, but way higher than you could jump up to. Then, you were plunged into brightness.

With a yelp, you quickly squished your eyes closed and threw a hand over them for good measure. “Ah, fuck. MY EYES!”

“Stop being so dramatic and come here so I can hoist you up.”

You peeled your hand away from your face, keeping your eyes tightly closed. Then ever so slowly you opened your lids, still squinting a bit. You were going to mouth off to Jungkook for his comment. He didn’t know what it was like to be in complete darkness then thrown into a ray of fucking sunshine suddenly, but when you saw his good-natured smile you just had to smile back. Crouching down a bit, he let you put one foot into his cupped hands while your arms went to his shoulders for balance as he easily lifted you up.

“Don’t drop me Coco.” You warned the male.

“For Exia’s sake, I’m not going to drop your ass.” He huffed and rolled his green eyes before his expression morphed into a pout. “And why aren’t you calling me Kookie?”

You looked down at him in confusion, tilting your head to the side but being careful not to knock into the rock beside your head. “You… told me not to call you that?”

A blush took over his face as he stammered out, “Y-you don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” You breathed out as you slowly eased your head up and out of the opening.

Hissing at having a full barrage of light attacking your eye balls, you squeezed your eyes shut again until you felt like you could peek out without dying. With your eyelids half-closed, you settled your hands on the ground by your head and told Jungkook to give you a boost up as you pushed with your arms. With an awkward squirm from your lower body, you heaved yourself all the way out of the cave and on to the forest floor. Rolling over to your back, you took in a deep breath and let your limbs splay out. Seconds later, you heard a grunt and you looked back to the opening in time to see Jungkook pulling himself out of the cave. Taking after you, he flopped down on the earth beside you, though unlike you, he wasn’t breathing heavily from exertion.

“I, uh, said you could call me that, but you were really sleepy at the time. It was right before the first quigta… I guess you were more out of it than I realized, but um, yeah, you can call me Kookie… if you want…”

“Wow. I don’t remember that conversation at all, I must have been totally out of it.” You laughed and lolled your head to the side to meet his eyes, but he was staring straight at the sky. “Honestly, I’m kinda partial to Coco at this point, but I guess I can pepper Kookie into my vocab from now on…”

“Okay.” He tried to say it nonchalantly, like he didn’t care one way or the other, but you didn’t miss the tiny smile that teased at the corners of his lips.

Cute.

Your eyes widened at the thought and you quickly rolled your head to look up at the sky and leaves too.

You are not going there, Y/N. You are not going to think he’s cute.

It was one thing to think he was hot and attractive, but cute? That shit was borderline crush territory and you most definitely did not want to go there. You already received verbal confirmation that he wasn’t attracted to you, so you did not need yet another useless pining situation on your hands. You sat up suddenly, which caused Jungkook to turn his head toward you questioningly. You just pretended to crack your back before standing up and looking at the scenery around you. All you could see was an endless green forest that was collecting and dripping rivulets of rainwater.

“Where are we?”

Jungkook sat up and rested his forearms against his knees, taking a look around as well. “No idea.”

Fantastic.

Yoongi froze when he felt a slight nudge of Jungkook’s energy on the edge of his magic. He had been randomly turning the magical radar on and off since they left the collapsed entrance, but he swore he felt something right before he turned it off again. Though he didn’t want to say anything until he was sure because he didn’t want to give the others false hope. As the rest continued walking ahead to try to find another opening into the underground system, Yoongi slowed his steps with a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he let his magic flare up yet again. Fingers glowing, he reached out with his mind to search where that nudge came from.

Then, all at once, it was as if Jungkook appeared like a marker on a map. There was no mistaking it now. He must have resurfaced.

Yoongi found his brother.

He sucked in a breath, mint hair rustling as he whipped his head up, petal pink eyes shining. “Wait, guys! I got him! I feel Kook!”

You hummed your favorite song as you walked through the dense forest, brushing branches out of your face and tilting your head to follow the occasional bird that flew by.

You heard a series of laughter erupting to your right. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Tae, Hobi, and Kookie still running around the group and weaving between trees as they played their version of tag. You say their version because instead of a gentle shoulder tap to switch who was “it,” those boys were straight up tackling each other into trees or on to the ground.

Boys will be boys, I guess.

Yesterday, after popping out of the ground like a flower and Jungkook replying that he had no idea where the two of you were, you started to wonder if you would ever find your way back to the others. Fortunately, they found you.

Illai knew how far you traveled while underground, so you could be anywhere at this point. You started to picture your Tarzan-esque future with Jungkook and shuddered at the thought of the male doing the Tarzan yell while swinging through the trees. It was such a disturbing thought that you broke out into a somewhat deranged laughter. The image of Jungkook yelling as he swooped through the trees in a loincloth being too much for your chickpea brain to handle at the moment.

“You good?” You heard the subject of your thoughts ask you curiously.

You deeply inhaled through your nose and let out a few hyperventilated breaths as you tried to calm yourself down and rid your brain of those mental pictures. “Hooooo. Okay, yeah. Just thought of something I never want to think of ever again.” With one last big exhale, you looked toward the male. “How are you not worried about finding the kiela?”

He maintained his lazy posture, just shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands briefly. “Eh, by now Yoongi should be able to find our location through the kiela bond. Might as well just wait for them here.”

“Just… wait… for them?”

He hummed his confirmation, which made you plop back down on the ground. No point in standing if you’re just going to be waiting around. A cool breeze rushed past your face as you did so, causing some of your hair to tease your cheekbones. You brushed it back in place before laying down on your back. You squirmed slightly as the cold, damp ground seeped into your clothes, but with the sun shining down on you, you couldn’t find the shits to give.

“How long do you reckon until they get here?”

“Meh, I’m not going to worry about it. They’ll get here when they get here. Let’s just enjoy the quiet while we still can.”

It took them about three and a half hours, at least you think. You really had no clue no long you and Jungkook had been laying down, motionless and soundless. If anyone had been watching from afar, they probably would’ve thought you two were dead as hell.

All you know was that after a phat minute of waiting, you suddenly heard an elated yell consisting of you and Jungkook’s names. You raised your head with a groan but was suddenly squashed back down by a tall boy with grey hair.

“T-Tae?” The male looked up from where he was smushed against your chest and you saw his big, boxy smile that you loved dearly. “TaeTae!”

You threw your arms around the male and smothered him with cheek kisses.

“For Exia’s sake, you’d think you were long lost lovers or some shit.” You heard Jungkook grumble.

His voice made Tae wiggle out of your arms and run to latch himself on his brother. “Kookie!”

You smiled fondly at the two Saeni hugging each other when you yanked upright without warning and pulled into another bone-crushing hug.

“I was so worried!” You felt Jimin bury his head into the crook of your neck.

You rubbed his back soothingly, trying not to giggle. “I’m alright, Slim Jim. Kookie took good care of me.”

You looked up and locked eyes with the green-eyed male and smiled, though it was quickly knocked off your face when another body slammed into you and Jimin with a cry.

Stumbling back a bit, you grunted but didn’t even bother looking to see who it was because there was only one other person in the kiela who would have jumped on you like that.

“Hi there, Hobi.” You gasped out while laughing and trying to keep your balance.

“Hey, kids. Glad you’re safe and all that nice shit.” You heard somewhere over your left shoulder.

You snorted. “Thanks, Mr. Sparkle Hands. Glad you found us and all that nice shit.”

Finally, Jimin and Hobi released you and went over to greet Jungkook. You saw them grasp each other’s forearms before pulling into a bro-hug.

Why do so many guys hug like that? Is it instinctual?

You chuckled as you observed their reunion. Out of the corner of your eye, you caught sight of two males standing on the outskirts, watching everything unfold with relieved faces. You turned and walked over, smiling and nodding at Jiae and her guards as you passed them on the way.

When you were a few feet from Namjoon and Jin, the latter surprised you by reaching out and tugging you into a short hug, voicing how he was happy that you and Jungkook were okay.

You pulled back and grinned at him. “Thanks, Papa.”

The raven-haired Saeni sent you a smile back and nodded once before leaving to go see his youngest brother. After Jin stepped around you, you turned to Namjoon and did your best to mimic the forearm grasping hand shake thing with confidence. The Saeni just lightly laughed and pulled you into a brief hug as well.

“Hopefully you didn’t run into too much trouble,” he said with warm yellow eyes.

You just shrugged and looked over your shoulder, eyes landing on the male with light green eyes and burgundy hair before murmuring, “It wasn’t too bad.”

Nobody had wanted to walk anymore after that, so you had decided to just set up camp where they found you and Jungkook. You had settled down on your mat (Jimin had grabbed and carried your things while Tae had taken Jungkook’s), feeling exhaustion take over your body and mind. It had been a long and eventful day, to say the least. With Tae on one side of you and Jungkook on the other, you had been ready and eager to get a good night’s sleep. That plan had been thrown out the window maybe two hours later, when Jimin woke and began freaking out about how he felt something strange. His outburst effectively roused everyone up in an instant. After speaking with Namjoon, Yoongi, and Jiae, they all concluded that he was feeling a pull toward a draeva, something he had obviously never experienced before. Once informed of that news, you had too much excitement flooding through you to go back to sleep. There would be no more mindless wandering! And maybe you’d be able to find his father’s draeva fast, since Jimin had a vague idea as to which direction to go in.

And that’s how the group was travelling now. After completing your morning training with sluggish movements, everyone had packed their things and set out with Jimin acting as the compass.

Your eyes darted over to where Jimin was walking with Jiae, her three guards trailing directly behind them like hawks circling overhead.

Geez, they really need to relax. Let loose with some drinks or get laid or something.

Although Jimin was trying to pay attention to Jiae and be involved in their conversation, you could tell that he wanted to play with his brothers. The way he glanced over every time one of them screamed in joy or frustration with a longing look on his face was a dead giveaway if you’d ever seen one.

With an amused shake of your head, you walked past the guards and began strolling next to them, giving them both a small wave when they saw you approach.

“Why don’t you go hang out with them, Slim Jim? I can tell you want to.”

His face flushed, and he ran a hand through his hair as he stammered, “N-no, it’s fine. I really don’t want to.”

You rolled your eyes. “Yes, you do.”

“But I don’t want to leave Jiae alone…”

The lilac-haired girl began to defiantly say, “I’ll be fine! You don’t hav-”

“She won’t be alone, dummy. I’ll stay with her.” You tilted your chin in the direction the boys were running. “Now hurry up and go.”

He sent you a grateful look and ran off to join his brothers, who screamed in elation at his arrival.

Those boys… You thought as you watched them act like fools.

Adorable fools, but still fools nonetheless.

Jiae giggled at them then turned her eyes on you, her pale blue eyes bright and wisps of her lilac hair flying in the breeze. “Thank you, Y/N. I kept trying to tell him I would be fine by myself, but he wouldn’t listen!”

“Yeah, he can be a stubborn pain in the ass like that sometimes.” You laughed before giving her a serious look. “But if you do want to be alone, just say the word and I’ll yeet myself outta here.”

She was quick to hook her arm through yours, tethering you to her. “No! I’ve been wanting to talk to you actually…”

You sent her a half smile and nodded, already knowing why. “About Jimin.”

Because why else would you want to talk to me?

Her eyebrows furrowed as she shook her head with a tiny grin. “Nah, not about that tangerine head. We really haven’t gotten the chance to know each other yet, so I was hoping we could, you know… get to know each other finally.

You stared at her, looking to see if she was telling the truth. When you saw that her face was genuine, you blinked at her a couple times.

Huh… really wasn’t expecting that.

“Sure, I’d like that,” you said.

So, you talked. Everything from describing your childhoods and the first time you both met Jimin, to how annoying it was to always be “prim and proper” around court officials at the palace. Eventually, the conversation morphed into what your favorites were. Fruits, words, plants, hobbies, and other things. She was easy to talk to, funny and sweet. You don’t think you could become super close with her, like you were with Jimin and Tae, but you could see yourself being friends with the girl. You could see why Jimin liked her.

All of the sudden, she smirked at you, a wicked glint erupting behind her eyes. “Who’s your favorite member in the keila?”

Because the gods of Illain apparently liked to make your life difficult, she asked at the exact fucking time Tae, Jimin, Hobi, and Jungkook ran past you, shrieking like people who werejust told they could stop by McDonald’s on the way home. Having their dumb heightened senses, they heard her question through their screams and came to screeching halt, their game temporarily forgotten as they looked at you expectantly.

“Go run along children.” You tried to shoo them away.

Jimin laughed and looked at his brothers, raising his chin as he met their gazes. “It’s obviously me, guys. I’ve known her the longest and I am her best friend after all.”

You locked eyes with his soft brown ones.

Try me, bitch.

“It’s TaeTae.”

“Yaaaaaas!” The grey-haired Saeni yanked his headband off and began swinging it around in victory with a boxy smile overtaking his face.

Jimin’s face, on the other hand, dropped in exaggerated shock and disappointment as he clutched at his heart. “Betrayed by my own best friend. How could you!? You wound me!”

Hobi merely shrugged, not very surprised by your answer nor the other’s reactions.

Jungkook narrowed his eyes and looked between you and Tae a couple times before huffing and stalking away.

From your left, you heard Jin’s voice shout out, “Yah! How could you, Y/N!? No more food for you!”

You froze as his words reached your ears. “WAIT! Papa, I’m sorry! You’re the best, I swear!”

“It’s too late now, little scorja!”

“Fuck,” you murmured under your breath.

You knew Jin was joking, but you wouldn’t put it past the male to not whack you with one of his spoons later that night.

“You know,” Jiae leaned over to whisper in your ear. “I really thought you would’ve said Jungkook. You two seem really close.”

As she pulled back, she wiggled her light purple brows at you.

The insinuation of her words made you cough as you felt heat rush to your cheeks. “Ah, uh, no. Nothing there. I mean, yes, we are friends… good friends, surprisingly. But nothing more!”

She gave you a look that implied that she didn’t believe you one bit but didn’t press it further.

CAN THESE PEOPLE STOP THINKING THAT SOMETHING IS GOING ON BETWEEN US!!??

It’s kinda making it harder to ignore-

You were snapped out of your thoughts as Tae cried out behind you. “Ow! What the fuck, Kookie!? You didn’t have to hit me that hard!”

You rolled your eyes and chuckled to yourself.

Boys will be boys.

Two days later, you found yourself staring at a skinny, yet super tall tree gently swaying in the wind as sunlight filtered through its green leaves. You wouldn’t call yourself a tree expert by any means, but it looked like a birch tree. The white, paper-like bark had the same flashes of brownish-black running up the trunk that you’d seen on white birch trees on Earth.

This was the tree that Jimin was drawn to, his father’s draeva. You watched as your best friend slowly approached the tree with bated breath. It all seemed too easy.

You hadn’t run into any draikensu along the way. You had been wary when you passed through a village at the base of the mountain you were currently on, thinking that there might be a spy or draikensu follower lurking in the shadows. It didn’t help that it felt like someone had been watching you all afternoon, so you voiced your concern to the Saeni. The kiela had assured you that those people were peaceful and of no trouble. You still weren’t able to shake the feeling but did your best to ignore it since the boys said it was all okay.

Jimin’s inner compass had proven to be reliable. He felt a steady pull in the same direction over the past couple of days as your traveled. Occasionally, you had run into problems when there had been a body of water or other obstruction in the way, but for the most part, it had been a pretty standard GPS situation.

I wonder if he got a “you have arrived at your destination” message when they reached the draeva because he had stopped really abruptly.

Overall, though, there had been absolutely no trouble. It just felt like there had to be some catch. It shouldn’t have been this easy. It was never this easy in the books or movies.

Jimin paused, looking up at the limbs rocking back and forth high up in the air before looking back at you and the others. “What, uh… what am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe find your father’s handprint?” Jiae suggested.

He nodded and turned back to the draeva, inspecting the branches and walking around the trunk with a concentrated face.

After a couple trips around the tree while murmuring to himself, he stopped and said, “I can’t find it. I’m gonna have to climb.”

You opened your mouth to tell him to be careful as he placed one hand on the trunk to steady himself. Your words trailed off as he just stood there… not moving.

You heard Namjoon whisper, “Ah, so that’s what it is…”

You were going to ask what he meant, when suddenly, Jimin gasped and his back straightened like a rod. You called out his name and went to move toward him, but Jungkook was quick to stop you by wrapping an arm around your waist and tugging you back.

You glared at him over your shoulder. “Why di-”

“Shhh, just wait.” He had a soft smile playing at his lips as he kept his eyes pinned on his orange-haired brother.

Your eyes moved sideways to look at the other Saeni. They all had similar, knowing expressions on their faces. You turned back to look at your friend, who’s shoulder blades were now shifting below his clothes as black smoke drifted out from underneath his hand to curl and dance in the light breeze.

What the…

You could see Jimin begin to breath heavily as more smoke poured out between his fingers.

What the fuck is going on!?

“Oh…” You heard Jiae delicately say beside you as a shudder ran through her body.

You thought you saw her eyes glow slightly.

Your eyes bugged out when Jimin slowly removed his hand from the white bark. Left behind was a mark in the exact shape of his hand, like it had been burned into the wood. Chest rising and falling rapidly, Jimin kept his gaze on his hand as he turned back to the group. When he finally lifted his head, he was smiling so hard his eyes were squished closed. Small tracks of tears ran down his cheeks and dripped off his jaw.

“It’s not my father’s… it… it’s mine. My draeva.”

You were sitting next to the fire in the middle of village, watching from the sidelines as Jimin still celebrated with the others.

“My draeva.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his brothers rushed forward and tackled him in giant group hug. Even Yoongi joined in. They all tugged at his shirt, and he laughed joyously as he yanked it off over his head and turned around. Right between his shoulder blades were three concentric circles. His draeva mark.

You felt a tear slip down your cheek.

Jimin looked over to where you, Jiae, and the guards were still standing in awe, and he ran over and scooped Jiae up in his arms.

“Can you feel it? The connection?” He asked in a hopeful voice as he buried his head in her lilac hair.

She wrapped her arms around him tightly. “I can feel it.”

He sobbed into her hair, but it was a cry of pure happiness. He let go of her slowly and turned to you, his grin almost splitting his face in two.

“Y-you found your draeva… Jimin, I’m… I’m so fucking happy for you!” You launched yourself into his open arms, squeezing him with everything you had in you.

A loud cheer roused you from the recent memory. It was dark out, but the moonlight was bright enough for you to see that even the locals were in on the celebration now. You wondered if they questioned why Jimin was receiving his mark so much later than usual. If they did, you were sure one of the boys would conjure a quick lie to explain why.

Besides the three rings now imprinted on his back, Jimin didn’t appear to be any different physically, but there was definitely a change in him. Maybe it was the way his eyes seemed more alive, the amber flecks in his irises vibrant. Maybe it was the way his skin seemed to be perfectly clear and glowing. Maybe it was the way his breathing seemed to come easier. Or the way he seemed more sensitive to sounds and touch. The way he seemed to be finally and entirely be who he was meant to be. Like he was previously missing a part of him and he hadn’t realized it.

In a way, it was true.

You tried to smile as you watched him excitedly converse with Jiae, there heads close together as their eyes drank each other in. You felt a pang in your heart, but not because of them being together. If you were being honest with yourself, you hadn’t felt any negative emotions when you saw them side by side for the past couple of days. You only felt happiness… for both of them. Maybe getting to know Jiae was the final hurdle you had needed to let go of your feelings for your best friend.

But was it even love if I got over it so easily?

You shook your head at yourself. You truly did not know the answer to that question. It had felt like love. At least, it felt how you thought love was supposed to feel. The way your heart would pound, and your breathing would quicken.

Or was I just in love with the idea of being in love with my best friend?

Maybe Jimin had been right. You needed to stop reading smut online, specifically best friends to lovers smut. There was no chance you were going to stop with the tentacle fics. That shit was just too nice.

You peeked at the unofficial couple again and saw Jiae tuck some of her hair behind her ear, giving you full view of her extended elf-like ears. Then, you felt another twang of hurt course through you. The discovery of Jimin’s draeva made you realize just how different you were. How entirely human and normal you were. You would never have elf-like ears or heightened senses and abilities, you were just… you. Human and normal and different from them. Looking at his squished eyes, you couldn’t help but think how he looked like he belonged here. With a sharp inhale, you realized that was the reason for your hurt.

You felt like you were losing your best friend.

You didn’t blame him in the slightest, though. He found a girl, his connection to Illain, and his brothers were all here. There was no reason for him to come back to Earth with you at the end of all this. Maybe now you would be the one to see him only a few months out of the year. He wouldn’t be with you all the time anymore. You felt your throat choke up and tears begin to form in your eyes. You blinked rapidly to keep them at bay, but the urge to cry just kept building and building and building. You fisted your hands and dug them into your thighs as you continued to think of a life without a constant Park Jimin. Switching tactics, you glared straight into the fire beside you, hoping the light and heat would simply burn away your tears.

It didn’t.

You dropped your head into your hands, trying your damn best to will away your sadness. This was supposed to be a happy occasion, for fuck’s sake.

Be happy, you dumb bitch! You scolded yourself, but it only made you feel worse since it wasn’t working.

You didn’t think he would, since he was too wrapped up in the festivities, but you didn’t want Jimin to see you like this. You didn’t want him to look over and see you wallowing in your tears. With one last look in his direction, you inhaled deeply before standing and walking off into the darkness of the tree line.

You fisted your hands as you stalked further into the dark. All you wanted to do was shut your eyes and walk in a silent oblivion, but you didn’t think you could safely navigate the forest that way, so you instead let the soft moonlight guide you through the trees.

You walked and walked and walked, every once in a while, stumbling in the dark. You kept going, just needing to get away and be alone. You kept going until your felt like you could finally breath. You stepped through a pattern of branches and entered a meadow-like clearing. The moon supplying just enough light that you could make admire the tall grass and wildflowers dotting the landscape.

“You had to walk fucking far, huh?”

You whipped your head to the side to look over your shoulder at the sudden voice, body tense as you loudly gasped. You relaxed when you saw it was just Jungkook standing there with an annoyed yet concerned face.

“What are you doing here?”

He took slow steps toward you, like he was worried you would run off if he moved too quickly. “I followed you.”

You gave him an “are you serious?” face because no shit he followed you.

When he didn’t say anything else, you groaned and crossed your arms. ��Then why did you follow me?”

By now he was directly in front of you, his mouth slightly downturned. “You looked upset. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

You sighed and looked away from his eyes, focusing on the open clearing instead. “I’ll be fine, I just needed to clear my head.”

He studied you for a few moments, observing the heaviness of your breaths and your clenched jaw.

“Hit me.”

You turned back to gawk at him. “What?”

“You obviously have something on your mind, and you need to work off some steam, so hit me.”

You opened and closed your mouth a few times, completely thrown off by his words. “N-no! I’m not going to just hit y-ahhh! What the hell!?” You had to jump backwards to avoid his fist aimed at your gut.

Immediately and automatically, you fell into your fighting stance. Feet planted on the ground but still light on the balls of your feet, legs shoulder width apart, and arms raised with fisted hands.

An exact mirror image of how Jungkook was now standing.

“Like I said, you need to work off some steam. What better way to do that than sparing?”

Does he ever think of anything besides fighting?

You were silent and still for several heartbeats as you debated his offer.

To hell with it. Just go punch him.

You inhaled and narrowed your eyes, readying your limbs. He noticed the slight change in your demeanor and smirked before initiating the fight with a kick.

You don’t know how long the two of you went at it, exchanging hits and blocking attacks. It was a pleasant surprise to you that you managed to land a hit on Jungkook numerous times. Either he was going easy on you, or you had just gotten that much better.

I hope it’s that I’ve gotten better.

And you thought it surely had to be that because with every hit you landed, brief shock and awe would flash across Jungkook’s face.

You were sweating, hair sticking to your skin. You didn’t have the best vision, either. It being nighttime and all. But you applied every note Jungkook had given you about fighting with obscured vision. You listened, paid attention to the shifts in the air, and relied on your instincts.

You were somehow holding your own against the one and only Jeon Jungkook.

That made pride bubble up inside of you.

But that was your mistake.

You got confident and forgot, just for a moment, how good Jungkook was.

How he was the best.

You reached a little too far with your attack.

Your balance shifted a little too much to one side.

He took advantage of that slip up.

Dropping below your arm, he sent a leg out and knocked you down.

In an instant, he was above you.

You were going to be pinned.

Making a split-second decision, you lifted your arm and rammed your elbow into the side of his jaw.

He reared back ever so slightly, and that flinch let you grab him by his straps and roll the two of you over.

Now it was you hovering above him.

You were straddling his waist, breathing heavily as you leaned down over him. One hand wrapped around his throat while the other held down his shoulder. Your eyes traced over his pinned figure, taking in his straining muscles that, for some reason, were allowing you to hold him to the ground. Your eyes went up past his heaving chest, beyond his large, rough hand wrapped around your wrist at his throat, past the smooth expanse of his neck, and further than the sweat plastering his burgundy hair to the sides of his face. Up until you locked gazes with his peridot-green eyes. If it were possible, the intensity of his stare made you breath even harder. He was looking at you in both shock and surprise, but it was the pride burning in his eyes that quickened your breaths. The pride… and something else. Something dark and angry and lustful. It danced at the edge of Jungkook’s expression. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, as if he was trying to calm himself down or control himself.

Is he mad that I clipped him in the jaw?

Adrenaline was rushing through your veins as you gasped out, “I… told you… I would… beat… you… someday.”

Jungkook didn’t bother to open his eyes. “You only won because I let you.”

Probably, most definitely true.

With a pout, you let go of his throat and shoulder and moved your torso upright, yet doing so inadvertently caused your hips to roll against his lap. Before you could register what you just did, Jungkook’s hands shot out and gripped your waist. Hard.

You gasped as he forced your hips down, making your core press directly against him. You looked back up to his face to see his eyes open once again, but with a sinful glint overtaking his expression. The veins in his neck were prominent as he lustfully glared up at you. You might have been the one on top, but his appearance signaled that he was about to be the one in charge. Ever so slightly, you felt him thrust up into you, the action eliciting a tiny whimper to escape past your lips. Jungkook groaned at the sound, eyelids briefly fluttering closed before he locked his gaze on you again. Digging his fingers into your sides, he did the motion again and again and again. Each time just a little more forceful than the last.

With each second that passed by you could feel his bulge growing underneath you.

And with each upward rock of his hips, he made sure to hit the very center of you perfectly.

The sensations left you lightheaded and gasping for air, though you were doing your best to quiet your moans. Much to his displeasure.

“I want to hear you, sweetheart.” He forced your hips down as he sent a wrecking thrust upward.

You mewled, sucking in more air harshly. Whether it was his words, his commanding aura, or his actions, you had no idea. Maybe it was all of it, but whatever it was, you liked it.

Loved it.

“More,” he demanded.

Your mewls finally changed into breathy moans as you began to meet every one of his thrusts with a roll of your hips.

“More.” He growled.

There was no way you were going to deny him. Not when he was making you feel like this.

“J-jung… ngh… Jungkook-ahhh.”

“That’s it, sweetheart.” His voice was deep and raspy and utterly addictive. “Be loud for me.”

“Mmm. I want… ngh… more!”

“So needy,” he remarked roughly.

He used his tight hold on your waist to quickly flip the two of you over so that you now laid underneath him on the soft grass. Completely at his mercy. With rattling breaths, he let go of your waist to slip his hands to your legs and wrap them around his torso. The angle allowing your core to once again be pressed directly to his front.

The sweet sensation was too much, but at the same time, not enough. You moaned his name and arched your back, wanting more, more, more. You felt drunk off him. Off his weight on top of you. His hands sliding against your body. His intoxicating scent. His dominating presence. Off his everything.

After securing your legs around his waist, his hands drifted up your thighs and past your hips and chest until they settled gently against your neck. He lightly stroked your skin, making you inhale sharply as waves of pleasure wracked your body.

“J-jungkook. Please.” You desperately tried to pull him down to you fully, but he resisted with a tsk.

His green eyes were completely blown out and they bore into yours as he peeled our hands off him and pinned them to the ground beside your head. “You need to be patient, sweetheart.”

He leaned down and ran the tip of his nose from the base of your throat all the way up to your ear, lightly sucking at the delicate skin up there. You moaned and writhed beneath him as he continued nipping just below your jawline. The cold silver of his earrings dragging against your skin made you shiver. The scorching trail of his hot tongue made you pant.

You were about to release another sweet moan as he ground against you, but the sound of a twig snapping made you cease all actions.

“Is that… oh, shit! Run, hyung! Abort! Abort! Abort!”

IS THAT FUCKING TAE!?

Jungkook, who had also frozen at the sound, slowly turned his head in the direction of the panicking voice.

“You idiot! I think they heard you!”

HOBI!?

With wide eyes, you shoved Jungkook off you and quickly stood up while tugging at your clothes and running your fingers through your hair. When you rose to your feet, you saw Tae and Hobi trying to backtrack out of the clearing.

Jungkook, stood up as well, an absolutely pissed off expression consuming his face. “What the fuck are you two doing?”

The two Saeni yelped and sheepishly turned around to face you. As subtly as you could, you inched away from Jungkook so that you weren’t so close together.

Tae had the audacity to act surprised. “H-hey, Kook. Little scorja. Crazy seeing you guys out here!”

“Again, what the fuck are you doing?”

Hobi just let Tae take the heat, and you could see him start to slowly take a step back toward the tree line.

Tae just pouted at Jungkook’s question. “I was just looking out for my little scorja-”

“She’s not yours.”

Tae ignored Jungkook’s interruption, just smirked slightly. “-because the last time you followed her alone, you yelled at her.”

Okay, maybe we all should just calm down and then give ourselves concussions, so we can forget what was just happening.

Also… WHAT THE FUCK WAS JUST HAPPENING!?

You laughed nervously. “I’m, uh, just gonna let you two duke this out. I’m gonna leave with Hobi!”

You went to take a step forward, but Jungkook grabbed your shirt and pulled you back. “I’m not letting you leave this time.”

That made Hobi stop his quiet exit. “This time?”

Tae gasped. “Wait… has this happened before!? Are you two together!?”

Realizing what he said, Jungkook let go of you and even gave you a tiny push away from him, his green eyes wide with sudden panic. “Hyung, come on now. As if.”

Excuse me?

“Oh, Kookie, you come on now. You can’t lie and say that Y/N isn’t a beautiful girl.”

“Guys…” you tried to get their attention.

I appreciate the sentiment Tae, but I really don’t want to hear his answer.

“I-you-she-she’s human and it was nothing. We were just sparing.” He avoided looking your way.

Annnnd that’s why.

You stared at him, unable to comprehend anything that just happened. Why did he do that? Why did you go along with it? Why would he do that if he didn’t find you attractive? Why would you go along with it when you knew how felt toward you? Why did he say it was nothing? Why did that suck to hear? What in the everlasting fuck is going on inside of his stupid head!?

Hobi and Tae didn’t say anything else, just blinked and looked back and forth between you and the burgundy-haired Saeni next to you.

It was painfully quiet for the next several seconds until Jungkook mumbled to you. “Don’t be late for training in the morning.”

Then, he left in a hurry; walking into the trees without a single glance back.

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chiseler · 4 years

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Mitchell Leisen: How’s About It?

Mitchell Leisen was a major American film director. He belongs in the first rank, not the second tier, where he has often been placed by those who value the scripts he was given by Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett more than what he actually did with those scripts. Leisen’s name was usually written in sloping cursive in his opening credits, and that set the mood for what he had to offer. His was a gentle style, a deliberately unobtrusive style, smooth and gliding, attentive to nuances, visual and emotional.

Leisen made a point of nearly always moving the camera only when it is following a character who is moving right along with it, and the edits in his movies are as invisible as possible. He made three films that are undisputed classics: Easy Living (1937), written by Sturges, Midnight (1939), written by Wilder and Brackett, and Remember the Night (1939), written by Sturges. All three of these classic Leisen movies are partly about pretending to be something you’re not in order to move up or over into another social atmosphere or class and take on a new identity, and this theme is something that always interested Leisen particularly.

He got his start making costumes and dressing sets for Cecil B. DeMille, and he also made costumes for Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. That training shows through in his later work, that sense of fantasy and beauty for its own sake. Leisen had a fetish for absolute authenticity when he did period pictures, and he took this fetish to nearly Erich Von Stroheim lengths if he had the money to spend. Remember the peacock headdress that he designed for Gloria Swanson in DeMille’s Male and Female (1919), or the sexy harem pants he put on Fairbanks for The Thief of Bagdad (1924), or the barely-there garments he designed for Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross (1932) and you can get a first sense of Leisen’s aesthetic: hopeful, fantastical, erotic. And he was a pretender himself on some of these early movies because he was very skillful at making sets and crowd scenes look more opulent than they actually were given some of the budgets he had to work with.

He took the reins from nominal director Stuart Walker for two films that proved his range: Tonight Is Ours (1933), a high comedy that begins with a sexy masked ball, and The Eagle and the Hawk (1933), as grim and concentrated an anti-war film as you will find from this era. Leisen next graduated to prestige pictures like Cradle Song (1933) and Death Takes a Holiday (1934), with its high-flown Maxwell Anderson script. Leisen was fond of Death Takes a Holiday all his life, and he even wanted to re-make it in the late 1940s, but it has not held up as well as some of his lesser-known pictures from the 1930s.

After Murder at the Vanities (1934), a backstage movie with some odd musical numbers, Leisen took flight with three pictures that demonstrated the full scope of his talent. What makes a really great director, a major director? The ability to take a poor script, like the one Leisen was given for Behold My Wife! (1934), and make it into something that moves like a dream and seems inevitable. While you watch Behold My Wife!, there is a double consciousness of how outlandish and slapdash the plot and dialogue are and how Leisen transcends this through pacing, framing, and staging, so that there is always something to delight the eye. Leisen movies generally have a difficult-to-describe kind of creamy look, as if every person and table and chair were covered in the same sort of protective satin sheen.

He used a similarly fast, super-controlled pace for Four Hours to Kill! (1935), another backstage movie where Leisen himself plays the orchestra leader but you never see the numbers on stage. A kind of musical proto-noir, this movie depends on Richard Barthelmess, who is playing a criminal waiting to be taken to jail, and Leisen is alert to Barthelmess’s needs and sensitive to his big scene, where his character talks about his unhappy past. And then Leisen was given a script (by Norman Krasna) and two stars, Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, that were particularly congenial to his style, and the result was his first classic, Hands Across the Table (1935), a rather anguished comedy about love and the urge for security. Leisen had mastered form, and now he mastered the content that interested him, good-bad people navigating their own wants and desires and what they will do for them. For Leisen, mixed emotions are really the only emotions possible.

In all of his most characteristic films, Leisen’s characters are at a crisis point and need to decide to take a chance and see what they can get away with to become another version of themselves. There is lots of comedy in a situation like this, of course, but Leisen always hints at the dark underside of pretending. There is an American urge in these pictures that says, “What I say I am is what I am,” and that urge is usually naïve (think of early Joan Crawford heroines). Leisen looks at this urge from a height of sophistication, almost always warmly and tenderly, but sometimes he lets a really grim insight slip through. Think of Carole Lombard’s anti-social asides in Hands Across the Table, or that harrowing scene where Barbara Stanwyck goes home to her grudge-holding and cruelly puritanical mother in Remember the Night and you will feel the hurt that animates Leisen’s search for a created world of his own.

In many ways, the 1930s were Leisen’s best creative period, where he turned out beautifully balanced and finished entertainments like 13 Hours by Air (1936). He was a romantic who had a special way of visually enfolding the lovers in his movies that is almost Frank Borzage-like, and he glorifies very different women in what must be the best close-ups of their careers: look at some of the close-ups of the melancholy Sylvia Sidney in Behold My Wife! and then look at the close-ups of the wised-up Joan Bennett in 13 Hours by Air and see how Leisen gives them the same glamorizing treatment without ever losing what makes them so individual. Even pure assignments like Artists and Models Abroad (1938) glow with a kind of dreamlike assurance, as if to say, “Why shouldn’t a comedy look beautiful?”

And when Leisen had a meatier script, like Swing High, Swing Low (1937), which also starred Lombard and MacMurray, he was capable of virtuoso work that blended comedy and drama so seamlessly that it’s difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. He did some Sturges-like slapstick for Easy Living, including the famous automat scene where the windows fly open and everybody grabs at the food, which was his idea. But for Remember the Night, Leisen pared down the Sturges script, cutting unnecessary scenes and verbose dialogue until he had what he wanted, a portrait of a hard-boiled woman who starts to long for the warmth of a “why not?” idealized mid-West home. Remember the Night is probably Leisen’s finest film, and a peak in his career, a comedy-drama or a dramatic comedy all whipped together until the consistency is exquisite and just right.

After the very sensitive Hold Back the Dawn (1941), a Wilder-Brackett script about a hard-boiled male gigolo (Charles Boyer) pretending to love a sheltered, repressed girl (Olivia de Havilland) until his feelings actually become genuine, Leisen’s career settled in for a few years to minor comedies, as if wartime austerity had affected his budgets, his scripts, and his imagination. In 1944, he did two movies in color, Lady in the Dark and Frenchman’s Creek, one anti-feminist and one feminist, and both rather nightmarishly disconnected and self-indulgent.

Leisen was going through a crisis in his personal life by the mid-1940s, and it showed in his work. He was mainly gay, but he didn’t want to be, and so he had married a fledgling opera singer (“a horror” according to the sharp-tongued Ray Milland) and he was carrying on a tortured affair with costumer Natalie Visart while also pursuing men. Leisen’s loyal secretary Eleanor Broder told David Chierichetti, the author of the definitive Leisen book, Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director, that her boss tried taking hormone shots at one point because he thought they might eradicate his homosexuality, but of course that didn’t work. Leisen lived with the pilot Eddie Anderson in the late 1930s, and Anderson left him for Shirley Ross, the actress who talk-sings “Thanks for the Memory” with Bob Hope in The Big Broadcast of 1938, an unusually sentimental scene within his work that Leisen insisted on. When that picture finished, he had a heart attack, and his health was never quite the same afterwards.

In the 1940s, after Visart had gotten pregnant with his child and lost it, Leisen took up with the dancer Billy Daniels, and his unhappiness grew. Daniels dances in what has to be Leisen’s worst feature, Masquerade in Mexico (1945), a semi-remake of Midnight that is so distracted and poorly timed that it would seem to give credence to Billy Wilder’s many complaints about Leisen over the years in interviews; if you were to watch Masquerade in Mexico right after Midnight, it would seem like a mark against Leisen as an artist in his own right rather than a servant of superior scripts where he could get them. Daniels is actually the only thing this movie has going for it: he’s an exciting dancer, and an intriguing screen presence, sexy, petulant, a little dangerous. Many in Leisen’s inner circle disliked Daniels, but maybe Masquerade in Mexico might work if it could just be Daniels dancing as Leisen watches.

The blandness of the décor in something like Suddenly It’s Spring (1947) is a real comedown from his Art Deco 1930s pictures, but Leisen rallied in this period with some of his best and most personal films, starting with Kitty (1945), a sumptuous Gainsborough period piece with all the trimmings and a Pygmalion subject that activates all of Leisen’s interest in pretending and “passing” as something you are not. Best of all from this time is Song of Surrender (1949), an uncommonly severe movie about a New England girl named Abigail (Wanda Hendrix) who finds a way out of her repressive environment by listening to music. What Abigail feels in Song of Surrender is surely what Leisen himself must have often felt as a young man growing up in the mid-West at the turn of the last century, and so this picture, which he said he didn’t much like, is his secret movie, his confession movie. It’s a great film, daringly stark and stripped-down, and it is as unerringly paced and controlled as all of his best 1930s work; there are moments when it feels like a precursor to Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) in its insistence on the will power needed for a woman to find aesthetic and sexual fulfillment.

Leisen did an intriguing noir with Stanwyck called No Man of Her Own (1950) and an overlooked, charming adaptation of J. M. Barrie called Darling, How Could You! (1951), which is filled with longing for family life that Leisen certainly knows is a fantasy like any of his others. (How poignant it is when Joan Fontaine says in that movie that if her children are going to love her they mustn’t “think me over first.”) He spent twenty years working at Paramount Studios, and he was a creature of the studio system; when the studio system went, so did he, but not before one more diverting small musical, The Girl Most Likely (1958), which was the last feature made at RKO. “When the studio decided we no longer needed a certain department, it was shut down and if we needed something after that, we had to make do ourselves,” Leisen said. “It was really eerie.”

Ill-health and an unwarranted reputation for spending too much money kept Leisen mainly working for TV in his last years, so that he was back to low budgets and bringing in his own furniture to dress his sets. He had been fired from Bedevilled (1955) for hitting on one of the straight actors he was working with (the actor complained to MGM), and this put another shadow over his reputation. He had made Fred MacMurray’s career, but when he tried to get work as a director on MacMurray’s hit TV show My Three Sons, it was no go. “He sent me a telegram asking for the job,” MacMurray said. “He was, well, you know, a homosexual and he had gotten into some trouble on a picture he was making in Europe. With the three young boys we had working on the show, I just didn’t think it was right. So I never answered the telegram.”

It was his women who stayed loyal to Leisen in his final years, both his secretary Broder (who was a lesbian), and his old lover Natalie Visart, who had never really gotten over her love for him and came to stay with him toward the end (Visart’s son Peter was killed in a gay-bashing in the 1970s). Leisen’s responses to David Chierichetti’s questions in their interview book are unfailingly candid, insightful, and juicy, but his standing has never ascended to the level of that of Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder, even though his visual style was far more developed than theirs, and his point of view arguably more sophisticated and certainly more kind-hearted. He was a romantic with an edge of disquiet, and this made for matchlessly rich pictures, pulsing with hope and with pain.

Leisen knew about all aspects of picture making, and he has the requisite number of classics for entrance to the pantheon, plus a whole slew of other pictures of interest. He made Remember the Night and Song of Surrender. He made Midnight and Kitty. And he made Easy Living and Darling, How Could You! Those are all heights, and from different periods, and they prove the consistency of his inventiveness and the distinctiveness of his talent. His creativity came out of personal unhappiness on the one hand and unprecedented creative license and support under the old Hollywood studio system on the other. We will not see that particular combination again.

by Dan Callahan

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wrennix062 · 4 years

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Let's get personal:

• 6 of the songs you listen to most?

You’ll Be Back (Hamilton), Car Radio (TØP Vessel), Soldier Poet King (The Oh Hellos), IDK You Yet (Alexander 23), Lemons (Brye), S.L.U.T (Bea Miller)

• If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

Thomas Sanders

• Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

"Her smile faded, her chest tightened, and heavy blanket of anguis smothered her smallest joy."

• What do you think about most?

Whether or not the world exists

• What does your latest text message from someone else say?

Goodnight

• Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

With

• What's your strangest talent?

Uhm, I can identify any bird based on a picture (not that great a talent)

• Girls... (finish the sentence) Boys... (finish the sentence)

Girls are handsome. Boys are beautiful.

• Ever had a poem or song written about you?

Not that I know of

• When was the last time you played the air guitar?

Earlier tonight (i was listening to the phineas and ferb theme song)

• Do you have any strange phobias?

Agoraphobia (fear or large spaces/rooms, I always hated gym class)

• Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

One of those round flat LEGO dots

• What's your religion

I don't have one specific, though I lean towards a philosophy known as the Dao De Jing

• If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

Birding

• Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

Behind.

• Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

Twenty Øne Pilots

• What was the last lie you told?

That I practiced piano

• Do you believe in karma?

It depends.

• What does your URL mean?

Pidgeon refers to Pidge Gunderson from Voltron Legendary Defender, 11206 is my favorite number

• What is your greatest weakness and strength?

Weakness - Emotions Strength - Music/Art/Writing

• Who is your celebrity crush?

Bex Taylor-Klaus

• Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?

• How do you vent your anger?

Writing angst

• Do you have a collection of anything?

Tiny screwdrivers

• Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Honestly it doesn't really matter. As long as I'm able to talk to them and hear them, I'm good.

• Are you happy with the person you've become?

More or less.

• What's a sound you hate vs a sound you love?

Hate - hail on my window or roof Love - pencil tapping

• What's your biggest "what if"?

What if the world as we know it doesn't exist and we are all living an illusion surrounded by other illusions that act as if they understand reality?

"I think, therefore I am."

• Do you believe in ghosts? What about aliens?

Ghosts, more or less. Aliens, absolutely. There is a vast and ever growing space beyond our knowledge, there is no way we're the only planet capable of harboring life.

• Stick your right arm out. What do you feel first? The same with your left arm.

Right - my nightstand Left - my wall

• Smell the air. What do you smell?

My dogs

• What's the worst place you have ever been to?

A mental hospital, visiting a family member. (No, it wasn't an insane asylum, this family member was dealing with suicidal thoughts and tendencies.)

• Choose - East or West coast?

East.

• Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?

I am all genders and none, but of my opposite sex would be Shawn Mendes

• To you, what is the meaning of life?

There is none. You wake up, do things daily, go to sleep, and repeat until you die. You aren't meant to do things differently, some people are just considered better than others and actually make an impact.

• Define Art.

A way for others to interpret an individual's self expression

• Do you believe in luck?

Yes. The universe doesn't treat people the same all the time.

• What's the weather like right now?

It's storming outside, lots of thunder and lightning and rain.

• What time is it?

At the time of writing this question, 12:10 am

• Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?

No, I don't drive.

• What was the last book you read?

"The Mysterious Benedict Society"

• Do you like the smell of gasoline?

Absolutely not.

• Do you have any nicknames?

One of my friends refers to me as Remus because I remind her of Remus from Sanders Sides

• What was the last film you saw?

"After The Dark" otherwise known as "The Philisphers"

• What's the worst injury you've had?

Between spraining my wrist and getting a two inch split on my scalp

• Have you ever caught a butterfly?

No, but I have held one and walked with it without it flying away

• Do you have any obsessions right now?

Chemical Engineering, learning Italian, Philosophy

• What's your sexual orientation?

Asexual - Panromantic

• Ever had a rumor spread about you?

Yes

• Do you believe in magic?

Not really, no (but I do believe in the paranormal)

• Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

The only person I know has done me wrong gaslighted me and made me believe it was my fault, so no

• What's your astrological sign?

Aquarius

• Do you save money or spend it?

Depends on if we're talking about video games or real life

• What's the last thing you purchased?

Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha

• Love or Lust?

Lust is fake. I will always and forever choose love

• In a relationship?

Nope

• How many relationships have you had?

Four

• Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

• Where were you yesterday?

At home

• Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?

An old toy vault that I got at a book fair

• Are you wearing socks right now?

• What's your favorite animal?

It's between a lion, a snake, or a coral polyp

• What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?

Use a super cheesy dad joke, it always makes everyone laugh

• Where is your best friend?

At home

• Give me your top five favorite blogs on Tumblr

Idk I don't really follow any blogs

• What is your heritage?

Italian, Danish, Norwegian, English

• What were you doing last night at 12:00 am?

Writing fanfiction

• What do you think is Satan's last name?

Grovum (don't ask me why)

• Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?

I tried, I hated it

• Are you the kind of friend you want to have as a friend?

Not really, no

• You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss told you that if you are late on more time, you get fired. What do you do?

If I'm late all the time, it means I don't wanna be there. I'll search for my dream job, but right now there is an innocent life at stake and I can do something about it.

• You are at the doctor's office and she has just informed you that you have one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone that you're going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?

a) I tell my closest family and friends. I want them to be there for me, but if I tell anyone I'm not close with, they will only pity me.

b) I will spend the rest of my time eating chocolate, drinking coffee like it's soup, and blending waffles, because doing something weird is doing something fun.

c) Not at all. Death is an inevitable concept. I would be sad, I would be angry, but I would not be afraid. There isn't a point to being scared of something you can't avoid.

• You can only have one of these things; trust or love.

I choose love. Living life without loving another person, whether it be romantic, platonic, or familial, would be torture. And for me, love is the same as trust, but trust is not the same as love.

• What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

"Sincerely Me" from Dear Evan Hansen

• What are the last four digits of your cell phone number?

9286

• In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?

Equality.

• How can I win your heart?

Chocolate, a Ferris wheel ride at night, and accepting my sexual orientation.

• Can insanity have more creativity?

No. Creativity is always in the back of your mind. The same is with darker creativity. Insanity just brings it to the forefront or makes you act on it.

• What is the single best decision you have made in your life?

I decided that self harm doesn't help. I'm glad I did, or I could have landed myself in a hospital.

• What size shoes do you wear?

8 1/2

• What quote would be written on your tombstone?

"Life is a locked door. Death is the key.

Death is a locked door. Life is the key."

• What is your favorite word?

Infinitesimal

• Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word heart.

Red mixed with black and white.

• What is a saying you say a lot?

What can you do when you live in a shoe

• What is the last song you listened to?

"Heavydirtysoul"

• Basic question, what is your favorite color?

Green

• What is your current desktop picture?

Hogwarts castle

• If you could press one button and make anyone in the world explode, who would it be?

*thinks to self* does my sleep paralysis demon count..?

• What would be a question you'd be afraid to tell the truth on?

It's not a matter of which question, it's a matter of who's asking it

• One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn the light on to find you are surrounded by mummies. The mummies arent really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What do you do?

Offer them some toilet paper, maybe they're here because the ones at the supermarket are still sold out.

• You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they grant you a superpower if your choice. What is that power?

Shapeshifting

• You can re-live any point in time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half hour experience would you like to experience again?

My first time watching the first scene in IT.

• You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Fighting with both of my best friends

• You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

None. I'm asexual.

• You just got a free plane ticket anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

Venice, Italy

• Do you have any relatives in jail?

• Have you ever thrown up in the car?

Yes

• Ever been on a plane

• If the whole word we're listening to you right now. what would you say?

F**k Donald Trump

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magewriter · 5 years

Text

Understanding

Kalex Week Day Four: Marriage Tropes

Wednesday, 11/20 - Supertrope - Marriage - Marriage tropes! Fake married, arranged married, accidentally married, betrothal, etc.

I own nothing. So…I went with another AU for this one. I’m not entirely happy with it and will probably eventually revisit this in order to continue it.

Words: 4,198

*&^*&^

Alex sighed, closing her book and taking off her headphones. Her parents were still at it, discussing what to do with her new ‘sister’. The alien girl that had yet to leave the room across the hall for more than meal times. The same girl who spoke very little English and seemed terrified of her own shadow.

She could hear her cry at night, although neither of her parents had appeared to be aware of it. Alex was used to this, since she knew from experience that her parents could sleep through practically anything. Alex was a light sleeper, like her grandmother.

Scowling down the staircase, Alex had to wonder if they realized how much sound carried upstairs from the living room and kitchen. If Alex could hear them, then Kara with her super hearing could as well. Better, actually, when Alex thought of it.

Sending a dark look at the closed door guarding the younger girl, Alex returned to her room and began gathering supplies. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the new girl that had invaded her family and clearly did not want to be here. Not that Alex could blame her for that. Alex didn’t always want to be here either.

Looking over the pile, Alex nodded to herself. Talking was all well and good, but sometimes action was better. She was fairly certain action was always better. It certainly got more done than talking a subject to death did.

Creaking open the door (they would need to replace it at some point, Kara’s uncontrolled strength having cracked the door and frame several times), Alex slipped into the dark room. Searching the space as her eyes adjusted, the thirteen year-old felt her heart break.

Kara was curled up in the corner furthest from the door. Her hands were over her ears and her eyes were squeezed shut. She was once more dressed in the same odd white clothing that she had arrived in, the tattered remains of the outfit she had worn to breakfast scattered beside the bed. Things were broken and torn all over the room, testament to Kara’s abilities.

New abilities, Alex reminded herself. With that, Alex began approaching the smaller girl. Kara looked up at her and Alex stopped. No one had ever looked scared of her before, but she didn’t know what else to call the look in tear filled blue eyes.

“Hey,” she said softly.

Kara blinked at her. “Hello,” she said slowly, “Al-Ex.”

“Alex,” Alex corrected at the odd pronunciation of her name. At least she was no longer using Alexandra.

“Alex,” Kara repeated slowly, nose scrunched up in concentration. She shifted more into the corner, winching when she felt the material crumble from the movement.

She hated this. Not the Danvers, but the situation. None of them understood exactly what Kal-El had done, and he was too busy ignoring her to learn his mistake or assist her in rectifying it. Kara doubted he would want to, as human as he was.

He had taken everything but the clothing she wore to his Fortress. All the things she could have used to assist her in adjusting to this planet were now hidden away from her. She was prohibited from using powers she didn’t understand, much less know how to control.

Like his, her parents had planned for the changes that would occur. Unlike his, hers had planned for her to raise him and hide both of them should the need arise. No one had planned for her to go off course, but then she doubted they would have expected Kal-El to abandon her to strangers.

Kara almost wished she was back in the Phantom Zone. At least there she was no one’s inconvenience. She was not betrothed to a girl who had no understanding of just what that meant. Kara was pretty certain Alex disliked her, either as a ‘sister’ or future spouse.

She did not have the language needed to explain all of this. The older Danvers were trying, but they lacked the same understanding as Kal. They were all focused on her adjusting to Earth and being human. None of them had stopped to consider that she had just lost her family and the world she knew as home. They all appeared to be under the impression that she should be ‘over it’ already.

Alex broke their staring contest, moving to sit beside her. “Can you at least understand what I’m saying?” She asked bluntly.

“Zhi,” she winched, “yes,” she repeated the affirmative in English. Understanding the language was the simple part, trying to use it to express herself was proving more difficult.

“Okay,” Alex nodded to herself. “This is how this is going to work. You are going to teach me Kryptonese, and I’ll help you with your spoken English.”

Kara nodded. It would help and she owed the girl that much. Perhaps eventually she could explain what Kal had done.

“While that happens, we’re going to work on your powers.”

“I am not to use them,” she repeated the phase she had heard far too many times to count.

Alex scoffed. Adults. “Then how are you going to learn to control them?” She took Kara’s silence as agreement. “We’re starting with hearing and strength. And once we figure it out, you’re taking me flying. Got it?”

“Got it,” Kara nodded, feeling a smile form on her face for the first time in days. Flying was easy, and she would be very careful with Alex.

“Good,” Alex pulled out a fresh notebook. “So first thing, alphabet.”

Several weeks went by like that. Using basic skills most people learned in preschool and kindergarten, Alex helped Kara control her strength. She found sounds for Kara to focus on when things began to be too loud. Kara taught her the basics of Kryptonese, both the simplified alphabet and key words. Alex made a game of it, exchanging word for word around the house and figuring out terminology when there simply wasn’t a translation available.

Kara was much faster with English, although she still spoke formally instead of with the vernacular of a thirteen year old. Once she had enough words, she lamented the loss of her pod and what it contained to Alex in the dark of the night.

“We could try to ask for it,” Alex suggested quietly. She had discovered that Kara was tactile to the extreme, so it was no longer odd for her to have the smaller girl curled in bed with her. It meant that Alex was not yanked from slumber to Kara’s night terrors, plus she was never cold.

“I doubt they would allow us to have it. Kal-El desires me to forget, to be human.” Kara had tried before, argued that it belonged to her. Would it really harm anyone if she was allowed those small pieces of home?

Alex snorted. She was beginning to like, possibly even love, the odd girl. She was not, in anyway, the least bit human. Why should Kara have to forget anything? Alex equated it to being told to forget her Nana and Papaw after they had passed away. How could she forget the man who had first taken her surfing, or the woman who made her favorite blanket for chilly nights?

She was well aware it was not the same, but she had nothing else to compare it to.

“So we don’t ask permission.” She wondered if she had the right clothing for a trip to the Artic. “You fly us there and we steal it back.”

“I do not believe I can carry you and my pod.” Perhaps if Alex was inside? Kara didn’t think so, not when she would need to fly high enough to remain unseen.

“So we take the big back pack,” Alex replied, “and we fill it with the important bits to bring back here. That I know you can do.”

Kara nodded. “Yes, but it would take time. More than a single night.”

“You have a point,” Alex mulled it over. “I have an idea, but it means waiting. We’ll need to be really convincing in order to pull it off.”

“Okay.” Kara trusted Alex. Kal-El may have made many mistakes, but this one might actually become something Kara was no longer angry about. She hoped that Alex would be understanding and accepting of it.

“Okay,” Alex hoped this worked out. If not, they would be grounded until college. Well, she would be at least. “I need to make a phone call, but this will work.”

A single phone call later and her Grandma Mason (Eliza’s mother) was a firm ally. Alex hadn’t even really had to try to convince the woman to begin asking for the girls to visit. The eccentric woman was always up for trouble, a trait she shared with her granddaughter.

Not that Eliza had much room for complaint. She had agreed to take in an alien child using faked documents to make it look legal. She also managed to use the ‘sister’ title as if she actually believed it.

Emily Mason took exactly three months to arrange for the two girls to spend two weeks in Indiana in June on the family farm. Eliza and Jerimiah were fine with it, although both gave the same lecture on keeping Kara’s origins a secret. The ‘no powers’ rule was to be strictly enforced, and they left it on Alex’s shoulders to ensure it happened.

Dutifully, fingers crossed behind her back, Alex promised to take care of Kara and keep the secret. Kara did the same, although she still did not fully understand why crossed fingers negated a promise.

It took all of an hour once the elder Danvers were gone for Emily to turn to the girls and ask them what the plan was.

“Kara’s an alien and we’re going to get her stuff back.” Alex answered.

“And that’s the reason for all the missed family gatherings then,” she nodded. It made much more sense than the excuse her daughter had been using. “Well, come along and fill me in. I have fresh gingerbread and tea. Kara dear, how to you like yours made? Sugar or honey?”

“Honey, please!” Kara’s eyes were bright at the thought of two of her favorite things on this planet. Krypton had not had bees. She wasn’t entirely certain what went into gingerbread, but the spiced sweet reminded her of her aunt and the candies she would return with from her travels.

Alex grinned, following the two inside. Grandma was the perfect ally.

Emily listened as the two teens told her Kara’s story. Her heart went out to the girl. Her own grandparents had been Holocaust survivors and she had grown up with their stories of the camps and the war and the aftermath. To have lost everything and not truly been given the time to deal with the trauma, it was hard enough on an adult.

“The old field outback is well hidden,” she told them after a few minutes of silence. “You should have no trouble practicing out there. The barn is old, but still perfectly sound. There are plenty of things around here where we can work on things, and hide others.” She studied them a bit. “How certain are you that your pod is at the Fortress?”

“Where else would he have taken it?” Alex asked. “He wouldn’t have…” she trailed off. Clark wouldn’t have destroyed it, would he? He had been cruel enough to leave a distraught, traumatized twelve year old on her parents’ doorstep.

“It is there.” Kara said. “He took it and myself there first, before taking me to the Danvers’. He said it would be there for when I was older.” She didn’t think he would be capable of destroying it. There was a failsafe in the pod to prevent such a thing. Her father had assured her of it, mostly to assuage her worries probably but she trusted him not to lie to her.

“Then it won’t hurt to at least check it out.” She sighed. “That would be something to see. You’ll have to tell me all about it when you get back. Alex, your grandfather’s old jacket might be a bit big but I think a few extra layers and it’ll fit just fine.” She set her empty mug down. “I want it to be understood that I do not like the thought of you two going that far away without adult supervision, but I think this is something you both have to do.”

“It is,” both girls replied. Kara needed that information to help explain what it was Kal-El had done. Accident, misunderstanding, whatever it was, he had still done it. Considering her foster parents’ constant stressing of the title ‘sister’, she was beginning to suspect they had some inkling of what had happened.

“Alright, but you leave and come back at night. And,” she stressed this, “you do not leave until I am satisfied that you are prepared.”

Not wanting to lose their only ally, they both agreed. Kara thought it was smart. The cold wouldn’t affect her, but Alex would freeze in moments. She did not want to lose her betrothed. Alex was the absolute best thing on this planet. Even better than potstickers.

They were allowed to leave two nights late. Alex was bundled up to the point she was more concerned with heatstroke before they got off the ground than she was of freezing once they were in the Artic. Kara was dressed in a brand new black leotard, blonde hair tucked up in a black beanie. Both of them had new black combat boots, Alex’s a size too big to accommodate the layers of socks on her feet.

Emily was prepared for everything. From the amount of snacks she provided, not even Kara’s appetite fazed her.

“Your grandmother is,” she struggled for a moment to remember the correct wording, “amazing.” She beamed when Alex smiled at her.

“Yea, she really is.” Alex looked around the woods they had stopped in for a break. It was pretty, all pine trees and very different from the beach she had grown up on. “Um…Kara…we need to go.”

“Why? You are still cold.” Despite the layers, her human was still shivering from being so high in the atmosphere going at speeds just under dangerous for humans. She had promised Emily that she would take care of Alex, keep her safe and bring her back in one piece.

“Yea, I can deal with the cold. That, not so much.”

Kara turned to see what Alex was looking at. She knew the animal from the television and books, but it took her a moment to place it. “Oh! A bear! It’s so cute!”

The animal saw them. It growled, rising onto its back legs to tower over them. Soft snuffling sounds came from behind them.

Alex swallowed as two bear cubs appeared. Kara cooed over them.

“No Kara, don’t pet them!”

Kara froze when the mother bear roared. Catching herself, she changed targets to Alex, picking her up and taking them back into the air. The adult bear roared again, but the girls ignored it in favor of locating another clearing. This one without any bears.

“Don’t pet wild animals, ever.” Alex told her firmly. “No matter how cute they are.”

Kara looked down, ashamed. She was invulnerable, but Alex wasn’t. She could have gotten her betrothed hurt, or worse killed. “I am sorry Alex.”

Alex sighed. She pulled Kara into a hug. “I’ll get you a stuffed animal. You can pet those as much as you want.”

Kara’s eyes widened in horror. “Who would stuff an animal? Why?”

“No, no!” Alex shook her head. She no longer had any of her stuffed animals, having long ago abandoned them in favor of science kits and other more interactive amusements. “It’s a kind of toy. I don’t have any, not anymore, but,” she paused. “Find us a town, I’ll show you.”

That was how their quest got sidetracked so Alex could buy Kara her first stuffed animal. It was a floppy puppy with bright orange and green fur. Alex had no idea what kind of dog it was meant to be, but it made Kara smile as she looked it over.

Toy tucked carefully in the bag, they continued on. Alex had absolutely no idea what time even was when they arrived at the Fortress. She knew she was cold and the light was strange. Kara was tired, she knew that as well by the way she had slowed even as they reached an area where it was safe for them to fly lower.

“A giant key, really?” Alex crossed her arms, words muffled by the layers of scarf covering her face.

“Kal-El’s security measure could be much improved.” Kara agreed. It was easy enough to get inside.

It hurt a little, to see this small piece of home. However, it didn’t take her long before she had the Fortress online and warming to safe human temperatures. Scowling at the computer, Kara quickly fixed the settings so that such functions were automatic.

Lights turned on, illuminating the different spaces. Alex was awestruck, absently shedding her outer layers as she tried to take everything in at once. The little robots that appeared speaking Kryptonese took the clothing and began leading them to a room Kara’s presence had apparently unlocked.

“Oh Rao…” Kara felt tears escape her eyes and didn’t try to stop them. Her Uncle had nearly perfectly recreated her room and the view from it. She suspected that one of the kelex units had moved her pod here. It was set against one wall, waiting for her.

“Is that…Kara, is that Krypton?” Alex asked softly. “It’s pretty.”

“It was,” her voice trembled.

Alex listened as Kara began half singing what sounded like a prayer. She remained quiet as Kara’s voice flowed from one prayer to another, eventually choking off. At that point Alex wrapped the girl in a hug, offering what comfort she could.

For some time, they just sat there in the room staring out the ‘window’ at a view that no longer existed. Eventually, Kara stood up and broke the hold.

“I need to show you something. I do not know how to explain it. You need to know.”

Alex, confused, watched as Kara opened her pod and began to take things out of it. Clark had clearly not done anything more than set it down. Kara paused over a few items, wiping away tears as she separated things into two separate piles.

“Here, this is a translator.” Kara held out what looked to be (and were) a combination of contact lenses and tiny earbuds.

Alex hesitated a moment, but took them. Kara had to help her put it on, but they managed it with only temporary discomfort.

“How do I know they’re on?” Nothing looked different.

“Can you understand me?”

“Yea?” Alex looked at her weirdly.

Kara smiled sadly. “They’re working. Can you read this?” She held up a small tablet, sliding a crystal into it before the screen lit up.

“Tales of Firebird,” Alex frowned as the shapes she recognized as Kryptonian rearranged themselves into English. “That is freaking awesome.” Her frown turned into a grin as she began to understand how this worked. Of course an advanced civilization like Krypton had technology akin to something out of science fiction.

Kara’s smile was weak. Yes, she supposed it would be amazing. She took the tablet back and removed the crystal. She picked another, this one a simplified explanation of Kryptonian culture. Inserting it, she skipped to the section concerning the joining of families.

“Please read this.”

Alex took the tablet, eager to learn more. Kara seldom spoke about her life, mostly because all of the adults were so intent on her learning to live on Earth. It had been nearly a year. Kara would be going to school soon instead of studying at home.

She began reading. She paused, moving back to the top of the page to reread it. Then she did it again. And Again. Finally, she looked back up at Kara.

“We’re engaged?” No one had asked her about this! Is this why Kara was so reluctant about certain things?

She rescanned a few phases.

Gift giving. Alex had given Kara any number of things since her arrival. Kara, once they had begun testing out her powers, had taken to giving her small stones she had shaped. The blonde had also gifted her with several sketches, mostly of Alex surfing or fantastical animals.

Food sharing. Kara was often reluctant to try new foods, but she gave anything a try once Alex had tried it or offered it to her. Once Kara knew what her favorites where, she often brought them to Alex when the older girl was slow to get going in the morning or when they were having a lazy day.

A family Elder turning over the person in question to the new House. Clark had done that, insisting in both English and his terrible Kryptonese that the Danvers were adopting Kara. They were to be her new Family, her new House. He had fulfilled the negotiation stipulated in what she was reading.

“Holy shit.” Alex breathed out. “We’re engaged.”

“Yes,” Kara spoke. “We don’t have to be if you don’t wish this. I understand,” she kind of did, more than she had anyway, “kind of, that adoption is different here. Kal-El did not know what he was doing.” She continued to babble, apologies mixed with explanations.

“Kara,” Alex set the tablet aside and went to her alien. “Kara, it’s okay.” She could handle this. “We can be engaged.” She swallowed, determined to see this through. She had been told to take care of Kara. She was just going to do it in a vastly different way than had been intended. “When we’re older,” she covered Kara’s mouth, “when we’re older,” she stressed, “we’ll talk about it again.”

Kara nodded and Alex removed her hand. “So is there a ring to go with this?”

“Ring?” Kara frowned.

“Humans exchange rings when they get married, and one person usually wears an engagement ring.” Alex explained.

“Oh! We exchanged bracelets,” Kara explained. “Plain ones, made by the larger house for the engagement and more ornate ones for the ceremony.” She swallowed. “Marriage was for life. Unless one of a pair died, there was no dissolving the bond. Even then, the remaining partner seldom bonded with another.”

“Right,” Alex could do that. Bracelets would certainly be easier to get away with. She was going to have some fun with this. “Does my being a girl bother you? Is that why you waited?”

Kara looked confused. “I do not understand. On…on Krypton gender is not…was not…it’s a thing that is. Why would it matter?”

Alex had a feeling she would be reading the information on the crystals over and over again. “It doesn’t,” she finally decided on. “So, do we have bracelets?” They were easy to make, she probably had all the supplies needed at home. If not, her grandmother would have them.

“I think I might.” Kara got up and looked through the small pile of items she had set aside. She pulled a small box engraved with the House of El crest. “Here.” She brought it over, opening it to show Alex what was inside.

Two silver bracelets rested inside, both embossed with the same House of El crest that Clark had made so popular the world over. This was sharper, the lines and points less rounded.

“I have a set, and another that were meant to be Kal-El’s.” Kara said. “Betrothal bracelets are often handed down through the generations while the ones used for the formal ceremony are forged through the courtship. These were last used by my parents.”

“You’re awfully calm about this,” Alex commented, hesitantly reaching out for one of the bracelets. She stopped. “Does it matter which one I wear?”

“I always knew my marriage would be arranged once The Matrix chose my match.” She gave Alex a small smile. “I think we would have been matched. I think my family would have liked you a great deal.” She set the box down so she could remove one of the bracelets. “Do you…are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Alex was well aware she could have taken the out. They could work on becoming the sisters her parents wanted them to be. Alex…didn’t want to do that. She held out her left wrist. “I accept your proposal Kara Zor-El.”

“I accept your proposal Alex Danvers.” Kara slid the bracelet onto Alex’s wrist. Alex startled when it reshaped itself to her wrist until it was the perfect fit. Kara’s did the same when Alex repeated the actions.

“We should pack up and get back to Grandma’s.” Alex looked around. “Pity we can’t take this with us. We could have our own clubhouse.”

The trip back was simpler.

There were no bears for starters.

Alex took a great deal of pleasure in informing her parents that they had already arranged her marriage.

#kalex #kalex fanfic #kalex week 2019 #day 4

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stories-mostly · 5 years

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Stark's Bug

Tony Stark x Son!reader

Let's all collectively ignore that I forgot about the entire first 15 min of the 2nd Iron man movie as a late birthday gift to me. Thx.

Words: 1525 (what a pretty number to look at)

Warnings: Canon typical violence, other than that none

Chapter 15

You are watching Happy and your dad box in the ring as you stood beside it copying their movements and fighting an invisible villain. Lots of stuff had happened recently but now that your dad was back, there was no reason to dwell on the latest happenings. Because: You had your own superhero costume!

It had been a weekend project with your dad after he caught you playing with his helmet on. He came up with the idea and you with some rough drafts of the design, then you worked together to give it the finishing touches. Creating your superhero costume all within a 48 hour time span.

There was a helmet in Iron man style but purple and blue colors which looked similar to Captain Magic's colour scheme and it was taken off and put on like a motorcycle helmet. There were strong glasses in the holes for your eyes which Jarvis was built into. They could simulate enemy's. Make them look like they're really there, so you can fight them.

You had a long Cape with dark purple on the outside and a softer blue on the inside, which was attached to your shoulder plates. They were attached to your chest Armour that reached down to your waist line and was made of a thin, breathable, sturdy fabric. You also had super special gauntlets, and boots that reached your knees. You loved your look and went by the name of "Captain Storm", after Captain Magic of course.

His superpowers are controlling the wind, time travel, and super strength. Captain Storm also has a super secret super power only to use in dire situations. Nobody knew that he can use the force! But soon he'll be found out by his arch nemesis Madman!

You had your fun playing pretend as the door opened and Pepper walked in. She was real busy recently so you were excited to see her.

"Pepper!" You shout and run over into her arms.

"What? Who are you?" she gasped.

"Uh? I'm (y/-, I mean, I'm Captain Storm! I was protecting you of the evil lasers of Madman! You can only see them with my super special helmet! Thank me later!" You explained taking a superhero stance. You smiled up at her and went away to "fight" the evil Madman who was now targeting your family!

You didn't even realize there was a whole stranger in the room smiling at your antics.

As soon as your father left the ring the strange lady got in it and fought Happy while Tony and Pepper talked.

You watched in despair as she took down your uncle without a problem. How dare she? That was your uncle! And an ally of Captain Storm! She must be a villain! In truth you were very impressed though. Well (y/n) might've been impressed but Storm saw in her nothing but a potential threat! Maybe she was even a spy sent by Madman! He just couldn't trust her. Though he tried to copy her moves. They were really cool.

You snuck off into the side room and changes back into your "civilian clothes".

Walking back into the gym the woman and Happy were both out of the ring.

You wandered over and let yourself fall over your dad's lap.

"You're finally back, Bug." he said ruffling your hair after pulling you up into a sitting position. Instead of being sprawled over his legs like a lazy cat.

"What're you doing?" you asked both of them, as they seemed to be doing, well, things. You didn't really know what.

"Nothing big, just some paperwork." He paused handing back the papers to Pepper. "Bug, What do you think about going with Happy, Pepper and me to Monaco?" He asked after you faced him properly.

"A vacation?" you were confused, you had school. Also where IS Monaco? Your knowledge of European geography didnt go further than knowing a few names of countries and their estimated location.

"Yeah, more or less. I mean going to Monaco to attend the Grand prix? You know, Formula one? Cars racing each other." He made motions with his hands that were somehow related to race cars.

"Sure." You shrugged pulling up all the knowledge you possess about formula one. It wasn't a lot. You knew that your Stark industries was sponsoring or owned one of the teams and that they drove really weird and fast cars, but that was about it.

It was your first vacation in a long time so hopefully it would be fun.

Not long after your father had asked you whether or not you wanted to come you were in Monaco. More specifically in your hotel room.

You jumped around on the furniture in the large living room as your father was taking a shower. He had said to get ready but you could spare a bit of time for playing.

You let Captain Magic fly around the room after the Captain America figure Coulson had gifted you. Magic knew that Captain USA was an imposter since the real one is dead. So now she had to catch him and reveal his true identity. Though playtime was over as soon as the bedroom door opened and both Captains crashed into your father's chest.

You gasped, and then apologized while giggling.

"Your apology is accepted, now go get dressed you rascal." He said picking up both captains and shooing you back to the couch where your suit was waiting to be put on.

You were dressed in a few minutes, struggling a bit with the button up.

Your father tied your tie and voila you were all ready to go. Looking all fancy in your dress shirt and vest. A real charmer, as your dad put it.

You put on your sunglasses and left.

Arriving at the race track you were overwhelmed on how big it was. You couldn't even see it all together. They really had to drive a long way around Monaco. People cheered as your father got out of the car. He did his usual spiel, while you clamored at the track. You also gave a short wave to the people before you followed Pepper and your dad inside, Happy following behind you.

Inside you where slightly overwhelmed so you just stuck to your father's side. Natalie was also there doing stuff. You actually only found out her name on the flight here when you were back to playing pretend.

Somebody took a quick picture of the three of you while your dad didn't stop talking. You continued to follow him around like a lost puppy.

There was the Hammer guy that was also at your dads court hearing. You could feel that they hated each other. The four of you shortly sat down on a table before Natalie came and told Tony that the other table he wanted is ready.

Your dad stood up and Pepper took your hand having realized how lost you looked, leading you over. You sat down and fiddled with the middle button of your vest.

"Wheres Tony?" Pepper asked after you were both seated.

"On the Toilet." you said looking over to the TV where the preparations for the race were broadcasted.

"I think hes off the toilet now." you said as you saw your dad in full racing get up on the track.

"What? Oh my God." Pepper said and asked for Natalie to bring Happy.

Meanwhile you were ecstatic at the thought of your him racing.

The race began and you were basically bouncing in your seat. Not knowing whether your father was winning or not you still cheered him on internally.

You looked over at Pepper who still had a "I can't believe this" expression on her face.

Your attention was drawn a few minutes after the race had begun. There was a man on the track, just casually walking along. You knew something wasn't right even before he started to turn into a weird very villainy looking dude. You turned to Pepper only to see that she was gone. Now you were panicking. You took deep breaths, trying to calm yourself but nothing was working. Natalie placed her hand on your back comfortingly. It didn't calm you down at all but grounded you a little. Your father was on the screen getting attacked by some random guy, without his suit, and your main support system was currently gone! You had a feeling that they weren't away to search for safety either.

Tears were building in your eyes as the situation grew more and more concerning.

All you could do was stay there helplessly watching as your father avoided being fried by mere millimeters. You started to grind your teeth together when you saw the car you had come with ram the man into the side barely avoiding your dad. You flinched and bit your lower lip roughly.

There were several heart stopping moments before your dad could finally suit up. You'd like to say that he'd won with ease but it looked like it took a lot of effort to defeat the man.

Ultimately the man was dragged off by officers and the damage was done. You were relived that it was over.

You held onto him tightly as soon as he was within reach.

There was nothing to like about seeing your dad be in immediate danger and fighting for his life. Again.

Tags: @shannonr2003 @art-estrange @nicholasbich @tater-thottie @tonystanktheirondad @gaylemonshark @emilaa2001 @kindahadeschild

Thank you for reading :)

#tony stark x child!reader #tony stark x you #tony stark x reader #tony stark #tony stark x male reader #tony stark x male!reader #tony stark x m!reader #male reader #male!reader #m!reader #marvel reader insert #child!reader #stark!reader #stark's bug #stark's bug chapter 15 #chapter 15

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raspberryfanfics · 4 years

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concepts pt II—hyuga hizashi

Summary: All of the world's unproven things could be explained in concepts: fate, freedom, fear, love...and a girl obsessed with birds made Hizashi question everything he believed in and made him believe. He didn't question it, he just let it be. After all, change is just a concept too.

Word Count: 6108

ON FFN HERE Part I HERE

They all made chunin that year, and Hizashi found himself struggling to keep his emotional distance from Asuka.

It seemed that every time he looked at her, she grew even more beautiful. Her once flat and unshapely body had now developed soft curves and toned muscle. She was even faster than before, her legs long and lean to help carry her at incredible speeds. Her hair was now usually braided into a ponytail to keep it out of her face and it trailed behind her when she leapt from tree to tree, becoming even closer to flying.

She was now able to use the wind-riding jutsu much more proficiently and it was now more common for her to spar in the air rather than on the ground. They all had their fair share of scars now. Some on their arms from rather tough enemies, some from surgeries after they were exposed to toxic chemicals, and some from each other. Yet their team's bond was unbreakable and stronger than before.

However, he was furiously failing to keep the distance he promised the heir of his clan.

It was hard to avoid her. Sometimes he noticed that he would be cold to her but she wouldn't care, because she knew just as well as he did that he would always find her again. Once he had a new training idea, she was the first one he went to. And when she'd sneak into his bedroom in the middle of the night and talk about her mission or birds with such passion in her eyes...how was he to continue to be cold to her when she made him feel so at home?

She took his sudden changes in attitude to be moodiness and still treated him the same. It was usually later in the day where everything would be normal again.

They each were promoted to jonin one by one in the course of four years after several missions led by Kazane-sensei. On one of the S-ranked missions, the four of them stumbled upon a map in one of the scrolls of their assassinated targets. It appeared to be a map in a language that he didn't understand. However, when Kenji examined the scroll once more, he understood it immediately.

According to their teammate, it was the signs and symptoms of strange diseases understood by a skilled medics. However, the procedure and symptoms apparently made practically no sense and were organized into several chunks. Kenji spent a week trying to figure out what it meant, even consulting Tsunade, who was also very confused.

One day, when Kazane-sensei and Hizashi were meditating, Asuka bird-watching, and he was reading, he jumped up and shouted. "I know what it means!"

The three immediately looked up and he spread pages of lined paper onto the ground, pinning them with kunai.

"So most of them provide strange snippets like right here, it says the nerve was damaged severely and the word nerve was underlined. So to try and remember this, I put the abbreviation for "nerve", which is "N" on this paper, then went to the next one, which says "sutures in the nose" so I shortened that to "intranasal" and abbreviated that to "IN". Those ones were super obvious but some of them like the missing symptom for a disease were harder to find."

"You lost me, Kenji." their sensei admitted.

"Nevermind. If you take the chart abbreviation for each section it spells out into complicated instructions to a ninja falcon cliff! It's a map to find the ninja summons of falcons written down by a med-nin who probably wanted to keep it a secret!"

And with that statement, Asuka nearly fainted.

He caught her as she fell back but she clearly needed to hear more, and she couldn't do that if she was unconscious. She recently also acquired a contract with ninja owls, and it was clear she was hungry for more. With a writ from the Hokage, she was granted permission to leave the village in search of the ninja falcon.

Sixteen-year-old Hizashi and the other two bid their teammate goodbye at the gates of Konoha, supplying her with emergency contact gear, extra weapons, summoning scrolls within summoning scrolls, and items that were supposed to bring luck. She assured them she would be fine even as Kazane-sensei reminded her to do things in the way she used to back when they were genin. They were reluctant to let her go, knowing that it could be half a year before seeing her again. Yet this was her passion and if she succeeded, she would be a stronger ninja, something they all wanted to be.

After hugging the other Kenji and Kazane-sensei, she quickly threw her arms around Hizashi, taking him by surprise.

"I know you don't like hugs," she softly as his frozen hands shook, then slowly wrapped around her waist. "But I'm really gonna miss you, Hizashi."

He blinked, burying his face in the crook of her neck into the soft fabric of her dark grey cloak. It was true that he disliked hugs, but having her in his arms was a completely different story. "I'll miss you too, Asuka. Please be safe."

"I will,"

They seemed to linger for a few moments, even as the other two watched their interaction carefully. She then pulled away and ran off, speeding towards the distance. She leaped and turned around mid-air, giving them a final wave before disappearing.

He felt disappointment flood his body and admiration as her flowing cloak and hair escaped his immediate sight.

Kenji put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, a grin plastered on his tanned face. "Oh man, you really got it bad, don't you."

"I—I'm not supposed to—"

"Have you told her how you feel yet?" his friend asked.

"I don't have—"

"I have my own Byakugan that see through the lies you tell yourself, Hizashi."

The young jonin sputtered, his face reddening. Kazane-sensei rolled her eyes and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Come on, Kenji. Let the poor guy try to actually sort his feelings out himself. He'll tell her when it's ready."

"Is it really that obvious?" he said a little bit too loudly.

They both gave him an identical look and he groaned, burying his face in his hands.

Four months later, he was nearly asleep when a bird was tapping at his window. It was Suisen, the tiny swift that destroyed his twin brother in the Chunin exams. At first, he thought it was a dream. But when he opened his window and let her in, she quickly flew onto his lamp. "Asuka is back."

His heart pounded in excitement. "Did she summon you to get me?"

"Nah, I thought you'd like to know. She's back home, finishing up cleaning. I think if you get there fast enough, you'll still get there."

He didn't need to be told twice. "Thank you, Suisen."

Hizashi cranked open his window as she disappeared with a poof and silently leaped over the rooves until he reached the window of her apartment. She lived on the highest floor, close to the sky and the roof. Her light was still on when he crouched on the sill of her window, knocking on it three times. When she didn't answer, he slowly pushed it open with a little bit of chakra and crept in. No one was in her bedroom and he was slightly worried.

Suddenly, the door opened and she was standing in a towel, dark hair dripping, and completely oblivious to the fact that he was in her bedroom.

"Asuka," She screamed, throwing her hands out to make hand seals, nearly losing the grip on her towel. He quickly looked away and raised his palms up. "Wait! Wait, it's just me."

His best friend relaxed and put her hand over her chest. "Lord Kami, you scared me, Hizashi — wait — Hizashi!"

Her face lit up and she hugged him once again, damp skin pressing against his clothes. He had to push her away, knowing that nothing was under her towel. She seemed to suddenly realize this fact too and blushed hard, stammering.

"Let me put something on."

Asuka took a few clothes out of her drawers and headed back the way she came, coming out once more with a loose shirt and shorts. "How did you know I was home?"

"Suisen," he replied, still trying to grasp his mind around the fact that he was home.

He wasn't supposed to miss her so much.

Every day he thought about her, wondered if she was ok, or if she missed him too. His nights were restless even though in the day he prayed he could go back to sleep just to see her in his dreams again. Then he wondered if she would even come back. What would he do without her? And even then, he thought about her hair and her birds, her cloak and her smile, he was pretty much a wreck while she was gone.

"I—I thought Suisen went back. She didn't tell me that she would find you—"

"I'm glad she did."

"Oh?"

"Yea. I really missed you, Asuka."

She smiled, brown eyes beaming warmly at him. "I missed you too."

"How did it go? Did you make a contract with any falcons?"

Her face lit up and she started on the tales of her journey, nearly falling off a cliff several times, being soaked to the bone, getting lost, and finally making it to their habitat, only to be tested if she was worthy. She talked for an hour, the light in her eyes shining as she talked about something she was passionate about. Usually, she didn't say much and they could understand each other through glances alone, but she could go on forever about birds. Sometimes he would zone out, the sound of her voice morphing into music and the way her lips moved entrancing him. Though she looked exhausted, she had enough energy to finish her story.

"The falcons can see even farther than you can," she whispered.

"Don't tell me I'm being replaced." he joked.

Asuka laughed, shaking her head. "Unfortunately, they don't see tenketsu points. Otherwise, you would have been screwed."

"Do they have crazy families?"

"Oh, yea. That falcon family would be crazier than yours besides the fact that they don't inflict terrible pain to those who disobey them."

It was a weirdly morbid joke that made the two silent for a moment, but Hizashi started laughing and she was on her way to apologizing until she burst too. They laughed, clutching their stomachs and rolling around, trying not to wake up her neighbours. Then he realized how pretty she was when she was laughing like that and stopped admire her.

When she noticed that he was no longer laughing, she stopped too. Her eyes fluttered to his lips, then back to his eyes. He prayed she would do whatever her eyes were saying she wanted to do. He prayed for her to have less self-control than he did because right now, he knew he didn't want her enough to kiss her but wouldn't stop her if she did.

Yet Asuka was never one to be bold in situations like these. Even in the rare seduction missions, she wouldn't even have to play the innocent girl because it came so easily. In a mission where she would have to show a lot of skin and crawl her fingers up an old man's arm, they would be screwed. When she looked away embarrassed, he wasn't surprised. It didn't stop Hizashi from feeling disappointment though.

He coughed awkwardly, reluctant to go but unsure of what else he could do. She smiled weakly at him when he crouched at her windowsill.

"Goodbye," her soft voice echoed through his ears.

"I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

She nodded and he waved a final greeting before jumping out her window, feeling light and airy, almost as if he could fly as she did.

Months later, he found himself winded up in one of the most intimate moments he ever had. The two lay side by side, staring up at the sky, which was littered with flecks, shimmering above them. Nothing touched his skin but blades of grass on their open training field, and the soft breeze of the summer night. He was fully clothed but he never felt so exposed in his life.

Hizashi didn't know much about stars and neither did Asuka, but she explained to him how birds sometimes knew where to go by looking at them. It was one of the few things about the feathered creatures she couldn't figure out: how they found their way home no matter what.

She reached out her hand as if she could touch the brightest stars and he briefly wondered how soft her fingers would feel if he wrapped his around them. Yet instead, a small owl flew past and fluttered silently around them, landing near her, looking around for prey before flying off again.

"Back in the academy, I thought your obsession with birds would be a phase. I've been proven very wrong. You have a way with them and you don't even seem to try."

She shrugged and sat to look back in the direction where the owl left. He now only saw her face, rather than stars in his vision.

"I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I respect them. I always have seen them as equals." she paused for a moment. "For the longest time, I've wanted to be like them. They're free. They have no bounds. I wished so badly that I could fly as easily as they did."

"You said all of that in past tense. Do you not wish to fly anymore?"

Asuka chuckled. "No, I do. But I can almost fly, and for me, that's enough. I wanted to fly because of the freedom, but even birds have their limits. They have more limits than humans do. I didn't want to be caged but the truth is, all of us are in one. For them, they cannot swim or go past our earth into space. For me, my limits are the same as birds and the laws of the shinobi. For you, it is your clan. I am happy with my cage. It satisfies all my needs, there is enough space, and enough unknowns to last me a lifetime."

"You always talk about freedom, but if you are caged, then how can you be free?" he asked.

"Freedom is a concept," she explained. "We all are restricted by one thing or the other. It is only freedom when you don't feel like you are restricted. I feel free even within my restrictions, therefore I am free. Yet if I were to be put into your place, in your clan, I don't think I would be. Do you feel free?"

"Sometimes," he said. "When I'm not at the compound, I feel it completely. I'm free until I take off my forehead protector and see my cursed mark. Or until I see my brother without one. When my parents don't look at me anymore."

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok," he smiled weakly. "Around the team, on missions, and with you, I usually just forget about it."

"Do you hate them?" she asked.

"I try not to. It's hard, that's for sure, but there is little I can do about it." Hizashi then hesitated.

"What is it."

"I—I hate my brother."

"I can hate him with you,"

He laughed softly. "It's ok, my hate is powerful enough for one person. It's just that I see him and try to find things I'm better at than him. And I am better than him. I learned all the techniques faster, became jonin quicker, and I know that we're identical, but I feel more attractive than he is."

Asuka rolled her eyes. "You have no idea how odd that sounds coming from a person like you."

"Anyways, I think about all the ways I'm better than him, but then I remember he doesn't have a curse mark and it outweighs everything."

She thought for a moment, staring down at him with sad eyes as he watched the stars.

"What about our team?"

"Hmm?"

"You have our team. Does that outweigh your seal?"

"Asuka I—"

"Does being on a team with me outweigh your seal?"

He felt himself at a loss for words. When he thought about it, she was right. Having such a close bond with his team outweighed the seal. Being close to someone as wonderful as her by itself outweighed the seal.

She blushed, looked away and sighed, threading her fingers around the long grass.

"Hiashi…he likes you. I—I can't."

"Since the academy, right?" she murmured. "It's just an infatuation. And it's not like he even knows me. How could he have real feelings for me when he knows practically nothing about me?"

"How do you know he doesn't have real feelings for you?"

"Are you defending him?"

She didn't seem angry, just surprised. He nodded, thinking selfishly that if she were to like him back, it would be easier for him to avoid her.

"May I ask why?"

"I'd rather not say."

Asuka crossed her legs and he propped himself up on his elbows. The moonlight hit her face at a perfect angle, highlighting her soft cheekbones and illuminating her eyes, making them appear almost silver. Her lips seemed incredibly welcoming at the moment and he wondered if they felt as soft as the looked. Would he be more satisfied by a quiet gasp if he kissed her jaw and sucked her neck or if she pressed her thin frame onto his, winding her fingers into his hair?

"H—He doesn't look at me like you do." she breathed. "You look at me li—like you—"

"Like I what?"

When words didn't arrive, he felt his stomach drop. Yet he suddenly tensed up much more when her hand reached up to his jaw and her thumb brushed lightly against his cheek, turning his face to her. His heart pounded in his chest so loudly that he couldn't hear his own thinking. Did she think about doing that? Was it easy for her to just touch him like that or did she contemplate on it, like he did every time he was around her?

"You care," she whispered. It wasn't a comparison anymore. She didn't say "like he cared". She knew. And the way she said it, he knew that she didn't mean it platonically.

She knew that he was in love with her.

It was something he had denied to himself until the very moment. He knew this as his skin heated before her hand even touched his face and as he found himself dizzy around her. When the thought of losing her made his chest hurt so much that he felt like he had to hold it and cry. How just being around her was probably the best thing to ever happen to him and how he wanted her to be around for the rest of his life.

Her whisper may have been quieter than his raging thoughts, still deafened by his pulse, yet the two words rang in his head over and over again.

Hizashi swallowed, slowly raising his hand to grab hers, locking their fingers, and painfully choosing to lower them from his face and back to her side. He let go of her hand and a new set of voices rang in his head again.

"Stay away from Asuka,"

"Hi—Hizashi?"

"I can. I can make you do whatever I want,"

"I should go—"

"Am I wrong?" she said, sounding hurt and so innocent, looking at him with big sad eyes that made him feel disgusting.

"No," he choked. "You're not wrong."

"Then why?"

And they both knew that deep inside, he knew she returned his feelings. Two people who loved each other should hardly be a problem, but it was. He lay back down from his elbows and rubbed his face with his hand.

"I don't want to hurt you—"

"You know I can handle pain, even emotional,"

"I—You—What if you realize that I'm not worth being around—"

"We've been teammates for five years."

"I have orders!" Hizashi choked, trying to keep the tears at bay. He wasn't going to cry in front of her. "I can't make any advances on you."

She was silent because even she knew that orders from the main family weren't to be taken lightly. "For how long?"

"Since you beat Hiashi during the chunin exams."

"That's when you started trying to avoid me."

"I know."

"I'm not an object."

"I told him that,"

"Yet it's an order nonetheless." she sighed.

"I'm sorry, Asuka."

He sat up, deciding that it could be a good time to leave.

"If—If you didn't have these orders, wo—would you have kissed me by now?"

One last sentence rang in his head.

"You better keep your word, brother."

"Yes, I would have," he said honestly. He wasn't going to lie to her, especially when it was a truth, not an advance. When he wasn't going to let himself go any further, she deserved it.

"Then if you don't make advances, is there anything about rejecting one?"

He blinked a couple of times, running her question in his mind over and over again. "No,"

She leaned in closer, darting her eyes between his and his lips. He prayed she would break the distance. Once again, he wouldn't lean in until she kissed him. Asuka hovered over his lips, so close he could feel her breath, so close that they shared the same air, and so close that he was scared she would hear his heart beating out of his chest.

It seemed to be forever when she finally closed her eyes and kissed him, wrapping an arm around his neck and slowly joining their breaths together. He sighed in relief and wrapped his arm around her waist, lightly pushing her to the grass and savouring her lips. They were just as soft as he imagined them to be but the fireworks exploding in his chest and the dopamine rushing through his system were completely unexpected.

When it was time to pull away, they lingered around each other, eyes still half-lidded, faces still pulling towards each other like two positive ends of a magnet, almost touching, but never there. They didn't want it to end.

"Asuka…"

"Hizashi…"

"May I walk you home?"

"You don't have to ask."

It was silence on the way to her house, unlike the other times he walked her home. Yet it was a comfortable silence, one that was warm and welcome.

She pecked him on the cheek just before walking inside, beaming radiantly.

"Goodbye,"

"I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

She nodded and smiled, then closed the door.

On his way home in his daze, he didn't realize that her small summoning owl was trailing him. His strength was his sight, not his hearing, and the owl also knew how to keep in the blind spot of his, even when his Byakugan wasn't activated.

What he did notice, however, was his brother standing at the entrance of the compound with his arms crossed. Hizashi was not one to be scared of another. He was scared of concepts. He was scared of dying without purpose, others controlling his fate, and unimaginable pain that was enough to strip him of his humanity. Yet as he stared in the identical yet much too different eyes, it was clear that he was scared of his brother because he could be all the concepts that Hizashi was ever afraid of.

"You broke your word."

Funny how the same vocal cords can sound so cold when they come out of another's mouth. Or how someone you are more powerful than can still hold more control over you.

"I did not,' he replied steadily.

"Then what was your session in the woods today?"

"You watched me?" he growled.

Hiashi didn't move. "I have watched you uncountable other times. It appears that you never came to your senses after all."

"I did not put forth advances. It is she who has chosen to kiss me. Do not blame me for the fact that she knows I'm a better shinobi and a better person than you are."

"Don't lie, you kissed her back."

"I did."

"That counts as an advance."

"You did not specify."

"Must I spell it out for someone of your calibre?"

Hizashi ground his teeth together. "If you truly had feelings for her, you would consider the fact that she can make her own decisions."

"Oh, I know she can. I'm not stopping her from falling for you. I'm stopping you from letting her. I can't control her, but I sure as hell can make sure you don't lay another finger—"

"You make her sound like she's your property! You probably don't even remember the type of bird she summoned to defeat you in the chunin exams. You don't care for her at all."

"Her name was Suisen. She's a swift, a White-throated Needletail to be exact. I know more than you think."

He blinked a couple of times, surprised. "You can't have actual feelings for her, can you?"

"I can."

"Wow, I'm surprised that you even had any emotion left inside of you, Hiashi-sama. Looks like you've changed. Next time work on treating women as equals and brothers as humans. Or maybe try to give people a choice and to stop lying about caring for someone you don't know—"

Hizashi suddenly felt a fist hit his face, faster than he could react.

"You don't know what you're talking about, branch filth." his brother spat.

In his years of knowing him, even though Hiashi never defended him or did anything good for him, he had never sunk so low to call him by his status in the clan. Furious, he went to punch, but Hiashi's Byakugan was already activated.

Everything turned downhill from there. Two brothers, similar in skill, equal in rage, threw gentle fists, weapons, and chakra towards each other. It was a battle to kill.

Yet Hizashi was just a little stronger than he was, so Hiashi slowly started to lose. It was until the branch member was about to close a tenketsu point until a searing pain erupted through his head.

It was indescribable.

The pain could not be explained and he wasn't aware of anything anymore. He suddenly could not use any of his senses. He didn't know if he was screaming or not. He couldn't tell if anything was happening because he couldn't hear himself, nor could he feel his vocal cords growing sore as the pain in his forehead masked it. The agony started to subside in what felt like an eternity.

When his sight started growing clearer, he saw elders looking down at him with disgust. His brother's mouth was open in shock and he was staring at his hands. His own father stood over him and looked at his state without any sympathy, then at the bruise on the heir's cheek.

"Do it again," he demanded.

"Father," Hiashi's voice shook. It was the first time Hizashi had ever heard him falter. "I—I ca—is it really necessary?"

"Do it!" he bellowed. "If you are ever to rule the clan you must be able to inflict the curse mark like I taught you to!"

"Please Hiashi," he whimpered, "Please don't,"

"Address him with the proper suffix, branch scum,"

"I—I'm sorry, Hiashi-sama,"

"Son, do it now! Don't show branch members any mercy. You let them beg, but you do not ever grant their requests. They must know their place within the clan."

But Hiashi didn't move. He shook. For a moment, Hizashi was relieved, glad that his brother really did have some compassion, even after inflicting the seal on him himself. Yet his father quickly brought his hands together and the pain was present once again, this time even worse than it was before. Those hands were experienced. They had struck pain into countless branch members, rather than just one.

He wished he could pass out but he didn't. He wondered if this was the end for him. Would they even find his body? His hands gripped at his hair, his scalp so numb that he didn't know how much he could have ripped out. It could have been days when the pain finally started to ease. Yet it was still night, the footprints still fresh on the dirt.

Hizashi couldn't hear it but he felt a warm presence drift near. A huge bird landed by his side and a girl jumped off, gathering his forehead protector and pressing an ice pack to his head. It didn't completely ease the pain but it helped and he blindly reached out to whoever had provided him with the relief. She took his hand and let him squeeze it as hard as he could, even when he may as well have crushed her bones.

The girl carried him onto the back of the bird, he decided it could only be an owl from the silence, and they flew off.

"Asuka?" he breathed. "Is it you? Am—Am I alive?"

It was only then when he heard her sobs as she wiped his tears away with her finger. It stung when she touched his cheeks from the tears he didn't even know he had shed. The rush of wind blowing past them as she held him on top of her owl soothed the pain on his skin but did nothing for the agony in his temples.

"You're alive, Hizashi. I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry." she cried. "You're going to be ok, we'll be at Kenji's house in seconds."

"It hurts," he whimpered. "It hurts."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry,"

She apologized over and over again, though he didn't know or ask why. The owl fluttered by a window and rapped its claws along the glass until their teammate saw. Kenji was didn't have his prosthetics on so he stumbled out of bed and used his hands to propel himself towards the window at an alarming speed, cranking it open so she tumbled in, dragging Hizashi with him. She still pressed the ice pack to his head and tears were still streaming down his face.

"What the hell happened?" Kenji asked as he strapped on a pair of legs and removed the ice pack from Hizashi's forehead and replacing it with the back of his palm. His eyes widened when he realized that it heated up seconds after removing it. "How did he get this fever?"

Asuka cried even harder. "It's not a fever. It's the curse mark."

And the seal was still glowing.

His groans filled Kenji's apartment and his parents rushed in the room, shocked to see their child's teammate clutching at his head, another teammate crying over him, and the pain he seemed to be in. The medical ninja quickly explained the situation and took out his summoning scroll. He bit his finger and with a poof, a small needle and a vial labelled "morphine" appeared. After measuring a small amount of the drug, he took out a tourniquet to find a vein in Hizashi's arm. However, his skin was so pale and the veins already protruded from the tension and all he had to do was look to inject the morphine into his system.

Hizashi's screams and moans were finally reduced to small whimpers.

"I've been working in the hospital for almost 5 years," Kenji broke the chain of unspoken words. "I admit, I may not ever be as talented as Tsunade, but that also means I have dealt with more traumas, cases that don't require 12-hour surgeries, far more patients than she had at my age because I treat everyone, not just the serious ones. In these five years, I have heard screams louder than his and eyes swollen shut from crying but I don't think I have ever and will never see someone in so much pain, physical and mental. I would even go so far and say that the curse mark functions by combining the user and the receiver's emotions, throwing it into the mind, and turning it into pain. Usually, someone would have passed out from how much of it he was experiencing, and I think he endured it without falling unconscious because that was just a part of the torture."

The medical-ninja switched the melted ice pack for a fresh one. "Hizashi, please tell us what happened."

The deathly pale sixteen-year-old looked at Asuka for permission and she nodded. "It's your story to tell, not mine."

"Wait, what do you have to do with this—" Kenji interrupted, then saw the way they were gazing at each other. "Oh...oh...oh shit."

"Hiashi has liked Asuka since the Academy, as I'm sure you know. After he realized that she would never see him the same, he, uh, he ordered me not to make any advances on her."

"But you did," their teammate sighed.

"No, I did," she said. "I—I did. It's my fault. If—If I hadn't then none of this would have happened. You wouldn't be—"

"It's not your fault," Hizashi said soothingly, slowly sitting up. "You can't blame yourself."

"But."

"He's right," Kenji replied. "Is it ok for you to tell us what happened next?"

He took a deep breath. "I don't know why, but Hiashi was watching us. We argued and I told him that he was emotionless and called him out on the way he was treating us. He punched me and we started attacking each other. I was about to knock him out before he—he activated the cursed seal."

Even his forehead hurt by thinking of it, and Hizashi winced in pain. They set him down and lay his head back on the pillow. He continued to tell them what happened, how Hiashi refused to activate the seal again so his father did, and how he begged for them to stop.

"What about you two? What's gonna happen now?" Kenji asked. "Will you still be together?"

"No," said Asuka.

"Yes," Hizashi replied at the same time.

The two looked at each other uncomfortably, then at the medical ninja.

"Don't look at me! I'm worried for you too and you probably need to figure out what you'll be from now on. Dating? Secret lovers? Friends with benefits?"

The kunoichi nearly passed out of a nosebleed at his last comment. "N—No. I won't let us go on. You can't suffer more because of me."

"Are you breaking up with me?" he asked, failing miserably to bring light into the situation. "Wow, I'm glad you thought of me as your boyfriend in the first place."

"I—"

"What if you do keep whatever you have going on?" Kenji asked. "I'm rooting for your safety, but if you guys can be safe and dating or whatever, I want that for you two. If you keep—er…this, will Hiashi continue to activate the curse?"

"I don't think he will choose to. I can only hope that he has enough humanity left to let us be."

"Do you really think so?"

"He's my brother. Hopefully, he will put aside his anger and remember that."

Originally wasn’t going to post the other parts on Tumblr but I caved.

#hizashi hyuga #hiashi hyuga #hyuga clan #hizashi #oc #naruto #narutoverse #if charli d'amelio had a minimal look instead of the instagram influencer look she'd be asuka's faceclaim but i just realized it #raspberryfanfics

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